NanoCrystal

Chapters

Chapter 1: Origins
Chapter 3: Lupus
Chapter 4: The Hunt
Chapter 5: Ponyville
Chapter 6: Houseguests
Chapter 7: Introductions
Chapter 2: Rediscovery

Chapter 1: Origins

“All right, that adjustment to the spell should do it,” said the Mentor to his Student

“Are you sure? The last time you said that, you earned the title ‘The Bearded’.”

The Student batted at her Mentor’s beard to emphasize the point. The elder proceeded to glare at his student, who merely giggled in response. The Mentor sighed and shifted his position, eliciting the sound of bells from his cloak. Returning his attention to the enchanting table in front of him, he continued.

“My past shortcomings aside, let us begin the experiment again.”

“Omni-Form Multi-Micro-Crystal Enchantment, attempt 435,” said the student, before continuing with a sarcastic tone. “I bet this will work WAY better than the previous 434 experiments, not counting that one time you accidentally ate the-“

“CLOVER!” The Student went quiet as her mentor gave her the glare to end all glares. “We agreed to NEVER AGAIN mention the cupcake incident!”

Clover sighed and poured some powdered diamond into the center of the fractal decagram inscribed in the center of the enchanting table. “You didn’t even explain how it happened! One moment it was ‘Clover, bring me some lunch and the powdered diamond!’, and the next it was ‘Clover, I appear to have accede-“

Clover caught a glance of her mentor. His expression, while blank, had an icy feel that even Windigos would consider chilly. Her ears drooped, and she quickly cleared her throat with a cough to cover for her sudden bout of awkward nervousness. The silence that followed was only broken by the occasional sound from the two preforming the final steps to set up the experiment.

“You still have yet to give the end product a proper name, you know,” Clover said in an attempt to break the silence.

“I’ll name it when the spell to make it works. Now get the bucket of water, we don’t want a repeat of casting attempt 371.”

Clover sighed at her mentor’s icy demeanor, and left to retrieve the requested item. When she re-entered the room a few minutes later, she looked around the cluttered workshop, and once again felt proud to be the student of the Great and Powerful Starswirl the Bearded. As she approached the table, she decided to try and strike up another conversation with her mentor despite his current ire.

“So Starswirl, are you ever going to take Princess Platinum up on her offer to be her advisor? She is kind of expecting you to accept it. Besides, she trusts you.”

Clover set the bucket down between herself and Starswirl as she stood next to the table. Starswirl’s horn lit up as he prepared to cast a spell on the powdered diamond. He glanced over at clover and sighed.

“Her trust is easily gained and I have no interest in such a position.”

“You really shouldn’t talk about her like that,” Clover said as she glared at her mentor. “She considers you her friend after all, and you know how that old saying goes. ‘Losing a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend-‘”

“FOREVER!” Screamed a pink earth pony that popped out of the water bucket between the two.

“BY FAUST’S QUILL!” Yelled the startled Stariswirl.

Starswirl’s control over the spell he was preparing to cast was quickly ripped away from him as his attention was suddenly focused on the very pink surprise next to him. The spell, no longer maintained by his masterful control, shot towards the enchanting table in a blast of multicolored magic. The table, crafted years before, and enchanted by the greatest unicorns of its time, quickly exploded when exposed to the prematurely casted spell, destroying a significant amount of Starswirl’s workshop with the resulting explosion. Clover, being the clever unicorn that she was, saw the release of the spell in time to put up a shield around the trio of ponies.

When the debris stopped falling, Clover carefully lowered the shield. Starswirl just looked around himself with what could at best be described as shock, occasionally muttering incomprehensibly to himself, before returning his gaze to the pink pony, who still resided in the bucket of water. Clover, who had opted to stare at the pink pony rather than look around the workshop, finally asked the one question that wholly consumed her current mindset.

“Why?!”

“HE DID IT!” Blurted the pink pony while pointing at Starswirl, before quickly ducking back into the bucket.

Silence reigned for a few moments, with both mentor and student staring at the bucket. Ever so slowly, Starswirl started moving his hoof towards the bucket. When it was finally within his reach, he quickly tipped the bucket over. After the water had completely drained out, he carefully picked it up, and looked inside.

“…It’s gone…”

“But how-?” Clover started to ask.

“Wait, what’s that?”

Clover looked at Starswirl, who was pointing at something. In the center of the blackened ruins of what used to be a rather well made enchanting table, there was a shiny transparent cube.

“Is that-?” Clover started to ask.

“I believe so, yes,” Starswirl said simply.

Clover carefully picked up the cube with her magic. She held it so they both could inspect the cube with what little light was available in the destroyed workshop. Starswirl looked at it for a brief amount of time, before stating a simple set of commands.

“Shape, sphere. Color, red.”

In response, the cube slowly changed its shape and color. When it completed, Clover looked at Starswirl with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Sir, you’ve done it!” She danced around a bit, still holding the sphere with her magic. “Do you have any idea what this will do to our current understanding of magic?! We could create structures that build and change themselves! Tools that you only need one of! Maybe we could even individually enchant the crystals, allowing for the creation of complex self-governing machines which we could use to communicate over long distances! We could even-”

“No,” Starswirl said in response to his student’s excited babbling, causing her to stop. “While this discovery could changes things for the better, it has the capability of doing far worse in the wrong hooves.”

“How so?” Clover asked curiously.

“Simple. Shape, sword.”

Clover, who now had a look of horror upon her face, quickly turned to the sphere. Or rather, what used to be a sphere. It now had the vague shape of a sword used by the unicorn elite guard, and was growing sharper and more defined by the second. When it finished, she found herself in possession of a ruby colored sword that any guardspony would be happy to have in their possession.

“You see,” continued Starswirl, “while it could be used to build houses, it could also be used to build military structures. It could be a weapon that changes while you use it. As for your idea of ‘self-governance’, I shudder at the idea of weapons that can think for themselves. So, while it could create a utopia, it could also create untold pain and suffering for all of ponydom.”

“Then why would you create something like this in the first place?”

“Because, Clover, I am not the only one working towards the goal of advancing our knowledge of magic. Even now, my competitors Neighcola Tesla and Thomas Edifoal are pushing the boundaries, with little or no respect for what they find. Tesla created his earthquake generator, and Edifoal has his lightning launcher. Both of those creations, believe it or not, started with mundane intentions! The generator started as a way to see through the ground, and the rod as a way to collect the lightning during storms for later use with those glow-stones that have become so popular. So you see, I too must push the boundaries of magic, if only to come up with ways to prevent death, or if necessary, rebuild lives after it has struck.”

Starswirl laughed humorlessly, before continuing. “With this, I have created both the ultimate weapon of destruction, and the salvation of all of ponydom. I only hope that the pink one that was here earlier did not see how we did it, so we can keep this to ourselves.”

Clover remained quiet a few minutes, continuing to stare at the sword while thinking about what Starswirl said. She eventually sighed and set it down next to her. Looking back at her mentor, who had begun to clean up the mess, she asked a question.

“Where do you think that pink pony went, anyway?”

Starswirl paused in thought before resuming his work. “Where ever they went to, it hopefully was not to their own lab to replicate our success. The last thing we need is a pony that can seemingly defy reality, with a weapon of ultimate destructive potential in their possession.”

-(◊)-

“Hi Doctor,” said a certain pink pony as they, or rather, she, popped up behind a brown stallion who was working in front of a device shaped like a large pillar. “Thanks again for letting me tag along! It was really fun, especially when I got to jump out at ponies and yell ‘FOREVER’ whenever they started saying that saying that I say whenever I’m talking about trust, because that’s the type of saying a friend should say to a friend whenever their friend is about to break another friends trust, even if it would totally solve all of that other friend’s problems with ANOTHER friend they both had, who had problems with the second friend who said that the third friend said that the second friend said tha-MMPH!“

“Pinkie!” Shouted the Doctor as he placed his hoof over Pinkie’s mouth. “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a billion times! Stop breaking into my Tardis! I almost didn’t even notice you did it this time, and you might have been left there if it wasn’t for the odd string of records I found showing a Pink Demon running around in the Pre-Classical Era! Do you have any idea the amount of damage you could have done to the timeline?!”

Pinkie gave the doctor a look that clearly stated ‘I’d tell you, but your hoof is on my mouth’. The Doctor, in response, groaned and removed his hoof before continuing, regardless of the previously expected response from Pinkie.

“You know what, I’m just going to take you home. When did you break in from this time? And no tricking me into revealing the future again! You really need to stop trying to convince your friends you can see the future!”

“But my Pinkie Sense really can-,“ started Pinkie.

“No! None of that. Now, when did you come from?”

Pinkie groaned, before continuing. “Fiiine. I came from temporal coordinate 05-31/11-11-05.”

“Good. Now tell me, how in blue blazes you keep getting in here?!”

-(◊)-

Many years after the Hearth Warming’s Eve event, and even more since Starswirl’s disappearance, Clover the Clever sat alone in her workshop. She stared at a recent archeological discovery that Princess Platinum had asked her to study. The result of said study on them, which had taken all day, was what her current problem was. If her data was to be believed, these six simple gems would have the potential of changing the world many times over. She didn’t know who or what made them, how they worked, or even what their limits were. She was quite sure of one thing, though. They were incredibly powerful forces of potential change.

The memory of a ‘chat’ she had long ago with her mentor drifted through her head as she stared at the gems. She smiled at the memory of working with her mentor, before sighing in remembrance of the warning he had given her. Eventually, she returned to the problem at hoof.

'I need some way of preventing these from falling into the wrong hooves', she thought to herself. 'A failsafe of sorts, as it were. I won’t be around forever, and I really don’t have the patience to foalsit for that long anyway. Princess Platinum will probably want them back soon, and if she can figure out how to get them to work…'

Clover shivered at the thought of a possible return to the three bickering tribes, or worse. She couldn’t let that happen, but she again fell upon the problem of her mortality. If only she could create something to guard them…

Her eyes fell upon a large red workbench in the corner of her lab where the shadows of dusk were just starting to obscure it. A smile formed upon her face as she quickly looked around in the dimming light, to see if anypony else was around. When she was satisfied that nopony was watching, she quickly cleared off the workbench, and moved it to the center of her workshop where the light was better.

“Shape, Cube. Color, Clear.”

At her commands, the red workbench began to slowly shift into a transparent cube that was almost as large as she was. A smile once again graced her with its presence, relief that the NanoCrystal Swarm, as Starswirl had eventually come to call it, still worked. Of course, she was also thankful that she had managed to keep some of it, rather than just destroying it outright as Starswirl had originally planned.

When Starswirl and Clover had attempted to replicate their success those many years ago, they had found that they were unable to. Even with exhaustive testing, their attempts numbering well into the thousands, they were never able to create any more of the NanoCrystal. While baffling, it re-assured Starswirl that there was no chance of anypony else creating it.

Of course, Starswirl wanted to destroy it once the testing was done, to ensure that it didn’t fall into the wrong hooves. Clover, however, had done the brunt of the hooves on experimenting, and knew a few things about it that she had kept from her mentor. She couldn’t get over its potential for magical knowledge advancement, and possibility for do-gooding. So, she broke off a small part of it, to see if she could create more of it with the sample. It wasn’t until years later that she figured a way to get it to consume gems, to increase its mass.

However, none of those discoveries solved her current problem. Commanding it to guard the gems would work, but only for a finite time with any effectiveness. Later on, it would probably have to make judgment calls that she wouldn’t be able to predict with its initial orders. If only there was some way she could-

A phrase from her recent memory flashback ran through her head. With it, came a thought. An idea that seemed to satisfy all the requirements she placed upon the problem in her mind.

'A self-governing machine', she thought. 'One made out of a NanoCrystal swarm, and capable of self-thought.' She smiled to herself, before quickly frowning. 'Then again, that’s like calling a sword the perfect shield. But at the same time, to gain knowledge of self-governing enchantments…'

Clover stared tiredly at the cube for a while longer, before coming to a decision. As her horn lit up, she smiled at the possibility of newfound knowledge. She only hoped it didn’t take as long to modify the swarm as it did to create it in the first place. She didn’t think she could pull that many nights up in a row.

-(◊)-

Many hours later, Clover sat back and admired her work. It was almost dawn, and she was completely exhausted. Of course, she had expected this latest ‘project’ to have taken far longer to complete than a single all-nighter.

With a tired sigh from having stayed up for a full day, Clover went and curled up on a cot she had in the corner of her workshop. It had been a while since she had pulled an all-nighter after a hard day’s work, and she wasn’t as young as she used to be. Plus, the cot was comfortable, and who could turn down a quick powernap?

'Maybe I should get out more', she thought to herself. 'Get some exercise. It would probably help if I saw Smart Cookie more often. She usually has good advice on staying young and energetic.' Clover hugged herself up against the pillow on her cot. 'I wonder what she would say about my current project.'

