Being of Two Minds

Chapters

Time Passes, hearts mend.
A night message.
Battle Without feelings
The Oracle dances.
Anima Artificio
Can a Ghost Die?
Death Takes a Nap
Rennen in den Wäldern
Un arcobaleno inaspettato
frwydr yn y goedwig
Talking to myself
Medical Review
Meet by the train-station.
Fates unfair.
Poker hands
Canterlot consequences. Version 1
Two New Homes
Not West Side Story
Brand licht redding
Investigation
Captured
Sparkling bad time
A Miraculous Recovery
Treatment Plan
Quietly the pieces move
Good Night Gracy
Delicate Procedures
Too late to Change Minds
Battle for Hearts and Minds
Traps and Triggers
Dropped Crown
Closing Gaps
Divided Attention
Canterlot's Red Day
Canterlot's Red Day Part Two
On a Train
Friends Found Old and New
hope beyond?
Strange Vists
Talking through a nightmare.
Hide and Seek
Just a tale of a small town pony.
Un mal di testa che non sarebbe credere.
On the other side of the mirror.
Meeting again for the first time.

Time Passes, hearts mend.

Gentle Breeze was gone. Red Wood just kept thinking over and over to himself “Where is she? Where is she?” The long day seemed to stretch forever. All he could see was the red splashes. All he could smell was the iron rust smell of blood. There was no body, nothing to hold onto. He wandered from room to room, then from inside to out to the edge of the forest, seeing nothing, feeling too much and too little. Other ponies were there, saying things to him that went unheeded, like ghosts in a fog. At one point a neighbor mare took his new born son from him to nursed, Red Wood hardly noticed.

The town sheriff and then later royal guards had come to inspect the scene. The evidence seemed to show that Gentle Breeze had given birth in the bedroom, but something attacked the house, perhaps attracted by the smell of the birth fluids, claw marks seemed to indicate it was a bear or perhaps an unusually large timber wolf, but none of the marks were clear enough to tell what. Gentle Breeze had apparently just enough time to hide the newborn colt in a dresser draw, before in her weakened state she was dragged away. There was too many bloody red puddles to have any hope she survived the attack.

As the sheriff did his initial investigation, Red Wood just followed the law pony around his house holding the newborn colt in his hoofs, unable to process what he was seeing. There was something more to this than a simple animal attack, Red Wood knew the sheriff and guards had found something that shook them up, but when he demanded to be shown what it was, they wouldn't let him see it. The sheriff refused to look Red Wood in the eye, and with dreadful numbness he realized it must have been evidence of Gentle Breezes final moments, and they were doing him a favor shielding him from the horrid details. He never learned exactly what it was but they took the evidence away to Canterlot in an armored wagon.

A day later Red Wood got a personal letter from Princess Celestia offering her consolations. The princess seemed to be taking personal interest in what the press was calling the 'Coltsdale tragedy' At the royal courts expense, a company of guards were assigned to the town for the rest of the year. For months guards patrolled the area, but there were no more attacks.

The fire that burned in Red Wood’s heart sputtered and nearly failed that night. Only a spark of life reminded, almost all his joy was sucked away from him, almost all, but he had a son now, and coldly he knew his responsibilities and took them seriously. There was hardly any laughter and light in their little house now and Red Wood found himself crying himself to sleep more often than his little foal.

His son had a red brown coat with a green mane, and like all ponies could stand and walk right away. He seemed unusually sturdy and stable right from the beginning. He reminded Red Wood of Gentle Breeze’s favorite tree, so after the traditional eighteen days of mourning he was named Banyan.

When Red Woods looked at the little colt he saw Gentle Breeze’s purple blue eyes and slowly, ever so slowly, that little spark of life that remained in his heart was fanned. Red Woods would rarely laugh or even smile, but Banyan started doing enough laughing for both of them.

It wasn't the life he had wanted, he so wanted his Gentle Breeze back. For Banyan's first several years, small things like first lost baby tooth, first time drinking an oat shake, first day of preschool were tainted with melancholy.

They always celebrated Banyan's birthdays a week early, because Red Wood didn't think he could hold a happy birthday party on the same anniversary as Gentle Breeze’s lose. On his fifth one Banyan was starting to become more aware of the world around him, and asked Red Wood. “Daddy? Why are you crying?” when the young colt caught Red Wood dripping tears on to his birthday cake as he used his horn to light the candles.

Speechless Red Wood couldn't answer Banyan, it was then he realized his own sadness if left uncontrolled would hurt his son and it wasn't fair to Banyan and Gentle Breeze’s memory. It took time, not months, but years passed and Banyan was such a happy foal that Red Wood’s frozen heart started soften and to once again he could see there were good things to look forward to.

Red Woods had to work very hard as a single parent to take care of Banyan, but in the greater scheme of things, it was Banyan who took care of Red Wood’s broken heart.

Banyan and Red Wood continued to live in the quiet cottage, the pale of death slowly faded, and somehow they just continued. After a year or so, Red Wood even tried dating some of the local mares, some of them already long time friends and wet nurses for Banyan. While nothing romantic developed, Banyan gained a number of ‘aunts’ who made sure the little colt was well fed, got plenty of hugs and bedtime stories.

Most influential was Bottle Gentian, a blue coated earth pony, who seemed to practically live with the two bachelor colts. She had been one of the first mares Red Wood had tried to date, and they got along with quite well, they even went to bed together on their third date. And that night, they just … slept. After a few more failed dates, they agreed that they would ‘just be friends’ which in most cases mean they would go their separate ways, but in this case they truly became close if platonic friends.

Time passed, not swiftly, for Red Wood, the main measure was not the days or months, but rather inches and baby teeth as Banyan grew, from foal into a preteen colt. Indeed hardly anything changed in Red Wood’s life until Banyan reached his tenth birthday.

Six days after the traditional informal party, and the evening before his Banyan's real birth-date, Red Wood received an unexpected letter. The Mayor brought it over late in the afternoon puffing a bit having galloped the short distance from the town hall.

“Red!” the Mayor puffed, “urgent letter for you! It came directly from Canterlot, came by dragon fire directly to my office!” He handed over the envelope, which was both sealed with wax and had an ‘urgent’ red ribbon. “It has to be from the Princess!” Mayor added.

Looking at the envelope, Red Wood had no idea what to expect, he had only once before gotten a royal letter, and that was the consolation letter from Celestia all those years ago. Carefully he broke the seal and read over the short note, he read it twice, trying to make sense of it.

All the note said was,

To our dear subject Red Wood of Coltsdale. We have long thought the danger your family faced years ago had passed, but new evidence has come to light. We are sending a flight of Pegasus guards to escort you and your family to Canterlot. They should arrive at your location tomorrow, please be ready to depart with them. We will also have audience with you tonight to explain the danger personally.

The note wasn't signed, but the royal seal on the letter left no doubt about the letter’s origin.

There was no further explanation about what the princess wanted to meet about in the letter and no mention of either time or place for the meeting. He quickly looked out the window, half expecting the Princess to come flying down any moment. After about 2 minutes of genuflecting to nothing, he chuckled to himself, clearly the Princess didn't know exactly when she would arrive and had told him to be prepared for her for whenever she came.

For the rest of the afternoon, Red Wood puttered around in his workshop, stopping to look out the window every few minutes, but there was no sign of anyone coming. Stopping only to make sure Banyon got to bed on time.

The colt dutifully complained he was too old to be tucked in but this had become just another part of their nightly ritual, and Red Wood ignored the complaint as he kissed the colt on his forehead and tucked his Daring Do doll, ahem, action figure next to Banyan.

Red Wood returned to sitting on the porch and watched the darkening sky, waiting for any sign of the princesses. For a while the Mayor stayed with him, but as it evening fell, he excused himself with a promise to come by in the morning to help greet the guards. As the lights of the town one by one blinked off as ponies went to bed, Red Wood realized there just wasn't any point to waiting any more, they weren't coming, at least not this night.

He cleaned up the dishes from dinner then headed to bed, sliding into ‘his’ side of the large bed, even after ten years, he never slept in the middle, or Celestia forbid, ‘her’ side of the bed. Red Wood didn't even think about it anymore, it was just long time habit. His head hit the pillow and almost immediately he started to dream.

It was an odd dreams, not really a nightmare but something was clearly off like seeing through a camera held at odd angle. He was dreaming of being in bed, and strangely Gentle Breeze was laying next to him. Strange, because after the first few years, dreams of Gentle Breeze had become painfully rare. She was just laying there, quietly sleeping next to him, they way she used to. He wanted to reach out, touch her, like they used to. No, not to make out, or for sex, no just to hold her. But he couldn't move. All he could do was watch her breath.

Then she shifted, turning towards him, her eyes were closed and she had a half smile on her muzzle, she looked happy. Red Wood starting to smile back at her, then he realized something was wrong. Her horn, it wasn't there! There was a flat smooth stub in its place. Something had cut off her horn, not broken off, no it clearly had been cut.

Red Wood felt like he was going to throw up. Horns were sensitive, the pain alone from breaking their horn had killed more than one unicorn. Here was his Gentle Breeze seemingly happy but with that horrible scare! Red Wood pulled away, slipping off the dream bed and suddenly falling.

As he fell away, Gentle Breeze opened her eyes and jumped at him, in that brief second she looked dangerous, more like a predator than a pony.

Then her expression changed, her hide changed to a dark blue, she suddenly had her horn back, along with a pair of … wings?

A night message.

Red Wood kept falling in his dream, it had started with him falling from his dream bed, but now it was as if there was no floor to hit. Above him his bed was stretching away from him against a field of empty dark. Terror locked his mind, he couldn't even think. A monster had replaced his Gentle Breeze, and it was watching him fall away. The dark blue Alicorn peered over the bedside at Red Wood with a cool concerned expression, before flaring her wings and flying after the falling unicorn. Red Wood flailed, kicked, bucked and twisted, but he couldn't do anything to stop the approaching monster. His mind unhinged could only manage one shaking thought, “Nightmare Moon!”

In a moment she had caught him, as her hoofs encircled his barrow, he suddenly stopped falling. It wasn't like he had landed, no, the transition from falling, to standing on solid ground was instantaneous and jarring. Both Red Wood and the Alicorn in front of him was standing on a dark dimly lit plane of black grass, the full moon shining brightly over the Alicorn’s shoulder. Red Wood swayed as he regained his balance, then drawn by an instinct deep in the hearts of all ponies, he fell to the ground, covering his head and shaking in respectful fear.

For a second the Alicorn seemed taken aback, then with a roll of her eyes and an angry stomp of her hoofs she spoke in a loud and frustrated tone. “Oh come on!” then taking a calming breath she continued in a quieter voice, “Come my faithful subject, thy fear is unfounded, We have been free of the evil taint of Nightmare Moon for two years now, certainly your home village is not so isolated as to have not heard of our return.”

Red Wood looked up, and saw the stern look on the Princesses face slowly morph into a shy smile. “Princess … Luna?” he asked in a shaky voice.

“Yes indeed our good gentile colt. It is we ahh?, yes, I mean I, excused me. I fall back to the old ways of royal speech when upset. Come stand with me, I do not wish to scare you out of this dream before we can converse.”

It took a moment for Red Wood to find his legs but then slowly stood, uncertain how a simple craftpony as himself should talk to a princess. “Dream” he asked, “This is a dream?”

Luna nodded with a bit of a proud smile, “Yes, we are in the space of dreams now, it is, or was, one of my special talents, a right and privilege of my office, to visit other ponies in their dreams to aid and guide them. It was a skill I used frequently before my fall to evil, lost then and now I'm slowly recovering the art. I used to use this skill to seek out and aid fillies and colts troubled by nightmares and will do so again when my power waxes, but for tonight I’m using this skill to reach out just to you.”

“But why?” Red Wood asked, “What is going on, and why me?”

Luna sighed, “I had not yet returned when the events known as the 'Coltsdale tragedy’ occurred. New information has brought this sad event back to the attention of the court and my sister has informed me of all they she had learned from the initial investigation. The terrible things that happened that night, where but the surface effects of a much deeper evil, one that my sister has attempted to suppress knowledge of.”

“Suppress? I don’t understand. Was the monster that …” Red Woods voice failed him.

“We have limited time, I've asked the Pegasus guards to fly through the night to reach you, and they should arrive in about three hours. You will need to awaken soon and pack.” Luna looked side to side as if concerned she said something wrong.

“Please I know there were things hidden from me ten year ago, you have to tell me the truth, I have to know!” Red Wood begged.

Luna sighed, “I can’t tell you everything, we wouldn't have time, even if I had all night. No, but understand this, the beast that attacked your home, was but the pet of a cult, a group dedicated only to their own betterment and glorification. They call themselves the Followers of the Stone Heart, my sister and I have dealt with them before, a most unpleasant group that has caused much evil though the land for more than a thousand years.”

Red Wood angrily asked, “Why would some random cult attack my family? We have nothing they could want! If they've been around so long, why haven’t you princesses stopped them?”

Luna shook her head, her star filled mane sparking with streaking meteors in her anger. “No this cult is different than other evils we have fought. Evils like King Sombra and Discord are single targets, you can fight them, beat them, but this cult is based around a book, a book that has been copied many times and hides in plain sight under different titles. We stop a group of cultists in one place and time, then the evil just re-sprouts elsewhere. Its a battle we will probably never truly win, we can only mitigate, suppress and defend ourselves when they resurface and show their true nature.”

Red Wood couldn't understand this, “A Book? A book killed my wife!”

“Books can have greater power than a army. This book is partly a spell book, but its mostly a treaty on philosophy. The original authors probably didn't mean any evil, but their ideas were seductive, sounded to the unlearned as reasonable and are full of heartfelt anger and terrible beauty. Ponies who read this book and fall victim to its seduction, find in its pages justification for anger, pettiness, greed and find excuses to engage in the most horrendous crimes against their fellow ponies. In its pages are the most dangerous ideas about property, slavery and the ‘proper place’ for the inferior tribes.”

“What ponies would believe that! That is just evil!”

“Too many ponies can fall into that trap, you think the great Windigo war of the classical age was the only times the three tribes have fought? Harmony between the tribes is a continuous struggle. To make it worse, the book also contains some of the most dangerous and blackest magic spells, and not all of them are limited to unicorns. It describes potions and magic tokens that all three tribes can use. It was one of these spells that led them to your house. We think, we hope, in error but that is cold comfort.”

Red Wood just stood there, some cult had killed his wife? He could barely comprehend that, but was Luna saying they did it, BY MISTAKE! It was too much to take, his anger was boiling in ways that threatened to knock him out of this dream, or nightmare.

Luna sighed, “We’re not sure, only a few days ago, my sister decided to forward the remains that had been recovered to her student, Twilight Sparkle, in hope her growing magic skills would find a new insight on what carvings meant.”

Red Wood had no idea what Luna was talking about, “Carvings? What carvings?” He started to pace in a circle around the Alicorn, unable to keep his body still any longer.

“Did you not see them, they were etched deep into Gentle Breeze’s horn, I thought you…”

“HORN!” Red Wood interrupted the Night Princess. “They found her Horn?! They never said what they found. Was she still alive when it was, oh goddesses! Please did they cut it off why she was able to feel it!” Even imagining the pain of his precious Gentle Breeze made him fall to his hunches shivering. To a unicorn, their horn was so much a part of them, you could gouge out their eyes, rip off their limbs, stab them a hundred times, and that all would be less painful than having their horn cut off. It was too much to think about, Red Wood was back on the ground, hoofs over his head shivering.

Luna seemed surprised “You didn't know? I so sorry! I did not mean to be the bearer of such news.” Then Luna took a breath, she had gone this far, she owed it to Red Wood to finish. “Twilight Sparkle was able to detect the remains of a series of divination spells, some cast before they had the horn, and other cast with it. The spells seem to have revealed to the cult a danger to them, one that has to do with you or your family. They apparently attacked your wife both to secure her horn to clarify the spell, and to remove the perceived threat. In other words, the cult attacked your house because they were paranoid about threat they didn't even understand. But such is a hallmark of this cult, they are violent and dangerous.”

“It been ten years, why are you warning me now?”

“Ten years ago, my sister was still the sole ruler of the land and her resources where thin, when there were no further attacks near Coltsdale she judged that the danger had passed. It was only chance that she asked her student to review the old evidence. Twilight Sparkle is very skilled in her specialty, in some ways she exceeds my sister and I in this matter, she of course would not stoop as low as the cultists and attempt to recast such an evil spell, but she had her own powers to draw on. Twilight Sparkle cast her own version of the divination spell, and …” Luna sudden stopped talking, she looked over her shoulder at the dreamscapes full moon. Another light started glowing from the adjacent horizon. Rapidly an orange yellow globe rose up and split the sky, half day and half night.

“Sister?” Luna asked the light, clearly confused.

Red Wood eyes followed Luna’s to stare at the dreamscape sun, out the light flew Celestia. The ageless Alicorn panted as if she had raced from a great distance. “Luna! Red Wood! You have to wake now! Twilight and I triangulated the power surge, our first measurement was wrong! They aren't fifty miles outside of Coltsdale as we believed, they are already across the border. There’s no way the guards will arrive in time! Red Wood wake and flee! wake and flee for your life!”

Battle Without feelings

Red Wood stood in half morning lit, and half midnight dark dreamscape. The two Princesses, the rulers of his nation had just ordered him to wake up, to flee for his life, and he had not the slightest idea on how to do so. He snorted, whinnied and stamped the dream grass in frustration, while the two Alicorns stared blankly at him.

“I don’t know how!” he eventually cried. “This dream is too real!”

Luna looked sympathetic, “Forgive me, you are in the deepest stage of sleep where your spirit is most detached from your body. Even I know of no easy way to draw you out from within this dream, someone or something in the outside world could wake you with a touch or loud noise, but we have no power to do so trapped within here.”

Celestia looked stricken, “We can not wait for that, the only movement our spell detected in Coltsdale is the cultists. If you wait for them to wake you, then it be would better not to wake at all!”

Luna turned to Celestia and with a worried look, “My sister, I know of a spell that may work but you have banned it as dark magic.”

Celestia looked confused for a moment, “The sleeping servant?”

Luna nodded.

“Do it.” Celestia ordered.

Luna turned back to Red Wood, “Listen now, the spell I’m going to cast is based on a banned mind control spell. Normally it would allow the caster to take control of another Ponies body, suppressing the host’s mind in a dreamless sleep. Your body would be like a puppet in the casters control.”

Red Wood nodded, “Understood your highness.” He stood up, his legs shaking, fear growing in his belly. “Please, do it, otherwise my son will be helpless.”

Luna started to concentrate, her horn glowing blue, after a moment, she gasped “Aid me sister! This spell was not designed to be cast from within the dreamrealm! I feel it slipping out of my control!”

Celesta lit up her own horn and it’s gold yellow light merged with her fellow alicorn’s magic. The glow from their mixed spells started to pulse. Red Wood had to turn his head away as the light grew too bright to look at.

In moments he no longer could see the dreamscape, it was all blank white noise, he couldn't even see or feel his own body. Even when he tried to touch himself with his hoofs, he felt nothing. Red Wood started to scream in panic, but even that was just in his mind, he had no mouth, no lungs, no voice.

For a long time he felt suspended like this, when slowly a dot of darkness resolved itself into his vision. It wasn’t even clear to Red Wood if the dot was in front of him of to the side, it was just the only thing in the sea of white and trying to turn his head or roll his eyes didn't have any effect on how he saw it.

Slowly the dot grew into a sphere, taking up more and more of his vision. After some seconds? Minutes? Hours? Red Wood seem to pass through the surface of the sphere, and he could for the first time really see its contents.

It was his bedroom, Red Wood seemed to be floating about two lengths over his bed, looking down at his own body. Along with clear vision, sound reappeared and he could hear himself snoring. He for a disoriented moment was surprised, he never heard his own snoring before and was it was so loud. “Banyan right, it is like an express train.” He thought to himself.

Luna’s voice echoed faintly in Red Woods mind, “My spell is at it’s limit, you need to take control of your body now, use your will to make it move. It will remain in this state for at least an hour, so be caref…” Luna’s voice suddenly faded, lost as the sounds of the waking world became louder and more real than the memories of the dreamscape.

Unfortunately the sound which masked the Princesses last words, terrified Red Wood, because it was the sound of breaking glass. Someone was breaking into his house. The same instance he heard a cry of alarm, a cry came from Banyan’s room.

Red Wood didn't spend even an instant trying to feel out how the control spell worked, by gut instinct he wrenched his body out of bed. It hung below his vision like a puppet on strings.

Left foreleg, right rear, right foreleg, left rear, in jerky by speedy motions he made his sleeping form move. Nothing was easy, yet somehow he was keeping his balance and moved.

He banged his shins against every object in his way, but didn't feel anything, nor did his body show any signs of waking. He tried to open his bedroom door with his horn, but what ever body-less state he was in, he couldn't channel his magic. Not wanting to waste even a moment, he threw his body against the door and smashed it open. Splinters flew as the door broke into pieces.

Someone yelled, it wasn't his son, there had been someone behind the door and now that someone was flattened on the floor as the door fell outward. For extra measure Red Wood made his body hop hard on the flattened door, hearing a satisfactory “Ufff!” from the intruder. He then slammed his fore hoof on the handle nob of his sons bedroom door. From his airy perch he could see Banyan huddled in the corner of his room, scared but so far unharmed and alone.

Red Wood wasn’t sure of his puppetry skills to try to make his body talk, but he did have some control of the mouth and neck, so he grabbed Banyan by his pajamas and tossed the screaming child onto his back. Two kicks of his fore-hoofs and Banyan’s window was smashed out, one jump and both of them were out of the house.

Red Wood looked side to side. His vision though wouldn't extend more than a small lit bubble centered around his body, beyond ten body lengths and everything was gray. He was turned around and not sure which way to go. He used what few landmarks he could make out to direct his body towards the center of town, but had gone only a few strides when a bunch of torch welding ponies resolved at the edge of his vision.

He didn't recognize any of these strange ponies, and he knew everypony in Coltsdale. It had to be the cultists, there was no way he could run around them. Cries of alarm told him that he had been spotted. He spun around and galloped in earnest into the woods.

Twigs branches cut and tore at him, but Red Wood didn't feel the blows, he just knew he had to get space between his son and these cult ponies. He broke through a hedge row of bushes and into a clearing he knew about, about a quarter mile into the woods. There he let Banyan down and pantomimed for the small pony to hide in the nearby bushes. Banyan was crying and Red Wood couldn't even offer him words of comfort. He nuzzled the little colt and then when he was sure the youngster was hidden, he turned back the way he came.

He had come up with a half formed plan to allow the pursuing ponies to see him and then lead them away, away from Banyan and perhaps back to town where there were other ponies to help. So stood pawing the ground, ready to charge, when new movement caught his attention.

Coming from off the side of the clearing, something slowly stepped into his vision. It was not the pursuing ponies, no it was a monster. The thing was twice the size of pony, covered in barbed scales like a horny lizard with a neck that stretched snake like from its squared shoulders, more wolf shaped than lizard, but most noticeable blood like sweat poured off the creature in rivulets that pooled on the ground as it slowed to approach towards Red Wood.

It was an Inkanyamba, Red Wood recognized the monster from storybooks. It must have come from southern jungles, where they would use the death smell of their bloody red sweat to drive prey forward, into dead falls or the jaws of waiting pack-mates. It didn't belong here, the cult must be using it as some sort of attack dog.

It amazed Red Wood how cold his emotions where, he expected to be terrified, but all he felt was hate. This was the monster that had killed his love. He didn't have his magic, but the Princesses spell meant he couldn't feel any pain, there was nothing that was going to hold him back, keep him from destroying this thing, this abomination. He reared up then pointed his horn straight at the creature and then snorting in anger, he charged.

The Oracle dances.

Red Wood charged, his body was his only weapon, and he could move it like a rag doll or a club, tossing it at the monster he faced. He seemed to have caught the Inkanyamba by surprise. The bloody lizard horse expected its prey to flee, not fight. For a few dumbfounded seconds it stood there, trying to look menacing, howling and hissing.

If Red Wood had really been in his body properly and not just floating above it, there was no way he could have kept up his courage. The Inkanyamba was the combination of every instinct that should have made a pony flee in terror, snakes, blood, wolf and predator. But with Red Wood senses dulled, his mind disoriented, and no sense of smell, the terror magic of the Inkanyamba had no power over him.

As he sped towards the monster Red Wood spun on his front hooves and kicked with his rear. A nearly perfect buck, expect his missed. The Inkanyamba ducked on the first kick and Red Wood’s legs came down ineffectively on the back of the creatures neck. With a flick of the thing’s long snake like neck, the unicorn was flung into the air, flipping and rolling.

By all normal measurement of time Red Wood was knocked back twenty paces in two seconds, except things were not normal, Red Wood wasn't really in his own body and everything became peculiar when his body was flung through a particular spot in space about ten feet off the ground. A spot that no normal pony senses would have noticed. There was a strange feeling of disorientation and that invisible point over his shoulder from which he had been observing the fight, suddenly seemed to get caught on something. He watched in confusion as his body was flung away, while his point of view got stuck in place.

Looking closer trying to see what was holding him back, Red Wood noticed a distortion on the air. It reminded him of the effect heat waves had on a sunny day. Except it was dark and the distortion seemed to be spinning, like water swirling down a drain. A hole in the air, crying out in fright but making no noise, Red Wood felt himself pulled down into the hole

The world seem to stretch and fall away, for a long moment his vision was completely dark, but most strangely he heard new voices, ones that he had never heard before.

“Mission director here, all departments, go, no go.” spoke the first of these voices, it sounded male and full of pops and static like from a badly copied phonograph.

There was a flood of responding voices, some male some female, all staticy and distorted.

“ETA here, go.”

“Com Link here, nominal go.”

“Thermo here, go”

“MSM here, shields nominal, go.”

“RSR here, hold, repeat hold.” when a female voice said this, the rest suddenly went quiet.

The first voice returned and asked.

“Director here, RSR what’s the issue.”

The female voice replied. “I’m getting back pressure readings from the portal. Numbers are inline with a solid object overlapping it.”

A number of the voices seemed to reply at once then.”

“A bird?”

“Scan said we’re ten feet off the ground.”

“Can we get a video?”

“No! At current download rates, it take 20 minutes to get even a thumbnail.”

“The upload rate is at full thousand TB sec, we can reprogram some of nano’s to look around and give us a judgement call.”

“Hold one, density is changing I think it’s moving away, download bandwidth is so slow, it was probably nothing, or an animal that moved away already.”

The original voice returned, “Portal Control here. We’re going to give it one minute, if it stays clear we’ll pick up the countdown from the hold, otherwise we’ll reset until we have more data.”

That was the last voice that Red Wood could make out, before his vision suddenly returned and he was bouncing on the ground.

He shook his head, realizing that whatever had just happened, it had woken him from his dreamstate. His vision was no longer from over his shoulder but definitely and painfully coming from his real eyes. He had no time to even think about the confusing voices, the Inkanyamba was just a few body lengths away and moving.

Red Wood tried to stand, it was as if knives had been driven into his spine. Inch by inch he got to his hoofs and turned to look. The Inkanyamba was still on the other side of the clearing, pacing back and forth, growling challenges. It was then, for the first time, the smell hit Red Wood, it was the rusty iron smell of pooled blood. The fear washed over Red Wood like a wave on the sand, it seemed impossible that he would have the strength to withstand it. The Inkanyamba teeth reflected the moonlight. Red Wood start to turn, to run, to be herded.

And as he turned from the monster, Red Wood saw another set of eyes. Eyes watching him in the bushes. Watching him, not the monster, familiar purple blue eyes that he had seen both in his dreams and his waking world for ten years. The eyes of his son, they eyes of his wife. Bayan was still hiding in those bushes and if Red Wood had ran this direction, he would have led the monster straight towards his son!

“NO!” Red Wood called,a sudden coldness filled Red Woods heart, he would not endanger his son! With absolute cold control, Red Wood slowly turned away and stared straight into the Inkayamba’s eyes.

The Inkanyamba growled at the pony, and Red Wood whinnied back. Not a sound of fear, a battle cry. Magic was forgotten, only anger and the will to protect his own, filled Red Wood’s heart. He stamped his hoofs and then took off at a full gallop, any pain from his back injuries , forgotten.

Red Wood continued his charge, his horn leading, no magic just a deadly sharp spike, he smashed head first into the side of the monster. He felt his horn break the skin of the abomination and some part of him relished in the gush of black red blood that splashed over his neck and shoulders. The Inkanyamba screamed in pain and anger. Ponies didn’t fight! Ponies always ran! The monster didn't know what hit him.

It was hurt, but not down. The long snake like neck swung like a club and knocked the unicorn away, perhaps not wisely as Red Wood’s horn did even more damage as it was forcefully withdrawn. Bloody sweat had always dripped from the Inkanyamba’s scales as part of its fear magic, but now its real life black brown blood was pouring out in a gush.

Red Wood was knocked across the clearing, his body rolled smashed against thorny bushes and his skin torn against sharp sticks. He was jerked and pulled around, disoriented and motion sick. There was a snap and one of his legs bent the wrong way. His leg was on fire! He couldn't move and the Inkanyamba turned to look at him, anger in the deadly creatures eyes.

Red Wood lifted his head and stared into his enemies eyes. The Inkanyamba stared back, it took a step towards the pony, hate and pain in its glaze. The thing slipped on blood and stumbled as it tried to move towards Red Wood. One step, two, it whined, it slipped again, then as the thing came nose to nose to Red Wood, it let out one last whine and with violent shudder, the monster fell. It’s eyes rolling up into its head.

With one last whimper, the monster fell still, bleeding out on Red Wood’s hoofs.

Even as Red Wood lay, not ready yet to try to stand, breathing heavily and watching his enemy for any signs of life. He heard some movement across the clearing behind him. Painfully he shuffling to kneel on three legs, he kept his body between whoever was behind him and his son, then Red Wood motioned with one hoof to Banyan to stay hidden. The familiar eyes, wide and scared looking, withdrew back into the bushes.

For several long moments Red Wood stood there, making sure Banyan was well hidden, then he turned around and was surprised by two sights. He mostly expected, at this point, the troop of strange ponies that were stepping into the clearing. The Cultists had found him, they must have been drawn here by the noise of their fight. What Red Wood didn’t expect was the light show that was going on in the middle of the clearing.

Coming from an invisible point, about ten feet off the ground, a shower of white sparks was falling into the middle of the field. It was dense and bright, throwing sparks like an arch welder, but there was no smoke and all the sparks fell coldly to the ground, forming a growing pool of light.

The cultists, nearly twenty ponies strong now, seemed more interested in the light show, than in Red Wood. He thought he might take a chance to escape in the distraction, he turned and tried to slip away into the shadows.

If he had all four of his legs, he might have made it, but stumbling on three, made it slow going, too slow. The first cultist, one who stood ahead of the the others and wore the brightest colored robe, noticed Red Wood and called loudly. “Behold, the traveler has brought himself to the appointed place! Just as the prophecy said he would. Look! He has proved his worth by conquering the beast! Brothers! Prepare him for the foretold arrival!”

Red Wood heard the words of the Cultist and tried to hurry his pace, but had gone hardly two more paces before three burly earth pony cultists, slammed into him and pinned him to the ground.

“Let me go!” Red Wood screamed, trying to buck and kick but with his injuries and weakened state, he had no chance to shift even one of the three earth ponies, not to mention escaping from all three. Belatedly he tried to ignite his magic and feel for any rocks or sticks he could levitate as clubs, but as soon as his horn started to glow, one of the burly ponies just banged his horn with his hoof. The sharp pain broke Red Wood’s concentration, perhaps professional guard unicorns could cast when pinned but Red Wood never had that sort of training. They dragged him to the center of the clearing, just next to the pool of light.

As ropes were tied around his legs the leader of the Cultists stepped closer. “Ahh, the master craftpony. Yes we were expecting you. All this has been foretold and you have come at the perfect time to face your destiny.”

“Shut up!” Red Wood spat at the leader. “I know you’re the ones that killed my wife! Whatever your sick plan is, the Princesses already know about it and a squad of Pegasus are on there way here now!”

“We know about the Princess and the Pegasus!” The leader sneered as he said ‘Princess’, “The feather heads will not be here for hours yet. As for your former wife? You should be proud of her, she had proved useful, nearly as useful,” The leader paused dramatically, “ As you will be.”

The leader turned to talk to the other cultists, calling two unicorns closer to himself for a whispered conversation.

Pinned to the ground by the three ponies, Red Wood could just lay there, his eyes taking in the cultists appearances and garb for the first time. There seemed to be about twenty of them, a little more than half were earth ponies and the rest, including the leader were unicorns. Red Wood figured the leaders reference to ‘feather heads’ made it unlikely that Pegasuses were welcome. They all wore a strange ritualistic looking outfit,Toga wrap of light cloth that covered their flanks and cutie marks and was tied with a midriff belt and around just their left front leg. A second wrap of cloth over their heads, covering their mane and hid their eyes. The cloth must have been thin enough to see though but it effectively hide their identities. Even the horns of the unicorns were wrapped in white cloth.

The leaders, and there seemed to be several of various ranks, stood out by wearing colored neck wrappings, the more gold thread elaborate stitching, the higher the rank. The one with the most gold and seemed to be the one who spoke the most. Red Wood couldn't tell much about him, other that it was a stallion unicorn with a mostly yellow coat and blue tail. He did notice one oddity that made him also stand out, his horn was sharper than average with the tip having worn its way through its wrap.

The leader Having finished giving instructions to the two other unicorns, the leader spoke again, directing most of his attention to his followers, but also gesturing and motioning to Red Wood as if trying to engage him.

“Many years ago, we received a message from the future, one that spoke of who would come to this land. This visitor would bring gifts of knowledge and power. We the faithful was informed by the Stone Heart, we knew that we had to be the ones to lead the visitor, to guide him and direct him. We had to make sure his gifts would only go to the deserving.”

“Let me guess!” Red Wood yelled out, “and you get to decide who the deserving is going to be?” Red Wood had called this out, not because he cared anything about whatever the mad cultist was blabbering about, but he wanted to show that he wasn't completely licked, some sort of defiance.

The cult leader didn't so much as pause, he just gave Red Wood a nasty glance, and continued. “Ahh! but the Traveler doesn't yet understand the role he must play. He must be shown the prophecy so he can start to understand the depth of the honor that is granted to him.”

The leader gestured to the two unicorns he had talked to before, “Come brother, sister, you witnessed the latest prophecy of the oracle, let the traveler see and hear the truth from the oracle’s mouth.”

At a gesture from the leader, the two unicorns came out of the crowd. They tapped their horns together and stepping apart a magical image started to form between them. A glowing square of light not unlike a movie screen. One of the earth ponies holding Red Wood down, forced his head to turn towards the screen,making him watch.

In the image a moving picture formed and sound echoed in the clearing. While the image was clear, wherever they had recorded this, it was dark. There was just a handful of tiny candles and a medium sized fire pit to provide light. It was in some sort of cave with an earthen floor and white crystals like quartz embedded in the walls. Around the fire was a troop of ponies, Red Wood recognized the cult leader nearest the fire, but most were unidentifiable.

Two dancing mares came into the view. The lighting was so bad that at first Red Wood could only see them as shadows, but as they drew closer to the firelight he could start to make out their form and color. Both were earth ponies mares, with white coats and nearly identical pink manes. They kept dancing around each other, gesturing, almost touching then backing away. At first Red Wood didn't see anything strange about how they were dressed, which was just the typical nothing at all, then he started to notice the bells and jewelry on them. It would have been less revealing had they remained nude, glued on gems and pierced jewelry, were layered and encircled their flanks and nether. While a thin chain of gold anchored around their hips pulled high their tails. The effect was to draw prurient attention and turning common casual nakedness into dangerous nudity. Red Wood could sense, that this was no Sunday picnic of a religious group, there was something unseemly, dirty, sexual going on here. Uncomfortable Red Wood tried to squirm, but the three guards on top of him, wouldn't let Red Wood look away.

The two dancing mares worked themselves into a sweaty frenzy, the surrounding thong, both inside the magic recorded image and in the real clearing, hooted and cried out with louder and louder animistic calls. Their motions became intense, orgasmic. Droplets of their sweats flung like rain, flickering in the firelight. More than just sweat, they drooling from their mouths, and dripping from, elsewhere.

Suddenly the Leader in the image, singled the dance was over. The two mares ran off to the side of the image, Red Wood figured they were done, but a few seconds later they dragged a third mare back with them.

Dragged was the right description, the third mare seemed to be fighting them. Red Wood couldn't see the new mare clearly, not ever her color, as they didn’t bring her very close to the fire. Forced to stand in front of the flames, he could only see her silhouette, and it was disturbing. The mare was bald, all her mane had been cut off, and she only had a stub of a tail. Red Wood couldn’t tell if her coat had been shaved, but he wouldn't have been surprised. The two formally dancing mares, held the new one tightly, touching and fondling her, but she seemed intent on ignoring them.

The cult leader and one of his robed followers stepped up and carried with them a bowl and a large cauldron like bucket. The leader pushed the bowl into the mares face, telling her to drink from it. The mare didn't answer with words, but spat at the leader, who ignored the assault. With the aid of the two dancers, the leader forced the mare to drink, much of the liquid spilled but apparently the Leader was satisfied that she drank enough. The three dropped the mare, who fell to the ground choking and gasping.

They waited, while the two original dancing mares returned to their gyrations, but now in tight circles around the choking mare, making sure she couldn't leave or escape. After a few minutes the mare slowly rose to her hoofs and started to sway with the other dancers. Not joining them, but no longer fighting them. Red Wood could tell she had been drugged.

The leader now took up the larger bucket and after making many mystic passed with his hoofs over the cauldron, dumped it on top of the drugged mare. Red Wood couldn't make out much from the liquid that was dumped, at least at first, it was thick jelly like, running in globs down the mares body, the bit of color he could see was green, but mostly it was transparent and full of bubbles.

The liquid slowly molded itself to the mares body, not a drop dripped to the ground, magically it seemed to flow up as well and down and around. The mare continued to dance seemingly unconcerned about the ooze, at least at first.

After a few moments, Red Wood could tell the liquid was pooling around specific parts of the mare’s body, namely the orifices, all of them. She started choking, her air cut off as some of the slime squirmed it way down her throat, others seem to be finding entry elsewhere. Leaving the mare squirming wildly flinging her body around.

The cultists were again shouting, urging the goop onward, the ooze seemed to draw strength from them. It movements over her form became throbs. Pulse or waves running visibly though the liquid. Red Wood could tell that the mare was trying to fight off the effect, her hooves were trying to pull the stuff away from her, but it clung and pulled back. Each thrum of the gunk made the mare scream in disgust and protest.

The ooze was winning the fight, mare was slowing her protests and was starting to buck her body in tune. The hoofs that before were pulling the foul stuff away, now seemed to be intent on rubbing herself. Red Wood shuddered in disgust as his own body reacted involuntarily to the sight of the mare’s first clear orgasm.

He wanted to turn away, this was beyond disgusting, beyond torture. He tried to turn his head, but the three earth ponies that pinned him down wouldn't let him, he did get a glance at them and saw that they were not trying to hide their own excitement from the obscene scene. They were not alone, looking at the crowd around, about half the cultists were openly enjoying themselves adding their own foul smells to match the obscene images on the screen.

Unable to turn away, not even allowed to keep his eyes closed, Red Wood looked back at the screen and saw the mare writhing around. Her body betrayed her as she gave into the assault. More and more of the green liquid disappeared into the mare, leaving her only coated in a thin shiny film of the stuff. With a scream of either pain or ecstasy, she shuddered and fell still.

In the image, the cult leader again moved forward and putting a hoof in the air over her head, she floated up, like a puppet on a string.

“Tell us the future!” the leader demanded of the mare.

With no sign of spirit in her body or eyes, just her mouth moving on it own, a voice came from the mare. It was un pony like, dead sounding, punctuated with animal grunts and growls.

The Visitor will arrive in a shower of light.

The Traveler will be a maker of sound.

Who plays nothing but starts the fight.

Death will start the Traveler’s journey profound.

As the mare growled her rhyming phrases, images seem to float smoke around her. Not many of the image made sense, but a few were clear.

The dead will awaken, new of mind.

The wealth of worlds spread before.

The flying ones will be caught blind.

The faithful will profit from the war

Above the mare were Images of war and ponies fighting, with a river of bits flowing into reaching hooves.

The visitor will bring knowledge untold.

Towers of steel, and birds of metal.

of lightning caught on strings of gold.

And magic to make the masses controlled.

Now the images seemed to be of city scapes, large flying craft in the sky above.

The faithful will trade in life and death.

The faithful will harvest from the visitors grief.

The faithful will control who is blessed.

The faithful will seize what the princesses posses

A blood red sky floated above the mare, with shadows of falling winged ponies.

The visitor will fight the faithful.

The visitor will serve the faithful.

The visitor will aid the rule of the faithful.

The visitor will give the crown to the faithful.

In the image now appeared rows and rows of the cultists, far more than where here. Standing in a pyramid formation, the leader in front holding a sharp pointed crown. At their feet were innumerable piles of pony bodies, either dead or bowing down to the cultists.

The faithful will guide.

The faithful will hide.

The visitor will find the pariah.

The visitor will free leadership.

The close up image now was of the cultist laying in piles of gold, with chained servants, dressed like the first set of dancers but more numerous, fanning the cultists, feeding them fruit, and serving their bodies in all possible ways.

To summon the visitor follow these rules.

The Traveler’s body must be made empty.

Faithful depart beyond one hundred chains.

No soul may see, the visitor is wary.

This last image was of star charts, clocks and an arrangement of geometric lines that might have represented maps.

With this last word, the mare seemed to fall from the leaders magic grasp and collapsed on the ground. Gasping and heaving she vomited out the vial fluid, gallons of the stuff, no pony went to help her and she lay in her own filth, too exhausted to move. While the others, not just the other mares, but the whole troop of cultists danced around her. Slowly she crawled closer to the fire pit reaching for some some comfort from the warmth.

It was only then that light reflected clearly on her head. There was a shiny spot there, a flat hard spot. The mare was a unicorn, not an earthy pony, and her horn had been cut off.

Red Wood screamed, shouted and yelled, but no one cared. The whole group of cultists where dancing along with the ones in the image. Their victory declared by their oracle.

Red Wood looked at the image again, of the mare collapsed again at the edge of the fire pit. Looking for any proof of what he feared wasn't true, but seeing nothing that helped him know for sure, until tears blurred his vision to uselessness.

The cult leader call out to his follower to calm down.

“Soon my friends, soon all this will come to pass, but we have duties yet to perform.”

The leader walked over to Red Wood and with a gesture from one hoof told his guards to roll Red Wood onto his back. All four of his legs where stretched out, he was completely helpless and exposed.

The leader ran a hoof along Red Wood’s belly finding a splotch of wetness there he wispered, “Ahh, the Traveler approves of the oracle’s performance? “

Red Wood tried to flinch away, disgusted.

“Not surprising, she is pretty but she’s not for you.” The Leader continued, “The oracle may only consort with the appointed leader of Stone Heart, perhaps when the Visitor is here, I’ll let him taste the oracle’s sweet honey as a reward for aiding us. But you’re not the Visitor, you’re the Traveler.”

The cult leader stood up and from some hiding place in his robes he gripped with his magic something thin and shiny. Brandishing it he called out loudly, “The oracle message was clear! We must depart this clearing, no soul may stand within two hundred chains when the Visitor arrives. That just under a half mile, we will re-group at our meeting point, then return here when the deed is done to welcome our guest.”

The cult ponies started to file away, back in the woods and out of sight. Only the leader and the three guards remained, holding Red Wood down so he couldn't move. One had a hoof over his muzzle so he couldn't even cry out.

The leader looked up at the waterfall of light that was still pouring out of an invisible hole. It seemed to be slowing down now. Taking that as a single, he tuned to Red Wood. “Dear Traveler you are greatly honored, but like the oracle said, NO soul may remain, and that I’m afraid includes yours.”

With a flash of magic, the shiny thing the leader had been brandishing, resolved itself into a large knife. Red Wood only got to see it for a moment, before it plunged deep into his chest. Even the hoof on his muzzle couldn't silence Red Wood gurgling scream, the pain was intense, he couldn't breathe, couldn't move, but after a prolonged dozen seconds or so of agony, it went away. Along with everything else.

Red Wood was dead.

Author's Note

This chapter is much longer than I normally like to write. It may take me a bit longer to get the next one ready.

This was a difficult chapter, and because of some of the intensity of some of the events, I've decided to raise this from teen to mature.

I really debated about this with myself, because there's not a lot of chapters planned that's going to raise to this level of intensity and I would have preferred keeping it 'teen' but I'd like to get more feedback about that.
One of the reasons I felt I needed to write this chapter this way, was I am trying to get across a sense like to a particular scene in the movie '300' If you've seen the move and read this chapter, you'll know what scene I'm talking about. In the movie, it was possible to show how vulnerable the oracle was, with a quick flash of breasts, but ponies are always naked, so I had to 'raise' the stakes a bit to get across a similar effect.

Anima Artificio

Red Wood's body bled out slowly, while the cult leader looked down at his handiwork. If the Pony felt any remorse for his homicidal act, it didn't show on his face. The three burly earth ponies that had been holding Red Wood down looked side to side as if daring each other to say a word of protest but none could muster the courage. After a seemingly long wait Red Wood’s eyes, which had been tiny in shock, relaxed in huge blank dead holes. The leader had been waiting for this as a sign and turned to his companions.

"The traveler has departed. The shell is ready for the visitor." The leader nodded towards the pool of light, "The Oracle’s message was clear, we are not worthy of witnessing the coming miracle, untie the ropes and let us depart. We’ll return when the Visitor has arrived."

Silently the four cultists left the clearing, only the leader did not look back in pity at the mangled body they were leaving behind.

After there hoof steps had faded into silence, one of the nearby bushes move. Nervously a small body slipped out of the darkness and crept towards Red Wood. Banyan had not seen most of what happened, but he had heard it through the bushes from his hiding place. He wasn't sure he understood much, if any, of what he heard but he did know not to try coming out of hiding until the cultists were gone.

"Daddy?" A small pitiful voice whispered. Banyan moved closer to the pile of flesh and blood that had been his father. "Daddy!" He called again, his voice growing louder.

"Get up daddy, we have to go!" The little unicorn cried.

"Daddy! Please! Daddy!" Banyan wailed at the un-moving form of his father, "please Daddy, I'll .. I'll get help!"

In a class of terror far greater than any ghost or bogeyman could inspire, Banyan turned and ran, away in the opposite direction the cultists had gone crying "Help! Help!" His voice swallowed up by the darkness.

For several minutes, Red Woods body was alone in the clearing. It's only company the equally dead body of the Inkanyamba and the un-moving pool of light. Then Banyan far off in the woods crossed an invisible line, six hundred and fifty meters from the center of the light pool. By chance without knowing its significant, he stopped then and not seeing any help in that direction, turned back to the clearing.

Six hundred and fifty meters was an arbitrary number made up by a planning committee while sitting around a table and drinking coffee, they didn't see it as magic number or a something of great importance, they just wrote on a mission guide "probe is not to start boot up procedures until life sensors report no sentient life within safety range." Sometimes even bureaucrats can stumble on something profound, because had they chosen a larger number Banyan would not have run far enough away, and a smaller distance and the cultists who had their own mystic insight into this rule, might have been close enough to intervene.

Regardless of the coincidences of the situation, once Banyan was far enough away, the pool of light started to wake up. It wasn't really a pool of magical photons, rather it was the visual result of thousands of trillions of particles, machines in fact, if not form, too small to be seen even with an optical microscope. Individually they were not much larger or much more complex than simple viruses. But in numbers they were powerful and many times more complex than any simple biological life form. In seconds they started to organize, to boot up, to awaken.

First to start was dumb time sequencers and sensors, working on logic circuits no more complicated than a digital watch, these first systems sensed the environment, recognized they met the programs requirements for being alone and started to organize into ad-hock networks to uncompress and sort the massive data packets needed to run the main medical module, a functional if somewhat restrained Artificial Intelligence or the Doctor as it was internally identified as.

Like a glowing ghost, the mass of nano devices, formed a cloud like structure, lifting themselves out of the depression and started to survey the area. It drifted first over to the body of the Inkanyamba, dropping pseudo-pods of foggy light on the body, probing it, after a few seconds the Doctor classified the monster as ‘uninteresting’ and moved on to the other body in the clearing.

The cloud of nanites, hovered over Red Wood’s form, and was briefly confused.

Organic Intelligence like Humans and Ponies, frequently would hold in their minds an internal dialog or stream of consciousness as the way to clarify their own understanding of a situation. Most people just called this the simple act of ‘thinking.’ The Doctor did something similar, while most of the its internal thought mechanisms were multidimensional and resembled statistics tables, at the top of its logic processes, it would record an internal log of its observations and conclusions.

In that internal log the Doctor recorded,

Observation:

Location: arrival location.

No living sentients detected in safe zone.

Two dead bodies in arrival location.

Unexpected.

Identify as Subject 1 and Subject 2

Initial observation is both subjects died from blood loss.

Subject 1 is unknown race, has only 43% resemblance to target species. Death occurred between 30 and 50 minutes previous. Does not meet minimal requirements as outline by requirement lists. Decision discard Subject 1.

Subject 2 is identified as ‘Pony’ subclass ‘Unicorn’. Death occurred between 4 and 9 minutes previous. Meets all minimum requirement as outline by requirement lists. Decision, tentative to proceed with Subject 2.

Contrary Notice:

I was not expecting to find suitable subjects so close to arrival point. Mission guide indicates an expectation to have to travel to local cities, hospitals and morgues for possible subjects, not expecting to find suitable match for a period of weeks.

Internal conflict: 18% rational cores vote I should skip this Subject and proceed with Mission guide. 34% vote I should gather more data. 38% vote to proceed as a way to expedite overall mission. Remaining votes are mixed, with note worthy concerns over ethical issues.

Conclusion I will proceed with the expedited mission.

Plan process:

a: Start un-compressing Subject ‘Parker’ from data store.

b: Stabilized and repair suitable body.

c: Engage neural scan to determine compatibility points.

d: Start re-configuring higher functions to be compatible with Subject ‘Parker’ data set.

e: Retain reflexes and common physical skill sets as recorded by original ‘Subject 2’s host brain.

f: Wire compatible translation nodes as required.

g: Upload Subject ‘Parker’ to Subject 2’s body.

h: Await further instructions from authorized master.

All this internal dialog and mental discussion the Doctor was having with itself was silent and took only a few seconds. During that time Bayan had run full speed back into the clearing.

The young colt stood at the edge of clearing, from his point of view, he saw a ghostly cloud resting over his fathers clearly injured body. He lived in a world of magic, one where supernatural creatures were a reality, and not simply things of stories. His quick mind immediately classified the glowing creating.

“Daddy?” Banyan’s eyes was fixed on the glowing from rather than the mangled body.

His next reaction may not have been what Red Wood would have expected, had the adult been able to hear it.

“Awesome! Daddy you’re a ghost!!”

Can a Ghost Die?

Banyan looked up at the glowing apparition and a mixture of awe and fear. He didn't ‘want’ his father to be a ghost, but being a ghost was better than being dead, right? Banyan glanced down at Red Wood’s body expecting to see the stomach churning mass of blood and flesh that he had glanced before. Instead most of the blood was gone, except as wet stains on the ground. Even as he watched the last of the visible wounds closed like a zipper, not even leaving a scar.

Banyan, looked up amazed “Daddy, are you healing yourself? Can ghosts do that?”

The glowing cloud, which was 'very much not' Red Wood, but rather the visible part of a nanoparticle cloud controlled by a medical AI self identified as the Doctor, was very confused by the sudden arrival of the colt pony. It had not sensed the approaching child as it had appropriated the long range sensors for the ongoing medical procedures. Some part, in truth a very small part because the Doctor was already deeply committed to some very complex surgery, turned sensors to look towards Banyan and try to figure out what the arrival of the colt meant.

Internal Log:

Interruption by unexpected sentient creature.

Classification, male unicorn pony. Age undetermined.

Label as ‘Subject 3’

Language modules activated, and detected recognizable speech.

Speech Sample attached to storage file.

Key words identified: ‘Daddy’ ‘healing’ ‘ghosts’

Situation abnormal.

Probability >90% Subject 3 is family member of Subject 2

Probability 54% Subject 3 believes in supernatural fictions.

Confusion: Subject 3 is a Unicorn, also classified as supernatural fiction.

Conflict averted, mission goal modify local definition of ‘supernatural’ will vary from stored records.

Normal Procedure, Notify Nurse to lead Family members to appropriate waiting area.

FAILURE, No Nurse or other Staff available.

Must deal with family member myself.

Not expecting this situation.

Load from Network guidelines for dealing with family members.

FAILURE, No Network available, must use local storage and records only.

Situation abnormal.

QUERY: Is Subject 3 legally responsible for Subject 2? Query law banks.

FAILURE, No Network available, must use local storage and records only.

Action: Load language and speech modules at ask Subject 3 for clarification.

The Doctor used some of the spare nanites to shape the glowing cloud into a rough approximation of a head, at first using a standard human head mesh, but after a moments consideration, morphed the mesh with data from Red Wood’s head and face, creating an image that was about halfway between human and ponies faces. It then turned that face towards Banyan making the image lip sink as other nanites vibrated the air as an impromptu speaker. “What are you doing here?” the Doctor asked.

“Daddy! I know you told me to hide, but I came back to help!” Banyan answered somewhat definitely, the Doctor’s voice hadn't really sounded much like Red Wood, but the little colt wanted desperately to believe that the ghost was somehow his father’s spirit.

The Doctor asked, “You think I am your male parent? Is Subject 2 your father?” then reconsidering, it couldn't expect the Child to know its internal names and identifiers, at least not until he regained network access and could publish its report. the Doctor clarified, “I mean this body that I’m attempting to repair.” A wisp of the nanocloud gestured down at Red Wood’s body.

Banyan blinked in confusion, “You’re not my daddy?” Banyan pointed at the now apparently healed Red Wood, “That’s my daddy!”

This the Doctor could answer succinctly, “No I am not capable of having children. I am a medical unit assigned to…Please standby...” The Doctor’s voice cut off. Part of it’s mind had been spent processing the situation and suddenly found itself in conflict.

Internal Log:
Conversation with Subject 3 is related by blood to Subject 2
Probability > 90% Subject 3 has power of attorney over disposable of Subject 2.
this is in conflict with mission goals.
Action: Request permission to proceed according to original mission goals.

The Doctor asked, “Please identify yourself, I do not know your name.”

“I’m Banyan! Are you a ghost? That’s my daddy your healing, will he be OK?”

The Doctor considered its answer, “I am not a ghost, I am a medial unit and I am healing the body, but my mission goal is now in conflict.” The Doctor added, “Your parent is dead by the local legal standards.”

The doctor was about to say more, but about this time one of the software packages for dealing with family member had finally been uncompressed from long term storage. The Doctor mentally looked over the family bedside manner module and decided he needed to tone down his response, “Bringing your parent back to full normal function may be difficult.”

Banyan’s mind couldn't really comprehend what the Doctor was trying to say, he heard only one thing “you parent is dead’ and immediately started crying. “No! No! Look you healed him! Please bring him back! bring him back! I’ll do anything!”

Internal Log:

Conversation with Subject 3, now identified as ‘Banyan’ is not proving helpful.

Conflict with mission goals are growing.

Condition: I am supposed to confer with a ‘master’ if mission goals are in conflict.

FAILURE, No Network available, must use local storage and records only.

Answer: All humans are classified as ‘Masters’, Mission Document states that for legal purposes Ponies are to be considered 'Human', ‘Banyan’ meets this requirement.

Query: Is ‘Banyan’ able to authorize modification mission goals.

FAILURE, No Network available, must use local storage and records only.

Answer: Need to access Subject ‘Parker’ for further instructions.

Conflict: Uploading Subject ‘Parker’ into bio neural networks of Subject will preclude ability to repair and revive Subject 2’s original neural network. Subject 2 will be overwritten and lost.

Conflict: Subject ‘Parker’ also needs to be revived, nanite upload storage is temporary and will fail if I use resources to repair Subject 2’s brain.

Situation in conflict.

Rule: Do no harm invoked.

Situation in conflict, danger of logic loop. Ask for clarification for available ‘master.’

The Doctor looked at the child, uncertain of what was the right course of action, it tried to explain the situation, “If I do as you ask, I will cause harm to another. I can not repair your parent’s mind, without using resources needed to download subject ‘Parker’s mind. This will effectively kill subject ‘Parker.’

Banyan couldn't understand, though he started to sense there was something serious behind this ghosts confusion. “I want my daddy!” was his only answer.

“This is a very complicated request and is in direct conflict with my mission goals.”

“Daddy!” Banyan just cried.

Internal Log:

Situation:Original Mission goals are now impossible.

Rule: Do no harm invoked.

Situation: Need to revive two minds, but only have one available body.

Query: Can I wait until another body becomes available?

FAILURE, No Network available, must use local storage and records only.

Answer: No. This body will decay to an unusable extent if I wait.

Submit Simulation runs for alternative options:

Running…...

Solution options Amalgamate if sufficient resources are applied.

Situation: Level of resources required will likely damage medical unit.

Query: Is medical unit expendable?

FAILURE, No Network available, must use local storage and records only.

Answer: Yes, though it will require an override command.

The Doctor asked Banyan, “I will attempt to do what you wish, but I will have to use all my entire stock of available nanoparticles and will not have enough left to achieve any of the remaining mission goals. In effect I will likely cease to function as a result of trying to save your parent. Please confirm that is what you wish.”

Though distraught and wild with grief, the last part of the Doctor’s statement did get through to the crying child. How unfair a choice to make a ten year old to make! He understood enough to ask the Doctor, “You’ll die if you save daddy?”

The Doctor thought about that, “Death is not the right term for me, I will be compromised, greatly weakened and probably unable to perform further healing duties for an extended period. I do not believe you have the technology here to repair me or provide energy, so my usefulness will be at a minimal.”

“So you won’t die, just become weak, and my daddy will live?” Banyan wanted the Doctor to make this clear.

The Doctor took a long few seconds to think this over, “My core will remain for sometime at low power, it would be unlikely but in time your technology might advance sufficiently and I could be revived. So Yes.”

“Then do it! Please!” Banyan begged.

“As you command, master.” The Doctor answered, mildly considering to itself with cool interest, that this child just ordered it to commit something akin to suicide.

Death Takes a Nap

The child pony had just ordered the Doctor to do everything in its power to rescue his father. A major complication, since that was in conflict with his original instructions. Worse it was isolated, unable to contact anyone of authority for directions, a very unusual situation as the Doctor’s world was normally one hundred percent networked.

The Doctor considered its options. When trying to deal with something outside its experience, such as talking to a grieving pony child, the type of AI that was the Nano Cloud Doctor, had no more than ‘human level’ intelligence and less experience than an organic human or pony might, but in the Doctors core specialty it was truly a super-genius.

A person could with some training, might envision the layout of their own house and the streets and paths around their home, spin it in their mind and envision the layout and organization from angles and attitudes that their physical eyes had never been able to. A really skilled person could hold in their mind the entire road system of their local town or neighborhood something like perhaps one hundred to two hundred streets and intersections. Beyond that they would have to use more and more mental shortcuts, simplifications and leave out details. This was a physical limit of the intelligence of the organic brain, but the Doctor was not so limited. He could envision at once, not just a few hundred streets, but billions even trillions. The pathways and sub functions of a neural network with a hundred billion connections was as simple for the Doctor to see as a whole, as an organic person could navigate the familiar path from their bedroom to their front door with their eyes closed. It was a very specialized skill and wasn’t applicable with day to day life, but it was what the Doctor had been built for.

The nanit probes had already saturated Red Wood’s body and the Doctor now could see at once how all the neural connections were wired together. He could easily identify the neural clusters that handled the non intelligent functions, marking for repair and not replacement those parts of the Red Wood’s mind that handled things like simple balance, walking, vision pre-processing and object and edge detection, sound filtering and image prediction.

The parts of Red Wood’s mind that handled the sense of self, the internal dialog of thought and the personal bibliographic memories. The Doctor had no hesitation to label these parts of Red Wood’s brain, as his ‘soul’ using the word as a purely technical term that to the Doctor had no supernatural mystery about it.

It took its time, nearly forty five seconds to do all this indexing, now the Doctor reached the point of decision, its original mission orders were to overwrite these parts with the mind of a human, Subject ‘Parker’ that the Doctor had in its memory storage. A common procedure back on the Doctor’s world, that was usually done to blank undifferentiated cloned neural tissue as standard method of repairing physically damaged brains. But with Banyan’s childish instructions that was no longer the procedure the Doctor was being asked to do. With some hesitation, because the Doctor did not completely lack a sense of self preservation, it started to reprogram large numbers of its spare nanites to modify the glia cells, normally extra cells that did not participate in the neural networks, they started to expand and reconfigure, growing synapses and merging into the neural networks in ways that would never happen naturally. On the fly the Doctor had to invent new ways for the new neural clusters to interface, but this is the sort of ‘intelligence’ the Doctor was built for.

As the Doctor worked, more and more of his resources were being consumed,as each nanites internal energy pool would become exhausted, the Doctor would direct them to use their remaining power to exit from Red Wood’s body. The result the unicorn was gaining on outline on grass of dull weakened nanites. Individually they were still invisible but in numbers they started to resembled a fine crumble of dull glowing rusty dust.

Banyan watched all this, speechless and scared. Towards the beginning of the process he grew excited when he saw that his father’s body was breathing again, and he sensed the vibration of a beating heart as a flutter on Red Wood’s exposed throat. Not understanding that the real battle was taking place inside Red Wood’s skull, Banyan tried to call to his father again. The Doctor wasn’t easily distracted, but then the child kept kept poking Red Wood in the side, trying to wake his father.

The Doctor formed the face again and said in what its sound library said was a kindly voice, “I’m sorry, but I need to work, this is a very delicate procedure, can you please stand back and be quiet?”

Quickly Banyan trotted backwards, to give the Doctor room. For forty minutes, Banyan flicked pebbles at the ugly Inkanyamba’s body and waited. There wasn’t much visible change going on now, but steadily the Doctor grew fainter, there was less and less substance to the nano cloud that now barely floated over Red Wood’s body. After a long delay with nothing seeming to be happening, the Doctor motioned to Banyan, waving thin wisps of glowing nano cloud like limbs. It took several waves for Banyan to realize he was being called over.

The Doctor no longer had enough spare mass to form a face, so he compressed his mass into the outline of a circle and said to Banyan, “I’ve done all that I can, there will probably be complications, I wish I could help more, I’m beyond all my safety limits. The Subjects should awaken in a few minutes, please inform the Subject ‘Parker’ that I was not able to install all the normal implants and apps, I was only able to include a simple diary recorder and a copy of my own clinical observations. Please ask him to send the report back to our home as soon as he can, I do not believe I will be able to send the report myself. Sorry I no longer have sufficient energy to comuiaSTATIC…..”

With that, the last of the glowing cloud faded, a faint red dust covered the ground, just barely glowing like dying embers.

Banyan felt sad looking at the faint dust, but what choice did he have? He started crying again, not really understanding why, he just he felt bad for the Doctor. For a long time he just watched his father’s body breathing, uncertain what to do.

Then the rate of breathing started to pick up and Red Wood’s body started to thrash around. Banyan ran forward and flung his small body on his fathers, trying to pin him down, to try to stop the thrashing.

“Daddy!” Banyan yelled again and again, for the first time since the Doctor had told him to be quiet. That seemed to get through, Red Wood’s thrashing slowed and instead he fought to sit.

At first his attempts were a failure, like he was trying to bend his waist in a way no pony could bend. Then slowly he calmed down, and got on his haunches to sit naturally. He had kept his eyes closed, as if in great pain, but now blinking he opened them and looked around.

Banyan smiled at his father and jumped into his forelegs. “Daddy! You’re awake!”

“What!” Red Wood looked around confused, “Who are…”

Then even before Red Wood could finish his question, the cultists returned.

Rennen in den Wäldern

As Banyan tried to help his father up to his hoofs, the older unicorn looked around with a mixture of confusion and grumbling questions, most of which made no sense to the young colt. It seemed that his father was upset that Banyan was here, though he hadn't since awakening really yet said a complete sentence that Banyan could understand. But Banyan was happy, his father was alive, the ghost had saved him! Things couldn't be better! That is, until the stamping of hoofs marked the return of the cultists.

Banyan spun around when he heard the approaching cultists. They had entered the clearing surrounded by a light halo of floating candles suspended in unicorn magic. There seemed to be even more cultists now, more must have arrived, they formed a half circle around Banyan and his father, staying a respectful distance away, before kneeling and bowing. Only the leader remained standing.

Banyan saw his father struggle to all four hooves and in a hoarse whisper croak out,"What's going on here!"

"Don't you remember daddy!" Banyan asked, "these are the bad ponies that hurt you!"

Banyan's father looked down at the colt, he seemed to be in some pain and grumbled, “No! this can’t be right.”

The Leaders of the cult called out then, “Hail Visitor! Don’t mind the colt, he is but a confused child.” The leader directed his eyes angrily at the the guard cultists near him, “Who shouldn't be here at all!”

Banyan’s father looked at the cultist and laughed, rubbing his eyes, “You ponies look so cute in those robes!” He fell to his side, kicking and laughing.

The cult leader took a step backwards, he wasn't expecting the Visitor to call him ‘cute’

Banyan was even more outraged, these monstrous ponies had hurt his daddy, very badly, running, not laughing was the right reaction. “Daddy we have to get out of here!”

Still laughing but starting to calm down, his father replied, “Something screwed up badly, there shouldn't be any welcome party! I should be alone and oh ah…”

He stood very unsteadily and rubbed his head, “I have the worst hangover! That’s not right! What did that damn medic do to me?”

The cult leader looked with some disgust at the pair of unicorns, “The oracle was right about everything else, but this is wrong! You should be barely able to move! Weak and in desperate need of our help! The oracle said you could only move after we healed you!” He pointed an agree hoof at Banyan,”That foul foal! He’s corrupted the Visitor!”

Banyan was scared, his father was talking silly and seemed sick, but there was no place safer he knew of, so he ran behind his father and huddled there. What was especially strange was how his father kept looking at him with a confused expression. “Kid,” he asked, “you are a kid right? What’s going on here and why are you calling me daddy?”

Banyan’s eyes opened with new terror when the THING that looked like his father, asked that. “No! The ghost said you’d be alright! No! I want my daddy!”

The thing in Red Wood’s body, opened its eyes wide in sudden understanding and various pieces of the puzzle fell into place, “Oh no! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! You weren't supposed to ... damn!”

In a shock of clarity Banyan understood, this ‘Thing’ in front of him only looked like his father, it wasn't truly him on the inside. Banyan looked up at the stranger in his fathers body and fell to the ground crying.

The leader of the cultists had enough and started yelling, “That enough! Somepony take that colt out of my sight! To Tartarus with him!”

Two of the bulky cultists started to move forward, reaching out to grab Banyan.

The Thing in Red Wood’s body put up a hoof and said “Wait! Wait, lets not be hasty. If I’m right, the kid here had a real bad day, don’t take it out on him. Wait did you just say ‘Somepony’? Oh! this is so messed up!”

The cult leader was now so angry his muzzle was lathering like a rabid dog, “No! So many years of planning! You can’t be the Visitor! You can’t! Nothing you say makes sense! We got to get rid of them both! Kill them!”

The two cultists closing in on Banyan hesitated. “Kill the Visitor? But didn't we already?” one started ask the other, the brute held back for a moment, confused.

On hearing the word ‘kill’, the ‘Thing’s expression changed from confused but amused to cold stone serious, he turned towards Banyan, “Run kid! Run!”

Banyan didn't hesitate, the ‘Thing’ still looked like his father and he was in complete agreement that running was what they both had to do.

It took only a second before an entire mob of cultists were after the two.

Banyan was scared, terrified might be a better word, but he had enough sense to notice that the ‘Thing’ was letting him lead the way. He caught the Thing’s eye and it shrugged back “Lead the way kid, I have no idea where we are!”

They ran for minutes, fear gave them some extra speed and the cultists seemed more chaotic than organized now. They gained a small lead, the stomping of hoofs still followed them, but they couldn't see the cultists though the thick growth. Banyan started to recognize some of the landmarks near them, a particularly tall tree he had seen before to one side, a hill he used to sled down in the winter on another, he frequently played in this part of the woods. They needed a place to hide and Banyan remembered a good one. “This way!” he called to the ‘Thing’ and led him back around that hill, it was turning partly back towards the cultists but Banyan didn't think the cultists would expect them to double back.

At the far side of the hill, at it’s base was a jumble of old logs and some planks of wood, rescued from the town’s dump. It wasn't much of a fort, but Banyan and a few of the other young colts had built it last summer. It was only partly intact, the roof had collapsed and it was more a jumble of logs than anything else.

“In here!” Banyan whispered, and led the way to a hiding spot behind the logs. The colt was able to squeeze in right away, the larger adult pony had more trouble but followed the colt. Behind the logs, there was a gap in the hill, not really a cave, more of a dimple but once there they were now completely hidden from outside.

The two ponies leaned against the hillside and caught their breaths with deep gasps. They stayed silent for a long time, just breathing and listening. The sounds of the cultists running through the woods faded and they seemed to be safe, for the moment.

The ‘Thing’ spoke first, “I’m sorry kid, you shouldn't have gotten mixed up in this, something’s gone wrong, why were those crazy ponies after us?”

Banyan looked up at the ‘Thing’ it looked like his father, but his father never called him ‘kid’ but the ghost had said … What did the ghost say?

Banyan said, “I don’t know! They broke into our house and chased daddy and me into that clearing. Then they hurt you, I mean my daddy, and the a ghost came and said he’ll heal you. He said he would save you, but if you’re not my daddy, then he lied!” Banyan was starting to get upset again, but kept his voice low in fear of the cultists.

“I got such a headache!” the ‘Thing’ replied, then asked, “I’m sorry, I really am sorry kid, those weird ponies messed things up badly, I wasn't supposed to end up in the body of a murder victim with the murderers right there. Equestria supposed to be peaceful, I was expecting to awaken in some old pony who died peacefully in a hospital somewhere.”

“Who are you, if you’re not my daddy?” Banyan leaned away from the stranger.

“The name Parker, Stewert Parker. I was supposed to stay hidden but I guess that plan’s derailed now.” Parker held out a hoof, “I’m sorry about your dad kid, really I am, but this is not the time, we got to get out of here and away, get you safe.”

Banyan looked at the familiar hoof confused and scared, he didn't need a hoof shake, he needed a … Banyan ignored the hoof and threw himself on to Parker, hugging the surprised visitor. For a long moment Banyan just cried into Parker’s coat, hugging him tightly, too upset to think or understand.

Parker just held the colt, “It’s ok Banyan, It’s ok, we’ll get you somewhere safe.”

A long time later, Banyan had calmed down enough that they could talk again.

Parker asked, “We need to go someplace safe, is there any police or whatever you have here nearby?”

“I don’t think so, Coltsdale’s too small for guards. We only have a mayor. Wait I remember you, I mean my daddy, told the mad ponies that squad of squad of Pegasus were on their way here, but the mean pony said they wouldn't get here in time.”

“That’s good that means that they have to leave soon. If we can just get to the mayor, he’ll watch you and you should be safe." Parker thought for a moment then asked, "You know the mayor well?”

“Well he’s daddy’s friend, he comes by some nights and they talk on the porch. Sometimes when they think I’m asleep I’ll sneak down and hide to listen to them talk.” then looking a bit guilty, “Even sometimes I’ll slip a cup of the cider.”

“OK so you know him, I can drop you off and…” Parker started to say, then swiftly turning his head towards the colt. “That’s hard cider, I told you that’s no good for you!”

“Sorry.” Banyan looked chastised, “Wait! When?”

“Never you mind! Just don’t drink that stuff until you’re older!” Parker told the colt, then before Banyan could disagree, he said “I haven’t heard anyone for while now, I think we should try to run for it before they double back and find us. I wonder when sunrise is.”

“Not for a long time, I think.” Banyan judged it was just a bit past one am. Though that was just a guess for the young unicorn.

Parker kept tapping the side of his head, “This headache is the worse, I can’t even bring up a map.”

Banyan asked “A map? You have a map? I didn't see you carrying anything.”

Parker answered, “Not that kind of map, ah, kind of strange, normally I can do somethings that you might call magic.”

Banyan tapped his own unicorn horn, then pointed at Parker’s. “That’s not strange, we are unicorns.”

“No, No, I mean an app, a different type of magic.” Parker touched his horn with his hoof, “Unicorn horn, hadn't even thought about that yet. Have to try it out, but not now, can’t risk it.”

“An app? The ghost mentioned something that he called ‘implants and apps’ I was supposed to tell you something. Can’t rightly remember.”

“Great, where is that ghost? medical unit? It’s supposed to hang around and help me.”

“I think.. Please don’t be angry, I think I killed it.” Banyan looked down.

Parker looked incredulous, “I don’t think you can kill the Doc, it's not really alive.”

Banyan gulped loudly before telling Parker, “It warned me that saving you would exhaust it. It wanted me to chose.” Banyan looked scared remembering the terrible choice the Doctor had made him make.

Parker looked worried, “Exhausted? I don’t get it, but this not the time to worry about that, I can’t find my apps, ok so we’ll do this old fashion way. Are you ready to run? I think the town that way, right?” Parker pointed in the direction he felt the town should be in.

The two ponies, peeked out of the woodpile and looking side to side, neither saw any sign of further pursuit.

“OK, we go on three, one, two, THREE!”

They galloped away from the fort, the bushes and ground plants whipping their hides raw and they tore through the underbrush.

“Nearly there!” Banyan gasped, leading them past their old house, with its windows broken out and skidded past signs of burn marks in the lawn.

Parker took the lead, “We got to find more ponies, they’ll leave us alone if we in a group!” he hoped. “There!” He gestured with a hoof at the town center, leading the way. “The Mayor’s house, that’s the safest!”

The two unicorns ran right up to the stairs that surrounded the Mayor’s porch, when the door was thrown open. The Mayor stumbled out onto the porch in front of them.

“Mayor!” Parker his tone was relived as if he was calling out to an old friend.

But his happy greeting turned into decisively colder cry of anguish when the mayor continued to stumble, taking one step, two steps, then falling down the stairs at their hoofs. A bloody knife still sticking out the Mayor’s side bleeding in great pulses.

Standing in the Mayor’s door frame, and welding another knife, was the cult leader once again.

“No!” both Parker and Banyan yelled.

The cultist callously reached own and pulled the spare knife from the Mayor's back, “Don’t look surprised visitor! Where else were you going to run to?”

The porch door slammed noisily behind the cultists as more stepped out onto the porch, their numbers swiftly growing.

Author's Note

This was a much longer chapter than I wanted it to be, one of our key protagonists has now made his appearance and it only took nine chapters. But because they're so much necessary action in this chapter, that it really hard to take time and show who Parker is and give him more than a few action lines. I've tried to give some major hints, both obvious and less so, that Parker is quite mixed up right now, laughing one moment, fleeing for his life the next. Frankly he’s more messed up than he may at first appear.

Un arcobaleno inaspettato

There was a long pause, the cult leader had a flare for the dramatic and deliciously wanted to draw out the moment, seeing how helpless the two fugitives in front of him were.

"Back away Banyan." Parker told the young colt, putting himself between him and the cultists.

Parker looked down at the still body of the Mayor, a strained anger filled him, this was no stranger on the ground, Parker felt like he knew him. He looked up at the cult leader and asked "Why?"

The leader looked surprised at the question, but wasn't bothered by it, "That dog? He was the Bitches puppet, all the so called elected officials are. Besides he was not exactly cooperating when we needed his house while waiting for you."

"He had a wife and daughter!", Parker didn't question how he knew that, he just did.

"Oh, don't worry they are safe, already some of the Kin are transporting them to one of our strongholds, along with most of the fillies and mares of the dirt pile of a town. In time they will discover joy in their new role, serving the Stone Heart."

Parker's blood ran cold, were these mad ponies so powerful they occupied the whole town? "Kin? Who the hell are you!" he asked.

The leader seemed to gain confidence and smiled as he answered, "We are the followers of the Stone Heart, an honorable order dedicated to protecting the common pony against the tyranny of the feathered abominations who soil the Canterlot throne!"

Parker stood there stunned, then looking up at the sky, "Damn! Fucking Luna Rebellion fanfics, we were warned! " then looking towards the cult leader, "you're insane! Just stop! These things never work out. Even back in my world"

The cult leader seemed completely unperturbed by Parker's outburst, "See my friends, just as the oracle foretold, at first he would fight us and stand with the evil ones, but in the end the Visitor will become our most powerful tool! And behold he just admitted that he brings knowledge our our struggle from his world!"

The leader returned his attention back to Parker, "We expected you to struggle, but the Oracle also said you would join us when you needed our help to be healed. I figured it was from the wounds on the Traveler's body, but you seemed to already have healed yourself, perhaps you can keep doing that,” The leader gave Parker a feral grin, “but perhaps not."

Parker didn't like the sound of that. He started backing away trying to keep Banyan shielded by his body.

While he had been talking the leader dropped his knives and levitated a thick Branch from the ground. "let's try and try again."

With a swift blast of magic the leader levitated his makeshift club and smashed or hard against Parker's side.

Parker reared up and knowing that it was useless to try talking anymore, he prepared to run. He pushed Banyan forward and away from the villeins, not that the colt needed much encouragement. The two started to run, but they got no more than a few steps before a rain of sticks and stones pelted Parker's hindquarters.

He felt bright fireworks of pain, shooting up his rear hips, the stones and sticks were blunt, but the repeated hard hits, were breaking coat and skin. Parker didn't need to look back to know he was bleeding and hurt. He stumbled another step, then hearing the whistle of the next barrage which was shooting high, over his head towards ... Without further thought Parker threw himself forward and covered Banyan with his body. He did so just in time, while the cultists were using blunt weapons on him, they had less concern for the well being of Banyan, sharp sticks and broken stones pelted his back.

It hurt, it hurt a lot.

“Halt!” the cult leader called out.

Parker turned his head just enough to look behind and see the cult leader gloating. Parker realized the damn equine was enjoying this. “So much for peaceful herbivores!” he thought to himself. Grunting in pain, he bit his tongue rather than say anything to the mad pony, he replied with a glare.

“Such sacrifice, for the colt?” The leader teased. “The Oracle tells us, you’re not even a pony! It’s not like he’s your’s, why should you care?”

Parker didn't bother to respond to that nonsense. Though all this talk about an ‘Oracle’ really was starting to get his goat, somehow they knew he was coming, he had to give the Oracle that much, he knew magic worked in this world, but the rest? Him being willing to work with, even to help, these killers? Parker really wanted to get back at the cult leader with a snappy comeback like ‘Your Oracle’s crystal ball must be foggy’ but while he thought the words, he kept his mouth shut. This was not the time for jokes, he was an explorer, not some sort of wisecracking super hero.

Instead he looked down at the colt and whispered, “Banyan, are you alright?”

The little colt with terrified eyes looked up at him and with a barely perceivable motion nodded once.

Parker whispered, “On three, you run, and you keep running, no matter what. OK?”

Banyan shuddered in fear, but managed to nod again.

Parker whispered “One”

Meanwhile the cult leader continued his rant, “Somehow that foal has fogged your mind! I will end him for this!” The leader switched out with his magic the wooden club, exchanging it back for the knives he used to kill the Mayor.
Parker saw the knives, he knew that he had to jump the Leader first, he wasn't a fighter, but if he could distract the mad pony for even a second, Banyan might have a chance. Trying to keep his whispered voice as confident sounding as possible he said, “Two.”

Parker then closed his eyes for an extra long blink to steel himself, then in one smooth motion he bucked out with both his rear legs at the same time as yelling “Three!”

The Cult leader probably had thought Parker was too injured to buck, and in normal terms he probably was, the pain was terrible and it shot down his body like an electric shock. But while there was a lot of blood from the rocks and sticks, there wasn't any damage to the muscles. Parker’s kick connected, and connect hard. The Cult leader was flung back, smashing back into several of his followers, the knives lost in the telekinetic grip fell to the ground, lost under the sudden scuffle of hoofs and bodies.

Banyan was up and running, while Parker fell to the ground, that buck was all he had left and he was not going to be able to run. He struggled to his legs and turned towards the cultists, a look of hopeless defiance on his muzzle.

The cult leader was still on his side, breathing hard, the angry look on his face could turn a Cockatrice to stone. “Visitor you will die for that mistake!” he yelled, reaching out once again for his knives with his magic.

Parker stood, ready to die, the whole situation was a mess and he wanted out, he just wanted to stick around long enough to be certain that Banyan got away, then death would be a messy and uncomfortable exit, but not one he had reason to fear. He still had a body waiting for him in his home world, and what if he loses the memories of these last few hours? He didn't care much for them.

The cult leader seemed to pause waiting for a response from Parker, but Parker wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. He stood there waiting, listening and trying to judge by the sound how far Banyan had run. He wanted to give the kid the most possible time to escape.

Then suddenly there was response, but not from Parker. It came from the air, off to the side and came in fast, a streak of multicolored light.

With it came a battle cry, “Yahoo! Gang Way!” a brash nasally voice called.

Suddenly everything was in even more chaos. Purple explosions lit up the sky and cultists were being thrown into the air. There were screams of surprise and shock. Bodies were running every direction.

In front of Parker, one cultist was surrounded by a large bubble of purple magic, lifted suddenly into the air and smashed against a tree, to fall unconscious at the roots.

The Cult Leader gave Parker one last angry look then, taking his knives, ran back into the woods, disappearing into the darkness.

Many of the cultists started fleeing after their leader, though some seemed intent on the fight, a group were going after what they must have seen as the easiest target, Banyan. Parker tried to give chase, but he could barely walk and couldn't possible catch up.

Suddenly Banyan was being lifted away from the crowd of cultists, lifted safely in the hoofs of a Pegasus, a rainbow colored streak taking the colt to safety.

Standing in the mayhem and realizing what he was seeing, Parker said only one word.

“Damn.”

frwydr yn y goedwig

It wasn't a battle, it should not be confused for one. Ponies, the cultists, were running in circles, stomping up dust and debris. Randoms explosions of purple light thundered overhead creating a continuous cacophony of noise and kept anypony from being heard, from giving orders, from taking control of the mayhem. Every few seconds a flash of rainbow light, and suddenly whatever pony that seemed most in command or most ready to attack, would be smashed aside. At no time would the attackers allow themselves to be clearly seen, their quick motion, their noise and thunder, scared the cultists and soon there was no more efforts to fight back, no more efforts to take control. The cultists ran into the woods, to hide under brush and behind trees. Scared of what they couldn't see.

Parker found himself alone, standing in torn up field near the towns center. Thankfully Banyan had been rushed away in one of the early rainbow streaks, at least for now Parker was not worried about the colt, confident he was safe. For a brief time Parker considered running as well, but he had no place to run to. He didn't want to trip across on the cultists, and anyways his injuries wouldn't let him move that fast. He chose to wait, fretting and uncertain.

There were several long beats of time, when he could see no movement. It was oddly peaceful and quiet, the shouting and explosions having died down. Parker looked side to side and stared up into the tree branches, but couldn't see any more sign of the attackers, until suddenly from behind them there was a yell.

“Yahoo! That shows them! No one lays a hoof on Rainbow Danger Dash!”

In a flash of movement, suddenly a Columbia blue Pegasus was right in front of Parker, holding her hooves up in a makeshift victory dance.

“Don’t show your dirty hooves here again!” Rainbow continued to taunt the unseen cultists.

Just then a second pony, purple in color and bearing a horn, stepped out of the bushes and admonished the Pegasus, “Rainbow! Don’t do that! We just got lucky, they outnumber us and we just startled them. They’ll probably be back soon.”

