Against the Dark One

by Hidden Brony

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Human, Main 6, Nightmare Moon, Original Character, Other, Adventure, Sex, Gore, Princess Celestia, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 41827

An unlikely alliance of six extraordinary individuals gather even more unlikely allies to fight against the corrupting influence of the Dark One. But will it be that easy?

A winged self-exile from the northern mountains
A lighthearted paladin-to-be hiding a dark past behind her smile
A healer that heals all, caring not for good or evil
A spy in training who is at the beginning of a conflict with her own nature
A traumatized summoner with great gifts, but not the courage to use them fully
A force mage who's never left the safety of her master's tower

These six will gather under the banner of the virtuous Light One to confront the growing strength of the corrupted army of the evil Dark One. Along the way they will learn about themselves and each other, and gather a motley crew of the virtuous, borderline-villains, and everything in between to finally defeat the Dark One.

But will it be that easy? Can the Dark One truly be killed? And why is the Light One so hesitant to mount an offensive against the Dark One?

Only time will tell.

Published 2013-11-17 22:00:05 UTC
Last updated 2014-11-25 14:10:15 UTC

0.2 The Lighthearted Paladin

“Don’t be out too late, Pinkie!” Pinkie’s mother shouted at her as the girl in question walked out the door to their house in the capital of the human lands, Everfree.

“Don’t worry, mother!” the pink-haired girl called back. “I’m just going to hang out with Blinky and Inky. I’ll probably be back in an hour or so.”

“Oh, don’t be like that, Pinkie. I’m sure you’ll have a marvelous time hanging with your friends,” Pinkie’s mom said. This was the same conversation they had every time Pinkie when out to do any kind of social function.

Pinkie scoffed, blowing her bangs out of her face, and didn’t respond. She never did. Mom was always setting her up on playdates with the neighbors’ kids hoping it would make her more sociable or something.

It never did.

What changed this time, however, was her mother running out of the house. She pulled her necklace off from around her neck, placing it on her daughter. “Here. You look beautiful.”

Pinkie groaned, but kept the necklace on. It was her mother’s favorite necklace after all. It was gold, with a blue gem shaped into a balloon in the middle. Pinkie never understood what her mom saw in it, but she would wear it, just to make her happy.

As she walked, she mused. She didn’t like the twins any more than they liked her. They always got into arguments at school. They were stuck up, arrogant idiots who couldn’t get their heads out of their asses long enough to figure out that they weren’t always right.

Pinkie turned her head as she heard shouting. A guard in full armor ran at her, bellowing, “Head south! Head south! The Light One preserve us, we can’t stop them!” He didn’t even stop as he bowled past her.

She looked the direction he ran from, seeing a dozen more guards being routed towards the south. Her eyes widened as she looked past them, at what they were running from. Hundreds of people charged with wild abandon, but they weren’t normal people.

They were more darkly colored than they should be, with eyes glowing sickly green. They trailed clouds of darkness that faded into the rolling mass of shadow that billowed along the ground behind them.

She watched in horror as one of the people, someone she had seen in passing on at least one occasion, launched at a trailing guard. There was a sickening crunch as he broke his jaw on the guards’ armor. That didn’t save the guard for long, as he was knocked to the ground and dogpiled by a half dozen more of these not-men. The last sound he made was a bloodcurdling scream of terror and agony.

Without her willing them to, her legs turned her around and started running as fast as she could after the yelling guard. She didn’t look back, even as the inhuman screeches of the dark beasts got louder and louder. She quickly overtook the guard, his heavy armor slowing him down. She didn’t even slow as he screamed, being devoured by the army of evil on her heels.

She could practically feel the breath of the monsters behind her on her neck when she heard a welcome sound. “We’ve got a live one! Order of Light, charge!”

She barely noticed the gleaming armor of her saviors as they rushed behind her. She hardly registered the sounds of flesh impacting on metal, or the screams of pain the monsters let out. She grabbed the first robed man she came across and started bawling in terror into his chest.

“It’ll be okay, young one. We’ll get you out of here,” he attempted to comfort her.

Pinkie’s eyes widened in panic, “But my mom’s in there! I can’t just leave her!”

He shook his head, trying to break it to her both bluntly and softly. It didn’t work well. “I’m sorry, young one. There’s nothing we can do. Any who haven’t made it out by now are corrupted.”

“No!” Pinkie shoved away from the man. She tried to run past the men in gleaming armor, but one of them picked her up with one hand. From her new vantage point, she saw the horde rushing at the line of heavily armored warriors. Each one of them was wrong, at a fundamental level she understood that. She saw her neighbors charge at another human being with reckless abandon, trying to end another life. Right before the man holding her pulled her away, she saw the last thing she ever wanted to see.

Her mother snarled as she saw the defending line. Her eyes glowed that same sickly green. Her every breath puffed shadow in front of her, the same shadow that now flowed out of her every pore. Her normally seaweed green hair looked almost charred, and was still in its signature bun. An inhuman screech left her mouth as she charged, and Pinkie’s vision was mercifully cut short. “Mother!”

“Paladin Bright! Get her out of here!” the robed man snapped. “This is nothing for a child to see, especially not with her mother in there!”

The man holding her saluted with his free hand, “Yes, Headmaster. Come on, little one, let’s get you out of here.”

Pinkie struggled in his vice-like grip. “No, let me go! My mom’s in there! I can’t just let her die!”

Paladin Bright shook his head, “I’m sorry, little one. If your mother is corrupted, then there is nothing we can do.”

Pinkie kept making more and more creative insults for the paladin holding her as he easily carried her to a carriage. It was empty, and therefore spacious as she was loaded in.

“Damn, only one?” the driver asked.

“You know how the Dark One works as well as I do,” Bright sighed.

“I do, but really? One survivor? From all of Everfree?”

“Only one survivor so far,” Bright corrected. “I’m sure we’ll find many more.”

The driver sighed, “I don’t know how you keep such an optimistic attitude doing what you do. Listen to me, and I don’t even see the corrupted.”

“If I break down at the sight of an entire city of corrupted, what example does that give the survivors we do find?” He lowered his voice so that Pinkie had to strain her ears to hear what he was saying. “This poor girl saw her mother in with the corrupted. What do my issues mean compared to that?”

The driver let out a low whistle, “Damn. Poor girl.”

“She’s a strong one, though,” Bright chuckled despite the environment. “She spent the entire walk here coming up with creative new insults and new ways to squirm out of my grasp. I could see her being a good addition to the Order, if she would have us.”

“She sounds like a strong girl. I just hope that she isn’t broken by this, for her sake rather than for the Order’s.”

“I would never put the wants of the Order above the wants of a rational being when it deals with them directly. If she doesn’t want to join, she doesn’t have to.”

“You’re a good man, Bright. Your brother would be proud.”

“Yeah, I think he would have been, too,” Bright smiled, before getting serious again. “Well, that’s all the time I’ve got for you, I’m afraid. The Headmaster will want me back on the line soon.”

“Don’t die,” the driver waved. “I’d lose my good conversation.”

Bright chuckled as he walked back to the city. Back to the corrupted.

“You okay under there, miss?” the driver called out looking over the side at the taciturn Pinkie. She looked at him with blank eyes. He sighed and sat back in position.

When they left three hours later, not a single other person was brought to the carriage.

—*~*~*—

“This will be your room for as long as you need it, you understand?” Bright asked her. They were in a large, city-like monastery a few days by carriage from Everfree. Bright was currently not in his armor, preferring to wear his leather under-armour when the heavier plates were not necessary.

Pinkie just stared at the room. It was fairly nice, for a monastery. It was about ten feet square, with a bed and a desk. A small window was placed on the wall, over the bed. “It’s not much, but it’s better than a tent in the courtyard with the refugees from the outer towns, right?.”

She just stared. Bright sighed, leaving her to her moping.

The next days passed the same. Pinkie had yet to say a word. She just sat on her bed, staring at the door and holding onto the necklace her mother had given to her with a dead man’s grip. When food was brought, it had to be fed to her or she wouldn’t eat. Bright worked his hands to the bone to keep up on both his duties as a paladin and to make sure every need of the newly-orphaned girl was met. He fed her, he cleaned her, and he changed her.

One day, as he walked in, she spoke. “What was that?”

“At Everfree?” he asked for clarification.

She nodded.

“That was the Dark One. The Dark One takes over the minds of humans, griffons, dragons, and anything else it can get its hands on, twisting them into forms better able to serve its schemes.

“We’re usually able to catch its moves before it hits a town or village,” he sighed, “but we never expected it would be so bold as to attack the capital.”

“Can it be killed?” she asked.

“I won’t lie to you, not after what you’ve been through. We don’t know. The creatures it corrupts can be, that much is certain. We just have to hope that it can be destroyed as well.”

She locked eyes with him, giving him a stare much too intense for one her age. “Teach me how to kill.”

“No.”

She glared at him, “What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“I mean no. We’re the paladins of the Order of Light. We don’t fight to kill, we fight to protect. To protect those that cannot protect themselves.”

“Well you did a bum job of that today,” she growled at him.

He didn’t deny it, much to Pinkie’s frustration, instead choosing to speak up softly, “That was a week ago, little one.” She looked at him with shocked eyes, but he continued, “And yes, we did. Everyone had bad days, as much as it pains me to admit. Most bad days end with making people mad at you, or losing your job. Our bad days end with entire cities wiped off the map.”

He sat next to her on the bed. “This is why we can’t act with anger. Why we can’t go on the offensive.”

“So you’re reactive? Striking only when it is too late?” she snapped.

“Little one, the forces of the Dark One are much more numerous than we are. Even if we knew where to attack, there would be a counterstrike an order of magnitude stronger than anything we’ve seen before while we’re distracted.”

He grabbed her chin and forced her eyes into his. “We are a reactive force. We exist to slow down the Dark One’s advances while the Light One searches for a way to stop it, once and for all. Now do you understand?”

Pinkie nodded slowly, “You exist to keep the Dark One’s forces from destroying all sentient life while the Light One looks for a way to truly win?”

Bright smiled, “Yes. That is what we do, No more, no less. We win some, and we lose some, but that is the nature of the beast. We have to believe we will do better next time, or all is truly lost.”

She looked at the doorway, “Teach me to be strong, like you.”

“Little one, I’d love nothing more.”

—*~*~*—

“Swing!” Bright shouted at his apprentice. Pinkie threw her practice sword up in the swing he had just taught her contacting the training dummy placed in the ring just for her, as the only current paladin-in-training.

“Again!” Another swing. CRACK!

“Again!” Swing. CRACK!

“Again!” Swing. CRACK! SNAP!

“Again!” Swing. CRACK! SNAP! THUD!

“Good.” Bright smiled down at her excited form, standing over the broken dummy. She was in her late teens now, having trained with the order for close to the last decade of her life. She wiped the sweat off her face with the back of her hand, making a face as she felt the metal of the gauntlet contact her skin.

“I don’t see why I have to wear this stuffy armor so much,” she complained, clanking her gauntlet against the breastplate.

“You have to get used to wearing that armor in the worst of situations. This is the same reason you still practice in full armor during a rainstorm,” Bright chuckled. “If we baby you in training, you’ll break during battle.”

Pinkie nodded, getting back into position in front of the now broken target. Bright chuckled, “I think we can stop hitting targets for today, Pinks.” He placed one hand on the fence bordering the ring, using it to assist his jump into the ring itself. He clanked as he landed, and drew his sword and shield from their places in his hip and back. “Time for some sparring. Let’s see use that new attack at least once, this time.”

Pinkie saluted him with a fist to the chest. “Yes, sir.” She pulled her helmet off the hook on her belt, placing it over her head. She settled into a ready stance, bringing up her shield between her and her pseudo-father. Her mind raced as she pulled all the information she could from her head.

He preferred the use of a tower shield, same as her, but he was slightly stronger, giving him the mobility advantage. They both wore the standard-issue armor of the Order of Light, but hers lacked the tabard that was enchanted to remain pure white, no matter the circumstances, that proclaimed him as a full-blooded paladin of the Order. She also had her mothers’ necklace underneath her plates, giving her a sense of comfort. He preferred to use a bastard sword so that he could drop his shield when necessary and gain an advantage over his opponent. She preferred a quicker longsword, with an axe strapped on her hip for when she needed to drop her defense. Well, the axe was for when she didn’t use the hammer. Or the other sword. Or the flail. Or the crossbow. Yeah, she just had some weapon in her offhand. All in all, they were pretty evenly matched.

Of course, he was much better trained and had combat experience, but she didn’t let that dissuade her. A paladin had to remain optimistic in the worst of situations, after all, or all was lost.

She quickly brought her shield up to deflect his first testing swing. Using the moment of opening, she stabbed at him. He twisted so that the thrust was bounced off his abdomen armor, stepping back out of her range.

With a quick step, he attempted to slash around her shield. She swung her right foot back, pulling her body along with it and robbing the swing of its intended target. Bright’s sword impacted her shield with a dull clang and enough force to numb her arm through the metal. She took a hissing intake of breath as she took a few steps back, putting some distance between her and her sparring partner.

“Deflect attacks whenever possible,” Bright lectured as he set up his next attack. “It puts less force on you and deals less damage to your shield, saving you money on repairs in the long run.”

“Got it,” she nodded. He told her this every day, and every day, she forgot. Right as he swung at her, she used the upwards attack he had just taught her to deflect his sword. She quickly reversed the momentum of her sword, drawing a scratch across his chestplate, even with the dulling enchantment placed on all blades in the ring.

He stood up, going out of stance. “Smart move, using an attack as a parry. I told you you were good at this stuff, didn’t I?”

Pinkie giggled at hearing him be so serious while saying ‘stuff’. “Of course, silly! I have the best teacher.”

He chuckled, “I put the blame more on the student for this one. I’m far from the best teacher here.”

“Pinkie, Bright, I trust training is going well?” the Headmaster asked, walking over in his usual brown robes. The years had been kind to him, barely wrinkling his face and not dulling his reflexes or his wit. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been as kind to his hairline. The relentless press of time had pushed his hair up his forehead, before it had decided that defense was not a wise plan and beat a hasty retreat. The last of his hair hid along the sides and back of his head.

“Yep!” Pinkie said brightly. “Just dueling with Bright. I even got a hit in on him today!”

The older man looked at the younger, who shrugged, saying, “I didn’t let her, either. It was all her own. She’s quite the unpredictable fighter.”

“That’s good for one-on-one fighting, but you need to learn how to fight like the rest of us when we’re in a line,” the Headmaster reminded her.

“She learned that first. When fighting with other paladins, she won’t be the weak link,” Bright praised.

“So she’s ready for the field?” the old man asked.

“I’d say yes, but that is all up to her,” Bright said.

A dark expression flashed across Pinkie’s face, before it returned to its normal, cheerful self. “I’m more than ready.”

The Headmaster narrowed his eyes at her, “You know that you’re not allowed to charge the enemy the second you see them, right Pinkie?”

She scoffed, “Of course. I can control myself.”

“That has yet to be seen.” He turned to Bright. “Your mission is to do recon in the northern regions. If the Dark One manages to get to the Griffon Empire, we will have an army capable of wiping out the whole of the world built within months, if not weeks.” Turning to Pinkie, he stared into her eyes. “This is an important mission. You aren’t going to be alone up there, but you two will be working independently. I expect that you’ll find nothing, but it is better to know than suspect.”

As he walked off, he paused, calling over his shoulder, “When you make it back, I will interview all the involved paladins. If each one of them says you’re ready, your tabard is already made.” And with that, he walked off, back into the one of the many uniform buildings in the monastery.

“Did you hear that, Pinks?” Bright said with excitement. “You’re going to be a paladin soon!”

Pinkie jumped into the air in excitement, “I’ll pack my stuff!”

0.3 The Indiscriminate Healer

“Bring in the next one!” the healer shouted. He quickly wiped excess blood off of his hands in preparation for the next healing.

Two men brought in a third supported between them. He had a blade lodged deep in his gut, and from the blood running down his legs, he wasn’t long for the world. Their black leather armor and the red bandanas over their faces marked the three as Red Hand bandits. “Our buddy’s hurt!”

The healer nodded. “Put him on the table and I’ll see what I can do. No promises.”

One of the waiting patients exclaimed, “But he’s a bandit!”

The healer nodded, “So he is. Now careful, don’t want to jostle the sword.” The two bandits placed the third on the table as carefully as bandits could, and he moaned in pain.

Poking at the wound, the healer asked, “How long has this been in there?”

“Two, maybe three hours,” the left bandit said. “C’mon, doc. You could reattach my thumb, so this couldn’t be that hard, right?”

“I think I can heal him. He’ll need a couple of days of bed rest, though. How did this happen?” the healer asked.

“There was some kind of argument, and he and Scarlett got in a fight,” the other man said. “Scarlett swung first. Left swords in each others’ guts.”

“Ah, and Scarlett?”

A dark look flashed across the bandits’ faces. The left bandit spoke up again, “She won’t be needing your services.”

“I see,” the healer said as his hand started glowing. He slowly removed the sword, and when it was fully out, all that was visible from the wound was a light scar. “That should do it. He’ll need some help back, and make sure he doesn’t participate in any raids, alright?”

“Yes, sir, doc Charity,” the bandits said, picking up their companion. “We’ll try and avoid having any more patients for ya.”

“See that you do,” Charity smiled at them, wiping the injured bandit’s blood off on his pants. “Next patient!”

“You-you just healed a bandit!” the patient exclaimed again.

“Yes, I did. Now next patient?” he nonchalantly said.

An old man limped up, “Ah, doc, I think I twisted my ankle again.”

Charity sighed, “Mr. Greenhooves, how many times have I told you that you can’t keep doing the things you did as a young man in your old age?”

Greenhooves chuckled, “Always once more, doc.”

“Some men just refuse to grow old,” the younger man chuckled, shaking his head. “This seems like something that my daughter can help with doesn’t it? She needs the practice.”

Greenhooves smiled. “Of course. Haven’t seen her in ages.”

The healer chuckled, “It’s been barely a week, Green. Rarity? Could you come here, please?”

A young girl had just finished taking the information of the most recent patient. She looked up at her father through her elegantly curled purple bangs. Seeing Greenhooves, she rushed up and gave the old man a big hug. “Hi, grampa Green!”

The old man chuckled at the missile of adorableness that had just latched onto his chest, “Hey there, Rarity. Long time, no see.”

The girl giggled, “Silly grampa, it’s been only a week since you were last in here!” She put on a serious face. “You really do need to be more careful.”

“I’m sure he will be,” Charity said, giving Greenhooves a look. “Is there anyone more pressing?”

“Right now? Just cuts and scrapes,” Rarity said, before her eyes lit up. “Do I get to practice healing?”

“Yes you do, and on Mr. Greenhooves,” her father said, smiling.

Rarity started bouncing around, chanting, “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.”

“If you don’t calm down, I’ll have to do this myself,” her father warned. She immediately stood still. “Good. Now, let’s review. What’s the first step to magic?”

“The first step is loyalty. Always be steadfast, to yourself and others,” she recited.

“Good, what are the rest of the steps?” he asked her.

“The second step is laughter. Always remain optimistic, or all is lost. The third step is generosity. Give care to all, giving no care to creed or kind. The fourth step is honesty. Never be unnecessarily deceitful to others or the self. The fifth step is kindness. Treat all with respect, never being cruel. When these have been met, the path to True Magic opens,” she recited without a pause.

“Good. Have you followed the steps?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

“No, father,” she said without hesitance.

“Have you followed them to the best of your ability?” he asked.

“Yes, father,” she said.

“Then you’re ready.” He gestured to Greenhooves’s ankle. “This is a fairly easy fix, but if you need my help, just ask.”

She nodded, placing her hands lightly on the injured ankle. She closed her eyes, repeating the Steps silently in her head. She saw, but at the same time didn’t see, her arms through her eyelids. They were glowing a faint purple, something she was more than used to seeing as she channeled True Magic.

Slowly, Greenhooves’s leg glowed a light grey. She could see a snag in his aura in the ankle, but looking further up, she saw a black knot tied inside the old man’s chest. She gasped, but her father put his hand on her shoulder. “Just focus on the leg, Rares.”

His tone made it clear that whatever that black knot was, there wasn’t anything that could be done about it. She inhaled through her nose to prepare for her task, holding it for a second before letting it out through her mouth in a sigh. Eyes still closed, she forced some of her essence into the small snag, carefully massaging it back into the proper shape.

Going a step farther, she wrapped a piece of her essence around the ankle, giving it a brace that should last for the next few days. She pulled out, watching as the small piece of purple slowly faded to a pale lavender, and finally it matched the rest of Greenhooves’s glow. She opened her eyes, smiling up at the older man.

He tested the ankle, spinning his foot this way and that. Satisfied with the work, he stood up and put a small amount of weight on it. When it held, he smiled at her. “Feels better than it has in years. Thanks, Rarity.”

She beamed at the compliment, “No problem, grampa Green!”

Her father chuckled, “You’re holding up the line, old man.”

Greenhooves crossed his arms in mock indignation, “That’s no way to talk to your father-in-law.”

Rarity giggled, “Grampa, you should be getting home. Try not to hurt your ankle for the next few weeks, will you?”

“Alright,” he sighed in false resignation, “but only for you.” The old man walked out of the building with a spring in his step.

Her father looked down at her, “Don’t think I didn’t see that, little missy. Essence manipulation is dangerous for amatuer healers.”

She shrugged, “Whatever that big knot was, it seems like something nasty, and it's going to hit soon from the looks of things. If I can give him a little bit of comfort, isn’t that my job?”

“That’s my job. Your job is to stay alive and learn how to use True Magic.” He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “We’ll talk later. Next patient!”

“Charity! Charity!” a voice shouted. The speaker became apparent as he ran into the building. It was one of the town guard. His face was a pale white, and his voice was shaking. “The whole town’s evacuating.”

“What, why?” he exclaimed. “What would threaten us so close to Everfree?”

“Everfree, sir,” the guard said, causing murmurs of confusion and the beginning of panic. “It’s the Dark One. Everfree’s gone. Corrupted. The paladins are holding off the hordes as best as they can, but we need to leave. Now.”

Rarity closed her eyes and stretched out her sight, watching as the essences of the assembled villagers started roiling at the news. She stretched out her aura to the closest people, attempting to calm them down.

Her attempts were foiled as a massive wave of pure white magic washed over her vision, instantly calming the essences. “Calm down.” Her father shot her a disapproving look at her attempt, recalling his essence as he spoke to the assembled villagers. “Panic doesn’t help anything. Gather up everyone you can. Take only the necessities, we’ll be walking a long way to the paladin’s monastery.”

He turned to her. “Grab some changes of clothes and your mother’s necklace, and I’ll grab supplies. We won’t be coming back here for a long time, possibly ever.”

Rarity’s eyes widened at the seriousness in his voice, running through the door leading to the rest of the house. She grabbed her backpack, throwing in only two changes of clothes. She hurried to her father’s room, hesitating slightly when she picked up the ornate box holding their most valuable possession. She peeked inside the box to find what was always there. Her late mother’s necklace was a purple gem carved into a smooth diamond shape and set into gold. It was elegant in its purity. She closed the box, relocking it, and placed it in the bag in the middle of the piles of clothes. She filled the rest of the bag with dried food and bandages.

“Rarity? Are you ready?” her father called out. “Everyone else has already left for the monastery.”

“Ready, dad,” she said pulling her pack over her shoulders.

“That looks pretty full for a few changes of clothes and a necklace. You grabbed food and bandages for the other refugees, didn’t you?”

She sheepishly nodded, and he rubbed her shoulder, resisting the urge to rustle her hair. “Always thinking of others, aren’t you?”

She smiled at him. “Always.”

—*~*~*—

The refugees were walking down the road, when an arrow slammed into the ground. Following the arrow came a man in dark leathers, his face shrouded by a red bandana. He had a longsword in his hand, and held it like he knew how to use it.

“Halt. This is our road. If you want to use it, you have to pay the toll,” he shouted, projecting his voice over the assembled townsfolk.

Charity scoffed and stepped forward, “I already paid my toll by an order of magnitude. Let us pass.“

The bandit narrowed his eyes at the healer, before laughing. “Damn! Guys, it’s Charity!” He walked to the group as more bandits with bows rose out of the bushes. "Yo, Charity, what brings you this far north? You had a sweet gig set up in that village by Everfree. And who are all these people? I see your daughter, lovely as ever."

"Dire news, I'm afraid. The Dark One grows bolder each day. Everfree has fallen. Corrupted," Charity said, sighing. "This is the entire village."

"Shit, man." The bandit let out a low whistle. He winced at the looks Charity and his daughter gave him. "Sorry, guys." He turned to the rest of the bandits. "Let's move out. Grab all the supplies, we're not coming back here." He looked at Charity. "You don't care if we join you, do you?"

There were disapproving murmurs in the crowd at that, but Charity silenced them. "There is strength in numbers. As long as your men behave themselves, Dirk, they are more than welcome to join us."

One of the crowd exclaimed, "But they're bandits!"

Rarity responded to this one. "How many people do you know that are sitting on a stable wage that wake up one day and say, 'Gee, it would be dandy to be a bandit?' They became bandits because they didn't see another choice."

"Most of us, yeah," the bandit confirmed. "There are always cases like Scarlett, though."

Rarity nodded. "Give care to all, giving no care to kind or creed."

"Well, with that settled, we're heading to the paladin monastery, so you are free to leave whenever." Charity said, starting to walk again. Rarity fell in step immediately. Hesitantly, the town followed them, and the bandits close behind.

