Arcane Shadow (Re-Written)

by Dragonborne Fox

Rating: mature
Tags: Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Other, Original Character, Adventure, Crossover, Sex, Main 6
Length: 678146

Two worlds, with one barrier separating them, remained divided for an untold amount of time. When the barrier breaks, the factions express a desire to meet up. Only, a group heard of doom and gloom and wants to stop it. And the clock is ticking...

*Crossover with Epic Battle Fantasy 1-4 and bits of the upcoming 5, with bits of Bullet Heavens 1 & 2. Knowledge of the series of games is not needed to enjoy this story, since I tend to explain tidbits of crossover material at a time in my works. Also takes place late Season 3 for MLP. Thanks to Dragon Historian for an alternate cover art!*

When a barrier between two worlds breaks, it provides an ample opportunity for two separated cultures to interact for the first time in ages. However, a band of ponies and gryphons on one of these two worlds come upon a spoken legend that foretells the end times that follow the barrier's destruction—whispers of aggravatingly vague omens to come. In addition to this, said group find six mares and a small drake from the sister world, each as perplexed as ever as to why the barrier broke.

Yet none know how fast the clock ticks, nor of the forces at work in the shadows. Should they fail to stop whoever or whatever is behind the mess, a fated tragedy will strike—with all being plunged into their final, and darkest hour. But how will the differing groups stop the impending calamity, when they have but one meager piece of a proverbial puzzle, and such vast worldviews that are radical enough to spark fights between them?

Published 2014-11-09 16:40:04 UTC
Last updated 2022-12-25 20:36:07 UTC

Start of Arc I: Chapter I- Meat, Dreams, and the Barrier*

Start of Arc I: Chapter I- Meat, Dreams, and the Barrier*

Quicksilver nodded and rushed to the sack of goods before rummaging through it again. After a few minutes, he produced a knife. He tossed it to the pegasus, who caught it with a hoof. Before the fur had been cut away, along with the skin, Anna took the time to remove the arrow still lodged in its skull with a simple tug from her magic. After that, Natalie's horn glowed, and she conjured a very large ball of flame—large enough to easily engulf the bear.

The process of skinning the damn thing took a hefty fifteen to twenty minutes, and afterwards, the meat had been cooked to perfection and everyone heartily dug in. Only the stripped bones and aforementioned fur and skin remained once the meat had been eaten—many of the organs were also devoured, and those that weren't had been tossed in the fire to burn away and become ash.

Lance looked at Anna with a half-smile, who had just finished her third chunk greedily. He then looked at the others, who were cleaning themselves from the meal.

“What should we do with the bones?” Matt asked before burping loudly.

“Make something from them,” Natalie proposed, a faint smile on her face.

“Hang the bearskin to dry. As for the bones, put ‘em in their own box. Maybe we can ward off crazed spirits with a bone charm,” Lance commanded after giving it some thought, and a few gryphons did just that in a matter of minutes. The stallion turned his attention to the dead mare on the gurney and frowned. “Where’d that small body come from?” he asked. "It looks almost skeletal, and seems foal-sized."

“That changeling—a girl, I checked—was already lying next to the bear when said bear fell thanks to my arrow. We figured you’d know something about what caused her to keel over,” Anna clarified quickly, frowning. She pulled a blanket over her body, her head resting atop her front legs.

“She had strange clawed horseshoes on her, which I’ve already tucked away in one of the chests,” Matt added with a nod. “Perhaps she fought tooth and hoof, but it wasn’t enough for the sorry bitch.”

“Quicksilver, Alexander!” Lance barked in a commanding tone of voice, and immediately, the two gryphons he addressed looked at him, bodies stiff and wings ruffling as they stood to attention. He pointed to the corpse on the gurney and said, “Figure out how that pony—”

Natalie cut him off mid-command as she proceeded to lay down, “Changeling, Lance! She has four bug wings, a red carapace and ribcage, and a missing horn!”

“Fine!” Lance snapped before continuing, “Figure out how that changeling died!”

The two gryphons nodded and rushed to the deceased changeling and set to work examining her head to hoof. They prodded at her legs, her ribs, and even at her face before stopping. “Lack of love and food in general, the cold, and I believe her missing horn might’ve also been a contributing factor,” Alexander concluded with a sigh.

“How does the missing horn contribute, exactly?” Lance asked in a slightly saddened tone, blinking.

“Simple: without a means to channel her magic, she would not have been able to adequately feed off of love and defend herself. She’d have keeled over in a matter of days in a condition such as this, and frankly, I’m amazed her corpse isn’t stiff given the circumstances,” Alexander elaborated with a nod of his head. "I'm curious as to how rigor hasn't kicked in yet. Maybe this changeling had glycerol in her blood, but as I've yet to run a proper test... it's just a hypothesis on my part."

“Must’ve just strived on determination alone to find one morsel of food. I genuinely feel sorry for the poor bitch,” Quicksilver added with a frown gracing his beak. “It takes guts to do something like that, with nothing more than a set of clawed horseshoes to boot.”

“But what explains her red mane and light grey coat?” Matt frowned, laying down and levitating a blanket over his body.

“This one’s probably albino, or she bleached her body. As for the mane, this one might've been some sort of nobility—maybe a queen, even,” Quicksilver replied and shrugged. “Either that or it’s a postmortem thing going on where the skin—or chitin, in this case—just pales.”

“I see,” Lance sighed as he laid belly-side down on the floor of the tank after reclaiming his tattered blanket, a content smile on his face. “We’ll bury that queen first thing in the morning—she deserves that much, at least. For now, let’s get some shut-eye.” The other soldiers soon followed suit and did the same. As for NoLegs, he simply slept atop Matt’s back as everyone else went out like lights.

During the first few hours the group spent sleeping or so, the only sound heard in the tank aside from the heaters belonged to a few gryphons and the two stallions, who had been snoring in a semi-silent cacophony. Lance scrunched his closed eyes as he slept, mumbling to himself incoherently. He rolled over onto his back, wings spread uncomfortably wide, and a blush came onto his face.

“She's too damn young for me—barely an adult pony...” He paused, nose wrinkling as if responding to a horrid smell, “... she should know better.” He rolled over again, his form shaking. The metallic wings flapped once, then twice, as he babbled on without making even the slightest bit of sense. Rolling over once more, he started shaking his head in his sleep. “I don’t want Anna..." Another short pause riddled with a few pants. "I want… Natalie… she has the nicer ass…” he moaned, hind legs splayed wide and twitching for a fleeting second before kicking and retracting back under his body.

“Anna… stop…” Lance went on, his face reddening still. He turned over yet again, shuddering as if the cold outside still assaulted him, letting off a few pleading whimpers all the while. “Stop it… I'm not interested…”

Natalie woke up, though she only opened one eye. She directed her azure orb towards the struggling and blushing stallion, who kept mumbling along the lines of “stop it, Anna” over and over as he tossed and turned. The mare kept very still, blinking her one open eye every few seconds.

“He’s having a wet dream about Anna. And he's mumbling like a sadsack. Greeaat,” she thought, still unmoving, save for her eyelids. “Yep. He has a thing for her. Joy. Though, he doesn’t seem to want this wet dream. Something’s really off here.”

Lance began panting. “Stop it…” he continued to plead, stretching his rear legs and kicking at nothing in particular. His fidgeting worsened, and his breathing turned hitched and shallow. “No no no,” he mumbled, his voice now shifting to panic whilst his blush faded. “Don’t shoot an arrow at me.” He began scooting his body away from something, but Natz couldn’t tell what. “You’re creeping me out with your rambling about sin; stop it already!” his voice rose, yet he kept scooting. Judging from his current flailing, it seemed to have little effect over what transpired in his dream.

”Now he’s yakkin’ about something else?” Natalie thought, her eye narrowing and her brow furrowing as a concerned frown marred her face.

His wings flapped again, and he hollered “I atoned for my sins already, just don’t shoot!” as his eyes snapped open in seconds, and Lance glanced around to find the gryphons and Natalie all wide awake and staring straight at him. The stallion shifted so he could sit on his rump whilst breathing frantically, with dark red bags forming under his wide and bloodshot eyes which held pinprick pupils.

He hastily moved a hoof over the barrel of his chest, desperately pawing at it in a way the red-maned unicorn thought he had genuinely had a serious bout of pain in that particular spot. She made to speak, but could not utter a word as her attention turned from the panicked pony and towards another shifting form.

Matt scrambled to his hooves, sending NoLegs yowling and flying off his back as he got up with haste. He looked at the pegasus, a frown marring his features. “What the fuck, dude? Why did you scream?” he asked, eyes just as wide.

Lance simply shook on the spot like a leaf in a storm, the look of pure terror not leaving his face. Sweat already formed, dribbling down his body messily like liquid bullets. He set his hoof down, jaw working up and down shakily, and his wings were still splayed wide. His torn ears fell flat on his head.

“He had been having a wet dream. How it went, I don’t have an exact idea, but I know it had something to do with Anna. Maybe something about her yakkin’ about sin or whatever,” Natalie answered, shaking her head sadly and groaning afterwards.

Anna bore a lopsided smile on her muzzle and small, twitching eyes sparkling with perplexion. Her horn glowed, its sparks creating question marks above her head. “Why would a simple dream about me end up frightening him? Doesn’t he like you more, Natz?” she asked, using a hoof to gesture to the only pegasus present.

“He only wants me for my ass, Anna—you're just the one he had a nightmare about. How the hell should I know?” Natalie snorted with a shrug as she briefly glanced at the smaller mare. “All I know is it looked like he nearly shat himself, and that he didn’t want the dream to begin with.”

Lance hid under his tattered blanket in short order, his form still cringing afterwards, like a foal who had yet to shed its fear of the dark that housed the evil boogeymen. “Just go back to sleep, everybody…” he murmured.

One by one, the others complied. This time, though, NoLegs moved next to the metal-winged pony and curled up. The tank became blanketed in silence once more, save for the snores of the gryphons and stallions and the heaters as they generated warmth.

Another bout of dreaming clouded his thoughts, and this time, it granted him witness to an area comprised of lava and rock that greeted him in the stead of whatever he dreamt about before arousing everyone else from their rest with his panicked howling. Had he been inside a volcano?

Lance looked around, seeing himself on a small platform that could barely support two ponies at best. Where did he stand, and why did it have to be here? He glanced around again, finding that the tall rock walls bathed in bright orange and red glows stood separated from his impromptu island by miles and miles of boiling lava.

The lone pony glanced at his wings and sighed, shaking his head. "No way I'll be able to get out of here with these pieces of shit plastered on my back. Feathers are too small, though I doubt they’d generate decent air currents even if they’d gotten size augmentations," he murmured, his voice rebounding off the walls as if he’d yelled.

The island and rock walls briefly shook, and the lava began to boil more as it did. What could have agitated the thick, burning lifeblood of the mountain? A cool breeze blew past, gingerly touching the pegasus.

"Wait… a breeze?" Lance murmured, glancing around once more with a realization that something was amiss starting to sink in. "That shouldn't be possible here..."

A voice echoed, one of a raspy masculine nature. "No rest for the wicked..." it snarled rather bitterly, as if the words themselves could have somehow been lathered in layers of horrible venom. This same voice had been loud and demanding like it belonged to a deity of some kind. Its rasping tone only further made this voice start to ring in his ears. "A fitting end for one such as you..."

"Who's there?" Lance cried, glancing around and seeing nothing but the accursed walls and magma. For a long moment, there came no answer in spite of his askance, and thus his ears fell flat on his skull.

The lava began to boil more and more, and it gradually began to rise up and up. A feeling of dread washed over the trapped pony, whose eyes had widened. In a panic, he began flapping his useless wings whilst jumping about like a hapless frog. But, no matter what he did and how hard he tried, he could not escape from the encroaching magma that threatened to swallow both him and the shrinking island he was bouncing upon to no avail.

"Just accept your fate, you red-eyed cretin," the unseen owner of the voice shrieked once more, now loud enough to briefly shake the stone walls that held the magma which cut off all means of escape for the stallion. "You can't—"

A booming, demonic laughter hit his ears and cut off the ethereal voice, echoing off the walls as if coming from everywhere at once. Lance swiveled his head around to get another look at his surroundings once more, yet nothing changed. The eerie cacophony echoed, and this time he detected a creature with piercing and glowing eyes staring right into his soul standing on the same shrinking island as he. This same creature let off the unnerving laughter again, right before rushing straight to him like a missile—and that had been the moment in which he woke up, form shaking, as another howl left his mouth.

Lance looked around after his rather rude awakening and noticed that his scream did not arouse anybody else from their slumber this time. Calming himself down with a few shaky deep breaths, he sighed and looked towards the panel. The blizzard outside had stopped for the time being, and so did the howling winds which fueled its onslaught. He blinked, making sure he was seeing correctly.

The screen—and his weary, bloodshot eyes—failed to deceive him.

Lance grudgingly sighed, and curled up to sleep once more. Before he could doze off, though, a faint moan of discomfort hit his torn ears. He rose up his head to glance around again and didn’t find the source of the moan. Upon trying to lower his head so as to rest again, the noise—a bit louder—repeated.

And then came the sound of faint sobbing, accompanied by frantic whimpers that were equally as hushed.

Once more, he rose his head and was able to detect the source of the sounds this time around: Anna. The unicorn was shedding tears in her sleep, her face reddening more and more by the second. Front hooves poised as if chained together, she desperately shook them as she laid flat on her back.

“Stop… it hurts…” she pleaded, rear legs splayed embarrassingly wide, but fortunately she had her back end pointed towards the gurneys and away from him. Lance slowly blinked, rubbing one eye with a hoof wearily.

“Get away!” Anna suddenly cried out, kicking the air frantically. “Get away! I didn’t sin, dammit!” she shrieked, struggling in such a way the still-sleepy stallion couldn’t help but feel that something invisible had actually been having its way with her right then and there. Lance nigh-instantly scrambled to his hooves and made a beeline to her without a second to spare, shaking her awake vigorously as soon as he stood next to her and put his front hooves upon her chest. She woke up emitting a high-pitched shriek of her own, breathing as if her life began slipping away thereafter. He took the opportunity to shift his front hooves elsewhere, letting them stray up with his eyes locking with hers in a staring contest.

“I heard the caterwauling. Frankly, I don’t want to know what you were dreaming about,” Lance half-wearily sighed, gently spreading her forelegs to reassure her that nothing horrific had transpired whilst she dozed.

Anna shook, sitting up in a heartbeat. Her eyes were wide, bloodshot, and housed pinprick pupils. She frantically wrapped her front legs around and then clutched the pegasus tightly, still cringing with complete terror.

“It had… g-glowing eyes…” Anna whimpered like a frightened foal, more tears leaking from her eyes. “A-And it t-told me… I-I had s-sinned…”

Lance blinked, feeling pain in his shoulders as the unicorn tightened her hug a bit.

“T-Then… it…” Anna hiccuped, only to stop as thin wings of metal wrapped around her.

“Please, for the love of Godcat, say no more,” Lance cut her off sternly, but in a low and gentle tone of voice that could have been mistaken for a whisper. He had a pretty good idea of what she dreamt of, if her howling and sleeping mannerisms were anything to go by. The mental imagery did more than enough to make him cringe at the mere notion of it. Since he too had seen something sporting glowing eyes in his earlier dream, he began to think that something had been haunting them.

Did he merely imagine this 'haunting', however? That could have been a possibility; his sleep-fogged mind must've been playing with him. Whatever the reason, all he could do was begrudgingly sigh.

The shaken mare was silent for a minute or two as she calmed down. Then, she let go and curled back up, drying her tears with a hoof once her grip on the pegasus had loosened. Lance moved away, scooped up his blanket with his mouth, then returned to her and laid down at the mare's side. He tossed the tattered cloth over his back like a sack of flour, glancing at his companion as the thing landed on his metal-infused midsection, covering most of it up. "C-can I sleep with you?" she asked, still cringing a bit.

Lance thought her request over for a some seconds, pursing his lips together and furrowing his brow slightly. “Just this once, squirt. And don't try any funny business,” he answered at last, swiftly wrapping a cloth-laden wing around her as best he could. Anna smiled weakly and snuggled up next to him, falling fast asleep with her head next to his shoulder. Lance nestled his head between his forelegs and quickly dozed back off himself, not hearing another peep from anyone else around him.

A few hours passed and clouds parted, and at the first rays of light everyone arose like zombies from the grave. A collective series of yawns had been shared, as was the stretching of limbs and bodies.

After that, Lance had the hatch opened and poked his head out of it, with one gryphon beneath his back hooves, just barely supporting his form. The moon hung high in the sky, bathing the entire landscape in a silvery glow. The snow twinkled like little diamonds, and the tank’s exterior like recently-polished steel. Beyond the horizon, half-visible, another planet hovered, distant enough to blur whatever had been on its surface.

The other three poked their heads out as well, supporting themselves with their magic.

“It’s so amazing…” Natalie remarked, her eyes twinkling as much as the snow. A wide smile adorned her face.

“Oh my Godcat, it is!” Anna agreed, her eyes also twinkling.

“Look over there,” Matt stated, using a hoof to point at a silhouette some distance away. The other three directed their gazes to it, using his hoof as makeshift guidance. “You think that could be Frostbite Haven?”

“Maybe,” Lance replied, blinking.

“If it is, then can we go there now?” Anna asked in a hopeful, ears twitching.

Lance mulled about it it for longer than a minute. “Yes,” he said, dropping back to the inside of the tank and immediately trotting to the control panel. The other three dropped down as well, and the hatch closed. Typing in numbers and letters and whatnot before grasping the steering handles with a new destination in mind, the burnt orange stallion smirked as the tank’s treads whirred to life very violently. This caused a cascade of snow to fly everywhere and twinkle like hail. It sped towards the silhouette in the distance like a speeding bullet, and it had only been a half-hour before the silhouette became clearer as the tank came closer to it.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

It was, indeed, a town, and all the inhabitants happened to be cutie-markless hippogryphs of varying colors and plumage patterns. Some had manes and heads like ponies, while others had feathers and beaks like gryphons. There were houses made from ice molded into bricks, and some had signs indicating shops and the like. Many of these villagers approached the tank as soon as it came to a stop on the outskirts of their town and watched as four ponies and around a dozen gryphons clambered out.

“Ponies!” one yellow-feathered hippogryph child shouted, eyes wide.

“With cutie marks!” exclaimed another hippogryph foal, this one with a teal coat.

"What are they doing here?" a violet-maned filly asked, brown feathers bristling a bit as an adult hippogryph walked past her.

Matt’s little horn glowed a shimmering gold in color, and from a flash of light that was also gold came another brown sack that had been as full as he stood tall. He plopped it in front of the townspeople and undid the drawstring which kept the sack's mouth sealed. This wound up revealing a lot of gold coins—so much, in fact, one had to wonder if he made a deal with a king or something to get this ludicrous amount of money. “Food, fridges, and cupboards. Do you have them?” he asked.

“Oh, yes we do—we have lots; perhaps even more than everygryph here can manage. The fridges we have no use for, so you can have them for free—after all, what’s the point of having electrical appliances if you’re in an environment where they very seldom get used?” spoke one pure-white hippogryph, a beard of grey hanging from just behind his beak. He turned to his fellow hippogryphs and nodded. “Get them whatever they need,” he commanded. "They have paid us handsomely."

A few more hippogryphs complied with the request, and these were the burliest males around. They went into one of the igloos that made up the town, just barely worming their way past the entrances, and stayed within this igloo for a few minutes before pulling out the requested pieces of furniture one at a time.

With ease and a bit of teamwork and maneuvering, the hippogryphs flew up and up in pairs, each taking either a cupboard or a fridge in tow. They were careful to avoid dropping the blasted things, but had some trouble getting the massive objects past the entrance-hole of the tank. They had to weasel in vertically, which had been easier said than done despite the bulk of the workers who were aiding in the transporting of goods.

Eventually, though, a total of five fridges and three cupboards had been loaded and secured very safely in the tank. Once the hunks of wood and metal were within the metallic behemoth, the burly hippogryphs flew out of the hatch and landed gracefully in the snow, taking their places next to the bearded male who nodded at them.

A few less bulky hippogryphs, all females with duller coats and plumages or manes than the males, then loaded bags of food into the tank. It had been much easier for them, since they did not have to worry about contending with huge pieces of furniture. Lance eyed the females as they passed, though he noticed their eyes did not show any emotion—in fact, the eyes of said she-gryphs were as dull as the steel of his tank. Once they left the behemoth empty-clawed, Matt pushed the sack of gold coins towards the elder with his magic.

For a tranquil minute after the goods had been successfully loaded into the tank and the bag of coins loaded into an igloo, the villagers headed back to their igloos and their visitors to their tank, when a great reverberation echoed in the sky, causing everyone to stop what they were doing. It had been as though time froze on the spot, rendering each and every pony, gryphon, and hippogryph stiff as a doornail. Again, and again, the deafening wailings of the sky continued to drag on, accompanied by the ground rumbling and moaning in response. Once the cacophony from above died down, all looked up towards the sky.

Every single set of eyes widened in either amazement or terror as a thin, shimmering something reflected the light of the moon, rendering those who stood in Frostbite Haven unable to see the heavens above. It was akin to the whole expanse of the cosmos itself being painted in a thick coat of white paint, yet this had just been the start. This whatever-it-was that had muted out the deep navy that separated land and atmosphere began to shake just as another deafening roar resounded from above, like it had been connected to the very earth itself.

“What the fuck is that?!” Matt cried, irises shrinking as he continued to stare at the anomaly. Another crash, like a bout of thunder, echoed from beyond, this one loud enough to force his ears to the back of his head just as the snow-laden ground shook once more.

The hippogryph with the beard blinked, pupils nothing more than meager pinpricks as he spotted a crack in the something, sticking out like an oasis in a desert. “That is the barrier between Fantasia and Mythos,” he said, his voice grim. Another bellow from the heavens shook the town once more, this one forcing him to sit in the snow lest he lose balance.

“What?” Lance asked, turning to the white hippogryph with a concerned frown marring his features. The heavens shrieked again, the recent blare making him glance back up out of morbid curiosity. The crack had widened substantially, to the point it made the red bags appear under his eyes once more.

The white hippogryph shook his head. “According to legend, whatever has caused the barrier to crack just now shall herald the end of time as we know it for both worlds it had separated,” he replied, his voice even more somber now. “What’s more, there is no stopping it, for whatever has damaged the blockade is unbearably strong. Such is the way for that which shall smite us all in fire and destruction.”

Anna stomped a hoof in the snow. “Then we’ll stop it,” she said, eyes narrowing. Again, the skies let off a cacophony, this one much louder than before—everyone winced and covered their ears as the cosmos rumbled and roared as if it were accepting her challenge. The crack widened again, now large enough to be filled by the entire Haven at least three times over.

“But it cannot be stopped,” repeated the hippogryph, eyes narrowing low as he turned to glance at the ponies. This time, the sky didn’t cry out in an ear-splitting echo that had tried its damnedest to rend the very atmosphere asunder.

“Me and my fellow ponies are gonna find a way—” Anna paused as the heavens raged once more, this time letting off three claps in rapid succession. The crack widened with each awful howl from above, leaving an array of jagged markings that spanned the horizon now. “—and if we can’t find a way, we’ll make a way!” she finished, and only then did one last vehement crash make its presence known.

This had been a noise so loud and deafening that the snow beneath everyone shifted as if it were afraid, almost burying the whole population of the Haven as well as their visitors in one wallop. This same noise also came close to drowning out another horrible sound, one very much similar to shattering window glass that was magnified a hundred times.

Everyone hastily dug themselves out, either using raw strength, claws, or magic. They unearthed themselves just in time to see the white cracked thing that blotted out the whole sky shatter into a million rapidly-vanishing pieces, and once the heavens were cleared of the mysterious debris, the entire population of the town stared at the ponies in unison.

The bearded hippogryph went slack-jawed, eyes widening for a second before his face instantly hardened. “You fools!” he exclaimed, pointing an accusing talon at Anna specifically. “You cannot hope to best whatever has just broken the barrier that has kept Fantasia and Mythos apart!”

The whole lot tensed up in unison, but Anna did not so much as falter. She remained dauntless, even as every set of eyes belonging to the hippogryphs focused on her. “I intend to keep my word,” she spat simply.

“You ignorant little pony,” the bearded hippogryph snarled, shaking his head like a father disciplining his troublesome child. “There is no hope for the brazenly foolish, and you are the most foolish I’ve seen yet. Why, I highly doubt your wretched cutie mark can help you!”

“I will lay my life down if that’s what it takes to stop the end of the worlds,” Anna hissed, not once betraying a flinch of a leg or twitch of an ear as she continued to stare down the elderly hippogryph. In that moment, Natalie stepped forward, taking an unflinching stance next to her fellow mare.

“I’ve laid my life down just trying to survive. I have nothing to lose—I will help my fellow unicorn stop the thing that shattered the barrier,” she growled, a frown creasing her cream-colored brow.

Matt trotted up, quickly flanking Natalie. “I can also attest to this. I ain’t gonna sit by while the horrible, ‘unbeatable’ thing lays waste to everything around me,” he stated in a firm tone of voice.

Lance let no second go to waste as he trotted up as well, flanking Matt and the unicorn mares. “I’m not so sure if there is a 'thing that broke the barriers,' but if it exists, I'm not going on standby either. In fact, I'm willing to bet at least a few residents of Mythos feel much the same way. And if my unicorn companions are gonna fight, then I will fight too—me, and my entire army,” he remarked coldly, turning to the gryphons who almost immediately saluted him all at once.

“We will lay our lives for the sake of the worlds, sir!” they barked in unison. Then, one by one, they flew to the ponies and picked them up before ascending higher and higher. Once at the desired altitude, they descended into the hatch with the empty-clawed gryphons following suit. The hatch slammed shut, and the wheels whirred to life, sending another flurry of snow everywhere as the tank backed out of the town and veered around it. Some of the hippogryphs shouted angrily and flew after the Valkyrie, but they had no chance—even at top speed, they couldn't hope to keep up.

Within minutes, Frostbite Haven had been left in the white dust, and in another few minutes the tank once again found itself in the middle of a snow-laden patch of nowhere. White flakes began to fall down from the heavens again, although this flurry was slow and calm. Once the metallic behemoth had stopped moving altogether, Alexander opened one of the fridges and found it empty. A smile curled his beak a bit as he then turned to the corpse of the dead changeling who still lay on the gurney.

“Quicksilver,” he began, turning to the light grey gryphon with a simple nod of his head, “we have a corpse to do further autopsy on.”

“Haven’t we done enough autopsy on her?” Quicksilver frowned thoughtfully, wings fluffing for a second.

“No; she may have had intestinal parasites that rendered her as thin as she is before she passed,” Alexander snappishly replied with narrowing eyes He firmly shook his head. “We’ll have to slice her open.”

The ponies turned their attention to Alexander as he calmly approached the carcass, and he only stopped once he stood directly next to the damn thing. He rose a talon up and began prodding at the corpse, lifting one of the legs to assess the whole set once more.

Still limp, but not stiff. The gryphons blinked. “This is a very peculiar corpse; not once have any of the limbs turned rigid as ice when they should have. Why in hell has rigor mortis not kicked in yet?” Alexander sighed, setting down the leg he held before approaching the changeling’s head. He made to touch the cadaver’s face with a claw, only to gape as a thin hoof shot up and met with his talon head-on, stopping it from going any further.

"I... uh... h-how," Alexander stammered, trying to make sense of what had happened His brain struggled to process what should not have happened, but did happen nonetheless.

Then, only when words failed Alexander completely did the lower jaw of the corpse move, and worse still it distended to an unnatural 90 degrees to emit something between a yawn and an eerie hiss of displeasure thanks to its distinct split mouth. The head then twisted upon the neck, going a full 360 with sickening cracks throughout before the jaws snapped closed and the muzzle of the thing turned squarely upon Alexander to regard him seemingly judgmentally.

Several seconds of silence passed before the corpse stopped twitching altogether. All stared with wide eyes zeroed in on it, as if expecting it to do something else—and something else the thing did. A raspy, echoing, and barely feminine voice croaked out of its mouth, even though the jaws had ceased moving. “Stop touching me,” the body moaned.

“She’s alive?!” the ponies shrieked in unison, pupils dilating to pinpricks as the gravity of this situation weighed in on them.

“Yes,” the pale changeling replied, lifting up her head to nod weakly. The black eyes betrayed a blue spark in their canvases before two orbs of azure began to glow within the dark voids, a faint white glowing dead center of said orbs. “I was just napping,” she added, her raised hoof dropping to give way to a set of legs wobbling before shifting under her frame. This stance was temporary, though, and soon she made to get off the gurney and stand up on all four of her legs.

She glanced around, azure orbs dimming as she absorbed her current surroundings before taking notice of the ponies who kept staring at her in stunned unison. She trotted to them with a limping gait, rear legs sagging more than her front ones, only pausing when she stood in front of Matt. She rose a hoof and booped him on the nose when he leaned towards her, and the bulky unicorn flinched once her hoof connected with the end of his muzzle. “Hi,” she greeted in a chipper tone.

“Hi,” Matt replied, but his voice sounded a bit cracked. “Are you a zombie?” he asked.

The thin changeling shook her head, wings buzzing as she rubbed her chin with the same hoof she booped Matt with. “No; I never really had any sort of hunger for as long as I can remember. Never ate a day in my life, in fact,” she replied.

“Hmm, if she’s not hungry…” Natalie paused, ears twitching as the gears began to spin in her brain, “wouldn’t that make her... I dunno, a half-ghost or something?”

“She's not half-ghost; if she was, we'd be seeing through more than her wings. She's probably a damned wraith,” Lance clarified, a thoughtful frown on his face. “And all she has on her is a scarf. I'm wondering why she lacks a cloak.”

“Perhaps she hates cloaks?” Anna guessed, shaking her head.

“Guess that would explain a lot,” Alexander scoffed, approaching the thin mare who still stood in front of the ponies. “Miss, do you have a name?”

“No.” The supposed wraith shook her head again as she turned to the dark-plumed gryphon. “But I reckon you’d like to call me something to simplify things?”

“Yes,” Alexander replied. He nodded.

“Alright.” The thin mare nodded, eyes moving until they spotted one of the recently-loaded cupboards. Her blue orbs brightened, and she trotted to the cupboard that struck her fancy and sat in front of it like a foal looking at some statue from a long-forgotten era.

“How does ‘Cherry Sunset’ sound?” Anna questioned, and she didn’t have to wait long for an answer.

The supposed wraith’s wings sprang up, and her form tensed. “No!” she shouted, turning to the green-maned mare with narrowed eyes. “That sounds stupid!”

“How about ‘Katie Rubywing?’” Quicksilver suggested, whereupon the thin mare turned to him.

Her glare eased up, and her wings fluttered once. “I like that,” she replied in a much calmer tone of voice. “It just… clicks, y’know? It has a ring to it.”

Chapter II, Part II- First Contact**

Author's Note

Two asterisks in the chapter title denote a new chapter part added where there hadn't been one previously.

~Dragon

Chapter II, Part II- First Contact**

“An airship from Mythos? Are you sure of that, Delta Unit?” Lance questioned, once more holding the radio in his hoof. “Can you describe the damn thing to me, over?”

“Very purple in color with gold and ivory highlights, and the balloon part is adorned with a fishtail and fish-like insignia. The ship itself is small, and adorned with golden fins, over,” the voice from the radio replied. “It is currently about four-hundred twenty-eight miles from Fantasian soil and approaching fast.”

“How fast are we talking, over?” Lance snarled, frowning.

“Roughly less than one hundred miles per hour, and seems to be slowing down. It should arrive in at least two or so hours at its dwindling speed, but it also appears that the planet's gravity may be fucking with it at this time. That's about all we could garner from our current location, over,” the voice answered. “What do you want us to do in the meantime?”

“Hold your fire. Whatever steps out of the ship is mine to deal with should it land near my current location. For now, keep an eye on it, over.” Lance mutely nodded to himself and continued, “It’s a good thing the extra gryphons were taken out of my hooves. It was getting cumbersome to manage everybody.”

“Roger. And keep that Godcat-damned wraith in check, General. You don't know when she's gonna bite. Delta Unit, over and out,” the voice from the radio stated before the device began producing a faint static noise. He put it in its holder before turning to the lot within the tank, now with eight less gryphons. In addition to this, one extra changeling sporting dog tags in addition to a black chitin skin, dark greenish-blue carapace, wings, and ribs was also aboard. Said changeling was looking intently at Lance.

“What if the Mythonian airship doesn’t land near us, General?” the changeling with the tags asked, a frown gracing his fanged mouth.

“Hmm…” Lance closed his eyes and rubbed his chin with a hoof. “That’s a pretty good question. I hope Delta Unit doesn’t go and blow it to bits.” He opened his eyes and trotted to a closed chest, opening it and pulling out the coat he wore the day before, as well as a white shirt with a yellow vest and black tie. The pegasus reached into the chest again, and produced the socks, horseshoes, and a hat.

“So, you’re gonna get fully dressed?” Matt questioned as the metal-winged pony slipped on the socks first.

“Whatever is in that airship Delta Unit told me about… if it's sentient, I'm not sure how in hell it would react to my wings,” Lance warily answered as he slipped his front legs through the sleeves of his vest-laden shirt, followed promptly by his coat. “I mean, we don’t know what that thing’s carrying. If it’s packing Mythonian inhabitants, I’d rather them not ask me why I have metal fused into my back.”

“I see,” Matt sighed as if in resignation, and he nodded in understanding.

“In that case, should I shapeshift? I mean, if the airship has inhabitants, maybe they don’t like changelings?” the changeling with the tags questioned. His inquiry garnered him a glance from the pegasus.

“No, Armin. We already have one who can’t shapeshift due to a lack of a horn, and besides, maybe the potential folks on the airship like undisguised changelings,” Lance clarified, putting the hat on his head before slipping his hooves into the horseshoes. He turned back to the chest a final time and procured a very peculiar sword that had a built-in revolver chamber and trigger, in addition to a small saddlebag with a holster sewn into the thick leather.

“Bringing out the gunblade, are we?” Anna mused, smirking.

The pegasus slung the saddlebag onto his back, slipping the gunblade into its holster after fastening the small makeshift backpack tightly around himself. “I might need it.” With that, he trotted over to the panel again and scooped up the radio. "Delta Unit, any updates regarding the Mythonian airship?"

"It's speeding up because gravity is pulling it down. Right now, it's roughly one-hundred and seven miles from Fantasian soil. Get behind the steering wheel, General. It's gonna land quick," the voice from the radio warned instantly. Lance nodded and motioned for someone else to take hold of the damned thing, and Natalie rushed up to meet him.

"Natz, you're on driving duty. We got an airship to catch," Lance stated firmly.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

“We’re landing!” Applejack announced to her fellow ponies on the airship, looking out the window to see a white landscape fast approaching their transport vehicle. The airship tilted upwards like a bullet ricocheting off of water, and with such haste the passengers could do naught but pratfall onto the carpeted floor. It jilted again, forcing the lot to helplessly slide towards the hapless pony announcing the ship’s landing.

For a few indeterminate moments, the vehicle remained airborne, circling above a white patch of land over and over. As it kept on forming invisible circles, seemingly without end, it gradually decelerated until its speed became little beyond that of a snail crawling. When it had reached this speed, it descended down to the earth, landing with a soft thud and throwing snow in its wake.

“Ouch… I think I got whiplash from that,” Twilight complained, slowly getting onto her hooves. She flinched all the while, as though the ship’s sudden and inexplicable spasms had damaged her in some way.

“You wouldn’t be the only one…” Rarity agreed, also getting to her hooves with rather twitchy movements.

Harry got to his feet and glanced around for a minute before approaching a window and peering out of it. He let off a growl that didn’t quite sound like it had been marred by any sort of emotion—if anything, the beast had merely scoffed.

“Um, Harry thinks we’re going to need scarves,” Fluttershy murmured. She grimaced as she rose onto her hooves, one wing twitching more so than the other.

“Scarves? Why’s that?” Dash asked, flapping her wings to become airborne. She hovered over everyone else, an incredulous brow quirked. She flew towards a window and peered outside, whereupon she saw nothing but vast white land and greyish-blue skies.

Angel stood up and began thumping one foot on the floor fervently. Fluttershy turned to him and made to speak when a faint rumbling sound graced her ears.

“What is that?” Spike mused aloud, blinking as the sound registered in his ears too.

“Maybe it’s a clap of thunder!” the pink-maned mare exclaimed. “Although it’s a very quiet clap of thunder,” she added.

“Pinkie Pie, if it were thunder, the sound wouldn’t stay for an extra twenty seconds! Besides, there’s not a single cloud in the sky!” the cyan pegasus retorted, a frown on her face. The sound began to grow louder, gradually picking up in intensity.

“If it’s not thunder, then what do you girls think it is?” Twilight inquired, rubbing a hoof on her chin.

“I’m not sure myself, really,” Rarity replied, shaking her head. “The closest thing that comes to my mind would be a train.”

“Well, a train can produce that kind of noise…” Twilight idly murmured. She nodded thoughtfully as she further considered her own remark, setting her hoof down and trotting around the airship to peer out of each and every window. When she got to the one that Harry stood in front of, she noticed something in the landscape of purest white. Amidst the snow, a sheen in the distance betrayed the faintest glimmer of a dark grey, yet it had been far enough away that she could not make out much else.

“You see any train tracks?” Applejack sighed.

“No, and I don’t see any terminals or stations for that matter. Yet... I do see something,” Twilight answered, squinting her eyes in the hopes that she could see the distant object a little better. It did seem to be getting closer, bit by bit. As it kept encroaching the airship, some distinct and odd features began sticking out like thumbtacks in a wall. It had two small machine guns, two drills that were easily as long as two ponies each, and a main cannon settled near the top.

“What in the hay is that?” Pinkie asked, bouncing around the lavender mare in an attempt to glance out the window she had claimed. Now, the rumbling started to get loud enough to faintly shake the ship itself.

“I’m not sure,” Twilight tersely answered and frowned, barely seeing treads attached to the object. The cascading snow it had been producing as it approached, to her chagrin, did nothing more than obscure the rest of the damned thing. When it got closer, it began circling the airship whilst maintaining a good distance away, like a hungry cat stalking its prey. The main cannon had been poised right in the blimp-like vehicle’s direction all the while, as if it were an accusatory hoof.

A masculine voice droned out from the circling thing, its tone commanding and its words concise, “Any Mythonian inhabitants, please step out of the airship.”

“It talks?” Fluttershy whimpered, ears flattening against her skull.

“I think we should do what the tread-thing says,” Twilight sighed with a grimace, seeing the door of the airship open and a long, thick piece of wood landed in the snow, serving as a makeshift gangplank. The cold air immediately got inside and began nipping at everyone, sending shivers up a lot of spines.

They started to trot outside, with the lavender unicorn conjuring scarves from flashes of light and wrapping them snugly around bare necks as the lot moved in unison. When everyone’s feet and hooves finished settling in the snow, the tread-thing stopped, main cannon and smaller guns and drills perfectly aligned with the airship.

“Thank you for your cooperation. We are not enemies and we will not attack without provocation,” the thing droned out. A lid opened from the top of the metallic behemoth, from which emerged a pony.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Lance, with the aid of Matt’s magic, now stood on top of the Valkyrie. He jumped from the side of the tank and landed in the snow, his legs half-sinking in the crystallized white as a result from the impact. The pegasus frowned as he pried his legs from the snow and turned to the Mythonians. He made a beeline for the otherworldly lot, his frown firm.

“What if they attack you?” one part of his mind shouted. “Maybe they’re pacifists,” another part of his mind objected. He did not sense danger from the sister world’s inhabitants that had just touched down on Fantasian soil, but his wings shifted as he reminded himself that things might not play out as he'd like to hope. Besides, he didn’t know the Mythonian lot, and they did not know him—it would’ve been best to take some level of caution. A torn ear twitched in anticipation.

When he found himself within fifteen yards of the ship, he paused. His eyes hovered over each individual from the airship, and he grimaced as he noticed two pink manes, a pink body, and another mane of stark rainbow. “There is no way nature would be drunk enough to make those colors for a set of manes. They must’ve used dye,” he mumbled to himself, an eye twitching at the thought.

Lance shook his head to clear his mind before continuing onwards. He could feel the otherworldly tourists watching him intently, and when he yet again stopped at a mere five yards from them, he could see they had a bear, a rabbit, and a… “Is that a baby dragon?” he asked aloud.

“Yeah, I’m a dragon, but I’m not exactly a baby,” Spike answered with a nod.

“What is that thing you hopped out of?” Dash questioned.

“That would be the Valkyrie Tank, and I happen to be its pilot. Name’s Lance Boltwing,” Lance replied in a firm voice, using a hoof to gesture to the tank. He then turned to the airship and pointed at it. “That airship lacks finesse; it looks gaudy as hell, and unstable, too! Who gave it to you?”

“Alright. A friend lent me the airship; is there anypony else with you?” Twilight questioned.

“I ought to have a word with her ‘friend’ for lending her such an airship one of these days, and as soon as I get the chance to,” he thought for a second before saying aloud, “They should arrive shortly.” He turned his head towards the tank, barely seeing his companions start to jump out of the massive land vehicle. He also saw some flying out, and guessed those to be Armin and the gryphons. “The lot just needs to get out of the tank and trot here first.”

“Pardon my forwardness, Sir Boltwing, but why do you have a, ahem, tank?” Rarity questioned. Her inquiry managed to garner the red-eyed stallion’s attention.

“It’s a great multitasker,” he began with a nod, “in that me and my companions can eat, bathe, sleep, and even store things in it. It’s especially useful for a place like what we’re standing in, when it’s nothing but snowstorms every other day.”

“And… where in Fantasia are we, exactly?” Rarity continued, an incredulous brow quirked.

“We’re in a frozen hellhole, obviously. Nothing but snow for miles around. Nearest town’s Frostbite Haven, which me and my companions found before the barrier cracked and shattered into a gazillion pieces,” Lance answered without stall. “It’s ran by a whole bunch of hippogryphs. I reckon they even founded the little igloo town.”

“Um, I just noticed your ears,” Fluttershy piped up, her wings tensing up as she marveled the torn ears in question. “What happened to them, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Nothing too major,” Lance replied like such a thing happened on a daily basis, and he shrugged his shoulders rather casually. As he did this, the Mythonian mares flinched a bit. “Was sleeping one night when they were intact, and the next morning they were like this. Since I was near a plant with sharp thorns at the time, I suspect that I tossed so much my ears snagged on the plant.”

“‘Nothing too major?’” Twilight parroted, a bewildered frown on her face. “Your ears were damaged!”

“It happened while I had a few hours of sleep. And besides, I can still hear perfectly fine with them; just gotta keep them clean and all’s good. It’s not like the plant tore off the entire right side of my face,” Lance argued, shaking his head rather begrudgingly. The lavender unicorn backed down, yet she shared a glance with the other mares and Spike.

Rainbow began to flap her wings, and had in a few seconds started hovering over her companions as if it were casual. “So, what did you do when you woke up?” she questioned, crossing her front legs in front of her chest as a perplexed frown wormed its way upon her muzzle. “With your ears, I mean?”

Lance blinked but once. “Just cleaned them up once I found a river. I guess I should be lucky; a lot of thorny plants where I had been sleeping at the time were poisonous. If that plant had poison dripping from its little pricks, I’d have been a goner.” He shrugged again as the words left his mouth.

He glanced over his shoulder, and he could see a pale grey form with bits of red hovering over his companions. “Joy, they’re bringing Katie along,” he thought. “And since that lavender mare almost chewed me out for having torn ears…” Another thought struck him, and the corners of his mouth twitched as everyone else from the tank came closer. “I hope none of the Mythonians explode when they see the wraith that’s shorter than Anna.”

Once the Fantasian ponies, gryphons, and changelings finally stopped behind their pegasus compatriot, a shrill and rather unified shriek graced his ears. He snapped his head to the foreign mares and noticed that their eyes were wide and mouths had been going agape. In the case of the grey unicorn they had with them, she had her front hooves to her face in horror.

“She’s… she’s…” Rarity’s breath turned hitched and shallow, her shrinking irises scanning the wraith, “that changeling’s been…”

“You gonna call me ugly?” Katie sighed, orbs ceasing their glow in the canvases of her eyes as she crossed her front hooves and shook her head sadly. “It’s fine, really. Almost every pony I met shared more or less the same thought upon first sighting me.”

Rarity gaped, and her ears fell flat against her skull. “I… wouldn’t dare call anypony ugly,” she replied, the hitches in her breath less frequent. “I’d say… you’ve been…” the mare trailed off, words dying in her throat.

Katie’s azure orbs had alighted again, and she rolled them in response. “So, you’re still calling me ugly,” she groaned sarcastically. “Not that I mind, anyway.”

Rarity turned her attention to Lance, and her eyes narrowed. “Did you hurt that changeling?” she cried.

“No, they did not hurt me. All they did was find me out in the cold as I laid napping, and asked me what I had been doing out here in this winter wonderland. Hell, they even gave me a warm bed on wheels to sleep on,” Katie answered before Lance could do so, her ears twitching.

“She kinda already got this thin well before we found her if her protruding hip, chest, and rib bones are anything to go by. Honestly, we first thought she had already kicked the bucket,” Anna clarified, using a hoof to gesture to the airborne wraith for emphasis. Twilight noticed she was the second-smallest of the bunch, and easily a few inches shorter than even Lance. If Twilight trotted up to Anna, they'd be staring into each other's eyes.

“But we found out she’s actually a wraith, and since she’s technically dead, there’s nothing we can do about her condition,” Natalie added with a nod of her head. “Or, if there is something we can do about her current state, we just haven’t figured it out yet.”

That series of answers to Rarity’s question did not have any positive impact on the wide-eyed gaping visages of the Mythonain mares. If anything, they were more horrified now, if their trembling forms were an indication. “She’s a zombie!” the group cried in shrill unison, varying degrees of shock fluctuating from one pony to the next. Pinkie’s jaw hung open, the cyan mare actually stopped flapping her wings and let gravity land her posterior in the snow, and Applejack merely started shaking her head in disbelief.

“Pretty much,” Armin piped up with a nod. Only then did the foreign mares turn to him, and instantly, they narrowed their eyes as if they had nothing but contempt for his very existence.

“Ladies, what did he do to upset you? My ears and our wraith, I can sorta understand, but seriously? What did my changeling companion do to make you want to murder him?” Lance asked simply, the corners of his mouth twitching downward. The mares eased up their glares, with the lavender one turning to the red-eyed stallion as a heavy sigh left her lips.

“Five months ago, in Mythos, me and my friends attended a wedding,” Twilight began. “A whole bunch of changelings invaded the city the wedding was being held in, and almost came close to not only ruining the occasion, but laying siege to that city.”

“What made it worse had been that the groom was Twilight’s big brother, and he wound up mind-controlled by the queen of the changelings who led the attack,” Spike added, using a claw to gesture to the lavender mare for emphasis.

“And she replaced the real bride using her shapeshifting powers, syphoning off my friend’s brother’s love for his bride like a leech. But, let’s just say the real bride arrived and foiled that plan and lent a hoof in driving out the invaders,” Rarity finished with a nod of her head. “Please do pardon us if we… look at your changeling companion with a bit of wariness.”

The Fantasian lot exchanged glances amongst themselves, with several brows quirked.

“Her brother was the groom?” Anna questioned.

“The bride was replaced?” Matt groaned.

“Talk about laying siege and delivering quite the pain to the little sister of the groom in the process,” Natalie murmured.

“Yeesh, it’s like invading a whole damn city wasn’t enough,” Armin sighed, his wings buzzing for a second or two.

“Alright, I can understand if you’re wary around my changeling compatriot,” Lance stated, turning to the mares and nodding in understanding. “I would just prefer it if you didn’t hit him out of scorn, unless he did something to actually upset you. Alright?”

The Mythonian mares exchanged another glance before turning back to the stallion and nodding in unison. The bear that stood with them, though, let off a low growl that had been punctuated by a snort.

Fluttershy spoke up, “Um, Harry wants to know what kind of pony you are, Mister Boltwing.”

“Pegasus,” Lance began, but a white and thick-furred hoof grabbed him by the coat collar and pulled him back before he could speak further.

Matt leaned forward once his companion had been dragged close enough, his muzzle just inches shy of touching a torn ear. “Say your wings are bandaged,” he whispered. “I’m pretty sure they’ll buy it.”

Lance nodded, and made to speak before Anna gestured to the bear and asked, “Is it just my imagination running rampant right now, or did you speak for the bear?”

“I spoke for Harry. My, erm, special talent is speaking with animals,” Fluttershy murmured and nodded, a frown on her face. “Is that wrong? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Anna brought the same hoof she gestured to Harry with to her face and rubbed her chin. “No, it’s not wrong,” she answered after a minute. “I just… haven’t seen such a thing before.”

NoLegs meowed, and he approached the Mythonian mares. He had now sported a cat-sized suit of armor complete with a helmet, a little red scarf around his neck, and a small knife that had been sheathed and strapped to him. He made towards Fluttershy and looked at her once he stood in front of her hooves, and he had begun purring before letting off another meow.

“What is that cat doing?” Anna leaned toward Natalie as she asked, a perplexed frown on her face as the spectacle unfolded before her eyes.

“Oh? They’re good ponies, just a bit quirky?” Fluttershy asked, leaning down so she could be eye level with the cat. The blue-furred purring critter nodded in response. “What about the changeling and the gryphons?” she asked, and the cat meowed again. “Oh, quirky as well, but just as good?”

“She’s… either crazy, or actually demonstrating her ‘animal-speaking’ talent,” Natalie murmured, sharing a quick glance with the green-maned unicorn.

“... Oh, so your creator’s sister took away your species’ legs when you…” Fluttershy trailed off, her mouth and wings quivering in horror. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I truly am.” NoLegs meowed once more, and the yellow-coated mare donned a wide-eyed, rather perplexed look. “You don’t mind being legless? Not at all?”

“That cat is one hell of a tough cookie,” Matt began. His remark almost instantly caught the attention of the pegasus who had until that point been communicating with the cat. “Even when he had only been a little bitty baby kitty, he would not let his situation get the better of him. He learned to balance on his hips and scooch upright—I dare say, that cat is tiny, but fierce.”

“I can attest to that. I’ve known that cat for about as long as I have known Matt,” Natalie added with a nod.

“Matt… who?” Twilight asked, eyes darting to each member of the Fantasian lot, sans NoLegs who began scooching his little way back to his group.

Matt groaned and used a hoof to gesture to himself. “Me. I’m Matt Bladerune,” he answered flatly.

“Boy howdy, I reckon you’re the leader of this here group? You are taller than Lance over there, but just by a few inches! Why, you're just as tall as Twilight's big brother!” Applejack remarked with a frown. “Say, how strong are you? You look like a bulky stallion to me.”

“I’m strong enough I could carry him, Armin, and the wraith on my back without breaking a sweat,” Matt spoke, a grin breaking out on his muzzle. His horn lit up, and in seconds, Lance ended up plopped onto his backside, followed by Armin, and then Katie.

“Oh good, you’ve made yourself a Jenga tower,” Alexander sneered, a small smile on his beak. His smile widened as a new wave of protesting began.

“This is awkward!” Armin complained, his wings buzzing frantically.

“You’re telling me!” Lance barked, using his front legs to cling to Matt’s neck. It wound up being a tall order to contend with, considering that the thick blond mane felt slippery, and he had not one, but two changelings upon his back. Both of whom, plus himself, all being held in a magic aura that greatly restricted their movements. "This is way worse than visiting a damned tavern!"

“Make the tickling feeling stop! I don’t like this!” Katie shrieked, her pitch of voice rivaling that of a banshee’s. Her yodeling elicited a wince from Matt, and that had been all it took for his horn to cease glowing. For a few seconds, gravity did not affect those who were held in his magic at all. And, once the trio of Fantasians who were magically accosted glanced down in unison, it kicked in with the force of three sledgehammers. This ended up forcing the bulky unicorn sprawling into the snow with a heap of his compatriots on top of him.

“Pardon him, it’s just that he can be afflicted by idiot syndrome some days,” Natalie remarked, lightly kicking Matt in the shoulder with a back hoof. She did not look at him, instead choosing to look at the other-worlders who were shaking and had their front hooves covering their mouths.

In that moment, Dash burst into a fit of mad laughter. She held her front hooves to her stomach, wings flapping madly yet not lifting her even an inch above the snow during her cackling session. “That was a very bad display of muscle power!” she howled, laughing between words.

Matt shot a glare at the rainbow-maned pony as she begun to roll about in the snow as if it were a hardwood floor, but because she'd still been giggling, she paid him no heed. “You held them up for less than ten seconds! I could do better than that with my bare hooves while flying at the same time!” she chortled in mad glee.

“Is she alright?” Natalie asked, turning toward Anna whilst using a hoof to gesture to the laughing mad pony.

“Considering that she’s now flapping her wings so hard she’s practically doing loop-de-loops in the snow, I’d lean towards ‘no,’” Anna sighed, shaking her head. NoLegs jumped up onto her back and meowed, and when Anna turned to him with a quizzical brow raised, the cat used his tail to point at something like a hand that had only one finger. She turned back to where the cat had pointed, and now spotted the lavender mare’s horn glowing.

Twilight used her magic to heft her still-howling companion out of the snow, and this managed to stop the case of the dreaded giggle fit right in its tracks. The now-floating pegasus looked at her unicorn friend as her laughter died down, a brow quirked. “Rainbow Dash, I know that what Matt just did was a tad funny, but it doesn’t call for that much laughter. I think we’d all appreciate it if you cut it out,” she chided.

“Nor does it call for a round of insulting jabs, despite his boast backfiring on him horribly,” Rarity added in a firm tone of voice, despite apparent amusement glittering in her eyes. “Please do keep the slander to a minimum.”

“While y’all were busy howling and bickering, something’s been bothering me mighty fierce,” Applejack interjected, quickly garnering the attention of everyone.

“And what would that be?” Armin asked as he fidgeted for a bit, managing to disentangle a holey leg from between Matt’s neck and and the barrel of Lance’s chest.

“If Lance said he’s a pegasus, then where’s his wings?” Applejack asked flatly. “I get he’s wearing a coat or something, but it should have holes for his wings to slip through.”

“About that,” Lance paused and grunted as he began to violently wriggle about in an attempt to free himself of the pony-and-changeling-made pile he had been unwillingly dragged in. When he had freed himself and stood on his legs, he frowned before speaking again, “My wings are broken and bandaged. My clothes are keeping the bandages in a state from which they can’t be unraveled; the same applies to my saddlebag.”

Alexander quickly caught on to what Lance was trying to do, and immediately decided to play along. “All of his wing bones are heavily damaged, and he sustained sizeable flesh wounds on his back, stomach, and midsection. Unfortunately, as they are now, his wings cannot be exposed to the elements under any circumstances until they have healed sufficiently,” he added with a nod of his head, taking a minute to clear his throat. “He does have clothes to fit his wings through special holes, but sadly cannot wear them for the reasons I have just stated.”

“So, you’re temporarily grounded?” Fluttershy asked, her wings twitching in a way that suggested they began aching in sympathy. When the stallion nodded, she frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“But, will his wings recover properly? Y’know, the way you have them bandaged now?” Twilight asked, the corners of her mouth twitching like she wanted to frown, but could not bring herself to do so.

“His prognosis is poor. His wings might never recover properly, and he may be grounded for life,” Quicksilver answered, a frown on his beak.

“And Matt’s antics aren’t helping in the least,” Lance groaned, kicking Matt in the shoulder with a back leg, letting off a pained grunt in the process.

Katie made to speak up, but when her lips parted just an inch, she found a green glow clamping her maw shut and encasing much of her head. She turned her head to glance this way and that, only to find Anna’s horn aglow with the same aura. Said unicorn mare shook her head, raising a hoof and moving it in front of her own muzzle for emphasis.

“Zip your torn lips.”

The wraith nodded in understanding, orbs flickering in their black canvases for a fleeting second. Armin finally managed to wriggle himself free of the pile as well, and dusted himself off before backpedaling from the half-Clydesdale stallion. “Oh no, he’s pissed,” he murmured upon spotting a very grumpy frown on the stallion’s white muzzle. As soon as the aura around Katie’s maw vanished, Matt sprang up onto his hooves, grabbing Katie with his magic and immediately sending her sailing into the air like she’d jumped on a trampoline.

“Welp, there she goes!” Natalie exclaimed upon seeing the thin mare shoot straight up like a rocket, turning and tumbling about as if she’d been launched into a high-powered washing machine. At the apex of her impromptu launch, she kept on spinning and spinning as she came back down to earth.

“You have—” Anna began, eyes trained on the hapless wraith. Matt sidestepped out of the way, right before the thin mare’s entire front quarters, head and all, landed and wound up buried in the snow. “—wings…” she trailed off with a frown.

Matt strode over to her prone form for a few seconds before using a hoof to grab her vermilion tail and pry her from the snow with ease. “Don’t say a fucking word about Lance’s wings,” he whispered as soon as her ears were close to his muzzle. Once the wraith nodded, he let go of her tail, allowing her to fall right back into the hole she unintentionally made in the snow.

He turned his attention to Rainbow Dash. “And you!” he barked, raising the same hoof he hefted Katie with and pointing it at the cyan pegasus in an accusatory sort of manner. “I’d like to see you do better than me while flying!”

“Ha! I could do it ten seconds flat!” Dash snorted, a cocky smile spreading on her muzzle. She took off into the air, launching straight up, only to U-turn right back down towards her companions. Before anyone could react, she swerved, keeping her form above the snow by meager inches. As white crystallized water cascaded everywhere, she scooped up Pinkie, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity with her front hooves, balancing them in a wobbling diamond configuration.

The cocky mare ascended once more, shooting upwards at a 45-degree angle, her companions screaming and doing their best to hold on in the rapidly-accelerating precarious balancing act. All eyes that belonged to those still on the ground were trained on her, noticing a trailing rainbow being left in Dash’s wake.

NoLegs meowed, and Anna turned to glance at him again. Once more, the cat used his tail to gesture towards something. The unicorn followed it and noticed a quickly-forming cloud front, one that had been dotted by little yellow blobs that were hard to make out. Her eyes widened as the clouds began to violently crackle with tell-tale signs of lightning.

The cloud front did not go unnoticed by anyone else, either. “There’s trying to prove your claim after watching someone else fail horribly, and then there’s being a complete fool!” Lance barked, raising a hoof and pointing it at the sky.

“Not my fault she decided to take off high into the air with her fellow foreigners in her front hooves,” Alexander agreed, lifting a talon and letting it connect with his face.

“Hey, where’d these clouds come from? Aren’t pegasi supposed to be in charge of the weather around here?” Dash cried, eyes widening as she saw the yellow blobs amidst the clouds. She turned around and made to fly higher into the sky, only to spot more clouds encroaching and adorned with white blobs.

“I don’t know about you, but I want to get off this crazy train right now!” Twilight shrieked at the top of her lungs, turning a shade of verdant in the face. The cold air combined with the high speeds at which her friend dragged her through had not been doing any good.

Rarity had been screaming throughout the entire ride, clinging to her equally frantic companions as Rainbow veered away from the second cloud front. She quickly spotted a third front that sported little, almost indistinguishable, grey blobs that near-seamlessly blended into the clouds they rode in on. The ivory unicorn had been about to point this out to her companion, but as chance had it, the pegasus blundered head-first right into one before Rarity could utter her warning.

This immediately sent all five ponies flying in different directions as if they were acrobatic bowling pins.

“Godcat-dammit,” Lance groaned, turning to the gryphons and Armin. He shook his head and said, “Go fetch those ponies before the ectoplasms decide to ream them in ways I don’t think they’ll like.”

The gryphons nodded and spread their wings and took to the air, with Armin likewise launching himself into the sky just seconds later. They raced towards the falling ponies, wings frantically propelling them onwards. It took them a minute or so to catch the lot and bring them back down to the snow-covered earth, and once the gryphons and changeling touched down with frantic and somewhat-dazed Mythonians in tow, Applejack trotted up to the group.

“With the way their eyes are spinning, I reckon they’re seeing lots of ducks right now,” Applejack sighed, shaking her head. "Give 'em a few."

“So many clouds…” Rainbow Dash moaned, her head swaying and her eyes spinning like balls in a game of roulette. When she managed to make her eyes stop spinning and her head stop swaying, she found a brown gryphon right in front of her face with a frown on his beak.

“That was very reckless of you; those ectoplasms could’ve torn your wings and horns clean off and we’d be stuck trying to pry your bloodied remains from the snow!” Nathan scolded, one of his wings twitching as if it had a mind of its own that had been irked.

“Ecto… plasms?” Twilight moaned, shaking her head as the imaginary ducks circling her head managed to cease their existence in her sight. “But I thought those things were eradicated by the… Cloudsdale pegasi…” she trailed off upon remembering she stood on Mythos’s sister planet, and a shiver ran down her spine. “Nevermind,” she mumbled.

The Fantasian bunch exchanged another set of puzzled glances, before Lance spoke up. “The ectoplasms are a major problem for anything that flies too high in Fantasia; I’d recommend not going higher than… say, five hundred yards above ground.”

“Why do they rule the sky here? Did something happen?” Twilight asked, frowning as she looked to the sky. The ectoplasms, clouds and all, were already dispersing, their forms fading as if they were but heat-induced mirages in a desert.

“A lot of things happened; in fact, they’re exactly how my wings got broken to begin with,” Lance answered with a grim nod of his head.

“Oh, yeah. The ectoplasms tore him a new one,” Armin piped up, nodding his head frantically.

“Does that mean they also control the weather here?” Applejack questioned, looking towards the sky, frowning as though the heavens lacked something.

“Unfortunately, yes. The ectoplasms can have every square inch of the damned Fantasian sky for all I care,” Lance answered, pointing a hoof at the greyish-blue expanses above for emphasis.

Natalie’s horn began glowing on its own, and she looked at it. Anna glanced at her own horn, seeing hers do the same. “Okay, what the hell is happening?” she asked, glancing around in tandem with everyone else that wasn't dazed or buried in the snow until her gaze stopped in the direction of the Valkyrie—or, more specifically, the vast area behind it. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened as meager dots began appearing in the distance, accompanied by the sounds of many sets of galloping hooves. The other ponies who were still glancing around noticed her expression.

Chapter III- Tensions*

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter IV- Lingering Suspicions*

Chapter IV- Lingering Suspicions*

“Geez, that’s a big sack. What the hay’s in that thing?” Dash asked, pointing a hoof at the open-mouthed bag of goods that still sat by its lonesome on the floor of the tank.

“Things we’ve yet to sort. We’ve already had to yank Katie out of it, and that’s because she somehow found a spear in that bag,” Anna replied, rolling her eyes before pointedly glancing at the wraith in question.

“You could say we have Fantasia’s biggest blind bag yet,” Lance agreed, his wings shifting under his uniform. Fortunately, the cyan visitor had her eyes fixed on the sack of stuff, and took no notice of his metal limbs twitching.

“So, what do you think of the Valkyrie’s interior, Miss Dash?” Alexander inquired, his question garnering the rainbow-maned mare’s attention.

“Could use some decorations, maybe a bed or two since it’s big enough to carry at least a mattress, but other than that, it’s rad,” Dash instantly answered with a small smile.

“With how fast I drive the tank, a whole bed wouldn’t be practical,” Lance answered rather matter-of-factly, as if he were speaking an opinion and it had somehow become part of the gospel. At this, Rainbow Dash turned to him with a brow raised.

“Even if the bedpost were bolted to the floor, the mattress and sheets and pillows would fly off if this tank were driven on a hill sloping downward. It’s as Lance says—it can’t be done unless you want fifteen problems to go with the impracticality,” Natalie piped up, shaking her head as the pegasus visitor turned to her.

“What explains the gurneys, then? Don’t those go in a hospital?” Dash mused, pointing a hoof at the gurneys—one of which had Katie laying on it—for emphasis.

“I am a doctor, Miss Dash. The gurneys are there whenever the General and his fellow ponies and soldiers get wounded and need a place to prop up whatever limb is broken. Sometimes, we find bodies and put them on the gurneys for examination before we bury or cremate them,” Alexander replied, and when the cyan mare turned to him with a gape, he smiled in return.

“In fact, our lone wraith here slept on a gurney last night,” Quicksilver added with a nod, gesturing to the dead changeling with a talon.

“Is that what the bed on wheels is called?” Katie questioned, azure orbs widening to the size of saucers.

“Yes, my dear, the bed on wheels is called a gurney.” Nathan nodded, walking up to the wraith and gingerly patting her stringy-maned head with a talon.

“But gurneys have wheels!” Dash protested, waving her pointing hoof desperately at said gurneys for emphasis. She went on, oblivious to the bored looks the Fantasians sent her way, “And you guys just said that beds are impractical—wouldn’t gurneys be the same way?!”

“They would be, if they required blankets and were not bolted to the floor,” Armin sighed, his wings flaring for a second before snapping shut at his sides. “Hell, damn near everything in this tank is bolted to the floor.”

Matt blinked before grinning as a faint gurgling sound echoed in the tank’s interior. “Welp, my belly demands food,” he murmured, his grin going a little lopsided on his face.

“Don’t ask for giant squid. We ran out of the last few spare tentacles a frickin’ week ago,” Lance remarked, sending the half-Clydesdale a wicked grin when he shot his fellow red-maned stallion a glance.

“Nah, I was thinking about eating salmon today,” Matt replied before noticing Rainbow looking at him with a hoof covering her mouth. The cyan pegasus had been chuckling at first, before she burst out laughing. The mare doubled over, wings flapping as laughter rocked her body, as if the exchange between the two stallions had somehow amused her.

“P-ponies don’t eat squid and salmon!” Dash spluttered, cackling between words. “Only… only gryphons eat seafood!”

“That’s a crock of shit,” Matt sighed, his remark causing the pegasus to immediately cease her cackling fit and glance at him. She noticed his horn had been glowing in a golden aura, and spotted a floating cleaned salmon that’d been skewered on a stick, gently roasting in flames of yellow. The scent of cooking fish filled the tank, and the other Fantasian ponies were looking at their bulkiest member with watering mouths and pleading looks on their faces. "I am glad Armin brought these via thaumic transport yesterday," he added with a smile.

Dash gawked, her jaw dropping as three more sizzling, flame-engulfed, impaled salmon flew towards Lance, Natalie, and Anna. The other two unicorns snatched the fish with their magic, but were courteous enough to let the fires continue searing the meat. The Fantasian pegasus, however, simply waited until the flames receded altogether before carefully clutching the stick that’d been offered to him with the crook of his front leg. Blowing breaths on the fish to cool it down a bit, the General took a hefty bite out of the roasted critter, a crunch resounding from the seared skin as he pulled away and munched nonchalantly.

“You were saying?” Lance said coolly once he finished chewing and swallowed the gob of meat. Rainbow’s eyes widened, and one corner of her mouth twitched as her brain scrambled to work out the scene she’d just witnessed.

Finally, after taking a few seconds to splutter incoherently, the gawking mare found words, “Okay, you guys have been hanging around the gryphons waaaaay too much.”

“They’re part of my army. I kinda have to,” Lance retorted before taking another bite out of the fish.

Matt had already eaten his makeshift seafood kabob, and he wiped his mouth with the side of his foreleg. He gave the cyan pegasus a level look before deciding to venture with words, “I’m going to assume much of Mythos is vegetarian?”

“No; just one part called Equestria, which is where I came from. I don’t know anypony who eats meat with a calm look on his face,” Dash replied, shaking her head. Her wings betrayed a cringe, and one that the blond-maned unicorn had been quick to catch.

“Well, we’re in a frozen wasteland at the moment. It’s eat what you can, when you can, or become a popsicle. I’d rather eat meat than have icicles growing on the fur of my legs,” Matt stated, donning a firm frown as he spoke.

“You mentioned that gryphons only eat seafood, Dash. How do you know this?” Jeremy asked, a quizzical brow raised as he prepared a few more fish on the stove.

“I was… I was friends with one, and she told me,” Dash hesitantly answered, wings shifting uncomfortably for a minute.

“Was? What happened?” Natalie inquired, taking a bite out of what was left of her fish.

“Well, she was being… mean to my friends, and I told her off after she crossed a line too many,” came the reply. Rainbow sat on her rump, rubbing her left hoof on her right foreleg. “After that, I never saw her again.”

“What’d she do?” Armin piped up, his horn alight with a soft emerald aura. Dash glanced at the changeling and back to Natalie before noticing a slight glaze in the red-maned unicorn’s blue eyes. Looking at the other Fantasian ponies and spotting glazes in their eyes, she turned back to the chitin-covered sod just as his horn ceased glowing.

The unicorns and pegasus stallion blinked dazedly for a second before the fog in their eyes faded and they shook their heads in unison to shrug off their brief bout. Lance turned to Armin and sighed, “Please stop hypnotizing us and draining some of our love. Reserve that kind of magic for the local monsters.”

“There are no monsters nearby, and you were the closest food source. Besides, it’s not like love can’t be replenished over time. I didn’t even drain you all so thoroughly you ended up like Miss Skin-and-Bones over there on the gurney; it was just like a teaspoon from all four of you apiece,” Armin replied defensively. He froze when the red-eyed pegasus sent a glare his way, and could muster no more strength of will than to force himself to nod.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to have changelings as part of an army…” Dash sighed, frowning as Lance shot her an impassive look.

“You’re not the General of an army, so I suggest you can it while you are able,” Lance retorted in a cold tone. He opened his mouth to continue speaking but paused as Jeremy walked past him on his rear legs, a skewered salmon gripped by a firm talon. The pegasus followed the crow-jaguar’s movements with his crimson eyes as he approached the wraith on the gurney. “Jeremy, what are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m going to feed our wraith,” Jeremy replied, turning to his General with an enthusiastic smile on his beak.

“Good luck with that. She’s said so herself that she lacks an appetite,” Anna groaned, shaking her head as the gryphon offered the salmon-on-a-stick to Katie.

Katie looked at the offered treat, a brow momentarily raising as her azure orbs dimmed a bit. “Thanks, but I’ll pass. Even if I wanted to, I can’t chew it. It smells good, though,” she spoke in a polite tone. Jeremy shrugged and walked back towards the stove, putting the salmon on a plate and storing it in a fridge.

Natalie watched the gryphon put the food away and sighed before turning back to the wraith. “Maybe clamping on that stallion’s horn was a bad idea,” she piped up, frowning.

Katie shot an unreadable look towards Natalie; her eyes did not narrow, widen, nor dim, and her torn mouth did not move for a few minutes. She did not even purse her lips together as the two kept staring at each other. “I had a hard time holding on, because my teeth felt like they were going to jam themselves into my jaw and crack at the same time,” she finally replied. “I don’t even know how many teeth I have now. I’ll be incredibly lucky to still have my full set on me.”

“You telling us your teeth are rotting out of your skull as we speak?” Matt frowned, an ear twitching as the dead mare simply nodded.

“I can’t help it,” Katie argued, eyes narrowing slightly as the words left her mouth.

Anna closed her eyes and scrunched her muzzle before grudgingly letting out a long sigh. “Sadly, she’s right. Unless we give her metal teeth or something, she’ll eventually have to gum things to death,” she groaned.

“Metal teeth on a wraith. Huh. That’s actually something one doesn’t hear every day,” Alexander mused, a smile tugging at the corners of his beak.

“You aren’t putting metal in my face, thank you. You've already touched me enough, Doctor Fondles,” Katie snarled, wings flaring and bristling as her tone echoed with an unnatural hiss. Alexander merely laughed at the remark, but stopped when the General spoke up.

“Refrain from experimenting on her face. Her split grin’s more than enough facial mutilation for someone with her plethora of issues,” Lance growled, shooting Alexander another glare. The dark-coated gryphon nodded in understanding before noticing that Dash had been looking at his General with a raised brow.

The pegasus followed his gaze, once more directing his attention towards the guest inside the vehicle and spoke before Alexander could even open his beak again, “Dash, sometimes my doctor here gets… creative, and I have to stop him if I feel he’s going too far.”

“Did he try to do something to your broken wings that would’ve been bad?” Dash questioned, a hard frown on her face.

“Tried holding them spread out on two separate gurneys, which hurt like hell. I almost punched him between the eyes,” Lance answered with a nod, his red mane frizzing just a bit as he made the movement. “Don’t even get me started about how he wanted to keep my wings on the gurneys.”

“For a pegasus, he does hit very hard. I’m amazed he didn’t straight-up send that wraith flying back a few feet earlier—y’know, the one he shot immediately after?” Anna mused as she rose a hoof to rub her chin in thought.

“Maybe the armor the dude was wearing kept him grounded. Either that, or Lance is part earth pony,” Natalie murmured, looking up at the tank’s ceiling with a vacant gaze. “Maybe Lance just didn’t throw all of his strength in that punch; just enough to stagger the bastard.”

“Can’t use my full potential with broken wings weighed down by saddlebags,” Lance countered, shooting the cream-coated unicorn an incredulous frown.

“Fair enough,” Natalie conceded with a nod. She turned to Rainbow upon hearing another groan.

“Okay, something’s been bothering me—you guys can eat fish. You eat it like it's candy. What about things like wheat or corn? You eat any of that?” Dash questioned, her gaze dancing from one Fantasian pony to the next. Lance shuddered, turning a shade of verdant in the face, while Matt shook his head just once. Both Natalie and Anna, though, had one front hoof raised and accompanying nods.

“I can’t stomach too many things, aside from meat. Bread, milk, eggs, and some fruits and not too many vegetables I can take,” Lance answered, his voice faltering and cracking when the word ‘vegetables’ left his mouth.

“I can eat fruits and veggies, I just prefer not to most of the time,” Matt added with a shrug. “Sometimes I’ll touch them, but only if Natz and Anna nag me enough.”

“We eat more greens than they do,” said Natalie, using a hoof to gesture to herself and Anna for emphasis. “If it’s hay, though, not even we will touch it.”

“Why can’t you stomach things besides meat?” Dash went on, noticing Lance’s now-green visage.

The stallion’s cheeks blew up like a pufferfish, and he hastily threw a hoof to cover his mouth before swallowing thickly. A shade of dark evergreen had almost entirely muted out the natural burnt orange coat color on his face, even reaching the tips of his torn ears which fell flat on his head. “I… just can’t. Something—” he paused to swallow again when his cheeks swelled for another minute, “—must be wrong with me. I can’t even think about it, lest I start going sick in the stomach.”

Rainbow’s brows shot straight up to the base of her bangs. “So even thinking about foods besides meat will make butterflies go haywire in your gut?” she asked, her eyelids slanting in concern. The reply she got had been nothing more than a nod from the green-faced pegasus, who shifted his legs so he could lay down.

“Let’s change the subject before Lance explodes in a not-good way,” Natalie interjected, causing the cyan mare to look at her. “Dash, what’re your companions like—when they aren’t calling us barbarians or accusing us of hurting an already-dead changeling who is somehow still able to fly and trot?”

“Which one? We’re talking about five different ponies, a bear, a rabbit, and a small dragon here,” Dash retorted, one brow lowering while the other stayed well within a few inches of the hairline boundary. "No, really, which one?" she asked a second after Natalie failed to convey an answer.

“Any one of them.” Natalie shrugged. She paused for a bit, frowning, before adding, “Though, I am more interested in that ivory-coated unicorn…”

“You mean Rarity? She’s a dress designer and runs a store called the Carousel Boutique. She also… flips when she sees things or ponies like the dead changeling,” Dash sighed, unaware that, as soon as she made the remark, said changeling had started glaring at the back of her head like her eyes were a two-piece magnifying glass.

“Dress designer that flips when she sees…” Matt spoke his thoughts aloud but trailed off, rubbing his chin with a hoof. After a second, he let out a long sigh, “Sorry, I don’t get it.”

“It was her first time seeing Katie, so maybe her reaction was simply the natural one?” Quicksilver mused, a half-frown on his beak. "I recall very well what your reactions where when she suddenly stirred."

“Yeah, pretty much. Honestly, though, I was kinda expecting her to faint on the spot. I am amazed she didn't,” Rainbow huffed, nodded and shrugged her shoulders in that order. She’d still been unaware that Katie was fervently trying to burn a hole in the back of her head with the glare she cast.

Anna’s eyes betrayed a glimmer, and something clicked in her head when that sparkle came. Her pupils drastically widened as she spoke, “Ooooooh, I get it. She’s one of those squeaky-clean, overly fashionable, hates-bland-and-ugly-types, right?”

“‘Hate’ doesn’t exactly cover it, but that’d be a good start on that last one.” Rainbow nodded once more. “For the love of all that’s holy, I can see her trying to style his mane,” she added, using a hoof to gesture towards Matt.

Matt immediately, a frown marring his features. “She puts one brush near my head, I’ll truss up her mane—” he started, but a green magical glow clamped his mouth shut before he could finish.

“Sensitive about the golden locks, I take it?” Dash asked, turning to the stallion who had his muzzle held closed with magic that had not been his own. Matt merely nodded with a grunt, and at this, she continued, “I don’t blame you. Sometimes, Rares gets a little cray and I have to take to the skies to avoid her brushes and trips to the spa.”

NoLegs meowed, using his tail to tap at Rainbow’s left front leg until she looked at him. The legless cat looked at the pegasus and purred as she rose her hoof to rub his furry cheek. He curled up next to her when she stopped petting him, still purring, as his eyes closed.

Everyone else in the tank exchanged looks with one another. Then, Lance spoke up, his voice weak and his face still tinged in green, “I’m impressed that the cat trusts you.”

“Well, if he’s okay with Dash, then I guess we don’t have much cause for alarm,” Anna murmured with a nod. She covered her mouth with a hoof to yawn before speaking again, “Damn, I feel ready to conk out.”

“Something does not sit right with me about her,” Katie snarled in a low tone, raising a shaky hoof to point it at Rainbow.

“Well, not much you can do about it, even if you wanted to do something,” Natalie grudgingly sighed, glancing at the wraith and shaking her head. “And besides, it’s not like she could try anything. Fly out, perhaps, but not like hand our asses to us beforehand.”

“True,” Katie groaned as she set her hoof back on the gurney and nestled her head between her forelegs. “Still don’t trust her, though.”

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

“Something about them ponies just didn’t seem right,” Applejack grumbled, frowning.

“And the eyes of that archer… I could’ve sworn they shimmered red for a moment.” Twilight nodded, a shiver running through her body at the thought.

“Um, do you think she might’ve been corrupted? Trixie’s eyes glowed red when she had the Alicorn Amulet…” Fluttershy piped up, looking at Twilight with shifting wings.

“But that mare’s magic didn’t turn red… now that I dwell on it, corruption is a possibility,” Twilight sighed, shivering again.

“And the General also had red eyes. Just looking at them made me feel as though he could crush me under his hoof without a care in the world,” Rarity murmured, shaking her head in an attempt to rid herself of the thought. “His tone of voice said one thing, but the eyes… they did not once reflect it.”

“The way he told us about what happened to his ears made me think one o’ two things is going on, as far as them ears are concerned,” Applejack sighed. Her remark immediately began garnering the attention of the ponies, bear, rabbit and drake in the airship.

“And what would those two things be?” Twilight frowned, and her ears fell flat as the blond-maned mare took a minute to swallow thickly.

“Either he didn’t feel the pain, or…” Applejack trailed off for a second.

“Or what?” Rarity mused, a frown marring her own features.

“Or he’s straight-up lying about how it happened,” Applejack finished, shaking her head. “How am I supposed to know which is more likely? I wasn’t there when his ears got shredded, after all, nor when his wings got roughed up.”

“While we're on the subject, how was he able to fight if his wings were broken? Sure, he didn’t do much fighting with those wraiths, but don’t wounded pegasi need to rest?” Pinkie interjected, her head slightly tilted to one side.

“Well, he did say his wings were bandaged, a gryphon backed him up on that, and that wraith tried turning him into a shishkabob. Maybe he just fought out of necessity,” Spike stated, shaking his head.

“But broken wings and wounded sides would make it hard for a pegasus to balance on their back legs like he did, especially with that sword-like thing he was carrying. The only situation I can see where such a thing is possible was if his wings kept getting broken to the point he just went ‘to Tartarus with it,’” Twilight countered, her frown becoming more pronounced on her muzzle.

“Either that or he’s lying about that too,” Applejack agreed with a nod.

“Well, we won’t know which scenario has happened until—and I don’t mean to sound rude in any sense of the word—he takes off his uniform. Either he’s going to slip up on accident, or he’ll willingly show us the state of his wings. We only need to wait,” Rarity stated, punctuating her remark with a long, low sigh.

“But there’s a chance he won’t do either; he was armed when he trotted to us, Rarity. You ever noticed how slowly he approached, and how many times he stopped to look around before continuing? He was being overtly cautious,” Spike interjected before a puzzled frown made its way onto his features. He rubbed his chin with a claw and added, “Okay, now that makes me wonder: why was he the only pony that had a full set of clothes? The unicorns and wraith had nothing more than scarves.”

“One of the gryphons said he sustained serious injuries and needed to keep his wounds out of the elements. Are you suggesting it’s something else entirely, Spike?” Twilight turned to the drake as she spoke, a brow raised.

Harry let off a growl, which Fluttershy translated. “Harry says the uniform could be a part of the whole General business he has going on,” she murmured.

“Well, the royal guards and their captains trot around in armor twenty-four seven back home; I can certainly see why Harry has that line of thinking.” Twilight slowly nodded as she spoke.

Angel started thumping his foot on the floor, garnering the attention of Fluttershy. “What is it, Angel?” she asked, noticing the rabbit making wild gestures with his front paws. After a few minutes of eyeing the bunny’s gestures, which ended with a digit held up against the forehead in a way reminiscent of a unicorn horn, she frowned. “You noticed that Mister Bladerune’s horn was smaller than his friends’ horns?” she murmured, to which the bunny set his paw down before nodding.

“That is very peculiar. Maybe it’s just a birth defect?” Twilight mused, rubbing a hoof on her chin. “We only saw him performing basic levitation and a weapon-summoning spell—perhaps he has a very limited magical range because of the smaller-than-normal horn.”

Angel began making more gestures now, rapidly flapping his front limbs as if they were wings. Fluttershy kept her eyes locked on him as the rabbit began making more signs, which ended with him pulling the corners of his mouth wide, resulting in him appearing as though he had the widest grin anyone’s seen yet. “The wraith with the split mouth? You think she’s pretty odd?” she pressed, and again, the rabbit nodded to respond.

“I’m impressed she can still trot, let alone fly! No changeling, gryphon or pony should be living in such a state as she is; why, not even Celestia would let herself stoop so low as to show her bones through her skin and be calm about it!” Rarity huffed, eyes narrowing as the words tumbled from her mouth.

“Well, as one of the Fantasians said, there’s not much we can do about it. That changeling was already thin, according to her, and…” Twilight trailed off and shuddered as she recalled the wraith’s arrant horn stump that sat on her skull. She swallowed thickly before continuing, “And the wraith did say they gave her a place to sleep that’s warm, but I don’t know how much any one of the ponies are telling the truth.”

“At least we’re in the same boat, Twi,” Applejack remarked, eyelids slanting in worry. “But I want to know what that changeling did to her face that made her look like her jaw was half torn off like that.”

“Perhaps someone tortured that changeling! Whoever would defile a face, let alone in such a way the damage is irreparable, has done one of the most horrid things ever known in the history books! By Celestia and Luna, Discord was considerably more tame once we freed him from his stone prison!” Rarity hissed, eyes narrowing lower still. She had begun turning a shade of red in the face, and her form trembled as her blood started boiling over.

“Or, well… I suppose it’s possible that her wounds were self-inflicted, but I don’t see why anyone would want to carve into their own face and leave a very wide scar in its wake,” Twilight mumbled with a grimace, shaking her head solemnly. “And we still don’t know why she’s… pencil-thin, for a lack of better words.”

“Queen Chrysalis said that love is food for changelings. The wraith’s broken horn could’ve been a factor in her starvation,” Fluttershy piped up, wings cringing.

“That’s possible, Shy. Which leaves two questions: were the wounds self-inflicted, and if not, then who would do such a thing?” Twilight inquired, turning to her pegasus friend with a frown on her muzzle.

“Well, whatever it is, I swear I will find who is responsible and dunk them in tar and feathers!” Rarity snarled, seething rage alight in her eyes as she stomped a hoof. At this, the others turned to her with flinches and worried frowns, only to relax as the ivory unicorn took deep breaths with a heaving chest and gradually calmed down.

“What if the wraith did it to herself, Rarity? What then?” Applejack ventured, swallowing thickly.

Rarity flinched, ears falling flat on her skull as the furious light in her eyes faded, replaced only by the embers of a mild irritation. “If she’s the only guilty party, then... “ she trailed off, the irritation fading from her eyes until it’d been left with only a numb, distant gleam. “...then I’ll ask why she’d do such things to herself,” she finished after a few seconds. “Twilight’s right; nobody would do that, even for the worst of reasons imaginable. I doubt even a changeling would stoop that low.”

“Hopefully, she’s going to be at least willing to talk about it. But it’s highly likely she won’t want to. Ponies and changelings and gryphons who receive split grins are often deeply hurt about how they got it in the first place,” Twilight sighed rather matter-of-factly, her frown deepening.

“Why’s that?” Spike asked, walking up to Rarity whilst keeping his gaze focused on Twilight.

“It often goes hoof-in-hoof with violent, traumatic crimes,” Twilight answered in a glum tone, shaking her head. “And so does having a horn broken off, for that matter. For all we know, the wraith could’ve been a victim of some violent attack.”

“But then, how is she still trotting and flying like nothing happened?” Applejack countered, a hoof on her chin.

“I guess her being dead could be a factor—maybe wraiths just don’t feel physical pain,” Fluttershy replied, and made to speak once more, only to close her mouth when Twilight shot her a glance and shook her head for the upteenth time.

“That’s not possible; we all saw how she reacted after that arc of lightning hit her. If she couldn’t feel it hurting her and maybe leaving a lingering tingly sensation afterwards, then I doubt she’d have felt Matt’s magic forcibly levitating her against her will,” Twilight groaned, flailing a hoof in a dismissive manner. “What's more, she can clearly speak and groan, when her lungs and vocal chords should not be working. She looks dead, yet acts very much alive; heck, she can talk the talk and trot the trot through and through! All I know is that something is not right with that mare!”

“All I know is that the Fantasian ponies and their wraith confuzzle me to no end, and normally, I do the confuzzling back home!” Pinkie exclaimed, sitting on her rump and crossing her front legs together.

“Which is really saying something,” Twilight conceded with a heavy sigh, closing her eyes as if in defeat. “I’ll be impressed if they perplex us more than Discord did.”

“Am I the only one who still thinks the ‘end of the worlds’ bit that the unicorn whose eyes turned red for two seconds mentioned is just a hunk of bad baloney? Maybe they've been duped really well, which is why they want to stop… whatever broke the barrier,” Pinkie piped up again, garnering a glance from her lavender companion.

“You’re not the only skeptical one,” Twilight replied, opening her eyes and giving the pink pony a weak smile. “Maybe they’re all a bunch of loons and we just haven’t seen their true inner crazies yet.”

Applejack also grinned, “I done told that orange-maned pony she was darn tootin’. But she and that other mare said they heard the ‘end of the worlds’ nonsense from some other pony or whatever that talked to their group; they might be darn tootin’. Meaning the Fantasians we found are just telling us tall tales they heard from a crazed sheep or something.” At this, the other mares, the animals, and Spike nodded in agreement, each with smiles on their faces. Angel was the exception of sorts; at least, expression-wise, as he had donned an unreadable look as his head bobbed up and down.

Harry growled again and sat on his rear. He stretched his front legs and let off a lengthy yawn.

“That’s a good idea, Harry,” Fluttershy murmured, stretching her wings for a bit.

“What is?” Rarity mused, turning to her pegasus friend with a puzzled glint in her eyes.

“We should sleep and think about all of this tomorrow. I mean, it’s an awful lot to try to make sense of, with what the torn ears and the wraith and all of the other things going on. It would be better to rest and talk in the morning. After all, we have to stay for at least three days and a lot to learn about this place—if you don’t mind, that is,” Fluttershy answered, laying down and folding her wings with a small smile on her face.

Twilight shifted her legs and laid down as well. “I get what you mean, Fluttershy. Maybe a nice night’s sleep should give us all clearer heads,” she agreed, nodding her head before settling it between her front legs.

“And we got lots of time to sort things out, and maybe the Fantasians will be less cranky tomorrow,” Pinkie chimed, smile widening as she too shifted to lay down.

“The less cranky everyone is, the better,” Applejack stated, also curling up on the floor.

“I concur. I just hope Rainbow hasn’t sparked another fight,” Rarity sighed, shaking her head.

Angel hopped over to Fluttershy and curled up next to her, ears upright as he dozed off. Soon, the lot within the airship went to sleep and all fell silent. Nothing dared to break the tranquility for a good few hours before Spike sat up, rubbing his eyes with a claw. His vision bleary, the young drake slowly stood up and walked to a window absentmindedly. Already, the moon began rising up in the horizon, tinting everything a soft silver-blue. He could see the Valkyrie, the wraiths that had been slain earlier in the day, and…

“What the?” Spike mumbled, squinting his eyes as he saw two shadowy figures collide with two more others, one bulky and one he surmised to be the size of Twilight. Wings flared wide, a halberd-like weapon had been drawn so fast it reflected the moon’s light for the barest of instants, and the figures engaged in a very violent scuffle that sent snow flying everywhere—his eyes widened as he saw more figures rush in from seemingly nowhere and join in the snow-kicking fest.

When, after a few minutes passed and the snow had stopped getting kicked up in all directions, the drake saw one of the figures sling another onto their backsides like a sack of flour, and a hefty handful more holding the bulky one at bay. The one slung on the backside of another had still been clutching the halberd-esque thing as if in defiance.

Whirling around, the drake found that the boarding dock had been closed. On the opposite side of the ship, a window stood wide open, bringing in the cold breaths of nightly gales. A darker shadow loomed just outside that window and closed it in haste, and Spike blinked before he heard another window open just behind him. The drake felt something that had large, thin digits hold his mouth shut from behind before a scream could leave his throat.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Angel thumped his foot on the floor, standing next to a snoring Twilight as a soft drumming filled the air around him. A few long seconds flew by, and the bunny stopped thumping to catch his breath, chest heaving as exhausted pants left his small mouth. The unicorn had not stirred even once, and the small white critter shot a glare at her sleeping form before trudging over to Fluttershy. Gathering some more strength and a few more breaths, he started thumping on the floor once more, only stopping after a minute when the pegasus blearily opened her eyes and dazedly stared at him.

“Oh, my, Angel. Is it morning already?” Fluttershy asked in a sleepy tone, rubbing her eyes with a hoof as the bunny nodded. He started making wild gestures again, which ended in one paw held over his head with the pads of the appendage facing one of the windows. Fluttershy rose to her hooves and looked around, noticing that one window stood wide open and littered with scratch marks and the fact that, somehow, her group had now been one member short.

It took only an instant for her to register the fact, and another to register the open window, but once she did, her front hooves flew to her face and her eyes went wide. “Oh no, Spike’s gone!” she exclaimed in a hushed tone, whipping her head around to glance at Angel. “Did you try waking Twilight up?” she asked, and the bunny nodded with an irritated glint in his eyes.

Fluttershy sucked in a deep breath, and then exhaled before repeating the breathing pattern a few more times. Yet, no matter how much she breathed in and out, the growing panic within her refused to cease. “Spike’s gone,” she mumbled, her form trembling. “Spike’s gone!” she exclaimed, voice rising higher in both pitch and volume—loud enough to briefly echo within the airship.

“Spike’s gone!” she yelled loud enough to echo in the area outside of the airship. Her cry of alarm aroused the mares and bear from their slumber, all standing bolt upright and looking at her with widened eyes.

“Spike’s what? Fluttershy, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked, eyes twinkling in concern.

“What the hell are you all on about?” a voice called from outside. Turning to the open window, Twilight trotted to the anomaly and peered outside to find the Valkyrie’s hatch had opened, with Lance poking his head out of it. The unicorn glanced around in the airship’s room, and had instantly noticed Spike’s absence.

“What’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash called, flying out of the tank and hovering next to the open window within seconds. When Twilight turned to her with pinprick pupils, the airborne pegasus frowned and made to speak again, only to fall silent as a lavender hoof rose up to cover its owner’s mouth.

“Spike’s gone, Dash. Spike. Is. Gone!” Twilight answered, voice rising in tandem with her panic. At this, the cyan mare gaped.

“You mean, he’s not in the airship with you? Like, he’s missing?” Rainbow asked, her own voice an octave higher. When Twilight glumly nodded, she turned to the tank and flew towards it, only stopping when her aloft form hovered over Lance.

The red-eyed stallion shot her an unreadable look. “What are your friends getting their tails tied in a knot over?” he asked.

“You know the little dragon? Spike?” Dash replied, ears flat on her skull.

“Purple and green, hard to miss unless he was in a crowd of full-grown tall ponies?” Lance groaned, a brow quirked. “What about him?”

“He’s not in the airship. He just up and vanished!” Dash replied, her voice rising another octave higher and her forelegs flailing as she spoke.

“Maybe he’s in another part of the airship. That thing does look like it has multiple rooms,” Lance stated, a firm frown on his face. His eyes widened as Dash slung her front hooves onto his shoulders and violently shook him like a piggybank she’d been trying to get money out of.

“It only has one room for me and my friends, one room for supplies, and one room for the pilot, and he’s not in the room meant for my friends!” Dash objected, continuing to shake the General until Matt poked his head out of the hatch and stopped her with a bit of gold-colored magic.

“The little drake may be in the storage room, or sleeping with the ship’s pilot for all we know. Check in there, and come back once you do. Tell us what you can or cannot manage to find,” Matt said simply. “Until we know for certain he’s not in the airship, we can’t do anything.”

“Can’t do anything, or won’t?” Rainbow asked, her voice rising and her tone marred in an angry growl. Her eyes narrowed low as she waited for the unicorn to answer.

The response came in mere seconds. “Can’t, until we know for sure. If you want, we can go in the airship ourselves and search,” Matt answered, sighing.

“I’ll search. You guys would get distracted by whatever they have in that thing,” Anna groaned, poking her head out of the hatch. She shot Rainbow a look and added, “Tell your friends I’ll help scour every square inch to help see if I can spot any whereabouts of the dragon.”

Natalie poked her head out of the tank, facing opposite of the airship. Amidst the dull, soft grey clouds, she spotted something black rising up and up. Clambering out of the hatch to stand on the tank, she carefully maneuvered around the lid of the hatch with a brow raised. “Um, what is that?” she asked aloud, now noticing that the faint plume of what looked like smoke had appeared to spindle upwards from the ground in the distance.

Chapter V- A Common Cause*

Chapter V- A Common Cause*

Anna groaned, eyes narrowed as she scoured up and down the small storage room of the airship. She lifted whole bundles of fruits from their storage boxes with her magic, giving the containers a once-over before putting the produce back where she found it. “Ugh, he’s not in these boxes either,” she seethed, turning to a stallion decked out in golden armor. “Anything on your end?”

“No, ma’am. No sign of Sir Spike,” the stallion answered, shaking his head. “He wasn’t in the control room, either.” At this, the archer’s eye twitched, and her form shook as if bristling with porcupine needles.

“Let’s give the lounge of the ship another go-over; we might’ve missed something there.” Anna scowled before hastily galloping out of the storage room and towards the small staircase going up. The armored stallion ran behind her, and both met five sets of frowning faces and another face that had gone wide-eyed once they arrived in the makeshift living quarters.

“Was Spike in there?” Twilight questioned, her breathing hitched. Anna shook her head.

“We’re gonna need to scour this room once more. Surely, he must’ve left something behind,” Anna sighed, and with eyes flickering in a grudgingly dark gleam, she trotted around and overturned the small tables and chairs that were in the room. At least, until she found something that lay underneath the open window which stuck out like a sore thumb, in addition to claw marks on and around the sill. “Aha!” she exclaimed, turning to the worried Mythonians just as she scooped up that very object to present to them with her magical grasp.

“A white feather? It doesn’t belong to Spike...” Rarity trailed off before her eyes zeroed in on a series of claw marks that stood out on the window sill; deep gashes in the wood reminiscent of flesh wounds.

“I’m not sure how the hell I missed this, but now that we know it’s here, I think we can guess how it got in this airship,” Anna stated, her scowl morphing into a small, almost feral smirk. Her eyes gleamed a faint crimson as the Mythonians’ eyes darted from the feather, to the mare, to the window sill, and back again.

“Someone… kidnapped Spike?” Fluttershy whimpered, her eyes going wide as saucers.

“Yeah. Why they’d go after a little drake, I haven’t the foggiest. But this feather and those claw marks narrows down the list of possible suspects,” Anna nodded, briefly jerking her head at the gashes in the wood for emphasis. She glanced at the armored stallion and addressed him, “You, pilot! Ready the ship for flight and follow the Valkyrie. I think I know where this feather came from.”

“Are you sure it’s not from one of Lance’s gryphons?” Twilight pleaded, ears flat on her head.

“No; none of them are white. Closest one to that color would be Quicksilver, and he’s all grey,” Anna replied, shaking her head. “I have met someone who is pure white, however, and that was just days ago.”

“So you know who might’ve kidnapped Spike?” Pinkie mused, making a beeline for the Fantasian mare until she stopped just inches from the archer’s muzzle.

Anna nodded without hesitation. “Yep. And when we find him, we’re gonna give him a nice, long talking to—maybe shake some more of the ‘end of the worlds’ thing me and my companions heard from him while we’re at it,” she answered.

“Wait, so the owner of that feather’s the same dude who told you about the whole ‘end times are coming’ nonsense?” Dash half-shrieked her question, front hooves flailing to the ship’s ceiling as her eyes went wide.

Anna tsked Dash just once before answering, “Bingo.” She turned to the airship’s boarding dock and started to trot to it with a confident spring in her step, but had stopped once the armored stallion cleared his throat.

“Miss, are you going to be riding in the ship, or the tank?” the sod asked, the faintest of a concerned glimmer alight in his eyes as she turned to him with a wide smirk.

“Nah, I’m gonna ride the airship. Why do you think I was about to trot out?” Anna replied in a sarcastic tone of voice. Her smile fell as she added, “Seriously, though, someone has to tell Lance to get the tank in gear so we can get a move on.”

“Fair enough. I’ll get the airship ready for takeoff.” The stallion nodded again and watched as Anna trotted out onto the boarding dock. The green-maned Fantasian galloped to the Valkyrie and levitated herself to the to the top of the tank as though she’d been fired from a slingshot. Dropping into the hatch and landing in the tank on her hooves, she turned to Lance with an unreadable look.

Lance sat in front of the control panel, front legs lazily slung on the steering wheel like he’d been sitting in a recliner as he leaned back and met her gaze. “What’s your report?” he asked.

“Spike is not on the airship, and I found this feather and claw marks on and near the sill of a window,” Anna reported, levitating the white feather to the general.

Lance studied the object and scoffed, eyes narrowing low as the feather floated beneath his scrutinizing glare. “I see,” he groaned, “and to whom does this feather belong?”

“I have reason to believe it belongs to one of the villagers of Frostbite. It may even belong to the elder—only part of him that wasn’t white was his beard,” Anna answered with a nod.

“Well, we won’t know who exactly did it until we hit that hippogryph town again, or even if a hippogryph was responsible,” Matt snorted, turning to Lance and giving him a nod. The pegasus nodded back and whipped around to face the control panel after disentangling his front legs from the steering wheel, typing into the keyboard frantically. Anna levitated herself and flew upward, poking her head out of the hatch and waving a hoof as she spotted Rainbow likewise peeking out of the open window.

“Tell the pilot we’re about to take off!” Anna yelled.

“Alright!” Dash called, closing the window with her front hooves and darting off to do as she’d been asked. Anna nodded and watched as the boarding dock of the ship started reeling into its vessel, dropping back into the tank just as the aircraft’s vehicle slammed shut.

“Is the airship ready to go?” Natalie inquired, her tail twitching slightly.

Anna shot her a look and smiled, “The S.S. Leviathan is locked and loaded.”

Lance gripped the steering wheel with his front hooves, a wide coy smirk playing on his muzzle. The tank’s treads violently whirred to life, in perfect tandem with the airship ascending into the sky. Within minutes, both vehicles darted off northward, with the land-bound one leading the way. In another few minutes, the igloos of Frostbite started to crop up into view, a faint silhouette at first. The spindle of black became darker, thicker, longer, and wider as the tank approached in a steadfast beeline.

“Is that black stuff smoke?” Matt asked, eyeing the dark color that stood out against the grey skies like a splotch of ink.

“I believe so... Is the town ablaze?” Katie asked, eyes narrowed low.

“Doubt it. You can’t exactly set ice and snow on fire. Hmm… maybe they’re having a celebration of some sort,” Natalie replied, turning to the wraith with a shrug.

“But then, if they did kidnap the dragon, why?” Matt mused, frowning.

“Maybe they need a dragon for the festivities. We can only hope it’s not one of those kinds where the dragon dies,” Anna sighed, sitting on her rump as the town began getting clearer the closer the tank got. The vehicle halted in its path an instant before it would have run over one of the igloo houses. The ponies, gryphons, and changelings hopped out of the still-open hatch, landing in the snow just as the airship began its landing. As soon as the boarding dock landed in the snow and the Mythonians trotted out of it, Lance turned to the mares and animals and cleared his throat.

“Since it’s your friend we’re after here, I’ll let you have a say in how we should approach the town. Do we walk straight in to find the source of the smoke, or scour each and every ice-brick house on the closest street?” he asked in a flat voice.

“Let me go!” a feminine voice called out, one high-pitched and frantic in tune. “What did I do to deserve this?”

“Get your beak away from me!” another, masculine voice howled, irritation and confusion rampant in the outcry.

“D-d-don’t make me breathe fire on you! Y-your feathers will get scorched off!” a third voice warned, this one sounding dreadfully similar to that of Spike’s.

Twilight’s eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. “No time to scour the houses. Let’s get in the town already!” she cried.

Lance shot a look at his fellow Fantasians. “You heard the Mythonian unicorn, let’s go, people!” he barked. Nobody needed to be told twice. Without a moment’s pause, the groups galloped into Frostbite as though they were one, surging into the nearest street like a torrent of rain. Wings flapped madly, hooves kicked snow everywhere, muzzles donned firm frowns as the scent of a bonfire and cooking meat filled their nostrils. The streets were oddly empty; at least, they were before the group saw a large gathering of hippogryphs coming into view.

A fourth, masculine voice cried out, but it died mid-wail in a gurgling choke. The group skidded to a halt on land and in sky, gaping at the sight before them. The hippogryphs of Frostbite used their talons to tear out a hapless stallion’s throat, with some more ripping at his stomach and spilling his organs onto the snow. He struggled and kicked as the uninvited spectators’ eyes went wide, but his thrashing grew feebler and feebler as blood poured from his body.

The light soon left his eyes, and he ceased moving altogether. His head tipped back limply, eyes wide open in a frozen state of pain. Rarity’s hoof flew to her mouth, and so did the hooves of her fellow ponies—even the Fantasians could not suppress the urge to hide their mouths with their front limbs, all wincing in unison.

The dead stallion’s legs were ripped clean off; the front ones were devoured in seconds by savage beaks and the back ones tossed into a raging bonfire to cook. The pony’s torso suffered similar punishment; meat being plucked from bones and more innards strewn about like trash.

The head of the stallion suffered worst; the jawbones were grappled by talons that pulled them apart at the very seams. His tongue flopped out, and that, too, had been yanked out. His eyeballs were gouged out, and the brains pulled apart in pieces from the emptied, bloodied sockets. What little the head had to offer had been brutally picked off and crammed into waiting mouths, with the crimson-stained skull tossed aside, whereupon it rolled in the snow before stopping at the foot of the flames.

The beaks of Lance’s gryphon soldiers scrunched up, Armin’s legs shook as a scowl set in his face, and Angel shivered at the sight of the carnage. NoLegs glanced forlornly at the carcass that was once a pony before turning back to the villagers and using his tail to draw his sword. The cat heard a shuffle from the left and turned his head to glance in that direction before his ears fell flat on his head at the new sight he had witnessed.

Held by more hippogryphs to the sidelines were Spike, a dull grey dog-like creature that stood on his back legs with a club-like tail and a facial structure akin to a wolf's, and another hippogryph mare who had the face of a pony and the slit-pupiled eyes of a gryphon. The mare, who was caked in copious amounts of blood around the muzzle and claws, froze upon seeing Anna, entranced with the others as the hapless stallion’s bones lay in the stained white as though forgotten. “Sister!” she shrieked, and only then did the green-maned unicorn turn to the left and take notice of her.

“Green eyes and a green mane hanging past her shoulders, with a light brown coat and dark brown talons…” Anna murmured before her eyes went wide as she took in the sight of the detained hippogryph, and she turned to the other gryphs with a scowl set in her face. “Let my sister, the dog, and the dragon go,” she snarled, and at once, the villagers turned to her with fresh blood dribbling down their chins.

“That cunt with a cutie mark is your sister?” one villager spoke, a sinister smile framed on his muzzle. He shook his head, still grinning, small droplets of red flying from his face and further staining the snow.

“We were hoping you foolish lot wouldn’t come back to our abode,” another stallion hissed, scowling. “Oh well. More food for us.” He snorted, and the villagers donned a unanimous smirk on their faces.

“You maniacs! What did that pony do to deserve such a fate?” Rarity chided, eyes narrowing low. Before she could open her mouth to speak again, a cream-colored hoof rose in front of her muzzle.

“Let them go, and we won’t cause any more trouble in this Godcat-damned village,” Anna growled, summoning her bow and nocking an arrow with her magic as she jerked her head to the detained group for emphasis. At her demand, the villagers only chortled in unison.

Katie moved in closer, wings keeping her aloft, but she kept her distance from the bloodstained hippogryphs. “Let the dragon, mare, and diamond dog loose, else we’ll free them by force,” she warned. The hippogryph holding the mare responded by lifting a halberd—one with a golden-colored harp sporting intricate carvings tied to the middle of the shaft—from the ground and brought the pointed tip to his captive’s throat. The one holding Spike lifted the drake with his talons, bringing his beak mere inches away from his neck. The ones holding the diamond dog procured an array of cutlasses from sheaths strapped to their bodies and brought them dangerously close to the canine’s chest.

The crowd parted some, and the elder stepped down the makeshift aisle right towards the groups. He had so much blood staining him not even Lance could tell what had been feathers and what had been beard. The elder shot Matt a wry smile, eyes gleaming like that of a predator’s. “Pity you left just days ago, you foolish ponies,” he spat, still smiling. “We could have made you into excellent morsels. Though, I suppose it matters not now, since you brought more bounty for me and my fellow hippogryphs to share.”

Matt took a step forward, summoning his blade and holding it defensively in front of the Mythonians with his magic. “These mares and their dragon are not food,” he snarled.

Natalie scanned the villagers, and frowned upon noticing something. “Where are the mares and foals? I could’ve sworn they were out here when we visited,” she asked.

“We killed almost all of them,” the village elder answered, pointing an accusing talon at the unicorn who’d asked the question. “They all wanted to go off gallivanting for those wretched cutie marks! Too bad we’ll have to kill the green-maned hippogryph over yonder; had she not gotten her mark, she’d have made an excellent slut!”

Lance shot a look at the captives, frown deepening as he spotted the aforementioned mare whose eyes flickered with vestiges of fear and panic. He then turned to look at the elder and the rest of the villagers, quickly noting the engorged bellies of the winged brutes. “I’m impressed you bastards even managed to get mares to procreate with you,” he spat.

The elder continued to sneer, oblivious to the glares the Mythonians gave him. “I used a little method to keep those whorses in line,” he said simply. He turned to his villagers and flung his talons high into the air before shouting, “Bring unto me the last foal!”

A burly hippogryph stalked towards the elder from the crowd on his back legs, dragging with him a screaming, pony-faced, and nigh-featherless filly that kicked and flailed about. The child flapped her wings, tried grasping at the snow with her talons; anything to get out of the vise-like grip that held her by the scruff of the neck.

“Let me go! I promise I won’t get my cutie mark! Just don’t hurt me anymore!” the filly shrieked, her voice wracked by sobs. The musclebound hippogryph threw her in front of the elder, who lunged at her with one talon, pinning her to the snow. The foal stilled as she looked into the formerly-white hippogryph’s visage, her claws feebly holding onto his tarsus, rear legs falling slack against the snow.

“Oh shit,” Lance mumbled, eyes widening. His heart stopped in his chest as he and the others witnessed the elder’s other talon lower itself to the foal’s groin. The claws were plunged deep into the flesh, and the hapless filly let out a hoarse, anguished wail as the talon tore deep gashes down her privates and into her thigh. Natalie, Anna, and Katie froze, and said wraith landed in the snow as everyone’s eyes widened further still while the filly’s cries devolved into pained and incoherent sobs.

The foal kicked feebly with her wounded back leg, only to stop and scream once more as the claws tore into her again, creating more oozing gashes in her groin and right thigh. “Stop!” she howled, her voice cracking as pain seared through her body.

“You broke one of this village’s rules, little slut! You have to pay for your insolence!” the elder cackled, laughing quite jovially at the filly’s suffering. He raised his bloodied talon and punched her in the face one time, giving her a black eye. Another punch to the face had her gasping in pain, coughing as fresh blood trickled down her nose. Her attacker spotted a few loose feathers clinging to her wings and tore them out, grinning as another shriek came from his victim.

Discarding the feathers to one side, the bloodied hippogryph laughed, digging his claws into her tender flesh yet again—and this time, once his claws parted from the wounds, he grabbed bits of snow and rubbed them into the newly-created openings, causing the filly to let out screams that rose a few octaves higher. He ran his talon up, grasping one of her ears, and violently jerked it, garnering more pained whimpers as his claws ran across the ear’s thin skin as if searching for a weak point.

“Maybe I could tear that pretty little face off and use it as a cock sleeve,” the elder hissed in a low voice, eyes alight with a predatory gleam—the gleam of a sadist.

“I-I don’t wanna be a cock sleeve!” the filly shrieked, once more struggling. “I-I want to die! Just make it stop!”

At that point, Rarity’s face set in a scowl, ungodly fury alight in her eyes; the filly’s recent words serving to fuel her wrath. She lunged forward, hooves outstretched, horn lighting up in magic. She separated the elder from the foal and sent the hapless filly almost flying into Matt, using some more levitation to careen herself towards the bloodied hippogryph like a speeding bullet.

Matt caught the foal in his magic and held her as close as he dared, watching the Mythonian as she landed on the elder’s chest and knocked him down on his back with almost no effort on her part. She began hitting his face with her front hooves over and over, blood staining the ivory as his beak broke from the repeated jabs of her rage-emboldened attack. Spike gawked as the unicorn kept up with her onslaught, screeching in pure hatred as the elder’s face caved in from the assault.

“Rarity, stop!” Twilight yelled, lighting her horn in magic. She pulled the ivory unicorn away, just as the remains of the hippogryph’s head splattered into pieces from the thorough pounding it had received. The mare flailed violently, rage still pulsing through her blood, snarling like a rabid animal and she kept her eyes trained on the elder’s now-headless corpse. “He’s dead, Rarity! He won’t hurt that filly anymore!” she pleaded, and as if a spell had been broken, Rarity stopped and slumped in her magical grasp.

The musclebound hippogryph took a step forward, only to stop as Lance, Anna, and Natalie formed a wall in front of Matt with their respective weapons drawn. Matt continued to hold the scared, abused filly who grasped at the fur covering the barrel of his chest, whimpering unintelligible pleas into it, blood still dripping onto the snow from her recent wounds. He turned to glare at the bulky gryph. “Go ahead, take another step forward. I frickin’ dare ya,” he hissed, briefly flinching as the filly winced in his grasp.

“I think I was being serious when I said ‘release the hostages’ two times over. Do that now, and you won’t become oversized pin cushions,” Anna threatened, conjuring several arrows of stone and crystal from flashes of magic that briefly exploded around her, all poised like daggers at the villagers. At this, the hippogryphs begrudgingly let go of their hostages, with the mare snatching the halberd with the harp tied to it and Spike running towards Twilight as fast as his legs could carry him.

The diamond dog snorted and knocked the stallions with the cutlasses down onto their backs with just one swing from his arm, and he walked towards the ponies in an upright stance. His eyes darted from one member of the gathering of uninvited guests to the next, until he spotted the wounded filly. “She needs help,” he said simply. When Matt looked at him, his eyes went wide and he nodded in response.

Matt turned to the villagers, once again scowling. “You pieces of horseshit have proved you aren’t worthy of a foal, much less a mare. We’re taking this filly with us. She deserves far better,” he said. Turning around, he rose a front leg to hold the now-shaking child, wincing as she gasped in pain before slowly trudging back towards the tank. Everyone followed him after only a moment’s hesitation, with Dash hovering next to the Fantasian unicorn, a worried frown on her face.

“I-I-I don’t wanna be with those bad hippogryphs no more,” the filly whimpered after just a few more minutes of being carried, curling up in a ball as they reached the outskirts of the town-turned-bloodbath. “T-they hurt mommy and daddy, a-and t-tore th-them apart.”

“Should I fly her to the tank? It would be faster,” Dash asked, worry glinting in her eyes.

“As much as I’d like for you to do that, we can’t risk it. Filly’s traumatized enough as is; last thing she needs is a high-speed dizzying session to add to her list of worries,” the blond-maned unicorn answered with a huff. “I can’t believe we couldn’t get to that stallion in time, though… at least we got this little girl away from their talons.”

“What are we going to do with her, though? It’s dangerous taking a filly with us, and we don’t know how she’s gonna react in the days to come,” Lance sighed as he trotted up to flank Matt.

“I honestly have no idea. She’s gonna need healing, though. That’s something we can all agree on,” Matt answered with a heavy sigh. He paused as the filly shivered, and he looked at her before his frown deepened. “Fucking hell, they plucked all her feathers off,” he hissed, gently pressing the child closer to his chest.

“Uh, yeah, that’s kinda why I wanted to rush her to the tank!” Dash groaned in exasperation.

“We’ll fly them both to the tank,” Nathan and Quicksilver stated in unison, only to wince simultaneously as the filly began screeching.

“I don’t wanna fly! I don’t wanna share the skies with big meanies!” the child howled, violently thrashing in Matt’s grasp with renewed vigor. The stallion sat on his rump and held her struggling form with both his front legs, careful to leave just enough room to let her kick and punch as much as she wanted. Everyone else stilled as well, with the exception of the hippogryph mare who had instead surged forward whilst dropping her halberd.

“Give her to me; she needs immediate treatment,” the winged mare pleaded, holding her talons outward. Matt begrudgingly complied, carefully handing the child to the mare with concern lingering on his face. He turned towards Natz and nodded to the cream-coated unicorn, who had likewise bounded onward with her horn glowing.

“Shh, hold still for a minute. I’m gonna make those cuts better, okay?” Natalie spoke in a soft tone, cringing as the filly stilled and looked at her with eyes alight in fear. Lowering her horn, she carefully aligned the tip with the child’s stomach before trailing it further down, just over the beginnings of the most horrid wounds. A soft, white glow encompassed the foal’s hind quarters, and she whimpered as the glow closed the wounds and the pain went away. The glow embraced her other injuries, sending a feeling of warmth through them as they too healed The aura died in seconds once all of the injuries, sans missing feathers, had fully healed.

“I-I’m cold,” the child complained, shivering as Natalie pulled her horn away.

“You won’t be cold much longer,” Natalie cooed, raising a hoof and gently caressing the child’s head with it. “You’re gonna get in a warm place, and we’ll feed you, and after a good night’s sleep you should feel better.”

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The filly snuggled against Harry the bear, a blanket draped across her featherless frame. The bear looked at the filly with pity in his eyes, letting off a soothing growl as she drifted off to sleep. Angel stood next to the filly, a look on his face so sour he started to turn crimson.

“He’s still mad about the whole thing, isn’t he?” Twilight asked, shooting Fluttershy a look.

Fluttershy nodded. “I don’t blame Angel if he wants to hit things, considering what we all saw today,” she answered, her voice glum. “I think I should invest in a punching bag for him when we get home.”

Pinkie looked at the foal, frowning. Her mane clung to her form as she said in a saddened tone, “Why would they do that to a filly? All she wanted was a cutie mark.”

Rainbow put a hoof on Pinkie’s withers, eyes also trained on the foal. “At least we got her out of that… that… that situation now. It’s gonna be a month or so before her feathers grow back, though,” she sighed, her voice equally as glum.

“And probably a few more before she’s mentally well enough to even come to terms with what happened,” Twilight added, her tone hushed. She turned to Spike and asked, “What happened? Were you taken this morning, or last night?”

“I was taken from the airship after I couldn't sleep last night, taken to Frostbite, and thrown in a prison-like house with the diamond dog, the stallion and the hippogryph mare. They all told me they came to Frostbite to find some temple of some kind, but the hippogryph with the beard told us it was just a ruse,” Spike sighed, avoiding Twilight’s gaze.

“A ruse?” Fluttershy parroted, worry twinkling in her eyes.

“Yeah, and we saw them kill all the mares and other foals this morning, and they… they…” Spike shuddered, his breathing hitched for a second. Twilight trotted to him and wrapped him in her front legs, which he gladly returned with his claws. “I’m probably not going to sleep tonight.”

“I don’t blame you, Spike. What them hippogryphs did was uncalled for. I have never seen anyone do something so… awful, and to a little kid no less. Poor girl’s probably gonna need therapy after this,” Applejack whimpered, nodding somberly.

“After seeing something like that, we’re all going to need therapy. Especially Rarity; look at her, she’s a bloodstained mess!” Rainbow huffed, pointing a hoof at the mare in the corner for emphasis. The ivory unicorn had spent the last several hours curled up in a ball, mane trussed up and scrunched like an accordion, bits of dried red staining the natural purple like blemishes. She made no sound, save for soft inhales and exhales, eyes staring vacantly at the wall as though it weren’t really there.

Twilight frowned as she turned to her bloodstained companion, still and stiff and silent. Her friend shivered for a second before falling stiff again, as if she had been cold. “Rarity?” she ventured, but felt a hoof touch her withers and turned to Fluttershy.

“Let her be, Twilight. I know, she just… killed a hippogryph and bashed him in, but…” Fluttershy trailed off, turning to glance at the sleeping filly. “If she hadn’t acted, or if any of us hadn’t acted, that filly would’ve been dead,” she said simply.

“I’d just rather it be one of the Fantasians who’d have taken that hippogryph out. We both know Rarity isn’t the kind of pony to just snap and murder… yet she went and did exactly that,” Twilight sighed, shoulders sagging as if she’d been defeated.

“What’s done is done, as much as it hurts me to say it. There’s no going back now, Twi. I’m getting the feeling that Fantasia’s… a bad place,” Applejack sighed, her head drooping.

“And if that’s the case, then I hope—I really do hope—that we ran into the nicest ponies and gryphons around,” Pinkie bemoaned, tears welling up in her eyes as she continued to stare at the filly. The foal shifted in her sleep, the back of her head resting against the bear’s side, mumbling something from her little mouth.

A light tapping came from a window, and Dash turned to one side of the airship to see what had caused it. Outside flew the green-maned hippogryph from earlier, continuing to tap at the glass pane with her claws. She trotted to the window and opened it, letting the mare land inside, noticing she had been thoroughly cleaned of the blood that coated her before.

“How’s she holding up?” the hippogryph asked as soon as she folded her wings, gesturing to the snoozing filly with a talon.

“She’s sleeping snugly against the bear. We fed her apples and carrots and sweet corn before she dozed off,” Rainbow answered, wings twitching for a minute. “She… kinda went green in the face, though. Something tells me they fed her nothing but meat.”

“Figures. My sister’s helping her friends clean out the Valkyrie’s fridges. They’re starting to think the villagers gave them raw pony and hippogryph flesh, and honestly, I can see why they’d come to that conclusion,” the green-maned mare said, and resentfully nodded with a sigh. “My canine companion’s opting to stay in the tank tonight, and he’s helping with the cleaning.”

“That’s good. Say, why do you have more gryphon features than your sister, if you two are even related? It strikes me as odd that she lacks any gryphon features of the sort,” Twilight mused, earning her a glance from the visitor and a small, weak smile.

“We’re fraternal twins. I just took more after our hippogryph mom, while sis took more after our unicorn dad,” the mare answered, sitting on her rump and raising a talon to fiddle about with some strands of green mane.

Twilight pondered the answer for a minute before nodding a bit. “Alright, I can understand that,” she conceded, turning to the sleeping filly who shifted again to press her body closer to that of Harry’s.

The green-maned mare turned to the sleeping filly as well, frowning. “I hope we can rehabilitate her of the meat-eating habit, especially if they fed her ponies and hippogryphs…” she sighed, frowning.

“I’m… I’m a barbarian,” Rarity mumbled at last, her breathing hitched and riddled with hiccups. The others turned to her with worried glances. “I’m… just like them. F-filthy blood’s on my hooves… hideous, disgusting, red blood...”

“B-but… they would’ve… the filly… and S-Spike…” the bloodstained mare went on, her form shivering once more. “They’d have… they’d have…” Twilight trotted to her friend with a cautious, gradual gait, only to stop in her tracks and cover her ears as Rarity threw her head up high and let off a bloodcurdling shriek.

Fluttershy could barely do more than stare in shock, along with the rest of her friends and the hippogryph mare. “Oh my,” she whimpered, staring wide-eyed as the red-stained unicorn slumped against the floor, once more unmoving.

Chapter VI- Drifting Reflections*

Chapter VI- Drifting Reflections*

The filly woke up with a jolt, her form shivering as she sat upright, heart pounding in her chest with the force of a sledgehammer. Each pulse of blood shooting through her veins hurt, clouding her senses with a thundering boom that came and went with each and every beat. Her bare wings shot wide open, talons gripping the blanket tightly and holding the cloth to her naked chest.

Her ears fell flat against her skull, and she felt tears forming and stinging at the corners of her eyes. Glancing around, she noticed that the place she’d been in had darkened, with only meager strands of moonlight breaking the sable veil with their liquid silver rays. Letting her watery eyes adjust to the black, she spotted curled up forms not too far away. Some had horns, some had wings, and one had a small frame with really long ears atop its head and a grumpy expression.

Angel hopped over to the foal, and his sour look melted when he saw her face, leaving just the faintest glimmer of concern in his little eyes. He extended a paw outward, not breaking eye contact with the child as he did so. The child, in turn, looked at him with trembling lips pulled into a frown, her forming tears twinkling in the gossamer strands of silver as they threatened to break free from her eyes.

“Don’t… wanna see another… hippogryph stallion again,” the child whimpered, shutting her eyes tight and letting the tears fall from her eyes and stream down her face. The bunny lowered his paw and hopped closer to her, long ears falling back like loose hair as she dropped the blanket and set her claws down to the floor. He frowned as he got closer and threw his front legs around the child’s forelimb, just inches shy of her talon.

The child began sobbing uncontrollably, raising her talons and pulling the bunny close to her bare chest as her breathing hitched with incoherent words and hiccups laced throughout. Angel shifted his paws to hug her chest, yet the foal only continued to cry, her mournful sounds causing her own body to shudder once more.

Harry shifted, blinking dazedly as he came to. His eyes widened when his brain registered the crying after a minute, and he turned to the sobbing foal. Raising his head, he inched his nose closer to her until it touched her shoulder, only to stiffen as the filly flinched and jerked her terrified gaze towards him. The bear let off a soft growl and nuzzled the child affectionately, taking care to avoid touching her wings.

The filly leaned back to rest her head against the bear’s fuzzy bulk, still clutching Angel as her sobs began to finally hush. The bunny gave a silent sigh of relief, and turned to Harry whilst using a paw to gesture to the discarded blanket. The bear nodded and leaned over to clutch the cloth with his mouth, being mindful of the filly who had snuggled up next to him with the bunny in claw as he draped it over her form. He nestled his head in his front legs after covering the child up and dozed off.

The child’s crying fully ceased a few minutes later as she opened her mouth to yawn, folding her wings against her sides while her breathing slowed. Her grip on Angel loosened as she drifted off, though her form betrayed a shudder, barely visible in the moon’s soft light.

Fluttershy opened one eye and watched the sleeping filly, allowing a small smile to spread across her muzzle as she took in the sight of Angel letting himself be cradled by her. The bunny turned to the pegasus and gave her a thumbs up and small grin of his own, and the pony’s smile only widened further.

“I… hope we did the right thing,” Fluttershy whispered, her tone so hushed she could hardly hear herself speak. “I wonder what color her feathers are… maybe they’ll compliment her earth brown eyes and pale greyish-pink body,” she pondered aloud, but her tone had still been near-silent.

Nearby, however, a bloodstained mare tossed about in her sleep.

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“This is… this is odd,” Rarity murmured, turning around to glance at every possible direction she could. No matter where she looked, mirrors spanned as far as she could see, forming an elongated hallway of reflective glass. The hallway stretched wide at the sides and high on above; it could’ve fit three airships and three Valkyries side-by-side and would still have had some room for a pony to trot between the vehicles.

Strangely, the mirrors on the floor did not reflect the lone unicorn mare who stood right atop them, nor did the ceiling mirrors reflect what was below. Even the mirrors making up the walls showed no image except for the opposing bits of reflective glass, as though Rarity wasn’t there at all.

The unicorn, quirking a brow, trotted up to one of the walls and gently put a hoof on the glass. “That’s funny. These mirrors aren’t dirty, and I am standing in front of one and on top of another. Why do I not have a reflection?” she mused aloud, her words echoing down both ends of the hall.

The mare took a glance down both ends of the hall before facing the wall she stood closest to and closing her eyes. Taking in a deep breath, she turned her head one way but began to blindly trot in the other direction. She went on like this for a few moments before her eyes snapped open as the distinct sound of a malicious laugh graced her ears. Whipping her head around, she spotted an ivory hoof much like her own emerging from one of the walls, the mirror rippling as if it were water.

Another Rarity tumbled out, landing with her face hitting the floor. The first Rarity gawked and shook her head as the second staggered to her hooves and dazedly looked around. The mare who came out of a mirror shot a glance at the mare staring at her and instantly locked eye contact with her, and the first noticed there had been something different: the irises were crimson instead of blue.

“Um, hello?” the blue-eyed Rarity ventured, the corners of her mouth twitching as she suppressed a frown.

The red-eyed Rarity donned a friendly smirk, one stretching from ear to ear. “Oh, my, I apologize for staring! How rude of me! How do you do?” she greeted, extending her hoof out with such speed it’d been like she’d known her blue-eyed counterpart for some time.

“Oh, no no no, I should be the one apologizing for staring. I didn’t do anything but watch as you tumbled head first into the floor! I am sincerely sorry for not helping you up like I should have,” the blue-eyed unicorn chortled, raising her own hoof and gently shaking the hoof that’d been offered to her.

She stopped mid-shake, though, upon looking at the hoof she held. Now, something had been different—namely, the hoof she’d been shaking had somehow gotten covered in sticky wet blood. Next thing she knew, the other Rarity had retracted her hoof and bolted before the blue-eyed unicorn even had the chance to look back up, leaving a trail of bloodied hoofprints in her wake.

“Oh, that was rude,” Rarity mumbled under her breath, turning back to her now-stained hoof. “But… where did the blood come from? Could that have something to do with my… doppelganger’s sudden change in behavior?”

Setting her hoof down, she scanned her surroundings once more. Aside from the trail of blood that led onward, nothing had changed. The unicorn took a moment to lower her head, slump her shoulders, and draw a heavy sigh before straightening her posture and following the crimson hoofprints. She attempted to be careful and avoid stepping upon the red stains that blemished the polished mirror floor, her trot little more than a slow gait.

Her heart began pounding in her chest as she continued to follow the path of vermillion, but all Rarity did had been little more than attempt to gulp down her growing trepidation and press on. Strands of her mane and tail began sticking out of place as she briefly paused, ears folding back as a malicious laugh filled the reflective corridor with a series of echoes following moments after.

Adrenaline coursed through her veins, forcing the mare to squint her eyes as the mirrors almost instantly turned so sharp they looked to be near-white while the natural chemical coursed through her. She continually winced as she trotted on, the delicate clip-clop of her hooves almost as loud as the frantic beating of her heart. Her horn started glowing, soft blue for a moment before turning a dark, grayish-maroon. Its light reflected off of the mirrors as Rarity followed the trail of red hoofprints for minutes—perhaps even hours—on end, only pausing once she finally took notice of her glowing appendage.

“Unicorn magic doesn’t happen without reason,” she mumbled under her breath, quirking a brow. “And yet, I did not will my mana to conjure a light spell… this is certainly odd.” She turned her attention to the trail she had—until this point—followed, and let off a heavy sigh. “Now that I think about it, this trail… it stretched on for quite some time. Does it even end somewhere?” The unicorn shot a cross-eyed glance at her horn again and went on, “My magic is blue, not a hideous, desaturated red… now I know something’s quite wrong with this… wherever it is I am standing.”

Turning her attention back to the trail of blood, she leaned forward a bit and squinted her eyes, raising a hoof above them to keep the light spell from distracting her. “Claw marks? That other me with the red eyes didn’t have claws…” her voice died in her throat, her out-loud train of thought immediately halted, and her hoof shot down and slammed into the floor with a thud loud as thunder as soon as the words left her mouth. Rarity recoiled, backpedaling a ways from the trail with semi-flailing legs that writhed like the floor had been thoroughly greased.

“Blood… claw marks… red eyes…” Rarity mumbled, shuddering as she drew uneven, hitched breaths. A loud cry snapped her from her thoughts as it shook the reflective corridor, and immediately, she bolted the way she’d been going up until her momentary pause. As she galloped madly, she chanced a glance to the nearest wall, and gaped as a perfect image of herself ran in tandem with her form through the glass.

But as she ran, the reflection changed. The first look only had the red eyes, but the second that came moments after sported the wings, slit pupils, and talons belonging to that of a gryphon. The third glance yielded a trussed-up mane, ending in stringy, bloodied spindling strands that whipped behind its head. The fourth glance at the reflection procured a lion’s tail, a crude beak where a muzzle had been, an engorged belly, and fresh blood dribbling from the mouth all the way down to the barrel of the chest.

The reflection laughed, the tone belonging to a masculine something and a feminine mockery of Rarity’s voice, as though there’d been two entities laughing simultaneously. The horrid sound persisted for a moment longer as the unicorn immediately skid to a loud halt and backpedaled away.

“A rock in the corridor!” Rarity squeaked, jerking her gaze to the wall closest to said rock as it began to violently ripple in a manner akin to pond water that had gotten disturbed. The thing that had been her shapeshifting reflection clambered out and started growing in size, perching itself upon the rock and towering over the mare with a feral, predatory gleam in its eyes. The monstrosity easily dwarfed the airship and the Valkyrie as it spread its wings wide, leaning in closer to the frantic unicorn as she kept trying to shimmy away.

“You fool!” it cried, an acrid stench of blood, flesh, and rot halting Rarity as it assaulted her nostrils and set her stomach churning. “You took that little slut and doomed her! Had she stayed in her town, she could have been spared from your barbaric hooves and those equally hideous cutie marks! No matter. I shall rectify that mistake, here and now!” The thing hissed as it reared up, raising a talon and thrusting it towards the miniscule unicorn in a blindingly fast blur of movement.

Rarity sat upright, screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs for a few seconds. When her outcry died down, everyone in the airship looked at her, including the featherless hippogryph filly, Spike, and the animals. The drake rushed to her side in an instant, clasping an ivory hoof still stained in dried red with his claws. The shaken mare took no notice of Spike for several long, tense minutes, staring straight ahead with a vacant gaze.

A timid voice snapped the mare out of her stupor, “Nice horn-pony, are you okay?”

Rarity blinked and then flinched, her gaze falling upon the hippogryph filly who stared back at her with wide eyes and ears flattened on her skull. “I’m…” she paused to swallow thickly before answering, “I am… I’m okay.”

“What happened? Why’d you scream? Are you really okay?” the filly asked, frowning as her rear legs shifted beneath her blanket. Rarity stilled, her mind filling with images of the foal’s torture at the claws of Frostbite’s elder, but her paralysis had been brief.

Rarity shook her head vigorously in an attempt to clear her mind of the horrid scenes, her mane flailing every which-way and becoming more unkempt and spindly in the process. When she ceased her head-jerking, she took a deep and uneven breath before answering the child, “I just had… a bad dream. A very bad dream.”

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The boarding dock of the airship landed with a thud the next morn, and as soon as it touched the snow-laden ground, a black-and-white form briskly trotted into the ship via the dock. Matt’s gaze met that of Twilight’s as he paused upon finding himself in the lounge. He asked, “How’s the filly holding up?”

Twilight shot a glance at the foal, who anxiously scratched at her bared chest with a claw. “She’s been fidgety,” she replied as she turned back to the stallion. “Not in a self-harming way or any other way that would drive me and everypony else on the ship up the wall, but she’s still worrying us.”

“Pardon us. It’s still our second day in Fantasia, and we’ve been on edge since we left that town full of bloodied yahoos,” Rainbow chirped in a sarcastic tone, which garnered a roll of the eyes from the half-Clydesdale unicorn.

“I get what you mean.” Matt nodded, a small smile on his face. His grin fell, though, when he glanced at the filly. The filly stared back, naked wings cringing in such a way it looked like they had invisible vibrators tied to them.

“Where are you taking me, nice horn-pony?” she asked, her voice faltering. In the same moment she had spoken, the ship fell silent, and all stilled on the spot.

Matt swallowed thickly, but his gulp did not break the silence. He glanced at the Mythonian mares and their dragon friend, but all he received were either shaking heads or worried gazes. Rarity in particular shuddered, her mane spindly, frazzled, and draped loosely past her withers as she mouthed, “I haven’t the foggiest idea.”

Twilight closed her eyes, her mind scrambling to formulate something even resembling an idea. “Would the filly really be safer with us, the Fantasians, or in a temporary home?” she thought, creases forming along the seams of her closed eyelids as she drew a near-silent sigh. “On one hoof, she’d be in a spot where, if I left her with the right pony, she’d be safe and could receive therapy, food, shelter… maybe even flight training once her feathers grew back.”

She grimaced as her train of thought churned on, “But on the other, I don’t know what the Fantasians would do with her—or to her, Celestia forbid—since she’s not in the best condition. Then again, they’ve taken in a legless cat and a changeling that shouldn’t be able to trot at all… and what if I brought her to Celestia as she is now? Since Rarity pretty much lost it the other day, with how things are now, I doubt the Princesses would be amused…”

Twilight opened her eyes after a few minutes and looked at Matt with as level a look as she could muster. “I’ve weighed our options regarding the foal,” she said.

Matt quirked a brow. “And that would be…?” he asked, tilting his head a little.

“The filly stays within the line of sight of everyone who got involved with the mess yesterday, Fantasians and Mythonians alike. She cannot be left alone. Even if she recovers from her ordeal, she’ll still need some sort of adult figure who won’t go and… hurt her for simply wanting something as simple as a cutie mark. While I still have my doubts about you and your folk—I mean no offense when I say that—I, as the leader of my group, have little choice,” Twilight answered, ears flattening on her head.

Matt thought over Twilight’s rather long-winded reply for a few seconds before asking, “No offense taken. However, I need to ask: why do you feel you have little say in… this matter of sorts?”

“If we left her here, in this frozen patch of land, she’d die. If we left her somewhere on Mythos, she could be guaranteed some safety, but how much I couldn’t be able to tell you with finality—what if I left her in an orphanage ran by a horrid pony? What then?” Twilight began, shuddering at the implications of her own words. She steeled herself and added, “What I’m saying is, it’s best if she sticks with either one group, the other, or both.”

Matt simply nodded slowly, letting the mare’s words sink in. “I see,” he said simply. “The hippogryph mare with the harp-halberd-thing told us last night that you fed the filly fruits and veggies, but she went green in the face.”

“The meanies made me eat parts of mommy and daddy… and then made me eat their—” the filly could not finish as Spike rushed over to her and clasped his claws on her muzzle. She began jerking her head wildly, raising her talons in an attempt to shake the drake off as well as scratch him. The half-Clydesdale turned his attention to the struggle and noticed that, despite suffering some fast slashing action from the talons, the drake seemed unfazed.

“Please, please, please don’t finish that sentence around Rarity,” Spike pleaded, his words causing the filly to halt her onslaught. “We don’t want her flipping out again.” When the filly nodded her understanding, the drake relinquished his hold on her mouth and patted her head with a claw. “Sorry for grabbing your mouth. It’s just that there’s a time and a place for everything, even if it’s just talking. And talking about... the meanies now isn’t a good idea.”

The filly nodded again, and shot a glance towards Matt. “Sorry, the dragon’s right, little girl. I’m afraid that talk is gonna have to wait,” he sighed, his tone level. He trotted over to her and ruffled her mane a bit with his hoof, a smile curling his lips as he added, “But in the meantime, we’ll keep the big nasty meanies away from you. Okay?”

“Okay,” the filly chirped, nodding once more.

Matt nodded back and ruffled the filly’s mane some more before turning back to the Mythonian tourists. His smile faded yet again, and he sighed, “Whichever one of you suggested that party, your proposition got me thinking since we left Frostbite yesterday.”

“About what?” Pinkie asked, jolting up onto her back legs. She crossed her front ones as she eyed the Fantasian stallion with a curious glimmer flickering about in her irises. “You want to have that party?”

“Not right yet, all things considered. What I meant was, I’m starting to think the whole ‘end of the worlds’ gig has gotten to me pretty good, since the source was vague and we just found out he was a complete fucking lunatic yesterday. I talked with the others in the tank—including Anna’s supposed sister and the diamond dog—about it for quite a bit,” Matt answered, frowning.

“And…?” Applejack ventured, quirking a brow.

“Oh, I think I get it!” Pinkie piped up, garnering the attention of everyone as she spoke. “You’re starting to think the vague legend or whatever it was you heard is a big hunk of baloney!”

“Something to that degree,” Matt replied, nodding as his horn started glowing a soft gold. A smile resurfaced on his muzzle as he kept speaking, “Sure, it couldn’t hurt to check, so I’ll propose something in return. Me and my group gets to check everywhere we’re able to, and if we find nothing regarding the ‘end of the worlds’ maybe-nonsense, we’ll punch ourselves silly because an old crazy geezer fooled us and have that party, yeah?”

“Now you’re talking!” Pinkie beamed, eyes glittering in delight as she bounced over to Matt and wrapped a foreleg around his neck. She turned to Twilight—unaware that Matt’s horn ceased glowing—with a grin as she asked, “What you say, Twilight? Deal or no deal?”

Twilight let a smile appear on her muzzle. “I guess we have ourselves a deal,” she answered. “But would the General of the Fantasian Gryphon-Changeling Army approve of it?”

As if mere spoken words could summon the devil himself, her ears caught the sound of another set of hooves clip-clopping on wood. She turned to the entrance of the ship, and stiffened as she witnessed Lance trotting right inside with his head held high. “As a matter of fact, I would. And before you ask, I stood outside the ship the entire time, and Matt just sent me a telepathic message explaining the whole thing,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Though, I’d like a day to make further arrangements with my own group and my army, seeing as we have just one airship, yet two groups. Speaking of, I do wonder why you and your friends crossed the atmospheric threshold to land in a sub-zero-at-night hellhole,” he added, shooting Twilight a cursory gaze.

“The friend who lent me this airship… well, she’s a leader, like you,” Twilight began, suppressing the urge to grimace. “She wanted to know how Fantasia’s operated, and to bring back any natives if necessary—” she faltered as Lance’s eyes narrowed just a little bit, “—not-not by force, mind you! She’s not that kind of leader!”

“Hrm…” Lance rose a hoof to rub his chin before setting it back down. He quipped, “If this friend of yours was a terrible sort of leader, then I wonder how the hell she managed to snag an airship. Faulty leaders don’t manage their power for long before their entire system plummets into the darkness that is complete anarchy.”

Twilight let out a nervous laugh before speaking again, “I-I see… wou—” A rising hoof adorned with a horseshoe had been all it took to silence her before she could finish speaking.

“After my arrangements have been made, me and my group would like to come along. I, too, need a vessel of the sky. Which, obviously, the Valkyrie isn’t. Would tomorrow, noon sharp, be good?” Lance asked, though his words sounded more like a statement.

Twilight frantically nodded. “Y-yes, we can m-manage that,” she stammered.

Lance nodded back. “I guess that settles it,” he said. He heard a masculine chuckle and shifted his focus to Matt, immediately noticing that the featherless foal had pranced up to the half-Clydesdale and grasped one of his furry legs with her claws.

“Why do you have a lot of hair on your hooves?” the child asked, tugging at the thick fur for emphasis.

Matt looked at the foal with a wide grin, laughing heartily as she stared back with curiosity alight in her eyes. “One of my pals—the nice pony with the black hat—thinks I’m part mammoth,” he answered with another chuckle.

“What’s a mammoth?” the child inquired, her ears flicking for the barest of instants.

“It’s a big fuzzy thing like I am, except three times bigger and it has horns at the corners of its mouth and a really long, bendy nose. It also has big ears, large enough that I could fit one of the other ponies inside it with no problem, and it’s brown all over,” Matt replied, his smile widening.

“It’s good to see that… the filly’s doing alright today,” Rarity murmured, shuddering as she found herself under the concerned gaze of Applejack. She flinched as her companion leaned in close to her ear.

“No argument there, but you need a nice and long bath, Rares. And after that, one of them spa treatments. Land sakes, you need those things so bad I don’t know how much longer you could do without,” Applejack whispered to the trussed-up ivory unicorn in a matter-of-factly and worried tone of voice.

“I’m going to need much more than that, although those things would indeed be nice,” Rarity whispered back, grimacing as another shiver ran throughout her body. “I hope Celestia doesn’t banish me to the sun or moon or turn me to stone if, and possibly when, she finds out I’ve killed a Fantasian hippogryph with my bare hooves.”

“Maybe she’ll understand that you’ve just snapped and did the… it hurts me to admit, the best possible thing in that mess,” Applejack sighed, nodding her head and closing her eyes as if in grim resignation. “Sure, it cost somepo—somegryph his life, but he was gonna end that filly while everypony else had been rightly petrified by what he’d done.”

The earth pony recoiled, blinking with widening eyes as her tied mane stood on end. She looked behind her, only to spot Angel yanking at the end of her tail with his front paws and a sour look on his face. The bunny pointed behind himself with an ear, and Applejack followed where his ear had been pointing to the entrance of the lounge. There’d been hooves hitting the wood once more, although this time it came with a scritch-scratching sound that got louder as the green-maned hippogryph trotted on board.

A second after that, the diamond dog clambered on, his visage set with an unreadable look. “Does the filly have a name?” he asked, using a clawed, paw-like hand to gesture to the featherless foal.

The foal shook her head. “Nogryph got named until they hit a… something or other. I don’t remember what,” she replied.

“That about answers your question, Fenrir,” the hippogryph mare sighed, glancing at the diamond dog.

“Well, we can’t just call her ‘filly.’ One of my gryphons came up with a name for our wraith, so I can safely deduce he can do the same for the child,” Lance sighed, not turning his head to glance at Fenrir and the green-maned hippogryph.

“But, whichever gryphon that is, he’s still in the tank,” the mare with cat-like pupils pouted, sitting on her rump and crossing her front legs together.

Lance turned to the mare, sending her an incredulous frown. “Then, Sarah Lyregale, how about you name the filly? Don’t give me that look, I heard your complaint,” he hissed, eyes narrowing low.

Sarah stilled for a minute before setting her claws down, her wings betraying the tiniest of shudders. Hesitantly, she nodded, and stood up before darting around the pegasus general and making a beeline for the filly. The foal looked at her with a quizzical gaze, and the mare leaned in close before donning a rather forced smile.

The filly then began bouncing in place, flapping her naked wings as a giddy grin crept up on her muzzle. “I want a name, I want a name!” she cried, beaming as she kept on jumping.

“You mentioned a daddy, little filly. Did he want you to be named something in particular?” Matt questioned, his words managing to stop the filly’s bouncing.

The child turned to him with a frown. She replied, “Daddy wanted me to be named something or other, and now he’s gone…”

“What’d he want you to be named? Can you remember?” Sarah questioned, and the filly turned to her with a saddened look. The green-maned mare sighed and patted the foal’s head with a talon. “Listen, I know it’s probably hard for you to remember your dad and not feel bad for doing it, but could you please… try to remember what he wanted you named? We don’t wanna name you something that would make him… come back and haunt us.”

The filly nodded and closed her eyes, scrunching them so tightly it looked like she’d gotten a headache. Upon opening her eyes minutes later, she looked at the adult hippogryph and answered, “He wanted a Maria.”

“Maria…” Sarah repeated as she raised a talon and rubbed her chin with it for a bit. “That’s a start… now we need a surname.”

“Well, she’s a gryph like you… maybe it should have something to do with wind? Maybe the skies, even?” Matt suggested, looking at Sarah with a level look.

“Maybe… but it also has to not be in direct relation to the big meanies who made her hurt and cry. Something simple, and as distantly related to the meanies as possible…” Sarah murmured, continuing to rub her chin with her claws. “Frost is out of the question, as is Snow… and needs something to do with the sky...”

“Chillclaw?” Lance piped in from where he stood.

“No… not what I’m looking for…” Sarah answered, shaking her head. She thought for a second longer before her eyes lit up in a spark, and she removed the talon from her chin to snap her claws a minute later. “Aha! I think I got it!” the green-maned mare exclaimed, turning to the filly who still looked at her forlornly. “How’s Maria Icedraft sound?” she asked, and at once, the foal’s sad look melted into a happy grin, and she proceeded to jump around her with all of the grace of a grasshopper.

“Maria Icedraft, Maria Icedraft!” the filly chirped as she bounced about, laughing as she chanted those two words with very child-like glee.

“Now that we settled on a name for the filly, and it seems she enjoys said name, we’re gonna need to give her something to keep her warm. Not just a scarf, either, but it’d have to be loose enough that she can comfortably grow in her new feathers,” Matt stated, grinning as Maria stopped her leaping to look at him.

Lance also smirked, sitting on his rump as his grin only widened. “And fortunately for us, maybe that damn blind bag we have in the tank could yield us something of that nature. If not…” he paused, shifting his glance to Rarity, “we could always have somepony make Maria the needed outfit.”

“Beg your pardon?” Twilight asked, turning to the general with a brow quirked. He responded by raising a hoof and pointing it at Rarity.

“I heard one of you’s a dress designer. Surely, designing something for a featherless foal wouldn’t be a challenge?” Lance retorted, the coy smirk still plastered onto his visage. The ivory unicorn stiffened for a bit before hesitantly turning to him.

“Y-you want me… to make a dress…?” Rarity inquired, her eyes widening.

“For Maria, yes. Hell, make something for the wraith, too—considering your reactions when you first saw her, I’m gonna stretch my broken wings and assume that much of the population of Mythos is going to react in a similar manner. The less Mythonian ponies, gryphons, and whatever else sees her in her current state, the better—until we can figure out just what’s wrong with her and manage to rectify it, of course. She’d do well with a facial covering, among other things,” Lance answered with a nod. “And yes, we’ll pay you handsomely for the outfits.”

Maria rushed over to Rarity and started to leap around the unicorn before managing a leap that got her high enough to land her on the ivory mare’s back. When the frazzled unicorn glanced at her new passenger, the foal donned a bit of a pouting frown and sparkling, wide eyes. “Pretty please?” she pleaded. “With an apple on top?”

“I’ll… need to take measurements after I get cleaned up and check on my little sister to make sure she didn’t hurt herself or destroy anything in my absence. But consider it done,” Rarity answered with a heavy sigh leaving her lips. At this, Maria beamed at her with a wide grin.

“Yay! Thank you, nice horn-pony!” Maria chirped, flapping her bare wings excitedly.

“Oh, shoot! I’m gonna need to check on my sis, too! I hope she took care of Winona while I was gone!” Applejack exclaimed, looking at her haggard friend with widening eyes.

“And I need to check on Scoots! Who knows what she could’ve done in the last few days!” Dash cried, also turning to Rarity with dilating pupils. A feminine ‘ahem’ grabbed the attention of the trio and they darted their heads before their unified gaze fell on Sarah, who had been looking at them with a small smirk on her face.

“Worried about your sisters, I take it? Don’t worry; I understand, my own sister worried me a lot until yesterday,” Sarah chimed in, her wings shifting a bit as she spoke.

“Why say that?” Applejack ventured, frowning.

“Me and my sis took separate paths when we were barely teenagers. It’s a long story, and I was worried she’d gotten hurt after we parted ways,” Sarah answered, standing up and angling her body whilst flaring the wing attached to the side that faced the Mythonians, revealing to them her cutie mark.

“It’s a… halberd with its shaft jutting between the strings of a harp? With what looks like a breeze weaving around the two? What’s it mean?” Rarity asked, eyeing the rather peculiar mark.

Chapter VII- Cacophony*

Chapter VII- Cacophony*

“Long story,” Sarah replied bluntly, closing her wing and sitting down on her rump.

“I just noticed that your feathers start out light brown, then go to a regular brown, and end in a green that’s a little dark at the tips of the primaries. Is there a rhyme or reason behind that?” Twilight mused, trotting over and pointing a hoof at one of Sarah’s closed wings for emphasis.

“It’s a hippogryph-and-gryphon thing. Unless the gryph is really old, or straight albino, they’re gonna have these kind of wing patterns. My wings are actually pretty dull, if you compared me to one of Mr. General’s male gryphon soldiers side-by-side. I guess it has to do with the fact that I have ovaries,” Sarah answered, briefly flinching for a moment.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be heading back to the Valkyrie now. The boarding dock let in too much cold air for my liking, and it’s bad for my broken wings,” Lance sighed, and with that, he turned around and trotted out.

“I guess I’ll follow him. Since his wings are broken, he has to be helped up into the hatch. Good thing I know levitation,” Matt sighed. He briskly trotted out of the airship, his mane and tail whipping about in a fleeting gale as he made his exit.

“I’ll go check on sis. I hope she didn’t go into heat,” Sarah groaned, standing up on her back legs and walking out. She’d been stopped by Fluttershy, however, before she could set hoof on the boarding dock. “Yes?”

“Um, why do you walk on your back legs, and is your sister’s heat cycles that worrying? If you don’t mind answering,” Fluttershy ventured, looking at the hippogryph with a frown on her face.

“In order, sometimes my talons hurt from walking on all fours for an extended period and I’d rather spare them more agony, and it makes it easier to fight with my harxe when push comes to shove. My sister’s heat cycles are… bad, to put it mildly. Or at least, that held true until we separated; it may not be true anymore though,” Sarah sighed, grimacing.

“What’s a harxe?” Twilight questioned, quirking a brow. The hippogryph shot a glance over her shoulder and smiled.

“You saw the halberd with the harp tied to the shaft? That’s a harxe, and yes, I invented that word,” came the answer. Sarah resumed walking upright out of the airship, her tail and mane gently swaying as she went down the boarding dock.

Fenrir made to stand next to a window and lean back into a wall, eying the Mythonians with an unreadable look still framing his visage. “It would seem you lot and the native ponies are, for a lack of better words, vastly different. The smells you exude as we speak are not ones I am familiar with, with the exception of the dried blood,” he murmured in a low tone, his ears jutting upright and standing as stiff as mountain peaks.

Applejack watched as the diamond dog crossed his arms and replied with worry flickering in her eyes, “How do we smell different from the Fantasian ponies? I don’t rightly get what you mean, except for the blood bit.”

Fenrir scoffed and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply before answering, “You all smell fresh and clean for starters, whereas the ponies in the tank smelt like they had dirtied their hooves so much I’d assume they’ve been doing just that since foalhood. The wraith reeks of… halted necrosis—she should be rotting to the very bones if she has them, yet she isn’t. The gryphons’ feathers, though, gave me… mixed results. I’d attribute that to meticulous preening.”

“By ‘dirtying their hooves,’ what do you mean?” Rainbow questioned, shooting a glance at her fellow mares. Her companions shrugged and shook their heads before turning their attention back to the diamond dog.

“They’re seasoned fighters, the whole lot, with the exception of the wraith. I doubt she could hold so much as a melting candle in a dampened cave filled with monsters,” Fenrir answered with another scoff. “A changeling that thin has little to no fighting chance; in fact, playing possum would most likely be her only means of staying intact for another day. The general… he had another scent wafting about him.”

“That scent being...?” Twilight trailed off, a frown worming its way onto her muzzle as she fell silent.

Fenrir answered after a few moments passed by, “He reeked strongly of metal—of blackened steel, iron, and brass. Whether it’s from his weapon and ammunition pouch, or something else entirely, I cannot say for certain.”

“Maybe his horseshoes had something to do with that scent. Perhaps they’re made of metallic alloys,” Twilight replied, raising a hoof and rubbing the side of her forehead with it. “But then, how’d he get his hooves on those shoes, let alone the Valkyrie?”

“I’ve asked him that myself. He would not answer,” Fenrir groaned, shaking his head. “The general asked me to spend the night with you bunch in the airship. He said something about a compromise.”

“It was my idea, but now he reversed it,” Spike piped up, immediately finding himself getting a glance from the dog.

“Oh? And what was the idea?” Fenrir mused, his lips curling into a half-smile. “Humor me, small drake.”

“Yesterday, when everyone started to fight and things began boiling over, I suggested that one of my friends spend the night in the tank. Rainbow Dash took that offer, and it seems Lance is having you spend the night with us,” the drake answered, grinning sheepishly. “When we first landed, things got off to a very rocky start, and it came to a head after some wraith unicorns showed up apparently looking for trouble.”

“They called one of the Fantasian unicorns—the one with the orange mane—something foul, and the wraith unicorns… got a thrashing they likely won’t forget, to put it in eloquent terms,” Rarity added, shuddering partly from the temperature in the ship dropping thanks to the open dock, and partly from a repeat of that scenario playing about in her mind.

“Wraith unicorns…” Fenrir parroted, blinking as the words left his mouth. “What did they look like?” he ventured, tapping a claw against his upper arm.

“They all had armor, black manes, pale coats, and those creepy glowing eyes like the dead changeling has. But one had greaves on his legs and carried a spear, and the rest had strange horseshoes sporting claw-like extensions,” Twilight answered, shifting her back legs so she could plop down on her rump.

“Are wraiths scary?” Maria inquired, getting another look from the diamond dog.

“Most wraiths are, usually, at least appearance-wise. As for fighting, it depends on the individual involved, and almost all wraiths I have met prior to this very week would go out with their heads held high if it meant taking down a single living pony, gryphon, or whatever else that so much as breathes,” Fenrir sighed, shifting his stance so he could stand upright without the aid of the wall. “How many got thrashed?”

Twilight made a rejoinder, “Around a dozen or so. The last one took off his armor and fled, but the dead changeling flew after him and killed him by clamping on his horn with her mouth. One of the Fantasian unicorns believes she cut off his flow of mana and it backfired on him with lethal results.”

“That is… something I have not heard of before. I find myself more perplexed by the minute,” Fenrir remarked, his half-smile fading.

“Big doggy, why do you look grumpy?” Maria questioned, staring straight up at Fenrir’s face from where she sat on the floor. The diamond dog looked at her for a few moments, as if judging her with his expressionless visage.

“I’m not grumpy,” he answered coolly after another minute, “I’m just thinking to myself. That is all.”

“What are you thinking about?” Maria persisted, her wings twitching as she spoke.

“A lot of things. Things a filly like yourself… would have a difficult time understanding,” Fenrir replied, moving to kneel in front of the filly before patting her head with a paw-like hand. “Put it like this, little one: I am very confused at the moment.”

“Ah, okay,” Maria murmured, nodding and smiling at the diamond dog.

Fenrir nodded back and glanced up at Twilight, letting a small smile crop up on his muzzle. “Would you have something that Maria can play with? I have a feeling she will eventually get bored, with so little to do in this airship,” he said, his tone level.

Twilight frowned and released a sigh. “There’s a bit of a conundrum with that—I don’t know what kind of toys she likes, or has had before… you know, the mess yesterday,” she answered in a glum voice.

“I had these big sticks that were bendy and prickly, and they looked funny,” Maria remarked, turning to Twilight. “The meanies kept giving them to me, and I thought they were swords. Daddy got mad at the meanies because of the toys.”

Twilight proceeded to gawk at the filly. “Wait, the meanies gave you toys, and daddy got mad? And the toys bended and looked funny?” she all but squeaked her words out, voice rising several octaves higher whilst simultaneously lowering in volume. Maria nodded, and her smile fell.

“And daddy told the meanies I couldn’t have the toys. He even hit the bearded meanie with one, right across the face,” the child added, visibly shaking as the last bit came out of her mouth.

Spike hopped onto Twilight’s back and leaned in close to her ear. He whispered, “They gave her dildos, Twi. Dildos with barbs and knots.”

As soon as the words sank in, the color all but drained from Twilight’s gaping visage. Her mind short-circuited and shut down while she stood there staring at Maria vacantly. She knew now why the filly’s father got angry, if her words were anything to go by, which had led to… to…

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she stood there for a tense moment longer before her legs buckled from Spike’s weight upon her backside. The lavender unicorn collapsed into a heap, legs sprawled out and her entire form going unresponsive. The other ponies, as well as Harry and Angel, were at her side in an instant. Fenrir and Maria rushed in not a second after.

“I see whatever it was the drake whispered into her ear had been a tad too much for her mind to handle,” Fenrir sighed, shaking his head. “I’ve a feeling things will not go swimmingly when she wakes up.”

“I… second that,” Spike conceded, nodding as he got off of Twilight’s back. “This doesn’t happen much back at home, and when they do, she gets real mad. Like, you've no idea how mad Twilight can get.”

“Let us not discuss this further, lest the other ponies find themselves in a similar state of unconsciousness. Is there anything in the airship that might distract the filly?” Fenrir asked in a low tone, eyes narrowing for the briefest of seconds.

“We have papers and quills and ink; maybe it’s a good idea to let her draw stuff,” Spike suggested, a small grin worming its way onto his face.

“Hrm?” Fenrir hummed, looking at the drake with a brow shooting up. “Why was I not made aware of this sooner?”

“Well… we’ve packed the papers and quills and ink in case we needed to send a letter to the friend that’s a leader. But I figured we’d packed enough for emergency situations, and to keep Maria entertained,” Spike replied, grinning at the dog sheepishly.

Fenrir’s brow rose even higher. “You… send letters to your leader-companion on the sister planet?” he inquired, his voice rising an entire octave.

"Yeah," Spike answered, nodding fervently.

"What's paper?" Maria questioned, her remark causing Spike to turn to her as his face paled.

"I'm afraid to ask why she doesn't know what paper is," Dash interjected, fidgeting in place.

"I'll just..." Rarity began, shying away from the gathering on unsteady hooves, "I'll just, er, go get the paper and quills and ink. I shall be back in a jiffy." With that, she made a beeline to the airship's storage compartment in such a hurry that her mane and tail appeared to have been whipping in a nonexistent wind as she went.

"That mare sounds troubled to me. Deeply, deeply troubled," Fenrir sighed, watching where Rarity had gone whilst shaking his head.

"She... uh, never killed anypony... or gryph, I should say, until yesterday," Fluttershy replied, her ears folding back and her wings hanging as though limp. "Rarity's... trying to cope with the fact."

"Big meanie had it coming. He killed mommy and daddy!" Maria huffed, bare wings flaring for a moment before languidly folding back at her sides.

"There's no denying that, sugarcube," Applejack sighed, turning to the filly and trotting up to her. She forced herself to smile and asked, "You still looking to get your cutie mark?" At the filly's nod, the earth pony continued, "Well, how about you grow your feathers back, and then me and my pals and the nice ponies in the tank can see about helping you with that."

Maria donned a grin of her own. "Maybe the nice wing-ponies can teach me how to fly!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, boy," Rainbow Dash sighed, looking at the hippogryph filly with a fond and exasperated smile. She turned to Pinkie and mouthed, "She reminds me of Scootaloo already."

"At least we're not being reminded too much of the meany-pants who hurt her," Pinkie mouthed back, beaming in a wide grin.

Dash nodded back to the pink pony, her smile fading a teensy bit.

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Rarity scrounged around in the storage compartment, her hooves heavily dragging along the floor, her breathing once more uneven and raspy. "Must... not think... about the town of barbarians," she mumbled to herself over and over, as if it were a calming mantra. She paced back and forth, trying her absolute damnedest to not dwell on the events that happened the day prior, but no matter how hard she tried she could not shake off the memory.

She kept at it, though, in as diligent a manner as she could possibly muster. Given her still-stained frame, frazzled mane, and the way her hooves seemed hellbent on making new scuff marks in the floor, she hadn't been very successful. Eventually, though, something came to disrupt her in her solitude, punctuated by a masculine 'ahem' that echoed from behind. The unicorn whirled around and spotted the ship's armored pilot, looking at her with a stoic mask that threatened to break beneath slanting eyelids.

"Miss Rarity, are you not well?" he asked in a level tone.

"No, I am indeed unwell. Just... retreating here for a while to... er, gather my thoughts," she replied, voice quivering. She let off a nervous laugh as she whispered to herself in the darkest corners of her mental crevasse, "Thank Celestia he didn't ask about the blood on my hooves..."

"What's that on your hooves?" the stallion asked, gazing quite pointedly at the dried red still caking the ends of her limbs and drowning out the ivory.

"Where's a washcloth when you need it?" Rarity mentally groaned before sighing and replying, "I spilled red ink on them yesterday and hadn't gotten it off since."

"I see. Carry on," the armored pony said in an uncertain tone before nodding and taking his leave.

"He didn't seem terribly convinced. I just hope I can wash this hideous red off before he has the chance to ask again... wait a second, ink..." Her thought processes halted as she eyed one of the crates, still closed tight. Lighting up her horn and embracing the wooden container with her magic, she lifted the lid with ease to reveal entire wells of ink within, stacked near-seamlessly one atop the other, in neat little rows.

"Almost as hideous as the red of blood... but I'll take sable over deep crimson any day at this rate. And this time, I think I can make a convincing lie on my way out," Rarity murmured in her mind, a small smirk splaying out on her haggard visage. She eyed some more crates before effortlessly prying them open, revealing a lot of stacked, blank papers and multitudes of quills. At this, her smirk only widened, albeit a tiny bit.

She immediately frowned, though, upon remembering the other crates in the room. "I don't want to spill ink all over the essentials, especially if they're in crates. Why, the ink would drip through the nooks and crannies and I'd have no excuse for that! I cannot afford to sully even one apple, let alone an entire casket of them," she mentally chastised herself, shaking her head furiously as if speaking to another pony that had managed to get on her nerves.

"Hrm..." Rarity began as the mass prying of all of the crates in the room started, the open containers levitating to her so she could examine their contents. "Food goes over there, but I have to keep the apples and corn separate from one another..." the mare went on as she sorted the containers based on their contents, which took a little less than a half-hour to complete. Once finished, she strode to one end of the storage room and began trotting to the other in a slow gait, eyeing her handiwork all the while.

Upon reaching the other end, which took only moments even at the snail's-pace she went at, she turned around with a flourish and beamed. "I... think I feel much better now," she murmured to none in particular. She paused upon hearing a faint, peculiar sound. Her ears swiveled, trying to catch that noise; catch it, they did. "Who in Eque—in Fantasia could be playing a harp?" she mused, her horn lighting up and embracing a sheaf of papers, an inkwell, and a few quills as she spoke.

"Oh, nevermind, I'll ask when I return with the papers and things," Rarity mumbled, trotting back to the lounge of the ship with the stuff in tow. As she went, the sounds of the harp grew louder and louder, and she mentally noted that the tune warbled in an erratic nature, yet somehow remained soothing all the same. When she made it no closer than three hooves to the threshold between lounge and storage room, the tune abruptly stopped, a final thrum fading as it rang in the air.

From where she stood, Rarity could see Twilight rising onto her hooves languidly, a vacant look on her face as she came to with a vibrantly-glowing horn. Before her stood Sarah, who frantically started up a tune on the harp tied to her halberd. A wide-eyed look set into the hippogryph mare's visage as she plucked at the strings with careful claws, the instrument radiating with some kind of innate, green-tinted magic.

This new tune betrayed Lyregale's apparent urgency well; the notes were sporadic and all over the place—not once did the frantic song posses an instance of harmony. Rather, it seemed to be a chaotic thing, as if its maker were trying to soothe a dragon that threatened to swallow her up. Twilight's horn began glowing brighter, and the instrumentalist's ears flattened against her head as she continued playing her song with a faster gait. Her claws constantly tethered on the verge of snapping the frail strings all the while the tune spiraled deeper into the chaos of seemingly-misplaced notes.

The lavender appendage's light shined brighter, to which the harpist responded accordingly: further devolving the song into an incomprehensible jumble of high and low notes and pure madness. The harp itself had its own light that began shining brilliantly, as if Twilight were its competition. The green aura morphed into lines, adorned with all sorts of musical notes that circled the vacant-gazed Mythonian and rammed her full force, eliciting a shriek of pain and a pair of eyes that finally snapped to full alarm.

Twilight's horn ceased glowing, and she stood there dazed for a minute longer before glaring at Sarah. "What was that for, and how did you get into the airship?" she growled.

Sarah flinched back, wings ruffling momentarily as she shakily conveyed her answer, "You were about to have a magic surge, and your friends let me in through the window."

Rainbow rushed to Twilight with wide eyes and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Your horn was glowing while you were out, and we didn't want to find out what you'd do if you weren't stopped!" she cried, her tone worried.

"Is nice horn-pony okay?" Maria piped up, trotting to Twilight with a frown on her face.

"Er... kind of," Rainbow answered as Twilight opened her mouth to reply. "Just give her a few."

"I haven't had a magic surge since I was a filly..." Twilight mumbled, ears folding back. "And earlier, I felt awake, but... like I wasn't there. Almost exactly like the day I got my cutie mark, in fact."

"Well, at least... whatever you were charging has been halted, even if it required my music to literally slap you upside the head to do it," Sarah replied, her smile unsteady as her muzzle quivered.

"Just how were you able to do that, anyway? Don't unicorns use that sort of magic?" Dash asked, looking at the hippogryph mare with an unreadable look.

"My harxe, blade and instrument... they're enchanted. With the latter, I can turn my own songs into weapons in of themselves, but they require me to... be frantic about it. With the blade-and-spear portion, it's more of..." Sarah trailed off, taking a moment to twiddle her claws awkwardly.

"'More of' what?" Applejack interjected, trotting up to the harpist with a frown on her muzzle.

Sarah's nervous grin widened. "I'd... rather show you the enchantment than prattle off about it. It's hard to explain anyway," she answered.

Twilight studied the weapon-instrument-thing for a bit before her horn began softly glowing. When Sarah started reaching for the harp's strings again, she sighed and said, "No, I'm not going to have another magic surge. I just want to sense what kind of enchantments your peculiar weapon has." With that, the claws stopped just shy of the instrument as the whole thing found itself embraced in a lavender aura and hovering in front of the Mythonian unicorn in moments.

She continued to gaze at the two-piece object, noting sparks of innate green magic bursting forth here and there at random intervals from the entire thing. "Hrm... seems to be imbued with latent pegasus magic on the blade-and-spear portion, and unicorn magic for the harp's strings. Tell me, does this thing let you channel its magic, even though you're clearly not a unicorn?" she asked, turning her attention to the weapon's owner with a brow raised.

"Only the harp does. The enchantments on the blade-and-spear just... I've never been able to activate them by myself, really," Sarah hastily replied, shaking her head. "And the harp only activates its magic if I play on random notes; you couldn't ask me to partake in an organized symphony of some kind to save my own life."

"Prove it," Dash said simply.

"Give me my harxe back first, and I will," Sarah retorted, her face hardening. Twilight relented and handed the thing back to the hippogryph mare, who took a deep breath before she began to play some random piece on the strings. The notes were in-tune and pitched in accordance, yet inexplicably, they somehow sounded wrong. As the song went on, the Mythonians started wincing, ears folding back as if they were listening to a drunk pony with a non-musical cutie mark attempt to play a violin with one hoof.

The notes continued, sounding more and more grotesque as the gryph continued to play. The harpist's visage, as well as those of Maria and Fenrir, also morphed into scrunchy-eyed expressions of anguish as the horrid cacophony played for a few more agonizing minutes that felt like hours. The song devolved into a horrid screeching as the harp began glowing, sparking violently until, at last, Sarah stopped playing.

She dropped her harxe as the thing began sparking all over, her claws shooting up to cover her ears as the thing released one last shrill note coupled with a terrible clang as it landed on the wooden floor of the lounge. After another minute, the two-piece thing ceased glowing altogether, its innate magic fading into ember-like remnants of emerald.

For another few moments, all went silent, with everyone trying to recover from the horrid racket the harpist somehow managed to procure with her own talons. Twilight groaned, her head pounding in pain and blood rushing through the veins of her cranium. She looked around, eyes darting to and fro until their violet gaze fell upon Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus had her gaze affixed on Sarah, who was too busy covering her ears to notice she had found herself getting stared at.

Mustering the strength to ignore her headache for the time being, Twilight turned to Sarah and proceeded to remark, "A harp is part of your cutie mark; you shouldn't be able to play that badly."

Sarah removed her claws from her ears. "Come again?" she croaked.

"How did you mess up whatever piece you played that badly?" Twilight paraphrased, groaning partly from pain and partly in exasperation.

"I've... never been able to play good. Hell, if you took me to a composer and had me play for them right now, they'd declare me hopeless in the field of music," Sarah replied, shaking her head. "And the harp's enchantments seem to react to my playing if I tried to play a piece of music in tune, like the thing's magic is aware of my terrible performance." Her gaze fell, and she sighed bitterly. "Frankly, I'm still impressed a harp is part of my cutie mark to begin with."

"Now that worries me. You have to play notes out-of-tune to make a maybe-good song, but if you play them in-tune, it backfires and gives everypony and their grandmare the mother of all headaches?" Dash groaned, her hoof raising and connecting with her face. She slid it down the bridge of her muzzle and added, "Remind me to not dare you to do that ever again."

"Duly noted," Sarah conceded in a sad tone, slowly nodding her head, yet never looking at the pegasus who dared her in the first place.

"Maybe I'll try to play a song on the harp," Twilight proposed, instantly finding herself getting a wide-eyed glare from the hippogryph as soon as she spoke.

"No, don't touch it!" Sarah shrieked a moment too late as a lavender aura embraced the harxe and lifted it up. In an instant, the innate magic in the weapon reacted and began playing the strings by itself and producing another awful orchestra of strained, groaning notes. The song cried louder than before, forcing the lavender unicorn to release her hold on it and let it clatter to the floor with a final and echoing thrum of the string that had magnified itself to near-deafening levels of volume.

Once everyone regained their ability to hear, Pinkie pointed an accusing hoof at the two-piece weapon whilst keeping her gaze on Sarah, and she stated, "That thing is possessed! How'd you get your claws on it?"

"Er... hand-me-down," Lyregale replied simply, frowning. "Nobody told me to avoid playing things on that harxe; I pretty much found out the hard way not to. Let's wait a half-hour before touching it again; it evidently does not want anything to do with being held right now."

"I think we can all agree on that. I'm sure Harry and Angel would greatly appreciate that," Fluttershy conceded, shooting a gaze at the animals in question. Both nodded fervently, with Angel tugging his ears down using his paws, a wide-eyed, agonized, and pleading look on his face that all but screamed 'Don't do that again, please!'

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The following day, the Mythonian ponies found themselves in the company of another airship. This one had been roughly as big as their own, yet its insignia was drastically different from the markings on theirs. The giant balloon portion sported a deep black hue, highlighted with silvers and greens. The hull had crude wings on the sides, two pairs; one stylized to look like a changeling's set, the other that of a gryphon's.

The front sported a figurehead that had three heads, the first two like a gryphon and changeling again, but the third of a pony. Its front limbs were mismatched; one had holes, and the other was a talon. The back legs also had a similar appearance: a back paw, and regular hoof. The back of the ship bore three tails; a haggard one of the changelings, a thin one ending in a fluffy tuft, and the last flowing and thick all around like that of a pony's.

The hull itself sported predominant deep maroons, accentuated by golden railings, orange-tinted trimmings, and a faded white that made up the docking platform which had been closed tight.

"That's one mighty scary airship," Applejack remarked as she stared out the window of the vibrantly-colored Mythonian airship. The other mares surrounded her, each trying to gaze out of the window as well.

"That looks more like a war machine than it does an airship," Twilight commented, scanning the thing and suppressing a shudder.

"I dare say, that looks quite dreadful if you ask me. It's quite fashionable, don't get me wrong, but it's... dreary," Rarity noted, eyeing the figurehead of the ship. "And who would put a chimera as a figurehead on an airship?"

"I blame Lance for that," Rainbow replied.

"I wonder what all's in that thing, though!" Pinkie chirped, bouncing over to another window to see a much larger airship, stylized almost exactly like the one closer to the vessel she stood in, further away with its gangplank dropped. The Valkyrie was being maneuvered into the third vessel. "Where's that other airship taking the tank?"

"I don't know," Fluttershy murmured, shaking her head. "But the wings on the other airship are flapping; should I go tell our pilot to take off?"

"I'll go tell him," Spike interjected, turning to another door on the right-hand side of where the storage compartment lay. He ran to it and opened it, finding said pilot in a room filled with maps, compasses, and a megaphone that jutted out from the floor. The armored pony stood behind a steering wheel, front hooves gripping the circular piece of wood at the protruding knobs, staring intently at a wide window that revealed the outside. "Fluttershy wants you to take off, and the other guys in the Fantasian airship are already itching to go."

"Alright," he answered with a nod, turning to the megaphone and shouting into it, "Let's go, boys! We haven't all day; start powering the engines with your magic!"

"Yes sir!" a plethora of masculine voices replied as one from the other end of the megaphone, and in an instant, the fish-fins on the Mythonain airship began rapidly flapping in tandem with the rather lazy motions of its Fantasian counterpart. In moments, the lavender-and-gold vehicle ascended into the air, rising high into the sky before circling about languidly. At first, its pace had been little more than a snail's crawl, but it soon became faster and faster. It took off towards the sister planet, which the other airship took as its cue to do likewise. Mimicking the first ship's motions, it too achieved a great speed before darting away in pursuit of the first flying object.

Spike ran back to the mares and grinned. "So, how do you think the Fantasians will react upon seeing how Equestria's run?" he asked.

The ponies exchanged glances with one another before they all turned to Spike and shrugged in unison. "You might as well be writing a letter to Celestia asking her how she feels about the fact that we somehow found a Fantasian general," Twilight retorted, frowning.

"Oh, speaking of letters, when should we send one to her?" Spike sighed, his grin fading.

"Not until this ship is in Equestria and it slows down. If we opened one of the windows now, we'll all be vacuumed out by the intense force of wind. Or pushed out another window, depending on which side is opened, where we'll all fall to our deaths. Not only that, but suppose we somehow live that whilst staying in the airship and try writing back to her. The letter itself will be lost to the suction; it's all-around impractical," Twilight replied, her gaze falling to the floor.

She rambled on, "It's just too risky now; the flames would extinguish before they could send the letter because the force of wind sucks the oxygen out, which fires of all kind need to burn with. And then we'd have to contend with the lack of oxygen the higher we climb up the atmosphere; at best, we're still in the troposphere. Ugh, we should've just sent Celestia the letter before taking off!"

"It would've taken longer for the letter to reach her, though. The distance between the two worlds isn't exactly as small as I am," Spike countered, shaking his head.

Twilight sighed in defeat. "You're right about that, Spike. At most, the two worlds are ten-thousand kilometers apart," she conceded. "It would've been days, if not weeks, before she even got the blasted piece of parchment."

"Let's talk about something that'll make us smile. I can't wait to see home again; ever since two days ago, I've been itching to go back to a place of friendly ponies and happy foals!" Pinkie exclaimed, and at this, everyone else turned to her.

Applejack donned a small grin. "Oh, we can see how our folks are doing. I wonder if the Cakes and their twins are okay. Those foals are a hassle," she chirped.

"I hope the Cutie Mark Crusaders are well. Maybe they've gotten their cutie marks while we were gone," Fluttershy interjected, also donning a serene smile.

"Maybe Scoots learned how to fly, without my help! If she did, then it's gonna be so awesome!" Dash cried, her muzzle breaking out in a wide and triumphant smirk. A tear formed in one of her eyes and trailed down her cheek as she added, "It will be the best day ever if she can soar."

"Rainbow, pardon my forwardness, but are you crying right now?" Rarity inquired, gazing at the cyan mare with a slight frown on her face.

Dash indignatly turned to the ivory unicorn with a gawking expression. She hastily rubbed her face with a hoof as she replied, "No, no, and no. I just had something in my eye!"

"Then why are you rubbing the entirety of the righthoof side of your visage?" Rarity persisted, her frown morphing into a smile.

"Because it itches!" Rainbow retorted as she ceased rubbing her face in order to glare at Rarity. "There's nothing wrong with scratching an itch!"

"Alrighty then," Rarity stated simply, turning away from her companion and raising a hoof to her muzzle. She giggled into the end of her limb, careful to avoid smearing the dried red upon her lips as she did so.

Chapter IX, Part I- A String of a Difference*

Chapter IX, Part I- A String of a Difference*

The group filed down the streets, the guards flanking their sides every step of the way. The purple-armored unicorn took point, with Matt following him close behind. "Sir, is it alright if we asked you some questions?" Matt asked as the troop rounded a corner fluently.

The lead guard tossed a glance over his shoulder. "You're already asking one," he quipped. "Still, I think it would be best to wait until we take you to the Princess. I am aware a lot is probably on your mind, but I feel your inquiry is for her ears alone."

"Well..." Matt sighed as he trailed off, letting the words of the lead guard bumble about in his head for a bit. "That's... actually pretty sound reasoning. Alright, I'll wait."

"Are you nice ponies?" Maria asked, eyeing the nearest pegasus guard to Alexander's left.

The armored stallion looked at the filly who sat upon the gryphon's back and sent her a small smile. "I assure you, little one, we're excellent ponies," he replied before glancing back ahead.

"She's quite the curious foal. If her mouth opens, a question's guaranteed to come out of her mouth ninety-five percent of the time," Alexander chortled, grinning. "A mind that thirsts for knowledge is good, especially for growing fillies. It just has to be kept in check in a relatively stable environment, and all should go well."

"Here, here," the winged guard agreed, still grinning.

"Yeesh, this is a huge city. I'm almost tempted to ask if we're there yet," Natalie remarked, eying some of the buildings as she and the others passed them, while still being mindful enough to not let the sights draw in every ounce of her attention.

Another guard laughed. "It happens all the time, especially if ponies come in from as far south as Appleloosa," he stated.

"From where we come from, 'Appleloosa' would sound like a silly thing to name an area," Anna interjected, again causing the guard to laugh.

"Then again, we're not the ones who founded that place," another guard retorted.

"Eh, true enough, I guess," Anna conceded with a shrug.

"So, what's Fantasia like?" another guard inquired, his inquiry causing Matt to halt right in his tracks—followed by the rest of the group as they then ran into him and each other immediately after that.

"You wouldn't want to even know what it's like over there," Matt answered in an uncertain, although tight, voice.

"And why not?" yet another guard piped up as the troop stilled to a halt.

"Just... you don't wanna know," Matt repeated, frowning. "Don't we have somewhere to go?"

"Guards, stop pestering the Fantasians with questions that make them uncomfortable!" the lead guard barked in a louder tone than was necessary, which garnered the attention of some ponies who stopped at an intersection up ahead. He turned around and made a motion with his hoof before trotting onward, and both guards and visitors fell in step behind him in three lines. They stayed silent as onlookers started shooting glances from the sky, windows, and even an alley or two.

For another half-hour of walking, there had been no further incident. A few of the city's residents trotted by and eyed the cloaked group for a moment or so before going about their business. Some whispered amongst themselves; whether in awe, wonder, or worry, the Fantasians had no way of knowing. One stallion asked the lead guard if they were prisoners, but the guards merely gave a vague answer in unison and promptly shooed him off.

After another twenty or so minutes of trotting, Matt spoke up, his tone level, "So, mister..."

"Captain Shining Armor," the lead guard replied. "What is it?"

Matt quirked a brow, but ventured with words anyway, "Could you tell me... what... what this Celestia pony—at least, I'm a-assuming it's a pony—is like?"

Shining glanced over his shoulder with an unreadable look. "She's kind, gentle, understanding, and wise. There is no need to be nervous now," he stated coolly. "We haven't even reached the castle entrance yet; I'm impressed you've gotten uneasy now, given that little glint in your eyes. Most ponies aren't even stuttering until they're standing in the throne room, being asked by the Princess about what's so important that they need to see her."

"I've only spent... three hours at most here; thus, I-I-I remain skeptical," Matt spluttered, his tone uneasy and warbling before the last three words left his mouth. He stopped and flinched as he felt a thin, clothed form clamber onto his backside with a clumsy grace. Turning his head as he resumed trotting, he found himself face-to-face to Katie, who somehow cut in line.

"Guards at the back told me to get my tail to the front and get to you, white-face," Katie explained in a hushed whisper. "They said I was trotting too slow, so I had to go between everyone else's legs to get here."

Matt glanced ahead, his visage now adorned with a deep blue tint. His ears folded back as a guard asked, "Say, why're your ears, neck and cheeks black, but your horn, legs and muzzle white?"

"He's part Clydesdale earth pony," Natalie answered for Matt from behind. "His dad was a purebreed."

Said half-Clydesdale shakily nodded. "Y-yeah," he added.

NoLegs, who had been riding on Natalie's back and remained silent until this point, began mewing at one of the guards. The guard he mrrowed at, a white pegasus with gold eyes, shot the cat a quizzical look. "Is that furball tame?" he asked.

"I've helped raise him since he was a baby. Got him when I was about seven," Matt answered, his voice taking on a confident tone. NoLegs mewed again, purring loud enough for the guards flanking Natalie to hear.

"Well, at least the cat's happy," Natalie remarked as said cat clambered up her neck to stand atop her head and rub his head on her horn. One ear twitched when the cat's tail brushed up against it, yet in doing so, it enabled her to catch the sound of something going on from behind as the group rounded a corner into another street.

"That was uncalled for!" Sarah shouted from the far back, her yell of what sounded like alarm causing the group and the guards to immediately halt in their tracks. Natalie craned her neck and found herself frowning, noticing that something had gone amiss right off the bat.

The guards flanking the rear broke formation, creating a solid front row of flesh and armor. Behind that, Fenrir and the others who kept to the rear formed another wall, each staring ahead at the ongoing ruckus. "What's the commotion?" a guard asked.

Natalie noticed that, amongst the second wall of ponies and such, one did not stand with the rest. Rather, the missing member seemed to be glaring at a red-pelted, silver-maned unicorn stallion who sneered at her before the assembled guards, and thus contributed to the aforementioned ruckus. "I don't know what it is I could have possibly done wrong," said silver-maned unicorn explained. "One minute, I am minding my own business, and the next, this mare starts shouting. I have no idea what in Celestia's name she's on about."

"You're lying!" Sarah hissed, pointing a talon at the stallion.

"Am not! And if I am, then pray tell, what could I have the sheer audacity, the nerve, to pull off to upset a rather plain mare such as yourself?" the unicorn retorted in a cold tone.

Natalie shook her head. She hadn't been sure about what to make of this development, however, until the voices began rising to rather shrill levels of volume—kickstarted by Sarah's response to the question.

"Dude, you just up and grabbed me!" Sarah shouted in an icy tone, wings visibly rustling violently beneath her cloak. "Don't you know any better than to grab random mares by their tails? And don't even think about uttering the 'I just wanted to see your cutie mark' excuse!"

Matt trotted to Natalie's side as the rest of the guards quickly joined their comrades. "Something tells me I should've brought popcorn for this," he sighed as the unicorn stallion Sarah still glared at muttered something about the color green.

"What is all of the commotion here?" Shining barked as he raced to meet up with the hippogryph and the stallion who allegedly accosted her.

"He reached under my cloak with his magic and lifted my tail so every soul in this city could see my rear end!" Sarah replied, face reddening.

"I did not!" the silver-maned pony replied, still sneering. "I don't know what you're talking about! Why, I don't fraternize with hippogryphs at all, let alone lift their disgusting tails. And yet, here's such a mare born of a pony who lost his head and a mangy gryphon giving unto me such baseless accusations!"

"And he plays the racism card," Katie whispered, positioning herself on Matt's back to stand up with a wobbling posture. "I almost wonder what the prick thinks of wraiths, especially those like myself."

"Don't go over there and tempt him. He's probably already making Lance want to beat his ass as is," Matt replied in an equally low tone.

"And Anna too," Natalie added, shaking her head. "At this rate, he's just cruisin' for a bruisin'."

NoLegs stopped purring and mewed as the already-hostile conflict between the silver-maned pony and Sarah began to escalate.

"My father, insane, and my mother, mangy?" Sarah asked, her tone almost like that of a high-pitched squawk. Her glare hardened as she added, "Well, judging from your behavior, your parents are pompous, arrogant, self-entitled, racist pigs!"

The silver-maned pony flinched and took a step back, his sneer morphing into a scowl. "And your parents are uncivilized brutes, if I were to base any assumption I make simply by how you're acting!" he declared, raising a hoof as if he were going to point it in her direction. When instead he gestured to himself with that same hoof, he went on, "Why, you little peasant, you don't know who it is you're speaking to! I am the son of Canterlot's finest composers; the best of the best! I'll have you—"

Sarah cut him off before he could finish his little tirade, "Spare me the horseshit already, you elitist, grey-maned snob."

"G-guh?" the silver-maned pony spluttered, setting his hoof down as he noticed the hippogryph's cat-like pupils shrinking and becoming meager slits in irises of evergreen.

Sarah merely huffed, "You heard me. Shall I repeat it again just so it doesn't go in one ear and out the other a second time?"

The red-coated unicorn's visage hardened. "So be it," he snorted. "I've seen that a harp's part of your cutie mark, and since you’re clearly too simpleminded to listen, I hereby challenge you to a composition duel!"

Sarah quirked a brow. "Is there a catch to this? Because if there's something very outlandish for this possible catch you may have in mind, then I'll have to turn you down and be on my merry way," she replied.

"No, other than what happens when one outdoes the other. Since I am Chanson Cheval, the best composer in all of Canterlot, if you lose—which I can guarantee—you'll have to mend my hooves, mane, and tail for a day," the self-proclaimed 'best of the best' composer answered, once more sneering.

"Anna, gimme my harp and whatever composition you have handy," Sarah stated, a small smile cropping up on her face.

Fenrir immediately went wide-eyed, his ears falling flat against his head. "Don't do it! I implore you! You have no idea what horrors you have unleashed upon us all!” he cried.

"Mean horn-pony, stop! I don't wanna hear the harp screaming again!" Maria pleaded, yet both pleas fell on deaf ears.

"Harps don't scream, you hideous whelp! A peasant child has no right to tell me what to do, especially one who isn't even passable as a maid, and nor does a dirty diamond dog, for that matter!" the red-coated unicorn snapped, briefly sending the filly a cold glare. She flinched back with a silent gasp, and the pony turned his attention back to Sarah as the diamond dog began snarling at him.

"You're gonna be singing an entirely different tune once this little contest comes to an end," Sarah hissed as Anna summoned the harp and a piece of parchment. Both objects flew to her rising talons eagerly, as the red-coated pony conjured an electric, though cordless, guitar that sported reds and silvers in its paintjob.

"The fool has no clue what dark forces he's going to invoke," Fenrir snarled, reaching up to cover his ears.

"It's the mean horn-pony's fault we're all gonna have hurting heads," Maria grumbled, slipping off Alexander's back before covering her ears. The diamond dog pulled her close, covering her ears with his paws afterwards. His face contorted to display an agonized, scrunchy-eyed expression as Cheval fueled his instrument with magic, plucked at his strings and procured the first series of horrible notes that sounded more akin to metal grating on metal.

Fenrir winced as the song went on for another moment longer, gritting his teeth as the notes devolved into something between a demon burbling and a banshee wailing; incomprehensible, high and low-pitched simultaneously, and terrible to listen to. As the song dragged on, the rest of the Fantasians in addition to their Mythonian pseudo-escorts made to cover their ears. In the case of NoLegs, the cat began incessantly hissing louder and louder, as if he were trying his hardest to drown out the noise.

Even Sarah found herself getting a growing headache as the guitarist played on for a few painful moments longer, blood rushing through her head and pounding in her ears as she patiently waited for Cheval to finish his Godcat-awful crescendo. Her wings flared from reflex as the unicorn decided to turn said crescendo into an overture, the guitar strings screeching as his magic continued to power the song.

Shining Armor threw up a pink-colored shield around himself, his fellow guards, and the Fantasians who stayed behind the platoon. He relaxed as the shield blocked the outside noise, but stiffened a moment later when cracks began forming in the frame of the pink dome. Yellow embraced the shield, forming another layer, and immediately after a red encased that layer. He turned around and spotted Natalie and Matt, their horns glowing. "I take it you can't stand it, either?" he asked in a pained voice.

"Make it stop already, I can still hear it!" Katie wailed, cloth-covered legs wrapping around her head.

NoLegs ceased his hissyfit, moving to clamber down Natalie's neck to curl up on her back with a series of weak, pleading mews.

Armin pointed accusingly at the silver-maned unicorn and proceeded to prattle off, "Good gracious, the guitarist is terrible! If he's 'the son of Canterlot's finest composers,' then how in fuck does he play so bad? Whose idea was it to let him in a band of any sort? The bastard seems to be tone-deaf! Look, he's not even wincing, despite the fact that his racket's still being played!"

"Chanson Cheval—the stallion with the guitar—sadly isn't tone-deaf. He's just playing this bad on purpose," a guard sighed, shaking his head while a crack appeared in the red layer of the shield.

"Why? Why torture everyone's eardrums like this!" Lance barked, eyes narrowing low as he turned his attention to the silver-maned pony.

"I reckon he's doing something sneaky—by playing bad, he'll likely discourage her from performing a good composition. He's trying to make her think it's a waste of time just so he gets an easy win out of it, if the grin on his face is anything to go by," the guard replied, sighing.

"Did he do this before?" Alexander asked, rubbing one of his ears.

"Several times. My armor will fly off if his opponent somehow outdoes him," the guard answered again, faintly smiling as Cheval finally ceased playing. The triple-layered dome dissappated, and everyone sighed collectively in relief.

"So, how was it?" Cheval asked, donning a sly smirk as Sarah sat there staring at him with a dazed, pained look on her face.

It took several moments for Sarah to regain her ability to listen clearly, and another few to even process the question. When she did understand what her musical opponent had asked, she articulated a snappish response, "It's so terrible I'm wondering who in fuck decided it was a good idea to hire you as a composer. Either you're tone-deaf, which I wouldn't doubt in the slightest, or you cheated."

"I'm not tone-deaf. You're just envious of my skill, you sniveling bitch!" Cheval hissed, his smirk turning upside-down as he went on, "And besides, I doubt that a filthy hippogryph who should be tilling the wheat fields of her backwoods town in the most uncivilized corner of the world could outdo me in a performance!"

Sarah's eyes narrowed, and she unraveled the parchment she held all this time to study it for a moment or so. She proceeded to hand the paper off to a guard before firmly grasping her harp, starting her piece off with a low, deep snarl worthy of a lion. Cheval took a step back, eyes widening from the sound of that growl before the first thrums of the harpstrings filled the air.

"Mayhaps you could form another barrier, please?" Fenrir asked, gently nudging Shining with a hand right as the harp's notes began distorting into the terrible, unearthly shrieks thanks to its innate magic. Shining nodded and made another barrier, frowning as the harpist's song devolved into a shrill, incomprehensible jumble of ear-splitting volumes.

"How is a harp able to do that?" Shining asked, turning to Fenrir with a hoof pointing at the playing harpist.

"It's enchanted. The exact nature of this enchantment sadly escapes me," Fenrir huffed, "but a unicorn laid a hex of some sort on it, as far as I can hope to understand. Unfortunately, as of now, there is terribly little information to work with."

The song dragged on, for far longer than Cheval's own, because after a few moments the innate magic of the instrument reacted vehemently. It threw the hippogryph aside, floating in the air and playing itself as though punishing her—as well as any unfortunate passerby who had the misfortune of simply trotting by the street the harp floated above—for playing so terribly.

The racket increased tenfold as the harp's accursed enchantments kicked into overdrive, both increasing the volume and further descending from incomprehensible jumble to what could best be described as a tone-deaf pony's dream come true.

The barrier started forming cracks in its surface again as the harp went on and on, and not even Matt and Natalie throwing up two more layers could hope to stall the racket from reaching their ears. All three layers cracked in unison as the harp dropped to the ground, letting off a shrill note that sounded more like a banshee's echoing wail. Both composers lay on the ground, hooves and claws covering their ears, faces set with tight expressions of pure agony.

For a full half-hour, the guards, Fantasians, and Cheval remained in that street, the final note still ringing in their ears as they struggled with the blood rushing through their heads and drowning out almost all else. Natalie, the first to cope with the headache and damage to her phono receptors, cast a spell, her horn glowing a soft white in color. The glow jumped from her horn, then one pony to the next, dulling the headaches and helping the rest of the afflicted regain their ability to hear as the mana swept over them. It then moved from Sarah, to Alexander, and so forth, until her magic finished its roundabout and healed the cat and wraith.

"That was so bad I think my vision went white. Oh sweet Godcat, what did I do to deserve that auditory punishment?" Katie whined, her tone pained and somewhat childish.

"I know the feeling all too well," Fenrir conceded, growling as he spoke.

"I don't like harps," Maria complained as she clambered onto Alexander's back, her lips pulled into a tight frown and ears flattened on her head.

"Guards, secure the harp. It's too dangerous to wield," Shining commanded, though his tone was low and soft. The nearest armored pegasi nodded and carefully made to scoop it up, with one tucking it beneath his left wing.

"What're you gonna do with the harp though?" Lance asked, frowning as the captain craned his neck to look at him from over his shoulder.

"Find some way to get rid of the enchantment, or make it less dangerous. Given what it just did, I don't know if the high mages of Canterlot will be able to succeed," Shining answered, turning his attention back to the composers as they both started to haul themselves from the pavement.

Cheval shot a glare at Sarah, his posture wobbly and his breathing ragged. "So that's what it is," he started, his tone dark, "you came from the sister planet's population of loons, didn't you?"

"Me and my, for a lack of better words, companions as nothing more than members of a group of loons? We're not crazy in the slightest. We're foreigners; you're definitely right about that. What's it to you, you ketchup-colored, boastful, talentless hack?" Sarah snarled back, equally as snappish, her tone just as ominous as that of her opponent's. Her wings flared wide, dragging the cloak up from her body, talons spreading apart on the walkway as though she were preparing to pounce.

Sarah went on, eyes narrowing to slits, "You told me you were born of the finest composers around here, and then what do you do? You go and give everyone headaches with a composition worse than mine, and I used an enchanted harp that does not like my attempts to play. Care to explain yourself, or are you gonna shimmy away and try to make me out to be a sore loser?" She then hissed at him like a cat, rising to stand on her back legs, talons balling into fists as she finished producing the hiss.

Cheval let out a wordless howl and surged towards his adversary, a hoof shooting up and smacking her straight in the chin, causing her eyes to screw tightly shut. She stumbled back, trying to maintain a steady balance on two legs, only to yelp as two more punches connected with her chest and stomach in quick succession. The mare reverted to all fours, and found herself sprawling on the ground as a hoof connected with her cheek in a solid right hook. She cracked an eye open upon landing as the stallion reared up onto his back legs, front hooves poised to arc in a sharp downward strike.

Before the hit could land, though, a pink magical aura gripped the silver-maned unicorn's form and hoisted him into the air, a pair of shackles appearing from a ball of light and clasping around his front hooves. "Chanson Cheval, you are under arrest for aggravated assault on one member of Princess Celestia's expected audience, and involuntary using music-based magic to assault both Royal Guards and foreign delegates alike. You will be held with no chance of bail," Shining bellowed, noticing the stallion's horn glowing.

An orange aura encased Sarah's tail and hoisted it up, but the captain's horn glowed brighter in response. A circular-shaped magic inhibitor appeared from another ball of light and clasped around the base of the the red-coated pony's shimmering horn, causing the glow around the hippogryph's tail to dissipate and the green mass of hair to drop.

"You mean to tell me this bitch is a foreign diplomat!" Cheval barked, gaze affixed on the captain while his chained hooves began rattling as soon as he pointed them accusingly at the mare he assaulted.

Shining nodded. "I'm also adding attempted sexual battery by use of magic to that list of charges. You were stupid enough to lift her tail in front of me of all possible ponies, and in broad daylight while you're already under arrest to boot," he stated coldly.

"Why do you think he's trotting with me and the other cloaked ponies in the first place?" Sarah groaned as she started to stand up once more. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, a bruise forming from where the hoof connected with her cheek. She rose a talon to rub the wound and added, "I wouldn't call myself a foreign diplomat; I'm just tagging along with my sister and her companions."

"Guards, half of you will escort Cheval to the dungeons! The other half will stick with the Fantasians and continue to escort them! You two, with the harp, take it to the high mages, at once!" Shining Armor shouted in a raised voice, and at once the guards took up three formations. Four unicorns and two pegasi circled Cheval and magically restrained him, toting him away from the scene and ignoring a long string of curses he sent Sarah's way. The two who scooped up the harp likewise left, flying on ahead and keeping the instrument held in a pair of front hooves as they vanished from sight.

"Do you need a helping hoof? You appear to be pretty badly battered," one of the remaining guards stated, looking at Sarah with concern flickering in his eyes.

Sarah looked at him and sent him a weak smile. "I've... I've handled worse. I'll live, but I'll let you know if the pain becomes too much," she answered, wincing as her claw moved to feel her chest and stomach. "Damn, I think he cracked a rib."

"The sun's setting," Matt noted, muzzle pointing towards the red-and-orange sky that had begun turning a shade of violet on one bare edge of the vast expanse. "I wish I could stay and watch the last rays of daylight paint this city's golds and purples, but we've already wasted enough time as it stands. Shining Armor, can we please get a move on?"

"Let's," Shining started, only to pause and turn his attention back to Sarah.

"Is it alright if I flew the rest of the way? My claws still hurt from playing that harp," Sarah asked, still sporting a weak smile on her face.

"But you've been assaulted!" a guard pointed out, eyes widening as he turned to the mare.

"Grey-mane didn't damage my wings in the slightest. He went for my face and stomach, which aren't even remotely close to my wing joints. 's fine," Sarah retorted, wings flaring wide again.

"You can rest on my back," Fenrir offered with a toothy grin, standing on all fours. "If your claws are aching already, it won't be long before your wings decide to take a similar route. Besides, for a hippogryph, your wing muscles look rather weak. For how long are you able to sustain your weight in the sky, hrrmm?"

Sarah flinched, ears folding back against her head as her grin morphed into a nervous smile. She let off a hitched, uneven laugh as she blurted out, "O-only a f-few minutes."

"Then I strongly suggest you hop on. Otherwise, you'll wear yourself down faster than our hornless changeling can possibly hope to trot," Fenrir snorted, his stature unmoving until the hippogryph begrudgingly complied with his demand a few moments later.

"Hornless changeling?" Shining parroted, turning to the diamond dog with a brow raised.

"On my back. She's the almost-foal-sized one with the facial injury covered by the mask," Matt piped up, garnering the attention of the purple-clad unicorn.

"Huh. I guess I didn't notice the hornless part. Then again, a scar that wide on the muzzle tends to draw more attention," Shining murmured under his breath as the remaining guards took up a two-line formation, with the Fantasians once more jostling to form a third line between the two rows of armored ponies. As soon as the group finished its arrangement, he trotted around to take point once more.

"Onward, and let us try not to attract any more attention to ourselves while we're at it!" he barked, and with that, the bunch as a whole trotted in step behind him as he led them towards another street that ended in a golden gate adorned with a sun and crescent moon.

Chapter IX, Part II- Isolated Jabbering**

Chapter IX, Part II- Isolated Jabbering**

"I think I recognize those ponies, with the exception of the really dark one over there," Lance remarked, standing in a marbled hallway adorned with a red carpet and a few dangling flower pots here and there. He eyed a stained glass mural depicting six ponies firing a multi-directional beam of energy at a seventh, larger dark blue pony with a pair of imposing wings spread wide. The mural’s coloring featured a predominant purple, highlighted with azure. The six firing the beam stood on a floor of a similar blue shade.

"What?" Shining Armor asked, stopping before trotting up to the mural in question. He flashed a smile at the picture before it fell into a stoic pursing of the lips as the cloaked pegasus turned to him.

"You know something I don't?" Lance asked, a brow raised.

"Well, given the barrier kept the worlds apart until... what, three days ago, you could say I know a lot about Mythos that you don't. By that same token, you know much more about Fantasia then I could ever hope to learn," Shining retorted in a blunt tone. He watched as the pegasus's red-eyed visage flicked between several emotions before settling on a frown.

"You do have a point," Lance conceded, turning around as the his compatriots and the rest of the guards caught up. He held up a hoof, signaling for the rest of the Fantasians to stop, and when they halted he directed that same hoof to the stained glass depiction. "Any of those ponies look the least bit familiar?" he asked.

"Hold the radio," Natalie interjected, eyeballing the mural with a narrow-eyed gaze of suspicion and a brow shooting up. "I think I'd recognize that poofy mane of bright pink anywhere."

"And that curly one of violet," Anna added.

"Wait up, how are the non-unicorns firing lasers from their heads, exactly?" Katie piped up, jerking her head a bit before raising a hoof to point at the glass artwork accusingly.

"That's a damn good question," Matt conceded, his gaze falling on the dark pony in the mural. "And who is that one? I don't think I've seen any relics or pictures depicting a unisus before."

"Unisus?" a guard piped up, looking at the half-Clydesdale with a set of brows shooting up.

"A pony with the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn. What, you have a different name for those kinds of ponies?" Sarah questioned, frowning as the lot of guards that still accompanied her and her companions shared wide-eyed looks.

"We call them alicorns around here," Shining answered in a voice laced with disbelief.

"Doesn't that term refer to a unicorn's horn, though?" Alexander interjected, his inquiry causing the guards to exchange another series of glances.

"Er, yes... but around here, it's just used to refer to what you called a, um, ‘unisus’ nowadays," Shining replied, one of his back legs fidgeting ever so slightly.

"Erm, do you consider 'unisus' an insult? If not, then why're you fidgeting right now?" Katie inquired, getting a look from the guards' captain.

"... Me, no. But, I'm... I'm married to an alicorn, and she might," he answered in an uneasy tone.

"Stop right there this instant," Fenrir growled, sending Shining a wide-eyed look. "Captain Armor, I am highly skeptical and disbelieving of your claim. Thusly, I present unto you a simple challenge: prove that your supposed wife is a unisus, or an alicorn, or whatever you care to call her. If you are able to do just that, and she doesn't have a false horn or pair of wings, then I shall perform one deed to make up for my skepticism. Do we have ourselves a deal?"

Shining's brows shot up. "One deed?" he asked.

"Anything you wish, so long as it is within reasonable boundaries," Fenrir replied, his face setting into an expressionless look as he nodded his head. "I am an ambassador of sorts, not a slave. Thus, I should be allowed to retain a reasonable shred of my dignity."

Shining donned the faintest of smirks. "Fair enough. I shall find my wife right away. Guards, escort the Fantasians to the throne room, if the Princesses are still inside it. If not, find out where they're at and reroute the ambassadors there," he commanded, and bounded off before any of the guards could have a chance to object to his order.

"Oh boy," Armin groaned, taking a moment to sit on his rump and fling his front legs into the air. "Looks like Shining's lost it."

"Let's hope he's not performing an act of cowardice on us," Lance sighed, shaking his head.

"You, with the mask, standing next to the hippogryph," a guard began, staring pointedly at Armin, "are you a changeling? I think I've caught a glimpse of blue ribs."

"Yes, he's a changeling, under my command, and I'm having him wear the cloak and mask. And no, he's not stripping those, thank you. You've already seen our other changeling's face, and I think you don't need something else to gawk at," Lance snapped, stepping in front of the male changeling defensively. The guards exchanged looks before turning to the red-eyed pegasus stallion and nodding in understanding.

"So, er... are there any alicorns in Fantasia?" a unicorn guard asked, ears falling flat on his head.

"There haven't been any. If anything, pegacorn ponies are bedtime stories back home," Sarah piped up, rubbing her shoulder with a claw. "In ancient legends, yes. In the flesh, no."

The guards broke formation and formed a tight circle amongst themselves, forelegs latching onto withers of their fellow guardsponies and heads all bowed low in the center. They whispered fervently, though their murmurs were so rampant and overlapping that whatever it had been that they chatted about eluded the otherworldly group. Not even Alexander or Fenrir could make out the tumbling words uttered in hushed tones, because once they tried to sneak near the guards, the whole group moved away from them as if one lifeform that mimicked the walking mannerisms of an ocean crab.

Maria hopped from Alexander's back and approached the guards on all fours, before rising onto her back legs to place her talons on the posterior of one of the armored unicorns. The unicorn in question jumped and craned his neck to look at the filly, sighing deeply as a bit of a blush came onto his face. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I-I-well," the guard spluttered, ears falling flat against his cranium. His blush deepened, and his eyes nearly bugged out from their sockets as the little hippogryph rose a talon up and grabbed him by the dock of his tail. A green magical aura grabbed the foal and forced her to relinquish her hold, prior to dragging her back.

"Apologies for the surprise molesting—she doesn't know any better. I'll have a talk with her about that," Anna stated in a dark tone, her horn glowing as the filly had stopped in front of her tan-beige hooves. She grabbed Maria and hefted her up with her hooves, standing up and turning around whilst bringing foal to eye level.

She donned a hard glare and she spoke in a very reprimanding tone of voice, "Listen, can we not put our little talons on the tails and butts of random ponies? It's bad, and if you put your claws on an equally bad pony or gryphon or whatever, they might really hurt you."

"B-but everygryph back home did it! Th-they told me it was a game!" Maria exclaimed, fidgeting in Anna's grasp wildly. "E-even the colts did it! But daddy wouldn't let me play that game!"

Anna's glare melted into a wide-eyed look of horror tinged with a shade of deep azure. She took a few moments just to regain her composure, and another few to attempt to form a response, yet she had gone silent even as her mouth began moving in an a vain effort to form words. For another moment or so, all she could do was little more than splutter incoherently until Natalie trotted to the archer and slapped her across the back of her head with a hoof.

She shook her head before sending Natalie a small grin and returning her attention to the filly in her hooves. "You don't play that game with anypony, anygryph, or whatever unless you find somepony or gryph that you really like, and they really like you, and you're both sure you want to play that game. If you want to, but the other doesn't, then it just makes you as bad as that big bearded... meanie who put his claws on you and scratched you with them. And you don't want to be like that meanie, right?" Anna asked.

"I-I don't w-wanna be like him," Maria whimpered, her bout of flailing ceasing on the spot. She shivered, and her ears fell back on her head.

"Good. Now, go tell that guard that you're sorry for touching him," Anna scolded, setting the filly down before trotting behind her and giving her an encouraging nudge with her muzzle. The child approached the unicorn she molested with a reluctant gait in her step, frail form shivering as she moved.

"I-I'm sorry for touching you," Maria whimpered, and the guard sent her a small grin before ruffling her mane with his hoof.

"I forgive you, little one," he answered in a serene tone, though there seemed to be a faint glimmer in his eyes.

Lance caught that glimmer, and he spoke up, "I take it you're offended that a foreign child pretty much sexually assaulted you without warning?"

The guard turned to him and his grin fell as he silently nodded. "And... well, she did say..." he trailed off.

"She was with a bunch of hippogryphs in a town surrounded by ice and snow who taught her bad things and deliberately kept her uneducated," Alexander interjected, shaking his head with a firm frown set into his visage. "They even abused her and her family simply because she wanted a cutie mark."

"I wish he was making that up," Sarah added, crossing her front limbs. "And those very same hippogryphs wanted my hide because look what I got," she stated, rising up onto a standing stance and spreading her wings to show the guards her cutie mark.

"Uh, wasn't there a harp somewhere in the equation?" Katie piped up, slipping off Matt's back before trotting to the upright mare and gesturing to the cutie mark. The rest of the Fantasians turned to the wraith and followed her clothed hoof, and all blinked as they found that the harp part of the cutie mark had indeed and inexplicably gone missing.

"Now it's just a halberd and what looks like a gust of wind surrounding it. A change in one’s talent markings is something I've not heard of before, let alone witnessed in the flesh," Fenrir said in an impassive tone.

Sarah eyed the mark for a moment and reverted to all fours, her wings snapping shut at her sides. "I-I don't kn-know," she stuttered, her eyes widening. "This... this ha-hasn't happened b-before."

"This is peculiar. There's nothing we can do about it now, though. Still..." Lance trailed off, sighing heavily as he turned to the assembled guards. "Alright, we've dilly-dallied enough. Let's meet these 'Princesses' and get it over with."

The guard who'd been accosted by Maria nodded again. "Just stick with us; we'd rather you didn't get lost," he replied.

"Just lead the way, and we'll follow. It's not like we have much choice anyway," Natalie conceded, her horn glowing. She embraced Maria with her magic and lifted the filly high into the air before gently lowering her onto her back.

Katie clambered onto Lance's backside, wincing as she felt a feather or two poke at the holes in her legs even through the three layers of cloth his back and the additional one draped on her limbs. "I think I scraped a leg bone on your wings. Apologies," she whispered.

Lance rolled his eyes and simply nodded as if in resignation. "It happens," he whispered back.

The two groups trotted on down the halls in silence that felt like it lasted for hours on end, though the Fantasians occasionally stopped to marvel at some more stained glass murals. Some depicted two pegacorn ponies, usually accompanied by both the sun and the moon, flying in circles or walking on clouds. Some depicted the average pony, usually flying, casting a spell from a grimoire, or tilling a field. More murals still depicted a strange chimerical creature with the head of a goat and a body sporting limbs so mismatched it looked more akin to something haphazardly stitched together.

This same creature, in almost every single instance it cropped up in a mural, tormented ponies using puppet crosses, tugging at their strings to achieve a plethora of agonized expressions from said ponies it antagonized. Another, though, had the entire band of impromptu ambassadors gaping; this one had the same six ponies firing off a multi-directional beam at the chimera, with half of its colorful body turned a rocky grey in hue.

"They have petrification in their arsenal. Now I find myself not wanting to earn their ire," Fenrir whimpered as he continued to gaze at the mural. A shiver ran down his body at the mere thought of being turned to a slab of stone, and by six ponies that could somehow fire a beam in unison despite only two having unicorn horns, no less.

"What's petrification?" Maria inquired, earning a look from Anna.

Anna had begun sweating again, and although there was a smile on her muzzle, it shook as her jaw trembled with the rest of her body. "It means you get turned into a rock," she answered in a nervous tone. "It isn't exactly pleasant."

"So it's bad?" Maria asked.

"I've heard little of the whole petrification process, but what I know of it is... it's terrible," Alexander sighed, raising a claw to pat the child's head.

Another few moments or so were spent trotting down the hall, and the group and their escorts paused at a grand set of double doors that'd been flung wide open, revealing an empty room with a throne beyond. This throne had been hewn of gold that looked more orange in color as the last vestiges of daylight faded. Cushions surrounded it on raised bronze ledges, and adorning the walls were more stained glass depictions, though they only had one main color instead of two per piece.

"It appears that the Princesses aren't in the throne chamber," a guard noted, earning a glare from the Fantasian pegasus.

"Thank you Captain Obvious, now please show us where they are at," Lance groaned, flinging a hoof up to wave it as though for emphasis.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

"Settle down," a feminine voice bellowed throughout a room of clamoring ponies dressed in formal attire sitting in rows and rows of pews, some with sparkling coats and manes and others sporting wings and armor. A white alicorn with a mane that glittered with the colors of the waking dawn nodded and opened her mouth to shout again from atop of her makeshift wooden perch, only for whatever she wanted to say to die down with the chattering before it could leave her lips. She paused with a sigh and turned to a white unicorn with a slicked-back blond mane and a tie around his neck. "Now, Blueblood, what were you saying?"

"We should send the armies to Fantasia!" the unicorn replied in a loud voice that echoed across the room, eyes narrowing to slits. "From Griffonstone to Yakyakistan, and whatever forces lie to the west, we should all send them to the sister planet and establish firm Canterlot rule! Whoever resists should be sent to a slave camp, or burned at the stake!"

A night blue alicorn who sat next to the white one shook her head. "But Blueblood, that is something we cannot do. We haven't enough airships, and I fear that whatever rules the Griffonstone and Yakyakistan forces may have could differ drastically from our own. And what good would killing and enslaving the natives do? Why, that could just spark an interplanetary war that we may be unprepared for."

"They may be uncivilized brutes, the entire Fantasian populace! For all we know, they could be adept at dark, arcane magic and excel in shady, disharmonious doings... They could be itching for our hides at any moment, waiting to rend the flesh from our bones and bathe in our blood! Such a travesty cannot, I repeat, cannot be allowed to happen!" Blueblood snapped, some bits of mane curling out of place like broken guitar strings as he ranted and raved. Murmurs from the other ponies erupted, some in agreement, and others uttering about how outlandish the stallion made things sound.

"Auntie Luna, do you not agree with my reasoning?" Blueblood asked after the murmurs hushed again.

Luna pursed her lips together for a moment before she answered, "While you do raise a point, and a very valid one at that, I'm afraid we still cannot invade Fantasia. Even if we gathered the necessary forces and accrued enough airships, if they have dark magic as you say, then they might have a deadly edge in battle. We might as well beat a dead horse at that point."

A pink alicorn with a tri-colored mane piped up, "But what if there's nothing in Fantasia? The populace might've died off in the hundreds of years or so the barrier has stood. All there'd be would be local flora and fauna; a conquest has equal chance of yielding no fruit."

"That would be true, Cadence, if not for what Twilight had found," the white alicorn conceded with a nod.

Cadence turned to the white mare and gaped. "Auntie Celestia, do you mean to tell me there are live Fantasians?" she asked.

"Yes. According to a letter she sent to me upon returning to Equestria." Here, Celestia paused as her horn glowed. A golden light flashed near her form for a moment before gently dissipating, revealing a floating scroll in its place. She levitated the parchment to Cadence and proceeded to continue, "She found nearly a dozen Fantasians who were willing to come here."

Cadence took the scroll in a soft blue magic and opened it before scanning whatever details that lay within. As she read, her face paled bit by bit, turning near white when she reached the end. "Oh... I feel sorry for her," she mumbled in a hushed whisper.

"I do as well, but we cannot dwell on such things," Celestia replied in an equally hushed tone, turning to the rest of the assembled ponies as they once more started chattering amongst themselves. "Calm down, at once," she hollered again, sighing as the jabbering ceased. "Would anypony else, excluding Blueblood, have any suggestions on what to do with the situation regarding the sister world?"

"Princess, if I may," spoke another white unicorn with a blue mane, a suit, and a monocle. When the eyes of the alicorns fell upon him, he cleared his throat before deciding to further venture, "Would it be a good idea to attempt to form alliances and trade agreements with the Fantasians? They might have things we Mythonians lack, and might want to boost their economies with our own. By trading our resources across nations, we could further enrich both of us."

"A sound idea, but the only travel to and from the sister world is by airship," Luna replied, shaking her head. "Unless we can construct portals between the worlds, I don't see how that's possible."

"There are portals to Tartarus itself. Why not Fantasia?" another unicorn with a white coat interjected, this one a mare with a pink mane.

"A fair point, but there are many things that can make such a thing impossible, or at least difficult to even manage," Luna retorted, again shaking her head.

"Such as?" Blueblood hissed impatiently, tapping a hoof on the floor as though he asked the earlier question.

"Like weather, geographic location of both ends of the portal, whether or not the weather can be controlled by pegasus magic, new guard posts... there's an awful lot to consider here. I'm sure Twilight Sparkle could make a detailed list of every little thing even more effectively than the high mages could," Luna sighed, closing her eyes and raising a hoof laden with a horseshoe to run down the bridge of her muzzle.

"And how well the populace would take the existence of such a portal, let alone whether or not they might be willing to abuse it," Celestia added, donning a simple frown. "Hopefully, we can find ano—"

A single guard bustled into the room, his presence immediately getting noticed by the white alicorn as words died in her throat. "Princess Celestia, I have urgent news!" he bellowed as all eyes fell unto him.

"What is it?" Celestia inquired, her frown fading for a moment, only to reappear when the guard spoke again.

"Captain Shining Armor has found Fantasians who arrived by airship. He is having Sergeant Riverwater escort them here in his place," the guard answered as the aforementioned captain burst into the room, almost running over Blueblood in the process.

"Speak of Sombra, and he shall appear," Luna groaned as Shining muttered an apology to Blueblood. "Captain Armor, what's your report?"

The purple-clad unicorn tore his attention from Blueblood to the alicorn addressing him, and assumed a hard face. "The Fantasians who arrived in Equestria should be here shortly," Shining replied. "All of them have cloaks, and two wear masks. I have received word from Sergeant Riverwater and from the Fantasians themselves that said masked ones are changelings."

At that moment, clamor violently erupted again amidst the ponies, this time with terrified whispers.

"Fantasian changelings?"

"Are we being invaded again?"

"What will we do?"

"Are the rest changelings too?"

"Cease, at once!" Luna shrieked in her loudest strata of royal voice, her briefly-echoing tone causing the rampant mumblings to stop on the spot. "Captain Armor, do you have anything else to report?"

"From what I could glean from the otherworlders, there are no known Fantasian alicorns alive. I don't know the full details, but they only exist in ancient legends and nothing more," Shining answered, his eyes averting to Cadence. "In fact, when I mentioned that my wife is an alicorn, one of the non-ponies—a male diamond dog, to be precise—immediately became skeptical. Their reactions may not be... favorable."

"So, we might have to keep tabs on them. Already, I feel the pits of my stomach churning in protest," Luna mumbled, turning to Celestia with a brow raised.

A third guard bustled into the room, and he had an assortment of cloaked ponies and non-ponies flanking him. "Princess," he started, bringing his front quarters down to a low bow, "I have brought the Fantasian ambassadors."

Celestia gazed at the assembled bunch with a critical eye, taking in the few features she could make out that hadn't been obstructed by their garments. She noted that the Fantasians stared at her, some with eyes glinting in wonder and others going stone-faced; the two with the masks proved to be the hardest of the bunch to read, as their entire bodies had been covered in cloth and their faces shielded with what looked to be ceramic. She turned to the bowing guard and nodded. "At ease, Sergeant Riverwater," she stated, and the guard rose into a standing position to nod back.

Her attention immediately went to Blueblood as he huffed his chest and marched to the Fantasians. "You brought a bunch of peasants? That mane is horrendous! Hack off the braids and clean it up. It is much too long for you!" he hissed, flinching as Matt glared at him.

"You have no say over how I treat my mane. Lay off," Matt hissed in a cold tone, shaking his head and easing on the glare as Blueblood stomped a hoof while spluttering incoherently for a moment.

"Which one of you is this 'Princess Celestia' I've been hearing about?" Lance asked, stepping forward with his gaze affixed onto the alicorns.

"You dare speak of my beloved Auntie like that, you red-eyed lowlife?" Blueblood snapped, turning to Lance as he spoke.

The pegasus chuckled and directed his attention to the Mythonian stallion with a wicked smirk plastering his muzzle. "You're asking me to kick you off this mountain, right?" he retorted.

Katie leaned a bit to one side, orbs alight despite the hood on her head nearly shadowing them. Blueblood shivered as he spotted the twin glowing dots of azure, and his mane stood on end as the masked mare on the pegasus's back spoke in a dead, echoing voice, "You're about to sign your very own death certificate. Are you proud of yourself?"

"Cease the hostilities. Blueblood, step as far away from the Fantasians as you are able. You three, with the mask and the red and blond manes, we reserve the right to deport you. I'd much prefer it if we kept things to a diplomatic level," said Celestia, holding one leg over the shoulder of a far more aggressive-seeming Luna.

"We'd rather be diplomatic too," Natalie replied before gesturing to the retreating Blueblood with a hoof. "It seems that some ponies don't want to remain that way."

Luna looked over at Celestia and the hoof on her shoulder, and then sighed. "Pardon Blueblood. He's been this way since the barrier broke. The parliament's been hotly debating on what to do with Fantasia."

"Might I have a suggestion for this parliament, if I am permitted to speak?" Sarah interjected, raising a talon as she stepped forward.

"Well, what is it? We're all ears," Luna answered, eyeing the hippogryph and tilting her head.

"It's a relatively simple one: don't send anypony to Fantasia. The goings-on in my home planet are... less than satisfactory," Sarah answered in a disturbingly calm tone, her suggestion once more the cause for another uproar amidst the entire parliament.

The alicorns exchanged glances, and whispered amongst themselves for a moment before another voice drew their attention. "Hey, why's that masked one's mask holes glowing?" a brown-coated stallion asked, gesturing to the wraith.

"Please don't make her take her coverings off, please don't make her take her coverings off..." Matt chanted to himself, ears falling flat against his skull.

“Hey!” shouted one of the ponies from the pews nearest to the group, standing upright on his back legs as if he wanted the otherworlders to see him. “Take off that mask!”

"No," Katie hissed, turning to the stallion and giving him no more recognition than a simple huff from her concealed nostrils.

"If you won't remove that hideous porcelain mimicry of a pony's face," Blueblood declared, his horn glowing as his magic embraced the wraith and lifted her into the air like a sack of potatoes when it took hold of the mask, "then I shall do it for you!"

"Unhand her, at once!" Fenrir barked, making to lunge forward, only to be stopped by dual magic auras of blue and green.

"No, Blueblood, don't take off her mask!" Shining cried, but by then it was already too late; Blueblood's magic managed to remove the mask and threw both that and the wraith to the floor. The action gave way to a thick, tense silence that blanketed the room. Not even the shuffling mare's hooves could hope to break it as she made to stand back up.

Blueblood smirked triumphantly as his magic continued to work still, undoing the bindings on her legs. His grin fell as he eyed the wide holes in the limbs, and further descended into a gape accompanied by widening eyes and shrunken irises as the wraith grabbed the base of her cloak with her mouth and violently cast it off of her withered form. Once the garment landed in a messy heap at her side, she angled her body as if to show off her grotesque grandeur, her split-mouthed face affixed in his direction all the while.

Blueblood stepped back, his legs shaking as he continued to stare at the thin, pale changeling. "What part of the two-lettered word 'no' did you fail to comprehend?" Katie snapped in a cold, ghastly tone, her burning azure orbs dimming to meager pinpricks. Her ears shot straight up and her wings flared wide as she shook her head and added, "You brought this upon yourself. I hope you're happy."

Sarah waited for the parliament to erupt in clamor. When it failed to do so after a few moments, she took the chance to speak, using a claw to gesture to Katie as her loud voice filled the room, "Yeah, she's kinda in very bad shape. That's just one example out of the many I could possibly give over why Fantasia is less than satisfactory. In fact, seven Mythonians came by three days ago, and one of them has already gone loco."

The alicorns exchanged glances as, yet again, the assembled Mythonians started bickering en masse. One voice caught their attention, as well as that of the assembled unicorns and ambassadors, when it echoed and hushed the ongoing gossip. "Cease! This could be a bad case of starvation and torture going on here; I do believe this pale changeling may just be an isolated case!" Shining bellowed, a hoof pointing at the wraith as he spoke.

"Isolated case?" Lance interjected, visage hardening as all eyes in the room shifted to him. "I'm afraid this is no isolated incident. This isn’t rare at all."

"And how would you know?" Shining asked, turning to the pegasus as he too began casting off his cloak.

Chapter X- A Lovely Place to Stay*

Chapter X- A Lovely Place to Stay*

All watched with utmost silence and held breaths as the pegasus shook off the cloak, only to reveal two more cloth wrappings laden all around his back and midsection. Lance fumbled for a bit, using just his mouth to loosen the fabrics enough that he could simply shake them from his form as though they were stray leaves that had hitched a ride upon him. Once those extra layers fell into a heap at his side, his eyes darted across the whole parliamentary body as they let off a unified gasp, noting that a few had flown into the air on wings from the crowd as his own pair spread wide.

"His wings! What happened to his wings?!" one of the airborne pegasi shrieked, his irises shrunk to pinpricks.

"Who would force a pony to have iron merged into his flesh! It must be painful to trot in!" another exclaimed before fainting and dropping out of the air like a fly, whereupon another swooped in and caught her before she could hit the floor.

"It goes from the end of his withers to his croup! Is it possible to remove the iron without killing him?" a third hollered, his legs shaking freely as he stayed in mid-air.

Lance stomped his hoof, just prior to shaking his head. "I see you're all fixated with what's on my back. No, this cannot be removed at this time. It's too risky," he stated in a cold voice.

"What... happened?" Shining asked, his voice cracking as the question left his lips.

"A very long story," Lance replied, his tone firm and his visage set into a scowl. "But I can tell you what happened before this," he began, using a hoof to gesture to his wings. "It's very simple: I got my cutie mark."

Shining's eyes widened. "You... what?" he inquired.

Fenrir stepped forward, flanking the pegasus. "It's something that happens... all the time in Fantasia, sadly. Anygryph or pony with wings that aspires or achieves their talent markings have their wings plucked, torn away from their bodies, or in this case mangled beyond all repair should they get captured. It's especially common for foals, and doubly so for those whose talents center around flight. I have personally seen it happen many times, especially in the course of one night," he said in a low, chilling tone. "The flightless hippogryph filly we have with us... her feathers had already been forcibly removed."

"As did I, but I managed to get away before any of my feathers were removed," Sarah added, stepping forward. "Another one of the many reasons we don't want Mythonians in Fantasia—out of the seven that showed up, two were pegasi with cutie marks. It wouldn't have mattered to the locals that they were ambassadors. The end result would have been the same."

"Is there... a way to remedy his flightlessness?" Cadence piped up, a frown on her face.

Natalie stepped up. "Not yet, but me and Matt and Anna—" she gestured to her fellow unicorns with a hoof as she spoke, "—take turns working on possible solutions."

"A mob of very angry unicorns did this to me, so I figured unicorns could remove the blasted metal bits," Lance sighed, shaking his head. "But, after this damn thing gets removed—if that happens at all sometime this century—I may still remain flightless. I'm in a lose-lose situation here, and I wouldn't wish this upon anypony or gryph period."

He flexed his steel wings and flapped them for a moment or so before adding, "My joints and muscles are still whole, just covered and unable to grow feathers. For all I know, the metal could've been hexed ten ways to Sunday, and the three unicorns I have with me wouldn't know until they tried one of their many possible 'solutions' to my predicament."

"What's worse is that, if we make one wrong move, we could tear out his entire spinal column. We haven't tried many 'solutions,' and what little we could manage failed thus far. It's very tricky to deal with," Anna stated, trotting up and flanking the pegasus on his other side, using a hoof to gesture to his back. The parliament kept their gaze glued to Lance, though, and she sighed. "I get the feeling some of you want to toss him in a circus of freaks."

"A circus of freaks?" Blueblood scoffed, all eyes falling unto him as he spoke. "Oh, no no no. The rest of you, mayhaps you'd be fit for such a thing. But that pegasus and the very ugly changeling deserve one thing and one thing alone: to be put out of their misery!"

"Blueblood, cease! We will not kill the ambassadors, let alone relegate them to a miserable life just because they are standing in the same room as we are!" Luna bellowed, rising onto her legs and slamming her front hooves again.

"Can I ask for him to leave? Otherwise, he's going to continue to cause problems and be a pain in the cutie marks for us all," Matt groaned, gesturing to Blueblood with a hoof.

"If anything, it's you who should leave," Blueblood retorted, a wicked smirk curling on his face. He gestured to the ceiling with a hoof. "Look up there, at the ceiling," he stated. Matt hesitated for a moment and followed the hoof, finding the ceiling adorned with more stained glass murals. One sported the black pony from before, another had the chimera, a third featured a dark grey unicorn with an unusually red horn, and a fourth depicted a changeling mare with a black coat and dark blueish-green mane.

"What do you notice about those murals? Go on, guess," the blond-maned Mythonian stallion stated with an indignant huff. "The one with mismatched limbs first."

"The chimera is bright; it looks like it should be a walking rainbow with all of those colors," Matt replied, returning his gaze to Blueblood. He shook off his cloak and sat on his haunches.

"Very good. Now, tell me: what color are the other three creatures in the rest of the murals?" Blueblood inquired, still sneering.

"Black, or very close to it. Accompanied by reds, blues, and greens, also dark," Matt replied, frowning.

"Excellent. And what color are you?" Blueblood continued, his smirk widening.

"Mostly black, with white legs, a white horn, and white muzzle. What are you trying to get at?" Matt snarled, his face setting in a scowl as Blueblood sat on his rear and clapped his front hooves in a mocking applause.

Blueblood rose onto his legs and pointed a hoof at each and every Fantasian, and he answered, "All of you sport dark and faded colors! The only two exceptions I can see are the cream-colored mare and the pale changeling amongst you. Thus, you've all come here to seduce us and destroy Equestria—nay, Mythos—with whatever devilry you possess!" he shouted in an accusatory tone, still grinning even as Natalie and Katie shifted into pouncing stances.

"Enough!" Luna bellowed, jumping down from the perch and landing in front of Blueblood with a powerful leap, turning to him and spreading a pair of wings that stretched wide. She leaned in close to the stallion with an icy glare, casting her shadow over him, and she intoned in a low voice, "Leave us, at once. You are nothing but trouble, for you talk ill of our guests when they have done nothing more than attempt to speak."

The Fantasians flinched, watching Luna as she turned to face them, barely noticing Blueblood as he skedaddled out of the room. The alicorn closed her wings, and sighed. "Sincerest apologies... why are you all gaping?" she asked.

"Y-y-you have w-w-wings," Anna stuttered, her form trembling, "a-a-and a m-moon cutie mark like a pony o-on the murals."

Luna looked up at the murals on the ceiling and sighed before turning her attention back to the Fantasians. "Well, yes I do..." she trailed off when Shining looked at her with a frown, before his words bounced about in her skull.

"There are no known Fantasian alicorns. Their reactions might not be... favorable."

Anna hesitantly trotted up to Luna, stiffening when she stood in front of her. "May... may I touch y-your wings?" she asked.

"W-why do you ask?" Luna inquired, eyelids slanting in worry as the Fantasian unicorn before her twiddled with her front hooves for a moment.

"To... assess if they're the real deal. No offense," Anna answered, still fidgeting.

Luna thought this over for a moment, briefly turning to Celestia and Cadence. The other two nodded to her before she turned back to the green-maned unicorn. "Only a little. Pluck a feather if you wish, but no more than that," Luna answered. She spread a wing and flinched when a tan-beige hoof rose up to fondle the appendage, stroking the feathers in a seemingly random fashion.

"By Gotcat's claws..." Anna murmured, eyes widening as she continued to play with the feathers.

"Stop," Luna stated as the hoof strayed a little too close to the junction where wing and back met. She hissed when Anna failed to comply and repeated in a much more stern, demanding tone, "Stop."

Anna flinched and backed off, cringing as she set her hoof down. "Sorry... it's just... they were so soft," she mumbled. A gold aura embraced her and dragged her back to her compatriots.

"Excuse her. She's... entranced by feathers," Alexander sighed, using a claw to gesture to Anna. "I'm impressed she hasn't laid a hoof on her sister's wings yet. It's like the things put a hypnotic spell on her or something of the sort."

"Feather-fondler," Sarah muttered under her breath with a roll of her eyes.

Maria hopped off Alexander's back and ran to Luna, only to stumble on her own claws and trip halfway through. She flipped and landed on her back, wincing for a bit before standing up on wobbly rear legs. The filly stumbled again upon taking three steps on said back legs alone, this time landing on her face. Lance trotted up to her and scooped her up with a front leg, carefully placing her between his wings and sighing after.

"Walking on hooves is hard," Maria complained, eyes screwed tightly shut.

"I know it is. Why'd you try trotting to the alicorn, though?" Lance questioned, turning to the foal with a brow raised.

"Because she's pretty," Maria answered.

"Uhuh. Is that the only reason?" Lance continued, sending the filly a small grin.

"Yeah," Maria responded with a nod.

"I would love to continue with the pleasantries, but due to a vast number of complications, I am afraid I'll have to adjourn this parliamentary meeting for tonight," Celestia intoned, garnering everyone's attention as she spoke. "Captain Armor, could you escort the Fantasians until they find a place to rest?"

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The group moved through various streets in silence, with Shining Armor leading the way. Some guards here and there nodded to them, and even pointed hooves and wings down particular roads the Fantasians simply didn't care to memorize. After the moon rose high and they found themselves in a westmost side of the city with few citizens but heavy guard patrol, they found a decently-built hotel sporting various sun and moon motifs, with a gem-encrusted golden door framed by a green parameter that seemed to sparkle like emeralds. Above the door, lights that shined in all sorts of colors flashed overhead, highlighting a structure below. It was a sign with the words sloppily smudged off like a nasty ink blot.

"They redecorating?" Sarah asked, lifting a claw to point to the sign.

"I haven't the foggiest," Shining replied with a shrug as he made to open the doors and trot inside, with the guests following suit. He zeroed in and trotted ahead, speaking loud and clearly, "I have escorted some guests to this abode."

"Guests?" a mare's voice queried as the Fantasians filed in and found themselves within an ornately-decorated waiting room, adorned with oil-based paintings of unicorns and pegasi with a few earth ponies here and there that were framed with gold. A carpet expanded along the floor, an intricate pattern of stars, suns, and moons glistening under the light of hanging crystal chandeliers. The lot paid no heed whatsoever to this, though; rather, their unified gaze turned to and then fixed itself on a pink-coated unicorn with a white mane sitting behind a desk as the sounds of paper being trifled with filled the room.

"Hrm... ten... guests, and their cat... only three of which are unicorns..." the unicorn mare behind the desk mumbled to herself as she flipped through a book on said desk. She turned to the assembled bunch, namely looking at Shining, and stated, "And you have brought them here... why?"

"On the direct orders of Princess Celestia herself—they're our Fantasian guests," Shining replied simply.

"Fantasian guests?" the mare repeated, her eyes widening.

Shining nodded and then turned to Matt before he added, "Near here is a guard post. The guards stationed there will know if you guys cause trouble. Or the others that are roaming the streets tonight."

Matt nodded in understanding. "Alright. I assume I'll be the one paying, then?" he asked.

"I was only to escort you, and nothing more," Shining confirmed, and he started to trot around the group. "I have to return to my post." With that, he bustled out of the room. The half-Clydesdale sighed and shook his head, his horn softly glowing.

"How big are the rooms?" Natalie asked, trotting to the pink unicorn with a brow raised.

"Enough to have large beds. A room could hold six at most," the pink mare answered, closing the book and folding her front hooves over the desk. "The price is fifty bits per room, please." Matt summoned a small leather bag with a flash of magic and, after counting the amount of money needed for two rooms, plopped that bag on the desk. The pink unicorn nodded and hollered for a bit, until two unicorn stallions dressed in suits that covered everything past their necks appeared.

"Guests? At this hour?" one of the stallions asked as soon as he arrived, this one with a green mane and orange coat.

"Ten Fantasians, and their pet cat," the mare answered, gesturing to the bunch with a hoof. "Show them to their rooms."

"Right away," the other stallion, one who sported a brown coat and almost black mane, replied with a nod. He used a hoof to gesture to the bunch. He groaned when NoLegs mewed, but said nothing more as he trotted away with his fellow Mythonian. The Fantasians followed behind, and the suited ponies continued leading the group down a long hall lined with oak doors for a half-hour.

The orange stallion leaned close to the brown one and whispered in his ear, "They have an emaciated, hornless changeling with them. I think it's staring at me."

"Look on the bright side, Napkin," the brown one replied in an equally low tone, "they have two unicorn mares with them. Maybe we could try to score with one of them."

Napkin grinned and nodded. "I call dibs on the one with the shooting star cutie mark," he replied. He stopped and turned around, gesturing to a pair of rooms on one side. "Alright, we'll require your names to book you for the night," he said, his horn glowing. In a flash of light, a small notepad and a pencil floated before him. "Full names are preferable, or just the surnames if you're uncomfortable giving the full ones."

"Bladerune," Matt stated, watching as Napkin jotted something down on the notepad.

"Next," Napkin sighed with a nod as soon as he finished writing.

"Mine's a bit of a mouthful. Starcovert," Natalie responded.

"Alrighty, that's two names," Napkin chirped, beaming when Anna spoke next.

"Windwood."

"Lyregale," Sarah answered after the archer had spoken.

"Icedraft," Maria chirped.

"Boltwing," Lance stated, frowning as Napkin continued to jot down stuff on the notepad without even the slightest bit of a harried look on his face.

"Rubywing," Katie sighed, tilting her head as the suited unicorn gave a brief cringe.

"Armin. I have no surname," the living changeling spoke.

"Fenrir," the diamond dog snorted.

"Blitzplume," Alexander finished.

Napkin finished writing and turned his attention back to the group. "Excellent. Now, nonponies in one room, and ponies in the other..." he trailed off upon seeing Maria flinch, and he added, "and the hippogryphs with the ponies."

The group exchanged glances amongst themselves, though they didn't say anything. They filed through the doors of their assigned rooms, shutting the doors with muted grumbles as soon as all were within.

"For such an intricate exterior, waiting room, and a fairly lengthy hallway, this room... could use a little work," Sarah remarked, scanning the room. It had three beds, a carpet that had small holes riddling its frame, a worn table with two chairs, and one pillow whose stuffing spilled out of another gaping hole.

"Well, it could be worse," Lance retorted, shaking his head. "The stallions in suits kept giving Anna and Natz looks. I really hope they don't try anything. I don't want to explain how the ponies servicing us for the night wound up with arrows and scorched manes to the guards tomorrow if it comes to that. As it stands, I'm getting a bad feeling just standing here."

Natalie trotted to one of the beds and sat on it, bouncing her body on the mattress a bit before turning to the others with a frown framed in a blush. "I think a spring just popped out and poked me in the dock," she groaned.

"Joy, defective mattresses. What next?" Anna mumbled, turning to Lance. "So... who gets what bed?" she asked.

"Stallions in one bed, mares in another, and Maria sleeps with the odd pony out," Lance replied, trotting to another bed and flopping on it.

Matt trotted to the third bed and clambered on, quickly finding that the sides of the bed were cramped and the mattress folded a bit when he put his full weight on it. "Well, there's a problem with that," he hissed, turning to the pegasus. "The bed is so small it's trying to eat me right now."

"Great, they can't even be bothered to get bigger beds to accommodate the half-Clydesdale," Lance grumbled, stuffing his face in a pillow as he felt two more forms clamber into the bed he had claimed. He lifted his head and glanced around, seeing that Anna and Sarah had laid down next to him on either side, scooching so close to him he might as well been sandwiched between them.

"Anna, you're not touching my wings," Sarah growled, eyes widening as Anna's horn started glowing. Her left wing found itself embraced in a magical aura, and forcibly spread wide, draped over Lance with the tips of the feathers tickling the archer's exposed side.

"Stop with the shenanigans at once, or I'll kick you both out of the bed," Lance snapped in a cold tone, sending both mares a glare before resting his head on the pillow when the hippogryph's wing folded back at her side.

Maria clambered in the last bed, next to Natalie. "What are you doing?" she asked as the cream-colored unicorn hopped out of the bed, lifting her tail and prying off a spring that had gotten wedged on her dock.

"I'm going to complain to the staff about the mattress. Stay put," Natalie replied, quickly trotting out of the room with the offending spring secured in a magical grasp. She found Napkin loitering in the hall outside and marched right up to him. "Sir, I sat on the mattress of a bed I claimed, and this got wedged on my dock," she stated firmly, presenting him the spring.

"Oh?" Napkin murmured upon having his attention grabbed by the spring. He marveled at the object for a moment before speaking, "Well... Miss..."

"Starcovert," Natalie sighed, raising a hoof and letting it connect with her face.

"Well, Miss Starcovert, business has been bad for this particular district lately," Napkin sighed, shaking his head sadly. "We haven't been able to... er, exactly afford new mattresses, though there are spares that can be swapped out. Would you like the mattress the spring came from switched with one that's been used less?"

"If it means I don't get poked in the back, I can agree to that. Would that cost any extra bits?" Natalie asked, lowering her hoof down.

Napkin shifted a bit and donned a simple smile. "Not really," he replied, a gleam in his eyes. "At least, if you and I retreated elsewhere for... say, a few hours."

"E-elsewhere?" Natalie parroted, a cold chill running down her spine. She rose a hoof up in a flinch, ears falling back against her skull. She shook her head to steel herself before clearing her throat and stating in a slight sarcastic tone, "Really. What might you want to do in this 'elsewhere?'"

"Just hang around and chat," Napkin replied, his smirk widening. He rose a hoof up and used it to stroke the mare's chin, causing her to take a step back. "Hrm, what seems to be the matter?"

"I'm... afraid I'll have to pay you the extra bits. How much?" Natalie replied, one of her back legs twitching as she spoke.

Napkin sighed, his smile fading as he lowered his hoof. "Twenty will do," he stated. Natalie procured a small bag with a flash of magic, counted the coins within, and handed it to him. He took the bag and trotted off down the hall, and the Fantasian mare returned to the room to find that everyone had fallen asleep in spite of the less-than-appealing conditions. She sighed in resignation and trotted to the bed that Maria rested upon and clambered in it, but not before checking for any more possibly stray springs with potential to stab her in her sleep. Satisfied that the curled bits of metal had little chance of accosting her, she flopped over and closed her eyes.

Yet, sleep didn't come. Her ears twitched and caught noises, swiveling when the others mumbled in their sleep. Her brow furrowed when the filly next to her began squirming and happily mumbling something about dicks and other such things she didn't want to know about.

"Maria's having a wet dream. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, given she's giggling in her sleep," Natalie mentally groaned, ears folding back against her head. She grabbed a pillow with her magic and scrunched it in a tight heap around her cranium, greatly muffling the little moans and giggles that came from Maria.

But the sounds immediately became frantic whimpers and agonized pleas. She threw the pillow off when she felt the child jolt upright with a choked scream moments later, and wrapped a front leg around her form. "Nightmare, I take it?" Natalie asked in a quiet, soothing tone.

"Bad... hippogryphs," Maria mumbled, nodding fervently.

"It's alright. They can't get you anymore," Natalie replied, using her other hoof to gently run through the foal's mane. She opened her mouth to say something else, but stiffened when the door opened slowly. She stood up, holding Maria in her leg as she got out of the bed. She made to speak again, but a dark blue magical glow that was different from her own, grabbed her by the muzzle and held it like a vise, keeping her lips sealed.

A similar glow hefted Maria out of her grasp with ease, and she started to wildly flail about, doing her best to scream even as the glow likewise took hold of her muzzle. An unfamiliar voice spoke up in a whisper as three dark forms strode into the room on cautious hooves, one of a gruff masculine nature, "That one's Starcovert?"

"Yes, but I know not her first name, if she has one," another replied in an equally hushed tone. "Bring the filly too."

Natalie's horn began glowing, but something slipped onto its frame and sent a jolt rocking violently throughout her body, effectively canceling out whatever spell she made to channel. Her muscles ached, and she tried to scream as a damp cloth rag with a strange smell wrapped around her mouth. She started flailing her legs everywhere, but the glow seized her entire body and rendered that effort useless. Still she fought on, but precious minutes passed—minutes she couldn't spare as consciousness fled her with haste. The world went black, but not before she heard one of the owners of the voices utter, "Get the green-maned unicorn, and don't wake the others."

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Natalie awoke with a groan, lifting her head and opening her eyes to find that deepest black greeted her vision. For a moment, her head bobbed about as she glanced this way and that, only to stiffen and shut her eyes when an overhead light turned on. She made to move her legs.

None of them budged an inch. Her eyes snapped right back open, and she jumped to find herself tipping backwards for a few seconds, feeling her weight aid something as it leaned against the floor to bound back with a gentle creak and rock her body forward.

She glanced forward and paled before craning her neck to get a view of her rear and immediately found a saddle laden on her back and much of her tail bunched together, tied very uncomfortably and tightly with a what looked like a gauze. She shuddered before turning her attention to the floor to assess just what in hell was going on, though she instantly came to the realization that she wished she hadn't done so.

Her legs had been bound tightly in black leather, all four pieces joining with a fifth that wrapped around curved pieces of wood that supported her from under her hooves. There was a gap between the wood pieces, but they stayed at a fixed distance thanks to more wood that had been attached to them along the middle. Thick straps secured the leather tightly around her limbs, rendering them numb and very cumbersome to move.

Natalie turned to the side, eyes widening as she found Anna next to her in much the same position, though her head had hung low and a soft snore came from the green-maned unicorn. Through the locks of emerald, the now-alert mare could make out some kind of thick metal band inscribed with what looked to be runes at the base of her horn, in addition to a ball gag lodged in her mouth.

Her ears perked when another gentle creak hit her ears, and she whipped her head around in the other direction, yet in doing so her face drained of its color. Maria lay next to Natalie, tied upon the back of another pony, though this one had its pelt entirely carved off. This lack of coat exposed reddest muscles that took on a tinge of grey, in addition to the mane and tail having been plucked out, which left nothing regarding its original identity. The bald corpse strongly reeked of decay, further filling the air around itself as it gently creaked back and forth.

What was left of the face warped so horribly at some point it looked about ready to slide off the skull at any given moment. Dark red blood dripped at random intervals from the third pony as the filly stirred, inadvertently causing the corpse to rock back and forth like a pendulum as a result. Her gaze trailed lower, towards the pony's side, only to find a large and gnarly gash that stretched from the front leg to the area where a cutie mark had once been, dipping low midway into the stomach.

The intestines of the deceased hung loosely from the torn belly, and Natalie felt her stomach clenching as she spotted maggots writhing around the exposed entrails, feasting on the innards without a care. Bile rose in her throat, burning at her esophagus, yet when it forced its way to her mouth she found it couldn't leave thanks to something obstructing the orifice between her teeth.

She ended up swallowing the acidic mixture, turning away from the corpse, her body trembling as her irises shrunk to blue dots in the sclera and her nose scrunched from the acrid stench that wafted from the dead pony. Her ears fell flat against her head when the sound of hoofsteps echoed in the room, and she spotted nothing more than a pair of orange limbs parked just outside the halo of light where she could see them.

"I see you're awake, Miss Starcovert," spoke a familiar voice. "And it seems you've gotten acquainted with the last mare who purchased a room. Pity that Windwood's still asleep, but oh well."

Natalie grunted, struggling against her binds and uttering what sounded like a muffled "Why?"

The owner of the voice stepped into the light, revealing a green mane and an orange body that now lacked a suit. Napkin sent the hapless mare the same smirk from before, though it came with a malicious gleam in his eyes. His horn lit up, crackling with golden electricity, and upon seeing this Natalie ceased any attempts at trying to break loose. The glow died down, and the stallion chirped in a pleased tone, "I see you're acquainted with electrical magic. I'd rather not have to shock you; it's bad for... business, shall we say."

He briskly trotted to his trapped quarry and leaned in close, staring into her widened eyes. "Huh, I don't think I've seen that deep shade of blue before... it almost looks like a dark grey," he remarked, raising a hoof to stroke her chin as the bound pony began to fidget again. He found that Natalie's chest started heaving violently, and stepped back while removing the object in her mouth with a bit of magic. His smile faded when she almost immediately threw up the contents of her stomach onto the floor in front of her, coughing and wheezing when she finished seconds later.

"Gotcat-dammit," Natalie cursed in a weak, hoarse voice. "If you're gonna gag me again, at least leave a hole for me to puke through!"

"Normally, I don't appreciate vulgar language or a snappy tone," Napkin hissed, summoning a towel to blot up the mess Natalie made. "But, I have to admit you do raise a valid point. The last mare... burst after I denied her the right to vomit. Such a mess she made," he sighed, turning his gaze onto the bald, rotting corpse.

"She... burst?" Natalie murmured, turning to the corpse for a moment before redirecting her attention to Napkin. "She looks more like she's been slashed with a knife."

Napkin stormed up to Natalie and slapped her across the face with a hoof before she could react. "You don't know what you're—" he began.

Natalie cut him off with but one little word, "Rubywing."

"What about—" Napkin began again, but paused as her response sank into his skull. His eyes narrowed as she turned to face him, her cheek reddening as she nodded, a glare set into her own face. "The pale changeling... of course," he mumbled, setting his hoof down before trotting between the bound ponies and stopping behind the trio, enabling Natalie to catch a glimpse of his swinging fifth leg and his cutie mark—a wadded napkin crackling with sparks—as he waltzed past her. Another set of hoofsteps echoed, and Napkin paused before he swiveled his head and called out, "Chocolate Soufflé, is that you?"

Another familiar stallion with a brown coat trotted past Natalie from the other side, also lacking a suit but sporting a full erection. "Yes, it is I," he chirped, angling himself in just the right way for him to reveal his mark to her—strangely, it was a half-buried gemstone sporting scratch marks. He looked towards Anna as she began to stir, letting off unintelligible mumbles as she came to. "Oh, it seems Windwood's about to rise and shine."

It took no longer than a few minutes, but Anna soon snapped wide awake as she absorbed her surroundings, and she immediately began struggling vehemently once the weight of the situation set in. All she could do, though, was helplessly rock back and forth, stopping when a magic aura grabbed her and sent lightning shooting through her nerves. "Now, now, we will have none of that nonsense," Napkin chastised as Soufflé trotted up behind a momentarily-stunned Anna.

Anna let off a weak protesting groan, vision bleary as lingering pain continued to antagonize her body. Her head drooped for a moment before jolting straight back up as she felt a hoof connect with her posterior. She craned her neck, emitting a muted yelp as Chocolate clambered onto her back and wrapped a leg around the barrel of her chest. "Stay still, cutie. This won't hurt a bit," Soufflé murmured, leaning close to the mare's head and using his free hoof to pat her not-quite-affectionately.

"Bad pony, get off her!" a shrill voice cried out. All four ponies jerked their gazes to the corpse—or, rather, the filly who'd been tied to it. Maria struggled against her binds, flapping her bare wings madly as she sent a glare at Chocolate for all it was worth.

Soufflé and Napkin exchanged a glance, then turned back to Maria. "Why would I pass up an opportunity to pound a firm ass like this one?" the former asked, sending her a small grin.

"Because your cock is little and nopony or gryph likes you!" Maria shouted angrily, eyes narrowed to slits as her front limbs began jerking wildly, her talons balled into fists. "I'll rip your nuts off and shove them up your butthole!"

Napkin turned to Natalie, a brow raised and a hoof lifting up to point at the filly. "Care to tell me where the foal learned such foul language, exactly?" he asked.

"Don't ask," Natalie replied. “Never heard her use those words before anyway. I had nothing to do with it.” She grunted as he'd decided he wasted enough time and put his body on hers, flinching as he conjured some magic to roughly tug at her mane.

"Icedraft, how old are you?" Napkin asked, glaring at the filly.

Somehow, Maria maintained her defiant expression. "Old enough to rip your face off," she hissed.

Napkin donned a wicked smirk. "I'd like to see you try, you little bald dodo," he retorted. He paused for a moment upon hearing a pained whimper coming from his right, and turned to his partner-in-crime to find Anna struggling again.

Soufflé looked at Napkin with a smirk, front legs resting on the back of his captive. "I put it through the backdoor on purpose. This one may be virgin," he stated with a shrug, hips pressed snugly against Anna's rear. Napkin growled and sent another electric stream coursing through Anna, eliciting muffled yelps of agony as well as electrocuting the stallion on her back in the process.

Napkin stopped the current of volts upon realizing his error, and once Soufflé recovered from the burst of mana, he turned to his companion, narrowed his eyes, and snapped angrily, "Hey, at least let me pull out first, you jackass!"

Chapter XI- Straps and Dust*

Chapter XI- Straps and Dust*

"For crying out loud, mare, loosen up that sphincter a little! Napkin, we should've brought the lubricant!" Soufflé groaned, glowering at his partner-in-crime, his hips unmoving.

"We ran out on the last mare, remember? We'll just have to do without," Napkin snapped, glaring back. His gaze shifted to Anna, whose head had drooped again, this time with her entire mane falling forward and overshadowing her face. "Is Windwood even awake?" he asked.

"Might need to jolt her again," Soufflé replied, turning back to the mare he was currently accosting. Anna jumped in place, eyes wide as her head rapidly shook. "Whoa, calm down! Don't hit me with your ponytails!"

"Go ahead and undo her mane. That particular hairstyle's going to cause you problems later on if not dealt with now," Napkin sighed, slumping against Natalie for a moment—only to stiffen as she inhaled deeply, as if preparing to shriek for all it was worth. His horn glowed, and from a flash of magic a ball gag appeared. The accursed object wrapped around Natalie's muzzle again, lodging the red sphere between her teeth once more before another sound could come out. "Sincerest apologies, Starcovert, but I'd rather you didn't howl."

"Wow, her mane goes down to her front knees!" Chocolate exclaimed as he undid the first ponytail and trussed it up a bit to make it adhere more to gravity. He used his hooves to undo the rest of the ponytails, juggling in his magic what had held them in place. "By Celestia's sunburnt asscheeks, she had enchanted baubles on her!"

Napkin turned to his fellow stallion and went wide-eyed. He eyed four golden baubles, held in the air by a dark-green aura that provided levitation. A faint rippling of lighter green mana swept across the glimmering pearls, sparking with some kind of power. His wide-eyed look turned into a sneer. "Set those aside for now. Besides, you haven't worked on her ass yet," he stated.

Soufflé nodded and summoned a small pouch of leather, stuffing the baubles in it before tying it up and setting it on the floor nearby. He leaned his head close as Anna's started to lower again, and grabbed a thick viridian lock with his teeth, tugging back and pulling his hips away at the same time. He roughly thrust forward with all the strength he could muster, pulling at the lock of hair harder, grinning as the tan-beige mare released a long and muffled shriek of agony.

"Yeesh, why do you always have to fuck a mare so roughly? At least give her a break or two," Napkin sighed, his hips moving slowly. "Otherwise, she'll burst a lung trying to screech through that gag."

"Not my fault she can't take it," Soufflé retorted through the bit of mane he still held with his mouth, sending the other stallion a wicked smirk as he thrust again. His smirk fell as Anna jerked, throwing her head back in a desperate attempt to clock him, only to cease when a hoof shot up to push it back down. "Where are the others? We're gonna need more than just lightning magic to keep Windwood still!"

Napkin sighed and shook his head as he made a thrust. "I hope they're not dealing with the rest of the Fantasians. For all I know, they could be making their way down here right now," he replied with a shrug. His horn glowed again, and a flash of magic conjured a small whip with multiple tails. He handed it to the other stallion and added, "Thwack her with that. Might as well discipline her."

"Hold that thought for a moment," Chocolate stated, taking hold of the whip in his magic. He sent it flying through the air, hitting Maria square on the rump with it as she put one of her binds in her mouth. "I saw you trying to break those leather straps with your teeth, missy! Don't make me come over there and hit you again!"

The mares jerked their gazes to the filly, whose face had scrunched with pain. Maria grit her teeth, claws still clenched as red marks started showing through her coat. "I-I'm gonna t-tell on you," she whimpered, ears folding back as the whip raked across her body once more with a sharp crack, this time hitting her right between the wings.

Magic gripped her bonds and tightened them a little, causing her to wince. "Ah, ah, ah, you'll do no such thing with that potty mouth of yours. Besides, our friends have yet to show up—perhaps they could keep you occupied while we deal with these fine unicorns," Napkin scolded, his remark sending unpleasant shivers down the spines of the Fantasian mares.

"N-n... y-you won't m-make me a c-cocksleeve," she hissed defiantly, earning herself another whack across the back. "Y-y-you're gonna g-get it."

"I'm tempted to stick an apple in her mouth. We've already shut these two up," Soufflé scoffed, a firm frown set into his face. He glowered at the foal and let go of the bundle of hair in his mouth, still thrusting at a rough and steady pace. He added, "If she makes me pull out now..."

"What I'm worried is the fact that she knows what a cock is," Napkin noted, shaking his head. "If this filly manages to escape, and this is only theoretical, then we'll be in very hot water."

"Good thing the others took her, too. Remind me to get some sewing thread and needles—that trap needs to be shut," Soufflé agreed, his voice turning raspy and riddled with pants. He turned his attention back to Anna, using his magic to hover the whip in front of her muzzle tauntingly. "Y-you don't l-loosen up, the f-filly'll get it."

Anna's irises shrank, ears folding back against her head. The whip swung in front of her like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. Left, right, left, right. She flinched when the thrusting stopped, the pain flaring tenfold as the stallion raping her grabbed her mane with his magic and jerked it so fast she could've sworn she felt some strands breaking near the roots. "W-well?" Soufflé hissed in a low voice. "W-would you rather i-it be I-Icedraft?"

She weighed the options, tears prickling her eyes and trailing down her cheeks. She shut her eyelids tightly, tilting her head forward as much as she was able, and started charging a spell. Several jolts ran through her own body as the ring on her horn did its work, muscles twitching and screaming as current after current ran through her.

"The fuck is she—" Napkin started, but stopped as Natalie did the same thing. He pulled out and backed away, with Soufflé following suit as both mares began rocking on their own accord. A moment after the spell-casting ceased, the two Fantasians' heads dropped like lead weights had been tied to their muzzles, with their manes covering their faces like cloth rags.

After taking a moment to process what had happened, the stallions trotted to the mares, dicks throbbing painfully as they approached. Front hooves trailed over pulse points, and Napkin shook his head. "Starcovert's unconscious," he murmured, eyes narrowing low.

"So's Windwood. Now what?" Soufflé growled, hitting Anna's rear with the whip over and over, as though that could wake her up.

"We punish them while they're out cold. Find the most painful thing you can stick up their orifices, or ginger if we have some handy. That way, they sho—" Napkin stopped mid-sentence as he heard a leather strap breaking—a soft noise, accompanied by a gentle creak. He turned to the mares, only to find that their rocking had ceased.

Another strap-sounding thing broke, and he trotted around the two unconscious mares to the third dead one, finding that Maria had managed to break free of her bonds by slicing through the leather straps somehow. The orange unicorn let off a wordless howl and used his magic to grab her, and the loose entrails of the corpse, shaking the innards free of maggots before using them to bind the foal in a fleshy straightjacket.

"You were saying?" Soufflé piped up, garnering the attention of Napkin as he bound the filly's rear legs.

"Just... find something to punish the Fantasians with. And buckets of ice water, if there are any left," Napkin snapped as he finished binding Maria, replacing her on the back of the corpse. He trotted to his partner-in-crime, and both slipped out of the halo of light, the darkness looking as if it merely absorbed them into its shadowy mist.

Maria unclenched one talon, feeling its claws poke clean holes in the entrails like the innards were little more than paper. She looked despondently at Anna and Natalie's out-cold forms, and started wriggling as silently as she could. "Bad... ponies a-are g-gonna feel s-sorry," she murmured to herself as her claws went to work.

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"No, they're not in our room, either," Armin answered, shaking his head with his horn aglow. Lance stood with him in the hall, glowering so much his crimson eyes seemed to burn with roiling flames.

"Maybe they're toying with magic again," Lance growled, rubbing a hoof roughly into the carpet.

"If that's the case, I'd have picked it up," Armin replied, sighing as the glow dissipated. "Maybe Maria wanted something and pestered them to hell and back."

A door swung open, and Matt trotted out of the room. "Lance, I found something," he stated, turning back around and re-entering the room. The pegasus followed him, spotting a small waste bin on the table. The unicorn pointed at something on the floor, and the red-eyed stallion followed the hoof to find something very unusual.

"What the..." Lance murmured, leaning in close to the anomaly. It was another hole in the carpet, but very distinct in that it had a suspicious curve to it. He set his hoof on it and rubbed it for a bit before gaping. "That... someone tore into the carpet with their hoof?"

"Either one of the girls, or somepony else," Matt confirmed with a nod. "But there's more." He trotted past the pegasus and made a beeline for the table, picking up the small waste bin with a magical aura. Lance turned to him with a brow raised, and went wide-eyed as the magic lifted up a white rag from the bin. "It has a distinctly sweet smell to it."

The eyes of the pegasus narrowed, irises shrinking to little pinpricks. "Chloroform..." he murmured. He spread his wings and stomped a hoof. "We're going to scour this entire building up and down, and if the girls and Maria aren't in another room or on another floor..."

Armin stepped into the room. "Want me to get the guards, sir?" he asked, garnering the attention of the pegasus.

"Yes. Take Alexander and Katie with you. Bring Sarah and Fenrir in here before you go," he replied in a low tone. The changeling nodded and skedaddled into the hall, and a moment after, the hippogryph mare and the diamond dog scrambled into the room. "Matt found evidence."

"Of...?" Fenrir trailed off, a brow raised.

Matt waved the rag before throwing it into the bin for emphasis. "At least one of the girls got drugged and dragged away, that much we know," he replied.

Sarah's eyes widened. "Oh no..." she murmured before her face set in a scowl. "Godcat knows what might be happening to my sister and the other two at this moment. We can't afford to stand here quibbling."

"I got the top floor. Matt, scour this floor. Sarah, get any floors in between. Fenrir, let us know if you smell or hear anything even slightly off," Lance rattled off. A meow caught his attention, and he jerked his gaze to the floor as NoLegs scooted between Sarah's claws to approach him. "And you, NoLegs, get all of the nooks and crannies that we can't fit through." The others, cat included, nodded, and everyone except Matt scrambled out of the room to find any trace of Anna, Natalie, Maria, or whatever might have procured the chloroform rag.

Matt took the bin with him, making it vanish in a flash of light. He scoured up and down the room, even going so far as to overturn the mattresses to look for anything else that might have been amiss. Having seen nothing out of the ordinary, he returned the beds as they were before entering the hall, where Fenrir waited for him.

"Anything?" Matt asked.

Fenrir shook his head. "Alas, not smell nor sound has reached my senses yet," he replied. "It appears our mysterious chemist has covered their tracks well."

"Not well enough, considering I found the cloth rag," Matt retorted, dashing into the other room and essentially tearing the place apart before re-assembling it when nothing came up. He returned to the hall in short order and selected another room to barge through, but when he tried to open the door with a hoof, the knob briefly glowed with runes and the contraption did not budge. "Oh, you're just asking me to kick you down," he growled, turning around and rearing up on his back legs.

Only to drop to all fours when a shrill cry hit his ears. It sounded young, pained, riddled with sadness—"Maria!" he cried, jerking his head down one end of the hall.

Fenrir also jerked his head upon hearing the shriek, face setting with a scowl. "What has the foal gotten into now?" he snarled, bounding forward on all fours, ears perked as he followed the scream. Matt rushed after the diamond dog, galloping as fast as he could, rounding the corner of a T-intersection when Fenrir veered to the left.

After a few moments of running down another hall, they stopped. A dead end greeted them, and as they turned around, they spotted a suited earth pony stallion with a blue mane and yellow coat exiting another room. He turned to the dog-and-pony duo with a brow raised. "Was it me, or did I hear something?" he asked, tilting his head.

"It wasn't you—" Matt paused mid-reply as another scream echoed into the hall, this time much softer. "—we heard it too."

The suited stallion shrugged and trotted down the other end of the hall, continuing to go on straight and ignoring the path the Fantasians came from. Matt and Fenrir exchanged a glance and let the stallion trot on for a bit before following him, making sure to keep their hooves and paws silent so as to not attract more attention to themselves. After a few moments of nothing but trotting, the stallion did something that should not have been possible; he turned towards a blank wall and walked through, as if it weren't really there.

Matt hesitated for a moment before trotting to the blank wall, glancing around to ensure that nobody else but Fenrir watched his every move. Ensured that he was only one of two souls present, he rose a hoof and attempted to push at the wall.

His limb traveled right through it, seeming to be nothing more than thin air.

"What is it?" Fenrir asked, walking to the phenomenon.

The unicorn's horn glowed, the aura embracing the wall—or lack thereof. The blasted thing immediately crumbled like glass when the magic hit it, disappearing into tiny little glimmers that faded from sight, revealing a dark place beyond with a set of stairs going down. "Oh, hello... looks like we had some illusion magic going on here," he mumbled, setting a hoof on the first step and poking it left and right before stopping when he found solid wood. His horn glowed again, but only for the barest of instants.

Another scream echoed, this time twice as loud, forcing Matt to stop his spell and take the first few steps downward. The two went as slow as they could, as much of the wood had aged and creaked like rusty door hinges beneath them as they moved. After another moment or so, they came upon a dark, wet, musty room.

"After her! She's getting away!" a masculine voice cried out in a soft echo, followed by the sound of hooves hitting on the ground.

"You just had to take the filly, didn't you?" another scolded, again followed by hooves as they hit the floor, the second set fading into the darkness just the same.

Matt's horn softly glowed, a tiny spark of light shining forth and casting away a small sphere of darkness. He frowned when the first thing he saw were wooden crates stacked atop the other in towers reaching the ceiling, some covered with mold and mildew and others leaking some kind of dark fluid. These very stacks made for a very narrow passage; so narrow, in fact, that Fenrir had to shift his form so he could effectively walk sideways.

After exchanging another glance, the two went forward. After three minutes of yet more walking, they came upon a vast room that had been darkened, save for a hanging light that shone a wide halo above the corpse of a dead pony tied up to look like a rotting rocking horse. Entrails were strewn about, along with dark blood stains, and the innards looked as though someone took a knife to hack them into ribbons.

Fenrir opened his mouth to say something, but a pained and muffled whimper cut him off before he could utter a word. He bounded forward on swift but silent paws, and upon entering the light and seeing up close the full scene, his eyes widened. He gestured with a paw for the unicorn to come forward as his eyelids slanted, and a small frown came unto his muzzle. Kneeling forward, he reached out with his other paw, the blond-maned stallion trotting towards him as another muffled groan echoed into the room.

Matt's heart fell as he saw Natalie and Anna, both tied up like the corpse and beaten, but still alive. The mares had reddened faces and bloodshot eyes, ears folded back against their heads and gags tied over their mouths. Anna seemed to have received the harsher treatment, with red welts swelling on her rear, stretching clean across one of her cutie marks, and her loose disheveled mane sported tangles, knots, and some split ends. He saw Fenrir's paw grab one of the straps of the gag in Natalie's mouth, and he swiftly and painlessly removed it.

"They... they..." Natalie croaked as soon as she could speak again, her voice hoarse, faltering, and riddled with hiccups. The digit of a paw rose up and hovered over her lips, silencing her on the spot, save for her hitched and pained breathing. With his other paw, Fenrir motioned zipping his lips—'better to be silent,' he seemed to say.

Matt jumped forward, his horn glowing brighter, magic embracing the two mares. He undid the straps on their legs and slid them out of their bonds, pupils shrinking as he immediately noticed they had turned blue. Gently laying them on the floor and spotting the accursed horn rings, he pried those and Anna's gag away, earning a pained yelp from the archer in doing so.

"It... hurts..." Anna moaned, a fresh wave of tears trailing down her cheeks. Fenrir reached out again and wiped a tear away, frowning when it was soon replaced by two more. His frown deepened when she made to stand, only for her still-blue legs to buckle and send her sprawling back into the floor just seconds later.

The dog approached them and knelt before the two, finding the saddles on their backs. He scooped up Anna and removed hers carefully, and turned away to scowl when he spotted her bleeding rectum, which leaked despite having had a glaringly obvious wad of ginger rammed into it. Matt undid the one on Natalie's back, and helped her sit up to embrace her when he found the same thing. Both mares began crying, held in hooves and paws while garbled words spilled from their mouths like water bursting from weak dams. Soon, though, they fell silent, save for their strangled sobs.

Several tense minutes passed, and the two were still crying when Lance, Sarah, and NoLegs hit the scene. The three rushed over with choked gasps and a startled mew, wings snapping wide open as the gravity of the mess set in.

"M-Maria... they... h-hurt..." Anna mumbled as Sarah rushed to her side and set a talon on her withers.

Sarah's irises looked to be lightly shaking in the white canvases, and her eyes prickled with tears as she saw up close and personal just how much damage had been done. "They hurt the foal?" she asked in a low tone, pupils dilating when the battered unicorn fervently nodded.

"W-whipped... b-bound..." Natalie confirmed, her muzzle buried into Matt's mane. "She... r-ran... w-we couldn't... do... a-anything to s-stop..."

Matt's horn softly glowed again for a moment or two before the aura died down. He rose a hoof to stroke Natalie's mane, but paused when the action caused her to stiffen a bit. NoLegs mewed and scooted up to the mare, frowning when she failed to pet him.

Lance trotted up to Fenrir, and rose a hoof to Anna's face to wipe a tear, but he retracted that hoof when her horn violently sparked with emerald magic. "Hey, I'm not going to hit you or anything..." he murmured, setting the hoof down before leaning in with his face to nuzzle her a bit.

Anna didn't say anything, but closed her eyes as the stallion rubbed one of her cheeks with the spot between his mouth and his nostrils. She frowned for a moment or so, but relaxed a little after the nuzzling had stopped.

"Why... didn't... you come sooner?" Natalie whimpered as her fit had started to die down a bit.

"They had illusions set up to fool us. If one of the employees didn't turn down the stairs where the illusion was at..." Fenrir trailed off, shaking his head glumly.

"Illusions... so that's why..." Lance murmured, turning to Fenrir with a scowl set firmly into his visage, eyes narrowed to crimson chips.

Sarah carefully pried Anna from Fenrir's arms, wrapping her claws and wings around her form, sitting down on her haunches as she did so. She pressed her closer as weakened front hooves returned the hug, gently shaking as blood flowed through the veins. "How... are your legs holding up?" she asked softly.

"B-bad," Anna replied in a wheeze, her front limbs falling slack again.

"I believe they won't be able to trot for a few hours at most. At least, not... steadily," Fenrir piped up, gently grabbing Anna and prying her from Sarah's claws. The green-maned unicorn made to keen in protest, but the noise died when she found herself resting on a backside, nestled between a pair of feathery wings. Another sound left her mouth as he slowly undid the wrappings on her tail, becoming a pained gasp as the mass of hair got trussed up a bit and fell down, with much of the base coming in contact with her still-aching rump. She yelped when he grabbed the nub of ginger and sharply tugged it out quick, only to groan as a worse ache started settling in.

Sarah stood up, using her wings to steady her sister on her back. She turned to Lance, a worried frown etched firmly into her face. "Should we go get the others, or find Maria?" the mare murmured.

Lance stayed silent, gaze briefly averting to Matt as he hefted Natalie onto his back, pried out the other nub of ginger, and undid the wrappings with magic in one go. His ears fell back, the scowl in his visage contorting just enough that his narrowed eyes widened a bit. After several tense seconds that felt like hours passed, he turned to Fenrir and said, "You, go get the others. We're staying with the girls."

"What about Maria?" Fenrir replied, lowly growling as he spoke.

"I have a feeling she didn't get very far. Face it, she can't fly, and whoever did this might be bringing her back already," Lance retorted, shaking his head. "Thus, if our only able unicorn stays at least, he can get her and run like hell. If me and Sarah stay with him, we can hold off our culprits while Matt flees with the girls."

Fenrir's expression changed, from anger, to annoyance, and finally he nodded in understanding. "I'll return as swiftly as I am able," he stated, and with that, he bounded out of the room.

"Matt, Sarah, NoLegs, we're going to hide nearby," Lance added, earning wide-eyed looks from the three he addressed, in addition to a loud meow. He gestured with a hoof to the darkness the overhead light couldn't reach. "We won't go that far, just enough where the responsible party won't see us," he added.

The unicorn stallion and hippogryph mare exchanged a glance before they turned back to the pegasus and nodded in unison. Lance nodded back and turned, trotting around the corpse as silently as he could and seemingly vanishing into the darkness. Sarah and Matt followed suit, being as cautious as they could while still carrying living, aching cargo on their backsides. NoLegs went with, and soon the six were out of sight.

Minutes passed, and a tense silence fell upon the room. Lance fidgeted in his spot uncomfortably, gaze affixed where the overhead light still shined. His ears perked and started swiveling at random intervals, hoping to catch some kind of noise that'd mean one of two parties were returning.

Instead, he flinched as the loud crack of a whip echoed off the dark walls, followed by a strangled scream that sounded as though it came from a young child. Hoofbeats sounded not long after, and three stallions stepped into the light, two of them naked with their slightly-blue dicks swinging in the open air and the last a suited earth pony. Maria came into the light next, being propelled into the floor by unicorn magic.

Napkin turned to the corpse and his face turned a stark shade of crimson as soon as he noticed the absence of two mares and the things that had been tied to them strewn about the scene. "They... they escaped..." he growled, turning to the foal with a glower. "This is your fault, you little cunt!" he screamed, grabbing the foal with his magic and dragging her dangerously close to his rear legs. Before he could do anything, his eyes went wide and a pained choke left his throat as a talon shot up and cleanly pierced the flesh of his organ before pulling down and retracting, creating long gashes that oozed with rivers of red.

Soufflé lunged at Maria, only to stop when she moved and clawed him in the dick as well, doubling over with a pained howl as his member likewise began aching in a worse pain amplified tenfold. The earth pony managed to scoop her up with his front hooves, and quickly found himself getting small talons raked across his face—clean across both eyes, in fact. He dropped her with a shriek, and she ran past the corpse, chest heaving with pained pants.

The foal blundered into Lance, who grabbed her and held a hoof over her mouth as she began struggling. "It's me," he whispered lowly, "the nice pegasus with the hat." He sighed in relief as Maria relaxed in his grasp, watching with an impassive expression as the three ponies who had gotten scratched writhed for a few moments, desperately using hooves and magic in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

Hoofbeats echoed again, and before long another pony entered the fray. Lance blinked as he eyed the distinct purple armor and ice cold eyes of the fourth pony, noticing a wide-eyed look that quickly morphed into a scowl. "What in Celestia's name happened here!" Shining barked, his question catching the attention of the bleeding trio and causing them to go wide-eyed as soon as they noticed who strode in and glared at them.

"Let's see here... a corpse that's been gutted, three little ponies on the floor with bloodied wounds, and two throbbing dicks. Captain Armor, I think we may have found necrophiliacs," a raspy feminine voice answered, accompanied by the sound of buzzing wings. Katie flew into the light, hovering inches above the captain, eyes narrowed into a glare at the stallions on the floor.

"Not necrophiliacs, but I can capably understand how you might arrive at that conclusion," Fenrir remarked as he stepped out of the shadows. He rose a paw and snapped the digits after Armin and Alexander flanked him. "Captain Armor, if you would please look in the direction that the corpse faces," he stated.

Shining quirked a brow and had done just that, just in time to see three forms emerge from the darkness, with three more laden on their backs. He spotted blood on Maria's talons, and the filly pointed at the wounded ponies on the floor. "Bad ponies hurt me and nice mares with their cocks and a whip," she hissed.

"Silence, you impudent brat!" Napkin seethed, magic sparking to life, only to stop as a magic inhibitor slid onto his and Soufflé's horns.

"Dammit!" Soufflé yelled, turning to the earth pony. "Rusty Pan, do something!"

Rusty rose onto his hooves, face still stained in crimson. He lunged at Shining, only to find himself pushed to the floor by a dark-coated gryphon wearing a narrow-eyed expression. "You want to have more wounds lining your body? I can provide just that," Alexander hissed, his talons locked around the stallion's throat.

"Shining... this is your fucking fault..." Natalie grunted, glaring at the white unicorn with a pained voice. "You led us here... and me and Anna... and Maria..."

"I'm sorry, I truly am," Shining began, cutting the mare off before she could finish. "I had no way of knowing this would happen. Your changelings told me everything after they allegedly received a telepathic message. I set up the guard post nearby because sketchy activity has been happening in this part of Canterlot well before you guys arrived."

"Then why didn't you act sooner? You could have prevented this!" Lance barked, glowering.

Shining's gaze fell onto the floor, his horn glowing and his magic lifting the two unicorn stallions into the air. "I could have arrested an innocent pony just as easily. Me and the other guards had nothing to work with. All we knew was that ponies vanished after trotting in this district, and little else. As captain of the guard, I can't afford to pin the mess on an innocent," he replied quietly.

"And... what happens when a pony, innocent or not, is found guilty of the crime in question?" Katie asked, descending until she hovered next to Shining, front legs crossed and a brow quirked.

"It depends on the crime, but the worst ones... the pony either gets executed, or banished," Shining answered, turning to the wraith with a hard frown. He gestured to the wounded stallions and added, "I can't see them getting free. If they're guilty of sexual assault, murder, foal abuse... at the least, they're going to be gelded and locked up for life."

"Captain Armor, we found evidence on the top floor," another voice spoke up as a royal pegasus guard trotted into the light, garnering the attention of the entire group.

"Evidence of what?" Fenrir asked before Shining could open his mouth.

"Evidence that the hotel staff disposes of bodies," the guard answered. As soon as he finished speaking, the bound corpse began rocking on its own accord, its form writhing and its head thrashing about, eye sockets glowing with a sea green light.

Katie flew to it, her own orbs widening to the size of saucers. The corpse let off a hideous, unearthly shriek as its fit died down, staring deep into the wraith's eyes when it stilled. "I'll... make them pay..." the bald pony hissed in a low, hollow tone, a few maggots sliding out of its mouth as it spoke.

"There... is no need," Katie replied, and when the corpse made to speak again, she pointed a hoof at Shining. The bound pony turned to the captain, holding its gaze on him for a moment before turning back to the pale changeling. "Do you... know what happened here?"

"Know?" the corpse scoffed before letting off a laugh that held no happiness. "I felt everything. I heard everything. I saw everything," it answered. "I even felt the foal as her claws slashed at my innards before she broke free. I'd hold that against her, but then... it seems everything is under control now. What's the point?"

Shining swallowed thickly before addressing the tied-up corpse, "Would... you like to..."

"Testify?" the skinned pony finished for him, turning its gaze in his direction with a huff. "What good would that do? Who'd have the heart to listen to a skinless pony whose organs have been spilled, aside from maybe the Princesses? No, I would like to die, thank you."

"Can you tell us your name... before we lay you to rest?" the guard asked in a hesitant tone, spreading a wing to reveal a knife secured in a leather holster at his side.

The bald corpse turned to him and stayed silent for a moment. "Silk Fabric," it replied, sea green orbs dimming as the pegasus guard unsheathed the knife.

Chapter XII- Tabloid*

Chapter XII- Tabloid*

Days melted into weeks, and on a fine afternoon Twilight sat in the middle of a library near a table, levitating a cup of tea to her lips in a slow languid motion. In front of her lay an open book, and she idly flipped a page with a hoof, sipping the warm brew and letting it soothe her throat. With the small glass emptied, she set it down on the table and started to read the book when the door to the library burst open.

"Twilight, you gotta see this right now!" a voice cried as said door flew open, causing the unicorn's tail to stand on end and her eyes to widen. She turned to the door and found Spike running up to her, a rolled-up paper in his claw.

"Spike, aren't you supposed to be with Rarity?" Twilight asked, before said purple-maned unicorn bustled into the library with a harried look on her face.

"Erm, yeah. I still am," Spike answered with a grin before it fell as he handed Twilight the paper. "But you gotta see that; it's pretty urgent."

Twilight groaned and unrolled the paper with her magic, instantly finding herself greeted by a news article. She couldn’t help but notice the enormous bold letters of the headline. "'Hotel in Canterlot closed due to accusations of sexual assault...' Wait, why would you show me this? You know I don't read this sort of stuff, Spike," the unicorn groaned, brow furrowing.

"Just wait until you get to the drivel that explains the mess. It wasn't just anypony who was sexually assaulted, according to that particular tabloid," Rarity piped up, ears folding back against her head as she spoke.

Twilight sent Rarity an unreadable look before nodding and begrudgingly reading the blasted thing. Her eyes widened as the article presented three pictures accompanying its words. The pictures depicted exactly three faces she hadn't expected to see on the forefront. Her visage paled, and she turned to the dragon and other unicorn before murmuring in a low voice, "The Fantasians are involved in the mess?"

"Three of them as victims, and the rest as witnesses," Rarity confirmed with a nod as the lavender mare turned back to the article. "It seems they've gotten into Celestia's mane now, and I fear for her well-being."

"Um... Rarity, it says my brother got involved, that there was a fourth victim in the mess, and that fourth pony became a wraith," Twilight murmured, eyeing the newspaper with still-wide eyes.

"Another reason why Spike and I rushed here as soon as we were able. I'm impressed the pale changeling had nothing to do with the fourth victim, considering what she is," Rarity replied curtly, donning a frown as the other unicorn shot her a look with eyes that betrayed a glimmer of worry.

"So, if there are wraiths... cropping up in Equestria..." Twilight trailed off, her face hardening.

"Things will go from bad to worse, going by what little that gryphon told us, and however much of that is true," Rarity finished for her. "Would you like me to get the rest of the girls?"

"Please do. They'll need to know this as soon as possible, in case we need to use the Elements of Harmony or something of that nature," Twilight replied, nodding. With that, the ivory unicorn bustled out of the library in a gallop, making sure to close the door behind her.

She turned to Spike when she heard a choked gasp come from the drake, sighing as his cheeks puffed up like a balloon before he knelt to the floor and belched. In a puff of smoke and green flame, a rolled-up piece of paper burst out and bounced for a bit, stopping long enough to roll and reveal a red ribbon secured with a gold pin keeping it shut. Twilight picked up the paper in her magic and undid the ribbon, unrolling it to reveal that something had been written on the parchment.

"What's it say, Twilight?" Spike asked with a cough, turning to Twilight with a brow raised.

"I don't know, Spike... let's see, 'Dearest Twilight,'" she read aloud, "'it would seem that our guests have wasted no time in getting themselves involved with Equestrian affairs. As I am sure you are aware, they have lent a hoof—claw, in the case of the hippogryphs, gryphon, and diamond dog they have with them—in exposing a highly corrupt business practice, yet three of them have gotten injured doing so.'"

The unicorn took a deep breath, absorbing the information, and after a moment she continued to read the letter, "'In addition to this, a problem has come to light. I had thought that during my rule of Equestria, the issue of the wraiths—which I'll explain in a moment—ceased at some point. However, the recent turn of events has taken my suspicion and shattered it into fragments.'"

"A wraith issue?" Spike interrupted, his brows shooting up.

"That's what the letter says. I'm just reading it," Twilight sighed, then resumed reading. "'Ponies—and possibly changelings, taking into account the pale one the Fantasians brought with them—are morphing, clinging onto life when they should perish. For reasons I do not entirely understand, the Fantasian wraith would not tell me anything about the phenomenon, which leads me to the conclusion that she'd rather keep something hidden.'"

Spike interrupted again, with a heavy sigh. "Okay, I thought Celestia could get anypony to say anything," he stated with a frown.

"I don't understand, either," Twilight groaned, turning to the drake with a shrug of her shoulders. She cleared her throat and went on, "'As such, I strongly feel that I have little choice. Due to several complications stemming in Canterlot, I have arranged for the Fantasians to come to Ponyville by train later this evening. Even when they join you and your friends, be on guard. The guests have searched every shelf in the royal library for some kind of information—what that is, I cannot say, as they refused to elaborate. Your faithful teacher, Princess Celestia. P.S. The Fantasian mares have taken to yelling Shining Armor's ears off during their stay every time they saw him, which fortunately only happened thrice. It had something to do with him leading them into a bad situation or something of the sort,'" she concluded.

The unicorn dropped the letter, turned back to the table, and slammed her face into the wood before letting off a despondent groan.

"Great, we gotta deal with those loons again," Spike stated in a sarcastic tone, eyelids partially drooped to frame eyes that did not gleam and arms going slack against his sides.

The door burst open again, and Twilight turned to it to see a zebra mare with gold accessories run inside and skid to a loud halt on her hooves. "Twilight Sparkle, I need you to come with me! I found a mare suffering in the Everfree!" she bellowed, eyes wide and tone riddled with alarm.

"Suffering in the Everfree Forest?" Twilight asked, standing up and approaching the zebra with a brow raised. "What... kind of suffering are we talking about here, Zecora?"

Zecora's eyes averted every which-way for a moment, her legs trembling as she spotted the flicker of worry in the unicorn's irises. "The mare, she... clings to life when she should have passed," she replied, pausing to swallow. "When I found her, she was dead, but her state changed, fast."

Twilight's eyes widened. "Is she a... wraith?" she murmured, her tone hushed.

"Yes, a wraith, and one who has lost all four legs," Zecora stated as she nodded. Her ears fell flat against her head and she added, "I need you to see her, for company she begged."

The unicorn sighed and turned to Spike. "If the girls arrive while I am gone, tell them Zecora wanted me to see something," she murmured.

Spike nodded. "Can do, Twi," he replied. With that, the zebra and unicorn went out the door, making sure to close it behind them. They trotted a ways through a small town, winding through streets paved in dirt roads and framed by houses with mostly straw roofs. Some ponies nodded and waved, others came up to ask the two what had been going on, and more still came to utter a brief but polite 'hello' and go about their routine.

After a few moments, the two diverted down a road that lead them to a thicket of wood where the trees and undergrowth sprung up like weeds that had been given a growth hormone, through which a small path cut across. Said path had a small strip of sky that could be seen from above, revealing the blue sky beyond.

This path the pony and zebra took for a few moments longer, staying on the dirt trail with eyes peeled. Zecora veered to the right after stopping for a second, diving into a dense thicket of trees. "This way, if I remember right, if she’s not hidden out of sight," she beckoned. Twilight reluctantly followed, silently praying that the zebra had been making things up.

The two found another clearing in moments, and in the center of this spot Twilight saw a pitiful earth pony mare with naught but a head and torso, legs torn clean from the sockets of hip and shoulder to reveal still-oozing wounds, grunting and groaning in a hollow tone. The eyes lit up like bulbs in the canvases of black, a very soft green in hue that starkly contrasted the natural bright red of her coat and the darker hue of blood. A trussed up pale green mane framed the pony's face, ending in loose and dirtied curls.

"Wh-who are you?" Twilight asked, eyes widening as she examined the laying pony from a distance.

The pony looked at Twilight and rolled onto her side, exposing a gnarly wound that stretched from withers to rump. "Crimson... Gala," the legless mare groaned.

"Do you now see this mare's awful bout? Surely, of her agony you have little doubt?" Zecora murmured, turning to Twilight with a flicker of sadness in her eyes.

"What should we do? She's in pain, and we can't leave her laying there," Twilight replied, slowly nodding her head.

Zecora closed her eyes and lowered her face, her tone somber as she answered, "I'm afraid we'll have to stain our hooves in her blood. Only severing her head will end this legless bud. Nothing else can truly end her life, I’m afraid. Do you happen to have some kind of sharpened blade?”

Twilight frowned. "I don't have a blade on me," she sighed. "But, how do you know what can end a wraith and what can't?"

"I've ran into them, in my time before taking residence in the Everfree. Time and time again they have risen, and all I could do was turn my tail and flee," the zebra stated, eyes opening to reveal a worried flicker in the irises. She turned to Gala, who looked back at her intently, and added, "Twilight Sparkle, I must ask, before we begin this dark task. Have you run into a wraith before now, and if so, when did you end them, and how?"

"I've... met wraiths weeks ago, but I didn't kill them. A few other ponies who were there when the wraiths came did," Twilight replied in a low tone. "Only one of them was decapitated, and another had his mana flow cut off and it overloaded his system. Another five got turned to ashes."

Zecora jerked her gaze back to the unicorn, pupils shrinking to tiny dots. "W-where? When did this event transpire? Please tell me how things got so dire," she questioned.

"In... Fantasia," Twilight stated, shaking her head. "The populace has its own wraith problem, and it's gotten pretty bad over there." She trotted to Gala and knelt forward to be eye-level with the legless form on the grassy ground. "Do... do you have anything you want before you..." she trailed off, the last word that could complete the sentence stuck in her throat. She could not utter it no matter how hard she willed it, and during this bout of silence the wraith's eyes dimmed momentarily.

Gala shook her head. "Just make it... painless," she answered in a weak voice, one so low that Twilight almost didn't hear it. The unicorn nodded and shut her eyes, her horn glowing for a moment, only for the flow of magic to cease once a revelation set in.

"Twilight Sparkle, is something wrong? Crimson mustn't suffer all day long!" Zecora groaned, trotting up to the unicorn who looked at her rather despondently.

"Well... I don't exactly know how to decapitate her without making it painless. You didn't give me enough time to bring a sword or something of the sort..." Twilight trailed off, before a revelation sparked in her mind and her eyes went wide with a glimmer. "Wait, that's it!"

"What is it? Tell me now, so we can make this quick!" the zebra begged, jumping when Twilight turned back to Gala and started charging another spell without answering. "Perhaps we can make something out of these old and dead sticks!" she intoned after a few branches snapped from the surrounding trees and floated to and around Twilight, embraced in magic as they formed a very crude and dull sword. The wooden blade started shimmering in a white light, but the glow ceased as fast as it had come.

Twilight dropped the bundle of twigs, which scattered upon impact with the ground, and once more looked at Zecora. "I saw a spell in Fantasia, and I just tried to replicate it... and yet, it didn't work," she murmured. "It happened when one of the wraiths got decapitated. The pony who did it had a sword that gleamed with a pearly white sheen instead of normal steel."

Zecora sighed and looked at Gala. Carefully, she hefted the wraith into a crude sitting position with her front hooves. "Then we take this suffering mare out of this clearing to my hut. Perhaps I have something that can get her out of this painful rut," she stated.

"I'll carry her with my magic. Otherwise she could—" Twilight paused as Zecora lifted Gala and placed her onto her back, whereupon the wraith immediately slid off and face-planted in the dirt. "—fall..."

"Ow..." Gala groaned into the dirt, ears flat on her head as a magic aura embraced her and hefted her into the air.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

"Tell me more about these Fantasians you have met, if you please. If you keep mum of them I shall not press you by any means," Zecora said, scrounging around a small room filled with corked bottles held on shelves. A cauldron sat in the middle, and on a pile of hay rested Gala, who opted to curl up and doze.

"Well... I really can't describe them without showing them to you, which isn't possible at this time. Four of them are regular ponies, two are hippogryphs, one's a legless cat, and there was a gryphon and diamond dog with them..." Twilight trailed off, sitting next to the snoozing wraith with a hoof rubbing nervously at the other leg.

"Speak only of the ponies, then. Once I hear enough, I shall say 'when,'" Zecora replied, plucking a round green bottle with a hoof and trotting to the cauldron on three legs. She set it down at the foot of the gargantuan metal bowl before trotting back to the shelves to examine the rest of the bottles.

"One of them's... a general. He leads gryphons and changelings in Fantasia, and has somehow gotten his hooves on war machines," Twilight began, her statement causing Zecora to almost knock a hoofful of bottles over as she jumped from the shelves with her front legs flailing about.

The zebra turned to the unicorn, eyes widening to the size of saucers. "A general who leads gryphons and changelings, you say? Now I understand why you haven't talked of them all day."

"And the funny thing? He's a currently-flightless pegasus whose wings are so busted up that, to show me how bad they are, would cause my late great-grandmare to shudder from what he told me," Twilight added, the remark eliciting a set of shrunk pupils from Zecora.

"How in the name of all things pure is that possible? Surely, such a thing would be truly illogical!" Zecora murmured in a hushed whisper, eyes glinting with worry as the information sank in.

"I wish I knew," Twilight answered, shaking her head and waving a hoof in defeat. "He wouldn't tell me. Then again, I only stayed two and a half days in Fantasia; not much time to gather information."

"I see. Indeed child, I see. Is there more to share with me?" the zebra sighed, returning to the shelves yet again.

"He has three unicorns with him, and they all tagged along. From what little I've been told, and this is all I know, he'd acted way out of line one time. The unicorns are with him just to make sure that doesn't happen again, whatever it is. Something tells me he's trying to hide something big, and I find myself rather skeptical of his words," the unicorn sighed, watching Zecora as she scooped up a few more bottles and placed them at the foot of the cauldron.

"Oh... oh dear, this isn't good," Zecora groaned as she started going up and down the shelves, hastily prying bottles off of them for one moment before returning the containers back where she had found them. "I need one more ingredient, much more than I should."

"One more?" Twilight asked, both brows rising. "What is it?"

"An item that is very hard to obtain. If I cannot retrieve it, there will be much pain," Zecora replied, turning to Twilight with a heavy sigh. She gestured to Gala with a hoof and continued speaking with a hint of sadness in her tone, "I could take the scarce item from her here and now, but it would not be as useful, and I cannot explain how."

"Huzzuwha?" Gala murmured, her body writhing as she came to. "What about how?"

"We're working on it, don't worry," Twilight replied, gently petting the legless wraith on the head with a hoof.

"Alright," Gala sighed with a nod before curling up to nap once the hoof stopped touching her.

"Such a conundrum, it is indeed. This, I sorely wished I had foreseen," Zecora lamented, closing her eyes for a moment before looking at the cauldron forlornly.

"So, what're we gonna do now? What are we going to need?" Twilight asked, standing up and quietly trotting away from Gala.

"We must find a wraith whose body is whole, so that we may at last release this old foal. A strand of mane would do very well this moon, but it is not easy to find one so soon," Zecora murmured, lightly tapping a hoof on her chin. "A complete wraith is very hard to come by. They keep getting their forms mangled, and I know not why."

"Oh, boy... so, until we get the strand of mane from a wraith that hasn't lost a thing, what will happen to Gala in the meantime?" Twilight mused, turning to the snoozing wraith and sighing as a set of red ears swiveled about, accompanied by soft murmurings.

"A very fair point, you do make. She'll stay here and rest, for everypony's sake," Zecora replied, eyes on the sleeping wraith as she muttered something about chocolate. "I'll hide Gala in a thick pile of hay by late afternoon. I would rather she didn't get seen by Apple Bloom."

Twilight nodded. "I guess I'll head back to Ponyville then, but I will come back later tonight to check on Crimson. Is that alright?" she asked.

Zecora nodded back, a hint of a smile blossoming on her face. "I would like that very much. So would Gala, I am certain of such."

Twilight smiled and made her way out of the hut, silently closing the door behind her to not rouse the snoozing wraith within. She trotted through the woods, though a chill ran up her spine when she noticed a good twenty minutes later all she could hear was the sound of twigs and grass crunching beneath her hooves. She immediately stopped, whereupon a thick silence had enveloped the patch of wood she stood in.

"Wraiths... in Equestria... Celestia talked about them in that letter like she knew about them all along," Twilight murmured to herself, her voice unable to crack the tranquility that settled. She rose a hoof to rub her chin in thought, pausing to tap it a few times as the gears in her mind spun. When, after a few moments she idly stood and tethered on the brink of rubbing her chin raw, she set her hoof down and sighed before trotting on again.

She found herself on a familiar dirt trail after a while of weaving around the trees without further incident, and charged into Ponyville in a gallop. She raced in a frenzy, eyes staying peeled for anything that might obstruct her way, yet nopony seemed to be out at this time.

Twilight paused again once she registered the phenomenon. She looked to the sky and found it to be still daylight. Looking to her left, she spotted a parchment taped to a lightpost, bound in a layer of clear plastic. She trotted to it and inspected it. "Huh, really heavy rain with a chance for hail today... that's why nopony's out," she murmured, then shrugged and went about her merry way.

She just barely made it to a great oak tree with a door built into the trunk when the storm hit. At first, nothing but a small drizzle of rain hit the window, yet after two minutes passed and she got inside the torrent came, accompanied by tiny clear pellets that bounced around for a bit after landing before melting in the rain. She turned to the room and eyed the assorted books on the shelves before her gaze fell unto the table, noticing a wooden carving of a horse's head and one lone book, splayed open and begging to be read.

Twilight strode to that lonesome book and sat on her haunches, finding where she left off with relative ease and resumed reading. Her brow furrowed as she flipped the page when she finished it, this time with a simple levitation spell, and she went on to read the next. As page after page of information got a good thorough look-over, Twilight's face contorted gradually. First, her brow furrowed some more, then a frown spread on her muzzle.

Once she managed to get through the rest of the book, she groaned and slammed it shut with a hoof before returning it to a barren shelf with a fling of magic. The mare pounded her hooves on the table in frustration, only to stop and take a few deep breaths before she could explode further. When the drumming of the rain and hail outside intensified to the point the noise faintly echoed throughout the library, she stood up and went to the window to investigate why.

Her pupils dilated as she spotted the accursed falling ice balls, landing with hard thuds and somehow not shattering with impact on the ground. The things had grown to the size of tennis balls, and she could see holes forming in the nearest straw roof at a breakneck speed. "What in the name of Celestia... oh no. Tonight's gonna be bad."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

As soon as the storm had settled, Twilight and her friends gathered in the library. All were looking at Rainbow Dash with frowns on their faces.

"I'm telling you, Twilight, I didn't know the hail was going to be that huge! Neither did the rest of the weather team!" Dash exclaimed, flying in mid-air and waving both front hooves frantically.

Twilight groaned in exasperation. She gave Dash a level look and asked, "Do you know of anypony who did make the hail?"

"No. All the other weather ponies told me was that the weather’s been screwy since the barrier broke. I heard it's happened in other cities, and it got way out of control in Canterlot," Dash replied, firmly shaking her head as she waved her hooves again.

"Could the Fantasians have had something to do with it?" Rarity piped up, garnering looks from the other mares as she spoke.

"As far as we know, none of those crazy ponies can control weather. We saw how bad it was over in Fantasia. There was no way it was them," Pinkie chimed in, then she turned to Dash. "You said the weather ponies told you it was bad since the barrier broke, right?"

"Like two seconds ago," Rainbow huffed, nostrils briefly flaring as she crossed her forelegs. "Not even Spitfire knows what's going down, and she's the leader of the Wonderbolts! I think that says a lot." She turned to Rarity and, with a glower, added, "Rares, why would you accuse the Fantasians of causing the weather to get messed up? You might as well start running around saying Pumpkin Cake did it."

Rarity sighed and rubbed her temples with a hoof. "I suppose you're right," she murmured. "I have no real proof that they could have done it. Oh, Twilight, do you still have the newspaper?"

"Yes. And a letter from Celestia," Twilight answered, procuring both parchments with a flash of light. She handed the letter to Rarity, and the newspaper to Applejack.

"What in tarnation are you hoofing me this for?" the orange earth pony asked, a brow raising as the newspaper found itself resting in one of her front hooves. She read its contents for a moment before throwing it at Rainbow Dash, who caught it with both hooves after fumbling with it for a few moments just trying to grab it.

The cyan pegasus read the article, and her tail stood on end. "Wait, wait, back up!" she exclaimed, pupils shrinking to tiny dots that hovered in magenta canvases. "I thought there were no wraiths in Equestria!" With that, she hoofed the paper to Pinkie Pie, pupils still dilated.

"Aside from the pale Fantasian changeling, I thought so, too. Then Celestia sent that letter," Twilight groaned, shaking her head as she spoke with a slightly bitter tone.

"I wonder why the Princess would wait until today to send this letter. But then again, there was a mess in Canterlot regarding a hotel, so... I'll just assume that took up most of her time," Rarity added, handing the letter over to Fluttershy.

Pinkie slammed her front hooves down on the table, causing a loud thud to echo in the room and simultaneously hush the others. The rest of the mares turned to her and shivered as her visage set in a scowl, a spark of anger alight in her eyes. "I hope the ponies who hurt them never, ever get the chance to make somepony else frown again," she seethed in a quiet, angry tone. "The Fantasians may have done some bad things, but what the hotel ponies did was ten times worse."

"Well, they probably won't get that chance again. The ponies who ran that hotel did some very bad things, and according to that tabloid, my brother got involved in the mess too, somehow. I wouldn't be surprised if Celestia decided to banish them," Twilight replied, noting that her words eased the burning flame in Pinkie's eyes. The pink mare slumped a bit, and the lavender unicorn added, "And there's a bunch of witnesses—foreign ones, but still—against them. The hotel staff are pretty much in boiling water."

"Um, Twilight?" Fluttershy interjected, a hoof raised well before a set of amethyst eyes turned to her. Before the unicorn could so much as utter a word, the yellow pegasus continued, "If the Fantasians come here, don't we have to keep them hidden? I wouldn't want the Cutie Mark Crusaders to see them. If you don't mind, that is."

"Flutters has a point. The wraith they have with them would give Apple Bloom some mighty fierce nightmares, and I don't even want to think about how lil' Maria would act around my sister," Applejack conceded, nodding when Twilight turned to her.

"Dearest Applejack, it couldn't be that bad if the hippogryph foal got some more interaction with other children her age," Rarity countered, sending the orange mare an unreadable look.

"That kid knows what a cock is, and I ain't talking about the kind that wake you up every morning," Applejack retorted, returning Rarity's gaze with a face that had a small frown and slightly narrowed eyes. "And she told us she lost her Ma and Pa. What would happen if my sister brought that up with the little gryph?"

Rarity flinched and her shoulders sagged. "Nevermind," she sighed in a low tone.

Chapter XIII- Ice is Nice*

Chapter XIII- Ice is Nice*

A thick silence blanketed Canterlot, broken up by intense rain as it drummed on the roofs and balconies, accompanied by hard thuds as huge chunks of hail battered everything below the rainclouds. The silence did not last long for a select group within the castle walls, however.

"Big stupid ice ball hit me!" Maria screeched as she ran into an ornately-decorated guest room where most of the other Fantasians mulled about, a talon on her forehead and her face scrunched in pain.

Fenrir limped over to the foal on all fours with his tail tucked between his legs and scooped her up with a front paw. "On the head, I take it?" he groaned. The filly nodded and rubbed the spot she held, giving a small wince when the tips of her claws brushed up against it.

"Fen, are you alright? Your back legs are sagging, and your tail's between them. It's been like that an hour since the storm started," Natalie noted from across the room. The diamond dog turned to her and limped over, doing his best to not drop the foal in his grasp.

"No. Let me just say that somepony decided it was a glorious idea to use a large accumulation of hail. The somepony compacted it to the size of my shoulder, and then struck a low blow with the resulting chunk," Fenrir snarled, briefly wincing as he spoke. His reply caused the rest of the males in the room to flinch themselves, with one sets of ears folding sharply back against the head they were attached to.

Maria, likewise, cringed in sympathy. "You got the bigger hurt," she mumbled.

"Precisely," Fenrir conceded, lifting the foal and placing her on Natalie's back. He pet her head with his paw, making sure not to touch the hurt spot in the process, before setting it on the floor. He limped his way to a vacant couch and flopped on it, softly whimpering when his lower half connected with the cushions.

"You're walking around like something tore your arm off, balled the attached paw into a fist, and repeatedly clocked you between the legs with the damn thing. Who in Mythos hurt you?" Alexander asked, his inquiry earning him little more than an indignant, pained huff.

"I'll trot around and start asking the guards. Maybe they know something about what clobbered him so bad," Katie groaned, and with that, she strode out of the room. The door closed as she made her exit, aided by a brief golden glow of magic.

"Let's hope she and the guards find something," Sarah groaned, holding a nail filer in one talon and grooming the claws on the other. "If it's bad enough to make even Fenrir whimper, Godcat knows what it could do to the rest of us."

"Oioioi..." Matt mumbled, sitting on his rump with a heavy sigh. He glanced around the room until his eyes fell on Armin, who fiddled about with a strange, translucent ball of green goo with his front holey hooves. "What's that?" he asked, gesturing to the slime-like wad.

"Chitil. This substance I'm holding is used for a lot of things which I'd rather not list. I'm bored, I'm playing with it, please ask me if you want some," Armin replied with a sneer.

Maria hopped off of Natalie's back and rushed towards the changeling, eyeing the ball of chitil with a curious gaze. "Can I have some, please?" she asked in a sweet tone.

Armin blinked and looked at the child with an unreadable look. His fanged maw twitched, though not enough in an attempt to form words. He weighed the options whilst making sure the chitil didn't have a chance to drip onto the floor. His translucent wings flared wide for a moment before snapping shut as the filly gave him a pleading look.

A loud, thundering boom echoed into the room, startling the group and causing them to glance around. Sarah made to stand on her hooves, as if that could help her see past the walls in her attempt to figure out what had happened. She hesitated to revert to all fours, and looked at the others to be met with "Don't look at me"s or simple shrugs of the shoulders from the other currently-present Fantasians.

She sat down and sighed. "When do you guys think my sister and Lance will get back?" she asked, briefly stretching her wings as wide as they could go before closing them again.

"I don't know," Natalie responded, waving a front hoof as though she were holding an invisible object with it. "I hope it's soon, though."

"I hope that was only a clap of thunder. We're in a castle on a mountain, and I'm surprised the room hasn't shaken once yet," Alexander added, scratching his temples with a claw. As if on cue, another loud reverberation echoed outside, and this time it packed enough force to shake the entire castle for a full minute.

"Quit jinxing it already. We got enough problems," Armin snapped, glaring at the gryphon with the wad of chitil perched on his head like a slimy hat.

"That wasn't me, honest," the gryphon replied defensively and in an overly innocent tone, flailing his talons in front of his chest like that could help him.

"Yeah, right. About as likely a story as Katie learning how to lift Fenrir with just her wings," Matt retorted in a huff, earning a chuckle from the diamond dog in question.

"As unlikely as that scenario happens to be, somehow I find it... adorable," Fenrir stated with a grin.

"What's adorable?" Maria asked, garnering laughs from the rest of the group. "What's so funny?"

Natalie had been the first to cease laughing. "You're adorable," she answered with a wide grin, and made to speak further when the door opened.

Two more ponies that had gotten covered in ash at some point trotted into the room, leaving twin trails of dirty hoofprints behind them. One decided to loudly announce his arrival, and started this by letting off a shrill whistle that garnered the attention of the others immediately. "The high mages tried screwing with my wings, and look what happened," Lance groaned, a firm frown set into his soot-layered visage.

"What'd they do, throw you into a pile of dust and water?" Matt asked with a small grin, causing Natalie and Sarah to snicker at his inquiry.

"I wish," the pegasus huffed, glowering. The pony next to him just sighed and shook her head. "Anna tried convincing the high mages it was a bad idea. What does one of them do? Toy with the accursed wing covers anyway."

Anna spoke after taking a moment to wipe some of the ash off of her face with a front hoof, "There's good news and bad news regarding the damn things. Good news, they can be removed."

"What's the bad news?" Alexander questioned, a brow shooting up. His eyes widened as Anna grabbed one of Lance's wings in her magic and spread it as wide as it could go, and he spotted light cyan sparks glimmering from the feathers. Each spark formed strange characters, one on each protrusion, as if they were but incomplete fragments of some kind of rune.

Matt's smile fell upon seeing the anomaly. "Joy, the damn things are enchanted," he groaned in a sarcastic tone. He then inquired in a serious voice, "Did the high mages figure out anything?"

"Nope. They're like us: stuck on square one, and caked in dust," Anna replied, shaking her head and dislodging some more ash in the process. "They couldn't even identify these particular runes, and to be honest, I couldn't either," she added, releasing the wing from her magical grip.

"Is he okay?" Maria piped up, tottering over to Anna on three legs and using a claw to gesture to Lance for emphasis.

"Sort of," Lance answered for the child, punctuating his answer with a heavy sigh. "Just gotta clean up and not bust a lung sneezing my head off while I do it."

Anna blinked and gave the room a good once-over. "Wait, where's Katie?" she asked upon noticing the absence of the wraith.

"Fenrir and Maria got attacked by hail, and Katie tottered off to find out why," Sarah answered with a shrug.

"I hope what's-his-face stayed on the other side of this castle," Armin snorted, reaching up with a hoof to pry the chitil off of his head. "The longer we dwell here, and the more I hear him flap his gums like an uneducated fool who has nothing better to do, the more I find myself thinking he's going to touch us at night."

"With the guards around? Tch, that assclown has no chance of molesting us," Sarah scoffed, puffing her chest for a moment before sighing deeply as Lance and Anna started trotting around the room.

After a few moments, the latter started cursing. "Godcat-dammit, would it kill the castle staff to have feather dusters on standby after an entire room gets coated ceiling to floor in ash?" she seethed, scouring up and down the room whilst propelling herself with self-levitation.

"I think those are only granted to the local maids," Natalie stated with a roll of her eyes, shaking her head as the archer landed at Fenrir's side. "And I don't believe a feather duster to the face is a good idea."

"Natz has a point. I don't want feathers poking me in the nose or eyes anytime soon," Lance conceded, finding a spot to lay down on. He made to rest his head between his front hooves when somepony else waltzed into the room, bringing with him another winged form trapped in a giant ice cube.

Several hundred smaller chunks comprised the ice cube, distorting the inhabitant's shape, making some parts seem larger and others smaller. The only thing that served as an identifier of the frozen one's identity was a set of two rapidly-spinning orbs of blue. Said orbs brightly gleamed through the chilled crystal mass as they whirled about.

The one dragging in the icy form, a white unicorn stallion with a blue mane and monocle, sighed deeply and gestured with a hoof to the giant chunk of ice—or, rather, who'd gotten trapped in the frozen confines. "Do any of you know how this wraith found herself trapped in this gargantuan clump of hail?" he asked in a smooth voice. The stallion found himself frowning when his question went unanswered, largely because the Fantasians simply stared at the frozen pale changeling.

Maria bounded forward to the imprisoned mare and stood up on her back legs, resting her claws on the thick chunk of ice that seemed to have swallowed her whole. "What happened to nice wraith?" she asked, turning to the blue-maned unicorn with a frown.

"I'll take that as a 'no,'" the newcomer sighed, turning to the filly. "To be honest, I just found her in the hallway round the corner in this state."

Natalie trotted forward and gently pushed Maria aside, her horn glowing and surrounded by soft white flames that roiled around the spire. She turned to the stallion and began, "Mister..."

"Fancypants, milady," the stallion replied, quickly stepping aside and garnering looks from the other Fantasians in the process.

"Alright, Mister Fancypants," Natalie started anew in a tight, uneven voice, "you might want to shield your eyes for a few moments. I don't want to be liable for burnt-out eyes."

Fancypants nodded and his horn glowed, and a small fragment of a glimmering blue shield hovered in front of his face like a detached mask. That mask expanded as white flames encased the massive block of compacted ice, while Natalie shut her eyes tight as the color ivory obscured much of her immediate sight. Her ears folded back as escaping steam filled the air, and hot and cold air intermingled and took to stinging at her face at the same time.

"Natz, do you need any help with that?" Anna asked, squinting her eyes as the fire continued to attack the ice with seemingly-minimal results.

"I dunno yet," Natalie answered as she kept up the fiery onslaught. Bit by bit, the ice melted into water that boiled and turned into steam as the flames kept burning, yet how much remained she couldn’t tell with certainty. It didn't help that said fires were white. Given that she stood mere inches from the phenomenon and had to keep her eyes shut the whole time, there really hadn't been much room to discern the anomaly.

Which made the margin for error all that much greater. After five whole minutes had passed of channeling the spell, Natalie slumped and stopped casting, opening her eyes after another moment with sweat and ice water beading her brow. The wraith remained locked in the massive hunk of ice. The prison had shrunk considerably and still dribbled with lingering white embers, which were doused by boiling rivers of liquid that trailed down to the floor.

She summoned up another volley of flame, this set a predominant orange in color that lashed out at the ice. Natalie stopped when one fireball shot clean through the melting cube to the other side where it fizzed out in the hall, barely missing Katie's left wings in the process.

"Natz, you faltering already?" Matt asked, frowning when the mare turned to him with an unconvincing grin.

"Not yet. Just miscalculated how stable the ice is," Natalie replied in an exhausted, pained, and worried tone.

Lance stared at the unicorn with the wet face, and he began glowering. "Just be more careful. Last thing we need is our wraith yelling our ears into orbit," he said.

"Can do," Natalie answered, turning back to the frozen mare and charging up another fire spell. However, as she continued to torch the frozen water—careful to not let herself go overboard and accidentally singe Katie in the process—the flames gradually started spluttering out and getting weaker. In moments, the unicorn reached the point where her horn glowed bright red and emitted vapor from its tip, with nothing more than the faintest of sparks every time she attempted another spell.

To add to the icing on the proverbial cake, the wraith's cage didn't shrink more than another inch or so, even with the fiery onslaught. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Natalie cried, eyes narrowing and brow furrowing as she stared at the ice cage.

"Oh dear," Fancypants remarked, shaking his head at the display. He turned to the other Fantasians and sighed, using a hoof to gesture to Natalie—mouthing, "Stop her before she overexerts herself!" at the same time.

Natalie continued to try casting spells, yet achieved little more than fizzing, steam continually building up and rising from her horn, and a rapidly-worsening headache. Her legs began buckling, and her breathing turned ragged and raspy as sweat and ice water continued to drip from her reddening face.

"Looks like you need help. Stand aside, Natz. I think I can bust her out," Anna proclaimed, trotting forward and summoning two crystal arrows with a flash of magic. The cream-colored mare shambled out of the way and collapsed nearby, watching as the arrows landed head-first in the ice without the aid of a bow. Sharp taps and cracks filled the air as the arrows repeatedly stabbed the frozen water like miniature pickaxes, dislodging entire chunks and casting them into the floor.

In another few moments, Katie had been freed from the chilled confine. Matt scrambled to the gathering of mares and conjured a thick blanket to wrap around the wraith, hefting her up and putting the changeling on Alexander's back. Her orbs still spun and spun in the canvases of black, to the point they looked like swirls lazily turning about in a manner similar to the gears of a clock tower.

"Bet you twenty bits she won't feel a damn thing for an hour or so," Lance sighed, then he turned his attention to Fancypants. "Thanks for notifying us that she'd somehow gotten into a block of ice," he added in a sincere, if agitated, tone of voice.

"It was nothing at all," Fancy replied with a nod and a smile. His grin fell as his gaze fell onto Katie. "Tell me, is she going to be well?"

"She'll be fine. She's a wraith; she's probably handled much worse than just being frozen for a few minutes," Alexander replied, carefully raising a claw to pat the head of the wraith on his back.

"I see. Still, I can't help but worry for her. That level of emaciation is something that can't easily be ignored," Fancy stated, sighing heavily before smiling faintly again. "But I trust your judgment. I hope she recovers." With that, he left the room, making sure to close the door behind himself as he went.

"Remind me to find her a hot tub tonight. I'm impressed she hasn't caught a cold yet," Armin remarked, trotting over to Alexander and examining the wraith.

Katie weakly groaned, jaw barely moving as she spoke, "I cah feeh awyfig."

"I will find whoever put nice wraith in ice, and their face will go bye-bye!" Maria proclaimed with a firm frown and furrowed brow, talons balling into fists for a moment. They unclenched as Anna trotted over and rested a hoof on the foal's withers.

"You don't want to be an ice cube yourself, right?" the archer asked. When the foal shook her head after turning to face her, she continued, "That’s what I thought. It's one thing to—" Anna paused to shudder and fidget uncomfortably before resuming, "—scratch a rapist in the dick. It's another to throw yourself to whoever decided it was a good idea to turn Katie into a wraithsicle."

"And besides, we don't know who exactly did it," Matt added, sighing. "You might accidentally hurt the wrong pony, and then we'd all be fucked."

"That would be assuming she manages to strike first," Fenrir interjected, nostrils flaring for a second.

"Touché," Natalie groaned in agreement, rising to stand on unsteady hooves, her head gently swaying and her bright-red horn starting to fade back to its natural cream color. "I swear, that ice drained me of my mana like a..." she paused, struggling to speak as her mind tried racking up words to finish her remark.

"Like a hoard of aphids drinking the blood of your crops," Anna finished for Natalie, shooting a glance at the shaky red-maned unicorn before turning back to Maria. She ruffled the foal's mane with a hoof and smiled. "Be lucky you don't have to deal with channeling raw magic," she stated.

"Why? Magic sounds fun and looks cool," Maria protested, looking at the archer with a pouty frown on her face.

"You saw what happened to Natalie's horn, right?" When the foal nodded, Anna continued, "Well, that's... a very painful thing for a unicorn to go through. An overheating horn is bad juju."

"I cwah fhah I cah deeh wif cah," Katie mumbled, front legs moving ever so slightly to press deeper into Alexander's feathers.

"Er... whatever it was that she just said. Yes, that," Alexander sighed, eyes widening as his head shook.

"At least she isn't drugged out of her mind," Lance remarked, taking a chance to shoot Matt a stony glare.

"I swear, there were no mushrooms on the Scylla," Matt stated defensively as he met the pegasus's glare head-on with a firm frown set into his muzzle.

"What's a mushroom?" Maria piped up, turning to Anna as the green-maned unicorn lowered her head, shaking it as a soft laughter escaped her mouth.

"Oh, boy. The kid's got her started," Armin murmured, a wide frown spreading fast on his face, revealing every single sharp tooth in his jaws as he laughed. This wound up creating a noise sounding something like an "eeeuh!"

"Please don't tell me this is going where I think it's going," Lance moaned, his visage starting to turn a shade of verdant through the ash coat still on him.

"It's... it's... oh Godcat..." Anna began, only to stop as she flopped on the floor to immediately roll on her back and howl with laughter, her front hooves clutching her stomach as a giggle fit shook her form.

"Here we go. This just can't get any worse, could it?" Sarah groaned while frowning at the laughing mare, and as soon as she said that a guard burst into the room with a harried look on his face.

"The hail has gotten out of control, and your scheduled train ride has been delayed for another week," the guard stated.

Sarah rose a talon and let it connect with her face. "Apparently, it can get worse," she hissed as the talon slid down the bridge of her muzzle.

"How in the name of Godcat's glorious paws is such a thing possible?" Fenrir asked, turning to the guard with a brow raised and a hard frown set into his jawline.

Somehow ignoring the cackling mare who still lay on the floor, the guard sighed. "The train cars, and the station itself, suffered from..." he paused to shake his head before continuing, "Would you like to see the damage for yourself? Once the storm ends?"

"If time and shenanigans permit, yes we would," Lance answered before Fenrir could speak again. The guard nodded and went out of the room, leaving the Fantasians to their own devices and their still-giggling member.

At long last, Anna calmed down and rolled onto her stomach, panting rather excitedly for breath. "M-Maria, you don't w-want to know what a m-mushroom is..." she spluttered, gasping between words as she spoke.

Armin bustled over and jammed a chitil-covered hoof into Anna's mouth. "Take some breaths through the nose, mare. That giggle fit needs to stop before it starts up again and makes you bust a lung," he stated. The unicorn nodded and did as she was asked, inhaling through her nostrils until the changeling removed his hoof from her muzzle.

Immediately after that, Anna spluttered. She rose a hoof to cough and spit into it. "Bleh! Don't coat your hooves in chitil next time! It tasted like used rubber!" she cried, ears folding back against her head as she spoke.

"Does used rubber taste bad?" Maria piped up, flinching as Natalie shuffled to her with a soft glare.

"You really don't want to know," the cream-colored mare answered in a low, tight voice. "You just... don't, alright?"

"What she said," Anna added, her tone also falling quiet, although it briefly faltered as she shuddered. The archer went on, voice dropping lower, "And don't ask how I know what used rubber tastes like, please."

Sarah cringed, then stood up on her hind legs and walked over to Anna. "Sis, are you..." she trailed off, eyes averting as she mentally searched for words that could aid her.

Anna sat on her rump and trailed a hoof over one of her cutie marks, ears flattening against her head. "Y-yeah," she replied, flinching before setting her hoof on the floor.

Sarah nodded and reverted to all fours, placing a talon on the unicorn's shoulder and sighing heavily. "Listen, if it takes your mind off of... that and makes you feel better," she paused to lean in close to the archer's ear, her voice dropping to a soft and near-silent whisper, "you can touch my feathers. Alright?"

"It's... worth a shot," Anna answered with a nod after hesitating for a moment.

Fenrir eyed the mares, a brow raised as they excused themselves and waltzed out of the room. "Dare I question them?" he asked, turning to the others who either shrugged or responded with "No"s.

"Oi, Katie, anybody home yet?" Matt asked, turning his gaze to the wraith as he spoke.

"No," the wraith answered, her form shivering under the blanket she'd been wrapped in.

"Give her another few moments. I'm sure she'll have a bit of clarity then," Alexander sighed, shifting to lay down. He took to being careful not to jerk or make any other sudden motion that had potential to cause Katie to roll off of his back.

Katie let off a low groan, nestling her head in the feathers of the gryphon's neck. Her ears perked and swiveled a bit before drooping back down against her head, and the orbs stopped glowing in their black canvases as a soft snore left her torn maw.

"Looks like she's napping," Natalie remarked, tilting her head at the display.

Alexander chortled. "I think she's gotten comfy," he stated.

"You're sleeping with the wraith tonight. No ifs, ands, or buts," Lance said simply, earning himself some guffaws from the gryphon.

"You sound like you're expecting me to advance on her, general," he retorted with a wry grin. "Even I wouldn't do that. She'd most likely bite."

"He has a point," Armin added, turning to the pegasus with a smirk on his fanged maw as he flinched and brought a hoof up by reflex. His smirk widened as Lance's face drained of its color, only further highlighted by the soot still clinging to him.

Fenrir decided to add in his two bits with a toothy grin, "Pardon my forwardness, but shouldn't a general keep his muzzle out of his soldiers' sex lives?"

"I only said he was sleeping with her! I don't recall saying he could piledrive her!" Lance exclaimed defensively, turning to Fenrir with another glower. "Besides, would a wraith want to screw with a gryphon, or the other way around? Face it, I barely see those two getting along under the sheets."

Fenrir met the glare with a snicker. "Sounds like somepony's envious," he stated.

"A-am not!" Lance spluttered, ears folding back sharply against his head. "W-where's your proof of that claim!"

"I'd wager that your spluttering and sudden change in attitude would be more than enough for me to make my initial assumption," Fenrir chirped, his grin widening.

Chapter XIV- Always Knowing, Never Known*

Chapter XIV- Always Knowing, Never Known*

Rainbow Dash flew at a low altitude through the starlit sky adorned with a thin crescent moon, the wind whistling in her ears and through her mane as she darted over some trees like a speeding bullet. She looked up for a split-second, brow furrowing at some stray clouds that idly floated about, before climbing higher to avoid a particularly tall tree. She did this with such speed it almost looked like she jutted up at a 90-degree angle.

She continued to climb, wings flapping with such haste they looked to be little more than blurs wavering at the sides of her body. The pegasus stopped mid-air to perform a horizontal loop, noticing that from here, she could see all of the Everfree Forest, and the small town directly adjacent to it.

"Hey, Dash, what're you doing out here flying this late?" a masculine voice called out, causing the mare to dart her head about every which-way she could. She immediately spotted another form flying towards her at a slow gait, a very pale blue stallion that almost looked white in the light of the moon. He had a very dark blue, windswept mane that appeared to not have been brushed through, and emerald eyes glinting with curiosity.

"Having trouble sleeping. The weather going out of control has been bugging me lately, and everypony in Ponyville just would not let me hear the end of it," Dash replied, a frown forming on her muzzle. "I should be asking you the same thing, Soarin."

Soarin chuckled, before the sound died in his throat to be replaced with a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I get what you mean. Spitfire told me to stay on watch for any more unusual shifts in the weather tonight," he replied, and in a moment, his eyes went wide and that spark of curiosity within his emerald irises flickered tenfold. "Oh, did you see that big airship with the black balloon that came a few weeks ago?" he asked, his question causing Rainbow to pale a bit.

"Er... yeah, I did," the cyan mare mumbled, raising a front hoof to awkwardly rub at the back of her head with it.

Soarin's face hardened. "You did? Could you tell me what the hay that was about?" he questioned.

Rainbow's hoof dropped, and she sighed as if she’d been bested in combat. "It's a Fantasian airship," she stated.

Soarin's jaw dropped open for a second before it clacked shut. He shook his head, pupils dilating as he stared at his fellow pegasus. "You're kidding," he murmured.

"I wish I was," Rainbow replied, nodding slowly. Something clicked in her head, but she gave it no more recognition than a twitch of the ear. "Did you read the newspaper today?"

"Yeah, why—" Soarin stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widening to the size of saucers. "Wait, wait, hold up. You mean... you mean the hotel scandal article?"

"Yep," Dash answered in a flat voice. "That one."

"Oh... oh..." Soarin mumbled, his shrinking irises averting every which-way for a moment before he calmed down with a few deep breaths. He affixed as level a look on Dash as he could muster, though the resulting small frown on his muzzle made the expression he aimed for seem off. "Well, I was hoping the Fantasians got a better welcome in Equestria with open hooves, and instead three of them got..." he paused, searching for words, "used, to put it very mildly."

"I'm with you on that one. Nopony should be raped, even if they came from a completely different planet," Dash conceded with a nod.

Soarin nodded back, his frown turning into a grin. "Y'know, I think I can give them the perfect gift that might at least make them feel a bit better," he began, his grin widening.

Dash quirked a brow. "What would that be?" she asked. "Aside from maybe showing those rapists what for," she mentally murmured. "I hope that'll teach 'em."

"A few pies, one for each Fantasian. Could you tell me how many came to Equestria, so I don't accidentally give them a pie too many?" Soarin asked, a tiny glint shimmering in his eyes.

The cyan mare blinked and put a hoof to her chin. Her eyes averted to the sky as she let off a low, thoughtful "hrrrrmmmmm..." After a moment, she began tapping at her chin, her mouth twitching to form various frowns that ranged from barely noticeable to very pronounced. Another moment passed before she dropped her hoof and turned back to the stallion with a mask that betrayed little emotion. "Ten Fantasians. Eleven, counting their pet cat," she answered.

Soarin's shoulders began flinching violently, almost like they had clothespins clenching various spots upon them. He chuckled, though the laugh was uneven and even slightly off. "I-I see," he stuttered, trying for a grin that looked lopsided because his lower jaw kept on shaking out of tempo with the rest of his cranium. "M-maybe I'll get th-the kitty treats, t-too."

"Soarin, are you okay? All of a sudden, you're stuttering like somepony stuck a vibrator up your plothole and started holding a knife to your throat. No offense," Dash mused, a brow shooting up as Soarin's grin widened and he frantically nodded.

"N-none taken. I-I'm fine," the stallion answered. He started taking a few deep breaths and managed to calm his bout of quivering in a moment, somewhat. "I-it's just that I gotta p-practice a lot tomorrow. Y-y'know, standard Wonderbolt t-training, only much h-harder."

"How much harder than kicking and moving clouds and making giant tornadoes are we talking here?" Dash continued, her brow still raised.

Soarin took another series of deep, calming breaths before answering, "Using hail in the standard rainbow-making process. Something about making the sun's rays reflect just right. And then using the hail to pretty up the performance next week, without dropping or breaking a single chunk."

Rainbow's eyes widened. "Sounds pretty rough. Well, I'm going home. Hope you do an awesome performance next week," she said, and with that, she darted off into the deep dark blue of the sky, leaving a six-colored trail that gleamed with the moon's faint light in her wake.

"Thanks," Soarin called out as Dash vanished into the night. He turned away and flew the way he had come, eyes still glinting with that curious spark as he ascended higher and higher, his sights set on the floating mass of rainbow-oozing clouds in the barely-illuminated distance.

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Spike sighed as he and Twilight sat in the library at the table, with only the tabloid and Celestia's letter keeping them company. "Maybe it was Shining who made the arrests, Twilight. The paper did say he was involved in the whole hotel scandal."

Twilight tapped at her chin with a hoof, then rubbed her temples with it. "Well, he is captain of the guard... alright, I can get behind that reasoning. Still doesn't really explain why he had his ears yelled off three times, according to the letter," she murmured.

"Well, we'll have to ask the Fantasians when they show up. Shining's still gonna be on guard duty anyway," Spike suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

"Makes sense," Twilight conceded with a nod. She stood up abruptly and shot a quick glance around the library. She jumped to the nearest shelf and started grasping books in her magic, seemingly at random. "No... no... not that one," she murmured to herself as she browsed the shelves, sometimes levitating herself to scan the ones that otherwise remained out of her reach.

"Twilight? What are you looking for?" Spike asked, a brow shooting up as Twilight continued to scour through the rows of leatherbound paper.

The unicorn did not heed the drake's inquiry, instead flying to another high shelf to raffle through its contents. In fact, she paid little attention to anything that wasn't a shelf of books. After a few moments had passed wherein she did nothing but pull stacks of books off of shelves to scan them before putting them back, she found a particular shelf that sat in a wide frame all to itself. This one had been laden with a horseshoe-like indent on the back, and it rested on the side of a flight of stairs going up.

"Huh?" she mused, raising a hoof to touch the indent. It slid deeper into the wood with a loud click, and the wood containing it split into two halves from the top of the frame which held it. The wood framing the indent slid to the side, releasing not one sound as it shifted, and revealed a cylindrical structure going down into the earth. This structure did not have any sort of light source; Twilight peered down and found what looked like an empty abyss marked by great gnarly tree roots.

Spike ran up to Twilight and went wide-eyed at what she had found. "Another hidden compartment?" he asked, turning to the unicorn with a perplexed frown on his face.

"Seems like," Twilight replied, turning to meet the drake's gaze. "Stay here. I'll take a look at what's down there."

"But you could hurt yourself!" Spike pointed out, his frown deepening before receding as a lavender hoof patted his head.

"I know how to levitate myself, Spike. I'll be fine," the unicorn replied, her horn glowing with magic that embraced her entire form and emitted a brilliant amethyst light from its tip. With that, she bounded down the chute head-first, going slowly to avoid reaching speeds at which she couldn't shove the blasted roots aside.

It took a few moments to reach a point where the unicorn didn't need to worry about shoving aside tree roots, but by the time she passed the last twisting wooden tendril, she groaned as she looked up and then back down. There didn't seem to be an end to the damned tunnel, given that her light did not reveal a floor of any kind whatsoever. She kept going down for another two minutes, only to land on her face upon what felt like a mixture between gravel and sand.

Twilight rose onto her hooves after taking a few more seconds to recover from the impact, shaking her head free of the grit as she stood up. She trotted forward, finding herself on a winding slope that went down for a bit. "Who made this thing go underground?" she mused aloud, just as she came to a small rectangular room.

This place housed little more than a tiny aged wood bookshelf no taller than she was, and an equally small collection of books adorning its shelves. Next to that stood a small nightstand and chair, caked in dirt, moss and grime and riddled with splinters. Twilight approached the bookshelf, carefully picking up the bunch of books and sighing as some of them crumbled as soon as they were lifted from their resting places. The books that hadn't crumbled floated around her and past her eyes, stopping as she looked at their titles to scrutinize them for a bit.

"'Olde Folk Tales...'" Twilight murmured to herself, as if another soul had been present with her. She sighed and set that book back on the shelf before regarding the next one that came to her face. "'Songs of Hearth's Warming...'" That went on the shelf to join its bookmate. "'Arcane Magicks of the Everfree...'" That, too, returned to its place with magical aid. "'Bizarro Enchantments for the Everyday Lyrist...'"

The unicorn paused, tilting her head for a moment as she studied this book's title. "I'll take you upstairs," she mumbled, making the book vanish in a flash of magic before moving onto the next book, one with a terribly worn leather finish. "'Before the Barrier... written by Starswirl—'" Twilight stopped herself, eyes widening to the size of dinner plates as she looked at the book's supposed author. She set it on the nightstand and hastily looked at the other books' titles before setting those back on the shelf and making the whole thing vanish in a violet light.

She turned her attention to the lone book on the aged nightstand and trotted to it, using magic to open the cover and start scanning the pages. The first sentence in, she found, had been written in what looked like a diary-type format, complete with dates and times that were so smudged she had to do a double-take to assess what they were. Then there came the details after that; at first, it was some kind of drivel about preparations made to utilize something.

Something—Twilight couldn't tell what, because a thick layer of ink that looked fresher than what was in the paper thoroughly blotted most of that page out—that seemed to include the world Fantasia in one of the few clean spots. "Who would ever scribble all over this book? Why? This is a priceless artifact, for pony's sake!" she sighed when she reached another large blot of ink just a page later. The unicorn continued to read, brow furrowing as she found more smudges and massive black blots before stopping at a rather particular page.

"Hrm... 'I sit in this dismal place, contemplating; writing out what I have learnt thus far in the strangest cavern Fantasia has offered to me yet. Traversing this forsaken network of caves in my company is Clover, who currently lays to sleep away the dreary night; ‘tis like a mare of noble birth might do to one’s sire in the days of darkness.'" Twilight's brow shot up as she stopped reading to contemplate this for a moment. She continued reading, finding a bit of banter about these caverns that the papers detailed before the mare came upon a loose piece of parchment between the worn, warped pages.

She pried it out effortlessly with but a jerk of her head and a flick of magic, holding the parchment to one side as she resumed where she left off when more dastardly smudges and ink blots impeded her progress. Using her magic to flip through the rest of the pages in a way it looked like a breeze wafted through them from the side, she found that the rest had been obscured by ink. Either that, or in the case of many more pages, had its words smeared so terribly it was almost as if somepony took an eraser to the damned tome and went to town with it.

Amidst the literary destruction, however, stood out two sentences near the end of the book, as clear and concise as a slap to the face from a levitating brick. "'As the stars gleam in the night sky like the moon, so too shall the forests whisper in the winds and bring about the hope in Fantasia... I must needs figure out if this muttering of Fantasian natives could betoken to an event of a kind that eludes me; and with a feeble hope I pray that I understand its musings before my faltering life comes to an end.'"

This discovery prompted a few questions out of the unicorn, ones that echoed in the room and went unanswered as she stood alone in this tiny dismal space. "Who would desecrate this memoir, especially if it's by Starswirl the Bearded? And who would hide it under the library?" she groaned, stomping a hoof as her face set in a scowl. She made the book vanish in another brief flare of light before turning her attention to the lone parchment she had yet to study.

"Let's see what you have to offer," Twilight murmured as the paper came up to her face much like the books had earlier. She found a few sentences on the paper, detailing things like 'focus mana into your horn' and 'make sure the caster has sufficient mana'—standard stuff. "I learned these things before I got my cutie mark. This is foal's play for me," she chuckled to herself.

That's when she stumbled upon a series of strange runes, framed between two circles and the silhouette of a dagger in the center of the second circle. The unicorn studied the runes, brow furrowing. "These runes... that's funny. I can't read them. Note to self: study whatever language these runes are written in as soon as possible," she thought as her mind continued to process what had been written on the paper.

She turned to the nightstand and chair. "No use salvaging those pieces of furniture," she groaned to herself before making the parchment vanish in a flash of light. She took a deep breath and channeled mana into her horn, turning the glow already radiating from the tip from a light purple to almost white in a second. Then, materializing in the air before her, the runes on the parchment came to life, foreign symbols spinning with the circles as if they were part of a turning gear.

Once the runes ceased spinning a moment later, a blade as long as her body shot out from the innermost circle, one formed of a brilliant white light compacted into corporeal form. It sped towards the chair and stand tip-first, slicing through them with ease before cementing itself to the junction of blade and hilt in the dirt wall. Twilight gaped as her eyes adjusted to the change of light, pupils dilating as she spotted odd protrusions that came from the hilt that looked a little bit like pairs of wings.

In fact, the overall shape of the blade looked strange. Twilight pried it out of the wall with her magic to study the weapon more closely, and after taking in the contours and the slender hilt, it hit her. "This is almost like... no, exactly in the shape of..." she trailed off, mouth quivering as the gravity of the situation set in on her.

The unicorn made the sword of light vanish and quickly turned around, galloping to the chute as her mind began racing with wild thoughts that jumbled together so fast it was almost like setting hoof in Fantasia all over again. Upon reaching the chute, she grasped herself in her magic and shot upwards like a rocket, slowing down when she reached the gnarled roots to tenderly shove them aside as she climbed higher.

Twilight reached the main floor of the library, sighing as her hooves landed on the wood floor and the door to the once-hidden compartment closed. She glanced around to find Spike idling about near the table. The drake spotted her, and began running up to greet her with a glimmer of some kind of emotion in his eyes. "Find anything?" he asked.

Twilight answered by summoning the pile of books and their shelf, letting the aged bits of wood and parchment and leather stand at her side. "A hefty bit," she replied. "Spike, could you take these books and store them in the bedroom, please? I'm off to see Zecora again."

The drake nodded. "Sure thing. After I'm done with the books, though, I'll probably hit the hay," he chirped with a small grin. His smile broadened as the unicorn rose a hoof to pat him on the head.

"Oh, and be careful with these books. They're old and haven't been cared for properly," Twilight added, waiting until Spike gave her a nod of understanding before she rushed to the front door, threw it wide open with her front hooves, and galloped off into the night. She bounded onwards, softly smiling to herself as she noted the lack of ponies out and about at this hour.

She kept going, hooves propelling her body as fast as they were able, and before long a dark and dismal forest came into view, complete with the trodden dirt road that cleanly divided it in two. Above it, brewing violently, a forming gathering of thunderclouds swirled about, shooting off bolts of lightning that never once touched the trees. Twilight steeled herself and went onwards, keeping to the path for a few moments before diverting, flinching as lightning flashed overhead and created an extensive shadow in front of her in its wake.

The mare sighed and still kept on going, her horn glowing with a dull amethyst light. With the light came a dull throb, pounding away in her cranium like she had been repeatedly hit on the head with a plastic cup. In seconds, the glow fizzled out and ceased to exist, once more darkening her immediate surroundings. Twilight rolled her eyes to nobody in particular and grumbled to herself, "Stupid me, I should've stayed home and let my mana recuperate. Oh well, there's no way I can get there now."

The unicorn turned around and sighed for the upteenth time. "I'll head over to Zecora's tomorrow," she mumbled in resignation as she trotted onto the path and began making her way back to the library. She did not hear the sound of leaves rustling, nor did she see that a pair of glimmering eyes hiding behind the bushes watched her as she vanished into the distance.

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Fluttershy sat on a bed in a dark room with a fireplace and a chest resting at the foot of the bed. She watched as Angel slept in a nearby bed of his own, chattering with a face set in a scowl. The bunny shifted about in his sleep, the dim lighting doing its best to hide some kind of cloth that rested on his head. The yellow pegasus sighed to herself, voice barely audible, "I hope you get better, Angel Bunny. That ball of hail could've hurt you really bad, but I'm glad it didn't."

The bunny chattered, still snoozing, and Fluttershy smiled at his form before she turned to the other side of the room, spotting two windows very faintly reflecting the starlight in the night sky.

She blinked upon seeing a rainbow streak appearing in the expanse outside, seemingly dividing it in two and glimmering with liquid silver for the barest of instants before it faded like a firefly's tail light. Silently, the lone pegasus crept out of bed and shuffled to the window, carefully dragging her hooves in a way that made very little noise. Slowly, oh so slowly, she reared on her back legs and pushed the panes of glass apart once within reach, flinching when they groaned a little in response. As soon as the new opening had been widened enough, Fluttershy flared her wings and flapped madly.

She darted out of the window, pausing to turn around and close it again before directing her attention to the sky. The pegasus spotted another prismatic trail, heading towards a lone cloud structure in the night that lazily floated near the town. A breeze wafted by, briefly catching her mane and tail and lifting them in a manner not unlike that of hair being brushed. Fluttershy angled herself and started ascending up, wings slowing to languidly flapping at the bare minimum as her feathers caught the tail of the fleeting gale.

Riding the wind enabled her to cross the distance from the place she left moments ago to the cloud structure all on its lonesome. Fluttershy rapidly flapped her wings when the makeshift porch came into view, stopping herself before she could crash through the front door or nearest wall. For a second or two, she glanced up and spotted rivers of liquidated color pour from the sides of the building and a tri-colored bolt of lightning hanging above her before turning to the door and raising a front hoof to knock on it.

Another moment passed, and she knocked again when nopony answered. "Coming!" a voice called from within, followed by the sound of hooves hitting the soft clouds with dull thuds. The door opened, and standing inside the doorframe was Rainbow Dash. "Hey, Shy. You need something?" she asked.

"Um, I saw you flying above the Everfree from my cottage," Fluttershy replied, a small frown on her face. Her head tilted slightly as she asked, "Is something wrong?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I flew about for a bit to wear myself out. Then I bumped into Soarin, and he started asking me..." Rainbow's voice fell as she trailed off, leaning in to Fluttershy's face before she finished, "about the Fantasians that came back here with us."

Fluttershy's eyes widened. "Oh, dear, that's worrying. Did you tell him anything?"

"No, only that there were ten of them—eleven, if you went and included their cat," Dash replied, sighing heavily. "Soarin wanted to give them pies as make-up gifts for the fact that they weren't... warmly welcomed. And cat treats."

"But Rainbow, three of them got raped," Fluttershy murmured, pupils shrinking as she spoke. "I really don't think pies would make them feel better about the mess they've landed in."

"Try telling that to Soarin," Dash retorted with a huff. "I wouldn't be surprised if Celestia basically let the victims strangle the rapists with their front hooves... and set of claws. We both saw what happened to those dozen or so wraiths that started calling two of them 'toys.'"

"That's true, but maybe Celestia'll compromise with them, and they did help heal the little filly. Unless things get really bad in Canterlot, I don't think they'll try something," Fluttershy murmured with a nod. She donned a small smile as she further ventured, "Did Soarin do anything else?"

"No, but he did tell me that he was only flying late because he was practicing for the Wonderbolts performance next week," Dash answered, shrugging her shoulders. Her ears twitched as a roll of thunder echoed in the air around herself and her fellow pegasus, and she started flapping her wings. "I don't think it's supposed to storm tonight," she mumbled as her wings lifted her off of the cloud floor.

Fluttershy spread her wings and began flapping likewise. "Maybe the weather's still acting strange. Would you like me to help you clear any stray thunderclouds?" she asked.

Dash ceased flying and landed on the cloud floor, staring at Fluttershy with widening eyes. "Wait, wait, whoa whoa whoa," she mumbled at a rapid-fire pace as her pupils started dilating. "You, help me with the freaky weather?" When the yellow pegasus nodded, Dash started gaping. "Um, you've seen what it did earlier today, right? To the roofs in Ponyville?"

"I've seen the damage, but that doesn't mean I can't help," Fluttershy replied curtly, eyes narrowing slightly and face hardening. "I want to help you clear any stray clouds so that something like the storm earlier today doesn't happen again. Some of my animal friends got really badly hurt, and maybe some of the other ponies in Ponyville got hurt too."

Rainbow relented with a slight flinch. "Well, when you put it like that..." she paused, wings twitching momentarily. "Alright, I'll let you help. Just be careful, okay?"

Fluttershy's visage relaxed, and she donned a small smile again. "That's what friends are for, right?" she asked, earning a chuckle from Rainbow.

"Oh yeah, that's what friends are for!" Dash cheered, a smile spreading on her face as she rose a hoof and set it on Fluttershy's shoulder.

Chapter XV- Malicious Turbulence*

Chapter XV- Malicious Turbulence*

Rarity sat in a room looking out of a window, paying little heed to the nearby shelves full of rolled-up colored fabrics, pony-shaped mannequins, and the sewing table and machine. She watched the dim sky, ear twitching when a soft mew hit her ears. The unicorn glanced at her hooves and noticed a fluffy white cat with a bow on its head and an opal-studded collar around its neck sitting in front of her, its legs so small they gave the appearances of stubs.

"Opal, dear, are you worried about me?" Rarity whispered, sighing when the cat looked at her quizzically before letting off another mew. The cat stood up and waddled around the mare, pausing to crouch for a moment, eying the sewing table intently. Opal jumped up in a fluid motion, landing on the table with yet another mew.

The unicorn followed the critter with her gaze, turning her head as the ball of fluff curled up next to the sewing machine, looking back at her expectantly. "Opal, just what is so imperative that I pay some attention to it?" Rarity questioned, a brow quirking up as the cat uncurled, stood up again and jumped from the table to the top of one of the fabric shelves and tapped at a part of the wall with its paw impatiently.

Rarity sighed and stood up, trotting over to the cat. Her horn lit up a soft blue, bathing the room in a small amount of light that revealed a sketch held up to the wall by a picture frame. "Opal, it's very late. Why would I stress myself out trying to make a dress at this hour?" she asked. When the cat failed to mew back, she groaned and trotted to a heart-decorated door that had closed her off from the rest of the outside.

She opened the door and left the room with her horn still glowing, quickly finding herself in a vast space adorned with many dark pink curtains that almost looked purple in the sable. To one side, three mirrors surrounded a stand to her immediate left, and beyond that stood a clothing rack with several different dresses hanging on coat hangers. Near the mirrors, a double-handled door that had been split down a horizontal middle stood, faintly glimmering with reflected starlight.

The unicorn trotted around these things, briefly pausing to turn to an object completely concealed by curtains towering to the ceiling that stood in the middle of this room. She sighed and continued on her way, passing the mirrors and curtains and dresses before rounding a bend and noticing a flight of stairs. Rarity made her way up these steps, silent but swift as she moved, reaching a second floor with a small hall that had only three doorways.

Rarity moved to one of the doors and opened it, finding an ornately-decorated room with a bed that had curtains hanging above it thanks to an overhead frame. She trotted to it and flopped on the sheets, not bothering to cover up as she closed her eyes and lay there for a few moments.

Silence held the room as the unicorn did not move her limbs, softly breathing in and out, her thoughts wandering and wavering from one thing to the next in the span of seconds. The mare's ivory ears twitched and swiveled every so often, catching faint noises and the occasional loud mrrow from Opal that echoed into the area from outside.

Rarity's mind whirred and whirred, spurring and churning with so many ideas that, when she finally realized this was happening, she jumped out of the bed and snapped her eyes wide open after a solid half-hour of doing nothing else but lay still. The unicorn stomped her hoof onto the floor in agitation, eyes narrowing as a frown spread on her face. "Oh, phooey," she mumbled, trotting out of the room and rushing down the stairs to find herself back in the place with the plethora of curtains.

She passed by the dangling cloth fabrics briskly, and before long she was back in the room with the mannequins, rolled-up fabrics, and sewing machine. Opal still sat in front of the rough sketch, looking at the pony expectantly as another mrrow left her little mouth. "Alright, Opalescence, you have won the battle this time," she sighed, her frown thinning into a slender line as the cat grinned and started purring from across the room. "But you will get no treats tomorrow, unless you stop Sweetie Belle from destroying the Boutique," she added, donning a neutral look as Opal ceased purring on the spot.

Her magic grasped the sketch and lifted it from the wall with ease, bringing it to her face and enabling her to examine its contents. The sketch in question depicted a nondescript pony with a partially-colored dress whose few highlights were predominately black and silver in hue. Twin drills jutted out from the back of the head, tied up with dark maroon ribbons that held up a mass of uncolored mane in a ponytail. Slung around the neck and fashioned with a gold chain sat an iron cross, barely discernable as it had been held up at an angle while the nondescript pony who wore it stood with one side facing out.

"Hrm... why in..." Rarity stopped herself before her eyes went wide. "Oh, yes, the dress is missing something, aside from a few more colors!" she exclaimed, trotting over to one of the mannequins briskly and opening a door that stood just behind it, revealing another assortment of dresses that had collected a layer of dust and were bunched together in a tiny room. The unicorn swiftly removed the contents of the tiny room with a simple spell and turned on a light that hung overhead at the same time, further highlighting the dresses she'd just dragged into the space she stood in.

Among these dresses, a black one draped over a mannequin stood out, though it was little more than a back piece and overflowing trim that dangled past the back legs like a sort of filthy cape. Shoving the rest of the garments back where they had come from and putting this one before the sewing machine, Rarity took a moment to examine her handiwork with a small grin. "Oh, yes, once I finish you, you will be fabulous," she murmured to herself before her grin faded into a frown. "Oh, who am I gonna get to wear you once you're completed?" she asked, as though her unfinished dress could speak back to her.

A smile spread on her lips, and a rather coy one at that. "Yes... on her, you'll be simply divine."

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Applejack stood in front of a red barn overlooking a patch of land, staring vacantly at a nearby orchard that spanned at least a dozen hillsides, each with trees laden to the brim with succulent red and green apples that gleamed in the moonlight and waited to be picked. Near one end of the vast orchard stood several smaller red buildings in addition to a gate that stood a ways away from a currently-quiet hen house. Opposite of all of this, there were several tilled fields laden with corn, carrots, grapes—you name it, this one spot was laden with fruits and vegetables galore.

She sighed to herself as the wind began blowing, catching her mane and tail to caress them, making it appear as if they had begun dancing beneath the thin veils of illuminating silver light. The orange earth pony looked at the sky, blinking when she saw a rainbow streak appear in the extensive, glittering gloom for a few seconds before it faded. The mare flinched as the sound of hooves hitting hay, then dirt reached her ears, and she turned to find a muscular stallion with a red coat and an orange mane staring at her with large green eyes as he came out of the barn.

Applejack relaxed, and turned her attention back to the starry sky. "'Ello, Big Mac," she stated in a tired voice. "What'cha doing out here?"

"Sis, I should be asking you the same thing," Big Mac responded curtly, trotting up to Applejack's side. He turned to her, noting she did not glance at him a second time, and made to speak when she failed to do so, "Are you okay?"

Applejack shook her head. "Cider season's almost here. It's practically next week," she groaned, ears flattening against her head.

Big Mac raised a brow. "Why're you fretting over cider season? There ain't much to worry about," he stated.

The orange mare turned to him, pupils briefly shrinking. "Have you heard about the fiasco in Canterlot?" she asked.

"Yeah, but what's that got to do with cider season?" Big Mac retorted, his face hardening just a smidgen as the question left his mouth.

"Celestia's sending the Fantasians here, to Ponyville, and..." Applejack trailed off, her legs starting to shake. Her rear legs buckled as if a crate had been thrust upon her backside, and she shifted them to sit down.

"Celestia's sending them? Are you pulling my tail?" Big Mac questioned, the brow that had shot up rising even higher now.

"Yes, they're coming, and no, I ain't pulling your tail!" Applejack replied, her voice rising an octave higher as she waved a front hoof towards nothing in particular. Her face set in a scowl as she went on, "The Fantasians are coming to Ponyville, and I might have to help keep their tails in line! And that means I probably won't be able to help with cider season this year!"

Big Mac blinked, his brow lowering as a heavy sigh left his muzzle. "Tell me," he began in a low tone, maintaining eye contact with Applejack the entire time he spoke, "are the Fantasians really that big a deal?"

"Yes," Applejack groaned, setting her hoof down again. "One of them... one of them's a changeling, and she's really badly messed up. I know I shouldn't judge her none, but she's..."

"How badly messed up are we talking?" the stallion asked, his brow shooting up yet again. "That changeling gal didn't seem all that bad, just from being a changeling and all."

"You have no idea," Applejack retorted, eyes narrowing.

"Then again, I'm only going by what that newspaper this morning said," Big Mac shot back in a flat tone, punctuating his response with a snort. "Just how bad off is she?"

"She's... a wraith, Big Mac. A bucking wraith. You ain't seen how bad she's got it," Applejack sighed, turning away once more. "She's about filly-sized, thin as a twig with her face torn in two, and almost no horn on her head at all. Last I seen of her, she only had about four teeth left."

Big Mac's eyes went wide. "A wraith... with no teeth? Not any bigger than Apple Bloom? A-and her horn's missing?" he asked. "That... the article didn't say anything about that! All it said was that there were two changelings in Canterlot!"

"That's about right," the mare replied, drawing a heavy sigh as she slowly nodded. "But I'm gonna guess Apple Bloom's probably bigger than she is, because like I said, Big Mac: thin as a twig. I'm surprised the other Fantasians who were with that wraith didn't just... put her out of her misery. And I don't know why the article didn't say that. I guess the changeling wanted to stay away from the press, and I don't blame her one lil' bit if she did."

Big Mac's eyes widened still, until they were the size of saucers. His face immediately set with a slant-eyed expression that betrayed a spark in his irises. He lowered his head, eyelids closing shut as he muttered, "Celestia bless her soul." He rose a leg and wrapped it around Applejack, pulling her into a hug. "Why don't we talk about it tomorrow? Maybe we'll have to re-schedule cider season, if it comes to it."

Applejack donned a soft smile, and returned the hug. "Thanks, Big Mac. I just... it's so much to think about, and—"

A new voice, one elderly and feminine, cut Applejack off before she could finish. "How about we get some of our other Apple kinfolk here while you help keep them pesky Fantasians in check?" Applejack and Big Mac broke out of their hug with a jump, turning to the barn in unison to find an elderly green-coated mare with thin legs was trotting out to them. This mare had a grey mane held up in a loose bun at the back of her head, some strands falling down to frame golden orange eyes that twinkled with some kind of emotion.

"Wait... you mean get somepony else to watch over cider season in my place?" Applejack asked, eyeing the crone with a frown framing her face. "Granny Smith, that..."

Granny cut her off again, donning a smirk of her own as she spoke, "Is a good idea?" Her grin only widened, golden eyes twinkling as she proceeded to quip, "Applejack, dear, don't be so hard on yourself. Hay, maybe you could get them Fantasians to try some cider—of course, they'd need to work for it like everypony else on this here farm does."

Applejack's frown flipped once again, only to revert back to what it was a moment later. She rose a hoof to her temples and started rubbing them. The orange mare let off a low hum, pursing her lips together as she contemplated this for a moment. "I... I guess it couldn't hurt much to try," she stated begrudgingly. "But... I can't see the bunch of Fantasians I ran into helping out with cider season much, if at all."

Granny Smith quirked a brow. "And why's that?" she asked.

"One's a general, five more serve him, another's a cat, one's a filly, and the last two... oh shoot, none of them looked the least bit—"

"Then consult the flippin' general," Granny Smith replied, once more pre-empting Applejack before she could finish. "This farm and the orchard we live off of, take a good long look at it now! Me and the rest of the Apple clan had to consult Celestia in the good ol' days before we could build it all from scratch. And if Celestia granted us this fine piece of land, then I reckon the general will lend a few of his troops to cider season."

Applejack ceased rubbing her temples, though she winced upon setting her hoof down yet again. The mare let off a few more thoughtful hums, lips pursing tightly as she turned over the option Granny had presented—the possible solution to her predicament of sorts. But, there had also been the relatively small hoofful of the troops she'd seen in the flesh, a good three of them having one reason or another to deny the orange mare and her kin their aid. That wasn't exactly counting the general himself, either, nor the demeanors of the entire bunch as a whole.

She continued to consider the option carefully, humming all the while to help keep herself focused, ever-mindful of the chance that Lance could turn down granting aid for cider season. After all, he currently and very likely still had bigger fish to fry, and that might have the chance to remain the case, no matter where he set his hooves. Eventually, after nodding to herself, she opened her mouth to speak. However, she ended up closing her jaws as a bestial howl rang out and echoed through the night, followed by another howl, and another.

The howling kept growing, as if accruing more unseen members to join in on the chorus. This went on until it reached the point to where it sounded as though several hundred beasts had come together to cry out to the crescent moon in disorganised unison. The song continued for some time, drowning out almost all else as it echoed repeatedly for minutes that felt like hours on end.

Granny Smith swiveled her ears the entire time the howls continued to ring out in a massive throng, until the very last one died down and echoed through the winds. "We might need s'more help this cider season," she mumbled. She leveled a look at Applejack before turning to glance at Big Mac. "Both of you need plenty of rest tonight. I have a feeling we're gonna need all the helping hooves we can get."

Big Mac and Applejack exchanged glances, then turned back to Granny Smith. "Will we have to re-schedule cider season, though?" the orange mare asked, eyes flickering in worry.

Granny Smith laughed. "Well, I was wanting to make a special kind of cider this season," she replied, a small smile framing her face once more. "Unless... you don't want the special cider?"

Applejack's eyes widened. "Actually..." she paused to calm herself down before donning a smile of her own. "Yer on."

"Now that's what I like to hear from my grandfoal," Granny chirped, her smile widening. She turned to Big Mac, her grin still growing.

"Eeyup," the red-coated stallion replied, now smiling himself.

Granny Smith nodded. "Now, get those young tails of yours to bed. Y'all need your rest so bad I'm starting to wonder if you two can even see straight now," she ordered, watching as Big Mac and Applejack shifted a bit before trotting briskly past her. The elderly mare turned to the sky and sighed to herself. "Applejack, dear, y'all said one of them Fantasians was a wraith?" she asked without turning around, causing the orange mare to freeze just as she set the first front hoof on the hay lining the floor of the barn.

"Yeah... both a wraith and a changeling. Why?" the blond-maned mare asked in an uneasy tone, turning to the crone with a frown on her face.

Granny turned to meet the younger mare's gaze. "I think that a wraith can lend a hoof too. When cider season rolls around, see if you can get the general to fork that changeling over for a day or two," she replied. "Or... can this wraith even help?"

"She can fly, and trot, but... that's about it, Granny. This wraith-changeling's so thin I doubt she could help at all," Applejack answered, turning away to sigh to herself.

"Maybe she could still help somehow," Granny replied with a huff. "Like looking at the apples and telling the good un's from the bad un's."

Applejack turned over Granny's words in her head, lips pursing in a tight but thin line as she pondered the possibility. "I'll give that a shot, but we'll have to figure out if she picks the apples she finds are good," the orange mare stated as she resumed trotting into the building.

"We'll figure something out," Granny called out as Applejack reached the end of the barn and pushed a door open, trotting into a small room beyond without closing it behind her.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Pinkie Pie stood in a small room with a chest, a dresser, a window, and a crib. She peered over the edge of the crib, smiling as a cream-colored pegasus colt with a brown mane and another unicorn filly with a yellowish body and orange mane slept soundly. The pink mare leaned in, pressing soft kisses to the foals' foreheads and pulling back to watch them squirm a bit as they slumbered. "G'night Pumpkin and Pound Cake," she whispered, backing away from the crib silently before turning around and walking out of the room.

Closing the door after taking a glance at the foals to confirm they were still sleeping, she sighed softly as a hallway with but two doors greeted her. Looking around, her eyes fell on two sets of stairs that divided the hall in half, with one going up and the other going down. She trotted over to the flight leading up and found a small green alligator looking up at her with big purple eyes, tilting its head as if that alone conveyed what was on its mind.

Pinkie beamed and scooped up the little reptile with a front leg. "You were waiting for me, Gummy?" she asked, grinning. Gummy stuck out a slender forked tongue, just prior to opening his maw and clamping down on Pinkie's front leg with it. The mare giggled and shifted to sit on her haunches, stroking the little gator with her other hoof.

Which promptly got clamped on by the maw. Pinkie angled her hoof just right to peek between the jaws, giggling as she saw a distinct lack of teeth in the croc's muzzle. "That tickles," she cooed, even as the toothless gator continued to try to chew like it's life depended on it. The mare stood on her back legs and crept up the stairs, going as silently as she could and struggling to hold back a few giggles as Gummy continued to gnaw on her to no avail.

She found a small room, with a chest, some floating balloons, a bed, and a window next to said bed that lead to the outside. The mare set Gummy on the bed and, after prying her hoof out of his mouth, she looked around and spotted the almost-invisible strings that had been tied around the balloons. She lowered into a pouncing position before bounding up, using her mouth to grab a bundle of the strings prior to making a landing whose thud was muffled as her hooves connected with the sheets on the mattress.

The little crocodile bit down on the tip of Pinkie's tail as she landed, earning a giggle that came through clenched teeth. The mare stood on her back legs again, taking the bundle of strings out of her mouth with a front hoof before pulling the balloons to eye level, whereupon her eyes narrowed as she scrutinized each and every colorful air-filled bit of latex. She noticed two deflating balloons that were on their last vestiges of borrowed air right off the bat, and carefully separated them from the rest of the bundle with a pluck of her free hoof.

She let the deflating balloons go, and they weakly wobbled up to the air and hugged the ceiling when they couldn't go any higher. Pinkie didn't notice that; rather, she took to examining the rest of the bunch for any flaws, down to the tiniest possible hole she could see in the bleak room almost as if she had been a general glaring coldly at each of his troops.

The mare giggled as, for a moment, Lance came to the forefront of her mind. "I wonder if he does smile like he enjoys himself without that boring bout of anger going on," she mused aloud, before resuming her scrutinizing of the balloons and smiling when she found no further flaws in the rest of the bunch she held.

She hopped off the bed and landed on two legs, still clutching the bundle of inflated latex like a kid at a carnival. Gummy held onto her tail with his jaws, opting to crawl up it a quarter of the way after she jumped a second time.

Pinkie strode up to the chest in an upright stance and used her free hoof to open it, revealing a mass of deflated but fresh balloons and a plethora of string, haphazardly thrown in and tangled around itself at some point. Amidst all of this, laying on its side and barely noticeable since the rest of the chest's contents were heaped onto it, a large metal cylinder with a bright red valve lay on its side.

Her grin widened as she plucked a few more balloons out, setting them and the tangled bundle of string aside before lifting out the object obscured by splotches of rainbow vulcanized rubber. Lifting it onto one end so it could stand, she spotted a pressure gauge and an almost pencil-thin mouth nestled very close to the valve. The mare tied the bundle of balloons she still held around her waist, and once this was done, she set to grab the tangle of threads with both front hooves and started tugging the mass apart bit by bit.

Plucking out long-enough strands proved to be an easy task. They slipped out of their confines like inanimate snakes, whereupon Pinkie set them next to the balloons she pulled out of the chest earlier. This took a few moments, largely because after the strings were untangled, Pinkie continued by way of aligning the balloons so they were put lip-first on the mouth of the cylindrical object and filled with gas.

Gummy climbed higher, bypassing the strings of the balloons the mare tied around her own waist. After firmly clutching her withers with its claws, the gator proceeded to bite on the end of the mane and began tugging just as she finished filling up another balloon and tying it with a string. Pinkie giggled and secured the fresh balloons she filled around her waist with no more than a meager ounce of hesitation, her laughter only growing as the combined pull lifted her off of the floor and caused her back legs to dangle.

She opened the window with her front hooves, tenderly floating out of it almost as if a unicorn had been using simple levitation on her. She stopped and turned around, taking her sweet time to pry out all of the individual balloons one by one—the amount adding up to a dozen or so—being careful to avoid popping them on accident. As soon as the balloons were liberated, she shut the window and used her back legs to push herself onward from the near-top of a building, turning around yet again to marvel at the structure—which looked like a gingerbread house with a cupcake plastered on top—from above.

Pinkie drifted, using her hooves to kick and paddle with a grace that gave the impression of her swimming in the air, humming merrily to herself and enjoying the lift the balloons provided her. She stopped her reverie to giggle as Gummy shifted positions again, this time scaling to the top of her head and nestling comfortably between her ears.

She started up once more, continuing to glide over the town, passing a clock tower and catching sight of the library before pausing at a windmill in the span of moments. She looked around, briefly wincing as Gummy shifted his claws and scratched at her cranium a tad too hard, before shrugging her shoulders and pushing onward.

The floating mare started humming a new tune, looking up at the sky and seeing nothing but the dark expanse that gleamed with countless stellar configurations as limitless as the bounds of a child's imagination. The crescent moon hung lazily to one side, its soft glow reflecting off of a creek that the mare drifted past.

It wasn't until she merrily wafted above another house that doubled as a tree did her song take on a note of uncertainty as thunder boomed in the air around her. The clap came packing enough strength to briefly distort the very space surrounding her, almost like she had been directly under its source. This, and what happened immediately after, caused a feeling of unease to spring up in her gut.

A wind blew, soft and almost undetectable, but present nonetheless. The fleeting zephyr pushed Pinkie onward by a few inches, propelling her towards the Everfree Forest. She stopped kicking the air and ceased her humming, looking at the patch of wood as roiling, ominous storm clouds shifted and churned over its canopy. A few wicked bolts of lightning arced violently between the two entities, at first white as the sclera of her eyes before changing to a deep, unnatural green in hue.

Immediately after seeing the arcs of raw electricity, Pinkie's tail began violently twitching. She glanced around, her whole body starting to vibrate like she was a living jackhammer. "O-oh no, I... I feel a doozy coming!" she cried, gulping loudly as she started looking around, scanning earth and sky for anything else that even seemed remotely off. At first, she saw nothing else out of the ordinary, but upon looking down to monitor the edge of the wood, she spotted a writhing form not unlike that of a serpent. From what she could make of it, it had eyes gleaming a wicked gold and bits of bark making up crude overlapping scales, but it moved too fast for her to effectively make out any other features it might've had.

A bestial cry rang out from the woods as the creature vanished, more akin to a roar, and the airborne mare immediately turned around with wide eyes and began kicking at the air with renewed vigor. "If that's the doozy, then I'm going home!" she exclaimed, still twitching even as her legs flailed about like fish out of water.

Being careful to not go sporadic enough to send Gummy plummeting below as she propelled herself with all her might, she inched her way back to the gingerbread house and eventually found herself in the room she left with hitched breathing and ears flat on her head. She made to close the window she first re-opened as she got in, but she did not close it fast enough to block out another unearthly shriek that echoed in a manner that made it feel as if the very winds carried the noise straight to her.

Slowly, and with a trembling sort of delicate consideration, she untied the balloons around her waist one by one. Each time a balloon had been released from her body and then her hoof, it floated to the ceiling, making the overall pull on her body grow weaker and weaker until just one inflated bit of latex held onto her before its knot was undone. Now standing on the floor, she took a few deep breaths to force herself to stop shaking, collected her nerves, and deposited Gummy on the bed prior to treading lightly out of the room and down the stairs.

She briefly paused to glance at both ends of the hall, noting singular windows framing either side. The curtains were drawn tightly closed, but that did little to ease Pinkie as lengthy shadows darted past them outside, forming hellish silhouettes that seemingly came and went with the wind. The mare trotted down the second flight of stairs, finding herself in a relatively empty room with a counter that had a cash register and glass display case, and another partially-open door just feet away that creaked back and forth. Yet another door stood well away from the cash register, one fully closed and placed near a window that sported a criss-cross pattern.

The shadow came again, darting outside like a bullet, passing the window quick as a whip. Pinkie stood stone-still for a moment, eyes widening as though she gazed into the face of death itself. Then she rushed right over to the door and tried pushing outward, placing one hoof on the top and the other on the bottom.

It did not budge. "Well, at least it's locked," she murmured, turning away from the door and trotting to the room opposite of the stairs behind the counter. She stopped mid-trot to shoot another glance at the accursed window.

Nothing. Nothing shot past the glass pane from outside. Pinkie resumed trotting to the other room, finding herself in a well-kept kitchen with already-made products stored in glass-door cabinets, a giant electric taffy machine with three prongs, an oven, and a counter laden with some loose bowls. Unlike the other rooms, this kitchen had no windows. The mare took a moment or so to relax and stare at the stored sweets before trotting out of the kitchen and making her way back upstairs into the the hallway.

That was when she heard it—echoing into the halls were two distinct sounds. One had been a roar similar to the one she heard from the Everfree, except much louder yet more brief. The other sent her heart racing and her body into another shuddering frenzy, one the very bane of every pony with a caring heart and a desire to keep others safe and sound; the wailing of two little infants that screeched in unison. She jumped into a gallop without a second thought, flinging a door open and finding the babies crying in their crib in addition to a shadow with glimmering eyes outside the window, growling before vanishing out of sight.

The mare did not care about the shadow, however. Instead, she turned on the lights and raced to the crib, scooping up Pumpkin and Pound with her front hooves and cradling them tightly to the barrel of her chest. "Shhh, Pinkie's here. Pinkie will protect you," she cooed, gently rocking them back and forth as they continued to wail.

She barely noticed the sound of hooves hitting the floor outside before two more ponies burst into the room, one with a dull yellow coat, a curled but thin orange mane, and green eyes. This pony, a stallion with a pronounced chin, rushed to Pinkie and hovered over her, sighing as the babies slowed their bout of crying. Pinkie turned to him and muttered, "Something was outside the window, Mr. Cake. It ran off before I could look at it."

The second pony, a mare with a pale blue coat, two-toned pink mane looking like a wad of cake frosting sitting atop her head, and cerise eyes trotted forward, softly smiling when the babies finally stopped crying and burbled as she approached. "Pinkie, dear, if there was something outside the window, could you stay up the night and watch the foals?" she asked. "Me and Carrot... oh stars, we heard an awful noise outside. It sounded like a gryphon's claws on a chalkboard..."

"I heard it too. I'll stay up for the rest of the night, but that means I'll probably drop tomorrow," Pinkie answered in a serious tone of voice, turning to the foals in her forelegs and sending them a sweet smile as they giggled in glee.

The blue-coated mare smiled, and turned to the yellow-pelted stallion. "Carrot, maybe we should stay up a bit too. I want to make sure the twins are absolutely okay before heading back to bed," she chirped.

Carrot donned a grin of his own and nodded in understanding. "Well, the twins are giggling. Maybe the whatever that made the noise earlier didn't get in, Dazzle," he replied, turning to Pinkie as she checked the foals for any sign of injury or the like. "Anything?"

"Nope. They're alright," Pinkie answered in a chipper tone, her smile widening. The babies fidgeted in her grasp, with the little pegasus flapping his wings madly and the unicorn starting to channel some magic into her small, underdeveloped horn. "Oh, it seems they want to play."

Author's Note

Yes, Carrot's wife is named Dazzle, not Cup. Don't ask. It's show-canon.

~Dragon

Chapter XVI- Chaotic Pursuit*

Author's Note

Kantus bailed (he and I had... an argument. Let's leave it like that.) However, a new editor has come forth to take his place: Thank you Norris for your aid. :D

~Dragon

Chapter XVI- Chaotic Pursuit*

The storm had passed in the late evening, some bits of its accursed hail having left many holes in roofs in their wake, while the rest littered the streets and alleys. As the last bits of day turned into night, ponies gathered on the cobblestone walkways to begrudgingly sweep up the remnants of the storm that hadn't yet melted.

This went on for a good while, though as the very late hours rolled around, many ponies ceased cleaning the streets inexplicably. The ponies who failed to finish sweeping the streets started shouting, and the city of Canterlot quickly found itself with an escalation comprised of a myriad of angry voices and hooves assaulting the paved walkways in what could best be described as a chorus of wrath.

The orchestra started as a small thing, kickstarted by the ponies that were already in the streets and letting their anger fuel their actions. But it grew in intensity, and the angry ponies' numbers started growing in perfect tandem. The symphony took to adding some new notes—notes composed of hail being shattered and ponies shoving each other aside. It was only further escalating as two sets of eyes watched the whole scene unfold at a relatively safe distance.

Witnessing this gathering crowd assemble between the golden buildings and its members fighting amongst themselves, Anna and Sarah had perched themselves on a balcony in silence. Both were sitting on opposite ends and frowning as the streets continued to erupt with the suddenness of an earthquake and the intensity of a monsoon that kept on worsening.

Many ponies below raised all sorts of hell. A few took to throwing objects in and out of windows, some more engaged in violent brawls with hooves seemingly going in every conceivable direction one could think of, their hits landing with varying degrees of success. For some bizarre reason that eluded the Fantasian spectators who went unseen by the mob, even more unicorns decided to use their magic to hurl their fellow ponies up into the air like basketballs.

Pegasi dumped buckets of hail on the unicorns, who sent into the sky a sacrificial vase or something of the sort in kind. The pegasi further retorted by flinging their emptied buckets into the grounded below, often blinding a hapless pony and causing them to blunder every which-way. Some slipped on hail clumps and skid into walls or the other fighting ponies, often knocking the latter over as if they were bowling pins.

Still more gathered accumulated clumps of hail that the pegasi had poured on them, and they smashed them against the heads of their neighbors like fine china. This caused the ponies attacked by ice clumps to retaliate by throwing objects back, only to get hit themselves immediately after they landed a hit with their makeshift projectiles.

"I'm not sure if this is a riot, or a drunk convention gone wrong," Anna remarked in a quiet voice. She began noticing some pegasi trying to fly out of the streets and buildings, only to be dragged back down by a magic aura or two grabbing them. "I don't even know why they're bashing each other."

"The weather ponies did this on purpose!" cried out one voice from the throng, the remark causing all to halt in their tracks. The rest of the mob turned to a haggard unicorn holding a bucket of hail in his magic. "They sent the hail our way! Let's go up in our airships and show those pegasi what for!"

"We're going to Cloudsdale, and tearing down the weather factory!" another exclaimed, followed by another, until the entire mob chanted this in unison.

"Riot... if it were a drunk convention gone wrong, we'd see booze bottles going all over the place," Sarah sighed, shaking her head as the chaos below continued to escalate. Some unicorns sought out and jumped on many a hapless pegasus, holding them still with magic and advancing on their prone forms with their hooves. She couldn't help but shudder as the sickening snap of bones breaking when hooves connected with delicate wings echoed over and over again.

This, combined with the shrieks of pain that came as a direct result of the wings being broken, only contributed to the unholy symphony that emanated from the streets. Her gut twisted in response, and she clenched her talons into fists in an attempt to distract herself from the horrid orchestra. She had to force herself to keep her own wings shut against her sides, as if the mere act of spreading them had a one-hundred percent chance of having their feathers ripped out.

Her pupils shrank to tiny slits as feathers were yanked out from the unfortunate pegasus ponies' wings—pegasus ponies who already had the misfortune of getting the aforementioned wings broken. Sarah's ears quickly flattened back against her head as the screams of pain continued to reverberate through the air unhindered. "I'm getting the feeling they're gonna come after me next," she murmured, a spark of fear flashing in her eyes, her body tensing up to the point it began aching in various places.

Anna took another good look at the havoc raging below, noticing a plethora of royal guards rushing in like a stampede of buffalo, with some of the earth pony ones already tackling the offending unicorns to the ground. Some more guards diverted from the others and scooped up the wounded pegasi, while still more came to them with distinct silver armor and white saddlebags on their backsides. The flaps of the silver-armored ponies' saddlebags were all marked with a distinct red cross. "Huh, they seem to have medic ponies for this sort of thing," she noted.

"Maybe this isn't the first time de-feathering's happened around these parts, then," Sarah sighed. She started relaxing a bit as the silver-armored ponies went to bandaging and tending to hurt wings. The medic ponies did not appear to worry about the unicorns who threw things every which-way, largely because a tight circle of golden-armored ponies protected them with fairly sizeable shields from many attacks.

Some of the enraged unicorns looked entirely hellbent on getting to the pegasi, though. They lashed out with their back legs, they tossed things ranging from small objects like vases to larger, entire table sets. They spit in the guards' faces, and some even catapulted themselves onto the shields with self-levitation, hoping their front hooves could dent the shields. Then the mob took to swearing up and down and sideways when said shields failed to get even a scratch.

They shouted slurs and threats, called the pegasi they wished harm upon things like 'incompetent nincompoops' and 'dumb dodos who should not rule the skies,' among various other things. All in all, they had become the pinnacle of unhappy campers, though it failed to occur to them that the innocent pegasi they had harmed might have had nothing to do with the transgression they had allegedly committed. The aforementioned pegasi—including those who had escaped being plucked—began shouting back, declaring their innocence.

"The weather went out of our control! It was like it got hijacked or something!" cried a wounded stallion as another angry unicorn threw herself onto the shield protecting him.

"The hail hit some of the weather team and put them in the Cloudsdale Infirmary! We couldn't have prevented it!" another exclaimed as she deftly dodged some flying pieces of furniture. This one found refuge on a flat rooftop with raised decorative walls on three sides, but this didn't stop the unicorns who kept barking up the tree by throwing more furniture up and over in an attempt to score a hit from below.

"It was your fault, you filthy frumptious freaks! The entirety of the pegasus race bears the weight of this out-of-control weather on their feathery backsides!" a masculine voice cried out, causing Sarah to jump and blink for a moment before turning her attention away from the medic ponies and the wounded to a sight that made her pupils dilate to vertical slits.

One particular pony that sported a cloak went so far as to attack a pegasus mother and her foal with a red object that moved too fast to be discerned properly. The mother and foal both screamed, even when some guards ran to them and jumped to their defense. The duo only calmed down when their protectors shoved the offender back with blasts of concentrated magic.

"You dare defend these wretched imbeciles? Have you gone mad?" the cloaked pony shouted at the guards, who responded by firing more wicked projectiles of raw magic his way.

Anna and Sarah tailed this pony's movements with their eyes. Both sets of brows furrowed when the entity began jumping from one pegasus to the next, only to be parried and shooed away by guards aplenty while he shouted insults as numerous as the magic blasts aimed at him. The latter's eyes narrowed when the cloaked pony's garb momentarily wavered as a guard delivered a kick that found its mark. The kick gave way to the pony very briefly betraying a flash of maroon that came from beneath the cloth as he turned and fled to find a new target.

A mew hit their ears, and the hippogryph and unicorn duo turned around to find an armored NoLegs approaching them from an open spot that lead into the castle. The cat had his little blade strapped around him and secured in its sheath, happily purring as he jumped up to the mares and rubbed his head on their back hooves. Anna smiled at the cat and made to pet him with a front hoof, only to sigh as the critter jumped up and landed on her back with another meow.

"How's he able to jump? Doesn't the armor weigh him down?" Sarah asked, gesturing to the feline with a talon. She blinked when the cat responded by waving his tail, seeing some kind of aura glimmering around its tip like a prehensile unicorn's horn. "He can do magic?"

"Dunno, really. But I wouldn't be surprised if he did self-levitation on a daily basis," Anna murmured with a shrug, turning back to peer over the balcony in another attempt to survey the still-ongoing madness that seemed to have no end in sight. The cat jumped up and perched on her head, his purring grinding to an abrupt halt when he saw what it was that had been going on in the streets.

"You sound like you've seen him do it before," Sarah noted, eyeing the cat for a moment longer before directing her attention to the anarchy. She scanned every street with a wary gaze, but found that the cloaked pony had slipped out of sight in the brief period she turned away. In addition to this, the guards had effectively gotten every single pegasus pony out of the brawl and were rounding up the rioters with shields and swords. The silver-plated ponies, in the meantime, took to corralling the wounded towards the palace. "Damn, these guys are effective."

"At least they were able to get to the pegasi in time..." Anna sadly muttered under her breath, turning away from the balcony and to the open spot. "But we couldn't save that stallion in Frostbite..."

"Don't beat yourself up over it," Sarah chastised as she whirled around to see that her sister's back was facing her. When Anna shot a glance over her shoulder, Sarah sighed softly and stood on her back legs before walking up to her sister and resting a claw on her withers. "We can't help everygryph or pony we come across. But we can still help those we reach in time."

"Well..." Anna trailed off, taking a moment to consider Sarah's remark. It was a moment she didn't have to spare—one that Sarah took with her subsequent utterance.

"You know you can still help Lance. It's why you became one of his advisors, isn't it?" Sarah mused with a snort, garnering another look from her sister. A moment passed and silence took hold between the two, and it went without so much as an inkling of a response from Anna. Sarah took this as her cue to continue, "It's also why you didn't... end Katie, right? You had the chance to slay her, but you didn't take it. Why?"

Still no answer came from Anna. Only when Sarah relented and retracted her claw did the pony with an armored cat on her head speak up, "It's... something just tells me it wouldn't be right to kill Katie."

"Go on..." Sarah implored, ears twitching slightly. NoLegs turned to her and mewed, starting to purr again when Anna did as was asked of her.

"It'd be like killing Maria," Anna answered in a low, hesitant tone. "That wraith... look at it logically, Sarah, she can't defend herself. Maybe fly away, but her wings are nothing more than tatters at this point. I'm amazed she can even fly at all. Hell, when me and Matt and Natz found her, she was seconds from becoming bear chow."

"So, that explains the bearskin I found when I was helping clean out the tank?" Sarah asked, a brow shooting up.

"Yeah. We... kinda ate the bear," Anna answered with a nod, angling her head to gaze at the sky. She went on, unaware that her sibling donned an amused smile, "Seventeen hungry mouths in a tank parked in a wintery wonderland... oh, Lance was grouchy before we found that bear."

"Speaking of Lance, why're you helping him?" Sarah went on, her grin widening.

Anna opened her mouth to speak, but closed it prior to jerking her head back to the streets below as a scream that sounded like it came from multiple ponies rang out. "Oh, what is going on down there now?" she groaned as her gaze went everywhere, scanning even the smallest details of the aftermath in a bid to figure out where the accursed sound had come from.

"It probably came from a pegasus whose wings have been touched the wrong way," Sarah murmured. "Now, why're you helping Lance?" she repeated, her grin fading as Anna simply opted to ignore her. NoLegs mewed and shook his head, waving his tail for a moment before curling it around his limbless hips. A vein appeared on her slightly-twitching forehead, and she snarled out, "Sis, whatever is going on below isn't important!"

"Then what's that?" Anna replied, using a hoof to gesture to a particular spot in the streets below. Sarah followed her hoof, finding a gathering of ponies marching from a bizarre, two-story violet building that sported twin towers erecting up from both ends of the roof. Said gathering of ponies were listening to some kind of drivel from a cloaked triad, one of which betrayed a flash of maroon as they continued onward.

The group led by the unusual trio continued to shriek in unison, and as Anna's ears swiveled about to catch their ruckus, their cries became crystal clear. "The Fantasians screwed with the weather! We must have them hanged! Prince Blueblood was right!" the marching crowd bellowed over and over as if it were a chant, their call for death sending icy water shooting through Anna's veins.

"'Not important' my ass," Anna scoffed, ears flattening against her head. She whirled around to meet Sarah's gaze, face hardening within seconds. "There's another group down there, and apparently, we made it onto their shitlist. Let's find the others, and haul out of here."

"Want me to fly?" Sarah asked, spreading her wings wide. Anna nodded, her horn glowing for a moment. In a flash of light, her flute appeared. "I could get to the others and warn them faster if I flexed my wings."

"Might as well call forth some wind. It couldn't hurt to be extra-speedy," Anna chirped, putting the instrument to her mouth. She took a second to grin, but the expression fell and her magic briefly faltered as a vase flew over the balcony and shattered against the back of her head. She dropped the flute, but lunged and caught it between her teeth before it had the chance to finish its descent.

And then another vase arced over the balcony, breaking into a thousand fragments upon her back, and narrowly missing NoLegs while sending his makeshift mount sprawling to the floor. This ended up forcing her to drop her flute once more, where it rolled helplessly for a few inches before stopping its tumble abruptly. The cat started hissing furiously, tail waving and emitting a pale blue glow from the tip like no tomorrow.

Sarah's eyes went wide, and she shut her wings before another object—this time, it was a chair—had the opportunity to snag her left one. The wooden piece of furniture broke into several smaller fragments, and her ears flattened against her head as the crowd's cry of "We must have them hanged!" grew loud enough to echo into the skies.

"They're in the castle! They might have incapacitated everypony else inside!" cried one of the gathered unicorns as the hippogryph dared to peek over the balcony. Another next to him reared up on his back legs, grasping in his magic an entire dish cabinet.

Sarah gulped, then made to scoop up her sibling and nestle her between her wings. Anna groaned, but made no attempt to move. NoLegs swished his tail and lifted the fallen flute up in a faint magical aura, mewing before grabbing Anna's mane with his mouth.

Sarah rose onto her back legs, holding Anna's rear hooves with her talons as she ran into the castle upright. Her heart started racing as glass and wood crashed loudly behind her heels. She skid into a hall and almost tripped over her hooves, but caught herself with a few hasty flaps of her wings.

The mobile foundation of the impromptu totem pole awkwardly stumbled down the hall in a constantly shifting gait, speed fluctuating as she struggled to avoid blundering into walls or bumping into the occasional dangling flower pot. Her wings never fully spread wide, with the exception of flapping madly whenever she miscalculated her velocity and came close to having her muzzle meet with the red carpet. This went on for a good twenty minutes or so before she had to stop in an otherwise-empty corner and gently lower her sibling to the floor before collapsing herself.

Sarah's breath came in sharp, wheezing exhales that barely left her throat, chest tightening and wings and claws rippling with electrical sensations as they started going numb. Her ears, though, remained upright and constantly swiveled, only to catch nothing but her own rasping breaths and the echoes of the chaos outside. She barely noticed NoLegs as he let go of Anna's mane, jumped down, and moved to her until he stuck his tongue out to lick the corner of her mouth.

"You... still have her flute, right?" Sarah asked, slowly turning to the cat. NoLegs waved the flute in a magic aura, his glowing tail facilitating the movements. He let off a mew that gave way to soft purring. She gave the feline a weak smile, which broadened ever so slightly as her breathing slowly returned to normal exhales that still had a raspy undertone.

"Sarah, did a train come by to hit you, and then backed up to be sure?" a hollow voice asked, and Sarah blinked before glancing around. Her gaze fell on a pale form with a crimson mane that just cantered round the bend and tilted her head quizzically.

"If that happened, I'd be in bloody chunks right now," Sarah replied. She took to shifting her forelimbs and wings, grunting as the feeling of a dull, tingling, current-like sensation faded away. With her limbs recovering from the sensation and numbness, she made to stand, though on all fours.

"And... why are there chunks of pretty shiny things in her mane?" Katie asked, raising a hoof to gesture to Anna. Sarah turned to her sibling who then gave an indignant grunt, shifting a bit and allowing light to reflect off of tiny glass chunks that stubbornly clung to the viridian strands.

"The mob outside managed to throw a vase high enough to bypass the balcony, and it clocked her on the head," Sarah replied, sighing as Anna gave a groan of confirmation that accompanied a sluggish nod of her head.

"Two vases," Anna corrected with another grunt. "One hit me on the back."

"Wait, wait, there's a mob?" Katie asked, orbs widening. The two mares and the cat nodded slowly, and the wraith's orbs flickered for a moment. She whirled around to look in the hall behind her, tensing when she found it absolutely barren of life.

Katie quickly turned around again and then looked up, past Sarah and Anna and NoLegs, only to gape. In the hall she stared at, a bunch of new arrivals were led by a cloaked trio, and they had taken to juggling a wide array of objects in their magical grasp.

"Girls, get up, because we have to hit the fucking road!" she exclaimed, her remark spurring Anna into action. She got up, horn glowing as her magic grasped the other three and the flute while her legs kicked into gear and pushed her back down the first hall. Her magic held firm, ensuring that the makeshift cargo remained behind her and kept up, all the while the mob began shouting all over again.

Anna scrambled down the hall, heart climbing up her throat and feeling as if it drummed out its frantic song so hard her jaws trembled. She rounded a bend, almost sending the cat flying into a marble pillar in the process, but the archer briefly paused to stop his careening and placed him on her back. When the cat grabbed a lock of her mane with his tail, the mare bounded forth again, this time with Sarah and Katie jostling to grab her tail to no avail.

This gave the mob a scant few seconds that they did not waste catching up to the fleeting group. Their shouts morphed, one by one, into screams of pure anger that echoed down the halls. Sarah glanced over her shoulder, noticing tiny, ball-like sparks erupting from the pursuing unicorns' horns that deftly moved to their throats in tandem with their gallops. These balls then began to fade into nothingness, just as the screams amplified in volume tenfold.

The sudden spike in screeching intensity forced Anna's ears to the back of her head, the concentration spent on maintaining the flow of mana wavering for the shadow of an instant. Her magic let go of the gryph and wraith, but both flared their wings and started flapping madly as soon as the green glow disintegrated around them.

The now-airborne duo were spurred on by the shouting of the mob in an attempt to keep up with Anna as she turned a sharp left. They too darted to the left, silently cursing as they looked over their shoulders and found that the mob still gained some ground, inches behind their wavering tails. The two rose their claws and hooves to cover their ears as the mob's unified outcry rose once more, this time to head-splitting levels that further amplified their pain. As a result, their wings slowed their flapping, although only by a meager margin.

This only served to fuel the mob's own efforts, and the lot of angry unicorns started pumping as much energy into their gallops as they were able. The group of shouting ponies turned another corner, near-flawlessly keeping pace with the otherworlders who were still scrambling to stay as far away as they possibly could.

"Maybe we should pelt the fliers with more vases!" yelled one stallion. "I bet that damned skinny bitch won't fight once glass breaks on her spine!"

"Save your ammunition!" bellowed the leading cloaked pony, the voice distinctly masculine in tone. Sarah glanced over her shoulder as he turned to the one unicorn who wanted to chuck more vases and betraying a flash of maroon and silver in the process. Her eyes went wide as he spoke further, "We'll wear them down yet, the whole mangy lot! Spare the hippogryph; I have a score to settle with her!"

"That voice... wasn't he... no, don't focus on that right now, Sarah. Save your feathers and live to fly another day," a voice in Sarah's head chastised, one not her own that had an echo to it. She blinked and turned to Anna, who glanced back with a horn that had started glowing, only for its magic to dim and flicker out as soon as she set her eyes on the pointed appendage.

Anna turned her attention back ahead and rounded another bend, and Sarah nodded before following her lead. Katie struggled to keep pace, and outstretched a hoof to tap at Sarah's cutie mark frantically. She turned to her pale companion, noticing narrowed eyes and wings that buzzed less and less with each passing second.

Katie flailed her forelegs in an attempt to make various signs, whereupon she mouthed, "I'm about to drop." Her orbs flickered erratically, like dimming light bulbs about to shut off, and she began plummeting to the ground as her wings began beating weakly. Sarah weaved under the wraith and felt her land between her wings, using her mouth to grab a lock of mane and hang on for all it was worth. Sweat formed on Sarah's brow as she went into overdrive, flapping so much her wings started aching in protest.

