After spending a few moments to re-organizing the inside of her home, Trixie sat back down at the front of the carriage.

"How bad was it in there?" Nova asked sympathetically.

"Trixie is going to have to spend the better part of a week finding and placing everything back, she wasn't even able to spot Heru's stuff." She said pouting. "You could have at least offered to help clean up, since it is your fault."

Nova dramatically gasped in shock. "Me? Whatever do you mean?" He said mockingly. "No, I understand, but lets be real, do you really want me rummaging through your stuff?"

Trixie groaned, but conceded to the point, after all, it was her home, and there were private things in there, most of which now laid bare for all to see if they entered. After taking a second to get her bearings, she slowly started moving them towards the distant road, which would eventually lead to the city entrance.

The pair sat in relative silence for most of it, apart from the odd comment on one of the few buildings they could spot over the massive wall, until Nova spoke up.

"Hey Trix, do you think I should be going in like this?" Nova asked, motioning to himself.

"Trixie doesn't quite understand what you mean, some context might help."

"Oh, well, it's just that I am still a wanted criminal in Equestria, and who knows who might be in this city, what with it being the capitol and everything." Nova explained.

"When you say wanted, just how wanted do you-" Trixie started to ask. Nova suddenly burst into a coughing fit. "Are you okay?" Trixie asked, moving away slightly.

"Y-yeah, sorry, I think I swallowed a bug or something, anyway, so should I wear something to conceal myself?" He tactfully interrupted and distracted.

"Well, it would be troublesome if Trixie was caught up in anything due to you, so yes, you probably should find something." She responded. "Though I don't know where you are going to find anything, it's not like you have-"

Just before Trixie could finish her sentence, she was blinded by a quick flash of light, after blinking her eyes back to working order, she turned to ask Nova what the hell he was doing. She was greeted by a rather interesting outfit suddenly falling on her. After almost driving into the wall in blind panic, Nova now sat next to Trixie in his new gear.

"Trixie swears to whatever higher powers exist, you are trying to get us killed today." She said. Although frustrated, she was clearly interested in the new clothes.

"Did you come up with the design yourself, or is this inspired by something from where you come from?" Trixie asked. "Trixie is guessing it's the latter."

"Well you called it then, it's based off a video game I played in the day, and since I needed something to cover my face and most of my body, this was the first thing that popped into my head." He explained.

"Trixie is not surprised, she doubts you have the ability to even come up with something original by this point." She said smugly.

"Oh, harsh, and that's not true-"

"Name one thing you have in your possession that you actually designed or created yourself." She interrupted.

Nova opened his mouth to argue, but was left in silence at the realization that she was right. Not being able prove her wrong, he admitted defeat and sat in silence, Trixie all the while smiling at her small victory over her smart arse companion.

After a few minuted they eventually heard, then spotted one of the entrances into the city, thankfully it appeared it was one of the less frequented ones, though there was still a small line to contend with.

As they slowly traveled up the line, Trixie whispered to Nova.

"Try and leave most of the talking to Trixie this time, she has already thought over what she is going to say." Nova nodded in response.

"Halt." A very bored looking guard said as they reached the front of the line. "Name and reason for visit please."

"Do you usually stop traveler like this from entering the city?" Nova asked, getting a small kick in the shin from Trixie.

Surprising both of them, the guard chuckled.

"No, not usually, but with the festival starting tomorrow, it helps to keep tabs on traffic coming in and out of the city, trust me this is as painful for me as it is you, guess who has to file and go through all this afterwards?" He complained. Nova tried to give him a sympathetic look, but it was made void with his mask.

"Now come on, names and reason, please, we've got others waiting." He asked again.

"My name is Trixie Lulamoon, Trixie is a traveling performer here for the festivities, this is my bodyguard and companion, uh, Rex." She bluffed.

For the most part, it seemed to have worked, but the momentary pause in coming up with a new name caused to guard to finally look up at 'Rex'. The look of confusion made what he was going to ask next obvious.

"Uh, not to be rude or anything, but, is Rex here a diamond dog?" Or maybe not so obvious, the pair had to stop themselves from sighing in relief.

"Yep, it wasn't obvious?" Nova said, trying to sound at least slightly offended. The guard, obviously trying to avoid an incident, quickly back peddled.

"Uh, no I'm sorry, sir, its just with that mask and all those clothes I wasn't quite sure, that and, uh, you're missing a lot of fur around your mouth..." He explained.

"A-ah yeah, right, well, you see, a few days back while we were traveling, THIS ONE HERE-" Nova said, shooting a glare at Trixie. "Was testing some spells for her upcoming performances, one of them went a bit wrong and next thing I know, I'm covered in this sticky... stuff. I couldn't get it out of my fur, so the only thing to do was... shave." Nova finished lying. The guard just looked horrified, then oddly sympathetic.