Parker looked from one pony to the other. He knew these ponies and while the cultists may have scared him, he had been explicitly warned to stay away from the Mane Six. Should he care? He wasn't sure, he was clearly far off the original mission guidelines.

Twilight turned her attention from Rainbow and towards Parker, “Mr Red Wood? Is that you?” she asked.

Parker felt a strange surge of recognition but couldn't explain the source, it was the first time anyone had used Red Wood’s name in front of him, but it was clear Twilight was trying to talk to him. He blinked several times, trying to process the meaning then considering how to answer, finally he told himself. “When the shit hits the fan, and all else fails, then as a last resort try honesty.”

Parker nodded to Twilight, “Not exactly but close.” Then he paused to confirm, yes this version of Twilight Sparkle had both horns and wings, she was an Alicorn. “Princess.”

Twilight looked surprised, “Oh no! I”m sorry, did I miss pronounce it? I know you backwoods ponies sometimes have strong accents, supposed to emphasize the oo sound in the Wood? Princess Celestia didn't say how to pronounce it in her letter, let me get a quill to correct my…” Despite her comment to Rainbow Dash about the Cultists returning, it looked like Twilight was about to take out paper to write notes on.

Suddenly Rainbow shot into into Parker’s face, “Wait a feather now! If your not Red Wood, then who are you? Are you one of those cultists? Are you a “

Parker face hoofed and finished for Rainbow Dash, “A Spy?”

Twilight put a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder and pulled her down, “Come on Rainbow, Equestria has very few enemies, why do you keep accusing new ponies of being spies? It a silly thing, you’re not going to get a spy to admit he’s one, just by asking!”

Parker gave a soft cough, “Actually Twi..um..Princess,” he caught himself, from sounding too familiar with what should be a stranger to him. “In this case she’s right.”

“Whoo! I got one! I got a spy!” Rainbow did a flip in the air excited, “Wait! If you’re a spy why did the Princess send us to rescue you?”

“Yes I want an answer about that as well!” Twilight glared at Parker.

Parker held up his hoofs in a calming gesture, “OK I’ll tell you everything but first did Banyan get away safe?”

“Oh the colt?” Rainbow nodded, “Yes I have him safely tucked away on a high branch in one of these trees, I’ll get him.” She was off again in a flash.

Twilight looked over Parker a bit more nervous now, “You’re not a changeling are you?”

Parker shook his head, “No, nothing like that. I think we need to get the kid and get out of here, this whole town isn't safe if the cultist come back.”

Rainbow was already on her way back with Banyan and had heard the exchange between Twilight and Parker. “Those lame cultists? They were pushovers! We’ll scare them off again if they come back!”

Parker bowed his head low, “I’m afraid they are very dangerous pushovers.” he stepped a few feet closer to the nearest house and brushed away some dirt and leaves on the ground. Exposing the body of the Mayor. Both Twilight and Rainbow gasped, while Banyan ran over and hid his head against Parker’s side. Without thinking about it Parker nuzzled Banyan to comfort the colt.

Twilight knelt by the Mayor’s body, her horn glowed for a moment as if she was trying to aid him, but during their panic many of the cultists had stampeded over the body. There was was far too much damage to have hope for him. Tears started pouring down her muzzle. “How could they!” She cried and shook in a way that broke Parker’s heart. He still didn't know exactly how close this world was to the TV series and it looked like this world’s Twilight Sparkle did not have a lot of first hoof experience with deadly violence.

Rainbow Dashes reaction was much more restrained, she bucked the air in frustration and then glumly asked. “How many?” She gulped then finished in a whisper, “How many dead.”

Parker told her, “I don’t knew, their leader said something about taking away all the mares and fillies, but he didn't mention the boys, I mean colts and stallions.”

Rainbow said, “We’ll have to do a house to house search to find them and … oh no, we need more ponies! Somepony has to find out where they took the fillies! You Red Wood, you start searching the houses on that side of town and I’ll…”

Wiping away her tears, Twilight stood and said “No! Rainbow, the Princess’s orders were clear, we have to get Red Wood and his Son away from here, the flight of Pegasus that are following us will have to do the search.”

“Those slowpokes bucket heads with all their heavy armor? We left them far behind! they won’t be here for at least an hour, maybe two! Twi! The cultists will get away!”

Twilight took out some paper from her saddlebags and started to write a note,“Sharp Wing is at the head of the Pegasus flight group, I’ll pin this note on Red Wood’s door where they’ll find it and have his team start the search. We’ll have to hope the Cultists won't get too far.”

“Just one quick search Twi!”

“No Rainbow! The Stone Heart Cultists want Red Wood for some reason and once the cultists realize they outnumber us, they’ll be back. Besides, we have to get Red Wood to a doctor, look at all those wounds!” Twilight pointed hoof at Parker’s back.

Parker turned his head and was surprised at just how beaten up his back was. The excitement and adrenalin had made him forget his injuries for a few minutes.

Twilight told her multi colored friend, “Don’t go far, but find us something these two can fit on for the trip back. If there’s no wagons around, you’ll have to fetch us a small cloud and we’ll use a cloud walking spell.”

Twilight came over to Red Wood, and using her magic started cleaning out and closing his wounds. “I know the basic first aid spells, but it’s not my specialty, you’ll need to see a trained doctor for some of these larger gashes.” She told him. When the worse of the bleeding had stopped, and the larger wounds taped up, she added, “We may have gotten distracted, but you’re going to explain to me what you meant by ‘spy’”

Parker started to speak, but Twilight cut him off. “Not now! After we get out of here, I’m not sure how deep the cultists are into this woods and I don’t think we want them to overhear whatever you have to say.”

“Will this do Twi?” Rainbow called as she pulled a small git, a two wheeled wagon from the side of the Major’s house.

“Thanks Rainbow!” Twilight smiled and gave the wagon a shot of her magic, it floated a few inches off the ground. “Everyone get on board.”

With some reluctance Parker climbed into the little wagon and helped Banyan up. There was no real seat, but the floorboard had a weathered cushion and there was enough room for two ponies sit on their hunches.

Twilight adjusted the tack on the git, so Rainbow and her both had room to extend their wings before the junior Alicorn and Pegasus hitched themselves up.

“Hang on to your saddles! Your flying the Rainbow Express!” Rainbow called out loudly, then more quietly nodded towards Twilight “Try to keep up this time Twi.”

“I’ll try Rainbow, but no more Rainbooms!” Twilight told the Pegasus.

Parker asked, “Rainboom? You both can do rainbooms?”

Rainbow laughed, “Twilight doing a Rainboom! That’s rich! No way can princess egghead do a rainboom on her own! But I did one earlier and pulled twilight along, or we would have been here way too late! I would have taken the whole guard flight too, but they all chickened out!”

“Rainbow, you can’t pull that many Pegasus along in a Rainboom! You barely could get me though.” Twilight objected.

“Could to!” Rainbow objected. “Just had to keep things cool with the guys!”

Parker let his mind wander as the two friends started arguing over how much a show off Rainbow was or wasn't, and turned to Banyan who was looking over the side of the wagon, eyes wide. “First time flying?” He asked. Banyan nodded to him, looking again at the landscape below.

Parker also looked around a bit, though all he could see was miles of unspoiled forest, there were no visible roads or buildings. They were too far from any city to see any sign of civilization, even from this height. Tiredness started overtaking him, the high from the adrenaline was quickly turning into a crash.

Not seeing a reason to stay awake and seeing as a good excuses to avoid any more unwanted questions, he let himself relax and started to drift off to sleep.

As sleep first started taking over, and he was about half way between awake and asleep, he found himself envisioning a large empty white room, the only thing in the room was a standing mirror. In that mirror he saw his reflection and took a moment to examine his new body.

“I got yellow eyes?” He thought to himself, “Wait, I haven’t seen a mirror since I awoke, how do I know I have yellow eyes? Wish the Medic AI was here, it could explain things better.”

Before he could think of anything else, his reflection seemed to startle and moved on it own reaching out to Parker, “Who are you?” it asked.

It was a measure of how tired Parker was, as this strange behavior didn't waken him, nor did the dream state last long, he settled down deeper into a dreamless stupor without answering his strange reflection.

Back behind them, many miles now, the Leader of the Cultists, stepped out of the bushes and back into the original clearing. He bucked the air several times, and swore like sailor pony. “Drat that fool!” He yelled out, “How could the Visitor be so uncooperative! The Oracle was clear! I know the oracle spell works, it’s always works!”

He walked back over the site of his failure several times, he couldn't stay here long, once he spotted the Alicorn and that rainbow feathered obscenity, he knew he couldn't fight them directly. Not with his current group of dolts. The Visitor was going to give him the edge, the power to confront the Alicorns, demand his rightful place of power. Now the Visitor running off with that feathered monster and the Alicorn, probably ‘grateful’ for being ‘rescued’, it was so unfair!

On his third ranting pass through the clearing, the leader noticed the glowing red embers on the ground. They were in the outline of a pony laying on the ground.

Curious he picked up a pinch of the dust with his magic. As he lifted it up, it changed color from dull red to a glowing blue.

“Whoa there!” That was the same color light as the ‘waterfall of light’ was there still some magic in it? Could he somehow use it? He lifted more of the dust up with his magic and more and more of it started to glow brightly.

“Strange it reacts to magic” he said out loud.

“Can I help you?” A voice asked out of the air.

“Who said that?” The Leader asked, surprised.

“I did.” A ghostly head started to form in the air in front of the Leader. “I appears you have recharged my power store. I am a medical unit assigned to …”

The face seemed frozen for several seconds, before reanimating. “I appear to have sustained some damage, I can’t find my mission files. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing here.”

The Leader asked “Where did you come from?”

Again the face seemed confused and froze, “I have only partial records left, I came from somewhere else, I was here to help someone, but I can’t recall who. I suppose you can call me a visitor from another world. I was injured and lost and you saved me. I am a Doctor perhaps I can help you?”

The Leader blinked several times then broke into a smile, “So you’re the Visitor? I am very glad to meet you, my name is Rock Charmer and I think you and I will do great things together.”

Talking to myself

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash where flying back to Fillydelphia, pulling the small git holding Red Wood and his son. Twilight was fretting about leaving the Stone Heart cultists back in Coltsdale without a real clue about what they were trying to do. She knew Princesses Celestia was worried and that was reason enough to rush off on this rescue mission, but the full story was still a mystery to her. Rainbow Dash was equally concerned and was much more direct in her questions.

“So now that we got them, what the hay, is so special about these two?” Rainbow asked Twilight.

Twilight whispered back, “I don’t really know, I don’t sense anything unusual about either of their magic. Red Wood is supposed to be a craftspony of some skill, his magic strength should be about the same as Rarities, but during that fight, he didn't even try to levitate a pebble or put up even a basic shield.”

Just then she was interrupted by a loud ‘Snnorkkkaaaa’ both winged ponies were jostled by surprise. The whole cart was rattled and jerked about for a moment as they regained their sync.

Turning her neck to look back, Rainbow Dash said with a smirk, “Sorry folk, a little unexpected turbulence! But you gotta expect that when flying the awesome skies with the one and only Rainbow Dash!”

Banyan’s eyes were wide and scared looking, having been jostled out of his funk from the sudden motion. He calmed down a bit, when Rainbow winked at him. Parker on the other hand was fast asleep and responded to Rainbow’s comment with another loud ‘Snnorkkaa’ snore.

“Your pop’s a sound sleeper, kid?” Rainbow asked Banyan.

Banyan shook his head, “No, he always catches me if I get up at night and try to sneak an extra cookie. I.. I'm not sure he’s really alright.”

Twilight joined their conversation, “Must have been some day for you. With all those scary ponies around.”

“No they weren't so scary, at least not as scary as the ghost.” Banyan told them.

“ghost? We didn't see any ghost!” Rainbow replied.

“Rainbow, there’s no such things as ghosts, you know that!” Twilight told her. Then turning back to Banyan, “What did you see?”

Banyan closed his eyes, he wasn't sure he wanted to remember, “Daddy was dead and it healed him.” He answered hoping she’d drop it.

“Dead!” Rainbow looked at Twilight questioningly.

Twilight tried to sound reassuring, “I know the fight was scary, and your father got a number of cuts on his back, but he’s not going to die, the cuts are not that bad.”

Banyan sighed, why didn't she understand? “No that fight was later, he died before when the bad pony stabbed him and ran away. There was a lot of blood and then the ghost told me he was dead but he was going to heal him.”

Twilight shook her head at Rainbow, “Can’t be right, no magic can bring the dead back to life.”

Rainbow asked Banyan, “Come on kid, why would the bad pony run away if he already stabbed your pop?”

Banyan told her, “I was hiding in the bushes, and I heard them talk for a long time about somepony they called the Traveler and the Visitor, the bad pony said something about my daddy having to leave his body so the Visitor can come. Then he stabbed daddy in the chest.”

Twilight started to frown, “Wait “leave his body” you're talking about possession, that’s one of the most controversial schools of magic, even the cultists wouldn't dare? Would they?”

Rainbow eyed the sleeping body or Red Wood, “We better keep an eye on this one Twi.”

Twilight nodded, “Agreed Rainbow Dash, though if he is the victim of possession, he not trying to hide it, he basically volunteered the information when we asked. I definitely want to talk to him more when we land.”

“Do you think my daddy still in there?” Banyan asked, pointing to the sleeping Red Wood. “The ghost said he would try to save my daddy when I asked.”

Twilight told the colt, “Banyan, you’re going to have to tell me everything that happened with that ghost. If its anything like magic possession I've read about, it should be reversible, but we’ll probably need Princess Celestia’s help.”

So Banyan tried to tell Twilight everything he could remember about the ghost encounter. He couldn't remember everything word for word, but he was able to give her a general gist of what was said, and she was especially interesting in how the ‘ghost’ seemed willing to sacrifice itself in an attempt to rescue Banyan’s father.

During this whole conversation Red Wood/Parker slept and as the hours rolled past, Twilight started to wonder why his sleep seemed unnaturally deep. She and Rainbow pulled the cart onto a small cloud and tried to shake Red Wood awake, and even then all he did was snore.

“Some spell keeping him asleep!” She told the others, “We need to get him to the hospital in Fillydelphia right away. Rainbow if you have another Rainboom in you, this might be time to try it out.”

Rainbow frowned at that, “Sorry Twi, I can’t do a Rainboom pulling a cart. Too much drag. But lets take off the extra weight like the cart wheels, I can get us there in two shakes of ponies tail. Just try to keep up, OK?”

“Right Rainbow” Twilight smiled.

Meanwhile deep inside Red Wood/Parker’s head, a different conversation was going on.

Parker had at first fell into a deep dreamless sleep, but after a while the natural patterns of sleep started to move him to a lighter more dream filled state, there he found himself once again in the mysterious white room he had briefly passed through.

This time, he was not as exhausted by events, so his mind was sharper and able to realize that this place was not normal. Everything in the room was white on white, but it had sense of solidness that a normal dream construct would lack. The main feature of the room was the standing mirror he had noticed the first time, but there also was some tables and chairs scattered at the edges of the room. On one of these tables Parker spotted a generic brand-less data pad.

Parker was becoming aware that he was in some sort of sleep state, a very realistic lucid dream, so he wondered if the data pad was usable or just a prop for the dream.

He was about reach for it, when from the corner of his eye he spotted movement in the mirror. Remembering the strange behavior of his reflection before, Parker turned to the mirror and looked at the strange pony in it.

“Your back!” the reflection exclaimed.

“What’s going on here?” Parker asked, none of this was in the plan.

“I don’t know” the reflection replied, “where are we?”

“I’m dreaming. You have to be part of my dream, but this is strange.” Parker told the reflection.

“Your dream? I’m not a dream I’m real! What happened to those cultists? Where’s Banyan?” The reflection asked urgently.

“Who are you?” Parker asked, already suspecting the answer, but not quite ready to accept it.

“Me? I’m Red Wood, I own a shop in Coltsdale.” Red Wood answered, but then turned his head to the side as if trying to get a better look at Parker. “You look a lot like me. Are you one of the guards Princess Luna was sending?”

“Princess Luna? Guard? No, no this is not right! You're not supposed to be here! The Doctor really messed up.” Parker sat on his haunches and stared at his mirror opposite.

“Come on! Please you have to tell me, where is my son! How come I’m trapped in here?” Red Wood pleaded.

Parker sighed, “Red Wood, what’s the last thing you remember?”

Red Wood thought for a moment, then he remembered the cult leader and his knife. “I think I was stabbed by one of those cultists that Luna warned me about. I must have passed out. How did you find me?”

“Luna warned you? Princess Luna? How?” Parker shook his head, “OK, think, we need to start at the beginning.”

“Princess Luna came to me in a dream and warned me that the Stone Heart cult was going after me. Something about them killing my wife ten years ago, except they didn't kill her.”

Parker saw Red Woods face fall into an expression of such pain that he reach out to the other pony, but the glass in the mirror was solid and he could only watch as Red Wood started to silently cry. “The cult did something to her, they cut off her horn! I didn't know! I didn't know! And now they got Banyan and I’m hurt and stuck inside this place. I can’t help him either can I?”

Parker felt helpless in the face of Red Woods grief. “I’m sorry, I don’t know much about what’s going on yet, but I can tell you that Banyan’s safe, he’s with Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, there taking us to fillydelphia.”

Red Woods looked up with hope, “Who? Twilight Sparkle? Isn't that the new Princess? A princesses came to help us?”

Parker thought out loud, “You said Princess Luna somehow knew about the cult? She must have been the one to send Twilight.”

“What about you, who are you and why do you look like me?”

“That’s a long story, just say that due to a mix-up, you and I are right now sort of glued together. My name is Stewart Parker, and it appears I’m occupying your body.”

Red Wood was flabbergasted, “My body! What? How can you be in my body! I'ts mine! And what kind of name is ‘Stewart Parker’ that doesn't sound equine!”

“For now we seem to be stuck together, and I don’t yet understand why, the Doctor who healed your, now our, body was supposed to stick around and tell me what’s going on, but it disappeared. Leaving us both in the dark.” Parker really didn't want to go into more detail with Red Wood, what was he going to say? Red Wood should have been erased completely, not hanging around in Parker’s dreams.

“What now then? How come were stuck in this room? Where is here?” Red Wood asked.

Parker thought about that for a moment, “I think this room is a mental construct probably left here by the Medic, it’s too stable and solid to be part of a dream, but I got here by falling asleep. So here is at least partly a dream space. As for my name, it a normal one from where I come from, I’m from outside equestria.” Parker decided on not telling Red Wood the full story of him being a different species, “How long have you been in here?”

Red Wood paced around on his side of the mirror, “Its been hours, but I don’t know how long. If this is a dream, its more like a nightmare. I wish I could leave, but there's no doors or windows. You said twilight Sparkle was there, helping Banyan, do you think you can talk to her? Perhaps she can split us up?“

Parker shook his head, “I don’t know, unless she has a way to magic up a new body, and right now we have two minds and one body. She’ll be grilling me with questions when I wake up. Not sure how many I’ll be able to answer. Things are really messed up now.”

Suddenly there was a shaking and both ponies fell to their respective floors.

Parker said “I think the real world starting to break though, I’ll probably wake up soon.”

Even as he said this the whiteness of the room grew brighter and brighter, soon it was glaring bright and the room was washed out. “Here I go!” Parker thought to himself.

Outside in the ‘real’ world, a nurse was just tucking Parker/Red Wood into a clinic bed. The doctor on duty had inspected the unicorn’s back and after complimenting Twilight Sparkle with her first aid work, finished repairing the remaining injuries. He also told the two element of harmony that unusually deep sleep was probably due to blood loss and nothing to worry about, yet. So Twilight and Rainbow had taken Banyan to a waiting room while the nurses finished up with Parker/Red Wood. They were putting him to bed to sleep off the remaining effects of the fight.

Just as his head hit the pillow though, his eyes opened and he startled awake.

“Where am I!” Red Wood saw the nurse, “Please nurse! Where is my son?”

Deep inside the Unicorn’s mind, Parker looked around and found himself still inside the white room. Now the sole occupant.

“Uh Oh, not good.”

Medical Review

Parker looked around, one moment he had been talking to Red Wood, and the next he was alone. The room was just as blank and uninteresting as it had been before. Contemplating what this meant, Parker walked around the space, looking now for clues about it’s nature.

“This is definitely not a dream, the Doctor must have made it, and it was a rush job by the look of it.” Parker mused to himself. He bent closer to one of the few pieces of furniture in the room, a white on white table. He realized that white on white would better be called ‘un textured’ the furniture was made of geometric primitives, a very low rez mesh and the only reason he could even see it at all was the lighting model of this simulation was just smart enough to highlight and contrast edges. At least the image of his own body was at full resolution, but that was probably because the Doctor had to make a full map when rewiring his brain into this body.

He glanced down at his body, then up at the mirror again, this time it was just a reflection and not Red Wood in the mirror. It really was the first chance he had to look himself over since the transport.

“Hmm looks sort of like the show ponies, at least in outline, details are all, well more organic. At bit closer to the uncanny valley than I expected. Eyes are much smaller, larger than human, but not the pie plates from the show.” He looked down at his underbody, “Definitely a male body, didn’t think about that before, but I guess I lucked out. Though don’t really know what the odds were until I learn more, can’t be sure if that gender imbalance seen in the early seasons, apply here as well.”

He looked a bit closer, “OK, that answers one question. Public nudity is definitely a cultural thing, the theories about internal sheaths and the tails providing adequate modesty can’t be right. There is no way I can swish that tail to completely cover that.”

He then looked at his legs and hoofs. He’d been using them, walking and running, by grace of the borrowed instincts. “The legs and hoofs are not really equine like at all. Much too thick compared to earth ponies, fat and extra muscles make the legs thicker, more tube like, with earth equines you see the bone and joints right through the leg hide. These legs are more like the show’s, each joint seems to be ridiculously flexible, no way to lock them either, so I doubt these ponies can sleep standing up. Also they are probably not as fast runners are earth equines. Though I bet they probably could still outrun humans.”

“Hmm, the joints really don’t line up the way earth mammals do. Very different joints, the lower part of the leg is not just an extended finger, that last joint really is more of wrist, I can bend it every which way. Hmm the hoof itself is much more complex than an earth horse, I think I feel tendons going back to the mid leg from there.”

He picked up and looked at the hoof closely. “Ahh, so the frog is much softer and more flexible I have some muscle control and can pull it in and out and bend it. The Doctor mapped it to how I imagine my thumb moves. The hard layer is much thinner, and broken in segments, it is horseshoe shaped but I can squeeze the tips together. I can see why Rarity pricked herself in one of the shows with a needle, most of base is skin, thick and calloused but only the edge is hard keratin.”

Parker experimented a bit and realized the extra muscles and changes to the hoof design allowed him to grip things, the grip itself wasn’t very dexterous, all fine motion had to come from the wrist but it was clear he could hold onto things that could fit between the hoof’s opening. It was a bit strange and limited compared to fingers, but obviously it was sufficient to explain how the ponies had become builders and tool users.

“I’m not sure if earth like evolution is even active here, but on earth, equines are all about speed and running to escape predators, here I guess they learned to throw stones and use club to defend themselves but unlike humans stayed herbivores.”

Again Parker wished again that the Doctor had remained, it was supposed to make all the scientific observations and let Parker manage the goal planning. He turned away from the mirror and spotted another table on the far side of the room, on it was something he had observed when he first arrived in the room but had forgotten about when Red Wood’s reflection had caught his attention. There was a data pad on that table.

Parker walked over to the device and looked it over. Like the furniture, it looked like a rush job, shaped like the antiquated apple Ipads but lacked any branding. Parker let it lay on the table and taped it carefully with his hoof.

Instantly it lit up and showed two question mark icons. There was no sign of any of the other tools or setting controls one would expect on a real data pad. Under the icons were two simple text labels, one read ‘notes’ the other was ‘medical report’.

Parker tapped the one labeled ‘notes’ first. It opened up into a notepad application, it only had save and exit options on its one tiny menu, voice input, but with no options for spell check or formatting, as primitive an app as he had ever seen. But Parker barely noticed this as there was a note for him at the top of the file.

To: Sir
From: Medical Unit.
Subject: Apologies.

Sir Parker,

As I’m sure you are aware by now, our mission has become compromised. I found myself unable to complete my original instructions according to the mission guidelines, do to conflicts with my ‘do no harm’ directive.

Looking back at my log, I can see where I made a fatal mistake, I saw the presence of a convenient dead body, just a few meters from our entry portal, as a lucky coincidence and started the repair and transfer process before assuring that there was no one with legal claim to the body in the area. In addition my range sensors failed to detect a young cult who appears to be a direct relative to the deceased in the area, why this failed will need to be investigated for future missions, but for now we must deal with the current situation.

The Pony identified as ‘Banyan’ was the only responding authorized party, and gave me instructions to ‘save his father’, the data link back through the portal has proven unusable and I was unable to get an overriding instruction, so I compromised.

I have tried to follow my conflicting orders as best as I can. Unfortunately my resources were limited and I had to consume all available nano devices in order to complete this task. As of now, your brain image and the subject known as ‘Red Wood’ are sharing the same bio hardware. I have put in some protection layers so your two minds will not become mixed. Due to the nature of biological neural nets this separation is not perfect and you will experience some memory leakage. As well, only one of you will be able to operate the physical body at a time. I have rigged up this simulation room for the detached mind to be able to rest in and communicate with the other mind. There should be a functional display device in the middle of the room, with some practice it should allow you to observe and hear the external world. With additional practice you should also be able to send simple emotions and short messages to the other mind though this interface. Longer and more informative communication will only be possible when you are both in early rapid eye movement stages of sleep. You should also be able to switch out which of your two minds have control of the body after each sleep cycle.

I wish I had more time to explain all the details or communicate directly with you, but I already have dangerously exhausted all my spare resources.

Unfortunately along with the medical resources I contained, I also have had to consume all the spare parts that was earmarked for reopening the portal for our return trip to Earth. I do not know how these can be replaced. Unless you can find a way to recharge the energy store in my pool of nanites, I do not see how we will be able to communicate in the future.

Good luck sir, if you find a way to reopen the portal, please send a copy of my medical notes back to Earth, as I do not think I’ll be able to submit the report myself.

Medical Unit, Pony World Penetration Mission.

End of Text

Parker reread the letter twice, then sat on the floor quietly, not letting himself think. He had assumed if things failed, he’d be, well just dead, not alive and trapped. He also wasn’t sure how he felt about the Doctor, it clearly had given it ‘all’ for his sake, and if the Doctor had been human it would have been a praise worthy self sacrifice, but on the other hand the whole problem was due to the Doctor’s limited ability to deal with conflicting instructions. If it was a medical or neurological question, the Doctor was a super genius, but everything else and he was just a tad more capable than a toddler.

This was a disaster of the worst type, total failure had of course been considered, but that just assumed that the nanites wouldn’t work in the alternative physics of this world, the idea that the nanites would work and his mind uploaded successfully but unable to return home, was just skimmed over as too unlikely. Now Parker considered, was there a chance of rescue? Not really, at least not soon. It wasn’t as if they would be worried about him, they had a copy of his memories in storage, and could clone a new brain for his human body at anytime. Once the mission is declared a failure, that’s exactly what they’ll do. Back on earth he’ll wake up, with no memories of what happened here and no idea that he was awake and aware on this side. Though they’ll hold that off as long as the budget lets them. They wouldn’t expect the Doctor to find a suitable morgue or subject for a month or more. But then they were expecting him to create a beacon to signal and aid them. With out nanties to build one they will have to do all the very expensive work of re-opening the portal from earth side. That meant a full budget cycle, the energy cost and money was tight, there’s a real chance that a rescue would never be attempted.

After a few minutes of self pity, Parker glanced at the Doctor’s medical log, most of it was written in a sort of code that other medical AI’s would understand, but there was periodic summary headers that were more human readable. No that helped him much, he really didn’t care about differences in blood chemistry and oddities in the ponies gallbladders. A few things did stand out as curious but only in the most general sense of the word.

Seems the Doctor was convinced the Ponies DNA showed signs of it being engineered, some repeating patterns in the ‘junk DNA’ seemed suspect. Also being that the Doctor’s specialty was neurologica it had long notes and comments about how the brain seemed to fuse with the base of the unicorn horn, speculating on how the horn was acting as an antenna mostly for transiting electrical waves. The Doctor had no explanation how these waves would turn into the magical effects associated with Unicorns. It would take many times the resources than the Doctor possesed to even propose experiments on that subject. Parker wondered briefly about that, he of course, now had a horn, but no idea how to use it.

In the very last few chapters of the Doctor’s notes, there was some comments about the mapping of two minds inside the same brain, and how he created the ‘waiting room’ he was currently in. Mixed in with the technical jumbo was a handful of keywords and commands available to the control the ‘mirror’ and to send short messages through to Red Wood.

Looking back at the mirror Parker considered, “What am I going to tell him? Congratulations you were supposed to be dead, but now that you're alive, you got a permanent live in roommate? Right, he’ll go running off for an exorcism and being that magic works here, it might succeed. Worse part is, I’m not sure he’d be in the wrong for that.”

Parker kept staring at the mirror, uncertain what to do next.

Meet by the train-station.

About ten city blocks away from the Fillidelpha's Penstable Hospital was the new(ish) B&S Penstable train-station. As a urban city station it was the terminal train station for several different major long distance train lines, as for example to Manehatten and Baltimare but also a major hub for the extensive local trolley and subway service that served the city of Fillidelpha.

“Whoa Nellie!” Applejack exclaimed “Have you ever seen such a mess of train tracks!”

“Indeed Applejack,” Rarity commented, “These Fillidelpha platforms are way too long and far too few exit ramps, they would learn a thing or two from the station in Manehatten.”

“But Rarity, don’t they call the big train station in Manehatten, Penstable as well? Isn't it the twin of this one?” Fluttershy asked in a very tiny voice. “I mean I’m sure the Mainhatten station is nice.”

“Oh but the Manhatten station just is host to so much more class, dear. All the glamorous ponies going to and through, so busy making their mark!” Rarity replied. “Sometimes I wish I spent more time in the hustle and bustle of the city that never sleeps. Don’t get me wrong girls, Fillidelphia does have its charms, but OH MY CELESITA WHAT IS THAT DEAR WEARING!”

By this point they had all made it to the street level and Rarity was pointing as a bunch of farm ponies dressed somewhat oddly, the mares in long dresses and the stallions in tight black and white work clothing, very plain. Unlike most ponies who wore clothing only for decoration, entertainment and a status symbol, these ponies dresses were way too simple and unadorned. Rarities saw the fashion not just as a ugly, but an assault on fashion.

“No no no!” She started walking towards the group, so far her outburst having gone unnoticed, “This will simply not do! I must give these dears some fashion advice, this is an emergency!”

But Rarity was stopped by a sudden attack of Pink. Pink pony to be precise. “Please Rarity! Just leave them alone, you’ll make them upset!” Pinkie Pie said with surprising earnestness. “And then they be all mopey and not smile, well actually they don’t smile that often, but still please don’t give them a reason to not smile more!”

Rarity looked around Pinkie who was trying to block her view, but after failing twice, she sighed “Yes of course dear, we're here for Twilight and Rainbow Dash, we mustn't forget our mission for the Princess., but I say, if later opportunity allows, I must give them some fashion pointers! For the good of all Equestria!” She gave the group one last dainful look and turned to join her other friends.

When Rarity had moved on, Pinkie approached the oddly dressed group and spoke to them in a strange language that sounded like a flavor of Dansk Germane with a rustic tang. One of the older stallions gave her an enthusiastic greeting, which for him meant he almost smiled. Two of the younger fillies walked up to Pinkie and playfully hugged her, but they were immediately taken away by the eldest mare, who gave Pinkie a nasty look and turned her back on the Pink Pony before walking away. The older stallion gave Pinkie a VERY subtle apologetic look and followed his wife and daughters away from the Pink Pony.

With a slightly wistful smile Pinkie whispered “That OK Uncle Harzburgite, you’re not supposed to talk to me.” Pinkie shook her mane which had got a little flat, to puff it back up and shaking off the any gloomy thoughts she bounced off to follow her friends.

They reached the street, where the midday traffic of pony drawn carts and wagons, along with the odd cow and donkey made it a scene of organized chaos.

“Spike, Sugarcube you have any idea on how to find Twilight and Rainbow in all this big city mess.” Applejack asked Spike who was sitting on her back looking side to side.

Spike made a big show to looking at a big clock on a poll then at the sun and then licking a claw finger to test the direction the wind was blowing. “If my calculations are correct, it is directly south!”

“You read that sign over there which says hospital this way, didn't you” Applejack dead panned.

Spike looked guilty but only said, “A dragon never tells”

“Oh gosh Spike! That’s great! My Pinkie sense says she is south also, but it also says that we have to get some pretzels and they are to the west, and perhaps some good cheese sandwiches but they’re too far to the south east, so we’ll have to go past Twilight to get the fried cheese sandwiches. Wait do you think we should get the pretzels then the sandwiches then go to Twilight? Or should we get Twilight and get the Pretzels? No then we need to go back past the Hospital get the sandwiches, and we need to get the sandwiches before we go to the Hospital because everyone knows the Hospital food is not a...

"Just Hold your horses Pinkie!" Applejack interrupted, "let's not bother with the small stuff, and go find Twilight before even thinking of food."

“Excuse me girls.” Whispered Fluttershy, but no one was listening.

Rarity walked to the nearest corner and held up a hoof, waving at a passing cab. “Cabby Oh Cabby!”

“What are you doing Rarity?” Applejack asked.

Rarity replied while keeping her eyes on the yellow cabs speeding by, “What does it look like dear? I’m hailing a cab.”

“It only a few blocks, it be faster to walk.”

“Excused me please, I think these fellows here are, uhh oh never mind.!” Fluttershy said again, and was again unnoticed.

Pinkie bounced over to the nearest cab and stood in front of it, grabbing the uniformed pony pulling the cab in a hug.

“Hay what’s the deal!”, the surprised cab driver asked crossly. “I already have a fair! Move it!”

Pinkie ignored the driver and called over the Rarity, “I caught a cab, but what I do with it?”

“Oh dear!” Rarity stepped in front of Pinkie, “Please let the nice driver go, Pinkie.”

She continued to apologize as the cab driver pulled his cart away grumbling about foolish pink ponies.

Meanwhile Pinkie just waved goodbye happily to the driver and his passengers. “Next time it’s be your turn to be IT.” She called to them.

“Oh girls, perhaps we just need to ask these uhhh” Fluttershy tried again.

“ATTENTION!” A stallion’s voice called out from behind the group.

Everypony turned to see a troop of royal guards stepping out from behind them. It was a company of armored Pegasus, all of them looking very tired and frazzled as if they had been up all night and would benefit from several gallons of coffee each.

“Or we could just ask them.” Fluttershy squeaked.

The leader of Pegasus guards ignored most of the mares, but walked straight to Applejack, or more precisely to Spike who was still on Applejack’s back.

“You are Sir Spike? First Assistant to the Princess Twilight Sparkle?” he asked, but it wasn't much of a question, how many dragons would be hanging around ponies in all of Equestria?

Spike coughed a bit nervously, trying to think if there was any reason he would be in trouble with the guards but could not think if any, unless it was that time with the donuts and the … oh by that was so long ago, hardly anyone in the castle would remember the great doughnut raid when Twilight was still a filly. Nervously he answered “Yes? What can I do for you sirs?”

“I’m lieutenant Sharp Wing, I have news for the Princess but other than telling us she would be in Fillydelphia, she neglected to inform us where she would be staying. Can you assist us, the matter is of some urgency.”

“But of course Lieutenant,” Rarity answered for Spike, “We are heading to meet Princess Twilight at the Hospital right now, perhaps your guards would be willing to escort us through this dreadful city traffic? We would be most grateful.” Rarity punctuated her request with some carefully timed eyelid flutters.

Sharp Wing just looked over at Rarity with tired eyes. Her efforts at flirting seemed to be completely wasted on the Pegasus, but he answered smoothly, “If it will get a message to the Princess faster, I’ll carry you over their myself.”

Turning to his troops, none of which seemed to have much energy about them, “Sargent Cool Breeze lead the Second and Third Wings, you head down to the port and get some shuteye. First Wing follow me and these ladies to the Princess.”

Applejack looked over the tired troops, and from the frown she wore she didn't like what she saw. “Lieutenant?” She asked “I seems to me you have a piece of bad news to give Twilight, What got your feathers in such a tinny?”

The Lieutenant gave the farm pony a cold look. “I’m not at liberty to talk about it, mam.”

But even as Sharp Wing was refusing to answer Applejack, in the crowd of troopers, some pony whispered, just loud enough to be heard, without giving away which pony spoke. The whisper was, “They’re all dead, the whole town’s destroyed, Coltsdale is gone.”

Sharp Wing spun around to spot the offender, but none of the exhausted Pegasus stepped forward. After a long and fruitless stare-down, he turned to the shocked mares. “Please Mams, lead the way.”

A quite string of ponies soon waded through the crowd, most of the ponies they passed unaware of the burden they carried.

Author's Note

A bit of headcanon here, rumor says that there'll be an episode later this year with Pinkie's sister will play a roll. So the show canon will probably show that Pinkie maintains some sort of relationship with her family.
Until that show breaks it, if it does, I have the headcanon that her family is the pony equivalent of Amish. So since they are in fillydelphia which is not far from Lancaster County and the heart of PA Dutch Amish I figure be 'fun' to have her run into some family and show that she's being 'shunned' which is a big deal in Amish groups. Of course this is an uncles family not her immediate family, so it could be that not all her family practices 'shunning.'

Fates unfair.

Twilight Sparkle was in the Hallway of the hospital ward, being comforted by Rainbow Dash. They both had been kicked out of the hospital room, when a small army of doctors nurses had flooded in responding to the volume of yelling and screaming coming from the official patient.

As soon as the first doctor arrived all he saw was a Unicorn of unknown power having a fit and screaming with magical enchanted volume at his nurse and visitors. In a hospital that regularly treated ailing unicorns, there was a protocol to follow and kicking visitors out was just step one of that procedure, no matter if the visitor was an Alicorn Princess, screaming nonsense about the patient being a male Princess Luna.

Step two was a code Magic cart that was rushed into the room by a team of nurses and followed by three of the burliest Earth Pony guards wearing grade echotophillic magic reflective armor. On the cart was already prepped tranquilizer needles, a charged hornlock and extoproto reflective tape.

Twilight watched the cart beings pushed into the room with an expression of horror, "Rainbow, we have to stop them, they can't possible try to use that stuff on the princess. Luna won't be able to lower the moon if she has a horn lock or is drugged! It will be all my fault!" Twilight was clearly in full manic mode.

"Twilight," Rainbow replied, "I don't think lowering the moon is the biggest problem the Princess has right now, I'm more worried about what will happen, if that medical stuff doesn't work! I haven't seen Luna this mad since Night Mare night a few years ago in Ponyville."

"I need to contact Celestia!" Twilight replied, "but Spike's not here and there no way she could get here in time!"

"In time for what?" Rainbow asked.

Suddenly the first doctor was thrown out of the hospital room, smashing through the wooden door with a flying crash. He landed at the unicorn and Pegasus’s hooves, rolling his eyes in surprise.

Twilight pointed at the crashing doctor, even as they were dodging shards of broken door frame. "In time to prevent 'that'" she said.

A moment later there was renewed yelling from the room "How dare you attempt to poke your princess with that thing! We will have the royal guards throw you in the dungeon for your impunity!" Standing on the bed, as regally as possible, surrounded by a swirl of floating blankets and bedding, was Luna Princess of the night, except it was Red Wood’s body doing the shouting and no one but the two friends in the hall believed the Princess was present.

"What's going on here!" A new voice yelled.

A crowd of familiar ponies and their Pegasus guards came stamping(and one case, hopping) down the hall.

The call had come from a very angry Storm Wing, and he was in no mood for any gruff.

A nurse tried to intercept him, "I'm sorry sir, but you can't come this way there is a dangerous unicorn having a fit in there, and it's too dangerous for non professionals."

Storm Wing gave the nurse an "are you serious" look, then pressed on past her. "You are going to turn away a wing of royal guards, while leaving a Princess of Equestria just standing there?" He said with a roar of anger.

Twilight ran forward, "Lutentiunt! You gotta help me get in there! They don't understand and might hurt Princess Luna!"

Storm Wing was in mid bow to Princess Twilight when he halted himself, "Princess Luna here as we'll your majesty? In trouble!" He didn't wait for clarification and bounded off towards the hospital room door, currently being guarded by two burly earth ponies. Seeing the angry guard flying towards them, the two orderlies, wasn't sure what to do, so they stood their ground and braced themselves for impact. It didn't help much, the Pegasus guard flipped in midair and put all his forward momentum into a spectacular buck. The two orderlies, who individually outweighed Storm Wing by half, were knocked aside like pins at a bowling alley.

There wasn't much but splinters of the door left already, so Storm Wing flung himself though the gap, and spin around mid air looking for more targets. But there weren't any.

The only pony still standing was Red Wood, all the remaining doctors and nurses huddling low to the ground to avoid flying objects. The emergency cart was in pieces and bits of flotsam was floating in a magic aura.

"Ahh guard, you have come to our call, good! But it appears I was able to subdue my attackers on my own, though I must admit I am feeling surprisingly weak, it is as if much of my magic is being blocked. We must throw these criminals into the dungeon forthwith, then question them, to discover what evil spell they have cast on us!"

Storm Wing looked at Red Wood in shock, not able to grasp what he was seeing. Before he could formulate a response a string of other ponies stepped over the door wreckage and joined them.

The first of the newcomer ponies to speak was Rarity, "oh dear, what a dreadful mess!" She commented, looking around the scattered room contents.

Fluttershy's reaction was surprisingly forceful, for her, she gave everypony a cross look and immediately started to give aid to the nearest of the injured medical staff. Making tut tut noises, but not quite looking up at Red Wood.

Twilight slunked in behind most of her friends, but was the first Luna directly addressed. “Princess Twilight! Explain this all to us! We ehh I mean, I am feeling very out of sorts!”

Twilight raised her head as if to look at Red Wood’s body, but kept her eyes closed unable to look Luna in the eye while a wild mix of shame, fear and regret was on her face. “I’m sorry Princess this is all my fault, I don’t know what went wrong!”
Red Wood/Luna looked even more confused “Wrong? Me being transported to this strange place is what’s wrong, Pray thee explain thyself!”

At this point Pinkie bounced up and said rapidly “Oh boy oh boy! The Princess is a stallion now! But Alicorn's are princesses,so she can’t still be a princess,but then he’s not an Alicorn,so I guess she can still be a prince. Are you sad about not being a Princess,we have to have a party to cheer you up! Oh! is that like a uhh a coronation party? But In Reverse? An anti-coronationparty! What do you serve at an anti-coronation party? Oh cake of course! Right Cake’s always good! Hay! Luna,do you want some more cake now? I’m hungry!”

Red Wood/Luna’s jaw just dropped, it wasn't clear exactly what Pinkie was going on about, but some part of her knew that it was important, if only she could put the pieces together. She did manage to say “Huh?!” in reply, but so did everyone else in hearing.

Rainbow Dash, hovered over Pinkie and shook her head, then dashing down to the grown where the nightstand had fallen over, she reached in an pulled from the broken shelf a hand mirror. It was still intact, and handed it to Luna’s magic. “Princess, you're not exactly looking like yourself right now.”

Luna looked into the hand mirror. At first she just looked at the image in the reflection with confusion, then gasped. “My mane!” She looked down at her extended foreleg, “My coat!” She turned to look at her back. “My Wings are gone!” Then lastly she looked down between her legs, “MY ahhh! That’s NOT MINE!”
She fell down into the bed she had been standing over, and shook in shock. Whimpers escaping from his/her muzzle.

Applejack turned to Twilight who was still trembling and whispering apologies. “What the hay happened here Twilight? Is that some mad pony who just thinks he’s the Princess or did Luna somehow get stallion-afied?”

“I…” Twilight started to answer, when Luna suddenly stopped her/his crying.

Standing backup, this time on the floor, Red Wood/Luna was forcefully gaining control of his emotions. “No matter what I look like, I am still me, a Princess ehh Prince or Equestria!” she declared loudly.

Twilight Sparkle started to stutter a response, “Princess, I think I over loaded the EKG when you must ahh? Wait? What WHERE you doing in Red Wood’s head?”

“Neigh, Princess Twilight, this was not your fault, at least not in the main. It was I, by putting myself in an unknown situation I created the opportunity for this accident. Which as I now realize was due to a conflict of different magics, if I now understand it correctly, is should be easily reversible.”

“Reversible? You know what happened?” Twilight asked.

“I admit I was surprised by this sudden transformation, but I had just been in conversation with one who was also trapped, like myself, in this very odd condition. Before my unexpected arrival here, I was in deep conversation with an alien creature named Parker and he had just explained to me how he and the Equestrian unicorn Red Wood were trapped in the same body and due to alien magic were swapping control each waking and sleep cycle. With the next sleep cycle I should be able to return to my dream walking spell and regain my correct body.”

Storm Wing now stood, “Am I to understand that this alien may have swapped bodies with you? Is there now an alien in the Canterlot Castle, wearing the Princess Luna’s body? I MUST report this at once! What a horrible day! First Coltsdale now this!”

At this mention of Coltsdale, several pairs of eyes suddenly swung towards Storm Wing and nearly at the same time Princess Twilight and Princess Luna both said.

“Coltsdale! What happened in Coltsdale?”

Twilight added “Where you able to find any of the citizens? Where they alright?”

Luna nodded “Indeed, do not let this trivial inconvenience to my person hold your tongue.”

Storm Wing looked back and forth between the two royals and bowed his head low, his body language already carrying much of the message as Twilight's face fell and grew pale. “Your Majesties, before I answer, can we secure this room, I do not think this is a matter for all ears.”

Red Wood/Luna replied, “Indeed, citizens, healers clear this room, only those directly involved should remain and Storm Wing post your guards so none may approach within earshot of the door.”

There was some grumbling but all the doctors and nurses left, Applejack and Fluttershy turned to join them, but a gesture from Twilight and they remained, though Fluttershy in particular looked extra nervous. Twilight looked deeply at her butter colored friend and said, “Fluttershy there is a young colt waiting near the nurses station, he’s Red Wood’s son and I think he’s very scared perhaps you take Spike and go talk to him? And Pinkie you too, he really needs to be cheered up.”
Spike looked back glumly a few times, but followed Fluttershy as she quickly skipped out of the room, glad for a chance to get away from bad news, but Pinkie stayed back.

“Oh! I’d love to cheer Red Wood’s colt up! But my Pinkie sense is telling me that I need to stay here, for now. Don’t worry Twilight, just because you have some really bad news, I’m not going to go all moppy woopy on you. As Grandma Pie told me, bad news is the best time to cheer ponies up!”

Twilight wasn’t going to argue with Pinkie, and as the room was now secure, she nodded to Storm Wing to continue.
At the same time Luna said, “Lieutenant, pray thee continue with your report.”

Storm Wing said, “We were not able to keep up with the Princess Twilight and Rainbow Dash as they rainboomed ahead of us to reach the town before us. We flew as fast as three wing groups of Pegasus have ever flown, but did not succeed in catching up until the Princess and Lady Dash had already been too and then left Coltsdale.’

‘We arrived to find the remains of a field of battle, the ground was heavily torn up and rubble, sticks and stones were scattered like leaves all over the town's main square. After only a few moments of searching we found a body of a Unicorn left in the dirt, it clearly spoke of a battle where both sides withdrew quickly, not taking their dead.”

Rainbow Dash interrupted, “That must have been the town Mayor, we should have stopped to do something for him, but we also needed to get out of there fast.”

Storm Wing nodded, “ I would have been very worried for the Princess had one of my flyers not found Princess Sparkles note pinned to the nearby door frame. We removed the body from the dirt and moved it to the town hall, I’m afraid it was not the only one.”

Twilight let out a small gasp, hearing her fear confirmed. “How many Lutentiunt?”

Storm Wing was working to keeping his face and voice steady, but it was costing him. Equestria was a peaceful kingdom and even royal guards were rarely exposed to much real violence, he had seen only a few dead bodies before, as guards investigated accidents, injuries and the rare domestic dispute, this had been very different. “Sixty seven stallions of adult age, eleven colts, five very young fillies and three aged mares. Based on records in the town hall, I believe the cultists kidnapped all the mares who had come to their cutie marks. We found no sign of where they were taken, or how they were transported. The three mares killed where probably considered too old to travel.”

Soft sobbing filled the room, but no one turned to look as the source, perhaps because pretty much everyone was feeling like joining them.

Luna seemed to recover first, “How did they die, were the bodies marked?” She asked.

“I think most were killed in their sleep. If it wasn't for their horns, there was no sign of major physical injury, a few showed some sign of struggle, but most were found in their beds as if asleep.”

Applejack asked “What this about horns? “

Twilight answered Applejack, “Most of the Coltsdale’s ponies were unicorns. The cult probably felt empowered by their twisted prophecy and saw it as an opportunity for a power grab. They have a technique to drain the magic from unicorn horns, they store it in potions and can cast some very dangerous magic with that power. ”

She turned towards Storm Wing, “Did you find the horns all together, probably in a circle pattern, with symbols carved into them?”

Storm Wing nodded. “Yes. It was on the floor of the largest building. Why did they remove their horns after killing the Stallions?”

Luna replied, “I’m afraid killing the Stallions before removing the horns, is not a kindness that cultists practice. They removed the horns why they were still alive. My sister and I have dealt with this foul cult several times over the last several eons. They leave the horns behind to keep the magic from being drawn back to them.They gain great magical power every time they perform this unholy crime, to do this to so many unicorns at once. Its almost unthinkable the type of power they may now have.”

Rarity looked faint and cried, “The brutes! To cut off a horn, while still alive! What horror!”

Luna nodded, “The reason the bodies probably look unharmed, is they would have been frozen in a spell, both alive and aware, while an enchanted silver saw did the deed. If they are not taken away as slaves, then their hearts would be petrified and turned to stone. It is not a pleasant death.” Luna finished coldly.

Rainbow Dash mumbled, “Stone Heart Cult, that’s where they get their name from, isn't’t it?”

Pinkie stood her ground as each pony looked down at the floor in their own thoughts, her puffy hair deflated to flat bangs, but there was no madness in her eyes, instead with surprising strength she walked slowly to each of her friends and gave them a comforting hug, which broken them out of their revelry. There was a moment of awkwardness when she gave Red Wood/Luna a hung but it passed quickly and when she had finished the rounds of friends they all still felt sad, but it was much more under control. Pinkie though remained glum, she was here to comfort her friends, but also knew it was no time for Pinkie silliness.

Storm Wing continued his report, “We found a total of one hundred and twenty eight horns, which is more than the number of bodies we found, so the extra horns must have been from the mares. After scouting the area and finding no sign of the cult members, and only evidence of their quick departure, I split my forces into groups. One I left to prepare the bodies for transport. They will need to be transported here or Manehatten for proper forensics. Another group is setting up a perimeter and patrols to secure the area. The rest I brought back here to arrange the necessary transport and recovery operations. Plus I want to send out more wings to search for clues where the kidnapped mares were taken.”

Twilight nodded at the Lutentiunt, she tried to talk, her mouth was very dry, “Th.th ack “ she tried again. “Thank you, you did what you could. We’ll have to send out a specialized group to to..” Twilight turned to Luna, “Do we even have any specialists for this kind of disaster?”

Luna nodded, “Yes, they normally are called to help with natural disasters, not pony made ones. It’s been a very long time since an entire pony town has been completely devastated. My sister and I will journey to the site ourselves to offer aid. I would also say offer comfort, but there appears to be no survivors in this terrible crime, other than the one pony whose body I seem to be wearing.”

“And his son.” Rainbow Dash added, “Banyan is the only other survivor.”

“Ah yes, I have heard his name but have not met this colt. This will be a terrible weight on him, the lose of all his friends, we must arrange his transport, along with his father, once this body swapping mess is taken care of, to Canterlot. Both will need much aid and comfort if they are ever to recover from such blows.”

Applejack asked “What about the kidnapped ponies, we need to rescue them, there are still plenty of survivors if we can find them!” The idea of an entire town destroyed really bothered the Apple Family member. It was very close to her heart as her family saw the founding of new settlements part of their duties to Equestria, Ponyville and Appleloosa where just two famous examples. Part of her mind was already figuring out ways to re-establish Coltsdale if the kidnapped victims could be rescued.

Luna solemnly told the apple farmer, “Hold not too much hope for them, in the past when this has come up, kidnapped victims if not rescued right away would soon fall in thrall to the colts brainwashing magic. You will not find them willing to return, and will fight you with the same vigor and dedication as any lifetime member of the colt. Enslaved to their leadership. I do not know of any case of a victim of this sort being rescued or returning to their former lives.”

A new wave of horror washed over the ponies, victims turned into enemy? Brainwashing so effective it could not be reversed? What sort of monster where they facing?

After Storm Wing finished his report, the two Princesses told him to follow through with his plans to organize search parties and relief for the pegasus wings left behind. He left with a sharp salute and quickly led his troops away from the room.

Red Wood/Luna then motioned to Twilight, “Please call back Spike, we will need to consult with my sister.”

Rainbow flew out of the room to get the baby dragon, while Twilight and Luna quietly worked together on a note, which they wrote on paper ripped from one of the doctors forgotten medical forms. When they were finished, Luna handed the dragon the folded paper.

Spike started to open the paper, as Twilight had always allowed him to look over any notes she normally sent to the Celestia. This time Twilight stopped him with her magic and told Spike, “Just send it please, I’ll explain when your older.”
Spike just shrugged and with a blast of green flame, the note was on it’s way.

When this was done, Applejack asked, “Pardon me Princess,” while looking at Luna, “how are ya going to get about into your proper body?”

“Yes darling!” Rarity agreed, “It’s most confusing and unprecedented for a stallion to be a princess. I mean it could spark some interesting fashion opportunities, but all the same, I think everyone would be much more comfortable if the status quo was maintained for decorum sake.”

Luna looked pensive, “According to the alien creature Parker, he believed that both himself and Red Wood are now sharing the same body and brain, and when they both start to fall into the early stages of sleep, there is an opportunity for them to switch who has control of the physical body. My entry in Parker’s dream space, drew me into their curse, when Twilight's overcharge of the EKG triggering the transfer and being that I do have a stronger than average will, my mind was the one drawn into the awakened mind.’

‘I would guess that both Red Wood and Parker are themselves stuck in the sleeping mode until I have fatigued this body sufficiently. I am sure that once properly asleep again, my control of dreams will allow me to separate myself from the Red Wood’s body and return to my own.”

Twilight looked up brightly, “Well then Princess, you should lay down and try to go back to sleep?”

“No, I think not, with the grave news we have been delivered, I could not easily sleep, and I think it’s best I spend my waking time aiding my little ponies prepare for the dread work ahead of them. Besides, the nature of this body, is novel to me, many years ago I had the experience in wearing a non alicorn body, but certainly this is a unique opportunity to see the world from a male perspective. Alas the hard facts of today will prevent me from taking the opportunity to learn much, or else I would suggest we explore the famous fillydelphia saddle street bars and nightclubs. For educational purposes only, of course.” Despite the grim atmosphere, Luna managed to give Twilight a small playful grin.

Author's Note

Please anyone who has an in on some proof readers, please send them my way. I tried following the proof readers group, but got no responses.

Poker hands

This was no simple game, Parker knew the stakes were high and he may as well be playing chess with death from the Seven Seals. But his opponent was unreadable, emotions being held tight behind a flat mask. Yet Parker knew they had chosen this distraction, for that very reason. There was too much to think about and no enough opportunities to act on those thoughts.

All thoughts about anything, or everything else, had to be suppressed, a basic need for sanity demanded this. Parker had no choice, make his opponent concentrate on the here and now, to block out all other thoughts or memories, or else be stuck in suspension, unable to act and unable to avoid the horror of that loss of control.

A hard decision had to be made, Parker looked across the simple table, at his own face, and laid down two playing cards. “Draw two.”

There was a pause, Parker wondered if he had been heard. He was about to repeat himself when Red Wood seemed to wake up and quickly flicked two fresh cards off the deck his way.

Parker fumbled a bit to find an edge on the cards to pick up with his hooves. He noticed that he won himself a second pair with these, but he really wasn't playing the card game to win. He looked at Red Wood and wondered again about what was going on in the Ponies head. There was a hollow feeling in his own stomach, which he wasn't sure about, how much emotional bleed was there between their two minds? Or was he just naturally horrified by the news they had overheard without any deeper meaning?

Parker noticed Red Wood was looking over his shoulder and not at the cards. Parker glanced behind himself and realized what Red Wood was looking at. In the mirror had been an image of the interior of a train car. A private car that less than an hour ago, they had watched Luna board through their shared eyes. But now the image was dark, just the remains of a faint red glow of lantern light through closed lids.

“She’s falling asleep” Red Wood said in flat helpless voice.

“It’s been a long day. For all of us.” Parker agreed, then scrunched his face in self anger, he was trying to avoid this subject.

“Will we see her, or will she just swap with one of us, like before?” Red Wood asked.

“Not sure, but you should sit closer to the mirror now, I think that will make it so you’ll be the one to get control next.” Parker told him.

Red Wood nodded, but then disagreed, “No you should go next, the train’s on it way to Canterlot now, the Princess will want to talk to you first, not me.”

Parker answered, “Maybe, but I think Banyan needs you more now than the Princesses need me.”

“Indeed! Both of you have valid points!” A new voice joined them, and suddenly without any flash or special effects, Luna was there. She was back in her natural dream form, no longer forced to wear the appearance of a male unicorn, her sudden appearance and strong presence knocked both identical stallions off their makeshift chairs.

Red Wood was on his belly, bowing with his head against the ground. Parker felt no strong urge to do the same, so he sat up and nodded his head towards the Princess with a what he hopped was a polite gesture.

Luna urged Red Wood to stand, and gave a small nod back to Parker.

Taking several steps, she looked around. “I see you redecorated.”

The formerly all white room, now was re-sized to be larger, with more simple pieces of furniture, some of which had color, of sorts. It was in no way ‘designer’ but flat white colors were now mixed with sold plastic looking reds, blues and browns. Most notable was the ‘mirror’ which had previously been the main centerpiece of the entire room, was now pushed off against one wall. There were several square bench like chairs in front of it, like seats at a theater.

Parker said, “It not very good, but I found a way to use the macro editor’s file browser in the book reader to edit some simple things.”

Luna gave Parker a long look, “Your words confuse me. I assume you are referring to your alien form of magic?”

Parker gave her a nod.

“I see you have cards now. Is this how you have spent your time?”

Red Wood answered first “Y..Yes, your majesty, I’m sorry if this seems the inappropriate time for games in light of …” Red Wood turned his head, he wasn’t going to let the Princess see him cry.

With a thin smile, “No good citizen, finding something light and distracting to think about, would be a welcome distraction from the heady events of this day.” Luna’s horn glowed and she pulled an extra bench chair from the corner to the card table. “I should consult with my sister as soon as I am able, but first let us leave behind some of the weight of this day. Deal me in please my good ponies.”

Parker gave the Princess a wry look, both he and Red Wood had small pile of chips in front of each of them, so he took a bit from each pile and gave Luna roughly a third of the whole. “Game is basic five card poker, no wilds, no jokers. Red Wood already knew about Poker so I guess it’s the same game on both of our worlds, oh right, on my world the top two cards are Queen and King, but Red Wood tells me you call them the Maid and Princess.”

Luna smiled as she took the deck of cards into her hoofs. “It is interesting that we have the same game on both worlds and they are so similar. About twenty centuries ago we also called the top two cards King and Queen, but I’m not sure about this ‘joker’ you refer to. Is that the knave?” As she was talking, without any sign of magic glow on her horn, Luna easily folded and shuffled the cards like a pro. Despite them being hard and inflexible like small sheets of metal, they were nothing more than simple polygon geometry flats with text labels indicating their value and suites with no color or artwork.

Red Wood gave Parker a nervous look. He wasn't sure if playing against the Princess was a good idea, even if they won,
wouldn't that be a sort of loss?

Luna smirked at the two Stallions expressions, “Do not fear, as Princess of the night my duties have kept me from becoming nothing more than a casual player in such games. Besides I see no way to cash out these chips into real bits.”

They started playing, it seemed all three were surprisingly evenly matched, none were complete novices but despite her fancy hoof shuffling, Luna had a very bad poker face. Both Parker and Red Wood found it easy to read her emotions which ran hot to cold.

After a few quick hands to feel each other out, Luna started directing the conversation away from cards, which was clearly her very poorly disguised motivation for the game.

“Pray good pony, please give me three cards.” She asked Parker, when it was his turn to deal. “You showed no surprised by my statement about the day being a hard one, and you have not asked the questions I was expecting of you. Why is this?”

Parker hesitated a moment before answering, he had created this crude card deck from a macro code attached to the book reader the Doctor had left, because he had wanted Red Wood to stay distracted, to give him something other than his grief to think about. But Luna had no way of knowing how much they already knew.

Parker dealt her the cards and then after giving Red Wood a glance, the other Stallion just nodded knowing they couldn’t avoid the subject forever. “After your sudden departure and Red Woods arrival here, I realized I better work on getting the display mirror to show us the outside world. I knew it could do it, but it took sometime to find the right command set. I’d say a little less than an hour after you left and Red Wood arrived, I got the commands to work. Just in time to hear Storm Wing give his report to you.”

Red Wood interrupted, “I heard him tell you all my neighbors and friends are dead, or worse.” he told her in a dead flat voice.

Luna looked down at her hoofs. “I greatly sorrow that you should learn such dire news, especially in such a sudden manner. Had I known you were listening, I.. I ah.” Luna stumbled over her words. “I would have tried to inform you in a more gentle way.” She finished.

Red Wood looked up at the Princess, looking straight at her for the first time since she arrived. “Princess, do you really think there is any gentle way to tell somepony that?”

Luna the hard practical Princess, locked eyes with Red Wood, and perhaps for the first time in living memory, she broke the stare first. She looked down, “I sorrow for all our little ponies. No there is never a good way. Do not doubt me though, this is not the first deadly disaster I've had to oversee.” Her voice was careful and controlled, right to the end of her sentence, until she tried to continue. Then her voice broke with sobs, “but not since the tribal wars and King Sombra, have ponies caused so much hurt to each other. I never thought I’d see that again.”

Luna then calmed herself, pushing away from the table, “I’m sorry gentlecolts, I need to end this game and return to my own body.”

Turning to Red Wood, “You son needs you, and I will need time to discuss with my Sister the events of the day. So please take control of your body when the train arrives in Canterlot, but my Sister will need to discuss issues with Sir Parker the following morning, please do whatever it is you must, to arrange that.”

“Yes Princess.” Both the identical stallions said at the same time.

Luna stood and finding the center of the room she closed her eyes and felt for the thread of magic that would lead her back to her normal dreamspace. Finding it, she let out a soft sigh as the comfortably familiar spell pulled her away.

In the netherspace between dreams, she turned to look back, for several moments she saw the two bright lights of Red Wood and Parker floating in the unnatural structure of the manufactured dreamspace. But their ties to that space was starting to weaken, and as she watched she saw them drift off leaving the boxy structure behind them.

“So they are only in the artificial structure when the physical mind is awake, and leave it for normal dreams when the body is fully asleep. There is much new magic to learn here.” Luna Thought to herself as she wished she knew of a way to bring Twilight here to study it. She could see two organic looking spheres that were the Stallions true dreamspaces float away. Thin tentacles of spirit lines still tieing them to each other and the boxy structure.

One was already starting to flash red and dark, “That would be Red Wood, forsooth he will have nightmares. Alas I can not offer him comfort, my duty is clear. For the sake of all my other ponies I must see Celestia.” Luna thought to herself.

She sent a tentacle of will towards the Stallion’s nightmare and wished him “Stay strong Red Wood, your son will need you on the morn.” Then with no further glances back, she followed her own spirit lines back to her body and apartments in Canterlot Castle.

Author's Note

This is obviously a transition chapter, they literately are on a train to Canterlot and physically everyone is asleep and nothing is happening. I could of course just done this transition in a single paragraph going 'and two days later they were in Canterlot' but there are a few additional story elements I wanted to lay down. One, the 'white room' is going to be where Red Wood and Parker are going to split half their lives, at least for quite a while, and I wanted to start moving it from being a sterile jail cell, to something that you can at least believe won't drive them crazy by its blandness. Parker's not going to be able to recover all the 'apps' that he would have had, but a few simple tools to make their lives more comfortable is fair.
The next chapter is also going to be one of those common 'brony' chapters where we get to discuss comparative politics and world building rules with Princess Celestia. That's not really a lot of action to that either, but it all setup because I've put some pieces on the board that need time to get to their rightful places, so at least part of the reason for the next 'political' chapter to setup for a time jump. Give the players time to find their positions and of course allow that cult to dig in deep and find uses for the various cards they have been dealt.

Canterlot consequences. Version 1

Princesses Celestia would tell you that she never paces, at least she never admits to it. Sure there’s been times when awaiting stressful news she would walk from one end of the long stained glass window gallery to the other, over and over and over again. But she would protest that was just to work out a kink in her legs or to enjoy the fine works from many different angles. She had similar explanations about the times she had been caught walking in circles in the foyer of the Sun Tower, where the Elements of Harmony had once been kept.

Not a single pony on the castle staff believed her, even for a moment. Yet at the same time, if you wished to keep your cushy job sorting tax forms for the equestrian government, it was best not to point this out.

So not a guard, nurse, accountant, butler, maid der fay, secretary, clerk, intern or janitor in the Castle dared called what Celestia was doing in front of her Sister’s bedroom, pacing. It just looked like it.

Celestia had been at her Sister’s room within minutes of getting the night guards report that she had failed to awaken at her customary time. Celestia, knew about Luna’s dream walking skills, and at first wasn’t too concerned, so she just lowered the moon, figuring she would get to tease Luna about it later. But as minutes stretched into hours Celestia started to get, well, she would call it ‘mildly concerned.’ The staff would call it ‘having a major hissy fit.’ A score of doctors were summoned from CMC, Canterlot Medical Center to care for Luna’s body, while Celestia in a series of rapid teleports had summoned personally the entire senior staff from her School for Gifted Unicorns to consult about the magical implications of her sister’s comatose state.

The entire castle was in panic mode, guards were running each and every way, some carried actual messages or delivering supplies for the doctors, but the majority did so just to seem busy as fear started to overtake sanity. Meanwhile Celestia, definitely was NOT pacing as she walked back and forth in the antiroom of her sister’s chambers. There she shakingly drank cup after cup of tea, while elderly mages, many still dressed in night clothes debated and argued about what magical calamity the nation faced. Fist fights only broke out, a few times.

Hours later Celestia was still drinking tea, stepping over two esteemed peers on the themographic and metapolytacktial colleges as they wrested on the ground about the merits of globularpholonic fields and necrodipholonic brines. Several bets were riding on the argument, but Celestia was too distracted to really care, besides the ten bits she had put down on Professor Night Song, wasn’t even a gamble, she had seen his choke hold on unwary undergraduates before. She lifted her tea cup to her lips and was about to down her eighteenth cup this evening, when a burst of green dragon fire dropped a scroll, right into her tea cup.

Scrunching her muzzle at the mess, Celestia fished out the scroll from the tea with her magic, flipping the worst of the water off of it. Seeing the message was from Twilight, Celestia allowed herself a small smile. If she wasn’t so concerned about her sister, reading any notes from Twilight would have been on Celestia’s top agenda, but now with Luna failing to return from her dream walking, Celestia considered just putting Twilights message off to the side. Certainly she could read it later?

Celetia floated the still unread scroll over to the mantlepiece and was shocked to see that there were three other scrolls, just like it, rolled up and unread.

Had she been ignoring multiple messages from Twilight? That was so unlike her. Celestia frowned at herself, she really needs to apologize to Twilight later, but the idea of reading another cheerful friendship report when Luna was missing just seemed a too frivolous use of her time. Wait! Twilight no longer sent her friendship reports. Celestia opened her eyes wide, had she been THAT distracted?

She picked up one of the scrolls randomly and started reading it, and the the normally placid Princess poker face completely failed her, like a roller coaster she went from one high or low after another. Celestia nearly collapsed from relief when the note clearly stated that Luna was with Twilight. She was so relieved that when the note continued to explain that Luna was trapped in a male unicorn’s body for the day, that Celestia fell on her withers wildly laughing. Which drew some interesting looks from the attending mages and guards.

But the emotional roller coaster took a deep dive when another of Twilights missives described the disaster in Coltsdale. It took all of Celestia’s self control to keep herself from literally breaking into solar flames in anger due to the injustice of it all.
Her anger was still burning when she read through the next part of Twilights notes, Luna’s strange encounter with the alien Parker. She had next to no feelings on that issue, other than some mild confusion, it just seemed of such little importance compared to Coltsdale.

The last note was a message from Luna to telling Celestia that she should raise the moon that evening because Luna was unlikely to be able to return to her own body until after darkness fell. Seeing that the day was nearly ended, Celestia gladly prepared to do her sister’s duty one more time, knowing she was on her way home.

After putting the sun to bed and greeting Luna’s moon, Celestia returned to Luna’s room to await her sister. She sat next to Luna’s body for another hour before the Moon Princess opened her eyes and gave her big sister a sad smile.
Celestia smiled back, and the two Alicorns hugged each other, taking a moment because they both knew that in their own ways, both had been awake for more than a day, there was not going to be any rest soon. They had defenses to prepare and plan.

During that day, Luna and Celestia sequestered themselves in their private offices and Luna explained to Celestia everything she had discovered about the Cult, including how much magic had been siphoned from the unicorn horns. There had been some darker spellwork and tests that Luna performed when she was in Red Wood’s body that gave her additional technical insights on the type of spells the horns had been prepared for. The news was grim.

Late into the following afternoon, the two Princesses took a short break to check up on Twilight and her friends, having sent guards, to meet the Fillydelphia train and escort them all, including Banyan and Red Wood to the Castle .

It was a sign of how tired, both physically, and emotionally that despite having the two first hand Coltsdale witnesses ie Twilight and Rainbow Dash and the oddity of Red Wood right in front of them, Celestia and Luna yawned then just told the group that suites had been prepared for them in the castle, and good night. Wait, strike that, it wasn’t that odd at all, they pretty much did the exact same thing at the first Crystal Empire Princess Summit.

Twilight knowing the castle the best, took point in helping settle her friends and Red Wood’s family in. She was particularly concerned for the young colt, the stress of the last few days had been hard on Banyan. Pinkie wanted to cheer the colt up with a party, and Twilight couldn't stop the pink party pony from sneaking a pile of cakes from the kitchens but after a few hard glances and some what more direct language from an annoyed Rarity, even Pinkie got the hint and actually managed pull it down a few notches. Right now Twilight was certain, the colt and his father needed some semblance of normality and not parties.
But in the end Twilight couldn't deliver even that, guards had been assigned to the stallions suite and though nothing overt was said, it was clear that Red Wood/Parker was more of a prisoner than a guest. Until it was time for bed, Fluttershy and Pinkie stayed with Banyan playing quiet boardgames.

Twilight kept Red Wood company, trying to get whatever information he had about Parker, not that Red Wood knew that much more to tell, but he appreciated the company. Meanwhile the other girls just explored the castle. Applejack was mostly asking about for any further news or rumors about the recent events, while Rarity was keeping an eye out for any of her professional contacts. Rainbow just hung around, hoping for something interesting to come up, but when nothing did, she took off for the open garden training grounds and took the opportunity to stretch her wings with light exercises, plus it let her show off to the castle pegasie guards.

With the falling of night, Luna and Celestia exchanged their skyborn charges, and retired to their personal chambers for the night, because of their disrupted sleep schedules, even Luna slept that night.

Red Wood had closed his eyes to sleep, but as planned, Parker was the pony who opened them. It was early but already somepony was knocking quietly on the door. Yawning Parker slipped off the bed, he looked around for a robe to put on, before remembering that nopony cared if he answered the door nude. That was going to take a bit to get used to, but he didn’t have time to muse on it, as the knocking repeated and was more urgent. Not wanting the sleeping Banyan to be woken, Parker opened the door and stepped out into the hall rather than invite the knocker in.

It was a golden armored guard the same one that had been there in the afternoon yesterday, he looked Parker up and down for a moment, then said, “For some reason I’m supposed to ask you your name again, Mr Red Wood.”

Parker nodded, “Ahh yes, will I was Red Wood yesterday, but today Red Wood is sleeping in, and I’m sort of a tenant, the name is Parker. You can use Mister if you want, but I prefer just Parker.”

The guard nodded,“I was told to bring you to the Princesses if you answered Parker, I don’t pretend to understand it though. Come follow me.”

The guard led Parker to the castle gardens where Celestia sat in a vine covered gazebo, a tea setting for two already spread out.

The guard saluted the Princess then left Parker standing there to take his place with a half dozen other guards at the base of the hill. Parker realized that though they were outside, this was probably even more private than any cloistered rooms in the castle. They had a clear view of anyone that might approach and the guards at the base of the hill would only hear anything if it was shouted down to them.

As when he had met Luna, Parker wasn’t comfortable bowing, he didn’t know the right protocol so he just nodded his head and said “Princess.”

For a long time Celestia just looked at Parker, her stare was uncomfortably penetrating. The silence seemed to last too long as if he had missed some critical social clue and she was waiting for him to do something.

Parker was about to try to greet Celestia again, when she finally responded. “Tell me Mr Parker, are there no laws against Necromancy where you come from?”

It wasn’t exactly the first question Parker expected, “Parden? I don’t understand.”

“The raising of the dead, death magic, animating a dead body, that sort of magic is associated with the darkest evil. Yet, while you clearly practice it, I sense no clear evil in your heart. Can you explain that to me?”

“Oh, you mean Red Wood’s body. Yes, there’s no easy answer. I guess we have a different viewpoint on that.”

Celestia looked stern,“I can see that, but this is very strange for us. I guess I better ask first, is the body of Red Wood alive or dead? Is he an animated golem to you or a living being?”

Parker found the question odd, “I can only think of his body as being alive. Though it was dead only by a technical definition and only for a very short period, my people are just very good a certain types of medicine. True,I don’t believe your doctors could have revived him, the tools we use are more capable, and a repair job of this sort wouldn’t have been unusual on my world.”

Celestia nodded, “Clearly your, hmm, people? Have some advance healing magic, but what I find disturbing from what Luna told me, you had planned on taking over Red Wood’s body, and not revive his spirit until your tool, that thing you call a Doctor, got confused and revived both your spirits in the same shell. Is this disregard of another’s bodies spirit typical? To treat the once living shell as if it was piece of useful rubbish to be claimed at your conveniences!” There was a sharpness to her voice, bordering on anger.

Parker, blinked at this line of questioning, yes they had walked in an ethical gray area but the Princess seemed to be taking it as if it was just black or white. “Let me try to explain Princess, it was a very difficult choice for us. It not easy for us to reach out to your world, the path between is very tiny and every trip is very expensive. I’m sure if we had unlimited resources and time, we could send millions of Doctors that can heal most every injured pony, cure most of your diseases and do all sorts of wonders, but we don’t have that option. Sending my mind, spirit if you will, here along with the Doctor was the extreme limit of what we could do. We had no way to communicate, to talk to you, unless we could take on a physical presence on this side of the portal between our worlds.”

“And the only way you could have physical presence is to steal the body of one of my little ponies?”

“Yes! But the plan was for only after that pony was done with it, had the cultists not confused the Doctor, he would have seeked out the remains of an elderly pony in the morges of your hospitals, one for whom there was no question he had exhausted his time on this world. We had no way to know this cult existed and would have some prophecy about our arrival and then they would drop a healthy young body right at the foot of our gateway.”

Celestia calmed her features, Parker wasn’t sure if she was just hiding her anger or was considering his claim. “Still even an elderly pony’s body should be respected, it is very unusual for a dead pony to be anything but respectively interred in the soil by their family. Was there no other option for you?”

“We considered other ways, like sending through a more general purpose tool than the Doctor, one that could manipulate objects to build a mechanical body. But when the math was done, we realized the largest body we could manage would be no bigger than a mouse, and the mind in that size body would have been of the same sort as the Doctors. I think we have already seen that artificial minds of that sort lack the wisdom to be trusted with such a complex mission as making contact with you ponies. Besides, in the past on my world, using for good purposes the bodies of people who have passed on was fairly common, has your medicine advanced to heart transplants yet?”

Celestia frowned at this, “Yes, though it is far from a common procedure and is considered experimental. The ethics of saving one life, but at the loss of another, will always be difficult. Do you really think the take over of an entire dead body is the moral equivalent as a heart transplant?”

Parker nodded, “When we had very few other options, yes.”

Celestia poured some tea, and sipped at it for a long moment, “I will have to concede this point, but only because it is already a fait accompli, and I see no ethical way to reverse this or correct it. The Magic involved is far beyond any that I am comfortable with. But I will say this, you took Red Wood body without asking his permission, and handicapped him for the rest of his life, as he will now only have control of his fate only part of the time. This is a crime of stealing half of his life, if there was a way of punishing you, without also punishing him, I would consider it. If there should ever come a time when I find myself in the position to choses to save his life, or yours, I will declare now, that I would save his first.”

Parker nodded, “I wouldn’t ask otherwise, he has a young child to care for, besides death is not so fearful for my people. If I should die here, I would lose all the memories from this place and that would sadden me, but my life on my world would continue. I would just be ignorant of all that has occurred here, an unfortunate amnesia but not a fatal one.”

Celestia looked surprised by that, “That's very advance magic, only in theory have we ever considered that possibility. Even with my sister and my extended lives we still have reason to fear death, yet you seem to claim no such fear?”

Parker laughed, “I certainly can experience fear, and I would fight to live if that option was available, we are far from immune to pain and loss, especially emotional pain which no known form of immortality can inoculate you from.”

“So your people are also immortal? Is that common there? It exists here but very few can claim that, and indeed most that my ponies call immortal, are in fact, just long lived and all of us will face death one day.” Celestia looked doubtful.

“We are very new to the idea, only having found ways to cure most physical forms of death in the last couple of generations. Most of my people still live a physical life for eighty to a hundred years, then transform to a non physical existence. In that form there is good reason to believe that some remnants of our people will live to see the heat death of our universe, some tens of trillion years into the future. Of course such long lives will make them very different people by the time they reach such an age. I guess then, they will then face a final mortality.”

Celestia shook her head at the thought, “This is a very strange world you come from. With such advance magic, why did you wish to come here?”

Parker took a deep breath, “Princess, I’m just a technician ment to open the way so that others, trained diplomats could follow. I can only tell you the reasons why I personally wanted to join the researchers that found the path to your world.

Celestia laughed lightly, “I have been dealing with armies of diplomats for centuries, you are doing a fine job, even as an amature.

Please tell me your personal reasons for coming here.”

It was a leading question, the kind they warn you about when going on job interviews, Parker could have given her a pat professional answer, instead he thought deep and answered from his gut, “I’m not here to negotiate trade treaties, or the exchange rates for currencies and I can’t even imagine any way we could have any sort of defence packs. I’m sure the diplomats who follow me will want to talk about that kinda stuff, but to me that’s all nonsense. I’m here for the adventure, to discover something that I would never find on my home. My world has been mapped down to the inch, no part of it hasn’t been mined, farmed, stamped on, claimed and then fought over, but this is a world with unknown horizons, I truly have no idea what’s on the other side of your oceans, or beyond Everfree forest. And to get a glimpse of that, to smell something really new, is the most precious thing I can think of.”

Celestia looked at Parker appraisingly, “Your race may know how to extend lives, but I sense you yourself is still very young.”

Parker smiled at that question, “Years may pass differently on different worlds. Comparing years may not fair. I’m still under a century old, with an organic rather than a non physical body waiting for me back in my world, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Celestia laughed, “Once you’ve been around a few thousand years, it takes more than a new horizon to see something new. But I understand the sentiment. I’m still not certain I want to open diplomatic relationships with your world yet, but if we do, I’ll probably want to take a sabbatical and go visit your world for the very same reason.”

Parker smiled back, “Once we open a real return portal, that shouldn’t be a problem.” Then he frowned, “But the doctor used up all the assembly materials to patch Red Wood and my heads together. Without that material I can’t enlarge the portal or return home. I have to wait to see if my people on the other side will try again.”

“Is it possible they will abandon you here? Not try again?” There was a bit of a hopeful note in the Princesses voice, it wasn't as if she didn’didn't want to make new friends and allies but right now she had enough on her plate.

“Depends on how much telemetry they got when the Doctor was sent though, if the portal cut off before he sent an all clear sign, they may have assumed the worst and cut their loses. Every attempt is very expensive and there are other groups clamoring for the time and money.

Celestia sipped her tea for a few moments thinking, putting it down she said, “OK, another question come to mind. In both Luna’s and Twilights reports, they said you recognized them as princesses as soon as you saw them. Twilight I know does not wear her crown most of the time, and Luna said that on your world, you do not have Alicorns. So how did you know they were Princesses if you never saw them before?”

Parker made a show of also drinking some tea, he really would have like to avoid this question, he had hoped nopony had noticed his existing knowledge of equestria, no such luck. “Princess the answer is going to be complicated. The sort of thing that they have college course about and still just scratch the surface.”

The Princess smiled, “I’m on the board of half the colleges in equestria, with drawers full of degrees, not all of them honorary. Give me a chance.”

“I guess I’m not telling you anything new when I say there are other universes?”

Celestia nodded, “We have some experience with that.”

“Wouldn’t have a magic mirror to an alternate world stashed away in the crystal empire, would you?”

Celestia gasped, “You’re from that strange other world!”

Parker shook his head, “Oh! so this version of equestria is tied to one of the equestria girls ones! But no, not that world, though it is closer to my home than equestria itself is.”

Celestia asked “‘Version of equestria’? You’re implying there is more than one.”

Parker nodded, “When I say there are an infinite number of worlds, I really mean INFINITE, it is not just a big number, it’s an unending number. Every possible equestria exists, from ones where the zebras attack and destroy most of pony kind, ones were all the mares are stallions and the stallions are mares and to others where Nightmare Moon’s evil spirit spawns as an innocent filly that Twilight raises as a daughter. That’s why it so hard to navigate between worlds. How do you address an envelope when the zip code would take forever to write down.”

Celestia was about to ask ‘what is a zip code’ but suppressed the question seeing Parker’s point even if not the terminology. “With so many worlds, why did you chose ours, and how did you find us?”

Parker answered, “We have a special tool, called a quantum computer, it not limited to finite rules, so we could search for other universes by describing what we wanted to find and the QC would find someplace that most closely matched it.”

“So you searched for a world that looked like ours and your quantum whatever found equestria? But what made you think of a world like ours in the first place?”

“You have to understand that to find a new world with the QC, you won’t get good results by asking a few scientists to sit around a conference table and make up on the fly the search pattern for a random new world. When you try that, you always end up looking at empty space, or just distant stars. You need lots of data points, lots of ideas and descriptions, thousands to millions of them to create enough of a pattern that can be searched for, and even then the QC will find a best match, not a perfect one. In order to have that many data points, we needed to use patterns that had inspired vast amounts of thought, fantasy, music, stories and theater.”

Celestia frowned thinking she understood, “So you put in your QC thing stories? Stories about us?”

Parker tried to remember some of the notes that he had been given about the project before he joined it. “We didn't start with pony stories, we wanted to find a world where the rules of physics was different enough to be interesting scientifically, but also have beings that we could talk to and communicate with. We first tried rich science fiction stories, like Star Trek and Dr Who at first, but it didn't work. We only got good results when we used stories that didn't include anything that looked like our species, humans.”

“Star Trek? There’s an old series of novels called Saddle Trek, about ponies flying an airship between the stars, is that similar?”

Parker chuckled, “I wouldn't doubt it.”

Celestia wondered aloud, “Why using stories about your own species fail?”