The action caused the mob to once more double their efforts into their unified gallop. This, combined with their shouting, which fluctuated in volume once again, immediately gave way to a sort of disorientation. Their shouts started hurting the ears of their own makeshift battalion, as much as it antagonized the still-fleeing Fantasians who managed to outrun them as they swerved into another hall—and one that was particularly long at that. This hall ended with an ornately-decorated set of double doors marked by a great sun, which split perfectly down a vertical middle.

Unicorns began stumbling into one another, and any objects they held in their magic was instantly released as their holders lost concentration—either dropping them onto the ground, or, in some cases, causing the damned things to start landing on the heads of their fellow mobsters. As the objects fell and smashed upon more heads, they and their former holders thereby contributed to more unicorns bumbling into one another and losing concentration.

To put the situation at this point into a nutshell, the mob lost much of its traction and impromptu weapons. This left the three cloaked ponies to scoff at the unicorns they lead, turn their attention to their quarry, and immediately ditch their followers to continue pursuing the Fantasians. Said Fantasians had gotten a bit of distance away from the trio, but Sarah noticed the door at the end of the hall and closed her wings against her sides before they could seize up from the pain.

She landed gracefully onto the carpeted floor and shifted into a mad gallop, feeling Katie rise up and drop down between her wings like a loosely-secured saddlebag. But Sarah then stopped as Anna's run skid to a halt at the end of the hall. Anna stopped just inches from the sun-decorated door and turned around, her face reddened and her chest heaving with heavy, pained breaths. Upon seeing that almost all members of the mob had effectively—and unwittingly—disabled themselves, she summoned her bow with a flash of magic, face setting in a hard glare that was directed to the cloaked triad.

"What... do you want?" Anna seethed in a hoarse voice, noticing that the cloaked ponies slowed to a sluggish walk. They too breathed heavily, but kept their semi-concealed muzzles high.

One cloaked pony answered by pausing in their advance before raising a hoof—distinctly maroon in color—to their head and using it to shake off the hood. A familiar unicorn stallion stood with the other two, but his silver mane was unkempt and stringy, some visible tangles dangling past the cheeks like he hadn't gone through it with a brush in weeks. "It isn't you. It's the hippogryph, the one who had the nerve to land me in the wretched dungeons a few weeks ago," he hissed.

"Anna, halberd," Sarah murmured, glaring at the now-uncloaked unicorn. "Godcat-dammit, Chanson, you just had to stir shit up, didn't you?"

"Moi, cause havoc in Canterlot?" Chanson asked, raising a hoof and putting it to his chest before shaking his head. "No, no, and no. That's your doing, and yours alone. I'm merely doing my people a favor." The hoof rose and parted some thick locks of mane that clung around his horn, revealing at its base a rune-inscribed ring fashioned of silver.

"You assaulted her. I saw it with my own two eyes, ketchup colt!" Katie shrieked, the strands of mane she held with her maw falling out through the gaps of her split grin as she spoke.

"And so did Captain Armor," Anna added, levitating her bow in front of her horizontally. "And while we're on the subject, how'd you get out of the dungeons he threw you in?" she asked, shooting Chanson another hard look.

The still-cloaked ponies rose hooves to shake off their hoods, revealing two more unicorns whose horns glowed. Dual auras grasped the ring around Chanson's horn, one teal and the other brown that crushed and ripped apart the metal, casting it aside once it became a mangled heap of scrap. Anna stared at the two ponies, noticing that one of the now-unveiled ponies was another stallion with a greyed mane and dulling coat of red. If not for his beard and wrinkles along his eyes, he'd have been a perfectly good mirror-image of Chanson himself.

The other, a mare with a white coat and oily black mane, began hissing in an irate tone, "Our dear Chanson assaulted nopony. Me and his father here have simply paid for his bail when the riot started."

"Bail? You're telling me you shelled out enough coins for that sorry prick?" Sarah asked, a brow raising as she stood up on her back legs. A flash of green magic shined and vanished next to her in the span of seconds, and a halberd was thrust into her claws immediately after. She gripped the shaft of the weapon eagerly, barely noticing the wraith as she slid off her back and landed on the floor behind her rear hooves.

The stallion with wrinkles around his eyes growled, his horn still glowing. "We earned that money. I dare say, the riot's timing was excellent. And Chanson told us of everything you did, you mongrel—Fantasians don't belong in Mythos. My family and our gathering will drive you foul lot out," he snarled.

"On what grounds?" Anna retorted coldly, her breathing starting to steady. "You and that mob chased us and managed to pelt me with two vases. We haven't retaliated in any way, unless running to save our tails count as such."

NoLegs gave a mew before jumping up and positioning himself behind Anna's horn. He leveled a glare at the triad as they conjured three instruments with their magic. The instruments comprised of a red-and-silver cordless guitar, a brass tuba, and a black-and-white accordion with polka dots. He hissed at the three unicorns, positioning the flute to his mouth like he knew how to play it.

"Spare yourself, NoLegs. Let me and Sarah handle this," Anna remarked, magically plucking the flute from the cat's grasp before holding it to her own lips. Her eyes briefly averted as Katie cantered up to her on exceedingly shaky legs, stopping to steady herself as her wings buzzed softly and helped her balance once or twice.

"Do you have my horseshoes? If so, can I have those back, please?" Katie asked, her voice strangled and much more raspy than it usually was. "I want to puncture holes in that bearded stallion's... thingamajig." NoLegs mewed at the wraith and jumped down to stand in front of her pale hooves, still turned to the trio that cornered him and his companions in front of a door. He used his tail to draw forth his blade, ears flattening against his armored head as he let off a warning hiss.

End of Arc I: Chapter XVII- Syncopated Pandemonium*

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Start of Arc II: Chapter XVIII- Early Morning Quibble*

Start of Arc II: Chapter XVIII- Early Morning Quibble*

Morning came, and its light shined through a wide window framed with parted yellow curtains onto a wooden bedroom. Bookshelves were carved into the walls, a set of stairs led from a bedroom into a sort of side-room where a table sat near another flight going down. A few vases stood here and there with plants sprouting from them, and there were some crescent moon and sun insignia dotting parts of the ceiling. Some more parts of the walls weren't made of shelves, but instead had wooden doors and drawers fitted onto them to serve as storage compartments currently not in use.

In the bed next to the window lay one Twilight Sparkle, her form entirely still despite the light shining right in her face, save for her breathing. She had a complacent look on her visage that didn't waver, even as someone rushed up the flight of stairs straight to her while raising a ruckus.

"Twilight, Twilight, wake up! It's urgent!" Spike shouted over and over again, though the unicorn he was addressing didn't stir once in her bed. A star-decorated quilt covered her frame, and she dozed even as the drake moved to stand beside the bed hollering. He paused and took a deep breath before he began shouting with all his might once more, and still the lavender mare failed to move.

He slumped for a moment and narrowed his eyes, mumbling to himself through teeth he started grinding, "Drastic times call for drastic measures." He grabbed the quilt and tugged it off, casting it aside where it folded into a heap on the floor behind him. When that failed to rouse her, he clambered onto the bed, careful to avoid stepping on Twilight's body, and began to jump on the mattress fervently. After hurriedly trampolining about a few times, he paused to catch his breath.

Twilight still didn't wake up, instead muttering something he couldn't make out. He tried jumping again, but was thrown off as the unicorn shifted and kicked him off the bed. Spike took a second or two to recover as he found himself with his back to the floor, sitting up as he hissed in exasperation, "Okay, Twilight, you asked for it now."

He stood up, dusted himself off and ran down the two flights of stairs, and for a while the sound of things shuffling from below resonated into the room. It eventually ceased, shifting into a lull of quiet before Spike came running back moments later with a megaphone in his claw.

"Twilight, wake up!" he shouted into the contraption, his voice amplifying tenfold in volume. He began smirking when the unicorn finally got out of bed with a harried jump, flailing her legs willy-nilly and emitting a startled yelp. She stayed in that position for a moment, before gravity kicked in and sent her falling to the floor face-first, halting her erratic movements altogether.

"Spike," Twilight grumbled in a tired, indignant voice as she made to stand up. "What's all the fuss over?"

"Come to the front door, like right now!" Spike answered, dashing down the stairs before Twilight had the chance to ask him any more questions. She wearily grumbled to herself, squinting her eyes as they adjusted to the light before trotting down the stairs. Her mane hung in clumps and clung to her neck, but she forwent grabbing a hairbrush for the moment—after all, Spike had wanted her to see something. She surmised that, whatever it was, it had to have urgent enough to warrant usage of the blasted megaphone.

Making a mental note-to-self to talk to the drake about the megaphone at a later time, she sauntered down the stairs, past the table, then down another flight to find herself at the living quarters with the horse head carving. A knock sounded from the front door, persisting for a moment before Spike rushed over to open it and tell whoever it was that Twilight was coming. Twilight cantered over, hastening her pace when she finished the flight and peeked out of the door, an angry glare set firmly into her face.

What she saw beyond that door melted her glare into a state of wide-eyed shock in the span of seconds. Beyond the door stood Princess Celestia, and an assortment of guards which included Shining Armor, and a bunch of cloaked beings accompanying them. Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but had that chance taken from her as a small cloth-wearing form rushed over and tackled her in the chest, knocking her back a few paces and wrapping their front legs around her neck. She felt multiple poking sensations along her maneline, but that had been the least of her worries.

"Purple horn-pony!" the being exclaimed in a cheery, all-too-familiar young voice. The befuddled mare looked down to see the form's hood falling off and revealing a pale pink-grey coat, brown irises and a messy violet mane all framing a grinning face.

Twilight gaped. "Oh, um… hello," she managed. Turning to Celestia, her knees wobbled as she gave a weak, "I guess you can all come in…" Celestia nodded and turned to the guards and cloaked beings behind her to nod to them, and most of them strode inside. The few who didn't were guards that Shining barked at for a moment or so before catching up with the lot in his full set of armor.

Shining closed the door with a gentle kick of a back hoof and stood next to it, now silent as a statue. A faint series of flaps echoed into the room, growing quieter and quieter until the entire place had fallen under a tense tranquility that soon broke.

Maria slid off of Twilight and grinned at the dumbstruck mare for a moment before she noticed the carving and ran to it. "What's this?" she asked, pawing the wooden statue with her claws for emphasis.

"A carving, little one," Celestia answered in a sweet tone with an amused grin cropping up on her face. She turned to Twilight, whereupon the smile immediately fell. "Quite a lot has happened last night," she stated flatly, all traces of her previous amusement gone like a brief gale of wind.

"A… lot? Care to elaborate?" Twilight asked, her tone low. The instant she saw a flicker in Celestia's magenta eyes and Shining stepping forward to flank the Princess, she found herself feeling that, whatever it was, it likely did not bode well.

"A riot—one where the unicorns directed their ire to the pegasi at first, breaking wings and de-feathering whoever they could catch. But then a prison breach happened sometime during the confusion, and the prisoner and his partners-in-crime directed the rioters' anger to our guests," Shining answered in a grim tone, shaking his head.

He made to speak again, but got no further than opening his mouth again as NoLegs appeared on his head in a flash of magic with a mew. He looked at the feline cross-eyed for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and continued as he began purring, "And said guests had to… defend themselves. To varying degrees of success."

Twilight flinched, immediately envisioning several unpleasant scenarios in which the Fantasians could have killed some ponies, or vice-versa. Shining saw a spark of worry flicker in her eyes, and he said in a soft tone, "No, nopony was killed. There have been many injuries and broken wings, but things honestly could have been much worse."

Twilight relaxed a bit as NoLegs jumped from Shining's head to land in front of her hooves. He mewed and rubbed his head on her forelegs before another small cloaked form with a mask stepped up. A pair of orbs lit up in the eye-holes of the mask before the form spoke in a hollow voice, "So… what now? What do we do?"

"Well, you guys are all inside, so… remove the cloaks and stay awhile, I guess," Twilight answered hesitantly. The group obliged, and a bunch of familiar faces had been unveiled as they shook off their garments—with the exception of Lance, who had his uniform on beneath his cloak for some reason. Twilight sighed in exasperation when Maria jumped onto her back, and addressed said foal without even looking at her, "Yes? Do you need something?"

"Why's your mane like a bunny's tail?" Maria innocently asked, using a talon to grab a tangled lock and tug at it.

Twilight winced, her horn glowing as a lavender aura embraced the foal. Maria found herself lifted up, then gently lowered to the floor. "I didn't have time to brush it," she sighed, turning to Maria for a brief moment before directing her attention to the rest of the Fantasians. Almost immediately, she now saw that everyone had gotten bruises that showed through their fur, with varying sizes, colors ranging from red to deep purple, and placements. Anna and Sarah looked as though they'd taken quite the thrashing, sporting the most bruises out of the lot that Twilight could see—and a wing cast in the case of the latter.

"Um… why do you have black eyes?" Twilight hesitantly asked, looking pointedly at Sarah.

"I took a pair of back hooves to the face. I'm amazed my skull didn't fracture upon impact," Sarah scoffed, raising one of her talons to rub her temples with it.

"Last night was nothing short of the purest madness I have witnessed in my days. At the very least, I am grateful the royal guards were able to stop the riot before it could descend further out of their control," Fenrir growled, shifting to sit on all fours. "Though, the damage done was nothing compared to what I witnessed back home."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked in an uneasy tone, a brow raising up.

Fenrir rose a paw and gestured to Maria with it, a firm frown set into his face. "From where does our little one hail?" he retorted. Twilight stiffened, shivers running down her spine. She nodded, forgoing speaking words, as if uttering even one syllable had potential to conjure images of atrocities she'd rather not remember.

Shining Armor decided to interject, "Twilight… Celestia's entrusted me with watching the Fantasians."

"Yes, I have," Celestia confirmed before Twilight even opened her mouth. "Something is amiss; that much I know. I believe our foreign guests might help us figure out just what that is, with their… talents and diversity." She turned to Lance and stared into his eyes for a moment before continuing, "However, I request that you abide by our laws while you are in Equestria. Do as you will, but do so while maintaining some modicum of respect for the rules in place here. Am I understood?"

"Yes. You are understood," Lance replied tersely, breaking eye contact to glare at his advisors, troops, and the odd Fantasians out. They too answered Celestia with simple "Yes"s and nods of confirmation. NoLegs mewed, nodding when the Princess turned to him expectantly. Maria followed suit, grinning as Celestia's intense gaze briefly fell on her.

Celestia shifted her wings a bit at the foreigners' response and turned to Twilight and Shining Armor. "You two, notify me if they do anything… questionable," she stated. When siblings in question nodded, she softly smiled at them and made her way out of the library, pausing as the guests moved to either side of the door to let her out before opening said door and striding out with a spring in her regal step.

She gave Twilight and Shining one last glance from over her shoulder, fully exiting the library and gently closing the door behind her and leaving the two factions to their own devices. Again, a faint flapping sound echoed shortly after her departure, leaving another silence in its wake.

Twilight turned to look at Maria again, and noticed a soft, fresh down of dusty brown feathers growing in erratic patches on her bald spots. Some more feathers grew along the margin where her front limbs joined with her talons, making her look just a little more like a hippogryph. "Have you been doing well? I see you're starting to grow feathers again," she mused with a faint smirk on her face.

"Well?" Lance scoffed, garnering Twilight's immediate attention. He had a smirk on his face too, with the addition of a glint in his eyes. "Hell, she's been doing excellent. We've been feeding her right, and enough to put a little extra weight on her bones—but we also had her do some exercise to keep from getting excess. At this rate, she might start flying soon enough."

"And I might get my cutie mark," Maria eagerly chirped, rising to stand on her back legs. She rose a claw and tapped at Twilight's cutie mark with it. "What's this mean?"

"Oh, you mean my starburst cutie mark?" Twilight mused, turning to her mark and sighing. "Well… my talent's magic, to put it simply."

"Can I do magic?" Maria asked hopefully, a glimmer in her eyes. It fell when Lance spoke up.

"You can't channel raw magic like a unicorn could, but you have a natural magic regardless," Lance said simply.

NoLegs mewed again, jumping up into the air and hovering in front of Twilight. He purred when she turned to him and shrieked in surprise, eyes widening as she registered the sight of the seemingly-floating feline. Twilight glanced at Shining and the assembled Fantasians, as well as Armin before she noticed that no horns had been glowing. She turned to the feline and asked in mild surprise and exasperation, "Alright, cat, how are you able to do that?"

"Look at his tail," Alexander instructed. Twilight did as she was told, eyes squinting as she watched the furry limb swish back and forth eagerly.

"All I see is a tail," Twilight groaned. She heard Matt chuckle as the cat found himself bathed in a brief golden glow, and her irises shrunk immediately after that—a pale blue glow surrounded the cat, coming up from the tip of his tail. "Wait, he can do magic? But… but…" she stammered as the cat mewed again, purring almost like he was taunting her. Another golden glow surrounded the cat, and the pale blue glow already around him seemingly vanished with the second aura, though he still floated regardless.

"To be honest," Matt began with an amused smile on his face, garnering Twilight's attention again, "none of us know how he's able to do that either. But hey, at least it makes getting around easier for him, especially since… y'know, he lacks legs."

NoLegs mewed in agreement, levitating closer to the dumbstruck Twilight before licking her on the nose. She merely sighed in resignation and hesitantly rose a hoof to pet the cat on the head. She pulled her hoof back when the tell-tale sound of books being tampered with reached her ears, and she glanced around for a moment to find Natalie browsing through a shelf. Clearing her throat and stopping her seemingly-eager-to-read guest right in her tracks with the noise, she stated in a flat tone, "If it has to do with the barrier that broke, I already scoured up and down all of my shelves and found next to nothing."

Natalie whirled around and looked at Twilight with a brow raised. "What did you find, then?" she asked.

"A ruined book," Twilight answered, turning to Spike and nodding in his direction. Spike nodded back and scrambled past her and the others and up the stairs.

"What good's a ruined book?" Lance scoffed, giving Twilight a hard, almost sour look. "And how beat up is the damned thing anyway?"

"Eh, you'd have to see it to believe it… it's in pretty bad shape," Twilight replied in an uneasy tone, a wavering smile spreading on her muzzle. She rose a hoof and started rubbing awkwardly at the back of her head when all her response garnered was a narrowed pair of crimson eyes. She heard something open and slam faintly, followed by soft thuds that came from above. She turned to the stairs to find that Spike was already coming back on swift little heels.

"In case you're wondering, it's so beat up Twilight barely found diddly," Spike answered as he came down the stairs, an old and worn book in his claws.

"But," Twilight started, summoning a scroll in a flash of magic. "I found this inside that book, and I believe one of you knows the inscriptions on this parchment." She waved it for emphasis, and charged up some more mana into her horn. Glowing white runes appeared above her head, spinning for a moment before conjuring up a blade of pure light that shot up and embedded its tip firmly into the ceiling.

The Fantasians looked at the anomaly, and they all gaped. None of them, not even NoLegs, could come close to the wide-eyed, shrunk-irised, ears-against-the-head, slack-jawed expression that was plastered onto Matt's face. "H-how… w-where…" he stammered, the dark parts of his face draining of their color, leaving only an aghast white. He turned to Twilight, eyes glinting in askance. "It… looks almost like…" he trailed off, partly from shock and partly because she started speaking again, cutting him off in the process

"I found it in an old shelf that's underground. I don't know how long it's been there," Twilight answered, handing the floating scroll to the still-stunned Matt. He studied the runes on the page, a shudder running through his spine as he absorbed the scrawlings. "Can you show me your sword again? I want to be sure I have the right pony here."

Matt let his horn glow and begrudgingly summoned Heaven's Gate. Twilight used some more mana to pry the blade of light out of her ceiling, and took the silver-and-gold sword to hold the two side-by-side. She looked closely at the weapons, and found them to be near-identical in every way as far as overall shape was concerned. She made the light-blade vanish, and returned Heaven's Gate to its owner, who likewise made it disappear.

"Do you know that spell?" Twilight ventured, noting Matt's ongoing silence. He mutely responded by conjuring mana of his own, summoning the same runes and sending another white blade into the ceiling exactly where Twilight had first landed hers. She turned up and stared at the blade before it dissipated. "I'll… take that as a yes."

"What does that book you supposedly found the scroll in contain?" Anna asked with a straight face, eyes glinting with a spark of emotion—of what emotion exactly, Twilight was not sure.

"Well… from what I could glean, it's a diary of a stallion who went to Fantasia… before Celestia and Luna began ruling Equestria," Twilight replied, a chill running down her spine as her guests exchanged glances and brief mutterings. Matt still remained quiet, as if his brain had shut down and left the building. "I have another question to ask you all," she piped up, and instantly the murmurings ceased. All sets of eyes belonging to the otherworlders turned to her, watching her as if expecting to have a sword of concentrated light pointed on them.

"Do any of you know this… uh, phrase or sorts…?" Here, Twilight paused to clear her throat and steel herself before she uttered, "''As the stars gleam in the night sky like the moon, so too shall the forests whisper in the winds and bring about the hope in Fantasia?'"

Immediately, and to her instant wide-eyed surprise, the response she got was a series of choked gasps, flared changelings' wings, a yelp from Fenrir, and a mew from NoLegs. Sarah stepped forward hesitantly, pupils nothing but tiny vertical slits adrift in twin lakes of green. Once in front of Twilight, her ears fell back. "I've… heard about it from dad. He told me and Anna that… long ago, a pony named Starswirl came to Fantasia somehow…" she murmured in a quiet voice.

"Starswirl?!" Shining cried in a high-pitched squawk that suggested he'd just caught on, rearing onto his back legs as if somepony had managed to suckerpunch him in the chin. He reverted to all fours, going as wide-eyed as the otherworlders when Sarah slowly nodded once.

"I thought it was just some old foal's tale, but… but dad also told me the Starswirl pony crafted a spell that summoned a blade of light. Now that I've seen you and Matt cast something that fits the bill, I'm… just…" Sarah uneasily trailed off, turning her head left and right to gaze between Matt and Twilight fervently.

Matt's visage contorted as he sat on his haunches, his jaws closing and his irises enlarged, though his ears were still back on his head and his features looked pale. He fixed Twilight with a vexed look before deciding to speak for the first time in moments, "Do you… have anything else written by this… this Starswirl pony?"

"Yeah, but last time I checked, they had nothing to do with the barrier between the worlds. The damaged book and the scroll were the closest things I could find, and—" Twilight inexplicably paused, her eyes widening as she turned to Sarah. "Wait, did you say that Starswirl crafted the spell I cast earlier?"

Sarah slowly nodded again, fidgeting in place. Her right wing flapped for a moment, as if by instinct. "I'm only going by what I was told when I was a filly, though. I don't know if it's true or not, but… what I saw was impressive, to say the least," she replied, her voice as shaky as her body.

"Well, at least we have something to go on," Lance interjected coolly, also shifting to sit on his haunches. He turned to Spike and asked, "Can you hoof over that book for a second, please?" Spike immediately waltzed over, and handed him the book as soon as he was within arm's reach. Lance studied its title for a moment before turning his attention back to Twilight. "Do you think there are any other copies of this book out there?"

Twilight shook her head. "It's not likely; it's very old, and damaged. I'm under the impression that, whoever defaced it, they didn't want whatever Starswirl found to be commonplace knowledge," she answered glumly.

Lance blinked and rose a hoof, tenderly opening the book's cover. He started scanning the pages, and quickly came upon the 'defacing' that Twilight spoke of. He dejectedly turned a few more pages, only to groan and close the book as carefully as he opened it. "Well, this is a problem. For all we know, the book could've been wrecked to hell and back just weeks after being published," he sighed bitterly, eyes narrowing at the blasted thing as if it insulted his mother.

"But then, how'd it get here to begin with?" Anna asked, waving a hoof around the room for emphasis. "This looks like a place for new books, or recent translations of old books—not the kind of area to find that beat-up stack of papers in," she added, her hoof turning on the book Spike held as she spoke.

Twilight wrinkled her nose a bit, only for said wrinkles to smooth out as she put a hoof to her chin and gave Anna's remark some thought. She set her hoof down and trotted around the room before levitating herself, scanning each and every shelf she could. To her chagrin, Anna tragically had a point—every book on the shelves she could see had been fairly recent, with the oldest book a whopping twenty years in age. The book Spike held, on the other hoof, was far older, if its weathered condition had been anything to go by.

Which brought her to echo said guest's earlier question as she descended to the floor, "You're right: how did that book get here?"

"Don't look at me. I just live here," Spike replied, shrugging his shoulders as Twilight's gaze fell upon him for a second.

"I don't know about you guys, but this is pretty suspicious if you asked for my input," Shining interjected, turning to Twilight as she turned to him. He broke eye contact and shifted his gaze to Lance. "Do you know anything about what Twilight said earlier? About the stars gleaming and the wind whispering or somesuch?"

"I heard that as an old foal's tale, but honestly, I don't remember exactly how it went," Lance answered, eyelids slanting for a moment. He sighed deeply and added, "In fact, I forgot all about it until today. I guess being in my current position just… detracted most, if not all of, my attention."

"I can understand that entirely," Shining murmured, nodding to the general before turning back to his sister. At Twilight's nod, he once again shifted to glance at the otherworldly tourists. "Anypony know, or remember anything else you might've heard about Starswirl?"

The group exchanged glances, and with the exception of Sarah, Lance, and Anna, the others shook their heads. NoLegs mewed, and when Shining turned to him, he instantly saw that the feline had frowned. Then he turned to Katie, who waved her front hooves and reared onto her back legs simultaneously, jaw soundlessly moving up and down and tongue flopping about in a manner that suggested she spoke in muted gibberish.

Upon looking at Armin, he saw another frown, albeit one marked with pointed and jutting fangs. "I know zilch," he said flatly. turning to look at Katie as she still flailed about, and lit up his horn with a bright green magic aura that grasped her to keep her still. "Would you stop that? You look like a damn fool doing that!"

"She's in a closed space with the rest of us. She can act as foolish as she wants. Besides, we took her horseshoes away last night, Armin—she can't do much without them," Natalie chided, shooting him a cold glare that made him relinquish his magical grip on Katie, who immediately returned to flailing her front legs every which-way while balancing on her back ones, her mouth and tongue moving at rapid-fire rates.

Shining exchanged another glance with Twilight. He pointed a hoof at Katie and asked, "Erm, is she alright?"

"I don't know, but it looks like she's trying to tell us something…" Twilight murmured, shooting Katie a concerned look. "Um, did you lose your ability to speak or something?"

"No. Sometimes I just… spasm like that," Katie replied in an uneasy tone, whereupon she sat on her haunches and brought her front legs up to her chest. Her wings buzzed, and she stayed in that position for a moment or so before her hooves returned to the floor, looking at the wood surface while allowing her mane to fall over half of her face. The translucent red wings slammed shut against her thin sides, and her orbs dimmed.

Shining eyed Katie rather suspiciously for a moment, entirely befuddled at her behavioral flip-flop. He shrugged in resignation and turned to Fenrir. "I know not a thing regarding the stars gleaming, nor of our wraith's temporary attempt at proper sign language. For my ignorance, I sincerely apologize," Fenrir stated flatly, a frown forming on his face as he set about crossing his front limbs.

"Sign language?" Shining asked, a brow quirking up.

"It is what it seemed to be, yes," Fenrir answered, nodding slowly. "As I see it, how could it be anything but, at the very least regarding terms of appearance?"

Twilight turned to Maria, groaning as she found that the filly in question had decided to clamber on top of the horse head carving. Maria sat snugly between the ears, cocking her head to one side as Twilight stared at her. "Um, did your daddy tell you anything about stars and winds and such?" she asked in desperation, wincing when the query caused her small guest to frown.

"No, he didn't. Hardly anygryph saw the sky back home," Maria answered sadly. "And when they did, the big bearded meanie said it was a bad thing to see the big round white thing in the sky."

Twilight sighed, her head lowering as the noise she made devolved into a bit of a whine. She stopped abruptly as a mew reached her ears, and she rose her head a little to find that NoLegs stood in front of her, looking back with a soft purr. Immediately, and inexplicably, she then beamed at the cat. "Maybe my friend Fluttershy could talk to you and tells us what you know," she thought, a grin spreading on her face.

Twilight turned to the other Fantasians, who at this point looked at her with varying emotions marring their features. Some brows were quirked, a few mouths were slightly agape, a pair of orbs brightened, and another mew hit her ears. "Guys, could you stay put for a few? I think I might have found the solution to our problem; it's just that I need to get somepony first so we can crack it," she stated. Without warning, she ran to the door, flung it open, and galloped out in a hurry with a cloud of dust flying behind her.

The door freely swung about for a moment before Shining trotted to it and closed it with some magic. "Anypony else have a bad feeling all of a sudden?" he asked, turning to the assembled Fantasians who merely looked at him and shrugged with befuddled looks on their faces.

Chapter XIX- Guests of the Round Table*

Chapter XIX- Guests of the Round Table*

Twilight scrambled down worn dirt paths, dust whirling behind her for a moment before settling as she rounded a bend. She hastily darted past houses, grateful that nary a soul had set hoof into the streets at the onset of today's dawn. A sense of hope and euphoria filled her, and she showed it through high-pitched whinnies, fast-moving hooves, and a smile on her face that came with a gleam in her amethyst eyes.

She rounded a bend that veered left and kept going, adrenalin coursing through her veins as she blazed down another street. Turning sharply to the left again after a good five miles or so on hoof, her smile grew as a windmill came into view. She spotted a nearby wooden bridge and pranced up to it, listening to the sharp taps she produced just trotting to the other side, and crossed another bridge seemingly lined with moss that arced over a small creek.

Past that, she spotted another tree-house-type construct, though it was considerably shorter yet thicker than the library. It had a plethora of windows, however, and two doors fitted onto the same frame that made it look like one split horizontally in half. Bird houses and nests littered the scene, dangling from trees and kept tidy in hollowed out holes in the trunks. Some ground burrows were here and there, though thankfully out of the way of the dirt path leading up to the house.

Twilight paused, partly to catch her breath and partly to admire the bird houses as the sun's early light basked them in its glow. Some blue jays and cardinals jumped out, chirping and experimentally flapping their wings for a moment before taking to the skies and spreading their songs through the expanses above. Her eyes fell to the ground, just as some rabbits began crawling out of the burrows. Her smile fell when the rabbits frowned, chittering fervently about something she couldn't comprehend.

Her legs burned with pain, and Twilight started trotting up to the house in spite of her nerves telling her to stop. She forced herself to look at the door instead of the rabbits, taking care to not stray from the dirt path and accidentally trample on the entrances of the rabbit holes. Upon reaching the wooden obstruction, she rose a hoof and began knocking slowly.

She stopped knocking when hooves echoed from within, and she took a step back as both halves of the door opened. In the frame now stood Fluttershy, who had slight bags under her blue-green eyes and a tremendously frazzled mane. She blinked sleepily, regarding Twilight with partially-lidded eyes. "Twilight, it's very early. Do you need something?" she asked in a soft tone that belied her drowsiness.

"The Fantasians are here, and I heard a riot transpired in Canterlot last night," Twilight replied, making to speak again when two things happened simultaneously. First, Fluttershy's eyes widened, her jaw soundlessly dropping open like somepony jammed a hoof snugly between her two rows of teeth. Her wings spread to full mast, as if by reflex, and they shuddered for a moment before snapping shut at her sides.

The second thing that happened was that the rabbits started shrieking in unison, running back to their burrows and sending the airborne birds into a frenzy overhead. The avians rushed back to their homes, chirping frantically, as though Twilight herself had the temerity to say something so unspeakably vile in their tongue they could not bear to listen to it any longer. This left just the two alone, at least for the moment.

"A… riot? In Canterlot?" Fluttershy asked, pupils seemingly shaking in her eyes.

"Yeah. It got bad enough that our… guests sustained some injuries. Could you come over to the library…" Twilight paused, taking in Fluttershy's haggard look, "whenever you feel ready?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Of course. Oh, poor Angel's been fretting about the little hippogryph filly—is she hurt?" she asked.

Twilight shook her head. "No. In fact, her feathers are growing back," Twilight replied, donning a small frown. "Why's Angel… concerned about it?"

"He told me he doesn't want what already happened to undergo a repeat," Fluttershy sighed, just as she felt something tugging at her mane. She looked down and found Angel at her front hooves, a bandage on his head that left holes for his ears to poke through and a firm scowl set in his face. He furiously chittered a bit and crossed his forelegs, tapping a rear paw rather impatiently.

"Um, I'll wait for you to feed your animal friends and get ready. Oh, and when you come, could you bring Angel with you, and a fish for NoLegs?" Twilight inquired, softly smiling when Fluttershy looked up at her and sent her another nod.

"I would be more than grateful to give a fish to little NoLegs. But I have to feed all of my other friends first," Fluttershy murmured in reply. She turned around and went back inside, stretching her wings as she languidly walked to another room within the house. Angel went with her, shooting Twilight a soft smile before closing the door behind himself.

Twilight trotted backwards a few paces from the door and turned around to look at the path she'd come from. She took a deep breath and exhaled, and the moments that passed after that were spent examining the area. After a good twenty minutes or so, Twilight began softly smiling as small blades of grass caught some of the early dawn's rays and began appearing as though they were glowing in the light's radiance.

Another ten or so minutes ticked by, and slowly, the birds poked their heads from their homes before taking flight and filling the air with their songs. Their chirps and serenades had a sort or effect on the immediate area, causing the rabbits to come out of their burrows and chitter amongst themselves once again.

From the nearby creek, beavers poked their heads out of the water before hauling themselves to the banks and stretching their dripping wet forelegs. Twilight smiled softly as amongst them, a little beaver kit stood next to the fully-grown adult beavers, giving them a look and some slaps on the ground courtesy of its tail. The adults with it chattered a bit before walking up to the nearest rabbit and communicating with it.

Fluttershy opened the door, and her presence immediately caught the attention of the animals already out and about. "Breakfast is ready," she called out, and the birds and rabbits and beavers rushed to the door, darting past her with smiles on their little faces. The little beaver kit tripped, and Fluttershy hurriedly trotted to it and gently used a hoof to get it back on its feet as soon as she was at its side. The kit shot a wide smile at her before running into the house to join the other animals.

Twilight went to the nearest window and peeked in, smiling as the assorted animals started eating food that had been laid out in a living room. Turning to her friend, she decided to venture with words, "Um, where are the mice and squirrels at?"

"Oh, them?" Fluttershy responded, turning to Twilight with a sincere smile on her face. "Oh, they're in the kitchen. Angel's eating too; he was almost done when I trotted out to tell the other bunnies and critters that their food was ready." A moment passed, before her smile fell and she went wide-eyed. "Oh no, I forgot NoLegs' treat!" With that, she rushed back into the house, and Twilight chuckled when she returned a moment or so later with Angel perched on her back and a basket of fish held on the handle with her teeth.

"So, you're ready now?" Twilight asked with an amused smile spreading on her face. Fluttershy nodded and made a muffled "Mhmm" in response, her movements slow as her head bobbed. Twilight nodded back and the two trotted over the small bridge, though Fluttershy turned back to find Harry coming around from behind the massive house. She lowered her head to set the basket down and craned her neck to see him closing the door.

The bear rushed up and met with the ponies, letting off a small growl as he picked up the basket with his claws. Angel chattered at him for a moment, and Harry listened as the rabbit told him something. The furry giant nodded in understanding, and they turned to the road ahead, where Twilight stopped a few paces to wait for them. The trio rushed up to join her eagerly, and back into Ponyville they went.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The Fantasians sat around the library's table, with Shining between Lance and Armin and Spike sitting between Alexander and Katie. The group bickered rampantly, some pointing at a worn book that stood open at the center of the table, though all had hooves and claws and paws on the table.

"So, this book's meant to be elsewhere?" Matt asked, using a hoof to gesture to the damned thing. He looked at Spike, who nodded frantically.

"At least, I think it is. I don't know where it's supposed to be, though," Spike replied, a frown on his face.

Lance rose his front hooves and put them together as if in prayer. He sighed, shaking his head. "So, Twilight just… found it. In this library…" He paused, closing his eyes and lifting a hoof to rub his temples before continuing, "somewhere. Is this what I happen to be hearing?"

"That's about right. We don't even know who might've had the book before, apart from the pony who wrote it," Spike answered, nodding in spite of the fact that Lance had his eyelids shut.

"So, what're you lot so keen to know?" Shining asked, eyes darting between the assembled Fantasians.

"Anything regarding the barrier that broke. My general heard some 'end of the worlds' nonsense from an old, crazy geezer," Armin answered, raising a hoof up before rubbing the back of his neck with it. He lowered his limb when Maria let off a whimper and wrapped her claws around his ribs, and he moved his other foreleg around to hold her with a sigh of resignation.

Shining noticed the foal's clinging to said changeling, and turned to Anna before changing the subject a little, "So, just to be absolutely certain we're all on the same page here, nopony remembers or knows much about Starswirl?"

Everyone, sans Spike, shook their heads.

Shining Armor sighed dejectedly. He looked around before noticing NoLegs striding to him, and looked at the cat quizzically before he found the end of his muzzle booped by a furry tail. The cat mewed with a purr, causing him to raise a brow. "Do you need something?" Shining asked.

NoLegs nodded, using his tail to gesture to a white hoof that sat on the table. Shining mentally slapped himself and rose the hoof the cat pointed at to give him some petting. "So, tell me more about the legends I've heard about the supposedly-non-existent Fantasian alicorns," he murmured, turning his eyes on Sarah.

Sarah sighed, shuddering as she felt Lance's cold crimson gaze sweep over her. Having Shining giving her more or less the same look was bad enough, and she gulped before speaking in a nervous tone, "W-well… I kn-know this one foal's tale I heard…" She gulped again, suppressing another shudder before continuing, "When Fantasia and Mythos first came to be, two divine beings quibbled over the sibling planets in their first hours of existence. One was a cat, with silky white fur and piercing blue eyes that wished to spread feline dominance."

Shining and Lance exchanged looks before nodding in her direction. Sarah took that as her cue to go on, "The other was a white alicorn with a flowing red mane and eyes sparkling a greenish-blue. She was a pony who had a long tapered horn, a regal set of wings capable of whipping up storms, and hooves that were strong enough to rend mountains asunder. The alicorn, a mare named Faust, wished to spread equine rule."

"An alicorn named Faust? That's funny," Katie noted, ears twitching as she spoke.

Sarah nodded to Katie, before taking another deep breath. "So, They battled for the worlds, for many years—until They saw that They were at an impasse. The feline, Godcat, decided to broker a deal with Faust: the same species could inhabit both worlds, both flora and fauna, and the fighting between Them would cease."

"Faust agreed, and together They made cat and ponykind, as well as all other species, once They ensured the worlds were safe enough to inhabit." Sarah paused with a shuddering breath, her head lowering and eyes closing. She rose her talons above the table and clasped them around one another in a pleading posture.

Her voice dropped to a somber tone as she went on, "But Godcat favored the cats and the gryphons, who were Fantasia's apex predators, and Faust favored the equines. Both saw that one world had a dominating species, and reacted vehemently: Faust took away many of the cats' legs, and weakened the gryphons and any hippogryphs She could find. Godcat responded by wiping out many, many alicorns and gave some aid to Her then-just-legless children and ailed gryphs. In doing so, She left just the unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi to seek out a living on their lonesome. Only a select few with traits of all three tribes escaped Her wrath, but even they did not leave entirely unscathed."

Shining cringed, eyes narrowing as Sarah let out a soft sigh. "The few alicorns left… at least, on Fantasia, none ever heard from them again. Their exact fates were buried so long ago, they may as well have been lost to the mists of time. The earliest ponies and cats eventually had an upheaval against their gods, and locked them away after a cataclysmic battle raged for some time. Thereafter, a barrier between the worlds had been enforced, with none daring to even break it. None could break it, as their descendants came to find out eons after the initial clash. None knows who even made it or why, just the same," she concluded.

"And yet… the barrier broke," Matt mumbled in a low voice. He too turned his eyes on Sarah as she gave a final dejected sigh. "Does the legend mention anything about what could've broken it?"

Sarah shook her head, keeping it low. "No," came the terse reply. She rose her head and leveled a straight gaze at Shining before adding, "In fact, that's all I do know—and it's the only foal's tale dad would tell me and Anna when we were fillies… for all I know, dad might've tweaked the tale a lot, and the original would be lost to me if such is the case."

"He probably did tweak it here and there. After all, children are young and impressionable; you were no exception," Alexander piped up, garnering a nod from Sarah.

"And we don't know how much your old stallion altered or left out," Armin added with a sigh. "Hell, neither do you—I feel like we're galloping in circles here."

"Which sucks," Sarah scoffed, nodding again.

Shining nodded back. "Every teensy bit we can get helps," he groaned. NoLegs chimed in with a mew, purring as his hoof continued to rub him. He turned his eyes on everyone else, making sure to give Spike but a brief glance, and again the heads shook glumly.

"What's a predator?" Maria asked, and immediately a few of her fellow Fantasians tensed up at the question.

Katie groaned and answered the foal in a flat tone, "A predator is somepony, gryph, cat, or whatever that kills and eats another living being. Like, say I could catch and eat a mouse—in that case, I'd be a predator."

"That sounds about right," Shining remarked, looking at the filly. "But not all predators are bad—most just kill to survive."

"But, there are predators who go above and beyond to be the most sadistic, inconsiderate, horrific barbarians that the environment has managed to produce," Fenrir added, pausing briefly to growl at nothing in particular. He went on after taking some breaths and collecting himself, "They seem inconspicuous—at first. And when one's guard goes down, that's when they reveal their truest of colors."

Sarah pried her talons apart and rose one of them. "I can vouch for that," she agreed.

Spike mimicked her posture. "Seconded," he stated simply.

Shining turned his eye on Spike and opened his mouth, but before he could utter so much as one syllable, the door opened and caught everyone's attention. The gathered bunch turned and sighed as Twilight Sparkle came trotting in, with Fluttershy, Harry, and Angel bringing up the rear. Speaking of, the bear parted from the mares and rabbit and homed in on the table, plopping a basket of fish next to the book.

And that was before Maria jumped from Armin's forelegs onto the table and launched herself into the bear's chest afterwards. "Fuzzy!" she exclaimed cheerfully, a great big smile on her face.

Fluttershy trotted to Harry as he staggered back and steadied himself, spreading her wings and flapping before flying around his hulking form to see what had tackled him. She grinned upon spotting Maria nestled in his massive forelimbs, and gave a small giggle. "It seems you missed Harry," she noted. The bear looked at his airborne companion and smiled, giving off a soft growl to accompany his grin. Angel, who was perched on Fluttershy's back, hopped onto the table and bounded to NoLegs, chittering something to him while using a paw to gesture to the fish basket.

The cat nodded and pried himself away from Shining, approaching the basket with a gleam in his eyes. When he settled next to it, he used his tail-magic to pluck out a very fat trout. While the cat commenced with digging in, Angel darted to Lance and shot him a glare that could've been intimidating—if not for the difference in size between himself and the red-eyed pegasus he glowered at.

The rabbit chittered something in bunny-tongue and rose a paw, using two digits to point between his own eyes and those of the pony he stared down. "You're watching me?" Lance asked, looking at Angel with an amused smile spreading on his face.

The rabbit nodded once before Fluttershy swooped in and scooped him off of the table with a foreleg. "Apologies. He's just been grouchy and worrying about Maria so much he thought of doing terrible, diabolical things if even one scratch got on her haunches," Fluttershy sighed.

Lance nodded in understanding. "I can understand his worry. Though, I doubt he can do terrible, diabolical things—his attempts would make me raise an eyebrow at best," he replied, still grinning.

"Oh, I've heard about terrible things happening in Canterlot, and when I told Angel about it… let's just say I had to set aside some bits to invest in a punching bag for him later," Fluttershy murmured, her remark instantly causing Lance's smile to drop.

"What happened last night, or weeks ago?" Lance inquired, eyes narrowing.

"Both," Fluttershy replied simply, turning to fly away. She gained a bit of distance before landing on three legs at Twilight's side.

Twilight trotted to the table and turned to Shining. "Say, did you glean anything?" she asked.

"A local Fantasian legend," Shining replied with a huff. "Sis, do you have anything on an alicorn named Faust?"

"On an alicorn named Faust?" Twilight repeated, blinking as the words bounced about in her skull. She fidgeted for a moment before her horn lit up, her magic grabbing every single book in the crevasses at once. "This might take a while…"

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Zecora crept around the foliage of the Everfree, eyes and ears open and alert. Her hooves were in constant contact with the ground, either brushing up against shrubs and twigs, lightly kicking aside rocks, or squelching in the damp undergrowth. Laden on her back was a saddlebag, which shifted against her body every time she scraped against a tree or thorn-laden bush.

She paused, her gold accessories clinking when she halted. Before her, a small clearing stretched, letting in more sunlight than the rest of the darkened canopy. In one ray of solar light, a patch of blossoms bloomed in a cluster. Fluttering gently to one such flower was a lone butterfly, large enough to cover one of her hips with its wings alone. It sported colorful scales and tails extending from its back wings, vibrant crimson in hue that gave way to golds and oranges which appeared to be metallic.

Zecora grinned, and quietly reached into her saddlebag with a hoof, opening the flap before pulling out a lidded jar large enough to contain the butterfly. She rose on her back legs, lifting her tail to make an ample counter-weight, and silently approached the insect while unsealing the jar. Her smirk broadened when the butterfly flittered away from the flower, only to find itself in a prison of glass. She sealed the jar and eyed the creature, watching as it tried to get away to no avail.

"At last I have you, my gorgeous sunset swallowtail. You shall accompany Gala to the afterlife when she sets sail," Zecora intoned, gently placing the jar with the swallowtail into her saddlebag and closing the flap. She turned around and crept back into the shadows of the woods, careful to avoid stepping or kicking things that could give her position away to potential predators.

For a few moments, she trudged through the dense woods, pausing to swat unwanted insectoid hitchhikers with mere flicks of her tail. Zecora stayed low, rarely straying into the light, her striped form of dark and light greys providing a monochrome sort of camouflage. A growl from somewhere nearby halted her right in her tracks, though, and she quickly crouched to the ground.

Twigs snapped and the sounds rang in her ears, and Zecora's heart began climbing up her throat. She remained still, hoping to go unseen by whatever it was that had produced the noise. Her eyes darted everywhere, though she couldn't see much past the trees and the bushes from her current position.

Then, she caught the sight of something moving. It curled around a tree trunk to her left, though it writhed out of sight. Another growl hit her ears, much louder and more like a roar than anything else. The Everfree fell into a thick silence, occasionally broken up by crickets and birds that went on making the morning symphony.

Adrenalin pumped through her blood and the hairs on her backside stood on end as a wet, semi-viscous liquid dribbled down onto her withers from above. Slowly, she tilted her head and craned her neck to see what it was that produced the odd substance. Zecora paled upon seeing a great, serpentine beast made of wood, with thick treebark acting as scales. It had gnarled horns on its head, a fanged maw slowly opening and oozing some kind of green fluid.

But what really snagged her attention were its eyes, glowing a sickly green and lined with three-pronged leaves. They zeroed in on her, and the beast lowered its frame so its reptilian-esque face hovered inches from her own. It let off a hideous roar that sent an acrid aroma of rotting flesh into her nose, and a spray of green fluid that went everywhere. The liquid wasted no time in coating her mohawk so much it drooped to one side as soon as the beast finished its cry.

Zecora scrambled to her hooves and backpedaled as the thing lunged at her, sinking wooden daggers for teeth into the dirt. "Oh no, I enraged a snarling timberwyrm!" she cried with alarm, turning around and jumping into a harried gallop. "If it wants me for food—on second thought, this I do not wish to confirm!" Her cries served to embolden the beast—as soon as it disentangled half of its face from the dirt, it slithered after her with another wailing roar, homing in on its galloping quarry like a missile.

Zecora fled deeper into the wood, jumping out of the immediate path of trees and darting over bushes. The timberwyrm kept pursuing her, launching itself into the canopy and slithering through the branches, keeping a constant vigil on its target. It started lashing out after a moment or so of giving chase, narrowly missing her flailing legs and sailing tail as she repeatedly ghosted away just out of reach.

She moved deftly, lungs starting to burn as the monster lunged at her again and again. Her run began to slow a bit, only to pick back up as she doubled her efforts to get away, eyes peeled for something she could use to avoid becoming the timberwyrm's breakfast. At last, after turning a sharp right and blazing through another clearing, she found her chance: a broken tree up ahead, its bulk resting at an angle with just enough room for her to squeeze between the wood and the dirt.

Zecora dove and slid, going under the fallen wood husk with ease. The timberwyrm miscalculated when it lunged, grabbing the entire tree instead of its prey with one firm bite. The monster let out a muffled roar, hefting the tree and wildly thrashing its head about, yet no matter how fast or erratically it moved the tree would not dislodge from its jaws. To make things worse for the would-be diner, a swarm of glimmering green beetles with antennae as long as their bodies poured out of the dead tree. They climbed all over the wyrm, quickly sinking their mandibles into its barky flesh and halting it in its tracks entirely.

Zecora took this as her chance to get away, running for a good ten minutes before slowing to a trot. She paused to catch her breath and rest, and checked on the jar to ensure that and her flittering passenger were alright. Thankfully, the glass confine and the butterfly were both unharmed, and when she regained her breath she set out once again after putting the jar back in her saddlebag. Thirty minutes passed when she eventually found another clearing that boasted a tree with a door built into the bark, and she sighed in relief.

She trotted briskly to the door and opened it, using her tail to close it shut behind her as soon as she strode inside. She scanned the room with the shelves full of bottles and the cauldron, before her eyes fell on a pile of hay with the legless Crimson Gala looking at her expectantly. "Did you find a butterfly that's beautiful?" she asked.

Zecora answered in silence as she opened her saddlebag again and procured the jar with the butterfly in it. "Yes, I have found such a butterfly. It flitted to me, and I gently snatched it from the sky," she eagerly replied with a grin. She opened the jar and watched as the butterfly clambered out, looking around warily before flittering out and about the room.

Gala watched the insect, seemingly captivated by its graceful movements and bold hues. The insect continued to flitter and float, and after a few moments it changed course, descending down slowly to land on the end of her muzzle. She giggled like a little filly at the sight, grinning as the butterfly didn't fly off at her noise of joy.

Zecora's smile widened as well, and she tried her hardest to not fawn over the sight. "It seems the swallowtail adores you. All seems well for the moment—now, I shall work on the brew," she noted in her head, and she began to trot about. She pulled off ingredients with her hooves, mouth, and tail, being careful to avoid smashing their containers and setting them before the cauldron.

"It's between my ears!" Gala exclaimed, briefly catching Zecora's attention for a moment. Indeed, the insect decided to rest between the wraith's ears, wings folded up to reveal a dull brown underside with an equally dull body.

"Don't be too loud, for noises can cause undue tension. I ran into a timberwyrm earlier; we really don't need the extra attention," Zecora warned. Gala slowly nodded, her mane bobbing up and down with her and gently shaking the butterfly on her head.

Zecora nodded back and proceeded to pull a mortar and pestle hewn of oak wood out of a shelf, and she tottered over to the cauldron to put it with the rest of the ingredients. She opened some of the bottles and jars, revealing dried herbs and bits of plants that she poured out in eyeball-measured amounts, making sure not to spill a single leaf outside of the mortar. Picking up the small bowl in her left hoof, she grabbed the pestle with her right and started grinding up the plants.

She paused when a low, bestial roar came from outside, but resumed turning the plants into powder when it faded without any other noise accompanying the racket.

Chapter XX- Volatile Musings*

Chapter XX- Volatile Musings*

Gala watched as her caretaker continued grinding plants, sometimes averting her orbs to look at the sunset swallowtail as it crawled about her body. After a good forty or so minutes, her attention was grabbed by the sound of wood hitting wood, and she turned to Zecora to find that she put down the mortar and pestle. Zecora made to stand, being careful to avoid knocking the mix of herbs and such over. She rushed past Crimson and picked up a small pouch and put it in her saddlebag, before she turned to her and sighed.

"I need just one last thing for the brew. I'm going out to Ponyville; I should be back soon," Zecora stated, looking at Gala with a straight face. Gala nodded, giggling as the butterfly crawled to rest on the tip of her left ear. With that, she watched as her caretaker trotted out of the hut, making sure to leave the door firmly closed behind her on the way out. Zecora started trotting through the foliage, eyes and ears once again peeled and on lookout for any sight or sound that could've belonged to any of the Everfree's other residents.

And yet, as she sloshed through wet ground and half-soggy bushes that dried out a bit, the only sounds she could detect were her hooves as they snapped twigs and kicked rocks out of the way. Not even the birds or the insects sang throughout the canopy; the forest had gone deathly silent. Her heart began thundering in her chest, and instincts screamed at her to head back to the hut and barricade the door.

She ignored those things, though; she had a much more important task ahead of her. Zecora pushed onward, wading through the undergrowth for a few minutes before finding herself on the split between the forest, complete with a worn dirt path. She veered right, letting off a small nicker before wandering into the nearby town. As soon as she set hoof in town, she noticed the residents already trotting through the streets and already starting their day.

Among them, three little fillies bustled about alongside Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. The foals had colorful saddlebags laden on their backs, and they trotted ahead of the mares that accompanied them. They all stopped in front of Zecora, grinning innocently. Zecora nodded to them and looked to one of the fillies in particular, a yellow-coated foal with vibrant gold eyes and a maroon mane with a pink bow resting on the back of her head.

"Apple Bloom, how are you this morn?" She paused, noticing a little yellow nugget of something in the foal's mane. "Why, is that a bit of corn?" she asked, gesturing with a hoof at the bit of yellow. She turned to Applejack when she spoke up.

"Naw, that's a bit of hay. Apple Bloom tripped on her way out of the barn," Applejack replied with a sigh. "Good thing she landed on the hay, though; otherwise she'd have gotten a nasty scrape, I reckon."

Zecora nodded in understanding. "Shall I accompany you, then? I have a place I must visit, again," she stated, turning to Rainbow Dash.

"Eh, sure," Rainbow Dash agreed with a nod. "After I help Applejack and Rares drop off Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle at school, we gotta hit Twilight's library anyway."

Zecora donned a smirk. "That's where I was going at morning's first rays; that, I hadn't expected you to say. Very well, lead the way. We mustn't stall all day."

One of the other fillies, a light grey unicorn with green eyes and a swirled purple-pink mane, piped up as they started trotting again. "Sis, why're you gonna visit Twilight?"

Rarity answered as the group turned a sharp left onto another street, "It's… a long story."

The third filly, an orange pegasus with a magenta mane and lilac eyes, jumped up and down a bit. "Is it another dress design? Can me, Sweetie, and Apple Bloom help?" she asked.

Rarity shuddered, and her eyes went wide. She turned to the small pegasus and said, "But won't you have homework to do later today, Scootaloo? Why, you wouldn't find the time to make a dress, not when you have assignments that are due the next day. And besides, you need to learn all sorts of other things before you can make a dress."

"Unfortunately, she is right," Zecora chimed in, just as Scootaloo groaned in annoyance. "You can't just make a dress overnight."

"But," Rarity began again, garnering the attention of the fillies as they rounded another bend. "If you do well in school this week, and this goes for all three of you, I'm willing to let you help me with some of my designs. Am I understood?"

"You can count on me, sis," Sweetie piped up, a grin on her face.

"I wonder what kinda dress we'll make after we do good in school!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, eyes widening and sparkling.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Dressmakers!" Scootaloo cried, at this point beaming. The other two fillies chimed in and all three chanted "Cutie Mark Crusaders Dressmakers!" as a reddish-violet barn-esque building came into view, one adorned with a bell tower atop the roof and a playground stationed nearby. They sprung into a gallop and rushed to the barn-like construct, where a bunch of other foals with saddlebags had already begun to congregate.

"Be good, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity called just before the foals could move into the building. She sighed and slumped, watching as Sweetie and the others vanished into the building, though the little unicorn filly she addressed waved a hoof as she went inside. She sighed, prior to glancing at Zecora and addressing her, "So, if you'll pardon my forwardness, may I ask why you are accompanying us?"

"Twilight Sparkle promised me she'd help with something. For us both, it's… rather unbecoming," Zecora answered, a rear leg twitching for a moment. The group began trotting again, this time at a slower gait. "Tell me, why are you three also seeking her out? Judging by your expressions, you seem to have some sort of bout."

"You're right about that," Applejack groaned. When she turned to Zecora and found that the zebra raised an eyebrow, she elaborated, "Long story short, we're expecting the Fantasians who dropped by to show up in town today. We just don't know when, so we wanted to ask Twi if she knew."

"You sound like you know them, dearest Applejack," Zecora noted, blinking as her other brow rose to meet with its companion. "What are they like; do they give any flak?"

Rainbow took in a deep breath, wings briefly flaring as she answered, "Well, one's a general, and he kinda brought a small hoofful of his troops here, plus a few who weren't drafted into his army."

Zecora's eyes widened. "A general, did you just say? Twilight told me a little about him yesterday."

"Did she tell you anything else about him?" Rarity asked with a huff.

"Not much, aside from his changelings and gryphons. When she spoke of him, she partially stiffened," Zecora sighed, shaking her head.

"Then let us fill you in on all of the missing details…" Rainbow began, closing her wings with a near-soundless grunt punctuating her response.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Twilight groaned in exasperation, her head being the only thing sticking out of a pile of books that embraced her form. Her mane was even more frazzled at this rate, looking like nothing more than a clump of unkempt tangles. A book levitated in front of her for a moment before it was flung aside, bouncing off of a wall and plopping to the floor. The shelves in the room around her were barren, and she began grinding her teeth as another groan climbed out of her throat.

The table nearby had been lifted up by both Shining and Matt's magic, revealing another staircase that wound down into another room. Spike and Alexander came rushing up and weaved around the horse head bust, shoulders sagging and wings flaring when they saw Twilight apparently being devoured by a mass of books.

Spike sighed and rushed up to her and scaled the mound, careful to avoid stepping on leather-bound stacks of parchment that protruded from the pile significantly. "Nothing in the basement had anything about Faust or Godcat," he said.

His remark elicited nothing more than another agitated groan. Twilight ground her teeth harder, shuddering at the sensation when Fluttershy came in from upstairs, with NoLegs perched on her head. "I didn't find anything either—not in the books, anyway," she sighed.

"Does NoLegs happen to know anything?" Alexander asked, turning around to make eye contact with the yellow pegasus.

Fluttershy shook her head. "Next to nothing, or so he told me," she said. The cat shook his head as well, frowning when Twilight groaned for the upteenth time. The cat mewed, and Fluttershy immediately translated, "Aside from something Sarah already told him about."

Twilight howled out, eyes narrowing as she began fidgeting and squirming in place. For the first few seconds, the books held her to the spot, prior to shuddering and tumbling down to the foot of the pile. Then she jumped out of the mound, her horn glowing and her magic grasping her to hover her body a few good inches above the pile, though she remained well beneath the ceiling.

Fire erupted around her, coalescing into a sphere before dissipating, revealing a pony whose only feature remotely resembling Twilight's was that of her starburst cutie mark. Her coat turned so pale an orange it looked to be white, and her eyes went bright ruby red while her mane and tail exploded into roiling flame on the spot. Everyone flinched back at the display, eyes widening when the now-ablaze mare let off another shriek, this one more deafening and unnatural.

Fortunately, the abrupt transformation didn't last no more than a second or two. Another sphere surrounded Twilight briefly before vanishing, revealing the same purple hues she had before, albeit now littered with scorch marks. She landed ungracefully into the pile of books, sending a lot of them everywhere in the process, and sighed dejectedly. "There are other libraries in Equestria… no use to get frustrated yet," she mumbled.

"Yet," Lance emphasized for her. He watched as Shining's horn briefly stopped glowing. He immediately cantered over and lifted Twilight out of the mess of books with magic and levitated her to him, wrapping his forelegs around her in a hug and letting the aura dissipate. Twilight returned the hug with another sigh, her horn still glowing. Her magic lifted the books and haphazardly threw them into their shelves, though they circled around the room first prior to finding a crevasse.

As the last book slid into a shelf and flopped on its cover, a series of knocks came into the room from the door. Spike jostled past Shining and Twilight and opened the door, eyes widening when he saw Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Zecora standing just behind the obstruction. "Uh, hang on for a second, girls," he stated in an uneasy tone, with an equally nervous grin to accompany his words.

The quartet of mares nodded, and Spike gently closed the door before whirling around and rushing over to Twilight. "Rainbow, Rares, Applejack, and Zecora are here," he groaned, causing Twilight to jump with enough force to slide out of Shining's grasp.

Twilight turned to Matt, noticing the table was still levitating thanks to his magic. "Um, put the table down," she murmured. Matt nodded back and gently set the table down behind the horse head bust, neatly covering up the hole and staircase going further down. She whirled around and trotted over to the door, paying no heed to the Fantasians as they started mumbling about the second batch of guests, and opened the obstruction again.

As soon as they saw her, four sets of eyes widened. "Twilight Sparkle, what happened to you? You look like you escaped becoming stew!" Zecora exclaimed, taking in the scorch marks littering the lavender mare's body.

"Um… kinda exploded in fire," Twilight replied with a sigh, her remark eliciting a cringe from Applejack. "No, nothing else was burned. I'm going to apply ointment."

"Then where's the ointment?" Applejack asked, her brows rising.

"Um, upstairs. Oh, and…" Twilight trailed off, eyes darting between the mares assembled at her front door.

"'And' what?" Rainbow implored, eyes narrowing slightly as one brow shot higher than the other.

"The Fantasians and my brother are here," Twilight answered simply, earning an alarmed gasp from Rarity.

"Here? Already?" Rarity tersely asked, her voice an octave higher. She made to speak further when Shining trotted up to stand behind Twilight.

"That would be affirmative. Celestia's entrusted me with watching them, and making sure they don't do anything fishy," he answered in a flat tone. He wrapped a front leg around Twilight's midsection and sighed. "You might as well get that ointment now, sis."

Twilight nodded and disentangled herself from Shining's grip, and both turned to trot back in the house, though he paused to beckon the next batch of guests inside with a hoof. The quartet followed him and his half-burned sister, and Rainbow let out a huff when she saw a bunch of pairs of eyes turn to her and the others. "So, what happened?" she asked.

Fluttershy trotted over with a frown on her face. She opened her mouth, but a sharp inhale of air from Zecora cut her off. "Over there, is that a wraith I see? Right there, standing with you three?" she asked, looking pointedly at Twilight, Shining, and Spike as they made for the stairs—with Katie not even three feet away from the trio in question.

Katie instantly turned to Zecora, orbs going wide. Her wings flared, jaw soundlessly opening and shuddering as Zecora's gaze fell onto her. "Yes, that's a wraith—a Fantasian one. Don't prod at her too much, she's not the kind that likes being touched," Shining answered, sighing as he turned to Katie. "You doing okay?"

"She's staring at me…" Katie mumbled, eyes locked in a staring contest with Zecora. Shining simply nodded and continued to escort Twilight up the stairs, soon leaving the first group and second to themselves.

Rarity leaned in so that the end of her muzzle barely brushed against Zecora's ear. "She has a disdain that stems from merely being stared at," she whispered.

Zecora nodded, and broke eye contact with Katie, gaze sweeping across the rest of the Fantasians. When she spotted Lance, her muscles tensed and her ears fell back. Taking in his features—or, rather, what she could see that wasn't obstructed by his uniform—proved difficult as his crimson eyes locked with hers, almost daring her to do something ill-advised. She suppressed a shudder and gulped before deciding to venture with words, "Are you the Fantasian general I have heard of? Did you happen to—"

"I take it somepony told you?" Lance retorted, cutting Zecora off. At her rather apprehensive nod, he sighed. "Yes, I am he. And I'm in a foul mood; last night was hectic, to the point I came close to strangling something bare-hoofed."

"Tell me there was at least a rhyme or reason behind it," Rarity mumbled under her breath. Fluttershy went to her and cupped a hoof over one of her ears, leaning in and whispering something into it. Rarity went wide-eyed as her friend continued to mutter into her ear canal, waiting for her to retract before mumbling, "Oh, dear… that's dreadful."

Maria bustled over and rose onto her back legs when she found herself in front of Zecora. "What's that?" she asked, using a claw to prod at one of her golden accessories which hung on her left foreleg.

Zecora turned to gaze at the foal for a moment. "A stack of gold bracelets, little filly. Please stop touching them, lest they catch your villi," she sighed.

"Okay," Maria murmured, pulling her claw away.

Zecora looked up and sat on her haunches. She turned her attention back to Katie, who stiffened again. The two eyed one another for a few moments, scanning her from head to hoof, before she realized that Katie was mostly intact. "Miss, I must make a request of you. It is very urgent; one only you can do," she intoned.

"G-guh?" Katie murmured, ears standing up and twitching. "W-what?"

"May I take some strands of your mane? I simply wish to use them, and not in disdain," Zecora replied, frowning when the wraith's wings buzzed for a moment.

Katie considered this for a moment. On one hoof, Zecora was being very cryptic, and the desire to have some of the crimson strands attached to her head and tail had been more than enough cause for her to mentally note this. "It's odd—out of all the things to ask me for, she wants my hair?" she thought, ears twitching.

On the other hoof, all she required was some strands, and that was it—nothing more, nothing less. She spent a few moments thinking this through before trotting over, ignoring the niggling feeling that there was likely something she still didn't get, and stopped in front of Zecora. "Only a few strands, no more than five. I ain't got much left," she said.

Zecora raised a hoof and grabbed a lock of hair, using her other one to separate four from the rest and deftly tugged them loose so fast Katie didn't feel any pain from the action. She reached into her saddlebag and procured the pouch, stashing the hairs carefully in it before returning it to the leather holding compartment. "Thank you kindly for your hairs. I'll ensure they remain in good care."

"You're… uh, welcome," Katie mumbled, backpedaling away from Zecora and bumping into the base of the horse bust rump-first.

"Um, pray tell, why do you need the strands of hair?" Alexander piped up, garnering a look from Zecora. He waited for an answer, which didn't take long for her to articulate, though the resulting utterance left him raising a brow.

"I am a salve and potion maker, one who uses plants and herbs and other such things. A strand of mane from anypony makes for a good ingredient, and such good things ingredients bring," Zecora replied, pausing to consider the remark she'd just uttered. Her eyes swept over the lot again, and she added, "May I have some more strands of mane and a few feathers, please? I'd like to try making more potions with them, and it should be a breeze."

Her remark caused Anna, Sarah, and Maria to cringe. Lance spoke up as Anna shifted closer to him, "Don't tug too hard, and you can't take feathers from either of the hippogryphs present. One needs to regrow her set entirely, and the other has a broken wing."

"I could make a potion to help the filly regrow her feathers, though a trade-off of a feather or two must be made," Zecora argued, using a hoof to gesture to Maria for emphasis. She went on, voice rising as she stomped a hoof, "I've done it with a chipped tooth before, and if a new coat of feathers needs growing, my opinion cannot be swayed."

Lance shared a look with Maria, and she shrugged back at him. He contemplated this for a moment before turning back to Zecora and sighing. "Take two feathers, and prove to us you can help her regrow her coat. And only strands of mane from the other hippogryph, alright?"

Zecora donned a smile. "That, I can agree to. Now, I need to make do," she said cryptically. She stood up and began trotting around, taking feathers and strands of mane, being careful to take a small amount from each pony and non. When she got to Armin, he conjured a wad of chitil with a brief flash of magic and hoofed it to her. Anna flinched when she came to collect some of her hairs, shifting even closer to Lance—to the point she damn near crashed into his side.

"What's wrong?" Applejack asked, trotting over to Anna. "All she wants is some hairs."

"I… had my mane tugged… a lot," Anna replied, her tone low and quivering. "A f-few weeks back… when we went to the hotel."

"A few weeks when you we—" Applejack stopped mid-sentence as the memory of the news article surfaced in her mind. Instantly, she realized what Anna had indirectly referred to, and collected herself before speaking, "If Zecora tugs, I'll stop her, alright?" Anna weakly nodded and flinched as Zecora selected a few strands of mane and broke them free from the lock, getting close enough to start using her teeth to sever them at a decent length without having to pull at the roots.

She stashed the feathers and hairs and chitil in her saddlebag, being careful to avoid dropping anything. She trotted back to Rarity and Rainbow Dash, who both looked at her incredulously. The latter shrugged and found Sarah looking at her, and it was then that Dash noticed the busted wing. She flinched and asked, "What happened to you?"

"Some unicorn started a riot last night and fought me with a guitar before snapping every bone in my wing with his bare hooves. And before you ask, I kicked him in the gonads," Sarah replied with a huff and roll of her eyes.

"I'm a witness," Katie chimed in as Rainbow turned to look at her, one of her pale forelegs raised as she spoke.

NoLegs gave a mew, and that was promptly translated by Fluttershy, "'I saw him and he started the riot. When he confronted me and my friends, I tried stopping him, and he kicked me.'"

"It went downhill fast enough that even the cat had to get involved?" Rarity asked, gaping as she turned to Fluttershy. "Surely, that's one of the worst possible things I've ever heard of!"

NoLegs mewed again, and Fluttershy glumly nodded. "He said he had to use his sword and armor," she replied. "The riot got bad enough the ponies of Canterlot started throwing vases."

Rarity gasped. "I don't believe it; I'm starting to think the cat exaggerates," she mumbled.

"No, he… isn't. I'm a victim of the vases," Anna murmured. "The riot just happened so damn quickly, and…" she trailed off as another pony cleared his throat in a masculine cough. Everyone turned to see two ponies trotting down the flight of stairs.

"And it got bad enough that I had to get involved as well, with all of the royal guards. In fact, our guests made a request to get out of Canterlot last night, and I was too eager to get them out since things came to a head," Shining Armor finished for Anna as he finished the flight, his remark causing Fluttershy and Rarity's eyes to widen. Not three feet behind him was Twilight Sparkle, who still had scorch marks on her body, in addition to an oily substance coating said marks. "You could say I had a field day last night."

"And Princess Celestia came this morning, and told me and Shining to watch them," Twilight added, using a hoof to gesture around the room, making sure to point at each Fantasian in doing so.

"But what about the ponies who managed the hotel? Those ruffians need a due punishment!" Rarity exclaimed, face hardening within seconds. She stomped her front hooves, attempting to make new holes in the floor before Shining rose one hoof up. She stopped immediately, though she still maintained her fiery glare.

"The Fantasians have already testified against them, and the guards keep finding more evidence against the hotel staff. It'll be a while before Celestia even decides what to do with them, since more and more of their shady activities have been coming to light in the past few weeks," Shining answered, watching as Rarity's expression eased a bit. "At any rate, those guys aren't going to get out anytime soon."

Rarity bristled for a moment, groaning in anger before taking in some deep breaths in order to calm down and think. She considered Shining's reply before nodding to herself and sitting on her haunches. "Alright, that I can understand. Still, my point stands."

"With all due respect, those guys will get their just desserts. We just need to wait for the evidence to stop mounting up and up before further action can be taken," Shining retorted, a frown on his face.

Spike, who had decided to sit at the table while the fervor of conversation went on, finally put in his two bits, "Hey, I'd rather deal with the general and his troops than stallions who run a shoddy hotel. Those ponies were really lucky." At his remark, Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Rarity all nodded in agreement.

"Doubly so, since I was in the same room with them when Shining showed up," Matt stated with a firm nod. "I had to resist the urge to pound them into the pavement right then and there."

"Why were you in the room with the perpetrators, though?" Spike asked, a brow raised.

"Maria screamed and basically led me and everyone else to it," Matt huffed, gesturing to the filly.

"I made bad ponies pay," Maria angrily hissed in a low voice, her claws balling into fists.

"I can confirm that. She made them scream like they were babies and those assholes curled up on the floor," Lance added with a nod.

Spike's brow shot higher, before lowering. "I think I'd rather not ask how she'd pulled that off," he murmured.

"Same here," Applejack piped up, turning to Lance. "Can I ask you something?"

"Be my guest," Lance replied in a flat tone, rolling his eyes. "It's not like I'm jamming a hoof into your mouth."

"Well, I'm gonna need help making apple cider next week, and it's a four-pony job," Applejack began. She had a back leg shifting in a manner that made it look like she drew invisible circles into the wood floor with it.

"Four-pony job? Cider?" Lance went wide-eyed, turning to Applejack as if silently asking something else.

"Yeah. But, we also have special apples that need to be picked right as they ripen, and I think they're gonna ripen next week! What's worse is that me and my family can't do that and make cider in the same nick o' time!" Applejack exclaimed, worry flickering in her eyes. "I was wondering if I could… borrow some of your troops for the job next week, to help me pick the special apples?"

"... which troops, exactly, do you have in mind for this task?" Lance inquired, blinking as a frown creased his brow.

"None in particular, but… I kinda shot my mouth off and told my brother about your wraith, and now he wants to see her," Applejack answered, her legs starting to shake.

Lance put a hoof to his chin, eyes darting between his fellow Fantasians as he began contemplating. A few minutes passed before a smile spread on his lips as he noticed the ivy that was part of Anna's cutie mark, in addition to a few other things. "And… what if I find out you're lying, in a week's time?" he asked Applejack, his eyes still darting around.

"I assure you, I wouldn't lie about something like this. I really need the help," Applejack retorted in a sincere tone.

Lance nodded, and contemplated some more. Applejack did have potential to lie, and that may have been true, but then again she had just as similar a chance to be telling the truth. And he had to admit, she had guts to be asking him, of all ponies, for aid in the form of lending a few extra sets of helping hooves. He settled on a decision and nodded to himself before his lips parted. "Bladerune, Starcovert, Windwood," he began, and instantly the three turned to him and stiffened like planks. "You three are helping…" he trailed off, mentally smacking himself before muttering under his breath, "Gah, I can't remember her flippin' name…"

Applejack heard his murmur. "Applejack," she sighed, punctuating it with a groan.

"Yes, Applejack, with these… special apples. We might be staying for a while anyway; so, you lot follow her orders until the task is complete. Understood?" Lance finished, his smile widening when the trio of ponies he addressed nodded in unison. He turned his attention and gaze back to Applejack and stated, "Would it be too much trouble to let us… sample the cider in return?"

Applejack smiled, nodding. "What can I say? You got yourself a deal," she chirped.

Anna, Natalie, and Matt exchanged looks with one another, blinking as their general's command echoed in their minds for a bit. They didn't have time to contemplate the order, because Rarity decided to chime in. "Oh, relax—take a breather. It's not even evening yet, no need to get tense," she stated.

Zecora took another look at Maria, and decided to speak up. "Little one, how did you get so bald? Did your old coat get a very bad scald?" she inquired.

Maria tensed, lowering her head. "Bad hippogryphs," she muttered.

Zecora raised a brow. "And what did these 'bad hippogryphs' do? Tell me, what happened, and by whom?"

"I wanted my cutie mark, and they… they killed mommy and daddy, and said it was my fault that they died…" Maria glumly answered, still avoiding eye contact with the zebra.

Shining strode over to Zecora in a heartbeat, raising a hoof and putting it under her chin to close her mouth before she could speak further. "Please, don't ask her any more about it," he said firmly, though gently. "She's… told me all about it in the past few weeks, and frankly, I'd rather dunk my head in bleach than to remember it."

Rarity leaned in to Zecora's ear again. She whispered lowly, and harshly, "I've seen terrible things happen to that foal. Now isn't really the time to ask her about it." Zecora merely nodded when the two unicorns retracted their muzzle and hoof, shuddering as her mind began painting several unpleasant scenes the foal could've been involved in that included the loss of her feathers.

She didn't have time to dwell on it, for Sarah spoke up. "Can we not speak any more about this, please? At least, not yet?"

Armin decided to interject, looking at Shining with a frown marring his features. "Is it alright if I shapeshifted? I don't want the locals of this town flipping their tops into orbit if they saw me in my undisguised form," he sighed.

Shining shook his head. "Not unless you could somehow do the same for her," he replied, using a hoof to gesture to Katie. "She can't cast magic on her own, most likely. You'll need to address that first and foremost."

Armin's frown turned upside-down in that moment. "I think I can work something out, with a helping hoof," he replied coolly. He turned to Matt, giving him the same smirk. Matt nodded, his horn briefly glowing with a gold aura which also embraced Katie.

"The hell are you doing?" Katie shrieked as an orb of golden sparks flickered to life around her, and when it faded a moment later, the Mythonians gaped. She noticed the faces of Spike, the Mythonian mares, and the Captain morphing into wide-eyed looks. "The hell are you guys looking at?"

Rarity mutely answered by letting her horn glow and conjuring a large mirror from a flash of magic, setting it in front of the wraith. Katie took a good, hard look at herself in the mirror. She immediately gasped, finding that she now appeared to be a small grey foal with a stringy red mane, regular blue eyes with actual white sclera, and a horn that looked rather short. She looked a little on the thin side, but nowhere near the level of emaciation she had prior to whatever spell Matt had bewitched her with.

Katie whirled around and shot a glare at Matt, and she spluttered out, "W-wha-what did you d-do?"

"I know basic illusion magic. I sorta shapeshifted you for you," Matt replied, a smirk on his face. "And only I or another unicorn can break it. At least, unless you decide to use your wings while under the spell's effects."

"Hrmm… that is actually impressive, I must admit," Fenrir chimed in, nodding to himself. He noticed a green flash, one of a sickly shade, burst in the corner of his eye. Instantly, he turned to the source to find a pale lilac stallion with pegasus wings and a light scarlet mane where Armin had once stood. "I take it the perks of a changeling are getting the best of you?" he asked.

The pale lilac stallion nodded, grinning wide enough to show a fanged maw. For a moment, his teal eyes flickered, revealing insectoid eyes for the barest of instants before changing back. "And the best part? The locals won't yell our ears off!" he cheered, thrusting a front hoof into the air like he was at a party.

"May I request that you two only use the forms you have currently, if you do decide to shapeshift again while in Equestria?" Shining asked, shooting a glance at Matt and the two now-disguised changelings. The three nodded eagerly, exchanging more glances with one another afterwards. Katie still shot glares at Matt, who merely chortled in her direction.

"Mayhaps these illusions might come in handy…" Fenrir muttered under his breath, his gaze turning to Matt languidly. He rubbed his chin with a paw, a half-frown on his visage as he mused to himself in the back of his head, "And… how does Matt know illusory spells? Whence did he obtain such an arcane art? Could that be why he dispatched the…" His thought process halted abruptly, eyes widening substantially as something seemed to click in his brain.

"I must know just how far the extent of his magical knowledge goes. If he's able to shapeshift a magically-deficit changeling wraith, conjure barriers, and break mirages with a simple spell… perhaps this is why Lance recruited him?" his inner voice finished, the gears starting to turn in his head as he assumed a complacent look on his face and lowered his paw. He noticed Rarity gushing over Katie's disguise, raising a brow as the ivory mare who conjured the mirror giggled happily.

"My, she simply looks divine now! And adorably so!" Rarity cooed, trotting over to Katie and putting her front hooves on the disguised changeling's cheeks.

"Help! I don't wanna be touched! Stop!" Katie cried with narrowed eyes, scowling as she began flailing desperately to no avail. Fortunately for her, Rarity pulled back after composing herself.

"Sorry, darling, it's just that… oh sweet Celestia, you have undergone such a makeover I could say your new look is quite the gorgeous one," Rarity stated, beaming at this point. At her smile, and a gleam in the ivory mare's eyes, the wraith cringed with a whimper.

Chapter XXI, Part I- Crèmed Waffles*

Chapter XXI, Part I- Crèmed Waffles*

"Why is this cat circling me? What reason is there for this spree?" Zecora questioned, eyes following NoLegs as he ran around her hooves. The cat stopped in front of her and rubbed his head on her right foreleg, purring with a grin on his face.

"Methinks the cat was evaluating you, seeing if you were worthy of his trust," Fenrir piped up, a small grin on his face.

"Well, if the cat trusts Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor, then… then our supposed salve maker must be a good zebra," Lance sighed, turning to Zecora. "No offense."

Zecora nodded and rose a hoof to pet the cat. She turned to Twilight and began speaking again, "Have you found a sharp blade yet? If not, there's no need to fret."

"Actually, I have learned a new spell of the blade variety, and I was told it was—supposedly—written by Starswirl the Bearded," Twilight answered with a nod. She found herself under the gazes of Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, each of whom looked at her with brows raised.

"Wait, whoa, back up! You mean the Starswirl?" Rainbow asked, garnering little more than a nod from the lavender mare.

"Starswirl? I beg your pardon, but how did he make a blade-type spell?" Rarity inquired, frowning.

"Well… to cut a long story short, I don't know how he made the blade-type spell, nor why. But he wrote a diary when Fantasia and Mythos weren't separated. He somehow went to Fantasia and maybe crafted the spell there, then came back and wrote the book. When I found a copy of that book, I found a scroll with the spell inside it," Twilight replied, shaking her head. "And the funny thing is, one of our guests also knows the spell in question." At the indirect mention, Matt gulped and shuddered.

"That, and something another guest of ours told me… leads me to believe the barrier had been created sometime after Starswirl made his travels," Shining added, a firm frown set into his face. "To be honest, my head's still spinning from all of this information I am now aware of. We don't even know when Starswirl began travelling."

Applejack immediately interjected, turning to Zecora with a thoughtful look on her face, "Now why would you want a blade, Zecora? Hairs and feathers, I can sorta get, but blades just don't seem right."

Twilight answered for Zecora, "She… she found a wraith in the Everfree Forest, and—"

Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack cut her off in a unified shout, all screeching "What?!" in high-pitched ear-splitting volume. This caused Twilight to turn red in the visage on the spot.

"Let me finish, Faust-dammit!" Twilight shouted back with narrowed eyes, immediately and effectively silencing the whole room while drawing the attention of everyone in her immediate vicinity. She took a deep breath and fell onto her haunches, her visage turning to its usual lavender hue. "Sorry, got… carried away there."

"'s fine. We all tend to do that," Anna murmured, noticing a brief smile crossing Twilight's face before it fell.

"Anyway, Zecora has found a wraith—one who is legless. She wanted me to… er, painlessly send the wraith to the afterlife," Twilight finished, ears flicking violently.

"Which is where the wraith's mane comes in," Zecora started, noticing the eyes of the Fantasians and Shining turning back to her. "Since I found her, she suffered, and that's how it's been. But, I moved her to my home where she is safe and sound. Though to this life, she no longer wishes to be bound."

The group exchanged looks, before Katie decided to pipe up, "Did you decide that, or did she tell you?"

"She told me last night, before I went to rest. If you want to come to my hut and verify it, then be my guest," Zecora answered, turning her eye on the disguised wraith.

"I opt that we stay put and relax a while. If anything else, we can spend most of the day unwinding after what went down last night," Sarah interjected, garnering looks from everyone else in that moment.

"I dunno about you, but I'm kinda itching to explore town a bit," Armin piped up, spreading his wings. A few feathers fell off, revealing thin and translucent membrane beneath, only to be covered up when more feathers grew back in seconds thanks to a spark of green magic.

"Your shapeshifting spell's faltering already. I don't think you trotting outside of these walls is a good idea right yet," Anna remarked, garnering a sigh from the disguised changeling before he reverted to his natural form.

"Say, Matt, Anna, wanna trot around town a bit? My legs are starting to ache," Natalie said, garnering looks from the ponies she addressed.

In that moment, the cream-colored mare heard the sound of a stomach gurgling. Matt donned a sheepish grin. "I sure do—let's hope we can grab a bite to eat while we're out," he replied.

Anna nodded, a small smile framing her face. "Of course, we're probably gonna have to grab bites for anyone that doesn't want to run around town," she pointed out.

Natalie's mouth twitched up at the corners a bit. "We can do that—we're unicorns," she stated matter-of-factly.

Lance shifted to lay down, front legs folding under his chest. He let off a yawn. "Don't know about you, but I feel ready to drop," he mumbled, craning his neck to rest his head between his forelegs and closing his eyes. "You guys do whatever today; just let me know if anything went down after I wake up."

"Hey, we can show you three around town," Rainbow piped up, wings flaring wide. "Me, Applejack, and Rarity live here."

Matt's grin widened. "Oh really?" he asked.

"Yes, really," Rarity answered with a nod.

Zecora spoke up, "I really do need to hit the road, as unto you I do not wish to be such a load. Twilight, come with me, please; with your new spell, our task should be a breeze."

Twilight nodded. She turned to Spike. "Can you watch the library with Shining while I'm out? I really shouldn't be gone long," she stated.

"Well… should we hide the rest of the Fantasians while you're away?" Spike asked, a brow raised. "We could put them in the basement."

"Considering I find myself wanting to see the 'legless wraith' Zecora talked about, I think that would be a good idea," Shining sighed, turning to the general as he cracked an eye open. "But, it's simply not my place to make guests hide."

"'m fine with it, as long as I get a fucking nap," Lance mumbled, rising to stand and letting out another yawn. Shining nodded with his horn once more aglow, and he lifted up the table in his magic, revealing the staircase going down below. Katie took the first few steps down before tripping with a back leg landing in a decent-sized crack, prior to flipping inches above the stairs in a full 360 degrees, and landing before skidding down the flight on her ass.

As she skid with the grace of an inexperienced ballerina, the illusion broke a moment before she vanished from sight, followed by a pained and startled scream. Armin rushed in after her, letting loose a string of curses. He was followed shortly by Fenrir and Maria.

"If the wraith has sustained more than simple bruises, then I shall curse the flight of stairs that gave her whatever wounds she has accrued!" the diamond dog shouted as he ran down, only to trip himself and tumble down screeching as well. Sarah and Lance exchanged glances before tottering down themselves, but paused when they saw Maria ducking low, her body flush against a step.

"Big doggy slipped," the foal murmured. She stood up when Lance nodded with an exasperated sigh.

"And nearly ran you over doing so?" Sarah asked, frowning as Maria nodded.

"Oh, for the love of…" Alexander mumbled, flaring his wings and flapping madly. Becoming airborne, he wasted no time in flying over the general and the hippogryph, darting past them into the makeshift tunnel. NoLegs followed suit, rushing down with an alarmed yowl.

Shining closed the hole with the table after waiting for Sarah and Lance to exchange looks, shrug to one another, and descend the stairs. He briefly winced as another couple of cries rang out, though they were muffled by the table. "Okay, that looked painful…" he murmured, flinching again when a series of faint noises that sounded like objects falling and glass shattering echoed into the room.

Natalie released a groan and punctuated it with a heavy sigh, her smile fading as she shared a look with Shining before he lifted the table again. "Sounded painful, too. I'll check and see if she's alright and if she needs healing, and then we can head out," she sighed in exasperation, jumping into a gallop down the stairs and vanishing down the hole.

"I hope nothing got broken…" Twilight grumbled, also jumping down the flight and darting off in a gallop.

Harry let off a growl, catching Fluttershy's attention. "Oh? You want to go down there with them?" she asked. The bear nodded and released another growl. "Well, um, alright… I guess I can go down there with you and see what has and hasn't been broken." With that, the two followed Twilight down the stairs, followed by Angel. The rabbit paused before he shot Matt and Anna a look and gestured with his paw, and the two sighed and went down with him.

"Maybe we should go down there, too. At least, before things get too out of hoof," Rainbow groaned, flapping her wings and flying down the flight, leaving a prismatic trail that faded in her wake. Zecora, Shining, and Applejack sighed in unison, prior to following the pegasus in a single file line.

Rarity hesitated for a moment, and Zecora paused to turn around and motion with a hoof for her to follow. The ivory mare nodded and cautiously descended the flight, catching up to the zebra. As the group went onward, the table gently levitated down and neatly closed the hole behind them.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

An hour or two passed that very same day, and Dazzle and Carrot stood in the room of the gingerbread building with the door that lead outside, both wiping thin layers of sweat off of their brows with their front hooves. On a nearby table that was perched near the window with the criss-cross pattern, a few basic breakfast platters were set up.

There was food on and around said platters, consisting of toast, eggs, some biscuits, two jars of rainbow-colored jam, and waffles, each of which gave off a different mouth-watering aroma. One plate had a pile of waffles stacked higher than they stood tall, topped off with a glob of chocolate ice cream, a few hefty dollops of whipped cream and plenty of syrup. To one side of the table, two baby seats stood, adorned with milk bottles and bowls of baby food.

"Heh, two hours of making breakfast and setting up the table paid off well, right, Dazzle?" Carrot asked, a wide grin on his face.

Dazzle nodded. "Oh, yes it sure does. I'm certain Pinkie will appreciate it," she replied, rising a hoof and holding it next to her muzzle. She took a deep breath. "Pinkie, breakfast!" she called out loud and clear in a sing-song tone, a smile on her face as she hollered. Her smile faded and her hoof fell when she was greeted with silence. "Strange. It's only…" Dazzle paused to look at a clock, noticing the minute hand on 12, and the hour hand on 11. "... eleven in the morning, and she's usually up and going down the stairs right now…"

"She did say she might collapse watching the foals last night. Maybe she's fallen asleep," Carrot replied, shooting Dazzle a concerned look.

"Could you go check up on her? I'm starting to get worried," Dazzle sighed, turning to Carrot.

"I can do that," Carrot replied with a nod, and he kissed Dazzle on the lips for a brief moment. Once he broke the kiss, he began trotting past her, briskly going around the register counter with the glass display case and going upstairs.

Carrot soon found himself in the hall, and he trotted down one end of it before stopping in front of a door and raising a hoof to open it. He leaned inside, donning a small smile at the sight of the babies in their crib, and Pinkie curled up on the floor next to them. The mare had a quilt covering her body and a pillow under her head. She also had a very frazzled mane, one that bordered on being thickly tangled, though she had a content look on her face as she dozed. "Pinkie Pie," he cooed, his comment causing the mare to stir a bit, but not fully awaken. "It's time for breakfast."

"Breakfast?" Pinkie's eyes snapped open and she shot up onto her hooves, the blanket sliding off of her body as the word 'breakfast' registered in her mind.

"Yes, breakfast," Carrot replied with a nod. "We have waffles with syrup and ice cream today. Oh, and could you wake up the foals and bring them downstairs for their breakfast, please?"

Pinkie nodded back. "Okie dokie lokie," she stated in a chipper voice, a smile creeping up on her face. Carrot retracted his head and vanished from sight, the sound of hooves hitting wood starting as he went before fading into silence. She whirled around and peered over the crib, finding that Pumpkin and Pound were already stirring awake and looking at her with languidly blinking eyes.

The babies blinked some more and started giggling as Pinkie scooped them up into her forelegs, flailing their hooves about as their current holder beamed at them. "Who wants milkie-wilkies?" Pinkie chirped, standing on her back legs with a foal in each foreleg, and Pumpkin and Pound giggled louder and flailed their limbs some more. The mare cantered out on her back legs and into the hall, striding down that and descending the flight of stairs, being careful enough to avoid dropping the babies in doing so.

She stopped on the last step, and took a whiff of the air. A sweet smell similar to cinnamon buns hung thickly, and it was a scent that gave her a sense of freshness and warmth. This smell was accompanied by a secondary scent of cocoa and milk, along with just a tiny hint of maple and honey. Her smile widened, and she darted past the counter before finding the table with the breakfast stuffs. Pinkie put the foals in the baby seats and watched as Carrot and Dazzle took up seats opposite of the foals, and she sat down in front of the waffle totem pole.

She turned to the table itself, spotting a fork and a knife, both utensils within hoof's reach. Pinkie picked them up, and bounced up from the chair to the top of the waffle mound. She thrust the fork into the top waffle and shoveled it into her face, ice cream and all, before landing back in her seat and chewing loudly without spilling a single drop of frozen milk, whipped cream or maple syrup. As soon as the waffle became mushy enough, she swallowed it before leaping up straight, snatching another waffle with her knife, and shoving it in before dropping back down. She did this with such speed it was a miracle she didn't choke.

Carrot and Dazzle slowly chewed their eggs and biscuits and toast, sometimes smearing rainbow-colored globs on the breads. They continued to watch with smiles on their faces as Pinkie repeated the process of jumping, snatching, and landing in her seat. They got done relatively quickly, because their portions, though moderate, were much smaller compared to the golden syrup tower that was rapidly losing parts. Carrot got done first, and went to the foals to help them eat their breakfast. The babies favored the milk over the baby food, though they ate the slush-type mush without much of a fuss.

Dazzle remained in her seat, watching with a content grin on her face as the waffles seemingly vanished off of the plate. Pinkie sat in her chair when she finished, a clean plate before her and her muzzle coated in a mess of crumbs and syrup. She licked her lips and patted her stomach with a hoof before burping loudly. "'Scuse me. That was great; thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Cake," she chirped.

"Oh, it's nothing, dear," Dazzle replied, getting up from her seat and turning to the window. She halted immediately. "Um, Carrot… who's that stallion?" she asked.

Carrot finished feeding the foals and turned to the window. Outside, he saw a black-and-white form with a blond mane peering in with his hooves on the window and his face pressed against the pane, half-slanted eyelids and a frown on his face that was laced with small amounts of drool. "I don't know that pony," he murmured.

Pinkie also turned to the window and gaped. "Oh, I kinda made friends with him," she answered. Carrot and Dazzle turned to her, both raising brows. Pinkie elaborated, "Princess Celestia sent me to Fantasia some weeks ago, and he was the first one I befriended."

"Well, he looks like he's starving… maybe we should open up. It's about time, anyway," Carrot murmured, trying for a wobbly grin as he went to the counter. Dazzle nodded and cantered over to scoop up the foals, awkwardly walking to the kitchen on her rear legs. Both of the foals looked at Matt and waved their little hooves at him. Pinkie cleaned up the table, collecting the dishes and silverware and bottles before walking to the kitchen on her rear hooves.

Once inside, she strode to the sink and carefully maneuvered the dishes into its recesses before turning on the faucet, scooping an 'open' sign and darting right back to the room with the cash register and to the window. She hung the sign up in the window, making sure the 'open' faced out, and jumped to the door and pushed it outward with a hoof. Pinkie was instantly met by Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, who accompanied Natalie, Anna, and the still-drooling Matt.

Dash chortled, rolling her eyes at the half-Clydesdale stallion. "Say, Pinkie, what'd you eat to make him start gushing rivers from his mouth?" she joked.

"A waffle tower with syrup and ice cream," Pinkie answered with a shrug. "Come inside, everypony, there's more than waffles here!" With that, she bounced back inside, followed by her companions and the trio of Fantasians.

Natalie took in the interior's decor, and a content smile spread on her face. She approached the register's perch, but stopped when a pair of giggling noises hit her ears. She looked around, then down, to find Pumpkin and Pound at her hooves, looking up at her with happy grins on their faces. "Oh, hello there," she stated in a friendly tone. "What are you two doing?"

"Oh, they're just being foals," Pinkie answered, her remark causing the infants to turn away from the Fantasian and to her. They tottered over and sat in front of the pink mare's hooves, giggling at Pinkie when she shot them a smile. She turned to Matt, who wiped his muzzle with a hoof and nodded to the babies.

Anna, on the other hoof, cringed at the mere sight of them, though she did smile at the infants nonetheless. She laughed nervously when Pinkie turned her gaze on her. "Um…" she stopped as the foals galloped to her with giggles, though their noises ceased when they actually reached her. Pumpkin and Pound looked at the archer for a moment, as if wary, before they started giggling again. Tiny wings flapped and lifted their owner, and an equally small horn glowed and caused its owner to levitate.

Anna flinched as the foals rose up with magic and wings to meet her at eye level. "Oh, um… wow. These guys are already, um…" she trailed off again as both foals booped her on the nose and babbled in unison.

"They're just having flight and magic bursts. They tend to do that," Pinkie chimed, bouncing over and grabbing the foals with her front hooves. Pumpkin and Pound giggled again, shooting innocent grins at Anna.

Anna nodded back and trotted around Pinkie and the babies, making her way to Natalie's side in an instant. The two exchanged looks and turned to the glass display case, noticing the various baked goods and candies strewn out behind the clear panes for the day. "Those look really well made," the green-maned mare noted, starting to drool from the corners of her mouth.

"Made by hoof, and with plenty of love," Carrot replied, his wobbly smile morphing into a genuine one. "So, what will you ponies be having this dandy morning?"

Matt trotted up to meet with his companions, grinning. "Say, what's that rainbow-colored stuff you had in those jars? I'd like some of that," he stated.

Carrot shook his head. "Sorry, but those are personal jars. That was zap apple jam, and I'm not the pony who makes the stuff," he replied. "But, if you want a pastry with that as the frosting or a filling, I think I could work something out."

"Then… who is the pony that makes the stuff?" Natalie asked, raising a brow.

Carrot gestured to Applejack with a hoof, and the trio of Fantasians turned to the orange mare as he said rather casually, "Standing right there."

Applejack slyly grinned at them. "Don't you worry none; I'll let y'all have a few jars next week," she stated in a chipper tone. The trio of unicorns exchanged looks, nodded, and turned back to Carrot.

"I think I'd like… that one," Anna stated, pointing a hoof at a chocolate cake adorned with whipped cream and shards of chocolate jutting out of the dessert's top.

"That one, please," Natalie chimed, using her hoof to gesture to a platter of hor d'oeuvres that consisted of apple slices and small, seemingly-glimmering magenta berries surrounding what appeared to be a ramekin filled with caramel.

"Maybe something like what she wants," Matt began, using a hoof to gesture to the cake Anna wanted, "except with a rainbow jam filling."

"For here, or to-go?" Carrot asked, grinning.

"To-go, please," Natalie replied with a smile.

"Alright, it'll be done… in a few hours." At the disappointed sighs the Fantasians gave, Carrot added, "Sorry, cakes take time to bake. You could explore other food joints around Ponyville in the meantime; after all, this isn't the only store here." The trio brightened a bit and nodded in understanding. When Carrot nodded back to them and retreated into the kitchen, Natalie turned to Rarity and the other Mythonian mares, who were chatting amiably while they made their order.

Pinkie gasped, and Pumpkin and Pound made soft whinnies as she did so. "Wait, so Twilight learned a new spell?" she asked.

"Well, yes, but she didn't show us until our little pale changeling and diamond dog crashed in the basement," Applejack answered, sighing heavily. "And before you ask, no, they didn't get badly hurt."

"I'm glad the wraith and Fenrir are alright. And who'd Twilight learn the spell from? What book?" Pinkie continued, shaking in place. Her jittery motions caused the foals in her forelegs to jump ship and land on the floor safely, tottering off elsewhere while giggling.

"Starswirl the Bearded," Rainbow Dash replied, rolling her eyes with a huff. "At least, that's what she said."

"S-Stars-swirl? Tha-that's super! S-so, wh-what do w-we do n-n-now?" Pinkie continued in a quavering voice, still shaking—this time, though, her jittering increased such that her mane bobbed up and down rapidly with the rest of her.

"Um, Pinkie, are you alright? You've just started convulsing all of a sudden…" Rarity murmured, and as if her words broke a spell, Pinkie ceased shaking on the spot. The ivory mare turned to the counter and gasped, seeing that Pumpkin had somehow clambered onto it. The baby's horn lit up in a pale blue aura, which embraced the cash register—and promptly tipped it over. While it fell to the floor and landed on its back, its cash drawer did not open, and the hard thump brought Dazzle galloping from the kitchen.

The noise also startled everypony else, who whirled around in unison to the source. Pumpkin smiled at the group and giggled in glee, before grabbing the register in her magic again and lifting it up. Pinkie rushed over and snatched it out of the air, while Dazzle scooped up the baby at the same time. "Ah, ah, ah, no playing with the register," the blue-coated earth pony reprimanded in a motherly tone. Pumpkin turned to her and smiled innocently, waving her hooves and barely noticing Pinkie as she put the register where it was before.

"As much as I'd like to stick around and help cooking, I think I'm gonna have to help my Fantasian buddies with… whatever it is they want," Pinkie chirped, taking a moment to pat Pumpkin on the head. "Now, be a good widdle Pumpkin-wumpkin while your Pinkie-winkie's gone," she cooed. The baby giggled, and Dazzle smiled with a nod.

"Just be sure to remind them to pick up their orders while you're out," Dazzle chirped as Pinkie cantered over to Natalie.

"Can do!" Pinkie called over her shoulder, motioning for the Fantasians to leave the building. The trio obliged and trotted out the door, followed by Rarity and the other Mythonians. Once they were in the street, the pink mare asked, "So, what are you guys up to?"

"Us?" Matt questioned, using a hoof to gesture to himself, Natalie, and Anna. When Pinkie nodded, he replied, "Well, that orange-maned stallion told us to hit another food joint, since our cakes will be a while anyway."

Pinkie beamed, and she hopped over to stand next to the half-Clydesdale on her back legs. She wrapped a foreleg around his neck and said, "I know a few good spots! Just stick with me!"

Chapter XXI, Part II- Storm of Branches**

Chapter XXI, Part II- Storm of Branches**

Zecora, Shining, Spike, and Twilight hastily made their way to the Everfree, hooves moving in frenzied gallops while the drake simply rode on the lavender mare's back. They passed some ponies in the streets as they madly rushed, with some of the passerby asking if things were alright and whatever the reason for the Captain of the royal guard's presence was. Twilight merely threw "It's a long story!" at each and every soul that wanted an answer to one question or the other and continued to run headlong towards the dense woodland.

Once the quartet came upon the path that dissected the forest, the ponies skid to a halt as their legs ached and their chests heaved with breaths that burned in their throats. Spike remained on his mobile perch, taking the time Twilight and the other two spent catching their breaths to look at the sky. Clouds gathered over the forest again, black masses that softly shook with thunder and swirled around above the canopy. He squinted his eyes and spotted yellow dots that, had he not concentrated hard enough, he couldn't see otherwise.

Spike jerked his attention back to Twilight as she started to trot again, although this time at a much more leisurely pace. Zecora filed in behind his makeshift mount, with Shining bringing up the rear as they strode upon the dirt path. "So, what's the plan?" he asked.

"Dealing with Zecora's wraith, or after?" Twilight retorted in a raspy voice, drawing a shuddering breath as a clap reverberated overhead.

"After," Spike replied tersely and nonchalantly, grabbing the unicorn's mane with his claws.

Twilight slowed down some more, to a languid walk that caused Zecora and Shining to do the same. "Uh… good point. I really should've thought of that sooner," she murmured, ears flattening against her head when the drake groaned.

Spike assumed a not-so-impressed slant of the eyelids and a serious frown in his brow, his shoulders sagging and his grip on the purple locks loosening ever so slightly. "When we get back to the library, I'm giving you extra-strong espresso," he sighed begrudgingly.

"Well, our Fantasians seem keen on scouring the libraries," Shining piped up from behind. "Maybe I could take them to the Crystal Empire up north and help them file through the shelves there."

Twilight's ears perked up. She craned her neck and stated over her shoulder, "Oh, of course! That's a very good idea!"

Shining shot Twilight a grin. "Of course, I'll have to ask them about it once we get back," he added. "I'll bet they'll want to see it once I tell them about it!" The four continued on, paying little heed to the expanse of sky above the Everfree when Zecora veered off the path and into the thicket.

"This way, and we have to move with haste. I hope a timberwyrm or a pack of timberwolves didn't grind my wraith into paste," Zecora intoned as she waded through the bushes. Shining and Twilight followed her, trotting side-by-side, keeping their eyes glued to the path ahead and the zebra that trotted in front of them.

"I've been meaning to ask, Shining… why'd you and everypony else drop by so early?" Twilight questioned, shooting the Captain a brief glance.

"Yeah, it's… odd. Not even you would show up right after Celestia raises the sun," Spike stated, giving Shining a vexed look.

"We feared that something far worse would have happened, had our Fantasians stayed in Canterlot a day longer," Shining replied with a heavy sigh. "That, and the general decided to head to the dungeons and fuss at the pony who I believe to have started the riot. We'd have come sooner, if we didn't have to yank him out of the cell halls first," he added, a frown setting into his muzzle.

Twilight blinked and shook her head, her horn starting to glow. She used her magic to push aside a few stray branches before they could swat at her face. "Is that why he wanted a nap so badly?" she inquired, glancing at Shining again.

"Part of it, yes," Shining answered with a nod.

"Wouldn't be surprised if he tried strangling whoever started that mess…" Spike stated off-handedly, quickly finding himself getting a glance from the Captain.

"Trust me, he wanted to wrap his hooves around something last night. It's a good thing he didn't," Shining half-mumbled, garnering a nod from the drake. He looked ahead and stopped immediately, causing Twilight to halt as well. Zecora also paused, lowering her front end and bending her knees as forms darted past her and fled into rapidly-rustling shrubbery that fell silent. "What was that?" he asked in a low whisper.

"I do not know. But we mustn't dally, nor trot so slow," Zecora replied, her voice equally as hushed, still crouching as another blurred form rushed past her and disappeared into the thick green undergrowth. When a third leapt over the crouched zebra a moment later, the four tensed up as a low and deep growl shook the canopy above.

Whether it was a boom of thunder, or something else altogether, they couldn't tell—the ground failed to shake in the slightest and they hadn't seen the source of the noise when they took a look around. This in itself sent a tingling sensation of unease running through four spines in a series of back-and-forth marathons, further intensifying as another low snarl hit their ears and the cover of leafy branches shook again.

They waited until the Everfree fell into silence before making their move, bounding forth in a unified gallop as if they were but one entity. But once they found a clearing a few minutes later, the trio of ponies skid to a halt, with Twilight almost knocking Spike off of her back as she stopped. The drake clung to her mane, his body flush against the lavender mare's back and his eyes darting everywhere as the bushes around the clearing seemingly shook to life all at once.

The trees quivered too, as though somehow greatly agitated or frightened, inexplicably shedding piles after piles of decaying branches in their tremorous bout. They continued to shake, and Twilight caught sparse glimpses of rippling green mana appearing at random intervals. She opened her mouth to speak and ask just what was going on when the forest itself finally answered her question before she could speak it. The branches the trees dropped floated into the air by themselves, swirling like vortexes and breaking apart here and there, aided by the mana.

A series of bestial howls rang out around the four while the levitating bits and pieces of bark came closer together and began forming things. Twilight's eyes narrowed, as did Zecora's, when the branch parts coalesced into sets of four thin but sturdy legs, ending with paws that had darker and sharpened pieces acting like claws. Then, tails formed, mainly of flimsy but flexible branches adorned with many leaves. Torsos, hind quarters, and bulky front quarters came next, connected by thin midsections that gave the appearance of whatever was being formed had starved.

Lastly, heads were created, with ears that jutted upright. Said ears had tufts of pine needles. More 'tufts' of wood formed next to cheeks, and thin canid muzzles lined with miniature stakes for teeth. Leaves formed eyebrows which framed glowing slits of sickly greenish-yellow that narrowed when more growls echoed from the wooden masses.

The wooden things landed smoothly on their paws, staring straight at the ponies and drake that still stood in the clearing. They crouched and crept into the small expanse where trees didn't grow, circling the group and closing in with a slow, cautious gait. Zecora shifted back towards Twilight and Shining, shooting glances at both of them. "It seems the timberwolves have us trapped..." she murmured.

"And they're closing the gap," Twilight finished for Zecora, a smile spreading on her face in spite of the current situation. Her horn started glowing, its aura taking on a white hue, and spinning runes materialized and shimmered above her head. "But not for long," she added as a sword of light jutted out and flew skyward for a bit, before halting as magic grasped it firmly by the hilt. Twilight pulled the blade back down to ground level and boldly stepped forward, waving the blade in a horizontal sweep once and sending the closest timberwolves back a few paces.

The timberwolves growled louder, and a few began barking as Twilight came closer to them and warded them away with the sword. Some of the more foolish wooden beasts dared to lunge at the lavender mare, only to be hacked into tiny pieces by the weapon. Still some more timberwolves thought it to be a good idea to attack Shining and Zecora, but found that a quickly-cast magenta barrier kept them from getting closer to their intended prey.

"Yeah, back off and let us through, you stupid wood planks!" Spike cheered, grinning as the timberwolves snarled in response. They attempted to lunge again, though Twilight's blade made very short work of them—by the time the last wolf attacked and subsequently got smashed to splintery fragments, the rest were nothing more than cut-up mounds of bark and leaves.

Twilight dispelled the blade, turning to Zecora and Shining as the latter allowed the barrier to disintegrate. "You two alright?" she asked.

"Are you kidding? I'm in tip-top shape!" Shining replied, a wide grin on his face.

"Same here, but we really shouldn't dally. We must get to the wraith in my hut before the timberbeasts rally," Zecora added, assuming a serious look on her face.

Twilight nodded and turned around, immediately groaning as the piles of wood got enveloped in green mana again. They swirled about violently, this time all of the fragments condensing into one vortex instead of many individual ones. "What now?" she hissed as a long, large, and slender body formed from the bark and leaves. Within seconds, and in the stead of a timberwolf pack, a timberwyrm roared and caused the forest to ripple with mana as soon as its body was completed.

"Zecora, I think you jinxed us," Spike stated, turning to look rather pointedly at the zebra. The timberwyrm stared at him and his group, a low growl leaving its throat as a long tongue made of leaves licked at its wooden chops.

"I did not mean to do so. I am of the opinion that the Everfree stooped so low," Zecora argued as Shining went ahead and threw up another magenta barrier.

"We can argue about this later. Right now, we have a giant tree-snake to dispatch!" Shining barked, turning to Twilight as she summoned up the light sword again. The timberwyrm eyed the group warily, still licking its lips for a moment before it retracted its tongue. The beast roared and arced over Twilight, its mouth wide open as it rapidly came close to the barrier.

Instantly, its teeth sank in the magenta mass, but did not puncture it. Instead, the half-dome shield flexed like bubble wrap that did not pop, and the wyrm found itself wrestling with a barrier strong enough to hold against its teeth. It pulled and tugged, wiggling and writhing about, trying to bypass the shield to get to the pony and zebra beneath it. Yet no matter how hard it tried, nor how much, the barrier simply refused to yield like a semi-rubbery and stubborn jawbreaker.

Shining smirked tauntingly at the timberwyrm's futile efforts to break the blasted barrier, and the beast retracted with a frustrated roar leaving its mouth in short order. It decided to turn its attention to Twilight and attack her with such speed she could barely react—the unicorn mare whirled around and thrust her blade into the open mouth. She went wide-eyed as the sword managed to plunge deep into the back of the wyrm's throat.

The reaction from the timberwyrm was instantaneous; it pulled back as abruptly as the sword's going into its throat. It coughed and wheezed, as if struggling for breath, thrashing its head about in an attempt to dislodge the weapon. Like with the barrier, it was a useless effort, and in seconds it managed to cough hard enough to start dislodging the material that made its body instead of the sword itself.

After another few coughs, it simply fell apart again, littering the scene with bark and leaves. The blade fell as the beast crumbled, plunging into the ground with the tip of its blade and standing tall and proud amidst the debris. Twilight trotted to the blade and grasped it with her magic, pulling it out of the soil with ease. Instead of dispelling it, she held it to one side, being careful to avoid letting it touch Spike and vice-versa. She nodded to Shining and Zecora, the former dropping the barrier, and once more the trio took off galloping.

As they disappeared into the thicket, though, they did not pay heed to a series of howls ringing out through the forest's canopy—let alone to another swell of green mana that enveloped the clearing they just left.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

A bubbling, pale green brew boiled in the cauldron of the hut, and Zecora set about adding herbs and other ingredients, gathering more jars and opening them to pour their contents into the mortar and pestle. She ground them into powder and threw the plant bits in, almost seemingly at random. Shining, Gala, Twilight and Spike watched as she added more things to mortar, ground them, and threw them into the concoction. All four were wrinkling their noses as strong and strange aromatic smells wafted through the air.

"That smells weird. What all's in it?" Gala asked, turning to Shining, Spike, and Twilight. They stayed out of Zecora's way as she added more ingredients like no tomorrow. All her question garnered was the shaking of three heads.

Zecora paused after tossing in another ground-up plant that her guests couldn't identify at a first glance, reaching into her saddlebag before mumbling something under her breath. She pulled out the wad of chitil in her hoof, finding that all of the hairs and feathers she had gathered got stuck in the mass of slime.

She grinned, though, upon spotting brilliant crimson strands just barely in the goo, jutting out like sore hooves. The zebra plucked the strands with practiced ease and took a moment to wipe them clean of any chitil they might have accrued before gently lowering them to the bubbling liquid. Zecora dropped the hairs and tottered away from the cauldron on three legs, striding over to a shelf with an empty glass jar that had a cork sitting next to it. She crammed the chitil and hairs and feathers inside, picking up the cork and sealing the canister before going back to the brew.

The liquid bubbled violently, as though about to boil over, turning from a pale green to a bright red—as vermilion as the strands of mane that had been added to the mixture. She grinned as the contents of the cauldron shrank and shrank, congealing with each passing second until it turned into a slimy mass that faintly rippled with blue mana. She beckoned Twilight over with a hoof, and the unicorn levitated herself over the cauldron as Zecora pointed to the bottom of the large black pot. "Erm, what's that?" Twilight asked, lifting up the wad of solidified gunk in her magic.

"That, my dear, is something that wraiths chew. Though, I do not understand why it became red, nor the reason it glows blue," Zecora replied, taking the wad out of the air with the same hoof she gestured with and cantering over to Gala on three legs. She hoofed it to the legless wraith, who looked at it curiously for a moment before opening her mouth and taking a small bite out of the stuff. As she chewed the goo, she found herself slowly growing more exhausted.

It took a few moments for her to swallow before she took another bite, and she took a moment to savor the taste. Herbs graced her mouth, and there were a lot of them. The gelatinous texture did not appeal to her, at first. Though as she swallowed the second helping, she found herself liking the rather odd meal. On the third bite, however, exhaustion piled up fast the more she chewed—in fact, Gala could barely swallow the mixture before yawning.

"That tasted funny and felt weird, but in a good sort of way," she murmured, green orbs rapidly dimming. Zecora lightly waved the remaining mass of wad at her, and Gala eyed it and noticed it was rather small. So she took the rest in her mouth. She chewed again and, in one minute or two her orbs ceased glowing altogether. She fell still with a soft snore before she could swallow the rest of it. Shining grabbed the wraith's head in his magic and slowly tilted it up a bit, using a hoof to gently rub at her neck before stopping as she ingested it.

"So, is that what it does? Knock her out?" Twilight asked, lowering herself to the floor and letting her magic dissipate from her form, before trotting to the now-sleeping Gala.

"In essence, yes. A peaceful death for this old foal would be best," Zecora replied with a nod. She noticed the sunset swallowtail as it flittered over to the wraith and crawled to her mouth, and the zebra raised both hooves the pry the maw apart. The butterfly crawled inside, going down Gala's throat and glowing with a faint red mana as it went down the esophagus.

"Why'd the butterfly crawl down there?" Spike asked, using a claw to gesture to Gala's mouth.

"You'll see in a moment, little Spike. Let me say you and the sunset swallowtail share something very much alike," Zecora responded cryptically, nodding to Shining and retracting her hooves. Shining quirked a brow and kept his leg near Gala, lowering her head and tenderly stroking her mane as if it were a cat.

Twilight sighed and summoned up the light blade again. "So, decapitation, right?" she asked in an uneasy tone. Zecora merely nodded again, and the lavender mare turned to Spike. "Um, close your eyes." The drake obeyed, using his claws to shield his eyes, and only then did Twilight back turn to Gala. She hesitantly brought the blade to her prone neck, pausing as Gala smiled in her sleep. Twilight shut her eyes tight and lifted the blade up, opening them just once to make sure she'd hit her mark. She choked briefly upon seeing that content smile on the wraith's face, but gathered herself and closed her eyes again.

Shining did not retract his hoof, continuing to pet Gala's mane. "Do it, Twily," he said in a quiet tone. The blade shook in the magical grasp, but steadied shortly after. A moment later, a sickening slice filled the air after some more hesitation from the lavender unicorn, and Gala's head and body became two separate entities. The blade was dispelled, but not before the halves erupted in a violent swell of crimson mana and fire that did not scorch the floor.

Shining jumped back with a yelp that caused Spike to uncover his eyes, wincing as his foreleg got singed a bit, and the ponies, drake and zebra watched as the fires ate away at the corpse without burning anything else. Seconds ticked by before turning into minutes, during which time the fires died off and all that remained was a pile of ash that Zecora hastily swept up and stored in another empty jar.

"What… happened?" Shining ventured, rubbing the singe mark on his foreleg and looking at Zecora with a frown.

"The swallowtail engulfed itself and Gala's remains in flame. The mana within the insect only activated when the wraith's death came," Zecora replied, gently setting the jar of ashes onto a shelf.

"I saw the fire! But… why'd the…" Shining paused, and something clicked in his head. He got up and winced as he set his singed leg down, so he lifted it up and marched to Zecora on three legs. "Would you be willing to… uh…" he trailed off again, sitting on his haunches and lifting his wounded foreleg to rub his temples furiously.

"Zecora, Celestia sent me a letter, and she told me wraiths started cropping up all over Equestria. That, and our Fantasian guests seem interested in libraries. Would you be willing to accompany us… and them?" Twilight asked, giving the zebra a straight face, her eyes glinting with a bit of hope.

"Since the dark task has been completed, I don't see why not. May I bury Gala's remains first, while it is still in my mind as a little thought?" Zecora inquired, giving Twilight a small frown.

Twilight saw a small flicker of some kind of emotion in Zecora's eyes and slowly nodded. "If you want, I'll make a tombstone for her out of stone and wood," she sighed. She let her horn glow, and used her magic to tenderly lift up the jar of ashes. Zecora nodded back, and she rushed around the hut, scooping up ingredients in containers she hadn't used in the brew, as well as mortar and pestle and the jar of chitil and hairs and feathers. Twilight waited until the zebra was prepared, and they trotted out of the hut, followed shortly by Shining and Spike.

Immediately after setting hoof out of the hut, Twilight and Shining set to work, gathering fallen branches and stones with their magic. Spike, in the meantime, gave Zecora a look. "Where do you want her buried?" he asked.

Zecora pointed a hoof at a spot near the hut, smiling softly. "There, where wild beasts will not disturb the grave. I'm glad we sent her to the afterlife; a soul's been saved. But we need make haste and not stall; the dirt will serve the ash jar as a fine mask. Spike, your claws are best suited for the task," she replied.

"So, you want me to dig a grave?" Spike asked. When Zecora nodded, he donned a firm face and rushed to the spot, bending over and digging with his front claws, shoveling dirt aside with the pace of a running rabbit. It took a bit, but he formed a small hole that was as deep as he was tall. The hole was one in which a creature of his size could comfortably sleep in, and clambered out as Shining and Twilight trotted to him and stood at its edge.

The zebra moved to the hole and inspected it, as well as the accumulation of wood and stones Shining and Twilight presented to her. She nodded once, watching as Twilight slowly lowered the ash jar into the hole and set it down to the floor, closing it off with dirt before putting the stones on top of that once the grave had been filled.

Leftover stones were placed around the end of a sturdy piece of wood, on which a cross had been formed and held on the spot by magic. Spike ran off to a nearby bush and dug around for another moment, prior to finding loose vines growing along the ground. He snatched them up, broke them free of their soily confines, and ran back to tie the cross with the makeshift rope.

Then, silence filled the forest as soon as Spike finished tying up the cross. The group stood, looking at the grave, each individual having various emotions flickering across their faces. Shining had a sad frown on his visage, though in his eyes there had been some small spark of happiness and relief. Twilight looked at the ground on the edge of the new resting place, her visage shadowed over by her bangs, eyes closed as she also donned a frown. Spike had a vexed look at first, before it melted into a small smile with slanted eyelids.

Zecora kept a straight face, but she broke the expression by closing her eyes and letting a small smile of her own cross her muzzle. "Perhaps death could give her more comfort, now that she has passed. I hope she has found an afterlife that boasts plenty of evergreen grass," she murmured under her breath.

Twilight lifted her head and turned to Zecora. "No use mulling over her suffering, now that it's come to an end. At least..." she paused, turning back to Gala's grave, "she got a peaceful death, it was painless like she wanted, and… she companionship in her last moments."

"There's nothing else we could have done, Twily—she was too far gone," Shining said in a firm, though gentle and low voice. He placed a hoof on Twilight's withers and added, "You're right, though. In fact… Zecora might help us see to it that less wraiths who end up in her position…" he trailed off, using his other hoof to gesture to the grave. "… suffer like she did," he finished.

"But not all wraiths suffer, Shiny. You've spent a few weeks with the pale changeling, and I've seen hostile ones in Fantasia," Twilight retorted, glancing at the Captain.

Shining contemplated this for a moment and nodded in understanding. "True that not all of them suffer, but you've met hostile ones? That's worrying," he murmured. The forest fell into a sort of tranquility again, one barely broken by distant claps that rang overhead and faded. Zecora took the time to head back into her hut, saddlebag shifting wildly as she went, and a half-hour passed before she returned. As she rejoined the others, they shot glances at her when the sounds of wood hitting wood hit their ears.

"I made the potion for the featherless foal. We need to hasten her down's growth, lest the damage of being plucked takes its toll," Zecora sighed, and the ponies and drake nodded. Again, silence took hold and lingered.

Spike groaned as minutes of quiet passed. After a good ten minutes went by, he piped up after a loud clap echoed overhead, "Shouldn't we head back to the library? It sounds like it's about to storm pretty bad."

"That would be wise. We need to make haste, before the forest cries," Zecora added with a nod. She flinched as a loud clap shook the canopy again, and this time the ground with it.

The other three nodded and they started to walk away from the grave. Twilight paused to let Spike climb on her back before starting to trot. She burst into a gallop, with Shining and Zecora following suit. Another clap shook the forest, followed by a downpour of rain that soaked the trees and battered the quartet without any semblance of mercy. The three tripped over errant branches and slid a bit in forming mud after a few good minutes spent running, with Spike flying off of Twilight's back and landing in a particularly watery patch of mud.

They got back up and gathered themselves, looking around to find that they were in a wide patch of forest that inexplicably lacked trees and shrubbery. The place looked as if a great angry creature uprooted everything and shook off the dirt, which the water pelted over and over to form a semicircle of slippery brown land. Turning their attention to the cloudy sky above after hearing a low hum, Twilight, Shining, Zecora, and Spike could very easily see why.

Trees and shrubs and broken branches and leaves swirled in an angry swell of green mana about above them, multiplying rapidly in number, coalescing into something that they couldn't identify at first. Four bulky objects formed with one set of two forming on ground level and the other forming well above the forest.

The objects had appeared to be a mish-mash at first, but as they formed, the wood and leaves created wickedly engrossed, enlarged claws with four digits that fitted on the ends of the limbs. A torso came next, followed by broad shoulders and hips, and then an elongated neck lined with spines.

At this point, the construct stood upright and towered over the forest. At last, a lizard-like head, adorned with erratically-bending horns, finished off the construct. Ivy vines sprung up all around its frame, forming tight weaves around its less sturdy points to reinforce them, tightening around its host and creating an extra layer of protection for the bits of wood.

This new creature thrashed its head with a fierce roar that pierced the air, looking down at the small group with eyes that gleamed blood red instead of greenish-yellow. Puffs of green-tinted air left its nostrils and mouth, and it still growled menacingly at the lot.

"Um, I think we enraged the Everfree…" Twilight murmured, watching the creature and barely registering Spike as he rushed to her and held one of her forelegs with his claws.

"First timberwolves, then a timberwyrm, and now a timberdrake? I feel our lives are at stake," Zecora whimpered, going wide-eyed as the beast donned a toothy grin. The timberdrake let off another roar, this one louder than the last, as Twilight mustered up the willpower to summon another blade of light.

"When will you quit already? Just leave us alone! Don't make me hurt you!" Twilight shrieked as the monster's cry died down. It looked at her, narrowing its eyes, its toothy grin only widening as she waved her sword for emphasis.

Chapter XXI, Part III- Brewing a Pyre***

Author's Note

Three asterisks, third part, I think you guys get the gist now.

~Dragon

Chapter XXI, Part III- Brewing a Pyre***

The timberdrake let off a growl, the ivy on its hulking frame shifting and writhing as though a mass of insects that shared a singular mind. Twilight glared at the beast, steeling her nerves and bringing her blade closer to herself, in case it attacked. Shining cast another shield over himself and Zecora, remaining steadfast and collected, eyes narrowing at the wooden monstrosity before him. "Be careful, Twilight!" Shining called, smiling as the unicorn mare glanced over her shoulder and nodded to him.

Twilight turned to Spike and addressed him immediately, "Get under the barrier."

"But Twilight, what about you?" Spike asked, eyes widening like someone punched him hard enough in the nose to make it hurt. "You could get smushed!"

Twilight sent the small drake a confident smirk. "Spike, I've dealt with worse. I'll be fine," she retorted, leaning over to nuzzle him for a moment. Spike returned the gesture and, deciding that being potentially smushed under the timberdrake's heel with Twilight didn't sound like a terrifically good idea, obeyed her command. He released her foreleg and ran over to the barrier, running through a hole that Shining made so he could find himself under a roof of safety.

He whirled around, catching just a glimpse of the hole he rushed through closing, before Twilight galloped into action. The unicorn with the blade surged forward, plunging her weapon into the top of the foot of the timberdrake. She immediately gaped when the poison ivy reacted, shooting up and entangling the light sword, rapidly encasing it in a green criss-cross pattern—before simultaneously constricting and bending the sword in all sorts of unnatural angles.

In less than one minute, the ivy broke the sword by constricting it hard enough that the mana which had formed it went haywire and shattered into glass-like fragments that faded into nothingness. Twilight stood stone still, trying to process what had just happened, barely noticing that the ivy returned to rest on the behemoth's foot.

The timberdrake let off a series of growls that came in rapid, short bursts from its throat—as Twilight listened for a moment, she quickly realized it almost sounded as if it were laughing at her. The beast did not move in any other manner, however—she confirmed this by looking up and down its body as best she could from her current position. The unicorn took a few paces back, eyes warily gazing at the vines of ivy as they continued to writhe, yet otherwise remained stationary on the wood.

"Urg, last thing I needed was a bunch of stupid vines breaking my Faust-damned sword! How in Celestia's name do I—" Her thought processes halted as the rain slowed to a light drizzle. Something clicked in Twilight's head in that moment as, for a brief instant, five burning armored wraith stallions came to the forefront of her mind. Then, pure white clouded her thoughts, and she felt a sweltering, nigh-blistering heat building up from and around her horn. She briefly surmised that, if not for the mud and water she was already caked in, she'd have had a hornache just from this sensation alone.

Twilight continued to stare at the beast as it did another attempt to make chortling growls, noticing green mana pulsating between the vines and the bits of wood she could see through them. The heat rose as she envisioned those spots erupting in purest white, scorching at least a hefty bit of the drake's form.

In a split-second after she painted that mental picture in her mind, the timberdrake's foot found itself being torn apart at the seams as white flames built up from within, pushing and seemingly pouring out of whatever tiny crevasses they could. They erupted and roiled, causing the beast to screech in pain, and it stomped its now-aflame foot a few times in an effort to stop the agony. Twilight held firm, using some magic to keep herself steady as brief tremors rocked the ground beneath her.

The lavender unicorn opened her mouth wide, a giddy grin on her face, and she made to cheer when the heat from her horn fizzled out of existence as the rain picked up in intensity so fast she didn't see it coming. Naturally, this also meant that the flames building up in the monster's foot extinguished as well, because the water drenched and filled the same nooks and crannies from which the inferno was creeping out of. The creature ceased stomping and roaring, going as still as a statue once more.

Immediately thereafter, she noticed the heavier downpour—both her grin and mood fell with the flames that had gone out, and she groaned in frustration. "Of course it has to rain harder now. I am starting to think the Everfree doesn't like me," she mumbled, eyes narrowing in nothing short of irritation. The mare glanced up to meet the creature's gaze head-on, and it looked back at her with that same mocking, dagger-filled grin it wore after it was formed.

Twilight attempted to conjure white flames again, but as soon as heat built around her horn, it simply dissipated as fast as it had come. She stomped a hoof and snarled angrily, already having come to the point of gritting her teeth and feeling blood rush through her limbs. Another attempt after that gave her nothing except a dull throb of pain just under her horn, and she winced and breathed through clenched teeth to keep herself as calm as she could.

She saw the ivy begin to writhe again, at first languidly shifting up and down the beast's frame like ants scurrying to and fro. Then, they expanded and contracted, similarly to how her blade was crushed, except nowhere near tight enough to do the same to the timberdrake. Mana started pulsating around the beast, wildly and seemingly random at first. Twilight's eyes darted to every spot the mana erupted at, trying to catch it but always finding herself seconds too late when they ceased before she could properly observe the phenomenon.

The mare stopped for a minute when she saw more ivy constricting around the trunks of the trees that marked the makedshift arena. It was a thick layer of green that all but drowned out the natural brown and formed a sturdy wall between the trunks, effectively cutting off many means of escape then and there. As she was distracted, she saw a flash of mana, a brief bout of gold adorned with magenta six-pointed stars. "What in Faust's hooves is going on here?" she thought, blinking before turning her attention back to the ripples of mana that emanated from the behemoth of wood.

Only when she moved fast enough to see the start of a mana ripple did the timberdrake finally strike, lifting a foot and kicking Twilight like she was a mere stone—it kicked her hard enough to send her headlong into Shining's barrier and break it. "Twilight!" Spike exclaimed, pupils shrinking to slits at the sight.

Shining gaped and ran over to the mare as she landed on the ground, her legs twitching as a grunt of pain left her mouth and the shards of his spell faded into glimmering dust. "I'll live," she groaned as the Captain made to stand in front of her prone form.

"Stay put Twily," Shining warned tersely before turning his attention to the timberdrake. His horn started glowing, but he blinked when his distinct magenta-hued magic fizzed out in the span of two seconds. "What the…?" he murmured, trying to cast another spell, only to achieve another fizzle of magic in addition to some heat building in his horn. His eyes widened when the ivy flew off of the beast and rushed to him, and they averted when something hacked and slashed its way through the tendril wall in a white blur. This blur made short work of the plants, creating a hole large enough for a battalion to squeeze through with no problem whatsoever.

His pupils shrank as this was immediately followed by a tan-and-green form darting through the opening before the vines could close, skidding to a halt right in front of him before they took the brunt of the attack. A shrill cry of pain, between a pained whine and a startled bird-like squawk, hit his ears as the tendrils wrapped around every inch of the new intruder.

Zecora gaped when another blade of light rushed in and slashed at the ivy, not tearing it to ribbons, though it did force them to let go of whatever it was that decided to defend Shining so brazenly. Spike's jaw dropped when two more forms—one black and white and the other cream and red—burst into the clearing, a staff and sword hovering next to them. Shining looked in front of him as the ivy pulled back, finding that the one who took the attack in his stead was Anna, who already had more welts cropping up in places as a result of being snagged by venomous vines.

"What are you guys doing here?" Spike called out, garnering a look from Matt.

"Spotted that thing and decided it needed to go!" Matt replied, a frown set into his face as Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash came into the clearing and flanked him. "Hard to miss this sonuvabitch when he stands over an entire freaking forest!"

The timberdrake turned its gaze onto the half-Clydesdale, who looked back and waved his hoof threateningly. "Yeah, I called you a sonuvabitch! You got a problem with that, Woody McTendril?" he called in a snide voice, garnering an enraged-sounding roar from the behemoth. While it did this, Anna summoned her flute and lifted it to her mouth, playing a tune that warbled through the air and carried on to the thunderclouds above. Spike glanced up, seeing the pale yellow blobs amidst the darkened gray, faintly hearing them screech before rushing away.

Their fleeing the scene causing the downpour to halt in its tracks, but not before it turned into a brief drizzle, like a waterhose being turned off. Another tune came from the flute, and gusts of wind came to brush up against everyone. The small dragon caught glimpses of water droplets flying out of the monster's cracks and between the ivy as the gale came and went. He turned to the beast as it lifted its foot again, and made to shout as it started to kick when flashes of magic erupted around the foot and sent things thunking into the limb. The drake stilled at the anomaly, and the timberbeast likewise ceased all motion for a moment.

The ivy-laden monster grunted and looked down at its limb, finding a few crystal arrows inexplicably lodged between its toes. It raised a leafy brow at the anomaly before roaring in surprise as red gems erupted from the impromptu splinters and encased the foot in a matter of seconds. Heat built up in the forming rubies, pulsating at first before erupting in a swell of vermillion flames that seemingly caused the crystals themselves to vanish with them.

This ended up setting the entire leg aflame as the fires spread, and it screamed and tried to put the flames out with its front limbs, inadvertently causing them to catch fire as well. Natalie threw in her volley, setting the other leg on fire with a simple blast of white magic, and she grinned as the wood and ivy crackled and popped in response.

Whatever water that remained covering the beast inside and out could not hope to stop the encroaching flames, and so it evaporated under the intense heat. As the wood began crumbling and the beast let out another piercing cry to the heavens, Matt plunged the bare tip of Heaven's Gate down into the soil and channeled mana to his blade.

The sword itself responded, the metal taking on a red-hot hue and glowing with heat and power. Shining spotted a faint trail of crimson seep from the weapon, erratically weaving around to the wooden construct as its legs crumbled into ash and caused it to land in the muddy soil with a loud thud.

As soon as the small, crimson thread of magic connected with the timberdrake's pelvis, the ground beneath it opened up and fire shot out of a small hole that had formed partially because of the beast and partially of mana manipulating the earth itself, encasing much of the monster and causing what hadn't caught fire yet to start being scorched. Matt slumped over with his horn turning a brilliant scarlet, his magic fizzing out in a minute, with the fires from the hole he made stopping as said hole closed up.

He almost dropped dangerously close to his sword, and he'd have at least slit his own throat had Natalie not grabbed him with her magic and pulled his form sharply back. Shining turned to Anna, finding her in a similar state on the ground, horn bright red and flute clutched between her teeth.

Rainbow let off a low whistle as the timberdrake let off one final cry and slouched, rapidly turning to ash and embers and falling apart into small fragments. She rushed over to Twilight, who started standing up on shaky legs. "Okay, what happened?" the pegasus asked, eyes wide with a mixture of worry and awe.

"The Everfree decided to tell me to screw off," Twilight replied with a huff. She lurched a bit, but Rainbow caught her with a hoof. "So, how'd you guys find us, aside from the hulking monstrosity?"

"Poison ivy sprung up around the trees like an infestation, and we just followed that and found you," Anna answered in a pained voice. "And when I saw the ivy rushing towards you, I did the only thing I could to stop it. That, and we caught Shining's magic signature."

"You learned my brother's magic signature?" Twilight asked, turning to the fallen archer.

"Spending a few weeks with him enabled me and the others to do that," Anna replied, and made to speak further when the Captain spoke up.

"That was incredibly reckless—the ivy could've crushed you to a pulp!" Shining chastised, only to be met with a green-eyed glare.

"Says the pony who would've otherwise been plant food in the same exact scenario he just presented," Anna grumbled back. Shining winced as if stung, and he opened his mouth to retort, but closed it when he realized the archer had a solid point. "And besides, I realized you were only doing your job, and me accusing you of a mess when it wasn't even your fault… I just wanted to make it up to you."

The Captain blinked and turned to the other Fantasians, quickly garnering a nod from Matt and a mouthed "Sorry" from Natalie.

He nodded to them with a smile and a mouthed "It's alright" in return, causing the duo to grin as well. His expression fell when another pony piped up.

"Let's get you guys back to the library. You look beat up, and I'm not sure if Twilight's ready to stand yet," Applejack interjected, garnering nods from everyone else with her suggestion.

"My horn's hurting," Matt complained. "Can someone pick up my sword for me, please?" Shining chuckled and turned to Rainbow, who picked up Twilight with her front hooves. The pegasus wasted no time in putting her on his back before steadying her and letting the armored stallion walk around Anna and to the sword still stuck in the dirt. He studied the sword before Natalie pried it out with magic, briefly marveling as its shape and adornments before she moved it it to hover at her side, being mindful of Matt as he faltered for a moment.

He garnered a smile from the Fantasian stallion, who made to stand with one hoof reaching up to his still-heated horn, which retracted upon touching it and flailed for a bit before returning to the watery dirt. Natalie eyed the burning, scattered husk of the timberdrake, eyes widening when she noticed the individual pieces had started shaking and rippling with green mana.

Zecora saw this too, and helped Anna climb onto her back. "We should leave the Everfree soon, before it makes a bigger wooden goon," she intoned.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

A good hour passed, and Sarah spent that time by furiously preening her good wing, holding it still with her talons while making sure to not accidentally stab herself in the process. She watched as the other Fantasians dozed, pausing to smile at Maria's slumbering form as the filly shifted under Alexander's wing. The gryphon mumbled to himself about squids and kebabs, and just the mention of squid caused the wounded mare's mouth to slightly water.

She took a moment to wipe a bead of saliva that had crept out of the corner of her mouth with the back of her claw and continued cleaning her feathers. Her eyes shifted between her wing and the others who slumbered soundly, to the room in which they stayed. Books lined more nooks and crannies, but there were other objects scattered about, like crystal balls and scrolls and odd machinery that had lightbulbs and buttons arranged in keyboard configurations.

Next to a crystal ball, Armin had formed a strange bed that looked to be more like a green, translucent, gelatinous-looking cocoon with the top cut out and the sides raised just enough to keep him within it. His back was turned to her, with a thin line of more green running across the back of his head and under the ears.

To one side, a sink, cabinet, fridge, and dish cabinet stood. There were microscopes on the cabinet's top, and leather bags with gemstones poking out of their mouths. A door stood open next to the fridge, leading to a small hall that ended with a staircase winding up. In one of the bookshelves, Katie laid sleeping with a book on her face and her front hooves under her chin, a small pile of books lying just under the shelf in question. Sarah giggled softly at the odd sight of the wraith snoozing in the bookshelf, but stopped and resumed preening.

She paused again when a snort hit her ears, and she looked around to find Fenrir sleeping with his teeth bared and his lips curled back, a low growl escaping his maw. "Get… away from the foal," he mumbled, still snarling in his sleep. Sarah blew out a huff of air and closed her wing, silently creeping over before poking him in the shoulder with a talon. The diamond dog jolted with a sharp gasp, sitting up and glancing around for a moment. His eyes fell on the hippogryph when she cleared her throat.

"You were dreaming?" Sarah asked, a frown set into her muzzle.

Fenrir nodded and rose a paw to cover his mouth as he let off a yawn. "Have the three unicorns returned yet?" he murmured.

"No. I just woke you up so you wouldn't wake anybody else up," Sarah answered swiftly. Fenrir nodded to himself and made to lay back down, turning to rest on his back with his forepaws under his head. He closed his eyes and soon dozed off again, his ear twitching as the hippogryph yawned and lowered her body, shifting herself closer to him in a slow gait so as to not alarm him. Her eyes fluttered shut, and silent minutes ticked by as she got herself comfortable.

In fact, she'd just been about to drift off when the sound of hooves hitting wood reached her ears. Letting off a confused hum, she rose her head up and cracked one eye open to see Shining cantering into the room with Twilight on his back. They were followed by Zecora and Anna, and Spike and Natalie and Matt. Soon after that, Rarity, Rainbow, and Pinkie came in with plastic and brown paper bags in hooves and in magic, and some of the bags looked heavier than the others. "Where's… the orange pony?" Sarah asked, noticing a distinct lack of Applejack's presence.

Spike put his claws behind his head and stretched his arms in doing so. "Oh, she went to her place. Y'know, chores and stuff," he answered.

"What kind of chores?" Sarah asked, a brow quirked.

"She runs a farm with sheep, hens, pigs… gotta have them fed and their pens clean to keep them happy," Spike replied hastily. "Think of it like her tending to a gazillion copies of NoLegs, in a few groups with different needs and such." The hippogryph nodded and turned her gaze onto Rarity.

"What's in the bags?" she asked, using a claw to gesture to a plastic one.

Rarity smiled. "Oh, food for everypony—mostly baked goods. We went to Fluttershy's cottage to get some fish she'd normally reserve for her animal friends," she replied, using her magic to procure a very large trout and a small cupcake from two separate bags from her bunch in question.

Rainbow cantered close to Sarah, keeping her bags carefully off of the ground, and leaned to the Fantasian as much as she was able. "I told them about… Lance's allergy to greens," she whispered.

Sarah donned a grin. "Oh, good. I was thinking about having seafood myself, anyway," she murmured, and rose up in a sitting position. She reached out to Fenrir with a claw again and lightly shook him awake. "They're here this time," she stated before the diamond dog could even grumble in protest.

"Do what now?" Katie asked, taking a moment to fling the book off of her head before crawling out of the shelf she'd slept in. She immediately fell into the small pile of books on the floor and grumbled indignantly, with the thud that came from her fall causing Alexander to stir awake.

"What is babbling about who this day of time?" Alexander inquired, rubbing his eyes with a claw. He rose up, closing his wings and shifting to sit on his haunches.

"I cannot possibly hope to articulate a comment regarding whatever it was you've just uttered," Fenrir snorted, looking at the gryphon with his eyes only partially open. Alexander just shrugged in his direction before noticing the wraith extracting herself from the leatherbound-paper pile and stumbling over towards Lance. But the general already shifted and opened his eyes before a pale hoof could even touch him, and he rose one of his own to bat it away when it came too close to his face for comfort.

Pinkie looked at Armin and watched as he sat up, turning to the others to reveal a sleeping mask of green material similar to his half-cocoon covering his eyes. He lifted a hoof up to remove the contraption, barely registering hooves coming his way, only to find himself face to face with the pink earth pony in seconds. "What?" he asked.

"I was wondering if changelings eat food like ponies and gryphons do. After all, what good are fangs if they're not used?" Pinkie replied in a chipper voice, a smile framing her face. The smile broadened when Armin lazily nodded and mumbled something about jelly. He grinned when Pinkie cantered away before stretching his limbs and crawling out of the half-cocoon, turning to Lance as he too made to stand.

Maria was the last to wake up, and she jolted upright immediately upon seeing Zecora. "Where's the thing that you said makes my feathers grow back?" she asked excitedly, shaking in place. Her eyes widened when Zecora chuckled and reached a hoof into her saddlebag, wings spreading when the zebra procured a corked-shut wooden flask that had something noisily sloshing about as she pried it out.

"I see you're rippling with glee. Did you drink anything recently, like water or tea?" Zecora replied, frowning when the foal shook her head. "You need to have something to drink, little one. Otherwise, you could have stomach problems, and those who are fond of such things would be none."

"Is the potion semi-solid or something?" Lance asked, trotting up to Zecora with a brow raised.

"No, but there are herbs and spices in the brew. She might have a specific allergy—I am only taking precautions if this is true," came the answer. The general thought this over for a moment and nodded before trotting towards the sink, only to pause upon finding Spike rushing over while holding a cup and effectively beating him to it. The drake climbed on the counter with the glass in hand, turning on the faucet and letting some water come out of the spigot for a bit prior to filling the glass.

He turned off the contraption before jumping back down when he was satisfied with how much water he acquired, spilling a little of it in the process, leaving only small droplets in his wake. He waltzed over to Maria and watched as Zecora gripped the cork in her teeth and tugged it out, releasing a faint smell of plants and spice. "Drink it all, or the potion won't take effect. The results would otherwise be less than perfect," she warned, giving the foal the container.

Maria took the flask in her claws and obliged, taking one sip of the brew and quickly making a scrunchy face. She struggled to keep the bit of brew in her mouth from leaving it with a series of muffled retching sounds coming from her closed jaws, and a claw from Spike coming up on her muzzle left her with no choice but to swallow the mixture. Zecora blinked, and Rainbow piped up, "Yeah, she's a meat-eater, too. I gotta say, she has it worse than Lance does."

"Good thing you called for a drink," Rarity murmured as Spike relinquished his grip on Maria's muzzle, watching and shuddering as the foal brought the flask to her mouth again. She stiffened as the filly chugged down the rest of the mixture, tilting her head back and quickly going green in the face as she emptied the container. She put it down once the last drop went down her throat, and snatched the glass of water from the drake's hands before guzzling that as well in quick succession.

"That tasted bad," Maria grumbled, ears flattened against her skull. A few seconds after she said that, she thrust her claws up to her chest, dropping the glass in the process as her entire body began quivering like she had been strapped to a jackhammer. The other Fantasians watched as, with a swell of mana rippling all over the foal's body, feathers of dusty brown started to rapidly crop up on her bald spots. Then she fluffed out, feathers lengthening and growing at an alarmingly fast rate that left all present in the room utterly speechless.

After a few minutes, the ripple of mana faded from her form and the feathers stopped growing, coating her in a messy down that looked more like a hairball that sprouted from her chest and wings than anything else. A brief silence settled in, one in which Katie broke. "By Godcat's fluffy fur, that's… just… wow," she said.

Lance let off a low whistle at the anomaly and his eyes went wide. "Hot damn," he murmured, quickly trotting over to Maria and raising a hoof to rub her between the wings. "How do you feel?"

"Belly… hurts…" Maria whimpered, wings folding against her sides as her claws moved to rest on her stomach, a great cramping pain rising in her gut that made it feel as if a full-grown stallion kicked her. She leaned into the hoof that rubbed her, and the agony in her digestive system subsided a bit.

"So, what'd you make that bed out of?" Pinkie asked Armin, using a bag-laden hoof to gesture to the half-cocoon when he raised a brow.

The changeling turned to said half-cocoon and sighed. "Oh, that. A substance called chitil. Nothing special, really, especially when I can do this," he answered, his horn starting to glow. His magic embraced the bed and the discarded sleeping mask before lifting them up and compacting the two entities. His magic continued working, turning them into separate wads of goo that he meshed together and molded into a new shape—namely, that of a small chest.

"Ooooh," Pinkie cooed, eyes glimmering with awe. "So, it's like clay?"

"Sort of, except also like jelly," Armin answered with a nod as he made the chitil vanish in a flash of magic. "Never leave home without it."

"So, who wants food?" Matt interjected at last, garnering the attention of everyone else. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving right now."

Chapter XXII- Fruit Baskets*

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter XXIV- Irate Instigation*

Chapter XXIV- Irate Instigation*

Sarah kept her gaze to the expansive plains and mighty forests that she saw through the window, deciding to not engage in any conversation that her fellow Fantasians were having as the Friendship Express went on its set path. Eventually, though, somepony noticed her silence and went up to her. The hippogryph heard a mare clearing her throat, and turned from the window to find Anna next to her, looking back with a concerned look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked in a low tone, frowning.

"Nothing. Just watching the hills roll by," Sarah replied with a shrug. "The sky in Mythos is so clear…"

"That's because the Cloudsdale pegasi schedule the weather around here, for every single town in Equestria," Shining piped up from his seat, garnering looks from the sisters as he spoke. "Did you guys see the mass of rainbow clouds?" At their nod, he stated simply, "That would be Cloudsdale." When Anna and Sarah's jaws dropped open, he quirked a brow and asked, "I take it you haven't seen the early morning cloud-kicking?" The two shook their heads, and the Captain sighed. "It's different for Fantasia, isn't it?"

"Ectoplasms run rampant," Lance answered when the twins failed to do so, garnering Shining's attention in the process. "And they hate pegasus ponies. I had to send a few of my gryphons after Rainbow Dash when she decided to scoop up some of her friends and drag them to the sky at fast speeds. You can ask her about it when we get back to Ponyville."

"I've seen it happen. I'm a witness," Spike added, raising a claw and nodding in affirmation.

Shining nodded, and his horn glowed for a moment. Materializing in a flash of magenta light, Sarah's eyes grew to the size of saucers as she recognized thin strings attached to a lightweight metal frame that briefly shimmered with green mana, which highlighted odd symbols carved into the steel.

"I believe this belongs to you," he said, turning to the hippogryph and cautiously handing her the harp in his magic. Sarah took it in her claws, incoherently sputtering for a few seconds. "The high mages figured out what was wrong with it, and tweaked its innate magic a bit. Go ahead, try to play it."

Fenrir and Maria cried out in unison, faces contorting to display wide-eyed horror when Sarah looked at the instrument and hesitantly rose a claw to one of its strings. They made to protest, but fell silent as a string was tenderly plucked, but did not radiate mana of any sort. The lyrist blinked and experimentally plucked a few more strings, yet the only thing that happened was a series of brief and serene twangs filling the air.

Anna looked at her sister's cutie mark, which still lacked the harp, and watched it as her sister started playing her instrument more. A sweet tune that did not devolve into a horrid cacophony filled the air as Sarah went on, and it relaxed everyone in the cab as she kept picking at the strings tenderly. The cutie mark of wind and halberd failed to change, even as the tune ended minutes later. The archer jerked her head to Shining and spoke up, "What was wrong with the harp?"

"It had a few curses—mainly forbidden cutie mark alteration and sound distortion, to name a few. One of my soldiers told me about your sister's cutie mark, and I sent word to the high mages, and they were able to get rid of the various hexes and add new ones," Shining answered, a pleased grin on his face.

"Cutie mark alteration?" Anna repeated, both brows shooting up.

"Sound distortion?" Katie inquired, ears raising to stand on their ends.

Shining nodded once. "Yes. Long story short, if a pony plays it good, the curses respond negatively, and vice-versa—so long as their mark had been altered by the main hex itself first. I do believe we've all been through such a song of the curse?" he stated, the remark causing Fenrir and Maria to pale a little. "However, since the main curse has been removed, and new enchantments put in place of the old ones, I do believe Sarah could will the harp to make such a song whenever she wanted—bear in mind that I said believe."

"So, you have a hypothesis, and a small hooffull of evidence… lemme guess, you didn't test it out yet?" Lance murmured, putting a hoof to his chin and rubbing it thoughtfully. Shining turned to him and nodded again, and the general nodded back in understanding. "Let's not make that hypothesis into theory right yet. Getting booted off this train is something I don't want to happen until we arrive at the station."

"A fair point," Shining agreed, still grinning. "And besides, I do believe I have several spare pairs of earmuffs at the Empire. We're going to need those before we test out the harp again." At this, Fenrir and Maria gave dual sighs of relief and let their heads drop for a moment. They looked up at the door as the yellow-coated stallion with the scarf and hat barged in.

"Is everypony alright? I heard screaming," the stallion stated, frowning as worry flickered in his eyes.

Shining turned to the new arrival. "It's alright," he said in a serene tone. When the scarf-wearing stallion's face did not shift in any way, he added, "No, seriously, it's fine."

"You sure about that?" the yellow pony asked, worry still flashing in his gold irises.

"Yes. I mistakenly hit my head on the lamp above me," Fenrir answered, using a paw to gesture to said lamp for emphasis.

"And I fell off the seat and stubbed my talon," Maria added in an overly innocent tone, raising a claw and putting a knuckle to her mouth.

"Well… alright then," the yellow stallion sighed. With that, he turned and left the room, closing the door behind himself on his way out.

"Let's put this away for now…" Anna murmured, her horn glowing. In a flash of emerald light, Sarah's harp vanished, despite the instrument still being in her talons up until then. Her sister responded by sending the archer a very sour look that boasted a pronounced frown and eyes narrowed to jade slits.

Fenrir reached over with a paw and grasped the hippogryph by her shoulder, being mindful of her broken wing. When Sarah turned to him, her glare eased up. "Just forego the harp for now," he said calmly and simply. He smiled when she nodded, and relinquished his hold on her shoulder, grin widening as she turned to the window with a blush painting her cheeks.

Anna turned to the diamond dog and immediately noted his smile, and she could not resist opening her mouth to speak about it, "You're grinning madly. You got something going on with my sister?" At this, everyone else in the cab turned to the sod, and he began blubbering in wide-eyed surprise. Fenrir's smile fell, a blush painted his cheeks, and he turned away whilst inaudibly grumbling to himself. "What's that? Speak up, I can't hear you," she persisted, a smile cropping up on her muzzle when he failed to comply.

"Natz, do you have a spare bag of popcorn on you?" Matt asked, turning to Natalie as he spoke.

Natalie donned a wry grin and slowly nodded, her horn glowing. "I brought several," she replied in a low voice.

"Do you and Sarah touch each other under the tails?" Maria asked, again in an innocent tone. Fenrir's pupils shrank, his eyes widened to the size of saucers, and all that left his mouth was a choking sound in response.

"N-no!" Sarah exclaimed, her voice an octave higher than usual. She wasted no time turning to the filly with more or less the same look on her face, except her cheeks were much redder than those of Fenrir's. "W-what makes y-you think that?!"

"The fact that you're blushing and stumbling over your own words are quite telling," Alexander remarked, garnering a squawk of alarm from Sarah, who made to hastily bury her face in her talons.

"I don't need my horn to see the crimson on your cheeks. Golly, your faces are red as ground cherries! You two are giving me a run for my bits here!" Katie piped up, a giggle escaping her mouth as she waved a hoof at her mane for emphasis.

"That's pretty bad," Spike remarked off-handedly, shaking his head as Fenrir hunched over with his red snout pointing to the floor and lowly growled in annoyance.

"I think it would be best to leave those two alone for a while," Armin stated in a snide voice, turning to Lance as he started chuckling.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The sun had fully set after a few hours, and still the Friendship Express churned on in the moonlit gloom. Everyone stowed themselves away in a few darkened cabs laden with bunk beds, with Shining, Lance, Armin, and Alexander falling asleep as soon as they got on the mattresses. Others, like Matt, Natalie, and Anna, stayed awake for a bit prior to nodding off. Spike, Katie, and Maria all shared a bed, and they jabbered so much they went from one topic to the next in the span of seconds. Zecora watched the three prattle on, and occasionally chimed in with her two bits before they fell asleep as well.

In the next cab over, all by themselves, Fenrir and Sarah sat in front of an empty bed, silent as stones. Their ears were swiveling seemingly at random, catching even the faintest of noises until all they heard was the train wheels turning and the occasional bump that accompanied it. The hippogryph sighed deeply and rose a claw to rub her eyes with, shoulders sagging for a moment as the diamond dog rested his paw on her withers.

"Seriously, Maria had no basis to make her accusation…" Sarah grumbled, still rubbing her eyes.

"That wasn't so much an 'accusation' as it was an embarrassing inquiry that should not have come from the mouth of a foal," Fenrir snarled, nostrils briefly flaring as he huffed.

"And besides, I don't even fornicate with anybody," Sarah stated, removing her claw from her face before crossing her forelimbs together. At this, Fenrir turned to her with a brow quirked.

"Not to be crass on my behalf, nor coming across as one with ill intent, but I feel the need to question your statement. Are you a virgin?" Fenrir inquired, garnering a nod from the hippogryph.

"Can't even stand the sight of someone's private parts, let alone if they're swinging in the open," Sarah replied, shuddering for a moment. "Unless it's in the event where a rapist gets his or her shit harmed in any way, shape, or form."

Fenrir nodded in understanding. "A chaste mare... " he mumbled, deliberately closing his mouth and keeping his remark unfinished when he saw Sarah turn to look at him from the corner of his eye.

"Let's just share a bed tonight. We're not doing anything else—we need our rest, and don't need to confirm Maria's suspicions in the process," Sarah scoffed, and with that, she turned around and climbed into the bed first. Fenrir followed her, though only after she had gotten comfortable, and made sure his back faced outward. A minute after they had settled, the sound of trotting hooves hit their ears, and shortly after that many Mythonian ponies they did not know came in from the south end of the cab and took the other beds.

"What's a diamond dog doing here?" a stallion asked a mare as he claimed the top bunk directly above said diamond dog he spoke of.

Fenrir groaned and lifted a paw up, knocking on the bottom of the top bunk. He craned his neck and met with the gaze of the stallion who questioned his presence after he went to poke his head down. "I am a vagabond, much like you are at this current time of day. Please do not ask why I am present on this locomotive," he said in a low whisper. The stallion nodded and retracted his head to his bunk, and the diamond dog sighed before turning his head back to Sarah.

"A filthy mutt has no business travelling on Equestria's railways, let alone on her roads," a mare with a haughty-sounding voice scoffed as she trotted past Fenrir. "I'm impressed he can speak normally."

Fenrir let off a quiet growl, but did not move from his bed or say anything in protest. All he did was ball his paw into a firm fist, though he relaxed when Sarah patted his shoulder with a claw in support. He smiled at the hippogryph, before immediately frowning when somepony else decided to pipe up, "Does he have a bird with him? I see a claw on his shoulder!"

Sarah sat up and scoffed, "I'm a hippogryph." With that, she laid back down and sighed, before scowling as the arrogant-sounding mare decided to stick in two more of her bits.

"Equestria has no conceivable use for half-eagle mongrels. Why, has anypony else heard about what happened to Chanson Cheval?" the conceited-sounding mare asked, and instantly the cab erupted into hushed murmurs between ponies that were loud enough to mute out Sarah's snarl of contemptment.

"Yeah. Heard he lifted a foreign hippogryph's tail in front of the Captain of Their Majesties' Royal Guard," a stallion piped up. "Gave her a good bashing, too."

"What got into that sorry stallion? What drove him to try and get his dick wet with a half-gryphon?" another asked.

"Quarter-gryphon," Sarah murmured to herself, her claws balling up.

"I do not believe he was trying to fornicate with such a mongrel. Don't be ridiculous—who'd even attempt to perform coitus in public, especially with that misguided Shining Armor a few paces away?" the vain mare hissed in a dismissive tone. "That fool should've sent that gryph to the dungeons, instead of Chanson."

Sarah sat up again, and this time made to climb past Fenrir to get off the bed. "Oh yeah, well that gryph is currently in the same cab with the rest of you!" she exclaimed, the red that was cropping up on her face concealed by the darkness.

She immediately heard a sharp "harrumph!" as a mare climbed out of a bed on the other end of the cab and lit up a horn with a golden light, revealing a pink body and orange mane both cleaned and held up with fancy-looking sticks. This mare sported metal shoes and an expensive evening gown, one hewn of multicolored silk, that wrapped tightly around her forelegs and cascaded down her back legs in a manner that obscured her cutie mark.

"And what business do you have, exactly?" the mare in the gown asked in the same haughty tone, eyes of silver narrowing to glare coldly at Sarah.

"Currently? I'm gonna tell you to your face up front," Sarah replied in an equally cold voice, and she marched over to the mare until their muzzles were inches apart. "Shut the fuck up, you self-centered, ignorant, arrogant, holier-than-thou, making-an-ass-of-yourself cockface." The other ponies in the cab shared a collective gasp of surprise and alarm that the snobbish mare echoed as she reeled and took a few paces back in shock.

Fenrir turned over, climbed out of the bed and rushed to the mares before stepping between them when they took a step towards the other. "Ladies, please return to your bunks. I do not wish for you to fight any further," he said. Sarah sighed and trotted over to her bed, climbing in without even grumbling to herself. The diamond dog didn't join the gryph until the gown-wearing mare gathered herself and begrudgingly went back to her bed.

"Celestia-damned mongrels, why don't you canter off back to your dirt hole? You and any intellectually-inferior children you might produce would be much better off tilling fields than trying to sound sophisticated and trample on roads you have no business being on," the prissy mare scoffed one last time.

This caused Sarah to fly into a rage, and she jumped out of bed faster than Fenrir could grab her. The gryph ran halfway to the mare before the diamond dog got up, caught up with her, snatched her by the tail, and pulled her sharply back.

He did this all the while Sarah managed to shriek out, "Prepare thy ass, haughty cunt, for a noble and honor-bound bitchslapping!" Fenrir wrapped an arm around the hippogryph's midsection and hoisted her off of her claws and hooves, keeping hold of her as she wildly thrashed about in an attempt to break free and deliver a smackdown to somepony.

The door on the northernmost end of the cab burst open, and Shining Armor trotted inside. "I heard the whole thing. Cease with the hostilities, immediately!" he barked, his outburst causing the vain mare to turn to him and Sarah to cease her struggling and screaming. He turned to the gown-wearing unicorn and added, "You're speaking ill of easily-provoked foreign diplomats who came all the way from Fantasia. I would advise you do not speak to them, especially since you have nothing nice to say."

"Fantasian diplomats?" the conceited pony asked, quirking a brow as a bemused grin crossed her muzzle. "They don't even look the part."

"That is true in that they don't look like much, but that hardly matters. It's best for you and everypony else in this cab to leave them be," Shining warned, eyes shifting to the ponies who wisely stayed in their beds. He then turned to Sarah and added, "And you, calm down. Let me take care of this." Sarah nodded to him and took a few deep breaths, though Fenrir was reluctant to put her down. The two watched intently as the prissy mare approached the Captain, her movements garnering his attention.

"You are but a fool, Shining Armor," the gown-wearing unicorn started, her smile morphing into a wicked grin. "My cousin Chanson would be a much better Captain of the Guard than you. Why, I think he could whip your troops into shape at velocities and volumes you could only dream of."

Shining narrowed his eyes. "All I saw was a fool who broke several laws while he performed his little stunts. I dare say, it seems foolishness runs in his—and by extension, your—family," he replied coldly.

The mare stopped her advance, eyes widening and a foreleg rising as a startled gasp left her mouth. "F-foolish, you say?" she inquired, her voice faltering. "S-surely, you jest."

"I do not jest," Shining stated, his gaze level. "You'd rather believe your cousin is perfect in every way, instead of accepting that the things he has done were wrong."

"Why, I never!" the mare hissed, stomping her raised hoof onto the floor with the might of a pouting child. "Chanson never did anything wrong! It was that blasted hippogryph!"

"Lies, lies, and more lies," Shining retorted, shaking his head as he spoke. "You seem dead set on spreading misinformation wherever you trot. Honestly, I pity anypony who fell into whatever pitfalls you've succumbed to."

The mare's left eye began twitching. "Lies, me? I believe it is you ceaselessly spouting out and simultaneously espousing those lies," she stated in a firm, cold voice. She begun advancing again, only stopping when the Captain spoke.

"You poor, deluded soul," Shining said simply. This remark caused the mare to let out a wordless, bestial snarl, and she wasted not one second in closing the distance to him. Everypony gasped as her hoof shot out and connected solidly with his left eye, causing him to stagger into the cab behind him from surprise while leaving a sizeable horseshoe-shaped mark in the process. She made to lunge again, but an aura of magenta magic halted her before she could move.

"Ma'am, I'm afraid I'll have to put you under arrest for assaulting a royal guard and the Emperor of the Crystal Empire. You will be detained at the Crystal Empire upon arrival," Shining growled, summoning a magic inhibitor and capping the mare's horn with it. At first, the vain pony didn't move, instead staring at him in wide-eyed shock—almost as if she could not comprehend even the slightest thing in what was going on.

Then her eyelids slanted and she started stomping her hooves, sucking in deep breaths before making rather unconvincing whines of protest. "I didn't do anything wrong! It's that dumb hippogryph's fault!" she cried out, her attempt at crocodile tears making Fenrir and Sarah just roll their eyes in unison.

"Um, yes you did. You did a big no-no," a stallion on a bunk bed piped up, causing the pompous mare to whine more.

"And you are behaving rather childishly on top of that," Fenrir added, putting Sarah down before raising a paw and letting it connect with his face.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The following morning, the group had been dropped off at a station that stood in a grassy plain, and in the distance loomed some sort of tall, tealish structure that managed to reflect a great deal of sunlight. A road of crystal had been set into the dirt and it started just shy of the station, marked by pairs of thin crystal columns of varying colors. Shining still had the detained mare whose head hung low, as well as a black eye that had formed from where she managed to sock him.

Lance eyed the mare in the gown and asked, "Lemme guess, she did something stupid?"

"Straight-up gave me this," Shining answered, using a hoof to gesture to his new bruise. "I'll have her taken to the Empire's dungeons, after I find some guards to escort her."

Matt nodded. He turned to the road and pointed to it. "And that will lead us to the Empire?" he questioned.

"You'd be right on the money," Shining replied, and he trotted to it after hefting the arrested mare in his magic, dragging her with him. The Fantasians and Zecora followed him, with Spike hitching a ride on Lance's back. A cool breeze wafted by as the bunch started following the sparkling road.

"Chanson didn't do anything wrong…" the detained mare mumbled.

"The day he stops being an assclown is the same day I lose my virginity while I go into heat," Sarah snapped, her remark causing Lance to shudder and pause for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Spike asked, tilting his head.

"It's just… the way she said that… it disturbs me. Greatly," Lance replied in an uneasy voice as he began trotting again. "I-I'd explain it to you better, but you're a kid, Spike. It's… let's not speak of this again."

"Alright…" Spike grumbled, slowly nodding. With that, the group went on without further incident and found themselves passing under a magenta crystal gate roughly thirty minutes later. Still the road continued to stretch, and in place of the crystal posts thereafter, shrubs and a few small trees sprouted. They continued on, and another fifteen minutes passed before they found a street of the Empire.

The street was also hewn of crystal, and so were the various buildings on either side of it, for that matter. Some were simple houses that gleamed in many colors, while others were shops boasting elegant signs and the occasional crystal statue. The street was fairly linear, giving the Fantasians and Zecora a decent view of the tealish building.

A few ponies were out and about, tending to stands and lawns and such, and all of them had glittering coats and manes that appeared to reflect and refract the very sunlight at the same time. Even their eyes and cutie marks glistened in this manner, and most had small grins on their faces. Some noticed Shining's presence and ran up to him before bowing their heads. "You may rise," Shining stated, and the ponies that bowed stood up straight. He gave the group a level look before asking, "Could you move, please? I need to get to the palace, and so do my guests."

"Yes," one of the ponies said, a stallion with a yellow coat and greenish mane. "Um, why're you holding that mare in your magic? And what's with the black eye?" he asked.

"She punched me in the face last night, and will be detained shortly," Shining replied with a sigh. The assembled crystal ponies nodded, and with that they cleared a path. They eyed the Fantasians as Shining trotted on down the road with them following him.

"That one has eyes… eyes as red as Sombra's," one golden-coated mare whispered fearfully to another, using a shaking hoof to gesture to Lance for emphasis.

"What's the Great and Honorable Spike, the Brave and Glorious doing on his back?" another mare with a blue coat asked without whispering, shuddering for a moment.

Spike heard the question and answered the second crystal mare, "He's just one of the visiting Fantasians. His eyes are red, sure, but he's a good pony. Trust me."

The whispering mares sighed in relief and nodded. They waved at Spike, who casually waved back at them with a friendly smile, and the group went on to the tealish building. "What did they call you?" Lance asked, craning his neck to look at the drake on his back as he trotted with the others.

"Oh, Great and Honorable and Brave and Glorious," Spike replied with a shrug.

"Why do they call you that?" Lance continued, a brow quirking up.

"Long story. Short of it is, I helped save the Crystal Empire," Spike answered with a grin. Lance sighed and turned his head to face forward, and noticed he had fallen a little bit behind the others as he chatted with Spike. He rushed up to meet them before slowing his pace.

As the group trotted onward, the crystal ponies took increasing notice of their visitors and emperor. They either said polite hellos that usually went to Shining or Spike, or made concerned remarks about Lance's eyes that were simply ignored. Almost none of them heeded the levitating gown-wearing mare, and when a few did and asked about her, they were told she was under arrest.

It took less than ten minutes to reach the teal structure, and the Fantasians gawked as they found that much of it stood on four rather slender but sturdy legs forming four brilliant arcs and a flat ceiling. Underneath this overhang, smack-dab in the middle jutted twin teal spikes, with one going up and the other going down. Between them, smoothly floating by itself and spinning slowly was a heart hewn of this same crystal, and for a moment it pulsated with pure mana. "Holy…" Anna remarked, breathing in deeply.

Shining turned to the Fantasians and noticed them gawking. "Like what you see?" he asked, garnering hesitant nods and wide-eyed looks from his visitors. He heard hooves coming from behind, followed by a stallion clearing his throat, and whirled around to find himself face-to-face with a crystal unicorn sporting purple and silver armor that gleamed like his body.

"Emperor Armor, may I ask why you have a mare floating in the air?" the armored crystal pony asked in a flat voice.

Shining gestured to his black eye and answered, "She did this to me last night, and I detained her for assault. Take her to the dungeons, at once." The armored crystal pony nodded as his horn lit up, and he grasped the mare in his magic as the Captain relinquished his hold on her.

"Chanson didn't do anything wrong, you mongrels…" the mare growled as the guard escorted her away. Just as the guard made it to one of the massive legs of the structure, she spoke again, this time shouting, "Chanson didn't do anything wrong, you filthy, deluded mongrels!" The guard went into the leg, dragging her with him, and the Fantasians simply blinked at the anomaly.

Anna turned to the nearest leg and trotted to it, quickly finding a winding staircase that went up and down. "Oooooh… I see," she murmured before galloping back to the others. "The legs have stairs inside them." The other Fantasians turned to her and gawked, and she motioned for them with a hoof to follow her. Spike hopped of Lance's back before they went to the anomaly after Anna rushed back to it.

"Stairs? Going up and down?" Natalie asked, looking at the flight Anna lead her and the others to. "That's… odd. This must be pretty big to require multiple floors."

"That's the case with the palace. Think of it like Canterlot's castle, except going into the ground and sky at the same time," Shining remarked as he rushed up to the group who eyed the flight of stairs like it was their first. They turned to him and donned calm looks before nodding in understanding. "Lemme show you around, and then we can hit the library," he added, trotting over to the heart that floated and spun languidly between the crystal spikes. The others followed him, vexed gazes falling onto the heart itself.

When they came near it, the heart began glowing a faint yellow for a moment, and then it turned a dull, dark red before reverting back to its teal hue. "What the…" Shining murmured, leaning in close to the heart, but not close enough for his muzzle to touch it. The colors shifted again, to yellow, then red, and teal. "The Crystal Heart hasn't done this before…" He leaned back and shrugged to himself before turning and addressing his guests, "Whatever you guys do, do not touch this."

"Is it fragile?" Lance asked, tilting his head.

"No. You could disrupt its innate mana, and it's acting a little strange as is," Shining answered, turning back to the Heart as it cycled through three colors again.

"Disruption of innate mana is certainly strange. You mean to tell us this is the first time you've seen the Heart do such a change?" Zecora asked, using a hoof to gesture to the Heart as a frown framed itself on her muzzle.

"That is very odd… maybe we should ask Cadence about it when we get the chance," Spike suggested with a shrug.

Shining nodded, also frowning. "I guess I'll show you to the library first… maybe it has a book about this phenomenon. While you guys are in the library, I'll fetch Cadence," he murmured. With that, he trotted over to one of the sturdy legs and descended its flight of stairs, with the Fantasians, Spike, and Zecora following suit. They trotted in single file, and reached the end of the flight a minute later.

As soon as they stopped, the Fantasiasns paled as a large library made of crystal spanned out for several yards before them, on four separate floors that were kept apart by crystal panes and many more staircases going between them. A glass pane had been placed overhead, letting the sun's light shine upon the scene.

"By Godcat's teats… this is huge!" Matt cried, irises shrinking at the sight. "This'll take days, if not weeks, to go through!"

"I don't even know how much of this is organized, sadly," Shining sighed, shaking his head. He blinked when he saw a blur of pink with bits of purple and yellow whiz past two shelves on a lower floor.

"Oh, where is it, where is it, where is it?" a mare's voice repeated over and over as the blur came and went, the tone erring on the panicked side. "Amethyst Maresbury said it was in this row!"

"It seems we have another pony scouring the shelves," Shining noted. "And I think I know who it is."

"Cadence?" Spike guessed, garnering a nod from Shining.

"Let's follow her," Shining replied, wasting no time in galloping to the nearest flight of stairs that lead further down.

Chapter XXV- All That Glitters...*

Chapter XXV- All That Glitters...*

Shining galloped between a set of bookshelves, with Zecora, Spike, and the Fantasians on his heels. In their sights, a pink-purple-yellow blur rounded a bend, and they did likewise. "Cadence, I need to talk to you!" Shining cried out, hoping that his utterance could stop the blur. The rapidly moving form halted with a startled shriek and slowed down with legs flailing as it tried to stop itself from crashing into a bookshelf, revealing a pink alicorn mare with wide eyes that turned to the Captain.

"Shiny!" Cadence exclaimed as her hooves managed to touch two shelves and halt her in her tracks, though her wings still flapped madly to keep her aloft. She detached herself from the bookshelf and flew down to meet up with the group, and as soon as she did she noticed the presence of the visitors Shining brought with him. "Um…"

"I promised to take them here. Twily found something in her library—Starswirl supposedly made a spell that she learned and went to Fantasia and wrote a book about it," Shining said in a single breath. "And then I came here and saw the Crystal Heart acting strange—"

"The mana changes color when it shouldn't? Yeah, it's happened ever since I came back to the Empire after that disastrous parliamentary meeting," Cadence cut him off, frowning. "I've been flying up and down this floor over and over again, and the librarian here said there was something about the Crystal Heart in these shelves." A few seconds passed and she murmured, "Did… you say something about Starswirl?"

Shining nodded, and opened his mouth to speak again, only to close it when Matt beat him to it, "And we'd like to find out more about this Starswirl pony."

Cadence nodded and sighed, her wings ruffling as she noticed the purplish-blue blemish that encompassed Shining's eye. "Um, darling, what happened?" she asked, her tone taking on a worried note.

"A mare punched me on the train last night, so I did the only thing I could: take her with me to the Empire, find the nearest guard, and have him take her to the dungeons on assault charges," Shining replied, taking a moment to shoot a brief glance at Sarah. The hippogryph donned an uneasy smile and trembled for a moment before he turned back to the alicorn and added, "And if I hadn't done anything, at least one of the Fantasians gladly would've."

"So, you took the brunt of an attack… to keep our guests from going out of line?" Cadence asked, a brow quirking up. When Shining nodded, she sighed and sent him a soft smile.

"And one of the other Fantasians kept the one who got angry from going off her handle," Shining stated, turning to shoot a brief glance at Fenrir.

"I merely ensured that things would not needlessly escalate," Fenrir chirped with a grin on his face. Shining chuckled and turned back to Cadence.

"Well, they do seem to be reasonably in check. Though at the very least, next time you do something like taking another black eye, please send me a letter detailing the how and why," Cadence sighed, her wings twitching for a moment before stilling when Shining nodded again.

"I might not necessarily make the letter on the same day, though," Shining chirped. "Things might escalate beyond my control, leaving little time to even write out the first two words."

"Still, at least try. You know how much I worry when you're on the line of duty," Cadence sighed, taking a moment to wrap her forelegs around Shining's neck and kiss him on the lips.

They broke their loving embrace with startled cries and beet-red faces seconds later, when Maria decided to pipe up, "Do you two play under each other's tails?"

Shining turned to the filly, and made to say something in an attempt to defend himself when Anna rose a hoof with a sigh. "I'll talk to her about that later tonight," she said in a miffed tone, shooting Maria a narrow-eyed look of disapproval. The filly met her gaze and shuddered with a small whimper, before Anna broke eye contact to look at Cadence. "She doesn't know any better. Did the exact same thing to my sister yesterday," she added.

Sarah crossed her forelimbs together and grumbled under her breath, "You started it…"

Cadence nervously chuckled, eyelids slanting as she laughed. "I-I see," she murmured with a shaky nod of her head. She took a deep breath and her face hardened. "Shining, I think we should get Amethyst Maresbury over here."

Shining nodded, his face also hardening. "Sounds like a plan," he agreed.

"Who's Amethyst Maresbury?" Anna asked, garnering looks from the Captain and the alicorn.

"The librarian who manages this crystalline behemoth of a book collection," Shining answered, his visage easing up and a smile cropping on his muzzle.

Lance took a cursory look around him before turning to the Captain and stating in a very blunt tone, "I don't know how the hell this Amethyst pony can even manage this. If they're a unicorn or pegasus, fine, I can understand that."

"Amethyst is an earth pony," Cadence stated, donning a nervous grin once more. Her remark only caused Lance to sit on his haunches, bring his front hooves to his head, and groan in annoyance. He stopped making noise when she added, "And there are a lot of volunteer crystal ponies who help her out."

"So, um… should we let her get the books, or what?" Natalie piped up, her inquiry causing Cadence and Shining to exchange glances again.

Cadence sighed and turned to look at Natalie before answering, "I've spent the last few hours trying to find books on the Crystal Heart. Maybe we should see Amethyst and have her and her volunteers look, since I have yet to find anything."

"Oh, Cady, I've been meaning to ask you something," Shining interjected, once more garnering a look from Cadence.

"Hrrrmyes?" Cadence half-hummed, a brow quirked.

Shining's shoulders slumped a bit as he murmured, "Have you seen any wraiths around here? I've ran into two that… er, needed to be sent on their way before I came here."

Cadence shook her head. "No, but I did ask the citizens to let me know if anything was off," she replied.

Shining's shoulders slumped further, and his head dropped. "I see," he mumbled under his breath before straightening his posture and looking Cadence square in the eye. A smile splayed his lips as he added, "I see you were three trots ahead of me."

Cadence smiled back, and giggled. "That I am," she chirped. The two shared another kiss, this one swift and chaste, and turned to Maria once they broke it. The filly opened her mouth to comment, but Anna came over and tapped at her withers with a hoof, causing Maria to shut her mouth and stiffen. The alicorn turned back to the Captain and leaned towards him to whisper in his ear, "Um, how do they discipline the foal, exactly?"

"They just talk to her firmly," Shining whispered back with a shrug. "At least, that's what Sergeant Riverwater told me back in Canterlot." He turned to his guests, all of whom looked at him and Cadence expectedly, and he blinked before uttering, "Well…"

"Emperor Armor!" a masculine voice called from above, accompanied by the faint sound of galloping hooves. Shining quirked a brow as the sound came closer for one moment before softening the next.

"Down here," Shining called back, looking up at the crystal overhang and spotting a very soft shadow overhead. "I'm under you." His ears twitched as the galloping hooves faded for a second, before a unicorn guardspony with a yellow coat tumbled down the stairs he barely saw at the end of a long row. The guard got up to his hooves, shook his head, and looked around dazedly before Shining called out once more, "Take a right, and keep going."

The guard obeyed, breaking out into a full gallop. He crossed the distance in minutes, but skid and lowered his head when he saw too late that the Fantasians obstructed him. He felt his horn touch hair, then spread something fleshy ever so slightly—before an alarmed screech hit his ears full force and everyone backpedaled from the source in response.

He felt the object release his horn as whatever it had been attached to jumped into the air, and he looked up to find Natalie held aloft by her own magic, her face beet-red and her front hooves clutching a spot between her rear legs. He also noticed that her eyes were wide and her mane and tail stood straight on end, making her look a little like a frightened cat.

"I felt something poke me in the hooch!" Natalie wailed, her voice several octaves higher than it normally was, while her magic still had her suspended in the air.

Shining rose a hoof and let it connect with his face. "What's your name and rank, soldier?" he groaned.

The guard shivered for a moment, noticing Matt trotting towards him for a few seconds—before another screech hit everyone's ears and caused him to abruptly halt. Seconds after that, Natalie came crashing on top of the half-Clydesdale, sending both of them sprawling to the floor.

"Give me your name and rank, soldier," Shining hissed, his hoof inching its way down the bridge of his muzzle.

"U-uh… Private Z-Zircon, sir," the guard replied in a shaky voice, his eyes widening when Shining opened his mouth again.

"Private Zircon, please for the love of all things holy, watch where that horn of yours goes!" Shining growled, lifting his hoof for a moment before sending it to the floor hard enough the resulting stomp briefly echoed. "I'm afraid I'll have to put you on another course of disciplinary action because you just sexually assaulted one of our Fantasian guests!"

Zircon's legs shook as Matt slowly hauled himself to his hooves, using magic to carefully lift Natalie up to rest her on his backside. He turned to look at the mare, who mumbled about horns and places horns shouldn't really go, her face still beet-red and her eyes still wide as saucers.

Then Maria spoke up again, her remark making the color drain from Zircon's face, "Are unicorn horns up the special place bad?"

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The group stood with the Crystal Heart in eyesight, though Shining Armor wasn't present with them. The only one who didn't stand was Natalie, who opted to sit on a cushion with an ice pack on top of said cushion. Matt gave her worried looks every couple of minutes, but she returned the expressions with faltering smiles that didn't convince him that she was alright.

The Heart continued to twirl slowly, changing colors as it did since the bunch first arrived. Red, yellow, teal. Red, yellow, teal. After a few cycles, however, Alexander cawed when the Heart changed to a very bright green instead of teal. He rose a talon and scratched his temples with it as, once more, the cycle began anew—with green encompassing the Heart before the teal did.

"That's very odd," Spike noted, rubbing his chin with a claw as he gave the Heart a vexed look.

"It's strange," Cadence agreed with a nod. She turned to Lance and sighed when she noticed his gaze was fixed in the Heart's direction.

"Do you know anything about what could've made it start changing colors?" Anna asked, shooting a worried frown at the alicorn.

Again, Cadence shook her head. "I haven't the slightest clue. I only became Empress of the Crystal Empire a year and a half ago," she replied.

"That's plenty of time to have learned about the damned thing," Lance scoffed, eyes averting to Cadence as he spoke.

"The Heart's ancient—thousands of years old. You're implying that I needed to cram any extensive studies on it into a single night, which even I couldn't physically do when I have had an Empire to lead on top of that," Cadence retorted, frowning. "And that library is ginormous! You may as well have asked me to find books on Fantasia while I was at it!"

Lance flinched before his shoulders slumped, and he returned to staring at the Crystal Heart. "Touché," he replied tersely.

"Are you okay?" Maria asked, rearing up on her hooves while raising her talons. She gripped Natalie's front leg with her claws and garnered nothing more than a nod and a faltering grin.

"Just let her be for now," Sarah sighed, trotting over to the filly before using her claws to pull her away from Natalie. "She's probably getting over the whole horn-up-hooch thing still."

Natalie let off an uneven, mirthless laugh that had Matt looking at her as if she was starting to lose her mind. He put a hoof on her withers and patted her gently as she continued to chuckle strangely, but before long she fell silent again. "Natz…?" he ventured, and once more received the unnerving grin she gave Maria.

"I-I'm f-fine," she stuttered, pupils dilating and legs trembling as she spoke.

"You don't look fine to me, and I'm the pinnacle of everything that's not okay," Katie scoffed, flinching as the gaze accompanied by the crazed smirk turned in her direction.

"I-I'm fine," Natalie repeated, her voice a little more steady but still unnerving.

"Natz, you're far from okay," Matt chided from behind her. He turned to Cadence and asked, "Since it's gonna be a while, can we go ahead and spend the rest of the day in a few guest rooms?"

Cadence turned to him and nodded. "Sure thing. She looks a little… ah, out of it at the moment," she replied. She turned to one of the legs of the palace structure and trotted over to it at a brisk pace, with her guests following her every move.

"Should I make an herbal remedy for her pain? She's trying to convince us she's alright, but it's in vain," Zecora stated, eyes averting between Natalie and Cadence when the latter turned to look at her.

"No, since… you'd probably have to stick your hoof up there, and…" Cadence paused to sigh and gather her thoughts before finishing her comment, "It wouldn't be a great idea."

The alicorn and zebra both turned to Matt as he piped up, "Don't worry, I know how to get her to relax."

Cadence quirked a brow. "How are you going to do that?" she asked, her tone laced with disbelief.

Matt sighed and frowned. "It's… uh…" he started, but a look from the seemingly-crazed Natalie silenced him faster than anybody present could speak up.

"A private matter?" Cadence asked, her brow raising higher. Matt mutely nodded with a nervous grin plastered on his white muzzle, and she sighed. "Alright… I guess I could lead you to the guest rooms now," she murmured, wings ruffling for a moment as she turned back to the stairs and trotted up them instead of down.

The group followed, falling into a single-file line and trotting slowly as they cantered up the flight. Upon reaching the end of said flight, which gave way to a hallway with a round bend that was marked with crystal pillars galore, a few guards who were already present saluted Cadence with either hooves or wings and stood aside to let her and her guests pass.

One guard, however, used a wing to stop Natalie in her tracks. "Miss, are you well?" he asked in a flat tone, frowning when she merely shook her head and giggled unnervingly. He retracted his wing and let her go on her merry way, seeing her tail shift and swish lowly between her rear legs as she trotted on. As soon as Cadence, Spike, Zecora, and the Fantasians were out of sight, he turned to one of his fellow guardsponies. "What was it that made her… don that look?" he asked, garnering a series of shrugs and flat looks as responses.

"Haven't the foggiest," an earth pony guard replied. "I did hear that Private Zircon got in trouble again, though." At this, some of the other guards snickered like fillies, before ceasing their laughter and assuming stoic looks as they set to moving from their posts to follow the group. They trotted around the bend, noticing a doorway at the end that stood ajar, and they hastened their pace to get to it. Cantering into the next hall, they caught a brief glimpse of their quarry as they turned down another corner, and doubled their efforts to catch up.

Fenrir looked over his shoulder, and noticed the guards dogging his and the others' steps. "What has brought you to follow our movements like a line of lost ducklings?" he asked, a brow quirking. His inquiry caused the groups to abruptly halt, with his fellow Fantasians turning around to see what the hell the inquiry was about.

The guards shifted in place, though their stoic expressions still held firm. One spoke up, his wings briefly shuddering as he spoke, "We wanted to ensure that you and the Empress were alright." The other guards nodded once at his remark, with none of them so much as blinking or letting their ears twitch during the unified movement.

Fenrir raised a brow. "Is that all?" he asked tersely. He approached the guards and knelt before them so he could be at eye-level with them, leaning in a little close to the nearest one before adding, "Or is there… something more to your little bout of tottering after us?" His inquiry caused the guards to shift and move a little closer together, and at this his lips curled up into a grin.

"Alright everypony, play nice," Cadence piped up, her voice accompanied by the sound of beating wings. Fenrir's smirk fell and he looked up, finding the Empress hovering over both him and the guards, looking down at them with a straight face. She descended and touched down at Fenrir's side, noticing that the diamond dog kept himself in a kneeling stance. The alicorn sighed and turned to the guards before asking, "Why are you not at your posts?"

"We… erm, wanted to check on… u-uh, the unicorn with the crazed look on her face," a guard stammered out. "W-we think sh-she might try something…"

Cadence held up a hoof, signaling for the guard to hush. "It's alright," she said in a firm voice. "One of her companions said he could and will calm her down—how, I don't exactly know. But she should be well, after I escort them to their guest rooms."

Another guard fidgeted in place. "Um, Your Highness, are you certain of this?" he asked, eyelids slanting as worry flickered in his eyes.

Cadence nodded. "Yes, I am very certain," she replied in a softer tone. "Though, if you're that concerned about the matter, maybe I could have your posts moved to outside the rooms. But only if it's alright with them."

"I'm all for it, after what happened in Canterlot," Katie piped up from behind, her utterance causing the guards to turn away from their Empress. Murmurs from the other Fantasians erupted as soon as she said those words, mostly coming from the general and his advisors, and they ran rampant for a good two minutes before stopping as Cadence cleared her throat.

"Oh, and… one more thing," Cadence began, pausing until she was certain the guards looked at her and nopony else. "Make sure that Private Zircon doesn't trot anywhere near them. I don't want another one of his accidents happening again."

"Are you saying his horn going under Natalie's tail wasn't the first time?" Matt noted, garnering Cadence's attention.

The Empress turned around and glumly nodded. "One time, it went under Shining's tail," she replied with a frown. "He wasn't a happy camper after that."

Matt went wide-eyed, the image of Zircon's horn going up his Emperor's rear end forming and staying in his mind. He could only imagine the reaction the sorry bastard must've had in that moment before he shook his head to rid himself of the thought. "Um… ouch," he murmured.

"Well, let's head on to the guest rooms. They shouldn't be much further in the castle," Cadence sighed, closing her eyes and shaking her head.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Matt and Natalie occupied a large room all to themselves, and it had a singular large bed whose frame was forged of crystal and loaded with a cloud-like mattress and fluffy pillows. Over at a wall a dresser and a table and chair stood to one side, and opposite of that was a window with no glass pane set into the frame. Natalie was laying on the bed, eyes closed and a blissful expression on her face as hooves carefully kneaded onto her back. "You okay?" Matt asked her.

"Mhm," Natalie hummed, taking a moment to sigh contently. "Nothing like a good back rub to relieve some stress." She tensed when she felt a hoof push a little too hard on her spine, "Gah! E-easy there…"

Matt lifted a hoof and moved it to her withers. "Sorry. Just wanted to punch that Zircon stallion, and… got a little carried away," he murmured.

"May as well get in line. I'm wanting to kick him in the face," Natalie replied with a giggle. She felt the hooves come off of her back, before a big and fuzzy body laid on the bed next to her. "My turn?" she asked, cracking her eyes open.

"Yep," Matt chirped in response. He watched as Natalie rose to sit up and grinned as she lifted her front hooves onto his back. He patted at the mattress and pillows with a hoof and remarked, "Damn, this bed's comfy enough I could fall asleep right now."

"The bed is great and all, but don't go to sleep on me yet. Where to?" Natalie asked, prodding at his back with a hoof.

Matt chuckled and shrugged. "Don't have a particular preference at the moment," he answered. He relaxed as hooves glided across his back, prodding and rubbing and working away any kinks that may have been present. "Maybe Zircon did an accident, but if he managed to stick his horn up Shining's ass…"

"You think that may have been intentional?" Natalie questioned, her hooves going up to Matt's withers.

"Yeah. Up your hooch, that may have been purely accidental," Matt replied. "But there is no way I can see it as an accident if it went up his Emperor's butt."

"Hrm… it does seem odd," Natalie noted with a sigh, her hooves trailing lower again. "Maybe he did it to see if he could get away with it."

"Maybe, maybe not," Matt mumbled with another shrug. "Eh, no use dwelling on something I know next to nothing about."

"True enough, I suppose," Natalie agreed with a thoughtful nod of her head. "You think the huge library has something about Starswirl?"

"It's so huge I think there's several books about that pony," Matt stated, waving a hoof dismissively. "I'd be surprised if there isn't at least six books with him as the central topic." He relaxed and took a deep breath, closing his eyes and looking as if about ready to doze off, only to twitch when Natalie halted abruptly. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, I was wondering if you were good now," Natalie replied with a giggle. Matt simply nodded, and sighed when she retracted her hooves and flopped next to him. Her ears twitched when she heard a loud pop accompanied by a fizzle. When the fizzle faded and a meow hit her ears, she sat up before glancing around the room and noticing NoLegs on the table, looking at her with another meow coming out of his mouth. The cat leapt off of the table and made his way to the bed, prior to levitating himself and landing next to Matt.

Speaking of, the stallion turned to the cat with a brow quirked. "What is it?" he asked, eyes snapping open when the cat prodded at his muzzle with his tail. NoLegs meowed again and jumped off the bed, scampering over to the window and using his only limb to gesture for the unicorns to follow him. The two hopped out of bed and trotted over as the cat jumped upon the open sill, and peered out to find a crowd of far-off specks gathering before the palace. "The hell? Are those crystal ponies?"

"I dunno Matt. Maybe they're moving crystal statues?" Natalie guessed, doing her best to examine the street below while simultaneously trying to keep herself from accidentally knocking NoLegs off of the sill. The cat meowed once more, using his tail to gesture to the bottom of the window. The unicorns peered below, noticing some kind of bizarre stage set up, and they couldn't determine much else as it was purest white and had flecks of color that they assumed were ponies on and around it. From the stage, they heard a distant and somewhat-familiar voice call out.

"I present unto you, the most recent addition to the Crystal Empire!" a stallion bellowed out from below, and instantly a myriad of voices cheered and cooed and clapped before falling silent. Matt and Natalie's eyes widened when the streets began glowing, a bright teal appearing in spots at first before seemingly enveloping the roads with what they could only assume was pure, concentrated mana. Then, once every single street shimmered with teal power, the glow fled the streets faster than it had filled them.

A full minute of silence passed, and the unicorns and cat still looking down from the window exchanged vexed, wide-eyed looks with each other. Natalie and Matt made several attempts to speak, but words died in their throats as they struggled to comprehend what the hell just happened below. Not even NoLegs could break the befuddling tranquility that set in, as his meows likewise stayed lodged in his throat and refused to leave.

A wave of teal mana shot out, and the three turned back to the window as it rose up and up, encompassing what they could see of the Empire. Before they could protest, it went into their room through the window and hit them face-first, and they closed their eyes as if expecting pain—but the mana hit them in a way that was inexplicably painless. It merely touched them and left as fast as it had come, as it were. Cracking an eye open, Matt saw that Natalie and NoLegs were relatively unharmed.

And the two sparkled like they were living crystal, but other than that nothing had changed, really. His eyes snapped fully open and he gaped at the anomaly. "Y-y-you…" he managed to croak out, only to stop speaking as his jaw locked up in an embarrassing manner that made him appear like a fish gasping for water.

Natalie's eyes opened, and she looked around before finding Matt just staring at her with his jaw dropped open. "Uh… you're… your coat and mane… your everything is gleaming like a polished rock!" she exclaimed, her remark causing the stallion to lift one of his hooves for inspection. By Godcat, she was right—the hoof gleamed as much as the mare and cat he stared at.

"I... uh…" was all Matt could manage before the door to their room burst open. Once it hit the wall and stilled, Lance galloped inside, and like Matt and Natalie and NoLegs, he was also shimmering—down to the uniform. Immediately, the general sat on his haunches before doubling over. He burst out laughing at the looks on the faces of the unicorns and cat, as if they fell for an extraordinarily elaborate prank.

When he had managed to calm down, he wiped his eye with a hoof before setting it down with a rather dopey grin spreading on his face. "Don't worry, it'll wear off in a few days," he stated with a snicker escaping his lips once he finished speaking.

"You mean… our...?" Natalie couldn't finish the question, her mind refusing to process what was going on.

"Yeah, our now-sparkling coats. A nearby guard told me that this happens every time the Crystal Heart gets a little more power or something. The wave of mana hits the entire Empire, and since we're in the Empire, we got blasted too," Lance replied with a nod. Still grinning, he added, "You should've seen the look on Anna's face, by the way. Her eyes look like they expanded to the size of saucers."

Natalie sighed in resignation, her ears twitching when a scritch-scratching noise acting in tandem with the clip-clop of hooves echoed into the room. A minute later, Sarah came in, her body also glimmering like a cut and polished gemstone. "This is… a first," she murmured, using a claw to gesture to herself as she spoke.

NoLegs meowed and hopped from the window before wading over to Lance, tilting his head as he approached. "I'm impressed even you are gleaming," Matt sighed, gesturing to the cat as Lance rose a hoof to pet him.

"Spike and Zecora are also gleaming," Lance sighed, setting his hoof down once he finished petting the cat. As if on cue, hooves hitting crystal echoed into the room again, followed up by the zebra entering unannounced with the small drake on her back. The former had a vexed look on her face, while the latter just grinned and waved casually.

"I feel a swell of happiness that wasn't in me before. And now I am gleaming like that door," Zecora remarked, turning to the door of the room as she spoke.

"Eh, it happens," Spike stated matter-of-factly, waving a claw dismissively.

"The swell of happiness part, or the I'm-now-glittering part?" Sarah asked, looking at Spike with a brow raising up.

"Both," Spike replied, turning to the hippogryph with the cheeky grin still lingering on his visage, not noticing that NoLegs, Matt, and Natalie turned to him with vexed looks. "But it's just around here, anyway," he added, using the same claw he waved to gesture around the room.

Fenrir bustled in, likewise sparkling from head to paw. "Does anyone else happen to feel over-groomed at the moment?" he asked, his inquiry garnering nothing more than a series of perplexed looks.

"I don't feel over-groomed. I don't know what you're harping on about," Sarah replied after a few seconds had passed, with nothing more than a shrug of her shoulders and a shake of her head accompanying her statement.

Katie rushed into the room, and while she was still illusion-disguised, she too was gleaming. "I'm sparkling! I am freaking sparkling!" she cried, faux eyes wide with confusion.

"And so are the rest of us," Matt pointed out in a huff, watching as Anna, Alexander, Armin, and Maria ran into the room. "Join the club."

"Can I stay sparkly? Pretty please?" Maria asked, eyes wide with hope. Her inquiry immediately garnered the attention of everyone else in the room.

"Eh, I guess you can. Nothing's stopping you from being sparkly," Armin stated with a shrug.

"As long as you stay in the Empire's borders, yeah. Besides, we have to stay put for a few days, anyway," Spike replied, again waving his claw.

"You sound like you've become walking crystal before," Anna noted, turning to the drake with a frown set into her muzzle.

"And you told me you saved this Empire before. Is there a correlation of some sort?" Lance added, raising a hoof to rub his chin with it.

"Yep. In fact, one actually lead to the other," Spike answered, grinning once more. Before anyone else could speak, he added in a casual tone, "I just retrieved the Crystal Heart and helped Cadence put it back where it was supposed to be, and the crystal ponies powered it with love and mana, and bam! Everypony sparkled, including me!" At this point, the others in the room looked at him slack-jawed, though Zecora had to crane her neck to look at him.

Natalie and Matt exchanged looks again. "I'm starting to think there's something under those scales that we underestimated," Natalie remarked, earning a mute nod from Matt. As soon as she finished speaking, Spike's cheeks bulged and he coughed out some green flames, though he made sure to direct them in a way that they couldn't scorch anybody present. The flames turned to smoke, which then turned into a scroll with a red ribbon that fell and bounced on the floor.

Anna scooped up the scroll with her magic and opened it, unravelling it to scan its contents before immediately paling. As she stared at the letter with her pupils shrinking to tiny dots, her crystalline shimmer faded substantially, making her look more like she had taken a dunk in a tub full of soapy water. "N-Natz…" she murmured in a tight, small, and shaky voice. "C-come h-here…"

Natalie trotted over, a brow raised. "Huh? What is it?" she asked, and the only response she received was the opened scroll being magically shoved in her face. She pried it off with a hoof and examined it for a minute, only to drop it in a few seconds. Her sheen faltered as well, and she turned to Fenrir and spoke in a low, serious tone, "Get Shining Armor. Immediately."

Chapter XXVI- ... Is Excessively Cold*

Chapter XXVI- ... Is Excessively Cold*

Shining and a few guards with helms marked with red and teal hair stood on a stage with a crowd before them, and they sparkled as much as the assembled ponies did. He watched as a unicorn mare and pegasus stallion trotted off, with a little unicorn foal held in a saddlebag-like open-top holster on the mare's back. He smiled at the infant, who giggled back at him, and turned to look at the assembled crowd as they trotted up to the couple and fawned over the baby.

Cadence, who also gleamed, stood next to Shining. "A cute little filly. I hope she grows up to be a fine mare," she remarked, exchanging a look with the stallion.

Shining nodded with a grin, and made to speak when a brief, golden glow embraced his cranium and faded in seconds. A masculine voice echoed into his mind, and it had a deathly serious tone to it, "Meet me at the guest rooms. It's urgent."

"Cady, I just got a telepathic message…" Shining stated, his grin falling as he spoke.

"From who?" Cadence asked, a brow raised.

"I haven't the foggiest. All I know is it told me to meet up at the guest rooms and that something was urgent," Shining replied, shaking his head.

"Why the—" Cadence paused, and her eyes slowly widened. "Our guests!" she exclaimed, wings flaring wide.

"What about them?" Shining asked, a brow raising up.

"I escorted them to the guest rooms! If one of them sent you a telepathic message, and said it was urgent…" Cadence trailed off, and immediately, Shining's eyes widened as he got what she meant.

"In that case, let's head that way…" Shining murmured, his ears twitching as murmurs graced them. He turned away from the alicorn to find that the crowd of ponies looked at him, and that they were whispering amongst themselves. "It is alright. Just carry on as you normally would," he ordered in a calm bellow, and the crowd instantly hushed. He took a moment to look at the assembled guards and addressed them, "Make sure things run smoothly while I go sort something out."

The guards nodded with salutes, and with that, Shining and Cadence rushed off of the stage and to the nearest leg of the castle. They reached a flight of stairs and galloped up it in a frenzy, then blazed down the hall with the bend, going into another hall, and took a left in a matter of minutes. They went down a few more halls, only stopping in one with many doors upon seeing Matt waiting outside of a door expectantly. They skid to a halt and took a moment to catch their breath, barely noticing that the Fantasian held a scroll in his magic and that his crystalline shimmer had receded quite a bit.

When the rulers of the Empire managed to gather themselves, they turned their attention to Matt. "What's so urgent that you sent me a telepathic message about?" Shining asked in a flat tone.

"This," Matt replied, forking over the scroll he held. "It came through Spike, and the girls began to freak out over it. Natalie insisted that somepony get you over here, so I volunteered."

"Uh-huh," Shining murmured with a nod as he took the scroll. His eyes widened as he saw pictures of two unicorn stallions, and a third earth pony one with visible scars going clean over his eyes, plastered onto the parchment. Below the pictures, a simple message had been scrawled in impeccable hoofwriting which he read aloud.

"'Dear Shining Armor, this is Sergeant Riverwater. I am sending this through Celestia, and I'm also afraid to report that the hotel staff whose business had been shut down have escaped—when, I don't exactly know. All I know is, they've been out for a while, and their sentence has yet to be carried out. The Canterlot division of guards have yet to find them—they could be anywhere in Equestria at this time. If you are still with the Fantasians, keep them away from the hotel staff if you are able,'" Shining said, eyes glued to the letter.

Five minutes passed, and nopony said anything during that time. Eventually, Shining began to scowl. "Joy, last thing we all needed—" He threw his hooves and the scroll up into the air, his glimmer faltering so fast it made him seem duller in appearance than before. "—rapists escaping the dungeon before they can be dealt with!"

Cadence's eyes flicked between Matt and Shining, and she asked in a soft voice, "Do you want the guards to be on lookout tonight?"

Shining nodded, still scowling. "Yes," he answered. He used a hoof to gesture to the scroll and added, "And tell them to watch for those three, and toss them into the Empire's dungeon if they see them."

"Can I punch one of them next time I see them?" Matt asked, his voice tight.

Shining shook his head. "Unless there are no guards around, and it's just you and them when it happens, or if it's purely in self-defense," he replied. "Kinda like what happened to them before I trotted into that room…" He shivered at the thought.

Matt nodded. "Alright," he stated tersely. "In the meantime, I'll keep my eyes peeled for the bastards."

Shining nodded back. "Fair enough," he sighed. "We'll assemble the guards and brief them. For now, you stay put with you and yours." Matt nodded again and trotted into the room whose door he stood beside, finding himself with his companions once more. Natalie donned a stoic look, Anna had one foreleg wrapped around Lance's neck and the other around Sarah's, and Maria sat next to Fenrir. The filly was red in the face and had narrowed eyes.

"You're squishing me…" Sarah croaked, turning a little blue in the face.

"I-I can't breathe…" Lance groaned hoarsely, going towards a shade of purple the longer Anna held him.

Speaking of, Anna let the two go and mumbled in a low voice, "Sorry…"

"If I see—" Maria started, but she stopped when one of Fenrir's paws rose up and hovered in front of her muzzle.

"Yes, we are aware. You will bring unto them more righteous retribution," Fenrir groaned, rolling his eyes at the foal. He turned to Anna and added, "You do realize there is a very high probability that those foul stallions are not in the Crystal Empire as we speak?"

Anna nodded, though she shuddered faintly.

"Furthermore," Fenrir began, maintaining eye contact with Anna as he spoke, "if and when we do possibly bumble into them again, we will detain them quicker than they are able to detain you. Is that understood?"

Anna nodded again, and she began taking a few deep breaths as slowly as she could manage. Taking a moment to think over Fenrir's remarks, she realized he had a very valid point. "You're right—what are the chances they're in the Empire with us?" she asked, a small smile spreading on her face. Her body began glowing again, almost as if she were transforming into living crystal once more.

"But what if they are in the Empire with us? Sure, there's a teeny-tiny chance of that happening, but suppose those corpse-fondlers decided to start poking around the palace, and managed to evade any guards in doing so?" Katie piped up, a faux frown on her illusion-disguised visage.

"Then one of us stays up for the whole night and sounds the alarm," Alexander replied, his wings shifting. "And you yourself have a particularly high-pitched screech that can break a unicorn's concentration, if they happen to be casting any spells." At this point, all eyes fell on the wraith and Alexander added, "You're staying up until sunrise tomorrow."

"Wait, so I'm the alarm?" Katie asked disbelievingly, a brow raising up.

"Essentially, yes, but only for tonight," Alexander replied, turning to Lance and garnering a nod of approval.

Katie crossed her forelegs together. "Alright, I can deal. I'll yodel as loud as I can if I see the three stooges snooping around in the halls," she stated.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The guards stationed outside the rooms that night found themselves with their hooves clutching spears tightly, a foreign extra amidst their posts, and a heavy darkness blanketing them. Katie had shaken off her illusion, though she could not shake off the crystalline shimmer she'd acquired, and stood vigil with her clawed shoes on. She cared little about the looks the guards sent her way every few minutes, and every time they asked how she'd gotten so bad in shape, she'd merely mutter "Long story" and leave it at that.

"If you were a Mythonian changeling…" a lilac-coated pegasus guard muttered under his breath, hoping that Katie couldn't hear him.

But her long ears stood to attention, and hear him she did. "Lemme guess, your spear up my ass?" she scoffed coldly, her utterance causing the pegasus to stiffen on the spot. "Just be glad I can't drain you of your love because I have a jagged stump of a horn," she added, her voice oozing with sour notes of bitterness.

"She's just a changeling with shoes," another guard murmured, turning to the lilac pegasus as he spoke. "She wouldn't hurt a fly."

"You think I can't fight?" Katie asked, turning to the second guard with a brow raised.

"You wouldn't stand a chance. You're small, burdened quite heavily with atrophy, cannot use active magic since your horn's just a broken stump, and all you have are frail wings and a set of shoes as your defenses," the guard pointed out, frowning as he turned to the wraith.

"Doesn't mean I'm completely useless. Even I have my strengths," Katie retorted, wings buzzing for one minute and folding flat against her back the next.

"I'll admit, you got me there," the guard conceded with a nod. "I'm just saying you look…"

"Weak?" Katie finished for him, punctuating her response with a huff. When the guard nodded again, she rolled her orbs at him and chose not to say anything else, largely because she couldn't make a good enough rebuttal against his 'you look weak' point to save her hide.

A few more minutes ticked by in silence, and the wraith looked down at the floor to find that it managed to reflect the light of her orbs, although it had done so poorly. If anything, she was seeing two dull cobalt spots between her front hooves instead of azure—she figured that the darkness of the hall must've played a part. Shrugging her shoulders to no one in particular, she glanced back up and gave her surroundings a cursory glance.

Nothing had changed, from what she could tell. The guards kept giving her looks, though this time none of them uttered so much as a peep of concern. She made to examine her shoes and make sure they were fitted properly onto her hooves when she noticed a creeping chill accompanied by very soft tremors slowly inching their way up her legs.

She lifted one leg up and brought it very close to her muzzle, and caught sight of the faintest of reflected light that wasn't very noticeable at first. In addition to this, the horseshoe attached to her raised limb pulsated with blue mana, and she felt a coldness in the air that hadn't there before. She stared at her limb, barely aware that the guards around her suppressed shivers themselves.

She set her leg down and groaned, "Great, I may need to take my shoes off for a bit."

"And why is that?" the lilac pegasus asked, turning to her with a puzzled frown on his muzzle. He blinked when he noticed his breath began to form small clouds in front of his face, and he shivered again.

"Ice is growing on my legs," Katie replied, waving a frost-laden hoof for emphasis. "My shoes are enchanted."

"Is that why it suddenly turned cold in here?" another guard questioned, garnering a nod from Katie.

"Yep. The enchantments bring down the temperature of wherever they're activated at—just enough that I can turn stab wounds into popsicles, if it comes down to it," Katie replied, her wings briefly spreading and buzzing again.

The guards exchanged glances with each other, and those who had wings curled their feathery limbs around their stomachs as the temperature dropped a little more. The earth ponies and unicorns made to siddle close together, but Katie stopped that by uttering, "You guys are wearing metal armor. You'd only freeze quicker if you huddled up fully dressed as you are."

Another guard piped up, shooting Katie a vexed look as he spoke, "Are you able to de-activate your enchantments or something? Methinks you're channeling mana through your hooves."

"Are changelings even able to channel mana through their hooves? Especially this one, since she's hornless?" the lilac pegasus inquired, gesturing to Katie with a wing.

"Yes I am, to answer both questions at the same time," Katie replied with a giggle. As the guards looked at her, they noticed her shoes pulsating with blue mana for a few seconds before the glow died down. The temperature shifted again, and the halls turned comfortably warm in seconds. The assembled bunch sighed in relief and took a minute to relish the favorable mild heat, hardly noticing that any ice coating the wraith's legs rapidly melted in the same span of time.

A door opened, and into the hall stepped a bleary-eyed Armin. The changeling had shed his disguise with a brief flare of green flames, though he sparkled as much as the guards even after the fires that engulfed him died off. "Who did what with mana now?" he groaned, raising a holey hoof to yawn into.

"They asked if I could channel mana through my hooves, which I just stopped doing," Katie answered, making certain to punctuate her response with a buzz of her wings.

Armin blinked and rubbed his eyes, yawning again. "So, why do changelings channel mana through their hooves, and have unicorn-like magic on top of that?" a guard asked.

"Makes it… easier to shapeshift into an earth or unicorn pony," Armin replied with a sluggish shrug. "What's the point… of taking one of those forms, without access to innate magics? If that were the case… you may as well ask me to dress up in a sheep costume."

The guards exchanged glances with one another, as if expecting the tag-wearing changeling to shapeshift into one of them. The lilac pegasus asked, "And if you have access to innate and active magics simultaneously… would that make love-sucking easier to pull off?"

"Convincingly, and theoretically, yes," Armin replied with another yawn. He smacked his lips and added, "I'm going back to bed." With that, he turned around and trotted back into the room, but not before he assumed his pegasus guise again. The door clicked shut behind him, and the guards were once again left alone with the wraith and an otherwise-empty hallway.

The lilac guard grumbled under his breath, "This is gonna be a long night…"

"What're you on about this time?" Katie asked, ears swiveling as she articulated her question.

Another pegasus guard that was stationed next to the wraith, one sporting an orange coat and a blue mane, piped up, "Don't mind Zephyr Bolt. Sometimes he gets cranky."

Katie turned to the guard next to her, a brow rising to her hairline. "I doubt that wanting to shove his pike up my ass would constitute as 'cranky,'" she scoffed.

Zephyr decided to insert his two bits, and he looked at the orange guard as he scoffed, "Flash Sentry, I'm not cranky. I just find it distasteful that the Fantasians brought changelings with them."

"I can't help what I am, okay? You shut your cakehole!" Katie hissed, turning to Zephyr with narrowed eyes. Before she could channel mana through her hooves and bring down the temperature of the hall to water-freezing levels, an orange hoof moving to rest on her withers stopped her. She turned to Flash, who sent her a wry grin.

"She's right, Zephyr. It's like if I inexplicably wanted to be a unicorn one morning—deep down, I'd be denying myself for what I am," Flash stated, turning to Zephyr and shooting him the same grin he just gave the wraith. "I can't just hack off my wings, glue a twig to my head, and proclaim myself a unicorn. I just couldn't pull it off, because I can't use active magic. That's alicorn and changeling territory."

Zephyr huffed and grumbled something unintelligible under his breath. The unicorn guard nearest to him gave him a nudge with a hoof, and smiled fondly at Flash. "Well said, Sentry," he chirped, garnering a sheepish grin from Flash. He then turned to Katie and addressed her, "Do you work for anypony?"

Katie shook her head. "I'm just tagging along with the general and his unicorn trinity," she replied.

"And why is that?" Flash asked, a brow quirked.

Katie turned to him and did not fail to answer, "Back on Fantasia, they gave me a warm place to sleep. And when I found that Lance had changelings under his command, the desire to trot with him grew that much stronger."

"And…?" Flash persisted, sensing that the wraith had left something out of her response.

"I wanted to find out how, exactly, he got the changelings he has to obey him," Katie concluded, her orbs dimming as she spoke. "Gryphons are one thing—I couldn't give a flying hoot, so long as they didn't tear into me with their beaks. Changelings are another kettle of fish altogether."

"Did you broach this topic with him?" Zephyr piped up.

"No, because somepony else beat me to it," Katie replied curtly. "He pretty much dodged the question with a vague answer—and as a changeling myself, to me, that's very fishy if you asked for my input."

"Like how you dodged our inquiry every time we asked?" Zephyr murmured, his wings flaring for a moment.

"You really want to know why my face is split in two? Why I'm a trotting stick insect? If I told you, you'd shit your post every night for six months on end just thinking about it," Katie replied, crossing her forelegs in a pouting manner. "No disrespect, Zephyr Bolt, but I'd rather you kept your job as guard of this castle."

Zephyr and Flash exchanged wide-eyed looks, blinking as Katie's tirade lingered in their minds. Their wings shifted uncomfortably as they began imagining several unpleasant scenes in which Katie could've been rendered pencil-thin and with her face marred by her split grin. They shook their heads to rid themselves of the thoughts. Whatever the case for her damaged horn and atrophy and other issues, they resigned themselves to the fact that she wasn't going to spill the beans anytime soon.

Once again, the hall fell as silent as a tundra after it weathered a vicious snowstorm. And this time, the tranquility lingered for quite a while.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Anna dreamt as she slept, and the dream world decided to place her in an area that was pitch-black as far as the eye could see. Instinctively, she channeled mana into her horn and conjured a green light from its tip, illuminating her surroundings and finding herself on a trail large enough to fit three ponies if they trotted side by side.

This place, wherever it was, boasted a large stone structure jutting out to one side and an edge marking the road's width on the other. She looked at the rocky surface, then up to find that it seemed to simply go so high it was impossible to see if it had a top, as if pure black had consumed it.

The mare trotted to the edge of the road and peered down, careful to avoid slipping off. She found the same thing with the bottom, which turned out to be a steep drop—if anything, she may as well have been standing on a floating road with a rock wall in the middle of nowhere. Anna sighed to herself and turned around before freezing.

Something was off from second numero uno—where, logically speaking, half of the road should have been, there wasn't so much as an inch of path behind her. The unicorn turned around again and shook her head before moving away from the edge of the road and trotting onwards. She found that the trail wound up and up, like a flat curvy ramp that was constructed by nature itself. Minutes passed without incident, but as Anna climbed and climbed, she couldn't suppress a series of creeping chills that tingled along her spine and occasionally caused her tail to jerk.

She kept trotting on for what felt like hours on end, and eventually stopped to catch her breath, eyes locked onto the trail. "Wh… where does it end?" she asked herself, panting between words. Anna turned to the rocky wall, and noticed a particular opening that she was certain hadn't been there before.

Or, was it there to begin with, and she narrowly avoided trotting past it just now? Anna wasn't sure. She simply ignored it for the time being and began cantering along the path, and her horn illuminated the trail and the rock wall at her side. Paying just a smidgen more attention to these two things, she noted that nothing had really changed—even as she spent what felt like more hours following the damned road.

Once again, she halted to catch her breath after a while, making sure to look over the wall as she stopped. An opening was there, a gaping entrance to a black abyss from which a silent cold draft blew. Anna shuddered as the fleeting zephyr caressed her body, and for a moment she stiffened as it managed to go under her tail and touch her most sensitive areas. "N-not gonna stick around for this," she murmured, and with that she resumed trotting—this time at a brisk pace.

The road and wall remained consistent as she went on. Constant. Steadfast. "Just how much longer do I have to travel before it ends?" she pondered as she continued to climb up and up. Stopping for the third time, she found the same damned things—trail, wall, hole-in-wall. Another breeze came from the opening, this one colder and strong enough to lift the hairs of her tail and make them waft to one side. A hoof flew to her mouth and muffled a startled groan as the gale poked at her nethers, the feeling not unlike sticking an ice cube between her secondary lips.

Then the glow coming from her horn changed colors abruptly, from a brilliant green to a near-blinding crimson. A voice hit Anna's ears, just barely an echoing whisper, "The sinner's back. The sinner has come for round two." Immediately, the archer responded—she broke out into a frenzied gallop, making sure not to slip off of the road's edge as she fled from the hole in the wall. As she ran, her heart starting to race a good fifty miles a minute in her chest, she noticed that the accursed breeze didn't touch her once.

But the whispering voice dogged her every step, as if its owner constantly floated just behind her ears, "Give up, filly. Running from your sin won't do you any good."

"I didn't sin!" Anna barked, adrenalin coursing through her blood and causing her to gallop as fast as her legs could carry her. Though after a few minutes, her limbs gave out and she tripped, landing ungracefully upon the road with ragged breaths.

"Then why do you flee if you didn't sin, hrrrrm?" the voice asked as Anna scrambled to stand. It laughed when the unicorn fell down, her legs shaking and trembling as she hauled herself right back up. "Oh, do stop with the futile effort," it scoffed. The archer disobeyed and started galloping again, but as she raced along the road, she glanced over her shoulder.

Darkness met her vision, and she turned back before skidding to a halt. She gasped when her front hooves slipped off of the edge of the path, and had she not grasped herself in her magic and sent herself to the wall, she'd have fallen off to the all-consuming black below.

"Slipping off and tumbling to your doom would have been the better alternative to living with your sinfulness," the voice growled as Anna peeled herself from the wall and started galloping once more.

"I don't have any sinfulness to live with, you invisible prick!" Anna howled in a hoarse voice, eyes squinting and vision blurring as she continued onward. Her legs burned, her chest begged for oxygen, and her eyes watered as she denied her body rest.

"Oh really?" the voice scoffed in a mocking tone. "Then tell me what this is!" Anna skid to a halt and screamed as she felt an object with a deathly cold and absurdly rough surface wedge itself into her rectum. Her legs buckled, and she laid down on the trail as a burning pain surged through her nerves in a matter of seconds, her front hooves reaching around in an attempt to pry whatever-it-was out.

Anna stopped when she felt metal clamp around her forelegs at every joint, and she tried moving them to find that they were now cemented to the trail. Her back legs kicked at the ground uselessly, and this only left her with her ass in the air and her tail being swept to one side. She looked at the rock wall, and began panicking as from that accursed opening a shadowy creature trotted into view. It had glowing orbs that stared back at her, taking in her current position for one moment before dimming the next.

It crept towards her, and two more dark beings emerged from the crevasse and flanked it. Anna made to tell them to stop right where they were, but a black limb shot to her muzzle and held it shut against the road. One of the creatures trotted around out of sight, and she cringed as a limb—claw, hoof, or paw, she couldn't tell—prodded at her left cutie mark.

"She's marked," the creature behind her scoffed as it continued to poke at her hip.

"Doesn't matter—her talent's useless," the thing holding her muzzle shut stated.

Anna started struggling, making muffled whines of protest as she felt a limb trail to her nether regions. She made to thrust her back legs outward in an attempt to buck the living daylights out of whatever was behind her, but her rear hooves only found air to sail through. Worse still, the limb kept trailing on undeterred, as though detached from its owner. When it managed to touch its undeserved prize, she stopped thrashing and squealed when it grabbed her by the clit and twisted.

"There we go. Be a good little filly. Don't want this happening again, do we?" the creature behind her hissed, tugging at the sensitive nub for emphasis. Anna's ears fell back against her head as a new wave of agony hit her, but it became a dull throb when her clit was released. A musky scent filled her nostrils, and all it did for her was make her stomach start turning. Anna squealed again when her clit was yanked at again, and this time it was pulled and twisted hard enough she released then and there from sheer pain.

"Awww, looks like our little sinner likes it," one of the shadows scoffed in mock-disappointment. Anna began struggling, and she doubled her efforts, but all it took was a smack to her rear end to get her to cease immediately. Limbs grasped her hips, and she felt a form press itself flush against her back.

She woke up right as she felt something pressing against her entrance, eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. Anna laid there for an indeterminate amount of time, as stiff as a statue and with her heart thundering madly in her chest. "Just… a dream," she whispered to herself, though her method of self-comfort did little to ease her. Slowly, she sat up and looked around, her eyes falling on a form that lay next to her in a bed lined with crystal.

And she instantly met with crimson eyes framing a burnt orange face. "You look like you've seen a ghost," Lance murmured, blinking sleepily.

"Had a… another nightmare," Anna murmured in a low voice, fidgeting in place. She idly crossed her rear legs, only to blush and find a rather wet patch of cloth under them.

"Good thing I'm not currently wearing my uniform," Lance murmured, sitting up with a sigh. "Did something prod you there in your dream?" he asked, using one of his wings to gesture to Anna's rear legs for emphasis.

"G-grabbed… and pulled… it hurt," Anna murmured, shuddering as she recalled the unpleasant sensation. The mere thought of it only made her cross her rear legs to the point her inner thighs began aching from being pressed together.

Lance sighed and moved a hoof, letting it rest on her shoulder. "If it helps, just stay up and trot around for a few. It was just a fucked up dream, and nothing more," he stated in a calm voice, his wings shifting uncomfortably when Anna fidgeted immediately. He quirked a brow and asked, "Wait, you were…?" When the mare next to him nodded hesitantly, he physically slapped himself in the face with a hoof. "Forget I said that…"

With that, he himself got out of the bed, and Anna followed suit on a wobbly set of legs. He turned to look at her, noticing that her tail hung heavily behind her rear legs, and that some strands clung to her fetlocks and gaskins. "You okay?"

Anna shook her head. "Still… dealing with…" she trailed off as her back legs buckled, forcing her to sit on her haunches.

"Would a midnight bath sound good?" Lance asked, watching as Anna made to stand again.

"That would be good," Anna murmured in reply, nodding fervently.

Chapter XXVII- On The Wings of Rumors

Anna and Lance trotted a few laps around the bed, with one forcing herself awake and attempting to not stumble every which-way, and the other trailing her every move in case she did fall. The unicorn fell a few times, but she always got back up with either a helping hoof from the general, or simply using the bed for support before trying again. Some five minutes passed in this manner, and both halted when the door to their room creaked open, whereupon Katie came in uninvited.

"I'm hearing some serious clip-clopping going on in here. What's the deal?" Katie asked, both brows raised as she noticed Anna wobbling in place.

"You… uh, really want to know?" Anna murmured, frowning when one of her back legs buckled again.

For a moment, Katie's orbs wavered and dimmed, and she continued staring at the two ponies in the room as she contemplated whether or not to ask. "On second thought, no," she replied after another minute, and with that she left the room without closing the door behind her.

Anna sighed, and her horn started glowing. In a flash of magic, three brown sheet-like cloths materialized before her, and she turned to Lance as he trotted up to said cloths.

He turned to her and asked, "Are you going to don one, too?"

Anna nodded. "You might freeze if Katie decided to activate her shoes again, as bizarre as that sounds, "she replied.

"I doubt she could make icicles grow on my feathers," Lance retorted with a huff, though he gave a nod as he spoke. He glanced at his sides, making sure his wings were shut, and relaxed as he felt cloth cover his midsection and stomach. A third cloth came over his head, and he felt it brush up against his ears, withers, and haunches.

"You good now?" Anna asked, causing him to turn to her and nod again.

"Just stay with me, and everything should be fine," Lance sighed, and he wasted no time in trotting to the door. Anna summoned another cloak and threw that onto herself before catching up, and only when she stood next to him did he step into the hall outside.

"Why are you two up?" Zephyr asked from his post, watching as the two Fantasians left their room.

"We couldn't sleep, and figured a bath would wind us down," Lance replied, stopping himself from letting his wings shift even the slightest bit under the cloak. His ears twitched as he felt the guards' gazes turn to him. "Is there a bath house or something we could use?"

Zephyr exchanged looks with his fellow guards, and for the most part, almost all of them shrugged in silent response. Flash turned to the duo and sighed in exasperation. "At this time of night?" he groaned.

"Afraid so," Anna stated with a nod of her head.

Flash and Zephyr turned to Katie, who merely looked back and forth between the two guards, as if they were on crack. "They told me the same thing, now please stop staring," she hissed, her wings buzzing furiously as she spoke, yet not lifting her so much as an inch from the ground.

Then, Flash hung his head and sighed before he begrudgingly turned to Zephyr. "So, who gets to play usher tonight?" he asked, a frown on his face.

Zephyr's eyelids partially drooped, and a frown set into his own muzzle, giving him a not-so-amused look. "I'll do it, if only to get away from the damned changeling sitting next to you," he grumbled.

"I'm thinking of enlisting her in my army," Lance hissed, shooting a stone-cold glare at Zephyr that could cut through solid steel if it were able. "As a fourth right-hoof—lieutenant general, to be exact. Don't even think of picking a fight with her, lest you want to fight me," he warned, and instantly Zephyr stiffened under the intense gaze and mutely nodded.

Katie turned to the general, her orbs growing wide as saucers. "R-really? Me?" she all but squeaked in surprise.

Lance turned back to her and nodded. "Of course, you'd have to prove yourself to be worthy of such a position. I have my doubts, but honestly, I think you may be able pull it off despite your rather… glaring issues," he replied.

With that, he watched as Zephyr began trotting away from the guards, and made to follow him with Anna falling in step behind him. As they rounded a bend and vanished from sight, Katie remained sitting next to Flash, looking at the bend with her jaw once more dropping open and gently swinging like a door.

Flash put a hoof on the wraith's withers. "Hey, you okay?" he asked, garnering nothing more than a shake of the head as a response.

Another guard sat on his haunches, dropped his spear, and threw his forehooves into the air. "I can understand unicorns as right hooves, but a wraith? Th-th-that's unheard of!" he exclaimed. "Not even Shining Armor would do such a thing, let alone with a wraith so bucking tiny!"

Flash sighed and shook his head. "Then again, the stallion that just left isn't Shining Armor," he retorted.

The two guards flinched as they heard Lance release an echoing shout marred with irritation, "I heard that! I heard every damned word! Don't make me come back up there!"

One of the other doors in the hall opened with a shrill creak once the yell faded, and Flash directed his gaze to it to find Natalie shambling out with one of her front hooves rubbing her eyes. "The fuck is Lance bitching about this time?" she groaned, ears flattening against her head.

The guard who dropped his spear answered her, "Um… he said he'd make the wraith a fourth right hoof or something, as part of his army. Me and Flash don't exactly agree with that proposition, and unfortunately your general heard us."

Natalie's eyes widened instantly, and she dropped her hoof. "He wants to what?" she asked, her voice but a squeak as she turned to the sitting stallion.

"Exactly," the guard who dropped his spear sighed. "I don't get it, either."

"Katie, did he—" Natalie stopped upon turning to the wraith she addressed and noticed her jaw hanging open. "Katie… you okay?" All she received as an answer was a silent nod with a mouth whose lower half clacked up to meet with the upper, and briefly connected via pale gums before descending back down like a door that hadn't been installed properly.

"She's been like that since he told her she'd be considered for something like an advisor-type position five minutes ago," Flash murmured, shaking his head. "I think she needs a nap, personally."

Hooves echoed into the hall, and from the same room Natalie came out of Matt stumbled to meet up with said mare in question. "Who did what to who for how many cookies?" he asked.

"Matt, we're gonna need to have a word with Lance," Natalie replied, turning to her fellow Fantasian as he gave her a sleepy-but-vexed look. "He wants to make Katie a fourth right-hoof."

Matt's eyes went wide. "As in… something along the lines of lieutenant general?" he asked.

"With how thin she is… a private at the most. I don't see her getting lieutenant general or even colonel anytime soon," Natalie murmured with a hesitant nod. "Still, we're gonna have to talk with him about that. She wouldn't… she wouldn't be able to hold the position if she got it."

"He probably had a reason to consider it, but… you're right. We're gonna have to ask him about it—even from him, the idea of an emaciated wraith as part of an army is ludicrous," Matt agreed, drawing a heavy sigh. "I'm starting to think he took mushrooms or something."

"But, if he had mushrooms, then why was he trotting normally earlier today? Furthermore, how do you think he got mushrooms?" Natalie retorted, frowning. "He can't stand greens too well. I'm inclined to believe the same would be true for fungi."

"Touché," Matt sighed, ears flattening against his head.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Zephyr led the two onwards for minutes on end, winding down several corridors with Lance and Anna in step not too far behind him. The guard grumbled to himself about changelings and them being damned, but he made it just unintelligible enough that Lance had to tune out all other noises simply to make out 'changelings' and 'damned' in his little bout of rambling.

Anna chose to keep quiet for a while, watching Zephyr carefully to see where he was going to trot next. Every time his left or right wing twitched, he'd turn down a corresponding hall seconds later, which enabled her to hear him mumbling like a child trying to avoid telling their father something. Every so often, she turned to Lance with a look that could only be called disturbed, but he refused to meet her gaze.

The air hung heavily, and not in a good way. It was the kind of thick that made it difficult to breathe, difficult to think clearly, and especially difficult to speak louder than a whisper. Every time she opened her mouth to talk, no sound came out. She wanted to say something—anything—to break the silence. Yet she found she could not articulate even one syllable, without first having to take a few shallow breaths that set her already-wobbly legs into jittering-like-crazy-overdrive.

Which, in turn, caused her to almost trip and crash into Lance a few times. She stopped herself with her magic, and eventually she resorted to just levitating herself in the air like a ghost that refused to leave the mortal plane when her hooves slipped from beneath her a time too many. She did not stray from either of the pegasi, and kept herself an inch or so above ground. But when Anna looked at Lance again after a few moments, she flinched when he looked back with a stoic expression on his face.

"We'll talk when he's out of earshot," Lance mouthed, briefly pausing to use a hoof to gesture to Zephyr for emphasis. Anna nodded, and the two turned to their guard-turned-usher just in time to see him take a sharp left. They followed him closely, and watched as he turned to a door and opened it.

"This way, you lot," Zephyr groaned, and trotted into the room the door belong to. Anna and Lance exchanged looks before they entered, finding an expansive room lined with a few lockers on one side. Beyond that, a few showerheads stuck out of the furthest wall, though it lacked stalls and curtains. "This is the guard showers. Take it or leave it."

Lance nodded to the guard. "Thank you kindly. Could you leave us to our privacy, please?" he asked in a polite, if slightly miffed, tone.

"Can do, since you brought your marefriend with you," Zephyr replied, causing Lance to blubber for a few seconds. With that, he trotted out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him in his wake. The two Fantasians flinched as the sound echoed sharply, briefly ringing in their ears for a good few minutes.

Anna turned to the door and glared at it like it was Zephyr himself. "Who does he think he is, Celestia's uncle?" she grumbled.

"Just because we happen to share a bed does not mean we're dating," Lance huffed, also glaring at the door.

Anna tuned to Lance. "Maybe he's just mad at you because you run things differently than what he's used to," she murmured with a shrug. "Either that, or just mad that you can get close to mares and he can't."

"Well, whatever the—" Lance began, only to stop when he realized what Anna just said. He turned to meet her gaze again, an incredulous brow quirked.

"I meant physically, not intimately," Anna clarified, frowning. "Unless you were dreaming again…"

"Fair point, but still. Whatever the case may be, that guard has no reason to complain, let alone assume shit," Lance sighed, his shoulders slumping a bit. He shrugged and turned to the showerheads at the far wall, and began trotting to them, with the mare following him via self-levitation. The two reached that wall in seconds, and cast off their cloaks halfway through the trip to avoid getting them soaked.

Anna laid down after turning on two showerheads, making sure she was under one of the torrents. At first, the water was freezing cold, before the chill got replaced with a very mild warmth that bordered on boiling hot. Lance sat on his haunches, and both were heavily drenched after some seconds. "Why'd you…" She stopped when her companion opened his mouth.

"Say I'd give Katie a position of power in the army?" Lance finished, turning to the mare who nodded back at him. "I did that to get that guard to stop griping. I wouldn't actually give her such a position—but, suppose that I did, theoretically. What would happen, if she had that power?"

Anna looked at the stallion and blinked a few times before her eyes widened. "Ooooh," she groaned with a nod. "You basically gave her a metaphorical shield…"

"Yeah. I couldn't sleep at all, and decided to keep tabs on things. So, while you were dreaming, I crept to the door every few minutes to see if things were going smoothly. At one point, I heard Katie say something about how he was gonna shove his spear up her ass," Lance replied, nodding back.

Anna's pupils shrank. "You're kidding," she murmured.

Lance shook his head. "Yeah. I had to do something to keep things from needlessly escalating. Otherwise…" he trailed off, shuddering in spite of the torrent of warm water that hailed upon him.

"I see," Anna mumbled, and she turned to the wall to stare at it. The crystal faintly showed her reflection, as well as that of the general's, but both were distorted because of the erratic bumps and curves of the material and by fog from steam building up. She stood up, her legs still shaky, and glanced around before finding a shelf divided into boxes standing at one end of the line of showerheads. In them, she noticed, were little white bars that looked rather dry at a distance.

Her horn lit up, and she grasped one of the white bars in her magic before making it come to her, and she found it to be rather small. "Found some soap, I take it?" Lance asked, garnering a nod. "Well, could you hand a bar to me too, please?"

Anna responded by plucking out another bar of soap and forking it over, and she stepped out of her rain of water to start rubbing the bar she claimed along her haunches and back legs. She did this in such a way Lance hardly had any clue she was cleaning her rear end first—at least, until she applied the bar to her tail and quickly built up a thick layer of suds along the hairs.

He waited until she did her shoulders and front legs before starting on his own body. Immediately upon making the bar go up and down his left front leg, it began slipping wildly. When he tried making it go still in his front hooves, it slipped out of them like a banana peel and managed to hit him square in the nose like a bullet.

This wound up causing him to recoil so sharply he fell on his back. His wings clanged loudly, feathers scraping against the crystal floor like knives, and the runes on said feathers began glowing with a sickly light. The floor itself glowed beneath him, and for a fraction of a second what looked like teal mana shot up and embraced the pegasus that landed, which only caused the runes themselves to glow even brighter.

Lance screamed as his body was immediately encased in a sphere of tealish-colored lightning that lasted for a few seconds, the pure shock causing him to start flailing his legs on his back as it dragged on for a few more seconds. Anna watched with a horrified look as more mana erupted from the floor, enveloping the stray bolts before they could hurt him any more.

When the dual glows faded and the runes ceased glowing with a few lingering crackles, she quickly turned the showerheads off with her magic and rushed over with a shriek of alarm, standing over Lance while using her hooves to tuck his wings beneath him. He groaned as she positioned his front legs at his sides, effectively covering up the wings, and both heard the door flying open before hooves hitting crystal graced their ears.

"What happened?!" a masculine voice cried.

Anna turned to the lockers, and found that Zephyr had barged in. "He, uh, dropped the soap, and skid against the floor after he fell," she answered. When the guard gave her a glare, she added, "We weren't horsing around, honest!"

"I see. Don't scare me like that next time," Zephyr groaned, and with that he turned and left.

When the door slamming hit his ears again, Lance asked in a pained wheeze, "Did he… see my wings?"

"He didn't. I tucked them in before he even opened the door," Anna answered in a low whisper. "Want me to help you scrub, since…" She stopped when he rose a foreleg slowly, noticing that when he bent it at the joints, it jittered slightly and then stiffened part-way. "I'll… take that as a yes." Being careful to avoid touching him with her magic, she used her hooves to slowly get him to sit up first, and then stand.

"Next time… I'm s-securing the soap… in a damn net," Lance groaned, his wings shuddering and slightly rattling against his sides. As the wings stilled, his legs trembled slightly from the aftershock, but he made them stiffen for a moment. Slowly, he went back under the torrent of water, with Anna guiding him along the way. He leaned against his current showermate and shivered in pain as she scrubbed him with the soap bar that flew into his face, though she simply cleaned his legs and tail and neck before having the suds rinsed off.

Once both of them were clean and the soap bars were stowed away where they'd been found, Anna turned off the showerheads by letting her magic twist the knobs, and the two stood in silence. After a few minutes, she decided to break the tranquility by asking, "You good enough to walk?"

Lance pulled himself away and tried to trot around her, but his legs gave out halfway and he ended up landing on his stomach with his limbs sprawled out. "Give me… a few," he grumbled in reply. Anna nodded and tried to trot herself, but when her legs wobbled, she simply stopped trotting after a few seconds and willed them to stop shaking. "What are you… doing?"

"Trying to walk right so I can carry you back. I don't trust that guard outside those lockers," Anna replied, once more attempting to trot without shaking and stumbling every which-way she could, before she fell down herself. She got back up and tried again, and again after she fell down a second time.

Lance nodded and watched as she made several attempts to steady herself, getting up when her hooves slipped out from under her, and in a few moments her legs stopped trying to give out. Whether she was forcing herself to be as steady as could be, or she had merely recovered from her dream, he couldn't tell—though he was inwardly grateful that she was definitely trying and succeeding. He found himself half-dragged into a sitting position, before the cloaks he cast off were replaced on his form.

Anna used hers to dry him off, without doing the same for herself, and wrapped the fourth cloak around his midsection for good measure. Then she sat in front of him with her muzzle pointing at the shelf of soap bars and away from him. "Afraid you're gonna have to piggyback it," she sighed. Lance blushed a little, but slowly pressed his chest and stomach against her as he put his hooves around the barrel of her chest regardless.

Then she lifted herself into a standing position, and dragged him with. His rear legs dangled beside hers, and they bent at the fetlocks, which meant his pasterns and hooves now touched the floor front side down. She sagged a little beneath him, but not so much that her legs could end up buckling and send them both crashing to the floor.

"Are you… part earth pony?" he groaned inquisitively.

"No. I'm guessing it's your innate pegasus magic making you light enough for me to do this," Anna replied. "You gotta be light to fly, after all… if and when your wings get fixed," she glumly added, feeling Lance nod against her neck.

With that, she began inching her way to the door with her mane and tail still dripping as she moved, her companion's pasterns dragging against the floor in defeat. She made sure her movements were sluggish enough to not let him tilt one way or the other and throw her off-balance, but fast enough she made it to the obstruction in a minute's time without rubbing him raw in the process.

She halted upon hearing voices talking on the other side. Quirking a brow, she carefully aligned herself to the door and pressed her ear to it, and Lance did likewise while causing her to sag a little on the side in the process. The door held them, though, and they listened closely. "... I'm telling you, you're a lunatic!" a mare cried out on the other side.

"Listen, Prism, the Emperor has gone nuts! He's trusting an equally-crazy Fantasian who has changelings in his army!" an unfamiliar-sounding stallion retorted. "For Celestia's sake, they even got Spike the Brave and Glorious on his side!"

"That's nonsense, and you know it," the mare who the two assumed was Prism huffed. "I saw a bunch of ponies earlier, and a diamond dog and some gryphs. Nothing more, nothing less, unless you count the striped one they had accompanying them."

"I saw two of them shapeshift before my eyes! The Fantasians have buckmothering changelings with them!" the stallion yelled, and Anna cringed when his response was punctuated by what sounded like a stomping hoof. "I'm gonna set the Emperor and Spike the Brave and Glorious straight, and have those vile Fantasians deported—by any means necessary!"

"You'll do no such thing! The Emperor is your superior, and if he wants some Fantasians to stay, then so be it! As long as they don't do anything even remotely like what Sombra did, I'm perfectly fine with it!" Prism shot back, and with that the sound of galloping hooves echoed into the room. Then, they faded, bringing about a silence that lingered for what felt like hours. In fact, the silence was so thick that as Anna shuffled away with Lance on her back, neither set of hooves—whether being lifted up and down or being dragged along the floor—made not one peep.

They shared one glance, each knowing what was on the other's mind. Somepony wanted them deported 'by any means necessary,' and wished to 'set the Emperor and Spike the Brave and Glorious straight' in the process? They turned back to the door in unison, but dared not approach it again—not until another galloping set of hooves filled in the silence before they too faded. "You'll see, Prism! You'll see that I was right!" the stallion beyond the room bellowed, his voice rapidly turning into a dull echo when the hooves themselves had silenced.

"... Levitate us to the guest rooms. We have to warn the others as soon as we can," Lance ordered in a low voice, causing Anna to stiffen.

"But… won't that set off your wings again?" Anna asked in apprehension, her voice faltering when 'set off' left her lips.

"It won't, if you just use levitation," Lance replied. "I'll let you know if they are set off, though." Anna nodded, and embraced both herself and him in her magic. She did the same with the door and flung it open, and they flew out of it and into the hall like they were fired from a slingshot. They darted down the hall as one, but not before looking both ways and finding that Zephyr was oddly absent.

"Where is that guard?" Anna mumbled under her breath.

"Probably returned to his post with the others. But him not waiting on us to finish cleaning up… it's awfully fishy," Lance murmured, his brow furrowing. "Unless maybe another guard found him, told him to go back to his post. Only way I can see that happening would be if guard two had a superior rank or something."

"We'll check whether or not he returned to his post, and see what happens from there," Anna sighed.

"And act if need be," Lance finished for her with a nod of his head. "If they're itching to do what I think they're gonna do, we need to act as soon as we can." He paused for a moment, before his face hardened. "Actually, let's hold off on returning to the guest rooms."

"Change in plans?" Anna inquired.

"Yes. I want to see if we can find Prism first. She—I am assuming it's a she—might still be somewhere in this damned castle," Lance answered, ears folding back against his head. "If we don't find her, then we go to the others."

With another shared glance and dual nods, they made haste and set off to find out where Prism was, still embraced by a green-tinted magic.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

It wasn't until the sun rose did they return to the guest rooms. The guards were still stationed, but Katie was oddly absent. However, Zephyr was present at the scene as stoic as ever, his eyes carefully trailing the floating ponies in such a way they didn't know he was looking directly at them.

Matt waited outside a room with an opened door, and beckoned Lance and Anna inside with a hoof before going in himself. They floated in after the blond-maned stallion and the mare's horn turned a bright red-hot that shimmered through the green, and it fizzled violently before her magic immediately waned. As a result, Anna and Lance crashed to the floor in a heap. The former was grunting as a headache settled in, and the latter began groaning as the mare's body ended up pressuring his ribs a bit from how they were positioned.

The half-Clydesdale sighed and shook his head when they crashed, trotted to them and helped them up with his magic. Only after he successfully dragged them to the bed and disentangled the two without complications, he turned around to close the door behind them with magic. "Alright, explain why you two flew instead of trotted along the hall and why you didn't show up earlier," Matt sighed, a frown etched onto his muzzle as his gaze fell onto the ponies in bed.

"Lance's wings set off. He tripped, and the feathers scraped... against the floor, and those damned runes jolted him... bad enough his legs were half-paralyzed," Anna groaned, bringing a hoof up to rub her temples. "We… couldn't sleep, and took a shower. After we finished, the guard who escorted us vanished, and we heard…"

"Somepony—a stallion, I believe—wants to, I quote, 'set Shining and Spike straight,'" Lance stated in a hiss. "We heard him yelling at a Prism pony, and he thinks the Emperor's gone mad for trusting me. We went looking for the Prism pony first, before coming back—it's why it took us so long."

"Did he say your name?" Matt asked, a brow quirked.

Lance shook his head. "He did mention the fact that I have changelings in my army, so I assumed he was talking about me," he answered. "Oh, and the pony—whoever in fuck he is—wants our asses deported."

"But… they can't deport us. Most we did was fuck up a timberdrake and shut down a hotel just by spending the night," Matt sighed, shoulders sagging as he spoke.

"Won't stop whoever we overheard from trying to find a reason to have us booted, though," Lance retorted. "The Prism pony he argued with didn't agree with him." He paused for a moment. "And where's Katie?"

Matt gestured to the other end of the bed with a hoof as hooves hitting crystal filled the room. As soon as the clip-clopping halted, Lance turned to find an illusion-disguised Katie looking right at him, her front hooves resting on the frame of the bed. "Right over there. And I have another twenty questions—"

Lance turned his attention back to Matt, and cut him off in a harsh whisper, "I said that I'd make her a fourth right hoof to get one of the guards to stop bitching at her. I heard her say something about him wanting to shove a spear up her ass. And no, I won't actually go through with making her a right hoof unless she does something exceptional, thank you very much."

"Guess that explains a lot," Katie huffed, eyes narrowing for a moment.

Matt nodded in understanding. He turned to the table that sat at one end of the room, and Lance did likewise. Both saw Natalie sitting next to it in the chair, looking at them with her chin resting on one of her front pasterns and both front legs on the table. "So, boys, we have another problem?" she asked sarcastically, eyes half-lidded and a bored frown on her face.

Both stallions nodded. "We'll have to keep an extra eye on Armin and Katie, if what Lance said is true," Matt replied.

"I was there with him, I'm a witness…" Anna grumbled indignantly, turning her head to glare at Matt.

"Well," Natalie began, rising to stand from her chair. She leaned on the table, using her front legs to support herself in doing so. "We'll keep an eye out, alright? There's only one pony who wants to 'set Shining straight' as far as we know, and counting Spike and Zecora, twelve of us. Thirteen, including NoLegs."

"You're right, Natz. That pony's very likely outnumbered," Lance agreed with a nod. "But still, they may catch us off-guard. I don't want a repeat of that damn hotel all over again."

Natalie nodded back. "How about we take turns watching for suspicious activity? This time, we have guards with us," she murmured. "It'll be much safer."

"True, and one of them might know who's wanting us deported," Lance stated. He frowned, though. "But they may not know until tomorrow, or the next day. Hell, they might never know at all, and we'd be none the wiser."

"Doesn't mean we can't keep our eyes and ears peeled," Anna retorted with a huff. "However… should we tell Shining about it, or no?"

The eyes of the other four turned to her immediately, and a series of frowns upon muzzles greeted her. Matt rose a hoof and rubbed his chin with it, humming thoughtfully. Lance's wings shifted beneath the cloth, though fortunately the hexes upon them didn't activate at all even as they brushed up against the cloaks. Natalie's brow furrowed, though only slightly, and she got off of the table before trotting over to the others. Katie's ears twitched, but she showed no signs of movement otherwise.

"That's… actually a good question. He might not believe us when and if we tell him there's a pony plotting against him," Lance murmured, sighing heavily.

"Maybe… maybe we'll wait a day before telling him. Just in case we happen to overhear that crazy pony you guys said you heard," Natalie stated, slowly nodding as she spoke.

"Maybe Shining himself will overhear that pony himself, if he's lucky," Matt added, setting his hoof down.

"But there's as much a chance none of those things could happen," Katie pointed out, shaking her head.

"But there's a chance the pony could tell Shining something ludicrous—like, suppose they said I went and raped a mare with my horn," Anna began, scowling. "They may do something to implicate me and convince the guards I was there at the crime scene when it happened."

"They'd have to replicate your bow, or one of your arrows first," Natalie remarked, causing Anna to shake her head.

"Perhaps so, but these are crystal ponies we're talking about here. They may just as well have a bow similar to mine—then again, how should I know? We don't know much about the territory we're currently in," Anna replied, her face hardening. "For all we know, there could be multiple bows forged of stone and crystal, exactly like mine."

Matt and Natalie shared a glance, and the latter spoke up, "The only ponies with weapons we've seen so far are the guards and Twilight."

"Unless hooves count as weapons," Anna scoffed. "In which case, most ponies have at least one."

"Including us," Matt pointed out matter-of-factly.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Anna hissed sarcastically, a mock-smile forming on her face.

"You're welcome," Matt replied, a grin spreading on his muzzle.

"Alright, you guys, calm down," Lance barked, and instantly the two unicorns turned to him before they had the chance to start arguing. "It's no use even starting a fight, when somepony who I have reason to believe wants to bring harm onto Shining's on the loose."

The trio of unicorns and the disguised wraith nodded, and they took a few deep breaths and a minute to shift a bit. Matt and Natalie sat on their haunches, and Anna rose to sit up. "Of course, we're also gonna have to tell the others about this…" Natalie murmured, garnering a slow nod from the other three ponies in the room. Katie let go of the bed and dropped to all fours.

"In any case, we'll also need to tell Maria to keep mum about it," Anna added, sighing once more. Her shoulders sagged for a bit, and she began rolling them as if to work out kinks in their muscles. "And my sister, too. I certainly don't want a repeat of Chanson."

"At any rate, we don't know who this mystery pony that may or may not want to hurt Shining even is. I think we should keep eyes and ears out for any names that may come up," Matt piped up, his ears folding back as he spoke.

"Exactly. All Anna and I know was that it sounded like a stallion, and that a pony named Prism bickered with him," Lance murmured, wings twitching ever so slightly under the garbs.

"You think we should keep an eye out for this Prism? They may know the pony who wants to 'set Shining straight,' if you get my drift," Natalie said, tilting her head.

Lance put a hoof to his chin and rubbed, prior to languidly sitting up and nodding his head. "Sounds like a plan to me," he replied. "As soon as we find this Prism pony, we're gonna whistleblow to Shining. Hopefully, with another pony who talked to the stallion that wants to potentially harm him, we could have something to go on. In the meantime, we'll check the library to see if its manager and her volunteers have found anything."

"I can get behind that," Natalie agreed.

"Seconded," Matt added, a small smile forming upon his muzzle.

"And if we're really lucky, we may be able to find the Prism pony at the library," Anna piped up, also grinning herself.

"If I run into the pony that wants us deported, I'll ask him if he wants a pretty convincing lie, or the ugly truth. Otherwise, I'm gonna stick around with you guys, in case this damn illusion wears off on its own," Katie stated, trotting around the bed to meet up with Natalie and Matt.

"Then it's settled," Lance murmured, his eyes glinting as he spoke. He laid back down, head resting with his forelegs under his chin. Anna followed suit, yawning as her head met with a pillow. "Matt, Natz, I trust you two to tell the others what we just relayed to you. Katie, don't wander off—if your illusion wears off prematurely, it could lead to something terrible. In the meantime, Anna and I are gonna catch up on some sleep. Wake us up if something happens."

Matt and Natalie nodded in understanding, and waited until Anna and Lance had fallen asleep before gently pulling the bed's covers over them with magic. After that, Katie climbed onto Matt's back, and the three silently crept out of the room, softly shutting the door behind them on their way out.

Chapter XXVIII- Three Trots Behind

Maria jumped into the air as she and the other Fantasians, along with Zecora, Spike, and Flash Sentry languidly shuffled down a rather lengthy hall, wings madly flapping. Yet every time she did this, she stayed in the air for less than five seconds. But before she could land and hurt herself, Fenrir or Alexander caught her mid-drop, and lowered her to the ground. "Flying's hard," she complained after a few tries.

"Your feathers grew back… two days ago? Regardless, you might want to give your wings a rest," Alexander remarked, using a talon to gently poke at the filly's wings for emphasis.

"B-but—" Maria began, wings spreading as if she were preparing to try again.

Fenrir cut Maria off before she could even start griping, "He's correct. Your body needs time to adjust to having a full coat of feathers once more. By attempting to become airborne, you only risk bringing harm onto yourself. Do as he says: take it easy for right now."

Maria deflated, wings folding at her sides. "Okay…" she groaned.

Natalie turned to Katie, who still rode on Matt's back. "I think she's trying to emulate you," she remarked.

Katie responded with an eyeroll. "She's gonna need two sets of wings to pull that off," she huffed.

Flash, who trotted next to Natalie with Spike on his back, decided to pipe up, "I, uh… overheard your little talk this morning."

Natalie turned to the guard, both brows shooting to her hairline. "And if we… don't report it, you will?" she inquired hesitantly.

"It's sort of my duty to do so," Flash replied with a nod. "And if I don't, one of my fellow guards who were stationed that night will. Gotta inform the Emperor that somepony's conspiring against him."

"True enough," Matt agreed, sighing.

"I could just scorch them with my fire breath if they tried laying a hoof on me," Spike interjected, waving a claw dismissively. "That is, if they were actually going to go through with this 'setting me straight' thing."

Zecora rose one of her front legs to her chin and idly tapped with a hoof, using the other three to trot in doing so. Her eyes averted to Flash and she murmured, "Tell me, dearest guard, have the crystal ponies always been like this? I speak of the despising-of-the-changelings that seems… quite amiss."

"For the two or so years I've been stationed here, just about," Flash replied with a shrug. "I find it odd they treat Spike like a walking god, but changelings just seem to rile them up."

"I'm impressed the crystal ponies haven't talked about him yet," Matt retorted, using a hoof to gesture to Fenrir for emphasis. "Look at him, he's a good few inches taller than me! He's a walking, talking definition of beardog!"

Fenrir chortled, and aptly responded by shifting to walk on all fours. "If I am a beardog, then you, my good stallion, are but a horse," he chirped, a wry grin on his muzzle. This caused Matt to start spluttering incoherently, and Katie to break out laughing.

"If he's a horse, then I am part rook," Alexander added, a grin on his beak.

"Magpie," Sarah interjected, garnering a guffaw from the gryphon.

"Oh, please, I have not one speck of white on me," Alexander retorted, still grinning.

"But with a crystal coat, some of your feathers look dark metallic blue," Sarah scoffed, a wicked grin forming on her muzzle.

Alexander replied by spreading his wings and giving them a once-over, only to find that some of his feathers did indeed seem a dark metallic blue instead of black. This was most predominant on his wings and chest, though his back legs and tail and claws were still dark and sooty in comparison. "I blame refraction of light," he mumbled.

"Is Fantasia cloudy?" Flash asked, looking pointedly at the gryphon. "Lack of sunshine could also be a factor."

Alexander's head dropped, and he sighed begrudgingly. "Ectoplasms are so rampant they linger for days on end," he replied.

Flash immediately froze. "You're… kidding, right?" he inquired, eyes widening.

Natalie shook her head. "Afraid not," she sighed. "But they're stuck in Fantasia."

Flash gulped before taking a few breaths to calm himself and resumed trotting once more. "I-I see," he murmured, ears flattening against his head for a moment. "I… I almost don't want to imagine how bad the ectoplasm problem is over there."

"You aren't on Fantasia. You're on your home turf. Lighten up," Sarah sighed, and instantly Flash nodded and his ears perked up.

"Y-you're right," Flash murmured, his face setting with a stoic look. "The ectoplasms can't get me here."

The group rounded a bend, finding themselves in a shorter hall with a winding staircase at its end. Flash trotted ahead of the guests, and beckoned them onwards with a wing after gaining a bit of distance from the group. They followed him, watching as he trotted up the stairs instead of down, and wasted no time in ascending the flight single-file after him. The bunch made it up one floor, and strode down a few more halls without speaking. A few minutes had passed in silence and hall-navigating, when the guard-turned-usher stopped before a set of double doors that were open.

From the room whose doors had been parted, the guests heard a myriad of voices mumbling before they shushed, and a tense silence took precedence. Exchanging glances with the others, Matt crept over and he peered inside to find a large auditorium, motioning for everyone else to come over with a hoof. Every one of his companions tiptoed over to the door and looked inside, seeing that every seat was filled with guards of all creeds, all watching a stage upon which an armored and furious-seeming Shining stood.

The Emperor's blue eyes were sweeping mercilessly across every single pony that was seated, glinting with nothing short of pure rage that accompanied a hard frown on his muzzle. His eyes briefly met with those of his guests, and he idly nodded to them before turning his attention back to the guards.

They heard him bellow out in a chilling, commanding voice, "I have absolutely no idea which one of you wise guys would wish our guests to be deported when they have done nothing wrong—or even if it was one of you to begin with." He paused, eyes coldly darting across the crowd once more. The guards stiffened under his gaze, and some murmured for a moment or so before hushing up.

Shining took the settling silence as his cue to go on, raising his voice as he spoke. "But if I hear so much as another peep regarding a desire to 'set me straight,' or to do likewise to my adoptive nephew no less, there will be consequences. I'm not sure which one of you is responsible, or if the guilty party is present, but you can be certain I will find out who came up with that oh-so-bright idea. Am I understood?"

"Yes sir!" the crowd shrieked in unison, as loud as they could.

"Excellent," Shining hissed with a nod of his head. "Now, return to your posts, and tell your fellow guards who have not attended this assembly what I have just told you. You are dismissed." He paused to turn to the door and beckoned his guests with a hoof. "But not until the door is cleared out." The Fantasians hesitated, but they filed into the auditorium and stood between the seats. Zecora, Spike, and Flash followed suit, and the entire lot kept themselves out of the way of the guards as they stood up and began trotting out of the room.

Some of the guards that passed the guests gave them looks, most being stoic in nature. But Katie and Armin saw sparks of loathing, and a few of fear, in some sets of eyes that belonged to otherwise-emotionless visages. Only when the room was cleared out and the seats all but empty, Shining hopped off the stage and trotted to his visitors, stopping just shy of Zecora and locking his eyes on the orange-coated escort. "Flash, what is your purpose here?" he asked.

"I… I was told about somepony conspiring against you, sir. I was bringing the guests so they could tell you in more detail," Flash replied, frowning. He saw a gleam in Shining's eyes and hastily said a statement sounding more like an inquiry, "Um… it seems like somepony already told you, though?"

Shining nodded. "A little birdie aroused me from my sleep and informed me of the whole deportation thing last night," he replied. He sent a fond smile at Spike, and cantered over before raising a hoof and patting the drake's head with it. "And if anypony tries to hurt you, you have permission to breathe fire on them."

Spike nodded, and smiled at the gesture of affection. He spoke up when the hoof retracted, "But does Cadence know about this?"

Shining nodded. "She's been informed as well," he answered. "It's easy to inform two ponies when they share the same bedroom."

Matt and Natalie exchanged looks, frowning and blushing a little at what Shining just implied. They turned to Maria as she tossed in her two bits, "What's deportation?"

"We'll tell you later, okay?" Sarah murmured, raising a talon to ruffle the filly's mane.

"Okay," Maria chirped with a nod.

Shining's gaze softened and darted from individual to individual, before he noticed a lack of two ponies and frowned. "Where're your General and…" he began, but Matt rose a hoof to signal him to stop speaking.

"Asleep," Matt replied tersely, rolling his eyes at nothing in particular. "You know Lance, him and his damn naps. Anna's napping with him—neither could sleep last night, so they told me."

"Couldn't stand, either. They had to be lugged into bed," Natalie added with a sigh.

Katie raised one of her forehooves and waved it dismissively. "Anna's horn turned as red as my mane," she concluded.

Shining nodded in understanding. A huge grin broke out on his face. "Alright. Flash, I have a request for you," he began, turning to the only guard who remained present.

Flash stiffened under the intense gaze of blue. "Y-yes sir?" he asked.

"Please return to the room the General's staying in. When he and his subordinate awaken, escort them directly to me," Shining answered, still maintaining his grin. "And don't wake them up, unless somepony tries to murder them or something of the sort. In the meantime, I'll escort the rest of our guests to the library."

Flash's face hardened, and he spread a wing in a salute. "Yes sir," he replied. With that, he sat on his haunches and let Spike clamber off before standing up with wings flared. He wasted no time in flapping madly, becoming airborne, and flying out of the room.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

A good hour or two passed before Shining managed to lead Zecora, Spike, and the otherworldly tourists to the gargantuan library that gave Twilight's a run for its bits, after he sorted some other things out. Before them, between the shelves, stood a large hooffull of crystal ponies. Some were pegasi, some were unicorns, and some were earth ponies.

A particular middle-aged earth pony mare with a mulberry-ish coat, large gold-rimmed glasses, and a greying pink mane met Shining with a smile. She had a crystal green hat with a pink stripe running between brim and crown on her head, which bobbed a little as she nodded.

"So, I take it you and your volunteers found something, Amethyst?" Shining asked.

Amethyst nodded her head again. "We found a few spellbooks that have spells Starswirl has written," she replied, turning to glance at the crystal unicorns behind her. They let their horns glow, and from a few individual flashes of magic that exploded in a manner not unlike a fireworks show, a good eight pristine books appeared and gently floated in the air. The natives handed the books to their Emperor, who took them in his magic.

"I see. Was that just from today?" Shining inquired.

Amethyst turned back to him. "Yesterday, m'lord. We were just starting to do another look-see today," she answered.

"Alright, carry on," Shining stated, and he floated the stack of books over to Matt, who sat on his haunches and grabbed the bunch with his front hooves. Natalie sighed and snatched the topmost book with her magic, flipping it open and holding it in front of her muzzle. She turned a few pages and shuddered when one page with runes and spiders making up a spell greeted her. She turned a few more pages, and relaxed when a simplistic set of runes without arachnids appeared, though her brow furrowed slightly nonetheless.

"Is it alright if I cast some of the spells from these books?" Natalie asked, garnering a look from the Emperor.

"... are you able to read the runes?" Shining asked, immediately garnering a shake of the head as his answer. "Only two spells today from those books, because you don't know what you're casting."

Natalie nodded without complaint, and she began scanning the book before closing it with another satisfied nod. She turned to Amethyst and asked, "How much do you charge for overdue books?"

Amethyst rose a hoof and pushed her glasses slightly up the bridge of her muzzle. "One bit, per every day the book's not returned. Those books are valuable, so we have a week's worth period before the late fees start heaping up," she answered.

Natalie sent Amethyst a grin. "If nothing else, we'll have a guard remind us that the books need returning before we leave the Empire," she chirped.

"Alright, alright," Amethyst murmured with a nod of the head that made her glasses slip all the way to the tip of her muzzle. She rose a hoof and adjusted the lens again before adding, "The Crystal Faire's in three days. You sure you don't want to stick around for the festivities?"

"Wait, there's a Faire?" Sarah asked, a brow raising up to her hairline.

"Oh, yes," Amethyst replied, a smile playing on her face. "There're many events—we joust, make sweets with crystal berries, sing an anthem…"

"Joust?" Sarah parroted, eyes widening. "That sounds awesome."

Fenrir immediately snapped at the hippogryph, eyes narrowing to golden slits, "Your wing is broken, and bound in a cast! You are not going to partake in an activity that can add more damage you could do without!"

"Well, if she wants to joust, we'll have to do something about that wing," Amethyst interjected, garnering the attention of the dog and gryph before they could spark a fight amongst themselves. "And the lances are tipped with balls anyway—minimizes the chance of casualties."

"My point still remains," Fenrir huffed, crossing his front paws.

"Well, maybe one of the books has something that can help you with the wing issue," Amethyst retorted, using a hoof to gesture to the stack Matt was juggling.

Matt looked at the stack cross-eyed. "Um… alright, then. But if we can't understand the runes…" he paused, shuddering, "then how will we know which spell to cast?"

Amethyst began to grin again, and she turned to one of the crystal unicorns behind her. Instantly, from another flash of magic, a ninth book materialized and was quickly put on the very top of the stack. She turned back to Matt and answered, "Good thing for you, we also had a book on ancient runology, and how to translate the runes in those books. I guess it'll keep you very occupied."

Matt and Natalie shared a glance, before the mare swapped out the book she opened with the most recent addition to the stack. She made sure to not make the first book land in a way that could throw her companion off-balance, and opened the second before flipping through the first few pages. She wasted no time going wide-eyed and letting off a low whistle.

"Yeah, this book will keep me busy for a while," she stated, staring at a page that was more or less a list divided in two. One side boasted ancient runes, and modern translations were scrawled on the other side, though both were written into neat little lines that spanned the length of the whole paper. "When was this book written?"

"A few months ago, and by a unicorn who specializes in runology," Amethyst replied, beaming.

"Well, that specilization's showing through, because I haven't even turned another page yet and I am impressed with how much is on it," Natalie remarked, closing the book to take in the cover's features. It was impeccably bound with a rich red leather so polished that when she rubbed her hoof on it, she could've sworn it felt like cloth instead. The title wasn't anything special—'Translating Ancient Runes and You' printed in gold—but the author's name caught her eye. "The author… has a peculiar name."

"What do you speak of?" Fenrir asked, turning to Natalie with a brow raised.

Natalie turned to him and used a hoof to gesture to the book. "The pony who wrote this is, from what this cover tells me, Sacred Tome," she answered.

Amethyst chortled, garnering the attention of the unicorn and diamond dog. "Oh, you can find her house not too far from here. Sacred moved in with her pegasus coltfriend three months ago, and just had her filly two weeks back," she stated.

"Does she work here?" Natalie inquired, and Amethyst nodded.

"She shows up on odd days, because her new foal's been keeping her occupied. Filly's rambunctious," Amethyst chirped. "Drives both her and her stallion up the wall and down the ceiling."

Natalie sighed. "Alright. What's she look like?"

"Light green coat, teal mane," Amethyst answered, still grinning. "Her stallion's got a brown coat and a blue mane."

"Alright. We'll be sure to keep an eye out for her," Natalie murmured. When Shining looked at her, she added, "And congratulate her on her filly being born."

"Already beat you to that punch yesterday," Shining snorted, a wide grin spreading on his muzzle. "Kind of like I did this morning."

"A step ahead of us, yet a full three trots behind your wife. I ponder about your efficiency when you and your beloved work as one," Fenrir remarked, noting that the Emperor's grin looked rather cheeky.

Shining's grin widened some more, to the point it began rivaling Katie's carved one. "Really?" he mused in a chipper tone.

"Really," Fenrir replied tersely, nodding his head once.

Armin piped up, looking at Amethyst, "So, what's this Crystal Faire thingy do?"

Shining turned to the disguised changeling, still smiling like a giddy foal. "Basically, it lifts up the crystal ponies' spirits so that they can power the Crystal Heart," he answered. "I think you guys should stay a while; the library isn't going to search itself, and it's a monolith to go through."

Zecora donned a smile. "If I may, could I participate in the Faire, perhaps with a little preparing? If nothing else, I'd like to participate in jousting to see if I could do something rather daring," she chirped. She turned to Sarah and added, "Perhaps I could make a potion to heal the wing, and that way rid her of her tight-looking sling."

"Are you able to mend broken bones with an herbal concoction? I still have some doubts—a coat of feathers, well… that I've seen firsthand," Fenrir piped up, turning to Zecora with both brows raised. "But a few bones…"

Zecora rose a hoof, signaling for him to stop right in his verbal tracks. "While it is true that feathers and bone are two separate things, I can still heal her so she could spread both wings," she replied. Without missing a beat, her hoof dropped a little. "After all, Shining brought me here to make salves for certain ponies and such. I went with him out of concern—let me heal her, I could at least do that much," she finished, using the same hoof she raised to gesture to Sarah.

Fenrir's brow furrowed, but he nodded with a glimmer in his eyes. "Very well then," he murmured, nostrils flaring as he huffed.

"And maybe the Faire could help us pinpoint Mr. Wise Guy," Katie interjected, almost immediately garnering everyone's attention with her utterance. She wore a cheeky grin on her illusioned visage, one stretching ear to ear, and her false eyeballs twinkled.

"'Mr. Wise Guy?' Who could you possibly be—" Fenrir stopped, his eyes widening so much they looked about ready to jump out of his cranium. Slowly, he closed his eyes and nodded, taking a moment to sigh. "Oh… I see…"

Katie turned to Shining, a false grin so big on her face she may as well have silently challenged him to a smiling contest. "So, how many crystal ponies attend the Faire?" she asked.

"Every single one, usually," Shining replied, his own smile faltering for a moment. Then the grin he wore broadened, and he could feel his cheeks starting to hurt. "I see you're starting to… get ideas. You and I need to talk when we return to the palace."

He turned back to Amethyst and nodded to her and her group of ponies, and they bowed before tottering off to start going through bookshelves again, quietly muttering to themselves and asking what the hell their Emperor alluded to. He trotted around Matt and the others, and the Fantasians and Spike and Zecora fell in step behind him, with the acquired books being juggled in dual magic auras. They went along in silence, until they found the stairs that connected the library to the palace a few minutes later.

Then Spike spoke up, just as Shining put a hoof on the first step of the flight, "How will we know who this 'Mr. Wise Guy' is?"

Shining stopped, turned to his nephew, and sighed. "He'll—or she'll, if it's a mare—give themselves away. Either they'll bark the loudest, or they'll talk of deportation out the wazoo," he answered.

"What if he does neither?" Matt asked, frowning when Shining turned to him.

The Emperor's face hardened. "Hrm… sadly, you have a point," he groaned. "But, there's a chance they could give themselves away with a different method."

Matt's brows rose up. "Methods? Who'd have a method to get us deported?" he asked.

"They could give themselves black eyes, or shove one of you while falling back at the same time to make it look like you pushed them," Shining replied, shaking his head. "Mind you, those are two of the… easier and less-damaging ways they could pull it off."

"And the more damaging ways would be…?" Fenrir inquired, eyes narrowing again.

"Blunt force, especially if they have a shovel or something of the sort." Shining paused, closing his eyes. "Since at least two of you want to partake in the Faire, I think…" His eyes opened. "I think I might spice things up a bit."

"How?" Alexander asked, wings flaring.

"Yeah. I don't see how you could spice things up this Faire," Spike piped up, crossing his arms.

Shining began grinning again. "I was thinking… archery," he stated. Turning to Natalie, he added, "And you so happen to know somepony who can help me set up the new event I have in mind…"

Natalie's eyes widened. "Wait, you plan to… to draw out Mr. Wise Guy? With a new sport?" she asked.

Shining nodded. "I have several unused bows and targets that have gotten a little musty. The guards don't really use them anymore, since spears are easier to wield. Who better to help me add a little something special than an archer? Besides, our Wise Guy will very likely show up once the new sport's become part of the festivities."

"There's a catch, isn't there?" Katie asked disbelievingly, ears twitching as she spoke.

Shining shook his head. "Not unless you count the bows I happen to have being enchanted," he replied.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Lance and Anna slept well into the day, and without any sort of nightmares plaguing them. In fact, it wasn't until the early evening that they woke up with matted, tangled manes and visible bits of grit in the corners of their eyes. The archer clambered out of bed first and stretched her legs, feeling her hips and shoulders pop painlessly. "Mmmm," she hummed. "I feel so much better."

"Ditto," Lance agreed, also climbing out of bed and flexing his limbs. He noticed his legs shifted a little slower than he'd have liked, and winced every time he bent them at the joints. "Great, still got lingering shock in my muscles."

"It'll go away in an hour or two," Anna sighed, trotting over to meet with her companion. "You want your uniform back?"

Lance shrugged. "Not unless Shining wants to talk to me or something," he replied with a roll of his eyes. Upon shifting his wings and feeling an uncomfortable tightness around them that he swore hadn't been there before, he changed his mind, "Actually, yeah. My wings still hate me."

Anna giggled and gently used her magic to tug the myriad of cloaks off of the General's body, and she took a moment to look at his wings and spread them, noticing that they were so stiff she may as well have been trying to bend pure stone with her hooves. In addition to this, every time she so much as touched them the wrong way, Lance grit his teeth and gave grunts and hisses of disapproving pain. She wasted no time getting him dressed in his uniform after that, making sure to keep the vest beneath the coat unbuttoned to give his hexed limbs a bit of leeway.

"Next time, don't prod so much," Lance groaned through still-clenched teeth when she finished.

"Alright," Anna sighed. Her ears twitched when she heard a creak, and she turned to the door to find it opening. Flash Sentry poked his head inside, and sent a grin at her.

"You two just getting up?" he asked.

"Already got up," Anna answered, her remark causing Lance to turn to the guard who wasn't fully in the room. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was to escort you two to Shining once you were awake… but I may need to hold that off to get you two brushes. You both have bad cases of bedmane," Flash chirped in response, donning a cheeky grin.

The two Fantasians exchanged glances before turning back to Flash. "Alright. Take us to Shining. Maybe he has a drawer full of brushes—now that I think about it, he kinda has to, since Cadence has a mane that's longer than mine," Anna sighed. Her remark wound up causing the guard to break out laughing.

Flash put a hoof to his mouth to silence his bout of laughter. When he managed to corral his fit into a series of muffled chortles, his hoof parted from his lips and he beckoned for the two to exit the room. He left, opening the door with a wing before the guests could even trot to it. As soon as they stepped outside, he took a moment to watch their movements. When he deemed them to be able to stand and trot on their own, he took point.

And he didn't take one step forward when Anna opened her mouth to comment, "Um, why're you the only guard here?"

Flash turned to Anna and sent her a sheepish smile, after noticing that the hall they stood in was completely devoid of guards. "The Emperor's going to give you another batch of guards for the night. But that won't happen until the sun fully sets," he answered. Upon receiving a pair of vexed looks, he added, "Oh, and somepony told him about the whole deportation thing. So he assembled half the guards and gave them a piece of his mind this morning."

Lance and Anna, yet again, shared looks. "Yes, somepony already beat you to it," Flash sighed, frowning as the Fantasians turned to look at him. A silence lingered, so heavy one of them could've sworn they heard something hit a large thick structure at least three whole floors below. "And he said that whoever it was… well, was gonna get dealt with."

"How does he plan on finding them, and to deal with them once he's sure he has the right pony?" Lance asked, eyes narrowing slightly. Again, the echo of something landing onto something else filled the hall when the guard hesitated to speak.

"He didn't say," Flash groaned, his wings slumping for a moment. "But he was… he looked really ticked off about it."

"So, we can safely bet that hooves will start flying, at the very least?" Lance inquired, his brows shooting up.

"Only if he loses control of himself," Flash murmured with a shrug. "Personally, I see a few rounds of boot camp as the minimum."

"And the maximum?" Anna piped up, her brow slightly furrowing.

"Dishonorable dischargement, maybe dungeon time," Flash whimpered, shuddering as if those very things were about to happen to him. "I can only see that happening if our mystery deporter-pony goes to extreme lengths and is a guard, though."

Lance decided to change the subject, "So, where's Shining?"

Flash sighed again. "Last he told me, he said he was gonna escort the others to the library," he answered. With that, he began trotting down the hall with the two stragglers falling in step behind him. The three went in silence, turning down a few halls which were empty. The silence settled in again, and not even the triad of hooves hitting on the crystal floor in a steady rhythm could break it. When they went down a floor, they heard something sounding like it blew out of an organ's pipes filling the hall, followed by a loud thud and a pained cry.

Exchanging glances, the trio rushed down the corridor and skid to a halt part-way after having the worst case of chagrin to come across the strangest thing they'd seen yet: a disillusioned Katie sitting on and operating a unicycle with an accordion in her front hooves. To add to that, she somehow got a jester's hat on her head, and little bells adorning the garment furiously jingled as she tried and failed to stop herself from going into a wall. They gaped in unison as she peeled herself from the wall, and began circling them, her orbs wide as saucers.

To say she was playing badly while trying and failing to balance herself on the one-wheeled contraption despite her wings buzzing… Simply put in a nutshell, the display was so horrendous one of the three ponies who came across her may as well have asked her to lift up the entirety of Canterlot, with her ears alone. "K-Katie? W-what the hell are you doing?" Lance asked, his voice an octave higher.

"A-Armin cast a spell on me! I-I can't stop!" Katie shrieked in response, wings madly beating to no avail. "Help!" she cried as she swayed dangerously close to the floor in front of the General, only to spring back up and crash into the closest wall like she had a bungee cord tied to her neck. The accordion gave a distorted note upon impact, and one that sang through the air like a persistent alarm clock that didn't want to stop. Despite this, the unicycle didn't seem to sustain an inch of damage, and neither did the accordion.

Lance responded by letting a hoof connect with the bridge of his muzzle as the hapless wraith managed to extract herself from the wall again. "For fuck's sake…" he grumbled, lowering his hoof before sharing a glance with a concerned-looking Anna. "Undo whatever hex she has had cast onto her. I'm going to find Armin and have a little talk with him after we fix this."

Anna nodded, and looked at Katie as she collided with the wall like a magnet for the third time that day, causing the instrument she held to screech along with her. She spotted mana rippling across the hat, and used her magic to swiftly remove it. As soon as the belled cap was off her head, the accordion and unicycle vanished in flashes of light. Katie plummeted to the floor, but Flash moved in and caught her with both his wings before her face could meet the walkway. Then the hat itself vanished before Anna could inspect it, and she sighed in exasperation.

"Make the pain stop… I think I need... an ice cube bath…" Katie groaned weakly, orbs spinning wildly in their canvases. Flash used his wings to tenderly rest her on his back, and he stayed still as Lance stormed over to check her for any more wounds to add to her repertoire of sorts. Upon finding nothing else of the like, he sighed and tenderly patted her head with a hoof.

"Would an ice cube bath… er, help with your pain?" Lance asked after hesitating for a moment.

"Quirk… of being… a frost wraith," Katie groaned, slowly nodding in reply. "Don't want to… be a popsicle myself… though."

Lance nodded and turned to Flash. "You think we could work out such a thing for her, while I raise hell at Armin?" he asked.

Flash nodded. "At any rate, we could. Just a unicorn and a spellbook with something that can make ice in it would be enough to prep up a tub for such a thing," he answered, making sure to not move too suddenly. "Let's find the Emperor, and fast. Because if your other changeling cast a spell with a hat… I don't want to think of what he got his hooves on."

Chapter XXIX- 'Khamfromithe'

Katie relaxed in a tub full of water, with bits of melting ice cubes floating at the surface, either sailing by themselves or clinking against the crystal and each other like glass. She idly floated, head dunked in the chilled waters and mane and tail lazily dragged along by miniscule waves without a care. She hummed appreciatively, ears twitching as the cubes touched with the dullest of taps.

The bathroom she was in wasn't anything special; there was a squat crystal toilet built into the floor near the tub, with some pipes and a handle raised for flushing. Close to that was a sink with a mirror at the far end of the room, and an empty towel rack beside that. A door stood opposite all of this, closed and cutting the room off from the outside world. Katie was the only soul present. A serene silence lingered, and she opted to just let her legs dangle about in the liquid and relax face-down in the water.

Of course, she looked like she'd die remaining in such a stance, but she didn't give a hoot. That is, until she heard the door creak open after a few minutes of being nigh-entirely still, followed immediately by hooves hitting the floor. She jerked her head up to look at the source, ears standing stiff as mountain peaks, to find that Anna had trotted in. "How're you doing?" Anna asked as she came in.

"Dandy," Katie replied in a chipper voice. Anna trotted closer and peered over the rim of the tub, and right then the wraith let her hooves touch the bottom of the container. Blue mana pulsated throughout the water, resonating with the crystal and dappling along the ice cubes like a current. The archer squinted and peered a little closer into the water. Almost immediately, she saw that Katie had gone in with her horseshoes on thanks to the blue mana rippling across the wearable bits of shaped metal.

And she flinched as the temperature of the room dropped, but it didn't go low enough for her breath to start clouding in front of her face. The wraith who was bathing didn't flinch; rather, she swished her legs in the water almost like she was dog paddling. Anna's brow rose as miniscule chunks appeared in the liquid that weren't there before; had she not known better, she'd have assumed that Katie was swimming in semi-solidified gelatin that had ice cubes distributed throughout. "You do seem dandy," she remarked.

Katie responded by tucking her legs up to her chest and stomach, flapped her wings once, and performed a barrel roll in the tub. Anna flinched again as cold water and icy bits shot out as a result of said barrel roll and hit her and the floor outside the tub. To add to the icing on the cake, the wraith giggled once she managed to stop spinning seconds later, looking at her guest with nothing short of amusement—if having a carved grin upon her face counted as a legitimate expression thereof.

"That I am," she chirped.

Anna smiled. "Alright. Yodel if you need anything," she said. With that, she left the bathroom, making sure to close the door behind her. Katie sighed contently, and did some more barrel rolls in the water, sending another few sprays of droplets and melting ice chunks everywhere else. Upon stopping, she tried to flap her wings again, but rose a brow when she noticed they felt much heavier than they should've been and just refused to budge.

She looked at them, and groaned upon seeing the water freezing some more. As it froze, her wings got caught and were weighed down with some bits. So, Katie simply clambered out of the tub, and she went as slowly as she could to keep herself from accidentally tearing new holes into her wings.

She immediately slipped off of the tub's rim before landing face-first in the floor, turning into a sprawled-out heap as the rest of her hit the crystal with earnest. The resulting thud rang in her ears, despite being soft, and to add to that her ribs began aching. Katie groaned again and made to stand, but her legs slipped out when she managed to haul herself up, thus sending her back to the floor.

She tried again, but found that getting up was like trying to ice skate with roller blades—long story short, Katie fell for the third time that day. But she kept at it, slipping and falling every time she rose, until she got frustrated enough to jam the claws of her shoes into the floor. This glued her to the spot, though this time she didn't collapse on herself.

Her orbs widened, and if she could do so, she'd have frowned in agitated embarrassment. She sucked in a breath, wincing as she felt her lungs expand and push against her ribs and heart, but before she could call for help the door opened again. She heard hooves clopping on the floor, and she craned her neck in an attempt to look beyond the tub to find a tall form peering back down at her from the other side, with a white and fuzzy hoof resting on the tub's rim.

"The hell did you do?" Matt asked, sending Katie a rather amused smile.

"Kept falling, so I went 'fuck it' and jammed my claws into the floor," Katie responded in a bitter hiss. She watched as Matt let go of the tub's rim and trotted around to get a better look at the anomaly she spoke of, and he sat on his haunches as his grin fell.

"You could've asked for a towel," Matt huffed indignantly, using a hoof to gesture to the puddle the wraith was currently stranded in.

"I was about to yodel for help," Katie scoffed, eyes narrowing. "Next time, I will get a towel."

Matt sighed and shook his head, his horn glowing. A gold aura embraced the hapless wraith and lifted her up, parting her from her shoes. Then, the aura grabbed said shoes and wiggled them for a bit before easily prying them out of the floor. He stood up and trotted to the toilet, dragging her with, only to groan in annoyance when he found a lack of towels on the rack. "I guess you'll have to airdry," he murmured, and set her and the shoes down before trotting over to the tub and peering into the water.

One second went by, and it was one he didn't waste; his magic aura formed a small sphere that dunked into the water like a rock. It sunk to the bottom, and then darted around like a roach in a desert, probing the chilled liquid until it found a small metal ring jutting upright. The ring was grabbed by shimmering yellow and pulled on, and Matt grinned as he heard a small pop, followed by the tell-tale sound of water draining into a pipe thereafter.

The stallion lifted the object out of the tub with his magic, finding that it was an ordinary tub plug. He threw it in the sink and went back to Katie, who stood on wobbly legs and shook excess water off of her body like a dog. His grin widened as her wings flapped like loose book pages, before sticking to her back thanks to a trace amount of water and ice still weighing them down. He lifted her again and put her on his back, prior to making her shoes vanish in individual flashes of light and trotting out of the bathroom.

Immediately, they found a rather peculiar sight, and Katie jammed a hoof into her mouth as she began giggling. She and Matt bore witness to Armin trotting around a bedroom in a frilly black dress with a white headband on his head, and a metal ring inscribed with runes clamped on the base of his horn. In addition to this, his wings jutted out from the back of the dress, though they were tied down by a layer of chitil, and he held a feather duster in his mouth. He was dusting off a table when he noticed the two who just left the bathroom staring at him.

"Thininh anfth Flanth mafth me khashle maifth fthor ah dhay," he said through the duster.

"Th-this… is the worst Shining and Lance could do to you?" Katie asked after briefly removing her hoof from her mouth, her voice oozing with amused disbelief. She was trying to work out whether to further laugh at Armin's plight, or take pity on the bastard.

"Khamfromithe," Armin replied.

"Lance and Shining talked about it, and this was the best they could do," Matt translated, shooting Katie another amused smile.

Katie nodded, lodging her hoof back in her mouth and barely suppressing her laughter. She held on with her other hoof as Matt began trotting again, and in seconds the two were in a hall where they found Natalie and Anna next to another door chatting amiably. The two mares ceased their jabbering and turned to the stallion and wraith with straight faces, though Anna's mouth was twitching at the corners slightly.

Natalie spoke up, "I heard she was splashing around in the tub."

Matt nodded. "There was a ring of water around it, and she told me she kept slipping," he replied.

Anna's mouth curled up into a smile. "What would you expect? I've seen her barrel roll in the water."

Natalie turned to Anna, an incredulous brow raised. "Wait, so if she can barrel roll in the water…"

Katie removed her hoof from her mouth and cut Natalie off, "Don't ask me to fly. My wings are still wet."

"Fair enough," Natalie murmured under her breath.

"So, what're you two up to?" Matt asked, eyes darting between Natalie and Anna.

"Just came to check on things," Natalie replied, donning a grin herself. Anna nodded once Natalie finished speaking, as if to confirm her companion's remark.

"Alright. Have you found anything in those books yet?" Matt continued, sighing.

The mares exchanged looks, then turned back to the stallion and shook their heads. "Looking through one book to translate the other eight has given me a bit of a migraine," Anna sighed, her smile turning into a frown. "I'm on break right now, as far as books go."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Shining waited until night fell to patrol the castle walls himself, decked out in his purple suit of armor and trotting like he had a battalion's worth of ponies in step behind him. He stalked the gleaming corridors, a stoic look set so firmly into his face it would take a herculean effort just to crack it. His hoofbeats echoed as he moved, rebounding in such a way it would have felt that the castle was abandoned had he not known any better.

Apart from his steps, the halls were silent. Deathly silent. Not even the occasional crystal guard he trotted past dared to make one noise, as if they were nothing more than lawn ornaments. Shining nodded to them, but otherwise paid them no heed, and continued on his way. The faint light of the moon bounced off the walls from whatever cracks and windows it could shine through, giving the place a dull and rather eerie shimmer of silver.

Still he marched, occasionally turning down some halls and patrolling seemingly without purpose. A spark erupted in his eyes, but he quenched it by just blinking once as he passed another guard at his post. His ears swiveled, attempting to catch noises, but all they could get were hard and armored hooves hitting crystal. When he cleared one floor, he went up to the next and trotted down all of its halls before ascending again.

As soon as he hit the third floor, his ears caught something else—two voices, faintly talking to one another. He stopped to listen, the loud echoing of his hooves being replaced by the faint, lingering echoing of the two beings who spoke.

"How in Mythos do you preen your wings?" a masculine voice asked.

"Very carefully," a hollow, feminine voice replied cryptically. "And I make sure my shoes aren't on first."

Shining let a grin creep up on his face. He knew who those voices belonged to. He began trotting again, this time making sure his hooves hit the floor as delicately as possible so that they wouldn't drown out the voices with their thuds.

A third voice, masculine and irritated, chimed in, "Flash! For Faust's sake, stop talking to that changeling!"

Shining's smile faded, and he picked up the pace. He heard Flash reply, "Zephyr, let me be blunt: no. She is my friend and our guest, so zip it."

"Start being diligent!" Zephyr hissed, his voice loud enough that Shining guessed a few of the other guards a floor below would have heard it. He started galloping, rounding a bend, a frown forming on his visage.

"Are you trying to arouse the rest of the Fantasians from their slumber? I don't want to see General Boltwing get cranky again!" Flash retorted, his voice angry with just a pinch of panicked.

"I don't give a horseshit! Stop talking to that changeling!" Zephyr roared. Shining made to gallop faster, and in less than a minute he managed to find the guest rooms, along with Zephyr Bolt and Flash Sentry sending each other glares. "Why do you…" the former began, but stopped upon noticing that his Emperor was present.

"Because I can," Flash replied simply, also turning to Shining, who then nodded to him. "So," he began again, turning to Katie who stood next to him, "what do you like to do in your spare time?"

"Take naps and piggyback," Katie replied, ears twitching as she shrugged her bony shoulders. "Even wraiths need rest."

"Sentry, don't—" Zephyr began again, but stopped when Shining trotted straight up to him and looked him square in the eye.

"Let them chat. It's not hurting anypony, least of all you," Shining hissed, garnering a nod from Zephyr. The Emperor backed off and went to the nearest door before knocking on it. It opened with the aid of a green-tinted aura, revealing Anna and Lance standing in the room with frazzled manes and bloodshot eyes. The two trotted out into the hall, staring intently at their host.

The general took a moment to glance at Flash and Katie as they went on about hobbies, before he turned back to Shining. "I was wanting to punch Zephyr in the face…" he grumbled indignantly and tiredly.

"H-hey!" Zephyr hissed, turning to Lance with a scowl. He stiffened when Shining turned to him again, and gulped when the Emperor held his gaze for a full minute.

"Wanting and doing are two different things. Relax, and zip your lip," Shining hissed, then he turned back to Lance. His gaze softened, "Do you want me to put Zephyr elsewhere?"

"Please do," Lance replied with a sluggish nod. "I can't stand hearing him yell for a minute longer." With that, he turned around and trotted back into his room, with Anna following suit. The door closed shut behind them, and Shining turned to look at Zephyr once again.

"Stay put, and don't utter a word," Shining commanded in a low tone, garnering a shaky nod and a small "yes sir" as his response. He relaxed and trotted one door over, slowly opening it with his magic to find Alexander and Maria snuggled up in bed. The two gryphs were sound asleep, and near them were two guards, with one watching the window and the other turned to the door as the Emperor poked his head inside.

"Things are going swimmingly, m'lord," the guard facing the door mouthed. Shining nodded with a small smile and closed the door, making sure not to accidentally catch his neck with it in the process before heading down another door and opening it silently. A rather amusing sight met him in this third room; Fenrir was curled up on one side of the bed, and Sarah had taken the other side with a pillow in her claws and half the damn blanket stuffed between her rear legs.

Shining wanted to chuckle at the sight, but held the desire at bay—guests or not, they still needed their sleep. He nodded to a guard stationed in the room with them, and slinked out into the hall. The Emperor went one door over and yet again poked his head inside, finding Armin in a half-chrysalis by his lonesome. The blankets and pillows that were supposed to be on the bed were with him, keeping him warm and cozy. He shrugged and went to the next room, finding Zecora and Spike asleep, with NoLegs resting on the zebra's backside.

The last room yielded Matt and Natalie snuggling together, mumbling in their slumber. In addition to this, the guard stationed in their room had a frown on his face. Shining quirked a brow, eyes glinting in askance, and the guard mouthed, "They're dreaming." The Emperor nodded and closed the door, though not before he first listened to the Fantasians' sleep-murmurs and heard something along the lines of "I didn't sin" coming from both of them.

Right as the door clicked shut behind him, he wasted no time in trotting over to Zephyr Bolt and giving him another look. "You, follow me. We're patrolling the entire castle tonight," Shining hissed in a low voice. Without waiting for him to follow, he turned around and marched down the hall, pausing to shoot a fond smile at Flash and Katie as they continued to talk about this and that. Zephyr fell in step behind him, and together the two left the hall and went up one floor in a matter of minutes.

Only the sound of their hooves hitting the floor permeated the fourth floor's halls, and once again things fell into what was otherwise a strong silence. Neither dared to speak as they patrolled throughout the fourth floor, with one going just three steps ahead of the other. Shining's face was set with a stoic expression, but Zephyr's was constantly flickering between narrowed-eyed anger, a worried frown, and a brow slanting in uncertainty.

Upon reaching the fifth floor, Shining finally spoke up, "So, Private Zephyr Bolt… what has our wraith guest done to rile you up?"

Zephyr froze, with a lump in his throat that immediately appeared and refused to go down. He made to speak, but no noise came from his lips. He may as well have been silently choking on a hunk of rock.

"Well?" Shining asked impatiently, without bothering to turn around and meet his private's gaze. He stopped marching, knowing his subordinate had already halted himself.

"F-Flash has u-ulterior motives, Your Highness!" Zephyr spluttered out, his remark causing Shining to whirl around so fast he stepped back like a hoof solidly connected with the side of his muzzle.

"'Ulterior motives?'" Shining parroted, his brow furrowing. "Do tell." He noticed that Zephyr was once again hesitating, so he egged him on, "Go on, Private Zephyr Bolt. Humor your Emperor."

"Fla-Flash… may be h-helping the Fantasians overthrow you! Maybe take Empress Cadence as their own! W-why else would th-they have changelings?" Zephyr managed, his shimmer fading as he began to sweat bullets.

Shining's eyes narrowed, and he slowly walked up to his private, looking him square in the eye when their muzzles were inches apart. "And how, exactly, were you made aware of such drivel?" he asked. Zephyr failed to articulate a response, standing frozen in place as his pores oozed out clear liquid like a spring in a grotto. After a minute passed in full silence, Shining hissed in a whisper, "You made it up, didn't you?"

What felt like an eternity passed, and Shining didn't get a smidgen of an answer for such a while that he could've sworn time had frozen. After a few minutes, Zephyr finally broke the silence, "Uh, s-sir… c-could you please, uh… forget everything I-I said?"

Shining pulled his head back, though he kept his cold glare locked on the guard. "No," he said in an eerily calm tone of voice, watching as the color all but drained from Zephyr's face. "I don't believe I can. You were committing insubordination, and for that… appropriate action must be taken."

Zephyr's rear legs buckled, and he sat on his haunches with a whimper. Shining went on, his calm voice taking on a very cold undertone, "You will undergo disciplinary classes all over again. You could have sparked a war just by instigating our guests—be excruciatingly grateful you didn't."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The Friendship Express churned on into the night, carrying with it another batch of passengers as it wheeled on the rails going north. In one of the bed-cars, which only had seven passengers inside it, Rainbow Dash sat on a bottom bunk. She was chatting with Twilight, who sat on another bottom bunk directly opposite of her. "So, why are we going to the Crystal Empire again?" she asked.

"Because Shining took Spike with him, and I want to see how they're doing with the Fantasians," Twilight replied, frowning. Her head dropped as she added, "And… I'm also worried about Zecora. She's probably never been to the Empire before."

Applejack, who laid on the bunk directly above Dash, decided to insert her two bits, "You thinking them crystal ponies might try something?"

"Yeah… it's… last time we were there, I looked through the library and found not one record of zebras ever entering or staying in the Empire," Twilight sighed dejectedly, still frowning. She rose her head, looked at Applejack and added, "But… we didn't have all day to go through the library that time…"

"Chaotically tragic, is it not?" a masculine voice piped up, causing Twilight to turn away from Applejack and to the top bunk directly next to her. Sitting upon it was a grey unicorn stallion with a short black mane and an unusually blue horn, his red eyes framed by golden sclera staring intently at her. "But," he began, noticing that Twilight's eyes started twinkling, "you could have another go to look through it again."

Twilight nodded. "You're right. But…" she trailed off.

"'But' what?" the stallion asked with a wry grin, a brow raising.

"It's the Fantasians, ain't it?" Applejack inquired in a flat tone, garnering a slow nod of the head from Twilight as her answer. She spoke up after a minute, waving a hoof dismissively in doing so, "They're with your brother, Twi. As long as he keeps their tails in line, they ain't got nothing to worry about. I don't see what you're fussing over."

Rarity piped up from the bottom bunk next to Twilight, "Applejack, darling, they may still… misbehave, for a lack of better words. All it would take was one pony instigating them for Tartarus to break loose."

"'Spose you're right, Rares. But them crystal folk don't have a reason to egg them on—whatever Shining and Cadence says, goes. And if they told them to let the Fantasians alone, then they're pro'lly leaving them alone," Applejack countered, her brow furrowing. "'Sides, you're not much better either."

Rarity winced like a wasp had stung her on the cheek, but she chose not to retort to Applejack's statement. "Doesn't mean everypony in the Empire's going to do it. Sooner or later, Lance and his pals are gonna get themselves neck-deep in Trouble with a capital T," Rainbow argued, crossing her forelegs as Applejack peered over to look at her. "That is, if they haven't already."

Pinkie Pie, who sat next to Dash, sighed in exasperation. "I hope they're having fun at the Empire," she remarked.

"What sort of fun?" the stallion asked, taking a moment to purr. He vanished off his bed one minute, only to reappear beside Pinkie the next, though he frowned when she didn't jump in surprise. "The safe kind, or the chaotic sort?"

"The safe kind, where they just take it easy," Pinkie replied, turning to the stallion with a frown.

The stallion nodded and shared looks with Dash, Twilight, and Applejack. "Well, with the way you mares speak of the Fantasians, they seem to be a chaotic bunch of ponies," he commented.

"But not all of them are ponies," Pinkie huffed, sending the stallion another frown that came from her brow. When he rose a brow in response, she elaborated, "Only… three of them can be fully considered ponies. There are three hippogryphs, though one doesn't really look like a hippogryph, one's a full gryphon, another's a diamond dog, and the last two are changelings."

"And that's excluding their pet cat," Rarity added, causing the stallion to vanish and reappear next to her on the spot.

"Pray tell, what's so special about their cat?" the stallion asked, smiling when Rarity huffed.

"He can perform magical feats with his tail… and he's also legless," Twilight answered for Rarity, her remark causing the stallion to simply materialize right in front of her in seconds.

Said stallion's brows rose further up, all the way to his hairline. "That… sounds very chaotic, now that I dwell on it. Tell me, have you seen the cat perform magical feats?" he asked.

Twilight nodded. "Mostly levitation and teleportation," she answered. "From what I've witnessed, anyway."

The stallion rose a hoof and tapped at his chin with it, and as he did so a grey goatee that wasn't there before cropped up. In addition to this, a pointy tooth jutted out of under the left side of his lip. "Y'know, that's almost like making pigs grow wings with which to fly…" he murmured.

"Perhaps Fantasian cats have evolved different mechanisms. After all, the worlds were separated for a while, and we still don't know much about that which was recently connected to us," Twilight sighed with a shrug of her shoulders.

"True enough," the stallion agreed with a nod, setting his hoof down after tugging at his goatee with it. He flashed a toothy grin at Twilight before vanishing and reappearing on his bed. "But how should I know?" he asked, and in a flash of magic he changed from a simple-albeit-odd stallion to a chimera with mismatched limbs, a draconic tail, and the head of a goat sporting dissimilar horns. He rested his cheek on a gryphon-like claw and added, "That damned barrier was created before I came to be as I was."

"That's not very reassuring," Fluttershy remarked from a bed next to Rarity's, a frown on her face as she eyed the chimera. "Are you… sure about that, Discord?"

Discord's nostrils flared as he snorted. "Unfortunately, I am. Pity that I didn't get to see what sort of chaos Fantasia had during my brief time ruling Equestria," he replied with a frown. The frown turned into a smile as he added, "Though… if you girls went to Fantasia again and brought me with…"

"I doubt you could handle cannibalistic hippogryphs that mutilate foals' genitals!" Rarity exclaimed in one breath, her remark taking Discord completely by surprise. The chimera's eyes widened and he turned to the ivory mare, looking at her like she just finished getting shitfaced at a frat party.

"I-I… what?" Discord managed, his jaw still moving up and down even as words started eluding him.

"My point exactly," Rarity hissed, eyes narrowing at the mere thought of what she spoke of. "Your dumbstruck expression tells me all I need to know about how you feel regarding what I have just relayed to you."

Discord began scowling, processing Rarity's remark revolving around cannibalistic hippogryphs. He leaned over his bed, like a wicked serpent aroused from slumber by a foolish adventurer, and he asked in a low voice, "What… became of those hippogryphs?"

"We left them in their town—they told us they killed their mares and foals, except one we managed to get out of there," Applejack replied, wincing as Discord turned to her with nothing short of anger painting his face. "Their town was built in a frozen wasteland, one without trees or grass shoots. If they hadn't had food for the past couple of weeks at this point, I reckon they… they froze to death."

"Discord, what would you have done if you were present?" Twilight asked, watching Discord intently. For a few minutes, he didn't move an inch—not even the barest of twitches left his form.

Then, the chimera's scowl morphed into a demonic look, a wicked gleam in his eyes as his lips curled up into a ghoulish grin. "I'd have them turned into rabbits before sicking great fire-breathing dragons on them," he replied. The look faded, and he sighed. "And… what became of the one you managed to get out of that wasteland?"

"Currently with the other Fantasians. Last we seen of her, she was doing a-OK," Applejack replied, a small but genuine smile forming on her muzzle. "Zecora helped her feathers grow back, and Lance and his pals helped her gain a bit of weight by feeding her right."

Discord relaxed, and proceeded to curl up in his bed with a nod of understanding. "Remind me to summon clowns for her when we reach the Empire," he murmured, eyes closing. "Or maybe I could show her flying pigs."

"You'll have to talk to Shining about that first. After all, we're heading into a place he pretty much rules at," Twilight pointed out, proceeding to lay down herself.

"I'm pretty sure I could convince him to let me do it," Discord murmured dismissively, waving a lion's paw for emphasis.

Chapter XXX- Faux Magma

Matt and Natalie both sat up abruptly, their eyes snapping wide open as the artificial shimmers faded from their forms and sweat dotted their brows. They heard a pony clear his throat and turned to the guard that was stationed in the room with them. "Are you… erm, well?" he asked.

"Wish I was," Natalie answered without hesitation. She rose a hoof and wiped her forehead with it as she added, "But it was just a nightmare—I'll live."

"We've been having nightmares for a while, though," Matt murmured, worry tinging his tone. He gave the guard a level look and asked, "You have any ideas how to make them less frequent?"

"Aside from talking about them, no," the guard replied with a shake of his head. He donned a frown as he continued, "And… with the way you two spoke of sin in your sleep, I have a feeling I don't want to know."

Matt and Natalie shared glances, then turned back to the guard. "We'd… have a hard time telling you about our nightmares anyway," Natalie sighed, ears flattening against her head. A few seconds of silence passed, and the three could've sworn they heard someone beating their hoof from within the hall outside the room.

The guard cleared his throat and awkwardly mumbled, "I'll take that as 'I don't want to know.'" When he got two nods in response, he let his brow slant slightly and shrugged his shoulders. "Just go back to sleep. You need your rest." The two unicorns in bed just exchanged looks again, going wide-eyed for a moment at the rather bizarre suggestion. Then they obeyed, flopping back down on their pillows with their manes fanned out from under their heads like the wings of pegasi.

The guard watched as two sets of blue eyes closed, and waited for a few minutes until he was certain that Matt and Natalie had fallen asleep. He knelt forward, head bowed low and front legs bent, and he murmured a small prayer just soft enough he couldn't wake the two up. "O Princess Luna, shine your moon's light on these foreign souls. Shine on them with thine radiance, and dispel whatever demons plague them so they rest with trouble no more."

He jolted upon hearing rustling, and stood straight for a minute before relaxing slightly. He noticed Matt turning in the bed, mumbling about waffles. The mattress creaked slightly as he moved, like a swinging door that wasn't closed properly. The room fell silent, save for soft murmurings that came from two ponies who had conked out.

As he turned to the door, he did not notice the moon was setting outside, its light dancing across the room through the window. Nor did the guard notice a faint teal glow embracing Matt and Natalie's forms, accompanied by tiny and silent sparks reminiscent of faraway stars.

To him, it was another night spent playing watchman without rest. To the sleeping ponies he was guarding, it was an entirely different matter as soon as they entered the realm of dreams. Matt trotted along a chilly corridor of stone, his horn glowing softly, Heaven's Gate drawn and at the ready. He moved slowly, eying stalactites and stalagmites that jutted out seemingly at random. Only his hooves and the occasional drip of water filled the mostly-empty hall, echoing ceaselessly into a black void that was both ahead of and behind him.

He walked on, slowly and delicately, as if afraid he'd trip and find himself in a situation he wasn't ready to deal with. His eyes strained to make out the path ahead; his horn could only provide so much light, and that was not accounting for him also juggling his sword simultaneously. The air turned thick and humid, and Matt stopped as soon as he felt a small drop of warm water land on the bridge of his muzzle.

His brow rose, and he plunged the tip of his weapon into the ground. It went in only an inch or so, and he turned to inspect his handiwork. "It'll have to do," Matt mumbled, positioning himself behind the hilt of his blade. He rose his front hooves and channelled more mana into his horn, feeling a bit of exhaustion settling in as cracks formed along the floor and darted up what he could see of the walls.

Heaven's Gate responded, this time taking on an icy cold blue hue that had heavy clouds of chilled air surrounding it. A faint thread of deep blue mana weaved its way around the blade, going down into the cracks that were forming, filling them up in every single nook. The air became colder, and Matt watched as water formed around the cracks before spontaneously freezing solid, turning into little ice crystals that glowed with power.

The temperature continued to drop, and ice crystals kept forming until Matt pulled away from his weapon. He made it vanish in a golden light, and sighed as his horn felt red-hot. The light he had glowing from the tip of his horn also vanished, rendering the entire cavern dark, save the trace amounts of illumination provided by the small spikes of frozen water he willed to grow. The now-cold air gave him some relief from the pain that had settled in, just barely making his encroaching headache bearable. Matt rose to stand, eyes following the crystals and where they were placed.

The crystals were spaced far enough apart that there were still patches of sable between them, but not so far away that he'd have to trot a few paces just to discern the placement of the subsequent ones. Matt donned a smile, and started trotting ahead again, glancing at his ice patches and making sure he didn't accidentally step on any of them along the way.

He found the end of the corridor in a few minutes, quirking a brow at a wooden door that stood out thanks to glowing ice formations surrounding it. "The hell?" he asked, cantering over to it with a hoof extending out to grasp at the doorknob.

Before he could touch it, the obstacle swung open on its own accord, and next thing he knew a form with a glowing horn bumbled into him and caused him to fall over backwards. He and the other entity screamed in surprise, and his eyes met with surprised blue ones on a cream-colored face. "Natz?" Matt asked as the door swung closed behind the pony that had tackled and laid on top of him.

"Matt?" Natalie asked, her eyes widening substantially. For a moment the two stayed there, staring at each other in disbelieving silence. Then she scrambled off of him and grabbed one of his front hooves, helping him haul himself up onto his legs. "I-I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, her response punctuated by something slamming into the door with enough force to make it splinter and crack. The two jumped and backed away from the door, with the mare turning around and backpedaling far enough to keep up with her companion.

A hollow voice rang out from behind the door, "You can't hide forever! You can't just run from your sins, Starcovert!" Then, silence fell as the door transformed into a slab of impenetrable stone, alongside the glowing ice that had marked it. The two ponies shared a glance, but chose to turn around and head deeper into the corridor without commenting on the absurdity of the door suddenly becoming something it wasn't supposed to be.

They walked in silence, with Matt taking point. They followed the ice crystals for a few minutes, stopping when the path ended where they'd first been formed. Natalie made to speak, but all that left her mouth was a hum as she glanced around. Then, her horn ceased glowing, and she flinched before relaxing as a fuzzy hoof wrapped around her barrel in wordless reassurance. Matt broke the embrace and began leading the way again, stopping when he felt teeth clutching some hairs of his tail, but shrugged that off and kept going with Natalie falling in step behind him.

The two went on without uttering one word, feeling their way around in the sable, front hooves outstretched slightly as they touched every nook of the floor and some parts of the walls, almost like blind ponies' canes. No matter how much they strained their eyes, no matter how much miniscule light their pupils could absorb, neither could see jack shit. Both ponies constantly let off annoyed groans as they continued ambling about their surroundings, hooves tapping blindly in the inky darkness.

At least, until Matt stepped on something that had a slimy texture to it after an indeterminate expanse of time had passed. Before he could make another peep, the substance began glowing brightly, revealing itself to be some wad of illuminating goo. Both he and Natalie stared at the seemingly-self-activating substance with dumbfounded looks painting their faces. Matt pulled his hoof away from the slime, noticing that it didn't try to cling to it nor the hairs draping it, and at this his brow furrowed. "Alrighty then," he murmured, backing away from it and watching it carefully.

The goo did nothing, except glow and faintly wobble. "What is that stuff?" Natalie asked, frowning. "It looks like something Armin would make…"

"Dunno," Matt replied, shaking his head. His ears perked when he heard another hoof squelching in slime, and whipped his head to the right to find that another wad just a few paces away had started spontaneously glowing. Standing next to it was a darkened form, the end of one of its limbs caught in the gel, and it had glowing eyes that were zeroed in on both Matt and Natalie.

Before it could speak, though, the goo expanded in size and enveloped its body so fast it could not even let out one syllable of surprise. The two ponies watched, their dumbfounded looks morphing to looks of horror as the slime devoured the shadowy creature and dissolved it like a vat of acid before it shrunk to a simple wad that managed to burp.

Matt and Natalie exchanged looks, then turned back to the gel that had just eaten a creature for breakfast. They gulped and slowly moved on, this time being careful to avoid stepping in as much slime as they could manage. More things with glowing eyes started jumping out at them from every angle after a few minutes that they spent trotting, but each and every single one made the fatal error of stepping in slime that made short work of eating them.

Eventually, they came across another door, its form illuminated by glowing slime. "You first," Matt said, frowning.

"I'm not risking becoming goo gumbo," Natalie replied, shaking her head furiously. She wrapped a leg around Matt's neck and added, "And I won't let you do the same, either."

Matt sighed and turned around to look at the path behind him to make sure nothing else would jump out and possibly attack, half-dragging Natalie along with him, only to stop still and gape. There was a door behind them, only visible because of the slime's light. He turned around again, and found the same thing, and at this he began feeling a little light-headed.

"Okay, what the fuck?" he growled, his brow furrowing as the world began tilting just slightly to the left. Natalie broke her hold on his neck and trotted up to the first door—or second, she felt she wasn't certain anymore—and opened it with a hoof before trotting into whatever was beyond.

"Matt, you gotta see this!" Natalie cried, and hesitantly Matt trailed after her. He stopped next to her side, and his eyes widened.

Both he and Natalie found themselves in some bizarre mix between an entirely lifeless wood, and a cavern interspersed with glowing wads of sickly green, translucent goo. The trees formed a thick wall, reinforced by black stone and gelatinous bundles that gave off light, and the wall circled all around them. The floor was, oddly enough, made of marble instead of stone.

They looked around, finding themselves trapped like lab rats, with the only way out being through that damned door they came in from. Natalie trotted up to, then along the wall, using one hoof to check for cracks and the like. She used the other three to move on, leaning on the odd structure for support from time to time. After she'd inspected half the wall, Matt asked, "Anything?"

"Not yet," Natalie replied, stopping for a moment to glance up. A rocky overhang blocked whatever sky there was from view, and any tree branches that reached high enough to touch it strangely acted like roots, pushing up into the stone ceiling in a furious web of wood. She also took note that some branches started elongating spontaneously, trying to go up like sickly, malformed claws. Deciding that she dallied for long enough, she started trotting along the wall again, this time in more of a three-legged hobble than a proper jog.

Matt watched his companion closely, slowly spinning just to constantly keep her in his sights. He noticed that stone and wood morphed, almost immediately, after Natalie tottered past it. The stallion then stopped and turned directly opposite of where Natalie was going, finding that the two components of the wall became a great big heap of goo that produced so much light he had to shield his eyes with a hoof. "The fuck?" he murmured, watching as the goo then started shrinking, changing from a very bright green to a moderate teal as it compacted.

Natalie halted as well, also taking note of the phenomenon. She parted from the remnants of the wall she hadn't touched and galloped over to Matt. She made to rush past him before she found herself skidding to a halt when he thrust the hoof that he shielded his eyes with in front of the barrel of her chest. The mare turned to him and asked with a furrowing brow, "What's the big idea?"

"I don't know what that stuff is doing, or if it'll eat us next. I think we should still stay away from it," Matt replied, using the same hoof to gesture to the color-changing, glowing gel. He watched as the now-teal mass continued to shrink, his brow furrowing as it began sizzling and popping like bacon in a cast iron skillet. The goo wobbled and formed bubbles, transitioning from teal to red, now looking more akin to tranquil magma than anything.

Then the two heard a stallion screaming, and before they could look around to discern where the sound was coming from, a loud crash that rang in their ears echoed into the space. This was followed by a form and some loose debris crashing on top of Natalie. She and the new arrival sprawled out in a heap, the impact causing Matt to jump back with a startled cry of his own. He eyed the new arrival, his pupils dilating as he stared at the tell-tale copper feathers soldered onto steel limbs. "Lance?" he asked disbelievingly.

Lance rose a hoof and let it drop with a groan to signal that he heard Matt. He rolled off of Natalie, who gave nothing more than an indignant grunt of pain. "You two okay?" Matt asked, getting little more than a dual sluggish shaking of heads.

It took a moment for Lance to register whose inquiry he'd just answered, and almost immediately he scrambled onto his hooves and looked around before his red eyes fell onto Matt. "How the—" Lance started, eyes widening. Matt rose a hoof and shrugged, and this caused his superior to close his mouth before another word could roll off his tongue.

Natalie hauled herself up, her legs wobbly from being knocked down so suddenly. She turned to Lance and asked, "How'd you get here?"

"I was… on a rock surrounded by lava," Lance started, turning to look at the gel that bubbled. "And I was trying to get away from it, but being stranded… well, I couldn't get away. Next thing I know, a door appeared in the floor. So I jumped through it, and then I'm hurtling down through the sky, and crash through stone…"

Natalie looked up, finding that there was goo bubbling on what was once a rock-and-branch roof with a Lance-shaped hole letting in some silver light from beyond. "You fell through that?" she asked, raising a hoof to point at it.

Lance followed her hoof and nodded. "That slime wasn't there before, but yes I did fall through that… and while we're on the subject, how's the goo not dripping down on us as we speak?" he replied, a frown creasing his brow.

"Might as well ask us why we're surrounded on all sides by…" Matt paused, turning his head every which-way to find himself staring at goo that was almost entirely around them at this point. "Whatever the fuck this stuff is," he finished as he turned to the blasted door that the mysterious substance hadn't yet touched. He rose a brow at the one fragment of wall that remained devoid of bubbling semi-solidified slime, and his ears twitched as a set of galloping hooves echoed into the space.

A chilly breeze wafted around the place, briefly caressing the three as the noise became louder, as if its source was getting closer. The zephyr lifted Natalie and Lance's tails, but Matt's was so thick only a few strands broke free and danced in the scant few seconds that the wind had touched them. The gale stopped when a cry of "Get away!" rang out, though the noises of hooves hitting a hard surface still lingered.

Next thing any of them knew, a tan-beige form bumbled in, tripped, and then landed with her face meeting the floor. Her ass stayed in the air for a bit, before she awkwardly pushed herself off the marble and rose to stand on shaky back legs. The door slammed shut behind her before it vanished and left a hole in the wall, causing her to jump and fall again, though she got back up as hastily as she ran into the room.

"Anna? You look like you just got done having a heart attack," Lance commented, watching as the new arrival shook her head and groaned.

Anna lifted a front hoof and tenderly poked at her lower jaw with it, wincing and groaning every time the two entities connected. She opted to ignore Lance's remark for the moment, instead reverting to all fours and summoning her flute with a flash of magic. "I don't think aching jaw and instrument go great together. You should take five," Matt advised, getting a wide-eyed look almost instantly.

Anna's flute vanished as it had appeared, and she rushed to Matt in such a manner that he got the impression she couldn't believe what she'd been seeing. "Is… that really you?" she asked, wincing as each word came out of her mouth. When Matt nodded, she turned around and lifted her back legs, bucking him in the barrel and causing him to stagger a few paces back. "Y-y… I was… you…"

Lance rushed over and wrapped his forelegs around her chest before she could attempt to kick at Matt again. "Calm down. I don't know what happened to you before you came here, but take deep breaths and think rationally for once. We're confused enough as it is—a pinch of panic really wouldn't be good right now," he ordered in a calm tone of voice.

Anna began struggling instead. "C-could you l-let me go, first?" she asked, still wincing. "I-I can't c-calm down with you h-holding me!" Lance sighed and obliged, and watched her as she started taking sharp, lengthy inhales of air for seconds at a time before letting them out quickly. Then she sat on her haunches, still inhaling and exhaling, her jaw shaking almost like it had been detached entirely from her face.

Matt poked at where Anna kicked him with a hoof, and he found that there weren't aches or tender spots anywhere. He sighed and turned to the hole where she'd entered from, finding that goo expanded over it and plugged the damn thing tight—just as something with glowing eyes came up fast enough to solidly connect with the blocking substance. "Fuck!" it exclaimed in a muffled voice that was eerily like his, "She outran me again!"

Natalie and Lance took notice of this, too, and both immediately understood why Anna attacked Matt. Neither chose to comment on it as the creature with glowing orbs scoffed and turned away, letting off muffled curses directed at Anna until it simply went out of sight. The four rolled their eyes after silence settled in, and shared a series of brief looks.

The goo continued to bubble and boil, keeping them trapped on a patch of marble in what the group could only surmise was the middle of nowhere. Lance trotted up to one of the patches of substance and poked it with his hoof, his brows shooting up when it did not scorch him, freeze his leg, or do anything else of the sort. He whirled around to look at the others, meeting equally-perplexed gazes.

"It's safe to touch," he said, using his back hoof to kick at the gel for emphasis. It wobbled, and some bubbles popped as a result, but again it didn't harm him in any way. He proceeded to stand on his back legs and lean into the substance wings-first. Once he was sure it could support him without setting off the bewitchments attached to him, he wasted no time in crossing his rear legs out of simple modesty.

Matt and Natalie shared concerned looks, then they trotted over to experimentally prod at the bubbling gel. It didn't react to their touch, but simply wobbled and popped in places as it had done for Lance. Then Natalie shoved Matt into the gel with her magic, garnering a shout of surprise, only to shriek herself as Anna came over and shoved her into the gel. "Alright, stop inflicting karma on each other," Lance ordered, and the three scrambled away from the goo with horns aglow.

"Now, now, General Boltwing, let them have their fun. It's not like the slime will devour them," a female voice chastised, echoing as if coming from everywhere at once. The quartet looked around, trying to find the source of the remark, yet found that they were the only ones present. "Up here," the voice called again, and the Fantasians glanced up to find a form just above the wad of goo on the ceiling, barely discernable as a silvery light shined on a patch of marble below.

The goo parted with the aid of a teal aura and the hole Lance made widened as chunks were pried out by the aura, until it was big enough an airship's balloon could fit through it. They heard the flapping of wings as from the hole drifted a blue alicorn, her horn glowing softly. "Luna?" Matt asked, his brows shooting up. "What are…"

Luna rose a hoof, signaling for him to stop speaking. "We're in the dream realm… specifically, your dreams after I pulled some strings and meshed them together," she answered. She landed on the floor and closed her wings, donning a worried frown.

The four exchanged glances again, then turned back to Luna with raised brows. "So, you can… get into dreams and basically do as you will with them?" Lance asked, his torn ears twitching.

"Yes, but I don't usually do anything if the dreams are good or neutral. I also visit nightmares…" Luna trailed off, shuddering and closing her eyes for a moment. "And to be honest, you four have… had very disturbing nightmares ever since you came to Canterlot."

Again, the Fantasians exchanged glances. This time, Anna spoke up, "You've been monitoring our dreams ever since we stayed one night in that shit hotel?"

"Celestia talked me into it," Luna answered, sighing heavily. "And yes, ever since you've arrived, I've been monitoring your dreams."

"What was the catalyst for Celestia talking you into contacting us while we're asleep?" Matt inquired.

"A request from…" Luna paused, raising a hoof to rub her temples with it. "Um… oh, yes. A request from Sarah to not send anypony else to Fantasia, especially pegasus ponies," she answered.

"Sounds… reasonable enough, I suppose. If 'reasonable' meant 'invading on our privacy,'" Lance grumbled, crossing his forelegs. "So," he started, disentangling himself from the goo and reverting to all fours awkwardly, "what did you want to talk to us about?"

"The nightmares that are plaguing you—or, rather, the origin thereof," Luna answered, almost immediately getting wide-eyed stares and rapid shaking of heads. "What?" she asked, a brow raising at the sudden shift in behavior her guests were displaying.

"You don't want to know," Anna replied in a quivering voice, her lips pulled into a tight frown.

"Has… seeing our nightmares driven you to ask such a question?" Natalie inquired, her lips also forming a frown.

"Partly, yes," Luna stated with a nod. "I haven't come across such… disturbing dreams in an awfully long time."

"I'm starting to wonder why you go dream-hopping to begin with," Lance murmured, sitting on his haunches to cross his forelegs again. This time, his wings flapped languidly, and Luna took notice of this.

"I usually 'dream-hop,' as you would say, to… provide advice. Act as a sort of royal therapist, if you will," Luna sighed, still eyeing the flapping metal wings when they abruptly stopped and their owner froze. Matt, Natalie, and Anna also stiffened, and at this the alicorn's brow slanted. "But my advice only goes to those who willingly ask for it." She trotted to them and extended a front hoof, watching them intently.

Not one of the Fantasians extended a hoof in return, and Luna gazed into all four sets of eyes to find that she saw sparks of worry and fear accompanying frowns. There was also something else gleaming in the irises of her guests, something that made her frown deepen in concern. She lowered her hoof and asked in a low voice, "Are you… feeling something along the lines of despair?"

None of them answered her inquiry, which only caused her frown to deepen still. Then, they turned to stare at the floor, the whole lot, each one only giving a dejected sigh and little else. Luna's eyes darted to each of them, trying to search for their expressions, but all she got was forelocks and crests and bangs obscuring their visages. "Perhaps it's a bit too much for you to speak to me about?" she asked.

The Fantasians just nodded slowly in unison. "We'll… we'll tell you when we feel ready to do so," Lance managed at last, turning his head up to meet Luna's gaze.

Luna nodded back in understanding. "I see. Very well then," she replied, and her horn started glowing teal. The entire area became enveloped in the soft aura, and before long the four woke up in their beds to start their third day in the Crystal Empire.

Chapter XXXI, Part I- Pleased to Make Your Acquantaince

Maria tottered about in the hall that lead to the guest rooms, trying to fly over and over again. The guards who were stationed there watched her, and some dove to catch her when she fell. Her wings flapped with the speed of a dragonfly and the grace of a dodo, and her landings weren't overtly spectacular, either. Katie and Flash watched, with the latter smiling at the foal's attempts and the former just shaking her head whilst sighing dejectedly.

"It's tragic," Katie remarked as another guard snatched Maria out of the air before she could meet up with the floor. When she saw Flash turn to her in the corner of her eye, she elaborated before he could speak, "Whoever taught her that just madly flapping and jumping would get her somewhere along the lines of 'out of flight school' should be ashamed of themselves."

"Do you know who taught her how to fly?" Flash asked, his smile fading.

Katie slowly turned to the orange pegasus and sighed again. "Let's just say hippogryphs who hated cutie marks with a burning passion… very bad hippogryphs," she answered. "Weren't worthy of keeping foals around, much less mares—pieces of, pardon my language, horseshit."

"Poor parents, I assume?" Flash inquired, garnering a shake of the head as his answer.

"They… the very bad gryphs... took hers out," Katie whispered as Maria fell into the hooves of another guard, using her ear to gesture to the foal in question for emphasis. "And all of the other foals, and their mothers, for that matter."

She watched as Flash's eyes widened considerably, to the point they started rivaling small saucers in size. She said nothing more, feeling that the orange guard got the barest idea of what had happened, and returned to keeping her orbs locked on Maria.

Flash did likewise with his eyes, and for a few minutes they stood there, watching the filly as she kept trying to fly only to repeatedly fail at it. This brief routine only stopped in its tracks as one of the doors of the guest rooms swung open, revealing a cloak-wearing Lance as he trotted out. Maria, who'd been stopped from landing in the floor, squirmed out of the forelegs of the guard that caught her and cantered over to the general. "Daddy, can I fly yet?" she asked, and the reaction she got was instantaneous.

Lance's eyes widened, and his pupils shrank. His lips pulled into a wide frown for approximately one second before his jaw dropped open and a choking sound came out. "G-guh?" was all he could manage, disbelief and shock lacing his tone. Katie turned to Flash as Lance stood there dumbfounded, her jaw also hanging open. She rose a hoof and pointed it at Maria, orbs wavering as if on the verge of spinning in their canvases.

"Daddy?" Maria asked again, and Lance shook his head rapidly.

The general started spluttering for a minute before he rose a hoof and coughed into it. "I just woke up, ask me again later," he grumbled after regaining his composure.

"Okay," Maria chirped, and she sent him a smile before bounding over to Katie.

Katie turned to the two, orbs darting between the filly and the stallion as the former came up to her. She closed her jaw for a few seconds before speaking, "Uh, Lance, I think you've just found yourself saddled with a kid. I'm not sure if that's good or bad."

Lance let his head drop, sighing dejectedly. "Help me," he murmured.

"Afraid I can't do that, no matter how hard I try," Katie replied, grunting as she found herself getting a rather tight hug from Maria as soon as she turned back to the filly. "Stop, you're squishing me," she groaned.

"Who's getting squished?" Anna asked as she trotted out of the room, going around Lance so as to not directly bumble into him. The instant she spoke up was the same instant Maria relinquished her hold on Katie and bounded over to the archer like a bullet fired from a pistol.

"Mommy, can I fly now?" Maria asked. Anna seized up, jolting to stand on her back legs with her face turning a shade of purple in seconds. The archer began spluttering as well, though this time she shook so much that Flash and Katie got the impression she wouldn't stay upright for long. The filly reached up with a talon and grabbed a small mound with a darker tan nub between Anna's rear legs. "What's this?" she questioned.

Anna looked down and flushed another layer of beet red as soon as she realized what the foal had grabbed. She batted the small claw away with a flash of magic, before using both of her front hooves to cover up her crotch. "Do-don't t-touch th-that!" she barked, ears flattening against her head as she started backpedaling into her room, and on just two legs.

She wasn't the only surprised one, she found, as her eyes darted to both sides of the hall. "D-did the foal just grab her by the teat?" a unicorn guard asked, his eyes wide.

Lance gaped again, before he shook his head and rose one of his front hooves to hit himself on the bridge of his muzzle. "For fuck's sake…" he groaned, eyes screwing shut as his ears also fell against his head. He too started backing up, but stopped when he felt his rear bump right into Anna's hip, causing her to stumble sideways. He cracked an eye open and averted it to her, watching as she thrust both front hooves out to catch herself before the floor could greet her. "You first," he murmured as she hauled herself up.

Anna nodded and galloped back into the room, her face still purplish-red in color as she went. Lance sighed, lowered his hoof and turned to the guards, before stopping upon seeing Flash and Katie just stare at him slack-jawed. "You two, make sure Maria doesn't molest anypony else." The two nodded, and the general fixed his gaze onto the foal in question. "You're grounded for a week. No flying," he said curtly, and he trotted into his room backwards. When he reached the door and made to close it, the filly began to bawl.

"Bu-bu-but, daddy—" Maria began as the tears began forming in the corners of her eyes.

"No 'buts,' young filly," Lance said in a reprimanding hiss, eyes narrowing. "You did something you knew you weren't supposed to do—do not make me send you to your guest room." With that, he closed the door, and let his head drop.

"It's not fair!" Maria cried on the other side of the door, her fit immediately accompanied by the harsh, shrill sound of little claws as they repeatedly raked against the door. Lance forced himself to stay put, biting his lip to keep himself from snapping at the foal. He listened as she complained about how it wasn't fair, that she wanted to fly, before her words became a big jumble the longer she pouted. He waited until both the tantrum and the scratching ceased minutes later before he turned to Anna to find that she just crawled back into bed and shielded herself with the covers.

He trotted over to her and sat next to the side of the bed she had taken, sighing dejectedly. Lance didn't speak until Anna poked her head out of the covers, "Is it just me, or are things taking a turn for the strange?"

"Between being visited by Mythos's lunar alicorn in our dreams, and me being called 'mommy' as soon as I leave the room… honestly, I don't really know," Anna replied, frowning. "With how angry you sounded… I'm impressed you didn't just straight-up drag her to her room."

"There is a fine line between being firm, and being abusive," Lance retorted with a shake of his head.

"Coming from the guy who hit one of his changeling soldiers, and stuck said soldier into a maid's getup," Anna pointed out, her frown deepening.

"Me smacking Armin was to keep him from being torn a new one by Sarah," Lance groaned, turning to Anna with a frown of his own. "And the maid's getup... don't lie, you saw why. A fully grown changeling who fucks up despite knowing better is one thing; an abused filly that seems to think molesting grown-ups is okay is an entirely different ball game."

Anna nodded in agreement, and her shoulders slumped. "Do you think grounding her went… too far? She sounded pretty upset," she murmured.

"No. But her squalling about it… maybe her biological folks grounded her. She screamed like she was awfully familiar with the concept," Lance replied, shaking his head. "And that's not even my—" he stopped to clear his throat before continuing, "—our kid anyway. Grounding's the most I can do without going overboard."

Anna sighed and threw the covers off with a hoof, shifting into a sitting position. She rubbed one of her forelegs with that same hoof, her frown softening a little. "Well, now that I think about it… she may see us as her new parents because we remind her of her old ones. That isn't so bad…"

"True, and we don't know much about what her folks did or didn't allow," Lance agreed with a thoughtful nod of his head. His frown also eased up, and he sent the archer a straight face. "I mean, what's the worst that can happen at this rate?"

"Maybe a flub helping Shining scour his library, but that's about all I can see happening," Anna replied with a shrug.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Twilight and her companions disembarked at the train station when the sun reached the apex of the sky, with Discord among them and he was disguised as a pony. This time, his sclera was white, and his irises were a dull orange. He gave the mares accompanying him a sly, if toothy, grin. "So… where to, Twilight? You know the Empire better than I do," he stated coolly.

Twilight sighed. She turned to the others and asked, "Alright, girls, before we head off, do you want to see any particular thing in the Empire?"

"I want to see how Maria's doing," Pinkie piped up, jittering in place.

"I'd like to buy some crystal berries," Applejack stated with a nod of her head. "Maybe me and my family could make a zap apple recipe with them."

"Um, I think I should find NoLegs and Fenrir," Fluttershy murmured with a small smile.

Rarity's horn glowed, and a trio of pony-shaped mannequins appeared in a flash of magic, with balls of light surrounding them and obscuring much of their features. "I have three dresses that I desperately need to deliver," she chirped, turning to look at the individual garments and flashing a smile at them, almost as if they were living beings. She made the mannequins and dresses vanish before anypony could look through the light balls and at the garments for more than a few seconds, and she turned to Twilight, still grinning.

Twilight stared at Rarity with an incredulous look. "Why did you have light surround the dresses? Is it some sort of surprise?" she asked.

Rarity nodded curtly. "It's a surprise—one that I will only spoil when I have the recipients actually try them on," she replied.

Twilight nodded back, and turned to look at Rainbow Dash. "What about you?" she asked.

Dash spread her wings and began flapping them, quickly becoming airborne. "I dunno about you guys, but I think I'm gonna just kick back and relax for a while," she chirped in reply. Her eyelids partially drooped, like she was getting bored and fast as she added, "That, and I don't want to see any fireworks today."

Twilight's brow rose, but before she could open her mouth, Discord spoke up. "Dearest Dash, what do you mean by fireworks, pray tell?" he asked, turning to the airborne pegasus with the toothy grin still on his face.

Dash turned to him and rolled her eyes. "What if the crystal ponies find out what you really are?" she retorted, crossing her forelegs. "And don't get me started on the Fantasians."

"The crystal ponies… I'll admit, you do have a valid concern there," Discord agreed, nodding his head thoughtfully. He proceeded to cross his forelegs together, and he didn't fall over in spite of the fact that he did not rear up on his back legs for balance. "But the Fantasians probably don't even know who or what I am, much less my capabilities. If I just kept this form and my lips sealed around them, then there's no harm done."

"But didn't you want to, I dunno, summon clowns and flying pigs last night?" Twilight questioned, turning to Discord with a frown.

"I was very tired last night—you could say I wasn't thinking at the time," Discord argued, keeping his forelegs crossed. "But then again, I still do derive some of my joy from not making sense—part of my many quirks, after all."

Twilight opened her mouth again, only to close it and sigh through her nostrils when she considered his point. She turned to the road that gleamed, stretching out all the way to the Empire. "I suppose we should get a move on," she murmured.

"Now, now, there's no need for roads when you have me by your side," Discord chirped. "Now then, envision in your mind's eye the spot in the Empire you girls wish to congregate at."

He waited until they complied before separating his forelegs and wasting no time performing the act of clapping his hooves thrice, and mana burst from his hooves before jumping from one mare to the next. When it came back to him a minute later, he got a vision that he immediately began to discern. Upon seeing in his mind the overhang with the twirling Crystal Heart, he grinned. "Alright ladies, brace yourselves now—we shall arrive at the place of congregation shortly," he warned, clapping his hooves one more time.

Before any of his companions could make a single noise of protest, a flash of pure white light enveloped them on the spot, and they felt themselves hurtling at speeds that quickly made everypony but Twilight and Discord woozy. It felt like it spanned hours, yet lasted only seconds when five of six ponies flopped onto a piece of crystalline street like the drop of a dime, eyes wildly spinning in their sockets. The sixth swayed in place for a moment, but quickly shook off her disorientation after a few seconds had passed.

Twilight turned full circle to absorb her surroundings, before stopping as soon as she saw the Crystal Heart. She blinked as it changed from teal to red, prior to going yellow and then green. She turned away from it when she heard hooves hitting crystal, and found two guards and a small red-maned filly with a set of clawed horseshoes approaching from one of the legs of the palace structure. The trio wasted no time in rushing to the new arrivals.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting to see you six here… like, a day or two after me and mine left Ponyville," Katie remarked, her ears twitching as soon as she and the guards accompanying her halted close to their unexpected guests. Her faux eyes turned to Discord and she added, "Who in hell is that dude? I could've sworn I've never seen him around these parts before."

Discord's ears twitched, and he shared a glance with Twilight. "Are Fantasian foals known for cursing?" he asked, using a hoof to gesture to Katie.

"I'm not a foal—I only look like one at this time," Katie replied before Twilight could speak. Discord's brow quirked, and he stared intently at the filly—only to find that it wasn't a filly who answered his inquiry. His eyes grew to the size of saucers, and he turned to the other mares as they hauled themselves up with pained grunts.

"Are any of you girls seeing what I am seeing?" Discord asked, and when the mares shot glares at him, he proceeded to point a hoof at Katie for emphasis. They followed his limb, and one by one, all five slowly nodded in perfect sync. Then, he turned to the guards, opening his mouth to ask, only to close it when they nodded to him before he could utter his question a second time.

"We are well aware of what she… happens to be," one of the guards stated.

"We cannot do anything to her, so long as she behaves in our premises," the second added. "And so far, she has behaved very admirably."

"So… where are the others?" Twilight asked, looking at Katie.

Katie pointed up with one of her clawed hooves. "Guest rooms, third floor, a little to the right of the palace," she responded. "I've been stationed to play watchmare with these two," she added, using the same hoof she pointed at the overhang with to gesture to the guards, who then nodded as soon as her limb had dropped.

Pinkie shook her head rapidly before darting over to the wraith, all of her disorientation forgotten. "How's Maria doing?" she asked, a wide smile forming on her face.

That smile dropped when Katie flinched prior to answering, "Uh… let's just say she's in trouble right now, and is being disciplined. I don't think you need to know the details."

"Is she being spanked?" Pinkie pressed, eyes widening.

"Fortunately, no," Katie replied, shaking her head. "At most, time-out."

Rarity tottered over to Katie, looking at the guards with a bit of a pleading look. "Um, my good stallions, would it be alright if I… erm, took your extra watchmare away for a bit?" she asked, using a hoof to tenderly pat Katie on the head.

The guards exchanged looks, then turned back to Rarity. "What for?" one of them asked.

"Oh, she ordered a dress from my Boutique before arriving at the Empire, and I need to have her try it on to make sure it fits her… unique contours," Rarity explained, donning a rather shaky smile.

The guards turned to Katie, who donned a wide-eyed look on her illusioned face. "Holy—how could I forget?" she cried, false pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks. She turned to Rarity and asked, "Um… can it wait a bit? I need to fetch Anna and Maria so they can try theirs on, and that won't be until after I make a round with the guards."

Rarity put a hoof to her chin and hummed, considering Katie's remarks. After a minute had passed, she dropped her limb and nodded in understanding. "Very well. Just be sure to see me once your rounds are done, alright?"

"Can do," Katie answered with a nod of her own.

"Can I ask, why are you making rounds with the guards?" Twilight interjected, also coming over to the wraith with a puzzled frown on her face.

"Lance decided to deploy me, even though I'm not a soldier in his army," Katie answered, tilting her head slightly.

Twilight's brow rose slightly. "Because… why, exactly?" she ventured.

Katie crossed her forelegs together. "Long story, but the short of it is your brother's keeping a hawk's-eye on the area, and so are his stallions and mares. I'm just helping," she stated.

Twilight turned to the guards, eyes glinting in askance. One shook his head, while the other uttered, "You'll have to ask him yourself, ma'am. Or perhaps one of the other Fantasians."

Twilight nodded and turned to Pinkie and Fluttershy. Her eyes flicked between them, before settling on Discord. "You, you, and you," she started, lifting a hoof to gesture to the three she looked at for emphasis, "we're visiting the other Fantasians."

One of the guards turned to Katie and gently nudged her with a hoof. "Go ahead and escort the lot. You know where the guest rooms are," he said.

Katie sighed begrudgingly, turning to Twilight as the lavender mare in question turned back to her. "Sounds like we have a change in plans…" she murmured, turning around and cantering over to the leg she left from just moments ago. Reluctantly, Twilight and her chosen companions followed her after a minute's worth of hesitation, while Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash tottered off to do other things.

They found and proceeded to climb up a staircase nestled within that leg single-file. As they cantered on their way up, Twilight asked, "Um, is the Crystal Heart supposed to be changing colors?"

Katie shook her head as she passed a door on the side of the flight, ignoring the frame altogether in favor of ascending a few more steps. "According to Shining and Cadence, no," she answered. "What's worse is Cadence straight-admitted that she knew next to nothing of the Heart itself. But… I can't fault her for that. I know next to nothing of the Godcat-damned thing, much less Mythos in its entirety."

"Did anypony touch it…?" Twilight continued, her brow raising higher.

"Not that I know of. Me and the others were specifically told to not lay so much as a strand of mane on it," Katie answered with a shrug. She passed a second door without paying it heed, still going up the flight with the others still trotting after her. "Seriously, who's that stallion with you?"

"Me?" Discord asked from the far back.

"You're the only stallion I've seen with a horn whose color doesn't match that of your face, no offense," Katie retorted with a huff.

Discord took on a grin with a sly cast to it. "I shall tell you who I am when I meet with your fellow Fantasians," he answered, his remark causing shudders to run up the spines of Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie. If Katie had bothered to look behind her instead of just trotting onward at that point, she'd have seen that their pupils shrunk to pinpricks in seconds.

In a few minutes, they reached a third door that marked the end of the flight of stairs, whereupon their wraith-turned-usher halted abruptly. Katie turned to the door and opened it with a hoof, barely glancing over her shoulder to confirm that the four who followed her were still present, before trotting down a hall and rounding a bend. The quartet followed after her, shifting to trot shoulder-by-shoulder, and as they caught up to her Discord noticed their guide's slight limping gait.

"Pray tell, did you suffer an injury to the back legs?" Discord asked, garnering a sigh from Katie.

"No, but I did suffer a guitar to the hips," Katie answered nonchalantly, nostrils flaring as she snorted. "And a marble column to my face."

Discord blinked. His eyes narrowed slightly as he asked, "Just how were you able to get out of taking a marble column to the face without your skull cracking? Wouldn't that have caused, say, a flattened muzzle at the very least?"

"Beats the fuck out of me," Katie replied with a shrug. She rounded another bend to the left, ears stiffening upright for a few seconds before dropping again as Twilight and her company continued to dawdle after her. They went down a few more halls without exchanging words, and silence settled in said halls they stalked upon until they came up to the place with the guest rooms. One of the doors opened, from which Spike and a red-faced Maria emerged, and Twilight took two steps forward before hearing the filly sniffle.

"Just say you're sorry, don't grab anypony in that place anymore, be extra good, and maybe Lance'll unground you early," Spike murmured, patting Maria on the back when she hiccuped.

"R-really?" Maria whimpered in a trembling voice, raising a claw to wipe her nose with it. She looked at Spike with hope gleaming in her eyes, but also a faint spark of dread.

"Yeah." Spike nodded, a small smile accompanied by the tiniest hint of worry burning in his eyes. "Like I said: apologize, be really extra good, and play it cool. If you do that, I'll bet ya ten bits you'll be ungrounded before the Crystal Faire." His eyes widened, and both he and Maria turned to find Twilight staring at them as she cleared her throat.

"Um… what happened, exactly?" Twilight asked, a frown on her face.

Spike rolled his eyes. "Maria got in trouble, so I'm trying to cheer her up," he replied.

Twilight shot a glance at Katie, who merely narrowed her eyes and mouthed, "Do you really want to know what happened?" When Twilight nodded slowly, the wraith took off one of her front horseshoes and slapped herself right under her horn-stump with the bared hoof. She began grumbling indignantly as she lowered said hoof back down to put her shoe on after sliding it along the bridge of her muzzle.

Fluttershy piped up, looking at Twilight the entire time she spoke, "Um, I don't think it's a good idea… if you don't mind me speaking out, that is."

Pinkie decided to stick in her two bits, but not before she bounded over to Maria and scooped her up in her front hooves. "I know ways of making being grounded not so boring," she chirped. "But," she continued when Maria brightened a little bit, "you have to promise me you'll be super-duper-extra good. Pinkie promise?"

Maria's smile fell. "What's a Pinkie promise?" she asked.

Pinkie's eyes went wide. Then she donned an awkward smile. "Just Pinkie promise for me, alright?" she asked, her tone bordering a bit on the shaky side. Before Maria could answer, the two heard a door open, and they turned to another door swinging brazenly into the hall. From behind that door, Lance and Anna trotted out into the hall, and both turned to the gathering that had formed only ten or so feet from them.

"What's all this hubbub about?" Anna asked, trotting over to Pinkie upon noticing she and the others were present.

"What she said," Lance added, also trotting over. Pinkie noticed that the general had a straight face, while Anna possessed a slight frown on her muzzle. "We weren't expecting you and yours to show up."

"We were just checking up on things," Twilight answered, tottering over to Spike and patting him on the head with a hoof. "Like my adopted dragon, for instance."

Lance nodded in understanding. "I see," he murmured, his eyes shifting to the orange-eyed stallion that had still stood next to Fluttershy. "And… who's he?"

Discord began to grin again, and when he blinked his eyes, the sclera turned yellow while the irises became a bright, bold, blood red in color. He rose a hoof up and held it to the barrel of his chest, and Lance's eyes widened as that same hoof quickly turned into an orange cat's paw. Then the changing stallion vanished in a flare of light, only to reappear in front of Lance in a cloud of smoke.

"Well met, General Boltwing! I've heard so much about you," Discord chirped, his smile widening. He wasted no time grabbing one of Lance's hooves with the paw and shaking it hard enough to leave the Fantasian pegasus with his eyes spinning in their sockets.

Lance promptly landed on his haunches as soon as his hoof was released, swaying back and forth like a pendulum that was caught in a rising tide of water. "H-hello to you t-to," he murmured. "Who th-the fuck're y-you?" His inquiry went unanswered as Discord snapped the digits of his paw, and an accordion appeared in a flash of light before landing square on the general's head, right between the ears. The sudden thwack-to-the-head was somehow accompanied by a loud honk that only sounded at the precise moment of impact.

This caused Pinkie, Spike, Maria, and Anna to jump in surprise. "Di-did-did that accordion… honk just now?" Anna asked, pupils dilated and voice laced with disbelief.

Lance shook off the accordion, which honked as it fell onto the floor before vanishing from sight. He leveled a stone-cold glare at Discord. "The fuck was that for?! What did I ever do to you to deserve that?!" he cried, eyes narrowing to thin, crimson slits. Discord guffawed and snapped his digits again, causing a clay-potted plant to appear and crash into Lance's head. The ceramic shattered and scattered into thousands of pieces, leaving just a wad of dirt with a flower heaped on the general's cranium.

Discord rose the paw and adjusted the little bloom so it stood upright. Then, he picked it, brought it to his nose, and took a hearty whiff of the plant. His eyes went wide, and he stared at the plant. "Goodness me, it reeks of metal, smoking powder, and… something most unpleasant." He sniffed the flower again, seemingly unaware that Lance was still trying to drill a hole into him with the glare he cast. "Hrm… yes, that's quite a bizarre scent if I've ever smelled one." The cat-armed stallion tossed the flower aside, whereupon it vanished alongside the mound of dirt and scattered bits of smashed clay.

"Who are you, and what was all that for?" Lance demanded, his face just starting to turn a twinge of red. His pupils dilated as the odd unicorn before him morphed into a chimera and stared into his eyes with a wide toothy grin on his face.

"Name's Discord, Spirit of Chaos, only draconequus in Equestria, was petrified twice over and the one who decided to mess with your head by making illusory objects land upon your skull. Pleased to make your acquaintance," Discord replied, offering his paw to Lance. The general stared for a moment or two, the color draining from his face, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he proceeded to collapse into a heap on the floor.

Discord's paw fell, and his shoulders slumped. "I was expecting something more of a stallion whose cranium I've just smashed objects upon…" he grumbled, his smile immediately turning into a sullen frown.

"Is daddy okay?" Maria asked worriedly, eyes wide as she stared at Lance's out-cold form. Discord turned to her and smiled.

"Oh, don't worry, little one. He's alright as can be—after all, illusory objects falling on heads only gives mild concussions," Discord replied, his smile faltering for a bit.

Katie looked at Twilight, her orbs dimming. "Somehow, I'm not convinced," Katie mouthed, using a hoof to gesture to Discord and Lance for emphasis.

"Discord, that was very wrong of you to do," Fluttershy interjected, giving Discord a cold glare on par with those of Shining and Lance. The glare caused Discord to falter for a bit, and his smile fell again as he stared into her eyes. Her eyes gleamed, and her voice turned cold, reprimanding, and angry to reflect it as she went on, "You could have… made Lance want to tear your wings off or something. When he wakes up again, you're going to make it up to him. You're going to apologize."

"But why would I need to apologize to him?" Discord asked, his ears flattening against his head. Fluttershy's eyes narrowed, and she flapped her wings and flew right up to his face so fast he couldn't react.

"You're going to do it, or… or… or be turned to stone again!" Fluttershy hissed, whereupon Discord's pupils shrank. "And you don't want that, do you?" Discord shook his head, and slowly, Fluttershy descended until her hooves touched the crystal floor.

Chapter XXXI, Part II- Zephyr a la Fortississimo

Anna stared at Discord, her mind reeling so fast she barely registered Fluttershy's threat of petrification—let alone the draconequus's taken-aback look that stemmed as a result of said threat. Several emotions ran rampant, and her visage kept contorting in a subconscious effort to display them all. Her brow slanted one second, her eyes almost bugged out the next, and on the third second she went slack-jawed.

She stood there, continually staring, every fiber of her body frozen except for that of her rapidly-shifting face. She wanted to move, and willed her legs to budge, yet her limbs didn't comply in the slightest. Maria turned to the archer and saw her stuck in her trance, and she wiggled out of Pinkie's hooves before cantering over and using a claw to poke her on the foreleg. "Mommy, are you okay?" she asked, frowning when Anna's eyes widened again.

Anna blinked before the inquiry registered in her head. She jumped before backpedaling so fast she landed on her haunches, her still-wide eyes falling onto the foal. "Uh… no?" she managed, her throat quickly drying out in the span of seconds as her face stopped on the wide-eyed look and ceased changing through any more expressions. Her hooves flew around Maria as soon as she came closer, wrapping her in a tight embrace, as though their owner feared that Discord would stow the foal away to parts unknown.

Speaking of, Discord looked deflated—shoulders slumped, wings sagging, ears and mouth drooping, and much of his lengthy tail resting flat on the crystal floor. Fluttershy watched him, eyes still narrowed, like her turquoise gaze could slice through solid steel.

While Fluttershy kept the draconequus glued to the spot with her stare, Pinkie cantered over to Anna and smiled in greeting. "Discord's just having a relapse; he should be okie-dokie-lokie soon," she chirped.

"Okie-dokie-lokie?" Anna repeated in a high-pitched squeak, her voice raspy. She lifted one of her hooves from Maria and used it to gesture to Lance as she began to prattle, "H-he just hurt Lance—you call that a relapse?! Discord j-just guaranteed that Lance'll declare war! He guaranteed it, I swear! As soon as he wakes up, we're all going to die!"

Before the frightened unicorn could ramble any further, Pinkie simply jammed a hoof into her mouth, wincing as teeth clamped on it in an attempt to spit it out. "If Lance wants to declare war, trust me, Twilight, and the other girls to talk him out of it," she replied, a glint in her eyes.

"Who wants to declare what?" a masculine voice asked as another door swung open. Pinkie and Anna turned to the door to find that Matt just began to set hoof into the hall, unaware of the fact that his general was wounded and on the floor only a few feet away.

"Daddy got hurt," Maria answered for Matt before Pinkie could open her mouth to speak.

"Daddy?" Matt repeated, his brows raising. "I thou—"

Katie trotted over to the fuzzy unicorn and sighed in exasperation, quickly cutting his musings off. "She decided that General Boltwing is her new daddy," she groaned sarcastically, watching as Matt's eyes almost bugged out of their sockets instantly.

"W-w-wh…" Matt began mumbling incoherently, his brain scrambling to formulate a response. He dropped to the floor, his legs tucked under him as he shifted to be eye-level with Katie. "Y-you…"

"She's… not k-kidding," Anna piped up as soon as Pinkie removed the hoof from her mouth.

Matt stayed on the floor, eyes darting between Katie and Anna fervently. As soon as his mind stopped scrambling and started absorbing the intel, a grin cropped up on his face. Then he stood up and trotted over the wraith's form, making a beeline directly for the mares and foal. Ignoring Pinkie's presence for the moment, his smile widened before falling as soon as he noticed the look on Anna's face. "Something wrong?" he asked.

Anna lifted one of her hooves from Maria, and once again gestured to Discord with it in silence. Matt followed her limb and, upon seeing the draconequus, paled on the spot. Yet again his brain had shut down, refusing to process the mere sight of Discord in all of his chimerical glory, and as he stared his head began to hurt.

"What's this?" Discord asked, turning to Matt and finding himself engaged in a staring contest. He vanished in a flash of light before reappearing in front of the dumbstruck stallion, eyeing the horn on the Fantasian's head. "Sir, do you have a mutation or something? I ask not to offend, but because this is the first time I have seen a full-grown stallion with a smaller asset that… doesn't match the size of the body."

"I'm only half-unicorn," Matt grumbled, his face tightening the longer Discord stared at his horn. "Get away from my silver forehead-dagger, or I'll poke you with it," he threatened with narrowing eyes as the draconequus leaned closer, forcing his quarry to lean back.

Discord retracted and hummed thoughtfully, lifting his paw to stroke at his goatee. "Hrm… that might explain it. Still, I've seen half-unicorns with bigger horns," he stated, his remark causing one of Matt's eyes to start twitching.

"Oh, Discord, don't antagonize him," Pinkie called out, bouncing over to Matt's side in an instant. When Discord turned to her with a brow quirked, she stood up on her back legs and wrapped a foreleg around the half-Clydesdale's neck. "He's one of my friends—by default, he's your friend too."

"I'd think more along the lines of 'friend-I-just-met-today' than 'friend-I've-known-for-a-few-years,' if I went by your logic, Pinkie," Discord retorted, his paw retracting from the tuft of hair on his chin.

"But you also attacked my other friend, who's still on the floor," Pinkie countered, using her free hoof to gesture to the sprawled, still-unconscious heap on the floor that was Lance Boltwing.

Discord's irises shrunk. "No wonder Fluttershy got mad at me… why didn't you tell me you made friends with the flipping general sooner?" he asked.

"You never asked if I made friends with him or not," Pinkie answered, a slight frown on her face.

Discord slumped again when he heard the general moaning, and turned to find the sorry bastard hauling himself up on three hooves, with the fourth rubbing at the spot between his ears. "This is gonna be a long day, isn't it…" he groaned.

"Where is… that fucking goat-faced… chimera?" Lance groaned as he stood on three wobbly legs, a bit of color returning to his face. "I'm… gonna hit him… with my gunblade…" That declaration was followed by him collapsing to the floor again, the fourth hoof still on his head.

Twilight trotted up to the stallion who, if the hoof on his head and his pained voice were a set of indications, was still nursing a killer concussion. She put her hoof on his withers and sighed, garnering his attention. "Try as you might, with how shaky your legs are now, you might want to wait a bit," she warned.

Lance tried standing again, once more on three legs, as if in defiance of her suggestion. He managed to get up and stay up for a few more seconds prior to one leg slipping out from beneath him when he shifted slightly, which caused him to fall on his side. Twilight jumped back, ears folding against her skull as she heard a dampened clang of metal as the pegasus landed.

Pinkie and Fluttershy turned to the general, having also heard the noise. Both zipped over to him, though the former took care to remove her leg from Matt's neck beforehand. "What was that?" Twilight asked in disbelief, getting a wide-eyed look from Lance as an immediate response.

"Uh… m-my gunblade?" Lance stammered, paling like a deer caught in headlights. His ears fell back when the three mares who stared at him exchanged glances.

"Can we see?" Pinkie asked, garnering a rapid shaking of the head from the distraught general. "Why not?"

Twilight's horn lit up, and she grasped Lance in her magic. She lifted him up, and he began struggling vehemently, unintelligible words sounding more like keens of protest escaping his mouth as he momentarily forgot his facade and let his wings flail under their cloth coverings with reckless abandon. "I dunno about you girls," she began, glancing at Fluttershy and Pinkie, "but it seems like our Fantasian pegasus here has something to hide."

"Um, General Boltwing, if your wings are broken, then why're you madly flapping them?" Pinkie asked, her inquiry causing the flailing stallion's struggling to halt right in its tracks. Slowly, he turned to the three once more, the color draining from his face for a second time that day as he loudly gulped.

Discord came over via flash of light, vanishing and reappearing to start standing next to Fluttershy, with one brow raised high and the other threatening to overshadow the eye and lids below it. He reached out with his bird-hand, firmly gripping both the cloth wrapped around the floating pony's midsection, as well as the loose cloak above that. "May I?" he asked, garnering a shake of the head from Lance.

Twilight shared a look with the draconequus. "Go ahead—at this point, I'm inclined to think his wings aren't as busted up as he told me they were," she said. Discord obliged, tugging off all of the cloth so fast Lance performed barrel rolls in the magic that had him suspended thereafter. Twilight turned to the general and watched, and he twirled to the point that he was just a blur of burnt orange, dark crimson, and steel grey.

"I'm afraid I can't let you spin any longer, General," Twilight groaned after a full minute passed without a sign that the hapless stallion would cease rolling in one spot on his own. Her magic fully seized him at that point, forcing him to still immediately, though his head had enough leeway to sway for a bit before he let it drop with a pained groan.

As soon as the three mares and Discord laid eyes on his wings, they paled a little. Discord used his paw to grab one of the sorry bastard's wings and spread it slowly, then closed it before flexing it repeatedly. "Hrm… seems to still function, despite the metal belying otherwise," he murmured, using his talon to feel up the individual feathers. The runes lit up at his touch, softly glowing but otherwise not doing anything.

He released the wing, watching as the limb drooped like its owner's head, the runes fading after a few seconds ticked by. He turned to Twilight and inquired, "What, exactly, did he tell you?"

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Shining Armor sat in the front row of the auditorium, a pair of earmuffs to one side of him. He looked back at the double doors, seeing a pair of unicorn guards stationed on either side of the frame, with one a deep ocean blue and the other a slate gray. They also had earmuffs on their heads, and stared at their ruler intently. Shining nodded to them, and they used their magic to close the door and form a small bubble over themselves.

Then, the Emperor turned to the podium and saw a single music sheet stand with a small book opened upon it, with an overhead light shining down on it like a play was about to start. His ears twitched, enabling him to hear the soft echoing sounds of hooves hitting and claws scraping against the crystal. "The guards are ready, Lyregale," he called out.

He eyed the stage as, from behind and then around it, Sarah bumbled into view on her back legs with her harp in her claws. "Might as well take center stage while you're at it," he added, and sighed as she put one end of the instrument in her mouth before climbing onto the podium. He'd have made a remark about the oddity of her methods, if she still didn't have that accursed wing cast strapped on her like a neon blue sign that said 'I can't fly.'

Shining never took his eyes off of her, but as soon as she readied herself and wiped her harp on her wing cast, his hoof strayed to the pair of earmuffs in preparation. She flipped through the small book, enabling her one-pony audience to catch the barest of glimpses of music notes, before stopping and blinking. "These… these are spells," she murmured, turning to him with a brow raised in askance.

"Your sister had them. Take that up with her," Shining replied, waving the hoof that wasn't on the earmuffs dismissively.

"You're telling me my sister had a small grimoire?" Sarah inquired, garnering a nod from the Emperor. She sighed in exasperation and simply flipped through the book before settling on a random piece somewhere in the middle, eyeing a composition of primarily-high notes with some low notes scattered here and there. Her eyes widened, lighting up in a way that Shining thought they started reflecting the overhead light.

"Wait… this is the same one I tried when Chanson challenged me…" she murmured in thought, pupils shrinking for a moment. Then, her eyes darkened ever so slightly under the shadow of her bangs, and a smile came onto her face. "Maybe…" She continued to stare at the composition before her, absorbing the placements of the notes and letting her mind drift into a haze as her claws began tenderly plucking at the strings.

The notes rang throughout the auditorium, and as the first few strings were plucked, the harp and music sheet began glowing in soft green mana. Shining watched intently, a frown cropping up on his face as a distinctly green-tinted aura-like gale which wasn't in the expansive room before blew throughout.

It circled the room slowly, taking its sweet time to rustle his mane to let him know it now had a presence, enabling him to better see the trail of viridian as it came and went like a puff of smoke. A few feathers dislodged themselves from Sarah's good wing, floating about in the zephyr like flower petals. His eyes betrayed a spark of worry as one such feather drifted past him, its tip just barely tickling his nose as the glowing winds dragged it in a current that made it pirouette of its own accord.

As Sarah kept playing, the gale grew stronger. Shining's mane danced in the breeze, his frown deepening as he heard the tell-tale sound of a page being flipped, followed immediately by another. The harp kept glowing, at this rate pulsating with raw mana, and the lyrist playing it stared not at the music sheets as they kept turning—she lifted her gaze and stared straight ahead with a vacant expression.

The guards dropped their barrier and trotted over to their Emperor, with the blue one pulling off his earmuffs. "What's happening?" he asked, using a hoof to gesture to the still-playing hippogryph on stage.

"I'm not sure," Shining replied, rising from his seat and dropping his earmuffs as his front hooves connected with the floor. He nodded to the guards, a firm look on his face, and only when they silently nodded back did he make his move. He burst into a gallop and jumped on the stage, but as soon as his hooves connected with the podium the gale picked up in intensity. Sarah's claws started moving faster, plucking the strings in such a calculated and precise manner that the Captain began wondering just what had caused her to turn so distant all of a sudden.

The gale grew stronger yet, now with enough strength to send the entire music sheet booklet right off the stand, causing it to land and slide away on the podium. Wind was violently billowing right in his face and lifting his bangs clear off his forehead, forcing him to squint his eyes. Mana pulsated from the harp still, and this time its energy rippled all across Sarah's body as if it were a polished surface and nothing more.

Her eyes, he noticed, seemed cold and dull, a small frown forming on her face as she kept playing without any sign of stopping. Shining knew then that he had to stop her immediately, and his horn glowed and his magic grabbed the cause of her behavioral shift right at the source.

He tugged his head sharply back, like another pony decided to punch him in the face, and his aura responded accordingly. The harp was yanked out of Sarah's claws, and it soared up and up until it was well out of her reach. Shining turned back to the lyrist in question and watched her jolt straight back to awareness as the gale finally began to die down along with the vestiges of pulsing mana.

Her eyes went wide, and her ears fell back as a stray loose feather landed tenderly upon the very tip of her muzzle. She shook her head in disbelief, letting the feather drift to the floor. "Wh-wh—"

"I think that the harp began controlling you. It's okay—nopony got hurt," Shining assured her, trotting up to her and just letting her collapse onto him.

Sarah wrapped her claws around Shining's neck, her breathing rapidly hitching as his words sank in like lead weights. "C-controlling… m-me?" she squeaked in nothing short of pure horror. Shining mutely nodded, raising one of his hooves to embrace her tightly. "I… didn't… the high mages…"

"Rest assured, I'm going to have a long talk with them. I'll drop you and yours off in Ponyville, where Twilight can watch you while I address the high mages after the Crystal Faire," Shining murmured, his tone firm but gentle. "I know all too well how it is to be controlled… you can bet your wings I'll raise tartarus at the high mages as soon as I see them."

"Um… sir, the harp," the blue guard piped up from in front of the podium. Shining briefly lifted his hoof from Sarah to wave it dismissively.

"I'll have her sister secure it, and the music sheets," Shining replied, his horn still glowing. His magic picked up the sheets, and he let go of his guest after a minute had passed. She climbed on his back, and he looked at her before seeing her pale substantially. "Too shaken to walk?" he asked, garnering an immediate nod as his answer. "I understand. Would you like to see your sister?" Another nod gave him all the answer he needed.

Shining sent her a small smile. "Alright. Hang tight," he stated. When he felt claws wrap around his barrel tightly, he turned to the double doors and bounded off the podium, landing smoothly and briefly stopping to make sure that she wouldn't fall off and that he still had the harp and sheets in his magical grasp. When that was done, he galloped to the double doors, flung them open, and rushed out of the auditorium while leaving just two guards and a few loose feathers in his wake.

The two guards in question exchanged looks, with the blue one who took his muffs off early letting his eyes grow to the size of saucers and the other gray one immediately going slack-jawed. "That was… interesting," the wide-eyed guard murmured.

The gray one threw off his earmuffs and sighed. "Hey, at least we came prepared," he replied.

"Might as well start trotting around inside the palace with open umbrellas. The Emperor warned us of potential headaches, not wind manipulation via instrument!" the blue one barked, using a hoof to gesture to the discarded earmuffs. "I'm not sure if the Emperor has gone off his rocker or what!"

"At least he prevented that gale from becoming so strong we would've been swept off our hooves!" the gray guard retorted, firmly frowning at this point. "I for one would not want to know what that harp could do!"

"... point taken," the blue guard groaned, slowly nodding in agreement. He began trotting to the double doors, with his fellow coming up behind him. They assumed stoic faces, taking deep breaths to compose themselves as they went out into the hall, just barely catching the fading echo of galloping hooves. They glanced around, trying to find the source of the noise, but alas they found naught except themselves in that hall.

They exchanged glances upon noticing the emptiness of the crystal corridor. The blue guard spoke, "Do you think the Emperor took a detour, Solid Step?"

Solid Step shook his head. "Not unless he accidentally dropped the hippogryph. He's not one to take shortcuts, and you know that as well as I do, Aquamarine," he replied.

Aquamarine sighed and nodded. He began trotting again, down to one end of the hall before rounding a corner and vanishing from sight. Solid watched him disappear, pondering for a few minutes on end on whether or not he should stop standing still and make an effort to catch up to his companion. He remained entirely unaware that something rounded a bend from the other side of the hall, silent as a stalking cat and as slow and concise as a praying mantis.

When the figure slipped and made a noise not unlike a hoof hitting the floor, Solid whipped around, his head darting everywhere in an attempt to scope out the source. He saw nothing, and slowly turned back around before languidly trotting where Aquamarine had gone. Behind him, the form silently slipped out from behind a nearby crystal pillar and crept ever closer to the lone guard. Solid Step kept his back turned, his already-slow trot decelerating into a hoof-dragging walk.

Solid Step then stopped at the bend and took his sweet time to contemplate some more, but the poor bastard didn't get the chance to come to a decision, still blissfully ignorant to the presence that scoped him out and closed in without hesitation. Hooves flew around his neck from behind, gripping him in a firm chokehold before he realized what had happened, and his eyes went wide as the weight of the situation set in.

He tried to look at his attacker as he began struggling to break free, but he paled when all he could make out was a form wearing a cloak black as night that obscured all of their features. He felt his body weaken, his throat constricting and lungs begging for oxygen that was rapidly depleting.

He bucked, he reared, he pranced madly up and down the hall, even tried lifting the form from his neck with his magic—no matter what he did, nothing was able to shake the creature off. He felt something clamp down on his horn, and jolts went through his system, temporarily dazing him and taking any and all spells he had known straight out of the equation.

Even so, he regained his senses and began anew, throwing all of his strength into attempting to get the form off of him. He crashed side-first into a wall, tossed himself into a pillar, and even to the floor, but still the entity would not relent. As the minutes ticked by, his more physical attempts to throw the figure off were met with a tighter grip and a face turning a shade of blue, and every time he tried to cast a spell he got another shock running through his system.

His exertion, the shock treatment that came from his horn being repeatedly rendered useless, and the hooves around his neck just tired him out to the bitter end. "It's night-night time now," a hollow voice murmured, right as Solid's vision became white for the barest of seconds before turning black on the spot. The figure released its hold on the guard and let him drop to the floor, quiet but harsh wheezes leaving the mouth of the hapless unicorn as he lay there with a blue face.

"That was too easy," the figure hissed to itself, chortling lowly before silencing itself and languidly walking along the halls. If Solid were still awake then, he'd have seen that it swayed from one side to the next, its form ever-threatening to tip over only to swing in the opposite direction like a metronome. It slipped around the same bend that Aquamarine had taken moments ago, disappearing from sight almost like a shadowy afterimage.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

"You did what?" Shining growled. He was in one of the guest rooms, sitting at a table with Discord directly opposite of him. A naked Lance was also sitting to one side with a scowl in his face, and Fluttershy sitting across from said Fantasian.

Fluttershy spoke up, "Discord made an accordion and a potted plant land on his head." She used a hoof to gesture to Lance, who grumbled incoherently as soon as the limb fell in his direction.

Discord crossed his mismatched forelimbs, a frown so set into his face that it seemed the corners of his mouth were trying to leave their boundaries, which made it look like his muzzle was starting to melt. "I said I was sorry, and he accepted," he murmured.

"Forgiven, but not forgotten," Lance chimed in, ears flat against his head, his eyes darting up every few seconds like he was expecting an anvil to take a turn crashing on his skull.

Shining nodded, taking a scant few seconds out of the time of his day to let the triad of remarks sink in. He turned to Fluttershy and asked, "Are you going to punish him, or no?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "No; his apology was sincere. But I will keep a better eye on him," she replied, turning to the draconequus who mutely nodded when she sent him the briefest of glares.

"And is he aware that he could have caused something I think we'd all rather avoid?" Shining asked, garnering a nod from Fluttershy as she turned back to him.

Fluttershy remained silent, and Lance took that as his cue to answer for her, "Thoroughly." Two nods, one from Discord and one from the yellow pegasus, occurred simultaneously after the general's one-word utterance had left his mouth.

Shining let his shoulders slump, his eyes closing as a sigh of relief left his lips. "For a moment, I was worried I'd have to intervene. Again," he murmured. He opened his eyes and sent Lance an unreadable look. "So… how are things on your end?"

"Last few hours were confusing as fuck," Lance replied, taking a moment to throw his front hooves into the air to emphasize his claim.

"Having met Discord notwithstanding, what do you mean?" Shining asked, a brow quirked.

Lance gave Shining a serious look, his lips pulled into a tight frown. "I've become an adoptive father," he replied.

Shining doned a bemused grin. "C-come again?" he asked, his brow raising higher.

"It's true," Discord piped in, rolling his eyes in such a manner that resembled screws being twisted out of a wall. His paw rose, and he used it to scoop out his oculars right from their sockets without bleeding or even snapping his central retina veins or caverna sinuses in the process. Lance turned to him and jumped upon seeing the empty sockets, and the draconequus just casually shook his eyes in his paw before casting them unto the table like crude dice.

The eyes, upon hitting the table, proceeded to morph into a pair of cards that stood up for one minute, only to land backside-down and reveal a duet of pictures that somehow moved in their little frames. One was of a forest with wind billowing and rustling its branches, and the other a glistening moon in a night sky accompanied by several small stars, in addition to a shooting star that smoothly arced over the celestial body.

Shining, Lance, and Fluttershy all looked at the cards intently, then the stallions turned to Discord to find that his eyes just regrew in their sockets like it was nothing. Discord shrugged and gestured to the cards with his talon. "Twilight told me what she discovered about Starswirl last night," he said.

Shining and Lance shared a look, then yet again turned to the draconequus with hope glimmering in their eyes. "I'll admit, I was around during Starswirl's time," Discord began, watching as the dual glimmers brightened considerably. "But, I was just a child at the time—couldn't master any of my powers, and thus, could not go to and from Fantasia. Why, I was only made aware of this before I went to sleep," he said, frowning when the hope faded and got replaced by small flickers of worry.

"So, you hardly know jack shit…" Lance groaned, turning to Shining with a frown on his face. "Is it me, or is the boat getting crowded?"

"I'd like to think so, at this rate," Shining murmured, turning to Discord. "So… when were you petrified the first time?" he asked, hoping to glean another smidgen of useful information.

"After the barrier had been set up," Discord scoffed in reply. "I was planning on heading over to Fantasia, but as soon as I reached adulthood—which was millennia upon millennia ago—guess what prevented me from doing just that?"

Lance proceeded to let one of his hooves connect with his face. "That which broke weeks ago," he grumbled.

"Ding! We have a winner! Here, have a million bits!" Discord cheered, the digits of his talon snapping. A flash of light flared above Lance, and from it no more than a million bits materialized, rained down onto him, and covered him up so fast he couldn't protest. A hoof managed to raise up from the pile, swinging about uselessly for a few minutes before it found purchase on the table and the general managed to haul his front quarters out.

The pile of bits vanished as they had come, and Lance shook his head rapidly. He turned to Discord and sighed in annoyance. "Can you not suffocate me, please?" he asked, more in exasperation than anger.

"It's why I made the moolah vanish once you managed to emerge from the pile," Discord replied, grinning for the barest of instants. "In all seriousness," he began, his grin fading as he turned back to Shining, "I wish I had known what made the barrier break into tiny little pieces."

"I've been trying to find that out from the Empire's library myself," Shining groused, frowning himself. "But it's so big that even a small team of volunteers that are helping the librarian are having… a bit of trouble."

Discord rose a brow. "And what all have you managed to glean from the library here, thus far?" he inquired.

"A few spellbooks… and another book that translates ancient runes found in said books," Shining groaned, his head dropping. "And that was yesterday."

Discord's eyes widened. "How all is that mess sorted?" he murmured.

Shining lifted his head. "I haven't the foggiest," he answered, shaking his head and shrugging for emphasis. "To ask me to go through it on my lonesome, or even with Cadence helping me… you might as well ask me to assassinate Celestia and Luna with nothing more than a butter knife—I couldn't pull it off. No way, no how; not even time itself would be on my side."

"I've seen the massive clusterfuck," Lance added, waving a hoof dismissively.

Discord nodded and hummed thoughtfully. He then let his eyes dart between the Emperor and the general before deciding to ask, "Any books on bound wings and wing enchantments?"

Shining's brow rose. "Why?" he asked.

"Let me show you…" Discord trailed off, using his paw to grab one of Lance's wings. He stroked the copper feathers with his talon, and Shining's eyes went wide as the runes once more lit up in response.

"Yes, Shining, my ass is indeed enchanted ten ways to Sunday," Lance murmured, sighing in resignation as his eyes narrowed upon turning to the table. Bitterly, he added, "And I sincerely doubt the Empire has books on enchanted wings."

"If nothing else," Shining began, lifting a hoof and reaching over to pat Lance on the withers, "the other libraries in Equestria could have something about the topic."

Lance turned to look at Shining, doubt flickering in his eyes. "The high mages of Canterlot couldn't rectify this," he retorted, using a hoof to gesture to his wings. "Instead, they made an entire damn room blow up."

Shining's brow slanted, but only slightly. "Maybe the book that translates the ancient runes would help. The runes on your feathers looked… odd," he murmured.

Lance held his gaze, staring at Shining like he'd consumed an alcoholic cocktail laced with hallucinatory drugs. "What're the chances of that?" he asked in a low voice. "That book may well be useless, and who could look through it in an entire day to determine such? Besides, I don't even know what spell the unicorns who did this to me used. I'm gonna go on three legs and assume that book doesn't even have one rune that matches what's on my false feathers."

Shining's mouth twitched up into the smallest of smiles. "My sister," he answered tersely. "She can leaf through that book, and may find something useful."

"Really?" Lance asked, his pupils shrinking a bit.

"Yes. Spells and runes and books are Twilight's speciality," Fluttershy piped up, smiling when Lance jerked his gaze to her. Her smile fell as she added, "But… if even she can't disenchant you… I honestly don't know what will."

Chapter XXXII- Gleaming Cornucopia

Natalie was back-down on a bed in one of the guest rooms, her legs flailing about and her mouth wide open as a series of laughs escaped her throat. For ten whole minutes she had been like that, just howling nonstop like she was being molested all over by the tips of floating feathers. Matt sat next to her, waiting patiently for her to calm down, frowning when her face began turning a hue of red.

"L-L-L-Lance… is a-a fa-ha-father!?" Natalie screeched between laughs, her front legs pounding at the mattress while her back ones wasted no time kicking off the covers and sheets. Then she flipped over, one forehoof still hitting the cloud-like material while the other came over to rest beneath her chin.

Matt mutely nodded, and though he found the thought of his own superior attaining fatherhood rather amusing, his ears began ringing as his companion continued to laugh herself silly. His horn glowed, magic seizing Natalie's muzzle and clamping it shut, though it left a small hole in front of her nostrils. "Breathe, girl. You're gonna bust a lung at this rate if you keep laughing," he warned in a firm voice.

Natalie did as instructed, but she still managed to emit a few muffled chuckles that gradually hushed until all that her fellow Fantasian heard was a series of inhales and exhales through nostrils that repeatedly flared. "I know," Matt began, pausing to chuckle, "it's fucking hilarious." When he was certain that she wouldn't assault him with another cackling fit, he relinquished his magical hold on her maw, watching as she opened wide to suck in a deep breath.

"It's just… I don't know what that foal sees in him that could scream 'daddy material,'" Natalie replied in an amused tone, shaking her head rather solemnly in spite of a grin that formed on her face.

"Nor do I, to be honest," Matt sighed, shrugging. He spoke further when Natalie made eye contact with him, "Also… Twilight and her friends dropped by, and they brought some… thing I think you should meet physically."

Natalie's brow rose. "Beg your pardon?" she asked, her voice betraying none of her earlier amusement whatsoever.

Matt stood up and trotted to the door of the room, stopping to wait for her to follow. "Just… you gotta see him," he said, his form not budging an inch until his friend climbed out of the bed and cantered over to him. He opened the door with a hoof and stepped out into the hall with her tailing him, going past a few doors before veering to the left and heading for another door that was already slightly ajar. Natalie closed the door behind her and also arrived at the already-barely-open obstacle.

The half-Clydesdale rose a hoof and tapped at the doorframe instead of the door itself, knocking no more than five times. "Come in!" a masculine voice called from inside the room. The two obliged and opened the door the rest of the way, tottering inside to find Discord, Fluttershy, and Shining gathered around Lance, with the draconequus waving in greeting as he and the Emperor examined the extent of the damage on the general's back.

At a nearby table sat Twilight, scanning the pages of a book that lay bare before her with her horn aglow, and she waved with a hoof before flipping a page with her magic. To one side of the book was a piece of paper, along with a small inkwell and a quill that floated in her magic that she used to jot down notes upon said paper. She occasionally stopped writing, breaking away from the paper and what notes she had already scrawled to look at Lance's wings while Discord revealed the runes with his talon.

Natalie paled upon seeing Discord, and she stiffened on the spot. Fluttershy turned to her and sighed. "He won't bite. I've already had a talk with him," she said in a reassuring tone.

"I can vouch for that," Lance piped up, raising a hoof and waving it in confirmation.

Twilight pried her gaze from the page she was reading and the notes she had thus far, turning to look at Shining. "How bad is the damage?" she asked.

Shining turned to look at his sibling, a frown on his face. "Very. I can see smidgens of his wing joints, and they're pink and bald. What little I can see of his feather tracts are… they're swollen. It's like the feathers that haven't regrown want to get out," he answered.

"And what about the runes on his false feathers?" Twilight continued, raising a hoof and making an invisible circle in the air with it, urging Shining to go on.

"Ask him, not me," Shining replied, using a hoof to point at Lance for emphasis.

"Damned if I know!" Lance exclaimed, waving his hoof again, this time in a dismissive manner. This caused Twilight to groan, and Matt and Natalie to roll their eyes and shake their heads in unison. Twilight nodded and turned back to her notes, which filled half of the paper, and flipped through another page in the book to start scanning the next batch of rune translations.

Matt decided to speak up, "So, what is going on here?"

"I'm trying to translate the runes on his wings so I can make a counter-spell to get the metal off of his backside," Twilight answered, her tail swishing and swashing as if swatting away bugs that had yet to latch onto her. "I'm still impressed that, from a technical standpoint, he wasn't even lying about the state of his wings!" she groaned, and began gritting her teeth again at the mere thought of it.

"Would you have believed him if he said his wings were layered with metal, without seeing them before 'they're caked in steel and copper' came out of his mouth?" Natalie retorted with eyes going half-lidded and a small frown forming on her muzzle, causing Twilight to stiffen with her remark. Her swishing tail stopped, resting flat on the floor with some of its hairs curling up like broken guitar strings.

"No…" Twilight answered, slumping and with ears folding back. She took another look at the steel-bound limbs and her frown deepened. "Now that I think about it, Spike and the others wouldn't have believed it, either. Up until today, I always thought of hex-bound wings that use metal as an anchor point… absurd, along with a myriad of other things. Heck, I used to think wraiths were just monsters in old foals' tales used to scare fillies and colts into behaving."

"Therein lies my point," Natalie scoffed, garnering a slow nod from the mare whose tail stopped moving. She turned to Shining and asked, "Is it alright if I took a trot around the Empire's streets for a while?"

Shining turned to Natalie, a brow raising and a tight frown forming simultaneously. "What for?" he replied.

"Sightseeing," Natalie stated tersely with a shrug. "I have little to do in the palace, and I'd like to stretch my legs and breathe in a little fresh air…"

Shining turned to look at Lance, who promptly waved a foreleg dismissively. "Ah, what the hell. I see no harm in it," Lance murmured, giving Shining a short nod of his head. "If you find a tavern, don't cause a hassle—it's all I ask," he added, turning to his subordinate and just barely missing the Emperor's brow raising even higher.

Natalie nodded. "Alright. I'll be back by sundown," she promised. With that, she trotted out of the room by herself, leaving Matt and the others to turn to the spot where she stood before her departure.

Shining turned to Matt for a minute, then back to Lance. "Why would she head to a tavern? Furthermore, why'd you tell her not to raise a fuss if she does find one in these parts?" he asked.

"One, it's your Empire. What good would it do for me or my subordinates to heckle your citizens needlessly?" Lance retorted, and he paused to draw in a breath before releasing a heavy sigh. "Two, a tavern's basically an all-in-one; the tool shed of the business world. Food, drinks, some even have beds and free samples. Fuck, may as well slap in an exhibit for foals while you're at it!"

Shining's brow lowered so fast that Matt missed it just by blinking his eyes once, though his face did not contort in any other way. "So, she might get some more food or something to that effect?" he asked.

Lance nodded. He barely heard Matt mumble under his breath, "I hope she doesn't get hurt…"

Shining turned to Twilight once again. "How's progress so far?" he asked.

"I'm… if I were to estimate, ninety-five-percent done translating the runes. I just need to translate one or two more, and then I can work on the counter-spell," Twilight answered, using her magic to lift the paper up and positioning it so that it faced her brother note-side forward. The entirety of the parchment had been filled impeccably, and it had just an inch of blank space left on the bottom.

"Damn, you're efficient," Lance noted, turning to the paper and letting off a low whistle.

"Do you need another sheet just for the counter-spell itself? That one's about full," Discord stated, using his paw to gesture to the floating parchment for emphasis.

Twilight donned a grin, and made another piece of blank paper materialize in a flash of light. "I've already got spares, thank you," she replied, a glint in her eyes.

Shining grinned, turning to Lance. "That's my sister—always shows up prepared," he chirped.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Natalie trotted through the streets of the Empire, her artificial crystal sheen renewing as she hummed a merry tune. She spotted remnants of power in the roads themselves, bright teal pulses of mana that shot out as the residents trotted past and around her to do various activities. Some of said residents waved, others watched her in silence, and the occasional guard stationed here and there mutely nodded to her as they stood diligent at their posts.

The Fantasian strode down several alleys, keeping to herself and just enjoying the scenery. Everything seemed to glow in the sun's rays, reflecting just enough light to betray several colors reflecting off of the many surfaces, but not enough to blind her in its grandeur. It was around mid-afternoon when she passed through one alley that was on the very outskirts of the Empire, only to stop upon hearing an awful lot of clamor coming from her right.

She turned and found a door, with an overhead and gorgeous sign that boasted many colors tacked above its frame, and its small rainbow seemed brighter against the dark blue backdrop of the building it was attached to. "Crystal Berry Tavern," she murmured to herself upon reading the sign, barely hearing something land in a harsh thud. "Why's it in an alley? And what's all that noise?" she pondered, lifting a hoof to open the door and see what the hubbub was about, almost immediately being assaulted by loud shouting coming from all conceivable directions possible.

Natalie had found herself bearing witness to a vicious brawl between three stallions in the center of the tavern, two slender earth ponies and one unicorn with a green mane and orange coat. To either side and the far back, an assortment of other ponies stayed to the walls, all eyes watching as the trio struggled for dominance.

All three were haggard in appearance, with messy coats, unkempt manes, bloodshot eyes, and heavy bags under said eyes. Hooves flew everywhere, and the earth ponies managed to subdue the unicorn who was repeatedly trying to shove them off in a matter of minutes. "Listen here," the burlier of the two earth ponies, one sporting a brown coat, hissed as he and his companion forced the struggling pony's back to the floor. "You ain't hitting on my wife! You ain't touching my wife!"

"I can stick my cock in whoever I please!" the unicorn shouted in a familiar, if slurred, voice. "I stuck my cock in one of the Fantasian diplomats! I'll do it again and then I'll do the same for your lousy whorse of a wife!" Natalie recoiled, both realization and horror hitting her like a freight train, her eyes all but widening at the remark the pinned stallion just uttered.

She steeled herself when the second earth pony, this one with a blue coat, snarled like an animal. "Aren't ya one of those crooks who—" he was cut off as his quarry turned to the door, eyes immediately zeroing in on the tavern's newest arrival. The ponies holding him followed his gaze, frowning when they noticed the mare's presence.

"You!" he hissed, his horn igniting in vicious sparks. Jolts ran rampant throughout the two ponies holding him down, making them scream and collapse in seconds. As soon as they had fallen, the orange unicorn languidly stood up on unsteady hooves, his form swaying like a leaf in a breeze, eyes gleaming with rage.

Natalie averted her eyes to both sides of the tavern, and she noticed that a few ponies who were seated at tables instead of staying close to the walls sat stiff as boards, all eyes watching the unicorn that tried to maintain a steady balance. "How the fuck did you get here, Napkin McSmalldick?" she snapped, her own pair of oculars turning back to the pony who electrocuted two stallions.

Napkin stumbled back at the insult, his eyes widening for the barest of instants. Then he stepped forward, donning a fierce grin, his horn still crackling with sparks just waiting to be set loose on another hapless victim. "I won't give you details, Starcovert," he replied, taking a few more steps forward. "I'll have you pinned and your guts spilled when I am done."

"Come and get me—I'm right here," Natalie huffed with narrowing eyes, lifting one hoof and beckoning him to bring it on. "I'll have you crying in less than ten seconds."

Napkin's grin widened, forming a hellish smirk. He wordlessly surged forward with a snarl, his right hoof outstretching as soon as he was within range of his new target. Natalie summoned a barrier not a moment too soon, watching as her shield took the punch and held firm. Her enemy's horn ignited some more, and it let loose a wicked bolt of lightning that encompassed the red field, mildly shocking her and making it crack simultaneously.

She stood her ground, gritting her teeth to keep cries of agony at bay, eyes narrowing some more as pain shot through her system like a bottle rocket. Another bolt assaulted her barrier, stronger than the last, and the cracks widened and spread in response. She channelled more mana into her horn, waiting for the exact moment when her defensive wall would shatter.

And in seconds, shatter it did. Napkin went on the offensive again, his hoof flying towards Natalie's face as soon as the red shield became little fragments that fell like dead flies, only to scream as a magical retaliation hit him square in the face and sent him flying back before his physical attack could connect. He sailed clean over the earth ponies he shocked earlier, his horn crackling for a few seconds as the world rushed past him and left him at what felt like warp speed.

The other ponies in the tavern gasped as he landed and skid all the way to the back of the establishment belly-up, where a bar and stools had been constructed, the magical assault propelling him all the way to the other side with no break in velocity. The stallion stopped at the bar, his horn snapping in half upon contact with the bar's foot, and he groaned as the attack that firmly clobbered him and made him slide in one go bounced off without inflicting more harm.

He saw it was distinctly star-shaped, looking like a giant golden thing with a hollow center—if anything, it was as if a giant glowing cookie cutter had been converted to ammunition, and it dispersed into little fragments like its caster's shield. One of the stools that was near the bar tipped to one side, only to be grabbed by a blue aura and tilted the other way. It fell, firmly whacking Napkin right on the head, but not hard enough to knock him out.

Napkin lay there completely disoriented, a great big aching sensation settling in his cranium and burning in his backside all the way down to his tail. He lifted his head up, searching for the doorway, grumbling under his breath as he saw the shadow of Natalie still standing there unfazed.

The earth pony duo hauled themselves off of the floor and shook their heads, looking around dazedly as if unaware of what had just happened. Their eyes fell on the Fantasian mare, who simply lifted a hoof and pointed forward. "Look behind you, at the bar," she instructed, and the two turned to find their mumbling sadsack who had yet to realize that half his horn lay next to his left hoof on the gleaming floor.

The brown stallion turned to look at Natalie. "What happened to him?" he asked, using a back hoof to gesture to Napkin.

"Tried punching me with an added dose of shock therapy, so I fired a spell in his face and taught him how to fly," Natalie responded, her shimmer fading a bit. She stepped in the establishment, head darting and eyes searching for anypony who looked alert and bright. Her gaze fell onto a young mare with a gold coat and amethyst mane that sat just a few chairs over from the tavern's entrance. "Could you get a guard, please?" she asked.

The golden-coated mare nodded. "Cer-certainly," she replied in a shaky voice. She got up from her table and trotted over, stopping to eye the tavern's recent arrival from head to hoof. "I'll t-tell them th-that…"

"Natalie Starcovert sent you," Natalie finished for her, garnering another nod before the gold-coated mare bumbled out the door and galloped away, leaving nothing more than the fleeting echo of hoofsteps in her wake.

Napkin tried casting a spell, but pure mana erupted from his horn stump and encompassed him entirely, sending jolt after jolt through his nerves. He screamed in agony, writhing desperately in an attempt to crawl out of his bout of self-inflicted pain, yet each movement only amplified his torment tenfold and kept him glued to the spot. Only as he lost consciousness did the mana holding him dissipate, with nothing more than shallow and raspy breaths leaving his mouth signaling that he was still alive.

Natalie cantered over to the two earth ponies, noticing her limbs were now stiffer than she'd have liked, but ignored it upon seeing some bruises forming on the stallions' bodies. "So… what happened before I showed up?" she asked.

The blue stallion spoke up, "Spanked my brother's wife with a hoof, and called her a slut."

Natalie's brow rose. She turned to the brown pony, who nodded slowly. "And then he tried reaching under her tail, and we both… snapped," he concluded.

Natalie mentally let her hoof connect with her face, but outwardly sighed. "So… he was being stupid?" she asked, garnering nods from the earth ponies before her. She groaned and shook her head, eyes going half-lidded in seconds. "It's to be expected of somepony willing to rape diplomats just because of two hot pieces of flank…"

The two stallions exchanged glances, both fidgeting uncomfortably before they turned back to the mare in front of them. They turned and shambled to a table, hooves dragging as they moved, allowing Natalie to make a beeline for Napkin's out-cold form. Her hooves also dragged, her legs' stiffening lessening as she approached the familiar stallion at a snail's pace.

All the better too, as he started mumbling and moving his head about—a sure sign he was waking. His eyelids fluttered, ears twitching this way and that, his left hoof jutting just enough to barely connect with the hornbit that lay before it, sending it rolling before it stopped at his back knee. "What…" he managed, eyes slowly and fully opening, his vision hazy as a cream-and-red blot swam into view.

"I was able to retaliate this time," Natalie hissed in a low voice as she inched closer to her former tormentor. Napkin blinked a few times, and each consecutive blink cleared his foggy sight until it was crystal clear, and they widened as he realized just who was closing in on him. He made to cast another spell, but ceased entirely when his enemy stopped her advance and added, "I wouldn't advise that. Look past your left hoof; you'll see what I am talking about."

Napkin did as instructed, and he gaped upon spotting half his horn on the floor, a jagged break-off point at one end signaling that it hadn't been removed cleanly. He turned to Natalie and shoved the stool that landed on him away from his form, noticing that his target still stood some feet away. His eyes narrowed coldly at her lingering presence. "You… bitch," he seethed, rolling on his stomach in an attempt to start hauling himself from the floor.

"I thought you despised crude language, or is my memory failing me?" Natalie growled, though her inquiry did not halt the stallion's movements at all. If anything, he moved faster, working every fiber in his body in an effort to stand.

When he hauled himself up, he turned to her slowly, a deadly gleam in his eyes. "Listen here, you cunttastic whorse," Napkin began, his brow furrowing. "I'll—"

"I'm not a whorse. And even if I was, I'm not your whorse," Natalie cut him off, her horn starting to glow again. Napkin snarled and lunged, but another earth pony stallion with a teal coat and an apron lunged from behind the bar, tackling the unicorn to the ground before he could close the distance between himself and his quarry.

"Look here, miserable shit-stained vagrant," the teal stallion snarled, locking eyes with Napkin the entire time he spoke, "you caused trouble here. You aren't welcome—in fact, you overstayed. I don't know how you got past the guards, but you ain't slipping from them this time." He turned to Natalie and added, "Lass, you may as well take a seat. I'll hold him 'till the guards show up."

