The Chronicles of Star Well

Chapters

Travel Preparations (Chapter 1)
It's a small, small Equestria after all (Ch. 2)
Ponyville, has some colorful individuals (Ch. 3)
Visitors, Welcome and Unwelcome (Ch. 4)
Meanwhile, At Canterlot... (Ch. 5)
Back at Ponyville (Ch. 6)
Battle at Ponyville: part 1 (Ch. 7)
Battle at Ponyville: part 2 (Ch. 8)
Battle at Ponyville: part 3 (Ch. 9)
Hospital rooms always smell like bleach (Ch. 10)
Check-in out (Ch.11)
Gathering (Ch. 12)
Searching for... What now?(Ch. 13)
Midnight Activities (Ch. 14)
Memories and Cells (Ch. 15)

Travel Preparations (Chapter 1)

Chapter One: Travel Preparations

"Another dead end." Star Well closed the book as he sat back on his flank. 'This spell won't do' he thought 'I guess I have no other options left.'

He been putting this idea off for a while, ever since he started looking for the answer, he entertained the idea, but thought it was probably best not to bother her, after all, she probably had no idea who he was. Failure after failure after failure, he promised himself that this would be his last effort before he tried for her help, but the solution was beyond his grasp, and nopony in Equestria, besides the princesses, was as smart as her.

"Screwball, we have some packing to do. We leave for Ponyville tomorrow!"

Inside his Canterlot apartment, Star Well packed up some rations and other essentials into his travel bags while checking over his finances. 'I've got this month's rent paid and the next months bill isn't due for about 26 days and with that recent job at the radio tower I should have plenty of bits to justify a trip, still I can't linger for too long. The longest I can stay gone is for about a week. It is about half a day's travel to Ponyville, so I got a little more than five days to get help from Miss Twilight and explore the sites.'

The midnight blue unicorn pondered as he worked as to why he put off asking Twilight for help for so long, he had always wanted to meet the beautiful mare ever since his he first saw her at Celestia side when he was in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns (the CSGU). Besides, he thought, he had plenty of other reasons why he wanted to visit Ponyville. He had always wanted to the famous Apple families Zap Apple Jam, and he heard rumors that a zebra live near the town. The things he could learn on zebra magic! He also didn't forget that Equestria's leading expert on humans also lived there.

His second most important reason, though, had to do with the mare flying in loops around in his room busy with her own packing.

He had no idea why how she had got here. One day, less than a year ago, he found the unusual mare in his bed after he came home from grocery shopping. While most stallions would love to have a mare in their beds, He was more concerned on why she was there and how the earth pony got in. He also found out at that moment just how unique she was.

"Umm... Who are you and what are you doing on my bed?"

"pan a gnikaT" She replied groggily

"What?"

"peels emos teg ot gniyrt ma I .teiuq eb esaelP"

It had taken him a few days for him to understand what she was saying, and it even then it could him headaches trying to translate her. He eventually made created a translation spell for her so that he could get a straight answer from her without the migraines.

Having a random mare show-up at his house and suddenly setting up residence was troublesome to say the least. He tried to get a new place for her to live at, but he couldn't afford to pay for a second apartment and the mare evidently had no money. He decided to let her stay until she could support herself but her attempts to get and keep a job were nothing short of a disaster, especially her attempt to work at the local fancy restaurant...

"You just broke the fine China!!!"

"They don't look like they were from China, they were probably from Taiwan."

What!?! What in the name of Celestia is Taiwan...? THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT!"

The incident had cost Star a fair amount of bits. In the end, Star decided to let the mare stay in his apartment and work with him as an assistant to help with his workload. He soon got used to the mare living with him, and was happy for the company she provided. Her random antics made each day more interesting and she constantly amazed him with the things she could do. He found that she could fly using her pinwheel hat even though she was an earth pony and he sometimes swore she could teleport when he wasn't looking.

He asked you soon after he met her where she was from, which the mare replied "Ponyville, I think. It's the first place I remember." While she acted nonchalant with her answer, Star knew that it bothered her that she didn't know who she was and where she truly came from. Even if she didn't press the issue, Star decided to help her.

Going to Ponyville might provide answers that they were both looking for. She was his first real friend in the longest time, and even if he failed in his own quest, he would not give up on helping his friend.

Star Well was almost finished packing, and looking for his money bag when He spotted it under his spell journal. He briefly thought of taking his journal with him, who knows, maybe inspiration would hit him during his trip and he could get a head-start on a new spell project for the Canterlot College. 'That reminds me' he thought 'I should probably write a letter to the College to tell them of my absence, I think I mail it when I leave tomorrow after I stop at the repair shop to Ol' Wrench I am going to use my vacation time for this week.

Star Well worked as Spell Smith, It was his job to come with solutions to arcane problems by researching spells and sometimes by creating new variations on spells, repair and recast old enchantments and arcane devices and even creating new spells entirely. When Star was not given a specific problem, he invested his time into just inventing spells and spell variations for the future and that was most often the case. Star recorded 38 spells, and spell variations since he got out of the College that he could call his own. In fact the most recent spell he created, a Memory Enhancer which aloud a pony to remember forgotten details, though did not work for what he intended it to do was congratulated by the College for how useful it turned out to be. The other spell he discovered around the same time though, a Memory lock spell after searching for a way to search his earliest memories, probably was not suited for the public. Besides, Star still can't find where he put his old quill after testing the spell.

While being a Spell Smith was his dream job ever since he was a little colt, it didn't pay much. He was forced to find a part time job to pay for the expenses of living in Canterlot, and found a job out the chariot repair shop called Rolling with Style. It was a nice place to work, but the Supervisor, Rusty Wrench, was surprised that a unicorn was willing to get his hands dirty, even one as big as he was.

"Well, I you look strong enough, still I nev'r seen a unicorn good at fix'in"

Don't worry sir, I am a fast learner and I've never had a problem with working hard with my hooves.

"O.K. Let's see what ya can do."

Both Wrench and Star were surprised how easily he took to the job. He even did well without using his magic to play fair in the yearly contest of Chariot Speed Repair between the other employees of the company, but he never won, being as tall has he was didn't hurt either. The job kept him in shape and he was glad that it forced him to learn to cook instead of surviving on fast food like McHayolds to survive.

After finishing packing, Star went to his mirror. If he was going to meet Equestria's greatest spell caster, he was going to look at least presentable. The midnight blue stallion messed with his unruly jet black mane that had a single long strip of sky blue in it and his tail. He checked the lines under his eyes weren't too prominent from lack of sleep after late night study. Star Well was unusually tall for a unicorn, and he felt very self conscious about it, especially when it made him standout. His cutie mark was also unusual, at its center was a pitch black dot that would be hard to see if there wasn't streaks of white bending and swirling towards the center giving the impression that they being sucked to the center.

When he was finished, he finally decided that to go to bed. He would need to be well rested for the journey he needed to take the next day. He went up to his couch and levitated the pullout mattress. "Screwy, you better get some rest. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Okey Dokey Artichokey!" the swirl-eyed mare called from her-bedroom-that-used-to-be-his-bedroom. 'One of these days' he thought 'I need to get myself a new bed so I don't have to sleep on the couch everynight.' He then proceeded to go to a reluctant sleep, anxious for what the next week would bring.

Note: The tags for Characters on this story cannot fit all major players. I try but it only allows five.
Additional Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, (Character not Revealed)

It's a small, small Equestria after all (Ch. 2)

Chapter 2: It's a small, small Equestria after all

BANG, BANG. "Screwball!!! Rise and shine, we've got a long day in front of us"

'By Celestia, She's a heavy sleeper' thought Star Well. By the time Screwball got out of bed, Star Well had finished making a breakfast. Star Well took pride in his cooking ability he learned from a self-help book, he diffidently did not have a cooking cutie mark, but he could make a mean haycake.

"OATMEAL AND HAYCAKES!!!" exclaimed Screwy "Do I love Haycakes? YAH I LOVE HAYCAKES!"

"Eat up, I have to make a couple of errands around town and we don't want to be wasting daylight."

"Star, yer not expected to come to work until Monday, what's the occasion?" Star usually did something without reason and Rusty was always curious what the Star did in his spare time. He swore on Celestia's flank that he was eventually going to work himself to death one of these days, He had lost count on the number of times he seen the colt come in to work with rings on his eyes so dark, he looked like was a zombie.

"I have decided to use my vacation time for this week"

"'Nother research spree!?! I am telling you colt, one of these days your just gonna drop."

"No, don't worry just yet. I am actually making a trip to Ponyville"

"Who are ya, and what have ya done to Star Well"

"It is just going to be for a week, and then you'll get your old Star Well back Mister Wrench"

"Go, just go. And for Celestia's sake have fun."

Star Well finally got out of Canterlot and was headed down the mountain road. Screwball insisted that he was taking the boring way down. She decided to roll her way down. Star felt a slight tinge of worry but his doubts proved pointless as the endeavor had proved to be so much fun that Screwball flew back up to the top and did it again. She liked it so much, she came down the hill 5 times, ignoring the complaints of the pass-biers. Star Well decided based on the angry glares of the ponies that were almost rolled over, that it was probably best just to keep walking.,

When they reached the bottom he opened one of his travel bags to pull out his new miniature radio which he had enchanted himself. 'Nothing like a bit of music to past the time.' He was rather proud of his radio even if the miniature boxes spells still had a couple of kinks in them, eventually he would fix it besides, the new ones were way to expensive.

"HELLLLO EQUESTRIA!!!" Shouted the voice on the radio.

"Yay!!!!" shouted Screwball "K-Colt ROCKS!!!!"

"This is your host DJpon3 and your listening to the Vinyl Scratch"

'Yes' thought Star Well 'I didn't miss it.'

But first, I like to give a special shout out to a special pony. This pony deserves a meddle folks, for he single handedly fought to repair the K-Colts broadcasting spells after last week's magic storm through the system for a loop. Keep doing your thing man.

The news instantly made the tall stallion to instantly self-consious and he instantly looked around to see if anypony was looking at him. The job at the radio tower was an easy job a colt could take care of, and he considered himself to be lucky to work on the job, the bits that he got from the job helped pay for this trip. Still, Star did not like the spot light pointed at him and was relieved that the road was empty save for him and Screwy. 'At least she didn't mention my name'

As he and Screwball were continuing down the path with K-Colt blaring in the background, the finally reached The Great Andrew River. The River was the longest and most wild river in Equestria and hand only one bridge to cross it because of the difficulty to build a bridged long enough to reach the other sides and be built fast enough so that supports for the bridge wouldn't be swept away by the current.

On the bridge he saw two giant carts facing in opposite directions with two loud voices between them shouting in what sounded to be a heated argument. Curious as to what was happening, Star turned his radio off and listened to the voices as he neared the bridge.

"Move aside!! The Great and Powerful Trixie demands it!!!"

"Iron Will will relent to nopony!!!"

"Don't you know The Great and Powerful Trixie!?! She who defeated an Ursa Major!?!"

"Iron Will could care less if you defeated the Smooze!!! When sompony tries to block, Show them that you ROCK!!!"

'Oh dear sweet Celestia!!! Trixie? Here? NOW!?!' A flood of memories coursed through Star Well's head of his time at the CSGU. He cringed in horror that the voice of the source of all the teasing and pranks put on him during his time at the school was only a few yards away. Star immediately started weigh his options. 'O.K. swim across the dangerous, high-speed moving river, or cross the bridge that contains the source of all his childhood nightmares. A or B. Well, the choice is obvious' "Screwy, could you fly over my saddle bags while I swim-"

"LEEROY JEEEENKINS!!!!!!!!!!"

"SCREWBALL!!! WAIT, DON"T GO UP THERE!!!!" It was too late, the mare and flew right into the danger zone. "Great. I better go up there before the bolts of lightning start flying." Star Well started galloping into the fray on the bridge. While he knew Screwball just wanted to help, she had the tendency to make a bad situation worse, and with a pony like Trixie involve, things were bound to escalate.

Star Well made it to the center of the bridge where the two cart owners were facing off, which somehow had already started to include a certain floating mare. "I know tahw could help. sekacyaH!!!! They always made me feel retteb." the swirl-eyed mare shouted enthusiastically.

"What? The Great and Powerful Trixie does not understand what the floating mare is saying. Be gone before The Great and Powerful Trixie shows her might."

"Iron Will needs noponies help!!" the muscle bound minotaur shouted.

'Great, the translation spell is wearing off.' Star needed to get Screwball out of there pronto. 'Maybe Trixie won't recognize me, it's been over nine years... Well, here I go.' "Umm, Excuse me. I am a friend of the mare floating above you. I am sorry to intrude but, we must be going. I am terribly sorry for any inconvenience she caused, she was just trying to help."

"...Star Well, I didn't think I would see, uh I mean, The Great and Powerful Trixie is surprised to see one of her old subordinates here." Trixie was thrown off posture for just a second before she regained her stance and recovered her confident stance.

"Great! Another onlooker. Iron Will does not have the time to deal with more crazy ponies. He must get back to his workshop. Iron Will demands that you either help or get out of the way." The minotaur gave Star his most intimidating stare, making it clear which option that he preferred Star to take.

"Neither of you is willing just to move out of the way?" Star asked hopefully.

"No!!!"

Both the Iron Will and Trixie shouted. Star let out a heavy sigh. He would just love to walk away, but Screwball seemed Determined to help. "?sekahsklim tuoba tahW .nwod mlac esaelP" she pleaded as his translation spell had completely worn off.

'Stubborn as a mule' he thought 'Fine. I can work with that.' "What about this, you both back off the bridge.That way neither of you are truly backing down, just giving each other room."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't understand, Star Well. How will that help Trixie cross the bridge?"

"Iron Will needs to get to the other side, not go backward!"

"Just hear me out. After you two back off the bridge, you two could have a contest to see who crosses the bridge first."

"Trixie doesn't know..."

"Surely The Great and Powerful Trixie is up to the challenge" stated Star Well.

"Iron Will will lose to nopony!"

"Neither shall The Great and Powerful Trixie!!!" Both cart owners backed off the bridge, preparing to charge across. Star Well stood to the side watch both contestants. 'Here goes nothing.' With a flash of his horn, he put his plan into motion.

"On your mark, Get set,"

"!!!!EGRAHC" Shout Screwball.

Both the minotaur and the pony charged. At the last minute Trixie swerved around Iron Will and his cart without realizing what she was missing. Trixie reached the other side first and shouted in a victory "The Great and Powerful Trixie is unbeatable!!! Let all who doubt her prowess be amazed!!!"

"That's unfair!!" shouted Iron Will "You didn't take your cart with you. You cheated!!!!" Trixie then finally realized that a certain weight was missing and realised that her cart had somehow detached from her when she charged.

Before Trixie could explain that it was an accident and another race was in order, Star shout from the bridge "That was a brilliant move Trixie, I would have never thought of that."

Trixie, while surprised, quickly regained her composer. "YYyes...mmhp, The Great and Powerful Trixie's strategy worked. Trixie did not cheat, she merely outwitted you"

"Iron Will outa stamp out or face and-"

"Whoa there Iron Will. Isn't this what you wanted?" exclaimed Star "I thought you were in a hurry to get to your workshop, you are already on the other side."

Iron Will pondered a little then stated "Blue pony is lucky that Iron Will has important business to attend to at the moment. Next we meet, Iron Will will settle this."

"And Trixie will be victorious yet again" Iron Will snorted and then went on his way. Star then deciding he had done enough started reworking his translation spell on Screwball.

Trixie made her way across the bridge to retrieve her cart and stop to and stated "You helped Trixie, this would be the second time you have saved Trixie from embarrassment."

The tall stallion sighed "Think nothing of it." He finished casting the spell and asked Screwball "O.K. test it out."

"Peter Piper packed a pickled peanut butter, can I have a sandwich?"

Star let another sigh " I pretty sure it's 'a pickled pepper', and yes you can have half a sandwich. We don't want to ruin dinner." The mare squealed as Star pulled out half of a PB&J sandwich and floated up to the mare.

"I see you are the some huge and soft colt that Trixie met. Pray tell, what is Star Well doing this far from Canterlot, last time Trixie saw you, you had been accepted to the College at Canterlot."

"I'm off on my way to Ponyville to acquire some help with my recent project."

Ponyville, that horrible place!!! The last time I was there I was... I mean, The Great and Powerful Trixie does not think you should go there. The ponies there are cruel and dared to laugh Trixie out of town last time!!"

I thank you for your concern but me and Screwball will be fine. Besides, we are only going to stay there for a week." Star was surprised to hear concern in her voice. The last time he saw her after the rock slide incident, she had started avoiding him. While he was happy she finally stopped bullying him, it had concerned him that she didn't even say hello to him in the hallways and instead opted to run away. "Anyway, it is... nice to see you again. I hope our paths cross again sometime. See ya." Star then went on his way as Trixie stood there watching him as he started off.