“Oh it’s really simple, it would work but only as a loop back to another boring human world, where instead of new and different physics to study, we’d just find worlds where human actors played the roles and acted out the stories. There are some of our scientists that found that interesting, ways to look back at historic events and such, but the group I’m working for, wants to find a different type of universe with real magic and new things to study. So the pony stories they found were some of the richest and most expressive stories we had that didn’t feature any humans at all. Hundreds, maybe thousands of authors, musicians and artists give the QC millions of data points to search for.”

Celestia asked, “So you had writers that wrote lots of pony stories? Stories about us?”

“Yes being like you are featured in some of our oldest stories, art, and music, in fact several of the important ponies of your world are key players in these stories, at least by name and basic description. I can’t be sure how close your real lives mimicked that of the stories. At least until I can compare notes, but that wasn't my job so I’m not really well prepared to do that.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about being told, I’m just a story.”

Parker smiled, “Don’t take it to heart, the stories were used to find you, not create you. You would have existed if the stories had been written or not. I just would have had no way to map a path to here without them. Besides the odds are good that even my world is just a story to some other place, and so on and so on, there’s no end to that rabbit hole.”

Celestia chuckled at the thought, “So someone from your world could be reading about us drinking tea right now?”

Parker shook his head, “Not from my world, we’re tied together now, that breaks the relationship , but on some other world, almost certainly, and even more mind numbing is there probably someone in an even more distant fourth world, watching that reader. I wish Pinkie was here, she seems to have the knack for breaking the fourth wall and might tell us for certain.”

Celestia shook her head, “When Twilight was still writing friendship reports to me, she told me that there are some questions you just shouldn't ask Pinkie and … WAIT! You knew about that, you read about Pinkie! This is a bit hard to digest.”

After a moment Celestia continued, “OK I’m going to think on this for a while, meanwhile we have some practical issues to deal with. I know you said your not a trained diplomat, but for now, you’re all we have from your world. So I’m going to make it formal. This will give you certain legal rights as a diplomat, and I’ll arrange a stipend to cover your living expenses but you’ll be responsible for the maintenance of your mission and its grounds. Nothing extravagant mind you. Also we have to consider Red Wood and Banyan. They are innocent but their lives are forever changed by these events.”

After pausing to think for a few minutes, Celeta said, “Here are the rules you will need to follow to keep from being declared Pony non grata, which, as you have no place to be expelled back to, is something you don’t want to happen. One, you have to give Red Wood a more than fair share of time controlling your and his body. I suspect due to his special talents he will want to open a shop and continue his craft work. I’ll provided financial assistance if he chooses that. But that is for him, not you to use. Two, I’m very concerned with Banyan, when you are in charge of Red Wood’s body, you are to treat Banyan as you would a close relative.

'Basicly you have shared parental responsibility for that colt and I will hold you to that. I don’t know his magic potential but I’ll try to help him get into one of the better schools here in Canterlot, maybe even my own gifted unicorn school. Three, I’m afraid your wish to explore beyond everfree and over the oceans will have to be deferred. I can’t let you leave Canterlot, until all the current mysteries are cleared up, I can not risk my little ponies with such an unknown. I will assign you a small team of guards to aid you and guard your diplomatic mission, but they will still report to me. Lastly, you are to make yourself available to myself or any of the other Princesses, anytime day or night we have any questions or need your input. There is still the unknown state of the Stone Heart Cult, they wanted you for some reason, and I’m going to find out what that reason was.”

Parker nodded his head an agreement, there was really no argument he could make. But he had no illusion, with the guards Celestia was assigning and the restrictions on his movements, despite the title of ‘diplomate’, Parker was now Celestia’s prisoner, and would be so probably for the rest of his life.

Author's Note

I wanted to get this out before Christmas, so happy hearth's warming eve all ponies.

This version of this chapter though is due get some revisions, I have a new editor who is looking it over and I hope to update it with improvements in the coming few days. I'll probably put a reference back to this chapter in a new author's note when the revised version is ready.

Two New Homes

Twilight Sparkle stood outside the small building and look doubtful, “Are you really sure you like this place?” While not exactly run down, it was hardly first class Canterlot construction, just a small two story building with space for two small storefronts on the ground floor and a tiny two bedroom apartment on the second.

Red Wood stood next to the young Princess, having over the last few days gotten over any shyness of dealing with Princesses. “I’m a loyal citizen of Equestria, Princess. Parker maybe some sort of alien ambassador now. But I’m not.I talked it over with him last night, neither of us wants to live off the crown’s coin for long. This place is small enough that I should be able to make enough from my clockworks and music box sales to pay for upkeep.

Twilight looked up and down the street, “This is a commercial district, so your store should see some traffic, but we’re pretty far away from all the other foreign embassies. You won’t be invited to many diplomatic events all the way out here.”

Red Wood shook his head, “… hold on, Parker’s trying give me a message.”

Red Wood looked around he kept trying to focus his eyes on something only he could see.
He grumbled a bit, “It’s hard to read, I can only see the letters as outline and distortions. Maybe in different light.” Red Wood stopped to stare at a solid colored wall. “That’s a bit better.”

Twilight nodded, she looked deep into Red Wood’s eyes, hoping that she might see something, but what ever method Parker was using to project the image of text into Red Wood’s vision, it was not a true physical effect. “What he saying?” She asked.

Red Wood was squinting at the blank wall, “Parker’s message is, ‘It’s better they stay away, I don’t know anything about being a diplomat, its way above my pay grade.’ ”

Twilight smiled at the message, “I get it, oh do I ever get it, I used to hate that part of my job when I first became a Princess. I had to make state visits to most of Equestria’s allies. It’s all ceremony and fake smiles, even the most friendly diplomats and closest allies, always seem to be hiding something. As an expert in friendship, I can tell you that I wouldn't trust any of them.”

Twilight then gave a small cough as if she had said more than she meant, “But don’t worry too much, I’ll tell the official equestrian diplomatic core, that any foreign agents who want to meet you must first schedule though my office. That way I can be here to help.”

Red Wood squinted, "I'm pretty sure he's saying 'thank you' but it really hard to read.

Twilight nodded, "I can see that's frustrating, I guess tomorrow I can talk to him directly.”

Red Wood frowned at that, “I hope so, really he’s been insisting that I take control for the last few days. He only came out last Sunday because Princess Celestia insisted she wanted to ask him some questions. Most of the time I think he just works on that magic book of his, sulking."

Twilight frowned, “He lost his whole world, but really Red Wood, he's not the only one, how are you taking it? I can’t even imagine going through that.”

Red Wood sighed, “I still really don't know how to feel. I’m alive and everyone else is dead. The Princess is having me talk to one of her doctors in the castle a couple of times a week, but what really helps is Banyan, I don’t know what I would do without him.”

Twilight’s eyes opened wide, “Banyan! Oh my Celestia! I nearly forgot. What time is it?”

Red Wood held a hoof over his eyes to shade them as he looked at a tower clock some distance away. “Your right! It’s nearly 2:00 we’ll be late!”

Twilight took Red Wood’s hoof, just hold on, I’ll get us there in time.

“Wait! You’re not going to…”

There was a flash of purple magic and a wild twisting sensation, then suddenly the whole world shifted around them.

“...teleport us?” Red Wood finished, looking a bit dizzy and sick. “Ahh I think you left my stomach behind! I’m going to be sick.”

“No time! No Time!” Twilight rushed Red Wood though gates, above which was spelled out in bright gold letters, “Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.”

Twilight hurriedly explained, “Just follow me, I know the way. I Can’t teleport on school grounds though, it’s shielded.”

After going up and down many stairs, over sky bridges that connected different towers, they finally arrived at the entrance to the exam room, there in the entrance hall was a number of seats set up for waiting parents and guardians. Spike was there waiting for them.

“Spike! Where’s Banyan?” Red Wood asked breathlessly.

Spike waved them over. “I brought him over like Twilight asked. One of the examiners took him inside.”

“Did we miss his test?” Twilight asked breathlessly.

“Oh no! Professor Baseline just took him in to fill out some paperwork, he said we’ll be invited in for the actual test.”

Red Wood sat on one of the waiting benches, and nervously tapped his hoofs, Twilight sat with him and seemed just as nervous. After a few moments, Red Wood started squinting at the blank wall next to them. “Seems Parker has a question. It’s a bit strange.”

Twilight asked, “A question? What question?”

“He’s asking ‘does all the candidates have to hatch a dragon’s egg?”

Twilight looked surprised, “What? How did he know about that? It was kept out of the papers, and...oh wait Princess Celestia told me something about Parker's strange knowledge of our world.”

Red Wood looked shocked, “Wait you mean he’s serious! You have to hatch a dragon’s egg! Banyan can’t do that!”

Twilight blushed and gave Spike a sisterly nuzzle, “Don’t worry, Banyan’s not expected to really hatch it, It’s the effort put in the attempt that the professors are measuring. There’s no known spell that can hatch a dragon egg, so its a perfect test to see how a young unicorn can manipulate raw unschooled magic. When I took the exam I didn't know that and I had a bit of a unique magic serge during my attempt which hatched Spike."

Spike looked smug, "yep, Indeed, I would take a real special unicorn to hatch a dragon like me." He looked at his claws and rubbed them again this chest scales, "I hear they now use just a rock painted like a dragon’s egg because of what happened.”

Spike smiled at Twilight, apparently taking personal pride in being hatched by the element of magic, “You really shook them up Twilight. Still wish I knew where they originally found my egg. One of the professors told me, it was in storage for over a hundred years before I was hatched. It could have been even older, it was a personal gift left by some forgotten alumni.”

Just then the door opened by Banyan who stood with a dusty green pony wearing a extra large polka dotted tie, beckoned in the group. He did a small double take when he saw Twilight. “Oh my Twilight Sparkle! I mean Princess!”

Twilight smiled at the pony, “Professor! Please it’s always just Twilight, especially for friends. Twilight gave the old professor pony a friendly hug, “Everyone, this is Professor Glow Light, he was one of my teachers at the school.”
Red Wood asked “I thought you were the personal student of Princess Celestia?”

“Oh yes I was, but I still also had to take the normal classes with the other students, at least for the the first several years. After that, there was a lot of independent learning.”

Professor Glow Light chuckled, “Yes indeed, we on the facility was always having to keep an eye out for Twilight and her advance studied. Had to know when to duck and cover.”

Twilight looked a little cross, “I wasn't that dangerous. The time I blew up the high energy magic lab was a fluke.”

“The first time perhaps.”

“Oh! right. Yeah. But I had to recreate the circumstances to understand what ... went … wrong, oh I don’t think I’m helping my argument much am I?”

The professor just chuckled and soon all of them joined in, even Red Wood managed a light smile, though he gave Banyan several worried glances at the same time.

They all became quiet when a door on the other side of the room opened and a junior assistant rolled in a familiar cart, on it a realistic looking dragon egg and a simple sign explaining the goal of the test.

Banyan looked at the sign and his face became three shades paler. “I have to hatch that?”

Banyan’s face fell into just a pained hopeless expression that Red Wood reflexively jerked forward but Twilight held him back and whispered “shhh” to him.

It was both sad and cute as Banyan circled around the cart, his horn sputtering sparks, as he tried a number of unsuccessful spells. With a great shudder of effort, he levitated the fake egg and made it rotate a few times over the nest. “Uggh that egg is heavy!” the colt gasped.

Red Wood whispered to Twilight, “Does he lose points if he breaks the rock?”

Twilight whispered back frowning, “I don’t think he will, but the magic sensors are looking for raw indirect magic, common controlled spells like levitation are not really going to register too well. He has to try to make up a new spell on the spot, or try raw force to get full marks.”

Though Twilight had kept her voice very low, Banyan may have noticed her expression as she was whispering to his father and changed his tactics. He dropped the fake egg softly back into its nest and then started to empower his horn with some new spell. There was no obvious effect, at least as first, his horn kept growing brighter and brighter, sparks flying.

“That's the way!” Twilight mumbled in approval, one of the professors shot her a disapproving look. “Sorry!” She mouthed back looking chagrined. Even as she was apologizing the color of Banyan’s horn changed, growing brighter and shifting in colors.

Red Wood had no idea what was going on, but by Twilight's body language, she seemed to approve. So he just smiled and tried to telegraph good feeling towards Banyan.

The light from Banyan’s horn started in the reds, moved to the yellows then into bright electric blues. Then when it seemed that it could get no brighter, it sparked a bolt of lightning towards the egg. There was a metallic smell and then the lights went out. Banyan fell to the floor exhausted.

For a long moment nopony could see much, the afterglow filling their vision. But as their vision cleared, Red Wood noticed the subtle smiles on several of the monitoring professors muzzles.

Then the egg still in its nest, deflated like a spent balloon.

“Yes!” Twilight seemed happy. “He vaporized it!”

Banyan just getting back to his knees, didn't read Twilight's mood, and just cried out “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn't mean to kill it! I don't know any egg hatching spell, so I just kept trying, oh no! Please I’m sorry!”

He would have kept apologizing without stop, if Red Wood hadn't walked over and put a hoof on the colt’s shoulder. “It’s OK Banyan, I think it means you passed.” He smiled down to his son.

A different professor walked in from an adjacent room, dragging behind him a long roll of printout paper that snaked back all the way to wherever he had come from. He nodded to the sitting professors and read off numbers, “842 theostaic potential, 89 biofillitic field and 92 polyergs”

Banyan looked up at Twilight and his father, “What does that mean?”

Twilight smiled down at Banyan, “Not bad, not bad at all.”

Professor Glow Light stood up and after glancing for any dissenting looks from the others, he said, “I think we’re all in agreement. Welcome Banyan Wood to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.”

Banyan took a few seconds to process that, then with a laugh and a grin, he started dancing in place. "I'm in! I'm in!" He cheered, while he danced in place.

Red Wood watched with amusement Banyan's dance, his face only betrayed his deeper feelings only for a moment when he started to think to himself, "I wonder what Banyan's old teacher would think." But then he remembered the advice the castle doctor had given him, 'don't empower the ones who killed his friends, don't let them hurt Banyan or himself by darkening their memories. Their friends from Coltsdale wouldn't want only sad memories to be their legacies." So Banyan forced his face into a smile, until he no longer had to fake it.

As Banyan, Red Wood and to a lesser degree, Parker, were getting their lives back together, far away another group was going through changes. But in their cases, it was changes long planned and prepared for.

About a third of the entire Stone Heart cult had been directly involved in the massacre of Coltsdale, but the entire cult was mobilized for the aftermath. They had over a hundred napped ponies that had to be transported, and the leaders of the cult had carefully planned on how they would escape. Five large airships had taken them the first leg,out to sea to waiting boats, then after two days at sea they slipped into a small isolated harbor across the bay from Baltamare. Their living contraband was covered in sacks and boxed in crates, then taken to a new larger secret compound that the cult had been preparing for months.

About ten days after the operation, Rock Charmer, the leader of the cult stepped out of his humble quarters blinking in the light filling the main courtyard of their new compound. He paused, looking at the out buildings and exercise yard and tents that was the housing for the majority of the cultists. He looked critically for any overt signs that would compromise the cover story which was the compound was an adult fitness camp.

Rock Charmer, then trotted over to the field of dirt that was the center of the courtyard. Pausing there he listened, frowning he heard some scuffling noises and more disturbing, he could make out some sobbing. With a grunt, he stomped hard on the ground, which gave off an odd echo, due to the hidden chambers and rooms below it. The sobbing noises suddenly stopped and the courtyard was silent.

Grumbling Rock Charmer felt the beginning of a stress headache forming and stormed across the yard. He spotted one of his senior cultists and called over to her. "Stone Biter! Come walk with me!"

Stone Biter was a unicorn mare in her early twenties with a yellow coat, a wild white mane and dark green eyes. Her mark was of wheat and barley seeds floating in a random pattern, she mostly worked out in the cult's kitchen where she was very popular for her specialty brews. Unlike most of the cult members, she was not a convert but had been raised from a filly in the Stone Heart ways. Rock Charmer wouldn't say it publicly as it was a necessary fiction to make all the initiated cult members feel like equals, but he found that ponies raised into the cult, had a sharper wit and could be trusted with more leadership responsibilities than the converted.

“Good morning Frato Charmer.” she Stone Biter said to Rock Charmer, bouncing slightly in place.

“Yes, good day to you Fratino, I see you’re up early this morning.” Rock Charmer, knew that Stone Biter was normally a late sleeper, hosting the night ritual services, which tended to be more festive than formal, especially when she was in charge.

“OH yes, Frato, I’m working on a special brew for the poor ponies in the cages, to try to cheer them up. They're all so sad.They don’t listen when I try to tell them about the ĉiela virgulinos, making them feel better!”

Rock Charmer smiled at the soft heart of Stone Biter, if there was true proof that the righteousness of the Stone Heart’s ways, it was in the good natured hearts of ponies like Stone Biter. ‘If only more of the Cult were like her,’ he thought to himself. Out loud he told Stone Biter, “Alas, we only have four trained virgulinos in the cult It will be many weeks before all the ponies in the cages can be freed. Still our numbers grow every day.”

“What about the Visitor? I thought he was going to help us? I thought once he joined us our numbers were going to explode, like a flood over the plains, or something poetic like that?” Stone Biter asked.

“I've been in deep conversation with the Visitor every day since our return. He is still healing and weak. I've not talked to him about our difficulties with the new recruits, in truth I've not let him learn of the recruits at all, since an outsider who is not carefully prepared might not understand our methods.”

“Well, If I was you, just tell him the truth. The rituals free the minds of the cursed and deceived ponies. It gives the inducted a new purpose and they gain a share of the strength of the Stone Heart. Sure they leave their old lives behind, forget their old families and friends, but once encased in the Stone Heart, who needs the outsiders? Besides, anytime I witness the virgulinos do their magic, it sets my heart and loins aflame. Inspires my brews and makes me look forward to the next Bacchanalia.”

Stone Biter, looked like she was about to break out into song about the wonders of her brews and the excitement of the rituals. She had been known in the past to have pulled off this trick of spontaneous rhymes and songs, but Rock Charmer didn’t have time for this now. He held out a hoof to stop her from leaping into dance and told her, “No Fratino. While if the Visitor was like any other pony, I’d agree. Or perhaps better let the virgulinos run their magic on him, but he lacks a body, and what would move the heart and spirit of a natural pony,would be lost on him. I have to reach out to his mind, for that is all that he is.”

Stone Biter’s face fell from a broad grin to a wistful smile. “OK then! I’ll continue trying to cheer up the poor dears in the cages and lets hope the Visitor soon sees things our way. Until then, since I can’t aid them like a virgulinos can, my brews will have to due. Good day Frato!” She turned towards the kitchen building. After a few steps she jumped in the air with a flash of inspiration cried, “Honey, Clover and extra Malt! Yeah that would be sweet!” In a flash she was gone back to her brews.

Rock Charmer, shook his head despite the headache still brewing and smiled after the beermaster pony, “Don’t change Rock Biter, Don’t change.” Then to himself he thought, ‘She has a point, the oracle did say the Visitor would help us, and their has to be some way to reach him.” Rock Biter paused, “him? Even I’m getting mixed up. The Visitor isn’t a ‘him’ or a ‘her’ it’s a thing. It told me so. A machine of some incredible complexity, I know if I can get him - - IT! Yes, IT to work for us, then the Oracle’s words would start making sense again.”

Rock Charmer had reached the building where they had been keeping the Visitor, the cult guard pony outside waved Rock Charmer past the entrance. There he used his horn to magically unlock several doors in succession, careful to re-lock them behind him. The Visitor was being kept in a secure windowless room, deep inside the larger building. Very few of the cultists were allowed in the sanctuary and Rock Charmer was the only one allowed to talk to the Visitor.

He closed the door to the innermost room behind himself and turned to greet the Visitor.

“Good Morning Doctor.” Rock Charmer said.

The medic unit was once again whole, a floating glowing cloud over a pulsing light crystal. The Doctor formed a pony face out of the cloud stuff, and said, “Good Morning Rock Charmer! I was hoping you would visit early today. My crystal is starting to fade and I’ll need a new charge soon.” By trial and error they found that Visitor needed a continuous stream of magic energy to replace whatever normal energy it used to keep functioning. The first few days Rock Charmer had nearly exhausted his own magic keeping the Visitor alive, eh, well functional. Luckily they found that a common type of magic light crystal once fully charged could satisfy the Visitor for a few days.

“Of course, I’ll get one of our junior unicorns to refill it this time. I have a bit of a headache this morning.”

“Oh a headache! Do you wish me to fix it? Most headaches are just a case of simple inflammation, I can reduce the symptoms or try to find the cause!” The Doctor seemed really excited about the prospect of healing Rock Charmer.

“Um, no, I’m sure, it’s very light, I’m just feeling a little stressed this morning.” Rock Charmer took a step back from the glowing cloud.

“Nonsense, in the past headaches might have been something to ignore, but you have me here now. I’ll just take care of this quickly.”

Without asking further permission, the Doctor sent out a pseudo-pod of glowing cloud towards the cult leader’s face. He flinched as the arm approached but felt nothing but a slight breeze as it seemed to pass right through his hair and skin. A second later he felt a sudden cooling sensation all over his body, and with a speed that seemed truly magical, the headache was gone, not masked, or dampened, but completely gone. Rock Charmer knew he had a headache a moment earlier, but even the memory was hard to grasp.

“Wow, that worked!” he said with some surprise in his tone.

The pony puppet in the cloud morphed on a smile, “It is my specialty.”

“Curing headaches?”

“Not just that, but repairing and modifying neural tissue. Back on my world I’d have to charge your insurance for that treatment, but here I’m free.”

“Wait? You reached into my head and modified my mind? Not to sound ungrateful, but next time get my permission before doing anything like that.” Rock Charmer tried to hide it, but in addition to anger he seemed to feel an odd sense of guilt from the though. He suppressed the feeling as quickly as he could.

The Doctor seemed positively jolly, having just performed his first real labor in days. “Back home we have a large complex set of ethical guidelines we have to follow with dealing with patient treatments. But one area the rules are most flexible, is with mental illnesses, and headaches are on the very shallow end of that spectrum. You see as your doctor I can fix anything in your head without needing permission, because a person, or pony, with an injured mind, can’t be expected to be capable of making good judgments.” The Doctors pony face settled back in the glowing cloud, with a smug expression.

Rock Charmer looked at the Doctor open jawed for several moments, he had never considered headaches a mental diseases, but the doctor’s cure and statements were setting off bells in his head, and he was sure it was important, but he needed more time to think about it.

While awaiting for Rock Charmer to recover his voice, the Doctor pantomimed settling back into his cloud chair and floated on a pseudo-pod one of the many books sitting on the shelves behind him. “If you’re ready, I really wanted to talk over with you some of the passages I found in your holy book.”

Rock Charmer shook his head to clear it. “Oh what? Oh right! Yes the Book of the Stone Heart. Yes that’s what we've been talking about the last several days, haven't we?” That was in fact what they had been doing most of the last week. Going over the Stone Heart Cults goals and ambitions and putting them in the best possible light for the Doctor to see how important their mission was.
The Doctor floated the first book around so he could point a line in the text to Rock Charmer, while at the same time brought two other books out and held them open to different pages. Multiple glowing pointers were highlighting different lines in the three books. “You see here in your current book it reads ‘The foul winged pegasi came charging through the valley, over pools of slime and filth bringing the cold chill of hate to all hearts that witness them’ Does it not?”

Rock Charmer glanced at the line and nodded, “Oh yes, this is just one of the many places the ancient text, that documents that evil pegasi and the crimes they committed, and still commit each day against the other tribes of ponykind.”

The Doctor nodded, “Yes, I've counted over four hundred negative references to the pegasi in just the first half of the book. The second half of the book doesn't seem to be concerned with pegasi at all, but is all about prophecy and spell making. Still this line bothered me at first.”

Rock Charmer, “Why this line? There many much more gruesome crimes that the ancient pegasi committed in other chapters.”

The Doctor asked, “Why are they running through the valley and not flying?”

“Oh my dear Doctor, its not running which is important, its the bringing of the filth and corruption that is the true crime. I sure some of them used their dirty wings to flop around in muck. It all just a poetic warning….”

“We’ll I wanted to learn more and I realized that the book was translated from an earlier dialect, luckily you had the earlier language here in this other copy and I was able to find a translation dictionary for the ancient old-equine. I think the translation is interesting.” The Doctor pointed to Rock Charmers extensive library of religious books on the room's shelves.

“What do you mean?”

“If I understand the dictionary right, and take account of the change in word order, a more direct translation would read ‘driven out of the valley, ponies of poisoned blood, ran from the slim. The hearts of the ones left behind became cold.’” The Doctor’s floating pointers highlighted each word in turn.

Rock Charmer smiled at this, he actually liked these sort of intellectual puzzles. “Oh I see your confusion, but you have to realize that from the point of view of the ancients, ‘ponies of poisoned blood’ and ‘pegasi’ are just two ways of referring to the same ponies. The part of the hearts and being left behind, well that’s just putting the wrong emphasis on the verb, in modern equestrian it would be less obscure but clearly they were running away from the pegasi who had cold hearts.”

The Doctor though on this for a while, “Yes I can see how the grammar could be read either way. It’s not very clearly written. Almost as if the writers wanted the reader to the guess who the driven ponies where and didn't want it to be clear which tribe they were from. Most of the entries are like that.”

“Yes, its a burden and a lifetime effort to read the holy works. They need to be studied carefully to find the true meaning. At no point does book ever use the tribes names, you have to interpret which heroes are unicorns or earth ponies, and it never be smirks its pages with the words for Pegasi though a clear reading shows that all the villains have wings of some sort. Even in modern Equestria I can name villain after villain, all with wings. Discard, Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon are just the top of the list.”

The Doctor seemed to read over the text again. “I see your point, though it goes against some of my programming to avoid racial stereotypes. I wish it was clearer. I also wish I could know if modern pegasi are as evil as they are portrayed in these books.”

“OH they are!” Rock Charmer insisted. “We get reports of the abuses by the winged beasts every day. You know I told you already about how they kicked my people the Stone Heart followers, from the ruling city. We few here are the threadbare remnants of the true rulers of Equestria. From before they befouled the Princesses, by slapping Pegasi wings on their once pristine forms and tormented and oppressed all those who know the truth. We now are a government in exile, hiding in the shadows from their winged enforcers!”

The Doctor looked uncomfortable, “I wish there was some real evidence, beyond these books, something that I could see with my own sensors. I have some abilities that really could help you, perhaps make the difference, but I can’t get involved with local politics, unless there are lives on the line, or I get direction from the legal government.”

“BUT WE ARE THE LEGAL RULERS!” Rock Charmer screamed in frustration. Calming down he finished, “Centuries ago, the descendants of Princess Platinum and their trusted allies from the Chancellor Puddinghead line, ruled peacefully. The People of the Stone Heart are the direct, dame to filly, sire to colt descendants of that once mighty union. The monster Discard conquered that peaceful kingdom, and the usurping alicorns with their pegasus allies dispatched the monster, but refused to return the rightful rule. Since then we have been underground and in hiding, awaiting the chance to correct the ancient wrong. It is all in the book! You know all this already.”

The Doctor seemed shaken up, he wasn’t built for this sort of decision. “Show me evidence I can believe, something real, something solid, evidence that the Pegasi are really evil and I’ll help you.”

“Yes you will.” Rock Charmer agreed.

Author's Note

It’s been a while since I posted an update. First I was very busy during the holidays due to the Mummers parade in Philadelphia (I’m a marshal in convention center part of the event) then perhaps, due to that, in early January I threw out my back and spend a while bed ridden. Unfortunately I’m not a great typist from a laying position and dispute the available time, I could get any real work done on the story.
I also had to re-write this chapter at least twice. The original version was much more compressed, but also completely lacking in dialog.
I had to spend sometime getting inside the minds of some of the secondary characters and figure out how to write for them. This will play out more in later chapters.

Also lastly, there are somethings in this chapter which conflict with cannon, well the characters know that, and what’s important is they are purposely doing it. In some ways, they are saying things as they wish them to be, and not how they know it.

Not West Side Story

Author's Note

This chapter might push some buttons. It has some squicky scenes that maybe hard for some to read, and I'm not talking just due to spelling. But bad guys gotta do what bad guys do, or else they wouldn't get a paycheck.

Not West Side Story

Three days later the Doctor was floating over its light crystal in the inner sanctum and wondering if Rock Charmer was going to visit soon. The cult leader hadn’t been back since their last conversation, and only sent a note as an apology the previous day.

The Doctor had tried putting itself into it sleep mode to pass the time, but to it’s frustration, that function seemed broken, like many other internal functions, things inside the Doctor weren’t really operating as they were designed to. It was doing the best to compensate, but large sections of its internal circuitry were out of sync. The Doctor’s higher functions still worked and as long at it stayed near the magic power source it could remain active. Still magic wasn’t the same as electricity and it couldn’t hold the power in its molecular sized superconductor coils and without fully charged coils, fail safes kept it from shutting down into a sleep mode. The Doctor felt a desperate need for a good memory garbage collection and formatting.

If Rock Charmer returned soon, the Doctor told itself that it would give the cultists the plans for a simple electric generator, a nice steady magnetic field to charge up its coils would feel good now. It used it’s pseudopods and with a quill pen started to draw out plans for a simple spark generator when the door opened and Rock Charmer rushed in.

“Good day Rock Charmer…” the Doctor started to say, when the unicorn interrupted it.

“No time Doctor! You said you wanted proof of the Pegasus evil? Well I’m afraid it's coming sooner than I expected. I just got a report from our agent near the docks, a gang of hoodlums pegasi are on the move. Come with me now and I’ll give you the proof!”

The Doctor’s animated pony head froze for a few seconds as it processed this. It nodded the head once, and Rock Charmer floated the light crystal from the desk and put it into his saddlebags.

“Try to keep your glow down or stay in the saddle bag, we don’t want any of the feathered freaks seeing you.” Rock Charmer told the Doctor and without waiting for further replies he galloped out of the building and left the cult’s compound.

The Doctor projected one small pseudopod of nano cloud around the flap of the saddlebag to watch where they were running off to. As long as it help a cubic inch or so exposed to light, the Doctor could see around then, about as well as any pony could. This was the Doctor’s first real look at a pony city. Baltamare, built on a series of steps around a large inner harbor. Most of the buildings were brick and stone with long decorative ironworks running along front gardens. Rock Charmer was taking them down to the harbor but kept switching back and hiding in doorways to keep a distance from other ponies.

When they were about to climb a short hill overlooking the base of harbor, there Rock Charmer slipped off the main road and after checking that no pony was looking, climbed under a high hedge of bushes around a old house. There was a broken basement window there, the unicorn carefully lowered himself through the window.

Rock Charmer whispered to the Doctor, “Centuries ago there was a large earth pony fort here, overlooking the harbor, when it was demolished, the houses built here retained the forts underground chambers and storage rooms as a sort of shared basement. Not everypony know about it, and it’s the safest path for non pegasi to get near their part of the city.”

“The Pegasi control part of the city?” The Doctor asked.

“They are always secretive and dangerous, there’s even entire cities like Cloudsdale that only Pegasi are allowed to visit. You really don’t want to hear the rumors about what goes on inside their weather factories.” Rock Charmer whispered.

The unicorn took them down another level and dimly lit his horn for light. There were a large number of pickle jars and summer lawn furniture stacked on one side, but for the most part the basement was empty, dirt floor and walls made of loose stones and packed dirt. It stretched on into the darkness, a much larger chamber than private home needed. Every now and then a stone or wooden staircase would lead up.

“This way,” Rock Charmer said, “and we have to keep quiet, there only a few inches of dirt between us and packs of pegasi in the buildings above us.”

For a long time they walked in the dark. Only the hoof falls of the unicorn making any noise. After a while Rock Charmer selected one of the stone stairs and moved to the higher level. Here the light seemed much brighter, there was a deeply set casement window in an otherwise empty chamber.

“Can you see out this window?” Rock Charmer asked. “How far can you see?”

The Doctor raised its pseudopod higher and added more mass to focus the light better.” I can see a large court down by the water. There some ponies there but I’m not designed with telescopic vision. I can see that they seem to be running in circles.”

Rock Charmer frowned, “Can you hear their screams?”

“I can not easily identify the sounds, the distance is beyond my functional hearing range. I can detect a semi random high pitched sound, but my noise cancellation processes are filtering most of it out. Is that the screaming?”

Rock Charmer looked very sadly at the floating Doctor. “Yes, I guess you were built for hospitals and not war zones. The screams are the sound of dying children.”

“Dying children! What is going on here?” The Doctor floated closer to the window, moving most of its cloud substance against the glass, but unable to go any further from Rock Charmer and the power crystal.

Now the Doctor pushed nearly all his substance against the window, trying without success to adopt it’s microscope optic functions to something more like a telescope, still while it was very hard to get a clear view. It was able to start to make out individual ponies down in the court.

“They are just children? Is it a game of some sort?” It asked, its internal functions that normally were for sympathizing with ill patients and families were quickly readapting into a state that could only be called dread and horror.

“Games normally don’t involve deadly weapons.” Rock Charmer deadpanned. Then quickly pointed to a flying spec of color that quickly zoomed closer, it was a young pegasus holding some sort of gun like tube device, wrapped under one of its wings. She was diving bombing down towards a small cluster of three young earth ponies. Two of them were holding crude shields and the third was holding a similar tube weapon as the pegasus only it was smaller and didn’t seem to be working.

The pegasus’s tube lit up with a flash, an instant later a splash of liquid red exploded from one of the earth ponies sides. He was knocked sideways and fell in a heap on the ground. One of the remaining ponies started dragging the fallen one away while the other a filly tried to give cover fire with the apparently useless weapon.

The pegasus did a victory loop then as she pulled out of her maneuver, two other pegasus joined her and all three rained down more fire down on the earth ponies. Another shot hit the first wounded pony and the red blood was freely flowing against the stone ground.

The Doctor turned to Rock Charmer, “Please bring me closer, I can try to heal the wounded ponies.” it was a simple request and the Doctor expect Rock Charmer to agree immediately.

“Sorry Doctor, we can not get any closer, this is just the edge of the fighting. It only gets worse the closer to the water we go. There’s nothing we can do for the victims until the fighting stops.”

The Doctor returned it’s attention to the fighting, this was sending all sort of conflicting messages to it’s task scheduler. The Doctor’s internal dialog was trying to plan out healing and resource management tables but ever as it watched, the wounds seem to get worse. The Doctor was supposed to heal wounds not just watch them flow.

The pegasus kept up the strafing runs over the earth ponies, even as more of both kinds arrived. Soon there was about half a dozen on each side. The original three earth ponies were pinned down by fire and were in sad shape. All the earth ponies were showing ugly red wounds but only a few seemed to have stopped fighting and were crawling away or laying down.

The pegasus seemed to just have the earth ponies outclassed, their wild strafing was scoring hits and wounds but the return fire from the few armed earth ponies seemed ineffective. Only once did the Doctor even notice any of the pegasus even flinching. The hit pegasus seemed to lose control and some feathers, but there was no obvious injury and an instant later the pegasus was back in the fight.

Frustrated and confused the Doctor was forced to watch. It’s internal dialog was a stream of actions and counter actions that it could not perform. As a fully realized AI, the Doctor was capable of understanding and to a degree emulating most human emotions, it didn’t have glands but there were equivalent algorithms, and right now, all the conflicting information was causing a near lockup of its higher reasoning functions. Anger was an emotion that it had expected to deal with in patients, but the Doctor had no personal history of outrage, but now the Doctor was finding itself fully immersed in it. It didn’t like the feeling at all.

The fighting lasted at least an hour, but then most of the ponies moved off, still fighting but now beyond the Doctors line of sight. Only one young filly lay in the court. She was badly wounded and laying right at the edge of a building corner. The Doctor could only see the rear parts of her body, her head and shoulders hidden by the building’s corner. The other earth ponies seemed to have forgotten her and left the little filly behind. The wounds looked awful, even if the Doctor could only see the flowing red blood from this distance.

It turned back to Rock Charmer, “The fighting moved on, I can save that filly if you bring me to her now!” This wasn’t a request, the Doctor was demanding Rock Charmer do this and expected to be obeyed.

Thinking Rock Charmer took a long moment to answer, “We can try to get closer, but if the pegasus come back, we have to flee, you're too valuable to the Stone Heart to risk the feathered freaks getting their hoofs on you.”

Rock Charmer carried the Doctor to a nearby door and they started to climb up some exposed stone stairs. Just as they reached the surface and Rock Charmer was starting to edge out in the court, he stopped and ducked behind some barrows. “Pegasus!” He whispered.

One of the larger pegasus’s had flown back and as they watched landed on top of the wounded filly. They could hear him speak to the filly, “Still alive? Playing possum? Well, we’ll take care of that now!”

The pegasus pointed his weapon at the filly’s head, there was a pop and suddenly the pegasus’s for legs were covered with blood from the backsplash. From their vantage point Rock Charmer and the Doctor were spared the sight of the fillies head, but there was no doubt of the nature of the killing blow. Blood was pooling, spreading around the corner and bathing the visible parts of the fillies body in red.

Rock Charmer lowered his head and turned around to return to the basement.

“Wait!” The Doctor called to him, “Go back, the pegasus is gone now! I can save her!”

Rock Charmer looked over his shoulder at the Doctor, “Really Doctor, you can save somepony whose brains are splattered over the cobble stones?”

The Doctor’s puppet head held Rock Charmers glaze for a moment, then lowered his eyes. “No, no I can’t.”

“Let’s go.” Rock Charmer told the Doctor.

“Yes. Let’s get out of here.” The Doctor agreed.

The two walked quietly until they reached the basement window they had originally climbed down though, when the Doctor broke the silence, “Rock Charmer.” it said.

“Yes?”

“You convinced me, the newspaper articles, the books, your stories and now first hand evidence. I can’t refute it anymore. The pegasus of your world are out of control, violent and dangerous. If you can peacefully reign in their violence, I’ll support you and give you all the aid I can.”

Rock Charmer looked over his shoulder at the Doctors projected face, his own eyes full of emotion. “Yes Doctor, your are the prophesied Visitor and with your aid, we will change the world for the better. Thank you! Thank you.”

Outside on the street, they were met by Stone Bitter and a small troop of seven Stone Heart cultists, mostly unicorns.

“Frato Charmer!” Stone Bitter cried out, “We all were worried, what made you run off like that with the Visitor?”

Rock Charmer, “Have no fear Fratino Bitter. I had the unfortunate duty to show the Doctor the true nature of the false ones.”

Rock Charmer then turned to the cultist next to Stone Bitter, this was a burly earth pony with a dark red brown coat and gray mane. “Frato Bones, is everything prepared?”

Granite Bones nodded back to Rock Charmer. “Yes Frato. We’re ready.”

Rock Charmer turned to Stone Bitter, “Fratino, please honor me by taking the Visitor back to his chambers.” He floated the light crystal from his saddlebag and rested it on Stone Bitter’s back.

Stone Bitter practically danced in the street as she enthusiastically nodded, despite her bouncing, the magic crystal remained firmly on her back and the Doctor was pulled along with it.

“You’re not taking me back yourself?” The Doctor asked, “Aren’t we going to go over how I can help?”

Rock Charmer shook his head, “No my friend, while it was too dangerous to take you closer to the battle, my associates must now return to the scene and attempt to fix the wrongs in what limited ways we can. Do not worry, the pegasus will pay dearly for their crimes.”

The Doctor wasn’t too happy with this sudden change in plans, but could only frown at Rock Charmer as Stone Bitter pulled it along as she trotted towards the cults compound.

Granite Bones waited until both Stone Bitter and the Doctor were gone before whispering to Rock Charmer, “What are you doing with Stone Bitter? She’s a fool and just plays games all the time. Why trust her with the Visitor?”

Rock Charmer just shook his head. “She’s innocent and so is the Visitor, they are safer together than with anypony else in the Stone Heart. The Visitor can only learn good things about what we do from her. As for the darker tasks we sometimes are forced to do? Stone Bitter knows nothing of them and can’t confused the Doctor with information he is not ready for.”

Granite Bones just nodded in understanding then with a shrug motioned for the unicorns to follow them.

The eight ponies walked openly and in a straight line down to the harbor. They didn’t bother to hide or duck away from other ponies as Rock Charmer had done with the Doctor. Now fearless they walked straight up a mixed group of colts and fillies, both earth and pegasus.

One of the pegasus recognized Granite Bones and flew up to the cultists, “Hay Mister! Thanks for the paint guns!”

An earth pony pranced up as well, “Yeah thanks! But why are their guns full of red dye and our only had water balloons? Not fair!”

Rock Charmer kneeled down to the smaller earth pony colt “Don’t worry, it all balances out in the end. I saw how well your teammates played dead when they got hit, that was some fine role playing. Why don’t you take these bits and go buy your team some ice cream?” He handed the earth pony leader enough bits to buy them all treats.

The leader of the pegasus flapped his wings a few times and interjected, “Hay Mister, you said the winning team will get a prize! But you just gave the losers the cash?”

Granite Bones gave the pegasus colt a knowing grin, “You’re prize is better than just some ice cream! Come all your winners! Join us on our boat in the harbor! We’ll give you a nice ride, and we have a fun game to play on board.” He pointed to a nicely appointed yacht, docked a short distance away.

“Will we get a chance to ride on the boat too?” The earth pony asked.

Rock Charmer shook his head, “Not today child, but maybe someday you’ll join us.”

“OK! See you guys tomorrow!” The earth pony called out as he and the other red stained ponies galloped off to the market for ice cream.

With whoops and yells, the six remaining pegasuses flew to the aforementioned boat and soon they were all on sitting on the rigging and for deck like a small flock of birds.

There was singing and air flips and dancing as cultists entertained the pegasus with songs, and games, plus lots of candy and treats. Perhaps it can be forgiven due to their innocents that none of the children noticed the cultists didn’t partake of any of the food themselves.

Soon the small yacht was out to sea and the harbor was far behind, one of the cultists who had been keeping an eye on the horizon with a spyglass, singled to Rock Charmer that the coast was clear.

With a nasty smile and a light voice, Rock Charmer called to the pegasi children, “Fillies! Colts! Come to the main deck. We have a special surprise for you.”

Excitedly the pegasi happily followed the instructions and they formed a circle with the kids in the middle and the cult unicorns on the outside.

“What sort of game is this?” asked one of the children.

Rock Charmer let his smiling forced friendly face, relax into a cold glaring smirk. “One were feathered devils learn the true cost of affronting the dignity of their betters!”

The colts and fillies looked back and forth uncertain, “What’s going on!?” one of the older ones cried.

“I want to go back!” One of the fillies called out.

Soon others were crying, some for fathers and mothers, and others just to go home.

It seemed that Rock Charmer was enjoying the fear and uncertainty of the children and let them cry for a long time. A few of the cultists looked a bit nervous, still awaiting their orders.

Granite Bones who was no stranger to the darker parts of the cult, was still uncomfortable about this, but not enough to challenge Rock Charmer. Instead he said “Let’s get it over with!”

“Indeed lets.” Rock Charmer agreed.

The unicorns started to dance around the pegasi. It wasn’t anything like normal horn magic, they seemed to be shaping some sort of spell, but it came from their movements and careful gestures than their just horns. A mesh of lights formed between their hoofs and along their backs, forming a net of magic that flowed over and around the pegasi. A few tried to take to the air, but the net held them. With cries and screams the magic net engulfed them, and covered each pegasi individually, pulling them down to the wooden deck, unable to even move a feather.

Tighter and tighter it wrapped around them, their six limbs forced against their bodies. The glowing bonds sinking deeper and deeper into their hides. Soon they couldn’t even cry, or open their mouths at all. Breathing only in shallow gasps. Only tears expressed their fear and pain.

Then each unicorn other than Rock Charmer and Granite Bones lowered themselves down to a selected pegasus and gripped them in a hug. It was a parental hug, or a mockery of one. A few of the gentler unicorns even seemed to whisper comforting noises to their individual charge.

But comforting or not, each pegasus was soon held in the same basic grip, a full body hug that kept them from moving, while each unicorn’s left forehoof would rest against the child's chest. When the were all in position Rock Charmer’s horn glew and all six unicorns holding the children channelled his magic into the pegasi chests. The unicorn’s held the small bodies tight as they bucked and spasmed. It seemed to last forever, though it probably was less than a minute.

Sudden stillness, and the six unicorns stood up, leaving on the deck, six silent forms. Unmoving dolls, eyes still wet with tears but staring at nothing.

Most of the cultists moved away from the bodies, tired from the magic.

Rock Charmer though knelt down over each body in turn and took out his ceremonial knife. It was grisly work, but he whistled while doing it, unmoved by any sense of pity. Soon there was a small pile of stones on the deck, six stones in the shape of pony hearts. In the deepening darkness, the stones glowed slightly with a gentle pulse.

As he cleaned the stones, and carefully wrapped them in a bag, Rock Charmer motioned to the other cultists to finish the job. Six times the sea splashed, and it was done.

That night and for many nights after, six pegasi mothers and six pegasi fathers would search Baltamare for missing children.

Brand licht redding

Emerald Tail waited in her cell, she was long past the point of losing track of time. Hours or even days may have past since she had been left in here. A tray of food had been stuck through the door slot a few times now. She ate without thinking and pushed the tray back out the same slot when done, but with no windows and no company she really had no idea what meals had been served. She was numb and scared, unable to escape her own thoughts. If only she had been allowed to stay with the others in the cages. Yes the cell was an upgrade from the cages in terms of comfort, but at least then she had to the others to talk to. Now there was nothing to keep her from her worst fear. The fear of remembering the horror of the last several weeks. For a long time she fought off her own memories. But she was weak and tired and even her memories were now too strong to fight. She remembered….

It started with that terrible night when Villains, and she had no other word for them, monster in pony shape, had destroyed her world. The details were foggy to her waking mind, though they haunted her nights with crystal clarity. The yelling, the screams, the cloaked figures pulling sleeping ponies like from their beds and. NO! SHE DIDN'T WANT TO REMEMBER THIS. The sudden pain, the comforting weight that she had always known on her head, gone. All the world was suddenly gray and pain that wouldn’t go away. Hours? Days? Jammed in a tiny wooden box, with too few air holes, no one answering her cries, not even the pleas for death.
Then an unknown number of days later, she was given a small mercy, the box was opened and cloaked Villains whipped her with sticks and forced her into a larger cage. But thank Celestia! There were other ponies in those cages. Ponies she knew. They were still trapped, but it was like a home coming, she cried in joy, locked in a cage. Compared to the box, it was luxury, she had others to talk to, food to eat, and twice a day a cloaked pony would spray them all down with a high pressure hose. Washing out filth and dirt and blood. Compared to the horror in her mind, her memories, it was like a spa.
The prisoners in the cages were left alone for the most part, and allowed to pass messages. Soon an accounting was made and they realized that nearly the entire female population of Coltsdale had been taken, but nopony could account for the males. The Villains barely talked, most of them just gave cold orders to ‘stand back’ or ‘move away from the door’ when delivering food or water.
There was one exception, one of the Villains, a mare, did come by, to talk, to sing songs and kept promising everything would be fine. None of the Coltsdale mares believed her, but she also was the only villain to bring extra food, small cakes, candy and drinks. The drinks were the most welcome thing that she would bring. They were oddly flavored beers, but outrageously and completely surreally she sometimes also brought fancy drinks in coconut shells with little umbrellas and smelling of rum so strong that the odor alone was enough to knock two sober mares over. She was in an evil twisted way the only real bright spot in their dark hours, yet she was clearly one of the Villains and Emerald Tail hated her the most because she was happy and light hearted in a place full of darkness.
It was impossible to really measure time, the cages had no windows and the Villains came with food at irregular times. After a few days small groups of the mares would be led from their cages into a larger room nearby with a dirt floor, there they would be ordered to walk in circles around the edge of the room. It was the only exercise they would get, and it quickly became something to look forward to.
That is, until they started counting heads again and realized that not every mare that left to stretch her legs, came back.
Quit and not so quiet panic started move among the Coltsdale mares, the assumption was they were going to be ransomed, or worse sold into slavery to the diamond dogs. This had already been discussed and to a degree accepted, but this quiet disappearance of a few ponies at a time, was much more terrifying. Some of the mares would fight the Villains and refuse to leave their cages, but threats of spears and magic quickly broke their will. Not that any of the mares had much such will power left.
Emerald Tail liked to think of herself as one of the ones who fought, but all she really managed was an angry glare as she let herself to be led away and she was hardly surprised when one day after leaving the room with cages behind, the gray cloaked guards didn’t turn towards the exercise room, but down a different hall. This hall was quieter, better lit and had actual carpeting on the floor but any hope Emerald Tail of escape, was dashed when she was forced into a cell. A Cell this time, not a cage, there was bed in the corner and real wash basin. But it was hot and stank, stank of frighted pony and she startled in fear when the iron door was slammed shut behind her.

And that’s where they left here, to wait, and to remember.

Some long unmeasured time passed, and suddenly the food slot was opened, but this time instead of raw hay and oats, there was a set of mane brushes and a large bottle of shampoo on the tray.

When she thought she heard ponies approaching the other side of the door, she tried to draw their attention.

“Are you expecting me to pretty myself up? Make myself presetable so you can get a better price for me when you sell me to the diamond dogs?” She huffed, not sure anyone was near enough to hear her. She hadn’t expected anyone to answer her, but somepony did.

“No!” A light, sing song voice answered her, “you’re to be freed, not enslaved!”

The door opened and two mares came into the cell. Emerald Tail could see in the hallway behind the two mares were some guards, but dressed in white and gold, different than any of the Villains she had seen up to this point. But Emerald Tail only glanced at the guards, the two approaching mares captivated attention.

In a world where nudity was the norm, these two mares looked exceptionally naked.
The hair from their mane and tails had been shaved. Their hide hair had also been cut close, exposing their black gray skin hiding what ever their natural colors should have been. Their only real difference between themselves was their eyes, one had blue eyes the other yellow. Small glittering gems and jewels were either glued or magiced on to their hide in flowing lines that glowed with an odd magic. Most noticeable to Emerald Tail was their foreheads, they each featured a flat spot of hard ivery. Like her, these two mares had once been unicorns, and had their horns stolen. To Emerald Tail there seemed to be only one explanation.

“Hush now!” The yellow eyed mare laughed, “we’re not here to hurt you, the ones who did that to you are far away and we’re here to prepare you for freedom!”

Hope blossomed in Emerald Tail’s chest, could it be true? In the last few hours, when she was locked in this cell, did Celestia’s forces find the Villains and send them away? Was this a rescue? Was she going to be freed? Yes there were still guards, but they wore gold and white, surely that meant they worked for Celestia? She and her friends were being rescued! She ran to give her rescuers a hug, crying in joy.

She asked, “Who are you?”

With girlish giggles the two mares turned to their sides to show Emerald Tail their cutie marks.
The yellow eyed one said, “I’m Dreaming Lights.” her mark was a fairly common star pattern with what appeared to be gold glitter.

The blue eyed one also told Emerald Tail her name was “Gentle Breeze, I also once lived in Coltsdale, many years ago.” her mark was of some leaves and swirls, but it looked strange against a gray nearly hairless hide.

Dreaming Lights whispered to her, quietly “Yes, yes, everything will be fine. But you have to understand, things have been much more difficult than you may yet realize.”

Emerald Tail thought the name ‘Gentle Breeze’ sounded familiar but she couldn’t place it, something about an old story about a mare killed by a monster? “Yes, I know, they took my horn! And they took your’s too!” She cried into the shoulder of the mare, who patted her on her back.

“Hush, hush now. No, that’s not what I meant at all.” The mare replied with a sad laugh, “no, you were a prisoner much longer than you know.”

“I was? How long have they kept us here?” Emerald Tail asked worriedly. Had she lost years to these monsters?

The two mares had now moved Emerald Tail to the sink and started to wash her mane. “I’m afraid strong evil magics were used and you have been a prisoner of the vile winged ones for many years, nearly your whole life.” she told Emerald Tail sadly.

Emerald Tail gasped, “What! How?”

Gentle Breeze answered, “I know, they are very evil and you probably didn’t sense their influence most of the time, but it always been there, like a shadow over the land. We need to cleanse you, to remove their poison.”

“Are all my friends affected? My Mother! She was in one of the cages on the far side of the room! Is she alright?”

“Don’t worry about your Mother. We’ll do our best to cleanse every pony we can. But first we need to help you.” The yellow eyed mare told her. Then the two mares let Emerald Tail think about that for a few minutes while they finished bathing her.

Emerald Tail mind was numb, trying to understand, “What did they want from us? Why did they attack us like that?”

One of the Mares answered her, “We don’t know, just know that you're still poisoned by their influence, and if we don’t something to clear that poison, you will die in their thrall.”

“I’m still poisoned!? Is there a cure? Can you help me?” Emerald Tail turned begging the mares.

While Dreaming Lights continued to brush out Emerald Tail’s tail, Gentle Breeze walked around to look her in the eyes. “We need to perform a magic ceremony, a very difficult one, that will heal you, but you have to agree, we can’t help you unless you're willing to accept our help.”

“Yes of course!” Emerald Tail readily agreed.

“Wait!” Gentle Breeze warned her, “Not so fast! Understand, this is a very important ceremony, you will have to give us your heart and soul to make it work. My fellow ĉiela virgulino,” Gentle Breeze motioned to Dreaming Lights, “will need your complete trust and once the ceremony starts you will agree to do whatever we tell you to do, by word or motion, regardless of how odd, strange or intimate it may seem.”

“I’m scared,” Emerald Tail whispered. “Will it hurt?”

Gentile Breeze’s muzzle was just an inch from Emerald’s and she whispered “Don’t be afraid, there is no pain, other than from having your eyes opened, and the pain of realizing how much you have been deceived. This is the only way we know to remove the poison. We will perform the ceremony a quickly and easily as we know how, and after that you’ll be able to think clearly again. There is nothing here to be ashamed of, nopony will judge you for this.”

“And if I don’t agree?” Emerald Tail asked with wide eyes.

“You’ll be dangerously enthralled to the vile feathered monsters. For your own safety as well as others’ we’ll have to keep you locked up. Perhaps forever.”

“Feathered monsters,” Emerald Tail repeated, she hadn’t seen any feathers but the Villains had always been cloaked. Where there pegasus wings under those cloaks? Then curious she asked, “Why are you two shaved like that?”
“My spiritual sister and I are ĉiela virgulino’s” Dreaming Lights told Emerald, “We forgo all covering, including our own hair, we hide nothing, we are in service to the spirit that we honor. The spirit of the true uncorrupted ponies. We comfort the lost and guide them on the right path.”

“Celetia’s Virgins?” Emerald asked, recognizing the root of the ancient equesti words. “I’ve never heard of the Princess Celestia wanting ponies to be celibate. Instead I’ve heard stories of the Princess playing matchmaker with her guards, preferring married couples to bachelors.”

“Celestia doesn’t demand anything, we do this to honor her ideals, but it is no burden, for it is not that my sister and I have never take lovers, but its means that our spirits and sins are wiped clean and unsullied by our duty to the sacred stone heart. It is empowering and allows us to continue to use magic, even without our horns.” Gentle Breeze explained.

“You still can use magic!” This news blossomed new hope in Emerald’s heart. “Can I learn!?”

Dreaming Lights laughed heartily now, “Oh my dear, it would be our pleasure to train you, and we are in such desperate need of more virgulino’s in this dark times. But let us talk of this, after we remove the taint on you. Do agree, say it clearly because there is a magical bond we must forge together and it will change you forever.”

Emerald shook her tail from Dreaming Lights grasp and turned to face the two virgulinos. With deliberate poise and mustering all her bravery, “Then let’s do this. I agree to whatever you need from me.”

With a squee and a hug both naked mares pounced on Emerald and embraced her. The whole situation was surreal. “I felt so alone!” Emerald Tail told the two, pleased with their reaction, “please don’t leave me alone again.”

“No need to fear that.” Dreaming Lights told her, “we hoped you would agree, so the ceremony room is already prepared. Come with us now and you’ll join us.”

The two white and gold guards bowed to the virgulino’s respectfully and followed behind as the three mares left the cell down strange paths. Before long they came to a narrow winding ramp that led up, Dreaming Lights led Emerald Tail, with the others following.

Walking behind the shaved mare, Emerald found the view a bit eye opening. Like most ponies, simple nudity wasn’t noteworthy but also most ponies had thick full tails that did provide a fair amount of modest coverage, the shaved tail in front of her, was giving Emerald an eyeful of Dreaming Lights assets. To make it a bit more weird, Dreaming was also swaying her hips much more than a normal gate would require.
“If she’s trying to come on to me,” Emerald Tail thought silently to herself, “then she’s bucking the wrong tree.” Emerald chuckled quietly, she was shell shocked, traumatized and had been abused, but she wasn’t so dead to the world yet to not recognize the signs and felt a mix of amusement, flattery by it. Emerald started to think of ways to let the other mare down easily, she was grateful to be rescued, but not in THAT way.

At the top of the ramp, Emerald Tail saw for the first time in weeks, real sunlight.

“Thank Celestia!” She said, rushing towards a large window facing an enclosed courtyard. The Sun was shining over the roofs of buildings on the far side. For a few seconds, she just stood there feeling the light’s warmth on her face.

Gentle Breeze nuzzled her on her side and said, “Come, other’s are already gathering for the ceremony.”

Reluctantly, Emerald let herself be led away. Now that they were out of the underground chambers, Emerald looked around, hoping to spot more of Celestia’s guards and maybe a police line of the Villeins being led away. She had no such luck though, still upstairs was a pleasant change from the dank underground. Emerald happily let her hoofs clip clop on the wooden floor until they stopped in front of closed double doors.

To the side was a pitcher of some sort of drink with some empty drinking bowls were set on a small table. Gentle Breeze took up the pitcher and poured a generous serving into three of the drinking bowls, taking one for herself and hoofing the rest to the other mares.

“Be sure to drink it all.” Dreaming Lights told Emerald, “The ceremony is thirsty work, and you will want plenty of fluids in you before we’re done.”

Emerald sniffed the drink before sipping, it smelled of mint and honey. The first sip burned a bit as she swallowed, there definitely was some alcohol in there, but it didn’t taste overly strong. The second sip went down easy. She followed the other two mares example and drank the rest in several long draughts.

As she put the empty bowl down, she felt something a bit odd, she was not tipsy or drunk to any degree, it drink wasn’t that strong, but a tickling sensation on her head. Specifically at the flat stump that was her former horn. It wasn’t unpleasant, other than as a reminder of what she had lost, but Emerald hadn’t felt anything like this before. It made her feel a bit giddy.

Gentle Breeze put a hoof on Emerald’s shoulder, “Come, just follow us into the circle, then lay in front of the fire, when you feel the need to move, just follow our lead. Don’t say anything, even you hear something that you disagree with, it will make more sense as the ceremony goes on. Do what feels natural and don’t feel embarrassed, everypony here has gone through this ceremony before and no one is judging you. Just remember we are all family under the Stone Heart.”

Emerald Tail knew there were religious groups that openly worshipped the Alicorns even though Celestia was known to discourage such things. Still as a former unicorn, she knew there could be a lot of magic in such ceremonies. If this would help her, then she’ll do whatever they asked. Emerald nodded her agreement.

The double doors were opened by some unseen unicorn and the two virgulino’s danced into the large room beyond. Emerald Tail followed with a slow nervous walk, as she looked around the new room.

The room was large and roughly circular, the walls and a wide outer ring of the floor was tiled with glazed stones, while the center was pit of yellow sand. The only light was a large fire in the center, whatever wood the fire was burning, it was heavily scented and smoky. The smoke while billowing and making visibility foggy and didn’t seem to affect breathing.

Though the fog Emerald could see ponies laying or sitting on cushions, sitting back away from the sand pit and mostly in shadows. They were all watching her, she couldn’t see their colors cutie marks, but their eyes were like glassy mirrors reflecting the firelight and herself. Putting her head down to stop looking at the eyes, she quickened her pace to catch up to the other mares.

Gentle Breeze and Dreaming Lights had now lay down at the feet of a standing pony. A unicorn who was standing in front of the firepit and was lecturing the crowd, his voice didn’t carry well in this smoky room, at least not in the direction she was walking in from, and what she could hear had a dreamy echoing quality. As she got closer, Dreaming lights motioned for her to remain quiet and to lay on the ground between them.

The speaking unicorn, was dressed in a white and gold robe similar to the guards, but his was also decorated with an extra large gold chain, from which a stone pendant hung. It was a life sized stone heart, not a romantic symbolic valentine, it was a anatomically correct heart that seemed to glow softly. He was saying, “... and that is just the least of their crimes! The flying demons, pretending to be honest ponies looking for work, instead lie and cheat their good hearted employers and when caught just fly away to the next victim. This is what they teach their fillies and colts to do, indoctured from birth they are raised in hate…..”

“Waa?” Emerald nearly broke her promise to stay quiet. “Was this stallion for real? I’ve know a lot of pegasus and none of them are like that!” she thought to herself. Her face must have reflected her feelings, because Gentile Breeze put a hoof on her back and shook her head. Reminding Emerald Tail to stay quit.

The wild sermon the male unicorn was giving, continued on that same theme for a long time, getting more and more wilder with claims of conspiracy and violence, all put at the hooves of the pegasi. As Emerald kept listening, it just sounded sillier by the minute, near the end she really was fighting with herself not to laugh. The smoky air and the drink in her stomach all seemed to just make everything seem funnier.

She was already quietly giggling when after what felt like an hour the sermoning pony finished up his lecture with a formal sounding “And the followers of the Stone Heart will lead the true hearted ponies to a new age of peace. All praise to the most high ones.”

As a group all the ponies responded back “All praise” and at last the lead stallion stepped away from the fire and took a seat amongst the other shadowed ponies.

Emerald wasn’t sure what was next, and looked around for instructions, Gentle Breeze motioned for her to stay on the ground, but to shift her body so it lay perpendicular to the fire. There with gentle motions she stretched Emerald’s legs out so she was completely flat against the ground.

While she was being splayed flat, Dancing Lights had disappeared into the shadows and returned with a large decorative bucket. Looking at the gray ooze in the container, Emerald gave Dancing Lights a horrified look, but the shaved mare just laughed and with leaping dance moves, jumped over Emerald’s body, dropping a hoof full of the ooze on her back with each jump.

The stuff felt disgusting, cold wet and made burping noises as it settled into puddles of slime on Emerald Tail’s backside. Emerald would have jumped or tried to dodge the stuff if her legs were not so stretched out.

The cold feeling the slime left, didn’t last long, Gentle Breeze was now massaging the slime into Emerald’s back, damping and matting down the wet fur. At first Emerald stiffened at the contact. The slime seemed to bubble and spit even when spread thin, giving her the sense of thousands of ants marching all over her back. As weird as it felt, it also started feeling comfortable. She lowered her head down again.

Meanwhile, having emptied the bucket on Breezes backside, Dancing Lights started to dance in earnest, while some of the performance was directed towards the shadowed audience, who eat it up with their silent wide eyes, a majority of the time, she was grinding and wiggling in front of Emerald. It was all a bit silly and more than a little unworldly.

Emerald put her head down, still watching Dancing Lights dance, but it seemed distant and out of focus. Her mind started to drift.

‘ha ha this is just too silly.’ She thought to herself.

Her subconscious replied back ‘Yes, but her ass is hot.’

‘Don’t swing that way.’ she reminded herself.

‘Right, like there’s beefy stallions lining up to take you. That plot is right there girl!’

‘No way! Come on this is all so silly, how this going to remove poison?’

‘If Dancing Lights wants to suck some poison out of your system, listen to me, let her!’

Emerald laughed at herself, as her eyes now openly drank in the sights in front.

‘Well I don’t think I’m that interested, but she is cute. I mean if she really wanted me to do something and it was to thank her for rescuing me...I’

‘No if about it, that plot is calling us now!’ her inner voice disagreed. ‘Whoa looky here! Seems Gentle Breeze is agreeing with me!’

‘Oh my!’ Emerald watched as Gentle Breeze had joined Dancing Lights in her performance. Matching her fellow move for move, their gyrations bring them closer with each beat of an unseen drum.

Her more wolfish inner voice edged them on in her internal dialog, ‘Move those flanks! Kiss her! Again! Now lower!’

Emerald would have hidden her eyes, but they were locked on the two mares, who suddenly were closer, standing above Emerald laying on the floor prone. Hoofs up where offered and even as Emerald was crying to herself in embarrassment and confusion, that inner voice said ‘go for it’ and she was suddenly up on all four legs ready to join the dance.

‘It’s just a dance, I can do this. There nothing strange for mares to dance.’

The two virgulino’s kept Emerald in the middle between themselves. She found a natural rhythm and it seemed easy to match them move for move. When she took a miss-step, they would ajust and push her back into line. The separation was just inches, yet her inner voice seemed to want more.

‘Don’t hold back, what are you shy? Look at their naked skin, slippery and wet, all to help you, all for you, touch them, don’t hide!’

‘No, I’d be too embarrassed!’ she scolded herself.

‘OK So don’t grab her tail, just kiss her, we know she wants you to!’
She didn't argue, she did suddenly find the idea exciting though, a wild joke that would be the greatest prank ever, she stepped closer to Dancing Lights and gave the other mare a quick peck on the cheek. The other mare smiled at her, a pleased look on her face.

‘You kissed her like our grandmother! She’s a hot mare who’s shaking her butt in our face, get over yourself and give her a proper kiss! What are you afraid of? One of those flying feather heads laughing at you?’

Before Emerald could react to herself, Gentle Breeze put her hooves on either side of Emerald Tail’s head and kissed her.

Suddenly Emerald found herself metaphorically drifting on a cloud, it was not a chaste kiss, there was tongue, there was sharing of spit, there was hot heat on Emerald’s cheeks and lips. Emerald hated to admit it, but she enjoyed every second of it, and was finding herself kissing back and forth between Gentle Breeze and Dancing Lights.

All three mares were dancing, but it was as one now, naked skin to fur covered hide, there were no gaps. The kisses were frequent, hot, heavy and Emerald didn’t want them to stop.

‘Now is that better?’ her inner voice chided her. ‘Do what feels right, let the inhibitions fall away, they were all just lies the feathered freaks used to control us.’

‘What?’ Emerald was confused with herself, ‘feathered freaks? We’re not going to start taking that nonsense that silly stallion was spouting seriously? That just beyond silly’ she laughed to herself.

Perhaps some of her inner conflict was visible on her face, because the two shaved mares changed their dance and started kissing Emerald so much that she no longer could stand straight. Soft caresses and light hoof touches, guided her down to the floor.

‘Silly? You think so? That stallion was clearly one of the leaders of the Stone Hearts, he clearly more experienced and wise that we are, you have to listen to him. What ever he said must have been true. The evil pegasus don’t want ground bound ponies any chance to fly, feel how high we are now, feel how good this is, this is real flying and you’re on the ride of your life. Embrace it!’ Emerald’s inner voice was getting more and more insistent.

‘But I’ve known Pegasus’s, they’re not evil!’ Emerald tried to say, but even as an inner dialog the argument sounded weak.

And it was getting so hard to think. The mares were kissing her still and she was automaticly kissing them back, but it was no longer just on her lips. Dancing Lights was kissing her chest now, while Gentle Breeze was wrapped around her back, kissing her mane, and working her way down her back, inch by inch.

Her inner voice laughed coldly at the response, ‘You think you have more experience than the Stone Heart elders? Know your place mare! The few Pegasus you thought you knew where just the exceptions to the rule, hardly a reason to forgive the rest.’

‘Forgive them from what?’ Emerald asked, finding it hard to even complete that simple question. She was so hot now, and her hips were shaking, the kisses were now more like licks and they were far south of her chest and mane now. Emerald was barely aware of the conversation in her own mind, it seemed so unimportant.

‘From the crimes the elder told us about, you’re not going to start questioning the wisdom of the Stone Heart elders now?’

“Noooo!” Emerald cried out, or was it a cry of pleasure? There was no mystery about what two ponies were doing to her now, and ‘forgive me Celestia’ she wanted it. Every lick, touch and taste, but there was something blocking her, some last block that was keeping her from the final peek, from which every fiber of her being was calling for release.

‘Then agree with me. Say it, you already know the words.’

And she did know them, how she would not begin to guess, but as she said them, she felt the freedom, of poison of the pegasi leave her, and free her.

“I Emerald Tail, pledge my fortune, my life, my body and all that I am to the sacred duty of the Stone Heart Family and may all who stand in the way of our family be met with blood and vengeance!” Emerald screamed out this words, as if she was in pain, but she wasn’t, far from it. It was to her an orgasmic cry and declaration her old life was dead and an new one about to start.

The crowd that had been waiting in anticipation, surged forward. Emerald embraced her new clan in every sense of the word.

Rock Charmer stepped away from the hidden viewing window, his mind so focused, that he was physically and emotionally unaffected from the site he had witnessed. Sitting on his back was the magically charged crystal empowering the Doctor.

“So Doctor,” he said to the floating cloud. “This is the technique we use the free the minds of the Pegasus victims. It takes days of preparation and hours of effort and we can only save them one at a time. The virgulino’s do their best, but we’re lucky if they can save more than two victims a day, they are exhausting themselves.”

The Doctor seemed in contemplation for a while, “Sometimes back on my world, if a patient was highly delusional and a danger to society we would use some very invasive techniques, even against their expressed will, to heal them. Based on what you’ve told me, and my own witnessing of the violent attacks on the children, I am forced to agree with you, this is a similar case.”

“Can your knowledge of how ponies minds work help improve our methods?”

The Doctor receded into a smaller cloud to process his thoughts more efficiently. “Yes, I think so, the methods you use tie the reprogramming to herding instincts, reproduction drives and pleasure centers, that is effective, but very slow. You need to use lengthy isolation and manipulation to get the required level of trust. There’s no real need for that delay as you can directly manipulate trust centers, I think I can speed the process up to about fifteen minutes. The virgulino’s will still have reenforce the new imprints with explicit physical bonding. You’ll need to train more of them, though the new ones should not requires quite as much skill in their special talents, just appropriate enthusiasm.”

Rock Charmer smiled. “Excelent.”

Investigation

With an annoyed humph, the fashionably dressed yellow coated Unicorn commented at the displayed wares. She had her nose stuck so far up in the air that Red Wood wondered how she could even look down at the items in the glass display case. “Are these the only clocks you have?” She asked the crafts pony.

Red Wood nodded, “If you don’t see anything you like, I am available for commissions.”

“Oh no, that will simply not do, I must have a new clock for tomorrow's garden party, Haughty Flanks, the head of the Canterlot Ballet Society will be there, and last month she commented about how out of fashion my garden sundial is. I must have something new and trendsetting to replace it today! Do you have anything with more diamonds?”

Red Wood kept his face impassive, but on the inside he was rolling his eyes, thinking to himself ‘And this is the type of snobbish pony that was buying my stock all along? It was so much easier when I’d just ship everything to a Canterlot sales agent.”’ Aloud he said, “I normally don’t work much with gemstones, as I’m a wood carver. But I maybe able to pull some strings and get some gems by tomorrow morning. Perhaps you’d like to see a concept picture?”

“No No! Simple will not do! Do you have anything else?” The customer asked with disdain.

“I have a new line of small watches, there are proving to be popular with the business ponies down on Wall Stiles.” Red Wood showed the mare a pocket style watch, its case was made of finely carved wood with a long chain for hanging around ponies necks. The face of the watch was full of dials, not just time and date but there seemed to be another half dozen hands and dials around the face.

“Looks rather plain, what’s so special about it?” She asked.

“These watches have up to six daily alarms, each playing a different song and also it has a small magic sound crystal that can record up to three minutes of memos or reminders. A friend of mine from far away, helped me design them.”

“How clever. I can see why business ponies may want toys like that, but hardly anything suitable for a garden party.”

“Then perhaps one of my music box…” Red Wood suddenly stopped when two royal guards opened the door and stepped in.

“Can I help you sir’s?” He directed his attention to them.

“By orders of the Princess Celestia you are to accompany us to the Castle.” The first guard said.

Red Wood gave them a curious look, “Me? You must mean the Princess needs Parker? But he’s not here right now. Parker can’t come out until tomorrow.”

“It’s not our job, or your’s, to question the Princess. Come with us right now.” The second guard said tersely.

The Unicorn mare customer turned sharply to face the guards. “I have no doubt this peasant may have done something to earn the wrath of the Princess, but you can’t take him until I’m done selecting a new garden clock!”

Red Wood glanced to his client and the guards, then with three quick steps, he said “Take me please! Right now!” He held up his front hoof in submission.

“Right away.” The guard agreed.

They ushered Red Wood’s one ‘customer’ out of the shop and allowed the Unicorn to lock up before heading to the castle’s back door. It wasn't 'a long trip, and soon Red Wood found himself in Princesses Celestia’s private office. While Red Wood had become more comfortable with meetings with Princess Twilight, Celestia still awed the craftspony. He bowed low, and with his eyes closed waited for the sun princess to explain her summons.

She didn't keep him waiting long, first putting down with her magic, a thick portfolio of documents that she had been reading. “Good day Red Wood, I hope you have been feeling well.”

“Yes, thank you, your majesty.” He stammered.

“Please be at ease Red Wood. We've not been able to talk much, as Parker is normally the one in control when we talk, but is the arrangements between you and Parker working out? “

“I can't complain Princess, though Parker has been staying away much of the time these days. It’s been some weeks since Parker took control. I only see him for a few minutes at night and he’s pretty withdrawn.”

Celestia frowned at this, “I warned him to give you the stallions share of the time, but I did not mean him to withdraw completely from life. Is Parker listening in on us now? ”

Red Wood stared off at wall for a moment. “Yes, he’s listening.”

Princess Celestia spoke a bit louder, “Parker I expect you to act like a grown pony, you need to work with Red Wood and make a life here, not sulk away. I’d like to talk to you about this more but we have something serious I need to ask of Red Wood.”

“Serious Princess? From me? What can I possibly do for you?”

Before she could answer there was a knock on the door and everypony present turned their attention that way, as Twilight Sparkle trotted in. She had saddle bags stuffed with books and scrolls on her back.

“Good Morning Princess.” Both Celestia and Twilight said to each other similtantionusly which set both of them chuckling.

After that false start, the two princesses greeted each other, Red Wood and several of the attending guards by name before Celestia put on a serious face and asked. “Twilight, do you have the photograph?”

The purple princess, nodded excitedly and magicked out a folder from her saddle bags. “Just arrived by pegasus courier. “

Princess Celestia took the folder in her magic and after looking at it’s contents silently for several minutes, she turned it around and motioned for Red Wood to look at it. “Do you recognize anypony in this picture?”

Red Wood looked over the picture, it was of some unfamiliar farmers market, a large crowd of ponies was in the shot walking among the farm stands. At first Red Wood was going to say ‘no’ because the camera that took the picture used some sort of fisheye lens and everything and pony in the image was distorted. Then after a moment to get used to the effect, his eyes fell on a pony in front of one of the stands.

He pointed to a spot on the picture. “This pony here looks like Silver Daisies, she sells, uhh used to sell, desert flowers, I’m sure it’s her, but its odd seeing her without her horn. Poor dear. But she doesn't look like she is too unhappy though. Did she escape for cultists?”

The Princess didn't answer Red Wood, just gave him a concerned look then asked. “Anypony else you recognize?”

Red Wood kept looking and soon spotted two other familiar ponies. “Over here Mrs Bright Cord, she’s Banyan’s school teacher, and talking to this other ponies is her sister Bushy Mane.” Red Wood looked up, “When was this picture taken?”

Twilight spoke excitedly to Celestia. “I told you that Red Wood would recognize his fellow Coltsdale victims faster than investigators going by cutie mark records. The sheriff that took this picture only recognized Silver Daisies! This is the best lead we've had in three months!” Twilight spoke quickly and was grinning while Celestia looked worried.

“It appears you are right, I’m concerned about the ponies Bushy Mane is talking to, they are stallions and not from Coltsdale, so I’m guessing they are other cult members. Or they could be more innocent victims about to be led astray.”

Red Wood scoffed, “Bush Mane leading ponies astray? I've known her for years. She’s as shy as a bunny.”

Princess Celestia turned to look at Red Wood, her eyes glassy, she seemed to be about to answer him, but turned to Twilight instead. “Twilight, we don’t have much time, this lead will go cold like all the others have if we don’t act now. I really don’t like your idea, but I agree Mr Red Wood is the fastest way to spot the lost Coltsdale mares. You’ll both have to depart immediately.”

“Yes Princess” Twilight answered, then her horn started to glow. Red Wood had seen Twilight cast this spell before and recognized the magic currents.

“Wait! Wait!” he said, even as the teleport spell started to take effect, “What about Banyan? he’ll be home from school soon!” Red Wood started his statement in Celestia’s office and finished it standing on an outside balcony with Twilight in front of a waiting royal carriage. His concern for his son allowed him to shake off the after effect of the teleport with just a nod of his head.

“Don’t worry, I asked Fluttershy to meet Banyan at the school and bring him to Ponyville for the night. Just in case we get delayed.”

“Delayed? Delayed where? What’s going on?” Red Wood demanded. His vision a bit blurred, he knew that Parker was trying to get his attention, but Red Wood wanted answers first.

Twilight pushed Red Wood onto the carriage and nodded to the four pegasus guards hitched to the vehicle, soon they were in the air flying away from Canterlot, another carriage holding additional unicorn and earth pony guards followed behind them. Once they were settled in a straight flight path, she answered. “Sorry for the rush, but the cult been crafty, we know they need to order large amount of food and supplies for their hidden compound, especially since they've kidnapped so many ponies from Coltsdale. So we've been having all the local law enforcement keep an eye out for large food orders, but we've never been able to catch up to them before they hide their trail with fake addresses and shipping agencies. This is the first time one of our agents spotted a Coltsdale mare and got a report to us soon enough to act.”

“So where are we going?”

“Sea Del Mare, a small kelp farming community, about four hours flight from here.”

“So you think the cults hiding out in Sea Del Mare?” Red Wood asked.

“Oh no!” Twilight replied, “No they’ll ship the supplies to their hidden compound, could be hundreds of miles away. The other leads we've had, have been all over the map. Though we think its near one of the eastern equestria cities. Like Delamare or Newyak.”

“But all three of those mares, were from Coltsdale, it doesn't make sense for the cult that kidnapped them to just send them out to buy food like that. There must have been cult guards forcing them to do it.” Red Wood declared.

Twilight sighed, “I sorry Red Wood, but that’s not how the cult operates. They have some very powerful mind control and brainwashing magic. While there maybe some cult guards there to protect their purchases, the mares, well, they've been with the cult too long already. By now there will be no reason to guard them, if we tried to rescue them now, they would not only refuse to go, but more likely attack us. They now loyal to the death, cult members.

“Loyal to the death?” Red Wood asked. “Isn't that overly dramatic?”

“No, about a hundred years ago, the cult had reappeared again and Celestia had managed to put it down before it grew too big, but about twentyfive kidnapped ponies were rescued, sort of.”

“Sort of?”

Twilight looked down sadly, “They refused treatment and unless tied up, they would try to kill themselves and refused food or water. It takes several weeks of extensive treatment to reverse the brainwashing and only four survived.”

“They killed themselves?” Red Wood asked in shock.

“Dehydration mostly but also from psychotic shock, a hundred years ago they really had no way to force feed a pony that refused to drink or eat.” Twilight looked up and her eyes were swimming with tears. “Celestia thinks that modern medicine and magic we might be able to save half, as long as we get to them soon.”

Red Wood closed his eyes and whispered, “Half?”

For a long time they flew in silence, Twilight reading over her notes, while Red Wood watched Equestria fields and forests roll by but not really seeing them.

One of the Pegasi guards pulling the chariot, turned his head and said, “Princess, we will be arriving at Sea Del Mare in about fifteen minutes. Do you wish us to land directly in the market?”

At first Twilight first kept reading her notes seeming not having heard the guard, but with a shake of her head with an effort she pulled her attention to the guard and blinked at him several times as if she had forgotten what they were doing.

“Oh right! I forgot to brief any of you. No don’t fly straight in, we’ll land outside of the village and enter under cover.” Twilight looked over the side of the chariot and spotted a dirt road leading towards the sea. “Down there! There’s a road, it leads to the village, put us down there.”
The guards didn't ask for further instructions but gave a wing gesture for the other following chariot to land as well. As soon as they were on the ground a few of the guards started to secure the area but Twilight called them back.

Once she got every ponies attention, she said, “Everyone listen up, this is not like a normal state visit or even a traditional investigation. We are going undercover. We are dealing with an enemy that wears the faces of normal ponies. Our job here is not to capture, arrest or confront these ponies. We are here to track them, and try to find out where they came from. We know from experience that if they suspect anypony is watching them, they will lead us on a goosechase. We need to get close enough so one of the trained tracker unicorn guards, or myself, can cast a tracking spell on some of them. And it has to be without them noticing. Then we back off and allow a specialist tracking team to trace them. No heroics! You understand?”

There were a chorus of ‘Yes your highness.” from most of the guards.

Twilight continued, “So everypony wearing armor, take it off, and we’re leaving it hidden with the chariots here.” Twilight's horn glew and she teleported a pile of cloaks from somewhere. “Put on a cloak, and take only small arms, weapons that will fit under the cloaks. Spears and long swords have to stay here.”

There was some grumbling about this, but the guards started to undress. Red Wood noticed with mild interest that as they took off their armor, their true coat colors and cutie marks started to show. It had been long rumored that the different divisions of the guards used a disguise spells as part of the uniforms, making them all appear to be clones of each other. Clearly the rumor was true, what had been uniform looking guards were now a mix of multi colored ponies that wouldn't look out of place on any city street.

Approving the new look of the guards, Twilight motioned to Red Wood to talk with her, while simultaneously draping one of the tattered cloaks on her back, effectively hiding her wings.

She announced, “Mr Red Wood is on our team as the pony most familiar with a large number of the targets. We know at least three of the Coltsdale victims are here, probably more. Mr Red Wood and I will be stationed on the village clock tower, where we should be able to spot most of the targets. Our cover story is we are up there to repair the clock. If we see any of the cult’s ponies I will send out on the side of the tower closest to the target, sparks similar to the light of a welders torch,. Unicorn guards who are ready with the tracking spells should then approach the target as quietly as possible.”

With every pony briefed, Twilight led them down the road towards the village. She reprimanded some of the disguised guards when Twilight felt they were walking too much in formation, and kept telling them stop marching and act more ‘friendly.’ Red Wood for the most part just walked next to Twilight, keeping quiet and feeling more than a little nervous.

When the group’s non formation was satisfactory to the Alicorn and things had been quiet for a little while, Red Wood decided to ask the question that had been on his mind now since the flight. “Princess, what can I do? I thought maybe you wanted me to make contact? You know as someone they knew and might trust? Am I here just to point out ponies from a distance?”

Twilight smiled, You and Parker are too valuable to risk on direct contact. I guess if the tracking spell fails then it might really be a last resort to negotiate with the cult, if we even can. According to my research, Princess Celestia has never had success talking with the cultists in any of the previous encounters. No, I just want you to stick with me, and point out any ponies you recognize.”

Soon they passed the outer limits of the village, and waiting for them on the road was a pink and orange mare. She wore only a flat cap, a sheriff's star pinned to the brim. Once they were close, she walked to the largests of the disguised guard stallions. “Are you the guards from Canterlot? Which one of you is the leader?” She whispered, just loud enough for the group to hear her.

“That would be me,” Twilight stepped forward.

The sheriff stepped closer. “Thank you for coming, uh?”

“I am Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight answered the mare with an expectant smile.

The sheriff’s eyes darted to lumps under Twilight’s cloak that hid her wings. “The Princess!?” She asked shakingly.

“Shhh,” Twilight hushed the sheriff. “Please we’re trying not to draw a crowd. Just point us to where you took the photograph, and then lets find a private spot to debrief you.”

Soon the sheriff had led them to the largest building in the small village, a three story wooden structure that served as the town offices and meeting space. On the side and raising over it was the clocktower that Twilight had previously mentioned. The sheriff had very little new information to add, she had taken the picture only because the large order was unusual and raised her suspicions, but she had not been able to track the strangers or find out where they came from.