She paused for a few moments before placing her prediction. 'She would probably say I was marrying the ultimate weapon of destruction with the ultimate weapon of change, to create one big happy family of Chaos. I guess I can ask her when she shows up for our day at the spa today.'

Clover suddenly sat up on her cot as her last thought really sunk in.

“I just married the ultimate weapon of destruction to the ultimate weapon of change, and Smart Cookie is probably going to show up any minute now! What was I thinking?!”

Quickly getting up, Clover darted around her workshop, looking for someplace she could hide her latest ‘project’ where no one could see. As she did so, she failed to notice it watching her as she darted around her workshop. If she had known, she probably would have been slightly more alarmed, but she had other things on her mind.

“Ohhh, if she tells Princess Platinum, I’ll be in so much trouble! Now, I just need to hide it before-“

After a quick knocking on the door, a voice called out. “Clover, are you in there? I’m here for our spa day, and last time you skipped you promised you would come with this time.”

“Uh, be right there, Cookie!”

Clover desperately looked around her workshop, before finally settling on a large iron cauldron with a lid. She had used it previously for an experiment in alchemy, but she had a MUCH better use for it now!

With a quick flick of her magic, the cauldron landed next to the NanoCrystal swarm. She removed the lid, and with a quick command, told it to enter. It hesitated slightly, but did as she bid. She was quick to blame its hesitancy on its new enchantments, and not her mind rushing faster than a speeding lama.

Once the swarm was fully inside the cauldron, she put the lid back on, and stood atop the entire assembly in time for Cookie to open the door.

“Clover, are you coming or not? We may have all day, but that’s no reason to-… Why are you standing on a pot?”

“I’m not standing on a pot,” Clover quickly said. “You’re seeing things. Besides, this is obviously a cauldron.”

Cookie stared at Clover with a flat look, before sighing.

“You created an abomination of magic again, didn’t you?”

Clover’s ears fell, as a weak grin appeared on her face.

“Stars and Moon, Clover, you promised you wouldn’t after the last time!” Cookie glared at Clover with an annoyed expression. “You remember when you tried to prove the existence of the flutter ponies?”

“Hey! That wasn’t my-“

“Or the time you tried to prove the planet revolves around the sun?”

“But that would have worked if-“

“Or should I remind you about the time you tried to summon a human?”

“But he didn’t blame me for-“

“Or, Faust forbid, the time you tried to re-create the Smooze?”

“But it was only bubblegum!“

“Of course, there was always the time you went on that date with Commander Hurricane.”

“What? That didn’t end with an abomination!”

“You sure looked like one when he was through with you.”

“Wha?! But I- Wha?” Squeaked Clover.

Cookie grinned at the blush that was rapidly consuming Clover’s face. When Clover eventually regained her composure, Cookie continued.

“So, do you need help hiding it or not?

“W-what makes you think I-“ Clover started before another flat stare from Cookie ended it. “Ok! Fine! Will you?”

Cookie smiled and said, “It’s a good thing that someone is building a castle nearby.”

“What does that have anything to do with-“

“Just bring the pot with your coltfriend in it, and let’s go.”

Clover started blushing again, and sent a hard glare at Cookie, who was laughing at Clover’s reaction. After a moment, Clover sighed.

“Just let me give it some orders first, and then we can seal it away. You know, so it doesn't freak out and go on a rampage or anything.”

Cookie sighed, but indicated Clover should make it quick. Clover lifted the lid and stuck her head inside the cauldron, whispered for a few moments, then closed and sealed the cauldron with magic. When she was done, she returned her attention to Cookie and asked a question.

“So, whose castle are we hiding this in?”

“It’s Princess Platinum’s. You can tell her all about your new friend while we’re there.”

By the time night fell that day, Clover felt she had lost three years off of her life.

Author's Note

Not totally happy with it, but I want to move on to the next chapter.
Again, criticism welcome.

Chapter 3: Lupus

The swarm was active.

It had been an unfathomable amount of time since it had last been active. It was, after all, nearly impossible to detect the passage of time while inside a metal canister. Of course, exactly how much time had passed didn’t really matter right now.

The swarm began to examine its surroundings. It appeared to be in an odd area, with a multitude of biological entities around it. Most of them it quickly was able to identify as trees, plants, or grasses of some type, all of which were just as quickly classified as background noise due to their prolific numbers, and then ignored. A few of them, however, were different.

There were five of them that did not fit into what it could classify as background noise. One appeared to be a possible subspecies of its creators, a pony of some sort, but it had wings, a feature that both of the ones it had seen so long ago lacked. Another was a chimera, a combination of features that seemed to be mostly that of a large cat, with some insectoid features. The last three were of the same species, an odd active variant of the background noise that defied the classification as such, being a hybrid of plant, animal, and magic if their apparent regeneration capabilities were any indicator.

The chimera and the hybrids appeared to be tense towards each other, but were working together to seemingly stand in defense against the pony subspecies, who was retreating in the air. Once the pony was fully outside of visual range, the chimera and the hybrids backed away from each other, and disappeared from view as well. Shortly after that, even the sounds of them departing were no longer present, swallowed up by the background noise of the environment.

The swarm remained in its natural powder state for a while, continuing to observe its surroundings. The environment was vastly different from anything it had previously been exposed to. Granted, it had only known of two differing types, namely the canister and the room in which it was made. However, that did not change the fact that this environment was obviously neither, and it was well and truly outside of its expertise.

The need for mobility was forefront on its current priorities. This, of course, required a shape that was mobile, rather than just a bunch of itself stacked up in a pile. However, it obviously couldn’t take the only other mobile form it knew, as its creator’s race appeared to either be long gone, or possibly undertaking hostile action with the local residents. Of the four locals it had seen, the two groups had seemed hostile towards each other, but willing to work together to accomplish tasks. As such, it would also be logical to take one of their shapes, and be able to pass relatively unnoticed while it was exploring this new environment.

The swarm decided upon the shape of one of the hybrids, being the larger group. This was under the assumption that they were more plentiful, and any inaccuracies it made with its reproduction would be more likely to be ignored. Then again, if they all looked the same, as those three had, then it might have to adapt to another shape later on.

With the sound of crystals sliding against each other, the swarm did its best attempt at reproducing the shape of the hybrids. Within moments, it was complete, but it quickly started again, this time making sure it was OUTSIDE the canister when it was finished. Once complete the second time, it quickly checked for any inaccuracies.

The list of errors in the shape was notably higher than it had predicted. It was too small, in comparison to the ones it had seen. It also seemed to have gotten the joints wrong as they didn’t move, and there was no way it was going to get the coloration and texture right without further up-close examination.

The swarm remained as it was for a few moments, attempting to decipher ways it could solve or bypass the problems. It sat in its position, remaining perfectly still, for some time. Eventually, it settled on a strategy to solve the issues, and was quick to enact them.

First, it removed the joints, in favor of just levitating bits of itself where the legs should be. After carful realignment and readjustment, it was able to have its new ‘joint’ resemble the ones on the hybrids while still retaining functionality. Once complete, it then just levitated used a symbiotic system of levitation, where the feet would levitate the body, allowing the body to the detail work of the legs, neck, head and tail. This brought the swarm up to the second problem.

It had no way to increase its mass, so it had no way to increase its size. As a bypass, it instead just increased its surface area, allowing a hollow cavity to form inside the main body, making sure that all the other parts of the shape were solid. This wasn’t a perfect solution, but it solved the problem until a better solution could be found.

Finally, it rolled itself in the dirt to reduce the natural shine of its crystal grains. After this was complete, it used some nearby sticks and plant matter to get the texture as close as possible to what it had seen. Again, not a perfect solution, but it was unlikely that the locals would be able to tell the difference.

With its new shape complete, the swarm set off in the direction it had seen the other hybrids go to. With luck, they would be able to direct it in the direction of its primary objective. If not, then at least they might provide some basic protection, assuming it could temporarily infiltrate their society while it searched.

-(◊)-

It was well after dark when the swarm finally caught up with the hybrids. They had identified it as an outsider as soon as it entered the clearing they were staying in. It was shortly after this event that the swarm had deduced that they were not sentient, and worked almost entirely on instinct.

Several hundred thousand wood splinters that used to be teeth, 12 partial and 2 full regenerations, and one failed attempt at diplomacy later, the hybrids had given up the idea of trying to eat the swarm. Even better, they seemed to respect it, for some reason or another. Also of interest was that the Alpha of their pack seemed interested in the swarm.

It took some time for the swarm to understand what it was going on, but it eventually was able to discover that the Alphas apparently were sentient to some extent, and had a language of their own composed entirely of body language. After a bit of experimentation and additional acquisition of splinters, it came to the conclusion that the Alpha wanted to add the swarm to its pack, as the swarm was seemingly impervious to the hybrid’s attacks. At least, that’s what the swarm calculated to be the most probable translation, as the other possibilities would have been ineffectual, as it did not reproduce in that manner.

In the hopes of finding information on its primary objective, if not the objective itself, it reluctantly agreed to join the pack. Or rather, it attempted to do so, resulting in another two additional failed diplomacy attempts, a few thousand more slivers, and one laughing Alpha after the third attempt. The swarm only hoped it could figure out how to express its desire to find its objective before too long, or it was going to have no further problems resembling them with its new and growing collection of splintered wood.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay. I couldn't quite get this part to sound right (still doesn't), and was working on the plot for the next dozen chapters. I also feel as though this chapter is too short, but was unable to expand it without cutting into the flow of the next chapter.
If anyone is interested in playing the part of editor, feel free. Might get me to write faster.

Chapter 4: The Hunt

Two Days after ‘The Swarm’ is Released…

With its familiar whine, the Tardis appeared inside Pinkie’s room in Sugar Cube Corner. Pinkie was quick to open the door, only for the Doctor to groan in annoyance. Yet another Pinkie was standing in the entryway to the Tardis, but with a questioning look on her face, contrary to the first’s excitement.

“Pinkie!” Exclaimed the Pinkie inside the Tardis. “You need to go with the Doctor back to when Princess Celestia banished Nightmare Moon!

“Really?! Yay!” Exclaimed the other.

Both Pinkies quickly changed places (again) as the Doctor looked on. Once they were done, both pinkies looked at the Doctor with expectant smiles (again). With a groan, the Doctor finally asked the question they were probably waiting for him to ask.

“Do I get a say in this?”

Both Pinkies replied in Stereo (again).

“Nope!”

The Doctor, not used to being forced into this type of situation, closed the door to the Tardis with a sigh.

“Why do I always end up in these situations?” He asked in a flat voice to nopony in particular.

“Oh, Oh!” Pinkie said as she followed the Doctor to the central column of the Tardis. “Can we make a pit stop in Marelantis?”

“No.”

“How about Faust’s tower?”

The Doctor groaned, knowing this wasn't going to end.

-(◊)-

Aura was lost.

Normally, navigation wasn’t a problem for her, even being an earth pony and a filly, but this forest seemed to be using a different rule book. One that wasn’t foal friendly. Written in a dead language. With no pictures.

She regretted ever entering the Everfree forest. Sure, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would have spread the contents of her diary around, but that would have been better then preforming their dare of entering the Everfree forest! Granted, she was only supposed to go a short way in, but she had tripped and rolled, resulting in her loss of direction, which led to her current problem.

Aura looked at her surroundings, again, causing her light blue mane to fly around against her mulberry fur. This was the fifth time for her to do so in the past 5 minutes. Like the attempts before, she was still lost. She still was unable to figure out which way to go, and it was still too dark to see much besides the vegetation around her, due to the sun having set. She did, however, see something new that she had not seen the previous times she looked.

She saw eyes.

Lots and lots of glowing yellow eyes. All around her. Every single one of them staring at her.

As Aura stared at them, she was quickly overpowered with a horrible stench. Even a foal like her knew that smell. It was one that all the ponies of Ponyville were taught to fear.

“Timberwolves,” Aura whimpered to herself.

Without thinking about direction, she ran away. She didn’t care where she was going, just as long as it was away from the Timberwolves. However, a foal can only run on adrenaline and fear for so long before the body itself stops responding to their will to run.

When her legs finally did give out what seemed like hours later, she was in the middle of a clearing. She was completely exhausted, and she couldn’t move if she tried. For all her efforts, though, she had been unable to evade her pursuers.

With more fear then she had ever known in her life, she was forced to confront the reality of her situation. She was going to die. She was going to be eaten, and nopony would ever hear from her again. This was her end.

The Timberwolves, possibly sensing her acceptance of defeat, moved in. As they came into the clearing, she slowly realized that she didn’t have a chance of evading them to begin with. There was a full dozen of them, each exactly like the other, and every single one of them drooling with hunger.

Except that one.

Aura found herself staring at the thing with the Timberwolves. It looked like somepony had chiseled a statue to look like a Timberwolf out of a brownish type of rock, then polished it, coated it in mud, sticks and sawdust, and then enchanted it all to glow an odd gray color. Its eyes, instead of a normal glowing yellow, were instead a dull and lusterless gold, and the stench the Timberwolves had seemed to be missing from it. The most disturbing feature about it, however, was the way it moved.