When he was a good ways from the bridged, he looked back to see that Trixie finally had moved on. 'Why do all the beautiful mares I meet always have to be so... odd.' he pondered. He looked at Screwball as she twirled in the air, sing a merry tune. 'I don't think I will ever understand mares.'

....................

Trixie watched as Star Well walked away. 'Stupid, stupid,' she thought 'you let him get walked away again.' Ever since that day he saved her from the from that rock slide when they were foals, she awkward around the colt. It took her a long time to realize what she was feeling and by that time he had already been accepted to the college and she had started her show business.

She remembered him as that tall and lanky colt she had picked on and was surprised that the colt still was still incredibly tall and that he had actually had gotten some muscle on him. She blushed at the thought 'I should go after him, but he's going to that accursed town!" she fought with herself for a couple of minutes and finally decided where she was headed. She reattached her cart and started down the opposite path.

She-Who-Stalked-Silently waited outside the Queen's throne room. The Queen rarely called for mercenary help for her conquests, this meant that something big was going down. While the mantis could care less for current monarchy, She-Who-Stalked-Silently knew that if the Queen needed her expertise so bad that she would actually summon her to the court, the reward would be great indeed.

"The Queen will see you now."

Ponyville, has some colorful individuals (Ch. 3)

Chapter 3: Ponyville, has some colorful individuals

Star Well and Screwball reached Ponyville at sundown. Both were exhausted from the long journey so Star decided that it was probably best that they got some sleep since all the shops had closed and he didn't want to disturb the student of Princess Celestia so late in the evening. They got rooms at the local inn called Sleep Tight. He made plans with Screwball to wake up at sunrise for the next day. They went to their respective rooms and Star stated unpacking for his stay in Ponyville.

That night, sleep came easy for Star. Even with the afternoon's events running through his head and the excitement for tomorrow's events, he found that that he was far too tired to think clearly. Besides, sleeping in an actual bed was a thought that was all too comforting.

After waking up the mare from her coma like sleep, Star Well and Screwball enjoyed the breakfast, courtesy of the inn, and discussed their plans for the day. "O.K. I made a checklist of all the things we need to accomplish on this trip. We have a lot of ground to cover so it's probably best we split up for the day." he could see a frown start to grow on the Screwball's face when he interjected "Don't worry, this trip is also about having fun too. That's why I think you should go and get familiar with the place so you can find what we can do later. It could also do you some good to see if you can remember or recognize landmarks and other ponies."

Star reached into his pouch and pulled out a small bag and gave it to Screwball. "Here's a couple bits for when you get hungry, all I would like you to do today is place an order for Zap Apple Jam at the apple farm for the end of the week. Just don't go spending it all at once. We'll meet back up here dusk, O.K.?" Screwball smiled and headed out the door. "I hope we both find what we are looking for."

....................

Screwball flew out the door with Star Well's words heavy on her mind. 'Maybe I should tell him...' No, she rejected the idea as quickly as it came, he would run away just like the others. The very mention of Discord frightened ponies away and if he found that she was Discords creation... She threw the thoughts away as they swarmed her head. It was bad to focus on such negative thoughts. He wouldn't hate her for what she was, besides she was no longer connected to Discord, The Elements blast had freed her from her creator, it stabilized her chaotic existence and made her whole. She was a whole new breed of pony, a chaos pony. She found, like all ponies, she had a connection to magic, but hers was unique, her magic was wild. She suddenly had knowledge and would say things she didn't fully understand and she could do things that no earth pony could do.

Discord had created her out of boredom and discarded her just as quickly. After the blast, she found she could actually think. No longer was she a mindless puppet, she had been made real. The moments after of her rebirth were a blur, the earliest thing she could fully remember is when she finally got tired and found an open window with a bed to sleep on. From there, she met Star and for the first time, she felt happy.

Just then, Screwball noticed a cyan blue mare with a rainbow mane sleeping on a cloud above Ponyville. A devilish grin came upon Screwballs face as a perfect idea went through her head. Oooh, she was going to have fun.

....................

"Ouuuch..." As soon as Star left the inn, a grey, cross-eyed pegasus crashed into him knocking onto his side.

"Huh. Usually that hurts more when I hit the ground" the mare to turned her head to the side, somehow not noticing she had just landed on somepony.

"Ditzy!!" shouted a brown stallion has he rushed to the scene "I think it would be probably best if you got off the lad." he had a curious accent that Star had never heard before, though he was more worried about the surprisingly heavy pegasus that sat on top of him at the moment.

"Oh!!! Oops, Sorry..." The mare finally lifted herself off Star looking especially apologetic.

"Please forgive my assistant, she has a problem with her eyesight every now and then but she's a good pony" The brown Stallion helped Star stand up as he regained his posture.

"It's alright, it's not the first time I have been flown into..." Star Well shook the dust off him and stated "No harm, no foul. Is she alright?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine" grinned the Mare as her eyes corrected themselves. "My name's Ditzy Doo. What's yours?"

"I'm Star Well."

"Oh my gosh! Doctor isn't that-"

"Ssshhhh, Ditzy. We don't want to cause any damage again."

"Damage, what?-"

"Sorry to be so rude but we best be off, lots of things to do and all that. See you later Star Well." The brown stallion started galloping away grabbing Ditzy by the hoof as Star Well was left confounded.

"What just happened?"

....................

Screwball crept quietly in the air as she got closer to the sleeping mare. Trying to hold back a giggle, Screwy lifted up her hat and pulled out an unusual item. She did her best to cover her ears as she pushed the button on top.

BLERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The sound of the blow horn almost caused Rainbow Dash to fall off her cloud. Dash looked around for the cause of whatever had caused her nearly to go deaf but found nopony in sight. Confused and a little paranoid, Dash reluctantly laid back down on her cloud and kept one eye open looking at her surroundings.

BLEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The sound startled her again as it came from behind her. Dash furiously looked again at where the sound came from but found empty sky again. "That's impossible. There's nowhere to hide except...!" Dash dissipated her cloud with a kick to reveal a mare with the guiltiest grin on her face holding the blow horn. "Oh, it is ON!!!" shouted Dash pulled back her imaginary sleeves.

"Tag, your it" The chaotic pony quickly tagged Dash and sped off in the most erratic flight pattern ever seen in the sky's of Ponyville. Dash responded by grinding her teeth as she set off to catch the crazed mare.

....................

"Excuse me, does a mare by the name of Lyra Heartstrings live here?" Star had finally reached his second stop after the incident with the cross-eyed mare. He finished visiting the town hall for a little history and decided to meet the acclaimed human expert before he went to meet Twilight Sparkle. The house that she lived in though was identical to all the other houses on the street and he had knocked on two doors before a house owner finally told him where to go.

"Well hello there, yes Lyra lives here with me. By the way, my name is Bon-Bon. Feel free to call me up if you change your mind."

"What? I am afraid I don't underst-"

"Lyra, a hot stallion at the door calling for your name."

"Miss, I'm afraid you misunderstand..." Bon-Bon apparently was could not hear Star as she dragged him into the house while continuing to call for Lyra.

"Tell him I'm not here at the moment!!" shouted a voice that seemed to be coming from bathroom.

"Lyra, don't blow another one off. Ponies will start thinking you're a fillyfooler if this keeps up!"

"I don't care!!!" shouted Lyra, her voice getting more frustrated.

"Maybe I should come at a different time-"

"Oh, nonsense. I can get her out." she let out a very audible sigh and then shouted "IF YOU DON'T COME OUT RIGHT NOW, I AM GOING TO THROW THAT HUNK OF METAL YOU CALL AN 'ENGINE' RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW!!!"

"You WOULDN'T" Lyra gasped

"Try me." After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, the door to the bathroom opened slowly to reveal a mint green mare with the most fantastic of beards. 'The mares in this town are crazy' thought Star.

....................

"By Celestia, she's good." Dash had been chasing the mare for a good 30 minutes and had yet to get close enough to catch her. Dash knew she was much faster in a straight-away but nothing the mare did seemed straight least of all her flying. Every time Dash started to catch up, the mare would suddenly switch directions, losing no speed in the process. This made Dash get more and more frustrated. She vowed to catch this mare and give her what's coming.

The two flew through the streets startling pony after pony, things kept getting trickier as they flew to a more crowded area. What infuriated Rainbow Dash even more was the look of pure joy and excitement on pastel violet mare as she flew through down the streets.

A rope suddenly then landed and tightened around both Dash and Screwball, and with a yank, caused both mares to a stop and become grounded.

"What in tarnation is goin' on here!?!

....................

After Bon-Bon had stopped laughing, Lyra finally allowed told Star how she had obtained her ridiculous facial hair. "I was trying to do the Anthropromorphic Spell again and I was so close, but something went wrong and I started becoming turning into transforming into a male instead of a female. I panicked and stop the spell, but now I can't seem to get rid of this. Even when I cut it, it grows right back as fast as it came"

"Let me have a look. It's my job to solve arcane problems" He admittedly found the beard amusing, but was proud that he managed to keep it in. As he started his scanning spell to detect the formula of the spell, he noticed how nervous the mare was. In an effort to make her feel less awkward he started to engage her in small talk. "The Anthropromorphic Spell huh, that's one of the most complicated spells in existence. I'm surprised that you would know that spell."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the mare snapped.

'Great, I managed to get her angry. I have such a way with mares' he thought. "I didn't mean anything by it, it just that spell is usually kept under surveillance because of the things that can go easily wrong. Starswirl himself got his namesake because of a side effect from the spell."

"You think I am going to have this beard forever like Starswirl?" 'Way to go, now you made her worried.

"If you weren't obsessing about humans all the time and go out once and a while, this probably would of happened." stated Bon-Bon as she started to off. "If you two need me, I'll be in the kitchen."

Star decided to change the subject quickly before Bon-Bon words set in. "I read your thesis on human society and their use of hands. I found it quite fascinating."

"Really?" Lyra's ears perked up.

"Really. I am surprised how much was learned from the fossilized remains. I do find it hard to believe though the claims of things they could do without magic, like flying or even going into space."

"It's true! They really could do those things!" The two discussed the theories on human society for a couple of minutes until his scanning spell was complete. He was thankful for that the problem was only a persistent remnant of the spell and he quickly dispelled it and watched as the beard fell off all at once.

...

Lyra continued to thank him as got ready to leave. "Isn't there anything I could do for you?"

"Don't worry about it. It was a simple remnant, anypony could have gotten rid of it once they knew what they were looking for."

Star Well started to head out the door when Lyra stopped him and asked "Would you at least promise to visit me again sometime."

"Sure, no problem." Star smiled then headed out the door. Now it was time he dealt with what brought him here in the first place. 'Next stop, Ponyville's library.'

She-Who-Stalked-Silently walked into the throne room to see the Queen as she sat upon her golden throne. She bowed before the monarch in respect of her power that she possessed and for the fear her oppressive presense placed on the room.

"Rise mercenary, no need for such formalities, not for what we are about to discuss." She-Who-Stalked-Silently rose from her feet to face the entity on the throne. The Queen seemed bored as she spoke. "I have heard all about you. They say you took out an entire squadron of Roaches before any of them noticed your presense. They say you earned your name when you slew the general of the Fire Ants army.

"The stories exaggerate your majesty, the squad was missing 2 members already."She-Who-Stalked-Silently smiled as she remembered the incident. It felt good when her enemies were helpless before her, not knowing when or where she would strike.

"That is good to hear. I have a mission for you." The Queen raised one hand and a steward rushed toward She-Who-Stalked-Silently with a scroll in hand. "All the information you'll need is in that scroll. I trust that you can obtain your targets without killing them?"

"It shouldn't be a problem."

"Good. I need all six alive. I also trust you know what happens to those who fail me."

Visitors, Welcome and Unwelcome (Ch. 4)

Chapter 4: Visitors, Welcome and Unwelcome

"O.K., you can do this." Star Well stood at the front door to the Ponyville library. "There's nothing to be worried about. I am just going to knock on this door and ask Celestia's prized pupil, a pony who has saved Equestria twice, and is the element of magic, for help. Right." Star took a deep breath and reached out his hoof to knock the door.

"IT'S NOT A DATE!!!" The sudden shout startled Star and broke his train of thought. 'What's going on in there?' Star finally built up his courage again and knocked on the door.

"Just a minute." shouted a young male voice from behind the door. After a few seconds, the door swung open to reveal a small baby dragon looking a little worried about the commotion that was behind him.

"I am telling you Rarity, it is not a date. Luna and I are just going out to do a little star gazing, that's all. There's something unusual about the constellations lately that has Luna worried. She called me over to see if I can find the problem."

"Twilight, darling. You got to stop fooling yourself. Your obviously attracted to her and you need my help if you want her to see you in the same light."

"I don't need help. Our relationship is strictly professional."

"Fine, Twilight, fine. Will you at least let me do your hair. You want to look your best for your da- err... meeting."

"They been at at it all day, I hoping for some peace and quiet this afternoon. so can I help you- WHOAH" the baby dragon finally turned away from the commotion to face Star wide-eyed "Your as tall as Big Mac, maybe even taller!"

Star sighed at the mention of his height. He did not like it being mention because it always made him instantly self conscious. "Hello. My name is Star Well. I wish to speak to Miss Sparkle, but I can see she is a little busy right now. Perhaps I should comeback at a better time..."

"Spike, who's this stallion? You haven't yet introduce me to him." Rarity had heard Star has he spoke and her attention immediately went toward the midnight blue pony at the door.

"He says his name is Star Well and that he's here to see Twilight."

"Hello Star Well, my name is Rarity. Are you perhaps new to town?"

"Yes actually. You see I am visiting from Canterlot and-"

"Canterlot!?! Are you by chance nobility?"

"Canterlot? Did Princess Celestia send you.? I haven't got a letter from her about a check-up..." Said Twilight as she entered the conversation.

"No, no, no. I came of my own accord to ask you for help for an important project that I am working on. And to answer your question Rarity, no I am not a noble. I work for the Canterlot Mage College as a spellsmith."

"A spellsmith! I've always wanted to try my hooves at that but a rarely find the time with all my studies. What did you Say your name was again?"

"Star Well."

"I think I've heard that name before. Did you by chance work on the Memory Enhancer and Refocusing spell?"

"Yes actually. I did invent that variation on the Memory spell. I found the original version was unable to get details in clearly so focused the flow of the spell to a more refined point and added a of a Call-back spell."

"The one invented by Deep Studying in 607A.N.?"

"The very same."

"While this is all very fascinating,Twilight shouldn't you get ready for tonight."

"Don't worry. I won't forget and I can't pass-up an opportunity to help make a new spell. Besides, you my schedule is free until tonight, and there's no use worrying about the future. Believe me I know. I'll help Star Well here and if we don't finish by tonight, we can always work on it some other time. You'll still be in Ponyville tomorrow, right?"

"That's the plan."

"See Rarity, know problem."

"Well alright, just be sure to come-by my house. I have an excellent dress that should be perfect for you on your date."

"I told you it's not a date!" Twilight exasperated too late as Rarity was already out the door and heading home. Twilight then turned to face Star "Well then. What type of spell are you working on?"

"It's a new type of Locater spell."

"Interesting... Spike! Could you please find every spell book about locations and locator spells."

"Could you also get some books on pony ancestry" Twilight gave an instant curious look at Star while Spike grumbled on his way to the book shelf.

"Great, now there's two Twilight Sparkle's."

....................

"What in tarnation are you doin' chasing some mare through the streets Rainbow Dash?"

"She started it!" Rainbow Dash was furious. First, some random crazy pony with swirling eyes and a helicopter hat woke her up in the middle of her nap by nearly blowing her ears off., and Second, Applejack had roped her and the crazy mare down and was blaming her for something.

"Rainbow Dash, quit actin like a filly." Applejack then turned her head to the other detain-y, "Miss, I can see that your new in town but causin' a commotion like that isn' the best way to make a good impression. Somepony could have got hurt"

Screwball hung her head, "I didn't mean to cause trouble, I just wanted to have a little fun." Tears started to fill up in the young mares eyes.

"Whoa, whoa, there's no need to cry. I'll admit I... sorta... overreacted and it was a good prank."

"Really?"

"But don't think your off the hook. I'll get you back when you'll least expect it, so don't go leaving town for awhile. There, are you done holding us hostage? I got a prank to plan."

"Fine," As soon as the ropes loosened on the mares, Dash set off to find the one pony who was better at pranking then she was. She was gonna need the big guns for this one. "Sorry bout my friend, she can be rather hotheaded at times. My name is Applejack, it's nice to meet ya."