—*~*~*—

Rarity stretched out her essence, watching for a moment the elegant dance of the rich purple glow flowing through the air. It flowed upwards, before flowing swiftly down into the ex-bandit in front of her.

Instantly, she found the rip in his essence where a sword had sliced nearly through his thigh. She placed her hand over the rip, guiding the purple glow through his body to the proper place.

Using nearly half of the essence she had put into him, she pulled the bone back together, strengthening it for a few days while it recovered. She didn't pause to watch her purple aura fade into the familiar green of her patient.

She concentrated for a moment, moving the magic through the complicated motions of knitting muscle together after it had been split cleanly.

Finally, with the last of the essence shoved into her patient, she sealed together the layer of skin, smoothing out the resulting scar to near-nonexistence.

Dirk waited for her nod before moving his leg. He hopped off the table, landing on the leg as if it had never been damaged. "High quality work," he complimented, pulling down his hand so that the scar around his thumb was level with his new scar. "World of a difference. You're much better than your old man, Rares." He gave her a wink, "Much easier on the eyes, too."

Rarity giggled at his playful mock-flirting. Dirk was an uncle to her, bandit though he may have been, and twice her age. He made it quite clear that there was no genuine attraction behind his teases years ago. "You might want to put your pants back on, Dirk."

He blushed slightly at his lapse, hurriedly grabbing his pants from the table to cover his naked lower half. "Sorry, Rares."

She waved his concern off, "Nothing I haven't seen before, Dirk. I heal you enough."

"Ah, but it's not polite to be 'free swinging' in front of a lady, is it?" Dirk laughed.

Rarity's face screwed up at his crude humor, as it always did. "That's the face I was lookin' for!" Dirk exclaimed, smiling. "Well, it's been fun, but I can't monopolise your time, not with half the men in the Baltimare area lookin' to spend some quality time with ya."

Rarity's face screwed up in disgust again. "If only that is what they really wanted," she muttered. "Or half of them weren't twice my age and married."

"Ah, look on the bright side," Dirk exclaimed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

She rolled her eyes. "What's your take on the bright side this time?" She asked.

"If'n you ever feel the burnin' in your loins, you won't have to look long for relief!" He cackled as he spun her around once and beat a hasty retreat

Not hasty enough. Rarity grabbed his essence by the legs and pulled, tripping him. He laughed as she launched herself at him, playfully attacking him. For a moment, she was nine again, and everything was okay.

"Rarity, Dirk, please don't flirt on my kitchen floor," a voice interrupted their moment. Suddenly reality reasserted itself. Everfree was gone, the Dark One stronger than ever, reaching farther than ever before.

She sighed as Dirk tried to respond, flustered. "I-you-Charity! She's half my age!"

“That’s part of the problem.” Charity turned to his daughter. “The Order asked for our help.”

She stood up off the ground, “What do they need?”

“They’re sending some paladins to patrol the northern border with the Griffon Empire. Nothing unusual, just looking for signs of the Dark One’s influence trying to sneak into the Empire,” he said.

“Then what do they need us for?” she asked him.

“Well, one of the paladins they’re sending doesn’t have her tabard yet,” he started elaborating.

“And they want a healer on hand in case she hurts herself?” Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought they only sent competant members on missions.”

“That’s not the problem. The Headmaster himself said she was ranked in the top ten when it came to the fighting ability of his paladins, and she hasn’t even completed her training fully.” Rarity gave him a disbelieving look, but he continued, “The problem is that she was the sole survivor of Everfree, and they’re worried she won’t be able to control herself on the field.”

“Pinkie, right?” Dirk asked. “Heard of her. Tough girl.”

“Don’t get any ideas, you old pervert,” Charity shot him a look.

“She’s gonna be up there, while I’m still here. It don’t matter what I think, does it?” the ex-bandit asked.

“It does, because you’re going along with Rares.” Dirk coughed for a second, before looking at Charity with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

“You want me, a wanted criminal and former bandit, to accompany your only child to the edge of Equestria to meet with some paladins?” he asked.

The healer nodded. “And you’ll stay with her as a bodyguard.”

“Are you stupid?” Dirk exclaimed. “I’ll be in chains before the day is out!”

“If you are, then I’ll leave,” Rarity said.

“I told them that I was to supply a guard, whether they liked him or not, and they were not to do anything to him,” Charity explained. “I have the Headmaster’s word of honor that you won’t be harmed or arrested.”

“You. . . You got the Headmaster of the Order of Light to agree to grant temporary asylum to the former leader of one of the most notorious bandit gangs in Equestria?” Dirk asked, jaw dropped.

“He doesn’t exactly know,” the healer said, smirking.

Dirk started laughing, while Rarity shot a look at her father. The Headmaster was not going to be happy about being tricked like that. “You are a genius bastard, Charity,” the former bandit said between laughs. His laughter evaporated immediately at the looks he got from the man in question and his daughter. “Sorry, language.”

Rarity giggled. “So when are we leaving?”

Charity tossed her a pack. “They said ‘yesterday.’ “

—*~*~*—

Rarity traced a finger around the edge of the necklace on her neck. The purple gem in the center seemed to talk to her, calming her. Her father had placed her mother’s necklace around her neck as she was about to leave, telling her that it was hers, now.

She didn’t know what to think.

Her mother had died years ago, when she was but a baby. She had never met her, didn’t know what she was like or how she looked. Sure her dad had tried to explain, but there is only so much that words can tell you.

And now the only thing he had left of his wife was around her neck, leaving for the northern reaches of the country.

“C’mon, Rares,” Dirk said, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Look on the bright side!”

Rarity sighed, “What’s the bright side, this time?”

He smiled at her, “Now you’ll definitely make it back. What with having your mother’s necklace and all.” She smiled, glad to see the ex-bandit serious for once in his life. She scowled, however when he tacked on, “And think of all the handsome men in shining armor, waiting to sweep you off your feet! You’ll have the pick of the bunch!”

Rarity smacked her pseudo-uncle on the back of the head. “This better not be how you’ll act the entire time we’re out with the paladins. At least pretend to have some decorum.”

He rubbed the back of his head. “Ah, you know how I am. I’ll try to behave, but I hear that the Pinkie girl is a real cutie, so it’ll be hard.” He waggled his eyebrows. “If ya know what I mean.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. It was going to be a long walk.

0.4 The Conflicted Spy

“Now can anyone tell me what the six steps to divine magic are?” The instructor paced in front of the classroom, fully not expecting any of his students to know the answer.

“That’s ah trick question if ah ever heard one,” a young voice rang out from the back of the lecture hall.

“Oh, care to explain?” the instructor asked with minor annoyance.

“‘Course ah will.” A short girl stood up. She was one of the older students in the hall, having started her studying late by a few years. She had straw-blonde hair and freckles, with bright green eyes. “First off, it’s called True Magic. Don’t ever let any practitioner of True Magic catch you sayin’ the word ‘divine’ to describe their fancy magicin’. Second off, the steps go as such: loyalty, laughter, generosity, honesty, and kindness. Only after you live those five steps to the best of yer ability, can you use magic. Therefore magic itself ain’t a step, leaving you with only five.” After her short monologue, the girl sat back down.

The instructor stared at her for a second, before saying, “Who here agrees with her?” Scattered hands tentatively raised, and a few didn’t remain up. “If you agree with her, stand up.” Even less stood up, and few with any conviction. The girl stood up without pause staring at the instructor with a look that dared him to prove her wrong. “Those of you that are standing come down here.” The students looked at each other in panic, but the blonde girl walked right to the bottom of the lecture hall and stood right in front of the instructor.

In the end, only two other students stood with her, the rest having sat back down. One was a boy about her age, and the other was a girl years younger than the two of them.

“These three are absolutely right,” the instructor said, patting the girl on the head. Jaws dropped around the lecture hall and the sound of palms impacting foreheads echoed as the doubting students who had lowered their hands and sat back down expressed their annoyance with their own disbelief. “The first step in defeating any enemy is learning about them. Don’t forget that.” He turned to the trio, “What are your names?”

The girl spoke up first, “Ah’m Applejack.” She put her arm around the other two. “This here is Mac,” she said, nodding at the boy with golden blonde hair. “He’s mah older brother.” He silently waved, trying to shrug of his sister. It didn’t work. “He don’t talk much. And Bloom here,” she continued, nodding at the young girl with apple-red hair, who was trying to get as much of the older girl between her and the instructor as possible, “is our younger sister.”

The instructor nodded, “And how did you know the steps of True Magic?”

Applejack released the other two, much to Mac’s relief. Bloom ran behind her sister. “Our granny was good at magicin’ all kinds of scrapes n’ scratches that we got workin’ on the farm. Had us memorise the steps, called ‘em the ‘fundamentals of livin’ well.’ “

“This brings me to my next topic,” the instructor said to the room. “The modes of information acquisition. You just told us the first, and usually most reliable, method. First hand accounts.” He looked at the three. “You may sit down.” Bloom was the first to her seat, followed by Mac and Applejack, who used much less haste to get to their seats.

“Looking at these three, I can learn much, even from that small conversation,” he continued. “They have a grandmother who had at least some minor talent in True Magic, for instance. I also learned that they lived on a farm at some point. Their names, relative ages, and relations were learned, and very unlikely to be wrong.

“Inaccuracies come from inferences. From what they told me, I can assume that family is important to them. I can assume that Mac doesn’t mince words unless he has to, that Bloom doesn’t do well in interpersonal activities, and that Applejack is very protective of both of them. Now any of these can be wrong—” the instructor continued, but was interrupted.

“It ain’t,” Applejack spoke up. “That’s dead accurate.”

“That’s where the word ‘can’ comes into play, Miss Applejack. Now, that’s enough of me talking, I can already see the drool running down some of your chins.” Applejack looked at the person sitting next to her, who was fast asleep through the lecture. She smacked them on the back of the head, causing them to exclaim while they sat up. The instructor continued as if nothing had happened. “I have your first homework assignment.”

A collective groan came from nearly every mouth, including the siblings’. “Now, now, it’s not anything hard. You have to come in in two days time at the next lecture, and be able to tell me my name.”

The students started murmuring amongst themselves. They needed to learn his name? “Come on, now. This is the Baltimare School for the Equestrian Intelligence Agency. Did you expect it to be easy?”

Bloom was already formulating a plot in her head as she walked out of the room. This would require all three siblings.

—*~*~*—

The instructor walked down the streets of Baltimare, unconsciously looking about for any threats. You don’t spend decades as a master infiltrator without learning some habits. That is how he easily saw the young girl trying to sneak up on him.

He waited until she had her hands on his keys before grabbing her wrist. He turned to her. “This is not the best way of doing this, you understand?”

Applejack struggled in his vice-like grip, but to no avail. She wouldn’t be leaving until he wanted her to. She sighed, “Ah understand. Can ah go now?”

He chuckled, releasing her arm, “Don’t think I didn’t see you, Applejack. You’re good for your age, but not good enough for that to work on me.”

She rubbed her wrist, a look of distaste on her face. She sighed, “Sorry, instructor.”

He smiled at her. “You’re forgiven, but don’t think that you will get away with trying to steal from a teacher so easily.”

She kicked the ground, “Shucks.”

He smiled, “Yep. If you can’t complete this assignment, you have a week of detention and have to admit your failure in front of the class. If you do complete it, there is no problem, and you’re forgiven. Deal?” He stretched out his hand.

She smirked, shaking his hand. “Deal.” After saying this, she walked off with confidence. The instructor watched her walk off, shaking his head. This was an assignment to see how they dealt with insurmountable odds, and after that predictable attempt, she was on the border of failing.

He turned and walked to his house, grabbing his keys and unlocking the third lock on the door. The two locks above and one below were enchanted to give him a warning that someone was attempting to break into his house.

The rest of the night passed without incident.

—*~*~*—

“You were not supposed to pass this assignment,” the instructor announced to the class at the beginning of their next lecture, causing the class, save three siblings, to breathe a collective sigh of relief. “If you asked around town, nobody told you my name. They are under orders from the Light One herself to not interfere with this school, and we told them not to tell you any names.

“One of you, though, tried to steal from me and got caught,” he continued, smirking at Applejack. He was confused when he saw her and her siblings grinning at him. “Care to come down here, Applejack? We have a deal to complete.”

“Eeyup, we do,” she said, still smiling at him. She walked to the front of the classroom. “Fellow students, I have something to say.” She paused, waiting for quiet. She turned to the instructor and her smile widened. “Your name is Shadowstep.”

Instructor Shadowstep blinked, taken aback. This was unusual. “So it is. How did you learn this?”

“Mac, Bloom, get up here.” She beckoned to her siblings. Bloom let out an “eep!” and flushed bright red. Mac sighed in annoyance, walking to the front of the classroom shadowed by his youngest sister.

“Now, it’s all fairly simple. Mac, don’t let him confuse ya, is great with people. We had him go out and ask around, make sure that everyone knew we were lookin’ for a name.” She shot an annoyed glance at Shadowstep. “As ya said, it weren’t that easy. That’s where Bloom n’ ah came in. We were plan ‘B’

“Ah tried to sneak up on ya to steal your keys. As he said, ah was caught. Ya didn’t know that ah was countin’ on this.” Shadowstep smiled at her, shaking his head. She continued, “Bloom is much quieter than I am. Ah distracted ya while she got to yer keys.”

“My keys were still on my belt when I got to my house, Miss Applejack,” Shadowstep pointed out, already knowing what they did. He was impressed that they came up with this plan. Bloom couldn’t have been older than eight, Mac was in his early teens, tops, and Applejack was no older than eleven.

“Eeyup they were. That’s what this handy dandy thingamajig is for.” Bloom pulled out what looked like clay, handing it to her older sister. She popped apart the two halves, showing the perfect imprint of a full ring’s worth of keys in the middle.

“All we had ta do was wait until you showed us how to get into your house, which you did very helpfully,” Applejack said, handing the imprints back to Bloom. “Then we just checked yer mail, lookin for a name. Saw Shadowstep on there quite a lot.”

“Very good, you three,” Shadowstep said, clapping. The applause carried around the theater, slowly getting louder as other students joined in clapping.

When the applause ended, the instructor spoke up again, “What do you three want to do?”

Applejack spoke up first, no nobody’s surprise, “Ah want to learn to fight all fancy like, just like the EIA spies fighting the Dark One to the south. Help out there.”

Mac spoke up with a single word, “Protect.”

“Ah, ya big lug. Use yer words,” Applejack scolded.

Shadowstep held up a hand, “It’s quite alright. He told me everything I need to know.”

Applejack looked at her instructor sideways, before shrugging and backing down. Bloom stared at Shadowstep, eyes wide and looking around swiftly for a way out of speaking in front of the whole class.

“Bloom, what did granny say?” Applejack asked.

“Ta use my words,” Bloom said. Her voice caused some hearts to appear in some of the students’ eyes in the front row or two, where she could be heard. She took a deep breath, and said in a loud, for her, voice, “I want to gather information, help those that are going both Mac’s and Jack’s ways.”

“A noble goal,” the instructor spoke up. “It is very early for this, but I believe we found a team of future operatives. Which of you came up with the plan?”

Both Applejack and Mac immediately pointed at Bloom, who gave out another ‘eep!’ and looked like she wanted to crawl down a hole.

“Impressive for one so young,” Shadowstep commented.

“She was always the one to allocate the farm work after our parents passed,” Applejack said with some residual sadness.

“I assume—” he started to say, when someone burst through the door.

“Shadow! Shadow!” the new man yelled. “We need you now.”

Shadowstep glared at the newcomer, “Guile, I swear if this is not something as damned serious as the Dark One attacking Everfree itself, we are going to have words.”

“That’s just it, sir,” Guile said, blood drained from his face. “The Dark One got past the Order. It’s in Everfree.”

Shadowstep gave a wordless exclamation, disappearing in a flash of smoke. He reappeared right next to Guile. “Go. I want to be wherever you’re taking me an hour ago.” He turned to the class. “Class dismissed. Go home, I’ll contact you when class resumes.”

—*~*~*—

Nearly ten years later, Applejack stalked behind an ogre as the lumbering beast walked at the back of a mass of goblins. She shot a look to her left, catching a nod from Mac. She looked right, seeing Bloom’s thumbs up. Setting her jaw, she got into position right behind the big one. She shouted, “Hey you big lug, look behind you!”

The ogre spun around with a dumb expression on its face. Seeing the young woman standing, alone, it bellowed in rage, “Get ‘er!”

The near-dozen goblins around it were more than happy to acquiesce to its request. They emitted chittering giggles as they charged the leather-clad woman. She stood there calmly as the goblins closed in.

One of the goblins swung a sword at her midsection. She made no move to stop it as it closed in. Right as it was about to contact, she vanished in a flash of smoke. The goblin looked at its sword, before giving out a half-confused cheer, “Yay?”

There was another puff of smoke above the ogre, and Applejack dropped in with her full weight behind the point of her sword. The poor dumb beast didn’t stand a chance as the sharp blade parted bone as easily as flesh and buried itself into its grey matter. It didn’t make any noise as it fell, and there was another flash before it hit the ground. The goblins turned around to see their leader dead with a sword in its head, and no assailant to be seen.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a blade parting flesh. The goblins jumped, looking back at where the sound came from. Applejack walked past the now-dead body of a goblin, pulling her dagger out of its neck as she passed.

The creatures rushed her. She quickly buried the dagger in her hand into the eye of one of the front goblins, easily dodging the clumsy swings of the miniscule beasts. One charged her, attempting to skewer her with a spear, but she grabbed the weapon, disarming it, and with a spin buried it into the back of the offending beast.

She ducked under the two-handed swing of one goblin, smacking it with the the hilt of another dagger. With a grunt, she buried the dagger into the chest of her opponent. She spun in time to catch three running at her from behind. Bringing her hands to her thighs, she grabbed two throwing daggers. Each was buried into the chest of one of the side goblins, while the third one hefted a large mace.

She managed to catch the mace’s shaft with her left forearm, earning a nice thunk as the wood hit the metal-reinforced bracer. As she grabbed the hand that held the mace, she jabbed her right hand up, driving a dagger into the belly of the beast. She kept the momentum of her arm moving, using the mace-holding hand as a fulcrum of sorts to flip the beast over her. While the creature was prone, she dropped to a knee, using the extra downwards momentum that gave her to drive the dagger deep into the goblin’s brain.

She spun around, catching the remaining three goblins running away. She grabbed a throwing knife before she brought her fingers up to her mouth and gave a loud whistle. From seemingly nowhere, two throwing knives joined in her throw, ending with three knives burying themselves in the backs of the fleeing creatures.

The young woman walked up to the center goblin, pulling her knife out of its back and burying it into its skull. The other two goblins tried to crawl away, but a large form picked them both up and smashed their heads together, shattering their skulls and spines.

The corpses and gore vanished as the clearing they were fighting in faded into a large room with no windows and a single doorway. Shadowstep walked in through the door, clapping slowly. “I’m impressed with you three. Nice plan, Bloom. As always.”

The shy girl shrank into herself, blushing. “It weren’t nothing.”

The instructor turned to Mac. “Beautiful job at managing to talk in monosyllabic sentences and still get the job done. As always.”

Mac nodded, adjusting the wide-brimmed stetson on his head.

“And Applejack, dare I say it? Another perfect execution.” He gave her a nod. “There was a bit of arrogance and more than a bit of danger in that opening move, but the confusion it caused, making the goblin think his weapon was enchanted without his knowledge, was marvelous. I may have to teach that in future years.” He handed her a well worn stetson. “As per our bet, here’s your hat back. Try not to lose it this time.”

He regarded the three as a whole. “You’re ready for a graduation exercise. “

Applejack nodded, placing the hat back over her tied back ponytail. “Yer darn right we’re ready for a graduation exercise.”

“Confident as always, I see. Be careful that doesn’t turn to arrogance.” His face suddenly got very serious. “This will test all your strengths, and if you mess up, there are no second chances.” The three looked at him in confusion. “You’re doing a field test.”

Applejack pumped her fist in excitement, “ ‘Bout time!”

“Hold on the excitement. This mission is commissioned by the Headmaster of the Order of Light,” Shadowstep said, holding up a hand.

“We’re doin’ spyin’ for a paladin order?” Applejack asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“You’re spying on one of their members,” the instructor corrected. “What do you know about Pinkie?”

Bloom spoke up, “She’s nineteen years old, having spent nearly ten years with the Order in their monastery training t’ become a paladin. She’s the only survivor of the Dark One’s attack on Everfree near a decade ago, which was the main reason for her decision to join the Order.”

He nodded, “She’s doing her own graduation exercise over the next few weeks. The Order are sending paladins to patrol the border of the Griffon Empire to look for signs of the Dark One.” He paused, seeing the looks of distaste on the siblings faces. “It must be done. You are to befriend Pinkie and determine if she is a threat to their mission were the Dark One truly be there.

“Let me be clear, there are to be no true feelings of camaraderie to color your opinion of her. You are to be a neutral party in her judgement.”

“We’re supposed to pretend t’ be her friend without actually doin’ it?” Applejack exclaimed.

“I don’t like it any more than you do, believe me, but it must be done,” Shadowstep sighed. “Also, the paladins are not to know that you’re EIA.”

“So let me get this straight,” Applejack said, voice rising. “We’re supposed to lie to a bunch of Order paladins, the same guys who are keeping us from dying an early death, then get all buddy buddy with one of the junior members while not givin’ two shits about ‘er? Is that what yer tellin’ me?”

“Jack,” Mac said softly.

Applejack sighed, deflating. “Ah don’t like it. Ah don’t. Not one bit. ”

“None of us like it, Applejack,” Shadowstep sighed. “I always hate these missions, but they need to be done. How would you feel if she was truly a danger to herself, and charged the second she saw a corrupted? What if that became a danger to those around her? What if her negligence caused all kinds of problems for the other paladins?”

“Ah don’t like it,” Applejack mumbled.

“Sometimes we have to do things we don’t like for the good of those around us,” Shadowstep said. “You have your mission. Get to it.”

As he was leaving, Applejack called out to him, making him turn around, “Why us?”

“The Headmaster wanted someone that wasn’t a full EIA member so that there was no chance that any of his paladins would know you.”

Applejack nodded. “Alright. Ah’ll do it.” Shadowstep smiled, but she continued, raising a finger, “But if ah deem her not a threat, ah’ll feel no guilt being her friend. Damn the mission details.”

“And I’d expect nothing less from you, Applejack. You guys are going in under the guise of extra protection for one some healer they are bringing along in case Pinkie does end up causing damage. They want you there yesterday, so you have full permission to use the school’s horses.” The instructor nodded at the trio. “Get your stuff. When you get to the door, I’ll give you the map of the healer’s route. You’re to join her and the bodyguard her father supplied on the way.”

—*~*~*—

Applejack was adjusting the saddle on her horse to make sure it fit properly when he approached her. She looked up to see Shadowstep making sure they were unseen. He pulled a necklace from under his robes. It was gold, with three gems, one orange and two green, forming the shape of an apple and its leaves.

He held the necklace out to her, “I’ll be frank. I don’t know what’s telling me to give this to you. It should be in the vault with the other enchanted and infamous items the school has gathered.” He looked at the necklace dangling from his hand. “However, something is telling me that you need to take this with you, and I think it’s the necklace.”

Applejack took the necklace, but felt no such feelings coming from the object. She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he just smiled. “One last lesson, permanent magic items have personality. Some don’t like to back down from a challenge, some just like to make bad puns, but some, like the one in your hand, have full personalities. It wants to be with you right now.”

“Ah don’t feel anything,” Applejack scoffed.

He held out his hand. “Then give it back.”

She shrugged and started handing him the necklace, before she pulled it to her chest. “No.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“It don’t feel right,” she said absentmindedly, before her eyes widened. “Oh.”

He nodded, “It’s not malicious, I can promise you that. Something big is going to happen by the borders of the Empire. I would bet my life on it. Make sure to come back and tell me all about it, alright?”

She smiled, “Of course. I’ll try not to die, just for you.”

He smiled back, “Take care of yourself, Applejack.”

She held a hand up, “Just Jack to my friends, Jackie if yer lucky, or ‘bout to be.”

Shadowstep laughed at that. “Alright then, Jack. I think I’m a little too old to be calling you ‘Jackie’ in that case then.”

She laughed, hopping up on the horse. “Yeah. See you when I get back, Shadowstep. C’mon, ya’ll! We got a healer to protect.”

0.5 The Timid Summoner

“Mom? Dad?” a tiny voice rang out. “Where are you? This isn’t funny anymore.” A little girl with long pink hair fumbled around in the dark in her house, searching for someone. Anyone. “Mom?” she called out softly, rounding the corner. From the next room came the sound of snuffling and the ripping of flesh. What she saw would terrify her for the rest of her life.

A wolf sat with its muzzle inside her father’s chest, rooting around for the tastiest bits. She gave off a little ‘eep!’, quickly backing up. The wolf raised its head at the noise. Its muzzle was stained red. It looked at her, and raised its flews in a growl. She watched in horror as a small chunk of something solid and dark red dropped off of the beast’s muzzle. She could swear she heard it speak. “Prey.”

She shrieked as it started stalking after her. She turned and ran as fast as she could. She couldn't hear the wolf behind her as she bolted out the front door of her house. When she looked behind her, she saw the wolf padding out of the doorway. “Toy. Fun”

Tears streamed down the girl’s face as she started running down the dirt road outside of her house. “Just leave me alone!” she shouted at the wolf.