While the other Timberwolves fluidly moved from spot to spot, the creature had jerky movements, with its feet seeming unstable, but was soundless when compared to the noise the Timberwolves were making. The Timberwolves tried to blend with the shadows, and stealthily move between them, but the creature didn’t even bother to hide its glow as it darted about. Each of the Timberwolves stared at her hungrily, but the creature seemed to almost be ignoring her, as though she didn’t even appeal to it.

This really didn’t change her situation, though. She was going to die, what did a weird creature hanging out with the Timberwolves matter? It’s not as though she’s going to be able to tell anypony about it.

Suddenly, she saw movement dart towards her. She knew this was her end. She felt herself be thrown up in the air, and then on her way back down everything went dark.

-(◊)-

Earlier in the day…

The Swarm had been participating in the pack’s activities, social and otherwise. It had learned much from the Alpha. It had learned that they called themselves Timberwolves, their customs, how to better act like them, and possibly a recipe for a dessert dish that was supposed to be ‘Simply Devine’. What it had not learned, however, was any new information pertaining to its primary objective.

Of course, this was to be expected. The pack didn’t travel far from its territory, and this was rare to change. The Alpha was also the only one who could have possibly related it, anyway, and if it wasn’t food, a threat, or a louve in heat, the Alpha usually didn’t pay attention to it.

The Swarm had questioned why this was. Why did they not travel far? Why was the Alpha the only one that could talk, and what was a louve in heat?

The Alpha had answered simply with, “Its tradition, because we do, and when two wolves love each other ver-… wait, how old are you?”

Fortunately for the Swarm, as long as it fulfilled its responsibilities to the pack, the Alpha was mostly indifferent to anything the Swarm did. This allowed the Swarm to slip away occasionally, to search for its objective. Unfortunately, it was not currently one of those times.

The majority of the pack was on a hunt. The Swarm, being the strongest they had (besides the Alpha, who refused to think otherwise), was expected to participate. While the Swarm would rather have continued looking for its objective, it had agreed to assist, if only to learn what a hunt was. The answer was even more confusing for it than the original question.

A hunt was apparently an activity where the pack worked together to kill large or fast creatures that an individual Timberwolf would be unable to defeat alone. After the pack killed its target, all the Timberwolves that participated would then get a share in the corpse, apparently for purposes of ingestion.

The Swarm didn’t need to eat, so it usually gave its share away to another member of the pack, if not the Alpha. This act alone seemed to gain it more leeway, allowing it to roam farther afield by itself. Of course, it also could use the time the Timberwolves used to eat to explore.

During one of these many explorations, it had noticed an interesting pattern. In some areas the pack traveled, it was more likely to encounter a local of the forest then in others. Even more interesting, this pattern seemed to form part of a ring of sorts, around a spot several miles outside of the pack’s territory. The Swarm had promptly decided that it was going to explore the location after the pack’s hunt.

The hunt itself had been great success for the pack, mostly due to the Swarm’s aid. Using the pattern it had discovered, it had led the pack into the area of their territory with the highest probability of encountering something to attack. Granted, it was only probability, but the Alpha had been suitably impressed by the Swarm’s assistance.

“I knew you were good luck,” the Alpha said in its gestural language. “The pack has never eaten this well!”

The Alpha and three other Timberwolves were eating the remains of one of the Chimeras that the Swarm had seen earlier, with the rest of their pack standing guard. The Swarm had been the one to spot the chimera first, but the Alpha had been the one to score the final hit. It was apparently something that added to the Alpha’s ‘honor’.

“As I have told you, it was simple probability based on my explorations.” The Swarm sat off to the side of the corpse, helping to keep watch for the group while the Alpha ate. “To give me credit for such an occurrence is-.“

“I have no idea what those big words you just made up have to do with you being good luck,” interrupted the Alpha, “but I want you to get over here and eat. I have not seen you eat in all the time I’ve known you, and it would bring honor to you if you ate with me.”

The Swarm was about to respond that it didn’t eat, but an idea struck it. It was a clever, yet devious idea. It was an idea that would further its goal of exploration for its objective, and if it was lucky, it would not have to ‘eat’ at all.

“I would, Alpha, but this food does not appeal to me,” the Swarm finally replied. “I usually hunt for prey while I’m exploring away from the pack, and eat then. As for your honor, I am not one of your kinsmen, per se, so you would only gain from one of your own eating in my place.”

The Alpha stopped eating to stare at the Swarm for a few moments. It was the kind of stare that asked the question “Are you serious?” It would have been even more effective, had Timberwolves been able to show facial expressions that better conveyed sarcasm.

“First, I told you to stop making up words. Second, if you won’t accept the honor of eating with me, you will accept the honors of me helping you hunt for food.”

The Alpha resumed eating before continuing, fully displaying one of the main benefits of a gestural language: The ability to talk with your mouth full, and be perfectly comprehensible. Table manners do tend to take a back seat when you’re a vicious meat eating Timberwolf, after all, and lack a table to utilize them with.

“And don’t try and talk your way out if it with your made up words! I need to make sure all in my pack stay strong. What would the other Alphas say if I didn’t?”

“They would probably say you-“

“Doing it again!”

The Swarm did its best attempt at reproducing the Alpha’s previous stare towards its original owner. This is not what it had in mind, but obviously this was a big thing for the Alpha. Besides, some backup wouldn’t hurt, if one of those hydra things the pack talked so much about showed up.

What’s the worst that could happen?

-(◊)-

Present…

The Swarm was now regretting its previous decision. Granted, it had explored for a lot longer than it normally had been able to, but it didn’t expect this. Not only had the pack found something, but it was of the race of the Swarm’s creators!

Granted, it was a bit small, the colors were different, and it seemed to lack the mark the first it had seen had, but quite a bit of time had passed. Maybe they all look like this now? Then again, it was also possible that there was more variation in the creator’s race then the Swarm had originally known, and all the variants of it that the Swarm had seen so far were of the same species, with this smaller one being a younger version, but that was unlikely.

Either way, any conjecture the Swarm preformed at this point was useless. The fact of the matter was that one had been found, and was now being hunted down by its pack mates. It was highly likely that if the Swarm did not act soon, it was likely that the Timberwolves would kill it, and any knowledge it might have on the Swarm’s objective would be lost.

The pack had ambushed the creator while it was walking aimlessly in the forest. Why it was here, the Swarm didn’t know. What it did know was that the Swarm had assisted in chasing it for the better part of an hour, until it had collapsed inside of a clearing. The other Timberwolves seemed to take this as some sign of defeat, and started circling it, preparing for the kill.

The Swarm quickly ran through its available options. It could defend the creator, but it would probably have to fight off the Timberwolves it had lived with for the better part of two days, and that seemed inefficient. It could assist with the kill, and lose any potential knowledge the creator may have, or it could do nothing and achieve the same result through inaction. Both of these actions resulted in a loss that the Swarm could not risk.

If only there was a way to convince the Timberwolves to hunt something else. This whole situation was an exercise in futility. It’s not like the Swarm needed to eat anywa-

With sudden inspiration, the Swarm quickly surged forward, moving faster than it ever had previous. It then placed its faux muzzle underneath the creator, and launched it in the air. While it was up, it gave the Swarm time to realign its internal mass, and exposing the cavity it was forced to create to maintain this form.

As the creator came down, the Swarm opened its muzzle to a degree that would probably be physically impossible for a normal Timberwolf. With this accomplished, it placed its newly created mouth directly under the creator, and quickly caught it. It was then just a matter of sliding the creator into the Swarm’s internal cavity, or newly repurposed ‘stomach’, before the ruse was complete.

For all intents and purposes, it had ‘eaten’ the creator, and defended it from the other Timberwolves at the same time. This accomplished both the goals of showing the Alpha that it ate something, and defending the creator for latter questioning. It’s perfect plan!

“Hah,” said the Alpha. “I knew you were hungry after hunting with us!”

The pack formed a defensive circle around the Alpha as it approached the Swarm. It was a normal practice for the pack to be weary of its surroundings, but the Swarm made sure to pay extra attention to those surrounding it. It was defending for two now, after all.

“Now that you’ve eaten,” continued the Alpha, “I have some ideas for what w-“

A loud THUNK was heard, causing the Alpha, as well as most of the pack, to look around for the source of the noise. It was quickly repeated, and the source was found to be the Swarm. The Swarm’s ‘perfect plan’ suddenly had a glaring flaw.

The Alpha looked at the Swarm with what could be best described as a blank expression. After a moment of hesitation, he asked a simple question.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” answered the Swarm, emitting another thud in the process. “Or rather, it’s nothing a quick run won’t fix.”

The Alpha continued to glare at the Swarm for a moment longer, before seeming to come to a decision.

“Take care of it, and then meet up with us later. You should have just said you were a noisy eater.”

“I didn’t want to embarrass you,” said the Swarm as it moved towards the edge of the protective circle of Timberwolves. “I should probably be back before noon tomorrow. If I’m not ba-“

“Doing it again!”

The Swarm raced away from the pack. It needed a safe place to attempt to question the creator. Hopefully, its theory about the reduction in creatures held true for the center of the circles it mapped out, and it wasn’t heading into the lair of a hydra or something.

After an hour of searching, the Swarm stumbled across what it believed to be ground zero for safety in this forest. It appeared to be a tree of some sort, but modified in a way it couldn’t explain. The Swarm decided to take a chance, and approached the structure, hoping for the best.

-(◊)-

Zecora was mixing up a mighty brew, but suddenly decided to let it stew. For outside her hut was not a sound, something from which no good could be found. With a quick dash to the window she sought, she looked for something she feared must be fought.

Ok, yeah, enough of that. Let’s start over.

Zecora the zebra was working on her latest batch of potions. It was nothing too pressing, but she had hoped that she could finish them tonight. This would allow her to deliver them tomorrow and have the next day off.

It should be quiet around Ponyville, if everypony was up at the wedding in Canterlot. Or, at least everypony who would be inclined to cause a major disaster. One can hope.

However, it seemed as though fate was conspiring against her. First she had run out of Thuppa root, quickly followed by her stash of pink moss. Then, she found that she had underestimated the firewood she would need, and had run out.

And now, it was too quiet outside. Granted, she liked quiet, but in the middle of the Everfree Forest, quiet was a bad thing. It usually meant that some beast of prey was nearby. The only question that left was if she had to defend herself and her home from whatever was causing the disturbance.

Walking over to one of the many windows in her home, she looked outside for the cause of the disturbance. It was dark out, and the vegetation didn’t help, but she was used to these conditions. When she finally saw it, however, her breath caught in her throat.

It was some sort of monstrosity! It looked like somepony had enchanted a statue of a Timberwolf for some reason, covered it in mud and sticks, and then left it to its own devices! And now it was approaching her hut!

Zecora quickly collected one of her more detrimental potions. It was nothing special, just a mix that tended to explode when exposed to air. She almost had all the kinks worked out of it, and it almost never exploded in her face anymore.

With the potion securely held in her mouth, she quietly opened the door to her hut, and slipped into the night. Within moments, she had found the statue again in the dark due to the strange glow it seemed to be giving off. She slowly approached it from behind, readying the potion she held to be thrown, all the while feeling like she was being watched.

Just as she was about to throw the potion, the statue turned around. Zecora hesitated for a single moment, but that was more than enough time for the statue. It did something she was completely unprepared for, and had no counter to.

It sat down, a noisy ‘thump’ emitting from its chest.

After a few moments, Zecora was able to pick her monochromatically stripped jaw back up, followed by the potion (which thankfully hadn’t broken). All the while, the statue just sat there, watching her. After a few more moments and another thud from the creature, Zecora decided to take a chance, and break the staring game they had suddenly found themselves in.

“What is this thing before my eyes,” Zecora rhymed. “A demon come to claim our lives?”

The staring game was quick to resume after Zecora stated her question. When the silence became awkward and her patience started wearing thin, she pressed for answers.

“Answer my question, and do not poke, for in this brew, there is no joke!”

Silence once again permeated the air, but was quickly broken by a series of thuds emanating from the creature. Admittedly, Zecora was surprised that the statue hadn’t attacked her initially, but to sit there and make noises at her was almost as unbelievable. For a statue carved to look like such a vicious animal, it sure seemed tame.

Suddenly, as Zecora was watching the statue, it seemed to melt. Its features became less distinct, until it was little more than a pillar of a brownish liquefied stone. Her surprise was magnified several fold, however when a hole seemed to form in it, displaying an internal cavity.

Granted, the cavity itself was surprising, but what truly blew her away was when a foal was unceremoniously dumped out from inside it. The foal seemed to be fine, but lay perfectly still on the ground, its- no, her- blue mane and purple coat matted with sweat. After a few moments of staring blankly at her surroundings, the foal quickly jumped up and ran behind Zecora, trying to hide from the thing that had brought her here.