"I'm Screwball! Hey, wait a second... aren't you part of the Apple family that run's Sweet Apple Acres? I swear I had to do something there... That's right, Zap Apple Jam!" Screwball lifted up her hat to pull out her bag of bits. "All your Jam Belong to us!"

"Hold it there sugarcube. If you want some Jam yer gonna have'ta wait in line with everypony else. I can take ya to the line but I don't know how much is gonna be left by the time ya get there..." Screwball gave her her best pout she could muster and sent her adorableness with all her might at Applejack. "Come on now that ain't gonna work... Ya can stop tryin now... I have a li'l sister, I know what your tryin to do" Screwball could see she was about to break and so continued her attack with more ferocity. Applejack started to sweat bullets as the assault continued despite her words. "Look, the best I can do is to save ya a few jars, but ya still hav'ta wait in line so that the other customers don't feel cheated."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Screwball cried out in victory. No pony could resist her cute attack.

Applejack let out a big sigh, "I'm such a big softy, never could resist Applebloom for long either..."

A bush rustled in front of the Ponyville Library as binoculars popped out fro, the bushes. The mare inside watched as Twilight and a stallion she had never seen before were discussing over a pile of books. The orange pegasus was determined to figure out who he was and what he wanted with one of the Elements of Harmony, she was not going to fail the counsel again after the Discord incident.

"Sis, what are you doing?"

"Scootaloo!" Bright Shadow jumped with surprise at the sound of her sisters voice. "When did you get here, Shouldn't you be in school?" The mare gave a nervous grin.

"It's a half day, remember. And you still haven't told me what you were doing."

"Uh... bird watching, yes, bird watching. Some of the most beautiful birds are around town at this time of day" Bright gave her most convincing grin.

"Your a terrible liar. You know what, I don't care what your doing, you can continue being weird after I leave so I don't have to be associated with you O.K." the filly kicked off her scooter and started down the street. Bright hated keeping her job from her sister, but she didn't want her to get involved with the clan. It was best that she didn't know anything.

"What's wrong Angel? What's got you so worked up. Is it lunchtime already?" The extremely annoyed rabbit was hand already given up on paw-gestures and was trying to push the yellow pegasus out the back-door.

"Come to think of it why are all the animals so worked up. There isn't a big storm planned today, and there isn't a predator nearby... I've never seen them so spooked." Much to Angel's dismay the dismay, Fluttershy flew out off her hunt through the front door to continue her investigation.

Just then, a group of Four individuals came up to her cottage, all wearing thick brown cloaks with hoods obscuring their faces. As the group come closer, the animals became even more alarmed and let out their cries of alarm. "Umm... Can I help you?" Fluttershy managed to squeak with surprised as they approached her.

"Would you mind standing still?" One of the smaller ones pulled out a strange tubelike object and aimed it at the frightened mare.

Pinkie Pies whole body shook violently as her pinkie sense gave off the biggest doozy of a threat she had ever felt. "Fluttershy!!!" The pink mare ran as fast as she could toward the cottage at the edge of the Everfree forest.

Notes:

Yaaaaaah... just a little context on age to give a better feel of the Characters

The Mane 6 are 20-23 years old as are most of the characters.

Screwball is physically 15 years old.

Star Well best guess of his age would be 21 years old, but more on that later.

In context of time line I would say the Canterlot Wedding took place about a month ago, but from there the time line splits. Man, that finally changes a lot of my plans.

Meanwhile, At Canterlot... (Ch. 5)

Chapter 5: Meanwhile, At Canterlot...

"PRINCESS CELESTIA! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!!" Lieutenant Lance shouted at the top of his lungs as he ran toward the throne.

"What!?! By whom? Is it the changelings?"

Lance, exhausted, nearly collapse as he struggled to regain his breath. "No your majesty. They are something we have never seen before. They are as far from a pony as it gets, they look more like insects!"

"Insects? We must go at once!!! Come lieutenant!"

Lance gave a faint whimper at the prospect of more running and started to gallop after Celestia. They reached the central guard tower and from there, Celestia was able to witness the full scale of the attack. Fires throughout the city were burning as explosions went off at several points of the city. The Invaders had managed to open a whole in the Northwest and Southeast walls and enormous Monstrosities that looked like giant Centipedes were being fought by the guards at both corners. Celestia eyes burned with anger as she saw the senseless destruction before her. Lance finally caught up with the princess, panting more heavily then before.

"How did they get in so fast and why hasn't Shining Armor put up his shield yet?"

"Your Majesty, Captain Shining can't put up his shield, the invaders set explosions to destroy most of his glyphs the moment before those Monsters came through the ground and breached the walls. Captain is busy right now trying to prevent the flood of ground soldiers on the Northwest wall, while we are trying to push back the soldiers at the Southeast wall."

"Lieutenant Lance, go wake Princess Luna and tell her what you've told me, she would never forgive me if I let her sleep through another attack."

"What will you do, Princess?"

"I am going to teach them a lesson, and it will not be on friendship." Celestia extended her powerful wings and took flight. The changeling attack a month ago had left her feeling rather frazzled on how useless she had been and she was not going to let that happen again. As she flew toward the battle as it raged below, a mental warning snapped her focus to the Hall of Harmony, where the Elements of Harmony were kept. Somepony was trying to break into the vault past her wards, and was succeeding. Celestia stopped in the air and made her decision quickly. 'I'm sorry my little ponies, you’re going to have to hold out a little longer.

Celestia made a hard turn and dove straight at the Hall.

....................

A stone statute stood glowing in the garden. The personification of disarray stirred in his prison as another helping of chaos filled the atmosphere. The stone prison started to crack as it could no longer contain the draconequus. The Stone shattered to reveal the monster as he roared with his awakening. He had not felt the wonderful chaos that is war for a near 5,000 years and in around a month, he had got a double dose. "Discord’s back in black and better than ever." He roared with laughter as he materialized a black trench coat around him with sunglass to match. He looked around and felt the battle brewing. "While a visit to my favorite royal sister is in do order, I think I will screw order and make a trip to Ponyville instead." Discord chuckled at his joke and then faded into mist.

Only one saw this event transpire, with dark eyes, the groundskeeper went to his office and opened a secret wall on the side to retrieve the statute within.

....................

Celestia broke the doors of the hall to find 3 of the invaders and gasped at their appearance. 2 were identical quadpedial creatures were slightly taller than the average pony. Their bodies were round and resembled Bumblebees, a thorax which all six limbs sprouted from (2 sets of legs and 1 set of arms) and an abdomen sticking out at the rear. Only their head was different, containing a face that was more equine with a mouth without a snout instead of an insect’s mandibles and eyes that had red irises. The third one looked similar but was much taller and much more slender then the first two and stood on two legs have four arms instead. All three and wings of an insect that befitted their size and stood in front of the open vault with one of the smaller bees holding a box.

"Who and what are you and why are you attacking!!?!!" Celestia demanded at the three intruders. Celestia made note that none of them had a horn and had antennae instead but still managed to break her wards. At least one of them was capable to perform magic and Celestia was not planning to be caught off guard. She mentally prepared a magical defense ward in her head as she continued to glare at the intruders.

"Princess Celestia I presume. It is an honor to meet royalty." the tall one spoke as she gave a bow at the Princess.

"I asked you a question, don’t make me repeat myself." growled the Princess as she reared for battle

"I'm sorry, where are my manners, my name are Princess of the Thorns and we are... embassies of the Bombus Empire."

"An ambassador does not attack a city, harm other ponies in an act of war and steal valuable artifacts from Royalty!" Celestia's patience was nearing its end. the ambassador was openly mocking her and smiling as if all that happened is that she was caught stealing a cookie from a jar!

"Oh, am I am terribly sorry for that. You were supposed to be busy outside. I was planning to meet you in a more civilized setting. Live and learn I guess, next time I will remember cause more damage for a better distraction."

That was the last straw. Celestia fired a magical beam of heat at the creature, to which the creature dodged with a roll. Princess of the Thorns pulled from her pocket on her belt a small scroll and ordered the one minion to attack. The small bee that was not preoccupied with the chest pulled out a glass orb full of a strange liquid and threw it at the ground in front of Celestia. The glass shattered on the ground causing the liquid to burst as a ray of white light that blinded the Princess for a moment. When she opened her eyes, all three of the intruders had disappeared, including the Elements.

Discord was slightly confused when he reformed, he was not in Ponyville. In fact, for the first time he had no idea where he was. He had appeared in a rather large, cave-like room. The floor was covered in white granite tiles while the ceiling was black with an orb of light in the center, illuminating the room. The room was round with the ceiling as a doom over the whole thing.

"This is not Ponyville." stated the puzzled draconequus

"That's a point of the trap." stated a male that sounded bored.

Discord turned around to find the only other occupant of the room. There sat a robed figure on a chair with his arms resting on the back. The figure wore a white mask with big black holes for his and black lines from the holes straight down to the bottom of mask. The figures eyes were not visible in the light, showing only darkness.

"A trap? That's rather bold. What makes you think you can trap the god of chaos."

"Simple I already did."

"This? Ha!!! I can leave anytime I want with a snap of my fingers!"

"Go right ahead then." the robed figure said with boredom in his voice.

Discord once again tried to teleport, this time turning into confetti. When he reappeared he had moved exactly two inches forward. Discord looked at his progress with surprise and turned to face the figure, his eyes demanding an explanation.

"It was by no means easy, I especially didn't think it would work at all right now with it being a rushed project and all. Equestria always gets attacked always at the most inconvenient of times. If you have to know how you ended up here and subsequently cannot leave, I took a sample of or chaos magic from last time you were out and basically made this room into a giant magical magnet for chaotic energy. Every time you use your magic, it wants to end up here, and when you teleport, you come along for the ride."

"That's rather clever of you. And extremely stupid. I'll just kill you and destroy this place and be on my merry little way." Discord crackled his knuckles and started to stretch.

"For a 'god' of chaos, you are really quite predictable." The ground opened up in front of the figure as he stood up. From the ground, came a white spear with the tip in the shape of a brown unicorn's horn bolted to the staff. The Ground closed up leaving no trace that it had been moved as the figure graved the weapon with his right hand. As he gripped the spear, black energy poured out from horn and formed the shape of a blade of a scythe.

"Wow, You came prepared to fight, and a little 'grim reaper' outfit as well. For that you get first prize, a fireball!!!!"
A giant ball flame burst from the draconequus paw at the figure and hit the figure dead on. Discord was feeling rather pleased with himself until he saw that his magic fire had dissipated on impact and had left no damage.

"Thanks, it is rather chilly in here."

"You dissipated my spell, didn't block, deflect or dodge it. Dissipated it. I thought only humans had ever displayed such anti-magic capabilities."

"You’re a smart boy; you can figure it out."

"If you are human, how did you survive I thought I had made your people extinct."

"Now, if that was true, where would we be? Is not like you haven't failed before."

"I see you have a rather smart mouth, how about I knock some teeth in." Discord Reached behind him and pulled out a weapon he thought was most appropriate for the task, a giant lollipop axe. “You’re really going to need a dentist after this one."

Discord struck at the masked man with an overhead swing which the man quickly deflected and then slashed with his scythe. Discord easily avoid the attack and continued to swing wildly at the man. Discord laughed as he increased the tempo of his swings and watched as he felt the man struggle to keep up.

"Before you die, how bout you tell me your name. I haven't had such an interesting opponent for a long time, especially one that thinks he can beat me in close combat."

Discord swung down heavily as the man barely dodged the attack by rolling. "I go by the name Noah." He grunted as he fed off another swing made by Discord, this time, sending him skidding backward.

"Well Noah, I had my fun. I think I am going to kill you now just like I killed your people. Wasn't it brilliant of me to deduce that while magic doesn't work on humans, using magic to rapidly speed up time around humans to cause them to instantly fossilize does work? Let's face it, I am a genius."

"And fool." Noah threw his scythe at Discord, which the draconequus easily side-stepped.

"What's that? I'm the fool. You just threw your scythe in a desperate attempt to wound me. That's rather foolish if you ask me."

The man lifted his hand to his mask and gripped it. "You're the fool for not realizing that I was never truly in front of you." The mask fell off revealing nothing but a skull underneath. A swing of the scythe then struck Discord from behind, leaving no visible gash but dropping the chaotic entity anyway. From behind stood another man in identical robes as the skeleton holding the scythe and a white mask similar to the skeletons, but with a black circle going around the eye holes instead of the black lines. "You never noticed you were fighting a puppet the whole time. How pathetic."

"What did you do to me?" said Discord with his struggled breath.

"I cut your life force from your body. While nothing can kill you as you are the essence of chaos, it will still take you a long time to recover. I can't have you causing ruckus alongside an impending invasion. That would be too much for Equestria to handle, even with my help. So sit tight. You’re going to be here a long, long time."

"Sister the enemy is retreating, we’ve won, Huzzah!!!"

Celestia looked at all the burnt buildings and at the injured guards. She then looked back at Luna
and said "No sister, I don't think we've won."

Back at Ponyville (Ch. 6)

Chapter 6: Back at Ponyville

Rainbow Dash was in deep in thought, scheming multiple pranks, each topping the others, when a familiar pink flash went past the rainbow maned pegasus. "Pinkie? Wait, Pinkie I need your help." Rainbow Dash sped up to catch the high speed mare.

"Notimetotalkfluttershyisindangersoaretherestofusgottogohelpsaveherandwarntheothers." the Pink mare gasped at high speed as she ran.

"Pinkie! Slow down your not making any sense!" shouted Rainbow. The pink mare finally stopped and took a deep breath.

"Fluttershy is in trouble and so are the rest of us. I need to get to her cottage."

"Whoa! Hold on, what makes you think that?"

"My Pinkie Sense went crazy a couple of minutes ago. Dash please go warn the others." The Pinkie Pie then ran toward Fluttershy's cottage without saying another word. Dash learned a long time ago about to the dangers of not believing her Pinkie Sense. Even if Pinkie was wrong and they were not in danger, the panic in Pinkie's eyes showed that she believed that they were. Rainbow flew off toward Twilight's Library at full speed.

....................

Pinkie arrived at the cottage and gasped at what she saw. An amber crystal structures decorated the front of the house that most certainly was not there before. In panic, Pinkie started to shout, "Fluttershy! Are you there, Fluttershy!! Please answer me!"

"What luck!" came a smooth female voice from the roof. Pinkie looked up to find the strange creature on the roof. "I just finish sealing the yellow on when a pink pony matching the description so happens to run up right to me!" The creature appeared to have a pale white and was thin and sat elegantly with a similar colored robe rapped around her.

"Who are you and what did you do to Fluttershy, ya big meanie!"

"Your words wound me. I am simply a moth which as taken the name Gypsy of Linen. A rather elegant name don't you agree. As for your friend, she has won the honor of meeting the Queen. It is an express trip, she won't remember a thing, in fact there is plenty room for you. Why don't you join her."

The robe unwrapped from Linen to reveal itself as her wings. She jumped off the roof and floated gently down while pulling out from a belt that she wore two scrolls.

"No thank you moth lady. I would prefer that give Fluttershy back."

"Oh., what are you going to do about it?"

"I MAKE you give her back!"

"Good answer. I prefer a little challenge. I was beginning to think that this mission was to easy." The moth swung her right hand unravelling the scroll in it a little. From the scroll, white cloth flew at Pinkie Pie at amazing speed, attempting to capture her. Pinkie managed bounce to the side despite her surprise and watch as the cloth recoil back into the scrolls. "I missed, what a shame."

"What are those!?!"

"Oh, silly me, I forget that your magic is different. This is how we do magic!" Linen swung both of her scrolls as four strands of clothe materialized out of them and flew toward Pinkie. The pink mare dodged and weaved through the fabric as the giant moth continued her attack. "Come on little pony, surely you can do more then just dodge."

"Your right! I almost forgot that I could do that." Pinkie dodged another assault and maneuvered herself to the nearest tree. Pinkie then jumped behind the tree and came out of the others side with a cannon.

"I always forget that I store these everywhere, never know when you need to party. So miss moth-lady, TASTE MY PARTY-CANNON!!!"

A blast of party goods flew at Gypsy of Linen. Linen quickly formed a shield with her clothe to absorb the impact before it hit but the attack still sent her skidding backwards. "Not bad, now it's my turn!" the clothe re-extended toward Pinkie Pie wrapping around her cannon then sending it flying into the air. "Let's see how you handle 16 stands!" the moth let the scrolls fully unravel as Pinkie visible gulped.

....................

Screwball followed Applejack up the hill to the line at Sweet Apple Acres. While still long, It was hardly the first day of the sale. The line no longer reached all the way down the hill and instead reached over the first steep.