The creature, for its part, stayed just inside her vision as she ran. It paused when she yelled at it. “Druid.” It raised its flews in another growl. “Tasty!”

She shrieked again as it lunged at her, dropping to the ground and burying her head under her arms. She heard scrabbling, like claws over stone, and peeked up at the wolf. What she saw instead was a translucent shimmering dome-shaped barrier that seemed to be both there and not at the same time.

A voice called out. “Begone, wolf. Trouble this girl no more.”

The wolf growled. “Prey. Mine.”

There was a flash as a hammer materialized out of nowhere and slammed into the side of the wolf, sending it flying into a nearby tree hard enough to splinter the meter-wide trunk. She looked at the source of the voice to see an unimposing man. He was a thin man, more than a few inches short of six feet tall, with medium length red hair and piercing purple eyes. He looked at her, and his face softened.

“Are you okay, little one? Physically, I mean. I know you’re not okay mentally right now,” he said softly, dropping the dome over here.

She looked at her shaking limbs, before slowly nodding. The strange man gave her an encouraging smile. “Can you tell me your name, little one?”

She shrunk away from him. He sighed, “It’s okay, little one. I’m a friend.”

She looked at him, before deciding that nothing was lost talking. “I-I’m F-Flutter.”

“Flutter?” he asked. She nodded and he smiled. “That’s a beautiful name. I’m the Summoner. Have you heard of me?” Flutter nodded again, and he gave her a small smile. “Hopefully good things, right? I’m going to take care of you from now on.”

Flutter looked between him and the house in panic. His face fell, “I’m sorry, Flutter. Your parents were friends, but it probably hit you harder.”

She sniffled, before launching herself into the Summoner’s chest. He held her as she cried for what felt like forever to the young girl that had just lost her parents. Eventually, she passed out, too tired from crying to keep awake.

With a flash, they were in a stone room. He placed the girl in the middle of a large bed more fit for three full grown men, before sitting down on a chair. He stayed awake as the girl sobbed in her sleep. When she finally woke up, she drank the water he brought her and ate the breakfast he made for her, then went back to crying.

The next few days were like that. The Summoner, the ultimate paragon of his craft, put all his own needs, including sleep, and all his other projects on hold to spend nearly a week caring for a crying ten year old. He made sure she ate and drank enough, and cared for all her other needs.

At the end of the sixth day that had passed as such, Flutter eventually got burned out. She stopped crying and just stared at the Summoner. He spoke for the first time in nearly a week, his voice coming out cracked from a parched throat, but still strong and confident, “Do you feel better?”

She shook her head, causing him to sigh. “Too much to ask for, I guess. You need to do something to get your mind off the pain.” She looked at him in confusion. “You have the gift. I can feel it. You can do the craft.”

“Druid?” she asked.

He froze, looking down at her in shock. “Where did you hear that term?” She shrunk into the bed in fear, and he sighed and shook his head, “I’m not mad, Flutter. In fact, it’s just the opposite. I just want to know where you heard that term.”

“The-the wolf said it, after I yelled at it,” she said quietly.

He sat in contemplation for a moment, before smiling at her, “Then you’re doubly special, little Flutter. You were born with the ability to speak to animals, and it just didn't show until now.”

She muttered softly, looking down at her feet hanging over the side of the bed, “Big help it was.”

“Hey,” he said softly, placing his fingers on her chin and guiding her head up to meet his gaze. “What you have is a wonderful gift. Don’t let a single encounter ruin your entire opinion of this ability.” He stood up, holding a hand out to her. “Here, let’s go practice your other gift.”

“My other gift?” Flutter asked.

“Summoning,” the Summoner said simply, smiling. “Grab my hand, and we’ll get started.” Flutter stared at his hand for a few seconds before tentatively reaching out and grabbing his hand. He helped her stand up off the bed, and with a flash, they were somewhere different. It was a relatively large room, about a hundred meters square, and made of solid stone. It was lit by ghostly floating lanterns.

He immediately went into lecture mode. “I don’t know how much you know about magic, but forget all of it. Summoning is a form of sorcery, and therefore not truly confined to any form of rules. If you have the imagination and the power to back it, you can do it.”

Flutter’s head spun. Wat.

The Summoner continued. “First we need to make you summon your first object. It can be anything.”

He looked at her expectantly. She looked from him, to her hands, before looking back to him. He smiled, “Just picture something, the more detail the better. Once you have it pictured, try to will it to existence. Just believe that it is there, and it w—”

He was cut of by a snarl as a translucent yellow wolf materialized in the room they were in. It stalked towards the duo, making the Summoner frown. The wolf then spoke, in plainly understandable language, “Prey.”

Flutter’s eyes widened and she started backing away from the wolf. It stalked towards her, growling, “Druid. Tasty!”

“Begone, wolf!” a false image of the Summoner shouted “Trouble this girl no more!” With a wave of a ghostly red hand, the not-wolf shattered into a thousand pieces. Flutter started bawling in terror, and the Summoner dismissed his own phantasm. As his clone vanished, the real man stooped down and grabbed the traumatized girl.

“You’ll be okay, little Flutter,” the Summoner said, holding her tight. “You’ll be okay.”

“I don’t feel okay,” she wept into his chest. “When will it leave me alone?”

“When you’re strong enough to beat it without my help.” He hugged her tighter. “Summoning is all willpower. Eventually, you’ll be strong enough to win against the wolf.

“Promise?” she asked through her tears.

“I promise.”

—*~*~*—

A golem materialized in the room. It was twelve feet tall and blocky, seemingly crudely carved from a shimmering yellow rock. It squared off against a three foot tall red goblin that stood more still than any of its kind had a right to.

With a swiftness betraying its size, the golem charged and swung a massive fist down at the smaller creature. The goblin held up a hand, immediately halting the strike. Cracks appeared on the ground underneath the creature from the force of the strike, but the red creature was unhurt.

“Better, but not good enough,” the Summoner said from behind her. Flutter turned to give him a quick look, finding him in the same position he had been the entire day. He was laying on a vacillant red hammock, wide brimmed hat pulled down over his head and one arm hanging off the side of the construct.

“I’m trying, dad,” she groaned, readjusting her golem for the next strike against the much more experienced man’s construct. When the arm swung down, it was once again blocked, more cracks appearing in the ground. “That goblin is really tough, though.”

The Summoner scoffed, “Flutter, you have more than enough strength to smash that goblin into putty, you just refuse to use it.”

“I don’t,” Flutter exclaimed. “This thing is swinging as hard as it can. I’m breaking the floor!”

With a wave of his hanging hand, the Summoner wiped all trace of the cracks off the floor. “No you aren't. Those were illusions, flat constructs on the floor.” Flutter groaned, dropping onto the ground. She hugged her legs, pouting. “Don’t be like that, Flutters. You’re doing well, but you aren't doing your best. That’s all I want from you.”

“Everything I can give,” she muttered.

“All the effort you can throw into your studies. You have as much, if not more, talent in you as I do. If you truly apply yourself, you could easily crush the tiny fraction of willpower I put into that goblin.” The summoner stood up and the hammock disappeared. “Something is holding you back, and I think I know what it is.”

Flutter looked up at him, cocking an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”

With a flourish of a hand, a red wolf appeared out of thin air. Flutter jumped to her feet in a fraction of a second and was backed against the nearest wall as fast as she could get there. She lost concentration on her construct, causing it to vanish. The Summoner looked at her. “Break it.” She swallowed, before summoning a massive yellow hammer. It swung against the wolf with the full intention of sending the offending red beast flying.

The exact opposite happened when the two constructs came into contact. The massive hammer shattered into rapidly dissolving shards, and the wolf remained untouched. Flutter sank to the ground, placing her head on top of her knees and hugging her legs tight.

The Summoner shook his head, sighing. He walked up to the wolf and tapped it on the head. Cracks appeared where he contacted, spreading all around the construct. When the cracks formed a complete web all around the unmoving beast, it shattered into a million tiny shards. He walked towards her, “This construct was programmed to break whenever anything touched it. The tiniest touch, as just demonstrated, would cause it to shatter.” He kneeled down right in front of her, and she looked up at him. “That means that the hammer broke before it even hit the wolf. You truly believed that you would lose, so you did.”

“I–what?” she asked. “Really?”

“Yes,” he said, standing up. “That is the only thing holding you back. You lack the will to win. The drive to succeed.”

“But if I get really good, I’ll have to leave!” she exclaimed, eyes going wide. “And if I have to leave, then I lose you, too!”

He looked at her with a sad look in his eyes, “I see now that keeping you secluded in this building, even if it is by your own volition, was a mistake.” He shook his head. “I hate to do this to you, Flutters, but it is time for you to leave.”

“You–you’re kicking me out?” Flutter’s jaw dropped as she jumped up and grabbed onto the short man’s chest. “Was I not good enough? Did I make you mad? I’m sorry, give me another chance!”

“The problem, Flutter,” he said, hugging her back, “is not you. You are as good as you are going to be from living in this building.” He pulled her off him, grabbing the sides of her head to force her to look into his eyes. “You need to experience the world outside. Live life a little. You will always be welcome back to visit; you've been my daughter for nearly a decade, nothing is going to erase that.”

“I don’t want to leave,” she sniffled. “I want to stay right here.”

“And that’s why I have to do this.” The Summoner kissed her on the forehead. “You’re a kind, beautiful young girl, Flutters. Don’t let anyone say any different. Go out and live a life. Love, make a family, become the greatest adventurer in Equestria, it doesn't matter what you do. Just do it to the best of your ability, you understand?”

Flutter sniffled again, before nodding. He smiled. “I know you’ll do me proud. Go pack your stuff. Make sure to pack a raincoat, it gets rainy in the Baltimare area at this time of year.”

Author's Note

Happy Thanksgiving. Decided to pump this one out early. The sixth will be out on the normal schedule.

-HB

0.6 The Sheltered Mage

“So with that, we get to the eight schools of magic,” the teacher droned on. Looking around the classroom, you could see various states of boredom. Some students were asleep at their desks, drool pooling around their heads. Other students were staring out the unlimited windows that all towers in the Canterlot University of Magic seemed to have.

One student, however, was pulling out a second book for her notes, quickly scrawling everything about what the teacher was saying and how she said it. Every inflection was marked, her pacing and hand movements were noted, and even her facial expressions were scribbled down.

The student to her right sighed and shook her head. Both the girls looked similar, both being around their ninth year of life, with near identical hair. She swiftly studying girl had a pink stripe down her neatly kept hair that the messier hair of the other girl lacked.

The teacher continued, “The schools are illusion, conjuration, evocation, divination, transmutation, enchantment, abjuration, and necromancy.” A collective gasp passed around the lecture hall at the last word. “I must take a moment now, legally, and inform you that any attempt to practice necromancy, whether successful or not, will result in your permanent expulsion from this University as well as up to fifty years in prison.”

The messy-haired girl looked to her right to look at the younger girl writing less comprehensive notes. She kept bringing a hand up to brush the elegant small purple and pink curls that adorned her head out of her face as she struggled to keep up with the older girl.

The messy-haired girl sighed quietly, “Belle, don’t try and keep up with her. She’s a monster, I swear.”

The younger girl looked at her with wide eyes whispering fiercely, “But I have to be as good as big sis!”

“Would you two quiet down?” the other girl snapped softly. “I’m trying to take notes, here!”

The teacher kept on talking, oblivious to the conversation taking place in her classroom. “Illusion spells deceive the senses or minds of others. They cause people to see things that are not there, not see things that are there, hear phantom noises, or remember things that never happened.”

“You have plenty already,” the middle girl scoffed. “Do you really have to predict what her next words will be in the margins?”

“Of course I do, I can’t not document any of my thoughts!” the left girl said.

“Each conjuration spell belongs to one of five subschools. The summoning subschool brings manifestations of objects, creatures, or some form of energy to you. The calling subschool actually transports creatures from another plane of existence to your plane, The healing subschool heals. The teleportation subschool transports creatures or objects over great distances. The creation subschool creates objects or effects on the spot. Creatures you conjure usually, but not always, obey your commands.”

“Twilight, Scoot, shut up!” Belle snapped, scribbling down what the teacher had just said. “I can hardly hear her over your arguing!”

Scoot scoffed, leaning back in her chair. Twilight sighed and went back to taking way over-detailed notes.

“Evocation spells manipulate energy or tap an unseen source of power to produce a desired end. In effect, they create something out of nothing. Many of these spells produce spectacular effects, and evocation spells can deal large amounts of damage.”

Scoot held up her thumb, concentrating a moment to make a small lick of flame appear. Her concentration was disrupted by Belle’s elbow being rammed into her side. Scoot shot the other girl a dirty look, only to receive the explanation, “You heard what the professor said, Scoot. No magic except—”

Scoot rolled her eyes, interrupting Belle, “In designated areas. Yeah, I know. I’m so bored though!”

“Divination spells enable you to learn secrets long forgotten, to predict the future, to find hidden things, and to foil deceptive spells. Many divination spells have cone-shaped areas, with the small end attached to your head. These move with you and extend in the direction you look. The cone defines the area that you can sweep. If you study the same area for a longer period of time, you can often gain additional information.”

“How can you be bored? I can barely keep up!” Twilight hissed, scribbling more notes as she talked.

“That’s because you’re an egghead,” Scoot said, rolling her eyes.

“Transmutation spells change the properties of some creature, thing, or condition.”

Scoot leaned back in her chair, only half-listening to the lecture. She started counting students in the room.

The other girls kept on scribbling.

“Enchantment spells affect the minds of others, influencing or controlling their behavior.”

Seven. . . eight. . . nine. . . bored.

Scoots scratched her ear in an attempt to rid her of the sound of the scratching of quills echoing all over the lecture hall.

“Abjurations are protective spells. They create physical or magical barriers, negate magical or physical abilities, harm trespassers, or even banish the subject of the spell to another plane of existence. If one abjuration spell is active within 10 feet of another for 24 hours or more, the magical fields interfere with each other and create barely visible energy fluctuations. If an abjuration creates a barrier that keeps certain types of creatures at bay, that barrier cannot be used to push away those creatures. If you force the barrier against such a creature, you feel a discernible pressure against the barrier. If you continue to apply pressure, you end the spell.”

After having looked around for something interesting to do, Scoot groaned. There was nothing fun to do during these boring lectures.

“Necromancy spells manipulate the power of death, unlife, and life force. These spells are highly illegal and will not be tolerated at this school,” the teacher finally finished. She turned to look at where the three girls were sitting. “Apprentice Scoot, why don’t you come here and tell the class what each of the schools can do?”

Scoot groaned, but stood up and walked to the front of the room. The teacher smirked at her, fully expecting incomprehension. What she got instead was surprising.

“Illusion is mind magic, to put it into layman’s terms. Something like this—” She flourished her hand, causing a small purple dragon to appear on her hand, its long tail wrapping down her arm. “—would be illusion magic.

“Conjuration can be used to summon, call, heal, create, and teleport,” Scoot continued. “My personal favorite is teleportation.” There was a flash, and the dragon on her hand started looking around in confusion.

“Scoot!” Twilight scolded, standing up. “Leave Spike alone!”

The girl in question rolled her eyes, but did as asked. With a flash, the dragon was gone. “Fine, but only for you, sis.

“Continuing. Evocation is dangerous and finicky; manipulating the fundamental forces of nature is in no way easy. I haven’t gotten much past small licks of flame, yet.” To demonstrate her point, she re-summoned the lick of flame, turning her thumb into a candle. She flicked her thumb with her other hand and suddenly the flame jumped, forming a three inch ball of floating fire.

“Divination is hard to demonstrate,” the young girl continued, “but I’ll endeavor to demonstrate what can be done.” She turned to the teacher. “Your hair is actually gray, but you choose to apply a darkening enchantment to it, making it appear black.”

The teacher gasped at her young pupil, but the messy-haired girl continued uninterrupted. “Transmutation would be something like this.” She held her hand under the ball of fire, and it slowly started turning blue. As the flame turned blue, it stopped jumping and flickering. The girl soon held a motionless ball of blue fire in her hands. She walked up to a random student in the front row and held out the fire to him. “Touch it. It’s not hot.”

The student slowly reached a hand out, touching the blue fire. “It’s ice!” he exclaimed after a pause.

Scoot nodded. “Now I’m going to apply a basic heat resisting enchantment on this ball of ice.” There was a flash and the ball acquired a glow for a second, before it slowly faded. She tossed the ball up high, snapping her fingers. It caught on fire.

“Now abjuration.” She placed her hands near the center of her chest, quickly stretching them out to their farthest reaches. As the ball of flaming ice fell back down, the fire seemed to hit a barrier. It floated in the air while the ball of ice fell right back into the brash girl’s hands. She tossed the ball of ice back to the same student from the front row, and asked, “Did it melt any?”

He looked over the ball, before shaking his head. “No,” he announced to the room after a moment, “it looks the same.”

Smiling, Scoot grabbed the ball back from him. She looked at him through half-lidded eyes, before saying, “You’re cute.” She danced away from his seat, leaving him flabbergasted, much to the amusement of the students sitting around him. The quiet teases and chants started immediately.

The girl handed the frozen fire to her slack-jawed teacher before calmly walking back to her seat. Twilight was giving her a death glare, while Belle had her head in her hands. As soon as she sat down, the floodgates opened.

“What were you thinking!” Twilight snapped loudly enough for the whole room to hear.

Scoot shrugged, “I thought that guy was cute. Is that a problem?”

Twilight’s face got red, and she raised a hand, before slowly dragging it back down. Belle spoke up, “I think she was talking about the whole demonstration, Scoots.”

“Of course she was, I knew that. She’s just so much fun to make mad,” the middle girl giggled.

“And we both know you knew,” Belle said diplomatically. “So please answer the question, and seriously.”

“Teach thought she had me,” Scoot said. “Couldn’t let that happen.”

The younger girl sighed, “What did mom say, Scoot?”

The brash girl deflated. “Behave for your sisters.”

“And what was that, just then?” Belle asked.

“Not behaving,” the other girl said, sinking into her seat. “Damn it.”

“Scoot!” Twilight snapped.

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll watch the language,” Scoot said in monotone, waving her hand dismissively at her sister.

“Scoot,” Belle said in a almost groan.

“I’m just going to shut up, now,” the girl in question said, crossing her arms.

“Girls, could you three step into my office for a moment?” the teacher called out. Twilight looked at her sisters. Scoot shrugged and stood up. The other two followed along immediately behind her.

“How did you do all that?” the teacher asked as soon as the door was closed behind the sisters. “This is an introduction to magic course.”

After a few moments of silence, Twilight and Belle sighed. It seemed that Scoot was living up to her promise. Twilight spoke up, “We’re self taught. Belle found some books on basic magic at the library in Baltimare, and one thing led to another.”

“You ignored the warning at the beginning of the book telling you that it is incredibly dangerous to learn magic without a proper teacher?” she asked.

“I believe that Starswirl said that it was ‘moronic to the utmost degree and dangerous to you and those around you,’ “ Belle said. “Twilight and I wanted to leave them alone, but Scoot started using them without us. We figured that if all three of us were there it would be safer for her than if we weren’t”

“I see,” the teacher said softly, nodding her head with a hand on her chin in thought. “Is Scoot the best of you three at magic?”

“Psh,” Scoot scoffed. “These two are much better than I am, but Twilight wanted to do things all official-like and go through all the classes. She took over a book’s worth of notes on today’s lecture alone, and we’ve known this stuff for years.”

“You’re the least of the three?” the teacher was taken aback.

“I wouldn’t say the least,” Twilight spoke up. “I’m the strongest, while Scoot’s the fastest learner. Belle is right on the median line between the two of us.”

“I. . . see,” the teacher said slowly. She looked at Twilight and Scoot. They were the same height, around the same age, and had very similar hair colors, if not similar styles. “You two are twins, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Yep,” Scoot said. “Mom always said that Twi got the power while I got the speed.”

"We're technically identical twins, it's just not very obvious at first glance," Twilight clarified. “We’re about as different looking as identical twins get.”

"This is. . . unusual, to say the least," the teacher sighed. "You three are very young, but from what apprentice Scoot showed me, you're ready for a true Apprenticeship." She paused before asking, "All three of you can do what she showed me, can't you?"

Twilight summoned a two-foot ball of fire, while Belle summoned a similar ball only about eight inches across. The teacher let out a low whistle of appreciation.

Twilight spoke up, “I haven’t quite mastered the ice spell Scoot used, but if you give me a month, I could freeze a bonfire in seconds.”

Belle tacked on, “And in about a week, I’ll have Scoot’s speed on a fire of this size.

Scoot sighed, “And I’m stuck where I am, but I’ll have another three things mastered before Belle catches up with me. Ten before Twi gets there.”

"I'll talk to the Archmage about finding you three masters to study under." The teacher sat down in her chair. "What do you three want to do?"

Twilight spoke up, "I want to be a force mage, like our parents are."

Belle thought for a second when the teacher looked at her, before saying, "I've always been good at having lots of little things going on at the same time."

The teacher turned to Scoot. “And you?”

Scoot was staring at the door. “I wanna go talk to that cute boy.”

“Scoot! Be serious!” Twilight scolded.

“I am! Did you see him? Ten out of ten!” the brash girl defended herself.

Belle sighed, “Scoot.”

The girl rolled her eyes. “Fine. I want to blow things up. If it doesn’t happen fast and doesn’t look pretty, I don’t want anything to do with it.”

The teacher chuckled, “Alright you three, you have the rest of the day off. I’ll talk with the Archmage about getting you a master to teach you the finer points of magic.”

“Can I go talk to the cutie out there, now?” Scoot asked with impatience.

“No, apprentice Scoot. Wait until after class.”

“Damn it.”

—*~*~*—

“Prospectives, the Masters will see you now,” the teacher’s voice rang out into the hallway. Scoot stopped her pacing and marched straight for the door with determined strides. Twilight closed her book, slipping it into a satchel on her side. Belle sighed, picking up the small dragon that had taken her head for a roost. She placed the purple-scaled wyrmling onto her studious sister’s shoulder, getting a thankful nuzzle from the beast before it climbed into its favorite perch in the small bag on Twilight’s back for just this purpose.

When the two girls walked into the room, they saw Scoot pacing in front of the senior mages. She was muttering to herself, “Nope. Nope. Nope. Maybe. Nope. Hello~.” She stopped right in front of one of the mages, a rather attractive young man. “What do you do?”

He chuckled at her reactions, “I’m one of the Masters of Evocation.”

“You make things go boom?” she asked bluntly.

“Fire, ice, lightning, if it works fast and looks pretty to use, it’s in my expertise,” he replied.

Scoot walked back to the other three, the teacher having joined the sisters. Right as the teacher was about to say something, the young girl spoke up, “He’s mine.”

The assembled mages had a chuckle at her reaction, and one of the elderly men she had passed up at first glance spoke up, “This is not your decision, prospective Scoot, it is the Masters’ “ Scoot waved her hand dismissively, scoffing.

The teacher’s face flushed, “I apologise, Archmage. Prospective Scoot is excitable and quick to make judgements and decisions. She’s lucky she learns as fast as she does.”

The Archmage chuckled, “Then she seems like the perfect apprentice for Master Baelfire, but we’ll worry about that later. For now, I think it is high time for the prospectives to be introduced so a Master can pick them up.”

Scoot looked right at Baelfire, “You’re Baelfire, right?”

The teacher took a hissing intake in breath at the disrespect of addressing a Master you don’t know on a personal level without his title, but Baelfire didn’t mind. “Yes, I am. I assume you’re prospective Scoot? I heard about your little demonstration. Impressive.”

She nodded, “Mhm, that’s just me. You should see what the egghead over there can do.” She jabbed a thumb at Twilight, who gave an indignant snort. “Give her a month and she will be able to ice a bonfire.”

“Are you recommending her to be my Apprentice, prospective Scoot?” Baelfire asked.

“Psh,” she scoffed, “no. She doesn’t do the whole ‘fast’ thing. Anyway, she wants to be a force mage like Ma and Pa. I want to make things go boom.”

Belle spoke up at that moment, “Scoot, behave.” The young mage deflated immediately and backed up to the where her sisters were standing. Belle took a moment to step forward and introduce herself. “My name is Belle. As you can tell, I serve as a voice of reason for the twins, especially when Scoot provokes Twilight.”

“And what are your strengths?” one of the Masters asked.

“I don’t quite have Twilight’s power or Scoot’s speed, but I can juggle a lot of small things at one time,” was her reply.

A few of the Masters put their hands to their chins in thought, and the one that had talked replied, “I see. Thank you, prospective Belle.”

Belle gave a small bow before returning to her sisters, who were glaring at each other already. She gave off a small sigh, before nudging Twilight. “Twi, your turn.”

Twilight took a deep breath before stepping forward. Spike chose that moment to peek his head over her shoulder to see what was going on. A collective gasp passed over the Masters as they caught sight of the wyrmling. The ruckus started immediately, causing Twilight to start backing up.

“I’ll take this one!” one Master yelled.

“No, she’s mine!” another said.

A third Master scolded the first two, “You don’t even know what she can do. I’ll take her.”

A voice rose above the din, though surprisingly not from the Archmage. “Quiet,” Baelfire’s voice resonated with power as he talked in a voice that rattled the stones making up the tower.

There was instant silence.