Natalie nodded, and trotted up to the bar, and slowly the other guests sans two went to the empty tables and filled them up. Others came up to the bar, with a stallion or two sitting at the ends thereof. She claimed one of the stools for herself and sighed, turning to a unicorn mare sporting a light grey coat and an apron who stood in front of the various glasses and alcohols that looked back with wide eyes. "Ya want something?" the apron-wearing mare asked.

Natalie's horn flared in light, and next to her in a burst of glowing mana, a small bag of bits materialized and plopped on the bar. "Strongest and sweetest drink you have available, ma'am," she replied, frowning.

The apron-wearing pony's pupils instantly shrank. "You asking for the… the…" Words died in her throat, and she looked around to find that the other patrons had all turned their heads to Natalie with wide-eyed, slack-jawed looks painting the faces of the entire lot. "The Gleaming Cornucopia?"

"If that's your strongest and sweetest, then I'm all for it," Natalie replied like it was a casual thing, waving a hoof dismissively before gesturing to the bag of bits. "How much do a few glasses cost?"

"For a bundle? Running around fifteen bits per glass," the stallion holding Napkin piped up, garnering a look from Natalie. He looked at her and added, "So few ponies ask for the stuff just because it's as strong as tartarus—not many got the livers or the stomachs to be able to hold it." When Napkin shifted in an attempt to get away, he wrapped a foreleg around his neck and squeezed firmly, but not firmly enough to start choking him.

Natalie nodded, and opened the small pouch to start counting the bits within. "I have enough in here… for twenty glasses," she said as soon as she finished counting.

The mare behind the bar paled. "T-twenty?" she stammered, her ears falling against her head. "Y-you sure?"

"Definitely," Natalie chirped in reply, using her magic to hand the apron-wearing mare the bag of bits. The mare just stared at the Fantasian, flabbergasted and stiff as a statue, her eyes darting between her guest and the bag of bits. Hesitantly, she took the pouch of money and swallowed thickly before setting it aside and turning to the myriad of cocktails and glasses behind her.

The apron-wearing mare sighed and let her horn glow a soft orange, her magic embracing no less than ten different bottles and lifting them off the shelves with ease. She also grabbed a red cocktail shaker from another shelf, prior to turning around and setting that and the ingredients on the bar. Next, she grabbed a small wine glass, one that gleamed with a faint rainbow sheen before unscrewing the shaker's lid open.

Natalie watched as, one after the other, the different brews were opened and added into the contraption as the unicorn behind the bar eyeballed the measurements. She also noticed that each bottle had a different-colored liquid, and some part of her wondered whether or not the resulting concoction would be some sickly color or smell bad. One of the grey stallions at the far end scooted closer to Natalie, and when he was within range he nudged her with a hoof to get her attention.

"Why'd you order the strong shit?" he asked in a low, slurred whisper. "You'll get drunker than everypony else at this rate."

"That's my plan," Natalie whispered back, using a hoof to gesture to Napkin. "See that fucker? That fucker bound me like a rocking horse. That fucker plunged his tiny pecker up my ass. I want to get drunk to wash his face out of my mind—consider the strongest shit my personal variety of brain bleach."

The stallion's eyes widened. "You kiddin'," he replied.

Natalie shook her head. "Am not, sadly," she retorted. "Ever read the newspaper?" She groaned when the stallion shook his head, and turned to find that seven of ten bottles had some of their contents poured in the shaker during her little chit-chat with the stranger.

When the remaining three of ten bottles had some of their contents added to the shaker, the mare before her guest reached beneath the bar and pulled out an eleventh bottle that contained a liquid that sloshed in seven colors, and no matter how much she shook the damned thing the colors simply would not mix. "What's that?" Natalie asked, gesturing to the eleventh bottle.

"Liquified Cloudsdale rainbows—premium stuff," the apron-wearing unicorn replied, opening the bottle and pouring a very small amount, no more than a tablespoon, into the shaker. She closed the bottles and put them up where she had found them and asked, "Cold, hot, shaken, stirred?"

"Cold, and shaken, please," Natalie replied, watching as the mare who was making her drink shuddered at the withers. She heard solid objects clink as her drink-maker slightly bowed under the bar to fumble for something, and came up with a small batch of ice cubes, each one large enough to hold a slice of different fruits within. The frozen fruits were added and the cap was screwed onto the shaker, before orange-tinted magic lifted it in the air and shook vigorously.

After a minute of shaking, the canister opened, and a multi-hued liquid with bits of ice and fruit found itself in the small wine glass. "One… Gleaming Cornucopia," the apron-wearing mare announced, gently pushing the glass to Natalie without spilling a drop of the drink.

"Thank you," Natalie purred, a small smile on her face. She lifted up the glass with a hoof and took a whiff of the drink, humming as a strong fruity smell assaulted her nostrils full force. She moved the rim to her lips and took a sip, and as soon as a minute amount graced her tastebuds, a rush of different flavors exploded in her mouth that was amplified by the excruciatingly bitter taste of pure alcohol.

She set the glass down, letting the flavors mingle for a few seconds before swallowing and slowly nodding. "Great merciful Godcat on a bicycle, that is strong and sweet," she murmured, her smile widening. "This is wonderful!" With that, she took another sip of her glass, this one drawing out more liquid from the container, but before she could swallow a set of hooves echoed into the tavern from behind.

"He fought a mare and lost?" asked a masculine voice that echoed into the building, and when the owner spoke, the tone nearly caused Natalie to choke on her drink. She turned around to find none other than Shining Armor himself as he entered the establishment. "I heard there was a wanted stallion in these premises. Where is he?" he asked, his face set in a firm glare that made the entire tavern go still.

"Right here," the stallion holding Napkin answered. "Shocked two of my patrons, and tried hitting a third, who cast some kind of star-like spell in self-defense."

"Horseshit!" Napkin cried, and he began wiggling to get free. The leg around his neck tightened its grip, forcing him to cease again. "I was defending myself, Captain…" Words died in his throat as Shining came closer, his eyes widening as he realized that he just attempted to fib to the one stallion that wouldn't buy it.

"I have several witnesses that can say otherwise," Natalie piped up after swallowing what was in her mouth, a faint red painting her cheeks. She ignored the wide-eyed, desperate look that Napkin sent her way, instead taking another hefty swig out of her glass and swallowing it in one go. "My guess as to how he got here? Either shock therapy, or illusions."

"I-I don't know illusion magic! I don't know what you're talking about!" Napkin hissed, the stump of his horn glowing once again. An anvil, no larger than his head, materialized in the air and landed on the bridge of his muzzle before catapulting off. The anvil landed just shy of Shining's hooves, and the owner of said hooves made to touch it—only to find that his limb harmlessly phased through the object.

Shining shook his head and looked at Napkin with narrowed eyes and a tight frown. "How many lies is that, now? Twenty?" he asked in a low voice.

"I-I haven't lied!" Napkin shouted defensively, garnering another shake of the head from the Emperor whose Empire he was trespassing in.

"And that's twenty-one…" Shining mumbled, raising a hoof and letting it connect with his face.

End of Arc II: Chapter XXXIII- Taste the (Fiery) Rainbow

The gray stallion who sat next to Natalie watched as Shining personally dragged a screaming Napkin out of the tavern with his magic. He was barely aware that said Fantasian had downed her first glass of Gleaming Cornucopia as soon as the half-horned rapist was out of the building, his cries fading to nothing but lingering echoes after a minute or so had passed.

He turned to her and his eyes widened as the apron-wearing mare poured a second dose of the concoction into the wine glass, and the only effect the drink had on Natalie so far was that it made her cheeks turn slightly redder. With her natural cream coloring, she looked a little on the orange side, but the color intensified as she took a sip of more Cornucopia. "How are you able to stand that stuff?" he asked.

Natalie turned to him and snorted once she swallowed the bit of drink, eyes going half-lidded with pupils dilating. She studied the stallion who'd asked for a bit, and he couldn't tell whether he was being checked out or his question had gotten admission to start registering in the mare's mind. "I have the liver and stomach for it," she replied after a few seconds, a slight slur in her words.

The stallion turned to the mare in the apron, missing Natalie raising her glass to ingest the rest of the drink. "Cider Trough, is it okay if I had a glass of Cornucopia?" he asked.

Cider Trough sighed, and swept another small wine glass off the shelf with her magic. She plopped it before him and asked, "Cold, hot, shaken, or stirred? I ain't pouring into your glass from the red canister—that shaker's all her's."

"Like what she's got, except without strawberries. I'm allergic to strawberries," the stallion replied. Cider nodded and pried off a blue shaker from the shelf, and only nine of ten liquor bottles. She threw in the ingredients, grabbed some liquified rainbows and frozen fruits to add to the mix, and shook it up and poured his glass. She then gave Natalie her third dose out of the red canister, and without missing a beat the two guests looked at each other before raising their glasses.

"Cheers?" Natalie offered, tilting her head slightly.

"Cheers," the stallion replied, and the two clinked glasses before they both tossed their heads back and downed their drinks in one fluid motion. Natalie set her glass down first, with the stallion barely able to keep up as his eyes almost bugged out. "Spicy, s-strong—" he stammered. He choked and then coughed furiously, trying to talk through his hacking and gagging. Next thing he knew, he couldn't speak because his tongue began hurting from all of the different flavors playing a round of musical chairs upon his hapless taste buds.

His eyes widened some more when he saw Natalie staring at him in concern, still seemingly unaffected by her drink except for the red on her cheeks. "Dude, you alright?" she asked, blinking dazedly. All she got was a rapid shaking of the head, in addition to the hapless pony's face turning from green to red and back to its natural grey.

The stallion slumped and chuckled, but the sound had no mirth. "Whoo… gonna have to get used to that flavor," he groaned. He got up and bumbled his way towards a triad of doors that stood between a set of tables at a far wall, opened the leftmost one, and went into the room beyond before slamming the obstacle shut behind him.

"'s what the strawberries were for," Cider groaned, watching as the grey stallion waded away from the bar. "If you hadn't been allergic to them, Silver Lining, then you wouldn't have had to deal with the spicy part of the drink."

"I didn't know strawberries could negate spicy," Natalie stated, turning to Cider with a brow slightly raised. "What kind do you use?"

"Crystal strawberries, locally grown," Cider replied, pouring in the fourth dose of Cornucopia into her guest's glass. "Don't ask me how it works; I ain't a rocket scientist."

Natalie nodded, making a mental note to consult the nearest pony who sold the supposed crystal strawberries as she took a small sip of her fourth glass. As she swallowed, the back of her head went just a little numb, and she giggled like a filly that didn't understand a joke that was relayed to her by an adult.

The teal stallion who held Napkin before said troublemaker got dragged out trotted into view from behind the bar, looking at Natalie with a slanted brow. "Lass, are you okay?" he asked.

"Just… buzzed," Natalie replied, wearing a dopey grin on her face.

"Just four glasses get you buzzed?" Cider asked in disbelief, her eyes widening. She turned to the teal stallion and pointed at Natalie with a hoof. "White Grape, you seeing this?"

White Grape turned to Cider and nodded slowly. "Hearing it, too," he replied. He looked at Natalie and asked, "Lass, are you tasting anything spicy?"

Natalie shook her head. "After I swallow," she answered. "Otherwise, no. The kick of the spicy stuff, whatever it is, doesn't really bother me, even if it's consigned to the back of my throat."

"Guess her mane's red for a reason," Cider murmured, watching as her guest downed the rest of dose number four and sighed in contentment.

Natalie hummed for a moment, her head swaying a little to the left. "Oh… this stuff's stronger than I gave it credit for," she stated, a heavy slur in her words. With cheeks turning a scarlet that rivaled that of her mane, she gave off a hearty giggle. "Throat's burning, tongue's swimming in sweet… and in a good way."

Grape and Cider exchanged glances before turning back to their Fantasian patron. "Lass, you alright?" the former asked, his brow slanting further, until it threatened to weigh down on his upper eyelids.

"Better… than ever," Natalie replied, languidly waving a hoof dismissively. "Fifth dose, please."

Cider obliged, filling the emptied wine glass with another dose of prismatic fruit-laden booze. Once she finished pouring, she set the shaker down with its lid uncorked. "Help yourself out," she said, and as soon as Natalie nodded, she turned to Grape. "Got a bad feeling about this 'un," she whispered.

"Lass seems tame," Grape whispered back with a nod. "Dunno why you've got a… I'mma guess a feeling in the pit of your gut, though."

"She's got that… air about 'er," Cider began, watching as Natalie downed her fifth dose and helped herself to a sixth. "The kind that speaks volumes, oozes… grace an' power, like our Emperor Shining does."

"She don't look like much, though," Grape noted, nodding slowly. "Sure, she's gorgeous and all, but… given what she did to our trouble-making vagrant, I wouldn't want to mess with her."

"'spose you have a point," Cider agreed, turning to her patron as she downed her sixth dose. "Lass, you need a refill?"

Natalie used her magic to pick up the shaker, and she tilted it a bit to let its contents slosh around for a few seconds. "I'm good," she replied as she filled her glass for a seventh time. Just as she set the shaker down, a flash of light combined with a cloud of smoke exploded right next to her, and her eyelids slammed shut while the acrid stench of something burning filled her nostrils.

She coughed and gagged, and so did Cider and Grape, until the light died and the smog cleared to reveal that Discord had taken a seat next to the Fantasian in his pony guise. "So, I heard you were in the process of getting utterly smashed, Miss Starcovert?" he asked, turning to Natalie as she stopped coughing enough to open her eyes, raise her glass with her magic and down her seventh drink.

"Ordered twenty glasses… going on number eight," Natalie croaked, using her magic to pour herself another dose of Cornucopia. She took a moment to lay her head down on the bar, eyelids hanging heavy and threatening to snap shut again.

"Twenty?" Discord repeated, looking at Natalie with widening eyes. "And you're going to have your eighth? How much liquor can you hold, mare?"

Natalie nodded her head and used her magic to pick up her glass, lifting it to her lips and tilting both that and her head back to down it. "A lot," she replied upon finishing the concoction and putting her glass on the bar.

"You certainly don't look the type to be able to hold that much," Discord noted, frowning when Natalie magically grabbed the shaker without also grabbing her glass again.

"I can down the rest of this canister," Natalie hissed rather matter-of-factly, eyes narrowing as she turned to Discord. She turned to Cider and let her glare ease into a red-faced neutral expression. "If that's okay with you."

Cider and Grape exchanged glances, then turned back to their patron. "I wouldn't advise it, but… nothing's stopping you," Cider sighed with a shrug. Natalie nodded and brought the shaker's rim to her lips, and then opened her mouth wide before putting the shaker's mouth inside. She clamped around it and tilted her head all the way back, dragging the shaker with before downing the rest of the contents without so much as a drop of sweat forming on her brow in the process.

When it was emptied a minute later, Natalie put the shaker on the bar and used her magic to nudge it to Discord. "Check… and—" she paused as a hiccup managed to worm its way out of her throat, "—and see if there's any left."

Discord did as instructed, lighting up his horn to gaze into the abyss that was a once-full shaker, and his eyes widened still when he saw that there wasn't anything left inside. Not one drop of liquid glistened under the light, not one morsel of frozen fruit gleamed to let him know it was there; the shaker was effectively emptied. "... nothing's inside," he murmured, setting the container down. "Nothing at all."

"You're kidding," Cider mumbled, whereupon Discord replied by tilting the shaker in her direction just enough that she could see it was indeed spotless within. "Well… I'll be damned by Sombra and turned into an ice cube by windigos," she murmured, her pupils dilating.

Natalie returned to resting her head on the bar again, a dopey grin forming on her face. "That was some good booze…" she purred, before hiccuping and subsequently giggling like a little filly.

"Hrm... " Discord hummed, tapping at his chin with a hoof. "Miss Starcovert, tell me… do you have any friends who happen to drink on occasion?"

"Matt," Natalie replied tersely, keeping her head on the bar. Discord nodded and vanished in a flare of light for one second, and then re-appeared in a cloud of smoke the next. Now accompanying him and secured with a hoof wrapped around his barrel was a swaying Matt, whose eyes spun in their sockets as he coughed and gagged to get the smog out of his lungs.

It was around this time that Silver Lining had emerged from the room he fled into, green in the face and stumbling about into tables and chairs as he made his way back to the bar. "What the hay's goin' on here?" he asked as he managed to sit next to Natalie, using a hoof to gesture to Matt and Discord for emphasis.

"Dragged here… at ludicrous speeds… dizzy," Matt answered, still swaying his head. After a minute, he shook his head to make his bout of dizziness go away, and his eyes fell onto Natalie thereafter. He took in her rather red face, and the fact that she had her head resting on the bar without her hooves to prop it up. "Natz? You don't look so good…"

"'m drunk as a skunk," Natalie replied, turning to Matt with a small and rather sultry grin on her face.

Matt's eyes widened, and he wiggled out of Discord's grip before getting closer to Natalie and leaning in so their muzzles were inches apart. When she chuckled, he recoiled as the strong, bitter scent of alcohol hit his nostrils like a slap to the face. "How much did you drink?" he asked, frowning.

"Whole shaker's worth," Natalie answered, her grin widening as Matt made a choking sound.

"It's true. I've seen her down the whole thing," Discord stated, whereupon the stallion he dragged in turned to Cider and Grape, both of whom nodded slowly with concerned frowns and slanted brows painting their faces.

Matt groaned and turned back to Natalie. "Any particular reason why you're drinking?" he asked, eyes going half-lidded as a tight frown formed on his face.

"Orange-coated bastard who had a saddle put on my back was here, and he was stirring shit up," Natalie groaned, her smile fading as she spoke. "I have witnesses." She rose a hoof and gestured all around the room, barely avoiding hitting Silver by accident as he ducked beneath her flailing limb.

Matt groaned, taking a seat next to his buzzed companion as one of his hooves hit his face. "Did you kick his ass?" he asked.

"Sent 'im flying, and broke his horn," Natalie confirmed with a sluggish nod. "He landed exactly the wrong way."

Matt nodded, removing his hoof from his face and letting it drop onto the bar with a thud that was muffled thanks to his leg fur. His eyes fell on Cider Trough. "Alright, what exactly did she order?" he asked.

"Gleaming Cornucopia. Strongest, sweetest, fruitiest drink we have available," Cider answered, her ears flattening against her head.

"What's it made of?" Matt continued, his brow raising no more than a centimeter or two.

"Ten different fruit cocktails, Cloudsdale liquid rainbows, and if you want, fruit frozen in ice cubes," Grape piped up, sighing begrudgingly. "But we wouldn't advise drinking it."

"Why not?" Matt pressed, his brow rising higher.

Cider and Grape shared glances. "Well… Cloudsdale rainbows are really spicy, and they make the taste of alcohol pop out on your tongue. That, and there might be certain fruits you're allergic to, if you order the drink," Grape said as he broke the gaze with his unicorn colleague.

"Makes the spicy hit you harder if you miss even one fruit that would complete the Cornucopia. I wish I wasn't allergic to strawberries," Silver piped up, causing Matt to look at him and tilt his head slightly.

"So… a stiff as hell drink?" Matt inquired, garnering nods from the four ponies closest to him. He sighed and turned to Cider. "I'd like to try one m'self."

"Good choice," Natalie piped up, once more smiling at her companion. "'s wonderful." Cider and Grape froze for a few seconds, however, with eyes turned on Matt that widened as they took in his request. When he summoned a pouch of bits with a flash of light and scooted it to them with a hoof, Cider reluctantly took it in her magic with a small, ball-shaped lump visibly appearing on her throat that wouldn't go down no matter how many times she tried swallowing it.

Cider riffled through the pouch and frowned, handing it back to Matt. "Fifteen bits per glass. There's only ten in there," she said, sighing when he groaned and made it vanish as it had come.

Natalie summoned another bag, this one larger than the one her companion had returned to him. "I'll pay for 'is glass," she mumbled, forking over the larger bag without hesitation. This time, it was Grape who took the bag and rummaged through the bits within, before he turned to Cider and nodded once.

"Give the splotched lad what he asked for," Grape said. Cider nodded and pulled off a third shaker that sparkled like gold from the shelf, and a small wine glass before yanking the ingredients from their places and adding them to container number three. She closed the shaker, shook it vigorously, and uncorked the cap when Matt set one of his hooves next to the wine glass.

Cider's eyes darted between the rather large hoof itself, and the glass next to it. Her gaze then trailed up to Matt's face, and he eyed the small container with nothing short of a barely-noticeable frown and worry flickering in his irises. "It's too small for you?" she asked.

"Yes. I'd like a larger glass, please—or a tankard, if you have one," Matt replied in a soft, polite tone. Grape cantered over to the shelves and reached for the topmost one with a hoof, pulling out a large and sturdy tankard hewn of wood and metal after fumbling and pawing around for a minute or so. After he pulled the container off, he inspected it inside and out, constantly turning it so that not one square inch went unchecked. He nodded in satisfaction and trotted back on three legs, setting the tankard before his third patron.

Matt lifted his hoof and compared it to the tankard, studying the two entities side-by-side before his frown turned into a smile. "That'll do. Much appreciated," he chirped in glee, wrapping his leg around it and pulling it a little closer to him. Cider took away his too-small wine glass and set it back on the shelf with her magic prior to pouring his drink and filling the tankard to the brim. Before he took his first sip, he turned to Discord to find that the disguised draconequus had looked back at him with his chin resting on his left pastern.

"Be my guest," Discord stated with a wave of his right hoof. He proceeded to take a seat next to the Fantasian stallion, watching intently as he rose the tankard up to meet the waiting mouth that would soon be filled with Gleaming Cornucopia. Natalie, still smiling, giggled as he let some of the fruit-laden rainbow fluid into his mouth and went bug-eyed once his tastebuds were assaulted with stiff, sweet flavor.

Matt sloshed the liquid around for a bit like it was mouthwash, taking the time to discern each and every individual flavor before nodding and swallowing, his eyes going half-lidded in contentment. "Damn, Natz, this is good," he murmured. He then put the tankard to his lips again and took in another hefty mouthful of the stuff, swallowing the mixture with relish before setting his tankard down.

He jolted when a burning hot aftertaste assaulted his buds, eyes widening as if he were about to have his legs torn out of their sockets. "Gah! My mouth's on fire!" he exclaimed, raising his tankard again and downing the rest of his drink in an attempt to quell the heat—only to twitch in place as said attempt ended up amplifying the fiery inferno that danced on his tongue instead.

Natalie watched Matt, giggling uncontrollably as he snagged the gold shaker and, once again, downed the other half of his drink. Only when the container was emptied, she decided to quell her laughter and speak up, "Liquid Cloudsdale rainbows are spicy, Matt."

"I think it went in one ear and out the other when he was informed the first time," Discord interjected, guffawing when Matt turned to him with a scowl set into his face.

"It didn't; I just didn't expect the spicy to be an aftertaste," Matt argued, his face turning a shade of red along the bridge of his muzzle. Then he jerked his gaze to Natalie, who was still grinning at him like a fool. "What?" he asked, eyes going half-lidded again.

Natalie responded by raising a hoof and booping him on the nose with it. "The red on your face compliments your mane and eyes," she chirped, her remark causing Matt to start spluttering incoherently and Discord to toss his head back as he continued to laugh.

Once the laughter and blubbering ceased, Silver interjected, "Is he your coltfriend?" This only caused Matt to start speaking in gibberish dialects all over again, his face reddening so fast that one hue almost completely overtook his natural black-and-white coat. Discord, meanwhile, just fell out of his stool and landed on his back cackling, one hoof over his eyes and his back legs wildly kicking at the floor with such reckless abandon that he repeatedly kicked the Fantasian stallion in his rear fetlocks and pasterns.

Natalie patiently waited until the noise from the two-pony ensemble quelled before addressing Silver, "What's your definition of 'coltfriend?' I'd like to know."

Silver donned a grin that looked like it belonged on the face of an innocent lamb: small, barely noticeable, yet had that telltale twitch at the corners like it wanted to broaden. "Do you share the same bed? Go on dates? Have time to yourselves?" he elaborated, doing his damnedest to keep that smile as small as he could possibly manage.

Now, it was Natalie's turn to start mumbling incomprehensible nonsense in an attempt to speak, with syllables hopelessly tumbling over themselves and each other as she tried to confirm or deny Silver Lining's suspicions. "I—ah—wh—" was all he could make out of her ramblings, her pupils and irises shrinking so much it was as if her eyes had gone pure white. Her mouth continually jittered in an uneven, ever-faltering wide smile while her face just reddened some more.

"Alright Silver, stop hitting on the lass. I ain't helping you if she pelts you with a star-shaped spell, just saying," Cider piped up, her remark causing the stallion in question to turn to her to find that she narrowed her eyes at him.

"If I was hitting on her, I'd have asked her out already," Silver retorted, a firm frown set in his muzzle.

"She's drunk! She might not see it like that!" Cider argued, waving one of her front hooves dismissively. "In fact, she might take it as 'I want to screw you senseless' or something along those lines!" To punctuate her point, she slammed a front hoof on the bar, causing the emptied containers to shake and the still-filled shaker to wobble and slosh for a minute before it went still.

The two continued to argue about how drunk Natalie was, and whether or not her state of inebriation would make her take things out of context for a few minutes, during which said Fantasian managed to recover from her bout of trying to articulate a response. "Puh-lease, I'm not that drunk," she interjected, causing both Cider and Silver to look at her with brows raised.

"You sure?" Cider asked disbelievingly, her brow continuing to rise. "You did drink an entire shaker's worth of Gleaming Cornucopia…"

"I can hold more liquor than that," Natalie scoffed with a nod, raising a hoof and waving it again. She turned to Silver and added in a slightly slurred sarcastic tone of voice, "No, I'm single."

"Really?" Silver inquired, looking at Natalie with widening eyes. "You're single?" he added, either unaware or uncaring that the tone in which he'd been replied with was one that implied something else altogether.

A hope gleamed in his eyes and he lifted his hoof to touch her face, only to drop his limb and let that glimmer fade when Matt snarled like a beast and wrapped one of his fuzzy legs around Natalie's barrel. "Hooves off. She's not interested," he hissed in a slight slur. His eyes wasted no time narrowing to slits as he scanned Silver's features from head to hoof, enabling him to notice that the stallion in question was only the height of Discord's pony form if he were on four legs.

Silver took the hint and nodded. "Alright, I'll lay off," he sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly. "Besides, she's just a few inches shorter than Empress Cadence; even if I tried, I'd have trouble…" He deliberately left that remark unfinished upon seeing a gleam in the Fantasian stallion's eyes, one that could punch new holes in the nearest wall if it were able, and turned back to Cider Trough.

White Grape, who stood silent during the whole debacle, just rolled his eyes and shook his head at Silver Lining. "You're a hopeless colt," he murmured.

"At least I'm not drunk," Silver huffed, crossing his forelegs as he stared at Grape with half-lidded eyes.

"You tried to get drunk, though," Cider scoffed, sighing as Discord hauled himself up from the floor and wrapped both forelegs around the Fantasian patrons.

"Well, I do apologize, but I am afraid I must take these two back to the palace," Discord stated, an amused grin on his face as he retracted his legs from their forms and reverted to all fours. With that, his horn lit up and picked up the two drunk ponies in a baby blue aura, and he turned around to trot out the building with them floating behind him.

"Thanks for the drinks!" Natalie called out just before she and Matt were dragged out of the establishment, the fast-fleeting sound of Discord's hooves hitting the crystal pavement outside signaling her and Matt's departure. Said hooves hitting the pavement also drowned out the fainter noise of flapping wings, which likewise also became nothing more than hollow resonations that were entirely tuned out a few seconds later.

"Yeah! The booze was awesome!" Matt shouted, though by the time he cried out, his utterance was just a short-lived echo that resonated in the tavern for some seconds.

"Just another day on the job…" Grape mumbled under his breath, turning to Cider to find her silently nodding. "I'll start mopping the floor from here to the entrance; manage the bar and serve drinks while I'm on cleaning duty." Without waiting for his colleague to nod again, he trotted away from her and Silver, around the bar, and to the doors that stood between a set of tables. Upon reaching them, he studied them for a few seconds before flinging the middle one open to reveal an assortment of cleaning utensils.

He reached in with a hoof and pulled out a mop that was stationed in a water bucket on wheels, dragging said bucket with and hearing liquid slosh about before shaking his head upon finding dirty water within the container. White Grape shrugged and stood on his back legs, walking upright whilst using the mop to maneuver the bucket to the front of the bar.

Once it was stationed where he'd wanted it, he lifted the utensil out of the grimy gunk that was pure water at some point in the past and plopped its cotton-floor end onto the floor, sighing as a series of stained grey ribbons spread out like a filthy flower. Before he could start moping, something caught his eye. "Hrm?" He bent over to look at the thing that snagged his attention, one hoof holding the mop's handle as the other reached out to pick the secondary object up.

White Grape lifted it up to his muzzle where he could examine it better, finding a peculiar and medium-length feather that was purest white. The downy barbs and calamus were a very faded off-white hue that bordered on an excruciatingly pale grey, but against the snowy color the rest of the thing possessed, he couldn't make it out too well. His head swiveled around, and the hoof holding the feather rose up as he announced, "Who shed a feather recently?"

The patrons looked at him, then turned to each other and shrugged. "Is anypony among you a pegasus?" Grape pressed, and no more than half a dozen hooves shot up from the various tables, though he frowned when he saw that none of those hooves were even remotely white. "Did anypony bring a white pegasus here in the past day? If so, did they flap their wings?" he continued, and the scant few hooves raised dropped as an assortment of heads shook.

Grape groaned and lowered the hoof holding the feather dejectedly, and he looked around the floor for a bit before noticing some more white feathers erratically scattered here and there. But there was something off about them—not just their white color, which was doubtless strange enough by itself, but in this case, it was their placement that had him perplexed.

They all lead to the entrance of the establishment in a warbling line. A single, sporadic trail that he was certain hadn't been there before, if at all. He asked one more time, his head darting this way and that as he spoke, "Does anypony know who might have shed these feathers?" All that he got for an answer was another shaking of his patrons' heads, with each and every customer frowning at the inquiry.

Which led him back to square one. He turned to Cider, who merely spoke before he could ask again, "I don't know who shed a feather today. Sorry."

"Don't ask me," Silver added, turning to Grape and waving a hoof dismissively. "I just trot here."

"Did you notice anything else that was odd, aside from that one lad that teleported in puffs of smoke?" Grape asked, his brow furrowing at this point.

Silver nodded. "The red-maned lass's cutie mark had feathers paired with a shooting star… I couldn't tell you the meaning of that mark to save my hide," he stated with a shrug. "Maybe that lad who was with her—the one with the blue horn, not the big one—might have dropped them here?"

Start of Arc III: Chapter XXXIV- Blanched Ebony

Discord soared through the air with his mismatched wings disguised to look like grand, feather-clad limbs not unlike those of pegasi, his magic keeping the two drunk Fantasians within hoof's reach as they lazily flew to the palace's upper windows. Along the way, they babbled incessantly about this and that, their conversations managing to extract a few chuckles from him.

"Why's the moon over there?" Natalie asked, looking past the palace to find that a crescent moon was just beginning its daily ascent into the sky from behind far-off mountain ranges.

"I think it's about time to go nighty-night," Matt replied, choosing to look at the streets below. There were many colored splotches out and about, though due to the rising altitude and thanks to the graces of the night he couldn't discern half of the colors, much less their placements or what the splotches in question were doing. "The fuck are those dots doing down there?"

"Likely heading home and closing up shop. It is getting late, after all," Discord answered with a chuckle, using his magic to tilt Matt's head up so he stared forward. They had crossed a bit of distance between themselves and the castle, with the third floor windows just yards away. In minutes, the two drunks found themselves in a guest room, having tumbled in through the window before their carrier dropped them onto the floor and floated next to their prone forms.

Natalie was the first to get up onto her hooves, her legs wobbling a bit and her form swaying ever so slightly as she dazedly looked around and took in her surroundings. "This our room?" she asked upon noticing that there were two doors present, one beyond the foot of the bed and the other sitting next to a giant open wardrobe of crystal that had a pony-shaped mannequin stationed inside.

"No," Discord answered, using a hoof to gesture to the door next to the wardrobe and he promptly vanished from sight in a puff of smoke before Natalie could ask whose guest room she and Matt had been dropped off in. Said door next to the wardrobe opened with the aid of a blue aura, from which two voices spilled out. They were both high in pitch, but one came with a distinct lady-like tone to it and the other sounded a little younger.

"I think it looks lovely on you," the lady-like voice complimented.

"This… this reminds me a little of the Valkyrie," the other replied. Natalie's brow rose, and she shuffled over to the door. Once there, she poked her head inside to find Rarity and Anna chatting in a bathroom, the latter wearing a black gown with strange silver markings on its back, and giant gold ribbons flaring out from between said silver markings. The former currently had her back faced to the drunkard, and she spent her sweet time eyeing the mare before her with a critical gaze.

The sable cloth had copper decorations that spanned the whole outfit down to the trimmings along the edges, swirling elegantly about and forming patterns not unlike that of dying embers. Anna also wore horseshoes, boasting a brilliant gold in hue that accompanied beaded bracelets that were set along her forelegs to further offset the ebony of the main garment. Fitted at the base of her neck was a necklace hewn of steel beads, with a small cross that had a silver trim and a charcoal black center.

The whole outfit sparkled, and so did its wearer, as if both were living crystal—the sheen only enhanced just how stunning the archer looked then. Natalie blushed at seeing her companion clothed in such an outfit, partly due to being drunk and partly due to stumbling upon the sight in question. "I wonder how long she'll wear it for. It just fits her so well, and it's so fucking beautiful on her…" she thought, a spark of curiosity igniting in her dazed eyes that intensified the longer she stared.

Anna was spinning in place as she talked, careful to avoid trampling on the end of her dress with her rear hooves, "And it doesn't draw too much attention to my rear end." Natalie noticed that her mane was done up in a singular ponytail, held up by red ribbons and baubles that were drill-like in shape. Though this left her bangs and forelock and crest to be swept aside and drape along her cheeks, the red still complimented her mane, and oddly enough so did the drill-baubles attached to it.

"Erm, yes, your superior's tank was part of my inspiration. I do recall seeing a cross-like indent on one of its sides, during my very first few hours in Fantasia," Rarity replied, nodding with a smile on her face. "Of course, I couldn't just let the dress ride high on your flank; you have… ah, a runner's build—wouldn't do you any good to run and trip with such an outfit on."

"Eh, yeah, that does make some sense," Anna replied with a nod of her own. She finished spinning in place, now facing Rarity. "And I guess it also explains the braided silver ribbons adorning my back, and the gold one close to my withers?"

"Yes, the silver braids were based on the treads. I simply had nowhere else to put those ribbons; otherwise, the dress would have simply come out wrong," Rarity affirmed, using a hoof to gesture to the trim along the dress. "The copper trim and swirling pattern was just to add a little color, lest the dress look more like a funeral gown. The gold was to draw more attention to your front, instead of your back. How does it feel to wear it?"

"... comfortable," Anna answered, smiling for a few seconds—before her expression fell upon finally noticing Natalie peeking into the room unannounced. "Natz? You okay?"

Natalie nodded, before setting hoof into the bathroom and promptly losing her balance, resulting in a landing that sent her legs sprawling out. "I'm okay," she stated in a heavy slur.

"You don't look it. Your face is red and you're on the floor," Anna noted, at which point Rarity turned around just as Natalie gave a dejected sigh. She made to stand again, enabling the two whose conversation she dropped in on to notice her slightly warbling stance. "... are you drunk?"

Natalie nodded. "I have a reason," she mumbled.

"It better be a good reason. Otherwise, Lance will bitch until he goes purple in the face," Anna grumbled, a small frown adorning her muzzle.

"Remember Orange McShock?" Natalie asked, causing Anna to tense at the inquiry. When she got a nod from the gown-wearing mare, she elaborated, "He was at the tavern I got shitfaced at, causing trouble and just being a douchecanoe. He attacked me, and I retaliated in self-defence."

Rarity frowned. "That's… the only word I can think of to describe it would be horrid, to say the least. I can't even begin to imagine how it must have felt to… er, encounter a wanted pony that made headlines in the worst way possible," she groaned, ears flattening against her head.

"So," Natalie began, eyes languidly going back and forth between the two mares before stopping when she decided to change the subject, "what're you two doing?"

"Playing dress-up," Anna scoffed, rolling her eyes at her drunk companion. She shrugged and added, "Hell, I might even participate in the Faire dressed up like this."

"Looks good on you," Natalie noted with a nod. "Though that huge ribbon on your back makes you look like a present," she mentally added, languidly turning tail to trot back to Matt. She immediately stumbled over her own forehooves and fell with a scream, though a green aura caught her before the floor could give her a painful "hello" right to the face. She heard Rarity chortle behind her, and turned to look at said unicorn in question.

"Given that you're drunk, let me be blunt: you really shouldn't be trotting tonight," Rarity stated, raising a hoof and letting it twitch as it strayed no higher than her barrel. She set it down and trotted into the guest room, making sure to go around the drunk Fantasian who was floating in place without complaint. At least, until Anna used her magic to shove her into the room behind Rarity, being careful enough to avoid letting the two mares collide.

Around this time, Natalie turned to where the window was, and though she immediately saw that Discord hadn't returned, Matt still was very much present and he merely opted to lay down on the floor with his legs folded neatly under his form. The sod sent an amused, though flushed, grin at Natalie as she idly floated in the air while Anna trotted out of the bathroom to catch up. "Anna? That you?" he asked, eyes widening when he realized she was trotting around in a gown.

"Yep," Anna answered, turning to Matt for one second prior to glancing back to Natalie and then immediately doing a wide-eyed secondary glance to him thereafter. "Wait, you're here too?" she added upon doing said secondary glance, her pupils shrinking when she saw the glaringly obvious red that lingered on his face.

"No, I'm in Canterlot!" Matt replied sarcastically, his grin widening. He then rose to stand up on legs that didn't wobble as much as those of his currently-afloat colleague. He trotted over with slightly unsteady steps, stopping a few feet from the trio and looking Anna from head to hoof. "Wow, that's a nice outfit. Have you shown it to everybody else yet?"

Anna blushed a bit and shook her head. "Not Lance, but everyone else has seen me in this dress," she mumbled in reply, her tone between embarrassed and uneasy.

The answer caused Matt's brow to raise, and given the pink that now tainted the archer's cheeks, it began to make him wonder why. "Is Lance napping or something?" he inquired.

Anna, again, shook her head. "You and Natz should see him first," she stated, turning to glance pointedly at the still-floating mare. "Can you carry her? I don't want to be near Lance's room when he sees that you two look… ah…"

"Shitfaced?" Matt finished for her, this time garnering a mute nod as a response. His horn lit up and he took Natalie in his magical grasp, immediately dispelling Anna's own in the process. "Alright. We'll go see him." With that, he left the room and bumbled into the hall with his equally-drunk friend in tow, and upon glancing to the left found that there was just one guard with an orange coat standing outside an opened door a few paces away.

Flash Sentry beckoned the two with a hoof. "Your… uh, general wishes to speak to you two," he said with a small frown on his face. Both ponies mutely nodded and came up to him, silently going around him into another guest room to find a cloak-wearing Lance sitting on the floor in front of the bed with his eyes immediately falling onto the two the moment they entered.

Lance blew out a heavy sigh, looking at Matt and Natalie for what felt like a long while before shaking his head. "I understand," he said simply, taking in the wavering stance of the stallion and the fact that the mare was still afloat in a golden aura.

Matt's brows rose, and Natalie looked at her superior with widening eyes. "Understand… what?" Matt asked, blinking as the pegasus continued to seemingly study them. Another few minutes of silence passed before he got a reply.

"Why you two got shitfaced. Discord told me all about it a few minutes ago, and Shining personally dragged a wanted somepony to me before taking him to the dungeons himself," Lance elaborated with a curt nod. "Just… don't get drunk again before the Faire. Go on and get some rest—you two need it. And be sure to take painkillers in the morning."

Matt and Natalie exchanged wide-eyed glances, then they turned to their general. "That's an order, now get to it!" he barked, and they mutely nodded to him before exiting the room and heading to their own. Lance watched them as they left, still sitting in front of the bed without budging an inch. He stood up after a few additional seconds had passed and trotted to the door to close it, before turning around and using a hoof to pry off his cloak.

A chill raced down his spine as soon as the cloak fell into a heap upon the floor, and his wings shuddered as if they were getting goosebumps. Lance turned to his extra limbs and smiled fondly at them, seeing a set of shivering bald pink limbs with multiple and elongated finger-like digits instead of steel and copper laden upon his back. Between the wings, along his midsection where metal covered him, was another bald pink with very loose bits of orange coat sticking here and there stubbornly.

"It's been forever since I had feathers…" he murmured to none in particular upon spotting a very small and budding blood feather, complete with feather sheath, sticking out of his left wingtip. His smile broadened, even as he shivered again.

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Spike watched as Matt and Natalie flopped on a bed the moment they entered the guest room he was in, both propelled by a golden aura that all but ensured they didn't land anywhere else. "You two look like you've crashed and burned," he noted, only to be met with a scoff from Matt and a dismissive wave of the hoof from Natalie.

"We're drunk," the latter groaned, her eyes screwing shut.

"You're what? Did you drink tampered-with punch or something?" Spike asked, a brow raised.

"No," Matt huffed in reply. "Pure booze."

Spike's brow fell, and his eyes went half-lidded as a frown formed on his face. "Great, drunken Fantasians," he mumbled sarcastically under his breath. His shoulders slumped when he heard a snore come out of Matt's mouth, and he made his way out of the room while muttering, "At least they're asleep. I'd rather them snoozing than doing who knows what else…"

Shutting the door behind him with a claw on his way out, he took in some deep breaths and, gradually, his frown eased but did not fully recede. "Calm down, Spike," he chastised himself. "Just be glad they didn't do anything other than hit the hay…"

He took a few more deep breaths when he heard the sound of a door creaking open that was immediately followed by hooves on crystal, and he turned his head to glance at both sides of the hall. Upon turning to the right, he spotted Zecora emerging from the room directly next to the one he'd left.

"Spike, what is the matter?" Zecora asked, taking in Spike's still-lingering frown before forming one on her own muzzle. "Did you happen upon some unpleasant chatter?"

Spike shook his head. "No, Zecora…" He sighed deeply and gestured to the door behind him with a claw. "Mr. Black-and-White and Miss Creamcoat decided to get drunk."

"Drunk, from what?" Zecora pressed, her brow raising. "What drove them to get into that rut?"

Spike shrugged and shook his head again. "I can only guess," he replied. "They've fallen asleep, though. Let's leave them alone." Zecora nodded and trotted back in the room she came into the hall from, and the drake followed her to find Twilight laying on the bed with a book plopped in front of her, in addition to having a purring NoLegs perched on her head. "Hey, Twilight."

His utterance caused Twilight to look away from her book, and she smiled at Spike. "Hey," she replied.

"What'cha reading?" Spike asked, running over before jumping on the bed. Twilight folded the corner of the page she was on with her magic, then grabbed the book in her forehooves and slammed it shut. She was hovering it over him as he began bouncing on the mattress in an attempt to see a glimpse of the book's title. "What is it, what is it?" he demanded.

After a minute of teasing Spike by withholding the book, she plopped it on the bed and opened it to the page she was on, which had been marked by the folded corner. He peered over and studied the papers, spotting several illustrations of pegasus wings that had been plucked and bound with odd protrusions sporting runes. "Is that…"

Twilight frowned and nodded slowly. "An ancient spell, in one of the spellbooks supposedly credited to Starswirl that Shining found in the Empire's library," she answered. Her horn glowed, and in a flash of violet light a filled piece of paper appeared that gently floated to the small drake, who carefully grasped it in his claws. Spike looked at it for a moment, seeing runes and notes, then turned back to the opened book and paled upon finding that the runes on both entities were the exact same.

"T-Twilight… the runes in the b-book… they m-match the p-paper's set," Spike stammered, eyes widened as he looked between the two entities again.

"If I hadn't had that book that was filled with ancient rune translations… I wouldn't have been able to free Lance's wings with a counterspell. Whoever cast this spell on him was a knowledgeable pony—not to mention horrible in every sense of the word," Twilight murmured, sighing heavily. "Who'd be cruel enough to ground a pegasus in that manner, and why?"

Spike spent a few seconds composing himself with another wave of deep breaths. Once he had gathered himself, he replied, "I'm going to bet the unicorn who did it cared about nopony else but themself. Or themselves, if there was more than one unicorn who did it."

Twilight shrugged, and NoLegs turned to Spike and meowed before hopping off of her head. "Well, whoever did it, good thing they're still stuck on Fantasia," she said, her mouth twitching at the corners.

"Does this mean I need to make another special brew in a few weeks' time, just for him?" Zecora chimed in, garnering the attention of the three on the bed. The zebra smiled as she added, "Regardless of whether or not he drinks such a concoction, his prospects of flight will no longer be slim."

"That's true," Spike agreed with a nod and a small smile.

NoLegs shook his head with a mew, waving his tail in a dismissive manner with a frown forming on his fuzzy face. Twilight turned to him and asked, "What's wrong about Lance drinking a potion?" to which the cat replied by making a series of retching sounds after using his magic to conjure the image of a translucent bundle of herbs.

"He wouldn't be able to hold it in his stomach, not one bit?" Zecora asked, her smile fading when NoLegs made the bundle of plants disappear with a nod of his head. "What about with glasses of water; would liquid keep it in his pit?" This time, the feline shook his head with a sullen meow leaving his mouth.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to let his feathers grow out as they normally would," Twilight sighed, turning to Zecora with a slight frown on her face. "Besides, taking into account the fact that his wings were hexed to begin with, I wouldn't expect him to just take the potion and down it. All things considered, I think he'd hate being having what few feathers he may grow back plucked a second time just to make a brew."

Zecora nodded and smiled again. "At least, his curse has been lifted at long last. We needn't rush him so fast." With that, she cantered over to the bed and rose a hoof to tenderly pet NoLegs, who purred at the touch. She looked at Twilight as she pet the cat, adding in two more bits all the while, "I'm amazed that this feline is able to use spells and understand us at our level of collective knowledge. I ponder how this can be; it's as if he were one of the animals who reside at Fluttershy's cottage."

Twilight shrugged again and made the paper she handed to Spike vanish in a brief flare of light. "My best guess? He's as smart as us—considering he can use magic like nopony's business, I think that having such intellect's a quirk at the very least," she stated, raising her own hoof to rub NoLegs's back. "After all, knowledge is kinda required to perform even basic levitation."

"But not everypony can make things levitate, Twilight," Spike piped up. "Were you able to levitate things before you got your cutie mark?"

Twilight flinched and turned to the drake, a shudder running through her for a few seconds. "I could barely lift a page with levitation…" she mumbled.

"And did you have a lot of books?" Spike continued. When Twilight nodded, he sent her a fond smile and reached over to hug her neck, laughing like a child playing a game of tag. "Knowledge isn't the be-all, end-all, though it does have its benefits. You should know that better than anypony else, Twilight."

"That's my number-one assistant," Twilight chirped, wrapping her free leg around Spike. "You're right; knowledge isn't everything there is to the world—ah, worlds, I mean."

"Twilight, do you know any healing spells?" Zecora asked, garnering a slow nod from Twilight. "I've got a… client with a busted wing, and I promised to see her become well."

Twilight broke the embrace with Spike and ceased petting NoLegs. "It's something not even your potions can fix?" she guessed, looking the zebra in the eye.

"I have yet to attempt, because I do not have a functioning cauldron," Zecora admitted, frowning. "I may need some assistance, should things go awry with my promised concoction."

"... and whose wing do you want healed?" Twilight ventured, her brow raising.

"Sarah's bones need mending, her left wing must be in tip-top shape," Zecora began, her frown deepening. "She wants to partake in jousting this Faire, which… can give more than a nasty scrape."

Twilight's brow lowered, and she too frowned. "... oh," she replied tersely, connecting the dots in her head.

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A starry expanse, one teal with multiple splashes of color, went on seemingly without end. Princess Luna trotted along it like it had solid ground, and to either side of her spanned a series of separate wooden doors that appeared to lead to nowhere, all aligned as if she were in some extraordinarily elaborately decorated hotel's hall. All of the doors had added flairs; some boasted flowers, some sported various foodstuffs, and others still had clouds to name a few.

Many doors appeared to be bright, seemingly glowing with light that wasn't there. Others, meanwhile, had desaturated and splintered, or looked to have a shadow overhead that blotted out much of what they had on their frames. She strode on silently, ignoring the whole expanse of various entrances that were present.

At least, until she came upon a door of rich, burnt oak that had four different and distinct flairs adorning its form. Small pictures, each abstract and set against a background color, met her gaze. She could recognize an arrow on one, a pentagram on another, a triad of feathers on the third, and a manji on the fourth whose overall meaning made that entire picture's confusing.

In addition to this, heavy chains barred her path, and each line that overlapped another had extra reinforcements in the form of large black pad-like locks that went between the links and secured them together. When she rose a hoof and nudged one of the locks, a coldness greeted her outstretched hoof and chills immediately ran up her spine. She retracted her limb without hesitation, causing it to rattle slightly before it went still.

Her horn glowed, and a teal aura surrounded the door. The chains and locks disintegrated, as if nothing more than lumps of dried mud, and two of the marks vanished. Immediately after, another blackened door rose next to the first in an empty spot Luna hadn't noticed, before the first two marks that vanished appeared on its frame in addition to more chains and locks. "Mayhaps I could get something out of just two instead of all four," she murmured to herself, eying the remaining marks on the door she magically prodded at.

"Bladerune, Starcovert, prepare thyselves," Luna murmured before opening the door and attempting to stride inside when an invisible force just pushed her out and the obstacle slammed right in her face. More chains sprung up from the expanse around it, binding it tightly and forming more locks just to keep the shackles in place. "What the…?" She blinked, her eyes widening as she processed what had just happened.

So, after a few seconds, her eyes went from wide to narrow and her horn glowed again. Only this time, the locks and chains did not yield to her whims; instead, they rattled violently in place, growing louder and louder until her ears rang. She ceased prodding at the barrier when it got too loud, her magic dispelling as her concentration wavered. When she did, so too did the locks and chains cease their cacophony.

Luna staggered back a bit, shaking her head in an attempt to gather herself. Her ears aching, she turned to the accursed locks and growled when a black substance started oozing out of the keyholes, dripping quite messily onto the invisible floor at the bottom of the frame and staining the door in the process. She turned to the adjacent door with the arrow and manji on its face, and it also sported locks that seemingly bled from their link scaffoldings. "... still not ready for my aid, I see," she sighed, her wings drooping slightly. "I guess the chains are staying, for the time being."

So, she ignored the two doors and glanced around to the other ones that she'd neglected to check, finding another hoofful that stood out. One was metallic blue and black, another black and glossy blue, a third pure grey with flecks of gold that had gems embedded in the door. Another sported a halberd, and there was a splintering one that was white and red.

Luna prodded at these doors, frowning when more chains and locks sprung up to barricade them and keep her out. What's more, these new locks also started seemingly bleeding, staining the doors and invisible floor in further hues of ugly black. "What manner of dreamscape tampering is this?" she asked aloud, as if another soul were present. It was then she noticed that, out of all the doors that possessed these accursed shackles, one stood out like a paw that boasted a tiny splinter.

The white-and-red door's locks and chains were red with rust, further accentuated by a thin glossy layer of frost. Luna blinked, then looked at the other sets of shackles and found that they had a metallic gloss with no rust, even though they oozed a bizarre substance that they should not have been able to produce. She turned back to the rusted ones and experimentally prodded at them with her magic to find that, no matter how much she rattled them, they did not bleed—not even as the frost coating them melted away.

Luna rose a brow and continued to jostle the rusted manacles, yet the only thing they produced were a series of dull rattles in response. "Hello…" she murmured, her magic starting to tug on the chains, the door creaking in protest as its binds endured the magical fondling. Luna pulled some more, pouring more strength into her spell, and when she did the chains almost instantly snapped and clattered to the invisible ground, dragging their locks with them. The door opened on squeaking, rusted hinges, swinging in a gale that wasn't there.

It was as if the obstacle itself was inviting her in. Daring her to enter that which was beyond. Luna trotted inside without hesitation, though she stopped briefly when the door slammed shut behind her and the locks and chains simply reformed to barricade it again from the inside. She turned to look at it, and sighed. "This is quite odd," she noted, prior to turning around to absorb her immediate surroundings—or distinct lack thereof.

All around her and that door, a dusty expanse stretched as far as she could see. For miles and miles around, it was barren loose soil that created little clouds of dust every time the wind blew. She looked up at the sky, finding a lilac moon that was large and full, which gave the much darker navy sky and the land below a distinct purple tint.

Luna's wings flared as she returned her gaze to ground level. "Who would dream about a place like this?" she asked, some small part of her expecting an answer, though she received none save for a small dust devil that danced right past her. Her wings flapped repeatedly, kicking up dirt, and she just became airborne when something stood out in the far distance.

There was a blue light, one that dimmed constantly, as if it were about to go out. She still saw it as it flickered, before it then grew vertically upwards. "A beacon? Here?"

An ethereal, masculine voice echoed all around the desolate place, "Go to the light, Princess."

Luna frowned, but she forwent complaint and started flying to the odd light in the distance. Minutes ticked by, then they became passing hours—or it certainly felt like it, at least. The light did not seem to broaden even slightly, which would have indicated she'd gotten closer to it under normal circumstances. "Just how far is it, surely it can't—" she stopped speaking aloud when a noise emanated from far away. Then another, and then another, carried by winds that fueled the dust devils and brushed against her ears as she kept flying.

Her eyes widened when the cacophony became clearer with every yard she passed over, pupils shrinking when the light in the distance faded entirely. It sounded like a million cicadas calling for mates, only higher-pitched and much more frequent. She stopped for a minute, still hovering, as yet the distant symphony continued unimpeded. Her wings beat faster, and she was once again on the move, going as fast as she could in an attempt to figure out what was going on and stop it if need be. Hours came and went, yet still the source of the awful orchestra eluded her.

Another light flashed in the distance, this one much closer, but when it did things fell absolutely silent save for still-flapping wings. Luna looked around, though aside from the light and lack of sound, nothing changed—until it caught her eye. A distinct hole in the ground that was only a few paces away nabbed her attention, and she flew to it before peering inside.

In the bottom of the hole, there was a still and utterly emaciated long-eared, black-skinned changeling with spines running along the back of its head and webbed filaments that grew from the tail. Its horn was broken off and its wings were nothing more than scattered tatters that littered the scene. It was curled into a fetal position, with a front hoof outstretched, and it possessed eyes that had gone black. If not for the light of the moon, she couldn't have been able to tell what it was. "Hello?" Luna asked, her voice echoing into the hole. The changeling did not stir.

Her horn glowed and her teal magic grabbed the entity and slowly lifted it up, but as soon as it rose a few inches above the floor its head came loose and detached itself from the rest of its body, tenderly landing and rolling away until its horn stump connected with the wall. Luna gaped and dropped the body, backing off a bit to process what just transpired. She turned away from the hole, only to notice another one close by.

She went to it, but found nothing more than the paling head of another long-eared changeling with spines, this one also without a horn. It had its muzzle pointing to the sky, seemingly staring vacantly at nothing in particular, looking more like a skull whose skin didn't rot. A flare of blue caught her attention from the corner of her eye, and she turned to it and away from the head in the hole. "Do you not seek answers, Princess?" the ethereal voice echoed again as the light once more flared miles away.

Luna glanced around in an attempt to find the source of the voice, but alas she couldn't find it. "That I do," she answered, turning back to the light.

"Then follow the light," the voice replied. Luna complied, and she once again began flying to the glow that was still out of reach. Once more, the cicada-like chorus began, this time getting louder as she pressed on. The Princess passed over more holes, each one littered with different body parts that once belonged to individual changelings, but she remained focused on the light that only now seemed to be getting larger.

Then the holes stopped cropping up below her, which gave way to many, many bodies being left strewn all about here and there, some in piles and others just scattered after having been torn limb from limb. The amount of bodies started off small, but as she flew onward, Luna began counting more and more corpses until there were so many that she could barely see the soil beneath what could only be described as a massacre.

The light flashed in front of her, and she slowed to a stop as it momentarily blinded her in blue. She blinked to get the monochrome haze out of her eyes, finding that she stood at the edge of a small circle of dirt that had two entities facing off amidst the sea of bodies.

One was a shadowy creature whose features she couldn't make out even in the moon's light, and the other was a black, emaciated and hornless changeling that stood defiantly. The lone changeling hissed and flew brazenly towards the shadow, but the black entity just ghosted out of the way and stretched a limb to smack its changeling adversary hard enough to completely throw it off the mark and send it to the ground.

The assault made the changeling ooze green fluid and scream, and it stood up once more with the substance dribbling down its chin. It glared balefully at its opponent with blue eyes that had black forming at the corners, flared its wings and took flight to attack once again, only to end up taking another assault that sent it careening to and then landing right in front of Luna with a sickening snap. It groaned pitifully when it attempted to raise a leg before the limb fell and the changeling went completely still. Its eyes turned black as night within seconds, like lights shutting off, with fluid still oozing from its maw.

Luna gaped, finding that this changeling had a bright red carapace and wings, in addition to a mane and tail comprised of thin hair that were the same color instead of spines and webbed filaments. "Pitiful drone," the shadow hissed. "What changeling just flies to her death when all of the others before I have also fallen?" With that, it vanished before the Princess could look at it a second time, only to have her attention snagged by the lone drone as a blue light enveloped her form.

It went into her ears, mouth, and nostrils before fading and pulsing through her like rippling waves. The pulses grew and grew, until the entire corpse was covered in what seemed to be pure power. Light erupted from the cadaver, almost blinding Luna again, and the Princess used her wings to shield her eyes as it flared constantly. A few minutes passed before the light was fading back into a dull ripple that stretched upon every inch of the recipient.

Only when the blue glow finally ceased rippling across her body did she haul herself up on twig-like, shaky legs. The drone immediately paled, her black skin blanching and blanching until it was hideously white while the red parts of her darkened to a maroon with a slight grey tint. She steadied herself and looked up at Luna with a familiar torn grin that stretched from ear to ear and oozed with green fluid.

Blackened eyes betrayed twin sparks of azure, and a hollow voice came from the maw of the changeling, "What are you staring at, Princess Luna?" A second passed before she realized who she'd just addressed, and then the changeling asked, "Wait, how the fuck did you get here?"

Luna donned a smile and wrapped a wing around Katie. "I have the power to enter and exit dreams as I please, my little guest wraith," she chirped in reply. Her smile fell as she added, "Though… this is certainly one of the more horrid nightmares I have stumbled upon."

Chapter XXXV- Phantasma

Luna spent a few minutes explaining to Katie about the ability to travel through the dreamscape, as well as the odd locks and chains on some of the doors of certain folks' dreams that bled and kept her out. The wraith sat down on her haunches, listening with ears standing straight as the Princess rambled for minutes on end. The resulting one-sided conversation ground to a halt when Luna finished explaining herself, and a tense silence blanketed the still corpse-riddled landscape that not even the wind and whatever dust devils it wrought could break.

"Let me get this straight," Katie began, her orbs dimming as she rose a hoof and gestured to Luna, then herself with it. "You can trot in the dreamscape freely, and it somewhat correlates to you raising the moon and such? And to add to that, you want to help me and my own, but General Smartass and his crew brushed you off, and now you can't get into their dreams? This what I'm hearing?"

Luna glumly nodded, a sullen frown on her face. "In order, yes, and I can't get into the dreams of the other Fantasians as well. Yours was the only one I could access, after I managed to break the shackles that closed the door to…" She looked around and used a wing to gesture to the mess of bodies that surrounded them both. "Here," she finished.

"Sounds like everybody else and their mother has a problem, and that's coming from a someling with a bunch of problems," Katie scoffed, rolling her orbs as she spoke.

"'Has a problem?' Whatever do you mean by that?" Luna asked, her brow raising.

"Exactly what I just said," Katie replied, one ear and an eye twitching in sync. "Let me put it into a nutshell: the night I was found by General Smartass's crew and found myself a hitchhiker, I was playing possum. They slept, and had nightmares—two separate instances, I heard them babble about sinning."

"'Sinning?'" Luna pressed, her frown deepening.

"About what, I haven't the foggiest. I heard the soldiers ask their general what was wrong, as well as his unicorn trinity. Lance wouldn't say anything about it," Katie stated, shaking her head and dropping her hoof. "And when another had a dream-gone-awry of her own, he told her to not tell him anything about it. It's almost like they follow the mantra of 'don't ask, don't tell' as if it's gospel from a holy book or something. I'm not even sure if they know what their comrades dream about or not."

Luna took a minute to let the information soak in, and during that time her mind wasted no second putting two and two together. "They're bottling it up, whatever it is," she said in a solemn tone.

Katie tsked with a nod. "Bingo."

"Then… do you have a guess as to why the locks on your dream broke?" Luna inquired, her brow raising.

Katie nodded again. "I think it's time I came clean," she said, raising a hoof to gesture at the thousands of carcassas that littered the scene. "But I believe you're… perceptive enough to take a gander at what I'm currently talking about."

Luna sighed dejectedly, and again her mind quickly whirred. She understood in seconds. "You were one of many victims to… whatever that shadowy thing was?" she guessed.

"Yep, and that fucker left me with two parting gifts on my face," Katie answered, using her raised limb to gesture to her horn's remnants and then to her split grin. "However," she began, turning her head and letting her eyes narrow at where the shadow in question once stood before it took its leave. "I wish I knew what that thing was."

Luna's brow rose higher. "You don't remember whatever it was that severed your horn?" she questioned.

Katie turned back to Luna and nodded. "Much less what they look like. All I can remember is something cutting into what was once my cheeks," she stated, taking a moment to sigh heavily. "Hell, I don't even know why I'm still around—by all accounts, I shouldn't have been able to leave this… genocide..." She didn't finish her remark, and gave a faint shudder at the mere thought of what had transpired.

"And yet, you were able to," Luna finished for her, garnering another nod from her guest. "Do you remember seeing anything else before you died?"

"Apart from what killed me and feeling my face get hacked open, I remember seeing a white light," Katie answered, her ears flattening against her head. "But not much else, before I found myself turned into a wraith."

"Do you intend to… find whoever peformed this atrocity?" Luna sighed, again using a wing to gesture to the bodies that lay all around.

Katie shook her head. "One, they'd probably kick my ass again if they were still alive, and two, I don't remember them all that well. Three, they're likely stuck on Fantasia, if they are still at large. You might as well ask me to take on a bear alone. And while we're on the subject, I'm not sure if the perpetrator's still alive or not," she groaned. "For all I know, they could also be a wraith, doing Godcat knows what else, and I'd be none the wiser because I'm not there!"

"Well, this is worrying," Luna thought, blowing out a sigh. She extended her hoof to the small wraith before her, and immediately a pale leg rose and clasped around it. "Will you help me… address the other Fantasians' problems, whatever they may be?"

"I can't force them to do so, but that doesn't mean I can't at least try," Katie replied, taking a moment to let her wings buzz. "Considering what I heard of Lance's ramblings in his sleep, it may be a while yet. And from what I've seen of Lance's no-longer-hexed wings, and a myriad of other things, their problems might be physical as well as mental."

Luna nodded. "That, I can understand. But how will I know when they're ready to speak to me about their issues?" she asked.

"Damned if I know. They may tell me, one of these days," Katie replied with a shrug. "Or they may not."

"True," Luna agreed, nodding once more, this time languidly. "Perhaps they'll just… spill it?" she asked with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

Katie mutely shrugged again. "I'll let you know when I get something out of one of them," she said. "Until then, I'll just follow General Smartass and his crew."

Luna chuckled and began smiling. "Why are you calling the general names?" she inquired.

"Because he's a smartass," Katie replied with a chortle, her orbs brightening.

"And you mentioned his wings being no longer hexed?" Luna pressed, smile broadening. "Care to elaborate?"

Katie nodded with a giggle. "He no longer has that cursed metal on his back, but he's bald from withers to flanks, wings included. Looks like he got waxed," she chirped.

Luna nodded, still smiling as her horn began to glow. "That is excellent news to hear," she stated. "Now, then, would you like to have a trot… somewhere more pleasing in the dreamscape?"

"Hell, I'll take anything over this massacre," Katie stated, nodding fervently as she spoke.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Sarah languidly sat up, eyes squinting as a faint light shone in through the guest room window. Some drool trickled out of the corner of her lip, but she ignored it and glanced down to find a pillow resting between her claws with a few small lacerations visible on the outer fabric. She lifted the pillow and flung it over her head, barely registering a soft thud when it hit the bedframe and landed on something.

A grumble tore her out of her trance, and she glanced to the side to find Fenrir sleeping next to her with the discarded pillow covering his eyes. "... my… my tail is not… a toy," he murmured, his muzzle scrunching just enough that Sarah could see bared teeth.

Sarah blinked, and she languidly rose a talon to wipe the accumulating drool that still dribbled from the corner of her mouth. She continued to watch the slumbering dog mumble incoherently, waiting until his lips covered his teeth before releasing a heavy sigh. She flinched when he turned so that his back faced her, which enabled his tail to swing towards her just enough to poke her with the protrusions that made it club-like.

Fenrir continued grumbling, "... you could… hurt yourself…"

Sarah dazedly rolled her eyes and shook her head, using a claw to brush the limb away while making sure that it didn't snag on the sheets or any part of her body. She made to climb out of the bed once that was dealt with, her movements slow and delicate, though she could not stop her talons from making tiny dull taps upon impact with the floor. She froze before her hooves could leave the bed, partly because Fenrir snarled and partly because the minute sound her claws made hit her ears.

"... you want… to what?" Fenrir growled, following up his reply with a throaty snore.

"N-nothing," Sarah murmured, garnering another snore as a response. She carefully slipped her hooves out of the bed, flinching when they made a set of dull thuds that were barely heard when another snore ripped through the room.

"... really?" Fenrir grumbled, shifting to lay on his back as his roommate turned to look at him. Immediately, Sarah went green in the face upon seeing a tent forming at the dog's loins, raising a claw to hold her muzzle as bile rose in her throat. She turned away and scampered to the door on two hooves and one claw, still clutching her mouth shut in the hope that she could keep her stomach's contents down.

Alas, she could only keep her mouth closed for so long. Right as she reached the door, she lifted her claw from her mouth and wound up vomiting upon the floor in quick succession. The splattering of the bile and the hippogryph's retching and heaving as she emptied her stomach reached Fenrir's ears, echoing just enough to rouse him from his slumber.

"... are you alright?" he murmured as soon as Sarah finished puking.

"N-no," Sarah groaned, backing away from the mess she made without turning around to meet Fenrir's gaze.

"What seems to be the matter?" Fenrir asked sleepily, sitting up in order to better look at his roommate in an attempt to figure out what her problem was.

"T-tent," Sarah croaked, and as soon as the reply left her mouth, she began retching again. Fenrir rose a brow, and lifted a paw to rub his eyes when it brushed against something under the cloth that made a small jolt run up his spine.

Fenrir slowly turned his muzzle downward, and his eyes widened as soon as he saw the tent that stood at his crotch. "I-I-I—" he stammered, his mouth drying out the longer he stared at the perpetrator that announced itself via lifting the blanket a few inches up. As he tried and failed to articulate something even remotely coherent, Sarah stopped gagging and managed to collect herself, though she still kept her back turned.

"Spit… it out already," Sarah groaned, frowning as Fenrir continued to stutter instead. She waited for a few moments, mentally preparing a response for whatever excuse he could conjure from under his tail, unaware that his gaze had moved from her to the puke that blemished the floor in front of the door. It wasn't until he spoke a full minute after seeing that puddle did her eyes widen.

"I... cannot control whatever primitive urges I have that may arise while I totter about in the realm of dreams. Answer me with sincerest honesty: have you found yourself able to do likewise, regardless of whether you are awake or in slumber?" Fenrir asked, crossing his arms and ignoring his concealed erection for the moment.

Sarah took one glance at the puddle of vomit she'd made and mutely shook her head, her face returning to its natural beige as she did so. She stiffened thereafter, ears perked and waiting for Fenrir to make another remark of some sort, only to be greeted with silence that began settling in—the uneasy sort that made her mouth dry out. So she decided to break the tense tranquility in a quivering, raspy voice, "U-um, a-are you going to… uh…"

Fenrir cut her off before she could finish, "I'll let it recede on its own. I'd advise you to find a bucket and mop before going back to sleep." Sarah nodded and made her way to the door again, swallowing heavily when the stench of her bile tickled her nostrils in such a displeasing manner that her face began going green again. She carefully stepped over it and opened the door before bumbling out, finding an assortment of unicorn guards that turned to her as soon as she waltzed out of her room.

A particular one with a yellow coat and a metallic band affixed on the base of his horn decided to pipe up, "Miss, are you well?"

Sarah shook her head. She glanced at each and every guard before asking, "Any of you know where the nearest cleaning supplies are at? I… kinda puked on the floor."

Her utterance caused the guards to exchange glances that betrayed worried flickers in their eyes and small frowns painting their muzzles. The one with the band around his horn was the first to turn back to the roused and green-faced guest before he sighed dejectedly. "I am afraid I don't know where the nearest cleaning supplies are at. I sincerely apologize for my ignorance," he said in a solemn tone.

"Likewise," almost all of the other guards chimed in unison. Sarah's eyes darted this way and that, and she spotted a lone pegasus that shook in place, his lilac wings twitching erratically.

"And you?" she asked the lilac guard, her pupils briefly dilating as she took in his shuddering stance.

"Zephyr Bolt knows," the yellow guard with the horn accessory piped up.

Zephyr stopped shaking and began seething on the spot, his head turning to the pony who dared open his claptrap. "Zi-Zircon! I-I don't know shit!" he snarled.

"Then why were you shaking?" Zircon asked incredulously, his eyes going half-lidded as he stared at Zephyr.

"I-I wasn't—" Zephyr began, but stopped when another door opened. Into the hall bumbled Maria, who strode in on two hooves and one claw, with the other claw rubbing at her eyes. Instantly, he turned to the filly and asked in a soft tone, "Are you alright?"

"Can't sleep," Maria replied, lowering her claw with a yawn leaving her mouth. "Had a bad dream."

Sarah tottered over to the foal with the green on her face once more receding and sighed. "Wanna take a walk with me for a few minutes?" she asked, frowning when she got a cringe of dusty brown wings as her answer. "I'll make sure nothing hurts you, alright?"

Maria stood there, wings still shaking as she contemplated this for a few seconds. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"Just to get a few things," Sarah answered, chuckling when Maria sat down, lifted a back hoof, and used said back hoof to scratch at the back of her ear. "You do realize you can scratch your ears with your claws, right?"

Maria dropped her hoof and grinned innocently. "Oops," she murmured.

"It's alright," Sarah chirped with a nod and a roll of her eyes. "Sometimes I do that, too. Now, wanna come with me?"

"Will it make the bad hippogryphs leave me alone when I sleep?" Maria asked, her grin faltering.

Sarah blinked and took a moment to glance at Zephyr and then Zircon. Both nodded to her, with the latter raising a front hoof reassuringly and the former stretching his wings like he had the urge to leave his post. Then the older hippogryph turned to the younger and answered, "Yes, it will."

"Okay," Maria chirped, and with that Sarah turned to Zircon and Zephyr before giving them a nod each. The two guards in question nodded back before they grouped with the hippogryphs and began tottering down the hall in unison, shoulder-by-shoulder. The quartet rounded the bend and cantered down a few moonlit halls in silence, with only the sound of hooves hitting and talons scratching at the crystal floor permeating throughout the air. It went like this for a few minutes.

"So, Zircon," Zephyr began, breaking the silence that had settled in, "why'd you get put back on guard duty? I thought you got in trouble."

Zircon sighed, a tight frown forming on his face as they rounded another bend. "The Emperor told me I was to fill in for Solid Step," he replied. "Something got him in a chokehold and knocked him out, or so I heard."

Zephyr's eyes widened. "Wait, something… attacked another member of our ranks?" he asked disbelievingly.

Zircon nodded. "I don't know the rest; don't press me for any more details," he stated with a shrug.

Sarah decided to interject, "Whoa whoa, back up. Something is loose, and took out a guard? This what I'm hearing?"

"Afraid so," Zircon confirmed with another nod. "Emperor Shining's not taking any chances."

Zephyr took the chance to snicker. "He'd rather have a clumsy pony whose horn's been in so many places keep watch than a serious threat running loose. Now that's a treat," he stated with a snort.

"I tripped, alright?!" Zircon began, in an attempt to defend himself.

"Yeah, and you caused one of our other guests to go crazy for a while! I heard all about it!" Zephyr chided, still snickering.

"Both of you, hush," Sarah cut in again with a snappish tone, rolling her eyes with a snort. The two guards shot incredulous looks at her, and she met their gazes with a narrow-eyed glare before she added, "It's in the past. Best to stop dwelling in it, unless you're going to poke fun at yourselves instead of each other." To punctuate her point, she turned to them both and bared her teeth at them, revealing flat molars accompanied by fearsome canines that glinted in the moonlight and a low snarl to go with it.

Both guards shuddered at the display, but only momentarily. "You heard the hippogryph," Zircon stated smugly, smirking at Zephyr as if he'd just won an argument with a vast majority of ponies all at once. The pegasus scoffed, but he said nothing more, and down a few more halls and to the second floor the quartet went without uttering another word. It wasn't until the latter stopped before a door at the eastmost end of one of the halls and opened it to reveal an assortment of cleaning supplies did anyone pipe up.

This time, it was Maria who spoke and pointed a talon at a broom simultaneously, "What's that stick thing?"

"A broom. But what I'm looking for is a mop and bucket," Sarah replied, her brow slanting slightly when Zephyr shot a look at her.

"It's probably dried up by now… unless you'd spend the elbow grease scrubbing it off the floor?" Zephyr asked with a slight frown on his muzzle.

"While I'm not a kitchen mare, I'd gladly clean up my own vomit if it meant removing the awful smell," Sarah replied with a nod. Zephyr nodded back and dove into the closet, trying his damnedest to find a mop and bucket or something even remotely close to the two objects in the inky darkness, but he stopped when Maria whimpered after a minute he spent searching.

He craned his neck and found the foal clinging to Sarah's left forelimb, ears pinned back and a wide-eyed look of terror on her face. Zircon was looking around, scowling as if he'd just seen something that could bring harm to the smallest of their current group. Sarah herself did likewise for a few seconds before lowering her head to nuzzle Maria tenderly. "It's okay," she murmured.

"What's wrong?" Zephyr asked, a brow quirking up.

Zircon turned to his affiliate. "Thought I just saw something ghost around a bend," he replied.

"'Something?'" Zephyr parroted, his brow going higher.

"B-black, l-looked scary," Maria piped up, shaking in place like she was bald all over again.

"It won't get you," Sarah said in a reassuring tone of voice, nuzzling the foal again. "Not while I'm here."

Zephyr shrugged and turned his attention back to the closet's contents and began rummaging through the stash once again. This time, however, he kept the act of trying to find a mop and bucket as quiet as possible, his ears folding back in case any other sort of noise came from behind. Aside from Sarah's well-intentioned murmurs and Maria's whimpering, in addition to the softened cling-clang of utensils as he continued to scrounge around and through them, the hall once more became deathly silent.

The very instant he let his hoof stray towards an object in the corner of the room, one whose figure was covered by his shadow at that, did he hear Zircon groan. "Zephyr, let's trade places. I can search the closet; you keep watch," he stated.

"But you're wearing a damn magic inhibitor!" Zephyr retorted, turning around to shoot a glare at Zircon.

"I can take it off for a few minutes. Besides, it's not like I could harm a fly just by casting a spell or two," Zircon said, turning to shoot Zephyr a small frown. The pegasus made to argue, but the instant he opened his mouth the unicorn lifted a hoof and deftly removed the inhibitor on his horn before letting its tip glow a bright green in color. Zephyr stumbled back a bit and shut his eyes tightly, momentarily blinded and barely registering the sounds of objects being lifted in the air.

"Oh, hey, there's a mop and bucket," Sarah piped up. Zephyr opened his eyes just a sliver, and sighed when he found that his affiliate had indeed gotten hold of a mop and bucket with a green-tinted magical aura, though the container in question was empty.

"Eh, looks like you're gonna have to fill it up," Zephyr remarked as Zircon shoved the objects into Sarah's claws, forcing her to both stand on her hooves and to shake Maria off of her left forelimb in the process. Then the unicorn reapplied his inhibitor with a hoof, causing the bright green light he made to fizzle out like a lit fuse of a dud bomb.

"I don't mind filling it up, really," Sarah stated with a shrug. She lifted a talon from the handle of the mop and gestured to the other end of the hall the group was in. "Shall we?"

"Let's," Zephyr replied with a nod, and he eagerly trotted out of the closet. He used a wing to grip the door handle and caused no less than two of his primary feathers to suddenly angle sharply downwards as he dragged the obstacle shut behind him. He released the knob as soon as the door was fully closed with a click reaching his ears, before he heard a coo and turned to Maria, finding that she gave him a set of raised brows and wide eyes.

"How'd you do that?" she asked, using one of her claws to gesture to the door knob in question.

"Now that I think about, I'd also like her to know about that sort of thing. Seems like a nifty trick to do with just your wing," Sarah piped up, also turning to the guard who used said limb to close the door behind himself.

Zephyr chuckled and donned a small, though serene, smile. He stretched his wings as wide as they could go and flexed them a bit, before doing something odd: he let them bend around the primary feathers, causing them to fold up like dextrous digits. The wings curled up like balled fists that were enlarged, and amidst the lilac protrusions, Sarah could faintly see long and finger-like joints.

The guard in question and held his gaze with the filly, letting his wings fully unfurl again, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "Equestrian pegasi have the wing equivalent to claws—we can grab, hold, and even carry things with our wings. It's an evolutionary… advantage, I guess you could say," he answered, his smile widening. When Maria tilted her head, he added, "Think of having large claws with a lot of feathers on our backs."

Maria turned to Sarah, her eyes widening some more and twinkling with awe. "Can I grab things with my wings?" she asked.

"Not if you don't have multiple digits in your wings," Zephyr answered, his smile faltering a little bit. He turned to Sarah and decided to venture further, "Say, can hippogryphs do what I did to the door? I don't think Fantasian gryphs and pegasi could do that, no offense."

Sarah smirked and let go of the bucket, only to spread her good wing to catch it before it could land on the floor. The handle was snagged on a feather-clad joint, causing some feathers to bend and reveal bare skin that marked said joint. She tilted her wing at a 45-degree angle and let the bucket slide further along by the handle, causing it to pull some feathers out in the process. In seconds, it stopped upon reaching an exposed fork in the limb signifying the presence of at least one more finger-like joint. "None taken," she chirped.

Zephyr took a few seconds to let the sight sink in. "I stand corrected," he stated, taking a few more seconds to chuckle heartily.

Sarah gave a faint wince, more at having some feathers pulled out by a bucket than the chuckling the guard had made. "Say, does the general have multiple wing-digits himself?" Zircon asked, turning to Zephyr with a grin on his own face.

"I saw his wings! He had four… uh, um…" Maria began, jumping up and down and flapping her own wings eagerly, humming as she struggled to mentally piece together an appropriate way to describe the wing-joints.

"He does have the wing-digits?" Zircon asked, turning to the filly who then eagerly nodded and ceased jumping.

"So does she," Sarah piped up, her now-freed claw forming into a fist with one talon pointing at Maria for emphasis. She then turned to said filly and added, "And not yet, as far as lifting things with your wings are concerned." Maria sighed, but she didn't argue, and off the four went once again.

They retraced their steps and made it to the third floor without incident. Though as they rounded their first bend of said floor, they paused upon hearing a fifth set of hooves echoing as soon as they stopped. Sarah glanced around once the fifth set of sounds faded seconds later, frowning. "Is that another guard?" she asked.

"Maybe," Zircon replied with a shrug. He made to speak further when the sounds began anew, this time louder and faster, as if their owner were galloping. For a minute or two, that was all they heard—until a dark silhouette darted past them from behind and right to the other side of the hall they stood in with one fluid, almost spectral motion. It vanished around another corner as soon as it had reached it, twisting as if it were a corkscrew that gained sentience in the process.

The only sound it made was a set of hooves hitting the floor, with some black fabric draped over its form that obscured most of its features as it came and went. Maria shrank and sidled closer to Sarah as soon as she caught sight of the fleeting form. "Wh-what was that?" she asked with wide eyes.

Zircon and Zephyr stiffened for a bit, before they scooted a little closer to the hippogryphs accompanying them. "I don't know what that is," Zephyr replied, his eyes narrowing as he let his gaze wander every inch of the path the form had taken.

Zircon frowned. "Stay close. It may he hostile, whatever it is," he warned.

Sarah nodded, and clutched the mop's handle tightly with one claw and a scowl set into her face. "Can I bash it, if it tries picking a fight with us?" she asked in a low hiss.

Zephyr shook his head, turning to her thereafter. "You'd be risking greater injury that way. Let me and Zircon handle it, should it try anything suspicious," he warned, now frowning himself.

Maria made to wrap her claws around Sarah's rear hoof, but froze before she could do so. "Is it… bad?" she asked in a trembling voice. The three adults turned to her, and saw her shaking once again. They opened their mouths, only to close them soundlessly as they realized they didn't have a definitive answer to give to the foal, much less evidence to back up whatever they could have said in that moment.

The three felt chills run up their spines when a hollow laugh, distant and low, rang out through the hall. Their ears fell back when they felt that someone—or something—began watching them, and they looked around to detect the source of the laughter, only to find nothing but faint moonlight shining through whatever windows it could and sparse shadows that had little to hide. Claws clenched tighter around the mop handle, a magic inhibitor was removed with a hoof, and a pair of lilac wings flared wide as they waited for any sign of life that had ill intentions.

Yet none came in the silence that had followed.

Chapter XXXVI, Part I- 'Ghreziilki'

The four tensed, every fiber of their bodies going rigid as another hollow laugh echoed into the hall they'd still stood at the end of. Yet the source of the laughter, whatever it was, did not do anything else to let them know it was there; as if its owner were mocking them. Then, silence fell again, and the guards and hippogryphs exchanged worried glances amongst themselves. After a minute of tense tranquility passed, Zephyr spoke up, "Uh… should we head back to the guest rooms?"

"I don't think we should do that, not with—" Zircon stopped when another laugh rang out, and he waited patiently for it to end before continuing, "—whatever's making that incessant cackling running loose."

"So… we find that thing before I go back and clean my own vomit?" Sarah groaned, taking a moment to let her shoulders slump.

"We don't know what it can do," Zephyr stated, turning to Zircon and shaking his head. "Or if it'll attack."

"True, but it could still be a threat," Zircon replied, turning to his affiliate with a firm frown on his face. "And we have a little filly with us, for crying out loud! What if it takes us out, and we can't stop it from…" His voice lowered to a whisper as he finished, "performing unspeakable horrors, like what Sombra did to us?"

Zephyr stayed silent for what felt like a long while, letting Zircon's point sink in. He heard Maria whimper, and used one of his spread wings to gently caress her head reassuringly, sighing when she stopped making noise. Once the foal had stifled her soft mewls, the four flinched as they heard an echoing thud, punctuated by a distinct clang of metal.

"He has a point, as much as I hate saying it," Sarah said, her eyes narrowing. "A vomit puddle's one thing. Something that can and may hurt a foal's another."

Maria then sidled closer to Zephyr before climbing onto his back, using his outstretched wings as leverage. She tried not to hurt him, though he still winced before she got herself settled just behind the withers with her claws hanging onto his armor for dear life. "Sorry if I hurt you," she murmured.

"It's quite alright," Zephyr sighed, closing his wings slowly to avoid startling the filly into catapulting off of his back. "I can't control the fact that you have talons. Just don't poke me too much, okay?" he asked, turning to look at her and smiling as she nodded.

"Everypony set?" Zircon asked, turning to and then subsequently garnering nods from the other three. He nodded back and turned to the hall, using a hoof to gesture to the other end thereof. "Then let's stop dallying." With that, they made their way to the end of the corridor, all heads swiveling around in an attempt to detect movement the entire time.

They reached it without incident and turned down a corner at the left to begin going down another hall, though upon doing so spotted a blue-coated unicorn guard who was already lying on the floor a few paces away. "You alright?" Zephyr called out, his voice slightly wavering. His eyes widened when he didn't get an answer from the guard who was laying down. He turned to the others and got curt nods accompanying worried frowns.

They wasted no time coming up to the hapless sod, and then froze as soon as they saw the unfortunate pony, his face scrunched in pain and raspy breaths leaving a mouth that was slightly ajar. Bruises formed along his neck, blemishing his natural azure in purplish-black splotches that indicated something tried to strangle him, and in addition to that there was a peculiar metallic band around the base of his horn.

"Aquamarine! Are you okay?" Zephyr asked again, his pupils dilating as the blue unicorn shifted a bit.

Aquamarine forced his eyes open just a sliver, and he languidly turned his head to Zephyr. "Sh-shadow…" he rasped, his response so quiet it was nigh-unintelligible. "It… c-cut of my m-magic…"

"Shit…" Sarah grumbled under her breath, before she knelt down to look Aquamarine in the eye, being careful to avoid accidentally hitting him with the mop. "Think you can make it?" she asked, garnering a weak nod as a response.

Zircon's horn glowed, and his green magic embraced his fellow guard. Delicately, he slowly positioned the sod and then moved him to let him rest on his back, his legs briefly buckling when the stallion's weight was situated to where his falling off wouldn't be an immediate issue. "Just let me know if you need anything," he said, feeling Aquamarine nod against his neck.

"We'll have to get him to the guest rooms. He's gonna need to take it easy—sorry colt sounds like he has a frog in his throat," Zephyr groaned, turning to Sarah as she rose to stand once more.

"If whatever got him is strong enough to bruise him… and somehow bypass his neck armor in the process—" Sarah's ears began twitching, and she glanced around for a few seconds before her gaze fell on Aquamarine, "—then we'd best be very careful."

"Let's stay together." Zephyr, Maria, and Sarah turned to Zircon and raised incredulous brows. The unicorn in question turned to meet the triad of gazes and gave a small frown in return. "Our mysterious… specter may be working alone. It'll be more likely to leave us be than if we split up."

"But what if there's more than one of the bastards, and the one that pranced right past us just so happened to be one of a potential many?" Sarah retorted, her eyes narrowing. Zephyr and Zircon both froze at her utterance, sweat starting to bead on their faces and trailing down as it sank in. Another laugh bounced along the halls, reaching their ears and breaking them out of their trance, and hesitantly the group pressed forward with shaky steps.

A few minutes of silence passed, only filled by hooves hitting crystal and the occasional grunt from the guards. Thanks to the sluggish movements, the group had only reached the middle of the hall, and they paused when Aquamarine gave a particularly pained and shallow gasp. "Aqua, how are you holding up?" Zircon asked.

"F-fine," Aquamarine managed. He coughed for a few seconds, but started taking deep breaths afterwards. "Just… drained." The response made Zircon's brow raise, though he said nothing in response, and once again the group ceased stalling and moved towards the end of the hall. They still kept a vigil on the place even as they got to the end of the corridor, only to find it marked by another bend going right.

Sarah's ears twitched, and she decided to take point by striding through the bend. Zircon and Zephyr trotted near-silently behind her, though the occasional louder-than-expected thudding of their hooves as they briefly stumbled and caught themselves caused her ears to swivel back. She paused in the middle of the bend, and she outstretched her free claw to one side, which caused the guards behind her to halt just mere inches away from her. "Shhh."

Zircon and Zephyr stiffened, exchanging glances as Sarah lowered her claw slowly. Silence settled in, though only for a few seconds before a strangled cry broke it. "Get off of me!" a stallion's voice exclaimed, though the plea had only faintly echoed, accompanied by many dull thuds and the all-too-distinct clangs of metal.

Zephyr's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets as he heard the racket. "Flash Sentry!" he yelled, his wings spreading wide. "We gotta help him!" Before Sarah and Zircon could protest, the pegasus flapped his wings and bolted off down the rest of the bend, unwittingly dragging a startled Maria with him.

"Fuck!" Sarah exclaimed, her legs moving and propelling her onwards. She raced after Zephyr on her two hooves, dropping the bucket and clutching the mop in both claws like she intended to rush in and beat somepony into a pulp with it. Zircon took a few seconds to let a hoof connect with his face before he used his magic to pick up the discarded bucket and Aquamarine.

"Getting… sick," Aquamarine complained, his face turning green as Zircon turned to him.

"At least we have a bucket. Do your best to hold it in until we come to a stop," Zircon warned, garnering a weak nod from his wounded affiliate. Then, he too took off with said affiliate and the bucket in magical tow, bounding off after Sarah and Zephyr in a frenzied gallop. Upon finishing the bend himself, he could see Sarah darting ahead of him, as balanced as a kangaroo and as swift as a jackrabbit.

Past the upright gryph in question, however, he saw no sign of Zephyr or Maria, though he did hear the latter shrieking. The filly's cries became faint, and Zircon doubled his efforts as a result, yet in doing so had only managed to catch up to Sarah. "How do you run so fast on two legs?!" Zircon asked as they rounded another bend. Up ahead, Zephyr galloped on frantically before he turned down another hall, vanishing as fast as the two who followed him caught sight of his tail.

"You can blame my mom for passing that onto me," Sarah replied immediately, her claws clutching the mop tighter as she and Zircon continued their mad dash down the next hall in an attempt to keep up with the guard and foal up ahead. Their steps faltered, and they nearly tripped over their own hooves when they heard something screech, but caught themselves and pushed on when they heard Maria scream immediately after the screech registered in their minds.

They picked up the pace, desperate to stop whatever trouble was ahead before it could get any worse. The two—three, counting the still-levitating Aquamarine—reached the corner Zephyr ran past only moments ago to find him standing in another hall just ahead with Maria still on his back.

What was past Zephyr and the foal, however, caught their attention—there was a cloaked entity that had forced itself onto the back and had their hooves wrapped around the neck of one Flash Sentry, whose wings flapped madly. Orange feathers dislodged from the flailing limbs, and the shadow struggled to maintain its hold as the pegasus ascended and rammed his own backside into the ceiling, disorienting his attacker just enough that their hooves released his neck.

"Get the buck off of me!" Flash yelled, though his cry was breathless and strangled. He bucked his rear legs and angled himself at the same time, the sheer momentum of the movement causing his aggressive passenger to catapult off and land on the floor with a hard thud and sickening snap. The airborne guard huffed and wheezed, his eyes widening when his assailant just got right back up onto its hooves like nothing had happened.

But one front hoof slipped out from under its garbs, and he and the new arrivals could see that it was wrapped in ragged cloth that obscured its color. In addition to that, the limb was horribly twisted, dangling about at an unnatural angle. "This isn't over," it hissed in a hollow voice. "I'll get you all—every last guard, your so-called Emperor, and anypony else that gets in my way." Its hidden head turned to Sarah, and she could've sworn she saw a pair of eyes glaring at her under its cowl. "Mark. My. Words."

Before Flash and Zephyr could act, the figure turned to the nearest window and galloped to it on three legs prior to jumping out of it. "Wait!" Flash cried, darting to the window in an attempt to grab the entity before it could start its leap of faith, but he was just a second too late. The creature fell down, and Sarah and the other guards rushed to the window in time to see it finish its descent in an unusual way.

Some magical glow that looked purplish-black against the crystal street and in the moon's light embraced it before it could crash, halting its momentum like a spinning top being grabbed by a hoof. It then let itself down gently and immediately raced away down a few alleys thereafter, once again vanishing from sight.

"What a rotten load of horseapples!" Flash growled with narrowed eyes, stomping a back hoof and letting his wings slam shut in frustration. He felt a hoof on his armored withers, and turned to see Zephyr and Maria looking back at him.

"Take it easy. This is our home turf," Zephyr said coolly, donning a small smile. "That shadow won't be able to avoid us for long, not when the entire Empire's mapped out like a damn snowflake." He turned to Maria and added, "And sorry about that bumpy ride, kid. Guard instincts kicked in."

Maria nodded back, but she kept her gaze on Flash. "You okay?" she asked in a small voice.

Flash rose a hoof and rubbed his neck, wincing as he prodded at forming bruises. "I'm not doing so well…" he replied. "I'm definitely gonna take a nap tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I didn't sign up to get strangled by a cloaked stranger on my back."

Zircon let Aquamarine rest on his back again, using his magic to fork the bucket over to Sarah. "Should we get Emperor Armor, or what?" he asked, causing everypony else to look at him with incredulous brows raised.

Then they turned to Aquamarine when he spoke up, "Get… the Emperor." A pause, one brief and filled with confused grunts from both the other guards and the hippogryphs met his ears. Aquamarine huffed, "He'll know what… to do."

Zephyr and Flash exchanged glances, then turned back to Aquamarine. "Can you and Zircon return the guests to their rooms while we get the Emperor?" Flash asked.

Aquamarine languidly nodded. "Fhræm," he replied.

"What did he say?" Sarah asked, a brow quirked.

"He said yes," Flash translated. He turned to Maria and added, "Oh, and get off Zephyr's back. You need to go back to your room." The foal clambered off without complaint, and she rushed back to Sarah thereafter. Then, both pegasi spread their wings and jumped out the window, the sounds of flapping limbs heralding their departure.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

In an expanse of a mostly-empty street that was heavily blanketed by silence stood Shining Armor and a dozen guards that had only their helmets on arranged in a single file line, all armed with bows hewn of blue crystal and nothing but. They carried quivers filled with similarly-built arrows, and a good fifteen or so yards from them stood flat stone targets that were upright thanks to sturdy crystal stands. Each one sported three white lines painted on their faces, dividing them into six even parts.

The Emperor stood before the targets, eyeing all of the assembled ponies present with a cold gaze that kept them glued to their spots. Sandwiched between two burly earth pony guards was Anna, armed with her stone-and-crystal bow and quiver full of similar arrows. She was wearing the dress that Rarity had sewn for her, her mane tied back thanks to the red ribbon and drill-baubles. She fidgeted for a moment, trying to suppress a frown, but found herself unable to do so with the tranquility that lingered.

So she took the opportunity to look at each guard's exposed cutie mark, frown deepening when she found a distinct lack of any that had either a bow, an arrow, or both in the mix. Three had shields, four had pikes, one had a pair of horseshoes, and the last four boasted swords on their hips. A niggling feeling began to sink in, only to amplify when she turned to face of one of the guards to find him looking back at her. Immediately, she turned right back to the targets, as if pretending she didn't just witness something indecent.

The two burly guards, meanwhile, let their gazes dart back and forth from their Emperor, to the stone targets, then to Anna and back again. One of them, with a steel grey coat and a sword cutie mark, decided to pipe up. "Emperor, why is one of our Fantasian guests standing among us?" he asked with a slight frown.

"She and I are doing a joint project—I decided to add a new event to this year's Faire, but to do that, I would require help and some testing beforehoof," Shining answered without fail, giving the grey guard no more than a brief look before he turned to Anna and nodded to her. "That's where our guest comes in. I needed somepony in the field of archery to help me set up targets and such."

The other burly guard, this one sporting an olive green coat and the horseshoes cutie mark, went and inserted his two bits. "How's it gonna spice up the Faire?" he questioned.

Shining donned a smirk with a sly cast to it. "Well, a couple of weeks before the barrier broke, a few of the citizens told me they wanted to practice their archery skills. Almost all of them had cutie marks related to the activity," he began in a calm, rather convincing tone of voice. "And I've been at a loss at how to satisfy that small bunch—"

The olive green guard had the temerity to cut Shining off, "So, this is for them, then?"

Shining paused, and he gave a small chuckle. "You could say that, and then some. However, the bows you carry are enchanted—how, I'm not certain. Which is why I have you all assembled tonight, to see what the enchantments are and what they can do. If I deem them safe enough, then we can carry on with this experimental event I have in mind," he replied. This caused the guards to exchange glances with one another, with almost none of them paying heed to Anna's presence.

After a few seconds passed, the grey guard used a hoof to point at Anna. "Is she gonna be a test subject or something?" he asked.

"More to simulate an average citizen around these parts," Shining replied with an amused snort. "That, and to pose a bit of a challenge for you lot, since I've selected you bunch because you lack archery-related cutie marks."

"Doesn't mean we still can't be good at archery," the olive green guard huffed.

"You do have a point, Peridot," Shining agreed with a nod, still grinning like a conniving bastard. "So, who's up first? Any volunteers?" None of the guards answered with words or gestures, and Shining opened his mouth to repeat his inquiry when he saw a tan-beige hoof marked by a golden horseshoe rise up between Peridot and the steel-grey guard.

At this, he laughed as the hoof dropped and Anna trotted no more than three paces ahead of the row, her horn already glowing and her magic gripping her bow. "Oh goody," Peridot grumbled, his brow furrowing as Anna pulled out an arrow from her quiver and poised her bow in front of her.

As the guest loaded the drawstring and pulled it taut, the steel grey guard nudged Peridot with a hoof. "Look at the arrow," he hissed with a firm frown.

"Why should I do that, Tempered Stone?" Peridot groaned, his eyes nonetheless falling on the arrow itself. The color of the crystal fletching and head changed to a fierce red, briefly pulsing before it was launched. When the projectile firmly embedded itself into the dead center of a target just seconds later, red crystals erupted from the arrow and spread onto the entire face of the target. They stayed like that prior to turning black and then dissipating into vermillion flames, which left the slab charred black.

The entire platoon jumped back in surprise, and Peridot and Stone scooted closer to their fellows and away from Anna. "Th-th… she knows crystal magic!" one of them yelled.

"Dark crystal magic!" Peridot cried, his eyes bugging out of their sockets.

It was around this time that Anna turned her head to the guards and let a hoof connect to her face, but she didn't bother to close her eyes as they momentarily turned crimson in color. This ended up making the guards freak out more, to the point they drew their bows and loaded arrows into the drawstrings. All of the loaded projectiles fell in her direction before Shining could have a chance to object to the notion. "Sombra's influence has reached her!" Stone exclaimed.

"Enough!" Shining barked in a voice loud enough to echo in the streets, forcing the guards to lower their weapons with his magic. "There is no way Sombra's influence has reached her! The Crystal Heart destroyed him, if I recall correctly! Last I checked, not even his magic could so much as crack the barrier between the worlds! All of you, calm down at once!"

Reluctantly, the guards shuffled back into a single file line, with Stone and Peridot leaving a space for Anna to settle in between them whenever she felt like it. Shining nodded to them, still juggling their weapons in his magic, firmly frowning at them in disapproval. He turned to Anna as she slowly slid her hoof along the bridge of her muzzle, and he saw her red irises just seconds before they reverted back to their green hue.

"What… explains the red eyes?" he asked in a much softer voice, which caused her to turn to him for a few seconds.

Anna immediately turned away, forelegs crossing together for a few seconds or so. "I'm… hexed," she murmured in a tone so low that Shining strained his ears to even hear her speak.

"Beg your pardon?" Shining asked, still keeping his voice low.

"I'm hexed," Anna repeated, this time loud enough for everypony else in the immediate vicinity to hear her. She still kept her gaze elsewhere, as if the mere act of meeting anypony's gaze at this point had potential to send them into another panicked frenzy.

Shining trotted up to her and lifted a hoof to let it rest on her withers. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

Anna shook her head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you how I got hexed," she mumbled in reply, a gait of shame in her tone. "Besides, I'm getting the feeling that I am currently surrounded by idiots," she added, removing an arrow from her quiver using her magic and gesturing to the guards present with it.

Shining nodded and waited for her to put her projectile back into its container before he tenderly patted her on the shoulder and then dropped his hoof. With that done, he wasted no time turning to once more scowl at his assembled guards.

"Her bow is enchanted. Her curse, whatever it is, may or may not have anything to do with her weaponry. Do not aim another arrow in her direction again. Am I understood?" he barked. When his troops nodded, he relinquished his magical hold on their bows and watched intently as they put their arrows back into their quivers. "Good." He turned to Anna and nodded to her once more. "Continue, please."

He trotted out of her way, and Anna sighed begrudgingly before loading another arrow into her drawstring. This time, the fletching and point changed to blue, and she fired without further hesitation. The second arrow landed smack-dab next to the first, and a thin layer of frost immediately accumulated and covered a fraction of the scorch marks the earlier flames left behind.

After that, she unloaded a third whose crystals turned yellow even before she plucked it out of her quiver, and when it connected solidly with the target golden sparks erupted all around it for a full second only to die another second later. Then she loaded three more and fired them all at once, each one landing on the target at the same time before she finally trotted to stand between Stone and Peridot. She paused to give them both glares, making them stiffen in response.

A full minute passed before Shining spoke up again. "Private Peridot, you're up," he barked. Peridot frantically nodded and trotted three steps ahead, putting the bow vertically in front of him and craning his neck to grasp the non-business end of an arrow with his teeth. Greenish-blue mana pulsed from his hooves and resonated through the street at first, before small crystal formations popped up with tealish power and gripped the bottom of the bow, keeping it upright.

"Good, for earth pony standards," Stone called out, chuckling when Peridot grumbled with the arrow still in his mouth. He watched as his affiliate loaded the projectile into the drawstring and pulled it taut, taking no more than a step back to ensure that he could actually fire the damned thing safely. The bow bent almost to breaking point, its string straining to hold itself. Both entities briefly glowed a bright blue, right until the very moment the projectile was released.

It whistled through the air and thunked on another target that was unmolested until then, and ice formed rapidly on a decent chunk of the stone surface. "Huh." Shining trotted to the target and inspected it thoroughly. "Frost arrows…" He thought this over for a minute. "Alright." He turned his attention back to the guards. "Let's have another few test rounds, just to be certain."

"Throhilte-chrischalkhit fhezhiit khomæcht," Stone grumbled as Peridot fell back into the line, leaving his bow where it was. Anna heard what he uttered and turned to him with a brow raised.

"What'd you say?" Anna asked, tilting her head when Stone turned to look at her. "I don't understand ancient alicorn."

"I didn't speak in ancient alicorn," Stone growled, unaware that Shining turned to look at him. "I spoke in my native tongue—it's Diamæntian, for your information."

"What did I hear?" Shining snapped, galloping over and skidding to a halt. The action grabbed Stone's attention, and he went wide-eyed as his Emperor glared at him.

Sweat began dotting Stone's brow. "Uh… nothing, Your Highness," he replied in a wavering voice.

Anna glanced between Shining and Stone, as if unaware of the fact that the pony next to her began oozing liquid bullets. "Can somepony fill me in here, please?" she asked.

Shining turned to her and sighed. "I could've sworn somepony called you a 'dark-crystal-making bitch' in a native tongue just now," he replied.

"I-it was Peridot!" Stone exclaimed, lifting a hoof and pointing it at his affiliate. Shining turned to said pony, who frantically shook his head and pointed back at Stone as if silently saying, 'Nu-uh, he did it!' with the gesture alone.

"Nyætch nogh!" Stone yelled when Shining turned back to him with another glare.

"Mhæ vherzi whuugh thofiigh, khamæ vriik khafriiveo dhimivræ hractæ!" Shining yelled back, watching as Stone's ears pinned back and his brow slanted, bullets of sweat now dripping down his face. "Ghreziilki?!" When the guard nodded, Shining's glare softened, but only a bit. It was then that he looked to Anna for a moment.

"I told him he'd undergo disciplinary action if I heard another peep out of him, and asked if he understood," Shining stated, garnering a wide-eyed look from Anna. "You don't understand Diamæntian?" he asked, getting a nod as his answer. "I see. Remind me to have a translator on hoof whenever I start going off in ancient tongue." He then turned to the palace, and could've sworn he saw something launching itself from a window, but it was too far away for him to properly discern what it was, let alone where it landed.

Then he found two more somethings launching from that same window, and his brow rose as they weaved around the palace in the air for a moment before homing in on the gathering. As they approached, he realized that they were two pegasus guards who were heading directly for him, one lilac and the other orange. His eyes widened when he saw that one of them sported fresh bruises on his neck as they got closer.

"What now?" Shining grumbled as the two pegasi swooped over in a smooth circle and landed in front of the targets. He turned to them and saw harried looks painting both faces.

"I-it's urgent, sir," Zephyr began with a shaky voice. "A-Aquamarine has been incapacitated, and Flash Sentry was a-attacked."

Chapter XXXVI, Part II- 'Fhræm Zhik'

Shining's face morphed, first from blinking confusion and then to narrow-eyed anger, as Flash and Zephyr briefed him and the other guards on what had happened. When the two pegasi finished, their Emperor's face softened, though only slightly as he began to grit his teeth. "I see," he muttered through said clenched teeth. "Go to the guest rooms, both of you." Flash and Zephyr nodded and flared their wings, wasting no time in flapping them and taking off to the castle as soon as they were airborne.

Anna sat on her haunches, growling and throwing her front hooves into the air a few seconds after Zephyr and Flash had departed. "Lovely," she hissed with narrowed eyes as she turned back to Shining, her eyes once more glinting red. "Somepony's cruisin' for a bruisin', and of the worst sort!"

Shining nodded with a snort, one which held no amusement. "Whoever this shadow is, they're messing with the wrong ponies," he agreed, turning to the assembled bunch before clearing his throat. "Guards! We shall withhold practice for tomorrow morning! Get back to your posts, and take your bows with you."

"What about her?" Peridot asked, using a hoof to gesture to Anna.

"I'll escort her to the guest rooms myself," Shining replied. He waited for the guards to trot away, though he could've sworn he heard them mumbling as their backs turned to him. He didn't ask what they were going on about even after they went out of sight minutes later, though he came to the conclusion that they threw crass remarks in an ancient tongue. He turned back to the stone targets.

Anna rose to stand again, although this time she went upright. She used her magic to make her bow and quiver vanish in brief explosions of light, taking a moment to look around before she turned to the palace itself. "You think we should do anything with the targets?" she asked.

Shining sighed and used his magic to pry the arrows off of the targets, likewise making them vanish in light. "Leave them out," he replied, watching as the frost that had accumulated melted away in seconds. This ended up causing some of the white lines to streak along the stone frames unto which they'd been scrawled, save for the burnt one. He then turned to and trotted towards Anna, making sure to go just close enough without stepping on the hem of her gown. "Are you alright?"

"Just… irked is all," Anna replied, still maintaining her upright stance. She watched as Shining trotted around her and started heading to the palace, and she followed him after first reverting to all fours. They went in silence, though they stopped before they could pass the Crystal Heart, which still spun and changed colors of its own accord. "Can we please make that stop changing colors? It's been bugging me."

Shining glanced at Anna and promptly rolled his eyes at her. "Cadence is working on it. If we touch it before she finds a solution, I doubt the end result would be… favorable," he groaned.

Anna's left eye twitched. "And what's the probability of a favorable end result if we tamper with it now?" she asked, a spark of curiosity alight in her eyes.

"Put it like this: as likely as the holes in Katie's legs mending themselves, not to mention her muzzle and her horn growing back on top of that," Shining replied with a frown.

"And since she can't feed anyway…" Anna trailed off, mentally connecting the dots as she turned to and then stared at Shining.

"Yep. Bad juju," Shining tersely finished for her in a cynical tone, one accompanied with a curt nod. He turned to the nearest leg of the palace and trotted to it, casting a magenta light with his horn as he went. Anna followed suit, though she didn't let her horn glow, and a few minutes of silence passed as they trotted up the stairs. Neither uttered so much as one syllable as they found the third door that lead to the the corresponding floor, let alone as they made their way to the guest rooms at a sluggish pace.

Around a full half-hour passed before the familiar hall lined with many doors came into sight, adorned with a few guards at their posts, in addition to Flash and Zephyr standing between two doors. Both pegasi stood to either side of—and they also had a front hoof resting on the withers of—a green-faced Aquamarine who had a bucket in front of him.

"Are you well?" Shining asked, trotting up to Aquamarine to inspect him a little better, his head lowering and rising as he scanned each and every feature the blue stallion held. His brow furrowed at the color of his visage, in addition to a magic inhibitor at the base of his horn and hoof-sized bruises dotting his neck.

"N-no sir," Aquamarine replied in a raspy voice, turning to Shining with half-lidded and bloodshot eyes. "H-had a rough night."

Shining nodded in understanding, and glanced at Flash and then Zephyr. "You three are on break tomorrow. Unless you are threatened by whatever tried to do you in again, of course," he stated.

Zephyr's eyes widened. "Me? As well?" His voice was an octave higher as the words came out of his mouth. "B-but sir, I-I wasn't—"

Shining cut him off with a wave of his hoof before, "You're just with these two, in case the assailant decides to show up again. Better to have a pony fighting fit than two wounded, even if the wounds in question are minor inflictions. I'm playing it safe."

Zephyr blinked and then nodded with an accompanying, "Ooooooh." He followed up with a salute via a wing. "Yes sir."

Shining nodded. "Now that is what I like to hear," he chirped with a small smile. He turned to Aquamarine and let his smile fall before he added in another two bits, "You don't look so well. I think you should head off to hit the hay."

He flinched when the sod's cheeks bulged like twin pufferfish, and he flung a hoof to his mouth, jostling the bucket in front of him with the motion and almost tipping it over in the process. Anna tipped it back with her magic until its bottom rested flat against the floor, gagging alongside Shining when liquid sloshed within and a foul aroma—one heavily acidic that was sour and vaguely smelled of wheat straw—hit their noses as a result.

"I agree with your Emperor. You need a nap," Anna stated bluntly, her face turning a mild shade of verdant the longer the acrid stench tickled her nose. She backed away a bit, hoping to get away from the smell, but stopped upon accidentally stepping on the hem of her own garment with a back hoof. So she then turned around, flung open a random door with her magic, and trotted in all the while raising a front hoof to cover her nose.

The archer almost immediately trotted right back out, slamming the door behind her with her magic and making the guards who were closest to it jump back a bit. With a hoof still over her nose and pupils beginning to dilate, she sighed and trotted over to the door on the right using three legs. Shining turned to her, a brow raised high. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Accidentally trotted in on Matt and Natz," Anna murmured in reply, her ears falling back against her head. "They're so deep asleep that I doubt the door woke them." Unfortunately for her, hooves hit the floor behind the door before it opened up with a golden aura aiding it, causing Shining to turn to it to find a scowling Matt standing in the frame. His eyes were bloodshot, his mane and fur were tangled messes, and one corner of his lip was twitching sporadically.

"Next time you or anypony else does that, I'm sticking a pot on your head before I bang it with the sturdiest wooden spoon I can find," Matt hissed, his statement causing Anna to first bristle and then stiffen. With that, he snorted and trotted into his room, gently closing the door behind him with his magic, leaving the guards to glance amongst themselves before they all turned to Anna.

For but a minute, silence took hold, only to be broken the very next minute when another door that was next to Zephyr creaked open and Katie bumbled into the hall with orbs constantly dimming. "Who ticked off Godcat this time?" she asked as a hoof rose to her mouth and she opened it, which led to a wide yawn leaving her lips. As soon as she spoke, all hooves flew to point at Anna rather accusingly. Katie then turned to the archer and uttered just one word, "How?"

"It was an… accident. I'll apologize for it tomorrow," Anna replied, her legs shifting for a few seconds.

"Uh-huh," Katie hummed sarcastically, slowly nodding and with both brows raised.

Zephyr piped up after rolling his eyes, "I'll believe that was an accident the moment your general's other two highest-ranking subordinates decide to take his helm for themselves." The others turned to him, with half of the faces on sporting raised brows and the other half wide-eyed as if he'd just snorted crack. "What? She slammed the door—I was just stating the obvious."

"Just don't egg them on further, please," Shining stated calmly, his nose twitching as the still-acrid aroma lingered about. He turned to Aquamarine and added, "And please dispose of what's in that bucket. I don't want to smell it any longer, and I think your fellow guards may feel the same."

Aquamarine languidly nodded, using a hoof to pick up the bucket without spilling its contents. "Fhræm zhik," he replied.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Matt threw himself on the bed, wide awake and grumbling about how he hated every second of the fact. Natalie lay next to him, turning to look at him with her mane and coat as much of a mess as his, and her eyes even more bloodshot.

"Want me to conjure some pain pills?" Natalie groaned, her voice scratchy and strained.

Matt shook his head, lifting a foreleg to wrap it around his bedmate and pull her a little closer to him. He nuzzled her behind the ear, feeling her ear twitch and flick in response. "Unless the pain pills can make me sleepy too," he murmured, garnering a sigh.

"Let's just take them now, and see if we get sleepy twenty minutes after," Natalie stated, her shoulders twitching as her horn began to glow. A few seconds passed, and the azure light dimmed before fizzing out, whereafter she rose a hoof to her head and rubbed her temples with eyes slamming shut. "Fuck. My head hurts so much I can't concentrate worth shit."

"Great, we're stuck with the headaches," Matt thought, a firm frown forming on his muzzle. He snorted in resignation, inadvertently causing Natalie's ear to flick and brush up against his mouth again.

Natalie threw her head onto the pillow, groaning in defeat. "You think the headache'll go away if we wait?" she asked, a hint of desperation in her voice.

"Maybe," Matt replied with a shrug, pulling away and reclaiming his side of the bed. A good thirty minutes passed, and the two tossed and turned as they tried to go back to sleep, yet no matter how much they wiggled about in the bed they didn't tire themselves out. He sat up and crawled off the bed after another fifteen minutes spent hopelessly flailing about had passed. "I'm going to wash my face."

"Let me know when you're done, so I can have a turn," Natalie murmured as Matt trotted to a door at the side of the room. He opened it and entered the bathroom beyond, heading right for the sink and turning the knobs with his magic. Waiting until it had a warm, steady flow of water, he grappled some of it with more magic and flung it onto his face. It stung a bit, but then faded into a coolness that came only because the water began to immediately evaporate in the relatively lukewarm air.

Yet this only made his head hurt worse. The cooling liquid wasn't enough to quell the rush of blood to his cranium. At this, his brow furrowed, and he doused himself face-first in more liquid. He turned off the sink and trotted back to bed, grumbling about how he was going to whale on somepony if the pain didn't go away.

"I take it you're done?" Natalie asked, her utterance halting the threatening murmurs her roommate was making.

"Yeah," Matt answered with a nod. He flopped onto the bed with a grunt. "My head is still killing me. See if you have better luck with the sink." Natalie got out of the bed herself, and went to the sink in the bathroom to wash her face. It did nothing for her either, other than briefly sting before rapidly cooling. After that, she returned to bed, and for another few minutes the two Fantasians laid still, though they remained wide awake.

Sleep, it seemed, was going to be a tricky thing to attain tonight. The mere notion may as well have been damned on this eve.

"Any other ideas?" Matt asked, his tail whipping just once and sending long blond locks everywhere for a moment.

"A trot around the room, or down the hall sound good?" Natalie replied, her tail lifting a little, only to drop back down seconds later.

"Whatever works," Matt murmured with a languid nod, and with that both climbed out of the bed and jogged around the room shoulder-by-shoulder. A good ten laps around the room later, they were still going at it, yet neither panted for breath or broke a sweat. Another ten laps after that, and they flopped on the bed, brows furrowed and chests heaving.

Yet still they could not fall asleep, even after they had caught their breath. Natalie crawled off the bed and trotted to the window, taking a few minutes to look at the sky. She turned to Matt when a golden flash erupted and faded in the corner of her eye, finding that Discord had teleported into the room unannounced. "Yeeees?" she asked, watching as he strode over to a small table at the side.

Discord made a small pile of books appear on the room's table with a snap of his talons. "Fluttershy told me to get you two to go to sleep. She didn't like hearing you pound your hooves on the floor," he said, prior to vanishing in another light.

Matt clambered out of the bed and made for the books, his steps silent and his curiosity piqued. "The hell?" he mumbled upon reaching the table, using a hoof to scoop up one of the books. He set it back down after examining the title. "Okay, it's in ancient alicorn." The utterance caused Natalie to canter over to him and examine a book herself. She picked it up with both front hooves after sitting on her haunches and she leafed through it, only to sigh and put it down well before she reached the tenth page.

"No; it's not ancient alicorn. It looks like it's in Diamæntian," Natalie stated, causing Matt to look at her with widening eyes.

"You understand that gobbledygook?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Not really." Natalie shrugged, turning to meet Matt's gaze with a level look. "I only said it looks the part, not that I can read it."

"Oooooh." Matt nodded in understanding, mentally bucking himself square in the barrel. He let a hoof stray to his face, but then dropped it before the two entities could connect. "I guess the booze and hangover are getting to me."

"And a lack of sleep," Natalie scoffed, turning to the bed and trotting over to it. She flopped on the mattress for the third time that night, and Matt gave the books one last glance before following suit. "You think we should get something to drink?"

Matt shook his head and waved a hoof dismissively. "If we got Discord to do that for us, he'd probably have the drinks make us both breath fire," he huffed. "He just gave us books we can't read, for Godcat's sake."

Natalie opened her mouth to argue, but she closed it upon considering Matt's remark. So the two, yet again, lay in silence. Their brains constantly racked for ideas that they could enact just so they could get some more sleep and get rid of their headaches in the process. Though only after an hour and a half of doing nothing but contemplate, each and every idea was eventually struck down.

Matt groaned and flung his front hooves into the air. Out of desperation and without thinking first, he uttered in a harsh whisper, "I want to sleep so bad, but my head's killing me! What will it take for me to go to sleep already? I may as well fuck the damned pillows—I'll eat my braids if that doesn't make me sleepy!"

Natalie turned to Matt, a brow raised. "I don't think the pillows can please you that good," she stated matter-of-factly. "You might have Cornucopia dick."

Matt deflated, dropping his front hooves. "Yeah, a pillow doesn't sound too good…" he murmured, eyes narrowing. "Wouldn't want to get bedmane."

"You already have bedmane, dumbass." Matt scoffed at his companion's utterance and reached a hoof to stroke his mane, only to snarl when he found a lumpy tangle about the length of a bundle of feathers. "Should we swap sides?" Natalie suggested, eyes going half-lided like she was getting bored.

"No; at this rate, it'd just keep us awake longer," Matt replied in a firm tone. He buried his face into the pillow and released a series of muffled curses into the fabric, swearing this and that and mumbling so much more nonsense that Natalie could've sworn she heard him say he'd get Anna and Lance drunk just to see what would happen. She made to comment on his grumblings, but he lifted his face from the pillow and turned to her with an irritated look that made her hesitate. "What? You gonna suggest something else?"

Natalie pursed her lips together, brow furrowing just slightly as she stared into her companion's eyes. The two stared at each other, both sets of eyes unblinking, ears twitching as if waiting for the other to back down or make a move. Yet neither shifted in the slightest, save for their ears. "Truth or dare," Natalie began in a calm voice, her eyelids twitching as they strained to stay open.

"Truth," Matt replied tersely, blinking just once as a small grin crossed his muzzle.

Natalie donned a wild smirk. "What's Sarah's harp made out of?" she asked, and the inquiry caused her companion to immediately balk.

"Uh… um… tarnished steel?" Matt guessed, his response only eliciting a shake of the head from Natalie, whose smirk grew. "Do you know what it's made of?"

"Nope," Natalie replied nonchalantly. "I do not."

Matt lifted a front hoof and pointed it right at her face. "Then the question was invalid! Now you have to do a dare!" he snarled.

Natalie's smirk widened a little more. "Says who?" she retorted, lifting her own hoof to bat Matt's away. She saw a gleam in his eyes and sighed. "Fine. Dare me, blond fucker," she taunted.

Matt put a hoof to his chin and rubbed it for a bit, humming lowly as his mind began whirring. There were so many possible dares that a bucket list wouldn't be able to contain them all, and some small part of him wanted her to do something ridiculous for shits and giggles. Another part of him wanted her to be safe and not laughed at her own expense. After a few seconds he settled on something simple, and lifted his hoof to gesture to the pile of books that Discord had left behind. "Try to read one of those things," he said.

Natalie crawled out of the bed and cantered over to the books, scooping one up with her hooves once she was within reach. She leafed through the pages before settling on one somewhere in the middle of the book, though the parchments glowed as she began to read. Then, the papers dissolved and reformed into a sort of swirling miniature vortex, with the insides of the leather cover glowing bright purple.

Next thing she knew, white assailed her vision, and a creamy substance splattered all around her cranium. In addition to that, something round and metallic landed on her face, complete with a sound like a knife managing to slice through aluminum. She slammed the book closed, causing the paper to return to its prior shape and its form to stop glowing, before putting it down and lifting a hoof to wipe at her eyes. With her vision cleared, she turned to her hoof to stare at it for a second or two, before hesitantly sticking out her tongue to lick at the substance that had accumulated.

"Remind me to convince Fluttershy to make Discord drink laxative one of these days," Natalie hissed, lifting her other hoof to grapple whatever else got on her head. She grasped it and cast it aside, finding it to be an aluminum pie tin with a puncture in its bottom that vanished before it could land. She wasted no time turning around and then trotting to Matt on three legs. When she reached him, she thrust her substance-covered hoof in his face. "Oh, and lick that and tell me what it tastes like."

"Is it edible?" Matt asked, garnering a slow nod from Natalie as his answer. She waved her hoof for a bit, until he stuck his tongue out and did as he was instructed, immediately getting a salty and meaty flavor on his taste buds with a hint of smokiness to it. "It's…" He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, trying to pinpoint what the taste was. He stuck his tongue out and licked more of the substance off his roommate's hoof, and then his eyes lit up in realization. "Bacon flavored…"

"If this is Discord's idea of a prank on us, then the joke's on him," Natalie commented, shifting to sit on her haunches. She flinched when Matt jammed her drenched hoof into his mouth, blinking when he released it a few seconds later and it came out merely saliva-covered as a result.

"Mhm," Matt chirped before licking his lips. "Say, are you going to wash that off?" he asked, using a hoof to gesture to the mess still dripping from Natalie's head. She nodded, but let him swipe some excess off of her cheek before she stood up and tottered off to the bathroom to clean the rest up. When she returned with a wet-but-clean head a minute later, he'd licked his hoof clean, and turned to her with a small and pleased grin.

"Take it you're happy?" she asked, her inquiry resulting in a nod from her companion.

Matt chuckled and shifted his legs, more to stretch them and make sure they didn't go numb than to get cozy. He let his head fall onto the pillow, and though his hangover still lingered, it dulled to faint throbs as he ignored it. "Has your headache gone away? Mine hasn't, but at least I have had bacon-flavored pie," he stated, still grinning.

"Yeah. My headache hasn't gone away too, but I also liked the pie. It was… quite funny, now that I dwell on it," Natalie replied, letting a smile form on her visage. A giggle wormed its way out of her mouth as she added, "Truth be told, I helped myself to another sample."

"You feel tired, though?" Matt pressed, his smile fading. When Natalie shook her head, he sighed glumly. "Wanna continue that truth-or-dare game, or no?"

"I'd like to continue it." Natalie used a hoof to gesture to the pile of books. "But let's steer clear of that pile of leatherbound parchment. I don't know what else it can do."

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Matt agreed, waiting until the mare clambered onto the bed next to him before he spoke again. "So, truth or dare?"

"Dare me, Speckles," Natalie replied with a snort.

Now, it was Matt's turn to don a wild grin. "Aside from the books, is it all out?" he asked. When Natalie nodded, his response was to wrap a hoof around her neck and pull her in close. "I dare you to get Lance and Anna extra Cornucopias."

Natalie squirmed a bit, barely suppressing another giggle. "I don't think they'll drink any," she retorted. "I think they'd breath fire."

"Hrm…" Matt's smile broadened. "Then you dare me."

Natalie smirked, and she closed her eyes before turning away to think on the next dare for a minute. She appeared calm and serene, but she only held that look for a few seconds before her eyes snapped wide open with a feral gleam. She turned back to Matt and leaned in so her cheek rested against his neck.

"You know…the truth-and-dare game's already getting boring. And it's been forever since we only had time to ourselves," she remarked, feeling her roommate tense slightly. Her eyes closed again, and she added, "Then again, it's been awhile since I tried bashing you with my staff." She sighed through her nostrils. "Rainbow Dash may've been right; we're wrangling a bed in the Valkyrie the next time we have to sleep in it."

Matt managed to stifle a laugh. "Lance would bitch, though," he replied.

"The tank has those chests; we could just lock the blankets and pillows safely and they wouldn't fly all over the place," Natalie retorted with a giggle.

"Unless the lieutenants and sergeants remove them before we come back to Fantasia, though I doubt that will happen," Matt argued, chuckling again. Then he registered the 'time to ourselves' bit a little late and his eyes immediately widened. He turned to her and began speaking, "A-are you saying—"

"Maybe we could… I dunno, spend a little time together?" Natalie suggested in a sweet voice, shifting to nestle her head between her front legs.

"I dunno, you were—" Matt began again, only for Natalie to raise a hoof up and jam it between his teeth to silence him.

"If you're speaking about Half-horn Midgetcock, let me be blunt: he has to live with the consequences of his actions; I don't, as callous as that sounds," Natalie hissed, her smile fading for a moment. She pulled her hoof from his mouth and continued, "Besides, he's already shot himself in the hooves earlier today; his compatriots will very likely follow suit, so their shenanigans—if any are being performed—will cease soon enough."

Matt considered her argument, and he leaned in so that his muzzle was behind her ear again. "Fair point," he agreed in a whisper, causing the ear to twitch as he spoke. "Are you sure, though?"

"Mhm." Natalie's hind legs shifted a bit, folding so that her hooves rested next to her belly. Her tail twitched again, but only a little, and her companion barely caught the slight shift in the corner of his eye. "You up for it, or not?" she asked, turning to look him in the eye again. She watched intently as Matt's face shifted, first from partially-lidded consideration to a tiny twitch of the corner of his mouth, before he finally donned a small grin.

"Fine. If this can knock our lights out, then I'm all for it." Matt lifted his hoof, only to shift it and let it settle on her side a second later. He pressed gently on her stomach, then slid his leg around her before standing up on three legs, dragging her rear end into the air. "Slow, or quick?" he questioned when his roommate betrayed a shudder.

"Mmm, slow. We might need to hold our mouths shut," Natalie replied, a small but sultry grin forming on her face. She tensed when the half-Clydesdale shifted abruptly, and her front legs pressed against the mattress in response. "Whoa, easy there," she chided. "I don't want a bruise, thank you."

"Alright, alright," Matt piped up, garnering a nod from the mare. She closed her eyes, barely missing the grin that framed his muzzle, but she did not miss the tell-tale shifting of weight on the bed as he pulled her under him. She opened her eyes when the hoof holding her parted from her underside, and opened her mouth to comment when it prodded her a little behind the left cutie mark.

She shivered momentarily. "D-don't keep me waiting," she whined impatiently, though there was an undertone of nervousness in her voice. She felt him shift a bit, biting her lip as he lowered his front quarters to let his chest rest on her withers, with one leg wrapping around her barrel and the other folding next to hers for support.

Both of them heard a creak, caught a flash of gold in the corners of their eyes, and they immediately jumped. Their oculars nearly bugged out and their pupils shrank, all before they scrambled off the bed as soon as the bathroom door swung open. They stared, stiff as boards, at the perpetrator who had the gall to interrupt them by standing in the doorway unannounced—none other than Discord.

"I do hate to ruin your fun," Discord sneered, wearing a wide and toothy grin on his face. He gestured to Matt with a talon and asked, "Have you looked between your rear legs yet?" He snapped the digits of his paw and added, "Because I think that would be wise."

Matt swallowed a lump and lifted a front hoof, craning his neck to peer at his inner thighs. Materializing around his loins was a cylinder of metal, one that clamped around his sheath and tightened. He yelped in pain and looked to his hips, finding more bands of steel forming from the cylinder and around his flanks in the shape of a belt. Then he turned to Discord, trying to articulate a response, only to speak in gibberish dialects again because his jaws jittered beyond control.

"I'm afraid I cannot have you two… doing anything intimate with my friend next door and a curious foal a few rooms down. I hope you understand—it'll come off tomorrow, don't you worry your pretty little head about it," Discord chirped, closing the door with a stifled laugh.

Matt and Natalie exchanged glances, then slowly turned to the pile of books and back to where Discord stood. "Can we ask Fluttershy to talk to him tomorrow?" she asked in a low voice as soon as she and her roommate exchanged another look.

"At this rate, I don't think she would," Matt replied, a sullen frown forming on his muzzle. Then the bathroom door opened again, and they turned their attention to it to find that Discord decided to reemerge in his pony guise.

"Oh, by the way, have you seen Twilight and Spike and Zecora earlier today?" Discord asked, lifting a hoof and examining it like a watch had been attached to it.

"No," Matt answered with a shake of his head.

"We fell asleep," Natalie added with a shrug.

"Oh, great," Discord stated in a sarcastic tone, turning to the two Fantasians with a hint of a frown. "Head out into the hall, both of you."

Matt looked at his new accessory and tried to pry it off with a hoof, only to stop with a whimper when the whole thing tightened threateningly. He turned back to Discord. "You expect me to trot around with this thing on?" he protested.

Discord yawned into his hoof, then looked at the hapless stallion with his eyes half-lidded. "Would you rather trot out swinging?" he asked in a monotone voice, using the hoof he yawned into to make a pendulum motion. Matt shook his head. "Didn't think so. Now trot out, the both of you." The two Fantasians exchanged glances, before they hesitantly obliged and immediately found themselves face to face with Shining and Anna as soon as they were in the hall.

Anna took a moment to eye the steel garment girding Matt's hips, and she frowned—whether in pity or anger, neither of the two were certain. "Cockblocked, I take it?" she asked flatly, causing the pony wearing said garment to turn to her.

"Don't ask," Matt hissed, his eyes narrowing for a bit. He turned to Shining, and the expression eased. "What're you staring at?"

Shining said nothing, instead turning around and heading towards Flash Sentry, who now stood alone. He turned to a slightly open door that said guard stood next to, and motioned with a hoof for the Fantasian trio to catch up. The three complied, and found that Katie had trotted to them from the other side. The group entered the room after Shining opened the door and went in first, finding that it was empty.

"What's wrong?" Natalie asked, raising a brow as she scanned the room.

"I don't see anything problematic," Katie added with a buzz of her wings.

Shining mutely trotted to a table that stood next to the bed, and he picked something up with his magic before handing it to his guests. "Read that, please," he stated.

Anna summoned a light from her horn, shining it on the object to reveal that it was a simple sheet of paper with something scrawled on it. She and the others craned their necks to it, though Katie had to stand on her rear legs and rest her front hooves on Natalie's barrel to support herself and see the thing up close and personal. Matt read it out loud, his pupils shrinking as he relayed what was on the parchment.

"Do not panic if me and Spike are not in our room. I couldn't sleep, and neither could he—too many things were on our minds. We took Zecora with us to the library to try and find something. We'll be back at sunrise.

-Twilight Sparkle

P.S. NoLegs decided to come with us for some reason. I think he couldn't sleep, either."

Chapter XXXVII- Cocytus

The sound of hooves hitting crystal reverberated ceaselessly in the moonlit library, with a faint halo shining in from the glass overhang above. The silver light refracted upon the various surfaces of crystal, making the area seemingly glow in the faintest of rainbows. Languidly trotting right into the moon's illuminating gaze were Twilight and Zecora, with the former sporting Spike on her back and an armored, dagger-carrying NoLegs on her head.

The four paused at one edge of the light, slowly swiveling their heads around when they heard the faintest sound of shuffling hooves. NoLegs sniffed the air a few times, and with a face morphing into a scrunched scowl that revealed bared teeth and ears pinning back, he let off a low growl. The resulting noise was quiet enough to not echo around the expansive shelves that lined either side of him and the others, but it was loud enough to garner a glance from Spike.

Zecora, likewise, immediately looked at the cat that seemed to be on the verge of a hissyfit. "What is wrong? Are these halls too long?" she asked in a whisper, garnering an immediate shake of the head from the feline.

The sound of shuffling hooves reverberated around them once more, and this time the growling cat bristled, the fur on his tail puffing out as if he were scared out of his mind. "I think we might have another visitor in these rows of books…" Spike murmured, garnering a wide-eyed look from Zecora. He turned to meet her gaze and used a claw to gesture to NoLegs as he added, "And I think our Fantasian feline here has smelled them out and decided he doesn't like them, whoever they are."

NoLegs stopped growling, and for a full minute the library fell absolutely silent. His ears slowly lifted until they were standing straight, only to swivel erratically in tandem with his whiskers twitching. His head snapped to the left and then to the right, before his body fluffed out some more as he hissed in that direction. Spike turned to where the cat had hissed, eyes narrowing as he barely caught sight of a fleeting darkened form that tiptoed around a corner of a shelf. "Twilight, you think NoLegs might be onto something?" he asked, worry flickering in his irises.

"I'm going to assume he smelled a pony that didn't bathe in a while… or something," Twilight replied, her voice breaking when the words 'didn't bathe' left her mouth.

The utterance prompted Spike to lift a claw and let it connect with his forehead. "I would have smelled it by now if that were the case, and you would have too," he grumbled indignantly, dragging his claw down his face and letting it slide off of his chin. Once it was off of his face, he wasted no time turning to NoLegs, who turned back and mewed with a nod of agreement.

"I believe he's being wary." Zecora rose a hoof and gently poked NoLegs on the tail with it, causing him to look at her. "Do you use your blade to parry?" she asked, garnering a hesitant nod accompanied by a mouth that shifted like the cat wasn't sure whether he wanted to smile or not. He jumped off of Twilight's head as a magenta light started shining from her horn, and he landed right behind Spike in that single bound.

"Let's just see if we can find a book on Starswirl's travels, and if we come up short, we could try again tomorrow," Twilight murmured, her shoulders slumping for a bit before straightening out. "We shouldn't stay long, though." Her form tensed a bit as she turned to Zecora, and she saw said mare nod in agreement, as well as Spike and NoLegs from the corner of her eye.

Spike felt his makeshift mount tense, and moved his claws to let them rest on her withers as she and Zecora began trotting shoulder-by-shoulder and out of the moonlight. He smiled when NoLegs scooted closer to him and rubbed his cheek on his back, careful to avoid letting his little helmet scratch at the scales. Spike returned the gesture in kind, raising one claw up and over his shoulder simply to rub at the back of the cat's ear. His smile widened when he heard a soft purr that came as soon as the digits started gently scratching the feline's head.

The group trotted on, passing by tiny slivers of more moonlight as they went, with only constantly-shifting shadows and the soft clip-clop of their hooves to accompany them on their way. At seemingly random intervals they paused, with Twilight shining her light on the rows of books that surrounded her and her group, reading aloud the various titles for just a minute. No more, no less than a minute.

"'Ancient Aqueducts: Basic Construction,' 'How to Make Crystal Strawberry Sorbet and Other Recipes…'" A brief pause, during which Twilight gave an exasperated sigh before starting anew. "'Biographies of the Empire's Royalty,' 'Variants of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,' 'Types of Aquatic and Cavern-Dwelling Creatures…'" Twilight snarled and turned away from the books, taking a moment to lift a hoof and let it connect with her face in quick succession.

"No dice?" Spike guessed, garnering a nod and the sound of a hoof hitting the crystal floor as his answer.

"No, Spike, I won a trillion bit lottery in Las Pegasus," Twilight snorted, with heavy amounts of sarcasm dripping from her tone as she briefly turned to shoot a look with a tight frown and narrowed eyes at the drake. He smiled at her in return, causing Twilight to sigh again.

With that, she turned to the shelves again and continued scanning the titles dotting the book spines. Her visage morphed into a fierce scowl as she started lifting books from the shelves with her magic, opening the damned things, and reading a few pages before closing them and setting them where they were plucked from. After repeating the process a few times, she groaned and then tottered one entire bookshelf over and started plucking books all over again.

This dragged on for a good hour and an additional ten or so minutes. Twilight fell into a thorough, if simple, pattern during that time: pluck books, analyze books, return books, go one case over and try again. Rinse and repeat. Though each time she did this, she yielded no results, unless her utterances as she scanned the books counted as such.

"'How to Make Crystal Silk,' 'Arcane Spells for Beginning Mages,' 'Weather Control…'" Twilight rambled on, unaware that Spike and NoLegs had turned to each other and that the latter used his magic to conjure up a set of cards.

"Yeah, I get you, NoLegs. Twi's gotta be thorough—I should know," Spike sighed with a frown, garnering a mew from the cat as he began to shuffle the cards.

"Is it alright if I joined your little game? It could be a while; Twilight's anxiety, I cannot blame," Zecora interjected, cantering over. She watched as Spike and NoLegs hopped off of Twilight's back and sat down, and she followed suit as the cat simply shrugged and reshuffled the deck prior to distributing some cards.

After another thirty minutes passed by that the three spent playing a few rounds of go fish whilst keeping up with Twilight as she cleared and subsequently put the shelves back together, Zecora sighed in exasperation and lowered her set of cards. "Would you mind if I tried helping Twilight? I want to help her out of her self-afflicted blight," she murmured. Upon getting nods from the cat and drake, she set her cards down and stood up, waiting for the two to pick up her hooffull and shuffle them into the deck.

That done, Zecora then trotted to the opposite set of shelves of the most recent case that Twilight was busy tearing apart and began to scan the rows she could easily access. She hummed, a brow quirking up when a book on a shelf above her had a peculiar title that caught her eye. She reared up on her back legs with a front hoof resting on another shelf to get a better look at it.

"Twilight, come here, I think I found what we're looking for. Maybe this is what we need, though we may yet find more," she beckoned, causing the unicorn in question to turn to her and trot over after setting the most recent book she picked up away.

Twilight watched as Zecora used her non-supporting hoof to gesture to a particular, leather-bound book whose cover seemed worn and had a few holes in places along the spine, which unfortunately made the title illegible. Her magic plucked it out with ease, and she brought it to her face before turning it so she could see the title on the front cover.

The title was beset in what looked like runes, though somepony was generous enough to leave a subtitle that she could easily read. "Early Fantasian and Mythonian Relations, by Clover… is this genuine, a book written by a fraudulent translator, or a copy leftover?" she asked, turning to her companion with a brow raised. One of her front hooves flew to her mouth and her eyes widened when she realized she'd just rhymed, causing Zecora to chuckle.

"I see that my habits are rubbing off on you. I'd put the hoof down, before you go blue," Zecora quipped, dropping to all fours before raising a hoof to pry Twilight's own away from her muzzle.

Twilight grinned, though the expression faltered slightly. She opened the book and scanned a random page, sighing when she found that the scrawlings within may as well have been ancient hieroglyphs transcribed to parchment. She flipped a page, only to find more or less the same, and all subsequent ones after that sported similar texts she couldn't read. The book closed, though it remained floating in the air next to her.

"We're gonna have to take this one back to the palace," she murmured, her grin fading. "At least then, we can determine if it's the real deal or a hack written by somepony else who happened to be named Clover."

NoLegs meowed, garnering immediate looks from the mares and Spike. He made the cards vanish in a flash of magic, and his ears swivelled again. "What is it this time?" Zecora asked, trotting around Twilight just to get to the cat. Her ears twitched when she heard the sound of shuffling hooves again, although now they were very faint and accompanied by another, very dull noise—one she could've sworn that sounded like a bell jingling. "Is that… a chime?" she whispered, still straining to hear the noise as the library became as still and silent as a grave.

"I think that was a chime. We should head to the palace now…" Twilight groaned, and with that she handed the floating book to Spike, dispelling her levitation spell when she craned her neck to see that he had grabbed it with a claw. She flinched as he jumped up onto her back with the aid of the armored cat, who used his magic to do the job.

"Through the front door of the library, or to the stairs leading to the castle?" Spike asked, worry flashing in his eyes again. Twilight frowned, her mouth twitching at the corners as she contemplated for a few seconds, and she stared at Spike as NoLegs proceeded to join him on her back.

"Front door…" Twilight answered after a bit of hesitation. She began trotting down the rows of bookshelves again, with Zecora falling in step behind her. They went languidly, and with each passing second and hoofbeat, NoLegs sniffed the air and let his whiskers twitch, keeping his eyes and ears peeled for anything that could have made the sound of shuffling hoofsteps.

Yet even he detected nothing of the sort, so he relaxed after his makeshift mount and her zebra friend rounded a few bends, ascended some flights of stairs, and moved to trot shoulder-by-shoulder again. Minutes passed, filled with nothing but hoofbeats and the company of the Mythonians who'd come here with him as they further explored the expansive library. He relaxed some more, with a small grin forming on his face, as he continued to detect nothing out of the ordinary.

His state of calm gave way to soft purring, and his fluffed-out coat was slowly shifting to hug his body, as well as his tail starting to curl up at his hips. Spike heard the cat purring again, and glanced over his shoulder to look at him, smiling upon seeing a content look in place of a scowl on the furry face. "You doing okay?" he asked, garnering a nod and a mrrow as his reply. "Good."

"Twilight, where are we going?" Zecora inquired as they rounded another bend that led to a small hallway devoid of bookshelves, turning to her companion with both brows raised. "And just how long can you keep your horn glowing?"

"In order, out the front door, which should be down this hall. And I can keep my horn glowing for a good while, provided I don't cast any other spells on top of that," Twilight answered, picking up her pace. "But I can't keep it glowing for long—we have to move, quick."

Zecora likewise sped up to keep her friend in her sights, and before long they found a small lobby with chairs and a desk hewn of glimmering mahogany. To one side, and directly opposite of the desk, stood a set of double doors that gleamed a soft purple. These doors had a small silver bell stationed on their frame that rung whenever somepony left or entered.

Spike noticed that one of the purple doors was ajar. "Did somepony come through here already?" he asked, gesturing to the doors for emphasis.

"That would explain why we heard a chime earlier," Twilight mused, her gaze turning to the small bell before it fell onto the slightly-parted door. "Though I don't know who could have left through it before us."

"So, somepony left before we did, and produced the chime? Who else could have been through here, at this time?" Zecora murmured, her eyes also turning to the damned bell.

"Dunno, Zecora. But we have to be careful—if NoLegs was sent on edge earlier, then I have reason to think that our perpetrator was up to no good," Twilight pointed out with a friendly grin as she turned to her friend and rose a hoof to pat her on the withers.

"But we haven't seen the perpetrator, and we don't know if they did anything in the last few hours," Spike argued with a snort, garnering a look from Twilight in the process. "Hay, we don't even know who they are, and what they can or are willing to do—it's like the other Fantasians all over again."

"Touché," Twilight conceded with a nod. She then set her hoof down from Zecora's withers as she grasped the doors with her magic and flung them wide open, prior to turning to them and then galloping out into the street beyond. Zecora followed suit, and both found that they had to first trot down a small flight of stairs that were white, with gryphon statues sitting at either side of the flight upon stone rails. The lavender magic grasped the doors again and shut them gently as the four went out.

The two mares glanced down both sides of the road they had found themselves in, and so did Spike and NoLegs. None of them noticed anything odd; the streets were empty with the exception of a green-coated guard that stood a few buildings closer to the palace and themselves, and a serene silence had blanketed the area.

The lot exchanged glances with each other and trotted to the lone guard at a sluggish pace. As they got closer, they noticed that all he had on him was a helmet, a quiver full of arrows, and a blue bow. "Excuse me, sir?" Twilight asked as she stopped in front of him, though her utterance sounded more like a statement. "Where is your armor?"

"At the blacksmith's," Peridot replied with a huff. He glanced down and sighed upon seeing Twilight. "Want me to escort you back to the palace?" he inquired.

"Before you do, what's with the bow?" Spike asked, pointing at the weapon in question.

Peridot stiffened a bit, but then relaxed. "None of your concern, Great and Honorable Spike," he replied.

Spike and Twilight shared a glance, both sets of brows raising. Then they turned to Zecora and NoLegs, both of whom shrugged with their brows likewise going high. After that, they turned back to Peridot. "You sure of that?" Spike inquired, a slight frown forming on his face.

"Positive," Peridot replied with a curt nod. He watched as the group trotted on towards the palace without asking him anything else, and for a few good minutes he contemplated whether or not to accompany them on their way.

He was unaware of a cloaked form watching him from a nearby alley, waiting until the quartet managed to get to the Crystal Heart before it started making its move right towards him.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Two pegasi flew high over Equestria, their eyes trained on the ground below. One of them had a small closed horse buggy with a door on one side and a small window on the other attached to him by a harness, filled with sealed boxes that gave off various sweet scents. Both ponies had scarves around their necks whose tails billowed about as they flew. In addition to that, they also sported safety goggles that currently didn't cover their eyes but rather rested high on their foreheads.

The two stared at a set of tracks going northbound, and followed said tracks as best as they could. Green and amber irises shined in the moon's light, in addition to very pale blue and yellowish-orange feathers as they dislodged and fell from the wings of the airborne ponies.

"Soarin, are you sure we're going in the right direction?" a feminine, scratchy, and agitated voice asked. The pegasus in question let his eyes avert to his companion, a yellow-orange mare with a mane as scarlet as fire. He nodded curtly.

"Yes, Spitfire. Rainbow told me last night that she and her friends were heading to the Crystal Empire," Soarin replied, his eyes averting back to the tracks below.

"Why?" Spitfire questioned, eyes narrowing slightly. "This had better be good."

"She and the other Bearers of Harmony were tasked to keep an eye on the Fantasian guests," Soarin replied, a small frown forming on his face. "And the Empire is where they're at."

Spitfire allowed herself to frown. "Safety precaution, I assume?" she inquired.

"Just about right," Soarin said with a nod. "I've seen… four of the Fantasians myself."

"What are they like?" Spitfire asked, a brow raising high as she briefly glanced at Soarin again.

"They help each other out, but prefer to keep to themselves, from what I've seen of them. One of them… has a whole list of reasons to do just that," Soarin explained, taking a few seconds to swallow heavily. "It's… her case is complicated, Spitfire. Complicated."

"If it's complicated, then just tell me what the list of issues is in a nutshell," Spitfire snapped, her frown deepening.

"She's a wraith who starved," Soarin replied without fail. "All skin and bones."

Spitfire halted mid-air, hovering in one spot as the remark reached her ears. Soarin saw this in the corner of his eye and turned around, before he circled her once and stopped to stare at her unblinkingly. "Starved… a wraith?" Spitfire repeated, her eyes widening like the stallion just finished bashing her to within an inch of her life with his wagon.

Soarin nodded once, though he did so slowly. "One of the other Fantasians put a spell on her to hide it… I just… I can't get the image out of my mind once I start dwelling on it," he murmured, ears pinning back.

Spitfire closed her eyes and sighed. "And what of the other three?" she asked, softly.

"All unicorns, two mares and a stallion. They could self-levitate, and had… odd cutie marks. Though I guess Fantasian marks would be different from Mythonian ones anyway," Soarin sighed with a shrug.

Spitfire opened her eyes and flew effortlessly around Soarin and his buggy, briefly glancing behind her to find that he turned around and went after her to keep up. "Tell you what, when we meet the Fantasians proper, we'll talk about them then?" she asked.

"Sounds like a plan," Soarin chirped, donning a small smile at the suggestion.

The two flew on for a few more minutes that then spanned to a half-hour in silence, getting ever closer to the faintly gleaming city in the distance that was the Crystal Empire. "Soarin," Spitfire began, taking a few seconds to let a front hoof stray to her scarf. She adjusted it and spoke when she saw the stallion look at her in the corner of her eye, "I've been meaning to ask: what's with the wagon?"

"I promised Rainbow I'd deliver the Fantasians some pies. Better now than never," Soarin replied with a shrug. "That, and I have a bag of bits with the baked goods, in case the pies suffer some casualties. Besides, who wouldn't want pies?"

Spitfire took a second to consider Soarin's point. "Apart from maybe the starving wraith you told me about, I can't argue there," she agreed with a nod. "But you only ran into four of them without taking the time to meet with the rest of the bunch. They might not like pies, and I'm going to bet one hates pies as much as you adore them."

"Another reason I'm bringing a cart full of pies," Soarin countered with a grin, "is so I can rectify that issue."

"Just don't give Rainbow a pie. She skipped out on her training the entirety of last week, and I'd like to have some words with her about that," Spitfire said, eyes narrowing a little more. "And if she doesn't come up with a good excuse as to why she skipped out, the next time she shows up at the training grounds, I'm gonna stick her on the Dizzitron at maximum speed."

"Duly noted," Soarin chirped, his smile widening. With that, the two kept flying, though this time they descended a bit to better see the tracks below to make sure they were headed in the right direction. The wagon jostled at the change of altitude, and the stallion to whom it was attached slowed a little to let it stabilize in the air. He let his front hooves stray to the harness that kept the wagon on him, and sighed when he found that they were tightly bound to his middle and secure.

A chill wind blew right in his and Spitfire's faces as they pushed onward, and though they shivered in response, they still flew in defiance of the nipping cold. It took a good hour or so before the Empire could be seen up close from their aerial vantage point, and at this time of night the moon was at its apex. Its silver light was shining straight unto their target, with the palace that sat dead center serving as the beacon in the overall snowflake-like shape that comprised the streets below.

"You ready?" Spitfire asked, lifting a front hoof to her goggles before pulling them down over her eyes. Her inquiry immediately caused Soarin to double-check the wagon and the harness he had on his being.

As soon as he was certain the wagon and its contents were safe and secure, he turned to Spitfire and nodded. He likewise lifted a hoof and pulled his goggles down, though he also made sure to check that the strap was tight enough. "Affirmative, Captain," he replied with a fierce grin. The grin dropped when a pained cry reached their ears from far below, but it was just faint enough to sound more like a bird than anything. Nonetheless, he looked around for the source, as did Spitfire.

"I dunno what that was, and I don't think we'd be able to find the source by dallying. That's of course assuming if we manage to find it," she admitted with a shrug once the cry had died down. She turned to look at Soarin again, and this time he turned back to make eye contact with her. "Still ready?" He mutely nodded again. "Good."

With that, Spitfire angled her body so that her muzzle faced straight down before folding her wings shut and performing a steep dive. Soarin followed after her, doing the same maneuver, albeit a bit slower since he also had to contend with a loaded wagon.

The two fell at least several miles down, wings closed and letting gravity do the work for them in two minutes that felt as though they stretched to an eternity. Soarin's heart pounded in his chest, the wind howled relentlessly in his ears, and even with the protection of his goggles he found himself letting his eyes squint as the structures came closer and closer. The wagon rattled incessantly behind him, as if threatening to break at the very seams, and he felt its contents shifting about as he continued to plummet.

Once he and Spitfire were fifteen yards from the nearest street, they angled themselves at a sharp 90 degrees, aiming themselves at the palace before U-turning and circling in the air for a minute in order to decelerate. Once they slowed down, they descended to the end of a random street and landed safely on their hooves, both with grins on their faces and a loud thud from the buggy. The stallion turned to the wagon and dislodged the harness from his body before cantering around to peek inside the small window.

He sighed dejectedly upon seeing the whole interior caked in crusts, smashed fruits, opened and abused cardboard containers, and liquids that intermingled so much he couldn't tell what they had originally belonged to. Amidst this, he spotted a medium-sized leather satchel that was closed, though it was soaked in gunge.

Soarin pushed the window inward with a hoof, frown deepening when it creaked and rose up, before crawling in as much as the opening would allow. He flailed a hoof about once he managed to squeeze himself in up to the wingjoints, trying to reach for the satchel. He let off an "Aha!" when he managed to grab a leather strap, only to groan as it managed to slide off of his limb thanks to the goo that coated it.

He heard hooves coming around to the opposite side of the buggy, before the door opened to reveal Spitfire sending him a look with half-lidded eyes and a tight frown with a hoof outstretched. "There's a door, you know," she scoffed, sighing when Soarin grinned sheepishly before she dove into the mess with one leg and managed to successfully yoink out the satchel.

She slammed the door shut and waited for the stallion to get out of the window and fly around the buggy before she turned to him and waved the satchel like she was going to make off with it, noting the distinct sound of a series of small metal objects clinking as the pie-covered bag moved. "This your bag of bits?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's it," Soarin replied with a frown. "Probably gonna have to clean it up, though." Spitfire nodded to him and tossed it up into the air, aiming it towards him. She smiled when he caught it with his teeth without letting it hit the pavement first.

"Don't drop that," she warned. When Soarin nodded to her, she took a moment to look around the street and frowned when she realized it was empty. She simply shrugged it off as everypony in the area having fallen asleep already, and turned back to her companion before pointing at the buggy with a wing. "What should we do with this? This is sorta your mess."

Soarin took a minute to slide the satchel around his body and secure it before answering, "Maybe we could have it cleaned out? It is kinda late."

Spitfire rolled her eyes. "In any case, that'll have to wait until tomorrow. Just drag the buggy somewhere, and make sure it doesn't run over anypony who happens to be out and about," she ordered. Soarin nodded and flew to the harness, grabbing it in his front hooves before adjusting himself a bit so the buggy wouldn't go off-kilter. Spitfire trotted onwards to the palace at a brisk pace that bordered on galloping, and her companion followed her with the buggy in tow.

A good few minutes passed before she stopped, seeing a group of ponies up ahead. Two of them were standing over one that had fallen, and one of them seemed to sport odd protrusions from its back. "What the…" Spitfire lifted a hoof to move the goggles out of her eyes, blinking to get a better view of whatever had happened up ahead, only to find that she could see just the silhouettes and nothing more. "Soarin, stay close. We may have trouble."

"Trouble? Here?" Soarin asked, eyes widening. "But doesn't Prince Shining's guard unit keep trouble from happening around these parts?"

"I haven't visited the Empire without first being on weather duty until tonight. I'm not certain," Spitfire huffed, her brow furrowing. With that they were on the move again, though this time they went slowly. As they crept closer and closer to the scene, she could make out two purple forms, a black-and-grey striped form, another green form with what seemed to be a quiver that had been emptied, and something else that sported a reflective, polished surface.

When, a minute later, did they come close enough to fully inspect whatever damage had been done, their eyes widened and they gaped. A guard with only his helmet lay on the street with fresh wounds oozing blood that dotted his cutie mark and legs, his form quivering with pain.

Arrows were scattered around the scene, and to one side a bow lay in at least four different fragments. Some blood droplets were in places up to a foot away from the pony, and a smaller one formed in a puddle from his back legs. Some parts of his body were caked in a thin layer of frost, though it was already melting. All in all, trouble did indeed happen in the area, and Spitfire and Soarin waltzed right into its aftermath.

The unfortunate pony made to scream as a purple aura yanked out an arrow that had been firmly wedged point-first into his shoulder, but a bubble of purple surrounded his head to keep the sound from echoing into the street. A white aura sealed the now-open wound shut and forced the accumulated frost there to melt, though not without causing the stallion to flail his legs in agony.

Then the two pegasi looked to what had made that purple aura, finding Zecora standing right next to the source. "Twilight Sparkle?" Spitfire asked, her pupils shrinking. "Wh… what happened here?"

Twilight shot a brief glance at Spitfire, her eyes already wide as saucers. "S-s-somepony attacked this g-g-guard and attempted to fatally wound him. H-h-he needs help, and I'm tr-trying to stop him from b-bleeding out," she replied in a panicked tone.

Spitfire turned back to the sorry bastard, and relaxed as Twilight used a spell to manually stitch the last wound she could see closed. Then the magic grabbed him and carefully flipped him to to let him rest on his other side, making Soarin flinch as the act revealed that one particular arrow managed to stab the guard's sheath very close to the base whilst hugging his stomach. On top of that, there was a layer of frost that coated the area to his middle and inner thighs. Both pegasi promptly turned away.

"Sweet Celestia, I feel sorry for him," Soarin murmured with his ears pinning back and his rear legs cringing in sympathy.

"I don't blame you, not one bit," Spitfire agreed, her voice briefly cracking.

"So, uh, how'd this happen?" Soarin asked, his eye averting just in time to see the offending arrow get smoothly yanked out of the sheath, causing the guard to haplessly fling his legs every which-way in amplified agony before magic seized them and kept the limbs still.

"I don't know; I heard a scream earlier and found him like this," Twilight replied, focusing more mana into closing the unfortunately-placed wound and melting the frost. When that was done a few seconds later, she scanned Peridot for any more arrows, frost patches and wounds she might have missed, though luckily a quick search yielded nothing more of the sort. She turned to look at his face and mouthed, "Are you okay now?"

Peridot frantically nodded, mouthing back "I want to go home" in teary-eyed reply. Twilight made the bubble around his head disappear, and she watched carefully as he slowly stood up, his legs constantly threatening to buckle with every inch that he hauled himself up off the ground. A lavender aura picked up the scattered, non-bloodied arrows and placed them back in their quiver as soon as he was on his unsteady hooves.

He turned to Twilight with a tear or two running down his face, to find her holding the crystal bow that had gotten into four different pieces—five, counting the drawstring. Then Peridot turned to Spitfire. "Uh, m-m-m-ma'am? Wh-what… is your b-business h-here?" he asked, his legs shaking and his voice cracking so much it sounded like he was on the verge of bawling his eyes out.

"I… came to see Rainbow Dash. I… I heard she was here," Spitfire replied after swallowing heavily. Her ears pinned back, and her wings shivered.

"Sh-she's at the p-palace," Twilight interjected, garnering the attention of the two pegasi. She turned around and lifted Peridot in her magic and began trotting back to the palace with Zecora falling in step behind her and the guard floating at her side.

"Do you need an herbal brew for the pain?" Zecora asked with worry flickering in her eyes and ears folded back, watching as Peridot frantically nodded again. "I understand; from your agony, you've nothing to gain."

The two pegasi both fell in step behind Zecora. Since he was flying, the buggy-dragging stallion could see Spike and NoLegs on Twilight's back, with the former holding a book in one of his claws. "Twilight, why is there an armored cat with a dagger on your back?" Soarin asked with a brow raised.

"Long story," Twilight replied with a dejected sigh, craning her neck briefly to glance at Soarin.

"I can vouch for that," Spike agreed with a dismissive wave of his claw. NoLegs meowed, looking at Peridot with ears pinned back and wide eyes.

Chapter XXXVIII- Out of Stock

Early morning came without further incident, with the exception of Fluttershy having a little chit-chat with Discord in a guest room. At first, it was just friendly "good morning" banter between the two that lasted well until the very early afternoon, until something slipped out of Discord's lips and flipped the entire conversation right on its head.

"I made sure they didn't do anything remotely loud," Discord stated with a small smile on his face.

"Made sure who didn't do what?" Fluttershy asked, raising a brow ever so slightly.

"I was trying to make sure they wouldn't wake everypony else up," Discord murmured, eyes half-lidded as his mismatched arms crossed over his chest.

"Who? And what?" Fluttershy repeated in a slightly sterner tone of voice, a hint of a frown gracing her muzzle.

"Oh, for the love of—" Discord's arms fell and he groaned. "Put it like this, two of our Fantasian guests would have gotten intimate had I not directly intervened. And besides, the little chastity belt I put on Splotches should have dissipated by now."

"Chastity belt?" Fluttershy repeated, her mind briefly halting when those two words left the draconequus's mouth.

"Yes," Discord affirmed with a nod. "They'd have woken you and everypony else up otherwise."

"How do you know that?" Fluttershy asked, her eyes narrowing in seconds as her tone took on an icy edge to it.

"I… uh… peeked in on them, and they were getting ready to…"

Fluttershy put two and two together as Discord trailed off, his pupils shrinking as sweat began to bead on his brow. "Breed?" she finished for him, her voice low and almost too quiet for him to hear.

"Yes, that," Discord replied with a hesitant nod.

"That doesn't give you the right to stop them—besides, you didn't let them do it, so neither of us know if they'd have woken anypony else up. What if I did the same to you? Would you have liked it?" Fluttershy snapped, her inquiry causing the draconequus to stiffen as her gaze went to his face. "I thought so."

Discord's shoulders sagged a bit. "I'll make it up to them, later today," he sighed.

"Good." Fluttershy stretched her wings for a few seconds, wincing as she felt and heard a bone or two pop into place, only to close them thereafter. "And if I hear that you didn't…"

Discord held up his paw and talon and waved them like Fluttershy was two seconds from mugging him. "I'll be good, I'll be good, I Pinkie Promise!" he exclaimed, balling his paw into a fist before conjuring a stick with a cupcake at its end and using that to poke himself in the eye. The cupcake exploded into a shower of rainbow confetti as soon as it made contact with his eye, and the stick then vanished in a puff of green smog.

"Alright." Fluttershy's face softened, and a smile broke out on her muzzle. Discord made for the door at a leisurely pace, but he froze when his talon went out to reach for the knob as she spoke again. "And next time, just… redirect the sound elsewhere, or soundproof the room or something less… cruel than a chastity belt."

Discord's talon changed course and rose up to his goatee, and he lightly tugged it in thought before a lightbulb poofed into existence over his head and lit up with a click that came from said goatee instead of the bulb itself. "Mmm, yes, I can certainly manage that," he promised, reaching up with his paw to tap at the bulb, though he paused when he heard a scratchy voice shout in the hall.

The bulb shattered into fragments that then became candy wrappers with enough sound to drown out the yelling. The wrappers then crinkled up of their own accord and drifted down as he grappled the knob with his paw in short order and flung open the door before he made his way out. He stumbled right into a heated bickering in the hall, one between Rainbow Dash and Spitfire that was spectated by a handful of guards, all of whom seemed unaware of his exiting into the hall.

"That's not your only reason for coming here?" Spitfire growled, eyes narrowed. "You're telling me that the Fantasians being here and that the Elements of Harmony are just two of a few reasons?"

Rainbow nodded, her face hardening. "Yes ma'am. A lot has happened—"

Spitfire cut her off in a firm, reprimanding tone, "Just cut to the chase, Dash."

"Rarity needed to make a delivery, Fluttershy wanted to check on a little Fantasian filly, the Crystal Heart's been acting funny, a few guards got whaled on last night, and Twilight wanted to check on Spike and she just had to check the library while she was at it," Rainbow replied in one seating. She wasted no time taking a few seconds to inhale deeply as soon as the tail-end of the ramble tumbled out of her mouth.

Spitfire blinked once, and after that she lifted a brow. "Is that all?" she asked.

Rainbow shook her head. "What if I told you one of our Fantasian guests is a general?" she retorted, her visage softening just a smidgen.

Spitfire's brow rose higher. "Are you exaggerating again?" she asked in a bored, if slightly miffed, tone.

Again, Dash shook her head. "No, ma'am. I wouldn't blow something like this way out of proportion; that's something either Pinkie Pie or Discord would do," she replied.

Discord took that as an opportunity to clear his throat. "Dearest Rainbow, do you yet realize I'm standing right here?" he teased, waiting until both pegasi turned to him before he flashed them a toothy grin. He rose his talon before snapping the thin digits, and a flash of light enveloped him for less than a second, causing Spitfire and Dash to wince and shut their eyes.

When they opened their oculars again, the two mares saw that Discord now rested on a long couch, his lengthy tail half-dangling from one arm of the piece of furniture and his paw holding up his cheek. Dash rolled her eyes at the display, while Spitfire just blew out air from her nostrils. "Thanks for informing us of your presence," Spitfire stated with an air of sarcasm to her voice, right before she turned back to Dash yet again. "And find me this 'general' fellow, if you please."

"I'd like to inform you now, Captain Spitfire, that the general… is a very quirky lad," Discord chimed in, his grin widening when she turned to him again.

"Everypony's quirky to one degree or another. I know that as well as anypony else does," Spitfire retorted, a tiny frown creasing her brow. With that, she turned to Dash once more and watched her as she tottered a few doors down the hall and veered to the left before opening one and peering inside.

"Hey, you got a visitor," Dash called into the room.

"Send 'em in," the room's occupant replied with an audible huff. Spitfire didn't need a second invitation; she trotted over before Dash could so much as turn to look her in the eye and nod, though she paused when her fellow pegasus decided to linger in the doorway for a few seconds. When said pegasus scrambled out of the door, Spitfire trotted into the room and instantly met with a pair of crimson eyes whose uniform-wearing owner sat at the foot of the bed.

Spitfire found herself scanning Lance up and down, her wings twitching ever so slightly as she immediately realized that he was doing the same to her. Her eyes narrowed, and his did likewise. She caught a slight rustling under his coat that came from his side, and her wings twitched again. It was as if she found herself staring at a fraternal twin that came from another dimension.

She cocked her head a little to the left; Lance tilted his to his right, and at this she smirked. "You really are a quirky stallion," she chirped.

"I've met quirkier mares," Lance quipped with a small smile forming on his face. "So, what business do you have with me?"

Spitfire's smirk fell. "Rainbow Dash told me that you were one of the reasons she skipped training," she said.

"Training?" Lance's brow rose. "Of what sort?"

Spitfire's eyes widened. "She didn't tell you?"

Lance shook his head. "Wasn't anything I thought I should've concerned myself with."

Spitfire sighed, a frown of exasperation forming on her face. One of her front hooves lifted up and connected with her forehead in short order before going along the bridge of her muzzle. "For the love of—" The hoof dropped, and she trotted over until she reared up to rest her forehooves on the foot of the bed and lean in until her muzzle was just inches from Lance's own. "And why not?" she hissed.

Lance's eyes narrowed some more, forming the thinnest of crimson slits. "Want me to give you the entire bucket list, or the whole situation in a nutshell?" he retorted, his voice cold and sharp.

Spitfire's nose wrinkled, and her lips pulled into a tight frown. She started contemplating, but heard the sound of buzzing wings that stopped and then gave way to hooves hitting the floor. This was followed by said hooves coming into the room and shuffling every so often, but she did not turn away from the Fantasian stallion until the noises ceased entirely and a thin hoof poked her square in the cutie mark.

She gazed towards her flank to find a pale face with blue orbs staring at her and instantly reeled back, barely managing to avoid smacking Lance with a flailing hoof as she returned to the floor on all fours. Katie scoffed, with a hoof of her own raised at eye level and staying there. Her orbs shifted as she glanced from one pegasus, to the second, then back again. "The fuck is going on?" she asked.

Spitfire's jaw dropped open, and it stayed that way for several seconds on end as she stared at the foal-sized wraith, who was also scanned from head to hoof. When Katie spun her still-raised hoof in a few circles, Spitfire swallowed heavily and composed herself before answering, "I think I'll need to reprimand Dash a little more."

"Then you go do that," Lance scoffed, glancing at Spitfire as the remark came from his mouth, with an additional and dismissive wave of his hoof. Then, he turned to look at Katie. "You need something, other than 'what the fuck is going on?'" he asked.

Katie turned to meet his gaze, and she assumed a straight face with slightly dimming orbs. "Uh, yeah… but it's not me that needs something," she replied.

Lance's visage eased. "Then who does?" he pressed.

Katie's hoof moved to gesture to the door, and silence fell for a moment. Lance strained his ears, and he could've sworn he heard several hoofsteps echoing into the room at once—how many, where they originated from, and who they belonged to, he wasn't certain of. "An entire hoofful of ponies do," she replied, her voice just loud enough to drown the noise out for no more than a few seconds before it resumed once more.

"Who?" Lance repeated, face hardening once again.

"See for yourself," Katie replied, her wings starting to buzz. With that, she became airborne after a few seconds and flew out of the room before Lance could say anything else, and this was promptly followed by the sound of a door opening and then closing immediately after.

Lance growled, though he said nothing for a good minute. He climbed off the bed and turned to Spitfire. "Want to continue this conversation at a later date?" he asked.

Spitfire nodded. "Remind me to tell that changeling to keep her hooves to herself, if you bring her with you whenever you're available. When you're done with… whatever it is you're doing, meet me up at Cloudsdale," she answered.

"My wings are bald. Gonna be hard to get there by myself," Lance sighed, sitting on his haunches before raising a front hoof and lifting the side of his coat just enough that Spitfire could see the tip of his wing jutting out from under his shirt and vest. "So the wraith that just left may or may not come with."

"Duly noted," Spitfire said with a sharp, single nod of her head. "I'll speak further with Rainbow Dash in the meantime." With that, Lance stood up with a nod in return and trotted out of the room. Looking both ways, he found that Cadence and Shining were just at the bend, chatting with Amethyst Maresbury as they juggled a levitating book amongst themselves and tottered about in circles.

"Hrm, yes, that could be the cause of it…" Cadence paused, spotting Lance and motioning for him to come over with one of her wings. She turned to Shining with a frown on her face, "Are you sure that's it, though?"

"At this rate, I'm positive," Shining replied with a nod. "Somepony informed me last night that she'd been hexed. How or why, she refused to say."

"Who did what to who, and for how many cookies?" Lance asked as he reached them, eyeing Shining with a curious brow raised. He then turned to the book, a small leatherbound thing that was a glossy blue in color with a gold font so faded that he found the title hard to discern even up close.

"We found something, with Amethyst's help, that may pique your interest," Shining replied, using his magic to hold the book before him and flip it to a seemingly random page. He then forked it over to Amethyst, who scanned the pages just once before nodding.

"Mmmyes, I do believe that's the right page," she chirped, whereupon the book was then handed to Lance with pages wide open.

Lance found a few illustrations about the Crystal Heart, painted in various colors that ranged from its usual blue to a shade of dark purple. "What the?" he asked.

"Go on, read it," Shining implored.

Lance nodded and sighed before doing just that, "'The Crystal Heart might change color if ponies bearing hexes are in the Empire or its rulers' immediate vicinity, and though some scholars speculate that it was crafted with this specific enchantment in mind, they haven't been able to determine why…'"

He gulped and went on, "'The color the Heart changes to depends on who is hexed in accordance with the hue of the cursed's mane, and how severe the hexes in question are. Bright colors indicate strong hexes, and dull colors indicate weaker hexes…'"

Shining nodded when Lance turned to him. "Could you come with us for a few minutes?" he asked, turning around as if intent to start trotting down the hall already. His guest nodded, and the four tottered off down a hall and then down a few more for several minutes. Upon reaching a set of spiraling stairs going down, the lot paused.

Amethyst turned to Lance and sent him a small, though gentle smile upon seeing a tight frown on his muzzle. "You look troubled, young colt," she noted.

"I am," Lance replied tersely, his wings shuddering under his uniform. A frown creased his brow as he licked his lips before he carefully added, "It's a long story."

Amethyst nodded as Shining and Cadence made to descend the stairs. She followed, and so did Lance. "Oh, you could always tell me what's wrong," she stated, still gently smiling.

"I'd... not to sound callous, but I'd much rather save you a potential heart attack," Lance replied in an uneasy voice, swallowing heavily.

Amethyst nodded again and paused for just long enough to shoot him a glance over her shoulder. "It's quite alright, dear. It couldn't be much worse than having to endure King Sombra's reign… You're a fortunate lad, in regards to not being around when that dreadful rule was established."

"What rule?" Lance asked, eyelids slanting.

"That of Sombra's, my dear," Amethyst replied, a hint of sadness in her voice. The two trotted on, and caught up to Shining and Cadence as they made their way to the ground floor and strode out. As soon as they managed to reach them, Lance realized he'd been led directly to the overhang that upheld the castle itself, and immediately his gaze turned to the ever-twirling Crystal Heart that still changed colors.

Only now, though, it never went back to red. Instead, it was its usual teal for a time before it changed to a faint yellow and then to a very bright green to then promptly start cycling back once more. Shining then turned to Lance and gestured to the Heart with a hoof and a grin on his face. "You have my sister to thank for that," he chirped. "We sorta-kinda fixed the Heart a bit, and now that we know what makes it act like that, we can hopefully mend it some more now."

Lance nodded, though he kept his mouth shut. Amethyst piped up in his stead, "Oh, Emperor Armor, do you need the books still?"

Shining nodded and took a few minutes to break away from the group and trot around the Heart. "One of them helped my sister remove Lance's hex," he replied, tottering back over to lift a hoof and pat the pegasus on his withers with it. "We may need the rune-translations at the very least."

Amethyst's smile broadened as Shining turned to her. "Then you can have the runology book for as long as you see fit, if it helps our guests out," she cooed. "But, you'll still have to return the other tomes at some point."

"Thank you very much," Shining stated. Then, he turned to Cadence. "What say you that we have the Crystal Faire… a day early?"

Cadence donned a vexed look as she turned to the Heart and then to the streets outside. "... maybe they haven't set up the booths and such for the Faire yet?" she retorted, frowning as she turned to look at Shining.

"Perhaps. But we could still ask the populace to set up early, just in case," Shining replied with a slow nod of his head.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Twilight spent most of the day in her room, sitting at the table with NoLegs and Spike at her side. Before her were two open books, one being the runology book and the other that was supposedly written by a pony named Clover. Between said books, she wrote down notes on a piece of paper that sat atop a stack half as long as her neck, flipping the pages as needed only to then jot some more notes down.

She was halfway into both tomes when Spike piped up, "Anything yet, Twi?"

Twilight shook her head. "Just bantering," she answered. "Long and groveling bantering."

"About what?" Spike pressed, frowning.

Twilight's brow furrowed at the inquiry. "About Clover's day-to-day life before they met Starswirl. Nothing major," was the answer. NoLegs gave an inquisitive meow, and at this Twilight stopped jotting down the notes and handed what she had so far to the cat who used his magic to shuffle through them. In seconds, said notes were returned to her, and she immediately resumed scribbling thereafter.

Several minutes later, when she reached approximately three-quarters of the entirety of both books, she slammed them shut with her forehooves and stood up abruptly with an aggravated sigh leaving her mouth. "How could a pony ramble on and on, conscribe it into paper format, and call it a book?!" she cried, glaring at the tomes as if they had the audacity to insult her brother.

"Maybe this Clover pony was a foal, or a teen who wrote down their experiences… and then another, not-as-good author found their records and mangled them, or something," Spike replied with a shrug. "I have no idea, honestly."

"Remind me to find that pony, if they're still alive, and to give them an eight hour long lecture if such a mangling of a maybe-ancient document really did happen," Twilight snorted, a firm frown on her face as she turned to Spike.

Spike nodded. "Will do," he replied. Twilight's horn glowed and picked both him and the cat up before bringing them over and putting them on her backside. "Where are we going?" he asked as soon as he was parked on violet withers.

"For a walk," Twilight tersely replied after taking a minute or two to compose herself. She immediately trotted to the door, flung it open, and went out into the hall from her room with the drake and cat perched snugly on her back.

She paused, though only long enough to make sure that her magic closed the door behind her before trotting on for a bit. But when she immediately saw Discord laying on a couch in front of a door snoozing soundly thereafter, she halted well before she could pass by a door or two. Her brow rose, and she turned to the two passengers on her back only to receive shrugs in return.

"Why's he on a couch?" Spike asked, a brow raised.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "It's probably Discord being Discord again," she replied before turning back and trotting up to Discord. When she reached him, she lifted a hoof to poke him, but stopped when NoLegs meowed and the draconequus cracked an eye open in response.

"Yes, my dearest Twilight Sparkle?" Discord chirped, smiling as his other eye cracked open. He sat up and made the couch disappear with a snap of his talons, though he remained floating in the air as if still laying on it.

"Well… I've been meaning to ask something, and I wish I had asked this sooner, but it slipped my mind," Twilight began, before taking a deep breath. When Discord motioned with his paw to continue, she obliged, "Could you take me to the other libraries in Equestria, barring my own and that of Canterlot's?"

Discord's brow rose. "And why would I need to do that, pray tell?" he asked.

"Well, I've been helping our Fantasian guests… or trying to, at any rate, help them find books on Starswirl the Bearded. Ever since I've learned that he went to Fantasia, it just… made me ask questions I couldn't answer," Twilight replied with a sullen sigh. "Shining's trying to help too, but so far, he has almost nothing."

"Her mane and tail became fire last week. She was that frustrated," Spike piped up, garnering a meow from NoLegs thereafter.

"That, and I… I feel it may take too long if the Fantasians scoured all of the libraries by themselves," Twilight added, a slight frown on her face. "Put it like this: I don't want them getting so frustrated and… last time that happened, some ponies got killed. I saw it with my own eyes."

"The Fantasians killed some ponies?" Discord repeated, his brow raising higher.

"Yeah, on their planet. And the ponies were wraiths, but still," Twilight answered with a nod. "I don't want a repeat of that mess."

Discord nodded in understanding. "Alright, if you want to spare some lives from potential death, I'll bite. Though just this once, Twilight. Now then, where to, again?" he asked, lifting his talon with digits prepared to snap.

"Every library, except in Canterlot's and Golden Oaks. I got a letter from Celestia that told me the Fantasians went up and down its library, and I helped them clean out mine to get nothing in the way of information," Twilight replied. She then turned to Spike and NoLegs, both of whom nodded.

"And books on Starswirl the Bearded—just those?" Discord's digits pressed tightly against each other.

"Yep," Spike answered before Twilight could open her mouth again.

"Alrighty," Discord chirped, and with a snap of his claws a flash of light enveloped him, Twilight, Spike, and NoLegs and whisked them out of the Crystal Empire. In a little under a minute, the four found themselves in a different place, lined with books filling spruce shelves filling a large room with a beige ceiling and a soft, carpeted floor.

Discord then conjured a map with another snap of his fingers and looked at it carefully before showing it to the other three, his paw going up and coming to rest on a city in the northeastern ocean that was, according to the parchment, very close to land. "We're in Manehattan, fellas." He then snapped his paw, and all of the books that the three could see turned into bits of spruce.

Twilight looked at the shelves and the books that just became wood, then shifted her gaze back to Discord. "Um, are the books transforming temporary, or…"

"The effect will wear off when we leave," Discord replied with a grin. He rolled up the map and scooped Twilight and Spike and NoLegs up with his tail. "Now then, let us search for books on Starswirl!" he declared, and with that he sped down to the end of the row they were in with the trio in tow, but he didn't go fast enough to make their vision blur. All they could see from that row were books-turned-spruce; none of the once-leatherbound stacks of parchment appeared to be different from the others.

So they went on to the next row, and the row after that. "Nothing there… no book on Starswirl here…" And so forth, until they effectively scanned every single row, at which point Twilight sighed in frustration. "Nothing's here…" She turned to Discord. "Now I'm starting to see what you did."

Discord nodded and snapped his paw's digits, and the act caused magic to envelop the books before it reverted them back to what they were. Then he snapped again, causing him and the trio he juggled to vanish and subsequently reappear in another large room, this one with oak shelves that were curved so much they gave the impression of half-domes. The ceiling was painted in a snowy white color, while the floor was tiled with a decorative flower pattern.

He snapped his talon's digits, and magic embraced all of the books before turning them into book-sized gummy bears. With the three still wrapped in his tail, he yet again flew up and down the rows of shelves, although this time he conjured a floating boat with some oars to maneuver himself between the shelves via rowing.

"Nope… nada… nothing there…" Spike groaned when a few minutes passed with no books in sight. The gummy bears faced outward, and some looked at him with fawning giggles leaving their chewy mouths. NoLegs, meanwhile, eyed the bears with a drooling mouth and a gleam in his eyes.

Discord stopped rowing and noticed the cat drooling. "I take it you have a sweet tooth?" he asked, garnering a nod from the feline. "I'll get you a few sweets when we're done, I promise." He began rowing again, and up and down several candy-filled rows they went. Several more minutes passed before they left without a book in tow and found themselves in yet another room that was even larger than the last two put together, albeit one lined with shelves no higher than Spike's head that framed a grey floor and hardwood ceiling.

Spike looked at the shelves with a brow raised. He turned to Discord and gestured to the shelves. "Um, what library is this?" he asked.

Discord grinned and then flew around the room for a few minutes, before stopping when he realized every single shelf wouldn't help them as they were now. "Don't know, but we're still searching," he chirped, and he snapped his paw-fingers to enable his magic to do its work. It enveloped the shelves and stacked them one atop the other, until a single row that reached the ceiling had formed. Then, he sped up and down this one row, turning the books that Twilight hadn't requested into boxes of matchsticks.

Alas, because he made all of the shelves stack on one another, nothing turned up. So he returned them as they were and turned the boxes of matches into books before letting his magic whisk him and Spike, Twilight, and NoLegs elsewhere. Upon finding themselves in another large room where all of the furniture except the books was made of oak, he pulled out the map again and showed it to Twilight. Another city that was further out in the ocean glowed on the parchment.

"We're in Trottingham now?" Twilight asked upon seeing the glowing landmark.

Discord nodded. "Hopefully, this town's libraries could yield something," he answered with a grin. He looked around and slumped a bit. "Hrm… bland…" Then his digits snapped again, and the floor promptly turned to ice while red rose bushes grew out of the tops of the shelves. "Much better," he cooed, and with that he began skating along the rows, making sure that his tail didn't go too sharply to the left or the right. The books turned into little busts of Discord, and yet again nothing turned up.

A good three hours passed as Discord hopped from one library—and town—to the next all over Equestria with NoLegs, Spike, and Twilight in tow, before they returned to the Empire's guest room hall empty-handed. When they returned, Twilight waited until Discord set her down before trotting a few steps from Spike and NoLegs and throwing herself on the floor with an aggravated groan leaving her lips. This was coupled with her front hooves coming up to smack herself in the temples repeatedly.

"Twilight, do you need a punching bag or something?" Spike asked with a sigh.

Twilight only answered with another groan and a series of smacks aimed at her head.

"Okay then," Spike murmured, and with that he turned to NoLegs, who shrugged with a meow. The two looked at Discord who also shrugged.

"Not my fault the other libraries in Equestria weren't stocked," he stated matter-of-factly. He then conjured a paper cone laden with a big swath of cotton candy on top, and he handed it to NoLegs, who took it in his magic with a purr and another gleam in his eyes. While the cat began scarfing the treat, Spike waddled over to Twilight and used a claw to pat her on the withers gently.

When Twilight stopped hitting herself in the face and growling like a wild animal, she turned to Spike and sent him a fond smile. "I… think I've vented it all out now," she sighed, a few bruises forming along her temples and forehead. Her horn glowed, and white mana embraced her head, making the bruises vanish in seconds. When the glow died, one of the guest room doors opened and Natalie trotted out of it with unsteady hooves and a trussed-up mane.

"What was with… the groaning I heard earlier?" Natalie asked, eyeing Twilight with a vexed expression on her face.

Twilight stood up and rolled her eyes. "Oh, nothing," she replied in a sarcastic tone. "I just had Discord save us a lot of hassle."

Natalie's brow rose. "Do what?" she pressed.

"Discord took me and Twilight and NoLegs to all of the other libraries in Equestria. As far as books on Starswirl go, there was nothing," Spike answered with a frown on his face. "Nothing. At. All."

Natalie's legs threatened to buckle, wobbling as if a tornado was about to suck her up when that bit of intel reached her ears. "N-nothing?" she repeated, eyes widening.

"Nothing," Discord piped up. He gestured to NoLegs with his tail when Natalie turned to look at him. "Your feline friend is a witness." Then Natalie's gaze trailed to NoLegs, who meowed through a wad of candy floss with a nod of his head.

Twilight noticed Natalie's shaky legs, and then her unkempt mane. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Natalie turned to Twilight and nodded frantically, a faltering smile framing her muzzle in an instant. "Y-yeah," she answered, a faint blush blossoming onto her cheeks. Then she started to backpedal into the room she came out of, slowly and with shuffling hooves at first. Her horn glowed and embraced the knob as she passed it on her way back in. "J-just woke up is all. I-I'm going back to bed." With that, the door closed, and Spike and Twilight glanced at each other with puzzled brows raised.

Spike turned to NoLegs, who was still gnawing on the cotton candy. "Is she usually like that when she wakes up?" he asked, using a claw to gesture to the door Natalie just retreated behind. NoLegs shook his head before taking another bite out of his treat.

Twilight then sighed, and she also turned to NoLegs. "Say, can you help us find Lance, please?" she asked, garnering a nod and another meow that came from a candy-filled mouth. At that, she smiled, but only for a few seconds.

"Well, I must get going now," Discord chirped, lifting his talon to snap his digits again. "Just send me a telepathic message if you need my assistance." With that, he snapped and vanished in a flare of light.

Twilight's smile fell immediately after Discord vanished to parts unknown, because when he did she realized just how Lance might react to the news that no other libraries in Equestria contained any books on Starswirl the Bearded. At this her pupils shrank and her ears fell back against her head. She silently prayed to Faust that he would understand. She shuddered as NoLegs turned around and bounded off with his treat in tow, and she and Spike both reluctantly followed him.

"Spike, is it just me, or did we jump libraries with Discord's help for nothing?" Twilight asked, shooting another brief glance at Spike.

Spike looked at her with a frown. "Not just you…" he replied tersely, with a sullen shake of his head. As they went, a door opened just a sliver behind them, and an azure eye gazed out of it, silently watching as the three rounded the bend.

Chapter XXXIX- Fleeting Blur

The door that creaked open just a little closed, and the pony behind it backpedaled as if she were facing down the business end of a loaded gunblade. For a few seconds, Natalie shook as if on the verge of hyperventilating, but she calmed down a bit when she took in the possibility that Discord may have lied.

The possibility thereof was likely; after all, this was the same creature that gave a book the ability to obscure her vision with a literal pie to the face, complete with her horn puncturing the aluminum base for good measure.

Her eyes widened nonetheless, and she also took in the possibility that he was telling the truth—and if NoLegs was indeed a witness, then…

She shook her head and turned to the bed to find a snoring Matt still snoozing away the day, blissfully unaware of the possible predicament that had a good chance to boil over any second now. She cantered over and climbed on the bed to perch next to him, her front hooves flying to his withers as soon as she was seated.

"Matt, Matt," Natalie implored in a frantic tone, sporting pinprick pupils and keeping her forehooves on her bedmate's withers. She started to shake him vigorously, yet all she managed to make him do was mumble incoherently. Her response was to merely keep shaking him with her hooves, persisting even as his sleep-murmurs took a turn for the strange.

"No… don't bunch my tail into a bun…" Matt murmured, his face tightening a little. "Ginger doesn't… go there…"

"For crying out loud," Natalie grumbled indignantly, her eyes narrowing as she continued to shake Matt in the hope that she could rouse him. "Wake up," she pleaded.

"Stop…" Matt murmured, a back leg twitching uncontrollably. "I didn't… take the cupcake…"

Natalie stopped for just long enough to lift a hoof, let it connect with the bridge of her muzzle, and release a long groan of annoyance in that order. Her horn lit up, and a blue aura grappled Matt by the muzzle and held it shut. She jumped off of the bed and sat down, and it wasn't long—in fact, it was only a few seconds—before he flailed his hooves everywhere. As soon as he started his kicking throes, she relinquished her magical hold, watching intently as his front hooves flew to his muzzle.

Matt opened his eyes and hastily glanced around the room before his gaze fell upon Natalie. He lowered his hooves and sighed. "Can you not make me think I'm drowning?" he asked.

"I would, if it wasn't urgent," Natalie replied snappishly, eyes narrowing some more.

At that utterance, Matt let a brow stray up until it met with the hairline of his forelock as his roommate's statement sank in. "How urgent?" he queried.

"Enough to make Lance snap kind of urgent," Natalie replied, donning a frown.

"Oh, joy," Matt scoffed in a sarcastic tone, his ears folding back at the mere implications of his companion's remark. "What is it?" When Natalie explained to him what Twilight and Discord had relayed to her, his pupils shrank as soon as she finished a few seconds later. "N-no way," he breathed, his mouth drying out.

"NoLegs went with them, or so I was told. If we asked him to send us a telepathic message or something to verify it, then we'd likely be in deep shit if it is true," Natalie hissed with a slow nod of her head. She stood up. "Let's find Lance. He couldn't have trotted far."

Matt nodded and rose from the bed before he hopped off and landed on the floor, and he took a second or two to ensure that he wouldn't fall on his face before galloping over to the door and flinging it open with his magic. Both he and Natalie rushed out of the room, though the latter took point and started galloping down the end of the hall that was marked with the bend. Her companion followed her closely, trying to assume a calm face, albeit one that twitched constantly with barely-restrained horror.

They rounded the bend and rushed down a hall, only to skid to a halt with front legs trampling about as they slowed to a full stop just at a corner before they could run over a bluish-purple pegasus guard who was stationed there. Said guard turned to them with flared wings and wide eyes, only to relax as he saw that it was simply two of the castle's guests. "Do you two need something?" he asked, a brow raising in tandem with his wings closing.

Matt and Natalie exchanged glances, then turned to the guard. The latter spoke up, "Have you seen Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and a small, legless blue cat?"

The guard nodded, and spread a wing to gesture to his left. "They went around that corner," he replied, before closing the limb and taking in their haggard appearances. "Are you two well?"

"Just galloped for a bit. We'll be fine," Matt replied, a back leg twitching in place.

"Y-yeah," Natalie added with a nod of her head, barely able to keep her front legs from trembling. "W-we'll be on our way." With that, they darted off once more, rounding the corner the guard directed them to in another frenzied gallop. The guard watched them as they vanished from sight, merely rolling his eyes as if he just watched an anvil land squarely on his Emperor's head for the upteempth time.

He shook his head as the sounds of two pairs of galloping hooves faded a bit and muttered under his breath, "Quirkiest bunch of visitors, I swear… they run like foals that are late to a birthday party." Then, he closed his eyes and mulled about, letting his mind swim from thought to thought in tandem with his breathing.

He jolted minutes later when a third pair of hooves rushed past and the resulting sound hit his ears, and his eyes snapped open as he saw a dark figure with something akin to a long garb flowing smoothly behind their form dart around the same corner that Matt and Natalie ran around. He instinctively spread his wings once the specter vanished and began flapping madly.

In a few seconds after that, he started flying in the direction that they took off towards before darting down some halls, following the sound of hooves hitting crystal and the dark form as it fled. "Stop!" he yelled, yet this caused the entity to simply gallop faster.

Nonetheless, he kept it in his sights, focusing more on the tail-end of the cloth-like object and less on the thing wearing it. He inched closer and closer to it in his pursuit, front hooves outstretched like mechanical cranes.

Right as he caught up to it, he snagged the cloth with his hooves and caused the thing to snap right into a halt. It turned to him, revealing a head concealed by a hood, and legs covered upon every square inch by what looked to be leather ribbons. It had one hoof raised, bent at a twisted angle, and it merely hissed at him—he flinched upon hearing it, as the noise was akin to a steaming kettle.

Then the shadow let a sickly orange glow embrace the long fabric, and a ripping sound filled the hall as the cloth started to tear at a seam close to its tail-end. The guard realized too late that he could smell rotting flesh as the blinding orange light grew from under the hood and promptly seized his vision when he made to let go of the cloth and lunge at the figure itself. The monochrome light wasted no time disorienting him and forcing him to land and close his wings, and the sod stumbled about as he heard the sound of retreating hooves and cloth tearing.

"You fool! You will regret trying to grapple with me!" the creature hissed as the sound of hooves faded while the light still assailed the guard's eyes.

When he managed to regain his vision a minute later, he scowled upon finding that the form had ditched him, and left a long thin sheet of worn and rust-colored cotton in its wake. His wings spread and he scooped up the cloth, and once more he flew onwards and darted up and down another series of corridors.

He could not find the accursed being, but in its stead he heard two sets of hooves instead of one echoing down another hall some minutes later. He barely caught sight of a long blond tail as it vanished down another corner as soon as the two sets of hooves on crystal reached his ears. He rounded it accordingly, and found the two Fantasian guests galloping ahead. He shouted, "Wait!"

The two skid to a halt and turned to him. "What now?" Natalie asked, whirling around to face the guard.

"Something rushed past me once you two left," the guard replied, a small frown on his face.

Matt and Natalie shared a glance, then turned to the guard with brows raised. "What?" the former asked.

"A dark figure. I couldn't get a good look at it, but it had a hood and a terribly-twisted front hoof. It smelled like garbage, too, and it ran like a yellow-bellied hen," the guard replied. "Could you two let me know if you see such a thing? And inform Shining Armor that Private Tanzanite saw a dark form running down a hall?" he asked, flying down to hand Natalie the fabric of red. "It also had this on it; it was all I managed to get from it."

Natalie nodded. "Can do," she replied with a small frown on her face as she took the cloth and made it vanish in a flare of blue light. With that, she and Matt took off running once more.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Lance rounded a bend, followed closely by Shining and Cadence, though Amethyst Maresbury wasn't with them. As they trotted down a hall, they were talking up a storm. "So now that we know why the Heart changes colors, tell me…" Shining paused, eliciting a shiver of concealed, bald wings as he spoke. After a few seconds, he finished, "how bad is Anna's curse?"

That managed to make Lance halt for just a second, and he turned to Shining with a brow raised. "How the—"

"She told me last night," Shining cut him off, a slight frown on his face. "Now, how bad is it?"

Lance began trotting again, though he didn't reply. Shining trotted faster to go shoulder-by-shoulder with him, and upon looking at the general's face thereafter he found a tight frown accompanied by a slanted brow and pinprick pupils. Silence seemed to firmly clutch the Fantasian stallion, and it felt as though something forced him to stare straight ahead with his face frozen in what Shining assumed was discomfort.

"Personal?" Shining pressed in a soft tone.

Lance mutely shook his head. "Did something happen?" Shining asked, and watched as the pegasus nodded that time. "How bad was it?"

"Almost… almost..." Lance replied in a low tone before he stopped and gulped heavily, and only now did the Emperor notice a tinge of red forming just under his eyes. His wings shuddered under his garment again, forming wrinkles in the black fabric as a result. "You do not want to know the specifics."

Shining nodded and turned to face ahead as the three rounded another bend and started going down a lengthy hall that was connected to many more halls, the corners of which were all marked by crystal columns. He heard Cadence pick up her pace, but it wasn't until he felt her brush up against him with a wingtip did he turn to her as she came up alongside him. "That's worrying," she whispered, frowning herself.

Shining nodded again, and he opened his mouth to reply when Lance piped up, "I can hear you two; you're both in earshot, you know." Shining closed his mouth and sighed through his nose in resignation, and he turned to Cadence to briefly nod before he jerked his attention straight ahead as he heard a fourth set of hooves hitting crystal that was accompanied by the meow of a cat. The three slowed as the fourth set became louder, and stopped entirely when Twilight Sparkle bumbled into view with NoLegs and Spike on her back.

NoLegs turned to the three first and meowed, instantly causing Twilight and Spike to turn to Lance, Shining, and Cadence. Shining smiled at his sister, but the grin soon fell when she shuffled a back hoof like somepony was trying to tug on it. Spike frowned, and clasped his claws together before he started to twiddle his thumbs. "Is something wrong?" Cadence asked, garnering three nods in response.

"Yeah…" Twilight craned her neck to look at NoLegs. "Are you able to perform telepathy?" she asked, garnering a nod and a meow in reply. The cat's tail glowed, and he waved the limb about for a few seconds before a blue aura sprang to life and wrapped itself around the heads of Shining, Cadence, and Lance.

The three donned vexed looks at first, as their minds filled with visions of bookshelves that were warped by magic, and then reverted at various points. Then they frowned, when the books themselves turned into various objects ranging from oil treatments to lava lamps. When the field of azure released their heads and the visions died down, Lance staggered a little towards Shining before stopping himself and gathering his composure. "The fuck was that?" he asked, turning pointedly towards NoLegs.

Twilight answered for the feline, "I had Discord take me, your cat, and Spike to all of the other libraries in Equestria to save time and trouble."

"And?" Lance pressed, turning to Twilight with eyes narrowing just a little.

"They…" Twilight paused to swallow a lump in her throat, mentally bracing herself for the possible worst that she had no hope of avoiding at this point. "The other libraries had nothing." Silence fell immediately after, and it lasted for a few tense minutes. Twilight and Lance stared at each other, one with sparks of fear dancing across her amethyst irises and the other with very faint vestiges of anger crackling about in crimson voids that seemed to be turning redder by the minute.

Finally, though, somepony broke the silence. Lance sighed deeply and closed his eyes, his brow furrowing for a few seconds as he spoke, "So… you're telling me… that, had me and my crew gone to the other libraries, we'd get frustrated as fuck?"

"That's basically it," Spike answered for Twilight, frowning slightly. "You would've just wasted your time."

Lance opened his eyes and let his expression ease as he turned to the small drake and nodded once. "Well, at least you had NoLegs back up that claim," he said simply.

Twilight and Spike's eyes immediately widened. "Wait, wait," the former spoke, her pupils shrinking. "You're not… angry?" she asked.

"I'll be honest: I'm angry alright. But, what good would it do if I exploded here and now? I can't control the libraries of this country—going off would be counterproductive," Lance replied coolly, blowing out another sigh through his nostrils. "Besides, if NoLegs went with you and saw what you saw… I have little reason to doubt your words."

Twilight and Spike exchanged glances, then turned back to the general with wide-eyed flabbergasted expressions that made them seem like fish out of water. "Why… are you inclined to… to believe the cat?" Twilight asked in a skeptical tone.

Lance turned to her and frowned, though only slightly. "Ask yourself this: why does he have access to armor and a sword?" he retorted. "Go ahead, take your time. I'll wait."

Shining and Cadence exchanged glances, then they turned to Lance with brows raised. "The cat has a sword and armor?" the latter asked.

NoLegs meowed, and his own magic embraced him as he waved his tail about again. Materializing in flashes of light, his armor and sword appeared and both floated next to him before he put on the former and strapped the latter over his shoulder, causing Cadence to look at him with a jaw that dropped open. "Who would, in their right mind, arm a cat?" she asked, turning to Twilight as if she could provide an answer for the phenomenon she just witnessed.

"... somepony who won't take any chances?" Twilight guessed, a hint of disbelief in her voice as she looked back at Cadence. "Either that, or… or somepony drafted the cat for some inane reason…" Her eyes widened at the mere thought of a legless feline being drafted, and slowly, she turned her gaze back to Lance. Her front legs twitched and almost buckled when he slowly nodded. "Why would you…"

"To cut a long story short, he proved himself," Lance replied, noting that Twilight looked as if he had the temerity to slap her right across the face. "It's… very complicated."

"The cat is part of your army…" Shining murmured, and he closed his eyes for a few seconds, standing there and just letting that bit of information soak in. "Sometimes I want to know what goes through that head of yours, Boltwing."

"You wouldn't want to know," Lance replied with a huff.

"Have you thought about drafting diamond dogs? You already have a gryphon and a changeling working under you," Shining stated seriously, turning to Lance with a hardened face. When Lance shook his head, a brow rose. "And why not?"

"That in itself is a long story. I'd probably have to drag you around Fantasia before giving it to you in a nutshell," Lance replied, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Shining donned a smile, one which sent shivers up Twilight and Spike's spines. "Then so be it," he replied. "I've let you into my territory, after all; you should let me into yours sometime. It's only fair."

Lance blew out another sigh. "Before I do that, though, I still have some business over here to take care of," he replied. He turned to meet Shining's gaze and donned a wry smile. "Is that alright with you?"

"Be my guest," Shining replied with a nod. "Just don—" he couldn't finish as he heard two more sets of galloping hooves rapidly approaching, and he barely turned around as a harried-looking Matt and Natalie rounded a corner homing in towards him.

He was wrapped in a blue aura and lifted into the air, turning to Cadence to find her horn glowing as she started madly flapping her wings to take to the air. Lance merely side-stepped out of the way, and Twilight did likewise as the two new arrivals skid to a halt and promptly crashed into two separate crystal columns barrel-first.

"Watch where you two are going!" Lance barked, an eye twitching as the two unicorns peeled themselves from the columns with sluggish nods of their heads. "Great googly moogly, what got you two worked up?" he asked.

"T-Twilight… told us… about the libraries," Natalie croaked as she fell onto her haunches for a few seconds. She stood up and turned to Lance on wobbly legs, her breathing ragged and her face turning a little blue.

"I was just informed myself," Lance replied with another huff.

The remark caused Matt to whirl around to stare at his superior with wide eyes. "Y-y-you were…" he stammered, but a curt nod from the pegasus managed to silence him.

"There's honestly nothing I can do about it. At most, I could raise hell at Celestia herself, but that would probably end badly," Lance stated, watching as the two slumped their shoulders. He gestured to NoLegs with a hoof. "It's a good thing NoLegs actually helped Twilight out, even if they yielded nothing."

"How so?" Matt asked, a brow raised.

"The cat and Twilight and Spike saved us a lot of hassle," Lance replied, a small smile forming on his face.

"And a lot of potential riots," Shining added with a wave of his hoof.

Twilight and Spike shared another glance, and both gulped in unison.

"Oh, and Shining?" Natalie asked, causing the stallion in question to look at her. When he nodded and motioned with a hoof to continue, she summoned up the sheet of cotton with a flash of magic and stated, "A guard named Tanzanite saw a dark figure running through the halls, one with a badly-hurt front hoof that reeked like rubbish. And apparently, it was running around with a bedsheet."

"A dark… figure… with a bedsheet. And a hurt front hoof..." Shining frowned immediately. "You sure of that?"

"Ask Private Tanzanite, not us. We were just told to relay it to you," Matt replied with a nod.

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Night came without further incident, though now the halls seemed to be filled with tension. Private Tanzanite and Private Zircon were stationed along the guest rooms—just them, in addition to Flash Sentry, Zephyr Bolt, and Aquamarine. They had spears in their front hooves, and additional backup in the form of bows and quivers full of arrows strapped to their middles, with each weapon faintly gleaming as they shifted from time to time.

With them were Katie, Fenrir, Spike, NoLegs, and an undisguised Armin, with all sans Fenrir and Spike armed in case some hostile entity decided it was a good idea to pick a fight with one of them. Everyone had scowls set into their faces, and their ears constantly strained to scour out even the faintest of sounds.

Silence held firm, though the guards constantly eyed Armin and some strange, copper-colored, cannon-like object that he had strapped to his side. It was a strange contraption that sported tarnished gold gears and a clock face, with one of the clock hands warped, enlarged, and elongated. Said warped clock hand pointed outward, settled beside a gaping hole that served as the thing's muzzle.

None of the guards asked, though Flash's twitching mouth acting in tandem with his eyes darting to the strange contraption every few seconds indicated that he at least wanted to. Armin's horn briefly glowed and his and the other guards' heads were wrapped in sickly green for just a second as his voice echoed into their minds.

"It's a massive gun, built from scraps back home. It's what me and my fellow soldiers call the Accelerator," Armin telepathically said. He added, "My general would usually carry it himself, but his wings have compromised him. So it's in my hole-riddled hooves for the time being."

The assembled guards nodded, and took a few seconds to look down both ends of the hall. Only darkness greeted them, and it came with still more silence. Yet they stood vigil, always watching for any sign of life that could come from either end, hostile and otherwise.

Katie's ears twitched near-constantly, and her orbs dimmed at random intervals, as though she struggled with keeping them bright for longer than a few seconds. Even she could not hear anything coming or going, no matter how much her ears shifted about like satellite dishes. Spike repeatedly balled his claws into fists, his nose twitching with the occasional plume of smoke leaving his nostrils. His tail swished behind him like a club that was being tested for weight and efficiency.

NoLegs betrayed minimal movement, though the tip of his tail constantly hovered close to the hilt of his blade, just barely twitching as though he longed to stab something. Fenrir lay next to him, his body flush against the floor, his eyes almost fully closed and his forepaws sitting next to his head. The dog seemed to be asleep, but every once in a while he cracked an eye open and scanned the hall with it, like a duck keeping watch.

When a full hour passed and nothing dared to break the peace and quiet, Spike spoke up, "I'm starting to think we're on watch for nothing."

Tanzanite turned to Spike, a brow immediately raising as high as it could go. "Why do you think that?" he asked.

Spike turned to Tanzanite and snorted, which caused a few sparks of emerald flames and smoke pillars to climb out of his nostrils. "We're out here waiting for something… yet whatever it is, it hasn't shown up," he replied.

"Perhaps this unseen adversary of ours is lulling us into a state of false complacency," Fenrir piped up, the fur along his back briefly bristling as he spoke.

Armin turned to Fenrir. "So, something along the lines of the 'waiting for us to drop our guard and then striking' kinda deal?" he asked.

Fenrir nodded. "And for a few of the other guards scattered here and there, thus far they've succeeded. If our little obsidian-garbed mongrel wishes to seek further trouble with us this night, then that is simply where their buck stops," he replied, his brow furrowing.

"Because we're armed and there's, like, ten of us in this hall?" Katie guessed, turning to Fenrir with a brow raised.

"Precisely. Even if you and NoLegs were overwhelmed, the perpetrator of the attacks on the guards thus far would still very likely be subdued," Fenrir answered, his eye averting briefly to Katie as he spoke. "But that is if the entity who preys on guards when they have their backsides turned decides to meddle in our affairs."

"And a big if at that, if they have more than half a brain," Armin scoffed, his wing muscles shifting in a way that they buzzed, but the wings themselves didn't flap once. "Which would be likely, considering the few skirmishes happened in the last few days ended in their favor."

"I'm willing to bet it's our Wise Guy," Katie interjected. When Armin and Fenrir turned to her with brows raised, she rolled her orbs and added, "But then again, Wise Guy and Guard Fondler might be two separate beings."

"Guard Fondler?" Flash inquired, his wings ruffling a bit as he parroted the words.

Katie turned to him with a nod. "The pony or whatever that knocked some of your fellow guardsponies out," she elaborated. Then she turned to Armin. "You able to pick up any traces of magic?" she asked.

Armin flinched, his wings snapping upright as he turned back to his fellow changeling. "Y-yes?" he stammered.

"You think our Wise Guy might be a unicorn?" Katie continued, and made to speak further when she heard one of the guards clearing his throat. Both she and Armin turned to Zircon, who stared back at the latter.

"I saw our cloaked assailant use magic to stop themselves from becoming a bloodstain on the street after taking a leap of faith," Zircon stated, his eyes narrowing at the thought.

Flash turned to him and frowned. "At least that was one less mess for us to clean up," he pointed out.

Tanzanite spoke up, "And the bastard left me with a bedsheet and temporary blindness. They used an illumination spell that made my vision go orange."

Flash turned to his fellow pegasus. "Yeesh, that sounds bad. Were you close to nabbing 'em?" he asked.

"Oh, so close. My hooves were inches from its body," Tanzanite replied with a nod and a snort.

Flash sighed, and then he directed his attention to Armin, noticing his ears falling back. "If they're using magic, and you can sense it…" he trailed off, frowning for a bit. "Then… maybe we could stop their rampage this week, but I'd like it to cease before the Crystal Faire."

Armin blinked, and then he frowned. "Suppose that I get their magic signature befuddled with another pony's signature," he retorted, his brow slanting. "Or that they might be disguising their signature with some sort of anti-tracking spell."

Flash's frown deepened. "So, it's… unreliable at best, then?" he guessed.

Armin glumly nodded. "Most I can recognize, magic signature-wise, would be my superior's unicorn trinity and your Emperor's traces."

He fidgeted for a bit before continuing, "And I require love to power my spells. Thing is, I haven't eaten so much as a tablespoon's worth with what little magic I have left. My best shot would be, should we find our little Guard Fondler or Wise Guy—if they're different entities and your Emperor and my general actually allow it—to drain some from them."

The guards exchanged glances amongst themselves, prior to casting wary gazes on Armin. Zephyr piped up, "And they'd likely deny you permission to do so?"

"Yes. Which leaves tracking out of the question," Armin replied with a nod. "Besides, they'd probably taste bad."

"But the Crystal Empire's full of love right now, thanks to the recent Crystalling," Zircon stated, his ears falling back.

"Even changelings have their reservations. If I have to feed, I'll ask first. Besides, I'm not becoming skin and bones yet," Armin retorted.

"How weak is your magic right now?" Tanzanite ventured, a brow raised.

"Yeah. If it's as bad as you say it is, then maybe you should feed more often," Spike piped up, waving a claw as if to dismiss the thought that Armin's magic had gone sour.

Armin sighed and turned to Spike. "My general tends to be fussy about who I feed on. That, and I'm in your adoptive uncle's kingdom. It ain't that simple," he replied, and proceeded to let his horn glow, summoning forth a brilliant light of sickly emerald from its tip.

He maintained it for some seconds, but as they passed, his eyes closed, his brow furrowed and sweat started to bead on his forehead. When a full half-minute passed, his legs buckled as his mana fizzled out in a hissing series of sparks, and the glow died with.

"That bad?" Katie asked, garnering a shaky nod from Armin.

"O-okay," Armin managed, his voice a little raspy. "I-I may have underestimated… needed love intake." He took a few breaths and straightened his posture thereafter.

"It happens," Katie replied, her orbs brightening when Armin looked at her with a frown on his face. "I underestimated needed intake too, once. That's a mistake I won't repeat."

NoLegs meowed, and turned down towards the bend, only to hiss in that direction. Everyone whipped their heads around and froze for a few seconds as they saw a dark figure standing there, facing them in a rigid posture. Then it ghosted to the other end of the hall so fast and so suddenly that all they saw was a shadowy blur, and they turned their heads as it passed in an attempt to get a better glimpse at the damned thing. As it fled, it left an acrid aroma in its wake, though it was faint.

"Was that the figure?" Katie asked, being the first to turn to the other end of the hall as the thing vanished out of sight. She started pounding a hoof upon the floor, producing an echoing clang that resonated as a result.

"Very likely it," Flash replied, spreading his wings. "If we don't dally, we may find out who they are soon enough."

"I smelled necrosis, barely masked by several different ponies' scents as it moved past us," Fenrir snarled, rising up to stand on all fours. His head turned to where the thing had gone. "I could have sworn I smelled pegasus on its body."

"Is it alright for me to use my fire breath on them?" Spike asked, a firm frown settling onto his face.

"If they touch you and we can't block 'em fast enough, then go for it," Zephyr answered with a nod. "Bastard's cloaked anyway; I doubt your fire breath could harm them that much."

"Ooooh, I want to repay that cloaked bastard for trying to strangle me!" Aquamarine seethed, eyes narrowing to thin slits as he scraped a hoof against the floor several times, akin to a bull getting ready to charge. He glanced at the others just once as NoLegs grasped their spears in his magic and made them vanish, and took a few seconds to lift Spike from the floor to settle him on his back with his magic. "Let's get 'im before 'e attacks again! Zhæmf fhelsch khag avuut mortælik!"

The other guards whinnied in unison and parroted, "Zhæmf fhelsch khag avuut mortælik!"

The Fantasians, however, didn't need to be told twice—and all of them snarled at once. In seconds, they prepared with a few deep breaths and shifted into pouncing positions before they all took off running after the possibly-cloaked form.

Chapter XLI- Crumbling

Some of Chocolate's mana darted from his horn and all around the room. It went bouncing from apricot crystal to apricot crystal like a demented pinball before it smacked Katie between the wings and sent her tumbling out of the air. She screamed as she crashed into Armin, sending him careening as well—Accelerator and all—and both sprawled onto the floor. They shook their heads and made to move, before orange gems sprang up from the floor and snagged them by their hooves, keeping them pinned on the spot.

"Now that's just playing dirty," Aquamarine chastised, a tight frown forming on his face as NoLegs conjured the spears in flashes of light and handed them to him and his fellow guards. His frown softened as he took the spear with his aura as soon as his horn began glowing, and it faded into a small, almost invisible pursing of the lips as the other guardsponies eagerly took their spears in hooves and magic.

"Says the guard who evidently started trusting changelings!" Chocolate shot back, sidestepping away from Fenrir before another downward strike courtesy of a clenched fist could land on him. His horn still glowed brightly, and began crackling as if in warning.

Fenrir saw the sparks dancing around the coiled spire and dropped to all fours, his fur bristling all across his back like he was a porcupine. "Just what arcane sorcery have you been partaking in?" he asked. The protrusions of his tail began jutting out like spikes on a mace, only further accentuated by bushy, bristling fur that trembled at the roots.

Chocolate smiled wryly, as if the bristling canine went and made an utter fool of himself. His gathered magic flared again, now akin to a ball of flame that didn't scorch him or give off any heat. "Just performing my special talent—something you cannot grasp, mutt," he shot before letting loose the energy from his horn, watching with glee as it hit Fenrir in the chest as he attempted to dodge it a moment too late.

Fenrir yelped as the attack sent him staggering back, pain flaring from his chest that burned like the strike of a lightning bolt. His muscles stiffened momentarily, and as he landed on all fours in an attempt to stop himself from crashing into the floor, gems sprung up with another flare of orange mana that seized his paws and grew all the way to his hips and shoulders. He realized he'd been snagged seconds later, and pulled with all of his might in an attempt to disentangle himself from the gemstones.

Chocolate let off a chuckle before sending another bolt to strike at his trapped quarry again, orbs brightening in glee as that managed to hit him in the nose and get another series of yelps of pain that were mixed with a frantic whimpering. "I just love the sound of dog whimpering in the night," he chortled before turning to the guards, Spike, and NoLegs. He grinned as the cat hissed and waved his sword threateningly with his tail. "And what are you gonna do to me, you little furbag?" he taunted.

NoLegs responded by letting magic flare around his tail, and with a yowl and the tip of his sword moving to point at Chocolate like an accusing finger, he vanished in an explosion of blue light. Chocolate's orbs widened, and his smile fell in that instant. "Wh-what?" he sputtered, as though Celestia herself slapped him across his rotting face with a hoof. His eyes fell onto Armin and Katie, before the Accelerator also vanished in a similar flare of illumination.

Armin turned to Chocolate and donned a smile that still kept his fangs bared. "You done fucked up," he chirped in an amused tone.

"Silence, bug!" Chocolate snapped, turning to Armin and casting him a narrow-eyed glare. Despite the warning look, Armin kept his grin—and in seconds, the reason why he kept it appeared in a flash of light before Chocolate, hovering in the air and pointing the Accelerator right at his face. The muzzle of the gun glowed a bright purple, and NoLegs hissed as his tail glowed in a similar color.

Next thing the decaying unicorn knew, violet completely took over his vision as jolt after jolt of electricity ran rampant through him, inside and out without pause nor a modicum of mercy. He screamed as another shot of lightning sent him scrambling ass-first into one of the crystal columns and then sprawling out upon the floor. Yet even his landing did not deter the pain that the attack still kept hammering into him.

It felt like minutes—or even hours—passed when he was struck, yet in reality it lasted for but a few seconds. When it was over, he languidly shook his head to clear the purple haze out of his sight, though he barely heard another hiss come from the cat. Chocolate tried to move his dangling hoof, gritting his teeth as he found that moving the leg attached to said dangling hoof felt stiffer than a plank of wood.

"You… little bastard!" he hissed through clenched teeth, his orbs zeroing in on his small attacker and his borrowed, oversized weapon. NoLegs threateningly cocked the Accelerator in his direction again, and this time the weapon's muzzle glowed with a fiery red aura that gave off a sweltering heat which quickly circulated around the room. His orbs widened, and a flash of horror paired with realization swept over him.

As if on autopilot, his horn glowed again before it sent another volley at NoLegs. The cat simply vanished from sight in a flare of light after firing a blast of flame from the Accelerator, and when he vanished he took the weapon with him. The volley of flame connected with the magical onslaught, though that didn't entirely stop it in its tracks as it exploded on impact. This wound up leaving a weakened, smouldering magical attack that lazily careened over Armin and Katie before it hit a column behind them and caused another swell of crystals to erupt from the site of impact.

The latter turned to it, her neck cracking and revealing some small Adam's-apple-like object protruding from her throat that tightly stretched the already-taut skin as her head turned all the way back to zero in on the new addition to the battleground. Her eyes narrowed as the new crystals burst into flame and disintegrated, adding another dose of sweltering heat in the room, albeit one that came and then quickly went.

Chocolate watched her, and so did the guards and Spike. All of them raised brows at the display. "How'd you… do that?" Zephyr asked, his eyes wide as saucers.

Katie turned to him, neck once more cracking. "There's a sort of… special joint in my neck somewhere. Lets me turn my head without my skin tearing or my neck breaking," she answered, prior to turning her head the rest of the way as her gaze fell onto Chocolate. "You jealous?" she taunted, a bit of mockery in her tone.

Chocolate scowled, his eyes narrowing. "Hardly," he scoffed, all previous traces of his amusement gone like a puff of wind. His horn lit up again, and he languidly pushed himself on his three functioning hooves as he added, "Because I will tear that pretty little head off and use it—"

"As a cocksleeve?" Katie finished for him, a hint of amusement in her voice. "Sorry, your twig's too small for even my liking. You couldn't even please a filly with it."

Chocolate let off a furious, almost bestial howl at that utterance, and his magic flew from his horn and zeroed in on the hapless changeling. Zircon stepped in and conjured a shield, and though the onslaught broke clean through his barrier and hit him right in the barrel, he stood firm and the attack fizzled out before it could go any further. "You mean to tell me you've seen his fifth leg?" Zircon asked, shooting Katie a quick glance.

Katie nodded in confirmation. "Yep, and when I did, it had claw marks deep enough to tear it into even thirds," she added, her tone still holding its slight amusement.

Zircon shuddered at that rather disturbing mental image, but shrugged it off and turned to Chocolate. "Cease and desist, and remove the gemstones and come quietly," he warned, only to receive a glare paired with a death rictus in return.

"I'd much rather go down, with my muzzle pointing high," Chocolate hissed, his right cheek tearing just a little as he strained its muscles. "And you can go blow your superiors."

Zircon shrugged and turned to the other guards. "I tried," he sighed in resignation before Zephyr spread his wings and positioned his spear in his forelegs, shifting to stand upright.

"At least it'll be easier for us," Zephyr chirped, a slight grin on his face as his wings began flapping and lifting him off the ground. He took to the air, his grin widening as the group's decaying adversary continued to scowl and grimace.

"How so? I just took out two changelings and a bloody dog able to look Celestia in the eye," Chocolate retorted, his still-intact corner of the lip twitching in tandem with an eye. He warily added, "And I could take you five guards out just the same…" He took a cursory glance around the room before finishing, "And that damned cat, if it decides to show its face again."

Zephyr shrugged, his smirk taking on a bit of a wicked cast. "Maybe," he began coolly, shifting his spear to point its gleaming tip at his adversary. "But you haven't focused on us yet," he pointed out, using a back hoof to gesture to the other guards as they readied their spears. Flash flapped his wings and took to the air, spear also poised to strike.

"And a couple of nights ago, you went and attacked me," Flash added, eyes narrowing as a spark of anger danced across his irises. He watched as Chocolate flinched for the barest of seconds, and he decided to speak up on it. "What's the matter, tough colt? A guard too much for ya? I thought you could take us out—you have us trapped! Why're you chickening out now?" he taunted.

Chocolate's horn flared once more, and one of his back legs shook slightly. He fired a magic blast at Zircon that sent him flying backwards, though he did not smile even as he landed against a wall and then solidly fell to the floor after that. Then, he heard another series of bones popping and cracking, and his orbs fell onto Katie as her head rotated once more to look at one of the orange crystal formations behind her.

His orbs followed where he assumed her to be looking, and immediately his jaw dropped as mana pulsed in warbling, thin lines. It was orange at first, before a blinding teal that came in bands as thick as his hipbones took over, all the while a formation cracked and disintegrated slowly.

Spike, still perched on Aquamarine's back, turned to look at the phenomenon as a hole began to widen in the crystals that let a chilly breeze waft into the room. "What's happening?" he asked, prompting those who hadn't turned yet to do so in that moment. Zircon shifted and then stood up and also turned, before a small grin crept on his face as he turned back to Chocolate.

Fenrir let himself smile a bit, his eyes turning from the breaking formation to the crystals that had his paws pinned. He heard a series of hissing laughs, and glanced at Katie and Armin, both of whom were also catching on as the former turned her head the rest of the way to look at Chocolate again. "It seems somepony's arcane tamperings are starting to weaken," he growled in an amused tone.

Chocolate responded by sending another bolt of magic at Fenrir, aiming for the nose again, though this time his quarry simply ducked low enough for it to merely graze his left ear. "My spell's not faltering!" he retorted, to no avail as another column of ugly umber began breaking away into nothingness. He sent another bolt at Flash and Zephyr, and both pegasi danced out of the way to let the attack hit yet another column that began breaking as soon as it was struck.

"Then why are your blockades starting to shrink, like Godcat decided to make them into cosmic bricks?" Katie rebuked with a snort, earning herself another blast of magic that she barely deflected by simply pointing the stump of her horn at the oncoming attack and letting loose some irregularly-flashing blue mana from it. She reeled when it collided with her stump as well as her brief sparks of magic, and her head snapped back as if her neck was broken, yet nothing more had happened other than the opposing mana blasts fizzling out above her head.

Chocolate's orbs widened again. "It… it should have… it should have knocked your head clean off your withers!" he cried as Katie lowered her head and leveled her gaze at him. His ears fell back as orange mana pulsed across her body, before it turned as blue as her eyes and subsequently dissipated.

Then something very strange, and peculiar, happened to Katie once the glow died from her form. Tanzanite turned to her and blinked, seeing her chest move for a second before her stomach gained no more than an inch in diameter. Then it grew another inch, as if a water hose had just started filling her up. He turned to Aquamarine and Spike, seeing them also turning to glance at Katie as she began to convulse on the spot, her movements turning more and more violent as the crystals of apricot continued to break.

Mana pulsed back to her horn's remnants now, at first blue before turning orange and then growing in intensity. Chocolate's orbs became so wide that the black of his eyes was completely overtaken, and a little color drained from his face as a big ball started forming and sparking to life with the aid of a protrusion that didn't look all that functional. The orb grew and grew, until it was as large as a vase. "What… what is…" he spluttered again, only stopping his blubbering as the orb catapulted from the horn stump and homed right in on him.

He awkwardly fumbled out of the way, barely avoiding snapping his bad hoof the rest of the way off before falling flat on his stomach as a deafening crack rang through the air. Everyone reeled from the sharp noise, and Zephyr and Flash both landed with spears clattering to the floor and hooves racing to cover their ears as the blast smashed clean through artificial gemstones before dissipating with them. Katie let off a wail of pain, one sounding like claws on a chalkboard, as mana pulsed across her again. Before long, her horn stump was sending out another, smaller orb of apricot that then rapidly sailed right towards Chocolate.

Again, Chocolate scrambled away, his good hooves flailing like they were suddenly thrust upon ice. The second onslaught barely grazed him clean across the back of the neck as he ducked out of the way, causing another umber formation to crumble into nothingness and taking away a good chunk of mane in one go. A third burst of mana came from Katie's horn and made her cry out again, though it was no bigger than a bullet and it flickered sporadically and fizzed out before it could even reach him.

For several minutes, only the sound of breaking gemstones and a few pained groans from Katie filled the tense air. Half of those present were still reeling from the since-then-faded deafening cracks alone, trying their best to make the ringing in their ears cease to no avail. The other half went wide-eyed and slack-jawed, dumbfounded beyond compare. Chocolate was the most shaken of all, the revelation that he'd unwittingly started a chain reaction bouncing in his skull without truly sinking in.

Finally, though, someone spoke as the crystals covering the stairs and keeping Fenrir, Armin, and Katie all pinned started to break away and fade into nothingness. "What in Tartarus just happened?" Spike asked, sporting pinprick pupils and eyes so wide a gryphon could easily compare them to a balled talon.

Through the haze of lingering pain and vestiges of fleeting orange mana that danced around her in spots, Katie spoke with pained hisses, "His mana… entered my body through… what was left of my horn. And my mana… rejected it. Sent it back to him…" Half-dazedly, she turned to Chocolate and let her eyes narrow slightly. "Fucker… is paying my hospital bill…"

"Me? Pay your bill?" Chocolate mused aloud, a brow raising as he spoke in a tone laced with layers of disbelief and a note of sarcasm. "And how are the doctors going to patch you up, hrrm? Simple stitches won't be enough for that hackjob you call a face!"

Katie dryly laughed as the crystals finished disintegrating altogether, and she felt Armin shift beneath her. She climbed onto his back with no resistance, but decided to play it safe and move no more than necessary to keep herself steady as he rose to stand on shaky hooves. "Says the unicorn… who himself also has a tearing face," she retorted, her tone less pained.

Chocolate's eye began twitching. "Excuse you?" he hissed.

"Feel the right side of... your face, or find a damned mirror," Katie shot back with a giggle.

Chocolate's eye continued to twitch, and his horn started glowing once more in vibrant orange. Unfortunately for him, whatever spell he made to channel was disrupted as Fenrir barreled towards him like the caboose of a runaway freight train, one fist raised and then coming down on his head. The attack came so fast he simply couldn't react to it; in fact, all he could do was turn to Fenrir right before the fist in question met with his cranium.

Chocolate yelped and was sent careening, his own mana jolting him once the fist connected with his face and sent him clean into a column, and in such a way his horn landed first and subsequently broke off upon impact. After that, his orbs dimmed to blackness and he crumpled to the floor, all the while his broken horn went rolling out of a window before it dropped to the streets below. Once he was still, the mana faded from his body until it was a muted sizzle, and a silence fell—but it didn't last for long.

Katie's wings buzzed as soon as the undead stallion sprawled onto the floor, and her orbs twinkled as the bad hoof landed in a way that ensured it stood up—in fact, besides the remnants of horn that stubbornly clung to his head, it was the only thing of Chocolate that remained standing. She slowly pried herself off of Armin's back, letting her wings take care of the rest as she ascended languidly into the air. Her orbs were darting this way and that as she ascended, surveying the scene for a few seconds before stopping.

She turned to Zephyr and Flash as they let their forehooves drop from their ears. "You two okay?" she questioned.

"Got a headache, but I'll live," Flash replied with a nod. He turned to Chocolate as Fenrir approached him, grappled his rear hooves and then lifted him by both of his back legs like he was a turkey. "I take it he's been dealt with?"

"His horn is… no longer functional, to put it mildly," Fenrir replied with a nod. He shot a look at Chocolate and added, "I'd personally apply a modified inhibitor on what's left, if only to err on the side of caution."

"And maybe saw the broken hoof the rest of the way off," Armin chimed in, immediately finding himself getting looks from the guards and Spike for that comment alone. He turned to them and frowned. "What? It's only gonna hinder him, and you could just stick a peg on what's left."

"Wouldn't do him much good. Bastard's a Celestia-damned, Luna-forsaken wraith," Tanzanite pointed out, spreading a wing and using that to gesture to Chocolate for emphasis. "No matter what we do, he'll just keep on rotting until he's a pile of bones."

Armin pursed his lips together, chewing on the lower one thoughtfully. Then he shot a glance at Katie, before his eyes fell onto Chocolate and back to the guards. "Then… how do you explain her?" he asked, lifting a holey hoof and using that to gesture to Katie.

The guards turned to look at her, all sets of eyes glinting. She gestured to Chocolate with an armored hoof and chirped, "Watch him for a minute."

The lot exchanged glances, then Zircon piped up, "Why?"

Katie's hoof dropped, her shoulders slumped, and she groaned in annoyance. "Really?" she queried, watching as the guards turned to her and gave a series of hesitant nods. She shook her head and flew to Chocolate, legs dangling like lead weights as she went. When she reached him, she lifted a hoof and tapped at his horn stump with her clawed armament, grimacing as it crackled with traces of orange mana in response. "Anypony home?"

Chocolate continued to dangle like dead poultry, at least for a few minutes before the sizzling mana fizzed out entirely. Then, his good leg twitched, followed by an ear. Fenrir eyed him with a suspicious gaze as orange mana pulsed across his body, much like it had done Katie earlier. The pulses were steady and rhythmic, like the beating of a heart that washed over him at seemingly-set intervals.

The exposed muscles started forming black scab-like things as the mana darted across them, which caused Fenrir's brow to furrow as bits of fur also begun falling out of Chocolate's form in stringy clumps. Katie watched with an impassive gaze, her nose wrinkling as the spontaneous shedding revealed sickeningly pale skin in patches.

"What's happening to him?" Flash asked, picking up his spear with a hoof before approaching the three. His eyes warily stayed on Chocolate, and he frowned as he came closer.

Katie didn't answer until Chocolate's coat had gone completely some minutes later, complete with black blemishes that were once opened wounds. "He's… cursed," she said tersely.

That caused Flash to halt before he could even get halfway there. "Cursed?" he parroted, his eyes widening.

Spike hopped off of Aquamarine's back and rushed over, pausing to exhale fire on the heap of used clothes and turning those to ashes before resuming and subsequently stopping once he found himself in front of Fenrir's back paws. He turned to Chocolate and gaped. "He's… he's like the other wraiths I first saw in Fantasia…"

Katie turned to Spike and glumly nodded. Then she flew around, before pausing to stare at the undead stallion's hips. Her glare eased up upon seeing he still had his cutie mark. She turned to the guards. "You see where tissue and sinew and such was exposed?" she queried, gesturing to a black mass on his side for emphasis.

"Plain as day," Zephyr piped up, picking up his spear and likewise trotting forwards. He passed Flash and homed straight in on Chocolate, a brow raised as Katie's gaze fell on him. "Why do you ask?"

"His innate mana's the cause," Katie replied, her orbs shrinking to pinpricks as she made the utterance.

"His… innate mana?" Zircon queried, garnering a hesitant nod from the still-airborne changeling.

"Ask yourself this: how was he able to make crystals grow out of thin air? Furthermore…" A chilly wind blew into the opened observatory, and it caused everyone to shudder. Blue mana pulsed across the horseshoes, and then up Katie's legs before thin frost formed in its wake. "... how am I able to use my hooves to form ice?"

The guards exchanged glances again, and before long all five sets of eyes widened to the size of saucers. They turned to Katie and made several attempts to speak, but not a sound left their mouths no matter how much their gums flapped.

"And I do believe one of you said something about innate magics, right? Specific colors of such?" Katie pressed, eyes narrowing slightly.

Aquamarine's pupils shrank. "... p-p-pegasus... " he stuttered as a revelation sank in. "You… you have… p-p-pegasus magic… and your h-hooves are a medium through wh-which..."

Katie nodded slowly. "Hence why my mana rejected his when his magic hit me," she replied. She went on, "And since our Wise Guy here grew what looks to be crystals, I have reason to believe he is cursed."

"You're still alive and kicking when you shouldn't be, and you grew ice on your hooves," Spike interjected with a frown, walking around Chocolate to look at Katie as he spoke. "Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?"

"Difference between him and I is that I willed it. It happened to him, and he's still out cold," Katie snorted, crossing her forelegs.

"Aaaand what's that got to do with him possibly being cursed?" Spike shot back, crossing his arms across his chest.

Katie's forelegs dropped again. "Watch," she stated, and without any further warning she positioned herself before Chocolate's exposed barrel and jammed her claws into it. A sickening squelch and some black blood escaped the still-out-cold stallion's form as Katie started to fervently slash about with reckless abandon. The attack started dislodging rib bones and tearing the heart and lungs into ribbons.

"Why are you stabbing him?" Spike asked.

Katie paused, brow furrowing. "He did what I'm doing to him to a mare named Silk Fabric. You could say he's getting some more… overdue punishment," she answered. "That, and he's out cold—fucker won't feel a thing until his brain turns back on."

"He cut a mare up?" Aquamarine asked, gulping loudly as his pupils shrank.

"Yes. And skinned her bare. Not one hair was left on her, and maggots were eating her innards… yet she was still alive," Katie answered with a nod, eyes narrowing until her orbs were slits. "Your Emperor saw the aftermath. You can ask him about it."

Then she began anew, this time going for the stomach and likewise shredding it, and she made extra-sure to hack his gonads into pieces as she kept at it. Afterwards, she started on the inner thighs, but didn't get much work done before more black crystals formed in the resulting cavities and filled them in like one would do to a pothole using cement.

She pulled back, with black blood staining her legs and barrel. She turned to Fenrir. "Try and tear his head off for me," she instructed coolly.

Fenrir turned to Katie, an incredulous brow raised. "And why would I decapitate him?" he asked.

"Just try it," Katie replied with a nod and nothing more. "We can claim Armin stabbed him with the gun or something."

Fenrir groaned and turned to the guards, who yet again exchanged glances. Finally, they turned to him and nodded, eliciting another groan as he grappled Chocolate by the remnants of his mane and started to pull on the sod like he was a doll.

Mana pulsed as flesh began tearing, and black crystals formed before Fenrir could get much further than that, cementing both halves together like spontaneous superglue. He frowned. "So that's what you were getting at…" he murmured, letting go of Chocolate's head before turning to Katie again. "You were trying to inform us that this bastard is immortal?"

"In a way, yes," Katie replied with another nod. "So long as he has innate mana that's going haywire, he'll stay immortal, as well."

"And how do you know this?" Tanzanite queried. His wings spread reflexively when mana pulsed all across Katie's form, starting from her horn stump and ending at the few locks left of her tail hair.

"Because I myself am also cursed," she answered, eyes narrowing.

A groan left Chocolate, though now it was raspy and dry. His good leg twitched, followed by the bad one, before his head started swaying as if he were delirious. Katie flew to him and prodded at him with a shoe, making sure not to stab him or poke at black crystals this time. "Anypony home?" she tried again.

"Go… suck a donkey's cock," Chocolate hissed in a barely-audible but snappish tone. He started feebly flailing his bad leg at Katie in an attempt to swat her away, though he only succeeded in hitting a smacking leg and breaking away some frost.

"I'll take that as a 'no.' And I'd have little luck finding a donkey that desperate," Katie scoffed, rolling her orbs before backing off to give the sod a bit of space. She turned to the guards again. "So, what do we do now?"

For several tense minutes, nopony answered, though their eyes flickered in a way that Katie got the impression that they were likely turning over some ideas in their heads. When the silence persisted, Armin decided to throw in his two bits, "I say just toss him in the dungeons with Napkin Dickbags and let him sort out the rest."

All eyes fell onto Armin in that moment. "That… might be the best course of action. But who should inform Emperor Shining of his… condition?" Zephyr retorted, frowning and with ears folding back.

Katie waved a forehoof dismissively. "Tell Shining we found him like this, black crystals and all," she replied, before dropping the hoof and turning to the stairs as multiple sets of hoofsteps started echoing from below.

A loud meow pierced the air, echoing into the observatory. "How're you gonna explain the blood on your hooves and chest, though? I doubt Emperor Shining would be stupid enough to think that you didn't use our Wise Guy as a scratching post. And you didn't clean the blood off of your body… or the floor, for that matter, as of yet," Zephyr pointed out, his frown deepening.

Katie's orbs shrank to pinpricks. "Oh, shit," she murmured in a horrified tone as the hoofsteps became louder.

End of Arc III: Chapter XLII- Sliding South

Shining trotted up the seemingly-endless staircase, with a platoon of more unicorn guards behind him, as well as Twilight and her friends and the rest of the Fantasians sandwiched between him and said platoon. Atop his head, guiding him on with the Accelerator pointed at an upwards slant was NoLegs, who bristled and hissed every couple of minutes as they went up. The air was thick and tense, silencing everything except hooves and claws hitting crystal and the frequent hisses—until somepony decided to speak up.

"What the hell got NoLegs worked up?" Lance groggily asked, eyes squinted and bloodshot. He trotted sluggishly, and without any garments draped upon his form, leaving his shuddering bare wings to freely droop at his sides like balls and shackles were anchored to them. "Why'd he have to wake us up this late?"

Matt, who trotted at Lance's side—with one eye on his superior and the other on Shining—shrugged his shoulders. "Must've been important enough to warrant it," he replied with a small frown.

Maria tottered behind Lance, her head tilted slightly and her eyes also bloodshot. "Can I go back to bed?" she asked, yawning between every word.

Anna turned to her and shook her head. "Not until we see what NoLegs woke us up for. Though if you're that tired, I suppose we'll let you sleep in," she answered. Maria turned to her and silently nodded, temporarily lifting a talon to cover her mouth as she yawned again and simultaneously continued to amble forward on two hooves and the other talon.

"At least he didn't have a megaphone…" Twilight piped up from behind the four, huffing rather indignantly. A thought clicked in her head, and she asked, "That reminds me… where's Spike?"

NoLegs meowed loudly, and the sound echoed both in front of and behind the still-trotting group. Fluttershy translated, "He's with Fenrir, the changelings, and some guards just ahead."

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, but part of it caught in her throat when she processed the second half of Fluttershy's translation. She turned to her and asked with widening eyes, "Wait, why's he with the guards? Why's he on top of the tower, for that matter?"

Fluttershy could only frown and turn to NoLegs for an answer. Her brow slanted when the cat failed to meow. "Perhaps…" Her ears folded back and her head drooped as a twinge of fear sparked in her mind, and her voice fell as she finished, "something happened?"

Twilight's pupils shrank instantly, and she gaped at Fluttershy. "To Spike?" she queried, her voice trembling as the words left her mouth.

"It's… likely, I'm afraid," Fluttershy replied, her ears twitching slightly. "But the 'something' might not have happened to him at all. We don't know yet."

Twilight deflated slightly and nodded apprehensively. "Y-you're right," she agreed in a shaky voice. "But what if…" She turned ahead and didn't finish that remark, and an awful lot of macabre mental scenarios whirled about in her head for a few seconds before she shook her cranium to cast them out. Her chest puffed as another thought hit her. "Spike's tough. I bet he could take on whatever it was NoLegs wanted us to see."

"There's also that, but I'd still like to hope he didn't get hurt," Fluttershy replied, a soft smile gracing her features.

Rainbow Dash lazily hovered in the air, wings flapping madly and all four legs twitching as she and the others moved along the stairs. Her brow furrowed and her teeth started to grind, adding another sound to the already-tense air and causing goosebumps to jumpstart along her spine. Then she threw her forelegs into the air, nearly scraping the sloped structure that kept the staircase in place as she asked in an exasperated tone, "Can we just get there already?! I'm tired of going slow to see what the fuss is about!"

Right as she said that, a faint orange glow pulsed through the stairs, causing Shining and the rest of the group to pause and turn to it right as it faded. Another pulse shortly followed, one as thick as Lance's wing-fingers. Then another, though it warbled and was paper-thin. Yet another pulse came, one bright teal and as large as an entire pony.

Shining's brow furrowed, until the large teal pulse came and caused him to squint his eyes. "Has somepony tried tampering with the mana?" he asked aloud, slowly craning his neck to the group behind him as he spoke. He got a series of shrugs in return, as well as a few solemn shakes of several heads. His eyes averted to gaze up at NoLegs, who turned back to him and nodded with a mew.

Twilight turned to Dash for a second and spotted the smooth slant holding the stairs going up, and then spun around to look at each and every face present before stopping at Shining and NoLegs.

"Brace yourselves, everypony," she warned, her horn starting to glow. Her aura seized the guards, herself, Shining, the cat on Shining's head, the still-floating Accelerator, and the assembled Fantasians. "We're going on a slide."

Before any of them could protest, violet light burst from everywhere, blinding them as they felt themselves turn upside-down. Their collective asses and the weapon dropped before they all slid sharply downwards—which was really up the bottom of the stairs thanks to the gravity shift—at an accelerating speed.

As soon as the light faded from their eyes and the weight of the situation hit them, most of the bunch started screaming in unison, and Fluttershy and Dash even reflexively spread their wings. Some of the more unfortunate of the lot started spinning as they slid onwards, but a handful managed a grin nevertheless.

Anna, who was smirking like a fool, threw her forehooves into the air like she was on a rollercoaster. "Wheeeee!" she cried, garnering an incredulous, wide-eyed look from Sarah.

"What brand of crazy did you take to enjoy sudden gravity alteration?!" Sarah exclaimed in exasperation, receiving an innocent, almost childish look from her sister in kind.

"The fun kind!" Pinkie answered as she spun behind Sarah, managing a dopey grin on her face so large it was as if her muzzle was molded that way.

Maria flapped her wings and tried to anchor herself to the smooth surface with claw and hoof to no avail. Then she lifted her talons when they started to ache. "Make it stop! The wind's hitting me!" she cried.

"Just grin and bear it!" Lance barked, spinning on his stomach with his legs splayed. Each time he managed to look at Maria, his face seemed to get greener and greener with each cycle. "It's not like the bad hippogryphs! Besides, you're not twirling like I am—right now, I have it worse than you do!"

"This is so unseemly! I never thought I'd have to ascend a flight of stairs quite like this!" Rarity cried. She was doing her best to both stand on unsteady hooves without falling on her face, and keep herself from sliding into anyone else. That in itself made her look like a foal trying to figure out how to properly operate rollerblades for the first time.

Her mane and tail billowed behind her and started fraying at the ends, as if she'd been fired out of a circus cannon, and the latter hit some of the unfortunate guards behind her right in their faces. "Get that tail out of my face!" a guard cried, using a hoof to bat away the tail to no avail.

"I can't help it!" Rarity shot back, keeping her eyes fixated on the half of the group that was in front of her.

NoLegs tried his best to cling to Shining's tail with his teeth, but with each second he slid inch by inch, quickly getting further and further from the base to the very ends. Dash saw him slipping away and flung up her forehooves right as the acceleration forced him to let go and sent him flying backwards. She caught him and brought him to her barrel before he could have the chance to slip out of her grasp and fly off again, taking a second to look at him to affirm that he was alright.

"You okay, buddy?" she asked, garnering a frantic nod from the cat in response. She smiled at him before turning to stare ahead. Dash could've sworn the air turned ice-cold for a second, but with the air beating at her like a reverse vacuum thanks to accelerating upside-down, it was hard to tell if it was just because of said accelerating or because of something else altogether.

Her wings, still spread, stiffened for a good half-minute before flapping. She turned to Fluttershy and nodded, her smile widening as Fluttershy turned to her, nodded back, and flapped her wings. She made sure to repeat the process with Alexander, who gave a salute before letting his wings start flapping as well.

The three beat their wings steadily, and before long the trio started catching sight of flashing lavender sparks that danced all around them and the others in fleeting crackles. Twilight's horn started glowing as, finally, she caught sight of moonlight coming from an approaching alcove above. Her aura seized everyone as the slide ended and sent them careening upwards, and before anyone could connect with another surface the aura turned them downside-up and held them and herself in the air.

Then she looked down after gathering her bearings and found Fenrir holding a bemoaning Chocolate by his back hooves, staring up at her with widened eyes. He wasn't alone; a handful of armed guards, Armin, Spike, and Katie were also present, likewise looking up with expressions betraying various levels of wide-eyed surprise.

Spike, though, maintained a straight face. "You guys okay?" he asked, wincing as some of the extra guards belched. His eyes fell to the floor as Lance hurled onto it, frowning as a clear mess splattered upon the scene and added another smell to the observatory-turned-small-battlefield. "I'll take that as a no."

Matt surveyed the scene below with a critical eye, his brow furrowing when he saw the ashes that remained of the clothes heap, the blood splattered around the room and on Katie's legs and barrel, and the clumps of brown hair in the span of a few seconds. Then he turned to Chocolate and gestured to him with a hoof. "Fenrir, could you explain that, please?" he asked.

Fenrir glanced at Chocolate, then looked back at Matt with a frown on his muzzle. "Quite simply, that happens to be our cloaked figure, a refugee from the law, and Wise Guy compacted into one form. He is afflicted by halted necrosis, a broken hoof, and a most peculiar case of what I can best describe as 'parasitic crystals'," he replied.

Shining glared at Chocolate, one eye already twitching. "And why's he… ghastly white?" he queried in a tight voice.

"His coat fell out. It's over there," Katie replied, using a hoof to gesture to the fur clumps for emphasis.

"You look like you've been digging for bad spuds," Zecora noted, focusing more on the bloodied hoof gesturing to the pile of brown hair than said pile of hair itself. "Is that…" She gave a shudder and swallowed heavily before finishing, "is that blood?"

Shining's brows rose. "What happened?" he asked tersely, eyes falling on Katie.

The armed guards glanced at Katie in unison, and they all saw her flinch. Flash turned to his Emperor and spoke up, "She told us he cut a mare up, so… uh… she did to him what he did to that mare."

Shining lifted a hoof and rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a few seconds, before he dropped it and slowly nodded to himself. "Considering he's one of the worst ponies I met during my lifetime…" He turned to Chocolate and scowled, seizing all muscles in his mouth before his teeth could start grinding when Silk Fabric briefly came to the forefront of his thoughts. He shuddered, but composed himself and finally finished, "I'll let it slide. Just this once."

Twilight jerked her head to her brother and her eyes immediately grew to the size of saucers. "Is it… necessary to keep him like that?" she asked in a cracking voice.

Shining turned to her and glumly nodded. "In this case, as callous and cruel as that sounds, it is," he replied in a forlorn, softer tone of voice. He gestured to the armed guards with a hoof and added, "Sombra's curse kept them isolated for a good chunk of time."

Lance lifted his head and looked at Shining with a green visage, one brow raised and the other bearing down to the point the lids beneath it threatened to snap shut. "Translation?" he weakly asked.

"Until the curse wore off and the Crystal Heart was restored, we were isolated. The whole Empire was basically in its own bubble. Think of it sorta like being frozen in time," Zephyr replied, causing Lance to turn to him with drooping ears. "We're… still getting used to a lot of things."

Lance mulled all of that mumbo-jumbo over for a few seconds before he lazily nodded. "We're all in that boat right now, minus the curse bit for a lot of us," he groaned.

Zecora piped up again, "Shining Armor, what are you going to do to the stallion whose coat fell out? Do you plan to inflict something, perhaps another bout?"

Shining turned to her and shook his head. "Not unless throwing him in the dungeons count as such," he replied as Twilight's horn began to sizzle and spark, which in turn caused the mana holding everyone in the air to weaken and dim. "Hooves and claws splayed," he added, spreading his limbs in an X-formation as the mana warbled some more. Everyone, sans Dash, Alexander and Fluttershy, immediately followed suit as it finally gave way before it vanished.

Amusingly, and against the laws of physics, the bunch stayed in the air suspended like that for a few seconds longer. Dash, Alexander, and Fluttershy started flapping their wings before the rest of their companions promptly fell to the floor. They landed squarely on their bellies, with a few pained groans leaving some mouths afterwards.

"I wonder how much the hospital bill is gonna cost," Katie stated as Lance threw up on the floor again, her ears pinned sharply back.

"I wonder if the General's going to need cold medicine tomorrow, since his wings are shuddering," Alexander noted, frowning when Lance shook his head with a weak and exhausted groan.

"Daddy, my claws hurt," Maria complained, flexing her talons and wincing every time a few joints moved too much.

"Maybe we shouldn't partake in the Faire tomorrow," Spike piped up, garnering looks from everyone else with the exception of the still-groaning Chocolate. "What? I'd rather avoid more hassle," he added as Shining raised an incredulous brow.

"I'll have Cadence watch over the festivities tomorrow," Shining stated with a nod. He stood up and looked to Flash and his assortment of guards. "You guys watch the new target practice game tomorrow, alright? Consider it your day off." Then he turned to the extra guards he brought with him once Flash and his group nodded in understanding, who also made to stand at attention. "And you guys, take Wise Guy to the dungeons. Coat clumps included."

"Why the coat clumps, sir?" one guard asked, a brow raised.

"If anything, to dispose of them. Just make sure they don't fly everywhere," Shining replied. "And cap his horn while you're at it."

The extra guards nodded in assent, and one tottered off to collect the clumps in his magic before waltzing past everyone and going down the stairs, while the others tottered to Fenrir and pried Chocolate from his grasp with little resistance. Upon summoning a magic inhibitor and capping the sadsack's broken horn with it, they promptly turned around and made to go with him in a two-aura tow after their colleague when Anna stood up.

"Hold up." The two guards carting Chocolate turned to Anna with brows raised. She turned to Shining. "Can I kick him before they take him?" she asked.

Shining turned to her and shook his head. "Nah. He's probably gonna be kicked when they take him to his cell, or by Orange Colt if they become cellmates," he replied. He motioned for the guards with a hoof to continue, and they nodded before going to the stairs and descending the flight.

"Fair enough," Anna conceded with a nod.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The next day came and went after that, as did the Crystal Faire itself. As the sun set and vanished behind the southern side of Equestria, the Friendship Express wheeled in to the station before halting entirely. At first, it seemed barren—aside from the yellow pony with the hat and scarf that came out to inspect the scene, and a unicorn mare in a glass booth that had tickets at the ready, the station was empty. Then he heard the sound of hoofsteps echoing from one side en masse, and he turned to the road to find a small crowd trotting towards the station.

The yellow stallion sat on his haunches and waited, and his eyes widened when he saw Shining Armor leading the crowd, and closely behind him were his sister and her friends, as well as their Fantasian acquaintances. They all sparkled, up until they managed to get to the station some ten minutes later—oddly, Natalie still glimmered. In addition to that, Shining's horn was aglow. The yellow stallion looked at him, before turning a little to the left to find that he had a small satchel in his magical grasp. "Come to board, I take it?" he asked.

Shining nodded, and trotted over to the pony who sat in the ticket booth. "Nineteen tickets to Ponyville, please," he stated, using his magic to hand the bag over.

The ticket-pony nodded. "That'll be…" A pause, punctuated by her seizing the bag in her magic before opening it and counting the bits within. "Huh, that's a good 190 bits." She nodded in approval and gave Shining nineteen tickets from the roll, and watched as he distributed them to the others he had with him before they all boarded the train.

The Friendship Express stayed motionless until everyone quickly huddled into a cab lined with seats. When no more train-goers came, it disembarked after its guests were already well-situated. An hour passed as the train went south, blowing its whistle and going at a smooth and steady pace.

Fenrir sat between a pair of seats, and to either side of him sat Rarity and Natalie, the latter having the former's attention as her entire form still sparkled. This was despite the fact that the crystalline sheen had since gone away from everyone else that was afflicted as soon as the train left the Empire's perimeter.

"So, darling," Rarity began, eyeing Natalie with a spark of curiosity ablaze in her irises. "Why are you still… gleaming? I don't mean to sound rude or offensive; I'm just legitimately perplexed is all, especially considering you've kept your sparkle for this long."

Natalie, who had a bowl of equally-gleaming strawberries sitting within hoof's reach, flinched at the inquiry as if she'd been slapped anyway. Her sheen dimmed a bit, though not entirely, and she relaxed and reached out to pluck a strawberry before popping it in her mouth. She chewed it to mush and answered as soon as she swallowed, her voice subdued as she spoke, "I'm… a crystal pony. There. Happy now?"

Rarity beamed for a bit, before her expression fell upon noticing Natalie's ears folding back and her brow slanting. "Are… are you ashamed of being a crystal pony?" she asked tentatively. When she received a nod as an answer, her lips pulled into a tight frown. "And why is that? Who… who hurt you enough to make you ashamed of such a trivial thing?" she queried.

Natalie turned away, looking at the bowl of strawberries as her sheen receded to the point her mane, tail and coat seemed dull. "I'd rather not talk about it," she murmured. "It's… I don't think you'd understand, unless you've…" A pause, one punctuated by a hoof picking up another strawberry and delivering that to the waiting mouth.

A short chewing and swallow later, Natalie finished, "Unless you'd like the entire mess transcribed in a telepathic message or something. It's far from pleasant."

Rarity nodded, softly sighing when Natalie's sheen recovered a bit, only to then falter and revert its owner to her usual bright colors without the extra twinkle. She decided to change the subject, and cleared her throat to get Natalie's attention before speaking again, "So what, exactly, does your cutie mark mean?"

Natalie turned to Rarity with a brow raised and her sheen returning full force. "Long story short, I've a knack for teaching others how to fly. Though I usually reserve it for… unsavory folks and necessary self-defense," she answered. "Anything else?"

"Nothing, really," Rarity answered with a shake of her head.

"Suuure," Natalie replied with a slow nod, her tone soft but skeptical. She proceeded to plop another strawberry into her mouth, and chewed that up before turning to look out of the window that was next to her seat.

She watched as a snowy landscape passed by, adorned by a fresh layer of snow thanks to a fleeting flurry that was heading north. The area was white with a grey sky that darkened with each minute that passed, sharply contrasting the warm and bubbly interior of the Friendship Express.

Natalie turned away, only to find Fenrir staring at her with a brow raised. "Are you well?" he asked.

Natalie shrugged. "If I were to describe my current mood, it would be along the lines of 'meh,'" she answered.

Fenrir blinked with eyes that widened a little bit. "I see," he replied tersely, before he turned his attention to the bowl of strawberries. "May I have one?" he queried.

Natalie nodded. "Sure. They taste a little like whipped cream, though," she answered with another shrug.

Fenrir reached for the bowl and plucked one with a careful paw before tossing that into his mouth, finding that it did indeed taste of whipped cream. He chewed it for a bit and nodded before standing up and leaning against the bit of wall under the lamp to keep himself from getting in between Natalie and Rarity. He wasted no time glancing at Shining as he chatted fervently with Lance, Rainbow Dash, and Maria, and the bunch sat straight across from him.

"So, what is the current plan?" he queried once he swallowed the strawberry, immediately garnering the attention of the four he stared at.

"Daddy wants to go to the sparkly rainbow clouds," Maria replied with a grin.

Lance rolled his eyes. "Cloudsdale," he corrected with a huff.

"Home of the Wonderbolts," Rainbow chirped in excitement, front hooves raised to accompany a giddy grin on her face.

Shining grinned and chuckled. "Same thing," he chimed. "Regardless, it seems you'd like to do something as soon as you get back to Ponyville. What do you have in mind?"

Fenrir thought for a bit, brow furrowing slightly as he answered, "I'd like to become acquaintances with my Mythonian brethren."

"Fellow diamond dogs?" Rarity piped up, her frown deepening when Fenrir nodded. "I… personally, sort of… kiiiinda wouldn't advise it."

Fenrir turned to her, a brow raised. "Why not?" he queried in a skeptical tone.

"To put it mildly, they're brutes. Brutes of the barbaric sort," Rarity replied with a huff. She waved a hoof dismissively and added, "They abducted me one time to make me find gemstones. Even tried making me dig for all it was worth."

Fenrir's eyes widened, and he shifted as if he were about to spring back to all fours. "They what?" he asked, his tone between a snarl of contempt and a yelp of genuine surprise.

Rarity donned a grin. "Oh yes, they abducted me and dragged me into a series of mining caverns. But they made the mistake of calling me a mule—they've left me alone since, and even let me leave their mine unharmed," she stated.

Fenrir leaned back and nodded. "And what if they decided to trifle with you again?"

Rarity's grin widened a little. "Oh, I doubt that they will. But if they theoretically did, and you and Spike were present, I think we could scare them off," she replied, eyes closing as her chin lifted high.

Fenrir snorted and turned back to Shining, Maria, Dash and Lance, noticing that they had turned to each other and started chatting yet again. He shot a glance to the seats behind Shining to find himself staring at Zecora and Anna, noting that they too were babbling with Katie sitting between them. Katie was chiming in with her two bits every few minutes, occasionally giggling or hissing. He listened to said babbling, tuning out all else just to focus on those three in particular.

"Poison joke? You can make potions with the stuff?" Anna asked, eyes widening.

"Yes, in regards to potions and poison joke, I can," Zecora replied with a nod. "Though with a special herbal cure, the effects last less than a day's span."

Katie turned to Zecora, wings buzzing momentarily. "That's pretty nifty. Can I try some poison joke?" she asked in a bizarrely sincere tone of voice.

Zecora giggled and shook her head as she turned to Katie. "On you, I doubt the potion would work in a way that's sufficient. For all we know, it would likely be inefficient," she answered, grinning.

"I volunteer anyway. It sounds like fun," Katie argued, lifting a front hoof and waving it in exasperation more than anything else.

Fenrir turned to Rarity as she cleared her throat, and raised a brow at her as soon as he made eye contact. "Yes?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing," Rarity replied with a grin. She turned to Natalie and spoke, "So… we may stay a while in Ponyville, again."

"And?" Natalie piped up.

"I think I should tell you that, regardless of how long we stay in Ponyville, you should be very wary of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their antics," Rarity stated, her grin fading.

Natalie sighed. "Well… Applejack's little sis asked Katie if she wanted to join, and…"

Rarity gasped, went wide-eyed, and quickly cut her off with a query, "Did she accept!?"

Natalie shook her head. "No. She didn't," she answered.

Rarity deflated and then relaxed. "Excellent. Last thing I need my little Sweetie Belle to do is proclaim 'Cutie Mark Crusaders…'" She fell silent and put a hoof to her chin, tapping as if lost in thought.

Natalie raised a brow. "'Wraith Slayers?'" she guessed when Rarity remained silent for a minute or so.

Rarity dropped her hoof and nodded apprehensively. "Something along those lines. I honestly dread the mere thought of it," she answered with a shudder that affected even her mane and tail, to the point some bits of hair began fraying out of place. "No offense, but there's already a hoofful of wraith slayers in Mythos, and I'd rather my sister not lose her innocence partaking in such a thing."

"None taken, and I can see your point," Natalie said with a nod and a sigh.

"On that note, I wonder how Sweetie and the other two Crusaders are doing. I hope they haven't destroyed anything in my absence," Rarity sighed, taking a second to shake her head dejectedly. "I promised them I could help them make dresses if they made good grades… last week."

"Good grades? In what?" Natalie asked with widening eyes.

"Schoolwork," Rarity answered, a brow quirking as Natalie's pupils shrank. "What is the matter?"

"Sc-school? O-oh, damn… I envy your sister," Natalie replied, swallowing heavily.

"Whatever do you mean?" Rarity queried, her brow raising higher.

"I… never got to go to school as a filly. Long story in itself," Natalie answered, lifting a hoof and waving it dismissively, almost knocking over the bowl of strawberries in the process.

Rarity gaped, her own eyes going wide as saucers. "You… never went to school?" she asked. "Why, dear, you're grown enough you can get into one now, surely."

Natalie shook her head again, and she donned a small grin. "Nah, technically got myself a job as a lieutenant-general. Besides, I learn new things anyway, regardless of whether I'm behind a desk or travelling and bickering with Lance," she replied. "And I get paid pretty well—enough that I could get myself an education whenever I feel like it."

Rarity blinked and put her hoof to her chin again, tapping once more. "Well… I suppose you do have a point, in all fairness," she conceded. "Still wouldn't do you any good to be jealous of Sweetie Belle, though. Being envious of a foal is… just poor in taste, though if you really didn't get to go to school as a filly, then I can somewhat understand your case."

"True, true," Natalie agreed with a nod.

Fenrir tuned out the two mares as they continued to bicker about jobs, and turned to look behind Rarity to find Fluttershy and Sarah having their own little chit-chat on the same seat. "Lemme get this straight," Sarah began, lifting a talon before balling it into a fist with one claw jutting upwards, "your cottage is an animal village?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Oh, yes. I have squirrels, beavers, birdies, butterflies... I even have a mouse family, with the leader of it bound in a wheelchair," she replied.

"A mouse… in a wheelchair…" Sarah blinked, pupils dilating and lips curling into a frown as she struggled to process that mental image. "Can I see the mouse in the wheelchair sometime?"

"Only if you don't spook him. He might get afraid of you because of your claws," Fluttershy replied with a frown. "Though I might get Angel to convince him that you're not a big scary bird about to eat him."

Sarah unclenched her talon and waved it dismissively. "Mice on the dinner plate is something I've never done," she scoffed. "Too small, for one thing. Secondly, I'd rather have fish."

"You might have to wrestle Harry for the fish. With your wing still broken, I doubt anything good would come out of it," Fluttershy pointed out. "But wrestling with Harry wouldn't be likely."

"Why's that?" Sarah inquired, a small frown creasing her brow.

"He'd rather sit through a tea party than fight, usually," Fluttershy replied, donning a small grin.

Sarah's expression eased, and she too donned a smirk. "A tea party… I'd like to have one m'self. Maybe I could drag Fenrir into it," she chirped before covering her mouth with a claw to giggle into it like an excited filly.

"As long as you don't stick a frilly pink bow on him. I think he'd do well at a tea party, without hurting his pride," Fluttershy replied, her grin widening a little.

"Oh, I wouldn't stick a bow on him. I'd save that sort of thing for my sister, or Maria," Sarah chortled through her claw, still giggling into it. "If I could drag either to the tea party, that is."

"There wouldn't be any need to drag them. I could just hand out invitations," Fluttershy stated matter-of-factly, nodding her head as she spoke. "It would be their choice to come."

"'spose you do have a point there," Sarah agreed, flexing her good wing for a second before closing it. "Though, would it be just us at the party?"

"No; I could invite one of the other girls, or my animal friends," Fluttershy replied, still maintaining her grin. "Pinkie Pie would probably come, though she might bring the Cake twins with."

As if summoned straight from the gates of hell, Pinkie bounced over, crawled under the seat from behind, and then lifted the entire cushion from under Fluttershy and Sarah. She effortlessly held it all—cushion, friend and foreigner alike—with her front hooves, though she managed to garner an alarmed squawk from Sarah in the process.

"Did somepony say 'tea party?!'" Pinkie exclaimed with a wide grin, garnering a chortle from Fluttershy.

Fenrir snickered to himself and turned to Applejack, who chatted with Armin and Alexander as they sat behind Lance and Maria. Tuning out all else but those three, he listened as they chittered about like high-school teenagers exchanging the latest bits of gossip. "So, you're a lieutenant," Applejack began, looking at Armin who nodded. She turned to Alexander and finished, "And you're a colonel?"

"One of the few colonels, yes. NoLegs is also a colonel," Alexander replied with a nod.

Applejack let off a whistle. "Boy howdy, sounds like a hassle. And mighty strange to have a cat as a colonel… but then again, your general employed y'all, so I guess I don't really know him all that well," she sighed.

"Sorta is and sorta isn't. Just depends where you're at and what you're doing, really," Armin piped up with a shrug. "That, and we'll probably have to wear our uniforms and badges when we get home. Compared to us, you have it easy."

Applejack huffed, brow furrowing slightly. "I can use an Element of Harmony, so long as the other girls are with me. I doubt I have it easier than you," she scoffed.

Alexander nodded slowly, but whether in skepticism or agreement, Fenrir couldn't tell. "Eh, could be worse," he chirped with a small grin.

Fenrir then directed his attention to Twilight, Matt, NoLegs, and Spike, all of whom sat at the southernmost end of the cab. "So, you can read and perform complex spells," Twilight began, watching Matt intently as he gave her a nod. "Who taught you how to decipher runes and manipulate both earth pony magic and unicorn magic simultaneously?"

"Had my parents to thank for the second one, but the first… I was largely self-taught. Got some additional help from NoLegs, once he started getting into it," Matt answered, donning a serene and seemingly fond smile. "And when I met Natz, I helped her out and she helped me on the magic front."

"And… who taught her before she met you?" Spike asked, a brow raised.

Matt's smile immediately fell. "Nopony did." Then his grin came back a second later. "But we got our cutie marks helping each other out. Win-win, if you ask me."

"I see," Twilight murmured, nodding thoughtfully. "Anything else?"

"Well… I helped Natz learn how to decipher runes and make complex spells. I also helped her read basic language so she could make her own spells and turn some paper sheets into a grimoire or something," Matt replied with a shrug. "And we helped Anna do the same, once she joined."

Twilight's brow rose. "And?" she pressed, lifting a hoof and spinning it in lazy circles, urging him to continue.

"Well, me and Natz left our grimoires at home, but Anna brought hers with her. We could show you ours sometime, since you showed us your impressive book collection," Matt chirped.

"Sounds like a fair trade to make. It would certainly make revisiting Fantasia… a little more bearable," Twilight agreed with an apprehensive nod and a hesitant smile blooming on her face.

"Grimoires, hrrm? Interesting..." Fenrir mumbled under his breath, just low enough that Natalie and Rarity couldn't hear him amidst their own bickering. He continued to listen to Matt's conversation with Spike and Twilight, his snout twitching without sniffing the air.

"Is there any catch in particular?" Spike piped up, a skeptical frown on his face.

Matt turned to him and shook his head. "No, aside from not heckling anybody else in the army that you might run into. You leave them alone, they'll leave you alone," he replied, his smile fading a little. He turned to Twilight, his grin faltering a little more when he saw that she was still staring at him. "What?" he asked.

"Been meaning to ask… since you and yours eat meat, I've been thinking: is there any meat you won't eat?" Twilight asked, her hesitant smile turning into a concerned frown.

"Rotten meat, rotten meat that belongs to a corpse who walks and talks, and meat belonging to creatures with capacity for speech and magic. Why?" Matt asked, his smile fading entirely. He saw a spark in her eyes and flinched as her brow slanted. "... it's what went down at Frostbite, isn't it?" he guessed in a subdued tone.

Twilight slowly nodded. "I don't want another fiasco like Frostbite to happen again," she answered in a hushed voice.

"Here, here," Spike agreed with a nod, his frown deepening.

Start of Arc IV: Chapter XLIII- La-La Land

That night, everyone filed into a single bunk-bed cab, jostling for positions to lay down and go to la-la land. Some kept one bed, and others shared theirs. Twilight Sparkle wisely waited until everyone else had curled up to fall asleep, and she let her gaze sweep over the top bunks first to confirm that nobody was going to wake up. She wasted no time carefully leaning over after that and peering down to glance at the bottom bunks and their occupants.

The only other occupant of the cab that was awake was Katie, who stared up at her from the bunk directly beneath. "You got earmuffs?" Katie whispered.

"Earmuffs?" Twilight whispered back, a brow raised.

Katie nodded. "My hearing's more sensitive than everybody else's. Makes sleeping nigh-impossible—" A loud snore from Matt ripped through the cab, cutting her off. When it died, she finished, "—when certain ponies snore like bears."

Twilight nodded in understanding, and her horn glowed before her aura seized Katie by the head. A flash of light embraced the red-maned cranium before it faded seconds later, allowing a small pair of fuzzy earmuffs to materialize on top of the ears of said cranium. Katie nodded back and lifted a hoof to feel for the muffs, adjusting them a little so they rested comfortably on her long ears. She mouthed "Thank you," before curling up under the covers and letting her orbs black out entirely.

Twilight smiled and mouthed "You're welcome," before retracting back to her bunk and pulling the covers over her head with a hoof. Her horn glowed, and her magic grabbed a piece of the covers before lifting them just enough that they formed a small tent above her, without exposing her hooves to the outside. Then, another flash of light flared before her eyes, and she squinted said eyes as two books materialized before her when the illumination died down.

A faint glow started shimmering from her horn once more, though now it was just enough to illuminate both of the tomes. She arranged them with her hooves so they were side-by-side, before she looked to the one on the left and smiled fondly at it. "'Early Fantasian and Mythonian Relations...' I'm so glad Shining convinced Amethyst to let me take you with…" she murmured, almost as if the book was a living creature in of itself. She briefly glanced at the other, 'Translating Ancient Runes and You,' and her smile grew.

She lifted a hoof to 'Early Fantasian and Mythonian Relations,' but paused when another snore reached her ears. This one was accompanied by a neigh that strangely devolved into a sound like a bird squawking before it ceased altogether with a snort. Her hoof then flew to the book and opened it before flipping a good chunk of the pages within to the other side, leaving roughly three-fourth's of the entire tome shifted aside and the last fourth laid bare before her.

Twilight opened the other book after, and silently conjured a scroll of parchment, an inkwell, and a quill before she began glancing from one book, to the other, and back again. She lifted her other hoof and gently nudged them further apart before conjuring a clipboard between them and setting the piece of parchment atop it. Readying the quill with a quick dab of ink, she started jotting after a minute, glancing back and forth between the books as needed.

She paused before she could complete one sentence on the paper when she heard someone with a feminine voice mutter "I didn't sin," which then gave way to a rustling of blankets. Twilight's brow rose, though she shrugged it off and hastily completed said sentence on the paper before carefully poking her head out of the covers to glance around. She found Rarity on the top bunk right across from hers, tossing about in her sleep with the mannerisms of a fish flailing upon a sandy shore.

Twilight frowned as Rarity continued to struggle in her slumber, watching as her friend's ears pinned back against her head and her legs moved as though she were galloping. Her horn glowed a little brighter, and a violet wisp of magic started glimmering over Rarity's form. It descended until it touched her withers, whereupon it then grabbed her and shook vigorously. Rarity gasped and her eyes snapped open, and she made to scream before a purple bubble surrounded her head and kept the sound from escaping into the rest of the cab.

Rarity inhaled and exhaled as though she were hyperventilating, her front hooves surging upwards in an attempt to prod at her head only to meet with the bubble surrounding it. Her pupils shrank, and she started pounding the dome before another aura seized the rest of her body and kept it still. "Rarity, calm down. You're awake, and I don't think I'd want to hear you screaming right now," she heard Twilight's exasperated voice echo into her head.

Then the field of magic, bubble and all, faded from existence without another sound. Rarity's breathing slowed, but it was still labored, and one of her eyes was twitching. Slowly, she turned to Twilight with a look that could only be described as crazed. Twilight's frown deepened considerably when she saw the haggard mane that frayed at the ends, the jittering jaw that produced nothing more than shallow breaths and chattering teeth, and the wide eyes and shrunken pupils that seemed disturbingly vacant.

"It's alright. It was just a dream," Twilight stated in a soothing voice, her brow slanting when Rarity kept her deranged expression without so much as a shifting of an ear, aside from her twitching eye. "Rarity…?" she hesitantly ventured, eyes flickering with worry.

Rarity's breathing continued to slow, her face seemingly locked in terror. Then, slowly, her ears rose up and her jaw's jittering lost momentum until her mouth simply shut like a trapdoor under lock and key. Her pupils widened, yet still her gaze was distant.

"Rarity?" Twilight repeated, her ears folding back against her head as her friend simply continued to stare right at her. Only the slight shifts of the cab and metallic bumps as the wheels spun upon the tracks answered her inquiry.

After a few seconds that felt as though they stretched for a few hours, Rarity's mouth opened. "Y-yes, Twilight?" she stammered in a low, shaky voice. "I-I'm alright."

Twilight's brow rose. "I dunno. You certainly don't sound alright," she replied with a skeptical shake of her head.

Rarity closed her eyes and donned a frown. "It… was a terrible nightmare, but nothing more than that," she stated matter-of-factly.

Twilight nodded, though only when Rarity opened her eyes to look at her with a gaze that wasn't vacant nor disturbed. "I see your point," she admitted with a small, sheepish grin forming on her muzzle.

Rarity sighed and made to lay back down, her head connecting with the pillow in a muffled pomf. "I'll try to get back to sleep," she muttered into the pillow.

Twilight nodded again. "G'night Rarity," she murmured with her grin fading a little.

With that, she retreated under her covers before she heard Rarity mutter a "Good night" back at her. Twilight waited for a few minutes, biding her time until she was all but certain that Rarity had gone back to sleep before she resumed her bout of reading two books simultaneously and taking notes every few seconds. She went on like this for some thirty minutes, during which she made some more pieces of paper materialize when the current one was filled from top to bottom. Eventually, those thirty minutes that she spent too engrossed in her little writing reverie had come to an abrupt end.

Both tomes were, quite simply, turned until all that remained were their very last pages. Despite this, Twilight smiled, and still she scanned the two down to the very last word and rune translation. She closed both books silently and with her magic, before making said books, in addition to the inkwell, the clipboard and the quill vanish into thin air with brief flare-ups. Her attention turned to the only thing left; the paper stack itself. The paper stack reached no higher than a neat centimeter or two, and she picked them up in her magic before leafing through the parchments like they were part of an unfinished novel.

Twilight's smile only widened. "I'll read you tomorrow," she cooed as she made the small stack vanish in a flare of light, before finally letting her head descend until it found itself resting sideways on its pillow. She moved a hoof to throw the blankets off of her head, inhaling deeply thereafter to fill her lungs with as much fresh air as she could get. Warmth cradled her, trapped upon her form thanks to the blankets, and soon she closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.

Around ten minutes later, she found herself wishing she hadn't. Her eyes blearily opened, and darkness greeted her with the chorus of chirping crickets and croaking frogs that filled her ears. As Twilight came to, and as her vision subsequently cleared a bit, she started making out vague and erratic shapes both large and small, some compact and others tall and imposing. She made to stand, ears pinning back as wet and thick squelching sounds echoed all around the area, further accentuated by the feeling of something sticking along the side of her body and running down to her hooves.

Twilight hesitated as a cold breeze wafted past and caused her to shudder, eyes still scanning the darkened shapes as the symphony of frogs and crickets continued unimpeded. Her ears twitched prior to swiveling, but all she could catch was croaking, chirping ambience; a soundtrack produced by serenading creatures looking for one of their own. A soundtrack that went on for quite some time.

An indeterminate expanse of time had passed, yet Twilight did not move from her position—not even an inch. She did not crane her neck to look at the rest of her surroundings. For that expanse of time, she remained in that one spot, seemingly glued to the spot whilst listening to the soothing croaks and chirps until it became a little bit too much for her to bear.

A leg shifted, and something flashed in the corner of her eye in that very moment. Then she heard something scampering away, producing the distinct sounds of crunching leaves and snapping twigs in its wake. Twilight's head snapped to the left and her horn flared with a magenta light that instantly illuminated her surroundings, revealing a dense and thickly-shrubbed woodland. The area also had a sodden and muddy expanse of ground going in an uneven circle for a good two miles around, one upon which she currently stood.

Twilight whirled around, though doing so caused her front hooves to slip out from under her form, giving way to falling face-first into the mud. Some of it managed to get into her mouth and nostrils, and her eyes went wide as grit, salt, and a bunch of other minerals assailed her senses and sent her into a spluttering coughing-and-nose-blowing frenzy. When she regained her composure some minutes later, she stood up again with a snort that irritated her nostrils with an itching sensation.

"Lovely," Twilight hissed to herself, brow furrowing slightly as the itch in her nose receded. She shook her head, and turned to where she could've sworn the crunching of leaves and twigs had come from. Slowly, she lifted a front hoof and turned to inspect it, as well as the damp, slip-like mud that clung to it.

She caught just the faintest thread of red on her hoof, a small and warbling line that blended in well enough with the mud that she had to look closer just to see it. Her magic seized it and tried to separate the red from the brown, but alas it was for naught—the two simply mixed further still as she telekinetically fumbled with it. Her eyes narrowed, and she released the mud before throwing her hoof down—making it immediately slide out from under her form once again and sending her to the ground for the second time.

Though, that time she made sure to cover her nostrils with her magic and to keep her trap shut as soon as her hoof had slipped. She stood up after lying still for a minute, shaking her head free of excess and unwanted brown gunge before trotting to where she heard the noise that was unlike the still-ongoing mass serenade echoing around her. Her aura seized the bushes and shoved them aside, revealing a glistening trail of very definitively fresh prints that were accentuated by crumpled leaves and some snapped twigs.

Twilight leaned in close to the trail, bending her front knees and craning her neck so her muzzle was just inches from the first print of the path. Her brow furrowed again when she saw that it was a circular indent with protrusions spreading out to form a crude sun-like shape. She raised a hoof before putting it into the print, blinking upon seeing that the print was larger than her hoof by about an inch. Oddly, it was no more than a millimeter deep.

"The ground is muddy. But this print isn't deep…" Twilight paused, pursing her lips before standing up and removing her hoof from the print. "Maybe the owner isn't that heavy." She sighed before shaking her head to rid herself of the trail of thought, turning to glance ahead. The trail zig-zagged slightly, but it never really veered too sharply to the left or right. She started trotting onwards, trying her best to avoid snapping twigs under her hooves as she went.

For a few minutes after that, she carried on following the trail, still paying little heed to the hidden frogs and crickets that continued singing. Twilight pondered what the trail of prints meant—and shuddered as she considered that following said trail could end up going south if the owner was anything but friendly. At this rate, with no other signs of said owner being present, she wasn't all that sure of the possibility herself.

But as she kept the trail in her sights, the chorus of frogs and crickets began to grow quiet. At first, it was only one or two croaks or chirps ceasing altogether, but in a forest alive with ambience such a number was insignificant. Twilight's ears started swiveling as the number of animals stopping their serenade doubled, then quadrupled, and a tight frown formed on her lips as more and more members of the unseen choir fell silent.

In under a minute, the only sound to reach her ears was the squelching of mud beneath her hooves. She looked upward, only to find a canopy so dense that she couldn't see the sky past the leaves, let alone the inhabitants thereof. "What… happened?" Twilight wondered aloud, and in that moment—as if to answer—the entire forest shook with a mixture between a pained outcry and a bestial roar. The ground jostled beneath her, the canopy rustled as though caught in a storm, and the trees themselves trembled to the point it looked as if they were going to uproot themselves and fall over.

Twilight fell over yet again, her light dimming as she faceplanted for the third time. She waited until the roar died down along with its earth-shaking intensity before she stood up again. Noticing that her surroundings had darkened, she shifted her attention to her horn with a cross-eyed stare—prior to averting her gaze back forward when the light not only brightened instantaneously, but turned scarlet in the process.

"Ooookay… my light is now red, I'm stuck in a forest, and I think a monster just woke up somewhere nearby," Twilight scoffed, brow furrowing. She promptly turned back around and started going back the way she came. "Nope, I am not sticking around for this." Then she stopped and scrunched her eyes shut a few seconds later, before re-opening them to find herself back in bed. She lifted her head and glanced around and softly smiled upon seeing the snoozing forms of her brother, friends, Spike, and the Fantasians.

She yawned and waited until a good half-hour passed before closing her eyes and falling asleep yet again, lulled into rest by the silence of the cab and the occasional bump of the wheels as they rolled upon the tracks.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Katie trotted along sluggishly in the barren dustbowl that was her dreamscape, often looking up and using the great big lilac moon as a sort of sky-bound compass. The devils of sand, summoned by passing winds that stayed for the span of a few seconds, danced past her ambling form as she went. No corpses littered the area, and a tinge of reddish-pink began forming upon the side of the horizon opposite of the slowly-setting moon. She didn't care to keep time, nor track of how often she looked up at the celestial body presently in the sky.

Upon looking up at the moon for the upteempth time, she found herself colliding chin-and-barrel-first into a solid object that she could've sworn wasn't there before. Katie lingered upon the object for a few seconds before peeling herself off of it, staggering back to find that a door had appeared from nowhere. When she took the time to inspect it, she found that it sported a dark blue color with a black splotch adorning the top. In the middle of said splotch sat a white crescent moon. On top of that, it sparkled in several different colors, as though chiseled from pure dark opal.

The door opened of its own accord, revealing a bright and glittering starscape beyond. Katie's wing muscles twitched, and for but a moment her legs kept still. "Are you coming?" a soft, regal voice asked in a friendly tone.

Katie's ears stood up, and her legs spurred into action, which left her half-dragging and half-trotting onward. "Coming," she chirped in reply. Once she trotted through the doorframe, the door shut behind her with a gentle creak, and she glanced around to find Luna standing next to her with a bit of a smirk on her muzzle. "I see you're enjoying yourself," she noted.

Luna's smirk widened a teensy bit. "I trotted through Celestia's dreamscape before coming here. She loves cake so much it's honestly become amusing as of late," she replied.

Katie nodded, though her stomach started aching as if longing to be filled. So she looked around until she spotted a nearby door that was predominately white and purple. She lifted a hoof to gesture to it, and decided to change the subject, "So… whose dream is that?"

Luna's smirk fell, and was almost immediately replaced with a small frown as she turned to the door. "That of a dear friend of mine," she answered in a tight voice. Her horn flared to life, and her magic seized the purple-and-ivory door by the knob. "Her dreams have taken a disturbing turn as of late—I dare say, on par with what I've seen of you and yours," she added, averting her eyes to Katie as her magic forced the door open with ease.

Katie's ears stood straight up, and she nodded to Luna with eyes narrowing slightly. "Has she told you or Celestia anything about her nightmares?" she asked sincerely.

Luna's frown deepened, and she shook her head as she began trotting to the now-open door. Katie followed after her in a brisk trot. "Can't say she has. If anything, she withheld much of it, but I've seen enough to warrant an investigation of sorts," she replied.

Katie's wings buzzed, though they didn't buzz enough to lift her into the air. "Have you seen what her dreams are about? I'd like to know what we're going to trot into here," she stated.

Luna sighed, and paused to turn to her guest with so tight a frown her lips started quivering just to maintain it. "Have you been to a house of mirrors before?"

Katie stopped, turned to Luna, and shook her head.

Luna's ears fell back. "Have you seen a mirror, then?" At Katie's immediate nod, she went on, "My friend's dream consists almost entirely of mirrors. And… a thing that's more or less herself mixed with a hippogryph chases her."

"Who?" Katie asked, a brow raised.

"Rarity."

Katie took two seconds to process Luna's one-word utterance, and when it clicked she lifted a hoof and hit the bridge of her muzzle with it, groaning when the two entities made contact. She slid it down the bridge before dropping it, and made eye contact with Luna. "Well, that simplifies things," she scoffed in a sarcastic tone.

Luna's brow rose. "How so?" she asked tersely.

"I know what we're dealing with. Even better, I've witnessed what's very likely the damned catalyst thereof," Katie chirped in a pleased tone. She sighed and let her ears fold back before taking a few minutes to inform Luna about what she meant. She left no detail out, no matter how insignificant it was, of what exactly went down at Frostbite.

As soon as she finished, Luna lifted a front hoof and sharply reeled back, her face pale and her eyes widening like Katie lifted a boulder and struck her with it. "R-Rarity… m-murdered…" she stammered, pupils dilating when Katie slowly nodded, never once taking her orbs away from Luna as she did so.

"Otherwise, Maria wouldn't be here, and Spike would have very likely been physically wounded at the very least," Katie stated in a sharp, cold, and matter-of-fact tone. She turned to the door and scowled at it. "No use keeping it bottled from you and Celestia of all ponies, considering she had every reason in the book to do so. And also adding to the fact that her friends were there to witness it as well."

Luna's hoof fell, and she shook her head before regaining her composure. "You say that as if I were going to banish her," she noted, her tone flat.

"You've banished ponies before, right?" Katie retorted, garnering a warbling smile and a dry laugh from Luna.

"Yes, but not in a millennium. I myself was banished," Luna replied, her already-uneasy grin faltering some more as she spoke. She turned to the door and her eyes narrowed upon seeing blood starting to seep from the frame, slowly trickling like drying molasses and staining the two-color wood in a hideous third of red. "I think we've dallied long enough."

Katie's wings buzzed again, and this time she let them lift her into the air. "Right." With that, the two stormed to the door before going through the frame, grimacing slightly as it slammed shut behind them with the force of a thunderous crash. They found themselves in an expansive, almost ridiculously wide hallway consisting of nothing but mirrors that somehow failed to catch their reflections.

Katie whirled around in an attempt to figure out which way to go, and her brow furrowed when she saw that the door not only vanished, but gave way to a hall exactly the same as the one she'd just turned her back too. "By Godcat's eight teats, you weren't kidding," she murmured, turning to glance at Luna. "This is maddening already, and I haven't been here for more than three seconds."

"And that is saying much," Luna replied with a nod, glancing ahead with ears twitching as she heard the tell-tale sound of galloping hooves hitting reflective glass. Katie turned as well, her ears already up and swiveling about. Immediately, her brow was furrowed when the noise began echoing from everywhere all at once. "Have you acquired a definite direction yet?"

Katie shook her head. "It's bouncing in this corner and that nook—" Her forelegs formed a cross as they pointed past each other to the left and right. "—and I can't tell where it's coming from. It's like this hall is screwing with my sense of hearing." She turned to a wall and parted her forelegs before shaking one of them at it in futility. "I hate ludicrously large halls."

Luna's wings snapped open, only to drop at her sides like lead weights. So too did her head drop, though it only sank to her shoulders before lifting up again with a heavy sigh leaving her mouth. "It's going to be a long night, isn't it?" she murmured under her breath.

"Feels like it already," Katie snorted, spinning around in mid-air to attempt to figure out where the clip-clopping was coming from. She lifted a hoof to rub her temples with enough force to bruise the chitin, trying to tune out the echoes to no avail. After a few minutes, she screamed and threw both front hooves into the air. "Godcat-damnit, stop echoing already!" she cried, only to wince as her own shout reverberated and came right back to her, drowning out the clip-clopping in the process.

Once the echoes she produced by screeching in frustration died down, the hall fell into tense silence. It didn't last long before a feminine voice called out from the end of the corridor Luna faced, and it only echoed just enough to grab Katie's attention as well. "Wh-who's there?" the voice beckoned in a slightly-panicked tone.

"Huh. Guess we know where to go now," Katie chirped. Luna rose a hoof and opened her mouth to protest, but could not get one word out before her guest darted off like a dragonfly chasing a mosquito. She vanished down the hall in seconds, leaving Luna alone for a bit.

Luna spread a wing, folded it forward, and slapped her face with it like a large hand. "Please don't do anything rash," she murmured.

She parted face and wing before spreading both wings proper and flapping them, and within seconds she was airborne and speeding after Katie with grace and expertise. She caught up in no time at all—because Katie didn't go too far and had, in fact, stopped altogether with a hoof shielding her eyes. Standing before the two was a harried-looking Rarity, her mane frazzled and her front hooves stained in blood. Her horn gave off a bright red light, one strong enough to force Luna to look away.

"Turn the light off, I think I just became blind!" Katie pleaded, her voice cracking as she spoke.

"I-um," Rarity began, eyes darting between Katie and Luna before noticing the raised limb and the turned-away muzzle. Then she looked up at her horn and grimaced before cutting off the flow of mana to it, which caused the light to sizzle for a bit before flickering out altogether. "H-how'd you—"

"With me accompanying her, in case you were wondering," Luna piped up before turning back to Rarity. Her horn glowed, and her aura seized herself, Katie, and Rarity all at once. "You and I have much to discuss, Rarity." With that, a flare of bright light exploded around them, and when it died they found themselves in the starscape with spots blotting their vision. The three shook their heads to rid themselves of the accursed spots blighting their sight before exchanging quick glances.

Luna took the opportunity to speak up again, turning to Rarity as she did so, "I have caught wind of… a murder by your hooves in Fantasia, if I am not mistaken."

Rarity would have paled if her coat wasn't already white. Her ears pinned back and her pupils dilated. "Wh-where did you h-hear such a thing?" she asked in a quivering voice.

"From my mockery of a Cheshire smile," Katie piped up, immediately garnering a look from Rarity in addition to a frantic whimper. At this, her brow eased, and she giggled. "I was told you didn't tell Luna, so I did the telling for you—you made the burden you're currently bearing. I'm just gonna sit back and watch." A lawn chair with a pillow set into the seat materialized out of nowhere, and Katie moved to park her bony rump onto it. She waved a forehoof once she had gotten comfortable. "Have fun."

Rarity gaped and slowly turned back to Luna, evidently expecting some form of punishment. Luna turned to stare at her squarely in the eye, and for a moment, silence lingered. "No, I will not banish you or do anything else of the sort. I was also informed as to the reason behind it, as it were. I would appreciate it if you told me about this the next instance you do something that drastic," Luna stated in a level, though miffed, tone of voice.

"B-b-bu—" Rarity stammered before her speech started devolving into a gibberish dialect, her eyes widening to the size of saucers. "I-I-I—"

"Yes, I've heard. Turned a hippogryph's head into tomato paste with your bare hooves, according to our current third party," Luna finished for Rarity, punctuating her response with a slow nod of her head and a short snort. "You were in foreign soil when it happened, that gryph wasn't among the diplomats, and Spike was in danger. Pray tell, what do you suppose would happen if Spike had perished that day and Celestia caught wind of it?"

Rarity's mouth shut in an instant, almost mechanically at that. Silence held once more.

Luna lifted a hoof and spun it in a circle, urging Rarity to answer. She suppressed a snicker by putting her raised hoof to her mouth and simultaneously rolled her eyes when Katie impatiently shouted, "Get on with it already!"

"... war?" Rarity guessed, her voice so quiet it could have been drowned out by a pin dropping a mile away.

Luna dropped her hoof and assumed a straight face, nodding slowly. "Something along those lines, were she to get angry enough in that hypothetical scenario," she replied. "You've… done the best thing in that situation, as far as I am concerned."

Rarity's jaw dropped open, and stayed that way for several seconds that felt as though many days had come and gone. Then, her gums started wildly flapping. "Th-the best th-thing? As… as far as I am concerned, I have done the worst possible thing anypony's ever done in the history of Mythos!"

Luna groaned and her horn flared to life, and she let her aura gently grab Rarity by the muzzle to hold it shut. "Your little rampage doesn't come anywhere close to what I would have done, if I were still Nightmare Moon and allowed to bring night eternal," she retorted in a cold voice. Then her magic released Rarity's muzzle, enabling the lower jaw to drop yet again. "You only committed one atrocity, and because it was the most generous thing to do at that, ironic as it sounds. I'd have committed thousands, out of pure selfishness."

"I've heard about the whole thing during my stay in Canterlot. She's got a point," Katie piped up, garnering a look and another roll of the eyes from Luna in the process. She turned to meet the gaze and casually added, "You just admitted it; any other argument you may have is invalid."

"In all fairness, that I did," Luna agreed with a snicker and a grin. She turned to Rarity, still smirking as she asked, "So… would you like to vent your frustrations here and now?"

Rarity's chest puffed as she sharply inhaled. "All of them? Can I vent all of them?" she queried.

Luna nodded. "I'm all ears."

Rarity nodded, and she began venting after exhaling deeply. "Well, I'm afraid my sister might want a wraith-slaying cutie mark, to begin with…"

Chapter XLIV- At Dawn's Asscrack

The sun hadn't even had the chance to rise an inch into the sky as the Friendship Express pulled and then stopped in a station situated near a familiar small town with straw roofs, its whistle blowing with a chilling echo as soon as its wheels stopped turning. Everyone who didn't operate the train was still slumbering soundly in their borrowed beds, even as the multi-cab locomotive remained in the station for some hours well after it had stopped.

The yellow-coated stallion, wide awake despite the late hour, sat in the caboose watching through an open window as the moon set and the stars shifted ever so slightly after it. With him was another who sat behind a series of levers and buttons, a fellow earth pony stallion sporting a grey-blue coat and a black mane.

"How much longer until sunrise, Gear Shift?" the grey-blue stallion queried as he turned to his companion.

Gear Shift turned around with a small smile. "Another hour or so, All Aboard," he chirped. "The moon's just set."

All Aboard nodded. He waited for a good hour, sitting idly by and watching the sky shift from his seat. Neither exchanged words during that hour, let alone so much as glance at one another—both seemed utterly fixated on the sky itself. When it started to tint he stood up, his gaze fixing itself on Gear Shift. He cleared his throat to get Gear's attention and only spoke as soon as his fellow stallion turned to him. "I will check the passenger cabs. I shan't be gone long."

With that, he turned to the end of the caboose opposite the levers and buttons to find a door before trotting to it, opening it, and finding a small bridge leading a cab over. He trotted upon the bridge, grabbing the doorknob with his tail like it was a prehensile wing glued to his posterior. He wasted no time closing the door behind himself as he went before uncurling his tail, turning his attention to what was ahead of him only to then find a sort of connector cab that doubled as a boarding dock.

The connector-slash-dock in question boasted a light brown color, not unlike that of polished oak wood, with two closed wooden gates at either side which hung low. The roof arched high and left a sizeable gap between the gates and itself, providing a view of the outside station and surrounding land. The sky was already turning from navy to grey at this point, as if thick with clouds. All Aboard took a few seconds to simply admire it before trotting down to the door at the other side. He opened the door again, trotted on another small bridge, closed said door behind him with his tail, and sighed as he found himself in the cab with multiple seats.

All Aboard snorted as he trotted to the end, and as he passed he began looking at every seat, frowning upon seeing indents on the cushions that still lingered. He also noted that all but one of the windows' blinds were pulled down, and the one that remained free of its blind shined with just a sliver of creeping light. He jumped to the next cab without pause, finding a long hallway-like cab after that which boasted doors aplenty on either side. None were open, and marked with various signs such as 'stallion's room,' 'storage,' and 'kitchen' to name a few.

He ignored these doors and simply went to the next cab, finding himself in the one sporting the bunk-beds after jumping from the door-laden one. He took a few seconds to admire the pink bedframes that had a dip in the middle, the wooden ladders that led to the top ones, the curtains lining all the beds that oddly remained open. Then he turned to all the guests all sleeping within, sighing when he found that they slept without stirring or snoring. His hoof shifted a bit on the polished wood floor, leaving nary a mark in its wake.

He nodded to himself, beginning to contemplate how to rouse the train-goers from their slumber in a manner that would keep hostility to a bare minimum. One small part of him wanted to shout for all it was worth, but he shook his head to rid himself of the thought as soon as he saw Shining Armor sleeping in a bed not too far away.

"I do not want to earn the ire of the Captain," he muttered with a shudder. He turned to one of the beds further down, frowning as he saw a brown talon dangle off the side that twitched as it caught his eye. "When did a gryphon get onboard?"

With shuffling steps that made minimal noise, he inched his way closer to the dangling limb to investigate how it had gotten there and to whom it belonged. He froze when it retracted into the bed, but he relaxed when it produced a soft scratching sound that came and went in the span of a good two seconds. "No, I don't do manicures," a feminine voice grumbled.

All Aboard crept close enough to see the occupant, her claw on her chest and her good wing spread at half-mast. Sarah's ears twitched at his arrival, though thankfully her eyes remained closed and her breathing stayed calm. She scratched her chest, ruffling a random patch of feathers out of place. "Don't… wear horseshoes either… stooop," she groaned in protest, her face tightening a bit as she spoke.

All Aboard shuffled away from Sarah as she continued to protest against wearing shoes, heading two bunks over to find Spike sleeping in a bed, curled up like a cat as he dozed. Next to him, flat on his back, slept a purring NoLegs who softly meowed every few seconds. The stallion watching the two smiled, and he lifted a hoof and gently patted Spike on the head only to pull back when the touch caused him to turn the other way. "Aw, shucks Twi," Spike grumbled with a chuckle.

NoLegs's tail started to shift slightly, the tip just barely turning to the wall before snapping to point at Spike like an accusatory finger that gained a mind of its own. Then, slowly, he turned onto his stomach and arched his back to shift his pelvis under the rest of himself, before lifting his head and standing up with eyes drowsily blinking open.

He swiveled his head with a sleepy mew, stopping after three or four half-glance-arounds to settle his gaze on All Aboard. A brief glow flashed from the tail and around Aboard's head before he heard a voice echo in his mind, "Why are you staring at me? Did I make a mess in the bed?"

All Aboard immediately gaped, though he shook his head. "S-sorry. T-the train's arrived at the station an hour and a few minutes ago, but nopony disembarked yet," he replied in a stammering whisper. "D-did you just…"

NoLegs nodded and yawned widely, his chest puffing out slightly before deflating as he sleepily licked his lips. He mewed softly and cricked his neck a bit before sticking his tongue out and licking Spike on the tip of his nose with it. This only caused him to shudder and mutter something about Twilight and Rarity in response, and so the cat sighed and gave the drake another lick on the snout.

Spike responded that time by lifting a claw and attempting to swat NoLegs away with it, yet he received a third and final lick on the snout when even that failed to sway the cat in the slightest. Slowly, Spike's eyes cracked open as unintelligible murmurs crawled out of his throat with a smacking of dry lips. His eyes, still fogged with drowsiness, settled on NoLegs. "Need something?" he groaned.

NoLegs nodded and used his tail to gesture beyond the bed. Spike snorted and turned to the other side, and it took him a few seconds to realize that All Aboard was staring at him before he sat bolt upright with widening eyes. "Um… this is awkward…" He lifted a claw and nervously rubbed the back of his head with it, staring at the stallion with the corner of his lip twitching. "Hello?" he tried.

"A-apologies. It's just… that the Express is in Ponyville's station, yet nopony else aside from my co-conductor has noticed it," All Aboard replied, frowning as he spoke.

Spike's pupils shrank to thin slits. "Wait, we're already in Ponyville?" he asked, garnering a hesitant nod from Aboard. He jumped off the bed and landed smoothly on his feet, taking a few seconds to stretch his arms before running past two beds, then turning to scale up a ladder to find himself staring at a sleeping Twilight. He paused to ensure that he was steadied on the ladder, and nodded in satisfaction as he flexed his toes to find that the wood holding him was sturdy. That done, he stood on his tiptoes and reached over with a claw outstretched, all but one digit curled tightly into his palm.

As soon as he started tapping at her withers, Twilight's face tightened. "Not now… I'm reading a book," she mumbled. Spike responded by straightening his claw and jabbing Twilight's shoulder with it, hard enough to actually hurt her but not hard enough to gouge the flesh and draw blood. This caused the shoulder to tense considerably, yet still this did not rouse Twilight. So he poked her again, only this time between the upper lip and nostrils. He did it a little more gently that time.

When all that got him was a puff of air from briefly-flared nostrils, he groaned and shifted a bit before reaching out with both claws to grab her by the face. He made sure to cover her nostrils, and…

Next thing Spike knew, one second he stood on the ladder and the next he stomach-up was on the floor after being sent there with a hoof to the chest. Twilight thrashed wildly, the blanket flying out of the bunk to land in a heap next to him before she flung herself out of the dip of her bedframe, remained in the air for a few seconds as if using self-levitation, and then gravity happened in that order. In the resulting crash, she ended up missing both said heap and Spike by about an inch each.

The resulting thud, in turn, jolted both Katie and Rarity wide awake with startled gasps and tails standing on end like wooden planks. The two turned to the now-as-roused Twilight as she made to stand on her hooves, glancing about with wide eyes like somepony just tried to murder her bare-hoofed.

Spike also made to stand, rubbing at the back of his head with a groan of both pain and annoyance. "You could've just woken up without tossing me off the ladder, Twi…" he grumbled.

That utterance caused the awakened trio to turn to him gaping, with Rarity and Katie poking their heads out of their bunks beforehand. Katie retracted her head and pulled the covers over herself before All Aboard could turn to survey the scene, though he did turn just in time to see Twilight's ears pin back as she stared at Spike.

"I… tossed you off of a ladder?" Twilight queried, her voice low enough to be mistaken for a genuine whisper.

"It's okay; nothing more than a dull ache. I was trying to wake you up so that I could tell you that the train docked," Spike replied nonchalantly, taking a few paces forward and hugging Twilight by one of her forelegs. "Besides, I kind of deserved to get tossed off the ladder."

Twilight reluctantly returned the hug, but as soon as her free leg wrapped around Spike she heard All Aboard clear his throat. The two, plus Rarity, turned to him and gave him expectant looks. "Before you three wake up anypony else on this train with your antics, I feel the need to inquire…" He turned to the bunk Spike was on, lifted a front leg, and snatched NoLegs from the bed before pulling him out into the open in one go. "Who does this cat belong to, and why can it use magic?"

NoLegs bristled at being called an 'it,' but kept his reservations to himself as he heard someone else shuffling to awareness from nearby. He smiled as Matt poked his head out from the bed directly opposite of the one he and Spike shared, looking at All Aboard with a half-lidded expression. "The cat travels with me, and I don't know why he can use magic," he stated sleepily.

All Aboard took a few seconds to look at and then study Matt, seemingly staring at him like he had taken part in an absurd bank heist. Matt stared back, though he faltered a bit when NoLegs wriggled out of All Aboard's leg and bounced over to him like he took possession of an invisible pogo stick. "And why does he travel with you… without the aid of a pet carrier?" All Aboard queried in a tight but sincere voice.

"NoLegs doesn't need a pet carrier," Matt replied, his ears twitching slightly. He slipped a leg out of the bed and let the hoof land on the floor, and then another, until he crawled out on all fours and stood up straight. All Aboard found himself taking a step back upon seeing that the pony before him was easily a head taller, even though said pony did not display even the slightest hint of ire.

Twilight disentangled herself from her embrace with Spike and trotted forward before stepping between the two stallions. She turned to All Aboard and, after taking a few seconds to confirm that the train had indeed stopped when she found no further bumps or rattles indicating otherwise, smiled sweetly at him. "Well, since the train has stopped… could you open the doors of the boarding dock for us, please? We'll be out in a few minutes," she cooed in a sincerely sweet voice.

All Aboard took one glance at Matt before turning back to Twilight and nodding. "Very well then," he replied with a bit of hesitation. He turned to the northern end of the cab and trotted to it, only pausing once and for just long enough to let Spike step out of the way before going on his way. As soon as he opened the door, trotted through, and closed it behind him with his tail, Matt allowed himself to turn to the ceiling and scowl at it for a few seconds.

He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, and only when his scowl eased into a neutral look did he glance back down. He turned to Twilight and sighed, and the puff of air caused her to turn to him with a brow raised and her smile to melt from her muzzle. "I take it the whole 'pet carrier' thing is getting to you?" she guessed.

Matt slowly nodded, frowning just a teensy bit. "NoLegs would probably teleport out and then shred the damned thing if we ever got him one. He'd rather stretch his tail and neck and do things without having to be babied constantly, y'know?"

Twilight pursed her lips before nodding in understanding. She made to speak, but Spike walked up to Matt and beat her to it, "I get you. I'd hate being crammed into a pet carrier too."

Matt turned to Spike and smiled at him. "You'd burn it if you were crammed into one?" he queried.

Spike snorted. "Are you kidding? I'd probably just burn down the door of the carrier and crawl out if I was ever stuffed into one," he replied with a grin forming on his face. Then he glanced around, noticing that nobody else had stirred—at least, until Katie got out from under her blankets and crawled out of her bed. She cantered over with a buzz of her wings, tilting her head slightly as she glanced up at Matt.

"So, what do we do? Who gets to wake everyone else up and who gets to go out to check and see if it's the asscrack of dawn yet?" Katie asked in a flat tone, her nose wrinkling a bit as she spoke. That garnered the attention of Rarity, who clambered out of bed and made a beeline for the group.

"Considering the circumstances, I for one have no doubt that the one to check whether or not the sun has risen should be Twilight," Rarity stated rather matter-of-factly, her eyes already settled on her friend well before she stopped just an inch behind Katie.

Twilight nodded and turned to Matt. "Could you wake up everyone else with NoLegs in the meantime, please?" she asked.

Matt nodded back. He looked up cross-eyed as NoLegs teleported onto his head in a burst of blue light. "Can do," he answered with a grin. NoLegs mewed with a purr, before he teleported from his makeshift perch to the bed housing Pinkie Pie. Twilight turned to Rarity, Spike, and Katie before nodding to them, and they parted to let her trot between them towards the door All Aboard had went through earlier.

They followed after her with hasty steps, catching up to her as she opened the door and started walking on the bridge leading to the next cab. The door closed behind them as they went on their merry way, and already they could hear Pinkie exclaim in as shrill a voice as possible, "The train's stopped in Ponyville?!"

Katie winced at the sheer intensity of the outburst, as if the source was yelling directly into her ear canal. "Didn't think that your rose-tinted bubblegum-mare could get that high a pitch," she whined.

Spike turned to Katie and shrugged. "That's Pinkie for you," he replied nonchalantly.

Katie groaned and let her head drop to her barrel, her ears pinned back and her orbs dimming as if she were gripped in dread. Still, she did not complain any further as she trudged along the cab of doors with her present company, though she did turn to the southernmost door with slanted brows when she heard a series of low grumbles come from the other side. Eventually, the grumbles died down after they reached the northernmost door and proceeded to jump to the cab lined with seats.

Her ears perked to attention and her orbs lit up as she heard the sound of hooves trotting a short distance, then stopping altogether. She lifted her head and turned to Twilight, who was not sitting on a seat but nonetheless peering out of a window with her face more or less pressed against the pane. "The sun hasn't risen yet…" Twilight grumbled.

"But?" Spike pressed, a small frown on his face.

"The skyline is already turning pinkish in hue," Twilight answered, pulling away from the window and using a hoof to gesture Spike over. He rushed over and climbed onto the seat, walking up to the window with no small amount of haste. When he peered out, he saw that there was a definite tinge of pink in the horizon, further accentuated by budding golden rays that already started to paint the mountains and forests beyond with streaks of vibrant yellow.

Spike smiled and turned to Twilight. "Think the others are up yet?" he asked with a bit of amusement in his tone.

Twilight bit her lower lip and let an ear twitch, straining to listen for the tell-tale sounds of hooves and claws hitting wood in addition to murmuring voices. When she caught just the slightest noise that sounded like shuffling hooves which indicated someone was approaching, she nodded. "Well, we don't know yet…"

Katie's wings buzzed, and the two turned to her as she produced the sound which drowned out the faint shuffling. "It might be another passenger that's not with us," she stated matter-of-factly.

Twilight shook her head. "Nopony else got on board before we left the Crystal Empire," she retorted.

"But they may have come from elsewhere and weren't dropped off at their desired destination yet," Rarity piped up, shaking her head as she spoke. "Perhaps we have some ponies going to Canterlot or Appleloosa, for instance, and they might not have been dropped off over the course of the last few hours."

Twilight nodded in assent, and opened her mouth to speak before the shuffling of hooves got louder and louder until she could discern its direction. Her mouth shut and she turned to the southernmost door, and not a second too soon; it flew open right as her eyes locked onto it, revealing a yawning Sarah that stood up on her back legs.

Sarah blinked and lifted a claw to rub at her eyes, smacking her lips and swishing her tail before stumbling forward with hesitant hooves. Her good wing stayed shut and her tail lifted like a flag, though that seemed to steady her stance a bit. "Morning," she greeted.

"Morning," Twilight replied with an accompanying nod. "Is everyone else awake?"

Sarah donned a smile smile. She did not speak; instead, the sound of many hooves and claws hitting wood from the door-filled cab answered for her. She stepped aside, making sure not to trip over a seat, and watched as Shining Armor trotted through the door with Lance following him. Both stallions wore smiles and their eyes gleamed, with not one swollen vein in their sclera indicating the slightest twinge of bloodshot.

"So, what's the plan?" Lance asked with a small grin, looking at everyone already assembled as he and Shining trotted forward to let the others into the seat-cab.

Fenrir snorted as he came through the door after everyone else had gone through and spread out to take seats. He took a few seconds to look from Sarah, to Twilight, and then to Rarity and Spike. He garnered a set of three shrugging shoulders and a spark of uncertainty in blue irises, so he turned to Lance with a hint of a smirk on his face. "I propose that we set forth to Ponyville first, then find a place to rendezvous where it is most convenient at," he said.

Lance turned to Fenrir with a brow raised. "Sounds reasonable. But we'll need to head back to Fantasia in a few days, lest the rest of my army back home starts thinking I've been captured," he stated, his smile fading.

Fenrir's grin only widened. "Three days at the most, since you seem to be very impatient," he replied. "One for carrying out whatever else it is we need to do, another to spend on the train, and the last on the airship—no more, no less."

Lance's smile returned, and he exchanged a glance with Shining to garner a nod. "Can we all work with that?" he asked everyone else, garnering nods from his troops, Sarah, and Katie. Maria tilted her head a bit before she too nodded.

"I don't see why not. I'd like to see what Fantasia has to offer me and my lot," Zecora piped up, likewise nodding in assent.

Twilight and Spike flinched, quickly seeing that they were outnumbered already. The former's ears pinned back and the latter's jaw dropped as Rainbow crossed her forelegs and inserted her two bits, "I'm not going back to Fantasia until I can get Spitfire's advice on ectoplasms." Then Rainbow smiled, making the two shiver a bit as she added, "But I'm pretty sure she'll give it to me once I make up for my lack of training last week."

Lance turned to Rainbow, his brow still raised. "How do you intend to make up for a week's worth of training?" he queried sincerely.

Rainbow turned to him, her own smile widening. "You've seen how fast I fly, right?" she retorted. When Lance nodded with his smile fading again, she chirped, "I can easily give Spitfire one hundred laps if she asked me to."

"To make up for a week's worth of screwing around? I'd reckon she'd give you three hundred," Lance snorted, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Pinkie Pie interjected, turning to Fenrir as she did so, "So, where do we want to meet up at?"

Everyone turned to her in that moment, some lips pursing together and a few brows raising as their owners stared at her. "That's a darn good question," Applejack replied, firmly frowning and shaking her head.

"Maybe Golden Oaks would be a good place to meet up?" Fluttershy suggested, a small frown on her face. She shrunk a bit when everyone then turned their unified gaze on her, but she merely nodded in a manner that seemed as though done subconsciously. "If that's alright with everyone else," she added.

Then, Katie nodded as well. "But if we're staying overnight in the basement again, we're getting sleeping bags. The bookshelf wasn't as cozy as it looked," she piped up.

"Sounds good to me," Matt agreed with a nod of his own, his horn starting to glow as his gaze zeroed in on Katie. "Gonna cover you with an illusion before we disembark though."

Katie turned back to Matt and her eyes narrowed a bit. "Give it to me, Panda Colt," she replied with no small amount of amusement in her tone. A golden glow embraced her before yellow temporarily blinded her vision, and when it died everyone found that she had re-assumed her filly guise.

"What's a panda?" Maria queried, garnering a chuckle from Matt as he turned to her.

"A big fuzzy animal. It's actually a type of bear," Twilight answered before Matt could open his claptrap.

Maria turned to Twilight and nodded, her wings flapping for a few seconds before folding at her sides. Then she turned to Lance. "Daddy, how are we gonna get to Cloudsdale?" she pressed, and instantly his torn ears folded back against his head.

But before Lance could so much as even start to tremble, Pinkie spoke up again, "Oh, I have a friend named Cherry Berry who owns a hot-air balloon! That should help you two get to Cloudsdale in no time at all."

Lance turned to Pinkie and sighed with eyes that widened slightly. "A hot-air balloon?" he repeated, a little bit of disbelief in his voice.

"Yepperoni," Pinkie replied with a grin and a nod vigorous enough to make her mane wobble like it was glued to a bobblehead. "Of course, you gotta pay Cherry bits to use it, but it's not expensive."

Lance blinked. "I take it she uses the bits to repair the balloon if and when it gets damaged?" he pressed.

Pinkie nodded again, more vigorously that time. "You bet," she chirped.

Maria jumped up into the air, wings flapping but not doing anything to hold her aloft. "We can fly, daddy?! We can fly?!" she squealed with wide eyes and a grin to match.

Lance sighed and hesitantly nodded. "Yes, we can," he grumbled. He gave her a stern glare that stopped her cold, well before she could jump back up as soon as she landed. "But you're not jumping out of the balloon until we land… wherever Spitfire's at in Cloudsdale. You're still grounded for three days, and last thing we all need is you plummeting down to meet with the ground in an unpleasant manner. Got it?"

"Yes, daddy," Maria murmured, her wings drooping a bit.

Lance slumped his shoulders and let his face ease. "Alright then." He turned to Twilight. "Does Golden Oaks sound like a good rendezvous point to you?" he asked.

Twilight nodded, and turned to Shining to find him grinning at her. "I don't see why not," Shining piped up. He started trotting to the northernmost side of the cab, and everyone filed into a single-file line behind him to avoid crashing into the seats as they followed him in step.

Chapter XLV- 'Are You Certain?'

The group disembarked and wasted no time heading to Golden Oaks, though silence hung heavily amongst them even as the sun poked over the horizon and started its daily climb upwards. Armin took the time to make sure his pegasus guise wouldn't falter in the slightest, checking his false feathers and mane and tail to ensure they could not start falling out anytime soon. Katie opted to piggyback on Anna, her gaze fixed on the rising sun and the vibrant oranges, reds, and pinks it brought with.

Anna trotted up to Lance, who lead the group on with Shining. She turned to him with a grin when Maria rushed up from behind, jumped up, and landed squarely on his back in a manner that made his legs buckle for a few seconds and caused him to stop for a bit. When he fixed his posture and resumed trotting to catch up to Shining, he turned to Anna as she kept pace with him. "Yes?" he queried.

"You need any bits for the balloon?" Anna replied with the grin still on her face.

Lance pursed his lips for a few seconds, and he sighed. "Might as well give me my saddlebags while you're at it. Just take out the bullets first; last thing I need is the locals asking me why I'm toting ammunition around," he answered.

"But you might need those and your gunblade," Anna pointed out, her grin fading. "You'll never know exactly when. Better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them."

Lance's brow furrowed slightly, and the corner of his mouth began twitching. "True enough." Then he sighed. "Let's discuss it further when we get to the library."

Anna nodded. "Sounds good," she chirped.

"Daddy, are there any other fillies I can play with?" Maria queried in a sincere tone, which garnered a sigh from Katie, who at last turned away from the still-climbing sun and towards her.

"Given what you've been through, and the way you talk and think, I'd have to say 'no' on the grounds you're not exactly a kid by mind anymore," Katie scoffed, a very firm frown on her illusioned face.

Lance nodded in assent. "Gonna have to agree there, Maria. I'd wager there aren't many foals in these parts who know half the things you do," he stated.

"But—" Maria began, only to stop when Anna gave a groan.

"They're both right, sadly. I don't want you teaching any fillies and colts your age where certain body parts go or how to hack said certain body parts. Or how to molest a pony, Godcat forbid. As harsh as this is gonna sound, you playing with the local foals is not happening," Anna said in a firm tone, her brow furrowing at the mere thought of the entire idea. She rolled her eyes and added, "That, and I'd rather not have to listen to said other foals' parents bitch and moan until our ears go to oblivion."

Then, Shining of all ponies backed the two up with his two bits, "Yeah, Maria… foals who know what you do tend to be…" He turned to her, silent for a few seconds as he swallowed heavily before carefully finishing, "a little bit of an oddball around these parts. If anything, you might attract bad foals who'll demean just about anypony… or gryph, in your case, that doesn't fit in with the norm."

Maria turned to Shining and deflated slightly. "Bad foals?" she asked.

Shining nodded. "Yes. I've heard stories about a few making fun of others for lacking cutie marks, or something inane like that," he replied. He smiled at Maria and added, "Don't look or feel bad; your surrogates are just looking out for you."

Maria nodded and her wings flexed a bit. "Okay," she chirped with a budding smile on her face.

Shining turned to Lance and his smile grew enough to start rivaling that of Katie's again. "At least you don't have it as bad," he chirped.

Lance turned to regard Shining with a brow raised high. "What're you on about?" he asked, causing Shining to snort and chuckle.

"Well, whenever you decide to give your filly the talk, for instance, it'll be a lot easier on you because of the way she thinks and the things she already knows about. You've been spared a lot of awkwardness on your part," Shining chirped in reply, his smile widening just a little bit more as he spoke.

Lance flinched at that with shrinking pupils, his ears immediately folding to rest on the back of his head. "You're saying that like she's already hit puberty!" he exclaimed.

"Mentally, she already has in a way," Katie piped up from Anna's back, donning a very snide grin when Lance turned back to her slack-jawed. "Meaning, no matter how you slice it, you two are effectively fucked."

For a few seconds, Lance's jaws remained parted as he stared at the disguised wraith like she'd stolen a cigar from him, lit it without the aid of a lighter, and took a puff of smoke before his very eyes. Then his mouth started moving, but no words would come out of his throat.

He kept looking at Katie with his jaw soundlessly moving for another few minutes before he gave a groan of irritation, snorted, and turned away when he realized he could not make a single rebuttal against her argument. His mouth snapped shut after that, forming a small but tight frown that made it look as though he were annoyed. The frown did ease as he trotted on, and his ears began twitching as he heard those behind him and Shining and Anna start a round of small talk.

Before he could listen to and process the small talk, though, Maria shifted a bit to rest her stomach on his back. "Daddy, what's that?" she asked.

Lance craned his neck slightly to look at her with lips curled back to reveal unmoving molars and canines. "What's what?" he retorted in a forced calm tone, through clenched teeth at that. She rose a talon and gestured to the building with the small bell-tower atop its frame, and he took one look at it before shrugging his shoulders in mute reply.

Anna also turned to the building in question, having seen Maria gesture to it. "It looks… like a barnhouse," she answered. The bell atop it started to ring, though as the group came into sight of Sugarcube Corner, the clanging started to grow faint.

Pinkie bolted up to Shining from behind, then raced ahead before skidding to a halt in front of Sugarcube Corner. This caused the rest of the group to stop trotting, with all sets of eyes falling onto her with brows raised. "Could you stay here for a few minutes? I gotta check on something right quick," Pinkie stated with a small smile on her face.

Lance and Shining exchanged glances, then turned to Pinkie and gave her mute shrugs in return. Anna spoke up, "Nobody's stopping you. Go ahead."

Pinkie's smile widened. "Okie-dokie-lokie! I'll be back in a jiffy!" she chirped before rushing to the establishment with a bounce in her step. Though as she opened the door and bounded in like she owned the place, her mane and tail deflated slightly and her smile faded. She closed it behind her with her tail and stiffened for a few seconds, but took a deep breath through her nostrils to relax herself.

Her heart sunk a little when she didn't see anypony behind the counter, though her ears perked when she did hear a tell-tale clanging of pots and pans. She trotted up to the counter before going around it, heading directly for the source of the clanging. Finding that the door leading to the kitchen was ajar, she lifted a hoof to push it further open before trotting in to find Carrot and Cup Cake hard at work. The former was managing the taffy machine to make a heaping glob of rainbow-colored candies, while the latter had been hovering near the counter with a steaming pie before her.

Between them, playing with a mound of blocks, were Pumpkin and Pound, who instantly turned to the new arrival and called out "Pinkie Pie!" in unison. Their utterance caused Cup and Carrot to turn away from what they were doing, and both smiled at Pinkie when they saw her standing near the door.

Cup Cake trotted away from the pie and hugged Pinkie as soon as she was within hoof's reach. "Oh, goodness! We weren't expecting you to be back so soon," she chirped.

Pinkie returned the hug, and her mane and tail inflated a bit as she did so. "Oh, things were hectic at the Crystal Empire. It was fun, but also terrible at the same time," she replied, breaking the embrace with a content sigh.

Carrot's smile fell, he raised a brow, and cleared his throat to garner the attention of the two mares. "Terrible and fun, you say? Well… what happened?" he queried with a frown forming on his face.

"Well, a bad pony who escaped from Canterlot's dungeon somehow got to the Empire and tried harassing Shining's guards and the Fantasians. He made Shining reaaaally mad two nights ago. Good thing he was jailed again, or things would've been awful," Pinkie replied, her muzzle also forming a frown to match that of Carrot's. "But the Crystal Faire yesterday was very fun. I even took part in a new game that Shining made. I didn't even know archery could be fantastic!" she added, her smile coming back full force once she finished.

Carrot's frown turned upside-down in that moment. "That's good to hear." He turned to Pumpkin and Pound, watching them as they stood up, toddled away from their blocks, and went all the way over to Pinkie before giggling. "It seems the twins missed you," he noted.

Pinkie turned to the babies and smiled at them, before returning her attention to Carrot. "Say, can I take the babies with me to Fluttershy's place? I promise I'll keep them safe, and you two are already awfully busy this morning," she said.

Carrot's smile faded again, and he bit his lip and raised a hoof to rub his chin. He hummed for a bit before his hoof dropped and he nodded. "As long as you remember to change, feed, bathe, and play with them, I don't see why not," he replied. "Just bring them back and put them to sleep when you're done."

Pinkie beamed again. "Yes sir! I'll be sure to take good care of them," she chirped. Her utterance caused the babies to giggle and burble in glee, and they started hopping around her legs eagerly.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The group mulled about in the front of Sugarcube Corner for some fifteen minutes, chatting amongst themselves when the door to the establishment opened and dual giggles reached all ears present. They hushed and turned to the building, some smiling and others with brows raising as Pinkie bounced out with a backpack laden on her withers and two foal-carriers on her midsection that Pumpkin and Pound occupied.

Lance trotted towards Pinkie as soon as she rejoined the group, both brows raised and eyes going wide. "What're the foals for?" he asked. "They yours?"

Pinkie shook her head and grinned at him. "Nope, but I do foalsit them every now and again. I just figured I wanted to spend time with both of them and my friends," she chirped. Lance nodded and turned to Pound, who spread his little wings and giggled at him like he woke up wearing clown make-up. Pinkie turned to Pound and grinned at him. "Seems he likes you," she cooed. The group turned away from Sugarcube Corner and headed down a road going south.

They continued on their way to Golden Oaks before stopping at a fork in the road, though Natalie picked up her pace to catch up with Pinkie, with Matt falling in step behind her.

Natalie leaned in to nuzzle Pumpkin once she was close enough, smiling when the filly booped her on the nose in response. "Were you a good little filly?" she cooed, her smile widening when Pumpkin giggled at her query.

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "She and her brother were probably good foals while I was gone," she answered for Pumpkin, garnering another set of giggles from the filly in question. "Their parents are really good when it comes to caring for foals. I bet Lance could take lessons from Mr. Cake." That utterance caused Lance to seize up with a choked gasp leaving his mouth, which in turn made Pinkie turn to him and snort once she saw that he was already turning blue in the face.

"But Lance has a growing filly with a foul mouth," Matt stated with a grin. "I don't think Mr. Cake could help him on that front."

Pinkie pursed her lips as she turned to Matt, and her brow slanted slightly. After giving his remark some thought, she nodded glumly. "Eh, you do have a point there," she agreed.

Lance took in a shallow breath, but chose to keep his mouth closed as the group turned to the left on the fork and kept on going. The others chattered on around him, but their latest bits of gossip simply went in one torn ear and straight out the other with speeds rivaling that of freshly-fired bullets. So he simply kept his gaze fixed forward, noticing that despite the rising sun, nopony else came out of their houses yet.

As the collective herd rounded a lengthy bend with the library finally coming into sight, however, they came upon a large gathering of particularly vocal ponies who were already out and about. Shining trotted a little closer with Lance in tow, watching intently as the other ponies' bickering meshed together into an incomprehensible mess as they cut ahead before they veered to the right at another fork further down the road. Among this mass was a peculiar mare sporting a pale brown coat that bordered on beige, and a silvery mane and tail. She broke into a gallop to take the lead of the second group.

"Now, now, everypony. We'll be civilised when we get to the town hall," the almost-beige mare implored in a calm but no-nonsense tone that demanded some modicum of respect. Her voice was what ground the first group to a halt, a mere trot's distance from the library at that. They watched still, and Shining caught a glimpse of yellow and red running to and fro between sets of stamping hooves, followed by a blur of red and orange.

"But what if we need the Bearers of Harmony, Mayor Ivory Scroll?" a stallion called out from the crowd ahead. "I heard we had visiting Fantasians that've been in Equestria for a while."

"Let's save such a thing for the town meeting today," Ivory Scroll replied, her voice rising slightly to silence the resulting murmurs that swept through the rest of the crowd with the stallion's utterance. Once things fell into tranquility, she broke it with a firm statement, "I'm sure we'll figure something out. And if the Bearers show up, things might just go swimmingly for us all." The crowd started fading into the distance, before turning a corner and vanishing from sight.

Twilight trotted up to Shining and exchanged glances with him. "The town's already assembled to head to the hall? That's not something that usually happens around here," she bemoaned, a frown forming on her face.

Shining's face hardened. "It seems the library will have to wait for a few minutes, at the least," he replied before turning to face Lance, who still stared at where the crowd had gone. He lifted a hoof and poked him on the withers with it, garnering an incredulous look. "Would you and yours mind staying in the library for a few?" he asked.

Lance nodded with wide eyes, dilated pupils, ears folded back, and muzzle slightly scrunched. Finally, after his mouth opened again and his gums flapped for a few minutes on end, he found his voice. "We'll… uh, be in the basement," he stated in a very uneasy voice. Then he trotted towards the library with a hurried pace, causing Matt and Natalie to exchange looks before turning to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie looked at them before directing her attention to Shining.

Shining turned to stare her in the eye before spinning around to stare at Fluttershy, Rainbow, Rarity, Applejack, Spike, and Zecora. "Can you guys keep the Fantasians out of trouble? Me and Twilight are gonna head to the town hall for a bit, and we shouldn't be gone long," he stated. As soon as he got a series of nods after the mares and dragon he addressed exchanged glances, he and his sister turned to the fork up ahead and broke out into a unified gallop.

They spared just one glance over their shoulders to confirm that the others stayed behind, and both smiled as the group began heading to the library after Lance. Then they turned to stare ahead again and reached the fork in under a minute, veering sharply to the right as if avoiding a wall they couldn't simply jump over in a single bound.

The still-bickering crowd was up ahead by a few miles that took some six minutes to cross, already congregating with yet more ponies around a large building that jutted up like a thumbtack amidst a few houses and establishments that were dwarfed in comparison. It had a large, manicured patch of grass spanning a few yards all to itself, only offsetted by a nearby river and bridges arching over said river.

This building looked as though the construction team got inspired by a carefully-crafted and layered wedding cake; it had several sets of steps leading onto a porched alcove of sorts. It came with pink windows and sturdy, painted-mauve oak doors framing the base of the building. It had a first floor atop that, constructed much like the base albeit with a balcony and fence to keep the foolhardy from tumbling to the ground and pillars starting from the ground floor that held it up.

It was capped off with a sloped, angled roof leading to two more balconies, one with more windows and pillars to hold up an arching roof and the other serving as a sort of crow's nest if one so desired to use it for that purpose. On the porch of sorts, standing behind a polished podium crafted of wood and between two of those pillars was Ivory Scroll. She looked over the forming crowd with critical eyes as blue and cold as ice, waiting until the mass of ponies stopped accruing more members than she could hope to count before clearing her throat just once.

Any sort of noise the crowd made in that moment, even as Twilight and Shining stepped in behind them without notice from their fellow attendees, died as soon as that sound crawled from her throat.

She turned her piercing, chilling gaze onto Twilight and Shining before nodding to them once. "Would you two like to step up to the podium?" she queried in a friendly, though miffed, tone of voice that had the rest of the crowd turning to them on the spot.

Shining and Twilight exchanged glances, then turned to Ivory and nodded in unison. The crowd parted to let them through, and they began to languidly walk to the podium shoulder-by-shoulder.

"Is it true there are Fantasians in Equestria?" a stallion called from their right.

"Are they evil and cruel?" a mare yodeled from the left.

"Why would they bring changelings with them? Doesn't that seem fishy?" a third asked from the right, his query causing a wave of murmurs to sweep through the crowd like a tide. "Would that mean they're all changelings?"

"Do they take candy from foals?" a filly on the left asked.

"Now, now," Ivory Scroll chided in a raised voice as she tapped her hoof on the podium like a gavel, her no-nonsense tone combined with the thumping hushing the murmurs almost immediately. "No need to bedraggle Twilight and her brother with a laundry list of questions. As it stands, I myself have enough unanswered as is." That caused Twilight and Shining to pick up their pace, though the two shuddered nonetheless.

The two exchanged another look as they came closer to the podium, and at this rate they were a mere trot's distance from it now. They swallowed nervously before nodding to each other and quickening their pace again, crossing the distance in a matter of seconds. Twilight saw a magenta glow in her sight for a few milliseconds before she heard Shining's voice echo into her head, "Might as well get this over with." Giving a silent nod of assent, she turned to Ivory Scroll as she and her brother trotted around the podium and directly to her.

Amethyst eyes locked with ice-cold ones, and for but a few seconds the lock held tight, taking precedence over all else in that moment. Then Ivory blinked and asked, "Are any of the claims the good citizens of Ponyville keep going on about, in any way, shape, or form true?"

Twilight turned to look at the crowd for a second or two before averting back to Ivory. "Yes and no," she replied, a slight frown forming on her face.

Then another pony broke through the crowd, causing the three near the podium to turn to the source as she forced herself onto the cleared path with a wordless cry. "I've met some of the Fantasians, and they're really nice folk!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. All eyes fell onto her as she added, "They helped my sister buck trees a few days ago."

"You don't know that for certain!" cried the stallion who made the assumption about all of the Fantasians being changelings. He stood up on his back legs, revealing a horn, a pale yellow coat and a blue mane as he added, "They might be waiting to strike!"

"I beg to differ," another voice cut through the crowd as, from behind Apple Bloom, Big Mac trotted onto the clear divide the crowd didn't bother to re-fill. He flanked his sister before addressing the unicorn who was upright, "Comet Tail, did you not get a wink of sleep last night? It sure sounds like it."

Comet Tail's ears folded back, and he flinched as though struck across the face by a flyswatter. "How do you know that?" he retorted in a faltering voice.

"I met them in the flesh. As my sister said, they are good folk," Big Mac replied in an even voice, his expression straight and steadfast. "Maybe I could take you to meet them, if they show up again."

Silence held the crowd, and yet again Shining and Twilight exchanged looks. Then they turned to Comet Tail as he sighed and sunk back into the crowd on all fours. After that, Big Mac and Apple Bloom retreated into the mass of ponies as well, although they stuck together in doing so.

Then the gap between the crowd closed as everypony within shuffled about, before they stilled and sat on their haunches. Twilight saw Ivory shift away from the podium in her peripheral gaze before shuffling over to take both said podium and the entirety of the crowd's immediate attention. "It's true that there are some Fantasians in Equestria," she announced, yet again causing the crowd to murmur with her utterance. "But," she began, silencing all on the spot, "the only reason they're in Equestria is to discuss potential relations with Celestia in the future."

"Then what explains this!?" Comet Tail shouted, his horn glowing with a silver aura. In a flash of light, a stack of newspapers materialized before hovering next to him. He threw it rather unceremoniously over half of the crowd, and it would have hit Twilight's face has she not lit her horn and grabbed it with her aura at the last second.

She brought it close and scanned it, seeing a familiar article with three pictures to one side. She made it vanish in a puff of pink smoke before turning to Comet. "About that… one of the Fantasians runs an army with changelings and gryphons. As for the hotel… I'm not even gonna delve into that," Twilight replied with a huff.

"Are they trying to invade?!" Comet yelled, his eyes narrowing as he abruptly stood on his back legs again.

Twilight groaned. "Here we go. The madness has officially begun," she muttered under her breath with a roll of her eyes. "No. I will repeat myself only once, because evidently you weren't paying attention," she stated firmly, shaking her head as she spoke. "They only want to establish relations with Equestria—nothing more, nothing less."

Comet Tail's face tightened to the point he looked as though glowering. "How do you know that?" he queried.

Twilight snorted, eyes narrowing slightly. "Try asking a different question. You're just exhausting that one," she replied in an icy tone.

Comet Tail's lips pulled back and he started grinding his teeth, but a glare from Shining and Ivory stopped him from speaking right as he opened his mouth to pipe up again. His mouth clacked shut and he slowly sat back down. His pupils dilated when he saw Shining's horn glow, before a flash of magic exploded next to him to reveal a bowl of popcorn at the ready. His teeth ground harder when Shining offered the bowl to Ivory Scroll, who accepted the treat and popped some into her mouth.

He tuned out what Twilight had to say about the Fantasians after that, not bothering to absorb details about trade relations and how all of that mumbo-jumbo was going to work out.

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After the crowd had been quelled and dispersed an hour later that morning, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief and let her shoulders slump. She turned to Ivory and Shining, both of whom looked at her with grins on their muzzles and an empty bowl sitting between them. "I must say, Twilight, your arguments were very sound. Why, it's almost like you met with the Fantasians," Ivory noted, causing both Twilight and Shining to flinch at the remark.

Twilight lifted a hoof and rubbed the back of her head nervously, an awkward and warbling grin spreading on her face as a dry chuckle left her mouth. "Weeeeeell…" Her ears twitched, and her grin widened and faltered as Ivory gave her an expectant look. "Would you like to come to the library with me, Ivory? I… have something I'd like to show you."

Ivory raised a bemused brow. "Something?" she queried sincerely, her own grin likewise broadening.

Twilight dropped her hoof and hesitantly nodded. "Yeah. But can you promise to keep it just between us? I don't want the townsponies to lose their marbles again," she replied.

Ivory's other brow rose to join its mate. "Like the stampeding rabbits ordeal?" she asked.

"Sort of, but worse if word got out," Twilight stated in an uneven voice, her mouth twitching a little to the right as she spoke.

Ivory bit her lower lip as her brows lowered, before she turned to Shining to find him looking back with an expression that betrayed slanted brows, a faltering smile rivaling that of Twilight's, and shrunk pupils—a mix between amusement and pleading. Only then did she relent and nod. "Alright, I'll bite. But it better be good," she said in a flat tone.

The three then trotted off of the alcove, though Shining took a few seconds to make the empty bowl vanish in a flare of light before he joined the two mares as they gained a trot's distance from him. "So, would either of you tell me what I'm gonna get into here?" Ivory piped up as Shining rejoined them. The siblings looked at her, still bearing nervous grins that warbled so much it seemed as if they threatened to fall off their muzzles at any second.

"Well… it's kinda a surprise. You'll know when we get there," Twilight answered before turning to glance forward. She left it at that. Ivory, thankfully, took the hint and nodded, sporting a small grin on her face that lasted for all of fifteen minutes that it took to get back to Golden Oaks. As soon as they reached the building, Twilight trotted to the door and opened it before poking her head inside, finding that everything was as it should be: books in alcoves, horse head bust before the table. There was nary a thing out of place.

But as she came inside, motioning with a hoof for Ivory and Shining to follow suit, she heard voices so muffled it was difficult to make out whatever words they spoke. As soon as her brother and her newest guest flanked her, her horn lit up and she lifted the table behind the bust with a flare of magic, revealing the winding stairs going down. This also caused the voices she heard to get louder, though whether or not they were shouting she couldn't tell.

"Twilight? Do you have ponies in your basement again?" Ivory asked in a sincere voice, her smile fading at last.

Twilight nodded. "Just follow me," she stated simply. She made for the stairs, but not before setting the table to one side so it wouldn't hamper her in any way. Taking the first few steps thereafter, her ears perked as the voices became clearer.

"Y'all got any queens?" one asked, which Twilight immediately recognized as Applejack's.

"Not again," a masculine voice grumbled indignantly. After some seconds, the owner added, "Any four's?" Another few seconds. "Aaaand my hoof is emptied." Followed promptly by a loud thump.

"It seems they're keeping themselves busy, whoever they are," Ivory noted with an amused snort.

Twilight mutely nodded as they went down a winding staircase that did not span any longer than a standard set leading to another floor. This gave way to a small hall with gnarled tree roots poking out overhead, which ended in a small green door that remained closed for the moment. As they came closer, Shining flared his horn and grappled the doorknob in his magic, hastening his trot so that he could go shoulder-to-shoulder with Twilight. There was a brief pause when they reached the door about a minute later, and they kept still for a few seconds.

The two turned to Ivory Scroll in unison as the door was flung open, their forms obscuring what was beyond. For a few more seconds, the voices that chattered hushed, and silence cradled the basement before being abruptly broken as Pinkie asked, "Anypony got any seven's?"

Twilight felt an increasing tightness in her chest the longer she kept her back to the door, watching Ivory with as straight a face as she could muster. Then she heard Matt pipe up, "What next, a concussion? Pinkie, you've just won how many games now?" This was followed by another wave of bickering from many voices.

Ivory cleared her throat and turned to Twilight. "We have some new ponies in town?" she guessed, a brow raising yet again before dipping back low.

Twilight nodded for the upteempth time. "Not just any ponies, though," she replied before she turned around and trotted into the room.

Shining stayed for a few seconds, his ears slowly turning back to rest against his head. "These guys… aren't of your standard run-of-the-mill sort," he added before likewise shifting to face the door and trotting into the room beyond. "Everyone, your attention please," he said in a firm voice, one that quelled the bickering yet again. Ivory lifted a brow when 'everyone' instead of 'everypony' left Shining's mouth, and it rose higher with his next utterance.

"It seems you'll have to be discreet today, as we've confirmed that the rest of Ponyville has caught on to your presence. That said, we've decided to introduce you to the mayor of this town, as she's promised me and Twily to keep a secret," Shining announced. "Are you fine with this?"

Several voices said "yes" or "yeah" in unison. Among them, a cat meowed, which caused Ivory's mouth to twitch a little. This was followed by a shuffling of what sounded like cards.

"Alright then," Shining stated. "Ivory Scroll, come in please," he beckoned. Ivory did not need a second invitation; she trotted to the door and went into the room to find Twilight's friends, in addition to Pumpkin and Pound Cake. All sans the aforementioned babies were engaged in a card game with the strangest ensemble she'd ever seen.

Maria wasted no time putting her cards face-down on the floor as soon as Ivory turned to her. "You're a pretty pony," she innocently chirped.

Ivory blushed and managed a small smile. "W-why thank you, d-dear," she stammered. She turned to Fenrir, whose paws dwarfed the cards he held so much he may as well have been in possession of bobby pins. "A… oh, um…"

Fenrir smiled at Ivory and lifted a paw to gesture her over. "It is alright; me and my acquaintances do not wish you any harm."

Ivory hesitated for a full minute before she slowly walked over and sat next to him prior to turning away, only to then find herself staring at a pale face that at first seemed like that of a filly's. But then it shifted into a grotesque, almost skeletal thing with a flare of gold and a buzzing of wings. It was this abrupt change that caused Ivory's pupils to dilate into tiny pinpricks.

"Long and complicated story. But I won't bite," Katie chirped, her orbs twinkling with some fleeting vestige of emotion that Ivory couldn't pinpoint a name to. She extended a card-free hoof in greeting, noticing that Ivory stared at her with a jittering jaw that threatened to drop. "Broken as I may be, I'm not going to drain you of your love or anything of the sort. I've lost that kind of drive a long time ago."

Pinkie, who sat directly opposite of Ivory, piped up, "She's actually friendly, if only a bit blunt. Still, she's not a meanie-pants like Chrysalis and her army."

Ivory sighed through her nostrils and hesitantly lifted a hoof to grapple with Katie's, and she made sure to very tenderly shake it as soon as she had it in her grasp. "This is… a lot to take in…" Her eyes flew to look at each and every new face present. "Where'd you guys come from?"

"World over yonder," Natalie answered with a slight smirk. "Things, ah… got a little hectic lately."

"You're telling me," Ivory snorted, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "I had to have help calming down a crowd in the last hour and a half." Then she registered the 'world over yonder' bit and her eyes widened. "Wait, so you are the Fantasians everypony's been fussing over?" When ten heads nodded at once, she turned to Shining with twitching eyes. "Um… why aren't they in Canterlot presently?"

Chapter XLVI, Part I- 'Pretty Please?'

Shining's shoulders slumped, and he opened his mouth to speak when Lance turned to Ivory and beat him to the punch, "We don't want to be the target of another mob-fueled riot, thank you."

Ivory turned to Lance, eyes still twitching. "Riot?" she queried.

"Yes. We're trying to stay out of sight, because a whole lot of ponies weaponized furniture against us in Canterlot, and we didn't do anything to earn their ire," Lance replied with a nod.

Ivory managed to get her eyes to stop twitching, and she lifted a hoof before tapping at her chin with it. She gave his remark some thought, then turned to Shining. "Is what he said true?" she asked.

Shining nodded. "I had to help in crowd control while Canterlot's populace erupted like a volcano," he replied, his tone glum. "At first, the rioters thought it was Cloudsdale's fault."

"And then someone got the brilliant idea of pinning it on us," Katie finished for Shining, snorting derisively.

Ivory Scroll took a few seconds to let what she heard sink in. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it and jerked her head up towards the root-laden ceiling when she heard the distinctive sound of a crash of thunder. "Now what was that about? There aren't any storms scheduled today, are there?" she queried.

"Not that I know of," Rainbow replied, wincing as she heard glass breaking seconds later. That was promptly followed by three thuds and then another of metal hitting wood. Everyone else turned upward as well, with Katie's ears standing to attention. Pumpkin and Pound burbled in unison, tilting their heads quizzically.

Then a voice broke the tranquility, a young and stubborn one at that. "Gosh dang it, Scoots! I knew we couldn't get our cutie marks in paragliding!"

Applejack's brow furrowed, and she looked about to find Fenrir on one side of her and Rarity and Rainbow on the other. "Again?" she hissed upon turning back to the ceiling. She stood up abruptly, dropping her hoof of cards in the process.

Another voice squeaked from above, "Hey, is that a flight of stairs?" This was followed by a rustling of something sounding like a flapping sheet of paper, albeit one mixed with another of groaning metal.

"I think it is, Sweetie Belle. Where do you think it leads?" another voice queried, one brash yet feminine in tone.

Rainbow Dash turned to Applejack and rolled her eyes. "Again," she stated. Then her eyes widened when three sets of hoofsteps repeatedly thumped from above, still tailed by flapping paper and groaning metal. "Here we go." She lifted her front hooves and plugged her ears with them.

Matt's horn started glowing, and his eyes zeroed in on Katie. "You know the drill by now." That was the only warning he gave before he zapped her with a beam of golden light from across the basement, hitting her squarely in the barrel before letting it dissipate as she took on her filly guise almost immediately after.

Ivory turned to Katie as the spell died off in a flurry of golden dust. "Now that's something I don't see every day, even by Ponyville standards," she remarked, her eyes going wide again. Her ears pinned back when the hoofsteps resounded, only to give way to a series of thuds, screams, and metal snapping like twigs that got closer and closer with each passing second.

Silence fell as three little blurred forms bowled into the room, dragging with them a poor paraglider that was beaten and singed beyond repair. They stopped just short of Matt, who lit his horn and used his magic to grapple them before they could crash into him. As soon as they stopped, he found that the blurred forms were a slightly-singed Scootaloo, a bruised Apple Bloom, and a muddied Sweetie Belle. All of them had bits of glass shards in their manes, yet nothing else was out of the ordinary with them.

He sighed and turned to the wrecked gliding equipment and found that the trio had gotten their tails snagged on one of the horrendously-bent rods, and so disentangled them by merely sliding the rod in question in the opposite direction. That done, he picked the whole contraption up and set it aside near a pile of books where nobody could trip over it.

Once the trio regained their senses, they shook their heads and turned up to look at Matt. He merely lifted a hoof and gestured to Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. "You do realize Twi's gonna need a new window, right?" Applejack hissed, eyes narrowing slightly, yet twitching as though she struggled to keep them from scrunching any further.

Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle all flinched back with ears folding to rest against her heads. "B-but a stray thundercloud hit the glider and w-we lost control!" Sweetie exclaimed with widening eyes.

Rainbow sighed and exchanged glances with Rarity and Applejack. She opened her mouth to speak, only to close it as Apple Bloom turned to Natalie and asked, "Hey, why're you sparkling? You weren't last time you were here."

Natalie blushed with ears pinned back. "Uh… I'm a crystal unicorn, but I'd rather not talk about it," she replied before letting her eyes narrow a bit as she stared at Apple Bloom. "And are you sure a thundercloud hit your glider?" she asked, a note of disbelief in her voice.

Apple Bloom and her companions frantically nodded. "Yeah! It came from the Everfree, too!" she added.

Pinkie's eyes bulged to the size of saucers, and she stood up on her back legs abruptly. "Wait, the Everfree?!" she cried. When the trio nodded, her pupils shrank to pinpricks. "That's not good," she murmured.

Fluttershy sighed, and then put her cards down before shifting to stand up on all fours. She turned to Rainbow, flaring her wings as wide as they could spread. "I think we might have to look into this again," she stated with her brow slanting.

Dash nodded, and likewise dropped her cards before bolting up. She rushed to Apple Bloom and her friends before giving them a quick once-over, though other than singe-marks and bruises and mud and small glass shards, she found that they looked more or less alright. Turning her attention to the wrecked paraglider, she spotted a clear object stuck between the rods, and it would have been otherwise unnoticeable had there not also been a forming puddle directly beneath it.

Dash trotted over to inspect the anomaly and dipped a hoof into the liquid before feeling a slushy coldness, as though she'd found a pile of melting snow. Then she turned back to Fluttershy. "They're not kidding. A stray hail cloud might also have joined in," she reported. "Besides that and a much-needed bath for the Crusaders, I don't see anything else."

Fluttershy's wings gave the slightest twitch. She nodded and turned to Lance, whom she immediately noticed to have been looking at the newest arrivals with a slightly-furrowed brow and a tight frown, complete with concern glimmering in his eyes. "You might want to be careful on the hot-air balloon today," she warned, garnering little more than a quick-second look and a nod in response.

Scootaloo noticed Lance's staring and turned to him with a snort. "Why're you giving us the stink-eye? What'd we do?" she asked.

"Aside from the obvious, I feel the need to ask: how the hell did you manage to crash into a stray cloud?" Lance asked in a very sincere, slightly miffed, and heavily-concerned tone that was only betrayed by the sparks in his eyes.

"Uh… we found out we weren't good at paragliding. And Scoots thought it was a good idea for all of us to try and control it at once," Sweetie Belle answered in a sincere voice, immediately garnering an indignant glare from Scootaloo.

"At least it was worth a try, and nothing like trying to get our cooking cutie marks that one time!" Scootaloo seethed.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, and punctuated it with a snort. "Or that one time I got cutie pox," she added, causing the other two to turn to her with shudders running down their spines.

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About another hour and a half ticked by after that, and as the sun reached its apex the group trotted out of the library, a few of them sporting cloaks and a saddlebag or two. They stood in front of the library before Twilight gathered Shining, a bandaged Apple Bloom, and a now-clean Sweetie Belle before her.

"You sure you want to go with Lance?" Twilight questioned, looking at the foals in particular. When they nodded, she sighed. "Alright then. Let me cast a quick spell on you three."

"Why?" Sweetie questioned, a brow raised.

Twilight turned to Sweetie and answered, "Lance wants to go to Cloudsdale. On you three, I'll have to cast a special spell on you that'll let you walk on clouds." With that, her horn glowed and her magic embraced the trio in front of her, lingering for a few seconds before fading with a pop and a fizz. "There, that should do it."

"How long will it last?" Shining piped up once the spell faded.

Twilight turned to him and smiled. "A good twenty-four hours should have you and Sweetie and Apple Bloom covered," she answered.

Then the two fillies rushed to join Scootaloo, and after that they rushed to Lance as though of one mind, with all three sporting wide eyes and grins to match. "Can we come with you, mister Lance?" they pleaded in unison.

"No," Lance replied flatly, shaking his head at the trio.

"Please?" they pressed, their grins widening. "We'll be good, honest."

"No," Lance replied, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Pretty please? Sprinkles on top?" they asked again, their grins widening to the point their cheeks started twitching just to maintain them.

Lance stared into the collective eyes of the Crusaders and saw sparks of pleading. A niggling feeling started to claw at the back of his mind, and as a result a small frown formed on his face. "No," he replied, but in a warbling voice that was less firm than he'd have liked.

"Please?" the Crusaders begged yet again, grins somehow widening just a smidgen more.

Lance's shoulders sagged, and the niggling feeling got that much stronger. He stared at them for some five minutes in silence, and it grew and grew until his head began to hurt a little. "Fine, but be good," he relented.

"Yay!" the Crusaders cheered in unison, jumping up and down in place for a few seconds before ceasing, still maintaining their grins for some seconds after.

With that, the group turned and then started trotting away from Golden Oaks. As they went on, Maria opted to hitch a ride on Lance's back again by jumping onto it. She found that she now had to contend with his saddlebag and his gunblade, both of which rattled like a million shards of glass as he took the lead. Getting situated, she kept her wings closed and her claws on his withers.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders trotted after Lance like a mother duck leading her ducklings. They weaved around a few roads in a trot lasting for a few minutes in silence before the lot split in two at a fork in the road; the Crusaders still tailed Lance, as did Shining, Anna, and Sarah. The others simply went in the opposite direction, intent on heading elsewhere for the day.

Scootaloo in particular eyed the gunblade with brows raised and a tight frown forming on her face. "Mister, why would you need that… sword in Ponyville?" she asked.

Lance sighed and shook his head. "It's not necessarily for just Ponyville, but put it like this: I'd rather err on caution than end up in something I didn't prepare for," he replied.

"But Ponyville's full of nice ponies. I don't see why you'd need a big sword like that," Apple Bloom remarked, frowning.

Lance shook his head again. "Canterlot gave me serious doubts, and the Crystal Empire only solidified them. I'm just being careful," he retorted in a firm voice.

Apple Bloom exchanged looks with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, both of whom shrugged to her as soon as their eyes locked for the barest of instants. She sighed and turned back to Lance with her brow slanting and her frown deepening. "Alright then," she stated in glum resignation.

Sweetie Belle turned to her companions and flashed them a grin. "Maybe we could get him to open up more," she suggested, momentarily lifting a front hoof higher than normal to gesture to Lance with it.

Scootaloo turned to her with a tight frown and slightly-narrowed eyes. "Are you kidding? Sweetie, you might as well try to grow wings," she spat. "He has a sword in public, and Celestia knows what in his saddlebags! I wouldn't put it past him to seriously hurt somepony with it! For all we know, he's probably done something that'd get him stoned by the Elements faster than you can say 'caught in a landslide!'"

"I heard that," Lance growled without turning to give the Crusaders so much as a split-second look. "Every. Last. Word." He snorted before adding, "If you were my kids, I'd be reading you the riot act here and now!"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes and shook her head, spreading a wing to point at Lance before mouthing, "Case in point."

"Daddy, what's a riot act?" Maria queried, her utterance causing Lance to sigh.

"Basically, a form of punishment, kinda like being grounded. Except your ears get yelled off in the process," Lance answered, shaking his head. "Ergo, something I wouldn't do to you unless you really, really goofed up and outdid Armin in one go."

Maria nodded and craned her neck to look at the Crusaders. "Are you bad foals?" she asked, causing the three to jump at the question and gawk at her with widening eyes, ears folding all the way back, and jaws instantly going slack.

"N-no, we're not!" Sweetie exclaimed defensively.

Apple Bloom shook her head. "No. We don't mean anypony any harm," she replied.

Scootaloo's wings flared and flapped indignantly. "Worst we've done is try doing other things to get our cutie marks…" Her wings snapped shut, and she lowered her head a bit. "And so far, we got no luck."

Maria's ears twitched. She opened her mouth to speak, but shut it as Anna trotted straight up to Lance before turning to look at her. "Don't even think about it. You're still grounded, and given what we've seen of a rather disastrous paraglider attempt, I don't want you jumping in that sort of danger," Anna stated firmly.

Maria's ears fell back. "Okay," she murmured, wings twitching as a frown formed on her face. Her ears perked up when Anna smiled at her.

"You'll get your cutie mark in time. Don't worry about it too much," Anna chirped. "I didn't get mine until about six months ago." She craned her neck when she heard the Crusaders gasp in unison, and she lifted a brow at them. "What?"

"It took you until you were already grown up just to get your cutie mark?" Sweetie queried, her pupils approximately the size of a nail's head and her jaw hanging open as soon as she finished speaking.

Anna nodded. "To cut a long story short… and this is going to sound bizarre, but Lance actually helped me earn my mark," she stated. That utterance caused Sarah to jostle until she was next to her sister, who turned to look at her to discover that she donned a look similar to that of Sweetie Belle's.

"Y-you serious?" Sarah asked, her voice going no higher than a squeak. When Anna nodded, her good wing flared instantly, and she draped it upon her sibling's back. "A-and how long w-were you in the army?"

Anna chewed her lower lip and hummed simultaneously, though she managed to keep her grin nonetheless. After a few seconds, she ceased chewing and answered, "Last… three years, actually. Had to work my way up the ranks, and busted my flank off ten ways to Sunday in the process."

Sarah's eyes grew until they were the size of small plates. Her jaw worked, but no matter what she did, she could not utter so much as a syllable. Her eyes flashed, though whether in concern or awe, Anna couldn't tell.

Then Shining piped up from behind them, "You were a late bloomer? I'd have thought you'd earn your mark sooner."

Anna whipped her head around to frown at Shining. "Uh… extenuating circumstances got in my way," she stated uneasily.

Shining nodded. "Understandable," he replied.

He turned his attention to a peculiar porch-like object up ahead, and one with a sparkling pink hot-air balloon centered in it and tied down to a surrounding fence-post very firmly, further weighed down by brown burlap and heavy-looking sacks. Next to it, carrying a rather large receptacle of some kind on her back, paced a pink-coated mare with a blond mane and a flying helmet strapped to her head. The sisters turned to Lance and nodded in unison, and he turned to them and did likewise before they turned tail and trotted away to attend to other things.

The sextet approached the pacing mare, almost instantly garnering her attention when they came closer. They stopped five feet away, and Lance nodded to the mare. "Are you Cherry Berry?" he asked. "I heard a pony by that name managed the hot-air balloon around these parts."

The mare regarded Lance for some seconds, taking in the query and the fact that he had his gunblade out in the open. "Yes, I am. Why do you ask?" she replied, a brow shooting up as she spoke.

Lance nodded and craned his neck to look at Maria. "Think you can fish out the bag of bits from my saddlebags?" he asked.

Maria turned to look at the gunblade, still frowning. She gulped before outstretching a claw and leaning a little before sticking her limb under the flap and started pawing around. Amidst small, metallic objects, she felt a rather large and rounded form that had the feel of cloth. Fumbling around a little more and feeling strings attached to the bundle in question, she grasped it and pulled it out to reveal a satchel as big as both of her hooves.

Only when it was pulled out did Lance turn back to Cherry Berry. "We'd like to use your hot-air balloon. How much does a ride cost?" he asked.

Cherry Berry's eyes swept over the sextet before her, with a small frown forming on her face when she briefly saw the gunblade again. "Two bits per foal, and five per adult. You, mister…" She turned to Lance and sighed. "Lemme see the saddlebag."

Lance's brows shot straight up to the base of his forelock. "Why?" he queried.

"You're carrying a weapon, and I need to make sure you don't have anything dangerous on you, that strange sword notwithstanding," Cherry replied, her frown tightening. "Not many ponies have the gall to trot in broad daylight with such a thing in plain sight." She lifted a hoof and made a sweeping gesture with it as she added, "Even balloons have regulations, after all."

Lance sighed, his brows falling back. He regarded Cherry with a flat look. "If you do, just mind the sword. Don't need you hurting yourself with it," he stated. Cherry nodded and trotted to him before lifting a hoof to grapple the flap, lifting it whilst being mindful of the weapon in the holster. She blinked upon finding a motherload of bullets, mostly steel and copper with a few golden and dark grey ones here and there.

Lowering the flap, she turned to Lance. "What're those?" Cherry asked, lifting her other hoof to gesture to the bullet-laden satchel.

Lance pursed his lips, their corners twitching for a few seconds. "Pieces of random ore," he replied after some seconds. "I smelt them to make swords like what's on my saddlebag."

Cherry Berry nodded and backed away to give Lance some space. "A smelter, huh? Alright then. Fork over the bits and you can use my balloon," she said, her frown turning into a smile. Shining's horn flared to life and his magic took the satchel Maria had, and he opened it before he plucked out the amount of bits needed. He counted twice to be sure he had the right amount before depositing them in the receptacle.

Before Berry had the chance to turn away, the Crusaders broke into a gallop with grins on their faces, whizzing around Lance in a collective blur and straight to the hot-air balloon. "Are we heading to the weather factory?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Or maybe the Wonderbolts Academy?" Scootaloo added, wings flared and buzzing.

"Or the Cloudsdale Arena?" Sweetie finished, her horn fizzing with light green magic that flickered like a lightbulb about to go out. "Maybe we'll get our cutie marks soon!"

Lance's shoulders sagged, and he groaned. "Now I'm babysitting three hyperactive foals…" he bemoaned, ears falling flat against his head. "Godcat, have mercy on me…" he mumbled as he started trotting to the balloon. But as he got close, he heard a flapping of wings and turned his head upward to find Rainbow Dash heading towards him, blinking as she banked smoothly and landed safely on all four hooves.

He noticed that she was decked out in a blue-and-yellow jumpsuit that started at the neck and ended a little past her wings, with a golden badge attached to the collar. In addition to that, she sported goggles that rested upon her forehead. "Oh, there you are. What took you?"

Dash flashed Lance a smile. "Just had to get my Wonderbolt cadet uniform," she answered. "Where we're going, if I don't show up in uniform, Spitfire'll chew me out worse than you do Alexander."

Lance nodded. "Alright then." He heard a door swinging, and turned to find that the Crusaders had opened the door to the balloon's basket before they rushed inside. He trotted after them, hearing Shining coming after him not long after. Once they were loaded, Maria hopped off of Lance's back as Cherry came up and closed the door.

"My advice: take the ride slow. Don't need to crash into clouds, do we?" Cherry asked, though it came out more like a statement. Six heads shook at once, and three of those heads had innocent smiles plastering their faces. With that, she untied the balloon and set about removing the weights.

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The balloon took off lazily and ascended in the air for a good two hours without pause, going higher and higher at a rather comfortable speed. Dash was flying in a particular direction some ten feet ahead, and she had a rope tied to her middle, which was also attached to the balloon—effectively dragging it with her.

As it started going higher thanks to both heated air and Dash's tugging, Lance slipped out of his saddlebag's strap, letting his gunblade and bullets clatter noisily to the bottom of the basket. He lifted his front hooves and placed them on the rim of the basket before taking a deep breath and unfurling his wings from under his cloak, letting what few budding feathers he had get caressed by the wind as the vessel continued onward.

His ears barely twitched when he heard Scootaloo gasp. "What happened to your wings?" she queried.

"Had a bit of a rough time. I don't think you need to know the specifics, but my wings are getting better," Lance replied without even giving Scootaloo a split-second look. His eyes drifted closed, and he sighed deeply. "Maybe someday, I'll tell you. But not right yet."

Shining looked at Lance with a slight frown on his muzzle. "I take it you miss flying?" he guessed, garnering a slow nod in response.

"Haven't flown for as long as Anna's been in the army," Lance answered, his voice glum.

Shining's eyes widened. "F-for three y-years?" he stammered, his voice an octave higher. "T-that must've been a nightmare for you…"

"It was an annoyance at best, compared to some of the other things I've seen back home," Lance stated matter-of-factly, closing his wings and retracting his front hooves from the rim of the basket. He fell onto his haunches thereafter, eyes remaining shut and ears still twitching about.

"Don't be so down. You'll fly again; your newly-budding feathers are proof enough of that," Shining replied, smiling when Lance opened his eyes and looked at him. "Hay, you could teach Maria to fly, once your wings are as they should be again—laden with feathers," he added, his grin widening.

Lance gave Shining's remark a bit of thought before nodding, a smile of his own budding on his muzzle. "Point taken," he agreed. His smile dropped before it fully formed when his vision began to cloud, and he shook his head whilst blinking to confirm that it wasn't just his eyes playing tricks again.

Alas, it was in vain—the haze continued to build, and it was building up thickly. Not only that, but the others in the balloon mimicked his movements to find the same happening to them. Lance exchanged looks with everyone else before turning his attention to Rainbow Dash, who was a partially-greyed blot already. "What's with the mist?" he cried.

"It surrounds the place Spitfire's training grounds operate at 24/7! Trust me, it's natural!" Dash called back. "Hang tight everypony—I'm about to crank up the speed!"

Lance obliged, planting one hoof on the basket's rim and the other on his saddlebag to make sure it wouldn't get away. "Training grounds?" he yelled out, flinching when Maria wrapped her claws around his bag-pinning foreleg, followed in short order by the Crusaders doing likewise to her and then each other.

"You'll see shortly!" Dash shouted in reply, and true to her word the balloon started gaining momentum. In seconds, the manes of the entire lot were whipping in racing winds generated by their acceleration. Lance's cloak started whipping about as well, and shortly after he shuddered as needle-like gales assaulted his bare wings and back mercilessly.

Shining let his horn glow, and his aura embraced himself, the others, and the lone saddlebag-with-gunblade. The speed continued to climb, at this point stinging at his eyes with fierce air flying right at his face, and it also started trying its damnedest to make his cheeks fly off. Despite this, he could've sworn he saw the barest sliver of sunlight pierce through the haze, but now the balloon was moving too fast to let him discern whether or not it was an illusion.

Then he saw another sliver, and another whiz by after that. His eyes squinted as the battering winds kept up their onslaught, yet still he saw more slivers of light dart by at split-second rates. What's more, the slivers kept getting bigger and bigger, up until one struck him square in the eyes and momentarily blinded him.

Shining yelped and shook his head to recover from the slight mishap, and his eyes widened as he heard a crackle and a fizz coming right from his horn. He gulped and forced himself to calm down with breaths that were shallow thanks to the balloon's momentum.

Lance turned to him with a frown. "You okay?" he asked.

Shining nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine!" he replied, seeing his aura dim dangerously around the saddlebag. He immediately channeled more mana into his horn, re-asserting his telekinetic hold on the blasted thing to keep it in place. The aura brightened again, and he let himself relax just a little with another few breaths of coming-and-going air.

He noticed something shortly thereafter; the haze began to clear, and up ahead he could've sworn he saw a faint splash of greyed green. How big it was and other little details like that, though, he still couldn't discern yet thanks to the remaining fog that persistently lingered all around.

"Almost to the training grounds! Everypony still in the balloon?" Dash called out, causing Lance to turn to her yet again.

"Still in the basket in one piece!" Lance cried out. "Are we slowing down anytime soon?"

"Not yet!" Dash answered. "Still got some ways to go!"

"Alright!" Lance yelled. He and everyone else turned to the splash of greyed green up ahead, and as the fog grew weaker and weaker, they could make out darker shapes jutting out upon the entity here and there. One particular darker shape stretched upon the length of the whole splash sideways, oddly rectangular when the other shapes were more erratic in nature.

In a few minutes, the fog finally gave way altogether, giving the group a crystal clear view of a ring of clouds surrounding a raised, flat plateau that sported a runway, some trees, and rings affixed to meter-high poles anchored to the ground. Buildings crafted of clouds dotted the ring, and along with the runway and rings, the plateau sported colorful flags here and there. A stream coursed through it and under the runway, and half of it was rainbow that itself poured from a cloud-bound reservoir in a colorful waterfall.

A massive wheel on wooden legs was affixed on the runway, with a pony operating switches not too far from it. Another line of ponies was assembled before it, watching as it spun at stomach-churning speeds. Between the spinning machine and said line of ponies, a particular splash of orange caught Dash's eye, and she turned to slow her momentum in a decelerating circle.

The balloon began slowing as well, and for a few minutes that was all it and the pony dragging it by rope did. The occupants of the basket collected themselves as it slowed further still, and Maria took the time to eye the scenery. "Daddy, it's so pretty!" She turned to the spinning apparatus.

"Release!" a slightly-muted feminine voice cried out as it finally stopped abruptly and launched a pony that was on it sharply to the upper-left.

"Can I try that thing? It looks fun!" Maria asked, gesturing to the apparatus.

"Rainbow Dash, what took you! Get down here this instant!" the feminine voice from before called out as the balloon continued to slow, this time much louder and clearer. It was one that Lance instantly recognized as that of Spitfire's.

"Can't do that right now ma'am, got a few passengers on board. I'll land once the balloon is slow enough to safely land!" Dash called back. "I don't want another Lightning Dust recreation!"

"Fair point! Get your tail down as soon as you can!" Spitfire commanded.

"Roger!" With that, it took about a minute for the balloon to finally shed its excess momentum, and another for Dash to drop to the runway so the damn thing could land. As soon as it hit the runway and stayed put, Spitfire's galloping form came into view, eyes narrowed behind a pair of violet sunglasses.

"And what do we…" Spitfire began, but stopped when she saw Lance in the basket. He nodded to her and knelt to pick up his saddlebag and gunblade before affixing them to his middle, and only when both objects were securely on him did he turn back to her. "Aaaaah, so you brought me the general, huh? I see he's not in uniform."

"Long story regarding that, but Ponyville's in a fuss," Lance sighed, shaking his head as Dash turned her attention to the rope on her body. "Being in uniform would be like painting a target on my cutie mark."

Spitfire huffed, though she nodded nonetheless. "That town's residents usually find something to fuss over, from what Dash told me of it. For them, it's in never-ending supply." She paused, though only for a few seconds. "Is a certain pale being with you presently?"

Lance shook his head. "No, she isn't. She had other matters to attend to," he stated flatly. "I'm saddled with four extra foals at the moment, and last thing I need to do is give three of them a heart attack."

Chapter XLVI, Part II- Odd Sentiments

Spitfire's brow rose as Shining checked the burner to find a weak flame. "Foals?" Then she donned a smile, directing it straight at Lance. "You didn't seem the type to babysit."

The door of the balloon's basket opened, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders tumbled out with awe-struck faces. They turned to the line of ponies as one flew up to the apparatus, and they smiled as it started spinning again. "Release!" a masculine voice called seconds later. As if compelled by the utterance, the device ceased spinning instantly and launched the pony who flew up to it in the sky.

Spitfire turned to the trio and her smile fell. She spoke before any of them could get one word out of their opening mouths, "Tell me, why are you with the grouchy general?"

"Because we wanted to get our cutie marks," Scootaloo answered, a grin forming on her face.

"No," Lance objected, trotting out of the basket with his nostrils flaring. "You already tried that once this morning, and I think that's enough!" He turned to Spitfire and saw that her brow rose and sighed before elaborating, "Paraglider. Stray cloud that made thunder and hail." He gestured to Scootaloo's singe-marks. "May or may not have been her idea." He ignored the glare Scootaloo sent his way after he finished speaking.

Spitfire shook her head. She turned to Rainbow Dash. "Are you ready for your overdue session?" she asked.

Dash nodded. "Give me all you've got," she replied in a level voice. "But before you do… I'll need to know if you'll head to your office once the other cadets are done with their rounds," she added.

Spitfire turned to Lance, who turned back to her with a small, tight frown on his face. "Are the foals coming to my office, or what?" she asked in a flat voice, a tight frown forming on her face.

Lance shook his head and turned to Shining. "You think you can babysit for a few?" he asked.

Shining smiled at Lance before nodding. He turned to Spitfire. "Can we keep Dash for a while longer, since foals are present?" he queried.

Spitfire turned to regard the Crusaders for a bit, and sighed as Maria bumbled out of the basket before trotting behind them. "You're mean-looking," Maria remarked, flinching and scooting a little closer to Lance as she spoke.

Spitfire sighed and shook her head before turning back to Shining. "Considering one of the kids doesn't like me, I'll let you keep Dash a while longer," she answered. "But I don't know how I am gonna get the general to my office, considering he informed me of his current flightlessness." She lifted a hoof and waved it before turning to the apparatus, finding that another pony of the line started flying up to it. She spread her wings and waved them like feathered hands, before the pony operating the levers saw it and responded by blowing an ear-piercing whistle.

"Mess hall, on the double!" the pony who blew the whistle cried, his voice as firm as he could muster. The lined-up ponies, plus the one who flew towards the apparatus before the whistle blew exchanged glances and murmurs before shrugging. They took flight with the already-airborne one leading them, heading towards one of the smaller buildings perched on the clouds.

Spitfire closed her wings and turned back to face Lance. Then she looked at Maria. "I'm only mean-looking around my cadets, particularly if they mess up or skip training." Her expression eased a little after she gave Dash a sidelong glance, and she added, "And only one cadet is present, but I'll let her have her dues later. For now…" She turned to Rainbow Dash again. "Help Mr. Flightless to my office, on the double."

Rainbow Dash saluted Spitfire with a hoof. "Yes ma'am," she answered before dropping the hoof and trotting to Lance. She eyed the saddlebag for a few seconds, but shrugged and asked him, "Would you like a ride on my back, or on the balloon again?"

"I'd rather not take any chances," Lance replied, promptly turning tail and trotting straight back to the balloon. Shining and Maria followed him, and so did the Crusaders. He lifted a hoof and closed the basket's door with it before adding, "That, and this is my first time being here. I don't know where the office is at."

Dash rolled her eyes at him and trotted over before taking the rope in her mouth. She used a wing to gesture to Lance as she turned to Spitfire, who donned a smile and nodded. Shining let his horn glow and magically took hold of the burner, fumbling for a bit before letting the flame consume more fuel to subsequently expand.

Then the balloon lifted about an inch from the runway, and then another shortly after. It languidly climbed up until the rope that Dash had in her teeth pulled taut, letting it stray no farther than ten feet. Dash shot another glance at Spitfire and received a curt nod and flared her wings, donning a grin as she prepared to start dragging the balloon to its next destination.

Spitfire started flapping her wings, lifting her hooves as she became airborne. "What are you waiting for, Dash? Take him to my office, on the double," she commanded in a firm voice.

"Yesh ma'aw," Dash replied through the rope in her mouth, likewise spreading her wings to prepare for takeoff.

"But daaaaaddy! I wanna try the spinny thing!" Maria complained, followed by the sound of a hoof stomping on the bottom of the basket.

Lance groaned and lifted a hoof before letting it connect with his face. "No, and that's final," he grumbled. "It looks like it could catapult you straight through a wall, and I'd rather not have to deal with the particular fallout of such an aftermath."

Spitfire sent Lance another grin as she, Dash, and the balloon rose higher into the air. Then she flew to the balloon before leaning over the basket's rim to look squarely at Maria. "No, kid, you're not tall enough to take a ride on the Dizzitron yet. And besides, it's reserved for Wonderbolt cadets only," she stated.

Maria's wings flared and her chest puffed, but a glare from Lance had her deflating and closing her wings seconds later. Her ears pinned back and her head dropped a little. "Okay…" she said glumly.

Spitfire smiled. "But, if you practice your flying and get really good, then once you're big enough, I'll let you tackle the Dizzitron one day," she chirped. Her tone took on a stern note as she added, "But only if you get good at flying. Got it?"

Maria nodded. "Okay," she replied, the slightest hint of a smile budding on her muzzle.

Spitfire nodded back and relinquished her hold on the basket's rim before turning tail and flying towards one of the nearby cloud structures. Dash followed after her, making the balloon jerk behind her before it re-oriented itself a second later. It took a minute or so to reach a particular cloud structure that was oddly shorter than the others, and the balloon settled on a nearby perch for it as though it were nothing. Again, Lance clambered out as soon as the vessel stilled, though he took a few seconds to prod at the clouds beneath his hooves after.

"These things are sturdy as concrete. Where do you get these clouds? Do you mug ectoplasms or something?" Lance asked sincerely, garnering an immediate wide-eyed stare from Spitfire. "What?"

Spitfire turned to Dash. "From what I've seen of Fantasia, ma'am, there are no weather pegasi," Dash stated flatly, shaking her head. "None. At. All. Lance was the only non-hippogryph pegasus I found during a three-day stay."

Spitfire's jaw dropped, though only for a second before it reeled back up and her face hardened. Then she turned back to Lance. "Hrm... " She considered his 'mugging ectoplasms' remark for a few seconds and sighed. "I take it there are some thorns in the side in Fantasia?"

"A lot," Lance replied tersely, nodding only once as he spoke. His wings shifted, briefly jostling both the cloak and his saddlebag as he added, "I have some measures of dealing with ectoplasms that involve a flute, but said measures keep them away only temporarily."

Spitfire eyed Lance critically, with the only movement on her face being that of a brow raising a meager inch above her sunglasses. Then she cracked a smile—a very small smile that looked more like a set of tightened lips, but a smile nonetheless. "So you came here seeking a more… permanent solution?" she guessed.

Lance nodded. "As soon as you came and told me you were Dash's instructor of sorts, I thought 'why not hit two birds with one stone?'" he replied. "I've been wondering how weather was managed in these parts for a while anyway."

Spitfire's smirk grew. "Luckily for you, Dash is also a weather pony around these parts. But I've a feeling she wouldn't get anywhere by herself, if she were to return to Fantasia…" Then she turned to Dash. "Mr. Flightless got anything to curb the ectoplasm problem?" she whispered.

That time, Dash nodded. She trotted up to Spitfire and leaned in to whisper into her ear, "Gryphons and changelings at his beck and call, ma'am."

"And one of those things can walk on clouds…" Spitfire's grin grew as she whispered back to Dash. "Tell ya what, forget making up for training… you're gonna be part of a little project…" She turned her attention to Lance yet again, her smile widening just a smidgen more. "What're you standing around for?" She turned around towards the building, spreading a wing and using it to gesture to the others in the balloon instead of a hoof. "Come. We have much to discuss."

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Soarin paced around a small office, sporting a full-body blue-and-yellow jumpsuit and goggles covering his eyes. As he made circles, his eyes were repeatedly met with nothing more than a desk, a circular rug, a filing cabinet opposite to one side, and some posters tacked to the walls.

His wings spread, flapped, and twisted each and every way they could, and his brow slanted as sweat started to bead down the bridge of his muzzle through the fabric of his uniform. Yet more formed when he spotted the three windows behind the desk, with blinds partially drawn.

With him in this room, sporting a shirt with some badges, a hat, and goggles, a mustachioed, grey-coated pegasus stallion stood next to a door at rapt attention. Said stallion lifted a hoof to rub at his prominent cleft chin, and huffed in a sort of refined accent, "Is something the matter?"

Soarin immediately ceased on the spot, jerking his head to the stallion with flared wings and wide eyes stationed behind the goggles. He attempted a smile, but it warbled dangerously before faltering into a shaking frown. He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a short-lived whicker.

The mustachioed stallion raised a brow so slowly Soarin could've sworn he heard it raising. "I don't see what you're getting your feathers ruffled over," he stated in a smooth voice. "What. Is. Wrong?"

Soarin whickered again, but he forced himself to take some deep breaths of air as sweat continued to dot his brow through his suit. "Th-the cadets… o-or some of them," he stammered, his voice raspy and almost choked.

The mustachioed stallion lifted his raised brow slightly higher. "They'll be fine. This batch is the toughest the Academy's had yet. I don't see what you're prancing and panicking over," he replied, his voice still smooth as butter.

"But some of them just got over the feather flu, Whiplash! What if—" Soarin stopped when Whiplash dropped his front hoof and perked an ear up, along with his other brow.

"Feather flu doesn't spread that easily, and besides, the cadets looked like they were in tip-top shape. I really don't see what the problem is," Whiplash stated, face and voice hardening a little. His ear twitched and he lifted his hoof again, letting it stray to hover in front of his muzzle. "Shush. I hear something," he whispered, just loud enough for Soarin to hear him.

Soarin nodded and closed his wings slowly, taking in another wave of deep breaths before sitting on his haunches. His ears twitched, straining to hear whatever it was that Whiplash caught. His pupils shrunk when he heard a young and rather faint voice pipe up, "Daddy, what's a loop-de-loop?"

Another voice answered, slightly louder and masculine, "A flying trick. Which you're not going to perform in a few years. It's for hardcore flyers, which you aren't." A few seconds passed before the owner added, "But, once I can fly again, I could teach it to you."

Another feminine voice snorted with a hint of amusement, "Lance, you're gonna need flying lessons yourself before that can happen. Your wings look like limp noodles attached with glue."

"Yours would too, if they were plucked and magically steel-bound for three years straight, Rainbow!" Lance barked in response.

Soarin's ears folded back a little, and he swallowed a lump that started forming in his throat. "Be glad Scootaloo wasn't around to hear that, along with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle! You wouldn't hear the end of it otherwise!" Rainbow shot back.

"Both of you, can it. We're almost to my office," a third feminine voice cut in, making Soarin's ears fold the rest of the way back.

"What's an office?" the young voice asked again, this time a lot louder. A second after the question was uttered, the door flung open, and Soarin found Spitfire trotting in with a cadet and two guests behind her.

"This," Spitfire began, turning to Maria and making a wide gesture with a raised hoof, "is an office." She dropped her hoof and turned to Soarin, and a brow quirked when she noticed his harried look. "You need a glass of water?" she asked.

Soarin opened his mouth to speak, but closed it when air wafted into his mouth and prickled his senses in a way that made it feel as though he'd eaten sand. He nodded apprehensively. Spitfire turned to Whiplash and sent him a single nod. "Get Soarin a glass. After that, head to the mess hall," she stated.

Now it was Whiplash's turn to let his eyes widen. "W-why the mess hall?" he asked.

Spitfire rolled her eyes. "Got some guests there, three of which are fillies. I don't want any accidents to happen while I chat with…" She spread a wing and gestured to Lance with it. Whiplash nodded and trotted out of the room, spreading a wing and using it to close the door behind himself as he went out.

Spitfire trotted around Soarin, behind the desk, and to the windows. She spread a wing and used it to pull the blinds fully over the windows, one at a time, prior to circling around the desk a second time and stopping to sit behind it. She lifted a hoof and made a wide gesture with it, eyes falling on Lance specifically as she sparked up a conversation, "So, how would you like it if Dash trained some of your gryphon troops?"

Lance's eyes bulged and a choked gasp came out of his mouth almost immediately. "G-guh?" he managed, his inflection a solid octave higher.

"I'll give you a moment," Spitfire chirped, grinning at his flabbergasted reaction. She suppressed a snicker even as his jaw dropped open, but she could do little to keep her grin from going down the Cheshire route.

Lance wasn't the only one to be flabbergasted, but he was certainly the first. Soarin's reaction was delayed, but after a few seconds his eyes bugged out and his wings snapped straight open. "C-come again?" he stammered, his voice nothing more than a squeak.

Maria looked at Lance, then to Soarin, then at Spitfire and back again. After a solid minute of silence and repeatedly glancing at the three, she turned to Rainbow Dash. "What did you do?" she innocently queried, causing Dash to send her a grin accompanied by a barely-repressed laugh.

"I didn't do anything," Rainbow cooed, her own grin widening. "Honest."

"Yes you did," Maria shot back, her brow furrowing. She raised a talon with claws bared, but a burnt orange hoof shot to her and stopped just at her barrel, causing her to turn up to find Lance giving her a wide-eyed look.

"It… doesn't matter whether or not Rainbow did something," Lance stated in a subdued tone of voice. "Leave it alone." Only when Maria dropped her talon and sighed did he turn to Spitfire. "A…" He swallowed a lump. "Are you serious?"

Spitfire kept her grin as she slowly nodded. "That I am. But before we continue this discussion…" She leaned forward and her smile dropped. "Is it true that weather really is wild in Fantasia? With nopony to manage it?"

"All ruled by ectoplasms," Lance answered with a nod. "Only thing that can hold a candle to them are airships."

Spitfire leaned back, brow furrowing. "And that would explain how you even got here, yes?" she pressed, garnering another nod from Lance. She turned to Maria and softened her hardened look a little. "What do you know of ectoplasms, little one? Surely somepony taught you something back home." Her eyes widened when Maria shook her head.

"I don't know anything about ectomoplasms," Maria replied in a sincere voice. She deflated with ears folding back as she added, "Bad gryphs only taught me what a cock was…"

Spitfire's jaw dropped. "Say what?" she uttered, her voice several octaves higher.

"That part, sadly, is true," Rainbow interjected in a glum voice, causing Spitfire and Soarin to both jerk to her. The latter made a choking sound and the former could not stop her pupils from dilating. "I've seen how 'the bad gryphs' treated her with my own eyes. They came close to tearing off her face."

"I'm sorry…" Maria uttered, shuffling closer to Lance as her head dropped when Spitfire turned back to her.

Spitfire sighed and slanted her brow. "You did nothing wrong," she stated in as soothing a voice as she could manage. Then she turned to Lance again. "Do other foals go through what she did?"

Lance nodded. "I can't say that for certain, or any definitive numbers for that matter. But, what I can say is that it has happened before. Usually without an iota of knowledge on how to control the ectoplasms. Or how to do other things, like fly in Maria's case," he stated, lifting a foreleg and wrapping it around Maria. "Seen it first hoof."

Spitfire sighed and let her ears fold back slightly. She took a few seconds to compose herself before asking, "You know gryphons can cloud-walk, right?"

Lance shook his head. "Might as well ask me when my feline colonel is gonna find a kitty-friend to go to bed with," he said in a sincere voice.

Spitfire's ears folded back a little more. "Well this just got awkward," she murmured to herself, sighing once again. "How else would Maria be able to walk on clouds?" she asked.

The room fell dead silent. Lance stared at Spitfire, and she held her gaze; neither uttered so much as a puff of air laced with an inflection. Dash, Soarin, and Maria were likewise quiet, and they merely lingered in their places to let the query sink in.

After a few seconds, Maria spoke, "I don't know how I can walk on clouds…"

Spitfire turned to her and managed a small smile. "Kid, gryphons and pegasi share a few things in common, and one of them is cloud-walking magic," she stated. "Which means they could, theoretically, manipulate the weather."

"If the ectoplasms were dealt with," Lance interjected, garnering Spitfire's attention with his utterance. "But we're talking one pony teaching somepony else's troops here. I reckon most of said troops wouldn't want anything to do with it."

Spitfire's ears stood to rigid attention, and her brow furrowed again. "And that would leave a small hoofful of troops, right?" she asked.

Lance sighed. "Affirmative," he stated tersely. "Which brings us back to square one."

"How are you going to get Dash to train them, though?" Soarin interjected, causing all eyes to turn to him in the span of a second. "Wouldn't that be… a lost cause?"

Lance pursed his lips, mentally going over Soarin's remark. Then he turned to Spitfire. "How about this: Dash trains me to deal with the ectoplasms once my wings are fully flighted again, and then I take it from there with my gryphon troops?"

Another palpable silence descended upon the room. It lingered for a full minute before the door swung open abruptly, causing the others to turn to the source as he strode in with a plate laden with glasses of water held up by folded-forward wings. "Not to sound callous, but what are the extra glasses of water for, Whiplash?" Spitfire asked.

"Well, I figured everyone else would want a glass, so I got extra," Whiplash replied smoothly, trotting past Lance and Maria to set the plate of glasses on the table. He took a few paces back once he slid his feathers out from beneath the plate, and for a few seconds longer everyone present still stared at him.

Spitfire donned a small grin. "I appreciate the gesture. Thanks," she chirped. Then she lifted a hoof and motioned for Whiplash to leave, but as slowly as she could manage due to the glasses now sitting directly before her.

"You're welcome," Whiplash replied, turning tail and trotting to the door. He paused before he left, and craned his neck to give Spitfire another look. "Oh, the foals in the mess hall are behaving admirably. And they told me to tell you they said 'don't keep Lance for too long.'"

Spitfire nodded. "Tell them I said 'duly noted,'" she stated. She watched as Whiplash left the room again, making sure to close the door as he went, before turning to Soarin. "You get first glass, but I'd advise you to drink slowly," she added.

Soarin nodded and stood up before trotting over with a wing extending outward, with which he tenderly plucked a glass of water from the plate. He returned to sit next to Lance, causing Dash to come up and take her glass, followed by Maria, and then finally Lance himself.

Spitfire plucked the last glass and the collective lot took a second to get a small sip of water into their mouths. Once she swallowed her mouthful, Spitfire leveled another look at Lance. "Dash training you, a general…" She let her grin widen a teensy bit at the mere notion. "What next, cotton candy clouds? Or Luna growing another pair of wings?" she joked. "Maybe another alicorn?"

Lance smiled back with ears twitching. "I'll eat a hat and some bullets if I ever see a cotton candy cloud," he stated sarcastically. "Ten, if Luna grows another pair of wings. Twenty, if we get another alicorn."

"Frankly, it sounds absurd," Soarin piped up with a snort.

"Why would daddy want training?" Maria agreed, nodding in assent.

Spitfire considered the rather bizarre idea carefully, also taking into account what Lance said about his gryphons. The longer she thought, the more her grin widened, and the more she found herself nodding almost subconsciously. "It's worth a shot, but…"

Lance lifted a brow and his glass of water. He took a sip and swallowed before asking, "'But' what?"

"Speaking strictly on a hunch here, but if there aren't any weather pegasi… or weather gryphons in Fantasia, there's just one teeny tiny problem that needs addressing. An elephant in the room, if you will," Spitfire began, pausing to take a sip of her own drink. She frowned as she added, "Namely, a severe lack of knowledge on how to manipulate the weather itself."

Lance took a few seconds to let it sink in, and as it did, his eyes widened yet again. Spitfire watched as his pupils shrank and his ears folded all the way back. "That look tells me all I need to know. But, there is a solution available to your particular ail, and I don't speak of a lack of feathers on your part."

That got Lance's ears perking straight up. "A solution?" he parroted, tone riddled with disbelief.

Spitfire slowly nodded. "Yes, though it'll require some books in your case." She turned to Dash. "And one of my cadets happens to know a librarian…"

Lance abruptly lifted the glass of water, downed it in one go, and promptly spit half of the contents straight back out when 'librarian' left Spitfire's mouth. Choking the rest of the water down before it could fight its way past his lips, he was left gawking in a manner that made it seem as though he'd been jabbed in the stomach. His wings twitched under his cloak as Spitfire turned back to him with another small grin on her face.

"T-Twilight?" he stammered, his voice once again several octaves higher.

"Bingo," Spitfire chirped with a nod. "That mare has books on almost everything. I'd reckon you'd get something out of her shelves easy-peasy." She turned to Maria and added, "Heck, she's probably got foals' books on weather manipulation."

Maria frowned and tilted her head. "Do I have to read a book?" she asked sincerely.

"Not if you don't want to. Just a tidbit if you ever wanted to control the weather yourself," Spitfire replied. "If anything, that should keep you and your daddy busy while he grows his feathers back."

Lance trotted forward and placed his empty glass on the plate. "Something tells me I got a long few months ahead of me," he stated, frowning slightly.

"But I've a feeling you'll pull through those long months just fine," Spitfire cooed, still grinning. "Sorry that I couldn't be of much help, but I got an Academy to manage." She turned to Soarin. "Soarin, help him and Dash and the others get to the library, pronto."

Soarin nodded and downed the rest of his glass, prior to plodding forward and setting it on the desk itself. Maria and Dash followed suit, though the former had to rear up in order to put her glass on the desk. "Thanks for the intel, Spitfire. Much appreciated," Lance stated in a sincere voice before he turned around and trotted to the door.

"Thank you," Maria chirped, turning tail to follow Lance as he lifted a hoof and opened the door with it.

Dash looked at Spitfire with a big grin sprouting on her muzzle. "This is gonna get very interesting," she mouthed before following suit.

Spitfire nodded and turned to Soarin, clearing her throat as he made to turn around. "Oh, and before you go... " she began.

"Yes?" Soarin asked, turning back to her with a brow quirked.

"Tell Bulk Biceps I need to see him in my office," Spitfire stated, still grinning. Soarin nodded and turned around to trot to the opened door as Lance, Maria, and Rainbow all trotted out of it in a single-file line.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The three trotted out to the balloon, finding that Shining and the Crusaders had already beaten them to it, and the door of the basket was wide open. "What took you?" Shining asked with a grin. "Did Spitfire hit on you?"

Lance smiled back and shook his head with a twitching eye. "Spitfire didn't hit on me, but she did re-direct me back to your sister. Said something about weather control books," he replied.

Shining's grin widened. "Now that you mention it, I do recall seeing some books in her library like that before we headed to the Crystal Empire," he chirped. "What are we waiting for?" Lance trotted to the basket and climbed inside, followed by Maria. The door closed behind them, and Dash took the rope in her mouth again.

She turned to Soarin, who likewise donned a grin. Both flared their wings on some unspoken signal, which prompted Shining to let his horn glow and magically fiddle about with the burner until the flame expanded quite a bit. The balloon started lifting of its own accord as a result, and with it Soarin and Dash started beating their wings to likewise ascend a little. Once it started drifting further from the cloud, Dash tightened her grip on the rope and flew around the balloon, making it follow her once it pulled taut after ten feet.

The balloon was dragged back through the fog surrounding the Academy, though now the sun had risen higher, and as a result slivers of light didn't penetrate it at odd angles. Instead, the light bore straight down at a sharp 90 degrees, forcing the lot to squint their eyes in an attempt to keep from temporarily going blind. Soarin took the time to slow down his flying and let the balloon catch up to him, and he turned to Lance with a grin.

"So how's the ride so far?" Soarin asked.

"Makes me long for flying that much more!" Lance replied without returning the look. "But well worth it."

Soarin's grin did not budge, nor falter. "Good to hear," he said. The balloon started to get ahead of him, so he beat his wings a little harder to keep pace with it. Doing that as Lance lifted his front hooves to rest them on the basket's rim enabled him to see his cutie mark as the wind started picking up enough to lift part of the cloak. "Say, what's your cutie mark mean? I haven't seen one like that before."

Lance turned to Soarin with a brow raised. "If you want the short of it, long story!" he replied.

Soarin blinked. "A bit personal, I take it?" he queried.

Lance nodded. "Very," he stated tersely. He turned to Scootaloo as she giggled.

"That cutie mark is wicked, but not as wicked as Rainbow's," Scootaloo chirped with a grin on her face.

Lance rolled his eyes in response. "You make it sound like a contest," he snorted.

"Nah, it's just that Rainbow is awesome in every way," Scootaloo replied, sporting a Cheshire grin.

Lance raised a brow. "Oh, I get it… you're idolizing her?" he asked. When he got a nod, he sighed and turned to look ahead again. "I see."

Maria turned to Scootaloo and sent her a grin. "But Dash doesn't have daddy's gunblade," she chirped.

"Pfffb." Scootaloo's cheeks bulged as she tried and somewhat failed in containing her laughter at that. She leaned forward and giggled before stating matter-of-factly, "Dash doesn't need swords. She can kick plenty of flank without them."

Maria's grin widened. "Dash doesn't have daddy's tank," she retorted.

Scootaloo threw her head back and started laughing. When she stopped seconds later, she leveled an amused look at Maria. "She has an awesome tortoise named Tank, who's probably stronger than your daddy," she replied.

That caused Lance to turn to her again, this time with both brows raised. "Excuse you?"

Scootaloo turned to Lance, still grinning. "Dash has a tortoise that's stronger than you," she repeated.

Lance's eyes widened. He turned ahead again and shouted, "Do you really have a tortoise? Because I'm getting smack-talked over here by a filly who think's you're the best thing since sliced bread!"

Dash shot a glance over her shoulder and lifted a hoof to grapple the rope with it. Letting the end in her mouth go, she replied, "I do have a tortoise! I left him with Fluttershy before going to get my uniform!"

Lance nodded and turned back to Scootaloo, eyes narrowing a little. "You mean physically stronger, or mentally?" he asked.

Scootaloo still smiled serenely at him. "Tank's as strong as Big Mac," she snarked.

Lance began smiling. "Physical strength isn't everything. It's useful, sure, but you don't see me showing off by trotting around and punching boulders, do you?" he retorted, his voice equal parts cold and amused.

Scootaloo's smile fell, and she lifted a hoof to her chin before rubbing it for a few seconds. "... no," she answered.

Lance's grin began widening. "Alright then. Besides, you don't know what I can do anyway. Don't run around assuming things, it's bad for your state of mind," he stated matter-of-factly.

"Why's that?" Scootaloo asked, a brow raising.