"Ah, yes, I myself had a slightly similar experience, though it was with a large piece of gum and only a portion of my backside, still those were the most uncomfortable days of my life, first time I ever worse pants either." He reminisced. "Alright, lemme just write that down... okay, you two are clear to enter, enjoy the Spring of Rebirth." Moving aside, the guard signaled for them to move along, as the carriage powered back to life, the pair finally entered Griffonstone.

Looking around the city, it was painfully obvious that there was a rather large class difference between what could be seen as the lower and upper levels of the city. Although not quite slum levels of bad, the streets were dirty, small houses were crammed up next to each other, though, despite all this, none of the citizens seemed to reflect their surroundings.

"Man, I've heard of class segregation before, but they have literally just separated the rich and poor parts of the city into two" Nova remarked, looking up at the 'richer' part of the city.

"Oh Trixie doubts its as bad as it seems, it doesn't seem like anyone down here is kept from the upper parts." She replied, pointing to several sets of gates with stairs leading to the upper city. "See, anyone can go up, there's no guards around either, if Trixie had to make an educated guess, she'd say this part of the city was built first, it just looks worse because it's older."

Nova shrugged, turning his attention to the people instead, all seemed happy, for the most part, though he still wouldn't want to walk down any alleyways around here, or rather, have Trixie wander down any. After riding through the city a little longer, it finally struck him what the city reminded him of.

"Wow, this is like a miniature Minas Tirith, cept it's more inspired by Victorian architecture, that was bugging me for a bit." He explained.

"That's nice, now, were in the city, what do you want to do?" Trixie asked suddenly.

"Oh, uh, well you know, Heru mentioned that giant fighting thing going on so-" He started to explain, Trixie let out a rather annoyed sigh. "Is there a problem with that?"

"Oh yeah, no sure, trying to avoid attention, so just go sign up for the very famous tournament that most of the city will be watching." She complained. "Not to mention it's just more pointless fighting, like we really need more of that."

"Aw, are you worried that I'm gonna get hurt?" Nova teased. His smiled vanished when she blushes and tries looking away.

"Uh, okay, wow, look if that's actually the case I'm flattered that you care enough, but I'll seriously be fine, I mean the arena does have that spell on it." Nova tried reasoning, Trixie shook her head.

"Trixie has come to notice that things tend to go... awry when it involves you, I mean, we were attacked by bandits so close the capital, the spiders in Triefort, and not to mention whatever it was that happened in Manehatten. Trixie is admittedly worried that something is going to happen again."

"Then why are you traveling with me in the first place?" Nova asked, confused. Going to respond, Trixie bites her lip and stops herself, before sighing somberly in defeat.

"Just, can you just be careful for a change?" She asks, the worry in her voice easy to hear.

Reaching out and patting her head, Nova gives her a comforting smile.

"Alright, I guess I'll try, cuz you asked so nicely." He says.

Nova moves to hop off the carriage, but quickly looks back to her. "Are you gonna go find somewhere for us to stay in the mean time?"

Trixie rolls her eyes at him. "Yes, Trixie will be the responsible one, as usual, you know, you could-" Nova was already out of sight before she could finish.

"Urg, he couldn't even let Trixie finish... wait, how is he going to find me lat-"

"Oh dear, that does sound like a problem, but so many cute little rabbits..."

"Yes, they are cute, until their holes start causing weaknesses in our tunnels and they start eating all our crops." Terra remarked.

"S-surely there's a better way than just, c-culling them, that just seems so brutal." Fluttershy retorted.

"We have tried relocating them, they just breed to the point where they have to move to find more food, and then look where they find themselves again." Terra explained, shaking her head. "They honestly breed to the point they kill themselves, culling their numbers regularly has been the only solution we have found. My dear Fluttershy, sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, that's a lesson you should take to heart." Terra finished explaining.

While the two continued their conversation on the wildlife of the West, Twilight was busy finishing her analysis of the Arena. The smile on her face was big enough to make several of the lingering fighters back away worried. With a sudden flash of her horn, she was done, and scribbled one last note down onto a notepad she had brought along.

Skipping back over to the pair, it was all she could do from not exploding right then and there from excitement.

"My, you look like you just WON first place in the lottery Miss Twilight, I assume you admire the spell on the arena?" Terra asked.

"Admire doesn't even come close to what I feel about this, it's just so, so amazing!" Twilight said, no longer able to keep her composure.

"I-is it really that good?" Fluttershy asked, getting caught up in her friend's excitement.

"Good doesn't even begin to cover it! So as it turns out-"

As Twilight began gushing about the details of the ancient spell to Fluttershy, Terra quickly zoned herself out from the conversation, having already figured out the basics of the spell on her first day here, although it was admittedly impressive, the only thing stopping Terra herself from recharging the spell was the fact it was Unicorn magic, and her own wouldn't meld well with it.

What did quickly catch her attention, however, was the almost subtle, yet overwhelming feeling of power that suddenly filled her senses, turning towards the main entrance of the Arena, she was greeted with the most peculiar sight so a strangely garbed figure wearing a mask.
She immediately remembered the sensation, It was him.