“Thank you, Master Baelfire,” the Archmage spoke up as if nothing had happened. “I must say that I expected more from the Masters at the Light One’s own university.”

Twilight sheepishly stepped forward from her position against the back wall. “I’m. . . sorry?” she said with confusion.

“There is nothing to apologise for, prospective Twilight,” Baelfire spoke up. “If anything, the Masters have an apology for you.” The shamed mages shuffled their feet, mumbling generic apologies. “It is incredibly rare for a mage your age to have a familiar, let alone a pseudodragon.”

Twilight blinked twice slowly, before laughing, taking the Masters by surprise. Scoot soon joined in the laughter, while Belle just shook her head. Twilight reached a hand up to the small dragon’s head and giving it a scratch at the base of its jaw. She cooed, “They don’t know better, Spike. You’re not a pseudodragon.”

Baelfire tilted his head as he looked at her, “What do you mean?”

“Spike is a wyrmling.”

That one sentence floored the whole room, even the Archmage. Spike was a real live dragon. If they weren’t stunned speechless, the Masters would have started fighting over Twilight again. The old man spoke up first, “This is most unusual, prospective Twilight.”

Scoot shrugged, “Ma and Pa knew a few dragons. When some adventurers came in and slew one, her mate trusted our family with their surviving wyrmling before trying to take revenge. It didn’t work, so we had a dragon to raise. He took a liking to Twilight and sticks with her like glue.”

Baelfire nodded slowly, “And what do you want to do, prospective Twilight?”

“I want to be a force mage, like my parents are,” she said, causing more than a few groans from the assembled mages.

The Archmage held up a hand to quiet down the Masters. “I think it is time for the Masters to choose which of the three they want to have as an Apprentice.”

Baelfire immediately walked to Scoot, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll take this one. You guys can fight over Twilight.”

Belle’s face fell nearly imperceptibly at his comment, a fact not lost on one of the Masters. She stepped forwards, holding out a hand to the youngest girl. “Prospective Belle, I’m Master Light. I’m the Master of Spellswords, and currently the only one, at that. If you would have me, I’d love to teach you the ways of sword and sorcery.”

“Spellsword? What’s that?” Belle asked.

“A spellsword is a relatively new class of mage. We get into the thick of things, using a lot of small, quick spells channeled through, you guessed it, a sword.” Light smiled at the girl’s growing smile. “A lot of what we do is small enchantments and barrages of a lot of tiny spells fired off rapidly.”

Belle smiled a huge smile, hugging Light. “I’d love to be your Apprentice.”

Twilight was overwhelmed by the dozens of mages, young and old, male and female, short and tall, all clamoring for her attention. Her sisters and their new Masters sat on the sidelines with the Archmage, chuckling at her predicament. Baelfire turned to the Archmage. “You haven’t had an apprentice for a while.”

The old man nodded. “You’re right. I haven’t.” He stroked the short goatee on his chin. “I also think that I’m not the Master for her. She wants to do force magic, and I’m an enchanter.”

Light chuckled, half at the Archmage’s words and half at Twilight’s attempts to get the mages to back off. “Archmage, you are Master level in all schools of magic.”

He waved his hand dismissively. “I’m not the right person to teach her, trust me.”

The two Masters looked at each other, shrugging, before turning back to the spectacle. Spike had joined in, spouting little bursts of green fire at the masters that tried to get too close to the two of them.

Finally, the Archmage spoke up. “Leave the poor girl alone. Masters of Force, stay here. The rest of you, back off.”

The grumbling mages reluctantly obeyed their superior’s command. Soon, only four Masters stood in front of the young mage-to-be.

“Much better. Now, Master Midnight, would you kindly give a short description of what you do?”

“Well, I focus on making force the best it can be on the offensive. I designed a spell that can never miss, only be deflected by another spellcaster.”

“Thank you,” the Archmage said, nodding. “Now Master Amethyst, would you kindly?”

“Of course, Archmage. My name, as he said, is Amethyst. I focus more on the personal defensive qualities of pure force, rather than the offensive capabilities. I’m the one that made the spell that deflects Midnight’s spell.”

With a nod from the old man, the third Master spoke up, “I am Master Silk. I tend to worry about turning Amethyst’s spells into ones that can be cast on your allies, as well as fine tuning Midnight’s spells..”

The fourth Master spoke up without needing to be told to. “My name is Partition. I use force as a method of what is commonly referred to as ‘crowd control’ by the uninitiated. I throw my enemies around the battlefield and place barriers in their way, keeping them where I want to be.”

When the last master was done talking, the Archmage spoke up, “So, prospective Twilight, who do you choose? Will it be Master Midnight, with his nigh-unstoppable offensive spells, Master Amethyst, with her peerless defensive capabilities, Master Silk, with her talent of improving on anything another mage has made, or Master Partition, with his mastery over the battlefield?”

Twilight was silent for a moment, thinking. All four had their ups and downs. Spike yawned before climbing out of the girl’s backpack. He jumped to the ground like a cat before padding over to Master Partition, giving the mage a nuzzle on his leg.

Twilight chuckled, “What’s up with you, Spike?”

Spike looked at her, before climbing up the black robes of the Master. The mage, for his part, was completely still. One does not simply react normally when a wyrmling is crawling up your chest. When the dragon reached Partition’s shoulder, he sat facing Twilight before letting a sound that was somewhere between the meow of a cat and the roar of a tiny dragon. It was adorable, to say the least.

“I think Spike likes you, Master Partition,” Twilight giggled. Spike swelled his chest up proudly, holding his head high. The girl turned to the other three Masters, giving them a quick bow. “Thank you for the offer, but I think I’ll trust Spike’s judgement on this.”

Partition finally got over the shock of having a dragon perched on your shoulder. He reached up and gave Spike a scratch at the base of his jawline, earning a growly purr from the wyrmling.

The Archmage nodded. “It’s decided then. Master Baelfire has chosen Apprentice Scoot, Master Light has chosen Apprentice Belle, and Master Partition has been chosen by Spike.” All assembled, even the three dejected force mages, chuckled a little at the old man’s joke. “Masters, show the sisters to their new rooms.”

—*~*~*—

The sounds of moaning filled the room, coming from the two forms on the floor. Scoot felt his hands entangling in her hair as he pushed harder into her mouth. She rewarded his unusual forwardness with a moan and redoubling the efforts of her tongue.

She pulled away and gave him a slow lick before going right back at it. She’d done this often enough to know just what he liked.

Eventually, he pulled away, panting. He sat, eyes staring at nothing and a bit of drool running out of the corner of his mouth. Scoot wiped the back of her hand across her mouth, cleaning off everything he’d left there.

“That good?” the young woman giggled.

He could do nothing but nod sillily.

She giggled again, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. “Maybe next time we’ll do more than make out, hmm?”

Again, he just nodded, staring at nothing.

“I knew I picked a good one all those years ago,” she said for the thousandth time. “You’re just as cute as you were back then, Snail.”

That got a smile from the boy. He had recovered enough to give her a quick hug. “You should probably get to your Master,” he said slowly. Most people saw how long it took him to reply and how slow he talked and just assumed he was some kind of idiot savant at magic. Scoot knew better.

“Keep practicing, alright?” she said, returning the hug. “You’ve almost got it.”

He smiled at her. Snail was incredibly intelligent, with a huge talent for magic. His only problem was that he wasn’t good at making quick decisions, which was the reason he talked so slowly and a huge part of magic duels. That’s where he was stuck. Scoot always told him that he wasn’t the fastest, but he always got there eventually. That’s why he picked the nickname the girl had given him for his real name when he grew up, to remind him of her words.

“Alright, Scoot,” he said, releasing the hug. After a small pause he added, “Master Baelfire is probably looking for you by now, you’re five minutes late.”

“So I am,” a voice said from the doorway. Scoot looked over at her Master. He had just hit his thirties, Scoot being as old now as he was when she started her Apprenticeship. His hair had started to grey early, something he playfully blamed on the young woman at every opportunity, and he had started wearing a goatee like the Archmage. “How did I know you would be in Apprentice Snail’s room?”

“Because I’m predictable?” Scoot asked with a smirk.

“You’re anything but, usually,” the Master said. “Come now, we have a lesson to teach you.” He looked over his shoulder after the young woman had left the room. “And Snail?” The young man looked up at him. “Thank you for caring for her, and not hurting her.”

“No problem,” the slow-speaking man said. “I couldn’t hurt her if I wanted, even if things hadn’t gone the way they did with Sunlight.”

The older mage walked up to him and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “You’re a good man, Snail. You’ve stayed with her for seven years with nothing more than some kisses here and there. Other men would have left way before now.”

A dark look flashed across Snail’s face with unusual swiftness, barely caught by Baelfire. “After what I did to Sunlight for what he did?”

The older mage held up a hand, silencing the young man. “Officially, the University doesn’t know what happened. Leave it that way.”

Snail smiled. “Thank you, Master Baelfire.”

Baelfire smirked at him. “We’ve been friends for seven years, Snail. You can just call me Baelfire.”

“I could, yeah,” the young man said. “You should probably catch up with Scoot. She’s bound to get impatient.”

The Master chuckled, ”She never seems to get impatient with you, for some reason.” He gave the younger man a wink as he said that, letting Snail know he knew exactly why.

“Baelfire, hurry up!” Scoot yelled from the hallway. “You can talk with my boyfriend when we’re not on a schedule!”

Baelfire held out a hand to Snail. “You take care, now. She would never forgive you if you got hurt.”

Snail grabbed his hand in a handshake. “Same.”

The Master chuckled, walking into the hallway in time to see Scoot punch another Apprentice in the face. “WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY TO ME?”

The other girl on the floor spit blood at the standing girl. “The truth, whore.”

Scoot’s face, already flushed with rage, became even redder. She swung another fist down at the girl, only to be stopped by a translucent barrier. She started slamming on the barrier, screaming incoherently in rage.

Baelfire looked back at Snail, who shot the Master a guilty smile. “Starting a fight with another Apprentice would get her expelled at this point,” he said slowly. “I couldn’t let that happen.”

The older mage chuckled, “And they say you have problems acting fast during a duel.”

“I do, just not when Scoot is in danger.” There was not an ounce of fallaciousness in the young mage’s voice.

Baelfire nodded, walking up to the enraged Apprentice. “Apprentice Scoot, if you would please go stand with Apprentice Snail while I deal with this.”

Scoot drug herself off of the barrier, slowly walking over to her boyfriend. The Master nodded before looking at the other young woman. She spoke up, “Did you see that? She just attacked me!”

The barrier dissipated with a wave of Snail’s hand, giving Baelfire access to the young Apprentice. He grabbed her by the collar of her robe, pulling her up and slamming her into the nearby wall. He growled right by her face, “You will leave my Apprentice alone, or I swear by the Light One herself, the things I will do to you will make the Dark One cringe in sympathy, do you understand?”

The terrified Apprentice nodded quickly. The Master let her go, causing her to drop to the ground on weak legs. Baelfire looked at the two young mages standing side-by-side. “Thank you for the barrier, Snail. Scoot, we have a lesson to teach.”

Scoot gave Snail a look, and the young man nodded. “Told you you’d get it,” she said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek before following her retreating Master to the lesson room. When they got there, the older man gave her a look.

“I know, I know. Don’t fight with other Apprentices,” she said in a tone that suggested she had said this many times before. She had.

Baelfire sighed, sitting down and rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Look, Scoot,” he said, “I understand why you do what you do.”

“Do you?” she accused.

“I know about Sunlight, Scoot,” he said softly. She froze at the name, eliciting an involuntary whimper. “I’ve known since he died. The first person Snail came to is me, and he’s lucky. Any other Master would have had him tried for murder.”

“Why are you mentioning this now?” Scoot asked.

“I’m mentioning because there are three people who know. You, Snail, and me.” The man sighed, feeling like he’d gained a decade since the beginning of their talk. “Nobody else understands why you do what you do. They can’t, they don’t know.”

“They won’t know,” Scoot said firmly. “I don’t need their pity.”

“Scoot, if you get in one more fight, you’ll be expelled and charged for assault. Charged for each and every one of your fights.” The young girl sharply sucked in a breath. “Yeah, that would be bad. That’s over a dozen counts of assault, and no Master or University to defend you.”

“Why are you mentioning this to me now, rather than before?” she accused.

“Because I’m sending you on a graduation exercise in a few days,” he said simply. “If you aren’t in the University, you can’t assault any more Apprentices. Once you graduate, you’ll never have to see them again.”

The young woman started shaking. “But–but, what about Snail? He wouldn’t be there.”

“I’ve talked with his Master, and she agrees that some time in the field would do wonders for his casting speed, especially with you around to keep him from dying should he not be fast enough,” Baelfire said. “She’ll be telling him during his lesson today, and if he does well enough he’ll be graduated right next to you..”

“And my sisters?” she asked, sighing with relief. “What about them?”

“I planted the idea into their Masters’ heads,” he said. “The rest is out of my hands.”

“Alright. What’s my exercise?” she asked.

“There are five artifacts connected to one of the items at this University,” he said. “We’ve been looking magically for them, but to no avail. They don’t seem to want to be found. What I need you to do is find one of them, physically, and bring it back to me. If we have two of them, we might be able to find the other four.”

“And if you can’t find it, what makes you think I will be able to?” Scoot asked.

“Because I know what they look like,” Baelfire said with a smile. “They’re necklaces made of gold with large gemstones placed in them. One of them is a red lightning bolt, one is a blue balloon, one is a orange apple with green leaves, one is a purple diamond, and the last one is a pink butterfly. They are very distinct, and shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

Scoot sighed, “Fine. I’ll find you one of these necklaces. They better be worth it, though.”

Baelfire smirked. “Oh, trust me. They will be more than worth it.”

As the young woman was leaving the room, her Master called after her, “Scoot?”

She turned around. “Yeah?”

“Don’t tell anyone what you’re looking for. These are incredibly powerful artifacts, and the fewer people that know of their existence, the better.”

“Even my sisters?” she asked.

“Even them,” he confirmed. “I know it won’t be easy, but I trust you.”

Scoot nodded, walking out to pack. She was leaving in a few days.

—*~*~*—

“Again. Be graceful. There is no point in learning to use that blade as a magical focus if you can’t flow around your enemy’s guard and attacks,” Belle’s Master said, whipping the young woman with the flat of a blade for the third time in as many minutes.

“Sorry, master,” Belle said as she danced around the next attack

“Don’t apologise, improve,” her Master said, swinging again.

After a few minutes of this, Light called for a break. She sat down next to her apprentice, sighing. “You’re good at this, Belle. I don’t know if I told you or not.”

“You haven’t, but I really think of myself as an average caster,” the younger woman said.

“Average casters are the best at being swordmages, and don’t let anyone tell you different,” the Master said, ruffling he Apprentice’s hair. “Who else would spend the time to learn how to use a bunch of average spells to their best effect?”

Belle giggled, batting Light’s hand away from her hair. “You have a point.”

“I know I have a point,” the older mage said. “I always have a point, even if it isn’t obvious at first.” She sighed before asking, “Belle, do you think you’re ready to go outside the University?”

The young woman paused before replying, “I don’t think I’ll ever truly think I’m ready, but I could probably not die within a few weeks.”

Light nodded. “Master Baelfire talked with me yesterday,” she said. “He’s sending Scoot on her graduation exercise in a few days. He managed to convince Snail’s Master to send him out with her, and wants Partition and I to send you girls out with your sister.” Belle screwed her face up at the mention of Baelfire. Her Master noticed this and commented, “I know you don’t like him, though I can’t fathom why, but this is not for him. It’s for her.”

“She’s been different since she became his apprentice. More reserved,” the young mage said. “There’s something she’s not telling us. Something important. I think it has to do with Baelfire and Sunlight.”

“Sunlight disappeared seven years ago,” Light said. “Not even the Archmage could divine his location. He just saw the poor boy’s room every time.”

“Then comes Snail,” Belle said. “Literally days after Sunlight disappeared, she started dating again. Something is off, here, but she deflects all questions I aim at her.”

“Have you tried asking Baelfire or Snail?” the Master asked. “They might know something about it.”

“If it does involve them, I don’t want them to know I’m onto them.” Belle sighed. “I’m just worried for her. I think she’s hurting, but she’s just been pushing Twi and me away.”

Light thought for a second, before asking, “Why haven’t you brought this up before?”

“It’s never been relevant. It feels like family business,” was the reply.

“I can tell you that Baelfire is not the kind of man to hurt a woman,” the older woman said. “Unless I’ve got him pegged all wrong, this is not directly his fault.”

The young woman sighed. After a moment she said, “I want to go out with them when they leave. Once we’re away from the University, I can finally get some answers from them.”

“If that’s what you want to do, I can’t stop you. You should probably pack your stuff now so you’re ready when he calls for you. Your assignment is to help your sisters complete their assignments. Come back when they’re done.”

Belle nodded, standing up to go pack.

—*~*~*—

“Spike, where are you hiding?” Twilight asked, opening the next drawer in her dresser. “Master needs us soon!” She ruffled through the clothes in the drawer, finding no wyrmling. “How do you hide so well? You’re three feet long and purple!”

She opened up another drawer, and was met with a small purple dragon lounging in her undergarments. He gave her a guilty look as she glared at him. “We’re going to be late if we don’t leave. Now.”

The dragon more than got the point, jumping up onto Twilight’s shoulder. She groaned as he climbed into the ever-present backpack, “You’re getting too heavy for this, Spike.” She got a hiss from the dragon in response.

The young woman rolled her eyes before grabbing her spellbook and dashing out the door. There were two girls walking down the hall at that moment. One of them tried to flag her down. “Twilight, we’re holding a party—”

“Sorry!” the woman in question said running past the duo. “Can’t stop! Late!”

“Harumph,” the girls said. “She could at least pretend to be sociable.”

Twilight didn’t hear them, having already dashed around the corner. She ran right into a mountain of black, falling flat on her rump.

“Ah, Twilight,” the mountain said. “Just the woman I was looking for.”

“Master Partition!” Twilight exclaimed. “Sorry I’m late!”

“You aren’t late, Twilight. We weren’t scheduled to start for another five minutes,” the Master mage said. “I was actually hoping to speak with you.”

“What do you need?” she asked.

“What do you know of Apprentice Sunlight?” he asked her bluntly.

“I know as much as anyone elses. He dated Scoot for a year and a half before disappearing seven years ago,” she said. “Why?”

“I have reason to believe he’s dead,” Partition said.

“Dead? But they couldn’t find a body!” the young mage exclaimed.

“You know as well as I do that there is more than one way to utterly destroy someone’s corpse after they’re dead.” He had a somber tone to his voice. “Master Baelfire came to me yesterday. He’s sending out Scoot for a graduation exercise.”

“That’s great news!” Twilight said, clapping her hands together. “She’ll graduate, and she’ll be away from all the other Apprentices that like to aggravate her.”

“He’s gotten Snail’s Master to agree to send him with her,” he said.

Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “How is this an issue? The two of them are nearly inseparable.”

“Let’s step into your room, shall we? This is not a conversation that needs to be overheard.”

Twilight nodded, walking back into her room. When the Master shut the door, he immediately cast a spell. “There, now nobody can hear what we’re saying.” He sighed, sitting down at the chair Twilight used when at her desk. “I have reason to believe that the rumors of a Cult of the Dark One are more than just rumors.”

Twilight gasped, “What?”

The older mage nodded his head. “I also believe that Baelfire is a member.”

Twilight’s mind froze. “What.”

“Listen to my evidence. It’s all circumstantial, but if any of it is true, it would be damning,” the Master pleaded.

Twilight nodded, eyes wide. This was huge.

Partition sighed, “Thank you, Twilight. The Archmage laughed at me when I even suggested that there was a Cult of the Dark One.”

“This is big, I have to at least hear your evidence before dismissing the idea,” Twilight replied.

The Master nodded. “Here’s the problem. I think this Cult is everywhere. The Dark One always seems to know just where we’re vulnerable. It seems to always get around our best defenses.” He sighed. “I caught Baelfire trying to sneak into the Archmage’s room when the old man was out a few years back. I thought nothing of it, every one of us has been in there without the old man’s knowledge at one point. It’s expected of us since it sharpens our skills at detecting and disabling magic without leaving a trace. The thing is, Light also caught him trying to sneak into the Archmage’s room, but she caught him three times over the last few years. I also caught him attempting to do so again a few weeks past.

“That man is after something in the Archmage’s room, and I think I know what.” When he was done, Twilight was sitting on her bed, being unable to stand out of shock. Partition stood up, reaching into his robes. He pulled out a tiara made of gold. Ovoid blue gems studded the band that would rest upon its wearer’s head, while complexly spiraling wires held up another gem, this one a massive light pinkish-purple six-pointed star bordered by a thin layer of gold.

Twilight let out a low whistle of appreciation at the crown, as much from the craftsmanship as from the high levels of magic she could feel radiating from it.

“This is the most powerful magic item in the entire University,” Partition said. “Maybe even in the world. Like all enchanted items, it has a personality. However, it is an artifact, therefore it has a complete personality. It wants to get out of here. It wants to leave with you.”

Twilight held up her hands between herself and the crown. “Woah, woah, woah. What? Slow down, Master.”

Her master sighed. Taking a deep breath he started again, “This is the Crown of Harmony. It is connected to another five artifacts around the world, but we haven’t found them. Not for lack of trying. I want you to find at least one more of these artifacts and keep it and the Crown as far away from Baelfire as you can.”

Twilight nodded, slipping the tiara in her backpack with Spike. “What was that about Sunlight, though?”

“I believe that Baelfire is trying to convert his apprentices,” the Master said. “And I think that Sunlight found him out and tried to warn Scoot.”

“And you think Scoot might be a member, don’t you?” Twilight asked, frowning. As much as it hurt to admit, it made sense.

“It’s a distinct probability. Someone killed that poor boy, and I believe it was either Baelfire or Scoot. I also believe she converted Snail, as well.” The older mage stood up. “Don’t let anyone know what you’re doing, not Scoot, not even Belle. This is something you have to keep utmost secrecy on. If these artifacts became common knowledge, there would be all kinds of hell as everyone tried to grab them.”

“Yes, Master,” Twilight sighed.

“Now go pack, you have a long walk ahead of you.”

—*~*~*—

“Yo, Twi!” Scoot shouted as the her sister approached the front gates of the University.

“Hey, Scoot,” Twilight said, smiling. “You ready to go?”

“Ready? I’m more than ready!” Scoot was bouncing in place.

“Calm yourself, Scoot,” Belle said from behind Twilight. “Are we all ready to go?”

“Nah, we still gotta wait for Snail,” Scoot said. “I swear, if that boy wasn’t as cute as he is I might lose patience with him.”

A slow voice said, “Glad to know I mean so much to you, Scoot.”

The girl squealed and glomped the taller man. He backed up a step, before smiling sheepishly at the other girls. He didn’t miss the glare that Belle was giving him as he returned the enthusiastic hug. He spoke up, “Is everyone ready?”

“Now that you’re here, I’m good,” Scoot said, letting go of the young man.

“I’ve got my stuff,” Belle said measuredly. “I’m ready whenever you girls are.” Snail didn’t miss that he wasn’t included in her blanket statement.

“I’m ready if you all are,” Twilight said. “You got your stuff, Snail?”

The young man in question took a few seconds to reply, “Yep.”

“Awesome!” Scoot exclaimed. “Let’s get moving then!”

As the four started walking, Belle settled in next to Twilight, “I don’t trust Snail. Not one bit.”

“What?” Twilight exclaimed quietly. “Why not? He seems like a nice guy.”

“Think about it, Sunlight disappears and suddenly she’s dating him?” Belle said. “It just smells fishy to me.”

Twilight sighs, “Partition thinks Sunlight was killed, but I don’t know what to think.”

“Does he have any evidence?” Belle asked.

“Just circumstantial,” Twilight said. “Nothing solid.”

Belle nodded, looking at the two walking in front of them, arm in arm. “I think Snail did it.”

“Why?” the older woman asked.

“He just happened to be there to swing in and comfort Scoot after Sunlight vanished into thin air?” Belle said with aggravation. “Something doesn’t add up.”

“It will all make sense soon,” Twilight said.

“I sure hope so,” Belle replied. “Because if it doesn’t, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

1.1 The Meeting

“I must say, I’m not used to you being this quiet,” Rarity commented.

“Bah, that’s just because I’m out of things to say,” Dirk chuckled. “Once people start showing up, I will have a lot to say”

“Howdy!” A voice called out from behind the duo. They turned around to see three people on horses. One was a huge man with golden hair under a wide-brimmed black stetson. He wore a black duster over leather armor. Next to him was a young woman with red hair and light amber eyes. Her stetson was smaller and lighter, and she wore tight-fitting leather. The one who had hailed them, however, was off her horse. She had a friendly smile on her face under her well worn stetson.

“Hello!” Dirk called out happily. Rarity elbowed him in the side, giving him a look. She stepped forwards to speak with their guests.

“Hello,” she said. “Might I ask who you are?”

“Me?” the woman said. “Ahm a mercenary. Got hired to protect some healer on a mission. You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would ya?”

Dirk stepped forwards, “Depends on who hired ya.”

“Ah take it yer the bodyguard the lady’s father provided?” the woman asked.

“Jack,” the youngest member of the trio spoke up softly. “Ah know this one.”

Jack looked back at her, “Is that so?”

“His name’s Dirk,” the younger woman said. “He’s a wanted bandit. Got a nice bounty on ‘im, too.”