Lance sighed and shook his head. "Let's just say I assumed things once. That lead to my wings going bald," he replied, turning back to Dash once again. Seeing that the haze of grey was rapidly lifting again, he decided to peer down to the ground and found Ponyville and the Everfree Forest below, with the latter sporting thick grey clouds that crackled with scant traces of electricity. Then he turned to Dash again. "The forest is crawling with stormclouds today!"

Dash slowed down and turned to the Everfree Forest, and she too saw the buildup of clouds that formed and roiled below. "Great, just what we all needed," she hissed, stopping momentarily to fiddle with the rope in her hoof. She looped it once around itself and her hoof before she sent the end through the loop, forming a knot that she pulled tight. She tugged afterwards to make sure it was secured to her hoof before turning to the balloon. "Hang tight—we're going down!"

That was all the warning she gave before her body angled a solid 90 and she closed her wings, causing her to plummet steeply. This ended up dragging the balloon with her, slowly at first. For the first few minutes, the descent went at a sluggish pace, and Lance continued to eye the growing formation of darkened clouds warily. His brow furrowed the longer he stared at it, the more the balloon came closer and closer to it, and his lips began pulling into a frown as more and more violent sparks darted around and between them.

Then one bolt shot straight up from the clouds as the balloon came above several hundred meters of Ponyville, and it raced up and up to the vessel, causing Lance's eyes to widen. "Take cover!" he bellowed, immediately retracting from the rim before crouching at the bottom of the basket with his hooves over his head.

"Why's that?" Shining asked, and in seconds he got his answer as the bolt whizzed past Rainbow, burning the rope to cinders as it passed and forcing her to release it altogether to keep herself from getting scorched, and struck solidly at the balloon itself. This wasted no time grabbing his and everyone else's attention, eliciting a few shrieks of surprise from Maria and the Crusaders, as well as making it catch fire and deflate in one go. He turned to it with a whicker, and almost immediately after his horn started glowing again, grappled at the flames themselves as they ate away at the balloon, paying no heed to the even-faster burning ropes.

Yet he had no such luck in containing the blaze. In seconds, the flames died and took the balloon and ropes with, leaving just the basket behind. He and the foals grappled the basket's rim as it started plummeting much faster than before, and in seconds the air around them was filled with their screaming. Lance joined in the wailing too, with eyes shut tight as he kept crouching on the basket. He could barely hear Dash and Soarin flying after the basket, but part of him wasn't sure they'd catch the contraption in time.

It felt like an eternity, yet the basket raced to the ground in a matter of seconds. The air left Lance's lungs as he wailed, until he blacked out from the sheer stress and shallow breaths he took in between screams. The last thing he heard while he was still conscious that day was a voice screaming, but he couldn't make out the words as they were drowned out by a deafening boom, and for that very same moment he could've sworn he felt almost weightless.

Chapter XLVII- Poison Clouds

Dash flew down with reckless abandon as the basket plummeted, the screams of the occupants driving her to fly faster and faster with front hooves outstretched before her. She did not avert her gaze to the swelling thunderclouds as they crackled violently, nor to the ground as it slowly approached.

The wind rushed through her mane, her eyes watered, yet through it all she pushed herself. Her wings propelled her madly, flapping and flapping to the point they seemed to buzz. They even felt as though they were pulsing with raw power that only now started trickling from her feathers.

The screams got louder and much more hysterical as the thunderclouds sent more bolts in an attempt to hit the basket. "Hold on everypony!" Rainbow called. In a matter of seconds after that utterance, she was going fast enough that the very air itself was trying to stretch her cheeks wide and peel them right off of her face.

A flash of horror hit her as she realized the basket was still a football field's length ahead of her. It merely amplified when a bolt whizzed over Scootaloo's head, narrowly missing by mere inches. This made her blood start boiling, and her chest compacted slightly with a building ache the closer she got.

Still, she continued to plummet in the hope that she could catch up to the basket, flying right in the face of coming-and-going electrical bolts that barely grazed her as she passed. For a few seconds, time slowed drastically as sparks danced in front of her hooves. All she could hear was the howling of wind; even the panicked screams emanating from the basket were almost entirely drowned out.

Then white started to overtake her vision almost entirely, leaving the tiniest tunnel for her to see through. The air tried its best to rend Dash in half, stretching her until she almost reached breaking point. The bolts got more heated in their attempts to strike the basket, though it simply dropped just out of range each and every time. Still the only sound she heard was the air in her ears.

Yet, the wind itself was drowned out in a matter of seconds as a deafening boom rang through the air, during which Dash felt a strong pulse from her still-beating wings as she descended to the basket with split-second haste. Leaving a sparkling rainbow trail and a glimmering ring in her wake, she caught up to the basket in mere seconds and clamped her front hooves onto its rim.

Seconds after that, the ground below seemingly expanded, eager to meet her. Before she could crash herself and her passengers, she veered at a sharp 90 degrees, jostling everyone within the basket, yet keeping them from death's door in one fluid motion.

Spotting Ponyville not too far away, she raced to it without hesitation, getting her charges away from the onslaught of lightning bolts and to safety. It took another few seconds, but she found Golden Oaks and simply dropped the basket off to let it land in its branches.

"I'll deal with the thunderclouds! Stay put!" Dash ordered as she then turned a full 180 and darted straight back to the source of her bubbling anger.

"Alright!" she barely heard Shining call out behind her. Dash pressed on, wings still flapping, though now she was already decelerating to the point that the trail she left was fast dissipating. She cared not for the gawking stares from the streets below as she flew overhead, because right now she had bigger fish to fry, and she intended for the entire mass to be fried thoroughly.

By the time she got to the gathering thunderclouds, she found Soarin already working on getting rid of them. She spotted little yellow blots adorned with thunderbolt-like protrusions in the clouds, which Soarin grappled with his front hooves and yanked them right off their lofty perches before sending them flying with a firm throw to the Everfree's outermost tree branches.

Then, he angled his body mid-air and kicked the cloud, making it hiss and release a few buckets' worth of rain. He moved onto the next nearest cloud without waiting for the first to finish emptying itself, grabbing the next yellow blot and repeating the process over again. She eagerly joined in, rushing right to the very front lines of the clouds and seizing several small, yellow, and circular bodies with her front hooves.

She dropped them unceremoniously prior to bouncing between the clouds she'd torn the forms from, forcing them to empty their rain reserves before hopping over to the next batch to jostle off of their crackling clouds. Effortlessly sending some more yellow bodies to crash-land in the canopy, Dash felt some of her boiling blood cool off a smidgen.

But only a smidgen. There were still crackling clouds hovering over the forest, each one affixed with a tiny yellow body at their individual epicenters. "Oooooh, you ectoplasms are gonna pay for threatening Scootaloo…" Dash murmured to herself, her tone equal parts angry and laced with venom.

"Did everypony make it out of that near-miss okay?" Soarin called as he dispatched another ectoplasm with a firm kick straight off its cloud.

Dash turned to Soarin momentarily. "In one piece, but I didn't stick around long enough to check! Had to decelerate before something worse happened," she called back as she rounded up another hoofful of ectoplasms to dump upon the forest below. She paused to look at the mass of clouds still present and accounted for, brow furrowing when she saw that, despite her and Soarin's currently best efforts, they didn't even put a dent into the stormfront.

Which made her blood start boiling yet again. Her wings pulsed, feathers rippling with a faint blue glow that almost blended in seamlessly with her coat as the limbs worked to keep her aloft. Her nostrils flared and she puffed out her chest, blowing air out prior to once again darting about grabbing as many ectoplasms as she could hope to carry. This time, she used her tail to grab another half-dozen or so of the creatures, likewise using it to throw them down in tandem with those in her front hooves.

Soarin glanced at Dash and saw her particular approach to the still-growing stormfront. "You sure that's a good idea?" he cried. "They could shock you through your spine, with your tail as a medium!"

"I've been through worse!" Dash shot back, at that point laden with another bundle of ectoplasms that were shaken off and promptly dropped down to the canopy. "Soarin, stop griping! If we don't deal with this now, Celestia knows what it'll do once it decides it wants to outgrow the forest!"

Soarin gulped, ears pinning back when the balloon's rather spectacular and unexpected bursting into flame came into the forefront of his thoughts. He shook his head to rid himself of the thought before he heard a growing crackle behind him. He twisted around and gaped, finding himself face-to-face with a blot as big as he was tall, with two lightning-shaped horns and small beady white eyes glaring back at him. It had stubby hands which crackled with growing balls of plasma, and a jet-black bowl-shaped bottom that was anchored into the cloud it came in on.

"Dash, we got lightning sprites!" Soarin called as he twisted vertically, mere seconds before he gave the sprite in question a good two-hoofed kick in the face that sent it careening a few feet away.

But the sprite did not get off its cloud; if anything, the cloud was dragged with it as the force of the kick propelled it a bit. It stopped after about a second, re-orienting itself and leveling a glare at Soarin, tiny hands still aglow with plasma balls that consumed more and more energy.

"Great, little Prickleplot's charging," Soarin seethed, snorting with his own eyes narrowing. He lifted his front hooves and bashed them together in a manner reminiscent of knuckles cracking, but he stopped before his hooves could even part as Dash charged from behind him with another wad of ectoplasms in her hooves and tail.

Dash homed right in on the charging sprite, and it turned to her with plasma balls growing as wide as a pair of wings. Before she got within a foot of it, she twisted around so her back hooves would be the first to meet the creature. At the same time she connected with it, she dropped the ectoplasms she was carrying. This time the assault wound up sending the sprite off the cloud, arcing over a few more, and subsequently crash-landing in the forest below.

This was followed by a lightning bolt tipped with a plasma ball shooting up from where the sprite landed that arced the opposite way, but as it came closer Dash lifted a hoof and yawned into it. She dropped the hoof before perching on a cloud and calmly side-stepping aside. The bolt stopped where she was flying prior to coiling around itself until it compacted into an orb-like structure, whereupon it exploded in a loud boom and a dazzling shower of golden sparks.

A few sparks hit Dash, but they landed on her uniform and only singed it slightly. She turned to where the sprite had landed and snorted. "I could dodge that asleep," she scoffed, directing her attention to the rest of the cloud front. She assumed a frown on her muzzle when about seven more lightning sprites cropped up not too far away, this time with another batch of ectoplasms flanking them.

In that moment, her frown turned into a small but wicked smirk. Her ear twitched when she heard the sound of beating wings encroaching on her location, and turned to her left to find that it was Soarin. She lifted a hoof and gestured to the sprites. "I don't think you suppose that those are the source of the storm?" she asked.

"Not entirely sure, Dash," Soarin replied, turning to the sprites as the ectoplasms behind them merged and sparked violently, seemingly pulsing as more and more ectoplasms converged upon the scene to heap upon the dogpile. The sprites sported grim expressions, and each one in turn was crackling with two plasma balls at the ready. "But they don't look too appreciative of our retaliation."

"Buck 'em. They came really close to hurting Scootaloo, her friends, Twilight's brother, and two diplomats. That's crossing a line in my book," Rainbow scoffed, nostrils flaring again. She turned to the gathering ectoplasms, a brow quirking when more and more heaped onto the pile with their own thunderclouds. The sprites hopped forward, hands raising to the sky as their charges built up and up.

Rainbow flapped her wings again and wasted not one second flying towards the sprites, darting to them before they could unleash their plasma balls. She went to one after the other, firmly kicking them into the still-growing mass of converging ectoplasms, causing their own charged and concentrated bits of electricity to loudly explode on impact with said ectoplasms.

This caused the already-massive swell of clouds that remained to merge with both the sprites and the ectoplasms, forming a roiling dark grey mass that viciously rumbled and sparked as it twisted into a new form with a distinct pulse of yellow mana. Dash flew back to Soarin and turned to the growing mess that rapidly swelled and contorted into the shape of a house-sized lightning sprite with three horns on its head.

The two pegasi looked at the monstrosity as it turned from sable to golden in color, hovering on a cloud large enough to support its singular black foot. It stared back at them with eyes glowing, and it raised its hands to start charging them with more electricity. The orbs it generated crackled ominously before it threw them at the duo who immediately flew out of the way.

The orbs exploded before they could come into contact with the trees, and the sprite started charging another volley, slowly turning to where its quarry had flown to the side. It lifted its arms to launch another strike, but Dash caught sight of something shooting up from a clearing at the behemoth's side that was before concealed by clouds.

That something came with a distinctive red glint, in addition to another of glass. The gigantic sprite turned to it as it came closer with a whistle before flicking a hand and swatting it out of the air, causing it to plummet back down in a dangerous spin. Then something else flew toward it, from the same clearing, and Dash faintly heard a buzzing of wings as the two connected just above the canopy in addition to glass breaking and a splashing of liquid.

Dash's eyes zeroed in on the anomaly, and she flew over to it only to gape as she found that the second entity was a thin form with a distinct red mane, clawed horseshoes, and an arrow perforating her head just beneath her horn. On top of that, glass stuck out of her cranium in broken shards that gleamed with a bluish tint. As if to complete the look in a mockery of a crown, a few vines of poison ivy draped her head, adding flourishes of green to crimson.

Despite the new additions to her cranium, Katie still hovered in the air, but she did not shake her head to rid herself of her unwarranted and impromptu splinters. "What did you do?" Dash asked, pupils shrinking as blue spots started to dot Katie's body spontaneously.

"I was taking a trip through the Everfree with Anna and Zecora, and we were on our way back to Ponyville when we caught sight of this," Katie explained, lifting a hoof and pointing at the lightning sprite that turned its attention to her.

Soarin flew over, shouting at Dash, "What are you doing, we have to deal with that thing pronto!" He stopped when he saw Katie, gasping as the spots on her body started rippling with blue mana. "And now you're sick?!" he exclaimed.

Katie rolled her orbs and looked below, ignoring Soarin in favor of spotting two forms that stayed on the ground in the clearing. "Fire another one, I got an idea!" she called.

"You sure?" Dash heard Anna call back.

"Do it, or this thing'll barbeque us all!" Katie retorted, lifting her forelegs above her head and waving them about. She stopped when the tell-tale crackle of growing electric balls rumbled through the air, and she, Soarin, and Dash all turned back to the lightning sprite that still loomed over them.

Dash and Katie exchanged glances. "Alright, what's with the spots?" Dash asked.

Katie tilted her head a little. "Made to catch an arrow laden with a poison joke brew, and well… your eyes still work, don't they?" she retorted. The growing crackle made her ears twitch, and she turned once more to the big sprite that lifted its orb-tipped arms again. "Change in plans!" she cried, turning downward and descending to the canopy as fast as she could.

"Wait!" Soarin cried, immediately flying after her. Dash tailed after him, and the three just barely reached the canopy when the sprite unleashed its coalesced spheres of lightning right onto them, which they narrowly missed as they exploded behind them.

Another object whizzed up from below, one which Dash caught sight of. She twisted out of the way and grabbed its tail with a lightning-fast hoof before it could stray any further. She brought it to her face to find a crystal arrow with a glass bottle of blue-tinted liquid crudely tied onto the shaft with more vines of poison ivy.

Dash turned to Katie as another ominous rumble rang out into the air. Katie merely nodded back and gestured to the sprite. "Well, poison joke doesn't seem to do much to me," she snorted. "But now I wanna see what it does to Mr. Three Horns over there."

Dash's jaw dropped. "Y-you mean…?"

Katie nodded again. "Damn straight," she answered flatly. Dash's face hardened and she turned to the lightning sprite, brow furrowing as it charged up another volley of crackling orbs. She flapped her wings and ascended straight up with the bottle-tipped arrow in her hoof. The sprite turned to her as she climbed higher and higher, slowly lifting its arms once more in tandem with her ascension.

But then Dash angled herself at a sharp 135 degrees and launched herself bodily towards the behemoth, gaining momentum and speed as she let gravity do most of the work. She stopped only when she landed squarely on the sprite's head and thrust the arrow onto its cranium, both breaking the bottle and splashing its contents on the target, whilst at the same time firmly stabbing it. She catapulted off not a second later, first going up before sharply U-turning back to the canopy.

Katie and Soarin had dropped to the ground by the time she joined them, in addition to an armed Anna and saddlebag-laden Zecora, both of whom just looked up at the sprite as it discharged its orbs on itself without firing them. She, Soarin, and Katie also turned to the sprite as it then lifted its hands to its head and started pawing around in an attempt to find where the arrow went.

"I have noticed that the sprite's volleys never stray near the canopy," Zecora intoned, frowning a little as blue splotches started growing on the sprite's head for all to see. "Perhaps it will not—or cannot—attack even one tree."

Katie turned to Zecora, both ears perked. "Translation?" she queried.

Zecora turned her attention to Katie, her frown deepening a smidgen. "Have you seen the Everfree maim itself once, through magic or creatures thus far?" When Katie shook her head, Zecora continued, "It seems that even this wild wood must maintain some semblance of order, which I'll admit sounds a little bizarre." She turned back to the sprite as it shrunk and shrunk with a hiss, at which point the blue splotches completely overtook it.

"Huh, so poison joke is useful," Anna noted with a smug grin spreading on her face. She loaded an unburdened arrow into the drawstring and fired, watching as it sailed until it hit the still-shrinking sprite in the cranium and caused a swell of crystals to exhume from the inside outward. With a final hiss the fiend burst into flame, and the clouds that were generated evaporated shortly after. In seconds, the sky was momentarily ashy before giving way to a clear crystal blue. "Well, that was a bit boring."

Her smile dropped when she turned to find Dash looking at her with dilated pupils and pinned ears, who then spoke in a rapidly-turning-frantic tone. "We gotta check on Lance and Maria. Those ectoplasms and sprites managed to strike the balloon, and I didn't stick around to check when I saved them and the basket and dropped them off at the library."

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The first thing Lance heard as he came to were a series of clamoring voices, and out of them, he could make out one mumbling and the other screaming in hysterics. How or why, though, eluded him, and so he laid in the blackness with eyes shut tight.

"... he's still breathing," a hollow feminine voice murmured, and Lance stirred faintly at the feeling of four small and distinctly cold hooves planted firmly upon his barrel. "His nose scrunched! He's waking up!" the voice declared before the hooves scuttled off of his body. Only when he confirmed a second later that his nose did indeed scrunch slightly and that the intruder had gotten off of him, he slowly cracked his eyes open.

He didn't get them parted more than an inch before a green-and-tan blot rushed him, hefted him up on all four hooves, and wrapped forelegs around him tightly. This was followed by a hysterical laugh before the entity peeled themself off of him, and stared at him as he opened his eyes the rest of the way to find a haggard face, a frazzled mane, and pinprick pupils. "Anna, I'm fine," he stated in a subdued tone. Afterwards he looked around the room and realized they were gathered in the basement.

"F-fine? Y-you almost d-died! If Rainbow Dash d-didn't heft up the balloon's basket when sh-she did…" Anna began, eyes watering before a brown talon arched around from behind her, grappled her by the shoulder, and pulled her sharply back. As that happened, Lance turned his attention away from Anna and towards the talon, then he turned his gaze a little upwards before spotting another form still sporting a wing-cast.

Then Sarah tottered around Anna and stopped at her side, eyes leveled at Lance as a small frown graced her muzzle. "Anna's been gushing over you sideways, and—" She stopped when the basement door opened and Maria ran up behind Anna, prior to going around her. She wasted no time homing in and then pouncing Lance in the chest with a shriek that sent him staggering back. She wrapped her forelimbs around the base of his neck with a whimper.

"Daaaaaaddy," Maria wailed, clinging tightly to his neck and burying her face in his barrel. "Big scary clouds…" she hiccupped and sniffled. "S-scary clouds made b-big monster…"

"A monster?" Lance repeated, ears flattening against his head. He turned to Anna and wrapped a leg around Maria, eyes glinting in askance.

Anna slowly nodded. "The ectoplasms merged to form a lightning sprite the size of this library," she clarified. "But it was taken out with a poison joke brew and two arrows to the face."

Lance took a few seconds to let it sink in before he let off a heavy sigh. He rubbed Maria's head with his hoof and looked around before spotting Katie in front of a few bookshelves a few trots away. He saw what she sported on her body and slowly lifted a brow. "Do I want to know?" he queried rhetorically.

Katie tilted her head. "I think my new afflictions speak for themselves," she snorted. She turned to the still-sniffling Maria, whose fit had calmed down a bit. "Though honestly, I don't really feel that all different." She turned to one end of the room, looking at something behind Lance before nodding in that direction.

Lance slowly turned to find Rainbow and Soarin looking at him, the latter with a small frown and the former letting out a sigh that held a note of relief. "I think we can agree that we're not doing the balloon again anytime soon?" Rainbow asked.

Lance nodded. "I've had enough heart attacks for today, thank you," he answered. Something clicked in his head, and he looked about once more to discover that nobody else had so much as trotted a step through the basement door, though he did hear voices murmuring above. "Where's everyone else?"

"Zecora's talking with Twi, the Crusaders went home for the day, and Shining's getting everyone else to regroup here," Rainbow answered, smiling when Lance turned back to her. "We should take it easy for now."

"I agree," Soarin stated, nodding fervently. He took a few seconds to spread his wings and stretch them, grunting as he felt some bones pop here and there prior to closing them. He smiled. "Ah, nothing like a good stretch after dealing with a bunch of ectoplasms and lightning sprites," he chirped.

Dash likewise spread and stretched her wings, though she had to curl the joints into configurations vaguely resembling fists before some of her bones popped. "You said it," she agreed, uncurling and closing her wings once she made sure no more bones would pop. She turned to Anna, who had begun taking some deep breaths. "You look like you need a nap."

Lance turned to Dash again and rolled his eyes. "Give her a few," he said tersely. He flinched when he felt Maria shifting and leveled his gaze at her, and he smiled as she mumbled and turned her head.

Dash also looked at Maria in that moment, sitting on her haunches as she saw a pair of closed eyes. "Well, at least she's relaxed now," she chirped in a whisper.

Lance lowered his head to nuzzle Maria between the ears, causing her to open her eyes blearily and look around before she turned up to see her surrogate. Lance pulled back with a chuckle and said in a soft voice, "Your claws are still on the back of my neck. Could you let go, please?"

Maria obeyed and stumbled onto the ground, standing on all fours for a full minute before her head dropped to where her feathers ended and the tarsi of her talons began with eyes closing once more. Still standing thereafter, she gave a soft snore.

"Guess she tires out quickly," Soarin noted, his voice low.

"Give her a break, she's just a kid," Katie scoffed, causing Soarin to turn to her with a warbling smile forming on his face. The others, sans Maria, followed suit shortly afterwards.

Anna slowly walked up to Katie, her steps hesitant and almost silent. When she reached the splotch-bespectacled wraith, she lifted a hoof and gestured to the arrow in her skull. "Uh… want me to remove that for you?" she asked.

Katie rolled her orbs. "Go ahead. I probably won't feel a thing," she answered, whereupon the raised hoof dropped and she caught sight of Anna's horn glowing. The green aura seized her head, but she did not protest in any way as the arrow was also embraced prior to giving way to a few tugging motions. After a few tugs, the arrow slid out, coated faintly with very dark green goo that congealed fast.

"Is that… your blood?" Anna queried, garnering a nod from Katie as the new wound oozed a little.

"Yeah. Still flows through me like anyling's blood does," Katie replied with an earnest shrug of her shoulders. Anna's jaw dropped as the wound started to pulse with blue mana and simultaneously close of its own volition, and before long it healed to the point that not even a scar lingered. In addition to that, a blue splotch on Katie's bridge shrunk during the rather bizarre process.

Anna eyed Katie critically, reeled in her jaw, and sighed after a few seconds. "Hold still. Gonna get the glass off of you." She grappled Katie in her magic again, and hastily plucked the shards of glass as fast as she could manage, though she did not throw them callously to the side once they slid out of pale chitin and drew some more droplets of viridian blood. The wounds pulsed with mana, the spots closest to them shrunk about an inch in diameter, and the small lacerations healed near-seamlessly.

Finally, the poison ivy vines were the last things to be lifted off, though they did not leave any sort of rash or itch that Anna could see. She took a step back, still holding the arrow and shards and vines in her magic with a jaw that once again fell open.

Katie lifted one of her own hooves and probed around her head and neck, orbs shrinking when she realized that the only thing left of the wounds that she could feel were the droplets of blood that managed to escape. "Poison joke… makes me heal faster?" she squeaked in sheer disbelief.

Her wings spread out, but she closed them just a second later as she turned to her legs and found their holes pulsing and likewise closing shut with a swell of mana. Sinew reformed around exposed bone, followed next by chitin, until all that remained was a faint scar where each perforation had been.

Her split grin started glowing, but by that point, the blue spots on her body shrunk until they could be seen no longer and the pulse of mana died before it could start on her lack of cheeks. Katie's jaw likewise dropped, left only to swing with a crack of bones. She turned to Anna, orbs merely the size of pinpricks, wings snapping open again.

Anna made the arrow, shards, and vines vanish in a flare of light and silently nodded before turning to Lance and the others. Dash and Soarin simply stared straight back with similar expressions, while Lance managed a pair of widened eyes and nothing more. Sarah gulped, but did little else. Silence hung in the air again, and for a few minutes on end nobody dared to even attempt to break it.

At least, until the voices above multiplied in a feverish conversation, and the sound of hoofsteps echoed into the room from the door, making everyone sans the still-asleep Maria to direct their attention to it. A second after that, Shining Armor entered the room, and this time he had a tortoise with a propeller strapped to its shell and goggles over its eyes perched on his head.

If not for the shock of Katie's unexpected semi-regeneration, Lance would have smiled at the tortoise on Shining's head. As it was, though, all he could manage was opening his mouth about an inch before lifting a hoof and gesturing to Katie with it. "Alright, what is…" Shining trailed off as he turned to Katie and blinked as he registered the lack of holes in her legs. "What in the name of Faust…"

"Poison joke did this to me," Katie answered in an uneasy voice.

Shining managed a grimace. "P-poison joke?" he stammered, prompting the tortoise on his head to also look at Katie with an accompanying grunt.

Katie slowly nodded. "Poison joke," she repeated. Then she finally turned her attention specifically on the tortoise. "And whose is that?" she asked, which caused it to crane its neck and tap at the stem of the propeller with its nose. It turned back as the propeller began spinning with a golden glow, lifting off of Shining's head and flying rather fluidly in the air for a full minute before it descended and settled on Rainbow's back. All eyes followed the reptile up until the moment its feet landed on a blue-and-yellow uniform.

"The tortoise is mine," Rainbow answered, craning her neck to nuzzle the reptile. "How ya doing, Tank?" Tank gave a grunt and managed a small smile at Rainbow before taking flight again and subsequently hovering all the way over to Lance and making his head into a perch.

Lance looked at Tank cross-eyed. "This is very weird," he remarked, earning a tap on the forehead from one of Tank's feet. He turned his attention to Shining as soon as Tank lifted off of his head and flew back over before perching on Shining, whereupon he heard him clear his throat.

"Well… I wanted to inform you that I've gathered everyone, and that they want you all to come upstairs," Shining said, smiling a little as Tank tapped him on the head.

Anna nodded and turned to Maria, trotting over to her before lifting a hoof and jabbing her in the shoulder with it. Maria lifted her head, sluggishly opened her eyes and grumbled, wings spreading as she directed her attention to Sarah instead. "Whaaa?" she groaned tiredly.

Sarah turned to Maria and stood on her back legs before coming to her, kneeling, and picking her up with her talons in one go. "Shining wants us upstairs," she answered.

"But I wanna sleeeeep," Maria whined, wings closing as Sarah held her to her barrel.

Shining let his smile widen just a smidgen. "Uh… I'll go upstairs and tell everyone to keep their indoor voices," he stated, and with that, he turned tail and trotted out of the basement. Then Sarah ambled after him on her hooves, clutching a fast-dozing Maria as tightly and securely as she could manage. Katie trotted after the two, her gait noticeably less unsteady as she went. Soarin and Rainbow went with her, leaving just Anna and Lance in the basement.

The former turned to the latter and went right up to him before staring him in the eye. "Can we… not do the balloons until after you can fly again?" she asked in a subdued tone.

Lance did not hesitate in nodding in assent. "Yes. That's a good idea," he said in a hushed voice. Anna lifted her front legs and hugged him again, and he returned the gesture. The two broke the embrace and turned to the basement door a second later, shifting to go single-file before trotting to it. They went out of the basement, through the small hall, and up the winding stairs leading to it to find that, indeed, everyone else had already gathered into the main room of the library.

They turned to Fenrir, who donned a rather amused grin as they noticed that he had a rather large backpack on his back which was so full with many colorful gems that it was almost at bursting point. "So… how was your day?" Lance asked with a slight frown.

Fenrir's smile widened. "Splendidly. I found a trio of my Mythonian brethren, and they allowed me to search their quarry. They even handed me this two-strap satchel to take whatever gems I found with me," he answered.

Rarity piped up with a rather wan smile, "Of course, I went with him to meet his fellow dogs, and helped him find the gems."

Anna turned to Rarity, a brow raised. "How'd they treat you?" she asked.

"Well… more of a nuisance, but they didn't stop me and Fenrir at all," Rarity answered. "They were afraid that I'd start… for a lack of better words, pouting like a petulant child."

Lance and Anna exchanged looks at that, then turned back to Rarity. "I… don't know how to respond to that," Lance said after a few seconds of silence. He turned to Pinkie and noticed she was no longer carrying the Cake twins. "Where're the babies?"

Pinkie smiled. "Oh, I took them home and put them to bed, and then I had a talk with Mr. Cake. I told him I was heading for Fantasia in a few days and all that other good stuff, except for the fact that we have a wraith with us," she answered in one breath.

"And speaking of heading back," Matt interjected from behind Lance, causing him to whirl around, "We've all agreed to board the train tonight."

For a few seconds, silence hung again. This time it was Twilight who broke it, "So, is everyone ready?" All eyes fell onto her and heads nodded immediately, with some faces hardening and others easing a little. "Alright. It's still light out, so we'll board the train when it gets dark out. Sound good?" Another series of nods answered her in unified silence. She deflated a little at this, but nodded back just once. "But before we go to the train, there's just one last thing I need to take care of while I'm here."

With that, she turned to the door, opened it with a quick flick of magic, and trotted out without an iota of hesitation. She closed it behind her before galloping down the road as fast as she could.

Chapter XLVIII- Last Respite

Hours passed, and as the sun started to set upon the horizon, a pinkish-mauve unicorn with three gemstones on her hips and a purple mane fiddled about with a small section of fencing surrounding a house. Her horn glowed brilliantly violet, and she was using her magic to adjust a peculiar plank at various angles until it stood upright. She released it for a few seconds, and groaned as it fell to the ground with a muffled clatter immediately after.

"Great, now I gotta buy a hammer and nails tomorrow…" she grumbled to herself, lifting a hoof and kicking at the stubborn plank before turning around to head for the opposite direction. "Note to self, make grocery list…" She turned to a fence gate that swung open in a passing breeze, which she trotted to and gently kicked closed prior to heading for the house.

She trotted to the door and lit up her horn before grasping the knob in a soft violet aura prior to flinging it open. Before she could set hoof inside, a set of galloping hooves reached her ears with such faintness she almost thought something was running away. The mare shrugged and trotted inside to a quaint living room with a table perched upon a rug, a couch beside that, and a small doorway that was closed at the far end.

A blond-maned unicorn filly sat in front of the table and scribbled on a piece of paper, using her mouth to hold and guide a pencil as steadily as she could. She stopped as the mare began speaking, "What'cha doing, Dinky?"

Dinky dropped the pencil and turned to the mare with a grin. "Sparkler, I'm doing my homework," she answered. She lifted a hoof and reached for the pencil, but stopped as her ears twitched and caught the growing thunder of galloping hooves. She turned to Sparkler, the pencil not even an inch away from her raised limb. "Is there another bunny stampede?" she asked, her smile fading in that moment.

"Last I checked, rabbits didn't have hooves," Sparkler answered as she raised a brow about an inch and turned back to the door. Said brow climbed up the rest of her forehead as she saw Twilight bumbling into view, who then skid to a halt at the fence gate. She blinked as her guest opened the gate with a hoof and immediately after made directly for the house Sparkler didn't quite finish entering yet.

"Oh, thank goodness you're still awake, Sparkler. Oh, you've no idea how much I've been running around Ponyville today," Twilight crowed as she trotted right up to her fellow mare with a smile on her face.

Sparkler returned the smile, though it faltered when she saw a faint sheen of sweat dotting Twilight's brow. "Was just gonna tuck in for the day, actually," she replied. "You need something?"

Twilight nodded. "Yes, actually. Would you be willing to care for Golden Oaks for a while?" she queried.

Sparkler's other brow rose up to join its mate. "Huh?" She eyed Twilight for some five seconds, blinking all the while. "Why?" she ventured.

Twilight's grin warbled a little, but she seized the muscles in her muzzle and cleared her throat before elaborating, "Well… to cut a long story drastically short, I'll be away for a while."

"How long is 'a while?'" Sparkler asked in a flat voice, brows dropping and then leveling so rigidly one could have rested a measuring tape on them.

"Anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I don't know definitively. You see… I'm going on a diplomatic trip of sorts," Twilight deadpanned, her warbling grin fast dropping and fading with the grace of a cat that tumbled out of a wet bag.

Sparkler's brows shot up again. "To where?" she asked. All Twilight did to answer was lift a hoof and gesture skyward with it at a 45 degree angle, prompting Sparkler to look in the diagonal direction before gawking as she caught sight of the sister world. "You're pulling my tail, right?" she squeaked with pupils shrinking. She turned back to Twilight, only for her ears to fold back when she garnered a somber look and a shaking of the head.

"No, and I sincerely wish I was," Twilight replied in a low voice. Her face hardened and she added much more firmly, "But there's something wrong going on in Fantasia, and I only caught mere glimpses of it. There's hardly a compassionate, friendly soul there."

Sparkler's eyes went wide. She leaned in until she was muzzle to muzzle with Twilight. "Grouchy, or…"

"Worse," Twilight cut her off. "But I managed to run into a few friendly Fantasians. You saw the papers, right?"

Sparkler stared into Twilight's eyes, her jaw quivering as comprehension started to dawn onto her. "... the diplomats?" she guessed.

Twilight nodded. "And I can tell they need serious help. With what… I don't know exactly. I'll have to delve deeper into that rabbit hole just to get to the root of whatever the problem is. And since you were the town organizer before I came to Ponyville… would you be willing to look after the library in my place starting tomorrow morning?" she asked, her tone taking on a slightly hopeful note that Sparkler couldn't have missed.

Sparkler nodded. She pulled back, her own face hardening. "You can count on me…" She shot a brief glance over her shoulder at Dinky, who waved at her with a hoof, "And Dinky, if she wants."

Twilight donned a smile, reared up, and threw her forelegs around Sparkler's neck. "Oh thank you so much," she cooed as Sparkler returned the hug. They broke the embrace seconds later and exchanged awkward smiles that twitched to the point they seemed more like grimaces.

"One question… will Owlowiscious be at the library?" Sparkler asked, her ears slowly lifting up from the back of her head. "Because Dinky's… ah…"

Twilight shook her head. "He'll be going with me," she answered in a soft voice. "I'll head back to Golden Oaks; gotta do some things before I head off to Fantasia." She turned and started trotting away from the house, only to pause at the fence gate and crane her neck to look at Sparkler one last time. "Can you keep this secret?" she queried.

"Can and will do," Sparkler replied. Twilight smiled at her again and turned back before she let her horn start glowing. An aura surrounded her, and before it embraced her in an explosion of purple light, she barely heard a "Stick a cupcake in my eye, I Pinkie Promise to keep this secret," from Sparkler as she vanished from the lawn.

She promptly reappeared in her library, and the first thing she saw aside from floating colored splotches were cloaks, masks, and saddlebags laden on her Fantasian guests. Nolegs stood next to Spike, who had a great horned owl perched on the side of his head. In addition to that, she also spotted Harry and Angel behind Fluttershy, both of whom chittered with each other fervently.

On top of that, she spotted Tank still perched on Shining's head. She also caught sight of an ornate blue box with golden trimmings, inlaid by several gems dotting all four sides and the top, tied onto Applejack's back by rope and cloth.

As soon as she cleared her throat once the splotches of color stopped swimming in her eyes, all other sets of eyes turned to her when their owners finally noticed her. The only sound that broke the silence was a hoot from the owl. "We're all ready, I take it?" Twilight asked.

A series of nods, many voices uttering "yes," and growls and chitters and hoots and a meow answered all in perfect tandem before half their owners returned right back to their conversations. She then turned to the owl specifically. "Owlowiscious, you promise me not to hurt NoLegs for any reason beyond 'accidentally?'" she pressed, garnering another nod and a hoot in return.

Twilight turned to Applejack thereafter and did not hesitate to inquire, "Did you get the Elements of Harmony while I was gone?"

Applejack nodded curtly, and lifted a front hoof to lift the lid of the box slightly, revealing six golden objects gleaming within. "Tucked away nice 'n tight 'till we need 'em," she answered.

Twilight smiled and turned to the door, which she immediately found that Katie sat in front of. She had her orbs fixated on the wooden obstacle, as if waiting for it to do something. "Sun setting yet?" Katie asked, keeping her cloaked back turned to everyone else.

"Just about," Twilight answered, raising her brow when a rustling of cloth and something rather slick-sounding reached her ears seconds later.

She subsequently flinched when Katie slowly twisted her head in her direction, without moving the rest of her body, yet causing the hood of her cloak to turn with her in doing so. Everyone caught sight of a long, thin, pale tongue dangling from under the cloth and porcelain copy of a pony's face. The slender thing was wrapped around a portion of the base of the hood, and it was what gently tugged it along as her head turned.

"So fwe cah leaf sooh?" Katie queried, her tongue fiddling with the cloak as she spoke.

Twilight shook her head. "Not yet, and certainly not without your muzzle facing the same direction as your barrel," she replied. Katie nodded back and twisted her head around again, keeping her tongue on the small bunched-up bundle of cloth to reorient her cloak as she did so.

"Guess ponies are still out and about at this hour?" Natalie queried, garnering a look and a nod from Twilight.

"Not many, but there are some still out doing things on the route to the Friendship Express. Had to stop by and ask one of them something," Twilight answered in a soft tone. "Last thing we need any of them seeing is… ah…" She swallowed a lump before carefully finishing, "a cranium that can twist full circle with a long prehensile tongue on top of that."

"True enough," Lance piped up, his wings shifting a little under his cloak. He turned to Owlowiscious. "Does the owl eat meat around these parts?" he asked.

Twilight turned to him with a grimace, though she hesitantly nodded. "He usually hunts in the Everfree for his food, though," she answered in a low tone.

Lance turned to Twilight and sighed. "Oh, and before we hit the road and board the train…" He turned his attention to a shelf at the left side of the room, before zeroing in on Twilight again. "Got any books on weather manipulation? A little bird told me I would need some, and that you might've had a stock on that..."

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The Friendship Express rolled on into the night after it came to Ponyville, picked up a batch of train-goers and departed an hour after. Everyone had tucked away for the night, some still with their cloaks and masks on, with the exception of one lone soul who stayed up well into the midnight hour, several questions rolling through her mind as she sat on the edge of her bed. She scanned the pair of beds sitting directly opposite of her, never once taking her eyes off of them as their occupants softly dozed.

Sarah sighed softly, eyes more fixated on the sleeping form of Anna. "Took you three years to get your mark, huh…" she mumbled quietly, more to herself than to her sister. "There's something you're not telling me… is there?" Anna didn't stir in her bed, save for an unintelligible mumble leaving her lips.

She sighed again and turned to Lance, who was snoozing in the bunk above Anna with a book covering his eyes. "And how'd you recruit my sister… did you convince her of it, or is there something I'm not getting…?" she queried, half-expecting some sort of answer. "How did you two even meet in the first place?"

All she got was a snore and a murmur of "Pass the salmon" in return.

Sarah rolled her eyes and shook her head, her good wing twitching as she heard a rustling of blankets. She didn't bother looking towards the source, even as the noise persisted for a few seconds on end. In fact, it wasn't until she heard muffled thuds land upon the floor of the car did she tear her attention away from her sister and said sister's superior, frowning as she turned to the bed on her immediate right as paws landed against the floor.

A beak poked out a second later, followed by a pair of sable talons. Alexander yawned widely, the noise partially distorted by a sound akin to a keen, before he smacked his tongue against the roof of his upper mandible. Slowly, he looked to his right and then left, half-lidded eyes zeroing in on Sarah as soon as he caught sight of her. "What are you doing up?" he queried.

Sarah donned a small frown on her muzzle. "Half-tempted to ask you the same thing," she retorted.

Alexander yawned again. "If it's the 'I can't sleep' excuse, I won't argue. I've heard it enough times from my general and his small circle of second-in-commands," he snorted.

Sarah's lips twitched at their corners, and she managed a slight grimace at that. Her ears twitched as Alexander crawled out of the bed and gave his limbs a stretch, and she seized her facial muscles as she heard a few bones pop here and there. "General McGrouch got cranky one too many times?" she guessed.

Alexander shuddered and hesitantly nodded. "Yes. But Anna's worse than him some days, especially in heat…" he mumbled.

"How worse?" Sarah asked, her ears still twitching at the sound of another set of rustling sheets. She abruptly shifted her gaze towards her sister, who started flailing her back legs in her sleep.

Anna kicked off her sheets violently, revealing to Sarah that not all was as it seemed. Her sister's front hooves crossed awkwardly over her stomach as the rear ones kept flying every which-way they possibly could, prior to shifting up and back over her head. Her coat's hairs stuck out straight on their ends, and for some bizarre reason the flute of her cutie mark started to radiate a soft red aura that pulsed in time with her frenzied kicks.

What made Sarah jump out of the bed and rush over to Anna in a heartbeat with widened eyes, though, was what Anna managed to utter. A single, ominous, shuddering whimper of, "Please… stop..."

One second Anna was on the bed, and the next a pair of talons grappled her by the shoulders and yanked her bodily to the floor. She jolted instantly, eyes snapping open and mouth opening wide for a scream, only for the same talons that grappled her shoulders to shoot and wrap around her muzzle with lightning quickness. This ended up clamping it shut as fast as it had opened. The hooves began flying again, though now the front ones were reaching for the claws while the back ones struggled to find purchase on the floor.

"Calm down," Sarah ordered in a low voice, right as Anna's front hooves connected with both of her tarsi. The hooves slid off a second later, and when the struggling ceased entirely thereafter, Sarah slowly let go of her sister's muzzle.

Anna shifted her hooves under herself and rose to stand as soon as she realized that she was awake. She narrowed her eyes at Sarah, and her irises briefly flashed red as her cutie mark pulsed again. "The fuck was that for?" she hissed.

Sarah shifted to stand on all fours, not once flinching in the slightest under the gaze she received from her sibling. "You'd have woken everyone else up had your nightmare been allowed to progress," Alexander answered before Sarah could open her mouth, causing Anna to whirl around and level her glare at him. "It was not my idea," he added coolly, shaking his head.

Anna spun around again, and for a few seconds longer returned to glaring coldly at her sister. When her cutie mark stopped radiating a red aura, her face eased. "Could you not… throw me to the floor next time, please?" she asked, her tone soft.

Sarah nodded. "Can do," she answered, her nose scrunching slightly as a very faint scent wafted into the air. What it was, she couldn't pinpoint.

The scent intensified greatly as Anna whirled around again, and it took in a rather bitter hint as she trotted to Alexander. "Could you… ah, move please?" Anna asked, her voice still low.

Alexander nodded and stepped out of the way, and as soon as the path between her and the northernmost door was cleared, Anna broke out into a harried trot. The door opened with the aid of a swift flick of green magic as soon as she reached it, and without a second thought Anna trotted through it and closed it behind her. The very instant she left the car was the same instant that Sarah turned her attention back to Alexander.

"D-did… you see her cutie mark g-glow, or am I the one who's still dreaming here?" Sarah asked, ears folding back as Alexander slowly nodded.

"Ever since she'd acquired it, in fact, though especially whenever she goes into heat for some reason…" Alexander replied, frowning himself. He lifted a talon to the collar of his cloak and adjusted it slightly. "And considering it just happened while she was still asleep, the gates to hell might have just opened."

"She was in heat when she got her mark?" Sarah guessed, grimacing as Alexander's frown deepened a considerable margin.

"Yes, she was. But she was more or less alright before getting her mark," Alexander replied, his tone a little bit somber. "After… I can't quite say whether or not she'd changed, mark aside. I wasn't in the same place with her when she'd acquired it."

Sarah nodded. She stretched her good wing and trotted over to crawl into her bed. "Should we stay up until she gets back?" she asked as she started going under the sheets.

"She should be back soon, but if you want to wait for Anna to return, then be my guest," Alexander replied, his tail swishing as he turned and likewise cantered over to his bed. He crawled in with a snort, and after some rustling gave an utterance that sounded as though muffled by a pillow, "I should've brought nose plugs."

Sarah kept silent as the utterance reached her ears, her face turning a twinge of green as what he meant clicked in seconds later. "Oh, if he did my sister, his beak'll be the first thing to go…" Her eyes narrowed at the mere thought of her sister being mounted by Alexander, and her face turned greener as her stomach started forming knots and doing backflips in her abdomen.

Sarah turned back to Anna's empty bed, scowling with a face as green as her mane. Then she turned up to Lance's bed, and thankfully found that the sod within was still snoozing away with the book covering his eyes. A series of lewd and disturbing images flooded her mind in short order, and she lifted a talon to her own muzzle to keep it closed as she felt the tell-tale sign of bile rising up her throat. She turned away, forcing herself to swallow her own bile just as it reached the top of the tunnel.

A hideous acidic taste greeted her tongue before she could get it back down her gullet, but she did not open her mouth or remove her talon even as the bile fought with all its might to get out and enter the world. Even as it managed to flood her mouth to the point her cheeks expanded to make room, she did not yield to her body's desire to expunge itself. Swallowing again, she took a scant few seconds to breathe through her nose and fill her lungs with as much air as they could allow.

Her stomach churned in protest, still twisting in a fit. A few minutes passed as it threw its temper tantrum before it gave up and let Sarah swallow the bile without trying to shoot it back up. It gurgled angrily, depositing its contents down the back door and causing cramps in the process. Satisfied that her system had more or less calmed, Sarah crawled out of bed again, careful not to make any sudden movements to avoid agitating her stomach again.

She glanced about, finding that nobody else had stirred. Sarah sighed as she turned to the northernmost door and cantered over to it, her stomach giving off another gurgle as she went. "I wonder where my sister went…" she murmured, lifting a talon to try for the doorknob.

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Anna sat in a small bathroom with only a sink, a toilet, a toilet roll holder tacked to a wall, and an oaken door behind her. She rested her back against the door as she fell to her haunches, face flushed to hell and cutie mark once more pulsing. Her rear legs shook, and her tail swished nervously in tandem with her mark pulsing red. She stayed like that for several minutes on end, gaze fixed forward yet staring into the middle distance; the exact amount of time passing unknown to her.

Her horn glowed and her flute appeared in a flash of light once a few more minutes passed. The instrument was, likewise, also shimmering red, though the color was somewhat concealed by the green aura holding it in the air. Anna caught sight of very small runes carved into the object, and she swallowed a lump that formed in her throat.

The runes glowed the longer she stared at it, softly at first. Then the glow gradually overtook her green aura over the course of thirty seconds, shining a bright crimson that was ominous yet somehow enticing. She dropped the flute and watched it clatter noisily to the floor, and at once it hissed and rolled towards her. Anna took a few seconds to look at her cutie mark, sighing as the flute therein vanished in a red pulse.

Then she turned back to the flute as it stopped at one of her back hooves. It hissed on contact, but did little else. "Not tonight, you enchanted instrument," Anna mumbled, eyes narrowing as she stared at her flute. "Not tonight."

She pushed it away by shifting the hoof it stopped against, shuddering as it rolled back a few inches prior to returning to her hoof seconds later. Her ears twitched as a faint scritch-scratch echoed into the room, in perfect tandem with a clip-clop of hooves. Her horn glowed again and she snagged the flute in her magic before making it vanish, lifting a forehoof to her temples to probe a little.

Still warm, but not much more than usual. Her hoof dropped and she stood up. "No more fucking around," Anna mumbled as the scratching and clopping started to get louder. She turned to the door and used her magic to fling it open, only to yelp and stagger back as the knob hit her square in the side of her nose. Her hoof shot up again to the now-aching spot once she stilled. "Gah, forgot it opened inward…"

The scritching and clipping not only doubled as she mentally kicked herself for getting attacked by a door, but it then almost entirely stopped almost immediately after. "Anna? You okay?" a feminine voice asked from outside, echoing slightly.

"I-I'm fine," Anna stammered in reply, grimacing as she caught sight of a dark brown talon landing on the floor outside the door, followed by the rest of said talon's owner.

"That's good. Can I borrow the toilet for a few?" Sarah queried, her stomach giving a loud grumble as she spoke. Anna nodded and let Sarah trot in before she dropped her hoof again and trotted out, using her magic to close the door behind her to let her sister have some privacy.

Anna found herself in the car lined with a row of doors on both sides, and she shrugged and trotted to the southernmost door with a bit of a harried pace. "No sense staying up all night," she murmured to herself as she flung open the door with her magic as she got within five feet of it. Wasting not a second more heading for bed, she closed the doors behind her and crawled into her bunk as silently as she could manage.

She'd just settled beneath the covers when a head poked from above and grumbled something unintelligible, and she gave a grunt as she turned from her pillow to the source of the sound. "Yes, Lance?" she asked in an irritated voice.

Lance huffed and took a sharp whiff of air, eyes narrowing as a bitter scent tickled his nose. "Season again?" he asked flatly, his tone low so as to not rouse anyone else. When Anna nodded, he gave a displeased groan. "Remind me to get you the chastity gear once we get back to Fantasia."

Anna's horn glowed and, in a flash of light that made Lance squint his eyes, summoned a thick metal belt that looked more like a pair of underpants with a smaller, partially rectangular hole and another small hole a few inches under it. Both of these holes were settled between the much larger ones meant for the thighs and hips, and the whole thing was beset by softly shimmering runes carved into the metal itself.

"Brought it with me in case I went into heat here; just didn't apply it yet," she snorted, lifting the covers just enough to slide the contraption snugly beneath them.

Lance nodded. "Just put it on before you get back to sleep," he grumbled. With that, he pulled his head back, and Anna turned to her pillow and threw her face into it with a sigh of resignation. She fumbled for a bit, twiddling her front hooves and delaying putting on the belt for some seconds before sliding it behind her rear hooves.

She lifted her rump, steadying herself as she slid a back hoof into one hole of the contraption and then following up with the other. Her magic dragged the cool metal up her legs shortly after, never once letting it snag itself on the sheets that covered her rear end. As it did this, the partially-concealed aura grabbed her cloak and moved it up her back to keep it out of the way. Seconds ticked by, and the belt stopped for a little bit as Anna grappled her own tail in her magic and guided it through the larger half-rectangle hole prior to lifting it up the rest of the way.

As soon as it was secured and snugly in place her rear dropped down to the bed with a soft plomf; Anna gave a muffled sigh as she felt the metal brush up against her inner thighs and more sensitive spots. She took a few minutes to let herself get used to the accessory she now wore, letting it absorb some warmth just to make it a little bit more bearable to wear. Then she adjusted the blankets and cloak with one last flick of magic, all the while trying to keep her eyes from fluttering shut.

Alas, it was a losing battle, and she fell asleep after another minute had passed. Yet she didn't have time to dream, because not one second later hooves and claws reached her ears and roused her before she could go into a deep slumber. Keeping her eyes closed, she slowly turned to the source of the soft ruckus and grumbled something unintelligible as she felt a talon coming to rest on her withers.

"Before I go back to sleep, Anna, answer me this," Sarah began lowly, pausing to cough and clear her throat. "How'd you get into the army?"

Anna snorted and frowned a little at the query. "Extenuating circumstances, partially of my own volition," she replied, letting her head flop back onto the pillow as she spoke. "Long story." She left it at that, causing Sarah to let go of her withers and clench her talon into a fist.

"Well, wasn't that just a bunch of argle bargle? It almost sounded like she pulled it from her ass," Sarah muttered to herself in a low enough voice that Anna couldn't hear her, eyes narrowing. She turned her gaze upward, almost glaring at Lance's slumbering form. "Maybe I should join the ranks to see what all the fuss is about…" She turned and cantered back to bed, grumbling something about her sister and spilled beans as she crossed the distance and crawled in.

As Sarah crammed her face into her pillow upon settling in the bed, she gave an indignant sigh. Her broken wing gave an ache of protest, but at this point it was just a minor inconvenience and nothing more. "Can't beat 'em, may as well join 'em… at least my sister and I are alive," she mumbled into the pillow, her own eyes drifting closed.

Little did Sarah know that someone in particular with longer-than-usual ears heard every single bit of her fervor with Anna, and every utterance she made thereafter. Someone that likewise drifted asleep in short order, waiting for the dream world to whisk her away.

Chapter XLIX- Returning Party

The starscape glittered, and the dream-like air was filled with the fervor of several voices chattering about. Luna sat in a chair at a table, speaking with Twilight, her friends, Spike, Shining, and Katie. "Luna, I can't send you or Celestia letters all the way from Fantasia. I looked through my library, and not one book had a spell to help me on that front," Twilight complained, stamping a front hoof on the table.

"Not even from an airship?" Luna queried, her brow slanted.

"Especially not from an airship," Twilight replied, frowning. "Let alone if it's already in the sky."

"She kinda exploded when I suggested it to her on the return trip home," Spike added, waving a claw dismissively.

"Which means, if you and Celestia want to maintain contact while you're stuck on Fantasia, unless we find something to remedy that particular predicament…" Katie trailed off, orbs fixed on Twilight. "You're screwed, to put it lightly," she finished.

Zecora sighed and tapped at the table with a hoof to garner everyone's attention. Only when all eyes turned to her did she speak. "Forgive me if I sound dismissive or otherwise of little aid, but would a portal be a remedy to this blockade?" she queried, and for but a moment the dreamscape fell into silence.

Luna shook her head, a dour frown on her face. "I'm afraid not. At such distances, not even we can provide portals for such a purpose. Mayhaps Discord would have better luck," she replied, her tone solemn.

"Key word being 'mayhaps,'" Katie stated curtly, garnering a nod as soon as she turned to Luna. "Last I seen of him, he decided it would be a good idea to hit Lance upside the head with a potted plant."

Luna lifted a hoof and rubbed her chin with it. "Discord, ever-typical…" she muttered. "But as it stands, he's our best bet."

"Lacræ fhram Dhescald eltreya," Katie hissed, eyes narrowing. She waved a hoof and fluttered her wings, rattling on in a tongue that made everyone else raise their brows, "Zhelkaar, estirm ghraalk astæ tras-delsch!"

"Could you repeat that in a language we can understand? Because that sounded like pure gobbledygook," Rainbow snorted, earning a huff from Katie.

"Apologies, just lapsed into my mother tongue for a second. What I said was 'How would Discord help? In fact, he did anything but.'" Katie rolled her orbs and waved a hoof dismissively again. "He'd probably fuck with us first," she added.

Twilight pursed her lips and turned to Fluttershy. "Maybe we could call him here and ask?" she ventured, tilting her head a little as the query more or less hung in the air.

Katie waved her hoof yet again and, in a flash of light, a massive monitor not unlike that of the Valkyrie tank materialized behind her. A coiled wire formed from the object and hooked itself to her shoulder, and only when it was secure did she briefly rattle off again. "Dæsch mhaltchiik scia," she muttered. The screen behind her beeped and turned crimson, and the words "Be my guest" appeared on it in a bright, almost clashing pink in tandem with her utterance.

Before any of them could ponder any further, a cloud of smoke and confetti exploded at the center of the table. When it cleared, it revealed Discord standing on his horns, with the rest of his body stiff and straight as a plank. "Did somepony call me?" he chirped with a toothy grin.

"Twelisc Sræliich astæ," Katie replied with a snort. The apparatus hooked to her translated, "Twilight Sparkle did."

Discord looked at Katie, both of his eyebrows falling off of his head and landing squarely on the table. "Now that's moonspeak if I've ever heard of it," he snorted.

Katie rolled her orbs and snarked, "Shrelmfæ ghreelzaak. Ghralscht mætria khalzt azuld, Dhescald." The machine chipped in with a beeping, "Swarm dialect. Like you'd understand it, Discord."

"Changeling tongue, I assume?" Discord queried, garnering no more than a mute nod for his answer. He swiveled around to look at Twilight, his body still rigid with the notable exception of his horns, which bent and curled and spun at the base of his cranium to cause him to twist towards her. "What is it this time? I'm afraid I'm lost here."

To punctuate his point, he snapped his talons and the starscape melded around them in several vibrant explosions of light, forming a vast ocean of blue with a starlit sky as a backdrop. Beneath the lot, ground formed and grass sprang upwards, followed by large trees that were sparse in number. The only thing that remained of the starscape was the assortment of tables and chairs, as well as the machine hooked to Katie.

"This is fast getting out of hoof…" Luna muttered to herself, shaking her head at the spectacle going on before her eyes. She cleared her throat and garnered everyone's attention in the process, though when she made to speak words would not come out. She lifted a hoof and coughed into it, which then gave way to a sharp squealing in surprise as a frog jumped out of her mouth and landed on her raised limb with a wet pop.

Discord sniggered, looking at Luna with his paw dangling next to his head. "Oh, my dear Princess, it seems you've had a frog in your throat," he teased.

"Gralkæ, veist breikskaal estralk," Katie snorted in a flat tone, lifting a front hoof and hitting her own face with it at the display. The machine beeped and translated, "Well, that escalated quickly." Orbs shrank to pinpricks before enlarging, and Katie began sputtering and hacking frantically as magic seized her throat and crawled into it via her split grin. Seconds later, her throat grew in size, akin to a pearl forming in a clam at a breakneck pace.

When the magic grew to the size of a small boulder, she violently spat it back out to find that, somehow, it turned into a hissing cat that was soaking wet with saliva and green flecks of blood. Katie hissed back in disapproval, earning a swipe across the snout from sharpened claws for her trouble. The cat vanished in a puff of smoke thereafter.

"Brakalz meriitoulk," Katie hissed, turning her narrowing orbs onto Discord. The machine beeped out a swift, "Very funny." She turned to it when it started fizzing and crackling, a brow raising up as it trembled with the aid of some unseen force. The screen cracked, unfurled in a manner reminiscent of flower petals, and spewed out a sea of bits that engulfed her without warning.

All that stuck out of the bit pile was a lone, raised pale hoof that twitched just seconds after the ludicrous amount of coins settled and ceased spilling forth. Discord turned to Katie and guffawed as the raised hoof started flailing about desperately, trying to find something solid to grab onto only to instead make the bits shift about to hinder her attempt. "What's the matter, Pennybags? Got a little loose change?" Discord chortled prior to turning back to Luna. "So, fill me in here, Moon Pie. I haven't got all day."

Luna tried to keep from scowling, but could not seize her facial muscles fast enough to prevent her nostrils from flaring. Her horn glowed and she grappled Discord's head briefly with her magic, and turned her attention to the pile of money as soon as the first flash from her uninvited guest faded. The coins rattled when the magic snagged them, prior to shining brilliantly and then bursting into a waterfall of multi-hued and glittering confetti.

The confetti drifted down, though only in a smaller pile than when it was bits. Katie still had her hoof raised, though without the extra weight pinning it down she managed to snag the edge of the table with it and hauled herself back up with a groan. "Remind me not to get on Discord's bad side ever again," she hissed.

"Well… this ought to be interesting," Discord cooed, turning to look at everyone that was already assembled. "What's in it for me?"

That utterance caused Twilight and Fluttershy to exchange a nervous glance, in addition to making Shining sigh in exasperation. Rainbow shook her head and muttered "Greeeeaaaat." Applejack's eyes shifted between Discord and her friends. Zecora and Rarity donned matching frowns. Katie's brow slanted and her wings snapped open. Spike lifted a brow and did nothing more. Silence held, though for the span of a few passing seconds.

"If you want," Luna began, ears folding back as she spoke, "I can let you see into our guests' dreams. They're… quite chaotic, to put it mildly."

Discord spun around to Luna, his eyes widening. "Come again? Are my ears working right?" he asked.

Luna slowly nodded. "Yes. With the exception of a present third party. Her dreams are… now tranquil," she replied, taking a scant few seconds to lock eyes with Katie.

Discord donned a toothy grin again. "So long as I don't harm them, right?" he asked.

Luna nodded, turning to Discord again. "That's the only requirement, really. They won't let me into their dreams, but perhaps you could manage it. Miss Windwood's dreams… are the most disturbing of the lot."

"That reminds me… Luna, I stumbled upon a juicy tidbit, and I didn't even need to do anything," Katie began, ears rising to stand as she spoke. Holding her gaze as Luna turned to her, she started to elaborate, "It involves the twins…"

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Hours passed, and in the early afternoon sunlight the wings of the Lavender Spirit and Scylla were beating in sync, though oddly the latter had been moved to sit next to the former.

In addition to that, this time however, there were special metal-and-wood seats with thick leather straps sporting steel buckles attached. Said seats were installed in the former's storage room. On top of that, the boxes of wood were replaced by those crafted of some sort of metal, likewise strapped in right and packing additional bolts all around the edges and corners for reinforcements.

The seats also sported leathery blue cushions, the sort that was sturdy and uncomfortable in most circumstances to lean against, in addition to gripping rails, which Twilight and her company were in the process of testing out.

Spike sat in one, nestled with Angel and Owlowiscious at either side of him and the jeweled box under all of their rumps. All three of them, plus said box, were strapped in nice and tight. Harry, instead of a simple seat, had more of a cylinder of steel with enough space cut out for him to enter, exit, and overall contend with. It had more firm cushions all around including top and bottom, also further affixed with gripping rails as thick as a pony's front leg.

If anything it looked more like he was in a bizarre prototype escape pod, or perhaps some sort of carnival ride. He was likewise strapped in, growling out something in bear-tongue that held an air of curiosity.

Observing this with a critical eye over things was Princess Celestia and a small batch of no more than a half-dozen golden-armored unicorn guards who bore saddlebags on their backs. "Are the new additions to the airship… sturdy?" she asked, looking at Harry the bear in particular. "I do not trust the…"

"The measures we took to accommodate the bear safely?" one of the guards piped up.

"Yes, that," Celestia replied with a nod. She turned to Spike, Angel, and Owlowiscious. "And shouldn't they have separate seats?"

"We tested smaller seats. They proved too flimsy," replied a second guard. "It's the best we could manage."

Celestia nodded glumly. "Well, if it works…" she muttered under her breath. Her eyes fell onto Twilight, and she assumed a warm, almost motherly smile as soon as their eyes locked. Her grin lingered for a second, only to drop as soon as she opened her mouth again. "Are you certain you can do this?" she asked sincerely. "This is your tallest order yet."

Twilight nodded, her face hardening. "I've faced Nightmare Moon, Sombra, Chrysalis and Discord. I'll tackle whatever Fantasia throws at me, up to and including Lance if need be," she replied, her voice firm and resolute. Her tone brokered no argument; her nervousness, if any, was not present. She did not break out a single drop of sweat, or exude an aura of fear.

Celestia nodded and turned to the others, finding that they too donned similar expressions. Even Spike, Angel, and Owlowiscious seemed to give off an air of unwavering determination. "Very well then…" Celestia murmured, almost in a saddened tone as she turned to Shining Armor. "I bid you all a safe trip." With that, her horn glowed, and in a golden flash of light she vanished from sight.

One of the half-dozen guards spoke up, "So, er… how are the seats?"

Shining dropped his firm face, giving a heavy sigh in its place. "I'd say it needs a little more cushioning," he answered, his horn glowing. His magic grappled the straps on him and fiddled with the buckle, before it clicked and parted in two pieces to let him lean out to then land on all fours. He trotted forward once he was sure that he had solid footing, and one by one Twilight and her companions did the same. In unison, they trotted to the guards.

One of the guards immediately lifted a front hoof up, over, and back before using it to open the flap of his saddlebag. "Shining, sir, the Fantasians gave me this…" His horn glowed and his blue-tinted magic grappled an object that prominently protruded out of the opened bag prior to pulling it out, revealing it to be a small portable radio. "This device. One of them said something about communications."

Almost as soon as he said that, the radio began emitting static, interspersed with murmuring voices. "Scylla to Spirit, do you copy?" one masculine voice asked as Shining plucked the radio in his magic, causing all the other voices on the other end to hush immediately.

"Shining Armor speaking," Shining sighed. "Lance, is that you?"

"Yes," Lance snorted on the other end. "Are you ready to launch yet?"

"Just about," Shining replied, briefly turning back to the assembled guards. Giving them no more than a stern glare, the six nodded, bowed, and quickly filed out of the modified storage room in short order. "Was doing some last-minute checkups, since the Spirit's storage room had gotten some new additions for safety and such."

"Good deal. I'll launch, you follow," Lance replied in a slightly pleased tone, the sort that gave Shining the distinct impression that he was nodding on his end. Shining trotted to the exit of the storage room with the others in tow, carting the radio in his magical grip along the way as they left and found themselves in the lounge. The Lavender Spirit lurched a little, and out of the nearest window the lot could see the palace seemingly drift downward by a few inches.

"I have no idea why they decided to move our ship next to yours, but whatever works I guess," Matt's voice grumbled from the other side of the radio.

"Must've been to keep thieves out of it with guard patrols," Lance stated, presumably in reply to Matt. "I'll have to ask how they managed to move it later." As that utterance was made, Shining caught sight of the Scylla shifting and slowly, very slowly inching away from the Spirit. A few minutes passed, and all within the lounge watched intently as the Scylla weaved around and took point, ascending into the air and headed right towards Fantasia.

No less than a minute later, the Lavender Spirit lurched again and followed suit, giving way to the sight of Canterlot and the mountain it sat upon shrinking little by little. Silence fell as the two airships flew further and further away from the city, almost languidly at that.

It was only seconds before a voice on the other end of the radio broke the silence, this one sounding vaguely like Katie, "How are you lot holding up?"

"Doing good so far. Though… I feel the need to check on the guards in the lower deck," Shining answered.

"Might wanna do so now, then. Reading Lance's large screen… thingy, and according to it we're approaching the... the space between Mythos and Fantasia fast," Katie warned, prompting Shining to turn to a particular corner of the lounge that was beset by a small table.

"It's called a monitor, you pale twat," Lance hissed as Shining trotted to the corner with the table, radio still in magic. He lifted a hoof and shoved the table to one side once he was within reach, though not too abruptly so as to keep it upright. Doing that enabled him to catch sight of a small metal ring hooked to a rectangular metal post, which stuck out in amidst the carpet like a sore hoof. Around it, a thin line was cut into the fabric, forming a square just big enough that he could stand in it and still have room for another pony to join him.

"You expect me to be as technologically-addlebrained as you, General Smartass?" Katie snarked on the other end, her tone giving off an air of irritation. Shining rolled his eyes at the way the conversation on the other end was taking a turn for the south, resisting the urge to chip in with his two bits as he snagged the ring in his magic without a second thought.

As he pulled and found himself lifting up a trapdoor with the square section of carpet cut and glued to it, he stared down another staircase, albeit one facing toward him instead of away on its downward path. "Honestly, I wouldn't, considering I heard you got a marble column to the face. I'm almost wondering if you suffered a few concussions or even brain damage, you brittle skeleton," Lance retorted, the tiniest hint of amusement in his tone.

"Says the bald-backed stallion who can't fly worth shit!" Katie hissed in return, her utterance giving way to a shuffling of hooves. Shining sighed and made for the new staircase, carefully cantering down and out of sight of his sister and her friends. As he slowly descended, the sound of gears turning and chains clinking filled the air, interspersed with crackles of magic and a pumping of pistons that echoed softly at first.

"Says the wraith who can't use her horn for even a smidgen of a second!" Lance shot back, his voice rising a little as Shining continued to descend. Shining started to imagine the two, in the midst of their argument, glaring at each other without backing down or faltering in the slightest. He turned the dial of the radio slowly, turning the volume of the shouting down as it continued to rise. Amidst the already-present noise, he couldn't hear the arguing now.

He cantered on a few more steps, stopping upon finding himself in a room with a great big engine that was easily as tall as Celestia, thrice as wide as her full wingspan, and roughly twenty times as heavier if the sheer size was any indication. It pumped pistons frantically, turning gears and pulling chains as much as it was able, tightening and loosening springs at its leisure. The whole construct glowed with varicolored runes, pulsing with pure power.

He could've sworn he caught sight of a carefully groomed blond tail retreat behind the machine, but a mana pulse that occurred that very same moment made him question what he saw. Shining shrugged it off and turned to look at what was beside the massive engine.

All around it guards worked at some massive oars, all of them unicorns. Shining saw a few still sporting saddlebags, though between them he caught sight of an orange pair of wings that stood out very starkly, further accentuated by royal purple armor that gleamed like crystal. The form retracted from between the ponies and trotted down the row, only stopping once his blue eyes locked with Shining's own. "Uh… I… I'm here of my own volition. I came by train."

Shining smiled at the stallion's remark. "I understand, Flash. Gotta have somepony keep a close eye on progress," he chirped.

"Oh yeah? Try channeling magic through your hooves and get back to me on that, you overgrown dodo!" Katie yelled from the radio, though now her voice was barely above a whisper thanks to the ongoing activity.

"You itchin' for a fight, shortstock? I'll pin you flat on your back the very instant your soft hooves even attempt to punch me!" Lance responded in kind, his utterance punctuated by the sound of a stomping and subsequently grinding hoof that scraped against metal. The sound of something crunchy being chewed on barely reached Shining's ears, and against the machinery and activity going on, he had to strain his ears to hear it.

He rolled his eyes, more at the radio's transmissions than at Flash's presence. He noticed that Flash was staring at the radio. From it, some sort of incomprehensible shouting, followed by hooves scraping, emanated with a heated fervor. "Don't mind it; it makes all sorts of noise," Shining said in a reassuring tone, making it vanish in a flash of light shortly thereafter.

Flash nodded. He took a moment to stretch his wings. "I wonder what Fantasia's like," he murmured.

Shining's eyes narrowed so slightly that Flash didn't seem to notice it. "I heard some pretty awful things about it," he replied somberly.

"As have I," another voice interjected, garnering Shining and Flash's attention. They turned to the machine, only for the latter to bow and the former to gawk as they saw none other than Prince Blueblood standing next to the construct. He lifted a hoof and looked at Shining Armor specifically. "And before you ask, I have had a long couple of weeks to think about this entire… debacle, as it were."

Shining shook his head to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Alas, his eyes failed to deceive him. "What are you getting at?" he asked.

Blueblood's eyes narrowed slightly. "To put it mildly, I have wanted to see exactly why the Fantasians spoke ill of their own homeworld." His raised hoof dropped and his expression hardened. "Their talk of how the locals over there don't embrace cutie marks was another flag; I simply wanted to come to see if that was true."

"Well, you might have to get your hooves dirty…" muttered Flash, who rose to stand only to flinch as Blueblood's seemingly cold gaze zeroed in on him.

"Of that, I am aware," Blueblood replied, almost scowling at the mere thought. "But haven't our Fantasian… envoys done that already? The way they spoke and trotted in with cloaks and masks, and unveiled a series of most unfortunate wounds, made me realize something."

Shining's brow rose. "That 'something' being…?" he pressed.

"What if they were forced to trot around like that back at their homes? Hiding behind cloth and porcelain just to get by? What if we have to do likewise, despite becoming diplomats ourselves?" Blueblood retorted, his voice firm and level. "What if we have to hide our cutie marks? We don't know what we're getting into, Shining Armor. For all we know, it could be a do-or-die system over there; the only clue pointing to that would be the presence of their wraith, and that's going by when they initially arrived."

Shining's eyes narrowed as he started to consider Blueblood's point. "Any evidence against the 'do-or-die system' that you suspect?" he asked.

Blueblood solemnly shook his head. "They had hardly anything to suggest the contrary," he replied, his tone equally as glum.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Lance and Katie brawled in the pilot room as everyone watched with a few popcorn bowls at the ready, with the exception of NoLegs, who had taken the steering wheel to keep the Scylla from going off-kilter. Katie kept throwing punches at Lance before backing off with a nimble buzz of her wings, hardly giving Lance so much as a chance to strike back.

Or at least, that's how it started and then lasted for ten minutes before the tables flipped. The brawl was pretty one-sided after that, with Lance towering above Katie, his front hooves clasping her neck and keeping her pinned to the floor flat on her back. Pale back hooves feebly attempted to kick at her adversary's gut, but failed simply because they always came just inches shy of fully reaching.

"Do you concede yet, you overgrown gnat?" Lance hissed with a wicked grin on his muzzle, only further accentuated by a dangerous gleam in his red eyes. "Do you agree to stop this spectacle you have the audacity to call a fight?"

"I give! I give!" Katie wheezed, orbs having shrunk to pinpricks as she kept desperately kicking. Her rear legs fell slack after a few seconds, aches already running rampant through her nerves, further flaring thanks to hooves cutting off her air supply.

Only when she completely stilled did Lance retract his hooves, nimbly backing off a few paces to give her a bit of space to stagger back upright. Katie turned to regard him as she rose, shivering upon finding that he still had that dastardly grin on his muzzle. His eyes narrowed to thin crimson slits, almost daring her to try something else. She merely stiffened in response.

"If you do find yourself in my army's ranks… I'll expect you to be standing as you are now," Lance hissed in a no-nonsense, deathly serious tone of voice that was only offset by his seemingly fixed smile.

Something about the way he stared—Katie could not pinpoint what in that moment—made her legs buckle slightly and her tail quiver like a rattle. She forced herself to stiffen again, yet could not stop her ears from giving the faintest twitch. "Y-yes sir," she squeaked.

Lance nodded. "Good," he replied tersely, and he left it at that. He turned to the steering wheel and trotted to it, leaving Katie to slump back to the floor so fast her legs spread out from under her form first chance they got.

Fenrir looked at Katie's prone form, eyes wide and blinking. "That was… a very interesting turn of events," he stated.

Sarah helped herself to some popcorn, making sure to chew and swallow first before addressing Lance as he reclaimed the steering wheel, "Would you hit a mare?"

"Only in self-defense, and you saw Katie strike first. Had it been you, I'd have pinned you to the wall instead, Sarah," Lance replied, giving Sarah little more than a glance over his shoulder.

"I tried hitting him once, with a good buck to the face. He merely turned me flat on my ass and pinned me until I stopped," Anna snorted, garnering a squawk from Sarah as she took a helping of popcorn for herself. Turning past her sister, Sarah could see that Matt and Natalie both had a front hoof raised.

"We were there when it happened," Matt added with a nod.

"Just on standby, in case things got really out of hoof. But all in all, we didn't need to intervene," Natalie chirped, frowning slightly.

"I had the popcorn," Armin piped up, leaning over so Sarah could see him at Natalie's side. He wore a toothy grin on his face, his eyes glimmering in mirth. "It's always amusing to see General Boltwing get into fights, as long as I'm not on the short end of that stick."

"Why does daddy fight?" Maria questioned, looking at Armin with a small, innocent frown on her face.

Armin turned to her and shrugged, popping some more popcorn in his mouth with his magic. "You're asking the froth thuy," he replied through his mouthful. He gestured to Lance with a hoof. "Fate until the airfip lands in Fanfapia, then ask," he added.

"Your…" Alexander lifted a talon to his beak in a futile attempt to stifle a snicker as he turned to Maria, "Your daddy fights because it's more or less his job to keep order in the army. He has to keep his troops in line, after all."

Maria turned to Alexander, still frowning. "Including mommy?" she asked.

Alexander snickered into his claw again, and all he could do to answer was nod very slowly. When Maria continued to stare at him expectantly, he took a few seconds to gather himself and let his talon drop from his beak. "Though… their quibbles are more… ah, civilized as it were," he said.

"You say 'civilized,' I say 'explosive!'" Lance chimed in from the steering wheel, his retort accompanied by a meow from NoLegs.

"Same thing," Alexander chortled, a grin forming on his beak. An hour or two passed in silence after that, and all eyes fell onto Lance during that time. Matt used his magic to stow away the popcorn bowls and any leftovers, and he shifted his forelegs with a hint of nervousness, only betrayed by his brow twitching into a slant.

Lance looked at the monitor before him, eyeing it carefully as Fantasia came closer and closer, greeting him with a great white splotch roughly as big as a good sixth of Equestria itself. After checking the vitals in the corner, which gave him yellow bars instead of vibrant green, he sighed. "Get to the seats, everyone," he warned, his voice low. He spread his wings out from under the cloak he wore, the thin digits reaching intently towards the keyboard.

"But we're not in terminal velocity yet…" Anna trailed off, glancing at everyone else before turning back to Lance with a worried frown on her face. "Right?"

"Not yet, but we're about to reach it very soon," Lance replied, using his bare wings to type on the keyboard, the digits moving deftly and fluidly from key to key. He waited until everyone else filed out of the control room before he stopped typing, turning his eye onto the corner of the screen opposite of the vital signs.

He found a small black box bearing the words "Incoming call," though from who it didn't say. He typed onto the keys again, and static filled the room for a second before melting into silence. "By Godcat's teats, General, what took you?! I've been trying to call you for the last few weeks!" a masculine voice snapped, one accentuated by a low buzzing sound.

"Delta Unit? I didn't expect you to call me so suddenly," Lance replied, feigning ignorance. "I thought I told you and the rest of the troops that it would be at least a week before I got back from Mythos."

"And?" the voice on the other end queried, an air of impatience at his tone. "How'd it go?"

"Overall, so-so. I managed to exhume some interesting tidbits… and the Mythonians that first dropped by are back with me and my little expedition party for diplomatic purposes," Lance replied with a snort.

"Same ones, including the psycho who busted the elder of Frostbite's head?" the voice queried.

"Same ones. Including the psycho, and a hoofful of new arrivals," Lance stated, frowning as the patch of white grew bigger and bigger. "Gonna take them for a joyride around Fantasia and then head back to the base, though now I'll remain in contact with you."

"Good, because some of the troops were getting antsy about your vanishing act," the voice snarked. "Wait, new arrivals?"

"Yeah. I'll introduce them proper when I get them to the base," Lance answered, resisting the urge to sigh as the Scylla trembled. He folded his wings sharply. "Cover your ears, Delta. Just warning you now."

"I'm picking up your ship and the Mythonian vessel on the radar. Yeah, I'll stuff chitil in my eardrums. You owe me a mission, by the way," the voice replied in earnest, followed by the sound of something squelching and squeaking.

"Once I touch down, why don't you explore the area in and around Frostbite Haven? Last I checked, there was a temple of some sort there. I'm headed there anyway, so we'll meet soon," Lance stated, this time letting off a heavy sigh.

"From where did you hear about a temple in the middle of buttfuck nowhere?" the voice asked, the squeaking and squelching coming to a halt as he spoke.

"The damned wraith I found before leaving," Lance replied with another sigh. "She said she'd heard that from someone else that went gibberish on her." The Scylla shook again. Lance braced himself, clutching the steering wheel tightly in his forelegs as the white splotch grew even bigger, to the point it almost entirely overtook his screen. Gravity began shifting in that moment, and abruptly at that, but he wasn't caught off-guard by it this time.

A small smile crossed his muzzle as the ship trembled again.

Chapter L- Intuition

Airships bearing predominantly-changeling motifs, such as tattered wings and a single-headed bust sporting a curved horn paired with fearsome fangs, hovered incessantly a few miles around and above the region of snow. Changelings in military uniforms and coats watched from the decks, using rails for support and leverage as they scanned for anything that wasn't white and pure. This search lasted for some thirty minutes, and nothing turned up.

On one of the airships such a changeling with purple wings, dog tags stylized in the shape of a triangle, and an extra horn growing out of the top of his muzzle snorted. His lavender eyes narrowed slightly, his dark grey long coat billowing in a passing breeze.

Another changeling, one with what looked like a mottled leaf-green hood growing out of its skull and matching wings sprouting from its back with a pair of elytra covering them, stood next to the one with the extra horn. "Major Rhinoc, is it just me, or have we been had?" it asked in a feminine tone.

"I think the General got had. He told me something he himself heard from a fucking wraith," Rhinoc scoffed, nostrils flaring again. He turned to the changeling with the hood, almost eying her carefully. "Sergeant Cassida, we might not find anything at all out here." He lifted a holey hoof and gestured to the white below. "Except maybe Frostbite Haven."

Cassida scowled, her hood contorting slightly inward as she donned a very firm frown. "You mean the most recent town of filly-fuckers the General came across personally?" she hissed, her hood rippling with her low and angry tone.

Rhinoc nodded mutely, turning away from Cassida and to the landscape below. His ears twitched, and for a split-second the horn on his forehead gave off just the faintest glow of deep violet before it faded. "No love here… just as empty as it looks," he grumbled.

Cassida looked up at the dull, grey sky that hung heavily with clouds just in time to see another airship dart past the one she was on from above. Oddly, the vessel descended shortly thereafter, slowing down as it came to land, and she followed it with her eyes before noticing that it had an extra pair of gryphon-like wings. "Is that what I think it is?" she queried as another airship with fish motifs flew past and landed a few feet away, to the left of the first.

"Only one way to find out," Rhinoc snorted, his wings spreading as he turned to Cassida again. "Keep this ship afloat while I go down there to see what all the hubbub's about." Without waiting for a response he jumped the railing and fell from the ship, only stopping himself about halfway down to the ground with a furious buzzing of his wings. He flew to the two just-landed ships, likewise descending lower and lower as twin gangplanks opened from the sides facing outward and landed with snow-flinging thuds.

He paused in his advance as two groups filed out of the airships, trotted around behind them, and converged on the spot. A minute after that, two more forms trotted hastily out of the Scylla to catch up with the others, and one was adorned with distinct black garbs. Rhinoc flew to the gathering to see what the fuss was about, landing just in time to see Lance and Matt join the others. All eyes, foreigner and friend alike, fell on him in that moment.

"My, you are a sharply-dressed changeling. Your purple eyes only further accentuate your uniform, quite fabulously might I add," Rarity chimed with a grin, her utterance causing Rhinoc to flinch and blush.

He opened his mouth to reply, but Maria cut him off, "Daddy, who's that?" Rhinoc blinked and turned to the foal, his jaw dropping when he saw that she was pointing at him with a talon and looking at Lance in one sitting.

"Long story," Lance stated with a roll of his eyes when Rhinoc turned to regard him with his face turning a tinge of blue. "She's… unofficially adopted." Natalie gave a snicker at the utterance, grinning even as she got a sidelong glare in her direction.

"Where's she from?" Rhinoc asked, turning to Maria.

"Let's not discuss that. Have you found anything in this frozen hellhole yet?" Lance replied, watching as Rhinoc turned to him with a shake of the head.

"Only started the search in the last half-hour, sir," Rhinoc said, assuming a frown. "Where is the wraith who told you about a Godcat-forsaken temple?"

Katie tottered forward, wordlessly lifting a hoof and nudging Rhinoc in the foreleg with it once she was within reach. He turned to her and she looked up, and for a few seconds silence lingered in the freezing air. Rhinoc blinked once, twice, thrice, yet his eyes didn't deceive him. His horn glowed again and his violet aura seized her, though it did nothing else to her that anyone present could see.

But a sickening feeling settled deep within his body the longer his magic held her, making his stomach form into tight knots and his head start pounding in pain. It faded in seconds, yet the flashes of agony he felt only lingered thereafter. "Holy hell in a hoofbasket," Rhinoc muttered, turning away from Katie and to Lance yet again. "Sir, I think you've found a… this is the first time I've seen and sensed a changeling devoid of love."

Lance slowly lifted a brow. He lifted a hoof and gestured to Katie with it. "Devoid of love? Are you suggesting she eats something other than love, if she's even able to do so?" he asked.

Blueblood decided to interject before Rhinoc could answer, "Pardon my forwardness, but where is the nearest town, General?"

Rhinoc turned to Blueblood and sighed. "Nearest one in the immediate area is abandoned and consists of igloo huts," he stated in a flat voice, garnering Blueblood's attention as he spoke. "Second-closest… I think would be Whitefall Town."

"Whitefall?" Blueblood parroted, turning to Lance with a slight frown on his muzzle. "Is it anything like this 'abandoned space consisting of igloo huts' at all?"

Lance turned to meet Blueblood's gaze, promptly shaking his head as soon as their eyes locked. "Almost nothing like… the abandoned igloo… huts," he replied, his brow slanting a bit.

"That abandoned place is now very likely a mausoleum anyway. All the better, as far as I am concerned," Katie piped up, waving a hoof dismissively as the two stallions turned to look at her in unison. "That place was as sour and bitter as a bunch of screeching old nags with nothing better to do with their time other than snub the next generation."

Rhinoc grimaced. "And entirely devoid of love," he added as an aside. He turned to Lance again. "How long do you want me and the rest of Delta Unit hovering around here?"

Lance pursed his lips, and for a few seconds he was silent. "A day or two, if you don't find anything. A week, should you or someone else in the unit happen upon something," he answered. "After that, head to the base. I'll catch up with you there and you can give me the full report."

Rhinoc nodded and lifted his foreleg to give him a quick salute. "Yes sir." With that, he spread his wings and took off in a furious buzz, rocketing towards his vessel with purpose. This left the groups to themselves, and for a minute silence hung in the air as Shining regarded the platoon of airships already hovering about.

"I'll tell you what… your changelings are more organized than those of Chrysalis," Shining piped up, turning to Lance with a slight frown on his face. When Lance turned to him with a brow raised, he elaborated, "Instead of just a huge swarm going after everything at once, yours have airships and what I assume to be specialized groups."

"Sounds to me this Chrysalis you speak of lacked sorely in tact," Lance snorted, garnering a nod from Shining.

"And foresight." Shining smiled. "Now, then, shall we head to Whitefall?"

Lance smiled back. "After we discuss whether or not we'll sleep in the airships again, and how often," he retorted.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

A small village with no more than forty houses of brick walls and wooden shingles sat at the very far southern end of the tundra, marked by a forest of pine trees growing all around it. The sky was filled with dense grey clouds, which released snow onto the small town in a gentle flurry.

Some unicorn stallions, in addition to a gray-maned and speckled, hulking earth pony with very furry legs and ice blue eyes, were out and about. Instead of making snowponies or shoveling snow aside, they boasted leather armor and steel swords sheathed in to scabbards, and all of them were patrolling diligently about a small altar that was no more than a withered tree stump adorned with tattered paper talismans. The altar boasted a hoof-sized, star-shaped blue jewel with a diamond-shaped vein of gold in its center resting atop it that was kept out in the open.

The ponies paused and turned their gazes skyward when two airships sailed overhead at a sluggish pace, descending until they vanished behind the cold canopy of the surrounding forest. The earth pony drew his sword with a fur-laden hoof, wordlessly exchanging glances with the other assembled ponies. "You lot, stay here. I'll investigate," the earth pony ordered.

One of the smaller unicorns, one with a red coat and a beige mane, rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, sure. We'll do what ya say, you shitty excuse for an in-law," he snarked.

The earth pony turned to glare at the red-coated unicorn, eyes narrowing to chilling slits. "I beg your pardon?" he hissed in a low voice that froze the pony who made the statement.

Another unicorn, this one with a beige coat and dark brown mane, donned a smug smile. He turned to the red-coated stallion. "You're just mad Bartholomew here did your sister and married her, Andrew," he chortled. "I wonder what your family reunions are like."

Bartholomew sighed and crammed the handle of his sword into his mouth before cantering towards the pine forest at a brisk pace. Crossing the makeshift border between town and wood, he heard Andrew raising a fuss, though about what faded with rapidly-increasing distance. But that wasn't his concern, let alone something as immediate as two airships touching down somewhere in the forest.

His mind whirred about, presenting several dozen scenes as to what the arrival of the vessels meant. He gripped his sword tighter, taking no more than a second to blow out a huff of air through his nostrils as more vivid and disturbing imagery came to the forefront of his thoughts. Five minutes passed as he trotted through the wood, and the only sound he heard was the crunching of snow beneath his hooves.

Ten minutes after that, the world seemingly stood in silence, with him being the only soul daring enough to press on and break it. The air itself grew colder, and the snow started to fall in heavier clumps that were still light enough to gently drift down. Light grey mana pulsed faintly from his hooves as he took each step forward, barely concealed by the white surrounding him. Fifteen minutes passed in short order, and only then did Bartholomew stop dead in his tracks.

His ears twitched as he caught a very faint fervor of voices, and he scowled as he realized one of them was hollow. "You sure travelling on hoof is a good idea? It's gonna be a bit before we get to Whitefall," the hollow voice said.

"A wraith... absolutely no other creature on this Godcat-forsaken planet has such an empty voice. This ought to be a challenge," Bartholomew muttered to himself through the handle of his sword, just low enough that he could hear himself. He raised a hoof, but it halted in mid-air when another voice broke through the forest, this one slightly louder and masculine.

"Only for you, if you didn't just fly into town with those puny shredded wings of yours. I doubt your legs could carry you for more than ten miles before giving out," the masculine voice snarked.

Another voice piped up, also masculine, "You would too, Lance, if you were a trotting twig like she is. Give her a break."

The hoof dropped in an instant, and Bartholomew's scowl only deepened. He clenched the hilt of his weapon harder, certain that he would leave visible marks in it before the day was out. One second he was still, and the next he took off towards the voices in such a frenzied gallop that snow all but flew behind him in his wake. He could feel portions of the earth itself shake as he rushed headlong into what he assumed would be trouble, only to find himself airborne as a hoof snagged on an errant root of a pine tree and caused him to tumble helplessly into a clearing.

He found himself staring skyward, flat on his back and with his sword no longer in his mouth. Snow whirred around him as the two airships he saw minutes ago rose into the air with flapping wings. Only when they ascended past the canopy and took off did the snow cease flying in all directions.

"Look!" the hollow voice from earlier exclaimed before, though only now Bartholomew could definitely make out a slight feminine hint. "A tour guide!" Sluggishly, and with the realization that he was no longer armed fueling him onward, he rolled over and stood on shaky legs that threatened to buckle. Finding himself facing the trees and his sword as he stood, he gave a sigh of resignation and almost haltingly turned himself around.

The sight before him made his lower jaw drop instantly. There was an entire ensemble standing before him, and among them, a speckled face like his own also sported a dropped jaw. "Matt? … is that you?" Bartholomew questioned in a low voice that only held shock.

"Dad?" Matt replied, his eyes widening. "H-how… I-I thought…" Words failed him as Bartholomew bumbled forward and wrapped his front legs around his neck, pulling him into a hug that was somewhere on the scale between tight and outright crushing. Matt returned the hug, and after a few seconds they broke the embrace and stared each other in the face. Apart from minor differences between them, it was almost as if they stared into a mirror head-on.

Katie decided to toss in her two bits, garnering the attention of the stallions and ruining the moment in the process, "Alright tour guide, can you take us to Whitefall please?"

Bartholomew took a few seconds to size Katie up, and he frowned with a slightly slanted brow when he realized just how puny she was before him. He turned his head this way and that to do a headcount, scowling briefly enough at Lance that only a few present could see the quick-second contortion of his face, before he turned back to Katie and sighed. "As long as you behave." He snorted when a drifting clump of snow landed on his snout, making it fly off.

"Can't do much as I am. Alright, I'll be good," Katie replied with a shrug.

Blueblood piped up, "I say, you are… ill-equipped, considering the weather out in these parts. Do you not have enough funds for something a little more… decent?"

Bartholomew turned to Blueblood and shook his head. "This is the only suit of armor they had that'll fit my body. At least, until the armor-forgers can make another set," he replied in a solemn voice.

Blueblood's eyes widened, and his jaw quivered. "Is the issue that horrendous here? H-how would you be able to motivate the forgers here?" he asked, aghast.

Bartholomew's shoulders sagged slightly, and he huffed through flared nostrils. "I sometimes ask myself that. Haven't found a good answer," he stated.

"Would a good bonfire on their tails be a decent-enough motivator?" Natalie suggested, making Bartholomew jerk in place before turning to her to find her horn already alight and flickering with orange flames.

The flames died when Bartholomew sent Natalie a firm glare once he had gathered himself. "No; if anything, they'd kick you out of town," he responded coolly. "And you remember the last time you set somepony's tail alight?"

Natalie donned a small frown and nodded. Katie looked at the two for a few seconds, orbs darting from one to the other and back again. Her mind then whirred, and it took just one second for something to click in. "You adopted Natz, didn't you?" she asked, looking pointedly at Bartholomew.

"Yes," Natalie sighed, turning to Katie with shoulders sagging slightly. "I'm a foster foal, but I'd rather not get into the specifics."

Katie turned to Natalie and her orbs dimmed momentarily. Slowly, fractionally, a pale brow climbed up her forehead until it threatened to connect with the base of her horn-stubble. "And you're also freaking crystal…" Katie added, carefully.

"My lips are zipped," Natalie replied, and to emphasize her point, her horn glowed and seized her own muzzle before a zipper materialized over her mouth and seemingly fused with it. With the odd accoutrements in place, her mouth sealed shut in an instant. Her form then dulled until it lost its luster entirely, thanks to another quick flash of magic.

Katie's raised brow tabled instantaneously. She turned to Blueblood and sighed. "Am I dreaming?" she asked in a flat voice.

Blueblood shook his head. "You would not be the only one wishing you were doing so at this time," he stated somberly. He turned to Bartholomew and raised a hoof to gesture to where said ill-dressed pony tumbled in from. "To Whitefall, if you please. We haven't all day."

NoLegs jumped on Bartholomew's back and mewed. Bartholomew snorted and turned around, trotting a little ways ahead before stopping to pick up his sword and put it back in its scabbard. He went on his way, his ears twitching when he heard the sound of several hooves plodding and paws and claws scrabble along through snow behind him. Ten minutes flew by wordlessly, and still the snow continued to pile on in growing clumps that soon stuck to the heads of all.

"Matt, you do know wraiths are bad news, right?" Bartholomew asked, keeping his back turned.

"The one with us can hardly do anything on her own. Talk, fly, trot, and maybe poke if she felt like it—that's about it," Matt replied. He sighed as Katie took flight for a few seconds, only to land on his back. "At most, she's a hitchhiker. So we put up with her."

Bartholomew snorted, though whether in amusement or irritation, Matt couldn't tell. "Oh, the other guards in Whitefall are gonna give me an earful tonight," he sighed. "Say, who are the other folks with you? I haven't seen such a well-groomed coat, or a pink mane, or a diamond dog in a while."

"Vagabond," Fenrir answered tersely, averting his gaze to the side when he felt something climbing up his arm. He turned his attention back forward when Angel perched himself on his shoulder a few seconds later.

"Me and my friends, and my friends' pets… and Blueblood are Mythonian…" Pinkie began, only to halt when her brain momentarily went blank. "Oh, what's the word…" she grumbled after a few seconds, trying to rack her brain for an answer.

"Diplomats," Blueblood finished for her.

"We took these guys for a trip in our country, so they're doing the same with us. Fair's fair," Flash added, his response causing Bartholomew to halt and turn to him with both brows raised.

"So, is this… a sort of…" Bartholomew began, his ears twitching.

"'You show me yours, I'll show you mine;' exactly what it sounds like. For diplomatic reasons on their part," Katie answered, lifting a hoof to wave it dismissively. Her hoof fell in Lance's direction and she added, "He started it. His idea."

Bartholomew nodded and turned to Lance with a smile on his muzzle, but the smile was so faint that it seemed more like a slight twitching of the lips. "Is that true?" he asked in a calm tone.

"It's not entirely my fault," Lance began, briefly shifting his glance sidelong to find Shining Armor smiling at him, "but yes, I have some burden of responsibility on my withers."

"Mister, um… are cutie marks accepted in Whitefall?" Sarah interjected, again causing Bartholomew to halt in his tracks and, this time, toss his head back. A roarous laughter escaped the large stallion's mouth and echoed through the surrounding area, though thankfully it lasted for no more than thirty seconds.

"Not many in Whitefall mind cutie marks all that much; you've got nothing to worry about," Bartholomew replied once he'd calmed down. With that, he started trotting once again, and this time he broke out into a brisk pace. Everyone shifted gears and still trailed after him to keep up.

Sarah raised her brow, a skeptical frown on her face. She opened her mouth to speak, only to close it when she noticed that the trees were starting to thin out a little. Owlowiscious gave a hoot, and Sarah turned to him to find him sitting on Spike's head, and said drake himself had hitched a ride on Twilight. "What?" she asked.

Owlowiscious gave another hoot and turned to Sarah with a feathered brow raised. He hooted again, eyes glinting in askance. "Need something?" Sarah tried again, frown deepening as Owlowiscious nodded and lifted a wing to gesture up ahead. She turned to the direction he pointed at and she found the trees had finally gave way to the snow-covered village.

Andrew trotted up to Bartholomew and lifted a hoof to jab him in his barrel. "What's this gaggle you have here?" he queried.

Bartholomew looked at Andrew and assumed a wide smile on his face. "Your nephew and adopted niece are among them," he said in a smug tone.

Andrew rolled his eyes. "You're pulling my leg again, aren't…" Words died as Bartholomew stepped aside to give Andrew and the other guards a full view of the entire group he brought back with him. The other guards took one look and burst out into laughter as Andrew's face drained of its color then and there.

"He brought guests to the family reunion!" the beige-coated stallion howled, whereupon he promptly fell to the ground flat on his stomach. "Looks like Barthy and Drew-colt are gonna have a full house tonight, boys!"

"What's a full house?" Maria asked, nudging Lance's foreleg with a talon. He just stared straight ahead, seeing almost all of the guards assembled around the altar losing themselves to an almost-maniacal laughing fit. The only response he gave at that moment was a faint shiver as the air turned colder still.

"You lot, follow me and ignore the peanut gallery," Bartholomew stated, catching the attention of the group. He donned a smile and added, "I want you lot to meet somepony."

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A little ways away from the altar, about no more than a half-mile away, stood a grand church that boasted two stories and a bell tower slapped atop for good measure. The sky started to darken, and the snow started coming down in even bigger clumps as Bartholomew escorted the group right to it without so much as a flinch in his step. At this point everyone shivered, though they pressed on until their makeshift guide stopped at the church door.

Bartholomew lifted a hoof and tenderly tapped at the door three times. Though 'tenderly' in this case meant that each time his hoof connected with the door, it still shook as if it were a rattle and pulsed with light grey mana that faded as soon as the hoof dropped.

"Seems your pops is packing a lot of magic to accentuate his bulk. I'd hate to be your mother if he gets heated," Katie whispered to Matt, who merely responded with a dismissive snort and a twitch of an ear.

The door glowed with a soft blue pulse of mana and creaked open in an outward swing, and Bartholomew backed off before it could hit him in the face. Standing in the doorway was a tall and lanky unicorn mare dressed in a thick coat of fur, and one that covered up most of her body save for a light purple face accentuated by teal eyes.

She was one who could easily look Shining Armor in the eye, though her gaze seemed fixed straight ahead. For a second she was still, and a faint breeze touched a strand of blond mane that spilled out next to her horn before lifting it ever so slightly.

Then she turned to Bartholomew and smiled. "Honey, isn't it a little early to be off duty?" she asked.

"Snow's piling thick tonight. I don't think even my fur could help me withstand the night. Besides, I brought guests, Eve," Bartholomew answered, smiling back. He stepped aside again, giving Eve a wholesome view of what he was referring to.

Eve soon spotted Matt and Natalie, and her smile only widened. She nodded to them. "Come inside everyone." Her horn glowed a faint blue again, and her aura grabbed Matt and Natalie by their horns. "Especially you two." Without any further warning she dragged them both into the church with almost no effort on her part, and for a few seconds she didn't seem to notice Katie clinging to Matt's backside as she too went inside.

Bartholomew trotted in after them, going quickly enough for everyone else to start filling inside. As soon as everyone was in the church, the door slammed closed with a faint blue pulse, echoing through what the group found was a dining room with eight tables scattered about with accompanying chairs and thick table cloths.

Atop each table was a bunch of foodstuffs, mostly breads and vegetables with some meats here and there. Behind the tables stood a hall lined with several doors, culminating in a ladder at the very end that led upward. "Expecting the rest of the guards to hole up here again?" Bartholomew asked, watching as Eve dragged Matt and Natalie to a table and used some more of her magic to make them sit down. Oddly, Katie wasn't anywhere in sight.

"Yes, though I wasn't expecting more than just the guards tonight," Eve admitted with a sheepish grin, leaning over to nuzzle Natalie's cheek. Lance watched her just sit there and take the nuzzle. "But our babies coming to visit is fine too." She turned to the rest of her guests. "Sit down at the tables and help yourselves; I'll be in the kitchen making some more food." With that, she turned to the hall and merrily cantered down it before opening a door on the left and vanishing behind it.

"This is… quaint," Anna remarked, turning to Matt and Natalie to find them shrugging in return. She trotted to them and sat next to them, pausing when she felt a back pastern brush up against something sharp and pointy. She leaned to look under the table, fiddling with the cloth in the process to find Katie hiding under it.

"I can't eat; it would be rude of me to sit at the table," Katie explained, her snout wrinkling slightly.

"You're still at the table, technically," Anna pointed out with a frown.

"My point still stands," Katie huffed, eyes narrowing.

Anna rolled her eyes and leaned back prior to eyeballing the food before her. Seeing Matt and Natalie taking plates with their hooves, she followed suit as everyone else moved to sit down and do likewise. Soon the room was filled with the sounds of eating, though after a few minutes Bartholomew noticed that Katie was hiding, if only because her red tail poked out from under a table. "Take a seat and grab a plate; you need it," he remarked.

"I'm literally unable to eat; I'll spare you the specifics on why," Katie stated from her hidey-hole. She hissed when Anna nudged her with a back hoof, only to stop when Matt followed suit and managed to sock her in the mouth in such a way as to part her jaws. Only then did Katie comply, though she had to remove the hoof that lodged itself in her maws before crawling up into a seat.

"This is very homely, if a little large and much," Zecora began, pausing to bite into a rather large stem of cauliflower before swallowing. "I must say, I wonder who owns this place and keeps it such."

"My wife does," Bartholomew answered, turning to Zecora. "She always prepares before…" Words died when the door opened again, and in marched Andrew and the other guards, all of whom were slightly blue in the face and partially covered with snow. They filed in, and one used a warbling magic aura that was pink to close the door behind them. "That," Bartholomew finished awkwardly.

"B-beat u-us to th-the grub a-again?" Andrew hissed through chattering teeth, glowering at Bartholomew.

"Eve wanted us to park, so we parked," Bartholomew argued. He lifted a hoof and gestured around. "Go ahead and sit, and get to know the guests some. You need to warm up anyway, and your stomachs are first priority."

"They look like they barely escaped frostbite," Katie called from her seat, and she made to speak further before Natalie reached over and jammed a hoof that had a small biscuit into her mouth.

Grudgingly, Katie swallowed the biscuit whole—there wasn't much else she could have done, as a blue field of magic sparked around her and held her to the seat, coming from the same pony who shoveled the hoof into her face. The trip the biscuit pulled off on its way down sent aches upon aches through her system, and she shuddered as it stopped in her stomach and made it start gurgling instantaneously.

Andrew and the guards complied with Bartholomew's request once the spectacle at Katie's table died down, languidly shuffling over to the other assorted tables and taking seats. They were silent as they took their plates and started feeding themselves, though as they ate the food perked them up a bit, and the blue tinge on their faces faded a little in response.

"I have to say, this is good chow," Flash piped up with a smile, holding a fork in a hoof with a piece of cooked carrot impaled on its prongs.

Blueblood ate slowly, hesitating with each bite. Shining Armor looked at him. "Not your usual fare?" he asked.

Blueblood nodded and took another bite, chewing and swallowing. "It is… decent, though. I'll let it slide," he muttered in reply. His eyes fell on Lance, who had more meat on his plate than greenery. "Is… is he alright? Ponies don't eat meat…"

"Lance does. He's not a normal pony, Blueblood. He has an… allergy," Shining murmured, frowning. "But at least he has some greens on his plate."

"Daddy, what's this?" Maria asked, using a fork to prod at a pile of mashed potatoes.

"It's good for you, that's what. Try it; it's tasty," Lance replied, using his fork to heft up a small bit of potatoes that sat on his own plate. He shoved it into his mouth, and smiled as Maria picked up some of her own potatoes and crammed them into her muzzle.

She chewed the potatoes for a bit before swallowing, turning a slight tinge of green in the face, yet managing a smile despite the fact. "It is good," she chirped, wings flapping for a few seconds.

Eve emerged from the room she went into earlier and trotted into the dining room, carting with her a few more plates in her magic. "Who wants…" She stopped upon seeing the guards, and smiled at them. "Oh, dear, you look like you've seen ghosts. You lot need to rest as soon as possible. Are you full yet?" All the guards shook their heads, Bartholomew included. Her smile widened. "Then help yourself to some seconds."

Armin and Alexander watched as she heaped on more food on the tables, and the latter smiled while the former frowned. "Why are you such a sour pants?" Alexander asked before biting into a roll.

Armin turned to the beige guard and eyed him warily. "I can't put my hoof on it… but something's amiss," he replied.

Alexander looked around at the fervor going on, yet he saw nothing wrong. The room was alive with chewing and conversation, and all in all nothing was out of the ordinary. "Changeling's intuition, I assume?" he asked.

Armin's frown deepened and he slowly nodded in mute reply. He turned to Katie, who yet again had a piece of food shoved into her mouth by Natalie's hoof. His eyes locked with her orbs, and her ears stood upright in seconds. He grimaced as he continued watching as a bulge formed in Katie's throat and she was forced to swallow. "I think Katie feels it too… whatever it is."

Chapter LI- Midnight Hour

The sky darkened further, and the snow came in something on the scale between blizzard and hellish needles of ice that stung any unfortunate soul that dared to remain outside for more than two seconds. The church bell rung as a particularly strong gale jostled it, and everyone filed into rooms on the first floor via ladder after dinner concluded.

The groups found another door-laden hall, and the guards, sans Flash and Bartholomew, filed into one to find barracks with bunk beds waiting for them. Other rooms were more homely, sporting dressers and one or two beds and nightstands with lamps and picture frames.

In one such room with two beds, Matt looked out a window that sat next to a dresser, seeing Natalie and Katie behind him via a faint reflection. The latter was on one of the beds and she sported a very distended stomach, held in place by the former's magic as she kicked her legs feebly and constantly whined, "Make it stop! Please, make the pain stop!" A gurgling kept coming from Katie's swollen gut, yet no matter how much she pouted and flailed Natalie would not yield her magical grip in the slightest.

"Welp, now I know why she doesn't eat. Her body's simply no longer used to the concept of food," Natalie sighed dejectedly, loud enough to be heard by Matt through Katie's ongoing hissyfit.

Matt turned from the window, a small frown on his face. "How long do you think she's been starved?" he asked in a serious voice.

"... I haven't a clue." Natalie shook her head. "Don't have her exact date of birth, date of death, or how many years she's been a wraith since. Best guess? A decade at least. Her stomach must have shrunk enough for it to swell in such a way as to make her look like she's pregnant after only three biscuits."

"I'll take that as her body flipping out and going a little bit overboard on the acid buildup," Matt sighed, closing his eyes and lifting a hoof to rub his temples with it.

"You call looking eleven months pregnant 'a little overboard?'" Natalie questioned, her brow raising fractionally. "In this case, I think her entire system is outright overreacting and exploding in a spectacular fashion. She may as well be a yodeling firework display!"

Katie's wings began buzzing frantically, but all this accomplished was making her arch her back slightly. "Aest scrilaak—" she began, only to have her muzzle clogged up with another intruding hoof in short order. This only made her thrash about more, to the point she was able to knock the pillow off the bed. Shortly thereafter, another bulge formed in her throat, and her gut shrank a little.

"Swallow," Natalie instructed, and for once Katie stopped flailing about and did just that. The bulge refused to shift, at least until Katie swallowed a few more times. "You need some nutrients, and there's only one way you can get them now." She saw a pale hoof rising up and added, "Don't struggle. It'll only worsen your pain and make you more likely to throw up."

Katie's orbs shrank to pinpricks. "From here on, you'll eat at least one biscuit or piece of fish or something like that. Consider it… tough love on my part," Natalie stated, her tone between motherly and stern. "The only way you can get strong and healthy is if you eat daily. Trust me, your body'll thank you for it."

"It's gonna be a long road for her, Natz. She'll have to get her gag reflex under wraps for starters, and we haven't even figured out what to do about that split grin of hers. She may have parasites, too, and we'd be none the wiser until we got Alexander to look at her innards or something," Matt pointed out, trotting over to the two with a frown.

"Then again, this wouldn't be the first time we've dealt with stick-thin shenanigans," Natalie sighed, turning to Katie to find the orbs still pin-sized. The jaws her hoof had parted moved slightly, and something akin to a hissing groan rumbled in Katie's throat. "Oh, yes, I've done this song and dance before… short of shoving hooves into faces. You're a more… extreme case, so the hoof-shoving's sadly necessary for the time being."

"That, and us feeding you will let us see… if you have any other problems with your system," Matt added, lifting a hoof and poking Katie's shoulder with it. He gestured to her stomach and poked at it, feeling it resist his hoof with every iota of strength it had. "Yeah, three biscuits have filled you up squarely. Gonna need to work on that."

Katie made a croaking noise. "He's saying you'll need to expand your gut if you want to take in more fuel. But that'll take some time," Natalie translated, frowning as she heard the swollen gut gurgle again. "Though, I doubt you have intestinal parasites since you're undead." She saw pale nostrils flaring, and the chest expanding a little. "You feel like you're gonna hurl?" Fractionally, Katie shook her head.

Only then did Natalie remove her hoof from the pale maws. Her frown deepened as the last few teeth Katie had squished and scraped themselves, before sticking to her limb on its way out, forming yellowed spots that blemished her cream fur. "Might wanna consider a set of false teeth. All I see now are gums and a tongue," Matt noted.

Katie flinched, and her nose wrinkled a little. "Give me a tooth maker first and I'll be willing to bite," she groaned, tossing her head to the side. "Sweet Godcat, I still ache…"

Natalie shifted her hoof and patted Katie on the head, being mindful of her horn stubble. "This is going to sound really weird," she began, turning to Matt as she spoke, "but would it be feasible for Armin to share some of his love with Katie?"

Matt shook his head. "He couldn't collect any in Equestria. He'd need to do a little draining before that could happen. That, and he could think we mean something else entirely with 'share his love,' if you get the drift," he sighed.

Katie lifted a hoof that shook and threatened to drop back down. "I concur. That sounded wrong on so many levels," she stated. "That, and we changelings don't share love; we hoard it like dragons." Then her hoof dropped and she trembled as her stomach burbled again.

"We'll see if that claim is true," Matt muttered, and with that he turned to the door. He trotted to it, opened it, and went out into the hall prior to making a beeline to the room right across from the one he left. He lifted a hoof and knocked the instant he reached it, tapping no more than three times before backing off. He waited for a full minute before the door opened and Alexander poked his head out.

"Hrmmmmmyes?" Alexander asked, a brow raised.

Matt donned a small smile. "Where's Armin?" he chirped. The smile fell when Alexander's brow tabled.

"Lance gave him permission to hunt, on the grounds that he tread with someone that can rush him back here if things go south," Alexander replied with a sigh.

Matt frowned again. "Who's with him?" he asked.

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Snow-carrying winds howled around Armin and Twilight as they pushed on through the pine forest, and both felt the chill despite being dressed in thick fur coats complete with boots on their hooves and wool-knitted hats on their heads. Both were armed, with Armin having the Accelerator slung across his back and Twilight letting a light-forged blade hover next to her in a reasonably close proximity. They strained their eyes for any other sign of life in the woodland, yet nothing turned up except for the trees and the whistling of the wind.

Armin snorted before recoiling as he managed to accidentally inhale a bit of snow through his nose immediately after. He shook his head, sneezing in rapid succession prior to getting the telltale tinge of brainfreeze. Despite that, the only thing he managed was nothing more than a grimace. "What's it take to find a morsel up here? There's plenty of trees to hide in," he grumbled.

"Maybe these 'morsels' are underground. Several animals hibernate or hide around this time," Twilight remarked, taking a second to glance about their current surroundings as the snow and winds let up for a few seconds. She caught sight of a silhouette sporting many protrusions on its form, though their purpose or what the thing was eluded her as it slinked past some trees to her left. "What was that?"

"Huh?" Armin turned to Twilight to find the back of her head turned to him. Then he too caught sight of something slinking past the trees, further away from them. A toothy grin spread on his muzzle. "Oh boy, free food in aisle tree!" With the giddiness of a foal he surged towards the slinking form, making Twilight sigh and roll her eyes before she took off after him with a shake of her head.

Twilight was honestly tempted to warn Armin of the possible danger. She opened her mouth to make such an utterance, when her brain caught up to the fact that he was a soldier employed under a pegasus who wasn't afraid to kill wraiths at the very first sign of trouble. She shut her mouth before the cold air could thoroughly chill her gums and teeth, and she simply plodded behind him with her sword inching just a little closer to her as she went.

Armin licked his lips in anticipation as he followed after the silhouette, a trickle of drool running out of the corner of his mouth as he trotted onward. His horn gave off minute green sparks of mana, briefly making it seem as though his face had taken on a demonic cast. He kept going, his pace picking up despite the cold and snow all about him.

Five minutes passed before the silhouette turned to him, and he cast a green light to find he'd run into a giant arctic blue slime with a massive hunk of ice growing out of its back, a big pair of eyes and a mouth to match, and three smaller, disjointed pieces of slime acting as limbs. Atop the frozen spire were two white bush-like creatures sporting piercingly blue eyes that stared him down. Armin only let his grin widen, to the point it made him look maniacal. It was at this point Twilight caught up to him and stopped at his side.

"That's… what we were going after?" Twilight asked uneasily, her brow slanting as the slime and bush-like creatures continued to give them the thousand-yard stare.

Armin nodded, another trickle of drool seeping out of his mouth. He licked his chops again. "These things could feed the entirety of Delta Unit for months, and still go strong," he answered, lifting a hoof and gesturing to the slime in particular. "They're also used in non-fatal production of chitil."

To emphasize his point, his horn flared brighter, and his magic seized the slime and bushes before they could do anything. It was a weak, feeble hold at first, flickering dangerously as Armin opened his mouth as tendrils of pink energy started seeping from the slime and wafting towards him. He eagerly sucked in the energy right into his gullet, which to Twilight seemed green at first. Though as he sucked it in, his hold on the slime and bushes became stronger with each passing second, the aura brightening to match the light he'd cast.

Five minutes passed, and Twilight watched on warily. The slime's eyes widened, seemingly realizing that it was pinned and being drained. It lifted its disjointed limbs and thrashed wildly, but all this accomplished was a minor shaking of the ground that only sent faint tremors up Twilight and Armin's legs. It followed this up by inhaling deeply before blowing out a hefty puff of air that chilled them a little more, yet still did nothing to dissuade them.

Two minutes after that, the hold on the slime died down, but not before it grabbed a disjointed limb and swiftly tore it away. The limb vanished in a green flash, and Twilight turned to Armin to find him very bloated in the gut, to the point he almost looked pregnant. "Are you done now?" she queried in exasperation.

Armin nodded. He gestured to the slime as it regrew its lost limb and growled at him. "See? Slime's not harmed by it. Now let's go, before it decides it wants us for dinner." Twilight nodded and her horn glowed, and as a bright purple light wrapped around them the sword she had dissipated into thin ribbons. These ribbons coiled around the two, only adding to the spectacle before they were engulfed and vanished from the scene.

Seconds later they reappeared in the dining room of the church, just inches shy of Eve. "Oh? Back so soon?" she asked, with nothing more than a smile and a brow raised.

Armin turned to her, trying to blink the spots out of his eyes as he nodded with a dopey grin forming on his face. "I fed well tonight," he chirped.

Eve's smile widened. "Alright, but your legs are trembling a little. Get some rest you two," she stated, and Armin and Twilight sheepishly looked at their legs to find that they indeed shook in their boots, if only slightly. They exchanged a glance and started ambling for the ladder before Eve had the chance to tell them twice. The inside of the building helped warm their legs as they moved, though they paused at the ladder.

"Can you climb up that, looking like you're six months pregnant?" Twilight asked in a sincere voice, using a hoof to gently poke Armin in the gut for emphasis.

"Not the first time I've overstuffed. I'll need to expunge the excess love soon," Armin replied, shaking his head. "Can you do the flashy… spell again?"

Twilight grinned. "One teleportation, coming right up," she chirped, her horn glowing again. She gripped herself and Armin in her magic and promptly teleported them both to the floor above, right into the hall to find Lance and Matt in said hall, chatting with Maria sitting between their forelegs. The three gave the barest of glances to Armin and Twilight as soon as they'd arrived and went right back to their fervor.

"She's bloated like a whale? And bedridden?" Lance asked, a brow raised.

Matt nodded with a snort and a frown on his muzzle. "That's just what three biscuits do to her system, Lance. Biscuits," he replied. "Natalie's suspecting a very bad case of the trots in the coming hours." His nose wrinkled at the notion. "She barely managed to keep her from puking."

Lance's shoulders sagged a bit, and he dropped his head before releasing a groan. "Great, the frost wraith's allergic to everything on the local menu," he mumbled. "What next, she gonna get hay fever too?"

Matt turned to Armin and noticed his bulging gut. "Did you raid the fridge?" he asked.

"No; I pillaged a slime," Armin replied, using his magic to summon the detached slime limb in such a bright flash of light that even Lance squinted his eyes under the intensity.

"Seriously, you could convert the simple act of summoning an item from the friggin' thaumic plane into a flash grenade," Lance hissed, turning to Armin and lifting a hoof to rub at his eyes and make the spots dancing in his vision go away. He too eyed the fact that his troop had a swollen gut. "How much of the slime did you eat? How big was it? If it was another large one, then it looks like you've slurped a third of it up."

"Just its accumulated love, and it was huge. Though I went… overboard," Armin replied, his lips twitching slightly.

"This is gonna sound weird," Matt interjected, looking at Armin. When he felt insectoid eyes fall onto him, he elaborated, "Think you can share some of the love you've gathered with Katie?"

Armin's eyes bulged. "C-come again?" he asked.

"Well, it's… follow me," Matt replied tersely, mentally facehoofing himself and outwardly sighing as he turned to his room door.

Finally, Maria spoke as she likewise turned to the door, "Is nice wraith okay?"

"According to your Uncle Matt, that'd be a no. But I've yet to see whether or not…" A shrill and hollow cry of pain cut through the air from behind the closed door Matt was looking at, cutting Lance off before he could finish his statement.

Armin flinched before he hurriedly cantered to the door as another wail sang through the air. "That sounded like she got her legs torn off," he grumbled, seeing Matt make a beeline for the door before flinging it open with a swift hoof. He swiftly made the wad of slime vanish before following after him.

The lot filed inside in short order, only to shudder as Katie thrashed on the bed with wild abandon, screaming for all it was worth. Though they also found Natalie holding her to the bed with magic, it did little to keep her from floundering about madly.

Matt turned to Armin and gestured to Katie with a hoof. "That's why," he said curtly.

"Definitely not okay. I'm wondering if we'll need to sedate her," Lance grumbled. Armin sighed and trotted over to the ailing Katie, who kept screaming and struggling in pain.

"Share my love, right?" Armin asked, averting his gaze to look at Matt. As soon as he got a slow nod, his horn began glowing, and his now-bright emerald aura wrapped around Katie. For just a second she slumped, panting and shaking and groaning, only to start anew as soon as Armin opened his mouth as wide as it could go.

Pink tendrils seeped out with the aid of green magic and slipped their way into Katie's wide-open muzzle, and for the barest of seconds her barrel gave an odd, heart-shaped glow that was as blue as her orbs that turned redder by the second. Armin too had a glow on his barrel, bright and barely-concealed by his thick coat of added fur.

Armin's swollen gut shrank as he kept giving her energy for five minutes, until it looked only slightly distended. Katie on the other hoof had swollen even more, as if she'd managed to eat three watermelons whole, before the glow died and a blue pulse of mana accentuated by pink highlights shot across her body and made her gut shrink. Only then did her kicking and yodeling die down, and she turned to stare at the ceiling dazedly as her stomach compacted even more.

"Will… it help her digest the biscuits?" Matt queried warily, looking at Katie as another pulse rippled upon her body.

"It'll do more than that, but she'll need a nice and loooooooong nap in the meantime. I'd say… about eight hours, maybe twelve if she's still sickly," Armin replied, smiling. He turned to Lance and asked, "Want me to cast a nighty-night spell on her?"

"Looks to me like she tuckered herself out," Natalie piped up, her own magic receding from Katie's stilled form. "I'm impressed her stomach still works."

Twilight fell onto her haunches, gaze fixed on Armin and Katie. "You two glowed when you shared your love… not in that sense, of course." She turned to Lance. "Have you seen your other changelings glow like they just did?"

"On occasion, but I'd have to be near a bunch of them to see that glow whenever they share the spoils, so to speak," Lance replied with a nod, turning to Twilight with a brow quirked. "Why do you ask?"

"Sparkletop… muffins…" Katie croaked from the bed, shakily lifting a hoof before dropping it back on the bed. The others briefly turned to her, only to roll their eyes as she gave a throaty snore rivaling that of a bear.

"And Katie can still eat and breathe and wail like a normal changeling, even though she's undead…" Twilight's eyes started to gleam as she fixed her gaze on Armin again. "Would that mean wraiths preserve themselves somehow, enough for bodily functions to work?"

"She told me and Fen that she's immortal. I'd bet ten bits and a sweet roll that 'bodily functions' was included in her immortality package," Armin chimed in, turning to Katie as her gut shrunk again with another pulse of mana. "Yeesh, that extra love I gave her is already going to town."

Twilight's eyes widened as soon as Armin said 'immortal.' "Okay, that would actually explain a lot…" she mumbled before getting back on track. "And she can use her magic via… horseshoes…" She pondered some more, and lifted a hoof to rub her chin in thought. A second later and her hoof dropped as fast as it had risen. Twilight turned her eyes on Lance again, this time grinning. "I think I know what this calls for…"

Lance turned to Twilight again, frowning slightly. "'For' what?" he pressed.

"Would you mind me doing a little research on Armin and Katie? I promise I won't probe them; I need only study into that odd glow they make when they share love…" Twilight began in a sweet tone, the kind that dripped with enthusiasm and curiosity in equal measure. "Because I've seen changelings drain love before, but sharing it… not only seems odd, but yields an even stranger effect."

"I wouldn't mind, but you'll have to wait for Katie to wake up. Considering she's only fed tonight on both food and love, I'd wager she'd be a wee bit sluggish in the morning. But I'll look out for any other side-effects as a precautionary measure." Armin lifted a booted hoof and gently nudged Katie in the withers with it, and she responded by mumbling incoherently. "Yep, she's out like a light. Looks like I don't need to cast a healthy helping of nighty-night magic yet."

"What is… this 'nighty-night' spell you keep going on about?" Twilight asked, her eyes glimmering even more.

"Well… I'd have to be around another changeling to use it, but if you want, I'll demonstrate it tomorrow if Katie proves restless," Armin answered with a shrug. "Or if she decides to try and tangle with Lance again."

Twilight's brow rose. "She… tried to tangle…" For but a moment her thought processes halted, unsure as to what Armin meant.

"Decided it was a good idea to punch me," Lance snorted in response, shaking his head at Katie's sleeping form. "She hit me… with hooves so soft I almost thought a baby slapped me."

Maria fluttered her wings and she turned to Lance. "Daddy, what's sharing love?" she asked, the question almost instantly causing his eyes to bulge and his throat to start issuing a choking sound coupled with an attempt at sputtering something coherent. On top of that, Matt and Natalie turned to the foal with blushes painting their faces, jaws agape and likewise producing noises that made Twilight think the air of the room started attempting to strangle them.

"Sharing a special energy-based food between changelings, using thaumic energy," Armin answered as Lance, Matt, and Natalie continued to flounder on each and every attempt to utter a response. Maria turned to him and opened her mouth again, but he cut her off with a firm, "And no, it doesn't have another meaning."

"Okay," Maria chirped, tail swishing for a second. "What's thaumic energy? That sounds weird." That made Lance, Matt, and Natalie slump and sigh with relief in unison.

"You know, you almost sound a lot like me when I was a foal. I wanted to gain knowledge, and you're going down the same path with a few twists of your own," Twilight remarked, turning to Maria to give her a warm smile. "If you want, I can teach you what thaumic energy is."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Blueblood and Flash Sentry stayed up well into the midnight hour, having themselves a small table between them and a spot of tea with ceramic cups. The only light in the room came from a small flickering scone, casting an orange glow about the room as the duo sat in silence. As they sipped the tea, they looked out the window in unison, seeing the snow outside continue to pile it on thick. Ironically, because of that, they could see a few buildings a trot or two away from the church, already closed up and with lights off.

From what they could see of Whitefall Town, it looked relatively peaceful. "For all of his banter that several things were amiss on the face of Fantasia," Blueblood began slowly, continuing to observe the impassive scene outside, "the General somehow found a great place to start his little 'tour.'"

"What'd he do, rattle?" Flash queried, turning away from the window to look at Blueblood.

"More or less," Blueblood replied after a few seconds, taking his time to continue staring out. "And yet… I cannot help but feel that something is quite… off, to put it mildly." He turned away and used his magic to lift his teacup and put it to his lips. Sipping at the liquid, he frowned slightly as he realized it was starting to turn cold. That made him take another sip, hastily at that.

Flash mutely nodded and turned to the window again, feeling his wings twitch as he caught sight of a cloaked form slinking past the houses he could see, and it shuffled and swayed and twitched without rhyme or reason. Its legs were done up in black garments, though they seemed to sag slightly as it moved. "I see something," he stated grimly, eyes narrowing slightly as they watched the creature just amble about past houses.

Blueblood finished his drink and turned to the window again, his brow furrowing as he too caught sight of the odd, and painstakingly obvious figure. "I hope to Faust that isn't a drunkard out there. Yet it's unseemly gait and aimless shuffling are signs of such," he snorted, frowning. "I hope that pony, if it is one, gets home before…" Words died in his throat as, abruptly, the figure stood on a pair of lanky back legs and turned rigid on the spot.

"Now that's utter foolishness if I've ever seen such an act," Flash muttered, shaking his head as the creature dropped to all fours and started milling about without even a smidgen of purpose again. "Only other soul I know of who'd do that at least has an excuse; she's undead."

"Perhaps that's a wraith, then," Blueblood scoffed, eyes still fixed on the figure as it continued to look like a fool. "But I can't see anything past that garment it donned."

The figure rose on its back legs again, and for but a brief second a crisp, forest green light flashed from the top of its head. In that same instant it was gone, leaving no hoofprints in any particular direction whatsoever. All that remained of it as the light faded were the hoofprints in the snow it had already left before deciding to put on a split-second light show.

"Looks like we got a teleporter. Guess the sod couldn't stand turning blue any longer," Flash sighed, turning back to Blueblood again. "You think we should tell Shining and Lance about this?"

Blueblood shook his head and returned the look. "It didn't do anything noteworthy, unless tottering about like a complete buffoon constitutes as noteworthy," he replied solemnly. His stomach twisted a little, sending cramps of pain through his abdomen, and for a few seconds he was silent. With a wince he added, "But, I suppose we should play it safe and inform the others in the 'morrow."

Flash nodded. He lifted his own glass and took a sip before setting it back down a second later. "You think they'd be on the lookout for a cloaked teleporter with a magic aura as green as a pine tree's needles?" he asked in a low, serious tone.

"They may, or they may not. Their prerogative either way, and tragically so if they choose not to and it proves to be a threat," Blueblood answered with a rather slow shrugging of his shoulders that came off as more a bare twitch. "But we don't know why it was here, why it stumbled about, or even if it was faking something out." A flash of green burst from below, and he turned to the window to find that the figure was back again, once more tottering about aimlessly.

Flash turned to the window and lifted a hoof to slap his own face with it. "Oh here we go…" he grumbled as the hoof slid down his bridge. "I hope it doesn't perform a samba…"

"Whatever it is, it is simply too incompetent to perform a samba. I will bet a million bits that the General could muster up something better with his wings out in the open," Blueblood snorted, his face contorting into a glower as he watched the figure below stumble and tumble with the grace of a sick duck.

Flash dropped his hoof and snickered at the thought of Lance performing a samba, and he shook his head to rid himself of the thought. "What should we call that dude's attempt at dancing, besides incompetent?" he queried sincerely, his voice carrying an amused note.

"I'd wager, on account of teleportation—" Blueblood stopped for a second as the figure reared up, summoned another flash of light, and promptly vanished from sight again. "—that the attempt should be henceforth dubbed 'Shoddy Lightshow Special,'" he finished, a slightly smug grin on his face as 'Shoddy Lightshow Special' rolled off his tongue. "I have seen my fair share of performances, and that was the worst yet."

The lit scone flickered dangerously, and Flash turned to it to find that it was on the verge of burning out. He sighed and made to blow it out, but stopped just shy of opening his mouth as it went out by itself, immediately sending the room into a darkness so thick it seemed to be corporeal. Silence hung in the room, yet Blueblood continued to stare out that accursed window, as if waiting for something.

A howling gale blew outside, strong enough to make the bell toll and caused the window to briefly rattle. Flash looked out through the glass pane again, just in time to witness another green light flash into the snow-laden street below.

But the figure that came back did not stumble about after that, nor did it revert to all fours. This time it stood upright and turned to the window itself, the very same one through which Flash and Blueblood watched it, revealing that its barrel was likewise draped in sable cloth. Both could barely see a pale muzzle grinning up at them, only accentuated by twin glowing orbs of forest green and the cloak overshadowing its head. A horn barely poked out of the garment, aglow once again.

In one last flash of light, it was gone. Yet as soon as it disappeared, an aged wooden sign sporting a green glow about it flew up and affixed itself to the window from outside, both startling the duo and cutting the sole source of light off in an instant. They strained their eyes, and grimaced as they slowly made out a message that was carved into the obstruction.

"I know you have her. Return her to my hoof at once."

Blueblood's eyes narrowed. "I don't know who that pony was, or who they were referring to with 'her,' but I will not yield to their whims," he scoffed.

"Nor will I. That pony isn't getting 'her,' whoever 'her' is," Flash agreed with a slow nod, frowning deeply.

Chapter LII- Cloak and Crystal

Natalie laid on the other bed with her back facing the ceiling, keeping one eye on Katie's slumbering form and the other on Matt, who had fallen asleep next to her with a grin on his face. Sitting next to Katie's bed was Armin, who closed his eyes for brief intervals lasting a few minutes before opening them and keeping watch again.

Only Katie's snoring ensured that the room wasn't fully bathed in silence, though sometimes she mumbled and snorted about sparkletop muffins. As the hours passed, her stomach shrunk and her body pulsed with mana, until she was once again pencil-thin. The night drew on, and eventually Matt wrapped his front hooves around Natalie's barrel and pulled her close to him, and she leaned over to nestle her head into his shoulder.

She still kept one eye open, facing Katie so intently that the slightest twitch of a hoof or the buzz of a wing caught her attention for a few seconds on end. Natalie's eyes closed as Matt pressed her closer, and she gave a small sigh as the legs on her barrel shifted a bit, tickling her with their fur. Sleep claimed her in minutes, leaving Armin awake in the darkened room.

Armin turned to the two and grinned as he watched them cuddle, and his eyes stayed on them until a few minutes passed and Natalie gave a soft whinny. "I swear, they're cute together. I wonder what they'll do when they get back to base," he pondered, turning back to Katie as she jerked a leg outward and poked him in the barrel with it.

"I… will not be… denied my muffins…" Katie grumbled, before her long tongue snaked out and licked her torn chops eagerly.

"Note to self: make muffins tomorrow," Armin murmured to himself, giving a sigh as he slowly lifted a hoof and brushed Katie's off with such a faint touch she wasn't roused by it. He saw the tongue dart around before inserting itself into one of Katie's ears, probing around for a second prior to reeling out and then diving right back in again. "Now that's just gross."

He turned away, having no intention of witnessing Katie prod at her own brains. His eyes fell on Matt and Natalie again, and he found that they had stilled and started murmuring. Armin's lips quirked in a smile as Natalie neighed and gave a flinch of her shoulders. "You want… celery?" she grumbled with a snort.

Armin sniggered, his lips still locked in a grin. The grin fell as a pair of back legs shifted, followed by Matt giving off a soft groan mixed with a whinny. "Is he okay?" he wondered, watching the two intently for a few more seconds.

"Not… the ginger…" Matt mumbled, his rear legs fidgeting about as he spoke. He stilled a minute later, and began snoring quietly.

"Ginger?" Armin mouthed, a brow raising disbelievingly as his brain processed the remark. It took several minutes for it to register, during which time Matt began kicking and struggling again. Before he could dwell on it once it finally gained admission, though, Matt abruptly sat bolt upright with wide eyes and a paling face. He dragged Natalie with him into more or less the same stance thanks to his hooves still being wrapped around her barrel, in turn waking her up with a startled gasp.

"The hell?" Natalie murmured, looking around before her eyes fell onto Matt's front hooves. She stared for a second before craning her neck to look at him in the face. "You okay?" she asked.

Matt sighed and flopped back down, but not before he slid his hooves off of Natalie first. "Had a bad dream is all," he replied quietly. He turned to Katie and winced as he saw that her tongue was still lodged firmly in her ear. "That's freaky," he hissed, turning away to stuff his face into a pillow. "I've seen enough for tonight."

Natalie turned to Katie, stared for a few seconds, and proceeded to turn away when the anomaly registered. "I concur." With that, she buried her face into Matt's shoulder again and released a groan of exasperation. "Never before have I heard of or seen a wraith try to eat their own brains," she added with a note of disgust.

Armin's horn glowed and his magic seized Katie's tongue before yanking it out sharply, and he turned to find that it managed to drag out at least a good inch and a half of blackened, foul-smelling ear wax. "Someling's gonna need more examinations," he snorted as his magic began to remove the wax with a gentle scraping motion.

Without hesitation, his magic ended up causing the blackened substance to ignite into flames as its gooey bits were forcefully parted from the organ. The tongue began writhing in response, but ceased as the magic seized it in its entirety and snapped it upright, taut, and as far as it could stretch in one go. In response, her neck caved in a little, but that alone did not take Armin's attention at all.

Armin gave a low whistle as he scanned the pale instrument of taste up and down, seeing that it easily reached four-and-a-half feet by itself. "Damn thing's as long as her body," he remarked, eyes glimmering with a slight awe. The utterance caused Matt and Natalie to turn to him in an effort to find what he was babbling about, and in the very moment they did their jaws dropped simultaneously.

Armin turned to the two unicorns and regarded them for a long moment that hung in silence. Slowly, he lowered the tongue to the bed with his magic, and nestled it in a way that not only ensured that Katie remained asleep, but in a way that they could see the tip easily reached the end of her red tail. "Huh. Seems like we may have a mutant with us," he whispered lowly, just enough that they could hear him.

"Mutant?" Natalie murmured, eyes darting between Armin and Katie as she struggled to process the fact that the latter had a ludicrously long tongue. Part of her imagined the organ taking residence in her skull and going in one ear and out the other. The other part imagined a brain being displaced in a jar because of it.

"Considering she has four wings and a tongue long as this, who knows what breed of changeling she is. Might be a mix, but the likeliest candidates for making something like this would be...." Armin trailed off and racked his brain for a way to finish the remark. It fell short as Katie's orbs lit up and she turned to him, her long tongue slinking back into her mouth inch by inch.

He turned to her and found her throat expanding as the organ slid in, though not in a way that gave the impression of having something wedged into her esophagus. For all he knew, it may have been a throat pouch specifically for her tongue. Only when her tongue was fully back in place a minute later did Katie speak, "The hell did you do?"

"You, uh… feel anything in your ear?" Armin answered with a slightly shaky voice, and for a moment Katie lifted a brow. Then, she lifted a hoof and felt her ear with it before finding a slick substance coating it. At her nod, he answered, "Your tongue went in your ear. I pulled it out and got most of the wax off."

Katie's orbs widened as the utterance sank in and the taste of foul wax finally registered on her tongue, and she immediately slid it out and started to spit frantically. Armin's magic grabbed it again and got what little wax was left off, but that did nothing to remove the taste itself. "M-my ear?" she croaked between attempts to spit.

Armin lifted a hoof and gestured to Matt and Natalie with it. "I have witnesses," he confirmed.

Katie turned to Matt and Natalie, and her orbs then shrank to pinpricks as she found them both nodding in tandem. She turned to Armin again after taking a second to stop retching. "I need a muzzle-cover… thingy. Can you make one, please?" she asked sincerely, her brow slanting.

Armin nodded and his horn started glowing again. "Chitil, or another substance?" he replied.

"Chitil," Katie immediately answered.

Armin grinned and summoned the ball of blue slime he'd retrieved. "One chitil muzzle, coming right up."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Sarah sat up in a queen-sized bed, mane frazzled, thought processes muzzy, and eyes bloodshot. Her good wing fanned out, and its feathers were askew in all directions. She turned to her wing and sighed as she found her primaries brushing up against the back of Fenrir's head, though it took a few seconds simply to process the sight. Slowly, her wing folded shut, and she laid back down to stare absently at the ceiling.

Her eyes squinted, and they started burning and aching at the same time. She lifted a talon and rubbed at her eyes with it, opening her mouth wide and releasing a hefty yawn in the process. She turned onto her left side, still rubbing her eyes, and found herself yawning again. "So… tired…" Sarah grumbled as she pulled her talon away from her face. She blinked before realizing she was now staring at a window on a far wall, and the snow still falling beyond the pane, dancing in the darkness outside.

She tried counting the flakes that whirled elegantly beyond her reach, mouthing to keep from making noise. "One… two… three-four…" Flakes kept drifting on down in such amounts that, soon enough, she started to lose count. "Fifteen… seventeen? Twenty-one? Damn…"

Sarah started over with a sigh of resignation, "One… two…" As she counted, her eyes started to slowly close, and her body began lulling itself back to sleep. Six minutes passed before her eyes fully slipped shut, and her mind fully clouded not long after.

The world shifted around her just before sleep could claim her, gravity altered drastically, and for a second it felt like the bed ceased to exist beneath her. Sarah's eyes snapped open and she yelped before rolling over, tumbling out of the bed, and then landing face-first in the floor. "Shit…" she hissed, turning her head to rest it on her cheek once her brain caught up with the fact that she'd fallen rather ungracefully.

She shifted her talons and then stopped when a rustle of cloth reached her ears, and her eyes shifted peripherally as Fenrir leaned over to peer down at her. "May I inquire as to what that was about?" he grumbled, his voice equal parts tired and irritated.

"Had… a falling dream," Sarah mumbled in reply, figuring that was as good an answer as any. She did not make an attempt to haul herself off of the floor yet, if only because yellow eyes bored into her in such a way she had the impression that Fenrir was going to try something.

He continued to stare instead, incredulously at that. "Tumbling-from-a-cliffside variety?" he queried.

Sarah nodded. "Sideways," she replied tersely. "And it turned into a nosedive…"

Fenrir frowned, and huffed through flared nostrils. He stared for a second longer and caught sight of a green tinge budding on Sarah's face. "No, I am not…" he paused, racking his brain for a way to finish his utterance, "sporting a particular protrusion, if that is what you are pondering."

With that, he retracted and flopped on the bed, and patiently waited for the telltale sound of claws and hooves scraping against the floor. Seconds later, that exact sound reached his ears, and after that Sarah crawled in and dropped next to him with a groan. She flinched as he lifted a paw and gently scratched her between the wings, the sensation almost immediately sending shivers and a secondary, unfamiliar feeling up and down her spine. The hairs and feathers on her back stood on end, from the dock of her tail all the way to her withers.

Fenrir felt Sarah tense up and pulled his paw away. "Not fond of gentle scratching?" he asked softly, turning his head to look at her face.

Sarah nodded apprehensively. "That was… out of the blue. Last time I was scratched on the back was before me and Anna split up," she explained, her tone having a distinct note of uneasiness to it.

"By whom?" Fenrir inquired, his brow lifting ever so slightly.

"Mom," Sarah answered, closing her eyes before giving off a sigh. "Only she managed to draw blood that time."

Fenrir's brow proceeded to climb up the rest of his forehead. "Intentionally, or not?" he snorted, barely managing to keep a growl from his voice.

Sarah merely shrugged. "Not really sure," she answered. "And honestly, I don't want to dwell on it." Leaving it at that, she buried her face into a pillow and rubbed it furiously, mumbling incoherently as she did so.

Fenrir's brow fell, and he put his paw on Sarah's backside again, making her stop and tense once more. "Are you well?" he asked, and he frowned as she turned from the pillow to look at him.

"Aside from being tired, so-so," she answered, staring him in the eye. Her own eyes twitched as she asked, "And why must you put your paw on my back? I'm trying to sleep, Godcat-dammit, and you're not helping."

Fenrir's frown eased a little, and a twinkle came in his eyes. "I thought it might ease your apparent restlessness," he explained in an overtly innocent tone that had Sarah thinking he pulled that one from beneath his tail. "But should I happen to draw blood, I will cease immediately," he added in a slightly firmer voice.

Sarah simply stared at him for the span of about six seconds. "Just avoid my broken wing and you've got yourself a deal," she relented, turning to rest her chin on the pillow again. The paw began scratching her between the wings once more, which caused her to tense all over again at first. She didn't have an itch in that area that she didn't know of; the action was very foreign to her and made her crawl a little.

But after a half-minute, she relaxed and slowly sighed through her nostrils. If it would help her get back to sleep, it sure was taking a bit of effort. She felt the paw trail up to rest on her withers, garnering a slight twitch and a pair of eyes slipping shut. "Okay, that's… starting to feel… wow," she thought, her mind going muzzy again as the paw kept up its soft scratching. "Never thought he could… do… that…"

Fenrir kept scratching for a good few minutes, moving his paw along her upper back to keep from turning one spot raw. Only when he heard a soft snore mixed with a squawk did he stop and pull back, and he looked at her face as she dozed. She gave a twitch of her ear, but then a small smile crossed her face as she started to purr. Nodding to himself, Fenrir closed his eyes and laid back down before drifting off to sleep himself.

Approximately thirty minutes later his eyes opened again as he heard a very soft tapping at the door. Consigning irritated murmurings to the back of his mind, he slowly sat up and crept out of bed, making sure to keep his tail low to avoid poking Sarah with it. Once he was on his paws he padded his way to the door on all fours, crouching low to keep himself steady. As soon as he was within reach he lifted a paw up, grasped the knob, and slowly turned it before pushing the door open.

He blinked when he heard chittering coming from the hall, very closely at that. Looking down, his brow climbed his forehead again as he saw Angel looking up at him. "Yes?" Fenrir asked, watching as Angel hopped into the room, going between his legs in doing so. He turned away from the door without closing it, and to the bunny as he darted right up to the window and pointed at it with a paw.

A few seconds ticked by before Fenrir registered what the gesture meant, and he mentally facepalmed as he padded over to the window to see what the deal was. Peering out, he caught sight of… something jutting from a rooftop a good thirty feet away from the church. The whirling snow obscured its features, but he could still tell it was there and was so oddly shaped that it did not do a terribly good job of trying to pass off as part of the roof. Turning to Angel again, he caught sight of a pair of small, furry arms crossing over a fluffy chest.

Peeling himself from the window and bending forward until he was eye to eye with Angel, Fenrir softly asked, "Do you have any idea what that… form may be, perchance?" When Angel shook his head with a frown forming on his muzzle, Fenrir turned to the wall and gave a heavy sigh prior to turning back to his unexpected visitor.

He jolted when Sarah started mumbling in her sleep. "What are… you doing to her?" she hissed, her face scrunching slightly as she spoke. "Stop… you're hurting her…"

Fenrir and Angel turned to Sarah with brows raised. They slowly crept to her, as silently as they could manage. She started shuddering when they took no more than three steps forward, her talons balling into fists as her face tightened a little more. "Lemme go…" she hissed, and that was all the initiative Fenrir needed. In an instant he bolted to her, crossing the distance before clasping her by the shoulders and hauling her right out of bed, leaving her to screech and dangle above the sheets as she was violently roused from sleep.

Sarah now stared at Fenrir incredulously, her eyes wide and her pupils but tiny slivers. For a moment, she heard murmuring voices, but shoved that aside to gather her thoughts."E-excuse you?" she hissed, before her ears twitched as the sound of soft hooves and claws against the floor wormed its way inside.

Fenrir opened his mouth to utter something in response, but whatever it was he'd wanted to say immediately left before it could roll off his tongue. He then noticed the sound of the hooves and claws, both of which then stopped prior to giving way to a soft tapping that immediately echoed in from the still-opened door. Both he and Sarah turned to find a droopy-winged Maria staring at them, a talon balled into a fist and hovering just inches from the door. They could spot heavy bags formed under bloodshot eyes, accompanying a tight frown on her muzzle.

"Daddy wants me to tell you…" Maria paused to yawn, her voice groggy and scratchy, "to shut the fuck up."

Fenrir gaped. "Did… you just say that… word for word?" he asked.

Maria nodded tiredly. "And that mommy told me to tell you to keep it down," she added, making the two flinch at the implications of her utterance. She turned to Angel as he hopped over to her. "Daddy wants you to sleep with me tonight, so the bad hippogryphs go away." Angel nodded and plodded around her before jumping onto her back. With that, she turned tail and shuffled into the hall.

Fenrir lowered Sarah to the bed slowly, until her haunches were connected with the mattress and sheets. He lifted a paw and shifted his index digit up whilst curling the other ones tightly—'hold on for a second,' he seemed to say. At Sarah's mute nod, he turned and cantered over to the door with as silent of steps as he could muster, and when he reached the wooden slab he tenderly nudged it closed. The instant door and frame connected with a soft click, he plodded back over to the bed.

"Can we discuss this tomorrow?" he whispered.

Sarah nodded again, and gave a sigh. "I suppose," she whispered back, turning to the window to stare outside once more. All she saw was the dancing snow.

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Lance flopped on his bed with a groan, his face buried in his pillow as the sound of soft hooves and claws hitting the floor echoed once again. A minute later, they came to a brief halt when a door opened, closed, and then resumed before completely stopping with a faint rustling of sheets. Only when silence thoroughly permeated the room did he lift his head and turn it to his right, finding Anna more or less in the same position barely a centimeter away, and Maria and Angel situated on a bed about two feet from theirs.

"They stopped yelling," Maria reported, smiling in spite of her apparent exhaustion. Lance nodded in approval, and he watched as Maria flopped on her pillow before she gave a soft snore. Angel curled up next to her, out of immediate reach of her claws, but still within touching distance. Seconds later, Anna and Lance themselves flopped and fell back asleep as though nothing had happened.

Some three minutes passed before Lance lifted his head again, grumbling unintelligibly as he heard a very faint sound of something akin to sliding. That was immediately followed by a thin, chilly breeze wafting its way into the room that made his wings press up more tightly to his stomach. He turned to the window and frowned as he barely managed to catch sight of a black form moving away from it.

From outside the pane, no less. It took him a few seconds to register that bit, but when it gained admission and checked into the topmost floor of his mental processes, his eyes went wide. Slowly, he crept out of bed and cantered over to the window before nudging it closed with his snout once he was within range, and then checking for anything even resembling a basic locking mechanism while he was at it.

There was none to be had; at least, not one that he could immediately see within the inky darkness of the room. A niggling feeling started whirring in his head and working its way down his neck, culminating in shivers rushing through his spine and a realization that he'd need something to keep the window closed lest the darkened form come back. Lance gave a sigh of resignation; he didn't know what that figure was, much less what it wanted.

But it had tried to enter the room, and he'd barely caught it in the act. That in itself was enough grounds for him to stay up a few minutes longer. Since there were no latches or anything of the sort to keep the window down, he'd have to use unconventional tactics. That made him snort indignantly; what sort of house didn't have locking windows? He made a mental note to consult Eve at a later time about it, but for now he had more pressing matters to sort out.

He turned to scan the room in search of something that could be used to block off the window. Slowly, his head moved from corner to corner, and with it his body turned until his gaze settled on the window again, taking in everything the room had to offer. "I could move the dresser here…" he mumbled, turning around to the corner closest to both the door and Maria's bed. Shrouded by a deep blackness, he could barely make out a foot of his chosen piece of furniture.

He trotted to it, giving a grimace as he soon found it was taller than he was. Adding to that, there were a few photo frames atop it, and a vase at one end of the picture row and a small lantern on the other. "Great. Couldn't move this thing if I'd wanted to… I just haaaad to think a dresser would be a good idea," he inwardly hissed, and made to turn to the window again when he heard a rustling of sheets.

His gaze fell onto the beds instead, and he found Angel sitting bolt upright and looking at him with eyes widened in alarm. Lance lifted a hoof and held it to his lips, motioning for Angel to be quiet. As soon as the furry white head nodded, he sighed and turned to the window again.

The black form was back, but it turned away and fled before he could get a good look at its features. He made out glowing green orbs accompanying a horn bathed in viridian light and scowled. "A likely wraith. Even better," he found himself murmuring. "And the fucker's waiting for me to fall back to sleep. That does it. I'm keeping watch." A soft chittering tore his attention from the window again, and he turned to Angel. "You saw it too?" he asked in a whisper.

Angel nodded furiously, ears jumping up and standing to attention. He turned to the window again after that, his little brow furrowing in the process. "Good to know me and Admiral Bunnykins are on the same page," Lance mentally snarked as he likewise turned to the window, racking his brain for a possible solution to the current problem. Part of him wondered if having Angel help him in some manner would be a good idea or not; there were several pros and cons on either end of that particular spectrum.

There was size, posture, the ears, and overall maneuverability to account for. He had to give the bunny bravery points for mustering up a death glare in his direction when he was parked in Ponyville, but death glares alone rarely solved things. That, and if Angel was hurt, how would Fluttershy react? The bunny was more or less one of her pets, after all, and he didn't know how well she'd take the news of his possible wounds.

A few minutes passed before he came to a decision. "Angel, can you wake me up if that… thing outside the window decides to drop by again?" he asked in a whisper, turning to Angel as he spoke.

Angel turned back and nodded once more. "Scream if it comes to it," Lance added, garnering another hasty nod as his response. That was all the confirmation he'd needed. Lance smiled and trotted back to bed, crawling into the sheets before resting his head on the pillow. He flexed his wings a little, but did not let them part his sides in the slightest. Once he was sure they didn't snag under his stomach, he stilled and attempted to fall asleep.

The pitter-patter of Angel's feet as he got out of bed and hopped to the window reached his ears, though they were very soft. If not for the room being otherwise dead silent, he wouldn't have heard the noise. But he didn't say anything; it simply couldn't be helped. The bunny was his only alarm at this rate; he made another mental note to speak to Matt and Natalie later for unwittingly incapacitating Katie.

Then his mind wandered further, and he grumbled as he pondered whether or not the dreaded 'trots' had visited the sorry wraith yet. That did little except keep him up for a few minutes longer. His response was to bury his muzzle in his pillow so deep its sides jutted out to hug his cheeks and neck. "Of all the times to have an alert brain worrying about this and that, it had to be now?" he mentally grumbled.

The black figure formed in his mind, and he gave a slight shudder of bald wings. "But I have to be alert… if the damned figure wants Maria…" His thought processes ground to a stop, and slowly he lifted his head from the pillow and directed his gaze at the still-sleeping foal. The last time they'd shared a room…

"No. I can't let that happen again. Filly's been through enough already," Lance murmured so lowly he scarcely heard his own utterance. But it was an utterance that solidified his resolve. A shrill scream pierced the air, and he instantly turned to the window to find it was sliding open with the aid of something dark and distinctly hoof-shaped. A form rushed in once the window had fully opened, seizing Angel in an instant. It picked the hapless bunny up, who unleashed a louder cry as a hoof went to his throat.

Lance found himself jumping off the bed and rushing to the darkened form in a full gallop. "Get your motherfucking hooves off of that motherfucking rabbit!" he barked, wasting no time in crossing the distance and pouncing at the figure, which culminated in him sending it to the floor.

His hooves landed on the creature's neck, which felt unusually solid, and he felt Angel squeezing out of the hold the form had on him and scampering away, still shrieking in alarm. But his hold slipped as the figure lifted a back leg and kicked him solidly in the stomach, sending him tumbling backwards into the wall with a cry of pain and surprise. Then its horn began glowing in a pale green light.

The scuffle managed to jolt Maria and Anna awake, and both turned to the scene to find Lance just in time to see him fall to his haunches. Anna's horn lit up with magic, and a green light started glowing from the tip, casting the sight in a stark relief that made her blanch.

On the floor, with a glowing horn of its own, was a cloaked unicorn of some sort that was flailing about, attempting to get up despite having shoved its attacker away and yet failing to right itself. She jumped out of bed, charged over and summoned an inhibitor before thrusting it upon the glowing accoutrement of the intruder. The act immediately made the form jerk as dimly-glowing bolts ran across their body the very instant the horn was capped. Afterwards, the bolts of magic faded, and so too did the aura of its horn.

Lance rose to stand with a grunt as the figure went still. He turned to the window and closed it before turning to the door to find Angel cowering next to it in a tightly-compact ball. "You okay?" he asked in a much softer but pained voice, garnering a shaken nod as his answer. Then he turned to the intruder and sighed. "Who the hell is this pony?"

Anna shrugged, eyes also lingering on the form that lay on the floor. Her magic took hold of its clothes and slowly unravelled them, going piece by piece in case there were wounds present. Maria hopped out of bed and cantered over, turning to look at Lance. "Is this a bad pony?" she asked.

Lance nodded as Anna worked to undo the black bindings. "Tried to hurt your…" he trailed off, lifting a hoof to gesture to the cowering Angel for emphasis.

He frowned as Anna successfully freed one of the intruder's forelegs from a cloth binding, revealing a cracked form with ball-like joints where the front knee, hoof, and elbow would normally bend. Said ball-joints were made of blue crystals, and further crystals grew out of the front of the leg in a jagged structure that was small. Pieces fell off of the leg, giving the impression that it was barely holding together.

"What the…" Anna murmured, working hastily to undo the rest of the bindings to see what the hell the creature was. She freed the other three legs and found more or less the same result as the first, except two legs had red crystals instead of blue. Angel stopped shivering, uncurled himself, and hopped over with his curiosity now piqued. The instant he reached the scene was the same instant he tapped at Anna's back pastern to let her know he was there.

The door opened seconds later, and Fluttershy and Blueblood trotted into the room. Lance turned to them to find a pair of widened eyes, a flared horn aglow in shimmering blue, a pair of wings spread wide, and frazzled manes. "What happened?" Blueblood asked, turning to the pony who was being stripped. He shook his head upon seeing patches of crystal. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"This bastard broke in, tried strangling Angel, and kicked me off the moment I jumped him. Anna's holding him down," Lance explained, turning back to the figure before paling as Anna forcefully parted its hood from its face.

Dim light shined on the form, revealing an entire mane of rainbow crystals and a set of unblinking emeralds acting as eyes, all seemingly affixed in a face of what looked like stone. The last of the bodily bindings came off next, revealing a snake-like tail ending in yellow crystals and some kind of swirling, varicolored orb set into the stomach that jutted out just enough to look like a normal belly had the cloth stayed on.

"What the fuck?" Lance found himself asking. For a moment the emeralds shimmered with vibrant, similarly-colored mana before Anna lifted a hoof and punched the spot between them, channelling mana into her hoof the moment it connected with stone. For a few seconds, this did nothing except make the creature's 'eyes' crackle.

A green glow pulsed from her hoof and made the thing quiver violently, causing more pieces to flake and break off of the body. Only when it threatened to crumble altogether did she stop channeling mana, and she stayed still for a few seconds before she lifted her limb up and punched again, just hard enough to break the entire face of the construct. Considering it was already falling apart at this point, the face more or less caved in on itself.

"It's… it's a pony-shaped crystal golem… an enchanted but flimsy one at that. How did it get here?" Anna asked as she lifted her hoof, dragging with it shards of broken stone and emeralds. The rest of the golem shuddered for a moment before it crumbled into pieces with one last fleeting pulse of mana and a low groan. The inhibitor rolled off of a stone fragment, and was quickly encased in a green glow that made it vanish.

"A… crystal golem?" Fluttershy parroted, pupils shrinking to pinpricks. "B-but…"

"Nevermind how it got here," Blueblood snapped, garnering the attention of Anna in the process. She whirled around to face him, being mindful of Angel's presence. "Who enchanted it is the bigger question. Why did it come here? Who constructed it if it was not built by nature, for what purpose at that? Why did it fall apart just now? Those are some even better queries."

Chapter LIII- Cold Shoulder

The clouds parted during the early dawn as the sun rose, ensuring that it was casting its light over Whitefall that made it take on a pinkish hue. Rays of warming sun filtered in through a single window in the dining room of the church, where everyone had gathered with plates full of food laden on the tables. In addition to that, the remains of the crystal-pony-golem... thing were placed on a blanket on the floor to one side where all could see it.

Blueblood crossed his forelegs and huffed. "No clue who could've crafted our wayward visitor last night?" he snorted, garnering several shakings of heads as his answer.

"I don't even know anypony who could do that. It's delicate work to create a golem, not to mention whoever did it might've needed an earth pony on standby just to keep it together with said earth pony's magic," Anna replied, taking a few seconds to bite down on a biscuit.

Blueblood's brow rose. "Earth pony magic? Pardon my bluntness, but you're a unicorn for Faust's sake. How would you know about earth pony magic?" he asked sincerely.

Anna swallowed her bite and gestured to Matt with a hoof. "He taught me a thing or two," she answered. Her hoof then shifted to point at Natalie. "And she helped." Blueblood turned to the two and sighed as he found them nodding fervently, one with a biscuit halfway lodged in his mouth and the other magically stabbing a fork into a cooked egg.

Lance lifted a piece of sausage and bit into it. He did not speak until a few seconds after he chewed it up, gulped it down, and turned to Anna, "Speaking of earth pony magic… was there a distinct signature of some kind, if at all, even lingering ever since the golem was taken down?"

Anna shook her head. "No. I caught nothing of the sort," she answered.

Katie, who was wearing an ice-blue chitil muzzle over her split grin as she apprehensively nibbled on a muffin which had sprinkles on top, decided to interject, "Y'think there's an anti-signature spell or something?"

Anna lifted a hoof and idly tapped her chin with it, a small frown forming on her muzzle as she gave the question some thought. "It's possible, but… it would have had to be a really skilled unicorn to even cast such a spell. Not likely, since there was earth pony magic present in the golem, and it was more or less falling apart when it dropped by," she murmured.

Katie snorted and turned to the golem's remains, forgetting her muffin for a few seconds. "Hrm…" Her gaze fell on the massive crystal orb that once made the creature's stomach, still surprisingly intact. "Would it be possible to make something better out of what's left? That massive crystal in particular… it looks like it could be part of a helmet of some kind if cut down to size," she stated.

Natalie's horn glowed, and she used her magic to gently nudge Katie's shoulder. "Finish your muffin first, then we'll talk about crystal helmets," she chided. Katie wilted a little, but turned back to her muffin and began nibbling again.

"I'd sooner give her a set of crystal teeth," Lance snarked before tearing into the piece of sausage again. He chewed and swallowed before looking at the muffin and seeing barely a dent being made before adding, "Because she's not making much progress."

Anna turned to Bartholomew as she bit into an egg. A bit of runny yolk managed to spill out and dribble down her chin, but she caught it with a fork and scooped it up into her mouth before swallowing. "Has any strange activity been happening around here as of late?" she asked the instant she retracted her fork. "Strange ponies visiting, or more slime attacks or anything else like that?"

Bartholomew pursed his lips before sighing through his nostrils. "A couple of days ago, a cloaked unicorn lad paid Whitefall a visit. He spent the night here, ate a few plates' worth of food, paid for his grub, and then left," he replied with a shrug. "All I could get out of him was a name."

"A name?" Natalie parroted, turning to Bartholomew with a brow raised. "Well, what was it?"

"He called himself Laz," Bartholomew answered, sighing again. "Nothing more, nothing less."

Matt's eyes narrowed slightly as he turned to his father. "Just 'Laz?' What did he look like?" he asked in a low, apprehensive tone.

"All I saw was a beige muzzle and horn and a pair of blue eyes. Couldn't see his mane or tail, or even his cutie mark if he had one. Had no weapons on him, either. He was about…" Bartholomew's eyes scanned his guests carefully before settling on Lance. "About his height, give or take a few inches with his horn," he finished. "And he waltzed in praising you and Natz, oddly enough. Almost like he knew you two." His gaze turned to Matt, whose eyes narrowed a little more. "When I asked how he met you two, if he did meet you, he just… didn't answer."

Matt's eyes slid closed and he snorted. "Anything else?" he asked.

"Other than that, he didn't act suspicious or anything," Bartholomew replied with a shrug.

Twilight interjected, lifting a small biscuit with her hoof as she did so, "So, aside from this 'Laz' fellow, anything else of note?"

"A few hippogryph stallions came by trying to cause trouble, and they came from the north or so I heard. Me and Andrew kicked them to kingdom come, and only the biggest and burliest survived. He's currently in the town jail, and we buried the others," Bartholomew replied, donning a rather small yet sincere grin. "He told me that we were just good-for-nothings waiting to be eaten. But we showed him otherwise."

Andrew chimed in, nodding fervently as he did so, "Yep. He underestimated my magic; I just let him go at Barthy for a few minutes before intercepting him. Thought he could go hoof-to-claw with an earth pony like him."

"From the north?" Armin piped up, both brows going up within seconds. "Did he say a specific name, location, or something?"

Bartholomew nodded. "Yes he did. Frostbite… something," he answered, his utterance sending a collective shudder through the spines of Fenrir, Sarah, and Spike. His smile fell as he heard a whimper, and turned to Maria as she moved to wedge her head between Lance's foreleg and his barrel before wrapping her tarsi around said foreleg tightly. "Is something wrong?"

Lance's brow furrowed. "Can you take us to this big and burly gryph once we're done eating? Just me, Anna and Maria, if you don't mind. I'd like to give him a piece of my mind," he hissed.

At that, Bartholomew shook his head and frowned. "He's gone stark-raving mad. Been like that since he got canned. You probably wouldn't get through to the bastard," he answered, his tone glum. "Worse, most he does is roar. Sometimes, something coherent comes out of his beak, but it's… awful."

"So… this 'Laz,' the golem, and the raving gryph aside…" Flash began, but stopped when Bartholomew turned to him and smiled.

"Well, there used to be a smelly waste disposal plant here. But it was dismantled, and the 'waste' part was cultivated by local slimes in a way the environment wasn't harmed. Other than that, and the one time Whitefall's jewel was stolen before me, Andrew and Eve came here, nothing really major has happened," Bartholomew replied, his grin widening.

That managed to get Twilight's brows raising. "Okay… I gotta see where this 'waste disposal plant' once stood. Do you think you could take me there?" she asked sincerely.

"And this 'jewel' you mentioned…" Blueblood paused, recalling what the guards were circling the eve before when he'd arrived, "pray tell, why is it out in the open? Especially since it was, by your own admission, stolen one time?"

It was Andrew who answered, his horn briefly flaring to life with a golden aura to catch Blueblood's attention as he did so, "Because it snows every night, and gets so cold not even Bartholomew could stand it for long. We only guard it during the day, when the sun's out. The weather takes care of the rest."

"In short, it would be suicidal to steal the jewel now," Bartholomew stated calmly, though he could not keep a slightly smug hint from his tone. He turned to his plate and closed his eyes serenely as he found it empty. Slowly, he stood up, pushing back his seat in doing so. "So… jail, where the waste plant was, or jewel first?" he asked.

"Hrm… I guess the place where the supposed plant was can wait… Lance, would you mind terribly if I went with you to the jail?" Twilight asked.

"No, I wouldn't mind," Lance answered, turning to Katie to find she was still struggling with making a dent in her muffin. "You're coming with, and you're bringing the muffin too." At her nod, he turned to Blueblood. "Would you like to come with as well?"

Blueblood pursed his lips in thought, and his eyes shifted to Flash for a few seconds. Then his gaze turned back to Lance. "Only if I have a guard accompanying me. Better safe than sorry, if what I hear of this 'mad hippogryph' happens to yield a grain of truth to it," he replied.

"I can get behind that," Lance stated, nodding in assent.

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Sitting close to a steep cliff with a yawning cavern mouth at the southmost end of Whitefall was a stone-brick building sporting a steel door instead of one made from wood. What little windows it had were only inches long, lined with steel bars that kept all but the smallest of hooves from reaching in and out. Guttural roaring, hollow yet piercing, issued constantly from one of the small windows, accompanied by a nonstop rattling of chains.

Within the first room of the building, sitting behind a quaint receptionist's desk, was a lone unicorn stallion with aged leather armor and a small, bristly white mustache on the upper lip of his muzzle. He looked around, finding empty wooden seats with worn cushions and a hardwood floor bearing eight deep gouges in twin clusters of four leading from the door all the way to another door sitting right next to his desk. Behind him were knick-knack shelves, barren except for an inkwell and a quill.

Above the seats were wanted posters, all except one scribbled over with the words 'caught and executed' in hoofwriting so ludicrously large and messy the beings within the pictures may as well have been sporting demonic horns and scraggly beards for extra flair. The one who had escaped being scribbled on depicted nothing more than a fragmented horseshoe accompanied by what looked to be knives.

Surrounding the shoe and knives was a puddle of blood, but that was all it contained; not one strand of hide nor a lock of hair was to be seen of any sort of sentient being. It also sported the words 'Wanted: Envoy of Cocytus, Preferably In Pieces' and a sum of twenty thousand bits to whoever managed to catch and hack this 'Envoy.'

Within hoof's reach was a thick sheaf of papers sitting on the desk, easily tall enough to reach his neck if it were on the floor instead. On the other side was a small picture frame, also within hoof's reach. Other than that and the unicorn himself, the place was empty, save the incessant roaring that had declared this place it's home as of late.

He turned to the second door as another roar tore through the air. His chest puffed up and he bellowed out, "Shut your beak hole already!" He deflated as another roar answered his call, and his horn started sputtering to life with a grey aura. Two shapeless blobs started floating next to his ears, before compacting and shaping themselves into vaguely-bullet forms and gathering matter. Bit by bit, two small sponge-like objects formed, grey at first before orange blossomed across their frames as they came together.

When the blobs took on a definitive shape and color, he stuffed them tightly into his ear canals. To the unicorn, sound may as well have ceased existing in that moment. "Aaaah, earplugs. Can't live without 'em," he murmured, smiling as he realized he couldn't hear a single iota of his own utterance, let alone the roaring. With another faltering flick of magic he grasped the paper at the top of the sheaf and plopped it down before him. "Let's see… how much should the guard unit get paid this week?"

After pondering for a moment and scanning the paper to confirm what he was seeing, he moved the paper aside without doing anything to fill it out. "Eh, I'll pay them later." He picked up the next sheet of paper, looked at it, and then set it aside atop the first. So it went like that for several minutes on end; him in his soundless bubble supplemented by earplugs as he set papers aside after reading them just once with self-spoken promises to do them later.

Over the roaring and his plugs, he failed to notice the sound of several sets of hooves fumbling about outside, let alone the sound of the steel door being magically opened by a green glow. In fact, he noticed nothing until a tan-beige hoof slammed itself on the desk before he could slide the most recent piece of paper over to the growing pile, snagging his attention. He turned up to find Anna looking at him, accompanied by a few other ponies, in addition to an armed Katie resting on her back with a quarter of what looked like a muffin lodged in her mouth.

The unicorn stallion sighed and turned to magically fetch the inkwell and quill before focusing on Anna again. He noticed her mouth was frantically moving, but he could not decipher what at all she'd been saying. He turned to the piece of paper he had yet to throw onto the pile, noticing it was completely blank. He lifted a hoof in a 'hold on' gesture before popping open the well and dipping the quill's tip inside.

Anna backed off, tilting her head at the stallion. She turned to Bartholomew. "Is he deaf?" she asked.

Another roar issued through the building again, and Bartholomew shook his head. "Likely has his earplugs in. Wouldn't blame him with the ruckus going on," he answered. That garnered a groan from Anna as she turned back to the mustachioed stallion as he started to scrawl onto the piece of paper before him. With a few deft flicks of his quill, he was able to jot something down with such ease it seemed second nature for him. He only paused once or twice to dip the quill into the inkwell, but even that was swift, calculated, and precise.

The moment the quill ceased moving altogether was the same moment he lifted the paper up to scrutinize it. Anna waited until he nodded at his own handiwork and sighed as he flipped the paper so the scrawlings he'd made faced her.

"Please, for the love of Godcat, can you silence Mr. Yellingsworth? My head hurts, and he's been raving for the last five days! I'll pay you handsomely, no matter how you go about silencing that beak of his."

Anna nodded, and the stallion smiled before using his quill to gesture to the door next to his desk. She turned to Bartholomew and asked, "Does that lead to the cells?"

Bartholomew nodded as another roar came and went. "Need a key to enter the cells, though," he remarked, trotting up to the second door before pushing it open with a hoof. Taking point, he lead his group to what was beyond; a relatively medium-length hall sporting cells with iron bars that criss-crossed like chainlink fencing. At the very end of the hall, from between a set of crossing bars protruded a pair of shackled, pale tarsi that ended in talons whose digits were clipped past the first knuckle.

Another roar issued out from that cell, further supplemented by rattling chains. Blueblood took a few shaking steps forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Bartholomew, and slowly turned to him. "Is that… our 'mad hippogryph?'" he asked slowly, his voice quaking slightly.

"Yep. Can't believe he's still pitching a hissyfit, though. I thought he'd have tired out by now," Bartholomew answered. With that, he began trotting to the one cell with clipped talons poking out of it, and hesitantly his guests followed him.

Flash winced as the roaring ceased and the talons drew back, giving way to a low grumble akin to a warning growl. He turned to Lance, who had Twilight trotting next to him and Maria on his back. "Big mean hippogryph…" Maria mumbled, trying in vain to stuff her face into Lance's mane.

Bartholomew nodded. "Oh, yeah. This one's got some guts, I'll give him that," he replied. As the group came closer to the cell in which the 'mad hippogryph' resided, a keening hiss echoed in from the bars in place of a roar. This was quickly followed by a frantic flapping of wings that was strong enough to kick up dust in the opposite cell.

It took them a minute to reach the cell, but when they did and looked inside, Lance and Anna paled. Katie had to force herself to keep her mouth shut lest she lose the remnants of her muffin, and Maria fanned her wings before curling them forward to shield her face. Flash and Blueblood squawked in unison and shuffled back to stand behind Lance, while Twilight could do naught but stare.

Beyond the cell stood a musclebound hippogryph stallion in an upright stance, and although his muscles had shrunk considerably to reveal a despairingly thin ribcage some time ago, his legs and shoulders were still very toned and bulky. Large wings flapped and sent horrifically pale feathers everywhere, and he let off a growl with a beak that was only little more than jagged mandibles barely an inch long.

A deep gash ran across his chest, stained with dried crimson. Each movement of his body caused the wound to ooze slightly. His pasterns as well as his tarsi were chained, anchored to the wall by a few inches of links just long enough for him to reach out of his prison. What had the group's attention, though, were his eyes. Streaks of black, dried gunk trailed from blackened sclera that housed glowing red orbs, just stopping at his ruined beak.

The eyes themselves were narrowed to slits, seemingly alight in crimson. A deep frown creased his face from what remained of his beak, and his gaze fell onto Maria in seconds. "Little… cunt… when I get out of here, you'll wish you'd have died…" he hissed.

Bartholomew jumped back, eyes widening. "Now hold your horses! Who the hell are you talking to?" he asked.

The crimson orbs fell on him. The gyrph lifted a pale talon and mutely gestured to Maria with it, before issuing another deep growl from his throat. "That cunt… is why Frostbite Haven is no more," he snarled. His frown then twisted to form a hideous grin as he added, "But she can't get a cutie mark. She's as worthless as any other cunt; only fit to bear foals, and nothing else."

Anna's eyes narrowed, with red forming on the fringes of her irises and spreading rapidly across her face. She stomped a hoof, garnering the massive gryph's attention. The instant his orbs fell onto her was the instant she snapped, "If you think she's worthless, buster, then I have a whole fucking bridge to sell you! 'Fit to bear foals?' She's probably not old enough to have kids of her own, and thanks to you and your fellow sick fucks, probably won't have any for a long while yet!"

Katie snapped her head up to swallow her muffin's remnants whole before turning back to the bound hippogryph. Slowly, she lifted her forelegs up, and her wings buzzed before she ascended off of Anna's back. She rose to hover an inch below the ceiling, eyes narrowing at the cell door. She brought her forehooves together to scrape the claws against each other with surprisingly swift movements, making the shoes shriek as they raked one another again and again.

"Can you let me in to deal with him? Because I want to give him a taste of cold shoulder," she hissed, her jaws quivering as mana pulsed across her hooves. The temperature dropped, and ice rapidly formed on her legs. The claws lengthened by a good inch of frost, becoming more akin to little sickles than anything else.

Bartholomew turned to Katie, a brow raised. "You sure about that? He could rend you a new one, and he still has some bulk on him. What're you gonna do, poke him?" he queried sincerely.

Katie's split grin twitched at the fringes and both sides curled onto themselves, giving the distinct impression that it was widening beneath her chitil mask. "Poke him? No, no, no, I'm gonna do worse than just poke him," she replied. She shifted her gaze to let it fall on Twilight. "Say… is it possible to put me in the cell with him, without using the key?"

Twilight glanced up at Katie, a tight frown creasing her muzzle. "Why do you want to bypass the cell door?" she asked in a flat tone.

"I reckon that the instant the door opens is the instant he bolts," Katie retorted, turning back to the incarcerated hippogryph, who was oddly silent as he slinked to the furthest wall of his cell. "That… and I think it's time I show you what I can really do to a bastard like him."

"Wasn't Chocolate Latte enough for you?" Flash piped up, frowning.

Katie shook her head. "This time it'll be different," she promised darkly. A violet aura flared to life, immediately encased her and it pulled her sharply to the ground tail-first. Once she was inches above ground, she twisted around to find Twilight with her horn aglow and a rather blank stare on her face. "What?"

Twilight shook her head. "He could squish you, wounded as he is. That, and it wouldn't be wise to egg him on," she replied. "You're rushing into a dangerous situation head-first, and he could easily disarm you. It would be foolish, to say the least."

Katie rolled her orbs and crossed her forelegs together. "If my mother was still alive, you'd sound just like her," she snorted. "Next wraith I find, provided they haven't been paddywagoned or decapitated first, is mine."

Blueblood turned to look at Katie rather incredulously, one brow lowering and the other rising in perfect tandem. "A wraith… attacking other wraiths… or at least making threats of such," he began slowly, his tone low and bemused. "That I find highly absurd, even when accounting for your being a changeling." He waited until she looked at him before asking, "How many of your fellow wraiths do you trust enough to not wish to attack upon sight?"

Katie giggled at the query, her torn smile only curling in on itself to widen some more. "The one wraith I have trusted… she was put down per her own request," she replied. She turned her gaze to the caged beast in chains before adding, "But that one… chains and bars would do little in teaching him a lesson."

"What do you mean by that?" Bartholomew asked, his brows raising simultaneously.

"He's likely immortal. And sooner or later, he'll find a way out," Katie replied, barely keeping a growl from her voice. "I'd like to remedy that while I am able."

Twilight and Bartholomew exchanged glances at that, and for a few seconds they simply stared at each other, unsure of what to do. But their shackled hippogryph rushed forward and thrust his talons out, swiping frantically to no avail as everyone jumped back to get out of range. "I will end you all, even if I have to bend these damned bars to do so! That little bitch especially! I'll make her watch as I rip your guts out and decorate the walls with crimson!" he bellowed, eyes fixed in an angry glare.

Katie lifted a hoof and gestured to him with it. "See what I mean?" she asked rhetorically.

Twilight's horn gathered particles that emitted a bright white light, and so too did the aura around Katie. "You asked for it," she sighed in resignation. In a burst of light Katie vanished, only to then reappear in the cell. She whirled around to find herself hovering behind the hippogryph, who was now staring at Twilight with a lower mandible going slack. He turned to look at her for a second, during which time she stopped buzzing and landed on the floor, before twisting back to face Twilight.

"H-how did you…" the hippogryph stammered, orbs shrinking to pinpricks.

"Simple teleportation spell that I learned in magic school," Twilight replied, watching as Katie started heading to the furthest wall. She frowned as she scaled it, releasing pulses of mana and making patches of ice just thick and strong enough to hold her weight in the process. Then Katie twisted herself to walk upside down on the ceiling once she got to it, her steps slow and calculated. Not even her movements, which broke frost patches constantly, made sound; the instant her hooves parted from the patches was the instant the patches vaporized before forming again.

"But mares… can't teleport objects!" the hippogryph yelled, his tone laced with several notes of disbelief. He continued to stare at Twilight, unaware that the gazes of the rest of his visitors fell onto Katie as she moved to stand directly above him, turned around and reared down. Her wings faced them as her forelegs inched towards him, while her back ones kept her suspended via frost.

"But you just saw me do it. Isn't that evidence enough to the contrary?" Twilight rebuked firmly, noticing the frost on Katie's back hooves shrinking by the second. "Here, lemme demonstrate it again." Her horn glowed and her aura seized Maria, making her squawk before she vanished and reappeared on a stunned Bartholomew's back. The hippogryph dropped to the floor, shifting to all fours with a few digits connecting with the bars, seemingly in a position to pounce.

"Lies!" the hippogryph hissed, and he would have bared fangs if he had any to spare. His wings flared, though, and flapped just once.

Seeing that the bulky hippogryph was distracted and had crouched low with talons brushing up against the bars, Katie made her move. The ice on her back legs broke away entirely, and her wings buzzed at the same time, propelling her onward to him before she shifted her forelegs violently. Her claws angled and wasted no time stabbing him in the back of the neck from both sides with the aid of gravity, channeling mana and dislodging a few vital vertebra in the process.

He lost all feeling below the neck, and weakly crowed as he felt his blood turn solid in his veins within thirty seconds. He did not slump, but instead managed a gurgle that cracked as ice grew on his body at such speeds he simply couldn't react; the ability to react had been stolen the moment claws slid into his neck.

Even his gaping wound went stiff as a board, with a thick layer of frost growing outward from it. Then, when his entire body was coated in a good rime of ice, it continued to spread until it encased both his chains and the bars he'd been foolishly touching at that point. Mana pulsed across his body once he was fully trapped in a cold, unmoving stance.

"A very curious thing about us wraiths… most cannot regulate body temperature by themselves to save their hides," Katie dryly remarked as she pulled back, her claws sliding out with ease. "They have just enough warmth in their bodies to still be able to move. Maybe a little more if they eat, but nothing like they had before coming to the very border between life and death. But they have to move in places like a tundra, lest they risk desiccation."

"And all it takes for it to go wrong… is a slight chink in the rime," she finished, flying around to hover at the hippogryph's side, just below the left wing. She found the start of his wound and stabbed it with her claws, though it did not immediately go into the solidified flesh. "Either pre-made at the very border… or forged by claw post-revival."

She applied force and tilted her weapons up and down whilst using her back legs to tap repeatedly, until she found purchase and managed to impale successfully. The instant the claws were in was the instant she pulled out, and she watched as a good crack formed from her probing and stabbing, which only further widened his gash considerably.

The crack pulsed with blue mana momentarily. "How… long is he gonna stay like that?" Flash asked, taking a second to swallow a forming lump in his throat.

"A good… few hours or so as a popsicle," Katie answered with a snort. "But I've probably made him immobile for a while yet." A purple aura embraced her and made her vanish in a bright light, before causing her to reappear in front of the whole group on their side of the bars.

For a few minutes on end, everypony else was silent. Then, Lance's mouth inched open, and he spoke up, "So… would you like military training once we get to the base?"

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Matt and Natalie were patrolling with Andrew and the other guards, hovering nigh-incessantly around the blue jewel like it was more important than their lives. One was wearing a thick fur coat comprised of brown fuzz, while the other opted for a scarf and fuzzy boots. Spike accompanied the lot, if 'accompanied' meant being seated on Matt's back that was reinforced with fuzz twice over.

"So, that jewel thingy… what's it do?" Spike asked, barely feeling Matt tense under his clothes.

"By itself, nothing. But with two other jewels like it, the end result… let's just say it's not very good," Matt replied, his voice low and chilling.

Spike's brow rose and he turned to Natalie for clarification. Instead her horn glowed and a zipper formed over her mouth again. He sighed, and decided to drop the subject considering it was this quick to get such a reaction from the two. He turned to Andrew and asked, "So, do you have a cutie mark?"

The question, while fairly innocent, made Andrew blush a little. "Yes, but it's just a shield," he answered, lighting his horn and using his magic to lift a patch of armor away from his hip. Indeed, resting on that hip was a shield, one sporting a golden pentagram affixed in a silver surface. He dropped the leather patch before another guard passed him, and his horn ceased glowing. "It's… odd, though."

Spike's brow rose higher. "Odd? How? That looked like a perfectly ordinary mark to me," he stated.

"You see me toting around a shield?" Andrew snarked, a small but wry smile playing on his lips.

Spike gave the remark some thought. "Maybe you have a mana-based shield," he retorted.

Andrew rolled his eyes. "You got the wrong pony," he replied, lifting a hoof and gesturing to Matt with it.

Spike sighed. "Aside from guard work, what do you do?" he asked, hoping to strike up a conversation.

"Eat, sleep, wonder why the hell my nephew and adopted niece joined the military… and sometimes I take weapons to the forge-pony around these parts and have him repair them," Andrew answered with a rather modest shrug.

Spike nodded. "Is it true that Natalie set somepony's tail on fire one time?" he queried, instantly garnering a muffled giggle from the mare in question.

"Well… the forge-pony tried asking her out once, and this was before we moved to Whitefall with him, and wouldn't let up even after she told him she was dating her adoptive brother. She about gave me a heart attack saying that," Andrew began, his small smile evolving into a large grin. "So she lifted his tail and set its very tip in the furnace with her magic, without him even noticing."

Spike donned a smile, very easily envisioning some poor sod with his tail caught in a furnace. "What happened next?" he asked, barely suppressing a chuckle.

"He was left tail-less for a year, and had to cover the remains with a cloak until the hairs grew back. I told all the guards here about it once we arrived," Andrew answered. "And to this day, me and my fellow guards call him Scorched Stubble."

Spike cracked up upon hearing 'Scorched Stubble.' He leaned into Matt's mane and laughed. The other guards chuckled a little as well, and soon their little clique was alive with the fervor of conversation and laughter. When he calmed down, he lifted his head from blond locks of hair and wiped his eyes for any stray tears that may have formed.

He glanced around afterwards, before his gaze turned to the beige guard. Almost immediately, Spike noticed that he was frowning. "Why the long face?" he asked.

The beige guard sighed. "That was my brother whose tail got burnt," he muttered. "I paid him a visit earlier this morning and he was still head-over-hooves."

Spike's smile faded. "Isn't he mad about the whole 'Scorched Stubble' thing?"

The guard shook his head. "His tail grew back, so he's more or less over it. But he still wants a hot piece of flank, if you get the drift," he answered.

Spike found himself nodding. It would make sense for the sorry sod to let the incident go after having regrown his tail, but a niggling feeling started to sink in with that realization. "Where is your brother anyway? I'd like to meet him," he stated, donning a small smile as he spoke.

"My brother has the horsey hives, and something fierce. I was only at his place long enough to make sure he was fed for the day and everything," the guard replied, his frown deepening. The utterance made the fervor die down, and all eyes turned to him in the span of a second.

"Horsey hives? Why didn't you tell us sooner, Noah? You could be carrying it right now and don't even realize it!" Andrew exclaimed, paling with his utterance. The fervor began once again, but now it was little more than hushed murmurs and worried glances going this way and that.

Noah lowered his head. "My brother… didn't want the whole town going in an uproar over it. Everypony in Whitefall knows him, Andrew. And he had me board up his house before I left," he replied glumly.

"Hold up, hold up. Board up his house?" Matt interjected, making Noah jump. He lifted a hoof to signal for the rambling of the other guards to halt, and within seconds they saw the gesture before shutting their mouths. A palpable silence fell upon the area, but it lasted for only seconds. "Why board his house up? That just seems… strange."

"He didn't want the horsey hives spreading," Noah replied, lifting his head up to level his gaze at Matt.

Matt's brow rose, and he frowned. "How is he holding up?" he asked carefully.

Noah's head dropped again. "Been awful. He can barely trot a few paces before he has to scratch. I had to put a magic bubble around myself to keep clean," he said.

Spike's niggling feeling got that much stronger. "How bad does his throat hurt, or how much has his appetite shrunk?" he piped up.

"I had to magically force biscuits into his mouth, and he wouldn't stop hacking, either. Poor bastard was going on like a friggin' lumberjack, I swear to Godcat," Noah sighed, his ears folding back against his head. "So if you guys want any armor reforged or whatever, don't go near him until he gets better and that I know for sure that he's better."

The other guards nodded. "Should one of us go tell Bartholomew, though? He went to the jail earlier…" Andrew trailed off as all eyes fell onto him. "What?"

"I think it would be best if you did it. You're his in-law, after all," Noah stated with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Something about Noah doesn't seem right. I think I'll need to consult somepony…" Spike murmured, so lowly that nopony else heard him speak. Andrew nodded and turned sharply to the town before galloping away, causing snow to fly behind him in his wake. "Question is… who? If it's horsey hives as he says it is, then I may need to warn Twilight…"

Chapter LIV- Tipsy Tangle

As the sun rose to its apex at early noon, Twilight and her group found themselves standing near a chainlink fence surrounding several acres of land on the eastern end of Whitefall, and the fence kept them separated from what was on the other side. Beyond the fence, there were a few dark grey walls hewn of steel erecting upwards, though they were sparse enough they may as well have been trees in a desert. Slithering around the walls, carrying huge steel bins with caution signs that housed sickly green, bubbling liquid were humongous black slimes.

Each slime was about the size of the Valkyrie by themselves, and their disjointed limbs were big enough to squish Bartholomew if they were inclined to do so. Katie let off a low whistle upon seeing the slimes. "Yeesh, those things could swallow Fenrir whole!" she exclaimed.

Blueblood's nose wrinkled at the stench the green liquid gave as a slime came close to the chainlink fence and slithered along right behind it. "That smell is abysmal!" he complained, his face turning several shades of verdant within seconds. His horn flared to life, but diminished when a massive, fuzzy hoof flew to rest in front of his barrel. He turned to find Bartholomew standing at his side with a stern, narrow-eyed look on his face.

"Those slimes are very toxic. It would be best not to mess with them. Besides, they're minding their own business," Bartholomew said in a firm voice. Blueblood opened his mouth to argue, only to shut it and turn his gaze to Lance as he cleared his throat.

"He's right. Had some bad run-ins with these slimes once, and I'm not too keen on trying to have another go at them," Lance piped up, his gaze fixed on the slimes in question. "Especially with bald wings."

Blueblood snorted, trying to keep the acrid stench from wafting into his nose, but he said nothing. Twilight piped up, looking at one of the few steel walls that were still standing, "How did the plant get dismantled anyway? And what was it being used for?"

Bartholomew shrugged. "Dunno the answer to either question," he replied solemnly. "All I know is the workers took it down at some point."

Twilight turned away from the scene beyond the chainlink fencing and to Anna. "Could you take us back to the jewel, please?" she asked.

Anna's shoulders sagged a bit, and she assumed a small, tight frown. "Well…" She turned to Bartholomew. "Before we do that, did these toxic slimes breed or something? Last I checked, they weren't this big."

"Well, I haven't been around to see how they do it. Most I heard was that they just crawled from the wreckage of what's left," Bartholomew answered, once more shrugging. "That, and I don't want to see poison-packing slimes get down and dirty, thank you very much."

Anna turned back to Twilight, whose face turned a slight tinge of green at the thought of slimes engaging in mating habits. "I guess we can visit the jewel now," she answered. Turning to Whitefall, she muttered, "I wonder what Zecora and your pals are doing now."

Twilight's lips twitched slightly. "Well, hopefully not too much." Pinkie Pie came to the forefront of her thoughts, and her ears fell back. "But it might not hurt to check…" Reluctantly, she started trotting back to Whitefall.

Blueblood trotted up to her side and then past it, deciding he was going to take point. "What's the worst that could happen? Golems and slimes aside, I see nothing wrong with this town," he chirped, though his voice had a very distinct waver about it that was brief, but still there. He lifted a front hoof, unaware that a pair of orbs were now poised in his direction.

Katie's ears stood to rigid attention. "Uh, did you already forget I froze a hippogryph ten times bigger than me an hour ago at most?" she retorted. "What if more like him show up?"

Blueblood froze before his raised hoof could touch the snow. "A-are you implying there's more than one brute like him?" he asked, slowly craning his neck to look at Katie. His stomach began forming tight knots when he found her solemnly nodding.

"He's just the most recent one of exactly that nature that I have ran into," Katie answered solemnly. "You're tame compared to them, even accounting for your behavior when we first met."

Blueblood shuddered and turned back to Whitefall again. "Let us never speak of that again," he murmured. "It was horrendously bad manners mixed with paranoia on my part."

"Can do," Katie chirped. Twilight turned to Katie for an explanation, but all she got was a head turning to her, a hoof lifting up, and motioning across the split mouth in a straight line. The gesture elicited a groan of exasperation from Twilight, who then turned to Whitefall and began trotting to it. As she went, Bartholomew filed in behind her, and after that everyone else fell in step.

Maria, who was still on Bartholomew's back and looking at Twilight, decided to pipe up, "How do you do the… the… the sparkly thing?"

Twilight's ears twitched. "The sparkly…" Her brain struggled to process that bit. "Could you be more specific? I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."

"How did you take me off daddy's back and onto great-uncle's back?" Maria tried again, frowning.

Then it registered. "Oh." Twilight nodded and pursed her lips, racking her brain for a way to phrase an answer that Maria could, hopefully, understand. "Well, teleportation is really easy: all I have to do is imagine where I want to go, cast a spell, and there I go. It also applies to if I want to teleport something or somepony else, buuut there are limitations to the spell," she began.

"Such as brick walls?" Katie snarked from further down the line.

"Limitations?" Maria parroted, cocking her head a little.

Twilight nodded. "Yep. I have to account for distance, how much mana I have left, and who or what I am teleporting and where I am teleporting the who and what to," she chirped. "Long story short, there's a lot of things that could get in the way."

"Is it one of those advanced spells?" Anna called out from behind.

"Not really advanced, but not something any unicorn should try unless they're certain they can cast it right," Twilight replied. "You just have to think of where you want to go, how much distance there is—" She stopped as a green flash of light exploded from behind, and she whirled around to find that Anna was gone.

Next thing she knew, Anna reappeared right next to her in another flash of light. "Like that?" Anna asked, smiling as Twilight staggered a little bit before shaking her head to reorient herself.

Twilight turned to Anna after she finished shaking the spots out of her eyes. "Yes, like that. Just don't abuse the spell, or your horn will turn red-hot… trust me, I've tried it before," she replied.

Anna's grin widened. "Looks like I'll need to practice, then." Her horn glowed, and she was engulfed in another flash of light. Seconds later, she reappeared behind Lance and smiled as he turned to her with a small frown on his face.

"Save it for when we're not out here freezing our asses off. I might need you to keep watch tonight, in case more golems show up," Lance warned in a stern tone, which caused Anna's grin to falter momentarily.

Anna nodded. "Yes Lance," she muttered in reply.

Flash piped up from the back of the line, "Want me to fly across Whitefall to get the others?"

Blueblood shouted in reply, "Yes, that would be spectacular. Please do that." With that, Flash spread his wings and flapped just once before launching into the air, and like that he was off with swift, graceful movements.

In that moment, the group caught sight of Andrew barreling towards them with a harried, panic-stricken look on his face. "We got possible horsey hives!" he shouted. Flash heard the outcry, and flapped his wings as fast as he could, his face hardening as the words 'horsey hives' began lingering in his mind.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Zecora, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie were trotting around Whitefall's streets, passing by foals building snow constructs and adults giving them vexed gazes as they went on their merry way. They waved their front hooves from time to time at the townsponies to be friendly, yet still the strange looks more or less remained fixed in their direction.

Even as the three neared a building with a sign depicting a tankard hanging over the door, the gazes continued to bore into them. Rainbow Dash turned up to look at the sign for a few seconds, but no longer than that as Zecora opened the door. "Tipsy Tankard Tavern…" she muttered, wings fluffing at her sides as she turned to the door.

The first thing that registered to them once they entered were the various ponies that turned to eye them up and down. The second was the state of the tavern itself; the wood was polished, yet there were a few stains here and there. The tables and chairs, however, were old and splintering, lined with hole-riddled cloth and cushions had cotton spilling forth from unchecked tears in the fabric. The bar was well-kept and stocked, lined with brands the group couldn't recognize. The place had an air of dissonance about it, but the mares couldn't quite put their hoof on where that dissonance came from.

Then, there were the ponies themselves. At least half of them were gruff-looking stallions with faces so hard they seemed to be scowling, while the others were scrawny stallions with seemingly-twiggy legs, and all of them were unicorns. Some had bloodshot eyes, and others had unkempt manes. Most had harried looks and sullen frowns, all accentuated by beading sweat.

Pinkie shuddered as she saw that not one pony was smiling. "U-um… h-hi?" she stammered. A horn glowed in the crowd and a red aura pulled her, Dash, and Zecora further inside, before the door slammed shut behind them.

"Hello to you too," a low, smooth voice answered. Pinkie turned her head this way and that to find the source, before her gaze settled onto a cloaked form sitting at the very back of the tavern. All they could see were a beige horn glowing in a field of crimson, a beige muzzle, and blue eyes staring at them with as judgmental a gaze as the rest of the attending patrons. The aura dragged the trio all the way to this pony's table, and the gazes followed them for the whole trip.

Once they were forcefully parked in chairs against their will, the cloak pony's horn ceased glowing, but not before the aura turned a pleasing shade of blue. He leaned over the table a little, icy eyes scanning them up and down. He turned to address Zecora first, "It's been an awfully long time since I've last seen a zebra." Then, his attention turned to Rainbow Dash. "Or a pony with as many colors as you." Finally, he turned to Pinkie Pie. "Let alone somepony as pink as candy. No offense." He leaned back to let them take their turn studying him.

It didn't take long for them to exchange glances before turning back to the cloaked patron. Dash leaned forward, her eyes narrowing slightly, daring the mysterious stallion to do something else. He did not flinch, unless his lips quirking up in a smile counted as such. When none of the mares at his table spoke, he gave a soft chuckle. "So," the stallion began, "where'd you three come from?"

Pinkie pursed her lips, her ear twitching as the stallion's question lingered. "Are you gonna believe us if we told you?" she retorted, tilting her head a little.

"Believe…" The stallion's mouth closed and contorted in a manner that seemed reminiscent of deciding whether or not to spit something out. He let the word sit on his tongue, and he turned to Pinkie again. "I've seen some things in my life… so I guess I'll bite."

Rainbow leaned back. "We came from Equestria… which is a country in Mythos. We came by airship," she answered. The utterance caused the rest of the patrons to start chattering amongst themselves immediately.

"Mythonians are here?"

"That doesn't explain why one of them's colorful as hell…"

"What's with the striped one?"

"Forget that, I'm struggling to make sense of their cutie marks…"

The cloaked pony closed his eyes and sighed, taking a few seconds to absorb the chatter going on around them. "I'll have to see the vessel you three came in on before I can believe you. Sincerest apologies," he stated. Then he leaned forward again. "But, I'm also willing to give you three the benefit of the doubt. You stick out like sore hooves in these parts," he added.

Zecora kept her gaze fixed on the stallion as Pinkie and Rainbow exchanged glances again. "Pardon my bluntness, for I feel it is needed, but who are you…" she paused to turn to the bar before returning to the stallion, "and have you yet been treated?"

The stallion cracked up a small smile again. "Laz," he answered. "And no, the waiter hasn't served me yet."

"The town guard mentioned something about you… well, several somethings." Pinkie sucked in a deep breath, leaned over, and whispered, "Do you know a pair of ponies named Matt and Natalie? We heard you knew them."

Laz's eyes opened and his grin widened, to the point it threatened to become one of a Cheshire nature. "Had several run-ins with those two before over the years. Last I saw of them was before they went and joined a military," he whispered in reply, though he could not keep the amusement from his voice.

Pinkie nodded and leaned back. "Well, at least we have our stallion… more or less," she chirped with a shrug. "So… why are you still here? We heard you left."

"I just left the church, not the town. The couple running the once-holy place may as well have woken up the entire neighborhood during my stay," Laz snarked, still grinning. He lifted a hoof clad in black cloth, giving the trio a view of an equally-veiled barrel as he waved said hoof in a wide, dismissive gesture. "I thought they were fighting. Turned out, they just broke the bed… and a nightstand."

Rainbow grimaced, her mind painting an idea of how that likely went down. She shook her head to rid herself of the thought before it could linger and get any more vivid. "So… they're those kind of ponies behind closed doors?" she asked, swallowing heavily at the notion.

Laz nodded fervently. "I'd suggest earplugs if you spend another night here," he replied tersely. He made to speak further when one of the other patrons at the bar—a stallion with a light brown coat and an eyepatch—stumbled away from his seat on legs that were doing less trotting and more actively flailing for a hold on the ground. This stallion turned his bloodshot eye onto the group. For a few seconds, this patron was seemingly tapdancing just to remain standing.

Dash, Zecora, and Pinkie turned around to the patron, brows raising in unison as he stumbled towards them, bumping into other patrons and into tables and chairs as he went. Because of his seemingly severe bout of disorientation, it took him at least ten minutes to wade his way to the group. As he got closer, the three mares and Laz scrunched their noses up as he brought with him a terrible alcoholic smell which all but radiated its way to them.

The unsteady unicorn stiffened upon reaching the table, but his head swayed in a nauseating, almost hypnotic manner as he eyed the quartet. "Ooooh… praaaiteh littal thingseses," he mumbled, his voice heavily slurred to the point his utterance almost sounded like pure gibberish.

"Do what now?" Dash asked, her brow raising higher.

"Can I take one of you… back home?" the brown unicorn asked, his words a little more coherent that time.

"No way. Sorry, but I am not into drunk stallions that can't stand up without tripping everywhere," Dash replied, firmly shaking her head.

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Dash on that one," Pinkie added, frowning. "On the grounds that the smell is awful."

"I would rather any stallion who asks me to dance to be sober. Come back, when your bout of drunkenness is over," Zecora finished, tilting her head a little.

The brown stallion huffed and turned to Laz. "Can ye come home with me?" he asked.

Laz shook his head, and his smile had fallen. "I agree with the mares. Answer's no," he retorted.

The drunk stallion huffed and donned a lopsided smile. "But I want somepony to hang out with," he mumbled.

"Not sure what your definition of 'hang out with' is, pal. Could you enlighten us?" Laz asked, his horn starting to glow once more.

The drunk stallion's horn started glowing in a faltering, flickering blue light. The aura, though warbling, managed to grasp Rainbow. "Hey! Lemme go!" Rainbow yelled, spreading her wings even as the aura struggled to keep her in her seat. The aura around her diminished as the drunk stallion was grasped in a flash of crimson and sent several feet back, his hooves slipping out from under him and adding slight scuff marks in the floor as he went.

Dash turned to Laz, finding his horn now burning brightly. "Stand down. Let me handle this," he warned, getting up from his seat with such swift movements his chair was sent right into the wall behind him. Only now did Dash realize that something about Laz was off, but what it was she could not point her hoof on. She turned to Pinkie when she heard a seat wobbling in place, only to grimace as she found her friend trembling with such speeds half of her body and the chair beneath her were but a blur.

"D-doozy," Pinkie warned as the other patrons rose out of their seats as one, all eyes turning to Laz as he slowly cantered around the table and his tablemates. Zecora kept her eyes on Laz, and gaped as a crimson glow began emitting from his irises.

The red then spread to his sclera. His oculars may as well have been enveloped by vermillion in that moment. Some of the larger stallions shifted to close in on Laz, leaving the others to waddle and wade towards Rainbow and her friends with such unsteady movements a cicada would have been able to dodge their hooves. "Look at that puny pony; he's not stallion enough to expose so much as a leg!" one of the patrons taunted.

"And he's using magic to make his eyes glow so he looks tougher than he actually is! I'll bet he runs home crying to his mommy every night!" another jeered, grinning as a patch of air behind Laz was enveloped in red, forming into a vaguely-pike shape.

Laz turned to Dash, and donned a serene smile that only seemed demonic thanks to his eyes. "50/50? You seem to be itchin' for a fight with these shitheads," he chirped. Dash turned to him and nodded, lifting her front hooves and bashing them together. Then he turned to Zecora and Pinkie. "Do you two think you can sit a while?" When he got another set of nods, he turned back to the large ponies that were advancing towards him.

One of the smaller patrons turned to Pinkie and eyed her quizzically as she continued to fidget rapidly. "Hey, what's wrong with that mare?" he asked.

"Don't ask," Rainbow interjected, flapping her wings to take to the air. As she ascended, the smaller patrons looked up at her, and some tilted their heads. "She does that from time to time."

A long shaft of crimson-tinted steel formed behind Laz, with a small golden foot on one end and a massive blade hewn seemingly of gold on the other. The blade formed a crevice that beheld a bright red ruby in the center, and its edges formed into a stylized sun before ending in a jutting vaguely-spade-shaped tip. This was only further accentuated by a cloth of crimson with gold trimmings tied very close to the base of the dangerous end.

Laz shifted his weapon and waved it once before him in a wide arc, causing the stallions who were intent on cornering him to shuffle back a few paces. Some bumped into each other in the process, but that only made the ones further back push forward again. As a result, everypony that was surrounding them was stumbling about, trying to get into position. Then somepony near the entrance got a bright idea and could not keep his trap shut about it, "Ey, fellas, why don't we beat up the unicorn punk? And make him pay for all our drinks and grub!"

The Tipsy Tankard fell into a palpable silence, only broken by the perfect rhythm of Dash's beating wings and Pinkie's trembling. Slowly, the eyes of the patrons all fell onto Laz, who still held his spear before him with his magic. Another stallion near the front spoke up, "That's a fancy little thing… how much did it cost you to get it?"

Laz's grin widened. He seemed to have gone insane. "What matters not is how much bits it cost me… what matters is where the blade is going," he hissed, his eyes twitching as he continued to stand still. "That's if you guys don't lay off."

Uproarious laughter immediately rang out through the tavern as the patrons tossed their heads back in unison. Laz was easily outnumbered, and drunk or not, somepony could snatch his spear from him in the blink of an eye at the first chance they saw. It took the other patrons a few minutes to cease laughing, and Dash saw the barkeep fumble away from the bar and towards the door. "I'm getting the guards!" the barkeep complained as he managed to get to the door, right before he galloped out of the establishment.

Dash turned to Laz and sighed in exasperation. "So… want me to kick some flank still?" she asked.

Laz nodded and turned to look at Dash with nothing short of a murderous grin. "Go ahead. I wanna see how you mix flying with fighting," he chirped before turning back to the patrons as one stupid soul surged forward in a clumsy attempt to overpower him.

Laz shifted his weapon and sent the stallion staggering back with the foot of his spear to the patron's barrel. Instantly, the rest of the patrons surged forward, only for a few of them to be sent back with a quick series of diving jabs from Rainbow. Every single horn in the vicinity flared with several lights and from there, all hell broke loose.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Sarah, Fenrir, Fluttershy and Rarity were in the church, gathered in one of the bedrooms, sitting in chairs surrounding a small table. Harry, Angel, Owlowiscious, and NoLegs were with them, though they'd curled up to fall asleep in a corner. On the table was a picture frame, and all eyes were looking intently at it as Rarity used her magic to tenderly spin it around.

The photograph had six ponies and a tiny blue form clustered up before some kind of wooden house that stood in a plain. There were four ponies behind, and two in front with the blue form standing up on one of the heads of those up front. It depicted a strange, pale grey stallion standing next to a younger-looking Bartholomew, Andrew, and Eve. All four of them sported smiling faces. In front of them were two foals, though one of them was twice as big as the other. Both were standing at an angle, showing off a pair of then-blank hips.

Sarah and Fenrir immediately recognized a bright scarlet mane and a white horn jutting up before a pair of black ears, as well as a legless feline who was no bigger than the talon of a small hippogryph when the picture was taken. "I have to say, they look adorable as foals… but something feels off," Rarity began, stopping the picture's spin cycle just as it turned to face Fluttershy.

She used a hoof to gesture to the then-filly Natalie, who oddly wasn't smiling nor sporting her crystal coat. Indeed, she did not have the exuberance of a typical foal either; her gaze seemed vacant and her irises sullen. She'd tried to manage a grin when the photo was taken, but it came out more as a grimace. Fluttershy nodded with a small frown. "Natalie seems… troubled in this picture. I wonder what could have happened to make her… um, assume such a look on her face," she noted.

"And that's not the only thing. Who's that pale pony in the corner?" Sarah asked as the picture began to spin again. "And what was he doing when the picture was taken?"

"I'd wager 'likely foal-sitter.' Or perhaps a close friend, mayhaps even the one who took the picture," Fenrir piped up, taking a moment to sigh. "And considering that Natalie was adopted… maybe that could have been the pony who delivered her to them. At this point, we have nary a clue."

Fluttershy smiled. "He seems nice enough. I'm just glad Natalie ended up with Matt's family," she cooed, giving a small nod of approval. "They taught her well."

"But that raises another pressing matter: what was Natalie's life like before she was adopted?" Fenrir asked, donning a small frown. "That troubling look on her face… was she in an abusive home at some point?"

"Or maybe NoLegs had a potty accident on her head. He was a kitten then, after all," Sarah pointed out, tilting her head. "But yeah, Fen… you do raise a good point nonetheless."

"Maybe she was a baby when she was adopted, and they got that whole talk out of the way the moment she could form complete sentences," Rarity retorted, frowning herself.

"Another sound possibility," Fenrir agreed with a nod. "But it still doesn't answer the question of who the pale stallion is." He peered closer at the stallion in question as the picture turned to face him, noticing a pale purple mane and eyes to match. Because a then-kitten NoLegs was in front of him, he could not see his cutie mark if he had one at all. He turned to Rarity and asked, "Would it be feasible to inquire Natalie about this matter?"

Rarity shook her head, lifted a hoof, and waved it dismissively as her frown deepened. "She's ashamed of being a crystal pony, so something could have happened that would be linked to that shame. I honestly doubt anything would come out of it, but you're welcome to try," she sighed dejectedly. "She might even be more incensed to not answer if asked about it, let alone the circumstances of her adoption."

"We won't know until we try. That's how I figured out Anna wasn't gonna talk to me about how the hell she got into the military," Sarah snorted, her face hardening. "She was just… silent."

"That's not very reassuring," Fluttershy interjected, her ears folding back. "Did she act… hostile or something of the sort?"

Sarah shook her head. "She was more or less a statue until something else caught her attention. It's bad enough I've considered joining the military myself just to start digging elsewhere," she answered, punctuating her response with a huff. "But after having to hear my terribad harpist skills, Lance may turn me down."

Rarity put her raised hoof to her chin and idly tapped at it. "Have you considered that, perhaps, Lance may not let her speak of how she got in?" she queried, her tone equal parts sincere and piqued. "There could be something… going on between those two, as it were."

Sarah groaned and rolled her eyes, but stopped midway as something clicked in her head. "Now that you mention it… she said he helped her get her cutie mark, and that Matt and Natalie taught her a thing or two about unicorn and earth pony magic…" Then her claw lifted up and she rubbed her temples with it as soon as the gears started turning. "And she was going on left and right about 'extenuating circumstances…'"

Fenrir's face hardened a little as he absorbed this information. He leaned back in his chair and blew out air through flared nostrils. "Hrm… that seems awfully suspect…" He turned to Sarah and added, "The way she accused us of… doing something… now that I dwell on it, it would seem Anna has quite a few things to hide."

Sarah slowly nodded. "You're right about that. That's something only a pony would say to save their own skin," she murmured, her talon still rubbing at her temples contemplatively. "Good reason or not, it does seem fishy, especially since this is my sister we're talking about here."

"Did she hide anything before you two parted ways?" Fenrir asked, instantly garnering another shake of the head as his answer. His frown deepened considerably.

"Which means she could be ashamed of something, too. And maybe Lance does have her back in that regard; possibly even Matt and Natz are lending their hooves in that manner as well," Sarah mumbled, eyes narrowing as more gears in her brain switched on and started spinning. "But… why?"

"Perhaps they've been hurt by bad ponies, or worse?" Fluttershy interjected again, and all eyes fell onto her in that moment.

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Darling, don't be ridiculous. Aside from those shoddy hotel ponies—"

Fluttershy turned to Rarity with a hardening face and cut her off in a firm voice, "Lance's wings were steel-bound. Don't tell me that they weren't possibly hurt." Rarity's mouth instantly snapped shut, and her ears folded back.

"And on the topic of metal-encased wings… who did it? Lance told me that mess happened around the same time Anna joined him and his makeshift herd," Sarah cut in, her utterance managing to get Fluttershy to ease her expression and turn to her. Sarah lifted her talons and intertwined the claws before propping her elbows on the table and her chin atop her talons. "I think we're just at the tip of the iceberg here."

"Are you implying that she might have had a hoof in his… unorthodox form of bondage?" Fenrir asked, his face contorting into a scowl as he got a somber nod that time.

"She may not have cast the spell, though," Sarah stated, closing her eyes. "It's one of those oddball spells that probably require a lot of concentration, and the recipient of the makeshift shackles to be unconscious. I don't see Lance taking it… laying down otherwise, if you catch my meaning."

"That doesn't sound particularly pleasant either way," Rarity chimed in. "If anything, it just brings us back to square one all over again."

"I think your best bet would be joining the military, then. At least Lance seems like a decent leader to his gryphons and changelings," Fluttershy piped up. "But… what about your wing? He could send you through grueling courses and…"

Sarah opened her eyes and stared straight at Fluttershy, her pupils but tiny slivers in green voids. That alone cut her off. "I have considered the training regiments and all of that… the problem is, neither of us know how he trains his soldiers. I guess I'll be the guinea pig, just to find out if it's worth it or not," she murmured, her voice as cold and chilling as her gaze. "At least then, I'll get somewhere."

She turned to the door as the sounds of galloping hooves echoed in from below. "Are they back already?" she asked, rising to stand from her seat on her hooves.

"If that's your sister and her companions, then it would be a really good time to make a resume right now," Rarity piped up as Sarah started striding to the door. "That is, if Lance operates with resumes…"

"Help! Somepony! Guards!" a masculine voice yelled out in a frantic tone of voice, further accentuated by the sound of the church door being thrown wide open in a reverberating thud.

Chapter LVI- Ringing Light

"Well, that escalated quickly…" Twilight grumbled as she watched Chocolate retreat into the distance, and some small part of her wondered how the hell he was even able to gallop after what had just happened. But she pushed the thought aside and turned to Rainbow with a small frown on her face. "Anything fishy going on in town?" she asked.

Rainbow grimaced. "The local bar… well, things went to Tartarus in a hoofbasket really fast over there. I had to defend myself against a whole mob of drunk stallions," she answered with a wince that caused her wings to shudder. "Other than that, I got nothing."

Twilight turned to Zecora, eyes glinting in askance. Her frown deepened when Zecora slowly nodded. Pinkie decided to interject, raising her hoof to catch Twilight's attention in doing so, "There was only one stallion at the bar who wasn't drunk off his plot, and he was actually very friendly towards us."

Twilight's brow rose. "You made a new friend?" she asked.

Pinkie nodded. "Yepperoni. He won't hesitate to defend himself though. He was dressed head to hoof in black garbs, and he told us he was hanging at the bar because ponies got too loud at the church one night and broke a bed," she added, her utterance causing Bartholomew to blush and wince a little.

Twilight decided to push the whole 'breaking the bed' bit aside and pressed a little more, "Did you get a name out of this pony?"

Pinkie nodded again. "Mhm. His name's Laz." That made Katie's ears perk up.

"Wait wait wait," Katie interjected, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes as Pinkie's gaze fell onto her. "You're saying that Mr. Cloakicorn's still in the area?"

"Yes, but he gave us a warning before we parted. One of a mare who can't be stopped once her anger's started," Zecora intoned, her gaze very slowly turning to fall on Anna as she spoke.

Anna's ears fell back and she grumbled something unintelligible. She turned to Lance, and groaned when he just shrugged his shoulders. She turned back to Zecora and stated, "Where'd he hear it from anyway?"

"Some unicorn from a village or something," Rainbow replied, spreading a wing and slapping her face with it, whilst spreading the other to wave it dismissively. "That's all we could get from him, though."

Anna rolled her eyes, though her ears remained pinned in place. "I think we should get back to the church," she mumbled near-inaudibly.

"Why?" Katie asked, turning to Anna with a brow raised.

"So we don't freeze our asses off," Anna replied with a shrug. Katie grimaced at a tiny waver in her tone, but decided to hold her tongue.

Maria fluttered her wings, turning to Anna as she did so. "Mommy, are you okay?" she asked, frowning when Anna nodded in reply.

"Just… tense is all," Anna mumbled, avoiding eye contact with Maria.

"You don't sound okay," Maria noted, her frown deepening when Anna merely huffed in response. She folded her wings and turned to Lance. "Do you know how to make mommy okay again?"

Lance sighed and nodded, one eye and an ear twitching in sync. "I'll talk to her later," he grumbled. "She's probably in… a mood."

Maria's frown remained fixed on her face. She turned to Pinkie and tilted her head before lifting a talon and motioning for her to come over. Pinkie cantered to Maria, likewise frowning. "Is it me, or is daddy angry?" she asked.

Pinkie grimaced, her mane deflating a little as she turned to study Lance and Anna's expressions, noting the eye and ear twitching and a set of green irises that briefly flashed red. She turned back to Maria and shook her head. "I don't think he's mad. Just… irritated. Same seems to be the case with your foster mom," she replied. "Just don't ask them too many questions and you should be in the clear."

Maria nodded after a few seconds. Silently, everyone turned south as a distant bell started to toll, permeating the air with a soothing series of gongs. Katie piped up once the tolling ceased a second later, "I was wondering… who operates the church bell? Sure, it sounds gorgeous, but… why?"

Bartholomew started flexing his legs, eyes fixed to where the gongs had come from. "That's the guard summons. Usually, it lets everypony on patrol know when it's time for lunch; Eve rings it every now and then," he answered with a slight shrug that jostled Maria and Katie a little.

Then he began trotting to the sounds of the bell as it clanged again. With his trotting the others fell into step behind him, though Zecora had instead moved to trot at his side. "So where do you guys eat your lunch… in the church, or with the jewel?" Katie asked sincerely, a brow raising.

Bartholomew briefly craned his neck to look at her, donning a small smile. "The unit usually eats with the jewel. They have ways of keeping their food warm. Me? I just stuff my face silly," he chirped in reply.

Katie rolled her orbs as her mind started to picture Bartholomew with cheeks stuffed so full they were the size of grapefruits. Then a thought hit her and she ventured, "So, wait… is it rude to not eat at your tables, then?"

Bartholomew nodded his head almost instantly. "I reckon that if Natz didn't stuff your face, then Eve would've," he replied. "She'd have probably made you eat everything, instead of just biscuits."

Katie's ears drooped at the thought of being force fed again, let alone an entire table's worth. Then she winced as her stomach began gurgling and cramping, followed immediately by a burning sensation going downwards. Not even the clanging of the bell could hope to put her at ease. "C-could you… n-not let her d-do that?" she stammered out, in a weak mewl at that.

"Well... " For but a moment, Bartholomew sounded just a little condescending and a little amused. Katie shivered at his 'I could, but I don't want to' tone of voice. What he'd said next had her jaw dropping open, "It takes a lot to get on her bad side, so I guess she could spare you the torment. So long as you ate one thing at the table, of course."

Zecora turned to Katie, whose face started turning the barest tinge of green at the mere notion. "Oh, dear, it seems our wraith is looking a little sick." When Katie's orbs averted to her with a huff, Zecora frowned when that was immediately followed up with a slump of the shoulders. "Tell me, does ingesting food make you tick?"

"First time… eating in years," Katie confessed in a pouting groan, her legs shifting to dangle at Bartholomew's sides. Her wings fanned out, only to droop like her ears as her face started to turn greener. "Couldn't trot for long p-periods, or e-else my stomach would flip…"

Zecora's frown deepened still, but only a little. She could see the logic of Katie's second utterance, but the first made the gears of her brain start turning. She opened her mouth to speak, only to close it when Maria turned to Katie and asked something else, "Do you hate green stuff?"

Katie's orbs averted to Maria for a few seconds, dimming momentarily. "It's not that I don't hate food, per se. I… haven't been able to find any until I met with you guys," she replied with a sigh.

Zecora's eyes widened the very instant she'd heard what Katie had just uttered. "Y-you haven't been able t-to find food? T-tell me, is th-that what made you take on a d-dour mood?!" she exclaimed, loudly enough that everypony else who trudged after Bartholomew could hear it.

Anna hollered from the back of the line at the top of her lungs, "Bullshit!"

Lance decided to chime in, also at the top of his lungs, "You mean to tell me you aren't self-sufficient?! Great Godcat on a hamster wheel, I'm almost wondering if you even know how to operate a spoon!"

Blueblood threw in his two bits, though not before audibly facehoofing first, "If you are capable of fighting, then you are most certainly capable of eating! Isn't that how things operate in your particular case?!"

Katie's tail quivered as her stomach continued to throw its hissy fit. She could swear Lance was trying to glare at her now, but dared not turn her head to check and confirm or deny her suspicion. Some part of her was pretty certain Blueblood had been doing likewise. She gave no more than a weak groan, followed by a sluggish shaking of her head.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Flash Sentry was still flying, though now he was circling above the patrolling guards who still surrounded the jewel looking for a place to land. Fortunately for him, Matt and Natalie spotted him and motioned for the guards to make room, though at first they just stood there—probably looking at the pair funny, if Flash had to hazard a guess—before they gave a set of audible groans. Those groans were followed with a pair of hooves pointing straight up, and only then did the guards break formation upon seeing who it was they'd gestured to.

"Hey Flash," Spike greeted once Flash banked for a landing and safely got to the ground on his hooves. With a quick flap of his wings to steady himself upon landing, snow cascaded around him before fluttering back to the ground.

"Hey Spike," Flash replied, smiling very briefly at Spike before turning to the rest of the guard unit. "One of your pals found me and my group and hollered on and on about 'horsey hives.'" His gaze wandered about, taking in each guard's stance. It soon settled on Matt. "Tell me, who was rattling off about it?"

Matt sighed and his horn glowed for but a second, and during that small period of time Flash's head was embraced by gold. Immediately, voices filled his head, though Noah's had taken the most precedence. After several seconds, and as suddenly as it had come, the noises faded into dull echoes that lingered for a bit in the back of his mind.

Then Flash turned to Noah and frowned. "Any other symptoms, aside from the standard blisters and coughing?" he asked flatly.

Noah shuddered. "And apart from appetite loss… he was ranting and raving," he answered glumly. "I couldn't understand half of what he was saying. He was like a pony possessed."

Natalie rolled her eyes and piped up at that, "Considering he had you board up his house… if that's true, by the way—and I don't mean to sound condescending—I'm thinking he might be going stir-crazy."

"You call wanting his brother to board up his house 'stir-crazy?' He doesn't need to go to that extreme length just to keep his possible horsey hives from spreading," Matt remarked, also rolling his eyes.

Spike opened his mouth and made to interject when the sound of a ringing bell sang through the air. His mouth then closed and he turned to the direction of the church. It took him a few seconds to open his mouth again before he'd managed an utterance, "Guys, can we save the arguing… I dunno, for later?"

Noah's head dropped again. "I'm gonna get an earful from Eve about this…" he grumbled, ears flattening against his head.

Another guard lit up his horn and magically jabbed Noah in the side, being mindful to do so in a gentle manner. "She might lay off on that, though. Her kids came here the other day; she might try to coddle them again," he chirped in a reassuring tone of voice.

"Coddle?" Spike piped up, a brow instantly raising high at the implications. "Aren't they… a little old for coddling?"

Matt craned his neck to shoot Spike a look. "Try telling that to mom and see what happens," he replied with a teensy smile beginning to bud on his face. "It'd be the same as, I dunno, telling Katie she's too crippled to fight."

Spike rolled his eyes, which went half-lidded in that moment, and sighed. "Yeah, whatever you say," he snarked in reply. "Just don't come trotting to me when she drags you again."

The guard who'd poked Noah snorted and turned to the sound of the bell as it rang yet again. "Whelp, I think it's lunch time," he chirped, grinning.

Noah shook his head, also turning to the direction of the distant clangs. "I dunno… it's only been a few hours since breakfast." He frowned contemplatively. "Maybe the wind's jostling it again."

"Maybe it's something else?" Natalie suggested, immediately grimacing when everypony present turned to her on the spot.

"Well, why don't you two see why the bell's ringing? And take your pegasus friend with you," Noah stated, turning to Natalie with a frown. "The more you three stand around me, the more I'm starting to think I may have given you guys horsey hives. And I don't want to see Eve getting mad."

Matt's shoulders sagged, but he started trotting to the source of the clanging nonetheless. Natalie fell in step behind him, and so did Flash after they'd passed him. The guards began chattering behind them as they parted from their group, but after a minute or two of walking, their voices faded to very soft echoes that were almost entirely drowned out by snow crunching beneath hooves.

Natalie shuddered, and her ears fell back as they pressed forward. "If we end up with horsey hives…" Her face began turning a shade of blue at the notion.

Matt scoffed and snorted at the thought. "Minor diseases like horsey hives don't spread well in this cold. That, and Noah didn't even lay a hoof on us. We don't even know how his brother has his place set up, aside from likely being boarded up," he stated with a shake of his head. "Much less where."

Natalie opened her mouth to retort again, only for Flash to cut her off before she could get in another word edgewise, "But what if it still spreads? Because it very well could."

"If it does…" Matt trailed off, frowning as he gave Flash's remark some thought. His pace slowed just enough that Natalie began stepping on the fur clinging to his rear pasterns. "Well, shit…"

Spike interjected, crossing his arms as he tried his best to imitate some accent he was sure Matt and Natalie didn't recognize, "Yeah, either way, we's gots a problem."

"Hrm… should we have Noah eat elsewhere if it's lunchtime, then?" Natalie queried, her tail shifting to drag between her rear legs. "If so, then I vote for the treeline."

Spike lifted a hand and rubbed his chin, humming lowly as he gave Natalie's vote for the treeline a bit of thought. "I dunno… would his food get cold out here? And what about him? I'm pretty sure he'd be more likely to eat in a dining room corner than… out here," he noted, dropping his hand once a flake of snow landed onto his knuckle.

"Maybe the roof, then. Or next to the bell," Natalie suggested, smiling just a teensy bit as she spoke. Spike twisted to stare at her incredulously, and opened his mouth before Natalie lifted a hoof and cut him off by waving it dismissively. "He could stop it from clanging with his magic. I mean, how much does that thing weigh?"

Spike's eyes narrowed a bit. "Aren't bells heavy? Especially bells attached to buildings?" he retorted, frowning.

"Well, what if the church bell's light enough to be shaken by, I dunno, a passing breeze?" Natalie replied, her smile fading. At her half-assed retort, Spike's eyes started to gleam.

"... I'd think the bell would sooner crumple under itself than be rung by a breeze if it were that light. It may as well be a scrap of thin metal if that were the case," Spike snarked back, his lips twitching upward just a little. "I'll bet it wouldn't even hold up a birthday candle to a wind chime."

Natalie groaned as she saw Spike's point, and her head sank to hover before her front knees, though not before she turned to look at one of the passing buildings. "I give up," she grumbled.

Flash's wings fluffed a little, and he tilted his head. He decided to change the subject, "So… what's your military base like?"

At that, Matt's speed picked up and Natalie raised her head. "Well… it's kind of… the best way I could describe it would be 'clusterfuck,'" Natalie replied, turning to Flash to give him a small smile. "Last time I was there, half of it was still a complete mess. But it was just the storage compartments that were messy, so it was all good."

Flash blinked and donned a small frown. "You… didn't answer my question," he muttered.

"We'd be here all day if we started to describe our base of operations," Matt chirped from up front, punctuating his response with a chuckle. "But… we could give you a basic idea of what you would expect." His horn lit up again, and Flash's head was once more embraced in a brief flare of gold.

Images of the Valkyrie tank's interior flooded his mind, from the chests to the unsorted bag of goodies. Flash shuddered once the onslaught of telepathy had ended, some of his feathers going askew with the motions. "Is… the base entirely like that?" he asked.

"Depends on what part of the base you end up in. It's… divided into several sections. Gotta have housing for the privates and all that," Matt replied. This time he was actively shrugging his shoulders and sending Spike jostling a little in the process.

Flash nodded with a little smile budding on his muzzle, having a very basic idea of the military base. His pace quickened a little, and he spotted the church up ahead, just a few trots away at this rate. Then, a thought hit him and left his mouth before he could fully process it, "Say, do you think your parents or this 'Laz' fellow would know anything about how the barrier broke?"

Matt slowed again, and his head tilted. He hummed for a bit before replying, "Well… it's worth a shot. Maybe they'd know something." He shuddered before trotting hurriedly to the church. "I doubt Laz would know anything about it, though."

"Why say that?" Spike asked, a brow raising as he twisted to the back of Matt's head again.

"Laz is just one pony, Spike. He just… he's not one to privy for intel," Matt replied cryptically, reaching the door in under a minute. He blinked when he saw that it was already wide open, before he found a little scrap of paper that was tacked to its frame. His horn lit up, and his magic tenderly pried the paper from the frame before bringing it to his eyes.

He found something scrawled onto its thin surface in impeccable hoofwriting.

Barkeep of Whitefall came here bitching, so I went to see what the fuss is about while four of our guests took him to his home. Barkeep also flipped and passed out, so I had to give the four guests directions to his place. Honey, if you find this, please meet me at the Tipsy Tankard as soon as possible, or here if the Tankard's issue has already been dealt with.

Yours Dearly,

Eve

P.S. NoLegs decided to come with me. Lunch is on hold. The bear is ringing the bell.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The drunk and thoroughly-thrashed patrons of the Tipsy Tankard had woken up with horrific headaches, aching legs, blurry vision and groans leaving their lips. All of them then found that they were held in place by a field of blue, but not before the door opened and their eyes locked onto their newest arrivals as they cantered over to sit in front of Laz. One of the arrivals sat with front hooves raising over the table to cross upon its surface and a blue aura that flicked strands of blond mane to the side thanks to a light purple horn. The other stood upright with his tail glowing.

Laz flashed them a smile and gave a nod. "Where's the barkeep?" he asked.

Eve lifted a hoof and waved it dismissively, still using magic to fiddle about with her blond mane. "Being escorted, currently," she answered. "He about had a heart attack when he saw our guests."

Laz blinked. "Guests?" he parroted.

Eve nodded. "My church is now packed. Most of my guests are sharing guest rooms. But that's not what I came here for." She took in a deep breath. "The guards are out patrolling, so I'm filling in for them. Now tell me…" She used the hoof she'd already raised to gesture to the sorry, magic-bound sadsacks behind her. "What the hell happened?"

Laz's smile widened. "Well, three mares claiming to have come from Mythos by airship dropped by and started asking me some questions. To cut a long story short, the drunkards over there jumped all four of us." He lifted his hooves, put his pasterns together, and offered them to Eve on the spot. "If you would please do the honors of lugging me to jail…"

Eve shook her head. "So what you're telling me is… you defended yourself?" she asked, looking at the pasterns warily.

Laz nodded. "And so did one of the mares who dropped by," he added, followed by shaking his pasterns at her rather invitingly. "Are you gonna jail me, or not?"

Eve rolled her eyes at the notion and shook her head again. "You must mistake me for a guard from Goldenbrick, or a hired hoof from the ranges of Blackwillow," she scoffed in reply, her aura seizing Laz's offered pasterns before parting them and gently pushing them back. "At most, I'm pretty sure the guards around here would let you off with a warning at the worst."

Laz chuckled and turned his attention to NoLegs. "Is she exaggerating?" he asked with a mild note of exasperation in his tone.

NoLegs meowed and shook his head. A field of blue encompassed Laz's head before a voice echoed into his mind, "By the way, would you know a thing about why the barrier broke or something? My friends have been running themselves silly tryin' to find something. I even went to Mythos with them to scrounge for one morsel of intel, and we came back almost completely empty-hoofed."

Laz blinked, and his smile fell. His head tilted a little, and his eyes narrowed just slightly. "Well… it's not much, but I do have something in regards to the barrier…" His lips then pulled into a frown. "But I'd like to think your friends would very much rather hear it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak." He leaned forward, until his muzzle was roughly two inches from NoLegs. "Where're your friends at?"

"Some are with the guards, some are with the barkeep… and some went to the prison to see someone," Eve answered, snagging Laz's attention with her utterance. "And half of them are claiming to be Mythonians." At that, Laz's eyes widened.

Laz sighed and stood up, his legs still a little shaky and numb. "You're joking," he scoffed.

Eve donned a small smile. "Well… I would be, if one of them wasn't a varicolored pegasus mare," she snarked back. This made Laz's pupils shrink and his jaw dropped open to let out a shallow gasp that bordered on a wheeze. Then, Eve stood up and leaned a little, and as a result they were almost muzzle to muzzle. "But since you want me to take you somewhere…" Her magic seized Laz by the horn.

Laz reeled in his jaw and swallowed heavily. "I-if you're dragging me b-back to the ch-church, can I a-at least know wh-where you keep any e-earmuffs?" he asked.

"No, largely because of the guests." Eve moved from the table and dropped to all fours, using her magic to wrench Laz from his seat and drag him to her side.

NoLegs embraced Laz's cranium with magic again, followed by another echo into his mind, "Sounds to me like you're screwed."

Laz shuddered, before he planted his hooves firmly on the floor. "I can trot just fine, thank you," he hissed. That made Eve release him him as she began trotting to the entrance of the Tipsy Tankard, and with a slight limp in his gait he followed her. NoLegs hopped onto Laz's back, waving his tail at the other patrons with a meow.

One of the drunks who still had his horn piped up in a slurred voice, glaring at Laz and Eve's passing forms with very dull brown eyes as he spoke, "Ey, pale bitch, why aren't ya makin' that pansy-ass colt take some jailtime?!"

Eve halted, just a few feet from the door. She turned to the patron and tilted her head. Her nose wrinkled a little, and her eyes narrowed. "I am not an enforcer of the law in this little hamlet. I'm merely the housewife of one," she retorted coldly. A blue light started to build on the tip of her horn as she saw the patron's own horn starting to glow in a musty brown aura.

The patron whose horn was glowing donned a grin, his aura likewise building with light. "If yer jus' a housemare, then why're ya takin' the pansy with ya?" he hissed.

"Because I'd like him to meet my guests. Surely there's no harm in that," Eve replied coolly, her light starting to flare brightly. NoLegs chimed in with a meow and a nod of his head.

"Ya ain't takin' the pansy anywhere," the patron hissed, his aura seizing Laz by the legs. "Not until I get through poundin' him to kingdom come."

Laz could not keep himself from smiling. He could not keep himself from lighting his horn and using his magic to shake off the patron's aura. Nor could he keep himself from snarking at said patron, "Listen… you jumped me, I kicked your ass with the help of a pegasus, and you still have the temerity to call me a pansy? What's that say about you, tough guy? Look at you; high and mighty and drunk off your ass, beaten by a stallion who is shorter than the wife of a local guard. Where'd you learn to fight, from a small herd of foals?"

The patron's horn was now ablaze with a murky brown light that would have blinded anypony had they directly looked at it. He donned a sneer and narrowed eyes, and under the intense glare the expression seemed demonic. Eve simply shook her head at the display, her eyes shimmering with something akin to pity. "Son…" she began in a stern, no-nonsense tone that made the patron's smile widen, "why are you asking for trouble?"

"I ain't the one askin' fo' trouble, ya trumped-up guard-fondlin' tramp," the patron hissed, his smile widening until it threatened to go Cheshire. Eve sighed, almost in disappointment as the spell he was charging was let loose into an orb of light. She merely conjured a translucent, pale blue wall before the attack could connect, and for a tense moment the orb of light stuck to the barrier without doing much else.

"I attempted to be patient, but somepony forced my hoof…" Eve muttered before her barrier contorted and wrapped around the orb of light, almost as if adding another layer onto a clay construct. "Oh well, it just makes my husband's job easier. Not that I'm complaining." She channeled some more mana into the wrapped orb, causing it change color from its murky brown hue into that of a pleasing shade of blue, before it was sent back at the patron in a rush of speed.

The patron had no time to react; the orb instantly connected with his barrel and sent him toppling to the floor upon his back. Then the orb retracted to hover in front of Eve before it distorted strangely, in a manner reminiscent of slime being pulled and pushed in every conceivable direction. The patron tried to sit up, but found himself held in place by another field of blue with a slight red tinge that came from Laz's horn.

As it contorted, it started to burn brighter and brighter, almost like a miniature star being given shape, and stranger still it turned as white as a fluffy cloud. When it was nothing more than some sort of blob, it exploded in a bright flare of light that blinded every single patron, and Eve and Laz shielded their eyes by raising their hooves. Laz released his magical hold on the drunkard who foolishly attacked Eve, just as the burning light before him intensified considerably.

"NoLegs, now!" Eve barked, and without hesitation NoLegs gripped himself, Eve, and Laz in his aura before they vanished in a smaller, dimmer flare of blue light. As they vanished, the blinding ball of light spontaneously dimmed prior to collapsing on itself and poofing out of existence. The trio reappeared outside of the establishment and bolted down the nearest street, but not before Eve used her magic to close the door.

Once they'd settled in a nearby alley, Laz glowered and NoLegs jumped onto Eve's withers. "By Godcat's spatial-rending claws, the fuck was that spell?" Laz asked, using his magic to wrench off his garments and make them vanish in individual flashes of light. An unkempt brown tail soon sprung free of the garments, as did a messy brown mane with short bangs.

"I converted my barrier into light," Eve replied, turning to Laz to reveal her horn turning a tinge of red. "It takes a little bit extra to do that, but I think it was worth it." She watched as Laz worked to undress himself, revealing a body with a runner's build and rather lithe legs to accompany it. She caught sight of some bird-like cutie mark before Laz made his cape reappear and he draped it over his back.

"Phwah! That feels so much better," Laz stated with a puff of air from flared nostrils, stretching his now-free beige legs and popping some bones here and there. "I'd rather be freezing my tail off than to suffocate in layers of clothes." With that, he and Eve began trotting down the alley in the direction of the church.

"So… how did you come to know Matt and Natalie?" Eve asked, causing Laz to turn to her with an incredulous brow raised.

Laz donned a small smile, and for but a second his eyes gave the faintest gleam of crimson. "Well… we're sorta-kinda frenemies, you could say," he replied cryptically.

"Really, now?" Eve replied, donning a small smile herself. "I asked because… I told them you were at the church, and they looked like they were getting antsy. They even asked me and Bartholomew what you looked like."

Laz's eyes widened. "Wait. They're here?" he queried. When Eve slowly nodded, his smile widened considerably. "Oh, then I can't wait to see the looks on their faces as soon as they realize I'm still in town."

Chapter LVII- Strange Smile

Matt, Natalie, Flash and Spike idled for a few minutes in the church, having gone inside and up to the guest rooms after finding Eve's note and closing the doors shut behind them on their way in. Harry the bear was there to greet them, with Angel perched on one shoulder and Owlowiscious standing upon the other. Though after that, they took a corner of the guest room Matt and his group had entered and merely watched with interest as the quartet moved to the table.

For a good hour after that, after they'd since moved to sit at the table, silence held as the group waited for someone or something else to break it. Then Flash jostled his seat and huffed when nothing dropped by to answer. "Ain't this a load of ponyfeathers," he cursed with a frown and narrowed eyes, crossing his forelegs indignantly.

Natalie nodded and removed her boots and scarf with a flare of her horn, taking care to do so one object at a time and then briefly shaking each hoof after it was free to encourage a little more blood flow. "Honestly, my tail was so cold I started to think I kept flagging it," she stated with a shake of her head. "Let's just stay here, warm up, and if the others don't show up in a few minutes, then we go out and find them."

Matt, who'd sat down between Flash and Natalie, let Spike climb off his back and onto the table itself before removing his garments and making them vanish in flashes of light. "On the bright side, lunch is on hold. So if everyone shows up before the guards do, then we could let them know of the horsey hives issue and then figure out how the hell to deal with it," he chirped with a small smile and a hopeful note in his tone.

Flash uncrossed his forelegs and set one hoof on the table, before spreading a wing and tapping one of his primaries against the floor. He had to admit that Matt had a solid point. Which begged a question he was all too happy to ask, "So what do we do if everyone can't show up, or simply doesn't?"

Spike took a seat opposite of Matt and leaned back into his chair the moment he parked. He lifted his arms and rested them behind his head, being mindful of his protruding spines. "Well, I guess we could ask whoever gets here first and get a handful of opinions on the matter and take it from there," he stated with a slight smirk budding on his face. "Of course, that's assuming everyone in our groups knows about the potential problem already. In which case, we'll just brief everyone once we regroup in full and have our lunch, just to make sure we're all on the same page."

Natalie and Matt glanced at Spike rather incredulously. "Dude, how old are you?" Matt asked, eyeing Spike as if he'd just grown wings. "Because you sounded like a war veteran talking to a trainee."

Spike's smile widened. "I'd say a little older than Maria by a few years," he replied nonchalantly. "Twilight's technobabble just rubbed off on me a lot over time."

Natalie nodded with a sigh escaping her lips. "Technobabble aside," she paused to let her gaze shift between Matt and Flash, "I'm in agreement. Who's for Spike's suggestion, and who is against?" Both stallions raised a front hoof and nodded. At that, Natalie smiled. "Alright." She stood up. "I'll go make us a quick snack; would you like anything in particular?"

"Well… a sandwich would do me over until the others get back," Matt answered with a grin.

Natalie turned to Matt with a quirked brow and a widening smile. "I might not be able to pile it on high like you usually like," she chirped.

Matt shrugged and donned a smile himself. "Hey, I've only been here a day, and I dunno how mom keeps the kitchen organized," he retorted. "Especially since, y'know, I honestly wasn't expecting her to be here."

Natalie snorted in amusement and turned to Flash. He snickered before stating, "See if there's any celery in there. Preferably with beets."

"Beets?" Natalie parroted. When Flash mutely nodded, she turned to Spike. "And you?"

"Gemstones, preferably sapphires. If that's not available, then whatever's on hand," Spike replied. When Natalie continued to stare at him, he continued to smile back at her. "We dragons eat gemstones from time to time; I could safely say it's a dietary requirement."

Natalie's smile fell, and she exchanged looks with Matt before turning back to Spike. "Polished, raw, or cut into any peculiar shape?" she groaned in exasperation.

"Raw please," Spike replied, his smile widening a little more.

Natalie slowly nodded, and turned for the door. "I'll see what I can do," she murmured. She trotted to the door, but not before twisting to nuzzle Matt on the cheek. He returned the gesture with a small smile, and sighed in contentment as she left the room to start snack-making. Hurriedly making her way to the ladder, then down it, she found herself in the ground floor hall in a matter of seconds.

After that, she opened a door to her right and strode in, finding herself in a wood-floor kitchen fitted with a small chandelier holding lit lanterns in lieu of candles that illuminated the room. Said room was drenched in the various smells of cooked and raw foodstuffs that were probably there since the night prior, and it was also so stocked it rivaled the Valkyrie tank in both amounts of equipment and the variety thereof.

To one side of the kitchen was a stovetop that was engraved top to bottom in odd runes, though some were almost entirely invisible without any of the lanterns' light shining directly onto them. To either side of said stovetop were twin counters sporting cupboards, one with a rotisserie, a can opener, and a toaster and the other sporting a sink laden with uncleaned dishes. Some dishes were made of glass with minimal patterns, others of polished wood that matched the floor perfectly in color.

Across from the stovetop was a massive firepit oven that was built into the wall, with a thick wire rack inlaid above an ashy bottom that had yet to be cleaned. Beside that was a large fridge, also with runes engraved in its surface. In the corner next to the fridge was a massive white box, one with still more runes carved into it. Between the box and counters stood several oaken shelves, laden with more dishes galore. Finally, to the far side of the room, opposite of the white box was a cabinet of some sort, made of simple oak wood that was only starting to splinter and grey with age. Immediately, Natalie cantered to the cabinet and lifted a hoof to pry its door open.

The door swung open effortlessly, albeit with a noisy creak of protest, revealing several shelves that held despairingly little in the realm of edibility. Aside from a baguette that was already cut in half at some point and a massive stewing pot filled with some sort of powder-like substance, the cabinet was devoid of foodstuffs, instead piled high with bags of flour and sugar and spices in such obscene amounts she couldn't hope to name them all.

Her horn glowed and she lifted the baguette with her magic, turning it over slowly to examine every square inch of its surface. She smiled a few seconds later, finding the surface relatively spotless. Natalie turned to the firepit oven for a few seconds after having snagged the baguette. "Mom, how much do you bake every night?" she mumbled aloud, prior to closing the cabinet and trotting to the fridge with her prize in tow.

Upon reaching said fridge and throwing its door wide open, she heard the sound of another door opening, followed immediately by encroaching hoofsteps that caused her to turn to the door leading into the kitchen before she could examine the fridge's contents. Two sets of hoofsteps, instead of just one, oddly enough. This ruckus was briefly drowned out by a mare's voice calling, "Is anypony here?"

"I am! I'm in the kitchen!" Natalie called back before turning to the fridge, finding that it was stocked with more meats and vegetables than she could shake her staff at. The thing was so packed with foodstuffs she was wondering how the door of the device could even close at all. At least the meats were raw, but put in separate transparent containers that kept the threat of cross-contamination at bay. The same thing was true for the individual vegetables.

"Natalie, honey? There's somepony who wants to see you, and urgently," the mare outside replied. "I'm taking him to the guest rooms upstairs, so please don't keep him waiting."

"I'll be out in a few!" Natalie called again, feeling a frown starting to tug at her lips. She began to dig through the fridge's contents, finding the celery and beets easily enough and picking up two stalks and a bulb after dismantling and re-assembling their containers. The meats, however, she soon found some trouble with. There were bacon slices and ham, fish fillets and sausage links galore, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. It took her a few minutes, but she eventually settled on the fish, plucking some pieces from its container and putting it back where she'd found it before closing the fridge and trotting out the door.

As she went into the hall and up the ladder, she made all of the foodstuffs vanish in flashes of light. The actual snack-making could wait for a few minutes longer; besides, she'd still need to somehow wrangle in Spike's desire for sapphires into that particular equation, or find a suitable substitute thereof. Once she got to the first floor, she heard Matt shouting, "You?!"

"That's right blondie, it's me," another masculine voice snarked in reply with an audible snort of amusement punctuating his response. "And by the way, how's the military life treating you and Natz? You look a lot more rugged then when we last bumped into each other. I say the look suits you well."

Natalie's frown deepened. She turned to a door on her left a few paces away that was slightly ajar and trotted to it, finding Eve and Laz in the room. The former was sitting behind Spike, while the latter was engaged in a muzzle-to-muzzle glaring contest with Matt, all while wearing a shark's smile on his face. She cleared her throat and caused the pair to turn to her. "Matt… and Laz, both of you lay off. And speaking of..." Her gaze shifted to Laz specifically. "I was about to make snacks for everybody. Do you want something to munch on?"

Laz raised an incredulous brow, and his grin faltered for a split second. Eve stood up and trotted around the table and group to Natalie, and flashed her a small smile. "But dear, aren't you a soldier? You don't have to cook anything," Eve stated in a gentle voice that had a note of confusion.

Natalie snorted and smiled right back. "I still cook from time to time, and besides, you're overworked as is. I just want to lend a helping hoof," she replied in a chipper tone.

Eve's smile widened, and she leaned in to nuzzle Natalie, who eagerly returned the gesture. "Well, why don't we start on lunch together then? It's been years since we last made a mess of the kitchen to clean up," she cooed.

Natalie's eyes began gleaming, and she chortled. "Remember the time I froze chili peppers by accident?" she queried, and at that Eve giggled.

"Oh, yes I do. I still can't believe you made ice cream with those peppers," Eve replied. "Speaking of… perhaps we should treat everyone to a special, homemade batch."

Natalie's grin took on a fierce, malicious cast. "One Burning Frost Special…" she whispered conspiratorially. "Of course, we'll have to portion out the Special…"

Eve nodded and turned to Laz, her grin also morphing into one of malicious intent. "We'll be downstairs for a while. Yell if you need anything," she chirped before turning for the door to find Natalie already making another stride into the hall beyond. Eve followed with a slight spring in her step, using her magic to close the door behind her, leaving the whole room to start dwelling in silence.

Laz was the first to speak a full minute after the two mares had gone off to the kitchen, turning to Matt in doing so, "So, uh… that was awkward."

Matt turned back to Laz and nodded in agreement. "That's my mom for you," he replied. "Some of it rubbed off on Natz."

Laz's eyes widened and he turned back to the door. "Wait… that blonde-maned mare was…"

Matt nodded again. "Yeeeep," he replied tersely.

Laz blinked and tilted his head, turning back to start looking at Matt rather incredulously. "Um, wow… that explains a lot," he mumbled. "Does she know you're in the military?"

Matt nodded once more. "Yes. In fact, she's already met my superior," he answered, turning to glance at the window of the room. "And speaking of… where the hell is he?"

As if to answer him, he heard the sound of another door opening from below. "Matt, where are you?" a stallion called from below, followed by the sound of several sets of hooves cantering about, one of which was particularly loud and packed enough strength to send slight tremors through the floor.

Matt sighed. "Upstairs!" he called back. His reply was instantly met by the sounds of several hooves trotting through the building, followed by very noisily clanging against steel one set at a time. It took a minute or two before the leader of the hoof-stomping procession strode into the room and showed himself. At his arrival, Matt lifted a hoof and waved. "Hey dad."

Laz turned to Bartholomew and gaped. Bartholomew lifted a hoof and waved back at Matt, before the ponies and dragon at the table noticed that he donned a small frown. "Why the long face?" Laz asked as Bartholomew stepped aside to let the rest of the procession behind him file into the room. He whimpered upon seeing Anna canter in last, though she didn't seem to notice his presence at first. Only when everyone was in a tight line did they turn to him in unison.

Lance leveled a flat stare at Laz, but it only stayed flat for a few seconds. Then his lips quirked up in a smile. "So we have another pony spending the night here?" he chirped.

Laz's ears fell back, and he hesitantly nodded. "My frenemies are here… and his mom—" He gestured to Matt with a hoof, "—took me here because some ponies with a legless cat wanted intel on the barrier that broke or some shit like that."

Lance's grin widened until it went Cheshire. "Frenemies? And 'ponies with a legless cat?'" he parroted, amusement twinkling in his eyes. "Do my ears deceive me?"

Matt nudged Laz with a hoof, shaking his head at the look that now painted Lance's face. "Good going, my superior's got that gleam in his eyes…" he mumbled, watching as Anna's gaze zeroed in on Laz. She lifted a hoof and made an invisible dotted line across her neck. He shuddered as she donned a similar expression to that of Lance, though her grin looked more manic. "Yep. You're boned."

Lance studied Laz for a few seconds, taking in his stature and the fact he had a cloak. Then, he stepped forward before he flexed his bare wings and spread them wide, curling one forward and using it to grasp at the hem of his own garment. With a quick flick, he lifted it off of his neck, over his head, and tossed it into the air. It rose up high when a golden flash of light seized hold of it before it could descend and made it disappear.

Laz's pupils shrank at the display. He balked when Lance strode over to him, wings still flared and showing off a dozen or so growing pin feathers. The two found themselves muzzle to muzzle only when Lance stopped his advance, staring into each other's eyes unblinkingly. A wing spread forward and grabbed Laz's cloak before lifting it a little, and red eyes trailed to the hip to find a crimson bird carrying a sun-shaped spear in its talons. A tense but brief silence held, which Lance was all too happy to break, "There's no mistaking it."

"Mistaking what?" Blueblood interjected, causing Lance to crane his neck to him and reveal a shark's smile on his face.

"Matt and Natz told me about this guy as soon as they joined my army," Lance replied, retracting his wing before turning the rest of his body and striding towards Blueblood. Halfway, though, he stopped dead in his tracks and tilted his head. "Lazarus Highwind… wasn't it?"

He craned his neck to eye his quarry, who gulped and nodded apprehensively. At that, Lance folded his wings, though only for a few seconds prior to spreading them again. "I've been looking forward to meeting you in the flesh," Lance stated in a tone between amused and no-nonsense. How he was able to maintain such a precarious balance in his voice, Lazarus had no idea. He looked to the rest of the group. "Could you… please leave us to chat in private?"

Anna nodded silently. "Well, Maria needs to be preened, so… and someone needs to wake Alexander and Armin up," she muttered in reply, before turning to the door and being the first to file out. Everyone else went after her, though not before giving Lance a confused look or two upon taking their leave. Even Harry the bear and his animal entourage went out, and with their departure the door closed. A palpable silence fell onto the room when the door shut, and the air began to hang heavily.

Lazarus turned to Matt and his jaw dropped open. Matt returned the look with a solemn shake of his head, a front hoof lifting up before slowly waving, and a slanted brow framing eyes gleaming in pity. The look was one that all but screamed 'it was nice knowing you.'

Lance was still looking at Lazarus over his shoulder, still wearing that unnerving grin on his face when said quarry turned back to look at him, and still keeping his bald wings fanned out like some sort of deranged peacock. Part of him was compelled to wipe that smug look off the general's face, but the urge went as fast as it had come when Lance addressed him again. "That said… I believe we can work out some sort of compromise, Highwind," Lance spoke in an ominously low, still-amused tone of voice.

Lazarus's face started draining of its color as soon as he heard 'compromise.' His mouth then made an attempt to transmogrify into sandpaper the moment he opened it. His voice attempted to die, leaving him to utter a strangled whisper consisting of but one word, "What?"

Lance turned his body to Lazarus in such a way he could see his cutie mark plain as day. His left wing leveled at him before four of its digits curled in a manner reminiscent of a fist pointing an index finger at him. Then it turned until its joints were facing up, before the singular pointer curled in on itself repeatedly.

Lazarus gulped and trotted to Lance with a hesitant pace, though when he stopped briefly, he felt some force push him onward. He turned to glare at Matt, but his expression faltered upon finding a glowing horn accompanying a still-solemn visage.

When he came close enough, the extended wing unfurled before it draped across Lazarus's cloaked backside and yanked him until he was shoulder to shoulder with its owner. "This is going to sound really strange, so bear with me," Lance began in a smug tone, turning to look Lazarus in the eye. The smug look may as well have been stuck on his face at this point.

Spike and Flash looked at Matt, both frowning uncertainly. "Is he okay?" Flash asked, spreading a wing before curling all but one digit onto themselves and using the uncurled one to gesture to Lance.

Matt returned the looks and gravely shook his head. "He's rarely like this… hell, he doesn't just wrap his wings around anypony else," he muttered in reply. "I'd wager 'no.'"

Lance's ears twitched, and he craned his neck to look at Flash and Spike, still grinning like a lunatic. Evidently, something amused him, but the trio at the table didn't know what that was to save their hides. "I'm fine," he chirped before turning back to a paling, uncertain-looking Lazarus. He decided he'd had enough of beating around the proverbial bush, "You get another go at Matt and Natz… or however many you want, for that matter, but on one condition."

Lazarus's legs began wobbling to the point of threatening to buckle. Some part of him wanted to run away from the crazy pony staring him unnervingly. All he could do, though, was lean back as far as he was able, which was no easy feat considering a bald wing still had a stranglehold on the area between his withers and his croup. His mouth worked furiously as Lance continued to stare at him, yet nothing would issue from his throat.

Lance ignored Lazarus's flailing gums before leaning in to match his retreat, making sure to never stray too close. "How'd you like to be in their little boat?" he asked in a whisper, lifting just one digit of the wing holding Lazarus and using it to gesture to Matt for emphasis. He jerked his muzzle to Matt, just so Lazarus could see it.

Lazarus turned to Matt once he felt the digit part from his body, jaws still moving soundlessly. Comprehension dawned, and his face fully drained of its color with the realization. His tongue continued to flail about, trying desperately to form words without sound, but alas it was of no use. It seemed his voice had up and left the building, taking with it the ability to mouth even the most basic of syllables.

Matt's jaw had, likewise, dropped open at the implications. It took him a few seconds to reel it in, direct his attention to his seemingly-insane superior, and utter something in that order. "Y-you're… wanting to recruit him?" he asked.

Lance nodded, his eyes not yet ceasing their twinkling in amusement. "You and Natz quibble like you're already married. So I figured 'fuck it, why not?'" he retorted. "Besides, Katie's also gotten an offer herself."

Finally, Lazarus found his voice and interjected, "Wh-who?"

Lance lifted his wing and folded it shut against his own side, its mate doing likewise. "You'll get to know her," he replied.

Spike piped up, causing Lance to turn to him in doing so, "Wait… are you one of those types who just hoof out invitations willy-nilly? That doesn't seem like good protocol to me."

At that, Lance shook his head, but his seemingly-fixed smile did not falter in the slightest. "I've made two exceptions. I could make another with Sarah, but she's currently compromised. I'd rather not push my luck," he replied. His voice faltered and his grin twitched as he added, "She engages mouth before brain, Spike. And her level of vulgarity puts her friggin' sister to shame."

A golden aura seized Lance by the face and flexed his cheeks a bit before tugging them sharply down, then back up as far as they could go without tearing. It held for a few seconds before pulling down again and relinquishing its hold, and only then did Lance stop smiling. He turned to Matt and nodded. "Thanks," he chirped.

Matt nodded back, his gaze flicking between Lazarus and Lance with uncertainty. "Um…"

Lazarus staggered back from Lance before falling to his haunches, followed immediately by his front legs giving out and causing him to faceplant on the floor. "I'll think about it," he grumbled into the floor. He lifted his head and craned his neck to look at Matt. "So, uh…"

Spike piped up again, eyes half-lidded and a firm frown affixed to his face, "This just got a lot more awkward…"

Matt nodded again and turned to Spike, his frown deepening. "Yeah, that."

Lazarus lifted his head a little more and turned to Lance, his features still pale but regaining a bit of color. "I'll… take five." He shifted his legs under him, waiting until they stopped shaking before starting to lurch up.

Before he could get onto his hooves, though, Lance trotted to him and planted a hoof on his withers. "You said… something about the barrier. Before you head off—"

Lazarus stood up abruptly, the sudden movements violently causing Lance's hoof to fly off and its owner to stagger back on three legs. "I'll talk about it later. This is… this is a lot to take in," he muttered in reply.

"Understandable." Lance dropped his raised hoof once he stopped stumbling and flashed Lazarus another smile when he dared to make eye contact again. "You scratch our backs, and we'll scratch yours."

At that moment, they heard yet another set of hoofsteps canter their way into the building, this time accompanied by thudding and a very dull scritch-scratching that was almost drowned out. The owners wasted no time dallying, as soon the sounds were briefly replaced by the cacophony of clanging metal. Lance perked his ears and twitched them, zeroing in on the noises. At the precise moment the metal ceased banging seconds later, voices filled in the void. One was particularly shrill.

"Could you believe that stallion? I was this close to tearing his throat out and making him eat it! He was spewing so much horseshit I'm surprised his ass didn't jump ship yet," he heard Sarah snarl in a tone between outrage and exasperation. That alone caused Lance to trot to the door and press his ear to it to better listen to whatever the hell was going on.

It didn't take long for a conversation on the other side to pick up. The moment he pressed his ear to the door, he heard a lady-like huff of indignation. This was followed by Rarity adding in a very curt tone, "Honestly, I'd like to think that stallion had simply lost his sanity some time ago. It's the only thing that would both explain his deranged beliefs and shed some light on the affairs going on around here."

Sarah snorted, and audibly stomped a hoof. "Whatever helps you sleep at night," she scoffed.

Fluttershy piped up next, her voice barely audible, "I think I can see why Lance keeps his wings out of sight…"

"But that doesn't explain why Sarah has yet to do likewise, especially accounting for her broken wing," Rarity argued, which immediately earned her another snort.

"You do realize I'm standing right here, right?" Sarah hissed sarcastically.

"Yes, I do," Rarity stated in reply.

"Ladies, please cease your bickering at once," Fenrir cut in, garnering two huffs of indignation. "You can have your little spat at a later time. I suggest we take a room, sit down, and engage our brains after we've had some time to calm our tempered nerves." A wing started flapping in tandem with a keening hiss, but it broke off when Fenrir cut in again, "Yes, I know, the barkeep had said very questionable things as we escorted him to his abode. I'm not entirely certain if he was merely raised with such inane beliefs, or had ceased being sane, and quite frankly I don't particularly care. You shouldn't, either."

For the first time since the whole debacle on the other side started, someone inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. They repeated this process for a few seconds. Afterwards, Rarity spoke again, her tone much calmer than it had been before, "Well… considering the barkeep's state of mind, I'm inclined to agree that he's simply a lost cause. Unless he decides to hurt a foal of something ludicrously appalling like that, I'm afraid we'll just have to ignore him."

Sarah audibly sighed. It didn't take long for her to concede, either, "Alright, you two win. But if the barkeep comes back and tries plucking me, I'm breaking his horn off with my bare talons."

"Duly noted," Fenrir replied tersely, punctuating his response with a snort. This was followed by the sounds of more hooves, scritch-scratching, and thudding that began wading towards something. They stopped briefly when a door opened, before resuming and cutting off with a door closing. When silence permeated the room, Lance pulled back and opened the door before turning to look back at Lazarus and the others.

"I'll go see Zecora for a bit. I'll catch you lot later," Lance stated, and with that he left the room, closing the door behind him with a bare wing. Silence held for several minutes on end, before it broke with a brief clicking of hooves on wood, followed by metal clanging for a few seconds.

Lazarus let his shoulders slump, and turned before trudging his way back to the table on hooves that dragged across the floor. He turned to Matt the moment he sat down and asked, "Are you gonna keep the crazy pony away from me?"

"Crazy pony?" Matt asked, a brow raising when Lazarus nodded.

"G-green mane… h-horn," Lazarus stammered in reply. His face then hit the table when Matt merely shrugged and muttered something about some sort of impossibility.

He groaned when Natalie called from below, "Lunch is ready! Come and get it, while it's still hot!"

Chapter LVIII- Devil's Advocate

When everyone filed to the tables, they found the tables were again piled with foodstuffs. However, there was much less in quantity now, as far as bread was concerned. In addition to that, one seat had a small, corked, and clear bottle filled with some bubbling orange-red liquid that was clouding up the glass from within.

Its rim was tacked with a note on it that simply read 'for Lance' in big bold writing. Lance filled in his seat and put the bottle on the table, and everyone followed suit after, though Lazarus had the luxury of sitting close to Katie. Armin and Alexander, both sporting bags beneath their eyes and some still-lingering bits of eye-crust, sat at his table and opened wide to release dual yawns.

Anna sat next to Lance and gestured to the bottle with the bubbling liquid, frowning at it in concern. "What's that?" she warily asked.

Lance looked at the bottle of liquid and sighed. "I'll let it sit for a few minutes," he answered, using his hooves to scoop himself a decent chunk of meat and vegetables onto a plate. At that, Anna shrugged and magically took a plate for herself.

Sarah came to sit between Lazarus and Katie, blocking the former's view of the latter as she tried in futility to reach for one scrap of meat without crawling on the table or using her tongue. The two made eye contact, and Lazarus grimaced when he saw Sarah's eyes. In response, she lifted a talon and upturned it rather invitingly. "So, new colt?" she asked, quirking up a small smile.

"Spending the night again, and I got the offer of the bloody century," Lazarus replied, hesitantly lifting a hoof up. The talon clasped his raised limb once it got in range and shook it, and relinquished its hold after a few seconds.

"Yeah, and I found my sister's in the military," Sarah stated, before her eyes widened when she felt something poking at her cutie mark. She twisted around and spotted Katie looking up at her from her seat.

"Could you get me a piece of…" Katie turned to look at a plate of ham and gestured to it with a hoof, "whatever that stuff is, please? I can't reach it with my hooves and I honestly don't want to make a scene."

Sarah nodded and deftly reached over to the plate of ham with a claw before picking it up and repositioning it so it sat well within Katie's pitiful reach. "Thanks," Katie chirped before she picked up a few slices that, when put together, were no thicker than a slice of toast. She popped them in her mouth, and her tongue undulated before coiling around the inside of her mouth to keep the ham slices from escaping. The sound of repeated slurping emanated from the torn maws, but there wasn't much anyone could do about it.

"No prob," Sarah chirped before putting the rest of the ham back on the table. With that, she turned to Lazarus again. She found him leaning over to stare wide-eyed at Katie, but a talon coming to rest on his shoulder soon had him turning back to its owner. "Don't mind the shrimp. She's… quite quirky for a changeling."

"A changeling… wraith…" Lazarus still seemed stuck on Katie's grotesque appearance. Sarah didn't find it in her to blame him; she did, however, find herself with a pressing question that she wanted to convey.

So she mouthed it, but not before lifting her claw higher to clasp Lazarus's chin to make him look her in the eyes, "She's the only changeling wraith I've seen so far. Is that not natural?"

Lazarus nodded back and mouthed in reply, "Very unnatural." Sarah let go of his chin and turned to gather foodstuffs onto her plate, though her eyes remained peripherally fixed in her new tablemate's direction. Lazarus turned to do likewise, though he used his magic in lieu of hooves. He craned his neck once he got a decent portion of food on his plate, idly stuffing a piece of cauliflower into his mouth as he spotted Matt and Natalie sitting at a far table.

Both were… nuzzling each other? Lazarus blinked and shook his head, if only to ensure his eyes were functioning properly. Nope. The nuzzling was brief, but genuine, followed up by the two laughing as they took plates for themselves. He turned away and started chewing his bit of cauliflower, grimacing as a slightly sweet taste graced his tongue. He swallowed and looked down at his plate's contents.

He'd just stabbed a piece of fish with a fork when Rainbow Dash came over to sit directly across from him. Just the sight of his acquaintance was almost enough to make him drop his fork; he'd seized it at the last second with a warbling magic aura. How didn't he notice her when he'd entered the church before, especially after she basically came in on his heels? "U-uh, hi," he stammered.

Rainbow nodded to Lazarus. "Hey," she greeted, using her hooves to scoop far more vegetables than anyone else at his table onto her plate. "Did the barkeep give you grief?"

Lazarus shook his head and quickly stuffed the piece of fish he'd stabbed into his mouth, and only when it was between his teeth did he allow himself to drop the fork. He chewed and swallowed before daring to look Rainbow in the eye. "I found out the ponies who broke the bed and nightstand were…" He shuddered at the mental imagery and the revelation of who the ponies he spoke of were related to. "Oh Godcat, why…" he whined, ears folding back as he felt himself quickly losing his appetite.

Rainbow winced, immediately seeing what had Lazarus distressed. Armin bit into a carrot and turned to Lazarus, shaking his head and slanting his brow. "You poor bastard…" he muttered through his food.

Alexander tore into a piece of bacon, and did not speak until he polished off the bit of meat, "Sounds like somepony needs to see a therapist."

Rainbow turned to Alexander after having stuffed a few pieces of broccoli and lettuce into her mouth. She talked with her mouth full, "I dub fink a ferapish woulb helb. I ofth for frain fleach."

Katie, having finished and swallowed her ham slices, uncoiled her tongue until it reverted back to its standard resting length. She reared up in her seat, resting her front hooves on the table so Rainbow could see her. Only then did she speak, "Good luck finding a therapist who offers brain bleach. That service is as rare as a hippogryph hen with a cutie mark." That got her a whap across the back of the head from Sarah, to which she'd barely flinched at.

Rainbow turned to Sarah, raising a brow and swallowing the mush that remained of her broccoli and lettuce. "Hen? Hen? Are my ears working right?" she asked.

Sarah nodded and sighed in exasperation. "And male hippogryphs are called cocks," she replied. She leaned back in her chair and popped a piece of lettuce in her mouth before shoving it into one cheek with her tongue and adding, "Technically speaking, my sister's a hen."

"Oooooh. So it's like mare and stallion…" Rainbow murmured, eyes widening as she got what Sarah was alluding to.

Sarah nodded again and started chewing on her lettuce. "Mhm," she hummed. Upon swallowing, she turned to Lazarus and smiled at him. "Now, what's this 'deal of the century' here? Somepony's hoof in marriage?" she asked, albeit jokingly.

Lazarus shook his head. "I wish," he scoffed. "That'd require me to know who I was marrying on a very personal level before I'd taken that offer."

"That's just as likely as Lance doing Sarah's sister," Katie snorted loud enough for everyone to hear her, earning herself another whap upside the head from Sarah, who now turned to growl threateningly at her. Katie turned to meet the stare head-on, finding narrowed eyes, a face turning green, and bared teeth.

The utterance also caused a few choking sounds to come from the other tables, followed by a few more incredulous stares in her direction. Katie turned to Anna, finding her red-faced and red-eyed before adding, "Oh, please, you're more likely to perform gyromancy to summon Godcat or something."

She turned to Sarah only when the stares retracted a full minute later. "Besides…" Her voice dropped to a low whisper, "Lance isn't attracted to Anna. You've nothing to worry about on that front."

Sarah nodded and turned away, still glowering as she went back to eating. Nobody dared to speak for several minutes, instead merely eating their food and shooting wary glances at Katie every now and then. It wasn't until the door to the church unexpectedly swung open did anyone speak as the rest of the guards filed in and took seats. All except one soul in the platoon sat down. "Where's the bread?" Noah asked, looking at the tables with a frown.

Natalie piped up, "A lot of it is still baking. I helped mom prepare everything else. So if you want your baguettes, you're gonna have to wait." She turned away and grumbled something about there not being enough chili peppers to Matt, who nodded with a small frown.

Noah's frown deepened. "Alright." With that, he trudged to a corner of the room, using magic to close the door behind him as he went. He decided to idle as everyone else either began or resumed eating, though soon the feasting slowed as, one by one, all eyes panned over to him with curiosity igniting in each and every iris. Most gazes fell back to their plates, though a few lingered in Noah's direction.

"What's with him?" Lazarus asked, his question causing Armin to wrinkle his nose a little.

"I haven't the foggiest. I slept through almost all morning to let my accumulated love digest," Armin answered, his eyes slightly narrowing when Noah began to grin. It was a slight smile, but noticeable nonetheless. At that, his gut began to twist even as he shoveled a piece of sausage into his mouth, though he gave no more than a wince at its protesting.

Katie, on the other hoof, had her orbs firmly locked onto Noah. Having had her fill, she didn't concern herself with the others, at least for the moment. He merely grinned back at her, and even rose to stand on his rear legs, plant his back to the corner, and cross his forelegs together in that order. He went about this with motions so slow it was as if he'd wanted her to see him doing so and be certain her eyesight wasn't playing tricks on her.

Sarah turned to Katie and nudged her with an elbow. She did not avert her orbs in the slightest, but did twitch an ear and nod to let her know she was paying some attention to her tablemate. "He's grinning," she muttered, causing Sarah to turn to Noah.

The very split-second before Sarah looked up, Noah donned his frown again. She turned to Katie and gave her a bemused frown that seemed to be more of a grimace, accompanied by a raised brow. "No he's not," Sarah stated.

"He was just a second ago, I swear," Katie murmured in reply.

"If you say so…" Sarah muttered, turning back to her food to resume eating. Katie sat down and crossed her forelegs together with an irritated grumble, though not before she turned to glare at Noah again. Once her glare connected, he smiled at her once more, this time smugly.

"Frathalk-creschilt eust ma'areus machelsc…" Katie hissed to herself in swarm-tongue, the fringes of her split grin twitching as though about to curl in onto themselves. Her eyes narrowed some more and her orbs dimmed. If she had any teeth left, she'd have loved to start grinding them together right about now.

"Yes he is," Armin agreed in a low mutter.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Night had fallen after some hours, with Sarah, Katie, Lazarus, and Armin gathered into one room. They listened as everyone else rushed outside to file someplace, hearing several sets of hooves clattering noisily against wood. The door to their room opened, and Lance and the rest of his troops, followed by Fenrir, Maria and the Mythonians, waltzed in before closing the door behind them.

Clasped in one wing, precariously between two of the joints, was the bottle of orange liquid. It had ceased bubbling, looking more like a stew that had solidified a little around the top than anything. The other wing shifted to clasp the bottle by its cork, and as it began twisting about in an effort to remove it, Lance turned to Lazarus. "It's a good thing we got you up to speed on the horsey hives issue." At Lazarus's nod, he donned a small smile. "So while I open this bottle, could you care to tell us what you know?" he asked.

All eyes fell onto Lazarus, and his ears folded back at the multitude of gazes that began boring into him. He swallowed heavily, trying to compose himself in front of his audience, before pursing his lips. He balked when Maria cut in, "Is it anything like the bad hippogryphs?"

Lance stopped trying to open the bottle, spreading his cork-grabbing wing to wrap it around Maria. He briefly broke away from staring at Lazarus to shake his head at the filly. "No, it isn't. Besides, those hippogryphs are probably ice cubes anyway," he answered, prior to turning back to Lazarus and mouthing an added, "For the sake of this filly and Godcat and everybody, don't go into too much detail if you can help it."

Lazarus nodded and let himself relax, taking in a deep breath before starting, "Standard legend aside, there is something I've found to be left out of most of the tales I've heard as of late. It isn't much, but this one tidbit isn't spread around with as much frequency, so pardon me if I sound half-assed." When his audience nodded in unison and hopefully understanding, he sighed and took just a few seconds to gather himself a little more.

"Namely, two things are ignored in most standard tales: the crystal ponies, and the changelings of old." Lazarus paused just long enough to see both Natalie and Katie flinch at that, followed by exchanging wide-eyed glances. His horn glowed briefly, and a bluish-red aura embraced his body before fading as fast as it had come, and within seconds his body began to gleam like crystal. "Or rather, one particular tribe of changeling," he added, the utterance causing Katie to turn away and relax a little.

Natalie's ears folded back at the display, but her horn likewise glowed and her magic embraced her body, revealing her own crystal coat. Lazarus turned to Lance and sighed, his sheen dimming a bit. "Tell me… have you found any other crystal ponies?" he asked.

Lance shook his head. "They're as scarce as a cat with legs," he replied glumly. "Unless you went to Mythos; they're abundant there."

Lazarus closed his eyes and frowned. "Well… here goes." His eyes opened seconds later, but his gaze seemed distant as he began his recital, "Before Godcat and Faust had their second confrontation, the crystal ponies of old started collaborating with a particular changeling tribe led by a ruthless king and a powerless queen on a solution to keep the situation from escalating."

At that, he glumly shook his head, his eyes glinting with regret. "The changeling king, cruel as he was, saw that even he could not withstand another struggle between Godcat and Faust, and so tried to set his differences aside with the crystal ponies. Unbeknownst to him, the other tribes had caught onto what he was attempting to do, and most of the crystal ponies wanted nothing to do with his proposed plan of action. They came in a stampede and wiped his whole hive out, long before the changelings within could enact their solution."

"What happened to the crystal ponies?" Shining asked, eyes narrowing a little.

"... they stowed themselves away. But it didn't do them much good because they were led by an alicorn, supposedly," Lazarus replied, his voice low. "Godcat found them and spared none, save a very sparse few who were bold enough to reprimand that alicorn for her cowardice. But she took away the gleam of those few—not to punish them, but to hide them from their pursuers."

Lance, having gone back to trying to open his bottle, looked at Lazarus with a slanted brow and his own torn ears folding back. "Did… it work?" he asked.

Lazarus gave a chuckle once he'd heard the query, although one that was hollow and joyless. "Evidently no, considering I can regain my luster at will," he replied. "But mayhaps it did either way."

"What was the changeling king's idea of stopping the feud?" Twilight interjected, frowning.

Lazarus turned to her and shook his head, gaze still distant. "There are a few theories, none of which have been confirmed, but… more than half of them involved him draining his own kingdom of its love. The remainders, though, had the hive already starving beyond the point of no return, him included. No matter which way you slice it… that hive was doomed from the word 'go.'"

Twilight grimaced, and her ears pinned back. Chills ran up her spine at the notion of a king draining his own subjects of resources, although said king starving with his subjects didn't sound particularly pleasing either. "C-could you elaborate?" she asked.

"One theory… is that he went through with draining his subjects, leaving them crippled against the other tribes' onslaught. The queen also fell to this tactic, and rumor has it she was granted a quick death. Though after the feud between Godcat and Faust concluded with them being sealed… there've been sightings of the queen, all of which have went unconfirmed for millennia," Lazarus began, his eyes very slowly turning to Katie. "Though, none could be bothered to describe the queen in question."

"I'm just a mutated worker," Katie muttered once her orbs locked with Lazarus's eyes.

Lazarus nodded and turned back to Twilight. "What about the barrier?" she asked.

Lazarus donned a small smile at that. "That took several powerful unicorns on both planets to create, way back when unicorns had only then stopped moving the sun and moon for some reason. Among them was an old fart by the name of Starswirl," he replied. "I heard he'd used ancient, cat-constructed airships to travel to and from Fantasia before that."

Everyone in the room balked in unison, and some faces had jaws dropping open. Lance nearly dropped his bottle, but his whole wing came to clasp around it at the last second. Lazarus turned so his back faced them all.

"Where'd… you find out about that legend?" Sarah asked, her pupils dilating to the size of pins shafts.

"Well… I found a few dusty tomes in an ancient language in a temple near Glacier Valley," Lazarus answered with a shrug. "I had to have a translator with me, and even he couldn't crack much information about those tomes. Tragically, I couldn't take the tomes with me."

"Glacier Valley… Anna, remind me to tell Delta Unit to change course first thing tomorrow," Lance murmured, garnering a nod from Anna as he continued to try to pry the cork from the bottle.

"Cat-constructed… airships?" Blueblood began, his eyes widening and his mind boggling at the notion. "Cat-constructed airships?" he repeated. "That sounds as outrageous and asinine as a changeling king draining his own subjects and queen!"

Lazarus nodded. "Yes, it does sound asinine, but bear with me here. Before ponies came into power, cats ruled almost all of Fantasia. But when Faust took away their legs, it wasn't the only thing she did to spite them. She destroyed most of their technology, as it far surpassed that of ponykind," he answered. "Honestly, I thought cat-made airships were myth… until somepony in this very room unearthed them three-ish years ago."

"Who?" Pinkie asked, one of her legs beginning to twitch.

"He's the only one among us with crimson eyes," Lazarus replied.

Lance sighed as all the gazes, save Lazarus's, turned to him on the spot. He perked his ears before going back to trying to open his bottle, and this time he succeeded with a swift tug on the cork. "I was tryin' to see if anyone else had found that jackpot. Short answer's 'no,'" he grumbled before lifting the bottle to his lips and clamping around it. He tossed his head back and downed the bottle's contents with a grimace and a face that turned a twinge of green.

As he ingested the liquid, crimson mana began to pulse across his wings. The few feathers he'd already accumulated rapidly expanded in size, before being followed by more that burst forth from the swollen feather tracts with a vengeance.

Darker orange secondaries went askew, oddly crimson primaries jutted forth with a rigid grace, and layers and layers more sprung up in between and overlapped with the rhyme of a messy bedroom. Then, more feathers grew along Lance's neck and back, stretching from just where his mane ended right to his croup. Some even grew from his shoulders and barrel, as well as just above his cutie marks. The excess feathers were as small as thumbtacks and blended in almost seamlessly with his coat, though some jutted out to give themselves away.

The whole process took less than thirty seconds to conclude, from the first drop of liquid to the last. Lance gently set the bottle down on the floor and shook himself as if he'd been soaked in water, which only caused his already-messy feathers to take on a more hectic arrangement. He turned to Zecora and flashed her a smile. "Thanks a bunch," he chirped.

Zecora nodded back to Lance and smiled. "It seems I haven't lost my touch yet. Although, your feathers haven't seemed to set," she intoned. "But why do you grow feathers on your chest and haunches, pray tell? It would seem very odd, especially for somepony who's otherwise well."

Lance's grin widened. "I was like this before being plucked," he answered. He flexed his wings, which were now easily larger than before—to the point they could reach Fenrir's shoulders with their tips at full mast—thanks to the feather influx, prior to closing them at his sides. This caused him to, unwittingly, hide his cutie marks again, in addition to a good portion of his flanks. On top of that, his primaries jutted a few good inches past his tail, their tips barely touching in their current position.

"By Celestia's gilded hooves, your wings are huge! Are you gonna have trouble flying?" Rainbow asked, gawking at Lance with an expression between dumbstuck and awed. Which of the two was trying to take precedence on her visage, Lance couldn't tell.

"I'm gonna take it easy for a week. I don't want my feathers falling out too early," Lance replied with a shrug. "Besides, once we finish up here, flying'll be out of the question anyway."

"Ectoplasms?" Rainbow guessed, garnering another nod and a mutter from Lance. She could've sworn she'd caught 'tree branches' in there somewhere. Then, she turned back to Lazarus, finding that he'd turned to face Lance sometime during the whole feather regrowth spectacle.

Lazarus, who'd gone wide-eyed, was gawking at Lance with a paling face. "I haven't seen a plucked pegasus recover that fast from becoming bald… what the hell did you drink?" he asked incredulously.

"Soup," Lance replied cryptically. "Of a sort."

Lazarus continued to stare at Lance incredulously. "'Soup' my ass," he scoffed, his eyes narrowing a little.

"It's a rejuvenation brew, tweaked specifically for bald wings," Zecora interjected, causing Lazarus to turn to her and raise a brow. "It was initially an experiment, but now I feel confident in aiding other ailing things."

Lazarus blinked. "Such as?" he pressed.

Zecora lifted a hoof and gestured to Sarah with it. "Broken limbs, fractured bones, chipped teeth… just about anything magic can feasibly fix within its reach," she replied.

"She's still working on it," Sarah translated with a roll of her eyes.

"So… an alchemist, then," Lazarus guessed.

"More like tribal shaman," Lance interjected, fluffing his wings as he spoke. He felt one of them snag on something, and looked around before averting his gaze down to find that Maria had taken hold of the limb. "Yes?"

"Do your wings feel funny?" Maria asked, letting go of the wing she'd grabbed.

Lance pursed his lips, realizing he felt a sort of tingling sensation that spread pretty much everywhere feathers grew on his body. He hesitantly nodded. "I guess my mana's just getting itself back into gear is all," he answered as his wings gave a very dull, faint pulse of red.

Maria nodded back. "Okay," she chirped. She turned back to Lazarus and asked, "Do you like daddy? You keep staring at him…"

Lazarus's eyes bugged out and he gave a choking sound in response, followed by stomping and scraping a front hoof when at least one of his legs threatened to buckle. "N-no! I-I'm a ladies' colt!" he stammered.

"Don't mind her," Katie interjected, lifting a hoof and using it to gesture to Maria for emphasis. "She's asked a married couple if they rolled under the sheets… as they were kissing. Made them break apart faster than one could shout 'Faust is coming!'"

Lazarus took a shuddering breath at that mental imagery and turned to Lance with his face turning beet red up to the ears and tip of his horn. He pushed the thought aside and fell to his haunches. "I'll… uh… join your ranks, I guess," he stammered. "Just hold off on ordering me around for a bit, because I probably won't be able to sleep tonight."

Lance nodded in understanding. "Duly noted," he chirped. When Lazarus continued to stare at him, he added, "And no, there aren't any other catches." With that, he turned to leave. "And one more thing. Don't let Natz challenge you to a drinking game." Then he trotted out, and everyone else sans Sarah, Armin, and Katie filed out.

Once the door shut behind them, Lazarus turned to stare at Armin. "Natalie drinks? Since when?" he asked.

"She's been doing it on and off with her beau since Anna joined the ranks, though usually under some supervision," Armin answered with a shrug.

"So… what should we do about the horsey hives issue?" Katie interjected, causing her roommates to turn to her with perplexed brows raised. She crossed her forelegs and added, "One of the guards was grinning smugly at me. I think he knows something about this that we don't."

"He wasn't smiling," Sarah scoffed, only to be met with a holey hoof rising in front of her face and waving dismissively.

"Yes he was, except when you or anyone but me and Katie turned to him," Armin cut in, frowning and shaking his head as he lowered his hoof. "Katie's got a point. That guard is onto something."

"So… we have a weasel… but only two changelings can see him for what he really is…" Lazarus took in a deep breath. "Is this what I am hearing?"

"That's the gist of it," Katie chimed in.

"Well… sorry to be the devil's advocate, but I won't believe you until I see the guard in question smugly smiling for myself," Lazarus sighed, shaking his head. "Burden of proof is on you."

Katie's eyes narrowed, and her orbs dimmed again. "Burden accepted," she hissed in reply. She spread her wings and buzzed furiously before launching to the window and peering out of it, seeing Noah standing around in the street below, without even taking the courtesy of donning a cloak to protect him from the fresh wave of cold air and snow-fueled winds outside. "But first, I'll need a few things…"

Chapter LX- Emerald Blaze

Unfortunately for Katie, the Beholder struck first, lifting a tentacle and swatting at her once she came close. At the last second she stabbed it with her front claws and cemented herself with frost before it could fling her elsewhere, and the Beholder roared as it started shaking its attacking limb madly. Spike quickly realized she would not be shaken off so easily as she bucked at the tentacle she had taken hold of, using her rear claws to further glue herself in place.

This only caused the Beholder to shriek again, and it slithered away from the chasm before it started bashing Katie in the stone floor in an attempt to make her let go. NoLegs dove towards the monster, conjuring a shield with a single spike in its center and a spear with two rectangle-esque protrusions as soon as he got within range. He wasted no time stabbing the tentacle that held Chocolate and used the shield to smack the Beholder inches from its large eye simultaneously.

The Beholder roared and tried to swat at NoLegs, who merely teleported to Spike, though not before shoving his shield into the massive, tri-irised eye square in the centermost pupil. An unearthly scream rent the caverns as the monster's central eye began oozing blood, caving inward slightly thanks to being poked. It ceased flailing Katie about, instead shifting a few tentacles to cover its wounded eye.

Katie turned to Spike, who cringed as he spotted rivulets of viridian blood oozing from her forehead, nostrils and split grin. "You gonna hang there and do anything other than staring?" she hissed, her tone somewhere between pained and irate.

Spike narrowed his eyes a little and called back, "I'm not the one getting a concussion here!"

"You said you took several blows to the head with a halberd's ass to be knocked out! Get down here and do something already!" Katie replied, before the Beholder ceased covering its eye and resumed bashing her into the floor again once it realized it was more or less in the clear, this time hard enough to make her bones audibly snap in places.

NoLegs waved his tail and telepathically told Spike, "She's gonna be a stain on the floor if we don't do something soon. I'll distract the abomination, and you get her out of range."

Spike turned to the tendril wrapped tightly around Chocolate just in time to see a second horn pierce through the limb from within, which only caused the Beholder to wail once more and undulate its tentacle just enough that four crystal hooves poked out through the gaps not long after. It also lifted Katie into the air, and Spike grimaced as he spotted the ice she made already flaking away. Once the ice fell off entirely, it wasn't long before it successfully flung Katie away, turning one smaller eye onto her as she crashed head-first into a wall, though all this did was make her slump upon landing with a sickening crack.

That was when the beast turned to the wall, followed by shifting its several eyes in Spike and NoLegs' direction. It gave a hissing growl, the sound something between a kettle hissing and liquid gurgling, before its central eye began to glow a bright white. The aura took on a red fringe, and NoLegs's eyes widened as it started to gather energy. Seizing Spike in his magic, NoLegs darted to the floor and veered around the Beholder so sharply and so suddenly that Spike couldn't even stick his claws onto the floor to slow down his own momentum.

Just a second later, the air was filled with the sound of a very strong hum, followed immediately by a reddish-white beam of pure energy hitting the area just where they were with enough force to shake the whole room. Spike twisted and watched as NoLegs continued to drag him to safety. He found himself letting off no more than a squawk of dismay as the Beholder twisted to reorient its beam in a sharp diagonal strike, moving so fluently and so fast it was a miracle the strike only barely missed hitting Katie's limp form by mere centimeters.

NoLegs hissed and continued to madly drag Spike along, all the way behind one of the columns as the beam came on their heels, only stopping as their makeshift shield took the impact in their stead. Spike chanced a glance around the bend of the column, gawking as the beam finally faded, revealing molten rock forming in a smooth, jagged line that was fast hardening. NoLegs teleported over to Katie and magically pried her from the wall, catching the Beholder's attention and causing it to twist away from the column.

The Beholder also failed to notice more crystal bits detaching themselves from the column Spike was hiding behind, instead taking its time to charge its central eye for another dose of eldritch-grown laser beams. On top of that, it didn't notice Chocolate wriggling his hooves with all his might, though Spike certainly did. NoLegs teleported away with Katie before another beam could connect, which oddly enough caused the beast to remain fixed in place.

Spike took that as his cue. He rushed up behind the Beholder and quickly scaled up its back, using its own stones as leverage as he got to the tentacle holding Chocolate in place. He inhaled deeply before exhaling out a small stream of green flames that was no thicker than his arm, aiming at the tentacle's base for all it was worth.

The Beholder's reaction was to scream again, fling Chocolate away, and rear up on its supporting tentacles in a crude imitation of a pony preparing to start bucking whilst misdirecting its beam towards another crystal in the process. Spike jumped ship once he caught a dancing crystal bit in the corner of his eye, and not a moment too soon; the instant he launched was the instant the bits started homing in on the tentacled abomination with a vengeance.

Flames exploded, lightning crackled, frost erupted all around the Beholder without pause nor mercy. It roared as its flesh sizzled in places, as currents ran throughout its body, as frost heaped up on top of that to further slow it down and amplify the pain tenfold. Its own beam shorted out, and its tentacles began flailing every which-way they could go, though this only had the added effect of getting stray pebbles flung into every single eye it had. This, effectively, kept it in place for the moment, though not without its reservations.

Spike took the chance to seek shelter behind the crystal column again, finding that NoLegs had reappeared behind it and was doing a quick check-up on Katie, who herself was bleeding in several places. Even her eyes were producing viridian rivulets at this rate. Her wings were now no more than tatters just a few inches long, with several strands clinging uselessly to fraying gossamer veins. Her legs had twisted such that her hooves were facing up with the cannons facing down, several gashes littered her body and one such cut even revealed that several ribs had caved in at some point during her thrashing.

To add insult to injury, her split grin had widened considerably, to the point that the chitin on her lower jaw was peeled off and making it so her expression was anything but. In spite of this horrendous setback though, Katie was making an effort to stand. Contorted as she was though, she could not manage it, even with the remnants of her wings buzzing feebly.

NoLegs had to magically hold her in place just to keep her from breaking something else. "By Godcat's teats, you're fucked up. What made you think hanging on was a good idea?" he telepathically scolded her, only to flinch as one hoof immediately twisted to properly reorient itself with a snap.

"This… isn't the worst condition I've been… in," Katie grunted, eyes narrowing as another hoof started rotating to fix itself.

"Yeah, but… you can't fly now," Spike pointed out with a grimace, frowning as Katie shook her head fiercely, sending droplets of blood everywhere.

Katie gave a disgruntled grunt at that, wincing as her second hoof popped back in its proper place whilst a third started its bout of rotation. A pulse of blue mana shot across her back and her wings, but it was unusually thick and fringed at the edges by bright pink. "I'll live," she hissed.

Spike's frown deepened when the explosions filling the cavern ceased, along with the Beholder's wailing tantrum. He chanced a glance around the column again, finding it frozen solid in a thick rime of frost, one that crackled and caught fire here and there. He gave a low whistle at the sight, and retracted his head at the very first crack in the ice. He turned to NoLegs and asked, "Should we leave, or finish the job?"

An aura embraced his head and NoLegs telepathically murmured, "Depends on how pissy it gets. What's its status right now?"

"Uh… cracking ice cube," Spike answered, crossing his arms. "That's partially on fire."

NoLegs nodded slowly and gave a low, drawled out meow. "Yeah… I think we should finish the job," he replied. The group's attention was immediately snapped by a brisk, almost harried clip-clopping that fell a little too heavy, and their gazes fell to the only other possible source as he came to hide with them behind the column.

Katie was the first to address Chocolate, though not before wincing as her third hoof finally affixed itself with a pop, "Need something, Crystal Pegging?"

Chocolate flinched, his orbs momentarily dimming. "Are you going to stand there and dally with your hooves up your ass, or do something about Mr. Ice Cube over there?" he snarked back.

"Believe me, I tried harder than you did," Katie hissed, wincing again as her fourth hoof started to go one way, only to then turn back with a series of snaps.

"And where did that land you, hrrrrm?" Chocolate taunted, canting his head slightly.

Katie perked her ears and lifted a front hoof to gesture to the centimeters-long space between the tips. "About this close to wedging all four hooves up your glassy ass," she sneered.

Chocolate gave a dry chuckle at that. "Good luck with that. My asshole is now probably hard enough you'd need a power drill just to penetrate it," he jeered with a note of amusement in his tone.

"Says the stallion who complained about tentacle fondling earlier," Katie shot back in an equally dry and somewhat-amused voice. "You're a bigger boob than Prince Blueblood."

"By the way…" Spike interjected just as the sound of something large breaking filled the cavern, followed immediately by another piercing wail that came from the other side of the column and then the very floor shaking with the aid of several tremendous impacts. "What say you we put our differences aside for now, until Mr. Eldritch Grumpsworth is dealt with?"

NoLegs nodded and hopped around the column, which unusually gave way to a series of violent, loud pops that could easily be mistaken for gunshots permeating the immediate area. Spike followed suit, leaving Katie and Chocolate to sit there and have a staring contest.

Once they went out of sight, Katie made to stand again, taking extra care to keep her last hoof up from the floor, wincing as her legs started wobbling dangerously the moment she'd tried. On top of that, at least one leg formed several unnatural bumps along its length that shifted and sent pain through her nerves in ways they should not have been able to, though only now did she seem to notice it. This was only apparent thanks to how tightly her chitin clung to the bones to begin with.

"Regardless, you seemed to have learned your lesson. I don't entirely trust you yet, but you're not trying to wring my neck either," Katie murmured, flinching as her fourth hoof finished righting itself into place. She set it down, her stance more akin to a drunken sway than a slight lurch, and it was not helped in any way by the floor trembling every few seconds. She spread her legs out to better distribute her meager weight, slowly turned and started to trudge after Spike and NoLegs, wings ceasing their buzzing as another pulse of mana shot across her back.

Chocolate's orbs widened, and for some seconds his jaw went slack before he reeled it in. "Does that mean… you forgive me?" he asked in a disbelieving voice, his query halting Katie in her tracks.

Katie twisted her head to level a flat look at Chocolate. "That's not my job to. You're asking the wrong being," she stated in a level tone. "Though in a way, I suppose I could. You hadn't wronged me in a particularly profound manner. If anything, I wronged you, but we'll save that discussion for later."

She twisted her head back around and continued plodding back around the column, finding that the Beholder had broken out of its frosty prison. It was now too busy wailing and trying to slam Spike and NoLegs through the floor with its many tentacles to really notice her. On top of that, it was also firing off smaller blasts of light from its main ocular in a manner that reminded Katie of Lance shooting with his gunblade. Although, the Beholder was firing at a much faster rate, and its results were decidedly more explosive—pebbles and chunks of molten rock were going everywhere at this point.

Even its attempts to whap its adversaries and rain exploding light on them failed, as they merely side-stepped out of immediate range and prepared a spear with… what seemed to be emerald fire gathering at its blade-point. With the monster's fussing, firing and constant swatting attempts that kept Spike and NoLegs backing up until they were forced to the furthest wall, she honestly couldn't tell what they were doing. They may as well have been trying to perform a samba for all she knew.

Katie ambled well away from the Beholder, or at least as much as her legs would let her before they gave out and slipped from beneath her once she got a few feet from the crystal column. As she fell, her shoes scraped loudly against the floor and made Chocolate wince at the sheer shrillness of the cacophony, but that was enough to make the Beholder cease its tantrum momentarily and turn to her. It began advancing towards her slowly, its central eye once more aglow with an unholy and building light.

That, in turn, was all the initiative NoLegs needed. Using his magic to keep the green flames suspended around the tip of his spear he charged forward and stabbed the Beholder in its central eye from the side before it could stray a few feet from him. That one strike was all it took to make it pop entirely and unleash a torrent of bubbling blood towards Katie. The monster reared up as green flames, interspersed with several exploding red lights, erupted from the now-empty cavity. With the monster distracted, Spike came in and grabbed a tentacle, making sure to dig his claws into the flesh for as solid a hold as he could manage.

He started to pull, making it back up from NoLegs, who wasted no time removing his spear in the process, and towards the chasm at the far side of the makeshift arena. The Beholder, though, made to grab anything and everything it could to keep from going over the edge. Whatever pebbles it could grab slipped, any crystal it could touch shot sparks and flame and frost to make it yield, and it only further injured itself every time a tentacle came anywhere near its nonexistent central eye.

This only made Spike double his efforts and dig his feet into the stone with each step, his claws starting to tear at the tentacle he clutched as he inched himself and the Beholder closer and closer to the brink of darkness. Jagged rocks didn't stall him, magma patches did not burn his feet as he stepped into them on his way, and whatever scorch marks were already present failed to make him pause for even a second. They did, however, end up burning their benefactor enough to coerce it to rear up, making Spike's work just a smidgen easier.

The Beholder was making a desperate effort to keep a solid footing, still flailing with all its might. Though with the blood pooling from its eye, the flames and magma that ravaged it, the crystals using their magic every time it got a hold of them, and the fact that a baby dragon was doing the primary tugging, it was for naught. All it could do was struggle and flail, wailing without pause as it went to its doom.

Spike let go of the tentacle at the last second, though not before using its own torn flesh to serve as an anchor onto a crystal that instantly froze it in place. He wasted no time running to the front of the monster and glaring at it the moment it righted itself and focused all of its other eyes onto him, feebly tugging at its frozen tentacle for all it was worth.

Everyone, even Chocolate, turned or poked out of their hiding spot as the staring contest lasted for all of three seconds. "Bon voyage, you mutated snail," Spike hissed before inhaling deeply and puffing out one last jet of fire in the massive cavity where the central ocular used to be. That forced it the rest of the way back, made it snap the crystal to which it had been affixed, and sent it over the edge in one sharp jerk of motion. And once the Beholder had jumped, its pupils dilated as it realized it made its last and gravest mistake. It could not reorient itself in time, and dropped down below.

With one last explosion that briefly illuminated the chasm and a deafening scream that made everyone flinch as their ears started to ring, the Beholder was effectively finished. Nobody dared peek over the chasm, though, instead taking their time to regather behind the column. NoLegs simply teleported himself and Spike to the column, and made his shield and spear vanish, now that they were no longer needed.

Katie opted to stand again, her legs still unsteady but now capable of more solid footing thanks to a lack of ground shaking tantrums. She took a few minutes to walk over to the group, and an awkward silence held for a few seconds once she reached the others and parked her posterior on the floor. NoLegs took away her shoes and made them vanish as well, but other than that the silence held until someone spoke.

"So," Katie began, orbs locking onto Chocolate as NoLegs magically lifted a leg to start scrutinizing it, "what brought you here?"

Chocolate shrugged. "I should be asking you the same thing," he said in earnest.

Katie, NoLegs, and Spike all exchanged glances and shrugged at each other before turning back to Chocolate. "Let's start this off simple: have you seen Shining Armor at all?" Spike asked, crossing his arms with an expectant look on his face.

At that, Chocolate nodded. "Yes. Before I wound up here, I saw him going door to door once the sun set," he answered.

Katie canted her head. "And how'd you end up here?" she asked.

Chocolate's face hardened, and his mouth clenched into a thin, barely-noticeable line for a few seconds. "I saw… a tall, black form with a gnarled horn," he began in a low voice. "It trotted through the forest on the other side of the closest frozen town like it owned the place. I tried to follow it, but could not get close enough to see anything distinctive, horn aside."

Katie's eyes narrowed, partly because of another wince as mana pulsed along her lower jaw and chitin started to reform in angry, spindly webs, and partly because of two words that Chocolate had uttered. "Gnarled… horn?" she repeated slowly.

Chocolate nodded again, and his orbs dimmed to such a dark red-orange they were starting to blend in with the black of their canvases. "Yes. Gnarled as in twisted like a… closest thing I could think of would be a bent coat-hanger," he replied. "The owner of that horn had the temerity to enter someone's house uninvited, so I followed it and…" He abruptly stood up, snatched Katie with a hoof, and planted her on his back in one fluid motion. "I believe it's just something you must see with your own eyes. I'll take you three there myself, free of charge."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Chocolate carried Spike, NoLegs, and Katie on his back on his way out of the crystal-filled caverns and back to Whitefall Town. His trot was brisk, despite his legs being cannons-deep within the still-building snow, and it took him less time to actually pass two houses than it did for Katie to pass just one. Speaking of, Katie eyed the tracks he left in his wake, which had the same deep indents and flattened bottoms.

Which made her brain go into a tizzy once she realized she got unwittingly led into a deathtrap, by someone who likely could not have known he himself was going into said deathtrap until his little accident with the Beholder. She turned to face the back of Chocolate's head and began rattling off queries, "So… what happened after you left the house? How'd you piss the Beholder off? Did the thing you said had a gnarled horn speak at all, or just grunt like a beast?"

"It… lead me to the, uh…" Chocolate's trot slowed a bit as he thought of how to best finish his reply.

NoLegs waved his tail and told Chocolate telepathically, "The tentacled thing is what a Beholder is."

Chocolate nodded and finished, "Well, it lead me to the Beholder in some lava-filled room, had the gall to buck it upside the head, and pointed a hoof at me when it looked at him. And I found that crystal is melted by lava, so I could not reach the Beholder unless the lava was willing to part. So it crossed over to me, and… suffice to say it only got angrier once it actually reached me," he answered. With a shrug and a sharp turn between the first row of houses on the right that cropped up, he added, "Son of a bitch must've known I was trailing him."

NoLegs sighed and waved his tail again. This time, his mental voice filled Spike and Katie's heads, "Well, shit. Got no way of verifying whether or not he really didn't piss the Beholder off…"

Katie groused in a hissing, low voice with narrowing eyes, "So, that means we'll have to take it at face value…" Her eyes widened seconds later, and she lifted a hoof to her recovering chin to start rubbing it, though she was mindful of the regrowing chitin that wasn't yet finished. "You said 'son' earlier…" she noted.

Chocolate nodded again, his trot quickening once more. A house was starting to crystallize into view, and Katie turned back to find the rest of Whitefall vanishing with distance. "Yes. He looked the Beholder in the eye and shouted 'he did it!' when blaming me for kicking it awake, and in a voice so deep I almost thought the Beholder itself was talking," he stated. "Never before have I heard a baritone that low."

Katie nodded in understanding and dropped her hoof. She watched as NoLegs hopped on Chocolate's head, canting her head at the display before leaning as much as she could to the side to see what had caught his eye. There was a porched and despairingly small house sporting an overhang and windows boarded up from the outside, splintering with age all over. The overhang was sagging dangerously to one side, bringing a good portion of the house itself with it. Oddly, three forms were outside the house, under the overhang, distantly chatting beneath a bright magenta light.

Katie tried to peer closer, only to find magic embracing her head and an image flooding her mind. Shining Armor, Alexander, and a unicorn stallion with a short tail and burn-marks on his posterior were standing in a two-to-one formation, only apparent thanks to the bright magenta light emitting from the tip of Shining's horn. She pricked her ears to listen when Chocolate stopped just a good thirty feet shy, and almost instantly picked up on their chatter.

"... so you're saying he kidnapped you, locked you in this ramshackle shed, and made up some story about horsey hives?" Shining began in a low, calm voice that had an angry undertone.

Another voice Katie didn't recognize, presumably belonging to the unicorn with the burn-marks on his rear, replied, "Yeah. He said he was gonna scapegoat the hell out of a nonexistent issue and goad some poor bastard into that rabbit hole. And then somepony made out of black crystal got me out."

Shining's voice lowered to a murmur, though Katie could still make out what he'd said next, "Much like how Napkin goaded me and one of my guards into thinking that somepony wanted the Fantasians booted from Mythos…"

Alexander chimed in, "On that note, sir, are you well?"

"Well… as well as anypony can be after being abducted, locked up, and not fed for three days straight. Is there any food? I'm starving," the burn-marked unicorn replied with a shrug.

"We'll take you to the food, but… did you get anything on what your abductor looked like? Anything at all?" Shining asked.

"Nada. He stuck a bag over my head first chance he got," the burn-marked unicorn answered, his words accentuated by a loud gurgle. NoLegs magically nudged Chocolate closer to the trio, just as they got out from under the ramshackle overhang and began trotting away.

NoLegs telepathically told Chocolate, "If you're worried about him kicking your ass, I'll get him to lay off. Deal?"

Chocolate nodded and trotted to Shining with a brisk pace. The two groups met up within a few minutes, and once they did, Shining wasted no time letting his eyes narrow and giving Chocolate the gimlet eye. He opened his mouth to speak, before NoLegs embraced his head in magic and chimed in, "Can it wait for a few minutes? Chalkstick here wants to show us something."

Shining clenched his jaw and nodded. "But only a few minutes," he relented.

The third unicorn, a lad sporting a suspiciously brown mane and beige coat, turned to Chocolate and let his eyes widen. "Hey, he's the pony who got me out of that house!" he exclaimed.

Chocolate nodded and trotted past him and Alexander, marching right up to the house. "Well… it was nothing," he replied, going up to the door—or rather, where one should have been under the overhang. Instead there was just an empty, splintering space leading into a darkened room that seemed to beckon them.

He waited for NoLegs to conjure a light with his tail before stepping inside, right into a desolate living room sporting several broken furnishings caked in dust, with most of the furnishings so dilapidated and abused it was hard to tell what they originally belonged to. Chocolate looked down, and Spike and Katie followed suit to find five sets of prints, one of which sported digits and pads in place of hooves. Two went in, leading to a splintered, already-opened and half-broken door at the back of the room, and three were going out from that same door.

Chocolate cantered after the two going in, making sure to never let his hooves stray onto the tracks, trotting up to the door and into the next room without pause. Inside was a cramped room no more than three yards in length and width, though it housed a sagging chair surrounded by ropes that frayed at their ends, as well as puddles of days-old urine and excrement. The group, save Chocolate, wrinkled their noses at the stench that wafted from the chair's surroundings before turning their attention to the farthest wall.

Written on that wall with some sort of red substance was a message, although it was in unusual characters that looked more like runes and hastily scribbled on top of that. Katie's brow furrowed as NoLegs started levitating himself to hover to the message, casting it in a stark relief under his light. Soon, his voice filled their heads.

"When the moon shimmers, when the stars gleam, when the forest flourishes and the wind whistles without care, take heed: hope will shine like crystal. To whom it shines, it shall bring untold joy. To whom it passes by, ill omens will befall…" NoLegs trailed off before looking down and finishing, "To whomever finds this message: I will take that hope for myself. Mark my words. I shan't be stopped, no matter the cost. I will burn all of Fantasia, and all she has built, if I must. Ill omens will befall those who seek to radically alter Fantasia. Joy will come to those who preserve it." He floated back and resettled on Chocolate's head.

"Whatever the Tartarus does that mean?" Chocolate asked, averting his orbs to look at NoLegs cross-eyed.

"Honestly, I've no clue," Katie replied with a shrug. "Sounds like argle bargle to me."

"It reads like an ancient legend or something. Maybe Lazzy knows something about this… what say we ask him tomorrow?" NoLegs piped up, getting two nods from Spike and Katie almost instantly.

"Sounds like a threat if you asked for my input," Spike interjected with a frown. "But… who wants to radically alter Fantasia?"

Katie shrugged again and chittered in swarm tongue, "Framalg aulsch mastrælta."

"I don't get what you just said, but okay," Spike sighed. He turned to Chocolate and asked, "Is this what you wanted to show us?"

Chocolate nodded. "I figured one of you would be adept in translation work… but I never guessed it'd be your pet cat," he admitted, turning around and trotting out of the house before rejoining Shining and his group. NoLegs magically embraced everybody once they regrouped with an aura that then grew into a flash of light. The light not only came and went with a loud pop, but revealed they were all the way back at the church's dining room as soon as it dissipated.

Then, NoLegs grasped Shining and Alexander's heads with his magic and telepathically told them all he knew of what the hell was going on. The whole process took a few minutes, and Shining and Alexander had to silently consult Katie and Spike by mouthing queries, only to find them nodding fervently once they'd asked. Even Chocolate was in on it, nodding whenever Shining and Alexander asked him something.

Once that was said and done, NoLegs teleported himself and the rest of the lot into a guest room, before hopping off of Chocolate's head and onto a table and curling up to doze. Shining spoke up once the spots stopped dancing in his eyes, and when he did it was for everyone involved, "So… we've all been roped again?"

Chocolate nodded. "And this time, it seems I was dragged into it as well," he chimed in. He trudged to a corner, laid down, and nestled his head between his forelegs. "I'm going to sleep. I've got nothing else to do."

Katie curled up on Chocolate's back, while Spike crawled off. She yawned widely and shut off her orbs. Spike walked over to Shining and sighed, his shoulders slumping as post-battle exertion finally kicked in. "So… what now?" he asked, turning to the unicorn with the burn-marks.

Shining turned to Spike and patted his head with a hoof before turning to Alexander, who turned back and nodded. "We'll help this sod raid the fridge before hitting the hay. Let's talk about this tomorrow," he replied, his gaze averting to the sod in question as his stomach began gurgling again.

Spike nodded, stretched his arms, and yawned widely. "Alright. Sounds like a plan to me." He turned to Chocolate and Katie before adding, "I'll get them a blanket before hitting the hay myself." With that, he wandered out of the room.

Chapter LXI- Bridging Into The Gloom

Luna frowned as she stood in the dreamscape, staring at a brand-new door wedged between a few of the ones that had black locks barring them. Its crystal sheen did little to ease her expression, especially with a bird-and-spear mark that framed it. She didn't know how or why, but this door just popped up, and even stranger it didn't come with the black, bleeding locks and shackles the others possessed in this particular stretch of dreamland.

Regardless, her brow only furrowed at its presence. If experience had taught her anything, it was to not barge in on unwilling ponies' dreams, especially if they went so far as to block her attempts to help. Her ears twitched as she heard a door open, and craned her neck to find Katie and Discord ambling out of a red and white one. Her eyes widened, and her confusion only grew when she saw that Discord was grinning.

"Well, Princess, it would seem Lance got himself a few… new recruits into his little army force," Discord chirped, looking pointedly past Luna and at the newest addition of doors.

"A few?" Luna parroted, raising a brow.

Katie nodded. "Just me and a crystal unicorn," she elaborated with a shrug. "And, hey, his troops taught me how to eat again, and I've noticed I've begun healing faster, so that's a plus."

Luna canted her head, struggling to process what Katie just uttered. "... how, exactly?" she pressed.

Katie fluttered her wings, sending their tattered shreds everywhere. "Long story short, got forcefed by hoof-in-mouth, and then took on a monster. That's how," she stated curtly. "Though, once Smartass hears of it, he'll probably order me to be tied to a bed until I finish healing or something."

Luna's brow remained fixed in place, and her eyes narrowed just a teensy bit. "... why are they forcefeeding you?" she asked, an edge of seriousness in her voice.

"'Tough love,' so I was told," Katie answered with another shrug. "I just went with it to keep another hoof from going down my throat."

"So…" Luna spread a wing and gestured to the new, shimmering door with it, deciding to change the subject immediately after. "What is this? Or more accurately, to whom does it belong?"

"Well…" Katie trotted up to the door on warbling legs whose bones shifted about with each step, and simply pushed it open without consulting the knob as soon as she got in reach. "I think it's easier just to visit the sorry bastard that owns it yourself."

Luna smiled and trotted beyond the door, with Katie and Discord falling in step behind her. Discord started babbling as they went, "I've taken a preliminary tour of Fantasia, now that the worlds are no longer separated, and honestly it's…" Discord paused as he and his companions found themselves standing on one end of a lone stone bridge linking two heavily-forested areas, with an ocean to one side that itself was joined to a river that stretched under the bridge.

"Not quite what you were hoping for?" Luna finished for him as she spotted Lazarus at the other end of the bridge, seemingly loitering about. She didn't notice Discord's eyelids drooping, nor his brows furrowing by a considerable margin.

"Oh please, most certainly not that. That's implying Fantasia in of itself is boring. What do you mistake me for, a connoisseur of the mundane?" Discord huffed, lifting his paw and violently swatting it down as if batting away a fly. "If anything, it's just not what I'm particularly used to. A different breed of chaos, if you will."

Katie started trotting to Lazarus. "I'm betting ten bits per biscuit that this colt 'sinned' somehow," she hissed, orbs gleaming expectantly with each step she took.

Both Discord and Luna looked at Katie with raised brows. The latter said nothing, but the former decided to pipe up, "Sinned, you say? Ooohoho, I wonder just what this colt got himself into…"

The two simply teleported over to Lazarus with a snap of Discord's talons and a flash of light, leaving Katie to play catch-up and avert her orbs to avoid going blind in the process. As soon as they materialized literally on either side of him in a loud bang, Lazarus jumped with a shriek and all four hooves splaying out as far as they could go. He then twisted mid-air and fell flat on his back at the sudden and rude appearance of his dreamcrashers. His tail stood on end, and his eyes went wide like those of a deer in headlights.

"Wh-who the hell are you? Wh-what are you doing here?!" Lazarus screamed, his voice so many octaves higher the inflection could've been confused with that of a filly's.

Luna gave no more than a teensy smirk at the befuddled look on Lazarus's face, while Discord donned a Cheshire grin and gave a chuckle. Katie proceeded to shout from across the bridge, "Long story short, acquaintances of mine!"

"Well… yes. I've heard of your recent… invitation to some force or some such by one General Lance 'Smartass' Boltwing, am I not correct?" Luna chirped, her query causing Lazarus's face to drain of its color then and there.

"Oh?" Discord turned to Luna, both brows raised and his grin somehow widening when he'd heard her utter 'Smartass.' "I've never taken you one to poke fun at foreigners, Lulu."

Luna spread a wing and gestured to Katie with it. "She hath rubbed off on me," she stated curtly.

"Wh-what're you babbling about?" Lazarus asked, his voice still high-pitched. He didn't seem to notice her extended wing, or Katie's presence as of yet. Luna wasn't sure if he was simply scared out of his wits, which was highly likely given his reaction, or expecting something else altogether. And it mattered not, either way.

Luna turned her full attention back to Lazarus and chuckled, closing her extended wing before lighting her horn. She embraced him in her magic and made him stand back up on his own four hooves at full height, taking a second or two—no more than that—to scrutinize his stance. She leaned forward, her magic dispelling itself, and flashed him a small smile. "Would you mind terribly if I give you a very short list?" she asked. "Telepathically speaking?"

"As long as you don't violate me or something," Lazarus replied with a hasty shake of his head. Luna nodded back and ignited her horn again, embracing his head for the span of one second before letting go. He instantly flopped back to the ground in a heap, eyes going wide and glowing red for a split-second and then reverting back to their tranquil blue before anyone could blink.

Katie, at last, managed to amble to the scene. She studied the heap on the ground, took in his expression, and turned to Luna with a brow raised. "Did you short his brain or something?" she asked sincerely. "Because Lance had that exact look on his face once Maria decided he was daddy."

Luna shook her head. "Give it a moment," she replied tersely. She watched intently, waiting for Lazarus to move or speak or light his horn, though for several moments on end he failed to even budge from his spot.

Discord sighed and took matters into his own mismatched hands after fifteen minutes passed, snapping his talons and conjuring a massive tub filled to the brim with something splashing within in a flash of light. The tub, floating merrily a few feet above Lazarus, was content to stay up there and mind its own business before an umbrella floated over from a tree and tilted the tub with its hook. Water that was cold to the point of forming floating ice cubes rained down on the hapless unicorn, causing him to jolt upright with another girly shriek and his bangs coming over his eyes.

That time, he landed on just his back legs, his front hooves raised to furiously tussle up his own mane in an attempt to recover his sight. "What was that for?!" he yelled indignantly, only succeeding in matting his mane with a vengeance.

"Oh, I got you up for you. No harm in that," Discord chirped with a pleased grin on his face. "Have you got your brain up to speed yet?"

Lazarus took a few minutes before he managed to get his mane out of his eyes, where he plonked down on his haunches and crossed his forelegs, glaring at Discord and Luna with eyes going red for all it was worth. "Yes, I have. Frankly, I think it's utterly insane," he hissed. "Seriously, where'd you come from?"

"Mythos," Luna chirped, smiling when her terse reply made Lazarus blink and tilt his head. "I've seen Lance's vessel in the flesh."

Lazarus threw his soaking wet front hooves into the air, prior to turning his muzzle skyward. "I have no fucking clue what to make of this anymore," he groused to the heavens, as if they would listen.

"Trust me, I have almost no idea either," Katie interjected sarcastically, flinching when Lazarus snapped his gaze to her and started glaring almost immediately. She turned to Luna and asked, "Is it true that Starswirl used airships in his hayday?"

Luna frowned. "If he did, then I was never enlightened about it," she replied, her wings drooping slightly. Her gaze averted to Discord and she added, "Me and my sister had… much bigger things to worry about at the time."

"Like what?" Katie asked, ears twitching as she spoke.

Luna sighed. "Several… unsavory things," she stated tersely, gaze still fixed on Discord.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The party gathered at the dining room early the next morning, though not before Natalie made the remnants of their golem visitor vanish in flashes of light, while also allowing Chocolate to skedaddle out of the establishment as soon as he could. Eve, Andrew, and Bartholomew had also gathered, and were looking at Matt and Natalie in particular with small frowns and slanted brows. "Already? So soon?" Eve asked.

Natalie nodded, a similar look on her face. "Yes, mom. It's… we're leaving for a practical reason. The more guests you get, the quicker the food meant for the guards drains. It wouldn't be right to… burden you any longer," she stated, her tone just as forlorn.

Matt gave a wan smile. "But it was good to know you guys were alright," he added. "Even if it was… unexpected."

Bartholomew grinned. "You thought your old stallion wouldn't still be kicking?" he queried, trotting over before lifting his forelegs and pulling Matt into another crushing hug. This time, Matt returned the gesture, though it caused a few bones to pop. "Ooh! Your earth pony magic's gettin' better," he chirped as they broke apart. He turned to Lance, and his smile dropped instantly. "You treatin' my son like shit?" he asked.

Lance shook his head. "No. If I was, he'd have ripped my wings off by now," he replied.

"My adopted filly?" Bartholomew pressed, garnering another shake of the head almost immediately.

"Nope. Otherwise, I'd be in an ash jar," Lance stated in a flat tone. He turned to Matt and Natalie and added, "If you want, I'll set up a postal service so you can write to your folks."

Bartholomew raised a brow when 'postal service' left Lance's mouth. "And how're you gonna do that?" he asked.

Lance smiled. "I have airships and gryphons," he replied with a shrug. "Only problem in these parts would be finding a place for the ships to land. I'll have them write you a letter once we get to the base."

Bartholomew's expression eased. "If I hear you treated them like shit…"

Lance spread a wing and waved it dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, I know, you'll turn my skull into a scrambled egg," he stated sarcastically.

"Oh don't worry, the pay's good and he's not breathing down our necks 24/7," Natalie chirped, her utterance causing Bartholomew to sigh and smile again.

Bartholomew chuckled and turned to Twilight. "So… you won't stick around for breakfast, then?" he asked.

Twilight shook her head. "We would, but we really have to get going," she answered. "If worst comes to worst, we'll just have to deal with it for a day." She smiled at Bartholomew serenely. "Thank you for your hospitality. Oh, and… what's the closest town from here?"

Eve continued to frown and said, "That would be Greenwood Village, due southwest, on the other side of the nearby crystal caverns. It's a week's worth of travel from here at the least." Twilight heard a shuffling of hooves and turned to find four sets of ears—those belonging to Matt, Lance, Anna and Natalie—folding back and no less than three smiles turning upside-down in seconds. Eve added in a low tone, "But I've heard its elders… have been getting more eccentric as of late. I wouldn't take any chances, if I were you."

Eve turned to Lance, whose mouth formed into a very thin and tight line and sighed. "Just last month, I went over there to get supplies, and… one of them had bound wings and was babbling incessantly. Please be careful."

Twilight frowned and turned to Eve. "Bound… how?" she asked.

Eve shuddered. "It's… I can't even begin to describe it… wings just shouldn't look that way," she replied cryptically.

Twilight nodded, seeing she wasn't getting anywhere. "A-alright… we'll be careful." She received wary looks from Lance, Matt, and Natalie, though Anna merely swallowed nervously. "W-won't we?" she stammered in an attempt to lighten the mood. This only made the frowns already present tighten greatly, almost to the point of fixing themselves upon the very muzzles they blemished.

Eve was quick to notice this new development. She trotted over and nuzzled Natalie, who relaxed and returned the gesture. The two hugged, though only for a few seconds. "Stay safe, alright?" she implored as soon as they broke the embrace.

"We will," Natalie replied, donning a wan smile as they exchanged another nuzzle. "Take care."

"You too," Eve said with a hint of a wistful smile spreading on her muzzle. With that, the group filed out of the church, with a few waving back on their way out. They plodded through Whitefall in silence and with haste, though all of the smaller animals sans Spike opted to perch on Lance's backside for some reason.

It wasn't until they reached the entrance of the crystal caverns a good fifteen minutes after departing the church did anybody speak. Lance halted and spread his wings, in turn causing the others to grind to a stop. Slowly, he turned to Twilight, who had Spike resting on her back. "So… did you really take down a Beholder last night?" he asked slowly, his voice low and calm.

Spike nodded. "Yeah. I did," he replied nonchalantly.

Lance donned a small smile at that and nodded back, seemingly in approval. "Just… let us know when you decide to have another outing next time, at the very least," he said, his tone level. "I don't want another Frostbite fiasco."

Spike nodded. "Will do." He turned to Harry, who was carrying Katie under one hulking, fuzzy arm. "Of course, I was only dragged into it…" he trailed off as an aside, his utterance causing Lance to tilt his head.

Katie, who had several bundles of cloth wrapped around her legs in a way to keep them pressed against her body, snorted and rolled her orbs. "So, General Brassballs, how long must I stay like this?" she asked, wiggling her bound legs as best she could for emphasis as he turned to her with a snort.

"Until Alexander can stick metal rods in your legs," Lance stated curtly, causing Katie's orbs to widen.

Katie turned to Alexander, eyes then narrowing. "You wouldn't," she hissed.

Alexander sighed and fluffed his wings. "Worst comes to worst, once we get to the base, I may very well have to," he stated rather matter-of-factly.

"Pardon my forwardness… but how would you be able to treat her?" Blueblood interjected, causing Lance and Alexander to turn to him with raised brows. Lance folded his wings and hummed, before mutely shrugging and turning to the cavern that lay in front of them.

"Well… metal would weigh her down…" Alexander groused, brow furrowing as Lance started trotting again. He took that as his cue to follow, and so did everyone else. "And her wings are even more shredded…" His eyes narrowed, though only slightly.

Twilight sighed, and would have craned her neck to face Spike if she hadn't noticed the ever-present light of the crystals farther back. Thirty minutes passed before the light within the cavern brightened considerably, and once it did she addressed him, "Spike…" She sighed as she trailed off. When she felt Spike tense and take a small bundle of mane in his claws, she shook her head. "No, it isn't about what happened last night. You did what you did to protect yourself. I wanted to speak with you about something else."

That made Spike relax, and also caused Lance's ears to perk. "If it's a personal issue, and I mean personal enough to warrant a closed door, it'll have to wait," he stated.

"Actually, it's not that personal. In fact, I wanted to try something… involving his dragon fire," Twilight began, causing Lance to turn to her with a bemused brow raised high.

"... that being?" Lance pressed, ears twitching and wings fluffing.

"What if we could use Spike's fire to send letters to NoLegs, just in case we all end up separated again? That way, we could avoid a near-disaster like last night," Twilight proposed. "But we'd have to enchant a few papers to act as envelopes first…"

Lance nodded and turned to face ahead again. "Tell you what; once we get to Greenwood—" Twilight did not miss the shudder that wracked Lance's body and ruffled some of his feathers when 'Greenwood' left his lips, "—we'll work something out then."

Anna gave a whimper, and picked up her pace to go shoulder-to-shoulder with Lance. Her ears twitched, though they were still folded back. "I don't wanna go back to Greenwood…" she mumbled dejectedly. A wing spread and draped over her back.

"I know, but there's more of us now. We'll be safer, trust me," Lance stated in as reassuring a voice as he could manage.

Natalie came up beside Anna, and leaned over to nuzzle her cheek. "He's right. But if you're antsy, we'll stay up once we reach Greenwood before sundown if we get there that early, alright?" she asked.

Anna hesitantly nodded. "I guess so…"

Applejack frowned, and trotted up to Twilight before leaning in to whisper in her ear. "They don't want to get to Greenwood? Something just don't seem right," she murmured.

Twilight nodded. "Yeah. And Eve said one elder had bound wings… maybe I could help," she muttered in reply. She turned to Lance. "How long will it take us to get to Greenwood on hoof?" she asked.

Lance turned to Twilight and scrunched his nose. "If everyone's in a good mood? On hoof, maybe week and a day," he replied. "Maybe being the key word here."

"Is that the shortest route, or the longest?" Twilight asked.

Lance turned ahead again, noticing the crystal formations coming into view, followed immediately by irregular formations in the rock that were burnt black and glossy. "Shortest," he replied tersely.

Lazarus looked at Shining Armor, frowning as he saw that Shining was staring rather intently at Lance. His eyes darted between them, even as Lance stopped at the bare edge of the chasm and signaled another halt with his wings. "Somepony's acting rather off-kilter…" Lazarus muttered, only to wince as Lance's ears folded back immediately.

Lance craned his neck and gave Lazarus another gimlet eye. Lazarus balked and clenched his jaws, eyes widening. He expected Lance to say something, though after three seconds he folded his wings and turned back ahead, this time to the one portion of floor that lead elsewhere which was also marked by the end of the chasm. Only then did he speak in a low, ominous tone that brokered no argument, "Three nights in Greenwood, and nobody strays out of sight for more than a few minutes. That's our limit. Once the three days are up, we're hitting the road."

Armin frowned at that, and his horn glowed. He embraced Lazarus by the cranium and forced his magic to turn him away from his superior. His voice flooded Lazarus's mind seconds later, just as low and ominous as that of Lance's, "I know that tone. Newbie, trust me, you do not want him using that tone."

Lazarus folded his ears back, frowning when Lance started trotting again, directly next to the chasm at that. The others began following him again, this time in a more tight formation of three rows all going shoulder-to-shoulder, though Sarah came up to walk beside Lazarus. She averted her eyes to him, then flicked them back to Anna before he could look at her. She opened her mouth to speak, but took a second to process that Anna sighed before closing it again.

Matt, who'd stayed further back with everyone else, turned to Twilight and asked, "Have you ever, at all, eaten meat? Just one time?"

Twilight turned to him and pursed her lips, prior to shaking her head. "Not really, no. I mean, I can understand its advantages, but… in Equestria, there was no need to do so, unless you were a gryphon or something," she answered sincerely.

Matt frowned and turned away with a sigh. "Well…" His stomach growled. "I guess we'll have to figure something out, then." Even as more crystals started coming into view about a minute after he'd spoken, lining either side of the small path the chasm hadn't touched, the cavern hung in a bout of thick tension. Some crystals jutted inwards, though never far enough to scrape against passing shoulders and legs unless one of those in the group were to come up and do that deliberately, while other crystals jutted out into the chasm and thus out of most physical reaches.

Even so, Matt and his little group made sure to not brush up against even the slightest bit of colorful stalagmite. Fenrir snorted as he noticed Spike looking at him, followed immediately by a gaze from Blueblood of all people. Twilight, however, was eyeing the crystals with a spark of recognition that did not escape Katie's notice. "You're eyeballing those things like they're sentient. What the hell about them has caught your eye?" Katie asked in as flat a voice as she could manage.

"This reminds me… of a network of caverns beneath Canterlot," Twilight murmured, tilting her head when mana pulsed across one crystal threateningly. "Although, there were no crystals left… and even if there were, I doubt they'd have been glowing like this batch."

"Well, it was a good thing I didn't put any of these beauties in my mouth," Spike chirped, looking at the pulsing crystal even as Twilight passed it. He did not take his eyes off of it until it ceased pulsing a few seconds later. "I'd rather eat dull gems than ones that radiate light."

Matt snorted, though only when Spike actually turned away from the crystal in question. "I see even dragons have taste," he chirped.

Spike waved Matt off with a dismissive hand, not even bothering to turn to face him. "Oh hush you," he said.

Matt smiled back at Spike, before finally picking his pace up to go shoulder-to-shoulder with Natalie, if only to get a better grasp of whatever lay ahead. As he did, the cavern began to dim slightly as the group continued on their trek. Dash decided to spread her wings, get airborne, and cut in line to hover over the quartet, though she made sure not to smack anybody with her wings on the way over. "So, Lance," she began, causing Lance to look up at her with a brow raised, "how good a flier were you before your wings got messed up?"

Lance snorted and turned back ahead again. "Back then? Well… I didn't actually fly that often because of ectoplasms and a few other issues. But when I did, I guess you could say I was good," he answered.

Dash frowned and tilted her head, having not really expected such an answer. "Was it because of how huge your wings were?" she asked.

Lance nodded. "Often caused more problems than helped," he answered. The cavern continued to dim, and fewer and fewer crystals were lining the path the further they went. His eyes narrowed at the growing darkness, and his head swiveled to his immediate left to find an incoming gap in the crystals. When he stopped, he made sure to stand next to the gap to peer out of it, revealing another few rocky platforms at least a good forty yards away. They were visible only because they had more orange crystals bathing those particular areas in their light.

Even then, they were difficult to make out. He flared his wings as his eyes trailed lower, only to be greeted with a solitary plank of wood nailed crudely into the stone on which he stood and two broken rails of oak keeping it balanced. The whole construct, or whatever was left of what it used to be, was heavily charred and splintering. Parts of it were also slate grey, no doubt having been turned to ash that had yet to be broken up and blown away. How it stayed intact in such a state, Lance had no idea.

Dash saw it too, and crossed her forelegs with a huff at the very sight of it. "Was that a shortcut?" she guessed.

Lance nodded and growled at the sole plank of wood, the sound more like a deep rumble that reverberated in his throat than what he usually issued. "And it's been broken all to hell," he hissed. Then he shrugged and turned ahead again. "Oh well, that was just one route. I'm pretty sure whoever built the bridge must've been notified by now." With that, they pressed on.

"Just one route? Are you insinuating that this cavern is only of a singular path?" Fenrir piped up from farther back.

"Just one of many in this cave, and one of the safer ones at that," Lance replied, not even bothering to turn his head and look at Fenrir. The crystals grew fewer in number still, and in size too; it was only ten minutes after passing the broken bridge that they ceased reaching any higher than his pasterns. Matt lit up his horn and summoned a small, golden ball of light before the crystals simply stopped at some point in the path altogether after a few minutes. Once he did, the darkness ahead only seemed to deepen considerably.

This, in turn, caused Rarity, Shining, and Blueblood to do likewise. The air turned colder the deeper into the darkness they pressed, and everyone shivered as a soft draft blew in to caress them. "Is it just me, or is it colder in here than it is outside?" Shining asked, frowning as a shiver briefly wracked his body.

It took several minutes for anyone to answer Shining's question, and by then, the light of the crystals was but a distant speck behind the group. "It's not just you, m'lord," Flash replied, his wings fluffing a bit as another chilly draft touched him.

Maria, who was walking next to Fluttershy, whimpered as her feathers proceeded to stand on end once the chill got to her. "The rock's not warm," she complained, ears pricking as she heard a distinct splashing of liquid. Her eyes turned to Fluttershy, who paused briefly to shake off a now-wet hoof before going down to find a puddle of water and slush that rippled slightly.

"And it seems to be getting… wetter, too," Fluttershy murmured, turning to Maria as she side-stepped around the puddle. Nodding and turning back ahead, she caught sight of something glinting above Matt as he passed, his light only barely catching the object in question.

Then, Twilight lit up her horn as she continued to follow, her light just bright enough to reveal a clear, reflective icicle going down at a perfectly straight 180 dribbling with small drops of an equally-clear substance. The drop hung on for only a few seconds, and then moved once Rarity's light came next, where it then let go, descended and landed squarely on the tip of her snout.

Rarity jumped back with a gasp, feeling a chill from where the drop had landed. "O-oh my!" she exclaimed, looking at the offending bit of liquid cross-eyed. "N-nobody informed me we'd need umbrellas in here!"

Matt turned up, revealing more dripping icicles in doing so, and he stopped in his tracks to study them. "That's funny… the ice here isn't supposed to melt," he stated. "It wasn't like this when I trotted through here last time…"

"Then what is it supposed to do, just hang out?" Dash asked, flying up to better inspect the melting icicles for a few seconds.

"Just about," Matt replied, turning back ahead before noticing that, once again, Lance had stopped with wings flared a good twenty yards ahead, barely illuminated by lights that sprung up from Anna and Natalie's horns.

He turned to his superior upon reaching him several minutes after, opening his mouth to ask why he'd stopped this time, only to close it when he noticed Lance looking straight down. Slowly, his eyes turned to whatever had caught Lance's attention, only to find another steep chasm barring their path, marked by the edge of the stone they were treading on. This, too, sported another sorry batch of barely-holding-together, charred planks and support beams ending just a few inches into a deep darkness.

Another draft blew in from the chasm's darkness and caressed them, though now it was noticeably warmer than before. "Well, isn't that just great?" Lance hissed, turning upwards to stare directly at the gloom that lay ahead. "This bridge is out of order too…"

"So, what do we do now? Do we fly over the… where the bridge used to be?" Dash asked in exasperation, frowning deeply at the lack of something to get over the chasm with.

Lance sighed and turned to Dash with a frown, wings still spread. "Well… we're gonna need a light to see, so… we may have to improvise," he answered in a low voice. "And I may need to fly sooner than I thought… looks like we'll have to tread carefully."

Chapter LXII, Part II- Iced Apples

Nobody dared to question the process of flight-and-teleport once another sound of wood snapping filled the caverns mere seconds after Natalie got off the bridge. Although, they merely did it much faster in the event that another lich-wyrm or potential dragon was resting in the second chasm beneath the third now-broken bridge. In silence, descending deeper into the darkness that grew colder and colder, the group trotted on after crossing the obstacle.

It went like this for several minutes on end as winding hall after winding hall was traversed, each chillier and decidedly more ice-riddled than the last. It felt like an eternity since anyone, or indeed anything, had last spoken, much less saw the sun's light. Hours may well have passed them by in this cave, with everyone being none the wiser to it.

Katie kept her ears upright and to attention, wondering what aside from possible drakes and wyrms had everyone so tight-lipped all of a sudden. Fenrir and his disdain for being levitated, she could very well understand, and she couldn't exactly communicate with Harry, Angel, nor Owlowiscious. Yet everyone else… at their silence she couldn't help but fidget her bound legs uncomfortably as she was toted along. And in a way, their lack of vocalizing whatever was on their minds had become almost deafening.

Their very silence was… unusual, to say the least. Wrong, even. The lich-wyrm's warning did little to abate her growing concerns; if anything, that was just more fuel for that particular fire. More wary glances were going to the walls and floor now, and as more of the cavern floors became slick with sheets of ice, that she could very well excuse. She was, however, beginning to understand Maria's earlier reservations, albeit for a different reason.

So Katie did what came naturally for her: she broke the tense tranquility by daring to speak, for it was all she could do then. "Alright, what has your tongues this time?" she asked. She did not expect every single set of eyes to fall on her followed by mute stares, although in a few seconds she'd received her answer.

"I was thinking… is it really wise to even stay within Greenwood's… borders once we got there?" Blueblood asked, his gaze averting to Lance rather questioningly. "I mean, it's just some village… or possibly hovel, and nothing more?"

"You would not believe me even if I told you," Anna murmured in response, her voice as low and cold as the ice that surrounded the group. Her eyes flashed crimson briefly, and her face twisted into a scowl, which only caused Katie's ears to droop. She knew what that look meant, and it made her recently-restarted stomach twist into several tight knots just registering its unspoken meaning. "I'd rather... " she paused, turning to start trotting down the seemingly-never-ending hall they'd found themselves in, "let it wither, to put it lightly."

"Let Greenwood wither? Whatever has that town done to upset you?" Blueblood asked, only garnering a slow shake of the head from Lance as he began to trot after Anna again.

"A lot," Anna hissed, and she left it at that. The group's walk-trot began anew, and the vocal silence once more settled in place and became its own deafening din. Katie could not help but let her fidgety legs, bound as they were, drop as much as they could. Her stomach twisted in on itself some more, and her mind began to fill with a sense of clawing dread. She opened her mouth to speak, to ask what was wrong, but her voice died in her throat before it could leave with an empty exhale of air.

She gave the lich-wyrm's warning some more thought and shuddered when she saw his unsavory implications clear as day. Did Greenwood, perhaps, pose some small threat? Or would it be Frostbite Haven all over again? The way Lance and Anna had been mum about it didn't help either; would they even keep the three-day promise or bolt with everyone else in tow at the first chance they got?

Katie started mentally reviewing all that had happened since the group entered the caverns and the night before, paying special heed to the bits of body language she caught sight of. About Eve's warnings. Her eyes narrowed as her stomach soon gathered the newfound determination to turn itself into an unsavory pretzel. She turned to the ice that cascaded on the walls, glaring at her own passing reflection as if it could convey anything other than what she was presently doing.

She didn't pay attention to anything else for a few minutes, though her ears remained fixed upright, trying to catch sounds that simply weren't being made. At least, until Sarah bumbled into her immediate view and averted her gaze. "How're you holding up?" Sarah asked.

Katie's ears drooped, and she took a few seconds to process the question. "Meh," she answered tersely, hoping that was a good enough answer. "I think my tail fell asleep."

Sarah nodded and turned her gaze onto Lance and Anna. "To be honest, I don't want to go to Greenwood either," she murmured, the utterance low enough that Katie had to lift her ears just to catch it. She spread her good wing and waved for emphasis with an added, "Especially not like this."

Katie found herself nodding in agreement. She cocked her head when Blueblood fell back to trot at Sarah's side, sporting a tight frown that marred his muzzle. "How much longer until we exit these blasted caverns?" he groused, eyes narrowing to tiny slivers.

Pinkie turned her head to the right, finding a very thick and oddly-shaped portion of ice about to pass her. She stopped in her tracks and stared at it, putting a hoof to her chin as her tail began to twitch violently. Buried in the frost, she could make out clumps of stone that had glowing blue crystals jutting outward, with some making claws and others making sharp spines for reasons she couldn't glean. Two in particular were long, easily the length of one of Lance's wings, yet they faced downward rather casually.

Spike flinched and whimpered as Twilight trotted past, eyes going wide and round as dinner plates the very instant he saw the twitching tail. "Something's gonna fall!" he yelled with an air of hysteria, in turn causing everyone else to grind to a halt and turn to him on the spot.

"What the hell are you on about?" Lance asked, both brows raised high.

The portion of ice Pinkie was staring at shifted slightly, though this only caused her to gasp and twitch her tail that much more. One of her knees began to buckle in tandem with her tail-twitching, and once it did Applejack started to pale. "It's your Pinkie Sense, ain't it?" she guessed.

Pinkie hastily nodded, and opened her mouth to say something when the portion of ice pulsed with blackish-blue mana. One part of the ice then broke free, swinging outwards with a mighty heave and dragging a pony-sized chunk of stone with it, nearly catching Pinkie in the snout in doing so. Pinkie jumped back, her tail going into twitching overdrive as another portion of frozen stone came loose. Then, joints formed, made of stone slick with ice and about as large as two ponies' heads by a fair margin.

Both parts of stone then crashed to the floor, cracking the ice beneath themselves as with another tug, another part that was easily the size of Princess Celestia came loose, supported by the fragments that came first. It twisted around its middle, forming a fearsome set of jaws lined with icicles for teeth.

Matt summoned Heaven's Gate with a snarl. "Oh goody, an ice golem," he hissed as two more protrusions broke loose close to an approximation of where shoulders would be, with both ending in wicked blades of ice that came swinging towards Pinkie. Again, Pinkie backed away before sidestepping, narrowly missing the twin swords by mere inches. "Who let this sadsack stay here?"

The golem in question turned its stony, frozen frame to Matt in a manner that suggested it had heard him somehow. Matt leaned a little to one side, eyelids drooping as a small frown cropped on his face. "Too many of us, only one of you…"

With that, he stuck his sword in one of the golem's legs, wedging the very tip just under the joint before tugging the handle down. The joint popped free, and the sword levitated back as the golem promptly fell on its side with a low groan and ceased pulsing with mana on the spot. The ice encasing it crushed as it collapsed, before flaking off and leaving just the stone and crystals that made up its body more or less intact.

However, it was still moving afterwards. It planted its crystal-blades down into the stone floor and started to crawl to Matt, leaving the leg that got its joint removed behind. "Nada," he stated as he retracted his sword with ease.

"Not gonna finish it off?" Anna asked, watching as the golem tried to crawl to Matt with a pitifully slow pace, not helped by the fact that the ice on the floor was breaking it up and further slowing it down.

"Nah, let it crawl." Matt trotted to, then around the golem before it could even swipe at him. "It'll repair itself once we let it alone." He went specifically for the golem-shaped hole that had just been made, and started eying it up and down as soon as he stopped at Pinkie's side to better examine the anomaly.

The hole, amazingly enough, led into yet another hallway, although another hallway that had much less ice than the one they were presently standing in. Matt squinted his eyes at it. "Huh." He trotted closer, sword hovering next to him at the ready…

Nothing came out from the crevice. Pinkie looked at Matt, still frowning. "Is the golem really gonna repair itself?" she asked.

Matt used his sword to gesture to the golem's severed leg. Pinkie turned to the limb and gasped as, slowly, the leg began to move by itself, kicking at the floor with all its might. Of course, the rest of the golem was farther away, inching toward Lance and Anna who merely took to the air, one of which using her magic to do so. The severed limb had little hope of successfully catching up, regardless of how hard it was trying to.

"These caves seem larger than I remember…" Matt murmured, shrugging before he trotted into the new hole.

Lance and Anna followed him, pausing only to actually land at the hole's entrance. "Maybe ponies started mining them?" Pinkie suggested, hopping behind Lance.

"I don't see anything suggesting such; no minecarts, rails, or scaffolding to hold the rocky ceiling up," Lance replied with a shrug. "Let alone much of a reason to mine these specific parts of the caves."

"Why not? There's plenty of crystals to go around," Pinkie retorted, only causing Spike to snort as Twilight cantered up at her side. Pinkie turned to Spike, a brow raised. Spike kept silent for several minutes on end as Anna, Matt and Lance led the rest of the entourage down another winding hall or three, oddly with less and less ice and crystals as they marched.

"Those crystals are volatile. They attack you if you so much as poke them," Spike replied solemnly, shaking his head.

Katie piped up from the back of the line, "I got to be a guinea pig last night! Almost got set on fire and frozen simultaneously, with a side-order of paralysis!"

"Something like that," Spike stated with a shrug.

Pinkie's frown deepened, and her ears fell back. "Is being frozen and burned at the same time possible?" she queried.

"Yes, Pinkie, it is. So is being frozen and paralyzed," Twilight replied with a shrug. "But being set on fire and frozen at once… that I find as likely as something exploding twice, even when accounting for paralysis."

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that is indeed possible," Anna interjected from up ahead. Twilight turned to look at her incredulously, noticing an encroaching red light coming from a yawning hole up ahead. Anna conjured three crystal arrows with a flash of light, making sure each was a different color. "Freezing and setting things on fire, that is. I'll show you one of these days, once I can find a suitable target."

Twilight ignored Anna's second utterance and sighed as she squinted her eyes to better look at the source of the incoming light, noticing subtle oranges and yellows permeating the predominate red that stemmed from something which jutted upright from the floor. Noticing a deep brown hue upon the object, as well as its square top from which the reds and oranges and yellows exploded and its cylindrical body, she cocked her head. "A torch? Who put this here?" she asked.

Matt paused before he could pass the torch, and Anna and Lance slowed to a stop behind him. All three turned to the torch and pursed their lips, opening their mouths to answer before closing them, shrugging, and promptly continuing on their way. Twilight's brow furrowed and she sighed in exasperation. So much for that. After that, though, more torches cropped up as the group trotted. Some were spaced mere feet from each other, while others had entire yards' worth of space all to themselves, and others still were so close their flames actually merged into one large ball that gave off more heat.

Yet again everyone went tight-lipped, passing each torch or two wordlessly with gazes rigidly fixed ahead. Katie sighed after several more minutes of silence came and went, her annoyance and boredom only growing because of it. She took to twisting her head left and right, letting her tongue dart out to wrap around her own muzzle just to see how tight she could hold it shut. As an added touch, she tried looping it into a rather loose bow-shaped knot, but with no hooves to move as hers were bound, all she could achieve was what could be best described as a tangle.

Attempt after attempt only made the pale, prehensile tongue twist and turn with all the grace of a shoddily-made trail, but she giggled when the tongue started to form into ruder shapes, or at the least close approximations thereof. But she retracted her tongue after the delicate act of making some questionably-shaped protrusions with which to gesticulate at Lance failed to keep her entertained for more than five minutes, so she settled on the next best thing. "Are we there yet?" Katie asked.

"Does it look like we're there yet?" Lance hissed in irritation, not even bothering to look over his shoulders. He fanned his wings out and gestured to the stone around them, though the motions looked more like wild exasperated flailing on his part. "Does it?!"

"No," Katie answered with a titter of amusement.

"Then keep that trap of yours shut," Lance hissed, folding his wings closed.

Katie rolled her orbs dismissively. She felt a prominent itch on her back, and twisted her head to try and pinpoint whatever the irritant was, only to dim her orbs as she spotted four little bulbous buds where her wings were. She turned her head around again, making a mental note to eat meat that night.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The group had followed the torches diligently, all the way to the other side of the cavern where a thick forest with a line of torches weaving through the trees was the first thing to greet them, and by that point all their limbs were sore and dragging hooves and claws tiredly. "Okay, those caves have gotten much longer. Did the lich-wyrm dig burrows?" Matt groused.

Lance mutely shrugged and looked up as the sky came into view, scowling as he spotted a navy backdrop housing numerous glittering stars. Everyone's stomach growled, and some winced, now regretting their decision to not take at least one biscuit with them on the go. Lance simply parked where he was, and turned his attention back to the forest ahead. He immediately noticed barren branches, illuminated only by the torchlight.

Everyone else had parked too, and all horns except for Twilight's were red-hot and steaming. Katie wiggled her legs as Harry shifted to let her rest against his chest. "Alright Smartass, what do we do?" she asked, orbs poised on Lance.

Lance let his wings slump against his sides. He turned to Twilight and asked, "Did you bring any food with you? I overheard something about chariots earlier and couldn't help but wonder."

Twilight nodded, and in several flashes of light conjured… apples. A lot of apples. Enough apples to fill a crate snugly, in fact. "It's not much, and I don't hunt for my food, so… bon apetit." With that, she handed everyone an apple or two, except for Katie. Twilight turned to said wraith and sighed; her lack of teeth meant she had to get a little more creative. "You want applesauce?"

Katie's ears perked up at that. "Sauce? Apples can become sauce?" she asked, a note of disbelieving in her voice.

Twilight resisted the urge to facehoof and nodded. "Yes, but only the pulp and skin. So… you want applesauce?" she repeated.

Katie nodded. "Just don't stick a funnel in my throat and I'll chow," she chirped.

Twilight nodded, and conjured a bowl of wood, a small knife forged of light, a spoon, and a mortar. She set to work coring and grinding an apple into something that Katie wouldn't have problems with, while everyone else bit into their apples with relish.

Lazarus paused, looking at his freshly-bit apple wide-eyed in a manner that suggested it somehow gained sentience and told him off. It took him a few seconds to bite into it again, and that time a smile crept on his face. "Who grew this sweet lil' nubbin?" he asked the moment he finished chewing and swallowed. "Because this is a very good apple!"

Several hooves, in that moment, pointed at Applejack. The owners of the hooves were smiling even as they polished off their snack. Lazarus turned to Applejack, who merely smiled back and wolfed down her treat. "T'weren't nothin'," she chirped. "Just brought these on the airship from Mythos 'case we needed 'em. Made sure to have Twi work her magic on 'em for easy transport."

By that point, Twilight had finished up with the applesauce and hoofed the bowl and spoon over to Katie to see how she'd tackle the issue with her legs tied. She bit into her apple as that four-foot tongue undulated and gingerly wrapped around the spoon's handle, lifting it up and down a few times as if testing its weight.

"Should we stop her before she eats the spoon?" Sarah asked, watching the scene intently.

Armin waved her off with a hoof, also watching. "I think she has a throat sac. It'll be fine," he stated. Katie had taken her first scoop of sauce and crammed the whole thing, spoon and all, into her throat, though not before tilting her muzzle all the way up to spare everyone from seeing it actually go down the gullet. It took a few seconds, but the spoon came back out still wrapped and this time without applesauce stuck to it.

Lance flexed his wings and turned to look at the sky again, seeing nary a cloud overhead. "Well, looks like we're in the clear. We'll just wait for Katie to finish up her grub, and then…" He turned to the ground once more, noticing the erratic line of dimming torches up ahead. "I don't remember those being here either."

Twilight turned to the torches and frowned. "Maybe they lead to Greenwood?" she suggested.

She saw Lance shaking his head in the corner of her eye, frowning rather ruefully. "Likely, or to a place near it. And unless we started flying and levitating again, we'll be stuck here for a week trying to scrounge for it on ground," he hissed.

Twilight sighed, before several lightbulbs went off in her head when 'flying and levitating again' left Lance's mouth. A thought hit her before the mental gears could start to grind, and she paused just shy of opening her mouth. Spike, however, was all too happy to ask something she'd only just now considered, "Are there any lich-wyrms here, outside the caverns?"

Lance shrugged, still frowning. "Likely, and frankly I don't want to risk any chances. All of us are running low on energy at this point, so something that drastic wouldn't be wise," he hissed.

"Fair enough," Spike agreed with a nod. He turned to Katie, who had stopped using the spoon entirely and simply took to slurping helpings of applesauce at her leisure. He walked over to inspect her bowl, finding the spoon laying in a very shallow pool of sauce at the bottom.

Katie slurped up the rest of the sauce and chittered, head bobbing up and down fervently. "I'm full," she cooed.

Twilight turned to her and made the bowl and spoon vanish in light, and then she got up and stretched her legs a bit. "Everyone ready?" she asked.

Blueblood stood up and snorted. "As ready as one can expect… to flop into the nearest bed," he hissed sardonically.

Lance stood up and cricked his neck a little. "Same here." He turned to the torches as everyone else rose, and he took a moment to see where they were going. The torches veered sharply to the left, but past a few trees split into two paths, both of which he could barely make out as their glow was dying. He began trotting towards the one that veered farther to the left, and the group fell in step behind him. "I wonder where this goes…"

Spike's eyelids drooped as he assessed the situation. "Okay… village full of possibly dangerous folks of currently-unknown species, which Lance of all ponies wants to avoid, and a trail into a forest on par with the Everfree…" he mumbled in a dejected, sarcastic tone of voice. Then he threw his claws into the air. "What could possibly go wrong?"

Katie turned to Spike and shrugged. "What, you're expecting nothing too bad here?" she asked.

Spike shook his head. "Eh, nothing worse than flippin' Frostbite," he stated.

Katie rolled her orbs and flapped her regrowing wing-nubs. "Well, given Brassballs's disposition, I'm inclined to think that it won't all be sunshine and dandelions," she stated with another shrug. "Especially if he's not willing to stick around for more than three days tops."

Spike turned to Katie and arched a brow. "So… have you run into a lich-wyrm before today?" he asked.

Katie's orbs dimmed momentarily, and she stared for a few seconds prior to nodding. "A couple of times, but none were as grouchy as the one in the caves. Then again, we kinda did interrupt his nap and we kinda did attack him on top of that. I'd be pretty pissed too, if that were to happen to me," she replied, tilting her head. "It's like breaking into someone's house and then mailing the victim with a return address weeks after—basically something that's just begging for a good asskicking."

Spike nodded, seeing Katie's point. "Any lich-dragons?" he tried.

Katie shook her head. "Zilch," she stated tersely.

A low hum filled the air, and Katie snapped her gaze forward, ears straining to make out just where the noise was coming from. She caught sight of Lance looking up and tilting his head, so she followed suit to see what had managed to catch his attention this time.

An airship sailed across the sky without warning, close to the treeline and barely illuminated by dying torchlight as it went. Its thin, glittering wings flapped just once, and from that airship came that hum. It vanished from sight after a few hundred yards or so, but oddly enough through the act of dropping beneath the treeline itself. Something shot from it as it descended, but moved so quick she couldn't even catch it.

"Well then," Lance huffed, turning ahead again. "Looks like we got an airship to catch. Again." He picked up his pace, to the point he started galloping. This caused a chain reaction; everyone likewise began hurrying after him to see where the airship landed and whatever the hell it was doing in the immediate area. Before they could get more than a few feet from the torches, though, a bright green light started glowing overhead. It grew brighter within seconds, almost like a halo in of itself.

"General, sir, stooooooop!" a feminine voice screeched with an unearthly reverb, and within seconds everyone looked up to see Sergeant Cassida homing in on them with green fire encasing her, hooves outstretched and a sickly trail being left in her wake. With surprised whinnies, squawks, and howls the group ground to a halt and hid behind the nearest trees just before Cassida could land on anybody, impacting the ground and snuffing out her flames in one sitting.

Silence settled as Cassida lay there, crumpled on the ground, face-first in the dirt with a massive scorch mark singing the area around her. Slowly, Lance poked his head around from the tree he took shelter behind, his heart stopping for just a moment as he studied the unmoving form that very nearly crashed into his party. When he saw her chest shakily rise, he emerged and made a beeline for her, kneeling down to better inspect his soldier.

He nudged her withers with a hoof, turning her over when he saw nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises. He winced as his action revealed a snout leaking blood and a pair of twisted forehooves beneath it. Yet her green eyes were wide awake and looking at him. "S-sir, A-Armin sent w-word through his r-radio t-telepathically… b-before you got f-far in the c-caves..." Cassida stammered, wincing in pain with each word she spoke. "Going back… t-to Greenwood… w-why?"

"I want to go around it, not to it," Lance clarified, internally facehoofing but outwardly sighing. "But some of my charges…" He looked to Applejack as she emerged and came over, "want to go into that village."

Cassida nodded with a groan, and shifted her now-bad hooves under her. Lance lifted a hoof again and stopped her by planting it on her shoulder. "Good Godcat, you've crumpled yourself up again. Don't move. I'll pick you up," Lance ordered in a stern but gentle voice. He knelt down and used his wings to nudge and guide her onto his back, being mindful of her new wounds. Applejack silently helped her climb aboard, and made sure she was steady before Lance rose to stand again.

"Th-thank you, s-sir…" Cassida murmured, before her brain caught up to the fact that Lance had used his wings. "Y-you got… out of the…" she trailed off, her voice riddled with disbelief.

"I had help, but yes, my wings are no longer tied," Lance replied, turning a full circle to see everyone else coming out of hiding. "Just tell us where the airship is, please. And leave it on the ground; we're dead-tired on our hooves."

Cassida nodded again, this time smiling. She noticed that Applejack was still staring at her. "R-relax… this i-isn't the first t-time I c-crashed," she murmured.

"Well, it's just that…" Applejack trailed off when Cassida lifted a hoof to gesticulate northwest.

"Th-that way, t-to the ship," Cassida chirped weakly, the limb shaking as she struggled to hold it up through all the pain her body was undergoing. "Tw-twelve miles, a-approximately… f-from h-here."

Lance nodded and started trotting in that direction again. "Did you and the rest of Delta Unit find anything?" he asked.

"W-we did. I-it's on the sh-ship, s-sir, and we f-felt you'd n-need to see i-it," Cassida answered with another nod. "I-it's wh-why we c-came here."

Chapter LXIII- "I've A Feeling...'

The changelings of Delta Unit were scouting out a clearing in which their rather large ship—comparable to even the likes of the Scylla—had landed, with Rhinoc leading the entourage. Horns flashed with flickering lights, scanning the barren trees for even the slightest signs of movement. For several minutes, the only thing that was moving were the changelings themselves.

Rhinoc looked at the trees, frowning at the lack of leaves within the branches. His frown deepened, almost to a scowl, when he saw nothing darting across the branches either. He turned to another changeling who didn't have a trenchcoat, but did possess a simple army helmet. "What's the status regarding the surrounding Ashwood Forest?" he asked.

The helmeted changeling stiffened, struggling to keep his face from even twitching slightly. But alas, his ears fell back, and he stammered out, "There's… a l-line of torches, s-sir."

Rhinoc raised a brow. "Torches?"

The helmeted changeling nodded frantically. "Y-yes sir. It d-diverges a f-few feet after the c-crystal caverns," he reported.

Rhinoc eased his frown. "Better than nothing, I suppose," he muttered as the faint sounds of several sets of hooves filled the clearing, followed closely by a constant scratching noise. "Secure the immediate area. I think we have company."

The helmeted changeling nodded, and with his fellows started to encircle the clearing. Once every inch of the makeshift circle had a changeling on it looking out into the woods with their eyes and ears peeled, the hooves and scratching only got louder. Everyling tensed, and all magically summoned forth an array of weapons similar in shape and size to the Accelerator, with some sporting extra clock hands and others missing a hoofgrip. The lightshow, brief though it was, had an instantaneous effect in that it caused the hoofsteps to become more frantic. Soon enough the ground began to shake slightly.

Rhinoc snorted. "Joy, we have a stampede on our hooves," he hissed. "If it's Greenwood's villagers, I swear I'll—"

He stopped when Lance burst into the clearing from the side of the vessel with his wings fanned out, legs splayed out in a pouncing stance the moment he stopped, and eyes narrowed to slits. "Hold your fire, Godcat-dammit!" he barked, causing the changelings to back up with surprised hisses and weapons vanishing in several lights. Rhinoc himself recoiled from the sheer volume of the cry, ears falling back.

"Sir, are you…" Rhinoc stopped, noticing the flared wings. His voice died in his throat and his jaw dropped, and he barely registered Lance relaxing and straightening his posture.

Cassida waved a twisted hoof. "H-he's fine," she replied.

Lance folded his wings and looked at Rhinoc, easing his glare somewhat. "Could we… talk inside the ship?" he asked slowly as the rest of his group caught up. "And speaking of ships, I'm glad you brought the largest one over."

Rhinoc nodded and turned to one of the changelings closest to Lance, this one with a brown carapace and ribs. "Lower the gangplank and set up the beds in the guest rooms," he ordered.

The brown-ribbed changeling Rhinoc ordered donned a frown. "Should I prep up the master bedrooms?" he asked.

Rhinoc nodded. "That too."

The changeling who was ordered nodded again and promptly flared his wings before taking off towards the ship's deck. Lance turned to the changeling as he flew and called out, "And medical supplies, please! Cassida crashed again!" Once the airborne soldier took the time to pause and nod, Lance turned back to Rhinoc and sighed, his stomach rumbling again from exertion.

Maria waddled up to Lance's side, reared up, and tugged at one of his wing feathers with a talon to get his attention. When he turned to her with a brow raised, she asked, "What's inside the big ship?"

Lance sighed and draped Maria with the wing whose feather she'd tugged at. "I think it'll be better to give you a tour. It's nothing like the Scylla," he stated. "And no, we won't use this one to head back to Mythos, either."

Maria frowned, and opened her mouth to say something else when a thud briefly shook the ground. She turned to the ship to find a lowered gangplank, and the changeling who'd flown to the deck trotting out back to the group. "Bedrooms, medical supplies, and the… the thing we found at Frostbite's general area are prepped, sir," he reported.

Lance nodded to the brown-ribbed changeling. "Excellent." He folded his wing and trotted to the gangplank, and his entourage followed him, with at least a few muttering either complaints or wondering how the beds they were going to spend the night in were bound to turn out. Their complains and musings died when they entered the vessel.

The inside of the ship sported a few rooms joined by no more than four windowless halls, all ending in platform lifts going both up and down rather than ladders. The lifts were of a simple circular pattern and walling with a sliding door, though it was only large enough to house about a half-dozen ponies at any one time. To one side a panel laden with buttons stood, housing simple up and down keys, with another outside the lift matching it.

To the immediate right and left were simple lounges sporting bolted-down couches, chairs, tables, and a few ottomans here and there with bookshelves and small dressers interspersed throughout. The ceilings were adorned with oil lanterns and chandeliers, some of the arms housing bioluminescent goo in place of candles for a bit of variety. The floor was carpeted, but the carpet itself was a simple homely beige without any discernable patterns apart from a few scuff marks, and the walls were painted a slightly darker hue. There was also a gurney present, though it wasn't bolted down and rather stood in a leftmost hall with two changelings sporting nurse hats attending to it.

Lance trotted to the gurney and helped Cassida onto it. Alexander came over as well and nodded to the nurses, who mutely nodded back before all three filed to the nearest lift. He then trotted to the rest of the group and sighed, seeing tired faces with bloodshot eyes staring back at him expectantly. He spread his right wing and gestured up with it. "Bedrooms are a floor up, close to the deck." His wing shifted down. "Engines are that way." His left wing opened and pointed up. "Kitchens and dining room is over there, and the medical bay is downstairs. Knock yourselves out."

He closed his wings and trotted to a hall down on the right, though he paused before the lift. One by one, the group moved to join him. "Um… do the rooms have bathrooms?" Fluttershy asked.

Lance nodded without looking at her. "Yes, and the bathrooms have supplies," he answered before trotting on the lift. Matt, Natalie, Maria, and Anna joined him before he pushed the up key with a hoof. The lift shook, closed off the opening and started to go up mere seconds after the button was pressed.

It took a few minutes for the lift to return after that, whereupon Blueblood, Shining, and Flash Sentry boarded onto it. "They have sparsely decorated this ship thus far…" Blueblood muttered as Zecora and Fenrir hopped on.

"Perhaps they have made the bedrooms lavish in exchange for the basic boarding dock?" Fenrir suggested once Owlowiscious flew in and proceeded to perch on his head. The door slid shut once Blueblood pressed the up key, and he looked at the owl cross-eyed.

"Perhaps, though I was never one for the whole 'utility over form' mindset," Blueblood sighed. The platform began to rise with a tremble, and he looked down to find a rather ornate and intricate pattern set onto it. From what he could see of it, it boasted elegant swirls of gold touched up with slivers of green resembling leaves. Some parts were brass-colored instead, giving the platform an oddly wooden feel to it that reminded him a little of Canterlot.

"Understandable," Flash piped up, looking towards the roof of the platform to find a similar pattern seemingly woven into its frame. Whether it was carved, smelted, or painted on, he wasn't certain of. "Maybe this was a spare airship that nobody knew what to do with, so they went hogwild."

The platform shook, stopped before another hall, and opened its door. Everyone disembarked and the lift dropped back down as soon as they all got off, finding several doors lining both sides of the hall, each one a simple wood-grain and spaced about a meter apart. The floor between them was carpeted, though the walls were ornately decorated by a subtle purple hue that boasted countless colors and shades similar to that in a galaxy of stars. The ceiling and carpet were decorated likewise.

Each door also had been marked by a simple bronze plaque, all but four of them reading 'guest room.' One set of two doors that did not have 'guest room' instead read 'master bedroom,' further set apart by four square-shaped marks carved into the wood above, one set of which boasted four cutie marks in their frames, and they were the doors farthest down the hall. The other two read 'soldier barracks' and were the second-farthest. Zecora trotted to one guest room on the left whose door was ajar and opened it, her jaw dropping at what was on the other side.

The room was very intricately decorated, more so than the lounges, sporting the same pattern on the walls as that in the hall. The carpet was lavishly patterned, red with golden edges and an array of sun and moon motifs set into the cloth, the ceiling painted similarly to match it. Instead of one lantern or several, a few standing lamps with thick wooden posts boasting more intricate patterns lit up the room, made primarily of mahogany with a few nice touches of oak for contrast.

There was a mirror-dresser to one side, its frame made up of mahogany and oak with some touches of silver. One corner of the room had come with more raised walls and an opaque door that housed a toilet, a sink, and a shower large enough for Celestia herself with room to spare, a few bookshelves that were repurposed for simple toiletries and soaps. A few cabinets, shelves housing actual books, and nightstands littered the room, crafted of birch touched up with gold that glittered in the light.

There were a few coffee tables and some chairs to go with it, both hewn of sweet-smelling pine with cushions on the latter and a few knick-knack drawers on the former. The centerpiece of the room was a massive, cherry-wood-born king-sized bed with quilts and thick pillows with yet more suns and stars on them, again large enough for Celestia to rest in comfortably. This was all nicely topped off by a single large window overlooking the whole room from behind the bed, and one with faintly visible latches and glowing runes at that.

Maria was also sitting on that bed, vibrating in a manner that suggested she didn't know whether or not to bounce on the thing. She looked at Zecora and grinned. "Daddy told me it was bedtime," she chirped. "This bed feels good."

Zecora smiled, mutely nodded, and closed the door. She turned to Blueblood, noticing he was wide-eyed with a jaw that had dropped and his muzzle affixed towards the room she'd left. "I think the Fantasians have not yet abandoned lavish comfort. But I do wonder why into this vessel they put in so much effort," she intoned. She turned to the room next to Maria's and trotted to it, opened the door, and cantered right in.

Blueblood let himself assume a small smile. "I wonder what soaps and washes they have in their repertoire… and if they could decorate the lounges with better tastes," he mumbled as he took a room on the right and waltzed in with a spring in his step. Before the door closed, Shining heard him add an enthusiastic, "By Tartarus, this feels like Canterlot's diplomatic quarters, and then some!"

Fenrir looked at Owlowiscious again. "Are you going to share a room with me… as indecent as that sounded?" he asked. At that, Owlowiscious nodded in assent, followed by hooting just once. Fenrir sighed and padded over to a room, opened it, and walked in. He left the door open, allowing Owlowiscious to fly back out and perch on the doorknob.

Flash moved to claim a room. "I wonder what the master bedrooms are like if Blueblood likes the guest chambers…" he muttered.

The lift came back up again and Armin, NoLegs, Harry, Angel, and Katie came up before stepping off. Shining turned to Armin and asked, "So… why's this ship decked out like a mansion? I've seen the other one, and it's a desert compared to this."

Armin flashed Shining a small smile. "In the event that diplomats from villages and such Lance actually liked would have lavish transport, but until now we never got to use the damn thing," he chirped. "And it seems the General was right to invest in it."

Harry tenderly set Katie on Shining's back before spotting Owlowiscious, who waved him over with a wing. Harry nodded and padded over with Angel and NoLegs behind him. "You make it sound like he was crazy to have such a thing even built," Shining pointed out, only causing Armin's grin to widen.

"Trust me, even Matt and Natz questioned it when they'd first heard of it. But none of us accounted for the barrier breaking and running into decent ponies after," Armin retorted, a hint of smug satisfaction in his tone. "I guess it just means the General likes you enough to do business with, so to speak."

Shining smiled in return. "Sounds a teensy bit biased," he chirped.

Armin rolled his eyes at that. "Trust me, if you'd seen half the village elders running around Fantasia that Lance gets the pleasure of meeting with, you'd be a bit biased too," he stated rather matter-of-factly, with 'pleasure' rolling off his tongue in a sardonic note. "And besides, you're getting all buddy-buddy with him, so I told the rest of Delta to just bring this thing."

Katie proceeded to pipe up, "Do I have to be in the medical ward, or do I get a bed?"

Armin shrugged. "Not up for me to decide." His horn glowed in a flickering, faltering aura and he picked Katie up with it before settling her on his back. "Alexander's gonna have to give you another preliminary."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Rhinoc waited until everyone was in a guest room doing something before he even dared to bring in the rest of his troops back aboard the ship and close the gangplank once everyling had been gathered. "I'll check on the General. You guys watch the forest from the deck and make sure none of Greenwood's villagers come here. If they do, cocoon their asses," he ordered.

The other changelings nodded, stiffened their legs, and gave a salute all at once. "Sir yes sir," they replied in unison.

Rhinoc nodded and trotted to one of the lifts on the right before stepping aboard, pressing the up key, and waiting for it to transport him upstairs. It didn't take long for the lift to register that he was present before closing the door and going up. He pursed his lips, wondering what Lance was getting up to now that he had an actual bedroom or fifteen to use. Rhinoc sniggered as an image of Lance trying and failing to preen his own recently-restored wings formed in his mind.

Dear Godcat, that would be a sight worthy of bragging rights amongst his retinue. Rhinoc continued to snicker to himself even as the lift shook, stopped, and opened the door to let him canter to the hall of bedrooms. Rhinoc had to stop himself from outright prancing through the hall, instead marching in a sort of lockstep as though a few of his lesser-ranking changelings were doing much the same behind him. He could faintly hear excited muttering and soft snoring coming from some of the rooms as he trotted past them, and he relaxed a little.

At least the guests were keeping themselves entertained somehow or other, if the snorings and mutterings were anything to go by. Before he could reach the end of the hall, his ears twitched when he heard a dull, metallic clang come from up ahead. His smile faded and his brow arched sharply when he heard the sound.

He waited for a few seconds, but then silence settled. Rhinoc shrugged and kept going to the hall's end, figuring someone had dropped something and were either picking it up now, or leaving it for later. When he reached the master bedrooms, he turned first to the one on his left. No sound came from it, so he then turned right and leaned a little.

He heard Lance ask, "Anna, why the hell did you drop your chastity belt on the shower floor?"

Rhinoc's brow ascended to the top of his forehead. He heard Anna reply, "I'm going to take a shower, and I figured I could clean the belt too. If you want to join, then be my guest."

Rhinoc blinked, his eyes going round. What the hell did he just stumble upon? He cleared his throat, raised a hoof, and knocked on the door. "Who is it, and what do you want?" he heard Natalie call.

"Major Rhinoc, and I'd like to discuss the anomaly I found at Frostbite," Rhinoc replied, holding back a snort of amusement. He heard a click, and saw the doorknob embraced in a blue glow before it swung inward. The first thing of note was that the room wasn't all that different from the guest rooms, although it sported a much larger bed that could house two Celestias with no issue, on top of the shower being much larger. There were also weapon racks hanging from the walls, holding various blasters, bows, swords and staves.

The second thing of note was that, once the door was opened, he saw Lance standing in the toiletries' corner, looking at the shower stall wide-eyed and rather red in the face. To the other side, Matt and Natalie sat on opposite sides of a coffee table having a hoof-wrestling match, of which Matt won the moment Natalie had turned away. A tan-green form was blurred beyond the shower door, and the sound of running water filled the room, which left no doubt that Anna was inside.

Rhinoc trotted inside and closed the door behind him with a flick of magic. "Should I wait for a few minutes? You all look… a little busy," he asked uneasily.

"It's fine," Natalie replied before turning to Matt to find him smirking at her, as well as her hoof pinned to the table. She simply retracted her hoof and smirked back before standing up and trotting over to Rhinoc. "Just tell me and Matt what the anomaly is and we'll let Lance know whatever it is once he's done…"

She heard a door sliding open, hooves hitting tile, and then the door closing in that order. She turned to the toiletries' corner and asked, "You getting clean, Lance?"

"No, I'm taking a slime bath! What's it look like to you?!" Lance cried in exasperation.

"Alrighty then!" Natalie turned back to Rhinoc. "Yeah, you see what I mean?"

Rhinoc hastily nodded. "Just make sure they play nice," he mouthed before his horn glowed and he conjured several books, all neatly stacked together, in a flash of light. Then he conjured a massive bag of bits, which promptly fell to the floor and spilled. He turned to Matt and added, "I believe the bag belongs to one of you, so… and it was just sitting around in an igloo hut, so I figured 'why not take it?'"

Matt nodded with his horn glowing and made the bag, spilled bits and all, vanish in another flash of light. "Thanks," he chirped, lifting a hoof and gesticulating to the table he had yet to move from.

Rhinoc mutely nodded and levitated the stack of books over before plopping them on the table. "We'll let you know what we find," Matt added, prior to Rhinoc nodding again, saluting and exiting the room.

Silence held until the door opened and shut in swift order. Then Lance broke it by asking, "Is he gone yet?"

Natalie sniggered even as she replied, "Yes, Lance, Rhinoc's left the room and dropped off… books." She turned to the toiletries' corner, certain Lance was now more than beet-red in the face. "What are you doing in there? Can I join in?" she offered, garnering a surprised squawk from Lance and a guffaw from Anna.

"Natz, it's not like he's gonna till my fields or anything!" Anna snorted with a few giggles. "Especially with you and Matt not even, like, ten feet away from the stall!"

"Then why'd you take off the belt?" Matt chimed in, sniggering when Anna gave a startled squawk of her own.

"You two make it sound like I want to mount the barely-adult mare of the room!" Lance yelled in indignation.

"You did have a wet dream about her," Natalie countered, a large grin spreading on her muzzle. "And you did trot in despite the fact that she's in heat! I know that bitter smell when it hits my nose, Lance; don't you dare fucking lie to me!"

"Shut your cocksucking cakehole, you adoptive brother-diddler!" Lance shot back, his voice several octaves higher now.

Natalie sniggered, but said nothing more. She trotted back to Matt and sat on his side of the coffee table, taking a moment to let the growing giggle fit run its course, but not before casting a barrier over herself, the table, and Matt that kept her howling from reaching Lance's ears. It took a little under five minutes for her laughter to die down, and by then the barrier had crumpled of its own accord and her lungs burned slightly.

After that, she turned to a book as she regained her breath, pausing momentarily to rest her head on Matt's shoulder and listen for anything other than the sounds of rushing water and body scrubbing. Her ears perked when she heard an oddly muted and muffled grunt, followed by the sound of a bone popping. "Wings refusing to flex?" she asked.

"Nah, just popped a bone near one of my hocks," Lance replied. "And all I was trying to do was reach a scrubbing brush."

"Ah." Nodding in understanding, Natalie turned her attention back to the books. She picked up the topmost one in her magic and slid it off the stack before plopping it in front of herself and Matt. Her brow immediately furrowed when she saw strange runic characters on the cover. "A book… in ancient alicorn," she muttered.

Matt sighed and studied the book's title, but had his attention torn away from it to the shower when Anna gave a surprised yelp. "You put the soap up there, didn't you?!" she cried, which was followed immediately by a snicker from Lance.

"Hey, I was just helping you wash a rear hock," Lance chirped in reply. "It slipped out of my hoof."

"But soap doesn't go up my friggin' tailbone! That's for shampoo!" Anna protested. "You want me to ram my horn up your ass?!"

Matt rolled his eyes. "Play nice, you two," he called before turning back to the book. He heard Lance and Anna mutter for him to shut the hell up already, but he paid it no heed. As long as neither got violent, he figured he could let them sort out that issue however they deemed fit. His eyes scanned the cover of the book, and they narrowed a bit. "How the utter fuck did this get into Frostbite Haven?" he asked, which caused Natalie to turn to him.

"What's it say?" she asked, frowning.

Matt's horn glowed, the aura gold at first, before it embraced the book and turned blood red with a violent crackle that caused the two to jump back. The glow was hastily dispelled, though not prior to it giving an unsavory hiss like a tea kettle. "Well then, damn thing's enchanted…" he hissed. Slowly, carefully, he leaned back forward, giving the book the gimlet eye as he continued to scan the cover. "Good thing I learned how to read this shit…" he muttered.

His horn glowed again, and tenderly he flipped the cover open, finding something that made him scowl. There, right off the bat, the very first page boasted Lazarus's cutie mark. Hastily, Matt flipped several pages, finding several runic scrawlings and notes. The notes ended when his cutie mark cropped up about twenty pages in, so he skipped and then came across Natalie's mark. The book slammed closed, and another was levitated and thunked atop of it.

The second book was crudely flung open, showing more cutie marks Matt wasn't familiar with, all detailed in that same runic writing and overlaid with bright red X's. A third and fourth book swiftly followed suit, before they too were closed and Matt proceeded to slam his face into the coffee table. Natalie, who'd looked on throughout the whole procedure with eyes widening the entire time, blanched considerably. "N-no… it couldn't have been…" she stammered weakly.

Matt rose up and turned to her with a scowl, but he eased the expression when he saw the distress painted all over Natalie's face. "It… was. Those fuckers had gotten the records on…" His voice dropped to a low, ominous hiss as he finished, "How did the gryphs of Frostbite get their claws on the whole Royale Catastrophe catalogs…?" His pupils shrank as he recalled how they acted once the barrier broke. "Is that why they..."

Natalie gulped and rested her head on Matt's shoulder again. He sighed when he wrapped a foreleg around her in response. "But now the whole mess… on that is in our hooves now. No wonder Delta Unit rushed here," she muttered ruefully. She slumped a little. "Even though it's been wiped off the face of Fantasia, I never thought it would have had records kept…"

They heard a door sliding open, and running water shutting off. Anna and Lance trotted out of the small bathroom with towels slung over their backs and right to Matt and Natalie, frowning when they saw the distress that lingered on their faces. "What's wrong?" Lance asked, his own mouth forming a thin, tight line.

"The bastards at Frostbite got records of friggin'..." Matt paused long enough to lift his free hoof and gesture to the books with it. "A hellhole that got wiped off Fantasia, and it's written in ancient alicorn," he hissed.

Lance's eyes widened. "Records?"

Anna's pupils shrank. "In ancient alicorn?"

Both Matt and Natalie nodded dourly. "We were hoping to put the Royale Catastrophe behind us," Natalie groused, eyes narrowing. "It seems we still have a few… record-keepers to deal with."

Anna tilted her head. "The fuck are you two babbling on about?" she asked.

"Lazarus won't be happy when he sees this shit," Matt grumbled, his hoof starting to rub at Natalie's withers reassuringly. "But why Frostbite of all places? Why squirrel away the records there?"

Anna and Lance exchanged looks, then Lance turned back to Matt and answered, "Well, we know those gryphs ate mares and fillies… who's to say they wouldn't eat potential whistleblowers on top of that? Maybe that frozen hellhole just didn't get that many visitors."

"Well, they did kidnap Spike…" Matt slowly nodded, at least seeing the logic of that statement, though he still found himself questioning the moral sanity of whoever made such a decision. Another thought hit him, and he asked, "And now that I think about it, would that also apply to their fridges and cabinets and whatnot?"

"Maybe they were bribed with the contraptions. The elder did say they couldn't use the fridges that much, if at all," Anna pointed out, frowning as her eyes gravitated up to the ceiling. "Kinda hard to use fridges when the whole house is basically a giant fridge."

Natalie shrugged. "Dunno," she stated tersely. She lifted a hoof and motioned for Anna and Lance to sit down, which they trotted over and did. Her gaze fell onto Anna and she sighed. "You're lucky to have not known about the Royale Catastrophe, and while I'd rather keep it that way…"

Matt shushed her by lifting his free hoof and putting it to her mouth. "Save it for tomorrow, Natz. Laz'll need to know of the damned records Delta Unit scrounged up too," he stated firmly. Natalie opened her mouth to protest the moment his hoof parted from her lips, but Matt merely silenced her by kissing her swiftly on the lips before she could object.

"Get a room you two," Lance piped up, causing the two to break apart and look at him with sheepish grins.

"Says the stallion who shared a shower with a mare in heat not even ten minutes ago," Natalie chirped in reply. "And besides, we already have a room. We're just sharing."

Lance facehoofed at that, grumbling something about Natalie and wrong ideas. Anna nudged him with a hoof to the shoulder, causing him to look at her. She looked back and swished her tail just once. "Do you mind if… I sleep without the belt tonight?" she asked.

Lance pursed his lips for a few seconds before he shook his head. "Whatever floats your boat," he replied tersely. He turned to Matt and added, "You okay with it?"

Matt nodded. "Yeah, I'm cool with it," he answered.

"On that note, you feeling better?" Natalie asked, looking at Anna with a rather critical gaze, which was only betrayed by slightly narrowed eyes. "Like… less hot and horny?"

Anna nodded. "A little," she answered, her tail swishing again. "And a lot less angry."

Natalie nodded. She got up, stretched her legs, and trotted over to the massive bed. Swishing her tail as she crawled in, she sighed as the bed and quilts tried with all their might to hug her close. "You know… it's been a while since a mess was made," she began, her tail still swishing.

Lance turned to Natalie, his still-drying wings fluffing as another heated blush spread on his face. "What sort of mess are we talking here?" he asked.

"I've a feeling that Greenwood's gonna become another mausoleum… and I was hoping to avoid that if we could," Natalie replied with a huff, her tail stopping just shy of her rear legs.

Lance's blush faded, and he frowned as his wings relaxed. "So… it may have…"

Natalie nodded. "We don't know if it's too far gone already," she stated matter-of-factly, cutting him off. "And part of me doesn't want to know if it is, either."

"Well, Applejack wants to head to the damned place, and so does Blueblood. I don't think they won't not tell us what they find, if they actually do manage to get to it and then out as soon as they are able," Matt pointed out, standing up before stretching his legs and trotting to the bed to flop on it. He wrapped his forelegs around Natalie's barrel and pulled her close, pausing only when Lance threw off his towel and rushed over to lay behind him. "Either way… we got a long day ahead tomorrow."

Anna threw off her towel and trotted over to lay down and snuggle up against Lance. Even so, she complained, "Damnit, I hate long days."

"I know. I didn't sign up for that shit either," Lance concurred, fluffing his wings again. "But somebody's gotta shoulder that burden. I'd rather it be us than some pea-brained foal-fucker."

Chapter LXIV- Morning Sluggishness

When the earliest hours of a grey morning came, all were very reluctant to leave bed—except the soldiers, if only to start guarding the ship again and magically producing pre-prepared bits of breakfast piled into bowls while they were at it. The first few spoonfuls produced some sort of pink mush, which went into their mouths and made them smile in relish. With it, came a nod of approval from Rhinoc; a signal to officially begin their day. Some ate later than others, though they all gathered upon the deck to let those who'd eaten before chatter, make repairs on their blasters, or take turns playing a game of red light, green light with the surrounding forest.

With a few of Delta's changelings on that deck, which was sporting a hatch similar to the Valkyrie's, were Armin, Katie and Cassida, two of whom were gurney-bound and being spoon-fed pink mush from small glass bowls as breakfast hour came and went. One of the other changelings, namely the brown-ribbed one who opened the gangplank the night before, was giving Katie an added dose of hairy eyeball free of charge.

Fervor broke out between them once Katie and Cassida had polished off their meals, and some of the other changelings were looking at the beginning spectacle intently. "So, you're telling me the general actually recruited your scrawny ass into the army force?" the brown-ribbed lad asked in a disbelieving tone, an incredulous eyebrow already raised all the way to the base of his horn.

"First time he even mentioned something like that, I almost thought he was talking out his ass," Katie stated with a fervent not of her head. Her wing-nubs, now swollen with liquid, buzzed with all the grace of wet newspaper. "Second time? I swear to Godcat he looked like he shat a brick."

Cassida turned to Katie, eyes narrowed slightly. "What did you do to impress him that much?" she asked, equally as incredulous as her compatriot.

Katie turned to Cassida and cocked her head. "Froze a buffed-up hippogryph twenty times bigger than me, from head to hoof," she answered. "In only one strike."

Cassida donned a rather scrupulous, twitching grin. "With what?"

"Horseshoes," Katie stated tersely.

Cassida's lips twitched, then she tossed her head back as uproarious laughter started rattling out of her mouth. She barely managed to sputter out "Y-you're kidding! You've got to be pulling my tail!" before all coherent thought went out the window in lieu of insane howling. Some of the other changelings soon followed suit and cracked up in unison, almost as though they'd never heard anything more absurd in their lives. And in a bizarrely roundabout way, Katie came to realize with a sigh of resignation, that seemed to be the case.

Armin, however, wasn't laughing. He merely waited patiently for the hooting and hollering to die down before stating calmly, "I have seen her freeze her own legs. She's not just any run-of-the-mill scrawny wraith."

All the other changelings, sans Katie, looked at him incredulously. Katie herself merely rolled her orbs and muttered, "Oh, here we go."

Cassida raised both brows. "'Freeze her own legs?' Alright, Lieutenant, what sort of drugs have you been snorting lately?" she asked disbelievingly.

"That's only in the domain of a pegasus who fully mastered his or her innate magic. Devoid of love though she is, I haven't sensed anything else out of the ordinary with her," Rhinoc stated matter-of-factly. "Even then, temperature manipulation and frost-growing are impossible to do with the hooves." Several heads bobbed up and down in unison at his statement. "Not even Lance could pull something like that off."

Armin retorted, "With hooves by themselves, that is true. But you see… our scrawny wraith's a mutant among changelings." Katie immediately stretched out her tongue as far as it could possibly go to demonstrate Armin's point and used it to give Rhinoc a finger-free wet willy. Rhinoc screeched and jumped into the air as if the tongue had gone somewhere else, twisting to face Katie mid-air with wings buzzing furiously.

"Alright, could you not do that again? Like, put that damn thing up before you poke someling's eye out with it," Rhinoc barked, ears flattening against his head. Katie did as she was asked, albeit inch by inch, just so the other changelings could see that it was indeed that long and was somehow going back into her gullet.

"See? Mutant," Armin stated tersely, grinning smugly even as Rhinoc landed, turned to face him, and sent him a firm glare. His horn glowed, and his aura embraced Katie without really doing anything for a few seconds. Armin grimaced as a chilling sensation crept down his spine, which made his tail squirm and his wings buzz with more rigidity than they should have possessed.

Rhinoc noticed that Armin's smug smile faded when his wings began flapping, seemingly… slowing down in a manner that suggested either one of two things was occurring: either the wings were going to fall off outright, or time itself was being tampered with. Still, he watched with interest, right up until the moment that Katie's horn gave one brief, blue spark when Armin launched a small bolt of flame that connected with the protrusion in question.

Everyling flinched when Katie gave a displeased hiss before mana pulsed across her body, blue at first before turning sickly green. She began twitching every limb violently, wincing in apparent pain, eyes squinting so tightly it seemed as though they were about to slip shut. The convulsing worsened, with her bound knees colliding with the gurney's rails as each second ticked by. The hiss went on unimpeded, before it rose to a shout, and then to a shrill scream.

"Hot! Hot hot hot hooooooot!" Katie wailed at the top of her lungs, wing-nubs buzzing so much a few changelings wondered if they were going to detach from her back. The magic bolt that went in reformed and flew right back to Armin, and everyling shivered as the temperature dropped spontaneously when the rebound scored a direct hit to Armin's barrel. It happened so fast and so suddenly it was at that point they only noticed as ice started forming and crawling down his legs and up his neck on top of that mere seconds later.

Armin dispelled his glow with a shudder, and he turned to Katie with his jaw going slack for a few seconds. He waited until the ice melted before asking, "Doesn't that prove my point?"

"Hooooooot…" Katie complained, orbs spinning in their canvases as the green glow died from her body. "Need… ice cubes…"

"Anyway… as I was saying," Armin began, only to stop when Rhinoc turned to him again and waved a hoof dismissively.

"Someling get the wraith ice cubes," Rhinoc snorted, shaking his head rather grimly. "And I cannot believe that left my mouth just now." The brown-ribbed changeling nodded and skedaddled from the group, making a beeline for the hatch before throwing it open with his magic and jumping inside. When he vanished, Rhinoc lifted a hoof and rubbed his temples with it. "So… she can use pegasus-like magic." He gave Armin a flat stare. "Just not with her fucking hooves."

"How does she do that? Her horn's, like, just a bundle of jagged shards sticking out her forehead," one soldier piped up, eying Katie with concern flickering in his eyes. Several nods and questioning mumbles rose within seconds, each one more curious than the last.

"Honestly, I have no fucking clue how she does it. She'd said something about her magic rejecting other magics whenever a blast hits her horn-stump. I've only seen it one other time too, and she broke through solid magic-grown crystal with it like it was flawed porcelain," Armin replied with a shrug.

"So… she punched through a wall… is this what you're telling me?" Rhinoc asked, a brow going up again. Armin nodded and his horn flashed before Rhinoc found the aura embracing his head, and for a few seconds nothing really happened. Then images formed in his mind as the aura faded. Several, in fact, almost overrode his own thoughts. They came and went, culminating in the exact moment an apricot-colored ball of energy smashed through similarly-colored crystal, all because of one broken piece of equipment that apparently still worked against all odds.

Rhinoc's already-grim look hardened a little, and his raised brow lowered. It took him a few seconds to process what his mind had just gone through before he took a deep breath through his nostrils and sighed. "Okay, so her credentials… are there, substandard, but there. But how the utter fuck would she do in the regiment? She's starved, frail-looking, apparently can't take a magical beatdown too well… and cannot feed herself." He gave Armin a very flat stare. "Undead though she is, she wouldn't survive even basic training," he groused.

"Alexander was looking her over left, right, and sideways last night," Cassida interjected, causing Rhinoc to turn to her with his brow once more climbing high.

"What all did he find, aside from the painstakingly obvious?" Rhinoc queried, lips pressing in a thin, tight line as he awaited Cassida's answer.

"Well… rickets, muscles so shrunk he thinks they may have fused with her bones, and internals no bigger than a standard box of soap bars," Cassida answered, frowning herself. "That's each organ put together," she added as an aside. "You'll have to see the x-rays he took to believe me."

Rhinoc sighed, sensing Cassida's unspoken 'I wish I was making this shit up' before his brows leveled again. "Another case of vitamin deficiency… joy," he hissed to himself, in so low a voice Katie barely heard him. By then, she'd regained her senses and cleared her throat.

"Wait, so I'm not the first to be this twiggy?" Katie asked, causing Rhinoc to jump and stare at her with widening eyes.

"Not twiggy. Lacking in nutrients," Rhinoc clarified, shaking his head. "You need more meat on them bones, yes, but also more vitamins to get there."

Katie stared at Rhinoc for a full minute on end, and her only movement was slowly cocking her head. "Do my vitamins need to be balanced or some shit like that?" she queried.

"Exceedingly," Rhinoc answered tersely. "If you broke bones… which you probably did, given your tied legs, Cassida could heal faster than you."

Katie looked to Cassida and eyed her head-shell with some measure of emotion. "You have head growths. You look like a mushroom," she stated rather callously. "How'd you get those?"

Cassida reared up slightly and puffed out her barrel, and closed her eyes as she curled her forelegs under her chest, broken front hooves be damned. She winced a little, but relaxed when a pink, suspiciously heart-shaped glow started to build on her barrel. A tingling sensation resonated not just in Katie, but throughout all of the changelings present and accounted for. Hard faces melted into complacent masks, firm frowns molded into serene, fanged smiles, and some of the other changelings' holey legs started growing more flesh to close up their perforations. Or at least, the legs that were bared, and chitin also grew to secure the regenerating flesh.

Katie herself felt some of her bones popping back into place, and some odd sensation squirming in her pale gums that she couldn't place at first. Then, she gave a gasp when painful prickles rose in her gums all at once, causing her jaws to jitter uncontrollably as teeny tiny bits began oozing a vaguely-warm fluid that tasted of rot and death the moment it touched her tongue.

Immediately, her tongue flicked all around her mouth, moving into every crevice possible to discover hard, bony protrusions surging forth from the gums. Each protrusion was sharp to a needle-like point, and countless times Katie found herself regenerating each and every new hole her tongue had received. These accoutrements stopped, but only about a centimeter or so when Cassida's heart-glow-thing had receded and she opened her eyes. "How'd you get your sparkly new teeth?" Cassida retorted, grinning smugly once Katie looked at her.

"I…" Wait. Katie experimentally clacked her jaws together, only to be greeted with a dull thud as the new accoutrements fit into each others' gaps snugly. She clacked again, getting the same result. Her orbs went wide. "I have teeth?!" she exclaimed.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Twilight awoke only when sunlight started to shine directly upon her face, and even then her brain struggled to register the meaning of blinding yellow assailing her eyes despite said eyes being closed until a few seconds passed. Begrudgingly, languidly, she sat up, eyes still closed as she took a solid minute or two just to let her mental gears get up to regular processing speed. The gears only got up to half-speed, though, thanks to the cobwebs of lingering sleep. Once the cobwebs had been torn from those gears with a deep breath and delayed realization that she was indeed awake, her eyes hesitantly opened.

She yawned lazily and turned to let her rear legs dangle from the side of the ludicrously comfortable bed that Lance and his troops somehow got a hold of. Yeesh, that stallion knew how to treat guests once he got over his apprehensions, she had to admit. Twilight wryly wondered if he was repaying her for her hospitality and giggled to herself as she let her hooves touch the carpeted floor prior to stretching her legs. After feeling some bones pop and blinking some more sleep out of her eyes, she headed right for the toiletries' corner without an iota of hesitation.