She almost reached out to him to try and get his attention, she had so many questions for the strange being that had presented himself at the meeting a while back. She managed to control herself, and instead watched him curiously as he made his way over the sign up table for the tournament.

"Alright Mr. Carolus Rex, you just have to be here by 9 am tomorrow." The arena attendant said, handing Nova a few pieces of paper. "Please read these, they will explain the rules and whatnot for tomorrow, if you choose to ignore those, we cannot be held liable for anything, enjoy the Festival of Rebirth."

"Thank you, and you too." He gave a quick reply. Before moving aside for someone behind him.

As he turned and leaned onto the side of the arena wall to read what he had just been handed, his eyes caught sight of a distressingly familiar pair of mares not too far away. His entire body tensed as he felt himself pulled back into the events in the Everfree castle, his fist clenched in fury at the memory of what the elements had done to him.

"Ah, it is good to see another of our kind signing up for the event tomorrow." A voice said to him.

Snapping his head in the direction of the voice, his heart almost stops when he sees who's talking to him.

"My name is Terra, I thought I had already met all of those who came with me to the festival, or are you here on your own?" She questioned him.

Managing to pull off the best poker face, he could muster, he turned to face her, he knew she knew who he was already, he could easily recognize that mischievous look in her eyes.

Deciding to play along, he gave her a smug grin.

"I'm traveling with a few others, but that's not important, My name is Carolus Rex, it's such an honor to meet you." He answered sarcastically, giving a half arsed bow.

"My, such proper manners, it's refreshing to know that youth today still knows how to introduce themselves." She replied, equally sarcastic.

A million questions were running through Novas head, what was she up to? Was she just messing with him? Was this some sort of trap, and she had alerted the guards to come? 'No' He thought, crushing the questions, she wasn't dumb, it was more likely that she was just doing this to amuse herself.

He knew because He'd do the same.

"So, brave warrior Rex, why are you entering the Arena tomorrow? Are you here for the prize of-"

"Oh, Lady Terra, there you are!" Twilight interrupted. The two ponies trotted up beside her. "Sorry for taking so long, but we're ready to head back if you are. Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know you were talking to someone, who is-" She started asking.

"My apologies, but as I said, I am traveling with someone, and I need to go find where they have chosen for us to stay, farewell milady." Nova interrupted.

Giving Terra proper bow this time, He quickly excused himself from the group and set off to find Trixie.

Trixie was broken out of her inner thoughts when the chair next to her was suddenly filled with a very angry looking Heru.

"O-OH, Heru, it's, uh, nice to see that you managed to catch up?" She said, getting nothing but a silent glare from him.

Trixie sighed in frustration, having expected this after ditching him accidentally while hyped up on Nova.

"Okay, yes Trixie is sorry we ditched you back there, but it wasn't intentional and we almost died as a result, so stop bloody staring at Trixie like that!" She said.

"I have never had to fly so go damn hard before, just to catch up with you two." He said, obviously still slightly peeved. "As long as it wasn't intentional, it's whatever, but god dammit if I'm still not upset over it."

"Fine, be upset, but-"

"I'm telling you, that new 'magic' store is nothing but trash!" A Minotaur sitting at another table announced, clearly enjoying his drink.

"I know right? I swear on my nana that most of the stuff in there is just plastic garbage." His friend, a Griffon, affirmed.

Trixie was about to tell them off for being so loud, before the Minotaur one spoke up again.

"Especially that stupid amulet thing on display, what did he call it? 'twas all silver and red and looked completely evil."

That caught Trixie's attention, her eyes widened in surprise, and it didn't go unnoticed by Heru either.

Before either of them could say anything, the door suddenly slammed open, with Nova quickly striding over to their table and taking a seat for himself.

"Well shit, what took you so long Heru?" He teased, earning him a death glare from the griffon.

Terra entered her room and locked the door behind her, walking over to the nearby side table near her bed, she took out a small crystal.

"Minros, are you there?" She spoke to it, it slowly started to flare to life.

"Yep, coming through nice and clear this time, did you fix the crystal?"

"Of course, who do you think you're talking to, need I remind you who made these?"

"Please, I don't want to suffer through another one of your-"

"Nova is here in the city."

"Wait, what? Nov- OH, right, him... Uh, he's not blowing up the city is he?"

"No, I don't believe so, he's actually entering the tournament tomorrow, under a false identity of course."

"Nova's not like, gonna KILL Ares or something when he wins, is he? Hell have you even told Ares about this?"

"Not yet, and I guess well have to see how this plays out."

"Dammit Terra, I know you love your games but seriously, don't let that old bird get roasted or anything."

"If that happened, do you think he would taste like roast chicken?"

"Dammit Terra."

Author's Note

Even through a fucked sleep scheduled, being sick and ~~FUCKING~~ migraines, I deliver unto you all, this chapter.

Might have to slow down on these for a bit, got things coming up that will keep me away from my writing, nothing to long thought, so don't worry.