“Is that so?” Jack said, turning back to the duo.

Rarity stepped in front of Dirk. “I was given a guarantee by the Headmaster himself of Dirk’s safety.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “Is that so?”

“It is,” Rarity said, not backing down. The two stared at each other intently for the next few seconds before Jack scoffed and looked at Dirk.

“Yer gettin off this time ‘cause we got a job to do. Next time ya won’t be so lucky,” she warned.

“Now will you tell us who hired you?” Dirk asked. “We weren’t informed of any new guards.”

The big man spoke up, “Headmaster.”

Dirk cocked an eyebrow, “Is that so?”

Jack got into his face, “Are ya makin’ fun of me?”

“I am not, Jackie,” he said. The two behind the woman took hissing breaths, readying themselves to pull the woman off of the man.

She narrowed her eyes, “Mah name’s Applejack. Jack to mah friends, which ya aren’t.”

“Alright, Miss Applejack,” Rarity said, pushing Dirk back to stand in front of the woman. “He meant no insult.”

“I could never insult such a pretty face,” Dirk chirped.

“Dirk!” Rarity snapped, looking back at him. “You promised you’d behave.”

“I said I’d try,” he said, smirking.

Rarity rolled her eyes, returning to the conversation she had with the other woman. “If you were hired to help us, then you’d know where we were going.”

“We were told to escort you during your mission around the borders of the Griffon Empire,” the youngest woman spoke up. “We weren’t told any specifics beyond the location and that there would be paladins involved.”

Rarity nodded. “I think introductions are in order. My name is Rarity, I’m the daughter of Charity.” She jabbed a thumb at Dirk. “That’s Dirk. He’s the founder and ex-leader of the Red Hand bandits. Don’t let his rap sheet or his personality fool you, he’s a big softie when it matters. He left the Red Hand nearly five years ago to help protect the town that got set up by some of the refugees from the area around Everfree.”

Applejack nodded. “Mah name is Applejack, as you know. The big lug that doesn’t know how to use words is mah older brother Mac, and the shy one is our little sister Bloom.”

“Nice to meet you all,” Rarity said, giving a little bow.

Mac tipped his hat and Bloom blushed and waved. Applejack smirked at their reactions before saying, “We should probably get movin’.”

“I completely agree. Unless you plan on sharing some horses, we’ll be walking,” Rarity said.

Applejack patted her horse on the flank, “These poor guys are gettin’ pretty tired after ridin’ for a few days. Ah think they deserve a break.”

—*~*~*—

The clanking of the paladin procession could be heard for miles as nearly three dozen fully armored men and women walked along the road North. Pinkie was her usual bubbly self, almost bouncing as she walked. Her mood seemed to be infectious, as all nearby paladins were at least smiling. Bright chuckled at her antics before returning his eyes to the sky. They were nearing griffon territory, so it would pay to be vigilant.

That vigilance paid off mere seconds later as he spotted a speck in the air, much too large to be any natural bird. “Got one!” he shouted to the group. “High to the North!”

All the paladins shifted their gear to make it easier to drop and draw their weapons should they need to. They kept walking along the route, casting an occasional glance at the rapidly growing shape in the sky. Soon the shape had visible arms and legs added to the wings, marking it as a definite griffon.

The griffon landed right in front of the group. As Bright caught sight of her, he quickly dropped his gear and started walking swiftly towards her. The assembled paladins could do little more than gape at her. She was a winged human about six feet tall, wearing leather gloves, boots, and pants. She had her long prismatic hair tied back sloppily, allowing easy line of sight to her beautiful face. What Bright had noticed, however, is that she had a bare chest, adorned only with a knife belt.

She noticed his approach and smirked as he undid his belt. “Man, I knew I was smokin’ hot, but this guy just can’t wait to get a piece of me, can he?”

Bright ignored her as he whipped off his tabard. Her next words were cut off as he walked behind her, undoing the knots tying the knife belt around her chest, catching it as it fell. He quickly pulled his tabard over her head, using his belt to tie the garment so it wouldn’t fall off. Just as swiftly as he removed the knife belt, he replaced it right where it was and re-tied it. He backed up, examining his handiwork, before nodding.

Rainbow Dash looked at him in confusion. “Can anyone please explain what he just did?”

Pinkie stepped forward, adjusting some of Bright’s knots. “He covered your chest. Humans have a nudity taboo much stricter than your peoples’. We frown upon bare chests on women.”

Rainbow scoffed, “That’s dumb, but whatever.”

“If you’re going to be in our lands, you might as well pretend to follow our customs,” Pinkie said, finishing her work on the knots and stepping back. She took immediate notice of the crossbows. “You’re a ranger, aren’t you?”

“Not quite sure what you mean by that, but I prefer to shoot things at a distance if I’m gonna kill ‘em,” Rainbow said. “Name’s Rainbow Dash.”

“Hello, Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie said brightly. “My name’s Pinkie.”

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow, “No clan name?”

Bright interjected, “Humans don’t have clans.”

The half-griffon cocked her head at the man. “Really? That’s even dumber than the chest thing. How do you know if it’s okay to use hatchling-names then?”

“We don’t have more than one name,” Pinkie said. The paladins behind the two were shifting with impatience. One of them stepped forward.

“Paladin Bright, Acolyte Pinkie, we need to get moving. We can’t let some savage stop us from doing our job.”

The prismatic haired woman bristled at his words. “You want to say that to my face, buddy?” she challenged. “I could kick your ass seven ways to Sunday!”

The paladin took a step forward, but Pinkie stepped in between the two. “Paladin Sun, we don’t need to be in a group, remember? If you want to leave, then leave.”

Sun scoffed, “If you’re willing to fail your graduation for a griffon,” he spit the last word like poison, “then be my guest.”

“I think that she is much more civilized than you are, right now,” Bright mentioned. “Racism is an archaic way of thinking.”

“Bah,” Sun scoffed. “I’m leaving to do our job. Anyone who wants to complete this mission any time soon should come with me.”

Every single paladin save for Pinkie and Bright left with Sun.

“Well,” Pinkie said.

“I’ll say,” Rainbow agreed. “We were always told that paladins were the pinnacle of human morality. If that’s true, maybe I should turn back.”

“Please ignore them,” the older paladin said. “What I said about racism being archaic is unfortunately not true. It is incredibly common for humans to hate griffons, changelings, and minotaurs purely because they’re different.”

The half breed nodded, “Most griffons hate humans for having magic and luxury, while we’re stuck in the mountains, carving houses from cliffsides.”

Bright raised an eyebrow, “And you aren’t one of those?”

“Oh, I am, but since I’m living in human lands from now on, I have to get over it, don’t I?” she said.

“Why are you—” Pinkie started to ask.

“None of your business,” the winged woman said quickly.

“Okey dokey lokey,” Pinkie said slowly.

“Come, we might as well do our job. You’re more than welcome to join us, Miss Dash,” Bright said.

“I’ve got nothing better to do,” she replied, unfurling her wings to their full thirteen foot span. “I’ll get a griffon’s eye view of the road ahead. See if there’s any fun that your buddies haven’t dealt with already.”

—*~*~*—

“I think we should take a break,” Twilight panted as the four of them walked along the road North.

“Twilight, we just stopped for a break an hour ago,” Scoot said. “We can’t stop again so soon, we’ll never get anywhere.”

“Maybe if you’d left Master Partition’s tower once in a while to get some exercise,” Belle commented, “this wouldn’t be so hard for you.”

Twilight sighed, gritting her teeth. It was another three days of travel at this speed before they reached Baltimare.

“Don’t want to keep Ma and Pa waiting,” Scoot reminded. “They haven’t seen any of us in nearly a decade.”

“I. . . remember,” the studious mage said. “I’m tired though.”

“Another hour,” Snail said in his usual measured pace, “then we’ll stop.” Twilight nodded, thankful to have a stopping point planned. It was going to be a long hour, though.

After about a half hour, they spotted smoke from a campfire set up further along the road. Snail sighed and said, “We’ll rest there.”

“I like that idea,” Scoot said. Despite teasing Twilight for her not being athletic, she was really looking forward to a chance to sit down.

“Thank the Light One,” Twilight moaned. “I can’t feel my feet.”

Then again, when she reacts like that. . . .

Within minutes, the four of them had walked up to a camp site. Five people sat in this site, three female and two male. All heads turned their way when the mages walked up. Scoot was the first one to talk, to no surprise, “Yo. Wanna share the fire?”

“Scoot,” Belle sighed before turning to the travelers at the campfire. “We happened to see your campfire and were wondering if you would be willing to share.”

“Well, ah don’t see why not,” one of the women said. “Come an’ sit down. Share some tales of the road.”

As the mages sat down, Belle flushed slightly. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have any tales to tell. We’re fresh from the University.”

“Ah, on a graduation exercise, are we?” the woman said.

“Yes ma’am,” the young mage replied. “What about you five?”

The same woman spoke up, “Well, there’s Mac, that’s the big one there that don’t talk none, Bloom, the shy one that also don’t talk none, just for a different reason, and ahm Applejack, or just Jack to my friends. We’ve been hired to protect this fine lady here.”

“Nice to meet you,” Belle said, giving an awkward half bow from her position on a log by the fire.

“I am Rarity,” the woman who hadn’t been introduced yet said. “I’m a healer. The paladins asked for me to head along with them for an expedition to the North, so here I am.”

“Where are the paladins?” Scoot blurted out.

“Scoot,” Snail said, causing the brash young woman to blush.

“No, it’s a fair question. These fine fellows were hired after the fact, and met us along the way,” the healer said. “That there’s Dirk. He’s my bodyguard, at least for this expedition. He usually serves in the spot of that one uncle you have that you love, but don’t want to be associated with.”

“You know you love me, Rares,” Dirk said, smirking.

“I just said that,” she sighed. “I just don’t want to be seen in public with you most the time.”

“Argh!” he said, holding a hand to his chest. “You wound me!”

Belle giggled at their antics, before saying, “Well it seems fair that we introduce ourselves now, doesn’t it?”

“It seems nice and proper,” Applejack said. “We’ll start with you, then go on from there.”

“My name’s Belle,” the young woman said. “I’m an Apprentice swordmage.”

“Sounds all kinds of fancy,” Applejack said. “We might just have to get you to talk with—well, to—Bloom here. She does information and planning for the three of us.”

“I might just have to, if we travel together for any length of time,” Belle agreed. “Those two are twins. The messy one with a boyfriend is Scoot, while the single one who always keeps everything perfect is Twilight.”

“Hey!” Twilight indignantly exclaimed. “You’re single, too!”

Belle laughed, “So I am. I’m also three years younger than you.”

Mac spoke up, “Who’s the feller?”

They all looked expectantly at the young man with Scoot sitting in his lap, his arms wrapped around her. After a slight pause, he said, “My name’s Snail.”

“That’s an odd name to give to a child,” Applejack said bluntly. “You must have some odd parents.”

He shook his head slowly, “I took it myself.”

At Applejack’s look, Scoot spoke up, “It’s a nickname I gave to him years ago, when we first started dating. I gave it to him because he may be slow, but he always gets there. Most people assume that he’s some kind of idiot because of how slow he is to respond and talk. I’ll admit it, even I thought so when I first met him. He’s actually really smart and just thinks about things before he says them. He has about a dozen replies and the most likely reaction calculated before he decides on saying something, on average.”

“Fifteen,” he said.

“See? Smart man.” She turned to the other girls before stage whispering, “I don’t just like him for his brains, though. He’s a solid ten.”

Snail blushed instantly at her words, giving her a quick squeeze. She gave off a small squeal of surprise at his action, much to his satisfaction.

“Seems like the kinda guy who’d get along well with Mac,” Applejack said. “He don’t much like to mince words if he don’t need ta.”

“Where are you going, if I may ask? Rarity interrupted the conversation. “If we’re heading in the same direction, there is safety in numbers.”

“We’re heading up to Baltimare to visit our parents,” Belle said, ignoring the play fight Scoot and Snail had gotten into. “What about you guys?”

“We’re headin’ North,” Applejack said. “The fancy paladins are doin’ a mission up there.”

“Well it seems like you just gained some traveling companions, if that’s alright with you,” Belle said.

“Shoot, it don’t bother me none,” the other woman said. She looked over at Scoot and Snail, who had graduated from play fighting to making out. “Is that. . . normal for them?”

Twilight nodded, “Very. She was known to be late to lessons because of it.”

“As long as they do it at reasonable times and it don’t go no farther, we won’t have a problem,” Applejack chuckled.

Scoot paused what she was doing for a second to look up. “Deal.”

—*~*~*—

“Uh, hello?” a timid voice asked. Bright looked up from the camp they had made to see a young woman with long pink hair walking into camp. “You aren’t bandits, are you?”

Rainbow spoke up, “Nah, most of us are paladins. You’re safer here than most places on the road.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” the woman said, sitting down by the fire. Suddenly she froze. “You don’t mind if I share the fire, right?”

“Nope,” Pinkie said, shifting to sit next to the woman. “Name’s Pinkie, and I’m an acolyte. What about you?”

“My name is Flutter,” she said quietly. “I’m a summoner.”

“Ooh, fancy!” Pinkie exclaimed. “What does a summoner do, besides the obvious?”

Bright narrowed his eyes, “I know of only one summoner, you wouldn’t happen to know him, would you?”

“The Summoner?” Flutter asked. “Is that who you’re talking about?”

“Mhm,” the older paladin said. “I take it you do?”

“Yeah, he took me in after my parents died,” she said. “Taught me how to be like him.”

“You’re aware that he’s one of the Icons, right?” he asked. Flutter stopped breathing.

“He’s a what, now?” Rainbow asked. “What’s an Icon?”

“An Icon is a being of immense power,” Pinkie explained. “They usually live for a long time, centuries, even millennia. Each one has the power to shape an entire age of history, if they so wish to.”

“Geez, how many of these Icons are there?” the winged woman asked.

“Thirteen,” Bright said. “There’s the Archmage, who focuses on learning new magics; the Blackguard, may the Dark One take his black heart; the Summoner, who does exactly what his name suggests; the Minotaur King; the Changeling Queen; the One, who rarely gets involved; the Light One, who is at the forefront of fighting the Dark One; the Allmother, who keeps nature on the correct course; the Necromancer, damn his eyes; the Griffon Emperor, who I assume you’re familiar with; the Speaker of the Light, who communes with the One for advice; the Trickster, and all his foolish pranks, and the Dark One.”

“You mentioned this ‘Dark One’ like three times, so I assume he’s important?” Rainbow asked.

“The Dark One corrupts the minds and bodies of living creatures to serve its purposes,” Pinkie said with uncharacteristic seriousness. “It rolls in like a black fog, and all that get caught in the fog are lost.”

Rainbow was silent for a moment, before asking, “By a black fog, do you mean a rolling cloud of shadow that stays low to the ground?”

“Yes, have you seen it?” Bright asked as Flutter gasped.

“Yeah, we get some of those fogs occasionally,” the winged woman said. “Always out of season for heavy fogs. Never seemed to do any harm, and nobody seemed to act different after being through one. I avoided them like the plague, though. Fogs out of season are bad luck, after all.”

Bright let out a sigh of relief. “This is good news and bad. The bad news is it seems that the Dark One has been in the Empire for years. Thankfully, its not corrupting anyone yet.”

“What does this corruption look like, anyway?” Rainbow asked.

“The hair and skin darken, their breaths come out as puffs of shadow, and clouds of shadow billow out of their every pore and orifice,” Pinkie said.

“Yeah, never seen it. Sounds nasty, and not like something you’re bound to forget anytime soon.” Rainbow reclined on the log chair she had made earlier and looking up at the night sky.

She didn’t notice the dark look appear on Pinkie’s face. “No,” she whispered, “it isn’t.”

Flutter looked at the young woman in worry.

“I’ll get some scouting done tomorrow,” Rainbow said, adjusting the tabard she was still wearing. It was uncomfortable for someone used to not having to wear a shirt. “See how far away the rest of your buddies got trying to get away from me.”

—*~*~*—

Twilight was finally getting the hang of this whole travelling thing. It took three days for her to figure out that complaining was not going to make anything easier on her, and to just suck it up for the duration of the travel. She did, however, learn the lesson. Much to Scoot’s dismay.

“Alright, ya’ll. We’re stoppin’ here,” Applejack called from the front. “ ‘Bout time for lunch, anyway.”

“We’re passing by Baltimare in a few hours, right?” Belle asked.

“Eeyup,” the undercover agent said. “You’ll be at your parents’ place in time for supper.”

As they were settling down to eat some of their rations, there was a rustling sound from the trees further along the road. The three agents-turned-mercenaries immediately placed their hands on their weapons, ready for the worst.

Everyone was surprised when a normal looking human burst through the leaves on cyan wings. She slammed into the ground, grumbling as she pulled some crossbow bolts out that got caught in her armor. “Damned crossbows. Only I can be good with ranged weapons, otherwise it isn’t fair.”

“Uhm, hello?” Rarity hailed.

The woman turned towards them, wincing as she folded her wings to her back. “Hi. Yeah, can you guys fight?”

“What is it? Bandits?” Applejack asked, drawing a sword.

“Worse. Look, just be ready to fight, they’re on the way, right behind my new buddies,” the woman said.

Bloom spoke up, “Wait, that’s a paladin tabard!”

“So it is, there are more important things to worry about now. Everyone draw a weapon!” the flier snapped.

Mac drew walked over to a small tree and ripped it out of the ground. He gave it a test swing, before grunting in acceptance. Rainbow looked at him for a second, before shaking her head and turning to Rarity. “Grab yourself a weapon, lady!”

“I–I’m a healer!” she said. “I don’t know how to fight!”

Applejack sighed in annoyance as she pulled out one of her many swords, handing it handle first to Rarity. “If anything gets close to you, hit it with the pointy end.”

There was the sound of thumping footsteps from the direction the woman had crash landed from. Flashes of color could be seen through the trees as a clanking sound started growing louder. As suddenly as the woman had arrived, three figures, one male and two female, came sprinting along the road. They burst into the campsite before slowing. “Rainbow!” the armored woman yelled.

“I found us some friends,” Rainbow said.

“What is going on?” Twilight exclaimed.

“Weren’t you five looking for some paladins?” Scoot asked. “These two look like they could be—”

“Paladin Bright and Acolyte Pinkie, at your service,” the man interrupted. “We can exchange pleasantries later, we have a bit of a problem on our hands.”

Rainbow nodded, adding, “If you’re looking for paladins, you sure found them.”

“How many of you are there?” Rarity asked.

“Two,” was Bright’s reply.

Rarity was confused. “I was told there would be—”

“Two. There’s only two of us now,” the man interrupted again.

“What do you mean ‘now’?” Belle asked. There was the sound of dozens of footfalls coming from where the four people had come from. Flashes of silver and white could be seen through the foliage.

“I mean there are only two of us, now,” Bright said, drawing his weapons. Pinkie followed suit. They braced themselves on the road.

The first paladins became visible as they crashed through the plant life in their way. Their skin was ashy, and their hair was all dark and burnt looking. The paladin at the front roared at the assembled heroes, spewing a cloud of darkness in front of him. Dark clouds leaked from the joints of their armor as they ran, billowing out behind them.

“Say hello to the fighting force the Order sent up North,” Bright said through clenched teeth. “It was waiting for us.”

1.2 Family Reunions

The first paladin stumbled as three small balls of force slammed into his chest. Belle leveled her slender rapier at the next paladin, throwing more magic missiles from its tip.

Scoot and Snail started waving their hands and chanting softly, while Twilight threw force walls up to funnel all the corrupted paladins at their non corrupted counterparts. The glowing blue walls shimmered and Twilight grit her teeth in concentration as corrupted slammed into them.

Pinkie and Bright grunted as the first corrupted slammed into their shields. They dug trails in the ground as their feet were pushed back slowly. Pinkie snarled as she pushed back, advancing step by step.

Bright stabbed his sword through the space between him and the young woman to his right. The corrupted paladin caught the jab on its shield expertly and with all the skill it held before the corruption.

Rainbow rustled her wings, wincing as the bolt in her right wing shifted. She wasn’t getting into the air any time soon. She drew both her crossbows, aiming them between the paladins’ shields. As soon as an opening presented itself, she pulled both triggers. One of the shieldless corrupted crumpled, a crossbow bolt in both its neck and face.

Flutter moved to stand by Bloom, behind Mac and his massive tree-turned-club. She closed her eyes for a moment, and a yellow-tinged copy of Mac, complete with his club, appeared behind the corrupted paladins. With an overhead swing of the massive construct, one of the paladins crumpled down to the ground, obviously dead.

Dirk drew a sword and dagger, standing protectively by Rarity, ready should any corrupted break through the paladins.

There was a flash of smoke as Applejack vanished. She reappeared behind the shield line built by the corrupted. She jabbed a dagger into the back of the heads of both the paladins she was by before spinning around, throwing another dagger into the face of a third. With another flash she was behind the advancing allied paladins.

Even with that, there were still nearly thirty corrupted charging at the group. Three turned around to fight with the construct Mac. Flutter winced as they broke chunks off of the golem, but retained enough concentration to make the yellow Mac swing once more before going down. With a swing of the massive club, two of the corrupted crumpled. The construct then shattered, making Flutter cry out, dropping to the ground with a hand to her head.

Pinkie locked her shield with one more paladin, growling. She used her teeth to pull the straps tying the shield to her arm, dropping it. She used the moment of unbalance that caused her opponent to pull a crossbow from her belt. With a pull of the trigger, the other paladin dropped.

Bright threw his shield to the side just in time to catch a bolt shot by one of the farther back paladins aimed at the young woman. “If you could do that teleporting thing again, Miss Applejack,” he said, grunting as he brought his shield back to block a swing from the corrupted in front of him. “That would be great.”

With a nod, Applejack vanished, appearing behind the crossbow wielding paladins. With two quick slashes from her longsword, they both dropped, headless. Sun walked up behind her, grabbing her around the throat before she could teleport again. She let out a strangled exclamation of surprise.

Rainbow saw what was happening, and whipped a crossbow up at the senior paladin. Her first bolt hit him in the hand, causing him to drop the agent. She immediately vanished, appearing by her savior. The next two bolts Rainbow threw went through the joints of Sun’s armor, one in the knee and the other in the elbow.

“Everyone down!” Scoot yelled as she reached the climax of her casting. Everyone in front of her obeyed instantly, dropping to the ground. The corrupted chuckled with voices sounding of ground charcoal before advancing on the now prone paladins.

They never made it, as Snail shot a grease spell over the prone forms of his allies. The grease coated the ground and the corrupted. Sun, who was just out of range of the spell, widened his eyes as he saw the fire spark in Scoot’s hands. He turned and ran as best as he could with a crossbow bolt in his knee as a small red bead shot into the middle of the grease.

The corrupted slipped and stumbled as they tried to stand up in grease while coated in the stuff. Scoot smiled as she said one word, “Boom.”

Right after she said that, the bead caught fire and seemed to expand exponentially, engulfing most of the corrupted in a thirty foot fireball. Those that weren’t caught in the blast were lit on fire as the flames ran along the grease Snail had thrown moments prior. The corrupted that weren’t immediately incinerated screamed in agony as they slowly burned to death surrounded by fire.

“And that, my friends, is why it is awesome to know an Evoker,” Scoot said smugly, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend from behind.

Bloom and Flutter stared at her in horror, looking at the former paladins, some of whom were still screaming and thrashing around in the burning grease.

“That was,” Applejack said, pausing to try and find a word to describe what she just saw.

“Efficient,” Mac finished for her. Applejack nodded dumbly.

“Brutal,” Rarity said. Applejack nodded again.

“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, jumping in front of the older woman. “That was so cool!”

Scoot blew her bangs out of her face, before replying, “I know.”

Snail put a hand on the excited woman’s head, stopping her bouncing. “Don’t inflate her ego.”

Scoot smacked him playfully on the arm, “Do you want to lose your cuddle buddy privileges for the duration of this trip?”

Smartly, Snail chose not to respond.

Pinkie stood by the edge of the still burning fire, staring at the finally still corpses of the paladins. She couldn’t tell if the smoke rising was from the corruption or from their flesh immolating.

Bright walked up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t even react. “Pinkie,” he said softly. He flinched as she turned to him with broken eyes, eyes he hadn’t seen in nearly a decade. “Pinkie, there was nothing we could do. The Dark One knew we were on the way and was waiting for us.”

Pinkie turned back to the corpses. She pointed at one, “That’s Shine. She loved riddle games. She would always trade riddles with Crimson, there.” She pointed to another burned corpse.

“Pinkie,” Bright said. The rest of the group was looking at the two of them, but he didn’t care at this point.

“Crimson just got engaged. He was so happy,” she choked up. “Now look at what happened. What am I going to tell his fianc����é? ‘Sorry, but there isn’t a body, it’s burned away’?”

“Pinkie,” Bright said again. “Don’t think about it.”

“Don’t think about it?” she shouted, whirling at him. “These men and women were our friends! They were like family! Look at them now!” She pointed a finger at the smoldering corpses. Bright didn’t break eye contact with her. She brought her right hand up and slapped him across the face, forcing his face towards the former paladins. “Look at them, damn you!”

“Pinkie,” he said again, looking at her again and ignoring his stinging cheek. “We couldn’t have done anything. Thinking otherwise is wrong and will do nothing but hurt you.”

The young woman slowly dropped to the ground as tears started to fall from her eyes. Bright grabbed her and held onto her as she wept into his chest. What a great start to her career as a paladin.