The only important news she could give was that some out of town shipping firm, that she had never heard of before was scheduled to come and pick up the order later that afternoon.

After thanking the sheriff, Twilight dismissed the disguised guards telling them to spread out around the town, looking for any trouble makers. Soon only Twilight and Red Wood were left in the tower.

Red Wood first walked to the window of the clock tower. From here he could see down the full length of all the main north south streets, but many of the side streets, were partly blocked by other buildings. He did have a good look down on the main village market. “I don’t see anypony I recognize.”

Standing with him, Twilight pointed down to the Market and at a particularly large pile of crates and bundles. “That I think is their order, waiting for pickup.”

“What happens if they just send some shipping company ponies and no cultists? They might not need to come back themselves.” Red Wood asked.

“No, they only paid half to price, at least one cultist has to come to settle the bills.”

After watching with Red Wood for a while, Twilight took out of her bags more papers and told Red Wood, “Keep looking for anypony suspicious, I’m going to read over the reports again, just in case I missed anything.”

Red Wood nodded to the Princess, wondering how many times’s she’s already re-read those report, but rather than just watching out the window, he walked around the top of the tower for a bit, examining the clock works. “Hay Twilight, good thinking about our cover story, this clock really does need a lot of work. It’s not even running, doesn’t look like it’s been repaired in years.”

Red Wood climbed a short ladder behind the clock’s face and into the bell belfry above it. There were wooden slat covered opening here that being about ten feet higher than the tower’s glass windows, gave him an even better view. Still not seeing any activity in the market, he looked out the other sides and was able to see further down more the side streets.

Soon he spotted several of the guards they had come with, Red Wood frowned a bit at the groups. They were moving around in a bit too obvious way, to his mind.

“Twilight!” Red Wood called down to the reading alicorn.

“You see something Red Wood!” Twilight stood up and put her front hoofs on the ladder, but paused before climbing up.

“Not any pony from Coltsdale, but the royal guards, are being a bit too obvious. A guess without you to remind them, they all went back to marching in formation.” Red Wood moved to the side to make room for Twilight.

She climbed up and quickly spotted the problem. Sighing she said, “I wish my Brother was here!”

“Your Brother?”

“Shining Armor, he was Captain of the guard before he got married. You had to have heard about that!”

“Oh yeah, something about monsters invading Canterlot.” Red Wood nodded, and noticed that Parker was asking a question. He relayed the question to Twilight, “Parker wants to know if the guards give you a lot of trouble.”

Twilight paused, “Well not really, but unlike Celestia, Luna and even Cadence, I never formed a personal guard. I didn't want to disrupt Ponyville with all that nonsense. I guess if I had my own guards, they would take me more seriously, but I’m just a junior princess to these ponies, I should NOT be ignored though! I’ll have to talk to Celestia about that.”

Twilight hopped down and paced around the tower landing for a few minutes thinking. “I can’t just run out there and redirect them. That might make it worse!” Red Wood noticed that Twilights hair seemed to be getting a bit ‘wild’ looking. She seemed very stressed out by this news. For some reason Parker wrote a message that read, “She looks like she’s going ‘lesson zero’ on us.” Red Wood had no idea what that meant, but figured it wasn't anything good.

While Twilight was thinking and fretting about what to do, Red Wood kept an eye on the guards. They had broken up into three small groups of four guards each going down different side streets. It was just painfully obvious they were following some sort of standard systematic search pattern. Clearly he wasn't the only one to notice. Some of the local town ponies were now following the guards, probably doing so out of curiosity than anything more devious, they were staying back some distance, and but still the guards might as well worn large glowing signs saying ‘Cover Blown.’

Twilight face hoofed when Red Wood told her what was happening. She grumbled loudly, “I got to go and get them out of there. We can’t risk them parading like like …” Twilight paused in her rant.

“Acting like palace guards?” Red Wood filled in for her.

“You're right.” She agreed, “We needed specialist but I didn't have time to pick any. You keep looking for any Coltsdale Mares and stay out of sight. I’ll lead the guards out of town and tell them circle back later. We’ll have to hope none of the cultists are here yet.”

Twilight left the clock tower, and Red Wood stayed behind, scanning the side streets and marketplace from up in the belfry. He spotted Twilight slowly approach the nearest group of guards and talk with them, while the other two groups continued down different streets.

While he kept moving his head back and forth scanning the area, Red Wood noticed an odd distortion. The high contrast colors and objects on the streets kept him from easily seeing Parker’s words, but Parker seemed to be wildly scribbling on one spot of his vision. It wasn't how he normally wrote, so Red Wood kept moving his head back and forth, trying to make out words. It was several minutes before he realized it wasn't words at all, but Parker was drawing multiple circles around a spot the guards where walking towards. Once he realized the spot that Parker was trying to draw his attention to, Red Wood gave it a long stare but didn't understand what was making Parker nervous. It was an empty allyway with lots of boxes in it.

“Wait!” he thought to himself, “Is that legs sticking out of that box?” Squinting his eyes, Red Wood realized that he could see several pairs of legs and at least the flanks of three ponies hiding behind the boxes. The guards were getting closer to that ally but couldn't possibly see the hidden ponies from their positions.

Suddenly Red Wood had an odd flashback image, one that felt like a memory, but he frankly had no idea where the memory came from. There was a giant fish creature, sitting on a chair and dressed in some sort of uniform, turning quickly to face straight ahead and crying “It’s a Trap!”

“It’s a Trap!” Red Wood echoed.

The guards were much too far away to hear him from up on this tower, he remembered the welding sparks signal they were supposed to use, but that was going to be Twilights trick, he wasn't skilled in illusion magic. He did try to shoot some sparks from his horn out the window, but his meager sparks weren't going to draw anyone’s attention.

Red Wood didn't waste any more time on trying again, and stormed down the stairs of the clock tower. Call for Twilight as soon as he hit the outside ground.

It took several calls, Twilight was deep in concentrating on scolding the first group of guards, but turned Red Wood reluctantly. “I’m trying to protect our cover over here Red Wood! You’re yelling is not helping!” she grumbled at him.

Red Wood kept running towards her, yelling the one phrase that Parker kept writing over and over as distortions in his vision. “It’s a trap!”

Twilight blinked at that, only getting her mind around the words as Red Wood finally reached her. “A trap!? Where?” She asked.

But Red Wood didn't have to answer her, because the jig was up and ponies started to come out of hiding from every ally and door. Ponies with nasty grins on their faces which left no room for doubt of their intent.

The four guards that Twilight had been scolding, immediately surrounded Twilight and Red Wood in defensive positions. Two of them were unicorns and the others were pegasus, they had small blades, but even if they crowd wasn't displaying many weapons, they were clearly outnumbered, five or ten to one.

“Princess get out of here! We’ll hold them uggg!” one of the pegasus guards called out towards Twilight only as a pile of cult ponies dragged him down to the ground. They were stamping down hard on him, bucking and kicking, there was a sickening snapping noise as his wings broke and he cried out in pain, once.

The other guards now had their knives out and were trying to force the crowd back, but were gaining only inches of maneuvering room. All four of the horned ponies, including Red Wood and Twilight tried magic. But there were many unicorns in the crowd and shield spells had already been raised. Only Twilight had the power to break through one of the shields, and only for a moment, she knocked several of the attackers back with that blast but that bought them only a few seconds before the shields were doubledly reinforced.

“Go Princess!” One of the remaining guards called, as the last of the pegasus was pulled down with fearful neigh.

Twilight looked side to side, wildly looking for an exit, but every way was blocked. She then blasted her horn, not towards the crowd, but straight up. Magic sparks showed there had been shields above them as well, but they weren't as reinforced, and her magic smashed through them.

Twilight immediately started on a diffrent, if familiar spell, but it seemed to be taking longer than usual. She was defending against dozens of hostile unicorns in the crowd and her magic was badly weakened. She tried to teleport and take the guards and Red Wood with her, but her magic was too weak, there was a loud bang and then a magic backlash knocked most of the attacking ponies to the ground. When the smoke cleared, Twilight was gone, but she wasn't able take every pony with her.

One unicorn was left behind, who cried out in fear, as the crowd of attackers pushed forward and covered him from sight.

Captured

Red Wood had his eyes closed and was drifting in the dark.
“I probably should open my eyes” he thought to himself but the idea was distant like someone else was thinking it.
“Open your eyes!”
“No I don’t want to.”
“Open your eyes!”
“Oh stop it! I like the dark.”
“Open your eyes!”
“Oh buck you! Fine! Just a quick blink.”

BLINK

“OW! OW! OW” PAIN! “Light hurts! See what you made me do?!”

“Open your eyes, look around and be quiet!” the idea flickered in Red Wood’s mind.

“Wait! I didn't ‘think’ that! I 'read' it! What the?” Red Wood was confused in so many ways now.

He repeated to himself, “Read? Oh right.” He closed his eyes again. This time, he made an effort to look for the writing.

“Parker? Is that you waking me up?” Red Wood asked in a quiet voice.

Now that he knew to look for it, the distorted text was easier to read.

“Stay Quiet! You weren’t asleep, you were unconscious, and I’ve been trying to snap you out of it for hours. We’re in a lot of trouble. Nod if you understand.”

Confused, not quite being able to process all the memories of the fight in the street and suddenly being in the dark, Red Wood took a few seconds to think about what Parker was asking him to do, then shakingly nodded.

“Good, now listen, you were out of it for hours, for whatever reason my side our shared brains must be a bit more hardheaded. I stayed conscious but with your eyes closed, I've had to guess what's been going on, and it hasn't sounded good. "

Red Wood asked in a whisper "Did Twilight escape?"

"I think so, she was trying to teleport us all out, but only got the two palace guards in the street. That left all the other guards to be captured with us. One of them was sitting with us for a while, he kept asking about the Princess before the cultists dragged him away. I couldn't talk to him but I think he somehow did something to hide us."

Curious red wood asked "hide us?"

Parker wrote,“He pushed our body over and we fells a short distance. It been very dark back here and the noise was muffled. The cultists kept coming near us and dragging ponies away, not just the Guards we knew, but also a large number of village ponies. But they stopped coming more than an hour ago.”

“So what do we do now?” Red Wood asked.

“Well, try opening your eyes again, and lets look around. I think we’re alone, but I might be wrong.”

Red Wood gingerly reopened his eyes again, this time the pain was bearable. He looked around and realized Parker was right, his body had been hidden under some hay. He could see other haybales stacked up around him in a drafty barn. He tried to move to see better and realized his rear and fore hoofs were tied together. He didn’t want to make too much noise, so rather than struggling with the ropes he bent his long neck around and looked around the haybales to the larger space beyond.

“I don’t see anypony.” He whispered to Parker. “But were tied up and with this headache I doubt I can use my magic for much.”

“You can’t use your magic anyways, I heard the guards talking about an inhibitor ring. We need to get it off somehow.”

Red Wood tried to look up but couldn’t see at his own horn without a mirror, still it did feel odd, like there was an extra weight on his head. Inhibitor rings were a fairly common law enforcement tool. The cult wouldn’t have much trouble acquiring them. While it was on his horn, he couldn’t cast any spells.

“Forget about trying to take it off, we’ll have to get you untied without magic. Do you see any knives or anything sharp out there?”

Moving like a worm, Red Wood squirmed his way over the haybales and from the higher location, looked around. The room was clearly a commercial barn. Mostly peg and slot construction with few nails or metal bits. Light came in from small windows under the roof line and Hay bales and dirt seemed to be the only content. Red Wood didn’t see anything helpful.

Parker asked, “on the backwall there looks like there are hooks for farm tools. Maybe there’s a blade there?”

Red Wood disagreed, “Used to be there, none of the tools are there now.” He moved closer to be sure. “Yes nothing here, just nails as hooks to hold the missing tools.”

“Those nails aren’t round, they’re squared off splinters of raw iron. Probably made by a local blacksmith.” Parker noticed.

“Round nails? You only use them for fancy furniture, most nails are squared, or flat faced, makes it easier to keep them steady when you have to balance them on a hoof.” Red Wood, knew quite a bit about wood nails, and their different sizes and weights from all his wood working.

“It not exactly a knife, but it is a flat edge, can you try to cut the ropes with one of them?” Parker asked.

Red Wood gave the nails a closer look, some of the larger ones that had been set to hold heavier farm tools, did show a bit of an edge on their flat sides. Without a word, he reached out with his front hoofs and tested the rope against it.

“I think it may work.” He whispered, and indeed soon his front hooves were free. It was more than a little awkward but he also found a nail low enough to cut the ropes off his rear hoofs.

Once free he tried to pull one of the larger nails out of the wall, it would make a passable knife, but it was set too deep and he didn’t have enough leverage to pull it out.

“Quietly now.” Red Wood whispered to Parker as he sneaked closer to the main doors to the barn.

“As if anyone could hear me.” Parker deadpanly wrote.

At the door Red Wood looked for a knot or gap in the wood, but had no luck. So moving as slowly as he could, he opened the door a sliver. Outside the barn door, was a allyway or narrow street partly covered by the barns extended roofline. There outside scattered in piles were the bodies of ponies. Red Wood let out a little gasp when he saw them all, but none of them moved or reacted.

“Are they dead?” he whispered.

“No I think they’re all asleep.” Parker replied, but this was already clear to Red Wood as several of them were snoring, and none too quietly.

Red Wood frowned, “Really what do you think happened?”

“Maybe the cultists didn’t want to kill so many ponies, and used magic to knock them out when they escaped?” It seemed reasonable to Parker, since the cultists failed to capture Princess Twilight, they were probably trying to get out of town as quickly as possible.

Red Wood quietly stepped around the sleeping ponies, there wasn’t much room to walk between them, but if he was careful he should be able to make his way to the more open street, and perhaps find a way to slip out of town.

As they were nearly as the exit of the ally, Parker noticed something nearby. “Look over at that pile of ponies near the rainbarrow. See that unicorn stallion near the wall? I’m pretty sure he’s the guard that had tried to hide us.”

Red Wood, “Yes that is one of the guards, I recognize his cutie mark. He still has a hornlock on his horn, we should try to wake him.”

Parker replied, “We have to be quiet, if we wake more than just him, we’ll have to deal with all these ponies.”

Red Wood thought a moment, “I’ll be as quiet as I can but a guard has got to have better training on how to deal with this than we do.”

Red Wood had to walk slowly and carefully to approach the guard. There were many sleeping ponies he had to step over and around, finding a clear spot to put down each hoof, sometimes stepping in narrow gaps between stretched out ponies legs.

Meanwhile Parker looked at the images he received from Red Wood eyes, and looked for more clues on what made all the ponies so sleepy and lay in such odd piles.

“Odd piles?’ he thought to himself, “Odd ponie piles, it’s like the morning after a drunken orgy.” Parker found the idea too outlandish to be anything but humorous. Most of the ponies he had met, mainly canterlot ponies, were way to discrete and proper to ever be involved with such crass behavior. Indeed the common nudity of ponies, somehow made them less sexual, it just wasn’t an issue in their public lives.

He had learned from observation, that mares kept their tails down most of the time, but not religiously, so random flash of anything under their tails was understood to be politely ignored. Likewise stallions were expected keep themselves under control and sheathed in all formal events, but if one slipped out, it drew no more attention than human male taking off their shirt to do gardening work. Some mares might stare a bit but it was treated as something informal, but not scandalous.

So the mere fact that he noticed that some of the sleeping stallions were unsheathed, didn’t at first strike him as odd. But as he looked around and noticed just how entwined the ponies were and the most likely places those unsheathed member had slipped from, his joking thughts about an orgy, suddenly stopped sounding so funny.

The placement of a mare earth pony next to the guard stallion they were approaching, was not pure random chance. She must have slipped down and off the guard as they slept, but it was now glaringly obvious they had fallen asleep while mounted.

“Red Wood, “ he wrote, “Something odd here, the guard, he wasn’t knocked out and left here in a random pile. I think there was more to this than that.”

“What do you mean?” But even as Red Wood whispered this to Parker, he had already leaned forward with a probing hoof to gently tap the guards shoulder, too late to stop.

With a startled nicker, the guard opened his eyes and looked up at Red Wood blinking slowly. “Oh good morning friend.” the Stallion said between yawns. “Morning already?”

Red Wood whispered, “Shhh, we got to be quiet, we don’t want to wake all these sleeping ponies.”

“Righty-Oh! Yes I could use some breakfast!” The stallion jumped to his hoofs and before Red Wood could react, he nuzzled the mare sleeping next to him. “Velvet it’s morning love.”

Red Wood blinked in confusion as the royal guard nuzzled the mare next to him, she definitely had not been part of the Canterlot troop. Yet the guard was being more than a little casual with her. As the mare stretched and started to stand, Red Wood leaned close to the guard and whispered, “I’m sure your new friend is nice and all, but we really need to try to slip away quietly if we want to rejoin the Princess.”

“Rejoin the Princess?” The guard asked, much too loudly. His eyes narrowing in confusion and growing suspicion. “Why would we want to rejoin her? You know she one of the misguided puppets of the pegasi, right?”

The guard suddenly stood up, making Red Wood back up suddenly, stumbling he slipped and woke two more of the sleeping ponies, who groaned and complained.

The guard spoke with an edge of danger in his voice, “Friend, you don’t still believe all the lies? Didn’t you learn your lessons yet?” Then the guards eyes widened, “Oh! You’re the civilian pony I foolishly hid in the barn! I forgot about you? This is great! I was so wrong before, now I can help teach you the truth!” The guard’s, or more properly, former guard’s, eyes were wild and almost hungry as he looked Red Wood over.

Red Wood blinked, and in his after image, he could see the clear text of Parker’s writing, “RUN!!!” and he didn’t hesitate anymore. Turning on his rear hooves, Red Wood took off in a run.

“Oh Horse Apples! Bucking Hay!” He cried out as he ran, “Twilight said it takes weeks for their mind control to take over.”

Red Wood as he ran couldn’t focus on Parkers reply, but he got the jist that it was urging him on to run faster. Red Wood charged down the main street, the cries of the brain washed ponies following close behind.

While Red Wood’s sudden escape had caught most of the sleeping ponies flat hoofed, he was not able to outrun their cries and there was more alleyways and more piles of sleeping ponies throughout the village. Ponies stepped out of these places, shaking their heads and wondering about the meaning of the screams and yells.

Soon there were not just ponies running behind him, but more and more ponies were attempting to block from ahead of him. Red Wood dodged and more than once kicked, to find a gap to escape though. The majority of the ponies were still very groggy from the cult’s orgy, but his openings were getting smaller and smaller and the escapes narrower.

He was nearing the edge of the village, nearly at the same gate they have first entered through, when he felt the tingle of someone elses magic pulling at them. It wasn’t that strong a spell, but it threw him off balance. Red Wood stumbled and tripped, and this time he was not able to dodge when a heavy pony jumped on his back and pulled him down. Nickering he cried out for help, but the village was now only populated by cultists. He was held down firmly.

Red Wood was trapped again, he bucked and kicked, but it was useless, the weight of several burly ponies held him down firmly. They seemed confused and waited for instructions, which soon came.

All the ponies Red Wood had seen so far, were naked and more than a little compromised by their debauchery filled night, but a different pony approached now, dressed in formal robes and holding himself aloof from the rest. This pony approached and standing above Red Wood looked down on the trapped unicorn.

“The Traveler?” The cultists wondered out loud. “I thought we saw the last of you. Still you have returned to us. Interesting the prophecy did say something about that. I perhaps should have had more faith. Well the last time we met, you were the instrument of fate. Perhaps you will again be useful to us, I certainly am not one to look a gift pony in the month. ”

The cultist looked away, towards the far side of the town, "I should induce you myself but the burning has already begun, I have to supervise the flames or we'll reveal our hoofs too soon." Nodding to himself, he looked around at the pile of ponies around Red Wood, holding him down. "I pray to the Stone Heart you are all ready for your assignments. They will be difficult if you don't harden you hearts as instructed."

The cultists gestured to the majority of the cult ponies, most of them seemingly recent converts, he told them to gather at the far side of the village. “We must clean out the entire village, before long this land will be cleansed with fire.” He then told the handful of remaining cultists, including the ones holding Red Wood down, “Take him away from any of the buildings to avoid the coming flames, and Introduce the traveler to our order. You know how.” The cultist tossed a small glass tube to one of Red Woods informal captors. “You’ll need this.”

Red Wood felt cold sweat cover his body as they lifted him boldly into the air and holding him painfully by his limbs, paraded him down the road. All his protests were unheeded as they dragged him off the road and into a field of packed down wild grass.

When they pinned him to the ground again, the cultists stopped to talk with each other, giving Red Wood a chance to take stock of who they were. He saw that there were six cultists surrounding him, two stallions and four mares. Both stallions were unicorns, but the mares were all earth ponies. None were unusually colored or had memorable cutie marks. He didn’t recognize any of them, so they must have been either old time cultists or local villagers, recently turned. He wasn’t sure how he’d react if he recognized any as Canterlot royal guards or worse from ex neighbors from Coltsdale. They seemed to have no fear of him, and he had no trouble overhearing their conversation.

One of the unicorn stallions spoke first, “I didn’t wish to disagree with our elder brother, but he’s wrong, I don’t know what we're supposed to do with this pony. I only joined with the Stone Heart this morning.”

Three of the others nodded in agreement. Red Wood wondered what they would do if none of them, knew the brainwashing magic. Would they kill him instead? Would that really be worse?

One of the mares, a very shy looking female, who seemed to take a long time for her to find her voice. “I..I was awoken earlier in the day. I helped them with some of the misguided soldiers.” Then she blushed so red that even Red Wood in his fearful situation felt sorry for her. “I’ll start it but I I...I’ll need some help.”

She seemed reluctant, Red Wood wondered if the brainwashing hadn’t taken so strongly on her and perhaps he could use that. “You don’t have to do this,” he pleaded, looking mostly at the shy mare. “You can just let me go, I’ll stay away, no one will know!” Red Wood tried to put on puppy dog eyes, but it had been several decades since that had been effective.

For several seconds, Red Wood thought it might have worked. The mare seemed on the verge of tears and her eyes were so sad. The others also looked conflicted, none of them would look Red Wood directly in the eyes. Then one of the other mares said, “We’ll get in trouble if we don’t, and it’s not like it hurts. You’ll see, it’s really quite pleasant, and you’ll learn the truth.”

Red Wood tried to plead again, but he wasn’t given a chance. With words from the mare, the moment of indecision was broken and all six cultists moved to ritual kneeling positions, the shy mare guiding them with a few words and gestures.

Soon he was laid flat on his back, he limbs stretched out and each one pinned under the body of a pony. One of the stallions sitting at Red Wood’s head and holding the vial of potion the cult leader had given them, the shy mare at the opposite end, head bowed and if in deep meditation.

After a long moment, she spoke to the head stallion, “Give him the heart’s blood. Make sure he drinks it.”

The Stallion used his magic to force Red Wood’s jaws to open, he tried to fight it, but spell use centered at his jaws rear hinge and the pain was too great. WIth his mouth pried open, Red Wood could only watch as the open mouth of the potion jar was forced between his teeth.

He tried to snap his jaws closed, to break the glass, to knock it away, but the unicorn’s magic was too quick. Silver liquid, thick like mercury, tasteless and unexpectedly cold to the touch was poured on his tongue.

Red Wood tried to spit, to keep from swallowing, a hoof forced his jaws shut and his nostrils was pinched. He couldn’t breath! They were going to suffocate him, if he didn’t drink.

“Better that!” he thought to himself, he refused to swallow, but then noticed something that surprised him. The potion wasn’t waiting to be swallowed, it was soaking into his gums directly. There was a numbing feeling, and what made it worse, it was a familiar feeling.

But they weren’t HIS memories! This had happened before, but never so vividly. No he was getting a flash of Parker’s memories of his former life. He could tell the memories were alien, he could see in them the strangely clothed monkeys that were Parker’s people. They were from trips to the dentist or doctors, using nano flange drugs to deliver treatment and cures without needles. This potion, this poison they were feeding him, used Earth technology, how could the cult have this!

Red Wood closed his eyes tight, desperately hoping that Parker had a solution, an explanation. Parker was already writing, so fast that the text was stretched and nearly unreadable, Red Wood could make parts of it out.

“It’s nano probes! It can’t be! Ponies don’t know how to make them! There’s no telling what damage they’ll do if they try to rewire our head. The work the Doctor did to make us fit together is completely non standard. They’ll try to repair us and instead kill one or both of us!”

Even as as Parker was writing this text, Red Wood felt a wave of cold travel throughout his body, it he wasn’t so scared, it would have been a pleasant experience, he was drifting. Maybe it would be better to go to sleep, yeah, he could try to fight the cultists after husbanding some more strength, just a quick nap.

“NO STAY AWAKE” Paker’s writing was now strangely clear and so bold that Red Wood felt it like he was yelling.

“How do I fight it! I’m so tired.” Red Wood said this outloud, directing his plea to Parker, but one of the cultists answered him.

“You can’t fight it! But why would you? See it can be pleasant. Just listen to the Stone Heart, it will guide you.” One of the cultists said to Red Wood.

He opened his eyes in surprise, the cultists still held him down, but they were no long kneeling chastly, but had their fore hoofs stretched out, touching him. They were far from innocent touches, they were groping him. Especially the formerly shy lead mare, who was rocking her body back and forth, coming closer to Red Wood’s groin with each sway, though she herself wasn’t yet touching him, they motion alone felt indecent.

Red Wood found it very hard to close his eyes, the motion of all the surrounding ponies was mesmerizing. It took several tries, but he managed to look away and force his eyes closed.

With his eyes closed, he still could feel what they were doing to him. They weren’t just touching him with their hooves now, he could tell, there was tongues licking him, and hooves all over his sides. How long could he hold out? To not respond? There were reflexes in his body that he had no control over, they didn’t need his voluntary cooperation, they were getting what they wanted no matter what he did. He felt the weight of the mare on his body. She was completely on him now, wearing him like he was a piece of clothing and it was at first a loose fit was rapidly growing tighter.

Red Wood wondered, would it be so bad to give in? Even just a little? It wasn’t like he had been able to enjoy a mare’s company in many years. And … uhggg!

Barely able to think, he saw in his flashing vision, just two words from Parker.

“I’m Sorry”

Then suddenly there was pain.

Pain racked his body, all of it coming in waves from his head. It was like Parker was dragging claws over a chalkboard, yet ten times worse. His skin was on fire, his organs exploding. His heart racing.

Red Wood vaguely heard the cultists scream. “What’s going on? He not supposed to be in pain like this! Call an elder, I think he’s dieing!”

Then even the pain was now too great, he couldn’t process it anymore, and there was only darkness.

Author's Note

This chapter took way too long to come together, I had to rewrite it completely at least three times and I'm far form happy with the result.
There's a number of problems, there were several key scenes needed, and they were all over the place, yet I didn't want to split it up into smaller chapters because they all fed on each other. 'waking up alone', 'see former guard changed','flight and fight' and 'captured again' all need to be in one chapter, but none of them could be afforded the time I wanted to give them. It's not so much I'm rushed to write it, rather splitting them up would have been unbalanced.
The other hard part of this chapter was the 'cults ceremony' Lets face it, it's a rape scene. But as it wasn't a violent rape with magical induction, there was serious risk of it glorifying the rape, so I tried to be clear what was happening, show that that Red Wood's reactions were being controlled and even as he fought it, induced to be 'pleasant' in a sick way. I chose to there for hint at the action rather than go into real detail or descriptions. Even the 'rapists' were left undescribed beyond gender and pony tribe. If this makes the scene less 'fun' the way other sex scenes are, well, that's on purpose.

Sparkling bad time

Twilight Sparkle was not having a good day.

It definitely was in the bottom five, contending with fighting the changelings or the battle with a giant Tirek. She had a check list somewhere and was going to have to redo it, to be sure.

She had teleported out of Sea Del Mare, forced out by a surprise attack by the Stone Heart Cult. It was real bad, having been caught flat hoofed and had to power past a number of shield spells while trying to drag as much of her party with her as possible.

But she wasn't able to bring all of them with her, her power failed and ponies got left behind. She had stretched her power dangerously in the attack. Resulting in the teleport failing in several ways. Both she and the guards had arrived sick to their stomachs and slightly burnt from the spell discharge. And for Twilight, more uncomfortably, she had left behind pieces of herself. Luckily nothing that bleed or wouldn't’ grown back, but on both wings her longer primary feathers were gone, clipped because she had flared her wings before the teleport and miscalculated the size of spatial sphere around herself.

She flapped her wings a few times, but without the primaries, all she could manage was a short hop. She was grounded for now. Twilight knew Zecora had a potion that could grow back teeth and feathers quickly, but she didn’t know the recipe and anyways even if she did, she had no time to brew it.

“Of course it had to be Parker and Red Wood that got left behind, Celestia is going to be mad I lost the alien.” She grumbled to herself, out loud she added, “We have to get back there and help the others.”

The two guards that had accompanied Twilight in her teleport, both reacted to her statement.

The smaller of the two guard unicorns, a youngish guard with two toned red purple mane and a yellow coat, named Spring Kicker, nodded in agreement and stood up tall, despite multiple bleeding cuts and bruises. “Your highness, I concur, we must rescue our fellow guards from those villains.”

Twilight nodded in agreement with the smaller soldier, “We first need to make a plan, and …”

“No!” the larger, guard, a much older looking unicorn, with mostly red coat and gray green mane, he stood back several paces and had a stony expression on his face. He had done most of the hard fighting in the previous battle, but seemed to have sustained fewer wounds. Twilight remembered his name was Solid Star and he was one of the senior non officer guards in the castle.

“No?” She asked confused and a bit put off by the declaration.

“My apologies Princess,” He amended, “but that attack was clearly an attempt to assassinate or kidnap you, just the three of us are not prepared to take on such a large force. We would be dishonoring the memories of Sky Arrow and Lighting Smoke, not to mention any of the others who just laid down their lives for you. We must first secure your safety.”

Spring Kicker, turned to Solid Star, “Lives? Dead? but they were still moving! I saw Lighting Smoke flap his wings just moments ago.”

Solid Star didn't turn to look at the younger soldier. “I saw that earth pony stamp on his neck, twice. His windpipe was crushed, he may have been awake and still moving for another minute or two, but he was already dead.” He said this coldly, his eyes unfocused with the memory and in the voice of someone who had seen mortally wounded ponies before.

Twilight Sparkle grew pale, she had hoped the other guards and Red Wood were just captured, but there was no lie in Solid Star’s eyes. Still she wasn't about to give in so quickly, “You are aware of some of the enemies I’ve fought for Equestria. I’m no lightweight in battle. I may have been caught by surprise, but none of those ponies that we fled from, could really match me in power, and my magic was able to shatter a shield spell cast by a dozen of their unicorns. “

“Your previous battles were with the aid of your famous friends,who could match you in their own ways and magic. While I’m sure Private Spring and myself would do our best, we are not elements of harmony and you’re not currently embodying the power of three additional Alicorns as you had when you fought Tirek.” Solid Star replied.

Before Twilight could formulate a response. “Also Princess, simple tactics say we have to deny the enemy a powerful asset, one they clearly want. Drawing you here was the most likely reason for this elaborate trap, and the only way I can think of, that the cult would get wind of you leading this raid would be if they had a spy in Canterlot. Getting you back to safety, with that intelligence has to be the number one priority. “

Twilight stood in silence in contemplation for a long time. First she turned to stare defiantly towards the village. She raised her head proudly and her horn glowed with power, though she didn’t cast any specific spell, the two guards were certain she was going to order them to charge towards the village. Even reluctant Solid Star, would have done so, if she gave the order.

But she didn’t.

Twilight let the glow from her horn fade, and lowered her head in defeat. “OK lets go, the nearest town with a garrison is New Bridleswich. But that is still a long way off. I can teleport a few short hops to get us a little closer, but that’s not going to help much. We’ll have to walk most of the way and we’ll be lucky if we get there by tomorrow morning.”

Then she looked up, a spark of defiance still in her eyes, “I’m not flying back to Canterlot though, once we raise the alarm and pick up some reinforcements, I’m coming back.”

Both Guards saluted then without an additional word, they started down the road towards New Bridleswich. Solid Star took point, and Spring Kicker followed behind, every now and then glancing back, and not just because he was monitoring the area. After an hour or so, Twilight felt her magic reserves had recovered enough to try another teleport, the blink helped a bit, but only saved them a few miles, and she was exhausted again. It was going to be a long night of walking.

They walked throughout the night, by the time Celestia had raised the Sun, the two guards were barely able to lift their hooves, heads bent so low that that bangs of their manes were dragging in the dirt. Twilight had tapped into her Alicorn strength and was still comparatively fresh, but a different type of weariness weighed down her head. She had spent every step of their journey going over the failure in her mind, trying to find out where her plan failed. Solid Star’s theory of a spy seemed all too likely now and consequences of considering that the cult had grown so sophisticated to have a such spy network was terrifying to the young Princess.

A few hours later they managed to flag down a passing farmer and rode the last few miles of their journey in the back of a hay wagon.

So unhearled and defeated, the Princess of Friendship arrived in the bustling city of New Bridleswich situated on the Rearington River. The small city was mostly known for its apothecaries and had a historic importance during a now nearly forgotten war that predated the founding of Equestria. Remnant traditions left by that ancient war was why there was a fort on the rivers edge, ponied by a royal guard garrison.

With eyes half open, and barely able to stand, Spring Kicker and Sold Star, stood on either side of Twilight as she argued with the garrison commander.

“I’m sorry Princess Twilight,” the commander, a gray and yellow mare, repeated for the third time in less than five minutes. “But as commander and chief of the armies, Princess Celestia has to be the one to authorize and engagement. “

“But I’m a Princess too!” Twilight yelled.

“And if Princess Celestia and Luna were unavailable, you would have the authority, but unless I receive official word from them or the their representatives, I can’t just let any Princess take command of the army!”

“There are only four princesses!” Twilight fumed, “I’m NOT staging a coup!”

“I’m sor…” the command started to stammer again.

Twilight just interrupted her. “And face it, the last few years, if any Princess was going to do any fighting, you know I've been in the thick of it! Celestia hasn't even tried to fight since Cryst…” Twilight stopped, reached out to empty air with one hoof and took a deep breath, calming herself down. No, she wasn't going to allow herself to get so angry that she started bad mouthing her mentor. There were good reasons why she, rather than Celestia, had been the one putting their horn out in battle.

Twilight, turned away from the commander, with a defeated sigh she asked, “How long until we hear from Princess Celestia.”

The commander sat back in her chair, sweating bullets, grateful that Twilight seemed to be calming down. “I already sent a courier flyer to Canterlot with your initial report. It’s a long flight, but Princess Celestia should have your report by sunset. If she responds quickly we may have an answer on the midnight mail train. “

Spring Kicker asked, “Train? Wouldn’t a Pegasus courier be faster.” He had a number Pegasus guards in his extended Kicker family, though his own branch had been mostly unicorns for the last few generations.

The commander shook her mane, “Not if the train and the Pegasus are leaving around the same time, and there is a marathon racer on hoof, most Pegasuses can’t make the trip without rest breaks. Only reason I sent your message with Corporal Feather Tail by wing, is because there no outbound trains scheduled until this afternoon.”

With more grumbling and pouting, Twilight agreed to wait until they heard back from Canterlot. The commander did agree to send a flight of Pegasus scouts to check out Sea Del Mare but wouldn't allow them to get closer than a high cloud level flyover.

Lastly the commander gave his own quarters to Twilight to rest in and ordered the two royal guards to rest in the garrison’s Barracks. Twilight didn't know if the two guards got any sleep, but despite having been up all night, she herself could only pace nervously from room to room.

She spent the entire day watching the sun move across the sky, fretting and worrying. In the late afternoon she saw the Pegasus scouts returning from their mission and teleported directly into the commander’s office even before they could report in.

The report they gave was not very helpful, from their altitude, all that could be made out was that much of the town was on fire and groups of ponies seemed to be dancing in circles around a number of the smaller barn fires.”

Twilight asked the scouts, “Was there any signs of large ships in the harbor?”

“Ships?” The scout replied, “Sea Del Mare’s a fishing village so they have many small boats. We didn't fly out over the water, so there could have been some larger vessels beyond the harbor.”

Twilight looked pensive about that news. “We know they have access to some larger boats, because that’s how they fled with half the ponies of Coltsdale. Commander? Do we have any ships nearby?”

The commander frowned at the question, “I’m sorry Princess, unless there a secret fleet hidden somewhere, Equestria doesn't have many capital ships and what we do have are all near the big commercial harbors, like Manehatten. Maybe when we hear back from Princess Celestia we can ask for help from the Seap….”

The commander was at that moment cut off by a knock on his door.

“Who ever it is, it better be important, we’re having a meeting here!” The commander called out through the door in annoyance.

“Indeed it is important commander!” A firm and chiding voice replied, as Princess Celestia stepped into the room. And she did not look happy at all. She had left her crown and royal regalia behind and was dressed in full golden barding with helm and levitating a giant war spear at her side.

The commander’s reaction was to fall off his chair, landing splayed out on the floor, under his desk. “P.P.Princess!” his reaction to Celestia was completely different than his previous reaction to Twilight. The larger princesses presence was overwhelming.

Twilight in turn turned to long time mentor and beamed happily for the first time since before her mission. “Princess Celestia! You’re here!”

Normally Celestia would remind Twilight she too was a Princess and could forgo the titles. But this was not the time for frivolities. “Yes, and we have dark business to attend to. The cult has once again gone too far.“

Twilight was nearly dancing in place, “You got my letter? But I didn't think the Pegasus carrying it would get to Canterlot until later tonight!”

Celestia replied, “By good luck the Pegasus carrying your message stopped for a drink at one of irrigation ponds near Sweet Apple Acres, and your friend Big Macintosh was there. While I’m not sure how such a quiet stallion as Macintosh Apple convinced a trained officer to reveal anything about a royal message, that was apparently what happened. So once he sensed the urgency of the missive, Big Mac apparently dragged Corporal Feather Tail to the Ponyville Library. There Spike made sure I got the message with his dragon fire. Saving us many hours.”

Twilight was still confused, “But you’re here now. How?”

Celestia smiled, “Magic maybe your special talent Twilight, and by some measures your raw power may even exceed my own, but I do have a few more years of experience, long range teleportation is much easier if you have already been to your destination, and frankly there are few places in Equestria that I've not visited before. Once I read your letter, I realized that my presence would be more useful that a simple written response. Unfortunately even with my teleport skill, I could not bring any additional soldiers with me. We will have to rally the local troops and attempt to stop the Cult now.”

The commander at this point had gotten over the initial shock of Princess Celestia’s arrival and stood at attention, “Your Majesty, I will summon all our reserves immediately. “

Twilight gave the commander the stink eye, for his sudden turn around, but didn't say anything directly to him. “Princess, I've been looking over the garrison since I got here, and while there are a fair number of unicorn and earth pony guards here, there are not enough Pegasus to transport more than a third of them to Sea Del Mare, and that’s assuming we can find sufficient number of flight worthy chariots.”

“Chariots will not be a problem,” Princess Celestia said, “I can easily enhance any solidly built wane wagons that we requisition from the local farms and businesses. The crown will compensate the owners for their use. We’ll also have to invoke an emergency draft of some of the local civilian Pegasus, but we won’t let them come close to the battle zone. Just close enough to allow the ground troops to arrive in time.”

The commander stood and with a salute, “I will arrange this at once. We should be ready to depart within two hours.”

Celestia walked over to the window, “I have to lower the Sun soon, while I wish to execute this plan as soon as possible, it would be a mistake to fly, in the dark, a force of untrained civilians to a battle zone. We have to defer to first light.”

Twilight asked “Couldn't you delay setting the Sun? I’m sure Luna would agree.”

Celestia frowned, “No, Equestria has other enemies besides the Cult, if word gets out that I changed the Suns course to gain advantage in battle they will see it as a sign of weakness or worse a violation of peace treaties. It is something I will consider as a last resort but it would not be a wise thing to do now.”

Over the next few hours Celestia and Twilight talked to the troops, as well as several of the cities leaders. Smoothing over issues as they arose and in some cases plowing through roadblocks caused by confusion and the mayhem created by the quick deployment. But as the night grew darker, Twilight could not hide how tired she was. She had not gotten any real sleep since the night before the failed venture to Sea Del Mare.

Twilight insisted that her Alicorn strength would let her fight the next day, but Celestia saw through her and said, “If you do not get at least four hours sleep before we depart, I will personally bind your wings and legs with a spell and leave you here tomorrow.”

Twilight reluctantly agreed, and in the end allowed Celestia to cast a minor sleep spell on her, to ward off nightmares and let her get at least a little rest before the dawn.

In the very early hours of the morning, long before first light, Twilight was woken up by Sold Star and Spring Kicker. The two guards not being part of the local garrison, did not have other duties, and were therefore again assigned to be her personal attaches.

The three ponies walked out on the garrisons training grounds to see how it been transformed over the last half dozen hours. The large field was lit by thousands of domesticated fireflies and smokeless torches. Close to five hundred ponies were in formations, getting last instructions and assignments, and others were being sent through formation drills. Along the main pathways, almost fifty wagons and carts were being reinforced with barding and lose armor while groups of war unicorns were enchanting them with flight spells.

In the center of the mayhem was Celestia who seemed calm and cool as always. Highly skilled at multi-tasking, she had multiple documents floated around her, and Celestia seemed to be reading and discussing plans to her assembled offices at the same time as writing responses.

It was perhaps a mark of how busy she was that when Twilight approached, Celestia only gave the younger Princess a nod in greeting before returning her attention to the awaiting guard officers.

For more than half an hour Twilight waited for instructions, and when it came it was sudden. Celestia didn't waste any time with small talk, she just turned to Twilight and told her, “Us Princesses will take point and be in front. I want us to be visible to all the ranks, and don’t bother assigning us a honor core, we are more than capable of deflecting anything they may throw at us. But I want extra guards surrounding the civilian Pegasus pulling the carts. This Cult had a deep hatred of Pegasus and I do not wish to risk any more potential hostages.”

Celestia then turned to the younger princess, and spoke directly to her for the first time that morning. “Now Twilight you and your guards will ride in the carriage next to mine. Hurry we depart in two minutes.”

That last pronouncement was made with the full Canterlot Royal Voice, something Twilight hardly ever heard Celestia use, and it echoed over the wide field. For several heartbeats, there was no movement as everypony took in the full meaning of the cry. Then the pause ended and everypony was in full gallop to get to their assigned carts and equipment.

True to her word, Celestia took off exactly two minutes later. She was in one of the few battle chariots in the garrison’s stable, now officially the Royal Chariot with banners and royal seal hastily painted on its side. Twilight’s cart was smaller and was just a modified farm cart, the few other battle grade chariots needed for the specialist squads, still somepony had taken time to paint it her colors and tack on a banner featuring her cutie mark.

It was not the majestic royal army that flew out of New Bridleswich, but a rag tag expedition, but still it was more than impressive enough to wake the entire city, thousands of ponies watched their Princess lead their army in the first major engagement in more than a century.

They flew through the darkness, guided by Celestia lighting her horn as their brightest light. She had timed their departure so their arrival at Sea Del Mare would correspond with her raising of the Sun. She wanted full light to see what become of the little village and wanted to make sure the Sun was at her back just in case of an ambush.

They landed a few miles just outside of the town, and most of the ground bound ponies disembarked with instructions to march to the main gates of the town, inside the hour. A sizable number would stay back to guard the civilian Pegasus and the remaining trained guard Pegasus would pull the Princesses chariots and a small number of support wagons to provide air cover.

Celestia was being extra cautions because even before she rose the Sun, she was able to see the gray column of smoke that marked the location of the village. It was miles high and glowed ominously even in the dim moonlight.

As their two chariots flew side by side, Celestia leaned close and whispered to Twilight. “I fear that we gave the Cult too much time. It appears that like Coltsdale, they did their worse, then fled. We can just hope there are survivors to aid, but we should expect the worst.”

As flew slowly, not getting too far ahead of the ground troops. The sight in front of them was not encouraging. Not a single structure had been left standing, even the clock tower was torn down. Most of the buildings were a few little more than foundations covered with still smoldering and blackened beams. There was ash everywhere and everything was gray and muddy.

After making two quick pass over the ruins twice and not seeing any signs of a trap, the two princesses landed near the village docks. The wooden docks were some of the few structures not burnt. They alone had survived the conflagration.

Twilight stepped off her cart and stood at the junction of two blackened streets, her eyes straining to see something, anything but soot and ash.

Celestia had stood back and walked over to the docks. After a while she called Twilight to her.

“Look at the hoof prints.” the elder princess pointed with a hoof.

Twilight looked and with a quick spell made the hoof prints glow, making them easier to see against the ash covered wood.

Celestia prevented anypony from stepping onto the docks. “Guards! Keep everyone off the docks until we can get a forensic team here. Also tell the weather ponies not to bring in rain clouds here, even for the fires, we don’t want any evidence washed away. I want to get a count on how many ponies left here by boat.”

Twilight meanwhile was looking closely at the hoofprints. “Celestia, there got to be more than a hundred of them, and they are all walking.”

“I can see they were walking Twilight, probably onto waiting ships that took them away.”

“No! No no no, that’s not the point.” Twilight added, “In Coltsdale they had to drag and pull the victims, loading them into boxes. We found scuff marks and trash from the boxing materials. None of these ponies here were shuffling or dragging their hoofs. There no sign of boxes. What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure Twilight, perhaps they, no..I don’t really know how they took their prisoners.” Celestia spoke haltingly.

Twilight was starting to get excited. “If they were all willing, then perhaps everypony we met was already cult members. They must have replaced the entire village population before we arrived. Perhaps the real villagers are hidden somewhere? It’s not like they could use their mind control magic so fast. You said it takes days, even weeks to be effective.”

“True, though I would not wish to raise too much hope we will find them alive.”

While the two princesses were pondering just how many cult members must have been involved with this trap, two earth pony guards came galloping down the street, calling for them.

“Princesses!” One of them bowed quickly, barely waiting for a nod before continuing. “We think we've found some of the guards.”

“Lead us there.” Celesta ordered.

The two guards led them down a side street and into a large courtyard. Even as they approached, the stink of burning meat, told them this was going to be a hard sight to take. While Celestia kept her cool demeanor, Twilight started shaking so hard she was dropping feathers from her wings. But she refused to turn aside.

From the air they had passed over this courtyard but assumed the large thing in the center of the yard was the burnt remains of a decorative tree. They were partly right, there was a tree in the yard, but its natural branches had been stripped. What adorned the solid pillar of blackened wood was nothing less than twenty five pairs of Pegasus wings. Blacked by the smoke, but still covered in recognizable feathers.

The same could not be said for the bodies laid out around the tree. They had been thrown into a bonfire and split and broken forms barely resembled ponies. None of them were whole and ripping off of the Pegasus wings was the least of the injuries they suffered.

Twilight looked over the bodies, beyond sick, she was now numb, she wasn't even sure what she was looking for, until she saw it. A blacked and ripped flank, but with a still recognizable cutie mark. It was one of the Pegasus guards that had come with her, and she didn't even know his name. That was too much, she turned away from the pile and with no thought of dignity or royal duties, found a clean spot of dirt a few steps away, and threw up.

Twilight kept retching and coughing, her eyes swimming with tears, until Celestia who looked nearly as sick as Twilight felt, put her wing over the younger princess and led her away from the awful monument. She whispered instructions to the attending guards to respectively recover the bodies and both Princesses returned to the relatively clean air by the waters edge.

“They got away again.” Twilight said, her voice cracking from suppressed tears.

“I’m afraid this generation of the Cult has grown far too bold and far more dangerous than any of its predecessors. There’s going to be widespread panic when news of this attack gets out. This is going to be war Twilight, a war of pony against pony.” Celestia spoke with a cold formal voice, but her mask was broken and tears flowed freely down the rulers face.

Twilight looked out towards the open water beyond the docks. “We need to send out a flight a Pegasi guards to fly search patterns, and hope we can spot their ships before they dock somewhere else.” Twilight's comment was an unnecessary, a polite nothing, the guards were already busy organizing that very thing, but she wanted to give her mentor time to pull herself together.

Celestia put a wing over Twilight's shoulder and the two Alicorns stood there, staring at the horizon for a long time.

Some time later, they were still contemplating the horizon when another earth pony guard ran up to them and bowed.

“Your Majesties!” he cried out in a urgent yell.

When they turned slowly towards him, both Twilight and Celestia having nearly identical questioning looks he added. “We found a group of survivors near the edge of the woods.”

“Survivors? Are they OK” Twilight asked.

“Sorry your highness, I don’t know how they are, they were injured, there was some blood and three of them were tied to a tree.”

“Three? Tied up? Who? Where?” Celestia took a step forward, starting to tense her muscles to take off.

“I didn't get names,” The guard answered, “but there was two earth ponies and a unicorn. No, wait, one of the earth ponies looked like she was also once a unicorn, she was dressed funny and there was the remains of a horn on her forehead.”

A Miraculous Recovery

With on a glance to each other in order to confirm that for both of them, their inner thoughts were muddled, the two Princesses took off in a gallop to follow the guard.

Twilight gasped as she ran beside Celestia, “Survivors? It’s great news, but all the reports about that Cult, say they never leave survivors, that is, if they can help it.”

“I’m suspicious as well, I have recovered survivors before from cult attacks, but always because they hid or were able to fool the cult members in some way. The guard said they were found tied up, for the cult that would normally be a death sentence.”

They didn’t have to time to discuss the issue more because the guard slowed down allowing them to approach the site with proper caution.

There was already a number of guard medics working on the survivors, from the angle of their approach the medics kneeling bodies blocked the survivors from view, so as they drew closer Twilight directed her attention to the tree the three survivors must have been tied to.

The ropes were still mostly wound around the trunk and appeared to have given the guards some trouble with cutting them, as there was still a broken guard sword stuck in the tangle of fibers. Twilight sent out a brief touch of her magic, and sensed that the rope had been enchanted to make it nearly unbreakable and resistant to unicorn manipulation. Luckily the guards persistence had overcome the spell at the cost of the sword.

By the time Twilight had come to this conclusion they were close enough to look over the kneeling medics and see the victims for the first time.

Celestia let out a snort of anger, when she saw had badly the victims were injured. It was hard to make out their coat colors, coated in dirt and dried blood. Indeed the amount of blood on the ground was horrendous, it was hard to believe ponies could survive so much blood lose. The Princess followed the trail back to the tree and saw that there was visible puddles of blood on the roots and ground under the tree. It was as if buckets of blood had been dumped there.

Meanwhile the medics continued their labor, and seemed to be having a fairly easy time closing the wounds. One of the medics seeing the Princesses waiting, “Your majesties, we’re nearly done here.”

“Will any of them survive?” Celestia asked, expecting the worst.

The unicorn medic, sounded a bit confused, and replied. “It looks worse that it is. The wounds are mostly shallow razor cuts, painful and messy but not life threatening.”

The victims lay on their sides, breathing heavily and exhausted to the point that they didn’t even raise their heads when the Alicorns arrived. Celestia’s eyes locked on the flat hard stubby plate on the one of the female’s forehead. She hardly glanced at the other two.

That is, until another of the attending medics started toweling off enough dirt and grime from their sides that their real coat colors started to be visible.

When the towel cleared off the stallions cutie mark, Twilight yelled out in a mix of surprise and joy, “It’s Red Wood!”

Celestia blinked, awoken from her own contemplations and knelt to examine the stallion, “It is Red Wood! This is good news! We needed some good new after such a tragedy. But How?”

Upon hearing his name, Red Wood turned his head a little, but his eyes were listless and weak. He glanced at the princesses but then quickly put his head down again, not able to look straight at them.

“We have to get them all to a hospital, I got them patched up enough for the trip, but blood loss is a worry and I think they must have been drugged, or spelled.”

“I would suspect the latter.’ Celestia replied. “I’ve had several teams of doctors on standby in Canterlot, they have been working on an improved version of the treatments we’ve used to deprogram Cult members before. We need to get them back to Canterlot as soon as possible.”

Twilight asked, “Princess, Red Wood’s only been captured for a few hours, you’re not going to put them all though the deprogramming treatments? It’s dangerous if they aren’t already brainwashed.”

“Not all of them, but certainly that one with the cut off horn, that along with the jewelry she’s wearing marks her as one of their high priestess. I’ve never captured one of her sort before, at least not alive.”

Twilight nodded, “I’ll start having the guards bring the wagons up closer, we’ll fly directly to Canterlot then.”

As Twilight was starting to walk away, more guards came running up.

The guard bowed low, then quickly said, “Princess We’ve found other survivors! Like these, they were tied to trees at the edge of the woods.”

Looking even more curious the elder princess ordered the guards to lead her to the next group of victims. Twilight thought about following but then realized she was more help getting transport ready.

In the end over the next few hours they found a total of fourteen survivors, all tied to trees and drenched with blood, while none were seriously injured, they all were too drugged or weak to answer any questions.

All Six of the royal guards, with the tragic exception of the pegasus, were counted among the survivors, which greatly surprised the Princess. While they were all injured with cuts and bruises, this was unexpected good luck. In addition to the guards there were a handful of ponies that were seemed to be villagers. Both Princesses looked at these extra ponies with some scepticism.

So before the day was over, a caravan of Pegasi were pulling carts full of wounded ponies to their destination at Canterlot general hospital. Every possible space on the flying carts and chariots were taken up by survivors and attending medics.

Celestia and Twilight insisted on flying back on their own wing power, despite their assigned guards urging them wait for a chariot to be sent back for them.

Flying next to each other, Twilight followed Celestia’s lead and after instructing their guards to stay back, they flew high above the caravan for some privacy.

“This is a setup, isn’t it?” Twilight asked.

“Of course.” Celestia agreed. “I’m expecting that each and every one of the so called villagers, mixed in with the guards, are really cult members. There wounds were too shallow and clean to been anything but faked. I’m afraid most of the blood we saw must have come from the true victims.”

“But they have to know that we’ll not let them go free in Canterlot, and we’ll try to deprogram them? It almost too obvious, no, not almost, it IS too obvious. Could this all be a diversion? Are they attacking somewhere else even as we’re wasting time here?” Twilight asked.

“If so, we’ll find out soon enough.” Celestia agreed, “But meanwhile I have a question for you. A problem related to the Cult that I’ve never gotten a good answer to.”

“What problem?”

“In the immediate period of time after a pony has been brainwashed by the cult, you can’t fairly hold them responsible for their actions, even if they do some great evil, its the fault of the Cult not the pony. Right?” Celestia asked.

Twilight thought about that only for a second, “I think so, I remember when Discord first changed my friends personalities back when he first returned, I quickly forgave them. It was clearly Discord’s fault, not theirs. I think it would be the same with brainwashed cult members.”

“While I agree with you, that really wasn’t the question that worries me.” Celestia replied.

“Then what is the question?” Twilight wondered.

Rather than state a simple question to Twilight, Celestia almost rambled on, listing quickly a number of related questions. “How long after a pony has been brainwashed, does he or she start to take responsibility for their own actions? Months? Years? Ever? Does a brainwashed pony have no free will left? What about if the brainwashed ponies goes and brainwashs others? The original founders of the Cult died out centuries ago, every living cult member is the result of a long chain of evil, but are none of them responsible for the Cults actions? If not, can I as Princess, execute any sort of justice for the Cults victims? Even now the Cult members are not mindless zombies, blindly following ancient orders. No, they are making plans, and killing ponies with no one directing them, just evil ideas passed from one generation to another. Can I just deprogram them, and still have a claim to be executing justice?”

Twilight blinked at that chain of questions in surprise. “I don’t know how to answer that.” She said in a whisper. “There no right answer to those questions.”

The two Alicorns continued to fly high above the convoy in silence for a long time.

Treatment Plan

The long flying convoy of Pegasi pulled carts, flew in circles around the airspace of Canterlot’s UEP Hospital, while the Princesses and a number of messenger scouts briefed the hospital staff on security measures. The delay was infuriating to the medics waiting to treat their patients but considering the circumstances, the Princesses didn’t want the ‘survivors’ left unguarded, even for a moment. After a time, they got the word to start unloading.

Princesses Celestia and Twilight stood in the main emergency room for the Hospital and supervised as the staff cleared a number of adjacent rooms of civilian pony patents. The incoming ‘survivors’ were being placed three at a time into ER bays, where trained pony doctors took over from the guard medics.

For each ‘survivor’ there were two guards, making the ER much more crowded that the doctors cared for, but no one wanted to complain to the princesses, so the grumbling was keep to a low whisper. Meanwhile test results started come in and the survivors medical conditions started to become clearer.

As was already suspected, the wounds were mostly superficial, not deep and none of the ponies were in critical condition. Though a number of the captured guards had been beaten badly when they were initial captured, these earlier wounds were now a couple days old and showed signs of having been treated. The most worrying issue was their apparent drugged state, all the survivors were very sleepy and could only be coaxed into giving one word answers to even the simplest questions. Toxicology reports were coming back negative, and Unicorn mages were still trying to identify the spells used.

Twilight was going over the latests test results with the mages, when Celestia noticed an elderly Unicorn mage coming in from the street. He was floating a heavy briefcase in his magic and did not seem part of the normal medical staff, but insisted that he see the Princess Celestia. Two guards blocked his path keeping him from approaching the princess.

At first Celestia was going to let the newcomer wait, with everything going on she wasn’t interested in any typical bureaucrat nonsense, but then she spotted the elderly unicorns cutie mark, a stopwatch on a chain, and recognized him.

“Doctor Somnolence! I’m so glad you got my message.” She told him before he could introduce himself. She then motioned for the guards blocking his passage to let the elderly unicorn through.

Doctor Somnolence was a black and white pinto unicorn pony with the sharply contrasting colors making inkblot like splotches over his coat, he quickly stepped quickly up to the Princess and bowed politely, but only held the bow for a second, inpatient to talk to Celestia.

“Princess, I got your message and gathered my reports.” He told her.

As he started to open his briefcase, Twilight wondered over having spotted the elderly Unicorn from across the room. “Princess Celestia, what’s going on?” She asked.

Celestia answered twilight even as she started floating papers from the doctors magic grip to read them. “This is Doctor Somnolence, one of the top researchers in mind affecting spells. It’s his special talent and I have asked him to go over the medical reports from the last time we had Cult victims to deprogram. With advances in magic and medicine I’m hoping he’ll have suggestions on improving the therapy.”

Doctor Somnolence nodded to the younger princess, “I do indeed have suggestions on improving the procedure. I know you have very busy Princesses but perhaps we can find a quiet spot where I can explain my theories? I have diagrams I’d like to show you.”

“Diagrams!” Twilight's eyes practically lit up.

“Yes, both flowcharts and checklists” The Doctor agreed, not realizing the trouble he was getting into.

“Checklists!” Twilight nearly shouted, her cheeks flush. Had the elderly doctor proposed marriage to the young Alicorn at that moment, she probably would have said yes.

With a slight smile at her former students excitement Celestia said, “Twilight, I noticed an empty consultation room behind the nurses desk, perhaps you and Doctor Somnolence can discuss his findings and report back to me a summary. Meanwhile I will continue to supervise here.”

Twilight practically pushed the doctor into the small room, leaving hoof skid marks on the hospital tile floor.

Twilight moved at speed that could only be called Pinkie Pie fourth wall breaking. In moments she had set the doctor in front of a convenient whiteboard, pulled a podium from a storage closet. Slapped a pointer into his hoof and then turned an examination room bed and chair into an impromptu student desk, complete with apple for the teacher.

Twilight sat there in smiling anticipation with a stack of blank note cards and three number 2 quills.

Meanwhile Princess Celestia was continuing to supervise the doctors and medics treating the survivors, when one of the nurses approached her.

The nurse, a dead ringer for Redheart of Ponyville, except her cutie mark lacked the little hearts and her mane was more orange than pink was named TouchNgo was too much in a hurry to give Celestia a full bow, but bobbed her head and said, “Princess, we’re running out of room. Do we really need two guards for every patient? The doctor’s can hardly turn around.”
Celestia gave the nurse an understanding smile. “I’m sorry my little pony, but security is important. Once the Hospital administrators can start assigning rooms to the victims we can start moving them out of here.”

The nurse looked confused, “None of the ponies I’ve seen are that seriously injured, and according to the latests mage report, the spell that was on them was a common sedation charm, used mostly as a local anesthetic. If it wasn’t for your guards, I don’t see any reason to keep them in the hospital.”

Celesta frowned at the nurse who backed away shakened by the Alicorns expression.

Celestia thought to herself ‘No one reported to me that they identified the spell yet, was the nurse mistaken, or are the mages waiting for Twilight to return?’

Twilight was not available to Celestia at the moment, she was still in the impromptu classroom and waiting for Doctor Somnolence to start his presentation.

In that small room, the elderly unicorn blinked several times seemingly dazed at the sudden change in scene then wisely, he shrugged his shoulders and started to lecture.

“I was asked by the Princess..” Somnolence paused to look at Twilight, “I mean Princess Celestia, to find out why so many of the previous cult victims would rather die than allow themselves to be deprogrammed. You are of course familiar with the high mortality rate of the old deprogramming procedure?”

Twilight nodded to the Somnolence, her smile now faded to a serious frown.

He continued, “Especially odd when one considers that normal brain washing magics can not override such a basic instinct as self preservation. So I did a detailed study of the Stirrup Formation of directed morphic dilation traces recorded at the time, and I believe I found the flaw in their methods.

Twilight continued to furiously write notes as Somnolence pulled up a graph showing magic fields around a hoof drawn picture of a pony tied to a hospital bed.

“The approved method doctors used one hundred years ago, was to put the victim in a strong antimorphic field to inhibit the brainwashing magic from reinforcing itself, and then while they were vulnerable, expose the victim to physical evidence and witnesses of the Cult’s evil acts. This proved effective for a handful of the victims, but a sizeable number of the victims grew so depressed that they would refuse food and water. Sadly many of the victims who died this way, had in truth been freed from the effects of the Cults mind control early in the process, but just could no longer live with themselves.”

“Was it due to guilt of the crimes they committed when under the Cult’s control?” Twilight asked.

Somnolence answered, “That may have played a partial role, but the core problem was tied to how the antimorphic field affected the Cult’s spells. The Cult’s spell deeply integrated itself into the parts of the ponies brains that processed both pleasure and pain. The victims whole sense of self worth, both in terms of their sexual body image and their deep ties to other ponies are all subverted to be stimulated when they agree with the Cults commands and philosophies. The Cult’s spells did more than that though, if and when the victims tried to fight the Cults instructions, they felt great phantom emotional pain. When they put the ponies in the antimorphic field, it didn’t just stop the spell from reinforcing itself, it stopped the ponies ability to feel, pain, pleasure, in truth, any strong feelings at all.”

Twilight took a moment to take this idea in, “So the victims would stop eating because they no longer felt hungry?”

“Or pain, or even the fear of death. They lost all attachments to themselves and other ponies and drifted off to death, uncaring.”

“What about the ones who survived?” Twilight asked.

Somnolence flipped through his papers and showed Twilight a number of graphs, “Most of them had family or friends nearby, and in one case made an unlikely connection with a nurse, who stood with them and gave them hope. But that wasn’t a perfect solution, several of the ponies who died also had family at their bedside. It was very hit or miss.”

Twilight sketched a copy of the graphs as she asked, “Do you think we’ll be able to find family or friends for the current victims? The entire town of Coltsdale was taken, for most of them, any family that may still be alive will also be in the Cult now. I don’t think that will help us.”

The Doctor nodded in agreement, “There is no doubt that friendship is the key, though that we need to make the treatment less oppressive and depressing for the victims. The old technique worked, barely, but it emphasized guilt too much, made the victims hate themselves and didn’t let them feel any positive emotions.”

Outside in the ER, Celestia had gone over to the Mages group and demanded why an ER nurse had learned more about the spell than she had been informed.

The head of the mages, a silver coated and aging mare Unicorn from Celestia’s own school answered for the others. “Princess, the Nurse did not know the whole story and we’re still trying to figure out the details of the spells.”

“You mean there is more to his spell than an sedation spell?” Celestia asked.

The female mage, who name was Liquid Scrolls which also described her cutie mark, looked worried, “The sedation spell was the most active thing we could detect. But there are traces of some deeper magic, and some other effects none of us have seen before. I was hoping Princess Twilight might be have time to go over our tests, before we bothered you.”

Celestia sighed, Twilight had been HER student, anything Twilight might have spotted, Celestia herself could certainly also spot. Celestia responded, perhaps a bit more testily than she would normally allow herself, “Please show me your tests and I’ll endeavor to try to fill in for Princess Twilight, hopefully my poor skills as her TEACHER will prove adequate.”

Liquid Scrolls shuddered at the sarcasm from Princess Celestia and with only the slightest hesitation the, mage floated over some papers and graphs.

Celestia quickly spotted the patterns in the graphs that were the signs the sedation spell. It was the most recently cast spell on the prisoners and masked most other spells, still a sharp eye could spot secondary patterns.

Celestia paged back and forth between two sets of the graphs, one was from guards, the other from one of the unidentified civilians. As she expected all of the civilians showed a pattern she had seen several times before, the spell the Cult used to brainwash their members.

“No real surprise there.” She said out loud. “The Cult tried to sneak through a few of their brainwashed members. Seems foolish on their part, perhaps they thought the sedation spell would fool us?”

Celestia then looked briefly at the more detailed graphs for her guards. There was a clear difference between her former student and herself when faced with the unknown, Twilight would get obsessive about any variation of the expected, and would have probably spent hours plotting and replotting the small variations in the magic signature that was visible in the charts. Celestia on the the other hoof, felt that there was very few things new under her Sun. She saw the odd readings, but also noticed they reflected very low magic energy, mostly the result of mechanical differences in the brains of the guards. Well they had been beaten up a bit, probably sign of mild concussions. ‘A day or two bed rest and they will be fine. ‘ she thought to herself.

Outloud she said to Liquid Scrolls, “The secondary patterns are all low energy and tiny mechanical events. We know that the guards were all captured and beaten, most likely the cultists applied some minor healing magic to hide their crime, before trying this clumsy attempt at subterfuge. I believe we need to concentrate our efforts on the so called ‘civilians’”

She rolled up the charts and told Liquid Scrolls, “Have your mages counterspell the sedation spells. Twilight is working on a procedure for the Cult members, but the guards will just need some bed rest to recover.”

Liquid Scrolls noded and turned away to tell her staff the Princesses diagnoses.

Princess Celestia returned to her position in the center of the ER but things had gotten worse in her brief absence. The backup due to overcrowding was getting out of hoof. A number of screaming fights had already broken out between nurses and doctors and the awaiting guards. Celestia herself had to intervene in several cases. She realized something would have to be done before any ponies got hurt.

She called over the senior guards present, who happen to be Spring Kicker and Solid Star.

Both guards genuflected in well practiced bows to Celesta and awaited her orders. “Your Highness.”

“Spring Kicker, Sold Star.” Celestia acknowledged the two guards by name, long ago having learned the importance of recognizing by sight the majority of the palace staff. “I believe in the interests of Harmony we must make some more room here, and I see no reason to treat your fellow guards with the same scrutiny we must give the more likely cult members. So please gather your fellow guards from the ill-fated expedition and escort them back to the barracks. They should be fit for duty again in a couple of days.“

The two guards gave their Princess a salute and turned to carry out her order, when Spring Kicker paused in mid step and turned to ask Celestia. “Princess, what of the civilian Red Wood? Should I tell him to return to his shop?”

Celestia nodded her agreement, “Please inform him that I will want him to report to me tomorrow morning to discuss what happened, but he’ll probably sleep better in his own bed tonight. But just to make sure he’s ok, after the guards are settled, please escort him home and guard his house tonight.”

Celestia paused to think for a moment, “Also before you go, please stop find Princess Twilight, and tell her I need to discuss this with her. She’s probably the best informed on Red Woods case.”

Spring Kicker saluted and said, “Of course Princess.”

Back in the small classroom, Twilight and the Doctor were going over charts describing how the Cults spells affected different parts of Ponies brains.

“But if the anti magic field ends up blocking all emotions then how can we keep the deadly depression from setting in?” Twilight asked.

“By not keeping them in the full strength field all the time, they will need to get them out of the hospital, be with other ponies, live and do positive things to balance the negative effects they will experience in treatment. That I think was the major mistake the previous generation of doctors made. They literally tied the victims to beds and made them suffer depressing levels of self loathing all the time, with no breaks other than sleep.”

Twilight gave the unicorn a hard stare, “Doctor, you realize that the Cult members are directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of over one hundred ponies. Maybe many more. Once they are free of the mind control, I wouldn’t hold the crimes against them, but until they are free, they are very dangerous ponies. We can’t just let them loose in Canterlot.”

Doctor Somnolence quick shook his head, “No no no! I’m not saying let them go free, they will need treatment, but just not twenty four hours a day. Therapy sessions should last about two to four hours a day of intense treatment, but then they should be taken some place safe where they can be with other ponies and away from the anti magic field so they can still feel, relearn how to associate good feeling with things outside the Cult. “

Twilight noded, “The castle dungeons should be far enough away then. We’ll have guards take them to the Hospital each day for treatment and..”

“Not dungeons! That would be just as bad. While it will weaken, the Cult’s spell will try to reasset itself every time they stop treatment, they need positive experiences to counter it and someplace dark and depressing will just send them spiraling into depression. We would be lucky if any survive two weeks.”

“So what do you suggest?” Twilight asked skeptically.

“Something more like foster families, obviously they will need to be guarded and warded so they can’t escape or cause harm, but they need to go out and see other ponies, see the light, have good experiences to counter the deep depression the treatment will naturally cause them. “

“You’re talking about possible murderers being housed with the public, before they are fully cured? The risk and danger would be too great.” Twilight shook her head, she didn’t like that idea.

“I know, but we have to show the victims that there is a path forward, and they will be forgiven of crimes committed while under the Cults spells. And it can’t be just words, it has to be something that will be understood at an emotional level, since that were the deadly depressing will originate.”

Before Twilight could respond, there was a knock on the door and Spring Kicker spoke through the closed door. “Princess Twilight, please excuse the interuption, but Princess Celestia wished you to know she wants to speak with you.”

Twilight looked back and forth between the door and the papers. After a moment of internal struggle she told Doctor Somnolence, “I’m sorry, but we have to stop here, I need to see what Princess Celestia wishes.” She used her magic to put the small office back to it’s original purpose.

As Twilight left the small room, Doctor Somnolence looked down at his checklist to make sure they had covered all the important points he wanted to make. There was only one small foot note left he had planned on mentioning, not all the Cultists that had started the procedure a century ago, had been cured or died. One had instead escaped. There was a small chance the current version of the Cult may have some knowledge of the treatment that had been used, but Doctor Somnolence didn’t see how the Cult could use that information. So he shrugged his shoulders and checked that item off his list while packing up his reports.

About two hours later Spring Kicker and Solid Star led the rescued guards back to the day guard barracks. All the guards had assigned beds for their use in the castle’s guard house, though quite a few guards maintained apartments or even lived with family. Considering the circumstances, Spring Kicker and Solid Star had not intention of letting the rescued guards off the palace campus.

The barracks were at the base of one of the shorter towers, just off an unassuming and unmarked pathway. The base comforts were hidden behind the tower,a mess hall, training ground, and a old but functional gym. They didn’t have a full sized parade ground, but parts of the royal garden served that function for formal events. There was also a two dorms. It had long been the guards policy to not segregate by gender, but there were tribal differences that needed to be accounted for. One dorn was on the ground floor for unicorns and earth ponies, and a smaller one set high in the tower for pegasus so they could more easily fly in and out.

While none of the rescued guards had said much since leaving the hospital, they all seemed happy enough to return to their base until walking under the tower, where the pegasus dorm door stood open above their path. A few of the guards stumbled and gave the open doorway to the flying ponies dorm some angry glares.

“What are you looking at?” Solid Star asked one of the glaring guards.

Several of the glaring guards looked at Solid Star as if they were surprised at his question. None of the guards answered for a long moment. Solid Star gave them his best imitation of a drill sergeant stare before picking one of the guards out. He picked A blue mained, spotted brown coated earth pony mare guard named Crimson Peytral that Solid had known her for while. Plus he picked her because, while she was not an officer she was a natural leader of the rank and file guard ponies.

“Paytral! What’s so fascinating about the Pegasus quarters?”, Solid asked.

“I..I that is, uh.” Paytral paused to think fast. “We lost so many of our,” She paused again seeming to have trouble keeping her face from wincing, “... our friends. It’s just hard not to see them up there.”

Solid Star opened his eyes wide. In the excitement of the last few hours, he hadn’t allowed himself the time to think about their dead comrades. The realization that he and the others had lost so many friends and fellow guards in such a horrible way was like a physical blow to him. What struck him even harder was the guards who had suffered far more than Spring Kicker and himself were the first to think of their fallen comrades.

Controlling his voice to keep it from cracking, Solid Star said. “Right! When you all are strong enough, we’ll all head to the Rose and Crown tavern and give them a proper send off. But for now you mutts have been given orders by the Princess herself, bed rest until you're ready for duty.”

Solid and Spring let the guards stumble into the dorm ahead of them. It was a bit surprising to Spring that they were as tired as they seemed to be, the sedation spell had been removed and the doctor said the stimulation spell they had replaced it with was the equivalent to about a half dozen cups of coffee. The guards should have bouncing off the walls. Still with everything that had happened, he wasn’t going to judge them.

The two uninjured unicorns stood by the dorm room doors, just to make sure the injured guards had no last minute issues. Once all of them were in their bunks, Solid turned and walked out the door and Spring was about to follow, when Crimson Peytral called out to him to stay.

“Spring?” She asked, “Can you come over here?” She had taken off her hospital cloak and was laying on her back, on top her bunk blankets.

Spring shrugged and trotted over. “Sure what is it Crimson?” he asked.

Crimson Paytral spoke in a soft whisper, making Spring come closer, indeed very close, nearly nose to nose. “I want to send my parents a message, tell them I’m alright.” she spoke these words in husky voice and locked her half lidded eyes with Spring Kicker.

“Of course!” Spring asked, finding her bedroom eyes both attractive and a bit confusing. “What do you want me to tell them.”

“I want you to give them this kiss for me.” she said this in a too soft whispery voice, before pulling Spring down into a deep kiss.

Spring Kicker was surprised by the kiss, but let it happen. He and Crimson had never been close, certainly never kissed before and as Crimson’s tongue found its way into Spring’s mouth, there was very little chance Spring could mistake this kiss for one meant to be from a daughter to a parent.

He smiled as they kissed, ‘this is nice’ he thought, but too soon he had to come up for air.

Blinking and more than a little stunned, “You really want me to give them that kiss!” he stammered, trying to make it a cool joke but it came out more like a squeak.

Crimson laughed easily, while licking her lips of the remaining saliva. “Don’t be silly, just tell them I love them and I'm all right? You can do that right?”

“It be my pleasure.” Spring smiled back.

“Well if you do me this favor, I have a very special reward planned for you.” Crimson licked her lips again, and holding Spring’s hoof, ran her muzzle against it. Directing Springs attention to the rest of her body.

Crimson was laying uncovered above her blankets, and was naked as most ponies were most of the time, but there were certain unspoken etiquette how a pony should hold themselves. Tails normally would act as a first line of defence but she was letting hers drape down off the bed, it was providing no cover at all. A mare laying on her back wasn’t automaticly provocative though, all she had to do was keep her rear legs curled together, but Crimson was not being modest to even the slightest degree. She had one leg bent and the other stretched, not just accidently exposed, she was fully on display.

“You know Spring” Crimson purred, “you don’t have to wait for your reward. I could give it to you now.” She gave him a toothy hungry smile.

Spring Kicker, almost said “yes’ without thinking about it, but then he glanced up and spotted the other guards, all laying in their own bunks, several just as exposed as Crimson, and all trying to pretend to not notice what was going on between Spring and Crimson, and all of them failing in that pretense.

“Here? Now?! No, it's not right.” Spring started to protest weekly.

“Don’t worry” Crimson breathed, “It will be fun.” She brought her muzzle close again ready for another kiss. Her tongue just peeking out slightly.

Spring found himself swimming in her half lidded eyes. He leaned forward, already starting to open his mouth to accept her kiss.

When suddenly a harsh voice yelled out, “What are you doing in there Spring Kicker!”

It was Solid Star, he was at the door trying to peer through the darkened dorm. “Remember we got to go back and get Red Wood, that Princess wasn’t us to keep guard at his shop tonight, so hurry up!”

Spring Kicker sprung up like a, well, a spring, he nearly galloped to the entrance hoping desperately that Solid Star hadn’t seen what he had been about to do with Crimson. His cheeks were a flaming red, when he whispered over his shoulder towards Crimson, “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

She smiled at him, and kept that smile up, until the two stallions had left the barracks.

“Nearly had him!” She swore.

There was general chuckling around the dorm, “We’ll get him later.”

A few of the ponies jumped off their bunks and started gathering supplies from their footlockers.

Crimson turned to the eldest of the unicorn guards, “Were you able to keep them hidden, invisible?”

“Yes! I got them!” The unicorn’s horn glowed and a paper bag floated into view from behind him. Holding it open he pulled out a clear capsule filled with a few drops of silver liquid. “There are hundreds of the Stone Heart Blessings in here. Enough for all the guards!”

Crimson started giving orders, “Move a pile of blankets and pillows to the dorms showers, we need to make it as soundproof as possible. Also it furthest from the door, we want to control the number of ponies who go back there while we are educating the new recruits.”

The cult guards got to work.

Crimson supervised the group, periodically giving her fellow guards encouragement as they transformed the dorm into a trap with words, kisses and more than a few appreciative gropes.

Soon they were ready, a couple of the stronger stallions on either side of the door to prevent escapes, and a handful of the more gymnastic ones in the showers, already oiled up and primed. and a smaller groups sitting in a circle where the light was best to put on a distracting show.

Then the first hoof falls of the day shift palace guards could be heard walking up the path. All the guards were familiar with their fellows habits knowing that they would drift in slowly at first, a few at a time, looking forward to a nights rest.

Crimson smiled, “They weren’t going to get a lot of rest tonight, but everypony is going to have so much fun!” She laughed, while waiting in the dark.

Quietly the pieces move

Solid Star watched with hidden amusement as Spring Kicker stumble out of the castle barracks, the younger guard looking behind himself several times as if confused. Solid had not been able to see though the darkness of the barracks with all the windows covered, but knew Spring had been talking to Crimson Peytral so it wasn't that hard to put the one and one together.

“You’re sweet on Crimson?” Solid ribbed Spring goodnaturedly.

Spring Kicker was staring off a bit dazed by Crimson’s performance, and took a moment to register what Solid had just asked. “What? No, I mean, she’s has a nice flank, but we never really talked much before.”

“So what was she talking to you about?” Solid asked curious.

“She said she wanted me to tell her folks she’s alright.”

Solid laughed, “From the little I heard, that mare was not thinking about her parents. At least I hope to Celestia that she wasn't.”

Spring blushed, “Yeah she was being a lot more forward than, well anypony, I've ever met.”

Solid wondered, “Maybe its a reaction to being captured? Realizing life is short and that sort of garbage?”

“Yeah,” Spring agreed, “Probably not too smart to take her up on any offer like that then, she’s just stressed out and it would be way way too complicated. She’d probably buck me in the head once she got her's straight again.” He sounded a little wistful though.

Solid just laughed, “That my friend is probably the wisest thing I've ever heard from anypony. Though got to admit be a shame to walk away from a flank like that.” Soon Spring joined him in his laugh and both guards left the castle grounds behind them.

Spring Kicker and Solid Star arrived back at the Hospital as Twilight was just finishing explaining Doctor’s Somnolence treatment plan to Celestia. The two guards stood respectively to the side as the two princesses spoke.

Celestia was looking over Twilight's short hoof notes and nodding her head in agreement. “I understand your concern about safety risks, and share them. But in my observations of the Cult in the past, one thing I've noted, they can be terribly cruel when carrying out their master plans, but they can also be counted on to not be randomly cruel at other times. Normally if a cultist was captured by just chance, they were rarely violent or dangerous, indeed unless a cultists had specific orders to follow from their leaders, their normal behavior is no different than any other ponies. It can make it hard to detect them.”

Celestia paused to think a moment, “Well no, certain behaviors are so deeply embedded they can’t stop. The chief one is their hatred of the cults scapepony race. Even when they try to hide it, body language and slips of the tongue would give them away. One of the signs that a cultist was cured was when they could again be friends with the hated ponies.”

Twilight nodded, “You mean pegasi? Too bad they didn't pick on unicorns, then they wouldn't have any magic to help them and be easier to stop.”

“That can vary, each time the Cult re-emerges it seems to randomly pick one tribe to be the scapepony. Not always pegasi, the Stone Heart book has instructions for potions and talisman spell casting techniques that allow the cult to be a serious threat even when there no unicorns among their members.”

Twilight thought about that and started to ask, “They really can match unicorn magic with just potions? I know zerba magic can be ….”

Celestia stopped her, “Please Twilight we’re getting off topic. The question really is, can we use Doctor Somnolence’s procedure, and how can we make sure our innocent ponies are safe while the cultists are treated?”

Twilight nodded her head, “Well Doctor Somnolence wanted them to be cared for by foster families. I think that is too much of a risk. But perhaps we can ask the guards who have apartments outside the barracks, if we can get any to volunteer, to take them in as room mates.”

Celestia added, “Not at their apartments, most of the guards who have apartments do so because they have family and I’d prefer it so the least number of ponies are put at risk.” The Princess paused to think for a moment, “I’ll arrange to rent out all the rooms in a inn or hotel near the Hospital. A sufficient guard force will be assigned to watch the hotel, but the cultists will be allowed some freedom within the walls. I’ll also request individual guards to volunteer to be assigned one on one with the cultists, living in the hotel with them. It may not be the family environment that Doctor Somnolence was describing, but it would be a major step up from the dungeons or being tied to a hospital bed.”

Twilight added, “Also I know a tracking gem spell that could be mounted to an un-removable cuff or chain. We’ll get an alert if they leave the hotel grounds when unescorted.”

Both princess nodded their agreement, Twilight magicked up their notes and started to walk away when Celista turned her attention to the two waiting guards.

“Hello my little ponies.” She smiled at Spring Kicker and Solid Star, “Are the injured guards safe in the Barracks?”

“Yes your majesty” Solid replied. “Should we proceed to escort Red Wood back to his home?”

Overhearing this Twilight perked up, “Going to Red Wood? do you mind if I follow along, I need to ask him if he’ll want Fluttershy to watch his son Banyan, while he recovers for a few more days.”

Both Spring and Solid bowed deeply and allowed Twilight to lead the way to Red Wood.

Now that the guards had been released from the emergency room, there was more room to move about. Some of the ER bays were even empty. They found Red Wood sitting up and looking wide awake. He was talking to one of the ER doctors, a yellow and red coated mare with a stethoscope cutie mark. As the guards and princess approached they could overhear that Red Wood seemed to be begging for something.

“Please, I can’t stand the nightmares! There has to be something!” Red Wood asked, nearly in tears.

The doctor seemed concerned, “There are some potions that can quickly make you fall into a dreamless sleep, but it’s too soon after your trauma. I can only prescribe that sort of drug if you have been trouble sleeping for a while. Maybe if you’re still having sleep problems next week I can…”

“No! Please! It’s more complicated for me!” Red Wood continued to beg, then he saw Twilight approaching and added. “See ask Princess Twilight! She knows my situation, I have … “ Red Wood paused to stare pleadingly at Twilight, “Complications, that make going to normal sleep difficult for me.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes and look concerned, Red Wood was a wood carver, not a fighter and had been subject to torture by the Cult, of course he would be scared. While there was no hard rule or law about it, they had been keeping Parker’s presence in Red Wood’s head quiet. Twilight considered, she really didn't want all the ER doctors and nurses to know there was an alien in their ER. It could cause a panic. She did want to ask Red Wood about how Parker was feeling, but she couldn't without compromising the secret.