Screwball still looked daunted at the fact it would still take at least an hour of waiting before she would get the jam. Seeing the terror on the mare face Applejack reassured her "Don't worry sugarcube, the wait won't be that bad. It'll fly by in a jiffy!"

"I hope so..." Screwball still looking daunted started to walk to her place in line. Applejack then heard noise coming from the front of the line. She made her way to the front of the line and found two hooded figures standing up front ignoring a stallion shouting at them.

"You can't cut in line! I've been waiting here all morning!"

"Go to the back of the line!" shouted another customer.

"What seems ta be the problem here?" Applejack questioned as she walked up to the angry group.

"These two are trying to butt in line, probably wearing those stupid cloaks so that no one would know who they were if they were caught!" stated the stallion.

"Look here ya two, ya goin' ta afta wait like everypony else."

Both hooded figures turned to face her and said in unison. "Applejack."

"That's ma name. Now get back in line before I buck ya."

Both figures removed their cloaks to reveal that they were most certainly not ponies, and both pointed barrels at her with their strange tube like weapons.

"Wat the buck-?" Applejack did not get to finish her sentence as she was blasted with a golden liquid that immediately solidified into an amber crystal encasing a surprised Applejack. They immediately turned to the crowd which had stated to were to shocked to realize what was going on till they too were encased. the bees then started to lift the Applejack crystal and hoist her on their backs when a magenta blur knocked both of the assailants over.

"That wasn't very nice!" Declared Screwball "You've been a very bad... uh... bee?"

....................

"I never thought of that formula! That's brilliant Miss Sparkle!" Star Well exclaimed as they disscused the their findings with each other. Twilight was a quick learner, and was able to understand the basic theory behind the spell as well as follow Star's train of thought. 'I shouldn't be surprised, she is Celestia apprentice.' Star thought.

"Oh, I'm certain you would have came to the same conclusion if you had my library of books. Honestly, I haven't met another unicorn that can keep up with me in a long time. And please, call me Twilight."

Star took another sip of the tea Spike had brought him. He usually wouldn't call himself a tea sort of guy, he had found it usually quite bitter, but that dragon must been able to work miracles in the kitchen and he found the drink relaxing and delicious.

Star started "You know, if we usual the Gehold theorem we might be able to narrow-" Star never got to finish his sentence as a cyan pegasus with rainbow hair burst through the door and slammed into Star Well.

"Twilight!" Rainbow Dash shouted, not noticing she had just used another pony as an emergency brake, "Pinkie is in near hysterics, she thinks-"

"Rainbow Dash! Watch where your going! You rammed into Star." She turned to Star who was getting up, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. It isn't the first time I've been rammed into by a mare today..."

"What... Anyway, What's up with Pinkie?"

"She thinks that Fluttershy is in danger and we might be too."

Twilight, slightly alarmed asked, "Did she give a reason?"

"Only that her Pinkie Sense said so."

Twilight looked even more alarmed. Even though she didn't understand it, Pinkie Sense was never wrong, and Pinkie would never joke about such a thing. "Then we've got no time to lose! Let's go!"

"Pinkie Sense, danger? Wait up, I'm coming too."

"You don't have too, its probably safer here."

"I am not just going to at and around do nothing." stated Star.

"Thanks, Star."

"Your welcome. Just one question, what's 'Pinkie Sense'?"

....................

Bright Shadow watched as Rainbow Dash flew into the library at full speed, with worry in her eyes. "Somethings going on here..." Bright thought to herself and decided to put her robes on.

Then, from the shadows, and extremely tall figure carrying something large on it's back quickly moved to the Library and jumped up to the branches of the tree the library was built in and hid in the leaves.

"Yep, something really is going on here." Bright stated as she put on her mask.

....................

Twilight, Star, and Dash ran out of the library. "Which way did Pinkie go?" asked Twilight

"Toward Fluttershy's cottage"

"Let's go!"

From above them leaves rustled as something moved down the branches. "Wait did anypony hear that?" Star stated. From the Tree burst a tall slender figure coming down at the trio with a large metal object. Star saw a blur of black move past them, kicking him them out of the way. Dazed, Star heard a clang of metal as the small black figure collided the large green figure. When he snapped out of it, Star could not believe his eyes as he saw that all three of them had been flung forward and standing in front of them was clearly a ninja pegasus staring down a giant slender pray mantis with metal blades attached to arms.

"I think I was hit much harder then I thought" blankly stated Star Well.

Battle at Ponyville: part 1 (Ch. 7)

Chapter 7: Battle at Ponyville, part uno

She-Who-Stalked-Silently was getting steadily more irritated with this mission. First, the Queen had decided to place two of her drones and one of her court magicians to 'ensure success'. 'You mean to watch me and slow me down' she thought bitterly. The Queens lackeys were diffidently no use in any manner of a stealthy operation. Drones were essentially hollow shells with no real intelligence of their own, and the moth was loud and pretentious.

It's O.K., she thought, she could make do with this. When they arrived at the settlement, She-Who-Stalked-Silently had meant to take each one quietly, but as soon as they met their first target, the moth had the drones open fire with their S.A.F. cannons on the pegasus. She-Who-Stalked-Silently thanked the heavens that the target lived a distance away from the town, otherwise the whole town would be on to them. The mantis decided it was pointless to try for stealth as long as she had these three with her so she decided to split them up.

The mantis sent the drones after the orange earth-pony, hoping that the profiles given to her were accurate and that the mare would be the least likely to run. She left the moth at the cottage to get the yellow crystalized pegasus into the containment spell, then meet up with her later. She-Who-Stalked-Silently decided to go after the two most dangerous targets on the list, the unicorns. The mantis had managed to capture and knock unconscious the white unicorn easily enough, but now it seems that the blue pegasus had placed the purple unicorn on high alert.

She-Who-Stalked-Silently quickly climbed the the strange house-tree the unicorn resided in and waited for her moment to strike while their backs are turned. She left her captive up in the tree for safe keeping as she waited by the front door. Moments later, three ponies ran out the door, two of which were her targets. She did not know who this third unicorn was nor did she care, she would take all three out with a single strike. The mantis leaped from the trees to land a heavy blow with the back of her blade-gauntlets only to find her strike to be stopped by a fourth pony, covered from head to hoof in all black, using a knife in its mouth to stop the blow. 'This job keeps getting more and more irritating.'

....................

Star Well was stunned at the sight before him. A tall slender creature resembling pray mantis with metal blades attached to its arms was going head to head with a ninja, warriors that existed only in rumors and stories. Star just stood there, his brain trying to register the insanity that was before him.

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash showed no moment of hesitation to act, they were far to desensitized to bizarre scenarios to be shocked at the sight of only a ninja fighting a giant pray mantis. Twilight immediately sent two magical blasts at the mantis while Rainbow Dash flew up and started to create a miniature rainbow tornado to hurl at their assailant.

The ninja jumped backward as the mantis swung at her with her other bladed arm, moving out of the way as the magical blasts came hurling at the creature. The mantis parried the blasts effortlessly with her sickle like blades and turned her attention to Rainbow's tornado which came flying at her with tremendous force. The mantis raised her bladed arm which started to glow fiery hot and brought it down an the rainbow colored tornado. Heat exploded at the collision, instantly dispersing the tornado and sending Dash skidding back across the floor skidding and slightly scorched.

"Rainbow!!!" Twilight popped in a flash of purple light and reappeared before Dash, ready to defend her. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine," Dash grunted, "I didn't think this guy could go ahead and cheat by being able to use magic. I thought only eggheads like you could do that."

The explosion knocked Star back into his senses. He didn't have time to question the sanity of the situation as the creature was certainly not going to wait for him to recover before killing everypony. Star Well ran to Rainbow Dash to help Twilight defend the pegasus mare as she recovered. 'The mantis is too dangerous to fight in close combat,' Star thought. 'That makes trying to use THAT spell is to risky, We'll have to keep our distance.'

At that moment, Spike ran out of the library, charging with a broom. "Get away from my friends!!!" He was met with a swift kick from the mantis into his gut, sending the baby dragon flying back into the library. The mantis turned to face her prey just in tim to see three metal spinning objects flying at it. The mantis managed to dodge all but one, leaving a cut across its cheek.

"I hope you didn't forget about me." stated the pony donned in black, her hooves full with more metal stars to throw at the mantis. Nopony noticed as the unconscious dragon hiccuped a burst a flame that formed a scroll with the royal seal on it.

"Any news from Twilight Sparkle?"

"I'm afraid not your majesty." Celestia silently cursed. lt had been roughly an hour since Celestia had sent her call for help. This behavior was incredibly unusual for Twilight not to immediately respond and even if she had left Spike home, he would have certainly of ran to get Twilight as soon as he got the letter. The whole situation was putting her on edge.

A white unicorn in bright silver armor came walking into the palace meeting hall were the princess resided. Another white unicorn stallion with a bright red mane and golden eyes walked with him,wearing the golden royal guard armor forgoing the helmet. "Ah, Captain Shining Armor and Lieutenant Lance, I trust that you have a status report for me?"

"Yes, your highness," Shining spoke "We have made an estimate of our losses."

Weary grew on the alicorns face. "Please continue."

"We have estimated that around 230 city guards have been injured in the assault, with around 37 missing in action. Civilian are lucky estimated losses are estimated around 53 injured with only 13 reported missing. So far, no bodies have been found and it is believed that the most of missing were at least captured and taken hostage. The attackers managed to bomb several cites in the city, including all the radio towers, civilian and military, as well as most of the cites were the shield glyphs had been placed. the damage to the outer walls will take some time to rebuild and the total estimated damages to the whole city are being estimated at 150,700 bits."

"What about Luna and the remaining ponies inside the city."

"Luna at this moment is searching for any stranglers and hints of where the invading force went, but she should be back rather shortly. The remaining guard are busy evacuating everypony onto palace grounds while setting up new glyphs for the Evershield spell."

"Good to see that Twilights plans have been instituted so quickly."

"You know Twiley. Right after the changeling attack, she went right into researching what to do if my Evershield ever failed again. She sent me thirteen plans as well as sent me seven back-up if any of those failed. Though, I don't think even my sister could have planned for what happened here."

"I don't think anypony could. I also got a report that you went and defend the Northwest section by yourself."

"Ya! It was sweet! I got to see a true Realization, and the Captain's no less. I never imagined it would be so powe-" Lance then realized that both the Princess and SHining were glowering at him. "sorry, I'll shut up now."

Princess Celestia then turned her attention back to Shining. "That was rather a reckless decision on your part."

"The Southeast wall forces took the heaviest damage on the initial attack. I felt was necessary to majorly reinforce that area, especially how close it is to the residential district."

"With all do respect your majesty, the air guard could not spare even one pony, the invading air force was to great in number to lose any."

"I just don't want to hear that my niece as suddenly become a widow. How is Cadence doing by the way? I was informed that she was admitted to the hospital a couple hours before the attack."

"Cadence had another minor magic surge."

Lance gave a surprised look at his Captain, "Wait, is Princess Cadence sick? I thought alicorns could not get sick."

Princess Celestia gave another worried look, "Normally, no, alicorns cannot get sick, but Princess Cadence is not an alicorn. Do you know what makes a pony an earth pony, a pegasus, or an unicorn?"

"Isn't because one has wings or a horn, or has neither?"

"Your partially correct. What type of pony foal will be is decided by what type of magic it develops in the womb. There has only been three alicorns in the recorded history of this world, one which died a long time ago. Normal ponies only develop one type of magic, either earth, pegasus, or unicorn, an alicorn however has access to all three types of magic as well as 'the spark of divinity' which keeps the three magics in balance as well as provide us with immortality.

Princess Cadence is different in that she was born with only two types of magic, unicorn and pegasus. It is a rare condition called 'Veneficus Imbalance Syndrome'. It is a extremely rare genetic defect that causes a foal to be born with more then one type of magic. There are different degrees of the syndrome which Cadence has a 'class A' type. That means she was born with at least average amounts of both types of magic. Most foals with this same type of condition don't even make it to term as without the 'spark' to keep the magic in balance, both energies would try to repel each other and tear the child apart. It was a miracle she survived her birth, never the less to grow up."

Shining added, "The magic energies settled down after childhood, but she is still proned to magical 'fits'. That's why she needs to get monthly check-ups. I am just thankful how small this attack was. Cadence insisted she was fine, but I convinced her to get a check-up just in case."

"She's a strong mare Shining, she'll be fine"

"Still can't help but worry."

A blue mare with a mane like the stars the flew into the meeting hall along with two pegasus guards with bat wings instead of feathers. Princess Luna looked incredibly frustrated as she walked closer to her sister. "I found no trace of the insect army. They even managed to hide their presence even from my tracking spell. I fear they have gotten away with the Elements."

"Sister, I think it is time to call the City Council. There is much about this attack that troubles me, and I need to lay out my fears before the council and get their opinions before we can plan any sort of action. I have not gotten word from Twilight and I fear that Canterlot is not the only place that was attacked.

Battle at Ponyville: part 2 (Ch. 8)

Chapter 8: Battle at Ponyville, part dos

Between the magic blasts, the metal stars, and the flying rocks, She-Who-Stalked-Silently's agitation grew. 'This mission would be so much easier if I could just kill them all.' Silent surveyed the field as she continued to parry the assault. The rainbow maned pony appeared incapacitated from her little stunt a few seconds while the purple one stood in front of her protectively, firing magic projectiles at the mantis. These too were her targets and she had been given profiles on these two as well as their respected talents.

The blue unicorn levitating rocks at her and the pegasus covered in black throwing sharp metal objects at her, She-Who-Stalked-Silently had received no intel on these two. The blue unicorn did not appear to have any sort of military training, judging from his reactions, but according to the general info on unicorns, they had they widest display of abilities which meant that the unicorn might have a trick up his sleeve. The pegasus in black was diffidently the bigger threat. It was clear that the pegasus was trained for battle and was armed. This pony was fast enough on foot to parry her initial attack and get away from her while defending three oblivious civilians, would be even more trouble if the pegasus decided to take flight.

These two were not targets. These two were disposable. Silent grinned as she prepared to take out the biggest obstacle in her way.

....................

Star saw the monster grin as it suddenly leapt with lightning speed at ninja. The pony clad in black was caught off guard with the speed of the attack and barely parred with the blade in her mouth.

As the two struck and parried in a flurry of blades, neither he or twilight could find an opening which to fire without a chance to accidently hit their mysterious savior, which turned out to be an alicorn-send as he was running out of rocks in his immediate area to throw. He looked over to Twilight and Dash to see how they were fairing. Twilight had taken this opportunity to more closely examine Rainbows injuries. The mare was singed and was slowly recovering from the crash, but otherwise seemed fine and would be back in action in a few minutes.

Star Well then turned over to the action and realized that they might not have a few minutes. While the pony in black was most certainly able to keep up with the mantis's speed, there was one clear difference, strength. The mantis was overpowering her with every strike, and Star saw that the pegasus was counter striking less and less do to the strain parrying the heavy blows from the mantis. With every strike, the ninja lost ground an was slowly being pushed back into a wall of a nearby building.

Star started galloping full speed toward the fray. Star had no idea what he was going to do but he knew if the battle continued as it was going, the ninja was going to lose and lose in the most permanent of ways.

Then the battle took another turn for the worst. The mantis managed to knock the ninja's weapon out the pegasus's mouth and fling it to the side. The mantis grinned in victory and raised its bladed arm for a final strike. There was no time to think as the blade swung down at the pegasus, threatening to end the ninja's life. Star jumped in front of the blade and pushed the pegasus in black away. Star then felt searing pain as the blade struck his side.

The council was finally under way with everypony present. Princess Celestia looked around the table that was set up for the meeting and watched as the council members sat silently talking amongst themselves. The first two ponies on her left were Prince Blueblood, the representative of the nobles of the city, and Commonwealth, longtime rival and representative of the mid-class citizens. The two were quietly arguing about something for the umpteenth time and Celestia did not care to know what it was now.

In front of her sat Kage Shem, the grandmaster of Equestria's only surviving ninja clan, though only Celestia knew this. Officially he was known as Head Advisor of Equestria and whose job was to inform her of the on-goings of the various cities. He was the oldest member of the council and he had his clan spread throughout Equestria to form a wide connection of spies to inform him of any major threats to Equestria that were forming inside the country. There had been no major uprising in Equestria since founding, and his run as grandmaster had been rather quiet and uneventful until the return of Nightmare Moon and all the other recent attacks on Equestria. Kage had not been alerted to an army sneaking around Equestria, and that presented another worry for Equestria. An entire army was able to move through her borders without setting off any early warning system.