—*~*~*—

He opened his eyes to see nothing but darkness. He waited calmly, knowing that this meant his mistress was contacting him.

“You are incompetent,” the voice in the darkness growled.

“Mistress?” he asked.

“All you had to do was deliver her to me, a task that is not too hard, and you failed,” the voice echoed throughout the darkness.

“I set it up perfectly!” the man cowered. “None of them even knew they were being manipulated!”

“And yet she survived,” the voice growled, “and they have united.”

“Mistress?” he asked, daring to look up.

“You have failed me.” The dark parted as a beautiful woman walked through. She was tall, with long, slender legs and flowing, dark blue hair. She wore tight-fitted platemail over her slender body, and a helmet partially covered her angular features. “You have failed at this, of all tasks.” She smiled, showing off pointed teeth. “This means you have to be punished.”

“No, mistress!” he wailed. “I can do better!”

His started screaming within seconds.

—*~*~*—

The thirteen companions walked up to the gates of Baltimare. Pinkie was still hanging on to Bright as they walked through the streets, caring not for the stares her tears brought in addition to those caused by her winged companion. When the group reached town square, Bright spoke up. “Pinkie and I cannot return to the monastery. This was an inside job, there was no other explanation. Someone told it where to find us.”

“Then where are you going to go?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know,” he sighed, “but until we know who’s leaking our movements, we can’t dare return.”

Scoot spoke up, “Why don’t you come with us? Ma and Pa have more than enough room for you two in their house.”

Belle shot her a look. “Scoot, do you think that Mom and Dad are going to be happy with you inviting random people into the house without talking to them first?”

“Ah’ll come with,” Applejack said. “If they don’t want to take care of ‘em, ah have more than enough money to get them a room for a week or so.”

“Thank you, Applejack,” the paladin said, giving her a smile.

She tipped her hat. “Just Jack to mah friends.” She turned to Dirk. “Which you still aren’t.” The man held his hands up defensively.

“Come on, Dirk. We have to find a place to stay until we can leave,” Rarity said.

“Scoot, don’t you dare—” Belle started to say at Scoot’s smirk.

“Hey, let’s all head to Ma and Pa’s house,” the woman in question suggested. “We owe you more than a day’s rest, but it would be a start.”

Twilight nodded, adding, “As much of a surprise as it will be for our parents, you did save our lives, even if Scoot did the heavy lifting at the end. We owe you this much.” Belle sighed in resignation.

Rainbow stretched her wings, wincing as she forgot about the bolt still in her wing. “I need to find myself a healer,” she groaned, before adding, “and find some way to pay them.”

Rarity smiled at her. “I’m a healer. When we get to the sisters’ parents’ house, I’ll take a look at it.” Rainbow smiled at her in thanks.

Within minutes they were led to a fairly large building. There was a sign above the door that read, “Star and Twinkle’s Force Magic School”. There was a brick facade on the front of the wooden building, giving it a much more serious air than it would have had otherwise. Twilight and her sisters walked up to the door, and the youngest gave the door three quick raps.

A few seconds later, the door opened. An older woman opened the door. She had white and light purple striped hair cut similarly to how Twilight wore her hair and light blue eyes. She had a large grin on her face as she spoke. “Hello and welcome to Star and Twinkle’s Force Magic School! How can we. . . help. . . you?” she trailed off slowly as she saw the sisters on her step, giving her huge smiles.

“Hi, Ma,” Scoot said.

“Twilight, Scoot, Belle,” she said with disbelief. “Is it really you, girls?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said, giving her mother a hug. “We’re back. For now, at least.”

The sisters’ mother let a single tear fall as she wrapped all three of her children in a massive hug. “Star, get out here! The girls are back!” she shouted back into the building.

“What? Are you messing with me?” a voice asked from inside the building. A man with dark blue hair and golden eyes walked up to the door. “By the light one, you girls are done already?”

“Almost,” Belle said. “We’re on our graduation exercises, and decided to stop by.”

His smile fell as he looked behind the girls. “Who are all these people? Do you know them, girls?”

Scoot pulled away from her mothers’ hug, smiling at her father. “Allow me to start the introductions. This cute boy right here,” she said, giving Snail a hug, “is Snail. I’ve written enough about him that you probably know more about him than I know, by this point.” She turned to the rest of the companions. “Why don’t you guys introduce yourselves?”

Bright stepped forwards, “I’m Paladin Bright, and this is Acolyte Pinkie. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”

Twinkle looked at him sideways. “What do you mean?”

“Later,” Belle said. “We’ll explain once we’re inside.”

The two eldest mages nodded slowly, turning back to the group. Applejack stepped forwards. “Mah name’s Applejack. This is Mac n’ Bloom.” The two nodded as they were named.

“I’ve heard your name before around town, Miss Applejack,” Star said slowly.

“Mercenaries tend to get their names out, if they want to eat,” she said. “That’s probably it.”

“Well, enough of that,” Dirk said stepping forwards. “My name is Dirk, and this fine lady behind me is Rarity.” At the look shared between the two mages, he elaborated, “I’m currently under the protection of the Headmaster of the Order of Light himself. I promise I’ll be harmless.”

Flutter stepped forward. “My name is Flutter.” As quickly as she stepped forward, she retreated back to where Mac and Bloom were standing.

“I’m the one and only Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow said, flaring her wings. She winced, pulling her wings back in. “Er, that usually looks much more impressive when I’m not injured.”

Introductions finished, Scoot looked at her parents. “I was hoping that there would be enough open beds for all of us to snag some. We’ve had an interesting day, today.”

Twinkle sighed, “You don’t ever make things easy, do you, Scoot?”

“Nope,” she said with a beaming smile.

—*~*~*—

“Alright, explain what happened,” Twinkle demanded as soon as they were sitting down at a table. Currently sitting with her were her daughters, Snail, and the EIA-turned-mercenary siblings. Bright was finding a room for the near-comatose Pinkie, Rainbow and Rarity were fixing the former’s wing, Flutter was finding herself a room, and Dirk was sticking outside Rarity’s room.

“We don’t have the full story, or even as much as we could know currently, but we’ll tell as much as we can until Bright comes back to fill in what we missed,” Scoot said from her spot by Snail.

“Good enough. Start talking,” Star said.

They did. The three of them, Snail choosing to be silent, explained their travel from Canterlot to the siblings’ camp. Applejack interjected with a story explaining their travel from Baltimare to meeting up with Rarity, and eventually meeting with the sisters. From that point, the four of them explained everything that had happened until their meeting with the girls’ parents. They left out no details, explaining everything they could remember, from Rainbow’s crash to Snail and Scoot’s incineration of two dozen corrupted paladins. They left out Pinkie’s breakdown, knowing it wasn’t their place to speak of it.

“That’s. . . quite a tale,” the girls’ mother said after a pause. “If it weren’t coming from you three, I wouldn’t believe it at all.”

“Add to that that it was an inside job on our end,” Bright added, walking in, “you get one hell of a story to try and get people to believe.”

“Wait, an inside job?” Star asked. “What do you mean by that?”

The paladin snorted. “Look, three dozen paladins, Pinkie and me included, left from the monastery to patrol along the Empire’s border. We were tasked with finding any of the Dark One’s corruption if it existed. What we found instead was the Dark One’s trap.” He sat down at the table. “Miss Dash had landed into our group the day before the trap sprung. Only Pinkie and I were willing to stay with the young woman, the rest of the paladins decided that anything with wings must be inferior and left.

“That’s what saved us. While we were trying to catch up with the rest of the group, Rainbow spotted a large cloud of shadow blowing towards us. She watched as the paladins were too slow to get away and were corrupted,” he sighed. “She puts on a brave face, but I know she was disturbed deeply by what she saw. She immediately reported to Pinkie, Flutter—who we had picked up late the night before—and me, and we started running. We were lucky to run into the others, or we would have died for sure.

“They probably told you the rest,” he finished. “Even if three dozen is a large number, it is still small enough to not attract notice. Someone told the Dark One where we would be, and until we know who, we can’t return to the monastery.”

The entire group was silent, digesting his words. Applejack was the first to speak up. “So yer saying that one of the members of our last line of defense is tellin’ the bad guy where to find paladins?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Miss Applejack,” Bright said.

“What’d I tell ya?” she said irratibly.

“Sorry, Jack,” he said sheepishly.

“This,” Twinkle said, pausing, “is quite a lot to take in.”

—*~*~*—

There was a small hole in the red aura of the flier’s wing. Rarity creased her eyebrow as she mumbled, “Of all the places to get hit, it had to be the one place I don’t know how to heal off the top of my head?”

“It’s better than if you had to heal one of the guys being hit in the balls,” Rainbow replied.

“I’ve healed dozens of groin wounds, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said matter of factly. “It only becomes awkward if you make it awkward.” She reached her aura to cover the wound. “Alright, I’m going to remove the bolt. This is going to hurt.”

“Ah, come on. It can’t be that—ARGH!” Rainbow exclaimed. “DAMN!”

“I warned you,” Rarity said, shaking the bolt at her. “Now quiet down, you big baby.”

Rainbow felt warmth flood into her wing as Rarity started poking and prodding it with magic. She let out a small giggle as Rarity started running her magic along the other wing to get a feel for how it should be structured.

“You’re lucky you have two wings, Rainbow Dash,” the healer commented. “If you didn’t, this would be much harder.”

“If I only had one wing, I would just cut off the other one,” Rainbow said. “It’s better than having a single useless wing getting in the way all the time.”

“Give my father a few weeks, and he would be able to grow your other wing back if he had one to use as a template,” Rarity said.

“I’d keep the useless wing and let it get in the way while I let your dad heal it,” the flier corrected.

“Alright, almost done,” Rarity said as the hole in the flier’s aura, and so her wing, shrank to a pinprick. Within a second it vanished. “There we go. Done.”

Rainbow sighed, flexing her wings. “Man, what I wouldn’t have given to have you around the year I broke my wing flying.”

The healer chuckled. “I bet. If you ever get hurt, even if it is just an annoying bruise, just say the word and you shall be healed.”

“Thanks Rares,” the prismatic-haired woman said, before pausing. “I can call you Rares, right?”

“Of course,” Rarity said. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

The flier smiled, “Of course we are. Thanks for the heal, Rares.”

“No problem, Rainbow,” the healer said, grabbing the shoulder of the woman in question. “Remember to come to me if you need healing.”

“I will,” the winged woman said, standing up. “I should probably find myself a room, now.”

“That’s a good idea,” the healer said.

“Yeah, maybe that stud Mac won’t have a room partner,” Rainbow was practically drooling. “I wouldn’t mind spending the night with him.”

“You’d get along marvelously with Dirk,” Rarity deadpanned.

—*~*~*—

“Unfortunately, there is only two to a room. You guys are lucky you showed up offseason like you did, usually the school is much more filled than it is now,” Star said.

“Two to a room will be more than enough,” Bright said. “We’ll get settled in and leave as soon as we can. I’d hate to be a bother.”

“Any friend of my daughters’ is a friend of mine,” the man said. “Stay as long as you need, the school year just ended, so you have a few months before we’ll need that room again.”

“Thank you, again,” the paladin said, pausing in the doorway. “You’ve been more than hospitable when you could have turned us away.”

“Like I said, we’re friends. Make yourself comfortable,” the other man said as he started walking back to his wife.

Applejack turned to Bloom. “Looks like we’re room buddies,” she said. “Sorry, Mac. You’ll have to share a room with someone else.”

The big man didn’t look worried.

After the sisters had walked into their room, Flutter walked up to Mac. “Uhm, could I–I mean, if it’s okay with you—”

“Yo, stud! Feel like sharing a room?” Rainbow said, walking up to the duo. “I know I wouldn’t.”

“Sorry, Miss Dash,” the big man said. “Miss Flutter was just asking me.”

“Damn,” Rainbow exclaimed. “Next time, you’re mine!” With that, the brash winged woman walked off.

Flutter looked up at Mac with a big smile, “Thanks, Mac.”

“No problem, Miss Flutter,” he said. “Let’s get you settled in.”

Scoot walked by with her sisters and Snail as the two walked into a room. “So I’m with Snail, and you two get to share a room. Sound about right?”

Snail nodded slowly as the other girls rolled their eyes. “Sure, Scoot,” Belle said. “Just try to not squeal too loudly. We want to sleep.”

“Aw, come on, Belle,” Scoot complained. “You know me.”

“Actually, Snail?” Star called from the end of the hallway. “Could you come talk with me?”

“Ooh,” the brash mage teased, poking her boyfriend in the stomach. “You’re about to get the ‘dad talk.’ Have fun!”

Snail shrugged, walking back down the hallway at an unhurried pace while his girlfriend got their room ready. The other sisters snickered as they walked into their room.

Snail walked up to the table his girlfriend’s parents sat at. Twinkle smiled. “Come, sit. We’ll try not to take too much of your time.” The man nodded and sat at the table.

“We’ll be blunt,” Star said. “We know how our daughter feels about you, but we only have her side on how you feel about her.”

“I’d kill for her,” Snail said without hesitance.

“That’s a bit backwards from what people usually say, Snail,” Scoot’s mother said. “Usually it’s ‘I’d die for her’ or some such.”

“I’d like to avoid dying, as much for her as for me. If keeping her safe meant my death, I wouldn’t hesitate,” Snail said slowly, “but if she were hurt, I would utterly end the one hurting her without hesitation if I felt it necessary.”

Star nodded, “Alright. I believe you. I only have one more question, then my wife gets to ask her questions.”

Snail nodded. “Ask away. I have few secrets to hide.”

“Another odd turn of phrase,” Twinkle said, causing Snail to shrug.

“Do you two use proper protection?” Star asked. “Not that I wouldn’t like a grandchild, but I wouldn’t want her to have a bastard child as young as she is.”

“We don’t need it,” Snail said after a pause.

“What do you mean, you don’t need it?” Scoot’s father asked, taken aback.

“She isn’t ready,” Snail said simply. “She would say she was if I asked, but I know that she isn’t, so I don’t.”

“You are an extraordinary man, Snail,” Twinkle said. “You’ve been dating for how many years without once asking for anything more?”

“Seven,” Snail answered without hesitance, before moving back to his measured way of speaking. “Every day she promises that we’ll do more, but we don’t. I think she’s guilty about it, but I don’t mind.”

“I don’t know how you do it, Snail,” the older man said, “but I more than approve of you.”

Scoot’s mother spoke up, “I do too, but I have some questions, first.” At Snail’s nod, she continued. “Do you have any intention of marrying our daughter?”

“Dear!” Star exclaimed, half standing up.

Snail held up a hand. “It is a valid worry,” he said. “We’ve been dating for seven years, after all.”

Star grumbled, settling back into his chair. Twinkle smiled at the young man, thanking him silently for handling it as he did.

“This should answer your question,” Snail said, digging into his bag. He pulled out a beautiful golden necklace with an oddly shaped gem set into the middle.

“Is that—?” the older man asked.

“It is,” Snail replied.

“How long have you—” the woman started to ask.

“Five years. Three if you count putting it into the necklace,” the young man said in his usual slow manner, replacing the necklace in his bag. “She doesn’t know I have it, so don’t tell her.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Star said. “How long did you save up to get that made?”

“I’m still paying it off,” Snail said. “I took it to one of the Masters of Enchantment and to the most famous goldsmith in Canterlot. It cost me hundreds of thousands, but it will be worth it.”

“You are an extraordinary man, Snail,” Star said. “I’d be more than happy to have you as a son, and I’m sure my wife agrees with me.”

“I do,” Twinkle said. “Be careful that you don’t get hurt. She would never forgive you.”

Snail chuckled, “That’s what Master Baelfire said.”

“That’s because it’s true,” the woman said. “You can go now, and know that when the time comes, you have our blessing.”

Snail nodded before getting up and returning to the room he shared with Scoot.

—*~*~*—

Rainbow Dash grumbled as she walked into the only room with any openings. They were lucky that they did not have any more people with them, as it was, but she was annoyed that she had to share a room with a random student while Flutter got to be with the stud.

“Yo,” she announced as she walked into the room. “Looks like I’m your roommate.”

“Great,” a sarcastic voice spoke up. “The Great and Powerful Trixie gets to share a room with a bimbo.”

“Who are you calling a bimbo?” Rainbow bristled as she stepped into the room.

“Well there are two of us in this room, and only one of us qualifies,” Trixie said. She was a small woman in her late teens or early twenties, at least a year older than the seventeen year old Rainbow. “If you did not know, a bimbo is someone good looking who is an idiot. They usually sleep their way around to getting what their small minds desire.”

“Hey, if you know anyone I can bang that would get me what I want, sign me up,” Rainbow growled. “As it is, I don’t much like your tone.”

There was a thump on the wall from the other side, and Bright spoke up. “Rainbow Dash, don’t get in fights with the other guests. Trixie, I wouldn’t recommend pissing off a woman who can kill you in six different ways before you can get a spell off.”

There was another voice from across the hall as Twilight commented, “These walls aren’t thin, but they aren’t exactly thick. If you don’t want your every word heard by the whole building, don’t talk loud.”

Trixie huffed and turned over in her bed. Rainbow spoke up loudly, “Just for the record, if I attack her, it’s not my fault.”

“Noted and ignored,” Star’s voice said from the hallway. “Behave, girls. You’re both guests, which means I can kick you out for not behaving.”

Both the women grumbled, but let it drop. Rainbow climbed into the bed, having to adjust a few times before she got in a spot comfortable for her wings. After her third shift, Trixie snapped. “Do you think that is enough?”

“I’d like to see you sleep on wings,” Rainbow grumbled, finally getting comfortable. Both the young women said not another word the rest of the night.

—*~*~*—

“Sleep well?” Twilight asked Rainbow with a smirk the next morning. The other woman grumbled incoherently as she sat down at the table, making the mage smile.

“I can say the Great and Powerful Trixie did not!” the flier’s obnoxious roommate exclaimed. “I had to share a room with that bimbo!”

“Don’t you have other insults?” Rainbow asked, placing her face onto the table. “Are you just a one trick pony? What happens if you run into someone ugly or smart? Do you suddenly run out of insults?”

“Rainbow, don’t provoke her,” Bright said, walking into the room. “When the others get here, we’ll talk about what our next move is; whether you guys are going to be staying with Pinkie and I as we do whatever it is we do or not.”

There was a knocking sound at the door. Star walked through the room to the door, much to happy for as early in the morning as it was. He opened the door, “Welcome to—”

“Save me the spiel. I was told you had a winged woman staying here,” a rude voice interrupted. Rainbow picked her head up and looked at the doorway.

“Why are you—” Star started to ask, when a woman brushed past him.

“There you are. Do you know how much trouble you’re going to be in?” she asked, walking up to the table. She was a little bit shorter than Rainbow, with feathers where her hair should be. Her features were more angular than what was normal for a human being, and she had talons instead of feet. She grabbed Rainbow’s arm, pulling her up from her seat. She started dragging her towards the door, saying, “You had the whole clan scared to death! Mother has been beside herself since you vanished! You’re going to have more than a little bit to explain when we get back.”

Author's Note

The Mane Six will get more screen time soon, please don't come after me!

In all seriousness, Scoot's subplot came earlier than I planned it to, but it works this way, so—

Fine. Next chapter is probably already done by the time I post this, so have fun.

-HB

1.3 Start Counting

Rainbow slipped out of the other winged woman’s grip. “No, I won’t. I’m not going back,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Rainbow, who’s this?” Bright asked, walking up to the duo.

“Rainbow?” the woman asked before her eyes widened. She turned to the other flier, “You took a full adult name, didn’t you? You know as well as I do that you can’t do that!”

“Oh, yeah? Who’s stopping me?” Rainbow asked.

“Our laws!” the griffon exclaimed. “They clearly state—”

Applejack spoke up, walking into the room, “Ah think we need an introduction, here. Who are you?”

“My name is Gilda Dash,” she said. “I’m her half-sister.”

“Wait, Gilda? You have an adult name?” Rainbow asked, confused.

“I changed the day after you left,” she said. “That’s why they let me come after you.” Gilda grabbed her sister’s arm. “Come on, we’re leaving.”

Rainbow’s face darkened as she smacked the other woman’s arm away. “I already said it. I. Am. Not. Leaving.”

“By our laws, you are still a child,” Gilda growled. “I didn’t want to pull that card, but—” She was interrupted as she was decked onto the ground.

“DAMN OUR LAWS!” Rainbow shouted, lowering her fist. “I am NOT leaving! Go back and tell the whole damned clan not to come after me anymore.”

“I don’t think you realize,” Gilda growled from the ground, getting up, “just the trouble you’re in. I am not allowed to return without you. Dead or alive.”

“Go on, then. Kill me,” Rainbow said, spreading her arms wide. “Free shot.”

Gilda stared at her sister in shock, mouth agape. Rainbow kept her arms spread, growling "What, need a weapon?" The woman walked up to Applejack, tearing a sword out of one of the many sheaths the agent wore, tossing it at the full-blooded griffon's feet. "There. Now hit me with your best shot."

"But I—" Gilda started.

"C'mon!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Do it!"

Bright stepped between the two women. "Look," he said, "let's talk about this rationally."

"I'm not allowed to return without her or proof of her death," Gilda said. "This is non-negotiable."

"Then stay with us," Bright suggested. "Because I owe my life to this woman, and even if you were to kill her now, you wouldn't get far."

"I don't want to kill her," Gilda exclaimed. "She’s my damned sister! But she stole from four different people before leaving clan territory. If I can't return her within a few months to face trial, they'll send soldiers to find her."

"Let them send their soldiers," Rarity said, walking into the room. "There are over a dozen people in this building alone indebted to Rainbow, and we have personal relations with at least two of the thirteen Icons. We are not a force to be trifled with."

Gilda sighed, "Look, I'm not trying to threaten you. I'm happy for her for finding a place to belong so quickly, I really am. The problem is that the clan is going to want its property back soon, and the one that stole it."

Scoot walked into the room to see what the commotion was right as Rainbow grabbed an object out of her bag and slammed it onto the table. "You mean this, right?" she exclaimed. The mage gasped as she saw the red lightning-shaped gem in the center of the necklace on the table.

"Why did you even take that?" the younger winged woman asked. "That's all mother has left of your father."

"It's enchanted," Twilight said, looking closely at the necklace. "It feels familiar, somehow. Like I've seen it or something like it before."

"How strong would ya say it is," Applejack asked.

"Very. I couldn't tell you what it does, but it wouldn't let itself get stolen unless it wanted to be," the studious mage said.

“There,” Rainbow said, placing the necklace back in her bag. “Tell that to them, straight from the egghead’s mouth.”

“I can’t just go back and tell them ‘Oh, too bad, the necklace wanted to be stolen.’ I will be laughed out of Eyrie!” Gilda exclaimed.

“Then stick with us, as I offered,” Bright said. “It will be good having another flier around, even if Rainbow does a marvelous job of it already. If you can convince her to leave with you, then you can go.”

Gilda grumbled quietly to herself for a moment before responding, “Fine. I’ll stick with however many of you there is.”

Bright nodded. “We were about to gather to talk about our next step. You’re more than welcome to join in the conversation.”

Gilda silently nodded, sitting down at the table. With a quick check of the younger flier’s aura, which came up with no abnormalities, Rarity left to get Dirk up. Bright took the moment of respite to fill the newcomer in as to recent events.

Scoot sat with conflicted thoughts. That necklace was one of the items she was tasked with bringing back. She could just take it while the flier wasn’t looking and head out for Canterlot. There were a few issues with that, however. Not the least being that she had grown fond of the brash young flier over the day or so they had known each other.

She sighed, heading back into the room she shared with Snail. She would have plenty of time to think over her options when the time came.

Within an hour, everyone was awake and sitting at the table. Nobody said a word for a silent minute, before Pinkie spoke up with the first words she had spoken since the battle. “I’m finding the bastard responsible for this and ripping his guts out with my bare hands. If you’re not okay with this, by all means back out now.”

“Pinkie,” Bright chastised. “Don’t let emotion cloud your judgement.”

“Whatever,” she scoffed, seeming to be closer to her regular self already.

Bright sighed. “She is right about our next line of action, however. We need to find out who the leak is. Whoever set this up likely doesn’t know that Pinkie and I survived. That is our one and only advantage. How are we going to press it?”

“Keep you guys from the public eye as much as possible,” Applejack said. “If they don’t see you, there won’t be a problem”

“Fourteen people, two of which are winged, will attract a lot of attention running around,” Rarity said. “As it is, someone will find the bodies of the paladins fairly soon, and word will get out. We will have to be incredibly careful what we say and where we go.”

“What about posing as mecs?” Rainbow suggested. “They go everywhere and come from all walks of life, so it shouldn’t be too odd to see us wandering around the countryside.”

Twilight nodded, “That is a great idea, actually. It will allow us to move around without being too obvious as to what we’re doing.”

Gilda spoke up, “I still don’t understand why we don’t just storm into the monastery and start demanding answers.”

“Because that won’t work,” Bright said, “and will inform the mole that we’re onto them.”

“We could go the rumor route,” Applejack suggested. “Put out a rumor that three dozen paladins died, and that it was an inside job.”

“They’d assume that someone survived to pass on the information,” Pinkie said, suddenly back to her bubbly self, despite the seriousness of the situation. “Plus, that would lower the public opinion of the Order, which is the last thing we want to do at this point.”

“Nobody’s mentioned that one of the corrupted got away,” Snail said. “He was out of range of my grease spell.”