It took her a few minutes to use the toilet, get a quick warm shower, and to dry off in that order. By then, the sunlight had intensified a little and angled slightly, and her brain finished jumpstarting the rest of the way. With all of that done within the hour, Twilight trotted to the door of her temporary room, shivering as her coat began to cool with each step, no doubt the result of leftover and undried dampness lingering within her hairs.

She opened the door with a quick tug of her magic and peered out into the hall, looking to the left before turning to the right, the silence therein almost immediately noticeable. Huh. Nobody else was out yet. Twilight shrugged, figuring some were sleeping in, showering, or struggling to get their own mental cobwebs to come out of their noggins. She retracted, closed the door behind her, and promptly trotted right back to bed before flopping on the sheets and quilts and conjuring the books she retrieved from the Crystal Empire and all the notes she made about thereof.

Before conjuring the inkwell and quill, she picked up the notes and splayed them out in front of her hooves, finding several sheets' worth of scribbles that were half-filled with runic translations. Twilight set said translations to one side, focusing her attention to the other half of her scrawlings. Sighing, she conjured the book 'Bizarro Enchantments for the Everyday Lyrist' and plopped it into the pile as well. "I am so glad Spike convinced me to take the books I found in the library's underground chamber… thing," she muttered, taking the time to dust the book off with a hoof, being delicate in case it crumbled like some of its more unfortunate shelf-fellows.

She opened the book about enchantments for lyrists and the one about spells supposedly credited to Starswirl simultaneously. She looked through the former first, finding herself looking at a table of contents that by itself was meager in comparison to her plethora of notes. Nothing really stuck out at her, let alone dared to make itself known if there were possible juicy bits of intel within.

A thought hit her when she considered a certain pony who was stipulated to have aided in creating the since-broken barrier. Immediately, she conjured 'Early Fantasian and Mythonian Relations' and threw its pages open the moment it materialized and plopped on the bed. She sifted through entire bundles of pages at a time, starting from the beginning, flipping right to the end, and then swiveling left and right towards the middle.

Her magic grabbed the translations and tugged them close, and with them at her side it didn't take Twilight long to find what she was looking for. In the middle of the book, there was a weathered illustration of an airship with several unicorns on the deck, one of which bore a hat and a cape bedecked in stars. The unicorn in question also had a flowing white beard that sailed in the wind.

Before she could dig in to the information that needed another round of translating, she heard a burst of magic followed by a meow. Twilight turned to glance over her shoulder, finding NoLegs not two feet behind her rear hooves, who hopped over with a purr. "Need something?" she asked.

NoLegs shook his head, shrugged, and proceeded to nestle next to her forelegs, well out of the reach of the inkwell and quill. Twilight smiled at NoLegs before returning to the illustration. "How did I miss this?" she asked. She felt NoLegs shrug again and started letting the loose parchment float alongside the quill, if only to prepare herself for round two of translating and scrounging the bloody pages for something of use. Or, barring that, at least something to confirm or deny her suspicions.

Just as she made to dip the quill into the ink, someone knocked on her door. Twilight tenderly set down the quill with a sigh, making the inkwell vanish in a flash of light on the off-chance it could spill prior to turning to the door. "Who is it?" she called.

"I'm hungry," a small voice replied. Twilight blinked and magically opened the door to find Maria standing in the hall with a small frown on her muzzle.

Twilight blinked and made the books, quill, and notes vanish, but not before marking her place with a blank sheet of paper resting between a page crammed full of untranslated words and the illustration of the airship. Then she hopped out of bed, and NoLegs jumped onto her back. "Do you know where the kitchen is?" Twilight asked.

Maria shook her head. "I don't wanna break the kitchen," she replied.

Twilight winced, her mind conjuring an image of a wrecked kitchen complete with a toppled fridge and foodstuffs thrown everywhere, with broken dishes and ruined furniture just for flair. "Lemme guess… you don't know how to cook?"

Maria shook her head again. "No… but I wanna know how. Mommy makes it look easy," she answered.

Twilight gave a small, consoling smile. "Tell you what, I am… unable to cook meat. But I can cook some vegetable-related foodstuffs, or pancakes—"

Maria cut her off, wings flaring as she spoke, "What's pancakes?"

Twilight's smile widened. "Mhm. We'll just need to get Spike awake so he can help us," she chirped. "Trust me, pancakes are delicious. Especially with syrup."

Maria's eyes went round as saucers. "Syrup?" she parroted.

Twilight nodded. "Yep." She trotted up to Maria before peering out into the hall again, seeing another pair of doors opened wide near the lift. In fact, she saw it just as the door that was closer to her room opened, and out waddled Spike who stretched his arms and yawned as he entered the hall. "Hey Spike," she chirped.

Spike lazily looked over to Twilight, smacked his lips, and then nodded. "Mornin'," he greeted. Twilight and Maria came over to him, both at a brisk trot, with Twilight using her magic to tenderly close all three open doors. With that done, the group made their way to the lift to head downstairs. It didn't take long for the button to be clicked, or for the door to close.

"Say, NoLegs, could you go to the kitchen and check the stock please?" Twilight asked, turning to NoLegs as the lift began to descend. "We'll meet you there." NoLegs nodded, and waited until the lift stopped moving and opened its door before he promptly waved his tail. His magic aura flared to life, and he vanished in a flash of light. Twilight trotted out of the lift, followed by Maria and Spike, who looked around for another lift.

All they saw, at least right away, were the lounges closest to them, and the furniture settled within. "So… what was it about pancakes?" Spike asked as he began walking to the closest lounge, pausing only to stop in the doorway to let Twilight and Maria catch up.

"Pancakes are good with syrup… whatever that is," Maria replied, which prompted Spike to look at Twilight with one brow arched sharply.

"Well, she wanted breakfast, so I offered to make pancakes. With syrup," Twilight elaborated, smiling sheepishly.

Spike's eyes widened a considerable margin. Then he chuckled and smirked. "I'm not sure Lance even has syrup in his food stock. And I'd really feel sorry for him if that's the case; poor colt doesn't know what he's missing out on," he stated in a matter-of-fact tone laced with underlying amusement that was betrayed only by his smile.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Spike, who wouldn't have syrup in their kitchen cabinets? Ten bits says at least a hoofful of Lance's troops, if not the stallion himself, have a pretty big sweet tooth if you asked me," she retorted.

Maria started jumping up and down in place. "Daddy likes syrup?!" she cried. "I want some, I want some!"

Spike sniggered again. "Oh good, she's riled up. I can see it now…" He cleared his throat and tried to imitate Lance, but somewhat failed when he raised his voice a good inflection higher instead of lowering it. This resulted in his voice squeaking as he spoke, "'Who the hell gave her sugar?! Now she's wound up and bouncing off the walls!'"

Twilight nearly choked when she heard Spike's higher-pitched voice, and her cheeks puffed out to hold in laughter that just wanted to shoot out of her mouth then and there. "Mind you, he did let her have zap-apple chocolate cake," Spike added offhandedly, which caused Twilight to drop her head and shake with barely-restrained giggles.

"Do syrup and cake taste good at the same time?" Maria asked, causing Spike to turn to her, stare for a few seconds, and mutely shrug in that order.

"I dunno. I've never put syrup on cake before, but that's just me," he answered.

Twilight stopped snickering, raised her head, and lifted a hoof to pat Spike on the shoulder. "It depends on whether the cake has frosting or not, and what type of syrup used. But I wouldn't recommend frosting and syrup in one sitting," she chirped. She trotted into the nearest lounge after that, and went on through the second one to find another set of lifts waiting for her, divided only by a pair of hallways a measly ten feet in length. Both were marked by signs, though oddly both of said signs sported 'kitchens and mess hall upstairs, medical bay downstairs' on their frames.

Maria and Spike followed her, but stopped behind her tail when she started looking from one hall to the next. "What's wrong?" Spike asked.

"I-I…" Then something clicked in Twilight's mind, and she simply relaxed before taking the lift on the left. "Oooooh. I see what he did…"

"What did who do?" Maria asked, tilting her head as she and Spike waddled onto the lift before Twilight raised a hoof and pressed the up button.

"Lance probably had this ship built so that the lifts closer to the starboard would both lead to the same place," Twilight replied, smiling as the door slid closed and the lift trembled before taking them up.

"That's a very generous assumption. Maybe they're packing multiple kitchens on this baby," Spike stated, though the notion he'd posited was absurd enough to make him tilt his own head when he gave it a few seconds of thought.

"Why not one kitchen, like in daddy's tank?" Maria queried, frowning when the lift shuddered again before stopping and opening its door.

"Well… maybe the soldiers spread too much chitil all over one kitchen. I know I wouldn't want to eat chitil," Spike answered in earnest, shrugging his shoulders as another ten-foot-long hall greeted them, and one with a white tiled floor at that. The group trotted out of the lift and down the hall, seeing a large room up ahead, albeit one whose features were blurred by an opaque door sporting a bronze plaque. Twilight stopped before the door when she reached it, peering at the plaque before shrugging her shoulders.

"'Please wipe your hooves/paws/claws before eating.'" Twilight turned down to find a piece of rug that read 'wipe here with enthusiasm' written on its surface. "Makes sense." She started to wipe her hooves on the rug, scuffing into the fibers as deep as she could possibly press her hooves.

With that done, she cast but a meager flick of magic and opened the door, revealing a large room with several tables both round and rectangular dotting its floor, all accompanied by stools. Chandeliers dangled over the whole thing, making it glow with a soft orange light. The room was decorated with a more homely appearance, or at least as homely as a mess hall could get, with wood making up the furniture and a carpet laid out that depicted strange runic symbols and prominent swirls of silver and gold.

At the far end and immediate right of the room were several booths, one of which at said far end having been raised to tower over the others. Funnily enough, it also came equipped with a megaphone bolted above the table, and more lifts that would take whomever would even sit in such a seat to it. A few other booths like it were dotting the area here and there, though they didn't have megaphones, and were in fact decorated like the guest bedrooms.

To the left of the room were a few trash cans, shelves for condiments and straws, and plates, bowls, and silverware aplenty. Oddly enough, the condiments' section was empty, though Twilight had attributed that to being still relatively early in the morning and whoever managing the kitchens not wanting to do anything about it as of yet. A single door stood near the barren concessions' area, built of dark wood.

Spike frowned at the mess hall. "Okay, this is a bit excessive," he commented. "I'm not sure if Rarity would faint seeing this, or try to refurbish every square inch of the mess hall first."

"I think she'd faint trying to refurbish it," Twilight remarked simply, shrugging her shoulders and rolling her eyes as she saw Rarity working herself half to death trying to fix every little detail of the mess hall in her mind. She turned to the only other door of the room and cantered to it briskly, and her stomach gurgled as she found a soft, aromatic smell wafting to her and getting stronger as she came closer. At once, Maria and Spike ran to catch up to her, and both noticed the smell right away.

"Why?" Maria queried, her face turning a slight tint of green as the aroma wafted into her nose.

"That'd be Rarity being Rarity," Spike replied, waving a claw dismissively. "And whatever is making that smell, it smells good."

Twilight reached the door and flung it open, finding a large kitchen stocked with fridges, cupboards, stoves, and various other appliances dotting it. There were more things like cabinets and racks with hanging pans and spatulas, and a grill and brick oven for good measure. White boxes were interspersed throughout, and the room was so massive there were at least two doors that were visible in the mess leading elsewhere. Spike gave a low whistle at the number of contraptions the kitchen contained. "What are these guys, packrats?" he asked.

"I dunno." Twilight took a cursory glance around, quickly noticing the absence of a certain someone, but the kitchen soon rattled with a crashing sound that made her jump. "Where's NoLegs? He said he'd be here."

End of Arc IV: Chapter LXV- Frozen Stinger

Anna had taken some hours just to awaken in the master bedroom, but she did not open her eyes even as her sleep-addled brain started kicking itself into gear. Her ears managed to register the sound of running water and someone breathing down her neck, though she didn't think anything of it, at least initially. She felt a barrel press into her back, rather large and prominently fuzzy yet slender of build, in addition to an equally-large object cradling her from the side. Her tail swished, and whomever was pressing into her shifted to knee her between the rear legs with enough force to make the top of her head lightly collide with the bedframe.

Still, she did not open her eyes, figuring whomever it was happened to be dreaming and deciding to let the issue alone for as long as she could stand. She knew that she didn't want to be roused during her dreams save for waking herself up; that particular side of the fence wasn't all that appealing, nightmare or not. So she snuggled into her pillow, feeling it rise to hug her head a little more, when the limb that wasn't her's shifted again and lightly brushed against her teats and kept aimlessly moving for some twenty minutes afterwards. In fact, she didn't respond until the knee shoved itself into her folds again, this time hard enough to actually hurt and possibly leave a bruise.

That did it, she decided, and opened her eyes before sitting up and turning to the limb that intruded on her private bits. It protruded rather rudely from under the now-crumpled quilt, and it was… cream-colored? Anna blinked and lifted a hoof to rub at her eyes, slowly turning her head to the left to find that both Matt and Lance were absent. Then she turned right to find Natalie still sound asleep, head resting on a frumpled pillow and her scarlet mane utterly tangled and askew. She was far too close for comfort, and had the nerve to shift even closer until her hips were resting very snugly against Anna's croup.

Natalie started to mumble in her sleep. "Ngh… mrgrgr… ginger… bad juju," she managed to articulate before devolving into incomprehensible gibberish. For all Anna knew, she may as well have started rattling off in ancient alicorn. Anna muffled a groan by biting her lip when the intruding knee pressed in further, its owner either unaware or unconcerned of where it was going. Anna lifted a hoof and planted it on Natalie's ear before tugging sharply, with a little bit of very translucent green mana that was nigh-invisible pulsing between them to ensure that the ear was firmly grasped.

Natalie's head was lifted off the pillow, and for a few seconds Anna held it there by the ear. She didn't stir until Anna gave another sharp yank, whereupon her eyes snapped open, wide at first before narrowing into a glare. "The hell's that for?" Natalie hissed. Anna merely lifted her other hoof and pointed toward her stomach with it, watching as Natalie's eyes trailed to where the issue was.

"Get your knee out of my snatch and I'll let go," Anna stated, her voice embarrassed yet firm. "Do we have ourselves a deal?" Natalie grumbled something unintelligible, but removed her knee from Anna's groin nonetheless. Then, Anna let go of Natalie's ear and dropped her hoof. She turned over and made to crawl out of bed, but halted when the sound of running water cut off.

Then, hooves stepped on tile before being muffled by carpet. Anna's ears twitched, folding back to catch the sound when flapping wings followed suit. She twisted to find Lance and Matt trotting toward them, both sporting towels hanging on their withers. The towels, though, did little to stop their bodies from being damp and still dripping with fresh water in some places. "Didn't you bathe last night?" Anna asked incredulously, looking pointedly at Lance.

Lance frowned, blushed, and folded his ears back simultaneously. "I… had to take care of something," he stated.

Anna raised a brow at Lance's rather vague answer. "Huh?"

Matt snickered and grinned. "He slipped and fell face-first in the toilet," he stated.

Anna winced, her ears folding back further. "Yikes."

"So I decided to be magnanimous and help him with his back and wings," Matt chirped. His grin widened when Anna released a choking sound. "Besides, you didn't wanna get up," he added smugly.

Anna relaxed and sighed, frowning. "I was a log again?" she asked.

Matt nodded. "Just about." He jerked his head in the direction of the toiletries' corner. "Go ahead and take care of whatever business you may need to. Me and Lance'll meet you at the mess hall." With that, Matt and Lance trotted out, the former letting his horn flare to life to grasp the towels and dry himself and the latter of vigorously on their way to the hall.

Anna and Natalie exchanged glances, shrugged to each other, and proceeded to crawl out of bed; or finish doing so in the case of the former. They stretched their legs, rolled their shoulders and hips, and popped whatever bones needed popping the moment their hooves hit the carpet. "You take a horn up the baby factory, and I get a knee at the front gates. What next, Matt's asshole being invaded by ginger?" Anna asked as she finished stretching. Natalie shot her an incredulous look once she started trotting to the toiletries' corner.

"Actually, Matt did take ginger up the ass once," Natalie stated, her remark halting Anna in her tracks.

Anna turned to Natalie with a brow raised. "Wait, he did?"

Natalie slowly, gravely nodded. "He and I got drunk after Lance went 'fuck it' and recruited your ass. I don't really remember who did what that night, but the morning after I found no less than six bulbs of peeled ginger sticking out. He couldn't trot for a week after," she replied. "He'd been adverse to it since."

Anna's eyes went wide as she envisioned how Matt likely reacted to waking up and finding an entire posse of intruders in his back door after a night of drinking. "What… did you two drink that night?" she asked, her tone exasperated.

Natalie shrugged, pursing her lips for a few seconds as her eyes narrowed a little. "The strongest drinks the military had available. I think we chugged… at least five glasses apiece. It was pretty strong stuff," she replied. "Didn't take long for us to get smashed."

"And… that's why Lance has you two supervised whenever you drink?" Anna queried, garnering another nod from Natalie.

"He bitched left and right until his lips threatened to turn purple once he'd heard of it," Natalie stated, frowning slightly.

Anna sighed and turned to the door leading to the hall, staring at it for some seconds as her mind painted the entire scenario from start to finish—or at least what little of it Natalie elaborated on, and a lot of possible explanations as to how the ginger got involved to begin with. "So if I started drinking, I'd be monitored?" she asked.

She saw Natalie nod again out of the corner of her eye. "Doubly so, if you were in heat doing it. I should know; he's breathed down my neck a couple of times about that, figuratively of course," Natalie answered. "But I don't drink often, so it was only once or twice."

Anna turned back to the toiletries' corner, her tail hiking up of its own accord. "Hey, Natz, would you mind doing me a favor?" she asked, blushing as she turned to Natalie.

Natalie tilted her head and sharply arched a brow, but nodded nonetheless. "I'm listening…"

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The brown-ribbed changeling found himself in a different compart of the kitchen of all places, making disgruntled noises as he magically flung open boxes and fridges in his search for ice cubes. "An ice changeling wraith… this day just couldn't get any better," he hissed in displeasure, searching this ice box and that to find no ice cubes whatsoever, though the boxes were filled with foodstuffs that were categorized neatly. "What next, the general getting hitched? Hippogryph alicorns?"

The changeling paused in his search to consider his own queries. He snorted and clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "Nah, who the hell am I kidding?" he tittered to nobody in particular. "The general can't get hitched outside of politics, and hippogryph alicorns are as likely to become real as another crystal pony getting into the army. Lieutenant-General Starcovert's bad enough."

He resumed his search, throwing still more appliance doors open to find little in the way of ice. "Gah, the ice cubes have to be in this clusterfuck somewhere…" he grumbled as he began to fling out several items just to see if the ice cubes were perhaps buried behind them. To say he had no luck would have been a bit wrong; to be entirely fair, there were some ice cubes within sight once he'd gotten the obstructions out of the way.

The problem was, they were less cubes and more marbles that were clumped together and stuck in the corners of the ice boxes and freezers he'd thrown open. The changeling hissed again and placed the foodstuffs back, pausing to look beneath his hooves to make sure nothing snagged on his holey chitin on its return trip. "Damnit, I still have nothing," he groaned sardonically.

The changeling marched to a shelf, turned his back to it, parked where he was and crossed his forelegs. He started scowling and leaning back into the shelf, glaring at a door that was a good twenty feet down from the shelf as though it offended him. "He just had to recruit an ice wraith… fantastic! And I thought that the entire fiascos with Akron, Godcat, and Lieutenant-General Windwood were all ridiculous," he hissed petulantly. "I'm amazed he managed to find a genuine diamond dog!"

His ears twitched when he heard the faint sound of hooves hitting tile, followed by a door being flung open so suddenly the changeling jumped and bumped his head on the shelf in surprise. Voices spilled out soon after, though they were a little on the muffled side. Before he could glean anything, though, he'd caught another sound—something sliding and then thunking rather metallically onto the floor. He glanced around, trying to determine from where exactly that something had landed, only to freeze when another object slid and fell right on his head before bouncing off and landing on the floor next to something at his rear hooves.

His eyes gravitated to the two objects, finding them to be dubiously-labeled tin cans that had a few dents. Just as he started to register the fact that one can smacked him upside the head on its way down, his ears pinned back as a large and ominous creaking noise filled the air. The changeling barely had enough time to spread his wings and flap away, and he did not move a moment too late; he felt the reverberating impact of something crashing noisily through the air, which only sent him off-kilter and back to the floor.

The changeling staggered upon landing, and he turned before his eyes grew round at the sight he now beheld. The shelf had fallen over, and its particular wares—several cans' worth of food—were now scattered on the floor. He mutely stared at the mess, legs starting to shake, his tail tucking itself between his rear legs as the sound of hooves on tile once again filled the area. His eyes watered as a door opened from behind him, powerful and sudden enough to leave a deafening thud that gave way to a pregnant silence.

He'd expected someone like Rhinoc or, worse yet, Lance himself to start spinning up into a bitching conniption within a matter of seconds. He stared at the shelf, now feeling that getting squished under it would have been the better option. He waited, patiently, for the tirade to start, and he hoped for a lenient punishment like scrubbing duty. The silence, though, seemed to judge him with an air of dread, and he could feel eyes staring at him. How many, though, he had yet to see; he didn't want to know who had stumbled upon him, though he was sure he was going to find out anyway. His eyes screwed shut at the thought.

Hoofsteps permeated the kitchen, slow at first before quickening to a brisk trot whose echoes started to ring in his ears. It only took a minute for the hooves to stop entirely, and the sorry soldier felt someone's breath brush up against his shoulder in a sharp exhale. His bowels squirmed, his heart started to race, and his chitin trembled as, for a few seconds that felt as though they stretched to eternity, the only thing to confirm that someone was standing next to him was a slow and steady breathing.

He expected bitching that would make his head hurt for hours to come, he expected to be punished with derision and scorn; he did not expect a hoof to plant itself on his withers. The lone changeling slowly opened his eyes and craned his neck to look toward his shoulder, only to relax as he saw Twilight standing next to him, staring with a worried frown and slanted brow on her face. "Are you alright?" Twilight asked.

Slowly, hesitantly, the changeling nodded and took a breath to slow his thudding heart before it could make an escape attempt up his esophagus. "I was expecting one of my superiors to find…" He lifted a hoof and gestured to the fallen shelf. Twilight turned to the shelf for a second, sighed, and then turned back to the changeling.

"Just tell them it was an accident," Twilight replied. The changeling drew another shaky breath as he heard claws and hooves scratching on the floor, and craned his neck some more to spot Spike and Maria waddling up to them. "I'm sure they'll understand."

"Nice changeling, I'm hungry," Maria complained, frowning herself. "Can I have breakfast?"

The changeling sighed again and turned to the shelf, blinking as a lavender aura embraced it, hefted it up, seamlessly returned it to its wall, and picked up its cans before putting them back as well. "What all are you in the mood for?" he asked.

"Syrupy pancakes," Twilight replied, her frown twitching up into a smile as the changeling looked at her incredulously, just in time to see her horn cease glowing.

The changeling reluctantly nodded, and his frown deepened. "I'll make you breakfast if you help me find an ice cube stash," he stated. "Deal?"

"Why ice cubes, though?" Spike asked, his query causing the changeling's tail to sink further between his rear legs.

The poor soldier sighed. "Lance went and recruited an ice wraith, and she had a fire-related accident," he groused. Twilight's eyes widened, and she winced a little.

"I… think I know who you're talking about," Twilight murmured, before her face set in as neutral an expression as she could manage. She trotted to the nearest ice box and opened it with a flash of her horn, cringing as she saw piles of frozen meat contained within, each one wrapped individually with wax paper and labeled with dates and what the meat even was written on said wrappings. "So… what happened?" she queried as she closed the ice box.

"Major Rhinoc thought it impossible for her to be magically capable," the soldier replied, shaking his head. "So Lieutenant Armin… launched a bolt of fire at her horn, and… it caused a bit of a chain reaction. And I've checked all of the boxes and freezers in this room already; the only ice available is measly corner-bits."

Twilight turned to the solder, sharply arching a brow. "Is it impossible for impaired changelings to use magic?" she asked.

The soldier shook his head. "Me and everyling else is magically capable… so I wouldn't know a lot about impaired changelings," he replied, shrugging again. "But she used her horn, despite it being broken. In her case, I'd wager 'yes' under 'extenuating circumstance.'"

Twilight nodded and trotted to the soldier. "Could you show me around the kitchens, then?" she asked. "Or at least, the rest of them?"

The soldier nodded and managed to form a small smile. "Sure thing," he chirped. He turned to the door Twilight and her company came in from and trotted to it, entering the compartment beyond. Twilight herself trotted after him, with Spike and Maria falling into step behind her. Once they were in the first room of the massive and hellishly cluttered kitchen, Twilight's horn glowed and her magic grasped every box and fridge in the vicinity. With a swift flick and a nicker, she threw them all open simultaneously, revealing even more frozen meats and veggies in such obscene amounts it could keep Pinkie happy, were she to get creative.

Twilight gave a low whistle. "I have to say, your food storage and amounts of edible goods is impeccable," she murmured.

The soldier chittered, his smile widening. "We kinda tend to eat the foodstuffs before they stay a week in the freezers, unless it's something nobody in the military would think of touching," he chirped. He veered to one of the freezers and started digging through it, while Twilight went to another and simply levitated everything out of the frozen box effortlessly. When she found no ice cubes, she simply put everything back, closed the freezer she'd dug into, and trotted over to the next one to repeat the process.

"What's that?" Maria asked as the soldier pulled out a rather round, large shape easily the size of the his barrel. It was covered in a few layers of wrapping, which did a very good job of obscuring its features.

The soldier paused in his search and plucked the shape in his magic, slowly spinning it around until he found its labeling. "Frozen purple wasp," he answered.

"Do what now?" Twilight asked as she set down the second batch of foodstuffs, since she had no luck finding ice cubes. She turned to the soldier, who turned back and slowly, magically unwrapped the shape to reveal a filly-sized insect curled up onto itself. It sported a black chitinous hide, large purple eyes as big as her hooves, suspiciously-curled antennae and delicately-preserved lavender wings sporting a faint luminescent sheen. "That… looks like a butterfly," she remarked.

The soldier nodded, and used his magic to fiddle with the end of the bug's abdomen, making sure to not damage its frozen flesh. With a few tender pushes, a stinger as thick as her horn emerged. "I know, but trust me, it's a wasp," he replied, slinging the bug onto his back, making sure it wouldn't sting him. "It's gotta be eaten today; otherwise it'll go bad."

Twilight's stomach churned a little as she wondered who in their right mind would eat giant wasps. "Um… did you manage to find any ice cubes?" she asked.

The soldier shook his head. "Nope, but I found some pancakes," he answered, using his magic to reach into the freezer he was scouring to produce a frozen stack of no less than three dozen fluffy, carefully-wrapped pancakes whose bindings were as clear as crystal. "Hoof-made, and usually stored for later."

"Why store pancakes?" Spike asked, his brow arching at the incredulity of it all.

The soldier turned to him and smiled. "Only a few in the military eat pancakes. Lieutenant-General Bladerune's really, really big on them," he answered. "He likes them with a side of tortoise bacon."

Spike's brow climbed higher. "Tortoise bacon?" he queried.

The soldier nodded. "Yeah. A hundred years ago, ponies and gryphs stopped farming pigs and switched to tortoises, except maybe a few settlements here and there that output pork products by the hundreds of thousands. The taste is similar, so I was told," he answered. He saw Twilight cringe in the corner of his eye and turned to her, his smile fading. "No, we don't farm pigs, but we do eat them from time to time. I'm only going by what I heard."

Twilight relaxed a little and tilted her head. She trotted over to another freezer and lifted everything within it via magic. "Do you keep ice in bags, perchance?" she queried as the third box, too, turned up empty in the ice department.

"Now that I think about it…" The soldier lifted a hoof and tapped his chin with it, eyes gravitating up to the ceiling. "I don't think we had a need to…" He turned to an opened freezer, magically closed the one he'd gotten the pancakes and wasp from, trotted to that second freezer and peered inside. He spotted an exposed blue crystal jutting from the backside via the wall, surrounded by nothing but frost. Next to it was a yellow crystal that crackled faintly with electricity, which in turn made the machine hum a little. "Jackpot."

Twilight closed the other boxes in that moment and cantered over to investigate. "Is that what keeps the food chilled?" she queried, her eyes then gravitating to the yellow crystal. "And does that power it?"

The soldier nodded. "Normally, both crystals are concealed by a layer of aluminum though, because they work in tandem; each is the other's catalyst. I'll notify Major Rhinoc that it needs that layer," he replied, magically conjuring a wad of chitil before sticking it to the front of the machine. Then, delicately, his magic seeped into the frost and wrenched it a little, causing cracks to form.

A foal-sized piece immediately flaked away with a few more tugs, and it was immediately wrapped in chitil, along with the pancakes and the wasp. In one last flash of light all three items vanished before thawing and melting could really set. The crystals dimmed after, though, and the soldier sighed. "Looks like it needs recharging, too. Note to self: Notify Starcovert and Bladerune after breakfast."

Before the box was closed, the crystals pulsed with mana that, when their paths crossed, formed a dim green glow. The ice reformed; cracks sealed, the chunk that was taken regrew, and within seconds it formed a seamless seal that caused the crystals to dim further still. Twilight whistled again at the display. "Now that's rather nifty. I wish Equestria found crystals like that and utilized them like this machine does," she remarked.

"Equestria?" the soldier parroted.

Twilight turned to the soldier and gave a wan smile. "My home country in Mythos," she replied.

"Can we eat now? I'm hungry," Maria complained, garnering the attention of her current company, who all stared at her for a few seconds.

The soldier donned another smile. "With syrup, right?" he chirped. "Lemme get the tortoise bacon, too. I think the mess hall's gonna need to operate in full swing soon."

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Matt and Lance, having both dried off, decided to groom themselves and don his uniform in the case of the latter, even going so far as to make crude wing-holes so as to spare the rest of the outfit from the awkwardness that was his ludicrously huge-by-pegasus-standards wings. After that, they trotted through the hall and knocked on a few doors, if only to get a move on waking everybody else up. Some doors didn't budge, so on down the hall they trotted, knocking as they went.

It took a good twenty or so minutes before a bloody door opened. Out trotted a frazzled Flash Sentry, whose armor sat so askew on his withers it somehow fit on backwards. His feathers were in disarray, his mane tangled, his horseshoes were resting on his primaries, and for some reason that Matt and Lance did not want to question, his helmet was resting on the southern end to his backside. The only reason it didn't fall off was because his tail held it up and they weren't even sure how he was able to keep the damn thing stable with the rest of his suit on in a way that should not have been possible.

"Mommy, I didn't wet the bed," Flash grumbled tiredly, his eyes so unfocused Matt and Lance were convinced he was staring through them.

Matt and Lance looked at each other for a second before turning back to the evidently-dazed Flash. "Do you need a few more minutes…?" Lance ventured, frowning in concern.

Flash cocked his head sluggishly, gaze still vacant. "I wanna be a royal guardspony when I grow up, Mommy," he muttered.

Matt lifted a hoof and waved it in front of Flash Sentry's face. His eyes did not gravitate after the hoof in the slightest. "Looks to me like he's dead on his hooves," Matt remarked, retracting the hoof.

"Considering he's muttering about his mom, he may be sleep-trotting with eyes wide open," Lance groused, his own wings ruffling slightly at the unnerving sight of Flash Sentry seemingly staring into his soul.

Flash's ears fell back against his head, and his pupils dilated. "Mommy, what are you doing? Where's Daddy?" he asked, an edge of curiosity and some other emotion Lance and Matt couldn't place resonating in his otherwise-dead-tired voice. "Mommy?"

Matt's horn lit up, and a golden dome of magic immediately encased Flash, who didn't even register what was happening. Silently the two watched until Flash flared his wings and began to flap for all it was worth, his mouth wide open and his pupils shrinking as his knees trembled under threat of buckling. Whatever noises he made did not bypass the barrier, however, though they did manage to make it shake in tandem with his fast-liquefying legs.

It took him several minutes to calm down, though not before he threw his armor off and fell down onto the floor in a fetal position. "Poor bastard," Lance muttered, shaking his head in pity at the sight. "Looks to me like he may've been hallucinating."

Matt nodded and dropped the barrier, and at once Flash Sentry turned into a gibbering mess. "Mr. Guardspony, M-Mommy's dead…" That was the only coherent thing Matt and Lance could get out of him; everything else tumbled over itself so fast and haphazardly it almost sounded like he was going off in a Diamæntian dialect. Lance knelt down to Flash's eye level and stared directly into his bloodshot voids for some seconds, opening his mouth to say something, only to have words die before they could form as Flash kept on rambling.

Matt sighed and magically embraced Flash's muzzle but made sure to leave his nostrils untouched, which caused him to start flailing every which-way once again. Lance quickly rose and backed off, but not fast enough to avoid getting punched in the snout for his trouble. Flash tried to scream, but the magical grip merely tightened enough to keep his jaws from parting. Then, the poor guard was lifted onto his hooves and cemented in place by the golden aura, whereupon its caster leaned in until they were perfectly eye level with one another.

Firmly, but gently, Matt uttered a single command, "Wake up, and calm down."

Flash shook in place, even as he took a few scant breaths through his nostrils. He continued to tremble as his mental cobwebs cleared with a few waves of fresh air, and only when his legs stopped shaking every second did Matt release him. His whole body felt like jelly, and he swallowed nervously. "You good now?" Lance asked with a wince, raising a hoof to his snout to check for any nosebleeds and bruises that either were underway or forming.

Flash shook his head. "Gonna need a few more minutes before I'm good," he replied, his voice quivering a little. "H-have either of you been awake… b-but we-were still d-dreaming?"

Both Lance and Matt nodded. "A few times," Matt admitted, his gaze averting for a few seconds. "Anna has that particular issue the absolute worst out of all of us, though."

Flash nodded slowly and shakily, feeling his body metaphorically return to a more solid state. "H-how m-much sun is o-out?" he stammered.

"I looked out the window before hopping into the shower. The sun's approximately at ten o'clock," Lance replied, staring at Flash with a critical eye. "Do you need coffee today?"

Flash nodded again, this time hastily. "Th-that would b-be good. Extra s-strong, no sugar," he answered.

Lance nodded back and turned to Matt. "Everybody else can wait. Let's get Flash to the—"

Matt lifted his hoof and coughed into it, cutting Lance off. When Flash turned to him with a raised brow, he used the same hoof to gesture to his discarded armor. "You gonna trot in the free and easy, or in uniform?" he asked rather awkwardly, his ears falling back at the implications.

Flash took a few seconds to process the question, then craned his neck in an effort to follow Matt's raised hoof. When he saw the armor carelessly strewn about, he frowned and let his wings droop a little. "Uh... I'll be right back," he murmured, spreading his wings and using them to scoop up the suit, horseshoes and all. He backpedaled into his room after that, shutting the door on his way in the moment he was behind it.

"Matt… I think the face-grabbing was a little bit uncalled for," Lance hissed, eyes narrowing as Matt turned to him. "But, I am willing to let it slide this time." His glare eased, and he sighed dejectedly. "I know full well how it feels to silence a still-dreaming sod to keep everyone else from flipping their shit, and I am not sure of how well Blueblood or Zecora would take being woken up by someone else screaming."

Matt nodded. "Do I have to make it up to him later, though?" he queried.

Lance shook his head. "No, unless we're out of coffee," he replied with a shrug. He turned to the lift at the end of the hall. "Maybe we should write a note for the other sleepyheads to let them know we've gone to eat at the mess hall."

At that moment, Matt's stomach gurgled. He smiled as the door before them opened again to reveal Flash Sentry, this time with his armor on in the way it was meant to go. "Mess hall?" he asked.

Lance nodded, still looking at the lift. "Sounds like a plan to me," he chirped. He turned to Flash and leveled another critical gaze at him. "Serious question… do you eat any meat at all?"

Flash actually nodded at that. "Did so when I was deployed in the Crystal Empire, and I learned it was because Sombra drove their tilling fields so much via the enslaved crystal ponies the fields dried up and the crops withered. Supposedly, they had to hunt for their food whenever, wherever they could, though now they're restoring their tilling fields so they won't have to do so nearly as much. The local ponies there insisted I try some, and it was good. Though… they cooked black birds," he answered. A smile formed on his face. "You have any black birds?"

Lance smiled back. "I think we have a few birds," he replied.

"Before we get to the birds, though… I think we should fetch Lazzy," Matt chimed in, turning to the assortment of doors that led to the lift. "But… which room did he take?"

Start of Arc V: Chapter LXVI- Weshdoor Concerto

By the time everyone else in the guest chambers had woken up and gone to the mess hall, it was not only early afternoon, but it was filled with a sort of pregnant tension that could only be felt if one were to sit directly next to its many living and breathing sources. For one reason or another, half the Mythonian diplomats and a lot of their Fantasian military escorts could not, would not sit still.

Tails swished, eyes darted this way and that, rear legs crossed and uncrossed without rhyme nor reason. The soldiers of Delta Unit, who by that point came in for lunch, chose to ignore it for the most part to their credit. A lot of the food being eaten then took a while to prep, and the changelings busied themselves with making and serving it. With the food came several rounds of coffee and tea, and once the food was plopped on the various tables everyone was well and wide awake at that point.

Applejack and Shining both ate a fresh helping of cooked vegetables slowly as Flash sat across from them, helping himself to a small and chicken-shaped animal that had been cooked until its skin was crispy brown. Two tails, streaked blue and blond, swished, though not so suddenly they would hit the pony that sat next to them. "Flash," Shining began in a calm voice, pausing to take in a mouthful of cauliflower, "you do know that would be frowned upon in many provinces in Equestria, right?"

Flash nodded, but simply ripped a wing off the cooked critter with delicate tugs, and bit into it the moment wing parted from body. He did not speak until he polished it to the tiny bones, "Try telling that to the crystal ponies back home, Captain-Emperor. They haven't gotten the memo yet, and introduced me to this." He gestured to the bird with a hoof for emphasis. That got him a very reluctant sigh from his Captain-Emperor.

Shining blinked and took another sampling of his platter. Applejack, who herself just swallowed another mouthful, was all too happy to fill in for him on the matter of Flash eating meat. "Why'd they do it, if they did?" she asked, her tone edging a little towards suspicion. Flash simply relayed to her what he'd relayed to Matt and Lance, and when he finished her eyes widened. "Wait. Sombra was that awful?"

Flash nodded again, biting into a piece of legmeat with relish. He spoke when that went down the hatch, "Desperate times called for desperate measures, and… have you seen the fields before the Crystal Heart was found?" When Applejack nodded, albeit reluctantly, Flash extrapolated, "Not a lot of them could remember how to farm effectively until that particular spell was broken. You were lucky to find spare non-meat foodstuffs to even set up for the Crystal Faire then."

Applejack shuddered, envisioning barren farming fields and despondent, starving crystal ponies hunting for meager scraps of rabbit that were probably not particularly willing to frolic to the Empire under Sombra's regime. "I take it the Empire's back to square…" She racked her brain for a way to finish her utterance, and it came up with a very rough estimate that she'd blurted out before fully processing it, "one hundred on farming?"

Flash shook his head and beamed with a smile. "Square one thousand and fifty, ever since trade's opened up between the Empire and the rest of Equestria the day after Sombra was destroyed. The Empire's now on par with the rest of Equestria technology-wise, and produce is skyrocketing now that its earth ponies and weather pegasi can use their talents to the fullest extent. It could probably go another two hundred at least, if Fantasia opens up on the trading front," he chirped, pausing to tear into more bird flesh. "And this black bird is good."

Shining nodded and bit into some more of his vegetables, smiling a little as Flash was evidently having a good time with his meal. He turned to Applejack and added, "I've… put into place some new regulations concerning the crystal ponies' killing of animals for their meat, what was and wasn't alright to kill, and to do so while making sure the animals involved don't feel any pain. I am really glad I got that out of the way before the barrier broke."

Applejack nodded and relaxed a little, taking in another mouthful herself. "So all the bunny rabbits and birds don't feel nothing?" she asked.

"Mhm," Shining hummed in reply, nodding again. He glanced around before his eyes fell on a table to their left, upon which the purple wasp was laid on a platter with bits of steam trailing away from its body and some meat-based stuffing-type material heaped beneath it. The table the wasp was laid on flashed in green light several times, and when the lightshow ended, it was further topped by a myriad of plates and forks.

A few changelings, including the still-gurney-bound Cassida and Katie, were gathered around it. Shining saw the barest sliver of drool leave through the gaps in Katie's new teeth, her lower jaw quivering so minimally he had to blink just to register the sight.

He turned back to the wasp and gawped when he realized just how big it was in direct comparison to the changelings hungrily staring at it. "... has anypony here seen an insect that huge in Equestria?" he asked, turning to Flash and Applejack for confirmation. Both looked at Shining and shook their heads.

"I'll bet a parasprite swarm would have themselves a field day with that big bug," Applejack remarked, her eyes widening when Katie lunged from the gurney to the table and landed clumsily next to the freshly-plated wasp, gawping as she realized her legs were still tied up in makeshift casts.

A soldier groaned as he grappled Katie with his hooves and planted her back on the gurney in one deft motion. Katie merely jumped to the table again, eying the wasp with a hungry glint in her orbs, only to shriek as she was removed and replaced on the gurney yet again. When she jumped a third time, the soldier trying to keep her planted in place groused in exasperation, "Yeesh, not even being hogtied keeps her still. Are we gonna have to anchor the newbie's tail to the ceiling to get her to stay put?!"

"I've seen her rotate her head a full 360 horizontally with no problems. I wouldn't be surprised if she could backbend to pull her own tail out of a knot," Armin remarked, chuckling as the complaining soldier once again deposited Katie onto the blasted gurney. "And she has new molars. I'll bet she could shear her own tail now anyway." Katie proceeded to jump ship yet again, much to the other troops' growing frustration.

Finally, one soldier just gave up, applied chitil to the gurney, and planted Katie on it before cementing her to the damned thing with said chitil. She wiggled for a moment, growling in annoyance and jaws gnashing about, but the chitil would not yield to her whims. Her attention turned to the gelatinous goo and she started to bite at it, but it would not break and tear at all. It bent, stretched, and flexed to comically ludicrous proportions, yes, but did not break.

Katie opened her mouth and began to undulate her tongue, but a slap right to the snout stopped her before it could even get an inch past her teeth. She whimpered and lowered her head, ceasing her struggling on the spot. The soldier who slapped her, a changeling with golden ribs and eyes, growled out in a feminine voice riddled with exasperation, "We get that you're starving, but can't you share even a little bit of wasp?"

"Haven't had purple wasp since I was a grub…" Katie lamented, looking at the wasp longingly. "So tasty-looking… my tongue is itching..."

A rumble echoed through the room, followed by a low hum, causing everyone in Delta Unit to look around in confusion. This culminated in a masculine voice then coughing into the megaphone planted above one of the tables, and everyone looked up to find Lance, his circle of right hoof ponies, and Maria sitting in the tallest booth. They shook their heads in the changelings' direction, their faces set in neutral, unreadable expressions. The megaphone in question hovered in front of Lance via a mechanical arm, with the spot it was originally resting at having parted in vertical halves to let said mechanical arm move it.

"Just carve it already; sooner you get it done, the less uppity a certain someling amongst you will get," Lance stated in a flat voice. "And on that note, I'm glad her appetite's finally kicked in."

The changelings obeyed, and the brown-ribbed soldier hummed a merry tune as he conjured a carving knife and a fork in flashes of light. "Trust me, nooblet, you haven't had purple wasp like this," he chirped, looking pointedly at Katie as he started to grind the edge of the blade against the fork as though it were a sharpener. "Tortoise bacon and tender stuffing usually reserved for fowl have never gone so good with wasp."

Applejack and Shining turned away from the changelings and back to Flash, who was now peeling away skin from the bird's breastmeat. "Y'know, this is the first time I've seen a wraith get their tail in a twist over food," Applejack remarked, smiling faintly at the prospect of Katie actively wanting food.

"Then again, I don't think any of us have seen wraith eating habits extensively, either," Shining pointed out, deciding to take another mouthful of his meal. "And she's getting something she enjoyed when she was a grub, whatever that means. Honestly, that's a good thing if you asked for my input."

Flash nodded in agreement, moving the skin he tore off the breastmeat into his mouth. He shifted the skin to one cheek before speaking, "I wonder if she's one of the few… or perhaps the many wraiths who eat."

Applejack shrugged at that. "I guess we'll find out which o' the two she fits into sooner or later." She turned up to look at Lance, who'd gone back to eating some sort of meat-based thing she had trouble discerning from below his perch. She also noticed Rainbow Dash from the corner of her eye, flying up to said perch. "Oh boy," she muttered under her breath.

The moment Rainbow reached the perch was the same moment she more or less shot her mouth clean off her muzzle. "So when will we be able to go into Greenwood and see what the fuss is about?" she asked, crossing her forelegs impatiently.

Surprisingly, all she received from Lance and his group was a quartet of flat looks, one perplexed face, one brow raising out of the whole lot, and complete silence, broken only by the sounds of said group still biting and slicing at their meals. It took a few seconds for someone to answer. "I dunno," Maria replied with a shrug of her shoulders, her tone sincere and her face twisted into an expression of confusion.

"Whenever they damn well feel like it," Armin called from his seat. That earned him four nods from his superiors, and a groan of exasperation from Rainbow.

"Sadly, that about sums it up," Natalie stated rather dejectedly, her ears folding back as a shiver ran down her spine.

"Perfectly," Matt added off-handedly, through a mouthful of meat no less.

"But if you want to go, I suppose we can't stop you," Lance sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "I would recommend taking some of my troops with you, though, just to err on caution."

"Greenwood used to be nice until seven years ago…" Anna lamented in a low voice, sighing despondently.

Rainbow frowned deeply at that. There was only one conclusion such a statement lead to, and she'd have to be very simple-minded to not see it straight away. "Something went down, and something major if you guys don't wanna go near it," she stated rather matter-of-factly.

"Very," Anna replied tersely.

"Mayhaps I should accompany you?" Blueblood proposed all the way from one of the second-highest booths, looking at Rainbow with a flat gaze and a chin held high. "I happen to know a thing or two about diplomacy; if anything, it would be wise to tread cautiously."

That remark earned him several incredulous looks from Armin, Katie, and Shining, all of whom rolled their eyes at him and muttered "Yeah, right" under their breaths in unison, "Suuuuure you do." It also earned him a very incredulous stare from Matt, which he balked a teensy bit under. Still, he managed to keep his composure this time, which Matt found to be a commendable feat.

"Perhaps I could trot along with you, too?" Flash piped up, having finished stripping his bird to the bone. "Just in case we need to bolt."

"Only if I accompany you lot," Shining interjected.

"I wanna go too. Something's mighty fishy about this forest, and I ain't stopping until I know what," Applejack stated, frowning firmly.

"Fine, fine, but we'll need to park the airship closer to Greenwood first. Let's finish eating though; trotting there on an empty stomach is a bad idea," Lance barked through the megaphone, not even bothering to hide the exasperation in his voice. With that, he tapped it with his hoof, pressing a button on the side that Rainbow could not see until after his hoof retracted and it popped up from the initial pressing. The mechanical arm vibrated a bit before it retracted back into the wall, but the hole closed its sides and let the megaphone rest as it was.

"Alright," the whole of Delta Unit replied in unison. Some of them spoke through clenched teeth, while others only nodded dejectedly. Katie merely folded her ears back and buzzed her swollen wing-nubs, an unpleasant shiver trailing all the way to the base of her tailbone as she spoke alongside the other changelings. At least one changeling was looking at Lance like he'd gone crazy, though they kept their complaints to those incredulous stares.

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The airship found another spot to park later that day, in a different part of the woodland that honestly didn't look anything really different from the first one save a ring of snuffed-out torches lining the clearing. By the time Blueblood and his group of volunteers had disembarked the ship with Major Rhinoc accompanying them, the sun was hanging at approximately 3 o'clock. The first thing they noticed was a sweltering heat that seemed to have swept throughout the forest, causing Rainbow and Flash to fan their wings to avoid breaking out into a sweat.

"Yeesh, it feels like we trotted into a furnace!" Flash griped, sparing a glance at the sky to find nary a cloud in its endless expanse of blue.

"No kidding!" Dash agreed, lifting a hoof to wipe the sweat already gathering off of her brow. "And I haven't seen one leaf here at all! Why the hay did they name this area 'Greenwood?!'"

"Actually, Greenwood's a little further away. We're in the surrounding wood that is called Ashwood," Rhinoc corrected, getting incredulous stares from the madly-flapping pegasi.

"Ashwood? Why's it called that?" Flash queried, both brows climbing up his forehead.

Rhinoc responded by lifting a hoof and gesturing to the nearest tree with it. Flash and Dash turned to it and frowned, finding its bark a hideous ashen color that stretched from root to branch. Heck, now that they took a good look at the branches, they saw that the entire lot was shriveled and withered beyond anything they'd ever seen in Equestria. "That, my dignitaries, is what happens when heat is allowed to rage through a wood unchecked," he stated grimly.

"Do they have earth ponies tending this wood?" Blueblood asked sincerely, giving the tree Rhinoc pointed at a scrutinizing glare. "Or have the ponies here let it wither as it did? Have they simply stopped caring about the environment?"

Rhinoc shook his head. "Nopony has tended to this wood in some time now," he replied. "Nopony."

"Not even earth ponies?" Blueblood asked, turning to Rhinoc with widening eyes and a brow going up as its mate dropped down. Rhinoc shook his head again.

"Let's just get to Greenwood before my feathers burn off," Dash complained, eyes narrowing as the air around her seemed to get hotter, thus forcing her to flap her wings faster to compensate. Everyone nodded, and with that they trotted into Ashwood, though not before Flash and Dash closed their wings just so they could walk.

Passing the circle of torches, some more soldiers of Delta Unit flew behind them from the airship, enveloping themselves in various colors of fire before turning into rocks or barren trees, while Rhinoc threw purple flames around himself to transform into a unicorn stallion sporting a murky, almost blackened green mane and a birch blond coat. After doing that, he took point, and then stopped before turning to his charges, in turn causing them to grind to a halt.

"Shining, do you know how to mass-teleport?" Rhinoc asked. "Or even yourself?"

Shining shook his head. "I can shield the entirety of Canterlot with one spell, but teleportation isn't exactly my forte," he replied.

"Canter… oh. Lieutenant Armin told me of his little excursion there. Have you ever tried to teleport before, then?" Rhinoc tried, only to grimace when Shining nodded. "Did you succeed?" That time, Shining shook his head. "Not even once?"

"I couldn't manage it. When I tried, I got distracted and turned my mother into an orange on accident," Shining replied, ears folding back. "And I somehow gave her a mustache in the process."

Rhinoc could've sworn he heard one of his fellow disguised changelings snickering at that, though who exactly he couldn't tell since they decided to transform into trees and stones. He made a mental note to have words with them later, and sighed. "And since then you didn't?" he queried.

Shining nodded. "For an admittedly foalish fear of being tackled by my kid sister," he replied. "Though we're grown now, and I may start practicing… provided I don't get knocked off my hooves again."

Rhinoc nodded back. "Fair enough," he agreed. He turned around and started trotting again, his steps harried but carefully calculated into the lockstep march. He heard the others moving along behind him, hurriedly trotting to escape the sweltering air as soon as possible. It took him several minutes of trotting before he realized that he couldn't help but notice that another line of torches had stretched at their side, probably stemming from the ones circling the second clearing, and idly wondered whether or not they led to Greenwood.

The hot air around them shifted, sometimes climbing to new heights of desert-level heat, other times dipping to something a little more bearable. An hour of wading through the forest passed by, with nobody daring to speak for fear that the heated air may scorch their tongues, and Delta Unit stealthily moving behind in their effort to play as part of a ruined environment. Blueblood took the chance to look at the ground before finding a lot of it suspiciously blackened, as though lightning or fire swept through the desolate Ashwood. He turned to the trees and studied them as they passed, finding bits of slate gray and bits of flaking ash.

"Just dreadful! Horrendously, simply dreadful beyond compare! Even the abominable Everfree Forest is more lively in comparison!" Blueblood thought, ears folding back when he heard a rather suspect bubbling of some sort of thick liquid. He hesitated, his pace slowing, as his eyes darted about to find the source of the liquid, if only to confirm what it was and whether or not it had to do with the current state of Ashwood.

Rhinoc tensed as an ash-laden wind whistled through the trees. Everypony behind him paused, looking about to see what had him agitated. Blueblood halted and took another look at the trees. Oddly, one of them seemed to have sported… a malformed face? He couldn't tell; it had lumps aplenty, and freakishly wide holes on a trunk so thick it gave the lich-wyrm in the crystal caverns some competition. Some of the bark had either peeled away or been ripped off, revealing deathly pale… pulsating flesh beneath it?

And the damned thing seemed to have been grinning at him with a hole forming on a crudely-muzzle-shaped lump, or he thought it did. He turned to Rhinoc, opening his mouth to demand an explanation, when his voice died in his throat at the sight of many trees turning their holes in the group's direction in suspect, fluid unison. All of the trees were leering at them from empty voids betraying a whole myriad of expressions on the suspect lumps littering their barks.

"... those the other changelings?" Shining asked, whereupon Rhinoc turned to him and shook his head with a grimace.

"No. Cursed trees—some say they're ponies who fell under a horrific curse and were transmogrified, but honestly I dunno how the hell that's possible. Others've told me they're golems, given life yet without mobility. It's best to let them be," Rhinoc replied, turning ahead and trotting on. The rest of his entourage followed him, hastily trotting to escape the gaze of the trees.

"Cursed… trees?" Blueblood uttered, his face blanching as he turned to one of the trees that were watching his every hoofstep. His jaw quivered upon seeing its face; its mouth drooped down at the corners so sharply he wondered whether or not it had been forcibly extended by cruel means. Its eyes were slanted likewise, and some blackened substance dribbled from their corners in rivulets of crude tears.

The tree, distended though its mouth was, managed to utter something. A fleshy tongue flopped up and down, filled with rot-holes and spilling maggots with each movement. The face twisted even further, resembling less a face and something more eldritch in nature. Out came a single plea, gurgled and choked and hollow to the point Blueblood could not place tone, inflection, nor baritone or lack thereof. "Help… m-m-meeee…"

Blueblood felt shivers go down his spine. "Is… there anything we can…"

Rhinoc shook his head. "No. We'd have to find whoever cast the spell and kill them, and I'll bet that bastard's long dead. Even cutting them down would not alleviate their pain." He turned to another pleading tree, its mouth warped to the point it could not speak, but instead waving its branches frantically. "This is one of the reasons Lance doesn't like going through here."

Flash's wings ruffled and their feathers puffed out at the notion. "But what if… whoever did this is still…"

"Well, in that case, we'll yank their horn clean off and cart them to Lieutenant-General Windwood to deal with," Rhinoc replied. "Assuming, of course, the caster's a unicorn and not a centaur or something."

Blueblood balked. "Why resort to such barbaric methods?!" he cried.

Rhinoc jerked his head to another cursed tree, pleading for help as they passed. "If they, as in the caster, were heartless enough to do this, then they deserve no more and no less. Treated as they have treated these poor souls," he stated rather callously. "If they transmogrified ponies directly," he added as an aside.

He frowned as they passed a felled tree that lay in several pieces, each fragment bleeding profusely and writhing with decaying flesh beneath the bark. Its multitude of bodyparts was riddled with a plethora of arrows made from a whole array of various materials. What materials they were, though, were obscured as moss and kudzu that were growing on the bark concealed most of the arrows, leaving only their fletching untouched. Still, somehow, by a twisted miracle, the fragmented tree was pitifully moaning for help.

Rhinoc's voice lowered, and his tone turned somber as he added, "Anna… tried to help the trees here. The one we just passed…" He shook his head. "She broke down crying trying to alleviate its pain three years ago, and it was already in pieces before she even arrived." Everypony behind him winced, each turning to the tree as it lay there, paling and grimacing when 'three years ago' registered in their minds. "She just… snapped then. I couldn't blame her. We've left Greenwood alone, and Ashwood too, until you guys insisted on trekking through here."

"It's been like that for three years?! Just laying there, hurting, and in pieces before then?!" Applejack screamed, tears beginning to prick at her eyes the longer she stared at the broken tree, her ears starting a fit of ringing the longer she heard it cry out for help that wouldn't come. "That's… words can't even describe how awful it is!" She stamped her hoof and turned to Rhinoc. "I'd buck whoever cast that spell from here straight to Frostbite!"

"May as well get in line," Rhinoc snorted with another shake of his head, "If Anna could, she'd probably turn them into a tree first."

"Would the whole military use whatever spell turned these ponies into trees, if Anna could turn that plothole who did this into a tree?" Dash asked.

Rhinoc nodded. "That bastard has been on Lance's shitlist ever since we found out about the cursed trees," he answered. "And if we had the tree-spell on hoof, that bastard would wind up suffering as these ponies have suffered. However, Lance deemed that forbidden dark magic, and honestly I can see why."

Shining's brow furrowed at that, though he did agree with Rhinoc's utterance nonetheless. "So… horn removal would be the next best option?" he asked.

Rhinoc nodded once more. "Just about." With that, the group trotted on, past moaning trees and sweltering air that would not yield too much heat at all. A good hour passed before they reached another clearing, also marked with torches lining its edges.

Rhinoc's ears pricked when he noticed that a faint bubbling sound permeated the air. He glanced around, trying to scan the surrounding area without looking into the faces of any nearby cursed trees, and squinted his eyes when he spotted a faint orange glow directly east by an immeasurable number of meters. "We must be close to Greenwood," he murmured.

Blueblood looked at Rhinoc and narrowed his eyes again. "What are you stipulating now? If we were close, we'd see a bloody house!" he pointed out in an irate tone.

Rhinoc sighed and lifted a hoof to rub his temples with it, before he dropped it and noticed a tree that had, against all logic, reason, and probability, had a cracked, dusty window in the back. The tree itself was as thick as ten ponies standing side by side, and without hesitation he trotted right up to it. When he reached the window, he reared up and peered inside, finding an open door on the opposite wall greeting him, and past that a distant river of glowing orange liquid.

"Welp, we found a house, but one in disuse. Definitely close now," Rhinoc snorted, squinting his eyes to better see the insides of the tree house he'd discovered. Whatever furniture there was had been broken beyond all recognition, and caked in dust and moss on top of that. "I wonder who this place belonged to."

Chapter LXVII- A Ceremony, Crudely Enshrined

Rhinoc and his group trotted around the house and veered due west from it, and Blueblood scowled as more blackened ground came into view. "What would happen to the cursed trees, were the pony or whatever had put them in such an abysmal state ended up being horribly murdered?" he hissed sibilantly.

"They would very likely die off, if the caster was killed. But should the caster die by natural means, they could remain in their current state," Rhinoc answered, his own voice marred in anger that reflected in narrowing faux eyes and a very firm frown to match it. "Not much is known about the spell and its effects; all we know is that cursed trees simply cannot die."

"I take it study of such forbidden arts is… well…" Flash trailed off, his wings ruffling as a cursed tree nudged him on the neck with a spindly, withered branch. He hurried his pace before the branch could touch him again.

"Yes, study of forbidden arts is pretty much as illegal as actually casting the spells themselves. Or at least, amongst us members of the First Unified Army," Rhinoc replied with a sigh of resignation. He noticed arching rocks up ahead, scorched black and connected to the ground with thin threads of some twig-like solid via their overhangs. He added, "Nobody knows what the hell the cursed trees are made from, let alone how they're formed. It's very suspect, but there isn't much we can do about that. Golem or transmogrified pony, it's all the same no matter how you slice it; especially once you add the flesh under their bark and their immortality into that equation."

Somehow, the second bit flew over one pony's head completely as her brain settled on two particular words she'd never expected Rhinoc to utter together in the same sentence. "... First Unified?" Dash repeated, pupils shrinking as she stared at Rhinoc.

"Yeah. It… was a bit of a kerfuffle settling on the name, and the higher-ups wanted something simple, so they picked that and rolled with it," Rhinoc answered, this time with a note of amusement in his voice. "There was an Air Force, but that one's troops been relegated to other duties when the airships were scrounged up. One higher-up didn't want redundancy, and the ectoplasms were growing out of hoof then."

Dash leaned towards Blueblood and whispered to him, "Yeah, something tells me we're only pastern-deep in whatever Fantasia's problems are."

Blueblood found himself nodding in agreement at that, before turning his attention to an arcing rock as he and the others hurriedly trotted under it, narrowly dodging its meager threads of black, solidified gunk in the process. He noticed several drop-like protrusions littering its suspiciously shiny surface, frozen to their spots as though someone had perhaps glued them there. "What happened here?" he asked.

"I heard a meteorite struck this area about half a decade ago, and apparently it did so with a vengeance. We're in a patch of solid obsidian, and I'd recommend letting it alone," Rhinoc replied, trotting on ahead. "Past here is Greenwood. There should be a trail somewhere that we can follow." As they passed another arching mound of obsidian, Blueblood caught sight of a small puddle of boiling red, thick liquid that seemed to darken just a little as he peered at it.

"Is that… lava?" Blueblood asked, flinching when the puddle popped and hissed at his passing.

"Bona fide. It'll probably finish cooling into obsidian overnight," Rhinoc answered, pausing for a moment when a small river of the stuff barred his path, at least an entire pony's barrel in width. He deftly jumped over it with a shrug, turned around, and gestured to it. "Watch your hooves. That shit can still burn." Dash, Flash, and Shining crossed over the minor obstruction, either by flaring their wings and flapping or by self-levitating. Applejack backed up a few paces before surging forward in a gallop and jumping over to land smoothly on the other side.

Blueblood sighed and backed up as well, before following Applejack's example. His landing was a little clumsy, as his legs nearly buckled and came close to making him faceplant, but a steadying hoof to the withers from Shining managed to stop him in the nick of time. After taking a moment to straighten his posture and nod his thanks to Shining, he turned to Rhinoc again. "Is that the only flow of lava we must cross?" he queried.

Rhinoc nodded, that time with a smile forming on his face. "On this route, yeah. I reckon it'll finish cooling by tonight, so we won't have to leap over it again," he replied, his tone chipper.

Blueblood nodded back, but managed a groan nonetheless. "Oh, if the Day, Night, and Crystal Courts hear of this when I get back home…" He shuddered, ears folding back.

"They'll grill you like a black bird on a spit?" Flash offered.

Blueblood mulled the remark over for a moment before slowly nodding. "That, and for eating food that isn't the… ahem, usual nobility's faire," he concluded. "Nevermind for associating with admittedly-blunt Fantasians." He turned to Rhinoc. "No offense."

"None taken," Rhinoc stated, his smile faltering a little. Then his brain caught up to the fact that Blueblood mentioned Courts. "Wait… Day, Night, and…"

"One operating during daytime, one during night, and one back in the province that I rule over in Mythos that goes on and off, depending if the members there feel like it or not," Shining extrapolated, frowning a little. "When they all get together, it's a Parliament. And it's less pleasant than it sounds."

Rhinoc sighed. "One of the perks of being in… their class?" he asked.

"In my case, above their class," Shining answered, nodding in assent. "They were really vocal after your leader showed up and enlightened us to the fact that we really, really should not get involved in Fantasian affairs. He showed me his wings when they were still bound, just to prove his point."

Rhinoc's shoulders sagged at that. "And… he didn't stop you guys from coming anyway?" he queried in exasperation.

"Listen, me and my friends already got involved at Frostbite, so I just think Lance figured he wouldn't stop us from sticking our noses in a second time," Rainbow stated, sitting on her haunches to cross her forelegs over her barrel. "And that's because the village elder over there foalnapped one of our own." She gave Shining a grim, narrow-eyed look when he opened his mouth to ask what in Tartarus that was about, and her expression was one that all but screamed 'I will explain later.'

"Ah, one of those incidents," Rhinoc groused, now frowning deeply at that. "Well, Windwood's twin is also involved… shame she couldn't accompany us."

"Her broken wing got in the way?" Shining guessed.

Rhinoc fervently nodded at that. "Alexander wanted to do check-ups the moment she finished eating, just to make sure it's recovering smoothly," he clarified. With that he turned and began trotting once more, with everypony filing into step behind him. "Just a few more miles on hoof, and we should be there. We are not spending the night in town, though, for more than a few days."

With that, they trotted in silence for several minutes on end, which then stretched to an hour. After the obsidian rocks fell a good ways behind them, the group noticed that, slowly, whole portions of the surrounding wood started becoming more vibrant. A bush sprung up here, a patch of yellow flowers filled up a clearing they trotted through, and before too long the trees themselves turned a much more healthy shade of brown and even sported leaves on their branches. The cursed trees' numbers also declined drastically, filling the forest with the usual ambience of bird calls and chirping crickets in their place.

However, the leaves were a fiery orange in color, glistening in the sunlight like roiling flames. Thirty minutes after seeing the first leaves on the trees, they came across stone arches suspiciously shaped like gates. These gates were framing a sloping hill lined with a flight of stone stairs that simply sported gaps extending twenty, perhaps thirty, steps at a time.

Grass spilled from those gaps, and ivy crept up the stone gates, giving the impression that the structure simply eroded with time and nature running their courses, and the plants glimmered with a faint green aura. Both steps and gates had cracks running through their structures, only furthering that impression. It seemed the steps and gates were all that was left of whatever grandiose monument was originally built here; meager remnants of a distant past.

"Is this… a shrine?" Dash asked, studying the steps closest to her.

"Used to be more elaborate than this, but yes," Rhinoc replied, shaking his head rather pityingly at the sight. "It all went to hell around the same time Anna joined the army." He gestured to the ivy with a hoof. "She grew those vines to keep the gates together. Told me it was an important part of the village's history." He turned south, towards the fragmented bottom of the stone flight. "I am amazed the ivy is still even here."

"For all her talk about how horrendously Greenwood's galloping downhill," Blueblood mused, eyeing the ivy with a scrutiny that seemed to have been honed by years of practice, "I am rather impressed she even found something of sentimental value to attempt a preservation effort upon."

"You could say that again," Shining agreed with a hasty nod of his head. He turned to Rhinoc, just as he began descending the worn-down flight. "Can we head upstairs first? I want to see what this shrine holds."

Rhinoc stopped and glanced over his withers, a wry smirk playing at his lips. "Well, I suppose I cannot stop you. Just don't make any sudden movements when we reach the top, alright?" he asked.

Shining exchanged glances with everypony else who accompanied him, and they all nodded back. It seemed like a simple request. Then, he turned to Rhinoc and nodded as well. Rhinoc backed up a few paces and surged forward, pumping strength into his legs to make a hell of a stunning leap over his charges before landing smoothly behind them. They turned around and stared with widening eyes, and he glanced over his withers to shoot them another smile. "Some of us changelings can leap like grasshoppers. Only downside is I can't do that too many times in a day," he chirped, evidently pleased with himself. "The muscles for jumping are a little… damaged."

"Damaged?" Flash parroted, canting his head.

"Had an accident with Windwood once. She had a freak magic surge trying to work with runes using an arrow of all things, and my legs haven't healed… fully as of yet. It was only a couple of months before the barrier broke," Rhinoc extrapolated with a sigh of resignation. "Amazingly, she got her cutie mark from that accident."

Rainbow gave a low whistle at that. "How bad was the accident, all in all?"

Rhinoc gestured to the ivy again. "Turned one whole room of the base into a greenhouse, but that was only temporary, and surprisingly easy to clean up," he answered. He turned to the stairs ahead of him and began canting up them, being careful to not step on the cracks or the ivy. He took great care in lowering his hooves just a little more wherever necessary to step on the grass framing the gaps or if the steps sagged a bit. Once more, Shining and his group followed, heading in single file to avoid aggravating the steps too much in their trot uphill.

They passed under three ivy-held gates within a matter of minutes, reaching the top of the hill to discover a raised plateau lined with trees and rune-inscribed stone henges, all surrounding a structure that stood dead center. The structure stood on two legs as thick as two ponies standing side-by-side, the body held up at least twice as wide and framed with a metal jaw. Arms hung slack at its sides, one ending in a set of steel knuckles and the other in a very thick spear that gleamed with a dull sheen. Hollowed-out eyes stared into the middle distance, accentuating a flat top that made up its head.

Oddly, the structure had been primarily crafted of wood; organic and yet artificial at the same time, and even stranger it did not have a torso but rather its whole head was the torso. Rhinoc dropped his disguise in a flare of purple flames, then he stalked forward before bowing towards the entity. "We meet again, Mighty Oak," he chirped.

The thing he dubbed the Mighty Oak actually managed a slow nod, accompanied by a pulse of mana across its body and a low groan of metal grating on wood. It lifted the spear-tipped arm and gestured to the henge nearest the group of visitors, and at once the runes on it flared to life in a brilliant green light. Then, the light projected from the runes, forming odd letters none of them could read.

Rhinoc stood up and turned to the visitors, and saw them turning to the runes. "He's asking what you're doing here," he stated, lifting a hoof to gesture to the Mighty Oak for emphasis. He turned to the Mighty Oak again and answered, "Mythonian diplomats who wanted to see the shrine. A lot has… happened recently."

Again, the Mighty Oak managed a nod. The runes stopped glowing, and the letters projected from them vanished. Then, he lifted his spear-tipped arm and pulled it toward himself several times, beckoning the diplomats to come forward. They hesitated at first, but took slow steps after a few glances were exchanged. They bowed once they stood behind Rhinoc, though only to avoid getting on the Mighty Oak's bad side, if he had one.

Rhinoc stepped aside and turned to Shining. "I think you should do the honors of enlightening our friend here," he chirped. Shining Armor nodded and straightened his posture, and cleared his throat before he started explaining to the somehow-sentient construct before him all that had happened.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

It took a whole hour for Shining to enlighten the Mighty Oak on recent happenings, with Applejack and the others chipping in their two bits wherever needed, save for the start of the whole thing, in which Applejack and Rainbow did most of the speaking. They waited after that, faces tinged a slight shade of blue—or a darker shade in Rainbow's case—as they awaited what the Mighty Oak would say or do.

Finally, after a moment that seemed to stretch for an eternity, the Mighty Oak gave his answer in the form of a slow, methodic nod. Another henge glowed in light, and before him more of those strange letters appeared. Rhinoc studied them for a second. "He's glad Sarah's been found and reunited with her sister, but is concerned about their mental health," he translated.

Applejack turned to Rhinoc, an incredulous brow raised. "Where'd you learn to read that?" she asked, lifting a hoof to gesture to the glowing letters.

"And what language is it?" Flash added. "It's nothing like I've seen; not even Pre-Unification Equestrian compares."

"Oh, that's something the higher-ups refer to as 'ancient alicorn,' but only because they don't know what language it is either," Rhinoc replied with an earnest shrug. "It's been around for about as long as a changeling dialect I've heard only one changeling even use anymore, and sparingly at that, according to Lieutenant Armin."

"Spindly red mane, thin as a twig, broke horn?" Applejack guessed. "I heard her rattling off in what she called Swarm dialect once."

Rhinoc nodded again. "Yeah, that one." He turned to the Mighty Oak. "Thank you for your time. We'll be on our way." The Mighty Oak groaned and nodded, and with that they trotted away from him and down the haggard steps leading to his enshrined plateau.

"So… nobody speaks in Swarm anymore?" Rainbow asked, frowning.

Rhinoc nodded slowly and glumly as he assumed his unicorn guise again. "It's practically a dead language at this point. Only one speaker left to use it, and she doesn't use it that much." He sighed pityingly and ruefully. "I wonder if she can read and write in that tongue. Would be a waste if she couldn't. We found so few records written in Swarm that Armin's the only one who studied it extensively, but even he can't speak it fluently."

Applejack leaned toward Rainbow, but only enough to whisper to her without risking her own balance in the process. "Sounds to me Armin's gonna be their go-to changeling whenever Katie lapses in that Swarm o' hers," she muttered.

Rainbow nodded. "Remind me to ask her if she can write in it," she stated.

"Blueblood… are you the modest type of pony?" Rhinoc asked, waiting until he passed the final gate before sparing a glance over his shoulder. When Blueblood nodded, he turned back to the rest of the staircase that awaited them. With a flash of light he conjured several buckets, each one polished so thoroughly they reflected the bits of sunlight that filtered through the leaves. "You guys may need these for when we reach Greenwood." He gave each of his charges a bucket, and set aside a triad by resting them on his back.

"Is it anything like hippogryphs ripping a full-grown stallion to shreds?" Rainbow queried, her utterance causing Blueblood's cheeks to puff out and a green tint to bud on his face.

"Well… on a scale of horrendous to let-us-never-speak-of-this-ever-again, nowhere near it. But still disgusting in its own right," Rhinoc answered with a sigh. As they descended the flight, Shining noticed that he could faintly hear some kind of commotion coming from the trees ahead. The noises were rather joyous, but over what he couldn't discern. Perhaps there was a celebration of some sort?

Well, whatever the case, he took a few deep breaths to steel himself. He held the bucket that was hoofed to him in his magic, and sighed through his nose. He saw Blueblood doing the same, and Flash and Rainbow using their primaries to hold theirs. Applejack simply carried hers precariously upon her back. Amusingly, some of the trees surrounding them, and the pebbles at their roots, were now also equipped with an array of buckets of their own. The instruments of liquid-juggling were either tucked away in branches or resting upon the pebbles.

Shining frowned. Delta Unit was preparing for whatever horrendous thing lay in Greenwood, too? His stomach began twisting into knots, and he started getting the niggling feeling that maybe the changelings could sense things he couldn't; that would very well explain their affinity for love-draining, now that he thought about it. The joyous noises grew louder as they trotted off the staircase and headed straight south, and Shining shuddered as one of the cursed trees, intermingled with the trees full of leaves, managed to look at him.

"Stay… away from Greenwood," it pleaded, its voice taking on a desperate note that reflected in its haphazardly-swaying branches. "Otherwise… you'll end up…" It did not get to finish its utterance as, tragically, Shining already vanished deeper into the forest with his group at that point.

Speaking of, his frown twisted further, and several alarm bells were going off in his head. The trees were now telling him to stay away too? Just what sort of madness had befallen this place? He swore if he spent a minute longer in town than was necessary, he might come out with a few loose screws that would need a thorough application of brain bleach at a later time. It wasn't until several minutes after departing from the steps of the shrine, when an old dirt trail weaved through the forest caught their eye, was the silence that settled broken.

Rainbow, tired of the silence, decided to blurt something out. "Laz told me that Anna's crazy. Did Greenwood drive her nuts?" she asked.

Rhinoc paused to consider the statement, before he reluctantly shrugged. "She got crazy enough to get therapy for a full year before joining the army, in fact, but I don't know if the town itself was responsible. She was, mentally and metaphorically speaking, a train wreck," he answered, his voice low and grim. "I don't know the full details; you'd have to ask either Lance or Alexander. They know the extent of her nuttiness."

"She… had a therapist?" Flash asked, his jaw hanging open after he made the utterance.

Rhinoc nodded again. "Most I know is physical therapy, on top of mental exercises that didn't involve the use of her magic," he answered. "And a few classes for the most basic of spells."

"She had to be taught basic spells?!" Blueblood exclaimed, pupils shrinking to pinpricks as that, and Rhinoc's confirmation that one of his higher-ups was tutti-frutti registered in his mind with the force of an airship colliding with a mountainside. "What barbarians kept one unicorn from reaching her potential before she joined the military?!"

"Good news is she was a very fast learner. Only downside was having to explain the basics to her, but even that was simple," Rhinoc answered, nodding again. "As for who didn't teach her… dunno." His ears folded back as the sounds grew louder still, and enough that many different masculine voices could be made out with ease. "Oh great, the villagers are partying…" he groused.

"Is that a bad thing?" Applejack asked, frowning deeply at that.

"I take it you have yet to see how hard some villages party? Sometimes it crosses so many disgusting thresholds it makes me ashamed to have been born on the same planet as the partygoers," Rhinoc groaned, slowing his pace just a little bit. "Frostbite should've been your first clue."

Applejack winced, a clawing sense of dread and trepidation growing uncontrollably within the very depths of her soul. Some hamlets considered cannibalism cause for celebration? She found herself breathing a sigh of relief over the fact she didn't bring Apple Bloom and the other Crusaders along for the diplomatic ride. Though, she did make a mental note to consult Luna to let them see her in the dreamworld at a later time.

Dear Faust, some morbidly fascinated part of her wondered what other horrors local Fantasians got themselves giddy over. Applejack tried shaking the thoughts from her head, but such curious musings would not so easily be banished. This only made her shudder as her dread increased, causing her pupils to shrink and her frown to deepen further into a scowl. She noticed that the voices ahead that were celebrating were also… moaning? Over what?

Then, amidst all of the voices, a single feminine voice managed to pierce through the fog, though only barely. "I-I'll be a g-good f-filly… a g-good b-blank f-flanked filly," the owner uttered, in something trying to be anything else other than a half-gurgled choke. Applejack tensed, and her ears fell back as she remembered Maria's plea the day one of her tormentors met his gruesome end at Rarity's hooves.

Her stomach twisted as the possibility of Greenwood turning into another Frostbite presented itself to her with the utterance of the half-choked voice, and something seemed to click in place. She turned to Rainbow and asked, "Didja hear that?"

Rainbow looked back and nodded solemnly. "Heard the 'good filly' part loud and clear. Remind you of anypony?" she queried, her voice slightly cracking.

Applejack nodded back, just as gravely. "Anygryph, rather, but yeah. I think we should prepare to kick some flank in case—" She bumped into an errant torch and staggered before she had the chance to turn ahead and stop herself, but she did not topple over or even drop her bucket. Instead, she merely backed up a few trots, turned forward, then went around the torch when a sign right next to it caught her eye. "Hey, what's this here say?" she asked, brow furrowing when she saw the same strange letters the Mighty Oak had used on the piece of wood.

"Oh?" Rhinoc lifted a hoof to halt the expedition party before cantering around them and to the sign to study it. His face paled considerably as he read it. "W-wedding c-ceremony… t-today u-until m-midnight…" He gulped and backed away from the sign, and returned to take point and continue on his way, his knees a lot more weak and wobbly than before. "R-ready the b-buckets…"

Applejack felt her stomach rumbling and pang repeatedly in pain, as though it were re-enacting the petrification of Discord. While a wedding ceremony in itself didn't sound terribly bad, if the moaning and the whole 'I'll be a good filly' bit were anything to go by, then somehow something was going wrong. But she didn't know for certain; maybe the moaners had wounded themselves somehow, and perhaps the 'I'll be good' was the standard equivalent of 'I do' in these parts of Fantasia. That revelation did little to ebb her concerns, though.

A village gate came into view twenty minutes after they trotted from the sign, laden with red roses interlaced with poison ivy of all things. In fact, were it not for the roses, she'd not have noticed at all. "That the entrance to Greenwood?" she asked, her voice a little weak as bile started climbing up their throat.

Rhinoc hastily nodded. "A-are your b-buckets r-ready?" he stammered weakly. He glanced over his shoulder to receive five nods, though not before Applejack lifted a foreleg to grasp her bucket, lift it off her back and grapple the thin wiry handle in her mouth. Then, he lifted one of the buckets on his back and put it in his mouth before turning ahead and striding forward.

Once the group entered Greenwood proper, the moaning only intensified into a deafening din. However, where the incessant noises were coming from were a bit muddled, largely in part because they basically strode into another clearing peppered with leafless trees, some as thick at the trunk of Fluttershy's cottage, with windows to frame the upper floors and doors to serve as the entrances. Anything to suggest marital festivities, though, were bereft from the surrounding landscape. In fact, not even the ground itself held any clues as to what was going on.

Stranger still, the villagers were nowhere to be found; not one piece of hide nor mane lingered. Despite the lack of visible life that wasn't tree and ground, the group pressed on, weaving between several trees until they came upon a trail consisting of several sets of hoofprints. Wordlessly, they followed the trail, heading into a secondary clearing with rows of ponies watching a podium of some sort, all within in a matter of minutes. On the podium, one young mare in a white gown was…

Applejack and her companions promptly did a double-take, shaking their heads and rapidly blinking their eyes to confirm what they were seeing. The young mare on the podium was being mounted by a stallion in a tuxedo, and if the strangeness didn't skyrocket from there, then the line of yet more stallions in similar outfits and sporting fifth legs behind the one having his turn did.

Behind the publicly-mating couple, an elderly unicorn stallion with a faded brown coat and a greying green mane watched on with an expression so utterly devoid of emotion he almost seemed to be staring into the middle distance. His eyes were as dull as his coat, and his pupils seemed to have blended into the pools of green, which did not at all help matters in the slightest, let alone his vacant expression.

Rhinoc and his charges' faces promptly twisted into expressions of pure disgust. They backpedaled slowly, partly to avoid drawing attention to themselves and partly to avoid bumping into each other in their ignominious exit from an even more horrendous display. They halted, however, when the elderly stallion shifted his distant gaze ever so slightly toward them, and cleared his throat loudly enough to get the bride and… groom? Best stallion? Whomever it was, his sharp "ahem" ground the proceedings to an immediate halt. They looked to him, and he nodded in the direction of the unexpected guests.

"Come sit with us… stay for the festivities," the elderly stallion intoned, his tone surprisingly sharp and authoritative for somepony so dead-faced the cursed trees were given a run for their bits. "You needn't mount the bride, though; only those born into Greenwood are afforded that privilege."

In that moment, the stomachs of Applejack and her companions clenched so hard they felt the bile squeezing out into their throats. They proceeded to ready the buckets to receive their payload, but not before turning around and witnessing a vibrant green shield encompassing all of Greenwood.

Chapter LXVIII- Jinxed Constellations

It took almost thirty minutes for the proceedings, including the one or two minutes the newly-arrived group spent emptying their stomachs into their buckets, to conclude. After that, everypony in the crowd dispersed, save for the elderly stallion with the vacant gaze. He watched as the bride, who amazingly enough had the strength left to do so, wobbled home with one of the tuxedo-clad stallions. "I understand not everyone is… accustomed to such a sight, and I sincerely wish it could be avoided," he groused in a remorseful voice, turning to his uninvited guests. "But you must understand; we ponies of Greenwood are… cursed."

Blueblood, whose face had turned to a shade of darkened verdant, lurched a bit as more bile tried to force itself out of his throat. He swallowed it with a great deal of willpower, and then turned to glower at the stallion. "Wh… whatever are you blabbering about?" he hissed, his voice pained.

"And… what did you mean by… 'those only born in Greenwood?'" Rhinoc groaned, clutching his aching stomach with a hoof.

The elder sighed, but his face did not shift in any way save for a flaring of nostrils. "Come to my abode. We will discuss it there." He turned and cantered off the podium on wobbly legs, with his gait favoring his left side, enabling his guests to see that he did not possess a cutie mark. Bit by bit he trudged to the main clearing that marked Greenwood, and slowly his guests got up and followed him in silence, though not before Rhinoc made the buckets vanish in light. They noticed that the path between the clearings was relatively short, perhaps twenty yards, and that some houses sported signs that had boards nailed over them.

The few ponies left out and about watched as they trudged to a withered tree whose door was barely holding together, with some sets of eyes flashing red at their passing. These glaring ponies, too, were blank-flanked, and three of them were a band of dark grey unicorn stallions clustered near one house, all with moss green manes streaked with silver stripes.

"Outsiders," one of them muttered.

"It's like that blasted harpy all over again," another hissed.

"What next? Will Akron himself grace us with his presence?" the third groused, audibly facehoofing soon after his utterance.

The elder paid the muttering villagers no heed and lifted a shaking hoof to open the door, ambling inside while being gracious enough to leave it wide open. Rhinoc shivered and stepped in, as did the rest of his entourage. The inside of the house was decorated with more wooden furniture, most of it carved from the rich brown oakwood. There were rocking chairs, small tables and nightstands, and even an ottoman and a fireplace outlined by stone. A door was at the back of the room, currently closed at the moment. The elder sat in one of the rocking chairs and gestured for his visitors to sit, and Flash shut the door before everyone parked in front of him.

"What brings you to our… hamlet?" the elder asked, his face as stoic as ever.

"We… heard moans, and… they were loud enough we could hear it from the Mighty Oak's shrine," Rainbow answered, lifting a hoof to rub at the back of her neck.

The elder raised a brow. "The Mighty Oak, you say? Nopony, outsider and villager alike, has visited him in some five years at the least. Tell me… is his shrine alright?"

Shining nodded. "As alright as it could be." He frowned. "I saw some of the villagers' eyes glowing crimson… and given how you handled the wedding procession, I would like to know what that's all about. Does it have to do with your being 'cursed?'"

The elder nodded and his face, for perhaps the first time since they arrived, donned a thin frown and he let his eyes slant ever so slightly. His voice took on a somber note as he replied, "We do not wish for our curse to spread—a curse that some say Faust herself laid upon our ancestors before she and Godcat were sealed away." His lip quivered, and his ears flattened. "Mares in heat must breed incessantly, lest they never conceive a foal. Stallions here… have to oblige them. Otherwise, we'd not be here."

Shining's eyes grew wide. "You mean… you have to do… all of that just to ensure your survival?" he muttered, his voice tinged with a note of pity.

The elder glumly nodded. "One stupid fool… brought home an outsider, about nineteen years ago. He very likely spread the curse. We're not even sure if his foals suffer from it…" he muttered. "When one of them was informed of it at the tender age of eleven, she fled… the other requested time alone in Ashwood two years after that. Neither was heard from since. We had to..." The elder looked away, clenched his eyes shut, and actually shed a tear. His voice cracked; he sounded ashamed as he uttered in a voice barely above a choked whisper, "If they're still alive, I cannot imagine what Hell those young ones must be going through right now…"

Shining frowned. "What… happens if a mare isn't indulged, or a stallion isn't obliged in…" He didn't get the chance to finish as the elder turned to him and snapped open his eyes, which then started to glow a bright ruby red. His horn flashed the same color, and at once his guests flinched back. The elder abruptly stood up and let his eyes narrow to thin slits.

His voice started to echo as he spoke in a tone that shook the house to its roots, "The curse expresses itself! Corrupts our magic! Twists our minds and bends our souls to its whim! It causes the very blood in our veins to boil when it is ignored! None can hope to tame it, to break free of its horrendous manacles!" He stopped when he saw the worried looks that formed on the faces of his guests, and he closed his eyes and let his magic dim. "I-I'm sorry… I should have…"

He shuddered and grit his teeth, fighting back tears as he slowly sat back down. "But I am an old soul. I can no longer sate the hex… e-even now, it's… it's starting to get to me. The symptoms of this horrid enchantment have been worsening for us all these past twenty years; it used to be a mare only needed to be mounted by two or three stallions, and now practically the whole village is in on it. I fear… I fear it may have grown stronger..."

"What was that… we heard the bride utter something about being a blank flank," Rainbow interjected, garnering a tired sigh from the elder.

"Should we obtain our marks, the curse will inevitably twist them too. Some villagers choose not to get them, for fear that whatever potential talents they gain would then… be used for malcontent purposes," the elder replied, his voice still solemn. "Should the curse twist the mark such that it bonds to an item, it must be used… otherwise… terrible things may transpire." His eyes slowly opened, glistening with forming tears and regret. "I learned this… long ago, when I was still a youthful colt…"

"What's with the shield outside?" Applejack asked, lifting a hoof to remove her hat and hold it to her barrel.

The elder lowered his head and shook it pityingly. "It goes up every evening, always before sunset; keeping the villagers in and the outsiders away. It is… our prison, but it also keeps the curse from transitioning any further under its dome. The foolish stallion who wed an outsider… the shield was his very last spell." He looked at Applejack, and another tear streaked his cheek. "What have our ancestors done wrong? Why must we suffer for whatever sins Faust or whomever saw fit to curse them for their follies?"

For a while, the guests were stone silent. "What does the curse do to you, if… if you let it be for too long?" Flash piped up.

He found himself wishing he hadn't asked, for when the elder answered his pupils shrank. "They become one of the cursed trees, doomed to forever live… in another tailor-made prison, if one were to trot outside of the shield." The elder lowered his head again. "I may croak soon… but even if I were chopped into pieces, I'd still be transmogrified anyway. There's no escaping the curse… countless others have tried. Countless others have inevitably failed—even those who gained cutie marks." He lifted his head again. "That fool's children may have already transformed, and are pleading for death as we speak."

Rhinoc shuddered, his body aching with all of the horrendous negative emotion pouring from the elder. But, if what he said was true, then it may well have been tragically understandable for him to be feeling that way. "A-are cursed trees… also wraiths?" Blueblood asked, paling considerably.

The elder shook his head. "No, for they never truly die to begin with. Death itself cannot touch them. As far as I am concerned, my brethren trotted to Hell… fully alive and conscious," he stated somberly. "It is a most terrifying fate that I would not wish on anypony." His head dropped again. "I'm not sure which evil is worse: the current stagnation of Greenwood, or what happens to us just before we can die…"

"Is there anything you know about the ponies who tried breaking the curse?" Flash asked, his wings ruffling a bit. "Or at least, their methods?"

The elder sighed. "I do not, sadly. The ancestors deemed their efforts and musings null and void; I suspect they didn't keep records. And why would they—when you are granted hellish immortality anyway?" he rebuked. "I doubt you could extract anything from them in their current state; their minds have very likely broken down by this point. I honestly have yet to find a tree who could even manage a coherent utterance as of late..."

"Actually, we passed one who told us to stay away," Blueblood interjected, having the decency to look away and frown in shame. But he saw the elder wave a hoof out of the corner of his eye.

"Eh, as long as you lot don't conceive foals with the villagers, the curse won't spread anymore, so I suppose you can spend the night. And… I saw your buckets, by the way. I about had that same reaction when I acted as priest for my first wedding," the elder stated, with a hint of empathy buried somewhere deep in his sorrowful tone. "Let me tell you, those days were awful."

Shining lifted a hoof and tapped his chin with it. "Say, do you know anything about the ancient alicorns, who vanished when Faust and Godcat were sealed?" he asked.

The elder shook his head. "Not one lick of information there. Sorry," he replied.

Blueblood nodded and stood up. "I think that settles it for tonight; the only issue now is finding out where we can sleep, now that we're trapped here," he muttered, garnering no less than five nods of agreement.

The elder sighed and rose from his rocking chair, craning his neck towards the door in the back of the room. "I have a guest room upstairs. It's not much, but I hope it helps you alleviate… your discomfort at seeing that grotesque display," he muttered. "And those ceremonies only last for a day. I'm grateful they only happen once yearly."

The visitors stood up, and nodded to the elder. They started trotting to the closed door in the back, but a raised hoof stopped them. "I just noticed one of you… is very…" The elder clicked his tongue, searching for the right word as he pointedly stared at Rainbow. "Prismatic? Yes, that's the word. Tell me… why is that so?"

Rainbow turned to the elder and frowned a bit, seeing a spark of curiosity alight in his dull eyes. "Well, I was born like this… my dad had the rainbow mane too," she replied. "Oh, by the way… did you see the barrier between Fantasia and Mythos break?"

The elder's eyes widened. "Y-yes, I have…" he answered.

"Well, that's a long story I think we should save for tomorrow. I ain't got the stomach to sit for some more hours and rattle my tongue faster than a lightning bolt," Applejack groaned, putting her hat back on her head.

The elder nodded in understanding. "I see. Just be sure to let me know the full details, whenever you're ready…" he said. The group nodded and headed for the door, opening it and trotting up a flight of stairs that lay beyond. As they vanished from sight, the elder's face twisted in sorrow again, but now there was a hopeful glint in his eyes. "Maybe… the barrier breaking… is that a sign?"

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The guest room in the elder's abode was pitifully small; only one bed, window and nightstand to its name, and bereft of anything else except four measly meters in both length and width. Shining and his group were forced to sit in the floor, sighing as the silver light of the moon started poking through the window. The light was tinted a slight shade of green thanks to the barrier over Greenwood. "That bit about ponies becoming trees seems dubious…" he muttered, brow furrowing as he mentally tried to work out the logistics of how ponies turned into trees.

"Something just plain don't add up," Applejack agreed with a nod. "But that poor stallion needs help, that much I know." Five heads bobbed in unison. "He seemed very sincere with what he was rantin' and ravin' about. If I had to go through all that, then I'd be pretty miffed m'self."

"But if what he said is true, then how can we help?" Blueblood questioned, scowling. "He said so himself; the curse cannot be broken. If, indeed, he and his folk are well and truly cursed."

"Hrm…" Rainbow put a hoof to her chin and tapped at it idly. "I guess we could try asking the cursed trees tomorrow… only problem is finding the ones that can still talk."

"I think the one who told us to stay away would be a start; that's the closest one on the route we took to get here," Flash added.

"A logical start, yes, but I don't know if the tree in question would want to converse," Rhinoc interjected, closing his eyes and lifting a hoof to rub his temples. "We trotted right past him… her… it, when it warned us. But now we know what the fuss is about, at least." He turned away and muttered under his breath, "It may tell us to fuck off for all I know."

Rainbow's eyes narrowed a bit, and her face hardened. "Now that I think about it… I saw Anna's eyes glow red," she muttered. She turned to Shining and asked, "Do you think she's got the same curse the elder stallion does?"

Shining mulled it over, tilting his head as gears started to grind in his mind. "It's very possible, and she did tell me she was cursed. And if that's the case… then why is she in Lance's army force," he queried, though his tone was low enough it sounded more like a statement. "And if she does… with what the elder said about the hex, that may mean she's unstable… not to mention her high risk of kicking the bucket, given her line of work."

"But there's the possibility she could be cursed with something completely different. I mean, her sister had that wicked-loud harp that could destroy eardrums," Rainbow pointed out. She, Applejack, and Shining all cringed at the mention of the harp. "And I am no egghead, but maybe there are many curses that make the eyes go red and drives ponies nuts."

"Yes, but it could still affect her negatively regardless of what type of curse it is," Shining retorted, frowning. "You have a point, Rainbow; Anna's curse may not correlate to whatever has befallen Greenwood, though I am beginning to suspect the two are linked somehow. Either way… if it has the same mental effects on her, she could become unstable, assuming she isn't already."

"Definitely unstable," Rhinoc answered, frowning when Shining turned to him with a raised brow. "Magically speaking, that is. She usually lets it all out at once, peters herself out, and ends up grouchy at the end of the day. Hell, that accident that got her the cutie mark she now has wasn't the last time I've seen her metaphorically blow up."

"Letting it all out? Wouldn't that strain her magical capabilities?" Blueblood asked. "Or at least turning her horn red-hot and increase the risk of horn-related trauma?"

Rhinoc nodded. "Try telling her that after she torches somebody with a hail of arrows," he stated, his tone callous. "I've seen her do it before, and I heard she went and did it in Whitefall this past couple of days. And she's not usually magically strained after the effort."

"Yeah, I saw the aftermath of that. Some stallion became literal trotting crystal," Rainbow groaned, spreading her wings and smacking her own face with them. "I mean, jeez, isn't that overkill?"

"Not when the uncouth pony in question was already a wraith to begin with," Blueblood snorted, shaking his head. "I am amazed he trotted out of that whole affair with his legs still intact."

"Even better." Rhinoc threw his forehooves into the air and groaned in exasperation. "She accelerated a wraith's defensive… formation… thing…" His head dropped as words failed him.

"Are you sayin'... that wraiths mutate?" Applejack asked, raising an incredulous brow at the notion. That got Rhinoc to lower his hooves and raise his head to nod in her direction.

"Yeah; their magic goes all over the damn place if something catastrophic happens to their bodies, unless they were decapitated. It's like cutting the head off the snake, but you don't know which of those snakes could be hydras, if you get the drift," Rhinoc answered, his face hardening. "If there's one thing about wraiths that I respect but still don't fully understand, it's that they can adapt."

"Everything settled for tonight, then?" Shining asked, garnering five nods. With that, he curled his legs under himself and lowered his body to rest on the floor. He closed his eyes… only to jolt back up when Rhinoc's horn flashed and several sleeping bags, a few blocks of leather-wrapped foam that could only feasibly be called mattresses, and a few pillows came forth from several blinking lights.

"Good thing I brought these with me," Rhinoc chirped, opening one sleeping bag after positioning it on leather-wrapped foam. He made to climb into it, but halted when Applejack coughed.

"Do you an' yourn always come this prepared?" Applejack asked, rather incredulously at that.

Rhinoc nodded, donning a small smile. "Let's just say somepony would tear into me if I didn't, and not somepony currently with us at this time," he answered. With that, he crawled into his sleeping bag and zipped it shut around himself in his magic, finishing up the whole affair by resting a pillow beneath his head. "And yes, they're clean."

Applejack sighed and made to claim a sleeping bag, a pillow, and foam mattress. Given that she couldn't do much now that the course of action come morning was decided, she inhaled deeply. Setting up the crude bed, she saw Rainbow doing likewise, using her wings to juggle the pillow as she fumbled with the bag. "Applejack?" Rainbow asked, apprehensively turning her head to her friend.

"Yeah?" Applejack replied with a tired sigh.

"I hope we don't have to use the Elements of Harmony on this whole town… like, I really, really hope that we don't," Rainbow groused, her mouth forming a thin line. "I'm not sure how the villagers would take it."

Applejack nodded, her mind painting a picture of panicking ponies as the Elements were activated. Hopefully, it wouldn't be dire enough to come to that. "I get ya," she muttered. "I think we should have one o' them…" she paused, turning to eye the door warily, as if expecting eavesdroppers. "One o' them outside the field get Twi tomorrow, if we have to," she finished after a few seconds, turning back to making her makeshift bed.

Rainbow put her pillow down on her foam mattress. Wordlessly, she crawled into her sleeping bag without zipping it shut and closed her eyes, sighing deeply before falling fast asleep. It did not take her long to dream; mere minutes after drifting off, she found herself in a glittering starscape.

A glittering starscape filled with the echo of someone's very pained voice. "Help… meeeeeeee," the voice uttered, distant and yet… sounding as though the source was so close by.

Rainbow glanced around, spinning about, craning her neck this way and that, even taking to the air to get a better vantage point to see where the source was. "Wh-who's there?" she asked.

"Help… meeeeee," the voice repeated, now more faint. Rainbow strained her ears, hoping to find the source, but alas not one peep flitted through the starscape to let her know where it was coming from. The world, save for her beating wings, had fallen as still and silent as a grave. She glanced around again, and noticed that several stars seemed to dull considerably, with some turning an ugly shade of rusted mahogany.

Spinning around mid-air as though on a diagonal and slanted axis, while a relatively easy feat, did nothing to earn Rainbow so much as a fleeting glimpse of the pleading speaker. All she saw was stars as far as the eye could possibly see. "Hello?" she tried again, still clinging to the hope that whoever was pleading would show themselves—making the assumption that, of course, they were able to.

Silence fell upon the glimmering starscape again, and slowly Rainbow descended down to… she looked down and realized she did not know where the floor even was in this place, and frowned at that. Stopping her descent, she heard the sorrowful "Help… meeeeee…" permeate the area once again, and this time whirled around.

The source still eluded her, though. Who the hay would be calling for help, yet refuse to be seen, and why? Some part of Rainbow was calling shenanigans. Still, she decided that she needed to fly through the starscape, and hovering in one spot wasn't going to cut it. So she flew, albeit slowly, hoping to ascertain where in the hell the source of the pleas was.

Hours passed, and on she flew, but still Rainbow found nothing to indicate where the owner was. The starscape did not even change in the slightest, for it seemed endless. She stopped to hover again and snorted, brow furrowing as her blood began to boil. "Okay, really… how am I supposed to help you if I don't know where…" She stopped rambling, but only as a bright light began to shine brilliantly above Rainbow. She glanced up to find that a full moon had mysteriously cropped up, from which emerged a blue alicorn whose appearance made her break out into a brilliant smile and relax her brow. "Hey Princess!" she greeted.

Luna descended to Rainbow and nodded in response. "Sorry I had not arrived sooner. Discord has enlightened me to a lot of… Fantasia's ongoing anomalies," she sighed. "But I am afraid me, Celestia, and Cadence cannot interfere in their affairs." She donned a forlorn frown.

Rainbow's smile fell. "Whaddya mean?" she asked.

Luna's lips formed a thin line. She sighed deeply before answering, "There is simply too much going on; Day and Night Courts are in a fuss, with the nobles growing more paranoid by the day. The delegates from the other nations are refusing to come over and chip in, and the Fantasians whom you're now accompanying are still blocking me from their dreams, no matter what I do. Only one has yet to do so, but Discord frightened him, so I wouldn't be surprised if he followed suit."

Rainbow's brow furrowed a little. "And what about the rest of Fantasia?" she pressed.

Luna shook her head. "Some may see it as an invasion if my sister and I intervened, and I highly doubt any of the Fantasians, save Lance and his group, would listen to even a smidgen of our reasoning. There's not much we can do; whatever Fantasia's problems may be, they are ones the Fantasians will have to fix." Her ears fell flat against her head, and her brow slanted. Even her mane and tail drooped a smidgen as she stated in a solemn tone, "Mostly… on their own."

She lifted a hoof and gently pressed Rainbow's barrel with it. "But Lance and his crew are not alone; they have you, your friends, and Blueblood to help them set things right. I have confidence you will aid them, somehow or another." Luna's eyes twinkled a little, and her frown deepened still. "I just wish… I could tell them that."

Rainbow nodded, an inkling of what Luna was suggesting starting to dawn on her. "So… I help them fix whatever's going on, maybe use the Elements if things are that bad, but only Lance's army is getting that help. This what I am hearing?"

Luna nodded. "Yes, but… anything outside of the army would be best left alone," she stated. "Unless the army is getting involved with it, whatever it may be."

Rainbow managed a small smile at that. "Well… Lance got the wind back under his wings, but it's gonna be a bit before he can get good at flying," she chirped. Spreading out her forehooves, she made a vague indication of their length as best as she was able. "They rival your wings; that's how big they are. I reckon that, if he were any taller, he'd probably compete with Celestia. But to him, that just means he's more awkward a flier."

Luna's frown faded, and her ears perked upright in the blink of an eye. "Really?" she queried.

Rainbow nodded affirmatively. "Yep. And the mood of his troops got a little better when they heard the news. Heck, his right hoof ponies saw it for themselves," she chirped, dropping her forehooves. "I heard something about a certain somepony preening him sideways the night before that, but that was when I just hit the bed, so I dunno how true that is."

Luna chuckled at that. "Ah, yes, yon feather fondling. I believe I have an idea as to who the somepony in question was," she said, her cheeks puffing a little as she started trying her best to keep from breaking out laughing. When Rainbow's brows went up, Luna extrapolated with amusement in her tone, "This somepony trotted up to me and asked if she could feel my wings, and her eyes were wide as mine hooves. She looked as though she thought that I couldn't have possibly been an alicorn, but my presence and the feeling of my feathers dispelled that notion."

Rainbow started cracking up as she imagined that particular fiasco. Luna waved a hoof dismissively and added, "In front of all of the gathered nobles of Canterlot, no less. I had to shoo her away, lest she accidentally prod at mine joints."

Rainbow started guffawing, shifting her hooves to clutch her stomach as she envisioned snobby nobles gawking at Luna's wings being fondled by a complete, very forward stranger. "D-did you get… t-the looks on their f-faces?!" she howled before falling flat on her back, still flapping her wings madly, trying and failing to rein herself under control now that that mental image affixed itself to her mind.

Luna smiled at that. "Oh yes, they raised quite a fuss about that after the Fantasians departed on their airship. They called the fondler in question a, and I quote, 'stuck-up lower class hooligan with no respect for decency or proper decorum,'" she answered. "Of course, we have nary an idea of what the Fantasians consider decency and decorum, so…"

Rainbow shot up, stopped laughing, and looked at Luna with very wide eyes. "Wait. You're saying a Fantasian fondled your wing?" she asked.

Luna nodded again, still smiling. "Green mane, brownish coat, a bit too young to be in the military," she answered.

Rainbow's eyes widened further than Luna thought possible, before she fell back and started laughing all over again. "Th-that's even worse!" she exclaimed between giggle-snorts, her wings flapping even harder than before.

Luna patiently waited until Rainbow's fit of gut-busting chortles ran out of steam before magically, and tenderly, helping her back on her hooves. Rainbow lifted a wing and used one of her primaries to brush off a tear that had formed in her eye. "Th-thanks Luna. I-I needed that after what I-I saw today," Rainbow chirped, though her voice cracked nonetheless. She took some needed deep breaths, noticing Luna's brow quirking up quizzically.

Rainbow then extrapolated what had happened earlier that day, from the trees all the way to the elder's outburst. Luna's eyes slowly widened as she heard every little word that spilled off Rainbow's tongue, and her ears fell flat against her head again the more she absorbed it. "They have to do what just to conceive a foal?!" she cried, loud enough to knock Rainbow clean off her hooves and send her quite a few feet away.

Rainbow landed unsteadily, but flared her wings and flew back to Luna before telling her again, this time slowly, "Every stallion in Greenwood who can has to mount a mare in heat. Every. One. I heard it used to be just two or three, but…"

Luna's legs trembled, threatening to buckle. "That's… that's absurd!" she cried, her voice laced with a disbelief so thick one could slice it with a knife. "That's a curse that ceased to exist in Equestria when the tribes unified… h-how is this still prevalent in Fantasia?!"

Rainbow shrugged in earnest. "I have no idea, but I'll find out what's going on one way or another." Her face set in a firm, grim look with a furrowed brow and eyes narrowed to slits. "I may need to ask the villagers, but not until after I ask the cursed trees just what the hay is wrong with the place." A thought hit her, and she assumed a deep frown the moment it did. "I think I'll ask Anna about it too; Shining told me she was cursed."

"With what?" Luna pressed, eyes narrowing,

"Dunno, but I do know she doesn't want to go to Greenwood. Maybe the two are tied…" Another thought hit her, and her glare eased. "You said when the tribes unified, a curse was broken… what was it?"

Luna sighed. "Ponies had to breed indiscriminately like rabbits just to bear a foal, before the Windigoes arrived and brought the threat of endless winter on their ethereal tails," she replied. "There was a stallion named Bruce, who grew infamous for having many illegitimate foals, though I know not much else about him; only one record survived, and even then in the confines of the lone record of the years before Pre-Unification. From then on, the curse was known henceforth as 'Bruce's Jinx.'"

Rainbow crossed her forelegs over her barrel. "Bruce's Jinx… hrm… sounds fishy," she muttered.

"Very dubious, indeed," Luna agreed with a nod. "And not only that, but it was only limited to breeding; none of this nonsense where ponies' eyes turn red, they go berserk, or they become still-living trees when they should die instead. Yet you say, from the lips of somepony else, that Faust herself cast this blight upon Greenwood?"

Rainbow nodded. "Which just makes it even more fishy," she stated, tilting her head to the side. "What would it take for the spell to be broken, if an alicorn who helped shape Mythos and Fantasia cast it?"

Luna shook her head. "Another alicorn would have to do so, and maybe they'd have to be at least as strong as one fourth of Faust's power, but how… I do not know in the slightest," she answered grimly. "And there are no alicorns in Fantasia, as far as I know… Discord looked high and low, and all he could get was an old Fantasian mare's tale, passed by word of mouth. He magically checked a lot of the populace too; no alicorns to be seen or heard."

Rainbow proceeded to separate her forelegs and facehoof. "Jeez…" she groused. "Well, this just got a lot worse than I thought…" She felt a hoof on her shoulder and lowered her forelegs to find Luna looking at her solemnly.

"Mayhaps… but you still need to help those poor ponies of Greenwood. Drag Lance into it, physically if you must, but…" Luna was silenced when Rainbow nodded.

"I'll do what I can," Rainbow said, her tone one of finality. At that, Luna smiled a little and nodded back, her horn flaring to life in a brilliant, moon-white light.

"Then I wish you the safest of travels, Rainbow Dash," Luna said in a soothing, motherly tone just seconds before the light enveloped Rainbow, whereupon she woke up.

Chapter LXIX- Venomous Despair

When Rainbow's eyes opened, she averted them to her present company one body at a time, finding them all still sound asleep despite the fact that a faint ray of sunlight had managed to cast itself upon all of their faces. She frowned and shrugged, opting to just lay there and wait for somebody else to wake up, yet nobody moved for twenty minutes straight. She noticed that the sunlight was tinged in green, but as she stared, the green hue faded and faded until only pure golden rays remained behind. She turned to the window, finding a hue of purple-scarlet, with a layer of darkened green at the edge of its bottom.

Rainbow got up, stretched her wings and cantered lightly to the window, her steps silent and swift. Peering out, she saw clouds parting of their own accord, with the rising sun coming up into the sky to greet Greenwood's side of Fantasia. Sighing through her nostrils, she started gazing down at the ground, seeing a few villagers trot out of their houses, mostly unicorns with bows and quivers slung over their withers in addition to standard saddlebags, with a hoofful of earth ponies lugging around axes, shovels, and hoes. All of them were stallions, a little wobbly-legged from the wedding procession the day prior, and strangely enough not one pegasus was to be found amongst them.

Rainbow fluffed her wings a bit and watched as the mares trotted out after the stallions, many with greying coats and manes. The few young mares out and about were either pregnant, or watching their pregnant fellows as if wondering when they'd have their baby. Like the stallions, there were a few earth ponies in the lot, but most were unicorns toting saddlebags around. The pregnant mares and those with greying bodies carried smaller bags, though none lit up their horns even once to better bear their loads.

A few foals emerged after the mares, and when they did they stuck with the pregnant ones like glue, bouncing up and down with mouths moving rapidly. Nopony seemed to even realize they had visitors yet, and honestly Rainbow wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not, given the intrusion upon their wedding ceremony. She cringed when she realized that, sooner or later, the whole of Greenwood would find out, and her brow furrowed when she also realized that there was no telling how they'd react to that news once they caught on. Some part of her hoped the welcoming committee would be friendly, though another part of her honestly doubted that being the outcome.

Caught up in her observations of the situation, seeing the trio of dark grey stallions with greying manes pausing to glare at the elder's house—ignoring the window, with muzzles seemingly affixed to the front door instead—she did not notice as a soft beating of hooves filled the area. She did look away when a rustling of cloth hit her ears, and craned her neck to find Shining Armor turning and opening his eyes lazily. "Mornin'," Rainbow greeted.

"Ey," Shining replied with a sluggish nod and a titanic yawn leaving his mouth. Slowly, on legs that were visibly stiff, he rose to stand and stretch as much as his limbs would allow. His ears caught the beating of hooves and he turned to the door leading to the stairs, his brow raising a substantial margin as he realized the noise came in a steady rhythm.

"H-hello?" he and Rainbow heard the elder call out. "A-are you awake?"

Shining cantered to the door and gently opened it, finding the elder beyond on a winding staircase with a small platform that let him stand before the guest room. "Only two of us are up. You're gonna have to wait a few," he answered.

The elder nodded and donned a small smile. "I'll make you some breakfast, then, before you head out," he offered. "Would fish be alright with you?"

Shining mulled it over in his head. "Um… only with some vegetables on the side," he answered after a few seconds.

The elder nodded again. "Would carrots, cabbage, and broccoli suffice?"

Shining nodded again and donned a smile. "Heaps of it, if you can," he replied. "Only one of us is really… comfortable with the idea of eating meat."

The elder's smile fell. "Eh? Why's that?" he prodded, tilting his head as his eyes went wide.

"We… come from Mythos, and in a specific country that farms so effectively that eating meat is, more or less, reserved only for wildlife and the occasional gryphon visitor," Shining explained with a tired sigh leaving his mouth.

The elder blinked, taking a few seconds to process what he'd just heard. Then he nodded again, and his smile returned. "Oh, some villagers here have taken to farming. I understand ye completely; not many would want to eat meat in these parts either, though it's still necessary…" he muttered, his smile faltering. "But only because not a lot of the land is arable here, ever since that meteor fell…"

Shining didn't say anything to that, figuring the meteor that fell five-odd years ago must have done quite a number on Greenwood's livelihood. Instead, he opted to change the subject, "Did you get any other visitors last week?"

The elder nodded. "A lilac mare from Whitefall came on her lonesome, hunting for game animals to feed the guards and replenish her stocks," he answered, his tone a bit chipper. "She didn't mingle with us too much, just asked to help her hunt. Last I seen of her, she was very badly spooked by the cursed trees, but otherwise she made it out of the trip alright."

"Well, she told us about an elder with bound wings in this area… it's why I asked," Shining replied, frowning as he found himself with a mental image of Eve getting a very bad, very understandable case of the heebie-jeebies.

The elder's smile fell again, and he looked away. "The… winged 'elder' you speak of wasn't actually an elder, really, but she did look the part; her mane and coat were already grey, and she wasn't even fifty years old yet. She… died the day after the lilac visitor left for Whitefall, so some of the other villagers told me," he muttered, his tone just as solemn and downcast. "How… I haven't the foggiest."

"Did she turn into a tree?" Shining prodded, his ears folding back.

The elder's ears drooped. "Nay, she didn't… or if she did, her body up and vanished," he replied. "Hadn't been able to find her since."

"Her wings?" Shining pressed.

The elder shook his head. "No clue in the slightest. She went out of her way to avoid the other villagers before vanishing," he answered. "Tried looking for her, but these old bones can barely keep up with the younger folk…"

Shining nodded and changed the subject again, seeing that the current topic wasn't getting him anywhere, "Want me to wake my companions up?"

The elder nodded. "They will need to be up to get breakfast," he answered, and with that he backed up to canter on downstairs to start making food. Shining retreated back into the guest room and made a beeline for Rainbow with a tight frown forming on his face.

"Did you catch all of that?" Shining asked, garnering an immediate nod from Rainbow.

"How couldn't I? You stood there with the door open," Rainbow grumbled, continuing to watch the scene outside with interest. Shining had the decency to blush a little from the admonishment.

"Anything out there of note?" Shining queried.

"Lots of elderly ponies, most unicorns with some earth ponies, and a couple of pregnant mares. Not one pegasus, at all," Rainbow answered, her tone sullen. "I get the feeling we're in a bee's nest just waiting to be kicked."

Shining's brow went up again. "Anyone with bound wings, then?" he tried.

Rainbow's head shook again. "Zero, zilch, nada," she stated tersely. "I don't even know how the elder-not-really's wings are tied."

Shining's face hardened a little. "Maybe the cursed trees would have something to say…" he muttered.

"Maybe," Rainbow agreed with a nod.

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It took some two hours for the elder to prepare breakfast, feed his guests, and gather them to then sit down in his rocking chair with them surrounding him in the living room and listen to a few interesting tidbits they had to share. Though, unbeknownst to the elder, said guests made sure to leave out quite a few important things of note, including the fact that Delta Unit was hovering on Greenwood's outskirts. "So… somepony told you not to come to Fantasia?" he asked.

Shining nodded. "We did anyway," he answered simply. "And we would like to help you… with your curse, or at the very least ease your pain."

The elder brightened up, and his eyes gleamed hopefully. "Y-you will?" he stammered.

Shining nodded, his face hardening slightly. He said in a tone of finality, "If nopony else will, then by Faust, we will." His companions nodded in agreement. "But we'll have to start small."

The elder nodded, and a small smile formed on his face. "Maybe the trees will understand," he mused, his tone resonating with just a smidgen of hope. A small smile crossed his muzzle. "Stay here for a few minutes. I will need to inform the villagers; and to also tell the newlyweds to stay indoors." He sighed and made for the door after rising from the rocking chair, but paused before the splintering frame to crane his neck. "Oh, by the way… have you heard of the Veil of Shadows?" he asked.

"No, we haven't. What is it?" Rainbow queried, both brows going up as her brain tried to process the name.

The elder sighed. "The Veil… has only appeared in recent years, about… eight or nine. I have heard of outsiders talk about it in Whitefall and Goldenbrick, whenever the need arose for me to go to either town to get supplies and furniture," he began, frowning a little. "Some have told me it is comprised of many beings who only appear at night, and are numerous enough to block the moon's light in any given area if they were of a mind to."

Rainbow's brows rose higher. "Do the things of the Veil fly?" she pressed.

"Yes, so I've been told. They signal their arrival with roars and a low humming noise, if the Veil is made up of many beings," the elder replied with a shrug. "Others've said it's a single living shadow, only following those who are able to tame it, which are very few but very powerful. Honestly, I don't know which of those descriptors to believe. I think it's all just a load of bollocks."

Applejack donned a skeptical look, eyes going half-lidded and a thin frown framing her muzzle. "Then why'd you tell us if you think it's a load of manure?" she asked flatly.

"Well, you did say you spent some nights in Whitefall, which is why I asked," the elder replied, shrugging in earnest. "I thought maybe you might've heard of it, but oh well, one cannot have everything in Fantasia..."

"What does the Veil do if you're under it?" Blueblood asked, frowning.

"Nopony knows, really. Some have told me you'd get eaten, others have said you'd simply lose a few of your limbs, but make it out of the ordeal alive. I have even heard the supposed individuals of the Veil use magic to conjure shadows," the elder replied, that time sighing. "But, personally, I have yet to see the Veil with my own eyes, so until I do see it, I'll still be of the mind that it's just a bunch of poppycock. All of it sounds like nothing more than a foal's tale that was recently invented." With that, he turned to open the door and trot out into Greenwood, closing it on his way out and leaving his visitors to ruminate over what he'd told them.

"The Veil, huh? Sounds mighty suspicious," Applejack mused, frowning as she put a hoof to her chin.

"Could that be what broke the barrier between the worlds?" Blueblood asked, tilting his head.

"Well, Laz did say the barrier was made by several unicorns, around the time the sun and moon went to Celestia and Luna's control…" Flash put a hoof to his chin and rubbed it, his brow furrowing. "The Veil, if it exists, could have very well broken it."

"But that's not likely, since he said Starswirl took part in that little project," Shining rebuked, shaking his head. "And he was a pony who knew what he was doing. Heck, Twilight found some things in that book she overlooked, which she showed me after lunch yesterday." He waved a hoof dismissively. "Which either means the Veil is obscenely powerful, or something else broke the spell."

"Well, at least we have one potential candidate to look into. I suggest focusing on that," Blueblood interjected, before he noticed someone amongst their little gathering was oddly silent. He turned to the lone soul who wasn't chipping in and asked, "Are you well?"

Rhinoc looked very pale, an impressive feat considering that he was in his disguise, and some rather large beads of sweat started trailing down his forehead as his horn gave a soft glow. A hoof trailed to his stomach again, and he muttered, "Oooo… not at all… there's… barely any love in this place."

"Barely any love? Then what are you picking up on instead?" Shining asked, turning to Rhinoc with a worried frown on his face.

Rhinoc lurched, clutching his stomach tighter. "D-despair…" he hissed in pain, his utterance more akin to a screeching whine that was barely kept in check. "A-and… hatred…"

"What do despair and hatred do to you?" Flash asked, grimacing as Rhinoc's horn ceased glowing, whereupon he slumped to the floor.

"W-weakens us… p-prolonged exposure makes o-our chitin and b-bones brittle… p-poisons us…" Rhinoc groaned, the hiss in his voice becoming far more pronounced. "Y-you guys a-are the o-only s-source of love h-here…"

"You gonna be okay?" Rainbow prodded, scooting closer to pat Rhinoc on his withers, her ears twitching as she caught a distant sound that sounded like a shout. She paid it no mind, as her attention was currently focused elsewhere.

Rhinoc slowly nodded. "A-as long as I-I don't eat a-any…" he murmured, the hiss in his voice starting to fade. "J-just s-sensing it… makes me w-woozy…"

Rainbow stopped patting Rhinoc and nodded, pulling her hoof away. "Now that I think about it, you had a pained look when…"

Rhinoc looked up, took a few breaths to collect himself, lurched up and looked Rainbow squarely in the eye. "The n-nooblet wraith o-only had teeny t-traces of despair and h-hatred. I-it wasn't enough t-to make m-me sick, b-but enough to c-cause pain," he stammered with a wince. "Th… this," he continued, lifting a hoof to gesticulate about the room for emphasis, "is a-a thousand t-times worse."

"And if it makes you a'n yourn sick…" Applejack paled as realization dawned, and her pupils shrank. "So… the rest…"

Rhinoc nodded, cutting her off. "Th-they can't come a-any closer. I-I can barely t-tolerate it my-myself," he answered grimly. "W-we need to r-report back t-tonight…"

Applejack nodded glumly, and she could only imagine the look on Lance's face once Rhinoc gave his report. She shuddered, mentally wondering if she should even mention the wedding to him when that time came, before something clicked into her head and caused all other trains of thought to stop then and there. "Do the trees, uh…"

"Ooze despair like blood?" Flash offered.

Applejack nodded. "Yeah, what he said."

Rhinoc nodded hastily. "L-lots of it," he groaned, sounding just a little better.

"Do they give off hatred?" Blueblood tried. He could've sworn he heard several ponies faintly yelling, though about what eluded him, and the noise grew in addition to the sound of several sets of beating hooves.

Again, Rhinoc nodded, though that time more languidly. "N-not a l-lot of them d-do," he answered. "A-and those that d-do don't h-have a lot."

At that moment, the door reopened, and the elder trotted in with a sullen frown on his face. Behind him, shrilly coming from outside, was a myriad of protesting voices, each one tumbling over itself and its companions until only little bits and pieces of words could be made out amidst a cacophonous orchestra. His guests shuddered and turned to him, seeing that a mob had gathered just outside the front door, and the few they could see through the doorframe were armed and narrow-eyed.

"—burn the outsiders—"

"—sharpen the pitchforks—"

"—ready the bows—"

"—flay them alive—"

"—turn their hides into brand new rugs—"

The elder lifted a back hoof and kicked the door shut with it, instantly dampening the myriad of angry clamors, though it wasn't enough to drown them out entirely. "Unfortunately, the rest of the community is not so eager…" he groused, shaking his head. "It's just like the last outsider who came here last week, really."

"Did they calm down when she said she wanted supplies?" Shining asked.

The elder nodded. "Oh, that they did, since it meant not putting up with her for very long," he answered. "But the outsider who married into the village? Oh, that poor dear got so much grief over the years… her foals fared no better, I'm afraid."

"Did you tell them about us wanting to help with their curse?" Rainbow pressed.

The elder frantically nodded, his frown deepening. "Unfortunately, they've accepted that the curse will follow them to the ends of time." His head stopped moving, and his eyes glimmered faintly. "They do not want help."

Shining's face twisted first into a grimace, then a hardened look that caused Flash to bolt up with legs perfectly straight under him and made his wings tense. "So… they're a stubborn lot?" Shining pressed slowly, his voice low.

The elder, again, nodded. "They've been hoof-fed the same thing I was in my earliest years, and they follow it like dogma. 'The curse always wins in the end, and breed while you can,' and other such rabble like that," he replied, lifting a hoof to wave it dismissively, giving Shining the impression he was chasing something away. "And look where it's gotten me." His hoof fell and he sighed sullenly. "Once the end of time happens, I'm pretty certain I'm going to get an earful from Godcat."

Shining exchanged glances with Blueblood, whose face had likewise hardened. They then turned to the elder in unison and stood up. Even with the door tuning out most of their ongoing tantrum, the villagers continued to get louder and more riled up by the second. "Such impertinence…" Blueblood hissed, turning to Shining with a nod. "Could you quell them?"

"Only if he lets me," Shining responded, staring at the elder with a determined look. "Will you?" When the elder nodded and stepped aside, he watched intently as his guest strode to the door with his chest puffing out. A magenta aura grasped the door and tenderly opened it up, before morphing to seize the door frame and create a shield to keep the shrieking villagers from entering the abode and running everybody over.

With his magical construct Shining forced his way out of the house, and right into a crowd consisting mostly of older stallions and mares that were armed to the teeth. Shining idly noted that the pregnant mares, children, and any other young-looking ponies were not part of the mob, which he'd attributed to said mob being a more vocal bunch. He formed a dome over the elder's house, then used it force the mob back before he calmly stepped out of it with a ripple forming in his wake, almost as though he went through a vertically-placed pool of water.

His own magic then gripped his throat, and as he took a deep breath, he felt it flowing towards his vocal chords and its surrounding muscles. The very moment the crowd stilled and all eyes turned to him was the same moment Shining exhaled, and only then did he speak in a voice so magically amplified in volume the mobsters found themselves flinching, dropping all weapons, and covering their ears under its might. "You will not sway me or my friends to change our decision; we only want to help you break your curse, and nothing more. Stop this foalishness this instant, or we may be forced to act in self-defense," Shining droned, his voice as clear and loud as the sharp clanging of a bell. "There is an awful lot I can do with a dome like this, so you had best not test my patience again."

One member at the front of the mob, an entirely grey unicorn stallion whose eyes flashed red, looked at Shining with a wince and his eyes narrowing. "Y-you fool!" he stammered bravely, though Shining idly noted that he genuinely sounded worried beneath his anger. "S-suppose the c-curse breaks… th-then what?" At this, murmurs swept through the crowd. "W-we already h-had to send a-another fool a-away after sh-she told us sh-she'd break th-the curse!"

Shining turned to the grey unicorn, a bemused brow skyrocketing to the top of his forehead. That was the only movement he made for several long moments, as he stood there contemplating what he'd just heard. The glow around his throat died as he finished processing the villager's statement. "So…" he began icily, his brow dipping back down as he spoke, "you're telling me that you banished somepony?"

The villager nodded frantically, and swallowed nervously before daring to continue, sounding much more certain of himself as he spoke, "That damned f-fool d-deserved it. Sh-she probably t-turned into a t-tree by now."

Shining's eyes narrowed by the tiniest margin. "She?" he pressed.

"A th-thirteen year o-old filly," the villager confirmed. For another long moment Shining simply stared at him, the corners of his mouth twitching in tandem with his left eye. The villager merely stared back, waiting for the moment in which he thought Shining would back down.

That moment never came. In its stead, Shining marched right up to the villager and lowered his head just enough to stare deep into his eyes. "You mean to tell me," Shining hissed, his voice frigid with scorn, "that you sent a child to die?" When the villager nodded, Shining began to outright scowl at him, his magic crackling dangerously as his anger surged through his veins. For just a second, he could've sworn that the air grew so hot he thought his mane and tail would catch fire. Despite himself, Shining restrained the urge, and the teeny voice in the back of his mind baying for blood.

"And all she did was simply state her desire to break the particular befoulment that I heard has fallen here...?" Shining pressed in a low, ominous tone that caused the villager before him to immediately wilt under his withering glare. "Had she committed murder? Theft?" The villager's knees buckled, and he fell to his haunches with his ears folding back. "Well?" The villager shook his head. Shining retracted and backed up a few paces, if only to turn his very irked glare towards the rest of the mob. "You all are a disgrace to everything that is holy. Godcat would be ashamed of you."

"Y-you don't know Godcat like we d-do, you uptight jackass!" a brave mobster, this one an earth pony, called out. He stood up on his back legs on the outskirts of the crowd, revealing a dulled sea green coat and lime green mane. With forehooves shooting up to the air, he declared with an accusatory gesture directed at Shining, "We were simply doing Her bidding! That filly had the desire to usurp the impossible! If she got a cutie mark, it would be much the same! She had to go!"

Shining turned to the earth pony and gravely shook his head, his withering glare not faltering in the slightest. He stood for another minute before posing a question that caused the second brave soul to flinch, "Would you banish yourself from the premises, had you gotten your mark?"

All eyes turned to the earth pony, who now started to sweat bullets. "I-I-uh…" he stammered.

Seeing he had an advantage, Shining decided to press it, "Would you banish your friends? Family? What if they got their marks?"

The earth pony slowly, haltingly, shook his head.

"And you said it would be the same, had the banished filly gotten her mark…" Shining concluded, his voice grim. "Aren't you quite the hypocrite?"

The earth pony promptly wheeled around and started galloping in the opposite direction. "I-I'm telling the village leaders!" he declared, tail tucked between his flailing rear legs as he raced to get as far away from Shining Armor as he possibly could. The rest of the mobsters had the same idea, and also turned tail to beat a hasty retreat, each uttering a dark promise to tattle on Shining.

Only when there was complete silence that settled once the sounds of many beating hooves faded did Shining drop his barrier, turn around, and trot back into the elder's house. His face eased, and he heaved a sigh. "Hardasses, the lot of them," he muttered. Turning to the elder, he added, "Who are your village leaders?"

The elder frowned. "Three stallions, a band of brothers you see. They took over…" The elder's eyes trailed up to the ceiling momentarily before he finished, "twenty years ago."

Shining's brow rose. "Twenty?"

The elder nodded. "Somepony has to lead us whenever the previous leader becomes a tree," he pointed out. Shining nodded, understanding that train of logic. "They did not take the previous outsiders well. I doubt they would put up with you for no more than a few minutes at best." His frown deepened. "Please… let me accompany you whenever you feel ready to take the burden of asking the cursed trees."

"Why?" Applejack asked, causing the elder to look at her.

"The leaders will chew me out if they discover you are here in my abode. I wouldn't be surprised if they banished me. Besides…" The elder sighed. "I need to hunt to gather more meat. If they see me carry home a black bird…"

"... then you'd be in the clear," Flash finished for the elder, who promptly nodded and turned to the door. Exchanging glances with his companions, he found them nodding.

"Well? What are we waiting for?" Blueblood asked, trotting to the door. "We have a whole forest's worth of trees to query, so we might as well get on with it!"

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On the outskirts of Greenwood, watching the elder and his guests leave the village proper as the sun continued to climb higher in the sky, Delta Unit sat in disguised wait, all concealed eyes watching intently for any signs of trouble. They easily picked up on the group's unease, particularly that which came from Rhinoc, but stayed their hidden hooves with the knowledge that there wasn't really anything they could do unless ordered otherwise.

So they merely opted to continue with their little charade, silently hoping to high heaven that something interesting would grace them soon, with or without the risk of it blowing their collective cover. Armin's voice echoed through their heads after a disguised horn glowed, "Situational protocols all green. Let Major Rhinoc deal with the old colt. We tail them once they get twenty meters away from town."

The disguised changelings shook their false branches in confirmation, though only in a manner that resembled a slight swaying, giving the impression of a passing breeze. Armin swayed his a half-second later, and then everyling stilled, their eyes glued to Rhinoc and his entourage-plus-one as they trotted deeper into the thicket. Shining took point, and Rhinoc oddly lagged behind the elder whose limping gait did not escape the hidden soldiers' eyes.

One soldier decided to spark up a telepathic conversation, her branches briefly flashing in gold as she asked, "So, has anyling gotten on General Hardass's bad side this year?"

"I have, on the trip to Mythos," Armin replied, his branches drooping. "Told Windwood's sister, to her face, to peddle her little ass to the kitchen. Next thing I know, the General smacked me square in the jaw."

"How bad?" another soldier asked. Armin briefly lifted his branches up and down, which he figured was a tree's equivalent to shrugging.

"Knocked a few teeth out and sent me to the floor. Told me not to do it again, since Windwood was present and having a Godcat-damned coronary," Armin replied. "And the nooblet… also got on his bad side. Before he actually considered dragging her into the army, mind you. She up and punched him, then played keep-away until he grappled her neck and pinned her to the floor."

One of the disguised changelings drooped his branches, and telepathically groaned. "Self-defense?" he guessed.

"And to teach her not to bite off more than she could chew," Armin confirmed. "And she started calling him Brassballs. I am dead serious." The other changelings shook their branches for a few seconds before he heard the whole lot of them telepathically laughing their asses off.

The laughter died when one changeling noticed that she could no longer see Shining or his group. Her branches glowed briefly, a brilliant gold that was then overtaken by a bright purple. "We need to move our asses. Major Rhinoc's headed towards Mighty Oak," she reported, and her words triggered a chain reaction amongst her fellow troops; flames engulfed a lot of the trees, and where the trees were stood… nothing.

Or so it seemed, had anypony from Greenwood been present to see the anomaly. If one villager were to closely examine where the false trees used to be, and if they had eyesight sharp enough, they could see a sort of raised space that was moving; a trotting pool of transparent liquid seemingly given life. The moving changelings, using this invisibility to their advantage, filed away from Greenwood in hasty but silent steps, heading to the Mighty Oak's shrine with the pace of somepony tiptoeing around a bear's den.

Noling spoke until they reached the shrine at approximately noon, when the sun was at the peak of the sky, causing the temperature to skyrocket thanks to the closeness of Ashwood's proximity in direct relation to the shrine. "Alright, who wants to bet the nooblet would fry out here if we left her too long?" one soldier telepathically queried, his utterance causing the other soldiers to telepathically murmur and muse about.

"No idea, and I wouldn't risk it. General Hardass would chew our wings off if we did that and he heard of it," another soldier stated in a flat tone that brokered no argument. Several minutes passed before the same soldier asked, "Wait… where are they?"

Another waved false branches, rather dismissively at that. "Either we beat them to the punch, they got sidetracked, or they already left," she answered. Several minutes passed after she'd spoken, and all disguised eyes darted this way and that, searching for their charges.

It did not take them long to arrive; fifteen minutes after the silence fell, the sound of hooves snapping grass and twigs permeated the area. Ten after that, Shining and his group emerged onto the steps from the side of one of the gates, and immediately veered to the other side of the steps to vanish into the forest again.

"... he's going past the shrine? What is he doing?" Armin asked, and at once a few disguised changelings shrugged their branches.

"No clue, Lieutenant," another soldier said in earnest. "May as well ask why the General hasn't formed a herd yet."

"You do realize he'd wring your neck if he heard you talking about his lack of a herd, right?" Armin snarked, venom dripping from his telepathic voice.

"Well, excuse me, but if you've been trotting with him, you'd figure out he's pretty pent up! Seriously, Lieutenant, how the utter fuck did you not notice?!" the soldier snapped back, her tone marred in surprise and anger.

"I get the point," Armin sighed, groaning in exasperation, "but the thing is, he has yet to let himself indulge in even the basest of urges. I will bet ten bits and a wasp's stinger that he's probably facehoofing by now, wondering why the utter fuck he let Mythonians convince him to come back to this ironically-named hellhole."

The soldiers fell silent for a moment, their fake branches swaying with uncertainty. After a few seconds, a soldier decided to answer with a rather grandiose and borderline bizarre train of logic, "Maybe he did it to get them off his ass about it. 'Let them see the shitshow for themselves, and leave it at that. Maybe they'll get tired of it,' that sort of thing."

Armin shuddered before a branch lowered and he smacked it against a hollow hole in the bark with a telepathic groan. "Dude, seriously, what the fuck?" he hissed. "You know Lieutenant-General Windwood would fucking ride his ass with a sharpened arrow pointing at his nuts for that, right?"

The soldier with the bizarre train of logic shrugged his faux branches. "He'd just clamp a magic inhibitor on her and leave it at that," he pointed out.

"Mare still has earth pony magic at her disposal. That point is moot," Armin groused, shaking his branches grimly. A low buzz filled the air, and Armin twisted about, causing his disguise to act as though a tree was being sent through a wringer. "Wh-what the…"

A radio materialized in a flash of light in someling else's branches, and from it droned a very familiar voice that had the no-nonsense tone they were accustomed to. "Delta Unit, fall back immediately. I repeat, fall back immediately."

"F-fall back?" Armin stammered, that time without the aid of telepathy. "S-sir, wh-why?"

A tired sigh left the radio. "Shining telepathically messaged me a few moments ago, and told me about the worst wedding he'd ever attended." Lance paused for a moment and added, "And of critical levels of despair emanating from Greenwood. Get out, lest you get sick with emotional poisoning."

"E-emotional…" Armin faltered. "Is it…"

"Yes. According to Rhinoc, who also messaged me by telepathy, the situation has gotten much worse. It's as I feared; we've got another fast track to Frostbite on our hooves," Lance replied, his voice a little strained. "We'll have to think of something else once you come in and report." He paused again, that time for a full minute. "I expect you lot to be back by sundown. I've heard some of the villagers are suspicious already, and we do not want to rile them any further than needed."

With resignation, the entirety of Delta Unit shed their disguises in fire, turned invisible, made the radio vanish, and took to the air as one. As they flew, the beating of their wings gave off multiple buzzes that sounded more like a singular, ominous hum.

Chapter LXX, Part I- Stained Ivory

Lance sat on the bed of the master bedroom, holding a radio in his hoof that emitted a low hum. He sighed dejectedly, his ears pinning back with the revelation that, had his troops stayed out there just a day longer, they could have gotten sick or possibly worse. He was silently thankful that Rhinoc alerted him when he did, though now another pressing matter presented itself: facing his three right-hoof ponies and attempting to come up with another plan, hopefully without sparks flying.

Speaking of his right-hoof ponies, he began to wonder what they were getting up to now. He hopped off of the bed, tossing the radio over his withers to hear it plomf on the quilts before trotting out into the hall. Sparing a glance to the other doors, he found all of them shut, and suppressed a groan of exasperation. He made a beeline for the lift, pressed the down button the moment he boarded, and waited for it to escort him down, figuring the other doors were all locked.

"A wedding… I just had to arrive on a damned wedding..." Lance grumbled as the lift shook, closed its door, and started descending. He resisted the urge to facehoof. "Anna's probably gonna pluck my wings and make a brand new feather duster when she hears this…" He wanted to will the lift to go faster, but held his breath as it continued on its way; no sense trying to get the thing to hurry up, as the last thing he needed was a broken lift. After a few minutes, it stopped, shuddered, and opened the door, revealing the exact trio of unicorns he was going to fetch standing just outside of it. Lance blinked and went wide-eyed, taking in their expectant looks. "Where were you?"

Anna frowned, and her ears fell back. "We were going to get you, actually," she muttered. Her face hardened, and her voice rose, "Armin telepathically told me what he knew. Th-the whole of Delta could've gotten sick! Why did you send them out?!"

"Yep. I'm getting plucked," Lance thought with a sigh. Regardless, he figured he'd best explain himself before any hooves touched so much as a pin feather, "To get Applejack and her friends out as swiftly as possible, should things turn south."

"And?" Natalie pressed, a brow raising.

"I told them to pull out as soon as Rhinoc telepathically notified me," Lance answered. "He's probably going to convince Applejack and her expedition party to return, if he hasn't already."

Matt nodded at that, a small but satisfied smirk forming on his muzzle. "So… what do we do?" he asked.

Lance sighed. "Wait for them to come back, check everybody over, and all of that happy horseshit before we even try anything else. Shining may want to toss in sixteen bits instead of the usual two, and an earful about decorum on top of that," he answered, figuring that was as good an answer as any.

Anna's expression eased, and her ears perked up a bit. Then her tail hiked straight up and swished, which caught Lance's attention. He turned to her and frowned. "If you're still in heat, could you not do that? I really do not want my fifth leg to poke out," he groused.

"The closer I am to that hellhole," Anna hissed with a furious blush forming on her face and her eyes flashing red as she wasted no time lifting a hoof before jutting it out towards an approximated direction of Greenwood, "the worse my heat burns my crotch."

Lance's wings drooped. "So… you can't go near it either…" he murmured. Anna gravely nodded and dropped her hoof. "At least… not until you decide to go towards that step… or until your heat ends unimpeded..."

Anna's tail dropped back down, tucking itself between her rear legs. "Still not keen on getting mounted," she muttered. "And… I don't want anybody to be accused of pulling rank…"

Lance sighed dejectedly, silently admitting that Anna had a rather tragic point. He decided to switch to another topic, "Should we wait on the deck, or go back up?"

Matt and Natalie exchanged glances, then turned back to Lance and shrugged in unison. Anna decided to answer for them, "Let's head back upstairs. I need to do something about this…" Her tail swished as she finished, "problem."

In that moment, her three colleagues turned red as tomatoes at the implication, and it certainly didn't help that a bitter scent had now wafted its way to all of their noses. Wordlessly, they boarded the lift, pressed a key, and waited for it to take them back to the bedrooms. They remained silent as the lift ascended, stopped at their destination, and opened the door. The very second said door slid open, though, Anna teleported to the other side of the hall and ran into the master bedroom as though her hooves had caught fire, leaving Lance and the others to catch up.

Natalie groaned and turned to Matt before burying her face into his shoulder. "Doesn't even move a damn hoof out the door before teleporting… nooooo, she just couldn't wait," she grumbled, her voice muffled.

Matt nodded and turned to Lance. "Want us to soundproof the shower again?" he queried.

Lance hastily nodded, his face now turning a few shades darker, until it was as red as his mane. "And get to it, before she starts her caterwauling. I don't want anybody coming into the room and asking if she's alright," he grumbled in reply. Matt and Natalie did not need to be told twice; before Lance even took one step forward, they darted down the hall in a frenzied gallop to get to the master bedroom as fast as their legs could carry them. Their movements were so sudden and swift his mane and feathers fluffed up as their tails brushed right past him.

Lance disembarked the lift, perking his ears to listen for any sound other than Matt and Natalie galloping as they reached and then veered into the master bedroom, and apart from the low hum of horns glowing and the sounds of cloth rustling and water running, he caught nothing. He waited for a few seconds, hesitant to return to the room, wings twitching nervously as he struggled to make the decision whether or not to join them already.

"Lance, she's in a soundproof double-wrapped bubble!" Natalie called, an air of exasperation in her voice. "And she pulled out my box of goodies from under the bed and raided it again!"

Lance spread a wing and slapped himself in the face with it before cantering to the master bedroom, muttering about how the 'box of goodies' was Natalie's problem to deal with and not his. His pace was a lot slower than that of his compatriots, with the teleportation factored in, though he did not drag his hooves one little bit. He could not afford to dally, as there was a very pressing matter to attend to.

As a result, and much to his chagrin and consternation, he arrived just fast enough to see Natalie juggling an ordinary brown, hock-high box with holes in its sides as she slipped in a small stick-like object through one of said holes. The object in question being bright pink with mottled spots on it, and a golden crystal cemented into a very flat foot gave him a clue as to why Anna supposedly pulled the box out. He also saw a dome of orange, sparkling with flecks of red and gold, encasing the toiletries' corner.

Natalie blushed and slid the box back under the bed and turned to Lance, finding him leveling a withering glare in her direction, somehow made even worse by the fact that he was blushing so furiously it was a wonder his face hadn't turned a shade of brown yet given his coat color. "You do realize that, if you converted your little toy stash and its container into thaumic energy, she wouldn't pillage it, right?" he hissed, his voice so level and blunt that, were it a more physical force, it would have knocked her onto her haunches.

Natalie's ears fell back, and she blushed from the admonishment. "I would, if I didn't use crystals to power some of them…" she groused.

Lance's brows straightened so rigidly one could have balanced a pencil on them with no trouble whatsoever. "Anna does that with all of the crystal arrows that don't end up stuffed into her quiver," he pointed out blithely, "what the fuck is stopping you from doing likewise?"

Natalie shuddered and blurted out a statement before she could even start processing it, "R-remember the time sh-she tried to romance a-a doorknob while she w-was sleeptrotting?"

Lance's wings immediately spread to half-mast, and his rear legs shuffled, resulting in his body swinging as though his forehooves had been anchored to a pivot point. "Y-yes… what does that have to do with anything?" he tried, his voice cracking and straining a little.

Natalie's pupils shrank when she realized what had ended up leaving her mouth before she engaged her brain. Her knees wobbled, threatening to buckle. "N-nothing?" she answered, her voice a little weaker than she'd have liked.

"Exactly," Lance hissed, eyes narrowing so slightly the only clue Natalie had in regards to their movement was the twitch that followed immediately after. He stopped pivoting in place, maroon to the torn tips of his ears—whether in embarrassment, or anger, she could not tell which of the two it was, nor if these emotions were both warring for precedence. "We'll continue this little discussion… later tonight, preferably after Delta Unit and Shining's group return. Do I make myself clear?" he said.

Natalie gulped audibly and nodded hastily. Lance nodded back just once, turning to Matt and leaving his now-nervous subordinate to ruminate on how, exactly, he'd continue the discussion he'd just postponed with her. Matt, impressively, managed a stiff pose with only a small frown betraying any emotion he may have been feeling up to that point. "Yes?" Matt asked.

Lance retracted his wings and huffed through flared nostrils. "Let's wait for Anna to finish up first before we start attempting to cobble together plans." He glanced very briefly at the dome-covered toiletries' corner, seeing a very faint silhouette moving in a gyrating manner.

Matt, too, looked at the toiletries' corner and heaved a sigh of relief. "I think I see why you wanted private shower stalls…" he muttered, seeing Lance nod out of the corner of his eye. He could've sworn he heard a faint hum, but chose to keep his lips zipped on the off chance that it was his imagination.

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Sunset had graced Greenwood as the hours began to wane toward night, and the barrier had gone up—which really, really annoyed Shining Armor to no end, as he stood at its edge with his group. Everyone on both sides of the barrier watched as the elder pounded upon the shield with his hooves, but alas his efforts were fruitless. The villagers glared at him as though of one mind, and at their head was the band of dark grey unicorn stallions. "You mingled with outsiders, you coot," one of the dark unicorns hissed, his voice somehow coming through crystal clear despite the barrier.

"You are hereby exiled. Go, and never return," scolded the second.

The third sneered, the expression twisting his face to a manner that was disconcerting. "It's a shame, really, but then again… you were always a hopeless bastard," he mocked, his tone rather smug. "Just like that little thirteen-year-old filly, and everypony else who came before her… her fate, their fate; now yours. Enjoy your last days."

The elder found himself embraced in three identically-green magical auras that came from the dark unicorns' horns, and before he could even register it, was sent flying into Shining Armor with enough force to send them both sprawling to the ground. As the two landed and then scrambled to get up, with the aid of Flash and Rhinoc's helping hooves, the villagers turned from the barrier and trotted into the village to attend to other business.

"You sexually-depraved monsters!" the elder shrieked with narrowed eyes, trying to run back to the barrier even though Flash Sentry moved to grapple him by the barrel. "One day, your ovens and batter-makers won't work anymore if you keep this hopeless charade up! What will you do then?!" The villagers vanished into Greenwood, ignoring him with huffs and snorts as they went.

"Calm down!" Flash ordered, spreading and flapping his wings as the elder's eyes turned red. With all of his might, even though his bones were old, the elder determinedly took a few steps forward, only to halt when he felt wings pushing on the air and driving him back. For a few seconds, the poor stallion stood there, glaring at Greenwood for all it was worth, before his eyes turned green and he fell to his haunches.

"Th-they'll breed themselves into oblivion…" the elder muttered, his glare easing into a look of pity. "Who will they turn to when that day comes?"

"Those ponies are as stubborn as a pack of mules," Applejack snorted, shaking her head. "I say we leave them alone right now, and give 'em time to cool off." The elder turned to her and frowned solemnly, and she returned the expression. "Hey, we know a place where you could stay the night at."

Rhinoc turned to Applejack and paled considerably at her unspoken meaning. "You're seriously not suggesting…"

Applejack nodded without even looking at Rhinoc, cutting him off instantly. "Only other place would be Ashwood itself, I'm afraid," she pointed out.

Rhinoc's shoulders sagged a little at that. "I… guess we could make an exception," he muttered under his breath. "Though I can still hear it now: 'really, why?'"

"We'll deal with his hootenanny later," Applejack snorted, flicking her tail dismissively. She smiled at the elder, but her eyes slanted and her muzzle warbled a little. "We'll keep ya safe until we get to the other safe place."

The elder's jaw quivered, and his eyes began to water as a wobbling smile framed his muzzle. "Y-you will?" he stammered, his tone laced in disbelief, though his eyes began to glisten with hope.

"You let us spend the night in your place and even made food for us. I think it's time we returned the favor," Applejack extrapolated, her smile widening a little. She lifted a hoof and wedged it between Flash and the elder, patting the latter on his withers with a gentle motion. She turned to Flash and nodded to him, and slowly he lifted his forelegs and flew off of the ex-villager. "And besides, you're the only friendly pony in this messed-up area, and I wouldn't forgive myself if I left ya hangin' out here."

The elder's smile had, likewise, widened. "Y-you really…" He stopped rambling as he saw Shining nod.

"Those ponies in that shield…" Shining lifted a hoof and gestured to Greenwood as he spoke, "are some of the worst I have seen. If they are heartless enough to boot out foals and the elderly, then I wonder what that says about them." He dropped his hoof and looked the elder in the eye, and his voice softened as he added, "But you're different; you still have a heart, and one of gold at that. We'll make sure the curse is lifted, while you're there to see it."

Blueblood also nodded to the elder, a small smile creeping at his lips when he saw the elder beaming at his words. "While this promise is one we intend to keep, we mustn't dally," he interjected, turning to the northeast. "We must get back to… the other safe haven."

"He's right," Rainbow agreed with a nod, spreading her wings. "Want me to go on ahead?"

Shining looked at Rainbow and shook his head. "No; at least, not until we get away from the barrier," he stated. His horn began glowing as the sky started to darken, and everyone fell into step behind him. He craned his neck to look at the elder one more time. "Stick close. I don't know what comes out of these woods at night, and frankly I want to avoid that sort of trouble if we can." When the elder nodded, he turned ahead and started heading towards Ashwood with a slightly hurried pace.

Taking roughly the same path they used to get to Greenwood the night prior, Shining made sure everyone else was in tow behind him, going slow for the sake of the elder now with them. Night fully fell within an hour or so, and the only detour the group took was to drop by the Mighty Oak and enlighten him to much more recent happenings, though even he could not do anything about it, thanks to the shield. The elder, after seeing the Oak, had a slight spring in his step that made even the ever-wary, insanely prepared Rhinoc crack a small smile.

On the way, as the light of the moon started sending its silver tendrils through the branches of the desolate place, they stopped at the abandoned house past the obsidian patch. "What's in there?" Rainbow asked, tilting her head.

Rhinoc strode to the front doorframe, his horn aglow. "It's what I want to know. This house has been bugging me since yesterday, and I don't know why," he muttered. The room was, as the elder's guest room, pitifully small; the blasted place did not even have a flight of stairs that he could see. Curiously, the window of the place had been recently smashed to pieces, its dusted fragments only barely managing to reflect his and the moon's light. Trotting deeper into the abode, something else caught his eye—a dresser that was missing its drawers had a rumpled, dirtied gown that was not there yesterday. Coming closer still to inspect the anomaly, Rhinoc found his stomach twisting into knots.

It was snowy white, of that there was no doubt. But it was stained and torn in places with only tiny patches of pure and unblemished white here and there, and sleeves that could only support small forelegs. The sleeves were maybe large enough that Maria could fit her tarsi into them, but no bigger than that, while the rest of the contours were frayed and hole-riddled. A large, glaringly crimson splotch was set into the piece where the rump would meet with the fabric, forming dried rivulets trailing all the way down to a filthy golden trim.

This large red spot was accompanied and accentuated by several smaller blots that were scattered willy-nilly across the entirety of the outfit. A hole had been torn in the red spot, and a thin, reflective membrane of some sort clung to the inside of the gown. This membrane's origins, though, were something Rhinoc knew not, nor did he want to beg the question of what it had been previously attached to.

With the outfit was a tiny veil, fragmented into noodle-like filaments that sported ends so frayed he could see the individual threads and count them with perfect accuracy if he were of a mind to. A little crestband finished the piece, studded with cracked and flaking gems of a very faded green. Like the gown itself, it too had been tarnished by a red hue. The crestband was dented, and what parts of it that weren't red were a tarnished silver instead.

Both were topped off by meager shards of glass that stuck out of the outfit like crude nails. Rhinoc lurched again and turned to the floor, seeing more dried stains leading up to the window forming little hoofprints, with some of the glass shards sullied in a crimson hue he did not notice until now. With them were little golden horseshoes, warped and scratched beyond compare, also soaked with red.

He felt a twang of sorrow, coming to the conclusion that whomever was wearing this dress had met a very grisly end, but tried to leave in their last moments—to no avail. He turned and left the house, and the last shred of physical evidence that suggested that an unfortunate soul was there, paling once more as he came face to face with Shining Armor. "Tattered and bloodied wedding outfit in there, and the window's broken. Somepony was inside that house," Rhinoc muttered.

Shining's face hardened. "Would it be possible to find whoever was in the outfit?" he asked, trying to keep his voice from coming out as a sibilant hiss.

Rhinoc pursed his lips and contemplated the question, before grimly shaking his head. "We'd need the whole military contingent to scour the area, and we've already gotten on Greenwood's bad side. The bloodstains were large enough to let me know that, whomever it was, they very likely did not get far." His ears fell back. "And if the pony turned into a tree… a pretty big if, considering the amount of blood I saw in there..."

Shining frowned, sensing where Rhinoc was going with his train of logic. The elder came over, went inside to inspect the grim scene, and trotted out with a sullen frown just seconds later. "Poor dear…" he muttered solemnly. "To be attacked on a wedding day…" Rhinoc nodded, sensing his understandable unease. For a moment, the group stood in somber silence, contemplating what to do next when a distant, shrill scream rent the tranquil night air. Rainbow responded by spreading her wings, flying over, and seizing Blueblood within the span of three seconds.

"H-hey!" Blueblood protested, struggling to get out of Rainbow's already-tightening grip. It was no use; within five seconds after the initial grab, he was forced to stand on his back legs, his forehooves flailing with all of the grace of windswept wet newspaper.

"Sorry guys, but I'm afraid I gotta fly ahead," Rainbow explained before lifting Blueblood and taking off at terminal velocity, and the only thing she left in her wake was two sets of hoofprints and a few shed feathers that fell after she had left. Blueblood shrieked in surprise as he was spirited away, but soon his cries faded with distance.

"I have a feeling he's gonna need another puke bucket whenever he lands…" Flash groused, flaring his wings. He looked to Shining. "Want me to tail her?"

Shining nodded. "Please do, Flash. I've heard about her recklessness when she first arrived here…" he muttered dismally. "We'll catch up." With that, Flash took to the air and tried his best to fly after and find the hapless Blueblood and the once-again reckless Rainbow Dash.

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Blueblood's stomach had turned upside-down and back again as Rainbow went careening through the night, the whistling of the wind and the hooves carrying him doing their utter damnedest to make him lose his lunch. He barely heard the source of the scream as blood rushed to his head and pounded at the walls of his veins and arteries in an attempt to carve its way out, but he held his tongue, fearing that would fly out as well were he to open his mouth in these circumstances.

Rainbow, he decided, didn't seem to personally care either way. She heard the screaming, engaged body before brain, and before he knew it a decent chunk of Ashwood Forest passed right under their hooves. Still more of the desolate wood flitted by at such speeds he couldn't tell which shade of brown belonged to what, even with the moon's light illuminating the area. They went in circles, up and down, and every few seconds Rainbow glanced down to find out what the source of the sound was, but she caught nothing. This dragged on for several nauseatingly long minutes, during which Blueblood's stomach found that it did not know which way to start cartwheeling. Then, just as suddenly as they'd lifted off, Rainbow stopped on a dime, glancing around this way and that as she heard several low and distant hums.

Blueblood squeezed his lips shut as bile rushed up to fill his mouth. He forced himself to swallow, already green in the face and wondering what in Tartarus his usher got distracted by. Wearily, he glanced around, finding several dark forms descending onto Ashwood. They were massive things, bigger than the Valkyrie Tank, but other than that he could not discern what in Faust's name they were, let alone ascertain their purpose. Not even the light of the moon gave their appearances away; only their darkened forms and their distance did so in its stead, though soon they vanished from sight.

He looked up at Rainbow, who looked down at him and shrugged to the best of her ability. "I dunno either," she admitted. Her mouth opened to utter something else, when another scream, this one much more shrill and loud, pierced the air, giving Blueblood barely enough time to collect himself. Instantly, the two darted their eyes madly about, looking under themselves for even the slightest trace of a source when, a couple of miles away, a tree swayed in the moonlight all by its lonesome.

Suspiciously, its branches drooped down when none of the other trees surrounding it even moved so much as a leaf, and a second, even higher-pitched scream, joined the first and dragged on for much longer. Rainbow strained her ears, trying to gauge what was wailing and where exactly it was coming from. The second source gurgled for a bit before resuming their shrieking. Her heart sank, and she raced towards the moving tree as she heard the thunderous sound of something massive stomping its way over. Within seconds, the sources' cries rose to chilling screams, with the gurgling one actually managing to give them both a slight headache as it reached a crescendo.

Rainbow wasted no time; she flew over, dragging Blueblood with, to the one tree that had moved. In seconds, she found a clearing that beheld a horrifying sight: a massive… entity seemingly made of black stones ambled to a cursed tree that was using its branches to shield a small foal, who was in turn cradling something between its forelegs. The tree tried to bat away the oncoming creature with its branches, but it only caused its spindly limbs to snap into pieces upon impact as the creature came closer and closer to the foal. Larger branches came in and seized the creature and firmly pushed, sending it back a few paces before it stopped.

"Hang in there, kid, we're coming!" Rainbow declared, rushing to the scene and right to the creature, getting between the entity and the tree as well as putting Blueblood on the forest floor to catch his breath. In the moon's light, she saw a massive four-legged creature as big as a standard house's bedroom, but did not get a good look at its features. Instead she ascended a few meters, descended again, twisted around and bucked the creature head-on with both back hooves, earning a pained cry as the attack sent it staggering further backwards.

Rainbow briefly turned to Blueblood. "Take care of the kid! I'll deal with… the whatever-this-is!" she cried, and when Blueblood shakily nodded, she immediately twisted back to face her adversary as it righted itself and glared at her with beady eyes. She found herself staring down a tortoise of all things, its scales black as coal with a shell seemingly hewn of obsidian, with one bladed horn jutting out of its forehead and two Celestia-sized stalagmites sticking out of its shell to form a wicked crescent shape. Quickly, she glanced at both back hooves and sighed in relief when she did not spot a single trickle of blood, or a bleeding gash, before once again facing the massive tortoise.

Blueblood turned away from the spectacle as Rainbow flew to the behemoth to whale on it some more, ignoring its earthshaking stomps, and instead lit up his horn to conjure a light to better illuminate the area. His eyes widened when he saw a small filly with widened eyes, barely bigger than Scootaloo, huddling at the cursed tree's roots. Her light green mane and tail were in tangles, and her grey coat had been stained by dried blood in a myriad of places and an equal number of scabbed-over wounds. Disturbingly, where the blood had gathered most was her very stained rump. In her forelegs was a much smaller, pale green foal with a dried umbilical cord still attached, kicking and screaming for all it was worth. He instantly trotted over, only for the cursed tree to start trying to bat him away, too.

"Leave… alone…!" the tree hissed, turning a horrifically-twisted scowl towards Blueblood.

Blueblood shook his head. "We're here to help the children!" he protested, using his magic to seize the branches and shove them away before he came closer to the wounded filly, who immediately scooted back to the tree. "They need shelter, and medical care, and you will not impede me from taking them to where it's available!"

He opened his mouth to speak some more, but the filly started screaming at him, "N-not g-going to b-bad place! Y-you can't make me!"

"Leave… now…" the tree protested, deciding to fold some more branches over in an effort to get Blueblood to trot elsewhere. However, he wouldn't back down; he instead sent the branches back with more force, that time outright snapping some of them. The tree retaliated, now bringing out a branch as thick as his barrel, ending in smaller branches that made it seem more like a clawed hand.

With this large branch, it seized Blueblood by his left foreleg and gripped tightly before lifting him up and bringing him to its face. "You no… help foals! You… hurt them! You just like… bad ponies of Greenwood!" the tree declared, bringing forth another branch even thicker than the one it was using to hold Blueblood, seizing his right foreleg before it began to pull in opposite directions.

"I am most certainly not anything even remotely close to what those degenerates are!" Blueblood shouted back, seizing the larger branches in his magic and pushing them toward himself to keep the tree from ripping his forelegs out of their sockets. He felt a slight strain just beneath his horn, and one in each foreleg as the tree tried with all of its might to resist his spell and rip him in half. "I require assistance!" he cried, but blinked when he realized Rainbow didn't immediately come to help him get out of the tree's grip.

"I-I can't help right now!" Rainbow cried. Curious as to what was keeping her, Blueblood turned to Rainbow, finding that she now had some difficulty of her own with the tortoise. It had her pinned under its body with a massive foot, and she was using all four hooves to keep it from turning her into pulp, wings straining as she used them to push herself up from the ground without flapping them.

The tree's mouth formed into a twisted smirk, hanging slightly agape as its face tilted. A dark substance leaked from its eyes, staining its bark as it stared at Blueblood with an expression of malice. "Outsiders… weak…" it cooed darkly, the barest hint of a feminine tone lining its voice. "Outsiders… no help foals…"

Blueblood turned back and glared at the tree, though a shiver ran down his spine at the rather disconcerting expression it wore on its visage. He did the only thing available to him then; he lifted his rear legs, swung back before bringing his hindquarters forward and bucking with every ounce of strength in his body. The tree screamed as hooves landed solidly against its face, causing the bark to break and the flesh beneath to cave in with a sickening squelch thanks to the aid of momentum. Its branches released their hold on him, and he dropped to the forest floor on his side, grinning as the tree brought its misshapen branches to its face with a wail of pain.

Scrambling up, he turned to the filly and the baby before scooping them up in his magic. "Sincere apologies, but this must be done!" he stated as the filly opened her mouth to protest. Blueblood brought them close to his barrel and backpedaled sharply, just as the tree dropped its massive clawed branches to glare at him with a broken face that leaked dark fluids like a running faucet. He launched a bolt of magic at the tree, who deflected it with a branch, sending it into the sky to explode harmlessly above Ashwood Forest.

"Foal defiler!" the tree yelled, its roots shifting violently beneath the ground, forming cracks and upwellings of dirt from where it was cemented in place. "Foal needs proper stallion! Not outsider weakling!"

"Just what are you going on about?!" Blueblood demanded, turning to the filly to find her looking at him with stiff legs and pinprick pupils. The baby was looking at him with a similar expression, having stopped crying for the moment. He took a better look at them both, finding countable ribs and jutting hipbones on the filly's frame, while curiously the baby had a rather healthy amount of pudge. "And have you eaten at all?" he asked the filly, in a low voice. She shook her head.

"N-no trust you," the filly muttered. She, the baby, and Blueblood all shrieked in surprise as the earth heaved and massive tendrils erupted from the ground, sending dust and small pebbles everywhere. Rainbow and the tortoise yelped as well, and before anyone could move the tendrils wrapped around all of their legs, save those of the filly and baby. The tortoise shrieked as it was flipped away from Rainbow and onto its back, its pointed shell spearing the soil and cementing it in place with a terrible snap.

"Give me the children!" the tree bellowed as the tendrils yanked Blueblood from the ground once more, splaying his legs as far apart as possible. He looked down, seeing the tendrils end at the tree's trunk, and the tree's roots moving in an unnatural manner, with some even forming sharp thorns through the act of twisting about, thus creating splinters.

"I would rather face the wrath of my aunties than to leave starving foals in this accursed forest!" Blueblood shouted, once more glaring at the tree for all it was worth. The tree hissed, the sound akin to a screeching whine, when an orange blur shot past it, and then weaved its way through the tendrils. It snatched the foals from Blueblood's magic as it passed him and shot to the sky like a rocket, hovering just over the branches' edges.

Blueblood and Rainbow looked up, seeing a frowning Flash Sentry hovering above, the filly clinging to his armor and the baby in his forelegs. "Like hay you're getting the kids!" Flash yelled, shaking his head disapprovingly at the tree, who turned up to hiss at him animalistically. A low hum filled the air, and a few darkened forms carrying glistening, clock-shaped objects hovered at the edge of the clearing in his wake.

Past these new arrivals, though, something both intriguing and highly alarming caught Flash's eyes. More trees started swaying their branches erratically in the distance, and with their movements a chorus of anguished, enraged moans filled the air. This new cacophony almost drowned out the hum the new arrivals had brought with them.

Chapter LXX, Part II- Rune-Wrought Twilight

Rainbow struggled as the tendrils wrapped around her legs tightened, wings madly flailing beneath her as she tried to get out of their ground-born grasp now that the tortoise had been flipped over. But slipping out of flailing, nature-made ropes proved difficult, especially when she realized that these things had their own unique brand of tricks up their multitudes of earth-wrought sleeves. One seized both wings by the very joint to which they connected her back with the moment both sets of primaries touched each other, effectively rendering them stiff and useless… or so the tendrils that seized them thought, anyway. All she thought of it was something along the lines of 'just a cheap shot.' "Oh come on!" she cried in exasperation.

With every ounce of strength she could pump into her wings, she pushed against the tendrils, though she was careful to not go overboard in case the blasted things decided to take the next and more logical step of breaking her bones. Her blood began to boil when she saw more tendrils shooting towards Flash Sentry, who had the sensibility to ascend higher, keeping both himself and the poor foals that got caught up in this mess out of harm's way.

One of the new arrivals dove in to help, and she instantly caught sight of his triangular dog-tags. But she didn't have the time to gawk, not when there was the threat of being maimed by dirtied tentacles. She strained her wings again, gaining another few inches of open air between them, feeling mana pulsing between the feathers as her innate magic kicked into gear. The tendrils began tightening, however, and soon an impasse was reached. Rainbow had to be careful to keep a wing from slipping out, knowing full well her own ability to fly would be seriously compromised if only one wing hung at her side.

Magic gripped her, and chitil started growing on her body with multiple flashes of light. "What the?!" She struggled some more, wondering where this stuff was coming from and why it was growing on her. She turned to the arrivals that dove toward her, and stopped for just a second when she saw fangs and hole-riddled legs. "Oh…" But that momentary lapse in her concentration was enough for the tendrils to push her wings back together, though not before chitil covered them down to the joints. The chitil cushioned her wings snugly, and then her legs, and then the rest of her body, even as more tendrils slipped in to try and squeeze the life out of her.

The new tendrils never got the chance. Rainbow's eyes widened as she heard the cursed tree screaming, and saw dozens of bolts of emerald fire erupt right in front of and all around her. Even as the tendrils were struck and started burning away, she did not feel an iota of heat so much as touch a covered hair on her body. Past the flames, albeit barely, she could see Blueblood undergoing the same treatment; a pyre surrounded him, and he was coated horn to hoof in chitil. Not one singed hair was to be seen on his coat or mane.

Oddly, she began to smell something that had a bitter twang, and immediately her brain surged with a fresh wave of anger. She began to struggle once more, and though the chitil would not yield, it did help her wriggle out of the tendrils' collective grasp that much easier; the same was true for Blueblood. She turned to the cursed tree, who was now trying to knock several black and airborne forms away with its branches, but the effort was rendered moot when these forms retaliated with bolts of fire. Soon it was reduced to thrashing and screaming as bits of bark turned to ash, and the flesh beneath them was smoldering black as the fires ate it up.

Armin's voice echoed in their heads, "Don't mind the goo; it's fireproof." Rainbow nodded, slipped out of the tendrils, twisted about and landed on her hooves in one motion, albeit unsteadily thanks to their extra layer of slime. As she landed, some of the chitil began to slide off without pulling at any of her hairs or feathers, leaving her dry and untouched as it started pooling at her hooves. Blueblood took a few seconds more just to wiggle free, but he too landed without trouble the moment his legs squirmed out of the tendrils harmlessly.

Rainbow turned her attention to the screaming tree once again, and her eyes widened when she saw it was still standing! Parts fell away in the verdant blaze; whole branches, parts of its face, even sizeable chunks of flesh, and yet it kept on trying to bat the changelings surrounding it with branches that simply could not withstand the inferno. She turned to Flash, who looked down at her as the filly shifted to cling to his backside. "Take the kids to the ship! They don't need to be here!" she barked.

Flash nodded and turned to soar away, a few changelings turning to accompany him. When they vanished from sight, Rainbow ruffled her wings and took to the air again, shooting up to the top of the clearing. Her heart sank when moving branches started getting closer to the edge, and worse still she could now hear the ground shaking. She turned to where Flash was heading, seeing some branches closing in on him and the changelings with him. "Look out!" she cried, hoping to Faust that they'd hear her.

A branch swiped at the trio, and for a heart-stopping moment, Rainbow heard the filly and the baby cry out. Flash Sentry was quicker than the oncoming branch, however, and rose a few feet higher into the air to dodge it. One of the changelings wasn't as lucky, as though the branch had missed its initial target, it managed to snag itself onto a hole-riddled leg, pulling him down with a startled screech. Seconds after that changeling was downed, a flare of emerald light erupted from the spot where the branch snagged him, and another terrible shriek filled the air.

All around, flashes of light erupted in various places, all from the ground of Ashwood Forest. Screams continued to rend the air, adding another terrible note to the already-ongoing horrid cacophony. She twisted to look down, finding the current batch of tendrils now laying askew all over the clearing, smoldering and lifeless. The tree, however, continued to writhe and twist, its cry now a strangled gurgle as the flames continued to eat at its body. Even as it fell to the ground, its trunk snapping in two, it continued to thrash mightily.

Rainbow dove to pick up Blueblood, who did not struggle as her hooves locked tight around his barrel and she launched herself into the sky with him in tow. A few changelings accompanied them, and all hovered in place for a minute or so. "What should we do?!" Rainbow cried, panic starting to grip her as a tendril shot towards Flash, barely missing him by a few inches as he banked hard to the side.

Armin glanced around, seeing a few more shadows dive into the trees, either of their own volition or with the aid of a stray tendril or branch. He turned back to Flash, who was now reeling back as another tendril tried to snatch him, only barely grazing his tail. He flew over as fast as his wings could carry him, and at once the changelings with Rainbow followed him. Rainbow herself frowned, but flew behind him nonetheless.

"This day just keeps getting better!" Blueblood shrieked, glancing around as Rainbow zipped past oncoming tendrils with laughable ease. "I can see why Lance didn't want us to come here!"

"You said it!" Rainbow agreed with a nod as she passed by the changelings, heading straight towards Flash Sentry. She saw clouds gathering in the sky, forming rapidly as though a weather team were managing them, and her fellow pegasus rising into the air slowly in his bid to keep the foals safe. Her heart skipped a beat when she heard the distinct crackle of thunder, and saw lightning striking in wicked arcs from the forming clouds a few miles away. "Ectoplasms! Flash, you're going too high!"

Flash was too busy ducking away and ascending to flee the tendrils to really notice, though the booming of distant thunder did not escape him. He looked up, seeing the sky rapidly clouding up and concealing the moon, and each forming cloud sported a little yellow blot that seemed to steam the moisture around it into angry black splotches. His pupils shrank, and instantly he turned down to start descending. Tendrils raced up to meet him head-on, eager to ground him, and it was only thanks to a lightning strike that arced just behind him that he could even see them.

Flash folded his wings sharply against his sides, picking up momentum, seeing the tendrils open up to embrace him. Before he could touch them, however, his wings snapped open and he darted to the side with one flap, steering himself and the foals clear out of harm's way. He swerved and ascended again, though not high enough to draw the ectoplasms' collective attention to him.

He looked below as a flash of pink exploded from the ground, still dodging the tendrils with urgency, finding Shining conjuring a glowing shield with the elder and Applejack at his side, and Rhinoc launching bolts of flame through the field toward any wayward cursed trees that started striking at the dome. Rhinoc had also shed his disguise, and hissed animalistically as the trees kept trying to press whatever advantage they thought they had, throwing themselves at the dome as fire began to consume them.

The elder was chipping in too, launching bolts that sank into the ground before conjuring vines of ivy that exploded from the soil to grapple the trees and send them back, even though the friendly fire was eating that as well. Applejack merely stood there, mana pulsing through the ground with an orange glow beneath her hooves, eyes closed in concentration.

"What in Faust's teats set these guys off?!" Shining cried, his shield starting to flex as more trees piled onto their burning brethren. The barrier dented momentarily before springing back to a perfectly round shape, knocking its current wave of aggressors back.

"Damned if I know!" Rhinoc yelled, his horn starting to turn red-hot at its tip as he launched more bolts of fire in a frenzied fervor to carve out a path of fallen trees. Yet no matter how many he felled, those that were taken out of the fight still had gusto left in their blackening branches, and so clawed feebly at the barrier as though the pathetic movements could damage it. Worse still, more swarmed all around, and the body count was piling quick. He spared a glance up and paled as he saw Flash dancing in the sky with the tendrils, performing a very precarious series of pirouettes with the foals clinging to him. "Hey, Tangerine! Get your shiny metal armor-plated ass down here!" he called.

Flash needed no second invitation. He dove for the barrier, which opened up a hole at its top to admit him and his young charges. Before it could close, however, Rainbow and Blueblood came careening in as well, and all three landed rather clumsily. Flash righted himself, spreading his wings for balance as he rose onto his hind legs, and turned to check on the baby. The little one looked up at him with a reddened face, sniffling and huffing with ears pinned back. "Hey, it's gonna be okay," he cooed gently, but that only caused the young one to shiver and press its forelegs tightly against its chest.

Shining turned to Flash as he heard him coo to the child, and the moment he saw the baby and the battered filly his jaw fell open and stayed that way. He just could not process the sight, but then shook his head and decided he'd have time to gawk later, especially since a baby had now been dragged into the fray. He turned his attention to the dome to find that still more trees swarmed its edge, banging against it and eyeing the lot within with hungry gazes that reminded Shining of ravenous vultures.

Even the trees that fell to pieces still made an effort to break his spell. He had to give credit where it was due; these things were persistent as hell. Their fervor only increased tenfold when they paused just long enough to see Flash cradling the baby, with the filly still clinging to his back. "Foal defilers!" the trees cried in a collective roar, their outburst echoing with enough distortion to sound as though it came from a particularly large, particularly peeved dragon.

The dome began to crack with the repeated strikes, now fueled by a hellishly renewed vigor. Shining flexed it to lessen the damage, but the little chinks told the trees all they needed to know, and so they continued to strike. Worse yet, both the elder and Rhinoc slumped to the ground, both panting and with steam rising from the tips of their red-hot horns. Blueblood gawked as he saw steam rising from Shining's horn as well, and sweat beading on his brow. His own horn glowed, and ribbons of blue lanced out to the cracks, sealing them shut in a manner reminiscent of cement.

But, the moment he did that was the same moment the trees simply wised up and shifted to other, untouched parts of the barrier and started chipping away in those spots. Blueblood responded by using his magic to reinforce those areas too, all the while tossing his forehooves into the air and crying out in exasperation, "You have got to be joking!"

Dash looked up to the sky and strained her eyes as lightning bolts danced above, illuminating several airborne forms that were massive and oddly balloon-shaped. Her eyes widened when she saw the changelings and other shadowy forms retreating to them, squawking and hissing in displeasure. "Guys! Look!" She thrust a hoof out towards the sight, and everyone save the elder, Rhinoc, and Applejack spared a glance up.

The filly promptly buried her face into the crook of Flash's neck with a shiver, right beneath his helmet. "Sc-scary… monsters…" she mumbled, closing her eyes tight.

Applejack's eyes snapped open, and a fiery ember burned within them as they narrowed. "Something tells me…" She paused and lifted a hoof and scraped at the dirt with it with a firm stomp that sent a small tremor through the earth. The trees felt the tremor and turned to her, just in time to see her stomp and scrape again. "That these stubborn mules are gonna need a good bucking or two." She snorted, her tail twitching and her legs tensing with the urge to kick the trees' faces in. "Don't give us one lick o' info, and this is how they act?" Her voice dripped with disdain and anger in equal amounts, and the trees recoiled a bit at her tone.

"Outsiders know nothing! Outsiders can understand nothing!" a particularly foolish tree barked as it punched a hole through the shield with a massive clawed branch that reached out to seize Shining by his horn. In a blur of motion, Applejack jumped to the tree, whirled around, lifted her back legs and bucked as hard as she could. The limb snapped into several pieces the instant her hooves connected, and the tree shrieked and withdrew as Blueblood worked to seal the hole.

"Nice shot, Applejack!" Rainbow cheered, before hearing another tree puncture the shield from behind. She spun around and raced to the offender, grappling its limb with all four hooves and using her wings to add momentum. In seconds, she jerked the branch up and snapped it clean off, earning a cry of pain from a second tree who also pulled back. Before Blueblood could start mending that hole, a third tree poked its head in, only to get a faceful of severed limb-bark that Rainbow thrust down with the force of a sledgehammer. More splinters went askew and flew in many directions as a result of the impact, and the tree was left with half of its face torn from a skull that was somehow buried in the bark.

A burst of purple light from above caught Flash's eye, and he looked up in time to see it fade from one of the airborne figures that now circled the roiling skies overhead. He flinched when a part of the dome cracked over him, and a tree tried to crawl inside with a whole myriad of branches and tendrils stretching out to grip him. He ducked and shifted as Rainbow promptly flew over to start kicking its face in, while another that managed to punch through the shield crawled toward Blueblood only to wind up meeting with the business end of Applejack's hooves.

The shield began breaking into larger chunks. Shining's legs wobbled with the strain, threatening to give out, and he was sweating bullets as his horn gradually turned an unhealthy shade of crimson. The trees started to gain ground, howling and shrieking with delight as Applejack and Rainbow rushed around to try and keep them at bay, while Blueblood's own horn started to steam and heat up. Even with one's speed and the other's thorough experience with tree-bucking, there were only two ponies actively trying to fight the oncoming tide. It was only a matter of attrition now. The trees knew it and assumed twisted grins as victory seemed at hoof.

But a golden light flashed overhead, just once before turning blood red. An ominous light then shined its rays onto the immediate area. Everything ground to a halt, and Rhinoc and the elder lurched to their hooves before looking up at the light. Slowly, Shining and the rest of his group, as well as the cursed trees that had them surrounded, did the same. Runes framed the light, dancing about between a golden ring and the red light, and they did so in a slow pirouette that almost seemed to hold their breath.

"What… is that?" Shining asked, swallowing heavily as he eyed the crimson light with an air of suspicion.

The elder paled considerably at the sight. Rhinoc shivered as he uttered one word in a hushed whisper to answer Shining, who had to strain his ears to hear it. The word was one that burned at the Major's throat, stole his breath, made his heart freeze for a split-second and sent his mind into a fritz. One word that sent tremors down his wings with enough force to rattle them, and a creeping chill swept his bones through his chitin and the bones of everyone else gathered. Merely uttering it caused his eyes to dilate in alarm and fear to grip his entire being. That word consisted of but three syllables, and it was, "Ragnarok…"

"Ragnarok…?" Shining paused to let the word sit in his mouth, before his pupils dilated when he realized what the Major had just uttered. His magic sputtered, and the shield shook as if in agreement. Just having heard it was enough for jolts of lightning to run through him, and his legs were suddenly filled with the urge to gallop to the nearest cavern for shelter. "Y-you can't possibly mean…!"

Rhinoc nodded gravely as dark shapes started emerging from the light. "We must leave," he muttered darkly.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Matt stood on the deck of the largest airship currently circling the skies above Ashwood, his horn aglow with a crackling aura as he eyed a tiny pink speck down below, surrounded by a myriad of green glowing dots that now perforated the forest. With him was Twilight, who fidgeted in place as she charged her horn. "If I can just teleport down there… I could…" A raised, fuzzy hoof obstructing her barrel stopped her.

"Don't. It's suicide at this height," Matt muttered grimly as Twilight's horn gave off a pop of light without doing much else. He heard the hatch open, and turned to it to find Anna poking her head out. "What's the report?"

Anna's muzzle twisted into a solemn frown, and her head shook gravely. "Shining's surrounded on all sides, and the trees know it. His shield can't hold forever, and all other changelings have decided to haul ass, leaving Rhinoc with him. If we don't do something…" she trailed off, letting her ominous, unspoken meaning hang in the thundering air. Matt nodded and turned back to the scene below, using his raised hoof to beckon Anna to come closer. She jumped out of the hatch, closed it behind her, and cantered over to peer past the railing. "Shit… we'd have to go down there, and now that the cursed trees are throwing a tantrum…"

Matt groaned and conjured a thick, leather-bound book emblazoned with his cutie mark on the cover in a flash of light. "I never thought I'd have to pull this thing out in a million years…" he hissed, backing away from the railing to levitate the book in front of his muzzle. He flipped it open, revealing messy writing in ancient alicorn of all things dotting the pages. He searched the pages, speed-reading up and down with eyes quickly narrowing. "C'mon, there's gotta be something in this dusty thing…" He searched and searched, brow furrowing as various equations, explanations both simple and unbelievably complex for what the spells within did, and even sloppy illustrations of the spells in action passed.

He flipped by one illustration three-quarters into the spellbook, one wherein a pony conjured a myriad of ethereal swords simultaneously, grumbling in his haste to find something to help Shining and his group somehow or another from the sky. A firm frown twisted his muzzle as he reached the end of the book, then promptly flipped back to the spell depicting the myriad of swords. "Fuck…" he groused, turning to Anna as her pupils widened. "What do you see?"

Anna's frown deepened. "The trees are gaining an advantage," she reported glumly.

Twilight turned to Anna and raised an incredulous brow. "How do you know that without a telescope?" she asked. "No normal pony can see that far!"

Anna snorted dismissively, not even bothering to return the look. "You forget that I am not normal," she scoffed before pausing to bare her teeth, revealing that half of her back row was pointed and blunt along with canines that not many ponies would possess. Her tail swished as she added, "The only reason I can even see your brother right now is because his shield is glowing."

Lightning danced, and a particularly bright bolt arced around the airship once, shining right in their faces. Anna slammed her eyes shut and recoiled alongside Matt and Twilight, and she answered to the lightning not with words, but instead with a bestial, lion-like roar of displeasure leaving her throat. When the light faded, she blinked her eyes open and shook her head to get the spots out of her vision.

Matt and Twilight were seconds behind her, shaking their heads to gather their bearings. Doing a second read-through of the tome he conjured, Matt facehoofed. "Of all the spells I know, this one is the only long-distance one I've got…" He trotted to the railing after reading through the tome a third time, just to be extra certain in case his eyes were playing tricks on him. Making the tome vanish after that, he searched for the lone pink spot and almost immediately zeroed in on it.

Twilight turned to Matt and her pupils shrank. "Only one long-range spell?!" she cried, panic starting to grip her as he nodded once.

"And it's one that doesn't use the ground, which is all the way down there," Matt grumbled, his horn starting to glow brighter. "Anna, tell Lance that I'm on the last resort." Anna shuddered, pupils dilating and ears pinning back.

"B-but I could—" Anna gabled before Matt turned to her and shook his head.

"Lightning could blind you. It's not worth the risk. Tell Lance now," Matt stated in an authoritative tone that brokered no argument. Anna's mouth snapped shut and she nodded before trotting to the hatch, flipping it open, and jumping in. Seconds after she began her descent, the hatch slammed shut of its own accord, and Matt turned back to the scene below. Channeling more mana into his horn, golden filaments lanced out to the sky and started dancing about in twin circles that could rival Canterlot in size. One ring was larger than the other, by several feet at that, with the smaller of the pair within the confines of the larger. Twilight wondered what he was casting.

Twilight did not have to wait long before the spell itself answered for her first with a ripple, then, between the circles, the filaments lashed out and weaved until they formed runic writing that glowed crimson the moment they were completed. Twilight's heart froze in her chest as a pentagram formed in the middle of the twin circles before the portion of sky they held was ripped by a red energy, giving way to a hellish portal that had countless vermillion clouds dancing within, circling some glow whose source she could not hope to discern.

She turned to Matt and paled, seeing his magic aura shift abruptly from gold to crimson dotted with shadowy wisps that drifted away in ribbons and flecks. As the aura cradled it, his horn lengthened by a good foot as gold dust fell off of it, revealing a long and curved tapering quality about it that she could've sworn was not there before. His mane's braids broke free of their intricate three-way hold, before they with flailed about with the rest of the golden locks, in addition to his leg fur and tail. All three of those traits began dancing as though whipped by wind, parts of all turning black and mist-like, almost seeming to become tangled masses of concentrated darkness. To top this off, a shadowy mist started pooling from his eyes like writhing embers, purple at first before turning black.

His sclera turned an unhealthy shade of sable, and his irises contorted until they were less spheroid and more hexagonal in shape, and their pupils did likewise with a jagged point more reminiscent of a pair of splinters. The pools of blue turned the same color as that of the runes he was conjuring. "Wh-what are you doing?!" she cried, her voice an octave higher as she realized she recognized the wisps dancing about his eyes. "Wh-what's happening to you?!"

Twilight wished she had not asked. Matt answered, though his gruff voice was now distorted by an otherworldly, echoing reverb that was almost wraith-like, "I am using all of my magic, mostly the Umbrum sort. I was always like this… but I never let many ponies see me in this state. This… is the true me, Twilight."

"U-Umbrum?! Wh-what's an Umbrum?!" Twilight cried, turning to the hellish portal to find a myriad of darkened shadows now descending out of it, each one the size of a mountain and tapered to a wickedly sharp point or three. Lightning struck, illuminating an axehead amongst one of the things that were now being called forth.

"A unicorn who used dark magic until it corrupted their bodies. This… is a spell Lance allows to be cast, but only under dire circumstances. But it is not dark magic. Only I can cast it," Matt answered, lifting a hoof and waving it towards the portal for emphasis. "Mom's an Umbrum… but she doesn't like to admit it."

Twilight gulped and turned to Matt, shivering as she saw his horn turn black as pitch from the halfway point all the way to the tip. He stood, still channeling the spell, watching as a myriad of impossibly huge weapons descended from the portal, cast in the ominous red glow that he beckoned onto the surface of Fantasia. Twilight found that, despite the light shrouding them, they were as dark and dismal as the shadows emanating from Matt's body. With a fresh wave of horror clawing at her mind, she realized that what she had just witnessed was an illusion breaking. And if just channeling this spell that rent a hole in the sky broke it… his reassurance that 'this isn't dark magic' did next to nothing to abate her rapidly-skyrocketing concerns.

Another thought hit her. If this was the real Matt, instead of some fanciful veneer crafted by way of illusions and cloaks, than just what in Tartarus was the military in these parts hiding? Natalie being a crystal pony, that she could excuse on some level, given that she was adopted; this was another kettle of fish entirely. She forced herself to ignore these musings for the time being, and focused on the more immediate and pressing matter of the gate that was called forth and the weapons in the process of emerging from it.

"H-how… are those things coming from Tartarus itself?!" she screamed, half of her mind going into a panicked fritz while the other was trying to work out how such weapons could even be conjured in the first place. "And why isn't it classified as dark magic?!"

"The weapons might as well be, and this spell does not derive its power from hatred. If it did, the changelings in the army would drop dead this night," Matt answered with a shake of his head, turning back to the lone pink dot down below. He studied it for a moment, then turned back to the weapons that hung just outside of the portal, waiting to strike. Realizing his hoof was still raised, he held it there for a few seconds before dropping it. "I think it's time to send the cursed trees of Greenwood a little warning."

"Stop! Shining's down there!" Twilight cried, but alas it was of little use; her outburst might as well have fallen upon deaf ears. At once the weapons descended from the portal, screaming through the air with enough force to rock the airships on their way down. Twilight was sent back to the far railing as the ship groaned and struggled to reorient itself, worry increasing tenfold when she saw Matt wasn't even shaken in the slightest. For him, with hooves firmly planted on the floor and his shadows stopping their movements to plant themselves on the railing before him and the floor behind his hooves, gravity didn't seem to exist as a concept anymore. As the ship tilted back to compensate for the spell's sudden blowback of wind, she scrabbled to the railing and found the other vessels likewise recovering.

She wanted to look away from where Shining was trying to hold out, but horror gripped her so tightly she could not even bring herself to blink. At terminal velocity, the weapons homed in, and she willed some of her magic to race to the blades. But her spells just fizzled out upon contact with the inanimate monstrosities. She even conjured a blade of light, but it shattered into dust on impact. Her horror kept mounting as she started pumping in more magic, aura growing larger and larger to compensate—yet the mobile behemoths didn't budge, save directly downward.

There was nothing she could do; the weapons were too big and too fast for her to move with her magic, and worse still the first wave was in multiples. No matter what she threw at this hellish spell, the gargantuan blades refused to yield to her whims. She wanted to scream, but could not will her mouth to move, could not will her lungs to take in air, could not even twitch her ears in the slightest. Time may as well have frozen her and her alone to the spot. "The spell... cannot be stopped once cast. Only when it drains me of my mana will it cease," Matt said bitterly, shaking his head forlornly at the sight. Briefly, he closed his eyes. "I sincerely wish it didn't have to come to this... I'm sorry..."

Twilight watched on, silently, helplessly, and in despair, as the first weapon made contact with the ground. There was nothing she could do—nothing she could do but watch with anguish clawing at her being, and tears pricking at her eyes. Soundlessly, she stared as the first of many dust clouds formed, obscuring the flickering green lights as well as Shining's barrier.

And him and those who trotted alongside him that night with it.

Matt watched with an impassive gaze, almost as cold and distant as that of a wraith's as the massive weapons slammed into Ashwood all around the miniscule barrier, each impact splitting and shaking the ground in places with enough force to uproot even the oldest and mightiest of trees. The dust from the first strike settled, revealing that the barrier was still there—though whether it was intact or not, he had no way of knowing.

It stubbornly stayed as more weapons hammered themselves into the forest in single, fluid motions, scattering more soil and trees everywhere as the ground was ripped asunder. It took what felt like an eternity, in addition to a couple of more blades, before he saw two distant forms flying from the barrier, and a third lagging behind as the the pink dome finally fell in wave after relentless wave of dust and bark. The weapons missed the airborne forms entirely as they ascended with all due haste to the airship, though whether by skill or a miracle could not be discerned easily, as they were still just barely above the treeline.

The spell kept going, churning out more weapons to rain down upon the forest and scatter its uprooted fragments with a vengeance to match their sheer size. Again and again the weapons from Tartarus struck, cementing themselves deep into the earth, turning Ashwood into a hellscape of splinters, loose soil and strewn bark. Some struck so deep magma welled up from the forming chasms like blood gushing from a wound, further painting the scene below in yet another series of ghastly lights. Yet more weapons—spears, swords, axes, halberds of every conceivable shape—came forth without showing signs of stopping, all gaining speed and momentum with which to destroy the already-desolate wood.

The ground below shook again and again with each fresh injury, the lightning continued to perform its frantic dance, with some bolts striking upon the weapons to little avail, instead merely wrapping itself harmlessly around the gargantuan blades. Cursed trees screamed in alarm as they were blown clean off their roots, and the thunder cried out in an effort to drown out all of the ongoing pandemonium, yet the onslaught from Tartarus did not stop for even a second. Distantly, barely audible amidst the ministrations and outbursts of Mother Nature herself, both Twilight and Matt heard Rainbow Dash scream, her voice tinged with panic and dripping with desperation.

"Whoever is doing that, cut it out already! We got foals and an old pony on board!" was all they could hear before another blade slammed home just a few miles from the airborne group, its landing drowning her voice out. For a moment, dust obscured the airborne forms, and a scream wedged itself halfway up Twilight's throat. Seconds later, the trio emerged, rapidly gaining height in an act of both desperation and sheer defiance even as the dust and strewn bark kept trying to swallow them time and time again.

Ascending further still gave just a little more clarity to the colors of the group, and both could see that one of them was wrangling four ponies packed tightly into a cluster with just two hooves. They heard Applejack screech, her voice tinged with displeasure as much as panic and terror, "Knock it off before I pound you and wear y'all like boots!" Twilight heaved an immense sigh of relief, but still the panic that settled in remained as Shining and his group had yet to get to safety, even though they had just managed to flee Ashwood. They were barely able to evade the weapons that kept on surging forth, as if weighed down by their own terror.

Such a terrible sight seemed destined to last for minutes, hours, perhaps even days as what she could only describe as a spell-wrought apocalypse blanketed Ashwood. Idly, Twilight wondered how Matt even had the power to cast this blight, and from where he'd obtained it. He did not look the part of a capable-enough mage, yet here he was laying waste to the cursed wood from above without even moving from the deck to do so. His spell negated the lightning, her own magic... truly, he had gotten his hooves on a terrifying power—a power that couldn't be stopped nor sated. Time slowed to a crawl as, for the barest of instants, the portal flickered and warbled, warping and losing its crimson glow. Out of the corner of her eye, Matt's stiff posture faltered, and he swayed unsteadily on his hooves, the shadows that had anchored him until now releasing their grip on floor and railing with a weakened impunity.

Just then, she heard a crackle, a pop, a fizz, and the fading hum of an aura that ceased being cast. She turned to Matt to find his horn no longer glowing, though still his body did not change back to what it was just moments ago—in fact, it seemed to refuse to revert. Little changed save for his eyes as the wisps faded and his pools turned back to a cold blue in color, though the irises and pupils still maintained their unusual shape. His sclera turned white, and he shook his head as his body dispelled most, if not all, its shadows. It took just a second after, but then he slumped upon the deck, legs finally giving out and sprawling from beneath his body as steam started building from his horn.

"I hate having to do that," Matt growled dismally, the few lingering shadows in his mane and tail fading away as he laid there. The last stubborn shadows on his legs took a second longer to flicker away into nothingness, though they too left without issue.

Another series of crackles and pops rang through the air in a tumultuous, thunderous crash as Dash and her group came closer to the ship. Twilight turned to the scene of the carnage and found that the portal had now mended itself shut, before the circles and runes forming it simply faded out of existence with a few glimmers of gold falling away. The weapons summoned forth had done likewise, but instead of glimmers, they erupted into weak embers and simply burnt away without harming Ashwood anymore. The only trace of their existence to be had were massive gashes carved into the earth and the felled trees littering those gashes. The weapons that had almost touched down from the portal burnt up mid-air, giving Dash and her group a clear-cut passage to the ship. This also gave way to an unsettling silence broken up only by the boom of thunder.

It did not take longer than twenty minutes after that before Rainbow and her group boarded the airship's deck, with every single arrival wide-eyed and in a state of shocked stupor now that they had achieved safety. The minute they landed, half of the group slumped, while Flash was content to sit on his haunches to cradle the baby, who started screaming all over again. "What the hay happened up there?" Flash asked, using a shaking wing to gesture to where the portal had been for emphasis.

"A-and what happened to Matt?" Rainbow croaked, noticing Matt's rather bedraggled posture.

Twilight was beside herself in complete disbelief. She opened her mouth to answer, but words were not forthcoming after what she bore witness to. There was simply no way to even describe it as her brain refused to process the destruction she saw, but she knew deep in her heart that there was no denying it. Not when the evidence was laid bare before and beneath her. Below the ships, Ashwood fell deathly silent as magma pooled from some of its recent wounds, looking less like natural chasms and more like winding, steep paths leading into Hell itself.

Chapter LXXI- 'She WHAT?!'

Flash and his group gathered in one of the guest rooms, with Twilight and Matt there as well. All eyes, however, were focused on the young filly and the baby; the former was currently munching on a stack of no less than a dozen syruped pancakes taller than she was, while the latter was sleeping in a makeshift crib constructed from the sturdiest, softest chitil and inlaid with the smallest plush blanket available. Both had also been thoroughly scrubbed head to hoof, and now their coats and manes gleamed almost as though they were crystal ponies. However, the lack of blood on the filly revealed a despairingly painful lack of a cutie mark as well.

Blueblood was busy facehoofing at the utter incredulity of the situation, though inwardly he was grateful he'd lived to see the end of tonight's particular brand of insanity. "I can just hear the Courts jeering when they learn I had to form a rhomboid shape with three other ponies to dodge airborne swords," he groused, his voice laced with just enough disbelief amidst his anger that Twilight got the impression he couldn't believe what he was saying. She didn't find the heart to blame him for it, either.

The elder turned to him and frowned. "The trees of Ashwood… have never gotten into such a big uproar before. Until now, I thought them… unable to even move from their rooted areas," he muttered, ears folding back. "If I had known… I wouldn't have left Greenwood. I wouldn't have dragged you into it," he added rather apologetically.

Blueblood ceased facehoofing and turned to the elder before shaking his head. "We couldn't have known they'd get that rambunctious, either," he pointed out. "We were just as blindsided as you were." He turned to the children present and sighed ruefully. "And these two… I dare not imagine what terrible fate would have befallen them had we not acted." He shuddered at the thought.

Shining nodded, his eyes briefly averting to Matt, who returned the look rather warily. As his illusion still had yet to be recast, everyone could plainly see his now-curved horn and the bizarre shape of his irises and pupils. Every now and then, flecks of shadowy wisps would dance around his legs, mane, and tail, though they were miniscule enough to not really do anything other than that. They both glanced back at the filly, who had finished half of her stack and was working her way down the remainder with just her mouth.

Applejack smiled as the filly finished her meal in a matter of two minutes, cantering over to inspect her closely. The poor thing's stomach ballooned out, looking as though she swallowed an entire watermelon whole with no trouble whatsoever, though this also caused her ribs to stand out a little more starkly than she'd have liked. "How was that for grub?" she asked.

The filly smiled weakly. "G-good," she chirped, before she burped and blushed a little. She turned to the chitil crib. "B-baby gonna l-like it," she added.

Applejack's brow went to the line of her forelock within a millisecond. "Why's the baby gonna like the food? He ain't old enough to chew solids yet," she pointed out, tilting her head.

The filly snickered at Applejack's befuddled reaction. "B-baby safe. No trees to h-hurt," she answered.

Applejack nodded at that, also turning to the crib. She trotted to it to peer at the little one, who was sleeping on his side, revealing that he had two little wings spread out. Part of her wondered how such obvious limbs had gone ignored until now, while the other blamed the trees and giant weapons. "A little pegasus colt… a mighty tough one too, given what he went through," she muttered. The foal moved a hoof to start sucking on it, and she barely resisted the urge to awwwww at the sight. She turned back to the filly. "So why'd ya take him outta Greenwood?" she asked. "If ya even left the town at all?"

The filly's smile fell. "Bad ponies… have bad place," she muttered. "Almost took b-baby… to b-bad place… l-left G-Greenwood… to k-keep b-baby safe..."

Applejack frowned at the vague answer. Greenwood had a bad place? As far as she was concerned, the entire village was something beyond rotten. She smiled again. "Well, you and the colt are safe now. Ain't neither of y'all going to the 'bad place,'" she stated, her tone firm yet soothing. She tapped the floor for emphasis as she added, "Greenwood's folk are gonna have to learn how to fly first before they can even get here."

"And me and my fellow troops will shred them when they do," Rhinoc added, donning a small but pleased smile.

Rainbow snorted and rolled her eyes. "Assuming, of course, I don't kick their faces in first," she stated, her cheeks puffing as she resisted the urge to laugh her ass off. She cooled off before adding, "Greenwood's ponies flying? That'll be the day their little shield gives up and stops covering their tails."

Shining snickered as that image formed into his mind, complete with gryphons and changelings sending the callous villagers right to their deaths. Or at least, to the beginnings of their new lives as trees. Or, barring all of that, the ectoplasms getting to those knuckleheads first, while the army cracked out the popcorn bowls to watch. That would be a good sight indeed, the morbid part of his brain chirped. He turned to Rhinoc and asked, "So, is your superior aware of all of this?"

Rhinoc turned to Shining and nodded, still grinning. "Yep. But he told me he'd leave the new kid and baby alone for a few days, just so they could get used to being on an airship," he replied. "He also said we're gonna be hovering above Green and Ashwoods for the next few days, since the trees threw a hissyfit."

Shining nodded. That sounded reasonable enough. "And him?" he asked, lifting a hoof to gesture to Matt for emphasis.

"He's a hybrid, Shining. Nothing Lance can do about that," Rhinoc muttered with a shrug.

Shining slumped at that. "Well… I asked because something about it bothered me," he stated. When Rhinoc lifted a hoof to spin it in a circle, Shining elaborated, "My ponies back home told me the Crystal Heart repelled Umbrum unicorns, even destroying them during the Crystal Faires, days after King Sombra kicked the bucket." Shining lifted his hoof again and gesticulated to Matt with it. "But… he attended a Faire and a Crystalling, and all that happened to him was him getting the same sparkly aftereffect as everybody else within the Empire."

Rhinoc shrugged at that. "Dunno what to say, really," he stated dourly.

"I dunno…" Twilight's eyes darted between Shining and Matt with uncertainty as she spoke. "Maybe his earth pony magic negated the negative effects the Crystal Heart would have otherwise had on him?" she suggested. "I mean, the Empire consists mostly of earth ponies…"

Shining mulled it over and then nodded with a shrug. That seemed as good an explanation as any, though he wondered why Matt neglected to inform him of his half-Umbrum nature. The answer came unbidden as Blueblood coughed into his hoof and said it for him, "I think the Courts would have had a field day if he showed up without illusions covering him up."

"Politics," Matt muttered under his breath. Twilight noticed the reverb and echo that was in his voice earlier were now gone.

Blueblood heard the utterance. "Just about," he stated ruefully.

Shining's shoulders sagged as he realized Blueblood was right, with his utterance just about summing the whole thing up. The Courts back home would surely spin all sorts of rumors if this were to reach their ears. He found himself thankful he wasn't in Canterlot right now. "So… what now?" he asked.

Rainbow folded her forelegs over her barrel. "I say we just take it easy for now. The ectoplasms are here, the changelings can't go near Ashwood, and unless Lance gets creative with his gryphons, we're gonna end up doing jack squat," she stated flatly. She turned to the crib and added, "'sides, I'm pretty sure the ponies of Greenwood saw the giant weapons by now and have pooped themselves so badly they won't be able to trot for a week."

"And we need to re-gather our strength after tonight's scuffle in the meantime," Rhinoc added with a nod, turning to the filly as she made to canter on to bed. "Hey, kid," he said, stopping her in her tracks. When she turned to him with a raised brow, he asked, "do you need earmuffs?"

"What… earmuffs?" the filly asked, canting her head as a confused frown wormed its way onto her muzzle.

Rhinoc's wings fluttered nervously, and for a moment he fidgeted in place. "Well… they go over your ears to make a room go quiet," he said after a few seconds of hesitation, an awkward frown skewing his muzzle to make it look a little lopsided.

The filly mulled it over for a few seconds before shaking her head. "What i-if baby c-cries?" she retorted. Rhinoc's shoulders sagged.

"Weeeeeell," Twilight interjected, rocking on her hooves a little as the filly turned to her. Her voice took on a slight sing-song tone as she added, "I just happen to know somepony who knows a thing or two about handling babies hooves-on, and she's real sweet and gentleeee."

Matt turned to look at Twilight, both brows shooting up. Twilight returned the look and gave a knowing smile. "Well… there's a bit of a problem with that," Matt began, his brows lowering as a serious edge crept into his tone. When Twilight's smile faltered, he stated, "We don't know who gave birth to the little guy, and it takes a lot of stimulation for a non-nursing mare to make milk." His face hardened and he added, "So… where would Pinkie get the milk?"

Silence fell upon the room, and slowly, all eyes gravitated to Twilight as the question sank in. "Maybe one of your coworkers would provide it?" Twilight suggested, causing Matt to blush, sputter, and facehoof at the response.

"Neither of them could do it," Matt growled the moment he got his bearings together, embarrassment creeping into his tone. "One's in heat, and would sooner kick faces in, and the other is… not keen on getting milked."

"Why not?" Twilight asked, tilting her head.

"Ran into a Beholder once. It milked her senseless, and she couldn't move for a month after," Matt groused, rubbing his temples with the hoof that hit his face. "She had to be detoxified."

Twilight's smile fell, and her shoulders sagged. "So…"

"I-I have m-milkies," the filly interjected, causing all eyes in the room to snap to her and bulge out of their sockets. Seconds passed before one brain could process the utterance, and its owner dropped his fanged jaw when he realized what he'd just heard.

"I-I… what?" Rhinoc gabled, his mental gears having ground to a halt as he spoke. Hastily he turned to Twilight. "C-could you ch-check?!" he queried, squirming uncomfortably as he spoke.

Twilight turned to Rhinoc, her muzzle twisting into a grimacing frown. "Why me?!" she protested, ears flattening against her head.

Rhinoc crossed his forelegs and huffed. "General doesn't like us touching foals in certain spots, unless your name is Alexander and you have a tumor in said certain spots or something," he scoffed. "And you sound like you know the signs of a nursing pony, and all I'm asking is for you to look, damnit."

Twilight's grimace contorted to a slightly disconcerting degree. Her stomach churned, and she shook her head. "I… can't make a filly show me…" she muttered.

Rhinoc deflated and dropped his forelegs. "Nor can we," he muttered. He stood up with a tired sigh. "I'll get Alexander, and maybe some medical equipment here too." With that he turned tail and left the room in a hurried trot, wings sagging as he went. "Baby will need an incubator soon," he added as he strode out the door.

Applejack's ears fell back. "Well, this just got mighty awkward," she muttered.

"If the filly truly does lactate," Blueblood began, anger and skepticism warring in his tone, "then I wonder how far Fantasia has really fallen down the rabbit hole."

Matt slumped. "Sometimes I find myself afraid to ask," he hissed. "And I have seen a lot of shit in necks of the woods lately."

The crib started to rock erratically as Blueblood opened his mouth to ask what Matt had meant by that, and it was immediately followed by a series of sniffles that then gave way to a shrill cry. The filly's tail puffed out in alarm, and she darted to the crib, rearing onto unsteady hind legs to peer at the baby to see what the fuss was about. The baby had woken up, kicking and screeching and flapping his little wings frantically. Applejack rushed over and used one foreleg to scoop the child up, holding him to her chest. She turned to the filly, who glanced back with a small but very tight frown.

Applejack handed the filly the baby and said in a stern voice, "If you really do make milk, then I'll be an alicorn's uncle." The filly nodded and took the child in her forelegs, then sat on her haunches before parking him between her rear hooves. The colt stopped wailing for long enough to get a decent view, before he crawled over and latched on. The wet, quite unmistakeable sound of a young mouth suckling on something filled the room, and all eyes fell onto the filly again as she blushed and looked down in shame.

Then Applejack followed her gaze and her heart stopped. The filly had teats, and they were quite the engorged pair at that. The colt was latched very firmly on one of them, and the other was oozing milk in a steady trickle. "Sweet Celestia…" she breathed, her face draining of its color as she watched the baby nurse.

Matt promptly growled and facehooved, ears flattening against his head. "How old is she, exactly?" he hissed.

The nursing filly fumbled with her hooves for a bit, then looked over her front pair three times and the rear ones only twice. "T-ten…" she mumbled once she finished glancing at her hooves.

"T-ten?!" Shining and Blueblood cried in unison, manes and tails standing right on their ends as a hideous realization set in. The filly gravely nodded.

"Had… first h-heat… last year," she mumbled, her voice tinged with shame. "Didn't want… b-bad ponies around b-baby… got o-out…"

"And the window…" the elder stopped his musing, eyes going wide and alert in realization. "The village leaders n-never told me th-they let a pregnant filly leave the village!" he gabled, shuddering with enough force he could've sworn he heard a bone or two pop.

Twilight's mane started frizzing up, and she turned to Shining for an explanation. Shining took a few deep breaths to collect himself before looking at her and shaking his head. "The whole town of Greenwood seems like it has something to hide…" He lifted a hoof and gestured to the nursing filly. "They abandoned a pregnant foal who got out, and then kicked out an elder! A pregnant foal!"

Twilight's stomach flipped, apparently discontent with what her ears were hearing. She found herself wishing she had the option to deny to no end what she was listening to, but that was impossible since her eyes were witnessing a very different scene play out before her.

"Lance is gonna bitch to no end… and the sad thing is there's next to nothing he can do about it," Matt hissed, shuddering to the point his teeth briefly chattered. Twilight glanced at him, wondering what he was harping on about, and Matt lifted his other hoof to gesture to the crib.

"Well, if he's gonna go off, at least the baby should be asleep before he does," Applejack groused, still watching as the filly moved to pick up the baby, heft him over her shoulder, and pat him on the back a few times before he burped. Then she plucked him from the filly's hooves and put him back into the crib. Almost instantly, the little one fell back asleep. She sighed heavily. "At least they're outta Ashwood now…"

"And more importantly, away from whoever decided it would be a swell idea to steal a young filly's foalhood by impregnating her," Blueblood added, though his voice had been brought down to a whisper that still carried its weight throughout the room. As he said that, he heard the sound of muffled hooves beating on carpet, followed by a muffled shuffling noise. Seconds after, Rhinoc and Alexander strode into the room, with the latter toting saddlebags by the straps in his beak.

"You guys take care of the baby and the filly…" Twilight muttered, her horn lighting up. Matt found himself lifted up into the air, by his tail no less. "Mister, you're coming with me. We're going to have a looooong talk with your superior…" Matt whimpered, but did nothing to struggle in her magical grip as she cantered out of the room, levitating his sorry ass with her.

Alexander handed the saddlebags to Rhinoc and watched Twilight leave. After they left, he stared at the door for some seconds. "He did it again, didn't he?" he asked blithely. Rhinoc nodded once with a frown etched onto his face, and Alexander groaned in exasperation. "That would explain why the ship shook… and why Pinkie Pie was twitching her tail so damn much…"

Rainbow winced at that. "You mean… you saw her tail…" Alexander's nod cut her off.

"Harped on and on about things falling…" Alexander muttered, and he left it at that. He collected himself and turned to the filly, then let his gaze settle onto Applejack. "Anything happen with the newest charges yet?"

Applejack nodded. "Uh, yeah… she nursed the baby," she answered, grimacing at the thought, which on all accounts just felt plain wrong to even think about, let alone speak of.

Alexander rose a brow and cantered over to the crib, finding the little one fast asleep and sucking on his hoof again. He took a close look, making sure to avoid waking the wee colt. "A few days old at best… and relatively healthy and hale-looking… I'll need to double-check when…"

"He," Rhinoc interjected.

"Yes, when he wakes up," Alexander finished with a roll of his eyes before turning to the filly, who cringed under his gaze. "Does the baby have a name yet?" he asked, keeping his voice low and soft. The filly shook her head. "Tell me… what is your name?"

"N-no hurt me?" the filly squeaked. Alexander shook his head.

"I wouldn't even think of it. You have my word," Alexander replied in a soothing voice, trying his best to sound as fatherly as possible. "Note to self," he thought as the filly fidgeted in place, "get makeshift diapers for the baby."

"H-Heather…" the filly mumbled.

"Tell me, Heather, does anything hurt at the moment?" Alexander asked. Heather shook her head again.

"O-other than m-my hoofsies, b-but th-they're g-good," Heather muttered.

Alexander knelt to Heather's eye level. "Show me your hooves, one at a time, please," he said gently. "I need to make sure they're good."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Anna and Sarah were in the master bedroom alongside Lance and Natalie, parked around the table. All were engaged in a game of cards. "So… your wing finished healing?" Anna asked, noticing Sarah's wing was no longer bound in its cast or even wrapped up in bandages.

Sarah nodded. "Yeah, but I was told to give it another week or two before I can start flying again. Alexander said something about avoiding the risk of aggravating the muscles or whatever, and that I was lucky I didn't suffer any more damage to my critical nerves and joints than just a few broken bones and fractures that healed fast thanks to magical aid," she answered, stretching her wing slowly for emphasis. "But, little movements here and there are encouraged, and so far nothing's going wrong. Anyone have a king?" Three heads shook negatively, and she plucked a card from the deck.

"That's very good. I take it you learned the hard way not to take unicorns head-on?" Lance asked. Sarah nodded.

"After seeing your wings? I'd just leave tackling unicorns to the changelings," Sarah answered, garnering a roll of the eyes from her sister. "Chanson Cheval's hooves were surprisingly weak for somepony lugging around a guitar."

Anna lifted a cardless hoof and waved dismissively. "That was probably the first serious fight he's been in. Let's face it, the only Canterlot noble who had balls was Blueblood," she scoffed, garnering nods of agreement. "Anyone have a jack?" Again, three heads shook. She drew a card with a sigh.

"It takes balls to come here after being told and shown a myriad of reasons not to go. Gotta admit, I respect him for the fact that he was the only noble even willing to drop by," Lance stated matter-of-factly, followed by a shrug of his shoulders. "And Chanson's testes were probably as big as his brain." Here, he spread his wings and furled them upward until his primaries rested just an inch apart, whereupon Sarah snickered. Lance closed his wings and asked, "Anyone have an ace?"

Natalie lifted a card from her hoof and forked it over to him. Lance took it with a hoof and plopped the ace he had on top of it. "Anyone have a queen?" Lance tried. That time, heads shook. Another card went from the deck to his hoof in short order.

"So when did you earn your cutie mark?" Natalie asked, looking pointedly at Sarah's hip to get a good view of her wind-and-halberd mark.

"Last year, and Fenrir helped me do it," Sarah replied with a shrug. When the gaze on her hip shifted expectantly to her face, she elaborated, "Had the harp since I was little, but didn't get the enchanted halberd until I was stupid enough to raid a guard's armory in a village near Glacier Valley. Fenrir bailed my ass out, and… after tying the things together and using the harxe for the first time, that's when I got it. We've been trekking together since."

Natalie's brow rose. "So you and Fen are travel buddies?" she queried.

Sarah nodded. "More like friends," she chirped. "I learned not to steal after that."

Natalie smiled at that. "Anyone have a seven?" Immediately, she got three shaking heads.

Anna looked incredulously at Sarah, eyes narrowing. "You stole your halberd?" she hissed.

Sarah nodded. "And plenty of other things before that, mostly food and clothing for when the weather turned for the worse. Hey, I've been on my own for a while, and I had to make a living somehow, markless as I was. Not many towns tolerated hippogryphs, let alone one who was a thief," she pointed out. "I stopped after I got my mark. Fenrir chewed me out sideways over that shit."

Anna sighed dejectedly, though inwardly she was glad for Sarah. "Are there bounties on your head?" she asked worriedly.

Sarah shook her head again. "Fenrir dragged me to pay off the stolen goods by various community services. After that, the bounties were taken down," she answered. "And once the last debt was paid off, I was pretty much pardoned. Anyone have a five?" Heads shook, and the deck found itself one card shorter.

"So, you were a thief…" Lance muttered with a frown. "At least you got your shit together."

Sarah nodded. "Trust me, I needed to be chewed out," she chirped.

Anna snickered at that. "Then again, I'm basically a teen soldier," she stated, her tone bubbling with amusement.

"At least you get paid for that shit," Sarah snarked. Anna rolled her eyes again.

"You should've seen me when I was trying to find my cutie mark between all the assignments I got," Anna snarked back, smiling just a little bit. "Anyone have three's?" A trio of cards were forked to her, and once she deposited the fourth onto the pile, she followed that up with, "Jacks?" Heads once more shook, but before the next card could be drawn, the door to the room burst open, and Twilight trotted in with Matt floating behind her.

"If this is about the giant swords that I saw from the window, can it wait?" Lance asked, turning to the new arrivals with eyes narrowed.

"Why should it wait?" Twilight shot back, eyes also narrowing dangerously low. "Matt almost killed Shining!"

Lance sighed. "Park him on the bed." Twilight flung Matt onto the bed, who gave a startled yelp when he landed. He nodded and kept his gaze on Twilight. "Are you going to file another complaint?" he asked expectantly, and Twilight noticed that his flat tone and still-narrowed eyes screamed 'this isn't the first time I had to deal with this.'

Twilight shook her head. "Uh, no… the filly, uh… she feeds the baby," she muttered awkwardly, her stomach twisting once more with the utterance. She winced as it started cramping; by Faust, that felt just insanely wrong to say.

Lance's brow shot up. "Elaborate," he said tersely.

Twilight fell onto her haunches and threw her forehooves to the air. "She makes milk! I saw her put the colt between her rear legs!" she screamed. "And she said she was only ten years old!"

Lance's wings ruffled, and his feathers bristled. His eyes narrowed until they were meager slits. A deep, guttural, almost leonine growl rose from his throat. "If what you say is true… then I will find whoever did that to her and have that bastard drawn and quartered. And then I will probably have him fed to the lich-wyrm in the crystal caverns," he hissed. "But not before I give somepony a loooong talking to."

Twilight nodded and shivered, swallowing nervously. "Isn't having a pony drawn and quartered… a bit extreme?" she tried.

Lance shook his head. "For stealing a filly's foalhood by thrusting an adult responsibility onto her withers? Perhaps. But I am going to go that extra mile and guess that she didn't want to, but got that particular package anyway," he muttered grimly. "Is somepony watching her?"

Twilight nodded. "Several, including an elder from Greenwood… who Shining told me got exiled. Alexander trotted in to check on her when I dragged Matt out of the room she's in," she answered. "And the colt's asleep."

Lance sighed, and his feathers relaxed a little. "Just great, Greenwood's turning more and more like Frostbite the more I hear of it…" he grumbled indignantly. "How well are they acclimated?"

"A little. Applejack made the filly a big stack of a dozen or so pancakes," Twilight answered with a shrug. "Not sure if it's healthy for a starving filly to eat that many in one sitting…"

Lance lifted a card-free hoof and waved dismissively. "Eh, she'll need the carbs as much as the nutrients. But the sweets should be toned down a little. Maybe give her… I dunno…" His free hoof moved to tap his chin thoughtfully.

"Eggs and ham?" Anna suggested.

Lance nodded. "Sounds good enough, but maybe with a side of biscuits," he chirped. "And please make sure to tell the cooks to not make the eggs and ham green."

"Oh, and another thing," Twilight interjected, garnering no less than five expectant looks. "Is it alright for Pinkie to help the filly with the colt?" Twilight winced when she realized what she'd just uttered. Good gravy, that sounded a lot better in her head than it did coming out of her mouth, and profoundly less awkward to boot.

Anna and Natalie exchanged glances, then turned to Twilight and shrugged in unison. "She has the experience," Anna mumbled.

"I don't see why not. Babies aren't our forte," Natalie added with a sympathetic wince. "But I say… hold that off until tomorrow, after Alexander gives the initial once-over and his diagnosis."

Lance nodded. "Pinkie's… exuberance may scare the new kids. Would she be alright with toning it down by twenty-five percent, just for their sake?" he asked rather uneasily, his brow slanting and his mouth faltering to form a slight frown. Twilight got the impression that he was mentally picturing the foals scared senseless, and if such was the case, she couldn't blame him.

Twilight nodded back. "I'll see what I can do. I'll go tell her now," she answered.

Lance nodded again, donning a small smile. "Thanks," he chirped, before his smile fell. "How well would she take… the news of a filly being a…"

Twilight shuddered as he trailed off, knowing full well what he was asking. "I don't think she'd… take it well. She hates it when ponies make other ponies frown, and forcing a filly to become a mother is the best way to do just that," she mumbled. "I think she'd try pounding whoever did that into a pulp…"

Anna and Natalie exchanged glances again, brows slanting that time. Anna turned back to Twilight first, her gaze one of uncertainty. "In that case, tell her Lance has dibs on the bastard, and we'd have to find him first," she stated. "She does know to wait in line, right?"

Twilight nodded. "Can do," she said. With that, she trotted out of the room and closed the door behind her gently.

Lance sighed and turned to Sarah. "Want to finish this round first, before I tear Matt a new asshole?" he asked.

Sarah nodded, eyes narrowing as a fire sparked within. "You're on," she challenged. "As long as I spend time with Anna, I'm game."

Anna nodded to her sister as she donned a small yet wicked smirk, eyes flitting to Matt for the barest of instants. "Two rounds," she proposed. "And during round two… we make him don a maid uniform."

Matt paled and gulped audibly. "Nah, since he almost killed Shining…" Lance began with a malicious edge in his voice that wasn't there before, "I say we horncap him… and cocoon him for a day."

Natalie giggled. "Pshaaaw, that's still a pansy punishment meant only for the corporals," she snorted. "I say we stick him on a unicycle and make him play the accordion."

Anna turned to Natalie and snickered. "In a maid uniform, horncapped," she chirped.

"Make him sing something stupid," Sarah added with a chortle. "Like, 'grated dick cheese' or something."

Lance donned another grin. "Loser of round one has to fetch Armin. I bet he still has his maid uniform…" he muttered darkly. "But, we'll have to be at the base first, or in a town, just so the airship doesn't get destroyed. Agreed?"

A moment of hesitation passed, and then a chorus of "You're on!" from his card-mates answered him eagerly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Matt's tail tuck itself between his rear legs.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The window of a guest room shook as thunder boomed, the door opened and slammed into the wall outside, and the furniture rattled violently with the force of an earthquake as Pinkie shouted on a level of volume surpassed only by Princess Luna, "The filly had what happen to her?!"

Twilight shakily nodded, sweat beading her brow as a manic look of pure, narrow-eyed hatred crossed Pinkie's face. Her eyes, once a clear blue, now gleamed dangerously gold in color. "A-and we don't know who did that to her…" she muttered in reply. "We have to find the pony first, and… and Lance already wants him drawn and quartered for it."

Pinkie shuddered for a moment, and then as fast as it had come, the look of rage passed into a solemn stare framed by a slanted brow and a very deep frown. Her eyes stopped gleaming, and her ears drooped and her mane and tail fell flat and straight as a ruler. "Wh-who would… do that… to a filly?" she mumbled, her voice now shaky and quiet. Twilight winced and frowned, shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders.

"A purely heartless pony?" Twilight suggested, but her voice was weak and shaky. Pinkie started shedding tears, and Twilight lifted both forehooves before planting them onto her friend's withers. "But the filly managed to take her foal out of Greenwood, and now she's with us. She and the baby are safe. If anything, they can start to heal now that they're around sane ponies." A weak smile crossed Twilight's muzzle. "She can get the help she desperately needs, and Alexander is already looking at her to make sure she can pull through."

Pinkie slowly nodded, and lifted a hoof to wipe away her tears. "B-but what if w-we don't find th-the pony who…"

Twilight lifted a hoof from Pinkie's withers and held it over her lips, shushing her on the spot. "Then we make sure he can't get to the foals. We have multiple sets of eyes aboard this ship, more airships all around with even more pairs, and at least a pair of eyes that can see very far away. She's safe, trust me," she muttered in reply. "While we don't know who did it, I'm confident that he will rat himself out. 'Guilty dog barks loudest,' after all."

Pinkie nodded again, and her mane started frizzing up. "And her baby…?"

Twilight's smile widened. "Well… he and his mom will probably be adopted into a loving home," she answered. "Buuuut the baby might grow up believing his mom is his sister, at least for a little while. It would certainly ease her burden." Her smile grew a little more, and her eyes twinkled. "All we have to do is let her decide who her new mommy and daddy will be."

Pinkie's mane began curling more and more at that, her eyes brightening. "And they could help her get better…" she finished.

Twilight nodded firmly. "Just… let's let her rest for tonight. Once she has breakfast and Alexander finishes looking her and the colt over, we'll take it from there. But please please please don't go overboard. She's already been scared enough," she stated, her voice firm but gentle at the same time. "And then you could start teaching her how to giggle at the ghosties, but it may take her a while to get it and consider it seriously. She already has a lot on her plate, much more than any filly her age should have."

Pinkie nodded in understanding, and her mane's re-curling hastened by a considerable margin. "Can I help her with the baby?" she asked.

Twilight nodded. "That's why I came to you actually, so we could work out how to help the filly," she answered. "Now, aside from teaching her to giggle at the ghosties, I wanted to know what you'd recommend. You're the baby expert, after all. Except for the filly to get more food than usual; already got that down, since I confirmed she is lactating."

"Hrrrrrmmmmmm…." Pinkie lifted a hoof and tapped her chin, frowning and letting her brow furrow in thought. Her mane and tail finished poofing up, and for a moment she did nothing but hum and tap. When her hoof parted from her chin, she gave a smile and answered, "Maybe have the changelings make some toys out of that goo stuff they use, and then have her play with them. Heck, we could get Maria in there too; she knows a thing or two about what fillies shouldn't know, and they could become friends."

Twilight's eyes widened. "Playmates…" she murmured.

Pinkie nodded vigorously at that. "And Spike, too," she added. "And I could watch the baby while they all play! Isn't that wonderful?!"

Twilight beamed and nodded once. "As good an idea as any other," she answered. "Although Spike may object."

"That could get all three of them to get better faster, and do something about their boredom. And then they'll be super-duper happy, and they'll giggle at the ghosties before we know it!" Pinkie shrieked, ignoring Twilight's second utterance as she began bubbling with enthusiasm that could not be contained. "And then they will be happy as can be! So happy I don't think even Lance could frown at such joy!"

Twilight giggled, mentally picturing Lance amidst a bunch of happy, rambunctious foals. "Unless the foals did something they weren't supposed to, but that'll be his prerogative to deal with. I don't think Maria would do anything bad though," she chirped. "Spike certainly wouldn't. I think he'd help them be good."

"And if things go sour, we could have Fenrir break the foals up. He's big and mean when he needs to be, but around kids he's harmless as a fly," Pinkie added, her smile widening tenfold. "And we could get Harry, Angel and NoLegs in there too, as more playmates!"

Twilight nodded at that. "Well, we'll have to get started tomorrow. I think we'll need to sleep soon," she pointed out.

Pinkie kept on smiling. "Okie-dokie-lokie," she chirped.

"And maybe… the filly will get her cutie mark," Twilight added, eyes still twinkling.

Pinkie gasped, and her mane and tail stood straight on end. "She… she's a blank flank?!" she cried, pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

Twilight nodded, yet her smile remained. "Maria is also a blank flank…" she trailed off, letting her unspoken meaning hang in the air. It took a second for it to click into Pinkie's head, but when it did she nodded vigorously.

"Maybe we could get Applejack or Rarity to help them earn their marks, or even Rainbow Dash," Pinkie chimed, and she began shaking in place, giving Twilight the impression she was envisioning tomorrow's shenanigans on some level.

"Mhm. But I would recommend trying to keep them out of the more dangerous activities, since there's a baby and all," Twilight pointed out. "Think you can do that?"

Pinkie stiffened suddenly, then gave a salute with a hoof. "Yes sir ma'am sir," she stated in a slightly more serious tone, as though she were speaking to an army's commanding officer.

Chapter LXXII- Mark of Shame

The night parted for the dawn after some long, grueling hours, yet the only sign that it even arrived was the clouds in the sky brightening considerably from black to dark grey. The ectoplasms still hung in the air, crackling and releasing lightning intermittently, seemingly waiting for something other than the airships to take flight. Yet all life in Ashwood remained absolutely still; even the cooling magma did not bubble or pop with its usual flair, nor did the tendrils, still smouldering and smoking from last night's activities, lift so much as a flake of ash. The wind itself failed to come and stir the branches, almost as though it were avoiding the area entirely, or perhaps holding its bated breath.

Greenwood's barrier dropped, but that was the only sign of movement from the forest village in question. Nopony dared to leave their houses, of which the number was an impressive eighty that could be easily counted from above, and not even the Mighty Oak dared move from his shrine, no doubt as rattled as the villagers by the rain of weapons that came and went. This was good, now that the airships' myriad of eyes were trained on the town, some with telescopes handy. Rhinoc was one of those who held a telescope, with his magic no less.

He watched from the deck of his vessel, his telescope trained on a small and unguarded stump in the town. The stump was adorned with tattered paper talismans and a single, leaf-shaped jewel of viridian with golden veins all connected to a thin stem. "Maybe they set up the barrier so they wouldn't have to watch the jewel, on top of keeping the trees out…" Rhinoc muttered, shaking his head at the sight. "Bunch of lazy asses. Their houses are made of trees; bastards don't know what irony is..."

As he continued to mull and mutter about how Greenwood's ponies were stupid in one capacity or another, the hatch slowly and rather fitfully flopped for a few minutes, before it finally opened with a groan of protest. From the hatch, someone emerged with a small grunt of exertion. Whoever it was pattered over to Rhinoc with very light steps and gently tapped his front knee to get his attention with a rather thin digit once they reached him. Rhinoc lowered the telescope and looked down at his legs, finding Maria looking back up at him with a talon raised. "Yes?" he asked.

"You have to get inside," Maria said, frowning. Her voice was tinged with a note of urgency.

Rhinoc's brow raised. "Listen, kid, I don't have to get inside. You can't—"

"But daddy said so," Maria replied, preemptively cutting Rhinoc off before he could finish. "He wants you inside right now."

Rhinoc's mouth shut, and he sighed through his nostrils before making the telescope vanish in a flare of light. "Well played, Lance. Well played," he thought with a nod of resignation. Maria dropped her talon, turned tail, and made a beeline for the hatch before jumping down. Rhinoc followed her, but not prior to waiting for a few seconds so she could gain a bit of distance from him, making sure to close the hatch on his way down to see what the hell his superior wanted. "Now we have another military foal… at least this one's more metaphorical, in that sense…"

Maria led him down to a massive, linear room that had a lift opposite of the ladder, spanning some impressive eighty yards and started trotting to the lift. Machines whirred to life and worked tirelessly, turning gears and pulling chains and pumping with glowing lines and runes that dotted every surface brightly. The runes were surrounding several crystals, and all but a few were either green, blue, or gold in color. The few that weren't were bright red instead, and gave of a bit of concentrated darkness that collected around the ceiling. Large copper pipes interlocked the machines, further interspersed with clear glass windows that gave a good view of some kind of blackened substance flowing within.

Wires splayed out across a bolted tile floor rather haphazardly, though none were cut open, and these too further connected the machines. To one side, there was a sight that caused Maria and Rhinoc to stop: four panels stood between a gap in the machines halfway down the hall, with a screen that displayed small green bars in one corner and some sort of ancient, archaic language Maria had trouble deciphering. The panels also sported crystal-studded helmets with holes drilled into the forehead and two holes in the sides for some purpose and, bizarrely, bolted-in shoes for hooves and mechanical arms that held up body-shaped slots which were bolted into them.

The slots and shoes also had crystals embedded into their frames, and runes surrounding them as well, though both were outside instead of inside the shoes and slots, probably to avoid actually agitating the hooves and sections when applied. The panels were currently in disuse, having gathered a thin layer of dust that would need to be removed before its next operation. Strangely, these panels were color-coded; in order from left to right, one was red, the next blue, the third gold, and the last a vivid green.

The crystals on the leftmost panel did not exude darkness the way the others did, instead flickering very weakly with a fading light, and stranger still they framed two extra holes on the sides of the helmet, large and round as small ramekins. The other crystals glittered with a brightness that would have made very decent portable lanterns, if actually treated as such.

"What's all this stuff?" Maria asked, lifting a talon to gesture to all of the machinery.

"We're in the engine room, kid. Over there's the charging panels," Rhinoc answered, nodding to the panels in question. "We convert raw magic to electrical energy, with a bit of hydraulics thrown in to stabilize it. Unfortunately, ponies have to cast to charge it."

Maria blinked, turned to Rhinoc, and canted her head at him. She recalled hearing Lance mutter something about charging objects and asked, "Why?"

"These crystals were mined from the nearby caverns, and they'll need a regular charge. Otherwise, the airship will drop," Rhinoc muttered with a sigh. "And they only react positively to a pony's magic. Lance used to help charge the things with his wings, until he got grounded…"

Maria turned to the panels again and took a better look at the oddly-shaped slots before noticing that one particular set was larger than the others, indicating that the pony who would use it simply had a bigger body, or perhaps extra limbs that would need to be tucked away. The panel with blue crystals shared this feature as well, strangely enough. "So that's why mommy hurt before we went to Mythos?" she queried.

"Well, now that you mention it… she hurt with Matt and Natz every time these things were charged. Maybe they needed to compensate by giving it more energy," Rhinoc mused, then he shrugged. "Don't step on the wires. You did say your daddy needed me?"

Maria jolted at the reminder, wide-eyed before she nodded and rushed the rest of the way to the lift, though she was careful to avoid tripping over and accidentally cutting into the wires with her talons in the process. Rhinoc snorted and followed after her, pressing the button once they boarded on and simply letting the lift do the rest.

She led him specifically to the master room, in an ascent and then a walk that lasted for no more than fifteen minutes, accounting for a second lift ride after they'd reached the lounging area. When they strode in, the door already suspiciously open, Rhinoc found three of his superiors wide awake and in tip-top shape… and one of them seemingly half-asleep, whose legs were threatening to buckle. Anna's face was flushed to hell, her mane hanging to her front knees without the baubles to support it, tangled into large knots that covered her right eye and framed her left. She stared vacantly at him, or perhaps at a point past him; her exposed eye was bloodshot and puffy.

Rhinoc frowned. "Is she alright?" he asked, looking pointedly at Anna. It took her a few seconds, but she shook her head at his query.

"Nightmares… getting… worse," Anna muttered, her voice dry and raspy.

Lance spared Anna a very worried look, his brow slanting briefly before he turned to Rhinoc and his expression became neutral. That lapse was impossible to miss; Rhinoc could see the concern glimmering in his crimson eyes. "You summoned me… via your filly, sir?" Rhinoc tried.

Lance nodded, then turned to Maria. "You may head back to your room now," he muttered. Maria nodded and trotted off, making sure to close the door behind her. Anna fell to her haunches the second the door met with its frame, front legs straining to hold her front quarters now that the back legs had slipped. "First off… is the jewel still there?"

Rhinoc nodded. "Nopony came out, though. Rainbow was right; the villagers have probably shat bricks by now," he answered. "And your adopted one asked me about the engine room. I made sure she didn't fuck with anything, but I did answer her queries as best as I could." He paused. "Sir, you may need to revitalize one of the panels downstairs sooner or later for this vessel," he added. "Its crystals are very dim, and your wings are now in peak condition again."

"And speaking of vessels, the villagers have probably noticed the ones in the sky by now," Natalie added, wearing a tight frown on her face. "But, unless they suddenly sprout wings or learn to self-levitate in the course of twenty-four hours, we have nothing to worry about there."

"There's plenty to worry about!" Anna suddenly shrieked with enough force to make everyone else stagger briefly, ears flattening against her head as her front legs gave out. "What if they do manage to fly in that time frame?!"

"And the fireworks started…" Matt muttered, frowning. Lance sighed, trotted to Anna, laid down next to her and draped a wing over her backside. Anna bristled for a moment, before relaxing and lowering her head between her forelegs. All the while, he kept his gaze firmly anchored onto Rhinoc.

"Yeaaaaaah… somepony needs a nap," Lance stated in a low, gentle whisper. He used his wing to shake Anna's withers a bit, and her head jerked up. "Did you get anything, new passengers aside?"

"Information-wise, no. Most of the trees told us to fuck off, and the ones that didn't either told us to stay away, or were simply unable to speak," Rhinoc replied, his shoulders sagging. He glanced at Anna, half-expecting her to have another outburst of some sort, though it seemed that having a wing draped over her calmed her down a little. "Only one was polite about it."

"Well, that was a bust," Natalie groused, lifting a hoof to rub her temples. "Wouldn't be surprised if the trees started diddling kids too on top of that."

"I saw a tree fuck a foal once! That foal's one of them now!" Anna cried again, pupils shrinking as she lowered her head again. "One of them…" she repeated in a weak whisper.

Rhinoc shuddered at that mental imagery. He decided he needed to change the topic again, lest Anna continue losing her marbles on her current train of thought. "So… any change in plans?" he asked.

Lance lifted a hoof and tapped at his temples for a moment, his frown contorting a little at the corners like it could not decide whether or not to widen. "Love makes Katie heal, but also makes her act high as a kite…" he muttered.

"Come again?" Rhinoc asked, canting his head.

"Found her in a frozen hellhole…" Lance continued, seemingly lost in thought.

"Babbly babbly fuck fuck?" Natalie snarked, turning to Lance with a bemused brow raised.

Lance dropped his hoof, and his head tilted a little. He blinked before focusing on Rhinoc again. "You think our nooblet would handle despair easily? It's not like she could sense it, with her horn being out of commission," he queried, though it came out more like a statement since it was spoken in that no-nonsense tone.

Rhinoc's wings jolted upright and buzzed fervently in surprise, his eyes widening at the question. "S-sir, are you certain about this? H-her wings a-are…"

Lance nodded, a smirk forming on his muzzle that was so slight it came off more as a pursing of his lips. "There is a way we could get her to heal faster," he retorted firmly. "We just have to make sure a very peculiar, vital ingredient has been converted to thaumic energy and brought aboard…"

Matt and Natalie's pupils shrank and they exchanged glances. "What's he on about?" Matt asked. Natalie shrugged.

Anna answered, though not before taking a few seconds to let her sleep-deprived brain process the question, "Poison joke…"

Lance nodded. "But if poison joke hasn't been brought for the ride…" He turned to Matt and Natalie before asking, "Does Lazarus know any invisibility spells?" When they shrugged at him, he sighed. "Well, send him a telepathic message and ask."

Matt sighed, his horn lighting up for a few seconds before the aura dimmed. Everyone waited for several minutes, during which Anna nestled her head between her forelegs and started dozing, when a blue-red glow embraced Matt's head and he jolted in place.

"No, he does not," Matt reported glumly. "And he's cranky because my message got to him after a nightmare woke him up."

Lance frowned. "So much for that," he grumbled.

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Lazarus was in a very sour mood, his mane frazzled and narrowed eyes gleaming red and bloodshot to the point it was difficult to tell where the iris ended and the sclera began. His coat was matted, his crystalline sheen sporadic and flickering as though many sources of light were turning on and off around him without rhyme nor reason. Right now he simply sat in bed with his forelegs crossed, snorting like a petulant foal. With him were Fenrir and Sarah, who kept their distance by sitting in a triad of chairs at a table, both leaving one seat empty and eyeing him warily. All three held their breath, seemingly waiting for something to disrupt their stillness, for minutes on end.

Eventually, Fenrir could no longer take the silence anymore. "Do you have plans to go back to sleep anytime soon?" he asked.

Lazarus shook his head. "No; that… goat-faced fucker would've otherwise just come back and dropped an entire continent on my ass in the dream world just for shits and giggles," he growled, his voice raspy. "And that crazy moon-marked pony claiming she's a princess in the sister world. Well, if she's princess, then I'm king of the wasps!"

Fenrir frowned at that. He opened his mouth to say something else, when Sarah lifted her talon and clamped his mouth shut with it, before angling his head down to let him see her shaking her head in disapproval. "I reckon he's only thinking it's his imagination. Just let him vent," she mouthed. She released her hold on Fenrir's muzzle and watched him nod and sigh in resignation. At that moment, Lazarus uncrossed his forelegs and stretched them before he clambered out of bed and trotted unsteadily to the toiletries' corner.

As soon as the sound of running water graced their ears, Sarah snorted rather disdainfully. "Just you wait until he sees the Mythonians' giant flying fish of an airship," she scoffed.

Fenrir nodded. "He may still believe himself to be going insane," he remarked rather matter-of-factly. With tactful consideration, he added, "Yet then again, during our stay in Mythos, I have gleaned that Discord does indeed cause madness with his mere presence. Perhaps that is why Lazarus is… more snappish as of late."

Sarah couldn't argue with that. She decided to switch to another topic before Lazarus could start eavesdropping, "Do you think Lance will let me join the military?"

Fenrir's brow arched sharply at that. "Perhaps. However, he may not, or if he should, then the soldiers may well regard him as if he truly lost it," he muttered in reply. When Sarah canted her head, he elaborated, "As it stands, they may see your inclusion, should you join, as a sort of favoritism on Lance's behalf. Your sister is one of his right-hoof ponies, for Godcat's sake. How could it be anything but, in the eyes of the lesser troops who worked their wings off?"

Sarah paused, having not really considered that point until now. "Damned if I do, damned if I don't, huh?" she asked.

Fenrir hastily nodded. "You may as well be balancing upon a rope between two steep cliffs, wings bound or worse and upon the tip of your snout," he stated firmly. "And he has already lit a pyre under his own arse by recruiting Katie. Lazarus, I could well understand."

Sarah pursed her lips, seeing where Fenrir was going. "Sounds fishy to me too, unless…" She lifted a talon and put it to her chin, tapping idly. "He thinks it could help her somehow?"

"As sound an explanation as any… in the realm of what is strictly a hypothesis," Fenrir stated, his tone edging toward incredulousness. "Be that as it may, he is pleased to see her eating… so there is credence to your guess, I must admit."

Sarah dropped her talon and assumed a tiny smirk. Her ear twitched when the water shut off, and she craned her neck to find Lazarus trotting out of the toiletries' corner, soaking wet and with a towel resting askew upon his back. "Did that shower help you any?" she asked sincerely.

Lazarus turned to her and nodded sluggishly, and Sarah noticed his eyes were less bloodshot and narrowed. Still, that irritated frown of his clung to his muzzle like glue, though it too had receded a bit with his recent shower. "A little... " His horn lit up, and his magic grabbed the towel before he willed it to wipe away the excess water. "I'm still gonna need coffee today, though… I wonder if there's any left."

"I gotta admit, they have some good brews in their stocks," Sarah chirped, purring a little at the thought of a fresh mug of Joe. "If they don't grow it, then they import the shit like no tomorrow."

"Making the vast assumption, of course, that this military is also somehow its own province," Fenrir snarked, smiling a little at that rather absurd thought.

"Although… I can't help but wonder how they make their money. My sister does get paid; she showed me her last six months' payment bags last night. They're hefty things too; a good ten thousand bits per bag at the least," Sarah muttered. At that, Fenrir gave a low whistle.

"Ten thousand bits?" Lazarus echoed, trotting over to the two, still rubbing his body with the towel in an effort to finish drying off. "What the hell did she do to earn that much per month, invent a new form of magic or something?"

"I dunno. She didn't tell me," Sarah replied with a shrug of earnest. "Now I kinda envy her."

"Well, whatever the reason, if it's ten thousand every month… she must have done something admirable enough to warrant it," Fenrir chimed in, his smirk widening a little.

"Eh, we shouldn't worry about it much," Lazarus interjected with a shrug, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

Sarah turned to Lazarus with a brow quirked. "Shouldn't? Why?" she asked.

Lazarus shook his head, his voice turning serious and grim as he answered, "You probably wouldn't be admitted into the army. Only reason Red Eyes recruited me was Matt's big mouth, and he just… had this creepy grin glued to his fucking facehole."

"You speak like Lance is a demon of the apocalypse or something," Sarah murmured, though she did not miss Lazarus's shudder and teeth clenching when 'creepy grin' left his mouth. "Truth be told, he's not all that bad, just… quirky."

"He smiled like a fucking demon of the apocalypse, I swear to the fates! Godcat's my witness!" Lazarus hissed through grit teeth, ears folding back as that grin came to the forefront of his thoughts for a moment.

"Well, you did give him a week to acclimate before you could let him order you around," Sarah stated firmly, causing Lazarus's mouth to snap shut before he could utter so much as another syllable. "And that week has barely even started and shit's hit the fan, so Lance may extend that wait behind your back just to sort it out."

"And besides, he has yet to give you an assignment of any sort, let alone having you go through a gauntlet of vetting processes," Fenrir added, folding his arms over his chest. Cocking his head and tapping a bicep with a digit, he continued, "So you do not have any rank as of the present. What he knows of you is from word of mouth, and whose lips… you have already clarified for me." He leaned toward Lazarus, not once blinking. "You'd best prepare yourself. I don't know if whatever training regiments he may have are grueling or not, but I think it's better to be safe and sure than sorry and sore."

Lazarus mulled it over for a few seconds, before he shrugged and nodded at that. "And as for that 'grin' of his? I have yet to see Lance smile beyond 'slightly curved thin line' during my tenure in this mess, and it sounds to me as if he had perhaps forced himself to grin in such a manner. He's as stone-cold as they come, Lazarus," Fenrir finished.

"Cold to everyone except the diplomats and his right-hoof ponies," Sarah stated matter-of-factly, leaning back into her seat. "And Maria," she added.

"And you, by extension," Fenrir chimed in, garnering a snort from Sarah.

"It's as you said; only because of my sister," Sarah snarked with a roll of her eyes. "But I think she may have had something to do with it." When she got a pair of incredulous looks, she proceeded to spin up a rather insane, improbable train of reasoning behind it, "She may've convinced Lance to bring me with to see how competent in the battlefield I am, which compared to her, isn't a whole lot. I may be part of some cock-measuring contest that only they know about."

Fenrir and Lazarus shared a glance, then turned back to Sarah with both brows raised. "But… he hasn't seen you fight at all," Fenrir pointed out, frowning. "Only the aftermath, which resulted in a broken wing."

Sarah leaned forward with a sigh. "Eh. Chanson Cheval was a puss anyway," she scoffed. "And so were the old coots who dared call themselves his parents."

"Who the fuck would name their foal Chanson Cheval?" Lazarus interjected, garnering a flat stare from Sarah. "And who is he?"

"A dickpickle who thought it would be a great idea to lift my tail, whom I promptly challenged to an instrumental play-off… with a cursed harp, that then got the mother of all headaches. And he got arrested, broke out of jail, and broke my wing a few weeks after the fact," Sarah summarized with a huff. "Elitist, racist unicorn who was part of an orchestral band."

Lazarus frowned at that, and he noticed Sarah's lack of a wing-cast. "So… that's why your wing…"

Sarah nodded. "Yep. And he had a cousin who told me that I was in the wrong for acting in self-defense. Shining Armor got to see two-thirds of just about all three confrontations," she added.

Lazarus grimaced at that. "Was the family high, polite society…?"

Sarah nodded again. "Damn straight they were, fancily dressed and everything," she affirmed. Lifting a talon, she gestured to the empty chair and curled her claws, beckoning Lazarus to take a seat. He obliged, though not before putting the now-soaked towel back in the toiletries' corner to avoid dampening the seat. "So, how'd you get your cutie mark?" she asked, looking at Lazarus's bird-and-spear mark the moment he sat down.

Lazarus frowned and averted his gaze briefly. "Well… a lot of ponies were being rounded up to participate in a tournament, about nine-ish years ago. Me, Matt and Natz were barely teens; Natz was only twelve, and me and Matt about a year older than her. A cutie mark boom happened, and none of us earned our marks yet, but we were dragged into it too," he began dourly.

Fenrir rose a brow. "A tournament?" he echoed.

Lazarus nodded. "Yeah. We were put into a sort of arena like a gladiator's ring. Those who weren't participating were kept in small cages until they were called on and dragged into the ring." He swallowed heavily. "My frenemyship was just forming with Matt and Natz, but never once had I wanted to kill them."

"Kill?" Sarah queried, leaning toward Lazarus a bit when the word left her mouth.

Lazarus nodded, his frown deepening. His voice turned grim as he continued, "It got to the point where it was just us three in the ring. All the other ponies who were dragged into it killed each other, well before us. In fact, we were the last three to be dragged into that ring. It was a three-way fight; winner-takes-all yadda yadda. But we… snapped when the ponies running that ring said that two of us had to die."

"What… transpired after they made that declaration?" Fenrir prodded, his ears folding back at what he was hearing.

"We all had a magic surge, simultaneously. Matt… summoned giant swords out of this fucking portal and tore the area up. Natalie… somehow pulled a giant meteor from that same portal down, broke it into several chunks with the swords, and rained a shit ton of fiery rocks. At the same time as that, her body was glowing white-hot all over. Matt's mane and tail turned to shadow, and hers just… I don't know what happened; I don't really recall what went with her or all I did that well, but I know the spear the asshats forked to me to kill Matt and Natz with had something to do with it," Lazarus answered with a shiver.

"I passed out within two minutes of the surge, and when I woke up Matt and Natz were carting me away from… a giant scorched pile of rubble bigger than this ship. The shadows and lights that came from their bodies were gone. But their eyes… their eyes were blood red, and I swear Natalie was pale as the fucking moon. It took them a whole day to return to normal fully."

Both sets of eyes went wide at that. "... so you're saying that place was leveled?" Sarah muttered, a hint of awe and fright present in her tone.

Lazarus nodded hesitantly. "We were the only ponies who left that area alive as far as I am aware, and if I recall it's still there, somewhere far to the south in a deep chasm. And when we found out we got cutie marks because of it, we all fucking panicked," he concluded somberly. "We only later learned that arena was dubbed the Royale Hall of Brawls… stupid name, I know. Its destruction was hence dubbed the Royale Catastrophe. Have you heard of the Catastrophe before?" Fenrir and Sarah slowly nodded.

"We have, but… not many details came out," Sarah muttered. "Only its aftermath, and that Brawls stopped being held after its destruction."

He turned to his mark and sighed bitterly. "Since then, I've hidden my mark under layers of cloth. As well as the rest of my body, just so ponies wouldn't recognize me. I thought that business was over and done with… but nooooo, Matt and Natz showed me a heaping stack of books found in a frozen hellhole before I went to bed…"

"What were the books about?" Fenrir queried, his face contorting to a scowl at what he'd just heard. Lazarus responded by conjuring a book in a flash of light and sliding it to him across the table. Fenrir opened the book and flipped through it, finding several cutie marks illustrated within the pages, though each one beared a bright red X crudely drawn over top. Another few books were summoned in short order, and he took a few minutes to deftly leaf through the whole lot one at a time. Only Lazarus, Matt, and Natalie's marks remained unblemished by those X's.

Only as he closed the last book twenty minutes after the first speed-reading did Fenrir look back at Lazarus. "Are these… records?" he asked incredulously.

Once more, Lazarus nodded, this time with his brow slanting and his tail quivering. "Of the fighters," he muttered tersely. "What I don't understand is… how our marks got into those books after the Catastrophe."

Fenrir's scowl deepened. "Someone likely saw their marks, but you kept yours covered… this is a very curious thing, indeed," he hissed sibilantly.

"Which is why Matt and Natz showed me those books to begin with," Lazarus agreed, his voice taking on a rueful note.

"And why did they round you and all those other ponies up?" Sarah queried, eyes narrowing dangerously low. "Why pit you in fights to the death? For what gain?"

Lazarus swallowed heavily before he answered, "Honestly, I don't remember… and I don't want to remember why."

Chapter LXXIII- Venomous Outbreak

Alexander had his talons full. He sat in a recliner in one of the lounges, Heather sat on a couch before him, and her colt was taking his first steps across the carpet with shaky legs while the changeling nurses and the elder unicorn watched his every move. The baby, clad in a small suit of chitil with extra padding on his rear end, was learning with increasing speed the layout of the room.

That included where he could and could not crawl under. The two changeling nurses always barred potential hiding holes with their legs, but once they did the infant lost interest and tottered off to try and squirm under another piece of furniture. Every so often, he stopped and repeatedly reared on his back legs and stomped his front hooves, burbling with eyes of soft teal gleaming in delight.

Heather, for her part, did next to nothing to help. She did not even attempt to corral her baby, but then again she hadn't really needed to, when two changelings did so in her stead. The elder sat next to her, worryingly looking at a small wheeled stand with hooks which held IV bags that were anchored to her forelegs. "So you had him yesterday?" the elder asked with a sigh.

Heather nodded. "Bad ponies tried making me live in bad house. Put me in bad dress," she muttered, ears folding back. "Ran away. Tore bad dress up, but not before baby cried and hurt my tummy really bad."

The elder grimaced at that, and turned to the colt as he started galloping in circles around one of the nurse's legs, little wings buzzing with fervor. "And then… nice ponies came. Nice white pony scared me a lot, but… but he wasn't like bad ponies," Heather added, smiling a little.

"Sounds to me she's mentally… stunted," Alexander murmured, frowning when the elder and Heather turned to him.

"Stunted?" the elder parroted.

Alexander gravely nodded. "Either through a birth defect, or was simply kept as ignorant as possible," he answered, his tail swishing a little. "Or she suffered a concussion too many."

The elder's frown deepened. He crossed his forelegs. "There's a lot the other villagers wouldn't tell me…" he muttered. "Such as what became of the stallion who forged the shield…"

"No offense," one of the nurses began as the colt managed to latch onto her tail with his mouth and started pulling with all his might, "but they might've thought you were going senile, or something."

"Psssh," the elder hissed dismissively, parting his hooves and rearing one up to make a flicking motion, "I'm the only old soul down there who hasn't started gettin' cobwebs up in my head."

The nurses shared looks, then the one who was getting her tail pulled hiked hers straight up, in turn sending the colt through the air… and causing him to land on her back without issue. The baby burbled some more, waving his little legs as if asking to do it again. "Strange…" Alexander muttered, brow furrowing thoughtfully.

"Our sentiments exactly," the changeling nurses piped up at the same time. The baby burbled and kept flailing his little legs eagerly, still pumping energy into his beating wings almost as if he were expecting to launch back into the air at some point.

Alexander turned back to Heather. "Have you decided on a name for your foal yet?" he queried.

Heather's smile fell. "Dunno what to name baby," she answered earnestly, eyes gravitating to the ceiling as a hoof rose to tap her chin. "He has wingies… one of only wingie babies to leave bad place…"

Alexander's gaze snapped to the elder, eyes narrowing by a smidgen. "Is this true?" he asked.

The elder shook his head. "No, another winged child left Greenwood years ago," he answered. Gesturing to the colt, who was now being settled down onto the floor by the nurses' magic, he added, "He's the second winged child to have left… on a technicality."

Alexander's brow rose. "And the first?" he pressed.

The elder shook his head again, slowly and grimly. "Hadn't seen hide nor hair of that child since," he stated somberly.

Alexander nodded and turned to look at the feet of his recliner as the baby cantered up to him and reared on his hind legs. He leaned over until his beak was just inches from the little one's muzzle, and softly queried, "Yeeees?" The baby burbled, lifted a tiny hoof, and proceeded to boop him on the beak with a flap of his little wings. He couldn't help but chuckle as the baby then dropped to all fours and started galloping circles around the nurses again.

"I think it's safe to say the tyke has a clean bill of health," one of the nurses chirped, spinning in place just to keep her eyes affixed to the child.

"Not to mention that he's obscenely lucky," chimed the other nurse with a small grin. "I think the little guy would make Lance melt," she added as the baby tripped and landed on his stomach, burbling as he looked at her with a curious gaze.

"Who is this Lance fellow?" the elder asked, tilting his head.

The nurses exchanged glances, before one of them picked up the foal with her forehooves. "Our boss," she answered tersely, pausing to nuzzle the child who then booped her on the snout with all four hooves.

"He's got a bit of a soft spot for kids; hell, if he were able, he'd do his utter damnedest to keep every single foal on Fantasia safe and away from the foal-diddlers," the second added, chortling as her companion snickered in the process of getting multiple boops to the snout in rapid succession. "I'm surprised it took him this long to adopt one. I heard the foal he has is a real hoofful."

The elder nodded with an "Aaaah" of understanding, and proceeded to light up his horn. His magic tenderly grasped the colt and plucked him from the nurse's forelegs before levitating him to Heather. "I think he needs to eat," he said, to which the nurses nodded with no objection on their part. The moment the colt crawled between her rear legs and started suckling, his aura dimmed as he ceased casting. "This is… the youngest mother I've seen yet."

"I cannot help but agree there," Alexander muttered ruefully, looking at the elder intently.

The elder looked back at Alexander and sighed. "Normally, ponies in Greenwood would wait until the mare was at least eight years older than this filly," he grumbled, lifting a hoof to gesture to Heather for emphasis. "Unless…" That same hoof went to rub his temples as mental gears started turning. "They're hiding more than they normally would?"

"Well, whatever the reason, we needn't worry about it too much ourselves," Alexander sighed, smiling a bit. "Lance is already working on something to send some of the others down to Greenwood, without involving you or the foals. He has enough hooves on this ship and the other ships that he can afford to do something like that."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Twilight was in her guest room, reading the books she'd brought over, though she lifted her eyes from the pages every few seconds to watch as Zecora and Katie mulled about. The former had gotten a few cooking pots into the room, filled with a deep blue liquid. All of those pots were suspended in a lavender aura, and had searing white flames just beneath them, heating that liquid to a boil.

The latter was busying herself by hopping from corner to corner, occasionally using her tongue to do meager things such as scratching her own back or retying her casts, both made obscenely easy by the simple virtue of being able to rotate her head full circle. Around all three, arranged very carefully onto the various tables and dressers and further glued down with chitil, were several potted blue flowers with dark purple stamens, all bearing six sharply pointed petals and sickly navy stems. There were other pots that held a variety of different herbs and plants, but they were much bigger and had to be stationed on the floor simply due to how many there were.

"I can't believe poison joke can be converted to thaumic energy," Twilight muttered, turning back to her book.

"Verily, but I am glad we brought a small crop abroad. We must be careful, so it doesn't affect any poor sods," Zecora agreed with a nod. She peered at the various pots, waiting for the liquid to do something other than boil. Katie jumped over, hearing the liquid pop and steam with fervor.

"What're you gonna do with that? Make me drink it?" Katie asked, causing Zecora to turn to her very briefly and shake her head.

"Yeah, now that you mention it…" Twilight pried her eyes out of the book again and sighed. "We're going to need a funnel sooner or later."

Zecora shook her head. "Nay; the application needs to be direct. In concentrated poison joke she must be bedecked," she replied. "I was told it heals her wounds. Whether or not it does, we'll find out soon." Twilight's brows shot up at that.

"Come again?" Twilight queried, dumbfounded.

Katie answered before Zecora could utter another word, "She needs to soak me in it, head to hoof, before I can trot again. It's why my legs don't got holes anymore."

"Let me get this straight… someone told you that poison joke of all things helps with…" Twilight could not scrounge her brain for the words with which to finish the question, eyes widening at the utter ludicrousness of Zecora's utterance. Her brain simply refused to even acknowledge it. She managed to ignore Katie's answer, at least for a few seconds before it clicked in and she turned to the wraith in question. She gathered herself before stating matter-of-factly, "Katie, don't be ridiculous. Poison joke only pranks ponies with small but annoying afflictions. It doesn't heal wounds."

"But it's true!" Katie exclaimed in exasperation, swollen wing-nubs buzzing as she jumped in place with legs helplessly flailing. "Rainbow saw it! You can ask her about it!"

Twilight sighed, knelt to Katie's level when she landed on the floor, and donned a firm frown of disapproval. "There's no evidence poison joke affects changelings, and to be frank, there's no records of it affecting wraiths as far as I am aware of. I have read every single book in Canterlot and in Ponyville, some of which I think are hooey, and none of them touched the topic of poison joke in little beyond either a passing mention or what it does to ponies at best," she lectured.

Katie's eyes narrowed. "But that's not every single book in Equestria, recent or ancient," she dourly pointed out. When Twilight grimaced, she turned to Zecora. "Is it ready yet?" she queried. Zecora turned to the several brews boiling at once, and smiled a little as they congealed slightly.

"The poison joke brew is finished at last. We must drench you, and fast," Zecora intoned. Her smile fell as she turned to Twilight. "But, how will we go about with the process of drenching her? This airship has no tubs or pots large enough, of that I am sure."

Twilight sighed and magically lifted Katie into the air, tenderly taking off her casts in the process before wrapping her in an airtight bubble similar to Shining's shield. The pots then ascended until they were above the bubble, whereupon a small hole formed at the very top, lined with a funneled rim. Precariously, Twilight poured the liquid into the field through that funnel, making sure some actually splattered on Katie on its way down. "If this mends her legs, or does something similar to that, then I'll reconsider my concerns," Twilight muttered as the bubble shrank once the last of the brew was poured in, forming a makeshift tub that ensured Katie would get thoroughly drenched in.

Before long, her ears and mane were dripping blue liquid as though it were raining, and Katie started barrel rolling to further soak herself. As she spun, blue spots formed on her body, and the liquid pulsed with mana before the blue color drained out and was seemingly absorbed by its occupant, leaving a small pool of water as clear as any well-kept bath. This left Katie so blue that even her wing-nubs took on that tint. "This is most bizarre, second to finding Fantasia full of strife. I have not seen poison joke react like this in my entire life," Zecora murmured, her eyes widening in tandem with Twilight's at the now-blue Katie.

Twilight herself was taken aback. This, however, sparked something in her brain, and she conjured an inkwell, a quill, and a sheet of paper. "Well now… this calls for a bit of research," she murmured. Before she could start writing down notes, a series of sickening snaps filled the air, and she turned to Katie. Dyed legs twisted and bent unnaturally, pulsing with mana, doing everything from spinning in their sockets to bending as far back as possible until they rested with their owner in a crouching stance that reminded the two observers of a grasshopper waiting to jump.

Wing-nubs then swelled twice, thrice their size, absorbing the liquid trapped therein and forming an entirely new network of veins and arteries with which to pump blood. Gossamer membranes grew between those veins, stretching until all four nubs had become once-more functional wings that were almost moth-like. With a grunt, Katie heaved and stretched her legs until they were back under her body once more, popping them one final time with the effort. Buzzing her dripping wings, she managed to kick up the liquid in the bubble a little and simultaneously dry them off before the blue tint faded from her entire body with one last pulse of mana.

Katie turned to regard Twilight with a smug glint in her orbs and a joyous fervor in her buzzing as she made the water and the bubble vanish in light, in tandem with the myriad of pots that held the brew before. Once more airborne and free from her confines, she asked, "You were saying?"

Twilight's jaw had dropped at that point, as had Zecora's. Not one moment ago, the wraith before them was helplessly hopping about on the floor, and now she was flying as if nothing had even happened. But now that she thought about it, she did see mana at work… Twilight started jotting down notes, eying Katie with a very critical gaze. "Subject absorbed properties of poison joke by way of mana… healed fully… yet to determine if innate mana or external…" she muttered.

"Hrmm?" Katie hummed, prior to flying closer to Twilight to see what the deal was. She noticed that her flying was much smoother than it was when her wings were tatters, but no more faster than the average hover at best.

"Tell me… have you ran into poison joke before?" Twilight asked, enunciating each word slowly to make sure her meaning wasn't lost on Katie even as she continued to jot down notes.

"I have not, at least on Fantasia," Katie muttered in reply, tilting her head.

Twilight frowned. "Not once?"

Katie shook her head. "Nope. My memory is only as good as the week is long. If I have, I either forgot I did, or just didn't actually come into contact with it," she answered with a shrug of indifference. "One of the things nobody tells ya about being immortal; you have to write things down, otherwise it's lost to time. And even that doesn't help one bit."

Twilight raised a skeptical brow. "So… your memory is bad?" she translated.

Katie shook her head. "Only limited, actually, not bad per se. A few interesting things that really stick out from what I've seen either happened ages ago, or very recently. Everything else is a fog as thick as the moon," she answered. "And suffice to say, until I woke up in Lance's tank, hardly anything interesting happened, aside from becoming a wraith." She leaned back and crossed her forelegs under her head and her rear legs rather strategically over her pelvis in a lazy, hovering lounge and added, "I mean, you're Celestia's student. Haven't you seen her cheat sheets whenever she has to listen to the nobles of the Courts bitch and moan?"

Twilight hazily recalled a few Court sessions in her foalhood that she didn't actively participate in, but did notice that more than once Celestia had papers seemingly on hoof in every instance within her memory. "... vaguely?" she murmured. "I was only there when Mom and Dad were on vacation, Shining was in school, Cadence was unavailable, and I was out of school for the day…" Still, if what Katie said was true, it would have explained a little more about her antics as of late.

And speaking of not remembering things, a thought crossed Twilight's mind in that moment. "Do you remember what life was like before you attained immortality?" she queried.

"Not much, though most of what I can recall is from my grubhood. I still remember the moment I hatched, and saw my hivemates for the first time," Katie replied, her tone taking on a solemn, reminiscing note. Her orbs wavered briefly. "Used to have purple wasps every day, until I had my third molt and became a nymph."

"Nymph?" Twilight echoed, her raised brow climbing higher.

"Basically, a changeling's equivalent to a filly or a colt," Katie replied with a shrug. She lifted a hoof from behind her head and gestured at herself as she added, "I could not become a full-fledged mutant drone. I did not know it at the time, but before my tenth molt could even be reached—a changeling's equivalent to a birthday party—the hive I was a part of was soon to be decimated."

Twilight's jaw dropped at that. "You're an undead foal?!" she screamed.

Katie glumly nodded. "Over the years… of which I have lost count, it must be said, I learned to stop thinking like a foal and start thinking like a grown mare," she stated. Her tone lowered ominously, and the solemn note became more prominent as she continued, "Only reason I let Lance make me into one of his lackeys is because I want to know what the hell destroyed my hivemates, and why the barrier broke." She paused, eying Twilight with a serious glint in her still-wavering orbs. "Futile it may seem, given the possibility the records of the first shitshow and the barrier are few and far in between, or possibly even nonexistent for that matter, I am still willing to take the risk."

The bottom dropped out of Twilight's stomach at what Katie said next, orbs averting before dimming entirely, her tone taking on a bitter, hateful note tinged with the slightest margin of despair and desperation. The words were uttered in a cacophonous symphony of all-encompassing dismay, each undernote impossible to miss unless she were deaf, and each note roiling about as though multiple wraiths spoke at once, "Nobody else was willing to give me answers over the years. They all cast me out and never looked back."

Twilight looked at Katie with eyes widening all over again, comprehension dawning. The skeptic in her wanted to deny, deny, deny what she'd heard. The realist in her, however, pointed out that, if Katie really did die so young, then her small size could not have come from emaciation alone. Bones became brittle over time, yes, but did not shrink the way skin and muscle could unless a serious defect was involved. Her mannerisms when they first met, her tendency to piggyback on somepony's back, her utter refusal to filter her words in a way that would spare everypony a lot of embarrassment, her tendency to charge first and ask later…

These things were the hallmarks of a foal. A foal who should not have had to endure endless hunger, seemingly-inescapable loneliness and scorn, and pains both physical and mental for years on end, yet did. A foal whose wounds time did not heal, whose wounds refused to heal until recently. A foal who, somehow, persevered in spite of all of that, all for the sake of finding someone, anyone who'd help her with her dilemma. A foal who sounded desperate above all else.

Zecora spoke for them both, "There are answers you seek, answers you want but have not yet found. You will not rest until you obtain them, whether by old text or spoken sound?"

Katie turned to Zecora and stared for some seconds before shaking her head. "I cannot die," she muttered wearily. Bitterly, she added, "Even if I get my answers… then what? It's not like Fantasia could magically become a better world overnight."

Twilight's brow furrowed at that. The realist within her agreed with the sentiment, and her eye twitched wholeheartedly. She'd seen her fair share of things getting worse before they got better, so she wasn't even all that surprised that such a comment left Katie's mouth. "Well, if you got your answers, you could tell other changelings about your tale years down the line so what happened to your hive doesn't repeat," Twilight muttered.

Katie's orbs glowed again and then widened, and for a second her jaw fell slack. Her voice fell to a whisper as she said, "Those who cannot remember the past… are condemned to repeat it…"

Twilight nodded, smiling as Katie started to see what she was getting at. "If anything, you could start with Lance's other changelings and work your way from there, to the gryphons and minotaurs and everybody else in between all of that," she stated firmly. "Of course, they might not take you seriously at first, especially if what you'd just said is true. But, some could on the first try. You never know what sort of reception you'll get, so keep your torn mouth running until somebody's willing to listen."

Katie's face hardened, her split mouth's tears twitching knowingly. "Right now?" she queried, a note of hope in her tone.

Twilight shook her head. "Not yet. I'd say wait until we leave Greenwood before you let your gums start flapping," she stated. At this, Katie sagged a little. "The soldiers are busying themselves with other things at the moment, and Lance is trying to avoid doing something scatterbrained in the meantime. Things will need to settle first."

Katie nodded in understanding, and dropped to the floor in a clumsy, four-hoofed landing. She righted her posture before folding her wings, and she trotted a few laps around Twilight and Zecora, chirping in delight when she found her legs could now adequately support her meager weight. This went on for a few minutes before stopping as Katie turned to the door of the room. "So, what should we do in the meantime?" she asked.

Twilight lifted Katie up in her magic and planted her onto her own backside. "Now, we give Lance a little Tartarus until he gives up the ghost and tells us if he formulated a plan or not," she stated, unable to keep the slight smirk off of her face.

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Unfortunately, Lance was already on the receiving end of being hoofed a platter full of Tartarus, with a screech of terror thrown in for free. Anna had gone into full-out panic mode, cowering in the shower stall with a pale face and eyes wide. He was in there with her, trying to cradle her with his wings, only to repeatedly be kicked and magically pushed to the wall, one time receiving a large series of cuts across the barrel from such a strike that should not have been able to even produce the wounds in question. Matt and Natalie were outside the stall, horns aglow, using their magic to keep her pinned to one corner of the stall in an effort to avoid harming herself. Concern dotted their faces, giving way to wide eyes and firm frowns.

It was easy to see why. One of her forelegs had grown a swath of bark that tore through skin and muscle, forming a hellish four-digit claw where her hoof was, each digit tipped with Lance's blood. Her blood seeped from the bark profusely, and that wasn't the only thing that decided she was good enough to become fertilizer. Ivy and kudzu worked in tandem, weaving angry webs beneath her skin before breaking out in a myriad of places, even meeting with the bark just behind her withers, forming an elaborate and crude mockery of two pairs of pegasus wings that flapped and flopped without doing anything more than making her scream in pain. One of her back legs was undergoing a similar treatment, the bark on it forming plates that were less plant-like and more armor-like.

"Hold still so we can start removing the bark!" Natalie pleaded, trying her best to magically seize Anna's faux wings, pumping more mana to compensate for Matt's relatively weak glow.

"It hurts! Make it stop!" Anna wailed, unable to hold still for even a second before another plate of bark tore its way through the skin of her haunch, almost obscuring her cutie mark in blood.

"We're trying!" Matt grumbled, feeling his horn heat up as he managed to seize hold of the flailing giant leafy bark that dared call itself sets of wings before pinning them to the wall.

Lance got off of the wall and ambled over, the large gashes dotting his barrel still dripping blood as he tried once more to soothe his subordinate. "Hey, it's gonna be alright," he muttered as he knelt to her level and clasped her with his forelegs, wrapping them around her withers to pull her close. She nestled her muzzle to his shoulder and bit him, hard, muffling another scream as a chunk of bark was forcefully parted from her back leg, taking with it a tiny chunk of flesh. As more bark was worked free, the kudzu and ivy raced over beneath her skin to try and keep the wound off-limits, but those too were torn out before a soft white glow covered it and started mending the exposed flesh.

Lance lifted a hoof slightly and began rubbing at Anna's withers, causing her to relax a little at the sensation. He heard a door slam open not even a second after, the sound causing Anna to tense and bristle, but he kept rubbing even as another chunk of bark and some more plant vines had been magically evicted from her back leg. "Oi, Lance, we need… the fuck?" he heard Katie mumble.

Just great, prying eyes and ears arrived when everypony in the shower least wanted them to. "You're gonna have to wait! We have an emergency on our hooves!" Natalie called, furiously peeling bark and vines away from the entirety of Anna's hind leg, revealing angry red flesh that she then worked on healing at the same time. They heard muffled hoofsteps approaching, and out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw Twilight and Zecora emerge into the stall uninvited, with the former having Katie on her back. All three turned to the sight and sharply gasped in unison.

"What's going on here?!" Twilight demanded, trying to force her way between Matt and Natalie to see what the fuss was about in more detail, only to magically be pushed to the toilet by Anna before she could get very far.

"Anna's turning into a fucking timberpony over here, and last thing we need is to be thrown off our hooves!" Matt barked, turning to the faux wings as soon as the last of the vines and bark were torn out of the hind leg, and started to work on removing the wings when Twilight yet again came over, though that time without trying to wedge herself into the already-crowded stall.

Twilight gaped when a wing was ripped out with a sickening snap of timber, which immediately caused Anna to scream and kick out with her back legs as the remaining three wings beat furiously at the fresh wave of pain being sent through her nerves. Her claw-tipped hoof grappled Lance's foreleg and pierced his flesh once more, though he barely gave a wince as he kept trying to calm her down. "D-did she get parasitized?!" she queried, her horn glowing when she saw still-unhealed wounds dotting Anna's back leg that Natalie was trying to patch up.

"No, it was like this when she got her cutie mark," Lance answered, focusing all of his energy in keeping Anna from flailing as much as he could. "Her magic's always been this haywire!"

Twilight groaned and started conjuring a soft white light of her own, healing the back leg of its wounds and freeing Natalie up a little to get rid of more vines and bark. Another sickening crunch rent the air, followed by another muffled shriek as another false wing had been parted from its host, and the other two wings swiftly followed it on its way out. Working to heal the new perforations in Anna's back, she eyed the clawed foreleg digging into Lance's flesh with only the barest of restraint to keep it from trailing any lower to his exposed stomach. That leg was parted from his own, before in one fell swoop the bark covering it was removed with the last of the vines.

Twilight worked to heal the leg, but Natalie was already on it. Matt proceeded to gather the bark and vines in a faltering glow, before he trotted outside of the stall with them in tow. The group heard a creak like a door being opened, followed by the boom of thunder and the crackle of flames. Zecora rushed out of the stall, leaving Natalie and Twilight to finish healing Anna, to find Matt torching the plants. He made sure they were outside of the airship by simply opening the window. Lightning struck again and again at the plants, before Matt magically pushed them further from the ship and let them drop to the ground below. The window slammed shut in a golden glow after that. Wordlessly, Matt trotted back into the toiletries' corner, finding Twilight magically turning Anna over in a bubble to check and see if there was anymore trouble spots of a bark outbreak.

Fortunately, there was no more bark and vines to be had, and even better, somepony had the decency to heal Lance in the process. Wounds healed, but pain still lingering, all Anna could do was whimper as tears fell freely. "We can barely control her when she's like this," Lance sighed, looking at his now-levitating subordinate with concern marring his face. "Since a lot of magic is fueled by emotion and thought… whenever she panics enough, this happens…"

Twilight gently lowered Anna to the floor of the stall, and turned on the water to help her wash the blood off. "Is this… why she can't…"

Lance nodded, cutting Twilight off. "It's like the madness of the trees… does something to her… pheromones, telepathy, or just their looks, I honestly don't know what… it's like a virus. A virus we can only keep her away from," he stated grimly. Anna scrabbled back to him and clutched him in her forelegs, sniffling and crying like a lost foal, burying her face in his barrel.

"Don't… wanna go back…" Anna huffed, ears folding back against her head.

Matt grabbed Twilight, Katie, and Zecora in his magic before lifting them and trotting out of the room with them in tow, leaving Natalie to watch in case another bark outbreak were to occur. He parked them on the floor of the hall and shut the door behind himself. He wore a solemn, deep frown. "What is it that you wanted?" he queried.

Twilight was more dumbfounded than ever. She could've sworn Anna was fine not even last night, but to have bark and vines growing out of her flesh this morning? She could very well understand the slight panic that filled her colleagues, yet once more could not express her concern with mere words. Zecora and Katie were, likewise, stunned into silence now that the crisis had been averted.

It took them several long minutes before any could answer Matt's question.

Chapter LXXIV- 'Line Up, Legs Straight!'

"Is she gonna be okay?" Katie asked with utmost sincerity, brow slanted and ears flat against her head as the question left her mouth. Matt mulled the query over for a moment before he slowly nodded.

"She could grow more bark tomorrow… but if she does, we'll just pry it off of her again," Matt stated in a flat voice. "And normally, it only happens once per heat. Even so, we don't take chances with that."

Katie grimaced. "Why'd she sprout wings?" she pressed, genuinely concerned.

Matt's frown deepened. "We have no idea. They always sprout whenever the curse she's under decides to express itself," he muttered grimly, shaking his head. "And this started months ago."

Twilight's brow slanted. "She's hexed?"

Again, Matt nodded. "Has been, ever since she underwent therapy. She's only just started growing bark in the past few months; before that, her eyes would turn red and her mood would swing straight to hell," he stated. "I'd wager she was cursed sometime before we trotted into her." At the questioning brow that Twilight rose, he elaborated, "A year before Lance recruited her, she was banged up enough to undergo physical therapy. All four legs had bad fractures in them… and that's not even getting into her state of mind back then."

"You're saying that she's…" Twilight began, only to stop when Matt nodded for a third time, his frown deepening still.

"She thought we were there to finish her off, when we wanted to do the opposite," Matt said in a tight voice, and he left it at that.

Katie's eyes narrowed at what she'd just heard. "So… what should we do?" she pressed. "Anna's on the fritz, prone to becoming plant fodder… and I can trot and fly again." Her wings buzzed, albeit much slower than they usually would, producing a soft hum that lasted mere seconds.

Matt sighed and shrugged. "You three wait. I'm gonna talk with Lance for a bit…" he said, and with that he opened the door behind him, trotted inside… and didn't bother to even close the door behind him. Twilight poked her head in and found a dripping Lance and Anna on the bed, with Natalie rubbing them both using a blanket held in her magic. Anna was slumped, eyes closed as a soft purring sound left her mouth. Lance kept her cradled under one wing, though he was alert and awake and looking at Twilight. With a nod, he turned to Matt.

"She's content, and asleep," Lance whispered, glancing at Anna for a moment for emphasis. With a hoof, he beckoned Twilight over, and she walked in, keeping her steps silent. "Whatever you want, keep it down. We don't need her freaking out again." Twilight nodded in understanding, and for a moment held quiet to better hear Anna's purr. It was honestly serene as her expression; something, in her case, that was delicate and needed to be approached with care.

"I can fly and trot again," Katie whispered, leaning over a little to stare Lance in the eye.

Lance nodded and donned a small smile. "Good. I need to ask you something," he muttered in reply. When Katie's ears perked up, he took that as his cue to shoot in the dark, "Can you withstand the levels of despair emanating from Greenwood?"

Katie's ears drooped a little, and she slid her tongue out to tap her chin and rub her temples simultaneously in lieu of her hoof as she thought the question over. For a few seconds, her brow furrowed, and then her tongue retracted. "How bad is it?" she pressed.

"Very. Virtually none of the other changelings in this ship can stand it for more than a few hours," Lance clarified, his smile fading. "The reason I ask is because of where we found you specifically. Are you up to it?"

Katie hesitated, getting the feeling Lance was about to drop something gigantic onto her withers regardless of her answer. She eventually settled onto an answer, though not before swishing her tail a little. "It depends on the cause of that despair," she muttered in reply. "If it's temporary, like say a broken leg, then I'll handle that just fine."

"The trees have eyes," Natalie stated, her tone soft yet carrying an unmistakeable weight nonetheless. "They're nothing like wraiths."

Katie's ears sagged down at that. "I can handle despair, but… but only because I usually ignore it," she muttered, her voice weak. "But… sometimes it overwhelms me like it does anyling…"

Lance's frown deepened at that. He turned to Twilight for a moment. "Any luck on that enchanted paper?" he asked.

Twilight shook her head. "No dice so far," she answered.

Lance's ears drooped slightly. "Well then…" He turned back to Katie. "Ugh… it's time to get creative…" He sighed ruefully at that prospect. "Would you be willing to investigate Ashwood a little, with a retinue of my gryphons and NoLegs to accompany you?"

Katie nodded without hesitation. "But, I'll need something more than just my horseshoes to get me by. Say… do you have that spear with the odd slots in its shaft?" she queried.

Lance canted his head a little. "Why?"

"I could use my tongue to hold it, since with my shoes on it'll be clumsy otherwise," Katie elaborated. That caused Matt and Natalie to share a glance, both mulling that over for a second or two which gave her the impression that they were mentally picturing the art of spearmanship via tongue somehow going awry.

Lance shook his head at that. "It could work, yes… but you haven't the experience necessary to properly use one. That much became clear to me when you first held it," he muttered.

Katie sighed, but nodded as she had no hope of contesting with him there. "Which is where your gryphons come in," she muttered.

Lance nodded, and smiled again. "Yes. But we're also going to need a way to get you lot by without the ectoplasms noticing…"

"Illusions?" Matt suggested. Slowly, he turned to Twilight. "Are you able to cast them?"

Twilight pursed her lips, before nodding eagerly. "I was able to replicate a flame spell, a healing spell, and your light-sword spell more directly… I've seen my fair share of illusions. Sounds like something that should be easy enough," she answered. "All we need now are your gryphons…"

Lance's smile widened, and he nodded. Turning to Natalie, he gave a curt order, "Conjure a radio and ask for Jeremy, Nathan, and Quicksilver to meet up on the deck of this vessel. If they ask, tell them they're getting an assignment. If they ask for me specifically, tell them I'm unavailable at the moment."

"Hold up," Katie interjected, raising her hoof. When Lance turned to her, she asked, "What are we supposed to do in Ashwood once we get down?"

"Simple," Lance began, his eyes gleaming and his ears lifting up to full alertness, "Check out the vicinity around Greenwood, starting from the Mighty Oak's shrine outward. And if you can, make friends with the Mighty Oak. He will help you tremendously. I want things pertaining to why ponies become trees, first and foremost. The source, any bodies that haven't turned if you can procure them, and anything that may have been hidden by an illusion."

"That last one's gonna be hard to find…" Katie muttered, her hoof lowering.

Lance nodded in agreement. "Which is where NoLegs comes in," he stated tersely, garnering Natalie and Matt's attention with that utterance. He rubbed Anna's back with his wing when she shifted to rub her head against his shoulder, mumbling about salmon in her sleep. "He knows to watch for such spells."

Matt's eyes widened as Lance said that. "Of course…" he muttered, seeing Twilight's brow quirk out of the corner of his eye. He turned to her and elaborated, "He was the one who taught me how to use illusions effectively."

Twilight frowned. "I see," she muttered tersely as Natalie lit up her horn and conjured a radio in a small flash of light that she made sure was behind Anna so as to not rouse her.

"And while you're at it… could you summon Sarah and Lazarus?" Lance asked. "I need to inform one of them about the emergency, and the other… I'm going to need to query a bit and prepare future arrangements for…"

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An hour passed before Nathan, Jeremy, and Quicksilver found themselves on the deck of the largest vessel, all coats slightly singed to the wingtips and smoking in places. Twilight was there as well, fussing over them with Katie on her back to make sure they'd be alright, though it was honestly harder for her to tell in what spots Jeremy had been singed. As a result, she'd been forced to rely on the smoke emanating from whatever trouble spots that he had.

NoLegs was present too, the oversized spear with the two slots held aloft in his magic until it would be needed. With the three gryphons having been briefed during the check-up that they'd be put to work, they couldn't help but wonder the moment that Twilight healed them with a flick of her horn and gave them the all-clear. At this point, Katie had been given her shoes again, and it did not take long for the gryphons to voice their concerns.

"So… what's the assignment?" Jeremy queried, his brow quirked.

"Beyond the whole 'find suspect activity and dead bodies,' I got nothing," Katie answered in earnest, shrugging her shoulders. "He may as well have asked me to summon Godcat." She paused, eying the gryphons critically. "I'm amazed you three dodged lightning bolts with nothing more than some burn marks to show for it."

"I'm amazed you can still speak," Quicksilver quipped back.

"Shut your piehole, you lead-chewing blowhard," Katie snarked, eyes narrowing a little as she said that. "I'll bet you bathe in the stuff."

"Oh, you can go eat an entire bag of the fattest dicks Fantasia has to offer," Nathan hissed, narrowing his eyes at Katie. The display did not make her flinch in the slightest.

"Is that a challenge?" Katie hissed, opening her mouth extra-wide so he could see all of her new sharp and pointy teeth.

Twilight sighed as they continued to argue over whether or not this 'bag of the fattest dicks' was actually a challenge of some sort or an insult. It lasted for a good hour and a half, only halting when the hatch flung itself open and both participants of the conversation turned to it as Natalie emerged.

Now, though, she had donned a dress that seemed black at first glance, but was really a deep navy with a violet trim that was so faded it almost seemed like a shade of grey. The dress had the backside cut out to expose her midsection a little, as well as her withers and croup. Belts framed her hind quarters.

So too did a sash whose tails ended in white, bleached skulls shaped like the heads of ponies with the sash in question tied through the sockets of each. A pair of dark purple baubles were there to hold up her mane in a singular ponytail, one on her scalp and one near the end of her mane. She sported a necklace holding up a five-pointed gold star and an eight-pointed silver star that bashed each other and jingled as she trotted over. Both charms were accompanied by another gold necklace in the shape of a pentagram, circle and all.

Her hooves were clad with tight-knit boots that ended in dark metal horseshoes that clanked in her wake, and sleeves of deep navy ending in frills shrouded her forelegs up to the shoes themselves like a robe. On the barrel of the outfit rested a hoofful of small medals, all neatly stowed to the left in three rows. Twilight noticed that one of those medals was a dove white as snow, and the one next to it was a lavender heart. Her crystal sheen had come full force, even encompassing the outfit itself to make it seem like patches of it were darker than black. Wrapped around her neck was a scarf with its ends tucked in, forming a bulky mass accentuated by a small, silver cross at the front.

All turned to Natalie's face, which bore a neutral expression so flat it seemed to scream 'officialese' with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The gryphons promptly saluted her with their wings and talons. Katie herself jumped off Twilight's back, got her ass in line, and did the same with a hoof and wings buzzing just to maintain her balance. Only then did Natalie speak, her voice as flat as her expression and with an air of professionalism about it, "At ease. I believe you have been briefed on the situation?"

Twilight stared at Natalie in what could only be described as a state of wide-eyed awe as the assembled soldiers dropped claw, hoof and wing at her command. Sweet merciful Godcat, she had to admit that Natalie was one-hundred and ten percent the part of a lieutenant-general right now, and every bit as serious as they came.

"Barely briefed, actually. Permission to speak?" Nathan piped up. Natalie turned to him quick as a whip, eyes narrowing slightly before she gave a nod. "The newest recruit did not elaborate much, if anything at all." Natalie's gaze flicked to Katie right then, and she gave a shaky nod of confirmation. She turned back to Nathan, silently asking him something with her gaze alone. He was happy to elaborate, "I quote, 'suspect activity and dead bodies.'"

Natalie donned a very small, very tight frown. "Anything regarding the events of last night?" she asked, her voice slightly clipped. At this, Nathan nodded.

"Ragnarok, a foal with a baby, an old geezer… and the trees down below engaging in violence," Nathan answered. Natalie nodded back and her frown faded, evidently satisfied with what he relayed. "All things considered, we have been informed of a few… other tidbits."

"Understood." Natalie saw Twilight's questioning glint in her eyes and turned to address her and her alone, "The giant swords and portal is what we call Ragnarok, by the way." She turned back to her troops and gave them the briefing that Lance had hoofed Katie in a clipped, professional tone, "What we're looking for is unusual activity, and evidence pointing either toward or against any wrongdoing Greenwood's villagers may have partaken in as of late. Investigate the cursed trees if you have to—how they form, how fast, what time of day and why. The only shred pointing to is the small pegasus colt now aboard this vessel."

Quicksilver's eyes widened. "Pegasus colt?" he repeated.

Natalie nodded. "Alexander's confirmed his little wings work and everything," she stated. "I personally checked on him before trotting up here. He's bona fide."

Quicksilver nodded and let his eyes narrow into a neutral gaze. He nodded for her to continue. "As it stands, Ashwood Forest is more of a wreck than the last time we had to go through it, partly because of Ragnarok and partly because Greenwood's ponies simply stopped giving two shits about it. If you find any unnatural upwellings of magma, you know why. Just fly over them, but do not go too high." She lifted a hoof and gestured to the clouds overhead. "The sky's currently filled to the brim, and volatile right now. Report when you find sufficient evidence, however you deem it. If need be, have NoLegs convert it to thaumic energy for easier transport. Oh, and if you find a winged elder with bound wings, bring her up too—a little birdie told me she'd died a week prior to our arrival, but honestly I wouldn't believe a word of it if Lance hadn't had his wings tied."

Jeremy spoke up, flinching when Natalie turned to him in the process, "Will that be all, ma'am?"

Natalie donned a small, dry smirk and she shook her head. "No, that's not all," she stated tersely. That caused chills to run down the spines of everyone else, save NoLegs as he turned to grin at them rather smugly. "You see…" She took a few steps closer and leaned towards the assembled troops, eyes narrowing dangerously low. Twilight shivered when, briefly, they flickered red. "Figuring out how the trees grow from ponies is going to take a little priority."

The gryphons broke out in a cold sweat when 'priority' left Natalie's mouth. "Wh-why?" they asked in unison.

"Because this is the third time a certain somepony sprouted leafy wings. If she panics a fourth time…" Natalie trailed off, letting her unspoken meaning hang in the air. "And Lance declared enough was enough. Once you find out how the trees… infect ponies, shall we say, one of our own is going under the knife to remove it, should it be a physical entity. If it's not a physical entity…"

The gryphons gulped in unison. "Is-is that all?" Quicksilver stammered, his feathers slowly puffing out as the implications sank in.

Natalie, yet again, shook her head, and rather grimly at that. "There is one last thing you guys need to take notice of." She lifted a hoof to gesture at Katie. "I'm sure you three have noticed by now, the wraith with us…" Again, she trailed off, letting the trio avert their gaze to Katie for a few seconds before turning their attention, once more, on their second-in-command. "She's going to be accompanying you. One of two new recruits, in fact. I've heard her ears are unnaturally sharp, so it is vital you keep her from getting concussed."

Twilight looked down at Natalie's shadow when she felt something soft and rounded brush up against the tip of her snout, accompanied by the unmistakeable sound of bone popping. Part of her blamed the wind, yet it still did not blow, so that left… Twilight's eyes widened as she saw that Natalie's shadow had gained what looked like a bit of rotundness so profound it seemed like she'd ingested a foal-sized swimming pool somehow and her stomach stretched to accommodate its shape. One blink was all it took for the shadow to revert to normal as Twilight tried to do a double-take.

She looked back at Natalie, and aside from her new getup, was the same as she was. Twilight could not simply dismiss the change as the dress itself, as it clung tightly to her body, for the most part. Perhaps the gryphons popped a joint, and perhaps Katie exercised a bit of her magic to produce the feeling of something just barely touching her in the process.

Perhaps being the key word. Twilight looked back at the soldiers. Unless they asked a question, none of them dared to move or channel mana as Natalie spoke to them, rattling off a list of assignments and things to do and to report back when all was said and done with a 'please and thank you' tone. For a second, just a second Natalie's coat turned stark white, the skulls adorning her sash oozed neon-red liquid from their orifices, and her mane whipped about as if in a living wind. Another blink, the skulls ceased to ooze liquid and she was once again cream-colored and her mane was still.

Twilight shivered, and lifted a hoof to rub one eye. Finally, a soldier took notice, and turned to her., but whoever it was had been something Twilight didn't notice as her other hoof rose to join the first. She fell to her haunches, fervently rubbing, hoping to both Faust and Godcat that she was just hallucinating like crazy right now.

She heard somepony trot to her, and felt a metal-clad hoof come to rest on her withers. She ceased rubbing to find Natalie staring at her, concern glimmering in her eyes. For just a moment, the hard and collected look melted. "You okay?" Natalie asked, her tone soft.

Twilight nodded uneasily. "Just… seeing things is all," she muttered.

"Did you sleep much last night?" Natalie pressed.

Twilight shook her head. "No, I've stayed up all night studying the books I brought over, and was woken up on short notice to use poison joke…" she answered.

Natalie nodded. "After this, I'll let you sleep in," she chirped, then dropped her hoof and whirled around to the troops before they could even think to ask what was going on. Once more, she marched to them in lockstep, eyes narrowing slightly in a withering glare. "Line up, single file, legs straight and wings fanned," she stated in a calm tone with a distinct authoritative note to it. At once, the gryphons and Katie shifted into single file and then went rigid, wings fanning out in seconds. Nathan, Jeremy, and Quicksilver spread theirs at the same time, though Katie was a millisecond late. Legs straightened until they were stiff as planks of wood. Natalie turned to Katie, who tried her best to keep her orbs locked dead forward.

Then, Natalie's gaze flicked to assess the rest of the troops. NoLegs went to clamber on Nathan's back, making his spear vanish in a flare of light. "Do I make myself clear?" she pressed.

The troops, that time with NoLegs included, gave a salute. "Yes, ma'am," they said in unison, in tandem with a meow.

Natalie gave a wan smile at that. "Excellent," she replied tersely, then turned to face the sky. Her horn glowed, her aura lancing out to an expanse above the airship. Meager ribbons at first, her magic formed a perimeter and trailed down to encompass the vessel, and drifted rather lazily compared to Matt's magic when he cast Ragnarok the night before. In fact, this magic didn't seem bothered at all, as though its owner did not sense a need of urgency. It wasn't until an elaborate web, criss-crossing over itself had been formed that crystal shards, tinted red, started growing like weeds.

Slowly, gradually, a shield formed over the airship. Meticulously, delicately, it formed between the filaments almost like a well-cared for plant would for its tender. "Twilight," Natalie said tersely as the barrier took on a dome-like shape made seemingly of crystalline honeycombs.

"Yeah?" Twilight asked. Already, she could hear the boom of thunder, strong enough to very briefly rattle the ship.

"You may want to set up that illusion now…" Natalie trailed off once the shield completed itself. The ectoplasms started throwing their bolts at the shield, but it held stubbornly, and more effectively at that; the honeycomb formation caused the bolts to dance entirely around the airship when they struck. Twilight was not sure if it was the angle at which the bolts struck, or if perhaps it was effectively too large to be hit in any other manner.

"How is the lightning doing that?" Twilight asked as she started letting her horn glow, focusing on the troops that were assembled.

"Oh, Lance gave me that weather control book he borrowed, and I did a bit of scrounging for similar books at the Crystal Empire… I found that if I amplify my shield with negatively-charged particles, the lightning will do this," Natalie answered with a shrug of indifference. "Of course, it doesn't keep the lightning from striking it at all, and there's plenty of positively-charged particles to go around…" She smirked at Twilight. "You guys have your weather down to a science."

"That's what you guys get for relying more on magic-fueled machines…" Twilight muttered as her aura lanced out to embrace the soldiers, first coating them in lavender before it faded and, with it, they seemingly melted away to leave transparant pools of liquid in the shape of their silhouettes.

"The proper term is magitek, for your information," Natalie snorted, keeping her gaze focused on her shield even as she rolled her eyes. "Flaming hypocrite," she muttered under her breath in so low a whisper Twilight didn't hear it.

The soldiers took off, jumping over the railing of the deck, though not before Twilight trotted to said railing to watch them on their way down. She tagged all five with a bit of lavender on the ends of their tails, so small she doubted the ectoplasms could see it. All except Katie descended with the grace of expert fliers; predators well within their element, whose wings, magic and tail moved and flicked with precision timing. Katie's wings buzzed, though more as a form of cruise control than anything else. She kept all four legs tucked in close to her body, further wrapping them with her insanely long tongue and freezing herself partially to keep the horseshoes from slipping away. The ice she made pulsed with a blue glow for a second, before Twilight's spell spread to it and rendered it invisible as well.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Twilight asked, frowning as she spotted a few cursed trees moving about here and there, congregating around the upwellings of magma.

"I'm positive," Natalie answered, frowning when Twilight turned to her with a skeptical brow raised. "They can take care of themselves, and all of them can fly. If things get really bad, NoLegs can teleport them out of immediate danger. It's not like Matt's gonna cast Ragnarok again; that spell usually drains him so badly the most he can manage is telepathy for two whole days after."

"Whatever you say." Twilight heaved a sigh as her eyes trailed to Natalie's shadow again, and nothing seemed different about it. Idly, she entertained the notion that, if something was truly off about her, than Natalie may have caught on and started putting on a facade of normalcy to deflect suspicion.

Yet that was presently doing her no favors whatsoever. Twilight had already seen Lance's wings before she undid their bindings, Matt's true self, and Anna very nearly becoming one with nature in the most literal sense possible. Given these skeletons, she wagered that whatever Natalie was hiding, if she was indeed hiding something, would be no less surprising than those secrets of her compatriots. Which begged the question: why did her eyes briefly flicker red?

Chapter LXXV- Miasmic Embers

The second expedition party landed smoothly, without incident… save for Katie, who once again found herself meeting up face-first with a loose patch of soil that had a felled tree laying askew next to it. The momentum only aided her in getting buried up to her croup, though the dirt was loose enough for her wings to stick out without any injury to their delicate frames. NoLegs meowed in frustration and waved his tail before Katie was magically yanked out of the dirt by her tail, and his eyes narrowed when he found half her body was still frozen solid.

It took a few minutes after that, longer than usual, for the ice to thaw as dirt clung to it like it had been glued on upon impact. Once that had been done, Katie stretched her legs in the magical grip and retracted her tongue and turned to NoLegs. "Thanks a bunch," she chirped sincerely, before he nodded and released his magical hold on her to let her drop back to the ground again. Katie landed on all fours clumsily, but quickly got her bearings together and made sure to back away from the loose soil onto sturdier ground.

NoLegs then magically conjured a triad of coats, each with holes for wings to slide through. All three were adorned with a small medal or two on the left breast and paired with an army helmet adorned with a crest of a lion and an eagle circling one another, one pouncing from above and the other swooping down low with wings flared wide. Both front paws and talons were locked together, perhaps in a dance of some sort. The troops hastily got dressed, making sure the coats were on just right and that their helmets would not slide off anytime soon.

Once they finished adjusting their outfits, NoLegs conjured a set of spears and gave them to the soldiers, who readily took them in their claws. Finally, he himself landed on the ground and conjured a pony-sized construct a few paces away from the quartet, one stationed on metallic wheels secured in a cage-frame brace and carved of wood. In fact, it was a literal wooden horse with googly eyes tacked on the face where eyes would normally be, with what seemed like a metallic cornucopia with a hole on its slim end that was tied loosely around its neck. The horse came complete with special doors with tiny knobs built into the stomach and barrel.

On its wooden muzzle was a set of tacks, intricately decorated with gold, brass, silver, and a touch of platinum with fine leather-woven straps that gave the impression that such a garment was only something a complete whorse would wear. These tactfully garish tacks were connected to a similarly-crafted harness with reins and adorned with a fine leather and silken saddle on its back that was a little on the plump side. NoLegs trudged to the wooden horse and jumped on its saddle with a pleased mew as he sank slightly in it when it hugged his bottom, turning to the troops who turned to him.

Katie canted her head at the anomaly. "Where'd you get that toy?" she asked. "Can I have one?"

NoLegs waved his tail and answered telepathically, "You have to be small like me, and to obtain the rank of Colonel before you can get one of these."

Katie nodded, staring at the wooden horse with her orbs gleaming in wonder, amusement, and a slight sense of awe over the fact that NoLegs had that particular toy tucked away until just now. She started pondering over how he was able to carry such a thing in his thaumic energy, before she turned to Nathan to find him and the other two gryphons tucking their spears tightly beneath their wings. She snickered at the choice of facial decoration the faux beast had, silently admitting that the googly eyes made it all the more ridiculous.

NoLegs telepathically chortled, knowing full well the look he was getting from those small and beady orbs. His lips twitched up in a toothy, knowing grin. His magic seized the reins and tugged, making sure both that and the tacks were secured tight, before using his tail to beckon Katie over with a few flicks in a 'come hither' gesture. Katie cantered over to look at the wooden beast more closely, circling its wheeled hooves a few times to observe it from every ground-bound angle. Her wings beat once she ceased circling, and she ascended up to the false muzzle before swooping in a quarter-circle to stare Nolegs in the eye. "Yes?" she asked, crossing her forelegs.

NoLegs thumped his tail against the saddle, and scooted to its front to make some room. Perplexed, and tilting her head, Katie flew and landed on the saddle barrel-first, finding it made of leather stuffed to the brim with what felt like water that displaced slightly to hug her body. "Yikes," she exclaimed, flying right back up and looking down at the saddle as the wrinkles she left simply smoothed themselves out with no magical assistance whatsoever. "The hell did you do to get the saddle like that?"

NoLegs turned and sent her a coy, smug grin of shit-eating satisfaction. Katie's brow furrowed when he failed to answer, but ultimately she just shrugged her shoulders and flew over to the gryphons. "So… where's the shrine?" she asked. "The longer we dally, the worse things'll get and the harder they'll be to fix, if indeed we can fix things around here at all."

Nathan and Jeremy shared a glance, while Quicksilver simply nodded in understanding. They eventually fluffed their wings momentarily and swished their tails in unison. "Can you read ancient alicorn?" Quicksilver asked.

Katie rapidly shook her head to ensure her ears were working right. "Come again?"

"Can you read ancient alicorn?" Quicksilver repeated in a clipped voice, mired by the slightest tinge of exasperation.

Katie contemplated the question for a few seconds. It did not take long for her to grimly shake her head. "Only Swarm, but not a lot of it," she confirmed. "Never got past the third year of mandatory learning." Her legs sagged. "Sometimes it fucking sucks being a nymph, especially when I've been stuck this way for Godcat knows how long now."

Four pairs of brows rose in that instant, their owners staring at Katie with such incredulity it almost passed off as legitimate bemusement. Silence hung in the air for a full minute on end before Nathan spoke in a sibilant hiss, "... you're a nymph. You've been a nymph for some time..." Katie nodded, which only garnered three talons rising up and smacking into beaks in that moment with enough force to cause the resultant sound to echo a few meters into the surrounding Ashwood.

NoLegs telepathically grumbled as his tail met with his muzzle a second later, "That sure explains a fucking lot."

Nathan was the first to part claw from face, and he sighed in resignation. "Is the general aware of this?" he asked slowly.

Katie nodded. "I told him before he sent me to the deck. He just glared at something past me and mumbled about stupidity and surprise, but still went with his decision," she answered earnestly. "Though I think he's not going to lay off the assignments anytime soon, since I already proved myself to him."

Nathan sighed ruefully. "First Windwood, now you," he grumbled indignantly. He shared a very concerned look with Nathan and Jeremy. "When is he going to go off the deep end again?"

"Again?" Katie echoed, orbs widening.

Nathan turned back to her and nodded solemnly. "He went… very utterly fucking insane once. Before Starcovert and Bladerune set him straight and entered the military," he stated, choosing to stop himself there with a shudder wracking his body so much the spear his wing cradled rattled as if it threatened to abandon ship.

Katie's orbs shrank in alarm. Lance was nutty once? That was something very troubling indeed, more so than the revelation of Anna being a potential host of parasitic organisms. Although, she gave it some thought and sagged a little more when she realized one such as he would have to be a little nutty to indulge in the practice of foal and teenage soldiers. Especially undead and emotionally-fraught ones at that, Faust forbid. The more she pondered about it, the more she started believing him to be some sort of crazy-magnet given legs and wings and the job of a flipping general on top of that.

"Just… l-let's get to the… M-Mighty Oak, alright? This is a lot to t-take in," Katie muttered, her voice fraught with worry to the point it sounded like a plea.

"You heard the newbie," Jeremy piped up, turning tail and marching northwestward. Nathan and Quicksilver grumbled, but turned to fall in step behind Jeremy. Katie got in line behind them, choosing to stay airborne in the event that there was more loose soil ahead. NoLegs used his magic to seize the reins and trundle his ride behind them with a few tugs, using momentum to get the wheels turning as they started on their way to the Mighty Oak's shrine.

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Roughly three hours passed after their initial departure from their landing point, and the storm clouds overhead started darkening before it was even noon. Winding trails, some with snuffed torches and others without torches at all, led the party on a twisting trail of sorts, with no end in sight as far as their intended goal was concerned. Ashwood itself seemed to darken as well, with the few upright cursed trees eyeing them with their bark starting to rot on them, cracking in places and riddled with fungus. This wound up distorting their already-grotesque features to a degree that Katie found nauseating whenever she so much as spared a glance to said trees in question.

The trees, in turn, seemed to be watching them so intently they started giving off a predatory vibe. Aside from buzzing wings, claws, paws, and wheels crunching on fallen leaves and twigs, and the occasional creak of movement from the trees as they continued to eye them suspiciously, Ashwood was unnaturally quiet for a forest that was so alive. One so alive with things only a mental patient who'd read too many horror stories could dream about, or perhaps the combined forces of whatever broke the barrier.

Katie started shivering as her stomach scrunched and twisted in perfect tandem with every snapping twig, every broken leaf, almost as though her body itself started falling into the rhythm of what little noise she could catch and protesting simultaneously. A sense that she was getting closer, at long last, to uncovering the Wise Guy behind the broken barrier started to sink in, but with it came a feeling of dread. Who or what was strong enough to pull such a feat off, and in such a way the inhabitants of both planets could see it in all its grandeur? She was thankful she played dead near Frostbite, recalling seeing the shield fall down from the Valkyrie's interior, but not before blinding white encompassed it.

And furthermore, she started to entertain the notion that the culprit to that incident may well be linked to the current shitshow that was the trees watching her and her group pass through with gazes so judgemental it felt as if they'd laid her soul bare for the briefest of moments. If so… then why would they do either of those things?

Eventually, a tree whispered a single word in her ear as she hovered past, with its rotting breath and a soft exhale that could not have been mistaken for the wind, "Pestilence…" The word snapped Katie out of her reverie, and she halted before turning to the tree quick as a whip.

"What?" Katie hissed, looking at the tree expectantly. It gave no answer, merely opting to stare into her orbs with its own black abysses. She could've sworn she saw swollen milky eyes with nigh-featureless irises and pupils within those recesses, only visible thanks to the soft azure light her own eyes gave off. Its rotting breath grew stronger and more acrid as the two stared off, but Katie did not balk in the slightest; the tree had spoken, and she wanted it to repeat what it said on the off-chance her ears had deceived her.

The tree twisted its head upside-down, the bark peeling away in places to reveal pulsating, rotting flesh riddled with boils and fungus. It leaned closer to her, and the others stopped and huddled behind her as its neck stretched with a sickening series of cracks. Its muzzle began twitching erratically, and as it drew closer Katie's orbs shrank as she realized the bark lining it formed hellish teeth rivaling her own. It opened wide, preparing to lunge, but fell short as Katie darted back, well out of range.

Katie took point and flew on ahead, and nobody hesitated to follow after her. She went slow and low to avoid crashing into things as well as the ectoplasms' attention, hooves tucked close and tense. Her ears sprang up and began swiveling, straining to catch anything her compatriots weren't making. Tension started hanging in the air, almost as smothering to her as the clouds were to the sky overhead. It took a good ten minutes after the tree tried biting her face off before they reached a clearing, one lined with torches that were oddly lit with a conspicuous and sickly blue set of flames.

Landing on the ground, she turned her head to Nathan without moving the rest of her body. "Can we take a break here?" she asked sincerely, her voice strained. "Because my wings are starting to ache." She turned to the closest torch and added, "And I am pretty sure flames aren't supposed to be all blue."

Nathan turned to the torch in question and reared up on his paws before he marched to it upright, dislodging his spear from his wing and clutching it in his talons. Edging closer, he peered at the bowl of the torch, and saw a multitude of broken rings with runes carved into them, as well as a few pony skulls so scorched he couldn't tell what was outside and what was inside. The rings sported a dark rock-like substance within their middles that was only visible thanks to holes on the outside, which the engraved metal coated even as the fires licked them. He angled his spearhead into the blaze and started prodding at the mass until he found an intact horn-sized ring and hoisted it out, flames still clinging to it.

"Hrm… magic inhibitors…" Nathan paused, looking at the skulls again. He noticed a distinct lack of unicorn horns in the burning remains, and turned to the ring again.

"Magic inhibitors? How are they on fire, assuming that they're the fuel?" Katie asked, orbs going cross-eyed as she stared at the now-burning spearhead.

"There's a compound within the rings, coated by metal that is then carved with runes inside and out to allow the compound to absorb a unicorn's magic whenever they try to cast a spell. Sablestone, I'm guessing," Nathan answered, turning to Katie and thrusting his spear downward, sending the ring into the dirt where the flames weakened as dust flew from the impact. Impressively, the embers stubbornly lingered.

Katie turned to the ring, orbs still crossed. Her mental gears ground for a moment. "Sablestone… as in… what changeling royals used to use for their thrones?" she asked.

"One and the same, only harvested and used for a different purpose. The runes and the metal on which they're engraved, however, can only take so much magic, despite the sablestone being built to start absorbing all the magic of a pony who wears it—unicorn, earth, pegasus, it matters not. Too much magic, well… suffice to say that if a unicorn, for instance, overcharges… it results in a backlash that knocks the would-be caster out with quite a nasty shock without giving the sablestone time to absorb it, since it's only a very minute amount," Nathan muttered, turning to the ring with eyes narrowing. "I heard from Armin that he learned a hotel staff smuggled that exact type of ring into Equestria within two weeks of staying and investigating… for subduing anypony who spent the night."

"Hotel staff…" Katie's orbs went wide. So that was why Natalie and Anna couldn't bust themselves out of that mess. She trotted to the ring and stamped a metal-clad hoof on it, channeling mana to conjure ice. The temperature dropped, the flames on the torches weakened drastically and ice formed… before the blue flames coming from the ring engulfed it just as it began to form on the shoe. Hastily retracting her limb before she could torch herself, she watched as the embers flickered with a pop. "Seriously, why's it on fire?"

"Someone probably lit the rings on fire to expunge the magic they absorbed. But… that'll just make the sablestone useless once the fires die," Nathan sighed, shaking his head. "And judging by the blue flames… it seems these particular rings sponged up a lot of pegasus magic."

Katie turned to Nathan, brows raised high. "Does Lance use sablestone?" she asked.

Nathan shook his head. "Not much of a point to; sablestone doesn't affect changelings, we gryphons would simply take them off with our claws, and the only three unicorns in the force could do likewise with their hooves, provided they aren't in any way hogtied," he stated dismissively. "In short, it's moot."

Katie nodded, turning back to the line of torches. "Pegasus magic…" she muttered. "How would one apply tiny rings to somepony with pegasus magic?"

Nathan frowned and turned to the torches, using his spear to sift through the soot and skulls again. It took a bit of skull-turning, but with the effort he uncovered a hoof-sized ring that would, with a great deal of practice and pain on the recipient's behalf, fit onto a wing, or barring that a hoof. Nathan deftly used his spearhead to heft it out of the blaze, depositing it onto the ground next to its smaller companion. "Would that answer your question?" he asked. Katie nodded upon seeing the larger ring.

"The torches leading away from the crystal caverns had red flames…" Gears began turning in Katie's head as she made the utterance. She made a mental note to take a look-see at them later, and sent another cursory glance around the clearing. Aside from the blue flames adorning the torches, with that query having already been answered, she found nothing out of the ordinary. Turning to NoLegs, her mouth opened to ask him to do something, only to close when a blue glow emanated from his tail and spread outward to envelop the clearing. Turning back to said clearing, she watched as the glow rippled all around and faded within seconds.

Nothing turned up, even as the last vestiges of NoLegs's magic flickered and faded out of existence. The clouds above continued to darken, and Katie looked straight up at them before noticing a very slight fog formed from fine misty droplets clouding her sight a little. Yet she did not feel anything as miniscule as a grain of sand land on her chitinous hide. A faint hue of mana, just barely even there, pulsed so softly through the droplets Katie started to think she was hallucinating.

Then the drops began moving, ever so slightly, shifting about in various directions by the smallest millimeter possible. Her orbs widened once more, and she turned to NoLegs. "The hell did you do?" she queried.

NoLegs studied her closely, his little furry face hardening into a no-nonsense look. He waved his tail. "Do you see droplets?" he asked. Katie nodded fervently, and he broke out into a small smile. "You're seeing humidity… though it would seem you need magical assistance to do so."

Katie's brow rose higher, skeptically at that. "Why?" she asked tersely.

"It's vital for all the troops, if they have wings. It helps gauge whether the weather's going to turn for the worse or not," NoLegs answered, his smile fading. "I was required to get and perfect this spell in case we got a troop or two who couldn't see ion charges, heat, or humidity. Matt and Natalie can't see any of those, Lance can only see heat to an extent, but he has to spread his wings and channel his magic through them and then the air around himself for that to kick in, and Anna can only see ion charges… without magical aid, strangely enough."

Katie's orbs widened further at all that mumbo-jumbo. "Lance can see heat?"

NoLegs nodded. "Nowhere near as good as he used to, ever since his wings got clipped, and he also used to see humidity and charges. Now he can't see either at all, so only time's gonna tell if he'll stay crippled in that capacity. It's not likely to stay that way for long, given how his wings got repaired," he confirmed, looking to the sky with a hiss of displeasure. "And I can't see any of those things at all unless I cast the spell. We gotta seek shelter soon."

Katie's eyes narrowed and turned skyward again. The clouds simply stopped crackling lightning by now, and seemed blacker than ever. She could not even see the ectoplasms reclining within, though she guessed they were probably preparing to send a monsoon onto Ashwood. She turned to Nathan again. "Does pegasus magic being set aflame via rings attract the buggers?" she queried, lifting a hoof and gesturing sharply up for emphasis.

Nathan shook his head. "No… but it does not repel them, either." He flared his wings, and so did Quicksilver and Jeremy. "We must search for shelter… from above. But we cannot go too high."

Katie groaned, silently cursing Lance for throwing her in this mess and saying, "here, you work this shit out." Some general he was. She flared her wings, making a mental note to file a complaint once evidence-scrounging concluded, while seeing NoLegs make his wooden horse and the group's spears vanish in flashes of light before levitating himself in his magic. As one, the unit flew smoothly above the treeline, and circled the clearing once to gauge for any nearby shelters.

As luck would have it, there was no visible shelter to be had within a half-mile radius of the clearing. NoLegs led the way, backtracking the way they came and the others falling into a V-formation behind him. Sharp eyes and ears scanned the landscape and waited for the telltale creaking that would signal a moving tree respectively, and traveling by air was far easier and faster than trekking along the ground. Using the imprints they left in the ground with claws, paws, and the wheel-tracks of the wooden horse also made backtracking stupidly easy, though Katie could not help but wonder as she beat her wings and kept her ears peeled.

What had lit the torches? And how in the world did they get their grubby hooves… or whatever limbs they possed on sablestone magic inhibitors?

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Shelter, it turned out, was a mile away from where the group had initially landed, and it was the abandoned house on the furthest reaches of Greenwood's outskirts, in the opposite direction of their little venture no less. Everyone filed inside without complaint, though they flung out the broken glass shards before sitting down on the floor as thunder rumbled both sky and earth. An air of impatience held the lot in a vise-like grip as the first droplets of rain started to fall. Oddly, the pitter-patter of rain was accompanied by a constant, drumming thump-thump-thump a few minutes later.

Curious, Katie chanced a glance outside and she whimpered at the sight that greeted her. Hail was falling, each orb the size of the frogs of her hooves, hitting with just enough force to snap the smallest of branches clean off of their trees. "This is just like fucking Canterlot, except without pissy ponies throwing vases everywhere!" she squeaked, ears drooping so much their tips managed to sag past her cheekbones.

NoLegs rolled his eyes and simply flicked his tail. Within seconds, Katie was pulled a little further from the window by his magic. "Great, the big stupid ice balls are here to heckle us again," he telepathically seethed. "Looks like we'll be stuck here for the night."

Katie sighed, turning to NoLegs. "I noticed doors in your horse. Maybe we could use it for something," she stated.

NoLegs raised both brows and flicked his tail, making a motion similar to a claw scratching his temples. "What?" he telepathically queried.

"I dunno, getting into Greenwood or something. If nothing else, we could find evidence there," Katie retorted with a shrug of earnest. A sickening snap filled the air, and she turned to the window just in time to see a tree branch bigger than Twilight crash just outside, accompanied by a ball of hail the size of a cantaloupe that was itself cemented into the severed bark. "Okay, who the hell pissed off Godcat this time?"

"Well, if the hail gets that large, I'm afraid the little stunt you want to perform simply won't be possible. You're liable to have your head split open, for one thing," Quicksilver scoffed dismissively, lifting a talon and waving it about in a manner that suggested he was batting something away. "Any ice you could form in this weather would become very frail, very quickly. And it would break in mere moments."

Katie turned to the ball of hail outside, eyes narrowing. Her orbs trailed up to glance as much of her stub-horn as they were able. Then they started darting back and forth, stub-horn, giant ball of hail, back to stub-horn, and so forth, though this lasted for a few seconds. "Humidity…" she muttered. Recalling her ice-bath session in the Crystal Empire, however, dispelled that budding plan before she could even consider a phase two—were she to even conjure ice now and trot outside, all it would do was weigh her wings down or possibly worse. Then she also accounted for the clumps of hail and shook her head, deciding she didn't need to add another concussion to today's problems.

And, loathe as she was to acknowledge it, Quicksilver had a point. If the hail outside could snap tree branches bigger than she was, then NoLegs's snazzy wooden horse wouldn't stand a chance outside. She turned to NoLegs again, now seeing him waving his tail and spreading his magic over the abandoned house in which they took shelter. She held her breath for a moment, watching as his magic rippled through the bark and torn-up remnants of furniture, through the moss growing all over, even through the emptied dresser with the torn dress overlaid on top…

Another snap rent the air, and Katie turned to the door to find a tree branch landing outside the frame with a muddy squelch, sinking slightly upon impact. It was a branch no bigger than she was, and a few small pellets of hail got stuck in its frame. NoLegs spread his magic to it as well, before the aura faded from the area. Only when the blue glow died did two things happen, simultaneously at that.

First and foremost, the hail melted with a most unusual crackle, giving off a hideously green miasma-like aura as it did. This aura evaporated in a steam-like manner, but not before it tried to get into the house, only to be repelled when Katie fanned her wings and beat them with enough force to effectively blow it out. Second, as this miasma was repelled, a very curious thing happened with the moss; it withered, shriveled, died, and vanished in a puff of sickly green mana the exact same shade of the miasma in that order. This, in turn, revealed a very-well-hidden trap door with rusted hinges and a distinct lack of a knob resting just under the window itself.

All eyes turned to that trap door, and five brows rose in unison. Everyone moved from where they sat and trotted to the anomaly, circling it in a tight cluster. Nathan grappled for it first, reaching with a talon to try to wedge the digits between the frame and the door. Fumbling for a moment, he'd tried to lift the door… but it simply refused to budge. Jeremy and Quicksilver tried to do likewise, and they had no luck either. All three turned to the rusted hinges and hissed at it in unison.

NoLegs let his tail glow and tried working the door free with his magic, and that time he actually got it to budge and rattle against his grip. After a few tugs, it jostled and got stuck, moving no more. Katie facehoofed and planted herself onto the door, standing as tall and straight as she could. Channeling mana into her shoes, the air chilled again, and ice grew onto her legs and the door itself, though not enough to glue the door to its frame. That done, she buzzed as much as her wings were able, and though the door was stuck, it moved—slightly!—with a groan of protest.

After that, though, it remained fixed stubbornly in place. Nathan tried to jimmy his claws between door and frame again, but he fumbled and cursed, that time slipping with even less luck than before. After that, he turned to Katie as she tried to use her whole body to tug the door open again, before grabbing her by the withers and earning himself a startled hiss of displeasure. "Hey!" Katie shrieked in alarm, her wings snapping taut against her sides.

Before they could come to blows, NoLegs jumped on Katie's back and magically lifted Nathan's claws off of her withers. "Hold up," he telepathically said in a sharp, clipped tone. "If you're wanting to yank her off, you could tear her shoulders off and then she'll go bitching to Lance about it. I got a better idea." Magically, he grasped Katie and yanked her bodily, though the door still refused to budge. To be fair, so did Katie, now that she had effectively glued herself to it.

It only took a second for Katie to realize what NoLegs was trying to do, and started buzzing her wings again. With their efforts combined, the door budged… a lot less than they'd have liked. In fact, it barely moved at all. Nathan, Jeremy, and Quicksilver seized Katie in their talons again, though this time they flew above her to grapple for her barrel. With a few more tugs, the door opened and held for a moment before Katie was forcibly dislodged from it to let it fall and lean against the wall.

This revealed two things: a deep abyss with a tangle of roots poking out of the soil, and a nail with a hook screwed into the door's underside holding up a worn picture frame by a meager, fraying thread of yarn wrapped around that hook. In that frame, once the group re-assembled and melted the ice to better look at it, they found a picture holding a small family of four, two fillies in front and two adults behind with a foreleg and a limb that didn't end in a hoof wrapped around the other. The scene the picture was taken in was relatively normal; the family standing outside a well-maintained tree-house in far better shape than the one the group currently stood in, with rays of sunlight filtering in through the leaves above that made them seem to glow.

The adults wore small smiles on their faces, and the two fillies had huge grins. The expressions weren't what caught Nathan's eyes, however, nor was it the fact that one of the adults had talons and a beak while the other had a pony's face and a unicorn's horn. No, it was the fillies themselves. Both had tan-beige coats and green manes, both sported a horn, though only one had golden baubles in her mane. The other let her mane flow freely, and was holding a small, stuffed, snow-white teddy with a gold ribbon in her brown talons. She had green-and-brown-tan wings spread behind her, with one of those wings draping the unicorn next to her.

All five sets of eyes widened and, slowly, the troops shared glances. "Are those fillies… who I think they are?" Katie asked hesitantly. She saw a lump move down Jeremy's throat as he gulped, before he slowly gave a nod. She noticed the errant third horn and did a double-take, shaking her head rapidly and even conking herself on the side of her head with a hoof.

The picture did not change. Katie slowly turned back to the abyss before her hooves, noticing the roots were sparse and folded into the soil in such a way it seemed almost… eerily inviting. She turned back to the picture frame and lifted a hoof to it, using her claws to tenderly flip it over without dislodging it. The picture frame's backside beheld nothing except warped wood.

NoLegs magically grabbed the picture and made it vanish in a flash of light, though not before taking it off the hook. "Just what is going on here?" he telepathically asked. "Why does Sarah have a horn in this photo? She's never had a horn that we've seen on her head, nor a scar where one would be, for that matter!"

Katie shrugged, turning to the abyss. "I don't know… maybe it's an error on behalf of whoever took the picture, or somepony went and somehow spliced the damn thing in there… but I get the feeling this little hidey-hole may have our answers," she muttered. NoLegs sighed and jumped on her back, his tail giving off a soft light that made her shoes vanish, prior to brightening just enough to rival the light of a lit candle. As one, they jumped down the hole, followed by the gryphons who went single file after them, the whole lot unaware of just what was waiting below for them to find.

Something was down there, and it was going to answer a few questions that the troops hadn't asked, and a few pressing ones that were on their minds in that moment.

Chapter LXXVI- Pirouetting in Ashes

The descent down the tunnel was long and constricting in spite of the roots curling inward. It was so constricting, in fact, that the gryphons had to resort to holding the soily walls with claws and paws, keeping their wings folded as they shimmied down within mere seconds of the expedition. Katie had to do likewise, but kept her tail tucked between her rear legs and her tongue wrapped around her wings so they wouldn't snag. NoLegs was content to cling to the back of her neck, producing his light and keeping an eye out for any sort of floor that would let them know it'd be safe to go back to all fours. To say this was awkward was an understatement; the tunnel got this narrow only within the first five feet or so of the dive.

A good twenty minutes passed, the tunnel seemingly continuing down without respite, and slowly it got tighter and tighter. Limbs had to be bent to accommodate, cramping in seconds. If asked how to describe this particular experience, the gryphons would have described it as excruciating, whilst Katie and NoLegs would merely say it was a wee crammed at worst. The only saving grace was that the errant roots did not snag on hats, coats, nor wings as they pressed onward so slowly a snail could have crawled past them without the whole lot even noticing.

Fortunately, the crawl only lasted about forty feet or so when Katie caught sight of a solid floor thanks to NoLegs' magic. She hopped down, stumbled for a second or two when her hooves made impact, righted herself and whirled around before finding a tunnel with a few roots jutting from its ceiling. Unlike the crawlspace, this new path was wide enough the gryphons could form two lines shoulder-to-shoulder with ample room to stretch wings and claws, though she noted she couldn't see its floor immediately.

Debris fell from the ceiling when she noticed the tunnel. Katie didn't even need to look up to see that the other three bozos were fast catching up; the scraping of claws and the falling dirt told her all she needed to know. So she trotted to the tunnel, finding immediately that it was a steeper but more manageable plod thanks to the light. Before she could set hoof into it, three thuds filled the underground hidey-hole in rapid succession, each accompanied by a pained grunt that followed mere milliseconds between. She turned to her accomplices, finding them all in one heap on the floor.

It took them twenty whole minutes before they could get on their feet and pop any aching bones before they even acknowledged that she was already steps ahead of them, let alone that there was a tunnel behind her. "Aren't you lot supposed to be big and tough?" she hissed in disapproval.

Nathan's brow furrowed. "Well excuse us, Little Miss Beady Eyes, but none of us had anticipated that the bloody hole would be this tight," he hissed back.

Katie's eyes narrowed dangerously low. "That's what Matt said," she snarked. This garnered a series of talons meeting faces, all three happening simultaneously and in pairs. She turned to the tunnel and began to trot ahead of them, careful to angle her steps downward to avoid going on another unwarranted tumble. Forming ice as she went helped a lot, as it kept her posture rigid and her hooves from slipping, and had the added bonus of mana pulsing that her new cohorts could see straight away. Begrudgingly, they trundled after her in single file, snarling low the moment their claws caught the steep decline down.

At least this tunnel was more hospitable as far as actually traversing it was concerned. Whereas it took several minutes to crawl down the underground chimney and another few minutes to get the bearings together, it only took under three to reach a small, nigh-empty room that did not have any more tunnels. Within was the only thing in this room marking the tunnel's end held; two emaciated corpses, lying against the wall with barrels facing out and limbs and heads slumped uselessly. Bizarrely, as NoLegs cast his light onto them, they did not show any signs of rotting, nor of injury, yet blood had indeed stained their coats regardless. The blood was silverish where it shimmered under the glow, and otherwise black with age and still as though the moon itself had drained color from the stains with its light.

Alarm bells instantly went off in Katie's head as she took a long, hard look at the two. One was a hippogryph mare whose wings weren't bound in any capacity whatsoever, with a tanish coat, deep brown talons, and primaries matching in color. The only reason she could even ascertain the hippogryph's gender was because her rear legs had been splayed dubiously wide, as were those of her companion's. Said hippogryph's companionship was a unicorn stallion with a tousled, dirtied green mane, a matching short beard and mustache, and an off-white coat. Hesitantly approaching the two, she twisted her head vertically to look at their faces as she came closer, and leaned toward their barrels as she passed their rear knees, careful to avoid slicing them with her shoes on accident.

Her breath caught as she saw wide open, black abysses staring back with so vacant a gaze it felt as though they pierced right through her, as well as a beak lined with sharp and yellowed teeth and some very abnormal growths of a bulbous nature sprouting on the stallion's throat. Their faces had paled considerably, though doing so for how long she didn't know. Dried, thick rivulets of yet more blackened blood had caked both beak and muzzle rather copiously, and streaked fur and feathers from the black canvases that were seemingly so empty. Through the blood, she spotted pale gums and tongues, still glistening in the light with very meager traces of saliva.

She backed off nimbly and righted her head, gazing at the two warily. An air of wrongness began to emanate from the duo, and her gut twisted the moment it registered that something was very amiss. Silence held for a full minute, jaws shifting in an attempt to start articulating something, but the thoughts they wanted to convey simply refused to apply themselves to their tongues. NoLegs procured the photograph in a flash of light, and everyone glanced to and fro between it and the corpses that lay before them.

The coat and mane colors, or feather colors in case of the hippogryph, were a perfect match. Their features, slightly less so.

Finally, someone spoke as the picture vanished in another flare of light. "It's the stallion and gryph from the picture…" Jeremy muttered, to much nodding from the rest of the group.

"What should we do with them?" Nathan asked, looking at the two with a small, solemn frown on his beak. "We can't just tell…"

"Leave them," Katie interrupted with a sibilant hiss. "If possible, I'd like to avoid disturbing their nap." Turning to Quicksilver, she found him and the other two looking at her with narrowed eyes. "Seriously, did you guys not learn what happened when I was dragged in your tank? It's that all over again, except we're breaking and entering."

Quicksilver took a moment to weigh Katie's words before trotting around her to inspect the faces of the cadavers. What he saw made him back off after mere seconds. He turned to the others and sighed tiredly. "But still… we have to bring them…" he muttered.

Katie shook her head at the notion, and went on to object it again, "No. Something's gone wrong with them if they're playing possum. I can't exactly put my hoof on it… but something in my gut tells me 'don't do it.' Hell, if they wake up, they may not want to come with quietly, either." Nervously fidgeting as she caught sight of an off-white ear twitching, she added with tact, "I don't know how they're going to react to surprise visitors, let alone ones they don't know all that well. Personally, I'm not taking any chances with these guys." Backing up into the tunnel again, she finished off with, "Maybe they're why Anna and Sarah don't want to—"

Katie was preemptively cut off when the stallion jerked his head up suddenly, turning to look at her so fast his neck cracked with the motion. Quicksilver leapt back to the group at the sound and spun to see that the pony had moved. Only then did orbs alight in his abysses, twin spheres of a dulled green. His mouth shifted, popping and squelching with the effort, causing black blood to dribble from his jaws and splatter onto his jutting ribcage. The knot in Katie's stomach twisted as she saw more welling up in the back of his throat. It took him several seconds to speak, and it was with a watery, gurgling voice that only increased the dribble tenfold and sent bloodied spittle everywhere, "Where… are my foals?"

Katie winced, legs stiffening. She decided to play dumb, though that only made her gut twist further as she lied through her teeth, "I-I don't know who you're talking about."

"You… know their names…" the stallion retorted, eyes narrowing coldly. "You spoke their names… knowing I was attentive… where are they?"

"I only met them once, and way up north! I don't know where they've gone since!" Katie exclaimed, using every last ounce of willpower to keep her legs from shaking before she could process what she'd just uttered. For but a moment, the undead stallion stared at her, mouth closing and lips contorting, weighing her words. His orbs wavered and flickered, almost dimming entirely. For a moment, she wanted to backpedal, but her gut twisted as if knowing whatever damage she'd delivered was perhaps already done.

"Up… north?" the stallion echoed.

Katie nodded, legs buckling slightly as her stomach started to shoot pain through her nerves in protest. "I… it was snowing so much… one minute, they were there… and the next they were gone," she replied, her voice weakening with each word she uttered. "I couldn't even… s-see their tracks… and thus, n-nor could I follow them."

"Where?" the stallion pressed.

"A-around…" For a moment, Katie had to temporarily swallow, her mouth drying out. It did no good, even in the damp underground air. "F-Frostbite… Haven…" she finished uneasily.

Silence held for a long moment that felt as if days had passed them by, and both wraiths held even gazes, though one was fast faltering. Yet that moment lasted only mere seconds before the stallion convulsed, chest heaving and stomach contracting as though he'd been kicked. Only then did he speak again, this time with his head slumping once more and his tone turning solemn, "If you find them again… tell them to come visit… if they're even still alive… otherwise, please leave us to rot here..."

The troops exchanged looks and turned back to him, seeing a fresh river of blood running down his muzzle from one of his eyes. It crept down his bridge, trailed past lips, and leapt off his chin in a steady stream of drops that splattered against his barrel, further staining his coat in ugly black that clashed harshly with his off-white. Katie crept toward him, canting her head, uttering weakly, "They'll come back…"

"No they won't… they're…" the stallion trailed off, chest still heaving in an effort to repress what Katie could only guess were budding sobs. "I already… failed them once…"

An ache surged across every nerve and fiber in Katie's body at those words. She still tried to soothe him, yet her voice only weakened further, "But that doesn't stop them from loving you. They'll come back someday…"

The stallion turned to Katie, eyes narrowing and a scowl forming on his face. He shouted, "Maybe so, but this failure was not something so minor as ignoring a scraped knee! It was something far worse than that!" His head dropped again, and he muttered in a low voice, "All I have left of them… is our last photo together… something that my so-called friends hadn't taken from me and my beloved..." Katie's jaw quivered, and she made to interject, but the stallion cut her off with a final request, "Please… just leave me… if you find them again, and alive..." His ears fell back against his head as he finished in a soft whisper, "tell them I'm sorry… that I failed them as a father…"

Katie's orbs shrank, and the ache darted across her nerves again. Once more she tried, "But if they're still alive, then perhaps they forgive you for that failure!" Only that time, she got no response from him. She turned to the hippogryph who had yet to move, but the only sign of lingering life that she had was a fresh tear of blood weaving through her feathers, staining them in its wake.

"She's right. It doesn't stop the foals you had from loving you, even in death," Quicksilver chipped in, yet his utterance did not get a response from the stallion either. They remained for a few minutes, yet the sod simply ceased to acknowledge them any longer. He went up to Katie and put a claw on her withers. "Let's… go," he muttered uneasily. "You were right. Extraction will not be possible with these two."

Katie turned to Quicksilver, orbs tiny and glinting in pleading, "B-but—"

Quicksilver grimly shook his head. "They… want to be alone. We must respect their wish," he rebuked in a slightly saddened tone.

"But… can we at least…" Katie mouthed her next words to avoid agitating the unicorn any further, "'tell Anna and Sarah he's cooped up here and is miserable because of it?'" Quicksilver nodded solemnly, giving the undead duo one last glance.

Slowly, they trotted back to the group and turned tail with them before all trudged out of the tunnel, everyone wearing uneasy frowns and slanted brows. Not a word was spoken amongst them as they shimmied back up the underground chimney without complaint, as the return trip to the house's wrecked singular room was easier than leaving it.

As they departed, Katie could've sworn she heard a choked, gurgling sob coming from below, one that caused her to wince with a small and pained grunt. From who, she had no intention of finding out, for it made her doubt her decision to outright lie to... to someone who merely wanted to see a pair of siblings he knew. And if he, truly, was who she thought and he said he was...

She paused half-way when she heard the crack of thunder, followed by a soft crackle that grew as she neared the tunnel's trap-door entrance. The tunnel began to widen, just enough that Katie could flare her wings and fly out, but she dared not do so. She stopped five feet from the entrance for mere seconds, listening to the soft crackling. It was accentuated with a few pops, and it steadily grew louder with an unnatural hiss. If that sound was what she thought it meant, then…

NoLegs waved his tail and grasped her and the gryphons in his magic, before they vanished in a flare of light and reappeared outside the house, stuck in mid-crawl position at first until they registered that they were now back in Ashwood before righting themselves and reverting to all fours. The moment they did, they turned to the house they'd just left and flared their wings in wide-eyed shock.

The house had caught fire, and so did several trees they could see in the distance, with every top burning and the flames snaking their way down. Katie was the first to start flapping madly. "Whelp, there goes that plan! I am not sticking around to become a fried insect!" she exclaimed, starting her climb up to avoid becoming crispy. The gryphons followed suit, as NoLegs cast his magic on himself and the lot to render them invisible.

As they flew above the treeline, the fires below spread rapidly as lightning struck at the trees with a maddened fervor. Some struck Greenwood's reformed barrier to little avail, bouncing around it like it had Natalie's shield, only to then torch trees directly outside of it.

The ectoplasms, it seemed, made their choice for the group. Greenwood was going to become a small, safe bastion in a forest they decided to burn—and the possible evidence trapped therein with it. That was assuming, of course, that Greenwood could even survive the blaze with just its dinky little shield, which the group seriously doubted. Katie spared one final glance at the now-smouldering house, her heart sinking as she realized she could still hear that strangled sob coming from far below, on top of seeing some of the roots move with a sickly green pulse of mana. Some part of her wanted to go down and tell them the truth, but as the flames spread to consume the door and then collapse its frame, she realized she'd already made her choice.

And so did that stallion, for that matter. The nymph within her mind, once locked but now springing free, hoped he and the gryph made it out of the blaze, but she had her doubts. There was no telling how he'd have reacted to the news of Anna being a military foal, after all, let alone the knowledge of their cutie marks if he'd ever received it…

There was also no telling, right then, whether or not she'd condemned him to spend eternity in that tomb, its top half starting to crumple in the inferno as she and her group climbed higher into the sky, without ever knowing what became of his foals. It somehow felt wrong to take the only memorabilia he had left of them, when for all he knew, that was the last thing he'd had of much happier times… of when his family was together, and seemingly carefree. It was as if that photo was, somehow, calling them back… only to have that hope ripped away by a little white lie that bore a single granule of truth which did not soothe that budding ache that gave her heart actual cause to pause its rhythmic beating. And her attempts to backtrack and soothe him backfired…

NoLegs telepathically muttered in a somber tone, "You tried… but even that wasn't enough… and, given his mental state, he'd have doubted the truth had you told it to him anyway..."

None of that sat right with her, but she chose to keep those reservations to herself. Her stomach only twisted further, as though chiding her for such a rash decision, one that may well be a one-way ticket to a possible reprimand… or worse from her new superiors. All Katie could do was nod in agreement with NoLegs' statement.

The fires only ensured that none would have the choice to help that stallion and hippogryph now. The only option Katie had left was to face the music...

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"You said what to that wraith?!" Katie winced at the sheer volume of the shout, which had reached ear-piercing levels within seconds. Anna and Sarah were both in front of her, the latter having shouted as she was fast turning a shade of purple and the former standing there, staring with a shaking jaw and color all but slowly draining from her face. The next thing anyone knew, Sarah had lunged, seized Katie by the neck, and hoisted her up to connect solidly with the wall of one of the lounges. Around them, Delta Unit stood by, watching and sharing glances, yet noling dared to take a step forward to diffuse the situation. NoLegs was also present, sitting on the couch and watching the scene with interest.

"I-I said... " Katie could not utter another word as Sarah parted her from the wall before slamming her right back onto it. She gasped when claws pierced the flesh of her neck, drawing viridian blood. Sarah brought her muzzle close, teeth bared and eyes narrowed to tiny slits. Katie averted her orbs, which only caused the grip on her neck to tighten.

"What. Did. He. Say?!" Sarah hissed, shaking with the barest hint of restraint. "If you don't tell me what he said within the next two seconds, I'll rip your head off your shoulders!" Her grip tightened still, and all that could come out of Katie's mouth was a strangled gurgle. When she failed to answer, she was thrust to the wall yet again, and Sarah's voice only rose with the next words she spoke, "You useless sack of shit! Why didn't you help him when you had the chance?!"

The orbs turned to Anna, pleadingly, as slowly her throat was crushed in the murderous grip of a gryph who demanded answers. A blue aura, briefly, gripped Anna's head and went away just as fast. Katie's orbs flicked to NoLegs to see his tail cease glowing just before something snapped in Anna, as she went from blanching to beet-red—what followed for Katie was a blur of motion.

One second, she was being pinned, and the next the pressure on her neck had ceased to exist entirely as she went sailing through the air without flapping her wings once to land on one of the many couches in the room. Twin screams filled the room, and Katie turned to the source the moment she landed, only to gape when she found that not only had Anna gotten in Sarah's face, but now had her pinned to the floor by the wings and with her own horn leveled at her sister's throat.

Anna's eyes flashed red, just once, her head angled a little so Sarah could see them. Delta Unit still held their breath as a bestial growl rose up the throat of their fourth-in-command who then clenched her teeth. "Do not let me catch you doing that to Katie ever again!" she roared, half-snarling and half-screeching the utterance through grit teeth.

"Why're you defending the useless wraith all of a sudden?!" Sarah squawked, wide-eyed and seemingly scandalized by this turn of events.

"Because Lance recruited her! That makes her one of my troops too!" Anna shouted in reply, the utterance all but a keening trill to Katie, who had covered her ears in a futile attempt to block it all out. "And she died a nymph, for crying out loud! I-I won't let you abuse her anymore, Sarah!"

Delta Unit, collectively, went wide-eyed and slack-jawed at that. Yet noling still dared to speak, or to step in and break the sisterly tussle that had just escalated. Anna continued, in a low and chilling voice, "H-hurt her again… and I'll stab you in the frogs of your hooves… I don't care if you're my sister at this point. I will not stand… for that level of flagrant child abuse!" Sarah could only swallow and weakly nod before, haltingly, Anna lifted her horn from her throat and clambered off. Afterwards, Sarah scrambled up and skedaddled out of the room, feathers puffing out as her equally-rattled talons went up in surrender. In seconds she was out of sight, and the only sign of her departure to be had was the noisy beating of hooves on carpeted floor, followed by the sound of the lift door opening.

Anna only turned to the still-cowering Katie once full silence had settled in. She trotted over to her, fully aware of all of Delta's eyes collectively trained on her. Katie did not lift her hooves from her ears, even as blood continued to flow freely from the wounds now adorning her neck. In fact, she did not move at all until a hoof had put itself on her withers rather gently, and even then it was only limited to lifting her head slightly and shifting her orbs. "I'm… sorry you had to see that," she muttered.

Katie merely dropped her head back down, feeling an ache resonating through her body, one that stung deeper than being punctured in the neck. Mentally going over all that had happened ever since she'd been found, that ache grew stronger, settling most prominently in her cranium and her still-beating heart. "You… shouldn't be," Katie muttered in a low voice.

Anna blinked, frowning. "Why?"

Katie hesitated for a long moment. "Sa… Sarah's right," she managed, her voice uneasy. "I'm… useless."

"No, you're not," Anna retorted, shaking her head. "You froze a gryph bigger than you."

Katie slumped. "That was only because he was a wraith in a bad climate," she muttered. "I… failed to stop a Beholder, could not hear you at that hotel, got a marble column to the face, could not slice into a bastard until he was already incapacitated, and failed to... " A lump formed in her throat, and she paused to swallow it. A very bitter taste graced her tongue as the lump grudgingly went down before she finished in an equally bitter tone of voice, "to help your now-undead father. And now Ashwood's on fire thanks to the ectoplasms, and he… he chose to stay in some underground basement…"

Anna froze, eyes widening. "Father's… undead? And Ashwood's...? I-it's…" She turned to the changelings of Delta Unit, who all shifted uneasily at her wild and now-frantic look. "Stay with Katie. I-I'll go check," she ordered, her voice shaky and riddled with disbelief. Her horn glowed, her hoof parted from Katie's withers, and she vanished in a flash of light.

It did not take much longer for an unholy scream to rend the air from the deck. Everyling winced, and Katie opted to tuck her head to her barrel, keeping her hooves locked on her ears. In another flash of light, Anna had re-appeared, pupils shrunk to pinpricks and a wide, horrified frown on her face. She raced over to Rhinoc, threw her forehooves onto his shoulders, and started babbling frantically, "Can changelings resist fire entirely?!"

Rhinoc's ears folded back, eyes widening further in alarm. "T-to an extent, m-ma'am," he stammered uneasily. "B-bu—"

Anna started shaking him, effectively cutting him off with a cry of, "Then can't you do something?! G-get him out of there!"

The brown-ribbed soldier found the gumption to step in at last and seized Anna in his magic, pulling her away from Rhinoc with a tug. She snapped her attention to him with a feral, frantic expression, and the soldier shook his head. "Is there smog rising from the forest?" he asked. When Anna shakily nodded, the soldier lifted a hoof, took off his helmet, and held it to his barrel. "We cannot stand the levels of smog a wildfire can produce. They are just as toxic to us as they are to you."

"We have gas masks, don't we?! Find them, put them on, and get your asses down there!" Anna cried, her voice half-pleading and half-mad. Again, the soldier disobeyed by grimly shaking his head.

"There's not enough masks for the whole retinue, ma'am. And even if there were, the heat levels would literally cook us alive in our chitin and turn the gryphons into roast chimeras. That's also not accounting for the levels of octane and methane that's now being burned as we speak, much less how much of the woodland is already encompassed in flames," the soldier replied, looking at his fourth-in-command with a forlorn gaze, one hoof pawing at the carpet. "And the wildfire's probably making its own wind now to spread even farther. As much as it pains me to say this…" The soldier closed his eyes and frowned pityingly as he finished, "if he's already in the blaze, then there's nothing we can do."

"Nothing…?" Anna squeaked, her jaw quivering as the weight of the soldier's rebuttal sank in.

The soldier nodded, just once. "Nothing," he repeated grimly. "We'll have to… to scrounge for his remains after the fires die and the smog clears, if anything even remains of him after that. We don't even know where the nooblet had last seen him before the ectoplasms struck." The last two words he uttered to her came out in a choked, sorrow-riddled voice, "We're sorry."

"N-no…" Anna muttered, but an aura grasping her head from NoLegs cut her off for all of three seconds. Images flashed through her mind, from the start of the wraiths bickering to the end where the house had caught flame. That one spell from the cat was all it took for Anna to crumple onto the floor. Her horn lit up as one tear formed in her eye and streaked down her cheek. It fell and landed on the carpet just as she vanished in another flash of light. The soldiers all looked to Katie, who lifted her head the moment Anna had teleported, to reveal her eyes narrowed and her orbs dimming. But that wasn't the only thing they took notice of.

Viridian blood started to seep from the corners of her eyes, and her ribs and carapace began to dull as the first of many tears fell from her cheeks. "Despair... " she muttered, voice cracked and strained. "I just… brought despair… on my first mission…" She ducked her head under her forelegs again, wings sagging as the color from her mane and tail likewise started to turn dull. "Can't go back… I failed again… just like with my old hive… dead and nothing I can do about it now…"

Everyling winced as an air of wrongness began to emanate from Katie in force, seeping into their chitin and bringing with it a chilling, nauseous feeling that started playing hell upon their nerves. A few tried to take a step closer to start comforting Katie, but the aura grew stronger with every movement they made. Soon enough, a few of the lower-ranking soldiers began to wince with a growing headache.

Rhinoc was the only one who managed more than three hooves in, though even he was not immune from what the other soldiers were experiencing. His horn lit up once, embracing Katie in his aura—and a fierce chill ran down his spine, before his stomach twisted into so tight a knot he doubled over on the spot. Shakily, he backpedaled and dispelled his magic, staring at her in wide-eyed, pained shock.

"Sir?" one of the more well-off and less-wincing soldiers asked when Rhinoc rejoined them.

Rhinoc shook his head. "I… felt what it's…what she's…" he muttered uneasily. "What she's… letting out…"

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Smoke rose as the hours waned, and Ashwood slowly became little more than its namesake, partly because of the ongoing rain that continued to batter it in an attempt to keep the flames at bay. Thick black clouds ascended to suffocate the skies above, tinted a hideous orange as the flames feasted on every tree their scorching tongues could lick. That smoke passed even the airships, and though their mighty wings beat the smog away, that effectively kept the soldiers locked in until it passed. Lance watched from the master bedroom window with Matt, Natalie, and Anna sleeping at his side. He held a radio in his left hoof, as a newly-arrived airship rose from the burning trees surrounding the shrine.

"Sir, we have successfully extracted the Mighty Oak from his shrine," a masculine voice droned out from the device. "No casualties."

"Using the same ship that transports the Valkyrie?" Lance asked, frowning as the smog concealed the airship's most predominant of features. For a moment, he couldn't tell if the reds and oranges on it were decorative or flames that had managed to jump aboard.

"Yes sir," the voice on the other end replied. "What of search party number two?"

"Extracted themselves before the flames could get this out of hoof. They didn't find much," Lance hissed in reply, eyes narrowing as the blaze swept on unimpeded. He turned to the windowsill, where that one picture in its little warped frame now sat. "What was found has… piqued my interest in one of my passengers."

"You sound like you're excavating closet skeletons again," the voice wryly noted.

"Only this time, the skeletons in question aren't exactly mine," Lance replied in a clipped tone. "I'm starting to feel like I'm plucking feathers off a goat."

"You aren't the only one getting that vibe," the voice from the radio snarked. "Should we leave Greenwood soon?"

Lance cast one look at Anna, seeing scrunched eyes and hours-old tear-streaks through the fur on her cheeks, before turning back to the picture. "... one more day," he answered, his voice solemn. "We have… confirmed victims. Victims that…" Another look at Anna confirmed that fresh tears were starting to build in the corners of her eyes, glistening in the light of the fires. "... that mean a lot to two of my passengers."

"... respects?" the voice guessed.

"Yes," Lance replied tersely. He saw Anna's ears flatten against the back of her head, and her muzzle twitched as she sniffled in her sleep.

"Papa…" Anna whimpered, her voice raspy. A fresh tear broke free and trailed down the side of her face, snagging in her mane. She shook and turned, her back rising up to face Lance. "Why… he's… burning now… he did… nothing wrong…" she continued in a strangled choke.

Both Lance and the entity on the other end of the line paused. "... relatives," the entity muttered.

"... affirmative," Lance answered in a tight voice, his stomach clenching as Anna began to sob in her sleep, her body shaking and her chest starting the first of many heaves.

"Not taking it well?" the entity pressed, his voice shaking a little.

Lance was silent. As carefully as he could, he draped a wing over Anna's body, but that did nothing to stop her crying. She curled up into a ball, cradling her head in her forelegs under the embrace, breathing fast turning ragged and riddled with hiccups before long. His stomach only tightened further, and so did his chest as the awful noises persisted unimpeded. Yet he dared not move more than he already had, knowing full well how she flailed whenever her dreams took a turn for the worse.

"... sir?" the entity tried.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow… over," Lance stated, lifting his other hoof to grab the knob on the radio.

"But sir—" was all the entity could get in edgewise before the radio clicked as the knob turned. Lance sighed and put the radio on the sill before shifting to lay down himself, keeping Anna cradled under his wing even as she continued to cry. He turned to Natalie as she stirred, shifting to watch them both with one eye cracked open.

She did not move a muscle after. Instead, she turned her gaze to Anna and donned a small, tight frown as her sobs began to quiet. Only when the crying stopped entirely did Natalie mutter, "It's almost like we just found her all over again…"

Lance solemnly nodded. Natalie shifted to lean toward Anna, stopping only when her superior's feathers brushed up against her snout. Lance lifted his wing a little, allowing entry, and sighed as he felt Natalie shift closer to nuzzle Anna.

"I know… what she's going through," he heard her mutter.

"But your adoptive folks are alive," Lance pointed out in a low voice.

"I know that… but ever since I was twelve, I thought they'd died when I was first dragged into the Catastrophe… and that's not saying anything about my birth parents," Natalie retorted, curling her own body around Anna in an almost motherly fashion. Anna nestled against her, shifting her own muzzle against the fuzzy, slender barrel.

"Mama…" Anna mewled, her voice weak and scratchy. She began whimpering again, only to stop when Natalie nuzzled her once more.

Lance looked toward the window again, frowning as he saw still-burning ashes rising into the air, dancing their final moments out and around the beating wings of the airships. For a moment, he could've sworn that he felt two pairs of eyes land on him as a particular swatch of ashes rose into the cloudy sky. These 'eyes' belonged to two vague silhouettes that did not linger for long, one of whom had two freakishly large appendages spread out from the rough approximation of a back and the other turned partially away, revealing an equally long object jutting from what was roughly its forehead. The eyes themselves seemed to be made of flame, slanted and with tears of embers trickling from their barely-corporeal corners to drift away with the still-climbing smoke.

The eyes looked at him and slanted rather sadly, but he couldn't be sure as to why when their brief gaze broke away with a slight shaking of what he assumed were their heads. The ashes to which they belonged let themselves be swept up by the wind, climbing higher into the sky on what would perhaps be the first or last of many journeys across the surface of Fantasia. Much of their small embers died as they flew away from the window, becoming less tangible shapes before long.

A brilliant, and oddly out of place, blue bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, and instead of striking down it arched back up before his eyes. With one strike, it effortlessly parted the clouds for a mere second. That second, the remaining ashes that were still lit and had helped formed the vague silhouettes danced up to the opening, which closed behind them the moment they crossed. He turned back to the single photo, and for a second, the smiles on the adults therein changed to wide frowns framed by tears of blood. He lifted both hooves and delicately picked it up, bringing it close before accidentally pushing a little too hard on the edges just as he started scrutinizing it. This caused the backside of the frame to give out and fall to the bed of its own accord, perhaps finally deciding to come apart merely to spite Lance.

The picture itself fell out a second later, twirling in a slow dance before landing backside-up on the fallen frame's other half. Runic writing had been scribbled onto the side now facing him, barely legible and smudged with age, so Lance spread his other wing and used it to nudge Matt awake. It took a few shakes, but with a grumble Matt shifted and scooted closer to Lance, horn giving off the faintest of golden lights. "What's this say?" Lance asked in a whisper, turning to the photo for emphasis.

Matt turned to the photo and studied the writing on its backside for a few seconds, and his brow slanted. He hesitated, but when Lance nudged him with his wing again, he obliged in a tight voice, "'To whomever finds my precious daughters, if they are still alive… take care of them in my stead, for I can do so no longer…'"

Lance closed his eyes and sat the other half of the frame atop the photo, not even cracking them open as Matt slid the photograph out and made it vanish in a flash of light. "That sounds to me like whoever wrote that… just gave up…" Matt mumbled solemnly, making the halves of the now-useless frame vanish before laying back down.

That time, Lance mutely nodded and laid his head on the pillow, sighing softly and idly wondering if Matt even turned the photo over before thaumatically converting it. It took him a while to fall asleep, but when he did, it was when Matt and Natalie had fallen back to sleep no less than ten minutes prior. As he drifted off, he felt Anna shift closer to him, uncurling a little bit. He curled his wing a little tighter around her in response, hoping to comfort her even in her sleep.

It did not escape his notice, however, that as he fell into dreamland the sound of glass breaking permeated from below. He did not care, however… as he did not know where exactly it came from, but did know that he would find out come tomorrow.

Chapter LXXVII- Into The Void

Sarah sat on her bed, wide-eyed, stone-still, and suspiciously silent. Lazarus and Fenrir sat at her side, alternating between watching Ashwood burn and staring at their roommate in concern. Sarah contemplated the recent turn of events over and over in her head: attacking Katie, then being attacked by her own sister, and then learning Katie had died young. Out of those three things, she did not know which was the worst thing of them all, and the fact that she knew full well what she had done wrong did nothing to abate that sting.

Her bangs had been parted as a result of her escape from that scene, and at first glance, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the forehead this had revealed. Yet as Fenrir rose a hand and gently streaked a digit across the seemingly-flat surface, he frowned when his pad met with a little bump in dead center, and one so slight he had to double back just to confirm it was there.

Sarah paid him no mind, not even a batting of the eyelashes. She gazed past the window, not really focusing on the fires that rampaged beyond and below. She heard Fenrir and Lazarus muttering about her in concern, but simply tuned them out, her mind whirring a mile a minute. Over and over again, she mulled, idly considering a great many courses of action as makeshift responses to the events which had happened hours ago.

This only started a whole cavalcade of queries that came with a bit of prodding about her forehead that she thought needless, although it did actually receive a response in the form of shaking her head at every one of them. Still tuning them out, she kept staring at the window, and ignored the prodding for some twenty minutes on end… until Lazarus got the bright idea of getting up, trotting in front of her, and plopping his own rear end down close enough to obscure her sight. He leaned until they were nose to nose, eyes narrowing irritably. "What the hell is your problem?" he asked.

Sarah's face barely shifted, and even then it was only limited to her mouth as she replied in a tight voice, "I attacked the shortstock, and got attacked by my sister."

Lazarus's face hardened. "Why?" he asked tersely.

Sarah didn't blink at the query, opting instead to thrust her claws up and shove Lazarus aside before promptly flopping on the pillow, denying him the chance to react until the very moment she buried her face in said pillow. "I don't wanna talk about it," she hissed, her voice muffled as a result of trying to hide in an object that wasn't doing a particularly good job of even cradling her cheeks.

Lazarus heaved a sigh of relief, then snorted at Sarah's rather belligerent manner of dodging the question. He turned to Fenrir. "What crawled up her ass and wedged itself there lately?" he hissed.

Fenrir merely shrugged and shook his head. "That, I know not. She's usually not this pertinent," he stated earnestly. "And as somemutt who has seen how pertinent she can get, that's saying something."

Lazarus groaned. "You're telling me you babysat her ass?" he groused.

Fenrir nodded. "That is… one very forward manner in which to put it," he replied, shifting uneasily as a frown framed his muzzle. His ears flattened against his head. "Although… it was less akin to babysitting and more akin to administering some sorely needed discipline." When Lazarus raised a brow and tilted his head in silent askance, the answer came in a very terse, very clipped tone, "Sticky talons."

Lazarus's brow dipped so low it came close to making one of his eyes snap shut then and there. Afterwards, and oddly enough, he cracked a small smile. "I remember when Matt was still trying to get over the whole Catastrophe incident. He and Natalie got a real bad case of sticky hooves themselves," he chirped. "I just watched them from the shadows, and looking back on it now, their little heists were amusing as hell. Back then, though…" His smile dropped. "It was strictly a matter of survival."

Fenrir's brow furrowed at that. "Were there not any other options or opportunities available at the time?" he queried.

Lazarus shook his head. "Nobody particularly liked us after we caused the Catastrophe, left, and wound up gaining ten thousand degrees of notoriety for it," he replied grimly. "Hell, I am still surprised they landed a military job, and thought enough of me to tell their boss about it to get him to recruit me."

Fenrir's frown deepened. "Sounds suspect," he muttered.

Lazarus shrugged and opted to flop down next to their cranky roommate who was doing her best to pretend her pillow was a hole in the sand. "Eh, it is what it is," he replied. "What's happened happened. I think we need to…" he trailed off when a thought hit him. He turned to Fenrir and asked, "Why were you feeling up her forehead?"

"She has a bump… one I have not noticed until now, as it is a very miniscule one," Fenrir replied with a genuine tone and a shrug of earnest. "I do not know if it is merely an old wound, or perhaps a slight deformation of her skull."

"Deformation?" Lazarus parroted.

Fenrir nodded. "Possibly from excess calcium," he answered.

Lazarus nodded back and opened his mouth, but did not get another word in edgewise as a gentle scratching filled the air, the noise drawing itself out for three whole seconds before stopping and starting again. Lazarus hopped out of bed and trotted to the door, noting the sounds grew louder as he came closer. Lighting his horn and opening the door with his magic, he frowned when this act revealed Maria standing outside the door, reared on her hooves and her talons splayed wide.

She sheepishly dropped down to all fours and looked at Lazarus. "Daddy won't open his door," she muttered. "I think something bad happened…"

Lazarus kept his frown, though he fought to keep it from deepening. "Did you try the knob?" he asked.

Maria nodded. "Won't move," she answered, before tottering off down the hall. Lazarus sighed and turned to Fenrir.

"I'll be back in a minute," he muttered before cantering out the door and looking about to find Maria trotting to the master bedrooms. He heard something from Sarah, but as she kept head firmly on pillow, did not make out her very muffled utterance before he closed the door behind him magically, dimmed his horn and trotted after the young foal. He caught up to her, but did not pass her as they strode to the master bedroom on the right side of the hall. Once they reached it, Maria reared up onto her hooves and grasped the knob with both claws and jostled it for a bit.

It rattled without fully turning—rattled, and nothing more. Maria motioned with a claw and pressed an ear up to the door. Wordlessly, Lazarus followed suit, frown deepening as he heard a very soft, but very unmistakeable, sobbing. The more he listened, the more familiar he grew with it… and it did not take long for him to determine it was a mare that was doing it. His horn lit up again, and his magic grasped the knob. He heard a tumbler turn—before runes lit up on its metal surface, glowing a fierce and bright gold, its aura seizing his horn and sending shocks through his system. With a startled yelp and his magic fading entirely from surprise, Lazarus staggered back with his tail puffing in alarm.

The bolts did not just zap him, either. The currents darted to Maria of their own accord and zapped her, making her cry out as she tottered back, mane, tail, and feathers frizzed and standing on their ends as a result. Within seconds of being greeted with a small dose of lightning, they heard muffled hoofsteps, before a lock clicked and the door opened to reveal a wide-eyed Natalie standing inside. The sobbing now flooded the hall, though it was still soft, and as Lazarus and Maria gathered their bearings, they noticed that her face was not red. "What happened?!" she queried, keeping her voice to a whisper.

Lazarus shook himself to dispel any lingering jolts that overstayed their welcome in his nerves before speaking quietly, "General's kid heard crying, came to me, I tried to lockpick the door to investigate the crying on her behalf, and got zapped by enchantments."

Natalie turned to him and glared, though not in the typical hard-frown and narrow-eyed look he was expecting of one of his now-commanding officers. Rather, her brow furrowed slightly, and her frown was so slight it seemed as though her mouth's corners hadn't moved at all. She turned to Maria, who nodded in confirmation, before the expression faltered and she sighed. "You two okay?" she asked, and both nodded, though Natalie figured they were still experiencing some aftershock. "You sure?" Again, both nodded. She sighed and glanced back at the master bedroom. "Well… one of our own went to bed… crying," she muttered, ears folding back. "She's probably not going to be in the best of moods tomorrow…"

"Who?" Maria asked. Natalie turned to her, stepped out of the room, gently closed the door behind her with a swift flick of magic, and knelt down to her level. Silence held for a moment.

Natalie then glumly shook her head just as Maria opened her mouth to ask again. "I… don't know what to tell you," she muttered, pausing to sigh tiredly. "And honestly, I don't know if the soldiers lied to get out of the job early… but the fact that a wildfire's now raging may well have forced their claws."

Maria's brow furrowed. "Did they do a bad thing?" she hissed. "Can I hurt them?"

Natalie shook her head again. "No, you can't hurt them… and they did not do a bad thing," she replied, her frown deepening.

"What did they do if it's not bad?" Maria asked.

Natalie gently lifted a hoof to her face and ran it up the bridge of her muzzle, veering it once it reached the base of her horn to rub at her temples. "...found… something unsettling…" she muttered. "And it was enough… to make your mother snap."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Sand devils danced, though now no light from above shined on their swirling forms. Something else danced with them, however, blurring Katie's vision as she trotted on determinedly. Something white, flaky, cold, that should not have been present in the dustbowl to begin with, yet it was. It, combined with the sand, stung mercilessly at Katie like a thousand needles, digging into her chitin and her frail flesh. Raindrops were also in the fray, lukewarm and yet hammering her just as fiercely. It all whirled about her in a heated fervor, swirling about at such speeds she could not even see the individual flecks and drops clearly without the grit getting in the way.

The wind propelling them, paradoxically, was unbearably hot. It came fast, bearing a sandy sleetstorm on its invisible shoulders, and it was strong enough to slow Katie's trot to a snail's crawl. It battered her everywhere, threatening to rip her mane and tail right out of their pores, forcing her wings wide and making them flap uselessly, tried and tried again to get her to yield her feeble hold on the shifting ground. With recalcitrance, a fair bit of reluctance, and an already-faltering hold, she marched nonetheless.

Impossible shapes formed in the veritable storm, shapes sporting long ears and glares like embers. They judged Katie as she kept trotting through the storm. "It's hopeless, mutant," one shape hissed in an ethereal voice.

"Just give up," another chided disapprovingly, shaking a vague approximation of its head. "You're weak… worthless…"

Katie tried to ignore the judgemental statements, pressing on even as an ache formed in her legs as she continued to fight the storm. She clenched her jaws, even as the sand and snow swirled into her throat via her nostrils and split mouth, slowly but surely clogging up her throat. "You're following a foal's dream," another silhouette spat scathingly as she trudged past him. "You'll never find the herald of our slaughter."

Katie coughed feebly, trotting on stubbornly. The act only served to fill her lungs even more with arid, unbreathable air. "Look at her, siding with the ponies," another form hissed, forming directly in her path. Katie simply trotted through it, her knees beginning to buckle as ice crackling with lightning formed on her legs while the form itself danced around her. "She thinks those fools will help."

"They will only cast you out once they're through with you. Just like all of the others have before them. What makes you think they're any different from the rest?" another growled. The storm started to howl around Katie, swirling with stronger and fiercer winds, as if it were determined to knock her off her hooves and bury her in its snow-laden sands.

Katie did not answer. She could not answer, not when the storm itself was seeping its windswept tendrils into her lungs in an effort to choke her one way or another. She had no other option but to trot through it, but the more she moved her legs, the faster the lightning and frost spread upon her chitin. She squinted her eyes, feeling something pooling at their corners, and though she had an inkling of what it was, she couldn't bring herself to stop. Not here. Certainly not now.

The scoffings of the silhouettes did not stop there. An impossibly tall one formed and started ambling at her side, its vague-leg movements faster and with a carefully-collected grace in their stride… but it kept perfect pace with her, almost mockingly at that. "Have you forgotten whose banner you last served under, you feeble-minded grub?" it hissed, the voice distinctly masculine and packing a deep baritone that gave off an authoritative tone.

Katie shook her head, and simply pressed on. Her legs were starting to shake, going numb with cold, their movements turning more hesitant with each and every step. Her wings buzzed haltingly; hopefully that would be enough of an answer to the specter now dogging her every move. "I admit, it was admirable of you to try to defend the hive… even as we lay dead all around you. Tell me… where did that lead you, my little mutant?" the figure asked, and rather sincerely at that. Silence answered him, and he growled disapprovingly. "Not going to talk, are we?"

Again, a shaking of the head was his only answer. A shadow began to form in the tall silhouette, becoming more defined and more corporeal, yet becoming even more of a faceless thing as he kept up with Katie's fast-faltering steps in the process. Whether it be paradox or irony, Katie had no intention of finding out. "Godcat was merciful enough to let us connect to you, even in the afterlife… and this is how you dare spend your time in our company?"

That remark actually caused Katie to pause. Her legs stopped moving, and she slowly turned to the sandy shadow as he, too, stopped. Her mouth opened a little, but then closed when she realized she did not have anything to say to him. He turned to stare back at her, his ember-like gaze turning into a pair of orbs so light a blue they almost seemed grey, narrowed into slits that were ablaze with a coldness even she thought unnatural. A defined, gnarled horn sat atop its forehead, as long as Celestia's but as hideous as the storm that whistled shrilly through its grooves. Fragments of a short, stringy mane danced from the thing's neck and around the horn's base, framing long ears that stood as tall as the horn itself.

The other silhouettes, now casting shadows themselves, caught up to the two, and surrounded them. More and more eyes, all eerily grey, were trained on Katie. She kept her focus on the tall figure before her, even as darkness gathered until what little light that did not come from the menagerie of eyes was simply shrouded. The shadow knelt to her level and asked a simple, short, "Why?"

Katie shivered as the cold, the lightning and the storm began to wreak havoc on her nerves. Her mouth worked, but all that would come out was a series of spluttering coughs as she tried in vain to keep the storm from suffocating her. Her orbs flickered, weakly, and she felt liquid trickling down her cheeks. It took her several long moments, but eventually she gave an answer. "If I… don't… then who will?" she asked back.

The orbs of the figure before her narrowed a little more. "Time itself has all but forgotten us, our society, and the very order of our hive with it. And though I know not how much time your ailing body has left… as with all life, you too shall be reclaimed by the Void that we have crossed to so long ago," he said in warning. "Yet you still carry on, on some unfounded hope that may be shredded when happenstance tears it from your cracked, softened hooves?"

Katie's vision blurred as more liquid formed in the corners of her eyes. Her body continued to grow numb to the storm, as the frost turning it that way was now up to her neck. She stood, defiantly, for now she had little choice. "... all I have left are my memories, and that hope," she said in finality, though her voice cracked in strain and weakness of lung. "S-someone… on Fantasia… will k-know…"

"Know what?" the shadow hissed, leaning in close until he was nose-to-nose with Katie.

"They… will know what… happened to us… so we won't be lost and forgotten by the mists of time," Katie answered, noting she was fast losing feeling in her ears. It wouldn't be long before the rest of her head followed suit. The figure before her reared up with a series of unnatural crackles, tossing his head back and bellowing out the most hollow laughs she had ever heard. The rest of the shadows joined in, and soon even the storm's winds were drowned out in a growing chorus of maddened mirth.

Frost crept along Katie's muzzle, freezing her teeth together inch by inch. The laughter lasted for mere seconds, yet rang in her head for some time after the figure before her dropped to her pitiful eye level again, a soft twinkle of some sort flickering in his orbs. "How noble of you… but that little ploy of yours has too little planning and far too many holes to be even a smidgen plausible. Let's say you did indeed tell someone. What were to happen if they died in a war? Had no foals to pass the tale onto? Or simply cared not for it?"

Katie's orbs widened even as frost covered her eyes then and there, and she began to consider the shadow's rebuttal that blew her idea right out of the water. She wanted to speak, but the frost now secured her lips tightly shut, and all she could manage was a small croak that itself was drowned out by the ongoing storm. "You thought too little ahead, my little mutant. But… I suppose that's to be expected from someling clinging onto something as feeble as hope. A perfect allegory… for a perfect mistake of the late hive," the shadow said in a scathing tone of voice, with the slightest tinge of mockery to it.

Then, one by one, the shadows dispersed, each turning into sable sand and snow to run away with the wind to parts unknown. The tall shadow idled, scrutinizing Katie as the rime of frost thickened on her body with a weak crackle of her stub-horn. They stared at one another for some time, until he was the only shadow that remained in the storm. "The Void will claim you soon, as you have stolen a power from it… a power noling should have in their hooves, least of all you. It will stop at nothing to retrieve that which you have wrongfully taken." He shook his head pityingly. Katie's stomach twisted as she watched him, powerless to do anything, his harsh words ringing in her ears.

"And you will become just another arcane shadow in the mists of time. No past, no future, not even a name to call your own—merely another casualty in a sea of just as nameless corpses. As have countless others before you. Before us," the tall shadow finished in a tone of finality. He sneered one last time before he, too, lost his shape and joined the countless others in the ongoing storm that was simultaneously scorching and chilled. The wind kept blowing for some hours after that, but how long was lost to her. Gradually, its winds changed direction… and grew warmer and more hellish as they did. The ice slowly melted, and the lightning it produced faded as well.

The ground heaved with an unnatural groan. Dust flew from it as another tremor rocked the barren soil. Katie tried moving, but only managed a bare twitch of a knee that she could not feel anymore. Another shudder ran under her, and though light returned in the form of a scant few moonbeams, something else caught Katie's attention in the corner of her frost-covered eyes. She turned her orbs, and mentally screamed as… as… as a giant hole of blackness formed, distant but steadily growing larger. Deep violet veins, almost black themselves, pulsed through the hole, and a myriad of clawed tendrils reached out and lashed at the ground from the hole's edges.

Screams upon screams came from that hole, distorted beyond compare and less… less bestial than they should have been, producing a chorus that was both unnatural and unbearably loud. The clawed tendrils struck again and again at the ground, each impact making it shake erratically, ripping out chunks of earth to toss into the purple-lined maw that was its very corporeal body. Not even the moonlight could dent it; in fact, it started sucking the scant rays towards itself with no damage whatsoever. The air around it distorted as it continued to grow, causing patches of the earth and sky to shift colors just as they vanished into the black abyss.

Katie started wiggling violently, forcing more ice flecks to part from the coat of rime that held her in its merciless grip. Feeling slowly returned to her body, and she noticed an ache that came from her rapidly-beating heart as it tried to burst from her chest. Her mind screamed "You need to move!" but no matter how hard she tried, she could not get her defrosting legs to work. The… black, clawing hole that was devouring both earth and sky grew even larger.

And even closer.

The frost wasn't melting fast enough. Feeling was coming back to her rattled nerves just as slowly. All the while, Katie's orbs were trained on the approaching danger that seemed to take its sweet time gorging itself on virtually everything around it. She screamed, but the ice muffled her as she worked as fast as she could to get off of the spot of ground to which she'd been affixed against her will.

Time wasn't on her side. Cracks formed in the rime, but only thanks to Katie's persistent wiggling. Even then, the cracks were small enough to go virtually unnoticed. The sand and snow clogged them up, and the rain froze upon contact, sealing them shut with a vengeance. The ground shook, but never enough to knock her over, as if it were doing this just to spite her. Panic rose, and with it Katie's maddened shaking increased tenfold. New cracks formed, but were sealed tight just as they'd opened.

The black hole grew larger still, unceasingly, uncaringly, without faltering once. The ground, sky, and moonlight wasn't enough to sustain its rapidly-growing mass. Its horrendous cries upon cries rose to a new octave as the ice finally started giving way and Katie moved her legs for the first time since she'd gotten stiff with frost. Her hooves slipped and she fell onto her stomach thanks to the coating on her hooves, and though this caused the last remnants to break away, she realized with dread clawing at her thoughts that she still could not entirely feel parts of her body. Worse yet, she looked at her back, only to find that the frost had ripped her wings right out of their sockets with it, depriving her of flight.

Katie's stub-horn lit up of its own accord, and the light it gave off was a crackling red in color. Bolts of freezing cold lightning fired off from it by themselves, launching up to the hole… only to be absorbed by it. It wasn't until several dozen went into it, only fueling the thing's growth, did her horn cease launching energy, and by then the behemoth was as tall as a mountainside. Even so, her stump continued to give off light, its red glow cradling her in its pitiful radius.

A single voice, coming from the hole itself, shouted through the throng of cries with a crystal clarity that Katie could not ignore. "Run, you spellcasting idiot! The Void will swallow you whole if you don't move!" it yelled, the utterance spurring Katie on. She forced herself to move her legs, to get her hooves under her, and once she did the ground's heaving increased tenfold as the Void grew tall enough to shroud even the moon.

It was high time to start running, and Katie was all too eager at this point to do anything but. She didn't even attempt to cancel out the glow, or use her magic to propel herself onward, unstable as it was. Instead she turned and made a mad, stumbling dash, having to catch herself within the first few steps. There was no room for error; the Void was fast gaining ground, and Katie needed to put as much distance between it and herself as possible.

One slip-up would cost precious seconds that she couldn't make up for. Her gallop was clumsy, frantic, fueled entirely by a primal fear that held her fast, and disoriented thanks to the sand and snow and rain now flinging themselves directly into her eyes, but it was certainly better than nothing. More than once had she caught herself looking over her shoulder, and each time she did her heart drummed harder in her chest, and her stomach came that much closer to turning itself inside-out at the sight she continued to behold.

Behind her, the Void continued to rend the dustbowl asunder, without mercy, without moderation, without even a modicum of restraint. It did not know the meaning of the word 'empathy,' for it was entirely focused on one task and one task only: the utter destruction of its surroundings, and whatever lay in them. It had to have fuel, one way or another, and nothing would stop it from getting it. The rational part of Katie's mind was doubting her ability to outrun this beast, but that rationale was tossed to and fro in a sea of unparalleled terror that only her wide eyes and shrunken orbs could convey.

She simply kept scrambling, hoping with all of her childish might that she could get away. The Void, however, was slowly, surely catching up to her. The air turned chilly, then plummeted to sub-zero temperatures in an effort to stall her even as it, too, was sucked in to that black maw of empty nothingness that was utterly hellbent on consuming anything and everything. It seemed intent on sating some sort of hunger not even its fleeing prey could hope to grasp.

The ground shook a hundredfold now, as the Void grew large beyond comprehension, reaching, perhaps, Fantasia's core. To run from it as it was now only spurned Katie further; she did not wish to know what it would do to her if she were caught here and now. Her footing became steadier, truer, faster and more coordinated, and as a result her speed had picked up. To go back and face the Void head-on would be like a flea facing off against a lich-wyrm—it was a fight that was hopelessly one-sided and would surely end in disaster.

She couldn't stop it from wreaking havoc. Couldn't stop it from desecrating Fantasia. Just like she couldn't stop her hive's desecration. All she could do was survive, but even that was looking less and less likely as the Void only continued to grow with its maddened consumption. The screams continued to rise octaves higher, until they were beyond ear-piercingly loud.

An idea sparked in Katie's head. She could warn somepony about the Void, and they may be able to stop it! Though… she'd have to find somepony first. She kept running, determination now fueling her stride. Unfortunately, gravity started to alter towards the beast behind her, further ripping entire chunks of land and pulling them towards that black abyss that should not have been present, yet was. It was slight enough to go unnoticed at first, but the shift increased tenfold in a second.

Katie clenched her teeth to stave off the ringing in her ears, the ache in her chest, the pain growing in her legs and back with each and every step she took. She had to focus, putting her mind into scrambling and setting aside all else in her desperate bid to outrun the Void and tell somepony about it. But as gravity continued to shift, that was becoming increasingly difficult to manage; within another five seconds, she was slowed to a snail's crawl all over again. The loose, barren soil didn't do her any favors either, pulling her with it into the growing nothingness that was doubtless a few paces behind her now.

She still had to try, clutching feebly onto her hope. It was all she had left at this rate. But now, she could not move forward with the loose soil pulling her back. Not even digging her hooves in helped; that just ensured she was slowed down further. In fact, all her efforts yielded now was a series of accidents that resulted in Katie tripping over her own hooves repeatedly. She still kept at it, praying that this would not end up getting her sucked in.

She failed to notice a chunk of ground being torn directly behind her, creating several cracks that isolated a crude circle around her. Trying in vain to move forward, her vision now completely clouded by sand and rain and snow, she just worsened her woes by continuing to slip. Within moments, the Void was directly behind her, clawing at the ground with its many tendrils, screaming and crying and hollering as its mass came within millimeters of the end of her tail.

Katie was utterly helpless as a tendril reached her and pried the chunk of soil that she stood on out, her heart stopping as she realize she'd been flung clean off her hooves and up into the air in the process. It did not take her long to start emitting a terrified screech as the nothingness capitalized on her lack of flight without mercy, snatching her once again in its shadowy limbs, and yanked her bodily inside its hungering maw.

The screaming, the crying, the howling of the Void stopped as she was sent sailing ass over teakettle into the bleak unknown, with only the aches in her body to keep her company. Not even her scream reached her ears; she wasn't even sure if she did shriek at all. Dead silence now permeated this place; in fact, it reigned here with a steely grip. Sound all but ceased to exist here in the sable.

Here, the air was deathly still, even as countless chunks of soil broke apart around her and everything else was sucked into that hungering beast. As these chunks passed, even if they brushed up against her mane, tail, or legs, neither of those things would move until some force she could not see broke them apart. Katie had to manually move her legs, mane and tail of her own accord just to register that they even shifted. Gravity never took hold in the Void, instead replaced by a feeling of weightlessness, and for a time she could've sworn she had trotted on empty air that felt solidified, yet somehow liquid at the same time.

Light never really was, nor had a place of its own, in the Void, despite being likewise devoured. Even with her meager glow, Katie could not see an inkling of her surroundings; here, everything was a black abyss that she'd been forced to paw around in, if indeed anything other than herself was corporeal in form and mass at this point. She wasn't even sure if she was the only corporeal being trapped within this endless blackness.

She winced, idly figuring that the shadow was right. The hope to which she clung did her no good, since she'd gotten swallowed up. The only thing to do now was to press forward… but where? Here, her sense of space was completely skewed and turned on its head, and with her ability to see stolen from her by the inky black, there was no way of knowing which way was forward. Time was, likewise, distorted here. There was no sun, no moon, no stars with which to keep track of it; had she not known any better, she'd have assumed time was cemented in one ever-expanding, ever-infinite moment. It certainly had the vibe of such.

Katie opted to continue sailing through the Void. She figured it would take her somewhere in its belly. It wasn't like she had any better options at the moment, either. It took eons, perhaps, but something eventually broke the silence of the Void: a roar unlike any she'd ever heard. It was one that carried with it a distortion that echoed from everywhere, something powerful enough to shake her surroundings and, at the same time, giving some light to it that revealed a crimson galaxy of stars all around her. Planets and suns and moons and nebulas passed her by, and for but a moment Katie was genuinely awed by the sight.

Her eyes went wide. She tried to move toward a star… and found solid ground, formed of stardust, beneath her hooves. The star in question hissed and glimmered bright red as she approached it, forcing her to back away when it started giving off an unbearable heat. Katie marveled at the star, tilting her head at its mere presence. Her awe continued to grow, and she tried to approach a nebula. It hissed around her too, also giving off heat, but unlike the star it let her trot through it without incident. Perhaps this was why the Void was destroying Fantasia, just to create this in its stead?

But the initial awe gave way to a deep, heart-stopping fear that froze Katie when a deep, guttural, demonic voice reached her ears, "I have lived for countless eons… my enemies fell as time marched on…" Katie whimpered, feeling a gaze of pure rage landing on her as the Void shifted around her once again, returning to the endless blackness from before, and gravity once more shifted as it dragged her deeper into itself.

"And none would be foolish enough… to perform what you have done…" it added scathingly, just as she twisted around to find a large, toothy maw bigger than a mountain, fast-approaching from the black and from behind her. Its skin was unnaturally greyish-red, almost the color of rotting flesh, but it swallowed her quick as a flash before she could take in the rest of the monstrosity's features.

There was nothing she could do at that point, except watch from within the belly of the beast as it continued to destroy Fantasia. She cared not for how she could, in fact, watch from within even as sickly, foul-smelling damp walls of more putrid-seeming flesh squeezed her for all it was worth. The fact that she could even see beyond her new prison sent chill after chill down her spine, idly noticing that a crystalline substance of some sort was solidifying around her at a frightening rate. Outside, she bore witness as frozen mountainsides, whole forests and deserts, a volcano or two, and even a city with towers and magitek that managed to reach the heavens… no matter what it was, it was all devoured by the Void.

The land… nay, perhaps all of Fantasia became one with the Void. At the sheer devastation, just as a series of bright lights flashed outside of her prison which then revealed an earth brown corridor of stone and chains adorned with spiked links and runic writing carved into the steel, she let out another strangled scream. The crystal finished solidifying around her at that point, and she became trapped and immobilized like an insect encased in amber, mouth frozen open and fear etched onto her tiny face, her scream henceforth leaving her forevermore.

It was the only thing she could do, locked in a prison such as this. She doubted anyone outside her prison, if indeed anyone was even present, would hear her anguished cries.

There was nobody there to help her.

Time stretched until she lost track of it all over again.

That one scream lasted for an agonizing eternity.

But none could hear her, regardless of how long her scream became.

Her screams went unanswered, unheeded, entirely devoid of even a shred of acknowledgement to the outside world. It was as if she hadn't existed at all...

Katie's orbs alighted and she jumped to her hooves, shaking like a leaf and with her mouth agape as she took in her surroundings. She was back in the lounge, on the couch, with the lights shining from the chandelier revealing that NoLegs was in front of her, looking at her with a frown. Katie crumpled back to the couch, heaving an immense sigh of relief. NoLegs watched her intently, and when he was sure she wouldn't jump back up again, he waved his tail and alighted it in his magic. "You okay?" he asked as his magic gripped her head.

Katie still shivered. "Th-the Void… it got me…" she muttered.

NoLegs quirked a brow. "The Void?" he repeated.

Katie nodded that time. "Wh-what time… is it?" she croaked, hoping to change the subject.

It was NoLegs' turn to sigh. "About four in the morning, and the only one you woke up with your hollering was me, in case you're wondering," he answered glumly, his aura seizing her body and lifting her gently up. "You need to sleep in a proper bed. A couch ain't good for someling with your particular combination of ailments," he added in a gentle reprimand. Katie didn't dare argue with him, idly figuring that her nightmare was indeed the fault of the inert couch.

Instead, she decided to ask him something. "Can I have more purple wasp for breakfast?"

NoLegs nodded. "Eh, we probably got some spare wasps in the freezers. We can stuff them, fry them… what all you in the mood for?" he replied.

"Sliced and with bread," Katie answered with a shrug. Her mouth opened a full 90 degrees as she let off an exhausted, gargantuan yawn. "And toasted," she added once the yawn had finished leaving her mouth. Exhaustion gripped her, despite the fact that she just woke up, and she realized she still felt that ache, settled deep into her chest, though now it was little more than that.

NoLegs yawned, nodded, stretched his tail, and started ambling with her in tow towards the lift that lead to the bedrooms.

Chapter LXXVIII- Harmony Amidst Calamity

Anna woke up as the sky lightened outside, blinking drowsily as her mind stalled in kicking itself into gear. With bloodshot eyes, she clambered over Natalie, and landed on the floor with legs wobbly and aching. Trudging to the toiletries' corner, hooves dragging as she went, she let her mind spurn awful images that had transpired the night before. Over and over, they tumbled upon themselves, trying to make something cohesive and understandable that she would not have any chance to misconstrue. As it was, everything, even the images NoLegs telepathically sent to her, made her knees weaken with each step until she outright collapsed in the shower stall.

She didn't turn the water on. Instead, she opted to lay there, on the smooth tile, absently letting her mind replay the images over and over. Some foalish part of her wanted to deny what she had mentally received, what she physically heard, what she very nearly did with the tip of her own horn… but she just couldn't bring herself to do so. Her stomach twisted when she realized that Sarah had, more than likely, not received the news she'd gotten.

And if that was the case… then she'd need to know, somehow. Her stomach outright clenched at the notion. How in hell was she going to explain this to her, especially since she had the audacity to attack her last night? Granted, it was in defense of a helpless troop, and Sarah didn't know it also constituted as foal abuse on top of that, but… she could have handled it differently, she reflected. Lost deep in her musings, she failed to keep track of time, and heeding the sound of hooves scuffling on carpet, then hitting on tile was entirely out of the question for her. It wasn't until a hoof prodded at her withers did she bother to look up, finding Lance looming over her with a frown on his muzzle. "Hey," he muttered.

Anna didn't get up, even as he poked her again. She merely stared at him, nodding absently. "You okay?" Lance asked. She shook her head. "Figured as much," he sighed, and trotted right inside the shower stall, making sure to avoid stepping on her. He sat on his haunches at the far end of the stall, watching her intently, as if expecting her to go timberpony all over again. "Listen… there's something you need to know," he began.

Anna shifted her legs under her body and turned to him with a weary, skeptical brow raised. "What?" she croaked, her voice dry and raspy enough to come out as a whisper.

"Greenwood's… parts of it, anyway, are burnt to a crisp," Lance answered, frowning as Anna's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. She opened her mouth, but he lifted a hoof and waved it to cut her off. "That's not the only thing, so hold your horses," he stated. Anna's mouth shut at the command. "None of the cursed trees have moved once since Matt hit them with Ragnarok yesterday. I'm thinking of flying down there myself to see if they're truly dead or not, and some part of me thinks they're still alive."

Anna's glare eased, though she donned a frown of her own. "L… let me come with," she muttered.

Lance closed his eyes and mulled the request over. On one hoof, her curse could express itself again, with or without cursed trees around them. She could, in blind panic and agony, easily turn on him if he didn't bring sufficient backup. On the other hoof… there were confirmed victims of the wildfire, and the least he could do was let her trot with so she could get some measure of closure. There was also the chance that he could scan any cursed trees up close, especially if they were incapacitated by the fire last night, though said fire may have destroyed anything worthwhile in regards to how the ponies became the trees.

"On three conditions," he said softly, opening his eyes as he said that. When her gaze softened some more, he proceeded to rattle off the conditions in a clipped voice, "One, we take Sarah with. Two, you put your belt back on. The less distractions we have down there, the better. Three, do not engage anyone or anything unless necessary."

Anna mulled it over for a few minutes, then shook her head. "I… attacked Sarah last night, and…" she trailed off as Lance stood up, trotted to her, sat down again, and draped her with both wings.

"NoLegs informed me as much before he went to bed after you came in crying last night," Lance muttered, softly. "You may have made some bad blood with her… but compared to what could have come out of it if you didn't restrain yourself, things would have been indefinitely worse."

Anna turned away, sighing tiredly. "There's another reason," she heard him say. Turning back and raising a brow just an inch, she looked at her superior expectantly. "Why does your sister have a horn in the family photo?"

Anna stared at him for a few seconds. "A… horn…" She shifted into a half-slouch, leaning to one side as her rear hooves slid out from under her.

"Yes. Quite clearly poking out of her forehead when it was taken," Lance answered with a curt nod. "I know, this may seem like a dick move coming from me… but I just want to know."

'Why?" Anna queried.

"Call it a matter of curiosity," Lance answered bluntly.

Anna looked away again, sighing once more. "She… never had a horn. Someone must've spliced the picture," she mused.

Lance's frown deepened at that. "I didn't see any evidence upholding such a claim," he muttered. "No obvious splice lines, no jagged edges, no clear indication of vastly differing tints and shades between the horn and the rest of the photograph's contents… the horn didn't even fall off the picture." Leaning toward Anna, pausing when she turned to him again, he added very bluntly, "So, unless the splicer was skilled enough to fool even me, I don't think that's even a little bit coincidental since we've both heard her terrible harp-playing skills. There is no way in hell she should even be able to use its enchantments, if Shining indeed took care of that."

"The enchantments may be activated upon touch, Lance. Your wings were like that," Anna shot back. Now, it was Lance's turn to sigh.

"That may be the case, but it's still fishy to me," he muttered, shifting his front legs to lower himself to Anna's eye level. "Now then… are we going to visit Greenwood when we go down? I know, you and Sarah don't want to go back, but some part of me wants to check and see if the damned villagers survived the blaze or not."

Anna contemplated that for a few seconds, before once more shaking her head. "We're not going into the village proper, but we'll hover above it to see if the assholes inhabiting it burnt or not," she stated. "Sarah can't fly for another week or two, you only got the wind back yourself…"

At that, Lance had to concede that she had a point. He nodded once. "For now, though…" His ears folded back and he blushed as he trailed off. "Let's just take it easy." With that said, he stood up slowly, keeping his wings tucked at his sides. He nudged her with a hoof to get up, and begrudgingly, Anna moved to do just that. As soon as she stood, though, she leaned against the wall for support, her knees wobbling dangerously. Lance spread his left wing and used it to grasp the knob and turned it a few times, before steaming hot water sputtered and rained down on them both.

For several minutes, they were content to stay there, letting the water soak them to their skin. Anna sighed, still idling against the wall while Lance spread his right wing to grasp for something above her. His wing pulled back, now curled around a scrub brush that may well have been a loofa in comparison to the feathers that held it. Then… the brush gently tapped Anna's shoulder before it started scrubbing.

The unexpectedness of being scrubbed made Anna jump with a yelp, and she tumbled forward into Lance's barrel. His eyes widened and he hastily raised his forelegs and grappled her withers to stop her, though this pushed him a little toward the wall. "Whoa! I didn't mean to spook you!" Lance exclaimed, still clutching the brush in his wing.

Anna blushed and pulled away before backing off, flinching a little. "Sorry… just… spacing out," she mumbled weakly.

"I could tell," Lance sighed, and extended his wing to offer the brush to her. She looked at him, crossing her eyes at the brush as though it had been glued to the bridge of her muzzle. "Are you going to take it, or do I need to scrub you myself?" he asked softly.

Anna's legs gave out again, and she slumped to the floor. "Y-y-you're treating me like I'm fourteen again," she grumbled, her blush growing redder by the second.