The elderly grey pegasus chatted with the last two members of the council, Shining Armor and Princess Luna. Princess Celestia cleared her throat and everypony quieted down as she began to speak. "I have reason to believe that there are spies for our enemies in our fair city's higher workings."

"Your majesty, what makes you believe this to be so?" Kage asked, his stern expression never changing.

"Our enemy simply knew exactly where to hurt us. I also have reports from several eyewitnesses as well as my own that lead me to believe that the enemy was in the city before the attack. They knew confidential information like the location of most of Captain Shining's glyphs as well as all radio towers, civilian and military. They destroyed the cities major defense and all means of communications all within the first thirty minutes. Most importantly they manage to bypass enchantments that I made myself and steal the Elements of Harmony. This attack was well planned and very informed."

Commonwealth spoke up, "Fellow ponies working with those... those things? That's hard to believe."

"If there are traitors in our mists, they would most likely be in the guard." stated Blueblood. "The Royal Guard would have easy access to all that information."

"None of my officers are traitors, Blueblood." snarled Shining, "I have known most of them for years and hoof picked the rest. I can personally vouch for each one of them."

"How am I supposed to trust a the word of a commoner, Captain. And you will address me with my proper title, Prince Blueblood"

"Are you trying to pick a fight with me. Because if your are, I be delighted to oblige you."

"And get my hooves dirty with the blood of a commoner, I think not. I for one am actually civilized."

"Blueblood..." growled Shining.

"Enough!" shout Celestia. Both parties turned to face her, "Blueblood, when you insult the Captain of my Royal Guard, you insult me. When I chose a pony for the position I chose a pony with great valor, dedication, and the ability to lead and I will not discriminate based on heritage. Shining, or actions shame my decision. I expect an apology from both of you to each other and an apology to me after the meeting."

Both ponies looked at each other and begrudgingly backed down. Princess Luna then finally spoke-up, "Sister, what shall we do about our situation then."

"Searching for the traitor right now would put us at a disadvantage as ponies would be second guessing each other, weakening our defenses. Neither can we sit here in this castle and wait for the enemy to attack. The city as been compromised and until we catch their spies and get them to tell us how much information they gave to our enemy, we must assume that the castle is compromised as well. We must first establish a safe position to defend as well as get set up communication with the rest of Equestria so we can round-up our forces."

"Sister, you surely can't mean to abandon the castle! Where would we even go?"

"Princess Celestia!" exclaimed Blueblood, "We can't go out there, we would be sitting ducks! I will not stand for it!"

The rest of the council started stating their own concerns when Celestia hushed them. "Yes, I understand your concerns, but I am afraid this is necessary. Our enemy knew all about our city's defenses and it would be a safe bet that they know all of our plans to defend the castle. I also agree that it would be foolish to travel outside the city through conventional means, that would just gave the enemy an open invitation to attack us. No, I am afraid we are going to have to travel by unconventional means."

She-Who-Stalked-Silently was surprised by the actions of the blue pony. She did not think they had the capability of such noble sacrifices, noble and foolish. According to her dossier, unicorns were supposed to be the most intelligent of the three types, but Silent made a mental note that this was diffidently not the case. Still, that was one pony at of the way. The pony in black clothing also seemed surprised by the actions of the unicorn and quickly threw more of the sharp metal objects at Silent as she tried to drag the blue-one to safety. She-Who-Stalked-Silently effortless knocked the stars away and delivered a swift kick to the tired pegasus.

The sudden violent defeat of one of their comrades at left both of her targets to stunned to react. Killing the blue-one was not apart of her contract, but it would certainly help her goals. It was evident by their reactions that these ponies had not seen true battle, they had not witness a death of a comrade. Most would go into shock, or go into a fit of rage, both reactions would serve her purpose and make this job easier. The most compelling reason to her though would be that she needed an outlet for all the aggravations she had to endure for this mission and killing this pony would most certainly bring her some relief.

The mantis brought up her blade for the killing blow on the wounded unicorn. Glee radiated from her as she started to bring down her blow. Lightning then stuck her gauntlets, sending electricity throughout her body and with it, searing pain. The attack made her fly backward and land on her side. Anger reignited in the mercenary. She got up and turned to face the pony that dared to strike her. Standing before her was a light blue unicorn mare in a cape and a hat with stars decorated on them.

"No one harms one of Trixie's subordinates and gets away with it. Prepare to be bested monster by the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

Battle at Ponyville: part 3 (Ch. 9)

Chapter 9: Battle at Ponyville, part tres

"See! I told ya! There really is a giant bug and a ninja goin' at it in front of Twilight's!" Applebloom exclaimed. The red headed filly had been on her way to meet up with the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders when she saw the action. So she did want any young filly would do, she went to get her friends.

"Why are they fighting?" gasped the white unicorn, "Rainbow looks hurt...and who is that blue guy? I never seen him before and he looks in worse condition then Dash!"

"Never mine him! Girls, do you see what I see?" said the orange colored pegasus. She pointed her hoof to the library and stated, "There's somepony in Twilight's tree!"

"Is that... Miss Rarity?" gasped Applebloom.

"Sis! Girls, we have to help her!"

"Calm down Sweetie Belle! Once Rainbow gets back on her hooves, she'll show that monster a thing or two!"

"Scoots, I not even sure they know that Sweetie's sis is in that tree."

"What do you think we should do then?"

"I think we should be... the Cutie Mark Rescuers!" shouted Applebloom

"Now THATS what I'm taking about!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

"Come on girls, we've got rescuing to do!" Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Applebloom all started running toward the library. The other two fillies did not notice when Scootaloo turned her head to the action. She her eyes focused at the ninja pony as she was getting back up on her hooves.

"Be careful sis," she whispered as she turned her attention back to the task at hand.

....................

If this new ponies plan was to draw She-Who-Stalked-Silently's attention, she had most certainly succeeded. The mantis eyes were blood red with fiery as she out stretched her arm, flames erupting from the blade. She swung her blade at the new combatant, sending a wave of fire and heat at the pony.

Trixie did not move as the attack reached it's target. The mantis was surprised however when her attack passed through the pony, making an impact on a lamppost behind her instead. The pony, instead of burning dissolved as if she was made of mist. SIlent realized that what she had attacked was an illusion and five other Trixies popped out from behind walls and lampposts to surround the mercenary.

"If you surrender now, the Great and Powerful Trixie might go easy on you." All five Trixie's horns started to crackle with electricity in unison around the mantis. The mantis responded by setting her second blade ablaze and striking the ground. The flame burst in all directions around Silent, destroying all Trixie's images. Electricity surged toward the mantis from an invisible source behind the mercenary. The mantis turned to see the attack and tried to react when a white clothe stuck the ground in front of the lightnings path. the attack hit cloth and was harmlessly channeled into the ground.

A second clothe came down at the source of the electrical attack causing a mare to shimmer then appear as she dodged the attack. Trixie, surprised by the attack and the ease the enemy had found her when using her invisibility spell, looked up to see a giant flying moth, bipedal in nature. Its hands were scrolls in which both strands of cloth had materialized from.

The clothe retracted back into the scrolls as the creature land next to the mantis, its wings wrapping around itself like a cape. "She-Who-Stalked-Silently, I see your having a little trouble with your targets and have seemed to attracted a rather large crowd. You don't seem to be living up to your name."

"I don't care about your appraisal, Gypsy Of Linen. All I want to know are done sealing the first target."

"Obviously, or I wouldn't be here. I even manage to catch another target while I was at it. Please, your lack of faith in me is disturbing."

"Wait, you can talk?" Twilight interjected, "If you can talk, why are you attacking my friends?"

The mantis turned to face the mare but remained silent, the moth on the other hand turned and smiled devilishly at Twilight. "The answer for that is simple, because our Queen demands that you and your friends be brought to her. I would also avoid trying to engage my constituent over here in conversation. She seems to have a policy to never speak to her pray. I, on the other leg, don't mind in engaging in conversation. I find your species to be interesting, that one especially interest me." the moth pointed at Trixie as she spoke her words. "I did not think I would meet such a talented mage here, its to bad we had to meet like this..."

"You blather on to much Gypsy. Where are the drones."

"Ahhh yes. They should be arriving shortly." The moth then pointed toward the sky at three objects flying toward the area in high speed. Trixie looked over at the objects and blink and rubbed her eyes just to make sure that what she was seeing was real.

A pastel violet earth pony wearing a strange hat with a propeller on top flying through the sky, carrying a large yellow crystal with frozen pony inside. The mare was being chased by large bees carrying strange weapons firing yellow globs at the pony. The pony dodged and weave in the air as the globs were increasingly becoming more accurate. As the aerial chase came closer to the group, it became apparent that the mare was physical strained and was loosing grip of the crystal.

The moth pulled out one of her scrolls again and swung it to unravel its contents. Three strands of cloth flew out to attack the airborne mare. Twilight and Trixie both reacted in unison at the sight and Twilight sent a magical salvo at the moth while Trixie charged her lightning spell. The mantis reacted with lightning speed, deflecting Twilights blasts and the ninja's stars and sending them toward Trixie, disrupting her spell as she was forced to dodge.

The clothes wrapped around the crystalized Applejack and threaten to yank her from the swirl-eyed mare. "Hold on Miss Apple, I'm about to shake this goose loose!" Before the flying mare could act though, one of the drones got a lucky shot and hit her hat straight on. The force of the glob knock Screwball's hat off her head and it slammed into the library, crystalizing in place. Screwball noticed her hat was gone and gulped as she started to loose altitude. "Mayday, MayDay!" She shouted as she started to fall, loosing grasp of Applejack.

Twilight saw this and reacted to save the falling mares life. She immediately cast a bubble shield around the mare, causing her great strain because of the distance between them. The mare hit the ground, the bubble causing her to bounce before it popped send the mare flying in the air. Twilight cast her second spell, creating a pile of pillows for the mare to land in. The pillows absorbed the impact as the mare hit them causing an explosion of feathers. Twilight sighed with relief before being struck in the back of the head, causing her to collapse.

"TWILIGHT!" shouted Rainbow as she to was struck by a ribbon of clothe. The moth smiled as it had capture all three of the targets and used her clothe to drag Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and the crystal incase near her. Trixie watched in shock as all of her comrades and just been captured effortlessly by this creature that stood before her.

The mantis then turned her attention to the blue mare and started to calmly walk toward her, dragging one blade to the ground making a horrible screeching sound. Trixie found herself frozen in fear at the sight as the monster before her closed distance. Silent brought her blade up into the air, setting it ablaze, her intent on destroying the mare that dared to strike her. The ninja, clad in black, then jumped in front of the mare with her re-found blade firmly in her mouth. The mantis did not slow in its movement but continued forward with anger it its eyes. Before she could even bring down the blade, a lamppost enveloped in a white aura struck her side.

....................

Star Well winced in pain as he stood and shaky legs. He was using his magic to hold the wound on his side closed but he could tell he already had lost a lot of blood and his vision was blurred slightly. His attack with the lamppost had caught the monster by surprise, but one look at the mantis told him that he had just made it angrier.

He was grateful that Trixie arrived when she did, but the odds did not seem in their favor. The mantis alone had fought off the five of them and now the creature had received reinforcements. It was now Trixie, the ninja and him versus the four monsters that had captured most the bearers of Elements of Harmony and to top it all off, he had no way of telling if Screwball was O.K. Star steeled himself for the coming counter-attack that was sure to come, struggling to remain conscious himself.

"Wow, Silent, you are sure sloppy today." chided the moth, "Did you even collect the last target?"

"The last of the targets is unconscious in the tree." The mantis replied, not bothering to turn around, instead glaring at her attackers.

"You mean that tree? The one three young ponies are dragging an unconscious mare from?"

"What!?!" The mantis turned around to find the three fillies dragging Rarity to safety.

"Oh, buck. Run girls!" Applebloom shouted as the started to gallop the best the can with the full grown mare on their backs.

"Drones, would you kindly?" the two bees turned to the fillies and fired their weapons at the fillies striking dead on. The fillies did not have time to scream as the globs of yellow goo solidified around them and the unconscious mare.

"Scootaloo!!!" shouted the ninja, and in anger, threw her blade at the moth. Gypsy gracefully dodged the attack and turned to face the rest of the the group.

"I guess its time to take care of you. This fight has been thrilling and all, but I think we've over stayed our welcome. Drones finish-" The moth was cut off as she turned to see both of the bees flying past her. The drones collided with the library making them loose grip of their weapons, small trees growing on them keeping them pinned down.

"I think ya outa let ma sister and her friends free." The moth and the mantis turned to face the source of the attack. In the road stood a bright red stallion. On his neck, he wore a yoke and he had a blade of grass in his mouth as he stared at the two challengingly. On his hooves, he had strange silver horseshoes. The front each shoe was an green apple cut in half and showing the core.

Star Well swore something was missing from this pony but for the life of him he could not think of what it was. The Stallion stood their cracking his neck, confidence exuded from him as he stared down the two over-sized bugs.

"Are their more ponies out there idiotic enough to challenge us?" sighed the moth. Mantis gave the the moth the look that told her, 'I've been dealing with this all day.'

"Eyup. Alot more." As the stallion stood in place, an angry mob of ponies became visible from down the road, equipped with pitchforks and torches and all other assortments of classic mob equipment.

The mantis dug herself in place, her outstretched blades set ablaze. "Sorry Silent, while I understand your need to stay and fight, we have a mission to complete." The mantis begrudgingly stood down as the flames from her blades died down.

"Ya ain't going no where." stated the stallion.

The moth pull a new scroll from her belt and taunted the red earth pony. "This little spell begs to differ." She through the scroll into the air, causing the scroll to unravel. the scroll started to wrap around the area containing the moth and mantis as well as her captives.

The stallion respond by striking the ground with his horseshoes. A tree sprang up under him, launching the stallion and the creatures that were quickly being obscured from sight. Trixie, Star Well, and the ninja also responded with kind and sent attacks at the enemy.

The scroll finished wrapping the area before the attacks reached and the attacks hit the paper. The dome that had formed collapsed do to the force of the attacks, revealing the inside empty of life, leaving behind empty encasements of crystal.

Star Well finally hit his limit with his final attack and collapsed into unconsciousness.

Hospital rooms always smell like bleach (Ch. 10)

Chapter 10: Hospital rooms always smell like bleach

"This is unprecedented! Nothing like this as ever happened in history of this prestigious institution!"

"We cannot very well deny a request from the Princess."

"Even the Celestia must realize the ridiculousness of this request! Accept some random orphan, found in dumpster, without even an entrance exam. The colt doesn't seem to understand Equestrian! We aren't even allowed to measure his magical capability for ourselves, we have trust those imbeciles at the palace with their measurements. It's not even impressive enough to warrant this kind of treatment, a 6.4 on the Grey Scale of magic. That's barely above the average score of the students that are accepted!"

"We are just going do what the Princess asks."

"How can we? The colt didn't even know what a door is! He stood outside the office trying push it open with his hooves before giving up and jumping in through an open window. We aren't equipped to essentially raise the foal.

"Look, in a couple of weeks we will have enough proof that the foal can't handle the curriculum here and the Princess will have no other option other then take him from our hands. I even assigned Wordsearch to act as his caretaker."

A blue colt sat in the empty room, listening to the voices in the office next door. Their voices sounded agitated and harsh to the foal, ignorant of any meaning the sounds strung together. He could not understand the meaning of the sentences spoken, could not understand the meaning of the words said. He sat there, waiting. He did not know what he waited for but did not dare to move, lest the tall ponies started yelling at him again.

He sat there, unnaturally still as if he were a cat instead of a young colt, listening to the ticks of the clock on the wall. The door at the end of the hall, opposite of the office, opened. A head of a white mare with a well-kept pink mane tied into a bun poked into the room. She turned her head to face the colt and smiled warmly.

"Star Well, let our company depart."

The young blue unicorn did not understand the words but understood the meaning perfectly. The warmth of the mare’s words welcomed him and he immediately got up to go with the mare. The gentleness of her voice promised comfort and safety to the colt and that is all he needed to know.

His first happy memory faded as he awoke in a hospital bed, surround by curtains and solid stone, with an empty I.V. in his hoof and a heart monitor attached to another hoof, beeping steadily in corner.

....................

Star Well looked around in his small hospital room, questions of where he was and how he got there flowing through his brain. ‘At least it isn't a psych ward' he remarked. The prior events at Ponyville started racing through his brain as his groggy brain tried to re-instate logic into his situation. He jolted awake as he remembered that he had been slashed and immediately removed the blanket covering his waist as he sat up. Bandages wrapped around his midsection, confirming that he was indeed attacked by giant insects.