“What do you mean?” Scoot asked. “I thought we got them all.”

The man shook his head, “Nope. One got away.”

“The one that grabbed Jack,” Mac said, suddenly interjecting himself into the conversation. “Hobbled off before the fireball.”

“Sun,” Bright said, face screwing into an expression of distaste. “I didn’t like him before he was corrupted, but now, I don’t know what to think.”

“I think that he’s corrupted, and therefore should be purged,” Pinkie said with way too much happiness in her voice. “At this point, he’s gone.”

“So out first order of business is figuring out who’s staying with us,” Bright said. “Any of you can leave, I wouldn’t blame you at all.”

Rarity flipped her bangs. “Darling, I was asked to heal some paladins on mission. It seems to me that the mission hasn’t ended, and it would be unladylike of me to abandon you.”

“If Rares is staying, count me in,” Dirk said from his spot next to the healer. “You seem like you need the help, anyway.”

“If’n the lady’s staying, we still got a contract to stay with ‘er, too,” Applejack said. Mac and Bloom nodded their assent.

“I can’t well let you do this on your own, can I?” Belle asked.

“Count me in, too,” Twilight spoke up. “It’ll be an adventure, and I think I’m more than overdue for one of those.”

“Count me in,” Snail said, “as long as Scoot will go, too.”

“If you’re going, so will I,” Scoot said from her position on the man’s lap.

“I think I’ll go too, if that’s okay with you,” Flutter said quietly. Mac gave her a smile of encouragement, causing her to sit slightly straighter.

“Well, the stud’s goin’,” Rainbow said, pointing to Mac, “so count me in.”

“I’m not letting Rainbow get away this easily,” Gilda said. “I’ll join in your little adventure.”

“Wonderful,” Bright said, smiling. “We’ll send some of the womenfolk out to grab the tabards while everyone else gets some other supplies.” He paused, looking to the scantily clad griffon and half-breed. “And some clothes for you two.”

“Aw, come on. You know you like what you see,” Rainbow said, striking a pose that ended up being quite revealing with the clothes, or near lack thereof, she had on. Bright’s face lit up and he looked away with a cough.

“Miss Dash, I’m almost a decade older than you,” Bright said, still not looking in her direction.

“Aw, come on. You’re like, twenty-three,” Rainbow said with a smirk. “That’s only five years older than me. Perfectly acceptable.”

“Actually I’m twenty-seven,” Bright said. “A full nine years older than you.”

Rainbow deflated slightly before shrugging, moving to be in front of the paladin and getting right into his face. “No skin off my back. You’re still cute.”

Bright flushed even more as her breath brushed across his face, and he quickly stood up. “Well, got stuff to do. Things.”

“Aw, leaving already?” Rainbow teased. Bright beat a hasty retreat from the room. Rainbow managed to hold in her laughter until he was out of range to hear it.

Applejack looked at her with distaste, “He’s almost twice yer age, Rainbow.”

She shrugged, giggling, “That’s an overstatement, but even if he was, he’s so much fun to tease. Did you see how red he got?”

Pinkie shook her head at the flier’s antics. She stood up, and was about to talk when Rarity spoke up, “Wait, ‘send some of the womenfolk out to grab the tabards’? What did he mean by that?”

Dirk chuckled, “Look at the men in this group. One is a paladin, one’s me, one’s whipped, and one’s Mac over there. Do you think any of us are qualified to grab tabards that we’ll use to represent ourselves for the foreseeable future?”

Rarity paused, mouth open and finger up, about to retort. After a moment, she lowered her hand. “Valid point. I’ll go, who wants to come with?”

“I’ll go, and so will Gilda,” Rainbow said.

“Wait, I will?” the woman in question said.

“She will?” the healer asked.

“Of course,” Rainbow said. “We need some culturally acceptable clothing, after all, no matter how much fun it is to tease Bright. Plus, Gilda’s three years younger than me, and definitely too young to be borderline breaking a nudity taboo, however stupid it may be.”

“I’m—” Gilda started to say.

“Griffon laws don’t apply here, Gilda,” Rainbow said. “You’re still considered a child until you’re sixteen.”

“Damn,” the younger woman grumbled. “Of course.”

“It is sixteen, right, Rares?” Rainbow asked. “I think it’s sixteen.”

“It’s mostly sixteen, but some places go as high as eighteen,” Rarity said. “You could pass yourself off as an adult anywhere, but your sister. . . wouldn’t. Even as a member of a different species, she is still obviously young. She could get away with it casually, but no bars would risk serving her, even in the sixteen areas.”

“Damn,” Gilda said.

“Meh,” Pinkie said. “Alcohol’s overrated. Makes you stupider and more likely to do something you’ll regret. I don’t see any upsides, but it seems to make people think they're happy.”

"But we digress," Rarity said, clapping happily. “What we need to do is go shopping~!”

Rainbow and Gilda groaned, slamming their faces on the table in unison. This was going to be a long day.

—*~*~*—

The man whimpered on the ground as he bled from very creative places. The woman adjusted the helmet on her head. “I think that’s been long enough.”

“I–I’m sorry, mistress,” the man almost whispered. “I won’t fail again.”

“See to it that you don’t,” she growled. She paused, looking slightly to the right for a moment, before smiling. “It seems your failure isn’t complete, yet.”

“Mistress?” he said with hope.

“One of the paladins got away. One of our paladins,” she said, grinning maliciously. “I can use this to my advantage. Time to try something. . . unorthodox.”

—*~*~*—

“—but you’d look stunning in green. Oh, I don’t know!” Rarity exclaimed, holding up two shirts of matching styles, one blue and one green. Rainbow sat nearby hanging off the back of a chair. Gilda had managed to escape five minutes ago, and the crazy woman wouldn’t come looking for her for at least twenty minutes, the rate Rainbow’s shopping was getting done.

“What do you think, darling?” the healer asked, turning to the bored flier. “Do you want to try the blue one first?”

Rainbow groaned like she had been shot in the stomach by a bolt, “I would rather walk around naked, like I want to!”

“You can’t, darling,” Rarity said calmly for the third time in as many minutes. “There are different expectations here. You can’t get away with everything you could back in the Empire. Besides, it’s not naked, just topless.”

Rainbow groaned, “At least bring Bright along next time so I can have something to do.”

“I don’t think he’d be interested, Rainbow,” the healer chuckled, “but he’d be flattered by the offer.”

“You know what I mean,” the flier pouted. “He’s not interested in me anyway.”

“You noticed he mentioned age, not lack of attraction, as his reasons for being uncomfortable with the idea, didn’t you?” Rarity asked. She drug the flier over, handing her a shirt. Her eyes widened, “Oh, I need to get backless shirts. You do have wings after all.”

Rainbow groaned as she was drug back into the store for the third time that day.

—*~*~*—

“The end times are upon us!” a man yelled, running through the streets. He grabbed a random passerby, who just happened to be Pinkie. “It’s on the way! It’s on the way, and when it gets here, we’re doomed!”

“Calm yourself and speak clearly,” she said, grabbing onto the man.

“Calm myself? Calm myself?” he shouted hysterically. “The corrupted are approaching the gates of this town and you want me to be calm?”

Bright, who had been standing next to Pinkie, stepped up to speak to the man. “How many and where?”

The man struggled in Pinkie’s vice-like grip for a moment, before giving up and responding. “There were dozens, dozens of them. But that’s not the worst part.”

“Speak clearly and without dramatizing things,” the young woman growled.

“A cloud is on the way!” he shouted instantly. “I saw it not far behind the corrupted!”

“From where?” the older man said.

The man took one look at Pinkie before responding, “South! South! It’s coming from the South!”

Pinkie dropped the man, and the second he saw the stony look on her face he ran away. Bright sighed, looking in the direction the man mentioned. “This is bad, very bad.”

“This is fine,” Pinkie corrected. “Every corrupted it throws at us is one less it can use later.”

“And what of the civilians in this city, Pinkie?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m going to gather the group. We’ll be by the southern gates in an hour.”

The woman nodded, walking straight for the mentioned gates.

—*~*~*—

Bright threw open the door, examining who was in the room. The mercenary siblings were there, as were the mage sisters. Of course, if Scoot was anywhere, Snail wasn’t ever far away. Flutter was sitting with Mac and Bloom, to no surprise. What was a surprise was the fact that Dirk was sitting calmly at the table, and Rarity was nowhere to be seen.

“Is Rarity still out with the fliers?” the paladin asked.

“Yep,” Dirk said, using a knife to pick under his nails. “She’s always been one to spend a long time to get a few things. Or a lot of things. You can never really tell with her.”

Bright nodded, announcing to the room, “We’ve got a small army of corrupted reportedly marching straight at the gates of Baltimare. That wouldn’t be a problem, if only it was only them.”

“Don’t talk in riddles, Bright,” Dirk grumbled loudly.

The paladin shot the ex-bandit a look, before continuing. “We’ve got a cloud on the way. What we need to do is get around behind it and close down its source.”

“They have a source?” Scoot asked, once more sitting on Snail’s lap.

“Everything has a source,” Snail said softly. “Why should its clouds be different?

“A’ight,” Mac said, standing up. “I’ll find the ladies.”

“No, Mac,” Bright said. “I’ll get them. I already know where they are.” At the larger man’s disbelieving look, he elaborated, “I have to know where they are to avoid them, don’t I?”

Mac nodded and sat down, taciturn again. Bright stopped long enough to grab his armor and weapons, then headed straight for Sapphire’s Boutique, where Rarity had drug the fliers.

A bell rang out as he walked through the door, and a voice called out from the back, “I’ll be there in a second, darling. I’m with a customer.”

“Is it three pretty ladies?” Bright asked. “Two with wings?”

“Is that Bright’s flattery I hear?” Rarity asked, peeking her head around a doorway. “What are you—you’re in armor,” she ended in a deadpan as she walked into the room. “Why would you wear that dreadful armor around town?”

“Because something big’s about to go down,” he said. “It’s making a play. Grab the girls and meet the rest of us at the school.”

Rarity took a hissing breath in, before nodding. “I have Rainbow here. We’ll find Gilda as fast as we can and meet you there.”

The woman in question peeked around the doorframe. “Hey, cutie,” she said, winking. Bright felt his face redden involuntarily. “I’m changing right now, but if you want to come back—”

“Miss Dash,” the first voice said from the other room, “you can flirt with your boyfriend later. We still have a few shirts to try on.”

“Nah, we’re not dating,” Rainbow said, walking—topless—through the doorway. She walked right up to Bright, smiling wider as the man got redder and redder. “He’s a prude,” she said, tracing a finger down the center of his breastplate.

Bright coughed, “I, uh, have to get going. You know how it is.”

“Rainbow!” Rarity scolded. “That is not how a lady should act!”

“Good,” the flier said, twirling and walking back towards other room, but paused to get one last look at the priceless expression on the man’s face. “You’re too easy to fluster, Bright.”

“Rainbow,” Rarity said. “This is serious. We’re finishing up here, now.”

Rainbow gave her a sideways glance, and seeing the serious look she was being given, nodded. “Sapphire? I’ll take whatever Rares says I should take.”

Bright sighed in relief as the frisky woman changed targets long enough for him to escape. He took a deep breath to steady himself, before trudging over to the school to wait for the group to gather.

—*~*~*—

Pinkie was already at the gates, as Bright had suspected, by the time the rest of the group got there. The paladin had placed himself on the opposite side of the group from the teasing Rainbow, a fact not missed by the young flier. As the group walked up to Pinkie, Bright started talking, “Okay, so nothing we do will matter—no matter how many corrupted we kill—if we can’t stop that cloud from reaching Baltimare.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Rarity asked.

“Simple,” Applejack said. “These clouds are created and maintained by complex rituals that borrow power from the Dark One.”

“So they are, I’m surprised you’d know that, Jack,” Bright said.

The woman shrugged, jabbing a finger at Bloom. The younger woman blushed at the sudden attention, managing to squeeze out, “I’ve talked with some paladins and EIA agents from the field.” Bright seemed to accept this, much to the lying Bloom’s relief. She shot a look at Applejack when nobody else would see, silently berating her for almost blowing their cover.

“Somewhere near the back of that cloud will be a moving platform, most likely a converted wagon, that will hold corrupted mages,” the paladin continued. “If we can destroy the mages, we will disperse the cloud. If we get to them fast enough, we can even save the city while we’re at it.”

“So all we have to do is go kill some mages on a cart?” Rainbow asked. “Damn, I thought this would be difficult! I’ll be back in, like, five minutes.” She spread her wings and launched herself into the air. Within seconds she was well on her way to the cloud.

“Rainbow!” Bright exclaimed. “Get back here!”

She either didn’t hear him, or decided to ignore him, because she kept flying. “Damn it!” Bright said, grabbing a flabbergasted Gilda, pulling her to face him. “Go and get her. She will—I repeat, will—die if she tries to do this alone.”

“But she’s faster than me!” Gilda said. “I’d never catch up!”

“Then get as damn close as you can and shout really, really loud,” was the man’s reply. He turned to the rest of the group as Gilda’s jaw dropped. “Come on. We now have two clocks to race. One clock to save Baltimare, and now one to save Rainbow.”

Author's Note

Leeroy would be proud, Rainbow.

-HB

0.1 The Winged Self-Exile

He stepped backwards easily from her wild swing. “Control, Judith. You’ll never hit me with those wild swings.”

Judith growled, throwing the weighted wooden practice sword to the ground, raising a small cloud of dust from the dry ground, “I’ve been doing this for a month! You’d think that I’d have gotten better by now!”

Her trainer sighed, “Judith, nobody gets great with only a month of practice. Even humans have to train. Their mages have to practice for years before they get their first spell, and their greatest warriors spend years swinging practice swords at each other before they’re allowed to move to real weapons.”

She stared at him for a second, narrowing her eyes. “So you’re saying that I’m just a human, huh? That I’m not really a griffon? Thanks for reminding me.” She crouched and spread her wings, before taking off, a small cloud of dust forming from her takeoff.

“Judith!” he shouted after her retreating form. He spread his wings to take off after her, when a hand on his shoulder held him down.

“Let her cool off, Peter,” a sweet voice said. “My daughter does not like being reminded that she’s half human. You know this.”

He shook his head, causing the feathers that composed his hair to shake with him, “We can’t just let her storm off whenever she wants to. It’s not good for—” He was interrupted as his head snapped back. His hand came up to the sudden pain in his forehead, and when he pulled it down, it was covered in red.

“Judith!” her mother shouted at her. “You know it’s not polite to throw rocks!”

A hundred feet away and twenty feet in the air, Judith stuck her tongue out at her mother.

“She threw a rock from over there, and it hit me?” Peter asked, looking between the floating youth and his bloody hand.

“I’m so sorry! She’s always been good at throwing things, but she’s never thrown anything at another griffon before!” Judith’s mother exclaimed, face flushing red.

“Steph, I don’t think you understand!” He smiled. “She’s a natural! She’s better than anyone else I’ve seen, and so young with no training, even!” He turned to where Judith was still floating. “Judith, come back! I want you to try something!”

She hovered for a second, rightly hesitant, before slowly gliding back to her trainer and mother. She alighted on the ground softly, taking a tentative step forward. Each step she took towards her trainer was filled with more confidence as she wasn’t smacked over the head. When she was finally level with her teacher, he just patted her on the head.

He walked over to the training rack, grabbing a device she had never seen before. It was a strange device, with a curved handle leading to a curved sliver of wood held in shape by what looked like a piece of string. “Now this is unusual. I’m not supposed to give you one of these until you’ve learned how to fight with a sword. This doesn’t leave this training area, okay?”

She looked at her mother, who nodded reassuringly. She looked back at the older man and nodded with hesitance. He smiled as he handed her the device. “This is called a crossbow. Now, you hold the curved handle. Yes, just like that. No, with one hand.”

When he was satisfied that she was holding it correctly, he went back to the rack. He grabbed a strange looking stick. It was straight with a whittled tip on one end and three feather spaced equally across the other end. “This is a bolt. The crossbow throws these at long distances with fairly good accuracy. You load it like this.” He loaded the crossbow in her hand. “Now point it at that rock there and pull the trigger with your finger.”

With a nervous pull, the bent bow snapped forward back into place, propelling the bolt forward with great force. The bolt flew off the front end of the crossbow with a flash, before burying itself fractions of an inch in front of the rock she was aiming at.

Peter gave off a low whistle of appreciation, “Nice shot.”

“I missed,” Judith pouted, crossing her arms. “How is that a nice shot?”

He laughed, “Judith, all crossbows kick down. You didn’t know that and still almost got a direct hit your first time.” He brought his hand down to rustle the hair of the micro protégé. “I see the trappings of a great marksman in you.”

She beamed up at him, “Really?”

“Of course.” He grinned back. He grabbed a quiver of bolts from the rack. “Try again.”

Judith eagerly grabbed another bolt, fumbling a bit loading her crossbow in her haste to shoot again. Her next shot skipped off the very top of the rock, leaving a scratch on its surface.

“Too high. Again.”

The rest of the training day went like that. Peter would point out targets for her to shoot at, pointing out what she did wrong until she could hit it. He would then point out another target and the cycle would continue. At one point, he had her switch to shooting with her left hand, and found a negligible decrease in accuracy.

Eventually he looked up at the sky, sighing. “Late low sun. Time for you to go home, Judith.”

The child in question frowned, “Aww, really? I wanted to shoot some more!”

He chuckled at her reaction, ruffling her hair with his hand. “It’s late and you’re young yet. There will be time to shoot again tomorrow.”

“Alright,” she sighed, spreading her wings to fly home. A hand on her shoulder stopped her. She traced the hand to an arm, and the arm to her mother.

Steph smiled at her daughter, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Judith’s face lit up. She turned to her teacher and gave him a big hug. “Thank you!”

He chuckled, “You’re welcome, but I don’t think that’s what your mother was talking about.”

Judith looked up at him with a cocked eyebrow, releasing the hug. He tapped her left arm softly, and she smacked her face with her other hand. She handed back the crossbow with a sheepish smile, before waving and taking off back to her home.

“Is she as good as you said she was?” Steph asked as soon as her daughter was out of earshot.

“Better,” Peter said without hesitation. “She shoots like she has years of experience, and she just started today. She will be a name known across the Empire, I would bet my life on it.”

“Even if she can’t—” she started, before he cut her off.

“She will. It would be a waste of this much talent if she couldn’t.”

She sighed, “I hope you’re right.”

—*~*~*—

“Mom, I’m eighteen!” Judith exclaimed, bracing her head at the temples with both of her hands. “I should be able to change by now!”

“Gabrielle, you have to be patient,” Steph said diplomatically.

Judith scoffed at the use of her clutch-name, dropping her hands back to the table. “I’m not a child, mother!”

“By our laws, yes you are!” her younger half-sister shouted from the next room.

“Shut the hell up, Dorothy!” the half-breed shouted over her shoulder.

“Girls, both of you, be quiet!” their mother scolded. “I expect better from you, Renee.”

From next door, the full-blooded griffon scoffed. “Maybe if Gabby could use my clutch-name, like she’s supposed to—”

“Maybe if you stopped calling me Gabby, I would!” Judith exclaimed, slamming her clenched fist onto the table she was sitting at.

“Gabrielle, come with me.” Steph’s voice left no room for argument.

So of course, Judith had to argue. “Why?”

“Because this is a conversation your sister doesn’t need to hear.”

Judith sighed, following her mother to the other side of the house. They sat down on the ground. Her mother took a deep breath, holding it for a minute, before letting it go. Judith didn’t try to rush her, knowing that she was bracing herself for something.

“You’re half human, you know this,” Steph began.

“Is this going to be another one of these talks?” Judith asked, standing up. “I’ve had enough of these already.”

Her mother’s eye twitched, “Gabrielle Judith Dash, sit down!”

Judith instantly was on the ground. Her mother never used her full name unless she was being incredibly serious.

“Thank you,” the older woman sighed. “I don’t like having these conversations any more than you do, but this one is unavoidable.” Her eyes lost focus as she looked at something over her daughter’s shoulder. Judith looked back, but saw nothing but a wall. Her mother continued, “I’m just going to be frank. No sense dragging it out. There have been no more than one half griffon in each generation, you know this. What you don’t know, and this was as much the Clanfather as it was me, is that they’ve never been quite normal. As much as it pains me to say it, you may never be able to change. Even if you do, it won’t be complete.”

Judith stared at her mother in shock. This was the last thing she expected to hear. Her voice shook as she asked, “Y-you’re joking, right? This is all some c-cruel joke, isn’t it? I-I can’t be a-a freak!”

“I’m sorry, Gabrielle,” her mother said, lowering her eyes.

“No, no! This can’t be true! Who put you up to this? Was it Frank? Eugene? It was Eugene, wasn’t it?” Judith was hysterical, voice rising as she stood up. “Why are you saying these things, mother?”

“Gabrielle, you need to calm down!” the older woman said, standing and putting her hand on her daughter’s shoulder.

A hand that was promptly slapped away. “Calm down? You want me to calm down after you tell me that I’m a freak? An outcast?” Tears were streaming down her face.

“I said no such things! You are my daughter! I would never be that cruel!” Steph gasped.

“Oh, yeah, you’d just imply it. If you don’t say it outright, then it can’t be your fault that you said it,” Judith snarled.

“You need to calm down, look at this with a rational mind—” her mother tried to say.

“This is your fault!” her daughter snapped at her. “If you’d never fucked that man, I’d be normal! I’d not be some freak!”

“Gabrielle Judith Dash, that is no way to talk to your mother!” Steph snapped.

“I don’t give a damn!” Judith snapped, spinning and storming out the door. She kept walking, through the room they were in before this talk and into the room her half-sister was in. She stopped long enough to slap Dorothy across the face hard enough to knock her off the chair she was sitting in, before walking out the front door and flying off.

Dorothy put a hand to her red cheek, staring out the door in shock. She turned as her mother walked through the other door, “What’s wrong? I don’t understand.”

Steph sighed, shaking her head. “She doesn’t either, I’m afraid, and that’s the problem.”

—*~*~*—

Judith looked down at the village she had spent her whole life living in. She had mixed feelings for both the village and its inhabitants. This was the place where she was born. It was dry, dusty, and on the side of a mountain, but it was home. It didn’t matter that the houses were carved into the side of the mountain, they were cozy and cool in the hot weather. It didn’t matter to her that she was always being made fun of for being a half-breed since she had her family. She just focused at being as good as she could to make them proud.

And now she was just told that she would never be considered an adult.

Griffons had the natural ability to shapeshift into an actual griffon, half bird of prey, half hunting cat, all deadly. This ability manifested at the end of puberty, marking the moment when a griffon was a full adult.

And she would never be able to change.

She would never have a family of her own. Never have children. Always be considered a child by all.

She would just be a freak, living at home with her family until they died, then she would be an old woman living in the orphanage in the capital until she died. That was not a life, or if it was, it wasn’t one she wanted to live.

She didn’t even look normal. Instead of having the tri-clawed feet normal of a griffon, she had useless five-toed human feet. Her hair was all wrong. Even being able to call it hair was wrong, it was supposed to be feathers, like what was on her wings, not long and flowing hair. Even her face looked wrong, lacking most of the angular features griffons were known for. Her wings were normal, at least, even if they were oddly colored.

She sighed as she looked at what she had just stolen. Two brand-new hand crossbows sat in holsters attached to her legs right next to quivers filled with bolts. A belt wrapped itself around her bare chest, lined with sheathed knives. A pouch filled with smoked meat sat on her hip.

She traced a hand around the edge of her leather vambraces. Her mother spent months crafting these and the matching pair of leather breeches for her. It felt wrong to just take them without thanking her, but Judith was in a hurry.

But her biggest crime was stealing the necklace around her neck. It had belonged to her father, and was the only thing their family had from the southern human lands. It consisted of a red lightning bolt-shaped gem surrounded by pure gold. She didn’t know what prompted her to take it, but it felt more wrong leaving it

She turned around, facing the south. That was where the humans lived, surrounded with their magic and luxury. That was where she had to go.

“I need a name,” she mused out loud. It wouldn’t be right to use her clutch-name or her hatchling-name. Those are reserved for clutch and family, and clan, respectively. But she wasn’t an adult, so she couldn’t take a name of her own.

But she would never be an adult, would she? Did it really matter? Where she was going, she’d be seen as an adult by nature of being physically mature, and she really did need a name.

She sat down to think, running a hand through her rainbow-hued hair. Suddenly her eyes widened. “Rainbow. Rainbow Dash.”

She smiled, standing up and brushing the dust off her breeches. She had a new name, and a new land to learn. Spreading her wings, she launched herself into the air, ready for a new life.

1.4 Mutilation, Mistakes, and Misunderstandings

There were shouts and clangs as the Baltimare guard held off the corrupted, but Bright didn’t hear it. All his focus was directed at the wagon that had a cloud of darkness billowing out from inside it and the small army of corrupted between there and where he was standing.

His eyes shifted back and forth as he locked his attention on the corrupted walking towards the battle at the gate one by one. His gaze lingered for no more than a moment before moving on. Most of the corrupted were civilians, plain clothes and only their fists to fight with. Some others were most likely guards before their corruption, if the medium armor and decent quality weapons were any evidence.

“As best as I can see it, we should be able to get there with minimal difficulty,” Applejack was saying. “We just need to let our resident master of plans come up with a way for us to get there.”