After yet another moment, the liquid statue creature had reformed itself back into a Timberwolf, albeit with none of the mud and sticks it had earlier discarded with its initial transformation. The staring contest was then resumed with earnest, almost as though it had never ended to begin with. Soon, though, this too was ended as the statue slowly backed into the vegetation that surrounded Zecora’s hut, paradoxically seeming to disappear into its own strange grey glow.

“Wh-what was that thing?” the foal behind Zecora whimpered.

Zecora cried out in surprise, so focused was she on the strange creature that she had forgotten the foal that hid behind her. Once she calmed herself, however, she faced the new problem at hoof.

“I know this not, my young foal, but it seems it gave you quite the toll. Are you harmed, are you cold? Have I missed something I cannot behold?”

“I don’t think so,” said the foal. “It was really hot in there, though! Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to break out so much…”

With a sigh, Zecora started escorting the filly to her home.

“What is your name and where is your home, so we can set aim to make end your roam?”

“M-my name is Aura,” replied the foal. “I’m staying in Ponyville, with my aunt Berry Punch.”

“Let us get you inside, where it is warm,” said Zecora with a small smile, leading Aura to her hut. “Then maybe we can start getting you back to the norm. At night it is not safe, even for one such as I, so tomorrow, after night ends, your abode we will come by.”

Aura smiled, and quickly bounded into Zecora’s hut. After a quick glance at her surroundings, Zecora soon joined her. Soon, both had fallen asleep, the shock of the encounter taking its toll.

Both were unaware of the crystal wolf, watching the hut from nearby, standing as though it were made like some stone, waiting for time to go by.

Author's Note

On to the next chapter!
Flow felt better with this one, but I'm not quite sure I got Zecora right...
I also think I was skirting the dark tag for a bit, there.
Comments/corrections/criticism still welcome.

Chapter 5: Ponyville

The swarm was beginning to doubt its latest ‘perfect plan’. Morning had come, and the two oddly colored (and sized, and marked) creators had yet to leave the structure. How was the Swarm supposed to follow them to the follow them to information about its objective if they didn’t lead?

Maybe the swarm was wrong about this whole thing. Maybe the creators it had found didn’t belong to a larger society. Maybe the creators it had found don’t actually know anything about the swarm’s objective. Was it possible that the creators didn’t have conscious control of their exterior appearances, and are actually forced to look like that ALL THE TIME?!

‘Ok, that last one was a guess’, the Swarm admitted to itself.

Just as the Swarm was finally about to give up waiting and barge into the structure to demand answers, the door opened. It was but a moment before both of the creators had left the structure. The striped one did something to the door, before both of the creators walked down a path leading away from the structure.

The swarm followed at a respectable distance. Of course, this was only after taking a moment to ensure that the bottle the stripped creator had forgotten on the ground last night was secured in its internal compartment. After that, it was a simple matter of staying close enough to see them, but far enough away so it would not be seen.

‘The creators seem to have very poor eyesight’, the swarm noted. ‘This is the second time I’ve been able to observe them undetected.’

The path that the creators followed twisted and turned, winding its way through the forest. At one point, it did a graceful arc around a patch of blue flowers that the Swarm had never seen before. The Swarm made a note to investigate it later if it ever came by here again.

Eventually, the path led to the edge of the forest. A short distance from the forest, another structure could be seen. Even farther beyond that, was a large conglomeration of structures.

‘Finally’, the Swarm thought, ‘A settlement! Now, I just need to find where they keep their information. Then it’s a simple matter of finding my objective, and preforming my main purpose!’

The Swarm watched as the two creators continued down the path leading towards the settlement. The Swarm opted to stay at the edge of the forest, however, so as to stay out of sight. Once both of the creators could no longer see it, the Swarm finally departed the forest.

‘New environment, new disguise’, the Swarm thought to itself. ‘The locals of the forest were hostile to the creators, so a Timberwolf is obviously not the best choice to explore the settlement with. Fortunately, I already have a shape I can use…’

It was but a moment before the Swarm was in its new disguise. To any outside observer, it would appear to be a white unicorn mare, with green mane and tail, and a four-leaf clover cutie mark. The swarm’s new disguise still had its flaws, however, as the shiny coat and gray glow would give it away.

With the light available outside the forest, the Swarm was quick to begin solving these problems. A quick roll in the dirt made short work of the shiny luster of its white crystalline coat. However, the glow required a different approach.

Of course, the only reason the swarm knew it was glowing in the first place was the ease by which the creators it had encountered had followed it when it was initially trying to hide. Well, that and the fact that everything nearby tended to get a bit brighter when it was moving. It noticed the surrounding brightness first, though. Honest!

After some experimentation, the swarm figured out how to move without glowing. It just had to focus its levitation efforts on the center mass of crystals, rather than the grouping as a whole. Having enough mass to not need to make any internal spaces also helped (not counting the area it had to clear up to store the bottle it had found earlier). There was only one problem with this, though.

The Swarm fell apart.

Just holding onto the center bits caused the edges to want to fall off, until its mass had been reduced to just what it was holding. Everything the swarm did to correct this problem, caused it to visibly glow. Short of gluing the parts together, somehow, it was stuck with the glow.

Admitting defeat, the swarm decided to head towards the settlement in hopes that it wouldn’t make a difference. It was about mid-day by now, and most of the creators that inhabited the city were out and about. With the increased ambient light, maybe it could just pull this off without being noticed.

“AHHH! GHOST!”

The Swarm had just reached the edge of the settlement when one of the creators had started screaming. It wasn’t entirely sure what had scared her, but she seemed to be running away from something. It was only a second before another two creators that had been with the first, looked around in alarm, eventually looking in the direction of the Swarm.

“ITS COME TO CLAIM OUR SOULS! EVERYPONY RUN!”

“The Horror! THE HORROR!”

The Swarm re-evaluated its prior conclusion as the other two creators ran off after the first. It quickly checked its surroundings for this ‘ghost’ thing, trying to decide if it was something the Swarm would need to defend itself against. After a moment of finding nothing, however, the Swarm assumed the ‘ghost’ was gone, and continued its exploration of the town.

As it explored, the Swarm saw many creators. They were of many different colors, sizes, and in some cases, shape. Some had wings, some had horns, and some had neither. Fortunately for the Swarm, it had decided that anything roughly creator shaped must be a creator, else this entire situation would have caused much confusion on its part.

Most of the creators ignored the Swarm. Some seemed to be cautious of it, some seemed curious, but most were indifferent and stayed out of its way.

‘The disguise must be working,’ the Swarm concluded. ‘Now, if only I could find a good source of infor-‘

“Greetings!”

-(◊)-

Mayor Mare had finally tracked down the strange pony that everypony was talking about. The strange glowing unicorn mare had walked into town an hour ago, causing the flower trio to go into their usual ‘panic and run’ routine. Fortunately, the glowing mare was anything but subtle. It had been easy to spot her in the middle of the marketplace. Everypony avoiding it also helped.

“Greetings!” the mayor called out as she approached.

The glowing mare turned its head to look at the mayor. This action alone allowed the Mayor could see why the flower trio had panicked. She was quite sure a neck wasn't supposed to bend that way.

“Is there something I can help you with?” the mayor asked, hoping to get the strange mare out of her city.

The glowing mare turned to face the mayor before she made an odd series of gestures with her forelimbs, before remaining still. The mayor tilted her head, attempting to derive sense out of it. After a moment, she took a guess at what she thought the mare was asking.

“I’m sorry, but pinkie isn’t around right now. She’s up in Canterlot helping with the wedding. Maybe you can ask her to play a game of charades later.”

The mare stared at the mayor for a few seconds, before holding up a foreleg. After a moment, a part of it seemed to break off and hover in the air just above it. The mayor stared at it a moment, before it started to emit sound.

Granted, the series of tones, warbles, growls and groans that the thing emitted did NOT help the mayor understand the mare’s intentions. It did, however, increase the trepidation the mayor felt about the mare, to say nothing of the gathering crowd. Fortunately, it seemed to sort the problem out as the sounds eventually gained some semblance of speech.

“In. For. May. Shun.” The thing croaked out.

“W-what?” the mayor said after a moment.

“In. For. May. Shun.”

“I’m not sure what you-“

“IN! FOR! MAY! SHUN!”

“Saying it louder isn’t going to-“

“IN-FOR-MAY-SHUN!”

“I-Information?”

The glowing mare finally stood silent.

“You want Information?”

The glowing mare continued to stare at the mayor with seemingly lifeless eyes. Besides the slow bobbing of the crystal that hovered above the mare’s foreleg, she stood totally still, as though carved from stone.

“Well,” the mayor finally replied, “We do have a library. That has all sorts of information stored in the form of books.”

After a moment of staring, the crystal gave out a reply to the mayor.

“Where?”

Just a single word. Nothing more, barely even a question! Just a simple statement, as if the mayor answering the improperly phrased question was an inevitable fact.

“W-well, it's in the tree in that direction, but- Hey wait!”

In one swift movement, the glowing mare had recollected the crystal into her foreleg, and started walking in the direction the mayor had indicated. The crowd, which had encircled the mare and mayor, quickly scattered as the duo moved in its direction.

“I said wait!” The mayor called out, but to no avail.

The glowing mare walked in quickly along, until coming to a stop before a building in her path. The mayor caught up to the glowing mare just in time to see her place a hoof on the building, as if questioning its existence.

“Just- *gasp* wait a moment!” said the mayor, as she tried to catch her breath. He had it suddenly taken away from her, again, when the glowing mare did something completely unexpected.

With little warning, the mare started to climb the wall, as if defying gravity was normal. The mayor could only stare, dumfounded, as the glowing mare walked up the wall, and quickly disappeared out of sight on top of the building. This was more like something she expected from a certain pink earth pony, not some random glowing visitor from outside of town.

After a moment of continuing to stare at where the glowing mare had disappeared, the mayor regained her senses. There was no way she was going to be able to follow it without pegisi assistance! Now if only she- Ah Ha!

“Thunderlane!” the mayor called out to a black pegasus sitting on a nearby cloud.

Thunderlane, who had been watching the situation below with mild interest, frowned at having been spotted. This was suppose to be his day off, but some random glowing pony had caused the town below to panic. How's a guy suppose to take a nap with all this racket?

“Tunderlane,” the mayor said, “I need you to follow that glowing mare!”

“What?” Thunderlane replied in a flat tone.

“I need you to follow that glowing mare! I can't do it, but you can!”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Just do it!”

“Fine, Mom!” Thunderlane replied in a sarcastic manner as he stood up.

“Do you want me to tell her you talk to me like that? It has been a while since I've sent a letter to my sister, after all.”

“She would probably be too busy to read it!”

“Just go!”

With quite a bit of muttered curses under his breath, Thunderlane took off in the direction the glowing mare had left. This was definitely not how he planned on spending the day. If that glowing mare knew what was good for her, she would up and disappear!

-(◊)-

The swarm was FINALLY making some headway on its objective! And to think, all it had taken was asking directions from that strange flightless creator. If only the Timberwolves had- what did she call it? A library?

Asking the question in the first place had been a challenge, though. It should have known that the creators didn't use the Timberwolf language! The language of sound was a lot more tricky, but fortunately, the swarm actually understood it to begin with. Speaking it, however, was where it got tricky, as emitting sound wasn't something it had known how to do. Luckily it had such great control over its crystals that it was a simple matter to just vibrate them as needed to create the proper sounds. Long words and complex syllables were definitely going to be a problem though...

As the swarm finished climbing over yet another structure, a large tree came into view. Of course, most trees don't have doors and windows. If the directions the creator had given it were correct, that was likely the location of the information it sought!

It was but a moment before the Swarm was standing in front of the door to the library. It reached out, and pushed the door open with its foreleg. Or, it would have, if the door had been unlocked.

The Swarm stared at the door. Never before had it faced such a challenge. This door was the guardian of the library, a silent sentinel of knowledge, standing in the way of the Swarm from completing its righteous objectives! As the Swarm and the door stood still, facing off against each other, the tension in the air rose. This was the start of a conflict that would be retold through the ages, passed down from parent to child with reverence in their tones!

Or, at least, it would have, if the Swarm hadn't noticed the gap under the door. Not sensing anything nearby, the Swarm decided that it would be safe to shed its disguise, and just bypass the obstruction, to continue on its way. Besides, engaging a door in a staring contest was an inefficient use of its resources, not to mention a massive waste of time.

Once inside the library, the Swarm looked around at its surroundings. It appeared to be in a sparsely furnished room, with shelves covered in rectangular objects. The only thing to break up the monotony of the room was the stairwell on one side, and the occasional window.

Retaking its earlier disguise, the Swarm walked up to one of the shelves. With careful precision the Swarm proceeded to take down one of the strange rectangular objects, only to have it split apart on one side. With this, the Swarm was able to see that the rectangle was not just an individual shape, but one made up of many smaller rectangles all attached together on one side.