Lance promptly spread his left wing and slapped his face in lieu of his hoof. "No, I'm not," he muttered, scandalized. "You're acting like a foal," he added when wing parted from face.

Anna's face continued to redden, and her ears fell back against her head as they too started to pick up on the hue. She flinched when Lance took that as 'I do not want to brush myself' and moved to do so for her, once more connecting bristle with withers and gently scrubbing. She made no objection as he scoured out bits of grime in her coat, but her squirming as he trailed the brush down her back all the way to her croup told him that she was not exactly elated with him doing so, either. Fortunately, he went no further than that, and retracted the brush after trailing it back to her shoulder.

Anna stood up when the brush moved away, and on unsteady legs she marched right up and leaned hastily until Lance was nose to nose with her. Her eye twitched, and her tail swished, spraying water outside of the shower stall as it did. "You want me to ram that brush up your ass?" she hissed, her horn starting to sputter.

Lance actually sent Anna a rather coy grin. "If you do, you're buying another," he replied coolly.

Anna promptly summoned a crystal arrow in a flash of light, and maneuvered it until it hovered behind Lance's tail. She cocked her head, eyes narrowed dangerously low. "Want me to geld you?" she growled.

Lance's smirk widened in spite of the threat. "You wouldn't, despite the fact that you're pissed off enough to even insinuate the thought," he snarked. His ear twitched when he heard the sound of hooves scraping against the carpet and then on tile, but paid it no heed since he was well aware of the sharp instrument of torture poised at his haunches. He leaned a little closer to Anna, until their snouts touched, and his grin went Cheshire in that moment. "Go ahead. Try to geld me," he challenged smugly.

Anna's magical grip wavered for a moment, before the arrow pulled back and surged forward—only to be stopped just a mere inch from its ill-gotten prize when his tail flicked and wrapped around it tightly in a blur of motion. "You do realize you're being insubordinate right now?" Lance mused, flinging the arrow away in a manner that left nary a scratch on his hide. The arrow sailed through the air and clattered harmlessly in the sink.

Anna balked and leaned away. Lance pressed to keep their snouts touching, matching her retreat for every bit she gained in distance. "And besides, that was just one arrow, of one of your deadliest sorts too. If you'd actually wanted, you could have flayed my entire hide clean off, balls intact and everything," Lance sneered. Neither noticed that a shadow was now looming over them, nor that said shadow's owner was looking at them with utter bemusement.

"You are, like, the biggest cockhole I've ever met!" Anna declared, her chest puffing out. Her magic grasped Lance by the shoulders and shoved him back, and her cheeks started to puff as well.

Lance's grin twitched knowingly. "Oh? Since when did you become a peeping hen?" he chirped.

Anna marched over and got into his face again, making sure to keep him far away enough with her magic so their snouts wouldn't touch. Her face heated until it was the color of his mane, reminding Lance of a hissing teakettle about to launch its lid straight into the air. Neither noticed that a second shadow joined the first, heralded by hooves on the carpet and then tile, for they were too engrossed in their fight at this point. "Y-you make it sound like I actually look whenever you have to take a leak, you pervert!" she screeched.

"You let me trot into the shower a few days ago without your belt," Lance countered quickly. "Aren't you the pervert here?" Anna gabbled and sputtered, but could not make any counter to Lance's argument. "And furthermore, you let me scrub you. Is there something you'd like to keep hidden from me?" he added.

"N-no!" Anna cried, leaning back again. Before Lance could start to match her retreat once more, somepony else at that moment—one of those who owned the shadows—cleared their throat and made both arguers stiffen at the sound.

"Did I trot in at the wrong time?" a feminine and very bemused voice asked. Both Lance and Anna paled, and slowly turned to the speaker with eyes fast widening to find that Natalie was standing at the entrance to the stall that they'd neglected to close. Behind her, Matt stood idling, a grin on his face and his cheeks puffing as he struggled to keep himself from laughing without lifting his hooves to contain it.

Anna and Lance fumed and turned to each other, glaring again. "We'll settle this later," they hissed in tandem.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Sarah found herself being dragged down to the now-scorched Ashwood, magically at that, by Anna. Lance flew at their side, with NoLegs perched on his hat and a saddlebag with a gunblade loaded onto his back. For some reason that Sarah did not wish to grasp, her sister had gone out in the dress Rarity had made for her, drill-bow and all. Hell, she took it one step further by using the gaudy golden ribbon on her back to have the Accelerator affixed to her back in one firm, pretty knot. Twilight had also accompanied them, casting an illusory spell so the ectoplasms wouldn't detect them on their way down.

Katie came with too, settled on Twilight's back, though she kept silent during the descent. Lance was clumsy in his flight, often miscalculating his velocity or how hot the air was, and dangerously dipped more than once and much faster than he kept anticipating. Though, his sheer wingsize made up for his shortcomings, keeping him from colliding with his companions with powerful beats. They descended in a slow corkscrew, to maximize both distance and the time needed for Lance to gather his bearings and get a better hang on flying altogether after so long without. As a result, it took the group an entire two hours to actually reach the treeline.

Before they landed in the Mighty Oak's torched shrine relatively close to it, the group circled a few times above the now worse-for-wear Greenwood. Some of the houses had burnt branches, and one unlucky abode was burnt to a crisp and collapsed on itself. And yet, all the villagers therein with the exception of the pregnant mares and foals were trotting about, pulling wagons of fresh logs and pieces of that abode in addition to lugging various tools around. There were hammers and two-handled saws, a few nails and auburs that would need to be either hoof or magically operated for use, and some axes and shovels and picks to dislodge and cut up any fragment stuck in the ground.

The elderly ponies and the triad of leaders took less time actually helping cart around the luggage and more time directing the younger villagers toward key points in the village, where damaged houses needed immediate repairs lest they end up like the one which had collapsed. Some elders helped where the youngsters could not easily bear loads on their own, rushing over and magically lifting heavy planks of scorched or fresh wood, or with entire piles of fresh logs when needed. In spite of last night's inferno, Greenwood seemed to be embracing synergy to almost harmonic levels. And sure, there were still no pegasi to be seen within the village proper, yet the unicorns and earth ponies therein looked to be doing just fine without them.

All in all, the village had gotten out of the blaze mostly intact and with enough unharmed and able-bodied villagers chipping in with effort and necessary tools, which meant that things were more or less alright… for the time being. Twilight hovered above them for a moment longer, marvelling at the sight. A twang of longing struck a chord throughout her nerves, and for a brief second she thought of Ponyville, idly wondering how Ivory Scroll was handling the town with her and her friends absent. She could only hope things were going swimmingly back in Mythos.

The moment they touched down, and a second after when Twilight caught up with them, the illusion wore off of the whole group. Twilight turned to Lance and smiled as he proudly flared his wings and flapped a few times with a happy whinny leaving his mouth before he folded them and looked at her with a grin. "I feel like I am already getting the hang of flying again," he chirped. He bowed his head—bowed!—and fanned his wings low with the motion, his primaries touching the ground. "Thank you, sincerely."

Twilight's grin widened. "Don't mention it," she chirped back. Her smile dropped. "What's the plan?"

Lance straightened his posture and folded his wings shut. He looked to Anna and Sarah before nodding once. "You two… first off, my blaster, if you please," he stated. Anna nodded and lit up her horn, carefully unravelling the ribbon on her back to make sure she did not accidentally pull the trigger. When that was done, she magically hoofed the Accelerator over, letting it come to a gentle rest between his wings.

"Aren't you going to…" Twilight started, but trailed off when Lance moved to stand upright, arching his forehooves over his head to grapple the blaster and hold it in front of his chest. "... oh," she weakly finished as he hefted it over his withers. "Say… are you biologically built differently? The only pony I could see pulling your stunt would be Pinkie Pie," she queried.

Lance nodded in earnest. "We Fantasians have a more… upright-leaning skeletal structure, with broader shoulders and hips to enable that sort of thing. All fours is still more preferable in the long run, but I do this just to carry the damn cannon for the short-term," he replied. "Of course, the skeletal structure doesn't make things much easier, just more bearable."

Twilight quirked a brow. "A different skeletal structure?" she pressed. "Could you… provide x-rays for me? Because that sounds dubious," she muttered.

Lance's grin widened. "Gladly, but we'll have to clean up here before then," he answered. "The plan is, we search for any more cursed trees that escaped the blaze intact, or… are torn open enough that we could easily see what makes them… well, cursed trees."

"What about Greenwood?" Katie piped up.

"Eh, let them be for now. They're just rebuilding; besides, we'd be dicks for crashing that party," Lance stated.

"Isn't the father of that filly's foal in there somewhere?" Twilight pressed. Lance shook his head and his smile dropped.

"Given that the baby's a pegasus, the father would have very likely came from outside Greenwood to knock her up. Either that, or somepony slipped through the cracks long ago and genetics decided to toss in a pair of wings for once," Lance stated firmly. He flared his own wings for emphasis. "Greenwood's strictly earth and unicorn-based, to the point of booting dissidents and outsiders altogether. Shining saw that first-hoof," he added, flapping once. "They'd probably throw logs at us anyway just because three of us have wings."

Twilight mulled it over and sighed. "And going there now would be counterproductive… for everyone," she finished for him.

"Exactly," Lance agreed with a nod. He turned to Anna and Sarah. "And two of us still want to avoid that town altogether." He glanced up as a hum filled the air to find an airship as it came down to land at their clearing, hearing something angrily stomping around within it with enough force to actually shake it. He promptly walked up to the nearest stone henge. Twilight and the others followed him, simply to let the shuddering airship land. The moment it hit solid, scorched soil, the gangplank fell open, and out of the vessel stomped the Mighty Oak, looking a little singed in places himself but otherwise alright.

A few changeling soldiers flanked the Mighty Oak, wings beating to keep them aloft. One actually had the audacity to alight on his head, though the sentient construct really didn't seem to mind all that much. He did not even lift his spear-arm or knuckles to bat the changeling away. "Our friend here did not like being kept indoors overnight," the changeling on the Mighty Oak's head reported.

Lance nodded and lifted a hoof from the Accelerator to motion the changelings back. "Alright. Take the ship up before the villagers take notice," he ordered. The changelings nodded back and flew back into the vessel, only for a few to poke their heads out to make sure the gangplank wouldn't scrape their friend on its way up prior to going back inside and closing it shut. The airship beat its wings, and in seconds it ascended to the air to rejoin the others.

Once that was done, the Mighty Oak promptly turned to the group and marched up to them. He stared intently at the lot for a moment, before lifting his knuckles and hovering them just inches from Anna. She lifted a hoof and tapped at the knuckles once, before they shifted to Sarah. She lifted a claw and banged on the steel for a bit, and the Mighty Oak retracted with another nod. He lifted his knuckles again and held them before Lance, who lifted a hoof and tapped at the steel as Anna had done. He backed off and nodded again.

"Um… it's a golem, right?" Twilight asked uneasily.

Lance nodded. He turned to Anna expectantly. She noticed and turned to Twilight before elaborating, "He, actually, but yes you'd be right. I was told he was crafted by one of Fantasia's alicorns and given life long before Faust and Godcat were sealed." She smiled. "Dad let us play with him when we were little."

Twilight nodded, and turned to the Mighty Oak. He looked at her intently, in turn. Eventually, he nodded again, and lifted his spear-arm to gesture to an eastmost henge. Runes lit up, and Anna turned to it with a frown. Twilight conjured the rune-translating book and flitted through it, gradually piecing together what the henge was trying to convey to her. "'I see you have made some new friends,'" she translated.

The Mighty Oak nodded fervently at that. Twilight closed the book and made it vanish. "Shall we get going, then?" she asked, to much nodding from the group. She looked around, and spotted the gate before long. A metal-clad hoof coming to rest on her withers stopped her just as she raised a hoof, and she turned to Anna to find that she had extended that metal-clad hoof, in addition to a shaking of the head.

"That way… goes to Greenwood," Anna muttered dismally. "We'll have to go due east to avoid it."

Twilight nodded and turned to the henge whose runes lit up. "That way, then?" she guessed. Anna nodded and promptly trotted to it, lifting a hoof to touch it with a sigh that Twilight could've sworn was almost nostalgic. Lance walked up to her and draped a wing over her withers, and she offered him a small, tired smile in return.

"Dude, have you fucking married my sister?" Sarah asked, causing the two to jump and stumble for a moment.

"No, I haven't," Lance answered, turning to Sarah with both brows raised high. "Why do you ask?"

Sarah snorted, nostrils flaring as air left them. "Seriously? You keep… wrapping your wings around her, for Godcat's sake. And some days she likes you and some days, so I hear, she'll want to wedge arrows up your ass. That's something only somepony's wife would do," she stated, as though it were fact. At that, Lance again shook his head.

"If I'd have married Anna, strictly in the hypothetical sense, I'd have put a golden ring on her horn by now, and another on my left wingjoint," Lance countered firmly, frowning as he said that. "As things are, even if I'd like to, I cannot do so."

Now, it was Sarah's turn to raise her brow. "And why not?" she challenged.

Lance proceeded to curl one set of primaries over themselves, only to extend them one at a time as he rattled off, "One, pulling rank. Two, she's still a little too young for me, and three, she's prone to sprouting bark and ivy leaves. Four, we're still trying to figure out what broke the damned barrier, and at this rate—"

Katie decided to interject, "Um, not to speak out of turn, but… one of the trees told me a single word yesterday. Before the wildfire."

Lance turned to Katie almost immediately. "'splain," he ordered.

"The tree… said 'pestilence.' I don't know what context in which it could mean, but…" Lance raised a hoof and waved it, and Katie promptly shut her mouth before she could finish. He turned to Anna, only to find her tensing on the spot.

"... pestilence, you said?" Anna asked, ears folding back as a scowl wormed its way onto her face. At Katie's nod, she shuddered and stomped the ground. "Please… don't utter that word again."

Katie's ears jutted upright. "Is it bad, in the sense that Maria would define it?" she pressed.

Anna haltingly nodded. "Exceedingly," she muttered. "Just… don't…"

Katie hesitantly nodded back. "A-alright…" she muttered. "I wonder if it's because of her parents," she thought idly, looking at the Mighty Oak as it raced through her head. "Does he like wraiths?" she queried, lifting a hoof to point at the Oak for emphasis.

The Mighty Oak shook in response. But he did not approach her, nor Twilight, who trotted up to Lance. Sarah groaned, rolled her eyes, and followed them reluctantly. Behind them, the Mighty Oak walked, and as one the group passed the henges into the scorched Ashwood.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

It took them a little under thirty minutes to reach a small clearing created by the wildfire last night, scorched pitch-black all around and with trees having collapsed under their own weight as a result of the inferno. This was thanks to the group's skills in flight and self-levitation, in addition to the sheer size and speed of the Mighty Oak. A mile away, they could barely see the patch of obsidian, standing proud and tall despite what had happened. None of the trees, as a result of collapsing, reached any barrels; the tallest one only towered an inch past Katie's height were she to stand on the ground with ears and wings upright.

Twilight was magically sifting through the torched wood, with Anna and NoLegs chipping in. Not one cursed tree had ever been in the clearing; there was not even the slightest hint of bone in the resultant charcoal to indicate as much. Sarah took to manually overturning crumbling logs, and Lance used his wings to dust off parts of those logs as best as he could. The Mighty Oak watched them intently, wondering what it was they were digging for.

Katie herself didn't chip in to help. Her body ached as she looked at the burnt bark and other bits of scorched fauna that was once alive. She'd already done enough damage, and honest to Godcat she was wondering why Lance decided to drag her back here anyway. Of course, she didn't vocalize that part of her concerns, as the nymph within her told her 'Shut your mouth and be good,' and for once in her life she was compelled to obey that inner nymph.

Ten minutes into the overturning of blackened rubble, the group reached the pile taller than Katie herself, who noted that a lot more burnt wood had caved in there than the surroundings. In fact, that was dubiously so, to the point the pile almost looked like a closed flower, waiting to bloom with the sun's morning rays. She turned away as Twilight lifted a few of the hunks of burnt bark, only to shriek and backpedal with her magic flickering weakly as doing that uncovered a pair of soot-covered skeletons.

Anna and Sarah both cried out as well upon seeing the skeletons. One sported a broken horn, and tattered remnants of a beard, while the other had a beak and a talon that lay outstretched. There was a second talon clutching a mound of dirt with a skeletal hoof wrapped around it as well, rather protectively at that, coming from the skeleton with the beak. Hoof and claw met at the mound and held each other in a cold, tight grip, and tarsus and pastern sported one golden ring each. Had Katie looked at that moment, she would've sworn the rings weren't there before.

Sarah gabbled, her brain scrambling as she tried to process what lay before her. Katie winced, her ache growing stronger as she heard the immediate confusion fast giving way. She tried, desperately, to ignore it, but her body was not keen on obeying this day. Pain shot through her veins as the Mighty Oak himself walked over to inspect the ghastly scene. Lance stepped back, scrutinizing the skeletons for a moment, his wings drooping slightly as Sarah turned to Anna.

"Wh… who are they?" Sarah asked, slowly, her voice cracking and still fraught with confusion.

Anna looked away from her sister, and to the skeletons. Even deprived of most of their flesh, and with so much still buried under the rubble, she seemed to note several once-familiar features. Hesitantly, she lifted more bits of bark aside with her magic, revealing more bones belonging to the deceased. She pushed these aside, and more bark after that, until at last complete skeletal structures were exposed.

Twilight, feeling bile rising in her throat as she watched, noted that the unicorn's skeleton had broader shoulders and hips, spaced further apart for reasons she could not place. Perhaps the owner had been crushed in the rubble, which seemed a possibility given that the bones were just excavated. The other skeleton had back hooves, and wing-bones flared wide and broken, with one draped over the unicorn that lay with it.

Sarah's heart stopped for one beat when the full tableau was exposed before her. "Wh-who…" she managed in a croak.

Anna turned to Twilight, who saw tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Slowly, she raised a shoe-clad hoof and gestured to the skeletons. "Twilight…" she said in a low, bitter tone, "take a few steps closer. I'm sure…" The raised hoof shook, and Anna struggled to keep it still as a fresh tear trailed down her cheek. "I'm sure… they'd like to meet you."

It took mere seconds, and a few glances between the skeletons and the twins, before Anna's unspoken meaning registered to Twilight. Her stomach clenched, and her heart drummed harder. In an effort to see something else—anything else at this rate—her eyes gravitated to the lone mound that was the only thing between the cadavers. Even then, she saw the hoof and claw continuing to clutch it well beyond the mortal coil.

Slowly, she took a few steps forward, before Katie let loose her tongue and grappled her neck with it. She felt Katie shaking her head when the tongue formed one loose coil. Another unspoken meaning registered: "Don't." Before Twilight could contemplate why Katie would perform such an action, Sarah strode to the mound of dirt and thrust her own talons into it. In seconds, she was digging, pulling aside whole chunks of earth as thick as her fist to uncover something trapped beneath the collection of soil. She paused, eyes alighting with recognition as she stared at the object before proceeding to pry apart more chunks of soil to uncover more of its form.

"... Mr. Muffin? Wh-who left you here?" Sarah queried as she uncovered a small, stuffed and dirtied teddy bear in the broken mound of dirt. Through the grime, she could still see patches of white, accentuated by an equally-dirtied golden ribbon. She reached in and pulled the small plush out, and noted that despite the dirt and some small scratch-marks in his fur that made a bit of cotton and a few flecks of blackened crystals spill out, he seemed more or less alright. Her pupils shrank, and she brought the plush close to her chest as her eyes settled on the skeletons once again.

In seconds, everything dawned on her, just as it had Twilight. Sarah backpedaled on her hooves, wings flaring and pupils shrinking in alarm. Lance turned to her, noticing the toy, though he elected not to say anything. NoLegs did not utter anything telepathically either. Both could see the wide-eyed horror on her face, knowing full well the reason behind it, and it made their stomachs turn. Anna magically pulled something else out of the loose mound of soil, and held the object a distance away from the skeletons before shaking it off. She promptly brought it back to herself and unraveled it, revealing it to be a parchment of paper. Then, she beckoned Lance and NoLegs over with a hoof.

Lance trotted over and leaned to the parchment, finding more archaic scrawlings that could only barely pass off as runic writing. Ink splotches and scuff marks born of dirt ran rampant on the frame, and with soot thrown in for good measure, not only made the parchment appear older than it was but obscured much of its writing. He and NoLegs had to squint their eyes just to make out the outlines of the various letters splashed haphazardly upon its surface.

NoLegs magically took the parchment and looked over it thrice. He glanced at Anna, who nodded back to him. "I can't read much of it. What little I can doesn't… make sense," she answered. NoLegs nodded back and looked over the paper one more time before magically embracing everyone, even the Mighty Oak, and filling their thoughts with his voice as he read the note to them.

"'To the Envoy of Cocytus, I never thought that you would visit me and my beloved after we became wraiths. Much less had we expected you to deliver such news that our daughters were in Frostbite when you last, supposedly, saw them. But I shouldn't have been surprised when you did. Not the least bit.'"

"Envoy of Cocytus? Who's that?" Twilight interjected. NoLegs looked at her and shrugged in earnest.

He continued to read, "'However, when I saw you with that cat and those gryphons, something struck me as very odd. I could tell, almost immediately, that you all were hiding something. The way you fidgeted… the way you sidestepped when asked… that's something someone who'd tell the truth would avoid doing.'" NoLegs paused to give Katie a look, and she merely glanced away.

He shrugged it off and continued, "'Thus, regardless of whether you told a lie or a truth, I have decided to end it here. My beloved Veronica made no motion to object. For us, there is no going back; nothing more to atone for than our past failures. Should you find this note, stay as far away from Greenwood as you can. I know not the full extent of what goes on behind its closed doors, as I have deliberately distanced myself and my family to keep them safe, but I can assure you it is most unpleasant.'"

Lance's brow furrowed at that. He turned to Anna and Sarah, both of whom nodded weakly in confirmation to that last statement. "I haven't seen much myself…" Sarah muttered, turning to the bear in her claws. "Mr. Muffin helped me leave when things got really bad." To much of Twilight's immediate confusion, he decided to not query about the very absurd and borderline bizarre flight of fancy that was a stuffed bear supposedly helping Sarah get out of Ashwood. Before Twilight could speak about it, much less glean when this event supposedly happened, somepony else decided to interject and cut off that train of thought right in its bud.

"You… wouldn't believe me if I told you," Anna muttered, just as grimly.

Katie jerked to Anna, orbs widening as she retracted her tongue. "You know what goes on there, don't you?!" she hissed. At Anna's nod, she flared her wings and buzzed. "Well, what is it?!"

Anna lifted a hoof and removed the shoe with her magic. Once she did, the skin on that hoof writhed and twisted with an angry red pulse of mana, causing its fur to ripple unnaturally. She put the shoe back on, whereupon the pulse of mana ceased, and her skin fell still. "Anna... is there something horrific going on?" Twilight pressed. All she got was another glum nod.

NoLegs sighed and continued to read, seeing that Anna had gone tight-lipped all of a sudden, "'It is as I lay here, in the burning remnants of my own house, that I realized I will go to Hell for my inaction. I could not save my foals. The only comfort I have is that Veronica is coming with me, and when we cross the gates… Greenwood will fall. Anna Aria Windwood, and Sarah Rhapsody Lyregale… if you are, by some twisted miracle of fate, reading this, I love you. I can only hope you forgive me… but turn back once you conclude reading this. Take Mr. Muffin with you, if you can. I will watch you, even though I will surely have been cast into Hell's fiery pits… and I will, likewise, witness the calamity that will befall Greenwood…'"

NoLegs frowned as he made the note vanish in a flash of light. "'That was… deeply disturbing," he telepathically groaned.

"'The calamity that will befall Greenwood…'" Lance mused, frowning at that. "What the utter fuck was he babbling on about?"

"Greenwood seemed fine…" Twilight added, putting a hoof to her chin and tapping idly. Turning to Anna again, she pressed forward, "Are you gonna elaborate for us, or is this something we'll have to see ourselves?"

"The latter," Anna muttered, shaking her head. "Honestly… I'm not sure what he meant by 'calamity,' but… but if he told me and Sarah to stay out of it…"

Katie's stomach twisted as she finished that statement for Anna, her own voice grim and dour, "... then it can't bode particularly well."

Chapter LXXIX- The Abode of Wysteria

Lance and Twilight frowned as the group formed a small circle, while the Mighty Oak dug into the earth with his massive steel knuckles. Everyone was ruminating about the very cryptic warning they had received from the fire-torn remnants that were once a house. Sarah would not yield her tight grip over Mr. Muffin, and sat with body shaking and feathers puffing as a trench was carved into the ground.

At least, deathly silence hadn't held the group as it had in the crystal caverns. Katie relaxed a little at that, content to listen to the rhythmic scraping of soil as the Mighty Oak continued to dig. "So… should we still look around… after the Mighty Oak…" Anna trailed off, brow furrowing as she looked to where the deceased pair had been discovered.

"Yes," Lance replied tersely, his voice grim as the hole the Mighty Oak made deepened substantially. "Which reminds me…" He turned to Katie and addressed her as the Mighty Oak jumped into the hole, which was now deep enough to swallow both his feet easily, "Were either of them, in any way, literally vegetating?"

Katie shook her head as the Mighty Oak used his arms to haul himself out of the hole. "The stallion had… tumors on his neck, but that was about it," she replied dismally. "Either he was… starting to, or he swallowed things that fused… into his neck somehow."

"But the flames got him before he could turn, if he was indeed turning," Lance muttered. A mute nod of confirmation answered to him, and his wings drooped as he turned to the skeletons when the Mighty Oak approached them again.

He stomped the ground once in front of them with a massive foot, and mana pulsed through the ground before vines erupted and tenderly grasped every bone in an embrace like that of a blanket. The vines lifted the skeletons, and slowly, precariously placed them into the hole he had dug, careful to keep their rings on their pastern and tarsus. Once laid at the bottom, the vines pulled the dirt over top them in a smothering blanket, until the ground was once again flat with only the barest traces of loose soil to ever confirm that patch had indeed been tampered with. A low groan left the Mighty Oak as he forced his metal jaw to move, and he trembled in place for a few seconds as he looked upon the fresh grave he had just dug.

Then he turned to the rest of the party, his metal jaw closing and a spark of green fire alighting in his seemingly empty eyes. He stomped once, and everyone stood up to face him. Even though he was unable to physically shift his face beyond its meager movements, they could still sense something budding within him. Another low groan left him, and the sparks of flame dribbled from his eyes in a manner reminiscent of tears. He stomped again, and more vines erupted before ensnaring four pieces of the torn house, forming crude crosses that were then affixed onto the soil, the vines snapping off their roots to wrap around the pieces and hold them in place.

Twilight hesitantly approached the Mighty Oak, frowning when she noted he didn't seem to realize he was somehow crying. "They… were your friends… weren't they?" she asked, garnering a reluctant nod in response. The Mighty Oak groaned again, jaw parting for a moment, which amplified the sound and somehow made it echo somberly. Then it snapped shut, and he waved his knuckles at the house one last time.

Vines erupted once more, forming a thick wall with holes that alighted with green power. Twilight turned to it and stared for a moment before realizing he was trying to convey something to her with those gaps. She pulled out her translation book from the thaumic plane and pieced together what the message was, "'Nobody should have to bury their own friends… what did they do to deserve this?'" The vines retracted into the soil, and Twilight made the book vanish. "Is that why you were stomping around in the airship?" She got a nod from the Mighty Oak.

Silence held for a long moment, as nobody could conjure an answer to the Mighty Oak's translated question. How could they answer it, when the only thing they knew was that the deceased died willingly? Lance's stomach twisted as he remembered the soldiers pulling the Mighty Oak away, and considered that they had to take him by force, now mentally picturing him trying to reach his companions, slowly but surely being consumed by fire…

No wonder he was stomping about, in that case. He started wondering who else may have been trapped in Ashwood, when the wildfire broke out, unable to leave because the Mighty Oak wasn't there to save them in their moment of need... Possibilities turned in his head, each more dismal than the last. He recalled that Ashwood was suspiciously quiet last night, as the fires raged and tore it from the roots up, and that as far as cursed trees were concerned, nothing turned up yet. Had, perhaps, the entire forest come to a decision to die then and there? He looked around; just him, his group, and felled and torched trees littered the scene.

Katie turned to Lance, noticing his silence. "Some of the torches… were alight with blue fire," she muttered, snapping him out of his stupor and causing him to look at her. "In a clearing. We should investigate that first."

Lance frowned. "I heard something about that yesterday…" he muttered, brow furrowing. "But why do you want to start there?"

"Something about that clearing… was off, sir. Just… wrong," Katie replied, shivering as she recalled her hoof nearly catching fire. "The gryphons accompanying me suspected absorbed pegasus magic, and literal loads of it." She buzzed her wings, teeth grinding a little. "If the torches are still around when we get to that clearing, I'll eat my tail!" Her ears perked, then rotated as she caught a faint sound. She strained, trying to ascertain what it was and where it was coming from.

Lance opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, when his ears rotated too. Anna and Sarah's ears, likewise, moved in unison. Twilight and NoLegs followed suit, as slowly the noise grew louder. They heard twigs snapping, leaves crunching, and something shuffling about in the fire-torn undergrowth with a fervor that could only be called panicked. In tandem with that, though, came a horrific and pained cry that distorted the longer it dragged on. Eyes darted, and even the Mighty Oak found himself glancing around to figure out where the sound was coming from. It persisted for a few minutes, stopping only with a hiccup, and then resumed without its source revealing itself.

Katie deftly hopped off of Twilight's back and landed smoothly on her hooves. Silently, she trotted past a few of the felled trees, slowly as to avoid startling the already-shrieking newcomer who was raising quite a fuss. She chittered softly, shifting her body low and keeping her wings shut as she slunk out of sight past the barely-visible obsidian patch. Several minutes passed, with the shuffling continuing and the outburst growing louder and more frantic, before silence settled so fast all eyes that could widen did widen. Had something gone wrong? Did the source of the outburst calm down? Or was it an illusion?

They got their answer when Katie cooed, just loud enough for the whole lot to hear, "Hey, hey… it's okay, little guy…" The crying started all over again immediately after that, but amidst it they could hear Katie mutter, trying to reassure that which was wailing. Exchanging glances, Sarah and Anna took a few steps away from the group before vanishing beyond the trees and obsidian patch, keeping their steps slow and quiet. Lance and Twilight followed them, as did NoLegs, whilst the Mighty Oak opted to stay in the clearing.

They came upon a most bizarre sight a good forty yards away from where the grave had been freshly dug, under a felled tree that managed to stay mostly intact after it landed on one of its worse-off brethren. There, Katie had laid down and cradled something that struggled in her forelegs, ears pinned back as she nuzzled and cooed to get it to calm down. Seeing the group approaching, Katie extended her tongue to wave them over, as her hooves were currently occupied in more ways than one.

Seeing the invitation, the group came closer before they blanched in unison. A tiny, thin, and heavily burnt foal wailed and thrashed with hooves made of bloodied, soot-covered bark. Wings of tattered leaves buzzed feebly, and eyes of a dulled, almost milky forest green were glistening with fear and had gone wide, glancing everywhere they could in an effort to find a way out. Blood stained the foal's tiny, pale face in dried droplets, and it kept trying to use its hooves to push Katie away. Strangely, despite the bark and leaves and the horrific burns, this little one wasn't rotting even as branches were growing out of its head and rear in place of a mane and tail. "Dear Godcat… you're kidding me…" Lance muttered, pupils shrinking at the sight.

Katie shook her head even as she tried to soothe the screeching tree-baby. However, the child continued to fuss and shriek, flailing for all it was worth. Lance hoofed his blaster over to Anna, who took it along with his saddlebags and gunblade in her magic before he shifted to lay down in front of the two with hooves extended. Sensing what he was wanting her to do, Katie hoofed the baby over to him, brow furrowing. "Do we take this one?" she asked.

Lance hastily nodded and turned to cradle the baby, who tensed and hushed upon noticing it was in another set of forelegs. He looked at the foal, who looked back at him with a sniffle. "Hey… relax. You're safe," he muttered, keeping his voice soft as he shifted to hold the foal to his barrel. The foal immediately began to shriek again, but quieted when the legs holding it gently bounced. "Shh…" The baby shifted to cling to his uniform, and slowly Lance shifted to stand on his hinds again, wings spread for balance.

Katie stood up again, eying the child warily. "I'd say we're not taking samples off that one. Just… no," she muttered.

Lance gave another curt nod, continuing to bounce the foal in his legs to placate it. "Yeeeeeah, Alexander ain't getting his claws on this one," he agreed. He turned to Katie. "Filly, or colt?"

"Colt," Katie replied bluntly.

"So… what do we do?" Twilight queried, looking at the child intently. "How do we feed him… and can he still eat?"

Lance sighed, shrugging his shoulders as the child finally hushed, looking around with very wide eyes. "I doubt it. He's probably not eaten since… I don't know when, to be honest." He shifted to nuzzle the foal, wincing as his snout brushed up against fraying bark. The foal poked him with a hoof, and he pulled his head back. "And the little guy's already part tree, too… which is going to make caring for him a lot more challenging…"

Twilight's brow slanted. "Do you think you can manage it?" she queried sincerely.

Lance nodded. "If nothing else, I can keep him calm," he replied. He turned to Sarah and eyed the plush she stubbornly clung to. "Do you think Mr. Muffin would make a good friend for the tyke?"

Sarah's eyes darted from Mr. Muffin to the foal, then back again. "Not like this, no," she muttered. "He'll need to be cleaned and patched up first…"

Lance nodded, seeing why Sarah made the remark. He turned to Twilight. "Would you be comfortable holding the little guy?" he asked.

Twilight nodded, lit up her horn, and took the foal in her magic, smiling as the child went with quietly. She watched, perplexed, as the little one buzzed his false wings with a changeling's fervor. "Hrm… would this count as 'bound wings?'" she asked.

"Not really much wing to bind, in the strictly biological sense," Lance groaned, flexing his forelegs before slowly retaking his blaster from Anna, who made his saddlebags and gunblade vanish in separate flashes of light. He lifted one of his wings to brush his primaries against the child, who burbled and tried to grasp the feathers. "I'd wager none at all." He smiled as the baby managed to wrap his little barky hooves around a primary, cooing in a distorted voice that still held an air of innocence about it.

Anna's horn alighted, and she took off her front shoes before making them vanish. "Well… the poor thing's gonna need a basket," she pointed out, garnering a look from Lance and Twilight.

"You are right… but where are we going to get a basket?" Twilight shot back, frowning.

The ground beneath Anna pulsed and trembled slightly, shimmering with a green ripple of mana. "You'll see," Anna replied with a cheeky grin budding on her face. The ground shook, a low groan filled the air, and trees snapped as the Mighty Oak finally decided to catch up, stopping just behind the group. She turned to him with a nod and jerked her horn to Twilight for emphasis as the ground pulsed with another viridian ripple.

Twilight turned to the Mighty Oak and lifted the child a little higher than her head. The Mighty Oak tilted his body slightly, and lifted his knuckles slowly, until they could brush up against tiny wooden hooves. The baby squealed and cooed as he started tapping at the knuckles with all four legs, and then stopped and curled up when the knuckles retracted. She turned to Anna as she levitated the foal to her barrel, before feeling the ground pulse and heave a little with power.

Twilight opened her mouth, about to ask what Anna was going to do, when the ground in front of the felled tree cracked and split in several places. Mana seeped into the breaks in the soil, filling them until light burst from them in miniature rays that weaved twisting lines that had no structure, no form, no fine-tuned control. Simply put, light became corporeal and extended, outwards from ash-laden soil in serpentine motions. The magic danced around Anna's horn, yet did not launch from it. Her flesh writhed unnaturally, before a bit of ivy sprouted from her left foreleg with something cradled in its leaves.

"A-are you transmogrifying again?!" Twilight asked. Anna shook her head.

"No," Anna replied, voice echoing with power, "merely utilising my special talent." She conjured arrows in a few flashes of light and stabbed them into the ground where light erupted, causing that light to twist around them and hold tight. These arrows were different from her standard, Twilight noticed; predominately bark with feather fletchings and steel heads. The ivy growing from her foreleg threw several small somethings with enough force to make them land in the holes and retracted back into its host, leaving just a small wound and an upwelling of smeared blood as proof that it had been there.

The power pulsed through the ground with increasing intensity and frequency, and the light embraced the arrows down to their feathers. Yet, not once did the glow turn red, nor did Anna's eyes as she concentrated. Slowly, the tiny objects that were lobbed onto the arrows burst, and from them more viridian vines expanded outward, gradually taking the shape of the light. NoLegs waved his tail and, with a flicker of his own magic, summoned the wooden horse on wheels again and watched as poison ivy slowly grew into a manageable, corporeal form. When they ivy started rising past the fletching in an effort to find something else to ensnare, Anna merely lifted the arrows out of the holes, careful to avoid cutting the vines and keeping their roots in the soil at the same time.

The ivy continued to grow, steadily growing inch by inch as the arrows they were anchored to kept rising up into the air, ensuring the vines could not grapple for anything else. Mana repeatedly pulsed, nay, pumped itself into the earth and the roots of the ivy, hastening its growth at an admirable rate. When the vines were about as long as the felled tree, the arrows disentangled themselves and an aura seized the plants by their roots before yanking them out of the soil in tandem.

Twilight gave a low whistle at the sight and watched as the vines were rolled onto themselves in almost perfect coils, each about the size of a pony's head when Anna got through with them. Anna conjured her front horseshoes again and slipped them on, turning to Twilight with a small smile on her muzzle. "My curse… has some benefits," Anna muttered, ears folding back a little. "Just… not a lot of them."

Twilight sighed, and flinched as the infant poked her in the barrel with his bark-laden hooves. "What are you going to do with the ivy?" she asked, glancing between the gathered coils and Anna for a moment.

Anna frowned. "Make a basket for our little guy," she replied.

Lance flared his wings and flapped once. "I'll do an aerial preliminary in the meantime, see if I can spot any wayward torches," he muttered, turning to Anna. "You have a radio on hoof?" Anna nodded and conjured a radio in a flash of light, affixing it to the collar of her dress with care, before conjuring another one and affixing that to the collar of Lance's uniform and turning both devices on with another flick of magic. He nodded and turned to address Katie. "You want to help?"

Katie's wings flared instantly, and buzzed with fervor as NoLegs conjured her clawed shoes and put them on her hooves. She turned to the little one, who stretched his legs and yawned. "Sounds good. Pretty confident little twiggy over there will be safe in the meantime," she muttered. Then her wings sagged. "A timberbaby. Great Godcat, what the hell has Fantasia come to…?" With that, both she and Lance took off rather clumsily into the skies, one struggling to balance his wingbeats and the other veering a few feet away just to avoid getting a faceful of said wingbeats.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

An hour after they launched, making sure to keep to the treeline as they fitfully scanned Ashwood, nothing turned up for Lance and Katie. Lance had kept his blaster firmly in his hooves, in case anything struck him and his soldier, who was leading him to the clearing that she had mentioned. All the while, both listened intently for anything to come through the radio, and from the world below their wings. Only silence answered to them from the latter; the whole of Ashwood was as still and tranquil as yesterday, and the ectoplasms that still reigned in the skies had likewise gone quiet. A niggling feeling that something was wrong settled in their guts and minds, but neither elected to comment on it.

The radio, however, was animated with chatter. "Got the basket built, and some dirt put in it so the ivy's rooted in it," Anna reported from her end.

"And the foal's condition?" Lance asked.

"In the basket and asleep with Mr. Muffin in his hooves," Anna replied in a chipper voice. "And we've relocated back to… the shrine."

Lance frowned. "Why? Did something happen?" he asked.

"The Mighty Oak got antsy," Anna sighed, her voice followed by a low groan of wood and metal.

Lance nodded and muttered, "Fair enough." His eyes gravitated down when Katie stopped all of a sudden, and—what in the wide world of Fantasia was this? He and Katie had come upon a clearing, lined with a ring of scorched torches alight with suspect blue flames. Green miasma danced in the center, spiraling around a tall willow tree that was not only in bloom, but decidedly not scorched or punctured in any capacity whatsoever. The branches were long enough to coil around the trunk twice, and with the flowers in the way, neither of the airborne duo could ascertain if it had a door or not.

A whole uneven chasm surrounded the clearing in a jagged ovoid shape, each twist and bend as wide as three Valkyrie tanks, with the whole thing going deep enough into the earth to let magma spill out. Its radius was wide enough that it effectively protected the clearing against the wildfire's wrath; still-lit torches aside, virtually nothing had blackened. He turned to Katie, who looked at him with shrunken orbs and hooves flailing in the direction of the bizarre sight.

"That tree wasn't there before, I swear!" Katie gabbled. "That clearing was empty yesterday, except for those torches!"

Lance turned to the sight again, and took a moment to study the chasm that cut this oddity off from the rest of Ashwood. "Forget that… how the hell did it get out of Ragnarok intact, and turned into its own little island?" he questioned, and he would have scratched his head at the strange phenomenon if his hooves weren't full.

"Found something?" Anna queried from her end of the line.

"Yeah, and I'm flabbergasted," Lance snarked in reply. "I'll investigate, see what the hell is up, and then I'll rendezvous with you at the shrine."

"What is it?" Twilight piped up from Anna's end.

"A tree that isn't torched, and blooming," Lance replied bluntly as he and Katie slowly descended into the clearing, stretching his back hooves a little early to compensate for his loaded forelegs. "Not sure if it's a house yet, since its branches are long as shit, but either way it's pretty strange." As he and Katie touched down with a brief stagger and trotted to see the nearest torch to discover burning rings and bleached skulls therein, the radio's chatter picked up quite a bit.

"In bloom? But it's autumn!" Anna griped, sounding just as perplexed as Twilight. Lance snorted and righted his posture first, and bade Katie to approach the strange willow with a wing after they pulled away from the torch.

"Actually, some trees do bloom later than others," Twilight cut in as Katie gave a reluctant nod and started to shamble forward. Twilight uttered a garbled syllable before Anna decided to go on a little tirade and cut her off.

"I know that, thank you very much, but Ashwood was destroyed twice, if you recall!" Anna pointed out, audibly stomping a hoof. "Nothing outside of Greenwood should have survived, unless it's a really persistent cursed tree!"

"Sis, please don't wake the baby…" Sarah chimed in as Lance started to walk after Katie, going slow to avoid tripping over her.

Anna audibly groaned. "Alright, alright," she muttered. NoLegs gave a meow as Katie and Lance neared the admittedly-majestic branches, both pausing to stare at the flowers, but not just because they were gorgeous. The petals were uniformly formed, small and a delicate lilac in hue, untouched by any singe marks whatsoever. Yet they oozed a thick, rather shady scent of iron and rot that clashed horribly with their fragile appearance.

"... a wisteria willow," Lance muttered, nose wrinkling at the scent.

Katie lifted a shoe and brushed her claws against a flower, careful to avoid cutting it. The flower bounced upon the claws, and did little else but eject a tiny red seed onto the ground. That seed sizzled and popped as soon as it landed, before it evaporated in a smog of green miasma that for but an instant turned a hideous crimson. Her brow furrowed, and her hoof dropped at the anomaly. "Strange… this tree seems to be of a magical sort…" she noted before rearing onto her hinds to part the branches with her forelegs. More seeds ejected from the ruffled flowers, each one vanishing in a puff of smog after a crackle or two.

Lance cocked the Accelerator, ears twitching as Katie simply stopped. "You okay?" he asked.

Katie gave a slow nod. "Yes. This tree, though… something ain't right with it," she muttered blandly. She turned her head to Lance, the rest of her body stiff. "I don't trust the seeds. Do you think it would be wise to freeze these flowers before they hork up more of them?"

Lance shook his head, and made to gesture Katie to stand aside when the tree slowly, of its own accord, parted its branches. With a distinct red pulse of mana, a swath was erected for them to pass through, revealing a pristine wood door built into the trunk. Oddly, there were no window frames or sills to be had here; just that door, and nothing more. Katie reoriented her head and dropped back to all fours, and Lance found his grip on the blaster tightening. "Whooo-kay, I'll be surprised if this is a cursed tree that has enough living space for a cluster of twenty changelings," Katie muttered.

Hesitantly, the two approached the bark, and paused to turn around as the branches closed behind them with another spray of smoking seeds. "If somepony's actually sick enough in the head to do that, then why did we only find this anomaly now?" Lance questioned, turning to the door first, noticing that crude runes had been carved into its frame around a tarnished silver knob. He turned to the branches after, but all that yielded was a sky clouded with flowers; he couldn't see anything past them, let alone under them except for the door. When his eyes gravitated back down, he and Katie exchanged concerned looks.

"Want me to trot around the bark before we break and enter?" Katie asked, brow slanting. Lance gave a mute nod and watched as she started to trot around the trunk. It wasn't long before she vanished from sight, and the only sign she was even there was the gentle thunking of her shoes on the soil. It took her twenty minutes to come back from the other side, brow furrowed again. "Nothin'," she reported.

Lance sighed and readied the Accelerator, angling his wings to the blaster before the tarnished knob spun, and the door spontaneously pulsed with red mana that filled in the runes, before it opened with hinges a-creaking to reveal a dark abyss beyond. Katie sat on her haunches and threw her forehooves into the air. "Yeesh, is somepony lonely in there?!" she cried in exasperation, her outburst echoing into the conspicuous tree.

Nopony answered from within the abode, if it was indeed even that. Katie stood up and snorted before she took the first step inside, followed by Lance. "Should've asked NoLegs to come with…" Lance muttered, glancing about in an attempt to let his eyes adjust to the lack of light. "It would've been really useful to have a light about now…"

NoLegs meowed from his end of the line, before Anna piped up, "What is it?"

"Found out the tree's a house, and it's dark," Lance replied.

"Peculiar… alright NoLegs, warp over to Lance," Anna muttered, before NoLegs meowed and a pop sounded from the radio. Seconds after, he appeared before Lance in a flash of light and alighted his tail. "Hooray for teleporting cats," Anna added wryly.

"Indeed," Lance agreed. Immediately, NoLegs jumped on his head and cast his glow about the room they were in. A living room greeted them and Katie, thick with dust that had seemingly drained most of the color, shrouding the space in a brown hue as dull as the soil outside. Cabinets, open yet spaciously empty, hung to their left, and to the right sat a small table and a large flight of stairs going up. In front of them was another door leading deeper into the house. Past that, the place was barren; nothing had even decorated the ceiling unless the dust counted for something.

Katie's stomach twisted again as she beheld the sight. Lance's wings ruffled, and NoLegs made his blaster vanish in a flash of light with his tail puffing out. Hesitantly, Lance reverted to all fours, nose still slightly crinkled. "Abandoned…" he muttered. He turned to Katie. "Hear anything?"

Katie's ears twitched, swiveled upright, and rotated repeatedly for a few minutes. She eventually dropped them and shook her head when she failed to detect a single sound. "Zero, zip, nada," she replied. "As still as a fucking grave."

"So it let us in… and nobody's here…" Lance spread his wings and fanned them in the air in lieu of his forehooves, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "This is… a very peculiar house."

"Probably enchanted," Katie noted, wings shuddering for a moment. "I mean… nothing else would come close to explaining why it admitted us to begin with." She turned to Lance. "Which way first? That second door over there, or the stairs?"

Lance pondered this for a second or two, and strode to the second door to scrutinize it. On the surface of this door, he found naught but a splintering array of runes that warped with age and a hole where a knob should've been. He lifted a hoof to push it open, but when he made contact the door fell into the next room with a thud that sent dust flying everywhere. He staggered back, hoof shooting to his muzzle in a vain attempt to keep the dust out of his nose and mouth, coughing with NoLegs as the cloud settled.

Peering into the room after sneezing a few times, Lance frowned when he eyed a kitchen with cabinets thrown open and a countertop in the center of the room with a cutting board resting upon it, and a dulled cleaver impaled on top of it. Beneath the cabinets rested a metal sink, filled with dirty dishes coated in a black grime so thick he couldn't tell what was silverware and what was plates and bowls. It formed this improbable, shapeless blob that seemed to inhale any dust that came into contact with it. A stench of rot came from that sink, which made him gag a little before he reigned in his stomach and elected to stay as far away from that atrocity as possible. NoLegs hissed, and likewise shielded his mouth and nose with his tail.

He turned to scrutinize the rest of the kitchen, hoof still firmly on snout, to find that another door stood opposite of the reeking sink. Then, something on the counter caught his eye; the cleaver glinted with a distinct red color. Had it rusted, perhaps? "Katie, c'mere a sec," he ordered, his voice muffled. He heard thunking hooves and scraping claws, before he felt something tap his rear pastern. Taking the hint, he trotted to the cutting board so Katie could enter right behind him, and it did not take him long to hear her retch and hiss.

"What is that smell!? It reeks worse than where that disposal plant supposedly stood!" Katie cried, coughing to get the stench out of her lungs.

"I don't know, and I don't want to find out," Lance grumbled in reply, turning to study the cleaver when he noticed something jutting out a little from behind the cutting board, practically small enough that he only noticed it now. Curious, he trotted around the countertop to ascertain what it was, but stopped as he reached one end of the countertop. Resting just behind it, flush against the structure, was the bleached, headless and dust-covered skeleton of a long-dead pegasus—a pegasus who, suspiciously enough, had rusted metal wing-bindings and copper feathers with runes carved into them. Lance gave a sympathetic wince at the sight, his own wings cringing as an old and particularly unpleasant pain came to the forefront of his thoughts.

Well, he found the wing-bound pony he'd caught wind of, but the poor bastard was already long dead. He hesitantly approached the hollowed-out carcass, and began scrutinizing it in an attempt to find out what had killed this unfortunate sap, and… huh? There was a rune-inscribed tarnished ring on its left front pastern. He heard thunking steps again, and it took mere seconds for Katie to emerge on the other side of the countertop. She, too, paused to consider the corpse, putting a shoe to her chest in respect. Then she noticed the ring and sighed. "Looks like this one got a dose of sablestone absorption… but why?" she muttered.

"I wish I knew," Lance muttered dismally, eyes gravitating to NoLegs. "Take the corpse. We'll bury it later." NoLegs nodded and made to grasp the skeleton in his magic, but the moment he did the skeleton simply crumbled to dust, letting the ring and wing-bindings clatter to the floor and kick up another cloud in the process. Lance and Katie jumped and coughed in unison, grimacing as they realized that body transport wouldn't be possible with this lost soul, either. Nonetheless, NoLegs managed to grasp the wing-bindings and the ring the body left behind, and made those vanish accordingly in a burst of light.

They turned to the cleaver again after, and found curled and dirtied feathers resting just behind the cutting board. The feathers were so old the color simply drained from them, and the caked-on dust only ensured that their filaments clumped together uselessly. NoLegs touched them with his magic too, but they likewise disintegrated. "What did they do, boil the poor bastard? Bones and feathers don't crumble like that unless smashed, ripped, or drained of collagen first…" Lance groused, brow furrowing.

"They'd need a pretty big pot to boil the pony," Katie hissed, rearing onto her hinds and resting her fronts onto the countertop's side to better observe the cleaver. "This may be the work of the unicorns who snagged your wings and plucked you."

Lance gave another wince. "In that case, I get dibs on their horns," he hissed, turning to the door that stood opposite the sink. There was something horribly wrong with this place, and he was going to find out what exactly that was. It did not escape his notice, however, that the radio had gone silent. "Anna? You there?" he asked.

"Still here," Anna replied. "The ectoplasms' clouds are turning black… can we go back to the airship?"

"Yes you can. Me, NoLegs, and Katie will follow you as soon as we are able," Lance answered.

"Alright. We've called the vehicular transport vessel so we can get the Mighty Oak in the sky too," Anna replied. "We'll need to teleport to the mastership anyway, solely for the baby's sake." She sighed. "He'll need a bath."

"Alright. Over and out," Lance muttered before he started to trot to the third door. Strange, this one creaked open to let him in too, and without a pulse of mana to signify any enchantments. What sort of secrets were hiding in this wisteria-turned-house? Part of him demanded immediate answers, but his inner skeptic warned that things could turn sour at any moment. Something was here in this abandoned abode, of that much he was certain. With Katie falling in step behind him, he reached the third door and lifted a hoof to dust it aside, and see if it had any runes on its frame.

Chapter LXXX, Part I- Shelves of Rigor

Lance brushed off as much dust as he could, being careful not to damage the door, only to find carvings so haphazard it may as well have been chicken scratch. He wasn't sure if these were runes, or the drawings of a madpony, but all the same it concerned him. He studied them for a moment longer, before trotting into the room beyond, finding a medium-length hall with boarded-up doors on either side. This hall did not have a door at its end; rather, it had a flat wall adorned with mounted pony skulls, all of which were hornless. His wings shivered at the sight. "Fucking headhunters…" he hissed.

NoLegs grasped his head in his magic and telepathically chimed in with, "No shit."

"Okay, this is Frostbite levels of fucked, officially," Katie agreed, wedging herself between Lance's hooves to cut in front of him.

Anna chimed in from her end of the radio, "Decided to name the baby Timber Spruce."

Lance sighed. "Timber Spruce?" he questioned.

"Yep," Anna replied bluntly.

Lance shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat," he muttered. Turning to the nearest boarded door, he strode to it and studied its bonds. The planks didn't intersect over each other, and were spaced rather evenly apart, all uniformly straight like iron bars. Small round nails were hammered into their ends and centers, so flush against the wood that he would need a needle and thimble just to get under their heads, and betwixt those runes had been carved as possible reinforcements. Strangely, they didn't splinter at all, or collect much in the way of dust for that matter; Lance figured these impromptu locks had been installed recently. He turned to Katie and nodded, and she nodded back before putting her head between the lowest set of planks and pressing one of her ears against the door.

Only silence answered her. She pulled back and shook her head. She then tapped at the lowest plank with a shoe, making sure to pulse mana down to the claws without letting ice grow on them. The runes pulsed back with a sickly green glow, but did nothing beyond that. She backed away from the door, eying it warily. Wordlessly, she turned to the door behind her and cantered to it, prodding at its planks as Lance's eyes gravitated to her. These planks were rigid, rune-marked, and failed to intersect, likewise glowing and pulsing with Katie's ministrations. She turned to NoLegs and sighed. "Can you read this shit?" she asked, using a claw to gesture to the runes.

NoLegs nodded, and levitated himself over to the second door to look at its rune-laden planks. He gave a meow laced with a growl, and used his magic to dust off the planks a little to better read the carvings. He tried to magically remove a plank, but that only caused its runes to activate, causing Katie to back off when ivy spontaneously sprouted from around the doorframe, between the planks, then around them in tight coils. The vines dug through the wall, creating new holes to slip through, and before long that entire door was shrouded in a green, venomous leafy veil. NoLegs telepathically muttered, "Yeesh, whoever put these here is really fucking paranoid about thieves."

"Then again, we did break and enter…" Katie sourly pointed out, eyes narrowing at the new blockade.

Lance sighed. "NoLegs, can you get the cleaver off the counter?" he asked. "We may have no choice but to cut these plants down, and I neglected to bring my gunblade." NoLegs nodded and levitated into the kitchen for a moment, just as Lance muttered something about Anna and magic, keeping his light within sight as his magic grasped the possibly-rusted cleaver. It gave a groan of protest as it wiggled, before it slid out with a rather unpleasant screech that made Katie and Lance wince. NoLegs levitated back to them, cleaver in tail, and Lance took a moment to scrutinize the blade. His brow furrowed when he saw it had dulled, and was caked in some black gunk that mingled with the rust, creating patches of color that did not reflect light at all; only the handle glinted now, and it was beset in hideous red. How the damn thing was impaled in the cutting board to begin with, he could only guess.

NoLegs threw the cleaver, blade first, into the ivy to see what it would do. It thunked with a sickening squelch in the plants, severing two vines cleanly in half. It failed to scratch the wood beneath the vines, which drooped and started oozing a suspect red substance that reeked strongly of iron. The house shook as the cut plants retracted into the wall, almost groaning in pain with a pulse of red mana flashing through the hall with the boarded doors. "... what the hell did the inhabitants do to this house, cast a spell to make it come alive?" Katie asked incredulously, turning to stare at the red splattered blots the vines had left on the floor.

"Possible, but that'd require either an alicorn or a team of powerful unicorns," Lance groused, nodding to NoLegs as he looked at him. "Keep cutting the plants." He turned to Katie. "You too. You have shoes; use them." Both nodded and started cutting the vines again, though Katie had to rear up on her unstable hinds first to help with the hacking and slashing. The house shook and groaned with each and every vine that was split in two, retracting them into the walls with more spurts of dark red fluid flowing freely throughout the ordeal.

It took five minutes for the possibly-rusted cleaver and a set of clawed shoes to dispatch the vines, once more exposing the door and its bonds. NoLegs hardly broke a sweat, and lazily twirled the cleaver, whilst Katie staggered on her legs after reverting to all fours. Now, the door was thoroughly coated in dark, drying red, and its bonds stopped glowing once the substance leaked onto them from the holes in the wall.

There was no two ways about it; this was a downright bizarre house in the middle of Ashwood. The more Lance thought about the vines that spontaneously grew out of the doorframe, the more he found himself having to concede NoLegs' point about the tenants being really frickin' paranoid. There simply was no other explanation for such strange mechanisms of defense; whoever lived here really, really wanted to keep their distance, and prying eyes and ears out of their rooms.

Then again, the house admitted them, and none of them had an answer as to why, though the vines' presence and the fact that it groaned was a very clear indicator that the place was indeed alive. He nodded to NoLegs, who made the cleaver vanish in a flash of light and his small sword appear in its place. With a meow he thrust the blade into the topmost plank, smirking as it managed to cut the wood. A few more whacks after that cut one end of the plank from its nail anchors, and he turned to the other end to repeat the process. Katie and Lance preemptively backed off as the whacking started anew.

The plank's middle fell down to the floor as he cut it loose, its runes pulsing uselessly as it landed and kicked up another cloud of dust. It took NoLegs mere minutes to sever the rest of the planks in a similar manner, and he meowed in triumph once the door was fully exposed to them. He turned the knob slowly, expecting more magic to hold him back, but the house had fallen still with a hiss of worn metal. The dust-laden door creaked open after that, slowly and fitfully, wobbling all the while as if its hinges were about to give out.

Once the door opened fully, the group strode inside, careful to avoid slipping on the puddles that had formed from the vines. Inside, NoLegs cast his light about, revealing a sparsely-decorated room with a table to one side, some fully-stocked bookshelves and chairs on another, and a thick beige carpet spanning across all four corners, adorned with fresh liquid on its side of the door. Katie rubbed the carpet with a shoe, and shuddered as a myriad of tiny bugs jumped between the threads and scattered at her touch. The bugs that tried to crawl up her legs slowed, before she simply let mana pulse through her shoes to freeze the small pests to her limbs almost instantly. Once glued to her legs, she leaned over to identify them, and upon seeing little round, flat bodies with six legs, her nose crinkled again. "We're gonna have to wash our everything when we get back to the ship," she groused. "This place has bed bugs."

Lance snorted, barely paying heed to Katie's remark as he marched to the bookshelves. He spread a wing and gingerly pulled a book off the shelf using his primaries, frowning when this revealed a distinct lack of pages between the flaps of the cover. He had to pinch the book between his feathers just to actually lift it, hearing the distinct clap of two empty bookends impacting when it parted from the shelf. It slipped from his primaries when he pulled it a few inches away, dropping and landing with covers outstretched to reveal little more than a torn spider's web, with said spider inhabitant scuttling away to find another place to build its web.

Katie watched, keeping her distance as Lance started pulling off books by the dozens with his wings and hooves, each and every spine bereft of pages as they landed on the floor. Within seconds of emptying the first shelf, he sprinted over to the one next to it and grasped the top of the furniture with his hooves, wrenching it out to shake its books onto the floor. As that search turned up empty, he went over to the third shelf and flung every single cover he could reach. Something seemed to have possessed him, and what that was, she knew not.

Instead, Katie opted to stay silent until Lance finished emptying the shelves in mere moments. She turned to the lone table on the other side and cantered to it, the scuffing of her shoes letting him know she hadn't strayed from his fetlocks yet. Something about the table seemed off to her, but she didn't know what that was, with what terrible eyesight making it difficult to determine if the damn thing had been coated in dust or not. Katie squinted, trotting to one corner of the table before wheeling around and doubling to the other corner, and then veering between its legs outright to look at its underside.

Nothing.

Experimentally, Katie reared onto her hind hooves and rested her front shoes on the table's edge. It splintered, immediately, at her touch—which was odd, as she hadn't even scraped the thing yet. She pulled back and snorted before turning and trotting over to Lance; the damn thing was probably older than he was, and against aging it was fighting a losing battle. She found a myriad of more tiny insects scuttling away from the resultant cover pile Lance had made, and sighed ruefully. "I think the pages were either rotted away, or eaten off," she muttered dismally.

Lance nodded, kicking the chairs aside before marching out of the room with a scowl on his face. Katie winced at the look, despite it not being directed at her, and trotted after him, feeling his anger washing off of his body as they returned to the hall outside. She considered that none of the other rooms were in any better shape, much less contained anything remotely helpful, and briefly perked her ears to see if anything else stirred within the house.

Again, she found and caught nothing of the sort. For a place so… alive, for lack of a better word with which to describe it, she found it so dismally quiet. The feeling of utter wrongness increased tenfold when NoLegs went to the door across from the room they'd left, and prodded at its planks with his sword. The runes pulsed, the house groaned and shook, and… yet no vines emerged to ward them off. Whatever this place was, it seemed to have acknowledged that it could not stop their advance, and may have well consigned itself to protesting upon deaf but paradoxically attentive ears. As before, NoLegs cut the planks away, magically opening the door afterwards and flying inside with Lance and Katie following suit.

Beyond was little more than a worn, sullied bathroom. Its sink, tub, and toilet were stuffed, and clogged with the same black gunk that was in the kitchen sink, with a smashed mirror above that and a seemingly-dead lantern dangling from a fraying rope attached to the ceiling. Glass shards, dusted and smeared in red, littered the scene, and carved above the bathtub was some kind of runic scrawling. NoLegs hovered over to look at the message, brow furrowing as he racked his brain in an attempt to make out what it had said. He did not stay long, however, as soon enough the acrid stench of rot and mildew drove him, Lance, and Katie straight back out with the door slamming on their heels.

After taking a moment to clear their lungs from the burning smell of that blemished, befouled room, NoLegs waved his tail and telepathically muttered to his companions, "Ugh! What the hell did the tenants do in there, try making a philosopher's stone by homebrewing booze?!"

"Honestly, I don't want to know," Katie muttered dismally, shifting to sit on her hinds to rub her eyes fitfully with her shoes, being careful to avoid slashing into her own face on accident.

Lance let his wings puff up a little, nose crinkled in disgust. He turned to NoLegs and sighed. "What did that scrawling above the tub say?" he asked.

NoLegs gave a shrug and telepathically answered, "'My body is no longer my own,' it said. I'm still struggling to make sense of it m'self."

Katie shook her head and cantered to the door adjacent to the atrocious bathroom, wincing as she came under the long-dead gaze of the heads that were tacked to the end of the hall. "Sounds to me some sorry bastard got collared and enslaved," she muttered dismally, shoulders sagging at the thought. "Did not see a collar, though…"

NoLegs levitated to her and plopped his rear on her back. "Have you actually seen anyone get collared and enslaved?' he telepathically asked in an incredulous tone. Katie gave a glum nod.

"Poor bastard was gelded, too. Screamed like a filly for hours on end, and the ponies who enslaved him… parted head from neck to make it stop," Katie stated dourly, wings shivering. "It happened… ten years after I turned, actually. I stumbled upon that fiasco by freak chance." She let her wings droop. "He told me to run just before he kicked the head-collection basket. Ran, I did."

NoLegs shivered at that mental imagery, and sighed as he lifted himself off of Katie's back to cut away more planks. The house once again protested and shuddered, growling in pain yet doing nothing to abate it as the door beneath the planks was gradually worked loose. The ceiling started to splinter as the planks fell, oozing a red substance that trickled down the walls in disconcerting rivers. Katie had to wonder if, perhaps, she and her cohorts were causing the place genuine anguish when all they did was break the planks from the scaffoldings without removing the bloody nails first. NoLegs opened the door, which swung outwards instead of inwards, and found a block of wood behind it. "What the…?" she muttered, trotting up to the frame that should have led to a room, yet didn't.

NoLegs tapped the anomaly with his tail, then his sword. This wall was no trick of the mind, nor of magic; the tail and blade both thunked audibly and solidly against the wood. His magic washed over it, yet the aura rippled against the surface and faded with nothing yielded. Katie lifted a hoof and tapped at the wood herself, and had as much luck as NoLegs. Lance came over and spread a wing to prod at it, and the primaries bent a little at their ends when he touched it. NoLegs turned to the last door and worked its planks free, brow furrowing at the anomaly of the third door; who would in their right mind affix a door to that spot, board it up, enchant it, and then just have it lead to nowhere at the end of the day? He was of a mind to find that architect and strangle them, but put that aside and strode into the room beyond with Lance and Katie following suit.

They wordlessly gawked, and the light of a blue-furred tail flickered briefly as they beheld a small corridor of stocked shelves—shelves lining either side of them, ending at another door that wasn't barred, filled very neatly with a menagerie of body parts galore. Heads with tangled and scraggly manes intact, forelegs, hind legs, severed thighs complete with cutie marks, horns, internal organs filled every space they could, with that last item stored very neatly in labeled glass jars. There were even severed wings littering the fray, plucked and spread in a way to show off every single joint that they still possessed. For a moment, nobody wanted to advance through this room, as eyeless faces leered at them with horrifically wide opened mouths and slanted brows; what could only be called agonized expressions afflicted with rigor mortis.

The severed heads seemed to judge them with impertinence and agony, for that was really all they could do in their decrepit state. Katie and NoLegs peered closer at the nearest set of heads, shivering as they found small heads that could take up the entirety of Katie's barrel were she to hold just one of them up. The closer she looked at their forms, or what little was left of them, the more her stomach twisted at what she beheld. Her orbs did not, could not deceive her, no matter how much her inner nymph shrieked that such was the case.

Though they were without sight, the sockets of the heads looked to be glaring in spite of their slanted brows. Though they were without voices to call their own, they seemed to be saying something—perhaps issuing a warning by silently screaming in desperation. Though they were without feeling, as that had left them long ago, their manes were filled with bugs crawling throughout, twisting and turning amidst tangles in a way that only added to the heads' apparent discomfort. Though they were without conscience, as that had been stolen from them, one thing was collectively on their minds—almost etched firmly on their anguished, ailing expressions at that.

'Run. You do not belong here,' the severed heads seemed to say. 'Leave, before you become one of us.'

Lance gave another sympathetic wince as he saw the severed wings, his own wings aching once again at the horrible sight. His mind reeled, parts of him screaming to leave this hellhole before he could join the unfortunate ponies who had now adorned the shelves, as chill after chill ran down his spine with enough force to make his tail hike and his feathers stand on end. His mind started running wild before he reined it it; he shivered as he pictured the tree-foal, or worse, Heather and her infant colt adorning these very shelves that he'd stumbled across.

Had… this been why she left Greenwood, perhaps—to avoid becoming a macabre decoration? Some part of him decided to add this place to the list of reasons of refusing to enter the village proper, understanding why Heather hightailed it out of the village if this was the case. Yet he wouldn't obey that urge which filled his legs; that rush of adrenalin that bade him to flee. He couldn't, really, now that he'd dug this hole and had to sit in it. And this house, strangeness and tastelessness of decor aside, begged to be investigated.

So investigate, with great reluctance, he did. He trotted along one side of shelves, scanning each and every item carefully. Most of the items that weren't in jars had deteriorated into a skeletal state some time ago, save the heads, whose remaining bits of skin seemed to have darkened to a uniform patina of light brown leather. The severed thighs sporting the cutie marks fared little better, and these had started to intrigue him a little because the marks, weirdly enough, had a uniform theme—almost every single one he spotted on that one side alone had ivy entangling something wooden.

He paused at the closed door that marked the hall's end, thoughts briefly filled with Anna's mark. He shook his head, opting to call shenanigans later as he turned to the other shelves and doubled back to examine them. Same thing here, too; leathery heads and ivy-themed cutie marks galore. Besides that, only bones and broken horns that had long since lost color stuck out at him; he barely heeded those, much less the labeled organs sitting in jars. Only as he completed the initial look-around did he sigh and turn to Katie and NoLegs. Both shrugged in unison. Neither really made to comment on what they were seeing, either; the items on the shelves spoke volumes about this place. Then Katie trotted to the second closed door between the shelves, and reared up on her hinds to try for the knob with her front shoes.

It jiggled a little, and slipped before she willed herself to create ice and hold the thing in her grip. She chittered as ice cemented shoe and knob together before twisting the knob firmly and stumbling into the room beyond as the door opened, which caused Lance and NoLegs to canter after her to discover a small room. Within lay a queen-sized bed with a rusted, warping frame and a torn mattress that was stained in a suspect and copious amount of red that drained whatever previous color it had been before. The rest of the room was also stained in red, though the dust muted it to a more sickly color of rotting flesh.

Katie detached herself from the doorknob and proceeded to canter to the bed. She poked her head under it as NoLegs cast his light about the room, and reached under with a hoof as she caught a distinct but faint glint. She touched an object, heard a clink, and paused for a few seconds before grasping it with her claws and pulling it and her head out. With her claws, however, she pulled out a few links of chain, each segment rusted and stretched thin. Dangling off one end was a manacle that was itself in less than pristine condition, further stained with a patina of cast iron black in spots. She dropped the chain and stepped away from the bed, considering the rather barren room, and what the presence of the chain meant.

Lance and NoLegs did as well, and it did not take long for the trio to come to the same grim conclusion. Yet nobody wanted to voice it, merely exchanging glances instead, orbs and eyes glittering with sparks of concern and dread. Before anyone could open their mouth and figure out what to do next, Anna decided to chime in from her end of the radio line, "Lance, we got a problem!"

Lance's immediate response was to lift a hoof to the radio and ask, "What?!"

"Fluttershy of all ponies has decided to fly to your location! Sh-she glared at me and asked me, a-and I told her about th-the tree you found," Anna stammered, voice weakening for a moment. "She's taken Maria, Twilight and Angel, too!"

Lance frowned at that. Fluttershy managed to get his fourth-in-command to spill the beans, and even worse, was bringing Maria, her friend Twilight and her pet rabbit along for the ride? He nodded to NoLegs and Katie, spreading a wing and curling all but one primary inward as he asked, "Okay, what the hell went down?"

"Sh-she saw Timber Spruce and just started firing questions ten miles a minute! A-and when I told her, h-her eyes gleamed and narrowed and…" Anna audibly swallowed, evidently collecting herself. "H-her innate magic kicked in, and… she has a glare like a dragon!"

Innate magic? Lance's brow furrowed; that didn't sound particularly pleasant when he caught the 'glare like a dragon' bit. "You sound… hackled, for lack of a better word," he noted.

"You would too, if you pissed her off!" Anna cried defensively. Lance sighed and closed his wing, figuring today's already-long day just got that much worse.

"Are they wanting to drag me out?" he asked after a long moment.

"N-no… they want to see… how bad it is. F-Fluttershy and T-Twilight, that is," Anna replied.

"They'd best brace themselves, then," Lance groaned, frown deepening. "Because we've just found a serial killer's treasure trove." Anna sighed from her end, but said no more. Then, only then, did Lance turn to his troops again, growling in exasperation. "It shouldn't take them long to get here. Let's head upstairs, and brief them when they arrive."

Katie nodded and took a moment to rub the back of her head with the tips of her claws, scuffing the chitinous scalp a little as her superior turned to trot as fast out of the room and the row of stocked shelves as he could. As soon as her hoof dropped she trailed briskly after him, followed in short order by NoLegs. They quickly got into the kitchen, then out back into the lounge before heading up the stairs in silence. After a flight of twenty steps, they arrived in another dust-laden hall, although an oddly short one with only a door that wasn't barred in any capacity to one side and another flight of stairs just barely visible past that, going both up and down into steep darkness.

"How did… those poor ponies not turn into trees?" Katie asked, shivering as the severed heads that silently shrieked at her took up the forefront of her thoughts. Some part of her started to think they were somehow alive now, if only as little more than slumbering wraiths dispossessed of their bodies.

Lance frowned, ears catching the very faint beat of beating wings and the rustling of branches. How long had he been here? How fast did Fluttershy fly here in the meantime, if it was indeed her? Before he could answer Katie's question, he heard a loud pop echo throughout the house, and saw a flash of lavender from the corner of his eye that dimmed into a soft light. He turned as hooves and claws hit the stairs, silently swearing to himself as Maria bumbled right to him and clambered onto his back with admirable speed. "Daddy, new filly told me about a bad place," she began.

Cantering up the stairs behind Maria, much to Lance's dismay, were Twilight and Fluttershy, the latter of whom had Angel on her head and the former with her horn glowing in a violet light. All three were wearing concerned frowns and slanted brows, and Lance saw a spark of something darting across Fluttershy's eyes. He gestured them with a wing to hold on for a minute, and turned to Maria again. "What all did she say?" he asked slowly, reining in his irritation before it could roll off his tongue. He had half a mind to tell Fluttershy to not involve his adopted filly in this mess, but assumed she had a very good reason to do just that anyway.

"Yeah. Where bad ponies cut up good ponies and keep their cutie marks," Maria answered with a fervent nodding of her head. Lance's frown deepened; he'd found such things on display not moments ago… or was it hours? Anna did mention the clouds were darkening earlier... Either way, this was very disconcerting information. Her wings flapped and she added, "Anypony going to the bad place that's not the bad ponies don't come out ever again."

"Well… we found displayed cutie marks downstairs. I… wouldn't recommend looking unless you want sleepless nights for the next month," Katie interjected, turning to look pointedly at Twilight and Fluttershy as she said that. She was careful to keep her tone neutral; such an atrocity did not warrant her usual snark, until she found the owner of this hellhole and turned them into an ice cube first. NoLegs gripped them telepathically and filled their minds with images of said atrocity, and they cringed, winced and gagged when his magic left their heads.

Lance grimly nodded and asked Maria, "So… why'd you want to come here?"

Maria frowned. "Because I wanted to help make the bad ponies pay," she replied bluntly.

Lance sighed and shook his head, but he didn't bother arguing with her at this point. He wanted to find that bastard and grind them into pulp with the Accelerator, tying them up if need be. He turned to Fluttershy and Twilight and briefed them on what little he'd already found so far, and slowly they paled as he informed them that the house was alive, in pain, and had a treasure trove of a maniac's goodies stashed away in a room somewhere. When that was done a few minutes later, the two exchanged glances, then looked at him again. "I only just discovered this place today. It was probably covered by illusions of a very strong sort," Lance muttered with a sigh of reluctance. "We can quibble later. Right now, we have a bigger basket of fish to fry."

Angel jumped from Fluttershy's head and landed smoothly on Lance's back, chittering worriedly. Fluttershy, overcoming her disgust faster than Twilight, translated, "If the house is alive, then shouldn't we leave as soon as possible?"

Lance nodded. "I'd like to, but not until I know the full extent of what goes on here. If Anna's tight-lipped about shit like this, there's probably a good reason why," he muttered dismally, nose crinkling at that possibility. "That is, assuming she does know more about this house than what I've already told her through the radio earlier."

Twilight nodded, seeing the logic of that decision. Her eyes filled and sparked with resolution, and she turned to Fluttershy. "Did Anna tell you anything about the cursed trees?" she asked.

Fluttershy shook her head and frowned forlornly. "No. My Stare... froze her before I could get anything about that," she replied grimly. When Lance's brow raised, and she caught this from the corner of her eye, she turned to him and elaborated, "She just… stiffened. Would not move a muscle until I looked away, and even then her mouth remained shut."

Lance closed his eyes and facehoofed. "If this Stare you speak of did that to her, can we please avoid using that in the future?" he grumbled.

"I don't like using it myself… I won't use it in the future," Fluttershy replied, frown easing a little as Lance dropped his hoof and turned to the lone door of the hallway. "On Anna," she muttered under her breath, her voice obscured by the sound of hooves hitting wood as Lance strode to the door. She and Twilight followed him to the door, with Katie and NoLegs flanking them. Lance opened the door and poked his head inside, finding no locks or runes to speak of.

Twilight watched as NoLegs levitated inside, his light revealing a small and cramped space with a shelf above, some cobwebs, and little else. They pulled back and Lance closed the door. "Probably a utilities' closet," he grumbled, proceeding on to the stairs that diverged on either side of the hall's end. Everyone followed him, sharing glances.

"Daddy, which way do we go?" Maria asked as Lance paused to look left, then right. Indeed, one flight of stairs wound up, and the other went down, and in the twin spells of illumination he could tell they ended in closed, barred doors only after ten steps apiece. Planks, vines, and runes barred both paths, oozing that foul substance that he prayed to Faust and Godcat wasn't what he thought it was.

The house groaned and shook again, the noise sounding oddly… equine. It came in a distorted series of nickers and whinnies that echoed with pain and power. Twilight and Fluttershy winced at the sound, while Angel covered his ears with a disapproving chitter leaving his mouth. "Okay, Lance, you weren't kidding… this is a strange house," Twilight muttered, ears folding back.

"No shit," Lance snarked, wings ruffling. "I'm not sure if we should split up, or stay together."

"I say split. We have two teleporters with us; we could just warp to the other group if shit gets worse than this," Katie interjected, ears up and swiveling as the house fell still and silent. "Because if something's living here… assuming that somepony would actually do that, then we'll need to evict ourselves as fast as possible."

"I don't know… we could get ambushed, for one," Twilight muttered grimly, shaking her head at those prospects.

"And we could get hurt, for another," Fluttershy added, ears and wings drooping. "And… I don't want any of us to get hurt."

"I know that, but… so far, I haven't heard anything from any possible tenants at all," Katie replied, ears folding back. "Not one little peep. The house itself is more animated than they are, which is… saying something, sadly." She flinched as Angel shrieked, and turned to him to find him and Maria looking up with wide eyes. Slowly, her orbs gravitated in that direction, and Fluttershy and Twilight looked up too.

An unnatural snapping sound filled the air as the ceiling above them started to crack and ooze that red substance in places. It was only thanks to the twin lights of Twilight and NoLegs that any of them could see pulsating, rotten flesh peeking out of the fraying bark. Vines started emerging from the bark, stained with crimson, writhing about in serpentine motions that were oddly stiff, as though controlled by an unseen force entirely. Downstairs, Katie heard the sound of wood snapping in fragments, followed by an echoing, inequine wail.

Chapter LXXXI- Come Hell or High Magma

Rarity, Zecora and Rainbow Dash, the latter carrying the former two and a pair of saddlebags with straps and buttons holding them closed upon her back, descended upon Ashwood. They frowned as the Void opened up to let them through. "Oh what is that dreary darkness? What is it doing here?" Rarity asked, wincing at the rather dubious invitation.

"Beats me," Rainbow replied in earnest, spotting a clearing as they came close to the treeline. Within lay a rather conspicuous set of white feathers in a single, solitary trail that she could see right away. The anomaly lay scattered in a zig-zag pattern as if whomever left them just threw them about without a care as to where they fell, much less a care for their existence altogether. Along with them was a set of hoofprints, clustered close together and pointing due south with the straightness of an arrow, and it was only thanks to their dents that she could spot them as she came closer. Rainbow alighted just at the start of this trail, right behind the prints that cut through half the clearing. She noticed they didn't have the grooves indicative of frogs; either the owner was in shoes, or had malformed feet.

Zecora's tail bristled as she clambered off of Rainbow Dash. Her back bowed a little, as she used her tail to heft those twin saddlebags onto her own back. She reached into one of the saddlebags as soon as they settled while Rarity clambered off and fumbled for a moment. The sound of clanking and rustling came from the bag that the tail was intruding into, digging feverishly.

Rarity watched as Zecora paused after a few seconds before pulling out a large, simple dagger of steel and brass from beneath the flap. She threw it up into the air, being careful to not send it anywhere near her companions, and caught it expertly with a fetlock. "I'm a little concerned our escorts let us come here, when it's this… Void they seem to fear," she muttered warily, eying the darkness as if expecting it to strike.

"Well, we've bested the likes of Discord and Nightmare Moon; perhaps that's why we were allowed to land," Rarity pointed out, looking at Zecora with no small amount of concern. "But I don't think they should have—"

Rainbow turned to Rarity and cut in before she could finish that sentence, "The Major had every right to give us some form of weaponry, Rares! The trees here come alive, for Celestia's sake—" Here, she flailed her forelegs wildly, being mindful of where the forelegs were flailing towards, "—and I'm willing to bet on Luna's silver horseshoes that this Void is something that's gonna take the Elements of Harmony to beat!"

Rarity wilted, ears folding back at that declaration. Zecora turned to her and decided to add in her two bits, "Alas, Rainbow Dash does have reason to fret. I saw one of our escorts turn into a timberpony before the sun set." Both her companions turned to her, brows raised. "Yes, a full-fledged timberpony, wood tearing through skin and everything. Her general and coworkers had to contain her in a makeshift ring."

"Who?" Rarity asked, frown deepening at that mental image.

Zecora racked her brain for a moment, eying the surrounding Void with caution, unsure of how to answer Rarity's query. She saw something move in the shadows, and elected to change the subject. "We mustn't dally, not out here, until the Void has passed." Zecora used her tail to reach into her saddlebags again, and pulled out another large dagger to fork over to Rarity. Then she reached one more time and pulled a third dagger to give to Rainbow. "We're going to need help, all that we can amass."

Rarity lit up her horn and took the dagger in her magic, and Rainbow simply held hers with a fetlock. "I suppose that's true…" she muttered under her breath, ears turning back at the prospect of having to fight with an actual weapon and get blood on her hooves all over again. However, she acknowledged that something was awry, and in this zany situation, it didn't hurt to have something sharp and pointy if and possibly when the need could arise. The fiasco with Discord had nothing on this mess—hell, now that she thought of it, he'd probably approve of this whacko brand of chaos.

The ground rumbled slightly as the herd began trotting with Zecora taking point on three legs, following the tracks intently and sending feathers away with the beating of hooves and wings. If nothing else, the prints at least told them somepony else was up and about in this forest, and they'd need to find said pony—fast. And that was assuming the tracks belonged to a pony to begin with. Rarity's ears twitched as the tremor came and went through the soil. Faintly, just barely whispering through the broken branches of the trees, she could also hear something else scraping against the soil with a distinct tittering rhythm.

Schraaaa-ta-ta-ta would have been the best way to describe it were she to roll it off her tongue; it hurt her ears, yet it wasn't even that loud. Her coat stood on end as that tittering rattled again and again and again. Her mane frayed in places, and her hooves shook each time the sound reached her. It had an odd metallic quality to it, but it sounded substantially weaker—as if the source was not truly steel, but trying its best to merely imitate it.

She held her dagger tightly in her magical grip. Something was ahead; very likely armed, given the tittering, and just as likely to not play nice. She'd avoid outright murder if she could, but she reminded herself that Fantasia probably would not give her the chance to do so. It was home to an entire military force after all, who were more than happy to enlighten her to that fact. Some part of her half-madly wondered what drove the gryphons and changelings to unify to form said force, but she shook the thought out of her head with little more than a cursory glance at her torched surroundings.

Rarity asked Zecora another question, if only to get her mind off of the current mess for one second of reprieve, "Have you brought any potions with you?"

Zecora nodded, and used her dagger to gesture to the other saddlebag she hadn't disturbed. "I did, but there was only so much that I could carry which would fit," she replied. "But enough to last the trip, without leaving the bags split." She flicked both bags open with her tail, careful to avoid rustling the contents any further, revealing a small menagerie of corked glass bottles within. Each bottle was holding a differently-colored liquid, all of them splishing and splashing with her trotting.

"Well, at least we came prepared for this trip," Rainbow said matter-of-factly, crossing her forelegs together in a way that her dagger didn't end up going through one of them. "Even though I can kick lots of flank with my bare hooves, something tells me I miiiiight need more than speed and strength here." As she hovered ahead, she turned to look forward, squinting her eyes as she saw a distant crimson glow moving further and further away. She heard the ground rumbling again, and noted that she could hear the repeated scraping a little more clearly now. She strained her eyes to see a silhouette, going upright, sprinting with urgency under that glow.

The glow and silhouette vanished in seconds. The tittering faded with a fleeting echo. She turned to her friends and slowed a little. "You think the Void controls the ectoplasms that control the weather here?" she asked, tilting her head.

Rarity shook hers. "Given that the Void arrived only today, I don't think it's highly likely," she muttered in reply. "Possible, yes, but not likely." She trotted a little faster, aura faltering around her dagger for a brief moment. She steeled herself; she'd already killed once. And it was in response to a string of brutalities that even stunned her military escorts. She was glad they had standards.

Then again, she supposed, somebody had to have standards within this interplanetary hellhole she'd found herself in. Better to see eye-to-eye with her escorts on some matters than none at all. Her tail twitched with her steps; were Pinkie here, she'd have probably declared Rarity's innate 'sense' was going on the fritz. The thought, despite being born of such an unusual mental scenario, did warm her heart a little—without dulling the underlying edge of danger it presented.

The ground shook again, this time hard enough to make the desolate, fallen trees rattle against the scorched soil. Cracks started to run from each errant root as, against all logic, a wildfire, and Ragnarok itself, the trees started to move as though they were one. Branches twitched, curled up on themselves, broke into fragments with the effort. Trunks peeled, frayed, heaved as their roots pushed them up and up. Rarity, Rainbow, and Zecora paused as fallen logs shed off their burnt bark and flesh, revealing thin layers of ashen tissue clinging to time-bleached bones.

One tree that miraculously still had its face intact after peeling away its bark and flesh turned to the trio, mouth opening and voice immediately turning hoarse as it spoke. "Armag-geddon has c-come for Greenw-wood… run, save yourse-selves," it warned before slumping over with its brethren. The ground kept rumbling as, one by one, the trees pulled themselves further and further apart. With a final heave that ripped out the tiniest roots, all life seemingly left these poor creatures—and perhaps, Rainbow inwardly hoped, for good this time. But though they ceased movement altogether, the ground kept shaking anyway.

Rarity shivered at the gruesome display. "Is it just me, or has the seventh circle of Tartarus made Ashwood its home?" she muttered. That was a thought so morbid, she'd figured King Sombra would retch upon hearing it were he still alive.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, but still couldn't contain a minor shuddering of her hocks. "Now's not the time for that, Rares," she muttered, a slight tremble in her tone. Her gut clenched; equine instinct screamed to leave, and for a split-second she entertained that idea before casting it aside. Amidst the shaking, though, came another sharp scraping from behind, followed by flapping wings and beating hooves. Rainbow and the others whirled around, daggers raised, only to lower their blades as they saw Lazarus and Sarah coming into view. Both were barreling towards the group, and they were so wide-eyed they could've given Pinkie Pie a run for her bits. The former has his horn glowing and his magic clutching his spear and a radio; the latter had her cursed harp and halberd in claw, and a loose black scarf on her neck.

"What brought you two here? And why are you going against the doctor's orders?" Rarity asked, ears twitching to the tune of the shuddering ground.

Sarah closed her wings and alighted on her hooves, twiddling her harp and idly plucking its strings with the barest of movements. "Well… Lazarus decided to drag me here…" she muttered, lifting a claw to point accusingly at him.

Lazarus nodded in confirmation and waved his spear at the surrounding hellscape of strewn bark. "The Major said there has to be a soldier accompanying you lot, and let me come down. In other words, a matter of necessity." He saw Rainbow's mouth open and cut her off before she could speak, "And no, I know exactly nothing about the Void that's made quite a ruckus in the last hour or so."

Rainbow threw her forelegs in the air and waved them wildly. "Then why'd you only come now?!" she barked with no small amount of exasperation.

Lazarus wilted a bit. "I had to take the long way of levitating myself down," he replied with earnest. "And keep Miss I'll-Ignore-Doctor from making a new indent in the ground."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Sparkles," she snarked. She turned to the radio as it started to buzz, and leaned against her weapon when the ground gave a particularly large heave that made everypony but Rainbow stagger.

"Is it just me, or do we have an earthquake?" Twilight Sparkle asked from the radio.

"On top of everything else, I'd have expected as much at this rate," Lance grumbled dismally, his voice followed by the sound of flapping wings.

"Twilight! You okay?!" Rainbow yelled, flying right to Lazarus to howl in his radio.

Twilight sighed from her end. "Physically, yes. Mentally, screaming," she replied. Rainbow could almost hear the deadpan in her tone. "This place is trying to screw us harder than even I gave it credit for."

Rainbow wilted—sadly, there was no denying the truth of that statement. "You kicking flank on your end?" she tried.

"As well as I can, in cramped halls with everyone else I'm accompanying," Twilight replied, sounding a bit too chipper all of a sudden. Rainbow inwardly hoped she wasn't starting to become bloodthirsty. "I'll let you know if anything else happens."

"Same here," Rainbow said, and internally sighed in relief. The ground shook once more, this time forming budding hills in places, further splitting and fragmenting upon said budding hills. She turned to one a few wingbeats away, raising one brow and lowering the other as she saw sharp spines and dulled, almost discolored flesh rotating from under its cracks. Her hocks shuddered; that looked and moved very much like trouble. The others turned to her and noticed where she was looking, but by the time they turned to the hill, what was beneath it had crawled back into the still-shaking ground. And it left a not-quite-flat patch of useless land in its wake.

Sarah spread her wings again, and started flapping to get airborne. Lazarus turned to her and snorted. "Just don't do anything reckless," he muttered.

Sarah rolled her eyes again. "Yeah, yeah," she hissed in reply. She glanced around, watching for any more upheavals that resulted in raised patches of soil and whatever might have caused the ground to shake. But the inky blackness of the Void only ensured she saw little else beyond the fallen trees, save the occasional pulse of what seemed to be purple mana—here, not even her feline eyes helped at all. At this, her ears flattened against her skull. "Anyone else feel like we're about to go in circles?" she asked.

"Well…" Rarity turned to the trail she and her companions, and presumably Lazarus and Sarah, had been following until now. Her brow furrowed when she saw the ground did more than heave and crack; it sent the feathers of that trail in all manner of directions, and worse, made the prints almost unrecognizable. She was silently thankful she could still discern said prints from the rest of the broken soil. "Not… quite circles, but I do feel we're being led somewhere," she answered uneasily. Her horn glowed brighter, light flickering at its tip. She hummed for a moment, registering something with her magic—and she planted her hooves firmly in the ground when she felt that magic tugging at her ever so slightly. "... alright then. It seems I've found gemstones…"

"What are you on about?" Sarah asked, watching as Rarity moved her head for a moment, almost letting her horn act as some sort of tracking wand that was intent on yanking her away.

"My talent, dear," Rarity replied, smirking as her magic stopped its pulling and weaved its way through the hellscape of splinters, forming twin blue ribbons that pointed the way. Her smile dropped when the ribbons turned from blue to black in a fraction of a second and then reverted. "Hrm… it's never done that before… the gems might be magical... "

"Either that, or the Void's fucking with your spell," Lazarus piped up, shaking his head. "And why would gems grow here?"

Rarity took a moment to consider the question. She had to reign in her tail before it could stand on end. "I may be detecting the caverns… yet the spell's not pointing that way…" she muttered, taking in those implications to account of her growing list of concerns. "Please tell me we won't have to run afoul of a crystalized wraith again…" With that unseemly utterance, she started to march in the direction her magic pointed her towards. Reluctantly, the others followed after her, all eyes warily scanning the Void for anymore signs of lurking danger.

For several minutes after, only the sound of beating wings and marching hooves stomping on fracturing soil reached their ears—none spoke a word, instead acting on instinct and magic. The ground kept up its incessant shaking, but this did not deter the quintet in the slightest. Sarah dared not lay claw upon the strings of her hexed harp, though she removed her scarf to carefully affix it onto the shaft of her halberd. Zecora did not tinker with her bottled potions, instead content to let them jostle and rattle with her steps. She also let her tail take hold of her dagger—inconvenient, yes, but better when one needed all four legs to gallop if the ground started to fissure.

Lazarus glanced at the portable radio every few seconds, expecting something to come out of it. But nothing other than muted hoofsteps came from it; the rest was just white noise that was drowned out by the whole of what was Ashwood Forest. Occasionally, there was a thunking and splintering, but he ignored it—for that wasn't his prerogative. He instead chose to ponder about where, exactly, Rarity's magic was leading them—and what possibly awaited for them when they reached it.

Yet the magical ribbons seemed to be neverending, stretching on and on through the Void—meager twin lights, amidst the surrounding darkness and destruction. The group followed them with diligence for several more minutes on end, passing tree after tree as their sense of time was slowly distorted. The Void seemed to be toying with them, almost waiting for them to do something else, Lazarus was sure of it.

But if the Void was waiting for them to do something, then what was it waiting for? His spear rattled as he scraped against a tree on his way past it, the sound sending chills through his coat as it reached him. Lazarus made to voice the question dancing on his tongue, mouth opening—before snapping right back shut when his eyes caught more movement a trot's length to the right of Rarity's ribbons.

He instantly zeroed in on it, head turning in that direction, speartip flashing and turning to face forward. Legs tensed as he caught moving, pulsating spikes and dirt-dusted flesh writhing just underneath another freshly-formed hillside. Eyes turned red, tail stiffened, hocks shaking with the urge to charge and stab—an urge Lazarus willed with all of his might to keep at bay. Sarah turned to it too, clutching her harxe with both claws and a tight grip. It took Rainbow and the others a second to sense something amiss, and they likewise shifted to look at the still-rumbling hill with daggers at the ready.

The thing slid back underground, and an echoing growl followed it as the hill sank. Sarah and Rainbow landed upright after a few seconds, warily sharing uneasy glances. The group fell still and silent, half a million questions wedged up their throats that sent their minds into a collective tizzy. Lazarus noted, faintly, that a pungent stench of rot was wafting from the cracks in the soil, and the moment he noticed it was the same moment his stomach turned itself into a knot. With a wince and a groan, he looked at everyone else and found their noses wrinkling as the appalling aroma hit them too.

It was mere moments after that initial stench did anyone move. Rarity was the first to break formation, turning to her dual ribbons and trotting after them with a harried pace. The others followed after her, with Sarah and Rainbow taking to the air again, hovering over everypony else as the cluster tightened. Rarity's magic dimmed a little, having been cast for so long at this point, but still it aimed straight and true due south with the will of an inverted compass. Why the smell only hit them now, with what all the burnt corpses surrounding them…

Rarity caught sight of a crimson light up ahead, and more feathers being left in its wake, just barely touched by the barren soil. Even better, her magic ribbons pointed right at it and brightened considerably—and she could hear that incessant scraping again, too! Before she could get her legs into gear and dart off after the glow, her magic first faltered, then dimmed when the light and its source darted off again. That time, it left fast enough to shed a few fluttering feathers in its wake, leaving them to dance a confused pirouette before they landed soundlessly on the ground.

Internally, she groaned and facehoofed. Some part of her brain concocted an image of Sweetie Belle shouting "Oh come on!" in nothing short of exasperation. Externally, though, Rarity heaved a ladylike sigh of annoyed resignation, and let her eyes narrow by just a smidgen. Whatever was making that light, and marked itself in a way only her magic could track, was not going to slip by her personal radar. She picked up her speed, until it was just shy of a gallop, her horn flickering wildly as she charged. The others hurried after her, and Rainbow frowned when she saw the blue shifting to red and back again, without stopping.

Rarity noticed this too, but didn't let that deter her—if it was the Void's doing, there was nothing she could do about it except cancel out her spell. Instead, she chose to take it as a sign of omen, though she was careful to avoid pigeonholing it into the good or bad categories. After all, those particular chicks had yet to hatch, and given everything else as of late, perhaps that was best. The ground heaved again after Rarity charged, this time with enough force to form a hill right in front of the group, immediately growing tall enough to make the whole lot skid to a collective halt. Everyone bumped into each other as Rarity stopped, blades pointing this way and that as bellies met with spines and withers, though thankfully without slicing into vulnerable flesh even as magic faltered with the unplanned crash.

The group just barely disentangled themselves, with Zecora making sure the potions didn't spill—they hadn't, thank Faust—when the hill that cropped up before them broke in two. From the broken earthen shell rose a gargantuan rotting head whose flesh barely held together, supported by a long, hole-riddled and serpentine neck. Red scales shimmered proudly in Rarity's light, despite wasting away with age, further accentuated by black wounds and viridian blood. Twin pinpricks of gold zeroed in on the lot, and from the newest obstacle, a hollow baritone rumbled with the ground. "I thought I warned you… to stay well away from here," it hissed, ire dripping as much as the fluid that came from its jaws. "But it matters not—my mercy has waned…"

The creature took a deep inhale, gathering reddish-black energy that could not have come from the Void itself. The others looked up and spotted yellowed bones, before Lazarus lit up his horn brightly and used his magic to grab everyone else. "You have got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed before they vanished in a burst of light. Right as that burst faded, the thing unleashed its hellish energy on the spot where the group stood. The attack set about vaporizing the soil with enough force to carve into the very ground a hole so deep, it was far more than enough to let magma spill forth the moment the volley ended.

Several trees down from the attack, Lazarus and the others reappeared in another burst, eyes wide and tails puffed in alarm. "Fuck… I didn't expect Mr. Grumpyscales to slither here…" Lazarus complained, voice low to avoid the chance of alerting their aggressor. He made the radio vanish as he studied the attacker, watching him as he scanned the landscape.

"He may be after Greenwood's ponies…" Rainbow muttered, withers sagging at the thought.

Sarah shook her head. "If that were true, the lich-wyrm would have gotten there already," she pointed out, frowning deeply enough to bare sharpened teeth. She poked her head carefully around a fallen tree and saw, just barely, the golden orbs of their newest arrival scanning the whole of Ashwood. "I think we're on his lunch menu…" The orbs snapped to her as she said that, and her wings shuddered as another volley of hellish energy was readied in their adversary's maw.

Lazarus looked over and flared his horn again. "Brace for impact, and hit the ground running!" he barked before light engulfed the group. Another blast pitted the ground where they stood, and yet more magma welled up once the volley dissipated. The lich-wyrm growled in displeasure, eyes narrowing with what little flesh they still had. He glanced around, scowling, opening his mouth to charge more energy as he waited for the tell-tale flash of light.

His head swiveled when he caught a burst from the corner of his eye, just barely visible in the Void. He let loose another torrent in that direction, leaving further destruction in his wake that he'd hoped would include those he had warned. Though, he shouldn't have been surprised to catch sight of Lazarus and his little group veering as far away from the strike as they could, first galloping due east before changing course for the north.

The lich-wyrm grinned nonetheless, and angled his neck until it was parallel with the ground. With a great heave he surged forward, issuing forth an echoing roar that caused the remnants of Ashwood to tremble. His long body slid out of the hole he'd emerged from, easily a good two dozen meters that carved a singular, fluid path in his wake. "You cannot hope to outpace me!" he exclaimed, a twisted sense of delight taking root in his baritone. "For my time-tempered prowess cannot be so easily matched!"

Lazarus and the others stumbled at the echoing roar, before Rainbow started to gather him, Rarity, and Zecora upon her back. Sarah took that as her cue to get flapping, and she wasted no time racing to get airborne. "No way in Tartarus am I letting anypony be eaten!" Rainbow shouted, flapping her own wings as hard as she could even as everypony was jostling into position.

"In that case, let me help!" Sarah exclaimed before playing a few strings of her harp with one claw. The instrument glowed, shaking against its bonds as the very air around her and the others shifted ever so slightly. Rainbow turned her ears, expecting another cacophony to come.

Rarity turned to the pursuing lich-wyrm, who was quickly catching up to them, sending trees flying everywhere as he homed in while they were just starting their climb skyward. "What can we do against that barbarian?!" she yelled, eyes widening when the beast opened up his rotting mouth to prepare another magical strike.

"Right now, flying away!" Sarah hissed in reply as she felt a breeze wafting past her hocks, though she couldn't tell which way it was going since she was flying for dear life. She did notice, however, that a tingling feeling was creeping up her legs as the magical energy continued to gather around the wyrm's mouth. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the abandoned torches that marked whatever paths used to exist in Ashwood, oddly burning bright ruby red. She veered to them, making sure to tap Rainbow on her cutie mark before she even gestured that way. Rainbow nodded and followed after her, right as the lich-wyrm let loose a strike creating another path clean through the fallen forest, one that carved a deep furrow into the earth and missed the whole group by millimeters of their tails.

The lich-wyrm turned to coil, orbs affixed on the group as he knocked aside more trees in a wide circle without care, creating a whole new clearing in the process. "You will not escape! Your pathetic folly ends here!" he declared as he reoriented his body to start giving chase again. His eyes narrowed further when he saw the airborne herd gain a few measly feet of distance and altitude, even seeing green-tinted air shifting to give them a much needed boost beneath their wings. But his smile remained firmly in place; it would matter little in the end, for whomever was manipulating the wind was just delaying the inevitable.

Sarah kept playing, her movements frantic as her instrument glowed with its warped power. "I don't know what the unicorns of Canterlot did to this thing! I can't control it!" Sarah yelped, seeing Rarity give her an incredulous look out of the corner of her eye.

"Better than having headaches if you ask me! I doubt its screaming could stop the wyrm!" Rainbow hissed, inwardly grateful the thing wouldn't bash her eardrums in a second time. She looked down to the torches for a moment, seeing their flames flickering out just as they passed overhead. Then she glanced to where the torches were leading, eyes widening as an outcrop of rock came into view.

Rarity, having made her, Rainbow's and Zecora's daggers vanish in a flash of light, squeaked at the sight. "Is that the crystal caverns?" she asked.

"Don't know, don't care, I just want out of here!" Sarah exclaimed, glancing down to see the second batch of torches that forked away from the first. She turned there right away, and Rainbow followed suit as Lazarus made his spear vanish in a flash of light. Behind them, the lich-wyrm couldn't stop himself in time, and crashed head-first into the caverns with a sort of bravado only a beast of his size could possess. He roared as the cavern exit collapsed around him, rearing up as much as his body would allow to shake bits of boulder out of his gaping wounds. He twisted in another coil, using his tail to brush aside the remnants of the ruined exit in one fell swoop before turning back to the group that had caught his eye.

"You ignorant whelps! A fate worse than death will befall you if you keep up this miserable charade!" the lich-wyrm howled as he started to give chase once again. "Let me ease your suffering; everything will be over soon!"

Lazarus turned to the wyrm and barked out, "We don't want your tender mercies! Piss off!" The wyrm roared in response, gathering up more of his hellish light with which to vaporize everything it touched. How was he—no, how the hell would any of them fight a creature that could wipe them all out in mere moments? He glanced around wildly, looking to both Ashwood and the Void-shrouded sky for something, and found that the torchline had taken a detour southeast. He pointed with a hoof and barked, "That way, that way!" Rainbow nodded upon seeing his hoof, and she turned in that direction. Sarah was wheeling after her, still playing with all her might.

Another blast of destructive magic just missed them by inches that time, tearing yet another straight line of furrowed, clean-cut soil in its wake. The lich-wyrm didn't bother to coil, instead zig-zagging his whole body to keep up with his fleeing prey. He knew not why they still persisted on living, and chose not to parlay with words anymore, instead raising his head just enough to be perfectly level with their wings as he readied another blast. Everyone could feel superheated air swirling around them, being sucked into that maw alongside a chilling darkness that danced in tandem with that arid air.

Sarah's wingbeats started to falter, and Lazarus yanked her harxe before making it vanish in a flare of light. Then he yanked her bodily, and pulled her onto his own back with a disgruntled frown. "Save it," he hissed as she turned to him with a scowl, and with reluctance she wrapped her claws around his barrel. Rainbow, still picking up speed and going strong, barely noticed the brief spat and changed altitude until she was parallel with the ground. Another blast of hellish energy sailed by overhead, warping the very air around it as it careened a ways off.

She needed serious help, she realized—but against the wyrm, and here in Ashwood, where would she find it? "Faust damn it," Rainbow muttered, eyes narrowing as she caught sight of a wide fissure running through the ground up ahead, deep enough to house corporeal darkness. The fissure gave her an idea, and she veered into it without a second thought, finding yet more superheated air waiting for her, trying its best to push her back up. The fissure crumbled around her as the lich-wyrm squeezed his way into it with an abominable, almost obscene fortitude, another round of magic gathering around his waiting maw. The air and earth shook around them as Rainbow pressed on, trying to get to the bottom of the chasm, which turned from pitch black to shades of red, orange, and gold in a matter of seconds.

Magma waited below, bubbling with rage as it flowed at the bottom, melting the clusters of soil the lich-wyrm unwittingly dropped into it! Rainbow could barely change course in time, scorching one hind hoof with a pained yelp as she reoriented to be parallel with the glowing red substance. The lich-wyrm wasn't so quick; he gave a pained cry as his underbelly rubbed up against the magma, exposed flesh melting and scales withering at the onslaught as he continued to try and catch Rainbow Dash. His magic faltered, charged blast dissipating with his cry, crackling harmlessly around his own head.

Rainbow blinked and bit back budding tears, wounded hoof shaking as she forced herself to keep flying. With grit teeth she scanned the fissure, noting that with each passing second the magma bubbled more and more—angrily at that. She heard a pop of magic, and Lazarus mutter, "Sorry, didn't want your bags spilling!" Guessing what had happened, and then sending it to the lowest rung of her worries, Rainbow made a sharp turn as the fissure curved unexpectedly. She tightened her flight path and let the heated air lift her up as the lich-wyrm tried to smack into her with his head.

Rainbow was faster, however, and she flew on, ducking underneath the strike that sent more dirt cascading down below. Her wings began to ache from the pressure on her back, yet that made the will to live burn much more fiercely. She turned again as the fissure did likewise, zipping erratically to egg the wyrm on. He struck again, missing her by a whole tree's height as he dug the side of his face into the breaking earth. With an ethereal hiss he surged after her, teeth gnashing and snapping with another crackle of magic.

Rainbow flew on, in mere moments forming a wide corkscrew that spanned the whole length of the fissure. The earth kept breaking up around them, piling into the magma which began to rise at the disturbance, piling onto the lich-wyrm in a futile attempt to weigh him down, trying and failing to pile onto the group as Rainbow weaved around the fragments of soil with ease. The lich-wyrm unleashed another blast that Rainbow barely dodged, firing right into the fissure's outer walls a little too close to the rising flow of magma.

Once the blast ended, more magma spilled forth from that hole and got into the wyrm's mouth as he made to snap at Rainbow Dash once again, searing it on contact. The undead beast let out another pained roar, half-gurgling as he thrashed as much as the fissure would allow. Rainbow got out of the chasm and alighted on the ground, letting everyone clamber off of her as she kept her wounded hoof raised. They heard the wyrm screaming and flailing about, heard the soil continuing to break and weigh him down, even saw his massive shadow dancing along the fissure's edge thanks to the magma. But past all of that, they couldn't see him. Rainbow looked to the others and relaxed a little, seeing them frazzled but otherwise alright. "That was close," she muttered.

"Too close," Lazarus agreed, turning about to look at where they'd ended up now. He spotted a groaning wisteria tree a few trots off, spitting out red seeds that sizzled as the earth continued to shake. Beyond that, though, it did little else.

Rainbow turned to the tree in question, rearing up onto her hinds with her burnt hoof carefully raised and wings spread wide for balance. Crossing her forelegs over her barrel, she studied its habit of seed-spitting for a few seconds. "What's with that tree?" she asked; Lazarus could almost hear her asking 'And what in Tartarus pissed it off?' on top of that. He found himself tensing when she didn't speak any further.

Sarah looked at the tree and gave a tiny squeak, pupils shrinking and wings sagging at its presence. "... we should leave it," she muttered weakly, garnering incredulous looks from Lazarus and Rainbow within a matter of seconds.

"And why is that?" Lazarus asked, frowning with the corners of his lips turning a little lopsided.

"Is it because of the things it's horking everywhere?" Rainbow added, tilting her head a little.

Before anybody could answer, the lich-wyrm burst forth from the chasm with an angry, warbling roar that sent magma flying out of his scorched throat. As the roar died he was turning his baleful gaze onto the group, with his wounds aglow in burning orange liquid. The magma below continued to rise, burning brighter and brighter until it cast the lich-wyrm in a stark, hellish light as he leaned ever so slightly against the fissure's edge.

"Now you've done it, you insolent ponies…" the wyrm bellowed, withered scales dropping from his body to reveal torched flesh beneath. "Now you have really earned my ire!" He started charging another blast, one powerful enough to lift the magma off of his own body as well as the seeds of the wysteria tree to join with the red and black energies. As he charged, he remained blissfully unaware of a bright crimson light homing on him from the trail of destruction he had wrought, as well as the myriad of golden lights surrounding it.

Chapter LXXXII- In Umbra Lumen Est

Lazarus lit up his horn, embracing everyone in his magic, preparing another teleport when one golden blur struck the lich-wyrm right in his burnt mouth. Both unicorn and lich magics faltered, with the accumulated magma and seeds spilling out into the fissure as one caster watched in growing confusion and the other gnashed his teeth to try again. Before the latter could even gather more energy, another light moved under his massive chin and socked him hard enough to snap his muzzle bolt upright. Everyone stood there, eyes widening as they watched and heard the sickening sound of rotten teeth clacking together.

"If you're done ranting now, then why don't you cut to the chase already, sunshine?" a female, echoing voice taunted from above, resonating with a stirring power. The lich-wyrm growled and leveled his jaws at his quarry, quickly finding that none of them was in a position to taunt. The closest equivalent was Rainbow Dash, who still stood with front legs crossed and wounded hoof raised in defiance.

Rainbow shook her head. "Wasn't me," she said. Another golden light smacked the wyrm upon his snout, making him recoil hard enough to hit the outer wall of the fissure with his spines. "Although I'd still like to make your bones break," Rainbow added as the wyrm straightened out his neck with a growl.

The wyrm glanced around, turning his attention skyward before noticing the collection of more homing golden lights—right as one impacted him upon one of his horns with enough force to crack it and push him down at once. Lazarus glanced skyward as well, looking around before spotting the golden lights that orbited the incoming crimson glow. "What the…" he muttered, seeing several glowing things falling from the crimson light as it drew closer. It was far enough away he couldn't make out any definitive features, yet the voice—assuming it came from that light—sounded close by nonetheless. Part of him wondered how that was even possible, before he realized he could recognize that tone.

He wanted to ask, more than anything, if perhaps his very ears had deceived him. He turned back to the lich-wyrm and found yet more golden lights circling above him, almost dancing as their shimmering tails formed a circle within a circle. The lights slowed enough that the lot could see they were actually hollowed-out stars, twirling with the rhythm of clockwork gears. Rarity piped up, "... that's unusual, using stars to…" She trailed off when she realized what she was saying, and what she was witnessing. Her tail, finally, flagged high then and there. "Could it be…?!"

"I dunno what those things are doing, but… it's kinda awesome?" Rainbow muttered, tilting her head at the display. Before them all, runes were traced out by a few stars, complex and unintelligible as they spanned the framework. Two squares, one slanted at an angle, were likewise formed by the their glowing tails in such a way their corners jutted out from the outermost circle. Taking away their breath without so much as touching the combatants, the stars formed yet more runes and patterns within the smaller circle, outside of the arms of the eight-pointed star.

"... a spell?" Lazarus guessed, tilting his head at the forming anomaly.

A few more runes formed within the outstretched corners, followed by a few smaller circles containing silhouettes of celestial bodies, before it formed the finishing touch of a small circle stationed dead center with wheel-like spokes stretching out to touch the rest of the structure. With that the lights became stationary for a few seconds, stabilizing itself seamlessly into something both corporeal and almost fluid in nature. Then, the whole thing began to spin, changing color from golden to pure white as it did so.

Energy built up, the spell turning as though on an axis. The lich-wyrm glanced everywhere, including above him, scanning Ashwood to determine where the hell the sudden interruption came from. He scoffed at the circle, as it wasn't really doing anything noteworthy at the moment. Upon seeing the distant crimson light, now lacking in smaller golden lights orbiting it, he opened his mouth wide and aimed in that direction. Ire built up, fueling his magic as it sucked the magma still gushing from his wounds and more fresh seeds from the wisteria tree before firing off in a beam twice as big as his own body.

Everyone on the island turned to where the blast was going, feeling a chill go down their spine when it stopped abruptly. It didn't sail through the air, was not redirected, or even go around anything… it just stopped at an obstacle that hadn't been there until now. "So you think that dinky little deathray of yours could do anything to me?" the voice from earlier challenged, as the energy then started to flow around what the lich-wyrm presumed was its owner.

The lich-wyrm snapped his jaws shut and growled, orbs glowing balefully. He watched intently as the energy failed to dissipate, instead swirling ominously around that light with the magma and seeds it had absorbed. Within that crimson-sable cloud, beneath the glow, he could barely see an upright silhouette spinning something long and misshapen around it. It was almost… using that object to direct the energy about, keeping it away from his intended target. "What business have you here?" he asked. He was almost uncomprehending of why this upstart would intervene, if indeed, said upstart had a reason to begin with.

"I should be asking you the same… but I already know the answer," the entity spoke, voice dripping in contempt. "Your actions truly do speak louder than your words." It stopped spinning the energies about, only to then gather them at a point roughly above its head. The shadows and crimson twirled in an intricate dance, interspersed with white star-like flecks that seemed to stabilize it. It all compacted into one big sphere of clashing energies, almost spiraling and collapsing into itself only to draw more energies in.

This swirling sphere vanished in a burst of crimson light, and reappeared right in the wyrm's face. He recoiled as this makeshift miasma struck him head-on, growing at an exponential rate, even sucking in some of the light of the spell circle above him. It compacted on itself just as it outgrew his handsome mug, and turned into a mere shockwave of shadow strong enough that the sheer force of it sent his spines into the chasm wall behind him. What was left of the backlash gathered up above, forming a sphere of shadow around the spell circle to obscure it from sight.

However, it didn't faze him otherwise in the slightest, and he gave a sinister grin to his adversary. As all of that was going on, the spell twirled faster and faster until its corners were but a blur, and kept gathering more and more energy all the while. It was soon overshadowed by its own glow, surely now the brightest light to ever take hold in the Void. How the wyrm didn't notice it sooner with how bright it was glowing was beyond Lazarus, until he noticed the shadows dancing between it and the wyrm, carefully absorbing most of that light which spilled out. They still let gaps form, however, letting a few rays pour out with all the radiance they could muster.

"Is that the best you can do, feebly redirecting my own magic like that?" the lich-wyrm hissed.

"Better than that—I can obliterate you here and now," his light-shrouded adversary taunted, smugness reigning supreme in its tone.

The lich-wyrm straightened and gnashed his teeth to charge a stronger retort, pulling in more magma and seeds and even a few spine-sized chunks of the very earth around him. But he made the mistake of angling his muzzle skyward as the energy grew large enough it threatened to dislocate his jaw, and his orbs shrank as he caught sight of the shadows absorbing that light dispersing outright. With the shadows clear, he croaked as he beheld the spell glowing above. It fired off as soon as those shadows vanished, and it was far too late for him to pull back as the resultant beam made contact.

The beam shot right into his throat, almost completely shining through his gaping wounds and dissipating his destructive energy in one go. He lit up like a charged crystal, white radiance spilling out of his scales and turning the flesh around those wounds into flaking ash before shooting out his underbelly and into the boiling magma. The lich-wyrm was unable to even scream as more and more of that light seared him inside out, and before long the rest of his body began to crumple under the merciless onslaught of a power surpassing his own.

Just as Lazarus and his group thought it was going to stretch for hours, the blast ended, leaving behind a hollowed out wyrm who stood stiff for a few seconds. Then he slumped against their side of the chasm, chin coming to rest mere inches from them with jaws askew. His orbs had gone out entirely, leaving black abysses to listlessly stare at them. And gravity took hold and dragged his head into the unforgiving magma.

With a final, titanic splash that sent Fantasia's molten lifeblood scattering and sizzling upon the chasm's sides, the spell circle that brought that horrible light upon him faded with glimmers of glowing dust. And everyone stood there, stunned as Ashwood fell still around them once again—even the nearby wisteria tree ceased its cascade of seeds, as if sensing the disturbance had passed. Seconds passed, themselves compressed into another eternity, as the magma stopped rising and bubbling as it consumed the wyrm.

After that, a crimson glow grew in intensity from behind, causing the quintet's shadows to stretch until the tops of their heads were touching the edge of the island's precipice. Everyone turned around, and all jaws dropped at what—or rather, who—they now beheld. "Natalie, dear… are you alright?" Rarity asked as Rainbow reverted to all fours, before wincing and lifting her wounded hoof a bit higher to compensate.

There above them, coming to touch down just feet away from them with a crimson light dancing above her horn, was indeed Natalie herself. She landed upright, revealing just enough leftover dress and sash to cover everything past her stomach. Her scythe wasted no time coming to rest upon her shoulders by its shaft as she held it up with one fetlock, her mane flowing and glowing as though it were liquified flame. A few loose strands of black, red, and white energy still crackled along her horn and the menacing half-crescent of her improvised staff. "Yes?" she asked, voice echoing with a subdued, eerily calm quality. The skulls tied to her dress lifted up and turned to look at the group with the aid of crimson-turned magic, both canting quizzically as Natalie's head did likewise.

"First off…" Rarity cleared her throat and shifted awkwardly, almost rocking on her hooves as she studied Natalie with practiced scrutiny. "Well, that dress is… morbidly marvelous, I must say, though the skulls are completely unsightly. And second… are those crystals growing out your back and forehead, and dark magic radiating from your eyes?" She peered a little closer at said crystals growing out of Natalie's backside, and her eyes went wide as dinner plates when she she saw more appendages just beneath their wicked arcs. Those appendages were fluttering uselessly, and throwing more feathers everywhere—ghastly white feathers at that. "Third, are those… what I think they are?"

Natalie wilted with a nod, stopping the fluttering appendages long enough for the group to see what they were—bona fide flesh-and-blood wings that were suspiciously missing primary feathers, and a good bit of standard wing-length as well. Compared to Rainbow's wings, hers were short and sorely lacking for a mare of her size. Even so, they still had an impressive span that would easily be comparable to Lance's own pair up to a given point. Rainbow and Zecora started to wonder how the hell she hid the damn things for so long, though truth be told, they could also see she needed to compensate for them somehow.

"Long story… had every joint past both ulna and radii cut clean off, but let's just say that came from a very long and exhausting fight," she muttered, shifting to plant her scythe's foot on the ground to lean on it a little. The floating skulls, seemingly starting to leak blood from their sockets, wilted with her. "And it's less dark magic and more of my natural crystal self… clashing with a whole host of factors. If you want dark magic, I don't have any—at least not that which is powered by fear and hatred."

"Then what explains the skulls?" Rarity retorted. "And that… usage of the wyrm's own beam against him?"

Natalie sighed. "That's… actually a… leftover from the exhausting fight that amputated my wings to an extent. The skulls are always like this, unless I set up an illusion—the crystals on my head and back, likewise," she answered, frowning uneasily. "Though, I have complete motor control of said crystals and skulls, so at least I won't turn out like Chocolate Dismay." She shrugged. "And redirecting the beam wouldn't count as dark magic; more like repurposing already-existing destructive energies and adding a bit of light magic to turn it into a giant shadow spell. What else was I supposed to do, let him vaporize me?"

Rarity had to concede that last point. With a graceful nod she sighed and said, "Well… that was a neat trick, I do have to admit."

"Wait wait wait," Rainbow interjected, lifting a wing to point a primary at Natalie in lieu of a hoof. "So you've had those wings… for a while?" she pressed. She was already wincing as her mind concocted possible scenarios in which the results of the amputation she saw had happened. When Natalie grimly nodded, she stomped a hoof, careful to avoid stomping too hard, lest she topple on her injury. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?! Forget the skulls and crystals, the wings should've come out first!"

"First off, somegryph said all Fantasian alicorns went and pulled a tribe-wide vanishing act, to put it mildly, so I had… not wanted to draw attention to them. Seriously, you guys'd think I was a pretty little princess if I started prancing and flapping instead." That actually made Rainbow and Rarity wince a little, and the granule of truth in that statement only made it a tiny bit worse. "Second… I only show these nubs off when…" Natalie lifted one hoof and swept it out to gesture to the Void. The hoof then turned to the chasm and the dead trees, letting the wanton destruction speak for itself.

"This decides to drop by, or something equally serious happens that requires I use my full magical strength. Usually, if I need to use full magical power, it's because Matt decides he's gonna do it first," she finished. She turned to Sarah and straightened her posture, and the skulls did likewise with a suspicious bobble. "And before I left the mastership… Matt showed me something interesting…" she muttered, ominous and calm in equal measure.

Sarah paled under that level, wilting glare. "Wh-what… is it?" she asked, pupils shrinking as Natalie spread her pitifully-sized wings as far as they could go.

"A little something… that could explain how you play your cursed harp without the aid of a horn," Natalie said carefully, wings twitching as black crystals started to grow out from between the largest feathers they still possessed. "Something that I find… quite ironic, given the situation." The crystals continued growing outward, almost like crude bio-engineered extensions, leaking blood for the barest of instants before those rivers were cut off and cast aside by her magic. Everypony noticed she didn't flinch in the slightest, which was disconcerting in itself.

Sarah's tail quivered, and her claws started to tap on the ground on instinct. "... u-um…" Her wings snapped open, and she felt the urge to fly the coop as fast as possible. Crimson magic grabbed her wings and pulled them back to her sides, however, and slowly her mind went into a tizzy.

"However… given the Void's dropped by, and the severity of the circumstances, I'll give you the full questionnaire at a later time," Natalie muttered, releasing her magical hold on Sarah. She turned to Lazarus. "We can't dally for long. We'll have to get to Greenwood." She turned to the wisteria tree and shook her head at it. "Somepony already called dibs on that thing anyway," she added as an aside. Turning the rest of the way in Greenwood's direction, she sighed and levitated herself, keeping her scythe low for the moment. Her wing-crystals continued to grow as she flew over the chasm with honed ease, twisting into a mockery of the bones in a standard pair of pegasus wings. They were complete replicas almost, sans feathers—of at least, the bones she had been lacking.

Lazarus lit up his horn and grabbed everybody else in his magic. "Great, we're gonna have to deal with those nutjobs again," Rainbow hissed as the magic prodded her hurt hoof. "Zecora, didja make burn ointments?" she groaned before Lazarus teleported the whole group to the other side. As they started to gallop—and fly, in Rainbow's case—after Natalie the second they emerged from the burst of light, Lazarus rematerialized Zecora's saddlebags and put them gently on her back. He also made sure to strap them just tight enough in to place they were secure, and in the event Zecora had tripped, they wouldn't have the slightest chance to fly off.

Zecora shook her head. "Nay, I did not, for I did not anticipate magma at all," she answered, wilting a little. "Though, given we just escaped death's jaws, we mustn't stall."

Rarity summoned the daggers and handed Zecora hers, but held onto Rainbow's. "Apologies Rainbow, but I'd rather keep my distance from any bloodshed," she muttered.

Rainbow nodded and waved a hoof to Rarity in understanding. "I getcha Rares; it's like wanting to be a Wonderbolt—not everypony's cut out for it," she replied. She flew ahead, but did not go past Natalie, instead doing a few loops in the air at her side to show off the wounded hoof.

Natalie heaved a sigh of exasperation. "Close call?" she guessed, letting a flare of white magic trail its way from her horn to Rainbow's hoof as soon as she had stopped looping.

"Closest call yet," Rainbow affirmed. She smiled as she felt the white magic working itself on her hoof, easing her burn gently and bit by bit until it was gone. She twisted around and flew backwards for a second to examine her hoof; now it reverted to the same mint condition it was before her near-disastrous run-in with the lich-wyrm. Upon reorienting herself, she flashed a widened grin at Natalie. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Natalie chirped with a small smile of her own.

"Can't believe we have to go to that hellhole again…" Sarah muttered under her breath, keeping just quiet enough that her voice was drowned out by galloping hooves. She was instead content to rest her wings, and to listen to whatever chit-chat everypony else was getting up to as they raced to Greenwood.

Natalie turned her eye onto Lazarus as he caught up to gallop opposite of Rainbow Dash. "And when'd you learn how to teleport?" she asked, oddly chipper in tone.

Lazarus, in spite of Natalie's odd behavior, managed a small grin. He whickered and whinnied for a moment with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Sometime after you joined the army; haven't tracked the exact date because I couldn't be half-assed to do that," he snarked.

Natalie snickered for a second at the answer. "Sounds like you had quite an adventure, going about and blinding everypony with your shimmering radiance," she fired back.

Lazarus returned in kind, "White, black, and blood red is an eyesore. Knock it off already."

Natalie grinned. "Sorry, can't help it, even if I dye my coat and shake off my crystal growths," she chirped. "Also, when did you decide to wear a pot on your head?"

"When you donned the kettle," Lazarus shot with mild amusement.

Natalie snickered at his smartassery, but decided to change the subject and have the horn-measuring contest another day. "I've yet to ascertain Greenwood's… state," she muttered, voice dropping all traces of her prior amusement. "Let's just say I wasn't able to reach it when the wyrm decided he was gonna throw his little tantrum."

"So you don't know if it's bad over there?" Rainbow translated, garnering a grim nod.

"Or worse," Natalie added as an aside. "Actually came to that village before, and let's just say the villagers put the Canterlot nobles to shame when me and the rest of the army visited the last time."

"Oh boy, this I gotta hear," Lazarus muttered, smiling a sarcastic smile at that prospect.

"Later, when we and the villagers are in the clear," Natalie replied, waving a crystal-tipped wing dismissively.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

"Brakalz meriitoulk," Katie snarked as another half-tree monster of unknown species was sent flying down a staircase thanks to Twilight casting a blade of light through its body. A crimson light crackled at the end of her stub-horn with the utterance, before dimming its glow. She watched as the beast was promptly skewered at the floor in front of the steps the group had just climbed, though the house had stopped groaning and bleeding for the moment. Twilight turned to it too, studying it for a moment.

Behind it, she idly noted, Twilight could see the floors past the monster—thanks to a series of holes that the house itself had made. She could even peer right down to that one hall that had a flight of stairs going down, to the room where the dummies were kept, all from where she currently stood. She found that especially odd, given the lack of decent lighting in the house and the house's bizzare choice of architecture—perhaps that was the Void's handiwork, she mused. Turning to Katie, and finding a short hall ending in a singular door that awaited the lot with more planks and vines barring the path, she perked as Katie added in a wry voice, "No offense."

"None taken," Twilight chirped with a nod, turning to the door and conjuring another sword of light. She approached the blocked door and started to hack away at its bonds, her work swift and precise and her cuts as clean as any well-sharpened razor. "At least the shaking stopped, finally. And am I grateful all we had to trot through was more stairs and halls."

"I hope nothing… worse has happened," Fluttershy muttered, ears folding back at the prospect. She shivered when she felt a cold horseshoe come to rest on one of her pasterns, the claws angled away from her, and looked down to find Katie looking back at her.

"Ræ yhl treschulnect umkralscht grolkæ sulnaire," Katie muttered consolingly. "'It is always darkest before dawn.' The Void taught me that."

"She's right; that's basically the mentality that helped me get my cutie mark," Lance agreed with a nod, trotting forward as the door was cleared of its last bonds. "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

"Oh? That's actually…" Fluttershy thought it over for a moment and managed a small smile. "That's a pretty good mentality to follow."

Lance nodded again. "Indeed it is. NoLegs, Accelerator." NoLegs gave a grumbling meow, but conjured the blaster with a wave of his tail and a flare of his magic. Lance rose upright to clasp it in both pasterns, feeling Maria shifting on his back to hang on by his withers.

"Daddy, why do you need the big gun?" Maria asked innocently, frowning.

Lance shivered his wings a little, tail swishing for a second as his gut twisted. "I get the feeling I may need to fight," he muttered uneasily. "Get on Fluttershy's back, now."

Maria did as she was told, though her wings fluttered uncomfortably. "Are we at the end of this damned house yet?" Katie asked, turning to Lance with her wings flaring. "Because I am starting to think its roots might start moving soon!"

Lance snorted at the question; the fact that the concern was legitimate only helped to fuel his growing laundry list of woes, and so he tightened his hold on the Accelerator. "Given that this place seems to have its own security detail… I'm sort of hoping we're there, but expecting that we're not just yet," he muttered, a faint note resignation in his tone.

Twilight trotted forward, pulling her sword back to open the door. "Security detail or not, this place reeks worse than Frostbite," she hissed. Using her magic to wrench the door open—in the process, making one of its rusted hinges break with the force of that action—she tensed at what lay beyond. There was another staircase waiting for them, broken and fragmented like the steps of the Mighty Oak's shrine, except the gaps were wide enough everyone could see the flowers of the tree all around them.

At the topmost end of these broken stairs lay another door, this one already ajar and framed only by a wooden structure that shifted like it was trying to keep something contained, but just couldn't. From her current vantage point, it almost looked like a pulsating flesh-cage with the wood acting as its bars. The flowers they could spot had started to wither and die on their branches, horking out one last spray of seeds as they shriveled. "Okay… what the…" Twilight muttered, wrinkling her nose at this sight.

Katie trotted over, dove between a pair of hinds, and poked her head out from between Twilight's forelegs before a confused croak left her torn mouth. That croak dragged on as she studied this anomaly for a few seconds. "Okaaaaay, I didn't see this when Lance and I got past the spraying flowers…" she muttered.

Lance strode to the precipice, leaned over and whistled at the morbid, yet equally fascinating, sight. "We're either about to switch branches, or the house is doing this to fuck with us," he said, entertaining the former possibility whilst tempted to dismiss the latter.

"Why not both?" Katie piped up, fully donning the sneer in her tone. "Because it groans and moves and grows fucking ivy on a Godcat-damned whim, and I'm betting my shriveled bones that it's done all that to dissuade us!"

"Well, it's failed in the persuasion department," Lance fired back with a snort. "Even though we couldn't scrounge much… having found nothing but more stairs once we left the dummies, it's still hiding something that demands explanation."

"Maybe it's hiding all the important goodies from us," Katie reasoned, huffing out a sigh of irritation at that fun prospect. "I'm guessing, if we head back downstairs, we're gonna end up in an entirely different room."

Lance nickered. "Wouldn't put it past this place," he muttered disdainfully. He flared his wings and flew over first, garnering an eyeroll from Twilight as she levitated behind him. Katie and Fluttershy followed suit, and NoLegs stayed back for a few seconds to check the stairs they'd just left.

Good. Nothing else, be it the house itself or the makeshift security detail it was packing, came in to dish out another surprise. He turned ahead and found the group already trotting into the flesh-cage, and teleported to meet up with them. The room he found himself in was barren, save for the cracked walls, floor, and ceiling pulsing with writhing vines. The cracks on the floor were flooded with foul-smelling liquid, and the walls gushed out more of the stuff at a constant rate.

Inside stood another half-tree thing with pike-like legs, its back turned to its unexpected guest party. Unlike its brethren, however, it had a mane and tail made of viridian leaves, trimmed and chipped to various lengths and sizes, and multi-jointed twig-wings sporting much the same in addition to multiple digits. Though it was emaciated, it stood tall and proud with its wings flared wide, and ivy broke out of its body to form a protective weave around its otherwise-vulnerable stomach.

Everyone paused as this beast, almost changeling-like in posture and in appearance, turned to them slowly, letting its black abysses fall onto them. In doing so, its movements had revealed a tall, twisted horn of wood jutting from its surprisingly equine-shaped head and a carving of some sort resting on its wooden haunches. The carving had been worn by time, and splinters that frayed around it muddled and blurred its shape into something unrecognizable. Glowing red embers, almost orb-like in shape, lit up in those abysses with a spark of pure contempt.

"So the Void has come, at last, for Greenwood…" it muttered in a masculine voice, eying the group with an air of expectancy. "I should have known this day would come…" It sighed wistfully. "And one of my… children has informed me I was expecting visitors as the sun started to set."

"Who are you? What are you?" Lance asked, feeling his trigger hoof twitch against the barrel of his blaster. "And what do you mean by 'children?'"

The beast flapped its leafy wings once, the motion both crude and oddly majestic in equal measure. "I… was the first to be cursed—I remember not my name, just that I sired many foals who would end up following my hoofsteps—foals that I might have to tend to once this farce is over." He shook his head grimly, leafy mane twisting with the effort.

"Wait, so the creatures with the wooden heads and gaunt legs are…" Twilight trailed off, mentally connecting the dots.

The beast nodded, scowling. "Yes. I had been expecting more of the rabble that makes up the nearby villagers as of late, instead of complete strangers. But since you lot are evidently new here… allow me to offer some basic courtesy. I am the Progenitor of Ashwood, the First Branch of Greenwood, Father and Shepherd of the Forested Flock," he answered blithely. "But if you want something… less taxing on your tongues, you can refer to me as Pestilence."

Katie's ears twitched upright, and her orbs widened. "Pestilence?" she echoed.

Pestilence nodded and turned to her, canting his head. "Although… Envoy of Cocytus, I'll admit you to be the last creature I'd expected upon my doorstep," he stated in an eerie calm tone laced with a note of resignation. "Ever since that fateful day, whence you'd been sealed have I held my breath. But it seems fate itself turned you loose. I should have anticipated as much—though it seems even you have stooped low enough to come in with this rabble." He flapped his wings again, almost distressingly.

"Frulkæ olkaar, ultoryun astæ?!" Katie shouted, wings buzzing with that declaration.

Pestilence issued her a small grin, the wood fraying at the corners of his warped mouth with the effort. "Altruskarn, orobrumæ estelkei," he replied. He turned to look at the others, still grinning, horn crackling as his ember-like eyes turned onto Lance. "Pardon me… but why have you brought the Envoy here?"

Lance straightened his back and flared his wings, seeing the ivy writhing out of the corners of his eyes. "Same reason I am here," he hissed, eyes narrowing, "and that reason is a matter of curiosity: did you build this house, and if so, why?"

Pestilence chuckled, viridian magic crackling along the length of his horn. "Yes I did… and I simply wanted some peace and quiet after Godcat was sealed," he replied, almost cheerful in his disposition. "And it seems you've all come looking for a battle." His grin widened further, fracturing at the edges as the ivy on his body writhed. "Although it's been a while since I've seen living pegasi… at least three decades. This ought to be interesting."

Twilight eyed Pestilence warily. Lance turned the barrel of the Accelerator to him and angled his wings along its sides. He purposely slipped the primaries between two of the gears and let mana pulse through them—and Pestilence faltered as the hands of the weapon's clock began to spin with the glow. "A pegasus charging a cat-built weapon? That's—!"

Lance smirked. "Impossible? Would be, had I been an ordinary pegasus," he snarked as a gathering of swirling white energy started to form in the weapon's mouth, causing the gears to rattle in protest.

Before Pestilence could ask what Lance had meant by that, he fired off a massive glowing beam the size of Princess Celestia. He vanished in a burst of viridian light and reappeared under the ceiling, leafy wings flapping with all their might to keep him airborne. He watched as the beam, having missed him, ended up tearing a new hole in the wall behind the area where he stood. The hole widened as Lance swiveled to redirect the beam, almost hitting but not quite reaching the so-called First Branch before it dissipated.

When that volley ended, everyone could see the swaying branches of the wisteria tree dangling outside, some of them shortened and torched to allow a clear view into the remains of Ashwood. Pestilence nickered in disapproval, and the house shook and groaned with the injury. "I'll have to add your bodies to close that hole when I am through breaking your hopes and spirits," he growled.

His magic seized the writhing vines before then directing them towards the intruders with a refined, fluid grace. Twilight simply sliced them into pieces with her blade, smirking as Pestilence snickered. "Are you just getting warmed up? Compared to Lance over here, your style's rusty," she taunted.

"Oh please, the last two ponies who dared fight me at all were just foals. I hadn't needed to use the full brunt of my power," Pestilence replied, his magic seeping into the cracks of the room around them. The lifeblood that kept oozing from the tree started to glow a sickly green in seconds, casting into stark relief the state of the room and the destruction of one of the walls that had just happened.

"Foals!? Why I oughta—" Katie began, buzzing her wings to launch herself at Pestilence and ram her claws into his throat. NoLegs, however, waved his tail and let his magic seize her to hold her down.

Then NoLegs summoned his wooden horse and opened the hatches on its stomach and barrel. Magic burst from the hatches and swirled around the horse, expanding it in size and fitting it with a giant, sharpened log that jutted out from its chest as its body changed from a set of legs to a cart adorned with shields at the sides. He sat on its head, seizing the cornucopia in his magic as its back hollowed out to then materialize some sort of grey pip-engine in the resultant cavity. The tack and saddle completely vanished, instead replaced by a false pink tongue and a flat floor of the cavity respectively.

"Awww, a trojan horse. How novel," Pestilence taunted with a grin, waving his forelegs with a strangely apathetic shrug of his withers. "But how do you expect to hit me with that battering ram…" Vines seized the horse by its wheels, trying their best to wrench it apart. "When it's caught up in a tangle?"

NoLegs smirked and aligned the cornucopia's slim end with his mouth, before puffing his cheeks and blowing into it with all the air his lungs could hold. A loud drone, one so deep anypony outside the house could've mistaken it for a tuba, emerged from the other end with a force that made the room shudder. Pestilence winced and covered his ears with his forelegs, horn fizzling out as he lost concentration. As the noise petered out in a reverberating echo, Twilight lunged towards Pestilence by self-levitating, aiming her blade directly for his head while he was distracted. However, he turned away from her, swatting her aside with a wing and briefly losing his aerial balance as he sent her to the floor.

She landed on her hooves, however, and shook herself off. "Fluttershy! Take Angel and Maria to the mastership!" she called, brow furrowing as Pestilence managed to shake off his temporary headache. Fluttershy nodded, and without hesitation raced to the massive hole with wings flapping.

"Kick his ass, daddy!" Maria called as Fluttershy launched out of the hole and started to fly up.

"Will do!" Lance called back before parting his wings from the Accelerator. He started flapping; if Pestilence was flying, then so would he. Katie started buzzing again, her stub-horn finally ceasing its crackling for the moment as NoLegs released his magical hold on her. The two exchanged a glance and nodded in tandem, and darted to opposite sides of the makeshift arena, making sure to hover just out of the edge of the vines' reach. Pestilence chuckled and watched them, and they watched back for a moment before NoLegs blew the cornucopia once more with bravado.

"Rhaa! Stupid cat!" Pestilence howled as he covered his ears again, glaring balefully at NoLegs as the sound petered out in another echo. He flew towards him, pike-like legs aimed at NoLegs's head. Lance and Katie flew to him, one flipping his blaster so its back faced the floor as it was then raised like a mace and the other with foreclaws low and pointing up. Twilight winced as the Accelerator's back met with the First Branch's spine while, at the same time, frozen horseshoes cut through both flesh and ivy with ease.

Pestilence howled and changed course, hinds kicking out awkwardly as he then landed into the nearest wall with all the grace of a carriage falling off a cliff. Katie clung to him for a few seconds after he impacted before slicing down to where she estimated the gonads would be located and then pulling out to dart away. She raced to Twilight's side as Lance opted to hover a few feet away from the flailing Progenitor as pain overtook his nerves for a moment. NoLegs dislodged the ivy from the wheels of his trojan horse with a series of quick swipes from his sword and used his magic to steer it to Twilight, being mindful of the battering ram it was now fitted with.

"What did you say to him earlier?" Twilight whispered to Katie.

"Basically, 'hold up, you did?'" she answered with a shrug. "Dunno what he said in response, though."

"Something along the lines of, 'maybe, maybe not,'" NoLegs telepathically translated with a wave of his tail. They turned to Pestilence as they heard and saw his pike-legs plant themselves into the wall he flew into.

"So you wish to end me… is that it?" Pestilence growled as he pried himself from the wall with minimal effort, bleeding profusely enough to stain the vines beneath his stomach red. "Very well…" The house shook and groaned as he unleashed a flare of bright green magic that swept throughout the whole room, causing the walls to twist in on themselves and the open door frame to collapse. The branches with the dead flowers pierced the walls easily, the shriveled petals folding in to form thin and needle-like points. "If you intend to kill me… then so be it!"

Chapter LXXXIII- Et Lux In Tenebrum Exitium

Pestilence grinned as the flower-laden branches started moving through the walls and their pulsating flesh, jerking up and down in sync as they began carving their paths throughout the makeshift arena. One nearly grazed Twilight, who jumped onto the trojan horse to avoid it. Another branch tried aiming for Katie's face, but all she had to do to avoid it was open her torn mouth as wide as it could go and pull back until it was in front of her muzzle.

Pestilence growled at that, and gnashed whatever teeth he had left after she lunged forward and bit down hard on the branch with enough force to break it. Katie jerked her head, severing the branch and letting it fall out of her mouth with ease. The next branch to lash at her, however, managed to cut two of her legs with enough force to part chunks of flesh and chitin from bone. The wounds froze shut before their blood could fall to the floor.

Lance flew to Pestilence, raising the Accelerator to clock him again. Pestilence chuckled at this, and raised his forelegs with their pike-like points aimed right at the weapon. His forelegs morphed and contorted, wood splitting and folding outwards in fragments, almost peeling off his flesh before reattaching at the tips of the pike-like points in an entirely new shape. In seconds, the sharpened points had reconfigured into wicked claws with a final crackle of bark, which he used to clutch the incoming weapon before it could ram into his face.

"H-his legs!" Katie shrieked in alarm, orbs widening. She rushed over as Lance tried to pull his weapon back out of his adversary's clutches, all the while Pestilence rose a hind leg and aimed for his exposed stomach.

Lance, however, reared his hinds in response and kicked first, hooves penetrating through the ivy cage and right into the ribs. Pestilence growled and let go, allowing Lance to launch away and tumble backwards through the air, before then using his still-raised leg to skewer Katie through the barrel of her chest and out her back as she came in to slash at him. He seized her by the neck with his claws, and ivy raced to her legs to keep her still as he looked into her orbs for any sign of weakness. "You dare to stop me with that feeble form of yours?" Pestilence growled, eyes narrowing a smidgen as his grin widened fractionally.

Despite being skewered through, Katie managed to glare at him. Her split grin twitched at its edges. "Not with my form, for I cannot do much as I could were my horn whole," she spat, voice echoing with several notes of ire. She undulated her tongue a little, and it rippled in her throat with enough force that she was sure Pestilence could feel it through his bark. Her broken horn began crackling with unrestrained, unfocused might, and ice began to grow along the both of them as the temperature dropped.

Pestilence sneered. "Then with what?" he asked, simply flexing his vines to shake off the ice that tried to grow on him. Katie wasn't content to answer; rather, she let somepony else do the answering in her stead—and that turned out to be Lance as he flew at Pestilence once more. This time he came in swinging from behind, Accelerator once again raised for another meeting with their adversary's exposed backside.

The swift crunch of wood and bone wasn't enough to make him let go, but it was enough to send him to the floor, distracted as he was. And it was there that he found another surprise waiting for him: Twilight teleporting over to skewer him on her light-blade, aiming for his still-exposed stomach. Pestilence shifted, massive wings propelling him into a spin as he darted to the side, still clutching the seemingly-hapless Katie. Dark energies began swirling along the length of his horn, green-black tendrils writhing and snapping about for a second prior to jumping from branch to branch. The flower-laden limbs of the construct began jittering up and down faster, some homing in on NoLegs and Twilight while others aimed for Lance.

Lance flew out of range, hovering in the middle of the room where none of the tendrils reached for the moment. NoLegs magically lifted his trojan horse to achieve the same; Twilight self-levitated to join them, though that left them exposed—and Katie in Pestilence's grasp. Pestilence grinned wickedly, eying the rest of the meager group with a predatory light in his eyes at this development. His magic, still dancing around his gnarled horn, lanced out to the branches once more. At his unspoken command, and inch by inch they sawed their way to the group, pushing deeper and deeper until he was sure it would at least graze one of them and trap the rest.

However, it was this exact moment that Twilight chose to retaliate. She teleported over to him and slashed at the branches around him, preventing them from slicing into her in a flurry of motion. Then, she pierced his hind leg with her sword, using just enough force to cut through wood and bone indiscriminately. The cut was clean and swift, the ichor of his being spraying upon him and her coat and Katie's face as he found himself one leg short.

She snatched Katie in her magical grasp as he let go with a yelp, severed leg and all, and teleported back to Lance and NoLegs before prying out the bleeding stump from fraying flesh and chitin. As soon as Pestilence realized what had happened and started reacting to it, Twilight deftly wiped the blood off of her coat with, before then throwing his own severed leg at him—bloodied point first. The sawing branches shredded it to pieces before it could reach him, and as Pestilence turned to the limb's remnants with orbs widening, he only barely registered the group teleporting out of the arena in short order.

Outside, on the lonesome island, the group reappeared and alighted. Katie took a moment to get used to the feeling of having a hole punched through half her entire body, and let her magic form ice to cork it shut. She turned her orbs to the mangled tree-house, grimacing as its own branches tore through its upper floors and tightened upon itself in a way that sprayed its foul ichor everywhere. She winced as an angry roar emanated from deep within that fraying trunk, before a burst of viridian light erupted from above the tree. Everyone turned to find Pestilence well away from his own supposed house, magic crackling wildly along his horn.

"That was a clever trick, for a bunch of mortals accompanied by the Envoy," Pestilence spat, the bark around his left eye twitching and splintering erratically. Twilight noted he was flying a little lopsided now, due to the lack of a hind leg that was still bleeding rather profusely. His magic raced to his own supposed abode and caused it to cease all movement for a few seconds. By then, the house looked less like a tree and more like a coiled lich-wyrm turned inside-out.

Katie beat her wings, hearing a tiny tremor racing through the ground that slightly rattled the ice which had shut her wounds. Lance and Twilight moved to get airborne as well; NoLegs made his trojan horse vanish in a burst of light and shifted to stand on Katie's head as he saw more wood growing out of Pestilence's hind quarters and down the cut limb to replace it. They watched, waited for some sort of attack as they ascended—yet none came. Nothing was launched at them, not even the magma itself. Time seemed to have slowed; Lance and Katie would have dropped by now, had it halted entirely.

Twilight was half-tempted to ask what the deal was when something answered her unspoken question for her.

The tree kept still for perhaps a moment longer, but then heaved in a way that forced its branches outward, rushing up and then holding stiff in a manner that reminded Twilight of the spokes of a wheel. Then its roots shifted, causing the warped and half-destroyed construct to twist even further on itself as the ground cracked and frayed. The tree heaved up and up, further splitting the ground as the sickly magic touched every splinter of its being.

A root pierced through the ground, from beneath the group. Katie zipped back first, just in time to avoid another sharpened point that would have otherwise slammed clean through her head. Lance flew higher, the others following him, and she buzzed after them as the island continued to break apart with the aid of roots long since planted. From miles above, every single combatant could see a pattern slowly form in those fraying cracks, coiling and breaking as the tree's roots filled them with its sickly glowing lifeblood.

Runes emerged in the soil, whole and untouched, almost floating as they broke away to frame themselves around the island. A circle framed the barest edges of a crumbling precipice, strangely neat in structure and circumference. Vines wove in an intricate lace, holding the mishmash together even though these were born of dirt instead of fauna. A strange image formed within that circle, first as mere links of a chain, then as a pair of tightly-clamped shackles framing a rune-scribbled parchment stabbed with vines.

Throughout the formation of this odd phenomenon, the tree continued to writhe and push itself out of the earth, still spilling blood with which to fuel its crumbling bastion. The torches fell away, save one that lit up a final time as it started to absorb the ichor. The flame turned from blue to green, and its previous fuel—skulls and rings—turned to ash as the fires ate them. As that torch bathed in, drank and radiated that odd glow, Lance's eyes widened at the sight and he turned to Twilight.

Only one order left his mouth in that moment. "Teleport! Now! As far away as you can manage!" he barked.

Twilight embraced everyone in her magic again, and did just that as the tree collapsed into itself and on the island, spilling itself and its furnishings everywhere with the impact. They reappeared at the Mighty Oak's shrine, still afloat and flying, and gaped as a pillar of green light exploded from where the island was, encasing miles of Ashwood in a vibrant dome that pulsed with ominous power. Chunks of soil and wood flung themselves at the barrier's interior, only to disintegrate in that light upon contact. Magma sprayed, and so did what scorched bones remained of the lich-wyrm, suffering just the same fate. Yet, there was no sign that Pestilence himself had been afflicted by whatever it was he had wrought.

Twilight shuddered at that power. Even Ragnarok paled in comparison to its brutality and swiftness—even that horrid spell wasn't as destructive as this, let alone as focused. "Wh… what was that…" she muttered through heavy breath.

"A spell… okay, I'm starting to think Matt may have been onto something…" Lance grumbled, shifting the Accelerator so he could hold it with one foreleg and not shoot it in the process. He watched the dome, frowning only when it fell apart and left nothing more than a magma-filled crater in its wake. Nothing, absolutely nothing in that blast's radius had been spared.

"So… you're not going to punish him?" Twilight asked, readying her blade in case Pestilence decided to teleport and try his luck again.

"Not as severely as I normally would," Lance answered with a sigh. He turned to Katie, but was waved off with a clawed horseshoe before he could address her.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I owe you an explanation, but can it please wait until we're out of the woods?" Katie hissed in exasperation, scanning Ashwood fitfully as she retracted her hoof.

Lance nodded, and turned to scan the sky carefully. Distantly, he saw a green light still hovering over the destruction, zipping about erratically in a manner that suggested whomever was doing it was searching for something. He turned to NoLegs. "You have my gunblade?" he asked.

NoLegs shook his head.

Lance snorted. "Then please retrieve it, and I'll trade you for this," he said, waving the Accelerator. NoLegs nodded and vanished in a burst of light, and after he left Katie perked her ears to listen for any subtle changes to the Void-blighted air.

She turned immediately to Greenwood, hearing a distant commotion coming from it. Her orbs flickered as she zeroed in on it, tuning out her own wingbeats and Lance's to get a better idea of what was going on.

She didn't like what she heard.

"... the Cleansing Crystal of Condemnation has come…!"

"Wait, wasn't that rainbow-maned…"

"Please, spare me…!"

"You are not welcome here!"

Katie's ears flattened against her head and neck as she turned to the distantly-dancing green dot again, tuning out the faint cacophony. Great, everything was going to hell faster than she thought. Last affirmation she needed on the eve of this eventful week. The dot vanished in a burst, and she readied her claws in case an attack was coming.

It didn't take long for another burst to come from below. The group turned, and found Pestilence standing in the empty shrine with a wide grin that suggested he was proud of himself. "Impressive. Most don't survive the blessings of Mother Nature, much less leave intact," he noted wryly, orbs flickering with interest. His horn crackled again, and his magic lanced out to the surrounding burnt trees and undergrowth that dotted the shrine grounds.

"Blessing? You call a crater a blessing?!" Twilight cried incredulously, waving a hoof and her sword at the crater for emphasis.

"On the grounds that it gives ample opportunity for more life to flourish after the fact," Pestilence retorted, his front claws shifting back into their pike-like points with a heave and a ripple of bark. The undergrowth sprouted new shoots with his magic's passing, rapidly becoming vines that twisted onto themselves and grew sharpened spikes with which to pierce all that came near. The vines coiled onto the fallen trees, feeding on them for sustenance, and crawled out of the ground to him with only ashen piles left behind. Yet, when that same magic touched the vines' remnants that clung to the stone gates, something strange happened that even Pestilence took note of.

The vines revitalized, yes, but did not sprout any thorns or make an effort to leave the burnt rocks to which they clung. Instead they sputtered with renewed vigor, and coiled tighter to keep the gates together. Pestilence growled at the rebellious plants, and wrenched them off with his magic, though when he did they simply rushed towards him and coiled upon his neck as though with a mind all their own. His own vines made short work of the fighting vines, though, and his magic reconstituted them into the thorny growths that came at his beck and call. With a sharp jerk of his horn, the vines on the ground shot up at the trio, some using the hedges as a launching-off platform to do so.

Katie and Lance flew out of the way, and Twilight levitated near the middle of the airspace above the shrine grounds. Yet still the thorny bramble lashed about, trying to coil around legs and wings with a grace that was only granted through very fine-tuned control. One managed to snake around Lance's primaries, but he simply dropped down to slip out of the hold before it had the chance to complete itself. Another aimed for Katie's neck, but she slashed that one into pieces as it made to touch her. A third tried its luck with Twilight, and was immediately skewered on a sword for its trouble.

The vines were a persistent crop, however, and shot out further and further, edging the stragglers towards Twilight. Pestilence watched, head tilted, as Lance zipped up and down with an erratic gait that kept his wings out of harm's way. Odd, he made no effort to bat aside the plants with his Accelerator. Vines surged with his magical manipulation, aiming at the prone pegasus, but a well-timed beating of the wings sent them back with only a small gust of wind.

Twilight turned to Pestilence as she spun her sword to slash at more vines that came too close for comfort, and grasped him in her magic, noting he made no move to retreat or defend himself. Her eyes narrowed as Pestilence turned to her, opening his mouth to speak when white fire erupted from all around him. His mouth shut as the fires danced for a moment, going around him in an orbit, until they lashed out and licked at the vines he had conjured—as well as him. Pestilence, strangely, was content to stand idle as his crop withered, died, and turned to ash from the onslaught.

His wings spread wide and proud, even as their leafy feathers began to blacken around their edges. His horn rose to join them, singing just the same as it hummed with more foul magic. His mouth opened once more, and an archaic language slipped from his tongue even as the fires began burning bits of his legs and face away. "Krælstal moirhen thlakulz…" he started, his magic touching the stone hedges and making them glow with his power. Runes emerged, circling him along with the fire, swirling in a slow dance that gained momentum.

"What is he doing… this time?" Twilight grumbled, watching intently as she pointed the tip of her blade at Pestilence.

Pestilence, still burning with much of his body blackening, reared onto his hinds and folded his front legs to his bleeding, vine-riddled barrel. Wings and horn going higher up as a result of this, he continued to chant, "Mæratrun erisch gronzhelæ…" His magic was once more snaking its way past the hedges and gates, touching all of the burnt, ashen wood with its passing. A viridian blanket seeped through the area, bathing that part of Ashwood in its light.

Dirt heaved up around the shrine grounds, dragging with it roots and wood and flaking ash as it moved in massive chunks. Whatever wood remained flew to the chunks of soil, which started to orbit the henges. Still channeling whatever fell power he beckoned forth, Pestilence continued to chant amidst the white flames that struggled to consume him. Some dirt flung itself at him, dousing out Twilight's spell-wrought flames with but a few clumps as large as he was. The rest compacted onto themselves and absorbed the blanket of magic in its totality, then merged onto each other to form a boulder of soil thrice as tall as the Mighty Oak. All the while, it was sprouting new shoots and saplings whose growth was nothing short of accelerated by magic that willed them into being.

Katie rubbed at her eyes as the dirt and vegetation molded itself slowly, first sprouting twisted trees whose branches ended in the claw-like folds of their cursed brethren instead of leaves and flowers. Totaling four in number, the trees landed with a thud that shook Ashwood, holding up the ball of soil as it started to gain a more definitive shape thanks to its crops and their rather deft sculpting. A long, segmented neck emerged from the front as the body became slimmer, ending in a rounded and serpentine head that grew wooden scales in a matter of seconds. A tail jutted from behind, lashing with vines and bark and contempt as glowing orbs framed the new face of this beast. Spines all but completed it, running from head to tail in sharply curved points formed of more vines holding bark together.

Pestilence completed his spell, making the runes vanish with a flap of his wings and a flourish of his horn. He stomped on the shrine grounds using his front legs, sending a ripple through the earth that ran up the legs of his own monstrosity. He teleported onto the head of the beast once the shaking subsided, and smirked at a gawking, wide-eyed Twilight whose forelegs had gone completely slack at the sight. "A… timberdrake…" she muttered in dismay, the sword shaking in her magical grip as the dirt moved outside the construct to form a crusty, dampened shell that still let the spines and vines poke through. "He made a…"

Katie's jaw had dropped, swinging for a moment before she reigned it back in with a shudder. "Okay, gotta admit, that's actually impressive," she noted sourly, with a faint hint of awe somewhere amidst a bit of jealousy. "But just as bad for us either way."

"And that proved exactly what?" Lance shouted, glaring at Pestilence even as the timberdrake stomped its way over to loom over him and his group.

Pestilence still wore his insufferable smile, his ashen bark falling away to be replaced with a fresher, still-growing series of plates. "That I can crush you, here and now!" he screeched as the timberdrake raised one mighty claw to swat at his airborne opponents. Twilight teleported herself and the others out of immediate range, but the wind from the strike knocked them further back as soon as they reappeared a mile away. Katie and Lance were thrown off-balance, spinning in the air before reorienting themselves and regrouping with Twilight as the timberdrake started to move closer.

"Okay, Nightmare Moon wasn't this bad…" Twilight grumbled in exasperation. "How much mana does he have to sustain that thing?"

At that point, Lance's portable radio buzzed. "What the fuck is going on over there?" Matt asked from his end. "NoLegs came up telling me about this tree-alicorn—" Lance ignored the rest, instead flying around the timberdrake with Katie and Twilight following him, just in time to avoid a massive backhand that came from below. In unison they raced along the side of the monstrosity, and Twilight took the lead to slash any vines that made an effort to reach them. Halfway between shoulder and hip, the tail came in towards them, and the group ducked under it as it swung before changing course and getting further away from the timberdrake.

"Lance, what's going on?!" Natalie cried from another communications link. "I hear the ground shaking over here, and—"

Lance cut both off with a sigh. "Can't really talk right now; we have a timberdrake on the loose!" he hissed as said beast craned its neck and looked towards him. Its front quarters turned next, and then the hinds followed to let it lumber and lurch to the trio.

"Ah, fuck me," Matt grumbled in exasperation. The timberdrake opened its mouth wide, showing off a myriad of thorns and sharpened logs long enough to be considered stakes dotting the roof and floor of its mouth, though all were covered with layers and layers of dirt. A deep green energy stirred in its throat, bubbling in consistency as it formed a viscous, liquid substance. The timberdrake pulled back sightly, barrel and neck puffing up with air even through the strange liquid.

Lance looked at the angle of his vantage point, and where the drake seemed to be aiming. After a second, he ducked towards its legs, folding his forelegs tightly around the Accelerator as he flew down. "Where are you going?! It'll kill you!" Katie exclaimed, racing after him with claws outstretched. Twilight went with her, silently wondering the same thing when she saw Lance change his angle and propel himself between the massive front legs of the beast with a few wingbeats and his body corkscrewing in a frenzied barrel roll to evade the vines. At the same time, the drake unleashed a spray of liquid that hissed through the air, missing them entirely but painting a three-mile-long swath of land in popping, bioluminescent green that dissolved all except the dirt.

Katie fell back a little to hover at Twilight's side, tucking her front legs in. "Never thought I'd take on something like this," she grumbled, eyes narrowing at this prospect.

Twilight stifled a groan and shifted her sword so it hovered above her back as they danced around the vines and rushed between the front legs to catch up to a still-corkscrewing Lance, who had tightened his maneuvering to avoid the few vines that reached out further than the rest. "Never thought I'd run into a pony who could summon the awful things," she hissed in displeasure.

"True enough," Katie agreed with a sharp nod. She heard the creature shifting, heard the bark fraying, and saw the hinds moving as Lance veered to the side and darted out between a front and back leg. She turned to follow, and her self-levitating companion wordlessly did likewise. Lance stopped for a moment, backed up, and descended a few feet before pressing on, wings spread to catch any wind that dared blow in the battlegrounds. The two behind him saw why; a wall of vines had sprung up—down, rather, in this case—and tried to block him to no avail. They simply descended lower than the tendrils could reach, and passed under it without incident.

Then Lance turned around and aimed the Accelerator at the drake, sliding primaries between gears and charging another blast—and went into freefall at the same time. The wind beating against him caused the clock's hands to spin faster and faster than if he simply stood still, and it accumulated its charge as he started to descend at a hastening rate. Lance aimed it for the drake's head where Pestilence still stood, his own head darting about in an effort to locate his foes.

Twilight and Katie both watched him take the seemingly-suicidal plunge. "What the fuck in Faust's name is he doing?!" Twilight cried, teleporting to Lance only to miss him by a few feet as he continued freefalling. Katie flew down to the former treeline, then raced to him in an effort intercept his landing—or cushion it, if she got there fast enough. Twilight flew down after him herself, careful to keep out of his firing range as the light the weapon gathered was rapidly approaching destructive capacity.

Lance smirked, contemplating what he was doing. Coming from any other pony who was dead or alive—or any sentient for that matter—such an action would be in the upper echelons of truly, impossibly impractical and nucking futs. But the situation, having already spiraled well out of hoof, had escalated to the point where he had to stop caring about how crazy it was becoming. The wind shrieked in his ears, almost took his hat off before he reached with one hoof to grab it and cram its rim into his mouth. His feathers ruffled and pulsed with his channeled power, and he fought with the wind to get his hoof back on the Accelerator before he could fire.

He saw Twilight and Katie both struggling to catch up to him, seemingly forgetting about the massive timberdrake that would probably rampage throughout Fantasia if left unchecked for too long. "I have to get that giant tree's attention somehow," was the first thought that crossed his mind as he continued to plummet. "But, I also have to withstand the impact…" Ideas turned in his mind, and there was dwindling time to contemplate them.

Having such few options and precious seconds to act on them was not very favorable, even for him or somepony in his shoes. But any option certainly beat becoming a mess of gore on the ashen ground, or crippled all over again for that matter.

One such option struck him as Twilight missed catching him by a good foot of distance, and he remembered that he could fly if he pried out his feathers fast enough. "This is gonna require a bit of timing on my part…" he mused, biting down on his hat to calm himself even as he drew closer to what many would call certain death. He glanced at the approaching ground, then to the distant puddle the timberdrake had belched out as it ate half of whatever was left, then back to the patch that came closer as if eager to meet him.

All he could do was wait. There was only one window of opportunity to see, and it wasn't yet open for him. Pity that neither of his companions could see it.

He figured they would though, soon enough.

But neither teleporter nor wraith could get to him in time at the rate he descended, that much he could glean right away—they were simply not fast enough. Though, of the two, Twilight had without a doubt gotten at least close enough to see the tell-tale glimmer in his eyes.

Lance plummeted a few dozen feet in a matter of seconds as Twilight tried and failed to catch him again. He had time enough to nod to her once, smirking broadly through his hat. He knew, full well, what he was doing—and the impracticality of it all.

Immediately afterwards, he fell further until he found himself above where the treeline used to be, and that was when he let loose another torrent that grazed the beast's neck thanks to the shift in altitude he'd subjected himself to. At the same time he fired, he slid his wings out and spread them wide, turning on an axis as the volley dissipated, flapping a few times to at least soften his landing. As he span to reorient himself, using the Accelerator to help shift his weight, he caught sight of the grazed drake as its vines compacted onto its body.

"Damnit, I didn't even damage the drake… looks like I'll have to have a change in plans," he thought, frowning as his hind hooves met with the ground first and tried to fly out from under him that same moment. He stiffened his legs and forced them to comply, and sent himself into a skid that created new furrows thanks to speed, gravity, and weight, but even through that he remained upright with wings still flapping to slow himself down. His foes, who had already taken notice of the blast and from where it had come, both turned in that direction to find one pony on ground and his companions coming to his aid.

The drake started to storm over, fueled by braying laughter that could have only come from its twisted master. "You fool! I rule the ground here! You will never take to the skies again, wretched pegasus!" Pestilence barked, his voice resonating throughout the Void with a warbling glee. The drake roared in agreement, stomping along the ground with enough force to leave footprints in its wake.

Twilight seized Lance in her magic, then Katie as she came closer. Lance curled a wing to grasp and put his hat back onto his head with his primaries, wincing as his back legs ached in protest from the landing. "Just question it later; otherwise we'll be flattened bickering about it!" he hissed as Twilight opened her mouth to start questioning the validity of the stunt he pulled. Twilight closed her mouth, facehoofed, and nodded before vanishing with them in another teleport. The timberdrake was only fast enough to reach where they stood, and crushed the area under a claw with a might that sent ashes spiraling around it in a burst of wind.

The drake lifted its claw up once the ash settled, and lowered its head to check the newest imprint upon Ashwood. Pestilence jumped down from its head and personally trotted over, legs cricking and cracking as he forced himself into a calm, collected stride. He examined the footprint, but found only a few shed feathers of burnt orange and little else clinging to the underside of the massive tree-claw. Pestilence stomped a pike-leg, sending a magical pulse throughout the imprint that caused more vines to sprout up in its shape. "Where did they get to…?" he grumbled, looking about with his warped ears turning.

A few miles behind him and his new pet, Twilight, Lance, and Katie reappeared in a burst of light that went undetected by their adversaries. "Okay, so he's able to make giant golems… if we kill that thing, he's probably going to summon something bigger," Twilight grumbled, eyes narrowing at the unpleasant thought.

Katie went over what had happened earlier today, the day before, and considered the information she heard over that course of time. She crossed her forelegs sourly, slicing into her legs with a wince. "You think that bastard might have made the Mighty Oak? I mean, he used the shrine's giant stone things," she muttered.

Lance shook his head, flapping his wings and sending a few loose feathers everywhere. "No; he knows how to use runes, yes, and how to make golems… but the Mighty Oak has metal parts. Unless you know where to look, that specific ore or alloy's hard to come by," he pointed out. "I don't even know what metal was used in his construction."

"Still, the Mighty Oak is old, and that fucker over there said he was old too!" Katie retorted, undulating her tongue to point at Pestilence in lieu of a hoof. "Plenty of time to have gathered the materials!"

"I still vouch 'no' on the grounds that the Mighty Oak got out of whatever spawned the curse that made the cursed trees," Lance snapped back, frown deepening. He turned to Twilight. "So, I say we ignore the drake and go for Pestilence himself. If he keels, so will the drake."

"We'd have to pound him past Fantasia's crust for that to happen, since he can just regrow legs on a whim," Twilight snorted, nose wrinkling. She returned the look, an eye twitching sourly. "Can you send the Mighty Oak back down? We could use his help."

Lance nodded and held a hoof to the radio. "Send the Mighty Oak down to Ashwood. He's not gonna like what he'll see," he said.

A soldier barked out from the other end of the communications link, "Sir, is that wise? With the fucking Void present?!"

"Well, considering we have a several-meter-tall timberdrake stomping about, we don't have much of a choice," Lance retorted. "Send the Oak down."

"Alright alright," the soldier groaned, a buzz of distress following the utterance. "Calm your feathers."

"... I'm coming down too. Sounds like shit hit the fan all over again," Matt grumbled from his end. "And I'm bringing the hairball." That was followed by a low meow. "Oh, good, he has the gunblade."

Lance nodded and returned the hoof to the Accelerator, still looking at Twilight as the drake and its master both turned in their direction. "It's gonna take a few minutes for all three to dock and all that. We're gonna distract those assholes in the meantime," he said.

Twilight nodded. "What's your plan?"

Lance smirked. "You teleport and disorient the drake, chip at its armor if you can; Katie will slash at the vines to cover you, and I'll go over the top in trying to clock Pestilence. Think you can manage another fire spell?"

Twilight sighed and began to self-levitate again. "That's better than what I initially had in mind, in the short-term anyway," she muttered. "Though, if I chip the dirt armor and make a large enough hole, I'm burning that thing inside-out."

Katie began to buzz again, retracting her tongue. "That being?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Gathering my friends here and blasting Pestilence with the Elements of Harmony," she answered as the timberdrake roared and started charging once again with its master flying close at its neck, "but they take a few minutes to charge, would need to be gathered into one place to start charging, and honestly I don't know if they'll have any effect here whatsoever—and with that timberdrake lumbering about, we can't afford to take such a risk."

Lance began flapping once more, and as soon as he did the three became airborne. They charged forward to start dealing with the gargantuan nuisance as it started charging another burning, bubbling retort in the back of its throat. "And the Elements are… on one of the airships, right?" Katie guessed as she kept close to Twilight while Lance raced ahead.

Twilight nodded, smiling softly. "I made sure to leave them with Shining Armor when we touched down in Whitefall," she replied, readying her blade for another confrontation with the newest bout of madness to walk the surface of Fantasia. "Just in case."

Chapter LXXXIV- Twilight Tango

The rather half-baked plan that Lance had put forward was not without its flaws. To disorient the drake, Twilight had to stay constantly in its sights even as she went into a teleporting frenzy—left side, back away from massive stake-lined jaws, head up a few feet, teleport back down, rinse and repeat with a new direction that hopefully didn't lead to Greenwood. The vines covering the thing kept regrowing, no matter how many times Katie hacked at them with her claws, and some deliberately started to move just out of her pitiful range to goad her into following them.

Neither part of said plan accounted for it spitting what may as well have been acid, either. But both Katie and Twilight had, and when the drake horked up another burning bundle, they simply flew behind its neck to get out of its range. Once the spittle ceased being evicted, they then resumed what they were doing before—simple, although both found it a waste of time after repeating the process a few go-arounds, given the sheer enormity of the beast they were tackling.

Lance was having as much luck as a snowball would in hell; Pestilence kept himself out of immediate bone-breaking range, only staying in it for extended periods to turn his front pikes back into claws and shove the Accelerator aside. This, however, was the very least of Lance's mounting worries; every time he got blocked, he risked having a stake-for-leg piercing through his stomach, and so had to back off whenever a pointed hind even twitched in his direction.

The vines were another problem too; he couldn't risk flying too close to the drake, or else he'd be tangled. And a mid-air firing session was impossible at this point; he missed the first shot, and had no more chances to use for another round. All he could do was attempt to bash Pestilence, being mindful of his own shortcomings.

In short, the trio were having many things going wrong all at once, and the shenanigans were getting to be a bit too much for them. Twilight found herself grateful she at least had a cavalry on the way, and the raw magical power needed to keep the drake's attention at bay in the meantime. Though, she backed off and flew to the beast's spines when the drake spat out more acidic bile, and so did Katie. For a few seconds, they watched as Lance kept pushing his luck to its limit, and Katie shook her head. "You think there might be a way to dry this monster out?" she asked, turning to Twilight.

Twilight shook her head, contemplating that strange proposition for a moment. "If I try that with what little fire magic I know, I'd just get entangled before I even started," she grumbled.

Katie's brow furrowed as she flew along the back of the drake's neck, Twilight following after her. "You know any earth-based magic?" she asked.

Twilight pressed her lips into a thin line, mental gears spinning into overdrive. She recalled the last timberdrake she ran into, and the fate it suffered—before she recalled a peculiar aspect of that fate that made her reconsider the problem she now faced.

The drake she was trying, and failing, to dissuade from its rampage was partly earth. It had to be, just to stay together as one relatively cohesive body, formed of individual parts that were speed-grown on raw magic.

Take away the earth, or at least what held that together…

But her mental gears screeched as she and Katie found themselves face to face with the behemoth again, and it paused just long enough to size them up with its beady orbs. Then it opened its mouth and roared directly at them, the sheer force of the air current enough to send Katie tumbling down in a backwards roll. It spat acid right after, hoping to strike both in one shot, but Twilight teleported out of range and reappeared at the beast's barrel, just low enough for Katie to land on her back belly-side down with the very distinct sounds of bones breaking.

"Ow… that was a rib…" Katie groaned, eyes squinting as she stopped flapping her wings to ease the pain.

Twilight teleported again, reappearing above the drake's backside before scanning for Pestilence and Lance. She found them moving to the lashing tail of the beast, the former seemingly leading the latter on, willing the vines to catch Lance to no avail. She aimed her blade of light at Pestilence, maneuvering the tip farther ahead than where he was going. If she could time this right…

The tail moved first, curling on itself as it kept lashing at both, until it managed to hit them with its tip. This was enough to knock both tree-alicorn and disgruntled general out of the air, and both were sent hurtling to the waiting ground. Pestilence seized his chance; he righted himself, then dove towards his opponent and shifted his bark into claws that he then used to grapple him by the throat. The only thing blocking him from that exposed stomach was the Accelerator, which Lance had wedged between them with an admirable amount of strength.

Pestilence chuckled dryly at this resistance, but his laugh had a distinct note of annoyance about it. "Foolishness, disguised as vigor—you lack an ounce of courage, young colt," he hissed, lips twisting into a disconcerting grin. "Though, your attire is odd… and does not help your body a single bit." He started charging more of that sickly miasma around his horn, and it shifted from bright green to pitch black as they rolled through the air, wings flapping in an attempt to delay the inevitable.

Lance gave a grin of his own, teeth glinting in the not-light. It was enough to make Pestilence's grin falter. "Dark magic? Against me?" he taunted with eyes glinting dangerously, seeing the crackle of red and purple roiling about in the blackened aura. Both span again, a tangle of leaf and feathers that struggled to stabilize the altitude and establish dominance between the warring pair. Lance lifted a hoof and snagged his hat before putting it in his teeth again, and took the chance to thrust that hoof at Pestilence's left eye while he was at it.

Pestilence shifted his head to the side to dodge the blow. He beat his wings harder, spinning both of them once more, that time stopping only when he hovered over Lance with his enemy's back facing the approaching ground. "You know nothing of dark magic! You're just a pegasus with a peculiar weapon!" he spat, and launched himself out of the tangle, shifting his claws and using the Accelerator as a fulcrum for the shove.

Before Lance could even react, he launched a bolt of shadow-like magic at him, hitting him right in his smirking face as he continued to plummet. The attack embraced him in shadow, as all-consuming as the Void itself, and exploded in a black not-light that formed coiling runes and twisting patterns dancing upon a sphere that pulsed with red and purple power. The patterns span for a few moments, then cemented in place and fell perfectly still.

Coalesced darkness, suspended in the blackened air of more of the same all around. One could not get much more ridiculous than this, Pestilence mused.

Pestilence did not smirk nor make any other effort to rejoice when he realized Lance hadn't screamed through his hat or the spell. Nor did he attempt to block the hit with his oversized gun; he just took the hit with an insufferable smirk of his own in foolish stride. The spell suspended him in that sphere in mid-air, the runes starting to swirl around again as though they tried to find purchase. The sphere contracted on itself for a moment, but then expanded erratically as a pair of wings burst through out of its back, flapping madly.

Pestilence stared for a second longer, and sent another bolt of black magic towards Lance to contain his flailing feathers. Shadow wrapped around them, turning the sphere into something disproportionately stretched, before it compacted into perfect round form again. He did not notice, nor care, that the timberdrake he had made was slowly being led away from him thanks to Twilight teleporting in front of its face and egging it on.

Right now, he was going to contain and grind this feather-laden upstart into a particularly perforated pile of pegasus paste. He channeled more fell power around his gnarled horn, and scowled when the Accelerator burst through the sphere, gears and clock hands whirring in tandem, the solidified darkness being somehow pulled into its barrel. How the hell was his opponent countering his spell? He had no horn; just machinery and wings with which to charge it!

Another lashing of dark magic enveloped the weapon again. The sphere contracted, and distorted as wings spread as wide as they could go within the tightening mass. The runes faltered, the channels of red and purple mana faded as the Accelerator pushed from within with all of its owner's might. It twisted further when freed hinds joined in the effort, forcing themselves as far down as they could go, while Lance straightened his back and forced his skull up at the same time.

The mass of shadow shifted to accommodate its struggling hostage, but that just resulted in it being twisted further upon itself as Lance shook every limb he could in a daring maneuver to get out. Within, Pestilence could see him still smirking, the gears and hands of the blaster spinning faster and faster, feathers straining as best as they could without breaking.

What sort of defiance was this? The runes broke apart completely with one final push from Lance, and the darkness dispersed from him to allow him free flight once again. But that wasn't the main problem Pestilence took with the upstart, oh no; it's what happened immediately after that really had him scowling. Runes went aglow all over Lance's uniform, drawing that solidified darkness to the fabric with threads of power that shimmered gold and red. The darkness let itself get drawn in, adhering to the fabric seamlessly, smothering the runes as quickly as they'd activated and leaving behind perfectly ordinary-looking cloth.

Lance lifted a hoof and settled his hat back on his head, torn ears twitching knowingly. "You think I didn't come prepared for that shit?" he scoffed, readying the Accelerator in both front hooves for round two. "I've visited Ashwood before; it reeked of dark magic!" He lashed his tail in an attempt to wave it at the remnants of a once-cursed forest down below. "What else, short of the gods who forged Fantasia and Mythos, would have kept those trees alive all this fucking time?"

Pestilence gave a wordless snarl in response, eyes narrowing balefully low and lips twisting into a toothy, sharpened grimace. He underestimated this upstart, and that fact got under his bark and irked him in a way he had not felt for a long while. A thousand burning splinters ignited under his twisted flesh, and that fire pulsed in his writhing vines and beating leafy wings with sickly magic that wanted to get out into the world and tear into his airborne adversary.

Lance's sclera turned black, eyes glinting as his own smirk turned thin and strangely wicked. His outfit glowed and pulsed with the not-light, and so did his weapon of choice whose gears still span with fervor. His wings pulsed with crimson mana, and with one beat he rushed headlong towards his twisted opponent. Pestilence magically ripped every single leaf off down to the tiniest mockery of pin feathers and tail strands. He angled them at Lance, and new leaves rapidly grew in to keep supporting him as he fired away.

Lance simply sailed below the torrent of leaves, keeping Accelerator to his barrel as he drew closer, eyes still glinting with some sort of power his opponent could not pinpoint a name to. "You wanna play that game?" he hissed in a challenging tone that had an unmistakable timber in it, the reds of his eyes deepening as he edged closer. "I've played it twice already."

Claws reared up and grasped the gun the instant its owner came into reach. Vines splayed wide, sprouting thorns with an organ-like pulse, twisting onto themselves in preparation to strike. But Pestilence held the urge back, instead taking the opportunity to study his adversary up close and personally to discern what had suddenly changed about him. The blackened sclera tipped him off immediately, and those burning reds seemed to pulse with that latent power.

Something was wrong with this particular pegasus, Pestilence deduced. It was best to put the bastard out of his misery; but how was he to do that, when he casually shrugged off dark magic and launched back into the fight like nothing was going on?

Lance flashed him another wicked smirk, seeing the vines retracting to aim at him. He swung his hinds out and connected with Pestilence's stomach to launch himself back, swinging the Accelerator free with a sharp jerk of his fetlocks. The maneuver sent both darting away from each other, one spinning to reorient himself and the other curling up on his stomach as he felt and heard something breaking with the impact.

Both shot glares at one another, and both sets of eyes flickered as they sized up their enemies again. Some sort of wild spark gleamed in Lance's eyes, almost burning like a flame that did not give off light. For a moment, they hovered in place, waiting for limbs other than wings to twitch to make the first move on.

Lance let a low and deep chuckle emerge from his throat, mirthless and almost deranged given the situation. Pestilence did not flinch as the strange noise reached his ears, and seized all of his willpower to keep his vines and bark as stiff as he could manage. "You almost remind me of a stone-masked cultist I ran into a few years ago," Lance spat, with the faintest bit of admiration somewhere in his scathing tone. "Mad as fuck… mangled inside and out… and yet, still willing to fight for that which you believe in."

"Shut up!" Pestilence howled, grimacing a tiny margin as Lance continued to study him. "You understand nothing of me!"

Lance barked out a squawking laugh, one that started with a keening wheeze, descended down sharp trills, and ended with a distinctly leonine growl. "Then what explains your thorny mask?" he challenged. In the distance, he spotted a pillar of red light homing in upon the timberdrake from above and the Void closing an opened hole behind it, who itself failed to notice thanks to Twilight keeping it busy. He charged Pestilence, Accelerator raised, but his advance was halted with a parrying of the claws and a pushback as his opponent darted away.

Pestilence charged forward before Lance could retaliate, using his massive wings to pump in extra force needed to shove him back. His horn glowed a vibrant red, and fire that charred his barky mask swirled around the twisted spire. He made to clasp Lance's neck with his claws, but the massive gun swung outwards and towards his face, nicking his snout with its gears and hands as he backed off.

They had another staredown, both trying to gauge the other and capitalize on every fault they could. Matt's voice came in through the portable radio, loud enough for Pestilence to hear him, "Can't bring the Oak down yet. Have to take care of the drake first. Gathered some help for the task; sorry I couldn't arrive sooner, somepony held me up."

Pestilence whirled around with his fire dying, orbs landing on his monstrosity and widening as he spotted the charging light approaching it. In the act of turning away, he missed Lance's devious smirk and quiet reply of, "Copy that. Make it… flashy. I want to see the fireworks from my current vantage point."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Twilight's horn was starting to turn red-hot with steam wafting from the tip, and the timberdrake showed no signs of slowing down its rampage. Now, it raised its claws again and again, flailing them every which-way in an attempt to swat her into the ground. She narrowly dodged such a strike that came in from her left, teleporting just before it could hit her and reappeared behind its head. She felt Katie cringe as the impact of a newly-formed crater rang throughout the battlefield with a crash like thunder.

The drake swiveled its head backwards as if on a pivot, the wood and dirt and vines bending and shifting to accommodate the motion. It sized up its prey with a malicious spark in its beady orbs, and opened wide for another sizzling retort of spittle. Instead of teleporting, Twilight formed a shield around herself to take the hit, and for a moment her barrier held against the burning onslaught. But when the acid touched the backside of the beast, it jerked its head away and pulled as many vines into itself as it could, though not fast enough to avoid disintegrating a few of them. This in turn led to it stomping about and thrashing madly, and something from behind smacked the shield with more than enough force to first ripple, then shatter it in a fraction of a second.

That same object that crashed through the shield hit Twilight before she could act, knocking her and Katie some impressive two-hundred feet up into the air and at the drake's left. Katie, who was still recovering from her first landing, clutched Twilight's barrel on instinct and froze herself on for good measure. She looked around as they reached the apex of their surprise launch, and chittered nervously when she realized she did not see the sword of light flying with them. "T-Twilight?" she yelled, setting aside the enormous pain in her barrel for the moment.

Twilight did not respond. Katie tilted her head to look down and gulped. A pool of leftover sizzling pain waited below, ready to melt them as it had done with the vegetation. She glanced back and saw the drake's tail sweeping across its withers prior to descending, the soil lining its earthen spine sealing itself up, and its head turning in her direction.

That was when gravity started to assert her horrible presence once again, and within seconds she and Twilight started to careen sharply back down. Katie began to beat her wings as much as she could with the air working against her, but all she managed to do was turn herself and Twilight upside-down. "Twilight?!" Katie cried again, louder this time.

She still received no answer. The drake kept its eyes on its falling, helpless quarry, opening wide to scald and dissolve them in mid-air. It seemed to wait for the perfect angle at which to fire, muzzle slowly tipping down in tandem with the falling duo, teeth glistening in its acid. Katie kept flapping her wings to no avail, spinning herself and Twilight once again as she tried with all of her might to get airborne. They kept twirling, swinging left and right with manes and tails battering at them as Katie struggled and struggled to salvage the situation; all while the pool of acid widened and widened below.

The pair continued to plummet, with Twilight seemingly oblivious to the fact. Katie looked up to spot the red meteor… or something that looked and fell down much like a red meteor coming along to make everything that much worse. The second she saw it, she concocted a horrible mental image of the surrounding landscape being trashed beyond all possible recognition—and her and everyone that was still stuck here along with those remnants. It didn't matter that it would take down the timberdrake, because she'd end up joining it very shortly after the meteor-thing impacted.

In that instant, the inner nymph broke free. With its release, all of the seven hells broke loose. The ice melted and flew out of the hole in Katie's body, followed by the ice gluing her to Twilight. Her wings ceased beating, and she slipped off, hanging above her acquaintance by a few feet of distance in seconds. The shoes came off, though Katie lashed out her tongue to secure them. She saw the drake's mouth widening further and further with the glow in its throat brightening substantially, heard the wood cracking and the new acid bubbling more and more fiercely, and felt the air sailing through her wounds and mane with a strength that tried to rip her wings out of their sockets.

Sparing a glance below, she saw why Twilight had failed to respond. A massive, ugly bruise formed along the whole right side of her body, blackening more and more by the second. Her eyes were screwed tight, and her horn was now hot enough to start pouring copious amounts of steam that wafted up and up. It glowed an angry red, and that red stayed firmly upon the horn even as they fell. It should have cooled, but didn't.

Even if she flew, saved herself, she would not be able to do anything to help Twilight. She stood little chance against the drake.

She did the only thing she could; she let her orbs shrink and her body continue on descending. Katie inhaled deeply and screamed for all it was worth, voice echoing and distorting as a multitude of emotions surged forth to add their undertones.

Her cry was answered in only five seconds, for something she did not expect had occurred. The meteor stopped above the timberdrake's head, coalescing into a ball of red energy that then launched itself at her. Shadows lashed out at the beast in formations of four, parting from the meteor and compacting into bulbous shapes as they homed in right at its face. More raced out in serpentine configurations, seizing Katie in mid-air and pulling her into itself before the whole glowing mass darted for Twilight.

The shadow-clad being had more weight to it, far more than Katie could hope to attain even at this altitude. It caught up with Twilight effortlessly, circling under her to let her land on its back. Then it vanished in a burst of blue light and reappeared on the ground, away from the acid as the bulbous forms screeched and cried with ghastly and echoing wails that made the drake snap its wooden jaws at them.

Katie found herself plopped on the ground, and scrambled to put her shoes back on as the shadows of the new arrival dispersed to reveal a sight she would have found amusing outside of these circumstances. NoLegs stood proudly on Matt's head, whose mane and tail were now nothing but shadow at their most primal form and with his horn awash in blood-red magic. On his back sat Fenrir, his coat a little puffed out and one arm wrapped around Matt's neck whilst the other precariously cradled Twilight close to his chest. Also adorning Matt's body was a tattered black longcoat sporting faded white cuffs. The cloth was fashioned with dark grey armor plates running from shoulders to croup, and a red undershirt resting beneath.

NoLegs and Fenrir both jumped off, and Matt flashed his horn before summoning a strange skull-shaped mask also made of black metal with a tuft of false red hair affixed between two pale horns that pointed at an angle. It had sharp fangs jutting down, tapered to twin points. It had beady eye-holes and nostrils, ear holes on the sides and a central hole for his horn to slip through. This was completed by a covering that would fit on the back of his head and was topped off with a slit along that covering for him to pull his mane through.

He rose it up high and slid it down his horn to affix it on proper, keeping his eyes on the timberdrake as it tried to disperse the shadows still pestering it. But darkness was not as easy for it to dispel, and the size of the amorphous blobs only meant it had a harder time striking at them. A few times it managed to clamp them all in its mouth, but the darkness simply seeped out through the gaps in its several teeth before returning to bothering it some more.

The mask snugly landed upon face and snout, false fangs only further highlighting his white jaw. His eyes gleamed through the false sockets, burning brightly with enough light of their own that one could have mistaken them for fire. Matt's horn flashed again, and with his magic he willed shadows to carve runes and a circle into the earth at his side. It was small, only about the size of a standard hoof, but it glowed with power as he worked to complete it.

The timberdrake kept snapping uselessly at the summoned shadows, spitting acid with its head turned away from the group. For a moment, the shadows dispersed as the acid struck upon another patch of wood-tarnished soil that it turned barren before they reformed and resumed with their distraction. Matt waited, chin raised as he completed whatever spell he had inscribed upon the soil. He struck the carved earth with a hoof, nodding to NoLegs, who nodded back and teleported over to float in front of the drake's mouth as it turned to face the grounded lot.

NoLegs raised his sword and the screeching shadows gathered around it, pulsing with red power. The earth trembled as the timberdrake shifted to watch its new, even tinier adversary. NoLegs's eyes flashed crimson, magic turning black for the barest of instants, before he rushed forward with blade twirling in a dizzying blur at his side. The drake reeled and backpedaled as NoLegs started hacking at its face, his strikes dragging shadows across the bark in a sharp skitter and series of repeated thunks. A few lacerations in the bark formed, but vines and soil filled them in even as more were added to the monstrosity's snout in short order.

Fenrir laid Twilight down on the ground as she started to stir. "Ugh… what's…" Twilight grumbled, sitting up and lifting a hoof to her temples.

"Backup's here," Katie piped up, willing her magic to seal her gaping chest-hole shut once more. She raced around Matt, who nodded and summoned a cupcake with a flick of his horn, even as a small portal opened at his side and a thick, jagged sword hewn of obsidian rose out of it. He willed his magic to weave around the portal and pull dirt into it until it was closed. Once the runic circle lost its power he wasted no time taking the sword, as long as he was tall, in his mouth by the hilt. He turned to Twilight, angling the blade carefully to avoid losing his balance, a bright red pentagram that was carved into its hilt pulsing with a latent power.

Twilight shook her head, which was aching something fierce, before turning to Matt. She took a second to recognize that curved horn and white jaw, as well as what now adorned the rest of the body. "Is… is that your… military gear?" she asked.

Matt nodded and plopped the cupcake upon her raised frog just as it parted from her head. "Eat that. It'll help," he spoke through the hilt, the growling echo lacing his voice once again. Twilight looked at the treat after pulling it to her muzzle; it was chocolate-brown, with white frosting drizzled with the chestnut brown of caramel and a rather hardy slice of apple wedged neatly atop. It didn't have a wrapping, but the tell-tale mottled texture that indicated it was very recently stripped of that. She stuffed it into her mouth and chewed, smearing her lips in frosting as she made sure the apple slice went in and stayed there. She ate swiftly; she could not afford to savor the sweet and buttery taste with danger still running around and trashing everything in its path.

Upon swallowing, she turned to Matt again, feeling her headache ebbing. "Wh-who gave you… the cupcake?" she asked, somewhat exasperated, but smiling in appreciation just the same.

Matt smiled beneath his mask and through his mouthful of handle. "Pinkie did. Would not let me leave until I took a whole baker's dozen of the things," he answered. He glanced at Fenrir and nodded. "You ready to initiate combat with something twenty times larger?"

Fenrir nodded, face hardening as he lifted his paws and rolled his shoulders. "What would you suggest that I do?" he asked, turning to the drake as Twilight got to her hooves with a wince as pain seized half of her body. She knelt on her front knees, and Katie lifted a cold claw to touch her horn. Upon contact, both sputtered and hissed with steam. That caused her to yelp, then collapse the rest of the way as shock and agony raced from her horn down her spine.

Katie did not pull away from the distressed noise. Her expression hardened as Twilight started kicking her legs out, and she buzzed her wings to get airborne, keeping the rest of her claws tucked upwards. Slowly, with the contact, the red-hot glow dissipated as Twilight's horn cooled without cracking. "Shhh…" The thrashing slowed as Twilight heard the noise and registered the numbing cold of ice, and Katie rubbed her head with a shoe consolingly, keeping her claws pointed away from vulnerable flesh. "Let my magic do its work. Your hornache'll be gone in no time."

Fenrir turned to the pair, lips pursing into a thin line for a moment. Matt had done the same, even as NoLegs continued to whale on the drake's face for all it was worth. "... you're… absorbing the heat?" Matt muttered, smile falling as a bemused glimmer of awe glistened in his eyes.

Katie nodded, pulling away once Twilight's horn was the same mulberry as the rest of her coat. She turned to Matt and crossed her forelegs across her barrel. "Kinda been doing that for a while now." She glanced at the timberdrake as NoLegs started to teleport around its head, adding new scars with his feverish slashing.

Twilight rose to her hooves, headache remaining but now something ten times more manageable. She glared at the giant beastial golem, tail lashing. "We'll have to take care of the dirt. That's what keeps it together," she grumbled.

"And the vines," Katie added with eyes narrowing.

Fenrir grinned a toothy, gleaming smile and his ears twitched in time with the corners of his lips. "The soil, you say? I can help you with this… belligerent gardening project gone awry," he said, tail wagging in anticipation.

Matt smiled again, levitating himself even as his own tail started to pool around and under his hooves. "And I'll help keep cover. Seems things have gotten… interesting around here," he mused darkly, his mask glinting with his own magic. He grasped Twilight in his magic and gently levitated her up to rest her upon his back, making sure she sat upright. Fenrir then proceeded to clamber back on, also upright, and leaning forward to wrap both arms around Matt's barrel and Twilight's sides.

Katie chirped and chittered, parting her forelegs to clap her front shoes together with a series of muted thunks as a chuckle left her torn mouth. "I'll help NoLegs then. You three do the rest," she said, and with that, she took off in the direction of the beast's swinging mouth as it tried again and again to trap NoLegs in its wooden teeth. Matt nodded and embraced himself, Twilight, and Fenrir in a cloak of shadow that then raced up to the behemoth's back. Still distracted, the drake could do naught but thrash and snap at NoLegs with all of its might, acid still burning in its throat as it waited for an opportunity that was slipping out of its massive grasp.

Chapter LXXXV- Ignus Lignum

The tremors of the ongoing battle did not go unnoticed by Natalie, and it certainly did not fly over the heads of Greenwood's assembled villagers either. The drawn-out pandemonium that also fed back through the radios filled in the silence, itself making all tense by merely existing. Which was bad news for all involved; Natalie and her group stood at the entrance proper, and the villagers stood in a tight-knit herd only a few trots away. This close, she could have strode forward and poked at somepony with her wings, but she did not do so, for that would have made the fireworks explode earlier than she'd have liked.

No matter the direction from which said fireworks exploded, the results would be the same either way: lots of bloodshed, which she'd much rather avoid. And, well, scared foals to contend with on top of that; that… was just another kettle of fish entirely.

Natalie took a moment to admire the formation; foals and pregnant mares laden with saddlebags in the center mass, elders and the trio of leaders at the back to watch for anything that came in from behind, and the able-bodied stallions and small hoofful of decidedly unburdened mares armed with farming tools and chopping axes at the front of the lines. She also noticed that one mare and stallion, still clad in rumpled wedding garments for some reason, carried with them the viridian jewel that had been left out in the open using a small stretcher draped across both their backsides.

Those two were also in the center formation, effectively shielded from all sides.

That, however, mattered little to Natalie, because it seemed confrontation was inevitable regardless of her wishes. She saw more tense legs than she could count, a menagerie of narrowed eyes and ears pressed back against heads, about two dozen horns at minimum aglow, and the very earth itself pulsing with a collective and channelled power. All of the villagers, sans foals, looked about fit to break someone's bones into dust. Distressingly, those glares and horns and weapons were not trained on her or Lazarus or even Rainbow Dash.

No. Oh no no no. They were instead locked onto Sarah, who stood on her hinds to raise her claws. Lazarus summoned her harxe and wordlessly plopped it in her reach, and she snagged it with her tail trembling. Another shudder had her wings snapping out, feathers fraying and faltering just slightly enough the villagers took notice of it.

Sarah tried to keep a neutral face, but sweat beaded along her forehead. From exertion, or the events leading up to this stare-off, Lazarus and Natalie could not tell. With her, it may well have been both. Her eyes were trained on Greenwood's houses instead of the villagers, all of which now sagged and slumped as the now-barren earth around them began to die.

A distant, shrill cry echoed in from the surrounding Void, composed of one but sounding as though thousands shrieked in unified, untold amounts of despair. For a moment, all ears perked up and swiveled to the gate as it, without warning, stopped within mere seconds of arrival.

The sound was enough to make Sarah's hocks shake, and her grip tightened with the noise's passing. She felt hard crystals gently scratching her withers, and she turned to Natalie to find one of her own wings outstretched. The trembling waned, and Natalie turned to make eye contact with a mute nod. One of the leaders in the back scowled, and reared up on his hinds with irises flashing crimson at the display. "Seems the Cleansing Crystal's taken up a side," he hissed, the crook of his neck pulsing erratically for a moment.

One of his fellow leaders stood up on his hinds, practically indistinguishable from the first to have said something about the shifting, stiff wing-crystals. The skin on his head writhed and twisted for two seconds, stretching and threatening to split before tightening and stilling in a heartbeat. He turned to his fellow and glowered, lifting a hoof to point accusingly at Natalie. "And what side do you expect one of the Children of Catastrophe to take, hrm?" he chided.

The third stoop up, chest and shoulders contorting and returning to normal in a brief moment. "And she's got the Demented Diversion with her," he noted, turning to Lazarus as he readied his spear in the event that things turned nasty. "Wouldn't put it past either of them to bring forth the Veil of Shadows hanging over us." Mute nods left the other two leaders, and both turned to Natalie in such fluid unison that it made her take a tiny, but very noticeable, step back.

Rainbow turned to Natalie, face hardening. "Wait, he's saying you're responsible for this darkness?" she asked.

Natalie nodded, eyes deepening to a dark shade of maroon. Her crystals pulsed with red power, and the one jutting before her horn flickered erratically. The wise guy who'd made the accusation snorted, chest contorting once again before stopping and snarling. "Yeah, she and her fellow Children of Catastrophe keep muckin' up other villages' livelihoods and bringing the damned Veil with them! I'll bet she's responsible for that meteor that hit Ashwood years ago!" he barked.

At that one, Natalie could only shake her head and facehoof. "Another reason I don't like to show off," she grumbled as hoof slid down the bridge of her snout. She readied her scythe, gripping it with both pasterns and swinging it in front of her in a wide arc that forced the crowd to back off. Fortunately, none of the villagers or their weapons had been caught by the improvised weapon.

Natalie nodded in silent approval. Good. This herd knew not to approach. She turned to Rainbow Dash, whose mouth was already open, and said, "Warning strike." She turned back to the throng as the three leaders pushed through the crowd on just their hind hooves, all glaring daggers at her as their flesh pulsed unnaturally. "What do you three chucklefucks want?"

The trio in question snorted, horns alighting. "We want you to get the fuck out," the first hissed, eyes slowly gravitating to Sarah. "Except her. That bitch stays."

Sarah shook her head and spread her wings. "Nope, I'm getting out of here just like everypony else," she stated. She took a step back when the leaders smirked at her.

"Not with those runes, you aren't," the second leader scoffed, wood sprouting around his hooves to form wicked claws as he too turned to Sarah.

Sarah's ears twitched. She blanched. "I-I don't know what you're talking about," she mumbled. The third leader, vines tearing through his back to flail wildly behind him, magically seized the lyre and parted it from the halberd, letting the cloth used to tie it dangle loosely upon the weapon's shaft. Once that was done, he plucked three strings, the notes once again distorting into a sharp keen that made her stagger back. The instrument started to glow, its twisted runes pulsing as power seeped into them.

"Runes…?" Natalie muttered, glancing back and forth between Sarah and the trio at this sudden altercation. Chills raced up her spine, shaking her crystals, and latent power pulsed with urgency.

The trio stopped to examine the stolen object, all forming matching grins on their muzzles as their bodies slowly continued to twist into less equine forms. "Somepony tried overwriting the spell on this… fucked up the ordering of the leylines…" one muttered.

The one sprouting vines from his withers nodded. "But whoever did it couldn't get rid of the leylines." He turned to the other villagers and frowned. "Everypony, leave. Greenwood's finished. We'll take care of this," he said firmly.

Natalie lifted a hoof to her portable radio. She wasn't going to take chances. "Delta Unit, do you copy?" she asked.

"Copy. What's wrong?" Major Rhinoc answered from his end.

The villagers, sharing uneasy glances amongst themselves, turned tail and started to gallop off towards the southern end of the dying village. In record time, even their burdened, pregnant mares and elderly made it out of the group's immediate sight. "The villagers are taking the jewel with them, and hauling ass. Intercept, ASAP," she ordered.

"... they dragged everypony else into it, didn't they?" Rhinoc hissed, a buzz filling in the silence.

"Affirmative," Natalie responded.

"Very well. I'll send the gryphons and changelings," Rhinoc replied with a sigh.

The leaders turned to Natalie, still smirking terribly. "You won't get the jewel," the clawed one spat, magic aura and eyes turning red as the whites of his eyes turned black as pitch.

The one with vines overtaking his backside chuckled darkly. Already, wood was emerging from his barrel, parting his flesh with force to reveal his ribs and organs writhing with more plant matter within their confines. Intestines slipped out, but he barely noticed, less so when kudzu sprung forth to take root upon them. Rarity cringed at his nonchalant reaction to what should have been crippling pain, but then steeled her nerves as Lazarus nodded to her with a sidelong glance.

Then, without warning, their red-turning magic seeped into the harp's runes, making it take on the same angry hue. Sarah was quick to backpedal, but she did not move fast enough; the twisted magic made distorting notes come from its plucking strings, and tendrils of sheet-like power wrapped her in its contorted form. She struggled as it lifted her into the air, squawking as the fetid spell sank into her flesh and carved burning runes that shimmered through fur and feathers alike. In places, along her back and withers and haunches, flesh split and spilt blood upon the decaying soil.

Rarity gasped, her levitating daggers almost clattering to the ground as her magic gave out. Sarah kept fighting, but the magic held onto her tightly. The harp of her mark reappeared, but the wind twisted into sickly vines that pulsed outward to ensnare the rest. Some sort of sigil had been scrawled upon her chest by the power, and vines erupted from her tarsi with a force that turned on itself to keep her immobile. Claws were restrained against hips, hooves against each other, wings tightened as more vines emerged from beneath bleeding flesh as yet more runes were etched onto skin.

Sarah screamed, eyes clenched and head shaking as the flesh upon her forehead pulsed and stretched, before splitting open down the center as wood erupted to form the crudest mockery of a unicorn's horn possible, itself glowing with a fell power that made her blood glisten. Natalie grimaced, ears turning back as she turned to the harp while its horrible cacophony of music started growing louder and louder.

She was not having another induced migraine. Her scythe glinted, and she twisted it expertly before swinging it up and outwards, arcing it over her own head from the dirt—knocking the harp clean out of the leaders' magic and sky high. The leaders gawped, staring at where it had been when Natalie redirected her scythe and swung horizontally at their heads. They ducked in time to keep their heads on their withers, but not fast enough to avoid having their horns and parts of their ears sliced right off.

The magical connection severed, Sarah could only drop with a mewl. She would have hit the ground, had Rainbow not flown up to catch her in time. Rainbow studied the new wounds, the runes carved into her flesh, the still-writhing tendrils that kept her bound, before then turning to the trio who backed off a couple of paces as wood started to encircle their skulls.

It took her seconds to piece together the dots. Everything that Rhinoc had said about Anna was starting to make some semblance of sense. These new vines, and the faux horn on Sarah's body, merely confirmed it. She turned to Zecora and muttered, "They bucked Anna up, too?"

Zecora nodded gravely, dagger in tail. Her dextrous limb poised itself to arc over her back, ready to strike as she bent her front knees, mentally fortifying for combat as the trio's forming masks grew new horns where their old ones used to be. "Though her condition is far worse, more horrid than any I've seen," she replied bluntly, eyes narrowing to slits as she sized the opposition up.

Rarity shook her head and readied her daggers, lifting them to hover at the sides of her head. "How much worse are we talking?" she asked.

Zecora used her dagger to gesture to the clawed leader as his backside began to contort. "She grows mockeries of wings not yet preened," she answered.

Rainbow nodded, glowering as she saw Lazarus make the halberd vanish. Not a second later, the now-bent harp clattered upon the ground, three strings having been sliced by the strike that sent it flying and five more breaking upon impact with the soil. It didn't have the chance to linger there on the dirt; it too vanished in red-blue light.

Natalie readied the scythe once more, turning to Lazarus. "Looks like one of us is on foalsitting duty. You want to watch, or fight?" she asked.

Lazarus angled his spear forward. "Three guesses," he hissed, a firm frown carving its place upon his muzzle. Natalie nodded, stepping forward with stunted wings fluttering and tied skulls rising up to be level with her head. Zecora trotted forward, but was stopped when one of Rarity's hooves shot in front of her chest.

Rarity turned to her and shook her head. "Tend to Sarah. Whatever your brews do, let's both hope they help her with… whatever was done to her," she muttered, turning ahead before striding on to join the mêlée à trois. Zecora backed off and, after sharing a glance with Rainbow, flipped open one of her saddlebags as the leaders approached with fresh barky masks already splitting at the seams.

The leader whose guts were presently spilling out of his body sneered as he sized the puny daggers, and their current wielder. "You'd dare… to come at us with shiny sticks?" he scoffed, eyes aglow with a hellish light that shined even through his mask.

Rarity nodded, expression firm. "Whilst I have no idea what you've just attempted, I cannot stand idly by and let you make another attempt," she stated. An eye was already twitching as a small part of her madly screamed that ponies transforming into trees would not be stab-able under present circumstances, but she hushed up that tiny voice to focus on the current task at hoof.

Natalie snorted, crystal erupting from her front hooves to form wicked claws of her own, which then curled tightly around her weapon's shaft with an almost organic, fluid motion. For a moment, her mane flickered and dimmed before brightening once more with its glow. "And?" she challenged, watching the trio with no small amount of concern.

One of the leaders whickered, vines and wood growing over where his cutie mark should have been. His tail lashed, an angry web of kudzu ripping the hairs out to then take its place. His body twitched one moment, then he twisted aside and around the small herd, running upright towards Sarah with glee managing to crack the wooden mask he now wore. He reached out with his hooves, ready to forcibly part Sarah from Rainbow's grasp, but she backed off a few feet with only one flap of her wings.

Before he could move again, a small burst of green light flashed overhead, immediately followed by something from above that impacted on the back of his neck with a hard, fleshy thunk. He paused, went back a few steps, glanced around at the now-forsaken village, then to Natalie and Lazarus. They shrugged at him, and Rarity waved her daggers, still clutched in her magical grip. Befuddled, he turned to his compatriots, both of whom shook their heads and vines.

The leader who'd been struck reached around with a hoof to feel for, then pull out the offending object that inexplicably struck him. He winced when he felt half of it break off and stay within his flesh with a distinct crumble, but the part that went loose came around easily enough for him to bring it to his eyes. His eyes, and the eyes of Rainbow and Zecora, widened in tandem when he beheld a broken shaft of rock with crystal fletching. On its end was tied a piece of paper, with thread anchoring it to the projectile.

Curious, he looked at the scrap of paper that had angry, scratched runes scribbled onto its surface. He read it aloud, raising his voice so his companions could hear him, "Fuck you, asswipe. You and your brothers aren't pulling that shit ever again." Before he could brood on what that had meant, he felt something hard and jagged erupting from his neck, and dropped the broken arrow as hot, sizzling pain registered where it was coming from. His hooves raced up, scrabbling to lodge whatever had rooted itself out, but it merely anchored them upon contact to itself.

Rainbow gaped as red, angry crystals surged forth, enveloping the leader's head with a vibrant, pulsing glow. The smaller ones dissipated in waves of fire, charring the stallion as the larger crystals left him stumbling for balance. All he could do was scream skyward as, slowly, his flesh twisted to accommodate his new growths that started to burn him inside out. She glanced up, finding a distant, viridian glow hovering so far overhead that it seemed dim compared to her current surroundings.

Natalie seized her chance, and jumped towards the other two leaders, still stunned by the sudden immolation of their compatriot. "It seems the winds do not billow in your favor!" she howled, scythe swinging even as the leaders scrambled to dodge the incoming blow. A slight smirk crossed her muzzle as they snapped to their senses and lit up their horns, vines writhing with the urge to strike.

The leaders whickered, bodies continuing to twist and bend as their flesh and fur struggled to keep their curses in check. Blood dribbled from beneath their masks, and at once they launched twin bolts of magic at Natalie. She responded by forming a barrier to absorb the impact, levitating herself to sit midair with hinds crossed. She glanced at the still-burning sap, who by now was rolling on the ground in an attempt to put the flames out, before returning her attention to the task at hoof—right as one of the others made to punch through the barrier.

She let him break it into a thousand pieces, though, before sending him flying backwards with an upswing of the scythe's spikes. "Just stop this farce now. You're challenging an alicorn here," she muttered, no trace of amusement within her voice. The other ignored her and his flying companion, instead opting to strike at Lazarus before he found himself impaled on the spear and hoisted into the air.

Lazarus sighed and teleported onto one of the houses' branches, watching as the leader who went flying crashed into another one a few trots away. The door fell inwards, followed by the rest of the frame as the house shook. He whistled sharply. "Damn, didn't know you could do that," he said, turning to Natalie and angling his opponent-on-a-stick towards the house in question. "Have you been lifting weights in your spare time?"

Natalie rolled her eyes, and shook her head. "Sometimes my alicorn strength just kicks in of its own accord," she answered. Lazarus nodded and turned to his impaled adversary, who suddenly jerked his head up to glare back with a bleeding sneer on his mask.

Lazarus drew the spear's shaft back, if only to look into the eye-holes of the mask that now regarded him. "I've had bar fights more dignified than you," he spat simply, before turning around, raising his hind hooves, and bucking the tree-stallion right in the face for all it was worth.

A sickening crunch met his hooves, and flesh and bark squelched briefly before the opponent had found himself going flying and getting evicted off the spear simultaneously. Into the house with the broken door frame he landed, and twin grunts of pain left after whatever unceremonious impact had settled with a clatter and several crashes. Lazarus turned back around, just in time to see a wall of said house starting to cave inwards.

Rarity turned to Natalie, eyeballing the crash site warily. "Are things normally this violent here?" she asked.

An exasperated nod was, unfortunately, all the answer she needed. Natalie's mane whipped about with the motion, more a flagrant display of a violent stormswept power than anything dignified. She groaned, and the floating skulls rattled as the house began glowing with a green light. "Seems they're getting ready to draw their big guns now," she hissed, leaning against her scythe as she waited for round two to start. Tendrils of power spread from the ground, glowing brilliantly as they carved furrows through the soil. She gently nudged Rarity with a wing. "Get up to higher ground."

Rarity glanced around, before spotting a low-hanging branch on the house adjacent to the one Lazarus made his perch upon. She galloped there and jumped, putting as much strength into her leap as she could. She managed a solid landing, but had to take a moment to steady herself when the branch warbled under her weight, and jumped to another branch a little ways higher that didn't warble when she clambered onto it. Natalie nodded to her again, and carved into the soil a thick line with her scythe a little more than an inch behind her. That done, she heeded her own advice and levitated higher, and a foot or so back from the carved line.

Some of the tendrils went around the carved line, or ignored it altogether to spread where the other houses were at. Upon contact, thorned vines shot up and encircled themselves upon wood, clutching it tightly and climbing with erratic, jerky motions that seemed more mechanical than organic. The tendrils that hit the line formed and rose up in a thick wall that itself was sliced in two by a scythe not a moment later.

The vines who managed a foothold started tightening and tightening upon the bark, growing more and more in number until the houses trembled. Lazarus jumped down, tip-toeing around the tendrils of power as delicately and swiftly as he could. A few vines sprung and tried to ensnare him, but he had already moved out of range by the time his hooves left their patch of soil behind. Rarity followed his lead, jumping down and galloping after him, paying mind to where the leylines of power formed and intersected to avoid the tendril trap. The trees they left behind started to crunch under the pressure, though their hollowed trunks held strong even as they began to cave.

The pair rejoined with Natalie as she had turned to the leader who tried his chances with Rainbow Dash and Zecora, only to find him extinguished, laying on the ground charred. He was devoid of crystals, still and seemingly lifeless. She floated over to him and angled her weapon's shaft to prod him on the shoulder with it. As soon as she saw the faintest twitch of muscle, she levitated him into the air before whirling around and tossing him into the trap. Vines sprung up on him, tightening and coiling around him, with more piling onto his body and each other.

Within seconds, he was obscured from sight by needling viridian, and the resultant ball tightened upon itself. A muffled scream of abject agony came from within the mass, and blood started to seep through any cracks it could find. Rarity winced at the brutality of the spell, turning once again to Natalie. "Is there any way we can save him?" she asked.

Natalie shook her head. "If we try, we'll get shredded too. Besides, he's part plant anyway… the transformation should be completed…" Bark sprung forth from the vine-trap, pushing outward and dribbling blood as it formed a massive, branchy claw ending in sharpened points. It was twice the size of a pony's foreleg, moving fluidly enough to grasp the vines with a talon-like grasp. It pulled and pulled, breaking apart the cage tendril by tendril with an unholy force that sent blood splattering everywhere upon the ground. More thorny tentacles grew and rushed in to contain the tree-pony, only to be torn from the ground as another twisted, branchy claw shot out to wrangle them into submission.

Then, the ball expanded, struggling to accommodate the pony it had snagged as it burned from within with a fierce, crimson light. Natalie watched carefully, waiting for when trouble would start anew. Static was coming from the radios, broken up only by whatever madness Lance and Matt got themselves into.

She didn't have to wait long before the ball of vines was shredded by the wooden claws, and a massive tree landed upon their remains before it took root where that ball had formed. It bent and rose to tower over the three, flesh trying to overtake the bark only to be subsumed as it stood to a full height rivaling the Mighty Oak, the ground pulsing and further breaking as its tendrils went to work. Settled between the branchy claws was a twisted, horned face now scowling at them, blood dribbling from its mouth like spittle.

"You've merely brought forth your own doom, corrupted alicorn…" the now-treefied leader spoke, voice echoing through his bark as his claws rose. Natalie rose a brow and tipped her chin at him, looking him dead in the eye as he brought his claws down with lightning quickness. Another barrier formed and stopped them short of her head, as white fire started to swirl around her horn and burn in the skulls adorning her dress.

"Heard that from Akron before he got his ass kicked," Natalie scoffed, tone as flat as could be. Her face hardened slightly, though her eyes held in them a twinkle of boredom. "Seen worse attempts at an attack as basic as that." She would have fired her spell, but paused as twin daggers shot forth and stabbed the tree in its eye sockets with a force that left them buried deep in the bark. The tree recoiled, screamed, backed off and tore the earth into fragments as it scuttled a foot back with roots following in its wake.

Natalie turned to Rarity once again. "I see you're learning," she stated, a faint smile on her face.

Rarity nodded, and spotted the crash site being torn a new hole as two more branches tore their way out of the house. That side of the house fell inward upon itself, the rubble then pushed aside as two more trees emerged from it. Their roots were already tearing at the earth as they joined their fellow, who was now pawing at its own face and trying in vain to remove the daggers. "Just how tough are these things, exactly?" she muttered.

Lazarus sighed. "Some part of me doesn't want to know that answer," he muttered, readying his spear once again for combat.

They turned to their adversaries as one of the others magically removed the daggers out of the face of their first transformed compatriot, who then threw them at the barrier. The blades bounced off and spun in the air for a moment before stabbing themselves into the ground, whereupon Rarity reclaimed them as the trio's faces oozed darkening blood.

Natalie turned to Rainbow Dash and Zecora, still tending to Sarah by the entrance. Sarah was stirring with a tiny grumble, and Zecora was busy sorting out her potions. "You guys might wanna fall back! It's about to get hectic!" she warned. The pair nodded, picked up their medicine and charge, and darted out of the entrance to go a little ways behind it.

Not a second after, she turned around to find three more crystal arrows, one stabbed through a flute, appearing in mid-air from flashes of light and impacting themselves on the damaged trees. Crystals sprouted, erupted, and those houses soon found themselves ablaze with bright golden flames. The fire leapt from branch to branch, and within moments all of Greenwood was alight and pouring out smoke.

Natalie, Lazarus, and Rarity inched a little closer together, watching as the houses began to smoulder. The cursed trees, too, glanced around with masks cracking around their eye-holes, wondering what the hell just happened. Natalie grumbled into the radio, "Lance, I've got several problems now… and we're gonna have to have a chat with Anna once I've resolved them."

Lance grumbled from his end of the communications link, "What happened now?"

"More cursed trees, and… another fire," Natalie replied, shaking her head as the cursed trees broke from their stupor once more to advance upon her and her fellow combatants.

Chapter LXXXVI- Confessions of Sin

From far above with her horn glowing, watching the whole sordid affair play out down below, Anna stayed with bow in barky hoof and quiver upon her backside as she stood atop the mastership's railing. Clad in the dress Rarity made for her, crystals wedged in her forelegs and gaskins to stop the wood from spreading beyond those points, her eyes were narrowed as her mane billowed in a faint wind. At her side stood Shining Armor and the elderly stallion he managed to coax from the now-burning Greenwood, though they kept themselves behind the railing, eyeing her carefully.

"This whole time," Shining said, garnering a slow nod from Anna. "Is that why you joined? To stop… what happened to the others?"

"To retain control," Anna muttered, her echo warbling as she was frowning at the question. "It was that, or lose myself like the countless others before me." She glanced at the crystals keeping the wood at bay. "Part of why I learned to master this particular bow." She sighed. "Though, there are days it catches me off-guard… and I panic." Her gaze turned to the elder, briefly. "And I hear you know not the full extent of it?"

The elder nodded, likewise frowning. Anna continued when she saw he wasn't speaking, "It wasn't just you they've misdirected. I cannot set hoof there. Not until it's completely scorched off the map." She looked at her own barky protrusions and shook her head. Turning to where the timberdrake was still commencing its rampage, even as Twilight and Matt tried their best to slay it, her body trembled. "Maybe that old bastard in Frostbite was right about the travesties coming upon us. I guess… we Fantasians deserve them after all."

Shining's brow furrowed. "What do you mean by that?"

Anna turned to him, eyes red yet sullen. "In the last few years, disaster after disaster's been hitting Fantasia without letting up, all thanks to either us acting unfathomably stupid or something we failed to stop in time." She held up her free claw, and curled the digits one by one as she proceeded to rattle off, "The Royale Catastrophe, allegedly ten-ish years ago by my estimates. I've not heard a lot about it. Lance trying to take over the world through brute force. Akron being reawakened after gods know how long. Godcat being freed and going damn near ballistic before we got her to see reason."

Shining gaped, and alarm bells began ringing in his head as the second item of that list gained admission and proceeded to slap him. "Lance tried to what?" he squawked.

Anna nodded, very well sensing his surprise. "With just gryphons. I don't know how he took over and mobilized their asses, but he did it." An amused twinkle glimmered in her eyes. "Of course… Matt and Natz were having none of that shit, so they somehow gathered the changelings to retaliate. A yearlong back-and-forth erupted, both struggling to seize territories and such. One side had the magitek, the other side had espionage." Again, her head shook, and that glimmer waned. "Ended up as a brutal war before long, with Lance barely losing. Casualties were skyhigh. Damages, through every roof imaginable. And for what gain in the end?"

Shining's face hardened. This demanded some explanation… okay, maybe a lot of explanation, though he at least knew now who to ask later about it. "How much about this do you know?" he hissed.

"Enough from Rhinoc to keep me awake at night," Anna snarked in reply. Her amused glimmer fully faded, as her ears fell back. "During that war, Greenwood was almost sacked once. The gryphons came down, guns ready… before the changelings sprang on them from the trees. Personally, me and my family hid in safety, so we never got to see the end of that spat. Sarah didn't come out at all; couldn't blame her." A wistful smile crossed her lips as she loaded a stray arrow onto the drawstring. "As thanks, Mom sold some of her wares to Matt and Natalie. That was the first time I'd ever met them."

That smile fell as she tightened her grip on the bow. "And that… was the first time I saw outsiders, in the flesh. And they… treated me with nothing short of kindness."

Shining grimaced, ears turning back for a second. All sorts of horrors started to run through his mind. "What happened after?" he pressed.

Anna hesitated to answer, eyes reverting to their natural green for a moment. "... that was when Greenwood went to hell. It started shortly after the changelings left," she muttered darkly, her tone venomous and pained in equal measure. Eyes narrowing and flashing red once more, she steadied herself, muzzle scrunching slightly as she struggled to speak. Whatever was on her mind, Shining could only wager it was something horrific enough that would make a mare like her falter. "... before then, there were only good memories," Anna said, her own ears rotating as far back as they could go. "Now… it's dead to me."

With that, she turned to the raging battle the timberdrake was engaged in, seeing several shadows dancing within that area. Farther off, she spotted glimpses of sickly green dancing in the air, and flashes of steel retaliating as best they could.

"I hope Sarah wakes up soon… I don't want to lose her to that damned curse…" Anna muttered bitterly, head hanging low as she saw the madness continuing to rage below.

Then, as Shining peered closer, the village's fire erupted into an inferno that rose well into the sky, blurring all but the largest of trees in reds and oranges and thick smoke. "The barrier will never come again. The town is finished," Anna said, turning away from the burning village and to Shining. "Maybe…" Eyes reverting green again, flashes of anguish flickering within their voids, they dulled as she mused, "Maybe my own curse is well-earned…"

Shining turned to Anna, rage boiling in his blood. His emotions warred, and he struggled to not glare daggers at her; even then, a scowl set itself upon his face. He wanted to slap some sense into her, but doing that in the most literal manner possible would spark all sorts of other disasters he dared not think long about. Then he noticed the flute of her mark had vanished, only thanks to the wind that was still playing with her mane.

He glanced back at Greenwood, now burning brightly into the night. "How many of those disasters were averted?" he asked.

Anna sighed through her nostrils, closing her eyes. "Every one, so far," she answered. "Though it's a process that can take weeks at least to resolve." Her voice softened as she spoke her next words, "There's… a reason Sarah told you guys not to come. You did anyway. I'm still not sure why… after all this, you'd stay..."

"That's because disasters reveal problems that weren't acknowledged before and won't work themselves out," Shining responded bluntly. His expression softened, and he made to look Anna directly in her eyes, though the effort she gave in trying not to look back was commendable for all the wrong reasons. "The barrier between worlds probably gave out because whoever was maintaining the thing—"

"Assuming it's had maintenance to start with," Anna cut in.

"Assuming that, but whoever kept it running must have sensed that the problems were becoming too much for you guys to handle," Shining finished. "You said Godcat was freed?" That garnered a nod.

"Weeks after I got my mark," she clarified.

Shining sighed. That could only mean one thing; a reality that he would have to discuss with his sister and friends sooner or later. "But the disasters of the past have been averted, however high the cost may be. What I'm saying… is there's still hope," he said firmly, garnering an incredulous look from Anna. "However bad it's going to get… me and my companions will stand by your side the whole way through." He put a hoof next to her hind claws, the closest he could get without sending her over the ship's starboard on accident. "We'll help you fix it. Even if ponies die… we have to move on."

Anna nodded, seeing the reasoning behind that logic. Still, she did not look up, nor turn to Greenwood as it burned. "You're telling this to me, when I've torched my hometown after my sister was dragged out of it and after the villagers hauled ass. I'm a teen soldier. What's that say about me?" she scoffed.

Shining's ears twitched. Getting through to her would be harder than he thought, though she did have a point in her rebuttal. Then, he heard Matt uttering faintly as though still asleep, deep in the back of his mind, "I didn't sin."

An absurd notion, hopefully one that would work, popped into his head at that moment. "You can start atoning," he proposed.

Anna barked out a laugh, though there was no mirth in it, much less a smile on her face as she rose her head. "But how? All I've known is sin," she retorted. "You guys… you have it made. You're onto disasters lickety-split, and… and in record time, they just go away…" With a twinge of envy buried within her bitterness, she added, "You almost seem so… so… so carefree. No worries in the world, and records of the past to look back upon to avoid those mistakes made so long ago. We Fantasians… barely have a fraction of that." She gestured at Greenwood. "And untold suffering in turn."

"What have you seen here, but death and decay? Rot and ruin? Misery begets company…" Anna finished, looking away again. "And happiness… is always out of reach." Her lip quivered, and a tear trailed down the bridge of her snout to leap over the edge. "I may well have condemned my own sister to death; not through burning Greenwood, but by exacerbating the madness. What hope is there, if we're reduced to this?"

Shining frowned, brooding on the question. Given all he had seen on Fantasia so far, it was fairly legitimate… and no answers were forthcoming. He wanted to soothe Anna, but could tell her wounds ran deep. She almost sounded as though despair was just moments from claiming her in its clutches, as it had so many before her. Her most recent actions did little to abate those widening scars, even now.

Something had to be done, or else she'd leap over that precipice and never return. The silence was heavy, but it did not smother the tiny whimper that left Anna's mouth, nor the crackle of bark as it started to flake off of her legs in small increments. It did not smother the distant roar of the fire, nor the timberdrake's cries as it failed to catch its quarry. Anna made her weapons vanish, head shaking as she thought on what she had done.

Shining turned to the elder. "Can you teleport?" he asked. The elder nodded. "Get someone with a radio." The elder nodded again and vanished in a burst of light, leaving the pair alone as wood continued to break off and drift down below.

"Maybe… it's deserved…" Anna muttered, turning to look at the sky with misty eyes and a vacant expression. The crystals fell out of her legs along with the wood, leaving holes in her flesh that oozed with blood. "Maybe Greenwood was right… I shouldn't have been born…" Her eyes closed, and more tears trickled down her face. "I'm just not strong enough…" Her front claws fell away, revealing scarred patches of skin beneath, and it wouldn't be long before the hinds gave out.

"I've condemned my sister through inaction… I cannot bear that burden…" Anna went on, before forcing herself to assume a peaceful expression with a force that made her quiver once more. "But maybe if I descend there and help…"

Shining looked up at the sky as lightning began to dance within the Void, a brilliant white that briefly split the sable in two. He could've sworn he saw a figure up there for the barest of instants, but whether that was lightning or something else he could not determine. He lit up his horn and magically yanked Anna off the railing to safety, before she could start to tip. "That may be true, and a hard burden to bear… I wouldn't forgive myself if I were forced to kill Twilight or couldn't act to save her in time," he hissed, refusing to budge as she turned up at him, bewildered. "But we have to move on. Putting the past behind us… living life now, that's the first step of atonement. But you shouldn't jump into battle that brazenly."

He paused, seeing the pain and confusion flickering in her now-widened eyes. "I know… it's difficult. Especially for those of us who know no different until they even hear of it." He lifted a hoof and gently put it on her shoulder, before grasping the other one and lightly shaking her. "And if you torched your hometown, I'm guessing there was a good reason behind it," he said when he finished shaking her. "That, I won't hold against you; I've seen its ponies, and I don't know enough about it to know who in Tartarus I should hold in esteem."

He smiled a soft, serene smile. "I'm pretty sure your sister has been through her own share of disasters, and made it through every one thick and thin. If she leaves the area in one piece, don't leave her hanging like that." His next command was as soft as he could make it, with the weight his words carried, "You understand?"

Anna brooded on that for a moment. Shining continued when he saw she was still processing the ramifications of the possibility he presented, "And if she were to die… she wouldn't want you to die as well. Somepony has to live to tell the tale, and if it has to be you, so be it! That way, the past, no matter how many pieces it's been smashed into, will remain in some form for the ponies of tomorrow." He paused, sighed through his nostrils, and lifted a hoof to poke her on the snout with it. "Alright?"

Anna could only weakly nod to all of that, and on the deck she sat there still mulling it all over. Shining pulled away, watching her carefully in case she got the bright idea to leap over the railing instead of tipping off of it. "Now it's one thing if you want to go down and help. It's another thing to blindly leap to end the pain." He tensed a little, preparing for an outburst. "At the very least, for one of your position? If all else fails, go out swinging—but now isn't the time for that. You're hurt. A fall like that could break your legs."

"And besides," Shining finished, gently patting her on the shoulder, "you still have Maria to worry about. What would she think if you had leapt over?"

Anna could only wince at that one. She looked down, eyes dulling in shame. "From what I've seen… you've been struck with something pretty bad. I think suicide would hurt more than help," Shining added, sighing as another crackling of bark met his ears. He lifted a hoof, upturned the frog, and cupped her chin to tilt her head just enough for them to look into each other's eyes. "You've tried it before, haven't you?" That garnered a weakened nod, and Shining dropped his hoof slowly to avoid making her jump.

Shining's gut twisted. He didn't like that nonverbal answer at all. Whoever or whatever would drive her to that edge of despair was going to meet the business end of his magic if Lance didn't find and take care of it first. That was also assuming the cause thereof hadn't yet died or become a wraith of some sort. He mentally registered the red flags when Rhinoc's words echoed in his head, "They know the extent of her nuttiness."

And if Lance knew, truly knew about this… then what in Greenwood did he stumble upon that would make even his own soldiers stay well away from it? Then again, such odds against a tiny forest village would be overkill… except for the fact that cursed trees even existed to begin with. That obscene strength of their fortitude against the icy hooves of death itself could not go unnoticed for long; even wraiths couldn't hope to hold a candle to that, he wagered.

Shining felt chills going down his spine as all this was being sorted through his mental filters. He thought of the cursed tree who'd tried to warn him and the others to stay away, and turned to the blackened skies wondering if that tree had done that very thing to countless others before them. He wondered if, perhaps, the warnings had fallen upon deaf ears before—if they were all in vain. Somewhere, he realized that deep within that broken trunk was a fragment of pony—with just enough heart to steer others away where they had faltered.

He hoped that tree would make it out alright, decrepit as its condition was. That tree was owed at least one apology, though that would matter little if it too had passed the point of caring about such things.

Silence hung heavily again, still broken up only by distant noises as two different battles raged on in close proximity of one another. Shining turned once again to the scarred landscape, in time to see something skewer the timberdrake through the roof of its toothy mouth. All he could make of it was a bright blue glow amidst the greens and browns making up its body. Anna sat in place, ruminating on what she'd been told as Shining studied the ongoing madness that had yet to be stopped.

Shining frowned. They were, indeed, onto the mess lickety-split… but it was putting up quite the fight. Perhaps this was one that would need a bit more… persuasion to comply than the standard fare. He saw gryphons and changelings starting to unload from the decks of the other airships, flying down south of Greenwood with guns and spears and other assorted weapons in claw and holey hoof. Even though the villagers were jerks a few days ago, perhaps they too had their reasons… or so he hoped, at any rate.

He also hoped they wouldn't explode at the sight of changelings and gryphons acting in tandem, if Anna's earlier words had any truth to them. The community had enough on its collective plate to contend with, snappish as they were. Shining closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, ignoring the faint stench of blood and rot wafting from below. Had he bothered, he could have detected burning and ash as well, though those were as faint as the light within the Void.

He felt a presence resting on his withers, though it had no discernable shape so much as it had an emotion he couldn't place. His eyes opened and he looked again to the sky. Lightning danced across once again, and that same figure from before flickered in and out of existence as it did. He could've sworn it had eyes of a crystal blue, nodding in his direction just once with a solemn expression.

A voice echoed into his head, soft, feminine and unfamiliar, yet carrying with it untold amounts of restrained power. "You know what to do," it said simply before the lightning faded and the creature vanished. Shining, befuddled and curious, could only nod back in its direction. He turned to his withers, only to find fading corporeal darkness staring at him in a disintegrating mass with red eyes trained on him.

Anna turned to the figure as well, and it looked to her with a nod. "They cannot cause pain again," it spoke in a growling echo so deep it descended past contralto, though its tone carried with it some measure of reassurance. "They are safe," it said before fading from existence with a swirl of burning ash and a lingering echo of thunder.

Shining's brow furrowed a little, and he turned to Anna. "What… was that…" he asked. All he garnered was a mute stare turning his way. "Do you know who or what that was?" he tried, getting a shaky nod that time. "Who or what was it?" he pressed.

Anna's mouth quivered, and her gums flapped uselessly for a moment before she could muster the strength to answer. "I… I think… this isn't the time," she muttered.

Shining opened his mouth to ask once more, only for the elder to reappear in a burst of light, this time accompanied by both Rhinoc and Flash Sentry. "Sir? What's the problem?" Flash asked, garnering a soft whicker as Shining turned to him with a front hoof trembling.

"Been resolved for now, I'll tell you later," Shining answered, resisting the urge to stomp at it all. He turned back to the mess raging down below, noting with some amusement that the timberdrake still seemed to have a thorn stuck in its side as it snapped its jaws everywhere they could go. He also noticed it was depositing its acidic spittle a lot less than it was doing earlier.

Rhinoc chittered, gut twisting as his horn lit up and his magic registered lingering despair and a power that still lingered in the area yet began fading. "My intuition tells me otherwise," he grumbled.

Shining heard the complaint and nodded. "That's something I'll have to bring up with Lance first chance I can," he muttered. Anna winced, bark returning on her legs to fill in the gaping holes left in her flesh. "Also, are the medics occupied?"

"One's still babysitting Cassida, and…" Rhinoc turned to Anna, frowning as he saw the regenerating wood. "Oh, okay... " he hissed, frowning. "Yeah… uh… and the other is on coffee break."

Shining groaned, and hoof met face in short order. "And Alexander?" he tried.

"Dealing with the children," Rhinoc answered, wings rattling. "Hey, someone has to watch the kids to make sure they'll pull through and keep the little ones from mischief."

Shining nodded, having conceded that days ago. "Yeah, we'll need to deal with possible injuries in the immediate future," he muttered. "Just… just make sure one medic is on standby once we leave. Okay?"

"Yes sir," Rhinoc replied, nodding only when Shining parted hoof from face and turned to him.

"Good." Shining turned to Flash. "Are you able to carry me down to Greenwood?" he asked.

Flash stiffened at the bizarre question. "Y-yeah, bu—" Then military training kicked in, and he amended his statement, "Uh, I mean, yes sir, but not without complications."

Shining nodded, seeing that being a doozy on the way down. The elder teleported again, and returned in short order with Fluttershy and Owlowiscious in tow. "Um… what's going on?" Fluttershy asked.

Shining sighed. He gave her the rundown, "I'll need to be airlifted down, and you and Flash are the only ponies who can help me get down there. Are you able to manage?"

Fluttershy nodded, trotting to the railing to see what new brand of madness was unfolding. She grimaced as the timberdrake landed face-first in the dirt, thanks to some well-timed shadows that surged forth from the far-off Matt. It scrambled back onto its claws and went right back to snapping and spitting with vitriolic fervor. "I certainly wouldn't go near that, though…" she said, before turning to the village and noticing the fires currently reducing it to cinders. "Or that," she added. Owlowiscious hooted with a nod of agreement and a clicking of his beak.

Anna forced herself to stand, wiping her face on a bit of foreleg that wasn't yet overtaken by wood. Her flesh stung with her tears, but she bit the pain back. "I could help, if you guys want," she said, voice firm. Flash, Fluttershy, and Shining all turned to her in unison.

"You sure, ma'am?" Rhinoc piped up, cringing at the wood continuing to surge forth from his superior's legs. His wings rattled when she conjured four arrows to stab into her legs, letting crystals grow forth at elbow and gaskin once again.

"I'm sure," Anna replied, expression dark and pained, but determined. "Even if I cannot set hoof there… I'm still helping."

The hatch opened, and the sound of hooves hitting metal echoed from within its confines. "Pinkie, is it really a good idea to carry that many balloons?" Applejack asked as she emerged from the hatch and hauled out, hat askew and a bemused look on her face as she turned to the tunnel.

Pinkie emerged seconds later, a bundle of deflated balloons spilling out of saddlebags strapped to her back alongside a wheeled cannon fitted between them, painted blue and yellow. "Yepperoni! Am I glad I convinced one of the guards to hold all my party supplies until I needed them!" she answered, wearing a smile that was just the faintest bit stiff. She clambered out and hopped over to the group, pausing to study what was happening to Anna's legs. "You should get that checked out by a doctor," she commented.

Applejack came over to see this for herself, eyes wide as perplexion took hold. "Hold the hay up," she began, scrutinizing the bark that had finished reforming its claws, "you got the blasted whatchamacallit that turns ponies into trees?"

Anna wilted at the remarks, ears turning back once again as she sourly nodded. "There's not exactly a cure for this…" she grumbled.

Pinkie tilted her head, lifted a hoof and put it to her chin before rubbing thoughtfully. Her smile fell and one brow arced as she hrrrrrmed in contemplation. "Maybe Zecora could help with that; she knows the ins and outs of poison joke, she could probably whip something up in a jiffy," she said, before then bouncing around her to stand at Fluttershy's side. Peering over the railing to take in the madness down below, her frown deepened as she studied everything that was currently going wrong.

Applejack didn't join her friends in scrutinizing that three-ring circus, instead focusing on Anna. "So that's why you didn't use much magic at the farm? Because ya could've messed up the orchard?" she asked.

Another weak nod answered her. "I… know some gardening myself. Orchard and ivy does not go together," Anna replied, wilting a little more. Her legs started to shake, threatening to buckle as vines began creeping out of the bark to anchor it to her flesh better.

Applejack nodded slowly, absorbing that bit of common sense. "Well, ya could've said something sooner," she argued.

Anna shook her head. "About that… your brother would have probably kicked my flank had he heard of it," she rebuffed. "And… I'd wager half of Equestria…"

Applejack frowned at that. Turning into a tree would be grounds for being called a monster or something, and in Equestria it would be no different. She sighed heavily. Gears span in her head for a moment, before she asked, "Didja spread the curse to that Chocolate fellow?"

Anna jerked up, head wildly shaking. "Nothing of the sort! I-it's not a sexual disease!" she yelped in a higher pitch than normal, wide-eyed and paling at the mere thought of it.

Applejack slowly nodded, and rather thoughtfully. Gears still span in her head, but some new cogs fell into place to turn that train of thought in a different direction. "So… it's something else, then, that did that whole crystal-thing to him?" she tried, garnering a hasty nod. "And he probably brought that on his own flank?" Another nod met her. Applejack suspected that it was all the answer Anna could give her; still, she took it for what it was.

She trotted to the railing, thinking on what she had seen so far. Then, she turned to Shining. "We're probably gonna be needing the Elements now," she muttered.

Shining nodded and lit up his horn, conjuring forth the box the Elements were safely stored in. He opened them and levitated Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie's respective Elements to them. They went on necks smoothly, and glowed a little upon contact. Anna piped up, "But don't you guys need to be together for them to work?"

Applejack nodded, and everyone turned to Pinkie as she started taking balloons out and puffing air into them with her mouth, before then pulling string from her saddlebags and tying them to keep the air inside. "Uh, Pinks? What're you doing?" Applejack asked.

Pinkie then pulled out a pencil and paper and started scribbling on the sheet. "Sending word in advance," she replied nonchalantly.

"But won't the balloon fall down instead of up since you breathed into it?" Flash asked.

"That's kinda the point," Pinkie replied, crinkling the paper into a ball once she was done writing on it. She tied the string to the ball and dropped it over the deck's railing, watching it descend rather rapidly for its size. "It's like tying a cupcake to it, except lighter and less tasty." She then turned to Rhinoc and asked, "You guys have any helium tanks? I have a way of getting down myself, but it requires a loooooot of helium and lots of balloons, and I sorta-kinda-maybe forgot my helium tanks back at home."

Rhinoc's brow furrowed. "Where'd the balloons come from?" he asked.

Pinkie reached into her mane with a hoof, dug around a bit, and pulled out a deflated balloon that wasn't there before. "Around," she replied.

"How did you do that?" Anna asked, exasperation leaking into her voice. Pinkie shrugged.

"I'll tell you, if you tell me how you've got ivy growing in your legs," Pinkie replied simply.

Anna winced. She sat back down again, mind whirring as it processed Pinkie's rebuttal. "... point… taken…" she grumbled.

Shining nodded. "Yeah, maybe that poison joke could help with that," he agreed with a sigh, hoofing the box over to Pinkie. She took it and put it in her saddlebags and turned to him as he added, "Keep it safe until you girls are ready to do your thing."

Pinkie saluted, legs going ramrod straight as she answered in a no-nonsense tone, "Yes sir!"

Rhinoc facehoofed, grumbled, and lit up his horn. "I'll… just fetch the helium tanks…" he muttered in resignation, before purple light swallowed him up in a burst that made him vanish.

The elder piped up, horn also alight, "I'll… er… keep watch over the little ones." With that, he too vanished off the deck in a burst of light.

Chapter LXXXVII- Emergence

Lance grit his teeth as Pestilence tried to strike at him again. He barely moved his head to the side in time; even then, his cheek had been grazed, and the fresh cut stung as his opponent drew blood. Wincing, he retaliated with another swing of Accelerator, but the attack went wide as Pestilence backed off. Both hovered in place, sensing their impasse as their eyes locked onto each other. The lock was briefly broken up by Natalie's radio-chatter, but reaffirmed itself as soon as she relayed what was happening on her end to Lance.

Pestilence scowled, the bark making his mask twisting and splintering with the effort. First the Void had shown up, and now Greenwood had been torched. He surmised the day couldn't get any better than this, even as cogs began to spin in his head at what all this meant. "So you're one of the Catastrophe Children," he hissed, comprehension flickering in his fiery orbs. "Or, rather, their leader."

Lance idly nodded, slowly and with as much apathy into the motion as he could muster. "Took you this long to figure that much out," he spat. With a blaise shrug he added, "I assume word never reached you?"

Pestilence ground his wooden lips together, the grating sound making his leafy mane rattle slightly. "Oh, it had years ago… but that was a turbulent time," he answered, a shaky smile rigidly affixing itself upon his mask. "I saw those chimerae and the shapeshifters overhead from my house, both then and now. I even considered intervening then… but decided not to."

"So why now?" Lance asked, readying the Accelerator once more.

"Because that time, the Envoy wasn't present," Pestilence replied, his smile stiffening just enough to do away with its shuddering. "She is but an omen of the disasters ahead, colt. A symptom of a much larger problem. That is why she'd been locked away—because with her reemergence, the problem would once more resurface."

Lance flew over to strike again, but Pestilence twisted out of the way, careening quite a distance backwards on one flap and a twirl before stopping to charge another magical volley. "Back then, I knew Greenwood would recover from whatever brought the chimerae and shapeshifters—but the Envoy's arrival heralds the disasters of ages past once more befalling Fantasia!" he growled, smile faltering as dark energies began pooling around his horn once more.

Lance's eyes narrowed a bit, and anticipating a blast of magic he flapped his wings harder to gain some altitude. He rose, though his wings began to ache at all the constant flying and antics—a dull ache, but an ache nonetheless that would grow if something wasn't done soon. Pestilence didn't blast him, instead opting to trail him with his orbs as yet more mana crackled and charged.

A thought hit Lance, and he smirked at the absurdity of it. "Then why aren't you fighting the Envoy?" he asked. He stopped ascending with the question, and internally laughed his ass off at seeing Pestilence grinding his wooden lips again. "I mean, let's stop and think this out—herald of problems buried fuck knows when, said problems resurfacing with her… why fight me instead of her? Wouldn't that stop the problems in their tracks?"

"Because that wouldn't stop those calamities, you feathered buffoon!" Pestilence yelled, flailing his forelegs at the surrounding Void. "They've already struck here! What's the point?!"

"Touché," Lance thought, though still something bugged him about this whole sordid affair—especially Pestilence's reluctance to act on what he'd just spouted. So he popped off with a different question, "Then why not try to avert the disasters, or rebuild after they've passed? I mean… I was there when Akron awoke, and I helped kick his ass back into the seven hells."

That earned him a barrage of leaves from Pestilence, which he twisted around with a few flaps of his wings and some swings of Accelerator for added momentum. One did manage to nick his cheek as it veered from the other leaves however, its edge sharp enough to etch a thin and precise line under his eye that stung with his movements, millimeters apart from the first cut. The pain from that first cut flared up because of this, though he ignored it as his adversary opened his barky mouth again.

"You, a pegasus, helping stop Akron himself?!" Pestilence barked, orbs widening at the mere notion. Then, he started to slowly clap with his front claws, a bemused smirk emerging on his mask as he noticed the thin cuts now oozing blood on his opponent's face. A mirthless laugh left his wooden lips, wheezing and guffawing before dropping into a flat crescendo. "Don't make me laugh! You'd need at least a fleet of ponies with enough magic to twist Fantasia as they see fit, simply to defeat that monstrosity!"

Lance arched an eyebrow, wincing as that drew a little more pain from his wounds. "... I do, indeed, have my own fleet," he said, completely deadpan. Pestilence's smile fell at this. "And I brought ponies with me who could fuck up Fantasia if they wanted to."

It didn't take Pestilence long to connect those dots. His scowl reaffirmed itself when the completed pegboard fell into place. "... the Children…" he muttered.

Lance nodded. "Only two out of three, though. Was more than enough for Akron to be ground to dust," he stated. For a fraction of a second, his vision tilted, but he shook his head to stop it from spinning too far. With a slight wobble his sight reoriented, and his ears fell back as he realized what Pestilence had done. Alarm bells rang in his head, and panic tried to take hold, but years of experience with an army and all the bullshit the job entailed took control and punted the panic back in its cage. "... you're trying to whittle me down, aren't you?" he hissed, chest clenching the slightest bit with that realization.

Pestilence's insufferable smile returned, twisted by his scowling. That little gesture reinforced Lance's suspicion as his vines writhed in anticipation. Leaves twitched, shifting on lopsided tilts as those wings flapped. At once the world began to spin again, and Lance squinted his eyes to try and minimize it. It steadied after a longer moment, whereupon he felt strange pulsing from his cheek. A hoof parted from Accelerator to feel it, before his eyes went wide at what he discovered.

Veins. Bulging veins. He felt veins writhing beneath his skin. Pushing up, slithering around, digging into his flesh—and not one at a time, either. An entire crop was spreading to the rest of his head, from those two little wounds. The hoof dropped and returned to the gun, and Lance trembled as he glared at his adversary. "What. Did. You. Do?!" he spat.

Pestilence's smirk did not falter even slightly. The leaves of his mane twitched, and his tail lashed erratically. "Seeded you," was the blunt answer he gave. "Soon enough… you'll be just like me."

Lance's mind reeled as he felt veins inching their way through his mane and down his neck. Everything he had seen the last few days flashed before his eyes. Pegs fell, cemented into place. Budding rage started to shoot through his blood, pulsed across his wings with angry mana, and made his eyes glow much more fiercely. Yet through it all, his head shook and another squawking laugh parted from his mouth as realization dawned.

The weight of everything that could and did go wrong with Ash and Greenwoods slammed into his chest as Pestilence charged him. Lance let himself be pushed back by barky claws; he did not wince at the gashes those claws left. The source… all this time, he'd been arguing with and trying to strike down the source of Greenwood's woes. It was little wonder the ectoplasms up above took special issue with this place; they, too, had their own way of warning all to stay away, and he didn't listen!

That realization made him want to bash Pestilence's mask in that much more now. "Seeded me, huh?" Lance challenged, a bit more smugly than he'd have liked. Rage started to cloud his senses, increment by increment as the pulsing veins reached his collarbone and withers. "... is that what you call it?"

"I could hardly call it anything else; ponies are but crops to this curse," Pestilence retorted, tail still lashing as his horn continued to glow with those shadowy tendrils.

A third laugh left Lance, the barest tinge exasperated but mirthless overall. The comparison that Pestilence made did little to ebb that exasperation. Indeed, it did not help at all. "And you assume—" He wasted no time lifting his chest a little to show Pestilence the claw-marks he'd received prior to this fiasco, scarred over with white fur by now and visible through the tears in his clothes. "—that this is my first run-in with being seeded? That it would affect me as it has your children and brethren?" Mana started to pulse across the forming veins, as red as his mane and as swift as his wingbeats. The anomaly stopped shy of the scarred claw-marks, and green magic warred with crimson power.

Pestilence faltered at the sight. His barky mask contorted around his mouth, trying to show confusion but instead widening into something horrified—at least, as horrified as one like him could get. "Impossible! Not one cursed tree has left Ashwood, for any reason!" he barked, confusion flickering in his orbs. That merely caused Lance to lift a questioning eyebrow. His chin tipped, and a ghost of a smile spread across his now-shifting face.

"If not one has left Ashwood… then were they, perhaps, forgotten?" Lance challenged, feeling his own magic fighting the power that tried to force itself deeper inside his body. "Or… deliberately left to its own devices?" That earned him another strike from Pestilence, though Lance dodged it with a backflap before then circling around his opponent in a tight circle.

"What are you prattling about?!" Pestilence shrieked, his lack of comprehension twisting his wooden mask into something slightly less equine and more perplexed. The shadowy magic launched off, aimed for Lance, but he merely turned around to take the hit between the wings. The runes activated once more, absorbing the foul magic without harming the uniform's wearer.

Lance resumed flying around Pestilence in his circle, keeping his smirk hidden and his wings fully exposed for a moment. His magic continued to fight the fell power, slowly but surely pushing it back out where it belonged. "You mentioned… that the last time you used your power, it was against foals." The statement hung heavily in the air, a horrible condemnation from one adversary to the other. It was like a judgement awaiting to be cast, the verdict already decided but staying in the realm of the unspoken.

"And?!" Pestilence barked, charging more viridian magic around his horn as he waited to see what Lance was trying to convey to him.

Lance whirled around and charged first, managing to strike Pestilence across the face with the brunt of Accelerator's weight. This sent the barky stallion spinning back with his magic dying down, falling down a bit before regaining his aerial balance. He glared at Lance the moment the dizzying tumble had ground to a halt, wings propelling him upwards once again. Claws outstretched, eager to rend flesh, but clashed with steel instead as the strike was blocked. The cursed stallion could now see the crimson magic still rallying, putting up a struggle, gaining back lost ground.

What Lance uttered next made him hesitate once more. "What became of those foals?" he asked.

Silence lingered, barely broken up by wingbeats as the two hovered there, eyes and weapons locked onto each other. They regarded the other with the same measure of contempt, though Lance had to fight to keep his smirk from dropping or widening; even then his lips knowingly twitched. Pestilence, however, trembled slightly, as did his dimming orbs. His magic started being cast anew, before it sparked and popped for a moment, then reasserted itself around his horn.

In the darkness of the Void, silence was the ultimate damnation. An affirmation of suspicion. A reason to distrust the other. The shadows that devoured the light, until nothing but ruin remained. Existence itself, merely waiting to be denied. It regarded the combatants with equal measure; indeed, it seemed to hold them with rapt attention and veritable contempt. Lance's unanswered question still hung in the air; a last word that had stopped the fighting dead in its tracks between them. There wasn't even the faintest bit of a struggle; claws locked onto Accelerator, and that was that. Magic had yet to fire. The pulsating bits of Lance's flesh did not gain further ground, but his natural magic did.

Nothing else in the Void mattered to them at the moment. An eternity passed, lingered, then passed again as the silence reigned with an iron grip. Even the timberdrake was but a distant memory, here and now—its roars had long since perished. Its stomping had ceased. Its spittle ceased to glow. Ashwood lay still below, in tattered remnants that went ignored. The radio static had fallen eerily quiet—as did those on the other various ends of the communications' links.

If time had halted, the airborne pair would have dropped. But it didn't, and so let them continue to hover. Two minds fogged with static, one of them still awaiting an answer to be given, the other wondering how his opponent hadn't yet been overtaken.

Both seemed suspended for some uncounted bit of time, contemplating what they knew.

The lock was broken when Lance angled his hinds and kicked out, the strike connecting with Pestilence's stomach. It crushed vines and internals alike, and sent him careening backwards with the claws shrieking against metal plating for a brief moment. Pestilence span once more, though only once and with his front claws shifting to defend his otherwise-prone stomach.

"My vines! They should have stopped your kicks!" Pestilence gabbled, orbs widening in confusion.

"But they hadn't. Gee, I wonder why…" Lance muttered darkly, flying over with Accelerator raised high above his head. He struck down, but Pestilence regained his wits and twisted under, then above and behind his opponent to dodge both the strike and his hind hooves as they lashed out to intercept the maneuver. With a sideways swing of one of his wings, he caught Lance and sent him spinning back as he made to turn around. More nicks and cuts appeared in fur and clothes, and further veins pulsed erratically as the curse mounted another assault where the wounds had appeared.

But Lance was having none of it; the moment the tumble had ceased, he reoriented himself and launched right back towards Pestilence to return fire. This time, he angled the barrel as he charged, ascended high enough to strike from above, aligned his primaries behind the gears and let loose a torrent of violet plasma that crackled as it sailed towards its target. Pestilence got out of the initial volley, only to catch a purple shockwave that erupted from the projectile with a loud crack battering his eardrums as the air suddenly buffeted him.

Lance followed up with another volley, this one of flame accentuated by a hail of bullets, upon his prone opponent before he resumed flying when his altitude started to dip. He watched as the second shot exploded violently upon Pestilence, sending embers and shrapnel everywhere within the blast radius. Smaller, less deadly explosions rang out from that same impact, further clouding his adversary in crimson and superheated metal.

And despite everything, Lance found himself smiling even as the torrent of fire cleared to reveal a slightly-burned tree-alicorn with shriveling leaves, curling vines and bullets wedged in his mask. Fires ate away at his legs, withering the claws steadily into ash. Even as more plates formed and rushed to replace the damaged parts of him, Pestilence continued to hover like nothing had happened—though his scowl had returned, complete with twitching eye.

"How… the seven hells… are you able to do that?!" Pestilence demanded, watching Accelerator warily as his plates began to evict shrapnel and bullets with their reformation.

"I would give you the answer, but that would be stupid of me," Lance retorted, tensing slightly as he felt more furrows forming in his flesh. He flew back when Pestilence released an angry cry and charged, claws shifting to pikes that were ready for impalement. The world tilted again, and Lance tilted with it as his vision began to blur. While he was able to dodge the strike, the maneuver was clumsy and unbalanced; his wings paying dearly for it as the air suddenly slipped out from beneath them and flailed uselessly. "Fucking hell!" he thought, eyes narrowing as he felt pain flashing across his nerves. "Have I already exhausted my mana?!"

A dark chuckle met his torn ears as he felt wood wrap around his stomach suddenly. Vines writhed against his coat and wings, searching for chinks to work around. Accelerator hung in a tight grip, but held as he was now, Lance was certain it would be next to useless. "Your magic will do you no good here, colt," Pestilence muttered ominously, his tone soft and almost despairingly sweet. "Whoever seeded you first merely set the course for your own gruesome transformation."

Lance's eyes widened, and a grunt came out of his throat as he felt vines puncturing his wounds, ready to lay down the foundations of the curse. His vision fogged as he felt an unholy force move to part pieces of his hide away from muscle, inch by painful inch. He could feel the blood running down one foreleg, and soaking in his chest-feathers as a terrible burning began to settle within.

He looked up, about to scream in pain, only for the noise to die in his throat as he detected a glowing green aura racing in his direction. "Get your fucking hooves off of my superior!" an angry mare cried in the distance, causing Pestilence to jerk up to see what was about to hit the scene.

His wooden brow furrowed, and his orbs shrank as a bright viridian magic seized his vines and forcibly yanked them out of Lance before tearing them off of Pestilence outright. The aura in the distance vanished, then reappeared in front of them before seizing Lance and the Accelerator and vanishing with such haste Pestilence had to shake his head to confirm what had happened.

He did not have the chance to process this, however; the moment the head-shaking stopped, he found a floating arrow perfectly level with his face. It stayed afloat for a second, and promptly wedged itself between his orbs the second he saw it. Worse, it forced itself into his face with a force that sent him careening a few feet back, as it had managed to part the shifting bark and hit the vulnerable flesh beneath.

His left pike-leg shifted into a claw, reaching up to dislodge the arrow when he felt the distinct sensation of something foreign sprouting from his flesh, forcing his mask apart plate by plate as it grew. The claw seized the arrow, but not fast enough to prevent angry red from overtaking his face. "What is the meaning of this?!" he yelled, glancing around fitfully to try and find the source of the mysterious third party that had intervened. Yanking roughly half the arrow out, which crumbled in his grip, he called out, "Show yourself!"

But he received no further answer, other than the intruding red that spread to the rest of his skull.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Lance, baffled, reappeared on the ground alongside the third party who had decided to save his hide. Still feeling a foul power trying its best to violate his body, he turned to find Anna looking back at him with a reddened, determined face and her horn awash in magic. Strangely, her sclera had blackened. "Hold still. I need to check the damage," she said, horn dimming to a faint, steady glow.

Lance didn't argue, and shifted so she could see the wounds in full. Accelerator plunked to the ground barrel-first, and as her claws came to rest outside the wounds, he leaned against it with a wince. Anna scowled at the pulsating flesh, frown going lopsided as she contemplated what she saw. "... fuck me…" she grumbled.

"Why'd you come now?" Lance asked, seeing kudzu weaving itself along her claws. He backed off a bit, not particularly keen on having more plants violate him in unpleasant ways. Though unfortunately for him, green magic wrapped itself around him to cement him on the spot.

Anna faltered for a moment, scowl fading. "... I just saw that assmunch grab you, and… well, I wanted to stop it," she replied. As gently as she could manage, she thrust her kudzu into the wounds… and winced in what Lance guessed to be empathy. "I can still remove the seeds… hopefully…" Lance grit his teeth with a hiss as, once more, plants proceeded to dig into him with grim purpose.

Lance looked up at the Void-shrouded sky, trying to gauge where Anna had taken him. He noted he could not see Pestilence anywhere, and made mental notes to cave his face in for the stunt he tried to pull. He looked around, and saw the timberdrake still struggling with Matt and his motley crew of misfits, though it seemed to have taken notice of the fact he was currently grounded. With a roar it started to charge towards them, though Lance noticed right away that it favored its right front over the left, with the claws dragging against the ground in its mad dash to pick up what seemed to be easy prey.

The reason for the limp forced itself out of that leg with a heave that made the beast's wrist snap as it flopped against the ground, and ice formed at the break point with a visible chill that distorted the air. A grey blur dashed up the limb with a distinct canid howl that caused shadows to materalize in front of the monster. The blackened mass seized the beast's face and congealed into a dome that caused it to thrash its head from side to side in an effort to dislodge it. Outside of that, Twilight teleported from that blur to the orb and set to work crafting light sword after light sword, setting each one on a slanted angle as she started using them like a flight of stairs.

Lance whistled at the sight, then cried out as he felt kudzu grabbing something wedged in his cheek. The plant twisted and pulled for a moment, careful enough to not break his skin and muscle tissue further, before pulling out of the wound entirely to reveal a writhing seed caught in some leaves. Its roots, powered by foul magic, flailed about uselessly before the kudzu crushed it between its coils mercilessly. "One seed down," Anna reported, tossing it to the side where it bounced and landed with a distinctly un-plantlike rattle. She summoned an arrow and stabbed the seed with it to be sure it couldn't take root ever again.

Left with stinging pain to contend with, Lance could only wait for further extractions before jumping back into battle again. He turned to the impaled, foul body-invader just in time to see it consumed by flaming crystals. A thought struck him, and he turned to Anna as her kudzu delved into his face again to wiggle its way down his neck. He noticed that, besides that, he didn't feel anything but pain lingering where the roots had managed a foothold before being evicted. "So… I've heard about this 'seeding…'" he began, trying not to be awkward—a difficult feat, considering that plant matter was under his skin at the moment.

Anna nodded for him to continue, face focused but eyes dulling at the mere mention of it. Lance took that as his cue, "... and now I know these seeds can be removed… so tell me, have you been seeded and can yours be removed?"

Anna sighed. "Yes to the first one, no on account of cutie mark," she answered flatly, with a resigned huff that did not go unnoticed by her superior. "But your mark… your mark helped you fight it. If I work quick enough…" She left the statement unfinished as she continued to work.

Lance nodded dejectedly, and grunted when the kudzu slithered back up and pulled out of his cheek-wound. He could feel the blood welling up now, and frowned as kudzu in the gashes on his chest began getting a tad more explorative to compensate. He glanced around again, trying to gauge where his adversary went when a green glow from above snagged his and Anna's attention.

Viridian power, laced with tendrils of shadow, was racing towards them. Anna pulled her kudzu out, grabbed Lance with a claw, and teleported them both out of the attack's way. Bamboo and ivy ruptured the ground where they stood the moment the spell connected with the dirt, jolting straight up in sharp and bristly spikes to skewer any caught within the afflicted patch.

Seconds later, Pestilence himself raced down to that patch of land to see if he had snagged that annoying pegasus that decided to fight him, barky masked frayed and blackened. He was met with immediate disappointment; only a few burnt orange feathers lingered, but no blood or bits of shrapnel were on the plants he summoned. Not even the hat was present. He stomped onto the ground, power pulsing through the soil as he landed, head and orbs turning to scan the landscape fitfully. He gnashed his lips when he saw his timberdrake was still having a fair amount of trouble with its fair share of miscreants, but brushed that off—such resistance would be futile, of that he was certain.

Credit where it was due, though, the miscreants were putting up an admirable fight. He returned to scanning the landscape, when he spotted another green burst of light in the distance. One claw scraped the ground, and his eyes narrowed as teeth of wood and vines began to line his mouth. Wings flared wide, joints visible and spread in a frontal arc.

From afar, he could see more green light trailing along the ground, etching new cracks that could barely contain that power. Kudzu and ivy grew together, worked in tandem, and formed a thick wall that rose to be taller than he was. He surged forward in a gallop with wings flapping to boost his speed, claws scraping the ground as he went. A deranged smile formed on his mask, toothy and twitching as rage began to override confusion and calm.

This battle had drawn on long enough. It was time to end it. One way or another, he would see it through, and the blood of his enemies would water the new seeds to come. The impaled seed's ashen remains did not escape his notice, and he picked it up with his magic as he passed it, raising it high above his head as he drew closer to the wall. The moment he reached the wall, he grabbed it with his front claws and ripped it open with an unholy amount of strength to discover… nothing behind it, except another impaled seed that writhed helplessly against the ground, spattered with blood.

When the distinct lack of nothing registered to Pestilence, the vine-wall coiled around him, seizing his hind legs and wings before his front claws and head. The arrow he had seized fell and clattered onto the ground as vines wrapped around his horn, wrenching it and breaking his concentration in one fluid motion. For a moment, anger faded to confusion as the vines tightened into a ball that started squeezing him immediately. His orbs darted around once he noticed his impromptu prison, but by then the hole he had rent through the vines had closed, giving way to darkness.

He began to fight the crushing might of the kudzu and ivy, his horn alighting again in shadows that encircled him. The darkness pushed out, scraping away the intruding vines and freeing his limbs for just long enough to tuck them against himself. The plants seized him again afterwards, struggling against the sable as they applied more pressure. Then, red crystals grew upon the whole mass, spreading inside and out before dissipating in waves upon waves of fire. More of his bark burnt up, and his leaves shriveled as his mask fell off in pieces.

Once the last of the plants had fallen in heaps of ash, all that remained was him and his rather misshapen orb of shadows. For a moment, the orb hovered before breaking away in motes of ember and foul magic to reveal exposed bone and torn flesh where vines and wood once were. His head was even less equine; his own horn barely clinging to a sinewy skull dripping with blackened blood. What were once ears but now tattered remnants swiveled rather limply, trying their best to gauge the situation.

Even scraggly bits of mane clung to an exposed neck, hugging the pale flesh with a death grip as those crimson orbs once more scanned Ashwood. His rational mind screamed that he'd been baited into a trap, and the very thought irked him in a way that rattled his wings and shook off more loose, ashy bits of bark. It did not take him long to find another wall a few yards off, forming from that same green power he had pursued.

A smirk formed on what remained of his face as he felt more wood growing to replace that which was lost. It seemed the interloper was expecting for it to work a second time. He waited until his wooden mask had reformed before even approaching that second obstacle, and only then he took to the air to go around it entirely. He soared several feet above the ground, and rose even higher to keep the wall from snagging him as he neared it. Going over that with ease, he spotted his targets and could not fight the smile that spread across his mask.

He was about to launch at the interloper and rend her flesh, but was instead met with a hail of arrows that plunged themselves into every inch of his body as said interloper vanished in a burst of light with his quarry. Some severed vines, others frayed the bark in a myriad of places, and even a few newly-formed leaves were clipped with prejudice. This time, more arrows hit him after that first volley, spreading ice with each impact across his body. Frozen mid-air, all he could do was crash behind the wall with limbs snapping on impact.

A strangled howl left his mouth as pain flooded his senses. He saw the shattered ice second, and glowing blue arrows immediately after that. Twisting his head about, and willing his magic to lift his body, he tried to scan the landscape again, though agony and the roaring of the timberdrake both blurred his vision. His legs hung limply, as did one of his wings, and after the pain in them passed he noticed he could feel nothing in them at all. He scowled as his vision focused, and his head shook to ensure it would remain that way.

With a series of cricks and cracks, his magic set to work straightening his limp extremities and assessing what was wrong with them at the same time. Moving them a few times to ensure they worked, he spotted another viridian burst of light a ways off, accompanied by the glinting of arrows poised to strike. "Just how many traps is the interloper going to lure me into?" he wondered, wooden brow furrowing as he felt sensation return to the damaged parts of his body.

He moved his legs and wings, to make sure everything was back in order. He magically yanked out the arrows perforating him just to be sure, weighing his options as he tossed the spent projectiles carelessly over his withers. Charging wouldn't do the trick, and nor would flying around the obstacle. He toyed with the idea of teleportation, considering the fact that the defenses were already erected and waiting for his arrival, before dispelling the thought to contemplate another avenue of assault. No, the interloper would have likely prepared for that too, which left…

A cruel smile affixed itself rigidly on his barky mask. The ground pulsed with his fetid aura, breaking into miniscule islands with a stomp and a flicker of his horn. The cracks spread out, thin at first as they formed an angry web haphazardly across the dirt and ash all around him. Viridian energy seeped into those cracks, widening them the farther they travelled away from him. Vines snared out of the sickly glow, thorns gnashing and twisting onto themselves with a series of scrapes that echoed throughout the area.

If the interloper hadn't anticipated this… oh, the dark, dark thoughts running through Pestilence's mind at the possibility made him a mite giddy for what was to come. He watched as his web began circling around the interloper, almost veiling her and his adversary in an unholy light that closed in on them.

That little rain of waiting arrows wouldn't stand a chance now. He even saw a few impacts into the ground as that little bastion of brown began shrinking. It wouldn't matter—his power was already upon them, for he and he alone ruled the ground here. His smirk grew triumphant as he continued to observe the bloodbath just waiting to happen. His wings flapped once, then twice, and he stomped his legs and let his horn wash itself in his magic before pumping more of it into the dead landscape. Wouldn't take much for new life to sprout, really; he'd just need some fertilizer to help the process along, and the interloper and his opponent could make a great addition to the new forest forming in his mind's eye…

After all, most battles ended in some sort of trophy being gained. His would be the carcasses of his enemies, and—a brighter glow, a dome of pure light, snagged his attention. It was… it was forming in the bastion, that shrinking safe haven he had surrounded and capitalized on. Perplexed once more, Pestilence took to the air to see what was happening from a safer vantage point in case more arrows decided to pelt him.

He saw no such thing. In place of his expectations was a whole runic circle scratched into the dirt with tendrils of its own power, forming a bow and arrow woven entirely of vines that itself was framed by the arrows floating earlier. Dead-center stood the interloper and Lance, whose outfits buffeted upwards from their hind hocks in an invisible wind. The interloper was kneeling upright, clutching a bow that had one of its ends stabbed into the dirt, pulsing with her power. Her mane, too, was whipped up by this wind, long and flowing with some energy of its own.

For a moment, the dome she created shrank, almost caved in against itself as his tendrils lashed against it. Shrinking further, it only managed to encompass her and that blasted pegasus. Pestilence studied her features as the dome threatened to collapse, sparking wildly and flickering in and out of existence in patches that barely held back his onslaught. Her horn was also flaring and dimming with this channeled power, and her eyes were screwed tightly shut.

Pestilence scowled upon seeing her wooden claws. He lifted his front claws to clap them together once, and sharply enough that Lance looked up whilst his companion winced, concentration faltering farther. The dome almost caved in, but stabilized within seconds. Peering closer, he could see that Lance's flesh was not pulsating anymore.

He did not have time to ponder the specifics of why. The dome brightened, turned uniform in color, and began to expand as that interloper cried out in a sharp, warbling keen. Pestilence teleported away to watch what would happen from a far safer distance.

He did not like what he bore witness to as he reappeared miles away.

Chapter LXXXVIII- Cruel Concotion

The surge of raw, channeled power could be felt throughout all of Ashwood, and its light could be witnessed from the decks of the airships within the area. The resultant tremors it created touched Greenwood, and up close that power blazed so brilliantly, even the timberdrake had ceased its thrashing upon sensing its presence. Twilight and her group turned to it at the same time as their massive adversary had, gawking at what they saw. The cursed trees that had, up to that moment, fought with Natalie and her group merely paused to stare in the fire-wrecked distance. Rainbow and Zecora, still tending to the prone Sarah, could do nothing but gape as they saw that distant dome and wonder where it had come from.

Pestilence could only stare as his own vines were absolutely shredded by the summoned power, their remnants flung aside before disintegrating into nothingness. The dome expanded to roughly Greenwood's size, whereupon it fragmented itself into a shower of glass-like shards that themselves turned into glowing dust that managed to land on the snouts of the group closest to the blast. A crater hadn't been left behind, merely the etchings which had called it forth, pulsing with a dimming but lingering aura that made fresh shoots of grass start to grow upon and around the area despite there no longer being any light to supplement them.

For a moment after that, silence descended once again. None of the combatants could move. None could muster the strength to speak. They could only stare and ponder as bafflement took hold. Shock had seized their bodies, and it seemed to linger for a damnably long moment thereafter.

Then, with her gait wobbling and the silence breaking with her movements, that damned interloper rose onto her clawed hinds, bow in barky talon and fire in her eyes. Lance rose to join her, parting one hoof from the gun to clutch her withers. The cat teleported over, gave that bastard pegasus a blade, a strap and a satchel, then returned to his feeble attempts at gouging out the timberdrake's eyes.

At once, the fighting picked right back up where it had left off. Pestilence noted a strange fervor in the gathered opposition that hadn't been there prior to that blast of power, in addition to a very faint aura of viridian coating their bodies. He turned to the one responsible for that power as Lance put the satchel on, strapped Accelerator in and twirled the blade away from the interloper a few times.

Then Lance flew up into the air, wings missing the surprise helper on the downstroke, face oddly beaming with a wide smile that revealed sharpened teeth. Seconds after, the helper levitated up to join them, staying close enough that Pestilence could see her and she could see him, but well out of close-quarters range.

Gunblade in hoof again, and Accelerator strapped on his back securely, Lance took a second for his opponent to soak in this new development before grabbing some bullets from the satchel and loading them one by one into the chamber. He did this slowly enough that Pestilence's eyes caught it, but not so slowly as to risk dropping them in the open air in case he was attacked again.

When the last bullet slipped in with a click, Pestilence snarled with leaves bristling and vines lashing across his own body as everything proceeded to hit his mind full force. His eyes narrowed, ember-like motes burning as fiercely as his mounting rage. He studied Anna, forelegs trembling and bark shifting erratically as though it couldn't come to a consensus on whether to rip and tear her or skewer her body on a pike.

He only saw bark on the legs. Very few vines decorating them, and flesh far less twisted than his own, strangely scarred over and with scabs marking elbows and gaskins. A mane of hair instead of leaves, full and vibrant and with a spring to its mass he couldn't ignore. A horn that hadn't yet been defiled in any manner whatsoever—not so much as a spiral out of place.

A power that could only be his, now wielded by somepony else.

This wasn't an interloper anymore. She was a challenger to his claim here.

With an angry cry, he surged towards her. Lance darted in front of her, raised and leveled his gunblade, then pulled the trigger in one swift motion. Pain danced across Pestilence's face as the bullet pierced his wooden hide and struck vulnerable flesh beneath, and spots popped up in his vision as the attack caused him to careen sharply downwards.

Before Pestilence could salvage his charge and redirect his course, an arrow wedged itself between his wings with a fleshy thunk. Lightning danced around him, and sparks flew to immobilize him there and then. White hot agony coursed through his veins, singing the wood once more as the leafy wings went completely slack. Down, down, down he went, tumbling helplessly to the waiting ground.

Yet before he could turn into a mess of gore upon the battleground, the timberdrake charged towards him and caught its master with vines anchored to its neck. It then thrashed about, hoping to shake aside its adversaries as its vines coiled protectively around Pestilence's body. Pestilence himself tried to will his limbs to move, yet thanks to the static still flooding his system, he was unable to manage so much as a twitch of anything save the head and neck.

That was before he heard the sound of a teleport, then found himself stabbed yet again by claws slashing away at his backside, sinking into his withers and haunches with a cold sensation that cast out some of the static even as it spread to his prone wings. He turned his head as much as he could, finding himself staring at the Envoy of Cocytus's permanent grin. She chuckled ominously. "So you were there… when I was sealed, huh?" she asked. When nothing save silence answered her, she shrugged blithely even as vines moved in to pull her aside.

A blade of light leveled itself with Pestilence's snout, and his eyes followed its length to find Twilight levitating in front of him with one fetlock around its hilt and her mane igniting in places. Vines moved to her as well, only to shrivel as white fires danced around her hocks and mitigated their assault.

"Yes or no?" the Envoy prodded, digging her claws deeper into vulnerable flesh.

"No!" Pestilence replied in a sibilant hiss, lashing his tail as the fires batted away the vines clutching him. The leaves struck the Envoy's hinds, but she didn't care or notice in the slightest. The timberdrake roared, its cry shaking its body as multiple flashes of light exploded all around it, leaving a myriad of floating arrows in their wake that then thunked into its body.

Twilight floated behind Pestilence, pried the Envoy off his back with magic that worked just slowly enough that her claws slid out easily, then proceeded to float a few meters away with her in tow. There hadn't been time for him to wonder why; crystals of angry red sprouted here, lightning coursed there, and ice spread in between the gaps with vitriolic fervor. The gargantuan monstrosity thrashed about, roaring once more as three different elements worked in perfect tandem to damage it.

It was impossible to fully stop it, given its sheer size, but the assault managed to slow it down enough that it wasn't further destroying the landscape everywhere but directly beneath its lumbering frame. Twilight watched as the head was coated thoroughly in red crystals and lightning, before ice swept over both in a thick rime that managed to reach the back of its throat. Even semi-frozen, the beast continued to writhe, and with one front claw broken, it was only inevitable for it to fall down face-first in the battlefield. That broken leg snapped clean off with a sickening crack the moment it twisted aside, its fragments rolling away uselessly and kicking up clouds of ash on its lonesome path.

Though, before it fell, she saw Matt's shadows dart away from it, followed by a larger blob of crimson-tinted darkness. After the collapse, the ice broke and so did much of the red crystals, though many of the latter and a fair amount of the former stubbornly clung to wood and vines. Red enveloped Twilight's head before Matt's voice echoed into her mind, "Got Fenrir and NoLegs; now what?"

Twilight's horn flashed and she responded in kind, "Seems we got help on this Faust-forsaken wasteland. I say we strike now, while it's down."

Red seized her immediate vision once more, and she heard Matt telepathically grumble, "Good call. Let's regroup first." She watched as the shadows changed course, shifting from moving parallel to the ground to an upwards slant that wound in a corkscrew headed her way. As Matt hurried to rendezvous, Twilight saw more flashes of light exploding around the fallen behemoth en masse, followed swiftly by another pelting of arrows that spread even more crystals and ice to compensate for those that had broken. Twilight could've sworn she saw a few more pelting it in the back of its mouth, as if the source just wanted to be sure.

A distant cry met her ears as fire began to sprout from those crystals, faint but filled with such rage that Twilight's blood ran cold just hearing it. Katie parted from her back, wings buzzing and body shuddering as the behemoth's new coating kept growing.

Silence held once the coating seemed to finish growing, though only for a moment.

Twilight wavered in her own magic as an ear-piercing cry shattered that silence, rising up from the timberdrake's maw as fire and static erupted all across its prone body. The fire failed to melt the ice and dissipate the lightning, though it left behind scorches and burning vegetation just the same. Its head suffered worst; the damage it received from NoLegs merely amplified its suffering a thousandfold, for the crystals were able to seal up those meager cuts and widen them before setting them and their delicates ablaze without the dirt getting in their way. The ice melted to wash off some dirt from the patches it coated, save the throat that instead formed a thin funnel thanks to the fire crystals also working to clog up that orifice.

It tried to melt the remaining ice with its spittle, but the moment it did, the spittle didn't spray as it had done so effortlessly before. Instead it pooled and trickled down its neck and chest, melting parts of itself that were once protected by a layer of dirt. The withering, dissolving body parts sizzled under its own attack, even as fire raced down its throat and the ice melted to coat the inside of its toothy maw.

It continued to wail and thrash, trying to stand on its wobbly three legs and slashing its tail haphazardly at the air to no avail. Twilight noted, with some dread running gauntlets through her blood, that she could not see Pestilence anywhere in the resulting confusion. She looked about, catching nothing in the darkness save for the thrashing monstrosity.

From above, a howl of fury reached her ears. "Where is the challenger to my claim?!" Pestilence roared, loud enough to halt the timberdrake for a few seconds before it returned to its pitiful attempts to quell its pain. Twilight looked up; hovering overhead was a viridian light racing towards her, front legs twisted into their thin and sharpened points as he drew closer.

Twilight teleported away before the attack could land, reappearing a mile off from the aerial arena with Katie still at her side. Pestilence, ever-persistent, redirected course to instead attack Matt as he came too close. However, the shadows merely darted out of the way, parts of them opting to wrap around the enraged alicorn in a sphere of all-consuming darkness. Within Pestilence struggled, the sphere warping to accommodate his flailing, while Matt pulled away to a safer distance.

He spotted Twilight and raced to regroup, his head poking out of the mass of darkness. "... so, that was the tree-alicorn," he began slowly.

Twilight nodded. "He's one piece of work, lemme tell you. I'd stretch my legs and guess he's nutty, even by your standards," she said, muzzle scrunching up as distaste welled in her mouth.

Matt heaved a sigh, lifted one leg out of the concentrated darkness, and facehooved with his masked head shaking. "I would say that's a low blow, but you've seen how low Fantasia has stooped," he grumbled, a hint of dismay somewhere in his rather blunt tone. He turned about, retracting leg and head into his shadows, to watch intently as Pestilence still thrashed about within his confines.

Twilight caught a glint out of the corner of her eye, and turned to the source as Lance flew over to them, gunblade catching the faintest spark of light as he drew near. Anna was levitating next to him, bow in barky claw. A long, suffering groan came from Matt's shadows, and Twilight could almost hear his head shaking and hitting an invisible wall.

Katie looked at Anna and proceeded to pipe up, "Um, aren't you… y'know, not allowed here?"

Lance huffed and snorted, face hardening. "She saved my ass, and Ashwood's toast anyway," he retorted. Anna turned to the struggling, twisting ball of darkness and waved her horn once; a myriad of arrows flashed into existence all around it and proceeded to sail past that darkness to hit their immobilized target.

Then, the group waited for a moment. NoLegs floated out of the shadows, his blade at the ready. Katie raked her claws together, creating tiny sparks that fizzled out seconds after forming. Lance spun the chamber of his gunblade with a hoof. Anna watched the sphere hawkishly, gently thrumming on the drawstring as a few of her vines started to layer themselves on top of her barky plates. Twilight's mane and tail still sparked in places, but she was nowhere near incendiary yet. Fenrir opted to stay put in Matt's shadows, though Twilight had a sinking suspicion he was waiting to pounce.

Only when the timberdrake ceased its flailing with a final, despondent howl did that sphere of darkness yield. Pestilence flew out, pikes poised and over three dozen arrows thunked in various places of his body. He raced right toward Anna, who oddly made no move to get away. He made thrusts towards her lungs once he was in range, but a small drop in her altitude proved to be lifesaving.

With eyes narrowing coldly, he instead impaled both of her shoulders very close to the joints. This did not tear the dress, but it did rend flesh and scrape at bones. Anna lifted her hinds to kick, striking at his prone midsection just as he made to do the same for the sudden miscalculation. She grunted as he was pushed back a few feet, enough to dislodge his front legs and render the second attempt null. Bark and vines raced to weave the new, bloody wounds closed even as Pestilence's hind pikes scraped her stomach, and oozed more rivers of red as she nocked an arrow and pulled it taut.

He had just finished reorienting to make another strike when another arrow added itself to the collective by wedging itself in his left socket. This was immediately followed by a bullet being shot into his right socket, and more crystals erupting all across his body. The very mangled tree-alicorn barely had the chance to scream in anger and abject agony as fire and ice swirled around him in elemental fury.

Even then, however, neither managed to get his wings, and on he kept flying despite his now-hampered vision, stiffening fronts and smouldering hinds. Horn glowing with darkness of his own, he made to call forth his fell power on someone—anyone—when Fenrir made his move. Leaping from the shadows with a howl, he reached Pestilence just at the apex of his jump and proceeded to punch him in the face with enough force to break the bone beneath the wood.

Sent staggering back, Pestilence could do nothing as Matt moved to snag Fenrir before he could fall, bringing his pentagram-marked blade to bear on an upstroke as his darkness pulled the dog back to safety. The blade cleaved the twisted stallion's head and neck in two clean halves, leaving a gaping hole in his chest that NoLegs was all too happy to further widen. His blade erupted in lightning as he carved deeper wounds into the tree-alicorn, then into light that exposed his internal organs. His heart in particular pumped wildly and sprayed blackened blood as vines erupted from it, trying to reach the edges of the massive wounds to seal them shut. NoLegs backed off; Twilight then rushed in to fill the new cavities with her sword of light.

More fire erupted around Pestilence inside and out as she went to work searing him much more thoroughly than the arrows had done. Once he was fully charred, she slid the blade out and sliced his wings off to let him plummet to the torn Ashwood below. She growled as his head and neck pulled themselves back together with fresh vines and wood to seal the wounds shut, and exploded into flame as she called out in exasperation, "Augh, Faust-damnit! Why won't he stay down already?!"

Katie raced over to the falling tree-alicorn without a word, face hardened and claws aligned. Letting her wings close midway through her drop, she was able to reach him faster despite her lighter weight and sank her claws into his chest and hips as soon as she was able. Before the rest of the group could protest, she twisted her head vertically upside-down and rammed the stub of her broken horn into his prone, scorched heart. Letting loose with her out-of-control magic, she shrieked to the heavens as ice swelled up all around her regenerating adversary. Tendrils of a wispy, pinkish-green miasma wafted from Pestilence to her torn mouth, making her glow even as he froze into a solid hunk of frost.

The pair began to drop faster now, and magic crackled around them as they continued to plummet. The ice continued to expand in mass, only anchoring the prone wraith to its true victim as she continued to discharge all of her power into the onslaught. The miasma continued to float into her mouth, pooling at the back of her throat, with a power that pulsed across her body. Coldly, carelessly, she could do nothing but absorb that miasma as her discharge still coursed inside and out of her enemy's flesh.

Even under the ice and his own impending crash landing, Pestilence withered. The wooden plates splintered and greyed, and his vibrant leaves shriveled up into dessicated, discolored masses that would no doubt crumble once freed from their prison. His already-emaciated body further tightened on itself, showing the outlines of his delicate organs and bones as they, too, did the same. His heart blackened like his blood, collapsing inwards and slowing its spray to a trickle. The vines, still working to close open wounds, could barely hold the edges of the weakening flesh, much less pull them shut. His ember-like orbs dimmed and dimmed as the ground came closer and closer to them both.

The chance for him to scream had been stolen from him. There was nothing he could do but wait for the inevitable. He couldn't see the mass of shadows racing to him, reaching out for that damnable Envoy. He couldn't see her magic dimming and stopping as she yanked her horn out.

He couldn't see anything at all. Just the darkness that heralded his own bitter end.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

One of the cursed trees had seized Natalie's scythe with its barky claws, pulling and pulling as she struggled to yank it out of her enemy's grasp. The other two were zeroing in on Lazarus and Rarity, both trying to keep a safe distance as claws swiped at them and the ground again and again. Greenwood still burned around them, though now much of the town was nothing but smoulders and ash. The pair slashed where they could, but after seeing Natalie's weapon get seized, they were wise to keep their distance.

The cursed tree who was presently engaged in the tug-of-war was reaching to Natalie with its roots slowly, grinning horribly as the skulls of her dress rattled in alarm. Without warning, Natalie let go and backed off with crimson fire swirling at her horn. The tree twirled the scythe, making to strike down with it when bursts of burning energy exploded all around it. The fire scorched its hide, striking some vulnerable flesh; that was enough to make it scream and let go of the weapon, allowing Natalie to levitate it back into her claws effortlessly.

The other two turned to the cry and away from their quarry to march up to Natalie, roots and claws outstretched. She turned around and opted to levitate higher above them, well out of their reach even as their roots stretched in an attempt to meet up with her. Natalie let loose more fire upon them, levitating to her companions as the trees were distracted by her exploding fireballs. Tenderly alighting next to the wary pair, Natalie flared her wings as sparks danced around her crystals.

Lazarus watched the trees, his spear glinting in his magic. "You know it's been forever since I had a serious fight," he noted, seeing Natalie idly nod out of the corner of his eye.

"My last big fight was Godcat," she confessed with a blaise shrug. She waved Rarity off before she could open her mouth and added, "Don't worry, Godcat's not going to destroy us all. Me and my friends saw to that." Rarity heaved a silent sigh of relief, before turning her attention back to the trees with a mental note to consult Natalie about Godcat at a later time.

The trees, having heard the idle banter, barked in laughter once the waves of flame had died down. Turning to their adversaries, they could only smirk wickedly even as pieces of them fell in smouldering heaps. "You? Best Godcat with friends?" one scoffed, wooden chest shaking and heaving in a budding fit. "You've probably convinced Her that we're not worthy of Her presence! You probably don't even have friends, you apocalyptic waif!"

Natalie's head dropped and shook, the motion laced with a tiny string of curses that her partners could only barely make out. "Oh how you're wrong about that… so, so very wrong…" she grumbled under her breath.

Rhinoc's voice came in through the portable radio, laced with the chatter of dozens of ponies and gryphons, "Starcovert, we've secured the villagers and jewel."

"Oh good," Natalie replied, perking up and lifting her head. Her relief swam in her no-nonsense tone, but it was minor in regards to the situation. "Keep them calm and safe, we'll reimburse them for the damaged town, yadda yadda." She paused, just long enough to let the cursed trees soak that information in. "Once the Void lifts. If it ever does sometime this century."

"Roger that," Rhinoc answered.

"Oh, and watch out for any who spontaneously sprout wood and vines. Just in case," Natalie added, horn crackling with flame as she lifted a clawed hoof and sent the trees the rudest gesture she could.

The trees took the bait, and rushed over with surprising speed given their size and ailment. Natalie and the others backed off, before a winged serpent made of flame coalesced into existence from one of the still-burning buildings. Surrounded by a red glow, it was guided to the cursed trees and opened its mouth wide to emit a terrible roar before ramming face-first into the leading tree, dissipating into a wave of yet more fire that barely singed the other two.

The leader screamed, orbs alighting in its sockets as it charged again with claws outstretched and eager to rend flesh from bone. The ground tore thanks to its flailing roots, and more bark peeled from its twisted flesh as rage coursed through the mangled body that was, once, a pony. Natalie collected darkness around her horn, gathering black-red-white power and launching it at her would-be attacker, pushing both it and her group back with the resultant shockwave.

The tree staggered, tilting dangerously back on its roots as it struggled to regain balance. "Now!" Natalie barked.

Lazarus needed no second invitation. His eyes gleamed and he lept forward on his hind hooves, spear in his fronts and raised high for the beatdown. He made a downward slash, cleaving the tree's front plates and exposing flesh beneath. A diagonal upwards strike followed, further knocking the tree off-balance, but not quite sending it to the ground yet. A series of swift jabs, slashes, and impalements followed, further carving flesh from wood and bone and splattering blood between them, when the tree managed to start leaning towards its opponents.

Lazarus backed off with a dainty hop, spear glinting with reds and golds from the fires and the fresh coating of blood. The tree managed its footing at last, though it nearly collapsed upon landing as its body registered the lack of severed and missing muscles. Another howl, more gargling than rage, left its wooden mouth as it started up another charge with claws windmilling in the air as its roots tugged it forward.

Rarity galloped forward and jumped, using both momentum and magic to plant her front hooves squarely in the tree's face. Wood cracked and flesh squelched with the force, once again knocking the tree back. She jumped off, seeing plates shift to cover the grievous wounds when her daggers sank back in to make new homes where they had failed the first time. Magic tugging them down and down, the blades tore through bark and flesh with ease, carving jagged paths to the internal organs with pure and condensed rage fueling their actions.

The tree halted its course and turned its claws inward, scrabbling to remove the daggers as its guts began to spill out from the incisions made. Lazarus charged forward again, launched into the air, span body and weapon so the spear pointed down, and thunked solidly on the approximate location of the back of the tree's head. The tree crumpled, still feverishly digging as more serpents wrought of flame launched from the burning buildings to home in on the weakened link of that chain.

Fire erupted around that tree as Lazarus and Rarity withdrew their weapons and backed off. The other two watched as the first shriveled under the withering onslaught, torched inside, out, and sideways as more and more serpents rushed to join in on the frenzy. Natalie gave her companions a nod and a smile of approval, before briefly reminding herself that there were still two trees left in the vicinity that needed to be dealt with expediently.

The first tree turned to ash, flesh and all, within moments. When that pile of ashes dropped, so did the broken bones of the pony host, blackened and smouldering in places. The orbs still glowed for a few seconds before dying altogether. The other two bristled, branches and roots wavering uncertainly as they stared at the mound that was their comrade.

Natalie's smirk broadened. One tree stammered, "But… but we're supposed to be immortal! Undying! H-how is this even…"

The other tree's face hardened as it replied, "We hadn't undertaken the immortality ritual, you buffoon! We should've offed that bitch when we had the chance!"

Natalie's smirk fell. Immortality ritual? Before she could ruminate on this, a green-and-tan blur shot past her so fast some of her feathers snapped off her left wing and drifted to the ground with a twirl preceding their descent. The blur keened sharply as it impacted another tree, clung to its head and went to town pounding and scratching with a barrage of claws. The tree reached up to pull the offender off and tossed her to the ground, and made to stab her with its roots when Rainbow flew in and started whaling in a frenzy of speed and pain.

The tree, staggered like its brethren, was pushed back even as it tried fruitlessly to swat Rainbow down. Rainbow nimbly dodged its attempts at any strike, moving in tiny but vital increments that only further distracted it even as she delivered a series of horseshoe sandwiches where it was bound to hurt.

Natalie turned to the interloper as she got to her hooves and joined back in on the smackdown without an iota of trouble. "Sarah! Are you sure you should be fighting like that?!" she squawked, confusion creasing her brow and flashing in her eyes.

"Zecora got the vines off! Now she's madder than Tartarus!" Rainbow answered for Sarah, breaking apart wood and turning it into fine splinters with her repeated assault. Even as sticky flesh and blood began spattering on her hooves she kept at it, only stopping to grab a massive branch-claw bare-hoofed when it made to grab her. She flew up with the claw, wrenched sharply down, tore the limb off and started to bash the neighboring cursed tree with the severed limb as it came over to intercept.

Zecora galloped over to Natalie, panting a little and saddlebags askew on her backside, but secure enough to safely hold the potions. Natalie noticed one concoction was missing and asked, "What brew, what did it do?"

"Thistleroot and azalea mixture, used to remove more parasitic fixtures," Zecora answered, lifting a hoof to gesture to Sarah with it. The group watched as Sarah changed positions, climbing onto the tree's head to grasp its horn with her claws as she began to jerk fiercely and violently. "Ivy withered under the brew as most parasites do, but she awoke after with a rage that runs true."

Rarity watched the bonanza for a moment, then turned to Zecora and asked, "You still have that poison joke mixture?" At Zecora's nod, she gestured to the trees with her daggers. "See if it reacts to them in any way." Zecora didn't argue, merely lifted a blue concoction from the saddlebags with a deft hoof and rose to stand on her hinds. "Sarah! Rainbow Dash! Get out of the splash zone!" Rarity warned.

Rainbow dropped the severed tree-limb and flew over to wrench Sarah off her target just as the wooden horn gave way with a sickening crack. She dragged Sarah to the group as Zecora aimed and threw the bottle towards the cursed trees. It hit them between their roots, splashing all across their barky sides and, more importantly, where bits of flesh were still exposed even as plates shifted to cover them up.

Those shifting plates weren't fast enough. In seconds, blue polka dots burst all across their frames and spread upwards upon the bark, even lacing what few vines the trees could produce as the poison joke brew sank in. The trees screamed as their bark peeled off of its own accord, tinted blue and taking flesh with it as they fell with bloodied gracelessness. The vines, morbidly and curiously, grew mouths, screamed shrilly to the uncaring heavens, then de-rooted themselves from their hosts to flail helplessly upon the ashen ground.

The hosts themselves, though, suffered worst of all. The poison joke went to town on prone muscles and organs, saturating inside and out as the bark was replaced by a whole host of colorful mushrooms with caps' undersides facing upward and spreading spores. The mushrooms pulsed with dark power, then… grew mouths and started to sing even as the hosts screamed to no avail.

The hosts could only flop and weakly kick as the singing mushrooms drained sustenance from them. Rainbow wilted and landed with Sarah, paling as the fungi started doing a cutesy little bounce to their tune. The tune started as a slow thrum at first, before the accursed fungi gained high-pitched, almost squeaking voices and the capacity for speech.

"We're going to wage a war against death, hi-ho!

We're gonna topple ailments galore, hi-ho!

We're gonna go up the mountainsides and
down through the riversides and we're gonna
conquer death and its woes, hi-ho!"

The song went on for a moment longer before Natalie lit up her horn, shook her head, and put the fungi and their still-ailing hosts out of their misery with another storm of flame. The mushrooms didn't scream, only kept on singing even as they withered away until mere ash remained. "Ugh, just like the mushrooms that sprang up when Akron got awoken…" she muttered in dismay. "Song and all." She lightly bashed her head against the shaft of her scythe for a moment, grumbling about mushrooms with faces and jaunty tunes that made no lick of sense.

Rainbow lifted a hoof and patted Natalie's withers consolingly. "That… is the stuff of nightmares," she agreed, gesturing to the mushrooms' remnants.

Natalie carefully wrapped one of her wings around Dash's withers. "That makes two of us," she agreed. It was then a wadded up piece of paper, tied to a balloon no less, floated down and landed with a bounce at her hooves. She magically picked it up, separating string from parchment and uncrinkling the paper to see what its contents were. The writing was hastily and sloppily done, and further smudged by the crinkling of the paper, yet its writing was just legible enough to make out what it said.

Twilight or whoever else manages to find this, we're gonna need to use the Elements of Harmony on this place. It's mean and nasty and that just won't do! Can you girls get into Greenwood or near it so we can do our thing?

-Pinkie Pie

Natalie groaned and hoofed the paper over to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow took it and read it with a nod, then turned to Natalie as she hoofed the paper to Rarity. "Looks like you guys are going to get a front-row seat of how the Elements work," she muttered, a hint of resignation somewhere in her voice.

Idly, Natalie nodded and fiddled with the radio for a bit, using a claw instead of her magic. "Oi, Lance, have you approved of Elements of Harmony usage?" she asked.

"No, and I don't care if they're used either way," Lance spat on his end. "After all the shit here? Some color would be a nice break in these parts. Less cursed trees and more life for once!"

"Oh, Twilight, can ya come down to Greenwood?" Pinkie was heard asking on Lance's end.

"... yes?" Twilight ventured.

"Oh goody!" Pinkie cheered, followed by a few whooping noises that faded in the background.

Natalie heaved a sigh and turned to Dash. "Should I get the popcorn for this?" she asked rather casually, leaning against her scythe a little. The dark crystals began falling away, leaving behind welts in skin that her magic washed over, turning from red to white as it worked to heal. False primaries went out last, leaving behind masses of feathers that folded rather awkwardly at her sides.

Rainbow mulled it over, her own wings fluttering for a bit. "Not so much popcorn as you might need sunglasses," she replied with a shrug. "The Fix-it Beam might hit you and yours."

"Fix-it Beam?" Natalie pressed, frowning slightly. Her echo began to recede, Rainbow noted.

"That's what I call it, anyway," Rainbow replied with another shrug. She looked about the burnt village and added, "And as for that reimbursement… maybe the Elements could fix that, too."

"How so?" Natalie asked, waving a hoof about the destruction. "I'm gonna have to tear Anna a new one for this! Asshole villagers or not, we don't usually allow this sort of destruction!"

Rainbow nodded, recalling the arrows that flashed and started the blaze. "Well… you do know what Discord did before he was turned to stone, right?" she retorted.

Natalie scrounged from memory, before reluctantly nodding. "I heard the nutshell of it from Celestia," she answered.

Rainbow gestured around them again. The mayhem spoke for itself, even though the worst had passed. "Kinda the same deal here," she said simply. "Except I'm not so sure it could repair everything here this time."

Sarah snarled, tail lashing before Rainbow spread a wing and wrapped it around her. "Easy there. The cursed trees can't hurt anypony anymore," she said.

Rarity turned to Sarah, eyeballing her false horn. "Erm, yes… we might need to address that, actually…" she pointed out.

Rainbow nodded, also turning to the false horn with the motion. "Let's hope the Elements can fix that and… the others who might still be here," she said uneasily, noticing the sound of flapping wings encroaching from the distance. She rubbed Sarah's back with her wing, earning a tensing of the shoulders before the reluctant slump of acceptance over the fact that, yes, the battle seemed to be over.

Natalie fiddled with the radio once more. "Major Rhinoc, are the villagers calm?" she asked.

"More or less. Grouchy, but none are sprouting branches," Rhinoc reported from his end. "What do you want us to do with them, ma'am?"

Natalie sighed, exchanging looks with Rainbow and Rarity. Both shrugged and mouthed 'go for it' under their breath. She turned back to the device and ordered, "Bring the whole sorry lot back to Greenwood. I have a feeling we're going to witness… something special shortly."

A lull of silence held on Rhinoc's end for a moment. Even the clamor died down for a few seconds. "... alright, we can do that… ma'am," he answered uneasily, accompanied by a buzz that probably came from his wings.

"Excellent," Natalie replied simply, sitting on her haunches as the fires around the group slowly, but surely, dimmed to faint embers that barely sparked and spat at the air.

Chapter LXXXIX- Swirling Damnation

A loud retort and the sound of shattering ice brought Pestilence's whole mind reeling back to his present reality. His orbs lit once more, but their glow was dim enough to be seen only at extremely close quarters. He couldn't feel much of anything, however—save his still-beating heart and vines, which both worked tirelessly, even now, to pull his body back together. He could barely hear the movements of flesh and writhing plant matter, much less the wingbeats and still-active magic that drew closer and closer. Once hooves hit the ground, however, his vines gave up and flopped within their cavities.

A hoof jabbed him in the shoulder, not even receiving a muscle spasm in response. He could hear that damnable Envoy pipe up, "I think that did him in."

"That was a stunt I don't think even Rainbow would attempt," Twilight agreed. Pestilence could almost hear the nod in her voice.

"I wouldn't either, that's for sure. Besides, my wings ache right now," Lance chimed, the guttural growl in his voice completely gone save for the faintest undernote.

A careful sniffing of air, followed by a gruff harrumph, pierced the air. "Regardless, he is in a position most unenviable," Fenrir remarked. "I think it is best to bury this wretch, before whatever dark magics that ail him set to work on relieving him of this grievous damage."

Even with his face split vertically in two, Pestilence managed an internal smile. Of course! How could he have forgotten! As vines started pulling his brains back together into one entity, dark thoughts coursed the gamut of his mind as he remembered his trump card. That was, before he felt another blade piercing his skull, this time lopping the top halves of it off in one fell swing. The vines stilled again, though he could no longer hear anything. He could feel the earth being worked at, the vibrations so close yet miniscule he could not pinpoint what was going on.

Of course, he wasn't really in a position to do so. Dark magics or not, one didn't exactly come out from having their brain quartered entirely unscathed. Without ceremony, celebration, or even the faintest bit of concern, he was dragged into a hole after some moments had passed. How many, he couldn't parse; it wasn't long before the dirt was thrown onto him with diligence, grace, and not one iota of respect.

Just like that, in the quiet coldness of the dark, he'd been left to rot. Even so, magic pulsed across his body as he faintly felt his adversaries tottering off. To where, he knew not—not even the earth could tell him that much. Magic weaved around him and through him, the curse once more working to undo what was done to him.

As his brain pulled itself back together with the aid of vines and eldritch tendrils of shadow, darkened thoughts once more ran his mind. Rage screamed in what little blood remained in his body, and his heart began pumping erratically as bark started growing outward from its wound. His split horn crackled as more wood sealed the crack between the halves, overflowing with hellish energies that accelerated his healing—if it could be called that.

One part of his mind screamed that he should deal with that challenger, whilst another howled for Lance's blood to water the trees of tomorrow. A third, tiny voice suggested he bash that Envoy into the ground for having the gall to stab him in his heart. Many other such ideas flitted hither and thither, taking their seconds in the spotlight before passing it onto the next in an endless dance that did naught but strengthen his anger.

Underground, in what was once sun-touched soil, that inner darkness began to take over. Underneath the Void, and his own prison, one could hear him cackling—assuming anyone was presently above him. The sound grated at the soil, cracking it as it gargled in his recovering throat. Vines pushed up and out, wriggling without rhyme or reason. In disarray they spread, parting the stirred, scorched earth as they pulled his mangled body up and out.

From his claws, roots grew, laced the ground beneath him and spread their fell power. From his back, where his wings were, branches arced upward with heaves and ripples that further sundered his flesh. All his body could do was to contort itself in order to assume a new, more grotesque form. Wood spread out over what remained, growing and towering as a crown of branches replaced the scorched leaves.

Pestilence marched forward, the crown swaying with his movements. It drooped around his face, sprouting flowers that spit out seeds with each step. The seeds sizzled and popped, vanishing in puffs of black smoke at his roots. The ground trembled beneath him, the tremors shaking his branches as they grew more flowers across his backside. Dim though they were, his orbs scanned the landscape as best they could.

His roots, however, did a far better job at letting him know where he was going and what he was walking on. In a way, they pulled him along towards suspect indents in the ground that were half-ovular and with domed imprints therein. Some were flat, though, and littered with tiny splinters. Onwards he went, smiling crookedly as he felt magic coursing through his body. "One can't have it all…" he muttered to himself, hoarse and quiet amidst his own thundering steps. "If I have to be part of the new forest… then so be it."

However long it would take, he swore, he would see it done.

As he marched with purpose, he could sense a growing power in the indeterminate distance. He could not discern its name, its source, or even its magical signature—but his roots did notice, stringing him along by his wooden snout and beckoning him to follow. His magic merely fueled his movements, no matter how twisted his body grew. Even past the threshold where he should have died, he could do little else but heed that growing nagging in the back of his mangled skull.

Would it be his own undoing? He knew not. Rage still howled through his body, demanding he do something as it drowned out rationality, so he moved faster—entirely heedless of that tiny skeptic in his conscious, sounding alarm bells and screaming that he would be led into another trap. The ground began tearing as he broke out into a stumbling gallop, sending shards of earth around and behind him as he went. Thoughts echoed through his head with each step, rebounding with no way to cast themselves upon his cursed tongue.

"Can't hear."

His body lurched, tilted, swayed in a wind that felt fierce enough to topple him. His branches rattled, but the Void was unusually quiet now—only vibration answered to him. He almost landed on his face, pulling himself up only once the entirety of the gale had passed.

"Can't see."

His sight grew more and more hazy until only darkness remained, even as he resumed that stumbling gallop. Light, what little of it could exist in the Void, was meaningless. Contrast was the same; he couldn't discern lighter black from darker black, and so continued to amble on.

"Roots feel. Roots guide…"

And, indeed, they did. The shuffle grew more awkward with each movement, each lash pawing desperately at the earth before ripping it asunder to pull him forwards. Each root seemed to tug him in separate directions; first left, then sharply right, then due north without any care whatsoever. He swayed again, barely steadying himself only as he came to a complete stop.

"Wind's trying to stop me…"

Another gust rattled his branches, and his swaying turned into a collapse that sprawled out all of his roots as he toppled. His crown drooped around his face, obscuring all of it save his protruding horn. With an unholy exertion of will, he stood back up, only to lurch again as a third blast of wind tried to knock him back down.

"What… is that power?"

Even now, as he struggled once again to start walking, he could taste a noticeable change in the ash-blighted air around him. It started faint at first, a little note he couldn't place. At that moment, he wasn't sure if that was his imagination getting to him in his current state. But that distant power grew and grew, and he couldn't glean why—but it did, and once again whispered for him to come. His roots turned and pulled him towards it once more with force, though the distance seemed to lengthen with each step.

"Must… kill… challenger…"

The mere thought of the interloper made what was left of his blood boil. His heart thundered in his chest, threatening to break free of its confines. Magic lashed from his horn, but it had nowhere to go save the ground beneath him. It washed over his body in its passing, and summoned vines and pikes of bamboo that sent him stumbling to the ground.

Pestilence pulled himself up, but his branches shook with the effort. One almost strained, wood splintering as he twisted it wrong, before he managed something resembling steady. He felt pain, but forced himself to ignore it as he pressed onward. The Void was powerful, despite being so empty and vast, and only those steps within ashen soil could guide him now.

"That… damned pegasus…"

With renewed vigor, Pestilence managed something that wasn't quite a crawl, but more a multi-limbed hobble as that distant power continued to climb. Oh how he wanted to tear Lance several new holes with his branches… though, there was no telling where that pegasus went now. Pestilence tried flapping his backside branches to fly, but could not even lift himself an inch from the ground without breaking his delicate balance. He nearly fell again, but stabilized by spreading his backside branches in a way that distributed his weight a little.

Why, why, why did that pegasus have to bring that Envoy with him? The thought made the cursed alicorn grasp his head with a forebranch, clutching feebly in an attempt to sort out whatever rationale that decision called for. Alas, he was unable to find or conjure an answer to justify it.

No matter how hard he tried to search within himself, he could not place himself in Lance's horseshoes. The opportunity was long lost the moment that damned challenger dared show her face and use his power to reverse the seeding.

Lance's voice, scathing and damning, echoed into his head. "If not one has left Ashwood… then were they, perhaps, forgotten? Or… deliberately left to its own devices?"

The more he dwelled on it, the more sense that seemed to make. Perhaps the challenger was forgotten, Pestilence mused. Then again, it shouldn't have been easy to forget her—she had his power, after all. She was probably marked too, now that he thought about it. Surely, one of Greenwood's villagers would have noticed that much… wouldn't they?

His mind made itself up in that moment. He marched to the still-climbing power, idly hoping it could lead him to that village. He could kill two birds with one stone, and set the whole lot of miscreants straight once and for all. Then, only then would he rest—as soon as this heaping kerfuffle had been sorted out and everything was back in its proper order.

Of course, given what was done to him, he'd have a lot to repay those miscreants for. Dark thoughts still swam in his head, further fueling his flame and making him pick up his pace. In his eagerness to rend flesh, he tore up the trail he followed, caring not for where it led. It did occur to him, however, that maybe that growing power in the distance was something the group had angered—and it would direct its fury onto them. The practical glee at the notion served to hasten his movements, and a laugh he could only feel tore its way from his throat to echo soundlessly in the Void.

It was a pity he couldn't see or hear what he was getting into, only feel his way to that damned hellhole. He would have screamed if he could do either.

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The villagers, all surrounded by the First Unified Army, were escorted back to the fire-shredded Greenwood. The younger villagers eyed their escorts warily, whilst the remaining elders had gazes and horns and mana trained on the group that lingered in their premises. The lot flinched when they saw what was left of their leaders, and ears folded back as their owners turned to Natalie for an explanation.

One of the older mares pushed her way through the crowd, her greying green mane framing her face in loose coils as she shouldered past pregnant mares and armed stallions alike. Her horn crackled in a sickly light, eyes flashing red for the barest of instants. "What did you do?!" she demanded.

Natalie's eyes narrowed as the elder's eyes flashed once more. "Separate her from the others, immediately," she said coolly. The soldiers nodded, and a changeling and gryphon moved in to grab the mare by her front legs and drag her towards their superior. Natalie gestured to Greenwood with a wing. "This, I didn't cause." She then pointed at the leaders' remnants. "Those guys, though, I scorched through and through."

Leaning in to peer into the elder's eyes, she added in a low voice, "And in fact… I know who did torch your little village."

"Who?!" the elder spat, struggling in the two-prong grip for a moment before the changeling used his magic to make her hold still.

Instead of answering, Natalie turned to Sarah, then to Rainbow Dash. A silence settled, then Natalie turned back to the elder after considering everything carefully. "So… there was mention of some immortality ritual, from the three stooges who told you to haul ass no less…" she began darkly, her own eyes flashing red at the mention. The elder recoiled, as did the rest who hadn't been separated from the village herd. She gestured to Sarah with a wing and asked, "Tell me… what goes into the ritual to make it work?"

Sarah wilted, wings sagging and head lowering as Natalie turned to her again for an answer. She flinched when she felt a wing drape itself across her back, and looked up to find Rainbow Dash staring at her. "It's okay. Whatever bucked-up stuff they did won't happen again on our watch," Rainbow said softly, but firmly. She turned to the soldiers and nodded to them. "Not on their watch, either."

Sarah didn't speak. Instead, she lifted her claws to her false horn and tugged sharply, splintering the wood. She pulled again, jerking her head before Lazarus lit his horn and willed his magic to stop her cold. "No, we're not going to be mutilating ourselves," he said firmly.

Natalie turned to the couple who had the jewel on the makeshift stretcher. Her lips pursed when the gem began to crackle with blue and red arcs of miniscule lightning, rattling just enough to startle its carriers into jumping. She turned back to the elder that was before her, ears twitching in their wait for an answer yet to come. She prodded her with a wingtip to make sure she was still conscious, but jerked her limb away when the elder turned to try and bite at it.

"What goes into this 'immortality ritual?'" Natalie repeated, eyes narrowing in impatience even as her gut clenched in a shiver of disgust.

"Why should you know, Cleansing Crystal?" the elder snapped, eyes twitching as she glared defiantly at Natalie.

Natalie turned to the jewel, still crackling with a rage that belied its seeming immobility. "I think I'm not the only one who wants to know," she said, gesturing to the jewel when the elder raised a questioning brow. The elder turned, noticed the jewel, and paled upon seeing those dual-colored arcs of lightning streaking its surface—notably, without burning the stretcher it lay on.

By then, the rest of the villagers, and Natalie's group, had noticed the jewel's erratic behavior. The soldiers, on the other hoof, barely did little more than bat an eye in its direction. Sarah paled and dropped her claws from her false horn, eyes widening as she stared at the jewel. The first words she spoke were hushed, yet their weight cast aside all rage from her system merely through reaching her own ears, "Is… is Godcat…"

Natalie turned to the Void itself, spread her wings, and gestured up at it with them. "I think a certain Someone has been keeping Her eye on this place since we dropped here," she said ominously. She turned her attention, once more, on the elder mare before her. "So if you don't spill the beans, you're probably going to have a very nasty afterlife waiting for you." She shrugged idly before leveling the tip of her staff at the villager's throat and lightly tapping her chin with its crystal.

The elderly mare trembled, and not just at the crystal at her neck. She swallowed and licked her lips, but no sound came out even as that staff started pressing into her throat. She flinched when she heard the sound of yet more trotting hooves hitting the soil, and tried to peer around Natalie and the soldiers to see where the sound was coming from. "Y-you can't… She…" she stammered, pupils dilated and trembling even as her irises flashed that insufferable red once more.

Natalie gravely nodded, face hardened into a stony mask that had little emotion in its slight tilt. "Godcat told me and my friends… on the day we bested Her, that She would watch Fantasia even as She searched for another world…" she muttered, eyes gleaming in some vestigate of emotion that the trembling elder could not place.

Her face barely twitched as she snorted, and her head shook slowly and pityingly. "Truth be told… if the Void is here, then I don't think She likes what's been going on here—but that's just a hunch," she said bluntly. "Either spill the beans, while you're on the mortal coil… or spill them and face Godcat's wrath in the afterlife."

The elder continued to shake, before the crackling jewel began to float up from its stretcher. All eyes, even Rainbow's and Rarity's, trailed after it as it continued to spark fitfully and move unaided. It levitated, of its own accord, to the ruined altar set near the village gate, and set itself gently upon the torched bark. Lightning coursed across the ashen bark, swirling about it in a vortex of currents that popped and crashed against itself as pieces flaked away in motes of ash.

Layer by layer, the altar peeled itself away until only a hideous hunk of charcoal remained. The ashes swirled above the jewel, a small cloud at first before more flitted from the collapsed buildings. Then, still more came from the ruined forest, in thick shrouds that flew to gather around the stump and join in with the first. First came unidentifiable things, hanging low above the jewel in a cluster of four that hovered in pairs mere inches apart from each other.

From there, towers formed, spiraling up as they pieced themselves together. The cloud distorted briefly when the wind blew, but resolidified and picked up where it left off to complete the cylindrical structures. Two round shapes, a slender yet bumpy bridge holding them together, formed between all the towers before anchoring itself to them seamlessly. Another tower formed up front, thicker in diameter yet requiring more layers to complete as a lashing object formed on the opposite end. Finally, another round shape formed atop that last tower, before reshaping into something with ears and a muzzle that were both featureless and distorted thanks to the swirling motes making up its body.

All watched as the cloud seemed to solidify into something vaguely equine, with limbs in appropriate locations and the head and tail where they should have been. A horn jutted from its head in seconds as the flow of outside ash waned to a faint trickle, but besides that, its features were blank—as a cloud, it couldn't be anything but. Natalie, Sarah, and Lazarus recoiled upon seeing it, and their ears turned back as jade orbs lit upon the vague approximation of its face, topped with a glowing maw that split into a toothy smile.

Even now, though the flow had weakened, more ash came in to add to its body, compacting tenfold in an effort to complete itself even more. Lightning arced around it in red and blue increments, especially around the legs and horn as it floated against all possible logic. Silence reigned for a minute or two as it hovered there, seeming to take in its surroundings with an air of expectancy about it.

Its orbs then swept across the village, making all shiver as it made eye contact with every face present. It had no lungs or vocal chords, yet still it laughed a hollow series of notes that grated against all ears. It seemed to have no sentience, yet its orbs sparkled with ill intent. Though it had no life to call its own, it was present—it was here, perhaps born of some will from beyond. Though it had no magic to will, its horn started to glow crimson-green, the sinister aura swirling around its head, throwing it into stark relief without illuminating any of its features save the mouth and orbs.

"What… is that?" Rainbow asked uneasily, wings spread and twitching.

The elder mare balked and turned to Natalie, eyes glistening in pleading. "The Tormentor! The Penance of Sin!" she cried, struggling once again in the two-pronged grip that held her tight. "One of Godcat's enforcers! We're finished! Done for!" She kicked as much as the magic holding her would allow, which wasn't very much given her advanced age. "It has come to collect!" She turned to the other villagers. "Run!!" she implored, before a cloud of ash parted from the new arrival and rushed to her head.

The ash went into her nostrils and throat, swirling around her skull as she continued to thrash. She screamed, but her cry devolved into a gargle as motes of vortexing darkness continued to assail her. Natalie whirled around and grasped the elder's head with her magic, trying to remove the ash—but it kept swirling, howling in its own tempest against her aura as though she hadn't cast at all.

Within minutes, the elder started to suffocate, whinnying and whining as the sable stole her life away piece by piece. Her body started reacting instantly; vines and bark tore through her flesh in an effort to fight off her bitter end, reaching up to swat the ash away to no avail. Her cries weakened, and eventually, so did her struggles. Even then, she was scratching at her own throat, tearing flesh out to try and cast the ash out.

Her blood spilt, dribbled down her neck as she scratched fruitlessly, succeeding only in mutilating herself further. The other villagers watched, reeling and whimpering in horror as she ripped her esophagus out. The gargling whines devolved into choked gasps, then watery wheezes as her hinds went slack. Blood stained the ground beneath her at an alarming rate, forming a pool that made the soldiers holding her let go.

She did not drop, continuing to tear herself apart as the ash cloud held her suspended on the spot. Vines wrenched her body further apart, only to then de-root and flop on the ground in writhing imitations of sentient life as they withered. Bark peeled away, curling on itself as if it knew how futile this struggle was. The will to live, and the light of fight, weakened ever so steadily upon the ash-struck victim, who gave one last choked sob as her stained fronts dropped to her sides.

Only when she slumped, glassy-eyed and limp, did the cloud pull away and return to its master. The Penance grinned wickedly, licking its lips as though it could taste the spilt blood. As it licked its chops, Lance and his group arrived upon the scene, eyes widening at what they beheld. Anna was unusually quick to cast her magic over herself, making her outfit vanish in flashes of light as soon as she had seen the creature floating above the sparking, lightning-spitting jewel.

Natalie noticed that Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack were now sporting golden jewelry with singular gems on their necks, and on Twilight's head in her case. Twilight summoned the jeweled box with her magic, opened it, and willed her power to fashion two similar necklaces onto the necks of Rainbow and Rarity. The Tormentor turned to Lance as he demanded, "What happened?!"

Natalie pointed at the ash-creature with her staff and answered, "That killed somepony!"

The Tormentor rose higher in the air, crackling and cackling more than it had a right to. Its horn lit up in sickly green that changed hideous red, and its magic seized the remaining elders of the village, leaving the younger and middle-aged members untouched. It lifted them into the air to its height, its sickly and horrible smile widening. It tossed its head, and more ash rushed from its body to suffocate more victims.

The groups watched as the elders were strangled, forcibly transformed, ripping their own throats out in an attempt to stifle their agony, only to instead prolong their suffering. Screams, muffled and pained, echoed in the Void as elder after elder met their agonizing end before the entity dropped them and let them splatter upon ruined houses with nothing more than a flick of its ashen tail.

Its head then turned to Sarah, then Anna. Both flinched as that accursed gaze bore into their souls. For the first time, the Tormentor spoke in a voice that made even Lance flinch at its familiarity; hollow and hissing was its tone, and damning was its singular utterance, "Sinners… prepare for repentance… for your silence is as sinful as what was done to you..." With that, its foul magic it seized Sarah, hefted her up to its eye level, as all the while the Void rumbled ominously. Anna was swift on the teleport, however, and vanished before the magic could grab her.

She reappeared next to the altar, only for the Tormentor to redirect its assault and launch ash towards her new location. Once more she vanished, causing the ash to swirl where she stood. The Tormentor scanned the area, waiting for her to reappear as its ash moved to sweep the village. An arrow sailed past it, narrowly missing Sarah and stirring the corporeal form into wisps with its flight. Slowly, the creature turned around to find its quarry standing on a ruined house's jutting branch, bow in claw and loaded with another arrow.

The Tormentor smirked. "Why do you keep running from your sins, you wretch?" it taunted, once more preparing to snag her. Instead of answering, Anna teleported before it could make its move, taking her weapons with. The fiend glanced around, Sarah struggling in its grasp, the villagers watching hawkishly as it turned to them in its pursuit of prey. Another arrow sailed from above, lancing clean through the creature's head only to harmlessly strike the ground below it, the ash misting about before recompacting.

It twisted above, and seized a levitating Anna by her legs as she loaded another arrow into the drawstring. She shrieked as she was pulled down to its level, ash swirling about her horn in a ring that constricted and cut off her magic. The visible darkness around them all compacted onto itself, destabilizing before swirling around the three in increments that let light through.

More parts of the Void fell, compacted, went to join the central mass, taking with it whole chunks of earth and rock and burnt trees with its passing. The Tormentor rose into that concentrating darkness, dragging the twins with it, before entering the mass with a ripple as they cried out in dismay. A moment later, they too followed it, their fruitless struggles rippling across the surface as the darkness swallowed them up.

"What's happening?!" Twilight asked, her mane and the manes of everyone else lifting upwards before she realized she was feeling an intense wind blowing throughout the area that rushed to the growing sphere. Purple veins exploded across its circumference, becoming more and more erratic as the Void continued to collapse. More of it fell away to reveal night had come, and the moon was full and dark crimson, washing the land in a light that cast itself onto that sphere most of all. Some of the solidified sable reached to Lazarus and grasped his horn.

Lazarus struggled, but his horn flashed of its own accord. The halberd and harp reappeared, and the darkness seized both before pulling them into itself. A growl of thunder shook the area, causing all to tremble save the airborne mass that should not have formed. The whole lot turned to where the halberd and harp had gone, shuddering as the sphere absorbed them with an unnatural ripple and pulse of purple veins darting across its otherwise smooth surface.

The shadows continued to break and rendezvous, the once-silent wind guiding them along in their hastening journey to form something more compact above that burnt town. The villagers began to whine and whinny, some rearing up as panic took hold. Shouts of "We're done for!" and "The end has come!" echoed from them, and before long all broke out into harried gallops that sent them tumbling into soldiers and burnt houses alike. The soldiers took to the air to avoid collisions, scrambling after the villagers as they ran in various directions in an attempt to keep some semblance of order. Further still, the darkness concentrated upon itself, forming a secondary dome around the town before anyone could make it much farther than the village parameters.

One stallion went horn-first into it, only to bounce back and land on his hinds with a frightened nicker. A pregnant mare put her hooves on the dome, trying to wrench it apart, only to scream as the sable grew a tentacle to shove her backside-first towards the ashen remnants of an unlucky structure. A soldier had to grab her to keep her both from crashing into that building and harming herself and her unborn child, and got punched in the face for his trouble. A foal clambered on top of a semi-steady collapsed house and tried to jump upwards into the wall with a wail, but was likewise smacked down into the waiting claws of another soldier that scratched him on the descent.

A ring of shard-like fragments, all sparkling like glass despite their glossy black finish, broke around the top of this dome, letting the sickly light of the eclipsed moon shine upon the chaos. It formed a ring of light around the sphere as well as letting the smaller, compact entity float in the middle of the hole. In this halo of dim red light, the sphere looked absolutely demonic, harkening loose fragments of the barricade into itself to grow just that little bit more. Those shards swirled in a slow, graceful dance that made it seem as if the very sky itself had broken apart to reveal a black canvas between them.

Lightning crackled around it and the dome that trapped everyone inside, discouraging escape and only adding to the pandemonium as villager after villager tried to leave through every possible means they had at their disposal—all without success. Twilight looked on with worry gnawing at her. She turned to the crackling jewel, which started to exude shadows that then raced to reinforce the barrier. Her attention went to Lance immediately afterwards. "Let's see if the Elements can fix this!" she declared.

Lance nodded. "Make it snappy!" He spread his wings and took to the air with that command. "I'll work on trying to calm everypony down!" He flew about, trying to stop ponies from attempting to run and crash into each other without rhyme or reason. Matt, Lazarus and Natalie snapped out of their trance and rushed about to help, chipping in with magic, focusing on the pregnant mares and foals while Lance went after the panicking stallions and the small minority of unburdened mares.

"Alright girls, let's give it everything we got!" Twilight ordered. At once her friends gathered around her, closing their eyes in concentration as the Elements of Harmony began to glow.

None of the panicking villagers took notice of them, even as they ran hither and thither. The darkness that was the Void did not, either. It didn't seem to care either way, assuming it could even have that capacity at all.

Even charging the Elements, the six wondered if Anna and Sarah would make it out of the shadow-sphere alive and intact.

Chapter LXXXX- In The Field of Black Death

From the ash, solid platforms formed in a spiraling stairway, using the earth and remnants of trees as reinforcements. Darkness swirled around endlessly; a field of black death that rippled and crackled with immeasurable amounts of violet veins. A wall erected upwards, hewn of stone and bark that seemed to stretch on without end. Wind swirled around the whole mass, howling sharply into the gloom with its reservations and grudges kicking up the loose dust of the structure.

Running upon the spiral path, both panting for breath, the twins tried to outrun the shadows that were hot on their heels. The platform disintegrated behind them, yet kept stretching onwards to taunt them. Sarah flew, harp and halberd in claw at first before they were made to vanish in twin flashes of green as her sister scrambled to keep pace. Her bow and arrow had also been made to vanish, but her claws offered little help in gaining traction—they dug into the ground, kicking up dirt behind her as they splintered.

The strong gales that buffetted them both weren't helping in the least. They would wane and rise at random, letting Sarah ride them one moment only to knock her back the next. The ash and dust kept them staggering and swatting in an attempt to prevent blindness, only further slowing Anna down as she didn't exactly have any free limbs to do much swatting. The tremors that came as the mass fell behind them always ensured the shadows were exactly one step behind the pair.

There was no turning back. There was only forward, and the desire to be free of this madness instead turned its back to the fleeing twins.

As she ran, Anna's false wings decided to make a comeback, tearing out of her back and flapping madly enough that she didn't care how it would affect her run. Her gallop went from frantic to stumbling and disoriented as her flesh tore once more, and through the haze of pain she began dancing dangerously close to the precipice's edge. Sarah had to decelerate a little to push her sibling back onto the main path when one barky claw slipped, though the harried pace was kept as the shadows kept gaining on them.

Minor though the resultant speed boost was—in stark contrast to the unbearable agony—it did not help at all, instead spraying her blood everywhere it could. Worse, mid-flap, the pairs decided to merge; branches contorted, reoriented, jostled for position, dragging the less-than-useless leaves with them. What little flesh was between the bark only further mangled and oozed as they transformed of their own volition.

Some bits of bark instead pulled itself aside, anchored itself to new points, forming hideous plates that flailed with all the nonexistent grace it could muster. Mockeries of ulnar and humeral and other such bones joined as one, dragging themselves through the massive bleeding scars they erected to meet mere inches behind the withers. New joints formed, barely resembling the digits of an unaltered pegasus and stretching as wide as they could go in their owner's mad dash for safety.

The edge of the path seemed a tempting fare, but Anna stayed away from that temptation. Promising as jumping sounded, she didn't fancy an endless fall or worse, even in her disoriented, unenviable state that had yet to correct its stumble. There was no telling what this darkness would do to her or Sarah if she even tried to leap. Her claws veered off-course, almost dragging her to the edge again before her sister shoved her back on track.

Through the haze of pain, the alarm bells still sang with urgency as Anna tried her best to follow that endless corkscrew of a road. Another tremor from behind pushed her forward, and she almost fell before her claws found purchase and steadied her sprint. A stray vine tilted her as she swayed, grabbing the breaking wall for support and leverage as she leaned the opposite way. Another shove from Sarah had her running as straight as she could, the vine breaking off at the halfway point to join the shadow as it hovered threateningly behind the pair.

The wing-mockeries stopped spraying blood after a few minutes and changed course from flapping to pushing down on the ground like extra legs, allowing yet another minor boost in speed to aid their owner as well as steadying her that much more. Though, Anna was almost certain she hadn't made the mental command for them to do so; they just did, of their own volition. And thanks to the motion bringing with it another outcry of pained nerves in their sudden redirection, she was going to have those damned things cut off once she got off this winding road.

She kept galloping, gradually easing herself into a frantic rhythm even as her brain screeched to an abrupt halt, did a double-take, and then proceeded to engage all of the panic buttons at once. The winds picking up in speed just enough that it tossed her wings off the ground and snapping backwards over her tail only cinched it. Chills ran up her spine and down every inch of bark as horror began sinking its claws into her.

Anna turned to the wall, the air itself burning at her eyes with how fast it was hitting her as she scanned frantically for any change in the environment. But it was constantly breaking apart, tearing away all but the most notable of changes within milliseconds—just enough that she noted that the roots should not have been here if this was what her flailing panic started screeching about.

She turned ahead again, squinting her eyes to lessen their pain. Her pace picked up, and so did Sarah's. The shadows' pace did, too. The wind's did as well, as she noticed her claws began digging deeper furrows despite her best efforts. Some part of her swore this place wanted her to fall into the darkness, but she held her tongue and musings before either could go too far. Chancing things here and now would not be ideal in light of the situation at hoof.

A voice echoed throughout the darkness, somehow ringing clearly through the wind itself despite its raspiness and hollowness, "Why do you two continue to run?"

Neither twin answered. They couldn't afford to waste breath with words. Only a mute glance between them and a brief nod was all the answer the voice was given. Sarah flapped her wings harder, compensating for the wind's assault as Anna kept up with her scrambling. Leaves began snapping off the false wings, some in halves and others whole while the false horn began to bend ever so slightly in the onslaught; splinters were already peeling away to join the darkness.

Neither twin noticed. Neither particularly cared.

That damnable voice, ever-present yet fleeting, decided to taunt them further, "Sinners like you deserve no reprieve nor rest! No hope, save for the worst your inner darkness has to offer!"

It didn't take long after that utterance for a familiar yet unwelcome hole-in-the-wall to make its appearance. Worse, wind howled from it; it was enough to send the twins staggering to the edge of the precipice. Anna shrieked as she turned her body to the hole, just in time to grip the edge with her front claws as her hinds scrabbled at the darkened air. Her wing-mockeries flailed again as Sarah rushed to her side.

Anna's blood pounded into her ears, drowning out all else as she tried to pull herself up and move away from the crumbling fragments at the same time. Vines flailed, likewise scrambling for desperate purchase as her claws dug furrows into the soil. The wind angled itself, she could've sworn, trying to shove her over the edge to which she clung. She could not feel her sister's claws, and dread sank in as she wondered if, perhaps, she'd been swallowed too.

She dared look to her left. The shadows were gaining now. Her pupils shrank and she doubled her efforts to climb back onto the fragmenting path. Her wings kept flailing, but anything they could touch only served to push her up. She saw magic pulsing across her claws and heaved, feeling her grip tightening upon her bastion of safety. A hind managed to find a stray rock and gripped before pushing against it, aided by vines that reached for another rock that she could only feel for.

The wind tried to shove her back once more, and her purchase faltered. The rock began breaking at the edge itself, and Anna's panic skyrocketed as she saw those warbling cracks erecting themselves around her claws. The wind slowed down its attempts to knock her off, but it didn't matter; it knew there was little chance she could hold on much longer. The rocks in her grip tilted, started loosening, and Anna let go before reaching beyond them to try her luck with other stones.

Talons and tarsi wrapped around her bloody midsection and pushed just as she managed a more solid hold. Yet relief did not surge through Anna's blood as she was helped back onto the path, just in time to see the wall around the hole crumbling. She turned as soon as her hinds hit the ground, and took off to resume her sprint with the claws still clutching her. After a minute, though, they reached up to wrap around her barrel to hang tight. She felt weight on her back, and another tail overlapping hers.

Anna silently nodded to herself. This was better than the darkness claiming her sister. She felt teeth gripping her mane and pull it towards the wall, and she started to turn that way when her claws danced to the edge again. She veered to where her sister seemed to want her to go, false wings parting with a few more leaves as they redirected to the ground once again and helped push forward.

She felt feathers brushing up against her false joints and heard flapping, feeling herself gain in speed. Anna kept charging ahead, even as she spied three shadows idling about on the path. Her horn glowed and she and her sister vanished in a flash of light before the trio could so much as look in their direction. Reappearing behind them, she kept going with reckless fervor, tuning out surprised screams that she assumed came from the darkness as it swallowed its smaller, unaware brethren.

An errant rock almost sent her tripping once more as it connected with her claw and tossed her momentum aside, but Sarah simply flapped her wings harder and lifted her sister up to compensate for the sudden obstruction. Once this was done, she came in to help her twin land so she could resume the sprint.

The wind picked up on this, though, and started to buffet them once more in an effort to stall them. Anna continued to fight against the bluster, gritting her teeth as it tried to sweep her claws out from under her body. She felt blood land on her snout, and recoiled slightly as it trailed down to let itself into her mouth.

Soon after, she came across a mangled body only barely recognizable as a pony. It moved on its own accord, rose onto its clawed hooves, and looked her dead in the eye with its own glazed pair. It tried to swipe at her as she passed, but was too slow with the strike, and by the time it connected with the ground the twins were already gone. Another scream tore through the darkness, and Anna winced at its breathlessness even as she pondered about where the corpse had come from.

Part of the wall moved, and out stretched a clawed branch that tried to block them. Anna teleported past that, and received another piercing scream coming from behind as she continued up the road. Unearthly grating was its tone, hollow was its voice, and shrill was its inflection—a combination that made her ears shiver and recoil just hearing it.

"This is what your silence has led to!" the voice declared, venom dripping from its tone. "The suffering of those you left to rot and ruin!" More corpses came up on the bend, shambling and moaning pitifully as they tried to reach them with barky hooves outstretched and torn throats flailing uselessly in the tempest. Sarah pulled Anna up and flew over them with her seamlessly, earning more cries of anguish as she landed and let her sister keep on running.

Anna didn't want to know how the trees and corpses were suddenly animate, having seen their desecration with her own eyes. She kept going, ears pinned back against her head as her mental gears span and scrambled out of place in an attempt to make sense of this madness. Another clawed branch made to obstruct her, but she jumped over it smoothly, dislodging a few leaves off her false wings in the process of landing.

She forced herself not to care about the logistics, just on getting away. She felt Sarah pressing into her back, and nodded in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture. The wall seemed to shift now, cracks forming ahead and pulsing with plant matter that should not have been moving, yet was. Faces leered out, silently screaming and damning the twins with their deepened, almost-stretched scowls.

She forced herself to not look into those hate-filled expressions. She didn't want to be on the receiving end of their myriad of metaphorical daggers, yet she was anyway. She winced as her false wings scraped a couple of them with her frantic passing. She could've sworn some oozed blood or something similar in consistency to it, splashing itself against her cursed hide to further paint it in ugly hues.

"And yet, you have the gall to remain quiet, even now?!" the voice demanded, harshness oozing from its tone as much as contempt. She was certain the source was glaring at her and Sarah now; the tone left little else to her scrambling imagination.

Trees parted from the wall, twisted faces scowling as they formed a barricade in an attempt to stop the twins' hopes for freedom. Anna conjured the halberd and swung it madly, knocking one tree over the edge and another back into the wall. The third and fourth had arrows thunked into their hides, fire erupting from crimson crystals to char and stagger them out of her way. The last two were simply teleported past, and Anna made the halberd vanish before continuing onward.

More emerged after the first six. She simply ducked under the branches this time, being mindful of the flailing roots that tried to snag her claws. One grabbed her tail, and was knocked aside by another swing of the resummoned halberd. A second tried to reach for her face, and was torched by red crystal-tipped arrows for its trouble. A third tried to arc over her, only to be teleported past without any iota of recognition.

All of the trees screamed as they were subsumed by the shadows. Their cries were the same as that of the first corpse she had evaded, except with gargling notes that made them less and less equine the longer she listened to them.

"You see your own brethren as enemies… perhaps you never truly belonged in that little village after all," the voice hissed. Anna could almost hear its owner shaking its head with the statement. "Pity that you won't stop and help them even though the worlds are ending…"

Anna felt her stomach and heart drop and clench at that statement. Was it true after all? Or was the owner of the voice screwing with her in an effort to make her succumb to the shadows on her heels? She felt Sarah tensing against her back, and shuddered even as she sprinted.

If both worlds were ending… then she'd have to leave this corkscrewing path faster. That was enough to further stoke the inner fire that fueled her dash, and it tempered her resolve. It wasn't like she hadn't tackled worse before, after all. Even a madpony like her could see that much.

More corpses came up, and were promptly knocked over the edge with a swing by a summoned halberd before they had the chance to reach the twins. The corkscrew that didn't end seemed to be straightening ever so slightly, though Anna decided not to hedge any bets just yet.

There wouldn't be a chance to do so anyway, with her current list of priorities.

"You are just like he whom you'd rather forget, the both of you," the voice said scathingly, as more trees parted from the wall to stop the advance cold. Anna's horn lit up, and she levitated up and over the barricade with as much speed as the spell would allow. "Thinking you are doing good by keeping quiet, staying in denial… ignorant of the true damage your silence causes."

She landed behind the trees, forced herself to ignore the screams, and kept sprinting. Sarah whimpered in her hair, and her grip tightened. Anna felt the sting in the voice's words, but snorted and pressed on. "And when you do decide to show yourselves… as you truly are..."

More corpses swarmed ahead. Anna impaled them with arrows and ran through the resultant flames. Her wings, perhaps sensing fire, closed tight at her sides for once, as did Sarah's own pair. Even ablaze, the corpses tried to strike and slow them down, only for pieces of their legs to fall off mere inches from theirs. Screams did not come from them this time; only the flames at her heels that, too, were subsumed by sable.

"... you cause yet more damage in an effort to mend things. Isn't that the same as destruction?"

Anna's breath hitched at that one, but she could do nothing else save run. Her chest clenched at the harshness of the voice's words, idly wondering if it was the Tormentor or some other entity berating her. She wouldn't have been surprised at either option, and swallowed her nerves to better control them.

She could not let them control her. She could not succumb. If there was a way out, she'd seize it and drag her sister with her. Ponies before her fell, died in the shadows, and their number was as countless as the stars. They didn't have the means or knowledge that she had. She was not going to join that lot anytime soon.

Her legs kept moving. Her mind kept racing. Her nerves screamed for her to stop.

She didn't heed the pleas of her own body. She couldn't afford to. She wondered if time was on her side or against it.

"You abandoned them to their fate. They have abandoned you to yours."

Corpses and trees emerged in tandem, but Anna had grown numb to it. A pelting of arrows sent the tide staggering, ablaze, and moaning even as they tried to grab her. Charging through the burning crowd, the twins winced at the smoke and stench wafting from the myriad of bodies—bodies who once had identities and dreams and aspirations at some point in their lives.

Bodies who were, once, just like them.

Bodies cast aside to secure her and Sarah's own freedom. Fed to the fire and the wolves.

The sting still rang through her nerves, flaring with pain, begging her to stop her rampage and succumb to the darkness that swallowed all else behind her. Anna kept running, trying to be heedless of what she was doing—though her subconscious pulled levers in her brain, bringing everything to the forefront of her mind where she could not ignore it for long.

Tears welled in her eyes, but she held fast to them. She refused to let them fall here and now, even as the blaze she wrought threatened to wrench them from her eyes with its baleful glow and acrid, rot-scented smoke.

The guilt had to be swallowed, forced into the pits of her soul. It could be dealt with later.

"You follow an insane stallion… for what gain? What hope do you have against your own sins?"

Anna tried to ignore that damnable voice, certain that its owner was behind her now, gaining even as she ducked to dodge a wayward, smouldering claw belonging to a mangled pony. She jumped over a branch, only to skid to a halt as more reached for her. Sarah flapped, dragging them both into the air and over the scorched lot that now seemed to stretch on and on a surprisingly straight path.

Glancing ahead, Anna spotted a clear patch between stone gates lined with withering vines. She gestured there, and felt Sarah nod against her neck. Down that way they went, and Anna hit the ground running. More screams echoed from behind, and Anna could've sworn she felt heat licking her hind claws.

Daring to look over her burdened shoulders, she gasped as she saw the burning corpses running after her, some falling apart even as they struggled to keep pace with her while others remained surprisingly intact. She ran faster, passing under another stone gate that fell behind her tail, the tremors of which almost sent her skidding. Another quick flap from Sarah, though, and her stride resumed course.

She tossed another glance behind her as soon as she rebalanced. She noticed the corpses trying to jump their way over the fallen gate, scrabbling to catch up. A tree came over and shoved the rubble aside with a branch, letting it fall into the darkness and the smouldering crowd focused once again on trying to catch their evasive prey. Sarah kicked at one of her haunches, and Anna turned back ahead before picking up her speed as much as she could.

"Your sins keep mounting, little fillies. Denial only gets you both so far. Your shared penance is long overdue."

The burning ones were catching up, even as the gates collapsed to bar their path. Anna's breathing started to labor; her vision began to blur at the edges as she kept sprinting. She heard rubble being shoved aside, and felt heat licking at her haunches. Eyes burning as her vision struggled to focus, she noticed something standing out in the darkness up ahead. She shook her head in an attempt to better see what that was amidst the field that was half-submerged in black death.

The first try didn't clear the budding tears, and the second time failed to dry them. She kept going anyway, figuring the smoke-sting was only now dying. The stench still clouded her nostrils, threatened to suffocate her if she ever let herself and Sarah enter its depths again. There was no chance in hell she was going to let that happen, here and now. They had to get out. They had to make it through this, no matter what the Tormentor did or wanted.

Heat licked at them both. Anna was certain she was at her fastest now, despite the threat of imminent immolation behind her tail. The glow of orange-red was coming closer, growing brighter, shining against the glossy leaves of the vines before withering them.

The guilt tried to resurface. She swallowed it down again with a bitter wince.

"After all… what is destruction…"

A plateau stretched before them, lined with stone henges and more gates. In the center stood a mangled, massive tree with a crown of flowers, roots desecrating the ground as it scrambled to find something—anything—to stop itself cold. Its horn glowed, and Anna felt her dread spiking at what she beheld and was fast approaching.

Behind her, flames and bodies covered in them howled and screamed in a chorus of hissing, gargling whines that echoed ceaselessly—almost baying for her and Sarah's blood. Anna could do nothing at this rate; succumbing to the darkness wouldn't do, and she'd be damned if the crowd behind her ever sank their torched claws into her cursed hide. The tree up ahead was only focused on one thing at the moment, and whatever it was, she could ignore it until she reached its patch in the path.

It grew closer and closer, but so did the heat and certain death on her heels. Sarah squawked, and Anna's false wings took the hint, grappling the ground to speed up the maddened rush however it could.

"... but…"

Another gate fell. It mattered little to the congregation behind the pair. The remnants were shoved aside, as more and more of them fell apart. The plateau grew closer still, and Anna could see the flowers of the tree spitting seeds as it blindly charged back and forth in its bastion. Another glance over her shoulder confirmed that the darkness wasn't swallowing the crowd as it had with the path earlier… or maybe it was, but the glow of the flames had drowned that out. But she could not see the broken gates past that sweltering mass of anarchy and dismay.

She turned back ahead, seeing another gate starting to crumble farther along the road. She lit up her horn and teleported past it and the one behind it, digging new furrows into the ground as she sighted the final gate, the farthest of the lot—miles ahead at the least, separated from the one she just passed by a whole stretch of barren land. Hope and dread surged in equal measure throughout the pair's veins; whether that bastion meant certain death or freedom didn't matter as much as getting there to see which held true.

"... desecration…"

The final sprint was upon them; Anna now knew that much. Her body ached for her to stop, her heart thundered in her chest, and her eyes continued to burn with the sting of fire and what little guilt she couldn't force back down. But she wouldn't forgive herself if she ceased now.

The moving flames kept gaining. She heard more rubble being cast away. The moans of the dead, and the howling of the trees grated her ears. Sarah kicked again, but this time she did it with a squawking whine leaving her mouth. Anna shook her head, legs at their absolute fastest. They weren't the blur of Rainbow's wings, nor the grace of Flash Sentry, but this would have to do.

She hoped it would be enough. It had to be.

The glow behind brightened, the heat close behind it. She felt one barky plate on a hind hock withering and starting to peel away. A vine on that same leg joined it, shriveling and writhing with a force that made the flesh beneath the plates ripple. She could ascertain damages later, when there was time.

The vine pulled itself out and let itself be consumed. The peeling plate followed it. A few wing-leaves joined them. Yet the growing, grating chorus continued with its horrid symphony and stampede. Anna turned her head back, just in time to see a massive branch wreathed in fire reaching out to her and Sarah. It was so close she could taste the ash in the air, smoke-riddled with a sharp and bitter note that made her skin crawl. She turned back, her horn lit up and she teleported a few paces ahead to keep some distance.

The claw came down on empty land, scattering embers with the impact. The stampede continued to follow, still howling and baying, and Anna threw another glance over her shoulder. The faces of the crowd were now twisted impossibly by fire and mutilation; it was less physical and more demonic, with hate-filled glares all directed towards her. Embers swirled the whole mass, fed by the wind, rising into a veritable column of destruction and death that continually closed the distance.

Some of those voices in that horrible crowd, she could've sworn, had tried calling her name. Her skin crawled again. Her attention went back to the final gate. It was in reach, just another mile or two…!

"... desolation…"

The flaming herd shrieked in a unified, crackling note that sent her stumbling and decelerating. She immediately rectified this, running back at full speed within seconds—seconds that the heat and death used to catch up to her and lick at her hinds once more. A claw grabbed her, and she kicked at its owner with a scream as fire burned away bark and assaulted the torn flesh beneath. The hit was solid; the attacker let go with a snap and a crunch, and she was free to resume running to the plateau with a few plates falling away from the new wound. Her run managed to stomp out any embers that clung to the undersides of her barky hooves—or she hoped it would, as she didn't fancy having burnt legs to contend with on top of everything else.

Another one tried to grab. Anna didn't even look; just ignited her horn and teleported a few paces ahead to compensate for her fresh injury. She slowed a teensy bit, but that she could not do anything about; she was probably going to be limping for a while after this, and would certainly feel this for weeks to come.

None of that mattered now. She had no choice but to get away.

Another mile, at the minimum, lay before her, whole and untouched. She'd have to run that much to get there, and risk straining her now-hurt leg further to do it. She weighed her options quickly and shook her head, before igniting her horn once again. She studied the land leading to the bastion and nodded to herself. It would have to do. In a flash she disappeared, and reappeared mere feet behind the final gate, pausing to chance another glance behind her.

The stampede howled as they raced to reach the bastion, the bodies within the flames nothing but smouldering shadows now. Some still fell apart, but most remained intact. All were galloping, their pace frantic, their claws swiping at air for another taste of her bewitched blood. She could no longer recognize them as ponies and trees; now, they were impossible shapes with hate-filled faces, each one biting and snapping with fervor.

None of them would get another chance to grab her. She turned around again.

Anna passed under the final gate and galloped around the massive tree as it charged to her left and smashed into henges. She looked at the gate she had come in from and saw the path crumbling away, along with the tide of smoke, rot, and fire that still tried to reach the bastion. A few trees and corpses grasped the edge, clung, tried to climb and erect their own footholds before the roots from the larger, unburnt tree came over to knock them all aside into the shadows. The lesser trees and mangled ponies screamed as they plummeted to their doom, and the fires went with them, leaving just the bastion and those who stood on its scar-torn surface.

For a moment, silence reigned as the three stood there, letting the last echo of the collective death rattle fade away into the darkness as everything else had done before it. Wind whistled between the henges, scattering the loose soil and sending some of it over the singular, jagged edge that spanned the whole island. Anna looked at the henges, noticing that the lot of them were marked from top to bottom with runes that had smoothed out over time.

Some of the henges had scratches streaking their surfaces, but none were deep enough to blemish and mangle the runes. She idly wondered if that was a good or bad thing, before turning her attention to the only other soul present. Sarah shrugged at her, and both turned back to the massive tree as its branches twisted and cracked with another passing gale. Anna checked her wounded hind leg and winced; burnt, bleeding, and riddled with scars old and new… but still usable. No embers to be seen. That much was good; she could wrap the whole limb up later.

The wind petered out, and silence held again for another long moment. Anna turned to the massive tree, unsure of who was going to act first, let alone who was going to do what when that first act came. Her legs tensed, still burning from exertion and a recent wound, and oddly enough, so did her false wings. Sarah also tensed, tail shifting between her own hinds as she mentally prepared for anything to be thrown her way.

The massive tree then turned to the pair and roared, its voice barely equine and gargling as though it were submerged. It rose a claw and swatted at them as it rushed in their direction, and Anna could only teleport away to reappear behind it. More gates stood at the backside of the plateau, but as her hooves touched its soil once more, they crumbled away, leaving only darkness and that one island housing the henges and tree.

".. and damnation?"

Anna turned around, and Sarah dismounted as they faced the monstrosity that turned towards them. She conjured the halberd and handed that to her sister, and did likewise with her bow in her own front claws. The behemoth roared again and scrambled to them, magic working itself from its horn to its roots that spread out in a sickly glow. Anna and Sarah got into the air just as vines and bamboo emerged upwards, shooting in all directions—even impaling their own summoner in a few places, as well as breaking themselves against the henges.

The pair landed on a henge, watching as the behemoth thrashed against its own plants, ripping them out of the ground with its bare claws as they withered and died all around it. Soon enough they turned to ash, leaving just the beast with the glowing horn.

"How are we gonna take that on? My harp's busted…" Sarah lamented, keeping her wings spread as the beast charged towards them. The pair split; Sarah danced upon one set of henges, and Anna went the opposite direction. The monster ran into the henge, cracking it but doing little else.

"And I burnt my flute!" Anna replied, stopping on one set of henges as the tree turned to her and roared. "We'll just have to wing it!" She winced as her false pair spread and angled themselves awkwardly at her sides, and paled as the monster swung its branches in a way that launched those accursed seeds at her. She tucked as much of her body behind her false wings as she could, and the seeds bounced off and landed around the henge with hissing wisps of smoke.

As soon as the barrage had passed, Anna emerged from her false pair and started henge-jumping once more while the behemoth set course to run where she stood. She noted with dismay that she wasn't able to carve runes into the soil at this rate; the tree was too busy breaking it up with its roots. And sooner or later, her wounded and bloody hind leg would give out—it was only a matter of attrition now. She'd have to see how long it would hold in these circumstances.

She studied the henges for a moment, before shaking her head and darting along the island's ring as the tree charged again. It was fruitless to try; the henges were not hers to tamper with. Against this thing, she'd have better luck learning to fly with her false wings—a prospect she wasn't going to tackle anytime soon, with how they acted of their own will.

She was going to have to think of something else, then. All she had here was her sister, a very limited range of weaponry and a distant, almost foalish hope she still clung to.

Running would no longer cut it at this point. Fighting would have to do. And even that didn't look promising, given what she was looking at.

Chapter LXXXXI- Retort of Light

Her wounded hind throbbed in anguish, bleeding anguish at that, as she went henge-skipping again. Anna clenched her teeth to stave off a groan, stopping to cling to a henge as the tree rammed into another with a force that made the makeshift arena rumble so much, the loose soil jumped in place for a moment. She saw Sarah tilting and flapping to regain her balance, one claw on her halberd and the other on her perch. Thankfully, her stance held steady and true, and before long the horned behemoth would stop its flailing for a moment—no longer than that, just enough for the twins to gather their bearings again.

Anna contemplated her bow and made it vanish. She did likewise to the halberd. "No use holding them when we have to stay on our toes!" she called out as her sister's mouth opened to object. "I'll pelt the damn thing when there's an opening!"

"Just make up your fucking mind already!" Sarah squawked as the wooden fiend turned to her and roared. She bounded away a few henges as it charged, and almost stumbled into the darkness before forcing herself back up with a few quick flaps of her wings. It twisted about, and paused to sniff the air.

Anna watched its movements, seeing a twitching snout beneath the glowing, twisted horn—a snout that should not have been able to smell, given the watery quality to its owner's cries. Then, it zeroed in on her and charged. She didn't bother running, instead teleporting to a henge opposite its trajectory, and held firm even as the arena shook again. So that was how it knew where to go. She glanced at Sarah, noticing her own patches of dried blood that dotted her body.

Quick calculations ran her panicking mind in laps before settling on the most obvious course of action. She conjured a few arrows and launched them at the beast as it turned to her again, frowning when one tilt of its head resulted in the projectiles thunking on where she assumed the neck was instead. She was going to call dumb luck on that, but then power pulsed from that twisted horn. She levitated above the henge, watching the soil intently as the roots of the monster twisted onto themselves over and over.

For a few seconds, there was nothing—and strangely, the arrows hadn't activated this time. Anna considered returning to her perch when the roots shot out in all directions, twining in coils of at least three to form tight braids with pointed tips. She twisted out of the way of a few that lanced at her, one nicking her shoulder and haunch and drawing blood as she passed. Sarah was luckier; she managed to get out of harm's way entirely, opting to go higher instead of farther away to dodge the vegetation.

Then, some of the braids coiled in groups of nine, forming thick, spiraling stakes that sank into the soil before jumping right back out in rigid movements leading them straight up. Sarah was socked in the chin by one, scraped and splintered simultaneously and knocked downwards into another stake that collided with her shoulder. A third scored a hit on the cutie mark as she was sent up into the air, and stopped the apex of her unprecedented climb. Down and down she went into the deathtrap thereafter, stunned into a stupor that rattled her nerves.

Anna teleported to grab her, stopped to wrap her up in vines to secure her, then teleported again to self-levitate with her sister out of range of the roots. They started to piston up and everywhere else they could, searching for flesh to strike at. Some broke off their formations to writhe in jittery, air-tapping maneuvers that nonetheless drew closer than its stiff brethren. She groaned and contemplated her options, maneuvering her way between lashing tendrils in an effort to scope out the horned behemoth's weak points.

One tendril snagged on a false wing, but it managed to only break one joint and tear off some leaves before Anna banked towards another braided root, tilting her body in a way that left her wings on her sides. Corkscrewing through two more, with wooden joints breaking in the maneuver, Anna scowled when she noted the tree was standing still so its roots could do all the work.

… odd, she mused, but a part of her started vouching for that immobility working in her favor. Carefully, as she darted above more roots that would have otherwise stabbed her, she conjured more arrows and teleported them over to the tree prior to thunking them in its bark.

That time, the tree turned upwards and sniffed—right as two arrows hit it in a nostril and its horn. Again, the arrows didn't activate—but the strike was enough to make it jerk its head and cease its glow for the moment. Its crown rustled and flailed, the flowers opening and closing at random as they spat their vitriol all over the battleground. Its branches wavered and swayed, some touching the roots and others feeling nothing but pure darkness.

Anna's brow rose as the tree reached over to its face and pried the arrows out with a clawed branch, and then crushed the stone and crystal into pebbles and shards with one firm, crackling curling of its trunk-sized fist. It roared again, a little less watery but no less grating, and pulled down its braided roots as its horn began to shimmer once more. Magic pulsed across its broken body, raced through the soil, and touched the shards as it bathed the arena in viridian light.

The runes lit up as they bathed in that glow. It was instantaneous; the whole arena drank and bathed in that sickly light within one millisecond. Even the cracks stretching from henge to henge were filled, though not quite as deeply as the runes themselves. Anna's eyes went wide as she saw green, warbling power fill them up, break away in their shape, and twirl around the monstrosity in a slow dance that belied whatever strength they held.

Her false wings twitched, the broken joints flailing uselessly as that green light rose into the air in time with the roots. Vines coiled around them, spiraling up and up with intent. Growing thorns, the viridian tendrils stabbed into the roots, drawing more ichor as they wound their way into the dark unknown.

That ichor began bubbling and sizzling against the bark, though only when emerald light touched its almost-black, viscous surface with ripples streaking that unsightly liquid. Then, the sizzling ooze ran along the length of the vines that reached out, clinging unusually tightly to them only to launch off the ends of the plant matter in a spray that went everywhere. Upon henges, upon the soil, arcing into the gloom, even upon its own master; few things were untouched by the rain of searing black.

Anna wove her way between vines and roots alike, though even she and Sarah had suffered a few hits from the volley. Anna howled as one front fetlock began burning and withering at the timber; she summoned an arrow, wrenched its head beneath the afflicted patch, and jimmied for a moment before the wood was pried off and sent onto the arena. A crystal on that same leg wobbled threateningly, and so that same arrow was then redirected to evict that from beneath her shoulder in short order.

It didn't budge until it was half-melted, and it came loose with a squelch and a pop before it, too, went to the ruined soil, igniting on its way down. The flames were weak and sickly, flickering a dim yellow before more foul gunk extinguished them mid-air. The broken wood of one of her false joints came snapping off of its own thanks to the ooze, though fortunately it didn't spread to the rest of the accursed not-limb.

Anna flipped herself and Sarah to dodge more strikes from the hail of liquid, only to be met with a crackle of bark and a hissing of what sounded like steam. More wood fell from her false wings, descending and melting towards those dreaded roots. She looked towards her still-stunned sister, and her brow furrowed upon seeing that the gunk had punched a hole through her feathers—but not through flesh, thankfully. She plucked out the feathers surrounding the immediate area, though, just in case any leftovers decided to go feather-hopping.

She looked to the henges as the vines and bleeding roots pulled back into the torn soil. The stone glistened in what little light could exist here, but didn't seem to melt as plant matter would have done. The horned behemoth didn't roar, instead opting to sway its branches slowly and ominously.

Then Anna mentally shook her head before noticing there was a red tint about it that wasn't there before. She looked up and slung her sister across her back; a hole had opened up in the darkness now, and she could see the moon shining down onto the arena, surrounded by a void in the sky where there should have been stars. Just outside the ring of light, she could further glimpse black and shard-like entities dancing about slowly, as though the sky itself had been cracked.

She took a deep breath and descended, careful to avoid glistening patches of dirt before she even thought of letting her claws touch down on broken soil; her knees almost began buckling upon landing. Her vision blurred again, though another deep breath steadied it and her legs. She turned to stare at the tree, and its snout poked from beneath its crown of flowers. Its horn glowed, highlighting empty abysses that seemed to stare back. The henges shuddered and pulsed, but the tree did nothing else with them for the moment. The ground glowed with that fell light, briefly running up both her and Sarah's bodies before dissipating.

For a while, silence held as they held their gazes upon the other.

A sickly aura embraced her head. A malignant voice echoed into her mind, "... you shouldn't be here, wretch."

Anna's horn flashed. It seemed this tree was sentient after all. She responded in kind, "Neither should you."

The tree snorted. The bark on its snout crackled when it did. "Then what is this prison we're in?" it telepathically retorted. "Who's trapped—me or you?"

Anna pondered that for a long moment. Her head shook regardless of whatever answer she could conjure. "Both," she replied with a flash of her horn.

The tree nodded slowly, more seeds falling from the crown of flowers. The moon's light wavered and filtered through it, making small shapeless shadows and lights dance with the motion and clouds of seed-smog. Another flash of its horn, and it said, "Fight to the death, then. Surely you can't refuse…"

Anna considered this, and snorted. She was sure the tree had caught her huff. Her horn flared and dimmed in seconds. "Stakes?" she questioned.

The light danced again, and Anna broke eye contact to look up briefly. The hole in the darkness began to close, drowning out the few broken shards she saw before. The tree's retort pulled her eyes back to her adversary, "Whoever emerges victorious… will rule the ground here. All of Greenwood, bending to the winner's whims. Is that not sufficient?"

Anna's reply made the tree tilt its head quizzically, "No. I'd rather not rule Greenwood, period. Besides… already burned the town. What more do you want from me?"

A crackle of bark met her ears as the branches danced, and the waning light shifted again. "... this is the first," the tree telepathically muttered, assuming a hard frown on its twisted face that Anna didn't miss, "that I've heard of a challenger not wanting anything to do with ruling the town's populace. Pray tell… then why are you here?"

Anna stomped a claw, her power pulsing around the ground in a far weaker glow than that of the tree's. Again, the branches danced, and that frown only deepened. "To end Greenwood's curse, once and for all—so the town may truly die without false immortality," she spat in reply, the venom of her words making the tree scowl. Its black abysses darkened further, almost corporeal in of themselves.

The tree rose its head, chin tipping as that frown turned into a wicked, toothy smirk. Its horn flashed once, maintaining a steady glow now. "End the curse? When you yourself and that hopelessly-feathered other bear its roots in both your veins—corrupting your scents with that of a forgotten art?" it scoffed. Its aura brightened as it added, "Impossible. What a foolish notion. So many have come before me with that proclamation, and where have they ended up, wretch?"

Anna winced with a frown. Her false wings rattled. She could've sworn she heard distant thunder ringing in the sky. The moonlight was dim now, and it wouldn't be long before the return to darkness completed itself. Wind started howling, whistling through her joints and the tree's branches as the sizzling gunk began to dry.

The tree lifted a branch and pointed it at her, but it was as large as three ponies, and the distance was just meager enough between them, to let it hover inches in front of her snout. "Pitiful. You can conjure no answer… because you know not of what this curse has even been bequeathed by," the tree telepathically spat, seeds launching out of the flowers with the utterance. "How, then, do you plan to stop the curse?"

Anna glowered. Her tail quivered. The light was dimming still, its faltering rays making her own shadow dance. She glanced up again, and could only just barely see the moon now. Then, her false wings rattled—before Lance entered the forefront of her thoughts. She telepathically replied back, "Simple; keep it from spreading beyond Greenwood… and through the rest of its ponies."

The tree barked out another telepathic laugh, retracting its massive branch even as the sound devolved into a gurgling growl. Blood began pooling from its mouth, and its eyes as they twisted to narrow. "Bah! Nothing more than talk of rubbish! You'll fall just like all the others who made that same idiotic declaration!" the tree declared, and it started charging as the light disappeared from above. Anna teleported out of the way, appearing behind the tree as it stopped its charge short and turned around with a watery roar.

Sarah slowly shook her head, the stupor finally leaving her. She groaned groggily as Anna scrabbled up a henge, noticing her sister's vines wrapped around her tarsi to keep her in place. "Who did… did we get out yet…?" she croaked seconds before Anna teleported to the other side of the arena with her in tow. The henge shook as the tree was stopped cold by stone once more.

"We're not in the clear yet," Anna replied, studying the tree as it turned around, leaving glowing runes in its wake. Her legs tensed, and so did her vines, inadvertently tightening their hold on Sarah. She watched as the roots began lashing again with viridian power running along their lengths, stretching out and out before brushing against the henges—not crashing or striking, brushing.

She held her tongue as some, but not all, of the runes lit up and started to float around the massive tree as some sort of attempt at language began rolling off its tongue. What left, however, was as watery as before, and just as senseless: "Kræschalt… moirækasch…" As it began devolving into its arcane chant, the tree stood to full height and rose every single branch that could spare the effort high into the air. Even its crown had rose, though those flowers still drooped nonetheless to coil around its roots.

Runes began dancing around those branches, rising just as high into the air as they did. Glowing and dancing in slow, delicate pirouettes, they almost seemed like a beacon of pure energy that shone through the nightmarish darkness. The arena rumbled in the light, and dirt and wooden fragments launched through the shadows to circle the monstrosity. Roots pierced through floating bark, and vines grabbed clumps of soil.

Before the spell could be completed though, Anna summoned some arrows and stabbed them into a few runes on the henges, covering the glowing ones with ice as their enchantments activated. More, glowing arrows conjured themselves and stabbed into the other henges, causing the pulsing viridian to ripple across their cold surfaces erratically. The floating power that circled the tree warbled and wavered, flickering in and out of existence as the arrows did their work. The disrupted spell flickered out, with a crackle and boom not unlike that of thunder and lightning.

The tree turned around and roared, horn still alight. A telepathic shout bashed its way into Anna's head with enough force to make her wobble dangerously upon her bastion, "You dare disrupt my spell?! How… where… when and from whom did you learn the dishonorable art?!"

Anna took a moment to regain her balance, false wings flailing for a moment before spreading as wide as possible. She chose not to make a retort to that, on the grounds her head would need to stop ringing first before forming telepathic words would even be considered possible. Her vines winced and writhed, tensing in some places and lashing loosely in others.

The tree howled again when it didn't receive an answer, and charged as Anna teleported—this time, reappearing between the branches on its back, hanging tight with all four claws as it began to thrash. It tried to reach around with its front branches, but the other branches jutting from its back got in its way, stopping those hamfists of wood from crashing into her by mere feet.

Anna looked about the backside of this tree, turning about and securing footholds as needed to see if there was anything she could use to her advantage. Her bloody hind burned as it slipped off a branch, before she grit her teeth and forced that hind back on to reassert her hold. The tree shook as its second fist crashed into another branch, trying to bypass the obstacle to get to the pair.

It was then she spied something between the uppermost branches, right where those claws were trying to get through—a crack in the wood, revealing pulsating flesh beneath that drummed almost like a heart. "Are you kidding?!" Sarah squawked, also eyeballing the suspect, misshapen lump that twitched there.

Anna nodded. "I think we've got no say in the matter; it's either stab that or be stuck here forever," she pointed out sourly. She conjured the halberd and started climbing towards that suspect spot, digging her claws beneath wooden plates as best she could for leverage. The tree shook from side to side vigorously, branches whistling in the wind as the twins were sent for a jostling.

Sarah snagged the halberd out of the air with one of her wings, pulling it in without cutting herself or her sister as she hung on tightly. Roots flailed, reaching, searching, slithering up the backside of the tree in tandem with its own vines. Anna pushed herself further up, false wings twitching and rustling erratically. She heaved again, getting closer to the tree's cracked, errant lump. Closer still, she could see the veins beneath, filled to bursting with that oozing ichor that began to spill out of the bark.

With a single nod, Sarah flexed her wing and used it to stab the halberd into the lump with as much force as she could muster. The tree screamed and threw its body as far back as its roots would allow, blood fountaining from the fresh wound as Sarah dug the halberd in deeper with a twist of her wing. With a tug she pulled it back out, smiling as its power danced across its surface once again.

The tree trembled and tossed itself from side to side, in turn flinging its ichor off of the weapon's shaft and blades, and everywhere else for that matter—except the twins. Anna jumped away from the tree with a flap of her false wings, teleporting herself and her sister to the safety of the henges. As her claws hit stone, the tree ripped apart its uppermost backside branches with a heave and another spray of decayed blood. Falling in arcs like that, the ooze almost resembled crude wings for a second before the geysers reduced to trickles that raced downwards to the roots.

Tossing the branches aside, the tree turned once again to the pair with its horn flashing. "Why you little—" it began in another roar, charging once more with frontmost branches raised to crush and maim vulnerable flesh.

Anna's world tilted again as she jumped over one henge and found herself clinging to the one past it. Her shoulders throbbed, and so did her hind—followed by the rest of the flesh that wood and vines were growing out of. Her legs wobbled, and her vision blurred into shades of grey and black that she could barely tell apart from one another. Her lungs burned, and so did the crystals embedded in her legs.

Her head shook, but this time her stance and sight did not stabilize. "No… have… to see… this through," she hissed through clenched teeth. She felt her coiled vines giving way as Sarah struggled in her grasp, and felt the weight on her back lessening. Her claws began to shriek against the stone, but she tightened her grip in an effort to delay the inevitable. A claw slipped, but she forced it back onto the stone.

The tree didn't charge this time; she'd have heard it moving otherwise. Nor did it crash into solid rock; the resultant noise would have been distinct. There were no passing tremors filtering through the shadows; only silence held as her stance warbled. The weight receded from her back entirely, and she heard the flapping of wings. Talons touched her shoulder, trying to stabilize her again, before the faltering became too much for her to bear.

She became, dimly, aware of Sarah calling out to her. Her words, though, eluded her entirely; pain clouded her hearing, unable to be ignored anymore. What blood that hadn't spilt pounded in her cranium, demanding release from the torment. The curse was taking its toll on her body; her shoulders were proof of that. The only thing she could continue to hold onto was consciousness, but the longer she held, the dizzier her world turned. She idly wondered if she had finally reached her limit.

The otherworldly reverb of that echoing voice decided to make itself known once again, cutting through the agonizing fog with a crystal clarity she couldn't misconstrue, "It was the same with Godcat. You faltered then… and you'll falter now, cursed wretch. Your fortitude is an obscenity. You'll pay dearly for your continued silence..."

Her knees buckled. Her false wings sagged. The vines merely flopped in place. Another claw slipped, planting her haunches against stone. Then she tilted over the edge, and fell from the henge to the soil before landing between a pair of feathered wings. She felt claws being grasped by talons, and for a moment the twirling lilt in reality waned.

Sarah relaxed a little as she felt her sister's ragged breath against her neck. She turned back to the tree as it did likewise to her. Another telepathic shout raced, but it reached the still-able sister, "It seems there is only one of you now…" A horrid smile spread on the tree's features, showing jagged pikes for teeth. "And I can tell… you've no magic. Not an ounce in your tainted blood." The smirk widened into something horrible, bleeding profusely with its twisting. Sarah wondered how it was able to still manage that much in its current state. "Pray to Godcat while you still can; my mercy has left this wretched world so long ago."

Sarah's brow furrowed, and her head shook. She watched as the crown of flowers shifted, the petals twirling onto themselves to form miniature spikes of their own. Her false horn splintered a little as it twitched in time with the rest of her otherwise-impassive face. She was alone now, without her weapon and her claws occupied. Despite the odds, she found herself flashing a toothy smirk of her own at the tree.

Sarah ascended to be eye level with the tree, and she was well aware of how small she was before the behemoth. She spotted mana pulsing across her feathers, vibrant and full and ready to aid any way it could. The crown of flowers parted to let her get snout to snout with the beast.

Then she reared her hinds up and kicked it in the face, launching back as soon as she heard the snap of bone and wood and felt the squelching of fraying flesh around her hooves. Pirouetting away, she purred as she spied two new holes in the monster's face. The tree roared and brought its branches up to ascertain the damage, the crown shifting and flailing like hair caught in a fierce breeze.

"Y-you wretch! I'll skin you alive and drape you over my bark!" the tree telepathically declared, its face shifting in a scowl that tried to grow new plates over its wounds, only to cause the bark around them to curl up and wither. This left it looking as though it had grown more eyes than the two it began with.

Sarah pondered that for a moment as it pawed about, trying to figure out what was going wrong. "... it's not regenerating? That's funny… my sister was doing a fine job of that…" she mused in the back of her head, head tilting at the display before her. "As much as the curse was letting her," she mentally added after a few seconds.

The tree thrust its crown of flowers towards her, all at once, twisting them onto each other to form a giant lance that raced to meet her flesh. Sarah ascended as far up as she could go, until she was just out of range of the attack. It did its best to follow her, weaving and twisting about in pursuit, but ultimately could not even scrape at her hooves no matter how hard it tried. By the time it was under her, Sarah noticed that she could still see the tree a fair distance away—easily a few meters, she guessed.

The tree roared once more, and this time it did so with the reverb of the other voice joining in. "Running away won't save you! It hasn't helped either of you wretches the last time!" the second entity declared, manifesting itself before the tree in a swirl of smoke, sickly green orbs poised on Sarah.

Sarah's smirk twitched. "I'm not flying away!" she declared.

"Then what are you doing?!" the tree demanded, wavings its branches erratically with the telepathic utterance. Sarah was under the impression it was signing for her to come back and fight.

For a moment, she didn't answer. Then her smirk twitched knowingly again, broadening to reveal her pointed teeth.

"I'm ending this shitshow!" Sarah declared, vines erupting from her body to wrap around her prone sister tightly. She angled herself and descended downward, gaining speed quickly enough for the wind to shriek in her ears. She dodged around the flowers as they raced to strangle her, batting any that came in too close with her claws wherever she could. Anna lazily swatted too, though she wasn't able to shove as many tendrils away.

A few arrows, the glow around them weak as they came into existence, thunked into a few more flowers. The stricken tendrils backed away, enabling Sarah to flit deftly through a gap in their defenses. Talons returned to bark and held tight as more tendrils moved in to compensate for their weakness. Some twisted around from behind, hoping to strike at prone hinds, but instead met each other as Sarah twisted her way through another gap in a daunting corkscrew that had plants scraping her flesh from every conceivable angle.

A near-miss almost resulted in a hind being caught, but she was able to pull the leg away at the last second. Another aimed for her face and struck in a whip-like lash, but merely glanced off her false horn—it didn't even splinter from the assault. A third made to wrap around her wings, but Anna's false pair took the brunt of the attack, breaking away by their approximation of the radial joints to spare Sarah's.

The broken false-wing parts clattered to the ground around the tree as Sarah rushed headlong to meet it. Yet the tendrils were tenacious; one tendril became two, two tendrils became legion as they thrust themselves at the pair to halt the advance cold. Sarah didn't squawk as they seized legs and claws and tails, and turned to Anna to find her horn glowing in a faltering light. Anna nodded, face scrunched in pain and concentration.

The ball of death tightened on itself, but could only find thin air as the sisters vanished and reappeared outside its mass. Sarah touched down on soil, launched herself back into the air, and resumed flying to the odd lump of flesh at the tree's back. As she did this, she took only a second and no longer to scan where she was and how to use the shift in location to her advantage.

She grinned as the tendrils disentangled from themselves, catching on to the ruse. That just meant more time for her to do what needed to be done. She was careful to hold herself in check until the last moment, when her claws let go of Anna's barky hooves and wasted no time reaching towards the tree mere seconds before they impacted the lump on its back.

Another spray of blood met her as she pierced the lump. Another came as she feverishly wrenched at it, tugging, using her hooves and wings to aid in pulling. The howls of anguish that followed were deafening, shaking her body and the walking greenhouse of a corpse she was attempting to mutilate. The branches reached around again, about to dislodge her as she in turn started dislodging that misshapen lump.

Time slowed. Adrenalin shot through her veins, and it came bearing a strength that made her lighter and faster. Wind pounded her ears. Tendrils writhed agitatedly. Darkness fogged all else but her sister and the immediate. The tree swayed, attempting to shake her off as its own tendrils raced to stop her from every angle they could find.

Sarah spread her wings and beat furiously, mana racing across all of her feathers and out into the world. Tinted wind rushed from her flapping, and the gust was enough to knock the tendrils back for another few seconds.

She figured it was all the time she had left. She set about using it immediately and expediently.

The shadows rippled, pulsing as their veins cracked across their surfaces. The sickening sound of tearing meat filled her ears, though decidedly as an undernote of the tree's yowling and fidgeting. Muscles split in her grasp, some at the natural seams and others against the grain. Sarah wasn't a particularly good mortician, but she was certain flesh should not have been so devoid of color as to be mistaken for grey.

But it was. This tree was running on borrowed time. How much of it was left, though, eluded her and so she parlayed not with any potential answers—save for the one where its life was cut short. Another tug, and the lump would give. Sarah dug farther, and sank her claws as deep as they could go. The last tug yielded a discarded bundle of flesh that was tossed to the side as soon as it came free, and another fountain of blood that touched everything except her face.

Sarah darted away before the branches could swat her off. Ichor was now painting the tree's whole backside and her front, and where the lump was revealed a horrible hole where a beating heart lay, trembling in vines and bearing several stab-marks in its pumping frame. The tree turned, and Sarah flew around it as swiftly as her weighted wings would allow, idly noticing the shadows at the edge of her vision beginning to crack and give way.

She was faster than the wounded tree, given her smaller frame in comparison to it. The shadow in the arena howled again, "You are prolonging your agony! Cease this, and your end shall be quick!"

"You can eat my ass with a rusty spoon!" Sarah retorted, reaching the backside of the tree once again. She planted her hinds at the edge of the hole and sank her claws into that wretched heart, cutting away arteries and veins with one and tugging with the other. The heart flailed, sprouting more vines that coiled themselves around the edges as best they could, sprouting thorns in an effort to sway the attacking claws away.

But even as she felt punctures in her flesh, and her own blood oozing, Sarah did not let go until tendrils from opposite directions snagged her and pulled her aside, throwing her to a henge. She spun so hooves and talons would hit stone instead of Anna's backside, and upon landing launched off once more with a flap of her wings that stirred the soil where she landed. The tendrils raced to her again, forming another massive lance that would do more than skewer her were she to get impaled, and tried to strike.

Sarah yowled and sailed over the attack, looking for chinks in the tree's defenses to slip through. Anna nodded against her neck and her horn flashed, her voice echoing in her sister's head, "Fly… up… and I'll help you… finish this…"

Sarah nodded and did as she was told, the tendrils racing after her with fervor. She beat her wings harder and faster to get to the safety zone quicker, feeling the wind beating at her ears and through her feathers once again. Light shimmered, and she looked down to find her cutie mark alternating rapidly between vines and wind, two different shades of green flashing intermittently as they struggled for dominance.

She smirked and willed mana across her feathers. The wind tinted and lifted her even higher, a bright and vibrant emerald that began to win out against its more sickly counterpart. The runes etched in her body flared, but their power was receding just as fast as it had been carved. Higher and higher she went, until the flowers could no longer reach her. She cracked her talons against each other and signaled to Anna with a nod.

Another teleport, and she was back near the half-severed heart of the tree. Immediately she dug back in, severing the last few arteries that she could not get to the first time. Another howl of anguish shook the arena as the final artery popped free with a squelch and a spray of blackish-crimson. The tree made to swat again, but couldn't get there in time; within seconds the heart was freed, pulled from its sanctuary and Sarah flew away once again with it in her grasp.

The tree only had enough time left to turn to her with another roar and a telepathic growl of, "Return that at once!"

The shadows cracked again. Crimson light, itself then superseded by something far brighter outside, began spilling into the desolate area from those cracks. Sarah shook her head as her claw trembled. One flex of digits was all it took to crush the pulsing, thrashing organ in her grip. Before the tree could act, she then rammed that crushed heart upon her false horn and skewered it cleanly, drenching her face in its blood. A power unlike any pulsed through the wood of the false spire, before breaking away by itself and falling to the arena floor in a wet plap.

That same power coursed through and across the remnants of Anna's false wings, before they too fell away and landed unceremoniously upon the broken soil. The runes etched in Sarah's flesh glowed brighter for one moment, and gold and blue dust fell away from Anna to reveal much the same, only for those runes on their bodies to die away with a crackle, leaving bleeding flesh where that power had come from. Sarah's cutie mark reverted, fully, to the wind-and-halberd; the vines upon her flanks were no more.

Silence reigned, for three seconds. It was broken by another thunderclap as the shadows trembled again. The cracks widened, allowing more light to spill through.

The tree howled one last time and charged, but halted as the shadows above broke so suddenly and fiercely, it was like a strike of lightning reverberating through the arena, revealing the moon hanging high over them all once again. More of the darkness began falling away from the top down, in increments that seemed reminiscent of broken glass. With the crimson light on the scene, it and its opponents could do nothing but look up to find the eclipsed moon was leering down upon the scene.

Then, another thunderclap followed as it croaked and buckled at the trunk, falling to its equivalent of hind knees as the frontmost branches raced to stop its complete fall. A hollow, gargling choke came out as the tree glowed in a dying, viridian light that raced across it like the beating of the heart it no longer possessed. The crown of flowers withered, shriveling and spitting out a final spray of smoking seeds as petals began to curl up and fall from the whip-like branches.

"I… impossible… the immortality ritual…" the tree wheezed telepathically, its bark starting to fall away. "It's… it's been… no, it shouldn't have…" Its branches shook and strained, threatening collapse. It looked up one last time at Sarah, who came in to land next to the discarded, false limbs and horn that were once attached to her and Anna's bodies. "Unless… the Envoy…?!"

Sarah shook her bloodied head, and watched impassively as the tree finally fell with bark peeling away from its twisted flesh to reveal little more than scraps remaining, and bones rearranged into an impossible configuration that could do nothing to support itself. In seconds, the flesh and bones withered into dried husks, then shriveled things that were barely recognizable as such. Mana raced across the whole mangled surface one last time, leaving the broken form in dissipating wisps of viridian miasma that lingered for a moment before dying. "It seems…" She turned to the shadow that lingered, "that our adversary was more bark than bite."

The shadow scowled, its horn crackling in sickly green with red and blue highlights. "But you cannot leave here—not even if you atone!" it hissed. Another thunderclap sang in the crumbling gloom, shaking the arena with enough force to stir the henges and jostle the broken soil. The discarded, dessicated bones rattled where they lay, fragmenting with each tremor, as did the false wing-remnants and horn. The cracks behind the shade widened some more, barely able to keep anymore radiance from tumbling inwards.

Anna sluggishly raised her head as the thunderclap faded. "Wha… wha was that…?" she groaned, voice raspy and weak from exertion.

Sarah shrugged. "I don't know." She looked to the shadow, searching its features for any confirmation. Alas, the quick scan yielded nothing of the sort; save the scowl, its features remained indistinguishable.

The shadow continued to glare balefully. "Nothing should be able to do this from outside…" it grumbled, its scowl twitching.

Sarah opened her mouth to retort when another, final thunderclap announced its arrival through the fading sable. That thunderclap was followed by an oddly rainbow light piercing the darkness from behind the shade, crashing through an already-cracked portion that broke and fell away like pieces of sparkling glass. And it aimed straight at the fragmented tree, then redirected to the twins when it realized the tree was no more. Time froze, and nobody had the chance to move or comprehend the sudden intrusion of prismic light as it impacted itself onto the arena full force.

Only the eclipsed moon bore witness to what happened next, in that bloodstained battleground.

End of Arc V: Chapter LXXXXII- Ailments, Nevermore

Sarah's soundless scream lasted for less than a mere moment as the rainbow slammed into her harder than the tree ever could; Anna's, even less, due to her breathlessness. The shade hadn't emitted one at all, instead opting to vanish… or trying to, anyhow, before the rainbow made its own tendril to root it to the spot. The arena crumbled beneath their hooves, the henges floated in mid-air and danced in a rapid circle as they would under a fierce hurricane, and the shadows holding everything together disintegrated then and there.

Yet strangely, the rainbow hadn't hurt. The force knocked her clean off her hooves, yes, and off the arena as it and the corpse decorating it ceased to exist… but there was no pain, Sarah noticed. No anguish. Only warmth—a warmth that spread through both her and her sister as its bright and prismic light embraced them. Her vines, without even the faintest bit of agony, wrenched themselves off her feathered body and disintegrated into nothingness. The runes scabbed over, grew white fur, and shone with a silver sheen as they healed. Sarah felt weight lifting off her back, and turned to see what was happening with her twin.

Anna's scars were healing over, too, and the crystals thunked into her legs fell away to let their wounds heal. Seamlessly, saved for some runes carved into those spots, the glaring holes simply ceased to be. The ugly wounds on her back, etched by false wings, healed over in tandem with her bloodied hind, even growing smooth streaks of silver to offset her tan-beige. The bark and vines peeled off, not drawing an ounce of blood even as they vacated her legs. The holes made by them healed as well, and new, smooth claws of sanded wood sprouted in their places—bloodlessly this time.

From the frogs outwards, power coursed across the wood and up to her gaskins and elbows to form sharper, refined tools than the cursed trees could ever hope to gain. Vines sprung from the wood itself instead of her flesh, coiling around the bark tightly for a nice contrast that wove itself into light and gentle webs whose leaves were filled to bursting with fresh, invigorating life. Her exhausted eyes, blurred with anguish, cleared up as awareness filled them.

Then, tears filled them as she floated over to Sarah and hugged her tightly without warning. "I'm sorry!" she wailed, resting her head on her sister's shoulder. With confusion flickering in her eyes, Sarah could only hug back awkwardly as the rainbow continued to cup them in its swirling mass, washing away all of the blood and ichor that stained their coats. She looked around to find the viridian jewel of Greenwood levitating up into the fray, still crackling with red and blue electricity as the prismatic aura proceeded to wrap around it too.

The jewel shuddered as the red and blue lightning was gently lifted away by the rainbow, which then concentrated around that lightning to disperse it harmlessly into the air. The Tormentor howled amidst the crumbling Void, "Nooooooooooooo! How did this interference occur?! How, why—" The rest unceremoniously cut off as the rainbow spread to all of Greenwood, wrapping around its villagers and gently embracing them in its radiance as it proceeded to do unto them what it had done unto the sisters.

From below, Lance and his group watched with slack jaws and wide eyes as the rainbow went to work on the corpses of the elders, digging pits into the land and gently laying them to rest in it. Then the rainbow reformed the mounds, and pulled stones from the deeper earth to carve into before settling them upon the fresh graves. The trees that made the houses were reformed, but instead of being hollowed out, they grew larger and taller and as vine-covered as any dense woodland. Across the ashen, scorched land the rainbow flew, erecting new gravestones and trees wherever it went. It healed the scars inflicted by Ragnarok and Pestilence, hardening the exposed magma until it turned into obsidian.

What would've taken an eternity to sort through, grow, and heal instead only lasted for a moment before the former Ashwood was replaced by a new, vibrant, stronger woodland in its entirety. The work done, the rainbow gently levitated the jewel to its stretcher and the twins onto the ground, encircling the space around them and the villagers with the henges used to make the Mighty Oak's shrine. The henges shed their frost, ichor and arrows with a shudder and a low groan, and with a pulse of viridian all of them were still. The rainbow even went above right to the mastership, where it gently opened a window and dove right in to do something—the group wasn't sure to who, what or why, but it did.

Then the rainbow left as fast as it had come, closing the rune-enchanted window without breaking it. With a swirl and a flourish, the rainbow circled itself high above the village's former circumference, framing the moon in a beautiful halo as it moved to form a glowing sphere with six silhouettes above the groups. When the rainbow faded and revealed six Mythonian mares as they touched down next to the twins, silence reigned under the eclipsed moon.

Finally, a shaken colt strode towards the outsiders and broke the silence, "Does it mean… Greenwood's gone?"

Twilight turned to the colt and looked at the rainbow's handiwork, nodding and smiling sadly. "But you can rebuild it," she said simply, looking into the foal's frightened eyes as she lifted a hoof to pat his head. He flinched under the touch—understandable, given tonight's insanity—but allowed the touch nonetheless. She turned to the villagers, who began to approach, some with their makeshift weapons clattering against the ground.

Then, the bride holding half of the stretcher spoke up, looking unsurely at her betrothed, "I don't feel the curse anymore… honey, do you?"

The groom shook his head after letting his magic pulse across the earth. "I… I don't feel anything," he answered quietly, turning to the rest of the assembled villagers. "What about you guys?"

Villagers flashed their horns and willed their magic across the land, but within moments all heads shook negatively. Some tried to will any trace of wood and vines to spring forth on their bodies, but none could manage so much as a ripple of flesh. The wave of mutterings began, confused in tone with undernotes of dread.

"It's gone…"

"Just like Greenwood…"

"What will we do now… the elders…"

"Forget that, the leaders are gone…"

"What will I teach my foals now…?"

"Who will watch us? Without leaders, we'll…"

Twilight watched them for a moment, then turned to Lance. Noticing his gaping mouth, she trotted over to wave a hoof in front of his face. His eyes didn't follow—yep, he was stunned alright. She then poked him in the chest, right in a scar, yet that failed to get his immediate attention. Rarity chuckled from where she stood, "Darling, I think they're all going to need a moment."

Twilight smiled dumbly and trotted back to her closest friends, their Elements gleaming in the eclipsed light with a twinkling warmth that shone in tandem with the tiara on her head. She turned to the twins, still embracing one another and muttering to themselves.

"You don't feel the curse? But wood's on your legs…"

"But… it's true… it's not there anymore… do you?"

"I sure as hell don't… vines are still on your mark though..."

"I guess some things won't change, then… I'm sorry…"

"We both fucked up, sis. Olive branch?"

"Olive branch."

Twilight's smile widened as the sisters tightened their hold on one another. The exhaustion of the battle, of self-levitating herself silly and casting other spells throughout, began to settle in, as did the sheer madness she had to endure this night. But she didn't care about that; a swelling of pride and joy began to spread in her, setting aside her aches and pains as she turned to the villagers once again. Whatever made the curse so was… it was gone. She could sense the change in the air, the trees, the very soil under which the dead elders and the trees of ages past now rested.

It was funny, sensing things through the earth despite not being an earth pony, Twilight reflected. But she could—she really could. The blight was nevermore. She looked up at the moon as it started to turn its normal pearlescent white, the shadow of Fantasia leaving its body ever so slowly. The stars shone brilliantly now, without broken shadows to conceal them, and a faint wind blew across the forest and through everyone's fur and manes. It was soft, caressing, and soothing, tickling her snout with the fresh and vibrant life of the new woodland that would soon and hopefully be filled with new fauna to compliment its flora.

And with the curse gone, maybe the villagers could get the proper help they needed at long last. It would be a long road for them, Twilight reluctantly accepted, but maybe… just maybe…

It was Applejack who approached the villagers and extended her hoof warmly. "What say we help y'all rebuild Greenwood? We caused some trouble, and frankly, I don't wanna see anypony homeless if I can help it."

Rarity stepped forward next. "My behavior tonight was unladylike and subpar, but you must understand I had my own reasons for acting the way I did. It would be remiss of me if I didn't do something to help," she said, smiling faintly.

Rainbow tossed in her two bits, "And if you ask me, you guys don't have the horsepower you had when the elders and leaders were still…" she fumbled for a moment, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly with a hoof, "alive. You guys might wanna elect new leaders, however you go about doing that; you do you, but not before we make it up to you." That set the villagers muttering amongst themselves again, this time their words tumbling over each other as they spoke in hushed whispers.

Another breeze of wind blew past, a little stronger than the first. Twilight looked up again, and found a white figure flickering in and out of existence up above, blue eyes gleaming with warmth and pride. A soft, purring voice, unfamiliar yet powerful, echoed into her head with two words that touched her heart of hearts as they reminded her of Celestia's praises, "Well done…"

"Thank you," Twilight mouthed to the figure, who nodded back.

"The decayed are the dead now… and they can rest as they should have done long ago," the white figure above spoke in her head, turning its gaze to the surrounding woodland with a flicker of sorrow in its eyes. "I will judge them fairly and set their souls at ease. Fantasia is still broken, however... I believe it can still be mended yet," it added as it faded away with a rumbling purr that echoed into Twilight's head. The purr felt as warm as the praise she had received, resonating through her soul on a pre-verbal level that put her into a sense of calm tranquility.

Rainbow walked up to Twilight, patting her withers with a wing to bring her gaze back to ground level. "What was that thing up there just now?" she asked. "And… why was it purring?"

Twilight was dumbfounded at the question, but elected not to answer just yet. Half her mind was still caught up with the entity's praises, and the other could not conjure an answer for what it had told her, much less what or who it was. "You heard it, too?" she asked.

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah. And…" She looked up to where it had been. "I think it likes us, which is weird now that I think about it." She looked at Twilight again. "You feel… warm and fuzzy?" She lifted a hoof and put it to her heart. The rest of the sextet gathered around Twilight, and she glanced at each of them to discover them alternating between looking skyward and muttering amongst each other.

Twilight nodded in reply. That was all the answer she could ever need to give. They turned back to the villagers, who clustered together in a tighter herd, save the colt who strode forward earlier.

Then, of all ponies to break formation and march right up to the villagers with a shaken yet collected stride, Twilight found herself surprised to see Lance instead of one of his slack-jawed right-hoof ponies. "I've caused you a lot of trouble in the past, with what my soldiers and all. For my past actions, I'm deeply, deeply sorry." He knelt before the villagers once, and got up with a nod. "I'll have my forces help you guys with rebuilding, if you accept the help."