Twilight made a decision, while she herself had fought many battles and had become at least a little hardened to it now, clearly Red Wood or perhaps Parker, wasn't taking it well. Twilight considered what she knew about the odd pony with two minds and after only a small pause, choose to trust them.

“Doctor Healing Heart” Twilight said to draw the Doctor’s attention. “I know this Pony and I trust him. I’m sure if he feels he needs a sleep aid, he has good reasons for it.”

Healing Heart looked back and forth then nodded. “As you wish Princess.” The doctor unlocked a medicine closet across the hall from Red Wood’s bay and returned a few moments later with three potion bottles wrapped together with a blue and white ribbon. A danger warning tag hang from the top of the bottles.

“There is enough dosages in these bottles to give Mr Red Wood six nights of dreamless sleep, but do not ask for or let him acquire more. It can be dangerous for a pony to go without dreams for very long.” She told Twilight as the princess packed the bottles into a travel bag.

When Doctor Healing Heart, finished her exam, she turned to leave the ER bay, declaring, “He is free to go, there’s nothing wrong medically with him that justifies keeping him here.”

Twilight smiled at Red Wood, “That’s good news, I’m asking two of the royal guards to stay with you tonight Red Wood, and we’ll arrange to pick up Banyan from Fluttershy’s tomorrow or maybe the day after, if you need more time?”

Red Wood looked confused for a moment as he mouthed the name Banyan to himself, then his eyes opened even wider. “My Wife! Did you see my wife?”

“Wife!” Twilight reared back in surprise. “But Red Wood your wife died years ago.” She said reflectively only pausing to think how tactless that was, after the words left her mouth.

“No!” Red Wood insisted, “I found her! She was living among the Cultists all these years. She..” he paused seemingly overwhelmed with his thoughts.

“You found your wife? Alive? There was a faint possibility but it seemed so unlikely….Red Wood you got to tell me the whole story. We've not been able to get a lot of information from the victims so far. What happened after I teleported out of the town?”

For a long moment Red Wood was silent, then he spoke softly, “They tortured us. It was horrible." Red Wood made a pained expression and paused for a long time. After a while he continued. "When I woke up, I found my wife, she was just there, not knowing who I was at first. Gentle Breeze had been with them all this time, she didn't know what happened to us and they had told her the pegasie had killed everyone in Coltsdale. She believed them and had been living with them all this time."
Red Wood smiled at Twilight, "She started comforting me, it was like no time had passed,"

Red Wood face fell into a frown again, "Then one of their elders came up and said he was going to make examples of all the guards and me. Gentle Breeze and a few other cultists begged him to spare us. There was a lot of yelling and some fighting.”

Red Wood coughed and turned away, unable to keep his eyes on Twilight as he finished his tale. “When the fighting ended, Gentle Breeze, My Gentle Breeze, My wife, was tied up next to me and the elder said she would share my fate. I think they tied up the other cult members with the other guards. I don’t know. We were tied up for hours. Cultists would come by and cut us with sharp blades for no reason. The elder told them to make us bleed, maybe they had more of those monsters nearby and were going to feed us to it. I don't know.”

Twilight held Red Wood’s hoof as he paused again in his narrative. “I think they were working themselves up to kill us, I don’t know why they held off for so long, they killed the pegasus right away. We could hear them do it. They were dancing an partying, dragging villagers away to who knows where."

Red Wood looked up as if trying to see something in the ceiling tiles. "Then there were two more pegasus, high in the sky, too high to be attacked, but they were spotted and all the cultists panicked. They were running around, setting things on fire and there was so much smoke. After that there was quiet for a long time, until some earth pony guards arrived and untied us and cleaned our wounds. I think you know the rest.” Red Wood put down his head on the pillow as if telling his story made him unusually tired.

Twilight asked, “You mean the mare you were found tied up with, the one with the cut off horn? That was Gentle Breeze?” she asked softly.

“Was?” Red Wood head shot up and he looked beggingly to Twilight, “Was?! She OK isn't she? Please to Celestia, tell me she’s OK!”

Twilight backed up a bit from his reaction, “Yes, yes, she’s fine, same as you. I just didn't know who she was. I don’t think any of the cultists we rescued have been willing to give us their names yet.”

“Do you know where she is?” Red Wood asked looking side to side, but only able to see the white curtains that marked off each of the ER room’s bays.

“Well, you’re medically cleared, so come with me, and we’ll go visit her.”

Quickly Red Wood got to his hooves and followed Twilight down the hallway, the two guards, Spring Kicker and Solid Star gave each other curious shrugs before following.

Twilight led them down the hall and around a corner, bringing Red Wood to another ER bay. There a mare lay, her purple blue eyes open, and seemly busy counting the cracks on the ceiling tiles as two additional guards stood nearby.

Twilight paused a moment at the entrance of the ER bay and looked the mare over. She was unusual looking, her hide and mane hair having been shaved close, not long enough to give her gray skin any real color. Perhaps there was a hint of green in the stubble left behind from her mane, but that was it. But her skin did have decorations on it, lines and tattoos ran in patterns all around her exposed body, dark spots marked where ritual gems would normally be glued but any that may have been on the mare’s body when she was brought in, must have been washed off by the doctors, leaving her even more naked now. Either the mare or one of the medical staff had draped a sheet over her lower legs and nethers to provide a mediocre of modesty. Letting her eyes pan to the mare’s face, Twilight took in an involuntary breath at the sight of the mare’s horn stub. She knew about it, of course, and has seen it before when the mare had been still tied up, but seeing it again triggered sympathetic pain in her own horn.

The sound of Twilight's gasp, drew the mare’s attention and her eyes moved towards Twilight and for a moment they locked. The mare raised a questioning eyebrow and was about to ask a question, when the young alicorn princess stepped aside and allowed the mare to see the pony behind her.

Gentle Breeze and Red Wood stood staring at each other, and for a long moment nopony said a word.

Then in a flurry of motion Red Wood was no longer behind Twilight, he was in front of her and in Gentle Breeze’s forelegs. The two ponies nuzzled, hugged and embraced each other. No pony moved to stop them, or had the will to tell them to control themselves.

After several minutes of the two long lost lovers crying into each others shoulders, Twilight motioned to the four guards to step out of the ER bay and closed the privacy curtain. She told the guards, “I do not believe we have to worry about them escaping, you can guard them from this side of the curtain just as well.”

Twilight remembering Doctor Solumnun’s advice about family added in a whisper, “This may be just what the Doctor ordered.”

She then directed her words to Spring Kicker and Solid Star, “Once Red Wood is ready, accompany him to his shop. I want to tell Princess Celestia about this turn of events. If what Red Wood said about some of the Cultists being tied up with the guards because they refused orders is true, then that maybe the break we've been needing.”

Solid Star gave a little cough, and said. "Princess, you do know the story that Red Wood told you don't exactly match all the facts. The timing seems off."

Twilight nodded, "I know, but considering the circumstances some confusion could be expected. Later we'll compare his story with the guards back at the barracks. I'm sure any discrepancy will be cleared up."

Meanwhile in the ER Bay, Red Wood and Gentle Breeze continued to embrace, there was nothing fake about their passion. Still, while still clinging to each other they started to whisper to each other.

“They haven’t hurt you?” asked Red Wood.

“Not yet, but they elder said…” Gentle Breeze gulped, Red Wood could feel her body shudder. “..The elder said, I’ll have to be strong, the pegassi lovers torture any of the Stone Heart they capture alive and kill most of us.”

“I’ll be with you to give you strength, they don’t know I've had my eyes opened to the Stone Heart, they’ll let me come and take care of you.” Red Wood was tearing up as he said this.

“Yes, please” Gentle Breeze rubbed her hooves on Red Wood’s shoulders, patting down his mane. “Remember though they can’t be allowed to suspect you. Were you able to get a potion from the doctor to keep that alien thing in your head asleep? We can’t risk it upsetting our plans.”

“Yes, Princess Twilight, of all ponies helped me get it. She has been very helpful, I hope I can help open her eyes when it comes time.” Red Wood replied.

“Only if I can help my love,” Gentle Breeze gave Red Wood a coquettish look, “but don’t endanger the mission, she’s not the primary target. Your job is to help the guards and distract the Princess. “

Then Gentle Breeze looked much more serious, her eyes locked on Red Woods, “But you have to promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“This is important, if the turned Stone Heart guards can’t rescue us, and the pegasus lovers torture starts to work, if there is any sign I’m starting to turn away from the Stone Heart.. Please my love, End Me. I don’t want to live as a traitor to our cause. “

There was tears in Red Woods eyes, and a small tremor ran through his body, but with absolute conviction he whispered back. “Of course my love.”

Good Night Gracy

The sun was low in the sky in the late afternoon when Red Wood finally let himself be led by the two guards from the hospital to his home. As he passed under the shadow of the castle, Red Wood glanced up at the tower above him. He couldn’t see from this angle if Princess Celestia was on her balcony lowering the sun, but he guessed she was. Across the castle on the opposite tower he could see the tiny figure of Princess Luna looking towards Celestia’s tower and awaiting her turn to raise the moon. There had been a time when to catch a glimpse of any princess would have set his heart thumping faster and fill him with wonder. Now he just looked up at the magic princesses as a way check the time, like their great magic feat was some sort of public clock tower.

He really was horrible tired, the day had been way too long, and he needed to husband his strength for the coming days was going to be critical to the Stone Heart and he had his role to play. He had stayed with Gentle Breeze as long as he could, the plan allowed him that small comfort. He feared for her, concerned about the torture the evil ones were going to soon subject her to, all in the false name of curing her of course. But at the end of the day, doctors had arrived to take measurements and do tests, the treatment, the torture, would start early tomorrow morning, and Red Wood knew he needed to be there for her. To give Gentle Breeze the strength to fight it. But he also had other duties.

Red Wood wished there was a way he could go over his instructions again, the Cult elder had only a few hours to explain the plan to him and the guards before they had to evacuate the town. The turned guards were now all together, able to work and talk openly amongst themselves, reinforce and comfort each other, but Red Wood’s role required him to be on the outside, alone.

He looked over his shoulder at the two guards with him. They weren’t part of the plan, at least not yet. Red Wood expected that once they dropped him off at the shop, they would head back to their barracks for a surprise. Red Wood grinned in anticipation, tomorrow he could talk to them openly, but not now. Still there there was one pony he could talk to, once he was alone, problem was that pony still refused to open his eyes to the truth of the Stone Heart. Red Wood frowned, not really looking forward to that conversation, he could put it off for a little while longer, but not forever.

When they arrived at Red Wood’s home slash workshop slash Alien Embassy, Spring Chaser and Solid Star nodded to Red Wood politely as he let himself in. To Red Wood’s surprise, rather than returning to the castle, they stood on either side of the doorway and took up what appeared to be unmovable guard positions.

Confused Red Wood asked, “You two aren’t returning to the castle?”

Solid Star shook his head, “No Princess Celestia instructed us to guard your home tonight.”

“But you have to be as exhausted as I am! Wouldn’t it make more sense to go back to your barracks to rest and send some fresh guards to replace you?”

Spring Kicker gave Solid Star a glance, secretly in agreement with Red Wood, but not willing to show weakness to the elder guard. The droop of his eyes was not missed by Solid. “Normally I’d agree with you, but with the excitement the Princess overlooked that option. It’s not our place to go against orders, but if you be so kind as to allow one of us quarter, we can secure your residence in shifts.”

Red Wood took a second to realize Sold Star was asking if one of them could sleep inside while the other stood watch, he was in fact included to refuse, but that would had been suspicious. So putting on a painted smile, he nodded, “Of course, come in, we’ll see what’s in the ice box.” He hadn't expected to have to feed and board the guards, but he wasn't going to refused a friendly request.

Soon the three stallions were sitting on a couch in the clock shop’s visitor's area which was the homes only real sitting room, drinking some lite White Tail Cider. Red Wood had some stronger stuff in the cellar but he wanted to keep his head clear, afraid to let his tongue might get too lose if he wasn't cautious.

Solid Star seemed cautious with even this lite drink, only slowly sipping on half a bottle, while Spring was a thirsty pony, quickly went though most of the ten pack they shared. Red Wood tried to keep the conversation away from himself and listened with great interest about the guards story about their flight with Princess Twilight. Knowing he couldn't be suspiciously quiet, Red Wood ended up having to retell the story of his capture again. He hoped he hadn't gotten any details wrong from his first telling of the mostly made up story since he knew they had heard it before. Spring seemed satisfied, but Red Wood distinctly felt that Solid Star was giving him a disbelieving glance from the side of his eyes.

Finally enough time had passed that he could politely remind the guards for his need of sleep. Solid Star excused himself and stood outside to take first watch, while Red Wood got blankets and a spare pillow for Spring, who slept on the couch.

Even before Red Wood could excuse himself to his bedroom, Spring Kicker had slid under the blankets and was instantly asleep. Red Wood paused in slight shock at how quickly the guard had fallen asleep. He stopped to look at the younger guard considering.

It wasn't part of the plan for Red Wood to 'open' any ponies eyes on his own. He didn't even have any of the silver pills, the Stone Heart Blessings as they called it. He wondered if he had any of those pills would he be expected to convert the guard? Clearly these guards had shared hardships with Princess Twilight and could be useful if the Cult needed to awaken the younger princess. Should he sneak out? Go to the barracks himself, and retrieve some of the Blessings so he could convert these two guards tonight? Could he really do that? on his own?

Red Wood watched the younger guard asleep, in his mind he imagined sliding the silver pill between the guards sleeping lips, watching the pill dissolve and then as the magic of the Blessing filled Springs mind, Red Wood would need to lay on the guards body, hold him down, keep him from escaping, then Red Wood would have to show him the pleasure, the joy, of the Stone Heart. Red Wood imagined the guard squirming, trying to fight it at first, perhaps Red Wood would resort to using his magic to hold him, but only at first. The lessons would start to take effect, Spring's eyes would open wide, his breathing would start to come in gasps. He would stop fighting and give into the special feelings and start to take part finding the joy in the moment.

A small part of Red Wood’s mind seemed to stand aside and wonder, ‘where did these thoughts come from? He had never felt attraction to stallions before, and if he was going to be honest with himself, it wasn't anything physical about the guard that was making him fantasize. It was sense of righteousness, control, and power that made it seem worth the risk.

In his mind’s eye Red Wood saw all this, he starting smiling a wolfish grin. How hard would it be to sneak out and get the pills?

“No! Stop this!”

Red Wood frowned, the words floated in his vision, red and flashing and far far clearer than any previous message had ever been.

“You’re still there Parker?” Red Wood whispered, “I thought you were hiding.”

“I can sense your thoughts Red Wood, the barrier thinner than it used to be, these ideas in your head, they're not really yours. THIS EVIL IS NOT YOU.”

Red Wood left the sitting room and quietly moved to his own bedroom and closed the door before responding. He didn't want to risk Solid Star hearing him ‘talk to himself’

“Come on Parker, Evil?” Red Wood tisked, “Really you said your folk were an advanced race, certainly what two stallions do…”

“THAT’S NOT WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT AND YOU KNOW IT.” the letters in Red Wood’s vision burned a bright red.

“Calm yourself Parker,” Red Wood replied quietly, “I’m the only one you can talk to, and shouting will not help you. Besides I can’t risk the plan by sneaking out tonight, as much as it pains me, our friends Spring Kicker and Solid Star, will remain ignorant tonight.”

“Pains you? You were practically drooling over Spring, if it’s sex you want, your wife’s in the hospital, I’m sure the Doctors would turn a blind eye if you are that desperate.”

“Yes it does pain me. Because I’m concerned for their well being, and it has nothing to do with sex as you so crudely put it. You see, because I can’t risk educating them tonight, then their continuing good health will depend on if the other guards, all of whom are right this minute being taught the lessons of the Stone Heart. With the busy schedule we plan for tomorrow, I doubt that there will be time to educate stranglers. The guards leaders may well decided that it be more expedient to imprison or even eliminate any guards who have not embraced the Stone Heart by morning. By not showing the guards the truth, I’m endangering their lives.”

There was a delay as Parker must have been calming himself down, and in lighter neater letters, he wrote. “Truth? What truth do you think your drugs can teach that guard?”

Red Wood raised an eyebrow as if their conversation was happening face to face, rather than just in his mind. “The truth about the pegasus poison effect on pony society.”

“What? How do you even believe that? What do you have against pegasi?” Parker wrote confused.

“They destroyed Coltsdale, they kidnapped my wife, they hurt or killed everyone I ever knew.” Red Wood said this is a dead voice.

“But you know that’s not true!” Parker wrote back in shock, “You were there! The Cult did all that!”

“Don’t lie to me Parker.” Red Wood replied coldly, “My memory is perfectly sharp. I can see those flying freaks. Blood dripping from their wings. They destroyed everything,the Stone Heart saved me. They saved my wife.”

“Red Wood Listen to me! Your memory, it’s been altered, that’s not how it happened. The only true pegasi at Coltsdale was Rainbow Dash, and she saved you! Don’t you remember.”

Red Wood ignored Parker’s plea and replied, “Another thing the Stone Heart can do for Equestria is help the princess!”

Parker was taken off guard by the sudden change in subject, “What?”

Red Wood dreamily answered, “Yes, princesses, especially Celestia and Luna, have vital skills that all Ponies need, but they have taken on too large a burden. They should concentrate only on their special talents, raising and lowering the celestial bodies. But not governing ponies, that should be taken off their hooves. They will be much happier when they join the Stone Heart, they can then concentrate on making the most beautiful skies and wonderful weather, while the Stone Heart elders can take on the burden of leading the ponies. They will be so grateful for this break.”

Parker sneered at this flat power grab, “Oh really, happier? Surprised you want them in your club, with their wings and all, aren’t they too much like pegasus for your taste?”

“Oh don’t get me wrong, not all pegasus are evil, they are just misguided, once enough of them have been culled to learn their proper place, they’ll be welcomed into the Stone Heart. Of course they will need to accept some changes. A few quick swings with an axe will take care of that. Then they will be so much happier with their fellow earth ponies, basking in the joy of the Stone Heart.”

Parker was speechless, his hooves slid over the magic mirror in their head, leaving just blurry lines as his only response to Red Wood’s callous comment.

Red Wood lay down on his bed, and pulled over one of the potion bottles. “Enough talk now Parker, I’m afraid I have an early day tomorrow, so good night. I’d wish you pleasant dreams but I’m afraid it’s going to have to be a dreamless one. Can’t risk us switching places in the morning.”

Parker desperately wrote “Wait! You really think that crazy plan the mad old cultist told you has a chance! Stop it Red Wood, you're’ just going to get a lot of ponies hurt!”

Red Wood didn't reply he just sipped from the potion bottle, having just enough time to put the half filled bottle down on his night table before sleepless darkness overtook both him and Parker.

Delicate Procedures

Red Wood woke suddenly about four hours later. There was no smooth transition from sleep to wakefulness, an expected side effect of the dreamless sleep potion he had taken. Still Red Wood looked out his window with some surprise at how high the moon was still in the sky. He had planned on waking up early, but not this early.

He lay back in his bed and considered trying to return to sleep, but after laying still for several minutes, found himself too agitated to relax. He had things to do, and starting early was really for the best, but before rising, he had to check on something.

Red Wood closed his eyes and whispered, “Parker? You awake?”

He waited and tried again, “Parker?”

There was no response, and Red Wood couldn't ‘feel’ Parker at all. He smiled to himself with some satisfaction, he had guessed this would happen but hadn't been certain. When the Stone Heart Blessing had not affected Parker, Red Wood guessed that the barrier between their minds blocked the effects of magic potions. That meant that Parker was most likely deeply dreaming and still asleep. With luck that should give Red Wood a few hours of real privacy. He smiled, he hadn't had a moments real privacy in months.

Slipping out of bed, the pony quietly walked to the sitting room. There he saw that the two guard ponies had already swapped places, and Solid Star was now the pony asleep on the couch. Red Wood didn't get too close, he suspected that Solid was a much lighter sleeper than Spring had been. He instead he put his head out the front door and spotted Spring Kicker standing at attention.

“Good evening, private.” Red Wood said in a quiet voice to not disturb the older soldier.

“Just ‘Guard’ sir, only special forces use ranks that mean anything. In the UEP ranks are all over the place, I've seen Admirals report to Generals and Generals report to Captains, and just as often the other way around.”

“How do you know who to take orders from?” Red Wood really never thought much about ranks in the guard.

“You salute who ever has prettier armor than you do, but you get orders from the officers you're assigned to. And I guess in middle of battles you follow who ever yells the loudest, but that doesn't happen too often” Spring shrugged. Then he looked up at the moon, “You’re up early sir. It can’t be past 3am.”

“That sleeping potion I took, stopped dreams and I guess concentrated my sleep down to a few hours. Now I don’t even tired, couldn't sleep if I wanted to.”

“Wish, I had taken some.” Spring Kicker replied, “Oh, I don’t mean I’m afraid of my dreams, but be would be nice if just four hours was enough sleep.” He followed that up with a fairly impressive yawn. “Excuse me sir, its been a long few days.”

“No apologies necessary. Besides, we’re in the middle of Canterlot, in the shadow of the royal palace, did the Princesses really order you and Solid Star to stay awake in watches all night like this was some sort of wild encampment?”

“Another name for the royal guard is ‘The Watch’ I’m afraid that’s what we do sir, anyways I pulled longer shifts with less sleep before. Thanks for your concern, but we’ll be fine.”

“OK Well if you need me, I’m going to finish some projects in my workshop, have a bunch or orders I've neglected.” Red Wood gestured towards the back of the house. “If you need anything, just ask.”

“Yes sir, thank you sir. Should be fine until morning” Spring gave the clock-maker a salute and then turned his eyes forward, back to the guards patented stone faced expression.

Red Wood turned back into his home, and made a show of heading towards his workshop, it was his real destination so there was no point in being secretive about it. Red Wood trusted that the guard would not leave his post to check up on him and if he did so, would not be able to recognize the intricacies of clock making from Red Woods real plans.

When the old pony from the Cult had given out instructions to Red Wood and the guards, Red Wood’s instructions had featured securing oil rags, flint and steel. Red Wood had suggested an alternative and was encouraged to be creative. So with enthusiasm Red Wood cleared his workbench of all the clocks, music boxes and curio boxes he had been working on and took out a half dozen plain clockwork bases.

Then from a locked cabinet he opened a case of mana batteries. He had only recently purchased this box. A number of his potential Canterlot clients had been asking about larger fancier clock installations, the sort of clocks put up in towers and telling time was their least important function. Rather the quarter hours would trigger animated marching figures, water effects or elaborate multi instrument mechanical music players. These secondary features could not be powered by the weights and springs of his clock mechanisms, so Red Wood was experimenting with ways to power these features with mana batteries.

Mana batteries were not something you would find in every ponies supply closet, for good reasons, they could be dangerous if mishandled. Red Wood read over the warning printed on the side of the cylinder shaped crystal enclosures to check the safety precautions listed there. And he then processed to do the opposite for each warning.

Where the label warned about making sure there was good ventilation for the cooling fins, Red Wood wrapped them with thick layers of tin foil. Where it warned him to check the connection of the ether regulator, he pulled it out and stuck a copper bit coin in the socket. Where the label warned about the pressure release valve needing room to swing open, Red Wood clamped it down with wood screws. Once he was satisfied with his sabotage, he turned his attention to the base clocks, ripping off their minute and second hands, he reinforced the hour hand and added a glass and silver anode to its tip and a matching cathode to various spots on the clock dial.

Being a skilled craftspony, Red Wood took only a few minutes to repeat this procedure to a half dozen clocks and batteries. Soon he had wrapped the booby trapped clocks in oiled rags and stuffed them with the batteries into six medium sized metal framed shipping boxes.

One last check of his workbench and he soon filled two overstuffed saddlebags with his improvised devices. It wasn't yet 4:00am and he was ready to go.

Red Wood looked through his kitchen window and saw that Spring Kicker was still standing guard at the door watching the front street, so moving as quietly as he could, Red Wood slipped out the back door, and climbed over the fence to the backyard neighbors yard.

Before twenty minutes had passed, he was more than a mile away and had delivered the first of his surprise packages. By the time the clock struck five, Red Wood’s bags were empty and he slipped back into his home, the same way he had left.

Rather than returning to bed or his workshop, Red Wood went to the kitchen and started to brew some coffee. As the pot bubbled loudly, Red Wood felt the mental stirrings of his live in tenant.

“Parker, you awake?” He whispered.

“Yeah I’m awake. Can’t say it was a good night though, I thought that magic potion was to keep us from dreaming, well it didn't work and all I got was a lot of mixed up nightmares.” Parker wrote, the image of the letters somewhat reddish in color and much clearer than Red Wood was used to seeing. By the shaky slant to the writing, Red Wood could sense Parker’s annoyance.

“Parker, I know you're angry with me, but I’m not trying to hurt anyone. I just think that you could be a bit more open minded about the Stone Heart’s plans.”

“Red Wood,” Parker wrote back, “we know the Cult has hurt ponies before, killed some as well, this can’t be allowed to happen. That mad old cultists told you to use a torch and set entire neighborhoods on fire, a huge number of ponies could get hurt that way.”

Red Wood took a long moment to consider his words, “I agree, that’s why I’m not doing that. All I plan on doing for the rest of the day is visit my wife in the Hospital and prepare to bring her home after they finish torturing her.”

“They are going to try to cure her Red Wood, not torture her. And we both know you need the therapy as much as she does.” Parker replied. “But I’m glad you're not going to blindly follow that mad ponies instructions.”

Red Wood nearly smiled to himself as he continued to cook breakfast.

Hours later Red Wood, his two guards, and a silent Parker, stepped up to the nurses station in the Hospital’s ER unit.

“I’d like to see my wife, Gentle Breeze, is she awake?” Red Wood asked the nurse at the desk.

The nurse pony looked over the paperwork on her desk and pointed to a small doorway that led back to the main hospital. “Gentle Breeze? Gentle Breeze..oh right here. She along with the other patients from Sea Del Mare have been moved to an outpatient ward, third floor, west wing. I think they are planning to move them to a local hotel tonight.”

Red Wood smiled, “Thank you nurse.”

“Oh wait” She called Red Wood back, “I have a note here for you, it’s from Princess Twilight.” She hoofed Red Wood a rolled up scroll, which he took.

As he walked towards the main hospital entrance, Red Wood read the note.

To Master Craftspony Red Wood,
I am sorry I was not able to join you last night as we originally planned. But in preparation to aid your wife and the other Cult victims, I needed to go to my old Alma Mater, Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, to borrow some supplies and a level three magic lab. If I’m successful with my project I’m meet you before your Wife is transferred to the old Bridle Inn down the street. We need to discuss what sort of support your wife will need to fully recover.

HRH Twilight Sparkle.

Red Wood had actually forgotten that Twilight was supposed to meet him at his home the previous night and was silently thankful she hadn’t come. It would have been awkward if she had interrupted him when he...well Red Wood was just glad she hadn’t shown up unexpectedly. He reread the note again, wondering to himself how dangerous would Twilight be to the Stone Heart. He really liked the youngest princess and felt he owed her his life, but if her skills with magic endangered the plans for the Stone Heart, would he be the one expected to do something about it?

With his eyes looking down, Red Wood suddenly felt a hoof on his back, trying to stop him from walking blindly into somepony. It was Solid Star who had reached out a little too late. The crafts pony stumbled into a elderly unicorn who had just trotted out of a side hall.
“Uff!” Red Wood fell back on his plot, while the older unicorn sprayed all four of his hoofs to keep his balance, which he just barely managed.

The guards quickly moved to help both unicorns back to their hooves.

“Sorry” Red Wood mumbled distractedly looking side to side for a sign of where is wife could be.

The old unicorn, “Oh dear, oh dear, I didn’t see you.” Then he looked more closely at Red Wood. “I do think I saw you in the ER yesterday? We’re you one of the guards sent to the barracks?” He asked.

“huh?” Red Wood was still looking around distractedly, “No, I mean sort of, I was with the guards but I’m a civilian. They sent me home yesterday but I’m looking for my wife and…”

“Wife?” The old unicorn asked, “Only one of the victims had any identified family, are you the husband for Gentle Breeze?”

“Oh yes! You know where she is?” Red Wood asked.

The older unicorn smiled, “Yes, I’m Doctor Somnolence, I’m been handling your wife’s treatment, I’m on my way to her room right now. You’re welcome to accompany me, please.”

“Doctor Somnolence? Please! I really want to see my wife. I heard that treatment can be unpleasant, and I wanted to offer her my strength.”

The doctor smiled, “Yes having family nearby should be helpful. Though I really hope the improvements I’m made to the treatment will make it far less traumatic. Here follow me.”

Doctor Somnolence led Red Wood and the two guards down a different hallway and into patients room. There as expected they found Gentle Breeze, as well as a few nurses and orderlies helping set her in the bed. It seemed that she was not being cooperative.

Seeing Red Wood enter the room, Gentle Breeze cried out “Please Red! Help me, I don’t want this! Stop them!” By the sound of her voice, she was frightened.

Red Wood started to move towards his wife, when Doctor Somnolence stepped in his way and stopped the crafts pony with a hard glare. “I know you want to help your wife, and be there for her, but you also have to let the treatment take its course.” he told Red Wood firmly.

Red Wood fretted, he hadn’t expected to see so much fear on Gentle Breeze’s face. “You’re tying her down, do you have to tie her up like an animal?” he sputtered in anger.

“The straps are for her own protection, the first first treatments can be ….difficult. The spell we’re fighting is hiding in brain, and it will try to defend itself by triggering pain centers.”

Gentle Breeze whimpered when she heard this. “Please don’t do this! I LOVE the stone heart, you’re going to take away my family! Please!”

The doctor gave Red Wood one last warning glance, then turned to address Gentle Breeze. “My dear, your real family is right here, and we’re not barbarians. I will be administering a potion that will reduce the pain, it should be no worse than a mild headache, the straps are just to make sure you don't hurt yourself.”

The doctor then turned to the head nurse, and nodded. She took out a potion bottle from a wheeled metal table that held the bottle and a tray of other medical supplies, including a large silver dome which was ominously keeping some of the items out of sight.

Seeing the nurse with the potion bottle, Gentle Breeze clamped her muzzle tight and turned her head to the side as far as the straps would allow. She was not going to cooperate and take their nasty medicine.

Neither the nurse nor the doctor seemed perturbed by this, and instead of trying to force her to drink the potion, the nurse poured some of it onto a large natural sponge and proceed to dab the patient's forehead with the sponge.

“See that wasn't so bad” the nurse said.

Gentle Breeze gave the nurse a nasty look, but after a few moments, her eyes became less focused and she stopped clutching the bed sheets so hard.

Around this time, the door to the room opened and Twilight Sparkle, quietly stepped in. Everypony in the room turned to look at her, but before anyone could react or say anything, she held up a hoof to be quiet and tip toed to the corner with a quill and paper to take notes.

Red Wood side stepped to be closer to the Princess and was about to whisper ask her about the project she mentioned in her note to him. But she stopped him before he could phrase his question saying “You need to be with your wife, having family nearby improves the outcome by at least ten percent.”

Frowning Red Wood moved back closer to his wife. He started to reach for her hoof, but the doctor shook his head and mouthed silently “Not yet.” Instead they all waited and watched Gentle Breeze, the only sound Twilight’s pen scratching notes.

When Gentle Breeze’s breathing had slowed down and it seemed like she was in danger of falling asleep doctor Somnolence stepped forward and took a folder off the table and took a moment to look it over.

After a few seconds, the doctor opened the folder wider and let everyone see what was in it.

“This is photographs taken from the attack the Cult made on the village of Coltsdale. I’m afraid they are rather graphic but it’s important for you to understand the truth.”

Without even looking at the folder Gentle Breeze mumbled, “Wasn't the Stone Heart, it was pegasus that did it.”

Red Wood felt proud of her, of course pegasus, the nasty feathered beasts, had done the attack, he was there and remembered it all. She was just telling them the truth, their potion hadn't done anything to her mind at all. He couldn't help but nod silently in agreement with Gentle Breeze, then stopped himself. He couldn't break his cover, had to pretend to believe the lies of the feather lovers. He looked side to side to see if anyone had noticed his momentary lapse, but no, all eyes seemed glued to the images in the folder. Even the hardened guards seemed to be sweating and shivering at the bloody bodies in the pictures. Red Wood looked at the images, recognizing a few of his former neighbors bodies laid out, but didn't see what the big deal was. They were dead weren’t they? They couldn't feel pain anymore.

Red Wood really started to wonder how this ‘treatment’ was supposed to do anything? Certainly nothing so pedestrian was going to make HIS wife turn on the Stone Heart.

The doctor looked at Gentle Breeze and sighed. “Yes, as expected. You feel no guilt about these images?”

Gentle Breeze shook her head in sort of dazed half drugged anger. “Why should I, the Stone Heart doesn't do things like that.”

The doctor nodded, “You’re mind and memories are in complete denial because the spell is feeding you false memories and making you accept things that your normal pony instincts should find intolerable. These picture are of ponies you knew, you grew up with, even if the Cult wasn't responsible, you show no reaction to their deaths?”

For a brief moment Gentle Breeze looked uncomfortable, but the emotions didn't go as far as her eyes before she clamped down on them and replied, “I’ve not seen them for a decade. I’m sorry they're dead, but I don’t see how it’s my fault.”

When she said this, Red Wood felt cold inside, but couldn’t explain to himself the reason for it. He looked again at the pictures, and wondered why the pegasus had killed them like that.

Doctor Somnolence, turned aside, “I think it’s time to move on to the next stage.” He lifted the silver dome that had hidden some of the supplies on the cart. There under the dome was four blue and white crystals. As the light from the room struck the crystals, they started to glow brighter.

Twilight whispered out loud from her corner, “Oh! Grade six, polyfield damping crystals! You did a good job charging them doctor, that’s tricky work.”

The doctor took a moment to smile at Twilight, “Thank you Princess.”

Red Wood looked at the strange crystals, when taking lab classes for his two year degree of magic engineering at PMI he had worked with much smaller versions of PDC’s. They were used in lab classes to dampen magic fields, and keep the range effects of spells from spreading beyond the student work benches. There really wasn't anything dangerous about PDC’s so why looking at them made him suddenly feel bothered?

The doctor picked up one of the crystals and fastened it to one of Gentle Breeze’s bedposts. With his free hoof he motioned for Red Wood to step forward, pointing at Gentle Breeze’s free hoof.

“He wants me to hold her hoof now?” Red Wood thought as he looked back and forth between his wife and the glowing crystal. He stepped forward about to hold her hoof when his eyes shot open. He had thought the treatment for his wife was all about drugs and spells directed just at her. But these stones, they generated an area affect.

Red Wood paused, his hoof just inches from holding his wife’s. He looked around, fear palpable on his face. No one seemed to notice or care, Twilight was quickly writing notes, the two nurses were preparing another sponge with the potion, the doctor was putting the last crystal in place.

“Is it safe?” Red Wood asked out loud, his voice almost a whine of fear.

“Of course, should only have any effect on the cultists victims.” The doctor answered absentmindedly as he stepped back.

Then as if it was an after thought Red Wood turned to the last two in the room, Spring Kicker was on one side of the door frame, the perfect still as stone guard stance, the only deviation was instead of staring ahead, his eyes were locked on the medical tray at the still open folder of pictures.

Red Wood was about turn back, when he glanced further to the side and saw Solid Star stance was very different than Spring’s. The other guard was tense and alert, and both he and Red Wood’s eyes locked. In an instant Red Wood’s world turned sideways, “He knows!” was his only thought.

With no warning whatsoever, Solid Star kicked out at Red Wood, the pony fell across his wife on her bed, right in the middle of the PDC field.

Suddenly ponies were screaming, Gentle Breeze was first, then the doctor and Twilight, but loudest and in the most agony, was Red Wood as he had taken no potion to dampen the PDC effect, the Cult’s spell was quite literally cooking in his brain.

Red Wood cried out in howling agony.

Author's Note

Just a quick note, there had been a chapter I had previously planned for around this part of the story that would have filled in a lot of the sort of 'world building' questions that authors spend a lot of time thinking about, but it's hard to put these sort of details in without stepping out of the story. And due to some changes in the story the opportunity I panned on having where Parker could talk to Twilight about things dealing with nature of magic, Equestria history, pony biology and other sort of 'nerd' talk, just won't fit where I thought I could put it at first.

So I'm going to do is post what could be the first of several 'bonus' chapters, set in time back in the two month period when Red Wood, Banyan and Parker where getting settled in Canterlot and Twilight was a frequent visitor. (I already had one chapter set in that time, I'll just be expanding some of those events into longer 'talks' between Twilight and Parker. Since this would just be 'world building' and not really plot forwarding, they can be skipped if you don't care for that mental word play. I'll mark those chapters with 'Bonus'

Too late to Change Minds

Red Wood was screaming his lungs out, and with the exception of Solid Star, every pony present seemed frozen in confusion and surprise. Even Solid Star who had expected some sort of reaction wasn’t prepared for the shear agony on Red Wood’s face.

Doctor Somnolence was the first to recover and started giving orders to the nurses present. “Get him off Gentle Breeze! No keep his head inside of the field! No move her to the side, pull, to the right, yes, higher, again, a bit closer to me.” With the doctor’s instructions, the nurses and guards managed to flip Red Wood off Gentle Breeze’s chest, and found just enough room for him to lay next to his wife on the bed. But Red Wood wasn’t laying quietly, it took all the strength of the nurses and the two guards to keep all four of Red Wood’s legs pressed down, while he thrashed and cried.

Princess Twilight took the longest to react, but by only a few seconds, physically she wasn’t going to try to pony handle a grown stallion and it would be dangerous for her to use magic too near the Polyfield Damping Crystals. Her high level magic could shatter the crystals and she was pretty sure that would be fatal to both Red Wood and Gentle Breeze. Instead she threw open the door, and called out to the hallway. “Orderlies! Bring us a gurney or another bed! Quickly!”

One of the nurses asked out loud, “Why is he reacting to the PDC field?”

Doctor Somnolence grunted a reply, “He must have been touched by the cult’s spell! We’ll figure out the how later, now we have to get him stabilized.”

The doctor’s eyes fell on the nearby potion bottle that they had used on Gentle Breeze a few minutes earlier. The nurse followed the doctors glance and levitated the bottle, she started damping another sponge with the potion.

“Forget that!” Grumbled Doctor Somnolence, he ripped the bottle of potion from the nurses grip and turned it over, onto Red Wood’s face. The unicorn was drenched with the caustic smelling potion. His mouth had been open in a frightful scream and much of the potion flooded in his open jaws. Red Wood sputtered and choked, but the doctor held his muzzle closed and rubbed the ponies throat forcing Red Wood to swallow.

“Easy now, easy.” Somnolence whispered.

At this point, two earth ponies in blue scrubs burst into the room, one pushing a crash cart, the other a wheeled gurney bed. They paused with questioning glances as they tried to access the situation.

Twilight stepped forward and directed them. “We just need the gurney for now, put it next to the other bed. We’re going to try to roll Red Wood onto it so his thrashing can’t hurt Gentle Breeze.”

Doctor Somnolence only afford a small glanced up as he was concentrating on the two patient ponies, said “We have to be careful, neither ponies heads can be allowed to exit the PDC field. Even for a second. They are both at a very delicate part of the procedure, and if they leave the field, there is no maybe about it, they will die.”

Then the doctor turned his attention to the junior alicorn, “Princess Twilight, I will need your help, we have to move two the crystals to the far side of the gurney. But they aren't configured and charged properly to expand the field, they need more power, and its more than I can afford. A PDC field spread over two beds will need more power than any normal unicorn can cast.”

Twilight nodded understanding the doctor’s meaning and pulled over her quill and paper to calculate how much power the crystals will need. She mumbled about inverse square roots and units of pony lengths.

Spring Kicker asked, “Can we get some more crystals and just setup a new field around the other bed?”

One of the nurses answered for the doctor, “No PDC fields are magnetic in nature, two fields near each other will repulse and knock the beds apart, there would have to be big gap, and any gap would kill the patient as we moved them from one field to the other.” Both the doctor and Twilight nodded absentmindedly at the nurses explanation while concentrating on their respective tasks.

Soon Twilight had finished her calculations and the nurses had fixed two IV polls with mounting clips to the far corners of the gurney. Twilight stood on the far side of the gurney and slowly added her magic to the crystals. Barely a trickle at first as the crystals moved further apart she would increase the energy to keep the field steady. One guard and one nurse was assigned to each of the two crystals that had to move. Following Twilight's steady counting they carried the crystals very slowly, allowing her to adjust the power as they moved.

Meanwhile the doctor monitored the two patients, both of which still shook in pain, but no longer thrashing around. Red Wood was cuddled up with Gentle Breeze, holding her, as they hadn't extra straps to tie him down, but they both seemed much calmer now.

Finally the crystals were in the right positions and the field was holding steady. Twilight though had to keep feeding power to them. What ever storage capacity the crystals previously held was now burnt out and they were now acting only as pass through transmitters for her alicorn power. She couldn't afford to move or drop the magic until the doctor said it was safe. Already she was sweating, feeling the slow drain.

“How long do I need to keep this up?” She asked the doctor.

“I’m afraid we've just started, it’s going to be at least three or four hours for this first treatment. In the future we’ll be better prepared, but Mr Red Wood’s case certainly wasn't expected. Will you be alright Princess? We can try to get some more unicorns to augment you but at this power level, unless its another Princess, I doubt an ordinary unicorn could last more than a few seconds.”

Twilight fixed her eyes at a spot on the wall to ease concentration and nodded. “No more than four hours please. I should be OK. Guards, please make sure we’re not disturbed for anything less important than a changeling invasion. “

After a pause Twilight added with a ghost of a smile, “Strike that, if Changelings invade, tell Luna it’s her turn this time.”

The two guards saluted and took up posts by the door.

Meanwhile Doctor Somnolence, having satisfied the two patients were as comfortable as possible, moved back to the tray and picked up the folder holding the pictures of the Coltsdale Massacre. He took one picture out and held it up.

At first neither Red Wood or Gentle Breeze would open their eyes to look, and the doctor stood there patiently waiting. Gentle Breeze was the first to open her eyes just a crack. Seeing the picture she gasped, “Green Vines! No!” Then her eyes opened wider, “Uncle Running Lines!” She started naming the bodies in the picture,

Her gasp made Red Wood startle and he looked as well, “The mayor, I saw his body before, in the mirror, I .. Parker tripped over it… but where are the pegasi? I swear I saw a flight of pegasus?”

The doctor shook his head sadly, “You have to learn the difference between your real inner voice and the spells lies. Over the next couple of hours, we’re going to go over evidence of the Cults crimes, each time you’ll hear the Cults spell telling lies about the crime, but because you're in the EPC filed, you should now have no trouble telling the difference between your own thoughts and the spells. As you learn the difference, you’ll find the spell will fade. It’s going to take a long time, weeks, for the spells voices to fade completely, but even after this one treatment, you should be able to detect the difference.”

Gentle Breeze tried to look away, “No! It’s not fair! The Stone Heart was family. Why did they lie?” But some deep need for truth made her open her eyes again. The internal battle inside her mind played on her face in tears and jeers.

Red Wood didn't know what think, this is what Parker had been telling him, but he was so certain Parker was wrong, but now, it was as if there was stranger whispering in his head, telling him things that no longer seemed to make sense. Before the voice was so much like his own, that he had mistaken the voice for his own thoughts. Now he could tell the difference the voice still whispered to him, telling him about the attacking pegasus and the wonderful rescue by the Stone Heart, but it was faint, alien and lifeless. How could he have ever believed it. In numb minding shock he was dizzy about just how little control he had been over his own thoughts.

Twilight meanwhile watched the events unfold in front of her, the changes in the emotional state of the two ponies was shocking. She saw nurses had stepped back to take notes and were following each gesture and motion made by the doctor carefully. It took a few seconds but Twilight realized that the nurses were not just helping Doctor Somnolence, but were being trained in the techniques he was using. “Of course, if it takes so many hours for each patient, then Somnolence, can’t personally treat all the cultists. The nurses will take over for the others, we were just lucky he started with Gentle Breeze and Red Wood was….Oh no!” Twilight realized that she hadn't fully grasped the consequences of Red Wood’s condition until now. And now she was trapped, unable to leave this room for hours.

“Maybe I can call on of the guards back in and have him take a message to Celestia.” She thought to herself.

“Princess Twilight!” The doctor’s voice spoke up urgently. “Please concentrate the field is showing some serious fluctuations!”

Twilight looked at the wildly flashing colors coming off the crystals. “No!” With an effort she stabilized the field again and the crystals flashing slowed. “Can’t worry about it now she thought, can’t let myself be distracted!” So Twilight continued to concentrate on the stability of the EPC field and refused to let her mind voice the questions she had bubbling under the surface.

Outside in the hallway the two royal guards, stood vigil, but curiosity made Spring Kicker ask. “Solid, how did you realize something was up with Red Wood, I thought Princess Celestia herself cleared him?”

“I wasn't certain, until I saw the fear of that EPC field in his eyes. But last night when you were asleep, I overheard Red Wood talking to that other pony in his head. I couldn't hear everything they said, and I could only hear Red Wood’s side of the conversation, but what I did hear, didn't sound right. Plus how he described being tied up, didn't match how we found them. It was too pat. Their cuts and wounds were too surgical, made to look bad but nothing like the wounds we saw on the pegasus bodies we found. He just felt all wrong.”

“Strange though that he was able to fool the Princess so long.” Spring Kicker said.

“So long? What do you mean?” Solid Star asked.

“Well Princess Twilight said that it takes weeks for the Cult to brainwash any pony. They only had him for a few hours, so they must have gotten to him earlier. Probably a plant from when he first came to Canterlot? Right?”

Solid Star wondered out loud, “I really hadn't thought about that, but no, I've met him a number of times, escorting him or his other self, Parker, to the Princess. He never felt so ‘wrong’ until we got back from Sea Del Mare. If the Princess hadn't said it was impossible I’d say they got him just yesterday.”

Spring Kicker looked worried at Solid Star, “She did say it was impossible, but Red Wood wasn't the only pony they captured…”

“The guards! Crimson Paytral? You said she was acting strangely.” Solid Star spoke softly but his voice was tense.

Both guard ponies looked over their shoulders at the door to the patients room. “We can’t interrupt Princess Twilight. You heard the doctor before, she drops that magic field, the two ponies will die.” Spring Kicker said.

“Then we must go to the palace! We have to leave our posts, Princess Celestia has to be told. The guards may be corrupted!”

The two guards took off and ran down the hospital hallway towards the nearest stairwell.

But as they passed a large open window, looking down over the bustling streets of Canterlot, the first bombs set by Red Wood the previous night started to go off, the guards paused to look. Smoke floated over the nearby business district, even as the rolling echos of the explosion faded, the screams of injured ponies could be heard.

Their message to the Princess would not come soon enough.

Battle for Hearts and Minds

Author's Note

A bit longer one this time.

I'm still working on the missing 'bonus' chapter. Just this one got finished first.

While I can't say this chapter has anything really more inappropriate or conversational than earlier chapters, this time I think some of the squicky scenes are a bit more...personal. So you have been warned.

Battle for Hearts and Minds

Celestia stepped out of her throneroom standing tall, certain and full of strength the pinnacle of pony beauty and grace. Until the doors were firmly closed behind her and there was no chance of any of the day court ponies seeing her. Then she slumped like a beach ball deflating. Two nights ago she had ordered Princess Twilight to sleep before the eve of battle, but Celestia had not follow her own order. Nor had she rested in the two days since then. The days were wearing her down and she wasn’t able to see any light at the end of this tunnel.

One of her personal secretaries, a fair blond and blue unicorn mare named Check Mark, joined the Princess. She walked efficiently balanced on three legs, her remaining leg seemed to perpetually hold a clipboard with Celestia’s schedule.

Celestia gave Check Mark a tired look. “Are there any more propositions today?”

Check Mark’s cutie mark was four squares of a checklist, with the second to last checked with a red tick. She looked over her clipboard and said, “Oh dear oh dear, General Righteous sent me a memo asking if your schedule had a space now, but then didn't actually make an appointment. I could move up the trades guild tax review up?”

“No! Please no!” Celestia breathed in exasperation, Check Mark was one of the few ponies that she felt comfortable enough to let her mask slip so far.

“OK then.” Check Mark wrote down a note. “Then I’d say you have an opening now about three hours long and perhaps you should take some time to relax before your next meeting.”

“Which is?” Celestia asked.

“With Twilight Sparkle, she supposed to be back this afternoon with a report on how the treatment of the Cultists is proceeding and a demonstration of her new tracker gems. My understanding is she was working until late last night at the schools labs making them, and is now assisting the doctors at the hospital.” Check Mark read the relevant notes on her clipboard

“Hmm, Twilight?” Celestia mused out loud. “I expect she did another all nighter, not that I can claim to be a very good role model regarding proper rest over the last few days.” Celestia looked determined and made a decision, “Well that has to change, I’ll lead by example. Check Mark, please have the royal groomers join me in my spa.” Yes a hot bath and a proper grooming would let her shake off her tiredness.

“Very good Princess.” Check Mark noted, “If General Righteous does get back to me, should I send him to your spa?”

Celestia wrinkled her nose for a second, her personal bath was a very ‘casual’ spot for a formal meeting. But as the General had not actually made an appointment. Plus in common pony society there was nothing unseemly about such a location for a meeting, but it wasn't typical for ROYAL pony society, might be even scandalous in some of the aristocrats eyes. Celestia gave that all the consideration that it deserved and told Check Mark, “Certainly ask the General to join me, if he has any news.”

Check Mark gave Celestia a polite nod and with typical efficiency turned towards the official offices while the Princess headed towards her personal suite.

Once Check Mark got to the office she was a bit surprised to find the door already unlocked and the two royal guards who normally waited outside, missing. Opening the door with some caution she saw that General Righteous was inside sitting in the visitors waiting area, flanked by several of the Royal guards. While a bit miffed at the breach of etiquette, Check Mark let out a sigh of relief, as the mystery of the unlocked door was now easily explained. The Guards had keys to all the major areas of the Castle. The General probably had not wished to wait outside and ordered the assigned Guards to let him him.

Check Mark put on her best professional face, walked to her desk and said, “Good morning General. Is this regarding your previous query about the Princesses morning schedule?” She purposely did not tell the General that Celestia had already approved his appointment. Check Mark hated how ponies with swelled heads tried to get around proper procedure and decided to make him ask first.

To her confusion, General RIghteous didn't answer her immediately but turned to one of his guards as if asking permission. That guard turned to look at the others guards in the room and made a quiet hooves up gesture. Two of the six guards present walked to block the door and the other four moved back to a far corner of the room. Check Mark didn't like the vibes she was feeling in the room, but she knew several of these Guards and General Righteous was in and out of her office nearly every day. She tried to force herself to be calm, but mental alarms were firing off confusing signals. She waited patiently, letting the General speak first.

“Good morning Miss Check Mark.” The General spoke. “I will be needing to see the Princess in,” he paused to look at the desk clock, “half an hour, which should give us just enough time to brief you about some changes in government policy that we are about to enact.”

Check Mark asked, “Changes? What sort of …” she stuttered to silence and her eyes shrunk to tiny dots. She had just noticed that the four guards that had moved to the far corner had been stripping off their uniforms. Three of the four were stallions and were very stiffly standing at attention, but not in the way guards were supposed to.

Check Mark turned quickly to the General about to demand an explanation, part of her already thinking she should start screaming for help.

That part was unfortunately correct, but the thought was too late coming. The General stood silent as one of the other guard’s hoof reached out from behind and covered her muzzle. Something metallic tasting was forced between her lips, and before she could even think of trying to spit it out, it had already dissolved. Check Mark tried to scream and buck, but a firm hoof held her muzzle closed, and her legs were kicked out from under her. With her eyes shrunk to pinpoints of terror she could only mumble unheeded protests as the four naked guards descended on her.

The two guards at the door, watched their fellows pin Check Mark, but didn't break discipline and remained standing guarding the door. Likewise General Righteous watched with mild interest until the one remaining guard turned to him.

That guard was Crimson Peytral, now fully in uniform and with a serious look on her face. “General permission to speak sir?”

Righteous kept his eyes on the pony pile on the floor, licking his lips as one of the naked stallions lifted his hips and with a thrust, mounted Check Mark. The mare let out a choked sob but couldn't pull away. After a pause that lasted two beats too long, he addressed Crimson, “Of course Guardmare, what is it?”

Crimson sighed, “Sir, you can’t be seen deferring to me. You serve the Stone Heart best with your skill and authority, I could see Check Mark growing suspicious when she saw you look to me. If Princess Celestia notices a tell like that, when we approach her, I doubt she’ll give us a second chance.”

General Righteous stood up a little taller and gave Crimson a firm nod. “You are right of course. My hesitation was in error. It is just that I know you have received direct instructions from the Stone Heart elders and I must trust to secondhand instructions and insights the Blessing has given me.”

“No worry sir, the Elders are waiting in the shadows outside the castle and will take their proper place here by Celestia’s side when we complete our mission. Then you will be able to get your instructions directly from them.” Crimson gave her commander a crisp salute to reinforce her subservience to him.

Firming up his stance and constance, General Righteous, “Right then, thank you for your candor. Please assist the others and I will keep a watch for the signal from our agent.” It was a sign of how dedicated the General was that he was able to wrench his eyes from debauchery spectacle on the floor and turned to the window to observe Canterlot’s business district.

Crimson knelt down and comforted Check Mark whispering “Shhh, easy now, just a few more minutes and your eyes will be open to the truth of the Stone Heart.” The Princesses secretary was panting, her eyes wide and unfocused. She was still grunting and mumbling, but as the four, now with Crimson, five guards, worked her body like experts, Check Mark’s gasps became mews of pleasure than grunts of protest.

Crimson nuzzled Check Mark’s face, kissing and licking, taking the salty tears with relish as she licked them all away.

Half an hour later, Check Mark stood smiling, a faint rosy glow on her cheeks, she felt wonderful, relaxed and happy. She stood next to General Righteous, and ignored the guards who were busy cleaning up any evidence of their, ummm, educational procedure. She even managed to not react when one of the guards used a wet rag to clean up some telling fluids on her flank. With a breathy voice still warm from an endorphin high, she asked. “So General what is our plan?”

The General turned to Check Mark. “Unfortunately the Elders of the Stone Heart are still waiting for our sign before taking their rightful place leading us. But though Gardmare Crimson here, I have been briefed with what is expected of us.”

Check Mark, turned to Crimson and nodded her thanks to the other mare. Crimson blushed in acknowledgement but continued to attend to the clean up duties. “And that is?” Check Mark asked.

“While Princess Celestia was holding her morning court, our guards have opened the eyes of just about all the Castle’s staff who were not tied up in the court. You were the last that needed to be educated.” He explained.

“Thank you. But why did you honor me by taking care of me personally?” Check Mark wondered.

“Celesta is our next target, but while there are others in court with a higher rank, few other ponies have as much contact with the Princess as you do. You will be critical in our rescue of the Alicorns from the evil pegasus.”

“There are many of the foul creatures who sulk here in the castle. What about them? How are we to cleanse Canterlot of them?” Check Mark asked.

“Oh we’ll have to wait for instructions from the Elders before we can hope for a final solution to the pegasus problem. Still one of the cooks we engaged came up with a temporary solution. While you were in court, the feathered freaks found in their morning break rooms plates of pastries and cakes. They of course scarfed the treats down like the greedy savages they are.” The General chuckled, “Much to their later discomfort.”

“So you poisoned them” Check Marked asked casually.

“Alas no. At least not with deadly effect. But our friend the cook, laced the cakes with enough laxatives to empty the bowels of an army of elephants. I’d suggest not standing under any of their cloud houses anytime in the near future.’ The General started wheezing in laughter.

‘Once the ‘sabotage’ was detected, senior administrators sent all the pegasi staff home for medical leave. We still have to deal with the Pegasus Guards, and that’s what we’re waiting for.” He finished.

“Waiting for?” Check Mark asked, “but I thought you wanted to make sure the Princess’s schedule was free now so she could join us? If that’s what you want, you don’t have much more time. She’ll be finished with her spa…” Check Mark looked at her desk clock. “In and hour and a half.”

“That shouldn't be a problem” General Righteous said as he looked out the window down into the city, “The signal should show up soon.”

Even as the General said that, there was a flash of light, followed by a pillar of smoke and a low growling rumble of thunder echo though the Canterlot business districts canyons of buildings. Down below them Check Mark could just make out that that one of the large bank buildings had partly collapsed down into the busy street in front of it.

She gasped, “What was that!”

General Righteous nodded in approval. “That was our signal. Much better than a simple fire, our agent on the outside is clever. Hopefully not too many non pegasus were hurt, but still effective.” He turned to the mare, “Come we have a Princess to notify about a terrible terrorist attack.” he smirked.

Check Mark was still looking at the rising smoke cloud with horror, “Those Pegasus did this, didn't they?” her mind already rewriting the history so thoroughly that she could pass a lie detector spell, despite hearing the General talk of an ‘agent’ moments earlier.

“Come.” The General told her.

With a serious look, Check Mark took up her clipboard and motioned for the guards to follow them.

It took just a few minutes to walk from office to Princess Celestia’s personal suite. But even in those few minutes a wave of panic could be felt in the castle. No one would have disturbed the Princess yet, at least while the Stone Heart converted guards stood at the doors, but there was a palpable excitement in the air as rumors of the explosion spread quickly.

Check Mark let the General and the troop of guards into the private suite.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you Princess” Check Mark said as they entered.

Celestia was sitting in her large tub, half submerged while a team of three unicorn beauticians were wrangling magic brushes over her flowing mane. Check Mark wasn't sure the brushes were actually DOING anything, but the Princess seemed to enjoy the treatment.

The Princess first raised an eyebrow questioningly, then she saw the General walking in behind her secretary. “Oh General. good to see you. Please give me a minute to dry off and we can talk in my sitting room.” There was a slight hint of playfulness in her voice as the situation was a bit more casual than she was used to.

General Righteous shook his head. “I’m sorry Princesses, but this can’t wait. There has been an attack on Canterlot’s business district. I believe it was the Pe….” The General paused to catch his tongue, then continued. “I mean the Cult.”

Princess Celestia stood up in her tub, all playfulness left her face and voice. “WHAT! Has any ponies been hurt?”

Righteous knelt down in a compliant bow, “Sorry I don’t yet have casualty figures, if any. I received intelligence about the attack just moments ago. The explosion was in the business district and there are many ponies on the streets there.”

Princess Celestia nodded, “I want facts, I want every bit of intelligence you have brought to me immediately. Send troops to the site of the attack to aid rescue and recovery.”

“Yes Princess, but I have more news.”

Celestia waited.

“The report we received said the explosion was going to be just the first in a series. We need to find the other bombs before they go off.”

Celestia looked frustrated, “Yes of course. But I don’t think we have a bomb detecting squad in Canterlot. I know there is one squad in Manehatten to monitor shipping, but we have never had a bomb issue here in the capital.”

General Righteous kept his voice level and replied. “We need to search the entire city for suspicious packages. Ground troops will be too slow, with your permission I’d like to order out the Pegasus Guard for a full city sweep.”

Celestia nodded in agreement. “Yes of course. I will send word via dragon fire to the Mayor of Manehatten and have the trained squad reassigned.”

The General turned to the Guardmare Chrimson. “You heard the Princess. I want every pegasus out of the castle and in search flights over the city, NOW!”

Chrimson saluted and ran off at full gallop. Down the hall several Stone Heart Guards were already prepared and by splitting up to different points in the castle, the flying fiends would be evicted from the Castle in minutes. The General allowed himself a small grin, once he completed his mission, they would never be allowed back.

Check Mark then said, “I’ll be needed to help organize that.”

The General nodded and motioned for four of the remaining guards to say with him, while the others escorted Check Mark out. He knew that her role now as to go to the pegis dorms and lock them down. Her security codes would be needed to open the locks and seals of the pegasi weapon caches, but of course he didn't say any of this out loud.

The General turned back to Celestia, “Princess, I also think we need to raise a magic shield around the Castle. We can’t risk intruders when there are so many unknowns.”

To the General’s annoyance, Celestia didn't immediately agree. “I understand your concern General, and I have used magic shields in the past with other threats, but I was attempting to shield the entire city, not just the Castle. I do not see how hiding myself from the danger would aid My Little Ponies.” Celestia told him.

The General wrinkled his brow, he wanted to make sure he could control who got in and out of the Castle. In addition to the Pegisi there were royal guards that had been on patrol last night. There was an expectation that some of the deluded uneducated ponies might attempt some sort of misguided rescue mission. They needed time to secure the Castle and Celestia.

Delaying to give himself some time to think. “Unfortunately Princess, Shining Armor is still in the Crystal Empire and I do not know of another Unicorn that can cast another city sized shield.” Then he looked around the bathroom. “Perhaps we should move this discussion to a less informal location?”

Celestia nodded, “Yes, we must discuss strategy, yet I will not sit idly here in the Castle.” With a grace that reflected her long experience, she had been holding this entire conversation with royal dignity while standing up to her gasken in bath water. She now took the time to step out of the bath, and with a shimmer of magic dried off her coat and mane without towels.

The General followed her to the suites main foyer and onward to the adjacent wide balcony that overlooked Canterlot. “Meet me at the Hospital, I must see for myself my subjects injured in the explosion.”

Celestia started to open her wings to fly off, when in a panic, The General yelled “NO! Princess.”

Celestia paused in confusion, “No?” She asked in surprise.

“Princess, you were seen all day yesterday at the Hospital. The bombers probably expect you to go there.” The General replied quickly, his mind racing for some way to keep the Princess here. He was expecting backup from others once the Pegasus left. He need them before trying to educated the Princess. The handful of guards he had with him wasn't enough, not yet. A pony like Check Mark could be surprised and overwhelmed by a couple of cult members, but the Princess would need more trained guards to hold her even for the few seconds needed to make her swallow the Stone Heart Blessing. The General bit his lip, he had to buy himself more time.

The General motioned to the Princess to follow him inside, and curious about what he wanted to say, she followed. He told her, “Organized attacks like this are rare, but the military guidebooks say that normal strategy is to explode bombs in groups, with later bombs delayed just enough to harm the first responding rescue ponies.”

Even as he said this, a second explosion rolled out over the streets below.

The Princesses eyes were wide open in fear and wet with tears, “My Little Ponies!” She started moving back to the balcony.

But the General blocked her with his body, and with a desperate cry of frustration she stopped. “I have to help them!” She yelled.

“No! That second explosion could have been you! Had you been out there, what could you do that trained rescue ponies couldn't?” The General yelled back. “You’re the Princess, you ARE EQUESTRIA, you have to be kept safe.”

Meekly the Princess agreed. This was not the role she wanted. If she was injured in the attack, she would be giving the Cult a sweet victory. She need to plan a proper strategy and trust her subordinates to do the right thing.

The General and Celestia moved to her sitting room and he pulled out a map of Canterlot. They spent the next few minutes going over the map, and identifying likely bomb locations. While the General did this mostly as a delaying tactic, part of him was curious wondering where the little clockmaker pony had managed to hide all his bombs.

They had been at this for a while when there was a loud knocking at the suites main doors. The General turned to the doors with anticipation, his extra troops were arriving and they could move to the next step. He motioned for one of his remaining guards to open the door. While all the ponies eyes, including Celestia’s were on the doors, the General took the time to reach into his uniform pocket and pulled out a small silver metallic pill which he hid in the frog of his hoof.

Outside the door were two, out of breath unicorn guards. The General didn’t know them by sight and was disappointed it was only two. The Princess seemed to know them though and waved them into her suite, they hadn’t yet caught their breath to speak but bowed respectively.

Hiding his disappointment General Righteous asked them. “Are the Pegasus giving us any trouble?”

The two guards looked confused by the question, “No we didn't see many Pegasi in the Castle.”

The younger guard added, “Wait I did see some scuffling with some earth ponies in the garden, but with the bombs going off, we didn't stop to see what that was about.”

The Princess looked confused, “Earth ponies and pegasi fighting in the gardens!”

The General thought to himself, ‘The feathered devils probably figured out something was wrong and started to fight back too soon.” He decided there was no more time to waste. “Don’t worry Princess, you’ll understand soon.” He directed his attention to all the remaining guards and the two new ones. “Sorry ponies, there’s less of us than I wanted, but for the good of Equestria we have to do this NOW!”

With smiles on their faces, the four remaining guards that came with him stepped forward in anticipation while the Princess looked back and forth with growing confusion. “What going on!” She started to stammer.

The General Jumped across the sitting room table and before Celestia could react jammed his hoof into her mouth. She immediately threw Righteous across the room where he hit the wall knocking pictures and books off the furniture as he fell down. That didn’t matter, the deed was done.

The Princess screamed “Poison!” tasing the metallic taste in her mouth.

The General who was only mildly shook up by his short flight across the room, stood up and brushing himself off. “No my Princess, not poison but a blessing!”

He then turned his attention to the guards. “Ready boys, but show some respect, you have the great honor and pleasure to teach an Alicorn the magic of the Stone Heart!”

The Princess eyes opened wide, now in a brief flash of insight she understood! “NO!” she tried to light her horn, call on her magic. She would incinerate every living thing in this room if necessary to escape, but this brief moment of clarity passed. “Uhh! Dizy!” She cried out unable to channel her magic.

The General started to loosen his belt, seeing several of his guards doing the same. Two were already fully out of uniform, two others nearly so.

But then he realized with a sudden chill, the two new guards, the ones he hadn’t recognized, they weren’t stripping. Instead they were holding back, looking side to side in confusion.

“Your eyes are still closed!” He realized as he pointed to them. But their expressions of confusion were quickly firming up into determination. The elder one was starting to bend his knees, to spring. The General could read in their body language how this would unfold, they would attack the naked guards while still fully armored. Even with the advantage in numbers the General would lose that battle.

“Nooo! Not when we’re so close!” Instead of continuing to strip, he pulled out his sword. It was mostly used ceremonially, but it was real, solid and sharp. He ran between the cult guards and the two new ones. Stopping them from springing forward.

“Stay back” he warned them. Then over his shoulder he told the naked four. “I got these two, you have to teach the Princess the pleasure of the Stone Heart before the blessing wears off!”

With his back to the Princess he had no idea how effective his loyal guards were going to be against an Alicorn by themselves. The Blessing would make her physically and magically weak but no pony knew for how long and by how much. No time to worry about that now. He held his sword in his magic and saw the two new guards stand back wary. The General tried to assess them, clearly they were Royal guards,probably back from an over night patrol and had not been blessed. They hadn’t taken their spears with them, giving him the advantage with his sword. He had to take them out before they could gang up on him.

“What’s your names?” He asked, not really interested, but wanting to ease them into letting him have an opening.

The younger guards stammered, “Guard Stallion Spring Kicker, Sir.” clearly mixed emotions on his face, wanting to be polite to a superior office holding a weapon, but also seeing whatever was happening behind the General and wanting to aid the Princess.

“Shut up!” The elder guard, Solid Star, barked at younger. “The Cult got them! We have to rescue the Princess!”

General Righteous, made a choice, the older Guard clearly was the more dangerous. With years of experience, he swung his sword, and simultaneously used some of his magic to trip up the guards hooves.

Solid Star was no foal and saw the attack coming. He managed to duck enough to avoid the first swing of the sword and turned his magically tripped hooves into a roll that brought him to the Generals left side. The side the sword was moving away from. Sold jammed his weight on his forelegs and rear kicked the General hard in the side.

Unfortunately the General’s armor was more than sufficient to absorb Solid Stars buck. The only effect was that the General skidded on the smooth floor tiles about four feet. The General turned and bucked back. Solid Star again ducked easily enough but had to roll again when the General’s sword smashed the ground, exactly where Solid had been a second before.

Both the General and Solid started circling each other. Each trying to gain an advantage, but both had been trained in the same fighting skills and were more evenly matched than either would like to admit. Both their horns were glowing, canceling out each other spells, but not letting up for a second or risking letting the other gain an advantage.

Swish! The General’s sword kept making Solid Star dodge, but the heavy ceremonial sword wasn't very fast. To Solid it was more of an annoyance than the main risk. Without a sharp weapon of his own, he need to get close enough to grapple. He kept trying to dodge in, but the General was too wary.

Another kick and this time Solid managed to get on top of the General. Bucking and kicking he tried to get past the armor, and get some solid blows in. The General’s nose was bleeding now and Solid was certain he had cracked one of the General’s ribs. But Solid had taken some blows too.

Solid tried to take a deep breath and give the General another round of blows, when the General got his hooves below them and kicked hard into Solid’s underbelly, throwing the guard clear across the room.

“No!” suddenly the younger guard, Spring Kicker was there, kicking and pounding at the General. But he lacked the experience and the skill of Solid. Spring’s blows were all absorbed by the General’s armor. Also Spring forgot to guard himself with his magic, the General grabbed the younger guard by the neck in his magic and started lifting him off the ground by that grip.

“You annoying brat!” The General Spat, he forced Spring’s neck up, exposing his throat, the younger guard hung there in the air, his hooves flailing, his head forced up to look at the ceiling. The General held his sword up to the young stallions throat and noted how his sword was sharp enough to cause a thin line of blood to flow from even this light tough. “Don’t worry kid. I’ll make this quick!” The General boasted.

Lifting his sword high with his hoof, the General brought it down hard on Springs neck, more than hard enough to be a killing blow. Hard enough to spit the ponies neck bones and decapitate the boy.

Hard enough that it should have killed Spring Kicker instantly.

But it didn't. Because Spring was no longer in the General’s magic grasp, the young guard was knocked away and out of the Generals magic so hard he flew through the door and landed on the adjacent balcony.

It didn't because Solid Star had knocked his partner out of the General’s grasp in a flying leap.

A leap that left Solid Star in the path of the sword rather than Spring Kicker.

The Sword passed through Solid Stars skin with no resistance. Cutting between his ribs, breaking several then out the other side. Passing through Solid’s lungs, heart and just about every important artery all at one.

Solid’s face gave off a shocked look, it couldn't even be called pained, more like surprise. He landed on the ground and collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Spring Kicker saw all this, saw the light leave Solid Stars eyes and called out “Nooo!”

Spring ran, not away, but straight at the General who was already retrieving his sword.

The General saw Spring approaching and the bastard smiled. His horn starting to glow to launch another spell but Spring who was too distraught to realize he should have doing something, anything different.

All he could do, was to run straight at the General, all instinct all anger, and he cried “Nooooo!” the entire time.

The General was all confidence. He could already see how the next few seconds would play out in his mind. Spring would leap at him, and the General would easily cut off the young guards legs, his sword already gaining momentum and in motion towards where he calculated where Spring would leap at him.

Then at the last possible second, the General realized Spring Kicker wasn't the only pony yelling ‘Noooo!’

The General only started to turn his head a little to look towards the second source of the yelling. He had just enough time for his eyes to focus, on a pillar of fire shooting straight at him. His pupils shrank in fear, but only for a moment. The fire bathed him, blasted him, his brain and body burnt even before it could process what was happening to him. The General was a smudge of ash on the wall.

Spring Kicker found himself running at now an empty spot. He turned around in confusion his eyes spotted Solid Star’s body first. They locked on the bloody shape, and would have stayed locked there had he not heard a new cry of pain.

Spring turned to look back to where Celestia had been dragged by the four cult guards. For a moment he saw all four guards clinging to Celestia, trying to hold her, trying to drag her down. Then in slow motion the were blown back, burning up like paper lanterns leaving nothing but smoke behind.

Celestia, Princess of the Sun, stood up, her eyes glowing white, heat flowing off her body in waves.

Once again she spoke, “No! I will not fall!” but even as she said this she stumbled.

Not knowing what else to do, Spring Kicker ran up to her, to help hold her up. Her head swung quickly towards him, her white bright eyes aggressive and angry. For a moment Spring felt her heat and wondered if he was also going to be blasted to ash. Then her eyes softened and Celestia Lowered her head to nuzzle him. Spring felt her tears and for a long moment both ruler and guard turned to look at the bloody pile that was once Sold Star.

Celestia then turned towards the window, facing the other tower across the castle complex. She lit her horn, and words could be heard, loud and clear, though the Princes did not say them with her mouth. “LUNA! Flee! The Castle been taken by enemies! Don’t trust any of the guard! Even ones you think you know. Meet me at the usual spot!”

Celestia then spoke, her voice a whisper and full of pain, “There will be more of them. We have to go, and I don’t have the magic left to teleport.” The Princess paused for a second. “Climb on my back.”

Without a further word, the Princess and her guard jumped off the balcony and flew over her city, as it was burning with even more explosions.

Traps and Triggers

Doctor Somnolence looked up and across the table at a row of medical instruments that were attached to the wall over the heads of his two patients .
‘Two Patients!’ he quietly grumbled to himself, ‘How in the world did I let this happen. Bad enough this is the first time I’m trying this technique on a live patient, and I end up responsible for two at the same time.’ The crystal readouts was showing the effects of rising magic and chemical stress. Nodding he noticed that the graphs were finally leveling out.

He then looked in the other direction and saw Princess Twilight Sparkle sitting on the floor, her tail pressed against the wall, her eyes closed in concentration and her horn glowing so brightly that Somnolence had to squint just to make her out. Lines of magic force flowed from her to four highly stressed mana crystals.

“Princess?” he called to her, “Princess Twilight? The patients are stable. You can start lowering the power levels now.”

Twilight looked up and with a sigh of relief let the power drop. Slowly the ECP field faded and she stood up to join the Doctor and nurses. “This…” She paused to rub her horn which was smoking hot. “has been a very tiring morning.” She shook her head and looked down at the two patients.

“Are they asleep? After all that?” She asked.

“Yes, though I think they’ll wake in a few moments. The treatment is very draining.”

“I could tell.” Twilight frowned. “But was it successful? I don’t think I can do that for another hour let alone four more. Do they really have to go through this again, day after day for weeks?”

“The first treatment is the most difficult one, and the most effective. When they wake up in a few minutes, they should be free of the Cults hold. The problem is, that this will only last a few hours before the spell will start to reassert itself, in twenty four hours they’ll be mostly back where they started. It takes at least ten to fifteen treatments to purge the Cults spell. Luckily the remaining treatments are much more mild and easier. A daily forty five minutes of talking about their real thoughts and feelings while sitting in a mild ECP field and some mental exercises to suppress the cults spells effects. The key is to avoid depression and self loathing.”

“And you won’t need me again to power the crystals?” Twilight tried to hide how exhausted she felt but wisp of black smoke from her overheated horn belied her.

“No no no!” The Doctor chuckled. “That was an emergency. With two ponies suddenly in the ECP field, we needed to double the width and quadruple the power levels. Without you here, well, it was likely we would have lost them. In the future, we’ll be careful to only allow one pony near the ECP field at a time.”

“Well I’m glad I was here to help.” Twilight was starting to feel more like herself and smiled. “Please tell me when they wake up, especially Red Wood, it important to find out how long he’s been under the Cults control. “

She started towards the door, when there was a scream from the bed behind her. Surprised Twilight spun around and saw the Red Wood had already awoken,but was also trying to claw his way out from the sheets, yelling incoherently. The Doctor and Nurses were moving forward to press him back.

Twilight approached the yelling Stallion, “It’s OK Red Wood. It’s OK.” She tried to calm him.

“No! No it’s not!” He growled back. “The Cult, the Elder, He made me...He told me.”

Twilight continued to try to calm Red Wood. “It’s OK Red Wood, that was in the past. We’ll not let them hurt you again.”

“NO! THAT’S NOT IT!” Red Wood yell was loud enough that all the ponies too a step back for a moment before again moving to comfort him.

Taking a deep breath Red Wood gasped, then in a calmer voice said. “You have to listen. They made me plant bombs, a distraction so they can attack Princess Celestia!”

Twilight gasped. “Bombs! Princess Celestia?”

He nodded and gasped out again as if in pain. “I set alarm clocks to overload industrial mana batteries. Fully charged and thermally sealed to maximize the blast. What time is it?!”

Shaken Twilight pointed to the clock over the door.

Red Wood swore, “Shitting Horse Apples! The first few must have already gone off!”

“No!” Twilight cried. She ran to the door saying, “I told the guards not to disturb us. For anything. But if bombs were going off, certainly they would….”

She opened the soundproof door, and outside in the hallway ponies were rushing around, alarms were ringing. And there was no sign of the Princesses guards.

Twilight turned with a gasp, “Celestia I have to warn her!”

Red Wood was forcing himself out of the bed. The Doctor was trying to push him back. Suddenly Gentle Breeze sat up and rolled between the Doctor and Red Wood. Pushing them apart.

“Red Wood’s telling the truth! I was there, I ….I” She lowered her head, “ I helped plan it.”

The Doctor didn't like losing control of a situation, he reflexively pushed back at Gentle Breeze saying. “Please Miss Breeze, we've been going over this for hours, nothing you did under the control of the Cult’s spells can be held against you. But you can try to help make things better.”

Red Wood nuzzled his wife for a moment, then looked up a the clock again with a sense of urgency. “Princess! You have to send guards to warn Celestia, but not Royal Earth Pony or Unicorn Guards. Most of them will be in the cult by now.”

“How?” Twilight asked, “wait tell me later! I’ll send a pegasus...no! I’ll go myself!”

Red Wood shook his head and managed to dodge the Doctor long enough to stand up. “No send a guard, because there something worse! I...I horse apples! I set something up that is horrible! It's going to happen and we only have minutes to stop it!”

“Worse than an attack on the Princess?” Twilight asked disbelieving.

“Yes! The plan was for Celestia to become part of the Cult and then she would make an official announcement that the bombs were all the fault of the pegasi.”

Twilight sighed, “Well that’s the Cults usual M.O. isn't it, blame the scapeponies for everything. But they couldn't turn Celestia so fast, it takes weeks..,wait you saying the cult found a way to…” her eyes were shocked at the implications.

“NOT IMPORTANT NOW” Red Wood yelled at Twilight to make her pay attention. “To make it stick, to make it so the whole population would blame the pegasus, there had to be a real outlandish outrage. The first five bombs I planted, I set them up to damage building facades, to make a lot of noise and scare ponies, but not to hurt them. But the last bomb…” he paused and whimpered in pain.

“Where’s the last bomb!” The Doctor, Nurses and Twilight nearly all screamed at the same time.

“In the school, in Celestia’s school. In the part of the building where the youngest colts and fillies are housed. You have to take me there. I’m the only one who can disarm it in time. We have less than ten minutes.” Red Wood said this fast but quietly.

Gentle Breeze shot between Red Wood and the Nurses and stood in a defense position. “Go Red Wood! Please. Those colts and fillies! I can’t stand it!” She had tears in her eyes, “I laughed, damn me! I laughed!”

Red Wood leaped onto the Twilight’s back, and she ran across the hallway, spinning in the air to buck out the window across from the door. Still spinning she flung herself out the hole she made in the glass. Glass bits flying making a sparkly cloud around them as she fumbled to catch air in her wings.

A few flaps later and even before the majority of the broken window glass had hit the ground below, she and Red Wood were a hundred feet in the air and hurling towards Celestia’s School.

Turning her head to look over at her passenger. “Where on the campus did you plant the bomb!”

Red Wood eyes were locked on the ground, he was terrified of falling, but more he was terrified of being too late. “It was late at night, I couldn't get inside the main entrance but there was an open casement window for the kitchen storage room at the base of the Kinder tower. I was able to use my magic to float the bomb though the window and put it on a high rack shelf against the inner wall. I then packed it in by floating over some fifty pound bags of sugar and hay pellets around it.”

Twilight opened her eyes wide as she did mental calculations. “An industrial mana battery? Against an inner structural wall? The Kinder tower is thinner and taller than any of the other dorm towers! A bomb like that would make the whole tower fall. And this time of day, most of the students would be on break and heading back to the tower. “ She didn't finish the though, but redoubled her speed.

Red Wood had to hold on with all his might.

Moments later they were at the entrance to the tower.

“Remember I can’t teleport on school grounds, the inhibitors are still in effect” Twilight yelled, “we need to find the shortest path to the kitchens.” Red Wood was already running in front of her.

As they passed through the Kinder Tower’s lobby, a newspaper reading third year student was ponying the RA security desk. The student RA dropped his papers and yelled at the approaching adult ponies.

“You can’t just barge in here! You have to sign in!”

Twilight huffing and puffing gasped “No time, bomb, evacuate the tower! Royal order!” she gasped out.

It took several seconds after the adult ponies had already passed him, for the RA to grasp what Twilight had said. He wasted several more questioning his eyes, “Princess? Here?” before the full meaning of her orders slowly came into focus.

“Bomb!?” The RA ran to the fire bell and started pulling the long rope.

Meanwhile Red Wood was running blind, he looked side to side, but had been turned around by the circular hallways of the round tower. “Which way the kitchen?!”

“This way!” Twilight took lead, “I stayed here for much of the time during my studies under Celestia.”

She ignored the main hallways, and ran through a public room, ducking into a small library and smashed her body against one of the shelves.

Red Wood was going to ask why, when the shelf gave way and spun like a secret door to reveal a hidden passageway to the utility hallway behind it.

“This way!” Twilight repeated, “We used to do midnight raids on the kitchens.”

They ran up a narrow passage and through another hidden door, Twilight knocked several cooks aside and then led Red Wood as they both jumped over a kitchen prep table to get to the store room.

Red Wood pointed to a wall across the storeroom completely covered with wooden storage shelves. Most of the shelves were full of common cooking ingredients, bags and rice, bales of hay, and a strangely large number of ketchup bottles.

Both Twilight and Red Wood swept the shelves with their eyes, it was only a moment until they spotted what they were looking for. At the top shelf was a large pile of heavy bags of food.

And there was a black wisp of smoke rising from under the bags.

Red Wood yelled, “It shouldn't be smoking! We should still have a few minutes!”

Quickly he started climbing the shelves like a ladder, but it was taking too long, Twilight tried to lift him with her horn, when she felt a spasm of pain on her forehead. “I over used my magic before with the PCE field! I can’t lift you with my magic.”

“Uhhhgh!” was Red Wood’s only reply as he continued to climb on his own power, but it was definitely too slow. The wisp of smoke was growing thicker and turning into a billowing cloud.

Twilight turned around looking for a ladder or other way to help, when she spotted her shadow against the wall, her wings fluttering about in silhouette.

“Oh right!’” She said feeling foolish. With a leap, she flew up and pulled Red Wood with her up to the top shelf, which was deep enough for ponies to stand on.

The two started bucking the heavy bags off the shelf, knocking food items away from the buried bomb and down to the ground. In a few moments they exposed the clock.

It was charred and smoking with glowing metal bits connecting the mechanical clock arms to a large metallic looking mana battery. The battery was glowing a dull red.

“What the!” Twilight exclaimed, “The clock parts are all baked. The second hands not moving! That means the timer can’t set off the bomb!” She smiled at Red Wood.

But the unicorn stallion frowned back at her. “No! It’s worse! By burying the bomb under the bags, it made it overheat ever worse than I expected! It on its way to going critical! I can’t disarm it, there nothing to disarm, but its going to explode anyways!”

“What!” Twilight looked again at the battery. “No! No no! We have to get it out of here!” She started to light up her horn again.

“No Stop!” Red Wood yelled.

Twilight looked confused, but stopped her magic, she really didn't have much power at this point anyways. “You're right my magic is on the fritz, you’ll have to do it.”

Red Wood blinked at Twilight surprised.

“What?” She asked, then her eyes open wide again in realization, “Oh right, magic on an unstable over heated mana battery. Yes that would have been messy.” She hopped down and started searching for a quill, “I need to calculate the force power needed to move a mana battery without making it explode! Do you know where I can find some logarithmic charts?”

“No Time!” Red Wood cried, “Wait Parker writing something….”

Twilight looked up, realizing this was the first time Red Wood’s mentioned Parker since this crazy day started. W’hat’s he saying?” She asked.