"Screwball!" Star gasped, he immediately remembered that the mare was attacked as well and had been knocked out of the sky. 'Is she O.K.?' He started to get out of his bed, full intent of finding where and what condition his assistant/roommate was in, when the curtain to his was withdrawn as a nurse popped into the room.

"Ah, your awake and appear to be in the same condition as your namesake, Mr. Well."

"Where is Screwball? Is she hurt? I have to see her!"

"Sir, please settle down, you'll re-open your wound. Miss Screwball is fine and as health as an ox. She's actually been quite worried about you. She hasn't left the ward since you were admitted. You gave your little sister quite a scare."

Relief washed through Star as he heard those words. Star felt calm return to him as he spoke, "She actually not my sister."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make assumptions."

Star's hoof waved in dismissal, "It’s alright. When can I see her?"

"I'll let Miss Screwball and your friends visit while I go get the doctor. He'll want to know your awake and besides, it’s probably best not make a bunch worried mares wait. You must be something for catching so many lovely mares..."

Star did a double take."Wait, mare's'?" But his question came too late as the nurse had already headed for the doctor. Moments later, a flying pastel mare came flying into the room, followed by a blue unicorn mare in a cape and an orange pegasus mare, dressed in a dark brown coat.

"STAR!!!" shouted the excited mare, "HUGS FOR THE HUG GOD!!!" Screwball declared as she jumped on him and squeezed him tight, the surprise attack knocking the breathe from him and causing his side to sting sharply.

When she released him, Star quickly gasped for breathe and grunted "I hope he's appeased."

Screwball smiled slyly, "For now!"

Star Well then turned his attention to his two unexpected visitors. "Trixie... I'm surprised you came to see me. In fact, I remember that the last time we met, you were heading in the opposite direction of Ponyville."

The blue mare blushed and looked away. "Trixie suddenly remembered that...she had... had unfinished buisness with the local blacksmith...Yah, that’s it."

Star Well gave Trixie a curious look to stage magician, but decided not to push further and gave her a small grateful smile. "In any case, I'm glad you were there. I wouldn't be in one piece if you didn't show up."

Trixie somehow blushed a deeper red and continued to look away. "It was nothing for the Great and Powerful Trixie. She faced tougher opponents in her sleep."

Star continued to smile, 'I'm glad to see she's matured, a little. She used to elaborate that she could fight tougher opponents while being locked up, blinded, and asleep.' Star set his sights on the stranger in the room. "Hello Miss. While I always glad to have people, I am afraid I don't know you..."

"You saved my life."

Star was taken back by the statement. "Come again?"

The orange mare gave an audible sigh and began, "My name is Bright Shadow. I am a kunoichi of Taifuu Clan. I have been living in Ponyville as an undercover agent. My goal was to protect the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, a task that I have failed. Now, I want answers."

"Kunoichi?"

"I'm the ninja ya dolt."

Star mentally face-hoofed as his brain made the connections. He did indeed remembered the ninja that fought with them, he also distinctly remembered thinking she was male. He felt like an idiot for not realizing who the mare was a little sooner. "Miss Shadow, I apologize."

"It doesn't matter," grumbled the pegasus, "What is important is that you answer my questions. First, why were you in Ponyville and second, what was your business with Miss Twilight?"

The blue mare then stepped forward and gave the ninja an agitated glare. "Trixie wants to know why you are treating Star like a suspect. You said it yourself, he saved your life!"

Bright shot back at the magician, "That still doesn't change the fact that as soon as he and his friend over there showed up in town, Ponyville was attacked and 9 mares were kidnapped. There are rumors that the bugs have spies, and buddy, you’re at the top of my list right now for possible suspects."

Trixie seemed ready to deck the mare, so Star tried to quickly tried to defuse the situation. "It’s alright Trixie, I'll answer her questions. Screwball and I were visited Ponyville on a semi-vacation. I was here to gain assistance on a new tracking spell formula from Miss Twilight. We were in library discussing the matter when Miss Rainbow Dash flew in and warned us that others were in danger. We ran out, and well, you were there for the rest. I'm just an ordinary pony and am just as surprised by the existence of those... bugs as you are. You can ask my assistant, Miss Screwball. She could tell you pretty much the same thing up to the attack."

"I already talked with Miss Non-sequiter over there, she doesn't exactly have all her marbles."

"HEY!!!" Screwball exclaimed, appearing quite offended by the pegasus's statement. "I do too have all my marbles! I check every day!" the strange pony lifted off her hat and pulled a bag full of marbles and showed them to the surprised mare. "See? All there! You can count them yourself. I have 270 in all."

"That's... nice. Anyway," Bright turned her attention backed to the injured stallion, "Don't expect me to believe that you’re just some 'ordinary' pony and this is some crazy coincidence, your hospital room is being funded by the Princess herself!"

"My Goodness Star Well, is your external abdominal oblique in functioning condition!" exclaimed an older white mare as she walked into the room. "I journeyed here as soon as time would allow me to go forward."

Surprised by the sudden appearance of the older mare, Bright Shadow asked "Who is that?" Equally surprised Trixie responded "That's Miss Wordsearch, the 'Foreign Language' teacher."

Star sighed "No she's not a 'foreign language' teacher, that's just a silly nickname that the other students gave her. She's the Equestrian teacher at the CSGU." Star then turned to face her warmly "Miss Wordsearch, I'm side is fine. How did you get all the way up to Ponyville so quickly?"

Bright Shadow interjected "We're not in Ponyville. We are in a makeshift hospital at the old royal castle in Everfree Forest."

Check-in out (Ch.11)

Chapter 11: Check-in out

"How long have I been out?"

"About two days. A lot has happened?"

....................

Star Well sat on his hospital bed, pondering the events of the day. Shortly after the doctor arrived in the room, Bright Shadow decided to leave and promised to be back for more answers.

The doctor had informed him that his side was healing quite nicely and was unlikely to leave a visible scar especially after when his fur would grow back. He was astounded at Star's recovery rate and joking remarked "You sure you aren't an earth pony"

After the doctor left, Trixie decided to leave as well, remarking that now 'her subordinate' was fine, she needed to check up on her belongings, promising to return in grandiose style.

Miss Wordsearch and Screwball stayed for quite awhile. Star was happy to see his parental guardian again for the first time in awhile, and the three talked and laughed for the remainder of the evening. To Star, this was his family, and the sight of them happy and unharmed was enough. Eventually, they too had to leave to give Star some rest. Star was to be discharged the next day, thanks to his speed of recovery, but he found he could not sleep. Bright Shadow, before she had left, had explained to him the condition that Equestria was in and the more Star thought of it, the grimmer it seemed.

Canterlot was attacked in his absence. The city's radio towers were destroyed, preventing long range communication, leaving Canterlot isolated from the rest of Equestria as the threat of ambush prevented travel from the city. Princess Celestia was forced to use a new experimental teleportation array developed by Twilight Sparkle in case of emergency. The devise was a small scale version, made in secret save for the Princess and her student to see if it was possible to give any pony a way to teleport and was still in its experimental stage. The device worked, mostly, as the denizens of Canterlot were sent through the device in groups.

The device did 'accidentally' send one group on top of house, but the rest made it safe to the other end in Ponyville, the end platform situated in Twilight's library. When Celestia arrived, she learned that Canterlot was not the swarm’s only target.

Cloudsdale was in ruins, mostly because clouds are not the sturdiest material. Most of the pegasi had escaped and fled to Ponyville, the unlucky ones captured by the invading forces. Fillydolphia also was attacked, but by some miracle, the opposing force was defeated a forced to retreat. There were reports of Hoovington had also been attacked and was being occupied by another branch of the opposing force.

The real shock came to Celestia when she had learned of the events that transpired in Ponyville. The Princess of the Sun ordered the evacuation of the town had them and her force move to into the Everfree Forest. The Princess decided to use the abandoned capital as their new base of defense, using the forest and its dangers to help provide a defense.

The Castle was now home to refuges with the guard on strict watch, searching for invaders. Star Well had been moved to the castle on the Princess's orders into the make-shift hospital wing being used, handing down a summons to the doctors to give to him to meet with the Princess as soon as he was fit.

Star wondered why the Princess wanted to see him, did she think he was a spy too, or is there something else? Star Well never met the Princess in person but was told she was the reason he sent to the CSGU. Other than that, the Sun Goddess was not involved in his life more then anypony else. Why did she pay for his treatment? Why is any of this happening at all?

Star continued to ponder, his head deep with guilt. He had been almost useless in the fight against the mantis and because of his ineptitude, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony and three fillies were taken Atlas knows where. Both of the Elements and their bearers were now in invaders hooves and they didn't even know where they were being held!

"That's it!" Star quietly exclaimed. The idea came to him in a flash and he grinned as he thought 'I think I would be getting much sleep this night.'

....................

Princess walked down the hall of the fallen capital. Tents decorated the hall as families hurried and huddled together in the dark castle. Worry and fear shown through their eyes as they looked at their god princess. Celestia the sight weighed heavily on the ancient rulers mind. Celestia had lived and seen war countless times, but the sight still affected her same as it did a thousand years ago. As she surveyed the hall, the captain of the Royal Guard walked behind her and spoke.

"Princess, I know you don't like having your guard follow you everywhere, but considering our situation, I wouldn't recommend not having a guard. You almost cased a panic amongst the guard, they feared you too were captured."

"I am sorry Captain, I shouldn't have been so inconsiderate. I make sure to follow your advice on the matter from now on."

The guard pony sighed and smiled. "I accurately found you so that I could apologize. My behavior lately has been... inexcusable. I know you expect more from a captain of your guard and I promise that it won't happen again."

The Princess smiled warmly at her captain, “It’s alright Shining."

"It's not alright. I let that ass, Blueblood, get to me. Errr... no offense."

"Non taken" The donkey that appeared walked off, leaving both parties to wonder how he would always appeared at the right time to give his consent. Shining armor then regained his train of thought.

"As Captain of the Royal Guard, my actions are held to a higher standard. I should have known better and not have let Bluebloods words get to me."

"Shining, I would think you inequine if none of this affected you. Now Captain, how has research gone on the weapon we retrieved from Ponyville."

"I am told that the researchers are currently baffled. They don't even know where to begin with the weapon. The weapon doesn't appear damaged, but nopony can get it to function. I am also told that the spell smiths can't unravel whatever spell is placed on it as it appears to be producing it on its own."

The last sentience caused Celestia quickly turn her head in alarm. "The object is producing its own magic?"

Shining Armor replied "That’s what I was told. Princess, is something the matter?"

"Yes Shining, I am afraid this causing even more questions." Celestia's mind raced. Could it be a coincidence? Are they working with the enemy? Did the bugs find their research? "Shining, this changes things. I want a guard posted at the research center, somepony you can trust. I want ponies documented when they enter or leave. This research has just become high priority and we cannot allow the enemy to steal it back."

Shining then bowed and prepared to depart. "Yes, your majesty."

"Also Shining, I want you to have a certain researcher contacted and brought in. Her research may be crucial in understanding the technology and may allow us to reverse engineer it or nullify it."

"Who is this pony?" Shining inquired.

"Her name is Lyra Heartstrings."

....................

"Mr. Well! What is all of this?" The nurse arrived into the room to do a morning check-up to find the mother of all messes in the patient’s room. Paper with small indescribable writings and pattern were strung around the room, books were scattered throughout the floor in stockpiles, more books and paper floated slowly in the air as the stallion quickly referenced the book and moved on to the next one, writing in the air more of the insane writings. The room looked like an insane asylum cell and the nurse thought that Discord himself would have been proud if he saw Star's hoofy work.

"How did you do all this?" exclaimed the nurse, "I mean where did you even get all this paper and all these books?"

Star Well did not look up from his work and pointed to a saddle bag in the corner of the room. "From there." he stated, engrossed in his work, "Screwball dropped it off yesterday. It has a compression spell on it." The stallion continued his work, despite the distraction. Star was on a mission and he was determined to get an answer.

"You were supposed to have gotten rest last night on doctors orders. Your wound isn't going to heal properly unless you get some rest." 'Why do I always have to get stuck with the eccentric ones' the nurse complained silently.

"I almost got it! Hold on for just a moment." The Stallion continued to work despite the nurse standing at the end of the room. 'I'm missing something, but what!?!' Star continued to rummage through his books, the storm of paper steadily growing around him as he continued to search.

"O.K. Mr. Star Well. Your friend is here to walk you out- WHAT IN CELESTIA'S NAME HAPPENED HERE!?!" The doctor walked in with Screwball and stopped as he saw the unbridled chaos that was before him.

The nurse replied to the doctor, "I have no idea."

Screwball smiled at the sight of storm of paper and flew in into the tornado of books that formed around the blue unicorn. Star scratched his head, oblivious of the mare flying around him in the storm of books. When he finally did look up, he was greeted by the sight of two angry physicians looking at him. He paid them no mind as he was deep in thought. He finally looked up and an epiphany struck him and he said "Stop right there!"

The swirling tornado of books stopped instantly, including the flying mare. Star finally saw the answer he sought in the pattern created by the floating books, with the mare filling in the missing link. He immediately finished his equation on the paper and smiled at his assistant as he spoke, "Screwball, you’re a genius."

The mare gave her trade mark crazy grin and exclaimed, "You know it! Now let’s go get some HAYCAKES!"

The doctor and nurse watched in astonishment as the mess of papers and books flew into Star's saddle bags with no trouble and in a couple of seconds, the room appeared clean with no sign of the aforementioned chaos that had occurred there. The two ponies were still dumbstruck as Star and Screwball exited the room.

Star had a formulated a plan, one that might return what was lost to them. But first, breakfast was in order.

Gathering (Ch. 12)

Chapter 12: Gathering

Star Well was thankful that merchants still put up shop despite the crisis. The ponies of Ponyville dared to still tend to their fields despite the dangers and brought their food through the forest to the castle. Merchants also brought their trades with them, determined to help in their own way. Food and commodities were being sold at extremely low prices to support the refugees and in some cases just given away to the families that suffered the most. Star was amazed at the spirit the ponies displayed in helping their neighbors. They were determined to keep commerce alive, showing that despite the tragedies that had taken place, they had not given up.

This also meant that he could still by supplies for breakfast and he was grateful that he wouldn't have to give bad news to a certain mare that he wouldn't be able to make her favorite food in the whole wide world. Star quickly prepared their meal and made it to go. He had a meeting with the Princess, and the early mornings revelations provided plenty of incentive avoid any delay.

After asking for directions, Star made his way to the hall where the Princesses were setting up quarters. When he arrived, he let out a heavy sigh as he say the line that wished to take to the Princess as it snaked down several corridors, but he was thankful when a guard saw him in line and was able to bring him to the front to an inner waiting lobby. The guard however informed him that he had orders only to take him and that Screwball would have to wait in line with everybody else.

Rather then start a fight Screwball agreed to wait for Star as she told him that she would be with Wordsearch until he got back. Star was grateful for her understanding and walked with the guard to the inner chamber.

Star waited in the room, for a short time until he saw a door open and the Princesses and a familiar light green mare. "Miss Heartstrings?"

"Star Well?"

Celestia watched with a little amusement as she saw the surprised reactions of her two guests. "I'll take it that you two have met each other before?"

Star quickly regained his composure. "Yes your majesty, quite recently actually."

"That is good. That will make this next part much easier. Both of you would you come with me."

Both Lyra and Star gave a quick glance at each other and then started off after the Sun goddess.

The group walked down the corridors of the broken castle as Star fell again into deep thought. It was the first time he had been so close to the Princess and he now actually was able to get a good look at his ruler without watching her from the back of a crowd. She gave a clear aura of power, worthy of a goddess but spoke kindly to him and Lyra. 'Why did she want to meet? It doesn't seem that she summoned me to accuse me.'

Lyra decided to end the silence as they walked and asked, "If I may ask, where are we going?"

The Princess responded curtly, "Somewhere more private." At the end of the hall, they reached a small chamber. The room was static and empty save for a single balcony overlooking the forest. "Here we are. My old bedroom, safe from prying eyes."

Star's curiosity peeked. "Please excuse my bluntness, but why are we here?"

Celestia turned to face them. "I brought you here to ask you to do something for me. Lyra, you are known for your research on humans and their technology they have left behind. Star Well, you are an experience spell smith despite your age. I want you two to head research on a weapon we recovered from the attack on Ponyville."

Star Well gave a puzzled look. "Your majesty, why are you entrusting such a task to me? Surely there must be somepony more qualified than me"

Lyra then added, "My research was on humans, not bugs. Why ask me, I'm hardly qualified. And why ask us in secret?"