"But why?!" one stallion shouted at the back. "First the gryphons, then the outsider and…" Lance lifted and waved a hoof to silence him.

"It was because of me the gryphons attacked your town," Lance said simply, head shaking. "I come not to conquer, but to aid. Do you accept my help or not?"

The stallion who'd shouted faltered, and the villagers mulled it over once again for a long moment that felt as though an eternity had passed. Then, reluctantly, one by one the assembled heads nodded slowly. One villager raised her hoof and Lance looked at her. "Yes?"

The villager who raised her hoof shook as she asked, "How will we get new leaders? None of us are cursed anymore… and the wisdom the trees had is gone…"

Lance considered this for a moment, then turned to Anna. The twins rose, and broke their embrace. Noticing she was being gazed upon, Anna turned to her superior. "Windwood. Step forward." She did so mutely, tail tucked between her hinds and head lowering as she trotted to meet up with him. For a few seconds, Lance studied her changed claws and asked, "Are you bleeding anymore?" A head shake answered him.

He internally sighed in relief and spread a wing to motion to the villagers. Anna turned to them, frowning. The other wing spread and wrapped itself around her, pulling her close and making her face fully forward. "I heard you torched the village. Is it true?" Lance asked.

"Y… yes sir," Anna muttered. "But the cur—"

"I know," Lance said simply. He closed his spread wing and turned to her. "You're going to help make it up to these guys."

Anna turned to him, wilting under his level stare. "But ho—"

"You're going to pull double duty as their leader," Lance replied simply.

"But she's an outsider's foal…" a villager grumbled, loud enough for Lance to hear.

"But also the only one who still has wood on her body," Lance pointed out. "I've taught her some things, and she needs to learn the burden of managing her own division."

"Division?" another villager piped up.

Lance nodded. "I know this is sudden… truth be told, I'd rather not do this, but it's something that needs doing." He paused to let that sink in. "And you lot need some help…" He briefly went scrounging for words before settling on, "adjusting. You guys are fairly young, she's the same, and everypony here needs to move forward from the past. Besides, rebuilding a village is gonna take… economic measures. Two birds, one stone. Sound fair?"

The villagers mulled and muttered amongst themselves again. Just as slowly as before, the heads nodded. Another raised his hoof and when Lance pointed to him, he asked, "Will we have to find a new forest to settle?"

Lance pursed his lips, then nodded with a small and calm smile. "Fortunately… I know just the spot. You guys would be protected." He spread his other wing again and gestured all around. "You'd be vulnerable here, leaderless and homeless." He sighed wistfully. "It's going to take a lot of getting used to, since your whole world's been wrenched from under your hooves…" He looked towards the colt that strode forward and asked, "but wouldn't you want the best for your foals?"

The villagers fell silent, contemplating this. Lance got the impression that half of them couldn't believe their ears. Then, once again, a series of slow nods answered him. The colt that approached Twilight trotted to him, legs shaking as he went, but found the gumption to stare into those red eyes that promised so much. "Can… can we farm at the new place?" he asked.

Lance's smile grew, budding with warmth. He nodded to the colt. "To your heart's content," he said simply, turning to the rest of the villagers to notice the tools they kept on hoof, as well as the ones that had been dropped. "If that's what you guys want, farm all day long if it makes you happy!"

A villager strode forward. "But what if we earn our cutie marks? Will we be taken from the others…?" she asked.

Lance shook his head. "Not unless you specifically say you want to. Separating you guys would be disastrous." He looked towards the graves and added, "Though… I won't stop you from coming here to pay as many respects as you need to. The elders were just looking out for you guys in the end."

The villagers nodded, some staring at the graves forlornly. A few of the foals' eyes grew wet and misty simply by staring at where the once-living had died. Lance would let them have their chance to mourn; poor kids went through enough already, and they didn't even hit their adolescent years yet. Having to leave the dead behind as they went to greener pastures was probably going to do some damage to their psyches, but that wasn't something time couldn't fix.

Pinkie opened her mouth to speak, but Lance turned to her and shook his head. "Not yet," he mouthed bluntly. Pinkie saw it out of the corner of her eye and nodded. A few of the changeling soldiers stepped forward, shapeshifting into the various elders that had died gruesomely, complete with bark but without the ripped throats.

The effect was immediate. The deluge of foals ran towards them, screaming and crying, holding their forelegs as soon as they could. The soldiers, in turn, embraced the kids, muttering whispers of comfort to the children as they shed their tears. Lance nodded; this would hopefully mitigate the damage to the children's psyches, though even he could not ignore the clenching of his chest at the sight. "More… sweet than bitter," he mused.

He sighed tiredly, wings aching even as he pressed one of them tighter against Anna. He turned to the Mythonians, who were watching with wet and misty eyes of their own. Even Rainbow was struggling to hide it; her lip quivered, and her ears had flattened against her head. Fluttershy had crumpled, head in forehooves and sniffles coming out. Pinkie's mane became less poofy, though it tried its hardest to maintain its poofiness as it deflated.

"At least the kids get to see the elders in some way one last time," Lance mused to himself, watching the scene with interest. Some of the villagers parted from the herd, and moved over to the fresh graves, a few shaking hooves touching the carved stones gently. Some tried, valiantly yet vainly, to stifle their whimpers on contact with the cold, smooth surfaces of rock. Even the bride and groom had caved beneath their growing sorrow, the former clinging to the latter as she began to cry.

It was all he could do to hold those whimpers in himself. And his hoof reached for his hat once more, to hold it upon his chest as his head shook sadly. He looked behind; Matt had done the same, shadows receding to reveal blond hair once more. Natalie's skulls looked on, bowed with crimson leaking from their sockets as their owner's ears turned back. Zecora stood back with her, eyes closed and mouth moving in some tongue none could understand. Katie looked away, doing the same as Zecora, albeit more hushed. Lazarus kept a straight face, though Lance could've sworn his hocks quivered once.

Lance heard the whir of an airship overhead, and turned to his radio to order into it, "Hold off on the pickup. We have mourners."

"... understood, sir," the recipient on the other end said with a sniffle. "I can feel it from here."

"And speaking of pickup, we'll have at least three dozen more passengers on board. Prepare extra meals," Lance ordered. "We're also bringing Greenwood's jewel with us."

"... understood. I'll… I'll relay your orders, sir..."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The ride in the mastership that morning was uneventful; just about everyone slept in, save the soldiers, who had to be up early to make food and pilot the thing alongside the rest of the fleet. In the starscape of the dream world, Twilight was chatting with Luna at length about what she had seen. Though, she could not fault Luna for growing teary-eyed when she reached the conclusion of her story.

"... but you were still able to save most of them. That's what matters," Luna said, voice quivering slightly. "And Lance is relocating them?"

Twilight nodded. "Where, I don't know… but he's owning up to what his troops did, at least," she said firmly. "Is it possible to talk to the dead in here?"

Luna contemplated the question, then nodded. "Though, you must be connected in some way to the dead to speak with them," she said. "Otherwise, you'd get nothing but faceless shadows." She looked up, eyes slanting. "I hope those elders learn of their errors in the hereafter. I think they might not be healthy for the villagers to commune with here, at least until then," she added as an aside. "Those foals will have an awful lot to learn." She looked back to Twilight, the sorrowful look still etched on her face. "The Tormentor… the scoundrel Rarity spoke to me about… it sounds an awful lot like a Nightmare or something trying to imitate one."

Twilight nodded. "So does… the whole Void, for that matter. I think I've found a lead at last, but the Elements of Harmony probably chased it off," she said.

"And Rarity also mentioned something about an immortality ritual… do you think what you found in that cursed house might be connected to that?" Luna asked.

Twilight pondered for a moment, then nodded firmly. "Though, the only ones around who might know about it are the twins… and they've been playing quite a lot close to their chests," she said with a shrug. "Either way, I'm not gonna prod them about it now; Sarah's probably going to get drafted, and Anna's got some new responsibilities to manage. That, and Lance is likely to grill her for the information anyway."

Luna nodded once, the motion firm and blunt. "Understandable, given the circumstances. Still, if Nightmares or something similar to such roam Fantasia…" A thoughtful look crossed her face; her eyes narrowed a bit, her lips pursed, and her ears stood ramrod straight. "Maybe that is why they have such trouble remembering the past. I know what I would have done as Nightmare Moon, had that plot succeeded."

"Banning of certain words, witch hunts, modifying history and holidays to better fit the narrative?" Twilight guessed. Luna blushed, winced, and nodded shakily. "Oh, and imprisonment and banishment of those with sun-themed cutie marks until such a time when cutie marks can be altered." Another shaky nod answered her. "Leeeeeeeeet's move on from that." Twilight cleared her throat and sighed.

"So… Shining Armor informed me Godcat was freed… and subsequently defeated in combat," Luna said, shuffling her hooves and wings awkwardly.

"Which means Faust might be on the fast track to getting freed herself," Twilight deadpanned. "Which is not that great at all!" her internal hedge gnome shrieked to the uncaring starscape. "Which also means we gotta pick up the pace."

Luna's wings drooped. "And of course, the Parliament in Equestria keeps growing more and more bedlam as of late… I wish I could smack the nobles upside their heads without it blowing up in my face," she grumbled. "Still," Luna paused to look at Twilight levelly, "I'll do my best to let you know of whatever I find on my end. Best of luck and travels, Twilight Sparkle." With a flash of blinding white light from Luna's horn, Twilight awoke to the sun shining brilliantly in her face and Spike snoring soundly next to her.

Slowly, Twilight rose and clambered out of the bed, stretching and popping her legs as last night's hornache came back to remind her to not do anything strenuous for the day. She rubbed her temples with a hoof, then turned and trotted around the bed to shake Spike awake—gently, of course. He stirred with a grumble of, "Ruby sapphires… breakfast mulch?"

"I don't know how many hours we slept, but we'd best eat," Twilight pointed out, grinning as Spike got up, stretched and yawned mightily. A yawn escaped her mouth once his finished, and the drake hopped out of bed to pop some of his bones. "I wonder what's for breakfast." With that, they trotted to the door and opened it and… huh, a soldier was already there, hoof raised to knock.

"Oh, um… hello," the soldier muttered, looking a bit chastised as he lowered his hoof. "Nobody's come to eat, so… I was sent to awaken everybody."

Twilight nodded, donning a bright smile on her face. "Oh, that's understandable!" Her stomach gurgled, and she blushed sheepishly. "Say, what's on today's menu?"

"Whole lot of things. We had to broaden the menu because of the extra passengers on board. At least the soldiers' barracks was roomy enough for everypony," the soldier said, grinning.

Twilight nodded and stepped out with Spike, closing the door behind her. "Say, where… exactly are we going?" she asked.

The soldier's smirk widened. "Well… to the Irongrey Aerie," he said. When Twilight's brow rose, he elaborated, "Mountain surrounded by forests. We've got a lot of big trees around the foot of the mountain, already hollowed out for new occupants, but not hollowed enough to start dying. It's also the First Unified Army's base of operations."

Twilight found herself smiling. "Lance has his own mountain?" she asked, a mite incredulously.

The soldier nodded. "Big enough to act as both a perch for the gryphons and a hive for us changelings," he chirped, wings buzzing a bit. "Almost can't wait to go home and see my wife and grubs again. Pretty sure they missed me."

Twilight giggled. "Anyway, I'm going to eat. Catch you later," she said. She trotted to the elevator, with Spike shadowing her steps as the soldier went to knock on someone else's door. Twilight punched the button, went in with her charge, and down to the lounge they went.

"Uh, you can probably teleport us to the kitchens," Spike pointed out as the elevator let them go a moment later.

Twilight shook her head. "I did an awful lot of casting last night. I don't want to push myself today," she said.

"Uh-huh," Spike said bluntly, slowly nodding his head in a manner that suggested he'd found a bridge with a price tag on it. "And what did you go up against, zombie trees?"

"And a timberdrake," Twilight said firmly. "That thing just would not go down."

"And I took down a mutated snail with too many tentacles and eyeballs to count," Spike said dismissively, holding out a hand in front of him and studying his claws as though they needed trimming. "Twilight, I think you'd need a sparring match with the Fantasians, copy their own spells and whatnot."

Twilight considered the idea and beamed as they went to the next elevator and punched the button. Into, and up the shaft they went. "That's actually a pretty good idea, though not so soon after what went down in Greenwood," she said.

"True, true. I saw the Harmony Blast from the window," Spike said, as the elevator opened to let them into the hall leading toward the kitchen and dining area. He wagered the elevator and its siblings would see a lot of use in the coming hours. They passed the double doors and plopped down on a table, finding food laden everywhere and then some. Meats, vegetables, breads—everything was there from soups to roasts, then quadrupled to account for the new passengers.

A soldier from across the dining area called out, "Knock yourselves out! Plenty for everybody and their mother!"

"Thank you!" Twilight called back, putting some steamed vegetables and bread onto a plate before digging in. Spike took a few meats, vegetables and bread for his meal and likewise began chowing down. The food began helping them truly wake up for the day, and lessened Twilight's hornache somewhat as she went to town.

The double doors opened, and in strode Rhinoc and his superiors, plus Maria and Sarah. Just about everyone looked like they got a restful night, though Matt had recast his illusions—which didn't fool Twilight any, as she already knew what he truly was and so could see through it. And, huh, Anna didn't have those strange markings all over her body… and Sarah didn't boast the same, either... eh, whatever, she could focus on that later.

The group went to sit in the highest booth, levitating and flying up there to start chowing down themselves. Maria was carried up there with them, and started to eat with the others. Rhinoc teleported away, and returned with the rest of Twilight's friends. He repeated this with more and more folks until, quite simply, all of those lodged in the guest rooms and from Greenwood were present and accounted for.

The villagers sat at a table all their own, and proceeded to start eating. Most ate slowly, digesting the turn of events along with their food as they considered everything that had happened in the previous twenty-four hours. At least half the foals ate quickly, as did the pregnant mares; nutrition mattered, after all, though the more peckish among them were more cautious with their meals. The others, whom Twilight assumed were still grieving, barely picked at their food until a few other villagers nudged them to eat.

For a while, breakfast… or brunch, as Twilight was still unsure as to what time of day it was, went in relative peace. In fact, it was as uneventful as the morning. Nothing but silence, chewing and swallowing and the occasional "finish your plate." When everyone's stomachs were full, and all were more or less happy and content that they were, the megaphone slinked out of its hole-in-the-wall on its arm and hovered in front of Lance.

"Alright, we should be at our destination later tonight," he announced. Lance saw a villager raise his hoof and added, "It's practically on the other side of Fantasia, and we're going slow to not jostle anybody. Besides, a lot of us need some time to get used to things—a good day as any to acclimate." Some of the villagers muttered, but most of them nodded. "That, and foals and pregnant mares on board; don't want to risk harming them at all." Most, again, nodded in understanding.

Twilight sagged in relief. At least these ponies would see reason after all. She idly wondered about the few who hadn't nodded, but brushed them off—those ponies probably needed more time to adjust. Again, understandable—she'd probably need the time herself if her own world went as whacky and upside-down as theirs did. Though, part of her wondered why Lance was specifically bringing them to Irongrey Aerie. She hoped he'd keep his promises.

Another part of her wondered what Irongrey Aerie would look like. Would it be as big as the mountain on which Canterlot stood? Bigger? And what would be in it—libraries, workshops and such? She found herself a bit giddy with excitement at the prospect overall.

"Twilight? Twilight? Mythos to Twilight, are you there?" Spike muttered, shaking Twilight's foreleg.

Twilight snapped out of her stupor and looked at her charge. "Yes, Spike?"

"I think Shining wants to talk to you," Spike said, pointing across the table. Twilight followed his finger and found Shining at another table, waving her over with a hoof. His eyes were glinting in confusion, and his motions were a mite frantic for somepony who merely wanted to chat. She got up and trotted to him, going around the table to see what he wanted. She sat down next to him, noticing he too had polished his plate.

Shining leaned over to whisper in Twilight's ear. "You think Lance might put the villagers to work where we're going?" he asked.

"Not sure, Shining. It's likely, considering he's making Anna lead them now…" Twilight whispered back.

"She's not doing much leading, though…" Shining muttered. "Especially since she burned Greenwood with me watching her…"

"In that case, she might still need to… wait, she did what?" Twilight's brow furrowed at that news.

"Exactly. Though she waited until most everypony was out before doing it," Shining answered in a low voice, sighing.

Twilight wilted a little at that tidbit. She idly wondered what the town had done to upset Anna that badly enough for her to torch it. Then again, she couldn't prod her now—in fact, that made it more likely that Lance was going to grill her on a spit anyway. And Lance was really going out of his way to make sure the villagers were alright at the end of the day… granted, most anyone probably would, but this was a bit much.

This would need some looking into. Twilight decided she was going to wait until the landing and impending nickel tour before digging any deeper than she already had.

She turned to Greenwood's ponies again as clamor erupted from their table. Only now had Twilight noticed the elder that Shining managed to fetch, smiling broadly and eyes beaming for the first time since he'd been plunked aboard the vessel. With him was Heather, her little one, and tiny Timber Spruce who… shed his burns and wounds, yet still seemed to have plant matter attached to his body. Sanded, smooth, shiny plant matter that wasn't bloodied, but plant matter nonetheless. At least his mane and tail weren't twigs and leaves anymore, but actual hair that the elder ruffled with his magic.

"Hey, weren't you exiled with those outsiders?" a villager asked, eyeballing the elder in growing alarm.

The elder nodded. "Yes, but thanks to that strange varicolored light… I feel spry as a foal!" he exclaimed, hopping up and down in place as much as his tired old bones would let him.

A mare ran up to the small group and plunked next to Heather, who herself had been parked into a seat with untouched food. "Where were you?!" she exclaimed.

"Bad ponies tried taking me to bad place! Left bad place, auntie!" Heather shot back, wilting a little. She pointed to her foal, who squealed as the mare turned to the elder to find him being held by magic. "Had wingie baby, auntie! Didn't want bad ponies hurting wingie baby!"

The rest of the herd instantly turned to the baby, who once again squealed and began squirming in the magical hold of the surviving elder. The mare peered at the foal and sighed before turning back to Heather and hugging her tightly. "Tell me… why did you have the baby?" she asked.

Heather returned the hug, wilting further. "Bad ponies put me in bad dress…" she mumbled.

The elder leaned over to the mare's ear and whispered something in it. Her tail hiked in alarm and she turned to him bug-eyed. "They what?!" she exclaimed, receiving a slow nod in confirmation.

"I saw the remnants of the dress. She tore her way out of it the night she gave birth," he affirmed, slowly to make sure the mare didn't misconstrue him. "There was enough blood I thought she'd died…"

Now it was the mare's turn to wilt. She turned back to Heather once more and nuzzled her. "I'll help you raise the child, then… although… it is the first time I've seen one with wings in my life…"

"Wingie baby going be okay?" Heather asked, receiving a nod mid-nuzzle.

"He'll be alright," the mare affirmed. "He'll be alright…"

Another villager noticed Timber Spruce and pointed, drawing half the crowd's attention onto him. "Alright, who the hell cursed a baby?" he asked. Timber Spruce shrank at the question, squeaking as he rustled his plant-wings.

The elder also turned to the foal and shrugged. "That… I know not. He was only found like this," he said dejectedly. "Though… I think the rainbow did something to him; the last time I saw him, he was half-burnt."

The villager who'd asked shrank. "You mean he was out there, in the fire that ate Ashwood?" he queried. Another nod answered him.

"I think the curse… unfortunate as it was… helped save him that night," the elder said. Timber Spruce shrieked once, wings flapping madly as another villager picked him up with his hooves.

The villager in question gave the half-tree baby a once-over. The villager winced when he made eye contact. "Oof… blinded… that's gotta hurt," he grumbled. Timber Spruce responded by hitting the villager's pasterns with his barky hooves, squealing and flailing in protest.

"Hold him to your chest, and he'll stop fussing," Lance advised from the megaphone. The villager heeded the advice and did just that, and instantly, the child hushed, pawing about with his legs to feel for fur and skin. Confused burbling made its way from the tiny mouth as Timber continued feeling his way about.

Twilight nodded to herself as the villagers continued to fuss over the foals. She knew what she was going to do during the waiting game.

Author's Note

Sorry for tagging the previous chapter as the arc's end; I realized I still needed to do the denouement before the arc could officially end.

Start of Arc VI: Chapter LXXXXIII- Coming to Roost

As the sun set, and the mastership began to slow ever so slightly, Twilight and Shining chatted in one of the guest rooms, Spike hovering to the side with NoLegs next to him. The conversation went to a lot of things, from the developments of the former Greenwood to what little Luna had been able to relay on her end.

"Nightmares…" Shining said after taking a deep breath, letting the word hang in the air. "That's what we might be dealing with here."

"Discounting the undead, the trees, the timberdrakes, the golems, the slimes, the mutated snails, the nutjobs…" Spike rattled off with fingers spread on one hand and the other gauging the numbers as he went down his list, garnering an incredulous look from Shining before those white-furred shoulders slumped. Spike looked at Shining evenly, with a flat expression on his scaly face as he kept both hands raised. "What?" he asked challengingly, raising his brow ever so slightly as if daring Shining to counter him.

Twilight glanced between brother and assistant, holding her tongue for a moment. Everything she'd seen thus far on Fantasia slapped her upside the head full force, but she expressed little more than a wince at its passing. Some part of her was horrified that she was starting to get used to the Fantasian brand of crazy, and so screamed to none of the other facets of her in particular. "I'm going to side with Spike on that one," she deadpanned, causing her brother to sigh in exasperation with the utterance.

"Oh, and we can't forget Our Lady of the Partially Amputated Wings," Spike added, causing Twilight to shake her head and roll her eyes at the utterance. As much of a smart alec as he was being, she had to concede that one to him too.

That made Shining's brow furrow, and a hoof rose to his chin to hold it contemplatively. "Of all the things she could've hidden, why her alicorn nature?" he pondered, even as Sarah's tale about the Fantasian alicorns started doing laps in his head.

Twilight shrugged earnestly. "Maybe alicorns are just bad luck on this kooky planet," she suggested, albeit half-heartedly. "And since her wings were shortened, she might've wanted to avoid the deluge of questions that probably would've come after her if she walked in showing them off."

Shining nodded, seeing the logic behind that. The fiasco surrounding the Fantasians when they first walked in on Parliament was bad enough, nevermind Luna's feather-fondling; hell, that was probably circulating like the ashes of a wildfire back home now. "None of our alicorns are like that physically, so…"

"And then they'd have asked if she were born or ascended," Twilight added, frowning thoughtfully as her eyes gravitated to the ceiling. "Though her story might be as insane as some of those fiction books I've read in my spare time."

Shining grinned as a few foalhood memories came to the forefront of his thoughts. "Those awful red-and-black ones we used to laugh at, who discovered the Seventh Element of Harmony that nopony else can wield?" he proposed.

Twilight nodded with a smile of her own. "Those ones, minus the Seventh Element," she said. "I don't think Fantasia even has its own Elements."

"But that jewel in Greenwood… why would Lance take it?" Shining pondered, his raised hoof rubbing his left cheek as he mused about this.

"Matt said something about bad things happening if two others and the one in Whitefall were brought together…" Spike chimed in, hands on his hips as he reprocessed the information. "Maybe the Greenwood jewel's one of those two others?"

Shining's hoof dropped, and so did his smile. "Then Lance might be wise to hold onto that jewel then," he said, considering what he'd been told. "Do you know what sort of bad things would happen if the trio of jewels were ever together?"

Spike's head shook as Shining looked at him, hands still on hips. "Zero, zip, nada," he replied. Beside him, NoLegs meowed.

"So, another thing to press Lance about, greaaaaaaat," Shining mumbled, turning back to Twilight as she sat on her haunches. "What next, are we going to find where the rest of the Fantasian pegasi went?"

Twilight opened her mouth to retort to that zany proposition when the door opened and one Prince Blueblood trotted in. She turned to him and asked, "So, who upset you this time?"

Blueblood shook his head. "Strangely enough, nobody," he said bluntly. "But I couldn't help but overhear something about amputated wings… and as I was chatting with Lieutenant-General Windwood about our destination, I noticed some very strange markings stretching from her withers to stomach on both sides of her body." His face hardened. "And if you asked for my input… those look dubiously like scars where wings once were."

Shining and Twilight shared glances, then turned back to their unexpected guest. "How can you tell?" Shining asked, raising a brow ever so slightly.

Blueblood waved a hoof. "Barring the other such markings on her body, as well as… the plant matter, I once had a servant in my youth who confided in me one day that he lost both his wings in a weather factory-related accident." He shivered and composed himself. "He took off his suit to show me silver-white markings very similar in nature to what I have seen. Said it was all that was left of his wings—nothing more than a distant memory, at his advanced age."

Shining's brow furrowed. "So you're saying… we may have another alicorn aboard this ship," he said.

Blueblood nodded firmly, muzzle scrunching slightly in what Twilight assumed was distaste. "A wingless one, but yes," he replied. Then his lips pursed as he considered the ramifications of what had just left his mouth. "... or would that no longer make her such, since... "

"Well… she had tree-wings, so…" Then gears span in Twilight's head as she recalled said tree-wings being ripped off. "Hrm… can she summon them again?"

"Given the Harmony Blast was called, I'd say 'not likely,'" Spike piped up.

"Regardless," Blueblood continued, seeming to have missed Twilight's musings and Spike's aside, "it still calls so much into question." He turned to Shining. "Tell me, what did you hear about alicorns from our escorts?"

"Best I can say is… 'tribe-wide vanishing act,'" Shining answered, slumping a little further. "And the few who made it out weren't exactly unharmed… but no specifics besides that crystal alicorn."

Blueblood began to scowl a little at that. "And yet," he began, voice softening, "we have evidence of alicorns. Aboard this very vessel. One without wings, and..."

"Partial wing-amputation without regeneration," Twilight proffered. She lit her horn and conjured an image of Natalie, wings spread as far as they could go. "Rainbow tried grilling her on a spit, and couldn't get much." Her horn dimmed and the image vanished. "But she confirmed herself it's basically a pair of battle scars."

"And Rarity told me Sarah had a false horn of wood…" Spike stretched his arms and put his hands behind his head to lean on them a little. "Which… now that I think about it… would be insanely stupid to slap onto a hippogryph, even for whoever decided to conjure up the Greenwood Blight."

Twilight turned to Spike, brows raised. "Greenwood Blight?"

Spike nodded. "Can't hardly call it much else, given what it did to ponies," he retorted. "But like I said: horns on a hippogryph. Who would, in their right or wrong mind, decide to do that? It's like making more princesses and princes; sooner or later there's going to be a fight over it."

That made Blueblood sigh, slump, and snort all at once. Amazingly, this did not make him facehoof. "That's as likely as a Fantasian draconequus giving General Boltwing a second and third pair of wings…" he muttered.

"Then again, Anna's a chimera," Twilight replied bluntly. "Tree, ivy, and kudzu if we really wanted to count those as part of her… and not to mention her already-mixed heritage on top of that."

"I'm starting to see why she's a teen soldier…" Shining grumbled. "She fits right into the ranks."

That made Blueblood facehoof. "It seems the General has a penchant for the oddballs and misfits…" he muttered, tone somewhere between lamenting and grudging understanding. "How he's able to manage his troops is beyond me…" He perked up when he felt tapping at his hind pastern, and craned his neck to find Heather's little one reared up and looking at him with tiny wings fluttering. Glancing further back, he realized he'd left the door open, and one of the village mares was standing in the frame with the absurdly young mother at her side, hooked to a fresh IV drip attached to a wheeled stand.

"Are you the one who got my niece and great nephew away from a cursed tree?" the mare asked.

Blueblood nodded, and hefted the little one in his magic up to his back. "That I am," he said. "Though, I wasn't the only one fighting the cursed trees that night." The baby squealed, wings beating as Blueblood slowly turned to the pair.

The village mare nodded, smiling softly. The look fell as fast as it had come, however, and her body wilted. "I had no idea my niece was alive when she and her parents vanished…" she muttered, turning to Heather. "It was supposed to have been a forray for food…"

Heather sagged under the look. "No food on trip, auntie… Ashwood made us hungry…" she muttered. "Tried going back… bad ponies used trees…"

Shining got a vague idea of what must have gone down next. "Are the bad ponies alive?" he asked.

Heather nodded glumly, ears turned back against her head. "Went to bad town called Redpine… made me go to Redpine... ran away, found big bad tree with lots of flowers after lots of running…" she muttered. "No find Greenwood…" Her body trembled. "Found lots cutie marks… and pony pieces…"

Twilight's tail twitched, her mind swimming in images of what she'd stumbled upon the night before. "Well… the big bad tree's been burned down," she said. And that was… technically true, if being burned down meant turned into a crater at the end of the day. "As well as the bad pony who lived in it."

Heather perked up, eyes glistening in wonder. "Big tall tree-pony, big wingies?"

That made Twilight's blood run cold. She was starting to grow concerned at the horrors everyday Fantasian foals were being exposed to, and apparently Maria was just the tip of that iceberg. But she nodded nonetheless. "He's gone. He can't cut ponies into pieces anymore," she replied.

The baby squealed again, and Blueblood set him down on the floor gently. The little one toddled back to the village mare, burbling as he tripped and got back up part way through the journey. The mare nodded and picked up the baby with her hooves, and escorted Heather away without another word as she pushed the IV stand along. The door gently shut behind them with magical aid, and for a few seconds silence held its grip before Blueblood turned back to Twilight. "So… what is it about this particular tree pony she asked about?"

Twilight wilted. "Tree. Alicorn. Madder than what I've seen on Fantasia," she said bluntly. NoLegs waved his tail, but stopped short of casting magic when Twilight waved a hoof at him. "Not until I'm sure Blueblood here can actually stomach it," she hissed.

Blueblood began turning a bit green around his gills again, and he faltered with a wince and shuffling hooves. "If it's worse than the wedding I've stumbled upon, let it be left unseen," he muttered, ears turning back at the sordid memory doing replays in his mind.

Twilight nodded in understanding. "Want the nutshell?" she asked. At Blueblood's shaky nod, she obliged him, "Serial killer's memorabilia, on top of being threatened to become additions to said serial killer's house." She crossed her forelegs over her chest as she added, "Let's just say he was beaten to within several inches of his life, and even then the Greenwood Blight kept him going somehow."

Blueblood took a few moments to get his protesting innards back under control, which tried to break free through his mouth only to be swallowed back down with several angry gargles on the return trip before he even tried to process what Twilight had relayed to him. His mind rewound a bit before catching something that managed to fly over his head the first time, "Wait, did you say alicorn?"

Twilight nodded. "Big as Celestia, maybe bigger, but less grace and more rage and secrecy," she confirmed. "Dubbed himself 'First Branch of Greenwood,' which would make him quite old if that's what I think it means."

Blueblood nodded as his stomach tried to cartwheel again, only to be held in check through sheer willpower seizing the helm. "And what else did you find?" he asked, hoping that could change the subject.

Twilight's forehooves dropped. "Well... that's where I ran into a problem: turns out, if I can even bring myself to believe him, our little ice wraithling's been sealed at some point after turning," she said. "Where, how, by who, when and why? Got nothing else on that front." A frown creased her brow. "And worse, Lance will probably wrangle that information out of her first. I'm not sure how much he's going to leave out whenever he tells us, but chances are good he'll play something close to his vest like a lot of his soldiers do."

Blueblood considered this, and nodded sourly as his stomach staged another valiant attempt at exiting his body, only to be routed by the rest of him and put in its place. "And?" he pressed, sensing there was something else plaguing Twilight's mind.

"Well… and here's where it gets sketchy… she's managed to land herself a title," Twilight muttered, looking Blueblood dead in the eye as she said that. "You're familiar with the term Cocytus, right?"

Blueblood nodded. "Yes," he said. "A betrayal so cold, there is no hope of redemption. It's also the name of a forsaken spell of ages past, lost to time itself."

"Well… Katie's recent mission, before the Void cropped up, left a bizarre letter addressed to her and the twins… it called her the Envoy of Cocytus. And the tree-alicorn also used that moniker," Twilight began, rocking on her hooves unsurely as she reprocessed this information. "And she doesn't like other wraiths, and they don't seem to fancy her too much either…"

"Maybe she could be a traitor to wraithkind?" Shining proposed, frowning as he let that soak in. "Given her title… maybe she found the lost spell?"

"If she did, she can't cast it unless she stabs that broken horn into something; I doubt she even knows how to use the lost spell correctly," Twilight pointed out, shaking her head at the absurd notion. "Considering that same letter also mentioned Greenwood falling… which it kinda did…" Twilight took a moment to let her mental gears spin.

"Maybe the writer of that letter found out something bad?" Spike proposed.

Twilight considered that, nodded, and turned to Spike. "Bad enough I'm starting to think he went into hiding over it," she said.

"Oh yeah, that one," NoLegs telepathically piped up with a wave of his tail, his mental voice carrying across the room. "Looking back on it, yeah, that screamed 'shady shit's going on here,' didn't it?"

The door flew open again, and this time Rarity trotted into the room, magically carrying a cleaned, patched up Mr. Muffin at her side. "Oh, Twilight, so sorry to bother you at this hour, but I need to find Sarah," Rarity said.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, turning to her friend. "You patched up her toy?"

Rarity nodded. "Yes; he has never looked better!" she exclaimed, setting the plush down onto the floor. "But… I ran into something odd after repairing him." With a nudge of her hoof, the teddy bear sprang up to his feet and stood, looking around with an expressionless face. Though, Twilight got the sinking feeling that if he could, he'd have let his eyes widen. "The crystals in his body—which I've been told to keep in his stuffing—activated, and…"

Mr. Muffin ran up to NoLegs and looked him up and down slowly, crossing his repaired and fuzzy arms over his ribboned chest with a tilt of the head. A nod left the bear, and he promptly ran over to do likewise to Twilight, though he had to look up to make eye contact first. Then he scaled up her foreleg with incredible agility, sat on her withers, and pulled at her mane before dropping down and returning to Rarity again in the span of thirty seconds.

Twilight looked at the plush with widening eyes. "He's enchanted?!" she yelped.

Rarity nodded fervently, eyes shifting from wall to wall momentarily before settling back on her friend. "And, well… I wanted to consult you just in case the enchantments are malicious in nature. I don't fancy teddies stabbing my clientele," she said.

Twilight sighed and waved Mr. Muffin over with a hoof. She picked him up magically when he came back, tilted him around, and scanned him as much as she could. A faint resonance echoed from within the stuffing, pulsing with power that made him animate, yet whose it was she could not place. Some minutes passed before she returned him to the floor. "Nothing seems off about him, Rarity. He probably was just waiting to be fixed before springing to life again."

Rarity smiled at the news. "Considering the terrible shape he's been in before, I don't say I can blame him for that. Very well, I'll return him to Sarah," she said with another nod. Mr. Muffin ran back over with a spring in his step. "Have you seen her?"

"Besides at the mess hall, not really," Twilight answered with a shrug. "She's probably stewing somewhere." Rarity giggled and left the room with the plush, shutting the door on her way out. Considering Mr. Muffin's enchantments, she began to wonder if, perhaps, he truly did help Sarah get out of Greenwood when things took a turn for the south.

"Well… if teddy bears are enchanted…" Shining began, mulling it over, "then what are they enchanted for?"

"In Mr. Muffin's case, I really can't say," Twilight replied, pursing her lips even as they tried to go lopsided upon her face. "I don't know a whole lot about him."

NoLegs nodded and telepathically muttered, "I'll keep an eye on him in case anything goes wrong."

Shining turned to the cat, his expression neutral. "Good idea. At any rate—" He trailed off as the door flew open again, and Rarity trotted inside with wide eyes. He turned to her, expression unchanging as he asked, "What now?"

"Um… not to be prudent, but… Mr. Muffin is brandishing a knife," Rarity muttered, ears turned back.

One could have heard several pins hitting the carpet in that moment. Spike was the first to speak, "Um… Rarity… that sounds silly, even taking into—" Then he heard the sound of steel clashing in the hallway, and with a bemused brow raised, strode past her to see what the fuss was about. What he found was less than stellar, though amusing for all the wrong reasons: Mr. Muffin, with a kitchen knife, fighting Lazarus a few doors down with his spear clutched in his hocks. Each strike from the spear was parried by the tiny blade, though that also had the effect of forcing Mr. Muffin to back up a step or two.

Behind Lazarus stood a changeling soldier accompanying a sitting Sarah, who had slumped and buried her face in her claws. "For the last time, Mr. Muffin, he's not gonna hurt me!" she grumbled into her talons, her muffled voice drowned out by another parried strike as Lazarus took a moment to study the animate plush with confusion swimming in his eyes.

"You didn't say shit about the plush being deadly!" Lazarus barked, turning to Sarah with a paling expression and sweat beading his brow as said plush lunged up and jumped with the knife's blade poised for his jewels. He turned back just in time to deflect the attack and knock Mr. Muffin back a few steps, lowering his spear enough to guard his vulnerables.

"... I stand corrected," Spike muttered, observing the scene with interest aroused. "Where'd he get the knife?"

The soldier waved a hoof. "Took it from my holster," he reported, tilting his head. Lazarus blocked another blow that would have at least scraped his hinds, almost knocking the knife from Mr. Muffin before the enchanted plush regained his balance and brandished the blade once more. Passing the knife from one arm to the next, Mr. Muffin seemed to be taunting the hapless crystal unicorn he was trying to cut up.

Spike's brow climbed higher. "How and why did you let the teddy grab it?" he asked incredulously.

The soldier sighed. "Fast little fucker. Couldn't grab him in time," he muttered with a hint of exasperation in his voice.

Spike nodded slowly, turning back to the scuffle as Mr. Muffin lunged, and was parried again. "Sure you couldn't," he hissed in disapproval. "Wait 'till Lance hears this."

"One word about the teddy with the kitchen knife," Lazarus barked, sweating harder as he knocked the killer plushie back with the butt of his spear, "and I'm never going to hear the end of it!"

Mr. Muffin waved the knife threateningly at Lazarus, canting his head in a way that screamed, 'Come at me!' Lazarus did not heed the invitation, instead just pursing his lips together as he tried to think of something to distract the plush. Then, as if realizing said plush was sentient for the first time, Lazarus pointed to the elevator with his spear with an exclamation of, "Holy shit, what's that! Is that Godcat?!"

To Spike's and Lazarus' surprise, Mr. Muffin actually fell for it; he turned his whole body with the knife poised in that direction in a heartbeat. Then the soldier intervened while he had the chance, lighting his horn and magically lifting the plush into the air as he simultaneously wrenched his knife away from the tiny and fuzzy arms that pilfered it. He was careful to avoid cutting Mr. Muffin, and returned the blade to its holster before making both weapon and container vanish in a flash of light before the teddy could realize the jig was up.

Setting Mr. Muffin down again, the soldier watched as Lazarus made his spear disappear and reverted to all fours. The two stared off before Mr. Muffin charged with arms windmilling, crashing against Lazarus' foreleg and clubbing it like his life depended on it. Lazarus chuckled at the rather adorable sight, even as he made a mental note to make sure there weren't any other knives or sharp objects in his bedroom before tucking in for the night.

Sarah stormed over and plucked the bear plush from his spot, and held him to her chest even as he still insisted on windmilling his arms. She puffed her feathers, which got the windmilling to cease. "That does it, I'm putting you in time-out!" Sarah declared, and Mr. Muffin wilted in her grasp as she said that. Well, Spike had to admit, the plush had some decency in his stuffing after all.

Sarah then turned around and marched into a room on her hinds, keeping the plush in one tarsus as she used the other claw to open the door. She went in and shut the door behind her, though not before Spike caught a glimpse of a scowl smearing her face. Lazarus turned to the soldier and asked, "What, she think time-out's gonna help?"

The soldier shrugged. "She might've gotten time-out when she was a filly," he pointed out. "Maybe it worked with her?"

Lazarus laughed, smirking humorously as he lifted a hoof to wipe the sweat from his brow. "Yeah, she's the last gryph I'd expect to become a parent for any reason," he retorted.

The soldier shook his head. "You never know." Then the soldier smirked. "Say, what do you do in your spare time?"

Spike pulled his head back into the room, looking at Rarity. "So the teddy can kill things, lovely. At least… things that don't see him as a threat," he muttered, frowning rather thoughtfully.

Twilight threw her forehooves up into the air dramatically. "Spike, that's like zombies wielding swords!" she exclaimed.

Spike arched an eyebrow. "And what stops wraiths from using weapons, then?" he retorted. "I wouldn't be surprised if Fantasia had brainless zombies alongside its intelligent undead. I'm pretty sure wraiths can form their own society if they wanted."

Twilight dropped her forehooves, mentally bucking herself for forgetting that wraiths existed, and… she glanced at Shining, scrutinizing his still-passive, flat expression. "Did you get anything from Luna about anymore possible Equestrian wraiths?" she asked.

Shining shook his head. "Parliament's been keeping her hooves tied. She hasn't been able to look into the issue as much as she would have liked," he said. "But she did find some more through her excursions in the dream world, and had the guards look into it. They should report back to her…" He lifted a hoof and tilted it as though he fumbled with a knob. "Soonish," he concluded.

Twilight nodded, turning to Blueblood. "And you?"

Blueblood nodded. "Same as him, though with the added addendum that a small group of those wraiths… are getting banished," he said. "Who, or where, or why, she did not say."

Twilight nodded, turning to Rarity. Rarity shook her head slowly, as though still absorbing everything she had seen and heard since last night. "Nothing particularly unusual," she reported. "Though… she was curious as to how Lance manages an army and how his base operates."

Twilight mulled it over, and sighed. "I'll admit, I am curious myself. And while we'll probably find out soon enough… I'm still wondering if there's going to be things he'll neglect to tell us about," she said.

"Let's see…" Blueblood began, frowning, "One crystal alicorn, wings intact to a given degree, a half-Umbrum, his own mutilated wings, and one suspected alicorn, wings gone." He leveled a flat look at Twilight. "I'd wager his secrets go particularly deep into the rabbit hole. Tied to Fantasia's deplorable state? Not likely. But he might be responsible for a meager fraction of it in the grand scheme of things."

"As far as I know, Lance went and initiated a war before he got his haunches handed to him," Shining said, still wearing his passive look. "What boggles my mind is why he was allowed to retain his rank and title."

An absurd thought hit Spike in that moment, and he proceeded to pop off with, "Maybe the Fantasians can embrace friendship, and did?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "I doubt Greenwood's gotten that memo," she said. She swished her tail a little, then stopped when she made to trot around everypony. "I'm going to the deck to see the Fantasian sky. I'll come back later."

Shining nodded. "Alright, keep your hooves behind the railing," he said.

Twilight smiled. "Don't worry, I will," she said. With that, she was out the door and trotting to the elevator. She glanced behind her; huh, Lazarus and the soldier were still chatting between themselves. She ignored them and went to press the button to jump in. She wanted to teleport, but dashed the idea again—more to avoid startling anyone else who might have been on the deck than overcasting herself during combat, really.

Into the hall downstairs she was deposited, and she trotted for a bit before making the turn that would take her to the second elevator leading to the engine rooms. Pushing the second button and climbing aboard to go down, she began to ponder. What had sparked the war that Shining mentioned? Who or what beat Lance and his forces into submission, yet let him keep his title?

The door opened as Twilight got lost in her reverie, letting her stride into the engine room. Some of the crystals flickered with her passing, and others flared brilliantly as if sensing her presence. Twilight scanned the magitek carefully, being mindful to step over the strewn and bulky wires that pulsed intermittently with a power that raced to and fro between the entire magitek menagerie. The room was dim, but not dark thanks to the light of the crystals, though she noted that some still exuded a darkness that blotted out the ceiling of the engine room.

The hall was long, though not tedious, and she reached the midway point before long. How long she didn't know, as time seemed a bit skewed in this room. She passed the charging panels, though not before giving them a once-over. The red crystals had brightened considerably on the leftmost one, and the whole she-bang had the dust knocked off of it. A few white feathers were scattered around the blue one, though all in all the panel looked alright.

Twilight continued on, a part of her mind wondering what went into actually charging said magitek. The panels certainly looked funny, now that she thought of it. But that was a question she could have answered later, after this whole kerfuffle had been sorted out and shelved in the annals of Fantasian ongoings.

But oh well, every day had its share of weirdness. Twilight would mark the animate plush and the engine room on the lesser end of that scale. Compared to the whole of last week, today was practically tranquil and serene. Twilight soon stumbled upon the ladder and sighed, internally wondering why this airship would need such a thing. She kept her complaints to herself as she scaled it all the same, and it went up and up…

The hatch above it opened, and she poked her head out to feel the wind making her mane fly. She hopped out, and looked around before spotting a lone figure at the starboard with his wings spread wide. Twilight would recognize that hat and coat anywhere, and trotted up to the owner with her mouth opening to ask something when her voice died in her throat.

Ahead, in the light of a full moon, stood an imposing mountain shrouded by a gentle fog, though at the distance it lay its true height and width still eluded her. Its whole foot was surrounded by thick woodland, though a large ring of said woodland had been cut out and converted into roads that tanks smaller, and less tacky than the Valkyrie Tank could and did traverse. Grand towers rose out of the rockface up the whole side that Twilight could see in the silvern glow, and likely some more on the other side.

At this behemoth's middle stood a thick ring of steel that held up a massive platform, built into the mountain and fused to the circling road below by thick beams, upon which a few airships of the fleet were already resting with plenty of room to spare. Above the platform, holes opening and closing in the rock face at random stood strange and twisted constructs that changelings used to enter and exit at their leisure. Some of these constructs were bioluminescent, looking as alive as the occupants it served. Others were metallic things, less contorted and more uniform, though they were still decked out with lights nonetheless.

Above all of that, on the peak of the mountain, stood a great city carved into the stone, jutting upwards into the heavens like a myriad of sharpened weapons, some of its buildings adorned with flags bearing four cutie marks she was very familiar with by now. Twilight could distantly see the forms of hovering gryphons entering and exiting as well, interspersed with some changelings here and there. Very few, if any, occupants dared to stay on the ground.

From what she could see, the city looked more magitek than any construct she could see being within the realms of the reasonable, more steel and copper gray than natural slate, pulsing with crystals large and small in a radiance that was all its own. Copious amounts of steam billowed out from some of the towers, clouding much of their chutes yet dissipating harmlessly into the air. While it certainly was no Crystal Empire by any generous stretch of one's imagination, it could at least hold up a candle to Canterlot, if Canterlot were built of metals instead of marble and poured out vapor from every other orifice.

Lance turned to Twilight, smiling faintly. "So you're the first to get in the sneak peek," he said warmly. He lifted a hoof and waved it forward. "Welcome to Irongrey Aerie."

Before Twilight could speak, a loud drone sounded from the Aerie. "Attention everyling and everygryph!" A burst of static filled the air as the mastership began its descent. Those that Twilight saw were flying had stopped in place, hovering as they turned to the mountain. "The General and his right hooves have returned! Get into positions, those of you on duty!"

Lance's smirk grew. "And there's our welcoming committee." He turned his head forward again. "I'll let them know to give you and yours the pass before we disembark, if Armin hadn't put in word in advance already."

Chapter LXXXXIV- Unexpected Guests

Landing on the platform was a smooth affair, and so was the act of disembarking from the mastership. Twilight understood the pecking order; Lance and his right hooves first complete with uniforms, then the entourage of soldiers, and then her group followed by Greenwood's ex-villagers. Heather got special treatment, being put on a gurney and walked alongside the soldiers by her aunt with the little one in a chitil baby carrier and Timber Spruce on the gurney as well. Next to them, on a second gurney, lay Cassida. With the bunch was Alexander and the changeling nurses, who were on the opposite side of said aunt to explain away the situation as the welcoming committee gave the group the gimlet eye.

Said welcoming committee consisted mostly of soldiers standing on either side in straight rows, ending at a massive set of double doors that opened into the mountain itself that was connected to the platform by a railed bridge. Some changelings were in white coats, and rushed to Alexander with concerned looks on their fanged faces as the gryphon medic regaled them with the tale of the young mother and the timberbaby. After a few nods and sighs, they went ahead with Cassida, the aunt and foals onto that bridge, then into those massive doors that parted to admit them.

The rest, however, hadn't budged from their positions. Some, though, eyed the rather larger-than-expected procession from the corners of their eyes; a few lips were twitching like they wanted to frown, but couldn't muster up the strength to do it. Perhaps they were awaiting orders, and Twilight guessed, some sort of explanation for this kerfuffle. The silence was palpable, thick enough to be cut with Ragnarok, and it held for several long moments. None dared to move a muscle, lest a stampede be initiated in the resulting chaos.

Finally, one soldier on the left side of the massive double doors shouted out an absurd question, "What is that, General? Did you get a harem like what you wanted the first time?"

Lance turned to that soldier in a heartbeat, shaking his head. "No. No I did not. And besides, why would I turn diplomats and villagers into breeding slaves?" he asked bluntly.

The soldier who'd asked began to sweat a little. "No… no particular reason, sir," he answered uneasily. "Just…"

Another soldier elbowed his yammering fellow, silencing him on the spot. "Dude, shut up. We do not speak of the failed harem plans in the presence of the General," he hissed, just audible enough for Twilight to hear after a great effort was spent straining her ears to catch it.

"You two," Lance began, shaking his head again. "You get cleaning duty… of not only our new residential quarters for the villagers, but the medicinal wing as well, all for your talk of…" Noticing that Twilight was staring at him, quite possibly in a new light, Lance huffed for a moment before finishing, "that which I was prevented from carrying out, which I'll probably have to explain to these fine diplomats now that you went and mentioned it."

Both soldiers winced and went rigid, nodding slowly to signal that they understood.

Lance nodded in return. "Excellent. You two may begin on said residential quarters… immediately. Seek help if you want, but you made your bed." With that, both soldiers trotted off into the double doors with inaudible grumbles bouncing back and forth between them. Turning to Twilight, he added, "So you might've heard I did one stupid thing…"

"Start a war?" Twilight guessed, causing half of her friends to turn to him with gasps leaving their mouths.

"Yes, that." Lance sighed and wilted, having the good graces to look chastised and mortally embarrassed about it. "Well… that had a dozen other stupid plans layered on top, had I succeeded. Didn't account for factors such as 'being stabbed in my sleep' and other basic things like that. I'll explain more… in detail… when we get to the audience chambers." He ruffled his wings. "Took quite the asskicking to have more than enough sense knocked into my head, and then another to make it stick."

Matt and Natalie turned to Twilight and her friends, nodding slowly. "And we also… threatened to geld him if he tried again. He hasn't made another attempt since," Natalie said, frowning rather apologetically.

That made Twilight level her brow so rigidly that Spike could have balanced Mr. Muffin on them. "Geld," she said, letting the word hang in the air.

"And then stitch his family jewels to his forehead so all of Fantasia would know what a dick he would've been otherwise," Matt added after a moment. He lifted his front hooves defensively, and even through his recast illusion Twilight could see the shadows on his body making a similar motion that suggested they were prehensile. "Look, he said something really, really fucking stupid after we hoofed out the beatings like they were candy, okay?"

"Subliety, Matt, subliety," Natalie muttered, shaking her head even as she elbowed him. Matt winced at the motion.

Anna rolled her eyes and turned to the Mythonians. "One time he said that stupid thing while I was in the room. Almost wedged three arrows up his ass." She smirked humorlessly. "Almost."

"Yeah, and you got in trouble for insubordination," Matt added as an aside, shaking his head pityingly as he said that.

Anna blew Matt a raspberry, lifted one of her sanded claws, and proceeded to send him a rude gesture. "But you talked him out of it that time," she countered.

"That time," Matt conceded with a bow and shake of his head.

Twilight started internally howling in laughter. That was how Lance was kept in check? It's not like it could work a second time, should that first time ever come to pass somehow, even with magic factoring into that if it were to be carried out. That internal laughter increased tenfold as she realized a teen chimera soldier was part of the 'Keeping Lance in Check' committee, and the sheer absurdity of it was something she just could not get over now that she had no chance to gloss over it.

That internal howling petered out when a colorful portal opened up between the rows of soldiers, the large and mishmashed herd and the doors. The soldiers jumped, and while more than half of them drew guns or summoned them, none of them layed hoof or claw on the triggers just yet. Lightning crackled, and Twilight noticed she could recognize that strange series of plaid-print bolts anywhere.

Lance spread and waved his wings, first arcing them upwards and bringing them down slowly, primaries parallel with the platform the whole time. The rows of soldiers shared glances, but gradually the guns lowered. Then, only then, did Discord poke his head out of the vortex with a grin. Paw and claw gripped the edges of the portal, and he established eye contact with Lance. "Aww, afraid I'm going to turn those weapons into swiss cheese?" Discord asked with his grin taking on a knowing cast.

"No, it's just that I don't know what you'd do to the bullets afterwards," Lance said matter-of-factly, face hardening ever so slightly into a glare. "What do you want now?"

Discord's smile widened. "Well…" His tail slinked out and flicked for a moment, before Twilight internally groaned as three particular fillies laden with saddlebags stumbled through the portal and looked around with wide eyes—three blank-flanked fillies that Twilight really did not want on Fantasia's surface right now. Alongside them came a white and fluffy cat that sat upon one of said fillies' backsides. "I'd rather you heard it from the horse's mouth." With his tail, he nudged the one with the bow in her mane.

Apple Bloom nodded and frowned. "Well, autumn break came," she said. "And Cheerilee was wondering where Applejack went."

Lance let his head drop upon hearing this. Twilight could've sworn she heard him grumble "Oh, joy," under his breath.

Sweetie Belle then piped up, "And Mom and Dad went on another one of their trips. I had to get Sparkler to watch Opal, but then Opal wanted to come with." That made Lance's wings curl and shudder in a manner reminiscent of a fist.

Finally, Scootaloo flapped her wings as she threw in her two bits, "And I didn't want to be left alone without my bestest friends, so I figured I could come too. My aunts were okay with it." She saw Lance seemingly simmering with rage and added, "It's only gonna be a week anyway."

Discord chuckled and nudged the trio forward. "I'll pick them up after the week's up. They might just have a chaotic time here," he said, grin somehow widening further, "and be able to make that boring essay Cheerilee gave them over the course of their little break a little more interesting. Ta-ta now." With that, he withdrew into the vortex and closed it behind him.

Matt's horn glowed, and he quickly recast his illusion on Katie before the Crusaders could even notice she was there. He turned to the Mythonians and gestured the trio over to them. After a moment, the Crusaders obliged and shuffled their way to their sisters and idol. He looked at Lance, who still stood there shaking with feathers puffing as though they'd been rustled. Then he turned to the rows of soldiers and addressed them when silence started to permeate, "The fillies are with the Mythonians. We'll… inform them of the rules around here."

Thankfully, that put the soldiers at ease; guns slung across backs, and legs once more became rigid. It did not stop them from sharing glances at this development; but what else could they do when a portal spontaneously opened, dropped off more ponies, then closed shut?

Natalie waved a hoof. She then stepped forward. "We'll split to take everyone to the different quarters they'll be sharing." She turned to Twilight. "Mythonians, and Maria with me. Matt, take Greenwood's ponies. The unaffiliated, the twin sister and recently-drafted, with Anna. Everyone else, with Lance." The Mythonians broke formation and converged to follow Natalie as she led them to the massive doors. Maria also went with, running up to trot at her side.

"Why not let me go with daddy?" Maria asked. Natalie sighed and shook her head.

"He needs some… time to cool off. You don't want to see him mad, trust me," Natalie answered with a frown forming on her face. Into the doors they went, revealing a cavernous hallway that branched off into several smaller halls, some with metal doors and others opening and closing in the rock structure as they pleased. Illuminant moss lined the walls, providing light in addition to pulsating crystals.

"Whoa!" Scootaloo piped up, turning to Maria. "So you live here? That's so cool!" She ran up to her, making Maria squeal and flinch simultaneously. "Say, I've always wondered what you use those talons—" Before she could finish the question, Twilight's horn glowed and she magically yanked the Crusader back to a more respectable distance. Scootaloo turned to Twilight, frowning. "What was that for?!"

"You give her a reason to, and she'll claw your eyes out," Natalie said bluntly. "I've seen her do it."

Scootaloo perked up a little. "Like… across them?" she asked.

Natalie shook her head. "No. Out. She blinded somepony," she clarified.

Blueblood leaned to Scootaloo and whispered in her ear, "That hippogryph foal can be meaner than most foals would dream of. I'd advise you to not provoke her."

Scootaloo scoffed and turned her head to meet Blueblood with a baleful, critical eye and one brow arching downward. "Really? What makes you say that?" she huffed. "She didn't seem that way last time I talked to her."

Maria turned to Scootaloo, frowning. "I did scratch a bad pony's face off. He tried doing bad things to me!" she hissed, feathers puffing up.

Blueblood jerked his head in Maria's direction. "See? She confessed to it," he said blithely. Scootaloo scowled, but turned ahead with nothing more than a tiny flap of her wings.

"She has the makings of a vicious one," Natalie added drolly, continuing to lead the group down the long, seemingly endless hall. Twilight noticed that, as the trip went on, the hall started to become less and less rock, and more and more magitek. Crystals pulsed upon many surfaces, some of them domed off with circular glass shields to act as overhead lights.

After an eternity—or what felt like one—had passed, they came across a T-intersection. This one had a sign in front of them, pointing to various rooms down either end in a runic tongue that Twilight was tempted to read with the aid of the translation book. The left hall was more of that stonework that had holes opening and closing as they wished, and to the right lay only more and more metal. Natalie turned right, and the herd followed her.

Sweetie Belle turned to Rarity, who wore a neutral expression. "You're mad, aren't you," she said.

Rarity nodded. "Mother and Father didn't take you with them?" she asked.

Sweetie shook her head. Opal meowed with a blunt nod of confirmation. "They said it was for adults only," she answered. "I'm still wondering what they meant when they told me I wasn't big enough."

Rarity frowned, albeit so slightly it seemed her lips hadn't moved at all. "And they left you with a nanny again, didn't they," she said.

Sweetie nodded, face falling and frown forming. "She's boring! She thinks I shouldn't play outside because it's too dangerous, and that I shouldn't have friends!" she pouted. "And Cheerilee's essay should be about her and not foreign cultures!" At this, Opal yowled and hissed, as if the nanny in question were present. "She even hit Opal with her hoof, saying that I shouldn't have cats because of some stupid fight between Godcat and Faust!"

Rarity's face darkened ever so slightly. Idly, she lifted a hoof and gave Opal a consoling pet, who returned the gesture with a rub of her head and a dainty purr. "Perhaps I should have words with her, then. Is that why you came here, with Discord's help?"

Sweetie nodded. "And I was also worried about you, sis. Princess Luna told me you were okay, but…" Her face fell further, and she turned her ears back. "But she said you had to be in Fantasia, without saying why."

At that, Rarity's stomach clenched. "Well… to cut a long story dreadfully short, something very bad is happening on Fantasia and it could get much worse," she said. "I have to help however I can, and—"

"Well why doesn't Luna send the Guards over here?!" Sweetie shouted, brow furrowing. That made Opal puff up and yowl disapprovingly. "She and Celestia could make things better here!"

Natalie halted. So did everypony but Sweetie Belle, who instead bumped into her hind legs. Slowly, Natalie turned to Sweetie, and nudged her with a hoof to get her attention. Then she knelt to her eye level and said, "Not many Mythonians trust us. As it stands, we're all on thin ice already. Further, if Guards came in droves? That would spark a war."

"And the Guards might be able to fight the Fantasians, but… against Lance and his crew, there would be at least many casualties," Twilight added bluntly. Sweetie turned to Twilight.

"But Celestia and Luna could take them on!" Sweetie protested. Natalie stood up and shook her head with a tired sigh.

"Yes, they could… and we wouldn't be able to contact Fantasia anymore after that," Twilight pointed out. "That's the thing about diplomacy; you have to build relations, and attacking first is just going to make a bigger mess that'll need cleaning up."

"Tiring, but worth it if you know what you're doing," Natalie said, watching Sweetie as she turned back to her. "You want harmony instead of fighting, right? Diplomacy is the way to go."

Sweetie huffed and puffed, but Rarity magically grabbed her and pulled her back before she could start squawking again. "They're right, Sweetie. We want peaceful relations with Fantasia," she said firmly.

"But—"

Rarity shook her head and hardened her expression into a stern glare that silenced Sweetie on the spot. "No 'buts,' young lady. We can't afford to fight with Fantasia when something could be waiting to strike while both sides are down," she said even more firmly. Sweetie wilted in her magical grasp, head dropping as she conceded defeat.

"Besides… me and my friends took on Godcat and won. Celestia and Luna would still have at least some trouble with us, if war were to start," Natalie said tartly, watching Sweetie's face as she paled. She stood up to full height, head shaking. "And I'd rather not use my full power against either of them. What got into your head that fighting us would be a good idea?"

Sweetie wilted. "The nanny was saying horrible things about Fantasia..." she muttered. Another sour nod from Opal followed, and the cat looked Natalie in the eyes prior to letting out a low, growling meow that may or may not have been a dainty swear in cat-tongue.

Natalie groaned, and turned to Rarity. Rarity made eye contact. "That nanny sounds like she needs her ass kicked," Natalie said bluntly. "I've had my fair share of them when I was a foal."

"Get in line, darling," Rarity hissed, eyes narrowing the tiniest increment. "What little I've heard makes me want to throw her off the nearest mountainside."

Natalie lifted and swept a hoof to the side. "We'll be sure to paint a target for when you do," she replied with a nod. Then, she turned to Opal. "Say… do you take any particular foods?" she asked. Opal perked up for a moment, floof returning to its normal, dormant state as she meowed with a bit of a purr. "Oh… you like the special stuff." The cat nodded with a small, ladylike smile. Natalie smiled back. "Fortunately, we have special stuff here." That made Opal purr and curl her tail around her little paws.

Rarity glanced back and forth between her pet and her escort. "You understand cat?" she said after a moment.

Natalie nodded, turning to Rarity. "Though, after Godcat took all the other Fantasian cats with Her to Her new world, I really haven't had the need to. Besides, NoLegs stayed behind, and he's telepathic," she retorted with a blaise shrug of her shoulders.

Fluttershy chipped in, grinning as Angel clambered to her head with his jaw dropped upon her mane. "I didn't know that there were ponies who could understand animals here!" she said. "Can you understand any other animals?"

Natalie shook her head. "Besides domesticated dogs, not really." She shrugged again. "It's like plants: I'm not that versed in such things. You'd be better off asking Anna about them."

Apple Bloom, who was tuning out much of the banter, looked around at the magitek in the hall. Some part of her brain was trying to work out the magitek's functionality, while another piped up in curiosity and wondered if Equestria could get a good load of this. "You guys use crystals for everything?" she asked once her gaze settled on Natalie.

Natalie beamed at the question, sitting on her haunches to clap her front hooves together as she tilted her head with a smile. "Except some of our weaponry, but yes. We've been using magitek for around four and a half years now," she answered.

"Four and a half? Isn't that a little… short?" Blueblood asked.

Natalie shook her head. "It really took off when we found the airships; before then, there wasn't much reason to use it outside of war," she said. "We have various teams researching, making new magitek, making magitek safe to use… only real downside is powering it, but nothing that can't be managed."

"Powering it shouldn't be difficult, then. It is enchanted, correct?" Blueblood asked, brow raising.

Natalie nodded. "That it is. But the enchantments and crystals require more… direct charging methods." She gestured to the Crusaders. "We'll show you how we go about it, but… when we do, cover their eyes and ears."

Shining sighed. "Since you arrived in Mythos, you guys were… off-kilter. Is charging magitek draining?"

Natalie nodded. "After charging, we can hardly trot for a little under three hours, and the day after? We can cast more, but nothing too advanced lest we collapse on the floor. Which makes me thankful that our magic replenishes itself in days," she said, her smile becoming rather strained as she said that.

"Which would probably make a lot of sense for one confirmed alicorn, one suspected alicorn, and a half-Umbrum," Shining's internal lawn gnome snarked in the back of his head. "Because no normal pony can replenish magic in their wellsprings as fast as that after a thorough draining."

Opal meowed again, and jumped off Sweetie to trot daintily to Natalie with a gleam in her eyes. Natalie watched as the cat circled her, face scrunching a little as she eyed the skulls of her uniform, but purring nonetheless. Batting a skull with her paw, Opal watched as it rattled a little, but did nothing else that was remotely interesting.

"I've been wondering… are those genuine?" Rarity asked, pointing to the skulls with a hoof as Opal batted the one that caught her attention again. Natalie, ears turning back as she had the good graces to look embarrassed about it, sighed.

"Well… had tests ran on them. Bad news: they are." Rarity gasped, but the sound partially died when Natalie held up a hoof. "Good news: they're older than I think Celestia is; they've been confirmed to belong to at least one of my ancestors." She dropped the hoof she had raised, and tapped at the skull with it. "And check this out." She grabbed the skulls with her magic and turned them just enough upwards that the Mythonians could see into the crevices where the brains were once housed.

Inside of those skulls were etched a series of pulsating runes, each as bright as the magic that cradled them, although some of them were obscured by the sash anchoring them to the dress. "And if you want to know where I got this outfit from, it was from a complete stranger who didn't want it anymore—skulls included. So I don't know where she got them from," Natalie finished, letting the skulls float back down to hoof level, where Opal started to bat at them once more.

Rarity and Shining exchanged glances, then Shining piped up, "The stranger was desperate to get rid of it?" At Natalie's nod, he snorted and shook his head. "Maybe it caused her no end of issues."

Natalie frowned and sighed with a hoof lifting up to run down the bridge of her snout. "I checked the runes; they're harmless, but make the skulls… well, do their thing," she muttered. "Maybe she was accused of necromancy or something." She turned to Sweetie Belle. "Discord mentioned… an essay?"

Sweetie fervently nodded. "Yeah. Miss Cheerilee wanted us to make a ten-page report on any country of our choosing. Extra credit's going to whichever group does one on a Fantasian country," she said, smiling faintly. She bounced up to Natalie with a spring in her step, eyes gleaming. "Are we in a country right now?"

Natalie donned a slightly fixed and exasperated smile. "I wouldn't say 'country' so much as 'city-state.' Does your assignment cover city-states?"

Sweetie nodded. "Those count too, if they're by themselves," she said.

Natalie's grin widened. "Welp, you're in luck; you're in one of the safest city-states Fantasia has to offer." She lifted a hoof and patted Sweetie's head with it, turning to the other two Crusaders. "You guys have to cover the history and how the city-state operates, right?" At dual nods, her smile went wider still. "Alright. I'll inform Lance about it once he cools off; in the meantime, I can share some of that critical information with you."

Twilight sighed. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Natalie nodded, beaming as her crystal sheen swept across her body to make it glimmer brilliantly. "Practically nobody else on this planet has wanted to know how we operate. And truth be told, I've been dying to share it with any diplomats who would actually set aside their rage at us and listen!"

That made Twilight jerk her head up. "Wait, so we're the first to…"

Natalie nodded once more. That time, the skulls of her dress rattled briefly. "Besides, what's a little tour without learning how shit works around here?" she pointed out. She winked to Twilight, her smile turning coy with the motion. Her horn glowed and her telepathic voice bounced around in Twilight's skull, "But we're not gonna give the Crusaders too much intel. Their assignment has to be kid-friendly, right?"

Twilight nodded, albeit reluctantly. At least it was good that Natalie was actually thinking of the children. Opal meowed and trotted to Rarity before jumping up on her back with a purr, smiling in satisfaction. Maria piped up, "What's a report?"

Natalie snorted and lifted a hoof to smother her giggles. Try as she might, though, some still executed their escape attempt flawlessly. When she calmed down, she turned to the young gryph and answered, "A report's basically something that sums up an experience, an event, or one's day." She gestured to herself. "Like, say 'I had a good day today.' That would be a very simple, but informative enough, report for the everyday hippogryph or pony."

Maria nodded, wings fluffing up a bit. "Does daddy like those kinds of reports?"

Natalie shook her head. "From me, Matt, and Anna, he doesn't. He'll want all the information we have on…" Her gaze averted briefly for a moment, seemingly scrounging for evasive words etched into the magitek all around them. "Well, whatever happens to rouse his curiosity and anger."

Maria wilted, feathers returning to their dormant state. "And something made him mad…"

Natalie nodded ruefully, turning her attention back to Maria. "Yes. And as of now, the one of us most informed about… the thing that flustered his jimbobs would be your mother." She sighed and turned to the Crusaders, who were looking at her with wide eyes and pleading looks. At this, her head shook. "It's not something we'll be allowed to share that easily… touchy, bad topic would be my first guess about the matter."

The Crusaders wilted. "Awwwww!" they whined in unison. Rarity reached Sweetie Belle, and put her hoof to her sister's withers with Applejack mirroring the motion for Apple Bloom. Both received consoling rubs, while Rainbow opted to ruffle Scootaloo's mane using her wingtips.

Upon turning to said siblings and idol, Rainbow huffed and shook her head. "Trust me on this, squirt… but I've seen a bit of the bad thing that made Lance angry. It was bad enough, we had to crack out the Elements of Harmony to fix as much as we could," she said. She shared a brief glance with Natalie, who slowly and carefully nodded to signal that she should continue with caution. "Like… we're talking 'what might be forbidden magic being thrown around everywhere before we even arrived' levels of bad."

"I'm not sure if such would be put in the same category as dark magics the likes of which King Sombra has used during his reign of the Crystal Empire, but… forbidden nonetheless," Rarity added. "Nevertheless, though, the source thereof has been dealt with accordingly, and never again shall that particular power scar the face of Fantasia." Worry gnawed at her brain, and it screamed an unheard "Hopefully! Maybe! Please Faust don't let this happen ever again it would be the worst possible thing!" that thankfully remained lodged in the depths of her skull.

"When y'all are older and the Fantasians decide to let us talk about it, we'll give ya the full story," Applejack finished, a nod of finality accompanying a pat on Apple Bloom's withers. Apple Bloom opened her mouth to protest, but all it took for that to be shot down before launch was her elder sister looking at her very sternly, with as neutral a face as she could muster. "Until then, our lips are shut, y'hear?"

The Crusaders wilted again, and chorused in resigned unison, "Yes, Applejack…"

Natalie smiled again, sitting on her haunches to clap her forehooves and get everypony's attention once more. "Now then… about your report…" She turned to the Crusaders, who looked up at her with some disappointment shimmering in their eyes. "What do you want to cover first: how Irongrey Aerie operates, its various wings, or what comes in and out of it?" Her internal hedge gnome shrieked, "Okay, that sounded way better up here than it came out of your cocksucking lips! Be more professional, you stupid oaf!"

"Actually, do you have food? We didn't get to eat dinner yet," Apple Bloom piped up, a gleam in her eye that Natalie matched with one in her own and a tilt of her head.

"Well… the mess hall is nearby. I suppose we can have that sorted out first." She stood up and turned around with a spring in her step. "Just stick with me, everypony! We'll have ourselves some scrumptious chow in no time!"

"Do you have dessert?" Scootaloo piped up, jumping up into the air with wings a-beating a mile a minute. She hovered there for a fraction of a second, and landed smoothly on her four hooves.

Natalie nodded, turning her head back to flash another smile. "Oh yes we do! We'll have plenty when dinner's over! Who wants a Burning Frost Special?" she chirped, eyes gleaming with warmth.

Rainbow shot into the air, wings pumping and forehooves flailing. "Me me me me me! I want a Burning Frost Special!" she yelled.

Pinkie joined her in the air, hovering at her side even though she didn't have wings to call her own. "Me me me me me! I wanna try one too!"

Natalie's smile widened. "Alright," she cooed. "Anypony else?" Some heads nodded, like Shining's, but most shook. Although, she was inwardly surprised to find Harry the bear and Angel amongst those nodding, as well as the Crusaders. "Okay. There'll be enough for seconds and thirds!"

The Crusaders jumped in the air, and shouted in perfect unison, "Cutie Mark Crusaders Ice Cream Testers, yay!" With that, the whole herd started to gallop, following after Natalie as she darted ahead with flames in her legs and skulls a-rattling with eagerness. The crystals in the walls rattled briefly at the stampede, then stilled as it passed.

Elsewhere in the base of Irongrey, at the very tip-top of the ever-changing mountain, silence lingered for a long, long while in a small and tight room. Nostrils flared irritably as red and green eyes locked, and hooves crossed over a desk wrought of wood and iron and crystals.

That impregnable silence held for an eternity before it was broken by a simple question. A question that pierced the air with its presence, accusing, curious, and angry in equal measure. A query asked by a superior to his tight-lipped, half-wooden subordinate with a whole army's worth of yet more queries backing it up. It was as damning as any one of its fellows, and only the least blunt and wounding amongst them. One that demanded immediate answers, no matter how unsatisfactory they were in their nature. It was tantamount to summoning Godcat Herself, looking Her in Her eyes unblinkingly, and asking why such horrors could be created alongside, and continue to walk upon without challenge and care, the very surface of Fantasia.

"You mean to tell me, Anna Aria Windwood… that when you and Sarah were seeded, you were also geased into silence alongside the rest of that damned village?"

Chapter LXXXXV- Turning of The Stricken Geas

Silence held within the office again, red and green eyes locked together in an unblinking trance. Nothing dared penetrate the veil of quiet, not even the faintest twitch of a sanded claw, let alone the rustling of folded wings. The air outside was still; not a whistle of wind was to be heard. The moonlight, a smothering blanket of silver that shrouded the figure at the desk in a glow that made him look demonic, began edging its way into that room. The stars offered no help; they twinkled dimly in the gloom outside, providing no solace nor reprieve from the damning question.

Eventually, though, the query had to be answered; otherwise, Anna would have been incinerated on the spot with the seemingly withering glare she was already wilting under. "Y… yes," she managed, trying to keep the shakes out of her voice. The wood and vines on her legs trembled, giving away her trepidation for her.

For another brief bout of eternity, Lance was nothing but judging. He studied the runes on his subordinate's body, as well as plant-like veins streaking her whole coat that might have also been hidden this whole time, eventually lifting a hoof to urge her to turn about in a circle. With hesitance, she complied, and halted when she moved to poise her tail before him when he ordered, "Keep the tail low. I do not want to see your assets." She did as she was told, keeping those green locks tucked between her hinds as she resumed her slow, less than graceful pirouette. The moonlight glittered against the runes and veins, almost as though the celestial body responsible for the light was casting its baleful gaze upon her as well.

"... and is that why," Lance said slowly, his tone lowered just a little in volume, "you couldn't tell us what happened when we found you?" A shaky nod answered him, though there was a part of him that wanted to prod that breaking dam further.

"If… if I did, then…" The vines moved and writhed, burrowing into the wood of the sanded claws and causing them to pulsate in a manner reminiscent of diseased, cursed flesh that struggled to keep the horrid affliction at bay. It was enough of an answer, although it did not make Lance happy by any generous stretch of the definition.

Lance nodded back, nostrils flaring. "And did that little caveat include 'seeding those in close proximity,' by chance?"

That time, Anna shook her head. "No. That… only happens once a cutie mark is gained. If… it ever happens at all after the initial seeding..."

"Which is why the vines burrowed into me the first time, before Matt and Natalie pulled me away from that mess," Lance said, wings shuddering the tiniest bit at a distant memory that was only months old, yet still somehow fresh in his mind. Perhaps Pestilence had something to do with it, he internally mused. "One more question… how did the runes, and the veins that could only come from having plants writhing inside out, not show up until after the Elements of Harmony were used?"

Anna wilted, and sat on her haunches. "Concealment spell. Used to hide the scars so they're almost invisible," she said, ears twitching as a brief, loud pop sang into the room along a flash of light that flared up from behind her.

Lance turned to the source of the light and noise to find NoLegs near the door, scowling. He nodded to the cat and turned back to Anna. "So, basically, a stronger illusion tied with the geas, making it unbreakable by normal means," he said. Another nod answered him, to his growing discontent.

"The elders… had it worse. The villagers my age hardly have those runes as far as I know," Anna muttered. "And those my age? All that are even left now, save a few odds and ends…"

Lance huffed, briefly closing his eyes as he recalled the previous night. While it was true he didn't see much in the way of runes adorning the villagers, it was also true that shock, negotiations, and letting ponies take the time to grieve factored in to his not paying attention that much. On the other hoof, he hadn't expected the Elements of Harmony to pull all the weight they did last night, either.

And that, in itself, was nothing short of miraculous, even he had to admit. A bit extreme, yes… but then again, wasn't he and his whole military just that in the end?

He thought about the very thing that brought that military together—war, ironic as it was. He mused that it probably had been inevitable to drag Greenwood's remnants into it, given that there had been a mounting strike on the now-nonexistent village that was repelled so long ago. Further still, the inevitability of its outliers, one of whom now stood before him as a trusted right hoof, as the one who had both an unusual affliction and ways to utilize it. The other, off somewhere else, likely being taken into consideration even now for her equally bizarre set of skills.

Fate had a strange way of bringing things together, didn't it?

Thus, on that matter, he came to a short and simple decision. "Gather names of the surviving villagers, how much runes adorn their bodies, and for the love of Godcat make note of which one has what. That includes the foals and babies, but don't get all up in their grills over it." Blood simmered in Lance's veins for the barest of instants as he recalled Timber Spruce's deplorable condition, and the urge to punch the responsible party sang in his mind before he quelled it. "But wait until the Crusaders are back home before you do; we don't want to scar them for life. Understood?"

"Understood," Anna echoed.

NoLegs waved his tail with a glow, and telepathically piped up with, "It's because of that one kid, ain't it?"

Lance lowered his head with a suffering groan, and then straightened his posture after. "Yes," he said simply. He turned to his feline colonel and asked, "By the way… did Alexander get the results on the severed wings and horn yet?"

NoLegs nodded, scowl deepening. He conjured a piece of paper with another wave of his tail, and levitated it over to Lance to peruse as he saw fit. "Alexander threw a bitchfit over it, by the way. But not before he left the foals in the emergency ward in the care of some changeling nurses," he replied, fur bristling. Lance took that as a sign to fortify his own emotional walls before his wrath could spill forth and inflict itself on anything and everything within immediate reach. Distantly, he noted, he could indeed hear a gryphon raising a fuss—who it was, and how many floors apart he was to that, he left to the dregs of his imagination.

His eyes gravitated to the paper, where on top it detailed a simple chart divided into neat little rows, wherein each row was marked a series of different variables—for all he knew, it could have detailed probability and genetic sequences. Skipping over that mumbo-jumbo, he found two pictures, one of Anna and the other of Sarah, and below that, four words that would have infuriated him if he had not seen the photographic evidence one of the aforementioned twins tried to deny nights ago.

HYBRID ALICORN STATUS: CONFIRMED

Lance's eyes slowly rose back to his subordinate, looking at her and her antics in a new light. And upon reflecting for just a moment, he found the taste in his mouth growing increasingly bitter at that denial of the truth all the same. Alas, though, there was very little he could do about that denial but address it now—it was better to bury that hatchet than let it draw yet more blood, no matter whose blood it was. "I'm going to go on both wings and assume… that you also couldn't tell anyone of your alicorn status?"

Anna wilted further, the vines pulling out of the wood and drooping with her as her shoulders sagged. "If I did, while I was still in Greenwood… then I'd have been seen as a challenger…" She let the unspoken hang in the air; though it took Lance a moment to understand what she had meant by what she withheld, it did not take him longer than that for him to come to a conclusion on the matter. Her head shook ruefully as she added, "And nopony else outside of that village… no, nobody, anywhere, would have believed me…"

"And your severed wings… and Sarah's horn… were still powering the geas?" he guessed. His mind replayed the memory of the thrashing dummy, and wondered if perhaps that was what Anna was truly freaked out about in the dim basement of that shoddy hotel.

Anna continued sagging until he was certain her chin would touch the floor. "Yes… it drained us in every way the longer we stayed… and that's not talking about it letting the curse go haywire."

"And your flute and harp?"

Impressively, even hovering inches above the floor, her chin still had yet to actually graze its surface. "Yes…"

Lance nodded. Some part of him was starting to relish in the fact that he and his crew were able to give Pestilence the beating he so righteously deserved, if indeed he was the culprit of the mass blighting of Greenwood and its outlier twins. Hopefully, Godcat would set that miserable piece of splintery horse manure out in the hereafter. So he decided to change the subject just a bit, in a way that had Anna jerking back up ramrod straight a second later. "So that's why you fondled Luna's wings—because your own were cut off at the base of your backside? And you couldn't believe you'd found an alicorn without mangled wings?"

Anna's lips flailed, her tongue writhed, her teeth were clacking together at an alarming rate, and yet the only sounds she could pull from her throat were strangled half-syllables that tumbled over each other in what might have been a distant Fantasian dialect from long, long ago. A blush of embarrassed dismay painted her cheeks, and her eyes almost bugged out. Lance couldn't help the tiny internal smirk he carefully kept off of his face; some part of him found this amusing.

So he decided to press the issue, making sure to keep his face neutral. "And that's why you're fixated on my wings—it helps you forget your own lack thereof?" Admittedly, that was a low blow coming from him, he realized, but in order to hit the nail on the head one would sometimes have to make the necessary jabs.

Anna crumpled, and the internal amusement Lance held was replaced by a tidal wave of guilt in a matter of milliseconds. She shrank as if struck, ears turned back and mouth shutting faster than he could blink. Her eyes went wide and watered, like an innocent deer just realizing it had been shot in the leg and that, yes, the pain from the bullet wound was real. Her face turned from pink to red as all manner of unpleasant emotions threatened to breach the crumbling dam. "I-I-I…" she stammered, starting to tear up as Lance got up from his desk, trotted around it, and draped a wing over her back as soon as he reached her.

He pulled her close with his wing. "Hey. It's okay to be upset about shit like that. You're not geased anymore," Lance said, in the gentlest voice he could muster. He wrapped his other wing around her as she threw her head into his shoulder and started to wail loudly enough to make his ears ache. He lifted his hooves to help cradle her as that bottled-up pain finally erupted from its prison in force. "That wasn't just the guilty party stealing your heritage; that was them then dictating that you pretend to be something you're not," he added as she cried.

For a long time, watched only by the moon, the embrace did not break as sobs filled the room. Lance, with every ounce of patience he could muster, waited until the shrieking had died down—though time was lost onto him; he couldn't tell how long it had lasted. But then again… concealing something like that, and then having to deny the truth for what was probably years would give just about anypony cause to unleash guttural screams that seemed to distort one's sense of time.

And from what his subconscious was telling him, Anna had a lot more to scream about than simply being geased, cursed, and de-winged in what was probably one excruciatingly bad day. So much to unpack, but so little time to process it all over again—such was the fate of the traumatized, Lance internally seethed. His anger could only be assuaged by the fact that something like this would probably never happen again on Fantasia, but only barely.

He made a mental note to not press anymore of Anna's buttons regarding this issue. Even light-hearted jabbing could have resulted in him being stabbed in his sleep over it—he'd have rather faced Godcat all over again than to die prematurely and without even a shred of grace to his name.

His mind, inevitably, drifted to other things as the sobbing continued. Having been informed that Mr. Muffin was animate… he started to wonder: how did he help Sarah escape? He was merely an enchanted plush in a cursed community… then he mentally shook his head. Such questions could be answered by the escapee another day.

And trying to get those answers was likely to end in another sobbing fit from that escapee, too. Or getting his face clawed off. Or witnessing the sobbing match while his face was getting clawed off. Now simply wasn't the time; he had just enough from Anna to piece together his interpretation of the rest. That would be enough for now—it had to be, lest he risk driving her further into insanity.

Right now, he had to wait for his third right hoof to calm down.

But that felt like it was stretching for an eternity.

He had to wait, with a saintly patience, until finally silence permeated the room some indeterminable amount of time later. Nothing more need be said—Lance wondered what there was to be said.

Then, he heard a soft purring accompanied by a noise like bristles being run across smooth marble, and looked in Anna's direction. Her chest was moving steadily, and he leaned a bit closer to see if she was making the first sound. She barely moved, yet the purring hadn't come from her. He glanced down at their hinds, and found NoLegs rubbing his head against Anna's haunch feverishly.

It was a bit strange to see this all of a sudden, but then again, NoLegs was a cat—and Lance had to agree, further words really would not have made Anna feel any better about this whole mess. So he remained in place, content to let his feline colonel give what meager comfort he could.

Then Anna slumped in his grasp again, albeit this time it wasn't driven by emotion. In fact, Lance had to pull away because she kept going and going, keeping only his front hooves on her to lower her fully onto the floor. After her body made contact and he pulled away, she didn't move—not so much as a twitch of her tail.

Lance looked at her face, itself partially hidden by green mane, and studied her reddened expression in the moonlight. Leaning until he was snout to snout enabled him to hear soft, sniffling snorts, which rustled her mane just enough to let one closed eye peek out from between some strands of the viridian mass.

He sighed internally, and turned to NoLegs with a nod and a wing silently unfurling, primaries turned to Anna and slowly curling upwards. NoLegs nodded and his tail shimmered, his magic wrapping around the half-wooden chimera to gently lift her up without disturbing her. When she was lifted to an inch above the desk height, Lance turned around and silently ducked and backed up with wings shut, only ceasing movement when her hinds dangled on either side of his haunches. Then, when she was set on his back and he got the chance to straighten his legs did he fall still.

He stood there for a moment or so, wondering if his subordinate would notice the change in her sleeping space. She stirred a little, vines and wood twitching, and continued to sniffle and snort… but besides that, she was motionless. Lance turned to NoLegs and mouthed, "Teleport us to her quarters please and thank you." NoLegs nodded and let his tail shimmer again, before they teleported out of the room and into another one.

Lance took a moment to analyze the new room he now stood in. A collection of bows and arrows hung on one wall, as well as two pony-sized harps, amusingly enough. One hewn of vine and tree, the other of gold with silver wings decorating its top, served as the first oddballs of the room. A few dressers were strewn about, all wood but with drawers thrown open to hold loose collections of arrows and materials that Lance didn't care to identify. Between two such dressers stood a metal chest, itself also stuffed to bursting with more arrows than Lance could shake his gunblade at.

To his left stood a worn desk, lined with many scratch marks and scattered papers with some musical sheets nestled within the morass here and there. It had its drawers too, but though they were closed, he could already tell they weren't stuffed full of projectiles—they would not have been able to shut otherwise, as arrows tended to clutter no matter how neat their arrangements were.

Given that, though, there was no telling what they were stuffed with in lieu of still more projectiles. In front of the desk was a chair, askew but still standing upright. It was a simple sort, the kind of bland cookie-cutter design found in most homes, with a worn cushion on its seat. And while he could barely see it, he still noticed a filled waste basket stuffed past bursting with wadded papers, some of which had escaped and hid beneath the chair.

The other side housed a collection of well-cared plants, some in pots and others placed in a metal box filled with dirt. That side of the room rested under bright halogen lights accompanied by mist sprinklers, all stationed behind glass walls etched with shimmering runes. Beside this structure in a corner was a simple showerhead, sporting opaque walls and a loose collection of bottles both capped and open. In front of Lance, which he strode to with a careful and silent stride, sat the bed—unkempt, with blankets and pillows as scattered as the papers upon the worn desk.

And it was there that Lance crawled onto the mattress, using his wings to balance himself by spreading them partially, before he shifted his hinds beneath him. As he did this, the mattress groaned and creaked; he sighed, wondering when it would need replacing. With another nod to NoLegs, he lifted his fronts and delicately grasped Anna's forelegs. He lifted the left one over his head, halting when she grumbled something unintelligible as the claws dangled in front of his eyes.

Anna moved her head away from his neck, and mumbled as her snout hit the mattress before any of her legs did. After a few seconds passed and Lance had determined that she wasn't going to get back up anytime soon, he finished hoisting her left front over his head and lowered her front quarters to the worn bed. Then, he shimmied a little bit, pulling his body under her hinds to wiggle out of her personal space without tangling his wings. He made certain to close his eyes and hold his breath as he moved until her haunches hovered on either side of his shoulders. As carefully as he could, he grasped the left hind hock and did the same to it as he had done to the front one, slowly and delicately to avoid any accidental harming.

As soon as she was fully settled onto the bed, Lance sighed silently and watched as a pillow and a few blankets, all glowing with a blue aura, hovered up from the floor where they lay and started to position themselves accordingly. Anna's head was lifted by the same magic, but only just enough to nestle the pillow beneath her chin. The moment it stilled, she grumbled again and grabbed it tight with her claws, moving it to her chest to hug it tightly. NoLegs snorted and shook his head, and lifted two more pillows—one to put under her head again, and another within reach in case she wanted to do something with it. After that, the blankets slid over her body and the first to cover her tucked itself in snuggly, with the subsequent ones opting to cover in loosely and hang at the bed's sides.

Lance nodded and turned to the desk, trotting quietly to it as NoLegs slid over to magically lift the papers and start to sort them out. The messy parchments swirled around the feline, separating and reforming into neat little stacks that went onto the table in a set of three with their tops against the wall—the blank sheets, the partially-finished, and the fully finished. Sitting on the chair and silently scooting it close enough to the desk was an easy enough feat, and Lance got himself comfortable relatively quickly. His right wing spread, and crimson primaries felt for worn drawer handles before pulling the topmost one open with a soft groan of protest coming from wood and the metal tracks installed within it, and crimson eyes turned to find…

A few chisels with different heads and squares of various grades of sandpaper were strewn about, alongside various grades of whetstone that he could barely make out beneath the sandpaper. Lance made a mental note to get some quality-grade wood for Anna later; she could make a whole new flute if she had time, or perhaps another instrument altogether. That drawer was closed, the clutter within barely stirring and clinking as its confine drew back into place. The one beneath it was opened by feathers, and… was stuffed with clear boxes, both large enough to fill the drawer in its entirety without room to spare. One had a myriad of threads, most coiled neatly and some hopelessly tangled, and the other had weapons-grade feathers.

That one was closed in short order. The one beneath it, the last of its row, was breached. Lance grinned to himself as he found a few fountain pens and vials of ink, all in different colors. Choosing the classic black vial, and a similarly-colored pen, he plucked them up and put them onto the desk using his primaries when he heard a rustle of cloth and another creaking of the mattress. Pausing to turn to Anna, he cocked his head when he found she had rolled onto her back, the first pillow still in her grasp and the blankets askew once more. NoLegs might have snickered, or at least made a sound similar in nature to a snicker, as he magically repositioned the blankets without a complaint.

Turning back to the desk and plucking off a blank sheet of paper, Lance grasped the fountain pen between two of his primaries and uncorked the ink with his hooves before dipping the pen's tip inside the reservoir. Pulling the paper in front of him, he began to write with long, clumsy strokes that could only belong to a school-aged foal inexperienced in wingwriting. And he was no musician, either; it took him no less than five attempts to even scratch one sentence out onto that parchment. At least the instrument of writing held steady between his primaries, but that was no excuse for the lackluster attempt at his own penmareship.

He looked it over and waved NoLegs over with a hoof. NoLegs hopped onto the desk and looked at the wingwriting before shaking his head. His tail shimmered and he telepathically grumbled to Lance, "There's no way in hell I can read that."

So Lance sighed, put the fountain pen down, crumpled the paper and threw it beneath the desk. It bounced against a filled waste bin and rolled to his hooves, lining up with a few other crumpled parchments already at the chair's feet. He plucked off another blank scrap of paper and put it before his snout, and attempted to write once more—using his hoof this time, itself no easy feat as the pen kept slipping every which-way it could in his grasp.

When the first sentence was wrought once more, NoLegs again shook his head. "Still can't read it," NoLegs telepathically muttered. "Try using your teeth."

Lance grumbled, crumpled the paper, tossed it and grabbed another sheet. He dipped the fountain pen in more ink in case it was low, and put its non-business end between his molars. After a few strokes of the pentip, though, he realized he could barely see what he was doing past his own snout, and paused to pull back to gauge his progress thus far.

Huh, he only wrote the first word and could actually read it, despite it being somewhat chicken-scratchy. He turned to NoLegs, who slowly nodded with a glint in his eye as his tail shined bright with light. On the corner of the desk, materializing from a blue aura, now sat a chocolate, vanilla-frosted cupcake with a slice of apple wedged on top, neatly wrapped in plastic film with a pretty pink bow around the pastry's foot.

Lance didn't ask using his vocal chords, instead shrugging, glancing at the cupcake, and turning back to NoLegs. NoLegs merely jerked his head in Anna's direction a few times before his superior understood. Resuming his mouthwriting, albeit a little more slowly for the sake of keeping track of his progress, to refill the pen, and to pause and read as necessary, he started to lose track of time as he poured out some measure of his own thoughts onto the paper.

Though when he finished, he rotated and slid the parchment to NoLegs so he could read it. The cat looked at the sheet somewhat cross-eyed, but slid it back and used his tail to gesture to the cupcake. Lance sighed, but moved the paper up a bit so he could scrutinize its bottom to see if there was any room left.

And he was in luck; just enough left over to add in an addendum. Lance grinned and began writing again, keeping the slow pace to make his writing as legible as possible. When that was done, he lowered the pen into the inkwell and emptied whatever ink remained. When that got finished, he corked the vial and put it and its partner back where they belonged in the third drawer. Then he lifted the finished product with a hoof, flapping it a bit to make sure the ink had dried properly.

No droplets flew off the paper. That was good enough, he supposed. He put it on the desk, slowly slid the wrapped treat to sit atop the parchment, and turned to Anna. Finding she was still off in dreamland, and hopefully not within its evil twin's grasp, he turned back to and nodded to NoLegs. The cat jumped on his back, and teleported them both out without any sound other than a faint pop that failed to rouse Anna from slumber.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Princess Luna was not a happy pony.

Her trip through the dream world had been rudely, unexpectedly interrupted when she was passing through the section housing the dreams of Lance and his motley crew. First, the door holding Lance and Anna's dreams split of its own accord, repositioning those accursed locks around the frames so tightly she thought the wood would splinter.

Then, the locks holding Anna's dreams shut began clattering and ringing against the door, as though something were trapped on the other side and trying to get out. The foul ink-like matter smeared and smattered and sprayed as the shackles thrashed, drying on contact with anything and everything it could touch. The ringing grew, first an incessant rattling before then vibrating in a constant drone slowly reaching a crescendo that hurt her ears.

Prismatic light burst from the locks, first in thin streams that could only seep out where the locks clicked into their own latches. But the light gradually grew, and glittered as it started emerging from within with such force as to send chunks of their prisons flying in arcs that were either halted by Luna's body, or continued onto the other side of the dream-walkway to crash into other doors. Then, the aura started seeping from the chains as well, breaking them and their anchors apart from within, drying the ichor merely by casting itself onto the befouled sludge.

A brief bout of tranquility came when the locks and chains suddenly stilled, and their little lightshow had died with only the holes in the chains and locks to show for it. Though hesitant at first, Luna lifted a hoof and prodded at the nearest shackle, frowning when a distinct lack of coldness greeted her instead of its usual frigidness. Without warning though, the rainbow aura returned in full force, and she spread her wings to cover her eyes as a titanic, deafening boom rattled the dreamscape with enough strength to jostle the locks that hadn't yet displayed such bizarre behavior. The blast wasn't enough to knock her off her hooves—she had tackled worse, after all—but it was enough to make her not lower her wings in case there was any smog present.

It took a few moments for shielding primaries to lower, but not before she realized she couldn't smell anything that would have naturally come from an explosion of this nature—no shrapnel, smoke, or sludge hit her sinuses. Glancing to the door for answers, her brows climbed up her forehead when she saw it unobstructed, and hewn of birch as opposed to the rich burnt oak it was before. Though, there were the holes where the chains rested, with fresh ivy and kudzu weaving into them to fill the gaps.

Not a second after Luna made eye contact with the door again, it opened of its own volition. Before entering, she glanced around at the other doors, to see if anything had changed with them. Sarah's had lightened in color, and possessed fewer shackles—hers also had holes decorating its frame and surface, with a few breezes billowing out of them. The shackles that remained oozed more ichor, though, and none of the other doors had changed whatsoever—a tiny fact which nonetheless infuriated her.

The longer the Fantasians went without their royal therapy session, the more damage they risked doing to themselves and everything else around them. What infuriated her more was there was little she could do about it—their bed to make, their bed to rest in. She couldn't force them to do anything, lest that trigger interplanetary fighting.

Why did diplomacy have to be such a pain in the royal posterior, Luna wondered, especially when it involved other nations and their wants and needs?

Frowning at this development, she strode through the door, hoping that it was invitation enough. She looked around as the door closed behind her and vanished, finding herself on a scorched, fragmented island ringed with torches around its precipice, cut off from most of any nearby land with endless seas of magma. Ahead of her was a ruined structure, roots upturned with runes carved into its surface, visible only under moonlight.

Luna glanced upwards, and found the moon full with a pearlescent sheen on its surface. She looked around the rest of the sky… odd. There were no stars to be seen—it was all clouds, letting only the moon shine through a minute hole in the sky that seemed to threaten to swallow it up any moment.

She whirled around, looking for something else amidst the glowing crimson sea. Behind the rock island stood a singular spire, tapered off into a disc-like plateau at the top that oddly glowed with a soft viridian light. Spreading her wings to take flight, she galloped first to pick up speed, just in case the heated air didn't offer any lift.

"That's strange… her dreams have changed," Luna mused, brow furrowing slightly as the thought ran laps in her mind. She launched off the fragmented island with ease, ascending with long and graceful flaps that kept her from the magma below. She chanced a glance down every now and then as she neared the spire, noticing that the magma wasn't bubbling or popping or… anything of the sort. It just sat there and glowed.

"Then again… if the Tormentor had a hold here and doesn't any longer, then it would make sense for the dream itself to change," Luna theorized, continuing to fly ahead as the spire started growing closer and closer. Atop the plateau, she noticed somepony sitting in its center, their back turned to her approach and their muzzle lifted skyward.

When she reached the plateau, she circled its underside a few times to see if it was an entirely different structure. But upon sighting the spiral path and its cavernous opening, she knew she was right where she had to be, and so flew from beneath the plateau to land upon its topside. She kept her wings open upon finding a runic circle etched onto its surface, glimmering and lined by a ring of arrows. Sitting within the center was Anna, body as still as the graveyards abandoned so long ago.

Luna bristled a bit upon sighting wood and vines still lingering upon her body, and the silver scars of runes etched into flesh an indeterminable amount of time ago. She had heard of wood and vines burrowing into flesh, and scrutinized the lone Fantasian a bit more to find old, tell-tale markings vein-like in structure overlapped by some newer ones, though not so many as to distort the rest of the coat to which the runes sharing it belonged. And then there was the oddity of having her entire mane down, cascading to her lower back in a frazzled display that hadn't looked like it saw a hairbrush for a few days now.

She looked behind again, at the distant fragmented island that she had abandoned. Faintly, she could hear rock crumbling and splashing in molten, sizzling liquid, and watched as piece by piece, it tore apart the rest of the way and sank into burning crimson-gold. It was only when the island had sunk and silence had reigned once more did she hear Anna speak.

"... let's cut the horseshit," Anna said firmly.

That caused Luna to turn back ahead, eyes wide. "Prithee?"

Anna didn't budge from her location. She didn't even turn her head. "You're the Princess of Night, Dreams, and Moon. I know you're being fed things through the power of that second thing," she said tartly. "And I'm starting to think Discord's spoon feeding you other things from whatever the flying monkeyfuck he does in his spare time."

Luna's feathers drooped a bit under the stinging accusation, but alas there was technical truth to it. She could not deny it, lest tempers flare, so the next best thing had to suffice. "Is that why you've locked me out for so long?"

"That, and the last time I let somepony nose so far up my own womb, I nearly died on the spot," Anna hissed, the venom in her words causing the runes on and around her to crackle as she spat them out. "And no—I'm not here to talk about the time I nearly died on the spot of having my womb invaded, thank you kindly."

Luna took a deep breath through her nose. Anna's hostility was starting to grate on her a little. Then again, Fantasians in heat could still be locked in the 'good ol' days,' as some would say—which didn't excuse Anna's behavior at all. Or perhaps the Greenwood Blight was still affecting her in some way; either way, her inner cynic was starting to entertain the possibility of beating the hostility out of the petulant mare before her.

So she popped off a different question, hoping to get off on the right hoof this time. "Then… what are you here to talk about?"

"What I want to know is this: let's say Discord's spoon feeding you news about any Fantasian alicorns. Does he distinguish between the mortal and the immortal?" Anna replied, still keeping her eyes seemingly locked on the moon above.

Luna paused, pursing her lips as she wracked her brain for an answer. She didn't jump when bubbles of chocolate milk and confetti made of candy suddenly coalesced into existence next to her in the form of an explosion, before swirling around and compacting into a familiar chaotic shape that crossed his mismatched arms in a pout. "Well, of course I distinguish between mortal and immortal alicorns if I find any, and so far everyone and their mother is giving me the runaround on Fantasia! What's it to you if all alicorns were immune to old age and the like, you…"

Discord's voice died in his throat when he blinked, lifted his talon, wrenched out an eye and clenched his digits around it to reform it into a kaleidoscope that he then put to his other eye. Through the sparkling wonders of the contraption, he could see Anna's scars clear as day. "Oh… oh… that's why…" he muttered, turning the kaleidoscope in his claw.

The gizmo tumbled about, and therein so did a tiny replica of Anna's body, enabling him to see her from the full three-sixty view. When he was done with it, he threw it over his shoulder and lifted his paw to wrench at his blue antler, twisting it a few times before a reformed eye fell back into its socket. The kaleidoscope twisted into an origami butterfly and burned in the magma below before it could take flight.

It took Luna but a second to realize what had caught Discord's eye all of a sudden. She turned to him, jaw shaking and threatening to drop. "You mean to imply that she's…"

Discord nodded resolutely, face souring as his head briefly twisted into a lemon on one side and a lime on the other. "And this whole time, she was right under our snouts… more or less," he said bluntly, tail swishing. "It's one thing to be an interspecies foal, but quite another to turn out an alicorn on top of that. And if there's anything more improbably chaotic than that, I don't know what is."

"Well… at least that's settled, then." Anna stood up and lowered her head, groaning audibly as her vines writhed. She turned around, wriggling her claws up and down on the ground until they popped as though they had bones within their structures. Her horn lit up, and some of the runes on both sides of her horizontal scarring lit up with her power.

Luna knelt slightly, tilting her head as a feeling of wrongness began settling into her gut. "Dare I ask what she's doing?" she muttered to Discord, who only stood there seeming indifferent. All she received was a wave of the paw and a shake of the head in response, and she side-glanced him with her frown growing in concern.

The wood pulsed, the flesh writhed as if bewitched once more, and plates of bark erupted from Anna's horizontal scars in a messy spray of blood before arranging themselves into twisted forms that stretched long and thin like the wings of a bat. Between the joints, long leaves sprouted in clusters, glistening in the light of the magma and the runes on the ground. Overlaying them from the other side of the joints came a downy moss that emerged from the wood itself, clinging tightly onto itself and its bastion that it did not even tremble as the structures flapped once completed.

Discord grinned as the moss spread across the rest of Anna's back, going up until it was beneath her mane and cascading down over her tail like the world's smallest gown. "Oh? You can still tap into that? Well…" He reached behind himself with his paw and bent to the side slightly, and out of seemingly nowhere he thrust it sharply at his side to reveal he had a sledgehammer with its head fashioned into a miniature red-roofed house in his grip. "This has gotten interesting."

Anna smiled, and the expression was filled with flat molars and razor-sharp teeth front and back as she shifted into a pouncing stance with all four legs spread as wide as possible. The wood raced down her tail, enveloping the hairs and moss as it formed its own joints to then lift and extend over her head, breaking off into five more digits that splintered with purpose. More bark encroached on her face, and formed a partial mask that only covered her horn and the bridge of her snout. An orb-web-like structure sprouted and cascaded from just behind her cheekbones to the very end of her neck.

"Well now that the curse can't overtake me… might as well see what I can really do," Anna said, eyes flashing crimson for but an instant.

Luna shuddered. Great, just wonderful, absolutely fantastic—one of the Fantasians going insane. Last thing she needed. And it seemed this one had come upon a power that few should ever wield, much less without doing so responsibly. "So you wish to test yourself, here instead of the waking world?"

Anna's grin almost turned maniacal as it broadened, fangs glistening as she chuckled hollowly. Wooden, curved ram's horns erupted from her mask to hover just under her ears as her sclera blackened. "Why not? Limitless potential here," she pointed out. "I'm alone, and against two entities that required the Elements of Harmony to set straight, so…" She flexed her faux wings again, the moss rustling like feathers as they stilled. "I'm just leveling the playing field."

"So, Princess…" Discord piped up, swinging his hammer around a few times experimentally before hunching slightly as he clutched its shaft in both hands.

"What?" Luna grumbled, her magic etching floating runes into the air around her horn that formed into a circle.

"Does the name Gaea Everfree ring any bells?" Discord asked, eyes gleaming.

Luna wracked her brain for a moment, before shuddering as a half-wooden alicorn mare materialized in her mind's eye, albeit with a two-toned mane of streaked teal and grey-pinkish coat. "Why?"

"Well… she had somepony just like her on Fantasia, right down to making their very own cursed forest using the souls of any damned villagers who died within its depths. Only… a stallion. And it seems we might be dealing with… descendants of his," Discord said, tipping his chin at Anna. "After all… wouldn't the descendants be able to tap into that same power we're witnessing now?"

Luna paled considerably as the implications sank in. "... no…" she muttered, wings shuddering.

"Oh, yes… the town in the Everfree… Sunnytown, was it? I'm sure Celestia hoofed you all the details of that mess during your… reintegration period." Discord shook his head, face hardening and tail lashing. "Well, whatever the case, we can't let any of that cockamammy wannabe-chaos run amok, can we?"

Luna's face turned grim as her wings straightened. "No. We cannot," she said firmly.

Author's Note

You may have noticed, this is the longest single-chapter yet. This is one of the very few times I will stray from a single-chapter wordlength of 4-6k words.

Chapter LXXXXVI, Part I- Delving to Insanity

Author's Note

One of the insults used in this chapter was coined by the user Estee. It has been used with her permission.

Chapter LXXXXVI, Part I- Delving to Insanity

Discord struck first, his body a coiling blur as he closed the distance between himself and Anna. The crazed mare jumped back, eyes wide with surprise as the sledgehammer came crashing down onto her front left knee. As the attack struck with enough force to break her stance and send her sprawling to the ground, the house's topmost crevices of the roof opened up in twin hatches to launch blazing fireworks shaped like chairs that trailed rainbows in their wake.

These fireworks homed in on Anna with alarming speed and accuracy, and it was all she could do to stand up and take the blow. Confetti and cotton candy-smelling smoke erupted around her as scalding, raw pain danced upon her hide. "At the very least, you could've given us a nice housewarming party!" he chirped as the fireworks kept on raining, their vibrant explosions pushing her closer and closer to the edge of the plateau.

Luna took a moment to make sure the spell circle she was casting was stable, before briefly facehoofing at that one. Grumbling about terrible puns under her breath, she waited until the explosive reverie concluded with its smoke clearing before aiming her horn and enlarging the runes circling it. They expanded to about the neck-height of Celestia as did the circle containing them, and from between them a rain of silver, hollowed-out stars sprang forth in an upwards arc to twinkle in the moonlight as they cascaded down on the prone Anna.

This kicked up more dust, disturbing the runes carved into it and obscuring Anna in a sweltering cloud that did not settle until the last star struck somewhere in the confusion. She raised her head to survey the scene, tempted to fan the cloud away with her wings when Discord held up a paw with one digit extended straight up.

When the cloud cleared, though, Luna's jaw hit the floor. Anna had vanished from where she had fallen. She glanced around, looking for any signs of foul play when a close, oddly serene giggle hit her ears.

"Come on, Crater-Ass, you didn't expect me to actually fall into the magma, didja?" Anna taunted from somewhere nearby, her mere voice seemingly enough to cause the remaining runes in the soil to crackle to life. Ivy and bamboo sprung up at an alarmingly swift rate, and it was all Luna and Discord could do to backpedal over the edge and fly away before they could be snagged.

Once out of the danger, Luna's brow furrowed. "Only my sister can call me that!" she barked indignantly, face turning a slight shade of red as she scanned the plateau's underside for any signs of her opponent cheating.

"Oh please," Discord said, elbowing Luna in the shoulder without the force needed to unbalance her flight, "I called you that several times before being stoned the first time." When she glared at him, he rolled his eyes and swung his house-hammer at his side lazily. "Besides, I've found that insulting the other party during combat is a Fantasian custom. Helps to channel anger or some poppycock like that."

Luna groaned and turned back to the island, before her eyes gravitated to the moon overhead. Igniting her horn and letting her magic lance out to it, she pulled it across the sky until it hovered directly over the plateau, then over her and Discord when its light revealed nothing amidst the ivy and bamboo.

When its light shined upon the cavern sitting on the winding road, its surface rippled erratically before viridian dust fell off of something standing right in front of it. Luna smirked; those colors certainly didn't match the ashen hue of the structure. "Do you also know that the Moon represents illusions?" she mocked, smile widening as she saw Anna stomping a claw and swearing under her breath. "You couldn't cheat me like that even if I were blindfolded."

Discord chuckled. "Sneaky sneaky," he muttered, aiming his house-hammer at Anna before letting loose another cascade of fireworks that homed in right away. Anna's response was to gallop into the cavern without hesitation, and the fireworks skid to a halt right outside that same opening before rotating towards it and following.

Silence held for a moment before the top half of the spire, and thus the plateau, were sent flying into the air by way of explosions—along with Discord and Luna's petulant quarry, who went back to being airborne without the aid of her faux wings. Discord curled his tail around his weapon so he could free his hands to clap. "And there's our prima donna!" he howled, eyes glinting as his magic worked on the plateau to turn it upside-down right as Anna started to scrabble for it. "And now for the Dizzitron's inbred cousin, the Dizzy Delight!"

The plateau's top slammed into the broken bottom half with force, rocking itself with a jolt as Anna faceplanted into the underside's surface. This sent her bouncing momentarily prior to finding the surface rotating slowly. Unsure as to what was happening, she dug her claws into the soil and anchored herself further with vines when she contemplated getting her legs back beneath her.

She never got the chance to stand back up though; the plateau-turned-top began to spin faster and faster, tilting more and more to the sides as it rotated on its axis. As it did not have a sharpened tip in the center to balance it, it wobbled more as it gained speed. It wasn't long before Anna was screeching again, clinging for dear life as the top turned about unsteadily.

Then Discord procured a downscaled, palm-sized version of the top with a proper central pike balanced on the very tip of his claw. He let it gain speed for a few more seconds, then used his paw to strike the spire in a way that made it jolt sharply to the side. The larger version tipped as well, the sheer suddenness of it more than enough to launch Anna into the air for a second time—and she went careening right towards them.

Oh well, as good an opportunity as any to bring out a giant paper bulls-eye, Discord figured. He moved to the side and conjured the bullseye, its center emblazoned with his face and a caption reading "Hit me here for 100 points!" in ugly pastels that would have made most sane ponies' eyes burn from just looking at it. The minute he conjured it was the same minute that Anna crashed through the center, leaving a massive tear in her wake as the chunk she struck clung to her face.

In taking her time to remove the obstruction, which was less graceful and more scrambling to get her claws to grip it first, she forgot to flap her faux wings. When she realized this, she was already inches from the magma, and began shouting swears before being swallowed up by glowing crimson with a disturbingly water-like ripple emerging to commemorate her impact with its surface.

Then she was launched a third time, in this instance by the magma forming a spout and firing her out of it like a cannon. That time, though, she flapped to become airborne, and once she steadied herself she started to froth at the mouth as her more colorful oaths began racing out her brain and from between her teeth. "I fucking swear I'll rip your horns off and shove them up so far up your cockhole your balls will rupture!"

Discord lifted his paw and flung it down on his wrist with a pshaw! leaving his mouth. "And what good would that do you?" he retorted, returning his house-hammer to his claw to ready it for round two. "If anything, you'd probably get creamed with the effort. I doubt Lance would like that."

That made Anna's face turn three shades redder, and her vines grew a magnitude of thorns upon their surfaces that lashed out irritably. Her front claws clenched and a snort came from her snout. "Don't you dare—" she started, spittle flying out her mouth as her frothing continued.

"What's wrong, afraid of a little accident?" Discord teased, pumping his house-hammer and producing a click that only a cocked gun would have made. "Or worse yet—having it wither on you?"

That was all it took to get Anna racing to him with claws outstretched and a cry of primitive fury emerging from her throat. Luna winced at the shrillness of it; were glass present, it would have cracked by now. Discord yawned, sidewinded out of the way of the initial strike, and proceeded to thwack her on the back right between the faux wings with the hammer before she even turned around for a second attempt.

She plummeted back down to the magma in short order. Luna looked at Discord with wide eyes and a wrinkled snout. "How did you know that would set her off?" she demanded.

Discord grinned. "I took a few liberties around Irongrey Aerie while I was exploring Fantasia; turning invisible, just doing the usual stroll, seeing what else about the diplomats I could dig up." He pointed downwards to indicate Anna and added, "And it seems the child soldier has a bit more that she'd rather not discuss with anyone—even mentioning it most days is enough to get an arrow up the derriere." When Luna continued to look at him questioningly, he added, "Overheard a few soldiers talking about it, and did some snooping around to find some ash urns in a graveyard."

Luna sighed with a nod. "The ashes of…?" she pressed.

Discord shook his head, glancing down as Anna came flying back up with another wail of rage as her vines extended exponentially. "That, well… it's one of the reasons Lance has his reservations about foal-diddling," he said, dodging out of the way of the initial strike, only to have thorny brambles lock themselves around his wrists and ankles to draw them together. He attempted to pry his limbs loose, but more and more coils of ivy wreathed him in a blanket that soon smothered him.

Luna frowned, and conjured up another spell circle around her horn, backing off to set some distance between her and Anna as she cast. She did not cease her spellcasting as the vines entangling Discord had snapped off of their quarry, withered, and then turned into impressive lengths of rainbow-colored taffy that sprung off of the chaos entity with nothing more than some minor perforations decorating his body.

Anna's eyes twitched at this development, as did one corner of her mouth. "Oh, right, chaos…" she grumbled irritably, watching as Discord healed his wounds with nothing more than a snap of his claw before he charged her again with the house-hammer raised. She lit her horn and teleported out of harm's way, reappearing above the now-ruined rock outcrop prior to summoning the wood-and-vines harp in one barky crook.

Luna turned to Anna and tilted her head, holding her spell for just a moment longer. "A harp? But I thought—" she started.

Discord finished for her, "She had a flute?" He huffed and cocked his hammer like a gun once more, causing the roof hatches to open up in preparation of dispensing another payload. As he did that, both saw her plucking a few strings with her other claw experimentally. "Well, nevermind what instrument the spoony bard over there wields—mind what she's going to use it for!" He charged once again, eyes glinting as chair-shaped fireworks erupted from his weapon to flank him on all sides in a colorful array that would have put even the Wonderbolts to shame.

Anna responded by conjuring a triad of arrows, each crystal a different color as she loaded them into one of the strings of the harp and angled the instrument like a makeshift bow. As soon as Discord got himself in range, she fired the triple shot point-blank in his face. Teleporting to dodge the hail of fireworks and burning agony, reappearing at a safe distance to watch Discord's expression shift to wide-eyed surprise as the trifecta of crystalized pain began to spread across his body from the snout downwards.

Flames sprouted from crimson growths, more glowing arrows of pure ice thunked him in a myriad of places and spread their icy tendrils, and lightning danced around him to the extent that his skeleton blazed pure white from within. Even partially stiffening with frost, Discord did a little unwitting jig, contorting into a myriad of poses in rapid succession that had Anna smirking with delight. Even his hammer danced, twirling and throwing itself in the air to match its master's movements.

Luna noted this, worry flashing in her eyes at the spectacle. "... somepony taught her crystal magic…" she muttered in dismay, sighing in preparation and anticipation of finding herself turned into a pincushion. "Normally, side-effects manifesting like that tend to run on a roulette's principle…" Nonetheless, she fired off her spell, and a much larger, more spread-out shower of hollowed-out silvern stars rained down onto the scene, each and every one turning to convene upon Anna.

Too distracted with her amusement at Discord's plight, Anna had left herself open for another attack that she took the brunt of. The stars hit fast and hard; one wing was clipped to its wooden ulna with prejudice, and the bark on her legs was sheared off in a myriad of places. She tumbled out of the air, unable to steady herself with only one fully functioning faux wing, and yet the stars continued to fall down on and with her as strikes kept landing swift and true. Down, down, down she went into the magma with twinkling comets still following her through the descent to what seemed like the inevitable landing.

But before she could splash into it, she enveloped herself in a green light and vanished mere inches from its surface, leaving the stars to explode as they struck the burning sea below. Luna's expression soured; frown deepening and eyes narrowing, she scanned above and below to see where the petulant Fantasian had gone off to this time. She felt a gust of wind blowing against her back, and turned around almost immediately.

There, in the distance, was Anna, self-levitating as her faux wings started to regenerate. Harp in claw and strings being plucked almost carelessly, her eyes twinkled in what Luna could only determine was demented delight. Wind pulsed from the instrument, the air distorted with each fresh note, and the entirety of the object glowed with vibrant viridian runes that seemed alive. "You wouldn't mind a little cold here, would you? It would certainly be a nice change of pace," Anna teased with a smug grin, as the light from above dimmed suddenly.

Luna and Discord looked up and gaped. Clouds were gathering above, thick and dark as coal, crackling with lightning and already letting down heaps upon heaps of snow. The gales picked up in seconds, and so did the snow that rode them. Within a minute, even the glowing crimson sea beneath had dimmed considerably as the frozen particles impacted its surface again and again, sending steaming vitriol back up that made Luna think of a duality when she felt it.

Barely able to see the other, Luna and Discord then shared a glance. "She can manipulate the weather?!" Luna barked, lifting a hoof to point at where Anna had last been seen before she called down the storm.

"Apparently so!" Discord yelled back as the storm around them rose in pitch until the din was almost deafening. "But she doesn't do it often because of the ectoplasms on Fantasia! Those little buggers can turn volatile towards even their benefactor!"

"Then what, pray tell, do we do!?" Luna called, yelping and darting away from Discord as an arrow sailed right across her snout, carried by the fell winds. In doing so, she realized she was struggling more and more to see Discord's distinct form as snow and steam worked in tandem to blind her with each and every second.

Discord tried snapping his talon's digits, but another arrow sailed from the gloom to strike him in the side of the palm. He grumbled as red crystals began sprouting once more to immobilize the limb, and simply turned to study the instrument he held in his paw. Grinning, he waved the house-hammer in an arc, letting loose another torrent of flying chairs that twisted to aim behind him. Turning in that direction as his claw exploded into flames, he watched as the prismatic trails of his little rockets dimmed and dimmed into the gloom.

Yet amidst the howling winds, much to his delight, were the tell-tale explosions that came a second later. He whirled as the sound came from his left, and saw light flashing in that direction—muted light, but present nonetheless. He shifted his burning talon to angle the house-hammer in that direction and called out, "Looks like we found her, Hellen! Time to give her the Discordian Diplomacy!"

The house-hammer reacted instantly, growing boosters on its underside as mechanical arms flopped out from the sides and a mechanical dragon-like head from the front that roared like a lich-wyrm with its emergence. As the boosters ignited with fire, Discord shifted to stand on it and balance himself in a way that would have made Pinkie Pie proud. The weapon launched with a whistle, and Discord steered it like a surfboard as he used the very winds to help guide him to his target.

The explosions of light and sound grew brighter and louder as the gales tried to sweep him into their turmoil, but Discord rode them high and low without losing his balance. As he did this, he clapped his hands to conjure winged pigs bearing knightly armor and halberds that also zeroed in on the colors and noises filtering through the snow-filled smog.

The pigs flew fast and true, disappearing into the gloom before the distinct crackling of bark and shrill screams of bloody murder pierced the white vortex all around them. Seconds later, he came upon the reason for the screeching: the pigs had skewered Anna's faux wings as well as right through her legs, with one even using its halberd to remove the harp from her claws while another used the groove between axehead and speartip to hold Anna's horn by the spiral. She thrashed her head, trying to cast, but all her magic did was make her do a rather shoddy jig with limited movements as lightning coursed her body.

He grinned widely. "And now for the coup de grâce, don't you think?" he cheered as the pigs oinked and squealed in his direction, eyes and halberds far too focused on their now-immobilized quarry. With the OK of his winged hogs, he swung the house-hammer again and struck right between the immobilized wings with a blow hard enough to dislodge them clean from their scarring. The hogs let go, and Anna plummeted once more into the gloom.

Then, the winds shifted and the air distorted beneath his tail. Discord looked down and grinned upon seeing a black sphere growing steadily in size, shrinking slightly before re-expanding at every other increment. Seeing it contract and undulate as it grew in mass and strength reminded him of the irregular beating of a labored heart. Still, as it started to suck snow and air inside, he noticed it wasn't shrieking—in fact, the sheer silence it produced had started to drown out the fell winds that Anna had summoned forth.

The orb kept expanding, a veritable void that only hungered for anything and everything within its grasp. Discord peered a bit closer, lifting both paw and talon to extend his eyes between the digits into crude binoculars that enabled him to witness the moment that Anna was swallowed up by the distortion that hadn't been there moments ago.

And only when she was swallowed up had the sphere stopped growing. It held still for a moment, then exploded with enough force to send a wave of darkness all around its circumference that knocked even Discord and his flying pigs right out of their aerial balance. He tumbled out of the air, and fell down with all the grace of a wet noodle split in twain as his wings flapped for dear life.

He didn't know how long it took for him to land on his face upon suspiciously solid ground, or how badly his spine had turned itself into an accordion, but when he was able to lift his head up to glimpse his surroundings, he found Princess Luna alighting to land in front of him with her horn glowing in a black aura that reverted back to its natural blue in seconds. "I didn't know you could pull black holes out from under your tail," he grumbled as he struggled to get decent footing for a moment. He yelped as his spine cricked in places, but soon enough he was over the minor agony of having to straighten his body out. "Can we not do that in these dreamscapes?"

Luna flinched, frowning sheepishly. "Well… I wanted to remove the bark without burning it off of our petulant Fantasian…" she muttered.

Discord stood up, a paw to his back that pushed against himself until another crack between his bones sang out its last breath and enabled him to stand straight again. He waved his talon and conjured his house-hammer, gripping its shaft as he saw a decidedly smoking crater behind Luna, and more magma beyond its edges. "Well why couldn't you just tear it off her body with your levitation gimmick? It's what her other two compadres do if she gets out of line," he said, walking around Luna to peer at the destruction she had wrought.

Luna sighed and cantered over, taking a moment to look up to confirm if the snow was still swirling above her head. It was, and with a muttered curse she glanced to the crater as she neared its edge. In the center, looking as though she had been flattened into the ground by an anvil larger than her body, was a barkless, harpless Anna with all four of her legs bruised and bloody and her face smashed into the dirt.

Another winged pig was summoned with a snap of a paw, and Discord directed it to the prone Fantasian. The hog squealed, flew down, and poked her head with a hoof. There wasn't a response. The hog squealed and poked again, garnering nothing. Then it threw its front hooves in the air, oinked a curse in suidae, and began pronking along her backside with all four hooves jabbing quite firmly into and around her spine and scars with the ferocity of a bucking bull and the patience of a hunting honey badger.

Even then, Anna had yet to move, as more new bruises started to decorate her body thanks to the pig's hooves. The pig snorted in agitation after a good ten minutes pronking to no avail, and flew off into the gloom with a sour frown on its face.

Discord whistled, impressed that little tinny seemed to have had a meager effect in waking Anna back up. "Well now… looks like that did the job alright," he muttered. "Looks like she's now in super dreamland."

"Super dreamland?" Luna asked.

"It's when you pass out in the dream world," Discord replied with a sigh. Then he saw a twitching, bloodied hoof and perked up. "Oh?" He watched as, shakily and with a suffering groan half-muffled by dirt, Anna rose back up with her legs almost buckling from her injuries. Her head rose as she steadied herself, and much to Luna's dismay and Discord's curiosity, her eyes were still crimson even as murder flickered within their changed spheres. What's more, the scowl had returned on her now-muddied face, only accentuated by the few bruises that managed to peek through the second coating of grunge.

She trembled as one hoof almost slipped out, stopping its course just as abruptly when a stray rock stood up to bar its path. This made that leg ooze out more blood as she promptly righted it again to ensure that her body wouldn't sway. "Oh ha ha, very funny," she snapped, grunting as another hoof tried to slip on the bloodied grime beneath her. She steadied again, managing to keep her gaze locked onto Luna and Discord. "Just rip the wood right off me why don't ya? Well, that horseshit's getting old really fast now."

"Took her long enough to start tiring of it," Discord mused, unable to hide the slight grin on his face. It wasn't like his life depended on it right this moment, and in fact it only broadened when the wood and vines began to reemerge on Anna's body, starting with the wings and this time skittering across her body to reform its previously-shattered armor. "You do know you're setting yourself up for infection, right?" he taunted.

"Oh please, it's not like I'm immortal over here!" Anna barked as her mask came next, regrowing its horns and this time arcing about to cover her cheeks and merge with the web-like pattern that came to cover her neck once more.

Discord shook his head. "On the contrary, you still have the Greenwood Blight. Twilight Sparkle filled me in on aaaaaaaall the sordid details. So, you are," he said bluntly, maintaining his smile. "You just don't have to worry about permanently becoming a whole tree anymore." His smile widened further still, and outside of these circumstances would have made his mother happy. "It's also a side-effect of, well, being a descendant from an absolute fucking lunatic."

That made Anna's faux wings bristle. "And how are you so sure I'm related to that hexed bundle of charcoal?"

"Alicorns only beget more alicorns most of the time, so… somepony down his family tree was bound to have both wings and a horn," Discord responded, tail swishing and wings fluttering as he spun his house-hammer lazily in his grip. "Assuming somepony wasn't born with either, and managed to weasel their way out of fueling a geas." He cocked his head. "A bit of eavesdropping helped me learn that little detail."

Anna's face began turning a healthy shade of red beneath her bark and mud mask. Her horn started to spark fitfully. "Why I oughta…" Then, her eyes widened momentarily, and her lips pursed as she seemed to consider something which had not crossed her mind before. She eyed the house-hammer for a moment, before her muzzle split into a toothy, gleaming grin. She waved her horn and conjured some wood, chisels of various sizes, and sandpaper before going to work on the first chunk of wood that looked promising.

Luna was about to open her mouth, only to close it when Discord held his paw in front of her barrel. When she turned to him, he shook his head with his smile melting—"Watch," he seemed to say. She turned back to the crater and watched as Anna worked on crafting… something whose form she was unsure of.

Anna worked furiously, cutting new pieces, seeing if they would fit, and discarding and adding more to the fray as the chisels shaved wood with reckless abandon while the sandpaper smoothed out that which was forming between her front claws. Sometimes, she would break off pieces of vine from her own body to tie two stubborn parts together, and they burrowed into the wood of their own accord to fuse the pieces as though they were another fresh body ready to hex.

When the main frame had been made, Anna summoned forth some strings and smaller nubs of wood to fit into the configuration. Magic made quick work of this, almost trivializing it to the extent that Luna found herself a bit fixated with the woodworking skills being displayed before her. Already, she was making a mental list of a few craftsponies who specialized with woodcraft that would more than likely be jealous of the demented crafting taking place before her. But, that mental list was not without those who would scoff and upturn their own snouts at the effort—were Chanson Cheval to see this, he'd be amongst those throwing a hissyfit about it.

Luna scoffed to herself, wondering whose bright idea it was to include him in the Canterlot Orchestra and who deigned fit to let him out the same day the Fantasians arrived for their diplomacy session. She idly started to blame nepotism for that first one, when she noticed Anna was slowing down her workmareship by a considerable margin. She beheld the item in her magic, a second rune-inscribed harp as tall as she was without the faux wings and wood-lengthened tail impeding her efforts, self-levitating around with faux wings flapping as she scanned every piece and part down to the tiniest splinter.

When Anna was satisfied with it, she clutched it in her front claws and span around to face Luna and Discord again as she aligned her hind claws with the strings. "Let's see if I can do this with my back legs…" she muttered to herself, horn still alight as she put the remaining pieces of wood that hadn't gone into the final product into the aether, along with the chisels and sandpaper and spare strings that still hung around.

"The ambidextrousness of a gryphon?" Discord grinned as he made the remark. "Seems she has more surprises for us yet. Good for me—we can prepare easier now!" He readied the house-hammer in his grip, and the mechanical head popped out the front to start squealing and jabbering in protest. He turned to his weapon and shook his head. "Listen, Hellen, we've already gone over this—the Fantasians like to fight, and we might need to deliver another concussion soon."

Hellen responded by sprouting mechanical arms at the sides, and crossing them in a pout as gears span in its mouth to form something of an intricate swear in magitek. "I promise, I'll make this battle as quick as I can! Just stop being fussy!" Discord muttered, which caused Hellen to nod before it retracted its head and limbs into its house-shaped body.

Luna rolled her eyes and chose to ignore Discord's banter with his own weapon, and watched as Anna carefully played some of the strings with her hind claws. Magic coursed around her as the sound reverberated throughout the crater, pulsing in waves at first before musical notes began to coalesce into existence. With a nod, Anna conjured a small, leatherless composition book and started flipping through its pages to see what would fit best for her situation.

"A composition book…" Luna tilted her head, even as her inner cynic nodded in approval. Well, with a magical, freshly-constructed instrument it did make some sense to keep such a booklet handy.

But this only begged the question of what Anna was going to use it for.

It wasn't long before her unspoken question was answered, as an intricate spell circle was carved into the mucky earth with a hail of arrows that moved to their blighted mistress's will, each one moving to the surprisingly rhythmic plucking of the harp's strings and the beat of its magical pulses. Twin circles were hewn beneath her, right in the middle of the larger third as squares and stars were scrawled into the circumference. As far as runes went it was surprisingly barebones, just enough to contain the effects of what she was casting.

It took mere seconds for Luna to recognize the structure of the spell. She flared her wings, snorting as her head shook and her own horn glowed once again. More hollowed stars appeared at her side, and floated up above to draw an intricate runic circle in the snow-filled sky. Anna saw this and turned her head down with her spellbook moving to rest in front of her snout, faux wings ceasing their flapping to shield her head even as she continued to play.

Before Luna could cast her will upon the completing spell circle up above, Anna began… singing. An ancient, poisonous tongue started to emerge in a melodious series of syllables, its dialect lost to Luna and Discord as the harp's magical pulse started to strengthen. The circle within the crater had completed, arrows cementing its circumference and form by sprouting red crystals to keep the mud from distorting its carefully-etched shape.

Kræhasch melofumn astræ
Illeritom framalsh krunndu-æ

Grolm frakalsh esthrulla
hrafalkai remensch hrukulla

Vines erupted between the crystals, glowing with blighted power that pulsed through the earth and worked its way through the crater, halting only at its edges and forming an intricate web that continued to move with the foreign words that Anna had spoken. The red crystals moved to envelop the overgrown tangle of plants, reflecting the magma and whatever meager lights were above in a vicious sheen that would have looked beautiful if not for the fact that they seemed to have sinister purpose behind them.

The ground rumbled, and the crystals above it rattled dangerously as bit by bit, they began to erupt into flames. Spreading from the center out, they climbed higher and higher, spewing forth an ashen cloud that obscured Anna and her harp from sight as gales of wind moved into the crater to help kick them farther upwards. Luna scrunched her nose, eyes darting forth between her own runic circle and the phenomenon splaying out before her hooves.

At that point, Luna proceeded to will her runic circle to fire. Beams of light shot downward, glowing with raw power as they rained down onto the crater below. More ash was kicked up, and the fires began spreading faster to further spread their sooty mass that only obscured more and more of the impact zone beneath it.

Yet despite all this, Luna heard the beams impacting something before fizzling out against it. The only indicator was the brief flashes of light that emanated from the crater's center, blinding one moment and muted the next. The beams continued firing, yet whatever it was they were hitting had apparently held; not a sound of anything breaking was to be heard.

Only as the crystals finished immolating themselves and the runic circle lost its power did the ash cloud settle, revealing a red shield hovering above Anna—and the distinctly black-and-red, metal plated shield-arm that had conjured its field. Attached to it was a black torso with a stout head, and another arm carrying a sword as long as it was tall. Beneath that was a set of thrusters keeping the object aloft, and it tilted its stout head to direct a crimson visor towards Luna and Discord.

The thing lowered its shield, and Anna did likewise with her faux wings, sneering at the pair at the crater's edge. "If you're wondering where I got this hunk of magitek from, well… we were able to repair it after putting it down in what used to be a waste disposal facility," she said, patting the side of the magitek with her claw. "And then we had thaumatically converted it to make it so it comes whenever we want it to."

Discord smirked, tail swishing about more fervently now. "And it has its own AT field? Clever…" he mused, his grin turning toothy at this development.

"Whatever happened to 'leveling the playing field?'" Luna grumbled as the hunk of magitek brandished its sword, visor gleaming with intent.

"About that, I couldn't help but notice the underhoofed tactics you two had been using. So I figured, 'why not get down and dirty too?'" Anna retorted, grinning in a manner that had some smugness painting her features. "Besides, it's just the most convenient excuse I could have gotten to use the Praetorian, thanks for that by the way!" She waved a claw in the pair's direction, then curled all but one claw as she looked to the Praetorian and said, "Batter up!"

With that, the Praetorian moved—swiftly enough, with sword raised, that Luna and Discord could only see the crimson trail its thrusters were leaving behind. They had but seconds to duck out of the way, which they did not waste to scramble to either side of the magitek as it swiped with enough force to dislodge some of the magma at the crater's edge.

Luna and Discord both frowned, starting to reconsider their battle strategy as the Praetorian hovered back to regard them both. The two nodded to each other, and readied themselves once again for round three.

Chapter LXXXXVI, Part II- Turbulent Shadows

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter LXXXXVI, Part III- Restoration of Order

Author's Note

And now, for the new year, here's something some may think I had to pull out of my ass in order to finish this three-parter. Look, I've been clogged by idea bunnies that all decided to unify into a nation and attack, okay? If I need to, I'll rewrite this three-parter in the future to flow better and better justify everything therein, but I can rest now that I've managed to dismantle the idea bunny nation.

Chapter LXXXXVI, Part III- Restoration of Order

With the arrow in her tongue-wrapped maw and icy claws sticking to the bark of the massive tree, Katie snorted and shook her head, wondering just what on Fantasia had happened to make Nightmares manifest into something this large. Something like this could not have possibly slipped past Lance's attention… could it? But then again, she recalled how he reacted to Pestilence's presence, how little everyone knew about the alicorns of yore, and shuddered. Were Nightmares really this covert these days?

She continued her climb after steeling her nerves. It would be a slow, precarious trek, that much she knew. How far up she had to go, she couldn't say, but she would need to muster her fastest pace if she were to reach Anna before the tree could close itself around her. This was gonna be one hell of a story to explain to Lance when all was said and done, but with Discord backing her up, she could very well find that a cakewalk compared to this.

She would take the insubordination charge any day after this mess was over and done with. The roots weren't a problem; she'd been at least able to slip past them undetected so far, and they could only go so high up even despite their immense size. The ivy would be another issue entirely, but she had the tools to deal with it if she had to. She took a moment to scan the perilous path above her.

Great, at least three Praetorians studded the surface, and that was what her meager sight could allow itself to see in this storm. There were probably others congregating around the closing hole. But while going around them seemed easy, for all she knew the tree could have knots surrounding them, making climbing and flying risky.

She kept going despite the obstacles. She'd have to. There simply was no other choice. As delicately as she could, she began to maneuver around the first one, its arms and head buried into the bark with fearsome knots that would be a nightmare for ordinary climbers to overcome. The knots were lined, writhing with ivy, without a hint of kudzu to be seen. The bark around it shuddered as it fired off another volley of lasers, splintering it with the effort as Katie began to crest its buried underside.

She halted for a bit to see if the barrels would relocate to her position. Nope, they didn't, and she breathed a sigh of relief through her nostrils before pressing forward, careful to keep to the bark. The ivy writhed, perhaps sensing her, and shifted to home in. She let go with her front legs and swiveled back, hinds rotating in their sockets to help her bend backwards. The volley of plants shot past her, grazing the tip of her snout before she snipped them with impunity. The tree swayed, trying to shake her off, but her icy grip held tight, and she used the swinging momentum to reorient her body and replanted her front hooves to better secure herself.

Time to keep going. Upward she heaved herself, scaling past the first knots in the trunk as the cut vines shrank away from her to relocate elsewhere. The tree still kept shaking, though, so she had to be careful with where she planted her icy claws if she had a chance of seeing this through.

Another scream cut through the storm, distorted with agony and ethereal echoes that could have only come from unnatural possession. Katie shuddered at the noise, her heart spiking with dread for the first time in a long while. She pressed on, cresting the knots as the tree stopped its shaking for the moment for just long enough she could set about securing a foothold in the more evenly flat parts of the trunk.

She wondered why a whole fleet of Nightmares would come after a single pony, before shaking the thought from her head and scaling higher. Such musings could come later, and she was sure the answers she would have conjured would not have been pleasant in the slightest. She had a ways to go before she could reach the second Praetorian, and all that was poking out of that one were its barrels, themselves intertwined with bark. At least that one wouldn't be moving anytime soon. Even better, there was hardly any ivy around that one, and less pronounced knots than the first.

In fact, it almost seemed too good to be true, so she did not send caution to the howling winds just yet. She approached it as fast as she could and then veered sharply to its left, scuttling hastily in a wide berth around it as it launched another volley of lasers into the storm. She heard musical twangs on her right and turned, shying away from a swath of ivy that was fixated around another monstrous harp and scores of ammunition to keep it occupied.

The third Praetorian was the farthest yet, at least a thousand feet up high, and its arms free to flail as they liked. It even had its sword in hand, just peachy. It seemed to want out of the humongous tree pretty badly, judging by its violent mannerisms and its haphazard slashing. That whole section alone was shaking with its struggles, and not even the ivy could hope to keep it still.

The crown of the tree shifted, seed-spitting flowers turning inward towards the trunk as the wraithling reached the halfway point between Praetorians B and C. She had to suppress a shriek as the sound of sawing wood filled the air as the flowers thrust themselves into the bark and began jittering in and out of a third of the surface, with some deciding to go all the way and come clean through the other side of the tree. The instant she saw the flowers racing toward her, heralded by flying shreds of sawdust, she let go and dropped a hundred feet before replanting her shoes onto the tree to avoid the flowers altogether.

But those crazy tendrils decided they wanted to kick it up a notch. They spread out slowly, almost in a mesmerising dance, covering more and more of the tree as they threw splinters everywhere in their wake. Katie was forced to drop back down all the way to Praetorian B's underside and hide there, squeezing herself into a knot just big enough to accommodate her tiny form and the arrow to which she clung.

Good thing too, because after that the flowers missed her entirely. She could feel the vibrations in the wood, and hear the shuddering and sawing as though it happened right next to her ears as they passed her by. Whether they didn't want to cut up the Praetorian or what, she couldn't guess—and the flowers' concerns weren't hers anyway. After a moment to reposition herself, she clambered out of her temporary shelter and surveyed the situation.

The flowers were still hacksawing away at the tree, leaving thin cutlines jaggedly scoring that whole expanse of bark, but impressively they hadn't managed to actually knock the upper half over at all. Perhaps the wood was regenerating where it was most vital? Still, now she had a new obstacle to contend with, and Katie was half-tempted to stand on a mountain in the midst of a storm like this for the singular purpose of calling Godcat and Faust a pair of bastards. She didn't, and instead mared up, rolled her shoulders, and prepared to deal with this like any adult would.

She started to regain the ground she had lost to avoid the flowers. Flying would have been nice right about now, but these damnable things kept sawing too fast and haphazardly to make the risk worth it. On top of that, they were too clustered together. She paused as a flower-laden branch almost nicked her on the snout, and took another moment to see when the largest gap in the bunch of blighted bramble would show itself, if at all.

There! She snapped her wings open and seized her chance, letting go of the trunk and beating at the same time so she would have immediate lift. Some wind blew from below her as she achieved liftoff, and helped to propel her through the massive gap in flowers all the way to two hundred feet below the thrashing Praetorian C. Katie would have crowed if she were able; she replanted herself on the bark and closed her wings, scuttling faster to avoid the off-chance of any flowers grazing her tail.

And still Praetorian C thrashed in its meager bonds, trying to escape. Katie scanned as much of the bark away from it as she could, noting its struggling radius and any and all monstrous harps in the vicinity of that radius. Some harps were scattered around here and there, but none seemed particularly close to Praetorian C. Using this fact to her advantage, she simply scuttled as far around the magitek behemoth as she could, pausing twice to ensure the particularly violent tremors wouldn't launch her back off too soon.

She kept going, moving as far from the tremors as she could before surveying the situation again. Ahead lay more harps, with whole wreaths of ivy entangling the knots surrounding them and the ammunition. Only one Praetorian was nestled in this mass, fully immobile save for its exposed barrels, but harps and arrows dotted the circumference of its knots in a suspiciously perfect circle ready and waiting to fire off another hail of sharpness and agony.

The ivy entangling that whole thing had to at least be a solid mile long, too. Katie evaluated the mass of green and suffering that now stood in her way, and thought. Flying would be risky, were she to get caught in a maelstrom of projectiles at the wrong time—and even if that weren't the case, the ivy would probably try to swat her aside anyway just so it could have a clear shot at Discord and Luna.

She turned her head to see where they had gone. The tree began to creak and groan as it moved, lashing its flowers everywhere in an attempt to snag the pair that she couldn't find in the storm. She jolted along with the tree when another laser of white light sailed through the gloom to shear off a massive branch above her, pointing straight down and barely missing her as she jumped aside.

Katie watched with wide, startled orbs as the branch creaked, cracked, and was sent tumbling down with all its flowers flowing gracefully behind it, spitting a spray of smoking seeds as it somersaulted from the roots and was lost to the storm. Katie glanced up and squeaked as the Praetorian that was trapped, along with most of that ivy and the harps and ammunition, came barreling down a second later with less grace and more clunking. For a supposedly better-built model of a superweapon, it looked as though the light managed to completely flatten the barrels and its chest, making it spark fitfully as it went to join the lost branches.

She looked to where the Praetorian was. Well, that whole side of tree now had a long, angry scorch mark carved into its surface stretching from crown to roots, and it was still smoking. That ruled out that section entirely, Katie thought with no small amount of annoyance. The tree groaned and shook, that time accompanied by the distant scream of a mare whose high pitch and drawn-out keen made the wraithling guess was panic and pain. It dragged on for far longer than it should have, and it did not cut off abruptly.

No, it petered out upon reaching its crescendo, fading into a lingering echo that managed to persist even in the howling winds around them. The resulting silence born of that scream caused Katie to look around to see if she could spot any wayward Nightmares lingering about, but she found nothing, not so much as a peep of ill intent. She shuddered, wondering if she were already too late to act. Just how long was she climbing this tree for the Nightmares to suddenly up and vanish like this?

She turned her head to the far side of the scorch mark upon hearing the quite unexpected sound of a door opening. She found an oaken door swaying in the wind at her side, through which Fluttershy came through with Pinkie Pie and an armed, grim-faced NoLegs on her back. Oddly, the Mythonias were both wearing their Elements of Harmony necklaces, and Katie wondered where the rest of the full set was. They raced to her immediately, and opted not to dally with the explanation. "Discord and Luna told us what happened!" Pinkie called, alarm shining in her eyes and an unusually firm frown decorating her hardened expression. "We're here to help!"

Katie's orbs twinkled, and she gave a chirp of delight at this. She could have used this help when she was first teleported to the roots! She looked to Fluttershy, who wore a similar expression on her face. "Here," Fluttershy said, flying over to pick up the wraithling with her forehooves. Katie dislodged herself from the bark and let herself be carried up the rest of the way to the closing hole in the trunk. They were alarmed when they found that the whole thing was closed even more, just barely big enough for an adult pony to fit through if that, and had to form a small cue line to squeeze inside.

Katie went first of course, being the smallest and most fragile. NoLegs went in after with a mew, sword drawn. Fluttershy followed, and Pinkie brought up the rear, having a bit of trouble before pushing through without much of a fight from the tree. They were then wreathed in darkness as the holes perforating the bark cage closed in haste, with a dim red glow in the center being subsumed in shadow. Therein, something sinister was forming as the shadows were sucked into the crimson glow, and viridian tendrils laced with blood red energy seeped throughout the inside of the cage, providing a wicked light that contrasted with both itself and the wood of the cage.

With the shadows dispelled, the group found a tall, statuesque form standing in the center of the room. The tan-beige of her coat had blackened to a sooty obsidian, and the wood adorning legs and false wings and tail blackened to an unnatural, purpleish char. The leaves were shriveled and desiccated and an ugly brown and so were the vines. The mane rippled in a corporeal, sickly energy of glowing green reminiscent of venom, sprinkled with wisteria branches sprouting from her scalp and flowing with that mane. Burning, hellish eyes regarded the four, pupils slit like a cat's and every bit as predatory. Burnt armor framed the face, two ram's horns curling at the sides before jutting up at their ends to frame a long unicorn horn rivaling that of Celestia's.

Pinkie's pupils shrank at the sight. "Oh no, she's gone Nightmare! Looks like we'll really have to give it our all!" she shrieked, before reaching into her mane and pulling out an entire cannon, wheels and all, and plopping it at her side.

Oddly, the Nightmarified Anna hadn't opted to say anything yet. She merely regarded the group for a little longer and smirked, showing jagged fangs that were white and pale, further backed up by row after row of wooden and bloodstained mini-stakes that hadn't skewered her tongue. Her mouth looked more like two beds of nails hinged together in an unsightly display that hurt just to look at. Maybe having that many teeth would have made speaking a bit difficult, Katie reflected, but even so she found her continued silence unsettling.

NoLegs bristled and summoned a small shield, just big enough to cover him as his fur crawled. Fluttershy, meanwhile, steeled herself, expression firm and unwavering as her wings flapped once. The silence held, even as Pinkie climbed on top of her cannon to aim. She fired first, sending out not a cannonball as Katie had expected, but rather some odd type of ammunition that struck the barky armor and exploded into confetti and glitter and painful shrapnel that would have given most sentient creatures pause.

But the Nightmarified Anna hadn't so much as flinched. She simply stood there and took the attack as though it hadn't hurt her at all. Why, even the armor hadn't crumbled in the slightest. The retaliation was swift and brutal: vines erupted from the cage with the stomping of one barky hoof, which seized Pinkie's cannon and tightened around it with enough strength to crush it. Pinkie flinched as the cannon was reduced to scrap with extreme impunity, but she reached into her mane and fiddled around for a bit before pulling out another cannon and plopping it on the floor as if to challenge the notion that she had come unprepared.

The Nightmarified Anna barked out a hollow, mirthless, deeper laugh at this, even as her eyes narrowed and her sneer widened to show off the impromptu bed of nails her mouth had become. Her elongated horn flashed in viridian-crimson, and an echoing, demonic voice comparable to a contralto filled into the heads of her challengers.

"Is that all you've got?"

Pinkie's eyes narrowed, flashing with conviction. "Not at all, silly filly," she said in a low voice. At that moment, a beam of white light tore through the cage, revealing the open stormbound skies once more. Discord and Luna teleported into the cage, both frowning grimly as they drew their weapons once again.

Discord patted Fluttershy's head with his paw. "I guess I have your permission to percussively persuade her," he said, giving a slight grin. Fluttershy nodded and smiled at him, before turning back to the Nightmarified pony before them. Hellen jabbered, arms flailing as it did its best to glare at their adversary.

Katie snapped her wings open and made to hover in the air, her chitin crawling at that unnerving expression still plastered on their adversary's face. Lance was going to be reading someone the riot act later, she knew, and hopefully she wouldn't bear the brunt of it. She watched as NoLegs yowled and lept, sword gleaming as he reached the apex of his jump.

He didn't get the chance to strike. Anna whipped her head once, and her mane-branches swung with her, seizing the cat and sending him hurtling face-first into a wall. NoLegs got back up, however, and summoned his cornucopia to rattle the cage with its low drone. The Nightmare-possesed mare stumbled with a shriek, front claws racing to cover her ears as her vines lashed out every which-way they could go.

Discord seized his chance; he rushed over and swung Hellen at Anna's chest at point-blank range. She went up into the air, and hit the ceiling wings-first with a sickening crack. Luna charged up another beam and fired before she had the chance to descend, striking her full force with blinding white-hot light. When the beam disintegrated, the Nightmarified pony fell down, the wood and vines charred off and her body smouldering in places. Even then, she got up after a moment and shook her head, the wood reforming with another flash of her horn.

"What might do you possess against the immortal Agonizing Ailment?!" the fiend telepathically roared, regenerated false wings spread as wide as they could go. The light of the cage brightened, and vines sprung forth from it with thorns and poison ready and bared. Luna shook her head and waved her horn, conjuring white flames to burn away the fresh undergrowth with impunity.

NoLegs and Discord rushed in together, forming a pincer attack on both sides of Agonizing Ailment in the hopes they could cut her down where she stood. However, she snapped her wings out to the sides and swatted them both away, sending sharpened brown leaves with them that cut into their flesh as they hit the burning walls. Pinkie and Luna charged at the same time, sword and cannon poised to strike, but massive tendrils of wood backhanded them just the same as it had done before.

Pinkie skid to a landing on her hooves, however, and her cannon rolled to her side before flopping on one of its wheels. Her Element of Harmony glowed, healing the cuts and bruises already forming from the counterattack. "I know she's in there somewhere…" she muttered through grit teeth, eyes unblinkingly focused on Agonizing Ailment, who turned to regard her as the other three got back to their feet.

Agonizing Ailment still smirked infuriatingly smugly, as though basking in some sort of superiority complex. "When I depart for the waking world… all of Fantasia will know my might. What hope do any of you have to stop me?" she telepathically challenged, chuckling mirthlessly.

Pinkie's eyes narrowed. "I know I can help keep you here," she said bluntly. She readied the cannon once again, but instead of firing more odd ammunition she climbed into it after setting it upright and lighting the fuse. She fired herself out, front hooves poised to strike.

Agonizing Ailment made to move, only to blink and falter when Pinkie zipped out of sight. She turned about, wondering where she had gone, only to feel hooves grasping her elongated horn and tying something to it. With a whinny and a cry of startlement, she reared up and tried to buck at nothing in particular, prancing about as she realized Pinkie managed to skitter on top of her.

But Pinkie held tight, even as sharpened, thorny vines raced to cut into her legs in an attempt to coax her off. She tied several large, almost bursting balloons to that horn with streamers and confetti, making sure to stuff them into as many grooves of that horn as she could. Some had tiny, almost indecipherable runes facing outward, pulsing with pink energy that waited to be sprung.

With that done, Pinkie turned to the false wings and seized both in her forelegs at the base, even as they flapped in an ungraceful attempt to dislodge her. She pulled with all her might, channeling all of her earth pony strength into the act with fire in her eyes. Agonizing Ailment bucked a few more times before managing to throw her off with a violent rearing up, only to scream as the false wings went with her opponent in the process.

Pinkie landed on her hind hooves that time, holding the false wings triumphantly as Agonizing Ailment turned to regard her. "You little cretin! I'll flay you alive for that!" she telepathically screamed, charging at Pinkie in a full gallop with her horn lowered at her opponent's stomach.

Pinkie jumped aside, batting the horn away with the false wings without popping the balloons she had tied to it. The reformed wooden horns managed to graze her, drawing a thin line of crimson across her belly, but that barely registered compared to the wooden claws that moved to seize her.

Agonizing Ailment didn't pay heed to Luna, Discord, or NoLegs as they moved simultaneously, weapons drawn and poised for the exposed backside. She screamed as two swords impaled her hinds, while a house-hammer came crashing down on her side, knocking her over before she could attempt to rip Pinkie limb from limb.

The four backed off as Agonizing Ailment made to stand on shaky legs, hinds bleeding black shadows profusely as two swords withdrew from her possessed flesh. The shadows slowed to a suspiciously fast trickle, and then closed up in seconds. She huffed and puffed, new wings regrowing with another flash of her horn. Unfortunately, this triggered the streamer-laden booby trap Pinkie had placed, causing her magic to spark and race to the balloons as the grooves suddenly realized they'd been stuffed to capacity.

The balloons popped with an almighty bang, confetti and ear-shattering sound being tossed about in the opened cage. Another deafening shriek followed it, and once everyone lowered their hooves from their ears, they realized that Agonizing Ailment had been stunned, eyes spinning in their sockets as she swayed from side to side.

But she wasn't stunned for long; soon enough, she shook it off and scoffed. She lifted a claw to remove the remnants of the trap with a scowl on her face, before rearing up and stomping both fronts to channel her might and magic into the wood around them. Leaves sprouted from the tendrils of power, just barely unnoticed by the flames burning the vines, absorbing the viridian-crimson of every nook and cranny they sprouted in.

When the last of the glowing tendrils were absorbed, the leaves coiled onto themselves before morphing into bamboo shoots that grew instantaneously, their direction haphazard and their ends wicked-sharp. Most of the group flew or levitated up; Pinkie opted to simply duck below the shoots closest to her, leaving her prone as they skewered her second cannon and turned it to scrap. Agonizing Ailment lit her horn and waved it in a circle, conjuring runes along the way until it completed itself.

Those same runes lit up around the prone Pinkie, forming orbs of yellow light that sent lines between each other in two overlapping squares that gave the impression of an incomplete spell. Lightning sparked between the mass, and Pinkie made an eep! before standing up to jump on the bamboo skewers to get out of the way. More of those incomplete circles formed behind her, forcing her to climb higher to escape them.

Fluttershy held her hooves to her face. "Pinkie!" she yelled, noticing a larger circle encompassing the top of the open cage that she and the others hovered out of the reach of. Pinkie, however, didn't notice; she kept scrambling between and on top of skewers in an effort to stay out of the reach of Agonizing Ailment's befouled magic.

Fluttershy couldn't watch. She dove in herself, not caring what the larger spell circle would do to her. She screamed as she came right into its center, and the lightning from the spell's eight points shot her simultaneously, sending jolts through her body that immobilized her wings and made her legs stiff. When the lightning stopped arcing around her, she plummeted, causing Pinkie to notice with a scream that wrenched itself from her throat. She turned to her falling friend and jumped after her, pupils shrinking as she realized that some of the bamboo angled themselves with magical aid to impale them both.

She reached Fluttershy and grabbed her with her front legs, angling her hinds to land precariously on the tip of one of the bamboo poles. She shifted afterwards for balance, moving Fluttershy to her back and looking below as Agonizing Ailment sneered up at them once again. Unfortunately, this quickly turned out to be not that beneficial for her, as Discord roared and charged with Hellen swinging away, breaking bamboo with his strength as he went right for the crazed Nightmare-possessed chimera.

He smacked her right in the chest again, knocking her down. Before she could get up, he threw her into a wall, shattering bamboo skewers with the impact. Then he grasped her by a hind and swung her around, his tail extending so he could make her revisit every inch of the cage, bamboo clattering with each hit. All the while, more wounds formed, bleeding black energies that raced to close themselves with suspicious haste. Pinkie jumped and landed on the floor with her hinds, jolting when she felt Fluttershy stirring in her forelegs.

Pinkie looked at her friend, and her friend looked back with a pained but sheepish smile. "I-I'm alright," Fluttershy muttered.

Pinkie shook her head. "Silly filly, you just got the shocker of your life! Are you sure you can do this?" she asked.

Fluttershy nodded, and wrenched herself free with a few stiff jerks of her legs in order to stand shakily on her own four hooves. She nuzzled Pinkie reassuringly. "I'm sure," she replied, turning to watch the destruction Discord was bringing to the bamboo skewers. Pinkie nodded back and turned to watch as well.

When Discord was done flinging her around, she moved to stand on wobbly legs, the bamboo having clattered all around her at that point. She stood there, eyes spinning again and head swaying back and forth as though she were seeing invisible duckies. Fluttershy turned to her and flapped a few times to dispel the last of the jolts from her wings, and started to hover a little awkwardly.

NoLegs rushed in with a mew, and cast a spell that had bound his tail in black and red energies, eyes flashing the same color as that aura wreathed him. With a mew that transitioned to a long, angry, leonine roar he sent the energies everywhere, dripping off of the bamboo and the ceiling in a manner that rippled like blood. These blackish-red energies coalesced in the center of the room, and from the shadowy pit that formed from its mass rose a tall, spiked equine skull with jagged teeth and rotting reddish-brown tentacles ending in sharp blades pooling from its mouth. Within that mouth, Discord gasped as he could see a black as pitch feline with red eyes and a crimson aura, the only thing highlighting its legged silhouette.

"I will not tolerate Nightmares possessing my Children for their foul intent!" the feline telepathically roared in a deep contralto, lifting and waving a paw forward. The tentacles surged in that direction, shearing off pieces of Agonizing Ailment's body to reveal more glowing shadows in the wounds, each lash sending the possessed mare further and further back until her tail grazed the farthest wall.

Then the skull made a motion similar to an exhale, and with the wave of a paw crimson energies gathered before the mouth, twisting into a beam of hellish light that fired off smaller volleys to pelt Agonizing Ailment on her body and the wall behind her. Awareness snapped back in her eyes briefly, right as the volley ended, and for a moment viridian flashed in her pools as she realized what was happening. The others gasped as the skull came forward to chomp down on the prone mare, right as her eyes reverted back to red.

The skull backed off with a massive chomp, having sheared more flesh without tearing the host mare in two. The bite marks oozed in darkness, thick and corporeal like blood, even as the Nightmares therein screamed and tried to patch the wounds up, hoping their host would make a counter attack. But she hadn't attacked, not taken so much as one hoofstep towards the glowing cat, and the glowing feline hissed and waved her paw again.

"By divine decree, the entities who proclaim themselves Nightmares shalt have their very essence stolen from them, their forms erased from existence, the despair and hatred they sow with their actions rendered null and void, their power added to that of the Envoy of Cocytus! They shalt be treated as they have done unto others—as pitiless things who deserve no mercy, no existence, no sentience! Go now, little wraithling, and feast!" she roared before the skull roared and with its tentacles sank back into the shadows from which they had been summoned, the shadows themselves dissipating after her departure.

Katie flew back in, turning to Fluttershy, both stunned at what NoLegs had just done. Both nodded to each other, and turned back to see if the daze would hold their quarry a little longer. Fortunately, it did, and once Fluttershy felt safe with her own legs, she moved in. She wasted no time flying to the prone Nightmare-possessed Anna and grasping her face with her hooves. She stared intently, waiting for the moment that the urge to strike would flood back into those hellish pools before triggering her innate magic in her own eyes.

"What do you want to do to Fantasia if you got out?" Fluttershy hissed, her grip unyielding as Agonizing Ailment steadied herself and tried to shake her head.

Agonizing Ailment paused for a moment, being forced to look into those unyielding pools of blue before telepathically answering, "Take over and turn everyone on that wretched world into cursed trees."

Fluttershy drilled into her with her glare, causing Agonizing Ailment to flinch. The Nightmares worked to seal the glowing wounds faster, but it was of little use. "That's not a very good use of your powers, and you know that, Anna," she chastised, frowning in disapproval.

"There is no—" Agonizing Ailment began, trying to shake her head to get Fluttershy off of her. However, the smaller pegasus wasn't so forgiving or forthcoming with her desires.

"I know you're in there, and you can hear me perfectly fine," Fluttershy continued, her glare withering and as steadfast as any mountain fortress. "What would Lance think about this? Matt? Natalie? Would they approve of this… this… monster you've turned into? Would Maria or Sarah like that? I don't think they would be okay with this either."

Agonizing Ailment screamed, shaking her head violently in an attempt to send Fluttershy away. Her head went this way and that, and before long she was bucking and rearing and flapping once again. Unfortunately for her, Fluttershy matched her move for move, ensuring that no matter what, she was staring into those hellish pools that promised so much agony on an untold number of creatures.

Katie seized her chance as Agonizing Ailment reared and grasped Fluttershy with her front claws with her elongated horn charging up another spell. She flew in and stabbed the arrow into her foreleg, and then into the chest with her broken horn, unleashing her unstable magic with impunity. The effect was immediate: the wood fell off of her body, withering away into desiccated husks without a moment of reprieve.

The Nightmare pony's eyes, wounds, horn and mouth glowed white-hot as the entities possessing her flew out, blasting Fluttershy away with the force of a runaway tornado. Discord raced to Fluttershy's side as she fell into a pile of bamboo, digging her out to check if she were alright. Fluttershy nodded and pulled herself out, and both watched what followed with interest.

What a sight it was, that chilled them to their bones even as awe and befuddlement held them.

The Nightmares screamed as they tried to fly away, only for the out-of-control magic to suck the whole lot of them into that waiting maw. The wraithling channeled all her might into draining them out, never stopping even as they were forced into that torn grin by the unforgiving power she wielded. They went in clusters that almost subsumed her in shadow, but she held swift and true, the arrow stabbed into their prey rendering their own magic useless against her.

The number of Nightmares swelled, the body of their prey shrinking back down to her original, pre-possession form with the sanded claws and whatnot as they departed. The screaming didn't stop even as the number kept climbing higher and higher, until Luna and Discord lost count. For a long moment, perhaps stretching to eternity, this continued until the number trickled down and down to the last possessor getting devoured.

When that last went into the gullet, something else happened: a pink, sickly glow came from Anna, and without harming her anymore, went into Katie's gullet, and then settled in her surprisingly bloated-beyond-belief stomach. The same glow came from the bamboo, which disintegrated the moment the pink aura left them, first withering before crumbling to dust. As soon as the pink energy finished moving to its new home, she let go. Both fell to the floor, one with her broken horn still aglow and the other with awareness flooding back into her wide and confused eyes.

Luna dared not heave a sigh of relief just yet. She landed and trotted over, magically wrenching the two apart gently as she went. Before long she was sending her blade back to the ether as she wrapped a wing around the smaller, back-to-herself mare. "Tell me… how much do you know about the Nightmares?" she asked softly.

Anna was silent for a moment, before shoving Luna's wing away with a sanded claw. "N-nothing worthwhile," she said, her voice shaky and riddled with pain. "I… I just heard… a lot of voices, a-and…"

Luna wrapped her wing around her again, this time holding a primary to her lips to shush her. Anna shut her claptrap and didn't bat her away a second time, instead holding as still as her shaky body would allow. "The same happened to me when I was possessed, and I was aware of it the entire time," she said, voice still gentle. "They keep themselves secretive, until they find a suitable host to carry out their wicked schemes."

"H-how… why…" Anna muttered, ears pinning back against her head. Before she could say anymore, Luna's feather brushed against her lips to silence her.

"That, I have no idea… but I've heard whispers before I was possessed. Some said they were the alicorns Godcat had slain, and perhaps they had since lingered without their equinity. Others said they were demons seeking creatures in their moment of weakness, and I honestly know not which is the truth," Luna replied, tightening her wing-hold a bit. "Those voices you heard… what did they say?"

"They… they wanted… the Greenwood Blight to…" Anna gestured to herself erratically. "All over Fantasia… to erase the past…"

Luna's brow furrowed. "To erase the past?" she echoed.

Anna shakily nodded. "Did it with… with other alicorns…" she muttered. "Tried hiding… didn't want to be a-associated with alicorns…"

Luna glanced at Discord, and he glanced back. Both had the same question on their minds, though neither elected to speak it aloud. Instead they turned back to their shaken charge, who seemed to want the tree to swallow her up again. "And why not?" Luna asked.

"Alicorns… on Fantasia… wicked… no remorse… no soul… just m-malice…" Anna replied, eyes turning distant and misty. Luna wrapped her other wing around her and held tight.

"It's alright now… tell us what you know…" Luna muttered softly, face grim but trying not to harden into anger.

"Even if I-I…"

"You weren't in your right mind. The Nightmares had taken hold long before the barrier broke. I saw the warning signs in your dreams," Luna said, lifting a hoof to rub Anna's withers in an effort to console her. "How long they held you in their clutches, I can only guess… just tell us everything you can, and we'll do our best to act."

Pinkie came over and patted Anna on the head, her Element of Harmony glowing and casting its light on her to dislodge Discord's arrow in her leg. "Silly filly, even if you had a mean bone in your body, I'd still be your friend. Those nasty Nightmares won't go near you again on my watch," she said, garnering a wide-eyed look of befuddlement from Anna.

Fluttershy came over, her Element of Harmony glowing to heal the wounds that had been inflicted. She wrapped her wings around the stunned Fantasian, garnering another look of confusion. "Even if you were possessed, I can't hate you for it. And Luna's right—you're not at fault," she said. "You're just a good mare who was forced down a dark path. I'm here to help you off of it."

"Even as chaotic as this whole thing has been, the Nightmares are something else. We can't let them do whatever it is they're plotting. And I would be remiss if they did something I wouldn't tolerate, and that covers a lot more than you'd think," Discord said, conjuring a cupcake blowing a party streamer with a mouth that honked. That managed a weary, mirthless laugh from Anna, who he then smiled at. "Oh come now, there can be a time for tears later. You're free from the Nightmares, aren't you?"

Katie and NoLegs watched with interest, both feeling satisfied with this turn of events. NoLegs mewed and hopped over to stand on Anna's head with a purr, making her laugh in exasperation. What she was watching made the Nightmares in Katie's gut start screaming all over again, and in her head she heard them loud and clear.

"Nooo! She's not supposed to embrace Laughter!"

"Our power… it's fading… what's happening?!"

"Ack! Friendship! We can't…"

Slowly, surely, as the others consoled Anna, and tried their best to make her crack even a small smile, Katie heard the protests of the Nightmares dwindling and dwindling along with the hatred and despair she had consumed, receding until there was a void where they should have been. Her stomach shrank back to its despairingly thin size the moment it realized it had digested its fill. Nothing remained of the Nightmares—not their intent, their emotions, not even their very presence. She trotted over and prodded Luna's withers to get her attention.

"The Nightmares are gone," she reported. "They were raising hell about friendship."

Luna smiled softly. "Ah, yes," she said simply. "It is anathema to Nightmares." Her smile turned enigmatic as she asked, "I presume that was Godcat?"

Katie nodded and said, "One half of Her, anyway. I met Her at some point after turning into a wraith." With that, she turned to Anna. "Fantasia has no friendship, right?" When Anna shook her head, she sighed. "Looks like we gotta spread friendship around then; maybe that's our big break to uncover what's happened."

Anna wilted a bit. "But how?" she asked.

Luna chuckled, causing everyone to turn to her. "You have the bearers of the Elements of Harmony on Fantasia at present, do you not?" At Anna's confused nod, Luna elaborated, "Perhaps they could teach you a thing or two about it. It'll be a long and difficult road, yes… but why not start with the remaining villagers of Greenwood?"

Anna thought long and hard, and frowned. "But… they…"

Luna shushed her with a primary. "Rest assured, I heard all the sordid details," she said. "They need not see that one dark path is the only way. They're mostly your age, yes?" At Anna's nod, Luna' smile widened. "Then we still have hope for them yet. Who better to guide them off that path, than somepony who already went down it?" She leaned down until she was eye level with the still-perplexed Fantasian and said, "Be their shining example. For the sake of not just yourself, but them as well."

Anna considered this, and then hesitantly nodded. "But first… we must get rid of this wretched tree," Luna said, letting go and standing up. "It is a remnant of the Nightmares' design; nothing can persist." She lit her horn and teleported the group out, and reappeared with everyone on a cloud overlooking the tree. The magma had cooled, and the storm had petered out; the full moon was shining on the scene. Discord snapped his digits and watched as the floating island with the tree on it went crashing down onto the land. The moment it toppled was the same moment Luna sent white fire after it to burn the remainder away.

Soon enough, only ashes remained of the tree, then less than ashes as the wind came to blow it away to parts unknown. Luna sat down and turned to Anna.

"Do you want to harbor the knowledge you have until a later time?" Luna asked.

Anna shook her head. "I… I think it's better for you guys to know now…" she muttered, sucking in a deep breath to compose herself. "It all started after the gryphons were repelled from Greenwood seven years ago…"

NoLegs mewed again, and hopped off of Anna's head to sit at her side. He waved his tail and telepathically asked, "Want me to tell Lance about this whole Nightmare thing?"

Anna shook her head. "No… I'll… I'll tell him myself…" she answered.

Chapter LXXXXVII- Papers, Please

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter LXXXXVIII- Illicit Sin

The farrier nodded to a small team of gryphons and changelings before him in a barebones room with some buckets filled with trimmings, trimming and scraping tools scattered around them haphazardly and sometimes on the few tables of the room. The light crystals flickered a bit, providing a reddish-green clashing ambiance he didn't care to notice. He kept his gaze on his subordinates, his scarred body and tattered wings making him stand out as he said in a gruff voice, "We're expecting the higher-ups sometime today. We gotta do the best job, as always."

A gryphon underling nodded and spoke up, "But don't they have paperwork to plow through?" Murmurs of agreement rose among the other underlings as he asked.

"I also heard we're getting some new soldiers," the farrier replied, fangs glinting in the light as he spoke. "What they're like… I haven't learned yet." He glanced past his team to a door at the far end of the room, frowning. "I wonder if they can find us."

A changeling underling snickered, wings buzzing. "Newbies? Pfha, it'll take them all day to find us. Plus, I'd like to see the looks on their faces when they come in…" He trailed off as light exploded from behind the lot of them, and he turned around with the others to find one of their higher-ups in the room with a few new faces. He took a moment to scan them up and down, noting a few new things about his superior. "... Lieutenant-General Windwood, what did you…" He shut up as the wood on her legs shifted, uplifting itself to reveal her hooves.

"It's a long story," Anna replied with a huff, trotting up to the farrier. She waved a tendril of ivy at her group, "The usual, just don't keep us for too long."

The farrier nodded, frowning as he noticed Maria. "And what's a kid doing here?" he asked.

"Same reason I am," Anna replied, shaking her head. "Don't give her a reason to scratch you; she hates being wrangled by strangers." The farrier didn't question it; he nodded, lit his horn and grabbed some tools and a few hoof stands, checking to see if they had any for children to use. When he found he didn't, he simply wrenched a table over with his magic, cleared it of its clutter, and nodded to his underlings. Anna nodded back, put a hoof on the stand offered to her, and lit her horn to lift Maria onto the table with her magic.

A changeling underling magically lifted some tools and trotted over to Maria, taking a moment to look at her claws and hooves. Alas, they did leave a lot to be desired, even if they seemed healthy and hale—there were a lot of patches on the hooves that could have used some filing, and some patches that could have used a trim, and the claws didn't shimmer in the light as they ought to have. "Goodness, kid, have you ever gotten your hooves trimmed and your claws shined before?"

Maria shook her head. "How does claw shining work?" she asked as the changeling lifted one of her claws and grabbed a thin filer that was less stockier than the rest of the tools. She watched as the filer started grinding and sharpening her talons to a dull finish, but with a sharper point.

"Well, we sharpen the claws first, and then put a special wax on them to make them shine and keep them healthy. We also add in some polish if you want, to make them look pretty," the changeling replied with a grin, keeping careful to avoid jerking too suddenly. "The hooves are a different story though; they're a bit more… specific to manage." He kept filing away, his motions gentle and his strokes as certain as could be.

Sarah trotted up to a gryphon that bade her over, and lifted a hind hoof to let him place a stand beneath it. She wobbled for a moment, but got used to the new position as her hoof was inspected. "Hrm, a lot of wear and tear on this one… you travelled a lot?" the gryphon asked, to which Sarah nodded.

"I was homeless for a while, just walking across Fantasia, shooting the shit with Fenrir after we became travel buddies," Sarah said, frowning slightly and twitching her ears as she felt her hoof getting its first filing in what felt like forever.

Another changeling underling came over to lift one of Sarah's claws to give it some treatment. He started filing right away, asking, "Yeesh, you got a lot of scratches and dulling on these ones. Do you use them much?"

"Not for scratching other ponies' faces off, no," Sarah replied with a shrug and a ruffle of her wings. "I usually stick to having those help me preen my wings." She indicated to Maria with a jerk of her head. "She, however, will claw you to hell if you try any funny business with her."

The changeling tending to Sarah furrowed his brow. "Funny business?"

"Attempted rape," Sarah said bluntly, causing all activity in the room to halt as the farrier and his crew looked at Maria.

Maria nodded, puffing her chest and feathers with a twinkle of pride in her eyes. "No bad cocks will touch me!" she declared boldly. "I will cut them to ribbons!"

Anna nodded sadly, then shook her head. "I've seen her do it, too. Those guys at the hotel weren't the sharpest crayons of the box," she muttered under her breath. She was glad those jackwaffles got some comeuppance that day, even if she wasn't the one who had delivered it. Even better, their most valuable assets too, which was a bonus.

The farrier and his team sighed, then resumed what they were doing when they saw they weren't getting any further explanations from their superior. Fortunately, they didn't seem to question it either way, as one of the remaining changelings indicated Lazarus to trot over to start his treatment. Lazarus complied, summoning his full crystal sheen with a flash of his horn, and plopped a hoof on a stand.

The changeling tending to him almost looked at the hoof cross-eyed until it clicked in his brain. Then he redirected his eyes to seek out Lazarus's own. "Y'know, we don't get that many crystal pony sightings these days," he said. "Do you happen to have any relation to Lieutenant-General Starcovert?"

Lazarus grinned. "Frenemy," he said. "Knew her from before the Royale Catastrophe, and got my mark at the same time she did from that shitshow."

The changeling tilted a hoof file to his chin and then jerked, mouth forming a silent 'o' shape. "Oh yeah, she told me about that mess! You're one lucky bastard to have even survived it," he said, trotting around to better observe Lazarus's cutie mark. When he understood its appearance and the like, he came back around to start tending to the offered hoof. "She did mention a bird carrying a sun-shaped weapon… what's it mean?"

Lazarus sighed, shaking his head. "That's the thing… I don't remember how I got it or what it means. I even fainted as it just… manifested." He conjured his sun-shaped spear and indicated to it with his glowing horn, "Though I know this thing has something to do with it." He sent the spear back to the ether as the changeling nodded, donning a firm frown and slightly narrowed eyes as his head moved.

"Cutie Mark Blackout Syndrome… that's a very serious affliction you've got there…" the changeling muttered, filing Lazarus's hoof. "Over seventy-five percent of all cutie-marked Fantasians have it for one reason or another…" He indicated to Anna with a free hoof. "She almost got it, but we were able to reciscutate her in time."

Anna sighed as her hoof started getting its trimmings in, the clippings and scrapings falling to the floor as the farrier cleaned out her frog and edges. "Yeah, that was a real shitshow and a half… took them weeks to clean out the plants I summoned…" she grumbled. "I think we had a mutant flower with teeth in there too, didn't we?"

The farrier idly nodded. "It smelled bad and was susceptible to fire. Nobody still knows what the hell you did to that plant, ma'am, but you turned it worse than it already was," he answered, wrinkling his nose as he continued scraping. "No offense, but I'm surprised a rafflesia didn't wind up as part of your cutie mark."

"A rafflesia? A whole-ass rafflesia?" Lazarus asked, eyes widening at that bit of intel.

The farrier's underling tending to him nodded. "Whole-ass rafflesia, as big as the Valkyrie Tank with the bladed tendrils to match. It even had little support flower helpers… some healed, some summoned rain and hail, some suicided when heavily wounded… and one even called forth paralyzing lightning," he replied. "We have one of its petals as proof too, but it's in the laboratories wing undergoing extensive study still. Same goes for the flowers we were able to capture and relocate."

Lazarus let his tail go between his hinds as he envisioned that mess playing out in his head. "Any casualties?" he asked.

The underling nodded. "Some close calls, some injuries, but no deaths. It wasn't exactly a miracle we could put that thing down so quickly," he said, taking a moment to use the file to gesture at his horn. He took a hoof-clipper off the nearest table and began trimming Lazarus's hoof from the bottom, being careful to avoid anything that even seemed the least bit sensitive. When that was done, he got the scraper and began cleaning the frog, noticing a rather rust-red blemish on one side of it. "Birthmark?" he asked.

Lazarus nodded. "Yeah, and I don't know why it decided to strike there," he said.

The last underling began looking at Fenrir's paws, gauging the fuzz between the rough-looking pads and the nails' collective bluntness. "Haven't done a lot of digging, have you?" he asked.

Fenrir shook his head. "Unless I absolutely had to," he answered. "I have spent more time above ground than under its surface."

The underling nodded, grabbed the thinnest file available, and tenderly began to work on prettying up the claws a bit. "Goodness, this paw's big as my head. Are you sure you don't suplex trains in the morning?" he asked with a puzzled frown, looking at Fenrir with a serious, albeit inquisitive, flash in his eyes.

"We came across this one… I think he was a gryphon without wings, riding in something a little bit taller and rounder than the Valkyrie Tank and jumping on and off some old rails whenever it could," Sarah began, causing Fenrir to sigh and bury his face with his other paw. "Called himself a lone rider or something, and dared Fenrir to suplex his ride. That… is exactly what happened."

All activity stopped, and everyone turned to Fenrir with the utterance. "Dude," the farrier said, almost completely expressionless save for his frown, "you suplexed a Godcat-damned piece of feline technology from the days of myth?"

Fenrir whimpered and nodded slowly, paw still firmly on his face. His ears folded back and his tail slunk between his hinds.

The farrier beamed, smiling widely. "What I would give to have that amount of strength… how do you live with that level of restraint?" he asked.

"That… I am not sure," Fenrir grumbled, still looking fairly chastised about the whole thing despite not even being the least bit scolded.

"Did the 'lone rider' still live to tell the tale?" Anna asked.

Sarah nodded, turning to her sister. "Yeah, but it required his ride being suplexed back onto its treads. Why?"

Anna frowned. "He's one of the army's… acquaintances, and sometimes a source of intel…" she said in a low voice. "Next time you see him, don't compromise his ride…"

Sarah wilted, but nodded slowly as she absorbed that.

Maria began to fidget as her claws on one side were polished and spiffed, and continued as she raised her other talon to let the same happen to it. "So mommy can grow flowers?" she asked, causing the farrier and his underlings to collectively choke. Their bewildered eyes turned to their superior for immediate explanation.

Anna sighed. "Adopted, hellhole, pretty much the only survivor that's not actually undead," she said flatly. The underlings slowly nodded and hesitantly resumed their task, while the farrier shuddered and kept the trimming with dreadful wonder clearly sparking in his eyes. "If you want I can tell you guys later, but now isn't the time," she added, garnering nods of understanding as the shining of claws and reshaping of hooves continued.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Twilight, Shining, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Blueblood stood in Lance's office later that afternoon, the setting sun shining its rays through the glass of the massive window behind the desk. Now free of the papers that needed to be dealt with, the place was spic and span, with Lance facing the window with his primaries turned to the group.

"So… you've pretty much seen one mangled alicorn in my retinue," he began, keeping his voice neutral, "and two of you are saying you've spoken to another one and found her to be in that same boat. Discounting Pestilence, on the grounds he might not have been exactly alive to begin with, you must be wondering…"

Lance turned to the group, stalked around the desk, and moved to look Twilight in her eyes as he capped off with a simple, quiet, "Why hide this from us?" Twilight found the gumption to nod, as did the others in her group. Lance nodded in turn and turned away to sigh, eyes closing as a frown creased his muzzle.

"Well… since the cat's already out of the bag at this rate, I'm just going to answer the why first: truth be told, nopony on Fantasia wants to be associated with alicorns. Not in their family trees, not through adoption, not even through acquaintance, for if you even have the slightest hint of knowing or being related to one, you're as guilty as they are. Godcat forbid if you are an alicorn yourself, because at that rate you're just asking for a mana-charged nuke to glass your ass to kingdom come."

"Guilt by association? That's… that's fishy. How long has it been that way on Fantasia?" Shining asked, frowning as he recalled the brief gist of things that Pinkie and Fluttershy had given him on his way to the office.

"Far as I can tell, since at least the day Akron was sealed, if not for possibly longer," Lance answered, keeping his head turned away. "I can give you the brief on Akron in a bit; right now, I'm just getting your most likely questions out of the way first." At the nods of understanding, he sighed, and turned back to face Twilight again. "You've personally seen Pestilence, and his first impressions left… much to be desired."

"Discord also said something about the twins being related to him somehow," Fluttershy cut in, keeping her nerves steeled as Lance turned to her. "He didn't say much else beyond alicorns bringing forth more alicorns… I was wondering if you knew how true that could be?"

Lance closed his eyes, and grudgingly nodded. "Too true for even my liking," he said, spreading a wing before curling his primaries just in front of where his bangs covered up his entire forehead. He parted the hair slowly, angling his feathers in a way that the group could see it without obstruction. Eyes went wide as the hair was moved aside, revealing nasty runes etched around a clear and jagged stump only a centimeter tall. He let them gaze upon the travesty, and slowly pulled his bangs back into place before closing his wing and opening his eyes again.

"And in case you're wondering how that came to be… that would be from my attempted conquest of Fantasia, when it was halted and I got some sense beaten into me. My original plan was… and this is going to sound obscenely stupid… spread the alicorn race through selective, eugenic breeding programs. Eventually, an empire would have risen, founded and run by alicorns, and… well, I'll just leave the rest unsaid." He let that sink in, then turned away and marched to his desk with his ears twitching. "Are any of you familiar with a geas?"

Silence held as the question and confession ran parallel through everypony's minds. Eventually, Twilight found her voice, and it was as quiet and frail as a cornered, wounded deer, "Y-yes… an illegal spell made and used to compel ponies into whatever the caster d-desires?"

Lance snapped a wing out and curled all but one primary. "And?"

"And it c-can be used in conjunction w-with other spells to ensure o-obidience?" Twilight added, her mouth drying out as she spoke.

Lance closed his wing and gravely nodded. "Exactly. That, along with the Greenwood Blight, was what the twins were afflicted with on top of glamors to hide the runes of their geas. And those small wings and horn we found off that dummy that was moving? Still powering it to ensure it remained in effect. Their instruments were just added security for the whole thing." He didn't see the need to make eye contact once more; not yet, anyway. "I, too, had a geas put on me before my attempted conquest. It doesn't justify what I did… but I was compelled to act with that geas until I was subdued."

"Who geased you?" Pinkie asked, frowning as she asked the question that made her feel as though tar ran through her mouth, worry clear in her eyes and voice. "What did they want with Fantasia?"

Lance turned to Pinkie, his face etched with as much bitterness as there was regret. "They wanted a puppet king to manipulate and do with as they pleased," he answered morosely. "And the thing they don't tell you about breeding alicorns? Things can go wrong in so many ways: broken wings, crippled horns, useless legs and infantile minds that can never function in a society. So many things can go wrong with a geas too: broken, becoming unsustainable, circumvented… in my case, it was the first one, though it took some work before Matt and Natalie understood the geas and they could break it."

"Who's 'they?'" Blueblood questioned, even as his stomach dug several pits to stew in. He had a feeling he would regret asking, and Lance unfortunately failed to disappoint.

"... I absolutely refuse to acknowledge them as such in any other way than the fact they're the reason I'm on Fantasia to begin with… but you can thank both my parents for not only the failed conquest, but the fact that Fantasia is much more fucked up because of it," Lance answered, wings ruffling. "My 'father' was the one who geased me to begin with, because he couldn't be half-assed to do the damn job of conquering Fantasia himself. My 'mother' has equal blame, for enabling that shitsack and convincing me that I would be better off dead than related to her."

Fluttershy trotted over, and without hesitating, wrapped her forelegs around Lance's neck in a big hug. At first, he debated in his head whether to return it, but then wrapped his forelegs around her in turn, being careful not to squeeze. "I'm sorry you had to go through that…" Fluttershy muttered.

"Don't be; the fault lies with them," he said, keeping the hug as he maintained eye contact with the rest of the group. "The reason I am telling you this… is that word will have already gotten to them that my geas is broken. It's only a matter of time before my father either makes another wannabe puppet king, or he'll do something more drastic."

"But why tell us now, when you could have told us sooner?" Twilight asked, stepping forward to confront Lance. She didn't wrench Fluttershy off of him, but some part of her was taking what he was saying with a grain of salt, while another began madly babbling all over again.

"Because… I truly, truly did not want you involved in the matter. It's between me and those shitsacks, and whatever they can dredge up to fight me and my military. It should not have to involve you, because you could get killed." Lance's words hung heavy in the air, and Twilight kept eye contact the whole time as it sank in. She hated, absolutely hated, that Lance was right—Pestilence was proof enough of that, and that wasn't getting into whatever machinations the Tormentor entity had been planning.

Shining stomped a hoof, causing the three to turn to him. "We'll help anyway," he said with finality. "If your sire is planning to make moves, we have to act—not just in Fantasia's best interest, but Mythos's as well. The only option is to stop him before any new plans of his get off the ground." He stepped forward, and so did Blueblood and Pinkie. "Tell us… what is that going to entail?"

Lance broke from the hug, stood up, and cantered around to sit at his desk with his hooves moving to fumble at some drawers. "This will take a moment…" he grumbled, pulling drawers apart and digging through them before closing them and opening more. "Aha!" He pulled out a large, rolled up sheet from the third one, brimming with multicolored crystals in its thick and yellowed parchment. He plopped it on the table and rolled it out, revealing a map studded with crystals across five continents, the largest in the center and the smaller four of varying sizes marking the intercardinal directions on the map. Runes decorated the map, as old and worn as the rest of it, but even then they still glowed with a faint power that coursed through the etching.

Small islands studded the cardinal directions in clusters, one cluster big enough in the south to technically count as its own continent if one didn't squint at it. He spread a wing and rested a primary on one crystal overlaid on a mountain on the center of the largest continent, and it glowed with his magic and projected an image of Irongrey Aerie as he withdrew his wing.

"Projection crystals?" Twilight asked, lifting a hoof to phase it through the still, unmoving image of the Aerie. Lance nodded and waited for her to retract her hoof before using his wing to light up a crystal on the southeastern continent, conjuring another image of a smaller, equally still mountain that had a suspect red glow in its craterous top.

"The finest we could find yet. Even better, this map changes with the geological changes and as new cities pop up, and you could even get to see the insides of any one place of your choosing. This is the best ancient feline scrying technology could ask for in an enchanted map," Lance said, using a hoof to gesture to the smaller volcano-like mountain.

"Hrm… most interesting…" Blueblood muttered, turning to the southeastern continent. "And that?"

"That is where Akron was sealed, Ashen Volcano Peak." He spread his wing again, and moved to the southwestern continent to light it up, revealing a third mountain that was actually another volcano surrounded by a scarlet forest, attached to a lake at the foot that had pipework extending into it. Various pipes leaked out of the volcano, expelling exhaust of some sort from within. Every few seconds, a burst of bright energy shot out of the volcano, yet no lava or ash followed the blasts.

"And here is Redpine Rock, where I was born and raised. Don't be fooled by its exterior; inside lay horrors the likes to which I have largely been desensitized." He lifted a hoof and planted it on the crystal, muttered something, and the image over Redpine Rock shifted to show off an extensive interior that took almost all of the map.

It was layered in floors, circular in shape and interconnected by stairs, all centered around an ominously large chunk of magitek resting over lava that was built into the rock, with pipes running rampant and wires haphazardly strewn across every floor. Some pipes even went through all of the floors from the bottom up, sticking up high into the craterous top of the volcano to expel their exhaust. The magitek at the bottom was whirring constantly and disposing of countless bones bloodied and old.

"It has five floors, as you can see here. Nowhere near as fancy-schmancy as Irongrey, but I'll give them points for trying," Lance went on, gesturing to the first floor that housed innumerable weapons and the like, attended to by moving images of scores of red-eyed pegasi intermingled with some red-eyed alicorns. "Top floor's the launch-off department, where soldiers will pick up their gear on the wing and sail to challenge whatever dares threaten their home. And yes, the eye color is hereditary in case you were wondering about that."

Lance gestured to the second floor, feeling the eyes of his guests glued to the display. Here, there seemed to be a simple series of mess halls, divided amongst pegasi and alicorns equally, though filled to packing with a lot of ponies. Moving images of ponies eating filled this floor, and some forming cues to get their trays. On one side were some crude-looking sick bays attended to mostly by alicorns. "Mess hall, med bays and restrooms. Nothing particularly note-worthy here."

The third floor housed a sight that made Blueblood want to retch. Cells lined every aspect of the floor, most with crude beds and chains, each one housing a mare and some foals. Many mares had scars on their backs and foreheads, indicative of where horns and wings once were; many of the fillies sported these same scars as well. Some stallions were… using the mares in front of the children, with no clear regard for innocence and foalhood safety.

"Breeding pens, where the only souls to go through are the ones with a nutsack attached. Ponies literally come out by the thousands here, and once, I was among that crowd… taking part in the insanity. The desireables are mentored, geased, all that fun shit, raised to believe that… this is the way things should be. The mediocres are turned into cannon fodder for those deemed important." Lance scowled at this, and lowered his hoof to the next floor.

Inside, weak and sickly foals and mares were cut up into chunks by pegasi, then fed to conveyor belts leading to chutes that descended all the way down to the machine at the bottom. Others were watching with rapt attention and glazed eyes, some with geases scrawled onto their foreheads clear as day. Wiring ran rampant, and tubes criss-crossed across the ceiling of this floor to expel their exhaust elsewhere. "Here is where the dreams of those deemed useless go to die. Nothing goes to waste; the one good thing I can say is in all my time there, nopony partook in cannibalism."

Finally, Lance's hoof went to the last floor, detailing a sight that would have been refreshing if not for the rest of the things it was attached to. A large, expansive greenhouse covered the floor, with fluorescent lights and sprinkler systems used to water all sorts of crops. Pegasi tended to this mass of vegetation with as much diligence as they did their weapons and sick soldiers, with alicorns overseeing the shooting match. "Simplistic farm, stocked with all sorts of crops, done to ensure none go hungry. The plants are treated better than the mares and children."

Lance's hoof dropped down to the machine at the base of the volcano's interior, itself surrounded by another ring. Twilight took a closer look and saw that it was connected to the upper floors by way of a myriad of pipes as well as its chutes, and paled as the machine released discharges that shook Redpine Rock to its core. "This is the magnum opus of the Redpine alicorns: the Illicit Instrumentation, used to power the rest of the base. It's crude, requires constant fresh supplies of fuel to convert thaumatically, and prone to breaking down sooner or later; the bones of the dead are refuse, cast into the lava below. If we are to strike the enemy, we'll have to disable that somehow and get the hell out of there when we do, because I'm pretty sure it's going to explode violently if we can pull it off."

Twilight grimly nodded, feeling a slight trickle of sweat beading her brow and another racing down her neck. How were they going to disable that thing and get everyone out in time? Something of this scale would surely result in casualties—not to mention the sheer numbers of alicorns intermingled with pegasi. She looked to the top floor again, and noticed that at least half of the weaponry were magitek-based. Which meant magical charges, either the old-fashioned way or the way Lance had been doing it with his wings.

On the other hoof, Redpine Rock was basically one cardinal sin stacked atop another. This… this could not continue. She wouldn't be okay with herself if she let this transpire any longer; surely, there was some way she could offset the travesty... She grudgingly looked to the cells where the mares and foals were kept. "Are any of them…"

Lance grimly shook his head. "No. They're thoroughly broken; it makes geasing the whole lot of them far easier. No mare there is cutie marked; if she were, she'd be fed to the Illicit Instrumentation. No foal is cutie marked either; the same fate befalls them if they were," he answered somberly. "In fact, cutie marks are as disallowed there as they were in Greenwood."

"And if you went there alone…" Twilight didn't want to connect the dots in her head as she trailed off, but her mind did so anyway. Lance gravely nodded. It was then that Twilight noticed an alicorn mare next to the Illicit Instrumentation along with a stallion; oddly, her wings and horn were unmolested, and she sported a gryphon's beak and talons. "And her?"

"The failures that dare to call themselves my parents. They operate the Illicit Instrumentation, and are as tightly-knit as Matt and Natalie are." Lance scowled at the figures, dark thoughts brewing in his eyes as he watched them move about on the projection. The stallion fumbled with levers and buttons, and the mare seemed more interested in the refuse than anything else.

Twilight's mind raced as she recalled Heather, and then her thoughts immediately came to a screeching halt as they reprocessed what she had said on the airship… then her mind went into overdrive and she blurted out, "I… I think we need to consult the young mother from Greenwood," she said, causing Lance to look at her with his brow raised. Twilight wildly gesticulated to the interior showing of Redpine Rock and continued before she could stop herself, "She said she escaped… well, this!"

Lance's brow furrowed at that little tidbit of information. "So that's where her baby came from…" he muttered under his breath. "Alright, one moment…" He reached for his desk and pulled drawers apart, and eventually managed to extricate a radio from one of them. He fumbled with the knobs and the like, and waited until Alexander's voice filtered through its static before answering.

"Sir, if this is another attempt to get Goldenbrick to let you—"

Lance cut the query with, "Are you with the absurdly young mother?"

Silence held for some seconds, before Alexander ventured with, "... yes?"

"Bring her here to my office. I want her aunt to accompany her," Lance said. He continued before Alexander could begin protesting, "Because I've just found out where she escaped from, and frankly I'd love to hear how she was able to pull that off."

"... where did she…"

"Redpine Rock," Lance answered, cutting Alexander off again.

More seconds of silence passed. Then Alexander grumbled, "Sonuvabit—" He was cut off once more by the sound of a baby crying, and sighed. "I'll bring them here once the little one is calmed down. He's probably not going to like what he sees, sir."

"Fair enough. Oh, and prepare the aunt for what she'll be seeing of Redpine as well. I don't want to take a rolling pin to my skull."

"Copy that," Alexander grumbled before the radio feed returned to static once again.

Lance sighed and set the radio down back where he got it, then turned to his five guests. "Do any of you see anything we could use to our advantage?" he asked, gesticulating to the abomination against sanity, nature, and decency.

Blueblood shook his head at the sheer enormity of what was being asked of him. He steeled himself, and his protesting stomach, and dared take a careful comb-through of the sins and travesties Redpine had to offer. A part of him was amazed that felines once made maps like these, but another felt small at the sheer scale of the volcano's floors and… sordid affairs. He saw vent-like holes leading to the outside, but found all of them to have been welded shut with steel upon closer inspection. Besides the very obvious paths via the stairs, and launch pad, he saw nothing worthwhile unless he wanted to be flayed alive by whatever tender mercies the alicorns of Redpine could cook up. The large congregation of pegasi didn't help matters either; they were hornless, sure, but they'd be just as deadly as their horned brethren.

Shining seemed to be studying the weaponry, noticing a lot more blasters than simple spears and the like. It seemed as if the enemy were prepared for anything to come their way; he wondered how many they had in their numbers compared to the Aerie. War was many things, and even the numbers would have been helpful right around now. This would probably take some time to plan; time they could not waste. Maybe Flash Sentry could help him with that one, but Lance hadn't summoned him; honestly, he could see why with the distressing sight before him.

Pinkie and Fluttershy couldn't stand the sight at all; both had at this point buried their heads in each other's shoulders, whispering in concern amongst themselves. Lance couldn't blame them; this was a bit much just to take in. Neither were of military backgrounds either, so asking them for help was like asking a candy maker to rule a nation. Twilight seemed transfixed on the Illicit Instrumentation, seeming to take in every one of its grotesque features in a bid to find chinks in its armor. Even she fell short; the thing was as solidly built as the rest of the base, with nary a weak point to be seen.

Lance was about to ask again at the lack of forthcoming answers when he noticed something else and snapped his gaze to the door as shadows pooled under the frame, then formed a sphere big enough for two ponies to stand in comfortably. "Runeblade, next time, knock first."

The others turned to the shadowy sphere as Natalie trotted out of it in her war uniform, letting the shadows meld back into Matt as he stood to attention in his wargear. Natalie had her wings out, and they were ruffling as she beheld the interior of Redpine Rock. "Plotting against them again? At least let us in on it," Natalie complained, trotting towards the projection with Matt behind her.

Matt studied the projection, eyes glowing and pooling purple shadows as he did. "So I see they're up to their usual antics…" he muttered, teeth gleaming in the fading sunlight.

"Have you been in a stalemate with Redpine?" Shining asked. Matt shook his head.

"Neither's made a move on the other… but I think that might change soon," he muttered, frowning contemplatively. "I give it… a week at best."

Pinkie's ears fell flat against her head, and she felt her stomach dropping as her elbows popped. She looked at the projection, and saw hundreds of pegasi and alicorns departing the launch pad with weapons in hoof. The projection then shifted back to the outside of Redpine Rock, where the flock flew out and turned to start heading northeast. "I… I think he might be right…" she muttered, eyes widening and pupils dilating. "I feel a doozy coming… and it doesn't feel good…"

Chapter LXXXXIX- Confrontation

The group waited patiently for their second batch of esteemed guests to be escorted to the office. As they waited, Twilight began asking Lance questions which made him shudder every time they left her mouth. "So… who taught you right and wrong?" was the first one, and by Godcat's life-giving teats, the answer was going to be a doozy.

Lance held a hoof to the side of his head like he wanted somepony to shoot him right where he sat. He rubbed the temples on that side, grumbling before he answered, "Matt, Natalie, and literally the rest of the army after they joined forces to set my ass straight."

Shining's jaw might as well have hit the floor. The same could have graciously applied to Blueblood. Fluttershy and Pinkie both stared at him with wide eyes, sparking with disbelief. Twilight gabbled, equally as flabbergasted, "Your 'parents' messed you up that bad?!"

Lance wearily nodded, hoof still firmly on head. "No morals, no laws, just 'do as we say and you won't get the iron hoof to the face,'" he muttered, shifting his head to lay it on the desk and bury it in his forelegs. "Took me less than two years after the geas was broken to understand right and wrong."

Twilight and Shining shared glances, barely able to believe what they had heard. Blueblood couldn't help but ask, "And how old were you when the geas was broken?"

"Eighteen, when I should have known better," Lance answered through his forelegs. "And that was…" He lifted a hoof and spun it around for a moment, wracking numbers in his head before daring to speak them aloud, "Matt and Natalie were fifteen at the time, so… three years between the asskicking and before Akron was accidentally released thanks to our dumb asses. Another year or two after that shitshow, before we found Anna. Two-ish more years before we had to deal with Godcat's divine wrath on top of that. All in all, roughly seven to eight years ago."

Twilight shuddered. No wonder Lance had his own committee to keep him in check, if he had to be taught basic morals and decency. And wasn't he still so… frighteningly young to have this gig? Then again, she wagered his hoof must have been forced. To have both his wings and horn crippled in one way or another must have been the ultimate insult for him, now that she thought about it.

"Did you have the gryphons under a tribe-wide geas?" Shining asked. Lance just groaned, glumly nodded, and buried his head deeper into his forelegs.

"Once my ass was kicked, it broke. I was never that good of a spellcaster anyway," Lance huffed. His ears twitched when he heard knocking on the door, and lifted his head to command, "Enter." The door opened, and in strode Alexander, a frown on his beak as he used his tail to wrangle in a gurney with Heather and her little one on it. Flanking the pair were the aunt, and two changeling nurses.

Heather cringed upon seeing the lit projection of Redpine Rock as it shifted back to its interior viewing. "That's bad place, auntie! That's bad Redpine!" she said, eyes widening as Lance turned to her.

"Listen… we just want to know how you got out of the bad place," Lance said in a gentle, tired voice. "Because one way or another, by Godcat, we're going to be crashing that whole house of cards."

Heather shied away to the furthest end of the gurney, jolting it with enough force to yank at Alexander's tail. "Bad red-eyed wingie pony! No want mountings!" she yelled, eyes fixated on Lance as if she were expecting him to do something. The aunt rushed to keep her on the gurney, but Heather began to shove her away in an attempt to leave the room.

"Wha, I—" Lance slammed his face against the desk again and groaned. Great, now he might be ousted from his own office because he scared the child by merely existing. Just what he needed.

Blueblood turned to the child, trotted to her, and lowered his head to be eye level with her. He grabbed her with his magic to make sure she wouldn't kick at him and said firmly, "He's not like your tormentors at all; he hates those who would dare harm young children such as yourself."

Heather looked at Blueblood, eyes widening further and sparking with disbelief. "But bad wingie ponies put me in bad dress, wanted me be with tall bad red-eyed alicorn!" she replied. "Wanted cast bad spells!"

Blueblood looked at her evenly, and used a hoof to gesture to Lance. "He had the bad spells cast on him. He'd rather slay your tormentors than let them live another day," he said. "Do you trust me?"

Heather faltered for a moment, ears flopping downward. "I trust you," she said after a moment.

Blueblood nodded. "If he does anything untoward towards you, I'll punch him in the snout and let the others take care of him. Does that sound fair?" he asked.

Heather hesitated, then slowly nodded. The pegasus infant, who was quiet until now, squealed as he trotted over to reach for Blueblood. Blueblood turned to the baby, magically lifted him up, and plopped him on his back, earning some burbling for his efforts. Blueblood turned to the projection of the monument of sin and magically let go of the young mother. "Tell us how you got out of this hellhole, if you please," he said.

Alexander used his tail to slowly roll the gurney up so Heather could take a better look at it, and she trotted to it with shudders visible on her body. She studied the projection closely, then reared on her hinds to point at a cell that was occupied by another mare—more specifically, the bolted-up vent it housed. "This broken when I was there," she said, causing the group to turn to it, noticing that it was rusted and dented inwards, merely a few strong kicks away from giving out completely. "Glowing red and blue, heard angry voice in head, told me follow this out." Heather's hoof followed the vent all the way to where it rested outside of the volcano, and the image shifted to a zoomed-up picture of Redpine Rock's outside.

"Bushes here, hid in them," she said, gesturing to some bushels of greenery on the eastern side of the mountain that stuck out in clusters just big enough for an escapee to hide in. "Bad wingie ponies try find me, but no found." Her hoof trailed down the mountain, to a seemingly-innocuous town at the base of it. "Bad town had empty homes, hid there." The image on the map zoomed in on the town, revealing boarded-up windows and locked doors, save for one that swung in an open breeze.

Her hoof meandered its way to a beachfront on the far northeastern side of the continent, where a suspect red-and-blue glow resonated in something reminiscent of a portal. It diminished once the group looked at it. "Glowy kitty-cat took me away to Goldenbrick, went through bad Lankyroot for months," she said, sitting back down. "Tummy got big, hard to walk, but made warm fires with logs and vines. Learned to cook dead meat before get out of bad Lankyroot. But got to Ashwood, and bad tree, all in bad dress," she concluded.

Lance nodded, and lit up two crystals on the northern end of the largest continent, and three more east of Irongrey. One featured Whitefall town, and the second had several images in rapid succession: Greenwood, before and after the wildfire, the town when it was destroyed, and the forest made to replace it and Ashwood. On the eastern side flashed a jungle laden with more ordinary rafflesias than anything good in the sister worlds, and beyond that a town consisting of bricks with tile roofs, and a mountainous temple beyond that.

"Does this mean… Godcat directly intervened?" the aunt asked aloud.

Lance nodded firmly. "I'm certain She did. She probably wants Redpine purged as much as I do," he answered. The baby squealed, beat his wings hard enough to lift himself into the air, and flew to Lance to boop him on the snout.

Heather's eyes shrunk a bit. "Wingie baby trust you?" she asked.

The infant let Lance grab him and hold him in his forelegs with a burble. "Seems so," Lance sighed, turning to Heather again. He noticed light building on her flanks, and stood up to walk around upright to see it better. There, freshly materialized on her hips, was a campfire whose logs were smothered in vines. The baby squealed and flew out of Lance's forelegs to go back to his young mother, who looked at her new mark with bewilderment.

The aunt gasped as well. "Sweetie, you…" she trailed off.

"Well, it came a bit late, but it looks like an uncorrupted cutie mark to me." Lance reverted to all fours to look Heather in the eye, a warm smile on his face. "You know what it means?"

Heather turned to him, then back to her mark. "Good at living in bad forests?" she asked.

Lance idly nodded, head bobbing from side to side for a bit. "Of sorts," he said. "Your mark just came because you just realized what you were good at." He lifted a hoof and patted her head. "I think I should have you mentored when you're older, and the baby doesn't need constant supervision." The baby squealed and he added, "Of course, we still have to get rid of Redpine first." He booped the young mother on the nose and finished, "And we'll even let you watch the fireworks through this map here."

Heather grinned and began to prance in place, being mindful of the baby as he beat his wings again. "Bad place lots boom?" she asked.

Lance's grin widened. "Lots," he promised. "Thanks for the information, kiddo. Now we know what we need to do to take it down from here." With that, he nodded to Alexander, who turned to escort the small family out of the office. As the door closed, he could see the changeling nurses following as they went, and turned back to the group with gears spinning in his head. He waited until the distant sound of a lift being activated permeated the office before turning to Twilight. "Those forces we saw flying from the launch pad? If it's here they're coming, I'd wager six days before they arrive."

"And what will they do when they arrive?" Twilight asked, looking towards Pinkie as she kept twitching in place.

Lance smirked. "Oh, that's easy. They'll be shot down." He trotted around the desk and fished out the radio again after opening the drawer it was housed in. He fumbled with the knob for a moment, waited for static, and a voice Twilight didn't recognize filtered through.

"Blue Crow speaking, do you need me to scout something again, sir?"

"Not at all. This time… we have a possible front of geased alicorns and pegasi coming in from the southeast," Lance replied. "I want your squadron there to meet them as they arrive if they dare come to the Aerie, no later than six days from now."

Blue Crow sighed on his end. "... that means Redpine's finally gotten off their lazy asses, hasn't it?"

"It appears to be the case. If you need the ground support or something, let me know now so we can prepare," Lance ordered.

"Alright, how strong is this aerial force?" Blue Crow asked, a smidgen of impatience leaking into his voice.

"About a thousand strong at least. I'd give it three thousand at the most," Lance answered. "Looks like standard cannon fodder, too, with more blasters in their hooves than I could count. Expect some more standard weaponry, too."

Blue Crow groaned. "So we might need the big guns, then…" A rustle was heard on his end. "Golden Chalice, you might want to ready your airship!"

A feminine, regal voice filtered in faintly through the radio. "Whatever for?" the owner, presumably Golden Chalice, asked. Blue Crow went off-radio for a moment, his voice somewhat hushed and garbled as he did his best to answer her questions.

Twilight asked Lance in a whisper, "One of your soldiers has their own airship?" At Lance's nod, she frowned and pressed, "Alright, what makes it different from the ones we've seen?"

Lance whispered back, "Her airship has cannons all across its underbelly, magitek-based and with a variety of elemental beams and cannonballs. The cannon fodder won't see it coming."

It was at this point that the radio was rustled and Blue Crow returned. "Alright, we'll probably need some ground units to catch any falling stragglers. Do you want them executed or what?" he asked.

"Execute all of the incoming flock but one member. I want that one member you spare to answer some questions," Lance ordered.

Blue Crow snorted on his end, then seemed to remember who he was talking to. "Alright sir, I'll get everything sorted out on my end. If you want me to, I can pull all-nighters to make sure nothing invades the Aerie while everyone else is asleep," he said.

"Please pull all-nighters, but rotate. I don't want any of you becoming handicapped because of a lack of sleep," Lance replied, frowning a bit.

"Can do. Blue Crow, over and out," Blue Crow responded before Lance shut the radio off.

"Now what do we do?" Matt asked, lifting his chin up.

"We wait for them to come to our doorstep, and once the Crusaders get home with their homework done… and we're proofreading the homework to make sure it's school-appropriate Godcat-damnit, we're knocking down Redpine Rock's house of cards," Lance replied, rustling his wings and turning to the window, watching as the sun set over the vast horizon.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

A week had passed, and the Crusaders went home with their proof-read homework. On the eve of their departure, mere minutes after Discord's portal closed behind the Mythonian fillies and cat, Blue Crow and his small squadron saw shadows gathering in the distance. Their vessels were already out on the ramp in preparation for this, and Matt, Anna and Natalie stood by their side also watching the incoming storm with rapt attention as their war uniforms bristled in the wind. Beside them, Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash also stood to attention, along with the small retinue of royal guards that accompanied Shining Armor on his way to Fantasia.

"How are the ectoplasms not striking them down?" Blue Crow wondered aloud, even as he moved to board one of the smaller, pilotable magitek with a head in the shape of his namesake with a see-through dome on top.

The three wingless females seemed to be sizing up the opposition, and the rust red among them adjusted her pilot's hat and goggles with a frown on her beak. She turned to Blue Crow's magitek, whose rather pointed head was attached to a winged torso with jet engines on the undersides and tail to help facilitate flight, further emblazoned with Lance's cutie mark. Hatches rested on the chest, and two mounted miniguns rested on the wings with mana crystals locked and loaded for the onslaught.

Her braided brown feathers swayed in the wind as she watched him don his own goggles, keeping the lid on his vehicle open so he could hear her. "They have alicorns among them, right?" she asked. At his nod, she turned to the storm and muttered, "They probably have cloaking spells. Figures they'd strike on a clear night, too. They probably won't see our planes coming."

With that, she turned to board her own vessel, red with the stacked wings of a cutie marked biplane and a turbine on the front, also loaded with its own hatch and magitek miniguns. "Want to keep track of the killcount?" she asked Blue Crow as both revved up their engines.

"With pleasure, Red Barrel!" Blue Crow cried, watching as the golden wingless female gryphon with braided feathers of her own moved to board an airship bearing gryphon wings and a gilded bust. The last gryphon, a maroon female, adjusted her scarf and goggles as she boarded a magitek resembling a cross between a two-seat airship and a windmill. Her ride came with a massive turbine on the front, three pairs of wings stacked atop each other, miniguns on those wings, and burned with the symbol of Lance's cutie mark on its rudders. "And you, Rose Windmill?"

Rose Windmill revved up her ride and smirked, though her smile was oddly cool and collected. "Looking like it's time to tell the bighters their final howdy-do before we send them crashing down," she said.

Radios flared to life on all three of the smaller magitek vehicles, from which a female's voice came. "Golden Chalice, do you copy?" she asked.

"Copy!" Blue Crow, Rose Windmill, and Red Barrel replied in tandem.

Hatches closed on the rides of the pilots as they prepared to give the incoming pegasi and alicorns their reckoning. In front of them, their superiors drew forth their weapons, each wreathed in a red aura. Dark crystals once more grew on Natalie and her staff, forming into the wicked scythe that glinted ominously in the fading sunlight. Anna idly plucked the strings on her massive harp, seeming to choose a tune before nodding. Matt eyed his obsidian blade for a moment, then shrugged as if to say 'good enough.'

Another one of Discord's portals opened up, and from it emerged Spitfire and a whole fleet of uniformed Wonderbolts, each one with mana pulsing across their wings. They looked around for a moment, then turned to Rainbow Dash, who immediately stood to attention and saluted her with a "Ma'am!" the moment their eyes locked.

Spitfire nodded grimly, face hardening as the portal closed behind her and her team. "Discord briefed us on the situation," she said, turning to the growing storm of pegasi and alicorns. "I cannot believe how low the Fantasian pegasi stooped. Is Lance keeping any horsepower from the fight?"

"No ma'am," Rainbow reported. "We're to strike once the sun fully sets. Shining's gonna set up a shield over the Aerie once we take off, and apparently the wraithling is going to help… somehow." She shrugged. "I don't know how that's gonna work, and something tells me I don't want to know."

Spitfire nodded, and turned to look at the three Lieutenant-Generals with a glare that said 'you's got some 'splanin' to do later,' then redirected it to the coming tide of enemies. They seemed so slow, it looked almost time to strike soon. There were no flight formations that she could see, no calibration; it was all just one big mobile bundle seemingly without a leader and scarcely any direction. It was a miracle they could have even found the Aerie at all, and the more she thought of it, the more suspicious it seemed. "And to think we're going up against armed foes…" She flexed her wings and cricked her neck. "It's been a while since I've gotten into a serious tussle."

Anna looked to Spitfire, frowning. "I thought you were a bunch of showhorses!" she said.

Spitfire smirked. "And I thought you were painfully average for a soldier," she shot back, earning a groan from Anna.

Soarin flexed his wings, and turned to exchange a glance and a nod with Dash. "Usual tactics, or tornados?" she asked.

"I say we use tornadoes and lightning chains," Soarin replied, spreading a wing to gesture to the enemy. "I doubt they know how to manipulate any kind of weather, so we have the upper hoof on that front." He looked towards the bundle of enemies that was headed for them. "Wait a second, is it just me, or does nopony over there have any armor?"

Anna narrowed her eyes and scanned the mass. Soarin was right, not a single shred of protective gear or anything that could be construed as such could be seen on the enemy ranks; the fading sunlight would have tipped her off if they had been wearing any gear at all. "... you're right, none of them are wearing any armor of any sort. The only thing that might count for that is their weapons," she muttered.

"No armor at all?" Flash asked incredulously. Anna shook her head.

"Zero, zilch, nada," was Anna's reply.

"So… they don't even bother dressing up for a war…" Spitfire muttered, shaking her head. "What are they thinking?"

"Their heads are probably full of hot air," Soarin replied with a blaise shrug. "They are geased, right? It's probably overriding their entire thinking process."

"Just like almost everypony in Greenwood…" Anna muttered under her breath.

The sun finally sank beyond the horizon, its fading rays still tainting the skies in burning scarlet as it departed. At once, the Lieutenant-Generals moved as one, self-levitating with their power guiding them forward. The guards, spearheaded by Flash, followed after, followed by Spitfire and her Wonderbolts. The magitek was the last to depart, keeping careful to spread themselves apart to have room to maneuver as they raced to confront the opponent. The moment they left, a shield of pink went up over Irongrey, rippling with reddish energies and pulsing with chilled winds that swirled ominously around the mass.

"You won't keep the traitor from us!" cried one of the alicorns with an amplified voice and geased eyes wide and shining with the desire for blood, "We'll take him with us if it's the last thing we do!"

The Wonderbolts shuddered, but steeled their resolve and broke off into pairs. They formed trails of electrified clouds with their magic, chains of lightning dancing between the contrails as they were hastily zeroing in on their targets as the two sides raced to meet. Most of them had to duck their heads as Matt sent out a volley of screaming shadows, each one moving ethereally in the absence of light to strike random targets out of the skies. Hails of arrows shot out, missing teammates and moving to impale themselves on wings and in the grooves of horns with prejudice, some sprouting frost and crystals and others simply paralyzing them for just long enough to drop their owners.

Orbs of white-hot fire, tainted with shadows, surged onward and went on to explode into smaller pieces of flame as they slammed into targets, singing feathers and bodies alike. The Wonderbolts went ahead of all these volleys, whirling around in an intricate dance that managed to catch some of the enemy pegasi and alicorns off-guard as the lightning chains sparking between them caused them to jitter in place as they were caught and dropped.

Flash Sentry and his retinue went for the more direct approach: approaching members of the flock and simply punching them in the faces repeatedly until they went limp, and then dropping them unceremoniously. Those that were knocked out this way were further sent down faster by Dash, who beat her wings at blinding speeds to summon controlled tornadoes that swept them up and hurtled them that much farther to their deaths.

It took the pilots and airship some time to move around the smaller ponies, but the moment they were clear machine gun fire rang out, pelting the enemy and shredding wings and bones with impunity. The airship got above the flock and opened a myriad of hatches to reveal cannons lining the underside, all shifting as far down as they could before unloading their vitriol. Some of it was standard-issue cannonballs, and others were charged anomalies that sparked, singed, or froze some of the enemy to drop them.

The pegasi and alicorns, in response, fired off their own vitriol, hoping to score a hit with their elemental charges that were miniscule in comparison to what was coming from above. The Wonderbolts weaved out of the way, breaking apart their lightning chains just to be certain they were clear of the shots. The royal guards used the ponies they were whaling on as shields to take the brunt of the onslaught, casting them aside once they were done shielding them from the attack.

Natalie yawned, conjured a shield, and watched it take the brunt of the blows before catching some of the vitriol, adding her own magic to make it stable, and sending it right back with impunity. Anna teleported out of the way, and Matt willed his shadows to simply form holes that the discharges harmlessly passed through. The slower magitek tried firing the vitriol out of the sky, but one scored a hit on the very edge of Red Barrel's left wing, causing the vehicle to wobble and tilt for a few seconds before reorienting.

Red Barrel fiddled with a lever, her claw slowly pushing it up as it clicked into place. She pressed a button on her control panel and announced to the rest of her teammates, "Missiles incoming!" Her ride opened its hatch, and sent forth a triad of slender missiles that took a split-second to trigger their ignition before they went screaming into the fray. The missiles wasted no time knocking three alicorns out of the sky in vibrant explosions that disoriented them and shredded their torsos in one go.

Blue Crow did the same, sans announcing it so the enemy wouldn't have time to react. The missile he released was far larger than a pony, and three times as long, having to use the magitek's inner workings just to materalize and pull itself from the hatch at the same time. It fell once it completed itself, only to ignite and home in on an enemy squadron in the flock and explode and brute force them away from the rest of the massive herd. Before it detonated, Spitfire had noticed a crude peace sigil sloppily painted on its side in bright pastel white, contrasting the light grey steel of the main body.

Rose Windmill had a widening smirk as she unloaded her own missile, the biggest one of all. It could barely get itself out of the hatch, and seemed to form from pooling shadows pulsing with red energy that coalesced into a corporeal body. Its tail was the most difficult to get out, because it had four curious protrusions on that end that moved on jointed hinges simply so it could free itself.

She announced three simple words that had the geased pegasi in her sights paling as she pressed the communications button: "Antimatter deployment, firing." And when the massive rocket freed itself, it shuddered as its ignition came to life, and zeroed in on its targets. It turned its bulky head and channelled a fell energy as it dove into the flock of opponents, pulling them together as it forced them away from the rest of their numbers. When it was clear enough to take them with it, it detonated, conjuring a house-sized pulse of darkness that collapsed on itself and shredded those it gathered with its power before it dissipated.

"Give them no quarter! We will draw the blood of those that stand in our way!" one of the enemy alicorns boldly declared, his horn glowing in red energies that built exponentially on itself. He swung his blaster, charging it with his magic as he took aim at Rose Windmill's magitek. Unfortunately for him, Rose Windmill proceeded to use her miniguns to shred him before he could fire, his charge dying as his body was perforated with burning crystals that smoked as they made new homes in his flesh.

"How are they stronger than us?!" a geased pegasus cried before Rainbow Dash used her speed to knock him out with both front hooves right to the head. He went plummeting down with a caved skull as scores more followed him to certain death.

Some tried homing in on Anna as they heard her playing out a tune across the strings. None were fast enough as a tornado conjured itself into existence in front of her and proceeded to wipe them out in seconds. Dash flew up to Anna, eyes wide. "You can whip up tornadoes too?!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, why?" Anna asked blaisely, even as she conjured more arrows to down more of the enemy.

"That would have been really helpful to know, I don't know, when we came back to Fantasia?" Dash replied, kicking away a geased pegasus that got too close for comfort. "Lance said he had nopony who could control the weather!"

"I don't have it as under control as you guys do!" Anna shot back, pointing to the tornado she had summoned. It was homing in on some geased pegasi, growing big enough to force the guards and Wonderbolts in front of it to get out of the way. "It's got two settings: off and go, and right now it's on go!"

Dash rolled her eyes. Of course, that wouldn't have counted as 'controlling the weather' in the Fantasians' book. And Anna was using unicorn magic to pull the feat off, so naturally her control wouldn't be as sharp and precise as, say, the standard Ponyvillian weathermare. But Dash realized her talents were more in obliterating the enemy than anything resembling coordinated weather, and that was what she was doing with a finesse all her own.

Which was a pity for the enemy, because they were gaining no ground. Three thousand at most? Pfha, they were but peashooters before the tiny force that Lance had sent, as well as that force's backup. These geased dunderheads had no grace, no plan, no formation; they seemed to have thought they could have just waltzed in and had their way with whatever and whoever they wanted to. Sure, a big airborne flock of armed ponies was frightening to most, but they made the mistake of coming up against an already-prepared force that anticipated the incoming strike from a mile away. A mistake that was, already, costing them big-time, if for no other inconvenience than that many fewer numbers in the inevitable numbers game they were playing.

Also unfortunate for them, they were up against three ponies who could easily take portions of Fantasia's surface, score it with magics stronger than they had probably seen, maybe do some light terraforming for good measure on top of using the few limited means they had to screw up the weather patterns, and then laugh in the faces of those who dared challenge them. Granted, the trio in question were holding their most destructive magics back, which made sense—those spells probably drained a lot of mana, and perhaps threatened their bodies, and this wasn't a situation that called for the use of such destruction just yet. Not that Rainbow had seen the full extent of it, but that didn't stop her from tossing her own musings around in her head even as she beat geased ponies into submission.

And not to mention the Wonderbolts, who were doing a damn fine job pulling their own weight in the battle, and the magitek pilots. For all their faults in being wingless, these pilots were naturals in the sky, dodging and firing with precision and a bulky grace that the enemy sorely lacked. The airship didn't even need to dodge; it was like an airborne glacier fitted with piping hot geysers of raw magic for artillery. Its armor laughed at the strikes sent its way, making any blow just glance off its underside with nothing more than a skitter.

The Wonderbolts, meanwhile, were swift and nimble, zipping out of the way of any strike that dared so much as glance at them one moment, and retaliating the next moment with some weather-based magics that the geased maniacs hadn't anticipated and could not have prepared for. Lightning chains, tornadoes, skillfully-used wind currents both coming on their own and artificially generated… plus whatever meager weather-based support Anna could whip up with her grossly oversized harp…

The guards were a little clumsier thanks to their armor, but for that minor fault, they were dishing out beatings like it was candy on Nightmare Night. One grabbed a geased pegasus by his tail, and started throwing that poor bastard around with a surprising amount of strength. The pegasus screamed as he was sent into his fellow ponies in a tangle of legs and feathers, the sheer pain of impact and being used to beat on somepony else like a living mace enough to drop both him and the ponies he was sent crashing into. The others were busy playing hopscotch with enemy heads, just pronking from one unarmored head to the next with enough force to concuss opponents and leave them vulnerable for the others to clean up.

Which was another crying shame for the enemy—none of them had bothered to show up with any shred of armor to protect themselves with. Few, if any, tried to dodge. Many refused to part with their weapons even as they were torn apart in various ways. It was as if they had expected an easy win from their foe, when instead the only thing that awaited them was certain death.

Well, before too long, geased alicorns began using their magic to pull their manes out over everything going catastrophically wrong for them. Geased pegasi were howling in frustration, some waving their blasters around like impromptu maces in the hopes that they could hit something.

Dash made a personal estimate on the rather one-sided 'battle,' as simple as they could come: before moonrise, one lone troop of the enemy formation would be all that was left, beset on all sides by those who wanted answers, and to probably cave the survivor's face in. That survivor would probably have his wings clipped, and maybe his horn broken if he had one, before he would start yakking. How much he would spill, though, was the ultimate question.

But as the sky darkened to its deepest navy, and more enemies dropped with plenty of perforations to keep them company, she and the others would find something most unusual about the particular geas cast on these unlucky bastards.

Needless to say, things wouldn't quite pan out the way she would have liked. Or a way that Lance would have appreciated.

Chapter C—Phyrric Victory

The battle raged on until the moon was at the apex of the sky, and through it all, the enemy pegasi and alicorns were pulling their manes out of their scalps as they wondered just what had gone wrong for them, and where. Their enemy pulled no punches, despite their small numbers; every advantage they had, they used to their fullest. Weather, magic, magitek, sheer brute force and discombobulation—whatever they could pull from their collective skirts, they used it and used it with abandon.

Furthermore, despite any and all differences they had, they were far more organized than they gave credit for, working together as though they were one. Sure, the guards and Wonderbolts looked as out of place as peacocks in a chicken farm, but that did not stop their offense at all. Having their companions being slaughtered with impunity did not help the invaders' sanity at all, assuming they had their sanity to begin with.

Yet as they fell, something seemed to snap in those who remained. Those who were alicorns had red overtake their eyes completely, the geases scrawled into their heads glowing as their magic began crackling through their hooves and wings and horns and weapons. One took aim at Spitfire and charged, his blaster glowing with a fell power. Spitfire saw him coming, and danced out of the way, her lightning trail connecting with his body.

But he did not drop. He howled with an echoing cry, and kept pursuing her, firing off magic blasts from his horn as crimson bolts crackled along his wings, forming a flight contrail of his own. He screamed through the air, both verbally and magically, as he slowly caught up to her, even as she weaved out of the way of his magical blasts and watched as they exploded in the air around her. Soarin saw the alicorn hounding his leader, and flew behind the pursuer to halt his advance. A few other Wonderbolts saw him move, but had their hooves a little too full with the enemies that were now squawking for blood.

"Fucking murderpigeons! Go back to the shithole you came from!" Anna howled, even as she waved a hoof to send out a spray of smoking seeds that dug into the enemy with impunity. Rainbow Dash shuddered upon seeing vines and wood burying themselves into geased flesh, twisting skin and muscle with the same impunity that it had visited upon Greenwood. The enemies cried out as if they were one upon seeing this, and those within Anna's eyesight immediately turned to her and proceeded to fly in her direction.

"Greenwood needs to be burnt and subjugated for the glory of the Redpine Flock!" the geased cried, horns and wings beating with magic as they started unleashing several payloads all at once. Irony of ironies though, news of what went down in said community didn't seem to have reached these dunderheads yet, which was probably for the better.

Anna's eyes might have widened as the flock began encroaching on her position. Just a little. "Ah, shit…" she grumbled, teleporting out of the way before the strikes could touch her. The attacks sailed all the way to Irongrey's barrier, which rippled as it was struck, but otherwise held firm. She reappeared next to Matt, who gave her a disapproving look.

"Did Lance talk to you about seeding ponies?" Matt asked.

Anna shook her head. "And now's not the time for that," she retorted, even as the geased flock started homing in on her location again. Even those afflicted with the Blight failed to slow down, despite the plant matter racing to overtake them, for their own innate magic combined with the geases cast on them was fighting the affliction.

Natalie sent out another wave of explosive, burgeoning fire. Some of the enemies fell, but most of them charged through as though she had sent nothing at all. Her brow furrowed, and she sent out shards of frost to nick and tear at wings and legs, freezing some solid and causing them to plummet to their deaths. "I think you pissed them off somehow, Bushels," she muttered, even as she sent out bolts of lightning from her horn that failed to deter most of the flock despite catching another few to send to their early graves.

"Gee, thanks, what gave it away?" Anna growled in exasperation, loading up an arrow into her drawstring and aiming upwards. She had to avoid hitting the airship, and the planes, but she hoped that her next attack would hit some of the bloodthirsty flock that was trying to stake a claim on the Aerie.

Rainbow facehoofed upon seeing the Blight struggling to overtake flesh which might already be cursed. "And I thought the Elements of Harmony weakened that bunk of horseapples…" she grumbled to nopony in particular. She dove towards Anna's position, which might have been stupid since the Blight was in action once more. She bashed in a few seeded alicorns, yet strangely the Blight didn't try to spread itself to her for some reason. Perhaps the Elements let Anna have a finer degree of control over the affliction?

Whatever the case, Rainbow could ruminate on it later; right now, she still had a battle to fight, and faces to bash in. She flew onwards, diving beneath a wave of explosive flame and screaming shadows, wondering just how much Fantasia had jaded their casters to basically be efficient killing machines—killing machines that hid their truest nature during their stay in Equestria.

Yet, the enemy pushed on, trying to gain some modicum of ground. A few went after Flash Sentry and his regiment of guards, but the contingent of guards were ready and waiting. As soon as the geased enemies came close to them, they wasted no time using their hooves to deflect the massive blasters with some difficulty and pirouetting out of the way of any magical blasts that so much as sneezed at them.

Spitfire weaved under the airship, dodging the cannonfire as the alicorn tracking her kept encroaching more and more on her tail. She had to ditch this maniac, and soon—she didn't want to know what he had in store for her, if there was anything other than the commands of the geas working within the confines of his head.

She took a quick look behind her to gauge how close the maniac was to her position, and smiled when she saw Soarin racing to catch up to them. She turned back ahead, dodging more volleys from above. Her smile turned into a frown when she saw Red Barrel's aircraft coming towards her instead of around her.

Red Barrel droned out from her radio, "Move aside Fireball, I've got something for that fruitcake behind you!" Spitfire heeded the command, and just in time, too—Red Barrel unleashed a massive missile with another peace sign sloppily painted on it, which had to take a moment longer than its fellows just to emerge. Weirdly, it was sixteen times larger than the one Blue Crow had fired earlier, though it had emerged with no visible signs of struggling, as though conjured outside of the hatch as opposed to within it. Had her aircraft had special enchantments done on it to allow this? Regardless, it moved at lightning speed to hit the lunatic right in the schnoz with a sickening crack.

Ouch. Somepony was going to have his face rearranged in the afterlife, Spitfire mused. As the dunderhead was sent sailing away from under the airship, Soarin darted aside to let him have a clear path to an explosive ending of his ill-fated crusade, and promptly caught up to his captain as they both ducked under the biplane.

Distantly, Spitfire heard a window break, and motioned for Soarin to follow her. They flew to the airship, around its cannons and up its side as they saw glass raining down from above. Further up, some dunderheads had managed to infiltrate the ship, seemingly jeopardizing Golden Chalice and her ride in the process. They nodded to one another and flew up to intercept, flying into the broken window to find a room with a table, a set of stairs, and kitchen-based items beyond a glass wall that was unmolested.

The pair nodded, and flew up the stairs to find a bedroom, a shower, and a lift heading up. The elevator had already gone up, so they flew to hit the button to call it back down. As soon as it returned, they boarded, and waited for it to take them up. Once it stopped and opened up its doors, they raced into the next room to find a most peculiar sight.

Namely, the dunderheads paused to laugh at the gryphoness, who had her tail turned to the steering wheel and simultaneously anchored to it. Also, she had a smirk on her face, and a small piece of magitek in her claws, with a trigger, a slender barrel, an ammunition chamber and bedazzled with gemstones. "Aw, look at you—coming up here thinking I was unarmed," Golden Chalice said, her gaze calm and collected as she holstered a clip into the bottom of her weapon's grip. "At least you had the decency to use the lift. That leaves less for me to clean up."

Before the dunderheads could act, much less contemplate her statement, she fired with precision and grace and speed, unloading six bullets into the heads of the maniacs before her. This wound up leaving a smoking barrel and six ponies falling dead as the ammunition made new homes in their brains. They collapsed in heaps, staining the carpet with their blood. Golden Chalice scoffed at them. "At least the stains will be easy to remove, thanks to those runes I had etched in the carpet…" she grumbled, moving to set the pistol aside in a cubby within the control panel.

Well, she seemed to have the situation under control, at least. "You good?" Spitfire asked.

Golden Chalice turned to the Wonderbolt Captain nodded, and took a moment to part from her ship's controls to pull aside a section of carpet, and with it, a trap door. She reached into the hole and hefted a gem-bedazzled blaster of her own out, hewn of gold and silver and as solid as anything the Aerie produced, engraved with ornate runes that curved just enough to look fancy. "I always make sure my weapons are nearby if I should need them," she said with a cheeky grin.

"And you don't seem to be concerned about this… like, at all," Soarin noted, a feeling of uneasiness settling into his gut as he spoke.

Golden Chalice frowned. "Truth be told, I am… but I cannot show any weaknesses to the enemy," she said tartly. "I would wonder why Starcovert hasn't cast her Geasbreaker spell yet, but the maniacs probably aren't giving her any breathing room to do it…"

"Geasbreaker?" Spitfire asked.

Golden Chalice nodded, her expression souring with the motion. "That's what we call it; she calls it by a different name. It's a spell that can heal burns, defrost, remove paralysis, purify poisons… but she takes a bit to charge it, and her targets have to be afflicted by something for the spell to work. But, when she first cast it, she used it to remove a geas; hence, Geasbreaker," she explained. She moved to open a window next to one of the camera screens, and gestured out of it. "You might want to hop back into the thick of it, because it looks like it's picking up in intensity," she said calmly.

The Wonderbolts nodded, and moved to hop out of the window, pausing only for just long enough to make sure Golden Chalice would close it behind them afterwards. She did, and she waved, and returned to manning her airship, keeping her blaster nearby in case some other idiot decided they wanted to try their hoof at being made to walk the plank. The pair dove back into the fray, being careful to avoid the cannon volleys once they reached the airship's underside, when Soarin noticed something weird. He turned to observe it, and frowned at what he beheld.

"That red-maned mare is charging some kind of spell!" Soarin reported, using a hoof to indicate Natalie. Spitfire twisted her head in the direction his hoof pointed, and then halted mid-air to better see what he was talking about. He was right; some sort of spell was dancing upon her horn, pure white with flecks of gold drifting down her face like small feathers. Runes formed around her spiral, dancing intricately as they framed themselves into a small cross with rope wrapped around its middle and innermost corners. The parts of the flock that ignored the others began to clamor around the crystal mare, and yet strangely, their eyes grew in awareness as they drew closer.

Whatever she was doing, they seemed to recognize the forming spell. "Stop her! She will undo everything!" one geased member cried, charging up a retort to strike down Natalie where she hovered. Matt intercepted the attack, slashing the attacker's head clean off his withers and causing both halves to plummet down below.

"Our livelihoods! Our society! Our stability!" another frantically cried, aiming to use his blaster like a mace with which to strike Matt upside his shadow-cloaked head. He swung and missed, darkness trailing after the barrel of his weapon on the downswing. "You understand nothing! She will cause Redpine to crumble! Stop this at once!" He was met with a sword impaling him through the stomach and clean through to the other side, before the blade sharply wrenched to the side and spilled his guts everywhere.

"Your livelihoods? All you fucks do is fondle mutilated foals and cast them aside to be used as machine fuel when they grow too old to breed!" Matt replied, waving his sword at the incoming tide as if telling them to do their worst. "Your society is built on puppeteering and lies! Your stability's practically non-existent! What do you have to lose by being purified of your geases?!"

Soarin and Spitfire's eyes widened. Was Natalie's spell about to turn the tides of battle in their favor?

The flock continued charging, some seeming to even suddenly forget Anna as the declaration left Matt's lips. Now, most of the remainder were circling around Natalie, hoping to score a hit as her spell grew in size. Anna teleported over to intercept those members of the tide that even Matt couldn't get to, striking them down as they came too close for comfort. Soon, the rest of the flock caught on, and formed a tight, impenetrable ball around the three, clustering together as though of one mind.

Flash Sentry and his contingent regrouped with the Wonderbolts and Rainbow Dash, wondering what was about to happen. The airplanes circled the mass, ceasing fire as they watched hawkishly. Golden Chalice ceased her elemental vitriol, and she didn't even need to look out of the windows thanks to the cameras in her airship relaying to her what was happening beneath the hull.

Yet… whatever it was the flock was doing, they weren't doing a particularly good job of it. White light shone through the gaps between the moving throng of bodies, looking like a disco ball made of flesh and fur that made its own light rather than reflect it. Just faintly within the mass, the Equestrians and pilots could see moving shadows and hails of arrows retaliating, even as the growing intensity of the light began to drown them out.

More geased alicorns and pegasi fell down, by the dozens. The light seeped through more and more with the diminishing numbers, and just as Spitfire opened her mouth to ask what was going on, the spell Natalie charged was unleashed. Runes formed around the flock, circling and forming into a complex spell circle with a rune-engraved, feather-laden cross at its center, rotating on every axis it could. Its golden-white light enveloped geased maniacs as it passed, and as it touched them they stopped moving, hovering in the air as though they had suddenly gotten amnesia and were contemplating how to move forward with that hollow knowledge of the fact.

Soon enough, the battle had halted completely. Red Barrel, thinking fast, pressed a button on her control panel, the underside of her plane opening up and throwing out a net that was anchored to it by a thick rope. The net secured one member of the dazed flock, tying up around his hooves, weapon, horn and wings and leaving no breathing room to struggle or cast spells. She promptly carted him off to the Aerie, with Blue Crow and the rest of the magitek squad following her.

Afterwards, the rest of the enemy flock screamed, aimed their blasters towards their own faces, and started blowing their brains out en masse, a sight that made Spitfire and the rest of the gathered Wonderbolts sick to look at. Cries of "Godcat forgive me!" and "There can be no atonement for what I've done!" erupted from formerly-geased throats as the mass suicide almost instantly reached fever pitch. Seeking to do something, Rainbow Dash flew towards the diminishing flock, grabbing ponies by their hooves to get them to stop.

"But you're free now! You can use that freedom however you want!" Rainbow pleaded, only to be batted aside every time she grabbed a former maniac without fail. "You can get your cutie marks! You can help us stop the rest of Redpine! Just find something to avoid ending it all!" Her words fell on deaf ears, and she realized she wasn't the only pony trying to stop the mass death—Natalie and her squadron had joined in, seizing ponies in shadows, vines and magic with words of their own that, likewise, went unheeded as they were rebuffed in turn.

Soarin moved to intercept the suddenly-suicidal, unable to stand the sight anymore. Yet the first pony he grabbed hit him with a wing, sending him spinning away before he regained his balance in time to see that pony cleave his own skull in half with blaster fire. Flash Sentry watched, his head shaking as he struggled to comprehend what he was seeing. Under the geas, these ponies were maniacs, but now that they were free of it… they had changed completely.

The herd continued to thin. Another few Wonderbolts moved to intercept the former maniacs, joined by some guards from Flash's retinue, making their own pleas that had gone ignored. Spitfire watched as Soarin moved back into the thick of it, trying to persuade them onto a better path than the one they were about to tumble off of. Was this… was this what a geas did in the end, fill a pony with so much regret that, upon being broken, left them with no other option but to take the cold embrace of death itself? Natalie swung her scythe, severing the horns of the dead-eyed, but alas the gesture was futile—those that had their horns lopped off simply stopped flapping their wings and allowed themselves to plummet towards the unforgiving ground below.

Spitfire was at a loss for words. She was unsure of what to do. Nothing seemed to be working, nothing seemed to be stopping the former maniacs from willing themselves to die. Nothing seemed to be stopping them from taking any avenue of death that was available to them.

Nothing was working. That hollow fact alone carved pits into her soul, and she was left wondering… if this was what Redpine did to ponies, then what else did Fantasia have in store for her and her Wonderbolts yet?

It would be a while before the sun bore witness to the tragedy, and its counterpart was already starting to set over the horizon. And their efforts spent trying to prevent suicide would not go unnoticed from afar.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Spitfire never thought it was possible for the Aerie to have such a desolate place in its mountainous mass, but being a changeling hive and gryphon aerie all rolled into one, with magitek reinforcing everything, this would make some semblance of sense. She and the others who had participated in the repelling of Redpine's attack marched through a solemn hall, lined with sturdy magitek doors on either side, with only bars on those doors secluded in a small square to permit anyone to see what was within.

Up ahead, Red Barrel and Blue Crow wrangled their netted catch, who struggled as much as his hind legs would let him. His horn had been capped, his wings tied uncomfortably tight, and his front legs restrained and held aloft as he was dragged. His muzzle had been clamped shut by a cage, preventing him from speaking, not that it drowned out his muffled cries completely. They sported grim faces, almost as though they had seen this exact scenario play out before—their expressions unnerved Spitfire the longer she dwelled on it, so she turned to the hall itself to see if it could yield anything.

Despite the small bars on the doors, the area was completely, almost unnaturally quiet, with only the sound of hooves, claws, talons, and the muffled whimpering daring to make any sort of racket. Lights flickered overhead, a sterile white to contrast the gray steel of it all. Each door had a lock, but instead of a standard key, they used horns slotting in a similar manner to open and close, which Natalie had demonstrated when asked about the locks.

Spitfire paused to peer into one of the doors' small bars, seeing a disheveled unicorn mare—elderly, blank flank, horn capped—in the room. She pressed her ear against the bars, trying to hear what that mare was ranting about. "Sweetie Belle! When I get my hooves on you, I will make you enter a suitable marriage with the first stallion that wants you! You will be his wife until the end of your days!" the mare inside ranted, stomping a hoof petulantly as the words echoed in her cell.

Spitfire felt a hoof wrap around her own. She turned to the source, to find Matt tugging her away. "That one's been banished from Equestria for the crime of foal-trafficking," he said sourly. "Only reason she's here is because Discord plopped her into our mess hall, and we had to cart her out to keep her hatred from killing any changelings."

Spitfire's brow furrowed, and she let herself be pulled away. "Discord might have neglected to mention that…" she grumbled.

"If it helps you feel better, a former noble came in not too long after her," Matt said with a shrug, letting go of Spitfire's hoof. "Tried using a shitty hotel as a front to start a damn war with us."

Spitfire's eyes widened. "What," she said.

Matt nodded. "Yeah, it's stupid, I know," he agreed. "If you want, when you head back to Equestria, you can ask Celestia about it—when she isn't pulling her mane out dealing with Parliament." He gestured to Natalie and Anna, using the mobile shadows of his mane. "Or them, if you want—they even got to deal with that noble in person."

Soarin frowned. "Didn't that noble make the news this morning?" he asked, turning to Spitfire. "For crimes against the Equestrian crown?"

Spitfire's eyebrows tabled, then furrowed as she recalled reading a paper earlier that morning. Details that she now regretted glossing over stuck out at her, and she wondered who let that plothead even get that far with his ploy. Matt produced a dossier with a flick of his horn, spread her wings for her, and cupped them around the sheaf of papers. "Trust me, you will want alcohol when you read that. I wish I did, but I had to be responsible for once," Matt said, shaking his head.

To take her mind off of… well, everything about this section of the Aerie, Spitfire perused the dossier that had been crammed into her wings as she walked with the group. Carefully using her primaries, she shuffled the papers as she got to the bottoms of the parchments, brow furrowing at what she beheld. The dumbest plan to initiate war between the sister worlds was scrawled out before her, penned in the curviest of cursive that would have been hard to replicate. And yet, whoever wrote this thing hadn't bothered to go over the finer ramifications of their plan.

Said plan entailed using a hotel and the lackeys running it to violate, then murder, two of the Fantasians leading her through this dismal place. As well as the hippogryph foal that accompanied them that night, to prevent her from squealing—whole lotta good that did the involved lackeys in the end. Then the plan derailed into wiping out the Fantasians completely, before plunking a puppet ruler in the place of the alicorn Princesses, who… probably wouldn't have just rolled over for a wannabe tin-pot tyrant trying to pass themselves off as a successor.

"You're right… this is a stupid ploy," Spitfire agreed, amazed that the pony who had penned this dreck was so bold as to assume that his plan would go off without a hitch. "And you say he's here?"

Matt halted at a particular cell to gesture to it, and the others halted with him. "Right here," he said. "He lost both his horn and breeding privileges," he added curtly. "Celestia actually threw him here, knowing he was armed with a weapon that could prevent horns from growing back, and he tried to strike at Anna."

"Didn't expect me to deflect his attack, much less counterattack," Anna added with a snort. "Thought I was just a 'lowborn false alicorn whorse,' who should have died the night of our visit like a good little bitch would do."

Spitfire's brow rose. "He said that?" she asked.

Anna nodded. "In front of practically the entire damn army," she confirmed. "And his son, who's trying to right the wrong."

Soarin whistled. "And here I thought the Canterlot nobility couldn't get any more stupid and entitled," he said, frowning. "The last Grand Galloping Gala we attended, they kept making snide remarks about me and my fellow Wonderbolts being a bunch of no-good, sparkly-hooves, savage feather dusters every time they thought our backs were turned."

Matt gestured to himself using his shadows. "One reason I hid this shit from them," he said. "They'd have drowned Celestia out and would have kept us from speaking if we revealed our true selves to them."

"Bunch of entitled old fuckers, thinking they can just trample on everypony to get their way," Anna grumbled, her wood rustling as her claws clenched. The group began moving again, trotting past another couple of cell doors. "Fuck, what I would do to castrate the whole lot of them and end their precious bloodlines…"

"Now now, their kids might not be as entitled as them," Soarin pointed out, fanning his wings in a calming gesture. "We don't need to be going that far…"

"But the fucks are raising them to be as petulant as themselves!" Anna retorted, turning her head to Soarin with teeth bared. She angled her body a little to better look at him. "Besides, entitlement breeds entitlement! Nip that shit in the bud, and hit me up for some alcohol after!" She made to rant further, when she turned ahead and noticed that Red Barrel and Blue Crow had stopped again to peer into a particular cell on the group's right.

"This one's empty," Blue Crow said, nodding to his superiors. "Open 'er up, and we can let this one simmer down for the night." Anna sighed, trotted over, and slid her horn into the lock before lighting it up with magic. The runes on the lock triggered, clicking and whirring echoed from deep within the mass, and as Anna pulled away the door opened with her. The pilots moved around her to throw their catch into his new home, and closed the door before he could think to scrabble out on his back legs.

Spitfire sighed, and tucked the dossier under her wing to keep it safe. It might make for a good story to tell the other Wonderbolts, and maybe they could use that as an example to not let bits decide everything in the end for future recruits. "So… what do we do?" she asked, glancing at the others.

"Well… we let Bindy McBinds calm down, and interrogate him tomorrow," Natalie said with a shrug. "Besides, we might have to repel more attacks elsewhere, assuming the sky pirates don't beat us to it."

"Sky pirates?" Soarin asked, raising a brow.

"Whole tribe of wingless gryphons, who run planes and a massive airship we dug up for them. They call their mobile base the Big Magnum," Anna answered, turning back to the Wonderbolts. "They came up to us earlier today, telling us that Redpine poked them, too."

"... and how well did that go?" Spitfire questioned.

"Not very well, for the attacking force from Redpine. The sky pirates made quick work of them," Matt answered. "However… the force attacking them consisted of two groups that went after other towns—towns which had been evacuated, temporarily relocated onto the Big Magnum, and then dropped off here until we can figure out what to do with them." He willed some shadows into existence. "Basically, biological folks revealed their true natures, got everypony out safely using their darkness-related abilities, as well as their treasures and possessions and some… important sacred jewels."

"And your biological folks…?" Spitfire pressed.

"Umbrum," Matt answered simply. "And my earth pony father." He shrugged and shook his head. "And there have been no casualties, at least from the towns that got sacked." The Wonderbolts sagged in collective relief upon hearing that. "Either way, we gotta pack the auditorium full of the ponies who lost their homes, inform them of what's going on, and where their new temporary lodging is gonna be." He lifted a hoof and spun it as the last part of his statement left his mouth. "That is, if Lance hasn't done so already."

"Speaking of… they're probably packed into the auditorium by now, and chances are, Lance is already there," Anna said, lighting her horn. "Everybody ready for a teleport?"

Golden Chalice and Rose Windmill shook their heads. "We'll keep watch on our newest catch, see if he simmers down some," Rose Windmill said.

Anna sighed. "Okay then, everybody else? ready?" she asked. Once she received resolute nods for an answer, she magically grasped everyone but Golden Chalice and Rose Windmill, and teleported them and herself into a massive auditorium that was elsewhere in the Aerie. They appeared on a stage, one at the far back of an absolutely massive room crammed with soldiers in many rows. At the frontmost rows were a collection of ponies, which Spitfire noticed sorely lacked pegasi. In fact, she could see two Umbrum amongst them, a lavender mare and a maroon stallion, talking with a hulking, speckled earth pony.

On the stage was Lance, sporting bags beneath his eyes, as well as Shining Armor and the wraithling, sporting likewise. Lance was standing next to a podium, fanning his wings out to halt the clamor. Spitfire was glad to see that his feathers had grown back, but was also impressed with their size, before forcing herself to focus on current matters. "Everyone! Settle down!" he ordered, his voice reverberating across the room thanks to a microphone on the podium. "The attack has been successfully repelled, and for now, we can rest easy, knowing that casualties have been prevented."

"But where will we go?" a pony dressed in warm clothes asked from the row behind the Umbrum pair. "We'll have to start over from scratch!"

"Yes, but we have a city on the top of the mountain," Lance answered, keeping his wings fanned. "Lodging is available there; there is room for everypony whose towns got destroyed. You can stay there for the time being."

"But don't we have to fly to get to it? Nopony in Whitefall or Goldenbrick has wings!" another pony, dressed in light clothes, said from another row.

Lance shook his head. "No; I made sure that there were stairs built into the city when plans were drawn up for it, in case something like this happened," he answered. "And as the city is our residential district, we have more than enough housing to go around."

"Will we have to become soldiers?" another pony dressed in warm clothes asked.

"Not unless you specifically wish for such," Lance answered, once more shaking his head. He lowered his wings a little, but kept them spread. "However, seeing as your homes got destroyed, you might have to move your businesses here for the time being." That got a rise out of the ponies of the crowd, and he shushed them by raising his wings again. "This will not be permanent unless you desire such; this is only so you can continue to earn bits as you have done so before. That way, when the time comes, you can relocate if you desire and buy the materials needed to build your new homes." That seemed to calm the crowd down, as the clamor had hushed once more.

"And as for the flocks of alicorns and pegasi, we will take care of them. We know where they're coming from, and we need to strike them down before they can do this again," Lance added, causing the crowd of ponies to sag in relief. "In the meantime, we catch our breath for the night, but keep our guard up—that way, we won't be blindsided like this in the future."

"Meeting adjourned," Lance finished, and with that, the crowd dispersed, with soldiers helping ponies along to direct them to the city on the top of the mountain. As they filtered out through lifts, stairs, and were being airlifted through shapeshifting holes in the walls, he turned to his group, noticing it had gotten larger while he was delivering his little speech. They moved to an area behind the main stage of the auditorium, mostly so the departing crowd wouldn't hear them.

"... I see you're an okay motivational speaker," Spitfire observed dryly, frowning. "You're not really good with words, are you?"

Lance wilted, and shook his head. "No… and you can thank my shitty folks for that," he muttered in response. He elected to not speak about the Wonderbolts being present, and instead turned to Rainbow Dash. "What's the status of the attacking flock?"

"Deader than dead," Rainbow reported, shuffling uncomfortably. "Except for one, and he's muzzled. His blaster was confiscated."

Lance slowly nodded. "His mental state?" he pressed.

"Tried offing himself as soon as he could, but Red Barrel and I put a stop to that," Blue Crow answered, shaking his head. "It's almost like watching you try to do the same all over again, except with the horn still attached."

Spitfire tilted her head. "Horn still attached?" she echoed. "Discord didn't mention that to me…"

"Look, just…" Lance lifted a hoof and slid it down the bridge of his muzzle. "I'll tell you in the morning, and what you hear cannot leave this hive-nest." He wobbled briefly as his hoof went to rejoin the others. "But right now, I have got to take something for this mana drain I subjected myself to, and then crash into a bed before the doctors crawl up my ass."

Matt rolled his eyes. "I'll take him to bed," he offered, conjuring more shadows to wrap around himself and Lance.

"Wait," Spitfire said, looking at Lance for a moment. "I just want to be sure of something before you do." Matt halted, and waited for Spitfire to continue speaking. "You can fly again?"

Lance nodded. "Yes. Took a potion from a shaman to regrow my feathers, but I can say, it worked," he confirmed. "I might need to get some more flight training in while I can, to steady my wingbeats before we do anything."

Spitfire grinned. "Alright. That's all I wanted to know," she said. With that, the shadows wrapped around Matt and Lance, and the mobile blob of darkness moved to follow the crowd of soldiers and ponies out of the auditorium. She turned to Shining Armor, and frowned. "So… what's all this business about mangled alicorns? Discord mentioned something like that to me, and truth be told, I thought the notion was blasphemous when I first heard about it."

Shining sighed, looking pointedly at Anna and Natalie as he did so. "I think they should explain it," he said, gesturing to them. "Won't you, ladies?" They groaned in tandem, but nodded and hunkered down to prepare themselves to enlighten Spitfire about certain… intricacies regarding the insane planet they were currently standing on the surface of.

Spitfire didn't quite like what she heard afterwards. In fact, none of the Wonderbolts did.

Chapter CI—Unexpected Surprise

Once Spitfire and the rest of the Wonderbolts were briefed, Spitfire fanned out her wings. "Wait, wait, wait," she began, turning to Natalie and Anna with a critical eye. "You two are saying that you had no choice but to keep your true strength concealed in Equestria? And your true natures hidden on top of that? Except for that one incident involving Sunnytown, which happened five nights ago?"

Natalie and Anna wilted in tandem. "Yes…" they answered in unison.

"... I don't blame you, given Equestria's less than warm reception towards you guys," Soarin said, ruffling his wings. "If I were in your horseshoes, I'd do the same thing." The other Wonderbolts, sans Rainbow and Spitfire, looked at him. "What? You can't just go around the Equestrian public, saying you're alicorns! The nobles would've eaten them alive for it!" he argued.

One Wonderbolt, a dark gray stallion with a grayish-pale cyan mohawk, flexed his wings. Natalie noticed his uniform was incomplete; instead of covering his whole body, it only covered his neck, chest, and back. "Yeah… ever since I was just a colt, the only alicorn I'd heard about was Princess Celestia… at least, until Cadence came along," he said with a shrug. "Celestia refused to say what befell the Mythonian alicorns, just that it was really bad."

Anna and Natalie traded looks. "Well… Godcat might've had something to do with that," Anna muttered, the wood on her legs rustling.

"And just to be clear, Godcat is confirmed to be loose?" Spitfire pressed, a brow raised.

Anna nodded. "However, She's not murderous anymore," she confirmed. That got the Wonderbolts to relax a little further.

Spitfire nodded. "Alright. And we do have guest quarters here?" she asked. When Anna nodded again, she elaborated a little, "Seeing that we're going to have… an extended stay in Fantasia, on Celestia's orders, until this whole kerfuffle is sorted out… I'm going to need a briefing room if possible."

"Briefing… on what, exactly?" Natalie pressed, her wings ruffling.

"Well… I'm having some other Wonderbolts run headquarters while I am away, and the only ones available for this task were a few seasoned fliers… and a cadet or two," Spitfire said, turning to the gray stallion in incomplete uniform as she said that. "And seeing as you guys are military, without weather proclivities, I think it would be best if we formed a plan of action of our own, and then ran it by your General."

Natalie nodded, spreading a wing and curling it to her chin as she contemplated this. The Wonderbolts winced when they noticed her lack of primaries. "And I presume, whatever you guys'll cook up might help us with Redpine?" she asked, garnering nods from the gathered pegasi.

"Well, if nothing else, we'd like to help in any way we can," Spitfire answered, keeping her expression neutral. "If at all possible, I'd like a visual of what Redpine looks like on the outside and inside, so we can plan accordingly."

Anna nodded with a groan. "I'll take them to the office," she said with a sigh, her horn lighting up again.

Natalie ruffled her wings. "And I'll lug Shining and our nooblet to bed," she said, turning to Shining Armor to find him starting to nod off already. She lit her horn, magically lifted Katie onto her back, and then trotted over to nudge Shining with a wing. "I get that you're drained, but you think you could make it to bed?"

Shining smiled, and nodded. "I… I think I can…" he said, with a titanic yawn. Natalie rolled her eyes, and started to trot around to the front of the stage, with Shining shadowing her steps, albeit with a bit of shuffling. Once they had departed, Anna turned to Blue Crow and Red Barrel.

"Think you two can keep him from collapsing for a while longer?" Anna asked. Blue Crow and Red Barrel saluted before trotting off after the three, leaving Anna alone with Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts. Once they were alone, she magically grabbed them and teleported them and herself to the hall just outside of Lance's office.

Anna gaped at what she saw, as did the Wonderbolts. A bunch of fillies and colts, with the fillies mutilated with geas scars and other unpleasant things, stood outside the office, packing the hallway to capacity. Several more were crowding the ceiling on pink, suspicious clouds that she swore were not there before. Each foal was simultaneously dead-eyed, and yet regarding her with fear shining in their various pools. At the door to the office was Discord, lounging on a floating sofa.

"I couldn't save their mothers, for they were too far gone, so I just put them to sleep and buried them elsewhere," Discord said, frowning. "I was able to get the children out of Redpine, however, and most of them I put in the medical wing; these ones were a bit too scared, so I had to put them here to simmer down. I also broke their geases, and I figured I should let you know that there is a most peculiar filly in the office. I think you should go see her, Lieutenant-General Windwood." With that, Discord vanished in a puff of confetti and sprinkles along with the sofa.

"..." Anna stared mutely at the gathered children, wondering what the hell Discord drank and if she could have some of it, while also pondering what to actually do with the gathered children. She conjured a radio with a burst of magic from her horn, fiddled with the knob, and spoke into it. "Alexander… you have a lot more patients…" she muttered.

"... what now?" Alexander grumbled on his end.

"Discord… has dropped off Redpine's child captives in the hall leading to the office… at least, the ones that were too scared to go into the medical wing," Anna muttered. "Do you want me to teleport them to the medical wing?"

"... fine," Alexander grumbled. "I'll have the overnight nurses tend to them." Anna nodded, sent the radio back to the ether, and turned to the Wonderbolts.

"Stay put; I'll be right back," Anna said, lighting her horn once more. One child approached her, a filly who had her wings cut off, and regarded her with wide and fearful eyes.

"... is this… a bad place?" the filly asked, tears puddling in the corners of her eyes.

Anna shook her head. "No. It isn't. I'm about to take you all somewhere with nice, warm beds, with nice, warm food. This place doesn't have any bad pegasi or alicorns; nopony can hurt you here, ever again." She pulled the filly into a gentle hug, and the child flinched, yet allowed it.

"But what… about them?" the filly asked, turning to look at the Wonderbolts. "Are… are they bad pegasi?"

Anna shook her head. "No. They're good pegasi; they're gonna help us get rid of the bad pegasi," she answered gently. The child began to sniffle, and looked at the spot where wings once were on her back.

"... can… can I fly?" she asked, tears trailing down her cheeks.

"We can help you fly. We can help those who lost their horns use their magic in other ways," Anna answered, turning to the other children. "Do you guys trust me to take you to the nice place? I have to use magic to do it, and you might be a bit dizzy afterwards." The children traded wary glances, but nodded eventually. Anna gently grasped them all, and herself, in her magic, before teleporting away to deposit the children into the medical wing of the Aerie.

Soarin frowned, wings drooping. "... those poor kids," he muttered, shaking his head. He turned to the cadet of the group. "Thunderlane, don't you have a little brother?" Thunderlane shakily nodded, his own wings starting to fall slack at his sides.

"I wouldn't… wouldn't want this to happen to him," Thunderlane answered after a moment. He opened his mouth to speak further, when Anna returned in another burst of light, without the children this time.

"Oh, that's gonna be a logistical headache…" Anna grumbled, sighing. "And not just for the nurses and doctors…" She turned to the Wonderbolts. "You guys were briefed on Redpine's sins, right?" Once she got a series of nods, she sighed. "Yeah, they have a habit of not naming their cannon fodder and machine fuel, and now apparently they're geasing the children to make them compliant earlier." She shuddered. "Let's go to the office, and get this over with." With that, she trotted to the office, albeit slowly in case there was more than one child sequestered in it. The Wonderbolts followed her, curious to see what was on the other side of the door.

The door was opened slowly, and immediately, a tiny squeak and the shuffling of hooves could be heard from within. Anna gradually opened the door the rest of the way, and stepped in, with the Wonderbolts filing in single file. Anna caught a glimpse of yellowish tail hairs being pulled behind the desk, and walked in that direction to avoid scaring the particular foal trying to hide behind it.

She internally frowned at what she saw; a snow white alicorn filly, with oddly pink eyes sporting slit pupils and a platinum-blond mane so pale as to be mistaken for white in the right amount of light, tried to hide under Lance's chair. She had geas scars carved around her horn and more scars, reminiscent of claw marks, decorating her body. She also had a thin frame, and fear etched onto her face. By her estimates, she was no older than Maria, perhaps even younger, but not so young as to be considered a toddler.

Anna knelt down, reached under the chair with her claws, and gently scooped the child up without bumping her head on the chair's underside. "Hey there…" Anna said gently, moving to stand up on her hinds to hold the child to her chest. She was woefully light, and yet weirdly, her horn and wings went unmolested.

The child, instead of struggling, curled in onto herself, tucking her tail between her hinds and folding her wings against her body. "No… no trust…" the filly muttered in a weak, frail voice, keeping her forelegs tucked against her chest. "No trust anypony…"

"And why not?" Anna asked gently.

"Bad… bad parents said bad Redpine better than everypony," the filly said, shuddering. "If better, then why treat me bad?"

"... and who are your parents?" Anna asked, frowning.

"Bad alicorns… one has bad claws," the filly answered. "Other… other alicorn said big brother failed Redpine…"

"And… who's your big brother?" Anna asked, tilting her head.

"Got… got his horn cut off… by bad crystal pony," the filly answered. "Got bad spell removed…" That made Anna silently gasp, and she turned to the Wonderbolts with realization dawning on her face. She lifted a single digit on one of her front legs, and turned back to the child in her forelegs. The Wonderbolts nodded to signal their understanding, wondering how she would placate this foal.

"But he's not so bad anymore," Anna said, causing the filly to look at her. "He's no longer like the bad alicorns. What Redpine taught you was wrong; they want you to be bad because they are bad."

"If not bad… then what?" the filly asked.

"He's a good pony now," Anna answered, walking up to the chair to sit in it. She put the child on the desk, letting her get her hooves back under her. The filly turned to regard her, shaking slightly. "And you can trust him, as well as me."

"... why trust you?" the filly asked.

"Because we won't hurt you like the bad alicorns did. You're safe here," Anna answered, slowly lifting a claw to let the child know she meant no harm. She reached over and rubbed the back of her head; the child flinched, but allowed the touch. "No more bad things will happen to you."

"... no more?" the filly squeaked. A fragile, terrible hope filled her eyes at the prospect.

Anna shook her head. "No more," she confirmed. She gently pulled the child into a hug, and sighed. "But I think… we should name you."

"... but bad ponies of bad Redpine no have names… bad alicorns making bad ponies do bad things have bad names. Why name?" the filly asked, unsure of how to reciprocate the hug.

"Because everyone else has names, and it's weird for ponies to not have them," Anna explained patiently. "In fact, your big brother has given himself a name." She pulled away, and looked the child in the eyes. "Do you want to give yourself a name?" The filly turned away, the gears spinning in her eyes as she thought long and hard over this. Eventually, she nodded, and turned back to Anna.

"... bad alicorns had long sword with funny handle," the filly said. "What sword is that?"

"It's called a rapier," Anna answered, smiling patiently. "Do you want that to be your name?" The filly nodded, and Anna reached over to pat her head again. "Rapier it is. That is yours now; nopony can take your name from you. Do you want your brother's last name?" When Rapier nodded, Anna brightened considerably.

"Alright. Now then; do you want some food?" Anna asked. Rapier perked up, and eagerly nodded. "Okay, I'll take you to a nice place with a warm bed and warm food, where bad ponies aren't allowed." She lit her horn once more, gently grasped the child in her magic, and once again, both were gone. It took Anna several minutes to return to the office afterwards, but when she did, Rapier wasn't with her.

Anna turned to the Wonderbolts and sighed. "I had to wake up Lance and inform him of his… little sister," she muttered, wilting as she moved to sit in the chair again. "Rapier has eaten, she's in bed, and the doctors are fussing over her."

"... and how well did he take the news?" Spitfire asked.

Anna shook her head. "Not well at all, but I calmed him down by telling him she's safe and sound and away from the asshats," she answered. "He went back to bed after." She opened the desk drawers with a flick of her horn, pulled out the map of Fantasia, and sprawled it across the wooden surface. She activated the crystals that showed off the various locales, then pointed to Redpine's location. Where before its bastards were mishandling the mares, now they were pulling their manes out of their scalps, wondering where they had gone. In addition, each and every single holding cell had been stuffed to the brim with what appeared to be confetti-sprinkled concrete, and that particular floor was sagging, as though threatening to buckle under the weight of its sins.

In particular, the hippogryph-alicorn was on the top floor, ranting and raving to her partner in crime. Anna couldn't quite make out what was said, but the hectic movements of her front claws and fierce scowl gave her something of a clue. She pointed out the pair of whackos to the Wonderbolts. "These upstanding citizens happened to give birth to Lance," she said, noticing that the partner in crime had begun ranting and raving right back. "These two dastardly chucklefucks thought they could get away with making a puppet ruler for Fantasia… a lotta good that did them."

"... a puppet ruler?" Thunderlane asked, frowning at the thought. "Isn't that usually associated with regents who want to have the position for life?"

Anna shrugged. "Well, these asshats want an empire born of eugenics," she elaborated.

"Eugenics? Hasn't Celestia made that practice illegal?" Soarin asked.

Spitfire nodded. "Yes, but you seem to be forgetting where we currently are," she replied. She turned to Anna and regarded the active volcano Redpine was in. "... how have they not choked on the volcano fumes and heat yet? How have their plants not choked on the fumes and heat yet? How has the metal supporting the entire base not melted and rusted yet?" she asked, even as the Illicit Instrumentation unleashed a magical discharge that shook the geased maniacs' base of operations.

Anna pointed at the Instrumentation. "I'm guessing that would be responsible," she said. Then she took a closer look at the hunk of magitek, and realized that Discord had tampered with that, too—its latest discharge was weak, its conveyors and pipes had stalled, and its body was sparking dangerously. In addition, it looked like it had cheesecake crammed into critical joints and fixings, further weakening the structure.

The volcano rumbled, the magma bubbling more fiercely than usual. Anna saw the warning signs, and turned to Spitfire with her eyes widening. "Holy shit… I think Discord may have given us a lucky break," Anna said, turning back to the projection. The leaders of Redpine took notice of the rumbling volcano, lit their horns, and flew out of the volcano. Seconds later, the rest of the Redpine Flock flew out as well, circling the volcano to see if anything would happen.

… nothing happened. The volcano ceased spewing its magical vitriol, and was content to just sit there and taunt the flock. The Wonderbolts observed this, then watched as the flock returned to their volcano-nest, feeling that it was safe to hunker down in it for another night. Gears turned in Spitfire's head, and she turned to Anna. "Do you have something that can penetrate a volcano?" she asked.

Anna thought for a moment, then nodded. "We have the ION Cannon, why?"

Spitfire turned to her fellow Wonderbolts, then back to Anna. "You see… we might have a way of killing two birds with one stone," she said. "Do you have a spare sheet of paper?" Anna nodded, lit her horn, and pulled a pen, some ink, and papers from the desk, putting them all before Spitfire to use as she saw fit. She got to work, drawing up a plan that would have been impractical in Equestria, and not to mention extremely illegal, but was fair game on Fantasia.

"Here's the scoop: we train your soldiers, with permission of course, to use their latent weather magic," Spitfire said as she scribbled the plan out onto the paper. "Seeing as you have more than enough gryphons for the task, I think we can square that part away easily. The ectoplasms are gonna be a harder sell, of course, but we might have something for them too. And based on rough estimates, Redpine's magitek won't last for a month longer at the most, with all the caulking Discord's done to it."

Anna frowned. "Do you think the soldiers will complete this new regiment you're proposing in time for our attack?" she asked. Spitfire nodded confidently, continuing to scribble out the plan on the parchment.

"We strike anywhere from a week to a month, once basic training is complete," Spitfire said, pausing to look at Anna evenly. "Redpine is gonna be too busy eating the cost of repairs, so that's time they're not using to get new captives. That's time we can use to train up for the confrontation. But our window is short; sooner or later, they're gonna fix their magitek, so we have to act quickly."

"And what, exactly, are you proposing the weather-based training for?" Anna asked, folding her claws across the desk.

"Simple," Spitfire began, turning back to the plan she was scribbling down. "We summon forth a supercell to wipe out the enemy."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The following day, Anna relayed Spitfire's plan to Lance, even showing him the papers on which she had written it. Lance nodded, cupping Spitfire's plan in his wing as he, Maria and his Lieutenant trotted through a hall lined with many doors on either side, and windows to allow peeking into those rooms. The foals of Redpine were sequestered in each room, receiving warm meals and warm smiles from the doctors and nurses tending to them as they sat on their nice, warm beds. For the moment, though, it seemed to be going in one ear and out the other, though Anna couldn't tell as his eyes were glued to the papers.

Once she had finished giving him the scoop, Lance idly nodded to signify that he had heard everything. "So… my shitty parents decided they wanted to subject another foal to their shitty torments, and that kid's younger than Maria…" he growled, tucking the papers under his wing. "And Discord got the captives out…"

"Half of them, anyway," Anna said, shaking her head. "The doctors said they show signs of having lived in polluted air…"

Lance nodded. "Yeah, living in a fucking volcano isn't the brightest of ideas," he muttered with a sigh. "Maybe now, they can get some clean air into their little lungs."

"Why is volcano air bad?" Maria asked as they continued to trot through the hall.

"Hurts your lungs, which you breathe with, and the rest of your body, because you're not getting enough air," Anna answered with a shrug. "Which, in turn, hurts your ability to think clearly."

"Trust me, after breathing in enough of that shit myself, I'm glad I'm no longer inside a stuffy volcano," Lance said with a fierce nod. He saw Anna halt at a particular room, and peer inside the window. She motioned him and Maria over with a claw, and they trotted to the window to behold little Rapier in her bed, undergoing a medical examination by Quicksilver, with IV drips hooked into her foreleg. Quicksilver saw them out of the corner of his eye, and waved them inside, so they trotted to the door, opened it, and waltzed in.

Rapier saw Lance and shuddered. Her ears pinned back against her head. Anna trotted up to her and smiled. "Hey. I brought your big brother and niece over," she said, turning to Lance. "Go on, say hi."

"... big brother no bad?" Rapier asked. Anna nodded.

"Not bad," Anna promised. Lance trotted up to her, and stared into her frightened eyes, and she stared back. Looking at her was like looking into a mirror; in her, he could easily see himself when he was her age, scared and alone and confused and surrounded by idiots. He could see himself inhaling the fetid air of the volcano that burned at his eyes, he could see the new scars being carved into his body by way of claw and hoof, he could see and sense the genuine fear he had at that age, now transferred onto another unwitting soul who didn't ask to be born.

Lance nodded, reached over, and gently patted Rapier on her little head. She flinched under the touch, but allowed him to do so. "Hey," he said gently. "How do you like Irongrey Aerie so far?"

Rapier smiled a tiny, weak, fragile smile. "... nice place lots better than bad volcano," she answered after a moment. "Nice food. Nice not-ponies. Nice bed with no bad ponies."

Lance smiled back, but he made sure not to show teeth. "Glad to hear it," he said, before turning to Quicksilver. "Is she improving?"

"Slowly, but yes," Quicksilver affirmed with a nod. "A couple of years in the Aerie, and we can kiss any potential breathing problems goodbye unless something turns up. The same can be said for the other children taken from Redpine."

Lance nodded, and moved to scoop up Maria in his forelegs. Maria struggled a bit, but stopped when she was picked up and plopped on the bed of her absurdly young auntie. The fillies looked at each other, and tilted their heads. "Nice not-pony?" Rapier asked.

Maria nodded. "Not bad like bad ponies," she affirmed. She walked over to give Rapier a hug, which went without reciprocation. Not that Maria minded; she could tell straight away that her new auntie lacked in the upstairs department. She pulled away, and smiled. "I take bad ponies and rip their faces off," she boasted.

Rapier's weak smile widened just a little bit. "Wish I could rip bad ponies' faces off," she said, a tinge of jealousy in her voice. "Get rid of all bad in bad world." A slight sparkle returned to her eyes as she said that, and the two foals shared a laugh between them. Lance smiled at the sight, even though he was pretty sure this meant that he would now be parenting for two in the future. All the better for this pair though; they had someone sane to look forward to as a role model, as opposed to someone who would beat down on them for innocent flights of fancy.

A changeling nurse strolled in, bringing forth a trolley of fresh-cooked food. She brought the goods over, poked Rapier to get her attention, urged Maria to hop off the bed for a moment, and brought the bed tray onto her bed to let her eat. Maria hopped off right away, and Rapier's eyes practically glowed upon seeing the food. She tucked in messily, using her hooves to scoop up the vegetables and boneless meat into her waiting mouth. Lance observed her eating, and smiled as she ate what was probably one of her first good meals of her life.

"She's inhaling it," the nurse said, a twinkle in her eyes.

"Then again, the lettuce of Redpine is probably inedible anyway," Anna said with a shrug. She was smiling, though. "At this rate, we're gonna spoil her with good food."

Lance nodded as Rapier sucked down the last bits of grub, and drained a glass of water that the nurse handed to her. "I'd believe it," he said idly. Rapier giggled, the first genuine giggle of probably her whole life, as the nurse produced a damp cloth from the ether and wiped her face and hooves with it as she took the bed tray back. Once the nurse cleaned her, she procured a plush friend from the ether, and gave that to the little alicorn.

"That plush bunny is yours," the nurse said with a warm smile. "You can name him whatever you want, take him on wild adventures, and cuddle him at night." With that, she trotted out of the room, to give more patients their food and plush friends for the day. Rapier smiled, and cuddled her plush friend.

"Nice, fuzzy buddy… like him lots," Rapier said, nuzzling her stuffed bunny.

Lance smiled, then turned to Quicksilver. "We do have those eye drops, right? The ones we use for ponies who've stood around in too much carbon dioxide and sulfur?" he asked.

Quicksilver nodded. "We're having to make more as we speak, but we have administered the first doses," he answered. "And while some of Redpine's children are blind, we have determined it is from birth defects as opposed to the gasses of the volcano… which, unfortunately, might have overlapped."

Lance nodded. "The Illicit Instrumentation is probably what vents the gasses out of the volcano, keeping everypony and their plants alive in that damn thing," he said, sighing. "Then again, my genetic donors didn't teach me jack shit about it."

"What's a genetic donor?" Maria asked.

"Creatures who have kids, that really shouldn't have kids," Anna answered bluntly.

Rapier turned to Anna, still holding her plush friend. "Like bad alicorns of bad Redpine?" she asked.

Anna nodded, and turned to Rapier. "Exactly like the bad alicorns of Redpine," she said.

"So, what's the estimate on the recovery of the Redpine children?" Lance asked.

"... physically, I'd give it a year, just to let them get a feel for the clean air," Quicksilver answered, his face hardening a little. "Mentally, they're going to need a lot of catching up; at this rate, we might have to build schools for them, just to teach them what they should know. And that's gonna be another thing we'll have to worry about, if we keep up with our current course."

Lance nodded, and pressed forward with another question, "And exactly how many half-siblings do I have now, in this lot alone?"

Quicksilver frowned. "Well… we did run tests… you have a plethora of nieces, nephews, cousins, and half-siblings all numbered to a nice total of two thousand living foals." Lance whistled at the number. "And unfortunately, they had been geased before coming here, so they likely had a bunch of shit crammed into their heads before they regained their senses of self. We do have the means, and the economy, to heal and raise them all to adulthood… but we're not gonna let you run yourself ragged in trying to raise them all, sir."

"Two thousand." Anna looked at Lance, her eyes wide. "That settles it; your father is a colossal pervert." Lance idly nodded to that one, unwilling to disagree with that statement.

"How can one pony have that many foals?" Maria asked, tilting her head.

Anna sighed, and turned to Maria again. "Some ponies live forever," she answered patiently. "And they go through mares like it's going out of style." She turned back to Quicksilver. "Any infants among them?"

Quicksilver nodded. "Some still need weaning in the future, but we have wet nurses assigned to them," he answered. "A lot of them were premature, so we'll have to monitor those ones carefully in case any other medical maladies decide to affect them."

"Probably because of the shithole they were living in," Lance sighed, shaking his head. "Any preteens in the batch?"

Quicksilver nodded. "A few have hit puberty already," he confirmed sourly. "However, Discord got them out before they could be… used, to put it lightly." He wilted a little. "And most of them are scared to death of practically everything. We're having to calm them down every other hour."

"Unfortunate… but also expected at this rate," Lance sighed, shaking his head. He heard the rustling of cloth, and turned to find Maria clambering back onto Rapier's bed. "Don't roughhouse her, okay? She's kinda fragile at the moment." Maria nodded, and sat on the bed as the adults continued with their discussion.

"Will fuzzy friend stop bad ponies in bad dreams?" Rapier asked.

Maria nodded. "Fuzzy friends always help," she answered. "Fuzzy friends tell meanies to fuck off."

"What 'fuck off' mean?" Rapier asked, tilting her head.

"It means you're telling whoever you're telling it to to go away," Anna answered. "Also, you shouldn't be saying those words, either of you." Maria nodded again, but kept her attention on her new auntie.

"When you get better, do you want to play?" Maria asked, smiling. "We can have lots of fun, making bad ponies go away!" Rapier smiled at the thought and nodded, her eyes sparkling with delight.

"Playtime sound lots nice," Rapier said, the eagerness making her face glow as she envisioned playtime. "Lots better than bad ponies." Her wings fluttered at the thought, but not with enough force to jostle her blankets and IV drip. "But when get better? Want play soon."

Maria frowned at that. Anna answered for her, "When the nice gryphon here says you're good to go."

Rapier nodded, and fluttered her wings again. "Can have playtime soon?" she asked, hope shining in her eyes.

Maria nodded, smiling once more. "Yep," she affirmed, making a mental note to schedule a playdate sometime with her auntie once she got better. And some more visits in the meantime, to make her feel better about being at the Aerie.

Anna turned to the fillies, and trotted over to the bed. "I see you two are getting along," she said, smiling. "I take it you two are okay with one another?"

"Yep," Maria answered, puffing out her chest-feathers in pride. Rapier idly nodded, smiling faintly. "We'll get rid of the big, dumb meanies together! No more bad idiots will walk on Fantasia!"

Anna giggled. "Just what I like to hear," she said, sitting down to pat the children on their heads. "In fact, you might be able to help her get her cutie mark, Maria. And Rapier might be able to help you with yours, if you somehow don't earn it before she gets out of bed."

Both fillies' eyes sparkled like the sun at that prospect. "Really?" they asked.

"Really," Anna said, smiling warmly, even as she made a mental note to supervise these two when they did decide to go for their marks. "But Rapier has to get better first; she's gotta get stronger before she can get hers." Anna turned to look at Maria specifically. "And you'll be the bestest big niece for her, protecting her from the bad ponies, won't you?"

Maria smiled and gave a salute. "You can count on me, mommy! I'll be the bestest big niece ever!" she answered enthusiastically.

Anna patted Maria's head again. "Awesome. And remember: if the bad ponies are too strong, come get me and your daddy, and we'll sort them out," she said. Maria giggled and nodded, and the two hugged one another. Then Anna pulled away, to give Rapier a hug of her own. "Same goes for you: if the meanies are too strong, come fetch us, okay?"

"Okay," Rapier agreed, smiling as Anna pulled away from her. She went back to cuddling her plush friend, and Anna went back to the grown-up conversation to let the foals get along for a little while longer. While they would have to leave eventually, as duty called the grown-ups, Anna made a mental note to schedule some more visits for little Rapier, so that she would eventually come out of her shell completely. It would be a fair while yet before she grew confident enough to tackle the big, bad world of Fantasia, but Anna was certain she could help her every step of the way.

Chapter CIII—Promised Reckoning

That night, in the office, Lance sat behind the desk as he went over Spitfire's plan with his Lieutenants, as well as the information he managed to squeeze out of the wraithling. Matt sighed, and shook his head. Natalie frowned at what she heard, shedding a few feathers as she ruffled her wings. "Of course," she grumbled, discontent with what she was hearing, "it just had to be fucking Akron that ate her…"

"Yeah…" Matt agreed quietly, some shadows twisting into themselves as they flickered in and out of existence around him. "And not to mention, the ancient alicorns fucking her over that way on top of it…" He shuddered. "I can't begin to imagine having that sort of chain of events happening."

"Which also means, the ancient alicorns might have sealed Akron themselves. After all… we know of one who is capable of geases, and another of an extremely debilitating sickness," Lance said, shaking his head. "Akron was both sick, and bound by chains that may or may not have been geased to keep him there."

"And not to mention, when he tried to drain us that first time, we barely even survived…" Natalie sat down, shivering at the memory. "I'm impressed we even managed to kill him at a fraction of our power, and then gain the rest of our strength back in doing so."

"... do you think him being drained of his emotions by Katie might have done him in?" Lance asked, putting a hoof to his chin as he pondered. "Because the way he was rambling when we fought him told me that something was wrong with him…" He pondered for a moment, then lowered his hoof. "He talked like he had died inside…"

"Being fully drained by a changeling causes one to die inside… so he probably did, when she panicked," Anna pointed out, her wood rustling. "But being drained by a wraithling? That's probably liable to create something worse than an empty shell. Was Akron obsessed with making everything as empty as he was?"

"No, he wasn't. And that's the weird thing. Maybe eating her gave him his emotions back… or at least, a facsimile of them?" Lance wondered, gears spinning in his head as he contemplated the notion.

"Then again, Godcat did say She created Akron… maybe his emotions were already out of whack when he was created?" Matt proposed. "Because, given his physical body, and his ability to create black holes that ponies can just waltz in…"

"Maybe his death was what triggered the Void showing up wherever we go," Natalie said, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof at the thought. "Because, before, Akron had control of it, even if the Void housed that freaky nebula in its mass." Matt and Lance did not dismiss her notion, nor object to it, so she took that as her cue to continue. "Do either of you think it's also linked to Katie somehow?"

Lance pondered the notion, then nodded. "She said she could sense it, just before it touched down in Greenwood," he said. "And if she can… that means she must have a fragment of Akron's power within her."

Natalie conjured an x-ray, one of a gaunt changeling sporting two hearts, with one heart being crystalline and sporting chain-like arteries connecting to the rest of the body. She looked at it closely, and noted the runes studding the second heart and its network of arteries. "... do you think the second heart we found in her might be that fragment of Akron's power?" she asked, passing the x-ray to Lance to let him look at it. "I mean… we have confirmed that's where the hatred and despair goes, for her to charge her ice magic."

Lance studied the x-ray carefully. "And this was taken…?" he asked.

"While those three fillies were here," Natalie answered. "You know, the ones who wrote that school report?" At Lance's nod, she retracted the x-ray, and showed it to Matt to let him look at it. "Yeah, Alexander woke me up early a few days ago, and had me administer the x-ray."

Lance sighed. "At least he had the sense to knock…" he grumbled, garnering nods of agreement from Natalie and Matt. His brow furrowed. "How could we have missed that? Pestilence punched a fucking hole through her chest…"

"Then again, that maniac summoned a timberdrake. Little details like a second heart are bite-sized in comparison," Matt said, lifting a hoof to hit his face with it. He ran that hoof along the bridge of his snout as he continued, "A convenient distraction either way."

Lance frowned. "Which means the ancient alicorns are definitely hiding something," he concluded grimly. "We only have one piece of a very complex puzzle, sat next to another puzzle regarding the broken barrier that we haven't even begun filing in yet." He turned to Anna. "Did that tree-fucker mention anything to you, as he shoved parasitic plants down your throat?"

Anna shook her head. "No, he was silent throughout the procedure," she answered. "And then he turned me and my sister over to the three clowns and went back to his room." She sighed, the wood on her legs wilting a bit. "The three clowns… didn't offer much in the way of information either."

Lance ruffled his wings a bit, and his frown deepened, but otherwise he kept a neutral expression. "Which means… Pestilence might have also been geased into silence." He regarded Anna with an even look as the words left his mouth. "Meaning… he might have had no choice in the matter."

"While I saw no geas scars on him, it is plausible, with how old he is…" Anna closed her eyes and shook her head. "Either way, in that situation, death would be much more preferable."

"It's good that at least one of us is vouching for the geased and insane… because it means we still have our equinity," Lance said, wearing a tiny, rueful smile as he said that. "We can't lose sight of it, or else we'll become just like them."

"Hey, I'm still in their horseshoes on that second part," Anna argued.

"Yes, but you can become sane again, under the right circumstances," Lance argued, his tiny smirk falling back into a neutral line. "In fact, I'd argue that you're turning sane right now." He shook his head. "Even after all these years, I never thought I'd be in this situation…"

"Hey, life's unpredictable; it's just down to us to adapt, or drown," Matt said, grinning slightly. "Even we can't predict everything, and most ponies on this planet seem to think we're precognitive or some shit like that."

"I still wouldn't be surprised if the ponies from Greenwood threw another meteor-flinging accusation at me…" Natalie stated, wings drooping at the thought. "Especially the village dumbass."

"Eh, we won't have to worry about the village idiot for a while. I heard Pinkie Pie put him in the medical ward, by shooting him in the sack with that cannon of hers," Matt stated, shaking his head. "I also heard the other villagers didn't help him at all with that predicament."

Lance sighed, and proceeded to bring the discussion back on track, "Anyway, that second heart Katie has… we'll need to run further tests on it. We'll have to run training diagnostics and the like, to see how that thing functions. If it really is a shard of Akron's power condensed into an extraneous organ, then we'll have to take no chances—we have to make sure Akron won't be able to come back through that thing."

"Of course, we can't do the unethical thing and just rip it out of her… so yeah, training her in her limited skill set seems like the way to go. We'll need to figure out a way to fix her horn somehow, so she'll be able to cast again without having to stab things with the stub," Lance said, sighing as he willed the gears of his brain to try and figure out a way to bypass the conundrum. "I mean, we could make her a magitek horn, like we made magitek wings for Scootaloo, but… how in the hell would that work?" That caused the hamster wheels of his Lieutenants' brains to start spinning as they considered the question.

"Let's sort that out after Redpine is dealt with," Matt proposed. "Those whackos are gonna launch another attack once their magitek is repaired, and they'll ground out on our asses. The other solution is to include her in the weather training; we don't know what the second heart fully does yet, and she uses ice for crying out loud." Lance nodded, but didn't object to the notion. "For all we know, it could give her some measure of weather-related abilities we don't know about yet."

"Alright. I'll inform Spitfire that we're including the wraithling in the weather training tomorrow morning," Lance said, standing up and stretching his wings. "Should we check up on Redpine before we retire for the night?"

Matt nodded. "If nothing else, we can watch with popcorn," he suggested, lighting his horn to conjure a bowl of popcorn from the ether. Lance relented, opened a drawer to pull the map out once more, and spread it across the desk before lighting it up to see what the idiots of Redpine were doing now. As soon as the crystals lit up, they could tell that something was wrong with the ponies of the volcano: they were sweating a lot more than usual, despite the fact that they were sitting outside of their base's interior. Even the leaders of Redpine looked nervous, as they beheld the volcano in its terrible glory, almost as though they were suddenly reconsidering their life choices.

A quick glance at Redpine's interior revealed why; the volcano bubbled more than usual, and the Illicit Instrumentation had ceased functioning completely, with not so much as a spark being issued from its mass. In addition, the heat of the volcano turned the entire base red-hot to the touch, and withered its crops with impunity. The cement cracked in the cells, and fell through the gaps in pieces, the floor of that floor having already given out and splashed into the magma sometime earlier in the day.

As if it were the cherry on top of Redpine's woes, a fanciful message lit up over top of the volcano, sparkling in polka dots, confetti, and glitter, reading loud and clear to anyone who saw it: "Happy birthday, General Boltwing~ From, Dissy~" And as soon as Lance had seen the message, it shrunk in on itself, twisted itself into a birthday cake, and vanished from above Redpine… to reappear on his desk with a collection of twenty-six lit candles waiting to be blown out. Lance shrieked and jumped from the desk, knocking the chair over as he regarded the cake which had not been there before. The cake… it looked normal enough, with white frosting and sugary scrollwork on a three-tiered masterpiece, all beset with chocolate fondant and orange and red candies circling the candles.

"H-h-how the—" Lance stammered, regarding the cake as if it decided to grow legs solely to punch him in the beans. "How the fuck did that goat-faced maniac figure out my birthday!?"

Matt regarded the cake warily, remembering the last time Discord had given him and Natalie a book that threw pies into their faces. He lifted a hoof, very gently touched the fondant and frosting, and retracted his hoof without smearing either sugary treat on its surface. Anna self-levitated to check the top of the cake, seeing the candles and "Happy birthday, Lance~" written on the top in crimson frosting. She conjured a regular wood-and-stone arrow, and poked a candle with it, finding nothing wrong on that front. She looked over the cake to regard Lance.

"Seems good to me," she said, before levitating back down. "Of course, Discord might just burst out of the damn thing…"

Lance sighed and collected himself, and moved to put the chair back in its proper position before trotting around the desk to regard his subordinates. "... seriously, though, how the fuck did Discord figure out today was my birthday—a day I specifically don't celebrate?" he grumbled, turning to regard the cake with a disappointed expression.

His Lieutenants collectively shrugged. "Well… it's cake. Maybe he'd figure out you wouldn't turn down cake," Natalie said, also turning to the cake to regard it with a critical eye. "That being said… it's a bit excessive. Three tiers? You're liable to accidentally knock it over." She lit her horn and carefully lifted the topmost tier off with her magic, conjuring a plate to set it on from the ether so it would not stain the map as she set it on the desk. In doing this, she revealed wooden skewers holding the layers up, presumably stretching all the way to the bottom tier. A quick glance at the bottom of the top tier revealed red, moist goodness lurking underneath the layers of sugar. "... not one I'm familiar with," she added as an aside. She then moved the middle tier off onto its own plate, setting it aside to reveal something interesting in the bottom tier.

Inside the bottom tier, there were candies nestled into a large hole, ringed by the skewers which were deftly plucked out. There were two variants of candies, one of them colored in metallic, edible paint, and crafted to look like standard bullets. Alongside those candies were tiny chocolate bottles, painted up to look like drinks they couldn't name. Natalie plucked a bottle-shaped candy out and crammed it into her mouth, eyes widening as the taste of chocolate mixed with liquid alcohol graced her tongue. She savored the taste for a moment, and then swallowed. "Holy shit… you can put booze into candy?" she said, turning to Lance and regarding him as if she had made an important archeological discovery.

Anna plucked a bullet-shaped candy with her magic, and put it into her mouth. She got a surprise of her own, in the form of a gel-like substance nestled within chocolate that gave off the taste of berries. She savored, chewed, then swallowed. "The bullet candies seem normal to me; they have berry filling," she reported.

"But… did Discord make this cake himself, or commission someone else to do it?" Matt asked, regarding the cake as he sent the popcorn bowl back to the ether. As if to answer him, a burst of more bullet and bottle candies exploded in the air above the desk, the candies gently floating down to rest on top of the cake's bottom tier to reveal a folded card addressed to Lance specifically.

Lance trotted over and plucked the card off of the cake, opening it up to find a message from, of all ponies, Mr. and Mrs. Cake. "Apologies for the unusual cake, General, but we got an order from Pinkie Pie to fill on relatively short notice. We had Discord deliver it to you, and seeing as we heard you don't celebrate your birthday, we decided to waive the standard fee for a cake of this size and nature. Hope you enjoy~ Mr. and Mrs. Cake. P.S. The cake is red velvet, since we heard you don't have many options for cakes over on Fantasia." In addition, the card had been signed by Pinkie Pie as well, her signature drawn in a cutesy balloon boasting a smiley face.

Lance set the card on his desk, and wore a tiny smile on his face. "First a cute-ceañera, and now a birthday cake…" he muttered, trotting over to the topmost tier with the candles studding its surface. "Pinkie's pulling out all the fucking stops for my miserable ass? She certainly goes about it in a weird way…" He regarded the candles for a moment, sighed, and inhaled deeply before blowing them out. Afterwards, the candles were plucked out and set to the side, after being cleaned so they wouldn't stain the map of course. He turned to Anna. "I think Maria and Rapier should try the cake, too," he said.

Anna nodded, conjured a knife and two plates, and regarded the cake. "Which layer, and with the bullet candies?" she asked. Lance pointed at the bottom tier and nodded, and Anna carved out two moderate slices to put on the plates before sprinkling them with some of the bullet candies and removing the alcohol candies. She put the knife on top of the leftovers of the bottom tier, teleported out of the room, and returned moments later without the cake-laden plates.

By the time she had returned, the other three got slices and candies of their own, and were tucking in with forks as they regarded the three-ring circus that was Redpine's map projection. "They ate the entire slices, and candies," Anna reported with a grin. "Rapier especially liked it."

Lance nodded. "Did she smear frosting all over her face?" he asked.

"No, I showed her how to use a fork," Anna replied. She promptly summoned another plate, and got a slice of her own, with some more bullet candies. "Maria loved her slice, too."

Lance grinned. "Glad to hear it," he said, before using a fork to shovel another slice of sugary goodness down his mouth. He had to admit, it was leagues better than popcorn, made with love and care, as any birthday of this nature should warrant. And hey, as long as nobody was throwing confetti in his face, he figured he could appreciate this day. Just this once.

The schadenfreude he got from watching his genetic donors start to lowkey panic over the conundrum occurring on their home turf added to the flavor of the cake. The smattering of alcohol candies helped, though he made sure to be conservative with them, just in case the alcohol contained within them was absurdly strong to make up for their small liquid quantities. The bullet candies added extra crunch and sweetness, and the frosting and fondant on red velvet made the whole thing come together. He made a mental note to thank Mr. and Mrs. Cake later; they made some mean pastries, after all, and free food was not an invitation one could easily pass up.

As for birthday presents? The schadenfreude more than made up for it. The liquor candies were a close second, though. Watching the beginning of Redpine's fall? A distant third, since he wasn't up there to see it in person. But hey, he had a safe distance between the Aerie and Redpine, so the consolation prize of basic safety would have to do. As he and his cohorts watched Redpine's every move, they didn't notice the door silently clicking shut behind them.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Twilight wore a bit of an amused smile on her face as she stood in front of Pinkie Pie, who was grinning as the door to their guest room clicked shut behind them. "Let me get this straight: you commissioned the Cakes to bake Lance the biggest birthday cake they could legally make yesterday, while Discord was temporarily here, and paid for it out of your own pocket to have Discord deliver said cake to said General?" she asked, exasperation showing on her face. "How did you find out today was his birthday?"

Pinkie grinned. "Lance told me the date, a few days ago. He said he'd consider celebrating it for once, if I could make him smile even an eentsy bit," she answered. "And I did make him smile an eentsy bit." Her grin widened. "I even asked the Cakes if they had those special bottle chocolates, and I told them I wanted it in the middle of the birthday cake as a nice surprise."

Twilight sighed, shaking her head even as she smiled. "So… you're liquoring him up, is what you're telling me," she said somewhat ruefully.

"Yepperoni! I figured if anypony deserved liquor candies on their special day, it'd be him, silly!" Pinkie replied. "Of course, Anna can't drink, but I'll get her some for her twenty-first birthday too, and do the same to her cake." She wilted a little. "And I got Discord in on it too; Redpine's too big and nasty, even for the Aerie to tackle without killing their hostages… so I promised Discord that if he could get the hostages out, we'd turn a blind eye to whatever he does to Redpine otherwise."

"... you bribed Discord," Twilight said dryly, her smile fading a little.

"It's not bribing, if money doesn't pass hooves," Pinkie retorted. "And besides, Twily, Redpine's a nasty-wasty volcano! There's no way we could crack it open without using the Aerie's ION Cannon anyway—lots of nasty casualties, and nopony of that trainwreck of a community getting saved! Lose-lose all around." Pinkie gravely shook her head. "Not even the Elements of Harmony can fix death, and that's the last thing we'd want for the hostages." She sighed and slumped. "And even then, Discord could only get the fillies and colts out; he told me their mothers were unable to smile again."

Twilight's ears turned back at the news, and her smile fell completely. "... are they…"

Pinkie nodded. "He told me he put them away from Redpine, closing their eyes and putting them six hooves under," she confirmed sourly. "The fillies and colts got their stupid taboo spell reversed, and they're in the Aerie's hospital." She looked at Twilight with a sour, angry, sorrowful look, and it was difficult for her friend to tell which emotion took precedence in her expression. "And… Lance's parents decided that he failed them, so they made another foal to try their stupid plans again. Discord got that little filly out, too, and she can't giggle at the ghosties too much because she's gotten sick from all those yucky volcano gasses and awful treatment."

Twilight frowned. She opened her mouth to speak, only to consider what she would have said in that moment and closed it back up. Pinkie nodded. "And the doctors told me that the filly's albino, which made her even weaker than the usual foal. She's not gonna be walking out of that hospital until the doctors help her with all her nasty-wasties," Pinkie said severely, shaking her head. She smiled a little, though. "Anna did give her some cake, though, and she said it brightened her day up."

Twilight continued to frown at the news. "Do you think we could visit this albino filly tomorrow?" she asked.

Pinkie nodded. "Lance is gonna be super-duper busy wiping Redpine off of Fantasia, so if anypony can help brighten that filly's day, it's gonna be us," she affirmed. "In fact, the doctors took some of her loose feathers and ran it through their magitek to tell them her birthday, so she'll need a nice surprise of her own when that day comes." She rustled her tail a bit, not quite a twitch that would have indicated things falling, but more of a slight shimmy at its very tip. "However, her next birthday won't be until next year, around the same time the Grand Galloping Gala's gonna happen."

Twilight nodded. "Plenty of time for the filly to come out of her shell, then," she surmised. "And also plenty of time to recover from some of the physical ramifications of living in a volcano."

"And plenty of time for the filly to learn that there's two whole worlds outside of nasty-wasty Redpine," Pinkie agreed, smiling a little bit at the thought. "We gotta make sure she goes to bed with a smile on her face every night."

Twilight put a hoof to her chin. "And how do we do that? She's probably been abused her whole life—no doubt her genetic donors ramped it up, after they learned Lance failed them the first time they tried," she pointed out, even as she willed the gears of her brain to crank into overdrive. "She's gonna be a really tough customer to make a smile for, if she's older."

Pinkie nodded. "Then we go visit her right now," she said, in a tone brokering no argument. "We just find a soldier who can take us there. But first—we gotta see if Rarity's awake." Twilight nodded, and the two turned to the door before Pinkie pronked over to open it. They trotted out into the hall, and looked around to see if they could find one of their friends. They went around to the door that was to the right of the one they had left, and knocked on it. It opened, and Fluttershy popped her head out, letting out the sound of a rabbit screaming obscenities in doing so. "Heya Flutters, is Rarity in there?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "No, but she's in the next room over," she answered. "Angel couldn't help but overhear your conversation, and…" She gestured behind herself. "He's been saying really nasty things about Lance's parents, and I can't get him to stop." The screaming in her room intensified in volume.

"Not that I blame him for letting loose with what he really thinks of them," Twilight sighed, shaking her head. "Wouldn't be surprised if Owlowiscious and Harry think the same thing, to be honest."

Fluttershy sighed. "They've been… quieter about their thoughts," she said somewhat dejectedly. "Though I have heard them threaten to pluck eyes out, and rip and tear, depending on who lets it slip."

"Would they like to visit the medical wing of the Aerie?" Twilight asked. "Maybe seeing the children I keep hearing about would be good for them." Fluttershy mulled it over, then pulled back into her room to translate the question to her animal friends. A moment later, she returned with a soft smile and a nod, and stepped out of the room with Angel and Owlowiscious on her back, and Harry shadowing her steps. Now, they weren't uttering obscenities, much less screaming them in animal, but still looked very sour about the whole thing. Afterwards, they went to knock on the next door over, and after a moment it opened to reveal a frazzled-looking Rarity. On her head sat NoLegs, holding a measuring tape in his mouth.

"Oh darlings, you've come at a bit of a strange time," Rarity said.

Twilight glanced up at NoLegs for a moment, then let her gaze drop back down to her friend. "Did the cat commission a military uniform out of you?" she asked.

"No, nothing of the sort… well, yes, he did commission me, but certainly not for a formal uniform," Rarity replied, sighing. "You see, he was briefed this afternoon by one of his superiors, and he came to me to see if I could make a few plushies for the foals of Redpine."

Twilight's gaze flicked back to the measuring tape. "I see… and how has progress been on that front?" she asked as her gaze came back down once more.

"Dreadful, simply dreadful—I've found I'm a few vital cloths short… well, actually several, since the order's for a few foals, and I'm also lacking quite a bit of stuffing…" Rarity wilted a bit, starting to look just a little more frazzled. Down at her hooves, and between door and frame, Mr. Muffin poked his head out to look up at Twilight. "It was fortunate that Mr. Muffin offered to volunteer for measurements, because otherwise, I'd be simply lost."

Twilight traded a glance with Pinkie, then turned back to Rarity. "Do you think the military might have spare cloths they aren't using?" she proposed.

Rarity nodded. "I asked a soldier if there were a few earlier, and he still has yet to get back to me on that one. He's probably rooting around, seeing what he can find," she answered. Twilight nodded, and turned back to NoLegs.

"Do you think any of the children of Redpine are up right now?" Twilight asked. NoLegs nodded with a muffled mew as he took the measuring tape in his magic and gave it to Mr. Muffin. NoLegs then hopped onto Twilight's head, lit his tail, and teleported himself, Twilight, and her friends sans Rarity to the medical wing. He teleported back to Rarity afterwards, allowing the group of six to take stock of where they were.

A silver-ribbed changeling nurse approached them from behind, the sound of a trolley squeaking along to announce her presence for her. Twilight turned to look at the nurse, who grinned sheepishly. "Got ordered by the higher-ups to see if any of the foals here want dessert," she said. "And yes, we're moderating how much they get, considering they vacuum up their food otherwise."

Twilight nodded. "Makes sense—the sulfur probably permeated Redpine's crops, and poisoned them that way," she grumbled.

"I know—it's not nutritious, either way," the nurse agreed with a sigh. "Poor kids are malnourished, starving, some are suffering from other ailments…" She shook her head. "The dessert's more to help them bulk up a little." She conjured a clipboard from the ether, as well as a pen and some ink. "Let's see… next on the list… oh, the higher-ups already gave her some cake…" She crossed something off of the list. "Don't wanna stuff her with too much sugar, after all…"

"Given that the sulfur is probably permeating Redpine's crops, that makes the whole force weak by default," Twilight said, wilting a bit.

"I know, right? It's a miracle they even lasted as long as they did, against both us and the sky pirates," the nurse agreed with a nod. She looked at Twilight evenly, sending her pen and clipboard back to the ether. "You'll meet the sky pirates probably soon, assuming Redpine's not harassing them again."

Twilight nodded, and smiled at the nurse. "Is it okay if we check on the filly who had herself a cake slice?" she asked. When the nurse nodded, Twilight lifted a hoof and waved at the end of the hall her tail was facing. "Lead the way." The nurse nodded, grabbed the trolley in her magic, and promptly took point in the formation, leading the three ponies and their animal friends down the hall.

The nurse did have to stop at every door, solely to check on the patients and see if they needed any food to fuel their bedtimes. A few did, so she gave them plates laden with sugary goodness to eat off of, and then returned to stack the plates onto the bottom part of the trolley before continuing. Eventually, she stopped at a particular one and poked her head in, before coming back out. "This one's still up, and she's playing pretend with her plush friend," the nurse warned, smiling. "Be prepared to get dragged into playtime." Twilight nodded, and went into the room, her friends following her.

Rapier was talking with her plush friend, using her hooves to wave his little arms as she pretended that he talked back. "Bad ponies of bad Redpine need wingies cut off," she said, frowning.

"'But bad ponies of bad Redpine could use bad magic through Fantasia,'" the plush friend argued. "'Bad alicorns could make plants die.'"

Rapier shook her head. "Good plants don't need die," she said firmly. "Not like bad ponies." She looked up when she noticed she had visitors. "Why ponies come with weird fuzzy friends?" she asked.

Twilight strode forward, and sat next to the bed. Owlowiscious flew to rest on her head. "We wanted to ask you some questions," she said as Pinkie trotted over to sit at the other side of the bed.

"Didja like the cake?" Pinkie asked. Rapier turned to her and nodded.

"Sweetie crunchies and soft cakie lots good," Rapier answered with a soft, tiny smile as she moved her plush friend to her chest. "Want more."

Pinkie beamed. "We'll get you some more tomorrow. Don't want any tummy aches," she said, giggling.

Twilight smiled as Fluttershy put Angel onto Rapier's bed. Angel hopped up to her and looked her over with a critical eye, and then crawled up the pillow to sit on her head. Rapier smiled at the little bunny. "Fuzzy friend lots soft," she said. "But why head?"

"It's where he likes to sit when he travels," Fluttershy answered, as Harry came over to extend a paw. Rapier regarded the paw, then touched it, watching as Harry gently gripped her hoof and shook it softly with a pleased growl. "And Harry's really nice for a bear; you could cuddle him all day, and he wouldn't bite."

"But anyway…" Twilight sighed and took a breath. "How did the plants of Redpine taste?"

Rapier made a face as she turned to Twilight. "Lots yucky. Bad parents made me eat bad plants with bad claws," she answered. "No taste good like good plants in nice bed." She shuddered. "Bad pukies every night, got hit with bad claws because of bad pukies."

"... can you keep the food down here?" Twilight asked.

Rapier nodded. "No more bad pukies in nice bed," she confirmed. "No want be bad sickies no more."

Twilight nodded, relieved that Rapier was getting the nutrition she desperately needed, without the putrid taste of sulfur ruining the mix. "Do your bad parents have names?" she asked.

Rapier nodded again. "Fleh-ge-thon and To-lo-mia," she answered. "No know what funny names mean, but… those names bad."

"Phlegethon… and Ptolomea… those are strange, and bad names indeed," Twilight agreed with a slow nod. "And are they the only ones of Redpine who have names?"

Rapier nodded again. "Bad parents said nopony of bad Redpine need names. Everypony of bad Redpine worth nothing," she said, wings drooping with the thought. "Would bad parents try take my name?"

Twilight shook her head. "We won't allow them to," she answered. Angel chittered in agreement, patting her ears with his paws. "We'll make sure you get to keep your name and plush friend."

Rapier's smile could have lit up the sun. "No more bad parents?" she asked.

Twilight nodded firmly. "No more," she confirmed. She moved to gently hug Rapier, who allowed herself to relax. Once she pulled away, the little filly laid her head down on her pillow, and Angel hopped off to return to Fluttershy.

Rapier unleashed a mighty yawn, and used a hoof to pull the covers up to the necks of herself and her plush friend. "Going have good dreams… good dreams about bad parents getting beaten by good not-ponies," she said, closing her eyes.

"Goodnight," Twilight said, and with that, she and her group quietly walked out of Rapier's room to let her have some sleep. She gently shut the door behind her and her friends, and moved away from the window before teleporting herself and her group back to the guest rooms. Once in the hallway with said rooms, they went back to one of the rooms to continue their discussion. "Once she gets better, she's gonna be a real hoofful…" Twilight said, smiling faintly.

"I really hope she gets better, though… I'd rather have a healthy, rambunctious alicorn filly, than a sickly one who can't get out of bed," Fluttershy said, shaking her head. "At least she's on the road to recovery now." Angel and Harry nodded in agreement to that one.

"Right-o," Pinkie agreed, her face hardening. "We gotta do something about her awful, no good, terrible, no fun parents to keep them from having any more children to hurt like they hurt her."

Twilight sighed. "Let's face it: Fantasia's a bucked-up planet," she muttered, shaking her head and letting her smile drop at the thought. "But anyway…" She turned to Pinkie. "Rainbow told me that the alicorn filly and Lance have the same set of parents… which means Lance automatically gets the rights to geld his own sire." She looked at her friends evenly. "Do either of you have any objections to allowing him to do so?"

"Nope. That meany-pants doesn't deserve kids anyway," Pinkie said.

"I agree. Some ponies simply shouldn't have foals—it would be kinder for them not to," Fluttershy added, with a firm nod.

"Then it's settled: we'll help Lance castrate his father however we can… without doing the deed ourselves," Twilight said with a firm nod. "After all, Harmony can only do so much under hard limits—and we have our own hard limits."

"Also, we should do the same for Lance's meany-pants mom—let him castrate her, without doing the deed ourselves," Pinkie piped up. Then she put a hoof to her chin. "Then again, how do you castrate a mare? They don't have the same bouncy body parts a stallion does…"

Twilight sighed, but made no motion to object. She knew better than to argue with Pinkie on some things, and she would sooner retire for the night than to attempt to ice skate uphill. And sometimes, she realized that one would have to take some terrible, but necessary steps to ensure things would work out in the end. Better the Fantasians doing so, than she and her group.

In the meantime, maybe she could watch the General and his Lieutenants tomorrow. Maybe some good would come of that.

Chapter CIV—Training Regiment

Spitfire watched hawkishly as everyone that could fit on the steel ring of the Aerie assembled before her and her Wonderbolts squadron, a megaphone sat next to her hoof, waiting to be used. Naturally, Lance was up front, being the head of the military and all, but Spitfire noticed he had been given a little more breathing room than normal, on top of a lack of a military uniform. At either side of him, albeit with some distance, were Natalie and Anna, who themselves were also out of uniform, and flanking them were Sarah and Maria. Not every gryphon could attend, of course, with some having to help the changeling nurses with their newest patients, while others like Blue Crow and his group couldn't attend because of pre-existing disabilities or having to tend to the ships in the hangars.

And speaking of disabilities, Spitfire was somewhat surprised to see the wraithling standing on a crate next to Sarah, her clawed shoes on her hooves and otherwise looking straight ahead. How Katie wasn't disabled enough for even this little outing, the Wonderbolts could only guess. Rainbow was looking skyward, grinning to herself—today was an overcast day, because apparently the ectoplasms decided they wanted to pay attention for once, and they were watching the Aerie hawkishly.

An overcast day was just right for this type of training. Spitfire cleared her throat, picked up the megaphone, and let her voice wash over the assembled soldiers. "Alright everybody! We're going to start with the basics for weather manipulation—spread your wings, those who have them, and take a deep breath to prepare yourselves, because this training is going to get grueling in the coming days!" Every Fantasian assembled heeded the command, taking in deep breaths and flaring out their wings. Spitfire quickly saw a few feathers from Lance barely grazing Anna and Natalie with his wings' spreading, overshadowing many if not most of the other soldiers through sheer size alone.

That told her straight away that he would be one tough customer to train in this particular department, and that he might need a few extra accommodations based on his wing size alone. She made mental notes, just in case she got a future Wonderbolts prospective whose own wings could rival Lance's in every department. "Everyone good?" she asked; at several nods, she allowed herself to firm up into the persona she used on newly-inducted Wonderbolts cadets. "Alright. We'll start with simple exercises—for those with wings, try to channel magic through them. For those… who don't have wings, try channeling it through your hooves and talons," she ordered.

Once more, all obeyed the command. Right away, however, Spitfire could see peculiarities arising already—Natalie was doing her magic through both hooves and wings, a blue aura pulsing across both feathers and legs as she did so. Then again, it made sense with the condition of her wings. Sarah was doing both too, but her gaze seemed unfocused, as though she were trying to decide which of her limbs to do this exercise with would be more convenient. Maria tried, and tried, but she couldn't get anywhere with her attempts. Spitfire frowned, and watched when Anna turned to her. "Try reaching inside of yourself mentally," Anna said gently. "Try to find that magical spark."

Maria nodded, and tried again with another deep breath. She closed her eyes in concentration, and tried to bring out her inner spark. Alas, she didn't yield results this time either. "Think on where you keep your special magic," Anna advised. "Think of your wings like a mobile pair of unicorn horns." The child nodded, but still had to take a moment just to figure it out first—and almost jumped out of formation as she felt her magic finally emerging from her wings. She snapped her eyes open and whirled around to see her wings glowing with a faint blue aura that almost, but not quite, matched her mane in color.

Spitfire spread a wing, and nudged Thunderlane in Maria's direction. Thunderlane nodded, and trotted over to approach her. "Is this normal?" Maria asked, flapping her wings and causing her mana to unfocus, which stopped them from glowing with her magical power. A faint chill came from her wings as the mana dissipated, Thunderlane noticed.

Thunderlane nodded. "Very normal. Just keep focused right now—focus on the feeling of your magic going across your wings. Get used to the feeling, because you're going to be doing this a lot very soon," he instructed. Maria nodded, turned to look back ahead, and focused once more, willing her magic to get to work for the first time in her life. "Is this your first time doing this?" he asked, garnering an immediate nod. He smiled, and trotted back to Spitfire to whisper his findings into her ear.

Spitfire nodded, and moved the megaphone away from her mouth to whisper back to him. "Keep an eye on her…" she ordered. Thunderlane nodded, and turned to watch Maria just in case she somehow had any magical mishaps. Fortunately for them, Maria didn't opt to do much else, trying her hardest to keep focused to get used to the feeling of the mana rippling on her wings.

Anna's magic rippled across her wood, but the wood unfurled around her hooves to let the magic pulse across those surfaces. Spitfire raised her brow at this, but opted to say nothing about it—after all, she knew Lance was a bit strange when he talked with her back at headquarters, and recognized he might have a penchant for the oddballs in the military he ran. In that assumption, she was glad she was right on the money. That, and as far as she knew, timberponies were scarce—and before, she'd have dismissed the notion as nonexistent. But seeing one in the flesh might have shaken up her worldview a little.

Then again, being a Wonderbolt meant one would have to get used to weird sights from time to time. Ever since Rainbow Dash got into the program, the weirdness had been gradually ratcheting up, and then spiked once the barrier broke. Redpine probably tipped the weirdness scales out of whack by now, and that wasn't counting Discord's modifications to their base. She shook the thoughts from her head, to focus on current matters. She checked on Katie right quick; her mana was pulsing across hooves and shoes, and there was a faint chill around her, but other than that, she did nothing.

Spitfire focused, to return her mind to current matters. "Alright. Now that we have established our magical hold… extend it to the air around you. Try to see if you can craft simple clouds from the water vapors around you," she ordered. The gryphons got it down pretty easily, constructing clouds in their claws that were solid to their touch, but otherwise light and gaseous. Lance… he struggled for a moment, and when a cloud formed into existence in front of him, it promptly lit on fire and puffed up in a curl of black smoke.

Spitfire blinked at what she saw. How in the fresh hell did Lance manage to set water on fire? She watched him carefully, and once more, as soon as a cloud came into existence in front of him, it went ablaze like a candle and died on the spot. His eyes narrowed at this, before he seemed to consider something. He sat down, lifted his hooves, and willed his magic to work that way before a cloud that didn't catch fire formed to dance at his frogs. He grinned at this, even as it spat a tiny bolt of lightning that caused flames to curl at his hooves, which once again, enveloped the cloud.

Spitfire nudged Soarin in that direction using her other wing. He approached, and felt heat washing over him. "Um… were you able to make heat before?" Soarin asked.

Lance nodded. "Never… got the hang of it," he affirmed with a sigh. "I generally only do this using magitek. It feels weird without it."

Soarin relaxed a little. "Focus on what a normal temperature feels like, and try using that," he advised. Lance did as he was told, and the heat that was emanating from him diminished somewhat. Another cloud formed in the General's hooves, and did not expel lightning to kill itself that way this time. Soarin grinned, and trotted back to Spitfire to report his findings.

"Makes sense, given where he came from… the ponies of Redpine probably mutated to do that," Spitfire whispered to Soarin. "We gotta watch him to prevent fire hazards." Her gaze went to the others to see how well they were faring.

Anna had a little more luck; all she had to do was lift her front legs and watch a cloud dance at their tips. She fluffed it up a little, and watched as it condensed into the shape of an arrow. Sarah decided on using her talons for the exercise, and grinned as a cloud formed at her clawtips, before she decided to squeeze it like a stress ball. It held easily enough, which looked promising. Natalie settled on her hooves as well, and made a tiny squee as she managed to conjure a little bitty thundercloud that was honestly cute to look at. It sparked and roiled at her hooves, and spat a tiny chunk of snow on her frog, but otherwise held.

Spitfire grinned at this development. It seemed some soldiers were further along in their weather training than others, and even better, not so much as a spark issued from Anna and Natalie's horns. Katie… she tried as well, and while a cloud did form at her hooves, it then turned into an ice ball and plonked on the crate she stood on. So she tried again, and made another, albeit without freezing it solid this time. It spat snow onto her shoes, and roiled adorably, but otherwise did nothing.

Maria channeled through her wings, and angled them around her to form a cloud in her claws. It held, and roiled, but did little else. Despite it, though, she was grinning as she grabbed the cloud, and began to play with it as any child would. She squished it like puddy, and upon realizing she could sculpt it, she proceeded to turn it into a cute little bunny rabbit that stood on its hind legs. The rabbit horked up a bit of snow from its ears, and tried to drift away before she grabbed it to keep it steady.

Good. Everyone present could keep a cloud more or less steady. Now onto the second part of training for their bizarre and unorthodox symphony. "Now… try to generate multiple clouds around you, using wings, hooves, and claws," Spitfire ordered. "If the clouds orbit around you, you're good; if ectoplasms rain from above to hijack them, feel free to punch them in the face. If your feathers… or manes start to frizz, punch the clouds that are discharging lightning, but aim the punch away from you and your fellows. If they turn to ice, just try again."

At once, everyone obeyed. The gryphons got it right off the bat, with a collection of clouds orbiting them in moments. Natalie decided she wanted to try juggling with her wings, and once she had enough clouds orbiting her, used said wings to bounce the clouds up in the air before they returned to orbiting her. Anna, thinking her comrade was showboating, decided to up her ante, doing a stand on her front hooves and using her hinds to juggle and conjure her clouds. She blew a raspberry in Natalie's direction for good measure, and Natalie just rolled her eyes in response.

Spitfire couldn't help but snicker at the sight, a motion that was echoed by Rainbow Dash. Sarah opted to not showboat, seeing the mane-measuring contest her sister had engaged in, and simply let her clouds orbit her as instructed. Maria had little snow clouds rolling around her after a few moments, a little longer than all the adults surrounding her, but she grinned and pronked in place at the development. "I can make weather, I can make weather!" she chirped, proud of herself for her accomplishment.

Spitfire watched Maria just a little more closely, to see if light was building on her flanks yet. No dice on that front, but she thought she did see a tiny shimmer in that area, unsure if it was from the snow she was generating via her clouds, or something else entirely. Katie opted for something unusual; she hovered in the air above her crate, all hooves outstretched, and she was just airborne in place, spinning on a gentle axis with her clouds. Seeing a changeling do such a maneuver confused the Wonderbolts, but they didn't comment on it, figuring that whatever helped the individual focus on this little exercise would help in the long run.

Lance managed a few thunderclouds, and they orbited him and crackled, but not enough to singe his feathers and mane, much less make them frizz up. He watched each one carefully as they drifted past his chest, seeing if any of them would need percussive maintenance. None of them did, but still he watched, in case something were to occur nonetheless. It was good that he was paying attention; Spitfire wasn't really sure of what to do if he hadn't.

"Now then, we move onto the next exercise: forming the clouds orbiting you into a singular entity. Grab them with your hooves and claws, squish them together, and once they are fully formed into one big cloud, punch the living daylights out of them," Spitfire ordered. Once more, everyone heeded the orders and her command also had the side-effect of halting Anna and Natalie's mane-measuring contest for just long enough for them to complete the first part of their new task.

Once a collection of larger clouds had been assembled before the soldiers, the punches went flying as cloud after cloud was dispatched. Lance reared up on his hind legs briefly, turned around with a flourish, and bucked using his rear hooves to land a solid hit on his cloud, which sparked and crackled with lightning and fire as it dissipated in a puff. Lingering static and embers crackled afterwards, which Lance blew away with a single flap of his wings, making sure to aim upwards to avoid sending anything into the eyes of their tutors.

Natalie more or less mimicked the motion, and hers spat ice and lightning before reverting back into thin air. Sarah opted to punch with her talons, and yielded a burst of wind for her efforts. Katie slashed, causing her cloud to freeze up into chunks to tinkle upon the ring of steel like glass. Anna made a little bit of rain, lightning, and frost with hers, but it harmlessly lingered in the air before it ceased crackling. Maria, trying to follow the cue of the adults, punched her cloud and then kicked it, but it did not dissipate like it normally would. Instead, it began to swell a little, crackling with frost and lightning as she hit it again and again.

Yet before any of the Wonderbolts could intervene, Maria landed a solid hit right in its kisser, causing it to shoot out a plume of lightning beyond the ring and arc down into the plains below, striking that spot with a deafening thunderclap that had everyone reeling. Spitfire turned to the strikepoint, and frowned as she beheld a small patch of fire that didn't spread beyond that spot. Yet still, the cloud lingered afterwards, and Maria punched it again, which weirdly caused icicles to form in its mass and drop down in front of her, shattering on impact. The cloud persisted yet, and she punched it once more to make it dissipate into a cold, harmless burst of wind that sailed outside of the training area.

"... huh, the kid's quite strong," Thunderlane noted, once the ringing in his ears had ceased. He noticed a fading twinge of light dimming from Maria's flank. "She can make icicles from clouds… not many pegasi can do that back home. We might need to pull her aside to train separately."

Lance broke from formation, but he went to Maria to check her over. "You good?" he asked.

"Air's ringing too much, daddy…" Maria whimpered, even though she wasn't clutching her ears for dear life.

Lance nodded and patted her on the head, though gently in case she had a budding headache. He was smiling faintly, though. "Eh, it happens with thunder and lightning if you're up too close and personal," he said with a shrug. "Happened to me a few times on airships, but I didn't punch any clouds like they owed me money, back then." He looked at her squarely. "Do you feel any different otherwise?"

Maria grinned, despite the ringing in her ears. She pronked in place again. "Does this mean I can do good weather, daddy?" she asked.

Lance nodded. "Not many can make icicles from clouds, except for frost wraiths," he answered, before lifting a hoof to gesture to her flank. "And not many can make lightning from those same clouds, either. Those are… mana-draining skills, so you should tone it down if you want to master them."

Maria frowned, before noticing where his hoof was pointing. She turned to her flank, and her eyes went wide as she beheld a thundercloud with three icicles and three lightning bolts sticking out of its mass in a six-point configuration, with the thunderbolts on top and the icicles on the bottom. She turned to Lance, her face beginning to shine like the sun. "I… I…" was all she could stammer as a million thoughts ran through her head.

Lance nodded, pride shining in his eyes. "Yes," he confirmed. "And we're gonna get you some cake to celebrate." He leaned down to nuzzle her head. "But after we finish our training for the day—you have a talent to master, after all."

Maria giggled, and reached up to hug Lance on the neck. "You're awesome, daddy," she said, causing the Wonderbolts to smile at the sight. He returned the hug and patted her back. Spitfire waited for them to break from their hug and for Lance to return to his former spot before resuming with the next exercise, albeit toned down to prevent any more lightning bolts from shooting out of whatever clouds they made.

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Matt and Fleetfoot watched Redpine as lunchtime rolled around, waiting for any signs of foul play. Every now and again, as they ate their food quietly, they looked to the ring surrounding the mountain, watching the weather training in progress. Nothing worthwhile was happening over at Redpine's house of sin, other than the grand and glorious leaders resuming their incessant bitchfit from the day prior. They had a tray each, and it housed separate foods so they could tell whose tray was whose. Matt's tray also had a drink next to it, further differentiating them.

Matt shook his head as he stuffed another piece of roasted bird leg into his mouth. He peeled the meat from the bone, and chewed thoughtfully as he watched the ongoing travesty as the map relayed it to him. Fleetfoot munched on a salad, shoveling another forkful into her gob. "So, that cute-ceañera… how extravagant are you gonna go on it?" she asked after swallowing her mouthful.

Matt shrugged. "We'll just leave the decor to Pinkie Pie, as well as the cake. We'll provide the rest of the food," he answered as he set the bone down onto a plate, solely to keep track of it. "Can't believe Maria fucking shot a lightning bolt out of a cloud, though."

"At her age?" Fleetfoot wore a ghost of a smile as she sent another forkful of salad down her gullet. As soon as it went down the hatch, she continued, "I wasn't expecting much either, but then again, cutie marks tend to manifest in weird ways…"

"I'll drink to that," Matt agreed with a nod. He chewed on another roasted bird leg, which might have weirded Fleetfoot out if she hadn't been briefed on the Fantasian ponies' meat-eating habits.

"So… Lance gets sick if he has too many greens?" Fleetfoot hedged. Matt nodded. Fleetfoot gestured to Redpine. "Do you think the volcano, having likely permeated the crops with sulfur, might've been responsible for that?"

Matt chewed on that thought as he stripped his second bird leg to the bone, then he seemed to do numbers in his head before nodding. "With what he told me, I wouldn't doubt it," he said once his morsel went down the hatch. He put the second bone onto the plate. "Granted, he's got Diomedis Defectus, but I'd still like to think that Redpine's shitty crops contributed to that a little bit."

Fleetfoot nodded, and ruffled her wings as she added another forkful to her gullet. The crunchiness of leafy greens, not to mention their freshness, calmed her down somewhat, even as she considered the possibility that Redpine might just relocate elsewhere—if they ever regained their brains anytime soon. Granted, the possibility wasn't very likely, with what sulfur-tainted crops and all the health ramifications of that, but one she couldn't easily dismiss just yet.

And now that she thought about it… wasn't Redpine's community succeptible to sexual ailments? The more she wondered, the more that possibility began to make sense. They had no nurses or doctors to speak of, even outside pre-assigned roles, and whatever wounds their pre-assigned happened to be treating seemed rudimentary at best—band-aid solutions for a problem that might as well have been relegated to 'internal organs outside of body.' They had no gauze, no disinfectants of liquid or magical varieties, no potions for quick healing—just bloodstained cloth and brute force.

And now that she peered closely at the enemy force… it seemed the problems they had ignored before were now bubbling to the forefront of the surface. The force was emaciating, little by little—they weren't even grazing on the rest of the island, and neither were their leaders, who were too busy griping at one another to think of any worthwhile solutions to their problems. Apparently, they hadn't activated the Illicit Instrumentation fast enough to prevent long-term brain damage.

As the nurse back at Wonderbolts HQ would have said, these ponies were suffering from a severe case of cranial rectosis. In fact, if this foalish behavior kept up on their end, the force might just keel over before they even made their move. If this was their grand master plan, it was a really bad one in the end, and the thought made Fleetfoot shake her head in sorrow and disgust. "Do you think they'll become wraiths?" she asked, after swallowing down another mouthful.

Matt mulled it over, even as he helped himself to a third bird leg. Fleetfoot began wondering what kind of poultry it was. "I mean, it's possible," he said after downing the morsel. "But not likely, considering the majority of ponies there are geased." He shrugged. "The great bozos, however? I wouldn't doubt it in the least."

The grand and glorious leaders of Redpine managed to stop arguing for once. Matt and Fleetfoot leaned in closer to the projection, watching the pair hawkishly. The two numbskulls glowered, but moved to a space on the island they called home, one with unblemished greenery. The flock went with them, and at once, they began to graze. "... they're gonna treat that island like a bunch of fucking locusts," Matt said, pulling back to help himself to a meat and bread sandwich. "I think they might actually resort to cannibalism."

Fleetfoot pulled back, to tend to her own food. "What makes you say that?" she asked.

Matt gestured to the continent Redpine sat on. "They all have functioning wings, and a force… thousands? Yeah, thousands strong. And the leaders are gonna get the lion's share of the food," he said. Already, the projection relayed the flock, its leaders shoving aside herdmates to get the best scraps of fauna they could grab. "There's only so much on that island they can get before we attack, and let's be real: not very nutritious in the long run, even if it's technically leagues better than the sulfur-slop they had before."

"And assuming they get the bright idea to move elsewhere, they have to start over from scratch—not many working magitek finds like what they had are abundant on Fantasia, especially of formerly functioning bases. All they have are geases and magic; take that away, they have fuck all," Matt added, pausing to munch on his sandwich. "Furthermore: if they're resorting to grazing now… what's it gonna take for them to leave the damn island?"

Fleetfoot slowly nodded as she picked up a spoonful of seasoned chickpeas. "Seems irrational to me," she said after swallowing. "It's almost like they're scared of change."

Matt nodded. "Lance always said his shitty folks were stubborn," he said, pausing for another mouthful of food. "But I have seen this stubbornness before, the kind that damns you instead of saving you." He stood up, angled his body slightly, and gestured to his cutie mark. "Last case I ran into helped me get this in the end."

"And lemme guess, you killed the pony responsible?" Fleetfoot hedged.

Matt nodded. "Not directly, it was a magic surge… still got him in the end either way," he answered, sitting back down to enjoy his food. He paused to sip at his drink, which had the color of tea. "Have you tried Anna's tea? She makes a killing at making it."

Fleetfoot shook her head. "No, I haven't tried any. What kind is it?"

"She says it's from a plant called refreshing vermillion," Matt answered, lighting his horn to conjure a jug's worth of the tea in question, as well as a drinking glass. He poured Fleetfoot some, and put the cup into her hoof. "It's supposed to relax your muscles a little, help you get a good night's sleep and all that. We have the plant in our slime ranch, and she swears by this stuff in the mornings, when she has nightmares and can't sleep."

Fleetfoot nodded. "Does she sweeten it?"

"With standard sugar, harvested from canes grown in the slime ranch," Matt replied, setting the pitcher down on the table. Fleetfoot bit the bullet and took a sip, and the tea was unlike most teas she had in Equestria. It had a calming effect, one that spread throughout her body and soothed some of her aches and worries. It had an earthy, herbal taste, heightened by an aroma that reminded her of freshly grown berries. It was also fairly sweet, though the sugar used had a bit of a sour aftertaste—it was probably from whatever type of cane the Fantasians harvested it from. All in all, it was pleasant, but she wouldn't drink too much in one sitting.

Still, she did the respectful thing and took a few sips of refreshing vermillion every other bite. Better to finish the glass, than to be rude. She watched Redpine's flock, bereft of weapons, home, and food, reduced to scrounging from the land like pitiful worms. Her gaze flicked back to the volcano itself, and its interior, and she noticed that the base was sagging just a little bit more. Give or take a few more days, and it probably wouldn't hold up much longer at all. As they contemplated this fact, the pair of ponies finished up the remnants of their meals, and stacked the trays and plate nice and tidy for easy transportation at a later time.

It almost felt like a waiting game, waiting for that last domino to topple over. Yet she had a feeling, a niggling feeling in her gut that the matter would not end even if the volcano erupted before they could get there. The signs were there, announcing loud and clear to anyone paying attention in that moment that something was wrong. She couldn't say what exactly was nudging her to the rather solemn conclusion—Spitfire's zany idea, the place they were planning to enact said zany idea upon, the million and one things wrong with Redpine, or the state of everything that had led to this point.

Matt seemed to sense Fleetfoot's brooding thoughts. "I know—fucked up, isn't it?"

Fleetfood nodded. "After everything else I heard about, this… this seems tame in comparison," she said. "I don't know what's worse."

Matt didn't make a motion to disagree with the notion. He took another sip of refreshing vermillion. "Truth be told, I don't know what's worse either," he said, watching the projection intently. He downed the rest of his glass and poured himself another round from the pitcher as Fleetfoot finished her drink. "Want some more?"

"I can see why Anna swears by it, but I'll pass this time," Fleetfoot said. Matt nodded, and made the pitcher vanish back into the ether before nursing his second drink. "So, does Maria have any preference for a party?"

Matt shrugged. "This'll be her first one, thrown specifically for her… I couldn't tell you," he answered. "We did tell her to let Pinkie know what she likes, but as far as we know, she's letting her have free reign."

Fleetfoot's brow furrowed a little. "... you guys really aren't big on celebrations, are you?" she hedged.

Matt shook his head. "Afraid not," he said. "There's… not a whole lot worth celebrating on Fantasia." He sighed and took another sip of tea. "No history, no holidays, and technically two anniversaries that… aren't really joyful when reminiscing about them. The closest things we got to happy occasions were the Sundering of the Void, and Godcat's Folly."

"Those anniversaries being…?" Fleetfoot pressed.

"The Royale Catastrophe, and the Last Eve of Attrition," Matt replied solemnly. "Innumerable lives lost during both, all because of the selfish desires of other asshats."

"And what about the Sundering of the Void and Godcat's Folly?" Fleetfoot asked.

Matt wilted a little. "Basically, the Sundering was when we killed one of Godcat's runaway creations. After we woke him up. Her Folly is when we went to confront Her, and bested Her in combat." He downed his drink and stood up. "I think our lunch break is over."

Fleetfoot stood as well. "I'll report my findings to Spitfire," she said. Matt nodded, and made the plate, trays, utensils and cups vanish. With that, they moved to walk out of the door, unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong—horribly, horribly wrong.

Chapter CV—Somnal Song

The first day of training went over well, and Spitfire and her Wonderbolts were part of the festivities surrounding Maria's new cutie mark. Maria was giggling, and enjoying the party with gusto, especially since Pinkie pointed her towards a piñata probably stuffed with treats. They had to admit, for a party thrown on such short notice, Pinkie still pulled out every stop she could to make it enjoyable. The soldiers were certainly in a good mood, patting the filly on her head and congratulating her with warm smiles on their faces.

For a filly who had arrived at Wonderbolts HQ and wanted to tackle the Dizzitron during her visit in Equestria, she certainly was a bright and energetic soul. "Kid's certainly in high spirits… didn't know she could generate cold with her magic," Thunderlane said, sitting at a table with his cohorts and helping himself to a slice of very delicious cake.

"And not many can, even if they're pegasi!" Soarin agreed with a hearty nod, pausing to shovel some crunchy candies into his mouth. "In fact, I'm amazed that two of the Lieutenants generated cold, without using their horns."

"Just goes to show that they're surprisingly versatile with their spellcasting," Spitfire noted, smiling. "Granted, I wasn't expecting either of them to be alicorns—even after seeing them back at the Crystal Empire. But now knowing this… it's a boon for us." She chewed on a piece of freshly-baked pie, one with a smattering of decadent vegetables, and savored the taste as she weighed her next words carefully. "I mean… they've probably been doing most of their heavy lifting with their horns, and whatever happens to require a touch of earth pony strength. But their… adversities, shall we say, may have convinced them that it's not worth demonstrating their pegasus magic."

"So, basically, they've donned a unicorn guise, and ran with it in Equestria," Soarin surmised, garnering a careful nod from his Captain.

"And they would've had to—if the Canterlot nobility found out their true natures, they'd lap it up like piranhas," Spitfire said, frowning at the thought. "Granted, not the best idea, given it led to one member of the nobility sorely underestimating them… but the alternative to that would've been political suicide."

"... because Equestrians at large think that Godcat really wiped out the Fantasian alicorns?" Thunderlane guessed.

"That, and it would've also led to the Aerie's leaders being lumped in with them somehow, despite their very clear inexperience with using their pegasus magic," Spitfire added, taking another mouthful of pie. She swallowed before continuing, "And we all know the nobility doesn't care for little bitty details like that, regarding alicorns—disabled or otherwise."

Misty Fly nodded, and watched as Maria managed to hit the piñata with a solid strike using only a stick that had been provided to her by Pinkie, despite being blindfolded. Candy spilled out of the faux star, and Maria removed her blindfold to behold the mountain of treats piling at her hooves. "Would it also explain why they wore cloaks?" she asked.

Spitfire nodded. "My best guess is that they didn't want anypony in Equestria seeing their… adversities, if they somehow saw through whatever illusions they cast on themselves," she answered. "Granted, Anna likely had… extra spells done to her, so it would be a harder sell to see that much with her, given her rampant scarring. But I'm impressed nopony bothered to look at Natalie." She shuddered. "And seeing said adversities in person? Makes you wonder what exactly happened."

"It's probably not a cut-and-dry case of simply saying they had to have those amputations," Fleetfoot said, shaking her head and ruffling her wings. "And it's not like we can just ask them what happened to their wings right off the bat. There's probably some deep trauma regarding that topic."

Spitfire nodded. "Wouldn't doubt it," she bitterly agreed, as she went in for another mouthful of pie. "And again, the nobles would feast on that information if it ever got out, especially if it leaked and it wasn't on the Fantasians' terms."

"Given all that's happened since their visit? I'm amazed they didn't declare war yet," Soarin noted, sighing and wilting with the thought. "I mean… they have solid reasons to. Or they would, if Princess Celestia hadn't punished that noble for conspiring to commit treason against the Crown."

"But they haven't made a declaration of war yet. That means they're willing to hear every side of the story," Thunderlane added, taking a sip of water. "And that might be a rare trait on Fantasia."

"What makes you say that?" Spitfire asked, turning to Thunderlane.

"I mean, let's face it: out of all the Fantasian ponies we've seen during our short time here, how many can you say have their cutie marks?" Thunderlane retorted. The rest of the Wonderbolts mulled it over, before Rainbow Dash lifted a hoof.

"Besides these guys, the ones running the military, a pair of newly-recruited soldiers, and Maria? I've seen only three other ponies outside of the Aerie who can say they've gained their cutie marks," Rainbow answered, frowning. "And they kept theirs hidden under clothes."

"And who would these three individuals be?" High Winds asked.

"Well, they're Matt's biological folks. A mother, a father, and an uncle. I asked them if they got their cutie marks while I was passing them during lunch hour, and they said they did," Rainbow answered. "And stars and swords seem to run in the family, so…"

"Swords and stars?" High Winds pressed, turning to Rainbow. "Alright, who has what?"

"Matt's dad has the sword cutie mark, and it seems standard—a blade, upright, looking like it's carving a trail in the ground," Rainbow said, wings fluffing slightly. "But it's actually making a fissure in the ground. He's really good with his earth pony magic—just hasn't had a chance to do much with it lately, if I'm right. His mother has a black-and-white ball, with two dots in it, with the white half surrounded by shadows and the black half surrounded by light. I don't get what it means, though."

"And the uncle…?" High Winds pressed.

"Shield bearing a star," Rainbow answered with a shrug. "He might be good with defensive spells or something; I didn't stick around long enough to pepper them with more questions."

"... it would seem that sowing some form of carnage runs in Matt's family," Spitfire said dryly. "Did they say anything about how they obtained their marks?"

Rainbow shook her head. "They said they'd tell us, once the party's over," she answered.

Spitfire nodded. "And based on everything else I am hearing lately, how they obtained their cutie marks probably isn't a happy tale," she said, frowning at the thought. "Did they confirm the marks to be obtained recently?"

Rainbow shook her head. "Eight years ago, around the same time Matt and Natalie got their marks," she answered. "Most I heard otherwise was that it was the same incident that both groups were in."

"... and why did you include Natalie in the group?" Spitfire asked, turning to Rainbow with a raised brow.

"Well, Matt's folks adopted her," Rainbow answered with another shrug. "She was a baby when they found her."

Spitfire chewed on that information as she did likewise for her plate of food. "... and lemme guess, she picked up on the family penchant for mayhem?" she asked.

Rainbow wilted, but nodded. "Yeah, but… truth be told, I'm willing to bet they weren't expecting her to become an alicorn," she said.

Spitfire's brow climbed even higher. "She ascended," she said bluntly.

Rainbow nodded. "Said so herself," she affirmed.

High Winds sighed. "It seems Lady Fate's been acting weird on Fantasia," she noted dryly.

Misty Fly nodded. "Tell me about it," she agreed.

Spitfire finished her slice of pie, and waited for the rest of her crew to finish their food as well. Once everypony had their fill for the night, she turned to Rainbow Dash. "And I presume… you've learned about how Matt and Natalie obtained their cutie marks?" she asked, causing the other Wonderbolts to turn to Rainbow as well.

Rainbow bitterly nodded. "In fact, I've seen Matt's talent in action," she confirmed. "Their cutie mark story… it's not a happy one."

"Why do you say that? Did they wind up killing ponies with their special talents? It can't be that bad, right?" Soarin asked, smiling in jest at first. Then his smile fell when he noticed Rainbow had maintained her unhappy look. "... you're not joking, are you?" At her mute headshake, he decided to brace himself. "Alright, I'll bite: what happened?"

"Well…" Rainbow looked at Fleetfoot. "Did Matt mention anything to you about something called the Royale Catastrophe?"

Fleetfoot nodded. "Not much, but he did say he ran into very stubborn ponies that wound up dying, and it had to do with how he obtained his cutie mark," she affirmed. "So what exactly went down?"

"Buckle up, everypony, because it's not a happy tale…" Rainbow began, pausing to consider something. She added, "And don't try to spoil the party when I tell you this, okay?" At their nods, she sucked in a breath to continue with her unsavory findings. She relayed the information quietly enough to not ruin the mood of the party, but loudly enough so that her Captain and seniors and fellow cadet could hear her clearly.

Spitfire blinked once Rainbow concluded the tale. "Whoa… and to think that the school report was exaggerating with the giant swords…" she muttered, partially awed, partially horrified, and partially feeling stupid for thinking those details were a flight of fancy made to embellish on Fantasian events.

"Yeah," Rainbow agreed with a nod. "These guys? They're freakishly strong—they have to restrain themselves to keep meteors from raining on ponies' heads." She shook her head. "And when you're packing that much firepower, it's best to be careful." She sighed. "If we do end up whipping up the supercell, we'll have to be careful to not let any magic surges join in on those festivities."

Spitfire nodded. "I'm glad to have been informed of this now, rather than later," she said dryly, turning back to the festivities as Maria showed Lance her new candy stash, put into a bag by Pinkie for safekeeping. Lance smiled and patted his child on her head. "So we might have to rework our training a little to account for this, as well as Maria's raw strength."

The Wonderbolts nodded, and allowed themselves to relax now that Rainbow had brought this to their attention. "But how are we going to account for the raw strength?" High Winds asked.

"Simple: we pull them aside, and train them separately to prevent future accidents. If we need to, we'll set up a temporary cloud base here for that purpose," Spitfire answered, taking a sip of some tea. She turned to Rainbow and asked, "Also, is there more of this tea available? I quite like it."

Rainbow grinned at her superior. "I think Anna might be making more of it; I'll see if it's ready," she said, getting up from the table and taking to the air, being careful to not knock the table or its plates over with her wingbeats. She darted off quick as a whip, and returned a minute later with a fresh jug of tea.

"Several more pitchers?" Spitfire asked, smiling in amusement.

Rainbow nodded. "Enough for the whole party," she confirmed, moving to set the pitcher on the table for anyone who wanted it. Spitfire poured herself some more tea and took another sip.

"Excellent. I don't think we'll be parched for the rest of this night," Spitfire said, turning to Maria as she channeled mana across her wings and flapped, this time keeping focus on both tasks at once. In seconds, and for the first time, she was airborne, squealing in delight even as she wobbled and tumbled through the air into Lance, knocking him down and making him laugh.

Soarin grinned. "Seems like she figured out flight," he said, watching as Lance rolled over to hug Maria. "She's clumsy, but she's got it down at least!"

Thunderlane nodded, smiling as well. "I remember when Rumble flew for the first time. He was as happy as she is now," he said, pouring himself a glass of tea to nurse at his leisure. "He crashed into me, too." That got the Wonderbolts to laugh, though not at him. He laughed as well, glad that even in spite of the horrors they were being exposed to on Fantasia, they still could find things to laugh about.

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Twilight found herself watching a projection from Andrew after they had retired to the guest rooms, who was relaying its events to her as they happened. At his side were Eve and Bartholomew, both of whom looked solemn. "After the village we were in was razed, and my nephew, niece, and their friends were foalnapped along with their agemates, we went to try and save them, and find out who was behind the whole thing," Andrew said, as the projection showed him twisting and turning through innumerable trees from his eyes.

"Yes, but this still doesn't answer my question of how they got out of that colosseum," Twilight said dryly.

"I'm getting to that," Andrew said, a mite snappishly. "We tried asking around towns after surviving the surprise attack on our village, but nopony offered any directions, so… we had to improvise. Eventually, we found where we needed to be, having found tracks of the kidnappers." The projection halted briefly, then warbled as it seemed to snap forward in time, shifting from a forest to a cliffside overlooking a heavily forested area, at the center of which lay a colosseum. "We had only barely gotten there, and were tired, but unwilling to make camp for the night—we could tell something was wrong."

The projection showed red bolts of magic—two, to be precise—launching upwards into the sky, from the center of the colosseum. The distant crowd was shouting, but all noise died down when a portal to Hell itself ripped open in the sky, from which came the giant blades that not even Twilight herself could stop. Orbiting them were star-shaped meteors of flame, shedding feather-like motes that crackled ominously.

In the projection, Eve fell to her knees, eyes wide with horror. "No…! It's… no…!" she stammered, despair shining in her eyes, even as they radiated black mist.

"What is it?!" Bartholomew asked in the vision, turning to his wife.

"The vision… the vision I saw when he was born… it's coming true!" Eve replied, pupils shrinking as they beheld the terror that was Ragnarok.

A hoof lanced out in the projection, gesturing to the impending apocalypse. "Y-you mean—?!" Andrew yelled in the projection. Eve gravely nodded.

"Destiny… she has come calling," Eve said, before standing up and looking at her companions. "We can't leave them. But from this point on… we won't be able to intervene otherwise, if Destiny is to run her course. If we are to act… we have to do so now."

Twilight turned to Eve as silence hung in the relayed memory. "... how far did you see into the future, when Matt was born?" she asked.

Eve frowned. "A little further than most—up to the defeat of Akron," she confirmed.

Twilight turned back to the relayed memories as Bartholomew spoke within them again. "We gotta move now—we can't let them die," he said firmly.

"Then it's settled: we get those kids out, at all costs," Andrew said, even as he shuddered upon beholding Ragnarok. At that point, in the distance, the crowd of the colosseum began to scream in abject, absolute terror. The projection lifted from the cliff's edge, and raced towards the colosseum as the first sword of the volley dropped onto the stadium. Dust obscured vision within the memory, and it halted in movement save for the cloud that had kicked up.

Despair consumed Twilight as she watched the blade come so close to the mobile shadows making up Andrew's form in the memory, before it halted at the hilt. The memory moved around the blade, trying to seek a way into the colosseum, when a burning meteor dropped to melt stone into slag and a fraction of the ponies making up the crowd into glass. The second sword followed, slicing the other side of the colosseum with prejudice, the two weapons forming a crack in the middle between them.

Through the dust cloud, Andrew and his group charged via shadows. Once on the ground, they were met with the horrifying sight of felled ponies, many of them foals in cages, and adults with mutilated and burned flanks charging towards the middle. Waves of fire washed out, golden metal flashed, and shadows raced out to kill them and keep them at bay. In the center of the mess were three foals, marks shining on their flanks and one of them sporting a freshly-grown pair of wings. "At that point, we found Matt, Natz, and Lazarus, killing ponies with impunity," Andrew said, shaking his head. "We stepped out of our shadows to try to help, but…"

The last of the mutilated adults fell by way of fire, choking on the smog and embers. Afterwards, the three children looked around with wide, angry eyes, wondering if anypony else was going to try their luck at killing them. "Well, they took care of it. But we still had to get them out before their own magic could do them in," Andrew said, as the memory approached the bloodstained, ash-covered children. "At the time though, we didn't have our cutie marks ourselves…"

The memory showed a pair of maroon hooves reaching out to hug the younger Natalie. She began to wail in the embrace. "U-uncle Andy! B-bad ponies… made us… they made us kill…!" she sobbed, her ranting quickly turning incoherent as her wings snapped open.

"L-look out!" the younger Matt cried, causing the projection to jerk skywards, revealing a massive blade merely moments away from touching down on them all. It shuddered, and then shadows raced out to form a star-marked shield that only just prevented the tip of the impossible weapon from slicing into the ground. It strained, and cracked in seconds.

"We gotta get the kids, and get out of here!" Andrew barked in the memory. "Whatever my magic's doing, it can't hold!" The projection turned to the other children, whom Eve and Bartholomew were scooping up onto their backs alongside their weapons. Eve scooped up Natalie and her weapon in her shadows, and was prepared to leave Andrew behind when a meteor shot to the sword, with enough force to knock it away into another part of the stadium. In doing this, the shield cracked, and the projection flickered as ash and dust kicked up.

"As you can see… it was a near thing, that little risky ploy," Andrew said, sighing. "That was my first magic surge since I was a foal, and it saved my hide then." The memory flickered, then shifted to reveal a pale-gray earth pony stallion galloping up to the group, about as tall as Bartholomew himself. Despite the heat of the flames, a chill emanated in Twilight's soul upon seeing the scabbard-wearing pony.

"What are you doing here, Somnus!?" Andrew demanded in the memory.

"I wasn't expecting to see you three here… but seeing you here would make sense," Somnus answered, wearing a cheery smile that showed teeth.

"What do you mean?" Eve asked.

"I wasn't expecting you three to survive the attack on Midnight Hollow," Somnus replied, still wearing his obliviously cheery expression. "After all… you're the type to carefully watch your foals, right? Not like all those other blowhards that called that little backwater village home."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Andrew hissed. "Why are you here?"

Somnus' smile widened, showing more teeth as his eyes narrowed. His cheer was now gone, replaced by a veneer of hate and happiness that twisted to show malice. "'Why am I here,' he asks. Well… if you must really know, I was doing what was natural—enforcing the order of the world! It was such a shame your little village of Midnight Hollow had so many foals seeking to break the order!" Somnus replied, glaring at the group. "Cutie marks… they're an irredeemable sin, a mark of hubris. They must be done away with entirely! The fact that your foals and their little friend wanted their marks shows just how hopeless you are!"

"Y-you were scouting our village… to kill our children and their friends because they wanted their cutie marks?!" Eve cried, horror painting her features as the projection twisted in her direction. By that point, Lazarus had passed out on her back, and she had deposited Natalie on Andrew's back with her shadows. "What is wrong with you?! Didn't anypony tell you what happens when Lady Fate is denied?!"

"Lady Fate has no power here! She is but a figment of a past that deserves to be buried and damned!" Somnus argued, stomping a hoof as he pulled a sword from the scabbard on his body.

"Did you know Somnus well?" Twilight asked.

Andrew bitterly nodded. "We… we considered him a friend. Natalie didn't like him much, she said she had bad feelings about him when we took that photo…" he answered. "To find out he was really ordering a hit on Midnight Hollow… well, I think you'd find our reaction understandable."

Bartholomew took the blade Matt wielded in his mouth, looking grimly at Somnus. "But… you were… you were a friend! How could you do this?!" Eve cried, her horn sparking, only to dim briefly as she sent Lazarus' spear to the ether.

"We were never friends! I would never consider myself fortunate enough to have met clueless parents that didn't adhere to the order of things!" Somnus hissed, before charging towards them. His blade clashed with Bartholomew's borrowed one, and the crazed stallion was thrown back with ease.

Hurt flashed in Bartholomew's eyes as he charged in the memory, his hoofsteps cracking the ground in his wake. Former friend or not, all he seemed to see now was something that had threatened his children—something that would need to be killed to ensure their safety. Both stallions faltered when another burning meteor proceeded to melt more stone and panicking ponies behind them, impacting the ground with the force of an earthquake.

"You've killed children here! Children! Helpless, scared children!!" Bartholomew shouted through the hilt of his borrowed blade. "And you would've killed my son! My adopted daughter! Their friend! You've killed their other friends and agemates! What possessed you, you monster?!"

"I am no monster—for I am ensuring that nopony will be able to rise above their masters, when their masters resurface! We are but the remnants of a fallen race, and we should all be subjugated for the betterment of Fantasia!" Somnus argued as he stood up, putting his blade between his teeth. Rage flashed in his eyes, alongside malice. The flames roiling behind him made him appear as though he had crawled from Hell itself, silhouetting him in burning white and orange.

Somnus charged, and would have cleaved Bartholomew's head off had Eve not raced to intervene with her shadows, shoving him back towards the flames. "I see now how you three survived the razing of Midnight Hollow… no matter, I'll kill you all here and now!" he cried, charging once more with purpose. He was deflected by another star-marked shield, which pushed him back to keep him away from the foals. All faltered once more as another sword took out another side of the half-melted stadium. Even now, screams continued to echo around them, from thousands of still-living ponies gripped in terror and agony without any seeming end.

Somnus reared up onto his hooves, channeling magic through them that he then willed through the ground itself. Cracks formed in the ground, before stalagmites erupted from them, forming at a breakneck rate and racing to impale Eve through her stomach. Her horn flashed, and she willed her magic through the ground to halt the attack with a volley of crystal stalagmites of her own. Both volleys shattered against one another, but this left her open to another charge from Somnus, which she barely deflected with a hoof and a hard shove. A burst of fire shot out from Natalie, which manifested into a ball that was sent hurtling towards the crazed stallion.

Somnus deflected the fire with a wall of earth that he channeled into existence. The dirt turned to soot and fell at his hooves. He reared up and sent more stalagmites out, this time spreading them out to assault everypony at once. Bartholomew galloped out of the way, and Andrew blocked the ones heading for him with a shield that protected his stomach. Eve grappled with the ones sent after her, her eyes pooling shadows as she struggled against them. But before the stallions could move to bail her out, her magic pulsed through the earth and grappled with that of her adversary's.

The stalagmites melted into light and shadows, intertwining in an intricate dance with dust swirling around their masses. Light built on Eve's flank as she sent her retaliation out, raining light and shadow on Somnus, who galloped out of the way. Bartholomew channeled his magic through the earth, stomping more than a few times with his front hooves to send stalagmites of his own in response. Somnus waited until one was about to impale him, then positioned his hoof so he could launch off of it instead, blade angled and glinting in the flames as it clashed with the borrowed sword once more.

Both stallions were locked into a stalemate, before Somnus channeled his magic again, cracking the ground and causing a fissure to start emerging beneath Bartholomew's hooves. Somnus grinned wickedly, eyes flashing with malice as he regarded a pony he had fooled into thinking he was a friend. Bartholomew retaliated, using his magic to try and keep the fissure from widening. "Embrace death, and let Fantasia be sundered by its masters… Lady Fate has no power here. I've defied her since I was a foal, as have my family before me," Somnus said through the handle of his blade, sounding gleeful at the prospect of death to come.

"You're foolish! You're just trying to justify your crimes through nonsense!" Bartholomew retorted, shoving Somnus back successfully. The fissure widened when he did this, and it caused his hooves to start spreading. He saw what was happening and hopped away from the fissure, which started to trail a crack towards another one of the massive swords impaled in the ground.

"But is it nonsense, or truth? You see it one way, and I see it another way!" Somnus retorted, grinning as Bartholomew stomped his hooves, about to charge again. He reared up to make another fissure, when Bartholomew put his borrowed blade into his hooves, channeled his magic through it, and stabbed the ground to do so first.

Somnus darted out of the way before Bartholomew's retaliatory fissure could swallow him. Another sword dropped into the ruined colosseum, followed by another meteor; dust and ash teamed up to obscure the crazed stallion, save for his fire-carved silhouette, and the screams began to die off into an eerie silence. He charged towards Andrew once more, only to be pushed back by another shield. Light and darkness danced, and landed the first solid hit of the battle, sweeping into Somnus' legs and knocking him to the ground.

But Somnus got right back up before any of them could capitalize on his prone stance. He charged once more, aiming for Eve, who stepped aside with her shadows to carry herself and Lazarus to safety. "I will kill you all first, and then those worthless colts you're protecting!" Somnus proclaimed, galloping once more towards Eve. "And as for the filly… I'll keep her alive, but make her wish she'd have died instead!"

Eve's face hardened. "As long as I am still breathing, you will not touch a hair on their heads anymore, you maniac!" She summoned the borrowed spear. "You've got to get through us first!"

Somnus made to strike, but was parried and shoved away, the metal sparking and screeching as it was deflected. Eve then turned around to kick him in the face with her hinds, sending him staggering back, but not dislodging the blade from his grip. She whirled back around and smacked him with the blunt end of the spear, pushing him back even further before he turned around and kicked in turn, causing her to stagger as she got a hit right in the jaw.

Bartholomew moved to step in, coming up behind Somnus with the intent to cleave him in two. He saw the massive shadow, felt the massive hoofsteps approaching, and ducked out of the way, turning around to punch him in the face to get him to back off. He sent out another wave of stalagmites through the earth, causing the pair to retreat a few paces. Andrew came charging with his shield before him, hoping to mow down the crazed stallion, but Somnus backed away from all three of them to get some breathing room. He sent another wave of stalagmites to further dissuade them from getting too close to him, forcing them to dodge the attack once more.

Another sword impaled itself into the crumbling colosseum. All swayed where they stood, but held firmly to the ground even as it began forming more cracks in the soil than they could count. Now, the screams had died completely, leaving the ash, smoke, and slag as the only company of the combatants. Amidst the flames and carnage, Twilight could hear a weak "D-daddy… take me home…" from Matt as he finally succumbed to the mana drain.

Somnus cackled. "But his home is destroyed—the miserable misfit has no place to go now! No town will take him in! No town will house him or his little, stupid friends!" he howled, eyes shining with manic mirth. "But they might take the filly away from them, to use as they see fit! I'll be surprised if that little bitch isn't making money on her back when she grows up!"

Bartholomew shook his head, glancing back at his son to see his shadows revert to hair. Then he looked to Natalie, having passed out on Andrew's back. Then he turned to Eve, who briefly checked on Lazarus. Renewed fury sparked in his eyes, and he clenched the blade in his teeth even tighter now. If they let Somnus walk away from this, he seemed to realize, then he could threaten the children… no, he could threaten all of Fantasia in the future with his raging idiocy.

That was a risk none of the sane adults could take. They nodded as one. It was time to end this.

Bartholomew hardened himself, and turned to his son once more. "I can't quite do that… but I will ensure you're all safe before the night is over. I promise you that this maniac will die before he hurts you again!" he promised, turning back to Somnus as he charged. Blades clashed once more, and this time it was a flurry of motion as the blades repeatedly struck, hoping to score a hit against the other's wielder.

Andrew charged once more, pushing Somnus away from Bartholomew. "Even if no town will accept them, we'll make sure they're okay! Your sick schemes end here!" he declared, conjuring his shield and using it to hit Somnus upside the head. Eve charged from the other direction, the spear she borrowed already raised to end this, but Somnus twisted in her direction to deflect it with his blade before summoning more stalagmites to send the three back.

Eve found herself standing dangerously close to white-hot flames as she dodged, her shadows dissipating as they wafted off of her body. "Eve! What are you doing?! You know we're weak to strong light!" Andrew barked. "Get away from the hellfire!"

Eve said nothing, instead waiting for Somnus to hear that. He grinned and charged at her, blade raised to end her in an instant. At the last possible moment, she flicked the borrowed spear and deflected the blade, sidestepping at the same time to let Somnus' charge carry him the rest of the way. He screamed as he went skidding headfirst into the flames, his blade clattering to the ground as hellfire raced to consume him. In an instant, he was reduced to charred, screaming muscle, and then in the next he found himself unable to even crawl out as he collapsed, further reduced to what was less than ash-struck bones that were blissfully silent.

Yet, it was not over somehow. A scream came from the bones of the fallen children, a unified howl that sent chills down Twilight's spine as the bodies spasmed and clattered, fire swirling around them to reform into into pony-shaped entities with various colors of eyes that melded into a uniform red against twin backdrops of black. Their cutie marks burned into place on their flanks, flickering in fire of different colors to give them a general shape.

The same happened to Somnus, as another body was forged from his bones and moved to stand once more, now wreathed in the very flames that had consumed him. "I will not perish to the follies of cutie marks and hubris!" the flame specter declared in his voice, marching towards the three adults who dared to defy him with grim purpose. He stomped on the ground, causing a fissure to open beneath him as it spread to the three who continued their defiance. He hovered in the air, no longer constrained by petty things like gravity and physics, as if his own hatred kept him aloft somehow.

"He's turned into a fucking wraith… what's it gonna take to put him down?!" Bartholomew cried, backing away slowly along with his wife and brother-in-law.

"I don't know, and I don't wanna find out!" Eve argued, contemplating their odds. She and Andrew pulled themselves into shadows, and then Bartholomew and the children into the masses of shadows as well, preparing to high-tail it out of there. "We can't take him on now! It's us or him, and it's gonna be him!"

Somnus' wraith smiled wickedly, flames roiling around him as he cackled. He began to burn brighter, and started hovering closer to Eve and her group as they backed away in unison. "Your folly ends here, you miserable blind miscreants! Soon all of Fantasia will succumb to its masters, and I shall rejoice!" He looked around, and noticed the smaller wraiths all turning in unison towards him.

"You won't get the chance, you awful pony! You will fall like we have fallen!" the child wraiths declared in unison, as they all galloped towards Somnus' wraith, and piled on him as the fissure he opened up spread beneath him.

One of the child wraiths turned to the surviving adults. "Run! Save yourselves!" she ordered, before joining the pile to keep Somnus from moving. Somnus struggled, and managed to knock some of the child wraiths off before more came to replace them. The fissure beneath them widened as the smaller wraiths struggled to pull Somnus into the ground.

Somnus shook them off, only for them to latch on once more. "Why do you continue to defy the natural order, you ignorant whelps?! Why do you fight, instead of accepting death and damnation?!" he demanded, as more continued to grab onto him to pull him down into his grave.

"Because you're a horrible pony, a foal-killer! If we're going to hell, then you are too!" the child wraiths answered in deafening unison, keeping their hold with all of their might. Somnus screamed and pulled, but more and more child wraiths piled on, immobilizing him under their blazing hooves. The fissure widened, now big enough to swallow them all up, and the child wraiths pulled him down, down, down into the earth, his screams echoing as he was dragged to his doom and damnation.

As soon as he was taken care of, the three heeded the command in order to carry the surviving children to safety. Away from the crumbling colosseum they went, aiming skyward to behold the horrible sight of a forest set ablaze, reducing straight to ash instead of charcoal. Smoke clouded everything beyond the height of the wrecked colosseum, and swords had carved into the earth at a wider radius than they thought. The fire showed no signs of stopping anytime soon, but the swords had, diminishing into harmless embers as they left innumerable gashes in their wake.

The projection flickered as it weaved through the flames, trying to seek shelter before the ponies using shadows would choke on the fumes. "We had to find shelter, and soon… but we didn't know where to start looking," Andrew said, frowning as the projection began to dart around frantically, still weaving through smog and fire desperately. It took a few long, desperate moments before a lucky break was found at the bottom of the cliff they had left; there was a cavern, untouched by smoke, which the projection darted into without delay.

The cavern meandered down a few meters at a slope, but at the bottom lay a shallow pool of water and a bastion of dry land that the shadows resolved upon. Three out-cold foals were laid on the dry land, their weapons laid down next to them. Eve checked for pulses, and once she confirmed them, she conjured blankets to tuck them in for the night. As soon as that was done, she began to write something down on a piece of paper using only her magic. "We have to let them know we're okay, and that we're sorry we weren't there for them sooner," Eve said, to which Bartholomew and Andrew didn't argue.

"Where do we go from here? They might die if we leave them like this," Andrew said.

Eve shook her head as she finished writing her note down, and laid it within reach of the newly cutie-marked children. "If my vision is coming true… they'll be alright," she replied. "In fact… they may be the key to setting everything right on Fantasia."

"... are you sure?" Bartholomew asked, worry creasing his brow.

"I'm certain. I have faith in Lady Fate," Eve answered, before the projection cut off.

"... you think Lady Fate intervened somehow?" Twilight asked.

Eve nodded. "If anything, she gave them that last push into that magic surge… she might have intervened for us as well," she answered. "Which means… she might have set everything into motion."

"... do you know why she would do that?" Twilight asked.

Eve shook her head. "I wish I did," she answered. "I couldn't tell you either way." That left Twilight unsatisfied, but then that got her thinking on something.

Twilight pulled out the book with the myriad of alterations. "Do any of you know about a pony named Starswirl the Bearded?" she asked.

Eve's eyes widened. "We've… we've heard much about him, but none of it was good," she answered. Then she looked at the book and paled. "Wh-where did you…"

"While I was in Equestria," Twilight answered. "But the book is almost impossible to read; do you two know who did this?" She opened it and turned to a ruined page.

Eve gravely shook her head. "We do not," she confirmed. "In fact… we heard that before the barrier was put up, somepony got a hold of that book and ruined it before giving it back to Starswirl…"

"Do you know who?" Twilight asked.

Eve shook her head again. "I wish I could tell you," she said gravely. "But since the book is now out and about… I'd like to think the saboteur is gonna reveal themselves soon…"

"How soon?" Twilight asked. Eve shook her head, and didn't answer, which worried Twilight immensely. The lack of forthcoming answers began to frighten her, and she began to ask herself: what did the saboteur want to keep hidden from the sister worlds, if they were willing to sabotage Starswirl's book?

None of the answers she could conjure were good ones. None of the answers she could conjure boded well for Fantasia. None of them ignored Somnus' insane ramblings from the projection, talking about Fantasia's former 'masters,' whoever they were. And he probably did not mean Godcat and Faust, much less this Akron fellow that she had been hearing more about as of late.

Who, then, was Somnus talking about? What was he talking about? And did it have anything to do with the miserable state of Fantasia?

Chapter CVI—Experimental Weather

The next morning, as breakfast rolled around and everyone sat in the mess hall, Twilight was talking with Matt, Natalie, and Lazarus before one of them went off on her training regiment. She had with her the family photo that the aforementioned pony undergoing the training regiment had grimaced in, and was glancing back between her and the photo. "So… I heard about this Somnus fellow… and not many good things about him," Twilight said, before looking at Natalie. "Why didn't you like him?"

Natalie shrank in her seat, just a little. "Every time he was around, I got a bad feeling about him… he tried to get me alone with him a few times, and only managed it once before the photoshoot…" she answered.

"... what did he say?" Twilight pressed.

"He said something about putting me with big stallions that could lead me by my snout if I didn't stop harping on about the cutie mark nonsense… and at the time, I… didn't know what he meant, even though I had hit puberty the week before. That, and… puberty was still making me feel funny, which I didn't really like," Natalie answered, her wings drooping with her reply. "I told Mom and Dad afterwards, but…"

"They didn't believe you," Twilight finished, filling in the blanks. "Or at least, acted like they didn't, since he was around." Natalie glumly nodded.

"Although, the fact that he didn't put his hooves on me might have helped his case," Natalie added, shuddering. "They did sit me and Matt down to have the talk when Somnus left afterwards, and told us what we needed to do in case someone wanted to take advantage of us, and what to do if we found ourselves in… awkward hormonal situations."

"... and what happened, before the colosseum you were dragged in was turned into mulch?" Twilight pressed.

"... a few elderly stallions came to the cage I was sitting in, and told me that if I won that batch of 'games,' they'd make an honest mare out of me," Natalie answered, making a face of disgust. "One of them even called me the prize pig of the lot… and they also said I didn't need to worry about friends or anything like that, if I fell 'under their care.'" She shivered, and stuck her tongue out as she made an elaborate gagging motion.

Twilight turned a little green around the gills hearing that. She forced her protesting stomach to calm down, and then turned to Matt and Lazarus. "And what about you two?" she asked.

Matt sighed. "Told us both that if either of us won, they'd make us join their stupid order of anti-cutie-mark enforcers," he answered. "I bit the hock of the one that reached into my cage when he tried to touch me."

"And I broke that same pony's gaskin, when he tried prodding me," Lazarus added, his gaze distant and unfocused. "It's not my fault he was old and crusty."

Twilight nodded. She turned back to Natalie. "And did the colosseum have any… storage areas for the so-called 'prize pigs' of earlier 'games?'" she asked.

Natalie nodded, a haunted look forming in her eyes. "They took me to see it before that most recent batch of 'games' started, and… they had fillies all the way up to older mares, without legs, vocal chords, eyes, or teeth…" she answered, shuddering again. "Each flank was mutilated, as well as their… unmentionables, and… they were all crying incoherently. Some were pregnant, too…"

Twilight almost retched, but reigned herself in time. "... did you check and see if…"

Natalie nodded. "The next day, I checked to see if… they were still around somehow. They… they came back as flame wraiths," she affirmed. "And… they regained their ability to speak, and to walk… and they had a lot to rant and scream about." Her gaze grew distant. "Their… captors came back as wraiths, too. Seeing them fight, with the mares coming out on top… it wasn't a pretty sight. I ran back to Matt and Laz, and told them what I saw, and we just hauled ass out of there…"

An understandable reaction, Twilight surmised. "Did the captors notice you?" she asked.

Natalie shook her head. "They were too busy getting the shit kicked out of them," she answered. "We didn't stick around long enough to see if the wraiths would come after us next."

Twilight decided to change the subject. "And how did you regard your wings back then?"

Natalie turned to her wings and sighed. "I… didn't have any opinions for, or against them… except that they were really itchy and I didn't know how to preen the damn things to save my life," she answered. "Funnily enough, Matt figured it out first, and showed me how to do it."

"I sneezed my ass off doing that, though," Matt said, a slight grin coming onto his features. "But if I had itches like that, I'd have hated them too." His smile fell a moment later. "And it was a good thing I found that abandoned bear den to hide in with the others; the assholes chasing us did not want to give us a moment's peace."

"And what did you do, when you had a moment's peace and quiet?" Twilight asked.

"Well, after I realized that my shadows could conceal us as long as there were overhangs, underhangs, and everything in between that could cast shadows, we had a real easy time hiding…" Matt blushed, a motion followed by the other two. "Puberty… made things awkward. I'm honestly glad Mom thought to teach us that emergency spell…"

"I'm glad you guys taught me that spell, too," Lazarus muttered, sinking in his seat as he went red to the ears and the tip of his horn.

"Contraceptive," Natalie mouthed to Twilight. Twilight nodded, and decided to not make the conversation any more awkward.

"And did the ponies chasing you follow you by the smell of your…" Twilight trailed off.

Natalie nodded. "Like clockwork, every time the heat came, until they stopped," she affirmed bitterly. "And the shadows… we found they didn't hide smells that well… we had to…" She pantomimed a series of weird motions with her hooves. "To make them stop following us because of the scent…"

Twilight was now both green and red at the same time. It made for a very weird brown shade on her face. "... and did you have to get creative with your hiding places?" she asked.

Matt nodded, also red to the ears and tip of his horn as he began sinking in his seat. "One time, we hid in a hole attached to a cliff. It had a little crevice we could sleep in," he answered. "Bastards couldn't find us, because they only saw the cliff from the top, not from the bottom."

"It… was kinda fun screwing with the assholes, though, with all the racket we made…" Natalie said, also sinking in her seat as her face went bright cherry red as well. "By the time those idiots figured it out, we were already gone." She shook her head. "And no, we… didn't do anything questionable, just made it sound like we were. The looks on their faces were priceless."

Well, at least these three were responsible when they were in their teenage years. Twilight couldn't imagine the headaches that would have resulted if they hadn't been responsible. "And what did it take for them to stop chasing you? In fact… how did they learn what to look for?" She shook her head. "I mean, I heard about wanted posters and such… but I wanna hear it from you guys."

"Well… the crowd of ponies that were there that night also became wraiths," Natalie answered, sighing and wilting. Her head came dangerously close to colliding with the breakfast table. "We ran into one of them a week after the Royale Catastrophe, and even though the living ponies were lynching him, he managed to tell that town's mayor about us and what we did. That mayor… well, he saw us watching the lynching, and ordered the town patrol on us, so we ran from their village. Next thing we know, word spread faster than we could travel, apparently."

"... so, there's thousands of flame wraiths potentially running loose, and they couldn't keep their mouths shut," Twilight surmised.

"As for what it took for the anti-cutie-mark enforcers to stop chasing us across Fantasia, well… back when it was just the three of us, we found an abandoned, haunted temple," Natalie answered. "In it were skeleton lich-wyrms, which killed our pursuers, but missed us because we hid in the shadows. In the morning, more ponies came, when the lich-wyrms were asleep, and didn't find us, so they just assumed we died in the temple."

"I… figured out how illusions worked," Matt added, looking somewhat proud of himself as his embarrassment faded from his features. "Had those blowhards fooled easily." He shrugged. "And there were plenty of bones to use in that temple, solely for reference's sake."

An unhappy thought hit Twilight at that moment. "And I am assuming… they went back to easier targets," she guessed.

Matt nodded. "Whole lotta good that did them, when the Trials of Attrition rolled around. The gryphons pretty much wiped them out, but not before they killed the mares in the villages they were still holding out in," he affirmed. "But now, I'm pretty certain that the anti-cutie-mark enforcers are extinct. Haven't heard about them since."

"And the flame wraiths?" Twilight pressed.

"We cleared them out after the Trials, but we had to find them first," Matt answered. "All we had to do was follow the forest fires."

"Including the mares who regained their legs and voices?" Twilight asked.

Matt shook his head. "Those ones, we didn't kill. Though we did have to fight a few of them, because they mistook us for their tormentors at first, whom… they've already killed again," he replied. "The oldest of them called herself Peppercorn, and… we wound up helping her to get her cutie mark without burning her tools down." He sighed. "Once she gained her mark alongside the others, they just… kinda died on their own time. Like… their hatred and despair just went away when they got their marks, and they died happy."

That got the gears of Twilight's brain turning again, and she put a hoof to her chin. "The joy of getting cutie marks postmortem…" she muttered, before turning back to Matt. "Tell me, has the pony population of Fantasia been… decimated, for lack of a better term, since the Trials of Attrition?"

Matt shrugged. "I can't tell you exact numbers, but most ponies that had died during the Trials were ones we couldn't get to in time, concentrated in small villages. And… there's only been three villages total that have been wiped off the face of Fantasia during that time," he answered. "However, Fantasia… doesn't have cities like you do in Equestria. The communities never go past one hundred members, in terms of population."

Frightfully worrying, Twilight mused. Where were the rest of the Fantasian ponies, then? Surely they couldn't have all gone into hiding by now. And while the populations of Whitefall, Goldenbrick, and roughly half of Greenwood were accounted for, on top of the foals from Redpine, that still didn't answer her question. But that also meant that, unless an entire continent suddenly resurfaced like the Crystal Empire did back home, the ponies of Fantasia simply didn't have the resources or numbers for such a city, much less a city-state like the Aerie.

And an entire continent suddenly resurfacing, while possible, was beyond improbable at this rate, simply for the fact that it would require absurdly strong and forbidden magic to manage the feat—like what King Sombra had access to. It also failed to answer the question of where the Fantasian crystal ponies had gone, considering the fact that the only two individuals she had met of that particular tribe were sitting before her, still looking embarrassed over their teenage antics.

And now that Twilight looked closely at Natalie and Lazarus, she noticed that they held quite a few similar features… the same lithe build, the same length of horn, the same muzzle shape with a few minor differences, the same slender cheeks… even the same eyes. Granted, Natalie was a little taller, being an alicorn and all, but still—it did not detract from their similarities at all. Perhaps it was just coincidence, but now something about this revelation bugged the fire out of Twilight. She turned to Lazarus. "Were you also adopted?" she asked.

Lazarus nodded. "When I was five, my birth mother took me to a thick forest, and I wandered for a bit before finding Midnight Hollow," he answered. "Before that, she kicked me in the back of the head to knock me out, and she took off running. I… don't have many memories of before then, I'm afraid."

"Do you remember what she looked like?" Twilight asked.

Lazarus nodded. "Bits and pieces; I remember that she was tall, and in seamstress' garb. As for where we came from, I remember that we skipped quite a lot of villages, and she was rambling on and on about destiny or some shit," he answered. "I couldn't tell you much about my toddler years, but at one point I did hear her say she regretted getting pregnant at all, and that she hated her second pregnancy especially."

Twilight nodded. "Did she tell you what happened to that second pregnancy?" she asked.

Lazarus nodded yet again. "She had punted the baby in a forest somewhere, and said something about hellfire in her vision," he answered. "Can't exactly remember what, though. She just told me that she hated everything before I was kicked—her life, her job, me, my birth father… and that she just wanted to end it all. Why she took me away from all of that, especially after having the second baby, I couldn't tell you."

Twilight sighed, hoping the confession didn't mean what she thought it did. "You and Natalie… you may need to run some bloodwork," she said, an edge to her voice that wasn't there before.

Lazarus raised a brow. "Why do you say that?" he asked.

"... you two might be blood related," Twilight said bluntly. That… caused the pair of crystal ponies to trade glances, eyes widening as her words hit them like an airship.

"She's saying we might be…" Natalie trailed off, paling at the implications.

"And… we did… oh fuck…" Lazarus muttered, looking equally as anemic.

Matt sighed and willed forth his shadows. "I'll take them to get the bloodwork done…" he grumbled, shaking his head. "Hopefully they aren't..." With that, he whisked the pale pair away to sort the matter out, passing along a telepathic message to Spitfire as he departed from the mess hall so that she would know that something had come up.

The morning would drag a little bit longer for Spitfire, before she would hear back from Natalie.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Spitfire and her Wonderbolts had gathered on the steel ring again alongside the soldiers sans Natalie, and her eyebrows had tabled as she looked at Anna, whose head had briefly flashed with a blue aura before she snapped back to awareness. "Alright, who sent you the telepathic message?" Spitfire asked.

Anna sighed. "Natalie, and… she's relieved," she answered. "Relieved, but also disgusted."

"Why's that?" Misty Fly asked.

"Well… she found out she and Lazarus really are related," Anna answered, frowning. "Blood siblings, to be exact."

Spitfire's brow rose. "And how is this…"

"She… engaged in…" Anna summoned forth her wooden wings, then made a series of motions with them which looked weird at first, but promptly clicked in the Wonderbolts' heads when they realized what she was pantomiming with the things. "When they were teenagers."

Spitfire's eyes widened. "... so, she's having to get the puke bucket," she surmised.

Anna nodded, and tucked her wooden wings at her sides. "Pretty much," she answered. "Her and Lazarus both." That made the Wonderbolts collectively gag. "And yes, they had access to a contraceptive spell," Anna added, making their tutors sag in relief at that.

"Will she be able to make it to the training?" Spitfire asked, forcing herself to regain a neutral expression, lest she give her amazed disgust away.

"She'll be heading over here in a bit, once the dry heaving is over," Anna confirmed with a nod. "And given that she ascended and Lazarus hadn't… she's dragging him into the training, too."

Spitfire's brow rose even higher. "She thinks he might have the potential to ascend?"

Anna nodded again. "If she ascended, then yeah… and, it would make sense, anyway," she agreed. "If she can do it, he might be able to as well."

Spitfire nodded. "Alright, we'll wait for the primadonnas to stop having their hissyfit, and then we can move on with today's training," she said. "A unicorn… training for weather practice? This'll be an interesting tale to regale to the cadets back home…" she thought. "Maybe I'll have to let him use his horn, since he doesn't have wings…"

It took a few moments, but a burst of light came from the front row. Rhinoc now stood next to Lance, with the pair of crystal ponies flanking him. "I brought these two numbnuts," he said, shaking his head.

"Do you hold the, uh…" Soarin asked, before trailing off.

Rhinoc shook his head again. "No, I do not, and nor do the other changelings of the Aerie. They simply didn't know at the time, and they were careful about it, so no harm, no foul," he answered. "Just make sure they don't give each other grief." With that, he teleported away to do other things in the Aerie.

Lance sighed, and shook his head. He tactfully chose to not comment on everything he had heard through the grapevine that morning. Instead, he turned to Spitfire. "So, is Lazarus allowed to use his horn?" he asked.

Spitfire nodded. "Unless he somehow ascends, yes," she answered. "But for the purposes of this training, we will try to limit horn usage."

Lance nodded in understanding. "Fair enough," he replied.

"Are horns unfair in weather?" Maria asked, ruffling her wings.

Spitfire turned to Maria and paused. "Well… it's not so much unfair in weather training and usage as it is almost completely unheard of," she answered. "We… don't have many unicorns, if at all, who can say they can manipulate weather in Equestria. Naturally, I would assume Fantasia has the same conundrum on that front."

"And what happens to those who can?" Maria pressed, her youthful curiosity causing her to look Spitfire dead in the eyes as she asked her question.

Spitfire sighed. "... they don't really have a chance to show off their workings, in spell or weather format," she answered. "And cross-tribal magic is so rare, there's only been three documented cases in all of Equestria's history—cases which are long dead by now." She shook her head. "And back then, cross-tribal magic was… heavily shunned."

"Why was it shunned?" Maria continued.

"Well… there were lots of bad ponies at the time, who said that hippogryphs couldn't be born because they hated gryphons, and silly things like that," Spitfire answered, starting to grow uncomfortable with the needling. "They also said that unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies shouldn't marry each other, which… Celestia did her best to stamp out."

Maria glowered. "Sounds like a bunch of idiots," she hissed. "Sounds like they'd say that mommy and daddy can't be together."

Spitfire turned to Lance, wordlessly asking with her gaze who the other parent was. Lance pointed at Anna with a wing and said, "We're technically co-parenting, without all the fuss of marriage. Basically, we're doing the hassle of legal adoption."

Spitfire nodded. "Fair enough," she said, before clearing her throat and picking up the megaphone again. "Now then, this next exercise will require some coordination with your weather. Conjure a cloud before you," she ordered. Everyone did as they were told, except for Lazarus, who kept quiet and lit his horn to try and conjure a cloud. He instead conjured a burst of fire, causing Spitfire to nudge Rainbow in his direction.

Rainbow trotted over and offered Lazarus a weak smile. "Just not that focused today, are you?" she asked. At his mute nod, she patted his back with a hoof. "It's okay, champ, these things happen from time to time. Take a deep breath and imagine what a cloud looks like." He nodded, took a deep breath, and focused his magic, and conjured a cloud after a bit of sputtering effort. It crackled like it was unstable, but otherwise held. She punched it to get it to discharge a bit of lightning, but that was solely to stabilize it. "Sorry; I figured your hoof would've gone right through it, and shocked you," she said. Lazarus nodded again, and Rainbow made to trot back to Spitfire when she received a look from her Captain that told her to stay with the sorry bastard.

Once the clouds were conjured, and stable, Spitfire ordered the next part of their training. "Now then, gather all of the clouds into the airspace behind me and my Wonderbolts. Cram them together into a bigger cloud, and start flying around it in unison. We want to go clockwise for this exercise; those who cannot fly, or have to self-levitate to do so, stand on top of the big cloud once it's formed and watch where the wind blows," she instructed. That got everyone to trade glances, but once more, her orders were understood and heeded accordingly. Maria went first, eager to spearhead this formation, but having recently discovered the wonders of flight only yesterday, she was… unstable in the air.

In fact, once she got herself airborne, mana pulsing across her wings with her movements, she screamed and almost came crashing back down before Soarin raced over to grab her to prevent a future dental appointment. "Easy there, kiddo," Soarin said, smiling. "You gotta take flying slowly—it's hard to master, and you've only gotten the barest grip on the basics."

Maria nodded, wings still flapping as Soarin lifted her into the air with his hooves, keeping her balanced alongside her cloud. Once she got a sense of balance, she parted from his hooves by ascending a little, grinning as she took her cloud to the airspace behind the Wonderbolts. Soarin flew over to keep tabs on her, in case her magic gave out. Lance went next, putting effort into his powerful wingbeats, each burst of energy ruffling Spitfire's mane as he struggled to take off.

Spitfire watched him go, and when he finally got into the air, he tumbled a little before stabilizing. It seemed someone wasn't used to flying all that much. "When was your last major flying session?" she asked.

"Back when things were going to shit in Greenwood, just days ago," Lance answered, holding his cloud in his hooves as he angled his body to effectively get himself heading towards the airspace. "And that was not fun." He glided towards the airspace as instructed, and smashed his cloud with Maria's to make them into one entity.

Spitfire nodded, and opted to take his word for it. Anna, Natalie, and Lazarus went next, all of them having to self-levitate to bring their clouds into the mix. Once formed into a big enough cloud for three ponies, the mares plonked their butts down on it… only for Lazarus to teleport away from the thing and reappear on the steel ring.

Lazarus shook his head rapidly. "Nope, not getting dizzy… already puked once today," he said, looking green at the prospect. Spitfire nodded, willing to cut him some slack.

She turned to check the cloud; it hadn't diminished, probably because Lazarus hadn't poked it beyond the necessary amount. Sarah sighed, rolled her eyes, and went to add her cloud to the growing mass, fluffing it up a little when she thought the masses hadn't merged properly. Katie also added her own, then darted back to the ring and plonked her butt down on the steel. Spitfire cut her some slack as well; she'd have her wings shredded if she even tried to participate in the tornado. As soon as her cloud had been added, the gryphons began to take off in an orderly fashion, adding their clouds in a series of single-file lines to grow their little bout of madness, which began to crackle as more and more clouds were piled on.

By the time the pile was finished, it looked more like a cumulus fortress than anything else. Many gryphons had a burst of inspiration, and had taken turns to forge the thing into windows, balconies, spiraling towers and rooftops, at the height of which sat Natalie and Anna. Spitfire whistled at the sight. "Wow… these guys are good at cloud sculpting," she said, impressed.

Maria smiled at the sight. "Can I sit with mommy in the cloud fortress?" she asked. Spitfire considered the question, realizing that practically all of the adults would fly her wings off and cause her to tumble headlong down below, and then nodded. With a happy squeal the young gryph flew up to sit with her mother at the height of the fortress.

Spitfire nodded and lifted the megaphone again. "Now then, as you fly, try to control the wind itself using your magic," she ordered. "We want even currents, and a visible tornado. The tornado will dissipate once it hits the surrounding mountains, so don't worry too much about property damage." She turned to Anna and Natalie and added, "You three up there, watch for ectoplasms. Kill them as necessary if they bother to try and hijack the fortress." Once she got two flashes of light from a pair of horns to signal their owners' understanding of the command, the gryphons started flying clockwise around the fortress.

Lance and Sarah followed, keeping distance from a few of the gryphons as they worked their own wings into overdrive. Sarah channeled her magic into her wings, willing forth the first gale of wind of the exercise, though her superior did not do likewise, instead waiting for the other soldiers to take the cue. Gryphons of every rank and file summoned forth wind as they swirled around the cloud fortress, which didn't move at first before the air began to revolve around its space, causing it to revolve in turn. It wasn't long before the wind currents became visible to the naked eye, as the cloud began an elegant pirouette in the air, slowly being dragged away from the Aerie all the while.

Spitfire watched hawkishly, her mane wafting in the wind as more and more swirled about the massive cloud. Gradually, the tornado formed, and slowly it revolved faster and faster, until the soldiers making up its mass were blurs of movement and feathers. The cloud fortress crackled ominously, building its charge as the soldiers parted from it to let it spin away into the mountain ranges.

At the same time, Anna teleported herself and the other two off of the top of the fortress, and reappeared on the steel ring, all eyes spinning in their sockets. "Too faaaast…" Anna groaned, sitting on her haunches in the hopes that she could stop the twirling of her eyes.

"Air's spiiiinny…" Maria whined, flopping on her stomach as her world rotated.

"You're telling meeee…" Natalie agreed, swaying in place.

Spitfire watched as the tornado and cloud fortress collided into a mountain, dissipating into thin air with the crash. The mountain was fine, and as it dissipated, the cloud fortress released its discharge, scorching another spot in the plains below, without setting much on fire. She smiled at the sight; perhaps she could whip up the weather patrol on Fantasia faster than she thought, if progress was this fast already.

Although, she couldn't help but wonder… why were the ectoplasms sitting idle now? And what could possibly be running through their little heads up there in the sky?

Chapter CVII—Chariots of Chaos

Author's Note

This will be my first instance of providing a song link in this chapter, weirdly enough. I just could NOT pass it up. For those unwilling to click the link, it's William Tell's Overture finale.

Chapter CVII—Chariots of Chaos

Thunderlane was on map-sitting duty, and watched with a bored expression as the Redpine Flock went outside to graze off their island once more. The volcano hadn't changed much, sagging a little more around the Illicit Instrumentation, as though it were trying to stave off total collapse. Matt was with him, as well as Blue Crow and his squadron. The pipes and vents studding the outside and inside of the volcano, they found, had been stuffed to the brim with asphalt at some point, which burned the metal the longer it sat in those particular holes.

"I'm willing to start calling bets," Thunderlane said, frowning as he smooshed a cheek into a hoof, itself attached to an elbow propped upon the desk.

Matt, boasting a similar expression and posture, glanced up at Thunderlane. "What kind?" he asked.

"Over whether the grand and glorious hobos are gonna start murdering each other before the volcano does," Thunderlane retorted. "Bonus points if their attacks glance at members of their flock with their fighting."

Matt shook his head. "Sorry, betting on military operations is illegal here… or at least, the passing of the money part," he said. "Guesses are fair game, though."

Thunderlane blinked. "Are you serious?" he asked.

Matt nodded. "It's been illegal since the Aerie was built. Professionalism and all that," he affirmed. "Especially since we had to make our own damn bits, system and everything."

"... what do your bits look like?" Thunderlane asked. Matt promptly summoned some money from the ether, and laid it out before him. The first bit was hewn of a gold alloy, reading '1 cent' and bearing the bust of a changeling. The second was hewn of a silver alloy, reading '10 cents' and bearing a gryphon bust, the third was '25 cents' and bearing an equine bust, and the last was '50 cents' and boasting a figure sporting a beak, a changeling's horn, and a pair of pony's ears on its head. This was just for the smaller coins of the batch.

The larger ones proved more interesting; the smallest of them was hewn of a copper alloy, reading '1 bit' and boasting Anna's head on them. The second smallest, also a copper alloy and one bearing Natalie's face, read '10 bits.' The third, silver alloyed-coin boasting Matt's head read '25 bits' and the last, of silver alloy bearing Lance's head, bore '50 bits.' Thunderlane flipped these coins over, and found the other sides studded with the cutie marks of the ponies they represented. There was also a gold alloy '100 bit' coin, with a stylized horseshoe, pair of wings, and unicorn horn adorning it with a picture of the Aerie on its backside.

Thunderlane whistled. "If you guys started trading with Equestria, there might be some confusion over your money," he said, turning to Matt. "We'd have to make a currency conversion rate. Does Fantasia use bits otherwise?"