All eyes, save for Bright’s, turned to Bloom. The young woman squeaked, withering slightly under the sudden intense scrutiny. She managed to squeak out, “Uh, still working on it.”

The group nodded and returned to watching the corrupted army’s slow advance. The beasts seemed to walk slower than usual, almost as if they were trying to draw out the battle at the gates. Pinkie saw fit to mention this.

“Or trying to give us time to stop them,” Bright said quietly. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy, which he probably was. “We know nothing about the Dark One itself, and precious little about the corrupted. We saw what might have been its full potential at Everfree, but we just don’t know.”

“What does that have to do with—” Scoot started to ask.

“It means that the corrupted are still, even after decades of research and battle, a completely unknown variable. We don’t even fully understand how they’re converted,” the paladin interrupted. “I can’t let any assumptions, even smart ones, cloud my vision.”

“I have a plan,” Bloom interjected in a quiet voice. Immediately all heads turned to her, causing her to flush brightly.

—*~*~*—

Bright sat with Pinkie in front of the mages, awaiting phase one of Bloom’s plan. He looked back at the two main components of this part, watching Twilight and Flutter shift nervously.

“Hey,” he said quietly, “you’ll do fine.” The girls gave him a small, but thankful, smile. He turned his vision back to the soon-to-be battlefield. He took a deep breath, slowly letting it out before speaking, “Initiate phase one.”

Twilight nodded, swirling her hands around each other, tracing arcane runes in the air with a purple trail, and muttering in ancient languages long dead. She closed her eyes as she finished, before throwing them open and thrusting her hands forward.

Two walls of force inches apart shot forth from in front of the group, plowing through the army of corrupted. The walls stopped just short of the wagon, before suddenly expanding outward, pushing corrupted and earth alike as it created a flat, but slightly uphill, plane to walk on.

“Phase two, go,” Bright said, picking up the suddenly exhausted force mage. The whole group, all twelve of them without the fliers, charged between the walls as they rapidly faded. Between the pounding of dozens of corrupted and the fatigue of the mage sustaining them, the walls were well on their way to falling.

This was known and accounted for. As soon as the walls were breached, a dozen corrupted poured through the break. The wall started dissolving swiftly on both sides of the broken part of the wall, steadily widening the crack. The wider the opening got, the more corrupted charged in.

Again, this was accounted for. Bright nodded to Mac as they ran. The big man nodded, picking up the summoner and placing her, backwards, on his shoulders. She blushed heavily at where he had to keep his hands to avoid dropping her, but despite being mortified, she accomplished the job that had been set for her. With a moment of concentration, she summoned two massive hammers, faces easily big enough to completely cover two full grown men. As soon as they finished forming, she started swinging.

She poured all her fear and anger, however little of the latter she had, into each swing. Every time the hammers contacted with a corrupted, they were sent flying farther than they had a right to, thanks to the bouncy nature imbued into the weapons by the shy summoner.

Between Twilight's walls holding out in front of the group and Flutter's hammers holding off the corrupted behind, the group made it to the wagon with ease. As soon as they arrived, flutter started phase three without needing to be told.

A dozen roughly-carved yellow statues suddenly formed, creating a perimiter around the wagon. Each one of the eight-foot creatures held a hammer identical to the two the summoner was using in each hand. Mac stood protectively by Flutter as she concentrated on holding off the army of corrupted, waiting for one to break through so he could smash it with the large rock he picked up off the ground.

Bright strode forward with a purpose. As he neared the wagon, he heard voices from inside.

"Let. Me. Go," he heard Rainbow growl over the muted murmurings drifting from inside the wagon.

"Give it up, Rainbow," Gilda sighed. "They aren't letting us go any time soon."

"Hey, lunkhead. Yeah, you!" Rainbow shouted. "Why haven't you corrupted us yet, anyway?"

Broght reached the back of the wagon as Gilda scoffed, "Are you really complaining, Rainbow?"

"Well, no, but," Rainbow began to respond as Bright's hand gripped the back of the wagon, ready to propel him up.

"Mistress has a plan for you, little winged girl." The voice drew mental images of shovels turning over hot coals. Bright felt his hand clench hard, and he snarled as he launched himself into the cabin of the vehicle.

His shield remained on his back, as it was too large to easily use, even for a wagon as large as the one he was in. The wagon itself was ten feet wide and twice that long, with the front half literally coated with glowing sigils that could be seen through the dark smoke rising from their midst.

Bright caught sight of the two fliers, and were he not in a life-or-death situation, would have blushed furiously. As it was, the half-breed smirked at the touch of color that came to his cheeks, despite the situation. Rainbow and her sister were tied up quite expertly, if the expert you were asking was a dom. On top of that, Rainbow must have had a bad landing, due to her hair being messy and what precious few clothes she was wearing being torn.

He spared little more than a glance their way before seeking out who they were speaking with. Turning his attention to the rest of the wagon, he saw nothing new. He checked again, and again, saw no one but the fliers. He slowly started strafing along the wall towards the girls.

“Hurry up, Bright!” Pinkie called from outside, grunting as there was the sound of metal impacting metal. “They’re getting past the golems!”

The paladin set his jaw, walking to the fliers to untie them and get out of there. He caught movement from the corner of his eye, and that was all the warning he got. Throwing himself to the side, he barely managed to dodge a two-handed swing from a massive corrupted minotaur.

He got a good look at it as it stepped forth from the cloud that obscured the front half of the vehicle. It was a massive beast, easily seven feet tall and three hundred pounds of muscle. It had a human torso, arms, and head, but that was where the similarities ended. It had two wickedly curved horns jutting out of its forehead that looked like they could skewer a conveniently placed paladin with one thrust. Its legs were like those of a bull, if that bull were bipedal. The minotaur had a thick coat of black fur from just above its hooves to its waist. It grinned as it spun the greataxe in its hands, getting ready to attack the paladin again.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Bright deadpanned as he hefted his bastard sword up into a defensive position.

The two combatants stared at each other for what seemed like hours, but was likely seconds. Bright quickly jumped to the side as the minotaur broke the stalemate first with an overhead swing of its massive axe. The floor cracked as the weapon impacted, splitting the wood with ease. Bright swallowed. He’d never had to face one of these before.

Pushing down his panic in front of the girls, he ducked under the corrupted beast’s swing. Using his new vantage point, Bright could see dozens of scars across the creature’s chest. Ignoring them, he thrust his sword awkwardly, scoring a small slice on the corrupted minotaur’s chest. It roared, lifting a foot to kick him.

He slammed his back into the other side of the wagon with a resounding crunch, clutching his stomach with his off hand. There was no doubt in his mind that he had some broken ribs. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he groaned as he ignored the pain, swinging his sword up just in time to deflect the beast’s axe. This deflection ripped his sword from his hands, driving it point first into the floor.

He dove to the floor, barely avoiding another swing by the massive corrupted. “You’ve got to be KIDDING me!” he shouted. The minotaur advanced on the disarmed paladin slowly, savoring its victory.

“Bright, hurry up!” Pinkie called from outside. There was the sound of a blade parting flesh. “We can’t hold for long!”

“Little busy, Pinks!” he replied, dodging another overhead swing. He settled into a stance he could easily move, watching the minotaur. It snorted, shooting twin jets of shadow out of its nose. It lowered its horns slowly, and with a mighty bellow it charged at the paladin. Bright’s eyes widened as he realized that he couldn’t dodge. He had plenty of time, but Rainbow was immobile right behind him. He shifted his feet, bracing himself for a collision. Right as he felt the horns enter his body, he jerked to the right.

He heard someone shouting, but couldn’t tell who it was or what they were saying through the haze. There was something hard pressed into his back, and with a bit of thinking, he realized it was the wall of the wagon. He looked down at the twin horns piercing his stomach, knowing full well that they had hit something important on their travel through him to the wall. He chuckled a bit as he felt his body jerking around as the minotaur tried to yank its horns out of the wall. “Having a little trouble, you bastard?” his strained voice echoed unnaturally in his ears.

He saw a flash of pink and silver through his blurring vision. There was a cry of alarm from Pinkie as she saw the condition that Bright was in. One usually does not look good with two foot-long horns through your inner organs. Pinkie gave out a cry of rage as she charged the beast. Its eyes widened before her sword clove its skull in two. She didn't notice the glow her weapon gave off during that swing.

Pinkie panted as she glared at the dead beast. She whirled around and stuck her head out of the back of the wagon, calling, “Rarity, get in here! Bright’s dying!”

All eyes widened at her words, and Rarity ran to the vehicle as fast as she could, Dirk right behind her. She let out a gasp of horror as she saw the paladin. “Everyone get in here, we’re initiating phase four.”

Mac dropped the bloody rock he was holding, stepping over one of the multitude of corpses that had built up around him. He picked up the timid summoner with one arm, allowing her to continue to concentrate on controlling her constructs while retreating. The four mages threw one last spell each, before turning tail and sprinting to the wagon. Bloom threw one last knife, adding one more corrupted to the tally of creatures with knives in their faces. With a flash, Applejack appeared by the back entrance, boosting the rest of the party one at a time into the vehicle before jumping in herself.

As soon as everyone was inside, the last part of the plan was ready to be unleashed. Rarity sat in front of of Bright, mercifully blocking most of the group’s vision of his stomach. Rainbow sat quietly by the healer, still tied.

Pinkie came forward to untie the two fliers, but Rainbow shook her head. "Tell Bright he's the only one who can untie me. Make sure he knows he doesn't have permission to die." Pinkie gave her a look before nodding slowly. She moved over and untied Gilda, something the younger flier was happy for as she stretched her wings.

Rarity extended her sight, taking in the pure white aura of the paladin. It was the same color as her father's essence. She shook her head, filing that information in the back of her head as she continued her examination. She gasped as she saw the minotaur's head. Even dead, it gave off a pitch black aura. This aura was slowly draining into the fatally wounded paladin. "Pinkie!" Rarity exclaimed. "The corruption is leaking out of the creature into Bright, we need to remove it. Now."

Pinkie nodded, giving the minotaur a tug. It didn't move. With a growl, she pulled again as hard as she could, again to no avail. Right as she was entertaining the idea of cutting off the corpse's head in frustration, Mac pushed her aside. With a single mighty heave, the horns slid out of Bright's body, accompanied by the sound of cracking wood.

Rainbow grimaced at the wet sound of the minotaur's horns sliding out of the paladin's guts. Rarity wasted no time to start sealing Bright's wounds. It was a slow process, however.

While this had been happening, Snail and Flutter had been preparing. Finishing the casting of a spell, the mage threw forth grease. He coated the entire path that had been cleared by Twilight not five minutes earlier. He turned to Flutter and nodded.

With a gulp, the summoner dismissed her constructs. She shot a look at the exhausted Twilight, who gave her a weak thumbs up. The summoner created a massive hammer, easily an order of magnitude larger than the ones she had been using. With a single swing, she launched the wagon onto the makeshift slide.

The swing crushed the front half of the wagon. Twilight used the last of her energy to summon a glowing barrier between the party and whatever was on the other side. The shadow pressed against the barrier as it faltered, but Twilight managed to hold long enough that none of the shadow slipped into their half of the makeshift projectile. Her barrier, however, collapsed as the corrupted mages' mangled corpses slammed into it.

When the wagon settled, there was an unnatural silence. Nothing moved, inside the vehicle our out. Rarity broke the spell first, going back to making sure Bright didn’t bleed out any time soon.

Pinkie stuck her head out the back of the wagon, looking around for any corrupted. She heard a faint cheer from the north, and saw the corrupted running in every direction but theirs. “We’ve got a bit of a break,” she reported breathlessly. “They’re retreating.”

“Good,” Rarity said softly as Bright’s flesh started to knit itself together. “We’re going to need to carry Bright back. He’ll be barely be in condition to walk when he’s healed, let alone fight if any corrupted stayed behind.”

“Corrupted don’t—” Bright started to say, coughing.

“Bright, don’t talk!” Rarity chastised. “You’re hurt enough without straining your internal organs during the healing process.”

The paladin, wisely, shut up.

Nobody moved during the next half hour after Bright was placed on the ground to give Rarity better access to his wounds. She worked as fast as she could while not compromising on the quality of healing she gave, but it was not fast work. As soon as Rarity gave the word that he’d be okay, they all let out a collective sigh of relief.

“You’re good,” Rarity said eventually, stepping back. “Now untie Rainbow so that we can go. Mac, could you be a dear and help him up?”

Bright accepted the massive man’s offered hand, being immediately pulled to his feet. He stumbled, light headed. Mac steadied him, an act for which he gave the man a thankful look.

He gently removed himself from Mac's grip, taking slow steps over to the tied up flier. She smirked, giving him a wink. He, as usual, flushed a bright red, much to her amusement. Dropping to a knee by her side, he started to examine the ropes. After a second, he had the distinct impression that the Dark One was messing with them.

It found one of its corrupted that was knowledgeable in the art of bondage to tie up the young woman. The ropes pressed into just the right spots to accentuate her, ahem, more womanly features. Bright could feel his face get brighter and brighter as he looked for a knot to untie. When he found it, he was not happy.

"Jack, a knife, if you would?" he said. "I'm just going to cut the ropes off." The woman in question pulled out one of her countless blades, holding it out handle first.

As the paladin was about to grab it, Rainbow spoke up, "No, you can't cheat. What kind of paladin cheats?"

“You planned this, didn’t you?” Bright deadpanned.

“I did,” Rainbow said with a smirk. "I’m allowed to have ulterior motives, aren’t I? It's not like it's a big deal."

"It is for him," Snail said slowly.

"Come on, Bright," Rainbow teased. "Just reach your hands in and untie it. Be a man about it."

Bright was tomato red at this point, even with the amount of blood he lost. He reached his hands forwards slowly, stopping just short of his target and pulling back. This repeated twice more before Rainbow got frustrated. "They're just boobs, damn it! You have to be the only straight man in existence that shrinks at touching boobs!" she snapped.

Bright somehow was capable of flushing even more. He tentatively reached a hand into her cleavage, removing it like he had been burnt the second Rainbow commented, "Enjoying yourself?"

"Rainbow!" Applejack admonished. "Just let the poor man untie ya! The rest of us want to go home at some point."

"Fine," the chastised flier grumbled. "Let's just get this done."

The paladin slowly reached for her chest again. When there was no evidence of her teasing he quickly undid the knot, pulling his hands back immediately.

Bright backed up way away from the teasing flier as fast as he could. He stumbled a bit, woozy, but Mac was by his side to keep him upright. Neither Bright nor Rainbow spoke during the return trip to Baltimare. The paladin due to his humiliation, and the half-breed for her feelings of guilt over taking a joke too far.

—*~*~*—

“Darling, it’s been three days. He’ll forgive you!” Rarity exclaimed. “It was a mistake, we all make them.”

“I don’t know, Rares,” Rainbow moaned from her position lying on the healer’s bed. “He wasn’t very happy with me last time we saw each other.”

“That’s because you had just made your mistake. He’s had three days to think about it,” Rarity said softly. “Just go in there and talk to him.”

—*~*~*—

Bright groaned as he sat on the side of his bed, head held in his hands. It had been three days already, and he still wasn’t allowed to leave. Rarity was definitely protective of her patients.

He lifted his head when he heard the door open. His hopeful look fell when he saw the prismatic ponytail that could only belong to Rainbow Dash.

“What?” he asked bluntly.

The flier flinched at his tone. She took a deep breath before spouting, “I’msorrydon’thateme.”

He arched an eyebrow, saying, “Say again?”

Rainbow flushed, repeating herself slower, “I’m sorry, don’t hate me.”

Bright was silent for a moment. He thought about the last three days, realizing that he hadn’t talked with the frisky flier yet. That couldn’t be good. “Come, sit,” he said, gesturing to the bed next to him. Rainbow bit her tongue to keep from making a quip, that was the last thing she needed at this point. She sat down where he indicated, ending up to his immediate right. “I take it you want to talk?” he asked her.

She nodded, saying, “I upset you.”

“So you did,” was his reply.

Rainbow waited for a few moments for him to say something else, but it never came. She took the initiative, “I’m sorry, Bright.”

“For?” he asked.

“What do you mean, ‘for?’ “ the flier exclaimed.

“I need to make sure you are apologizing for the right reasons and truly know what you’ve done wrong before I can forgive you,” Bright explained. “It does you no good to get out of trouble without fully understanding the trouble you were in in the first place.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry I teased you and making you uncomfortable.”

“Close, but not quite,” Bright said.

Rainbow groaned, flexing her wings. The wing that was hit by the bolt was still a little sore from when Rarity healed it. “Come on, man. What did I do wrong?”

“You don’t learn by having the answers handed to you,” Bright said, grinning. “You have to figure it out for yourself.”

Rainbow let out a frustrated moan, flopping backwards onto the bed. “This won’t be easy, will it?” she asked.

“If it was easy, you would have finished it already,” the paladin pointed out. “This is part of maturing, Rainbow Dash.”

“I don’t like being mature,” she mumbled. “I like living easy, cracking sex jokes, and getting wing massages from my mom.” Bright flushed red at her words. She looked up at him sideways. “What?”

“I’d always heard that the wings of a griffon were,” he said, pausing, “erogenous zones.”

Rainbow stared at him blankly for a second before laughing. It was a hearty laugh, and directed right at him, not with him. As her laughing died down, she spoke through her chuckles, “That’s pretty good, whoever told you that. Could you imagine how great flying would feel in that case? The griffon race would die out because if you wanted to get yourself off, you’d just go flying for an hour.”

Bright’s flush intensified. “Well excuse me for not knowing the specifics of griffon anatomy,” he mumbled.

“I’ll say, though,” Rainbow said, “that wing massages feel good, in a non-sexual way. At least for most of us.”

“For most of you?” Bright asked. “What do you mean by that?”

“It’s like how some griffons—and I assume this applies to humans, too—get much more aroused from being kissed on the neck than others. The wings are like any other body part, some people just have their kinks,” Rainbow said bluntly. Bright got redder yet again, letting out an unmanly squeak. Rainbow joined him in blushing. “Right, don’t embarrass the guy who has yet to forgive you for the last time you did that. Smart move, Rainbow.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Bright said. “It wasn’t on purpose.”

Rainbow stood up and stretched, making sure to make it as non-sensual as she could. She didn’t do a good job, if Bright’s head turn and cough were any indicator. After giving her sore wing a flex, she hung her head slightly, mumbling, “I’ll just go back and talk with Rares.”

As she reached for the doorknob, she felt a hand grab on to her other wrist. She turned back to see Bright behind her. His flush had died down a lot, but he was still an obvious pink. “So, uhm,” he began, “look. . . what I’m trying to say is. . . .”

“Use yer words, ya lunk!” Applejack exclaimed from the next room over. In actuality, she was berating her brother for not speaking, but it hit at the perfect time.

“Your wing looks sore.” The words tore out of the paladin’s mouth before he could stop them. He held his breath, awaiting the flier’s response.

“Uh,” she said hesitantly, noting that Bright hadn’t dropped her hand, “yeah, it is. It hasn’t recovered from Rarity’s healing yet. I assume your gut feels the same.”

“Do–do wing massages really feel that good?” he asked.

Rainbow’s brain shut down momentarily. Was he doing what she thought he was doing? “Are you offering to give me a wing massage?” she asked with incredulity.

The suddenly taciturn paladin just nodded.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” Rainbow exclaimed, giving him a quick and chaste hug before skipping over to the bed. She laid her chest to the mattress, allowing the paladin access to her wings through her backless blouse.

—*~*~*—

Rarity jumped when she heard her friend exclaim from Bright’s room, “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” The healer—who was in no way a gossip and respected the privacy of her friends—immediately scooted closer to the door. It seemed that Rainbow forgot she had left her friend by the door when entering.

“Alright, now I haven’t done this before, so I won’t be all that good,” she heard Bright caution.

“I’ll guide you through,” Rainbow replied. “It’s not all that hard. First you take your hands and place them here and here.” There was a slight pause. “Alright, now squeeze and rub in those areas.” Rarity’s mouth dropped like a stone from a cliff at the words she was hearing.

“L–like this?” the paladin asked.

Rainbow let out a breathy moan, “Oh, yes.” After a few minutes of Rainbow’s moaning and Rarity’s blushing, the flier spoke up again. “Alright, I think we’re ready to move on from there.”

“Okay,” Bright said with slightly more confidence. “What now?”

“Take your finger and place it here.” A slight pause. “Okay now while rubbing your other finger here, push. You’ll know when you’ve done it riGHT!” the flier ended in a squeak. “Oh, yes!” she groaned. “That’s how you do that!” Rarity was beside herself. She had thought that they would take a few more months to get together, with how Bright acted, yet here they were. After a moment, Rainbow spoke up again, “What are you–OH!” Her next words came out as a moan, “Taking the initiative and getting the other one too.”

“I didn’t know if you’d enjoy that,” Bright’s sheepish voice spoke up.

“Most don’t,” Rainbow said, voice fluctuating. “I’m just odd.”

The healer felt faint. She heard a door open from next to her, and turned to see Applejack walk out of the room next to where Rainbow and Bright were. She took one look at Rarity’s face, paused to listen to the two in the room, and shook her head. She walked down the hall, giving the door a quick look.

There was a long, drawn out, shuddering moan from inside the room, causing Rarity’s blush to intensify. The healer decided it was high time for her to get the hell out of dodge, and retreated. The last words she heard from the duo were from Rainbow, “We need to do this again. Soon.”

—*~*~*—

Rainbow sat sinking into the semi-comfortable bed that had been supplied to Bright for the duration of the stay. Her wings and legs felt like jelly. It seemed that Bright really knew what he was doing, even when clueless.

“I agree,” Bright said, giving the jello flier a small smile.

“Where did you learn to be so good with your hands?” Rainbow asked. “There is no way that you have massaged wings before.”

“When I was an acolyte, I made many mistakes. I also was taught to be a paladin by a woman,” Bright said with a smirk. “I got real good at massages, real fast.”

“When you see her next, thank her for me,” Rainbow said from her position face into a pillow. “I owe her, like, ten drinks, just for that.”

“What do you owe me, then?” the paladin asked with unusual playfulness.

“I’d tell you, but I’m still in trouble from the last time I embarrassed you,” the flier replied without hesitance, looking up at him with half-lidded eyes. “Maybe I’ll tell you when you’re older.” Bright regained his signature flush instantaneously, causing Rainbow to giggle.

Looking at the clock on the wall, Bright sighed. “It’s getting late. You should head back to your room for some sleep.”

“Would if I could,” the woman said. “I can’t feel my legs yet, so I’m stuck here. Therefore, you're stuck with me.”

"I thought that it wasn’t an erogenous zone,” Bright deadpanned.

“It isn’t, you’re just that good,” Rainbow replied.

The paladin sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Just–scoot over."

With a momentary application of her arms, she slid over to one side of the bed. She gave a look at the rest of the bed, saying, "Twin beds aren't for two people, no matter what their name might suggest. If you want to share, we're cuddling. Not that I'd have an issue with it, mind you. In fact, I'd congradulate you on your forwardness."

Bright deadpanned, "Maybe I'll just go sleep in your bed.”

“You don’t strike me as the type to be that forward,” Rainbow teased. “You’d at least take me to dinner first. Also, Rarity says you aren't allowed out of your room yet.” The paladin sighed, accepting his fate. He hesitantly say on the edge of the bed, making the woman roll her eyes. "It's just sharing a bed, Bright. It's not a big deal."

The paladin laid down facing away from the frisky flier. He heard some rustling from behind him and dismissed it as the winged woman getting comfortable. Seconds later a light blue shirt was tossed over his head, making him blush furiously. It was going to be one of those nights.

—*~*~*—

Pinkie opened her door late at night with the full intentions of getting some restful sleep. She waljed into the room she shared with Bright, stripping down with a sigh. It wasn't often that she got to sleep without her armor on, and she was going to get as much mileage off of this break as she could.

Suddenly she heard a very unmasculine grunt from Bright's bed, accompanied by the sound of rustling sheets.

The young woman stepped over to the man's bed with curiosity filling her mind. What she found accrued more questions than it answered. Bright was sleeping on his back, as he was wont to do. What was unusual was his companion. The rainbow-haired woman was cuddled up against his side, resting her head on the side of the man's chest. His arm was draped over her shoulder and down her arm in a sleeping embrace.

On a second look, the winged woman was revealed to be scantily clad. Her only article of clothing was a tight-fitting piece of leather wrapped around her hips and groin. Pinkie felt her eyebrow raise at the sight in front of her. She would have more than a few questions for Bright in the morning.

As the young paladin-to-be sat down on her bed to finish undressing, she heard Rainbow start moaning in her sleep. "Do that again, Bright," she was saying. There was a pause before she continued, "Oh, yeah. Right there."

Pinkie felt her face start to live up to her name. Maybe she'd bunk with Trixie for the night.

RIP

Writing on Against the Dark One was fun, which is why I'm not goin to cancel it. Instead, I'm reworking the whole thing, from the ground up. I hereby announce a Rework in Progress (RIP)!

From the ground up is exactly what it says on the tin. I'm redoing everything. Some things will be the same, others different. However, it will still have the same feel as AtDO, just hopefully better-designed and better-written. One main thing I will be doing is breaking out some of my old D&D books and getting these characters down on paper so that I have an idea of their power level besides "well the plot says this now, so".

Expect the first chapter to take a while to complete. I have to create an entire world before I can get anything out. However, I plan to get it out.

Against the Dark One will be back, baby!

—HB