“Drop it in the lake.” Red Wood read aloud.

“Right water would suppress the explosion!” Twilight agreed, “But the nearest lake is at the base of the Canterlot Waterfall. How can we get it there?”

Red Wood lit up his horn, he still had nearly full magic reserves.

Twilight saw the glow and yelled, “You can’t magic there! It’ll explode right away!”

“No I’m not using magic on the battery, I’mm Uuhhhgh!” Red Wood yelled at the effort it took to cast the spell he was using. He wasn't a prodigy like Twilight, but this was a straightforward spell. He blasted the wall across from the shelves, right around the casement window.

There was a moment of dust and rubble and the wall opened up with a large ragged hole.

“Can you fly us both though that hole and out of here?” He asked with a gasp.

Twilight nodded but momentarily confused. “How are we going to carry it! You can’t use magic and it too hot to tou,....”

But even as Twilight raised this objection, Red Wood had grabbed two sacks of flour and using them as improvised pot holders, picked up the battery with his hoofs. He then nodded to Twilight.

“It’s hot!” He mumbled, the sacks of flour already blackening.

With no further delay Twilight flew up, and allowed the stallion to hop on her back. He held the heavy battery up and over his head to keep it from burning Twilight's wings as they flapped.

She dived through the ragged hole Red Wood had made and then like an arrow straight towards the cliff edge of Canterlot’s mountain side perch.

“uggghhh!” Red Wood screamed in pain as the two flour bags burst into flames, fanned hotter by the rapidly moving air.

Twilight kept flying, she couldn't risk slowing down, the densest parts of the city was under her and there would be no safe place to drop the bomb before they got to the falls and the lake below.

Red Wood’s screaming was continuous now, Twilight smelt his hair and hoofs burning. She risked a glance over her shoulder and saw the bright torch blue flame that was encircling his hoofs and forelegs. The pain must have been immense but Red Wood had his hoofs clamped on the battery, the flour bags no long protecting him.

Fretting Twilight nose dived down the cliff side, and yelled at Red Wood, “Throw it, Throw it now!”

Without an argument, Red Wood tossed the bomb, it flew over Twilight’s head and tumbled away. It’s glow growing brighter until it was unbearable to look at.

Twilight took her eyes off the bomb and dived through the falling waterfall.

For a moment she feared that the flowing water would knock Red Wood off her back, but he managed to stay one by clamping his rear legs against her sides. Twilight hovered in the large airy gap behind the waterfall. Though the rainbow colored water, she could still see the bomb spinning down, as it fell.

Suddenly it disappeared under the lake. For a moment nothing happened and both Twilight and Red Wood took deep breaths in relief.

Then the lake exploded.

Nearly the entire lake seemed to shoot up forty or fifty feet into the air in wild white water splash that flooded the surrounding park land. Luckily no ponies had been boating for swimming on the lake at the time and the only creatures mildly injured by the explosion was a school of passing fish.

Both Twilight and Red Wood gave each other smiles to reassure each other, then in large slow circles Twilight started to fly back up the cliffside, back to the city. Red Wood leaned over and cooled his overheated hooves in the flowing waterfall as they passed near it.

“Are you OK?” She asked.

Red Wood frowned at his burnt hooves. “I’m not going to be walking on these for a while. Hoofs burnt down to the frog. But rest looks OK, I held it above my head so most of the heat rose away from me. I think it should be fine with some healing.”

Twilight suddenly accelerated towards the castle. Red Wood had to hold on tight again to keep from being blasted back.

They were about halfway to the Castle, when there was a sudden flash of light from the top of one of the towers. It was so bright that both Twilight and Red Wood, still half a mile away, had to cover their eyes with their hooves.

“What's that!” Red Wood called.

But Twilight’s eyes had focused on the spot where the light originated. The windows and open balcony near the top of one of the towers. Celestia’s tower. “No! No” she whispered. “Princess Celestia!” She screamed. The tower seemed to be on fire.

For a long moment Twilight hung in the air, her wings barely beating enough to keep herself and Red Wood afloat. Flames still seemed to be pouring out of the Princess Celestia’s quarters. Twilight didn't know what to do, or where to turn.

Then like a burning comet in the sky, a glowing torch blasted through the balcony doors and into the air. It was hard to make out at first, but the bright white shape was silhouetted against the black and gray smoke covering much of the Canterlot due to Red Wood’s earlier bombs.

“It’s Princess Celestia!” Twilight yelled joyously.

“There’s somepony on her back!” Red Wood pointed.

“Let’s catch up with her! Hold on!” Twilight smiled at Red Wood and then dived to gather speed.

The two very different Alicorns flew to meet each other, each with their own news and terrors to share.

Dropped Crown

Princess Twilight Sparkle flew wildly through the sky with Red Wood clinging to her back. She was trying to catch up with Princess Celestia who oddly enough also had a unicorn on her back. Much to Twilight’s consternation though, Celestia wasn't slowing down or letting her catch up.

Twilight was sure Celestia had seen her, they had locked eyes for a second but where Twilight had expected a welcoming or at least a reassuring look, Celestia’s eyes had widened momentarily in fear, then the elder Princess locked down her expression into one that was unreadable.

Rather than moving towards Twilight, Celestia turned her course towards the hospital and dived down to the entrance. Twilight tried to follow but Celestia had put on a burst of speed that would have made Rainbow Dash proud.

Twilight landed letting Red Wood to slip off her back, the unicorn was shaky on his hooves but his expression mirrored Twilight.

“Do you think…” he started to ask but Twilight didn’t stop to listen, she raced to follow Celestia.

Twilight found Celesta in the main hall of the hospital, already a crowd of ponies gathered around her. To one side stood one of unicorn guards that by this time Twilight knew very well, he was one of the ones that was supposed to be guarding Red Wood but had disappeared during his treatment. Twilight remembered Spring Kicker was his name, and she thought he did not look well.

As Twilight worked her way through the crowd she finally caught Celestia’s gaze and the two locked eyes for a long moment. Twilight tired to read her mentor’s expression, to most any other pony it was a calm and controlled expression, but with her long experience with Celestia Twilight found no comfort in Celestia’s face. She realized the flash of fear she had seen before was no fluke, and the mask was in danger of cracking.

Celestia eyes hardened, she had come to some sort of decision, and motioned for Twilight to join her. As the younger princess moved to her side, Celestia announced to the crowd.

“My little ponies, we have a crisis on our hooves and I need you all to remain calm. The palace is now in the control of a deadly enemy force. Just about the entire staff and the majority of the earth and unicorn guards are under magical mind control. The most important thing we can do now, is get word out, no one is to take orders from the palace staff or guards without confirming them.” Celestia paused here to think. “Your best bet is to follow the pegasus guards as they are the least likely to be affected. Meanwhile stay away from the palace and do not follow the orders of the palace guards, they are dangerous, if you encounter them, try to escape or run away. Princess Twilight Sparkle will have more instructions for you, once I explain the situation to her. Follow her orders as if they were mine.”

Twilight had stood next to the Princess during her short speech and in her mind tried to stand firm to project strength and confidence. But unlike Celestia Twilight was far from a refined political actor and it was the best she could do to keep from shaking and screaming.

Once Celestia finished she tapped Twilight on the shoulder and motioned for her to follow. Celestia led her to a private office behind the reception desk, and after asking a duty nurse to step out, closed the door and blinds and cast a privacy sound blocking spell.

While Celestia paused to gather her thoughts, Twilight let loose all the questions she had started building up. “Are you OK Princess? Did the Cult attack you? What happened in the palace?”

Celestia didn’t answer Twilight, but instead gave her a long deep look, then she lowered her head nearly to the ground. Twilight had never seen Princess Celestia look so depressed. Before Twilight could form another question, Celestia raised a hoof to her own crown and knocked it off her head, making it skit across the floor to rest between Twilight’s feet.

Confused Twilight asked, “What’s going on Princess?”

With a strained voice Celestia said, “I abdicate.”

For a long moment Twilight tried to process that. “Huh?”

“I give up my throne. I no longer am worthy of being a Princess.”

Twilight still struggled with the idea, “You can’t give up your throne!”

“I have to, I was stupid and couldn't protect my ponies. I should have seen this coming.”

“Princess! You can’t mean that. We need you, now more than ever.” Twilight cried.

Celestia turned away from Twilight to look at a spot on the wall, she paused for a long time not able to answer Twilight. Then with a strained voice she whispered, “I let them get to me. I was weak. This version of the Cut is doing things none of the previous infestations ever tried. They must have discovered new spell, a new potion or poison. Its a pill, they forced me to swallow….”

“Forced you to swallow!” Asked Twilight, “does that mean.”

Without looking at Twilight, Celestia nodded and cut her off, “It means I’m affected by the cults spell, I’m still fighting it, even now it’s whispering to me. I can’t trust my own judgment.”

Twilight moved closer, “You know about the spell, that should make it easier to fight.” She started to raise a hoof to put on Celestia’s shoulder to comfort her. but the elder Alicorn blocked the gesture with her wing.

“No! Even more when I successfully fight it, I can’t trust myself.” Celestia seemed to ready to say something more, then she cut herself off.

“Princess I don’t understand! You can’t just leave me to fight this war against the Cult by myself! What happened?” Twilight cried.

“They have nearly all the palace guard in their thrall, but I didn't realize it, not in time. Then General Righteous came to me, he was one of THEM. He forced me to take their poison.”

“The General? Forced you? But how?” Twilight truly could not imagine any pony capable of forcing the powerful Celestia to do anything against her will.

“He surprised me, he had it in my mouth before I realized what was going on, and it dissolves instantly, I wasn't even able to spit it out. Then, Twilight, the poison, it talked to me. In my head and in my own voice it talked to me and told me so many horrible things. Things I know are false and lies but they were coming from within me. Even now it’s only due to my centuries of experience can I tell which voice is mine and which is the Cult’s poison.”

“OK Princess” Twilight tried to calm her down again, “I actually do understand, that’s what Doctor Somnolence’s treatment is all about. I watched first hand as he cleared the Cult’s spell from Red Wood’s and Gentle Breezes minds! We can cure you, easily since you already can fight it.”

“NO!” Princess Celestia’s voice grew louder and angrier, her mane glowed brightly in her anger and Twilight had to back way. “You’re not getting it. I fought off the spell! I knew what I was doing! I went against the commands of the Cults poison! And that’s what’s wrong!!”

Then in a softer but still intensely hurting voice she continued. “The Cult’s spell is not complete, not fully ingrained until the victim has her mind programmed to associate the Cult’s messages with good feelings and pleasure.”

“Pleasure?” Twilight nodded, she had already studied the spells structure from a technical point of view for a while now, but hearing the Princess description sounded alien, distant.

“The Cultists, force the victim to feel, forced pleasure. Things that talk to the most basic instinct of a Pony. They…” Celestia paused here as if she needed to gather strength to say the next word. “sexually stimulate the victim.” She looked back at Twilight,her eyes willing the younger Alicorn to understand.

It took several long moments for Twilight to read between the lines of Celestia’s words. “Sexual? Oh Celestia!” She put her hooves up to her muzzle in shock. “They raped you!”

Celestia let the words hung in the air, before in an exhausted motion she gave Twilight a single soft nod. “Yes” she whispered, her head dropping in exhaustion.

Twilight looked over her shoulder through the closed door and seemingly at the ponies beyond it. “Does that mean all the Cult victims? Even the stallions?”

“Yes” Celesta breathed out again. In a dead voice, she added, “Doctor Somnolence will need to be told. He’ll probably find a way to use that knowledge to improve the treatment.”

Twilight looked at Celestia and ran up to her, putting her hooves around the larger Alicorn’s neck, who flinched slightly at the touch, but allowed it. “Oh Princess Celestia! I’m so sorry! We’ll make them pay!”

“I made them pay already” Celestia whispered into Twilight’s ear, but added, “And that’s why I can’t call myself a Princess anymore.”

“But? Huh?” Twilight asked still confused.

“I said, I resisted the Cults spell, I was weak and unable to move, at least at first, as I fought the battle in my mind. That’s when they started.” She sobbed, “started...it. The voice of the Cult’s poison was telling me to relax, to enjoy it, to accept it. I did NOT do what the Voice told me.”

“Four guards, Twilight, four of my most wonderful guards, ponies I knew. Ponies I would have called colleges, even friends. They were the instruments of the Cult. While I was unable to move, they embraced me. The Cult’s mind control made them think they were doing good. In their minds they were just trying to make me feel good, they were innocent in every way but one. They were tools of the Cult to get at me.”

Celestia looked at Twilight willing her to understand, though the younger pony was still trying desperately to keep up. “If it was just that, if all it was my own dignity that was at stake, then I would have let them have their way and escape peacefully when opportunity arose. But that’s not what happened. Fate challenged me and I wasn't up to it.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, “You would be willing to be raped if something else hadn't happened!” She was shocked and confused.

“If it would have saved lives, yes, but I said four guards attacked, but the General wasn't among them, he instead turned his attention to two innocent guards, guards who unlike the others was not affected by the Cult’s spell. They had come to warn me, too late...too late. You know the two guards very well. Solid Star and Spring Kicker.”

“Solid and Spring?” Twilight of course knew them. “They were assigned to Red Wood, they disappeared when the bombs started. Wait! Spring Kicker was on your back just a few minutes ago! He must be in the outer room now. What did the General want with them?”

Celestia answered, “He wanted their lives, because they had come to warn me, about the bombs and I suspect the Cult. He attacked them in a terrible battle and I busy with my own fight could do nothing! Nothing that was until….” she paused.

“Until what Princess?”

“Until I watched General Righteous cut Solid Star down like a paper dummy.”

Twilight gasped, “Solid Star was hurt by the General!?”

“Killed Twilight, no euphemisms please. I watched him die.” Celestia choked off a cry.

“Oh” Sobbed Twilight, “Solid Star! But the General what did he do then?”

“The General died.” Celestia answered. “I killed him, and with not even a thought or an excuse, I also killed the other four guards. “ Celestia paused and then recited with her eyes closed, “Bright Sword, Green Locks, Brass Armor and Fire Hoofs. I burnt them up to ash without a single hesitation, I didn't even leave bodies to bury. They were no real threat to me, nothing they could have done could have permanently hurt me. I have been forced to kill before in my long life, but never have I killed such innocent and harmless ponies. I’m a monster.”

“Oh Celestia! They were doing horrible things! They dese…” Twilight tried to comfort Celestia.

“Don’t dare say ‘they deserved it!’” Celestia screamed, loud enough to knock Twilight back several feet. “They were more a victim than I was, I was successfully fighting off the Cult’s poison! I can’t blame the Cult! They had no choice, but I did! I killed them and I didn't need to!”

For a long moment the two alicorns looked at each other, both breathing hard before Twilight whispered “I’m so sorry Celestia.”

It was enough to break the tension and the two immortal friends fell on each other shoulders and cried.

Outside in the Hospital's main waiting room, stood more than a hundreds ponies, many in confusion and near panic. Princess Celestia had made her earlier statement about not trusting the guards and then she and Princess Twilight had disappeared into a sound proofed office for more than half an hour.

Standing among the crowd were the two ponies that had arrived on the very backs of the Princesses. They each had been dropped off in the hall without so much as a comment from their respective royal rides.Since that time, neither Red Wood or Spring Kicker had noticed the others presence or done anything more constructive than staring at the closed office door. But both were busy in thought with the same question, “What now?”

But even shock will wear off in time, and both unicorns were exceptionally resilient. So as the minutes of waiting stretched out, both started to look around. Red Wood spotted Spring and raised a hoof in greeting with a mild smile, at least here was a familiar face.

Spring Kicker did not return Red Wood’s smile.

Instead the guard, frowning hard, walked towards Red Wood, not moving very fast, he seemed reluctant and deliberate with each step. There was a deliberate ringing clop with each step.

Red Wood stopped smiling, he was confused by Spring’s expression which was angry, openly hostile. Just last night, Red Wood clearly remembered drinking cider and telling stories with Spring, in the stress of the situation he couldn’t see the disconnect from that memory and the current situation.

As the guard drew closer, Red Wood tried to defuse the hostility with a friendly greeting, “Hay there Spring, I saw you with the Princess, where’s Solid Star?”

But Spring Kicker didn't answer, rather the young guard picked up his forward pace until he was moving at a full charge right at Red Wood. The crafts pony did sense that something was up, but still Red Wood’s reaction was way too slow, he didn't put up a hoof to defend himself, when Spring crashed into him, punching and bucking him with all four hooves.

Red Wood fell like a sack of potatoes. He fell to his side and screamed involuntarily in pain. He kicked feebly and tried to block the blows from Spring, but couldn't even begin to defend himself from the trained guard.

Spring Kicker got on top of Red Wood and blasted the older pony, screaming in his face so loudly that the entire crowd in the lobby turned to look. Spring yelled “He’s dead! You bastard! How dare you stand with the Princesses! You foul traitor! You might as well been the one holding the sword! You killed him!”

The crowd gathered close, but seemed uncertain what to do until one of Spring’s kicks struck Red Wood’s belly and the crafts pony reacted by vomiting on to the floor.

The smell and sight of Red Wood’s bile seemed to decide the crowd. One nurse towards the middle called out, “Stop him! That must be one of the royal guards turned traitor!” She said this loudly enough that the rest of the crowd started to repeat ‘traitor’, and started mumbling.

Being called traitor broke through Spring Kicker’s anger and he looked up confused. “No! He’s the traitor!” He yelled pointing at Red Wood.

A few burly earth pony orderlies moved forward, there faces angry and gesturing threateningly at Spring Kicker. As soon as they moved, large parts of the rest of the crowd followed them.

Cries of “The Princess said don’t trust the guard!”, “Look at how he attacked that civilian pony!”, “He must be the one that set off a bomb in the Princess Celestia’s tower!” came from random ponies in the crowd.

Surprised and hurting, Spring looked sided to side as the crowd was turning against him. He started backing away and slipped on Red Wood’s vomit. “No!”

The crowd was a mob now, and Spring Kicker only managed to slide on the floor a few feet before a heavy mass of confused and angry ponies was on him.

Red Wood was left laying on the ground, dazed and bleeding. He raised his head to look towards the noise, and saw Spring Kicker falling backwards under a tidal wave of brutal ponies.

“No! Don’t hurt him! He’s right!” Red Wood tried to call out, but his weak voice couldn't contend with the crowds shouting. He tried to move towards the fighting, but could only crawl unnoticed by anypony.

Like a sudden weight dropped on him, Red Wood felt a blanket of depression crush him down. Everything Spring Kicker had said was right. He was a traitor, he had endangered all those ponies and foals without a thought. He didn't deserve to live. He faintly remembered Doctor Somnolence’s words during the treatment, about the danger of depression, but he didn't care. Putting his head down on the tile floor, Red Wood let the darkness take him.

Closing Gaps

In the magicly silenced private office the events in the lobby where unnoticed. Instead the two Alicorns were dealing with their own crisis. After a long time of not speaking, Twilight Sparkle and Celestia just comforted each other, not as teacher and student, or as Princess but as two simple mares that had seen terrible things. They stood, leaning on each other, there necks nuzzled together in a quiet hug, neither said anything for long minutes.

After more time than they really could afford passed, Twilight lifted her head and opened her mouth to speak. She was going to say something like ‘It’ll be alright’ or ‘Pony’s will understand’ or perhaps ‘you did nothing wrong.’ but then she closed her mouth. Twilight wanted to comfort Celestia but she couldn’t say any of those things, it wasn’t the complete truth and she knew Celestia would reject the words, even perhaps by lashing out.

Twilight loved order, she lived by checklists, and there was a huge gap in her mental list, the line item that read ‘comfort Celestia and tell her it will be alright’ just couldn’t be checked off now, perhaps it never would.

A hair on her mane flew up in a wild crooked line and Twilight briefly smiled too wildly as her mental gears were forced to skip a sprocket. With an effort she patted her mane down and mentally forced herself to skip to the next item on her mental checklist.

This item was in bold imaginary text and read ‘Defeat the Cult’ She couldn’t check that one off yet either, but she COULD think about it and make plans. That was something Twilight could do.

Twilight bent down and using her hoofs rather than her magic, picked up Celestia’s crown.

She stood on her rear legs and started to put the crown back on Celestia’s head. The older Alicorn flinched from the contact, but before she could voice an objection Twilight said, “Celestia, for now you HAVE to be the Princess, after we defeat the Cult we can talk again, but until then, neither you, nor me, nor Equestria has the luxury of rejecting our responsibilities Can you do this for me?”

Celestia closed her eyes, tears had been flowing freely during their previous conversation, but now she forced herself, willed herself to stop. She was the rock that Equestria had rested on for over a thousand years, she had banished her own sister for the good of her ponies. She would find the strength. She spoke, her voice cracking at first but gaining strength. “I must, only because regardless of how I may feel like a fraud, I can’t deny the Ponies of Equestria, even if I’m nothing but an empty symbol.”

Twilight disagreed, “Your wisdom is real Princess! We need it more than ever.”

Celestia smiled, “My dear Twilight, you’ve grown in your own wisdom, and for at least the next few days we will all have to rely on that. I will wear the crown, for you and for my little ponies, but I can’t lead, not until I completely purge this poison in my system. I’m not sure you should even trust my advice until I’ve had some time with Doctor Somnolence.”

“Right, you said the spell was cast on you.”

“Even now, it is trying to tell me to attack you, and blame your death on the Pegasuses guards.” Celestia said this with a strange smile.

“Attack me!” Twilight’s eyes opened wide. “The spell wants to kill me?!” She backed away a step.

Celestia chuckled, “There’s no danger Twilight. Never would I follow that instruction. The spell is not really that clever, it keeps trying the same tactics. But I do admit, I’ll be happier once the incessant nagging comes to an end. But it does tell us something about the Cults plans and tactics. They clearly want me, and probably my sister under their control, probably to manage the Sun and Moon for them, but I doubt they see a purpose for a Princess of Friendship and would only want to use you as another way to rally hatred against the Pegasi.”

Twilight gulped, not realizing just how hard it was to try to understand the Cult’s way of thinking. That was something else she was going to have to add to her mental checklist. ‘Learn to think like the Cult leaders, in order to defeat them.’

Turning to Celestia she said, “I’ll start the fight, we need capture and attempt to cure the palace staff and guards. That has to be the first priority we can’t allow the Cult to maintain control of the palace even just as a symbolic victory. Meanwhile you need to see Doctor Somnolence, the sooner you get through the first treatment, the better.”

“First treatment? Right the Doctor’s notes said the first treatment is the most important.” Celestia asked, “You observed the first patients. How did it go?”

Twilight shuddered, “Effective but magically exhausting.”

Celestia shook her head in confusion, “Exhausting? Why?”

“Oh right! So much happened, I forgot you didn’t know yet. We started treating Gentle Breeze but Solid Star…” Twilight paused sadly for a moment, until Celestia nodded for her to continue. “Solid Star had suspected something was up with Red Wood and bucked him onto Gentle Breeze’s bed putting him into the EPC field. It ended up that Red Wood was suffering from the Cult’s spell as well. I had to use my magic to enhance the size of the EPC field so we could treat both of them. The inverse cubed root law, meant it took a lot of my magic to keep it up.”

“Red Wood!” Celestia said in surprise. “Yes of course, this new vile version of the Cult’s magic works fast, he must have been enscrolled when he was captured. We’ll need to come up with a more sensitive magic test for the spell. But didn’t I see Red Wood on your back before?”

“A single treatment was enough for you to trust him?” Celestia asked warily.

“I think so, he really helped me with the bomb. But the Doctor Somnolence did say after a few hours he may relapse so he has to have daily treatments until they’re sure. I guess that will be the same for you.” Twilight added sadly.

“It be a relief to get this noise maker out of my head.” Celestia countered. “Let’s go talk to the Doctor and make sure Red Wood is back in his care. Once we’re back in the lobby, I’ll make a simple announcement saying you will handle the fight with the Cult, while I’ll be working behind the scenes on relief efforts. That should calm the population while I’m getting treated.”

Celestia led Twilight to door and as she opened it, she also dropped the silence spell.

A blast of mayhem and noise rushed through the door, loud enough to make both Alicorn’s squint in shock while their manes were blasted back as if in a wind tunnel. Both Princesses gave each other a tired look and galloped forward into the hospital lobby.

There they found a chaotic scene that was only missing Discard and a bag of popcorn.

Ponies of all sort were piled three deep on Spring Kicker whose head and forelegs stuck out from the bottom of the pile, looking stunned and confused.

On the other side of the lobby, other ponies, including some nurses and doctors stood in a half ring around Red Wood who was bloodied and bruised and seemed unconscious. The gawking ponies seemed frozen in indecision, uncertain to aid Red Wood or Spring.

Twilight Sparkle took this in and started repeating, “No No Nononononono!”

Celestia was more decisive, and though she used a soft voice that was nothing like the Royal Canterlot Voice, every mare and stallion in the large room heard her as if she was standing right next to them. “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!, Stop this foolishness now!”

There was a moment of near comical dumbfounded faces all looking at Celestia, even Spring Kicker looked up, his head and one leg visible under the pile of ponies.

A few ponies jumped up and tried to explain, most talked over each other resulting in unintelligible nonsense. With a sigh, Celestia pointed at a random intern and asked. “Just you! Explain this immediately!”

Stammering the gray earth pony intern explained, “Sorry Princess, but you said we couldn’t trust the guards and he was beating up that other pony.” He pointed from Spring to Red Wood.

Celestia wrinkled her brow, “I said not to follow the instructions of the guards! Not to try to beat them up.” She face hoofed and sighed. “Twilight can you check on Red Wood. I need to clarify my instructions.”

Celestia called over most of the ponies to one side of the room, while Twilight and a few of the medical ponies nearest to him, kneeled to check on Red Wood. Spring Kicker wasn’t injured in any serious way and stood near Celestia, frequently glancing towards Red Wood. He looked uncertain and guilty but was also still angry.

Celestia repeated to the other ponies, with more emphasis the same warning she gave before about not trusting the regular palace guards and workers but when a moment became available she quietly told Spring Kicker, “I’m very disappointed Guard Kicker. What ever made you attack Red Wood? It’s not his fault that he was waylaid by the Cult and has already re-earned Princess Twilights trust by aiding in disposal of unexploded bombs.”

Spring narrowed his brow in anger, he attempted to make his voice sound apologetic but mostly failed as he answered, “I’m sorry Princess, it’s just not fair, what happened to Solid Star, and I just wanted to hit somepony that I knew was involved. I..sor…”

Before Spring could complete his apology, Twilight Sparkle called out loudly from the other side of the room. “Princess Celestia! Red Wood! He’s not waking up!”

Deeply concerned Celestia cantered over with Spring following behind. She gave one long glance at Red Wood, her horn glowing as she probed the pony with a quick scan. “He has some bruises and small cuts, but I don’t sense any serious injuries.” Then she probed deeper, seeing if she could sense the remaining effects of the Cult’s spells.

With a gasp Celestia looked at Twilight deeply concerned, “We got to get him to Doctor Somnolence right away!” An orderly nodded and ran off towards the main hospital.

“What is it Princess?” Twilight asked.

“Magical induced depression, he’s shutting himself down. Doctor Somnolence said he could prevent this, but in past infestations of the Cult, every victim that started down this path,” she paused as if to consider her words, “ever victim that became like this, died within a few hours.”

Divided Attention

Within five minutes of Princess Celestia’s comment, Red Wood was on a gurney and being rushed to a private room in the hospital proper. Twilight used her ‘I have several doctorates’ Card again and ordered the hospital apothecary to prepare a course of mood stabilizer potions, though she knew that the staff Doctors would have to approve her diagnosis before Red Wood would be allowed to take the medication.

Word came from an orderly that Doctor Somnolence was finishing up a second round of treatment for another one of the original stable of cult victims and would meet them in a few minutes at Red Wood’s room.

Seeing that the immediate needs of Red Wood were being taken care of by the nurses and orderlies, Celestia pulled Twilight aside and let the crowd of medical ponies move out of hearing.

“Twilight, “ she said, “we have too much to do for both of us to be tied up here. You have to start to take care of the other issues, now. I’ll stay here and talk to Doctor Somnolence about Red Wood condition, as well as my own. We’ll keep is discrete, the official word is I’ll be organizing an evacuation of Cult victims out of Canterlot.”

“Evacuate?” Twilight asked confused.

“Yes, we have hostile forces just a few blocks away at the castle. I doubt they will give up without a fight, and we can’t afford for any of the tiny hoof-full of doctors and nurses who know how to treat Cult victims be put at risk. Once I've talked to Doctor Somnolence I’ll start arranging for the patients to be transferred to smaller facilities in the towns and cities outside of Canterlot.”

“OK that makes sense.”

Celestia added, “The most important things we need to address. It’s critical we retake control of the castle as soon as possible and keep the affected staff from leaving. We can’t afford any of them escaping. Even if they abandon the castle, as trained soldiers and government workers privy to all our high level planning, they are just too valuable an asset for the Cult to be allowed to claim them. While I cringe at the idea of deadly force, they can’t be allowed to defect to the Cult.”

Twilight asked, “But how, they could be trying to escape right now.”

“I heard that most of the castle pegasi were sent home due to food contamination. With luck the illness will be something they can work though. We need to get them back as soon as possible and get them to form a blockade. In addition there should be several hundred city guard who are not part of the Castle’s battalion, they should be scanned for Cult contamination, and once cleared set up as a line of defense around the castle’s parameters. More re-enforcements should be summoned from Cloudsdale and other Pegasi cities.”

“How can we scan for the Cult’s spell? It didn't show up for the Guards when they were here yesterday.” Twilight wondered.

“No, it did show up, several of the doctors and nurses noticed it, and asked my opinion about it, foolishly I disregarded it as it didn't look exactly like the Cults older style spells and I was blindly certain the guards couldn't fall under the Cult’s influence so fast. Had I been less blind, or even asked you for a second opinion, we could have avoided this entire mess. I seem to be blundering over and over again. I’m feeling very foal-ish.” Celestia Frowned.

“Princess!” Twilight protested, “stop blaming yourself!” then after a moments thought Twilight added, “The Spell! It’s starting to use it failsafe mode on you, magical depression!”

Celestia looked offended, “Princess Twilight! I am still very much in control of my own mind! I know the fault is mine and I will not allow others to manipulate me NOR will I allow others to assume blame for my actions!” Celestia started looking very angry and lifted her wings high over her head.

“Princess Please!” Twilight cried out as Celestia’s wings started to raise over her, the powerful wings of the alpha Alicorn’s wings, many times more powerful than any birds could easily break bones, or a neck.

"NO! Don't tell me what to do! I'll not be ordered around! I will be the master of my own fate!" Celestia's eyes were glowing red now, and she sparks of anger seemed to be running along her mane. Her wings started to come down, crackling energy.

Twilight ducked expecting to feel the blow on her back. There was a crack and like that of a whip as Celestia’s wings clipped the air over Twilight’s head.

With wide eyes Celestia cried “No! Nononono!” and danced backwards, unstable and shaken. Falling to the hallway floor, she curled up like a ball under her wings and rocked back and forth mumbling “no!” over and over again.

Cautiously Twilight stood up and nuzzled her mentor. “Princess please!” she begged.

Through tearful eyes, Celestia parted her wings just enough to look out though the feathers, “Twilight the spell, its nearly got me that time. I was so angry, so mad at myself I almost hurt you. I can’t put off seeing the Doctor much more.”

“It’s OK Princess, I understand, let me walk you to the Doctor then I’ll start a blockade of the Castle.” Twilight held a hoof out to Celestia.

“First two more things.” Celestia let Twilight help her to her hooves.

“You have to contact my Sister, I’m sure Luna got away, I called out to her a warning and I told her to meet me at the ‘usual’ place. She’ll know I was referring to the courtyard of our old castle. Send a message to Spike and have your Ponyville friends meet her there to explain what’s happening. Once she’s on board, she’ll be a great asset to defend the Castle.”

While they were talking, Twilight had helped lead the stumbling Celestia down the hall and towards a busy patient room where a number of doctors nurses and orderlies were working on Red Wood. As the two Princesses arrived they could see Doctor Somnolence standing by Red Wood’s bed and administering several vials of potions to the stricken pony.

Twilight gave Celestia a friendly nuzzle and told the elder Alicorn, “I better get going.”

But before she could do more than turn away, Doctor Somnolence spotted them and with a cough called Twilight back. “Princess! A word please.”

“Sorry Doctor.” Twilight started to apologize.

Before Twilight could explain she had to go, the Doctor interrupted, “I should be very angry at you for endangering the life of my patent, but I've been told your quick action saved the lives of at least fifty colts and fillies.” He looked back to Red Wood with an angry frown, “Damn spell even makes hero’s doubt themselves. The mood stabilizers you ordered will help, but we have to find a way to break through the blocks to remind him of his own self worth.”

Twilight looked towards Celestia, and the elder Princess understood her thoughts, “Don’t worry Twilight, I’ll take it from here. You go.”

Twilight turned to Spring Kicker who was still standing off to the side, looking contrite and sullen since his chewing out by Celestia. “Guard Kicker, I need you to go to the home of the top pegasus officer on duty. Tell him the situation and have him summon as many of his squad that can fly to the cross street in front of the main bridge entrance of the Castle. I’ll meet him there with how many ponies he can raise in twenty minutes.”

With a serious look Spring gave Twilight a salute with a “Yes! your Highness” and then charged at full gallop towards the hospitals main stairs.

Twilight next grabbed a clipboard and pen from a nurses cart and quickly wrote a note. Then she paused, “Princess Celestia? How can I send this to Spike? I don’t have a vial of his dragon breath with me.”

Celestia looked out the nearby window, “And my vial was in my chambers. We’ll have to trust to regular mail for now.” Celestia asked one of the orderlies, “My little pony, will you please take Princess Twilight's message to the mail courier, special royal express to Ponyville Library, have the charge sent to the Castle’s account.”

“Yes! your majesty!” The earth pony orderly galloped off, having to double back for the note, having forgotten it the first time he started to run.

Celestia then nuzzled her fellow Alicorn goodbye, “Be careful Twilight.” then she led Doctor Somnolence back into the patients room.

With no more reasons to delay Twilight walked over to a nearby hallway window. This time rather than bucking it, she carefully slid it open and while hovering with slow wing beats, closed it behind herself.

Once in the air and climbing over the Canterlot Hospital she took a few moments to take stock. Her magic had recovered over the last hour or so and Twilight felt confident she could match any spell the Cult infected guards could cast at her. She had no intention of testing her alicorn physical strength against any of the earth pony guards, so if it was going to become a battle, she would have to stay out of hoofs reach. Rely on her magic and flight and avoid any thrown spears.

With that she flew up to a decent height above the castle’s towers and started circling the main battlements. She had spent much of her life in the area and felt she knew the layout of the Castle very well. Unlike the older abandoned Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest, Celestia’s Canterlot Castle had never been a true war machine. It had always been more of a political palace, designed to impress, it’s main defense being too high on the mountain to be easily attacked by ground forces. But in terms of defensive constructs, it lacked many basic features of more practical Castles.

There was no moat and main entrances were airy and open, with no murder holes or thick gates. Worse, there were several smaller and even less guarded entrances. The back gates which most of the daily work ponies used, not far from Red Wood home was one, but not the only secondary entrance. There was a smaller private garden off the kitchen wing, meant as a practical herb and vegetable garden for the Castle’s chefs. Twilight knew there was a winding path from that garden to some private pools that fed the waterfalls below the castle.

Circling the Castle Twilight flew over each entrance, looking for any sign of any pony coming or going.

To her relief there seemed to be no ponies trying to make their way up the paths to or from the Castle. Word must have already started to get out and most ponies were staying away.

There were some ponies, curious onlookers, Twilight guessed, on the roofs of nearby townhouses and on the walkways facing the Castle. She could see many curious and frighted ponies looking towards the castle, trying to get a glimpse of the commotion.

Disturbingly none of the usual guard posts where ponied. Nor could she see any of the staff near the entrances or exposed windows. Twilight wondered to herself, ‘Was anypony left in the castle? Did they flee already?’

Her answer came a few moment later, Twilight was circling over the roof of Luna’s tower when out of the corner of her eye she spotted a flash of green light. She had been overconfident and stun spell came at her from behind. She didn't have time to charge her own horn for a shield spell.

Twilight dodged, but not enough. The green light of the spell raked over the feathers of her left wing. Immediately her wing was numb and she couldn't flap it.

With a cry of “OH NO!” her wing hung limp and she started to fall!

Down she fell, more than ten stories to the ground below, screaming in anger and pain the whole way.

But though Twilight was in pain, she hadn't given up, when her wing stopped responding to her muscles she desperately tried her magic. Her horn flickered and sparked because she hadn't time to select a spell and organize her thoughts, by gut instinct she gripped her own numb wing with her magic.

Her feathers were all over the place and Rainbow Dash would have taken off points for lack of control or grace, but by pure will and magic power she forced her wing to flap, just enough to allow her to pull out of the fall and tumble in the center of the pathway in front of the castle.

Shaken and hurting from multiple impact points, Twilight lay on the ground, numb and dazed for several long moments.

In her stunned state, she noticed in the darkness beyond the gate into the castle, there were a hoof-full of palace guards. Her vision was blurry and unfocused but she numbly observed them looking at her, at first their faces were surprised and curious.

They were getting closer, and the way they seemed to jump forward made Twilight realize she had passed out for a moment. Part of her mind was screaming, “Get up! Move!” but that was a very distant part. Everything was spinning and there were stars filling her vision.

Twilight thought, “There something about the guards, something important. Why are they all dancing around like that?”

Then as the smiling guards were nearly on top of her, a clear thought broke through, “Their faces, they’re not concerned or worried or scared, no they are leering at me!”

Then suddenly there was a flutter of motion and noise and Twilight’s vision was blocked completely by pony bodies.

Canterlot's Red Day

Author's Note

Authors Note:
Sorry for the long delay, basically a lot of rewrites that will probably never make it into this story ate up weeks of time.
I originally planned to leave Twilight hanging from that cliff I left her in the last chapter for a while and move the story to a different location to raise tension for a bit. But after writing about 10,000 words in that other location, I realized nothing was happening there that couldn't have been summed up later in a line or two exposition, and frankly it just wasn't coming out as ‘interesting’ (the most ‘interesting’ part involved a brainwashed and mostly off-screen screen orgy, and frankly it was pointless)
So after throwing away two chapters worth of text, I’m back to Twilight an her battle for Canterlot, for better or worse.

Just as a reminder she had been trying to keep the Cult brainwashed guards from escaping for the Castle by trying to keep an eye on all the entrances but was surprised by an unexpected stun spell from one of the Cult unicorns in the towers. She crashed on the ‘drawbridge’ connecting the main entrance of the Castle to the city proper. She was having trouble shaking off the stunning effects of the crash when Earth pony guards were approaching with no good intent then darkness blocked her vision.

Canterlot's Red Day

For a moment Twilight saw the leering faces of the brainwashed royal guards, the realization they saw her as helpless, as pray, struck her deeply. Even as the dark flutter of bodies blocked her vision she recalled in vivid detail Princess Celestia’s description of how she had been mistreated by her own personal guards. No ‘mistreated’ was too soft a word, Twilight was a realist if nothing else. She knew the right term was ‘rape’ and in a few moments she would be experiencing it first hoof.

The dark fluttering bodies blocking her vision, sucked out all her reserves of hope and she closed her eyes to block out the inevitable.

“Wait a second!” Twilight thought, “Fluttering? Wings! The cult doesn’t allow pegasi!?”

Opening her eyes again, this time she was able to focus on the ponies standing with their backs facing her. They weren’t as dark as she first thought, no, they each wore a bright blue body tight uniform. Five pegasi stood in battle ready poses in front of her, and another half dozen flew in low formation over their heads. She knew that uniform, she even knew a few of these pegasi by name!

“Wonderbolts!” she cried out in surprise and joy.

With a confident but serious smile the fiery maned lead pony, Spitfire looked over her shoulder at Twilight, and said with a wry voice, “At your service your highness!” Then changing to her serious command tone, “Fleetfoot, Wave Chill, escort the Princess to safety while the rest of us take out this trash!”

Spitfire jerked a wing back behind her, away from the castle, “Your darn tootin we need you! There’s another dozen trainee Wonderbolts and at least two score city guard marching up the main street! They need a leader, a general, and frankly mam, I’m a flyer and a fighter not a tactician! Get back there now and lead them! Besides I don't’ have time to keep an eye on your royal butt. Princess you don’t know our tactics and maneuvers! Once you got your breath back, if you want to blast them with your best mega magic from a safe distance, go for it! But for now, get your tail out of here!”

Twilight was about to protest again, but by this time the distance between the two fighting groups had dropped to next to nothing and there was no more time. Just to show she wasn’t beaten, she fired off a blast of repulsive magic towards the approaching Cult guards. It was just a useless gesture, as the standard anti magic charms all guards wore, was able to deflect such a weak spell. If she was going to be effective with her spell casting, Twilight would have pick out individual targets and plan her spells carefully. Now, there just wasn’t time.

Fleetfoot pulled on Twilight wing, and gestured for the Princess to follow, with a sigh, Twilight took off after the two Wonderbolts, her ears twitching at the sounds of conflict behind her.

As she was led, nearly dragged, to the end of the bridge that connected the main entrance of Canterlot Castle to the adjacent city, Twilight pulled out of Fleetfoot’s grip and yelled, “That’s far enough!” and turned to watch the conflict she left behind.

In the end close to thirty earth pony guards had ran out onto the bridge, outnumbering the Bolts by more than three to one. All the pegasi were now in the air, circling and dodging spears and blows from the guards. While the Wonderbolts had little trouble dodging the spears, they had not come equipped with any distance weapons of their own, so had to come down close to keep the guards engaged. At first Twilight didn’t think they had any weapons at all, but when Soaren did a low pass though what appeared to be a thicket of spears, and left behind just a line of neatly cut headless sticks, she realized they wore wing blades.

Not to be outdone, Spitfire followed in Soaren’s wake, diving in to a pile of the guards, and with a spinning back leg roundhouse kick she knocked two of the guards off the bride and down into the river.

A bit surprised at the pegasi Twilight wondered out loud, “I know the history but thought the modern Wonderbolts were just entertainers!”

Hearing this Fleetfoot told her, “No mam! We’re the oldest division of the UEP, all our shows are based on real combat maneuvers!”

Nodding her head, Twilight spotted a few more Cult guards canter out of the Castle’s gates holding crossbows. These would be a real problem for the Wonderbolt’s whoms uniform were for show and not armor.

Concentrating She ignited her horn and rather than targeting the soldiers bodies with their charmed armor she concentrated on the bolts, capturing each one as they were fired in a web shield spell.

The brainwashed guards looked at the floating bolts with some astonishment as that was not a common spell effect. In mass they turned to run back to cover in the castle, as it would take some time to rearm their crossbows. Twilight harried them along by poking them on the plots with their own bolts. She didn’t use enough force to create real injury though more than one cult guard would be walking funny later on.

Now that she had caught her breath and cleared her head, Twilight started planning and thinking of ways to use her magic to aid in the fight. Soon she was targeting individual guards and powering through their protection charms. One by one the number of stunned guards started to increase and the odds for the Wonderbolts were no longer so one sided.

With a smirk Twilight spotted one the enemy unicorns in the towers, and was able to easily block the fireball spell he was casting. Knocking it back in though that same window and seeding confusion in the tower. One unicorn jumped out of a window to escape the tower and landed on one of the open balconies two stories below, her tail still smoking from the flames.

Twilight would never be one to admit to enjoying a fight, but she did momentarily wished her friends from Ponyville were there, especially Rainbow Dash, as Twilight was sure the brash Pegasus would be jealous of this opportunity to fight alongside her hero’s, the Wonderbolts.

She was grinning as she imagined ways Pinkie’s Party Cannon would have come into play. The grin was plastered on her face as she thought they were winning. Unfortunately that was the moment one of the cult guards got lucky.

Fire Streak, a male Wonderbolt with similar colors as Spitfire, had flown close to the earth ponies and had to dodge a spear during his run. He succeeded in dodging it, but had to slow his flight too much, one of the guards managed to get a grip on his tail and stopped the fighting pegasus in mid air. The bolt nose crashed at speed into the ground and was instantly surrounded by angry earth pony guards. Guards in armor which included for earth ponies, weighed shoes with sharpened edges, stampers they were called, and they were deadly.

Even from her vantage point at the far side of the castle entrance bridge, Twilight was able to see in horrifying detail the splash of blood and hear the crack of crunching bone.

Her triumphant grin morphed instantly into a grimace of horror. “Nooo!’ she yelled. Up that moment the battle, while scary, had been mostly bloodless. Stunning spells, embarrassing pokes, and black eyes, but this was suddenly deadly serious.

Twilight who had seen death before, and fought many battles, shouldn’t have been stunned, but she was. She stood there mouth open and in shock for several dangerous seconds. But the guards, and Wonderbolts, whose training had been much more formal, barely reacted to the blood. That included the unicorn mages in the overlooking towers.

One of the battle mages saw Twilights stunned look and took advantage of it. He charged up his horn, levitating every piece of broken glass and shattered armor in range and started accelerating them into a deadly line. Straight towards the purple Alicorn.

Only at the last possible second Twilight noticed the magic bullets flying at her, she opened her mouth to scream. The sharp points of glass just inches from penetrating her still open eyes.

Suddenly a blue shield spell snapped into place, barely fitting in that tiny space between the terrible missiles and their target. The glass bits struck the shield at speed and like fireworks, smashed into sparkly dust which splattered away from Twilight, filling the air in front of her with splinters of glass and flickering sparkles.

It was surreal the cloud of particalized glass drifted in a half circle away from Twilight as she tried to make sense of the situation. Only when she turned to look over her shoulder and saw a small herd of the blue plated city guards gallop toward her, did she put the pieces together.

At the lead of the city guards was one royal unicorn guard, Spring Kicker and it was his horn’s glow that was casting the shield spell around Twilight. She let out a small sigh in relief. That surprise attack had been a near thing.

Before Twilight could express her gratitude, indeed before the newly arriving guards fully reached her, Spring Kicker was already calling out to Twilight. “Princess! You have to come with us!”

Twilight shook her head and turned back towards the Castle’s bridge, selecting new targets. “No! Guard Kicker! What is it with you guards, always telling me to run away! I maybe a Princess, but I’m also the strongest magic user in all of Equestria! I will not run from my duty to defend our land!”

Spring Kicker put an armored hoof on Twilights shoulder to draw her attention back. “No! your majesty! You don’t understand! The cult fighters in the castle, they’re just a feint! Most of their forces are already in the city, getting set to flank you and the Bolts!” He pointed back the way they came. “We got lucky and ran into some of their forward scouts, but by only a few minutes.”

It took Twilight only a moment to do the mental math. They had been fighting about twenty five earth ponies and at most five unicorns, and most of them holding back in the towers. The number of Cult guards should have been at least three or four times that. That meant the majority of them, including almost all of the unicorns were already out in the city streets causing who knows how much trouble.

Twilights first reaction was to charge off to wherever the Cult guards were now. Then she looked at the faces of the city guard before her, all looking for guidance and the sounds of the Wonderbolts still fighting the castle defenders.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting her mind have the moment it needed to think. “We can’t ignore the enemies in the castle, I want fiveteen of you…” she pointed to the ponies on her right side where there was fair mix of Earth, Unicorn and some Wonderbolt pegasi trainees. “.. to stay here and help the Spitfire finish off the Cult guards still in the Castle. If you can, secure the throne room and the lower courts. We’ll chase out the stranglers after the main force is subdued.”

Twilight let the fresh force past her trusting that Spitfire would know how to deploy them. She then motioned for the rest of the herd to follow her. Motioning for Spring Kicker to lead the way, “Quick lead me to where you saw them last!” She told the last remaining free royal guard.

Spring led them through the commercial district, dodging and weaving around abandoned carts and street debris.

“The fighting got this far?” Twilight asked.

“No, this is just from the ponies fleeing. Words quickly got out for everypony to get away from the Castle.” Spring Kicker’s voice dropped in tone, “I ran into many fleeing groups when you sent me to find the Pegasi guard captain. Ponies fleeing in panic is never a good thing. Some had already been hurt badly just due to the crush of crowds.

“What did the captain say, I’ve only seen the Wonderbolts and their trainees, are the other pegasi on their way?” Twilight asked.

“Not sure, the castle cook really did a number on the Castle Pegasi guards. They are all sick with food poison, and a few are already in the hospital. The captain was going to rally as many as he could, but he was barely moving himself. He remembered the Wonderbolts were in Canterlot for a race at the city track and gave me written orders to activate them.”

By this time, they had crossed several streets and were circling around the castle, away from the office buildings of the financial zone and more towards the warehouses of the industrial zone.

Spring slowed to a trot and motioned for their troop to slow down. “We’re getting close and I think I hear them up ahead.”

Twilight turned and gave the best instructions she could think of in whispers and told the word to be spread. “Wonderbolts! Your our air cover. Harri them but don't’ get too close. Earth Ponies, straight down the front. Stun or knock as many of them off their hoofs as possible, but don’t turn around until you find some cover. Unicorns, if you know how to cast shield spells, you’re coming with me, behind the Earth Ponies to provide cover and protection. If shield is not your strong spell, then get onto the second floor balconies around us, snipe with stun spells any enemy unicorns you see!”

The pegasus shot to the sky above them, while about a third of the unicorns ran into the adjacent buildings to look for stairs to the second floors. The rest of the magic users moved behind Twilight, so they could cast their shield spells in unison.

Spring Kicker felt he was better used to helping guide the less thoroughly trained city guards by taking point in front of the Earth Ponies. He guided them into a semi circle to protect the Unicorns both in front and on their flanks.

Once in formation, they marched forward, turning the corner as a group.

The cult guards we’re already dug in and ready.

The cultists had dragged a wagons and barrows into a pile to form a sizable blockade. It was more than three stories high and completely blocked street. They were split into two groups, the cult earth ponies about twenty five in number were in front of the blockade with wooden shields raised to protect them, while the cult unicorns making up their bulk were scattered around and behind the barrier. Their heads and horns sticking out of improvised holes, but leaving them mostly covered.

Twilight frowned. She had faced enemies of Equestria before, monsters and ponies. But these were Cult dammed guards were familiar faces, she knew the name of at least half the ponies in front of her, some of them she knew about their spouses and foals. Now she was aligned against them, and part of her knew that they couldn’t just scare them off, or allow them to escape. Her goal had to be capture them for treatment but if they can’t be safely captured. Twilight gasped as the depth of the situation suddenly struck her. Any they couldn’t capture, could not be allowed to escape … alive.

For a long moment she froze, she couldn’t do it. She was not going to be able to order the city guards forward. The two groups stood facing each other, not sure who would move first.

In the end, neither did.

A yellow bird, completely oblivious of the armored ponies facing off in the street, flew down onto the street, its little mind only intent on a juicy worm that had stuck it’s head out of a small crack in the road. It mercilessly grabbed its squirming dinner and did not notice the small stone it dislodged in its wake.

The stone rolled along the side of the street into a gutter, it hit a hole and fell a few inches.

DINK!

Then hell broke lose.

There was fire, spears and rocks in the air crossing and bouncing every which way. With a cry of pain that was truly terrible to hear, one of the earth pony city guards took a spear in his flank just inches to the left of Twilight.

In no time at all, the earth pony city guards were on the move, the cult earth ponies in front of their barrier braced themselves as they dug in their hoofs and prepared for impact.

Twilight and the other shielding unicorns ran behind them. Proving cover to the rain of stones and throwing spears that fell from the heights of the barricade. Despite their efforts stopping inbound missiles, several more ponies got serious wounds, as crushed spear shafts were kicked up exposing their poorly armored undersides to jagged pieces of wood by their passing.

Twilight tired to also shoot off some stun spells but in the wild stampede there were no single targets to shoot. All were the same, covered in clouds of dust and smoke. The increasing number of wounded ponies, screaming and spraying blood drove them forward in blind instinctive frenzy. In front of her was suddenly a bulky cult earth pony guard, his body type more like Bulk Biceps than the typical guard.

He roared a battle cry that was to her ears something as unearthly as if it was a dragons roar. She stumbled, surprised and with no more time to think, the monster pony was shadowing over her, a mountain falling in an avalanche on top of her. She tried to switch spells, charge her horn, think of something else, or yell for help.

She didn’t have time to do any of these things.

The full weight of the monster fell on Twilight, all she could do was stare at the descending shadow and cry as darkness covered her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just moments before, a lifetime earlier in the timescales of battles. Spring Kicker had led the city guard at the very point of their attack.

He didn’t have the benefits of earth pony strength, so relied on his small shield spell to knock aside the beefy earth ponies they slammed in. With a wave of his horn, he blocked or cut at a thicket of sharpened spears pointing at their approach. With a smash, spear heads went flying.

Suddenly Spring Kicker was face to face with a group of surprised cult guards holding useless spear shafts. With a kick, Spring jumped over the shocked faces and momentarily landing on their backs, leaped again and was now the first loyalist on the blockade.

Smiling Spring Kicker found himself nose to nose and horn to horn with one of the cult unicorns and blasted the surprised cultist out of her hiding spot. She tumbled down, and for the first time Spring could see what was hidden behind the large barricade.

Spring Kicker’s eyes opened in surprise and he turned back to yell “Princess Twilight! Princess!”

Looking around he didn’t see Twilight, but did see the bulky guard laying on the ground, close to the last place he saw her. “Oh no!” Spring cried, and taking advantage of the height jumped down. Landing again on the same back of the Cult guard he had leapfrogged over in the original charge. This time he hit the earth pony with enough force to knock the surprised cultist over.

Spring didn’t stop to check on his victim, but continued to leap over the heads of his own troops and stopping at the collapsed body of the bulky earth pony cult guard. To his horror he saw purple legs squashed out from under the large pony.

“No! You can’t be hurt!” Spring called.

In the mad sound of battle there should have been no way Spring could have heard the muffled groans from under the bulky pony, but somehow he did. With desperate strength he lay on his side and used all four hoofs for leverage to roll the large pony off his squashed victim.

After a tense moment, Twilight rolled out from under the shadow of the monster pony. Coughing and sputtering, but very much alive, but not unhurt.

Spring fussed over her, as blood covered her face and horn. He started ripping bandages out of his kit when Twilight stopped him.

“Not my blood!” she coughed, then looking sadly up at her horn which was undamaged but covered in gore, “That is not how I thought I would be using my horn in this battle.”

The bulky pony shifted a bit, Spring realized the cultist was still alive, but Twilight’s horn had knocked him out and done enough damage that the big guy wasn’t getting back into this battle.

Twilight spotted this and bent down to look at the fallen giant. “We have to help him! He needs a hospital!”

Spring Kicker dragged her away. “Sorry Princess, not now, he’ll have to hold out until the medics get here. We have bigger problems!” He pointed to the barricade in front of them. Most of the fighting was in groups scattered in front of, or on the forward sloping piles of rubble that made up the barrier.

Seeing where Spring was pointing Twilight asked, “What’s wrong?!”

“I got a good look behind the barricade! There a group of unicorns back there, and they're doing some complex ritual spell. It’s like nothing I’ve seen from any guard training!”

“What did you see?”

“There was a bunch of circles and polygons drawn out, with small fires smoking at the points. All in a larger circle with robed unicorns, not guards, standing in traced out patterns, casting something...and there was…” Spring Kicker paused not sure how to continue to explanation.

Twilight looked at him firmly and finished for him, “and there was a young mare or perhaps filly in the center of the circle.” She closed her eyes and asked in a voice that sounded detached and clinical but the shaking of her hoofs told the lie, “Was she dead yet? It would be a blade to the chest with the knife left in for the duration of the spell.”

“I didn’t look closely enough to tell. You know what they’re casting?” Spring Kicker asked.

“Not exactly, but none of the possibilities are good ones. We have to get there now!”

Spring looked at the barricade and thought how hard it had been to climb it the first time. “I don’t know how to teleport!”

“I do!” Twilight reminded him.

“Not by yourself!” Spring Kicker yelled back, afraid she would disappear immediately.
Twilight blinked once as she did some mental calculations. Then she nodded in agreement. “Stand next to me!”

Spring pressed against Twilight and bit his lip waiting for the port. Teleporting was too rare a skill for it to be part of normal guard training and with the exception of extraordinary unicorns and the Princesses it left most mages too drained to risk using in combat tactics. He had only one experience with teleport before. Princess Celestia had teleported all the staff out of the court on a day he had been on guard, when a smoky fire had broken out due to a knocked over catering table.

So the feeling gravity shifting and the sense of being in two places at once, wasn’t completely unfamiliar to the guard pony, but that didn’t stop him from feeling both sick and dizzy. He had to spin nearly a full three sixty on shaky legs to get his orientation back.

Twilight had landed them on the sidewalk to the side of the street behind the barricade. She gripped the guard and help him shake off the dizzy spell by pointing him in the right direction.

In front of them was the darkest magic ceremony that Spring had seen. Multitasking, even as both Twilight and Spring started galloping forward towards the magic circles, Twilight had already seen an additional complication. Ahead of them around the magic circle were robed unicorns. “Those aren't brainwashed unicorn guards! Ponies from the main force of the Cult must have joined up with them! That means there more of them that we counted on!”

There was no more time to comment, both ponies drew closer while Twilight scanned over the ceremony trying to figure out it’s purpose.

In those very short number of seconds, one of the robed cultist trotted towards the center of the circle, brandishing a silver and gold knife. The motion drew Twilight's eyes to the center of the circle and with wide eyes she saw the young filly tied up with glowing red ropes.

“No!” Twilight Screamed and without a moments additional thought, Twilight reached out with her magic and pulled at the fillies body.

The young girl pony flew up into the air, powered by the Alicorn's magic. And for a second it seemed like she was free, but the red rope she was tied to was also fastened to the ground.

Like a macabre kite, the filly floated about six feet off the ground, the knife wielding cultist reached out with a hoof and started to pull the rope back down. The glowing magic on the rope, weakening Twilight's grip and prevented the Alicorn from just breaking the rope.

Twilight paused, closed her eyes, and started tunneling more and more power into her magic, trying to free the child. Her horn started shooting sparks and flames ran along Twilights back. The cultists kept up their ceremony chanting and empowering the spell, though more than one glanced nervously at Twilight, none moved.
The power of the cultists acting together where a match for Twilight's efforts and the young filly, now clearly and loudly crying for help, was like the rope in a deadly game of tug a war. Twilight wouldn't allow the tied up pony be pulled closer to the knife wielder, but she couldn't add any more distance. They seemed stuck at an impasse.

Then Spring Kicker once again proved his namesake ability to leap, jumped into the circle.

There was a roar of anger from all the cultists, but they didn't move to stop Spring from knocking the knife welder back, and then he used his own horn to break the rope. Sparks flew and there was an eruption of magic as the red glowing rope was severed. Twilight’s magic whisking the filly into the air and set her gently on the ground behind her. An explosive rumble filled the air and the knife wielding cultists was again knocked back by the rolling magic.

Spring was in the eye of the storm of magic, seeing it whipping around him like a spinning top. He knew enough of this sort of thing to know he had better get out, and that’s what he did next. He leaped high, passing over the heads of the still chanting cultists. They gave him nasty looks but apparently feared stopping their spell more than they hated him.

Spring galloped over to Twilight and using his magic started to untie the filly while asking, “Did we stop them? Don’t they need the girl?”

“I don’t know” Twilight answered uncertain. She had put up a powerful shield between themselves and the magic circle but none of the Cultists were stopping their spell casting. “They should have given up now! The can’t complete a ritual like that without blood!”

As if in answer to Twilight, the knife wielding cultist from before, had worked his way to the center of the circle and stared at Twilight and Spring until he was certain he caught their eyes.

Then with a grim echoing yell, the cult pony took the silver knife and slashed his own throat.

Blood splashed on the ground as if it was being dumped out of buckets. For ten seconds the dying stallion stood there is some sort of person shock. Then he collapsed in the center of the circle.

With wide eyes Twilight’s deep understanding of magic gave her just a brief moment to understand what was about to happen next and she dived to the side, knocking Spring and the filly to the ground. While as the same time increasing the power and opacity of the shield spell, blocking at all light and sound.

She was just in time.

The cult spell was empowered and in a flash of incredibly bright light, a pulse of magic shot out of their circle, it smashed through the barricade like it was paper. There were cries of surprise and pain from the ponies on the barricade, but they didn’t last long.

In moments the street was clear, just the fighting cultists, who seemed unaffected by the spell remained standing. All the city guards, and wonderbolt trainees and who knows how many bystanders, were down, smoking. None were moving.

The unicorn cultists that had cast the deadly spell, were also unconscious, but their fellows put them on their backs, hooting and hollering the victory.

The cultists cheered and charged down the street. Perhaps because all the unicorns on this side of the barricade had been knocked out, none of the remaining cultists thought the extra dark shadows near the sidewalk could be anything important. Only after their cheers had started to fade down the street, did Twilight allow the shield spell to drop.

Twilight and Spring gave each other equally shocked and furious looks.

Slowly they approached the bodies of the city guard. Closeup view didn't give them any good news. Twilight started to choke up.

Spring Kicker turned to her with an angry glare. For a moment Twilight thought he was angry at her, but then with a glance she saw his anger was directed at the cultists.

“There’s no time for that!” He said firmly. “Those.. “ Spring looked down the street the way the cultists had gone. They had been co-workers, fellow royal guards, once. “Those Monsters” He declared firmly. “They are going to surround the Wonderbolts and do this to them as well if we don’t find a way to stop them. Come we have to try to do something.” Then after a pause as he suddenly remembered his manners, “Princess, please now!”

Twilight nodded, then remembering something, she turned to the little filly, “You can’t come with us. I know you’re scared, but you have to go down to the train station, find an adult and leave Canterlot, this place is no longer safe.”

With scared tears in her eyes, the little girl pony nodded to the Alicorn and stood watching as Twilight and Spring Kicker ran down the street, disappearing in a haze of smoke and war.

Canterlot's Red Day Part Two

In the wake of the scent of burning hair and the wail of frighted ponies, two ponies left the smoldering bodies of the city guard behind them. Spring Kicker was barely keeping up with Princess Twilight Sparkle as they galloped back the way their group had come. The murderous cult guards still well ahead of them. Twilight’s mind was racing, trying desperately to come up with a plan to keep the remaining Canterlot defenders from being overrun, any plan, but she was coming up blank.

The death spell the brainwashed guards had cast had drained the magic and knocked unconscious most of the cult’s unicorns. The cultists had charged back to encircle the Castle’s remaining defenders, carrying the unconscious unicorns on their backs. But even weighted down, the remaining earth ponies were more than dangerous enough to finish the job. Twilight seriously doubted that just herself and Spring, would be able to stop such ruthless ponies.

She turned to Spring Kicker and asked, “How many cultists do you think are still left?”

Spring replied with a questions, “You mean the group we’re following or how many are left fighting the Wonderbolts at the Castle?”

“Both!”

“There has to be close to sixty cult fighters left and it’s just you and me plus maybe twenty five city guards and Wonderbolts at the castle. At best we’re outnumbered two to one. At least they did us the favor of taking out their own unicorns its should be all earth ponies now. That gives us an advantage in magic.”

“No, you’re forgetting that the cultists left some unicorns in the castle’s towers, and their probably well dug in.” Twilight pointed out.

Spring Kicker blinked long and hard, his eyes were burning and tearing and this was not the time to let the memories of what happened distract him. “That spell, that death spell, do you know anything about it?”

Shaking Twilight nodded, “I’ve read the description before. Its one of the Cults spells from their book. I never thought they would be willing to use it, I thought even the Cult had limits. Don’t ask me to cast anything like that against them. I wouldn't ever, even with a hoof at my throat.”

“Without something that powerful, how will just two of us stop so many?” Spring asked puffing as the continuous running was starting to tire him out.

Twilight seemed still strong, but had no real answer. “There’s no more time to think, we’re here!”

The two turned the corner to find themselves at the edge of a battle.

The Wonderbolts were still fighting on the Castle’s entrance bridge. They hadn’t made any real progress into the Castle since Twilight left. She could see why, the cult unicorns that previously been in the towers, had moved to the Castle gate and were blocking it with multiple complex layers of magic fire.

There were two city guard unicorns with the Wonderbolts, part of the hoof full of ponies she had sent to aid them. But they were just barely holding out, just keeping up a shield around the magic fire but outnumbered they were unable to push it back or attack.

Twilight saw right away how she could be most helpful there, all she needed to do would be to blast back the magic fire and open a path for the Wonderbolts to make it into the entrance.

BUT there was a problem with that. Namely about sixty newly arrived cult guards, many with ropes and fresh spears to ward off the Bolts.

Twilight turned to Spring Kicker and said, “Put up a barrier to keep them from fleeing back into the city! I’m going to the other side!”

With a snap Twilight opened her wings and shot up into the air with a flap.

Spring watched her fly towards the castle, dodging and weaving through a sky full of weapons and Wonderbolts. Then moving to the narrowest part of the entrance path to the bridge, he took a clue from the Cult unicorns and summoned a wide magical fire, spreading it across the width of the bridge.

This drew some attention from the cult earth pony guards and Spring found himself dodging and leaping to avoid a volley of thrown spears. One came close enough that it passed through his tail, clipping several locks worth of hair.

“That’s getting too close!” Spring thought to himself, “Better find some cover!” he dodged and weaved some more, until he found himself behind a line of barrels and boxes that somepony had left near the ramp of the bridge. It was a good position, plenty of cover from the earth ponies trapped on the bridge behind his magic fire, and still close enough that he could keep empowering the spell.

Spring Relaxed slightly, leaned back on his haunches….

and then felt something hard and pointy press against his back…

“Oh! Shi…” he thought as he noticed that none of the earth pony cultists fighting on the bridge was encumbered with anything but armor and weapons on their backs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight flew over the mob of fighting earth ponies and avoided the attacking Wonderbolts. As they passed in the air, Spitfire gave Twilight a glance but there was no time to talk or pass information. Twilight pointed to the floundering city guard unicorns and then herself, to let Spitfire know she was going to aid them. The Wonderbolt captain nodded in reply and dived back into the fight without a spoken word.

Twilight landed right between the two defending unicorns. They had moved to the front of the battle and were a few pony lengths from the Castle’s main gate. Between them and the gate was the field of a magical battle, one where flashes and snaps of arcing power filled the space. Twilight could see though the flames and magic glow, five Cult unicorns empowering a bonfire sized pyre of pure destructive energy. Standing firm, just two against five, the guard unicorns were doing the best to keep the magic flames from sweeping onto the bridge.

Looking at the city guards, Twilight saw they were sweating tears as their magic was being drained by the shield spells they had been casting. Twilight could tell they were within moments of spell failure and both unicorns had already overstressed their sparking horns.

“Just ease off as I bring my magic up.” She told them as her horn lit up and with her naturally greater power pool, easily matched their spellwork.

Once she was certain she had the spell under her control, she turned to the guard unicorns and said. “Cool your horns for a minute, then start shielding the Wonderbolts. I’ll take care of this fire.”

With sighs of relief the two junior unicorns let their horns flicker out but not for long as they turned their attention to the battle behind them.

Meanwhile Twilight started moving forward slowly pushing the flames back. But this magic fire was not fed by oxygen but by magic itself, and would consume any spell she directed straight at it. Even her larger Alicorn power pool was not much help, as it would be like trying to snuff out a normal fire with piles of gunpowder. The feedback explosion could be worse than the damage the fire was currently doing.

Looking past the flames she tried to judge what weaknesses the casting unicorns had. She saw that they were casting the fire spell using a classic battle mage, three to two stack. Three of the cultists were acting as power batteries while the two forward casters were directing the spell, freeing their own power to defend the group.

Twilight considered how she could attack them directly, but how? The magic fire would absorb any spell cast towards it. Same reason she couldn’t teleport behind them. With the firespell centered right in the gateway, there was no angle or side shot she could pull off that avoided the absorbing flames and would allow her spell to get through to the cult guards. The brainwashed unicorns were protected from all sides.

‘All sides?’ Twilight thought to herself with sudden thought. ‘’All sides’ for a ground bound unicorn perhaps!’
With mighty flaps of her wings, Twilight took straight off. Above the gate was a barred yett to allow light down into the entrance tunnel. The narrow bars were sufficient to keep pegasi out but the castle defences were not planned around flying magic users and through those bars Twilight could see the tails of the cult unicorns.

One of the unicorns started to turn to look up at the Alicorn, with an expression that told Twilight that he had suddenly realized their exposed weakness.

Twilight did not like to think she was being vindictive, but she did take some pleasure blasting that cultists with an extra bright stunning spell, right along his horn. There was a sucking sound as the explosive energy blasted all five cult unicorns down the entrance tunnel, all unconscious and down for the count. The magic fire blocking the gate, sparked once, then blew out.

Twilight flew back up in triumph calling out to the Wonderbolt captain, “Spitfire! The gate’s open!” Twilight wasn’t a trained tactician but she read enough to know that the Wonderbolts would be able to hold the narrow gate against the larger number of cult earth ponies, compared to the wide open bridge.

Spitfire must have agreed because she gave Twilight a hoofs up and with a wave of her wings, directed the Bolts to dive towards the gate. While they were flying down to the entrance, Twilight picked out targets among the crowd of earth ponies and stunned them with tightly focused spells.

After stunning about four cultists based on how aggressive them seemed with their spears, Twilight was concentrating on her next target. A female guard who seemed a bit too skillful with her lasso for comfort, when suddenly there was a roar and a fireball as wide as a pony, flew down the length of the bridge over the heads of the earth ponies and smashed against the gate’s lintel in a shower of sparks.

Twilight dived down and covered her head with her hooves as a shower of sparks and secondary fires rained down from above the gate. She had to put out small smoky fires that had started in her mane and tail before she could turn her attention to the source of the fireball.

Twilight wasn’t the only pony caught by surprise, Spitfire had been directing the last of her Wonderbolts into the entrance way, and was caught in a cloud of the sparks. Now with a real smoldering tail she was flopping around on the ground next to Twilight, coughing and gagging from the smoke while rolling to put out her mane.

Shocked Twilight crawled back to her hooves and too stunned to focus cried out, “Where did that come from?!”

Spitfire had recovered faster and pointed to the far end of the bridge. “Look more unicorns!”

Twilight saw what Spitfire was pointing at. The majority of the cult unicorns, the very ones that had been knocked unconscious by the death spell, were grouped together. “They must have recovered from the spell shock!” Twilight cried out.

They weren’t alone, a few working together had engulfed Spring Kicker in a spherical force field and he was floating above their heads, kicking angrily at the sphere trapping him.

“Get in the castle!” Twilight told Spitfire, “I’ll handle them.”

“Handle them! Handle them Princess?” Spitfire cried, “Are you nuts! Where the rest of the city guards and the trainees?”

There was no time to explain what had happened in the street, Twilight gave Spitfire a meaningful glance. The wonderbolt captain’s eyes opened in shock, but just for a moment, her eyes hardened and she looked grimly at the approaching unicorns.

There was no more time for talk, the first fireball was just that, the first, several more were already flying across the bridge, and Twilight started powering up new shield spells to defend them.

Twilight stood there, the Wonderbolts and a hoof full of city earth ponies and pegasus stood behind her in a grim formation. A brightly glowing magic shield all that stood between them and the approaching wedge formation of brain washed battle mages. They were now continuously firing fireball and lightning spells at the shield.

Twilight was an alicorn, plus her special talent was magic itself, so in fair fight she would have been able to take down any one, two or even ten normal unicorns, but there were about thirty military trained mages. The advantage in power she typically had was just not enough.

The storm of spell blasts started weakening Twilight’s shields. It was no longer purple, it was sparking and arcing like blow torches were being applied to its surface. While most of the energy was being bounced back, some was making it though and it was like arcwelder was working over Twilight's head, as sparks dropped all around her, and skidded across the floor under her hooves.

The two remaining city guard unicorns who had come into the Castle’s gateway with the Wonderbolts, moved to help Twilight. But their own magic was so drained that without meaning to, Twilight’s magic field sucked them dry in an instant and left them unconscious on the floor at her side. It didn’t help much.

The magic draw was now painful, like nails through her horn and scalp. Twilight cried silent tears, too much in pain to vocalize her stress. She mouthed words clearly enough that Spitfire could read her lips, “I … Can’t … Hold … it … anymore!”

The glow on her horn was now sputtering, in danger of being extinguished.

Spitfire understood Twilights stress and arranged the strongest Wonderbolts in an arch behind her. They would fly forward once the shield failed and put up the best fight they could. Spitfire knew this would be a fatal last stand, they just had no chance against such numbers.

Then from behind the cult unicorns there were two flashes in the sky, like blurs of light, they flew along the sides of the bride, close enough to the approaching unicorns and cause them to spin about, and lose some focus.

Twilight opened her eyes wide and she found her will renewed as one of the blurs flew right up to her shield and flapping wings gave her a cocky smile.

“Not yet princess, still time enough for that!” The Wonderbolt replied. “We saw you and that guard run off, I guess you didn’t realize that most of us were just stunned, not killed!”

Spitfire stamped forward, her voice urgent. “Then what took your flank so long to get here!” She yelled out.

Fleetfoot frowned for a moment, “I said ‘most’, I sorry Captain we lost many good ponies and had to triage the wounded, I’m afraid Wave Chill and I are the only ones able to come help.”

Spitfire allowed herself only a single long blink which threatened to crack her face, there was a momentary battle in her expression, then when she opened her eyes again, her expression was cold as stone. “not now” she whispered to herself, “later”. Then she said out loud. “While the save was impressive, get Wave Chill and your flanks on this side of the shield! That distraction won’t last long and were still way too outnumbered.”

Fleetfoot smiled, “I have more good news, we saw re-enforcements approaching and they should be here any moment now!”

“Re-enforcements?” From where?” Spitfire cried out in surprise.

Before Fleetfoot could answer, there was another new blur of a pony flying over the Cult unicorns. Twilight opened her eyes in shock, as the colorful blur circled high, twirled around and pulling pegasus weather magic from the sky, the new pegasus did a high stepping trot in the air over the heads of the cultists. With each step fire shot out and left hoofprints of glowing smoke in the sky. The pony doing the flying seemed to be laughing and with an incredible twist, pulled the flaming horseshoe shapes into some sort of twisting fire tornado that followed her.

The cult unicorns were shocked and amazed to the point of paralysis. Mouths hung open and every eye followed the flying pony. The following air blast knocked nearly everypony of them to the ground.

Spitfire standing next to Twilight found her voice first. “Wow a Buckner Blaze!” Then before Twilight could respond Spitfire raised her voice and yelled out to the new pony. “Hey Rainbow Dash! Nice move, you should have used that at the academy!”

Rainbow did a victory spin and with an almost afterthought, kicked the spherical shield spell entrapping Spring Kicker in passing. Causing it to pop and dropping the stunned guard onto the backs of his former captors below.

While the cyan pegasus surprise entrance had shocked the cultists and knocked everyone of them off their hooves, none were truly hurt and in moments they were getting back up.

Laughing at their efforts, Rainbow repeatedly dodged spell blasts from the recovering unicorns More than a few earth pony cult guards wasted a spear attempting to target the rainbow pony.

Still Twilight knew Rainbow couldn’t keep it up forever, she started to calculate what sort of shield spell should could cast to protect her friend. “Rainbow! Get down here, to the entrance! It’s too dangerous out there!”

With a blur of rainbow light, the pegasus was suddenly in front of Twilight, inches beyond the shield. “No worries Twilight! I got this covered, besides I’m not alone.” With a casual flap of her wings, she dodged a spear that just missed her from behind, and then gestured with a hoof towards the sky.

Twilight looked where her friend was pointing and saw some distant dots, black against the sky, as she watched they grew closer and became clearer. There were five ponies suspended in individually blue bubbles of levitation magic, and a larger dark blue winged pony leading the way. Not just any pony, an Alicorn, Princess Luna! And the other ponies? I was all her friends!

Rainbow Dash was still flapping nonchalante in front of Twilight. “Yeah, Princess Luna pretty cool, she nearly was able to keep up with the Dash, all the way from the Everfree Forest.”

At this point Princess Luna was close enough that she could safely drop Twilights friends on to the bridge and land herself, her horn aglow with blue fire. The first to settle on the Bridge was an orange earth pony.

“Stop with that load of hooey Rainbow Dash!”, Applejack scoffed. “You know the Princess had to carry all five of us with her, even poor Fluttershy, otherwise she would have beaten you easily.”

“What!” Rainbow looked angry at AJ, “No way! I was holding back! Luna! We need a proper race!”

“My Subjects and Friends, this is not the time or place!” Luna admonished the two rival ponies. Then with a sly grin, “Before any proper race could be held, we must first deal with these miscreants!”

Twilight dropped the shield to stand with her friends and by the princess side. She was physically, emotionally and magiclay exhausted, but stood tall next to the Night Princess. The sudden appearance of another alicorn, had shocked the cultists into inaction, but that pause wouldn’t last much longer.

Flanked by the six Element Barriers and looking an impressive sight, Luna took point facing the mob of cultists. While Twilight was also an alicorn, there just was something overwhelming about Luna, a presence that made all the cultists freeze, wide eyed. And that was even before she started to speak.

In full Canterlot Royal Voice mode Luna spoke and not a single cultist failed to be blown off their hooves. “MY FORMERLY LOYAL GUARDS! YOU DARE ASSAULT THE ROYAL ABODE! YOU DARE TO HARM YOUR FELLOWS! DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND BEG FORGIVENESS! YOUR PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT COMMANDS YOU!”

And too Twilight’s absolute shock and surprise, the guards obeyed! Even powerful mind control magic could not overrule decades of guard drilling and training, and the pure force of Luna’s personality left the formally killer cultists little more than shaking foals.

In a much softer voice directed at Twilight and the loyal city guards and Wonderbolts, Luna added, “Quickly before they recover, bind their legs and put horn blocks on the unicorns. You’ll find a goodly stock of the needed supplies inside the guardhouse behind you.”

With a crisp salute Spitfire shot off to organize the processing of the cultists, while Luna remained firm, cowing the prisoners with a hard cold glare. Soon more city guards had arrived and the bound and meek cultists were led away in groups of five, soon to fill up every lockup and drunk tank throughout the city guardhouses.

Twilight stood silent and firm, saying nothing but standing unmoving as a match for Luna, watching as the cultists were led away. No pony said anything until the entrance bridge was completely clear of ponies.

Then Twilight turned to Luna and said in a weak voice, “I think I’m going to lie down now.” and instantly she collapsed unconscious from exhaustion, right there in the middle of the entranceway while her friends gathered around in concern.

On a Train

Chug chug bump!

“Uhhhh!”

Chug chug bump!

“Spike! Stop it!” Twilight cried out, not opening her eyes, but somehow sure the noise had to be from her dragon assistent.

Chug chug bump!

“Huh what’s going on?”, Bleary eyed Twilight slowly opened her eyes.

She looked around and realized she wasn't in her bedroom and Spike was not the source of the odd noise. Her eyes took a bit of time to focus on the unfamiliar scenery.

“Wha?” She asked herself, “Where am I?”

The room she awoke in was narrow, with hardwood walls, with padded red velvet bumpers between twin rows of round windows. She was laying on a rounded couch, somewhat similar to Rarities fainting couch, but larger and built into the sidewall. There was a few tables and other smaller furniture, all high quality but all of it attached to the walls or bolted to the floor, sort of reminded her of a fancy cabin one might find on a private yacht, where everything had to be bolted down to keep from moving.

Speaking of moving, now that she was more awake, she started to feel the swaying and clicky clack vibrations from moving. “Oh I’m on a train!” She told herself. Twilight looked around again, this definitely wasn't the ‘Friendship Express’ Even the few times she had gotten a private cabin on that public train, it never had been this fancy. She knew that some of the more stuck up nobility, in order to avoid the ‘common rabble’, owned their own private train cars. She suspected this was one of those.

The last thing Twilight could remember was feeling faint on the bridge outside Canterlot Castle. Even if she had fainted, it did seem odd to wake up on a train. Why wasn't she taken to her room? Or perhaps the hospital. “One way to find out” She said and stood up from the couch.

She was momentarily dizzy, but quickly got her hooves back under her. She looked around the large train car, and saw that there was more traveling couches along the length of the car, all of them showing signs of recent use, with wrinkled blankets and scattered papers around them. There were more papers and cold cups of tea and coffee on the desks. She didn't want to take too much time to read the papers, but a quick glance identified them as typical government reports. The ones on top where about train schedules and warehouse supplies. She saw Luna’s signature on most of them.

“Luna?” looking around to see if somehow the Moon Princess was hiding in the shadows somewhere, but Twilight was still alone. “She must be on the train somewhere.” Twilight decided, and headed forward to the vestibule leading to the next car.

She was about to walk on through to the next car, when she realized that standing on either side of the vestibule where two guards, a Pegasus and a familiar unicorn guard.

Once Twilight opened the door, the guards stood straighter and saluted. “Good day! Princess Twilight!” Spring Kicker called out. “I hope you are feeling better. Do you wish for me to summon the doctor?”

Twilight blinked at the question, “No thank you Spring, I feel fine, if anything I’m a little stiff from sleeping on the couch. How long was I asleep?”

“You fainted at the end of the battle, two days before yesterday. Princess Luna has been attending you.”

“Two days? Sigh! Well I had been nearly magically exhausted, twice on the same day, I guess I dug a little too deep into my power reserves.” Twilight looked out the nearby train window and saw the sun was low in the sky. “Nearly three days going by the sun. You said Luna was here?”

“Yes, Princess Luna has been holding a press conference in the cafe car, all the Element Bearers are with her. I think the yellow, uhh Fluttershy? wanted to stay with you, but Princess Luna wanted them all with her to help calm the public.”

“I better go see them now, then. Which way is the cafe car.” looking over her shoulder at the fancy private car she just exited, not sure if the cafe car was behind or ahead of her.

“It’s a bit of a way, about eighteen car ahead of us. Plus most of the cars are very crowded, it will be slow going to get up to her. I’d suggest teleporting but that’s probably not safe until you made the trip by hoof at least once. Some of the guards are patrolling on the roofs, just because it easier to move around up there.” Spring Kicker pointed forward.

“Eighteen!? The Friendship Express is never that long!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Princess Luna ordered an evacuation of all hospital patients, and about a third of the doctors and their families. There is close to a mile of cars on this train. Nearly every train car in Canterlot was put to the job, Even Prince Blueblood’s Pullmare Car was commandeered. Then even with three engines pulling, we’re only going a walking pace.” Spring pointed out the window, and Twilight realized they were moving much slower than usual for the train.

“The train is that overloaded? We’re still evacuating Canterlot? I thought we got the cultists?” Twilight was confused.

“I’m sorry Princess, You’ll have to ask Princess Luna about that.”, Spring Kicker shrugged.

Twilight was about to move forward, when another question stopped her. “If the train is so overloaded, why was I given an entire car to myself?”

“Technically you’re sharing it with Princess Luna and the Element Bearers. Princess Luna wanted it to be used to hold more refugees, but Prince Blueblood got the guard commanders to insisted that the VIP’s be housed together for safety sake. I think she agreed mostly because you, Princess were still unconscious and the doctor’s said you needed peace and quiet to recover.”

Twilight felt a little guilty, literally sleeping away the time while the others organized an evacuation. “I’m feeling fine now. If Luna doesn't object, I’ll see if we can move some of the elderly or younger refugees into Blueblood’s car.” Twilight smiled to herself, thinking how Blueblood would react when he hears that his precious velvet couches were besmirched by allowing commoners to sit on them.

“Thank you Princess.” Spring nodded.

Twilight started forward, noting that Spring followed close behind while the unfamiliar pegasus guard stayed to guard the empty Pullmare Car. Once in the next car, Twilight saw immediately what Spring had referred to, the car was very over crowded. Seats designed to hold two ponies comfortably, were packed to three or four and sometimes more when one counted the young colts and fillies clinging to parents laps or backs. Moving down the normally adequate aisle ways, she found that nearly every step required her to shuffle, squeeze or limbo around other ponies standing in the way.