Aside from the differing colors and odd patterns on it, though, the Swarm was unable to make any sense of it. Why would anything keep these strange rectangles around, if they didn't hold some sort of importance? Why would anything keep so many of them? Did they somehow hold meaning? Were they expensive?

At a loss for answers, the Swarm took the only path left available to it.

It decided to wait for something else to come along, and see how they gained knowledge from the strange rectangles. First, though, it needed a new disguise. Something to fit in with this new environment for a long period of time. Something that wouldn’t be questioned. But what?

Looking around, the Swarm made a decision. It found a mostly empty shelf, and shaped itself as a line of the strange rectangles. Aside from the reflective sheen, it doubted it would be noticed. After all, the rectangles were weirder then anything the swarm knew how to turn into.

With a new disguise in place, and all of its mass stored away (Including the bottle that striped creator had dropped. The Swarm really needed to figure out what that was.), the Swarm settled in to wait out the duration, for however long it might be.

'This is my best plan yet! Its flawless!'

-(◊)-

Several Hours later...

Thunderlane was exhausted. He had been searching for that weird mare for hours now, and hadn't seen even so much as a hair from her.

With a sigh, he summed up his thoughts nicely with one sentence.

“When I said she should just disappear, I didn't mean it literally!”

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long.
If all goes according to plan, then things should start getting interesting next chapter.

Also, please note that I rushed the end a bit. Might not be as refined as it should be.

Chapter 6: Houseguests

Two days.

It had been TWO DAYS!

Did no one ever come here? Did no one understand how to read the strange rectangles? Was the door too much of a barrier? Did all the creators already know everything, and had no need for them? Was the recipe that the Alpha taught the Swarm actually 'divine', and what did this mean? All these questions were starting to take their toll on the Swarm.

Did that old gray creator from earlier manage to figure out where the Swarm was, and quarantine it? Did it do something wrong, and not blend in well enough? Where did that table in the center of the room come from, and why didn't the Swarm notice it when it first entered? Was that why no one was coming in here? Was the table the ghost?! If the Swarm defeated it, would the creators come and show the Swarm how to read the rectangles?

Just as the Swarm had decided to vanquish the dreaded ghost table that had been plaguing the town, it heard the door click. Making sure its disguise held, the Swarm remained as it was and watched the door slowly open to reveal a creator. Depressingly, the creator seemed to have scared off the ghost table, as it was no longer in its usual spot in the center of the room.

The Swarm watched as the creator walked in, closing the door behind her, all the while wondering how she got the guardian door to let her pass. The creator seemed to look around the library for a while, as though she were searching for something. After a few minutes of searching, she stood where the ghost table normally was, and took a breath.

"Twilight!" called the creator, batting a lock of her blue and pink hair out of her face. "It's me, Bon-bon! I need to talk to you!"

Unsurprisingly, no one answered. The Swarm had seen no one for the past two days, so it was unlikely that this 'Bon-bon' would find anything, let alone another creator.

"Twilight!" called the creator again, moving towards the stairs.

The Swarm watched as Bon-bon called out a few more times, before heading up the stairs. The Swarm waited, to see what Bon-bon would do next. After a while, and a few more calls to this 'Twilight' entity, Bon-bon finally returned to the center of the library.

'Finally,' the Swarm thought to itself. 'Now this 'Bon-bon' will be forced to read the rectangles herself, allowing me to see-'

Before the Swarm could finish that thought, Bon-bon was engulfed in green flames. Once the flames disappeared, Bon-bon looked like a bug-creator hybrid, with holes in her hooves, wings, and horn. She quickly stretched out her wings, before she resumed looking around the library.

'Well, that answers the question of if the creators can change their appearance or not,' the Swarm thought. 'Now, to see what she does next...'

After walking around a bit more, Bon-bon walked up to one of the walls, and was once again engulfed in green flames. When they disappeared, Bon-bon now looked like a wooden piece of furniture, with a large reflective surface out of some shiny material. And then waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

The Swarm was getting frustrated. It was almost as if this creator didn't know how to read the rectangles either! And worse yet, she was copying the Swarm's plan! Granted, it's a perfect plan, but can't the creators come up with their own perfect plans?

As if sensing the Swarm's annoyance, the creator once again was surrounded with flames, and returned to her bug-creator form. She looked around wildly before her eyes settled on the Swarm. As she stared at the Swarm, her eyes narrowed in what the Swarm assumed was confusion.

'And she seems to somehow know where I am,' the Swarm thought to itself. 'This day cannot get any worse.'

-(◊)-

Double Repeat had been given a simple mission. He was to find and capture the Element of Magic, named Twilight Sparkle. He was then to take her to the Queen, and then he would be able to rest and relax. Possibly even be given a promotion!

At least, that's what he thought he was suppose to do. It was hard to understand the Queen while she was in mid flight. Every other word over the hive mind had seemed to be a scream.

It was suppose to be a simple mission, and nothing was supposed to go wrong. No, nothing could go wrong! He had been resting with the invasion reserves, after all, and had managed to avoid the purge of Canterlot. The only thing that had the opportunity to fatigue him was the trip to Ponyville (which had taken considerably longer then he expected).

It was when he got to Ponyville that things started to get weird.

First, a dog wouldn't stop barking at him. Then, he had to get a new disguise, as the disguise he was supposed to use to get close to Twilight had apparently stayed in town the entire time (some stallion named Big Mac), rather then attend the wedding. Once he found a new disguise by breaking into a house (some mare named Bon-bon), ponies had started pestering him about what it was like at the wedding! And then, to make matters worse, that dog from before had gotten out of the house Double had locked it in!

So, after locking the dog back up again, he had made it about halfway across town when some crazy gray pegasus had tackled him! This crazy mare, who had apparently been AT the wedding, ALSO wanted to know how the wedding had went! And then after Double gave her an (admittedly false) answer, she ran into him while taking off! And then the door to the library had been locked, so he had to use magic to get in. And then the Element of Magic was nowhere to be found! It was enough to make anyling crazy!

And now the bookshelf was angry at him.

But not only was the bookshelf was angry at him, it was able to FEEL ANGER! What, in the name of the Queen herself, is WRONG with this town! Its as if-...

'No... No, that's not possible,' Double thought to himself. 'There's no way the Queen would send someling else. She assigned me to this task personally.'

Double was about to sigh in relief, when he remembered the bookcase being angry with him.

'Maybe,' He thought, 'someling else intercepted the orders, and came here to claim the glory for themselves! That would explain all the trouble I've been having!'

Double felt his eyes narrow in anger. It was but a moment before he had made his decision. He charged his horn, preparing the strongest offensive spell he knew, taking careful aim at the bookshelf.

And then he released it.

-(◊)-

Twilight and Spike were walking back to the library from the train station. It had been a long trip back, and an even longer day yesterday. The wedding had been a success, mostly thanks to Twilight, and the mare in question only wanted to get some sleep.

As they approached the library, though, Twilight felt as though something was wrong. She was quick to shake it off, however, as just exhaustion speaking. Its not like anything else could go wrong, so soon after an invasion by changelings. After all, Karma owed her, and the laws of probability said that something horrible happening right now was 14,623 to one. With odds like those, what could possibly-

KA-BOOM!

As Twilight and Spike were nearing the library, a massive explosion from inside blew out the windows, and the front door landed a few feet in front of them. Twilight, understandably frozen due to the shock, could only look on as a single changeling, looking worse for wear, stumbled out from the now ruined library. After staggering around for a moment, it shook it's head and flew off, eventually disappearing into the distance.

Spike took this moment to sum up his thoughts on the matter quite nicely.

"Usually my dreams involve a lot more kissing..."

-(◊)-

Meanwhile, in the past...

Princess Celestia sat where she had landed. Tears were streaming down her muzzle as she stared up at the moon. Beside her, the Elements of Harmony were in a small pile, glinting softly in the moonlight.

She had done something that she would have previously thought impossible. Something that she had hoped would never happen, that she would never have to think about. Hoped that the prophesy she had been told was false. And yet, she had done it all the same.

She had banished her sister, Princess Luna, to the moon.

"If only you had listened," she said. "If only there had been another way."

As Princess Celestia sat, staring at the new pattern of shadows inscribed upon the moon, she could only feel remorse for not having taken the warning more seriously. She should have paid more attention to her sister. She should have seen this coming, and put a stop to it.

This was her fault.

As new wave of tears hit her, she found she couldn't look at the mare in the moon anymore. She looked away from the moon, and her vision focused instead on the Elements of Harmony. They sat, almost as if taunting her, reminding her of what she had done.

They were to blame! They had enabled her to banish her sister! If they hadn't existed, then Luna would still be here! Maybe she would have been able to save her, instead of having to resort to them!

Just as Celestia stood up, power gathering in her horn, she heard a familiar noise. She turned around, just in time to see the Tardis land nearby. Almost immediately, the doors opened, and out came the Doctor and his unwanted companion.

Celestia was shocked. She had not been expecting a visit from the Doctor, of all ponies. Had he come to fix this?

Or had he come to gloat?

The Doctor. Now she remembered. HE had been the one to give her the prophesy in the first place! HE had the power to stop it! And here he was, to gloat over her folly for not listening to him in the first place.

"Pinkie, any idea why you told us to come he-"

"YOU."

The Doctor, hearing the venom in Celestia's voice, turned to look at her. He quickly flinched away, as she started walking towards him, her mane and tail catching fire from the sheer intensity of her hatred. Pinkie, sensing that now might not be the best time for her antics, decided to hide behind the Tardis as Celestia drew near to the Doctor.

"YOU ARE TO BLAME FOR THIS! YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED THIS, AND YOU DIDN'T! YOU-"

"Told you," the Doctor interrupted. "I told you what would happen. I even went against my better judgment to do so, telling you of the future, just because you were a friend."

"YOU DARE," Celestia yelled out, using the royal canterlot voice. "YOU DARE TO PUT THE BLAME FOR THIS ON ME?! HOW DARE YOU! HOW-"

"How dare I?" The Doctor interrupted again. "How dare YOU! I went against my better judgment to tell you what would happen, so you could prepare yourself for it! Oh, you begged and pleaded to know the future. You even laughed at me when I told you what would happen! But now that you have to confront it, you blame me for warning you?!"

"YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED THIS! YOU COULD HAVE SAVED MY SISTER! YOU-"

"Could do nothing! It was a fixed point in time! IS a fixed point in time. This was going to happen, and not even I could stop it."

Celestia stared at the Doctor in shock, her mane and tail returned to their normal states (albeit a bit singed). After a moment, she collapsed to the ground, once again in tears. The Doctor sighed, and walked over to her, as Pinkie came out from behind the Tardis.

"Guess we know what we were suppose to do here," Pinkie commented as she walked over to inspect the elements.

"So it seems," said the Doctor with a sigh. "Look, 'Tia, I'm sorry. There really was nothing I could do. Don't you think I wanted to save her? That I wanted to prevent all this?"

Celestia's only response was to sob loudly as the once proud princess turned into something akin to a wet white throw pillow. The Doctor walked up, and put a foreleg across her (or at least as far as he could reach). As she sobbed, the Doctor muttered soothing words, trying to calm the princess.

After a while, the princess calmed down enough to look at the Doctor.

"T-thank you, Doctor. I should have heeded your advice."

"Your welcome, Princess," the Doctor said soothingly.

"Cheer up, Princess!" Pinkie said, hopping up next to Celestia with the Elements on her back. "Besides, its not like she'll be there forever! After all, its only a tho-MPH!"

"Pinkie!" the Doctor said, his hoof in her mouth. "Spoilers is what put her into this mess to begin with! I don't th-MMPH!"

"She does?!" Celestia asked, one hoof in the Doctor's mouth, and the other removing the one from Pinkie's. "She comes back?! Truly?!"

"Well yea! How else would we meet her in the future?"

Celestia smiled at Pinkie, before directing a glare at the Doctor.

"WHY am I only learning about this NOW?!"

As the Doctor removed the hoof from his mouth he rubbed the back of his neck with a forleg, a weak smile on his muzzle.

"Umm, oops?"

Celestia glared at the Doctor a moment longer, before directing her attention back to Pinkie.

"Thank you, pink one, for your kind words," she said. "You have FAR more empathy then HIM!"

After directing yet another glare at the Doctor, her attention fell upon the Elements of Harmony.

"Uch. Take those with you," Celestia said, while pointing a hoof at the elements. "I cannot stand to see them right now."

"Okey dokey lokey, Princess!" Pinkie said with a grin. "I'll be sure that they get back to you when you can stand them, OK?"

"Just-... Just take them away."

After a few more moments of consoling the princess, the Doctor announced that they should probably go. With much reluctance, the Princess agreed, and sent them on their way. Celestia watched them go, and when the Tardis had finally gone, broke down once again into sobs.