"Canterlot was compromised because the enemy had classified information on our defenses. I need ponies that I can trust to report to me and protect the research. My best researcher and apprentice has been kidnapped and I don't know who from the College I can trust with this. I chose you Lyra because I fear that these weapons bear a striking resemblance to devices that humans were developing right before their extinction. I also need you Star Well, your experience with complex enchantments can help give us a better chance of understanding the technology."

Lyra gave stepped forward. "It would be an honor."

Star Well gave a short pause and answered. "I'm afraid I must decline."

Lyra gasped and Celestia took a step back in surprise before asking "Why do you decline."

Star Well then opened his bag and pulled out his notes that he made the night before. "I originally came to Ponyville to obtain help on creating a new version of the Locator Spell. With this spell I believe with this spell, I could lead a rescue party to recover the kidnapped bearers of the Elements.

Your majesty, I ask you to give this spell a chance and let me go with a rescue party. I would except your offer and have some other unicorn go in my stead, but the spell is theoretical and I'm not sure if any other pony would be able to adjust the spell if it fails or recognize mistakes in the formula that have to be corrected."

"Even Luna's magic could not locate the mares. What makes you think this spell will succeed?"

Star Well stood his ground under Celestia's questioning gaze and spoke, "This locater spell does not trace remnant magic, impression made by ponies, or any other tradition methods of tracking. The spell is meant to locate ponies through ancestry. It is meant to locate an entire family’s location, no matter how far apart."

Celestia gave a grimaced look. "Even if I had a 100% guarantee that your spell will work, I am afraid that I could not spare any of my guard for such a mission until I have made contact with the rest of Equestria. We are spread incredibly thin trying regain contact with the rest of my royal forces and it could be weeks before I could risk such a mission."

"The swarm had the mares taken alive for a reason. The longer we wait to send a rescue, the better chance that the bugs have get what they want. They are only alive because they want something, and once they get it, it may be too late for a rescue!"

"I'm sorry. I just can't risk it. I know and care for each of them very much, but I have to put the needs of Equestria before them and before myself. I urge you to reconsider my offer."

Star Well looked down for a second then looked up with a determined gleam in his eyes. "I must still decline. If you cannot provide a search party, I will go alone. It is at least partially my fault that they got captured and I cannot just sit by and not try to rescue them."

"Is there anything I could do to change your mind?"

"I'm afraid not."

Celestia sighed, worry shown clearly on her face as she spoke to the unicorn stallion. "Then go, you have my blessing. May Atlas guide your path, my little pony.

Star Well gave a bow. "Thank you your Majesty." Star then turned and started off into the hallway. Lyra then gave the Princess a worried glance and headed off after the stallion. Star turned his head to see the mare catch up to him.

"Why are you doing this? It's crazy, you could get killed!" Lyra exclaimed.

"I have to do this. I was helpless to stop the invaders and my weakness lead to their capture."

"It wasn't your fault! Nopony was prepared for their attack!"

"It's alright. I thank you for worrying about me, but I am not going to turn my back on this."

Lyra looked down and silenced her protests. The big idiot was going to risk his life and there was nothing she could say to deter him. She then reluctantly then said. "Fine. But before you go, promise you'll visit me before you leave."

"Why-"

"Just promise!"

"O.K., o.k. I promise to see you before you leave." With that, the mare took off down the hall. Star watched as the mare left sight and continued on his way. Heavy thoughts weighed his mind as he walked down the hall.

....................

Princess Celestia watched as the two ponies took off down the hall. She sat there deep in thought and almost didn't notice when a blue alicorn flew emerge from the balcony.

"Sister, why did you let him go?"

Princess Celestia let out a sigh and stated, "Even as a Princess, I do not have the right to stop him. Everypony needs to follow their own destiny and are job is only to observe and direct them toward the right path."

Princess Luna gave a puzzled look at his sister, "You let an untrained and untested pony go toward certain danger because it was his destiny? You are making a habit out of this kind of thing."

Princess Celestia turned and gave a slight grin. "It's worked plenty of times before." Celestia then turned her head back to face the corridor. "Besides, if he's anything like his mother, everything will turn out just fine."

Wordsearch threatened to hug him and never let him go when he told her the news. It took nearly an hour to convince her to let go and a dozen different promises to return safe. Screwball stubbornly refused to be left behind stating, "the last time I left you to do something important, I almost ended up with two bosses!" Star was secretly thankful that Screwball was going as he was glad he wouldn't have to perform the rescue completely alone.

Star and Screwball first went to get supplies for the journey ahead, not knowing what or who they would meet. While shopping for food and equipment, Star saw Trixie's carriage in the market place. Star though it best to say goodbye to the stage mare before they headed off and to thank her one last time for saving his life.

"You're going to do WHAT!?! Trixie cannot allow this, not by yourself!" The mare exclaimed.

"I'm not going alone. Screwball's going with me." Star tried to reason.

"That is not enough! It is decided then, Trixie is going with you!"

"Wait what? I can ask you to put yourself in danger for my sake."

"It is clear that you can't go a week without Trixie without managing to get yourself in trouble. The Great and Powerful Trixie will be accompanying you and there's nothing you can do about it." The mare attached her carriage and headed off to the city exit despite Star protests. He cursed himself for telling her and gave up trying to change her mind. 'She as stubborn as a mule!'

Star then saw a mule walk on the side of the street look at him with a weird look which made him immediately think 'No offence.' and immediately began questioning his sanity for his need to think that as the mule looked satisfied and walked off.

As the trio made it the entrance of the Castle, they were intercepted by two ponies, an orange mare and a bright red stallion.

Bright Shadow came up to Star and said "Don't think you’re going anywhere without me. I still don't trust you and you still have a lot to answer for. The Princess herself informed me of your little mission and I'm going with you. Even if the Princess trusts, I don't."

Star then look at stallion, recognizing him as the pony that had ended the fight against the giant bugs. Star asked "I don't believe we have met. Why are you here?"

The big stallion turned his head and stated. "Ma names Big Mac. I heard from the Princess that you was going off to rescue my sisters and their friends and could use some help. Those bugs took both of ma sisters and I'll be dammed if I do nothing about that."

Star looked at his ragtag team that had assembled. All were just as determined as he was to follow him on his quest and no more words needed to be said on the subject. They were all going, whether he liked it or not.

Star Well, Screwball, Trixie, Bright Shadow and Big Mac all headed out of the castle into the Everfree Forest.

Searching for... What now?(Ch. 13)

Chapter 13: Searching for... What now?

'I have certainly amassed a strange group of traveling companions.'

Star Well had made it through the Everfree forest on his way to the first stop in his mission to save the Elements of Harmony. Following him was a rag-tag and diverse group as they come.

First was a violet mare that walked with a skip in her step. Screwball was many things to the stallion, a roommate, an assistant, but most importantly a good friend. Star met her less than a year ago, but he already considered her as close as a sister. She had volunteered to come with him without a moment’s notice and Star was glad to have her around.

Next came up the blue mare pulling a carriage behind her. Star had no idea what to think of Trixie. She used to bully him relentlessly in school, but since they had gotten reacquainted, she had managed to save his life and decided to help him in his mission without hesitation. At an outward glance, she was the same boisterous pony he remembered her to be, but it was clear that something had changed. While he couldn't guess her motives, she had proven herself to be a capable magician. Her expertise in illusion magic would be undoubtedly valuable and Star found himself happy to have her around.

Holding up the rear was an orange mare in a brown coat. The ninja kept an eye on the group, glaring particularly on Star, which he had to admit it made him slightly uncomfortable. Bright Shadow had all but openly accuse Star of being a spy and had made it clear that she was there to watch him in case he did anything funny.

The last member of the group though gave Star the most trouble. The red stallion was the brother to Applejack, one of the elements of harmony, and a member of the Apple family, the largest apple suppliers throughout Equestria. Star understood the farmer of few words motives, he was out to save his sisters. No, what caused Star to ponder was his memory of meeting the pony during the battle with mantis. Big Macintosh had arrive at the scene wearing strange silver horseshoes and something about him was off at the scene, as if something was missing. The stallion was not wearing the shoes at the moment and did not give off the same feeling he did before, so Star had to wonder, what had changed.

Star pushed the feelings back at the moment as they reached their destination. 'It could of been just his blood loss at the time that gave him the feeling anyway.' Star thought to himself.

"Why are we at Ponyville again? You really didn't explain your plan to find the Elements." Bright questioned.

The blue stallion scratched his head and looked absent-mindedly at the team. "I didn't explain my plan to you guys?"

"Nope."

"Nada."

"Trixie was not informed."

"I wouldn't be asking about it if I knew."

"Oh." Star cleared his throat as he lead ponies through the now vacant town known as Ponyville. "I have been developing a sort tracking spell that is meant to find all ponies related to a certain pony. The spell requires biological element from the pony to track his or her family, and that is why were at Ponyville, to hopefully find some from the bearers of the Elements. Big Macintosh is with us, we have a steady supply of samples for... Applejack was it?"

The big red stallion gave a nod "Eyup."

"Wait," Screwball turned her head in confusion, "I thought she told me her name was Applesnack."

Big Mac looked in the sky to ponder, and after a few short seconds responded, "Nope."

"Any way," Star continued, "We can locate Big Macintosh's sisters, but there is no guarantee that they're all being kept at the same location. We are here to find samples for the other Elements and the fillies that were kidnapped. Even if all the mares are being kept in the same location, collecting samples for the others could provide a more exact location, more points of reference so to speak."

Bright shadow chimed in from the back, "Why were you developing such spell in the first place? It doesn't seem to have much practical use."

Star turned his head to face forward as he spoke, "The spell does have a few practical uses, it could help find long lost family members or to discover that you do indeed have an evil twin, not to mention a way to flush out changelings. I'll admit though that I was making the spell for more personal reasons and to help Screwball find her relatives."

Bright Shadow's eyebrow raised, "Screwball's relatives? Isn't she related to-Mmmmmmph!!" A violet hoof was shutting the ninja's mouth. The mare gave protests as Screwball put her hoof to her mouth to shush the pegasus.

Star turned his head a little to the side, not really looking back, preferring to keep his eyes forward. "What was that Miss Shadow?"

"Nothing." spoke the swirl-eyed pony, imitating the voice of ninja. The mare finally took her hoof off her mouth when it seemed that the spell smith had bought it. Screwball was then met with a glare that was a sharp as daggers at her direction, but the strange mare did not seem to take notice.

Trixie however did take notice of the events that transpired. The stage magician quickened her pace to catch up with the two lead stallions stating, "The Great and Powerful Trixie shall be up here, you know, with the more normal ponies."

The group continued forward until they arrived at a familiar tree, scars and crystals from the battle that had taken place there still scattered the ground. Star turned to face his audience and spoke, "O.K. It might be a good idea to split up and search. We can cover more ground that way. How 'bout Big Macintosh and I search the library and the surrounding area, while you three go and search at the Carousel Boutique. Afterwards, we could meet at Sugar Cube Corner and head for Fluttershy's cabin because of the size of the place. This way, both groups have someone who is familiar with the town."

Bright shadow gave Star a glare and started to open her mouth to object but Star already understood her concern and cut her off. "Don't worry, I not trying to get rid of you. I know that you don't trust me, but I won't be able to escape you if I wanted to, your pegasus and a ninja to boot. Besides, I would be sending Screwball to go with you if I planned to leave, would I."

The mare begrudgingly gave up and headed off with Screwball in tow. Trixie left to join them shortly after leaving her carriage behind in Star's care. "Trixie does not wish to lug it around the entire town as she searches. Trixie entrusts her grand carriage in Star Well's hooves."

Star shifted his weight a little, his saddlebag moving to more comfortable position on his bandaged sides and his newly acquired thin rectangle box on his back that was strung from his upper right shoulder to his left hip with leather strap shifted. As the two stallions searched the area, looking for samples, Stars thoughts wondered back to the Everfree castle, back to the visit to Lyra's house where he acquired the box.

....................

"You sure you want to go through with this? We could really use your help over here."

"Miss Heartstrings,"

"Please, call me Lyra."

"Lyra," Star admonished, "I'm sorry. My minds made up in this matter."

Lyra gave a sigh, "Since you’re so determined charge first into danger, the least I can do is give you something that will give those bugs a reason to think twice. I can't have you returning from your grand quest in pieces."

Lyra turned and dug into a trunk to retrieve a bland rectangular box. When the mare opened the box, Stars eyes widened to the size of globes.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Yep."

"Where did you even acquire such a thing?"

"My grandfather found it in some ruins that he was exploring. He gave it to me after he learned about my work. He probably figured I could learn more from it then he ever did."

"There's no way I could accept such a gift."

Lyra groaned and pushed the box into Stars hooves. "You're not leaving without it. Bon-Bon hates that I have this thing lying around anyway. Besides, you going to have more need of this then I will ever have on account of your life-threatening mission."

"I... I don't know what to say."

The mint green pony gave a devilish grin, "Thank you will suffice."

....................

Star continued to explore the area and went into the library while Big Mac stayed outside. Star's efforts were awarded as he entered the Element of Magic's laboratory and discovered a sample of Twilight’s mane that she must have been using or storing for a later experiment.

Star went outside show Big Mac his find when a realization hit him. Big Mac was standing almost on the exact spot He had been in the unicorn's memory of the battle. The memories lined up, and Star's eyes widened as he came to realize what had been different at the battle. In the battle with the mantis, Big Macintosh had appeared at the scene and fought by their side, and no cutie mark had been emblazed on his side.

"Lyra! Somepony is waiting at the door for you. It's another cute one!"

"BON-BON!" Lyra gasped. "Sometimes Bon, sometimes.” the unicorn muttered as she moved through the room. Celestia had graciously provided her with a room in the castle, a considerable upgrade from a few days ago where she and Bon were sleeping in a tent. The past couple of days were so chaotic, Lyra was glad to be sleeping in a bed.

The Princess had told her it would take a day to set up a laboratory and the necessary equipment. She was told to wait for the guard to pick her up, but she did not expect it would be so early in the morning. Lyra sighed as she reached the door and wondered if she could convince them to come later.

As the door came into view, Lyra saw the pony standing in the door way waiting with Bon-Bon. The pony standing at the doorway was a white unicorn stallion with a bright red mane. The unicorn gave a nervous grin and gave Lyra a salute.

"Lieutenant Lance Japheth of the Unicorn Branch of the Equestrian Royal Guard, at your service. I have been placed as the head of security the research center and I am here to escort you today to the facility. I look forward to working with you."

"I was honestly expecting you later today, I was hoping to visit a friend in the hospital today." Lyra turned her head and rolled her eyes at the sight of Bon-Bon ogling the guard. Lyra decided to give her friend a nudge when she saw that Bon-Bon had started to drool a little.

"No problem ma'm. I don't see a problem in taking a detour on our way to the lab." The stallion continued to look nervous and kept backing a little as Bon-Bon took a step forward. "Ummm... can I help I help you ma'm?"

The mare was now staring hungrily at the guard as if he was a piece of cake for her devour. Lyra gave the mare a bonk on the head and apologized, "Sorry about my friend here, you know what they say about mares in spring."

Lance tilted his head in confusion. "I thought it was summer."

Lyra gave a long stare in surprised at the statement of the stallion until she realized he was being completely sincere. Lyra busted out laugh and started heading off. "Let's get going. summer, HA!"

Lance looked even more confused at the mares at burst and sped up to catch the mare, leaving Bon-Bon by herself. "Hey Lyra, leave some good stallions for the rest of us single mars, would ya." Lyra let out a laugh and making Lance blush and more confused than before.

Midnight Activities (Ch. 14)

Chapter 14: Midnight Activities

Trixie, Bright Shadow, and Screwball walked along side one another as they made their way to the Element of Generosity's home. The violet mare floating ahead of the group smiled nervously at the tension between the two mares behind her. For the first time in Screwball's life, she thought even haycakes could not solve the situation. They would probably just throw them at each other and waist a perfectly good haycake.

The awkward silence between the three mares apparently bothered the somepony else and Bright started to clear her throat. "Hehmm. So... Screwball. What exactly is your relationship with Star Well?"

Trixie perked up her ears, this was something she was also curious about. When she saw her with him at the bridge, she thought nothing of it. Trixie did however start taking notice when she saw that Noteworthy seemed to already accepted her into their family. She seemed too young to be his marefriend... perhaps a relative?

The floating earth pony was all too happy to end the silence. "I'm his assistant!" She declared proudly. "The best there ever was!"

"I know that. You told me that when I questioned you the first time. I mean what do you actually do for him?" groaned the pegasus.