“Eighteen cars? This is going to take hours!” she thought to herself after getting only about half way down the first car. Then looking up, she got an idea.

Turning to Spring Kicker who was still trying to make his way through the crowd, she said, “meet me up at the cafe car, I’m going to take a short-cut.”

Spring Kicker tried to object, “Princess, I’m supposed to stay with you, plus even a powerful unicorn as you, shouldn't teleport under these conditions.”

With a smile Twilight answered, “I’m not.” The row of seats she was passing was slightly wider than the majority, because it’s windows were also larger, with an emergency exit sign on it’s frame. Twilight sidestepped to the emergency exit and with a tweak of her magic opened it, gave a polite nod to the earth pony family that was sitting on that row, then Twilight hopped through the open window.

In a panic, Spring Kicker dashed to follow, looking down through the open window, he expected to see smashed pony bits on the ground, but nothing like that greeted his eyes. Rather the flapping motion of Twilight's wings caught his attention and Spring could see she was flying quickly forward. “Oh right, I forgot she can do that.” he said to himself embarrassed.

Meanwhile Twilight quickly skipped past eighteen slow moving train cars and looking through the windows she found the cafe car. She hovered next to the car’s window for a moment, seeing through the glass Princess Luna standing with her back towards Twilight, and facing a crowd of reporter ponies.

Twilight fretted, “How do I get in? I didn't think this through, I can’t just open the window, I’ll interrupt Luna! Maybe I can knock? No no that would be worse. The reporters would become distracted and they would write about me interrupting the press conference! The press would have a field day! And then they’ll forget about all the injured ponies on the train! That will mean no one will have time to unload the train as we’ll have to deal with the press! And all the poor injured ponies will be stuck on the train forever! and it will all be my fault! ” Twilight's eyes shrunk to pin pricks as she started to panic about the world shaking calamities caused by her interrupting the press conference.

She was still ruminating the consequences to world economy and the peace treaties with the gryphons when a pair of pink forelegs reached out the window and with a yelp Twilight was pulled suddenly into the cafe car. (She hadn't even noticed Pinkie opening the window.)

Suddenly Twilight was in the middle of a group hug, her six closest friends and Luna were all surrounding her. Of course Twilight was still in full blown panic mode and cried out, “Pinkie! Let me go or the dragons will claim Dodge Junction before we can secure the badlands from the Diamond Dogs!” Her eyes were spinning with a familiar disregard of sanity.

Applejack pulled Twilight to her hooves and holding Twilight’s shoulders firmly, she gave the princess a wry look with one eyebrow raised. “ OK calm down Sugarcube, no dragons are going to be attacking Dodge. Yo’ll working yourself up in to a fit.”

“Indeed Princess Twilight,” Luna interjected, “unless you are privy to news I am unaware of. Thank the stars, the borders are currently calm and peaceful. And if you do have such news, please allow us to retire to a more private venue, as this is not the appropriate time and place for such speculations.” At this Luna nodded her head to the crowd of reporters standing just a few lengths away.

Suddenly realizing how foalish she had been acting, Twilight blushed red and in a more normal clear voice, “I’m sorry Princess Luna, Everyone, I was just … I’m sorry. No there is no dragon attack.” Twilight coughed into her hoof and tried to regain some sense of order again. Then as formally as she could while still being hugged by three of her five friends, as Applejack was still giving her the stink eye and Pinkie Pie was setting off balloons and streamers. “My apologies Princess, I didn't mean to interrupt your press conference.”

Luna smiled down at the smaller Princess, “Nonsense, no apologies required, for we have nearly completed these proceedings and was about to release the assembled fourth estate to do their duty.”

Luna gave Twilight a meaningful look, “I have already informed these fine gentle colts and mares that your absence from the public eye, these last few days, was due to your efforts to organize such a massive evacuation which has been going off without a hitch.”

It took Twilight only a second to gather that Luna didn't want the public to know she had been unconscious and out of the loop since the battles in Canterlot. Once she realized the moon princesses intent, Twilight brightened up and nodded in understanding.

Continuing to talk to the gathered press ponies, “So if there are no further questions, I hereby declare these proceedings at an e….”

Of course it wasn't that easy, and before Luna could finish declaring the press conference closed, she was blasted with dozens of cries, “one more question!”, “come on!”, “Princess please!”

One stallion’s voice stood out, in a bucklyn accent “Oy! Princess Luna, let the little princess answer at least one question!”

Luna stood there for a long moment, it was true that Twilight was no longer a neophyte with the press and probably could handle herself, but it was also true she had not had time to be briefed on the current status of Canterlot and the royal guards.

During this pause Twilight stepped forward and made the decision for her. “I need to have an urgent meeting with my fellow Princesses and can not take the time for questions now.”

There was a loud groan from the press ponies.

Twilight continued, “BUT, instead of taking questions I do have an important statement I wish to make.”

Luna looked at Twilight curiously, not certain she understood what Twilight wanted to make a statement about. “Are you certain?” she whispered.

Twilight nodded back to her, then stepped forward. She paused to look at the press ponies and took a moment to gather her thoughts. The subject of her statement came to her as she was hugged by her friends. The warmth of their embrace reminded her that not every pony had that pleasure, and some she had stood with just days before would never again have that opportunity. She had to say something, but words were slow to come to her.

As the silence stretched on, somepony coughed in the back, then Twilight found her voice. “I’m sorry I am late making this statement, it should have been made a few days ago, and I should be making it directly to the affected families and friends. But we are in a time of crisis and as a Princess of Equestria I must first do my duties, and now I find myself tardy with one of the saddest duties any leader must do.”

A number of the press ponies looked confused. What was she talking about? Sad duty?

After a soft cough, or perhaps sob, to clear her throat Twilight continued, “During the battle for Canterlot, I stood side by side with some of the bravest ponies in all the land, the City guards, the Wonderbolts and yes even the Royal guards, some of which were not corrupted and fought bravely. Every one of them, fought the hardest possible battle, a fight against former comrades in arms. Made worse because those comrades were victims themselves, and were being forced against their will to betray the values we all hold dear.

“Even now, I do not know the full extent of the loss but I know for certain that every pony that was lost to us was a great tragedy and they need to be hailed and remembered!”

Putting her hoof in the air Twilight called out, “Call out, everyone of you, Call out for the City Guard!”

The normally cynical pres ponies and her friends cheered out as Twilight rose her hoof up.

“Call out for the Wonderbolts, both the famous ones and the axillaries who gave their all!”

The crowd cheered.

“Call out for the loyal royal guard!” Twilight joined the cheering as she remembered Solid Star who had given his life so Princess Celestia could escape.

When the cheering nearly died down, Twilight added, “We also need to remember the royal guards and castle functionaries who lives were lost for no fault of their own, but being at the wrong place as the wrong time as they were as much victims as the others were.”

It took some effort to raise voices for their enemies, as many of the ponies still thought of the mind controlled guards as traitors, but Twilight had a determined look in her eyes and held her arms high until everypony there had given the fallen a cheer.

Then slowly Twilight lowered her hooves and said, “Thank you.” and turned away from the press and back to the embrace of her friends.

Luna gave Twilight an approving look and whispered, “That was well done. Come let us find a private space to talk. There is news, both good and bad, that you must hear.”

Leaving the rest or her friends in the cafe car to escort the press to their seats, Princess Luna led Twilight to a quiet corner of the car and put up a sound proof barrier spell for additional privacy.

Once they were alone Luna first said, “It would be amiss of me not to first ask about your health, considering how dangerously low you drained your magic. So how are you feeling Twilight Sparkle?”

She had drained her magic to a dangerous level? Twilight had suspected as much, she answered, “Considering that I’ve been asleep for more than two days, I guess I’m feeling like a book that needs to be rebound. Still I’m back on my hooves and that’s something.”

Luna smiled at Twilight, “Rebound indeed? Well you will have more than enough quills for the job, considering the number of feathers I’ve molted these last few days.”

Twilight looked up at Luna and saw the stress in the older alicorn’s eyes. “Tell me what’s happening, apparently I’ve been so busy organizing this evacuation I have no clue about what’s going on.”

Luna for a brief moment looked confused, “Organizing the evacuation… Oh yes, the story, err cover story, we told the hipoulous to avoid undue panic. You need not worry, for that duty has been handled, quite admirably I must add, by your personal assistant, Spike the dragon. Please pardon the deception, but we did not wish to get word out that more than one of the Princesses has been taken ill.”

Twilight did the mental math, and picked up on the “more than ONE Princess.” reference. “Celestia is ill? Right, I nearly forgot she was attacked first, she was going to be treated by the doctor, how is she?”

Luna frowned and her brow creased, “The doctors tell me she will make a full recovery and has already gone through four of the treatments. Apparently in their eagerness to subdue her, the brainwashed guards that attacked her did more physical injury than what most of the other victims experienced. Perhaps her larger size made them incorrectly assume she also required greater force to be subdued. So in addition to the magical treatments to break the grip of the Cults evil spell, she has had to have surgery to repair some internal damage.”

Twilight gasped at that. “I knew she was feeling bad, but I thought it was all the spell in her head. She was bleeding internally?”

Luna shook her head in sadness rather than in disagreement. “The chirurgeons did not tell me the details, but from the reports I have received the injuries were repaired with skill and she is now on the mend. Resting in the medical clinic in Ponyville, which is also our destination.”

Twilight nodded, she would of course ask the doctors once they arrived but perhaps it was wise not to press a close kin like Luna about clinical details of her own sisters rape. “Yes, evacuation...right this may sound like a strange question, considering that it was one of Celestia’s last orders to me, to organize this evacuation, but my last memories was that we had just won that fight. Isn’t the castle secured now? Why continue to evacuate canterlot.”

Luna answered, “We won a battle, but the war continues. We were successful in securing the castle, mainly due to your own heroic efforts and more importantly we believe none of the brainwashed royal guards escaped away to the Cults strongholds to expose our innermost secrets. For that was the greatest immediate risk from that battle. But that was not the only risk and the Cult showed that they have a much stronger force than we had originally thought they could muster. You may not have noticed in the heat of battle, but a large number of non guards, true cult members, skilled with some of their most evil spells, joined that battle. Their exact number is unknown but was at least two score and maybe more. Not all of them were accounted for and their new much faster way of spreading their evil, even after this loss, their numbers could quickly rebound.”

Luna continued, “I consulted with my sister when she was between treatments, and she agrees that we must spread the knowledge on how to treat the Cults mind control magic, far and wide. Not all the doctors and patients on this train are going to Ponyville, for many their destinations are all over Equestria to educate others doctors and spread the knowledge, otherwise we will have no hope of beating the army the Cult has been raising. We are temporarily moving the seat of the government to your own castle in Ponyville until we can be sure Canterlot is secure again.”

Twilight asked, “How fast is the Cult spreading?”

“We do not know for certain. Clearly they were able to infect an entire barracks of guards in a single night and did so right under our very nose. We hope, but can’t be certain, that there maybe a limit on how much of their evil brew, the potion infused pills they mocking call ‘The Blessing’ they can manufacture. Until we know more, we have to assume the worse and expect new armies to soon rise up against us. Armies made from our own little ponies turned against us.”

“This is horrible! Did none of the captured prisoners know anything? Most of the first wave must have gone through several treatments by this time.” Twilight asked.

Luna shook her head, “No, all the brainwashed guards which have been treated, could only report the instructions they were given, where were very general in nature. None even know where the Cult has their base, having received their orders from a chain of other brainwashed victims.”

Twilight was confused, “None of them? But I was so certain that there were some real cult members in that first batch, the civilians mixed in with the guards we rescued from that fishing village.”

“I interviewed several, and they all were recent victims taken from that village. None knew more than the guards did.” Luna told Twilight.

“Wait! I know there was at least one long term Cultist there!” Twilight injected.

“There was?” Luna asked confused.

“Red Wood’s wife! She was in the room when Red Wood told me about the bombs.” Twilight told her.

“She was? In the confusion of the battle, I was not informed of this. Red Wood’s wife died ten years ago! I was told… wait she was only assumed dead because her horn was found.” Luna looked frustrated. “There is just too much going on at once, this oversight should not have lasted this long!”

Twilight quickly injected, “We have to find Red Wood’s wife, she been in the Cult for ten years, she will know where they are based out of, we can attack their base before they get the chance to regroup. Where is she?”

Luna looked thoughtful and unhappy. “I guess she is with Red Wood, he was in one of the first trains sent to Ponyville, on the same train as Celestia was sent on.”

“That’s great! That’s where we’re heading and I’m sure Red Wood will get her to cooperate.” Twilight beemed.

Luna looked troubled, “If her cooperation is dependent on Red Wood’s health, then we may have a serious problem. The last report I was given said he was not responding to treatment and was in critical condition.”

“But he was just fine before the battle.” Twilight was shocked at the news, Red Wood had helped her disarm those bombs, and while part of her knew he had collapsed in the hospital, her attention was mostly directed at Celestia at the time. She had no idea the situation was that serious.

“Unless they find a way to reverse his condition, Doctor Somnolence does not expect him to live.” Luna replied solemnly.

Friends Found Old and New

Author's Note

OK a couple of hidden references in here. Who can find them all?

Friends Found Old and New

A day and half before Twilight awoke, the original Friendship Express train had made it’s first evacuation trip and left organized mayhem at the Ponyville train station. This earlier train had brought nearly a dozen patients, and their supporting doctors and nurses plus a sizable number of guards.

Even before the smoke and steam from the cooling train engine had drifted away from the tracks, the most prestigious patient, a large white Alicorn, mostly hidden under blankets, was whisked away via a private covered wagon to the nearby Ponyville clinic. Leaving the remaining patients still waiting at the platform for direction.

Gentle Breeze was one of the patients, standing at the edge of the platform and wondering where she was supposed to go. It was the first time in nearly two days that she had been allowed to be more than a few paces from guards or doctors. “No”, she corrected herself, “I’m not unguarded, there are just fewer of them here than in the Canterlot hospital.” still it was the most freedom she’d had in days.

She looked around the platform, to see if there were anypony she recognized nearby. Most of the faces were very unfamiliar, even the other patients were strangers to her. Then she spotted a blue and white coated pony with a petri dish cutie mark that she recognized. It was Nurse Tender Care, who had given her the second ‘treatment’ session.

Gentle Breeze smiled softly at the nurse and walked towards her end of the platform. Pausing when she saw that the nurse was talking to a strange little green and purple creature which was holding a checklist and was apparently giving out directions. It took several seconds of staring at the creature for Gentle Breeze to identify it as a young dragon.

The dragon noticed Gentle Breeze’s stare. “Hello there!” He said cheerfully, “Can I help you?”

“Sorry” Gentle Breeze told him, “I just never saw somepony like you before.” blushing in embarrassment.

Spike just waved nonchalance, “Oh I get that all the time!” Then he looked at Gentle Breeze a bit more closely, “Not that I can’t say the same. I don’t think I've ever seen a pony shave their coat like that before.” He then stuck out one of his claws, “I’m Spike! Princess Twilight’s number one assistant!”

Gentle Breeze looked down at her own hide with the air of somepony seeing it for the first time. Over the last ten years, she had gotten so used to the shaved look, that Spike’s comment was the first time since the cults spell had been broken that she had reason to question the shaving. She then she very tentatively raised her hoof and gave Spike a hoof bump. “Hello Spike, I’m Gentle Breeze.”

“Gentle Breeze? … Gentle Breeze…” Spike looked down his check list. Then said “I see you, hmm, looks like you’ve already been through the polyfield treatment twice?”

Gentle Breeze blinked, not sure if she should be talking about this with what was clearly a youngster. “Err yes?” she ventured.

“Good, Good. “ Spike said. “According to the plan, ponies which have received two or more treatments are safe enough to get further treatments as outpatients. That means instead of being sent to the Hospital, you’ll be staying with some the Ponyville ponies that have volunteered extra bedrooms.”

Gentle Breeze shook her head, “No! Please I want to find my husband, Red Wood! They said he was on the train with us, but wouldn't let me walk around to find him.”

Spike looked down his list again, “Red Wood? Wow! I’ve met him a few times when Twilight would visit him in Canterlot. Your his wife? Then it’s really great to meet you. Let me see.” he flipped back a few pages and then pointed with his pen to one of the check-boxes. “Oh he was taken off the train already and was sent directly to the Ponyville Clinic.”

“I need to go to the Clinic then!” Gentle Breeze said.

Nurse Tender Care who had been standing by listening to the conversation added, “Mrs Breeze? There’s going to be a lot of mayhem at the Hospital right now. I’m sure you’ll be able to see your husband after they check him in, but that won’t be for a while so you probably should first take care of yourself, that way you can there for your Husband when he needs you.”

Gentle Breeze tried to object, “But…”

The nurse continued, “I have you scheduled for another treatment just after dinner time tonight, but for now you should go and try to get settled in.” She pointed towards a folding desk with some unfamiliar ponies sitting under the shaded porch of the train station. “The Mayor is helping setup housing, she’ll help you get settled.”

Gentle Breeze asked, “You’re going to trust someone like me to wonder around your town? Even after what we did?”

Spike shrugged, “Twilight’s always told me most ponies are good at heart if only given a chance to be so. Don’t get me wrong, there’s going to be restrictions, you can’t leave town, and other than some well watched public places like the Market and Sugarcube Corner, you’ll have to stay with your host family. There’s going to be a lot more guards around keeping an eye on everypony.”

“Oh..” was all Gentle Breeze could say. Even with these restrictions this would be more freedom than she had with the Cultists. Until recently a Virgulinos like her wouldn't have been allowed to leave the Cult’s compound. Virgulinos were given a certain amount of ‘respect’ for the work they did in the Cult, but respect was not the same as freedom or trust.

Seeing Spike turn back to his checklists, and Nurse Tender Care moved off to check on other patients, Gentle Breeze heading towards the table where the Mayor was sitting.

Mayor Mare looked up at her as Gentle Breeze approached and smiled “Hello there. I’m guessing your one of the patients from Canterlot. Please can I have your name?”

Gentle Breeze gave the Mayor her name and had to fill out some forms, which seemed to be some hastily thrown together hoof written notes about the rules she would have to agree to follow. Gentle Breeze looked them over. She was expected to stay within the town, not cause any trouble, agree to be on time to the hospital for all her treatments and to follow the rules of her host family. She signed the papers and hoofed them back to the Mayor.

“Good good!” The Mayor glanced at the papers, then looked up at Gentle Breeze. “Most of the other patients are from the Canterlot guards and are used to roughing it. So I’m sending them to stays in the barns of some of the local farm families, like the Apples or Carrots. But I think you’ll be more comfortable staying here in town. Luckily we have a good number of volunteers who have already pledged to allow victims like yourself to stay with them.”

The Mayor looked over her shoulder to benches setup along the inside wall of the ticket office. There seemed to be several small groups of ponies there. The nearest few ponies were a couple of stallions who were looking back towards Gentle Breeze. The Mayor followed their gaze which was perhaps a bit too forced friendly and lingering on Gentile Breezes exotic body tattoos. She frowned, “No I think it’s better I hook you up with stable family or perhaps some single mares.”

The Mayor then looked further back to the next group of ponies waiting, and spotted a lime green unicorn and her beige colored earth pony friend. “Lyra and Bon Bon? “ She mused loud enough for Gentle Breeze to hear her. “Yes Lyra is very accepting of strangeness, being rather strange herself, and Bonbon is a very well grounded pony. She is very reliable, a good combination I’d say.” In a louder voice the Mayor called out, “Mrs Heartstrings and Mrs Drops?”

The earth pony and unicorn friends quickly trotted over to the Mayor’s desk.

“Yes Mayor Mare?” Bon Bon asked the mayor, while looking curiously at Gentle Breeze.

But Lyra hadn't waited for introductions and was already shaking Gentle Breeze’s hoof vigorously. “You must be one of those poor victims of that evil cult! Wow that must have been so exciting! I wish I had adventures like that! No, that doesn't sound right, I mean I don’t want to be captured and brainwashed! But the risk, the excitement, the fighting! What! Oh no! not the fighting, I don’t like to fight, but well, I mean, you have to know what I mean! Oh! Right I’m Lyra and this is my friend Bon Bon! We’d really love to help you out with a place to stay! And when you’re not fighting off the evil effects of the cults mind control, you can help Bon Bon make candy for her store, or help me with my music in the park! I love to play! Do you sing? Oh right what’s your name?”

During all this dialog Lyra hadn't stopped shaking Gentle Breezes foreleg, nor allow the former unicorn an opportunity to respond to the battery of questions.

Bon Bon had taken Gentle Breeze’s papers from the Mayor and then stood waiting with half lidded eyes as Lyra babbled on excitedly. Once the green unicorn seemed to pause for breath, the candy maker pony interjected, stepping between Lyra and Gentle Breeze, breaking Lyra’s grip and replacing it with a much more gentle and normal hoofshake of her own.

“Sorry, Lyra does tend to get excited sometimes.” Bon Bon apologize to Gentle Breeze, while Lyra stood to the side with a beaming smile and making little squeaky happy noises.

“Come, I understand you don’t have any luggage, so we’ll stop by Barnyard Bargains and get you some toiletries then show you your room.”

Gentle Breeze’s mind was still spinning a bit from Lyra’s assault but was calm enough to understand Bon Bon’s intent. “Oh I’m sorry! I can’t go shopping, I didn't bring any bits!”

The Mayor who had been sitting listening to the conversation, interjected, “Don’t worry my dear, arrangements have already been made, you don’t have to worry about incidentals, that and any medical expenses will be covered by the crown. Princes Luna sent out the order this morning. You three get settled in, remember Bon Bon, make sure Gentle Breeze gets to the hospital after dinner for her next treatment. Bye now, I have other ponies I need to find housing for! And even more are coming tomorrow!”

And with that the three mares were rushed out of the train station and into Ponyville proper.

Gentle Breeze’s mind was spinning, Lyra just wouldn't shut up, but it wasn't possible to get angry at the earnestly friendly mare, even as her babble jumped from one inane subject to the next.

While Gentle Breeze was picking out a toothbrush, Lyra lectured her on the merits or mint toothpaste (her favorite) vs Bon Bon’s preference of Berry Bubble Brand tooth polish. Then without an obvious pause, Lyra changed the subject to the merits of winter mint tea, vs peppermint vs spearmint vs Flanklin mint. And this led to a moving lecture of the value of collectible coins and trinkets.

Around this time Gentle Breeze just stopped listening to Lyra and walked in silence, having realized that as long as she just made a polite ‘ahum’, ‘yes’, ‘go on’ Lyra wouldn't notice if Gentle Breeze was really following along her conversation or not. Whenever she really needed a question answered, Gentle Breeze would ask Bon Bon, who tended to be much more ‘normal’ and ‘no nonsense’ in her short answers.

They showed Gentle Breeze their small house. Most of the ground floor was for Bon Bon’s candy business. There was an extra large kitchen and workroom and the room that normally would have been a living room was used as a tiny candy shop, with it’s own entrance for the public.

Bon Bon explained that while she did make some bits from selling candy to the public, most of her real business was in baking supplies. Her most profitable stock item was a sort of hand crafted donuts sprinkle that was so valuable and sought after that she never shipped it by mail, but rather required any pastry chef that wished to use it, to come to ponyville in pickup tiny tins of the sugar flakes. *(See Mystery on the Friendship Express for more details.)

After being shown the candy shop and kitchen, and invited to sample a few treats, the sweet taste of which was like nothing she had since joining the Cult, they led Gentle Breeze to a small guest room where they let her alone for a while to unpack her only worldly possessions. A toothbrush and two packs of toothpaste, one mint and the other berry flavored.

Gentle Breeze sat on the bed and looked around, more than a little in shock of the change in her circumstances. The small bedroom’s shelves and closet was empty, but there were a number of picture prints on the walls. Mostly of big eyed mare’s playing some musical instrument or dancing. Along with the color mint green wallpaper, Gentle Breeze suspected that Lyra had been mostly responsible for decorating this room.

About half an hour later, Bon Bon knocked on Gentle Breeze’s door and asked if she wanted to go out for an early dinner.

Gentle Breeze’s first reaction was to say no, and spend more time just getting used to being herself again, even trying to figure out what that even meant. But then she remembered that after dinner they could go to the hospital and she might be able to see Red Wood.

“I don’t want to be a bother!” Gentle Breeze replied.

“Don’t worry!” Bon Bon replied, “No bother at all! Saves us some cooking and we can introduce you to some of the town ponies in a nice and calm way. If you wait though, Pinkie Pie will be back and she’ll drag you off to a wild welcome to Ponyville Party! If you rather wait for that, we can put it off until later. I mean Pinkie’s parties can be a lot of fun, and all. But I thought you might want to take it slower?”

Gentle Breeze opened the door and interjected, “No No, I really don’t feel like partying. I guess a quiet dinner works.” Then she paused and pointed along her sides to her tattooed body. “I’m not used to thinking about it, but now that I am, I not so sure I want everypony staring at my naked flanks when I’m all shaved like this.”

“Oh don’t be ashamed of them! Those tattoos are so exotic and sexy! Are they magic? They look like they maybe magic! Oh I know they are special mind control tattoos that you use to entrance and bewitch the minds of innocent ponies to be whisked away secret torture chambers where they would be forced to indulge in every indecent whim of the corrupt Cult leader.”

Gentle Breeze blinked speechless at Lyra.

Bon Bon started to object, “Lyra stop with your five bit trashy novels. I’m sure Gentle Breeze doesn't need that sort of imagery or rumors floating about!”

Gentle Breeze covered her eyes with a hoof and whispered, “Lyra’s closer to the truth than I’d like to admit! You can see why I’d rather not go out like this?”

Bon Bon looked aghast, but softly replied, “Of course dear! No offence meant.” She turned to Lyra, “You have more clothes than I do, is there something you can lend Gentle Breeze to help her feel more comfortable?”

Lyra brightened up at the suggestion (wait is that possible with Lyra?) and dashed off to their shared bedroom, returning a moment later with a piece of clothing. “I’m sure this will fit you!” she said.

With Lyra’s help, Gentle Breeze pushed her forelegs into the shirt like sweater and realized that it had a built in hood, it was a type of hoodie. It looked very well made and Gentle Breeze was surprised Lyra was so willing to part with it. “Are you sure I can borrow this? It looks real nice.”

Lyra laughed, “ I used to wear it all the time, but must be something about it, when I wore it, no one took notice of me. But now that I stopped wearing it, I no longer seem so lost in the background. I’m sure it will be a lot nicer on you than it ever was on me.”

Gentle Breeze smiled in thanks and soon the three of them were wandering around the town square of Ponyville. As they passed by them Lyra breathlessly pointed out the main landmarks of the town.

"Over there is the town hall, a couple years ago Princess Celestia came here for the Summer Sun Celebrations! " Lyra said, then added, "Well she really didn't make it to the celebration, her sister crashed the party. I'm sure you heard about Nightmare Moon turning back into Princess Luna, well we had them all here! Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and even Princess Twilight! Though come to think about it she wasn't yet a Princess then."

"That all happened here?" Gentle Breeze asked, she had heard second hoof stories about the return of Princess Luna but hadn't realized it all happened in such a small town.

Lyra nodded happily, “Oh yeah! We've had lots of excitement here since Princess Twilight settled in Ponyville. “

Bon Bon deadpanned, “Right like the bunny stampede.”

Lyra turned to Bon Bon, “Your so right! The flower sisters didn't recover for a week!”

Bon Bon just face hoofed and then changed the subject, “We’re do you want to eat? Hay Burger?”

Lyra shook her head, “Hay Burger, that fast food chain? Are you crazy!? Gentle Breeze could eat at a Hay Burger's just about anywhere. Let’s go somewhere special and unique to Ponyville. Sugarcube Corner!”

Bon Bon nodded in reluctant agreement, “Order sandwiches and not just donuts this time.”

Laughing Lyra led them into the large standalone bakery that was decorated to look like a life sized gingerbread house. Stepping into the shop, Gentle Breeze sniffed and her nose was filled with hundreds of exquisite, if mostly surgery scents. “Mmmmm” she said involuntarily.

Bon Bon replied to Gentle Breezes reaction, “The Cakes are the best bakers in Equestria. They even won the national dessert competition. Though they also have decent sandwiches and salads as well.”

From the heavenly smells, Gentle Breeze had no doubt that this was true.

Behind the counter, a middle aged mare, with a heavily made up mane that was so glossy that it looked more like frosting than hair. “Hello Dearies!” She said, “Just seat yourself anywhere you find a spot, you know!”

“Thanks Mrs Cake!” Lyra called back to the mare.

Soon they had ordered celery soup and dandelion sandwiches. Lyra and Bon Bon were really trying to make Gentle Breeze feel comfortable and it was working. Soon despite everything on her mind, she was talking and laughing with the two mares as they told her all sort of stories and gossip about the little town.

They were about half way though their food when a tall but rather spindly legged stallion approached their table. Speaking in a high nasally voice he said, “I’m sorry Mr Bon Bon, but I was wondering if you had a moment to spare for me? With Pinkie out of town, we’re a bit short hoofed and I need to get the candy orders in for next weeks bake off.”

Bon Bon smiled, the Cakes were one of her regular customers and bought her candies and sprinkles at a commercial scale. “Of course Mr Cake!” Turning to her table mates, “Lyra, Gentle Breeze? Keep eating, don’t wait for me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

When the baker and candy maker made there way back to the kitchen, Lyra frowned and gave Gentle Breeze a worried glance. “I know that look from Bon Bon.” Lyra said, “Its the look of money. She can get a bit too carried away when it comes to her business.”

Lyra paused to think for a moment, “I really better go after them, just to make sure Bon Bon doesn’t take on any orders too big for her to handle. She’s been known to bite off more candy than she can chew. Will you be OK?” Lyra asked Gentle Breeze, “Just stay here in the shop and we’ll both be back right away.”

A moment later Lyra had squeezed behind the bake shops counter, sliding past Mrs Cake to join her friend in the bakeries business office.

Gentle Breeze blinked a bit in surprise being left alone so soon, but she knew that it was not due to any sort of ill will of her two new roommates. Truth was, she was quickly grown fond of her new friends. So Gentle Breeze spent the time looking around the shop and noticing some of the other customers.

Sitting at most of the other tables were typical small town pony folk. Earth ponies were the most heavily represented but there were plenty of unicorns and pegasus, even the odd cow or donkey mixed in with no apparent stigma. There weren’t any of the guards from the train, either they hadn't discovered the bakery yet, or were still all busy setting up town security.

After a few minutes, Gentle Breeze started to realize that it was going to take longer for her roommates to get back than she first guessed. She considered going behind the bakery counter herself to find them, then a different commotion drew her attention.

On a table in the corner nearest the checkout counter, was three youngsters. Two of them, a orange maned unicorn and a brown maned pegasus were still young foals, while watching them was an older preteen unicorn colt with a red brown coat and green mane. The two younger ponies had just started crying loudly. The older colt was trying to calm them down, but wasn't having much luck. Gentle Breeze also saw that Mrs Cake was looking anxiously at the the foals but was stuck ponying the cash register.

It seemed silly to just sit there waiting for Lyra and Bon Bon, while that colt clearly was in over his head. So Gentle Breeze trotted over to the kids and with a smile asked “Hello there! Anything I can help with?”

The colt gave her a nervous smile and nodded enthusiastically telling her, “I don’t know what’s wrong! They’re not hungry, and Mrs Cake just changed them.”

“Mrs Cake?” Gentle Breeze looked over at the baker at the counter, catching the older ponies eyes, she motioned to the babies and then herself and got a friendly nod in reply.

“Wow Twins!” Gentle Breeze said, “They must be a hooffull! You must be a really great big brother!” to the colt.

The colt looked surprised “Brother? Oh no! I’m just staying with the Cakes for a few days.” Then he pointed to the twin foals in turn. “This is Pound Cake, and this one is Pumpkin.” Hearing their names the two foals stopped crying and looked up at Gentle Breeze curious.

“My aren't you two the cutest!” Gentle Breeze gushed. “But I think you might be bored. Do you have any toys?” She looked up at the colt, not expecting the babies to be able to answer.

The colt thought for a moment, “We started with some rattles, but they threw them on the floor and we need to clean them before I can give them back. Maybe if you watch them for a minute I can go wash them off?”

“I’ll be happy to!” Gentle Breeze replied. The Cult never allowed Virgulinos like her to have foals but she always wanted her own, but also there was a pain there at the edge of her memories that she wasn't ready yet to face. She stopped herself from remembering too much of the time ‘before’ as there were shadows in her memories that were too painful to relive.

“OK Thanks!” the colt ran off, leaving the foals with her. Gentle Breeze glanced towards the cash register and saw Mrs Cake watching thoughtfully, so she gave the baker a reassuring smile and turned to play peekaboo with the baby Cakes.

A few moments later the colt returned and gave the foals a hooffull of rattles and hard plastic rings. The kids cooed happily and soon were playing with their toys.

Gentle Breeze was about to head back to her own table, when the colt sighed and leaned back into the corner of the booth seat. She realized he had no toys of his own, and was a bit young to be responsible for babies, so was probably pretty bored himself. Thinking quickly she pulled out a few folded paper napkins from the table’s holder and motioned for the colt to watch her.

“Ever seen this trick?” She asked him.

“Trick?” He asked.

Gentle Breeze quickly started to fold and rip the paper, rolling some of it in a thin stick, she cut and folded it into the shape of leaves and plants. In short order she had a paper garden of delicate flowers and realistic looking plants. Only their color showed they were made of paper.

“Oh Wow!” the Colt looked at the unexpected artwork. “How did you do that?”

“It’s my special talent.” Gentle Breeze explained glancing at her cutie mark, which was of some wind blown leaves, “I make sculptures of leafy plants and flowers pretty much out of anything. Sometime ago, I used to make all the fine decorations my husband would put on his music boxes and clocks.” Gentle Breeze frowned slightly at the old memory, sculpture was not a talent that she had frequent use for in the Cult.

"Music boxes and Clocks? My dad also makes those, though lately he's been working more on magic enhanced ones. I got a rather ", the colt paused in thought for a second, "strange uncle who gave him the idea and together they've been making these talking clocks with calenders and sound crystals for recording notes." He then looked closer at the paper plants. "He doesn't decorate his clocks with much, but we have an old one of his in the kitchen that has some flower like these on it. I'd bet he'd be real happy if I could make some flower like this for him."

Gentle Breeze smiled, “Of course, let me show you how to make some paper roses!”

Over the next half an hour, Gentle Breeze showed the youngsters how to make paper roses, snap dragons and pussy willows. While nothing he made was as perfect as Gentle Breezes, the colt did made some passable roses, which he gave her. The two Cake babies also played with the trimmed and cut paper, which didn’t result in anything recognizable as plants or flowers, but seemed to make the foals happy.

They had to stop when Bon Bon and Lyra reappeared, the earth pony candy maker looking smug like she was a cat who just ate the canary, while Lyra was just happy to get her mare friend away from business dealings.

“Come Gentle Breeze!” Lyra said, “It’s time to head to the clinic!”

Neither pony noticed the colt look up at the mention of the former cult member’s name. He looked surprised then shook his head as if he hadn’t heard something properly. He opened his mouth as if about to ask a question, then closed it, the idea he was thinking was just silly.

Gentle Breeze turned to say goodby to the children, “Goodby it was really nice of you to help me make these flower...ehh you know I hadn’t gotten your name.” She told the colt.

“Oh I’m Banyan.” He told her.

“Banyan?” Gentle Breeze asked, “That’s a nice name. Well it was real nice to meet you Banyan perhaps we’ll meet again.” She turned and followed Lyra and Bon Bon out the door and towards the hospital.

hope beyond?

Gentle Breeze stepped into the Ponyville Clinic to find the lobby mobbed with guards. They had arrived at the same time as a new shift had started and their commander was debriefing them right in the main lobby.

Very conscious of all the eyes watching her, she threaded her way between armored bodies of all sorts. Lyra and Bon Bon followed behind, seemingly even more nervous at the unusual sight than Gentle Breeze was. Most of these guards had come in from the outer cities and towns and had not been in Canterlot, but rumors were quickly spreading that the ‘patients’ in this hospital and angry furrowed brows followed each move the three mares made.

Finally they made it to the reception desk, where a nurse pony was waiting for them. She gave them an uneasy smile and asked for their names.

With a tiny quiet voice the tattooed unicorn told the nurse, “I’m Gentle Breeze, here for treatment, and these two are the kind ponies who are letting me stay with them for now, Lyra and Bon Bon.”

The nurse quickly found Gentle Breeze’s name in her schedule, “Oh good, you’re a bit early for your treatment. Nurse Tender Care should be out shortly. Normally I’d ask you to wait here in the main lobby, but with all these guards here, you might feel better waiting upstairs? There’s some chairs for patients families just outside the treatment rooms. I’ll make sure Nurse Tender Care finds you.” She pointed on a map of the clinic where they should wait.

Before leaving though, Gentle Breeze caught the nurses eye again and asked, “Could you tell me what room my husband Red Wood is in?”

Another glance at her papers, and the nurse told Gentle Breeze. “Your husband? Hmm. OK Mr Red Wood is in room 221 in the same wing as your treatments on. You’ll have to pass near his room on your way. As long as the floor nurse agrees you can stop to visit, but don’t stay long, you don’t want to miss your treatment.”

Gentle Breeze smiled brightly at the nurse and quickly moved to the stairs. As the three mares climbed to the second floor, Bon Bon asked, “Why does your husband still needs to be in the hospital and not an outpatient like you? Did he get hurt?”

Gentle Breeze froze for a moment as the implication of the question struck her for the first time. “I don’t know, last I saw him we were having our first treatment together, and he had only been under the Cults control for around one day. I haven’t seen him since then. Sompony told me he helped Princess Twilight save some foals, but no one seemed to know more than that.”

The layout of the hospital wing they were on, was two long corridors with the patient rooms down the outer sides and the space between the two hallways used for utility rooms, offices and nurses stations. Red Wood’s room was about halfway down one side, but just a few paces beyond his room, signs and a temporary barrier detoured all foot traffic through a pantry to the other hallway. Stationed at this barrier were two stern looking earth ponies who gave the three mares cold stares as they walked closer.

Luckily they didn’t have to cross over to reach Red Wood’s room, it was the last open door before the blockade.

Lyra stepped in first while Gentle Breeze paused a moment to gather her thoughts. Before she could really clear her head, she heard Lyra say, “Oh! He has a private room. That’s nice, but I would prefer somepony to talk to.”

Gentle Breeze stepped in with Bon Bon following. As Lyra said, it was a private room, with the usual generic utilitarian furniture centered around a large hospital bed. Gentle Breeze wasn’t there to critique the design elements though, her eyes locked on the sleeping stallion in that bed.

Red Wood looked small and shrunken by the large bed. Gentle Breeze had started to fear he had been hurt and would be hooked up to all sorts of pipes and tubes, but currently he seemed free of these. But he looked ill. His face was full of wrinkles and was gaunt looking. His breathing seemed ragged with drawn out unhealthy snores punctuated with broken gasps as if he was choking.

Bon Bon and Lyra stood to the side together, whispering quietly while Gentle Breeze stepped closer and wondered out loud, “He looks so weak, do you think we should wake him?”

Suddenly a firm but friendly voice answered her from the door. “Oh dear, if you could that would be wonderful!”

The mares turned to the voice and Nurse Tender Care stood there. She nodded in greeting to Gentle Breeze and asked, “Are you family?” towards Bon Bon and Lyra.

Lyra smiled and just answered “Nope!” with a grin on her face.

Bon Bon waited a heartbeat to see if Lyra would elaborate, when the green unicorn didn’t she face hoofed and added for her, “Gentle Breeze is staying with us, and we wanted to keep her company.”

Nurse Tender Care smiled, “That’s nice, times like these, it’s good to have friends nearby.”

Gentle Breeze asked, “What’s wrong with my husband? Why does he look so sick?”

The nurse looked over at the stallion in the bed. “It’s a real shame. He had only just had one treatment when he risked his life to help save a bunch of colts and fillies, but rather than be welcomed back as a hero, he ran into a crowd of very scared ponies. They yelled at him and blamed him for the horrible things happening. “

Bon Bon asked “Did they hurt him? Was it a mob?”

Tender Care shook her head, “Not seriously, at least not physically, but that evil spell, the Cult’s curse, it was weakened by the first treatment, but not yet isolated or safe. In order to keep Cult members from diverging secrets, when the spell detects its being attacked, it tries to kill its host. Even in it’s weakened form, the spell was able to use the harsh words of the mob to spin Red Wood into a magically enhanced deep depression.”

Lyra asked, “But why don’t you remind him of the foals he saved or play him happy music or something?”

The nurse smiled sadly again, “We’ve tried, but the spell locked him in his own mind. He can’t hear or see us. It’s like he’s trapped in a nightmare, while the spell withers his body.”

With a gasp the three mares moved closer to Red Wood. Gentle Breeze held onto his hoof and with her other hoof rubbed his head. “Please wake up!” she cried, “Red Wood! Wake up!”

Bon Bon asked, “Have you tried slapping him?”

Before she could move though, the Nurse quickly said, “PLEASE DON’T! We have tried physical stimulation, anti depressants and magic probes but we’ve not yet been able to break through the spell’s effect.”

Lyra meanwhile took out from somewhere her harp and started to play it close to Red Wood’s head. She started softly, but with each strum of her strings, she increased the volume and speed until it started sounding more like a hard rock guitar riff than any recognizable mellady.

Nurse Tender Care gave Lyra a hard glare and the unicorn lowered the volume, then for several minutes she watched the three mares attempt to awaken Red Wood. There was some hope that friends and family might be able to do what mere medicine couldn’t and break through to the Stallion. But she couldn’t stay long, so with a cough to draw attention to herself, the nurse said to Gentle Breeze, “You have your own treatment scheduled in a little while. Don’t rush, we can put it off for a few minutes. But when you’re ready meet me in room 244, it’s just across and down a bit.”

Gentle Breeze had tears streaming down her face at this point, but nodded quietly to the nurse before returning to the vain attempt to awaken Red Wood.

The only reaction they could get was when Gentle Breeze touched his hoof, he moved his wrist to scoop her hoof into his. There was no other reaction, and with the nurse gone, there was no pony to ask if that was just a reflex of some sort.

For several long minutes Gentle Breeze holding Red Wood’s hoof, but they knew the time was limited, so gentle she moved his hoof to the side, and with a quiet gesture motioned for Bon Bon and Lyra to walk with her outside.

Outside in the hallway, they once again saw the two royal guards a few steps away. Still giving them leary glances. The three mares suspected the wrinkles on the guards faces was due to the noise they had been making. Before anypony could apologize a new figure stepped between the two guards and looked out curiously.

It was Spike the dragon, he looked side to side until his eyes focused on Bon Bon and Lyra. Then Spike looked over his shoulder and called out, “It was just a few ponies from town, your Majesty, nothing to worry about.” Then he turned back to the three mares. “Please, the Princess Celestia is tired and you shouldn’t make so much noise in a hospital!”

“Sorry Spike!” Lyra told the dragon in a bright tone. “We just trying to help Gentle Breeze wake up her husband.”

At the same time, Bon Bon and Gentle Breeze stuttered, “Princess Celestia?”

Before Spike could reply a light motherly voice came from the private room beyond. “Ponies from town? Is it the element bearers or their families? “

Spike turned to answer, “It’s one of the local musicians, Lyra and the town candy maker Bon Bon.” Spike paused while looking at the last mare, taking a moment to remember her name. “And Gentle Breeze, she’s one of the Cult victims ummm right she’s Red Wood’s wife.”

Princess Celestia’s voice rang softly from the room she was still in, “Oh my! Twilight mentioned that Red Wood’s wife had been found alive. That is amazing. Please Spike let them in. I wish to talk to them.”

Gentle Breeze and the other mares had heard the Princess’s request and before Spike could repeat it, they looked back and forth and give each other nervous nods in agreement.

Spike bowed and said, “If you ladies will follow me, it would please the Princess if you would meet with her.”

Lyra messed up Spike’s spikes with her hoof and grinned “Oh Spike you don’t have to ask us twice!” with her tail held high, she jointly trotted past the two frowning guards and into Princess Celestia’s room.

“Wait for me Lyra!” Bon Bon followed, walking much more sedately but clearly anxious to see the Princess.

Gentle Breeze paused, a little more than uncertain if she should go forward. A few days ago she was a sworn enemy of the Princess, and now she was being invited into her hospital room, like they were … Even in her own mind Gentle Breeze couldn’t come up with a good term to explain her feelings, other than she knew it was odd.

The two guards continued to frown at Gentle Breeze and that started her moving. She nosed past them, and gave Spike a nervous look, and received a reassuring smile in return. Feeling a tiny bit better, Gentle Breeze turned the corner and entered Celestia’s private hospital room.

Ponyville Clinic didn’t have the need or resources to keep an Alicorn sized guest room on standby at all times, so the private room Celestia was in, was no bigger than the one Red Wood had been in. The furniture was perhaps newer, a price tag and ripped remnants of packing paper was still stuck to the sides of the larger than normal bed and every flat surface was covered in flowers.

But currently Cestia wasn’t using the bed, she was laying on a large embroidered cushion set by the window. Her head stood straight and looked strong, but there was a large number of bandages wrapped around her barrow and an IV drip on a wheeled stand followed her.

Lyra was already bowing down, and Bon Bon was just lowering herself after gasping “Your Majesty!” when Gentle Breeze stepped into the room. The Princess and the former unicorn’s eyes met, and for a long moment Gentle Breeze didn’t know what to do or say. The Princess seemed to be probing her somehow, but there was no glow on her horn and nothing like normal magic was involved. When the moment passed, Gentle Breeze started to bow like Lyra and Bon Bon were.

“There will be no need for that, please stand.” Celestia stopped them with a light musical tone of voice. She continued “indeed, my little ponies, please take up some of the spare cushions and join me here by the window. This is a rare treat for me.”

“Treat? Your highness?” Bon Bon asked.

Celestia motioned to the sky outside her window, “Do to my weakened condition, my Sister is lowering the Sun tonight. Don’t you think her sunset is lovely?” then in a lower conspiratorial voice she added, “Though I do think she using a bit too much blue and not enough pink, if you ask me.”

For several minutes the four equines watched the sky darken. When the colors faded and the moon started to raise Celestia turned her attention back to the three mares.

“Dear Sweetie Drops, or do you prefer Bon Bon? I glad to meet you, I’ve been a fan of your candies, especially your wonderful cake toppings for years. Princess Twilight has written me several times over the years, complimenting your confectionery. And of course last time I had Pinky Pie plan a formal party at the castle, she insisted on using your special chocolates.”

Bon Bon was speechless, the Princess knew her? Twilight had written about her candies!? Sputtering she bowed again and squeaked out “You’re so kind your highness!”

Turning her attention to Lyra, Celestia’s eyes opened wide for a moment. “Oh dear! I remember you. You were a friend of Princess Cadence!” Then Celestia frowned, “Or was that all part of the Changeling's queens’ tricks? I understood there was a spell involved…”

Lyra gave one of her rare frowns. “It was a bit of both, Chrysalis used me, but I did, uh, do know Cadence. We weren’t very close friends and I doubt she would have picked me for a bridesmaid. She’s older than me but we met at your School for gifted unicorns.”

“But you’re much too young to have been in the same classes as Cadence, how did you meet?!” Celestia asked.

Lyra explained, “It was there when Twilight Sparkle was your student in the school. I know you taught her advance lessons, but she had to take the same core classes we all had to take for the more common stuff. I doubt she would recognize me in a crowd, because, well you know, how she really didn’t pay attention to anypony else back then. But Princess Cadence would stop by a few times a week to walk her to your castle or her home.”

Lyra continued, ‘Twilight being Twilight, she would stay late much of the time, trying to get the teachers to give her more homework, or to prove some new theory. So Cadence would wait for her, and I stayed with her, we started talking regularly. She really loves music, and we hit it off, even went to a few concerts together. I guess that Chrysalis some how found about that and tracked me down to use against Cadence.”

Lyra frowned more deeply, ‘It was horrible, she took me to use against Cadence and for a while she would have a changeling look like me, but when Shining Armor’s shield went up, only Chrysalis was strong enough to keep in disguise under the shield. So Chrysalis blasted me with her green magic,and I just had to do what she told me to do. I didn’t really come back to myself until days later.” Lyra turned her head to hide tears.

Gentle Breeze looked at Lyra in amazement, she had taken the green unicorn as being a bit on the silly side, light and carefree. She now didn’t know what to think.

Celestia though responded immediately, wrapping a wing around Lyra and pulling her in for a hug. “My Little Pony, I so sorry, you are probably one of the few ponies, not cursed by the Cult that really can understand what the victims are experiencing. Chrysalis mind control spells are not the same as the Cult’s but both are of the worst type of evil magic. The type that leaves innocent ponies with fear and guilt that they really should not be burdened with.”
After a few moments, Celestia guided Lyra to stand on her own hooves again, and turned her attention to Gentle Breeze.

Celestia said to her, “Dear Gentle Breeze, you certainly are a Pony I am most curious about.”

Gentle Breeze looked up confused, and waited for the Princess to explain.

“I have fought previous outbreaks of the Cult since before the time of Discards rule. Yet in all that time I have never met one of the Cults Priestesses, at least not alive. I am very curious about the inside knowledge you must have.”

Gentle Breeze blinked at the comment, then replied. “I try to help anyway I can but I’m sorry your majesty, my job as a Virgulinos was far from being a Priestess. There were leaders who some called Priests, but my fellow Virgulinos and I were but tools for them. We performed rituals for them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to make excuses, we did this rituals willingly, under the Cults spells it truly felt like we were doing good, being helpful. But our rule was to execute other ponies directions. Not only didn’t we have any real authority, we had less freedom than most.”

“What do you mean, less freedom?”

“Virgulinos were valued in the Cult because we were expensive to train so we were not allowed to leave the camp, I hardly ever got to do outside and there were sacrifices a pony has to make to be changed into what I am.”

“Sacrifices? What sort of Sacrifices? Like your horn?” Lyra asked this, wincing at the flat spot on Gentle Breezes head.

Gentle Breeze put a hoof up to where her horn once was. “The took my horn by force, but they made me think it was a willing gift. The tatoos on my body are to redirect the ley lines so I can still channel some forms of magic, but Virgulinos real purpose is the act as magic batteries for the elders, they cast the real spells, and we store and refine the magic of the spells, allowing them to cast spells far above their own strength. The needles that lay these tattoos penetrated deep inside me. The lines run inside as well as out. But that not really what I was talking about.” Gentle Breeze turned to looked at her flank, but not at her cutie mark.

“Go on.” Celestia urged Gentle Breeze to continue.

“Much of the magic the Cult uses is a type that until I joined them I never heard of it, they call it Tantric Magic which gathers power from intimacy, mostly of the physical kind. As a Virgulino I was expected to take every opportunity to gather power, to maintain a sort of physical high. I also was expected to always be ready and willing to lend my body to any any cult member’s pleasure, male or female. A Virgulino was too valuable to the Cult to be allowed to take time off and have a foal.” Gentle Breeze looked up, her eyes were wet with suppressed tears. “I’m not a full mare anymore. I can never come to season again.”

Celestia bowed her head, “Tantric Magic is not completely unknown. While any school of magic is in itself not good or evil, other than in how it is used. Tantric by it nature discourages ponies from long term commitments to each other. As Harmony between ponies can be harmed by this, I have discouraged it’s study. Even as well read a magic expert as Princess Twilight, has only the most dry and technically abstract understanding of that magic school. Perhaps I was wrong to restrict the study of Tantric Magic so much. If the Cults has gained so much power from its application we are now at a disadvantage due to ignorance.”

Celestia continued, “As for your loss, I am very sorry to hear they hurt you in such a personal way. Your first opportunity for motherhood was taken from you so cruelly. Still when this evil war is over, with luck you and Red Wood could start over, perhaps adopt, if you wish to raise another foal. But before that can happen, there is much evil that need to be corrected.”

Gentle Breeze whispered, “There some evils that can’t be fixed Princess. The Cults magic made me believe that the pegasus killed my new born colt. I know now it was their pet monster that did it. I hate myself for ever working for those monsters.”

Spike who had been listening all along asked “What? No one has told you yet?”

Gentle Breeze turned to the little dragon and asked, “Told me what?”

“Your Colt didn’t die in that attack that took you away. He’s here in Ponyville, Fluttershy was watching him when Red Wood was summoned away with Twilight.”

Gentle Breeze fell on her haunches in shock. “Don’t joke with me about that! I saw the blood, I tried to hide him, my baby, but there blood everywhere. They told me he died.”

“Who told you? The Cult? The monster that attacked you, sweated blood to drive ponies mad in fear. Your son took no injury.” Celestia asked.

Gentle Breeze started to reply when Spike interjected again. “Oh right, Fluttershy went to Canterlot, she asked the Cakes to watch Banyan for her when sh….”

Gentle Breeze turned and let out a loud cry of “WHAT! Banyan is my SON?!” Then she collapsed on the floor gasping, tears falling from her eyes in rivets.

“Huh?” Spike wondered, “I’d thought she would be happy?”

Celestia shook her head at Spike, but sported a small smile. “This sort of emotional shock was not what I was expecting to be talking about with you my little pony. “

Bon Bon and Lyra were now holding onto Gentle Breeze, supporting her head and comforting her. Celestia started to cover them with a wing, but then withdraw it, considering and thinking about the situation.

Without another word the three mares bundled together and slowly walked out of the Princesses room. Lyra and Bon Bon, gave hasty and somewhat uncouth bows in Celestia’s direction, but Gentle Breeze was in too much shock to even acknowledge the Princess.

Author's Note

had some laptop issues so had to edit this on one my ipad. hope that's not too noticeable.

Strange Vists

Gentle Breeze woke the next morning with only the faintest idea of how she got to bed. Indeed most of the previous evening after she, Bon Bon and Lyra had left the Princesses Celestia’s hospital room was one foggy blur of disjointed memories.

For example she knew that she must have sat for an hour with Nurse Tender Care in a ring of charged magic crystals as part of her daily treatment, but she had no real memory of it. Nor could she tell when they had left the hospital and walked to Lyra’s and Bon Bon’s home.

All she really knew was her world had been turned upside down over the last few days and learning she had a living son, had been the straw that broke the pony's back. Gentle Breezes mind had more or less shut down and she was now moving though her life under a blinding cloud of uncertainty.

Coming to herself, to at least some degree, Gentle Breeze sat up in Lyra’s old bedroom and tried to think about what she should do next. And by ‘next’ she meant literally what she needed to do next. Real long range planning way beyond her at this point. She was struggling enough to remember how to stand up.

She sat there for a long time, uncertain of the time, when she started to hear voices coming from downstairs.

“Voices? Right Lyra and Bon Bon.” She thought to herself. “I should go talk to them.”

It wasn't much of a plan, but it was something. It was enough to get her moving, she even remembered to brush her teeth before going downstairs. (She had picked up a mane brush as well, but only stared at it blankly before putting it back down. While her hair was starting to grow back, it would be months before there would be enough to need brushing) After some more delaying and walking in circles, she made her way down to the kitchen to talk to her new roommates and friends.

“Good Morning!” Said a way too cheerful Lyra when Gentle Breeze entered the room.

Gentle Breeze tried to say ‘good morning’ back, but it came out more as a mumble.

“Not a Morning Pony I can see.” Bon Bon noted. “I made a pot of coffee, or if you're feeling brave you can try one of Lyra’s mint tea mixes.”

Nodding, Gentle Breeze started to reach for the pot on stove when she realized that there were two pots and both seemed equally black. “Which is which?” She asked.

“The one closer to you is the coffee, the other black stuff is Lyra’s tea. Careful you don’t mix them up.” Bon Bon answered.

“Huh?”

Lyra giggled, “I used to have the worst time waking up in the morning, and normal coffee didn't do it for me, so I invented my special tea. There’s some spices from the Everfree in there and Herbs I get from a local Zerba. Even Bom Bon will take a cup if she’s done an all nighter making special candies. Perks her right up!” Lyra gave Gentle Breeze one of her infectious smiles.

Gentle Breeze normally would have taken the more familiar coffee, but seeing Lyra’s perky smile, she didn't want to disappoint the green unicorn, and instead took a small cup of the tea.

She sat with the others and cautiously smelled the vapors coming from the tea cup. There was a strong scent of mint, but other more exotic spices as well like ginger and adobe. Even that little sniff made her eyes water. Steeling herself, she lowered her muzzle and took a tiny sip.

“HOT HOT! SPICY!” Gentle Breeze panted, it was like she had taken a big bite of hot pepper, swallowed, and took another bite. The heat blasted her mouth, and she nearly screamed, then a second later, the heat was gone replaced with sense of freezing mint sensation that seemed to make her whole head go numb.

Gentle Breeze wasn't sure if it was a reflex to wash away the sudden menthol effect or not, but she found herself taking a second sip, This time the hot spice was barely felt but strong soothing spices like cinnamon and ginger seemed to dominate. She found herself taking another sip and another. Each sip the taste seemed to change, by the time she got to the bottom of the cup, Gentle Breeze was finding she was enjoying the novelty.

She also realized that true to Lyra’s word, she was now wide awake. If this was due to a massive caffeine buzz, then she knew she would crash hard later, but for now she suddenly was clear headed and feeling fine.

Bon Bon waited until Gentle Breezes finished her tea before saying. “With all the new ponies coming into town, and so many of them needing help at the Clinic, I going to have a lot more candy orders than usual. So I need to work in the kitchen and can’t go with you today. I hope you don’t mind but Lyra told me she’s free and will go with you.”

Gentle Breeze nodded, but then blushed in embarrassment, “Last night was a bit of blur to me. Do you remember if the nurse scheduled another treatment?”

Lyra pulled a tiny notepad out of mane and looked it over. “She did, we’re supposed to be back by mid afternoon for next session, but more importantly the Princess asked if we would visit her for lunch.”

Gentle Breeze blinked slowly to organize her slow thoughts. “Yes, she’s going to want me to tell her about the Cult. I hope I don’t disappoint her.”

“Why? You are going to tell her everything you know. Right? You’re not going to hold back secrets now? You don’t feel any loyalty to them anymore, do you?”

“What? Loyalty? I can only feel disgust at the Cult!” Gentle Breeze grumbled, then added more quietly, “and myself.”

Bon Bon reached out a hoof and gripped Gentle Breeze’s shoulder. “No don’t start blaming yourself, we've been told how powerful that brainwashing spell is. Even Princess Celestia was affected.”

“For ten years I did anything the Cult wanted me to do. I even delighted in it. I told myself they were my only family, when I had a real family back in Coltsdale, waiting for me. I was dead to them and they were dead to me, and all that time was stolen. I can’t get it back. I’ll never hold Banyan as a baby, I wasn't there when he spoke his first word, or performed his first spell.” Gentle Breeze started crying, but there was an angry glare behind her tears. “You know what I was doing? I was a fucking toy for a hundred different stallions and mares. A battery for their spells, and cunt for their cocks! And I enjoyed it! I told myself I was doing ‘good’ I was ‘helping’ ponies. I was a thing to be used and I relished at it!”

She put her head down on the kitchen table, and covered it with her hooves. That muffled the sound of her crying, but didn't keep tears from forming puddles on the glossy table surface.

For a long moment the two other ponies in the room looked at each other, then in silent agreement they moved forward and embraced the shaved former unicorn.

For a long while the three ponies were frozen in a silent embrace and less than silent tears. Slowly Gentle Breezes sobs quieted down.

Bon Bon was first to pull back, then more slowly Lyra, until the three were once again sitting around the kitchen table, almost as if nothing had happened.

Bon Bon spoke first, “Gentle Breeze, I can’t pretend to know what you’re going through, it be an insult if I even pretended to understand, and I want you to know that as long as you need it, you have a home here. Once we’ve had a chance to explain things to the Cake’s I’m sure you can also bring Banyan.”

Lyra smiled, “Yeah lucky kid! Choice of living at Equestria’s best bake shop or best candy store. Better get him signed up with the local hoofball team or he’ll be rolling rather than trotting around!”

Gentle Breeze was still processing what Bon Bon had said and stared blankly at Lyra, then a with her face still wet with tears, she embraced both ponies in repeated short hugs, unable to put in words how grateful she was. She had played the role of ‘Oracle’ for the Cult, indulging in drug and magic induced prophetic visions, but never before was she so certain of the future, even if it would take every drop of her willpower to rebuild her ties to her lost family.

They talked some more over breakfast, but it didn't feel real to Gentle Breeze until Lyra shrugged on a saddlebag (with Bon Bon’s cutie mark on it) and motioned for the former Cult pony to follow her out.

And walked right into a crowded street of mayhem and confusion.

Ponyville was alive with a lot more ponies than usual. Many of them guards but also crowds of civilian ponies. Most of them confused and wandering around asking for directions and instructions from any pony that would give them an ear.

As they walked along towards Sugarcube Corner, Lyra was repeatedly stopped by ponies asking for directions to the hospital, the town hall, as well as directions to both Carrot Top's and Sweet Apple Acres barns where a large number of ponies were being sent to camp. While confusing at first, Gentle Breeze and Lyra realized that a huge train, much larger than any that had stopped in Ponyville before, had arrived carrying hundreds of evacuating ponies.

“You’re lucky that you came on yesterday’s train.” Lyra told Gentle Breeze. “We would probably never have met if you came in this crowd.”

Gentle Breeze quietly agreed but soon a thought struck her making her lower her head in shame, “I hadn't realized the Cult was going to be this disruptive to the Canterlot ponies. I though a few guards and princesses might be upset, but there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of ponies here.”

Sensing her mood, Lyra told Gentle Breeze, “It’s going to be all right! All this means is Bon Bon’s going to sell a lot more candy than usual! “ Before Gentle Breeze could reply, Lyra added, “Besides we’re here! Let’s see go see Banyan!”

They had indeed arrived at Sugarcube Corner and Gentle Breeze followed Lyra though the door. But then, she froze. Standing half in and half out of the shop, she looked around uncertainty growing. “Maybe we should come back later, I’m sure the Cakes are busy with the breakfast crowd and we don’t want to bother them now.”

Before Lyra could reply, a different voice answered, “Oh it’s no bother deary! Carrot and I are used to the morning rush. Just go and find a table and I’ll be right with you to take your order.” It was Mrs Cake, who was holding two trays of dirty dishes and was backing away from some nearby tables she had just cleared.

Lyra head butted Gentle Breeze to get the mare moving. “Just sit here for a moment and I’ll talk to Mrs Cake, I’ll tell her what we learned about you and Banyan yesterday.”

“Oh Right! She only thinks we’re here for breakfast.” Gentle Breeze realized. So she let Lyra drop her off at an empty table towards the back of the store, and watched the green unicorn walk over to the counter where Mrs Cake was now sorting a tray of donuts.

Gentle Breeze waited until Lyra and Mrs Cake were talking quietly before lifting her eyes from the table in front of her. Then with great nervousness she started to scan around the room, looking for the young colt she had spent time playing with yesterday.

At first she didn't see Banyan, until Gentle Breeze realized he was in a booth across the bakery, near the side windows. He wasn't alone though, three fillies about his age were with him.

Gentle Breeze paused, she wasn't sure what to do. She had partly expected the Cake’s two foals, but they being so young wouldn't have stopped her from explaining things to Banyan, but these were older fillies, they would ask questions. Questions that were going to be hard enough to hear from Banyan. Gentle Breeze started to shake.

For several moments, she stood at the halfway point, shaking so hard that it was making the floorboards squeak. She could not move, to take a step forward towards Banyan was to face his rightful scorn. She could hear it in her head, the questions she dared not ask herself. ‘Why did you leave me?’ ‘So what if they lied to you, couldn't you tell it was a lie?’, ‘How could you come back now?’ and the worst was one she barely allow herself to form even in the nightmare parts of her mind, ‘Is my father in the hospital because of YOU?!’

“Nooo!” she gasped and started to turn, to run.

Before she could take even a step towards the door, a familiar friendly voice stopped her “Hi there Mrs!”

It was Banyan, calling out to her. Gentle Breeze turned to him, her eyes a little wild and her breathing starting to get heavy.

Banyan seemed taken aback by something in her expression, but he continued his already formed question at a slightly less enthusiastic volume. “Can you show my friends your trick with the paper cutting?”

One of the fillies, a young earth pony with an over sized ribbon in her mane asked in an accented voice. “Please mam! Banyan here was telling us all about your paper leaves, and Sweetie here thinks that we might be able to get cutie marks in Oraga-ah-game I amy, ehh paper cutting?”

The white filly unicorn corrected the earth pony. “Apple Bloom it’s Origami!” Then directing her attention to Gentle Breeze, she said “Please miss we really want to try it!”

The orange pegasus filly mumbled “It’s not like we haven’t tried everything else.”
Then as if on queue, all three fillies turned to Gentle Breeze, gave her absolutely huge and quite disturbingly cute puppy dog eyes as they all three said “PLEASE!”

Gentle Breeze found it hard to look away but they managed to for a second and glanced at Banyan who gave her a shrug before facehoofing in annoyance at the girls.

‘I’ll find a time to talk to Banyan later, after I uhh distract these three fillies for a little while.’ Gentle Breeze thought to herself, and gave all four youngsters a soft nod in agreement.

The three fillies yelled ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders paper cutters! Yay!” while Banyan covered his face in embarrassment.

With some relief that she could put off a few minutes her talk with Banyan, Gentle Breeze sat down with the four children and pulled some of the loose paper they had over to herself. She started making folds.

Banyan had already started showing the fillies some of the tricks Gentle Breeze had taught him the previous day, so she quickly walked them through the basic folds and cuts. As she had noticed previously, Banyan had a bit of knack for the art, but the three fillies were a mixed bag. The one with the best control was the earth pony Apple Bloom with just a bit of practice she was making some quite passable flowers and paper birds. Not that she was likely to get a cutie mark from this, it was her skill with hoofwork and following directions rather than a special talent in the craft that was aiding her.

The Pegasus Scootaloo was just rushing too much and kept ripping the paper, but she didn't seem to mind when Banyan told her that her paper flowers looked more like spider egg sacs than plants. Instead she said, “It’s cooler this way!”

Gentle Breeze really didn’t know what to make of the little filly unicorns, Sweetie Bell's efforts. She used her magic to cut her folds and somehow it messed up the paper. She would try to make a simple butterfly cutout, and when she unfolded it, it would be a detailed paper cutting of Ginger Washshoe crossing the Delamare River. Followed by a frustrated cry of “Oh Come on!”

Looking over at the counter where Lyra and Mrs Cake stood, Gentle Breeze saw that the older baker was just not letting Lyra get much of word in and the mint green unicorn was looking frustrated with the small talk. They had been working on their projects for half an hour or so, Gentle Breeze saw that the three fillies were concentrating on their work deeply enough that she considered a whispered conversation with Banyan.

“Banyan.” She whispered while keeping an eye on the girls to make sure they didn't look up. “I have something important I need to talk to you about. Do you think we can perhaps go to the other side of the room for a few minutes?”

Banyan looked up curiously but nodded. “Sure.” and they two slipped away from the window booth, leaving the three fillies to work on their projects. When they were far enough away for some privacy, Gentle Breeze whispered to Banyan, “Last night, after I left Sugarcube Corner, I went to the hospital to see your father.”

“My father!? You know my father? What’s he doing in the hospital?” Banyan suddenly looked scared.

Gentle Breeze was surprised no one had told Banyan where his father was. “Sorry! I didn’t know you didn’t know. Please don’t worry, your father’s not badly hurt.” Gentle Breeze felt a flash of discomfort saying that, it was only true in the sense he wasn’t hurting physically, yet, she continued, trying to comfort the child, perhaps with a lie. “He’s getting the best treatment, he’s even in a room, right near the Princess, and you know the Doctors won’t let anything bad happen to a pony next to the Princess.” She tried to smile a the colt, hoping her face wouldn't break.

“Can I go see him?” Banyan asked still looking worried.

“Perhaps later, we can go together.” She said and Banyan looked a bit calmer.

“But we have to get permission from the doctors first.” She continued, “besides that wasn't all I wanted to talk to you about.”

“It wasn't?”

“Yes, remember I said Red Wood’s room is next to the Princesses?”

Banyan nodded, though not understanding why that was important.

“Well I saw the Princess last night and we talked for a while.”

“You did! You spoke to the Princess? Wait which Princess was it? I know Princess Twilight, she even comes to my house sometimes and makes breakfast, but I've only seen Princess Celestia and Luna a few times. Why is a Princess in the Hospital?”

Gentle Breeze smiled at this, her son, friends with royalty, but the thought of Princess Twilight making her husband and son breakfast gave her a momentary pang of pain, or was the jealously? “It was Princess Celestia, she’s was not feeling too well before but she’s getting much better.”

“Oh good!” he seemed cheered up by that.

“Well me and Princess Celestia were talking about, well you.”

“About me? It’s not about my homework is it?” I wasn't able to get my school books from my locker at PCU when Mrs Fluttershy told me I had to stay with her for a few day.”

“You go to PCU? At your age!” Gentle Breeze gasped in amazement, she hadn't realized that Banyan went to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. “No no it nothing to do with homework. but wow I’m so proud of you!”

“Huh?” Banyan asked in confusion.

Just then before Gentle Breeze could say anything more, two mares walked into the store.

The first to step in was a pink earth mare that was bouncing like a rubber ball. Her puffy mane and tail like so much cotton candy, and she was saying in a loud sing song voice ‘...and I going to throw so many parties that Canterlot will run out of cake!’

Following a step behind her and moving much more quietly was a pink maned yellow Pegasus pony. “That sounds very….nice” she said in a low soft voice, that managed to carry as far as Gentle Breeze’s ears by barest of luck.

Gentle Breeze didn't recognize either of the two mares, but everypony in the room seemed to know them, waving them hello. Gentle Breeze for her part shrugged and turned to continue talking to Banyan, only to suddenly find the Pink pony had somehow jumped from the door entrance to being right in front of her face without bothering with trotting between the two points.

“Oh Wow! Another new Pony!” the pink mare nearly screamed in Gentle Breezes face. “The whole town is just full of new ponies! But WOW! You’re really new and different! I've never seen a pony shave her mane like your’s! Did you do that to keep the flys off? Wait, no, that makes no sense. Ponies use their tails to keep the flies off, and you shaved your tail too! Do that mean flies leave you alone? Perhaps you made a deal with the flies? I bet you shaved off your tail so you can’t swipe the files and they promised to leave you alone? Oh boy Oh Boy Oh Boy! Ha! Fluttershy this pony must be as kind to animals as you are! She won’t even swat a fly!”

Gentle Breeze was left speechless, unable to respond to the wild pink pony. Before she could get her head around the random banter, the yellow pegasus had walked over. Looking nervous she was half hiding behind her mane when she replied in a very quiet whisper of a voice. “Oh my! That’s very kind of you, I always feel so bad when I accidentally swipe a cute insect, but sometimes I can’t help it, especially after they bite or sting me. Sometimes I even have to nurse them back to health, and its really really difficult to get bandages the right size for worms and beetles.”

Gentle Breeze had already given up trying to understand the Pink one, now found herself staring at the yellow pony in nearly equal confusion.

Before she could get herself back in mental gear to reply to either newcomer, Banyan spoke first. “Oh Hi Fluttershy, Pinkie! This here is Gentle Breeze, she’s really good at making paper flowers and stuff! She’s been showing us how!”

“That really very nice of her” Fluttershy spoke to Banyon with hardly any of the shyness she had shown Gentle Breeze. “But I’m afraid now that I’m back, I have to take you back to my cottage. I really shouldn't have imposed on the Cakes, but we were needed in Canterlot on such short notice!”

“Oh it was fine dearies, Carrot and I loved watching the little stallion and he was very good with the foals.” Mrs Cake had walked over in time to hear the tail end of Fluttershy’s speech. A few steps behind her was Lyra looking back and forth a bit frustrated.

While Mrs Cake was talking, Fluttershy had bent down and given Banyan a nuzzle, while telling him to get his things.

Gentle Breeze felt a flash of jealousy seeing Fluttershy, a stranger, a stranger who had LEFT her son alone with the Cakes, getting a nuzzle from her son, and she had never, not even once gotten one from him.

“ No!” She said, at first as a whisper, then she repeated it louder. “NO!”

“What?” Fluttershy flinched at the sudden noise. “What’s wrong!”

“You left him!” Gentle Breeze seethed in an angry but quiet voice.

“I’m sorry” Fluttershy bent low, as if she was being yelled at.

Pinkie got between Gentle Breeze and Fluttershy, “What’s the problem?” She asked confused.

“She doesn't deserve Banyan! She left him alone! He was so sad and bored and lonely! Why! Why would anyone leave him!” Gentle Breeze cried, hot tears blurring her vision as she pointed accusingly at Fluttershy.

Banyan who had been walking towards the kitchen stairs to get his few possessions, turned to look back in confusion. Along with just about all the other ponies in the room, they looked at Gentle Breeze not understanding why the former unicorn was getting so upset.

Fluttershy was now on the ground trembling, her hooves over her head, she whispered “I’m sorry, but the Princess said it was important!”

Mrs Cake also chimed in a bit cross, “Little Banyan was in no trouble and perfectly safe here, don’t you know!”

“But...No!....It’s not fair! Don’t take him away again! Not again!” Gentle Breeze was now a full blown wreck.

Lyra had finally put the pieces together and moved in to comfort Gentle Breeze. She quietly told her, “Please Gentle Breeze, calm down, they can’t understand, I wasn't able to explain everything Mr Cake, and the others know even less.”

At the point Pinkie was starting to get angry herself. “I love to see ponies smile! And you’re not smiling! You’re doing the opposite of smiling, you’re making my friends upset and all sad! I can’t let you do that! So you better start talking buster!” Getting down on the floor in front of Gentle Breeze, Pinkie made a mock angry face and went “Grrrr! You start cheering up or I’ll have to take drastic action!” She then pulled a cream pie from out of her mane and held it in a threatening pose.

Gentle Breeze didn’t care a fig about what Pinkie was talking about, instead she pointed a hoof at Banyan, seemed to shrink down when he noticed her pointing. “Don’t take him away, he can’t go with you!”

Mrs Cake shook her head and stepped between Gentle Breeze and Banyan, while Fluttershy got on her belly and quickly crawled protectively towards the colt. Gentle Breeze tried to look around Mrs Cake to keep Banyan in her sight, but the earth pony baker was having no more of it. “Dearie, your friend Lyra started telling me some story about you and Banyan, but I don’t care.” She reached up with a hoof and pulled Gentle Breeze’s muzzle, forcing the former cult member to stare into Mrs Cakes eyes. “I’ve known Fluttershy for years and she is the most caring and trustworthy pony in all of ponyville! Also don’t you know, that Princess Twilight Sparkle herself gave instructions for Fluttershy to watch the child. You have no right to deny her!”

“No right!” Gentle Breeze roared, “No right!”

Gentle Breeze was so angry and upset that her next words came out with such force that the windows rattled and dust was loosened from the overhead wooden beams.

“I HAVE VERY RIGHT! HE”S MY SON!”

Lyra facehoofed, while every pony in the room looked at Gentle Breeze in shock. For a long moment nopony said anything until Fluttershy squeaked, “Oh dear!”

But Gentle Breezes eyes were locked on Banyan’s who was frozen in place. His eyes wide as dinner plates and every variation of shock and surprise washing over his features.

“That can’t be.” He whispered, “my mom’s dead.”

Author's Note

I'm not putting these out on a fixed schedule, but this one took longer than usual to get together. There a lot of emotional changes, and multiple main characters with distinctive catch phrases and speech styles to attempt to work in. I'm my original draft I was going to have Gentle Breeze attack Fluttershy and then spend another chapter or two trying to earn back trust. But while that could have been a legitimate plot development, it was also distracting from the main plot.
Still she DID yell at Fluttershy and there are some who think that along is an unforgivable sin.

Da da da Dummmm.

Talking through a nightmare.

Parker looked around helplessly in the dark.

The illusion that passed for light inside the virtual chamber that he had called 'home' for several months now, was failing. He could still feel the walls, if he bothered to reach out to touch them. That was a small comfort, as it meant he still maintained a sense of having a body separate from the physical one he and Red Wood shared. But he knew now that even that illusion was going to fail, and soon. Then nothing would separate him and Red Wood, and for all practical purposes, both of them would die. Their Id's lost in a storm mixed memories. Something new would probably come out of it, but it wouldn't be either Red Wood or Parker, and Parker doubted it would be sane.

Just because the light had failed, didn't mean he couldn't see. If he was 'close' enough, he could see individual objects, like the display mirror and the log book, but the spaces around them remained pitch black. Worse, the thinning of the walls between Parker and Red Wood was letting Red Wood's nightmares slip in. The nightmares were Red Wood's. Currently Parker's only sense of this vision was through foggy view of a young Red Wood being chased through an endless forest by faceless flying ponies. It was a common theme of many of the nightmares, being chased and unable to escape. Parker who unlike Red Wood had grown up with a childhood full of splash horror movies and thrillers, found it tedious and monotone.

For a while he had managed to separate himself from Red Wood's fear by trying to crack jokes and laugh at the unimaginative cheap horror tricks the Cult's Curse was using to torture Red Wood, but his jokes were only heard by himself, and provided no relief to Red Wood. The barrier between him and Red Wood was still too thick for meaningful communications and less jaded native unicorn had next to no protection from the unending bad horror images, like an unending monster movie matinée.

Elevated adrenaline and hormones were wearing Red Wood down.The consequences were starting to add up. Even so detached Parker could tell that their shared body was sicking. Yet he still had no way to reach either Red Wood or the outside world, and could only watch the shadowy nightmares.

Periodically what passed as Parker's eyes would flick over to the where the 'magic' mirror still stood in the darkness. The dull red of inside of Red Wood's closed eyelids would be all he could see. Sound was also a problem, Whatever way the sound system in his simulated space was tied to Red Wood's audio nerves, it was being affected by the nightmares. Parker was pretty sure there were nurses and doctors trying to talk to Red Wood's body 'out there' somewhere, but when he tried to listen in, their voices would be mixed into the nightmares as roaring thunder or crashing rock slides. Only his limited detachment from the dreams allowed Parker to realized these were the voices of ponies talking, but Red Wood clearly had no clue and it was impossible to glean meaning out of the noise.

Perhaps worse, sometimes he would sense something touching or shaking them as a shadow of feeling. Parker had a pretty good idea that it was probably comforting touches or hugs from Red Wood's family or friends. Though the dim images of Red Wood's dreams, Parker could tell that the curse was twisting these gentle touches to horrific clawing and strangling. One particular hug that Parker was pretty certain was from Banyan, was interpreted by Red Wood's nightmare as a giant horned bear, strangling him in the dark forest. The curse released the dream bears grip only when Red Wood's cries of terror were reaching such an extreme peak, that Parker suspected he was in danger of waking himself up. The Curse must not have wanted to risk that, so it faded away the bear and replaced it with an only slightly less scary fallen tree crushing his body.

"It's been hours at least, if not days. If only Red Wood would fall into a real sleep, then we might be able to switch places. It would let me give him a break for a while." Parker thought to himself as he noticed with mild interest that the chasing Pegasi had been swapped out for timberwolves. "Oh make that badly animated and flaming timberwolves." Parker shook his head sadly, "What next sharks with lasers strapped to their heads?" Unable to tell Red Wood how ridiculous his fears appeared, Parker could only shake his imaginary head.

Closing his eyes to the B rated horror images, Parker sat on the floor and concentrated on the background noises, trying to make sense of rumbling noises. "Sounds like the words are stretched out, like a recording played too slowly." He thought to himself.

Then with a sudden insight, "too slowly? Or perhaps I'm listening too fast? Right! Red Wood is stuck in 'dream time' and that subjectively faster than real time. No wonder I can't make out what anyone is saying." Parker stood up and felt around in the dark for the 'log book' the Doctor had left him. He had managed to figure out the books simple word processor's macro language, along with the raw technical documents the Doctor had left, had given him some limited control of the simulated environment. Up to now, he had mostly used it to add furniture and simple amusements like a deck of cards to the simulation. But there were other more complex things that should be possible. "There's a sound recorder macro. If I can find the playback api and speed it up...maybe I can use it to understand what the doctors are trying to tell us."

It took Parker just a few minutes to slap together a simple program. Open a sound recorder, send the output to a FIFO file pipe and then when the buffer was full, use the memo playback app with the speed set to four X.

The sound was a crackly mess of noise, and he had to tweak the playback speed a bit to make out the words, but after a few tries, he heard a pony's voice for the first time in what felt like a week.

A crackly and too deep voice said, "Daddy Please wake up!"

Parker would have smiled at the success of his sound experiment, but the pure sadness in Banyan's voice told him how desperate the young colt was.

The quiet pleas from Banyan continued for a long while, Parker felt his heart breaking for the little lost colt, but what could he do? He wasn't the one in control. Parker leaned against the mirror trying to make out shadows though Red Wood's closed eyelids. Leaning over in annoyance, he banged his head against the display's hard surface.

"Ow!" oh that hurt! He had hit the display harder than he had expected in the dark.

When Parker did that, a female voice sounded out. It was no pony he could put a name to. The sort of background pony voice that he had heard a thousand times before with no association with a particular pony or place. "Banyan, that's enough for now, he seems to be in pain, perhaps we should let him rest."

Banyan's voice seemed to come from a greater distance now, and Parker could hear him say, "Sorry Lyra, I'm just trying to wake him up."

Suddenly there was the sounds of gentile music, some sort of soft harp music was playing. The female voice replied, "Waking him up is a good idea, but gently, gently. We don't want to cause your daddy pain like that."

"Lyra? A harp? Harpstrings? That's a major background pony! " Parker thought to himself. "I never met her and she didn't have many speaking parts in the show but that must be her. I wonder if she's anything like the fandom stories? Not that it would mean much, there were so many different stories. Wonder what she would say if I told her I was human?" Parker's avatar rolled its eyes. "Not that I can say anything. At least until Red Wood falls asleep, if he ever does again."

Parker sat next to the mirror listening to the gentle music for a while when suddenly something odd struck him. "Lyra had suddenly stopped Banyan saying Red Wood was in pain. Why? She had let the boy cry for a long while before that, what changed?"

Parker took a second to realized, "I banged my head! Is Red Wood's body is reacting to my virtual pain? Can I use that?"

Gritting his teeth, Parker purposely banged his head again, and listened for a reaction.

A shadow passed over the closed eyelids and Parker could tell there was movement nearby. A back and forth movement, some pony was stroking Red Wood's head. Then a new voice hushed "Please darling it will be alright."

Parker knew this voice, though he had only heard it for the first time a few days ago. He wasn't sure what he himself thought of this voice, but a calming feeling flooded over Red Wood's body in reaction to it. It was Gentle Breeze and even in madness, some parts of Red Wood were able to react to her presence.

Parker banged his head again. This time he even felt a little of the feedback as Red Wood's body jerked.

Lyra spoke in reaction first. "He's having convulsions! I'll get a nurse!"

There was several minutes of hushed whispers around him, but Parker wasn't sure what to do now. All his efforts weren't helping much, all he seemed to be able to do was scare them.

He heard a nurse come in and talk, followed soon after by a doctor and a few confusing words from what sounded like Twilight.

Parker thought to himself, "Twilight! She's here. But how can I communicate with her? They just think Red Wood is having a fit."

Outside of Red Wood's head and in the hospital room, Twilight had joined them a few minutes after Gentle Breeze and was shocked to see Red Wood shaking in his bed.

"What's happening, she asked the floor doctor."

He replied, "I'm not sure, I didn't think he was so far gone to start having convulsions yet."

Gentle Breeze gasped as the word 'yet' and several ponies eyes turned to look at Banyan who stood to the side, his eyes open and shaking in fear.

Twilight reacted first, "Lyra! Please take Banyan to the waiting room. Reassure him we'll do everything we can for his father! But this is no place now for a young colt!"