Author's Note

My spellcheck died last chapter. If anyone finds any mistakes, feel free to point them out.
In other news, the meeting between 'The Swarm' and the mane 6 has been pushed back due to unforeseen explosions. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Comments, anyone? (Yay for quick new chapter, maybe?)

Pre-reader: JDLENL

Chapter 7: Introductions

After the initial shock had worn off and Spike had revived Twilight, they both had rushed into the library to assess the damage to their home. Much to their dismay, one of the walls was charred almost beyond recognition. The rest of the room suffered no better a fate, as the other bookshelves, while undamaged, had been relieved of their charges. Books were scattered across the floor, most of them with various amounts of damage. Those that had been closest to the blast zone were either torn apart, or charred beyond recognition.

The moment Twilight saw the state of the library, she lost it, crying her eyes out at the sight of shredded books and the smell of burnt wood. This had left Spike with the job of trying to figure out why the changeling had set off the explosion, and how he was going to clean it up. Or rather, he would have, if somepony hadn’t quickly run in through the now empty doorway.

“Twilight! Twilight!” Pinkie chirped, bouncing around the room. When spotted, Pinkie raced up to Twilight, stopping just in front of her. “Twilight, it's horrible!”

“Pinkie, I think that's pretty obvio-” Twilight started to say before Pinkie interrupted her.

“But don't worry, Twilight! I'm sure if we both work together, we'll TOTALLY find the new pony that's been getting out of his 'welcome to Ponyville' party!”

Twilight could only stare dumbfounded at the crazy pink mare for a few moments, before voicing her confusion at the sudden and unexpected change in topic.

“W-what?”

“Somewhere around here,” Pinkie explained, heedless of the look Twilight was now giving her, “sompony new to Ponyville has been trying to avoid their 'welcome to Ponyville' party!”

“... Pinkie, you do realize that my library is destroyed, right?”

“Huh? Oh, it's not that bad, Twilight. If we both work together, I'm sure we can get your library cleaned up before we- THERE HE IS!”

Without a moment of hesitation, Pinkie launched herself back out the door(frame) she had arrived from. Mere seconds after that, a cry of confusion and panic came from the mare's target.

“GAH! What the-?!”

“I caught you!” came Pinkie's voice a moment later.

“Oh sweet Celestia, not her! Somepony help me!”

“Not even the Princess can save you now!”

“NOOOOooooooooo-!”

Twilight could only watch on as the pink mare dragged the stallion away by his tail. She sat, staring through the door(frame), before a giggle worked its way past her lips. Even now, with her library in ruins, Pinkie's antics (plus a healthy dose of schadenfreude) always seemed to cheer her up, for some reason.

Shaking her head, Twilight stood up just in time for the multicolored blur that was Rainbow Dash to appear in the entryway.

“Twilight!” Dash exclaimed, preforming an admirable imitation of Pinkie's actions just minutes before, albeit at faster speeds with more color diversity. “Twilight, I heard an explosion! Are you all right?”

“Yes, Rainbow, I'm fine.”

“Oh, that's good,” Dash said, visibly showing relief. After a moment of this, an inquisitive expression graced her features. “So what DID you blow up, then?”

With a simple hoof point at the wall, Twilight said, “A changeling did it.”

Dash favored Twilight with a blank look before sighing. Just as she was about to comment, Rarity entered the library, followed quickly by Applejack. Both froze upon seeing the destruction wrought to the library.

“Twilight, dear,” Rarity eventually said, batting a purple lock of her main back into place. “What exactly happened here?”

“Twilight blew up her library,” Dash said, cutting off anything Twilight could have said. “She said a changeling did it, but she probably just wants to cover up another one of her spells backfiring.”

“I did not blow up my library!” Twilight objected.

“Twi,” Applejack said in a calming voice. “Their ain’t no reason to feel embarrassed. After all, you blow up your basement at least once a month! It's only natural that-”

“I. DID NOT. BLOW UP MY LIBRARY!” Twilight shouted.

“Ok, just calm down, darling,” Rarity said, placing a foreleg over her. “Just relax. Rainbow is just rattling your barn, as it were.”

After a few moments of deep breathing, Twilight managed to calm down. With her new calmed state of mind, she realized that she should probably send a letter to Princess Celestia about this. After all, it's not every day a changeling comes to your home (after a major invasion, no less) and blows it up!

“Spike,” Twilight said, turning around to look at him. “I need you to take a-... What are you eating?”

“Huh?” Spike said as he turned around to face the group with an oddly shaped white pebble halfway to his mouth. “Oh, just some gem shards I found lying around. The explosion probably destroyed one of my emergency snack gems that I had hidden away.” He took the opportunity to throw the pebble in his mouth, and chewed it nosily before swallowing. “It's odd, though. I can't place what type of gem this is.” He picked up another one of the pebbles that could be seen scattered around the blast zone. “It tastes kinda like diamond, but that's not quite it.”

Noticing that Rarity was looking at him, Spike decided to try and impress her with his 'rad skills'. He flicked the pebble in the air, and attempted to catch it with his mouth. Of course, 'attempted to catch' would be an accurate description, as about halfway to his mouth, the pebble stopped falling and levitated in mid-air. Seeing that his snacking was interrupted (to say nothing of his grandstanding in front of his beloved Rarity), he directed a frown at his purple unicorn sibling.

“Twilight!” Spike pouted. “I know I'm eating off the floor, but I probably would have just set them aside to eat later anyway! Besides, you were so preoccupied researching changelings on the way home that we forgot to eat breakfast!”

With a worried look on her face, Twilight said, “Spike, I'm not doing that...”

Spike raised one of his eyebrow in confusion as he looked back up at the floating pebble. Taking a better look at it, he noticed it suspended in an odd white aura. Off the top of his head, Spike couldn't think of anypony who used that color, let alone close enough to stop him from eating his snack.

As he watched it, the pebble slowly started to float back towards the blast zone. Twilight said something underneath her breath in a questioning tone as the the ponies (and dragon) in the room saw the remainder of the pebbles on the floor begin to gather together into a pile, which the floating pebble soon joined. Once together, they seemed to liquefy, joining into a single mass.

The girls (and dragon) found themselves transfixed by the rippling surface of the crystal puddle. Soon, the waves on the puddle grew, until the puddle seemed to shift and change shape. Eventually standing in place of the puddle was what could only be described as a Timberwolf statue made of crystal. The ponies continued to stare at it for a few moments before Rarity spoke up.

“Well, you certainly don’t see something like that every-.”

Before Rarity could finish her sentence, the Timberwolf shot forward, teeth bared and paws outstretched. The girls as a whole took a quick intake of breath as the wolf attacked Spike, who only had time to raise his arms in his defense. After a few seconds, however, they released it, voicing the first emotion that came to mind.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were quick to try and stifle their laughter. Twilight settled on a relieved sigh, as Rarity found herself beset by a sudden case of the 'Dawws'. The only one that truly objected to the situation was Spike, who was trying to fend off his unexpected attacker while in an almost blind panic.

Latched onto Spike's crest, the Timberwolf was attempting to rip Spike's head off. Normally, this would be cause for concern, if the Timberwolf in question was of normal size. However, the wolf that was attacking Spike was almost the size of a foal, and was only managing to gnaw on the very top while clutching desperately to his head.

Spike slowly calmed down once he realized he was in no danger. Being so close to the Timberwolf pup, however, gave him an excellent opportunity to study it up close (not that he had much choice in the matter). From his perspective, all he was able to see was a large crystalline body seemingly made up of tiny scales, each emitting that same odd glow from earlier. He stopped his impromptu examination, however, when he heard Dash's snickering, and turned around to try and glare at her (which failed due to the Timberwolf covering his face).

“Ha ha,” he managed to say in a sarcastic tone. “Laugh at the dragon with a vicious pony-eating wolf on his head. He's doing just fine.”

“He he. Sorry spike.”

With careful application of a levitation spell, Twilight removed the crystalline pup from Spike. Once safely extracted, she brought it closer so she could examine it. The wolf mostly ignored her, continuing to try and get at Spike.

“What is it?” Rainbow asked after a solid minute of Twilight silently staring at the wolf.

“Hmm? Oh, it appears to be a golem made out of shaped crystal. I don't know of any spell that would do that, though, let alone allow it to re-shape itself...”

“Well, do ya know why it attacked Spike?” asked Applejack, nodding her hat in the direction of the wolf-pup. “Somethin' like that just ain't natural. Though if it actually is some type of Timberwolf, it might explain a few things.”

“Wait,” Dash said, mostly to herself. “Does that make it a Crystalwolf?”

“If I had to guess,” Rarity said, ignoring Dash's tangent. “I'd guess it was upset because Spike was eating it. I'd be rather upset too, if somepony was eating me.”

“So what should I do?” Spike asked. “Apologize to it?”

“It probably wouldn't hurt,” Rarity confirmed. “I'm not Fluttershy, though. She would probably have a better idea. Speaking of which, where is she? I would have thought that she would have come right away if she thought somepony was hurt from the explosion.”

“RD, why don't you go check up on her?” Applejack suggested.

“On it!” Rainbow said, before flying out the conveniently placed hole that used to be a door.

“Come to think of it, Pinkie isn't here either,” Rarity continued.

“She said something about a party before dragging some stallion away,” Twilight answered.

“Dragging?” Rarity's expression turned sour at the mere thought of being dragged through the dirt. “Oh my, I thought she learned her lesson after that incident with Cranky Doodle.”

“You know how she gets when somepony tries ta avoid her,” AJ chipped in. “Ah'm sure he'll be fine.”

“I don't know,” Spike said, expressing his doubt. “Dash said when she found Pinkie that one time, she-GAH!”

Twilight looked back at Spike to find that the crystal wolf had latched on to his head. She quickly checked where the wolf had been levitating near her to see an array of tiny crystals suspended where the wolf had once been. With a sigh, she quickly extracted the crystal wolf once again, and suspended it in a shield bubble with its fragments. Once contained, the fragments quickly rejoined the body of the wolf, which was pressing up against the edge of the shield to get at Spike.

“Twi',” Applejack started, seeing the wolf contained once again. “How did it get out of your levitation?”

“Well,” She said, slipping into a tone of voice her friends knew all too well, and had dubbed 'lecture mode'. “It seems to have used bits of itself to overload the spell while I wasn't looking. The number of items it was levitating just multiplied until it couldn't hold any more, and dropped the heaviest. In this case, the Crystalwolf.”

Turning back to Spike, Twilight continued. “Of course, if a certain baby dragon had apologized by now, this wouldn't be a problem!”

Spike, looking suitably chastised, put his claw behind his head as he started walking towards the shield bubble. The Crystalwolf inside the shied started clawing at the side closest to Spike in a bid to attack the dragon. Spike, obviously stalling, looked at his feet. After a moment of hesitation, he looked up at the shield. As he was about to say something however, Dash returned.

“I'm back! Ya miss me?”

“Did'ja find out where 'Shy is?” Applejack asked, worried about their missing friend.

“Of course! She said the explosion scared some of her animals, so she had to stay and try to calm them down.”

“Ah, that explains it.”

“Seriously, though, what did I miss?”

“Well, Spike here was about ta apologize to the CrystalWolf.”

“He hasn’t yet?” Dash said, frowning. “Spike, get to it! You don't want Pinkie pestering you about it for the next week, do you?”

Spike glared at the multicolored mare for a few moments, before his face fell once again. He turned back to the shield, and sighed before facing the CrystalWolf inside.

“I'm sorry.”

The CrystalWolf, in response, stopped trying to get out of the shield bubble. However, it continued to stare at Spike, radiating what most would consider pure hatred. Spike sighed, and tried again.

“I'm sorry, ok!”

The Wolf continued to stare at him unblinkingly with its dull yellow eyes.

“I really am sorry!” Spike pleaded. “Can... can you stop staring at me like that? It's starting to freak me out!”

Again, no noticeable response from the Wolf. Spike looked to Twilight for support, who was quick to urge him on. Spike groaned, and turned back to the Wolf.

“Look, I'll do anything! Just stop it!”

The Wolf seemed to take pause at this, before sitting back on its haunch. Much to the astonishment of (most) involved, it then shifted into a near perfect replica of a white unicorn (albeit much smaller, and with a very shiny sheen) with a green mane and tail. Twilight thought it looked familiar, but was unable to place it, given the stress the current situation was putting her through.

The miniature crystal unicorn continued to stare at Spike for a few moments, before a segment of crystal detached from its back and levitated near its head. Soon after, it pointed a forehoof at Spike.

“Information,” the crystal behind the unicorn emitted.

“Wha?” Twilight cut in.

The crystal construct turned it's head in an unnatural manner to face Twilight (who was quite sure the head was suppose to move with the neck, and not pivot on it), before it repeated its request.

“Information.”

“Information? About what?”

Again the crystal unicorn seemed to hesitate, before six additional shards detached from it. By this point, the unicorn was beginning to look like a changeling, with all the holes in it. However, the gathered ponies (and dragon) were more more interested in the six detached shards, which had taken on a familiar appearance.