The mare put her hoof to her mouth and looked up to help try and remember. "Let's see... I tidy up the apartment, then we go have some haycakes. I organize the book shelves, then eat some leftover haycakes. I answer the door and get the mail, then have some more haycakes. I go get tools and books he asks for and then I go make some haycakes. I make sure he doesn't forget to eat dinner and we have-"

Bright interjected "Let me guess. Haycakes"

"No silly. We usually have a salad. Then I go to bed and dream about haycakes. I always get up late at night to get a drink of water and to put Star to bed as he usually falls asleep working. Then we get up early to have haycakes and Star goes to work at the garage. Ohh, and sometimes we go grocery shopping so we can make some more haycakes."

Trixie then spoke up and joined the conversation. "Trixie wishes to know when you met her subordinate, Star Well."

Screwball joyfully answered, "About a year ago when I woke up on his bed."

Both Bright and Trixie stopped in their tracks. Bright was the first to speak, her initial shock turning to anger. "THAT SLIME BALL!!! Taking advantage of mentally handicapped teenager is unforgivable! Next time I see him I'm going to-!"

Trixie had started muttering to herself, still clearly in shock. "No worries, everything will be O.K. Trixie can forgive him. All Trixie has to do is fix him. Shock therapy sounds like a good plan..."

"Whoa, whoa. Nopony took advantage of anypony! If anything, I am taking advantage of him." Screwball shouted in panic. What had she said to cause Bright to shout out in anger?

Bright Shadow almost fainted at the swirl-eyed pony's words. "You take advantage of him? You are too young to be engaging in such... activity. And Star should know better even if you do... initiate the act."

Screwball became even more confused. "I'm too young to make haycakes?"

Bright Shadows eyes became wide at as a realization came to her. "Oh Celestia, kids are calling it 'making haycakes' now? What is Equestria coming to, young mares barely past puberty having no problem doing it. By Atlus, you should be pregnant for how many times you two 'make haycakes.'"

"Pregnant?" Wheels and gears turned in Screwball's head as she put the pieces together. As the full picture assembled in her mind, the mare started to turn bright red. "What, NOOOO!!!!! I didn't... I'd never... He's like a brother to me and MY BOSS!!! You two are sick!" The swirl-eyed mare almost started to barf but manage to keep the contents of her stomach from spilling.

Both mares stopped and also started to blush. "So you two aren't...?"

"BY CELESTIA AND LUNA, ATLUS NO!!!"

Both mares, now fully embarrassed, started to apologize profusely. "Trixie is sorry for jumping to conclusions."

"I kinda took this out of context"

The three mares continued forward, backed to square one on the scale of awkwardness. Nopony spoke for the longest time, each was too afraid to speak. Finally, Screwball could not take it and nervously tried to start another conversation.

"So Trixie... How do you know Star?"

Lance and Lyra reached the hospital ward in record time. The castle halls were mostly empty despite the huge influx of ponies that had recently made it their home and Lance knew some short cuts through the castle. As they entered the ward, Lance insisted he stay near, with his job and all to guard her and the other researchers.

The mint green mare was not exactly happy about that as she was beginning to realize that she was going to have to get used to having him around. It wasn't too bad, but it did put a damper on her personal life, kind of hard to hang out with friends with a guard watching them and your every move.

Lance poke up as they reached the makeshift front desk of the hospital. "Who exactly are you visiting?"

"Cadence, an old friend of mine. Used to babysit me when I was younger."

Lance ears perked up with surprise. "Cadence, as in Princess Cadence?"

"The one and only. She's been in the hospital care since the day of the attack." Lance instantly put on a professional look and continued to follow. Lyra found the whole thing rather amusing and had to force herself not to laugh at the stallion's attempts. The two got directions from the desk for her room and headed down the hall. They reached the room at the end of the hall and opened it to find the pink princess lying comfortable.

Princess Cadence smiled in surprise. "Lyra?"

"Hey Cadence!" The two mares greeted each other with a hug.

"I haven't seen you in forever! And I see you brought a friend." Cadence’s smile faded as she saw the guardpony in the doorway. "Hello Lieutenant Lance."

The stallion gave a bow and returned her greeting. "Your highness."

"Would you mind waiting out in the hallway while we catch-up?" Cadence asked. The stallion gave a nod and stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

"Wow Cadence, that was a little cold. He wasn't hurting anypony." Lyra teased.

The princess gave a sigh and smiled. "I know, I know. I don't know what is about that guy, he seems nice every time I meet him but he still gives me the hibby-jibbies."

"Hibby-jibbies?" Lyra tried to hold a laugh.

"What? There is nothing wrong with using the word 'hibby-jibbies'" Now Lyra had to really work hard to contain her laughter. Cadence ignored her friend and continued. "Anyway, I rather talk to you in private."

Lyra regained her composer, seriousness then spread across her face. "It's about your surges isn't it. It's why you’re still in the hospital."

"Yes... and no," The pink unicorn pegasus struggled with how she should tell her friend. "Yes, I am here because I had another surge. It was a small surge, but I still haven't had one like that for a long time so they did some tests to see if there was any cause for the sudden flare up."

"Well... did they find out anything?"

The mare continued to hesitate. "Yes... yes they did..."

"So tell me."

"The surges are flaring up because... I-I'm... pregnant."

Lyra's jaw dropped. "T-That's great news! Congratulations!"

Cadence just continued, worry showed on her face. "I don't think you understand. I technically should be able to get pregnant, everypony on case on file with this condition were infertile. The doctors are worried what this could mean and are worried what my surges could do to the foal. We are in unmapped territory here and frankly, I'm scared."

"Have you told Shining yet?"

"No not yet. I don't even know how I can explain this to him. How can I face him and tell him that I'm pregnant with his child and that because of me, might not even have a chance of a normal life if he or she makes it threw birth." Tears streamed down Cadence's face as Lyra hugged her and began to try and comfort the mare.

"Shhhh. None of this is your fault." Lyra then looked her straight in the eye. "Shining deserves to know. He won't blame this on anypony, least of all you. I think you should tell him as soon as you can. You aren't alone in all of this, I stand right by you to help you through this and I'm pretty sure your husband will to." The mint green unicorn winked, “After all, I wouldn't of let you marry him if I didn't check to see if he was an honorable pony, now would I?"

Cadence wiped the tears from her face and smiled, "Thanks Lyra. You’re the best friend a Princess could ask for."

Lyra laughed "And don't you forget it!"

....................

On the way out of the hospital, Lyra and Lance came across a strange sight. A white unicorn that Lyra recognized as Prince Blueblood from magazines was talking to the table clerk in a low voice. The mare seemed terrified of Blueblood as his expression was stone cold serious.

"-and if a word of this gets out, giant monster bugs will be the least of your worries, do you understand." The mare nodded furiously.

Lance approached the stallion and said "Threatening ponies to get your way now, are we. Last I checked, that was clearly against the law."

The prince gave obvious fake smile and stated, "I wasn't threatening anypony, just giving others some friendly advice. Isn't that right?" The mare gave another furious nod. "See no problem here. I'll just be on my way."

As the two watch the prince, the hospital clerk let out a sigh of relief and excused herself to get a fresh spot of coffee. "Weird, even though Blueblood is snide jerk, I never seen him threaten anypony before, something must be tying his tail into knots. I wonder what..."

Lyra just gave a shrug. "I don't know. All I can say is that he gives me the hibby-jibbies"

Lance raised an eyebrow. "Hibby-jibbies?" Lyra just laughed and continued forward, leaving the guardpony confused for the second time that day.

Memories and Cells (Ch. 15)

Chapter 15: Memories and Cells

"Come on, there has to be more than that."

The three mares continued down the street, Trixie refusing to elaborate more on the subject. "I mean, you don't go on a dangerous rescue mission with a guy that you haven't seen since you graduated."

"Trixie does not like to repeat herself. Trixie knows Star Well from CSGU and met him again only recently." Trixie turned her head up "Trixie is helping out of the goodness of her heart."

Bright Shadow was most certainly not convinced and continued to press the issue. "Didn't you visit Ponyville last year and was upstaged by Twilight Sparkle? I was in the crowd when you preformed your act and you don't seem to be a pony that will help 'out of the goodness of your heart,' especially considering your helping to save said pony you made you look like a fool. And you call Star your 'subordinate.' I don't think you two are 'just classmates' unless you call all your friends subordinates."

Trixie sighed in relief as she saw their destination at the end of the street. "You look, Carousel Boutique. Trixie doesn't think we should delay any further and investigate. Trixie will check the upstairs, Bright, you can check the first floor, and Screwball can check around the building." The mare took off in a full gallop, racing toward the building.

"Hey!" Bright shouted, "We're not done discussing this!" Trixie just ignored her and continued forward causing the ninja to grind her teeth in frustration. "Come on Screwball, we got some searching to do."

The floating mare gave smiling salute and floated toward the shop. Bright felt a singe of jealousy as she watched the mare fly and made a quick frown out her wings before continuing forward muttering to herself. "...not even a pegasus."

....................

Trixie searched the upstairs bedroom first. The room was lavished in decorations, and Trixie instantly uncomfortable. The room looked to her as if somepony was trying way too hard to live like high society, everything was just too... frilly.

Trixie's mind began to wander as she searched the room. The mare who lived in the house was extremely tidy and thorough, Trixie's began to doubt they would find any hair to use. Her mind drifted and she began thinking about Bright's words on the way to the shop, making a slight smile form on her lips.

She didn't meet Star Well in the best of circumstances. In fact, she out right hated the colt when they first met.

....................

Trixie was not happy. Not happy at all.

First, somepony out stages her by beating her score of an 8.4 on the Grey Scale of magic, the highest score any unicorn has placed in the school’s history. The pony not only beats her score with a 10.0, the highest recorded score for a unicorn in the last thousand years, the same pony somehow became the personal apprentice to Celestia herself.

It's fine, Trixie told herself, all she had to do was prove that she was the best. This pony only provided a rival for Trixie to compete with, to prove it takes more than raw magical power to be the best magician in the world.

Then Trixie heard the rumor of another 'special' student. This one had apparently been admitted into the school without having to go through the entrance exam. Ridiculous rumors went around on how a pony could achieve such a feat, the pony was a foal of Celestia, the pony defeated seven dragons as a baby, the school staff were hypnotized to let the pony in, etc.

None of that matter to the filly. All that mattered to her was that another pony was stealing her spotlight. The new student didn't even have to work to get into the school, he was simply admitted, while Trixie had to study and practice for months just to pass the entrance exam. All her hard work to prove that she was the best, and she was being swept under the rug again by some random pony whose parents managed to bribe in.

And it made Trixie furious!

That's why she ran to meet the pony face to face when she heard that pony was getting a locker in the west wing. She had to meet this pony who managed to make defeat her without trying, who had become the talk of the school before she could dazzle them with her amazing skills. That's probably why all she could do was stare when she saw how plain he was.

The pony was a midnight blue with black mane and tail that had a sky blue single strip running through both. Trixie was surprised on how he didn't look like a rich kid, well groomed and smug, like she imagined, rather he looked the opposite. His mane and tail were disheveled as if he had never heard of a comb in his life, and he was rather tall and lanky. He in fact looked rather skinny, diffidently not well fed, more like he had recently recovered from being malnourished.

What irked Trixie the most was the colt didn't even have a cutie mark. This colt, had effortless entered one of the most prestigious school in all of Equestria, and hadn't even discovered his cutie mark like everypony else her class. He didn't even discover his special talent so that he could rely on it to impress any pony with his skills to earn the right to be in the school like she had too.

After a few moments of awkward staring, the colt finally decided to leave with a bow. He did not even say a word to her as he left, Trixie's mind still in disbelief that this was the pony that ruined her grand entry into the school.

After the colt left, Trixie finally was able to break her funk and grasp the situation. The filly’s anger boiled over at the thought of some random blank flank upstaging her. She was going to make his life a living Tartarus.

....................

The trio searched the grounds for about an hour, finding nothing. The mare that owned the shop was most certainly had a problem with dirt and messes of any kind and the place was a shining haven of cleanliness. Only one room had any kind of mess to it, but even then it seemed like a controlled mess.

Bright shadow scowled angrily as they searched the grounds, quietly asking herself why she was even doing such a pointless task. Screwball, on the other hoof, was having a blast. The mare had pulled a giant magnifying lens impossibly from her hat and was enthusiastically scouring the area while the other two scratched their heads on where she got such an object and how many things was she hiding under her hat.

Trixie regrettably was beginning to agree with the pegasus on the pointlessness of the task and was beginning to doubt that there was even hair to find.

As the three were about to give up their search and head for Sugar Cube Corner, Bright suddenly slapped her face with her hoof and ran back into the building. The sudden actions of their companion confused even Screwball, and both mares went back inside to see what the problem was. Bright met their stares of astonishment with a proud grin as she carried a stick with a clump of purple hair at the end.

"Trixie's demands you tell her where you found that!"

Bright smiled in response. "I can't believe I forgot to check the shower drain. I always find hair in mine when I clean my bathroom."

"Hooraw, Hooraw! Bright's are mare. If she can’t do it, nopony cares!" Screwball cheered.

"Yeah, yeah. That's enough. Now somepony please tell me that they have a container for me to put this in."

Twilight Sparkle awoke with a stiff start. She had woken up on a hard dirt floor and she struggled to get up, the bruises from her fight with the mantis and moth still fresh for her. She struggled to get back on her feet and tried to reach a wall for support only to bump into a certain pink pony, who was still passed out on the floor.

All of Twilight's grogginess was pushed to the side as she recognized the pony to be Pinkie Pie and in a panic tried to wake her up. The pink mare was worse shape than she was, purple bruises covered the mare head to tail and dirt blanked the mare.

"Pinkie! Pinkie! Please wake-up! Don't be dead! Please don't be dead!"

The Pinkie mare let out a cough much to Twilight's relief, she was alive if not worse for the ware. The pink party pony had most certainly seen better days, and while she did still have a pulse, the mare refused to wake-up in demand to Twilight's request.

After examing her friend, the purple mare lifted up her head to observe her surroundings. The room was wide box like container, the interior walls seemingly made out of darken soil and rock with strange dark metals scattered throughout them with no discernible order. The ceiling was made out of a dull generically grey metal and had two small round holes that gave off a strange illumination that filled the room like it was daylight. The room had only two source of light from the outside world, one was a small barred window that was on the far side of the room, revealing that it actually was daytime through the small long tunnel. The other opening came in the form of a door on the other side of the room that had a glass window for somepony to peak-in.

The room was divide by a long set of metal bars the array was eerily similar to sheriff’s jailing center except Twilight did not see any doors which to pass through the barrier. The door out of the obvious cell was on the other side of the metal bars leaving Twilight and most of the room cut off from the only exit big enough for a pony. Twilight's analytical brain began to theorize that the side with the door was used for guest and the jailors to come and visit the occupants of the cell while being quite safe behind bars and keeping the cell separate from the rest of structure.

The floor of the room was matted in soft dirt and other wise bare, the room containing very few distinguishable features. On the prisoner side of the cell, a large bed of hay was stacked in the corner. There also was a toilet and sink in the opposite corner, praises given to Celestia's grace in Twilight's head as she wouldn't have to use a bucket like the stories she heard about prisons. The only feature on the jailors side of the room that caught Twilight's eye was a pedestal that seemingly was made entirely of the same metal that was strung about that was place to the side of the room.

The most important revelation of the room was the fact that Twilight and Pinkie were not alone. Four other familiar bodies were lying on the dirt floor of the room. Twilight rushed to the next pony closest to her to check their pulse and try to wake them up before moving to the next pony. Twilight's suspicions and fears were realized as she found that each and everypony of them were her friends and fellow Elements of harmony.

Applejack and Fluttershy woke-up from their slumber quickly, there injuries almost nonexistent but still quite groggy like Twilight was when she woke-up.

"Carnsarnate, where in the blue Tartarus am I" Applejack slurred as she awoke.

"Fluttershy!" Twilight spoke urgently, "I need you to come and help Pinkie while I wake up Dash and Rarity."

The news that her friend was hurt snapped Fluttershy into attention. "Umm... yes. I-I'll see what I can do."

"Twilight, what in tarnation is goin on?"

"I wish I knew Applejack. As far as I can tell, we have been captured, and placed into this cell."

Rainbow Dash awoke with a start, groggy and just as battered as if their fight with the giant insects had been less than an hour ago. "I'm fine." She managed "I have had worse crashes in flight school. Go check on Rarity."

"No need." groaned the fashionista, "I up, barely. By Celestia is it filthy in here." Twilight smiled as Rarity's comment helped relieve her worries if she was O.K. "I would hope they could at least put us in a cell that isn't so tacky.

A voice came from the door on the other side of the room, "I would have to disagree with you. I find the design of this room to be rather beautiful." All heads turned to the door. In the doorway stood Gypsy of Linen, the bipedal moth smiling gleefully at them.