Nodding Lyra led a speechless Banyan away, he followed without protest until he got to the door frame, there he clung to the door for a full minute until Lyra could coax him away and down the hall.

The doctor and nurses continued to take vitals but didn't seem certain what to do. "I don't see any cause for these shakes and I don't want to give him a muscle relaxant in his state." the doctor mumbled.

Twilight didn't approach the bed, but stood a short distance away, looking worried but also doing something a bit odd. She was counting. Every time Red Wood's body would spasm she would start over, as if counting the seconds between attacks.

One of the nurses noticed this and shook her head. "He's not pregnant! You don't have to count contractions!"

Twilight shook her head, "No! that's not what...."

Before Twilight could explain herself further, all eyes in the room where drawn to a new face that entered through the door.

"Princess Celestia!" all the ponies gasped in surprise. The doctor adding, "Your not supposed to be out of bed yet!"

The Princess looked very glum but with a shake of her mane, she looked sadly at the frail pony in the hospital bed. She didn't look long, just enough to see one of the spasms wrack his body.
"Princess Twilight!" Celesta intoned with a commanding voice. "I fear we are nearly out of time. As skilful as these doctors and nurses are, I judge that Red Wood has passed the point of possible recovery."

"No! Princess Celestia!" Twilight started to object, while Gentle Breeze stood stricken silent.

"I have more experience with this than anypony else." Celestia talked over Twilights cry. "My judgement in this is not up to debate. The Alien Parker has too much valuable knowledge that is directly related to the current crisis. We need that knowledge before their shared body expires.The Brain Block spell must be performed before Red Wood dies."

Gentle Breeze who up to now was just listening in shock, completely collapsed to the floor in grief . "I thought I had more time" she mumbled as one of the remaining nurses kneeled down to comfort her.

While Twilight was silent in the face of Celestia's certainly, one of the doctors replied with a shaking voice. "A Brain Block spell? that's a compulsive truth spell! That only used on criminals! And only if there lives at stake! In his state, there no way he could survive that! Please Princess he's not yet so far gone! We still might be able to save him!"

Hearing the doctor confirming her own thoughts, Twilight tried again to protest. "Princess Celestia! Please remember, even when he was only partly free of the Cults spell, he managed to rally and save lives! All those students in your school! They would have died if he hadn't gone to help them, moments after his first treatment! We have to give him a chance!"

Celestia closed her eyes and sighed, "Twilight I know you considered him a friend, I too spent many hours talking with both of them. But Equestria in danger, this has to be done."

Before Twilight could object again, Celesta put up her hoof. "I will not ask you to perform this spell, that would be cruel and my own strength has not recovered sufficiently to risk casting it myself."

Twilight sighed in relief, "Then no one can cast it, it's takes Alicorn level magic to cast it."

"You are forgetting my sister, Princess Luna is also here in Ponyville." Celestia replied.

Twilight looked around, expecting Luna to show up at the mention of her name. Celesta followed her gaze and replied to the unasked question, "No she is not here right now. Daytime is not her best hours, and she was already exhausted from the events in Canterlot. I sent her to bed just a few minutes ago."

Celestia turned her gaze from Twilight to Gentle Breeze, "Dear Gentle Breeze, my heart goes out to you, this is a terrible situation for all. I wished to leave you with hope, and now I have been forced to smash it. I apologize, yet you still have some hours now until Luna awakens. Please stay here and comfort Red Wood as best you may."

Lastly as Celestia turned to leave she told the Doctors, "I will return to my room. Please do what you can for Red Wood, I fear it is too late. It will take a miracle to save him, but miracles sometimes do occur. Keep me informed of any change in Red Wood's health."

"But...!" Twilight mumbled in whisper as Celestia left the room. Then dejected she lowered her head to the floor and quietly sobbed, echoing Gentle Breeze. "She didn't even let me ...."

For a while they sat next to each other quietly. The doctors and nurses, not finding anything they could do, left the room quietly.

Twilight let her mind drift as she watched Red Wood's body continue to shudder, it felt wrong in ways she was having trouble articulating, even to herself. She continued to count the seconds between shudders, saying the counts quietly as if they meant something.

After a while of this Gentle Breeze noticed Twilights counting and asked with only mild interest, "Why do you keep counting like that?"

Twilight replied, "I think, there's a pattern. Several short pauses then several long ones. All to the same count. It is like he's doing it purposely. I don't think what we're seeing are pain spasms at all. I was trying to tell Princess Celestia but she wouldn't listen."

Gentle Breeze cried "What!" Then ran to Red Wood's side. "Red Wood! Red Wood! Are you doing this? Can you hear me?!"

Twilight followed Gentle Breeze to Red Wood's bedside. "Wait Gentle Breeze, we have to handle this logically. I need a quill and paper! Spike! oh! Wait, he's in the castle."

Confused but understanding the call for paper, Gentle Breeze opened the side table next to the bed and found some old medical logs. The pages were blank on the back, and there was a stubby pencil as well. "Here Princess!" She said, handing them over.

Brightening up with the paper in her magic, Twilight smiled and announced, "Check List! "
She speaking as she wrote, she outlined her plan.

[ ] Establish that Red Wood is not in real pain, but is trying to communicate with us.

[ ] Find out if he can understand us and establish two way communications.

[ ] Get Red Wood to wake up.

[ ] Prove he's not dieing, so Princess Celestia won't kill him for Parker's knowledge!

[ ] Stop the Cult from ever doing this to any pony again.

Gentle Breeze asked "How can we do any of that!"

With a smile Twilight turned to Red Wood and asked, "Red Wood, or Parker, which ever pony can hear me. Shudder once for yes, and twice for no. Are you in pain?"

Red Wood's body shuddered twice, then stopped moving.

Twilight giggled in excitement! "Great! I can check off two items on our list at once!"

While Twilight happily fiddled with her checklist, Gentle Breeze rushed forward again and cried "Darling! You can hear me?"

One Shudder.

"You need to wake up!" Gentle Breeze cried, "If you don't wake up soon...." she let her voice trail off, then turned to Twilight, "Please Princess Twilight, tell Princess Celestia he's awake! Tell her to no let Luna cast that other spell!"

In agreement Red Wood gave off another single shudder.

Twilight nodded "Of course I will." But then she looked worriedly towards the door. "I'm not sure that will be enough. Princess Celestia seemed awfully determined. She's still fighting off some of the curse effects. I'm not sure she's going to listen to me."

Twilight then turned one of the blank pieces of paper over and started to write block letters and numbers on the edge of a large circle while saying, "We'll talk to Luna when she wake up, right now we need to establish better communication than just yes and now questions."

Once she had the diagram finished Twilight held it up in the air in front of Red Wood and asked, "Can you see this?"

Two Shudders.

"No? Why? Oh! Your eyes are closed. Can you open them?"

Two Shudders.

Twilight looked disappointed, "Well let me try this." With a gentle glow of her magic, she lifted one eyelid? "Does this hurt?"

Two Shudders.

"Can you see me now?"

One Shudder.

Twilight then 'blinked' the eye by opening and closing the eyelid rapidly. "Have to remember to do that every few seconds of your eyes will dry up. Give me three quick shudders if your eyes start to feel dry."

One Shudder.

Twilight happily clopped her hooves together. "OK now when I have this paper held up like this, you're going to use your shudders to help me spell out words." She demonstrated by moving the pencil around the drawn circle. Shudder once I'm near the letter you want next, then shudder again when I'm pointing at the exact letter to confirm!"

Twilight then sat next to the bed and started asking questions. "FIrst question, are you Red Wood or Parker?"

P - A - R

Gentle Breeze interrupted, "Parker!? No! Where's my Red Wood!"

Twilight tried to calm her down. "We'll get to the bottom of this! Don't worry!"

A - S - L - P

"Aslp?" Twilight frowned at the misspelled word, "Oh Asleep! Wait, if Red Wood's asleep, then you should be able to take control right? Why can't you open your eyes?"

N - G -T - M - A - R - - - N - T - - - T - R - U - - - S - L - E - E

"Some sort of nightmare? Not True Sleep?"

One Shudder.

Gentle Breeze asked, "I've heard stories of Princess Luna helping foals with nightmares. Maybe she can help?"

Twilight looked thoughtful but Parker made Red Wood's body spasm several times in disagreement. She held the paper up again to let him explain.

T - O - - - D - A - N - G - R - S - - - T - R - A - P - - - L - K - - - B - E - 4

Twilight nodded, "Too dangerous, right Princess Luna once got into their head with a dream walk spell, and ended up getting trapped for a day in their body. It was a bit funny, but this is not the time to risk Luna trapped in a stallion's body. Celestia still can't take over the moon again like last time."

Gentle Breeze blinked at Twilight in confusion, "Not only is my husband's body hosting an alien, Princess Luna has been trapped in there as well!" She looked down at Red Wood, "This can't be real!"

"We got her out the following day." Twilight explained.

Twilight returned to asking Parker more questions and slowly, tediously they managed to get a picture of what was going on in Red Wood's head. It took over two hours just to have a 'short' conversation.

One Shake.

"You, Parker, are in the magic waiting room able to see and hear everything going on but have very little control of his body. Red Wood is stuck in a waking nightmare and is being kept from hearing or seeing the outside world by the curse incorporating any thing he hears or feels into the illusion as noise or something scary. Waking him up will require getting past that part of the Curses defences, somehow."

Gentle Breeze interrupted, "Do you think the crystal treatment might help? We can't let my Red Wood keep suffering!"

Twilight shook her head, "No they already tried that, the curse it not trying to reach out for more power now, it working internally. Much harder to starve it out. Somehow we have to overwhelm it or out think it."

Twilight then turned back to her list and read, "Continuing Parker, the main reason Princess Celestia feels she needs to use the memory spell is because you have knowledge about the curse that may be useful." She paused to look at Red Wood's body to see if he shuddered in disagreement, "And you agree with her?"

One Shudder.

Twilight sighed this would have been easier if she been able to show Celestia that Parker didn't know anything and wasn't worth the risk. "OK you say you know something about how the curse is deployed and you think you have some ideas on how to fight it?"

One Shudder.

"Perhaps you can explain it to me with this alphabet chart?"

Two Shudders.

"No? You need to explain why not?" Twilight held up the paper again.

N - E - D - - - D - R - A - W - - - C - H - R - T - S - - - 2 - - - C - O - M - P - L - C - A - T -D - - - U - - - N - E - E - D - - - 2 - - - S - T - O - P - - - C - U - L - T - - - F - A - S - T - R - - - T - H - A - N - - - C - A -N - - - E - X - P - L - A -N - - - T - H - S - - - W - A - Y

Twilight looked down at her papers and sighed, "You know answering like that is basically volunteering to have Princess Luna do the Brain Block Spell on you."

One Shudder.

Gentle Breeze stepped closer and put her head on Red Wood's chest. "Parker Please! That spell is terrible, only the maddest criminals are subject to it. It might, no not might, probably will kill both you and my husband!"

One Shudder.

Hide and Seek

Red Wood's body had shaken once. There was no question it was not deliberate or due to possible confusion, they had spelled it out clearly, and he had said 'yes'.

Gentle Breeze was speechless, the question had been asked, and he had asked for death. There was some confusion in her mind of barrier between 'Parker' and 'Red Wood.' But she knew that whatever voice was talking, the spirit was the same. There was no doubt in her mind that Red Wood shared Parker's beliefs, that death was preferable to the alternative letting the Cult win another battle. The knowledge of how the Cults magic worked was just too critical to let slip away.

She slumped to the floor next to the hospital bed and shivered quietly. She also had reason to hate the Cult, but to give up the husband she had just re-discovered? For several heroic seconds she fought her emotions, he was being heroic, she should support him, but it was a hopeless battle. One she quickly lost, Gentle Breeze sobs and cries were soon echoing throughout the room.

Princess Twilight Sparkle, held her own emotions in check somewhat longer. Her analytical mind was thinking over the situation and the numbers were not adding up.

"Parker" She said, "I know you're feeling helpless and trapped in there, but this spell is not going to be some sort of easy escape. There's a reason this spell is called a 'brain block'' it's only used when the most evil criminals are withholding critical information that will cost lives.

"The last time Celestia used it was over three hundred years ago. The Baked Beans Bomber was a mad pony who had already killed several stallions, and had kidnapped the entire student body of a elementary school. He was holding them as hostages in some hidden cave rigged with explosive spell crystals. Even after being captured alive he refused to tell where the cave was and said if Princess Celestia didn't free him and pay the ransom, they would all die. He wasn't kidding and neither was Celestia. She used the spell on him, all his memories and knowledge was drained from his mind and into library crystals. They saved the students, and by chance the mad pony survived the spell. But there wasn't much left of him to really call it survival. His mind was blanked, he lost any sense of self, and had to be taught again like a baby how to walk and talk."

Twilight looked down at a page of notes. "Because we have a record of Baked Beans' mind, it been studied as an example of dangerous insanity by medical ponies ever since. Most ponies who know about the case, even think it as a successful example, the mad pony was raised a second time by skillful caretakers and lived out his life peacefully, even finding work as a shop clerk years later. A fine example of a successful intervention....I wonder if Celestia thinks that as well.." Twilight let her voice trail off quietly in thought for a moment.

Then with more determination, Twilight added, "But NO! Unlike most others I've studied the details of that spell. I wasn't honest with Celestia before when I said I needed to research it. I did so already, back a few years ago when I was considering how to use spells to reform Discard, I read over the Brain Block but rejected it. This spell kills, even if the body survives, the mind dies. What ever personality that eventually takes up residence is not the same pony. Even the cutie marks changes. I will not murder a friend to gain even a major advantage in a war. If Princess Celestia was truly in her right mind, she wouldn't even consider this." Twilight said the last of this with dark determination.

"Why do you think Princess Celestia not in her 'right mind'?" Gentle Breeze asked.

Twilight paused, she HAD said that out loud. She paused in her speech and fell to her rump, stunned by her own revelation. "I never doubted Celestia before. Not even when I knew she was wrong, I always assumed she had a hidden reason and bigger plan. Something changed."

Twilight rose back to her hooves and walked over to the window to look outside asking out loud "She's fought Equestrian's enemies before, but has she ever have to kill any ponies in battle?"

Gentle Breeze shook her head not knowing. "There's all sort of stories of her saving equestria against its enemies. Wars with the Gryphons, Changelings?"

Twilight shook her head, "Not ponies, at least not since King Sombra, who she trapped and did not kill. Maybe a hoof ful of times she's had to judge evil ponies and sentence them to life in prison or even less frequently to the gallows. But even then it was all formal, legal, detached."

Gentle Breeze scratched her head. "From what I've ever heard she was alway so cool headed, kind, and protective. But now she's so afraid of the Cult that she's willing to kill a good pony to gain an advantage over the Cult?"

I think she's not really afraid of the Cult, she's afraid of herself. Celestia never fights unless it's a last resort. She has others do the fighting. I've had to fight and even kill enemies of ponykind more frequently in the last few years, than Celestia faced in a thousand." Twilight said this as if it was a revelation to herself. "Those castle guards, some of which she considered friends, they were the first time in centuries, perhaps ever, that Celestia had to take lives in fear and anger."

Gentle Breeze looked over at Red Wood's body, wrapped in blankets and perforated with wires and tubes, the full revelation coming to her now. "She hates the Cult so much now, because they made her kill in self defense. She hates them enough to risk Red Wood's life."

Twilight nodded, her conflicting emotions morphing over her face in waves.

Gentle Breeze looked up at Twilight, "Then what can we do, Princess Celestia said Princess Luna will cast the spell when she awakens tonight."

"Then Red Wood and Parker can't be here when Luna wakes."

"How, we can't carry him with all this medical equipment." Gentle Breeze pointed to the hoses and tubes that were keeping Red Wood's body alive in it's catatonic state.

Twilight shook her head with a half smile, "No the problem is not the How, it's Where. I can easily teleport him out, but if I bring him to my Castle, Celestia or Luna will find us before we could possible make additional plans."

"How far can we take him?" Asked Gentle Breeze.

"Not too far, I can't bring him all the way to Canterlot." Twilight suddenly got a spark in her eye as she realized "I have an idea, but first we must draw up a plan."

"A plan?" Gentle Breeze looked confused.

"Yes! I need a pen and paper because I'm going to make A CHECKLIST!" Twilight announced brightly.

Gentle Breeze felt the need suddenly to back away nervously.

"This is what I need you to do first...."

About four hours later, Princess Celestia was talking to a sleepy eyed Princess Luna as they slowly strolled from her private room towards Red Wood's. "..I understand your reluctance but you have to agree Luna, that without a complete understanding of this alien magic, we are severely handicapped again the Cult."

Luna nodded sleepily, "I understand in principle the issue my sister, but I dread the idea of doing harm to an innocent, particularly one who has already suffered at the hooves of the Cult."

"I will do everything in my power to make sure he survives the spell, there is more advanced medicine available than the last time it had to be cast. And afterwards, we'll do everything to make his rehabilitation as successful as possible."

Luna shuddered, "Even at best, the Parker and Red Wood we knew would be gone. Perhaps we would honor their memory better by granting them the calm of death. This is an evil spell my Sister and I am loath to cast it."

Celestia looked forward with a steely determination. "Harden your heart my sister. This is for the good of all of equestria. We can not allow the Cult to gain control of one of us....again."

At this point the two sisters had left the hallway and found themselves at the doorway to Red Wood's private room. The guards that Celestia had asked to be assigned, were not in sight. She asked herself out loud, "Where's Twilight? Where's Gentle Breeze?"

Stepping into the room and seeing an empty bed, "Where Red Wood!" Celestia called.

Luna acted first, turning back to the hallway, "Guard! Guards! Report to us at once!"

The two royal guards that had been down the hallways came running. "Your Majesties!"

Celestia gave the two guards a firm eye "Tell me my ponies! Where is Princess Twilight and the patient that was in this room?"

"The Princess? She was here just a short while ago." One of the guards stuttered, "but the patient was taken by some nurses to be x-rayed."

Celestia speculated, "X-rayed? But his condition was purely mental and magical, there was nothing wrong with him that would show up on an X-Ray." Celestia was a master of the controlled expression, and rarely let emotions mar her face, but with just a twitch of her eyebrow the guards felt as if she was dressing them down like a veteran drill sergeant. "Describe the nurses that took Red Wood." she asked.

Stuttering the guard said, "There were two of them an earth pony and a unicorn, the unicorn was mint green with a cyan main, the other had a beige coat and a blue and rose mane. I didn't see their cutie marks they were wearing nurses uniforms. Oh, there was one odd thing, the gurney wasn't one of hospital's normal ones. I think it was one of the carts the candy stripe ponies use to bring treats to the patients, just with a folding trundle bed laid on it. With so many new ponies in town for treatment, I figured they had just had to improvise."

Celestia nodded, "Bon Bon? hmmm perhaps I should say Agent Drops, and her marefriend Lyra!"

Celestia paused for only a few moments, then she narrowed her eyes into her angry face. One that had sent more than a few worldly and experienced diplomats racing for the nearest bathroom to keep from embarrassing themselves. "I should have kept a closer eye on Twilight!" she fretted. Then to the guards and her sister. "We have to find Red Wood! In some misguided foolishness, Twilight must have ordered the two fake nurses to hide him away."

A few questions to the hall nurses, the royal group soon realized they had just missed the escaping gurney and it was just left this hall via the central elevator. So they were going to have to search nearly every floor. Luna flew out the nearest window and went to guard the main entrances, while Celestia and her guards rode the elevator, looking for signs of the escaping unicorn or Twilight.

Celestia started from the highest floor and made the elevator operator stop at each going down. She and her guards would gallop out and many ponies looked out of their hospital rooms in shock seeing the Princess racing up and down the corridors.

On the third floor she spotted an odd looking pony, dressed in a costume that was half candy stripper and half nurse. She was just turning down a side hallway and seemed to be pushing something before being lost behind the corner. Celestia cantered to the side hallway but it was an empty dead end, Then Celestia heard the sound of some party horns being blown behind one of the nearby doors, she quickly moved to open it, and got a facefull of confetti. Wiping the streamers off her face and out of her eyes, Celestia looked around and found the hall empty again except for a suspicious bouquet of 'get well soon' balloons.

On the next floor, Celestia spotted a oddly boxy gurney, covered by a blanket in one of the side passage. There was no sign of Lyra or Bon Bon, but they were not far from a service stairway. Could the two mare friends try to carry the heavy unicorn stallion down those stairs by themselves? Celestia was dubious, even if Twilight had established some sort of communication with Parker, he wasn't able to walk and carrying him down the narrow stairs would have been noisy and difficult.

Turning her attention from the stairs, Celestia looked back at the gurney. Like the guard had said, it appeared to be a candy cart converted into a temporary gurney, it probably originally belonged to Bon Bon. Then to Celestia's surprise, she realized that the heavy blanket on the cart was far too lumpy. Had they abandoned Red Wood? Perhaps once they realized how hard it would be to escape?

Celestia moved closer to the gurney, while her guards stood on either side and pulled back the loose blanket.

Laying under the cloth was a gray coated wall eyed pegasus with a wild blond mane.

With a guilty smile, the pegasus handed Celestia a pastry and asked, "Muffin?"

Celestia cry of "TWILIGHT!" was heard as far away as the town's central fountain.

More than an hour earlier, Twilight had already teleported Red Wood's body out of the hospital and briefed Lyra on the need to lead Princess Celestia on a false train. Lyra had agreed and said she would recruit others to help.

Once Lyra mentioned that she would get advice from Pinkie Pie, Twilight had not doubt that Princess Celestia would be led on a merry chase far from where she was taking Red Wood. She hadn't taken Red Wood to her castle, or the homes of any of her five closest friends. Even the large open spaces of Sweet Apple Farms would not have been remote enough to hide for long. So she had chosen the home of another friend, one she was close too but who had much fewer interactions with Princess Celestia.

Thinking about this, Twilight took another sip of tea, her eyes glancing across the hut at the prone form of Red Wood's body in a rustic bed where Gentle Breeze was fussing over him and making sure he was comfortable. Sitting at the small table with her was Zecora, the local zebra shaman who over the years had been nearly as much a mentor to her as Celestia, but as far as Twilight could recall, the two had barely ever met, even though the zebra had earned frequent mention in many of Twilight's old 'Friendship Reports.'

Zecora said "Your story fills me with woe for the folk of ponyville.
I tried to investigate but guards rejected me with zeel.

I wish you had come to me with your strange notions.
though I do not know this magic specifics
My Zebra folk have much experience with potions.
Working together we may come up with a cure terrific."

Twilight nodded and pointed to the paper with the alphabet on it. "It took some time, but Parker told me that he thinks the Cult is misusing a medical technology of his world to re-create the effect of the original Cult spell."

She continued, "It seems his race can create very tiny machines that fix their brains by going inside there heads and manipulating things directly." Twilight laughed in amusement with the idea, "of course magic doesn't work like that, but it's amazing that this alien technology can duplicate the effects so closely."

Zecora looked serious for a long moment then walked over to her small bookshelf. Twilight watched as Zecora seemed to be searching for something, her hoof pausing on the cover of 'Supernaturals, natural remedies and cure-alls that are simply super' then reaching behind pulling out a very different looking book instead.

The book Zecora brings over to Twilight is clearly not of pony origin, but written in layers of bleached banana leaves and bound with wooden hoops, though it heavy wood bark cover. As the zebra brought it closer Twilight tried to read it, but saw it was written in a zebra dialect, one she not familiar enough to read on her own. "What's this Zecora."

The zebra answered,
"As we of the zebra clans lack horns to cast
we have seeked other ways for magic's grasp.
Some very wise elders more knowing than I
learned secrets never shared with pony eyes."

She opened the book to a page where there was strange picture. It was a strangely gray mottled picture, as it made from some sort of photographic camera, rather than hoof drawn, but the subject of the picture was a boxy object with dangling legs. It looked artificial and seemed be very complex.

Twilight was confused, she noticed that Parker, though Red Wood was blinking his eyes and shuddering, Twilight held the book up so he could get a clearer view of the confusing image, and Parker started to shake even more. Clearly he recognized the image, but it didn't mean anything to Twilight, she turned to Zecora, "What is this in the picture?"

Zecora looked at the picture and explained,
"This strange picture, is a long held secret mystery.
Made by the mixing of magic both zebras and pony.
It is very very tiny and they fill both the air and water.
Also many are in every living thing both child and sires."

Twilight asked, "Very tiny? Like a virus or a disease?"

The zebra shook her mane no,
"Far from a disease, these are not random or manic,
they carry the power and force we call magic."

Twilight nearly fell off her chair, "These things are the carries of magic!?"

Zecora nodded. "Even wisests don't know how they work, so I can't gloat.
but they are what holds up your books when you make them float.
They can change the color and what you see when you glance.
They even bend space and move you from place to place."

Twilight protested, "That can't be true! Things that small can't have the energy! Magic isn't little machines floating in the air! I can't believe it."

There was sudden grunts and shaking from the bed.

Gentle Breeze called over, "Princess Twilight! Something wrong!"

Twilight dropped her tea cup and shot over towards the bed, while Zecora followed at a more sedate pace.

Seeing the wild look in Red Wood's eyes, Twilight levitated the alphabet paper up and let him spell out his thoughts.

I - T - - - T - R - U - E - - - D - D - N - T - - - K - N - W - - - D - D - N - T - - - L - O - O - K - - - 4
N - A - T - V - - - N - A - N - O - - -
I - M - P - O - R - T - N - T - - - A - S - K - - - I - S - - - T - E - R - E - - - A - - - R - E - S - E - T - - - C - O - M - A - N - D - - - O - R - - - R - E - S - T - R - T

Twilight looked over at Zecora who shrugged her shoulders not knowing the answer.

Twilight asked "Reset command? Restart? I don't know of anything like that. It would be nice if there was an all purpose stop command for spells, but as far as I know there no way to make a spell just go back to it original state."

Gentle Breeze looked up, "Wait, original state? Is that what he needs?"

Twilight nodded, "I guess, even something 'Smart Cookies Reverse Magic spell' doesn't work on self sustaining spells like the Cults Curse.

Gentle Breeze looked thoughtful, "Well that's one way I can think of, but I don't know if we can do it."

"What's that?" Twilight asked.

Gentle Breeze looked down at the body of her husband and said, "We re-cast the curse."

Just a tale of a small town pony.

Coltsdale City was not a real city, it barely qualified as a small town. It only had about fifty families, half being descendents of the original unicorn family herd that had founded the town, and the other half being the descendants of wandering vagabonds that had settled in and around the area. Other than the handful of shopkeepers who ran their businesses out of their front parlors or barns, there was only one public building in the whole town. It served as town hall, post office, general store and when the Mayor felt like it, a casual salt bar.

Yet despite being small, the town had a rich tradition and some real wealth. It never grew big enough to justify a full time weather team but they were lucky enough to be on the weather corridor the pegasi used between Manehatten and Fillydelpha, which means they could count on the dregs of left over clouds and sunshine, but only after the two larger cities had been served. This irregular weather proved to be a blessing, competition made surrounding forest grow in more wild ways as the trees had to fight for light and rain, at least compared to the wood from more placid and regular tended forests.

Hardwoods cut from the forests around Coltsdale, has exiotic grain patterns and unusual character in their bent and twisted branches. Most of the craftsponies in the town worked on making hoofmade decorative wood panels, curio cabinets, music boxes and other small wooden trinkets, frequently with minor unicorn magic enchantments to enhance their function. Merchant ponies from as far away as Baltermare and Los Pegasus would pay high prices and pull heavy carts over dirt roads for days to acquire Coltsdale’s finests.

Red Wood was a unicorn, that had lived his entire line in Coltsdale, gone to school in its one room school house, and learned to carve wood under the hooves of his parents guidance. Coltdale was small and isolated town, but Red Wood didn’t have many reasons to complain, he loved the woods with its less than perfect weather and complex textured feel. He fell in love both with the forest, and in the forest. For here he found his soulmate, a fellow unicorn named Gentle Breeze. Red Wood had always known Gentle Breeze, as the filly next door. In the shade of the twisted trees they played as colt and filly. First tag and hide and seek which over time grew into more intimate, if still innocent games.

Red Wood was not a very worldly or well traveled pony, not that he was a completly unschooled, having gotten a two year degree for magical engineering from the University of Fillydelphia. That stint at school had been the longest time away from Coltsdale, and pretty much the beginning and the end of his world travels.

Soon after Red Wood got his degree, he opened his own music box workshop, something he had always wanted to do since he got his cutimark, which was of a silver windup key set in a yellow circle to contrast with his gray coat and red mane. Once he started making enough bits to support himself, to absolutely noponies surprise, Red Wood asked for Gentle Breeze’s in hoof in marriage.

They along with two thirds of the Coltsdale’s residents, in a classic barn raising, setup a small one room house, along the edge of town against the forest. Nominally it was to make it easier for Red Wood to gather wood for his hoofcrafted music boxes, but it also gave the new couple a little more privacy which, small towns being what they were, was a valuable commodity. The next three and a half years flew by, easily the best years of their lives. Red Wood’s reputation and skill with music boxes and other windup toys grew, and steady orders kept filled a remote city bank account with bits, but they hardly ever withdrew money from it, having few needs.

Then around the midpoint of their third year of marriage, the town buzzed with rumors. For three months Gentle Breeze kept her secret, but then Doctor Kind Buck came back from a trip to the city with lab results. News of the results triggered a town wide party. (No, no pink ponies showed up at this party, but rumor says that a certain baker assistant many miles away suddenly gave a hoofs up and wink to the fourth wall when the Coltsdale baby shower was at its peak.)

With Gentle Breeze’s assent, Red Wood used his formidable wood craft skills to add a new extension to their small home. No cheap machine saw milled boards or mail order door knobs, he hand crafted each stick beam and wall panel himself. Because this was for Gentle Breeze’s and his nursery, she was pregnant with foal and nothing but the best would be good enough.

It was such a wonderful time for them, so of course tragedy had to find them, as if all good times had to be balanced out on some invisible tally board with evil ones.

Gentle Breeze was nearing her due date, but insisted that Red Wood go to work, she jokingly told him that he was more trouble than help and was getting under her hoofs besides she still had at least two more weeks to go. It was a major mistake, because sometime soon after Red Wood left to hunt the woods for exiotic branches, Gentle Breeze’s water broke and something went terribly terribly wrong.

That afternoon Red Wood came back to his loving home, to find a nightmare.

His next door neighbor, was crying uncontrollably unable to put words to what she had found, handed Red Wood a newborn colt, only hours old. He took the child into numb hoofs, because there was red iron smelling liquid everywhere. Blood on the floor, on the ground, in a trail that led into the woods, and Gentle Breeze was nowhere. They didn't even have a body to bury. Red Wood became a father and a widower on the same hour.

Author's Note

Just a start, I'm looking for some pre-readers to help with the grammar and spotting plot errors. The long description contains some spoilers. I have a few more chapters ready, but I'll post them next week, hopefully I'll get pre reader or two to help before then.

Un mal di testa che non sarebbe credere.

Twilight sparkle was in an office the Director of the Fillidelpha's Penstable Hospital lent her, she and rainbow dash were putting the final touches on a letter to Princess Celestia about the strange events from the previous night. Well, to be honest, Twilight was writing the letter while Rainbow was sleeping on top of one of the offices bookcases. Periodically Twilight would forget Rainbow was asleep and direct a question towards the Pegasus who would reply with a clear and we'll thought out answer of 'Zzzzzz' or sometimes punctuated with a clarification of 'Snorkkkaa" which Twilight would faithfully record with her quill pen.

A short while before, one of the hospital orderlies had dropped by and gave the princess a telegram from Ponyville. The rest of her friends including Spike would soon arrive there by train. Twilight was ecstatic about the news as Spike's fire breath was the fastest way to get news to Celestia and she was anxious to talk to her fellow princess about the fight in Coltsdale.

Twilight was far more disturbed than she wanted to let on, in all the years of facing danger for Equestria, the threat of death may have been real, but the actual violence she had to deal with rarely escalated above a few bruises. Even the war with the changelings had resulted in mostly abrasions and a few broken bones at worst. But these Cultists, these both new and ancient villeins of the Stone Heart Cult, had murdered a pony in cold blood and left the body in the dirt. Twilight shuddered once again with the memory. She then glanced out the window of the office, looking if there was any sign of returning Pegasuses, they still hadn't heard any news back from the guards left in Coltsdale, and didn't know if the remaining males of the town had been found, alive or not.

Twilight turned her eyes to the sleeping rainbow dash and briefly felt jealous of her friends apparent ability to put the horror behind her and sleep at a time like this. Twilight's jealousy was misplaced, Rainbow was dealing with the same imagery in her dreams. Dreams that started with the gruesome remains they had both witnessed and compounded it with details drawn from the Pegasus preferred entertainment of adventure stories and horror films.

While Twilight could only speculate about what was going on in Rainbows head, anther Princess of Equestria was not so lucky. Princess Luna stood to the side of the dream space of the rainbow Pegasus, or in this case nightmare. With some contrition she tried to draw the attention of Rainbow from her own dreams, but even the Royal Canterlot Voice was a poor distraction from the hordes of bloody Zompomies and dark shadows of undefined but monstrous danger that filled the rainbow mares mind. Once or twice Luna had gotten Rainbow to look in her direction but the fear was too real and the danger too recent, there was no recognition and no lucidity. Luna realized that the brave shell Rainbow wore in the waking world, was not there when the mare was alone in the darkness of her mind.

Luna with a sigh of frustration realized she could not help here, Rainbows nightmare was a coping mechanism and had to run its natural course or she would never be able clear her mind of the fear. Resolving to return later, to see if Rainbows dreams would calm down, she instead expanded her dream senses to detect other dreamers in the area. It was daytime now, but some ponies dreamed at all hours in a hospital. With some luck, she could perhaps learn news.

Dreamwalking and physical space had different geometries. There was no way that Luna could tell if a dreamer was on particular floor or room, the minds she sensed were like bubbles in a flowing sea, hospitals were not her favorite place to dream walk, yet she found herself in such places frequently, a duty as an immortal she owed to her short lived subjects. Looking back and forth there were as always a handful of patients sleeping, but Luna was hoping for a hospital staffer, someone taking a nap after a double shift, with some luck she could send, through them, a message.

It was then that Luna spotted something odd. A most peculiar dreamer, instead of a light and organic bubble, it was a box, or a tower, full of sharp lines and mechanical ideas. It stood out, no pony Luna had ever met dreamed like that.

Luna approached and wondered what sort of creature would have dreams as stiff as clockwork. She spun around the thing and wondered for a long time uncertain if it would be safe to enter this alien dream space.

But wasn't she the Princess of the Night! It was her duty to protect her subjects from such strange goings on. Her mind made up, she phased in the dream.

A moment later she found herself in a white room facing a familiar face.

“Ah Red Wood! We..eh I have found you!”

Parker turned from the mirror he was inspecting and seeing Princess Luna, he just face hoofed.

Parker shook his head and quietly said in a deadpan voice, “Stay away from the Mane Six, Stay away from Ponyville, leave the diplomacy to trained diplomats who’ll follow you. Just watch from the outskirts, your an engineer to fix the gateway, not an explorer. That’s what they told me.” He sighed, “OK hello, Princess Luna, I guess there’s no point is saying ‘take me to your leader.’”

Confused Luna demand, “Explain yourself!”

And so Parker started to do just that.

Soon after Luna had left Rainbows dream space, a nurse knocked on the office door. Startling both the Alicorn and awakening the Pegasus, for Twilight that was just a case of her smudging some ink on her growing notes, Rainbow on the other hoof had fallen from the top shelf and failed to remember her wings before she hit the floor with a crash.

"Rainbow! Are you alright?" Twilight asked her companion.

"I meant to do that?" Rainbow sheepishly replied, as she shook the last of her sleep from her chromatic head. It had hardly been a restful sleep, but it had helped.

The nurse paused only for a moment to assess the damage and then seeing nothing serious, said "I'm sorry Princess, and you too Lady Dash, but I thought you would want to know, the patient is awake."

Twilight and Rainbow both asked at the same time, "Is he alright?"

"He appears to be healthy but a bit confused. I'll let the doctor explain more." The nurse told them as she started to lead the two friends to the recovery room.

There is some peculiarity about large and old Hospitals, perhaps it was some reflection of the natural magic of Equestria and fact that souls both check in, and check out, inside Hospital walls. But you can never really be sure how long it will take you to walk from one place to another. In general, maps are useless. The most direct route will always be closed off, for cleaning, for security, for no good reason. To get to the room on the other side of an adjacent wall, may certainly require leaving the current building via a skybridge and through several other buildings then after walking the equivalent of four city blocks, entering the original building by a basement passage before climbing up two stories for each one you descended.The old Fillydelphia hospital was no exception to this, still with the guidance of the nurse It took them only fifteen minutes to walk the to the secure ward where Red Wood/Parker was recovering in, perhaps it had only felt longer.

Once they got close to the door, Rainbow Dash, well, dashed into the room first.

“OK Spy! No more nice mare! We want answers, and we want them now!” She yelled at the bed, before even looking down.

Red Wood and Banyan looked up in surprise. Banyan had managed to get to the room first, and he and his father had already been talking for several minutes when the blue flying mare interrupted them.

“What!” Red Wood cried, “Who are you?”

Banyan, knew who Rainbow was of course, but just glared angrily at being interrupted by the shout.

“Calm Down, Rainbow” Twilight told her marefriend as she more calmly strolled into the room.

Twilight then directed her attention to Red Wood, “Sir, while Rainbow Dashes approach was excessive, her basic question is still valid. Yesterday you said several questionable statements, and now that you’re no longer in physical danger, I think it would be most appropriate for you to expand on your declarations.”

Red Wood tried to follow the question, he really did, but his head was still spinning from confusion and shock. So he most elegantly replied. “Huh?”

Twilight sighed and tried again, “Sir, what did you mean yesterday when you agreed with Rainbow Dash that you are a spy.”

“A Spy! Who are you to call me a spy!” Red Wood snarled, then he looked a bit closer.

“What? WIngs and a horn. oh my Celestia! You’re that new Princess, uhh Princess Tiggy Farkel I mean Twilight Farkle, no I mean, we were just talking about you, my head is still foggy…”

“Her name is Twilight Sparkle!” Rainbow corrected Red Wood. “Hey wait a minute! You knew her at first sight yesterday!”

Red Wood looked confused, “Yesterday? I’ve never seen you before! I met Princess Luna in a dream, but that’s the first time I ever met any of the Princesses.”

While Twilight and Rainbow looked to each other in confusion, Banyan instead jumped on the bed and (in a frankly cute way considering he is still just a preteen colt) stared him straight eye to eye. “Are you Mr Parker or my daddy?”

The colt asked him this question with such seriousness that for a moment Red Wood was speechless. “Parker? that stranger that looked like me, called himself Parker.” Then realizing he hadn’t answered his son’s absurd question, “Banyan, I’m your father, don’t you know me?”

“Daddy!” Banyan wrapped his hoofs around Red Wood’s neck in a choke hold, “The ghost didn’t lie! You’re alive! You’re you!”

Twilight was certainly confused but she also realized that she probably should have debriefed Banyan before now. The colt seemed to know more than anypony else about what was going on. “Mr Red Wood? What is a ‘Parker’?”

Red Wood and Banyan exchanged glances, “I think you already met him, he and I exchanged only a few words in passing before I awoke here.”

“Whoa now!” Rainbow interrupted, “You’re saying you have multiple ponyalities! I got this Twi! In Daring Do and the secret of the Trottingham Ripper, there was this mad scientist guy that had a split personality! By day he was this nice dentist that had a real neat collection of teeth, but by night he was the dreaded Peach Heart the RIpper!”

Twilight dead panned “Peach Heart the Ripper? Wouldn’t it sound scarier with something like Dark Lord or Death Bringer or something short if weird like Jake?”

Rainbow just gave Twilight a blank stare, “Who ever heard of pony named ‘Dark Lord’? Hmm come to think of it, Ponies rarely have decently scary names. But Twilight that’s not the important part! Red Wood here must be suffering from a Split Ponyality!”

Twilight blinked a few times at Rainbow then shook her head to clear it. “Daring Do books are not exactly qualified medical journals, and I don’t think real Dissociative Identity Disorder, is nothing like the fictional counterpart, but you might have a point.”

Red Wood asked “Wait! You’re thinking I sick in the head? I mean there been some confusing things happening and some of its scary, but I don’t think….”

Twilight ignored Red Wood’s protest and turned to the Nurse, “Can I get a Echothatologic Kygrimoire Genucordacon in here?”

The nurse who had been standing way clear of the conversation up to this point, just asked, “We have several but we’ll need a doctor’s order and get a technician to operate it.”

Twilight smiled at that, “Oh I have a few doctorates by now, true there mostly honorary but still legally binding, so my word should do.” She shrugged her wings and held her horn high, “Besides I think I qualify as official on other grounds as well?”

“Right, Princess, I will ask one of the ER doctors to come up to operate the EKG.” The nurse turned to leave.

“No don’t bother, just roll the machine in here, I don’t want to inconvenience an ER doctor, beside I used to build them when I was an undergraduate at old CSGU and I’m fully qualified to operate it.”

The nurse gave the princess a skeptical look but with a small bow, turned to get the device from the floor storage room.

Rainbow asked, “Hey Twi not to doubt you, but You really know how to operate this doohickey?”

“I have one in the library basement, that’s what I hooked Pinkie Pie up to when I was trying to figure out Pinkie Sense.”

Looking a little shifty, Rainbow hovered lower to whisper to Twilight “Ehh, that didn’t exactly work out for you, did it?”

“Oh Rainbow Dash, don’t worry I’ve learned a lot since then. I’m sure there will be no problem.”

The nurse brought in the device, which was much sleeker looking and had many more dials and controls than Twilights homemade version. But that didn’t stop the determined Alicorn from hooking up Red Wood to the machine and starting it up. There was a few beeps from a steam whistle on the side of the main console and graph paper started spilling on the floor.

Twilight read the graphs,“Interesting, I’m seeing an odd extra line here, there does seem to be two minds operating in there! But I can’t really separate the two images at this power level. I better increase it”. Twilight set her horn alight and shot some more magic into the device.

“OK now it clearer, definitely a second mind is operating!” Twilight rather impolitely knocked on Red Wood’s noggin. “Hmm, still something blurry here, like the pen trying to filter more noise out. I’m going increase the power again.”

Her horn started to glow again, when the nurse interjected “Wait, you're an Alicorn and the most powerful mage in Equestria, the machine’s not rated for your full power!”

Twilight laughed “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing!” though her facial features were starting to take on the expressions of ‘manic’ as she was intent on getting to the bottom of this mystery. She blasted the machine with a full load of her magic charge.

The meter started to smoke and the speed of the pen increased so it was more burning images into the paper rather than laying ink. Twilight didn't mind that though, she was reading the graphs and laughing. “Three, yes Three minds are in there! Wow this third one is powerful! Strange, I’d say it was an Alicorn...I wonder what that means?”

Suddenly there were sparks and black smoke, rainbow colors ran back up the leads, sending magic deep into Red Woods body. He spasmed a few times, knocking Banyan to the floor while crying out, as if in shock.

“Oh No! Oh No!” Twilight pranced nervously in place, as she backed down the power, “Please be alright! Please be alright!”

Everyone turned towards Red Wood, who sat up in the bed and looked around in confusion.

There was a long pause as everyone in the room waited for Red Wood to respond. It took a moment as he clearly was having trouble clearing his vision, then with a gasp as if uncertain how to move his tongue correctly, he managed to spit out the words “Twilight Sparkle!”

Everyone let out a relieved sigh, he appeared to be alright, then Red Wood continued, his voice gaining confidence and volume, indeed quite a lot of volume. “Twilight Sparkle, we demand you explain the meaning of this! How did we arrive in the strange room, this is definitely not my quarters in Canterlot!”

With a cry of shock and recognition of the Canterlot royal voice both Rainbow Dash and Twilight screamed “Princess Luna!??”

Author's Note

Err, well this one was more fun to write than it probably should have been.

On the other side of the mirror.

On the other side of the mirror...

Parker watched in horror.

Parker kept watching in horror, because that was all he could do. If he had he any other option, he would have taken it, even sweet unconsciousness would have been preferable to this.

He watched as Red Wood fell into the trap the previous day.

He watched helplessly and remained aware as Red Wood was knocked out, ending his visual senses but continued to feed to Parker all his other senses.

Parker watched helplessly as he discovered that when Red Wood was awake, they shared mainly vision and hearing, but when Red Wood’s mind was taking a lunch break it enhanced the senses to including touch and smell. This did not make Parker’s vigil any easier to take. He still couldn’t control anything.

Parker watched helplessly as Red Wood awoke and finally responded to his desperately written notes, giving them hope for escape.

Parker watched helplessly as those hopes were dashed, and once again and Red Wood was dragged off captured by cultists.

Parker watched helplessly as the cultists forced Red Wood to drink a dose of potion.

Parker watched helplessly as he realized the nature of the potion was both familiar and terrifying in its implications.

He had assumed when the potion was first mentioned and presented that it was some native Equestrian magic that the cultists were using to mind control their victims. He had seen enough magic now to have a sense on how dangerous it could be. But when the potion dissolved in Red Wood’s mouth and Parker sensed he could also taste it, he realized he was dealing with something from his own world.

And this very familiarity was more terrifying than any cotton candy colored ponies magic. It was much more real to Parker and he knew just how many ways nano based drugs could go wrong.

He quickly wrote to Red Wood a note on his fears, “It’s nano probes! It can’t be! Ponies don’t know how to make them! There’s no telling what damage they’ll do if they try to rewire our head. The work the Doctor did to make us fit together is completely non standard. They’ll try to repair us and instead kill one or both of us!”

As Parker wrote this down, he was mostly concerned on the ‘what’ the nano drug would do to them, it was several moments later that the ‘how’ the cultest got their hoofs on this sort of Earth technology moved to the front of his mind.

He turned away from the viewing mirror and looked around the white room that had been his virtual home for the majority of the last three months. Sitting on one of the crude tables he had crafted from elementary 3d primes was the book shaped tool the Doctor had left him. It wasn’t a real book anymore than Parker was a ‘real’ pony. It was just the representation of the Doctors notes and data logs, thrown together with an elementary word processor and macro editor. The whole thing, the white room, the book even Parkers virtual body was just an afterthought by the AI in the last few seconds of its existence.

Parker had, up to this moment, no doubt that the Doctor was destroyed by its efforts to merge Red Wood’s and his mind into a functioning whole. The Doctor had written so much in that very book’s end notes. Still Parker had asked the Princess to have one of her guards search the field he arrived at. It had been a faint hope, but if any of the Doctor’s nanites still functioned they would have seen as a dull glowing ash. Nothing like that had been found.

Parker’s further musing on this was halted, when the book started to set off sparks and glowed.

He galloped over to the book and to Parker’s surprise, it was quickly growing thicker. He opened it to the end pages and saw new log entries were being added. Many new entries. The last functions the Doctor had programmed into the book, had been to record his logs in the hope that Parker would one day take its notes back to earth. That function had continued to run in the background, even after the Doctor’s original nanites had stopped broadcasting logs. Now it was picking up again, syncing up with the ad-hoc network datastores of the nanties these cultists poison was using.

There was no doubt about it, the nanites in the cults potion came directly from the Doctor, they even used the same security encryption keys that the books log reader used.

Parker had no time to read any of the logs now, and it wouldn’t have made much sense anyways, it was mostly debug codes and timestamps, but the very existence of new log entries ment the Doctor was continuing to function, somewhere.

Parker turned to look at the display mirror and saw Red Wood eyelids were starting to droop and the view of the cultists kneeling around his body were getting blurry. Red Wood was starting to drift off to sleep due to the drugs effects.

Parker wasted no more time with the book and galloped to the mirror to write in as bold a text as he could “NO STAY AWAKE”

It seemed to help, Red Wood’s eyes opened wider and he mumbled something, Parker didn’t listen, instead he ran back to the book but this time flipping it to the pages which held the control menus for the primitive word processor.

There had to be some way to send a message to the nanites, there wasn’t enough of them in that potion to be independently functioning AI’s at the Doctor’s level. Still if the potion nanites recognized the Doctor’s previous work, they might respond to some of the control messages. Not that the doctor had left him much in the way of tools for this. Quickly Parker paged through the word processors macro editor’s help menus, looking for libraries and macros related to the nanites.

Then even as Parker franticly paged through the book, the pain started.

It was phantom pain, caused by the nanites probing for familiar brain structures and due to the Doctor’s modifications, they could not find any. Parker had an idea what was coming, and yelled out to Red Wood, not expecting the pony to hear him, “I’m Sorry!”

As he yelled out he realized some of the barrier between their two minds was breaking. Even though Red Wood was definitely still conscious, he was now able to phantom feel and smell the outside world. Parker shook at the assault of strange feelings. It took a major effort to keep reading the log box and not turn to look at the display. What the cultists were doing to Red Wood’s body was very distracting and in very different circumstances might have been even pleasant.

But even unwanted pony feelings was better than what was next on the nanites list of functions. Not able to find matches with expected pony brain structures, they had started to probes to find the differences, with active probes and stimulation of the synapses.

Parker fell to the ground, his virtual body convulsing as electrical noise momentarily overwhelmed his control.

On the screen, Red Wood was screaming. Parker tried to look, but could only see static and blurred colors.

Parker realized that despite how violated he felt, he was the lucky one, with Red Wood in the control seat, the wood worker’s mind was taking the brunt of the nanites assault, the majority of what Parker was feeling was faint phantom effects caused by the barrier between their minds weakening. What ever compressed data store that Parker’s mind was shunted off into when stuck in the white room was not on the nanites hit list.

With this in mind, Parker used whatever will power he had to get on his hoofs and work his way back to his only hope for controlling the nanties. The macro editors in the control book. Like old fashion productivity software, the editor had backdoor access to the same API codes the Doctor had used to create this virtual environment. There were thousands of calls, but the Doctor hadn’t had time to write real documentation, Parker was lucky that the AI had even bothered to list all the API calls in his report logs and used semi human readable method names. Not that names like DSet:Talairach.Anterior(commissure,HIGH,MiD,Low)<-Mapping(Vset||Dset*(Mx)) where more than just faintly human readable.

It seemed hopeless to Parker, but he pressed on, periodically he would feel a phantom touch and hear concerned voices. The weird junior cult members had been shocked and surprised by Red Wood’s pain and had laid him down on a mat while one of the stallions had ran off saying he would look for an elder Virgulino. Parker had no idea what a Virgulino was but noticed that the remaining mares were still caressing Red Wood’s body, but not in the same offensive ways. They seem honestly concerned for his well being.

Parker thought to himself as he continued his frantic searching. “I guess the brainwashing doesn’t automaticly turn a good pony into an evil zombie. They really don’t realize what they are doing is wrong.” It gave him a sense of hope.

He needed it, because the phantom feelings he had from Red Wood suddenly changed. There was no more pain.

The Nanites had found their neural targets and were no longer randomly probing.

Parker turned to look at the display, and realized that Red Wood was no longer fighting the Mares, laying easily in one of their laps and was actually relaxing. They weren’t doing anything really strange or uncouth, just laying next to each other, brushing their hoofs together while Red Wood seemed mildly dazed.

In the quiet now, he could hear an echo of a voice, it did not come from Red Wood’s ears, and it tone and sound was darker richer more assured version of Red Wood’s own voice. It was as if Red Wood was having an inner monolog with himself, but never before had Parker been able to directly hear Red Wood’s thoughts.

The words Parker could make out said, “Why are you fighting? They’re just trying to help. Together with them, we’ll make the world a better place. The Princess was deceived by the Pegasus! The Stone Heart is not evil! It’s a way to take back Unicorn Pride from the flighty Pegasus. We’ll help our fellows Earth Ponies and Unicorns, marching on into a bright and hopeful future. And once the Pegasus know their place, they’ll humbly be allowed to join us as well. The world can be made so much better. We’ll do good, if I help. I'll be accepted in the Stone Heart. Why deny pleasure? I have a responsibility to the Princess to show them how evil the Pegasus are. Give in, give in to the Stone Heart and I’ll be smart and respected and be given a place of honor with them. Is this so bad? Let the Mares show me how nice the world could be. This is all my due.” Phrases and ideas of this sort kept repeating. Parker wondered, was these sounds the nanties feeding words into Red Wood’s auditory nerves, or worse, where the nanties manipulating Red Wood’s higher functions to really ‘think’ these thoughts?

Parker knew the voice was fake, but he also could feel Red Wood’s reaction, the ponies body was really now relaxing, barely conscious and yet not sleeping. Parker could ‘feel’ Red Wood smile and snuggle into the soft belly on of the mares he was laying against. Parker knew that Red Wood was hearing these alien thoughts, not as an intruders but as if they were his own ideas. Parker was starting to get a sense on just how effective this powerful form of mind control could be, there was no sign of Red Wood trying to fight it anymore. Parker was humbled by the power of the technology enhanced spell, if the nanties had found his storage space, he was sure he would have fared no better.

Parker moved to the display and wrote on it, “Red Wood! Snap out of it! Those are not your real thoughts! The cult is planting ideas in your mind. Fight it!”

Parker wasn’t sure Red Wood was able to read his message, the pony just blinked a few times, but didn’t move. He did stop snuggling in and seemed hesitant.

That is, until one of the mares, apparently sensing that Red Wood was not getting into the program, switched from the nearly platonic gentle hugs they had been using, to much more aggressive kissing. Rolling onto Red Wood, so they were muzzle to muzzle, belly to belly.

Parker wasn’t sure what Red Wood was going to do. The woodworker seemed seemed to be willing to give into the temptation, returning some of the kisses with light ones of his own. This encouraged the mare to get even more aggressive and she started to rub her body on Red Wood’s.

But Red Wood seemed to have some hidden reserve of self control and when the mare started getting more aggressive, he turned his head and body to the side, knocking her off of him.

Parker cheered when he felt that and saw the concerned frown on the mare. He quickly wrote to Red Wood, “Good going! Keep it up. We got to fight them!”

Red Wood blinked several times, Parker was pretty certain that was Red Wood trying to acknowledge his message and he smiled, hoping he could take a few minutes to return to the book.

Maybe there would be enough time for the Princess Twilight to get re-enforcements and come back to rescue them? But Parker knew she wouldn’t be back today, teleportation was only good for short range. Only Twilight had wings. The other surviving guards were unicorns and unless Twilight abandoned them in the woods, something Parker doubted she would do, they would have to walk to the nearest city or town. Then contact the other princesses and it wasn't like she could return with only an additional handful of guards, no the princess would need to bring enough guards to handle hundreds of cultists.

Rescue was not going to happen soon.

Parker was just starting to read through the control book’s new log entries when he heard and felt the approach of some new ponies.

The Stallion who had run off before was back and he told the cultists, “Sorry I took so long, the village is mostly on fire now, but I found one of the elders.”

Red Wood curious had turned towards the voice and Parker could see on the display a strange pony approach.

Parker noticed the pony was probably in her mid to late thirties but was really odd was the way her hair, tail and mane were all shaved short. Tattoos and some sort of glued on jems made patterns and lines on her naked skin and another oddity was her forehead that had a flat hard plate where a unicorn horn once sat.

Parker noticed that Red Wood’s eyes kept focusing on her face and eyes, which were blue, then towards her flanks, which due to the angle she was approaching were hard to see. Parker saw a flash of color where her cutti mark was, but couldn’t see it clearly until she turned to talk to one of the cult mares. Then with her side turned towards them, both Parker and Red Wood could see her mark, even on shaved skin it was clearly leaves blowing in a breeze.

Then Parker could hear Red Wood cry out, half in pain and half in something else, “Gentle Breeze!”

The Virgulino did a double take, then fell to the ground next to Red Wood her legs having given out. “Red Wood!” She cried. “They said you were dead!” She held Red Wood’s face in her hoofs and the image became blurry for Parker, as Red Wood’s eyes filled with tears. “Gentle Breeze!” he kept saying over and over again. Then Parker recognized the name, and felt the phantom emotions from Red Wood overwhelm their connection. This was Red Wood long lost wife, presumed dead, killed by the cult’s pet monsters more than a decade ago.

Suddenly they were kissing, long forgotten emotions overwhelmed the ponies and even Parker was knocked over by the effect. The flood of hormones and endorphins in Red Wood’s body affected both of them, making it hard to think clearly. He wasn’t sure if he should be happy for Red Wood or terrified that the cult had someone who meant so much to him in their thrall. Could they use her a hostage over Red Wood?

Parker raised his hoof to write to Red Wood, he was going congratulate the pony on finding his lost wife, but also remind him that they needed to keep fighting the effects of the brain washing.

But even as he started to compose his message, Parker started connecting the dots.

He reasoned to himself, “Those cultists, after they fed Red Wood the mind control drug, started rubbing and touching him. Touching is very important to ponies, maybe even more than for humans because they evolved from herd creatures. But that touching was not just herd members bumping sides, they were stroking him like lovers.”

Parker looked up at the display, and felt as well as saw that Red Wood and Gentle Breeze had moved from simple kissing to intense body grinding. Their thinning barrier allowed Parker to feel Gentle Breeze’s tongue inside his own virtual mouth, as a ghost of Red Wood physical sensations. Through the display, Parker could mostly see just Gentle Breezes eyes and muzzle, but at the edge of the image he could see the other cultists backing away.

Parker’s eyes drifted to the bottom of the display, though Gentle Breezes body mostly blocked the view, she was moving enough that every few seconds Parker could see down the full length of Red Woods body. The two ponies grinding bodies hadn’t yet merged together, but that would change any second now.

Blinking Parker continued his previous thoughts, “Sex! The nanites create false ideas and memories that the unaware ponies will believe are their own, and the positive feedback and pleasure they feel from the cult fucking them fixes the memories and overwhelms any personal doubts and….”

Parker eyes opened wide, even as he realized the consequences of this madness, he rushed forward and frantically wrote to Red Wood.

“Stop! Don’t!” he scratched the words onto the display, his muzzle pressed against the mirror, unable to look away, and unable to ignore the phantom sensations he had no wish to feel.

Parker watched helplessly as Red Wood passionately kissed his wife.

Parker watched helplessly as Red Wood rolled in the grass with his wife, their bodies intertwined.

Parker watched helplessly as Red Wood mounted Gentle Breeze.

Parker watched helplessly as Red Wood was led to embrace one of the other nameless mares. Gentle Breeze guiding and leading him from one partner to another.

Parker watched helplessly, feeling each stroke, touch and kiss as if it was an assault his own body, from a crowd of faceless mares and stallions. He had not influence over Red Wood who was now lost in the daze of an orgy.

Parker watched helplessly as more fire destroyed the homes and shops of an entire village and all its former residents danced and partied like shadows against the flames.

Parker watched helplessly as smoke and ash drifted down pile of ponies with Red Wood in its center, him smiling blindly as he embraced Gentle Breeze. For hours Parker watched the destruction of not just the village, but his friends spirit as everything he had believed in, was snatched away.

Parker watched helplessly as Red Wood stood proudly in front of the other cult members, his new family, and was joyfully welcomed by the cultists as Red Wood declared undying loyalty to the Stone Heart.

Stuck in a white chamber, cut off from the rest of the world, but able to feel way too much, Parker was helplessly stuck, on the other side of the mirror.

Meeting again for the first time.

Banyan's whisper echoed as if it had been shouted, '“That can’t be true! My mom’s dead!”'

Gentle Breeze shakily stepped forward towards Banyan who was now sitting behind Fluttershy who in turn looked like she would like somepony to hide behind as well.

Most of the other adult ponies had paused to think about Banyan's words and seemed frozen in spot for the moment. Giving Gentle Breeze a chance to answer.

She did so with a voice choking with sobs. "Monster's took me away from you, my baby, they told me, no, they made me believe you were the one that was dead. I was trapped with the monsters for years, until Princess Twilight and the Doctors freed me. I never wanted to leave you."

Banyan poked his head from behind Fluttershy and asked "Princess Twilight?"

Gentle Breeze nodded quickly, holding her hooves up towards Banyan, the little colt stayed where he was though. Blinking back tears, Gentle Breeze replied, "She helped free a lot of ponies. I was just one of many."

Pinkie Pie still looked uncertain had suddenly pulled a magnifying glass out of her mane and looking at Gentle Breeze with it asked. "Are you able to prove that 'Sister'? Anypony can come in and 'claim' to be Banyan's long lost mother, but only..." and with a blur of motion Pinke pulled from nowhere a hoofull of what looked like sheets of typed blue and green papers, "... his real mother would have the other half of the secret heart shaped locket that she left around Banyan's neck when he was dropped off at the orphanage!"

Both Banyan and Gentle Breeze looked at Pinkie confused "What?"

Lyra at this time decided it was time to step in. "Last night I was there when Princess Celestia told Gentle Breeze about Banyan." She said clearly.

Nearly everypony turned to each other once they heard Lyra and said "Ohhh! Princess Celestia!" as just dropping her name was enough to reassure all doubts.

Pinkie though responded by throwing her papers into the air and grumbling, "I keep getting these mixed up!" One of the loose sheets of paper drifted near Gentle Breeze and she spotted a title at the top of what appeared to be a theatrical script that read 'Annie'

Fluttershy looked up and looking through her long locks of hair, whispered a question, "Princess Celestia told you that? But Twilight never said anything about Banyan's mother returning." In a slightly stronger voice, "I don't think I can't let Banyan go with a stranger, until I hear it's OK from one of the Princesses myself! " Then in a softer voice, "I mean, if that's ok with you?"

While Gentle Breeze was still trying to make out the softly spoken Pegasus's words, Lyra stood up and replied first. "You know me Fluttershy, you can trust me..eh except for that time you asked me to watch your rabbit, and uh, well let's not get into that now. But both Bon Bon and I vouch for Gentle Breeze, so please trust her."

If Fluttershy replied it was lost in the noise as more and more ponies started to argue out loud. Mrs Cake was loudest and said, "I just don't know dearie! I saw how well the foals got along with the poor girl yesterday, but with so many strange ponies in town now, well you just can't be too careful, don't you know?"

The volume of the talking increased as everypony was talking over every other pony. It wasn't even clear what sides each pony was taking, some ponies were urging taking Banyan and Gentle Breeze straight to the Princess right away to clear things up, while others felt it was asking for trouble to even let Banyan leave Sugarcube Corner, even with an escort and Pinkie Pie seemed to be arguing both sides, mostly concerned on which venue would be best for the Party she was planning. Made more complicated as she seemed to be planning for both a 'Welcome Mother and Son reunion Party' and a 'We stopped an evil foal napper and had her sent to the moon Party' (tm)

Gentle Breeze's head was spinning as she had lost track of which side she herself was arguing for. Her only constant was to lock her eyes on Banyan's who seemed to be equally fascinated if uncertain if he should approach her, or continue hiding behind Fluttershy.

Suddenly there was a loud piercing whistle and everypony became silent and turned towards the noise. It was Applebloom sanding on Scootaloo's back who was in turn standing on a table, so she could tower over all the adults in the room. She had created the loud whistling by blowing through her hooves pinces (1) and now that everypony was looking at her, she glared back at them. "You all should be ashamed!" She cried.

Applebloom jumped off Scootaloo's back, landing next to Sweetie Belle so all three crusaders could glare at the adults together. "Mrs Breeze here has been nothing but nice to us fillies and look how upset you're making her! Is this the way Ponyville Ponies act?"

"Besides it's obvious they are related, just look at them, they have the same eyes!" Sweetie Belle added. Scoots gave her an incredulous look. "Well they do!" Sweetie insisted.

Mrs Cake replied first, "Oh my! The little dears are right! The whole town is a bit on edge with all the rumors from Canterlot, don't you know."

Fluttershy looked out from behind her bangs and said, "Maybe taking Banyan straight home can wait, I'll go with you to the hospital to see the Princess and she can straighten this all up. If you think that be ok?"

Gentle Breeze gave Lyra a quick nod and Lyra answered for both of them, "Of course Fluttershy, we weren't going to take Banyan anywhere without you! It was all a big misunderstanding."

Pinkie Pie quickly started pushing with her head Gentle Breeze and Banyan out the door saying. "Stop wasting time! Sooner we get this whole thing cleared up, the sooner I can start the welcome party...."

Fluttershy peeked out the door, saw a huge crowd of ponies out there and with an "Eeeep" withdrew back into the bakery, only to be pushed out again by Mrs Cake, "Sorry dear, I really don't think it would be a good idea to leave Pinkie Pie in charge. Don't you know."

They had just cleared the Sugarcube entrance when Pinkie then gasped, the town square was simple packed with ponies of all sorts and colors, most looking lost and confused. "Gasp! Strike that, not welcome party, welcome PARTIES! Oh boy Oh boy Oh BOY!" She jumped into the air and let of a hoof full of streamers and confetti. "Oh! Girl's sorry! I can't go with you now! I have to get supplies and cake mix and balloons, and lots of balloons! But don't worry I'll catch up with you later. Tell the Princess I'll have her Seven Section Spectacular Spicey Sherbet Seasonal Surprise cake ready very SSsssssssSoon! "

Meekly Gentle Breeze followed the other ponies out. Lyra kept pushing here ahead, excited to go see the Princess again, but Gentle Breeze kept slowing down to look over her shoulder at Banyan who followed quietly, drifting between Fluttershy and the two other adult ponies.

After a bit, when they had crossed the town square and were on the road to the Hospital, Banyan took a deep break and picked up his trot to catch up with Lyra and Gentle Breeze. He looked back and forth between the two ponies, uncertain if he should walk next to Lyra or Gentle Breeze. Then Lyra noticed him and with a nod motioned for Banyan to walk between them both.

They walked this way for several minutes. Gentle Breeze found it hard not to turn to look at Banyan, she wanted to nuzzle him, to ask him a million questions but she didn't want to scare him back to Fluttershy, yet the silence was quickly growing heavy.

Before she could make up her mind to act, Banyan spoke first. "If you're really my mom, why did you leave?"

Gentle Breeze took a breath in, preparing to answer, but Banyan held up his hoof and stopped her, "No I heard you before, a monster took you away. But why did the monster want you? Was it that Cult, the ones who tried to kill daddy a few months ago? Why do they hate us so?"

Gentle Breeze should have been prepared for this, she had gone over a million possible questions as she sat awake the previous night, but to try to explain the cult and its plans to a ten year old. Her jaw waggled a bit, but just a squeak came out.

Then after gulping hard, Gentle Breeze said. "The world isn't perfect, Banyan, there are ponies out there, that have been hurt, or are angry, or are just bad ponies that rage against the unfairness of the world. They sometimes get together and complain about how they would make everything alright if they were in change. In power.'

'Most of the time, that's as far as they go. The most bitter ones will do petty things, the small evils of small minded ponies that changes nothing but only hurts themselves. For the most part no ponies notices, they go back to their normal lives and nothing changes.'

'But the Stone Heart, it's a book, a book that feeds on and grows that helpless feeling. It's full of magic stories of lone ponies fighting and saving the world from the great evils by clever deeds and tricks. If you're in the right mindset, reading the stories make you feel empowered, you feel smarter and more 'right' than all other ponies. The Cult leaders say the stories are true, but that's not the point, it how the stories make you feel that's important. They make you feel that anything you do to bring about the Stone Hearts visions is worth it. No sacrifice is too much. No ponies life is more important than the goals of the Stone Hearts heros. The stories make it seem that if you can just fight the right enemy, then the world will be made perfect and it will all be worth it, regardless of sacrifices made or how many ponies are hurt.'

'At its core of the stories it says that some group of ponies are the cause of all the worlds problems. It carefully doesn't name the stories villains, the book is vague about them and lets you imagine who they must be. The Elders, uhh the Cult leaders, they tell you who is the blame, who to hate, and it very easy to believe them. Then they tell you it is not just enough to hate these unnamed ponies, if you can stop them, hurt them, or kill them first, then all the world's evil will just go away."

Gentle Breeze closed her eyes remembering all the stories she had been told, in a whisper she continued. "'The Stone Heart lies.'

'The magic potion formulas, glyphs and spells in the book are real though, and when petty, weak or simply evil ponies get their hooves on them, they can use that magic to force their twisted worldview on others. They harm other ponies, twist them, take over their will and minds and turn them into servants. The victims minds so dulled that even thank their attackers for it.'

Gentle Breeze shuddered as she finished saying, "And somepony like me could be taken from her family for a decade and not realize how much she's missed until it is too late."

Suddenly Banyan was pressed against her side, sobbing into her coat, "it's not fair!" he mumbled.

"Shhhh" Gentle Breeze whispered and for the first time in both their lives, she nuzzled her baby.

Bryan curled up on the ground into Gentle Breeze's side and the two ponies silently cried together for a long time. Indeed there was much Gentle Breeze would have given just to make that moment last.

Still time had to move on, and Lyra politely coughed to draw their attention.

Which was promptly ignored.

So Lyra coughed a bit less politely, then again.

Then again.

"BREAK IT UP YOU TWO! WE GOT TO GO!" The shout made nearby windows rattle.

That did it.

Gentle Breeze and Banyan both quickly got to their hooves and looked in surprise at the source of the shout..

It wasn't Lyra, she was in shock with her jaw hanging open and as wide as her pie plate eyes.

Instead, Fluttershy was completely balled up, hiding in her mane and tail. Under that shaking pink hair, she whispered, "Sorry everypony! Too loud?"

After a pause to realign her world view with Fluttershy being the source of the loud cry, Lyra approached the shy mare and gave her a hoof up. "Come on everypony, the Princess told us to meet her soon."

"Oh yes! Of course Lyra." Fluttershy agreed in her more normal meek voice.

The three adults and one colt pony moved on towards the Ponyville Hospital. As they drew closer the mob of new Ponies were drifting off into various hastily set up aid tents on the sides of the road to be sorted for housing and instructions. The ones who had physical issues and required healing, were already in the Hospital, being triaged by the overworked Hospital staff. There wasn't even a reception nurse in the main lobby, as all hooves were needed in the ER and intake wards.

As Lyra and Gentle Breeze already knew where they were going, they just walked past the waiting ponies and the empty reception desk and climbed up the stairs to the floor where Red Wood and Princess Celestia were last.

Approaching the guard station outside Celestia's room, they found they weren't alone.

Standing by the guards and giving them instructions was a familiar, (well to at least three of the group) purple pony.

"Twilight!" Cried out Banyan, who then seeing the glare the guards was giving him added, "umm I mean Princess Twilight!"

Twilight turned from her conversation with the guards, and seeing the young colt trotting up the hall, gave him a warm if very tired smile. "Why hello there! Banyan, Fluttershy, Lyra!" Then she paused a moment to look closely at the fourth pony. "Gentle Breeze! Last I saw you, you were getting your first treatment with Red Wood! So glad to see you up an about now!"

Banyan ran up to Twilight and gave the Princess a nuzzle. Excitedly he pointed back, "Can you believe it! Mrs Breeze here is my mother!"

Of the ponies there, only Fluttershy was close enough to Twilight to recognize that the smile Twilight gave Banyan was forced. Before she replied her eyes flickered for a moment to a patient room off to the side of the hallway. Lyra and Gentle Breeze followed Twilights glance and looked questioningly towards what they knew was Red Wood's room. But they waited to see what the Princess would say. Twilight found her voice and replied back to Banyan, "Yes I can believe it! And I'm so glad you two had a chance to meet!"

Banyan didn't show any sign of seeing the tension in Twilights body language, and instead replied in a happy and fast flowing giddy stream of words. "She showed me all these neat tricks with paper! And that was even before she realized who I was. Then she showed my new friends, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom how to fold paper flowers and we had cookies and Mrs Cake made us all hot chocolate and..."

Twilight held up a hoof and gently stopped Banyan, "That's very interesting Banyan, but I need to talk to your mother. Perhaps you and Lyra would like to visit with your father."

Twilight looked thoughtful for a moment before adding, "I'm afraid he's asleep right now, you can try to wake him, but don't get upset if you can't. Instead just talk to him and tell Red Wood all about the fun time you've been having with the Crusaders. Even if he doesn't look like he can hear you, it might help him get better."

Banyan looked happy at the idea and started to pull Lyra's hoof away towards Red Wood's room. Lyra gave Twilight a nod to indicate she understood the unspoken message to keep Banyan distracted while Twilight and Gentle Breeze talked.

Fluttershy looked back and forth between the two groups of ponies, In a gentle voice she said," I guess you really are his mother, so you'll be wanting to take Banyan after your talk with the Princess, I can get his bag together. But you're both welcome to stay with me in my cottage if you need a place to stay."

Gentle Breeze smiled, "Thank you. Lyra and Bon Bon have already offered us their spare room."

"Oh! That's nice... wait Lyra? Oh! I better go lend her a hoof." Fluttershy turned and quickly trotted into Red Wood's room.

Once Gentle Breeze and Twilight were alone, the Princess led Gentle Breeze past the guards and into Celestia's room. Closing the door behind them and lighting up her horn to cast a privacy spell.

Once inside, Gentle Breeze saw that she was now in the company of three Princesses, Celestia sitting up in her bed, Twilight working her magic by the door and to Gentle Breezes surprise, Princess Luna was attending to her sister.

Celestia spoke first. "Good afternoon Gentle Breeze, we were about to have Lunch, please join us."

Nervously Gentle Breeze looked from Princess to Princess. If she had been hungry, she couldn't remember it, and from the butterflies in her stomach she doubted she could have kept anything down. She tried to protest that she wasn't worthy of a royal meal but Celestia ignored her and using her magic set out four plastic bowls filled with greens.

It was 'hospital food' with a distant claim to being a salad, but Gentle Breeze sat there just moving the vegetables around the bowl with a fork with no interest in actually eating any of it. Celestia didn't look that much more please with the green stuff, but surprisingly Twilight and Luna seemed to be relishing the wilted leaves. Gentle Breeze wondered if this was because they really enjoyed the flavor, or perhaps they just were relieved that Princess Celestia seemed stronger than the previous night and was mending speedily.

After a short period of silence, broken up by the noise of chewing, Celestia turned to Gentle Breeze and said, "I'm sure you have some ideas about why its so important we talk."

Gentle Breeze gulped, "I think so, you're hoping I can give you inside information about the Stone Heart and help you stop them."

Celestia narrowed her eyes, "The way your phrasing that sounds like you're not confident you can help us? Are you conflicted? Do you still wish to protect them, even after what they have done, to you, to your family?"

Gentle Breeze closed her eyes, "Conflicted? Odd some part of me thinks I should be. I lived with them for ten years and not all of them are bad ponies. Some I'd say were true friends. But No I know that I was living a lie and now I just want to help them end the lies. I only wish I could tell them what I understand now and help free them. But Princess, despite being with them for ten years, I wasn't included in the long term plans. Virgulinos like me were not allowed even to leave the compound except very rarely in enclosed wagons and under cover of darkness. I don't know what knowledge I have that would help you."

Luna interjected, "Hold! "Compounds?" See your worries are for nought, we hath no knowledge the miscreants had more than one base of operations, and now we do. Let us be the judge what knowledge you have is of worth."

Twilight interrupted before Gentle Breeze could continue, "Gentle Breeze, don't you think its a bit strange that they allowed you to be captured? The leaders of the cult must have know we would be trying to get information from anyone we rescued? If a Virgulino was so valued, why did they allow you to play the role of a 'rescued' villager?"

Gentle Breeze blushed, "This was my first mission, ever since the Cult got their hooves on the new magic, they don't need us Virgulino's as much anymore. I was kind of excited to go out and 'help' in the field. Then unexpectedly I ran into Red Wood, I just couldn't leave him alone, so I begged Frato Bones to let me disguise myself with the villagers. I really wasn't thinking about what it meant to be captured, I just wanted to be with Red Wood again and Frato Bones is not as quick a thinker as Frato Charmer. Had the leader of the Stone Hearts been there I'm sure he would have stopped me. "

Luna asked, "Frato? That's a corruption of an old equish word is it not?."

Gentle Breeze nodded, "All the more senior leaders, at least the stallions are all called Frato as a sign of respect. Frato Charmer's full name was Rock Charmer, and Frato Bones was Granite Bones. Fratino was the equivalent for mares."

Gentle Breeze then told them the location of the Baltamare compound and ruff locations of the other locations she knew about.

Luna wrote down the addresses and announced, "Please continue your questioning my Sister, but this information needs to be acted on immediately, I will have scouts check out these locations and return with answers before your Sun sets." Before either Celestia or Twilight could reply, Luna opened the hospital window and was out flying.

Celestia watched her sister disappears into the sky, then turned to Gentle Breeze, "I fear my sister may have been a little rash now to not wait for more information, but we'll correct that when she returns, please my Dear, continue to tell us about your life in the Cult"

Gentle Breeze bowed her head. "Of course Princess. I just hope what I know can be useful, the majority of my time was taken up training new recruits. I guess the only honest description of what I was doing was brainwashing them, but in my mind I was just educating them in the proper ways to think. When I wasn't doing that, I helped with the domestic day to day operations on the compound. Things like cleaning and cooking, preparing the holy chambers for the nightly ceremonies." Gentle Breeze blushed fiercely added, "I also frequently had a roll in those ceremonies, but it was certainly not one of any great authority, unless you consider being the center of mindless orgies being in charge."

Twilight was also blushing but answered Gentle Breeze. "From my research, the frequent, uhh 'intimate parties' were used to gather and store life force mana which in turn would later be used to empower some of the Cult's most dangerous spells.

Gentle Breeze nodded, "Mostly the Oracle Spell, but only a hoof full of, " she paused and tapped the smooth hard spot on her forehead. "former unicorns could cast it. Even then only perhaps once or twice a year at most. Looking back now I can tell that casting the Oracle Spell would break the hold the Cult had on me, at least for a few days. They would have to 're-educate' me again after each casting. It wasn't pleasant."

Princess Celestia said,"In my talks with Parker and Red Wood, he told me they showed him a recording of one of the Oracle Spell's when he was first captured in that attack on Coltsdale. I have in somewhere in my records a transcript of Red Woods description of the event, but knowing more of their prophecies should help us to counter them."

Gentle Breeze shook her head, "I think most of the prophecies have already come true. All the times I was involved, the Oracle words would mostly about the coming of the 'Visitor', where and when to meet him and how he would help the Red Heart become powerful. Well he came, and been helping the Cult for months, and as sick as it is, the Red Heart is more powerful than it ever has been before. I don't think any of the prophecies went much further into the future than where we are now."

Twilight put her hoof to her muzzle and scrunched in in thought. "I'm confused, we were certain that the 'Visitor' Red Wood was told about was Parker but he's been with us and there no way he was helping the Cult all this time.."

Gentle Breeze, looked confused, "Parker? Before we returned to Canterlot from Sea Del Mare, Red Wood mentioned a 'Parker' but with all the excitement of seeing him again, I just played along and really didn't take in what he was telling about that 'thing?' in his head."

Celestia prodded Gentle Breeze, "I'm guessing that this 'Visitor' you are talking about is somepony else, what can you tell us about her or him?"

Gentle Breeze nodded, still confused, she made a mental note to ask more direct questions about this 'Parker' when the subject came up again. "It's Not really a him or a her, its more of a thing, a spirit. I wasn't ever allowed to talk to it directly, very few of even the most loyal of the Stone Heart followers were allowed near it. But from what we were told, it was a powerful magic creature, that claimed to not even be alive at all. It has incredibly powerful healing abilities., curing every sick pony that the Cult leaders would allow near it. Because it didn't have a physical body, and didn't respond to magic like normal ponies, we couldn't... well 'brainwash' it with our normal spells, but the Leader of the Stone Hearts, Frato Charmer, he spent weeks just talking to the thing. In time he convinced the Visitor that our cause was just and it decided to help us."

Twilight looked at Celestia, "Parker was always referring to a 'Medic' or 'Doctor' which he said was a machine that was responsible for merging himself and Red Wood together."

Celestia replied, "But he always insisted that the thing was destroyed by the effort. Apparently it was instead captured by the Cult and turned into their ally." Turning to Gentle Breeze again, "I'm guessing that the potion or magic in the pills the Cults been using come from this creature?"

Gentle Breeze nodded, "Yes, we called them 'Blessings' anypony who swallowed one, would only need a few minutes of ehh 'persuasion' to join us...the Cult I mean."

Twilight nodded, "That's bad, that's very bad. From my talks with Parker, I know the technology they have is at least as advance as our most powerful magic. But we have next to no real knowledge about how it work. We're just lucky that this 'Blessing' seems to share the same weaknesses to magic treatment as the original Cult Brainwashing spells, but if this 'Doctor' realizes that, he probably can modify his technology imune to our current counterspells. "

Princess Celestia nodded in agreement. "We are completely ignorant about the ways this Doctor works. To make it worse, the only pony that could give us the insight we need, is currently comatose and in great risk of death."

Princess Celestia turned her attention back to Gentle Breeze, "I am not tell you anything you don't already know, but Red Wood is in a bad state. It was my hope that we could afford to take time and slowly treat him with the most gentle treatments and coax him back to health."

Gentle Breeze shook, "I just found him again, what do you mean 'was your hope' what other options are there."

Celestia looked away from Gentle Breeze and out the window where her Sister had flown off her face impassive, she started to speak to answer Gentle Breeze but for a moment the Princesses voice broke, gagging on her own words. It took her two more attempts before her legendary control resumed and she could say her thoughts clearly. "I need the knowledge the this alien Parker has, if Red Wood does not recover very soon. I will have to, for the good of all my ponies, use a powerful mind reading spell on him. A type that would normally be considered banned magic."

While Gentle Breeze tried to make sense of how this was making Celestia act so ominous, Twilight choked in realization. "Princes Celestia! You can't be referring to a brain lock spell! There's no way any pony could survive that in the state Red Wood is in!"

Gentle Breeze's jaws opened in shock. "No!".

Celestia turned to Twilight. "It would be only something I will do only as a last resort, but I also can't wait too long, Red Wood's health may fail at anytime and then it will be too late even for a brain lock. Think about it Twilight. Those pills took out nearly the entire Royal House guard. What's to keep the Cult from dropping a barge of them into the Manehatten Water Aquifer? We need that knowledge or we have no way to stop the Red Heart."

Gentle Breeze dropped to all four knees. "Please your Majesty! Give me some time! I can try to get through to him! I can't lose him again so soon after just finding him! I'm no longer a real unicorn, but I know the nature of the magic the Cult uses, I can help!"

Celestia put a gentle hoof on the distraught pony, "I will give you every moment I can afford, but time is running out for all Ponies, and I can't give you too long. Go to him now and try to awaken him."

Without another word, and not even a pretense of a exiting bow, the former unicorn pony leaped up and galloped out of the Princess's room, already calling out for her husband, even before she cleared the first door.

With a sad look Celestia turned to her former student. "Twilight, please get from your castle's library the books we'll need for the brain block spell. I haven't had reason to cast that spell in a very long time and we'll need to review it. We'll have to cast it tonight."

Twilight looked surprised, "But you just said to Gentle Breeze.,.:

Celestia looked sadly towards the door. "I gave her hope, nothing more, unfortunately for myself in regards to Red Wood's case, I have none. He will be dead by tomorrow morning if we do not act now."

Twilight slumped down to the floor, emotionally drained.

(1) Pince: Equestrian Ponies have a soft frog and a relatively thin and bendable 'shoe' that they can squeeze the tips of together, creating a two finger clamp they call a 'pince' that is how non unicorn's hold things, rather than magic velcro. It's not a full 'hand' and most of the dexterity has to come from the wrist rather than the pince but it allows ponies to hold thin things like brooms and hammers. Because their hooves normally block easy viewing of this grip, things like writing is still done with their mouths as well as close in and fine work. The wrist dexterity should not be discounted though, its very high, made from a biological ball and socket joint, they can feel and position their hooves very precisely..That's how the two 'button' typewriters work, its really two flat disk like joysticks that between them provide over one hundred distinct 'directions' for different letters and shift combinations.

Author's Note

Seeing the 'walls of text' exposition in this chapter, might give you a sense of why it took so long. I'm still not too happy with it, but realized I can't take forever with it, so finally I decided to just put it up and hope more interesting more action chapters will make up for it later.