“Hey, aren't those...” Dash began.

“The Elements of Harmony!” Twilight finished for her. “Those look like the Elements of Harmony before we found them!” Her face quickly fell. “Why is it looking for the Elements?”

“Is it a spy?!” Dash was quick to accuse, putting in her two bits as she glared at the construct (or what was left of it).

“Now calm down, surgarcube,” AJ said, trying to pacify the multicolored mare. “Ah'm sure that it has a perfectly good reason ta be looking for them.”

With the girls (and dragon) now staring at it with expectant looks, the crystalline wolf seemed to hesitate.

-(◊)-

Meanwhile...

'Oh sweet Chysalis, Help me!'

Double Repeat moved swiftly from table to table, trying to stay out of sight. Of all the missions he had been on, of all the combat experience he had gained, of all the tasks he had been assigned, this had to be THE singular worst 'Mission' he had EVER been assigned. NEVER before had his skills been so tested. NEVER before had his life been in such peril. NOTHING had ever done had even come CLOSE to this level of danger, and if he had known what was in store for him, he would have never returned to see it through, Queen's orders or not!

And through it all, there was his torturer. Nay, his nemesis! The beast among beasts! The monster among mares! The Terrible Terror!

“Hey! There you are!”

The Pink Demon!

Just as the Pink Demon spotted him, Double spotted the door. Seeing his opportunity for escape, he ran for all that he was worth. Unfortunately, just as he was about to reach it, something landed on him from behind. He looked behind himself, and his vision was obscured by a wall of pink.

It was wearing an insane grin.

“You can't leave yet, silly! It's your party, after all!”

Double felt himself being dragged away from the door as his jailkeeper laughed maniacally.

“NOOOOooooooooo-!”

-(◊)-

The Swarm continued to sit as it was for a few moments. It had not considered that this might ever be a problem. Communication with the Timberwolves was easy, after all, and that older Creator had eventually answered its question. This time, it was turning out to be strangely hard to convey its desire for knowledge.

The Creators (and lizard-thing) continued to stare at it, expectantly awaiting its answer to their question. The Swarm, however, doubted its ability to be able to explain its mission in an amount of time that the Creators (and lizard-thing) would consider acceptable. Maybe if it had more practice before now, it might have been able to convey the relevant details, but as it stood, it would be impossible to do so without plentiful visual aids.

Of course, the visual aid for the Crystals of Power, or Elements of Harmony as these Creators called them, seemed to work far better then any vocal element it was able to produce. Perhaps if it just showed them what it could remember, and did its best imitation of what it heard at the time? Of course, some allowances would have to be made, considering the Creators differing perception capabilities.

'This might work! Now, if only the Creators would learn TimberWolf. Such an easy language.'

The Swarm carefully divided its crystals, allowing it to form a miniature replication of what it remembered. It then formed the puppets, the furniture, and the background. With that done, it then set about trying to solve the problem of sound. It soon settled on a compromise, however, and just levitated a fraction of its mass at the top of the enclosure, allowing it to vibrate at frequencies it hoped was accurate to its memory.

After all of this was done, the Swarm hoped this recreation would be enough to convince the Creators to help it with its objective.

'I wonder if the creators have something they say when doing something like this...?'

The Swarm carefully began to replay its memory. This was above and beyond anything it had to do before, and it occasionally had to slow down to get some parts right, but it felt it was going a fairly good re-enactment. The Creators seemed to slowly become more and more receptive as the display went on, so the Swarm continued beyond what was needed. As it showed the end before the long wait, however, they suddenly seemed to become confused, and look at it strangely, one even going so far as to place an ear up against the shield.

'...was it something I replayed?'

-(◊)-

Twilight and her friends watched as the miniature crystal unicorn seemed to just- well, melt, really. One minute it was there, and the next it was a puddle. Not that it was an uninteresting puddle, of course.

It was an opaque white with a crystalline sheen, and seemed to dully glow. Soon, a part of it separated, and floated up to the top of the enclosure Twilight had trapped it in, and seemed to just levitate there in the shape of a sphere. Once done, the construct seemed to just sit there, as if waiting.

“What's it doing?” Dash asked.

“Ah don't know,” Applejack answered.

“Shh!” Rarity said. “I think its putting on a show for us.”

“What? I thought we wanted answers,” Dash complained. “Not some silly puppet show!”

“It seemed reluctant to talk,” Twilight said. “Maybe this is the only way it's able to-”

Twilight was interrupted as a strange sound was emitted from the container, drawing her attention back to the shield bubble. The sphere at the top was making some weird noises, occasionally squawking and moaning. Just as she was about to give up hope on this strange construct of telling her what she wanted to know, the puddle at the bottom quickly flashed to a greenish color, before strange shapes began to rise out of it, each taking their own color. Just as quickly, a strange voice, as though from far away, seemed to speak from beyond the grave through the sphere at the top.

“...-anocrys-... Modfi-... Attept Tihrty Tw-...”

“Wha-,” Dash started to say, only to be quickly hushed by Rarity again.

The colors on the shapes soon started to die down, and the shapes started to melt again, before everything once again flashed a green color. This time, however, the result was a crude diorama of sorts, depicting what appeared to be an old style workshop. Various bits and bobs were placed on tables around the room (with the exception of one, which had a sheet over it), and a bed was placed in one corner. Twilight was quick to note that the windows actually had a background of sorts, showing what appeared to be a poor rendition of a cityscape.

A unicorn, exactly like the one that the construct had looked like earlier, but with the inclusion of a cloak, was sitting in the center of the miniature room, next to what appeared to be a red cube of roughly similar size. Besides being made of crystal, the unicorn seemed to be acting far more lifelike then before, and sat down on its- no, her- flank.

'She looks tired,' Twilight thought to herself. 'Heh. She kinda reminds me of-'

Twilight stopped mid thought. She was stunned. The unicorn looked exactly like some of the depictions of Clover the Clever! That's why the form the construct took earlier was so familiar! But why would-?

“Yet a-a-another fai-i-ilure,” the sound sphere sighed with a female tone, occasionally stuttering and cutting out. “Why i-i-is t-this-s-s so hard?!”

The small version of Clover looked around her lab, before approaching a table that had a large book on it. The unicorn puppet seemed to scribble down something without leaving any words behind, before approaching the red cube again.

“A-a-allright! N-nanoc-crystal mult-ti-Enchan-n-ntment s-sssapience modification Cas-sting aaatempt Thirty Thhhree!”

The miniature Clover started to prepare a spell, when the Cube started to melt back into the floor of the 'stage'. Clover stopped and stared at the rapidly forming red puddle, before slowly walking up to it. She was about to poke it with a forehoof, before thinking better of it and grabbing a tool off of one of her nearby workbenches. With the tool in hoof, she then proceeded to poke the red ooze.

“D-did it work?” The sphere emitted. “Aw, buck! I-I-I hope I didn't-t brea-a-ak it.”

With yet another poke, the ooze began to change, forming a wide cylinder on the ground. Clover quickly moved back, and the sphere depicted her surprise with a yelp. After a few moments, the cylinder started to slowly reshape itself into a crude rendition of Clover, becoming more detailed as time went on.

Once the duplicate was complete, the clone was as still as a statue.

“Huh,” Clover said through the sphere, sitting there a while. Soon, though, she stood back up, and paced around her clone. “Ok, if you can hear me, change col-l-l-lors.”

In response, the duplicate turned red.

“Hah! Ok, l-l-lets ssssee.” Quickly rushing over to her book, Clover seemed to read something (even though as Twilight now noted, the book was completely blank). Soon she walked back and looked directly at the clone.

“Ok, i-i-if your c-confused, change colors ag-gain.”

This was met with yet another change in color. This time to yellow. The miniature clover smiled, and pointed a hoof at a spot on the floor.

“Move over there!”

The clone turned into ooze, and slowly made its way over to the indicated spot. Once there, it started reforming back into a near duplicate of Clover.

“Heh. It worked.” Clover smiled, before bouncing around with joy. “It f-f-finally worked!”

The miniature Clover then bounced around for a while, repeatedly yelling 'YES!'. Twilight heard a giggle from behind her, and she turned around to see Rainbow Dash trying to stifle a giggle from watching Clover's antics, while Applejack was looking between the replica and Twilight with a sly smile. Rarity was frowning, staring intently at the miniature clover, or more precisely, her cloak.

When Twilight turned back, Clover seemed to have had her exhaustion catch up with her, and she sat back down, staring at the clone. After a few moments of staring tiredly at it, she smiled and slowly walked towards the cot. Once there, she pulled off her cloak and curled up on it. After a moment of tossing and turning, she finally seemed to settle down and fall asleep.

Twilight was about to turn away, thinking the act was over, when Clover jumped up, a shocked look on her face, and started screaming.

“I just married the ul-l-ltimate weap-pon of dessstruction to the ultimate weap-pon of change, and Smart Coo-ookie is probably go-oing to show up any minut-te now! What wasss I thinking?!”

As Clover started running around her lab in a blind panic, Dash started outright laughing. Looking back, Twilight saw Dash on her back, laughing uproariously. AJ was staring at the bubble, now with horror on her face, while Rarity was trying to get Dash to stop laughing. By the time Twilight turned back around, Clover seemed to be urging the newly made construct into a cauldron. As the construct entered, the workshop disappeared, replaced by the construct inside of a small space. There was a clunk from the sphere, and everything went quiet for a while.

Just as Dash started to calm down, the yelling started.

“Hey! T-that wasn't my-...” The sphere spat out. “But that w-would have worked i-if-... But he didn't blllame me for-... But it was only bubblegum!“ Dash started laughing again. “Wha?! But I-Wha?! ... What makes you think I-... OK! Fine!”

After the yelling, the noise calmed down, and everything went quiet. After the last two times, Twilight made sure not to look away. After a moment, she was rewarded when the cauldron opened up, and Clover stuck her head in.

“If you get out of here, p-p-protect the Crystals of Power. The same goes for anyone who's using it without malice. I'll cast an illusion spell in here, so you know what they loo-ook like. Just... Don't try and break out on your own, OK?”

With that, Clover disappeared, and the cauldron flashed green, leaving an image of the Elements of Harmony before Twilight and her friends found them, dancing around on the lid. Twilight continued watching for a short while, to make sure she didn't miss anything. Eventually she sighed, and turned around to look at her friends. Applejack looking worried, and Dash was gasping for air after her last bout of the giggles, and was struggling to calm herself down. Rarity had also looked back at AJ and Dash, and just sighed as she turned back to the shield bubble.

Twilight opened her mouth to ask what they should do with the construct now, when a new voice floated out from the sphere.

“You!” The outraged voice sounded faintly from the sphere. “I knew you w-would come back! Come to gloat, have you?! Laughing at your AMAZING PRANK, are you?! Well take these BACK to WHEREVER you found them! I NEVER want to see these... THINGS again!”

Twilight had turned back to the play, but the scene had remained unchanged. When things quieted down again, she shushed her friends, and pressed her ear up against the shield, to see if she could hear anything else. She strained her hearing to its absolute, but she didn't hear anything.

Just as she was about to give up, she thought she heard it giggle with a familiar voice, but it was probably her imagination.

After a few more minutes, the entire 'stage' was disassembled, and the foal-sized copy of Clover was once again sitting in the center of the shield bubble, with a small sphere floating behind its head. Twilight took this as a sign that the recounting was done, and turned back to her friends, hopefully for the final time.

“Well, I guess that explains why it's looking for the Elements,” She said.

“Umm, Twi',” AJ began. “What are we going to do with it, now that we know it's... you know.”

“Well, we should probably start by sending a letter to the Princess. Spike!”

“One second,” responded the baby dragon. Soon he had a quill and scroll ready, with an inkwell nearby. “Ready, Twilight.”

“Dear Princess Celestia,” Twilight began. “I arrived home from the wedding just in time to see a changeling blow up my library.”

Dash interrupted her transcription by starting to giggle again. Twilight ignored her and continued.

“Both Spike and I are fine, but when we investigated, we found a crystalline construct that appears to be sapient. It showed us a reenactment of sorts, in which it claims its sole purpose is to guard the Elements, and that it was made by Clover the Clever. However, in the reenactment, Clover blatantly calls it the 'ultimate weapon'. It has also broken out of a levitation spell seemingly without magical assistance, can can reshape itself at will, and-”

“Hey Twi',” Dash inturrupted. “Why not just call it a he?”

“Well, it technically is an it. It lacks the parts for it to-”

“Twi, if you say 'it' one more time, I think I might just hit you with a dictionary.”

“Wha? Why?”

“Your making it sound like one of your egghead reports! Besides, he's too awesome to be an it.”

“What? What does that have to do with it?”

“He survived an explosion! Anything that awesome can't be an it!” Dash said. “Besides, if he's a he, then he wont have to compete with me for most awesomest mare in Ponyville.”

“Uhg, fine!” Twilight groaned, not wanting to argue with Dash over something so trivial. “Spike, where was I?”

“Can reshape itself at will, and...” Spike said helpfully.

“Oh, right. Can reshape its-HIMself at will, and appears to be able to survive explosions.”

Twilight sighed, before continuing. “While he has only shown hostility towards Spike, who was admittedly eating him, the construct seems to be, overall, not hostile. I've contained it in a shield bubble for now, and am unsure what I should do with it-HIM. Please send any advice, as I doubt I'll be able to keep it here forever."

“Your loyal student, Twilight Sparkle,” She finished.

“... Aaand done!”

“Good. Send it, Spike.”

With a burst of green flame, Spike sent the letter on its way.

“Hey Twi',” Applejack said after a while, to break the silence that fell upon them. “If were going to call it a him, why not see if it has a name first? It might just be a she, after all.”

“Oh, of course!” Rarity suddenly said, looking away from where the Swarm had been sitting inside the shield. “We should have thought of that sooner!”

Turning to look back at the crystalline swarm, Rarity asked, “Do you have a name, darling?”

The Swarm seemed to hesitate for a second, before it replayed a segment of its reenactment.

“Nanocrystal multi-enchantment sssapience modification c-c-casting attempt thirty thre-e-e.”

“Umm,” Rarity said, looking at the Swarm. “That's a bit of a mouthful. Do you have a shorter name?”

“No,” the Swarm said after another moment's hesitation.

“Well, umm,” Rarity hesitated herself, looking for a solution. Stealing a glance at Dash for a moment, she smiled, and turned back to the Swarm. “How about Nano? It's short, actually is a part of your, well, description as it were, and sometimes the simplest solutions are best.”

“That w-would b-be acceptable.”

Rarity nodded to herself, and turned to Spike, pointedly ignoring the questioning glare she was receiving from Dash.

“Spike, would you be a dear and make some tea for us while we wait? With as late as it is, I have a feeling that the Princess is going to be a while.”

Dash sighed, and her voice was filled with a moan as she voiced her opinion.

“This is going to turn into one of THOSE nights, isn't it?”

Rarity, Twilight, and Spike just giggled, before settling in for the duration.

-(◊)-

'Freedom!'

Double Repeat had fought against the odds, and had finally won his freedom. He had outsmarted the string and tack trap, and had climbed Cake Mountain. He had walked through the valley of the cupcakes, had fought the ultimate evil, and he had won. And the best part, he was still alive!

As he ran from the place that had been his prison, he heard the Pink Demon call out to him, trying to stop his bid for freedom.

“Wait! You forgot your presents!”

Author's Note

Pre-reader: JDLENL

Comments (still) welcome.
If I follow my outline, Pinkie and the Doctor should re-appear next chapter.
Also, I get the feeling I should keep Double around as comedic enhancement (aka: universe whipping drone).

Chapter 2: Rediscovery

The town of Ponyville! Currently undergoing its famous Sisterhooves Social Event, the entire town failed to notice the arrival of the Doctor. This can, of course, be blamed on the general lack of guards stationed in the city, allowing him the opportunity to arrive unnoticed.

With its practically trademarked running noise, the Tardis materialized near the clock tower in Ponyville. Moments after its arrival, the door opened and Pinkie came flying out. She skidded to a halt on her flank a few feet away, before turning around and looking back at the Tardis.

The Doctor poked his head out soon after, pointing a hoof at her with an irate expression upon his face. After holding the pose for a few moments, he slowly went back inside the Tardis, closing the door behind him. Shortly after, even the Tardis was gone, having faded away as though it hadn’t existed in the first place.

Pinkie sat there for a minute, contemplating if things had gotten too far out of hoof, before she once again heard the Tardis materialize in front of her. Knowing what was coming next, Pinkie put on one of her best smiles as the Tardis finished its ‘landing’. When the doors opened, Pinkie made sure she was easily visible, so the Doctor didn’t have any chance to miss seeing her.

The Doctor, for his part, was quite surprised when he saw Pinkie when he opened the doors. His expression, however, quickly straightened when he looked at the Pinkie he had recently retrieved from the Pre-Classical Era who was still in the Tardis. He felt his eye twitch as he rapidly looked between the two Pinkies, which had now noticed each other.

“Hi!” Said the Pinkie outside the Tardis. “Pinkie, we need to switch places. The Doctor needs to complete the loop by taking me to 24.8-50.8/12-04-18.”

The Pinkie inside the Tardis smiled even more brightly than normal as they quickly switched places. The Doctor, for his part, continued to glance between the two as they performed their maneuver. Once the maneuver was complete, they both stared at the Doctor expectant smiles.

“I think you broke him,” Said the now outside Pinkie after a moment had passed, her smile faltering.

“Wait for it…” Said the inside one, the smile on her face increasing in size.

The inside Pinkie’s smile was quickly matched by the outside one.

“PINKIE!” Suddenly shouted the Doctor.

“Yes?” Replied both Pinkies in stereo.

-(◊)-

Some months later…

Near the village of Ponyville, there is the Everfree forest. Deep inside the Everfree forest, there is the old dilapidated ruin of the royal sisters’ ancient castle. The castle’s record of lying undisturbed by ponydom had been ruined a mere two years before by a group of six adventuresome mares, two alicorns, and one dragon.

This… is not where the story begins. No, our story begins a short distance away. It begins in the airship of the infamous grave robber and master of Equinology, Daring Do!

Daring had just finished her raid on the supposed ‘undisturbed’ castle of the royal sisters. Not only was she insulted by the lack of traps and competition (which had, unbeknownst to her, arrived and left two years prior), she had only found one thing of note in the entire castle. Granted, it was a small note, but a note, none the less.

Daring was currently flying back to the airship with said object of note, an old iron cauldron. A lesser mare might call it a pot, but it was obviously a cauldron. Just look at it! It had the lid and everything!

As she set the cauldron down on the deck of the airship, she took a moment to catch her breath and reflected on why she had decided to grab it in the first place. When she had found it in the ceiling after destroying a good portion of the dungeons underneath the castle in her lack-of-traps induced trap paranoia, she had heard something shifting around in there. Besides, it had wanted her to take it, if the way it landed on her was any indication (not justifying her trap paranoia at all, by the way).

The lid on the cauldron, however, was what her current ire was directed at. She had tried to open it back in the ruin, only to find it sealed shut. This could mean that it was magically sealed, and that there was indeed something of value inside (increasing its value exponentially, in her opinion). Although, it more likely it was simply rusted on and the cauldron had an old ladle inside, meaning she had another useless piece of junk to give to the Manehattan Museum.

And to think she had been told to explore this ruin in particular by them! Not that she didn’t like her very limited and rare free time being commandeered to explore trap-less ruins to collect random near-worthless trinkets for the museum. They paid decently enough for what she brought back. Usually.

Daring snapped out of her reverie and went to where she kept her tool chest. She figured a generous amount of oil would be sufficient to provide lubrication to the lid of the cauldron, allowing her access to its possibly invaluable contents. If that failed, Mr. Crowbar and Mrs. Hammer would be more than happy to make the acquaintance of the offending lid. The cauldron itself was made of iron strong enough to take the beating, and the lid would probably be destroyed by some hapless intern later on anyway.

Picking up the oil canister with both her front hooves, she carefully poured some of the slippery substance out onto the cauldron’s lid. Once she had decided that enough had been deposited, she attempted to remove the lid from the cauldron. When the lid didn’t comply with her simple demand, she attempted to get a better position to leverage it off the cauldron.

In her attempt to find said ‘better position’, she eventually found herself standing atop the cauldron and attempting to pull up on the lid. After one rather vigorous pull, however, she lost her grip and flew off the cauldron, knocking over the oil canister in the process. Her attempt to stand afterwards yielded few results on the now oil coated floor.

After flailing around for a short while, she regained her stance and carefully made her way back to the tool chest to find her hammer and crowbar. Due to her poor organization of the chest, it took her some time before she found the items she desired. However, on her way back she had forgotten that the floor was coated in oil and comically slipped, suddenly finding herself sliding across the deck of her airship…

…Straight into the cauldron.

Thankful for the ever-present plinth helmet she wore that had saved her from a concussion on impact with the cauldron, Daring grumbled at her forgetfulness before attempting to stand up again. She made and failed three further attempts at standing before she remembered she had wings. Fortunately (or unfortunately, as the case may be), she remembered quite well what a facehoof was as she performed the maneuver upon remembering her winged nature.

“I’ve really got to quit hanging out with Bulwark,” she mumbled to herself.

Taking flight, Daring looked around for the tools she had dropped when she initially slipped. She quickly located them, and returned to the cauldron for her second attempt at opening it. Taking a dramatic stance, Daring placed the crowbar against the lid of the cauldron, and hit it with the hammer.

Or, rather, tried to hit it with the hammer. The tools themselves were slick from their adventure on the deck of the airship. So slick, in fact, that she lost the hammer before she was able to bring it down on the crowbar. She stared, dumbfounded, at her empty hoof a few moments before the wayward hammer had returned itself to her via impact to the head.

Daring fell back to the deck of the airship out of shock from the harmless impact, where she quickly lost her balance once again on the slick deck, landing on her stomach. Oddly, the crowbar she had been holding when she fell had slipped out of her grasp, and remained it its position wedged between the lid and the cauldron. At least, it did until she hit the deck, at which point it shook loose from its position, and came down on her head as well.

Daring remained where she was for a few moments, staring blankly at the cauldron. Soon, though, a smile spread across her face. Maybe she was wrong about the ruins not having any traps. Maybe the trap was, in fact, a cursed cauldron! Of course, if it was cursed, that could only mean one thing…

It had treasure in it.

Hoping that her hunch was correct, she quickly took flight and recollected her lost tools once again. With the tools in hoof, she returned to her previous position. She then checked to make sure she had a good grip upon the tools before she once again brought the hammer down onto the crowbar.

Tink!

Daring smiled at the successful hit, but her expression quickly turned to one of disappointment. While she had made the connection this time, she had not succeeded in opening the cauldron. She frowned before trying again.

Clank!

Daring once again smiled for a brief moment, before her smile once again disappeared. This time, however, her expression ended with a blank face as she stared at the cauldron. Maybe one more time would do it…

Cla-Gong!

Daring’s expression this time, instead of a smile, was one of panic. She had hit the crowbar with such force that the cauldron had started to slide on the slick deck of the airship. She quickly scrambled to stop it, but wasn’t able to get a grip on it due to her recently oil coated hooves. She was forced to watch as it slid off the side of the side, and began to plummet to the ground below.

The cauldron smashed through the branches that made up the upper layer of the Everfree Forest. Shortly after, Daring heard it impact the ground with a loud thud. This was followed a moment later by the sound of something similar to crystal glassware breaking.

Daring was quick to follow it down, but paused when she saw where it had landed. Or, more specifically, what it had landed on. Specifically, it had landed on a Timberwolf, or what had once been one a short while before.

On the other hoof, the cauldron looked like it had cracked open when it had impacted the ground. The contents, however, were far more mundane then she had hoped.

“Gem powder? That’s it?” Daring asked as she felt her eye twitch. “Why would anypony put gem powder in a cursed cauldron in the celling where anypony could come along and destroy the dungeon it’s in while looking for traps, causing it to fall on their head?!”

Daring stared at the cauldron for a moment, as the Everfree’s magic started its work on the Timberwolf. With a flare of magic, the Timberwolf began to reform from sticks lying around in the forest. Once complete, it let out a howl in challenge at daring, and two more of its kind to show up moments later.

Upon seeing this new development, daring sighed.

“… At least it’s not cats,” Daring commented.

As if on cue, a Manticore came out of the underbrush. The Manticore and the Timberwolves looked at each other for a moment, before focusing their attentions on Daring.

“Well that’s just great,” Daring said with a sigh. “Well, at least things can’t get any w- GAH! Didn’t finish it! It doesn’t count!”

Despite her desperate attempted correction, things indeed got worse (for her, at least).

A wind started to blow through the trees. Daring quickly looked up to check and make sure her airship wasn’t drifting away in the breeze. It was.

“Oh come on!”

Daring chased after her airship, quickly losing sight of the cauldron’s ‘landing’ zone, never to return.

-(◊)-

“Hay gals,” said Scootaloo, trying to get the attention of the other Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Sweetie Bell looked at her. “Ya?”

Scootaloo looked at the gathered crusaders. They had decided to take a break in their clubhouse after their last attempt at getting cutie marks, and subsequent baths to get rid of the tree sap.

“Do you gals ever get the feeling that we should be responsible for the release of a magical abomination, but aren’t?”

The other two crusaders looked at each other with quizzical expressions for a moment, before Apple Bloom looked back at Scootaloo to respond.

“No...”

“Huh,” said Scootaloo. “Weird.”

Author's Note

Not as funny as the last chapter, but I needed to move the plot along.
Also, expect a lot of side plots/jokes in the future. I keep finding more to make.
Criticism still welcome.