Matt shook his head. "Nope, the other provinces barter," he answered. "Sometimes, gold and gems can be used as money, though." He turned back to Redpine's projection, and found that already, a fragment of the island had been stripped absolutely bare through grazing alone—in fact, not even the trees' leaves were spared from the assault. "Sweet baby Godcat, the fuckers really are like a locust swarm…" he muttered, shaking his head.

Thunderlane turned back to Redpine as well, and nodded. "Tell me about it…" he agreed.

Blue Crow propped his claws up, and laid his beak atop them as the digits intertwined. "Oh, I am not jealous of these dunces at all… I'm impressed they still have their feathers attached, all things considered," he said, shaking his head. "They probably have Bruce's Jinx as well, seeing as they've kept breeding slaves—wouldn't put it past this miserable lot."

"Bruce's Jinx? How… how common is that, over here?" Thunderlane asked, turning to Matt.

"Common enough, that we had to test Anna and Sarah for it," Matt answered, shaking his head unhappily. "They wish they had it, and would've taken it as a boon for built-in birth control if they did." He sighed. "Natalie doesn't have it, and we have tested to confirm that, so we've just chalked it up to her yet-to-be-found family tree consisting of crystal ponies."

"So… if Anna and Sarah were to want foals, and if they had the Jinx…" Thunderlane paled as he trailed off. Matt nodded.

"Yep, they'd have to go through the bullshit conga line," Matt said unhappily. "And we're testing the villagers of Greenwood now, to see if they have it—a few of our soldiers walked in on a wedding taking place, and… well, there was a conga line present. We want to stamp out that horseshit and punt it into the past, where it belongs."

Thunderlane nodded. "Good attitude to take. During Equestria's early years, Celestia had to do the same thing," he said. "Not the testing part, the stamping it out part." He shrugged. "Her explanation was that it was a curse fueled by hatred and despair, and she couldn't let it fly in the face of harmony."

Matt put a hoof to his chin. "If it's really a curse…" he mumbled, rubbing his chin as gears tumbled in his head.

"Either way, it's good that your magitek can detect it; it'll make phasing it out easier in the long run," Thunderlane said, turning back to Redpine and its antics to see what they were getting up to now.

"True," Matt agreed with a nod.

Red Barrel piped up, peering over Blue Crow's shoulder to watch Redpine as well, "Is it just me, or are those two knuckleheads doing what I think they're doing?" Matt and Thunderlane turned to the grand and glorious hobos, and blushed in unison upon seeing them starting to go at it in plain view of Godcat and everybody. Even worse, the rest of the Redpine Flock sat on their haunches, began hanging in the free and easy, and… started servicing themselves accordingly.

Matt buried his face in his hooves at the sight. "Oh, for the love of fuck… they're trying to make another tin-pot wannabe…" he grumbled in dismay. "As if Lance and his little sister weren't enough for them…"

Thunderlane wanted to look away from the trainwreck, but could not muster the strength to do it. "Suddenly, I am very glad Lance is out there training…" he mumbled, too shocked to be scandalized. Then, he saw Discord popping in over at Redpine again, clapping in glee as he separated the hobos, put chastity equipment on them, and further equipment clamping down on the rest of the Redpine Flock. Somewhere in the distance, and he wasn't sure how, he could faintly hear jovial, and weirdly chaotic classical music playing as this went down. "Do you hear that, or is it just me?" he asked, garnering a nod from Matt as his answer.

Discord vanished once his work was done, and yet somehow, the music kept playing. The grand and glorious whackos turned to regard their chastity equipment, which clamped down on sensitive bits with impunity, and tried to remove their new fittings with hooves, claws, and magic. Once they tried, though, their manes and tails frizzed up and their feathers puffed out as the belts and cages spat out what looked like confetti and candy.

Matt peeked his head from his hooves. "... alright, who cockblocked them?" he asked.

"Discord," Thunderlane answered.

Matt buried his face back into his hooves and groaned again. "... that motherfucker… reminds me of the time he cockblocked me…" he grumbled.

As Matt grumbled obscenities under his breath, the male of the grand and glorious buffoons tried bucking his hips to dislodge the blasted cage. Instead of sending the thing flying, he spasmed in place like he was undergoing an explosive orgasm, and sent out a wave of lightning from his crotch that impacted his partner in crime. As soon as she overcame her shock therapy, she turned to him and started ranting his ears off about being stricken by lightning on a clear day. She was struck again by the rest of the Flock ejecting lightning from their caged crotches, and stood there for a moment, blackened and blinking in indignant shock over how poorly her day was going.

The music gradually rose to a crescendo as fire exploded out of the Redpine Flock's collective rear ends, setting their tails ablaze. Everypony panicked, and raced to stomp the fire out of each other before it could consume the rest of them. It was an intricate dance to see who could put the flames out, without trampling over one another in the process. When the flames were put out, ice grew over everypony's fun bits, and formed into elegant ice sculptures featuring Discord in various salacious poses, many seductive and others grinning evilly as he reclined on various sofas.

Everypony of the Flock freaked out and smashed the ice sculptures with their hooves and claws, looking at their chastity gear in bewilderment. Rose Windmill and Golden Chalice peeked over Blue Crow as well, snickering at the sight they beheld, a motion echoed by Red Barrel. And as soon as the ice sculptures were no more, poison ivy sprouted out of the chaos-infused metal and set to work making everypony hop about in a mad tarantella, frantically scratching as they tried making their unusual STDs stop itching.

Thunderlane winced in sympathy, still unable to look away from Discord's antics. The grand and glorious plotheads made to rip the ivy off of the metal with their mouths—big mistake, they learned all too late as they made to scratch their tongues with one limb, and their crotches with the other. The situation over there was rapidly rising from bedlam to complete anarchy, without seemingly any end in sight. And yet somehow, even then, the geas over the rest of the Flock failed to break to throw the pecking order into total instability.

When the ivy was removed, the metal became red-hot to the touch, and smoke wafted off of cooking flesh. Now, everypony was reduced to screaming, on both Redpine's island and within the office as they beheld the magnum opus, the glorious odious of pain. If Redpine's destruction wasn't assured as a community before, well, now it was since their breeding privileges were being revoked with prejudice. They tried to pry off the metal once more, only to have hooves and claws scorched with impunity.

A bright neon sign lit up over Redpine's sole remaining female, pointing at her specifically with a great big arrow, reading loud and clear: INCESTUOUS FOAL FUCKER! to anyone seeing it. Matt paled at the implications. "Discord's saying that this cunt…" He wilted as he trailed off. "No wonder Lance wants her dead…"

Blue Crow faceclawed. "Akron on a stick, I think I'm going to have to go to the watering hole tonight…" he grumbled, garnering nods from his companions.

Once everyone had read the great neon sign, it came crashing down on Redpine's sole remaining female, shattering into rotten fruits and vegetables as soon as its arrow made contact with her body. A tsunami of such produce erupted from the strike point, drowning everypony in a sea of awful smells and browned pulp. The tsunami spun around as though it were contained in a fishbowl, rising higher and higher until it became a foodnado that launched the Flock skyward. Everypony of the Flock flailed, squawking like scalded chickens, falling back down into the sea of sin and agony that let them have a somewhat cushioned landing back onto ground.

The island, meanwhile, was also coated in rotten produce, which sank into the plants and rendered everything inedible for consumption. The only thing that was spared from the assault was the volcano itself, and even its foot was covered from top to bottom in hot, stinking garbage. The Flock grumbled and rose onto their hooves, noses curling and faces going green at the stench.

"Well, they look as rotten outside as they do inside now…" Golden Chalice said, shaking her head.

"If that chimera fellow keeps this up, we won't have any scraps left for ourselves," Rose Windmill added, frowning at the sight. As if the situation could not get any worse for the denizens of Redpine, ectoplasms swirled above the massive island, all adorned with little snowflakes on their ice-cube-shaped heads as they converged on the continent.

Snow and hail and sleet rained down, not washing away the garbage, but adding to the collective agony as it crashed down with hurricane-like force. In seconds, it piled on, and piled on thick, assaulting the Flock as they scrambled for shelter that would hold against the onslaught. The desolate, long-abandoned town at the foot of the volcano failed to help them, because sprites with cloudy, swirling hair on their heads came onto the island as the Flock approached to blow the town away to its foundations with hectic tornados that sent useless furniture and stinking produce everywhere.

The members of the Flock that were caught in the blustering gales could not fight back; the tornados threw them into the rockface with impunity. Others tried to kick at the sprites, but were blown away with the same horrific force that they abused their late mares with. Matt watched the growing bedlam, frowning. "... Discord got the ectoplasms and elemental sprites to stage a mutiny against these assholes…??" he asked.

Thunderlane shuddered, still unable to look away. "Seems like it…" he said. He noticed the ponies who had been sent flying making to stand up. "... but he's also leaving them alive, somehow…"

Then, as if it could not escalate somehow, the sprites began doing a choreographed dance, little fingers extending from their stubby arms as the rest of their stubby hands curled in on themselves. They bent their lower bodies like knees, formed an arc over their heads with their arms, fingertips touching briefly before light consumed them and swirled around them, exploding in showers of gummy bears and cotton candy to reveal a massive sprite taller than all of the dilapidated houses combined. One punch from the massive sprite sent the rest of the Flock flying with another blustering gale, sending them up into the air to be assaulted with cold and hail-bullets from the ectoplasms up above.

Thunderlane paled. "Do you think we'll have to clear that out when we get there…?" he asked, turning to Blue Crow.

Blue Crow nodded. "If the sprites don't leave, then we'll have to," he answered.

Red Barrel sighed. "I'm starting to pity those poor bastards…" she muttered. "Only a little, though."

"I concur," Golden Chalice said with a nod. "This might be a bit much, even for them."

A sign erupted into existence over Redpine, and it bashed the Flock back down to the ground before its words became visible: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH CHAOS FOR THESE POMPOUS TWITS! Then it turned into a swarm of gummy locusts that went around the continent, eating everything in sight and secreting foul, sugary sewage from their rear ends that arced up into the air and landed back onto the Flock to stain their coats in further sin.

As soon as all the stained greenery was stripped down to the soil by the gummy locusts, they converged over the Flock as if of one mind, and rained stinking sludge on them that the sleet could not wash off. The Flock tried to run away on hoof, only for many members to slip and trip on the grunge, leaving themselves prone to further assault. The grand and glorious idiots were at the head of the formation, galloping frantically and screaming at one another as they were pelted with as much sin as their actions had warranted.

Some sludge got into their mouths, and for perhaps the first time in their lives, they stopped to puke their guts out at the taste. The rest of the Flock did this as well, allowing themselves to be pelted further in liquid, smelly humiliation. As one final insult to their so-called pride and privileges that were afforded to them because of their alicorn status, the massive sprite marched up and picked up the leaders of the Flock by their tails with one massive hamfist, and brought them up to its face to glare at them with all the hatred it could muster in its gaze.

It then spun them by their tails, over its head in a dizzying whirligig that would've put the Dizzitron to shame. The pair of malcontents screamed as they were sent for the cruelest swirl of their lives yet, all the while battering them with the hail and sleet that still rained down on them that also glanced off of their tormentor. Once it was done spinning them, it let go, letting them sail into the volcano's side face-first with what was probably going to be one massive bill for facial reconstruction surgery. As soon as they landed, rocks tumbled over them, seemingly burying them alive.

Then, the sprites, gummy locusts and ectoplasms dissipated of their own will, leaving snow, sugary sewage, and a battered battalion of sodden, injured, and humiliated ponies in their wake. The sun shone on the scene once again, and after a while, the leaders of the Flock managed to muster the strength to shove aside the rocks burying them, the pair of them boasting bleeding snouts and scratched horns as they looked over the mess they now had to clean up.

As soon as the enormity of the catastrophe hit them, which was around the same time the music in the distance finally came to a complete halt, they started griping at one another once more, screaming their ears off instead of doing anything worthwhile to even attempt to fix the mess that lay at their hooves. For a pair that Lance had said would be close-knit, they were displaying signs suggesting otherwise—then again, that closeness must have only been visible when things were going their way, which… for once, they weren't.

Rose Windmill shook her head at the sight, unable to muster even a tiny smile at the chaos she had witnessed. "I'm surprised that Lance didn't turn out like those losers," she said, frowning. "I mean… once we got him out of his geas, he was a completely different pony, aside from the occasional bouts of perviness…" She looked at the desk as a wireless, box-like television set appeared upon it, with a black rectangular reel tape with 'For Lance~' written on the white sticker of its frame. The tape boasted crystals and the sheen of metal in some places, very much like the magitek the Aerie used.

Thunderlane frowned at the anomaly. "... that tells me Discord recorded everything over there…" He turned to Matt. "What do you think Lance's reaction will be?"

Matt shrugged. "Chances are, he'll be too stunned to even comment," he said in response. "That is, if he isn't laughing his ass off."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The rest of the Wonderbolts, and the other Mythonian diplomats for that matter, weren't expecting to watch a recording of Discord utterly screwing with the Redpine Flock in such a way as to revoke their breeding rights without using his bare limbs to do the job as night graced Fantasia. They hadn't expected said recording to have audio of everything that went down, including the bitchfits. They… also weren't expecting Lance to completely keel over laughing once the recording finished, curled up on his stomach with front hooves clutching it, howling like a demented schoolfoal who had been exposed to a bad joke for the first time in their life.

His laughter continued for a solid ten minutes, little breaths taken in between gales of laughter to prolong his amusement. He was pounding and kicking the floor, rolling, flailing his wings and even crying tears of pure joy, he was howling so much. It was as if a giggle ghostie had possessed him, and would not yield its hold on him. None of the diplomats spoke, even as he eventually picked himself up off the floor and wiped at his eyes with his wingtips.

"L-lightning… from their breeding sticks…" Lance wheezed, leaning against his desk for support. "All… hitting that… that fucking cunt…" And it looked like he was working himself up into another gigglefit, sagging against the desk as wheezing laughter escaped him.

Spitfire turned to Natalie. "Did he… give you an entire spiel on what went down at some point?" she asked, somewhat confused.

Natalie grimly nodded. "As… perverted as he is, it… is one of the factors that keep him from…" She pantomimed something with her hooves. Spitfire turned green upon registering her unspoken meaning. "He… can't even…" Natalie shook a hoof in the air, up and down in a highly suggestive manner. "Without losing his marbles afterwards."

Soarin and Thunderlane winced in unison. "That poor bastard," they muttered, turning to Lance as he collapsed on the floor to start another round of laughing his ass off.

Blueblood shook his head at the information. "In that case, we should let his laughter die down first. He obviously needs it," he said.

It took another few minutes for Lance to return to the realm of the current, standing up once more and wiping his eyes on his pastern. "Y-you have no idea h-how much I…" he trailed off as his body reminded him to breathe. Blueblood trotted up to him to pat him on the withers, gently of course; no need to topple over the General when he already was wobbly.

"Trust me, if my father had undergone something as humiliating as what Discord had done to your parents, I'd have had… similar reactions," Blueblood said assuringly. "Of course, that would have required my father to have the same lack of standards as yours did."

Shining sighed. "If my parents had heard about all of this, they'd be chomping at the bit to legally adopt you," he said, looking at Lance squarely. "They hate it when kids get abused to the extent that you did, and… let's just say their reactions to hearing about such things haven't been very pretty."

"Are… are your folks keeping Parliament in line?" Lance asked.

"They're part of the few sane nobles there, so they're trying their best," Shining answered. "Their level of success depends on who lets their reforms pass." He smiled warmly. "But they also help Celestia keep her sanity in dealing with the dunderheads, so there is that."

Lance laughed again, a small laugh, but a genuine one nonetheless as he envisioned himself being adopted by good nobles, and pissing off much of the rest of the nobility that way. "Easy there; you still need your lungs," Shining said, his smile growing.

"Take away all the bad stuff and the geases, and all your meany-pants family is just a bunch of big bullies who never heard 'no' in their lives, silly!" Pinkie said, with a grin of her own. "They'll probably have the biggest tantrum you've seen yet, when we finally show up on their doorstep, and that'll just prove to you that they need to be knocked down a peg—like every bully in the history of ever!"

"Pinkie's right; they're powerless without geases to run the bulk of their army, and even more so, now that they have no food to feed that army with," Twilight agreed with a nod. "Sure, they're still dangerous, but against all of us? They have a snowball's chance in Tartarus." She turned to Natalie. "And I heard something about a Geasbreaker spell… do you think I could copy it, in case you're unable to cast it for whatever reason?"

Natalie summoned her grimoire, a book emblazoned with her cutie mark, and opened it up to a specific spell before handing that over. "I don't see why not; the more ponies learn this spell, the better, in my opinion," she said. Twilight nodded and took the book in her magic, studying the spell intently, even as she noted that it had used a more modern runic system that she could decipher far easier than ancient alicorn.

"Trust me, that was… a spell I thought wouldn't work the first time I cast it," Natalie said, smiling sheepishly. "I only had a day to cobble the workings together, as well as its runes."

"And yet, the spell functioned," Twilight said dryly. "It shows that you know what you're doing with this thing." NoLegs meowed and jumped up to sit on her head, purring away as he watched Twilight study the spell. She glanced up at him. "I assume you had a helping tail in this?" she asked, to which the cat nodded.

Spitfire grinned and turned to NoLegs. "What is he, magical?" she asked, albeit jokingly. NoLegs waved his tail, wreathing it in a blue aura as he conjured a sword and shield of his own. Spitfire's smirk widened as NoLegs made the weapon and protective gear vanish back into the ether. "Welp, now I've seen it all. If we get lucky, we might get a cat as a Wonderbolts member," she said, garnering some laughs from the Wonderbolts.

"Now that I think about it… why hasn't Faust taken away the legs of the Mythonian cats, even though She took away the legs of the Fantasian ones?" Rarity wondered, putting a hoof to her chin as she pondered.

"Maybe Godcat prevented that from happening, though given what we've heard, it might have been a near thing," Twilight mused, even as she worked to translate the runes of the Geasbreaker spell in her head. It helped that there had been helpful diagrams of what the spell looked like in action, and illustrations of what it did when cast upon afflicted ponies. "At this point, we'd have to summon Godcat just to get some answers from Her."

Lance made to sit down on his haunches, and he began preening his wings. "Either way," he said in between mouthfuls of loose feathers, "we might not get answers from the divine hairball right away."

Rarity glanced up at Lance. "Does Godcat mind such language, when She's not around?" she asked.

Lance nodded. "She hasn't smited me yet for it," he answered, pausing to spit out another mouthful of loose feathers at his own hooves. "I assume She's more concerned with the state of Fantasia."

Spitfire nodded. "Would make sense for Her to be more concerned with the state of the sister worlds, as opposed to some name-calling," she agreed. "Also: aren't those things a pain in the plot to preen, with their sheer size?"

Lance nodded, but still tucked in nonetheless. "If I don't, she does," he said, lifting a hoof to gesture to Anna.

Spitfire grinned. "What's so bad about having preening help? Even you can't reach every single spot," she pointed out.

Anna grinned and pranced over, taking hold of Lance's other wing and preening with gusto. She purred as she did so, getting the spots he couldn't so easily reach. Shining sighed. "Welp, now you've got her going… she's going to be doing this for the rest of the night if we let her," Natalie said, shaking her head. She turned to Anna. "Just get the spots he can't reach, and then lay off." She got a nod of understanding, and Anna resumed her work with another purr.

Spitfire shuddered, her smile falling. "Preenus Absentia…" she muttered. She turned to Natalie and elaborated a little, "Equestrian medical term affecting pegasi who no longer have their wings. They… preen others obsessively to abate their own longing for the skies…" She frowned sourly. "Those kids in Redpine, the ones who had their wings cut off? They're going to be suffering from that for the rest of their lives…"

"The same condition that my late wingless servant suffered from…" Blueblood frowned, and shook his head. "Father fired him for it, and watched with glee as he more or less died on the streets afterwards. He said it's the fate that should befall all disabled ponies."

That made Anna jerk her head up from Lance's wing. "And lemme guess, he doesn't count because he's special?" she hissed through a mouthful of feathers.

Blueblood nodded. "Although, your gelding and horn removal might have made him… less special than he thinks himself to be," he said bluntly.

"Honestly: fuck that blighted pompous piece of shit; the more I hear about him, the more I want to turn him into a pincushion," Anna hissed, before resuming her preening of Lance's wings with a purr that somehow sounded upset.

"In your terminology, with the standards you have? I dare say he's unfuckworthy," Blueblood stated, again with that same bluntness.

Shining smiled at that. "At least somepony is telling it like it is," he said.

Lance looked at Shining with a neutral expression. "Lemme guess, the twit hackled you, too," he said.

Shining nodded. "All the way back when I was just a Private in the Guard," he affirmed. "'Nobles shouldn't train to be Guardsponies, they could get killed and end their bloodlines,' 'meme, mememe,' and my least favorite when I managed to get married to Cadence, 'Fighting nobles should be geldings, fit only for death on the battlefield.'"

Lance managed a facehoof at that one. "What kind of mental gymnast is he, a gold medalist?" he grumbled.

"... do you have ranks for that sort of thing?" Shining asked.

Lance unhappily nodded, and parted hoof from face. "Yeah; we have them outlined in our laws and everything, as part of Fantasia's catalog of its rampant idiocy issue," he said. "Bronze medals can be swayed if convinced enough, silver medals might need a punch in the face, gold medals are brick walls and should be treated as such, and platinum medals are kill-on-sight, if they do not somehow off themselves first." He shrugged. "The three stooges would count as platinums, that is, if the other two have not become wraiths already. Even then, I don't think they'll be unliving for long enough to enjoy the perks of it."

"Does this… apply to the uneducated?" Shining asked.

Lance looked at Shining evenly. "We don't have schools here on Fantasia; every single native on this damn planet is in that category in some form or another," he said bluntly. "How else do you think the ponies here were able to keep the cutie markless tradition going for so long anyway?"

Shining flinched as though struck. "Sorry, sorry…" he mumbled.

"The uneducated can still be smart, Shining," Blueblood said, smiling ruefully. "After all: the military here has the most common sense on this planet, do they not?" Shining nodded weakly, unable to argue with that.

"Alright, let's not take anymore jabs at the military's lack of official schools here," Spitfire said, fanning her wings out to redirect the discussion. "Besides, if they had to set up their own system and everything, they have the means to sort out the schooling situation at a later time."

"Yeah, we're still kinda having to hold that off anyway," Lance agreed with a nod, shifting a bit to let Anna move to his other wing. "We still have a few things to sort out before schools can be built."

Spitfire nodded. "Exactly; now then, by your estimates, how soon do you think Redpine will crack?" she asked.

Lance grinned. "I think they'll start cracking tomorrow, if they're not doing so right now," he answered cheerfully. "And that's also assuming Discord started putting little chinks into the geas holding the Flock over there, which… let's be real at this point: he totally would, for shits and giggles."

"I kinda wanna watch that video again," Anna mumbled as she pulled away for a bit, to dislodge some loose feathers from her mouth. "Only this time, with popcorn."

Natalie turned to Twilight. "You got the basics of the spell down?" she asked.

Twilight nodded, and cast the spell to be sure. A cross of light, with wings and runes, lit up before her in their own custom spell circle, and she grinned as she made it vanish. She returned the grimoire to its rightful owner. "Yep, just about," she affirmed. "And if Discord doesn't break the geas the rest of the way, well… we have our advantage."

Natalie nodded, grinning at the prospect. She made her grimoire vanish, eyes sparkling. "I swear, not many ponies can replicate spells as easily as you do; Anna's tried in the past, and her first attempt gave me a mustache."

Twilight snickered at that mental image. "Tell me it was red like your mane," she said.

Natalie conjured a photograph from the ether and gave that to Twilight. She took a looksee, and found a bewildered Natalie in it, with the biggest, reddest, fanciest mustache ever seen on a pony, sagging down to her chest and curling up in front of her shoulders like a secondary pair of wings. At her side in the photo was Matt, who held a small knife-like razor blade in his magic with a smile on his face, and Anna on the floor laughing her ass off at the sight. "It took quite a lot of effort to shave that thing off, and we learned that it was best that Anna craft her own spells instead of trying her hoof at replication," she said, still grinning. "Lance couldn't stop laughing once he heard of it."

She conjured another photo, of a similar vein to the first, except in it Lance had a beard trailing all the way down to the floor. He looked disgruntled as, again, Anna pointed and laughed at him, while Matt was at his side with the razor blade ready for round two. Again, he was smiling. "Lance's beard was even harder to remove; it would not cooperate," Natalie said. "We had to hold him down to remove it."

"Oh hush, or I'll have Anna give you a beard to see how you like it," Lance hissed, although he was smiling in jest. Natalie laughed and rolled her eyes as she made the photos vanish, causing everypony in the room to laugh at the mental image of her with a beard.

Spike grinned. "But I thought you ponies didn't have hair spells? What's so wrong about needing a haircut every once in a while?" he quipped, garnering some laughter from Twilight as she wrapped her forelegs around him.

"I love you, you little smart alec," Twilight said with a giggle. Spike hugged back with his grin widening. "No matter what happens on this kooky planet, if someone needs mouthing off, you can mouth them off until the sun rises." Spike nodded, unwilling to clap back to that proposition; even so, he got a little feeling in his gut that told him something would go wrong with Redpine, somehow. He wasn't sure what his gut was telling him, but he was unwilling to ruin the current mood of the room.

Still, he made a mental note to tell Princess Luna before waking up tomorrow. Perhaps she could offer some insight of her own on the matter.

Chapter CVIII—Ramifications

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter CIX—Commandment

Spitfire blinked upon seeing NoLegs standing at the steel ring of the Aerie, three floating jewels surrounding him and spinning about in an intricate harmony of light and darkness, ice and fire that was also dancing outside of the steel ring. She held the megaphone under her wing, and approached the scene with caution. Lance also approached the cat, frowning. "Looks like Someone's about to grace us with Her presence very soon, no thanks to NoLegs…" he said, shaking his head. And as soon as he said that, twin felines appeared before them, one white, one black, both with legs and glowing with power. "Alright, what got Your tail this time?" he asked.

The cats looked at him. "Progress here is slow, yet… admirable," the white cat said telepathically. "Fantasia still has much to catch up on, to be on equal footing with Mythos."

"However, shadows still dance. And it would seem that they have regrettably done a much better job of erasing Fantasian history than We expected," the black cat telepathically added, before turning to Spitfire. "And while Our second battle with Faust might have accelerated things in that regard, We Both still did not pay heed to the warning signs… how could We have ignored the signs?"

Spitfire paled upon realizing Who she was looking at. She made to bow, but Lance stopped her with a spread wing. "She's not one for formalities," he said, glancing at her for a moment, before turning back to the floating cats. "So, what are You on about?"

The cats turned to regard Lance again. "We speak of profane entities working in the shadows… shadows that call themselves Nightmares," They said in unison. "Long… long ago, when the Second Divine War was raging, the alicorns of yore sought out means to stop it. They were truly a desperate tribe—anything that seemed as if it could help, they took it, without realizing the consequences in full. Even then, it did not stave off, nor halt, the total collapse of their society."

When We were sealed, We beheld only a small number of alicorns that had confronted Us—four in total. Only one, whom We had punished before, showed any remorse for what she set about to do," the white cat said, waving a paw to gesture to Herself and Her other half. "Alongside them… was an Umbrum, a cruel king that smiled wickedly as We found Ourselves trapped in pocket dimensions. He told Us… that he would ensure Fantasia would never rise again to stop its fate."

"Its fate? Godcat, are you saying this one Umbrum…" Lance trailed off as both halves of Godcat nodded.

"We do not know how he went about his goals, nor what his goals are; We only know that he has mostly succeeded through our months-long observation of Fantasia. Cutie marks, communities, livelihoods—all have been damned by this Umbrum, and those who support him. We had no choice but to break the barrier between the worlds Ourselves—for it was not a construct of Our own making, nor was it a construct We could attribute to Faust. In fact, the Umbrum themselves… they were not of Our own making, either. Once Redpine and its unforgivable situation is addressed, General Boltwing, seek out this Umbrum, and put a stop to his plans," both halves of Godcat commanded firmly. With that, in a flourish of light and dark, ice and fire, both halves of Godcat were gone, and the jewels came to rest around NoLegs.

Lance's brows tabled. Several thoughts ran in his head, all of them parallel and in disarray. The same could be said for his soldiers, and the Wonderbolts. It took several long moments for anyone to manage a reaction, and it was Maria who had spoken first: "Daddy, does that mean we have to kill a bad Umbrum?"

Lance sighed, and turned to his daughter. "Apparently so… and if we can, we're extracting answers from that shadowy fuck," he said firmly. "But first: bad grandparents. We have to send them to Godcat so she can punt them to hell." He put a hoof to his chin. "But if the Umbrum are not Godcat's creations, nor Faust's… then who, or what, created them?" He pondered and pondered, when something occurred to him. "And why the fuck do the ones I have met, and the one in Equestria that I kept hearing about, have connections to crystal ponies…?"

Spitfire put a wingtip to her temple, rubbing in contemplation. Now that she thought about it, it sounded… very weird and suspicious that Umbrum would have some ties to crystal ponies. Granted, in Equestria, the only known case of Umbrum wanted crystal slaves, but here… at least, with the two-and-a-half Umbrum she met here, the opposite held true. Something about this whole thing was indeed suspicious—she decided she would help the others look into the matter, once Redpine's tragedy was sorted out. If nothing else, she had to make sure the situation didn't needlessly bleed over into Equestria somehow.

At least Godcat Herself confirmed that She more or less didn't like what was happening over in Fantasia—and if She had something to say about that, then would the same hold true for Faust if She were ever let out? The query was as uncomfortable as it was unavoidable in this case, and sooner or later, someone was going to draw the big guns and ask the million bit question.

Spitfire turned to Lance. "Despite Godcat more or less commanding you to get a move on, we're not going to rush through training. If we do, our attack will be lackluster, and will give the Redpine bozos a chance to counterattack," she said firmly.

Lance nodded. "I was actually about to ask about that," he said, turning to her. "However, I am concerned about this wicked Umbrum king lurking around here… I'm starting to think that Matt's folks might know where that fuckstick is, and how to get to him."

"And if they don't?" Spitfire asked, raising a brow.

"Well… I have confidence he'll show himself either way," Lance replied with a shrug. "I mean… we took out one of his possible cronies, and 'mom' and 'dad' might be another two we're shooting down," Lance replied, shaking his head. "And if they somehow aren't, well… the fuckstick will still notice our pushback against the pre-established order of years ago, and that order's collapse. He's going to have to investigate it, if he isn't already."

Spitfire nodded. "And we still don't have the full story from Godcat," she surmised.

Lance nodded once more. "Exactly. In fact, we might need Faust to fill in some details, if She ever gets loose… and provided we beat Her ass, in case She's still homicidally angry after the fact," he added. He turned to NoLegs, who looked up at him and mewed. "I take it you figured that Godcat had something for us, didn't you?" At his nod, Lance sighed. "I figured we'd have to summon Her sooner or later anyway… alright, put the jewels back in their hiding spots, in case we need them again." NoLegs nodded, and teleported away with the jewels.

Spitfire's expression hardened a little. "Alright; let's begin the next exercise; formations, everyone!" she ordered, and at once, the troops assembled into rows that left some breathing room for cloud generation between them. She took the megaphone out from under her wing and brought it to her mouth, just to make sure everyone could hear her once they were assembled. "Okay, so Godcat's approved of our little mission, it seems—so let's start this day of training in high spirits! Form clouds, everyone!"

The order was heeded, and once more, clouds were generated. "Now then, we're going to be flying… and self-levitating, our clouds to the airspace behind us, but rather than merging them and spinning them around, we're going to be merging them… and then beating the stuffing out of them," she said. "I know, it sounds weird, but you'll see why when we do this."

Maria raised her claw. "Are we making thunderclouds?" she asked.

Spitfire grinned and nodded. "Exactly that," she answered. "Oh, and when you merge your clouds, try to make a uniform layer. Add some mass here and there to make it look natural, but try to be as uniform as possible." As soon as the command was uttered, it was understood, and carried out with gusto. The last one to add her cloud was Katie, who more or less waited for everyone else to make a uniform layer of thunderclouds before taking off to add her own. She was careful to not make ice, lest she potentially cause a chain reaction that would have brought the whole thing down to the ground like an anvil dropped from a great height.

Once that was done, Katie and Lazarus sat back and watched as everyone gathered on the mass of thunderclouds started to kick and punch at their creation, spewing intracloud lightning with every other strike. Rain started to pour from the clouds, but given what they were doing, the result was to be expected. Spitfire watched carefully, seeing the clouds start to fizzle up into vapors as soon as they were fully spent.

But that was the point—they were probably going to have to rain out the entire continent that Redpine's volcano sat on after all, once that issue with its leaders was addressed. Or at least, a substantial chunk of it—it really depended on how much the volcano spewed in the end, if it did ever erupt before or during their assault. And that was if Godcat Herself didn't decide to rain out the continent afterwards, which, while possible, was highly unlikely—She was probably sorting out other important things that had languished since Her and Faust's sealing.
Spitfire saw thoughts brewing in Soarin's eyes from the corners of her own. "Something bothering you?" she asked.

Soarin nodded. "If Godcat broke the barrier… then what had necessitated Her doing so?" he asked, turning to Spitfire with a flash of worry in his eyes. "What could be so dire that She thinks She might not be able to stop it on Her own?"

"If She was sealed alongside Faust, then something might be more powerful than both of Them put together," Spitfire argued, shaking her head. "Which… isn't a thought I am happy with, to be perfectly honest. Either that, or They were tricked somehow—another possibility I am not ruling out." She sighed. "And that confession means that, in Her current state, Godcat… may no longer be omniscient—which sounds blasphemous to say, coming from me."

Soarin paled at the implications. "You mean…"

Spitfire gravely nodded. "Someone, or something, weakened Faust and Godcat enough to seal Them," she answered bitterly. "How that individual… or potential individuals, pulled that off? I don't know—but we're dealing with weakened gods here. Gods who were once at Their prime, and now… reduced to having to be summoned just to be able to commune with us at all. They may regain Their strength in time, but… that's time we can't afford to waste in the first place."

Spitfire had gears turning in her head as she added, "And whatever had languished after the sealing must be an awful lot to keep Godcat occupied. And that, in turn, is keeping Her from intervening as much as She would prefer. If Faust ever turns loose, and regains Her senses, even if that ends up meaning that we have to beat the stuffing out of Her, I feel She would feel the same way."

Soarin frowned at the troubling revelation, and turned back to the cloud-kicking in action. "And do you think that Godcat is… sorting the afterlife out as we speak?"

Spitfire nodded. "If nothing else, that's bound to keep Her occupied on the basis that it probably turned into a free-for-all in Her and Faust's absence," she answered. "Unless Her divine servants managed to keep everything running while She was gone. And not to mention all of the other functions She and Faust thought to add to our little worlds while They were tidying everything up the first time."

"Does that mean… the alicorns are lesser gods then, directly serving Godcat and Faust in maintaining those functions?" Soarin asked, turning once more to Spitfire.

"If they are, then it would explain why Celestia's kept quiet about what befell the ancient alicorns… then again, seeing as she and Luna were both born alicorns, we don't exactly have a frame of reference for what early year they were born in," Spitfire answered, sighing as she shook her head. "And if the ancient alicorns let themselves get as bad as Lance's folks did, then maybe it's time to change out the old guard anyway."

Soarin frowned at the thought. "But… the ones we've seen on Fantasia are…"

Spitfire nodded, and looked at the steel ring she stood upon. "Yes. They're… how do I say this delicately… they've got some issues to work out first," she said tactfully. "Their numbers are low, ascensions are rare, random, and therefore unpredictable, and so far, the gender ratio is heavily skewed—one stallion, three mares, and that's not even mentioning the alicorns of Redpine's little Flock that have yet to grow up."

Spitfire glanced back up at the training in progress. "And not to mention, there's only three alicorns in all of Equestria to boot. Granted, Cadence might have ascended, but still… skewed gender ratio. I can see the nobility trying to hitch Luna with Lance or something, if they ever found out he was an alicorn," she said, shaking her head. "Or they might overrule Cadence's marriage to Shining for pretty much the same thing—not that they really have the power to do either, mind you."

"Then again, the nobility are pretty entitled… it's probably a leftover from the Days of Formation, back when nobles were even more entitled back then than they are now," Soarin noted, frowning at it all. "How that entitlement lived up to the present day baffles me."

Spitfire sighed. "I agree, the nobility is more or less its own echo chamber in some ways," she said ruefully. "I'd wager the ancient alicorns here are likely the same way." She shrugged. "A volcano isn't good for one's headspace in the long run." That got a nod out of her subordinates. "I wonder what Misty Fly is seeing right now…" she said, glancing up at the city at the top of the Aerie's mountain.

Spitfire turned back to the training in progress. By now, half the clouds were fluffy whites again, now fully spent but just needing one extra kick to dissolve them. Maria was pronking about, kicking at the clouds with glee, and fortunately, Lance was nearby to supervise her even as he beat some other clouds into submission. Well, at least someone was having a blast with the training.

"That kid's a natural at this. She might be going places when she's older," Soarin said, grinning at the prospect. Spitfire nodded in agreement.

"By Tartarus, she might just be a future Wonderbolts cadet after all," Spitfire said, smiling at the thought. "She just has to get bigger and stronger first."

"I can see why the military didn't think of this sooner—they didn't think it would be practical," High Winds said. "But as they say: the best offense is a good defense."

"And vice-versa," Fleetwind agreed with a nod. "Especially for a military reliant on magitek—it's best to cover more ground in case of an attack or something."

"I'll drink to that," Thunderlane said, shaking his head. "At least it keeps my mind off of mares with Jocasthock complexes…" Spitfire turned to him and opened her mouth to comment, but then closed it when she considered what she had learned the night before, after Lance was done rolling on the floor laughing.

She turned back to the training, and now noticed the soldiers assembled on fluffy white clouds. "Now what?" Lance called from his perch.

Spitfire lifted the megaphone. "Kick the clouds one more time, to make them dissolve—can't have shadows lingering all day, after all," she answered. The soldiers heeded the command, and soon enough, the clouds were fully dispersed, and the soldiers returned to the steel ring.

Maria was prancing in place once she touched down, looking fit to bounce off the nearest wall. "Does this mean we can do more weather?" she asked, eyes shining at the prospect.

Spitfire grinned, and made to say something when she saw Anna conjure a radio that was buzzing with static. She fiddled with the knobs for a moment, and then asked, "Okay, is anything interesting happening at Redpine?"

"Uh, yeah… you guys might wanna come see this… I can't really explain it," Matt said on the other end, his voice fraught with worry.

Spitfire's smirk fell. Something interesting was happening at Redpine? What could be interesting enough, that would warrant all the higher-ups of the First Unified Army's presence?

Anna conjured a magitek watch, and flipped it open to glance at the time. "Shit… it's lunch hour, too," she grumbled. She turned back to the radio. "Okay, can we reconvene after lunch?"

"No can do, you'll have to eat in the office today," Matt answered. "And be quick with picking it up."

Anna sighed. "Alright." With that, she sent the radio and pocket watch back to the ether. She turned to Spitfire. "So… we'll grab food, and see what the hell Matt wants," she said, in a tone brokering no argument.

Spitfire nodded. "Take us to the grub zone, and then to the office. I wanna see what's up this time," she said. With that, Anna lit her horn up, grasped the Wonderbolts, herself, and the others in her magic, and teleported them to the mess hall to get lunch sorted out in a way that would let them enter the office faster.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The volcano of Redpine finally decided that it had had enough of its former occupants, and it decided that it wanted to do things its way. Matt watched as the Illicit Instrumentation went first, bringing down the rest of the former base with it, causing the magma to boil aggressively until it began lancings its way to the top of the summit from within. Misty Fly gaped as the volcano split in two down the center from the top upwards, while also blowing said top off completely, launching lava in spouts and bombs that went everywhere.

Ectoplasms and sprites with flame-shaped heads danced on the eruption clouds, channeling their power to blacken the skies over Redpine. Acid rain fell, alongside burning ash and suffocating smoke. At the foot of the volcano, watching with wide eyes, the Redpine Flock beheld the terror that was Mother Nature. Even as they stood there gaping, lava bombs impacted members of the herd, knocking them down and burning them with impunity.

Lightning sprites crackled as they danced on the eruption clouds, causing lightning to spew down and strike at the Flock. Whole swaths of ponies were taken out by pyroclastic flows and the roiling clouds overhead. The herd started speaking not amongst themselves, but looking towards the volcano as they talked. They seemed to be chanting something, but what that was, Misty Fly couldn't translate, no matter how many lips she read.

Even the grand and glorious leaders were chanting, horns aglow and eyes closed as spells danced upon their heads. They didn't seem to care that their army would be no more—in fact, they didn't seem to care about anything but the spells they were casting. Runic circles erupted into existence below the falling herd, spinning in an intricate dance even as lava filled in their cracks to add its power to the spell.

The volcano continued to erupt before them, shaking the ground with its thunderous roars, and yet it didn't seem to faze the leaders of Redpine at all. They kept casting, even as lava touched their hooves and claws—and whatever the spell was doing was making the lava climb up their legs and seep into their flesh, while their wings caught fire as soon as they were spread. The same happened to the still-standing members of the herd, whose horns started glowing to further power the spell.

Matt paled when he realized what had happened, and what was playing out before his very eyes. "It's… it's a mass suicide…" he mumbled, turning to Misty Fly.

"Why are they committing mass suicide?" Misty Fly asked, unable to look away from the horror playing out as the map relayed it.

"... they're trying to become wraiths… if they're successful, they'll be a lot harder to kill than they were before," Matt said gravely. "Molten wraiths are far stronger than fire wraiths, as they have to die with hatred in their hearts while a volcano kills them…"

Misty Fly paled. "And how do we kill them, if they become wraiths?" she asked, watching as lava seeped into the eyes, mouths, nostrils and ears of the grand and glorious leaders, whose cutie marks now shone with the power of the volcano as lava pooled within them.

"... we'll have to decapitate them, or else find some way to rid them of their hatred and despair… and worse, the geases on the Flock will probably remain active afterwards," Matt said, shaking his head at the horrifying tableau playing out on the map. The feathers of the rest of the Flock caught fire, as all available wings spread wide to accept their owners' fates.

Then, a horrifying thought occurred to Matt, and he somehow paled further. "The Illicit Instrumentation was being fed with those prisoners… to power this… this is their true endgame—gain power from this ritual, to stop us cold," he said, turning to Misty Fly with wide eyes etched with fear. "They'll do whatever it takes to kill us all from here on out."

A burst of light shone from behind the desk, and faded to reveal Anna, the other higher-ups, the Wonderbolts, the rest of the Mythonian diplomats, and the newly-inducted soldiers who had begun their weather training alongside them as well as the lunch trays they were juggling. Lance set his food tray on the desk and turned to the projection, before paling upon realizing what he was witnessing. "... oh shit… that is not good…" he mumbled weakly.

"No kidding," Matt said, shaking his head. "We'll need to pull out all the stops to halt this bullshit." He and the others watched the ritual progress, as flesh and skin and fur melted into a uniform patina of charcoal black, cracks showing through to reveal lava coursing within emaciating bodies. Hooves and claws soaked it all up to become burning tools of suffering, while manes and tails went aflame and wavered about in tandem with smoke pooling from scalps, all flowing in the prevailing winds that directed the eruption cloud. Eyes melted, went black, and all went alight with hellish pools of red that burned like the magma they sought to emulate. Horns cracked, revealing magma flowing within twisting spires that warped into pieces emulating molten rock.

Bones melted, and reforged themselves in fire, leaking out of bodies and twisting into moon pale molten rock that solidified against chests, heads, wing joints and where vulnerable organs once were. Some bones twisted upon the heads of the leaders, creating crude horn crowns curling around temples that were beset upon their forelocks like profaned royalty. The two sole cutie marks of the entire Flock changed, showing their weapons of choice emerging from the cracks in their bodies, as though forged in the pyroclastic flows of Hell itself. The geases themselves glowed upon the foreheads of the Flock's unlucky ponies, keeping them under the firm hoof and claw of those that had subjugated them.

Then, the pair of leaders conjured their weapons, an estoc and a gladius, and dipped them into the magma they now derived much of their power from. The weapons themselves reforged into burning tools of hatred and despair, molding into molten rock with sharp edges lined with magma and wrath. Once this was done, they waved their horns, alongside the rest of the Flock, and their spell circle dissipated. The Flock reared up on their hinds as one, brayed and whinnied in demented glee, and stomped on the ashen ground to finish their ritual.

Spitfire blinked at what she saw, and frowned. "... okay, first Godcat gets summoned, and now this…" she muttered, ruffling her wings. "I knew I had a bad feeling in my gut, but I didn't think the situation would become this bad…"

Shining Armor appraised the situation with a critical eye, chewing thoughtfully on a slice of bread. "Yeah… that does look like it's pretty bad," he said. "But… do fire wraiths extinguish in heavy rain?"

Matt nodded. "We're not sure about molten wraiths, however," he replied. "And besides, Redpine is still an air force in itself—now that they've bolstered their power through the ritual they performed, they're not gonna really give us a chance to weaken them with rain."

Shining nodded, and chewed on another bite of bread again. "And do molten wraiths… solidify… after a few days?"

Matt mulled the question over, then shook his head. "Not the painfully few we've encountered before, but then again, they stayed in an active volcano…" he answered.

Shining pointed at the volcano that was once the home of the Illicit Instrumentation. "Well, truth be told: the volcano is now spent. It used up every burst of energy to throw the trash out, as it were. Assuming the dunderheads don't figure out how to prevent it, the lava will dry into obsidian once the eruption finishes—which will take months normally. It might take days for the eruption to finish, but once it does, the skies will probably be clear," he said.

"Now… if we have the ability of weather on our side, then we have another advantage: we could, theoretically, use this supercell I keep hearing about to conjure a tsunami, which will douse the bastards enough to drown their lava, and that's if we lead them to the shorelines." Shining glanced at the four Fantasian alicorns and asked, "Which of you four can whip up a tsunami?"

Hesitantly, very, very hesitantly, Lance raised his hoof. "If you want to know how, well… I got spooked in Lankyroot once, and forgot my horn was out of commission… I almost drowned myself summoning the tsunami," he answered, looking embarrassed as he lowered his hoof. "I haven't been able to replicate it since."

Shining nodded, and looked at Anna. She shook her head. "I can try, but… last time I did so, I wound up having to pluck out extra hairs for a week," she replied.

Natalie also shook her head. "Don't look at me; I'd probably evaporate the water needed for a tsunami," she said.

Sarah's head also shook. "No can do," she said bluntly.

Shining turned to Matt to see if he could cough up anything. Hesitantly, he nodded and answered, "Tried drowning a robot on four legs, with little mech balls adorned with crystals, to see if I could kill it that way… and while we were near a beach, it did take a while for the water to go up to the base of the mountain. I'm amazed the water didn't make Goldenbrick's ponies pissed at us; after the robot was put out of commission, we went back to town to see if a drop of water clung to the buildings, and found them dry as could be."

"So… you can manipulate water, just… not very well," Shining surmised.

Matt nodded. "Unless it's groundwater, which I can just force out with my earth pony magic," he confirmed. He saw gears spinning in Shining's eyes and asked, "What?"

"Well… volcanoes have groundwater, not quite next to the vent that lets them erupt, but close enough to matter as it were," Shining replied, pausing to take another mouthful of food. "Not only that, but Redpine is sitting on a big island, basically—if you channel your earth pony magic, alongside a few potential others, you could force an upwelling of that groundwater and summon a tsunami that way. Combine that with the supercell, and those blowhards are going to be soaked." He gestured to the continent where the eruption was taking place. "And that has enough groundwater to go around for a few rounds of tsunami calling."

Shining looked at Matt evenly. "And besides, you have enough firepower to make the upwelling of groundwater work on your own—granted, you'll probably suffer from mana drain with the effort, but if you combine that effort with those two—" He gestured to Anna and Natalie as he said that, "—then that makes the risk of mana drain less prominent." He turned to the pair and added, "Besides, you two have the magic of all three pony tribes—why not use it to the fullest and really blindside these idiots while we have the chance?"

"So… you're proposing a new plan, one running congruent and parallel with our original plan?" Spitfire asked, garnering a nod from Shining. She chewed on a piece of bread and mulled it over before nodding. "Alright, I'll bite… but we'll have to make our assault two-pronged."

Shining nodded. "I was hoping you'd say that: because there is no way a tsunami-supercell combo will work otherwise." He conjured some wooden figurines of ponies, no taller than the hoof and more than enough to represent the three pony tribes. He worked some magic on four of them, turning two green, one bright red, and one dark red, making sure that two had wings and two had horns. He set those ones aside for now, and another horned one that he willed his magic to paint in a bright blond melding to black.

Shining painted some more horned figures to look like changelings, and set those to one side as well. Another few pegasus figurines were painted to look like gryphons, and arranged with pegasi painted in Wonderbolts and royal guard colors, all heading in from the eastern front. He put the winged red and the winged green figurines at the front of this formation. "Okay, so we'll do our two-pronged attack like this: the pegasi and gryphons will strike from the east of the continent, heading due west towards the volcano. We have more than enough numbers to make it possible, but we need timing. Thus, we'll wait for the volcano to stop erupting before making our move."

"While the gryphons and Wonderbolts mobilize the supercell, the changelings will strike from the west, lead by those most proficient in earth pony magic," Shining continued, putting the blond-black figurine, the horned red figurine, and the horned green at the front of that formation as he moved it to the west of the continent. "Now, there will be pyroclastic flows on the west side, assuming the dunderheads make it so the lava stays active. From there, groundwater will be channeled, and will trigger the tsunami."

"And how would changelings help here, exactly?" Spitfire asked.

Katie piped up, "Oh, that's easy: most normal changelings can channel their magic through the earth like an earth pony, as well as through their horns. You gather enough of them together, and they can make hives by changing the landscape, like what we're standing in now. Of course… the holes will constantly shapeshift because the changelings' earth magic is fundamentally different from earth pony magic if used by enough changelings, but you'll yield the same general effect. It helps changelings blend in better to pony society, when they need to feed in secret." Spitfire looked at her, and Katie wilted sheepishly. "At least… that's what I was told, in the few classes I had before my hive went kaput."

Matt grinned. "It's how we were able to fix the scars I made back when the Trials of Attrition just kicked off," he said, a bit of pride in his voice. "We figured we could at least do that before repairing the hive itself."

Shining grinned. "See, not every problem is unsolvable; you just need to find what makes an issue tick," he said. He turned back to the wooden figurines on the table, and put another pair of earth pony figurines, one orange and one pink, with the changeling formation. He then put another pegasus figurine in yellow next to the Wonderbolts, and some unicorn figurines on either side of the attacking formations. "Blueblood, Fluttershy and Twilight will be with the pegasi, while Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and I will be with the changelings. And in case we need them, we will have the Elements of Harmony ready if all else fails.

NoLegs teleported into the office, and sat on Shining's head with a mew. Shining looked up at him. "Alright, what do you have to report this time?" NoLegs said nothing, instead turning to the massive window of the office. A low rumble that rose in volume came from that direction, and in moments, the source revealed itself by gently shaking the office slightly. Everyone looked out of it to behold a massive airship that was more like an aerial fortress coming down to land in the plains nestled within the mountain ranges, right in front of the Aerie.

Lance sighed. "Looks like the sky pirates found something," he said, frowning. "Let's finish up our food and head out to meet them, and see what they have." With that, everyone nodded and raced to finish their lunch before heading out to see what needed to be done this time, hoping that it would run congruent, or at least parallel, to their plans.

Chapter CX—Magnified Alliance

As soon as everyone finished eating, Matt willed his shadows forth, and took all of the food trays before making them vanish into the ether for later. Then, he grabbed everyone with his darkness, some of whom protested at first before he told them, "It's harmless, and it'll let us crawl out of the window without opening it." Once the protests died down, the wooden figurines were put away, the map was returned to its drawers and everyone was enveloped with his shadows. As soon as everything had been sorted out, the mobile mass of darkness turned to the window and seeped into the very narrow cracks between pane and frame, and slunk out without opening or damaging the window.

Once the shadow was free of the confines of the office, it angled downwards towards the aerial fortress, and made a direct beeline for its dock. Those within the shadows could see more planes studding the surface of the airship's dock, all adorned with wingless gryphons sporting bandanas, cutlasses, and striped shirts. Some of the gryphons, who were not in planes of their own, called out to someone, who approached the dock as the shadow approached the vessel.

The shadow touched down first, and resolved into a very concerned group of individuals. Spitfire turned to Lance and whispered in his ear, "Are these guys part of your army?" Lance shook his head to answer as the leader of the wingless gryphons, a scarred, bearded male with a purple longcoat adorning his greyed feathers and brown lion's body, a hat with a skull and crossbones, and a cutlass at his hip approached them.

He had a lit cigar in his beak, a scar on his right eye, and bushy brows that did not quite mask the irritation in his good left eye. "What's all this, Brassy?" the gryphon asked, after pulling the cigar out of his mouth with a brown claw to avoid dropping it by accident.

"Well… we were training to assault Redpine right back, and now we're having to change plans somewhat," Lance answered with a frown. "What happened on your end, Tequila?"

Tequila nodded slowly, seeming to absorb the intel. "An' I take it ye know about Redpine's little volcano scuttlin' its army?" he asked.

Lance nodded again. "That's the worrying thing—they performed a ritual to become molten wraiths once it erupted," he answered.

Tequila's good eye narrowed somewhat. He took a hit of the cigar, smoke curling around his beak. "Now that… that's e'en worse news than what me crew reported," he said, his frown deepening. "What's yer plan?"

"This… is going to sound absurd: make a tsunami on one side of the volcano, and a supercell on the other, so that we can hang out the Redpine Flock to dry from both sides," Lance answered. "And if we don't attack, they'll seize up the opportunity." Tequila nodded, and took another hit of the cigar.

"And ye got the firepower fer this weather-based attack… a wise move, Brassy. But that's not all we came to report on," Tequila said, shaking his head. "Last night, me crew reported that shadows were dancin'—on the coast beyond Redpine's horizon. Not only that, but they also reported seein' a cloaked figure with glowin' green eyes on the wings o' their planes, who gave 'em a telepathic command that they were unsure about."

"What was the command?" Lance asked.

Tequila frowned. "We know yer affiliated with a crystal alicorn—return 'er to us at once," he answered. He looked at Natalie and added, "Whate'er the shadows want, they seem to know about ye. I wouldn't heed the command if I were ye, unless ye were goin' to knock some sense into some unlucky bastard." He frowned and let his gaze sweep out over the assembled group. "Now… did any o' ye see such a figure—cloaked, green eyes, leavin' messages askin' fer somepony to be returned or somethin'?"

Blueblood raised his hoof and nodded. "At the time, I didn't know what they were referring to, or what they were after—but after me and my Mythonian brethren came to Fantasia, I saw the figure in Whitefall that night," he answered.

Tequila slowly nodded. "'ave ye seen that figure since?" he asked.

Blueblood shook his head. "I was more… concerned with other matters since," he answered.

Tequila sighed, and took another hit of his cigar before appraising how much of it he had left to burn off. "In that case, we might need to consult the Umbrum. Let us lodge fer the night, an' prepare our assault on Redpine in the mornin'," he said, turning to Lance. Lance nodded, and turned to Matt.

"Shoot your mom and uncle a telepathic message, because now I want to get to the bottom of this cloaked figure issue," Lance ordered. Matt sighed, lit his horn, and did as he was told. In moments, his head lit up with twin auras, and Lance frowned. "What'd they say?"

"They'll meet up with us at the mess hall when dinner hits. Right now, they're trying to not lose their shit," Matt answered.

"Which means they know something we don't," Lance said, frowning. He turned to Tequila. "Oh, by the way—figured out what broke the barrier, finally."

"An' what would that be?" Tequila asked, taking another drag from his cigar.

"Turns out, Godcat Herself did it—NoLegs had summoned Her earlier today to have Her confirm it. She didn't make the barrier, neither did Faust, and Godcat doesn't like what's been happening on Fantasia, so… a few hits, and then, no more barrier," Lance answered. The faces of the surrounding airship crew paled when his words hit them, and all of them traded glances with one another. It wasn't long before the crewhands began muttering amongst themselves.

"So if Godcat didn't make the barrier, then who did?"

"An' why would they make the barrier to begin with?"

"This is bad… really, really bad."

"Aye… now that I think on it, somethin' was suspicious about that barrier…"

"An' if Godcat broke it… does that mean…"

Tequila took a moment to absorb the information. His frown deepened when it clicked. "Which means… the situation's worse than we thought, if Godcat's decided to smite the barrier itself," he surmised unhappily. "Did She say anythin' else?"

Lance nodded. "She was confronted by an Umbrum king, and four alicorns, one of whom She had punished beforehand," he answered. "Said they were the ones to seal Her, and that the Umbrum king had plans for Fantasia—and whatever they are, he's mostly succeeded in them."

Tequila's face hardened. "That's e'en worse… but at least, now we have a potential culprit o' this entire mess," he said, moving to take another hit off his cigar, only to realize there was very little of it left. He procured a piece of paper from a coat pocket, used it to put the stub out, and flicked the stub and paper away. "An' lemme guess: ye now got orders from Godcat 'erself to stop the madpony or else his plans'll succeed." He was answered with a nod from Lance.

"And the thing is, we don't even know what he's planning—but cutie marks, history, and society itself… well, I think you can tell what happened," Lance said.

Tequila slowly nodded. "Meanin', the bastard who damned those very concepts wants nopony to oppose him an' his schemes," he affirmed. "Redpine's assaults e'ery which way might just be a front to distract us all." He shook his head at the unhappy thought. "We'll help howe'er we can, Brassy. 's the least we could do, all things considered." He looked around at his gathered crew. "Ain't that right, fellas?"

"Aye aye, cap'n!" the crewhands barked in unison.

Tequila smiled. "Good. Now then… we hit the mess hall, an' see what the Umbrum lass has to say. I reckon it can't be anythin' good, but bad news is better than no news—means we can prepare ourselves fer the fight ahead," he said. He turned to Lance once more. "An' what about Redpine's… landlubbers?"

"Only two thousand foals were able to be saved, the rest… they were killed by a draconequus, from Mythos… and before you ask, that draconequus has chaos powers, letting him be able to basically ignore whatever Redpine could throw at him," Lance answered. "The survivors are in the medical wing… and it turns out, 'mom' and 'dad' gave me a sibling while I was away."

"Another wee one? Is the landlubber stable?" Tequila asked, his good eye widening.

Lance nodded. "Yeah, but she and the other foals will need to have an extended stay in the medical wing," he answered.

Tequila slowly nodded. "I see…" He turned to one of his crewhands. "Bring Mescal up 'ere, will ye?"

"Aye aye!" the crewhand responded, and she ran off to fetch Mescal, darting off into a door of the aerial fortress that rested near one of the massive cannons and propellers. In moments, she returned with a small, hat-wearing, wingless hippogryph child boasting white feathers and brown fur, and a green mane and tail. "'ere she is, cap'n," the crewhand said.

"Good," Tequila said, turning to Mescal. "Now then: how do ye feel about eatin' in the Aerie's mess hall?"

Mescal smiled, her eyes alight. "I'd eat with the Aerie, if it meant beatin' some sense into some ponies," she said.

"Atta girl," Tequila said, raising a claw to pat her head. He turned to Lance and saw Maria looking at him. "Oh ye: Brassy's got a kid of his own. Why don't you go over, and tussle a little? But remember: no scratchin' eyes out, or anythin' else like that."

Mescal grinned, and pranced over to Maria. The two sized each other up and down. They angled their flanks at one another, sizing up their cutie marks—Mescal had a wrench with a bolt socketed into its jaws, with the bolt itself emblazoned by crystals. Then they sized up other aspects of themselves, before grinning, locking claws with one another, and getting into a thumb war that escalated in seconds. Once they got bored with the thumb war, they tried to wrestle, standing on their hinds to see whose claws could overpower the other. It quickly proved to be a draw however, as neither filly gave the other any room for any pushback, despite Maria trying to use her wings for extra force and leverage.

"Well, they seem to be getting along," Lance noted dryly.

"Aye," Tequila agreed, smiling. "This be better than removin' eyes."

Mescal and Maria looked up at their father figures. "Can we be friends?" they asked in unison.

"I don't see why not," Lance answered, grinning. "You can share lots of things with your friends: how you got your cutie marks, what home is like…" His smile widened. "And of course, how to beat the bad ponies' faces in."

"Aye," Tequila agreed with a nod. "Nothin' like friends to drink with over at the crow's nest."
The fillies squealed in delight, and began to wrestle with ernest. Lance didn't really want to ruin their fun, so he let them go at it—better that the children established boundaries between themselves, than have the grown-ups do so for them. And speaking of boundaries, Lance made a mental note to get in another talk with Maria before bedtime rolled around, about the different kinds of boundaries that existed from peer to peer, and child to adult. The sooner he got that squared away, the better.

A crewhand bolted from the open door Mescal had been fetched from. He ran straight to Tequila. "E'erythin's good to go with the Big Magnum, cap'n! We're locked and loaded!" he reported.

Tequila smiled at him, and produced a cigar and a lighter to hit up some more smoke. "Good," he said as the lighter came to life with a deft flick of his claws. "Make sure the planes are up an' runnin', too—soon, we're takin' the fight to Redpine, an' givin' them absolute hell."

"Aye aye!" the crewhand responded, before bolting to the nearest plane on the airship's dock. The other crewhands followed his lead, and started to do checks on their magitek to make sure they, too, were locked and loaded.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Dinner rolled around, and Tequila's crew were being noisy as they ate in the mess hall—not noisy enough to start bar fights or the like, but just general sea shanties… well, sky shanties, given the unorthodox 'ocean' they patrolled. As such, their tunes gave the Aerie's soldiers a much-needed laugh, while also confusing the hell out of the ponies of Greenwood, Goldenbrick, Whitefall, and a collection of a hundred or so earth ponies and disembodied spirits that kept to themselves.

Anna watched from the booth she sat at with her cohorts. "The Sunnytowners are acting like they've never heard a sky shanty in their lives," she noted.

"Then again, they've probably never heard of sky pirates, either," Natalie added, shaking her head. "Truth be told, we're probably rocking their world right now, in ways we might not understand."

"Ain't that the truth," Lance agreed with a nod. "And we're still getting everyone's information sorted out… we have got to get that squared away at some point."

"I suggest letting them file things away at their own pace. That way, we're not rushing them, and also not babying them every step of the way—and if they turn out to write in ancient alicorn, we'll just translate that later," Matt said, before shoveling some meat into his mouth.

Lance nodded again, chewing on a roll stuffed with some meat and potatoes. He went a little green around the gills, but pressed on with eating. He swallowed before responding, "Gives them time to prepare for their new life here, too. They're probably weirded out that we eat meat, especially since I heard they were formerly zombies." He looked at Anna. "And speaking of the Sunnytowners… why are some of them disembodied spirits?"

Anna wilted a little. "Well… Katie and I might have re-killed them a little too hard," she answered. "Though, Ruby was already a ghost when we got there…"

Lance nodded as he took in the information, as well as another bite of his sandwich roll. "Did she drain those ones like she did Pestilence?" he asked. Anna nodded.

"But only those ones," Anna added. "It kinda got hectic before I thought of something stupid to stop the horde."

"And what was this stupid thing, pray tell?" Matt asked.

"Basically, I revealed my true nature to them, and convinced them to atone for their ways," Anna replied. "I'm surprised it worked as well as it did."

Lance sighed. "Whatever works to diffuse the fighting," he said. "Of course… there's still the issue of them adjusting, but that'll come with time."

Maria was grinning as she ate. "Mescal is a nice gryph; I could play with her all day," she chirped.

"Careful with that kind of language; the sky pirates might see it differently," Natalie said in a gentle warning. She smiled, though. "That said, I'm glad you two hit it off—not many kids your age are keen to make friends on Fantasia."

"Why's that?" Maria asked, tilting her head.

Natalie's smile fell, and sorrow flashed in her eyes. "... because if you make friends on Fantasia, you'll have to deal with the possibility of them getting killed," she said gravely. "The town I was adopted into… I had a lot of friends, back then. But when cutie mark hating maniacs stormed it… the only friends to survive were Lazarus and NoLegs, though I didn't find out that NoLegs had survived until after Matt and I landed in the since-fallen Kitten Kingdom…"

Maria frowned, instantly catching what Natalie was not saying. "Bad ponies took your friends…" she said unhappily.

Natalie nodded. "Worst part was… they made me kill my late friends, for their own sick amusement. And trust me, it was… hard… to make new friends afterwards, especially since ponies looked at me and saw me as a harbinger of hellfire and death," she said darkly. "Even now, I… I still have some issues with making new friends, thanks to those bad ponies. Every time I try… I can hear the bad ponies laughing at me, telling me that I'm a failure and that friends are worthless…"

Maria's frown deepened. Shortly thereafter, her eyes narrowed. "Have you told the bad ponies to fuck off?" she hissed.

Natalie nodded. "Several times. But they keep going, like they've never heard those two words before in their lives," she affirmed unhappily.

Lance sighed and shook his head. "Just you watch—Pinkie'll probably be gunning after your ass too," he said tartly. "It's like every time we say something, she hears it no matter how far away we are from her, or how much noise is in between her vantage point and us. Like she literally has eyes everywhere."

Natalie looked around, wondering if and when Pinkie would hit them up for something. However, she forgot to check on the backside of her booth, and squealed when pink hooves wrapped around her chest from behind and above. She glanced up, and there she was, smiling down at her seemingly without any cares in the sister worlds. "That reminds me, your number came up," Pinkie said cheerfully. She booped Natalie on the nose with a hoof. "I've been super busy making the foals of Redpine smile, but don't worry, Starcovert, I'll make you smile too~" And with that, Pinkie did a backflip off of the booth's backside, being careful to not hit anyone with her hind hooves as she made her jump.

Natalie turned to Lance, processing what had just happened. "H-how… how did she get up here with nobody else noticing…?" she asked, her voice laced with confusion that flashed in her eyes.

Lance took another morsel of food and swallowed before answering. "She dropped from the ceiling," he answered. "She hovered in the air for just a second—long enough to touch down silently." He shrugged. "How she pulled that off, despite being an earth pony, I couldn't tell you."

Maria looked at Lance. "How can she do that?" she asked, pausing to bite down on some more food. "I mean… she's gonna get ponies asking about it if she keeps doing it."

"Trust me, I saw her pull a balloon out of her mane, with her eyes crossed," Anna answered, shaking her head. "In fact, I think she did the same thing for that cannon of hers, back when we had our rather weird group cute-ceañera last week…" She sighed and wilted a little. "Twilight said something about trying to get answers for it herself, and… I don't think she got anywhere with her attempts, either."

"So… Pinkie's weird," Maria surmised. That got a nod out of the adults at the booth.

Lance looked at Matt squarely. "So… are your folks still losing their shit?" he asked.

Matt nodded. "Yeah, like… have you ever been spooked so badly, you want to go to the sparring area to see if venting your fear out helps?" he asked. "They asked a soldier for directions, and… well, they're still there, I think. Whatever about that cloaked figure had them freaked out, I couldn't tell you."

Lance nodded. "And… how old are your Umbrum folks?" he asked. "I know you don't like talking about that part of your heritage, but I just need something for a frame of reference here, because they look as young as you are."

"Five hundred or so," Matt answered. "And because of how long they live, they're pretty much fertile their whole lives once puberty hits, if you're wondering."

Lance sighed. "So… they likely know more than they're letting on, then," he surmised. "But at this rate: any information we can get will still help. I'm surprised that Godcat was willing to hork up some intel Herself, all things considered."

Matt nodded. "We just gotta wait for their spooks to die down enough for them to regain coherency first," he said. "And that's if Luna doesn't talk to them before we do."

"If their spooks are bad enough that they're trying to fight the stress away, then maybe we should leave them alone for a bit," Natalie hedged, pausing to take a drink out of a mug. "Because knowing them, given how old they are… if something frightened them that bad, then it's probably for a very good reason." She ruffled her wings. "And they're Umbrum, so… they're desensitized to quite a lot of things, I would wager."

Lance nodded. "Fair enough," he agreed. "Not many things frighten older folks that much these days, at least, without reason."

"Yeah," Matt said with a nod. "And the few things that do frighten old folks around here tend to be forces they can't easily stop."

"Like Godcat?" Maria asked.

Anna piped up, "Yes, and Akron, and Faust, and the Tormentor enforcer… thingy."

"Ah yeah… the faceless fuck," Lance grumbled, wilting at the mention. "Can we not talk about him while we're eating?"

Anna wilted. "Sorry, sorry…"

Lance sighed, and took a swig from his cup. He took a look at his tray, finding that there were only crumbs left. He downed the rest of his drink and put his cup on the table. "Welp, I'm full," he said. He turned to Maria to see if she had finished her plate, and fortunately she did, chewing on the last morsel as she picked up her drinking cup to wash it all down. He turned to Matt and Natalie. "Did you two visit Rapier yet? I bet she'd love some company."

Natalie shook her head. "Was too busy with the weather training, so no," she answered. "Though, we may need to give her some space—she might react poorly to seeing my wings," she said, spreading one wing out to indicate it with her hoof. "And probably Matt's horn, now that I think about it."

Lance nodded. "I can believe it," he said. "Just check up on her sometime before we head off for Redpine, make sure she's stable and all that—see if she needs someone to talk to before you hit the sack tonight. Unless she's already asleep, in which case, just pay her a visit sometime during lunch hour tomorrow."

Natalie nodded. "Can do," she replied curtly. "I might make sure she has a night light while I'm at it—after being inside a volcano for Godcat knows how long, she might be afraid of the dark."

Lance smiled. "She probably has one already, but sure, add another—it might help," he agreed. He ruffled his wings. "But I think we should get Tequila into the office before bed—go over the plan… well, Shining and Spitfire's plan, with him so he can provide some input."

Anna nodded, and looked at her plate. She scooped up the last few bites into her mouth and washed them down with an almost-spent drink. She looked at Matt and Natalie's trays, and found they had already finished. "Are we good now?" she asked.

Matt nodded. "I could do with some more food, but if I need to, I'll just get a midnight snack later," he answered with a smile.

Natalie rolled her eyes. "Bottomless pit," she mumbled.

"What about dessert?" Maria asked.

Lance blinked, and perked his ears. "Oh, yeah… now that I think about it, Pinkie might be whipping up some more sweets…" he mumbled. "She's been doing that every single chance she could get lately…"

"Tell me about it. She might try finding some way of making us smile once Redpine is dealt with… that is, if we end up succeeding," Matt agreed, frowning at the thought. "And now that I think about it, I wonder what prompted her sugar obsession…"

"Maybe she believes that sugar makes ponies happy?" Natalie piped up, tilting her head and putting a hoof to her chin. "I mean, I know it's a fixture in a lot of parties that she throws, but I'm starting to notice a theme with her type of celebrations…"

The others shrugged. "Maybe she really, really likes sugar, and thinks everyone else does, too," Anna pointed out. "I wonder what she's going to do, when she meets someone who can't have any sugar for whatever reason."

"Flip her shit? Find alternatives to sugar?" Matt proposed. He frowned when he imagined the resultant scenario in his head, where Pinkie… couldn't handle the knowledge of someone unable to have sugar for whatever reason. Somehow, the mental image ended up with anvils falling on ponies' heads, and he didn't know why.

"Regardless, we still have a meeting to attend," Lance said, spreading his wings. "We gotta get that sorted out, and see how Tequila could help us out."

"Right," his Lieutenants agreed in unison. The five of them turned to find the soldiers and sky pirates starting to gather trays and drinking cups, preparing to get those cleaned up before they languished for the night. The group followed their cue, picking up trays and cups and teleporting down there thanks to Anna, solely to get that sorted out as well.

Once their trays and cups were stacked with the others at the dish galley, they turned to the crowd to see if they could find Tequila. He was waiting by the entrance, chatting with Spitfire and Shining Armor as they directed him to a cleared-off table. So it looked like they were improvising. Lance and his group trotted over to plop their butts at the table. Shining had once again brought out the wooden figurines, albeit with some more painted in stripes, with little miniature cutlasses adorning their wingless hips, all of them standing on a bunch of wooden airships kind of smooshed together in a vague attempt to approximate a replica of the Big Magnum. "So, I see you've finally finished the food," Shining said dryly.

"Can't blame 'em, it's good grub," Tequila argued, smiling.

"Now, we need to go over this with the soldiers themselves, but we can arrange for that tomorrow evening, when everyone's in the auditorium," Spitfire said, turning to the figurines as Shining arranged them as he had earlier that day. Only now, he had the figurines meant to represent Tequila and his crew set to the side, solely so he could see where they would fit in to all of this. In addition, there were more airships, and wingless figures painted to represent Blue Crow and his group off to the other side. There were new figurines as well, adorned in white, black, and molten red veins meant to represent the lava wraiths. All were beset on a crude ink-stamped drawing of Redpine that was on a piece of wide paper.

"Now then: as we know, Redpine is entirely a winged force, and will probably converge on the pegasi and gryphons making the supercell happen," Shining said, conjuring a riding crop to gesture to the group of figurines in question. "Alternatively, they might split their herd in two in order to deal with our two-pronged attack; therefore, we're going to need to play merry Tartarus with them if we have any hope of succeeding with our plan."

"That's probably where me an' me crew come in: if we attack from the skies on the sides o' the volcano that are not bein' covered by the weather calamities, we can probably give 'em a run fer their bits an' sanity," Tequila said. "Howe'er, there's only so many o' us to go around, an' just as many planes fer our assault—once the dead start pilin' up, we might be forced to retreat."

"But if we attack like this…" Tequila carefully moved the figurines representing his ship and crew to the middle of the supercell formation. "They won't see our cannons coming—the Big Magnum can take quite a beatin', as she has seen us through a hurricane b'fer."

"But that means deploying the planes as our opening salvo," Lance said, looking at the assembled pieces before him. "They're nowhere near as big or strong as the Big Magnum, and once the supercell lands, they're going to go off-kilter if they stray anywhere near it."

"Exactly—an' the planes have guns, an' missiles. They're gonna shred whatever wraith tries meetin' them head-on, unless the bastards can regenerate," Tequila replied, smiling with a glint in his good eye. "Not to mention, the ammunition be devastatin'—if we strike hooves, horns, an' wing joints, the wraiths'll go splat 'fer we can make 'em walk the plank." He looked at Lance squarely. "An' these be lava wraiths, ye? E'en lava hardens—an' they only 'ave so much of it to go around. Assumin' they don't use what they have to regenerate somehow, they'll end up takin' from their stock just the same fer their attacks."

"An' magma comes from the world, ye? Pit them against changelin's an' earth ponies, they'll exhaust their supplies e'en faster. If I don't miss me guess, I'd say that the lava can be dried e'en faster than normal, if enough magic is applied—an' there's only so many wraiths to try an' stop it," Tequila finished, moving some of the figurines with cutlasses and the ones representing Blue Crow's group to the center of the formation and in front of the figurines representing the lava wraiths.

Lance nodded, and put a hoof to his chin. "I hadn't considered that before… maybe we could stop the lava that way, if it doesn't solidify on its own by the time we arrive…" he said in contemplation.

"Aye. Ye notice a lot o' things about the ground, when ye spend more time in the skies," Tequila said, tilting his head.

"Now this could actually work…" Spitfire muttered, putting a hoof to her chin as she contemplated the plan.

"You seem to have a knack for strategy," Shining said, smiling. "Are you sure Lance isn't rubbing off on you?"

Tequila barked out a laugh and smiled. "Pretty certain he's not ticklin' me beard, not e'en a little bit," he affirmed.

Lance nodded, and contemplated the plan. This… this made sense in his head. He could see it coming together now, even as logistics ran their course in his mind. It didn't take him long to come to a decision on the matter. "Any motions to object?" he asked. When none met him, he smiled. "Then it's settled: we will proceed with a four-pronged attack on Redpine once the eruption is over and the smoke from that has cleared. In the meantime, we continue training and monitoring the situation over there carefully in between breaks."

"Excellent," Shining said, sending the figurines and parchment back to the ether for now. "For now, we retire for the night. We have much to do tomorrow." With that, everyone stood up to head to their rooms for the night, eager to set their plan into motion come tomorrow.

Chapter CXI—An Army Of Fire

The following morning, before training began, Matt watched the map to see what the dunderheads of Redpine would do now that they were wraiths. Worryingly, they were patrolling their continent, going about it in shifts that only lasted for five minutes, if that. Some lit their horns and willed the lava below to follow their fiery flights, as though they were getting a feel for their newfound powers. Where before, he might have generously called them disarrayed, now… they were highly organized. They almost seemed to be watching the horizons on either side of their home, waiting for someone—or perhaps something—to grace their now profaned presence.

Matt started getting a weird feeling in the back of his mind, almost as though they were playing right into Redpine's hooves. He counted the total forces of Redpine's undead army, and pulled out a piece of paper and a fountain pen with some ink to keep track of the numbers, separating the horned ones from those lacking horns. Thanks to the lightning sprites and their compatriots, there were a lot less hornless wraiths than he had anticipated.

Rainbow Dash watched the scene hawkishly. "Do you think they might have used their earth pony magic to force the eruption?" she asked.

Matt continued jotting numbers down. "It would explain why they stood there with their mouths open before their stupid chant," he said, glancing between paper and map. "But unless they have the raw power, which I'm not willing to rule out for Lance's 'parents,' it shouldn't be possible unless they otherwise have the numbers to do it." He had a flash of irritation in his eyes, as though multitasking somehow made his brain hurt. "And incest of their levels of fuckery should have fucked with their army's innate magic."

Rainbow nodded. Still, something about this whole thing bothered her in ways she couldn't hope to explain. She watched as Matt continued his headcount. "So… numbers. What are we looking at here?"

"Currently, for the Aerie, we have one million, five hundred thousand in our total population—most of which are in active service, not counting the populations of Greenwood, Sunnytown, and the other provinces which have been recently brought into the fold," Matt answered. "However, take two hundred and fifty thousand away to account for children too young to serve in the military, and scatter another few thousand to man the guard posts… of which we have a hundred in the surrounding mountains, and also leave enough soldiers to watch all the kids and newbies, and that leaves about three hundred and fifty thousand or so of both changelings and gryphons able to manage both the supercell and tsunami."

Rainbow whistled at the numbers. "And this is also not counting Tequila's crew, I take it?"

Matt nodded. "However… as you've probably already guessed, physical wraiths are much harder to kill—it would have been bad enough if Redpine's forces went intangible, because then we would have to rely solely on magic to hit them," he said, gesturing to the continent with the fountain pen. "But noooo, they just had to have gone physical—and if you don't know what you're doing, obsidian is tough to crack in some instances. Not to mention, you can burn yourself trying if you're going at it bare-hoofed." He continued to count Redpine's forces, frowning as tallies began piling up on his piece of paper.

The process took a few minutes more, and there were some hiccups here and there because all of the wraiths, barring the leaders, looked identical to one another now. But eventually, Matt pulled through and was able to conjure up their numbers. "... a lot less than I was expecting," he said. "Are we sure Discord didn't kill some while he was over there?"

"He could have," Rainbow said with a shrug. "But it's probably halved because they don't have their sex slaves anymore."

Matt nodded, willing to buy the explanation as he put the pen and ink back where they went, and looked at Redpine's total numbers. "Let's see… they've only got ten thousand left," he said. "Still a lot of wraiths to deal with, and they can inflict serious damage in the meantime. It's not the numbers that the Aerie has, but still… we shouldn't underestimate them."

Rainbow nodded. "And they probably sent another few thousand after Whitefall and Goldenbrick, before those attacking forces went to harass Tequila… which probably halved their forces again, counting the one they sent here…" she mused, putting a wingtip to her chin. "I'm no egghead, but it sounds to me like they were sending out the ponies most likely to break free from their geases without help."

"The ones not as committed to their stupid cause," Matt surmised unhappily, "were the ones they were weeding out." He snorted and shook his head as he folded the paper in his magic. "They were probably trying to avoid a repeat with what happened to Lance."

Rainbow frowned. "And that one dude you prevented from killing himself… how's he holding up?" she asked.

Matt shook his head. "Not good at all. He's eating fine, but that's because we're having to feed him through a tube," he answered. "And when we're not doing that, he keeps howling about how he wants to die." He frowned. "We… might end up having to grant him his wish after all."

Rainbow's frown deepened. "That poor bastard…" she mumbled.

Matt nodded in silent agreement, and turned to watch the Redpine aerial force continue their patrols on the continent they called home. Once more, the five-minute shifts were changing hooves, and another few hundred or so wraiths patrolled a portion of the continent's perimeter. The rest began to flex their wings, spreading embers and ash with each flap and twitch, without any spoken words between them. It seemed the geases were doing more than keeping them under the hoof and claw of their oppressors, who watched their contingent with horrible sneers on their burning faces.

Matt shook his head. "Those bone plates and lava means Katie's not gonna be able to get a clean shot at draining them," he added, eyes narrowing at the thought. "So that's gonna rule out draining them of their hatred and despair in the old-fashioned way, unless we can put out the lava first."

"And do they have the numbers to force the eruption?" Rainbow asked.

Matt shook his head. "No. You'd need a thousand strong alicorns for the feat, and… well, we both saw the attacking force a few days ago," he answered grimly. "I didn't see any signs that Godcat tampered with the volcano either, so we can also rule out divine intervention. Unless we count Discord as divine, and we didn't see him trigger the eruption, merely speed it along." He gestured to the lava wraiths on the projection with a hoof. "And none of them have cutie marks, so they don't have any geomancers, either."

"In fact, they might be able to counter the supercell and tsunami, to a given degree. Pyromancy goes a long way, when it's all you know," he added, retracting his hoof. "And they look like they're getting very proficient at it."

Rainbow looked at Matt. "Has Lance… always been a pyromancer?" she asked.

Matt nodded. "He has, yes, on top of being an electromancer. We watched him closely when he started showing his skills through channeling his magic via magitek," he answered. "Fortunately, he kept his antics either to the battlefield, or to the training areas." He turned back to Redpine's projection, and sighed as darkness moved to shroud the area—he could still see the volcano and everything, but now there was a dome of shadow over the continent. "Ah great, the Void's back. Now we gotta inform everyone of that little thing later this evening…" he grumbled.

Rainbow crossed her forelegs. "So what's the deal with the Void anyway?" she asked.

"Long story short, Akron once had control of it, back when he was alive," Matt replied, lighting his horn to send Rainbow a telepathic image of what Akron looked like back then. She shuddered at how twisted he looked, almost wraith-like and yet somehow not in equal measure. At least… that was his upper, more equine half; an image of his tooth-laden, tentacle-studded maw of a bottom half caused her to wonder if he had been created during one of Godcat's fever dreams. "Since we killed him, and by we I mean myself, Natalie, and Lance, the Void's just been… all over the place. It showed up when we went to confront Godcat, too."

"Do you think… Akron was in control of some parts of the afterlife?" Rainbow asked, looking at Matt again. "I mean… he looks like he fits the bill, if we're talking about the damned here." She gestured at the projection. "And those guys are damned enough."

Matt put a hoof to his chin and pondered. "It could be possible… but if he was governing the hellish part of the afterlife, then why would he be sealed in the physical realm? If you wanted to get rid of him, you'd seal him in the afterlife—it doesn't make much sense…" he muttered, tapping his chin as gears span in his head.

"Yeah, it doesn't—especially since the culprits have sealed Godcat. Maybe they just wanted to tidy up loose ends before really getting to work," Rainbow said, shaking her head as she considered how likely that possibility was. Matt nodded, and continued to watch the patrolling wraiths, wondering what they would do now that the Void had covered their home.

Some wraiths, including the grand and glorious bozos attempted to leave. But they were shoved back by shadowy, glass-like tendrils that sparkled in what scant light the wraiths could generate from their own bodies. They tried again and again, yet the Void would not let them budge even an inch beyond their continent. The ash from the land willed itself upwards, as did some lava that then twisted into the shape of a flame-like rock that crackled with blue and red lightning. The ash formed legs, a body, a horned head, and a hellish sneer with glowing green eyes that sized the wraiths up and down.

Matt's brow furrowed at this development. "Peachy… just when I thought it couldn't get any worse somehow," he grumbled. The Tormentor grinned, lifted its ashy hooves and clapped its frogs once, and then dissipated into wisps of ash and embers, its form wafting around the entire continent to form chains of molten rock and kindling that tightened around the Void, further keeping its captives from getting out of their continent.

"And if we know what happened the last time, the Void is just gonna let us go right in and tidy things up," Rainbow said, shaking her head. "Which means that the Tormentor guy is gonna allow us to get in killshots."

"Yeah, but he might bug us about sins in the meantime," Matt replied, wilting at that prospect. "And he'll keep going on and on and on and on, until we make him shut up." He sagged further in the chair he sat in. "That reminds me, I'm gonna have to ask Anna how she made him shut his fucking claptrap."

"... is the Tormentor always like that? Just yaps and yaps?" Rainbow asked.

Matt nodded. "Part of why me and the others keep awakening at ungodly hours," he affirmed. "He has this weird… fetish with taking our voices, making them sound demonic to each other, and tormenting us through our shapes for some reason." He shuddered. "And every time, we have to wake up and then affirm to each other that we're still us. Not him."

"Yikes. I'd hate for that guy to take Twilight's shape and berate me in my nightmares over my lack of being an egghead," Rainbow said, her mind painting a vivid picture of exactly that happening. The mental image… left a lot to be desired. The only thing that was probably worse than that was the Tormentor adding singing mushrooms to that mix.

"Yeah. And he also really, really likes to get creepily sexual when he does it to us," Matt said, turning a little green as some sort of sordid memory flashed in his mind. Whatever made him turn that color, Rainbow did not want to find out. "The fucker is as sleazy as he is slimy, and invulnerable. Everything we've tried in the dream world, he just laughs off. It's like he wants us to feel powerless…"

Both ponies turned back to the dome that was the Void, seeing the grand and glorious bastards try to force their way out of it. Alas, the Void didn't budge in the slightest—in fact, its tendrils struck the bone plates guarding where their vulnerables once were, not cracking them but still pushing them back all the same. Soon after that, the shouting matches began anew again, both leaders starting to kick and scratch at one another in an attempt to assert dominance over their partner in crime.

That's when the infighting amongst the rest of the geased wraiths began; punches, kicks, lava-powered magic that was now ineffective against their brethren… it turned into complete chaos once again, and this time, Discord didn't have anything to do with it. Though, Matt wasn't surprised at all to find him appearing within the Void, watching the proceedings with popcorn whose kernels were filled with rangoons.

Matt shook his head at it all. "So… both assholes are capable of geases… lovely…" He buried his head in his hooves. "Makes me wonder who got to Lance first…"

"Probably his 'mom,'" Rainbow answered, even as she began turning green around the gills herself as soon as the words left her mouth. "'Dad' probably added to it, without realizing what she was doing under his own snout…"

Matt shuddered, unwilling to remove his head from his hooves. He released a long, suffering groan into his forelegs as a result. "Oh, this is not gonna be fun… not fun at all.." he hissed.

"Well, at least they're busy with each other… if they're going to fight like fillies, they're less likely to attack us when we do show up," Rainbow said, causing Matt to lift his head from his hooves. "I mean… the attacking force they've got over there? It's like a nuthouse right now—a nuthouse where the inmates aren't running the show. They might think they're running the show, but… the Void pretty much says otherwise."

"And if they're resorting to bullying tactics just to try and get a leg up on one another, what's that say about their fighting skills? Sure, they're molten wraiths now, but let's face it: we still got the upper hoof on them. And while they might set aside their differences when we show up, there's probably going to be infighting through the ranks." Rainbow pantomimed two opposing factions, teeth clenched in teamwork, fighting each other as well as their enemy. "And they're using geases to keep everything glued together, which… I know I'm not an egghead, but I did read that some unicorns of the Three Tribes era doing that for their armies, and… let's just say Celestia extincted them when she came into power," Rainbow finished, shaking her head.

"Celestia. As in, the motherly Princess of the fucking Sun who'd rather avoid collateral damage?" Matt asked, looking at Rainbow in wide-eyed disbelief.

"Yep. But she had to: those unicorns and their armies kinda became wraiths, and were threatening Equestria with their stupidity," Rainbow answered with a nod. "Luna helped as well, and until Discord rolled around, it was more or less that—just them killing whatever wraiths popped up to threaten the nation. After that, geas magic became illegal in Equestria, because of what they saw happened to those armies they had to kill."

"And the fact that they're popping up in Equestria after all of that means something's up," Rainbow concluded. She crossed her forelegs, her wings fanning out and folding partially to rub her temples. "She's probably investigating that right now, and taking a lot of notes on each case."

"Celestia is meticulous?" Matt asked.

Rainbow nodded again. "Kinda has to be, with what running Equestria and all," she confirmed. "If anything gets past the nobles, it's not gonna get past her so easily. And if it somehow bypasses her, Luna's gonna catch it." She shrugged. "I'm kinda surprised that Blueblood's father thought he could get the drop on her, all things considered."

"Oh yeah, the whole 'make a racist alicorn if we can to install on the Equestrian throne' plan…" Matt shook his head and snorted at the prospect. "What does he think he is, descended from Celestia or some shit? Even if he were—even if Celestia had foals with the founder of the Blueblood clan—did he really think every detail of his plan would work out in the end? Breeding for alicorns can go wrong in thousands of ways, and he'd practically have to make all the stars fucking align for that to even be feasable."

"Yeah, and Faust and Godcat are a thing, even if One of Them is still sealed," Rainbow agreed with a nod. "Godcat would just smite any potential alicorns coming from his side of the gene pool if they turned out to be warmongering racists."

Matt snorted again, now graced by a mental image of a racist alicorn born of the Blueblood clan squaring off against Godcat. The result couldn't even be called a battle, but more of a one-sided flick of a paw's digits sending that alicorn off to the stars. If said alicorn squared off against Faust, the same result would be achieved by a deft flick of one primary feather. There was just no hope of winning with that stupid ploy, in either the long-term or the short-term.

That series of mental images made the green color diminish on his face somewhat, as it allowed him to think on other things that didn't pertain to Lance's formerly abusive situation. Thus, he was able to weigh Rainbow's words about the wraiths and their little infighting fiasco, and realize that compared to all-powerful deities with a thirst for blood and vengeance, these guys were small potatoes in comparison to that…

Okay, maybe regular potatoes in comparison to bloodthirsty, all-powerful deities given the percentage of alicorns they were dealing with, but still. And as with all potatoes, there would come a time when the biggest ones of the harvest would let themselves be unearthed. He figured that time would be very, very soon after Redpine was dealt with, and though he might not have been ready for it, he still had to pony up and tackle it all the same.

Still, the entire prospect was not going to be fun at all.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Lunch rolled around, and Rainbow reported her findings to Spitfire, as well as briefing her on what the Void was so that she would be prepared to take it on when the time came. Spitfire chewed on that information as well as her food. "So basically, the former master of the Void is dead, and the Void is acting independently of its former master's will," Spitfire said slowly, almost as if she were struggling to parse the information herself.

"Yeah. And to be honest, it almost sounds like the Void is singling out bad areas for us to clean up—it showed up like, what, two days after the Aerie's airships hovered over Greenwood? And the Tormentor dude—" This took another brief bout of elaboration to explain to Spitfire before Rainbow continued, "—showed up then, too. Killed all of Greenwood's remaining elders that stayed on the ground, and then went after Anna and her sister."

Spitfire brought some peas to her mouth and chewed them up once they came off the spoon. "And… what did the elders of Greenwood do to warrant being killed?" Soarin asked.

Rainbow looked at him. "Trust me, you do not want to know," she replied bluntly. "Besides, if you ask Anna directly, she might have to be restrained. It's a sore topic for her."

Soarin nodded, and sighed. "She'll tell us on her own time?" he wagered.

Rainbow shook her head. "No; the information is… sensitive," she answered. "Like… like how our wings are sensitive to air currents and temperatures and things like that. Mainly because if the Canterlot nobles learned about it, they'd probably try shunting her into something she wouldn't want, if they actually had the power to do so."

Spitfire nodded. "Or at least, try severely pressuring her into whatever whims they want," she surmised. "Though they're more likely to spout racist platitudes at her, given her preferred company." She fed herself another spoonful of food and chewed on it. "I mean… that stupid plan to initiate war with Fantasia had to be the dumbest bunk of horse manure I've ever seen. It's clear that most of the nobility aren't thinking things through regarding Fantasia, because they have no information to work with."

"Well, that lack of information worked out in their favor—it means the nobles can't plan as easily for them as they could for Celestia," Thunderlane said, pausing to chew on some bread. "Sure, the nobles know what they look like, but not what they can do," he added once he had swallowed.

"And even then, Celestia will still be able to run laps around them, without even needing to try," High Winds chimed in, shaking her head as she took a sip of her drink. "She's lived longer than most nobles can say they've had their entire Houses exist. Even if they had precognitive ponies in their families, they've probably wasted those talents keeping their Houses afloat while damning all else."

"Then again, entitlement blinds you to everything you don't consider important…" Misty Fly muttered, frowning as she took a bite of a vegetable pie. "And they probably don't consider the Fantasian military as important as, say, Princess Luna's return—even though they probably should in the coming years."

"Wouldn't be surprised if one stuffy noble tried proposing to Natalie, and I also wouldn't be surprised if she slapped them in the face after," Rainbow said, shaking her head at the mental image. "They take love, freedom, and consent here seriously—and in their eyes, arranged marriages fly in the face of all of that. I'll bet you ten bits, a biscuit, and several bridles that the nobles are gonna be upset when they learn that the Aerie has outlawed the practice."

Spitfire raised her brow. "Wait, arranged marriages are illegal here?" she asked.

Rainbow nodded firmly. "Yeah—especially if it's a foal marrying an older stallion. Said older stallions of such unions, they just vaporize with their space laser," she affirmed. "And oh yeah, speaking about their space laser… basically, ancient magitek whose controls the Aerie has hacked, the firing part of which is in the atmosphere somewhere, and which they don't use that often because of how deadly it is. It's called the ION Cannon—Incineration Orbital Neutralization."

Spitfire whistled. "So, the Aerie has all sorts of fancy toys… I wonder if we can get some," she quipped.

"Well, it's ancient feline technology, so they might be able to replicate it so easily," Rainbow replied with a shrug.

"But once they do, they might be on par with Equestria—and for a city-state, that's honestly a terrifying thought," Thunderlane said, taking a swig of water. "I'm just glad they're willing to give friendship and diplomacy a shot."

"Yeah. Too bad the nobles don't like that at all," Soarin said, shaking his head. He turned to Rainbow and added, "Ever since you've been here, we've been getting letters from the nobles non-stop, telling us that we should mobilize an air force to take over Fantasia from the skies, while battlemages and earth ponies wage war on the ground… because they think that Fantasia has cloud cities like we do."

Rainbow frowned. "You're not pulling my leg, are you?" she asked.

Soarin shook his head. "No, I am not," he affirmed. A plaid portal, no bigger than a bar of soap, opened up a few inches above the table, and deposited a half-opened letter embossed with the wax seal of a mountain of bits overlaid by a crest sporting a crowned unicorn's head. Rainbow's frown deepened, and she picked up the letter to study the wax seal as the portal closed. She turned to Soarin again.

"This came from Blueblood's 'dad,' didn't it?" she hissed. At Soarin's mute node, Rainbow snorted and unfolded the letter in full, brow furrowing as she read the cursive gobbledygook trying to pass itself off as something coherent. As with the plan to initiate war with Fantasia through a seedy hotel of all things, this sort of rambling could only be found in a nuthouse where the inmates truly did run the asylum. She didn't even bother reading the letter in full, instead opting to skim over the parts that would have made her brain hurt if she even tried applying the barest hints of logic and common sense to them. It was a miracle that the one who had penned the letter hadn't been banished sooner from Equestria.

In fact, the letter itself didn't make a lick of sense, beyond calling the Wonderbolts 'worthless feather dusters' and 'weather factory rejects' on top of its insane demands for them to mobilize an air squadron for wiping out Fantasia's supposed cloud cities. And it had been a good thing he'd been banished; otherwise, he might have poisoned the rest of the Canterlot nobility with his flagrant stupidity. Maybe hearing about what happened to him in his banishment would shape the rest of the nobles up, at least enough to not follow their conspiring compatriot who thought it would be a good idea to commit treason to the Crown.

Rainbow crumpled the letter in her hooves, ruining the wax seal and parchment as she rolled them into a ball. "Against the Aerie's airships, you guys would've had a hard time against the cannons if Equestria just invaded without preparing first," she said, tossing the letter up into the air to watch it land on the table. She crushed it under her hoof, flattening it into a disc. "At least, until you would've broken a window to disable the pilot."

Spitfire nodded. "And barring Redpine, the sky pirates, and the Aerie, how much prepared-ness would we have had to deal with, if we did end up invading Fantasia?" she asked.

Rainbow shook her head. "Small hamlets, each of them backwater in comparison," she answered. "And because only mercenaries outside of the Aerie have their cutie marks these days, you'd have practically steamrolled over everypony." She sighed. "Only the sky pirates and the Aerie would have put up any real fight, if invasion were to happen." She shuddered at the thought. "Not to mention, I'd think the nobles would advocate for war crimes on our end, just to stick it to the Fantasians."

"... the standard faire, I would assume?" Spitfire asked, raising a brow.

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried bringing back geas magic for the more… questionable parts of that faire," she answered uncomfortably.

Spitfire nodded, crossing her hooves over one another upon the table. "Given the letters we have received from ex-Duke Blueblood alone, I wouldn't be surprised either," she said unhappily. "Makes me glad Celestia dealt with him before he could carry out his plans." She sighed. "Wouldn't be surprised if he also stuffed Cadence's mailbox with his own letters too…" Another portal opened up above the table, and deposited another letter with the same symbol as the previous one embossed on the wax seal. Unlike the one addressed to the Wonderbolts, it was unopened, and addressed to Cadence, though it looked like it had never seen a mailbox before in its life. Perhaps it was never meant to be sent?

Rainbow grabbed the letter and opened it, her brow furrowing at what she beheld. As with the last letter, she skimmed over much of the nonsensical gloating, and got to the meat of the letter. Basically, the writer of the parchment promised to… neutralize Shining Armor and put Cadence with somepony they thought would better benefit her station and title as a princess, while also dismissing Love itself as a senseless platitude that would have no place in the new order of things that the letter promised. Whatever that new order was… Rainbow did not want to find out.

She looked squarely at Spitfire. "I'll be right back; I think Shining should see this," she said, spreading her wings and standing up to disengage herself from the table. Spitfire nodded, and watched as Rainbow got a bit of distance from the table before taking off with the letter in hoof. It didn't take long before the changeling soldiers began to hiss as they talked among each other, as though they were sensing the foul mood that the second parchment contained.

Rainbow returned to the table and sat back down moments later. "Yeah… Shining's showing the letter to the changelings, and let's just say it might as well be a slap in the face for them," she said, frowning. "Let's just say things might have gotten worse for Blueblood's dad in the Iron Hold…"

"So… they're basically calling for his death, and potential re-death if he somehow comes back as a wraith after," Soarin surmised unhappily, brow furrowing as Rainbow nodded.

"And if he does become a wraith, they'll probably just have Katie drain him dry. Or turn him into an ice cube. I think either way would suit her just fine, if she somehow doesn't do both to him at once," Rainbow added, shaking her head. "I will even go as far as to say that I think many of the Canterlot nobles wouldn't give a rat's plot about the Aerie's motto of consent, love, and freedom because they're thinking that everypony else must think like they do—only to start whining the instant they learn that they're liable to be slapped upside the head by Lance and his Lieutenants, if Celestia doesn't slap them first."

Spitfire nodded. "That way of thinking probably contributed to a lot of problems over Equestria's years… how Celestia hasn't stamped it out, I can only wonder," she muttered, ruffling her wings with the thought. "Truth be told, I'm glad the soldiers here don't think like that at all."

Rainbow nodded once more, smiling at that brief bit of good. "Though, I wonder… since the ponies of Goldenbrick and Whitefall were attacked, would they help out with the tsunami?" she asked.

Spitfire shook her head. "They can if they want, but… honestly, we shouldn't expect them too," she said, a mite severely. "Besides, their worlds turned upside-down very recently, so… we should let them adjust first."

Thunderlane nodded. "Although, I wouldn't be surprised if they helped anyway," he pointed out. "Their homes were destroyed, so they have some major beef with Redpine. And while they might not have their cutie marks, they can still earn them in the long run."

"Yeah… and truthfully, if they want to help, they're gonna have to earn their marks as soon as possible," Soarin agreed with a ruffle of his wings. "But if they do so, how would they help?" As he asked that, he heard the sound of particularly heavy hoofsteps approaching their table, and turned to the side to find Bartholomew trotting up to them with ears perked and attentive.

"I think I know of a way to help out," Bartholomew said, wearing an enigmatic smile on his face. "It might be unconventional, but it could work…"

Chapter CXII—Trident's Prongs

Bartholomew kept his rare smile as he began to elaborate on his plan, "While you guys are training the air forces, I'll train the ground forces… at least, those who consist of ponies just brought here. Because from what I've seen… those ponies don't know much about manipulating their innate magic, if at all, beyond what tradition told them was acceptable." He gestured to the leather armor he still wore, and then angled his body to lift one flap of it up to show his cutie mark.

Soarin frowned. "But… the ponies of Whitefall and the other towns aren't part of the military," he pointed out.

Bartholomew nodded. "However… they don't need to be military, but rather working with the military," he replied. "Because they're going to have to rebuild their towns anyway, so it would only make sense to collaborate on that little issue. But they can't quite do that until the bastards that razed the towns are dealt with, so…"

Spitfire nodded. "Well, we're gonna need all the help we can get—the bastards who made the assaults, or at least, the portion of their forces that stayed their hooves, have joined the ranks of undead," she said.

Bartholomew's eyes narrowed. "Willingly, or otherwise?" he tersely asked.

"The leaders, willingly; everypony else, not so much," Thunderlane replied.

Bartholomew nodded, and sighed sadly. "Figured as much. Wouldn't make sense for the lackeys to be willing, with everything else Fantasia's thrown at me," he said. He smiled ruefully. "You don't make it to fifty and still not be sharp after all."

Soarin blinked. "You're fifty?" he asked. "You don't look a day over twenty!"

Bartholomew kept smiling. "Well, I've been keeping sharp since I was a colt. Kinda had to, since I was orphaned," he said with a shrug. "Must be a side-effect of hanging around Eve and Andrew so much—their longevity must've rubbed off on me somehow, and they haven't used forbidden magics around me at all."

Bartholomew's shadow stretched, split in two, and from the split shade Eve and Andrew materialized, grinning up at him. "Aw come on, we all know that's your strong earth pony magic keeping you young~" Andrew chirped, elbowing his in-law in his left foreleg. "You're still in your prime, bucko."

Eve grinned salaciously. "If we wanted, we could give Matt a sibling," she added, causing Bartholomew to blush. "But not so soon; we still have some issues that need sorting out first."

"Anyway," Bartholomew began, shaking off his embarrassment, "I've noticed that not many ponies of Whitefall and Goldenbrick are… well-versed in their tribal magics. Unicorns barely cast if at all, and nothing so complex as needing a basic magic circle. Earth ponies… they barely grow anything—unless it's the few hardened mercenaries already running around. That's what I'd like to rectify."

Spitfire glanced at Eve. "And if we went this route, would you end up teaching the unicorns… corruptive magics?" she asked.

Eve shook her head. "I most certainly would not," she hissed, eyes narrowing and smile falling. "I refuse, absolutely refuse to make any more Umbrum in that underhoofed way. Besides, if shadows are dancing… the rest of the Umbrum are acting."

Spitfire frowned at Eve's sudden hostility towards the topic. "And l would generously assume that they're not benevolent, given your expression…" she said cautiously.

Eve grimly nodded. "No. Me and Andrew… we were the only ones who disagreed, and for our dissent, we were cast out of Umbrum society," she affirmed. Her shadows contorted, and she and her brother nodded as one. "We should probably reveal our true forms to you… so you can prepare for what the Umbrum really look like, in the complete absence of light, and what they are capable of when they spread their wings."

Her body stretched, bones popping and reconfiguring as her body twisted into living shadow, legs thinning alongside her chest and barrel to something emaciated. At the same time, flesh, fur, and bones melted into living darkness, and twisted mockeries of butterfly-like wings spread from her backside, before then reconfiguring into mockeries of pegasus wings. Her horn lengthened further, and her eyes glowed like hellish lights promising suffering. Fangs jutted from her mouth, not quite as long or prominent as a changeling's set, but still sharp just the same. Unusually, she kept her purple coloration for her true form, but now it was so dark a purple that it could have been easily mistaken for black.

Andrew underwent the same process, except he was the taller, almost-black maroon colored, and larger-winged of the pair. And in their wings, which they spread wide, images flashed within their feathers. Spitfire paled upon seeing every fear she ever had throughout her life playing within those limbs, from mortality taking its toll on her, to being rendered powerless and unable to do anything about it. Every fear that every equine had ever known in Equestria flashed in her eyes and in those wings, like a mirror dredging up every secret ever buried in the depths of her soul. A wave of primal fear overcame her, and instinctively, she backed away before bumping into Soarin, taking in a shuddering breath upon beholding the wave of crippling fear in full. She trembled considerably, and so did the rest of the Wonderbolts as they, too, stared into the spread wings that relayed their own fears back upon them.

Eve and Andrew closed their wings, and reverted back to their more equine disguises. "Once the rest of the Umbrum surface… they will try to use your fears against you. The Umbrum royal family is the strongest… and we should know—we're the now-illegitimate scions of the late King," Eve said, shaking her head. She turned to Bartholomew and smiled up at him. "Fortunately, we have… an expert here, in taking those projected fears head-on."

Spitfire turned to Bartholomew. "What… happened, exactly?" she hedged.

Bartholomew smiled. "After their banishment, they were causing trouble around the countryside, petty thievery and the like. I was one of the few who charged through, and beat them in direct combat—I made a rule where they couldn't use their magic through their horns or wings. They weren't… as versed with their earth magic as they should have been," he said, turning to Eve to flash her a smile. "Then we came to a truce, and I took them home to get them accustomed to regular pony life. We've been family since."

Andrew smiled. "Did us a lot of good, at least, before we found out how far-reaching the Umbrum's hold was throughout Fantasia," he said. "And… we hadn't trained much anyway during our long lives, because royalty was of the mind that they shouldn't have to prepare for anything until they ascend the throne. We got the barest grasp on our abilities through finding shit out on our own—no more, and no less."

Spitfire frowned. "So basically, their mentality is 'let the King run the show, and don't question his methods,'" she surmised.

Andrew nodded. "Yep. And just before we were booted out, the throne changed hooves anyway, because the old King… well, he died in his sleep, in peace, knowing that his plans would continue," he said. His smile fell. "I bet you, he's rolling in his grave right now, because he did not expect his grandkids to mingle with normal ponies."

Eve grinned. "Much less produce kids," she added.

"Quick… quick question," Soarin began, his voice trembling with hesitation, "does… does Matt have those wings? The ones showing everything we're afraid of…?"

Eve nodded. "He manifested them once, when he and Natalie were toddlers. Scared the living daylights out of her, and he hasn't manifested them since, as far as I know," she said. "Largely because I had to explain to him why the shadow-wings are a very bad thing." She sighed and wilted a bit. "Trust me, that was not a fun day… but at least we got them to hug at the end of that fiasco."

Eve's shadow stretched, contorted, and resolved into a frowning Matt. "I thought we agreed to never talk about that again," he grumbled indignantly. "I know you're talking logistics in the face of whatever the fuck is going to come at us after we sort out Redpine, but for the love of Godcat, don't drag me through the obsidian, Mom."

Eve sighed. She turned around and moved to give Matt a hug, which he reciprocated with one hoof. "Sorry, sorry… I just fear the rest of the Umbrum are showing their hooves now," she mumbled.

Matt's frown deepened. "Oh yeah, the rest of the family tree…" he grumbled. He looked at Spitfire. "I've heard quite a few things about those fucknuggets…"

"Nothing good, I assume?" Thunderlane asked.

Matt nodded. "Nothing good," he confirmed unhappily, as Eve broke the hug. "And another thing: don't ask me to manifest my shadow-wings; Umbrum are immune to them by default, unless you can dispel their shadows with a bright-enough light. And for that, we'd need to steal the sun from Celestia."

Spitfire nodded, and frowned as a thought hit her. "Do you think the Umbrum consider Redpine's ponies… allies?" she asked.

Eve shook her head, and turned back to the Wonderbolts with a frown. "No, they consider them less than pawns," she answered unhappily. "They consider everypony not of their clan less than equine."

"Which means that, when they do finally rear their heads, they will give no quarter whatsoever," Soarin said, brow furrowing at the thought. "And our lightning might not be enough to dispel their shadows, even if we somehow manage to conjure enough of it."

Andrew smiled, though. "I think I know something bright enough for the task…" He turned to Matt. "Where's Natz at?"

Matt sighed. "I'll go get her," he replied, and with that, he started to meld back into shadows when the sound of hooves on tile stopped him. He turned to the tables, and found Natalie trotting between some with her wings ruffling. "... or maybe the soldiers will beat me to it," he said.

Natalie frowned as she approached the Wonderbolts. "Alright, who started yakking about shadow-wings?" she asked.

"I did… because we might be having more on our plate soon," Eve answered. "You remember all those… relatives I told you about, the ones I didn't like?" At Natalie's nod, she elaborated, "Well, they might be preparing to strike, so I'm taking care to inform the appropriate parties about their skillsets so they can be prepared."

Natalie sighed, her wings drooping a bit. "And that makes me glad my wings aren't like that…" she grumbled under her breath. "Anyway, why was I called?"

"Well… we're gonna need a strong-enough light to dispel Umbrum shadows, and your magic fits the bill," Andrew said. "More specifically, your Hellfire spell."

Natalie frowned. "So, you want me to drop supernovas, is this what I'm hearing?" she asked. At Andrew's nod, she sighed. "Just when I got over the meteor-flinging accusations from Greenwood…" Her head shook, and her wings spread downwards to hit the floor. After a few seconds, she lifted her head back up. "Are we dealing with just a few relatives, or an entire damn army?"

Eve frowned. "Yes," she answered, shaking her head. "In the times before we got kicked out of the family, they've converted a fair number of unicorns into Umbrum servants, so… we're looking at least at an army of thousands. And their realm has the infuriating ability to change where it's door is located at a whim, so… they'll be hard to locate and counter through the tried and true storming-the-gates method."

Natalie pulled her wings back up, closing them at her sides. "So basically, the bastards could strike from anywhere they wanted," she said, brow furrowing at that information.

"As long as the area isn't populated, yes," Eve confirmed with a nod. "For all we know, the door could be currently at Greenwood's former location, and nobody barring me and Andrew would know what the damn thing looks like."

"And speaking of doors, what does it look like?" Rainbow asked, crossing her forelegs.

"Well… think of shadows, in the vague shape of doors, lined with black crystal acting as the frame and knob. It can only be opened from within, by members of the clan who haven't been kicked out, for they carry the keys that can open and close it at will—a purely magical door, leading to a realm of absolute shadow, which within lies a mighty castle of blackened crystal," Eve said, shaking her head. "It can only be forced from outside otherwise, and only then, by ponies able to grow the same black crystal making up the frame and knob, and able to make a replica key."

Rainbow frowned, and slowly turned to Natalie. "Does your mom know about your…" she trailed off, using a hoof to indicate her other hoof.

Natalie frowned. "No, she doesn't…" Then she got what Rainbow was trying to tell her, and sighed as she willed forth the crystals from her own flesh, lighting her horn to heal the wounds as they sprang forth.

Eve's frown deepened as she turned to regard the black crystals now adorning her adoptive daughter, watching as they failed to sparkle despite the lights overhead. "That… is exactly the type of crystal I am talking about," she muttered. "When did this start happening?"

"After I confronted Akron the first time, and got drained for the trouble," Natalie answered. "Though I didn't start controlling this until after Akron was slain."

Eve's frown eased a bit. "So… Akron may have cursed you," she surmised unhappily. At Natalie's nod, she sighed. "Well, that's bad news… but it also tells me he might have eaten an Umbrum to be able to have that power at all." She shook her head, and rubbed the back of it with one hoof. "Which tells me, either that Umbrum he ate got free, or they had been fully subsumed by Akron before he was slain, and went down with him—and I'm strongly leaning towards the former, since your crystals can only be dispelled by your will."

"Yeah, Umbrum… don't digest easily, I would think," Andrew said, shaking his head. "Because Godcat and Faust didn't create the tribes of Umbrum, I'm pretty sure They don't know what to do with the whole lot."

"Wait, so Akron had to eat ponies just to steal their powers?" Rainbow asked, frowning as she struggled to understand the concept. "That sounds… that sounds stupidly complex, not to mention difficult."

"It would… if he weren't a god of death created by Godcat," Natalie retorted. "And before he was sealed, nobody was really safe from him. Hell, me and the others had to fight and slay him at a fraction of our power, and killing him gave us the rest of our strength back."

Rainbow shuddered at the unspoken meaning. "So he almost… ate your souls," she surmised.

Natalie nodded. "Worst thing was finding out he could make homunculi afterwards—because said homunculi were running around, causing mayhem and blaming us for it, taking after the absolute worst aspects of us in terms of personality. And the homunculi were based on us at full strength, so… we wound up reshaping the territory we found the fuckers in," she affirmed. She turned to her adoptive mother. "And if that Umbrum had been subsumed, that means that bastard has a homunculus running around, stirring shit up for him." Her brow furrowed. "Now that I think about it, even though Katie escaped being subsumed, that might still mean she's got a homunculus of her own also stirring the shit pot…"

Eve frowned at the troubling news. "Do you think that figure that Tequila's crew saw… was the potential homunculus?" she asked.

Natalie nodded. "Would make sense for them to be wearing a cloak, too—better to hide that aspect from those it wouldn't want to reveal itself to. Would also explain where that equine-shaped crystal golem came from, if that homunculus has the power to make crystal homunculi of its own…" She turned to her adoptive mother. "Do Umbrum have that skill by default?"

Eve nodded. "But only skilled Umbrum mages can make the crystal homunculi do anything of note," she affirmed bitterly.

Rainbow frowned, and looked at Natalie. "So… those homunculi you've killed… what happened to them?" she asked.

Natalie sighed. "They sorta… became a permanent part of me and the others, and we can call them at will. Basically, we can restore their bodies, but they're bound to us and us alone. We… don't like using them, because their dark desires are magnified from ours a thousandfold," she answered. "That said, if you want me to summon Natalia, you'd be safe, because we keep them on tight leashes."

"Natalia?" Spitfire asked.

"What I've named my homunculus," Natalie replied with a shrug. "Then there's Lancelot, Lance's homunculus, and Matteus, Matt's homunculus. And if we do call them, they have the worst mouths you'd ever heard on ponies, artificial or otherwise." She sighed, and then rolled her eyes at something. "And speaking of, Natalia just piped up in my head to… 'advise' me to burn all of Redpine down. It seems she missed the 'they became lava wraiths' part of the equation."

"They commune telepathically when not summoned?" Spitfire put a hoof to her chin. "That's… particular." She looked at the crystals adorning Natalie's body. "Is that an aspect of your homunculus that you're borrowing?"

"No; that would be her scythe," Natalie answered bluntly, shaking her head. "And also, the homunculi are asleep most of the time, because they're often bored to tears when not sowing mayhem." Her shadow stretched, repositioned to stand at her side, and anchored a chain to her hoof. Natalie took notice of this and sighed. "And here we go, she's calling herself, apparently… if I know how this is gonna go, she's gonna lodge complaints…" The shadow lay there for a moment before moving up off the ground to reform into a vague equine shape that then gained definitive features as more of it materialized into existence.

The resulting creature, chained to Natalie's hoof, only vaguely looked like her, sporting a religiously-iconed hat and dress with fire motifs, and with leathery bat-like wings at her sides adorned with black feathers. Her horn was sharpened to a wicked point with two more horns framing it on either side of her head, her coat a sickly reddish-ashen and sporting black crystals glowing with the power of flame, and her mouth looked like it was half-melting, half-stitched shut. Her twisted face came complete with black abysses housing hellishly-colored orbs. Her face and neck were framed by blackened bangs and long, oily-black hair flowing in an invisible wind, glowing with a profaned, dim light only barely reminiscent of the voluptuous mane it sought to imitate. She turned to her counterpart and scowled.

"Oh come on, you didn't tell me those sinful ponies of Redpine became wraiths! Now what am I supposed to do to purge them of their sins?!" the creature yelled in a pouting voice that echoed, before Natalie's hoof lifted up to grip her by the head.

"I don't know, maybe use the ice magic you copied off of me to smash them into smithereens? Not everything has to burn, Natalia," Natalie said, shaking her head. "Besides, either way, the sinful go to Hell regardless of how we kill them—we both know this."

"But that's no fun!" Natalia hissed, petulantly stomping a hoof. Rainbow noticed that her hooves were cloven, and cracked, made of the same black crystal adorning her counterpart's body. "And nor is it just! It is not the right way to do things!"

Natalie flicked her gaze towards Rainbow, and then rolled her eyes as if to say, 'and this is why I don't summon my homunculus.' She then redirected her attention back to said homunculus and replied, "If I need you to burn ponies, I'll call you, okay? In the meantime, go back to the shadows of my soul, and wait until then."

Natalia glowered. "Fine…" she hissed, and with that, she dissolved into shadows and reverted Natalie's shadow back to its former position, taking the chain off of her counterpart's hoof as she went.

Rainbow wilted a bit. "That was weird… can you not do that again?" she asked.

Natalie nodded. "I can do that," she affirmed. She turned to Matt, to see if his shadow would contort, and found him glowering at it.

"No, you cannot come out and munch on the Wonderbolts' feathers," Matt said to his shadow, which flinched like a scalded puppy.

"B-but—" his shadow, or more accurately, the being taking up residence within it protested.

"No," Matt said firmly. "The Wonderbolts are not edible. And while we're on the subject, you can't eat the wraiths of Redpine either, because I'm pretty sure lava will hurt you coming out."

"You're no fun…" the being within Matt's shadow protested, crossing its hooves like a petulant child. After a moment, his shadow reverted back to normal.

Natalie sighed and turned back to Rainbow. "Just be glad you don't have to wake up some mornings, with your own homunculus looming over you and trying to stick their hooves where they don't need to go," she said curtly. "Or the homunculi of your companions, for that matter."

Rainbow frowned. "And lemme guess, we can't train the homunculi," she said.

"In weather, no. And besides, it's a 'to the victor, the loser becomes the slave' situation," Natalie replied with a shrug. "Trust me, it's a weird situation."

Spitfire crossed her forelegs. "Would Natalia have any intel on the Umbrum, who might have their own homunculus?" she asked.

Natalie considered the question, then motioned to her shadow with a hoof. In seconds, Natalia popped back into existence with a frown on her face. "When I was created, I did not see any Umbrum… well, besides Matteus, but I don't think he counts," she answered. "I did see an Umbrum homunculus, but he took off once Akron finished molding him. I also saw a changeling homunculus, but she didn't stick around, either."

Eve frowned. "What did they look like?" she asked.

Natalia's brow furrowed. "The Umbrum homunculus really liked cloaks… and had glowing green eyes. He had a penchant for teleporting, and weird, choreographed, sinful dancing," she said. "As for the changeling homunculus, child-like, black mane, black wings and carapace from snout to tail. She pretty much went with the Umbrum, by hitching a ride in his cloak. There was a fourth homunculus that Akron was making, based on loose observations of Greenwood he had made while in the Void, but he never got around to finishing that one before he was slain. The Tormentor is the last homunculus that I know of, though given his skillset and being able to teleport through ash, he only barely counts. He was the first homunculus Akron ever created, and later converted into an enforcer of Godcat."

Spitfire frowned. "So… the Tormentor would lead you guys, if you hadn't gotten into the situation you're in now?" she hedged.

Natalia laughed and shook her head. "He was never meant to be a leader, merely an enforcer!" she cackled, before reverting back to her petulant composure. "As for the Umbrum homunculus, I'm not sure what's running through his sinful head, and frankly, I do not wish to know either way." She turned to her counterpart and added, "And no, I cannot divine where he is at this time… that is, as of this moment. Most of my power was absorbed when I lost that fateful duel, so I am only at a fraction of what I was, unless allowed to unleash the full brunt of it." Her ears twitched, and her frown returned with a vengeance. "... I can, however, sense that unfinished homunculus… harassing her counterpart, as it were."

Natalie's brow furrowed. "Lemme guess: Godcat permitted this," she said bluntly.

Natalia nodded. "Though, She might have had to finish construction first," she affirmed. At that moment, Anna teleported over, with a homunculus double looking like she had crawled from the pits of Hell attached to one of her hind legs. Everyone turned to that double, grinning up at her new mistress rather… salaciously.

"Oh come on!" Anna's double said, her curling horns glowing with fell power. "Why won't you let me have a turn?!"

"I barely know you!" Anna pouted, trying to kick her double off to no avail. "Besides, you only came to me in my dreams last night, and told me all the foul shit you wanted to do to Lance! No!" Another fruitless kick transpired, but the double would not let go with her cloven hooves so easily. "Both you and Agonizing Ailment are complete perverts on top of murder-happy hornets!"

Natalia facehoofed. "It seems I am surrounded by sinners, and lunatics… very well. I shall retreat to my shade, for now," she grumbled, and moved to do just that before Anna's homunculus could notice her presence.

"Come on! You're stingy with your desires, and—" Another kick silenced Anna's double with a claw right to the chin, her sharpened teeth clacking together as she was struck. Once she had regained her senses, she rubbed her chin and grumbled. "Okay, fine… you win this time, prude…" With that, she had retreated into Anna's shadow before anyone could get a good look at her, but they did notice her fur was a deep, bloody marron with a soot black mane and a spade-tipped, leonine tail to match.

"That was weird…" Anna grumbled, before turning to the rest of the gathered group. "So, did I miss anything, while that horny bitch was trying to cop a feel?" Silence answered her, with the Wonderbolts in particular giving her a very strange look that betrayed their confusion.

"Uh, Anna… I might need to pull you aside for a moment…" Natalie said, cautiously spreading a wing to pull her fellow Lieutenant close. Once she had been reeled in, she leaned in to whisper an overdue explanation into her ear. Anna's eyes widened as she got the gist of it, and frowned once Natalie pulled away.

"So… um… wow…" Anna muttered, unable to dredge up the words needed to accurately convey her confusion without confusing herself even more than she was before. "So… that's why…" At Natalie's mute nod, she frowned. "... can I go to the watering hole tonight, just this once?" she asked.

Natalie nodded again. "I'll keep an eye on you while you're there, and take you to bed after," she affirmed. "Because trust me, when my homunculus merged with me, I had the same reaction."

Anna wilted a bit. "Will Lance be okay with it, though?" she asked.

Natalie nodded. "If he hadn't seen your homunculus from the booth, which I doubt he missed, he'll allow it," she affirmed. "And if he had missed that altercation, I'll give him the scoop and take the brunt of it." She turned to Spitfire. "So, before we were rudely interrupted by our homunculi, what were we talking about again?"

Chapter CXIII—Trickling Anxiety

The last bit of training before the day concluded came around, and Spitfire nodded to herself as she watched the troops gather. She turned to Anna and asked, "So, that… horny pony… demon thing," she said, trying not to sound awkward. "You said she came to you last night, in a dream?"

Anna nodded. "Yeah, and then there was a miscommunication, and we wound up fighting. I won, despite having a disadvantage," she answered with a shrug. "Afterwards, she told me that Godcat finished her up, sent her my way to be merged with me, and called herself 'Annabelle,' before trying to cop a feel. And then I woke up, and found her in the waking world, touching me." Anna shuddered. "Took me five minutes for my half-asleep brain to figure out how to give the mental command to stop, and pull a tactical retreat. I swear, Annabelle blew me a raspberry once she was told to lay off."

"And I assume she's been telepathically pestering you since," Spitfire guessed, to which Anna nodded.

"Not only is she… horny, but she's really, really violent," Anna added, shuddering again. "Like… 'she wants to hang up the now-undead ponies of Redpine on her wall as trophies' levels of violent, as well as stuffing them to make them look extremely lifelike."

Lance's shadow contorted, repositioned, and attached a manacle to his hoof before his homunculus surfaced himself up from it. The thing… was half alicorn, half machine, with mechanical wings, a triad of suspect mechanical horns, and mechanical claws on front and hind hooves and all were adorned with magitek crystals. He was with maroon fur and a mixture of oily black hair and misplaced scarlet wires for a mane and tail. Weirdly, and Spitfire had to take a few seconds to notice this because of the homunculus' wing size and the way he was positioned, she found that he was in a chastity cage.

Lance turned to his homunculus and bapped him upside the head with a hoof, shaking his head firmly. "No, you do not get to romance the new homunculus," he growled, causing his homunculus to shrink back ever so slightly into his shadow. "Besides, I think you're the cheesiest bastard there is, when it comes to horrible pick-up lines. You couldn't swoon a tortoise steak off of my flank, much less a burned one off of Natalia, and you have a snowball's chance in hell of doing likewise for the new girl."

"B-but I could optimize her desires, turn her lust into resources, and—" That was met with a hoof being jammed between mechanical teeth.

"No," Lance growled, sclera turning black as he glared damningly at his homunculus. "Go back to the pits of my soul, and stay there." The homunculus wilted like a scalded puppy, and did as he was told without delay. "Fucker's worse than I am…" he grumbled, turning back to Spitfire with a rather heated expression that softened as soon as he made eye contact. He blinked, and his sclera turned back to their standard pearly white.

"Daddy, am I allowed to talk to the robot-looking thing?" Maria asked.

Lance turned to her and shook his head. "No. He's a weird pony, and I don't want you hanging around him," he said bluntly. "Nor do I want you hanging around the other weirdo with the spade tail; she might try to do bad things."

Maria nodded. "Can I kick the robot-looking thing if he tries the bad things?" she asked.

Lance shook his head. "You'd hurt your hoof doing that; he has metal protecting his squishy bits," he answered. "Found that out the hard way myself…" he grumbled to nobody in particular. "I'd suggest aiming for the face, as long as it's not the teeth or the horn," he added.

"Okay," Maria said with a nod.

"So… what prompted the homunculi to awaken?" Soarin asked.

Lance turned to him and frowned. "Well, Lancelot said that Godcat being summoned the other day roused him from slumber, so he's been keeping tabs on everything since," he answered with a sigh. "Matteus and Natalia might have the same excuse."

Spitfire nodded. It would make sense for the homunculi to be up and about in limited capacity, then, if Godcat showed up. "Are they going to go back to sleep?" she asked.

Lance shook his head. "Probably not, because now that they're awake, they're going to sift through our memories—part of fusing with us and all—and get caught up information-wise before doing so. In the meantime, expect… questionable advice from them if they do emerge from our shadows," he answered. "He's probably going to react… poorly… to the news of my adopted filly and kid sister."

Spitfire frowned. "Not too fond of children, I take it?" she asked.

Lance shook his head again, his own frown deepening. "Lancelot considers them worse than pawns—at best, expendable," he answered bluntly. "The good thing about having him as a sapient alter ego, though, is that I can overrule him anytime I want. And if he needs further persuasion, I can apply percussive maintenance at my leisure."

Then his ears fell flat against his head. "And there it is… he's cussing now," Lance grumbled, eyes darkening by the tiniest noticeable margin. "Looks like he might need that percussive maintenance before bed after all…"

Natalie's ears, likewise, pinned back. "Natalia is squealing now… she's stomping her hooves…" she reported uncomfortably.

Anna's ears also pinned back. Then her head dropped to her shoulders. "... do I even want to repeat what Annabelle's saying?" she muttered, refusing to look anybody in the eye. She turned to Lance and added, "And also, she was looking forward to being hit on by your pet mechanical abomination…"

Lance's wings sagged, threatening to hit the steel ring he stood upon. "Are you serious…" he grumbled. At Anna's slow, hesitant nod, his wings snapped open and fell upon the steel ring. "Fantastic…" he grumbled. "Makes me not wonder what Matteus is saying at the moment…"

Spitfire sighed, and readied the megaphone before the homunculi could continue with their internal hissyfit. Soarin decided to ask Lance a question before Spitfire could make an order. "So, um… your whites." He gestured at his own eyes for emphasis. "Is that manifesting an aspect of your homunculus whenever you do that?"

Lance nodded. "Natalie and Matt can do the same thing," he answered, before turning to regard Anna. "And she might, now that she has her own pet homunculus to deal with. Before that, it was the curse trying to take over."

"Ah yeah, the Greenwood Blight…" Spitfire muttered, before lifting the megaphone to try again. "Now then, for this next exercise, we're going to need something a little—" A plaid and lightning portal opened up behind her, and promptly transplanted the Dizzitron, wires and all, upon the steel ring, albeit taking care to position the levers on the ring so the whole thing wouldn't fall off. "—special…" she finished weakly.

The portal closed up, and Spitfire lowered the megaphone to sigh into the air without translating it through said megaphone. She raised it again, after nudging Soarin to attend to the levers. "Now, I know: this isn't a part of weather training. But weather incorporates flight, and sometimes you just need to improvise on the wing… or the horn. And sometimes, you'll also need to push yourself to your limits, because spinouts can and will happen if you're not careful. Seeing as Redpine has an air force, they will do all they can for force spinouts to occur." Soarin turned the Dizzitron on, and it gave a steamy hiss as it activated, but did not spin its gears just yet.

"So, we'll need to test to see how fast you guys can fly straight, and then recover from spinouts, and how you guys improvise in the face of aerial adversity. You might want goggles for this," Spitfire warned, unwilling to question why Discord dragged the Dizzitron over, but also unwilling to rule out its use entirely. Anna lit her horn, summoned a pair of goggles, and enveloped it in light before it split into two lights and resolved into two whole sets of goggles.

"Duplication… interesting…" Spitfire noted, and watched as Anna proceeded to use her duplication spell to arm the entirety of the training regiment with safety gear. She and Natalie took further cues once everyone had goggles, and tied up their long manes into tight buns, though not before Anna let her hair down first in order to reconfigure it for the job. Katie, meanwhile, was tightening the straps of her goggles upon her head, making extra-certain that they were secure first. Spitfire looked at her and sighed. "You might be too frail for the Dizzitron, but just this once, I'll let you aboard it anyway…"

Maria grinned, and pronked in place even as she made sure her goggles were secure as well. "I get to ride the big spinny?!" she chirped in delight.

Spitfire sighed. She nodded to Misty Fly and nudged her in Maria's direction. Misty Fly took the cue without any need for a verbal command, and Thunderlane was sent in Katie's direction; better to take some caution with those two, than have any serious accidents happen. "Lance, you're first," she said.

Lance sighed, finished adjusting his goggles, and took a few moments to get into the air. He positioned himself on the larger gear, making sure to anchor his hooves to the massive railing that had been welded to it. It took him another moment to fit his wings in comfortably. Spitfire turned to Soarin. "Keep the settings for him low; we don't want him to spin out too badly," she said, even as Anna conjured a pocket watch and put it in her hoof. Spitfire saw the pocket watch, and sat on her haunches to motion it over to her own hooves, which levitated in her direction without delay.

Spitfire noticed the make and model of the pocket watch, unlike any she had seen before in Equestria. For the multiples of three, they were replaced with pictures of winged felines, and the pocket watch itself was magitek, with crystals for hands. Even the knob that would let her activate it was crystal, polished to a shining sheen. She made a mental note to not lose this watch, and was thankful it came with a simple cloth strap that she anchored around her neck for safekeeping. Another item was conjured for her and went into her hoof thanks to Anna, a clipboard adorned with a quill, and multiple papers containing the names of the participants of the exercise.

At her hooves was an ink well, and next to the names were labeled timesheets that were blank. This would do very nicely. She turned to the Dizzitron. "Activate," she said firmly, turning on the pocket watch with a deft flick of her hoof.

The Dizzitron was activated with a pull of the red lever, and started the pirouette of pain and sickness. Lance held on firmly, spinning slowly, though soon the wind began battering at his face and knocking his mane back, revealing the broken stub of his horn for all to see. The wind also tried flattening the skin on his face, and caused his chest feathers to fluff out as he revolved on the gear.

He went around a few times, before the Dizzitron was at max speed for its lowest settings. "Release!" Spitfire ordered, and Soarin pulled the red lever back to force the Dizzitron to halt, catapulting Lance into the sky at an angle with the momentum. Lance spun with the launch, and after five seconds spread his wings to flap repeatedly in order to stop the spinning. He flew back to the steel ring, and had to land at a gallop just to slow his momentum further. At least his landing was relatively smooth, compared to what Spitfire was expecting of him.

Spitfire turned off the pocket watch once Lance came to a full halt. She glanced at it. "... twenty-one seconds," she reported. "Okay, nothing to write home about, but I'll let it slide because of your wings." Her eyes zeroed in on Natalie. "Your turn," she said firmly.

Natalie sighed, secured the goggles, and levitated for her turn. Her wings ruffled uncomfortably. "Do I have to use my wings for this?" she asked.

"Considering they're worthless for flight, you… can, but only to slow yourself down if you have to," Spitfire answered. "I wouldn't rely on them too much." She turned to Soarin. "Slow for her as well—we don't want her so dizzy as to misfire any spells."

"Activate." With that command, the Dizzitron began another revolution, though a problem became immediately apparent as soon as it made one go-around. Natalie was trailing feathers everywhere; by the time the second revolution finished, there was a mess of them at the Dizzitron's feet. It seemed her wings would be more impractical for this than Spitfire thought, if she went without preening for who knows how long. Either that, or something else had gone wrong with her wings for them to be shedding feathers like this—genetics? Wounds? Inexperience in preening? Magical misfires of moderate ministrations?

She couldn't be sure, nor could she be sure of what had gone wrong when the neurons had their growth spurt to account for the wings emerging onto Fantasia, but she did know a pony who hadn't flapped a day in her life when she saw one—not so much as one daily wing exercise to prevent this very scenario. Not even the prospective cadets for the Wonderbolts would do this—and putting that with the whole weather training exercise pointed to one conclusion and one conclusion alone. This was a mare who had not, absolutely had not taken a single flying course a day in her life until today, and given the useless state of her wings, maybe the timing for such was just a few years too late.

Once more, she waited for the Dizzitron to be at max speed for the lowest settings. "Release!" As with Lance, Natalie had been launched into the air, tumbling in the open blue for three seconds before flashing her horn to stop herself cold. She made a wobbly return to the steel ring, eyes spinning and legs crossing over each other as she returned to the formation, her horn sparking fitfully before she collapsed on the ring.

Spitfire checked the pocket watch. "... seventeen-point-five seconds. I'll let it slide, but it's clear you're not cut out for flying," she said, keeping her voice neutral in case Natalie had heard her through the world spinning. She turned to Anna, and nodded in her direction. The Lieutenant teleported over to the gear, gripped the railing, and sighed.

Without needing another word, Soarin pulled the red lever again, and watched the timberpony go round and round. Spitfire noticed another irregularity: the vines were flailing in the wind. Sure, they would snap off if grabbed, and some were doing so for the lowest settings of the Dizzitron, but they were anchored to wood that, itself, was anchored to flesh. If a lava wraith wanted to get grabby, and get in some good third-degree burns while doing so, then Anna was practically a grab-rich environment—a trip to the medical wing waiting to happen. A fire hazard if she ever saw one.

Spitfire also made mental notes to account for teleportation, just in case things got sloppy. And they very likely would get sloppy, very shortly. She didn't need to make a command once the Dizzitron hit maximum speed; Soarin jerked the lever, and Anna went sailing into the air. Seven seconds—seven full seconds before she lit her horn, stopped herself cold, and teleported back onto the ring and collapsed with a sparking horn.

"Seven-point-five seconds… if I were training a standard Wonderbolts cadet, I'd say that teleporting is cheating… but since I'm not, I'll let it slide," Spitfire said, shaking her head. Another mare who hadn't flown a day in her life… then again, given the scars on her back, she likely didn't have much of a chance to do so either. She turned to Sarah, and nodded. "Let's see if you can handle spinouts better than your sister."

Sarah nodded, and flew over. She noted that, while she had been noting times and such, Sarah took the time to bunch her hair up into a bun. It seemed someone had snuck in a hair band to keep everything steady, and she hoped it would hold out for her turn. "You sure you got a good grip with your claws?" Spitfire asked. "Because your knuckles are looking a little white."

"I'm good," Sarah replied. "Just… trying to get a good grip angle on this thing."

"Well, given the railing's size, you'd need pretty big claws for the effort. If you have to, add some leverage with your hind legs," Spitfire advised, before nodding in Soarin's direction. The Dizzitron turned on, and unlike the other three, Sarah had no problems whatsoever—not a wing feather fluttering free from her wings, or anything like that. It seemed this one flew on the regular, when conditions permitted her to do so. At least the General and his Lieutenants had decent excuses for their relatively poor response times to spinouts—damaged wings was no laughing matter in the end. Or absurdly large wings that would require extra effort to flap, for that matter.

In fact, as soon as she was sent careening, Sarah twirled in the air for two seconds, spun in a single loop, and came in for a smooth landing on her hind legs. She smirked once she reverted to all fours. "I've had a harder time carrying goods while spinning out," she chirped, strutting back to the formation with confidence.

Spitfire checked the time. "... holy horseapples," she muttered. "Five seconds—the best time yet, and you're not even a Lieutenant-General." Well, at least she had found one with a decent amount of practice, all things considered. If Sarah were a prospective Wonderbolts cadet, she'd have been lead pony material. Not only that, but this would have been an academy record back home. She turned to Sarah. "How often do you fly?"

"Once on the daily, unless I am on an airship or equivalent, or if my wing is broken," Sarah answered with a shrug. "Been doing that, ever since I hightailed it out of Greenwood. Kinda had to, since most things that wanted to eat my face off were on the ground."

"It seems your sister could take some flying lessons from you. Just make sure she doesn't lose her lunch tonight," Spitfire said, before turning to Lazarus. He levitated over, and gripped the railing tightly. "Can you teleport?" she asked, only to garner a quick nod for an answer. Spitfire turned to Thunderlane for a moment. "Catch him if he can't recover in time," she ordered, and Thunderlane took to the air to respond at a moment's notice.

Once everything was set up, another revolution began. Like Sarah, Lazarus had virtually no problems whatsoever… but that was probably because of his lack of wings to present such indicators. Spitfire noticed, after a few revolutions, he didn't turn green in the face or start dry heaving. Had he, perhaps, self-levitated on the regular? Then again, his bird-and-spear mark probably pointed to a talent that might have been underdeveloped, if only because the mark itself seemed confusing on the superficial surface.

In fact, he had little to worry about, once he was sent sailing. He spun for three seconds, stopped himself cold, and as soon as he was stable in the air, he teleported over and plonked his butt down to wipe the small gathering of sweat off his brow. Thunderlane didn't even need to move from his post, even as Spitfire checked the time. "Seven-point-five seconds. Tell me, is this a regular occurrence for you?" she asked.

Lazarus nodded. "Though, I do the spinouts myself, more than they are forced onto me. You can get really creative with a spear, and how to stab ponies with it," he answered with a shrug.

Spitfire nodded, willing to buy the explanation. She paused to dip the quill into the inkwell, and note the times she had committed to memory so far. There was some promise with this military, but it seemed it needed a bit of coaxing to come out of the top brass. A part of her wanted to include Matt in on this, but someone had to be on map-sitting duty to keep an eye on Redpine in case its air force got creative somehow. That, and he was a mobile mass of darkness when he wished to be, so that might have counted as cheating.

Spitfire jotted down the times, put the quill back in the little rest the clipboard provided for it, and turned. She sighed, figuring there would be no getting out of this. "Alright, stick bug—let's see what you've got," she said. Katie flew up and snuggled into the rail, before extending her tongue and wrapping it around the rail several times. She pulled her tongue taut, and nodded before using a bit of slack from the extra length to bring a portion of the organ to her horn, which she stabbed into it to freeze it somewhat solid in order to anchor it to the railing better, if a little flexible all the same.

Interesting. Then again, Spitfire supposed the wraithling would have had to get creative just to use the Dizzitron at all. "You secure?" she asked, garnering a nod. She turned to Soarin. "Don't shred her wings too badly; launch her at half speed." Soarin nodded, and pulled the lever. Around and around the device span, and when it was at half speed, it was halted to launch her into the air. Curiously, Katie went off the railing with no issue; her tongue flew behind her, trailing ice and slobber as she went twirling into the air at speeds that would have been excruciating for a regular, still-living, emaciated pony.

Four wings snapped open, buzzed frantically, but managed to stabilize their owner after about six seconds, and Katie returned without her orbs spinning in her sockets. It took her a few extra seconds to retract her tongue, which had gotten tangled on a front leg and a back leg, but there was no issue to be had with the half-frozen organ. "Eh, had worse spinouts when my unlife began," she said with a shrug.

Spitfire noted the times, and the comment. "Thirteen seconds. If you had more meat on your bones, I'd have tried you at full speed. As it stands, it's passable," she said. She turned to Maria, and then to Misty Fly with a frown and some reluctance and discomfort shining in her eyes. "Truth be told, I'm not comfortable launching a kid off of the Dizzitron, but seeing as I've just done that with a wraith, I might not have much choice…"

Misty Fly gave a salute. "I'll ensure her safety, ma'am," she responded. Maria grinned and got airborne, her flight wobbly as she got herself situated into the railing. Misty Fly flew up as well, and snuggled into the railing alongside her. She ruffled Maria's mane with a hoof. "Just in case you can't land on your own, kiddo," she chirped.

Maria grinned, wings ruffling. "The big spinny will be fun!" she cheered, eyes sparkling.

Spitfire sighed. At least someone was having a blast with this. "Half speed," she said to Soarin. Soarin frowned, looking as uncomfortable about this as his Captain, but he didn't have the heart to disobey the command. He turned the Dizzitron on, watched until it was half speed, and halted it when it hit that critical sweet spot. Maria and Misty Fly went into the air, Maria tumbling helplessly for a bit before she remembered her wings and flapped to save her life. Misty Fly recovered quickly, and turned midair to ensure the child's safety. Fortunately, the foal was able to stop her pirouetting before dizziness could knock the wind from her wings.

It took a fair few seconds for the filly to remember how to make it back to the steel ring afterwards, and her flight trail was less than graceful. Misty Fly shadowed her wingbeats the whole way, making sure not to overpower her as she gradually made it back to the formation. Maria's flight dipped a little when she got to the edge of the steel ring afterwards, but she put extra power into her flaps to make it back safely. Misty Fly landed next to her, checking her over. "You okay?" she asked.

Maria nodded, despite wobbling because the world was spinning. "That was awesome! I wanna do it again!" she chirped.

"Maybe when you're older, and stronger," Misty Fly advised, holding Maria steady with a wing to escort her back into formation. She lead Maria to Lance, and sat down next to her to keep an eye on her.

Spitfire smiled, relieved that things had gone well despite her reservations. She noted the time. "Thirty seconds. Given you've only learned how to fly recently, and that you're a kid, I'll let it pass," she said. "You might wanna sit the rest of the exercise out, to get your claws steady again." She wrote the times down, and turned to the next soldier on the list. "I'm looking for a gryphon named Jeremy… where is he?"

Jeremy flew up, and got himself secured in. He grinned, tail swishing eagerly. "You good?" Spitfire asked.

"As good as I'll get!" Jeremy reported, giving a thumbs up. Spitfire nodded, and watched him go around and around. She had a feeling the rest of the night would be spent doing this, just to see how well the soldiers would respond to spinouts if push came to shove. She also had a feeling it would be worth it in the end, if only to prepare the military for these kinds of scenarios so that they would be able to form accurate responses to them on their own.

And yet… as the exercise dragged on, she had a niggling feeling in her gut, one that reminded her that the coming war with Redpine would not be a battle fought so easily, much less won without some form of casualty on either side. She took it as well as she documented the times; wraiths would be tricky beasts to slay after all, especially if they had reasons to cling to the realm of the living—Katie was proof enough of that.

It was good that her gut was providing her with clues to the wrongness about this whole thing—because if it hadn't, then surprises might have come unbidden, when it was too late to act on them. It was a sign her body was functioning as it should, and that her mind was as sharp as it had ever been. Anything less in this unorthodox situation simply would not have done otherwise, much less received any sort of pass from Princess Celestia if she ever heard about this.

Still… she was worried all the same. And she was concerned that her worries would not be so easily absolved at the end of this kerfuffle.

Chapter CXIV—A Scorched Acquaintance

While the weather training was going on, Rainbow Dash and Matt took themselves on a little trip to the hallway with the prison cells. Dash frowned as she and her Fantasian escort reached the one holding the newest inmate. "I mean… I can get holding him here in the Iron Hold because his despair would kill changelings, but could we at least give him something to do other than ramble his plot off?" she asked.

Matt shook his head. "He'd probably find some way to off himself with a teddy bear, if push came to shove," he said gravely. "The gryphons watching him said that he wouldn't respond to them, other than begging for death… so that's why we're here—to see if we can get anything else from him before we have to put him on the chopping block…" He closed his eyes and sighed sadly. "Suicidal ponies like him, with that level of despair, we try to rehabilitate… but his signs aren't promising." He opened his eyes and turned to the door of the cell, and trotted over to insert his horn into the keyhole to unlock it.

Once the cell door swung open, the pair trotted inside to find the bound survivor of Redpine's ill-fated attack, huddled up in the corner. A faint stench of feces and urine hung in the air, but no trace of it was to be seen—perhaps it had been cleaned up recently. The poor bastard's ears were pinned back, and his head hung low as he sobbed in his corner. Matt trotted over slowly, and put his hoof on the alicorn's shoulder, and he looked up hesitantly, eyes wide and pupils shrunken in fear and despair. Gingerly, Matt removed his muzzling contraption, and once that clattered to the floor, he gave the sorry alicorn a hug that he could not reciprocate due to being bound.

"Hey… I know you're extremely sorry for everything," Matt said gently, willing forth a single, clawed shadow to softly put a finger on the alicorn's lips to silence his protestations. "And if you're willing to be forgiven, then Godcat will forgive you…"

The alicorn's eyes shone with a frail, dangerously fragile hope. A tear fell from one of his eyes as he sat there in the embrace, fully quiet in its descent. And yet, a part of him struggled to comprehend the notion, and forced the rest of him to speak. "Even if…"

"Yes, even if you were controlled by someone else," Matt answered gently, keeping his expression neutral. "Your half-brother felt the same way when we freed him from the geas, too."

"But… what if death is the only…" Again, Matt shushed the alicorn with a shadowy claw to his lips.

"Death isn't a way out—it only prolongs suffering in the end," Matt answered. "If you had died now… you'd have become a wraith, unable to move on until your despair and hatred was sorted out. We had to tell this to your half-brother, and to another pony when we found her in Lankyroot." He shook his head, and tightened his embrace slightly. "It won't solve anything, and… and it saddens Godcat when we take the easy way out."

Matt looked the alicorn in the eyes, sorrow shining within his blue pools as his head softly shook. "I know… you've been left a bad legacy—a legacy no sane pony wants anything to do with. But you don't have to be part of it anymore—you're free to be your own pony now. And we'll help you become your own pony by giving you a name." He noted the confusion shining in the alicorn's eyes, equally as frail as the hope he dared allow into his despairing heart. He looked at the alicorn's features; his coat was a murky brown, with a streaked mane of scarlet and orange, and eyes similar to Lance's in color.

"How about… Scorch?" Matt proposed. The alicorn mulled it over, looking away briefly, before turning back to him and shakily nodding. "Scorch it is. Now then… are you good at casting spells?" When Scorch shook his head, Matt nodded. "It's okay, not everypony's cut out for it. I assume you don't know any spells, either?" Another headshake answered him. "Trust me, I used to not know any spells myself. I can teach you, if you want."

Scorch's eyes began to shine, for perhaps the first time in his life. "I… I can become my own pony that way?" he asked, his voice fraught with hope. Matt nodded.

"Yeah, you can. But if you want to be a stunt flier, then nobody's stopping you." Matt lifted one hoof out and swept it towards the closest wall, and his horn lit up to cast a spell that turned that wall into an open horizon, the sun setting down on the mountain ranges the Aerie called home. "As far as you're concerned… you've got the whole of Fantasia in your hooves. The sister worlds… they're your oyster now."

"But, you will have to train, regardless of what path you take," Matt added. "And we will need to teach you how to read, write, and all that—you've got a long road ahead of you, but once you get off the ground, you're free as a bird."

Scorch's eyes widened further, taking in the full scope of the possibilities that now lay at his hooves. A sea of infinite worth, infinite paths, infinite skies was before him—begging him to take the first initiative that would see him grow as he should have done during his foalhood years. A gentle, feminine, and unfamiliar voice echoed in his head, purring as he felt an invisible paw rest itself on his heart. "You can forge your own legacy, free from the constraints that those of Redpine have placed on your withers. You… are now your own stallion," the voice said in a soothing tone. "Though your road to recovery is long, and fraught with danger… you have my Chosen by your side, to help see you through adversity."

Matt lit his horn, and gently undid the bindings holding Scorch's wings and front legs closed. "We have to make sure you don't have any magic surges that could cause damage," he said, using his clawed shadows to indicate Scorch's horn. "Truthfully, I'm not sure if you had them while under the geas, and I'd rather you not explode your own horn from the strain."

"... I've never heard of ponies exploding their own horns before," Rainbow said, a mite tartly. "Have… you seen that happen?"

Matt nodded. "Undead alicorn with long golden mane," he replied. "His horn went first, before the rest of him, and his horn was… already damaged enough to cause it." He returned his attention to Scorch. "That being said, once we have ruled out the magic surge possibility, we'll start training you properly. Is that fair?" When Scorch nodded, he stood up, indicating the alicorn to follow him up. He turned to Rainbow. "Think you can help keep him steady, in case his wings decide to have themselves a magic surge?"

Rainbow nodded. "I can do that," she affirmed. Her stomach rumbled a bit. "Oh yeah, that reminds me… we almost skimped out on dinner."

Matt nodded. "The mess hall might be a bit much for him, though…" Still, he was smiling, even as his horn dimmed. "That being said, we could have a few soldiers deliver food to his new room."

"A new room?" Scorch asked, frowning slightly. "Like… with a bed and everything?"

"More than a bed and everything," Matt answered cheerfully. "If you want, we can show it to you now." Scorch's eyes beamed, and his face lit up as he eagerly nodded. "Then let's leave this dingy cell." With that, the three trotted out, making sure to close the door behind them as they went. Trotting out of the Iron Hold afterwards was a bit of a tedious affair, more due to its length than anything, and during the sojourn the three were talking their heads off to dispel the silence.

"So… are you able to eat greens?" Rainbow asked.

Scorch shook his head. "I… never could keep them down," he muttered apologetically. "They always tasted like… eugh…"

Matt didn't want to envision what comparison sulfur-infused plant life would inevitably dredge up. "Well, we have substitutes for greens, but they're a bit chewier than what you're probably used to," he said. "You might have an easier time keeping that down, and if you don't, we have medicines that can help with that."

"You guys have medicines for that?" Rainbow asked, frowning. "Did Lance have to take them after he got his flank kicked?"

"On the daily, when we discovered his little issue," Matt answered with a nod. "He stopped taking them, when we introduced him to tortoise soup. Though every now and again, he eats more greens than he can handle, so he has to pop the lid, down some stomach-easing drugs, and sleep with a fair amount of gurgling."

"And what's the medicine made from?" Rainbow asked, ruffling her wings as she envisioned a pony popping pills to help with the tummy aches.

"We have a plant called the star-shaped salvation," Matt answered, lighting his horn to conjure up a green plant that had a collection of five-point leaves, adorned with a golden fruit and star-shaped flowers dangling at the end. "We use it for all sorts of things, mostly healing and recreation. We mix one part leaves, two parts flower, one fifth fruit, and a sprinkle of sea salt to trigger the healing effects. Dead useful; it can heal poisons, stomach problems, aches and pains. We cultivate a lot of this in our slime ranch."

Rainbow whistled. "And how is it used recreationally?" she asked.

"Well, if we want a buzz… we mix one part flower, two parts leaves, the seeds of the fruit that we know can't be grown into new plants, and some rainbow-colored mushrooms together into a paste, then we dry that paste until we can light it on fire. Once it hits that extra-dry sweet spot, we roll it up in more leaves and smoke it," Matt answered with a shrug. "On days where the paperwork becomes too much, or if we become too stressed, we make a few, pass it around, and hallucinate vividly for a few hours." He conjured a mushroom from the ether, about hoof-height with a rainbow-colored cap that shimmered iridescently in the scant light he produced.

"That sounds a lot like a recreational herb back in Equestria… too bad it's stupidly expensive," Rainbow muttered, frowning. "You think you could let me have one, once Redpine's sorted out?"

Matt mulled it over, then nodded. "Though, if the hallucinations are too much, we do have a quick fix for that," he said, sending the plants back to the ether for now. He turned to Scorch and added, "Also, you might cough your lungs out on the first hit, so we'll have to be sure you're fully ready for the blunt when you put a little more meat on those bones. Until then, you're staying sober."

Scorch nodded. His stomach rumbled. "Do you have… any snacks on standby?" he asked, blushing meekly.

Matt grinned. "I always have snacks on standby," he chirped, and halted to summon a skewer of cooked bird legs that he gave to the famished alicorn. He plucked them off of the skewer, and held one with his hoof. "You bite it until you reach bone, but do not eat the bone," he advised, watching as Scorch moved to hold one in his hoof.

Scorch bit into it, and his eyes widened at the explosion of seared, lightly seasoned flavor in his mouth. He chewed, finding the texture was not one he was familiar with, with a crispy cooked skin and tender, juicy flesh beneath it, cooked to perfection. After a few moments, he swallowed, and made to polish the meat from the drumstick with a bit of haste. In moments, he polished it off down to the bone, and was given another drumstick to munch on. As with its fellow, in moments he cleaned that down to pearly white bone too, followed in short order by the third and last drumstick of the skewer.

Once cleaned, the bones and skewer were sent back to the ether, and Matt watched his charge carefully. "Any tummy aches?" he asked.

Scorch shook his head. "I feel a bit more full now," he said, grinning for the first time in his life. "And no tummy pains."

Matt grinned. "Alright; just lemme know if you need to use the toilet," he said, and with that, the trek throughout the Iron Hold resumed. There was a noticeable spring in Matt's step, Dash noticed, but she chose to not comment about it.

Scorch turned to her and spread one of his wings to nudge her own. "You… you still have your wings?" he asked, as though he were genuinely disbelieving of the concept. His feathers touching hers, however, confirmed to him that they were the real deal. "Where are you from?"

"I'm from Mythos," Rainbow answered with a shrug. "Not everypony's as nutty as the great big palookas of Redpine."

Scorch nodded. "I'd like to visit Mythos someday…" he muttered, thoughts briefly drifting as he considered what the sister world was like.

"I… wouldn't do that right yet; all the nations are still scrambling to figure out what to do about the broken barrier, and… not many would take a Fantasian walking about their nations very well at the moment," Rainbow replied, shuddering as a dismal newspaper entered her thoughts for the briefest of moments.

"Some nations are run by racists…" Matt muttered, shaking his head.

"How bad is it?" Scorch asked.

"Well, ponies throw things at you, send you to bad places to try and start wars, and their actually decent leaders are forced to pull additional public relations stunts and bend over backwards just to keep war from happening," Matt said drolly. "Plus, if you went with the 'show yourself as you are' approach, wings and horn on display? You'll probably get lobbed with all sorts of questions, regarding where you came from, if you were born an alicorn, and so forth. It's just not worth the hassle right now. But once things calm down over there, me and the others will take you there—and we'll protect you from the asshats." His smile widened. "Good food, though—and good leaders who are actually sane."

Rainbow's ears perked up. "Speaking of food… you think we should have Pinkie make a few cupcakes for Scorch?" she asked.

Matt nodded. "Oh, yeah, buddy—you're missing out until you try those cupcakes." He turned to Scorch and flashed him a smile. He lit his horn and conjured a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting, adorned with sprinkles and a smattering of miniature marshmallows, still in its wrapper, seamlessly from the ether. He halted before undoing the wrapping, indicating his charge to sit down and hold his front hooves up, and plopping the treat in his hooves. "Try it; it's delicious."

Scorch nodded, bit into the cupcake, and his eyes almost bugged out at the explosion of sweetness and condensed diabetes in his mouth. It took him mere seconds to shove the rest of the cupcake in, downing it with just enough chewing to make it go down the hatch. As a result, he ended up with a frosting mustache for the trouble, and Matt indicated to his upper lip with a hoof. "You should probably lick off the frosting, or wipe it with a hoof," he said. "If you don't, it might crust over and stick, and we'll have to wash it off your face."

Scorch wiped the frosting off with a pastern, and then licked it off his leg like a cat afterwards. He grinned, eyes beaming. "Where can I get some more?" he asked, a small smattering of childlike wonder returning to his eyes with the question.

Matt beamed. "Well, there's lots of places where you can get more cupcakes. In fact, the medical wing gives out sweets to those who are super-duper good during their checkups," he said. "Of course, I will need to explain the situation when we get there, but trust me, it'll be worth it."

Rainbow looked at Matt, tilting her head. "Do they do that for adults…?" she asked.

Matt nodded. "Did it for Katie, when we got her autopsy report done," he confirmed. "Hell, that's how we got her out of bed that morning—we enticed her with wasps, and candy. She did not want to get up otherwise."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. At least that enticing with candy had a good reasoning behind it. "Lemme guess: heavy sleeper."

Matt nodded. "Though, sound-sensitive, in that any loud noise will generally knock some dust from those sockets," he affirmed.

Rainbow sighed. If anyone would be a heavy sleeper, logic would tell her, it would be the undead, and only then for a whole host of reasons. She was surprised they could still dream, all things considered, but then again, that was probably not counting the geased horde that made up Redpine's air force now. "And how much did you give her before breakfast that day?"

"Just two items: a cupcake, and half of a wasp sandwich, and that was after we stitched her back shut," Matt answered. "We found out, no thanks to Natalie cramming biscuits into her gob, that her stomach… well, it only gets going once food is in it. And yes, we have confirmed… she does need a few breaks on the clock, as it were. So we're gonna have to set up a bathroom schedule on top of food portioning."

Rainbow turned a bit green at the mention. Only Godcat and Faust knew what horrid smells a wraith could produce during those appointed times. It was fortunate that the Aerie was taking steps to mitigate the collateral that would have probably resulted otherwise. A part of her imagined that the older the wraith was, the more horrible the stench—she was silently glad she could not smell such at the moment.

"But… I was taught that wraiths don't need to use the bathroom…" Scorch muttered, crossing his hooves over his chest and tilting his head. "And that they were basically flesh-eaters who were only good for target practice…"

"Most don't, because most don't eat," Matt affirmed with a nod. "However, the one we have here does, and only because she has a favorite food from her childhood. Also, the leaders of Redpine are full of horseshit, and whatever excuses they pull out of their asses will probably go down in history as a warning to future wannabe tin-pot tyrants on how not to bullshit their way out of trouble." He turned around again, and began trotting, with Scorch and Rainbow falling into step behind him after a moment. "Besides, we gotta find a soldier that can teleport, once we get out of the Iron Hold; it'll be quicker than marching on hoof."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Alexander was bemused as he gave Scorch a few check-ups, scanning his horn, his wings, his ribs, and everything else. Scorch shrank a little, feeling vulnerable and naked as every aspect of him was placed under more scrutiny than he had ever received during his tenure as one of Redpine's unwilling soldiers. Matt had to explain the downsides of the checkup to him before he waltzed into the examination room, but… truth be told, the scrawny alicorn didn't know half a clue of what he was warned about until halfway through the examination.

As he was scrutinized, Alexander paused every now and again to consult a clipboard and write onto the paper attached to it. Various medical terminology that Scorch couldn't hope to translate left the doctor's beak in soft mutters as he jotted them down. Terms like 'rickets,' 'preenus oblivio,' and confusingly, 'latent syphilis' were only three such items of Scorch's apparently many woes, which were dutifully documented and noted with extreme care. Quicksilver hovered nearby, operating a medicine cabinet as he extracted the things that would be needed to treat their newest, and unusual patient.

"What's… what's latent syphilis?" Scorch asked.

Alexander sighed. That one, he had been dreading the moment he documented the condition. "Sexually transmitted disease—you get it from a pony, who in turn got it from another," he explained. "And you get it through…" He gestured at Scorch's loins for emphasis. "As for the latent part, you've had it for years, untreated… and if we don't treat it now, it'll progress to the tertiary stage—which brings insanity, organ failure, and other symptoms of other diseases, because syphilis likes to assume a masquerade and pretend it's something else, especially in the latent stage."

Quicksilver winced. He hissed between teeth that Scorch didn't know gryphons could possess. "Yeah… Lance had that, too… and he did not like taking his medicine for it," he muttered, shaking his head. "Honestly, as close to tertiary syphilis as you are, I'm glad we still caught it while it's in the latent stage. That means we can still treat it."

"Very good thing is that we found that changelings can grow the needed microbes to treat it…" Alexander muttered, consulting the clipboard once more. "But for you, you're gonna need a good three doses to fully cure the latent syphilis. One dose per week should do the trick." He turned to Quicksilver. "Do we have to make more?"

Quicksilver turned back with a grin. "We still have plenty to go around," he reported, scooping up three vials in his claw and a needle that would penetrate the chilled lids. "And it's the long-acting stuff, too."

"It's not gonna hurt, is it?" Scorch asked, as Alexander put the clipboard down to feel along his forearm for the prime spot for the first dose. When he tried bunching up a bit of muscle, he had some difficulty, but managed it in the end.

"Only a little. Frankly, after everything you've been through, I'm surprised you still have meat on your bones," Alexander replied, nodding to Quicksilver. Quicksilver put two of the vials back where he found them, in a little chilled magitek box that sported a sheen of ice on its surface. He came back with the last vial and the needle, and filled up the shot with every single drop of fluid he could get away with. "Any less meat, and we'd have struck bone—which is not ideal at all."

Quicksilver nodded. "Yeah, we had to vaccinate our wraith—not because she could get sick through any changeling diseases, but because she could spread them to others somehow. I'm surprised her body took the shots so easily, even if we had to go at a parallel angle to administer them for her."

"Even more surprising, was the fact she showed no symptoms of the illnesses we vaccinated her for—despite the fact that we found she was carrying the microbes needed to do any accidental transfers. She had really old, unevolved strains too—the vaccines made quick work of them, by turning her weak immune system on them," Alexander added, watching as the needle was lined up with the bunched muscle at something of a perpendicular angle. Then the angle was turned, just slightly to the bottom, and the muscle was wiggled by the claw holding it as the needle went in. "It was a miracle she didn't infect anyling with those old strains at all."

Scorch winced, feeling a tiny prick, and then a flare of pain from the procedure. But the shot was administered without fuss, and the needle withdrew once it was spent. Alexander released the muscle and patted it gently a few times, to both distribute the shot better through Scorch's bloodstream, and to dissolve the pain a little. "Welp, that's your first shot. You certainly took that far better than your half-brother did," he chirped, grinning.

"And once the syphilis is sorted out, you'll start feeling better in more ways than one," Quicksilver piped up, even as he moved to discard the used needle. "But you still gotta put on some weight in the meantime, for the shots to really be effective. Otherwise, you could be having some problems in the future."

"Like what?" Scorch asked.

"Rickets—calcium deficiency in your bones, making your bones weak," Alexander replied. "And truth be told… you were never going to get any vitamins from the plants of Redpine, because the sulfur would have killed off any nutrients you could have gotten otherwise." He shook his head sadly, a look of pity in his eyes. "Basically, you have a severe vitamin deficiency… pretty much everywhere. You're probably going to be stunted in physical growth for the rest of your life, unless you can catch up to where you should be in one year, and make up for the early years of your childhood in the meantime."

"But, we can start on that, here and now—we're gonna put you on a bit of a diet, to make sure your needs are met," Quicksilver added with a grin. "We can sort out the preenus oblivio too, while we're at it."

"Ah yes, preenus oblivio…" Alexander looked at Scorch evenly. "It's when your feathers go a long time without preening, and loose, broken and dead feathers keep piling up and piling up, and before you know it, you're shedding the damn things everywhere with every flap. It can also happen when you spend an extended time staying in extremely hot or cold areas… like a volcano, for instance, but either way, you're not keeping good track of those wings." He sighed and shook his head. "That reminds me, I need to get on Lieutenant-General Starcovert's ass for that…"

"You and I both know we can't get her to preen her wings to save our hides," Quicksilver said, frowning. "Unless we somehow give her the ability to regenerate the lost portions of them, or get her to stop having adventures—which is never going to happen, let's face it—we're never going to get that sorted out regardless. We would need literal divine intervention from both Faust and Godcat, after they've regained Their full abilities."

"And speaking of that, the cure for that condition is simple: we teach you how to properly preen your wings, and in time… oh, about a few months, it should clear up with regular preening. I'd say start once a day, before bed—after we teach the obligatory basics." Alexander grasped a wing and gently spread it with his talons, being careful not to pierce the tender flesh of the limb. Scorch looked at it; it was a tangle of hopelessly broken, loose, dead feathers with roughly a third of the good ones, including the damaged primaries, in any position to function at all.

"Hrm… larger wings…" Alexander spread the wing fully, and Quicksilver brought out a measuring tape to see its length in full. He had Alexander hold one end, while he dragged a good portion of the tape to Scorch's shoulder to pull it taut. Fortunately, the outermost primary had escaped unscathed, allowing them to gauge the full length. "Twenty-nine inches, and a third of the way there to a full thirty. Not quite as big as Lance's, but more difficult to manage if you try flying. You're not going to have as much trouble as your half-brother by getting into the air and turning sharply, but you will still need training to fully compensate for that annoying shortcoming."

"So… how do I preen these things?" Scorch asked, frowning as Quicksilver retracted the measuring tape.

"Simple: you feel with your mouth, and pluck with your teeth," Alexander answered, before demonstrating that with his beak. Deftly, quickly, as painlessly as possible, he set to work carefully extracting Scorch's useless feathers from his wings, noting each wince the wing in his grasp sent through his claws and beak and shifting his approach accordingly. In no time, a collection of feathers that were worthless for flight were falling to the floor.

Quicksilver spread Scorch's other wing, and joined in, as careful as his compatriot. Scorch watched, utterly transfixed, despite the prickles of pain shooting through his wings every time a feather was plucked out. Five minutes in, and a good portion of the insides of his wings were looking more presentable than they had ever been before. And if this was all it took for them to be in good shape…

Then who was he to turn this down? He wanted to join in, but was hesitant to do so; as far as this went, he was nowhere near as experienced as the two gryphons handling him, so he figured he should just kick back and enjoy the view. It helped that the little needles of pain were brief, and passed quickly, even if they were still piling up throughout the coordinated cleaning.

It took an hour to fully preen his mess of a pair of wings, but eventually, the two gryphons pulled through and gently yanked the last few feathers out, front and back. They let go, and watched Scorch as he flapped his wings a few times. No loose feathers fell out, and each remaining one felt as ready as ever, despite the bald spots in his wings. "Anything odd?" Quicksilver asked.

Scorch shook his head. "I feel… ready to fly," he said after a moment.

Alexander grinned. "But not yet, you still have feathers to regrow. I also noticed, you only have a singular finger in your wings each, compared to the rare mutation your half-brother and Lieutenant-General Windwood's sister possess—compared to them, you have relatively less wing issues to worry about, besides the vitamin deficiency and the bald spots." He gestured to a wing. "So you will have an easier time turning on a dime, at the cost of flexibility. Which would make stunt flying a hare more difficult for you."

Quicksilver grinned and gestured for Scorch to hop off of the exam table. "I think that covers everything," he said. "Now we just have to put you into a room for the night, give you some dinner, and let you go to sleep. What would you like to eat?"

Scorch smiled. "Do you have any more meat on bones, rounded top?" Scorch asked.

Alexander's grin widened. "I see you've got a craving for drumsticks. Alright, I'll put in the order for that, and the nurses should give you a few drumsticks and a smattering of other meats for dinner." He patted Scorch's shoulder. "But, you're showing promising signs for your recovery, which is fortunate for your particular situation. In a few months, you'll be healthier than you've ever been!"

Quicksilver chuckled. "Not many ponies can say that once they get into the medical ward. You're one of the lucky ones," he chirped. "Now, let's take you to your room for the night. I think you'll like your temporary quarters better than that stuffy cell."

Scorch grinned, hope shining in his eyes. His stomach rumbled, not that he needed it to remind him of dinnertime. He let the gryphons lead him out of the examination room, eager to get something to take his mind off of his sins. Food and bed sounded as good an excuse as any to get the gears of his brain working on other matters.

Still, he had a niggling feeling… he had a niggling feeling that the rest of Redpine's forces wouldn't see the issue the same way. However, he realized that he had better leave that to ponies who knew what they were doing—he had his ass kicked after all, and he was in no condition to fight. Better let the experts handle that kerfuffle, he reasoned.

Intro- Frostbitten Bickering*

Author's Note

Well, after heavily looking over the original version of Arcane, I found it pretty bad by my new, ahem, skills in writing. So I decided to write it again, but vastly different—a standalone redo, if you will. Comments contain slight spoilers, and review comments are outdated, as the story is still undergoing heavy revisions; do not read those until you've read this story so you can see why. Original, nonsensical version can be found here, if you want to see how bad it is for yourself. And a blog explaining the use of asterisks in the first 26 chapters and intro.

Thanks to Xinrick and Aes Nebula (who has made an alt and sadly gone inactive some weeks ago, may he rest in peace) for supporting the original stories, including the sequel to the sequel of the original (which will, in due time, get its own re-written version. Yay).

Further thanks to Norris for helping me spiff up the intro. He's awesome. :D Added thanks to WIL_I_ZIN, Typewriterpony, La Barata, and Discord Kantus for editing before Norris came along. Much appreciated.

Intro- Frostbitten Bickering*

There was a place where it snowed day and night, the white ever-growing and the intensity of the chilling winds as varied as the stars in the cosmos. In this frozen landscape, which sorely lacked any signs of flora and fauna, if one looked hard enough they could see four lone ponies and a huge object as they trudged through the powdery, chilling snow at a rather sluggish pace. In doing so, they left behind four sets of hoofprints and a pair of tread-like tracks that quickly filled in with a few fresh layers of snow. The cold winds that fueled this hellish blizzard had been getting to the lot all the while, but they still pressed on regardless of the flurry and cold.

At least, until one pony spoke up. “Perhaps we should sleep in the tank for the night!” cried the one furthest ahead, a masculine voice barely audible over the howling snowstorm swirling around them. "I can feel my backside stiffening!" he added, stopping in his tracks and turning around to the other three behind him.

“When will we get to Frostbite Haven?” cried another pony that soon stopped behind the one complaining, a feminine voice even less audible than that of the first. “We’ve been walking in circles for the past... shit, I don’t know how long we’ve been out here!”

“We can’t last in this cold much longer,” complained another feminine voice that had been an octave higher than the first two, one sounding like a high-pitched keen at first. This one stopped well away from the duo that had taken a moment to pause up ahead.

“Alright guys, let’s get in the tank!” yelled a masculine voice almost completely drowned out by the storm, one of a gruff tone. He stopped and poked the pony nearest to him with a hoof. “That means you, Leaftail,” he added.

“My name isn’t Leaftail, you midget-horned twat,” the pony who had gotten poked hissed. She whipped her head to the offending pony next to her, eyes narrowing to slits as a hint of a smile cropped up on his face.

“Not my fault your mane’s green as pine!” the stallion jeered, a grin growing on his face that soon faded as he heard the mare that kept trotting on still a ways up ahead begin to holler once more.

“What did you say, Matt?” asked the second pony, having to scream so he could hear her. She turned around to the two furthest from herself and the other pony that had still trotted brazenly onwards. The wind began to howl louder, almost entirely drowning out the response she got as a result.

“I said, ‘Let’s get in the tank!’” he replied, also yelling louder this time around. White flecks of crystallised water darted past him at a frantic rate, almost blurring out the two ponies ahead. He could barely make out a bright, fiery red something that one of the two possessed, but what that was—or to whom it had been attached—was almost completely indiscernible, as the forms ahead were still obscured by the onslaught of whirling white.

“Alright!” cried the second, who then glanced at her side, looking at the pony who stood closest to her. He was a uniformed sort; with a long, thick, sable coat flapping past his hinds that held fast onto his withers and barrel. “Let’s go, you black-coated, torn-eared, rusted redhead,” she murmured. When she attempted to raise her head, she felt a hoof touch her shoulder and glanced at it.

“You have a fiery red mane yourself. Your argument is invalid,” the other pony replied with a bit of snark in his voice.

“Isn’t your backside stiffening, Mr. Red Eyes?” the mare sneered back, turning back around and seeing a blot of black and another of green behind her.

“Can it, Cream Coat,” the stallion who accompanied her jabbed accusingly. He too began turning around and spotting the two blots. He felt ice tickling his backside, and he shivered as a result. “I’m amazed my teeth aren’t c-chattering,” he mumbled, only to feel a hoof poke him.

“They are now,” the mare groaned, brushing aside her messy bangs sloppily before putting her hoof down into the snow and resumed trudging ahead. “You need to get some insulation for that damn back of yours, especially under that coat in this weather,” she added.

“All you’re wearing’s a fucking scarf! You shouldn’t lecture me about what I wear in the damn snow when you practically trot in the nude within this frozen hellhole!” the stallion shouted, his voice marred by anger.

“Says the burnt orange stallion with the stiffening back!” the mare paused, pointing an accusing hoof at the stallion for emphasis. “If you start growing ice, maybe those drills on your damn tank could crack it away!”

“That would be suicide! Besides, you’re a damn unicorn, Natalie—you know fire magic!” the other pony exclaimed, anger welling up in his voice.

“Fire magic is suicide too, unless you forgot that you have metal fused into your back?” Natalie retorted, choosing to not turn around to the stallion. She continued to wade through the snow.

“Fine, you win,” the stallion grumbled, hooves shifting in the snow.

“What’s taking Lance and Natalie so long?” the green-maned pony asked, stopping to turn around. Now, the snow had completely blurred out the two ponies who were still at least a few feet behind.

“Dunno,” Matt replied, also pausing to glance behind himself. “Say, Anna, could you pull out that thing of yours and make the snow stop heaping on us?”

“It’s called a flute, you black-and-white splotchfest on legs,” Anna groaned, turning to the ‘midget-horned’ stallion she had just addressed.

“Whatever, Horny Bushhead,” the stallion retorted, rolling his eyes even as the mare glared daggers at him.

“Hey! They're called pigtails, dipshit!" Anna snarled, front hooves spacing out as she knelt forward in an offensive stance. She rose a hoof and pointed at the viridian locks for emphasis as she went on, "They're not bushes, Matt! And besides, you don’t have room to talk—you grow out your mane and tie some bits of that and your tail into little braids, so I suggest you zip your lip before an arrow gets plunged into your thick-furred asscheek!”

“Yeah, yeah, just use your flute already and make the blizzard stop. I think Natz and Lance might be going the wrong way, since at this rate their own hoofprints are probably filled in,” Matt spoke in a sarcastic voice, rolling his eyes again and not once looking at Anna directly. “And besides, I’m two heads and a half taller than you; you couldn’t do much to me anyway,” he added, the grin on his muzzle spreading just a little more and appearing that much more smug.

“Fine, you blond-maned asshole,” Anna spat, her horn starting to glow in a vivid green aura. A wooden flute with intricate carvings appeared from a flicker of green light and began to float next to her, but the winds were now whirling with a vengeance. These winds took to forcing more snow to dart past her eyes to the point she couldn’t even see the blasted instrument, let alone Matt. “Shit,” she mumbled, “I think we may have to get to the tank already, because now I can’t see worth a damn.”

“Try to follow my hoofprints. Forget the flute,” Matt ordered, starting to slosh his way towards the large object that he could hardly see thanks to the blizzard’s wrath. Anna had also started to push herself towards the thing, her legs feeling colder and colder by the minute.

“For once, I wish I had thick leg fur like yours, Matt,” Anna mumbled under her breath, but she could not hear herself thanks to the wind shrieking in her ears. The mare paused again, lifted a hoof up to the base of her neck, and felt some wool shift about as she had fidgeted. “At least I have a scarf on me,” the unicorn sighed. Her ears started twitching as the snow-filled gales kept assaulting her, along with the rest of the landscape.

She glanced behind herself, seeing a bow of gemstones and stone laden on her back alongside a quiver filled with arrows to match, and for once the snowstorm had relented just enough that she could make out a cream-colored body and another of black with bits of burnt orange and silver. Some small part of her had hoped that the other two ponies had seen her as she turned to the object and continued to slowly get to it.

Matt had stopped in his tracks once again, but this time he could see four more forms approaching him and Anna from the very object he had been attempting to trot to. When they got closer, he could make out claws on the front limbs, piercing eyes, and feathered heads adorned with beaks. “Hey, Darkwing, I think Lance has gone stiff and might need a hand,” he said as the figures got closer still—until they got close enough that he could see they were a bunch of gryphons.

“For the last time, you accursed black-and-white half-Clydesdale, my name is Alexander, not Darkwing!” the gryphon nearest to the pony hissed, a frown tugging his lips downward. “Just because my body and wing feathers are rather dreary does not mean you can call me that name, especially when much of your own body is black-furred! Maybe I should start calling you Cowskin to get the damned point across!”

The other three gryphons walked past the bickering duo, and one soon stopped in front of Anna. “What’s wrong, Windwood?” he asked.

“My damn legs are giving out, and I can’t move them worth shit!” Anna scowled, her breathing hitched and her eyes wide in panic. “I think my horn’s going numb too!” she added, using her magic to jam her flute between her teeth just as her horn started to fizz and spark.

The gryphon nodded and got closer to the mare, spreading his wings and flapping them a few times to start hovering over her. “I’ll hold your bow in my beak, okay?” he said with a frown, carefully plucking the gem-encrusted weapon off of the mare’s backside by pulling it out of a sheath with his beak.

He then descended further and wrapped his forelimbs around her midsection, narrowly avoiding a quiver laden on her body in the process. Once this had been done, he began flapping his wings fervently, slowly lifting the unicorn out of the snow and flying towards the object with her in tow.

“You could not be any damn slower if your legs were broken!” Natalie shrieked as soon as the third gryphon came into her line of sight. Her horn glowed in a soft blue, and the sod she had yelled at noticed a blur of red fast approaching him. He simply blocked the oncoming object by shielding himself with a wing before it had the chance to connect with his head.

“Stop your griping, and stop trying to hit me with your crystal-tipped redwood staff,” the gryphon snorted, still concealing himself with his wing.

“Well I would if you weren’t so slow, you orange-feathered half-cat parakeet!” Natalie snarled, eyes narrowing low. She trudged over to him until she stood at his side, and then clambered onto his back like a child desperately clinging to its mother, except a bit overgrown for the resulting piggyback ride. He merely grunted, rolled his eyes, and started flapping his wings, turning around as he became airborne before flying to the object.

“Are t-the h-heaters on?” the burnt orange stallion asked the last gryphon as he found himself lifted up by a pair of talons.

“Yes, General, they’re on and the Valkyrie Tank is as toasty as a mild summer day,” the gryphon answered with a frown on his beak. “Goodness me, I can feel how cold you are, even through the fabric of your uniform,” he added, and without another word between them, he carried the freezing sorry bastard with him as he flew behind the gryphon that had carried Natalie.

Soon, the lot had found that the snowstorm began to fluctuate in intensity once more, and for a scant few seconds they bore witness to a dull luster of dark grey, stainless steel with faint traces of a lighter, almost silvery grey and another grey so dark in color it could have been mistaken for black. The thing was massive, with about the capacity of a blimp, and fitted with two machine guns and two drills at the sides, further fitted with a central cannon on top.

The top of this metallic behemoth sported a gargantuan lid-like structure that stood vertically up at a sharp 90-degree angle, and the gryphons maneuvered their way inside a hole this lid had concealed. They were careful to avoid scraping themselves or the ponies they carried against the rim. Once all eight beings were inside the lid slammed shut on a moment’s notice, and the ponies moved a few feet from each other before they sat on their rumps, a loud metallic clang ringing inside their ears and shelter for a good few minutes.

The interior was indeed very warm, and it could qualify as roomy to boot. Eight more gryphons were inside, all sitting patiently as if they had been waiting for their fellow gryphons and the ponies to climb aboard for some time. Some bolted-down gurneys were parked at one corner, and there were varying tools next to them, ranging from scalpels to chisels, a sink, a cabinet with medical supplies, and so on.

Another corner had a stovetop that doubled as an oven, some more cabinets lined with a few wooden plates and bowls, silverware, a few can openers, and a microwave. There had even been a rotisserie, among other things, and all the objects in the cabinet were tucked neatly away and held in place by rather flimsy-looking cages of glass adorned with faint runes.

Between these two object-filled corners, the lot of ponies could see an assortment of chests, some opened and some closed. One of the open ones had many bullets and empty shells of varying sizes and calibers, and another had nothing but arrows formed from a plethora of objects. One of these arrows seemed as if made of scrap steel and gears, shining a dull copper that rivaled some of the bullets. A gryphon strode to and opened a third chest; he proceeded to pull out four thick, ragged blankets that were filthy, but still intact enough to be useable.

“Damn, I think my horn’s frostbitten!” Natalie complained as soon as a blanket had been unceremoniously tossed onto her body. She was shivering and snarling through clenched teeth, “And whose oh-so-bright idea was this, again?!”

“Mine too,” Anna bemoaned, eyes averting towards the ‘midget-horned’ stallion for a few seconds. Without the mist of snow in the way, she could see he had a horn only three inches in length. “I think it was Matt’s idea…” she added, a frown etched on her muzzle.

“Natz, Anna, both of you take a chill pill. We’ll get to Frostbite Haven soon,” Matt sighed, almost immediately getting glared at by the two mares afterwards.

“Oh, ha ha, very funny,” Anna hissed. Her face began turning red in blooming fury. “You’re only saying that because your horn can’t get frostbitten!” she exclaimed, pointing an accusing hoof at the stallion.

“Next time we do something like this, we’re dressing like Godcat-damned bears! With boots thick enough to choke a dragon!” Natalie almost shrieked, her voice now an octave higher than Anna’s. Her eyes narrowed so low it looked as if she’d close them any minute.

The last stallion shook his head as the unfortunate blond-maned pony began to argue with the mares about the weather and other such trivial nonsense—he rolled his eyes as that conversation rapidly derailed beyond his comprehension. His eyes acted as if they weren’t his own, staring rather vacantly at different things. He soon spotted Anna’s bow as she waved it around in her magic as if it were a club.

“She better not poke her eyes out with that thing. Those gems on that bow could really do some damage…” he thought for a second before looking over at the weapon and pushed the thought from his mind. He gave the green-maned mare another glance, noticing that she had taken an arrow out of her quiver to use like an accusing hoof. And then she loaded the arrow into the drawstring. “Joy, looks like she's about to shoot Matt with the damn thing. I hope he responds fast enough to deflect her arrows, if and when she decides to fire them.”

His eyes darted off to a dark-feathered gryphon with a black feline coat that had tapped at his neck with a talon. “Yes, Jeremy? What do you need, you crow-jaguar?” he asked, turning his head to the gryphon in question.

The aforementioned ‘crow-jaguar’ chortled, a smile curling up on his beak. “Your coat, sir. We need to examine thine thin metal wings,” he answered.

“Oh, right,” he sighed and nodded. He raised his front legs skyward, pointing his head upwards as well, moving to stand on shaky rear legs like he had the desire to take off towards the ceiling of the tank. Jeremy raised his talons and grabbed the stallion firmly by his midsection, while another gryphon started to hover over them, tugging at the sleeves of the pony’s coat.

Soon, the whole garment came off, leaving him almost bare. This exposed a metal plate on his back, fashioned of steel and with a thin melting layer of frost having already accumulated. His wings were also covered in steel, adorned with copper feathers protruding from small metal spikes. Like his back, they too had a rapidly-disintegrating layer of frozen water.

“Shall we remove his socks and horseshoes?” the same gryphon who now held the coat asked, folding up the garment very neatly while he had still been airborne.

“Nah, leave them on. They make great legwarmers,” the stallion replied with a rather cheeky grin on his muzzle. Once Jeremy let go of him and backed off, he thrust his front legs forward, horseshoes producing a brief echoing sound as they collided with the floor. This caused the still-bickering unicorns to stop talking and turn towards him.

Natalie was the first to comment on the obvious, and she had a devious smirk plastered onto her face as she spoke, "Oh look, Lance has no clothes!”

“You have no room to talk, filly—you, Anna, and Matt trotted around in that snowstorm wearing nothing but fucking scarves. Matt, I can sorta understand because he’s got fuzz that makes me think he has a woolly mammoth somewhere in his family, but you? Don’t get me started, Featherbutt,” Lance retorted, his cheeky grin becoming a smile that looked like it belonged to a great white shark.

“Oh, what was that? You wanna fight?” Natalie stood straight up, her horn beginning to shimmer in vibrant orange.

“You heard me, Miss I-Got-a-Shooting-Star-With-Feathers-for-a-Cutie-Mark,” Lance continued to sneer, his crimson eyes glinting for a split-second in amusement.

“Listen here, Mister I-Can’t-Fly-Because-My-Wings-Can’t-Lift-Me,” Natalie began, her eyes narrowing low. Her smile widened into a full-on Cheshire grin as she spoke. “You best watch yourself, because you’re the only non-unicorn trotting in this tank!”

“Bitch, you’re outgunned,” Lance immediately replied, using a hoof to gesture to all of the gryphons present. “I suggest you choose your next words carefully if you wanna continue this verbal drawl.”

“Ignore her, Lance. She’s probably in heat again,” Matt groaned, rolling his eyes with a frown on his visage. His remark almost immediately garnered him another glare from the mare he just spoke of.

“Am not, first off…” Natalie shrieked, and once again, the argument had started right back at square one. The trio of unicorns began raising hell at one another, and this time it started getting more physical, because Natalie began to swing and hurl her staff at the half-Clydesdale stallion. He merely took the hits like he had been a living sponge, all the while trying to talk sense into her.

Lance allowed himself to sit on his rump again as the gryphons spread his wings, raising a front hoof and letting it connect with his face before running it down the bridge of his muzzle. Once that same hoof dropped and connected with the floor, he let his eyes wander around until they caught sight of Natalie’s staff once again assaulting Matt with a whack atop his head. “He doesn’t look amused,” the burnt orange stallion thought, “his narrowing eyes and that grumpy frown... yeesh, I hope he doesn’t explode soon.”

His eyes darted off again, towards something that mysteriously appeared from nowhere to block the oncoming staff. It floated, secured in an aura of gold, and as the red-eyed stallion took another quick-second glance at Matt, he noticed that his horn glowed with a similar aura. “Ah, hell, here we go,” he frowned as his thoughts echoed in his skull, glancing back at the mysterious something that had appeared out of flat-out thin air.

“Hmm... gold wings for the hoof-guard, rubies, long silver blade with gold runes encased in red veins…” Lance paused for a bit, silently muttering to himself this time, “great, he brought out Heaven’s Gate.” Fortunately for him, none of the unicorns heard him amidst their own bickering, and soon enough bow, staff, and blade started to clash vehemently. So too had the unicorns themselves, for that matter—the argument had quickly became a full-on brawl complete with flailing hooves that lasted for a while.

At least, until Jeremy spoke up as he put a blanket around Lance. “Should I get out the magic inhibitors again?” he asked, and in that moment, the trio of arguing ponies stopped fighting to glance at him. Anna had been tightly sandwiched between Matt and Natalie, who had at that point tried to reach past her with their hooves in an attempt to slap the other. The green-maned mare kept them apart with both her hooves and her bow as best she could, using her magic to grab the sword and the staff to keep them spaced apart too.

“No,” the trio said in unison.

“Alright then. Stop fighting,” Jeremy hissed, a frown on his beak. With that, the three unicorns broke up and returned to the spots they sat at before the whole arguing spiel began, taking their weapons with and shooting glares at him, bitterly mumbling "crow-jaguar" to themselves the entire time. Jeremy simply chortled at the mutterings, rolling his eyes at the unicorns before cantering to the chests and digging through them for something.

Lance finally allowed himself a small sigh of relief, as if grateful that something had been done about the fighting. He glanced at Matt’s blade again, noticing it had been standing upright due to its owner’s magic. It wasn’t until the aforementioned stallion had addressed him did he stop thinking.

“Lance, why are you looking at my sword?” asked Matt, who had a puzzled brow raised, using his magic to poke the lone pegasus he addressed with a stick that had appeared from nowhere. He did not bother to get up off his rump to do so as the poking with the stick persisted.

Lance instantly snapped out of his stupor and blinked a few times as the question registered in his mind and the feeling of the stick repeatedly touching him caused his shoulder to twitch. “Uh... to take my mind off of you arguing with the girls, Matt,” he replied quickly.

“Uh-huh,” Matt hesitantly sighed, slowly nodding his head as if skeptical of Lance’s words. “Riiiiight.”

“I’m hungry!” Anna interjected in complaint, causing the other three ponies to look at her in a heartbeat. Her eyes watered, her mouth quivered, and she even stomped a hoof to complete the child-throwing-a-tantrum look.

“Lovely,” Lance remarked with a frown, and he shot a quick glance at two identical maroon gryphons and nodded to them. Quickly, they nodded back and turned to a stove that stood just behind them. A third with gold feathers and stripes on an orange body rummaged through a big brown sack filled with so much stuff it would take all four ponies and three gryphons just to lift the thing from the floor of the tank—let alone sort all the junk within it—and he made sure to take a flashlight with him as an added precaution.

“What’s taking so long to find food?” asked one of the gryphons at the stove after waiting patiently for a good thirty minutes.

“We’re... we’re…” the gryphon in the sack began, shaking as if cold as soon as he emerged from the bag's mouth, “we're out of food!”

Lance immediately rose up onto his hooves, the blanket falling from his hind quarters and revealing his cutie mark: a missile-shaped opbject with a red body that had a great white stripe running down the middle, with said stripe adorned by a manji. He and the gryphon exchanged just one glance; a panicked face meeting that of a stone-cold mask which tethered on the verge of breaking. “We can’t be out of food!” he cried, an eye twitching. “We all had rations yesterday; I’m sure we have some left still! Keep looking, you canary-colored tiger!”

The striped gryphon who'd been addressed as a 'canary-colored tiger' frantically nodded, rummaging through the contents of the sack with twice the agility he’d had previously. He looked back at the pegasus and shook after another fifteen minutes, wide brown eyes betraying his nervousness. “I-I just double-checked. We’re out,” he stammered as he emerged from the sack of stuff for the second time.

Lance hissed as he briskly stomped his way to the sack and pushed the gryphon aside with his hoof. Mumbling something about a lout, he too began wriggling and crawling through the sack's contents. A whole slew of things filled the sack, like trinkets, more bullets, many valuable gemstones, and a wide variety of other items. All of this the pegasus dug through in desperation, in an attempt to find one morsel of food.

He did this once, then twice, then thrice with haste before stopping his mad digging fit and getting out of the bag with sluggish movements and ragged breathing. Looking back at his fellow ponies after a total of another forty-five minutes, he noticed their impatient looks and shook his head. “Yep. We’re out of food,” he sighed flatly. "Didn't even find a rotten slab of meat or stale loaf of bread."

“Awww! I don’t want to sleep on an empty stomach!” Anna complained almost immediately, eyes watering again.

“Just be glad we’re not out there freezing to death, you tan-beige tree stump,” Natalie groaned, a hoof connecting with her face in short order. "I'm also glad Lance isn't rambling about the fucking snow this time, like he has for the past eleven days," she added, running that same hoof down the bridge of her muzzle.

Lance glared at Matt. “I hope this is all worth it when we get to Frostbite Haven, because we’re buying out the food shops as soon as we arrive!” he scowled, an eye twitching once more.

“It is,” Matt instantly replied with wide eyes and a hasty nod. He had his front hooves raised, almost as if the pegasus stood just inches from his muzzle while trying to mug him.

“Also, we’re investing in three fridges and five more cupboards. We haven’t got time to be going out there and hunting monsters, especially in this storm we landed in!” Lance continued, pointing a hoof and waving it at a rather empty portion of the tank everyone stood in.

A cat appeared in a glimmering blue flash of light. This cat meowed and then sighed. The feline was blue-furred and missing all four limbs—yet somehow defying the fact and standing upright on its hips without aid. It sported a very thick and fluffy coat, and it rubbed its head against Matt’s foreleg and purred as soon as he set the ends of his front appendages back down.

“Hey, NoLegs. You hungry?” Matt asked, petting the cat with his hoof.

NoLegs nodded and meowed again to answer, before going back to rubbing itself on the foreleg of the pony it answered whilst purring.

“We’ll get some food tomorrow, I promise,” Matt replied in a friendly tone, still petting the cat, who kept purring like no tomorrow. With that, silence filled the air, with the only sound breaking it being the steady whirring of the heaters and the treads as the tank pressed on through the snow. Two hours passed before someone chanced a look towards a particular object.

A forest green gryphon moved until he stood in front of a screen that hung above a control panel laden with keys and a steering wheel. “I see something!” he cried. His exclamation ended up causing everyone else, cat included, in the tank to rush to the panel in mere seconds, all three weapons dropping and clattering to the floor as though nothing more than used bullet shells.

There, outside in the raging snowstorm, something began to hesitantly approach. What it had been, nobody was certain—all the thing was, to the naked eye aided by the screen, a far-off silhouette blurred by the howling winds and hellish flurry of purest white.

The silhouette drew closer yet, and all eyes were still glued to the screen watching it.

“What is that?” asked one brown gryphon, blinking.

“Not sure, Nathan. Let’s wait till it gets closer, and then we see how it plays out,” Lance replied, leaning in closer to the screen. Silence filled the tank, and all were tense as the thing drew even closer.

Brown matted fur stood out against the pure white. A four legged frame lumbered forward, the limbs ending in dulled yellow claws.

There could be no mistaking it: the beast approaching them had been a bear. The tranquility still lingered in the tank when the group realized what the encroaching beast was. And then, the silence broke as fast as it had settled in, while Matt's eyes began to gleam.

“Sweet! We get to eat after all!” Matt cried in joy as a smile crossed his muzzle, rushing to the hatch and grabbing his sword with a magic tinged in gold during the process. As his blanket flew off, he revealed his cutie mark: a black silhouette of a sword in a pentagram's star-center. His white back legs propelled him in tandem with his front ones as he got closer to the hatch.

“Yay!” Anna cheered, also rushing to the hatch whilst scooping up her bow. A sharpened arrow and flute, crossed in an X shape with, a poison ivy vine wrapping around where both had intersected had been her cutie mark.

“May as well help get the damn thing,” Natalie sighed, also going to the hatch and casting off her blanket. Her cutie mark was a shooting star, leaving behind three colored feathers of red, blue, and gold in the wake of its trailing tail. The trio of unicorns clambered out by levitating themselves in their magic, but once they let their hooves land in the snow, the bear had stopped well away from the tank. Anna squinted her eyes and noticed that the beast had leaned its head down to sniff at something, but she wasn’t quite sure what.

Anna instantly made to trot towards the bear, but a thick-furred white leg stopped her. She turned to Matt with a frown on her face. “What?” she asked.

“Snipe it from here. It won’t know what hit it,” he answered with a nod.

“I’d have to get closer; the damn snow is obstructing me, and I think the wind’s gonna turn my arrows sideways before they hit the target,” she replied with an irritated huff. The leg that stood in her way her dropped, its hoof landing once again in the snow as the stallion merely groaned.

“She’s right; if the wind picks up any more speed, our manes will get in our faces at this rate,” Natalie agreed with a nod. “From here, I can hardly see the damn bear as it is. I’m grateful the tank saw the bear before we did!”

Matt processed this for a moment before smiling. “If that’s the case, then the bear probably can’t see us through the snow. Ample time to sneak up on the fucker.” Maybe the wind will change direction and help the arrow along." His smile widened as he spoke. Cautiously, the three approached the bear, making their hoofsteps as quiet as possible—easier said than done, since the snow crunched beneath them as they went. Once they were a good football field's length from it, Anna paused to squint her eyes again and see the beast.

“Stop. I think it’s found a corpse,” she hissed, her remark causing the two other unicorns who trotted ahead to turn to her.

“A corpse? Of what?” Natalie cautiously asked, quirking a brow as the wind shifted to blow her and Matt's tails between their rear legs.

“Dunno—all I see’s a splotch of dark red,” Anna answered, slowly taking out an arrow from her quiver. The other two quickly got out of her way as she put the arrow into the drawstring, levitated the bow before her body, and took aim. The stone bent, flexing like rubber, as the arrow pulled further back until the string was taut. She fired the arrow once she had been all but certain it would connect with her target, and it flew brazenly through the still-falling snow and the winds propelling it.

Against all odds, the winds pushed the projectile onward, causing it to hit the bear right in the head—instantly, the creature fell over in the snow with the grace of a wrecking ball. It lay still in the white, nothing more than a brown heap of fur and flesh.

“Aww!” Matt complained, stomping a hoof in the snow with a pout. “I wanted more of a challenge!”

“We’re way stronger and smarter than these bears. They really can’t challenge us,” Natalie sighed, and with that they resumed trotting to the beast. They stopped once they reached it, only to find what it had been sniffing at earlier—a half-buried, filly-sized, moon-pale corpse of a very peculiar pony, if it could be called such. “What should we do with this dead pony?” she asked, hefting up the bear in her magic with ease, being mindful to avoid the deceased pony. She could not help but notice a dark red mane laying askew, forming stringy clumps that rested upon much of the pony's face.

“Those eyes are black and wide open,” Anna began, using a hoof to brush aside some of the pony’s mane so the other two could see its face, which sported a torn cheek that formed a half-grin stretching all the way to the underside of its left ear, “you think it blinded itself?”

“Doubt it,” Matt replied, prodding at the pony’s ribs with his hoof. He noticed a tattered blue scarf barely clinging to its neck, but nothing more than that clothing-wise. “Damn, this one’s just skin and bones—it has the thinnest stomach I've seen yet. How’d this poor thing get out here like this, especially with just a scarf around its neck?” His eyes trailed to a jutting, almost-rectangular-but-not-quite protrusion between the thing's rear legs. "Is that... a dick?"

“It has changeling’s wings. I reckon it flew,” Natalie sighed and frowned, using some more of her magic to heft the carcass up from the snow. Strangely, the peculiar pony wasn’t stiff, though it was limp, and it sported dull clawed horseshoes of steel bearing intricate carvings on its hooves. Its legs were riddled with tears that exposed sinew and yellowed bone that oddly did not have any sort of blood on them, indicating that they'd been that way for quite a while.

The tear on the left cheek was perfectly mirrored by the right, forming a hellish and unnervingly wide grin that could not have occurred naturally. The wings she spotted came in two pairs, one behind the other, and both sets barely held together in thin crimson filaments. They looked as if they'd crumble with just the slightest touch, having more holes than should be possible, and had a translucent red tint about them.

Anna trotted around and took a peek between the cadaver's rear legs, before then doubling back to its face, eyeing the pony's suspiciously red backside and a set of thin ribs matching in color. She turned to Matt and sighed. “It's a girl. Matt, you've mistaken the pelvic bone for a dick." She paused to assess the corpse's front end, eyeing a jagged protrusion that emerged from the corpse's forehead only matched by mule-like ears that flopped uselessly.

"She has a broken stump on her forehead, her mane and tail are thin and stringy, her ears are longer than normal, and she has had chunks taken out of her legs…" Anna paused for a moment. "I think we may have found a dead changeling queen,” she groaned. “But why’s her mane a dark red, and why is her skin light grey? Hell, why’s her mouth torn open to the point she has a creepy grin going from ear to ear?”

“Perhaps she’s been out here a while. I’mma get her horseshoes off her hooves,” Matt sighed, conjuring some more of his magic to remove said horseshoes from the mare’s hooves. “Let’s take the corpse with us; maybe Lance knows something about dead changeling queens.”

A noise caught the attention of the trio, one that sounded like a distant boom of thunder. They looked around in all directions, but nothing stood out against the vast white aside from the tank. The unicorns glanced up, yet could see nothing past the ongoing flurry of snow which once again started to pick up in intensity, let alone past the darkening grey skies above.

Another rumble shook the skies, this time louder, and the ground lightly quaked in response. The snow coating it shook as well, all flakes appearing to jump up and down like the most minute of pebbles.

“Oh, shit, thundersnow incoming!” Natalie shrieked, eyes widening. Her ears fell flat against her skull as the dreaded ruckus vehemently roared once more, this time with enough force to shake her and the other two unicorns in addition to the snow and ground.

The three quickly turned and galloped back into the tank in short order with their new catch, as well as the dead changeling and horseshoes in tow. They levitated themselves inside, and hastily threw the bear onto the floor of the metallic behemoth and the corpse onto one of the gurneys, as well as the shoes into one of the chests.

Lance approached the lot as the hatch slammed shut. “We’re probably gonna need his fur,” he said, turning to one of the gryphons whilst pointing at the bear for emphasis, this one sporting a light grey lion's body and plumage. “Get me the skinning knife, Quicksilver.”

Chapter II, Part I- Inferno*

Chapter II, Part I- Inferno*

“Why had you been napping in the snow?” Alexander asked the changeling. His question managed to garner her attention.

“I heard something about a town and a temple in this frozen hellhole, but couldn’t get there just by trotting,” Katie began, long ears twitching as she spoke. “I had to take several naps on my way to a place called Frostbite Haven. The storms were so bad I could not fly, unless I wanted to be thrust head-first into the snow.”

“Well, that’s funny, because we just left the Haven minutes before you woke up,” Anna stated as she frowned, taking a second to sigh afterwards.

“Eh, good for me. I heard the hippogryphs there eat weak critters. I reckon I fall into that category,” Katie murmured while she shrugged, her four wings folding against her sides.

“But why were you heading to Frostbite to begin with, despite knowing you could’ve been in danger?” Natalie mused, a thoughtful frown on her face.

“To get directions to the supposedly-nearby temple I also heard about. To put it simply, only the hippogryphs know where the damn thing’s at,” was the reply. Katie punctuated her remark with a long, raspy sigh, eyes dimming so much it was akin to lightbulbs being shut off. “It had something to do with the worlds ending or whatever, but I don’t know what. Where I heard the rumor wasn't… the best place for info.” Another pause. "That, and someling like me is always in danger of something. I'm pretty much a trotting target."

“So, you’re stumped?” Matt questioned, raising a hoof to rub his chin.

“My informant began speaking gibberish when she got to the ‘end of the worlds’ bit.” Katie nodded, orbs once more alight in her black eyes. Her eyes hovered over to the multitude of chests that were placed at the far end of the tank opposite from the panel, and she stood up before trotting to them.

“What is she doing?” Lance piped up as the mare opened a chest and peered inside.

Katie dove into the chest she just opened, rummaging through its contents before pulling out an hourglass. The wood was quaint, but reinforced by bits of steel. The sand within the glass had sported all seven colors of the rainbow with bits of silver and gold throughout. “What’s this?” she asked, wonder alight in her glowing orbs.

“An hourglass. Now put it back,” Quicksilver groaned, frowning for a second before the changeling complied with his request...

Katie immediately dove into the chest again before pulling out something else—an unpolished, though glittering, sapphire in the shape of a rough heart. “This is even prettier than the hourglass!” she exclaimed, jaw hanging as she marveled at the gemstone. Because of her torn mouth, the appendage acted like a door that hadn’t been shut, swinging gently in a non-existent breeze.

“Oh dear,” Alexander sighed, raising a talon and letting it connect with his face. “Here we go.”

The sapphire had been thrown back into the chest before Katie thrust her head and front hooves into the wooden container a third time, once more rummaging through it before producing a strange rectangular stone that sported a pitch black in color. The stone had been adorned with strange, crimson runes that contrasted the sable in a way the scarlet appeared to be drastically brighter.

And the rock's runes began to glow as she held the stone in her hooves.

“Oh fuck! Put that back!” Matt shrieked in a voice comparable to that of a mare's, eyes widening as he took notice of the rock that the wraith now held in her hooves. When she failed to obey, he galloped over to her and yanked it from her with his magic, gently putting it in the chest before slamming the container shut with more magic. He slung his hooves onto her withers, being careful enough to avoid knocking her down to the floor, and looked her dead in the eyes.

“Why can’t I hold that black and red rock?” she asked simply, long ears swiveling so that their leaf-shaped folds faced him.

“Because that rock has dangerous runes inscribed in its frame!” Matt continued to yell, now glaring at the mare before him. “It could destroy this tank and all of us in it with dark, arcane energy! Even a hornless mare like you or a gryphon like Alexander could easily activate it with no trouble at all, and you damn near triggered its innate magics! You could have killed us in seconds, for Godcat’s sake!”

“Then why do you have the damn thing if it’s so dangerous?” Katie shot back, not breaking eye contact with the stallion. In that moment the tank had fallen silent, her words so simple yet bearing the weight of a very valid point.

After a few tense seconds or so passed, Natalie spoke up. “We have the rock so nobody else can touch it. After all, that rune-inscribed stone is dangerous. A fool could’ve used it to destroy anything he wanted it to, but it would kill them as well.”

“And besides, nobody would think to rob a damn tank blind,” Lance added with a nod. “Especially one loaded with gryphons and ponies who eat, sleep, and bathe in the damn thing when the weather’s awry.”

“From here on,” Matt lifted a hoof from Katie’s withers to gesture to all of the chests as he spoke, “no touching the chests and the stuff inside them. Capiche?”

The changeling nodded in response.

“Good,” Matt huffed. He nodded back and relinquished his hold on her withers, getting up and trotting back to the other ponies. Unfortunately for him and everyone else, she soon took notice of the large sack of goods that sat near the chests. The sack’s mouth still lay wide open, and her eyes twinkled as though she thought the damn thing had beckoned her to enter it.

She trotted to it and crawled into the leathery bag full of odd trinkets, yet again digging through various things like a foal who could not keep their hooves to themselves. When she managed to unearth herself from the burlap bag of goods, she brought with her a simple spear crafted of a lightweight metal. The spear sported two rectangular gaps on its long shaft that were split by a third piece running down the middle, just large enough for a pair of hooves to easily slip through and grasp the shaft.

Lance raised a hoof and almost slammed it onto his face as soon as he saw the changeling with the spear. “Put that back,” he groaned, the hoof running down the bridge of his muzzle.

“But what is this doohickey?” Katie questioned, using one hoof to gesture to the spear she held.

“A spear. Now put it back,” Anna snarled, gritting her teeth as her horn began to glow in a bright green.

“Ugh. Fiiiiiine,” Katie complained, slowly putting the spear back into the sack of stuff. As soon as the weapon was tucked away in the thick leather bag, she found herself grabbed by a talon and carried to the gurneys by the scruff of her neck. She'd been lifted quite easily, and within minutes had been placed on the same gurney she had rested upon earlier. The hornless mare started staring at Alexander.

“Don’t touch things that aren’t yours. Now sit there until I can say you can move,” Alexander snarled. He did not look away from her until she nodded her understanding. He strode to the control panel afterwards, stopping in front of the various keys and buttons when the sound of faint static hit his ears. Alexander glanced around before spotting a military radio in a little holder a ways off from the panel, connected by a thick, curly black wire.

Alexander crept towards it with an incredulous brow quirked. Once he had gotten close enough, he reached up and fluently pulled it from its holder. Now, the static sounded like it had been producing words, yet he couldn’t be too sure if it did. He sat down and rose another talon up, the thin claws grasping one of the small knobs. He began turning it back and forth until he could get something clear out of the racket it had been making.

“Delta Unit to Valkyrie, Delta Unit to Valkyrie!” a masculine voice came from the radio, still slightly garbled by static. It had been accompanied by a soft roar of an engine, as well as a distinct buzzing sound akin to a bee flapping its wings.

“What’s your status, over?” Alexander questioned, his incredulous brow still quirked.

“Fast approaching your position. Armin has requested to be dropped off with you, over,” came the reply.

“In that case, could you take back with you a few extra passengers in exchange?” Alexander inquired, a frown on his beak. “The tank is getting crowded, and we’ve picked up what we believe to be a wraith, over.”

“A wraith!” the voice from the radio shouted, “And for what reason did you pick it up, over?”

“This wraith is very peculiar. She’s more physically… er, lacking, for a shortage of better words. Her form is perfectly able to move, yet she has tell-tale signs of starvation and maybe abuse riddling her frame, over,” Alexander replied, sighing.

“As long as you keep her in check, fine,” the voice from the radio groaned. “Me and the rest of the Delta Unit are five thousand yards from your location now, and we’re bringing the transport blimp. Which reminds me, who do you want to get transported from your unit via the blimp?”

“Excellent. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious in the sky,” Alexander murmured whilst nodding. “As for your second question, I would like a few of my fellow gryphons traded off on the blimp. Sans myself, Nathan, Quicksilver, and Jeremy, over.”

“Roger. We can make the trade-off. Delta Unit, over and out,” the voice from the radio replied before a ‘click’ sounded from the machine. Alexander nodded again and put the radio back into its holder, turning away from the panel just as Lance trotted up to him.

“What's that all about?” Lance asked, thin metal wings shifting—whether in wonder or concern, the gryphon couldn’t tell. The pony wore an expressionless mask, making it difficult to determine his current mood.

“Delta Unit’s going to take some of the others out of this tank, and in return they are also going to deposit Armin in the process,” Alexander answered. His statement made Lance betray a simple series of blinks, and each time his eyelids briefly snapped closed, his pupils had widened.

“Delta Unit? What’s that?” Katie asked, her question causing the gryphon and the pegasus to turn to her.

“I run an army. Delta Unit’s the part of the army that monitors the skies outside this tank,” Lance replied, one torn ear swiveling towards the panel. A faint rumble hit his ears as he shot a glance towards the screen, wings flaring as though by reflex.

Had Delta Unit already arrived, perhaps? Did another earth-shaking clap attempt to rend the heavens and land once more? All the screen betrayed had been little more than the now dark grey horizon and snow-laden ground, neither of which giving so much as a hint to the cause of the noise.

“Is there another storm incoming?” Anna questioned, tentatively trotting up to the control panel. As if to answer her question, lightning streaked across the sky outside, its arc going just wide enough to be visible on the screen. She saw faint yellow crackles rippling through the clouds, barely obscuring golden dots hiding in the dark masses.

The radio started blaring static once more, and this time it was the pegasus who took it out of its holder. For a few seconds, the wretched buzzing continued before fading out as the same voice from before began speaking. “Change in plans. Major thunderstorm incoming. We can’t move the blimp and our jets through the clouds without it fucking our radars up, over.”

“Why not?” Lance growled, his eyes narrowing.

“There are lots and lots of ectoplasms that have decided to hijack the clouds. It’s like a hive of bees is headed our way,” the voice replied, sounding rather panicked.

“Damn. I guess it’s gonna sweep over me and my unit, then? If that’s the case, we’re sitting ducks here,” Lance snarled, ears falling flat on his head.

“Exactly,” the voice replied. “Delta Unit, over and out.”

“Shit,” Lance groaned and closed his eyes as he put the radio in the holder, only opening them when he turned to the other ponies and the changeling who still sat on the gurney. “Listen up, everybody!” he barked. At this, everyone turned to him, and he did not speak further until he'd been certain all eyes were on him. He made extra-sure to look at Katie to see if she paid him any heed, and her orbs were as glued to him as the eyes of everyone else.

“We’re stuck here for the night, and since there isn’t much else we can do, we’re gonna have to get some shut-eye right now,” Lance rambled, wings spreading to full mast. “Get some sleep, we’ll need to conserve energy for tomorrow!”

Everyone exchanged glances with one another, yet nobody said anything in protest. Slowly, everyone covered themselves up and laid down on the floor of the tank, resting their heads in their front hooves or claws. Katie merely shrugged and laid down on the gurney she'd been parked on earlier.

After all, she hadn’t been told she could leave it yet, so the changeling figured she might as well sleep on the damn thing. NoLegs hopped up to her thin frame and curled up next to her on the gurney, purring contently as the lot within the Valkyrie dozed off.

Soon, though, someone took a trip to the realm of dreams.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Natalie rose onto her legs and glanced around, finding herself within a dark wood filled to the brim with blackened, dead trees. The whole forest showed no signs of life; plants had decayed, no wild animals scurried about, and the skies were as bleak and bleary as the color of the still bark. Instinctively, she lit up her horn, causing an orange glow to illuminate her surroundings from the tip of her forehead appendage.

She shuddered, ears flattened against her skull. The mare took another glance at her surroundings, and her heart sank as she noticed that one tree stood out from the rest—in that it had a visage: empty eyes staring right back at her, accompanied by a hollow, tooth-laden mouth. The mouth curled up at the corners, forming a hellish sneer.

Natalie backed away from the tree with the face, in spite of the fact that it had been firmly rooted into the greyed reddish-brown dirt. By doing this, she went and bumped into another tree, gasping in surprise as the bark scraped against her rump.

She whirled around and gaped. This tree had a face, too. Sweat began to bead down the pony’s face from her forehead, and a breeze blew past, caressing her visage and sending icy chills down her spine.

The glow coming from her horn turned brilliant scarlet like her mane, and her eyes widened as this had happened. “Oh no,” she murmured, legs trembling. “I need to get out of here…”

Unfortunately, her legs decided it was a good idea as ever to lock up with numbness on the spot, effectively glueing her to where she stood. All around her, the trees—faceless and not—remained still, and she found herself unable to even will her legs to move. It was as if time had frozen on the scene. Natalie took a closer look at the trees, and noticed that their barky surfaces seemed to faintly reflect the glow of her horn, as if the wood had been heavily polished and buffed.

A dense and ominous tranquility settled in the wood, with nothing even daring to break the thick silence. Even the muted sounds of her own exhales, which turned more and more shallow the longer she stood idle, failed to register in her mind.

In the corner of her eye, she could see another tree behind her. “It’s just like the one I accidentally hit with my rear end,” she found herself thinking. It seemed to be grinning at her, as though silently taunting her for merely being paralyzed. Her irises and pupils shrank, while the rest of her eyes simultaneously went wide.

Only when she felt thin, flimsy wood scraping against her backside did her legs finally move. The unicorn jumped away from the tree and bolted, the red light from her horn making the dead hunks of wood stand out from the dirt. Even so, she almost collided head-first with a tree as soon as she took off galloping, forcing her to side-step out of the way.

Natalie skidded to a complete halt after a few moments of near-blindly galloping and looked up as lightning flashed across the sky, followed in short order by a titanic clap of thunder. Another blast of lightning lit up the sky, this bolt sharply arcing downward, and the mare stumbled backwards as a nearby tree found itself struck. She'd been briefly blinded by the blast of light, and by another as the tree began to burn with a raging fire.

When her eyes managed to recover from the onslaught, she noticed that the stricken tree had bits and pieces already falling away. The burning spire of wood snapped at the trunk, falling down almost on top of her. She narrowly avoided being squished, jumping out of the way of the scorching timber which now blocked off the path she’d been on.

“Wait a second,” Natalie mumbled as realization set in and her thought processes halted, almost absentmindedly glancing down at her hooves. She could now see a worn dirt trail, made apparent by both the burning log and the light of her horn, and her hooves had been right atop it. Begrudgingly, she turned around, shuddering as the blaze produced such heat it felt like her posterior had already started catching flame, and she scrambled away from it for a bit. Only when she no longer felt heat licking at her heels did she take another moment to even consider what she had found. “I found a dirt trail…”

The revelation was enough to make her glance up again. Her eyes did not deceive her. She had, indeed, been staring at a worn-out dirt trail. Natalie began to trot along it, ignoring the trees that were silently watching her passing form all the while. As she crept along, lightning struck more trees, sending them falling and burning onto the path behind her. It'd been like Mother Nature was depserately trying to convey something to the mare, but she could not for the life of her figure out what that might’ve been.

Eventually, the unicorn paused in a clearing. The clearing spanned far and wide, so much so that she could barely see the mass of trees on the other side. It had been marked by an aged pair of stone walls that glittered with various gems set into the rock, separated by a flimsy and busted metal gate hewn of gold.

Beyond that, Natalie spotted a burning mansion that was wide enough to neatly fill in the entire area between the walls, the fires eating away at the support beams and wooden surfaces, turning the entire structure black and useless. In front of the inferno, on a small lawn that the mansion didn't touch, a creature stood with its form angled. She squinted her eyes, trying to determine what it was—yet she could not tell what it had been, even with the fires of the large manor betraying its immediate presence.

It turned its head towards her, its features still difficult to make out. Was it a pony? A gryphon? Maybe even a changeling?

The thing spoke, its voice hollow, distorted and without a definitive tone or accent that could give Natalie an idea regarding whatever identity it may have had. “Looks like the sinner has returned.”

“I…” Natalie uttered, but her voice quickly died in her throat as two brilliant jade orbs lit up on what she presumed was the creature’s face. They glowed, yet did not reveal any tell-tale signs of their owner’s appearance. It took a step towards the gate, it's briefly-raised limb just as indiscernible as its visage.

“You have sinned, little filly,” the thing hissed, taking another step aimed at the gate. “And you have not atoned for it!” it continued, and its voice rose as it spoke, now more akin to shrieking metal than anything else.

The mare took a step back, and she tried to speak, yet when her mouth opened again not a sound came out. She turned around hastily as she felt heat building up from behind, and her heart began thundering in her chest as bright reds, yellows, and oranges greeted her.

Now, all that Natalie could see was ablaze, giving off an intense heat that began stinging her eyes and producing a thick smog that made her start coughing in moments. Her body became coated head to hoof in thick grey soot, and she stumbled backwards yet again—knocking open the gate and landing flat on her back.

She didn't have the slightest chance to move; the thing rushed over to her prone form in a heartbeat and loomed over her, glaring at her with the glowing jade orbs as if the orbs were eyes. It slowly rose a limb up high, but Natalie rolled away like a log before it could connect with her face. She got up onto her hooves and channelled magic into her horn, firing off a blast of flame that sent the black creature reeling away.

But as soon as the thing landed on the ground, it got right back up like the blast of fire did nothing. Its head formed a grinning mouth lined with jagged teeth, aglow with the same emerald color as the orbs it lit up earlier. Now paired with said orbs, it looked like the beast had grown a face, albeit a very unpleasant one. It also seemed to have, somehow, obtained a horn that glowed in an olive hue.

Flames started circling around Natalie with such speed she had been caught within a gradually-shrinking island of dead dirt. She whirled her whole body around, yet there seemed to be no avenue of escape. The fires turned emerald in color as they kept getting nearer and nearer, almost entirely within inches of the hapless pony from all directions. The heat had been licking her from all sides at this rate, the temperature rising and rising rapidly as the flames inched closer and closer still.

She woke up just before the flames could touch her, eyes wide and breathing shallow. The mare glanced around, noticing that everyone else had still been sound asleep and tucked in their blankets. Not even Katie had stirred. In fact, the thin changeling did not appear to be breathing at all.

Natalie took a few shuddering breaths and slowly rose onto her hooves. Her blanket fell off of her body, yet she took no notice. Instead, her eyes wandered towards the control panel, and then to the screen just above the makeshift keyboard. The snow appeared to have brightened now, and she could make out a faint tint of orange from the sides of the screen. In addition to this, the sky had been crystal clear, and painted with a mixture of navy blues and deep purples with just the faintest of reds.

Natalie turned her attention towards the changeling. Once she noticed the distinct lack of the typical movements that indicated any sort of breathing, the sight made something register in her sleep-fogged mind.

“Do you breathe when you sleep, if at all?” Natalie mused in a quiet voice. She caught sight of a long ear swiveling in her direction, followed by an azure orb starting to glow within its black canvas.

“Barely. I'm amazed my lungs still work,” Katie answered, lazily widening her mouth to yawn. She turned to the unicorn and sighed. “You’re up awfully early.”

“Bad dream,” Natalie replied simply, rubbing her eyes with a hoof.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

“You want us to go to Fantasia?” a unicorn mare questioned, trotting through a lengthy hallway with some other ponies. She quirked an incredulous brow, amethyst eyes twinkling in wonder and moderate suspicion. A balcony with an airship began coming into view, and the hall's end had been marked with the roof stopping just outside said balcony. Marble columns passed her and the rest of the group as they continued to trot.

“Yes, Twilight.” Another mare nodded, this one with a pristine white coat. “Me and Luna have prepared this airship for you and your friends to head over to Fantasia.” She paused to gesture to the nearby airship with a hoof bearing a golden horseshoe. “Take whatever you need, and return in three days’ time.”

“Well, alright… but what do you want us to do during those three days in the sister world?” Twilight questioned, her brow still quirked. She kept going onward to the hall's end, and she could see ponies sporting golden armor lining either side of the balcony.

“Try to find as much as you can. If you are able, bring some of the native Fantasians back to Equestria. Because of the barrier that has stood until last night, we don’t know much about how the sister world is operated. Be very careful. I know not what lies beyond the border,” the other mare answered with a grim nod of her head. Now, they were starting to trot past the armored ponies who stood like statues.

“Alright, Princess Celestia. My friends and I will do what we can.” Twilight nodded, a determined smile forming on her lavender visage.

“Maybe Fantasia will be as awesome as fighting changelings!” another mare chirped, this one a cyan pegasus that had been aloft in the air for some time.

“I hope whatever’s in the sister world will be, um, friendly,” yet another pegasus mare murmured, creamy yellow wings shifting in anticipation.

“Maybe I could throw a ‘the-barrier-has-been-broken-and-we-can-make-new-friends’ party!” an earth pony cheered, bouncing up and down in place. A very pink mane bobbed up and down as she jumped.

Yet another mare trotted towards the others from the boarding dock of the ship, a tied blond mane weaving about in tandem with her movements. “I wanted to tell y’all that the airship has been loaded with food, water, and some other things that we might need during our trip,” she stated, a smile on her face.

“That’s absolutely wonderful, dear Applejack,” another unicorn chortled, this one a very light grey in color. She smiled and nodded her head in understanding. A frown soon replaced the smile, though. “Yet I am also saddened that we’re going to have to leave Canterlot shortly.”

Another creature ran up from behind Applejack, this one bearing purple scales, with a green underbelly and spikes running from head to tail. “Hey, Twilight, I also loaded some ink, quills, and paper onto the airship. I figured we may need to write to Celestia in case something happens over in Fantasia,” he said, eyes beaming as a grin formed on his face.

Twilight’s smile widened. “That’s a great idea, Spike!” She ran up to the purple-and-green creature and pulled him into a hug with her front hooves.

Another beast jostled onto the balcony, standing upright and sporting thick brown fur and limbs ending in dulled claws. The yellow pegasus glanced up at the beast and smiled as it let out a small roar. “Um, girls, is it alright if Harry comes with us?” she asked. The other ponies turned to her.

“Frankly, I’m surprised Angel bunny didn’t want to go.” The pink-maned pony shrugged. She eyed the beast and noticed a small white rabbit perched atop its head. “Actually, I stand corrected,” she added. The mare giggled upon seeing the rabbit, who merely shook its head and rolled its eyes in response.

“Eh, I’d be fine with Angel and Harry coming with. It’s not like they could crash the airship or anything,” the cyan mare stated and nodded.

“In that case, who’s going to be driving our ride to Fantasia?” the grey unicorn questioned, her head tilted slightly. “I mean, none of us have even the slightest bit of experience regarding one when the driver’s wheel is involved.”

“Rest assured, Rarity, I have already made arrangements regarding the steering wheel of the airship,” Celestia answered, a warm smirk on her visage. With that, the group of mares and creatures strode onto the boarding dock of the ship. All of them waved to Celestia as the bridge retracted into the ship, and stopped when she waved back just before a wooden door closed.

Within minutes, the airship departed from the balcony and rose high into the sky. The ponies looked from the windows at the shrinking continent below, though some looked towards small tables, chairs, the ornately-decorated carpeted floor that sported a sun-and-moon motif, and a small staircase to the side that went deeper into the airship. Spike looked towards the walls, which were clad in floral-designed purple wallpaper.

“I’m not sure if I should be happy that we’re leaving Equestria and heading into unknown territory,” Twilight murmured and grimaced, frowning in thought. “I mean, none of us know what to expect, let alone where on Fantasia we’re gonna be landing.”

“If there are other ponies in Fantasia, we won’t know what they’re gonna be like,” Applejack agreed with a slow nod of her head. “We can only pray for the best, Twi.”

Harry let out another growl. The yellow mare added, “Harry thinks it would be wise to wait.”

“I agree with Harry the bear and Fluttershy. We’ll just have to wait and see what Fantasia has in store for us,” Rarity affirmed, a small smile on her face.

“But what if we can’t make it back in three days’ time? What then?” Twilight found herself thinking, rubbing a hoof on her chin. She silently nodded to herself, yet could not ignore the faint shiver that ran down her spine as the thought echoed in her mind.

Twilight looked at the cyan pegasus, who trotted up to her. "Hey, Rainbow Dash, what do you think about all of this?"

Dash rolled her magenta eyes. "Twi, I still think it's gonna be awesome. Heck, maybe I could get new flying buddies, or find a group of ponies similar to the Wonderbolts," she replied with a smile.

Chapter VIII- Trotting Upon the High Road*

Chapter VIII- Trotting Upon the High Road*

The Fantasian airship followed the Mythonian one closely, and in the pilot's steel-grey steering room which didn't have much inside, everyone had gathered. Lance multitasked. He operated a keyboard-and-steering-wheel-screen combination similar in build to that of the Valkyrie, simultaneously checking a corner on the lower-left of the built-in screen and monitoring the airship's vitals.

Behind him, circling a bolted-down table while playing a game of cards, Armin and Alexander bickered with Sarah and Fenrir about this and that. "Hrm..." Fenrir hummed, keeping his gaze not on the cards in his hand, but on the gryphon directly across from him.

"What's he going hard-faced over?" Sarah piped up, turning to the dark-coated gryphon with a perplexed twinkle gleaming in her eyes.

"You're asking the wrong one," Alexander retorted, shaking his head.

"Don't look at me," Armin interjected as the hippogryph turned her attention to him. He glanced at the cards in his right hoof and added, "Anyone have a two?"

Three consecutive 'no's answered the changeling in tandem, and he sighed before reaching over to a deck of cards in the middle and plucking one off of the top with his left hoof.

"Now, before I ask who has what, I must ask you something else, Lyregale," the gryphon began in an impassive tone. The green-maned hippogryph made an inquisitive purr as she turned to him, a brow quirked as her throat softly rumbled. "Maria told me this morning about some kind of Godcat-awful noise that she heard yesterday, and that it came from a harp. Since you're the only one on this airship with such an instrument, care to tell me what the young filly had the misfortune of listening to?"

Sarah flinched and donned a nervous grin. "Er, the rainbow-maned Mythonian—" she started, but the gryphon cut her off with a huff.

"You mean Miss Rainbow Dash?" Alexander asked, and at this, the mare fervently nodded. "Alright, then, please continue."

"Well, she... dared me to play a decent composition on the harp, after I snapped one of her friends out of some kind of trance before she could do who-knows-what with a magic surge. The harp's enchanted, and... let's just say it didn't like my attempt at said decent composition," Sarah summarized, grimacing at the memory.

"She attempted a harmonious piece, yet had instead attained a dissonant serenade of sorts," Fenrir elaborated, ears folding back as if he were preparing to undergo another phono-receptor-injuring racket. "The harp itself... its enchantments, whatever they are, only amplified my headache tenfold. One of the Mythonians accused the thing, instrument and weapon alike, as having been possessed. I wouldn't doubt it if that were the case, truth be told."

Alexander's brows shot up. "Oh goodness, that sounds worrying," he remarked.

"Just try listening to one of her compositions," Fenrir scoffed. "If the notes are off-key and played frantically, the songs sound relatively half-decent. If said notes were on-key and played methodically... the strings themselves screech like they are protesting."

"That's new: a bard who cannot play a single composition to save her own life. With that fancy weapon she has, I'd reckon she'd be better off as a knight or something," Armin remarked, a wry smirk spreading on his fanged maw.

"Either that, or a joust master," Fenrir conceded with a nod.

"Alright, do stop poking fun at the green-maned hippogryph. Does anyone have a jack?" Alexander spoke. A small smile spread on his beak as the other three plucked a card from their hands and gave him a triad of jacks. "Any sevens?" he asked, drawing a card from the deck when the others shook their heads.

"I'm hardly a bard, changeling. I can't even sing, let alone write a good poem," Sarah scoffed, sending Armin a glare full of daggers, her voice dripping with venom as she spoke. "Anyone have... eh, a three?" She drew a card when the others shook their heads, and the aforementioned changeling's smirk widened.

"Watch your tongue. I could easily end you," Armin retorted, his horn starting to flicker with emerald flames.

"And I could end you just the same," Sarah replied, one of her talons balling up into a fist.

"Enough, both of you," Fenrir interjected with a huff. "Would anyone happen to posses an ace?" And with that, the card game dragged on and on. It wasn't until the deck nearly ran out of cards before anyone spoke up again.

"So, little hippogryph," Armin began, sneering.

"What now?" Sarah groaned, rolling her eyes.

Armin began smirking again, propping up a foreleg and resting his chin upon his hole-riddled fetlock, insectoid eyes glinting with some kind of carnal joy. "If you can't play your harxe, why don't you peddle your little tail back to the kitchen?" he asked, snickering as the gryph stood up on her back legs, slamming her empty claw upon the wood with a wordless snarl. She spread her wings wide, as if about to lunge, but the sound of the general speaking up halted her before she got the chance to make another move.

"Matt," Lance huffed from the steering wheel. "Come over here and control the airship for a minute or two..." he trailed off, his voice laced in anger. Instantly, the half-Clydesdale obliged and gripped the steering wheel with his magic as the pegasus relinquished his hold on the thing. Said pegasus then stood on his back legs and walked upright all the way to the table, towering over Armin as the snide changeling found himself with a shadow overhead. He turned around, only to flinch as he fell beneath a scrutinizing glare of crimson.

And immediately after that, said changeling found himself getting a metal-covered hoof right across the face that hit him with enough force to send his body sprawling onto the floor sideways. "Don't you ever let me hear you make such a horrid remark again," Lance hissed coldly.

"Y-yessir," Armin weakly groaned before spitting up some green liquid in addition to a couple of teeth.

Lance turned to Alexander and spoke up again, still standing upright, "Alexander, could you cap his horn for a few days?"

"I'll have to retrieve a magic inhibitor and maybe dig through the cloth boxes to find one, but that should only take a few minutes. Consider it done." The gryphon nodded and, after setting his cards down onto the table, got up and walked out of the control room.

Sarah sat back down and gathered the cards on the table, while Fenrir handed her what was left of his and Armin's respective hands. She assembled the deck and piped up just as Lance made to turn around, "Do you always reprimand him like this?"

Lance glanced over his shoulder and nodded. "I don't want him stepping a hoof an inch out of line. One, your sister's one of my advisors, and any disrespect towards her relatives is instant disrespect to her and, by extension, to me. Two, it's imperative he keeps his magic and mouth in line, especially since I've been made aware that we're probably going to be under whatever scrutiny the leader of this 'Equestria' has," he answered. "I've made a bad impression with said leader's friends; I'd rather not fuck up my chances any more than I might already have."

Sarah quirked a brow. "Wait, you made a bad impression on the Mythonians?" she inquired.

"More than that: they flipped when they saw my ears, accused me of torturing the wraith we have with us, glared at Armin like they wanted his head on a pike, and then called us barbarians after a small battalion of wraith unicorns showed up and basically went, 'Hey, kill us, please!' Oh, and Rainbow Dash thinks we should eat an all-green diet, something I can't do," Lance replied with a huff and a face starting to turn verdant around the bridge of his muzzle.

"How do you do that?" a young voice piped up, and Lance directed his gaze downward to see Maria in front of his rear hooves. She looked at him with a glint in her eyes, and a head tilted slightly to one side.

"I walk upright very carefully," Lance answered before walking around the filly and reverting to all fours in one fluid motion. "It comes to me as naturally as a swivel of my ear."

"What's a swivel?" Maria asked, garnering a chuckle from the pegasus stallion.

"It's where your ear or your leg turns," he answered, turning to her and gently patting her head with a metal-covered hoof.

"She's going to be a handful," Fenrir muttered under his breath, looking at Sarah and gesturing to the filly at the same time. The green-maned hippogryph nodded in agreement, glancing at the foal with a soft, if exasperated, smile.

"Matt!" Natalie cried from the other end of the room, inadvertently causing said stallion to flinch behind the steering wheel. "Did you give Katie shrooms, and if so, how the fuck did you manage that? She's sitting here mumbling something about you dying your coat bright pink and prancing on seven-colored strips in the sky!"

Sarah clenched her claw into a fist, slammed it on the table, and threw her head back to howl with laughter all at once. Fenrir turned to the furthest corner, quickly spotting a cream-colored mare with narrowed eyes and a dazed wraith muttering inaudibly to herself. He shook his head and rubbed his temples as he sniffed the air and found a new smell intermingling with the stench of halted necrosis.

"Matt, once this ship lands on Mythonian soil, you got some explaining to do," Lance stated, smirking as the half-Clydesdale groaned and slumped behind the wheel.

"I'm gonna grab your nutsack, rip it off with my stubby horn, and then replace your eyes with your balls!" Katie exclaimed in a warbling, dazed tone of voice before a pale tongue lolled out of her mouth and extended until the tip reached the floor. She went on, biting her tongue as she spoke, "Anf fen, I fill schofth a hairbwusth uf your asf!"

"How did a wraith get high, exactly?" Lance asked, turning to Natalie with a snicker.

Natalie threw her forelegs in the air and waved them frantically as she spoke, "You tell me! I ain't got a fucking clue!"

Katie, whose tongue still hung out of her mouth, looked around the room for a moment or so before she caught sight of Anna inching her way to the table. "Ey fere, sesthy," she began, now slurring her words, "cah I polith your fluth?"

At that, Anna froze, her eyes going wide and jaw soundlessly opening. She trembled in place, staring straight ahead at the table, her visage turning a dark shade of azure as the wraith's words sank in. A few seconds later, sweat dribbled down her body like liquid bullets, forming a small puddle wide enough that it could've easily been mistaken for an excess of rainwater after a terrible storm.

Katie lurched towards the archer with a stumbling gait, almost tripping over her own hooves as she approached the frozen, sweat-covered mare. The stump of her horn pointed this way and that as the head it had been attached to swayed about, akin to a drunkard failing to pin the tail on the donkey correctly. Her tongue retracted in her mouth, and Katie spoke clearly once more, "I wish I had a nice ass like that... can I stick my hoof under your tail?"

Only then did the petrified mare move; she levitated herself and careened around the table and found herself latching onto Lance. "She's scaring me," she mumbled, leaning closer to the pegasus, which forced him to lean back a bit.

At that moment, Alexander came into the room—just in time to see the dazed wraith slip on the puddle of sweat, spin into the air for a few seconds, and land with her back to the floor. "Water spells are cheap," she groaned, feebly thrashing all four of her legs in the air as she struggled to get up.

"And now she's a turtle," Natalie sighed, her hoof connecting with her face and sliding down the bridge of her muzzle. She shook her head and turned to the gryphon. "Katie's stoned off her gourd, and someone on this ship may have assisted her to let her get into that state," she explained. "My money's on Matt."

"I'm impressed the dead changeling amongst us somehow got drugged," Alexander groaned, rolling his eyes after he turned his attention back to Katie and noticed that she had still failed to stop her flailing upon the floor.

"She tried to do reverse-necrophilia on Anna," Lance called from the other side of the room. "Tie the wraith up until the high spell passes; I do not want her molesting anybody, as that would be very weird and not to mention gross."

Alexander's eyes widened. "R-reverse-necrophilia?" he asked, his voice but a high-pitched squawk.

Lance nodded, and turned to Anna. "Can you let go of me now? I need to take the steering wheel back from Matt, if you please," he groaned. The mare nodded and released her hold on him, quickly using a spell to summon a towel and patting him down with it. She did this to dry him of the sweat she inadvertently gave unto him when she first clung to his form. He nodded nodded once the archer finished cleaning him and began trotting to the steering wheel, shoving Matt aside as soon as he reached the wheel and panel.

The bulky unicorn stumbled no more than three hooves back. As soon as he stopped himself from going backwards any further, a blue-tinted aura grabbed him and very slowly dragged him to Natalie.

"How did you get the wraith to start tripping balls! Aren't dead mares unable to ingest drugs, much less absorb them into probably-non-existent bloodstreams and most-definitely decayed organs?" Natalie shrieked, horn glowing with the same blue aura. Sweat began beading her brow as the half-Clydesdale kept trying to firmly plant his hooves in the floor. This went in tandem with grabbing himself using his magic and making many attempts to tug his entire body away from her.

"It wasn't me, Natz!" Matt replied, his hooves dragging back and forth along the floor as he struggled to keep himself from going any closer to the mare who was magically accosting him.

Sarah and Fenrir watched the ongoing tug-of-war that went on for a few moments, exchanging but one glance as the unicorns reached a point where, no matter how hard one tried, the other simply could not be moved against his will. "So... who do you think is going to give out first?" the former asked.

"The red-maned unicorn is struggling; she's glistening in sweat and her horn is giving off sparks. I believe she'll cease soon," Fenrir replied, shaking his head. "I hope they do not behave this childishly when we reach Mythos."

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"What's that?" Maria cried, jumping up and down in an attempt to see what the screen had shown. Said screen detailed a vast continent, one stretching north, west and south, and another eastern landmass whose edge just barely became visible as clouds swept over it. The edge of this second continent had been separated from the edge of the first by an ocean. In the center of the huge continent, a tall mountain jutted up, like a hoof reaching for the heavens.

"I..." Lance paused upon seeing the Mythonian airship pick up momentum, speeding faster and faster towards the larger of the two land masses. "I don't have the foggiest clue," he answered. A vibration shook the ship as it continued to follow the first, and then another tremor came after that. "Guys, you might wanna head into the lounge! We're about to reach terminal velocity!" he barked as the ship once more rumbled.

Everyone filed out of the room in a frenzy, except for Maria, who stopped jumping and began clinging to the pilot. As soon as Lance heard the door click shut, another tremor forced him to land face-first in the crook of the steering wheel, giving him a bloody nose. The gravity shifted, and he could not lift his head as the Fantasian ship descended onto Mythos, hounding the first ship as the foreign atmosphere of the sister planet felt as if it grew heavier and heavier.

Another rumble reverberated throughout the ship, and he could hear the others raising a unified fuss as the ship tilted sharply downward at a 45-degree angle, gritting his teeth as gravity increased its pressure tenfold. Maria clambered onto his back, digging her tiny claws into his withers, adding another ounce of pressure that made it hellishly difficult to control the airship.

The continent came closer, and closer, and a panicking Lance saw the Mythonian ship swerve violently, jutting up at an angle before it straightened itself out. His eyes began burning with a flame, and adrenaline coursed through his veins as the ship once more tilted, the figurehead pointing straight down at some hapless structure that had been too far away to properly identify. Maria began screeching in his ear, giving him both a headache and another rush of blood going through his front hooves.

Releasing his face from the wheel and letting off a cry of sheer determination, he jerked the wheel back, causing the ship to swerve with enough force to send him all the way past the table. Maria shifted and let go, rolling away on her side with a pained yelp. Lance staggered to his hooves, his muscles having gone numb from the pressure he had felt earlier. Forcing himself to stumble to the wheel, his eyes widened at what the screen had shown him.

"Oh fuck me! I am not going to crash the Scylla into the mountain!" he cried, flinging his hooves onto the wheel and jerking it violently to the side, scraping the wings on the right side of the ship as it veered away from the mountain. For a few moments, the ship circled in the sky above some unknown expanse, slowing down all the while. Once it had slowed down considerably, and feeling in all of his muscles returned, Lance hesitantly glanced at the corner showing the ship's vitals, which had three separate bars all glowing bright green.

"It's gonna need refueling on the magic front, and two wings are slightly damaged," he groaned, frowning. Lance smiled, though, before adding, "At least Matt, Anna, and Natz don't have to power this thing 24/7. Hooray for engines including magical reservoirs."

Maria rose onto her hooves and talons before shuffling to the pegasus. "I don't like flying ships," she complained with a sniffle.

Lance laughed, yet the sound held very little mirth in its tone. "I understand why you say that," he replied. "At least we won't have to do this again for a while yet." He turned to the filly and asked, "Say, how are you holding up?"

"I hurt everywhere, and I think my wings popped," Maria replied in a weak voice, frowning.

Lance sighed. "We'll get your wings checked once we land," he mumbled. He drove the ship for another few moments, sitting in silence as he observed what Mythos had to offer. Forests, dense and mighty, stood proudly to one side and spanned across much of the continent, with a few mountain ranges here and there in the distance. To the other side, cities grew and expanded, but there had still been plenty more forests to dot the land with still more mountains.

And then there was the big mountain range the Fantasian ship almost crashed into. On one side of the rock face, a grand city had been built, further accentuated by a waterfall that seemed to go all the way down to the foot of the towering stone behemoth. The rush of water stopped, turning into a tranquil pool on the outskirts of a small town. In the sky, higher than the ship's current altitude, a mass of clouds floated idly by, with several small shapes flocking in and out of it. It oozed what looked to be like liquid rainbows that fell from the mass in much the same way as the waterfall on the mountain.

"Hot damn," Lance stated, inhaling deeply. "This entire continent... it's a lot better than running circles in a winter wonderland for weeks on end."

"I wanna see!" Maria chirped, once more jumping about. She caught sight of the cloud mass with the seemingly-concentrated rainbows dripping from it, and her eyes glittered with awe. "Pretty!"

"After seeing the colors white and grey for so long, I have to agree. The others are missing out," Lance replied, nodding with a small smile. A thought occurred to him, and his smile widened as he turned to the hippogryph filly. "Hell, now that I think about it, I don't see any ectoplasms around here. You think Sarah could stretch her wings and fly higher?"

"I dunno," Maria answered as she shrugged.

"Huh. Remind me to ask Rainbow Dash about the clouds in the sky that make prismatic waterfalls one of these days," Lance sighed, his smile fading a bit. "Alright Maria, hang tight. I'm gonna see if I can find a place to land this thing at." The filly nodded and clung to his back again, and the ship ceased its circling to lazily glide across the sky. Turning the ship towards the mountain with the city set into its face, the pegasus spotted the Mythonian airship not too far away, parked in the city, and caught sight of what looked like a large boarding dock further down the mountainside.

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"So, why didn't you land where the Mythonian ship landed?" Matt asked Lance. A few moments passed, and the latter looked around the small room he and his subordinate stood in. It was a waiting lounge with few windows, couches bolted down between the windows, and to one side a nearly-empty wooden crate stood next to a staircase going down. To the other side, the gangplank had been lowered, leading to the outside. Aside from this, there hadn't been much else in the room.

"I circled the mountain once and looked real close. There's a city where the Leviathan landed, packed chock full of ponies. I swear, some of them had armor on. Something tells me we're about to enter a potential wasp’s nest, so I figured we'd better tread carefully. It's a good thing all we brought with us, aside from weaponry, are cloaks and masks," Lance sighed. "Speaking of, did you put my gunblade and ammunition pouch inside of your magical cargo crate, and are Armin and Katie sufficiently covered?"

"Yes, and yes," Matt replied, nodding. "You might wanna take off your uniform and get a cloak too. If we're about to head into a wasp nest, then we're gonna have to look as inconspicuous as possible. Anna has also taken a hold of Sarah's harxe, though she had to detangle the halberd from the harp to do so. Said something about making it easier to carry if it's in two separate pieces."

Lance nodded and removed his horseshoes before taking off his coat. As he slid off the shirt with the vest, he sighed, "Does Maria also have a cloak on?"

"Just about everyone does, except you and I. Good thing for you, there are four left. We can use two just to wrap your wings and keep convincing Dash and her friends that your wings are fucked up at this time," Matt answered, nodding again. A small smile crept on his lips as his horn glowed the moment the pegasus had fully shaken off his clothes. The uniform and shoes vanished in a golden light, and two brown sheet-like cloths were lifted from the open crate. They floated to Lance, and wasted no time in wrapping around his midsection, effectively concealing his wings and simultaneously holding them down.

A third emerged after that, wrapping loosely around Lance's neck and draping down his back, covering everything behind his front hooves. A hood slipped over his head, hiding his torn ears, yet keeping his visage out in the open. Matt pried out another cloak from the crate and draped it over his frame, adjusting it with his magic to let it rest low on his neck. His hood remained off of his head, enabling his blond mane to drape itself loosely on his withers and past his shoulders.

The two filed out of the airship and onto the boarding dock, where their companions awaited them, all draped with cloaks. Armin and Katie also had extra cloth on their legs, and white porcelain masks completely covering their faces. The changelings' hoods concealed much of their masked visages, including the eyes and the horns. Maria also had a cloak on, with a scarf wrapped around her neck, the bundle tied very neatly to further hold her garment in place.

"You two finished?" Natalie asked as the two stallions rushed up to meet with the rest of the group.

"Just about," Matt said, grinning. "What, you want to head into the maybe-it's-a-trap-city immediately?"

"The sooner we get it over with, the better," Sarah piped up, sitting on her rump and crossing her talons. Her wings shifted under her cloak as she added, "Let's just hope nobody grabs our garbs just to try to assess what we are."

"Has anyone seen NoLegs? I don't think he—" Matt began, only to stop speaking as Natalie's horn started shimmering a soft blue. In a flash of glittering light, the legless cat had appeared, mewing as he hopped onto her back. "—nevermind," he sighed, smiling at the cat.

"Alright, let's just follow that path there. Keep close, and stay away from the edge of the cliff," Lance commanded, moving past the group to trot ahead of them. "And someone hide NoLegs's armor and dagger. Last thing we need is Mythonian ponies asking us why the hell a cat is armed."

Maria clambered onto Alexander's back. "Does the mountain have nice ponies on it?" she asked, eyes glinting inquisitively.

Lance turned to the foal as everyone caught up to him and donned a frown. "Maybe, but I wouldn't risk it. Don't talk to any pony or gryphon or whatever else is in that city unless it's us, alright? We really don't want a... a bad pony to catch us blindsided and get their grubby hooves on you," he replied.

"Okay," Maria answered and nodded. Lance shifted one of his hooves and patted her on the head whilst walking on the other three.

Fenrir took to walking on all fours, eyeing what surrounded the mountain he walked upon. "I wonder if there are other diamond dogs here in Mythos, like me," he murmured to himself, ears perking at a gust of wind as it blew past. He drew a heavy sigh, keeping silent most of the trip. The diamond dog stopped at one point for a moment, finding a poster tacked to a small wooden pole in front of the rock. It depicted a mare who lacked wings and a horn, with a gold-colored mane and pale grey coat with sea-green eyes. On the parchment, the words 'Missing: Silk Fabric, was last seen at Canterlot' were printed out in big letters.

He stared at the poster for a minute before turning back to the path ahead and bounding onward to catch up, slowing to a trot as he found everyone else in the group, who started chatting amiably about what the city they were heading towards had in store for them.

"It's huge, isn't it?" Sarah asked, a frown on her face.

"Looked it, yes. Might've even had a castle as part of the structure somewhere, but I couldn't tell since towers were pretty much rampant throughout," Lance replied, keeping his gaze fixed on the path ahead. "And for some reason, the architecture was loaded with stars, suns, and moons, and it's all gold and ivory and purple. Now that I dwell on it, since the Mythonian airship sported the same colors, we might be approaching this continent's capital city."

"Hey, what the hell is that up there?" Natalie interjected, her inquiry causing the group to halt. They turned to her, noticing her hoof pointing at something, and followed said hoof to lay eyes upon the cloud mass with the liquid rainbows. When she began squinting her eyes to get a better look, Anna noted several things amidst the converged bits of white.

"It... looks to be a cloud city of some kind. I think I can make out houses from here," Anna answered, a brow raising at the anomaly. "Now that I think about it... one of Rainbow's friends mentioned something about a Cloudsdale and pegasi," she added, eyes glinting for a second before widening. "Wait, how did they make clouds into houses to begin with, and how in hell do they make rainbows?"

"Don't know, don't care at the moment, let's hit the road," Lance snapped, his tone set in anger. With that, the group went on the move again, going up and up the winding mountain trail until they spotted the city, noticing that gates barred their path. The gates were great golden things, standing tall and proud, and behind it an entire array of towers jutted out, obscuring much of what lay within the walls. The waterfall passed the gate in a small river, which a drawbridge had been lowered over so ponies could enter and leave as they so well pleased.

Stationed in front of the drawbridge stood a couple of armored unicorns, one sporting coverings of iron and the other bearing gold plates on his frame. The iron-armored one's horn briefly glowed as the group approached them in a slow gait. Before any of the Fantasians could speak, the armored pony said, "I have just caught telepathic wind that Princess Celestia is to be expecting a few visitors."

The gold-plated one spoke up, his horn also glowing for a moment, "And I have a message from Celestia's pupil to keep watch for a group that includes a pony with torn ears, a gryphon with dark feathers, a diamond dog, and a hippogryph mare." As soon as he finished speaking, Lance pulled back his hood, revealing his ears to the armored duo. Sarah stepped forward and unveiled her talons to them in a non-threatening manner, keeping the claws low out of respect. Alexander and Fenrir stepped up as well, gazing at the guards impassively as they stared back.

A few more armored ponies, consisting of more unicorns in addition to some pegasi and earth ponies, trotted out from behind the city gates onto the bridge towards them. A particular white one in purple armor lead the way, eyes as blue as ice surveying the lot. "Are you the Fantasians my si—Twilight Sparkle has told me about?" he asked in an impassive, commanding tone.

The group exchanged glances amongst themselves before Natalie turned back to the purple-garbed pony and spoke up, "Yes, we are. May I ask what's with you and the other armored ponies?" She caught a glint in the white unicorn's eyes and she hurriedly added, "Nothing's wrong or anything, it's just that we didn't expect this kind of welcome."

The white armored unicorn nodded. "About that, we're to provide you something of an escort service. I heard you bunch are... dangerous when provoked, and I'd rather you be cooperative for everypony's safety," he answered. "We're to stay together until you meet with Princess Celestia in the flesh. The formation will be such: with me and my fellow Royal Guards forming two lines outside, and you filing in single file between those lines. Is that understood?"

Once more, the group exchanged another series of looks with each other. Then, Matt stepped forward. "On one condition: we stay cloaked as we are now. Me and my group don't want the extra attention, especially if two lines of guards flank us on either side," he replied in a level tone.

"And why is that?" one of the armored pegasi asked from the back, his voice barely a shout.

"I really don't want to do this, but... Katie, come here and take off your mask for a sec," Matt ordered, turning to the wraith who trotted up to the guards. The dead mare shook her hood off before sitting down and raising her front hooves up, prying off the mask and letting her azure orbs glow. The guards stared at her for a moment, some flinching and others with their eyes widening.

The purple-garbed unicorn didn't flinch in the slightest, but his eyes betrayed a spark of some kind of emotion. "Please put that back on," he said coolly. The wraith did as she was asked, donning the mask and then tugging up the hood, the orbs in her black abysses ceasing to glow once her face had been shielded again. "I understand fully your reason for the cloaks. Would anypony else in your group have sustained such... injuries?" he asked.

"My wings are broken, and bad enough they can't be exposed to the elements until my routine preening. We also have a hippogryph filly with us, incapable of flight for the time being," Lance answered, his visage set with an expressionless look.

"Understood. Guards! Flank the visitors. We must make haste!" the blue-eyed guard shouted in the tone of a drill sergeant, and at once, the rest of the troop formed two lines on either side of the Fantasian lot.

Chapter XXIII- Upon Friendship's Rails*

Chapter XXIII- Upon Friendship's Rails*

"So what's your cutie mark mean?" Apple Bloom asked Matt as Applejack came over and shuffled through her apple basket.

"Uh…" Matt hesitated, a half-frown on his face. "Using swords and magic," he answered after a full minute of silence.

"How'd you get it?" Apple Bloom continued, her inquiry causing the Fantasian stallion to immediately stiffen.

"Long story," Natalie chimed in with a frown on her muzzle, shooting the Mythonian filly a quick glance. "You'd probably be bored to tears hearing it. And it's the same with my cutie mark, too."

"They talked for three days, and I slept a lot as they babbled on and on. Seriously, I thought there was no end to it," Katie added off-handedly, her remark causing Apple Bloom to sigh and roll her eyes before turning to Applejack as she pulled away from the basket.

"Alright everypony, listen up," Applejack began, drawing the attention of the assembled Fantasians to herself. "I'll show you to the zap apple patch of the orchard. Big Mac and Apple Bloom will take the baskets to the apple grinder. Y'all have done good enough with the regular apples—let's stop lollygagging." And with that, she trotted onwards past some trees, with the unicorns and disguised wraith immediately falling in step behind her.

In moments, the filly and stallion who stayed behind vanished with distance. A few more moments thereafter, the group found an expansive patch of apple trees spaced widely apart, separated from the rest of the orchard by a simple wooden fence that stretched for a good distance.

The apple trees that were kept inside the fence boasted brilliantly-colored fruit looking as if painted in seven colors, with vibrant green leaves and stems shaped like lightning bolts. The leaves that weren't attached to the apple stems were dark purple-red, and the trees a deep maroonish-violet respectively. They also had three to four baskets at their trunks, and to one side of the patch in an open spot stood a two-wheeled wagon with a harness attached.

"These apples will disappear early this evening if they aren't picked. Oh, and don't buck the trees," Applejack warned, garnering a few vexed glances. After a minute, she groaned, "I'll show y'all why you don't buck these trees."

With that, she trotted to a tree, turned around, and bucked it as hard as she could. The tree did not yield fruit; rather, it crackled with blue electric sparks that enveloped her body and sent a good jolt through her system. This resulted in her returning to all fours and staggering a bit, her limbs refusing to bend at the joints as she moved. To top this off, her mane and tail were singed and standing on end.

"Oh… so, we're dealing with magic trees," Katie murmured, a faint buzzing sound echoing through the air around her as she spoke. The illusion broke from her form in a flurry of fading gold dust, and her wings beat rapidly and lifted her from the ground. She flew to the tree Applejack kicked at, and went straight to the fruit. "So... " she paused, glancing down at the earth pony, "just pluck and put in the baskets?"

Applejack nodded after taking a minute to shake off the tingling sensation that her act of self-electrocution had wrought. "Yep. Just drop like crazy; zap apples don't bruise easy," she replied. "Fill at least fifteen baskets. We gotta make a lot of jam, and there's a little over forty or so trees."

"Fifteen?" Anna repeated, going wide-eyed.

Applejack turned to the archer and nodded again. "Yep. Normally, we'd do twelve 'round here if it's just me and Mac and Apple Bloom, but the extra three is for you guys," she answered. The unicorns nodded back and let their magic get to work, lifting themselves up and floating in the air to meet up with Katie.

Applejack watched them as the group tugged the ripe apples with ease and dropped them into baskets that waited below, noting that they seemed to operate on some sort of unspoken signal. Anna and Natalie kept to the middle of the tree's branches, and Matt scoured the top, leaving Katie to pluck what they missed at the bottom of the branches.

In a little over two minutes, three baskets below had been filled with ripe, rainbow apples. The earth pony whistled lowly at the sight and turned to the airborne Fantasians. "Now that is teamwork!" she remarked.

The three unicorns grinned at her, and Katie waved a hoof as she exclaimed, "That was as easy as twitching my ear!" She darted over to the next tree and wasted no time in plucking the apples. She was followed in short order by the magically-aloft trio who made quick work of cleaning the branches of every single fruit they could find—which wasn't hard, considering the prismatic colors the apples boasted. Applejack couldn't help but smile at her otherworldly hired help, and in that moment a thought hit her.

"Hey, could one of y'all lift me up? I'd like to help pluck, instead of standing here stranded because I forgot a ladder," Applejack piped up, right as the Fantasians cleaned the second tree. Natalie obliged the earth pony, using magic to carefully lift her up and deposit her in a third tree before she and her friends darted to another fruit-laden wooden monolith next to hers.

"Thanks a bunch," she chirped, and made to pluck a few apples when she heard a faint sound of flapping pegasus wings. She looked up as a very pale blue form whizzed overhead and stopped, hovering next to the tree.

"Who's he?" Anna asked as Katie hid in the branches, noticing the rather sudden presence of a blue-maned pegasus stallion she didn't recognize.

"Soarin! What're you doing here?" Applejack questioned the stallion who had come to the harvest unannounced.

"I saw you plucking the zap apples without your family overhead, and thought I could lend a hoof. I don't see anything wrong about that," Soarin replied, a grin on his face. He turned to the Fantasians and added, "Wait, wasn't there four of you two seconds ago? I could've sworn I saw pale and red pony."

"Drat! I've been caught!" Katie groaned, still staying in the cover of the branches.

Applejack pointed at another tree with her hoof, and Soarin followed it. "In that case, you might as well start over there," she said. Soarin nodded and flew three trees over, using his hooves to pluck as many zap apples as he could possibly hold. The Fantasians shrugged and returned to plucking out their tree, hopping over to the next and doing the same to it once they were done. Applejack was slower; it took her over five minutes to scour every branch of the tree she claimed, and she took another minute to deftly hop from one tree to the next with either some magical aid or Soarin's hooves carrying her.

A little over two hours dragged on, and a few near-misses happened—Soarin nearly crashed into Matt one time, Applejack almost fell from a branch too thin to support her weight, and Katie accidentally bucked a tree and got knocked out of the air for a bit when it electrocuted her. The group was able to get their act together and finish plucking, though as they reached the last seven trees, Big Mac joined the fray to lend a helping hoof too late. The trees still laden with fruit crackled with blue sparks, and in those sparks their unpicked apples vanished in seconds.

"Huh. Well, at least we got most of the fruit," Natalie remarked with a shrug, garnering a nod from the earth mare and pegasus stallion.

"And that means lots of zap apple jam," Soarin chimed, a small grin on his muzzle.

Big Mac sighed and turned to Applejack as she prepared the two-wheeled wagon, which was quickly loaded with all of the baskets. The pile stacked higher than the nearest tree was tall, and the Fantasian unicorns used their magic to hold it steady. "I take it it's all said and done?" he asked, garnering a nod from Applejack.

"Granny was right," Applejack chirped, a smile on her face as Soarin helped her slip into the harness. "How was the cider-making?" she asked, turning to Big Mac after the harness was fitted onto her midsection.

"Made a few dozen barrels, and Granny sent me to check up on y'all," Big Mac answered with a nod. He turned to Soarin and asked, "I assume you helped?"

"Of course," Soarin replied, his grin widening. He turned to Katie, right as Matt cast another illusion spell on her, and frowned immediately. "I'm worried about her," he added.

Natalie waved a hoof at Soarin, and rather dismissively at that. "We are, too, but all we can do is hide her condition with illusions," she said simply. "We're still trying to work out how to… uh, yeah."

Katie sighed and clambered onto Anna's back. "I'm impressed I was even able to pluck those apples. They're bigger than my hip bones, I swear!" she exclaimed, garnering a roll of the eyes from the unicorn she started riding on.

"So, who's up for some cider?" Big Mac asked, garnering looks from the others.

Matt's muzzle broke out into a smile. "I'm parched," he answered. His smile fell as Apple Bloom hit the scene galloping, and the filly skid to a halt so fast she almost careened into Soarin's legs, though a bit of magic from Anna grabbed her and helped her slow down before she could crash.

"Big Mac, Applejack, the cider line's already forming!" Apple Bloom shrieked, panting between words and causing the two ponies she addressed to sigh. "Y'all gotta come, right now!"

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By the time the group reached the farm gate with the zap apples in tow, where Granny Smith had a few barrels, a massive grinding wheel with a treadmill and spigot attached, and a booth with another spigot set up, a long line of waiting ponies had already formed. Matt let off a low whistle at the sight, and noted that the line seemed to go on for a good length, spanning at least two hillsides marked with a white fence that stretched for just as long. In the distance, barely visible because said hillsides blocked most of it from sight, were the straw roofs of Ponyville's houses jutting up.

"Is cider that popular around here?" Anna asked, turning to Applejack with a vexed frown on her face.

"It's like this every cider season," Applejack replied in a solemn tone, using a hoof to gesture to the waiting line. "And we usually run out before everypony gets one mug's worth." A smile crossed her face, and she added, "Though, I could get my honorary family members to help press cider and make enough for the town this time. I won't pester y'all no more, since you already helped with picking the zap apples."

The Fantasians nodded, and so did Soarin, and they watched as Apple Bloom and Big Mac rushed over to meet with Granny Smith. "Granny, I'm gonna take the zap apples to the barn," she called out. Her cry wound up causing the elderly green-coated mare to turn to her as a pony placed two gold coins on an open box that stood the counter and left with a mug of cider after it was filled by Apple Bloom.

"I'm coming with you to start on the jam," Granny called back, and made to leave the stand when a hoof reached over the booth and tapped her on the withers. She turned to find that the next-in-line pony who poked her was Pinkie Pie, who was backed by Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.

"Maybe we could use the apple grinder to make more for everypony?" Pinkie suggested, garnering a wide-eyed look from Granny.

"Well, it seems the number of barrels this season is… lacking, to say the least," Rarity commented, looking at the few dozen barrels already set up and sighing despondently.

Katie hopped off Anna's back and trotted over to the ivory mare, tapping at her front leg with a hoof to get her attention as soon as she reached her. "Applejack was busy with the zap apples," she stated.

"Yes, I know that. How could I not, when she's standing right there with a massive quantity of baskets looming over her?" Rarity retorted, frowning.

"Granny Smith, would you like some more help this year?" Twilight asked, trotting to stand at Pinkie's side. "It seems you and the rest of the family will be pretty… occupied."

"Feel free to do just that," Granny replied, nodding her head. She then turned to Big Mac and addressed him, "I'd much appreciate it if you manage the booth for me while Applejack and I are dealing with the zap apples in the barn, so please keep the ponies who want cider happy while I'm away. If you sell good, you'll get extra zap apple pie slices."

The red stallion nodded to her, and Apple Bloom piped up, "Can I get an extra slice of zap apple pie?" Granny turned to the filly and nodded, lifting a hoof and ruffling her mane a bit. With that, she hobbled past the two at a slow gait. She paused when she made it in front of the orange mare, turning her head to find her grandfoal's companions jumping the fence and getting to work.

Rainbow manned the grinder, Fluttershy flew into the trees' branches fast enough to shake the fruit from them, Pinkie collected the produce with a basket, and Twilight started stacking barrels with her magic. Granny nodded and turned back to Applejack, and noticed the impressive mound of baskets she and her help had managed to accrue. "Whoo wee! Looks like there's gonna be more than just zap apple jam tonight—there's enough for a small army right here!" she remarked, her utterance causing the three Fantasian unicorns to grin sheepishly.

Katie rushed over to the bunch and, again, climbed on Anna's back. "So, now what?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.

Anna shrugged, and she turned to Applejack and Granny as the two started trotting over to the barn. "May as well help them put the baskets down before we see Shining Armor again," she replied. She and the other two unicorns followed the wagon laden with baskets piled high, horns still glowing and magic keeping the looming stack steady.

Upon reaching the barn, the baskets were lifted up in groups of three and carefully put on the hay-covered floor of the first room. What's more, they were placed next to the walls so that there wasn't any obstruction to a door at the back of this room. By the time the wagon was emptied, there were three rows of baskets on either side, give or take a few. Applejack slipped out of her harness and trotted to the door at the back, followed shortly by Granny Smith. Natalie was about to set hoof into the barn when a pale blue hoof stopped her, and she turned to Soarin to find that the hoof in question was his.

"You guys did good. I haven't seen one unicorn self-levitate like that, let alone three of them at once," Soarin stated, grinning as he lowered his appendage. "How'd you do that?"

"Self-levitation's easy for us. Heck, we could probably do it blindfolded," Anna replied with a shrug. Soarin muttered something about fire, nodded and spread his wings before flapping them and taking off, though he paused to give the Fantasians a brief salute that they did not fail to return. With that, he flew away, leaving the quartet to their own devices yet again. Natalie trotted to the door at the back and opened it to peer inside, spotting Applejack in a kitchen beyond the frame.

"Could you please save a barrel of cider for us? Me and the others are gonna meet up with Shining soon," she stated.

Applejack turned to the unicorn and nodded. "If I have to, I'll stick a piece of paper on a barrel with words scribbled on it so my sister and brother don't sneak off with it for themselves," she replied. "The zap apple jam should be done by the time y'all get back."

Natalie nodded in understanding, and sent the earth mare a serene smile. "Thanks a bunch," she chirped.

Applejack smiled back. "It was no problem. Thank you for helping me with the zap apples," she said.

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Shining, Zecora, Spike, and the rest of the Fantasians stood at a train station with a simple overhang arcing over them, in addition to a currently-empty set of tracks and an equally-deserted ticket booth with a simple pane of glass and a wooden desk behind that. This station was sitting on the bare outskirts of Ponyville, and the Captain pointed his hoof at the assembled bunch and counted to himself.

Using his magic to procure a simple, sterling silver pocket watch with a chain after he finished counting, he flipped the lid once the thing finished materializing and checked the time. Noticing both hands on the two of the small clock face, which itself had its gears exposed and a smaller circle with an additional hand ticking down the seconds that passed by, his face immediately hardened.

"How long does it take for them to finish? General Boltwing, your unicorns and second changeling should've been here by now," he grumbled, a frown on his muzzle.

Lance sighed and shook his head, taking a moment to let a hoof connect with the bridge of his muzzle. "Damned if I know; I manage an army, not an apple farm," he retorted.

Shining nodded in understanding and made the pocket watch vanish in a flash of light. "Point taken," he agreed tersely.

Lance made to speak again, and set his hoof down after sliding it along the bridge of his muzzle when his head became embraced by a brief green aura that faded as fast as it had come. "They're on their way; just told me they passed a bakery called Sugarcube Corner after asking for directions," he stated after a moment.

Shining's visage eased up a bit. "Alright," he said, a small smile spreading on his face. His ears twitched when he heard hoofsteps, and he whirled around to find a blue stallion sporting a black mustache and a train conductor's uniform trotting around the booth before the sound of a door opening hit his ears. In seconds, the same stallion stood in the booth and positioned himself behind the pane of glass and wooden desk proper.

"Apologies. Had to get some of the quality apple cider," the stallion stated in a thick accent, with an innocent grin spreading on his muzzle. Shining chuckled and rolled his eyes at the pony, who then asked, "So… how many of you are hitching a ride, and to where?"

"Twelve of us, and to the Crystal Empire… right now, we're four short, and waiting for some stragglers to show up," Shining answered. The mustachioed stallion nodded and fumbled behind the pane a bit, before ducking beneath the desk and vanishing from sight. A minute later, during which time the group heard the sound of paper being tampered with, he resurfaced with a roll of tickets in his hooves.

"Ten bits per ticket… except for him, he gets a seven-bit discount," the stallion said, setting the roll down before pointing a hoof at the Captain for emphasis when 'seven-bit discount' left his mouth.

"I'll pay the extra seven bits for my ticket," Shining stated, smiling as he heard more hoofsteps that sounded distant at first. In seconds, though, the noise picked up, and he could make out a heavy set of hooves in addition to two more sets of soft-hitting ones. He turned to the entrance of the station and found the Fantasian unicorns arriving, with the disguised wraith on Anna's back. "What took you?" he asked once they skid to a halt and panted for breath.

"Applejack had to test us to see if we were good enough for zap apple trees," Katie responded curtly.

"That, and we told her to spare us a barrel before we left. We had to dodge the longest line we've ever laid eyes on after that," Natalie added, gasping between words and ears flattening against her head as she spoke.

Shining blinked for a moment and sighed. "Pretty hectic, I take it?" he asked, garnering hasty nods from the four Fantasians he stared at. "I see."

"He was getting pretty impatient," Lance piped up, getting a look from Shining almost immediately. He looked back at the Captain and added, "What? I have witnesses."

"Captain got a little mad," Maria said, using a claw to gesture to Shining.

"I can vouch for that," Sarah chimed in with a nod.

"He frowned like he was gonna hit something," Spike added off-handedly.

Shining chuckled in response. "It is true I did get a teensy-weensy bit agitated," he replied in a mock-joy tone. He trotted over to the ticket booth and conjured a bag of bits, counting the money within before passing it under a hole in the glass and to the mustachioed stallion behind it.

Then said stallion counted the money and nodded, and ripped twelve tickets from the roll he'd fetched earlier before reaching under the desk and producing a sparkling blue pen. He marked each ticket with a bold snowflake sigil prior to forking them to the Captain, who then distributed tickets to the otherworlders, Spike, and Zecora.

"What's this sparkly thing?" Maria asked, using a claw to gesture to the symbol on her ticket as soon as it was handed to her.

Fenrir looked at the filly and immediately gasped. "Child, you've spent at least five years in Frostbite, and you still know not what a snowflake is?" he asked, his voice an octave higher than usual, and disbelief evident in his eyes.

Alexander rolled his eyes and frowned. "I blame the bearded elder of that accursed town," he scoffed.

"You've ever seen snow fall?" Shining asked, getting a nod from Maria. "The individual bits of snow are snowflakes. And a snowflake's the symbol of the Crystal Empire," he stated.

"So, how long's the train gonna be before it gets here?" Anna asked, shifting to sit on her haunches. In doing so, she let Katie slide off of her back and land on her tail. As soon as she finished speaking, a low, echoing whistle pierced the air from afar. The group looked around before pausing as they turned southward, and a train with a magenta caboose adorned with yellow hearts came into view, hooked up to many cars of varying designs and colors that trailed behind it. "Is that our train?"

"Yep. The Friendship Express is our ride, and it works overtime," Shining answered with a nod.

The train came closer, and as it crossed a good distance and crystallized into view a little more, the sound of screeching brakes hit the ears of the waiting bunch and caused them to flinch as the locomotive slowed down considerably. When it stopped entirely, the caboose passed the station, letting the cab behind it land smack-dab next to an open platform as its door opened. Another stallion with a red scarf and striped hat, this one sporting a yellowish coat and a brown mane, emerged from the cab and shot a glance at the pony in the ticket booth.

"All aboard now," the pony in the booth cried out in a loud voice, and instantly the assembled group trotted up to the yellow-coated stallion.

"Tickets, please," the yellow pony stated. He inspected each ticket as it was handed to him, and nodded before stepping aside and letting Shining, Zecora, Spike, and their guests step inside the cab, which they found empty. He waited until each and every one went inside prior to going into the cab himself and closing the door afterwards, using a hoof to point at a southernmost door that lead to another one of the train's many cars.

"A few cabs down, there are beds you can use. I'd advise you sleep while you're riding the Friendship Express; it'll take a good twelve hours from here to your destination at least." With that, he trotted to a door at the end of the cab and opened it, going into the room beyond and shutting the wooden frame behind himself. As soon as he left, the group opened the southern door and went to the next cab. Upon doing so, the Fantasians stilled, their eyes widening.

"Have you guys ever rode a train before?" Spike asked, and when he got no answer, he turned to look at the otherworlders. He immediately noticed that they were busy eyeballing this cab's interior.

It was quaint; the floor was made of birch wood and the walls were painted beige, with the addition of simplistic grey-pink flower designs. Some cushioned seats sporting green translucent dividers with swirls reminiscent of wind blowing lined either side of the cab. The windows of the cab had their blinds pulled down, and sported orange trimming along their edges. Lamps with knob switches on their undersides were bolted between the windows, and a few were turned on to provide a little bit of lighting.

"Closest to this would be the Valkyrie back home," Natalie answered, trotting over to a seat and sitting on it.

"The what?" Shining asked, turning to Natalie with a brow quirked.

"A massive tank with drills they left on Fantasia," Spike replied, moving his claws behind his head as he stretched his arms. "I've seen it personally, and it's about as big as the balloon of the Lavender Spirit airship. They called that behemoth the Valkyrie."

"Lavender Spirit? You mean that airship with the fish insignia?" Anna asked, to which Spike nodded. "Huh. I called it the SS Leviathan after I first saw it…"

Shining contemplated this information for a moment and nodded. He opened his mouth to speak when Maria climbed on another cushioned seat and started jumping on in. "It's so soft," Maria remarked, a giddy grin on her face.

"Don't jump too much; you might fall and land on your head, and that would be bad," Sarah stated in a firm but gentle voice. The filly stopped jumping and nodded in understanding.

Zecora chuckled at the display and went to claim a seat opposite of Maria's. "Oh, do let the foal have her fun. After all, some play is better than none," she stated.

"Eh, you both have a point," Katie agreed, moving to sit next to Zecora and behind a divider. "Foals are gonna want to do foalish things, but jumping on a cushion seems like a terrible idea," she added. "I kinda envy her, to be honest," she muttered under her breath, and in a way that Zecora couldn't tell that her mouth had moved.

Armin, who wore his pegasus disguise, idly flapped his wings and shed a few faux feathers before he took a seat. "This is… comfy," he murmured, prodding at the cushion with a hoof while a new patch of faux feathers grew on his wings. "I think this'll be good for a while."

Matt trotted over to Natalie, but rather than take a seat, he sat on the floor next to her. "Hopefully the bed won't eat me when I hit the hay tonight," he sighed, frowning.

Shining turned to Matt, blinking rather absentmindedly. "Beds… eat you?" he asked.

"Only if they're small enough," Matt replied, nostrils briefly flaring as he snorted. "Trust me, it's nothing short of aggravating."

Fenrir leaned against a wall, his stature slightly hunched to avoid letting the top of his head collide with the lamp above. "I know the feeling all too well, sadly," he stated.

"Hey, if a bed's too small, I could make comfy half-cocoons for you both," Armin chirped, garnering looks from the diamond dog and half-Clydesdale the instant he spoke.

"I guess we could try it," Matt stated with a hoof rising to rub his chin.

Fenrir slowly nodded. "If it comes to it, I'd be very willing to attempt to sleep in a half-chrysalis," he murmured.

"Hopefully, it won't be that bad. Just relax and take it easy for a while," Shining piped up, smiling faintly as he too went to claim a seat.

"Truth be told, this is the first time that I have rode on a train," Zecora began, shifting to lay down on the seat she perched on, "and I appreciate the cushion I have claimed."

Sarah stretched her good wing for a bit before claiming a seat next to Fenrir. "I have a feeling…" she murmured.

"About what?" Fenrir asked, turning to hippogryph mare with his ears perked.

"I can't put my claw on it; I'm just feeling that… something's off," she replied, turning to a window and raising a talon to grip at the bottom of the blind. She pulled once and let go, watching as it rolled itself up on its own and revealed to her a hillside that was stationary. She made to speak further, but a shrill and low whistle cut her off before the cab jerked slightly and the thundering stampede of metallic wheels filled the air. In seconds, the hillside eased to one side and out of the limited view the window had offered.

"I was wondering what took them this long to start the train," Spike remarked as, slowly, the locomotive turned its wheels and went onward.

"Maybe they just stalled a bit," Matt sighed with a shrug. "I'm not an engineer. How should I know why the train delayed?"

"Perhaps there were other passengers who needed to get off," Alexander pointed out, his tail swishing as he spoke.

Chapter XL- Hail of Umber

The group of ten slowed down to a brisk trot, eyes scanning every nook and cranny of the hall they had found themselves in, though they froze when an echoing laugh bounced down the hall tauntingly. Katie made unnatural hisses, ones that sounded something like a mix between a steaming kettle about to explode and the mating call of a cicada, in response to the laugh. The group stilled entirely as the sound reverberated down the hall towards what they guessed was the source of the laugh.

Silence fell upon the hall, and all sets of ears fell flat against their owners' heads. Fenrir took the opportunity to sniff the air, and his brow furrowed as a faint stench accentuated by a highlight of cloth and several more of feathers tickled his nostrils. A tight frown graced his muzzle, the corners twitching slightly as he sniffed again.

The guards turned to Fenrir, and Zephyr piped up, "Got anything?"

"A faint, acrid stench… had it been stronger, and without notes of other aromas, I would have curled my snout upward," Fenrir replied, taking a few steps ahead of the group. He stopped and turned around, turning towards Katie. "How good is your hearing?" he asked.

Katie's ears stood up immediately, and her orbs shrank. "Uh… I can hear a stampede miles away in a winter wonderland, if the entire perimeter is dead silent otherwise. Why?" she answered, her withers twitching as if something poked at them constantly.

"I ask because we're going to need to utilise most, if not all, of our senses and wits if we are to corner and subdue our specter," Fenrir replied, an ear twitching. "Can you hear cloth rustling, or something galloping?"

SIlence fell, and Katie's orbs dimmed as her ears began swivelling again. Then, she heard something, though it was very faint—the muffled sound of hooves softly landing against crystal. She strained her sense of hearing, tuning out all else as another sound graced her ears—a clip-clop of hooves so faint it was as if a phantom had come and gone right under her snout.

Slowly, she turned her head a little to the left and rose a hoof to point at a corner marked with a crystal column. "It's coming from there," she whispered. Her eyes narrowed. "Can't see much further than that column, though."

Flash immediately turned to Katie, a brow raised. "Your eyesight's poor?" he asked.

Katie glumly nodded. "I can hardly see shit in this darkness," she affirmed.

Fenrir responded by slinking back to the group and scooping Katie up with a paw, cradling her to his chest with his arm like she was a newborn. "Let's not dally any longer than necessary," he said, turning around and looking towards the same column Katie had eyeballed. "From there, correct?"

Katie nodded, but not before pressing her head up to his chest so he could feel her do so. "That's the one," she chirped. With that, Fenrir dropped to all threes, making sure not to drop her as he crept towards the corner. The others followed with soft hoofsteps, stopping behind the dog when he poked his head to look into the hall the column marked.

Fenrir lifted his free paw and repeatedly curled two digits for a few seconds. "Devoid of life, specters and otherwise," he whispered. He sniffed the air, and frowned when the scent of clothes, feathers, and rot intensified just a little. He took a few steps just to get around the column, slowly and cautiously should the specter still be in the hall.

Then Armin came up behind him and around him before pausing to scan a lengthy hall that led to a set of stairs winding up. "Nothing," he said. "It's empty."

"Nothing?" Zephyr piped up.

"Nothing," Armin tersely repeated with a slow nod of his head. He turned to Katie. "Did they go up or down?"

Katie's ears twitched, and after some seconds she tilted her head until her muzzle pointed straight up. "That a-way," she answered. With that, Armin stepped in front of Fenrir and cantered over to the stairs, with the others following in step behind him. As he went, NoLegs caught up to him and jumped to land squarely on his head, letting off a soft mew as he settled between the changeling's ears.

Armin merely shrugged and rolled his eyes as the cat claimed his head as a perch and reached the stairs, pausing to glance over his shoulder to confirm that the others weren't far off from his position. When they caught up to him after a few seconds, everyone nodded to him in unison, and he turned around and took the first few steps up before they even moved.

Slowly, silently, Armin moved up the stairs, his ears twitching partly because of NoLegs brushing up against them and partly because the guards made minute clip-clops as they followed him and Fenrir. Minutes passed by before they found themselves standing on the next floor, and they paused to scan the new hallway. Armin's brow furrowed as he immediately saw there was nothing to find, save scant traces of moonlight illuminating two crystal columns that faintly shimmered ahead.

Silence lingered, but only for a couple of seconds before the sound of a door opening and closing filled the soundless void. Katie instantly jerked her muzzle squarely to the right, eyes narrowing just as Armin turned to her. She silently lifted a hoof and carefully pointed it in front of her, and to a mistaken soul it would have looked as though she simply stretched it as far as it could go.

But Armin knew what it really meant. He turned around and tiptoed to the end of the hall before looking both ways, finding nothing on the left, only to then discover a door just barely hidden to his right. He motioned with a hoof for the others to catch up, and his wing muscles went rigid as a peculiar glow embraced an almost-invisible doorknob. When it flung the door attached to said knob wide open with a loud slam that briefly rang in his ears, he held out a hoof again—this time, to signal for the group to halt.

Fenrir lifted a paw and just barely grazed it against Armin's back leg to let him know he was there. He accidentally shoved him forward when the door slammed shut again and flinched as a result, forcing Armin into the hall and almost causing him to fall over his own front hooves in the process. The hapless drone nearly landed on his face, but a blue aura pulled him upright and kept him still until he got himself steadied.

Then NoLegs gave an almost-silent mew, instantly garnering a cross-eyed look from his makeshift perch. "I'm fine, thank you," Armin replied in a whisper with a smile. At once, the glow that suddenly grabbed him vanished as it had come, though not fast enough for him to avoid seeing that said glow came from the cat's tail. Then he turned his attention back to the door and watched as an aura grabbed it and swung it open once again—like it dared him to approach it.

Fenrir poked his head around the corner, resting most of his weight on his free paw so he could tilt just enough for Katie to do likewise. "That may be a trap," Armin warned, briefly turning to the two and slowly nodding to them.

"I volunteer to see whether or not it is," Katie stated. Her remark caused Fenrir to look at her with widened eyes. She looked up to meet the alarmed expression and calmly added, "I can probably take it if it is a trap. Worst that could happen is being whacked with the door if it isn't one."

Fenrir gave her remark some thought, and his lips pulled into so tight a frown Katie could've easily sworn she saw a fang or two jut out slightly. "Have you considered that we most likely do not have a medic with us presently?" he asked.

Katie nodded. "I have," she tersely answered, her response punctuated by the door closing of its own volition again.

Fenrir's frown deepened a smidgen. He wordlessly knelt down and let Katie clamber out of his grasp, and both he and Armin followed her with their eyes as she trotted over to the door. She carefully moved just out of reach in case it suddenly swung open again, though for a few tense minutes it remained shut.

For those tense minutes, Katie stared at the door. "Open sesame, I fucking dare you," she hissed as if expecting the door to do just that.

The door in question failed to comply. At this, Katie's eyes narrowed.

"It's probably some sleeping unicorn opening and closing it with his magic and not even realizing it," Armin piped up, garnering the attention of the wraith who glared at said door. "Let it alone; it's probably nothing." As soon as he said that, the door swung open again and a hail of blue arrows darted out of the room it closed off from the hall. Fenrir and Armin's eyes went wide as arrows stuck themselves in the floor, the wall, the door, and Katie's front legs and barrel.

It was only thanks to her small size that she was able to avoid most of the sudden onslaught. But the few arrows that had managed to impale her started glowing before frost coated them and some patches of her body. Yet Katie didn't flinch in the slightest; she just stood there staring at the door without paying any heed to the arrows that managed to perforate her form.

Then she took a step forward, her orbs burning like balls of azure flame. "You can come out now. I won't bite," she beckoned without a hint of pain in her tone, and contemptuous emphasis on bite.

"Make me! I'll have you pinned faster than you can flutter a wing!" a hollow voice called from within the room the hail of arrows shot out from.

Katie took another step forward, her movements slowing just a bit as frost started forming webs on the fringes of their growing patches. "Do it, coward," she shot back icily. Her remark caused the guards to dart around Fenrir and into the hall, just in time to see another hail of arrows emerge from behind the door and pelt everything past it once more.

Most of the arrows merely nicked Katie, but one caused her to stumble back all the way to the wall opposite of the door. She jerked her head up at the same time as this one arrow landed squarely upon the stump of her horn. Yet she still stood even as her rump connected with the wall, her muzzle only pointing upwards for a few seconds before she leveled her gaze to the room with the opened door.

Frost formed on her face, all the way along her forelock line and along her split grin to the snout, even going so far as to cover her eyes like some sort of transparent mask that made her orbs take on an almost demonic look.

"H-how… how are you…" the voice that came from within the room managed.

"I thought you'd have me pinned by now. Pity that it seems you've run out of ammunition," Katie taunted, taking a third step towards the door that caused small bits of frost to break away and fall to the floor. The others took that as their cue to flank her, and when they did seconds later, they looked into the room to find the barely-visible source of the rain of arrows.

A shaking cloaked figure with a twisted front hoof, an empty quiver strapped around their middle, and a bow floating next to them in a shaking magical grip stood in a dark room. Only now, though, it trembled to the point that its hood slipped off just enough to reveal a glowing horn whose color the group couldn't make out. In addition to that, it had golden orbs poised right at them, narrowed but likewise also trembling. A rattling sound like a thousand bottles clinking together filled the air, but whether it came from the bow or the quiver the group didn't know.

"Y-you…" the figure spluttered before it threw the bow at the group and fled deeper into the room for a few seconds. Then it shot out before the guards and Fantasians could react, darting past them like a bullet prior to going down to the end of the hall and vanishing around a bend.

Katie turned to the bend for a second, and then to Fenrir. "See? I told you I could take it," she chirped.

Zircon's horn glowed, and he embraced the arrow-riddled wraith in his magic. "Hold still for a few," he warned. "Gotta get the arrows out of you."

"Make it quick. We got an attacker to catch," Katie replied with a nod of her head.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The group trudged through the halls of the palace at a sluggish pace after Katie's arrows were removed and her layers of unwarranted frost peeled off. The bunch moved slowly, though only to keep an eye and ear out for any more surprise assaults.

Katie took to resting on Zephyr's backside, occasionally tapping his withers with her snout before lifting a hoof to direct the group towards a sound if she managed to hear one. Fenrir would also help if he caught a wayward scent or two, further beckoning the others onwards. Armin also spotted fleeting dark forms quicker than the rest of them, and chipped in with his two bits whenever his eyes failed to deceive him.

Yet after an hour of slow but thorough searching, no sign of their unwelcome guest turned up. "It's like the bastard's leading us into another trap," Katie hissed, eyes narrowing as she scanned the hall the group wound up in. It was one marked by many crystal columns; a sort of convergence point for many other halls that lead to various locations.

Spike turned to her, a brow raised. "Are you gonna walk into it again?" he asked, his query causing her to turn to him.

For a few seconds, Katie remained silent. Her brow furrowed, forming thin but visible wrinkles. "What would you do if you had a hunch that danger was nearby, and you were a wraith?" she retorted at last.

Spike frowned. "Still wouldn't just walk into the trap. Even if I were a wraith," he replied, punctuating his response with a snort that caused smoke to eject from his nostrils.

"I see," Katie sighed, her expression easing a bit.

"Unless I manage to set the arrows on fire before they leave the quiver. That's about the only time you'll probably see me walking into a trap," Spike added, his frown morphing into a small grin.

"If such a thing happens, I'll develop an appetite," Katie scoffed, her ears twitching as she spoke. She stiffened when a very faint sound of something that sounded like the floor was cracking echoed, and for a few seconds it lingered.

At first, she simply ignored it with a shrug when it faded, thinking it to just be her imagination. Then she jerked her head to the left, towards a hall that Zephyr just trotted past. She poked him with her muzzle and directed him to it with a hoof when she heard it again. "I heard something," she whispered.

"You sure of that?" Zephyr asked, craning his neck so she could see him frowning.

"Positive it came from there," Katie answered with a nod.

"But it could have come—" Zephyr began, but stopped when another object that produced metallic clangs hit something from the same hall Katie gestured towards—this time, the noise was loud enough to cause everyone to turn to the hall in question. He instantly turned to it and trotted up to it, poking his head around the corner and blinking as darkness greeted him. He turned to Zircon. "Hey, can you shine a light here? Our little changeling heard something!"

"I heard it too," Zircon replied, trotting over and letting his horn glow with a soft light that took on a round shape. He reached the hall and cast the glow down the hall like an impromptu flashlight, revealing nothing more than two overturned buckets at the midpoint, stationed well before a slightly-ajar door some distance behind. His brow rose when he saw that the buckets had objects pouring out of them, clumped up together like crude rubix cubes.

He exchanged looks with Zephyr. "Just some buckets," he reported.

"Well, let's see if our garbed rat left anything else behind," Zephyr sighed. He turned to the others and gestured them over with a wing before he and Zircon made to start trotting down the hall with the buckets without waiting for the rest of the group to catch up. When they reached the dual buckets a little under a minute later, Zephyr knelt before the objects to get a better look at them.

He found that they had straps tied around them, in addition to an emptied quiver. The objects that spilled from the buckets were ring-like accoutrements, all engraved with symbols barely highlighted by Zircon's light. Slowly, he picked one up with a hoof. "By Celestia… the rat had a gazillion magic inhibitors on them?" he asked with widening eyes.

Zircon's eyes also widened. "So that's what the bastard did…" His eyes then narrowed as he turned to the others as they came into view. "He must've had a spell to hide it…"

"Hide what? What're you babbling about?" Armin asked, a brow raised high.

Zircon shined the light on the buckets, quiver, and motherload of magic inhibitors. He picked up an inhibitor in his magic and made it vanish in a flare of orange light. "The garbed pony may have access to illusion magic. They hid buckets and inhibitors on them," he answered upon turning back to Armin. "And it flashed orange… not my usual green. Damn things are enchanted."

Fenrir's brow furrowed when the words 'access to illusion magic' reached his ears. "That would certainly provide an explanation, regarding how this figure has thus far evaded apprehension," he piped up. "And considering my first encounter with such arcane tomfoolery on my first morning in Canterlot…"

"Bad, I take it?" Zephyr interjected, turning to Fenrir with a brow quirked. He felt Katie nod against his neck, and briefly turned to glance at her to see her eyes were narrowed.

"Worse," Fenrir replied tersely, his eyes narrowing to slits. He took a second to sniff the air, immediately finding a smell of rot that lingered about. He turned to the buckets and quiver before approaching them, kneeling down, and scooping up the strap with his paw to then bring it to his snout and see whether or not that was the source of the stink.

Upon sniffing it and getting a scent so strong it managed to assail itself on his tongue, he dropped it and reeled back, causing the buckets tied with it to clatter noisily against the myriad of magic inhibitors already littering the floor. He stood up, his nose scrunched so much it looked like it was trying to upturn itself. He growled lowly, an eye twitching as the sound left his mouth.

"What is it?" Spike warily asked, his brow slanting as Fenrir rapidly shook his head.

"I refuse to sniff that particular band a second time," Fenrir growled, using a paw to gesture to the damned thing like it insulted his mother. He turned to Spike and added, "I could taste the scent on my tongue. It is as if somepony flayed a bear, added onions to the carcass, then let it rot for a few days prior to submerging it in acrid swampwater. It is that atrocious."

Spike flinched, his tail twitching as he imagined the taste that Fenrir described. "That sounds nasty. And I've eaten things that everypony in Ponyville called 'baked bads' before," he groaned. When Fenrir rose a brow, he elaborated, "Uh, Applejack didn't get enough sleep one time and botched a recipe. Lots of ponies got sick, but I was able to eat the botched goods like it was nothing."

Fenrir nodded and made to speak further when NoLegs meowed, jumped off of Armin's head, and scurried over to the pile of inhibitors. He sniffed them for a bit before grappling them in his magic, hissing when they started glowing and pulsing a soft orange in color as he lifted the whole mound up. The cat then snarled at something that was beneath the pile, which likewise also pulsed with mana seemingly of its own volition.

Zircon shined his light on the object and gawked, finding a small crystal formation just jutting out of the floor like a thumbtack. "What's this doing here?" he asked, gently nudging the formation with a hoof as everyone turned to him to see what he was going on about.

Aquamarine snorted upon seeing the crystals, in addition to the pulses of mana they gave out. "I think one of our earth pony fellows had an accident," he stated.

"Under a pile of inhibitors, buckets, a quiver, and a smelly strip of leather?" Katie scoffed, eyes narrowing as she stared at the formation. "That, I'd hardly call an accident."

Aquamarine's horn glowed, and he trotted closer to the formation before kneeling down and letting a soft blue aura embrace it. His brow furrowed after his magic embraced the crystals for a full minute, watching as the orange mana then turned to simple hues of gold and red before he dispelled it and stood up straight. "That's… odd," he said tersely.

"What're we dealing with?" Zephyr asked, turning to Aquamarine with a brow raised.

Aquamarine's eyes narrowed. "It's… it's a mix. It's not just earth pony magic," he answered.

"Then what is it?" Katie demanded, turning to look at Aquamarine. The others did likewise, and with brows raised high—it was as though he spewed gobbledygook.

Aquamarine turned to the wraith, took a few seconds to lift a hoof and hit the bridge of his muzzle with it, and then groaned in exasperation. "Put it like this: innate magic has specific colors. Usually, innate and pure earth magic is gold, unicorn is red, and pegasus is blue. The crystals glow orange, like copper or the mane of one of your acquaintances. This batch is a mix. Do you see what I am getting at now?" he asked.

Katie's orbs widened and her ears fell back for a second. "Oooooooh." She nodded frantically. "I see." Her ears sprang up again. "And you said… usually, I believe?"

Aquamarine nodded back. "That's how it usually goes around here, and by 'here,' I mean the whole of Equestria plus the Empire. Sometimes innate pure magic sports different colors, but not often," he answered. "It might not go like that in Fantasia, though."

Katie sighed. "Let's go back to finding Wise Guy." The others turned to her, and she waved a hoof before adding, "But if he can make crystals grow out of the ground, then maybe we should… I dunno, fly or self-levitate or—" Words died in her throat as the entire hall itself, floor and all, suddenly pulsed with blue mana for a few seconds, during which time it briefly turned a sickly orange before fading away.

"The fuck was that?" Armin asked, looking around once the mana pulse had gone away.

Zephyr scowled. "Somepony must be trying to mess with the mana that's flowing throughout the castle. Let's get a move on, before something worse happens!" he barked, punctuating his order with a stomp of his hoof. He turned to the door and raced to it, with the others falling into a stampede behind him.

He saw Aquamarine's aura grab the door before he reached it and flung it open in one smooth movement, enabling him to start going up a set of stairs winding further up along a great teal column that rivaled the other columns in sheer size. Instead of another floor, though, the stairs kept on spiraling up and up without pause. Zephyr flared his wings and flapped to boost his speed, causing Katie to wrap her hooves around his barrel and activate their enchantments with a swell of pulsing blue mana.

The mana swell started making ice grow along her front legs and, before too long, effectively froze her shoes to his armor. "Say, why does the palace have mana in its walls?" she asked as he more or less carted her on.

"The Crystal Heart and everypony in the Empire provides it. Think of it as a subset of ancient unicorn and earth pony magics," Zephyr replied, slowing a bit without fully stopping his mad dash. After he ascended a few steps, and craned his neck to find that the others were catching up to him, he added, "And some pegasus magic too."

"Long story, I take it?" Katie asked, a brow raised.

"Yes," Zephyr replied, turning back ahead as he continued to gallop and flap his wings without actually flying. He frowned. "Damn, I think we may be going up to the highest point of the castle."

"Huh? Is there, like, a flat top or something? Last I saw was a pointy tower," Katie questioned, spreading her wings and then buzzing them to provide an additional boost to her makeshift mount's speed.

"That 'pointy tower' is the flat top—it's just that, really. It's just too high up for non-flying-pegasi to see it properly," Zephyr hissed, brow furrowing. Then the inside of the palace started glowing again, a bright orange that pulsed from above before fading.

Katie nodded against his neck and buzzed her wings harder, pumping as much strength into the beats as her emaciated body would allow. As a result, the two managed to outgallop the others, gaining distance with each and every step.

It took minutes to reach the top, and when they did, they found themselves in an observatory-type construct with slender columns forming thin windows that a foolish soul would be able to trot out of with relative ease, all capped off by a circular ceiling. Out through these windows, Zephyr and Katie could see the entirety of the Empire, right down to distant tilling fields and far-off mountain ranges.

But mana flared around them through the roof, columns, and floor, and orange—hideously orange gemstones burst forth between the columns like it was growing from the empty space the windows didn't take up. The crystals of apricot grew and grew, slowly closing off the windows until it sealed them entirely once the rest of the group caught up.

And in the center of this room, standing on a decorative circle in the floor that had a star motif centered within, was the cloaked figure they chased the entire time, its back turned to both them and the stairs. Magic, orange-tinted like the gemstones blocking off the windows, grappled at its body and undid the cloth wrappings it had concealing its features.

What looked like orange-tinted growths of glass sprang up behind the group and sealed off the stairs near-instantly, blocking off their entrance and leaving them trapped with their target. The light of the moon barely shined through the new, ugly additions to the tower, further casting a sickly umber light throughout the now-dismal room. One by one, cloth garments fell to the floor in heaps, releasing a strong stench of rot into the closed space.

Once it was naked, an orange light came from in front of it before it slowly turned around, first revealing a mangled front hoof that showed bone and tissue which flailed like a pendulum as it moved with the rest of its owner. Fenrir snarled, and Armin and Katie hissed in unison as they saw a skeletal-thin, brown unicorn stallion with multitudes of lacerations that exposed muscle.

He had a distinct tear on his right cheek that stretched up to his ear, showing his gums and teeth on that side of his face, in addition to a black mane and a half-buried gemstone cutie mark. On top of that, seemingly grafted to his forehead under his horn, a twinge of black crystal jutted outward like the beginnings of a secondary horn. A familiar voice, but one distorted and hollow, came from this cut-up pony.

"It seems you fell for my trap. Pity that Windwood isn't with you presently," the unicorn hissed, eyes narrowing balefully as their orbs zeroed in on the group. He cast a wicked grin and added, "But I should consider myself lucky. The weakest of guards and Fantasians alike, standing before me… heh, I think finishing you all off will be a cakewalk."

"Who's he?" Spike asked, turning to Katie and gesturing to the stallion for emphasis.

Katie turned to meet the drake's gaze. "Stooge number two of Shitty Hotel Service. Chocolate… something. Shitstain sounds appropriate," she cursed. She deactivated her enchantments and pried herself off of Zephyr's armor and back once the layer of frost melted away, taking into the air with a mad buzzing of her wings and hovering over the group. She crossed her forelegs and turned to Chocolate, whose horn still glowed in a bright orange.

"You think an arrow to the head will take me down? Listen here, bitch, you got another thing coming," she scoffed, breaking the cross to wave a horseshoe-laden hoof dismissively.

Chocolate's smile took on a sly cast and his orbs turned blood crimson for but a moment, and he slowly turned to Katie with a bemused brow raised. "Really now, Rubywing? Really?" he jabbed sarcastically, as if she could do no more than poke at him with a flimsy twig. "I believe you have it backwards. I can manipulate crystals and make them grow. I have you all trapped."

Zircon warily eyed the bit of crystal under Chocolate's horn, his pupils dilating as his orbs turned a twinge of red again. "Have… you been touched by Sombra?" he asked sincerely.

Chocolate chuckled, shaking his head as he turned to address Zircon. "I refuse to confirm that absurd inquiry—let alone deny it. Why should I humor you?" he scoffed, his tone icy in spite of his grin. "But I'll tell you this: my mana was once green—an impure green."

Katie's eye twitched. "So… death has changed your mana color?" she queried warily.

Chocolate glanced at Katie and snorted. "I'd suggest you'd zip it, Rubywing," he scoffed.

"Whatever the case may be, I care not for miniscule details. As it stands, you've evaded law enforcement for far too long," Fenrir snarled, one paw twitching as if he were resisting the urge to ball it into a fist. His lips pulled back when Chocolate threw his head back to laugh, the sound echoing all around in the closed-off space.

Only to cease altogether when Spike spoke up. "You realize you're messing with the wrong ponies and Fantasians, right?" he asked.

Chocolate turned to him, and his smile only grew. "I am trifling with a ragtag gaggle of weaklings, and nothing more," he replied in an amused, if malicious, tone.

Armin responded by standing up on his back legs and using his front hooves to detach the Accelerator from his side. Then he shifted a bit to holster the massive gun properly, making sure to point the muzzle right at Chocolate. "I'm afraid I have to agree with Spike. You don't seem to get just what you've waltzed into," he hissed, baring his fangs in contempt.

Fenrir cracked his knuckles and popped his neck. "Us, a 'ragtag gaggle of weaklings?' We're anything but," he stated before he made the first move, lunging at Chocolate with a downward strike. His adversary deftly jumped out of the way, aided by magic that wrapped around him at the exact moment the paw would have otherwise solidly connected with his face.

His smile broadened as Fenrir instead hit the floor, but it fell when he saw a few cracks forming a few inches outwards of the fist that made the impact. "So be it," he hissed, his horn glowing brighter as he spoke.

Chapter LV- Just (Fiery) Deserts

Sarah stopped before she could reach the door. There was someone calling for the guards? Silence swept throughout the church, and with its coming it caused her mental gears to grind to an abrupt halt. But the gears jumpstarted once she heard an alarmed mew, followed by a series of hoots and chitters and low growls. She twisted around to find NoLegs and the other once-sleeping animals standing up and wide awake. All eyes panned around the room, accompanied by small frowns on their furry faces.

Rarity stood up and lowered her head, closing her eyes as a sigh of resignation left her mouth. "So much for peace and quiet," she bemoaned. "Well, let's see what the fuss is about… there's no use sitting around here dallying. Unless Natalie slips, or suffers some affliction that keeps her mouth running, whatever queries we have about her won't answer themselves."

Fenrir stood up, albeit slowly. "It is as you say," he conceded with a nod. "Yet…"

"Guards!" the voice from below yelled again, followed by the sound of another door being tossed open and that of still-scrambling hooves.

"Whoever is raising a ruckus might require some assistance, especially since the guards are on patrol as of now," Fenrir finished, turning to the door and sauntering his way towards Sarah.

Fluttershy stood up next, and with Rarity at her side, she cantered over likewise. Her ears fell flat against her head and she muttered, "Oh, I really hope it's not anything terrible. But why would someone just… waltz in and yell for the guards?"

"You could say that again," Rarity chimed in.

Fenrir snorted as he walked to the mares as Sarah opened the door. "For this issue, I'd wager a bunch of petty thieves having just gotten away with pillaging some unfortunate soul's wares," he mused with a wry grin forming on his face. "Either that, or a disturbing of the peace."

Sarah shrugged and strode into the hall, twisting around to face the ladder. "You never know," she mumbled under her breath. She trudged to the ladder, but stopped halfway down the hall before she could reach it when the sound of clanging metal hit her ears, and it was already repeating within a matter of seconds. Whether out of panic, anxiety, or some mixture of the two she couldn't tell.

At least, not immediately. Within seconds a blue unicorn stallion in a simple vest and bowtie came up to the second floor via the ladder, looking at her with wide eyes the very second he jumped off the railing and found solid wood beneath his hooves. "Wh-where are the guards?" he stammered, wheezing and panting between words. "And wh-why the hell is th-there a hippogryph in Whitefall?"

Sarah cantered to him; she decided to ignore his second query, and proceeded to answer his first, "The guards are out guarding the jewel at the northern side of town. They left as soon as they got done eating breakfast."

"A-and how do you know that?" the unicorn asked, his legs wobbling a little.

"They let me eat breakfast with them. Is it rude to not serve a guest?" Sarah retorted, frowning a little.

"But they… shouldn't serve…" the unicorn began, only to balk as he noticed Fenrir giving him a stare so level it almost seemed daring in itself. His breath, unsteady as it was, caught in his throat right then.

"They chose to serve us last night, thank you kindly. Now then: what do you wish the guards to do? It would seem you have something of dire importance on your hooves, considering you scrambled all the way to this abode by your lonesome," Fenrir stated, his tone calm and his voice clear. "So, tell us, please. We'll be sure to inform the guards in your stead."

The unicorn just stood there, letting out no more than a croak from his mouth. His gaze turned to Fenrir, and he only blanched further upon staring into his golden eyes, serene yet piercing all the same. It took him a few seconds to even open his mouth and attempt to articulate something coherent, but his jaw stammered so much on every word he may as well have been tripping over himself. "Th-the-the ba-bar… Ti-Tipsy T-Tankard… m-m-massive f-fight," were the only things out of his mouth that the group before him could hope to understand.

But that was all it took. Sarah lifted a talon and firmly clasped it on the unicorn's muzzle to keep him from rambling until he was blue in the face. "I think that's enough. You stay here and catch your breath, and we'll alert the guards, okay?" Sarah murmured in as comforting a voice as she could muster, making sure to accentuate her words with a subtle purr. The unicorn fixed his gaze upon her as she slowly lifted her talon from his muzzle.

"G-go ahead… I-I won't stop you," the unicorn uttered. He stepped aside to allow access to the ladder, and Sarah more than happily pranced to it and jumped on the railing. Once she started going down the ladder, the stallion turned to look at Fenrir again. "I-I thought…"

Fenrir slowly raised a very questioning brow. "That diamond dogs were no more than fairytale fiends?" he scoffed, garnering a hasty nod from the stallion the very moment the query left his lips. Fenrir donned a small smile and sauntered to the unicorn, before dropping to all fours to stare him right in the eyes.

His tail swished once and in a way that the pony could see it, arched over his back and its protrusions glinting wickedly as they caught light. "I can affirm that I am very much real," he murmured lowly, his smile widening just a teensy bit as the pony's legs buckled and he fell to the floor in a cowering heap.

With that, he turned to peer down the ladder, finding Sarah in the hall below. She waved a talon at him urgently, and he took that as his cue to head down to the first floor. Fluttershy trotted to the shuddering stallion with a frown, tilting her head only once Fenrir had gone out of sight. "Excuse me, um… what happened to the diamond dogs around here? If you don't mind me asking," she queried, just loud enough to be heard, yet soft enough to be soothing.

"They… the d-dogs… don't e-exist," the stallion mumbled in reply, his eyes growing to the size of saucers when he caught a glimpse of Fluttershy's wings. "P-pegasi… sh-should have b-bound w-wings," he added.

Fluttershy took an involuntary step back when his horn started to gather energy. She turned to Rarity, ears falling back when she saw another horn glowing. Rarity trotted forward, using her magic to gently scoot her friend to the ladder, her gaze fixed on the stallion who more or less crumpled under Fenrir's gaze. "And why, may I ask, should anypony's wings be bound?" Rarity huffed, her eyes narrowing just a smidgen. "And in what sense, strictly speaking?"

The stallion just huddled there, still shaking, his gaze not shifting in the slightest as Fluttershy gulped and hurried on her way to get on the ladder and then down it.

"Well?" Rarity pressed, leaning forward, her gaze now taking its turn boring into the unicorn. Her brow raised when he swallowed heavily, before getting his hooves situated and making an effort to stand on uncooperative legs. He tried to stare into her eyes as he rose, yet his gaze averted from hers.

"Just… b-bound…" he stammered. Rarity shook her head and trotted to the ladder, pausing to glare at him just once.

"I'm still not sure what you mean by that. I'll let the atrocious comments you have made slide—but just this once," she huffed before continuing on her way to the ladder. Her mind began whirring as she descended; what did that stallion mean by 'bound wings,' and how bad was the 'massive fight' he'd mentioned?

She decided to push the thoughts aside for now, knowing there was a chance she'd find out before the day was over. But diamond dogs not existing? That was so ludicrous she started to believe the pony was legitimately insane; there was no other explanation for his notion about diamond dogs not existing.

Yet Fenrir had to affirm he wasn't just some proverbial boogeymare. Rarity made a mental note to ask about that later, for now she had more pressing matters to attend to.

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The Tipsy Tankard had fallen deathly silent, save for labored panting. A wobbling Laz and shuddering Rainbow tried to stand stiff as boards, one leaning against his spear for support and the other with wings gone numb as they eyed the disaster sprawled before them.

The other patrons were now very heavily bruised and battered. There were a few who had their horns broken off, some more had black eyes with hoof-shaped indents, many more had a broken leg or two, and all of them were draped across tables and chairs without care. Every single drunken face had eyes screwed shut, mouths open in silent screams of pain. Not one of them dared to move. Not one gave so much as a breath louder than that of a whisper.

Pinkie had ceased shaking in her seat, her gaze distant and unfocused. Zecora had her eyes shut, though not to the point of scrunching them up. "The bloodshed was needless, yet could have gone so much worse. I sincerely hope the taverns in these parts do not suffer the same curse," she muttered grimly.

"These guys couldn't hold a candle to a little colt. Where'd they learn to fight?" Laz queried, trying his best to get his labored breathing under control. While it was steadying, he was still wheezing. "Damn… haven't felt this sore since my last go with Matt and Natz."

Rainbow almost had to force herself to lift her wings. She turned to Laz as her numbed assets came to close at her sides with a begrudging ache. "I think it's because of all the clothes you're wearing," she muttered. Unlike Laz, she was barely gasping. When he turned to her and cocked his head, she elaborated, "Lots of clothes… lots of body heat, in a warm tavern… you're more or less a sitting duck."

Laz smiled and gave a dry laugh, realizing that his body did feel much warmer than before, and lifted a leg experimentally. It was more sluggish, and partially numb, especially at his joints. "Eh, I'll live," he managed in a sincere voice. With that, he trudged back to his seat and sat down, but not before pulling his chair back in its place with magic. Rainbow followed him and sat in her chair, her gaze still lingering on the other patrons scattered all over the place. Some small part of her was expecting one of them to get up and do something, yet still the pathetic lot remained motionless and silent.

Pinkie turned to Rainbow and managed a small frown. "C-can we avoid th-the taverns from n-now on?" she asked. "B-because I don't w-want to see th-this again."

"On that front, I will not hesitate to wholeheartedly agree," Zecora answered with a nod. "We had best not get ensnared like this again, but should it happen I think it wise to flee."

The trio turned back to Laz, just in time to see his sclera return to a natural shade of white. Then, his irises became blue once more, before his spear vanished in a flare of light. After that, his shoulders sagged and he sighed. "Not fond of violence?" he asked, garnering hasty nods.

"I'm more of a fighter though," Rainbow chipped in. "But only when I need to be."

Laz gave a rather sluggish nod. "Oh, you'd give Matt and Natz a headache with the moves you've pulled. I doubt they could even catch you with their magic, given how fast you fly," he chirped, his grin widening. "Hell, I could barely track you myself!"

Rainbow gave a brief flinch of her shoulders, unsure if Laz truly meant everything behind his compliments. "Drunk ponies are easy to take down. Those two? I haven't seen much of what they could do," she muttered in earnest.

Laz jolted, his pupils shrinking as his grin fell. It took him a few seconds to process what Rainbow had just uttered. "Wait… you've not seen them in action?" he asked in a sincere tone of voice.

Rainbow shook her head. "Most I've seen was when they, their grouchy general Lance, and their friend Anna took down some wraiths," she answered with a shrug. "The wraiths barely even put up a fight."

Laz's eyes widened. "Anna? Oh… oh no. You need to watch yourself around that one." His tone was low and ominous, and the frown that tugged at his lips only gave the impression that he didn't like talking about Anna. "That one is nucking futs."

Rainbow raised a questioning brow. "Nucking futs? She didn't look that way when I first met her," she mumbled.

Laz's frown only deepened, and his head shook gravely. "That's because you haven't royally pissed her off yet. I've… heard unpleasant things about her. Once she's mad, and if nobody can stop her anger in its tracks in time, she could do serious damage."

Rainbow's brow only continued to climb higher. Something definitely wasn't right. "Define 'serious damage,'" she stated.

Laz gave a shudder, one that shook his hood. "I've heard of a few ponies who confronted her in the past; foolish souls, the whole lot of them. Trotted right up to Anna while she was training, sporting black armor and making insane demands for her to bend over in broad daylight in the middle of some unicorn-centric village. She snapped and killed them on the spot, but… she left no visible wounds on them," he hissed, lips twitching in an effort to keep from outright grimacing.

"My guess? She used magic to re-organize their internals in such a way they bled without coughing blood, but it's only a guess because I haven't seen her do something that drastic. That's just one of many unsavory tales I've picked up on her." Laz gave another shudder and his frown deepened. He added, "I've heard those ponies she killed somehow got right back up and trudged away. Their coats fell out not long after."

Rainbow's brow was now brushing up against the base of her forelock. "And how long ago was this?" she queried.

Laz gulped audibly. "I've heard she was only a private in a military then. The pony who told me this… said it was two years and ten months ago that this happened," he muttered. "And the thing my eyes did earlier? I've heard hers do it, too."

Rainbow balked. "I've seen her eyes turn red for a few seconds," she hissed. "I still don't know what that's about."

The hood on Laz's head shifted, giving the impression of ears folding back. "Whatever you do around her, if you do run into her again…" He swallowed heavily. "Don't. Enrage. Her. Once her handle on that… fiend she keeps consigned to the deepest pits of her mind goes off, she won't rest until whatever awakened it has been either been taken into custody, has managed to somehow incapacitate her, or failing any of those things, gets impaled by thorns."

"If her eyes turn fully red, whites and all, I'd suggest running. As far as you can. Godcat help you if she manages to snatch you," Laz warned, grimacing as the words left his mouth. "I don't know how strong she is exactly, but she should not be taken lightly. Don't let her unleash her full power if you can help it."

Rainbow could only nod, wondering why Laz was so keen to tell them all of this. Regardless, she stood up from her seat, and so did Zecora and Pinkie. Both also gave mute nods, still processing what he'd just relayed. "We'll watch our cutie marks. It was…" Rainbow paused, pursing her lips as she racked her brain for a way to finish her sentence, "strange, but a little nice talking to you."

Laz nodded back and waved them off with a hoof. "I'll stick around to endure the barkeep's bitching. You three had best head off." The trio didn't need to be told twice; within seconds they hurried along to the door, carefully stepping around unconscious patrons as they went. They opened the door upon reaching it and trotted out into Whitefall, but not before looking back at Laz to find him nodding once more.

Once the door closed behind them, and they were in the street again, Rainbow sighed as she and her group turned to start trotting back to the church. A palpable silence fell on Whitefall; the foals and adults they'd seen earlier seemed to have vanished without trace, save barely-noticeable prints that were filling in with another fresh wave of snow. Had they, perhaps, heard the fighting patrons and gone home? Or did the barkeep tip them off the very moment he bolted from the scene?

Rainbow shuddered, her wings fluffing a little as she, Pinkie, and Zecora rounded a bend. Either way, a feeling of unease settled deep within her gut, twisting her stomach into a cramping knot that sent painful tingles through her nerves with each step she took. The pain was dulled only by the snow crunching beneath her hooves. She turned to Pinkie and frowned. "Say… do you have any idea why Laz just started spouting? His talking about Anna was really creepy," she mused.

Pinkie turned to Rainbow and shrugged. "I haven't the foggiest, Dash. Anna doesn't seem like a pony who would be a terrible monster in secret. Unless you're a wraith, and then she'll hurt you," she replied in earnest. "Or if you hurt a foal while she's there."

"Regardless, I think we should heed his warning. Otherwise, we could be in potential mourning," Zecora intoned, punctuating her statement with a very reluctant sigh. "She can drive the Everfree's clouds away with but a flute-song; who knows what else she could have have done if that song had prolonged."

Rainbow sighed, nodding in mute agreement. She'd only seen a small blunder of what Anna could do. Whether or not Laz was right, it was best to take some measure of caution nonetheless. "Do you think we could ask her for a demonstration? Because now that you mention it, I dunno what other spells she could know," Pinkie piped up.

Rainbow leveled a vexed look at Pinkie, both brows twitching in a threat to climb up her forehead. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. Maybe we'd have to talk to Lance first; he's the one who gives the OK to his troops," she replied.

"On that I agree. I'd rather avoid any damage that can be foreseen," Zecora added with a feverish nod of her head. "And while we're on the subject, I don't think asking Lance would be wise. It could very well be a death wish in his eyes."

"True enough," Rainbow agreed with a nod and a fanning of her wings. One wing curled forward, and a primary feather brushed up against her chin almost like a tapping hoof. "That, and we don't know what he gives the OK to, apple-bucking help and removing foals from terrible places aside." A smile graced her muzzle as an absurd idea crossed her mind. "Maybe he advocates tribe unification or something."

They rounded another street, and Pinkie groaned. "Dash, that's implying Fantasia hasn't had a unification yet. We still don't know whether or not the tribes are doing awful things to each other," she pointed out.

Rainbow's wings flared indignantly. She turned to Pinkie with her smile turning upside-down. "But we know that they could be doing it; how and where aren't as important as the did! Lance's wings are proof enough of that!" she exclaimed, her face twitching as she struggled to keep a scowl at bay.

Pinkie deflated a little, frowning as she considered Rainbow's argument. "You know… that makes me wonder… why's he the ruler of his roost, and not Matt?" she asked, tilting her head. "Especially since the tribes might not have unified yet, or have but are still not comfortable with each other… it doesn't make sense."

Rainbow's wings closed, and her face stopped twitching. Pinkie had raised a very valid point. She sighed, deciding to not ask any more questions. Things were already confusing enough, and asking questions left and right would only take her so far. She turned to face the road, with Laz's warning echoing in her mind. "Don't. Enrage. Her."

If a stranger that could barely pass as acquaintance was the one giving the warning, then how bad was Anna truly? She shuddered again, only to halt in her tracks as a loud, masculine scream rang out, piercing the once-quiet air of Whitefall. "What the?!" Rainbow flared her wings and took off towards the source of the noise, giving herself no time to prepare for what she was about to find. Zecora and Pinkie bolted after her, having heard the noise as well. They, too, would be caught off-guard.

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Anna and her group stopped just feet away from the chainlink fencing and looked up as a portal formed in the sky, crackling with lightning that was strangely plaid-colored. "What in the name of Godcat is that?" Anna asked.

"I am now under the impression that space can be warped, and time can thus be bendable," Katie stated, shaking her head as a familiar two-horned goat head poked out of the portal. "Alright, what do you want?"

Discord grinned, and thrust out a paw that was clasped around the leg of a dangling, half-rock stallion that had Anna tensing the moment she saw him. "Just wanted to drop by and say that Celestia decreed this pony's banishment. Oh, and she also told me to let you know that, because of the hotel incident, she'll make sure to have a room in the reserves next time you guys drop by," he answered, unceremoniously dropping the stallion before watching him land face-first in the snow.

"So that's why we had to sleep in a hellhole?!" Lance barked, turning to Discord with narrowed eyes and grinding teeth. "Because there were no other places left?!"

"There were so many nobles and delegates from Yakyakistan and Griffonstone and Mareitania that there wasn't any room left for you and your bunch. Canterlot's smaller than even Ponyville, on account of being built upon a mountain, my dear General. Half the nobles in Canterlot are stuffy and not particularly willing to share on top of that," Discord stated with a sigh, turning to look at the stallion he dropped for a brief second.

"I'm willing to bet one of those stuffy nobles vacated that particular hotel just for you lot the very moment you showed your faces. Of course, if they did, then Celestia might've found out by now. Perhaps somepony else ratted them out; I don't really know, I'm not a politics kind of guy," he added, turning to look at his paw's nails. "The delegates got free housing, and Celestia had to boot one out to let you in. The one that got the boot was going home anyway, so I'd heard."

Katie turned to the stallion Discord dropped, instantly recognizing a half-buried gemstone cutie mark. "Why banish this fuckface? He could do more damage!" she pointed out, turning back to Discord and thrusting an accusing hoof in the stallion's direction.

Discord donned a small frown, further framed by half-lidded eyes. "Because he's a wraith, and an immortal one at that. Any conventional punishments for mortals is pointless. That, and the moon's too good for him, so I figured I'd let you guys deal with him again. I shall now go back to watching Fluttershy's animals. Ta-ta now, and be good," he answered. With that, he pulled back into the portal and it closed seamlessly behind him.

The group turned to the seemingly-stunned form of one Chocolate Soufflé as he laid there in the snow. It took him some seconds to even move, let alone shift his hooves under him to make an effort to stand. Katie noticed that his bad hoof was simply gone, and in its place was a vaguely-hoof-shaped hunk of black crystal fused to his leg.

Lance ignored Chocolate for the moment, instead directing his scowl at Blueblood. "Is what Discord said about cramped housing true?" he hissed.

Blueblood nodded slowly, and sighed as he turned to face the music. "Yes. Before you were escorted into the Parliament, some of the other nobles… suggested that Equestria and the other Mythonian nations shouldn't even attempt to contact a Fantasian leader. But alas, that went up in smoke," he answered.

Bartholomew and Andrew exchanged glances, before turning to Blueblood for an explanation as to what happened. Blueblood saw them in the corner of his eye and waved a hoof in their direction. "It's a particularly long story, and I'm not sure how to sum the whole thing up in a nice and tidy nutshell," he stated.

All eyes then turned to Chocolate as he finally got himself situated, finding a pair of red-orange orbs spinning in their black canvases and a mouth that had fully split at some point. The lower jaw dangled seemingly uselessly, but what caught Katie's attention in particular was a black crystal that jutted up before the stump of his horn. It had grown a great deal, sporting a good few inches on its own, seemingly a horn in its own right now. "Look, a defective bicorn!" she jeered.

Chocolate didn't seem to hear the remark. He stood there, orbs still spinning, looking relatively dazed. It wasn't until Anna trotted over and waved a hoof in front of his face did he shake his head and look around. As soon as he noticed who was standing next to him, he lifted a hoof—the one that wasn't crystal—and struck her right across the face with it, causing her to stumble back.

Anna hissed, "That sure brought back some unpleasant memories." She turned to glare at Chocolate, her horn glowing. "Either beat it, or take an arrow up the ass." Several blasts of light exploded around her, conjuring a few dozen or so crystal-tipped arrows. "Your choice."

Chocolate rolled his orbs and reeled in his jaw. "You're making the vast assumption I even have an ass anymore," he snarked.

Anna didn't falter in the slightest. Her irises began turning red at the very centers. "Like hell that'll stop me," she scoffed.

Twilight turned to Lance, but grimaced as she found him shaking his head. "Given his banishment, there's not much I can do," he stated. "Let them sort this out."

Katie nodded hastily when Twilight turned to her. "Nope. He dug himself into this hole. He'll fucking sit in it," she hissed, watching Chocolate study the assortment of arrows poised in his direction.

"Daddy, why does that pony have rocks on him? It's making him look funny," Maria piped up, causing Chocolate to seize up and sputter on the spot. "And I thought his small—" Katie flew over to Maria in a heartbeat and stretched her tongue out as far as it could go before wrapping a good third of it around her muzzle to keep it shut.

Lance turned to Katie as she came to rest behind Maria and nodded approvingly. "Remind me to talk to her about that later," he stated before turning to Chocolate. "Nonetheless, she does have a legitimate question: why the hell are you growing rocks?"

Chocolate shook his head to snap himself out of his stupor before leveling a glare at Lance. "That's none of your concern, you cock-blocking mongrel!" he hissed.

Lance slowly raised a brow. "I don't think I deserve the term 'cock-blocker.'" He snorted, and his eyes narrowed to slits. "Now answer my foal's question: why are you growing rocks?"

Chocolate turned away, facing Anna again. The arrows were still poised to strike. "What? You gonna turn me into a pincushion?" he snarked.

"I'm impressed," Blueblood interjected, his utterance causing Chocolate to turn to him with a questioning brow raised.

"Impressed? Over what?" Chocolate asked, tilting his head a little.

"That she's even showing a modicum of restraint. And considering your atrocious act has reached every newspaper in Equestria's four corners… that says quite a lot," Blueblood snorted derisively. "It's almost as if…" He studied the still-floating arrows for a few seconds, "dare I say, you're not worth her ire."

Bartholomew and Andrew looked between Chocolate and Anna. Twilight saw them doing so from the corner of her eye. "I'll tell you two what he did later," Anna mumbled before Twilight could even open her mouth.

Chocolate decided he wasn't going to stand around doing nothing anymore. He charged towards Anna, his second horn leveled at her throat, closing the distance before skidding to a halt when she vanished in a flash of bright green light. He shook his head, orbs widening when he saw she left nothing more behind than a set of hoofprints; even the arrows went with her. "Wh-what is the meaning of this?!" he stammered, immediately glancing around in every direction he could, even whirling around to scan the surrounding landscape in full.

He soon spotted a flash of light, which then revealed the tell-tale splash of green standing on a shingled roof a few paces away. The arrows, however, were not with her now—yet her horn was still aglow. Shaking his head again, Chocolate galloped to the house Anna was now standing on, his orbs fixed on her location.

Lance idly looked up as Chocolate charged onward, spotting every single arrow Anna conjured levitating in the sky in a massive cluster. Each point slowly turned as he ran, tracking his every move. He turned back to Chocolate and could not stop himself from grinning as Chocolate skid to a halt before the house, finding that he ran into a little problem.

Namely, he couldn't simply scale the house to reach his quarry. So Chocolate did the next best thing: he reared up on his back legs and thrust his front hooves onto the wall of the house standing before him. With all of his might, he shouted, "Get down here and fight me, you cheeky cunt!"

"What're you gonna do, grow a crystal dick and try pegging me again?" Anna taunted, donning a wry smirk as she looked down at Chocolate just in time to see him punch the wall in futility. "That wad of ginger you shoved up my ass was thrice as big! And that legitimately hurt!"

Chocolate's eyes narrowed, and the rocks comprising his second horn, hoof, and stomach pulsed with crimson mana. "You mean to tell me…"

Anna cut him off with a nod, and her smile widened. "Only reason I was panicking was because your little rocking-horse schtick reminded me of somepony else I'd much rather forget," she scoffed, and jerked her head just once. Within seconds, the hovering arrows surged onto Chocolate, sticking themselves all across his back and into his thighs with a vengeance. It took him a few seconds to register that he was feeling something akin to a thousand stingers, but when he did his orbs shrank to pinpricks.

Blueblood turned to the spectacle, and his jaw dropped as Chocolate released a guttural howl of anguish when red crystals began growing from his backside where every single arrow had landed. "What in the name of Faust…?!" he exclaimed as the crystals continued to grow, forming a shell-like shape that soon overtook the screaming Chocolate. A green magic aura sent him staggering away from the house, and kept nudging him until he was in a perfectly solid patch of snow.

"Fire in the hole!" Anna cried just seconds before Chocolate ceased staggering, though he was still screaming as the red crystals exploded into a veritable column of fire. It took a full minute for both the flames and Chocolate's caterwauling to die down, but that only left embers coating…

"... he finished turning into crystal?" Lance asked, his pupils shrinking. Chocolate didn't burn away as anypony anticipated; rather, a sort of darkened shell of crystal comprised his entire body now. A glowing patch on the hip formed his cutie mark, somehow still tinged in green. He turned to Anna and hollered, "I think you turned him into a golem!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence!" Anna replied before teleporting down to the now-likely-golem Chocolate. He looked at her with a scowl, whereupon she responded by lifting a hoof and poking him on the snout with it. "Next time you do something to anypony else like you did to me, I'll fucking smash you to tiny pieces. Capische?"

Chocolate's eyes narrowed fractionally, and he opened his mouth to reveal that its inside was still comprised of flesh. Scorched flesh, but functioning nonetheless. "How are you going to do that?" he challenged, his voice now raspy.

Anna channeled a little bit of mana into her raised hoof, which sent a pulse of green across his shell. She applied just a little pressure at that moment, and grinned deviously as cracks formed within seconds. "Isn't crystal, I dunno, brittle? I think you can guess," she retorted firmly. With that, she dropped her limb and cantered past him, leaving him to turn and stare at her.

Katie retracted her tongue as Anna made her way back to the group. "He looks like he'd been glassed! How did you manage that?" she queried.

Anna opened her mouth, but didn't have time to answer as Rainbow, Zecora, and Pinkie hit the scene. "What the hay is going on here?!" Rainbow yelled as she came in for a landing, sending snow everywhere in her wake.

Anna snorted and rolled her eyes at Katie. "His body just attracted hydrogen and methane before I was even lighting the spark. Or at least, I think it's hydrogen and methane; at this rate I am not really sure. I more or less accelerated his… er, transformation," she chirped. "All I know is it seems incredibly fragile at the moment, like a pure diamond."

"Erm... what?" Pinkie asked, before turning to Chocolate as he cleared his throat. She frowned as Chocolate grimaced before bolting from the scene.

Chapter LIX- Like A Moth To Light

"Why do you need a few things? What things do you need?" Lazarus asked, his sheen fading entirely with a quick flash of light from his horn.

Katie continued to eye Noah from the window, noticing the snow picking up in speed. "I won't be able to fly tonight," she grumbled, dropping to the floor. "The wind will shred my wings." She twisted her head a full 180 to stare at Lazarus. "Namely, I need lots of cloth and a pillow."

Lazarus grimaced, but didn't flinch otherwise. "What do you plan to do, trot?" he asked. "And what's the pillow for?"

Katie managed a nod, albeit one that caused her neck to pop with the motion. "I'd have to." She flared her wings and flinched when one brushed up against her snout before adding, "Do you really expect me to not become a mockery of a tumbleweed out there? The pillow'll be there to anchor me, somewhat."

Her body twisted, aided by her hooves, rotating in a smooth trotting motion until her barrel and snout were properly aligned once more. She waited for Lazarus to respond, and it didn't take long for him to do so, "But wouldn't trotting be slower?"

Katie rolled her orbs and snorted. "For me, everything is slower," she scoffed.

Lazarus frowned and exchanged glances with Sarah and then Armin. They returned the looks with shrugs before turning back to Katie. "Before I take my leave, I must ask: are you going to sleep, or are you going to come with?" Katie questioned, only to be met with mute stares. When none of the trio sharing the room with her piped up, she rolled her orbs again.

Then, Armin piped up with a frown and a slanted brow on his face, "Listen… I can't trot in the snowstorm. My magic can only keep me warm for so long, and once it peters out my blood'll freeze. I don't have glycerol in my veins."

"Suit yourselves," she muttered. With that, she cantered for the door, whipped out her tongue to grasp the knob and open it once she was in reach, before pulling it open and taking her leave.

She trotted into the hall, using her tongue to close the door behind her and making sure it didn't catch in the frame on her way out. Once that was done, she started cantering her way to the ladder before pausing just a few trots into it when a door swung open to her immediate right. Katie jerked her head to the door, only to tilt it when NoLegs, Maria and Spike emerged from a room that was occupied by Lance and Anna.

Katie stifled a giggle when she got a glimpse of Anna with about seventy-five percent of her face crammed into the backside of a wing, before NoLegs flicked his tail and closed the door with his magic. She turned to Maria and queried, "So… mommy and daddy want some alone-time?"

"Can it!" Lance yelled from behind the closed door.

Maria nodded and lifted a talon to her mouth in a vain attempt to suppress a snicker. "Mommy won't stop until each feather is clean," she chirped through her talon.

"And some feathers are on…" Katie turned away, her utterance dying with the starting throes of a budding giggle fit. She quelled it by clenching her jaws, before pushing the thought aside and turning to Maria again. "Tell me, did you notice anything… odd, aside from that?" she asked, still amused.

Maria nodded. "A guard was smiling funny," she confirmed, dropping her talon to reveal a frown. "And he was standing like the big doggy."

Katie's orbs flicked to Spike, who likewise bobbed his head up and down. "I saw it too. Something just… doesn't seem right," he added. Finally, her gaze turned on NoLegs, who nodded with a meow that she guessed was more or less another confirmation.

"Oh, good, I'm not the only one," Katie snorted, turning to the ladder again. "Armin saw it too, but he'd rather stay here than investigate. Some soldier he is."

"Uuuuh, I don't think changelings like him can tolerate the cold the way you do," Spike remarked, crossing his arms together. "And you aren't exactly his superior."

"A fair point," Katie agreed with a nod before turning back to NoLegs. "Cloth, pillow, mask and shoes, please. I plan on paying Mr. Smiles a little visit." A blue light embraced her form, and the requested objects materialized around her before fitting themselves onto her frame, save for the pillow which instead hovered to her side. "Could you tie the pillow to my stomach please?" NoLegs nodded and conjured a few lengths of rope no thicker than his tail, which he'd used to anchor the pillow to her stomach.

Then another pillow and more cloth came from blinding lights before covering that, with the second pillow coming to rest lengthwise on her back. This was followed up by more cloth coming in to tie the second pillow to her body and conceal it, and this was finished off by a mirror that was about the width of an average door planting itself before her in another flare.

Katie angled herself before turning to face her reflection, finding a masked form laden in cloth looking back at her with the back and stomach bulging considerably. She nodded in approval and turned to the trio that stood with her in the hall as the mirror vanished in another flare of light. "You coming, or staying?" she asked.

"Daddy may ground me again, and I don't wanna make him mad," Maria replied, her tone low as her frown started deepening, while her ears begun folding back at the notion. "It's really cold, too. And I don't wanna get taken by a bad pony either." That said, she turned and cantered to another room, reared up to open the door, and filed inside without another word.

Once the door closed behind her, Katie sighed and turned to Spike with eyes going half-lidded and orbs dimming a little more, seeing that Maria had about ten very valid points she had no hope of arguing with. "Lemme guess: you're also going to bed?" she asked in a flat and somewhat expectant tone.

Spike shook his head. Katie's orbs immediately widened at the gesture. "Well… I still have a lot of things I need to get off my chest, but I don't wanna worry Twilight by telling her about them," he stated, causing Katie's orbs to widen to the point of overtaking the black canvases that housed them. "That, and Noah kinda creeps me out," he added.

Katie's head tilted sideways instead of backwards, cracking until it sat at a grotesque 90-degree angle. "So, you need a listening pair of ears… this what I'm hearing?" she queried, her voice straining and going an octave higher as her head tilted some more to sit at an upside-down 180.

Spike didn't flinch or shudder at the display, and he nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, and preferably belonging to someone who's already been through quite a lot," he stated, though more as an aside. "And you've been through more than the other nutjobs you found yourself hanging with—no offense," he added as Katie's head twisted another 180 to rest back in its usual position.

"None taken, and I understand," Katie chirped before turning to NoLegs. "What about you, furball?" His answer was little more than jumping on her back with a mew and an aura seizing hold of her midsection. Her legs sagged a bit at his weight, but threatened to buckle when Spike decided to climb aboard and rest his hands on the back of her neck. The aura strengthened and forced her to straighten her legs, though it also did a considerable job of lessening the weight on her back.

"So, what's the plan?" Spike asked once he got himself settled.

"Noah's outside in a snowstorm, and with this cloak on my sharp ears will be next to useless. Once we get down the ladder and out the door…" Katie trailed off as a flash of light enveloped them, before it faded to reveal that she and her two charges were now outside of the church. Even with the magic keeping the added weight up, she found that she was knee-deep in snow. "Well, that solves that issue."

She, Spike, and NoLegs took a cursory glance of the scenery, before all three sets of eyes fell onto a fresh set of hoofprints that were already filling in. The tracks led straight through a row of houses to the church's right, and they were bunched tightly together and yet large enough that an adult pony would step in their places and fill them in perfectly. Though, they all had a tell-tale mound that indicated whoever the tracks belonged to was going shoeless.

Then, Spike caught on to what Katie meant. "Oh. So you need extra eyes and ears to compensate?" he asked.

Katie nodded, and lifted a hoof before very gently resting it's shoe-covered frame onto the snow without applying pressure. Ice formed up her leg and the cloth with a pulse of mana, and spread out very evenly under the hoof. A second hoof followed, doing much the same upon the blanket of white. With strength born of magical aid, she hauled herself up before quickly making two more patches for her front hooves while her back ones settled on the first patches.

"I was wondering when I could start doing this again," Katie chirped, taking a second to look at her handiwork. Spike and NoLegs also spared a glance down at the frost patches, though one shrugged and the other went back to eyeballing the tracks. She started to trot next to the prints, albeit sluggishly, and she was being careful to not scrape at her patches with her own weapons. As it was, she had enough issues to contend with. Five minutes into the trot, she heard Spike sigh.

"Is that how you usually travel?" Spike asked, briefly glancing at the frost patches that came and went with every single one of Katie's hoofsteps.

"Only after rain or in heavy snow, since all I do is freeze water beneath my hooves. Makes the task of slogging through bad weather or its aftermath so much easier," Katie confirmed with a nod, tilting her head when the tracks veered sharply to the left all of a sudden. "That, and I never leave any tracks behind doing this. Though, I'm still not sure how Matt and his group found me all the way up north despite that." As suddenly as the trail of prints twisted, she twisted to start cantering after them.

Silence reigned for another ten minutes, during which Spike's mental gears began clicking here and there. It wasn't until another minute was the silence broken. "Then again, you're a bright red… and I think Anna has eagle eyes with how she detected the wraiths up in Frostbite's general area," Spike murmured, his utterance causing Katie to pause.

Giving his remark a bit of thought, Katie shrugged and continued to follow the trail of prints. "Well… she's the first gryph I've seen with round pupils… she may actually have eagle in her blood, then," she replied, orbs once more locked on the trail. "I wouldn't be surprised if she's also part mustang." It only took another few paces before the tracks veered sharply to the right, but Katie diligently followed nonetheless.

The trail went straight after a fourth and final turn to the left a good twenty paces after that, with that turn veering to the very sharp south of town. The prints kept filling in, and they were almost invisible now, but that only made Katie pick up her pace from a sauntering gait to something slightly slower than a filly's trot. After another half-hour of trotting, she decided to strike up a conversation with Spike again, if only to break the silence that was otherwise filled in by her clicking horseshoes.

"So… what is it you need to get off your chest?" she asked.

"It's… what went down at Frostbite," Spike confessed, donning a deep frown. If he had ears to pin back, they'd have touched his spines with their tips by then. When he felt a furry head rub against his shoulder, he continued in a faltering, shaky voice, "A… a lot happened, but things went really south once they managed to wrangle me, Sarah and Fenrir in… a holding compartment?"

"Cut to the chase," Katie stated in a soft murmur that would have been motherly if not for the fact that it was hollow. "The sooner you get it off your chest, and the more compact you make it, the better. If you want, I'll translate it to Twilight later."

"D-don't… I'll tell her myself one of these days," Spike replied, and at Katie's nod let his shoulders sag a little in relief. He took a glance around town, finding that no other soul was out and about. "Well… they tried to… mount her, I guess, and she went hogwild and started scratching at every hippogryph that even came near her. I'd even seen her bite off a few squishy bits."

"I see…" Katie could picture how that fiasco likely went down, as well as how mad the hippogryphs were likely to have been then, and nodded once more. "You were wrangled in the compartment first, right? I want to be sure we're on the same page here."

"Y-yeah. They managed to hold my mouth shut so I couldn't breathe fire on them, and also tied my arms and legs down." Spike gave a shudder, and his claws gripped the fabric on Katie's neck a little tighter. "Anyway, they had to tie Sarah down with… strands of guts. She just shredded through that and kept going crazy, until the elder got a hold of her halberd and clocked her with the blunt end. Fenrir kept them away from her, and Maria, until they were too tired to even try anymore."

"So how'd they keep him overnight?" Katie queried, quickening her pace a little more as the tracks kept filling in.

"Well… they knocked him out with Sarah's halberd," Spike answered, shivering. "And they did the same with me before I could do anything, but it took them a few tries to knock me out."

Katie would have frowned if she were able. As it was, her eyes narrowed at the rather horrendous image that formed in her head. "That'll do. I'll ask Maria about her side of the story at a later time," she stated, an air of anger in her voice that resonated to the point it was almost as if a second wraith with a deeper voice spoke right in tandem with her.

Spike grimaced at the irate tone, but relaxed as he felt NoLegs rub up against his shoulder again. "Quick… question," he began, causing Katie to jerk her head a little forward before perking it up. At her nod, he asked, "How do you manage your anger?"

"I find something to stab, and freeze if at all possible," Katie replied with a shrug. "But I only direct my ire… at something that not only deserves it, but sparked it to begin with. That buffed-up aerobics instructor from Frostbite would be a good example." She paused mid-trot, and turned to look down at something. Spike and NoLegs leaned to the left and right respectively, trying to get a glimpse at whatever had caught Katie's attention now.

It didn't take them long to notice a second set of prints that came from the north of town, one which unusually lined up with the first trail after coming in sharply from the immediate right and between a pair of houses. Though, that first trail now blended in seamlessly with the rest of the snow; even so it didn't take more than a few seconds to tell that these tracks were different.

For starters, the second set seemed a few inches larger than the first, as well as more spaced out. These tracks lacked mounds, instead being flat as pancakes at the bottom. "Well… this just got a lot more interesting. Lance could snugly fit his hooves in this batch," Katie remarked, eyeing the second set of tracks with an air of suspicion in her tone. "But we know Lance is at the church. Begging the question: who could these belong to?"

Spike and NoLegs reoriented themselves to not slip off of Katie's back, and they exchanged glances not long after. Spike decided to speak, "Well… Shining went to look around town today, after breakfast… and didn't come back for lunch…" Then Spike's eyes widened when he realized what he'd just uttered. "Oh no! Shining could be in trouble!"

That was all it took. Katie kicked her legs into gear and started galloping in the direction of the tracks, leaving a trail of frost in her wake. Her claws scraped with each movement, the ice formed beneath them bearing jagged gouges that penetrated the snow they formed over. She did not lose traction, as the ice she made cracked with every step she took, only further supplemented thanks to her added weight. Indeed, she seemed to gain speed, but she still went no faster than an average foal.

Her orbs locked straight ahead, barely paying heed to the trail at this point. Spike glanced over his shoulder and grimaced as he spotted a row of buildings behind him and his group, one that grew more distant each and every second. "Are we leaving Whitefall?!" he cried.

"I reckon so! There's a cave dead ahead!" Katie replied, galloping as fast as her legs could carry her. Spike turned around and gaped as he saw the approaching cave, its yawning mouth barely visible against the snow surrounding it. Some sort of light, dim though it was, illuminated something within the otherwise-black abyss. NoLegs meowed loudly, and his magic fully embraced himself and his group, though it did not do a thing until they reached the entrance of the cave a minute later.

Then, only then, did it seize Katie's legs and forced her to grind to an abrupt, sliding halt right where the snow and cavern floor met up at an uneven border. Her head jerked up as she stopped, clocking Spike in the snout and causing him to tilt back into NoLegs, who merely ducked to avoid the spines. The magic quickly reoriented everyone, though not without some reservations.

"Ah fuck, that hurt!" Katie yelled, her voice echoing into the cave in such a way it sounded as though there were multiple copies of her speaking at once. She flexed her legs and neck as the aura dissipated from everywhere except for her back and middle, finding four semi-stiff limbs and an equally-stiff neck that only caused burning pain to sear through her nerves with each movement. She turned to glare at the cavern she'd found herself in front of. "Give me whiplash, why don't you?!"

A brief glow embraced her head, and a masculine voice echoed into her mind in a condescending tone, "Ain't my fault you ain't used to this shit."

Katie groaned and rolled her orbs with a sigh of resignation. She shook her head and asked, "So, boys, what would you suggest?"

"Well… I don't know the layout of the cavern… so… uh…" Spike trailed off, grimacing as Katie sighed once more. His eyes fell onto a trail of fading prints leading inward. "And we may not be following Shining…"

"Great, we may as well be playing hide-and-seek… and we don't know whose tracks these are... jooooy…" Katie scoffed, and with that she began to trot into the cavern, once more following the trail of snow-prints that diminished in size until it simply vanished after a few paces. Her back started to hurt before she could get some distance from the end of the proverbial trail, but she simply grinned and beared it in a more literal sense than she'd have liked. She took the time to scan her surroundings, finding slate grey walls forming a hallway that stretched on for a good thirty yards by itself.

Though as she trotted, the light the group initially saw brightened bit by bit, and its source began to crystallize into view. Spike's eyes grew wide as several glistening, glowing crystals of many colors dispelled the darkness of the cavern, most of them circling three absolute behemoths that came very close to rivaling the Valkyrie tank in height and half its width.

The space these gemstones occupied was a sort of round room, one that spanned a good four hundred yards all around. The crystal behemoths were stationed in its very center, jutting up from the ground with an imposing stature that reminded Spike of the Crystal Empire's columns. The other crystals jutted from the walls, their varicolored lights throwing a surprisingly flat and crystal-free floor into a stark, breathtaking relief. This illumination, as beautiful as it was, also threw a deep chasm on the right into view, stretching down into a black abyss for a good few miles at least, save a scant portion of the floor that led elsewhere.

Spike jumped from Katie's back and waddled to a small pile of blue gemstones, his jaw quivering and drool pooling around his tongue. He reached out to the crystals with one hand, only to stop just inches shy when he felt something slender and fuzzy wrap around the end of his tail. He twisted around to find NoLegs looking at him, shaking his head with a disapproving frown on his face.

An aura embraced Spike's head for the briefest of seconds, before a voice echoed into his mind. "Tempting as they are, I wouldn't advise it. You'd need an earth pony or someone skilled in crystal magics to safely get one out."

Spike raised a brow. "Why's that?"

NoLegs retracted his tail, hit his face with it as though it were a palm, and turned to Katie before embracing her head in a magic aura. "Kick a crystal for me, would you?" he asked telepathically.

Katie rolled her orbs and cantered to the nearest of the crystalline behemoths. She turned her rump to it once she was within range, lifted her back legs… and promptly fell over and faceplanted with her back legs dangling at her sides. The mask cracked a little from the impact, though otherwise she was unharmed. "I can't kick for shit like this…" she hissed, her voice a little muffled.

NoLegs hit his face with his tail again, and grumbled out a few exasperated meows that Spike was certain was a single string of curses. His magic then grabbed Katie by her middle and yanked her sideways, forcing her to stand into an upright stance. She turned to look at her middle incredulously for some seconds, but shrugged and raised her back legs again before delivering a proper, if somewhat weak, buck to the crystal stalactite.

Immediately, the crystal responded in a most unusual way: it pulsed with mana as varicolored as it and its companions, before a good half-dozen bits and pieces started breaking away from the very top of the structure spontaneously. The bits then shot up and scraped at the ceiling repeatedly, until they managed to gather bits of stone that then joined with them with auras of their own. Afterwards, they completed the process by changing colors, though only to a bizarrely limited palette: red, yellow, and blue.

Once that was done, they rained down on Katie and exploded into several columns of light that sent sparks, flames, and frost dancing about all around her. NoLegs made her vanish in a flash of light prior to having her reappear at his side, well before any serious damage could be done. This, though, did have the side-effect of leaving a good scorch mark—which was still crackling with lightning and glimmering with frost for some seconds after the exploding ceased—where she stood.

Spike watched as the crystals evaporated during the display and turned their stone anchors into wee pebbles in the process, his eyes bugging out with shrunken pupils on full display. "Sweet Celestia…" he murmured, his tone low and his voice quivering. "S-so that's why…"

NoLegs nodded with a meow. Katie decided to speak for him, "Great, exploding crystals. What next, giant tentacled monstrosities?"

Spike shook his head and turned to look at Katie, noticing that some bits of her cloth cover were likewise blackened and riddled with frost patches. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Katie turned to look at Spike with eyes narrowing and she promptly hissed, "Do I look like I'm okay?"

Before Spike could open his mouth again, a blue aura seized it and Katie's masked muzzle. Both found themselves yanked towards NoLegs, who let off a low growl and bared his needle-sharp teeth at the two. A voice echoed into their heads, low and rather patronizing at that, "Both of you, behave. We got a stallion to catch." When Spike and Katie nodded in unison, the aura dissipated from their muzzles, but not before shoving them back just enough that they wouldn't tumble forward and faceplant.

With that, Katie started to amble towards the southern end of the room, though she kept close to the wall and well away from the stalactites in case they spontaneously attacked her again. Spike and NoLegs fell in step behind her, only to stop when Katie halted in front of a crystal formation large enough to effectively act like a hoof to the barrel. She turned to NoLegs. "Strip me down, please," she said in a flat tone.

NoLegs rolled his eyes, but seized her in his aura and made her garments vanish in so many flashes of light that Spike had to avert his eyes. The lightshow lasted for mere seconds, but Spike still found spots forming and swimming about in his vision the moment it ended. He blinked to be rid of them, and turned back to Katie to find her once again stark naked, save for her hooves.

"Thanks," Katie chirped as she turned to the crystal formation in front of her before backing up just a hare or two and immediately cantering around it. Spike and NoLegs set about following her again, noting that her ears jerked upright and began swiveling. He opened his mouth to say something when he saw a faint red glow at the far end of the room, one largely overshadowed by the crystals' own lights and very dim in comparison.

Wherever it was coming from was flanked on either side by two massive crystals that oddly acted as columns, leaving the dim mahogany to paint a portion of the floor instead. As soon as he spotted the faint glow, he squinted his eyes at it. "Where's that lead?" he asked.

Katie twisted her head to look at Spike, revealing an arched brow. "Huh?" Spike sighed and lifted a claw before curling it into a fist and using his index to gesticulate at where the red glow was coming from. Katie turned her head to it back the way it came, followed by lifting her chin slightly and leaning forward as much as her body could allow her to before she concluded with an "Ooooooooooooh."

She trotted towards the red glow, canting her head as she heard a very faint bubbling sound. Spike and NoLegs followed her, though both spread out to flank her instead of continuing on in a straight line. Because of this, they quickly found themselves shoulder-to-shoulder with her, which also had the added bonus of enabling them to better discern the mahogany glow on the floor—and even better, what exactly it was originating from.

The two gargantuan pillars flanked another hallway on either side, a long hallway that was oddly devoid of crystals. In the crystals' place, however, were small upwellings of magma, puddling here and there throughout the floor for some indiscernible distance. "A fool would have to trot through that," Katie scoffed, turning away and instead plodding along to the chasm.

Spike plodded along after Katie, grasping her tail and halting her before she could stray a few feet away. "Hey, I could pick you up and walk across it just fine," he offered, causing Katie to twist her head to face him again.

Katie shook her head and wrinkled her snout the moment she made eye contact. "No offense, but I am not willing to shrivel up more than I already have. If I touch one puddle, much of my insides will become ash," she hissed.

Spike's brows leveled and his eyes went half-lidded. "Aren't you, y'know, immortal?" he retorted.

"Yes, but to regenerate every organ that burnt after touching magma… I tried that once, and it wasn't particularly pleasant," Katie stated, shaking her head again. "I lost use of my entire stomach and reproductive regions for a whole decade, and my back legs as well. Not happening again."

Spike grimaced, his eyes bulging out. "Y-your back legs…" he trailed off, his mind starting to paint a gruesome picture of something involving magma and Katie's rear end. As the image turned more horrid, he dropped his claw, letting go of her tail in doing so.

Katie nodded that time and twisted her head to face the chasm again. "They literally fell off all at once. With nothing more than merely brushing up against magma puddles. I had to crawl pitifully until I fully regenerated. No." With that she trotted to the chasm, only stopping at its very edge to peer down into the darkness below a few minutes later. The one thing she could see was the wall she loomed over, going down into a black abyss after a mere couple of feet.

NoLegs and Spike effortlessly caught up with her with a brisk jog and hop, and both turned to find her seemingly transfixed with the chasm. Something about it had her orbs glued in its direction, though what the two couldn't discern right away. They too peered down after a few seconds, squinting their eyes to see if the abyss of sable had something to yield. The only thing it gave them was a stone wall, black, and more black, coupled with a tense silence.

"So… what's wrong?" Spike asked, turning back to Katie with a brow raised. That actually managed to make her look up at him and shrug.

"I swear I heard something come from this direction," Katie replied with a huff. She turned to the section of floor the chasm ended at. "But it was so faint that now I swear my ears are playing tricks on me."

Spike nodded, and glanced to the end of the chasm as well. "So, what do we do now?" he asked with a frown.

"Well, we have two paths… both of which Emperor Carpetmuncher could've trotted through… one has magma, and the other goes to fuck knows where…" Katie turned to regard Spike again, her gaze drilling into his soul the moment orbs and eyes locked. Spike opened his mouth, only to close it when Katie lifted a set of claws to his chin, upturned them, and nudged him a little. "And don't mind the moniker I've given your unc, crass though it is. I've called other ponies far worse things."

Spike sighed, but only when the claws retracted and were put back on the floor. "I'd like to explore the magma-filled hall… but Shining may not have gone that way." When Katie tilted her nose in a nudging gesture, he elaborated, "He may have trotted in with his shoes. Metal shoes and molten rock doesn't sound like it'd go great together, at least not without… consequences."

"So… not very likely he'd even consider that route," Katie translated, to which Spike nodded in confirmation. Her ears twitched, and she turned to the two crystal columns that marked the 'magma hall.' Spike and NoLegs turned with her. "What in the…" she trailed off as frantic hoofsteps filled the cavern, before a wide-orbed stallion made of crystal tumbled out with his body melting in places.

"Faust save me!" the stallion cried, scrambling towards the exit as though Celestia were hot on his heels.

"... how the hell did he get here, and what did he piss off?" Katie asked, her orbs widening as the stallion vanished behind a crystal column, audibly cowering and whimpering in fright. She got her answer when something else emerged from the same hallway mere seconds later, something as large as Celestia herself with an imposing form to match. It snatched the stallion with a limb after slithering its way to the column he hid behind, casting its body into a stark relief under the crystals' light as it did so.

Many tentacles, all reddish-pink and some housing eyeballs at their ends, both jutted from the back of and held up the frame of a monstrosity with a mostly-stone body composed of red and orange rocks. Flecks of brown flesh pulsed beneath the stones, barely-visible but still noticeable. What looked like sharpened teeth folded and unfurled repeatedly near the front, which housed a massive eyeball that looked to be a good fourth its size, sporting sickly yellow sclera and three irises. The whole thing glimmered with a faint magenta light, and some of its rocks were bizarrely chipped in places.

The beast turned one eye to Spike and his group, and then the rest of its body, still clutching the hapless sod in one slimy tendril. It scanned them with its many oculars for the barest of instants before lunging forward with surprising speed and swatting at them with two tentacles as soon as it reached them. Spike ran to one side and scaled up the nearest wall hurriedly, making sure to avoid the crystals jutting out of its surface. Katie and NoLegs opted to fly over the chasm, one with wings and the other via self-levitation.

A blue aura embraced Katie and Spike's heads before they heard NoLegs hiss telepathically, "Oh bollocks, Chocolate Truffle enraged a Beholder. I'm betting ten bits and a saddle we'll have to stop this thing."

"Help! This thing almost shoved its slime-maker inside of me!" Chocolate yelled, flailing his limbs every which-way he could. This only caused the Beholder to wrap around them with the tendril already in use, fully encasing him in slimy mahogany and muffling any further pleas for help.

Katie took a good look at the Beholder, noticing right away that its faint aura had started to recede. The irony of Chocolate's part of the situation did not escape her notice, either. "Oh joy, the victimizer becomes the victim. Maybe Peeved Rocky here has somethin' to do with Shining…" she muttered, bringing her claws together before scraping them in a short-lived cacophony and lunging towards the monstrosity.

Chapter LXII, Part I- 'You're Telling Me!'

"Lance… are you sure about this?" Anna asked, turning to regard Lance with a frown on her face.

Lance's face hardened. NoLegs, Angel, and Owlowiscious, perhaps sensing unease, clambered off his back and made their way to Fluttershy. "About getting over there? Yes. What's broken the bridges? No," he admitted as another warm draft rose up from the gloom. "I don't know what has decided to make the caves here its home, and frankly if it's big enough to make the ice melt, then I'd rather not piss it off." His wings drooped slightly as he turned back to the remnants of the bridge that lay at his hooves, his brow slanting and his gaze turning to one of pity at the poor thing.

"For all I know, the source of the warm drafts could have burnt the bridges," he added as an aside upon looking up again.

Anna's frown deepened at that. She heard the sound of somepony further back stomping the ground before raising on their back legs. This was followed by Applejack indignantly shouting in a voice loud enough to echo everywhere at once, "What's with this dang holdup? Don't tell me we gotta find another path to Greenwood!"

Another warm draft blew in from the chasm once Applejack's voice ceased echoing seconds later, followed by a deep growl that resonated through the very walls of the caverns. Silence settled as soon as the growling died, broken only by sound of Rainbow's still-beating wings. Anna and Lance exchanged looks, frowns deepening some more as they took mere seconds to process what the presence of that growl meant.

"... was that a dragon?" Anna murmured in a low whisper.

For a few seconds, Lance did not move a muscle. Then his eyes gravitated up, catching sight of the melting icicles as yet another warm draft blew in from the chasm. His gaze returned to Anna once the zephyr passed, and he sighed. "That's the only thing large enough to do this," he murmured, lifting a hoof to gesture to the remnants of the bridge that lay mere inches from them. "And fit down there," he added, his hoof shifting to gesticulate at the chasm beyond.

Anna tensed. If a dragon had decided to turn this place into its residence… "... what do we do?" she asked.

"If it is a dragon, we try not to wake it up. If it isn't, and it wakes up anyway…" Lance turned his gaze to the gloom once more. He didn't speak for another few seconds as he stood there, contemplating his options. Then, his wings flapped and pushed a slight gust into the gloom, though only once. The beat he produced, though, echoed for a few seconds before it gave way to silence.

Whatever Lance suspected was slumbering in the chasm only replied with another warm draft of air. No growling or rumbling came with the breeze—just that draft, and nothing more. Lance flapped again, this time with a little more force. Another draft answered him. At this, he turned to the still-hovering Rainbow, who returned the look with both brows raised high. "Rainbow… could you get Flash Sentry, Armin, and Alexander please?" Lance asked, making sure to keep his voice at a low tone, mostly to keep whatever was asleep from waking up.

Rainbow frowned, but turned around before spotting Flash and waving him over with a hoof. Flash tilted his head, but with a magical nudge on the withers from Shining, flared his wings and flew over. Then she spotted Armin and Alexander, the former of whom conjuring a radio in his magic as she turned to him. He muttered something into it before Dash waved them over, garnering small frowns and a radio vanishing before they complied.

Lance nodded at their arrival, and motioned with his still-spread wings for Anna, Matt, and Natalie to back up at least a few paces to let the airborne quartet land. When they did, they made everyone else back up as well, though now several whinnies of protest and a few squawks of indignance came as a result.

To quell the small-scale riot before it could even begin, Anna embraced several heads in her magic, with Matt and Natalie focusing on the ones she didn't grab. The embrace lasted for a few seconds, just long enough for a triple-telepathic utterance of "Keep it down, will you?! There might be a sleeping dragon in the chasm!" to enter everyone's minds and stop the dissent then and there.

Though that didn't stop Spike from raising a claw and interjecting, "Uh, is it… a big dragon?"

Anna shrugged and lifted a hoof to gesture to the melting icicles as another draft blew in from the dark depths. "If it's big enough to do this, then we really don't want to be noticed by it," she mouthed in reply. With that, she turned to Lance as Rainbow and Flash landed on either side of him, watching as all three pegasi huddled up with Armin and Alexander as they followed suit. They began whispering amongst themselves, and fervently at that. Her ears perked, and she started listening in on the murmurings.

"So… we carry…"

"Yeah, but we need to…"

"I'm not sure m'lord would approve of this…"

"And you said yesterday that…"

"Change in plans. Drastic times…"

"What about Maria? She can't…"

"Well, shit…"

"What do we do about Harry? He's not…"

Anna shrugged again and turned to the rest of the group, letting Lance mutter with his huddlemates and inwardly hoping they could work something out. She heard somepony audibly facehoof, but didn't know who it was until the owner of the sound began speaking, keeping his voice just loud enough to be heard. "Why didn't we bring chariots?" Blueblood scoffed.

Shining snarked in reply, "How would we have fit chariots in the airship?"

"We could've dismantled them first," Blueblood pointed out, turning to glare at Shining.

"But that would've been a safety hazard," Shining retorted, his voice firm, but his tone low. "And it would've taken too much time to even figure out how to put them back together, had we gone through with it. Last I checked, we didn't bring anypony who could reconstruct the blasted things. And I don't know if Twilight could convert them to thaumic energy for transport, let alone how many, so I decided I wouldn't take that chance. They're kinda hefty, you know."

Blueblood seethed and his ears flattened against his head, but he didn't utter anything else in response. He instead settled his gaze on Lance specifically, inwardly wondering what was taking him so long to break away from his huddle formation and do something. He opened his mouth to make a proclamation, only to be stopped when Anna, Matt, and Natalie looked at him in unison and shook their heads as if to say "Hold up."

Blueblood closed his mouth and sighed. His eyes fell on Maria as she waded her way over to the ongoing huddle session, which also seemed to catch Anna's immediate attention. Her gaze alone stopped the filly before she could even get halfway there. Maria returned the look with a sullen frown. "I wanna get to Greenwood already," she complained.

Anna wilted a little and her shoulders sagged, but she did not avert her gaze in the slightest. "Just wait. Lance's working on it," she stated, her voice firm and yet faltering a little. "We'll get to Greenwood soon."

Maria raised a talon and stomped it like she would one of her back hooves, and her frown twisted into a grimace. "No we won't, if daddy doesn't do something now," she hissed, flaring her wings and puffing her chest for all it was worth, which caused her feathers to stick out that much more.

Anna grimaced, ears flattening against her head again. Quickly seeing that Maria wasn't buying it, she sighed and replied with an air of exasperation, "Could you give him a few more minutes, please? I'm sure he'll figure out something soon."

Maria, with the air of someone whose patience was beginning to wear, narrowed her eyes. "Why not now?" she griped, stomping her talon again and flapping her wings indignantly.

Anna's knees began to shake. She looked to Matt and Natalie, but they shook their heads at her and mouthed "She's your foal. Not our jurisdiction," in unison. "Just put your hoof down. Be firm, but gentle."

Anna balked at that. 'Firm, but gentle?' That was an oxymoron if she'd ever seen one roll off the tongues of her colleagues. She took a deep breath and turned to Maria again, only to blanch when she saw that the foal had decided enough was enough and began walking towards the ongoing huddle session again, this time with a noticeable stomp in her step.

Shining was watching the scene with interest, smiling a little when Anna began trotting after Maria without using her magic to stall her. He leaned over to whisper to Blueblood, "And so it begins."

"What begins?" Blueblood replied as Anna stopped Maria in her tracks by picking her up as soon as she was in reach, whilst also sitting on her haunches simultaneously.

"But I wanna go now!" Maria yelped, starting to flail in Anna's grasp.

Anna, who had turned her head away to avoid getting her eyes poked out by flailing talons, groaned in annoyance. "If you keep this up, you're gonna be grounded again before you even know it," she groused. "And I won't be able to help you get out of it if you do."

"I can't fly anyway, so being grounded wouldn't do shit!" Maria cried, in turn causing the huddle formation to finally break up and turn to her in unison.

Lance exchanged a look with Anna and sighed in exasperation. He marched over, planted a front hoof on the top of Maria's head, and tilted her head before he looked her in the eye without bending a second knee so much as an inch. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and that caused her to cease her flailing. "Stop whining this instant." His voice was firm and brokered no argument. Only when she nodded did he drop his hoof.

Anna put Maria down and sighed. "And don't let me catch you swearing like that again. Alright?" Lance continued, garnering another nod from Maria. He looked at Anna and leaned over to whisper, "Next time she behaves like that, just do what I did. Alright?"

Anna nodded, and smiled at Lance with a hopeful glint in her eyes when he pulled away. "I take it you've got… the bridge issue squared away?" she asked.

Lance nodded back and trotted around Anna to look at everyone else, easing his glare a little. He took a deep breath before speaking in his no-nonsense tone, "I have a suggestion that should get everyone across the chasm if we can cooperate and pull it off. However, we'll have to do this in a roundabout way: self-levitators up front, please." Twilight, NoLegs, and Shining all stepped forward.

Lance looked to Blueblood, who merely shook his head and mouthed "I can't self-levitate." Then his gaze settled on Lazarus, who blinked before likewise trotting forward. In doing so, only two lights were left within the group, and the owners of those lights donned small frowns. Once the gaze of crimson turned to Rarity, she balked and flinched before stepping up. At this, Lance smacked his face with a wing, grumbling into his oversized feathers unintelligibly.

As soon as wing parted from face, Lance sighed again. "Well, this is a bit of a conundrum…" he muttered, now seeing an issue of sorts: the disproportionate number of fliers and self-levitators in comparison to those who could do neither or were presently handicapped. He turned to Twilight and asked, "How many times can you teleport before your horn gets red-hot?"

Twilight pursed her lips for a few seconds. "I'd say… by myself, up to three dozen times if I have a direct line of sight," she answered. She turned to the chasm of gloom that was still obstructing at least half the group. "Of course… there's no light ahead…" She trailed off, seeing no need to finish.

Lance nodded and whirled around to face Anna. "Help Twilight and NoLegs get everyone who can't fly or teleport to the other side, please. Consider this your teleportation practice," he said. Anna turned back and nodded before trotting up to Twilight. Then Lance turned to Natalie and trotted right back up to the chasm's edge, never once taking his eyes off of her until he'd stopped. "We'll gauge out an optimal route… you'll need to light a path before me."

"Lance…?" Natalie began in a low tone, only to balk when Lance took several steps back before then galloping forward. Everyone's pupils shrank when he jumped over the edge, wings spread as far as they could go. He plummeted sharply and went out of sight, but when he did the sound of flapping wings, flexing once-useless muscles frantically, filled in the void. It took several seconds for Lance to re-emerge into sight, all four legs kicking frantically at thin air as his wings struggled to simply balance him at the most basic of hovering maneuvers.

"Great hairy teats, this is awkward!" Lance exclaimed, though his voice went no higher than a standard utterance. A draft chose that moment to blow in from the chasm, only serving to lift him higher and make him flail that much more. "I feel like a bloody albatross fledgeling!"

"You're telling me!" Armin snarked, smiling at the sight of his own superior making an utter fool of himself. He watched as Lance tumbled back to the edge of the chasm and landed unsteadily, the feathers along his back and barrel puffing out the moment his hooves touched stone.

Lance shook himself, flapping his wings without taking off a second time. He turned to one of his feathered limbs to find red mana pulsing between the feathers. He took a deep breath and willed just a tiny bit, feeling something within him stop before seeing the mana cease pulsing. "Well, at least that was some progress," he remarked. Releasing his mental hold, he saw the mana pulsing anew and smiled.

With his confidence bolstered and an awkward grace more fitting of a dodo bird, Lance took off again, this time without flailing his hooves in every conceivable direction in the process. It made a noticeable difference; his stance, while still on the warbly side, was more stable. Natalie sighed and embraced herself in her magic before levitating next to him, eyeing her superior with a critical gaze as he continued his second attempt at a basic hover. "Wings hurt?" she asked.

Lance shook his head. "Not even sore yet," he replied. "Why?"

Natalie gave a small smile. "Alright then." Her light flared brighter, and into the darkness she began to float. Lance clumsily followed after her, squinting his eyes a little to minimize retina damage. As another draft blew from below, Lance tilted dangerously to one side with a surprised squawk of all things leaving his mouth when said draft managed to brush up against every part of his body at once. Hastily reorienting himself and mentally seizing his legs before they could start flailing again, he took some deep breaths and continued to press onward.

Natalie flipped so she floated backwards, looking at Lance with a smug grin forming on her face as she crossed her rear legs and lifted her front hooves to hold her head up. "And you said I couldn't fly for shit?" Lance growled, an eye twitching the moment he saw that smug smile.

"Certainly doing worse than before you were bound," Natalie chirped, seemingly content to drift lazily ahead. "I mean, you could've ran out of mana and plummeted by now," she unhelpfully added with a dismissive flick of her tail. "And that's just the best-case scenario."

That got Lance's eye to cease twitching. As much as he'd have hated to admit it, Natalie had a point. But that didn't mean she could make such a comment and expect it to come true—even she had her limits, after all. "Don't yak like you can predict the bloody future, you sparkling meteor wannabe," he snarked.

Natalie merely rolled her eyes and flicked her tail dismissively again, continuing to float backwards as though she were lounging on a levitating couch. This particular stance, though, only got her so far—roughly forty yards, in fact, before a part of the back of her head that wasn't covered by her hooves met with stone. Natalie yelped as hard, chilled rock scraped against her scalp, though it didn't scrape hard enough to draw blood. She twisted around and backed up from the obstruction for a bit, tilting her head when she saw that the portion of stone to her immediate right caved inward.

She floated over to the caved-in part, only to smile as she found another lengthy stone hallway, albeit one lined with ice cascading across the ceiling and parts of the floor. Lance, for all of his clumsiness, managed to meander over and landed rather gracefully onto the first five feet of the next hallway without issue.

Only to then slip and faceplant when he set one hoof forward on an ice patch. Natalie couldn't help but snicker at that even as she came in to land daintily next to him, prior to feebly masking her bout of chuckles with a weak cough when Lance turned to glare at her. Lance then smiled at her, though, before getting up and brushing his legs with his wings. He turned and waved at the lights on the other side of the chasm, noting he could barely see them—past several star-shaped lanterns that were now dangling from various icicles and dribbling with golden dust.

Huh. How'd that escape his notice? He turned to Natalie, who shrugged and gesticulated to her horn. "Couldn't have one Lucky Star spell go back and forth, could I?" she asked, turning to the several dangling stars and smiling proudly. "Besides, this is less taxing."

"Whatever you say," Lance stated, turning to the other side of the chasm again. He blinked when… no less than three lights began drifting closer, easily making out a gold, a green, and a blue-turning-red-and-back in the gloom. He wasn't sure if their owners had perhaps seen him wave with the distance at which both halves of the party effectively stood, though he'd decided to save that question for later.

It took a little under ten minutes for Matt, Anna, and Lazarus to reach the two, though Lance raised both his brows when he saw they didn't come alone. Harry and Fenrir, both of whom were curled up into balls with all three auras lugging them along, and one with his ears pinned against his head and tail tucked between the legs, floated over just behind them. Anna also had Maria settled onto her back. With a thump the whole group landed on the second stone platform, and Lance took a moment to look at Fenrir in his rather widening eyes. "Don't like being levitated?" he guessed.

Fenrir fervently shook his head. "I-I loathe it entirely," he whimpered in reply, his voice a good octave higher than it normally was. He lifted a paw and gestured to Matt with it. "I-I'm not s-sure how he i-is perfectly c-content with it!"

"If he doesn't like the thought of flying against his will, then I'd wager he's not fond of teleportation, either…" Anna murmured, using her magic to lift Maria off of her back before settling her down onto the stone. She turned to the star-lanterns that were still dangling, noticing they were starting to dim. "I'd say give him a few while we lug everybody else here before setting off again." With that, she promptly vanished in a flash of light and reappeared on the other side of the chasm.

"Why didn't you freak out on the airship, then?" Matt asked, turning to Fenrir with an incredulous brow raised.

"I-it was enclosed! It seemed m-more like a cavern than an airborne v-vessel!" Fenrir yelped in reply, his voice loud enough to echo for several seconds on end.

"I'm going to go ahead and blame 'instinct' on that one," Lance groused, turning to Maria with a slight frown on his face. He opened his mouth to speak again, but closed it when another draft, this one much colder than the other drafts, blew in from the chasm. He turned to the chasm, feathers along his back and chest puffing out some more when another growl came from the darkness.

A growl that was, against all logic… oddly hollow, yet deep enough to still cause the caverns to tremble. Lance's brow furrowed. He spread his wings and started to frantically wave them, beckoning everyone else who was still on the other side to come to his side at once. But before anyone could teleport with Anna and Twilight's assistance, something rose from the blackness with another guttural rumble.

At first, it was obscured by shadow, before some kind of deep red energy began to gather around a jagged silhouette that was dribbling with a sickly greenish-black liquid. The red energy crackled with what looked like black lightning, and it tilted up towards the very stars that Natalie had set over the cavern's chasm.

Before the whatever-it-was could unleash its energy, though, the stars immediately homed in on it and struck it squarely where the red and black hues had been gathering. The stars crashed into the energy and promptly shattered, coating the creature in a fine golden dust that glimmered in the lights still cast on the sides of the chasm whilst also dispelling the red and black energy entirely. The dust highlighted sickly red scales, almost the color of blood, that contrasted sharply with several nasty and blackening wounds which oozed greenish blood that ran along the length of a serpentine neck.

A reptilian head, one bearing wounds severe enough to leave bits of flesh hanging from a yellowed skull, roared deeply. As the sound issued from its throat, it revealed jagged and cavity-riddled teeth that dribbled with the greenish-black substance. It swiveled its head, further revealing broken horns and black canvases where eyes should have been, housing pinprick golden orbs that flickered ominously.

"... a lich-wyrm, just great," Lance hissed right as the creature turned to him, narrowing its eyes ever so slightly. "Not a dragon, but close enough."

Lazarus summoned his spear without hesitation. He waved it in front of Lance before he could do so much as flap his wings. "Wait…"

"Huh?" Lance balked, turning to Lazarus with a brow raised.

"Its face is peeling from its skull," Lazarus noted, his utterance causing the lich-wyrm to turn its beady orbs onto him. He stared back, peering intently at the few yellowed bits of bone he could see. "This one doesn't have much time left."

The lich-wyrm huffed and turned to Lance again. "You…" it spoke in a hollow baritone, an air of contempt in its sickly voice. "Come to mock me?"

Lance shook his head. "No. Just trying to get to Greenwood Village," he replied. "Half of my group is behind you."

"I see... why do you have a bear?" the lich-wyrm asked, turning pointedly towards Harry, who flinched under its gaze.

"He's… a pet of a friend," Lance replied, his wings twitching as he spoke. "Said friend is behind you too."

For a few seconds, the lich-wyrm was silent, seemingly contemplating what it had just heard. "If you lie, then I will not be… so kind much longer." The lich-wyrm twisted to face Twilight's side of the chasm, its gaze causing several to balk. It regarded them for a moment before its orbs settled onto someone—who exactly, Lance couldn't tell. "Who owns the… bear?"

"I-I do… he's my friend," Fluttershy answered.

"Intriguing… and why would you go… to Greenwood? Do you… have a death wish?" it asked.

"We're not going to Greenwood; I'd much rather go around it if I could," Anna answered, her voice shaky and shrill.

The lich-wyrm shifted a muscle of some sort, and it would have been a silent motion if not for the awful sound of tendon and sinew tearing loudly enough to briefly echo. "I would stay… well away," it warned. "But it won't be… my fault if you enter Greenwood anyway. Leave… before my mercy wanes. Make haste… you would do well to stay out of… the villagers' path." With that, it dipped back down into the chasm with another guttural growl leaving its decaying throat, before one final and cavern-shaking thud resonated throughout the stone with the force of a small earthquake that made everyone briefly stagger.

Nobody spoke until after the tremors ceased and everyone either flew, teleported, or had to be manually carried over the chasm, the process of which took several minutes to execute. Once everyone was safely over onto Lance's side, Spike whispered with a deep frown etched onto both snout and brow, "I did not know that dragons could become wraiths."

"That was a wyrm," Natalie corrected, her voice also kept to a whisper. "Let's get going before he changes his mind and eats us." With that, she began trotting into the hallway beyond, being meticulously mindful of frozen patches of stone as she went. Hesitantly, everyone else followed, with another warm draft trailing behind them as they trotted on, and that only made them trot faster. Natalie dispelled her own light, and even started dragging her hooves, almost as if silently asking the others to catch up to her despite the fact that she was mere feet from them as she walked.

Silence held as the hallway kept stretching on and on after that, spanning for several yards and minutes on end, the latter of which were all going uncounted thanks to a lack of sunlight with which to keep track of time. Only the scraping of claws and the clip-clop of hooves filled in the otherwise-silent void. The caverns continued to grow colder and colder, and the ice seemed to thicken considerably, almost to the point where it could bear solid reflections of the passing group.

Fluttershy cantered over to Twilight, frowning deeply. "A… wyrm… that's…" she trailed off, a look of wide-eyed and abject horror settling firmly onto her face.

Spike reached over and patted Fluttershy on the withers with a claw. "What worries me is that even he told us not to go to Greenwood…" he muttered. "Had he seen something we didn't?"

Fluttershy pursed her lips and fluffed her wings. Her gaze flitted to Anna, who was doing less trotting and more hoof-dragging even with Lance coming to start trotting at her side. The more she looked at the two, the more they seemed hesitant, and the more rigid their postures looked to become. "It's likely the wyrm did see something," Fluttershy finally answered, keeping her tone low on the off-chance that either Lance or Anna were doing more listening in their reluctance. "But I don't know what…"

Spike spent another forty yards or so contemplating what Fluttershy relayed, staring at her the whole time before he finally shrugged and turned ahead, just in time to see Natalie trotting onto something rather rickety. He heard a noisy creak as she went on, with whatever she was plodding along on protesting under each step she took. She halted before she could stray much farther, whereupon the sound of snapping wood reached everyone's ears. Natalie jumped back, looked down, and shook her head.

"This bridge won't hold much longer. We gotta fly and teleport again," Natalie reported before trotting back to the group with hasty steps. "I really hope the bridge-builder's been informed…"

"I think the bridges are the least of our worries, and of whoever built the damn things to begin with," Sarah piped up in a sibilant hiss, frowning so deeply she seemed to be scowling.

Chapter LXXX, Part II- Darkness of the Unknown

Everyone scooted closer together upon hearing that ghastly wail, muscles tensing as the walls started to fray in places. Katie lifted her ears and grimaced as she heard a sharp retort, followed by the very distinct sound of something tipping, rolling, falling and then breaking on impact. Another roar filled the house, and then stopped as wood snapping came from downstairs. She heard one crunch, then another, each sound hushing like crumpled paper in between the noises of planks splitting and the house groaning and writhing all around them.

Another series of crashes, coming in tandem with the sound of cloth tearing and metal shrieking, rang sharply in her sensitive ears. She would have covered her ears, had she not been wearing her shoes, as some part of her figured that whatever was making the racket would find her and the others all the same. It would only be a matter of time before it did.

And, indeed, that suspicion proved correct within mere minutes of the awful orchestra's start. Something rushed, jumped, then crashed loudly and brazenly into the open cabinets of the lounge, followed by a pained roar and the sound of yet more peeling bark accompanied by several harried taps. A beat sang from the stairs that led to the hall with the utilities' closet, before the owner of the racket wheeled into the collective eyes of the group and smashed itself into a wall with enough force to snap its own neck. All eyes widened as the thing crumpled to the floor with a scream and thrashed upon it, somehow mobile despite its grievous injury.

It thrashed and kicked, moving so fast that its legs—or what the group of eight assumed as such—were a blur that obscured its body for a few seconds, until Twilight seized it in her magic and forced it to keep itself on the floor. Its thrashing slowed to a lazy flailing, its agonized cries deafening and gurgling as the lavender light of Twilight's magic revealed the unsightly appearance of the new arrival.

Twilight wished she hadn't cast her light on such a beast. She wanted to retch and scream, but couldn't do either—it was as if Ragnarok were being cast all over again. Her magic faltered and flickered, but held steady even as she beheld the abominable sight that stumbled right to the hall.

The beast was, surprisingly enough, a quadrupedal creature that may have been a wraith whose physical state was as bad, if not worse than, Katie's. Its legs were twisted at odd angles, sprouting twigs and vines that constantly oozed that dark, iron-reeking substance that tried holding the flailing limbs together. Its legs did not end in claws, but instead spear-like protrusions that each tapered out to a seemingly-fragile point, and were covered to the haunches and withers in plate-like folds.

The thing's head was covered in that same fraying, plated bark, leaving two meager eye-holes open that even now continued to bleed. Its orbs, if it had any, flickered out long ago—only twin abysses of pitch black stared out at the group. A tail of wooden plates swished behind its bucking hinds as it struggled to get up on its contorted limbs, even with the magic keeping it pinned and slowing its movements. Nobody could tell what species this thing belonged to; what wasn't encased in plant matter was a pale skin as white as Frostbite Haven, with a gaunt ribcage and stomach so thin that Katie could've sworn she saw its spine peeking out its front. A hoof-thick stitch ran from its groin upwards, right where its genitals should have been, ending at its chest.

"What… is that thing?" Twilight muttered, gagging at the sight before collecting herself.

"Suffering, that's what," Katie replied, brow furrowing. "Looks like it's halfway done turning into a tree."

"What should we do…?" Fluttershy hesitantly asked, ears falling back as the creature continued to writhe in anguish on the floor.

Katie's gaze hardened as, with great reluctance, Twilight relinquished her magical hold on the poor, ailing creature. "Whether or not if it's a wraith, we kill it. Only thing we can do for it," she stated grimly, wincing in sympathy for the beast. "I doubt its mind is intact at this rate."

Within a minute after being freed, however, the wraith turned on its back and stood on those thin points, head and neck popping back into place as a gurgle left its throat. Its legs bent further, causing its stance to become lopsided and disoriented, all the while its empty gaze fell onto the intruders once more. Everyone tensed further as a long, serpentine tongue of ivy slithered out from where its mouth would be. As this makeshift tongue snaked out, its impromptu mask started fraying and shifting in a manner that reminded Lance of gears and chains, all to let the vine taste the damp and musty air. Katie flared her wings, but did not flap them, as her orbs scanned this anomaly.

There was no way in hell she'd be able to take this beast head-on, she quickly realized; its wooden parts may have looked frail, but for all she knew that armor was impenetrable, and its hideously-warped legs only further reinforced that suspicion. Its vines would, doubtless, cast her off were she to lunge here and now, and its vulnerable back would only become vulnerable once it dropped its guard.

She contemplated conjuring ice, crawling up the walls, trundling along the ceiling and dropping down as she had with the wraith in Whitefall's jail. The ceiling frayed, however, writhing with its own set of vines, and oozing a suspect amount of red fluids that started dropping on her and the others of her group. Such a tactic would be, at best, a hell of a stunt to pull off. At worst, she could end up with broken legs all over again.

Twilight decided to conjure first a runic spell circle, and then a sword of light from that runic circle as the wraith started to charge. Instinct kicked in, and she launched the blade towards the monstrosity. The wraith skid to a halt and ducked effortlessly, using its own unsteady stance to help it narrowly avoid the blade by mere centimeters, which thunked solidly in the wall behind it. Then it resumed charging, and made to crash into Twilight before a brown-and-pink blur halted it by jumping on its head.

Lance growled as Maria scrabbled to the beast's back before it realized what was happening, and pushed past Twilight and Fluttershy to grab the wraith by its bark-covered head with his hooves and immediately throwing it bodily to the floor. The wraith screamed from the assault, while Maria hopped off and turned to her surrogate. As the thing started to move, Maria rushed in and sank her talons into the back of the beast's neck, seizing its spine with ease as she tore into flesh once again.

It took but a few sharp wrenches of her claws before she felt a spine snap at its weakest point, and the wraith thrashed once, then twice before falling still. Lance was tempted, tempted to put Maria back on his back and scold her from now into next year about why such a move was beyond reckless. But, all the same, he had to admit he'd have struck the thing's spinal column in the same place were he able to.

He drew deep breaths through his flaring nostrils and sighed to collect himself and reign in his ire. "Maria… don't do that again, for the love of Godcat, unless I say otherwise," he said in a gentle but firm reprimand. "Before you ask, it's because I said so." "Because she could've gotten hurt," his conscious snarked at him, but he had to concede that it had a very solid point.

Maria nodded, but dared not withdraw her claws from the masked wraith. She could still feel it, just barely, twitching in her grip. She squeezed, just to ensure that this… creature wouldn't come back to pester them again, frowning as its muscles spasmed around her digits. "Did Heather tell you about this thing?" Lance asked, lifting a hoof to gesture to the creature for emphasis.

Maria shook her head. She took a glance around the hall; the walls and ceiling stopped cracking and bleeding further, for the moment, and the vines had fallen deathly still. "Just about the bad place," she muttered.

Lance nodded. "Your claws stuck?" he asked. Again, Maria shook her head before hesitantly sliding her digits out of weak flesh, and jumped back with a cry as the wraith started to thrash the moment she did. Lance jumped back too, eyes widening at first before narrowing coldly as he reared onto his hinds and brought his front hooves down upon the barky mask. Wood snapped, frayed, splintered from the first impact, and he reared up and stomped again and again. Flesh burst, ripped, tore like paper as wooden shrapnel dug into it from the repeated assault. Bones broke, withered, crumpled beneath hooves, and only as its skull caved in did the beast fall still again—hopefully, for good this time.

Twilight, Fluttershy, and Angel looked away as Lance kept stomping on its head for several minutes after it ceased movement. He did not stop until he thoroughly smeared the creature's brains and vines over a sizeable portion of the floor, wings flared and chest heaving with silent breaths. He was panting as he eyed the mess his two hooves had wrought. "Daddy, are you okay?" Maria asked, frowning as she cantered around the mess to jump on his back again.

Lance shook his head. "Was just… not expecting it to fucking move after its spine was…" He took a breath to collect himself again and closed his wings. He made a mental note to keep a better eye for such underhoofed tactics in the future.

"She might not have dislocated its spine, and as such, it still had access to movement," Twilight muttered, sighing wearily as Lance turned to her and took another breath. "Is it… going to regenerate, somehow?"

"After having its head turned into paste, I very much doubt the possibility," Katie piped up, rolling her orbs and shrugging as Twilight turned to her. "Then again, I should have been ash by now. I can't exactly… vouch for its permanent demise." She turned to the downstairs door, eyes narrowing as she saw liquid pooling at the bottom step despite her poor vision.

Lance turned to the door. He started trotting to it with NoLegs and Katie in tow, but paused and looked at Angel. "Fluttershy, why'd you bring Angel here?" he asked.

"He doesn't want to see Maria hurt," Fluttershy replied, frowning.

Lance immediately made another mental note to give Maria self-defense courses at the earliest possible time, considering she helped bring a half-tree menace down, and maybe give Angel a dagger to defend himself with on top of that. At the rate things were progressing, even he could never be too careful. "Perhaps we should go downstairs first, all together. Then teleport back here and go up. More eyes watching for danger that way," he stated.

Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged glances, then made to follow him. They'd have to work together to uncover the secrets of this mess, both of them realized, and it seemed Lance had as well. Lance resumed trotting, but Katie and NoLegs cut ahead of him to start dismantling the vines and planks barring the door. "Daddy, why does this house move?" Maria asked.

"I wish I knew," Lance replied, frowning as the door was forcibly opened by way of claw and sword. Cautiously, Katie and NoLegs went past the door, finding a sight that gave them pause.

"... what the…" Katie trailed off, ears drooping almost immediately. Lance trotted in after them to see what they'd stumbled upon, and halted right in the doorframe, eyes widening at what he beheld.

Arranged in a perfect circle, in a square room with only one door leading in and out, stood nothing but stitched-up cotton dummies reinforced with structural support bars, each one in the shape of a pony mixed with a rocking horse. Affixed crudely onto these lifeless replicas were multiple sets of wings, and severed horns, each one already wasted away into a state of irreparable decay and missing either half their spirals or the joints up to the humeral bones. No feathers remained, no flesh stubbornly clung to long-lost joints; each and every part was nothing but yellowed, broken bone. Blood stained the dummies, turning patches into a hideous black that seemingly distorted the white cotton that made them. Each one had what seemed to be closed eyes painted upon their faces, heads bowed low and adorned with further markings reminiscent of tears.

Only one of the dummies, an oddity which possessed whole yet dubiously small wings and a fully-pointed horn, even moved at all. The head was thrashing madly about, its movements throwing into stark relief a ripped-open mouth adorned with canines hewn of wood and black circles acting as sockets. A rustling filled the air as a crude mane and tail made of long and withered leaves flapped with the thrashing. Affixed into that mane and tail were wooden beads which acted as a scalp, but each movement jostled them more and more.

Its body was tilting as far back and forth as it possibly could, only further accentuating the disconcerting display, manacled legs writhing in their bonds almost as if something was trapped inside. But even with its desperate attempts to get out, its support did not creak in the slightest, nor did it manage to break from the others in the circle. Even though its wings were bone, it flapped with all of its might, and a green wave of mana pulsed across them with each frantic beat. Katie and NoLegs went over to the moving dummy to further inspect it, the latter using his magic to hold it down to ascertain if it was even alive to begin with.

NoLegs stabbed it in the neck, hoping to get the disconcerting movement to stop, yet it failed to even phase the dummy. It did not bleed, but on closer inspection, a lot of the blemishes marking this one were crafted into lines and curves—most likely of the runic sort he and the others had been seeing all over the place as of late. He scanned the rest of the dummies, but they had no such markings. Katie sank her claws into the thing's barrel, and froze it somewhat, yet even then the dummy continued to move.

Lance trotted towards the two and the still-wiggling construct, frowning at the fact that the damn thing would not keep still. He himself reared up and wrapped his forelegs around its head, being mindful of its wings, and that did nothing to cease its incessant thrashing. The runes pulsed at his touch, glowing fitfully as if warning him to let go. He did not release the dummy until vines erupted from its legs to manually take his hooves and force them to part, along with Katie's claws and NoLegs' sword.

"It pains me to say this… but collect its bones and horn. We'll have to analyze them later; seeing as this dummy is our odd one out, I am inclined to think there might be a very good reason for it being that way," he ordered, an air of reluctance in his voice as he dropped to all fours. NoLegs nodded and magically wrenched off the flailing bones and horn, neither of which so much as crumbled into dust even as they left holes in the dummy. The dummy thrashed some more, raising its head skyward to let off a silent scream, before finally falling still with a slump. Its runes glowed for just one moment, in a green that shifted to red, before its magic simply gave out and ceased to emit light.

NoLegs made the bones vanish in flashes of light, and turned to the open space the dummies had been placed around. A great big smudge mark was scrawled into that formation, but a lot of it had been trampled over and scuffed up in markings that were suspiciously dust-free. What wasn't scuffed and smudged was covered in dust, but even so, he could make out worn-away runes placed in three circles, two facing the furthest wall and one pointing at the door. In the middle of it, amidst all the scuffing, was a strangely neat set of runes that were carved into the floor. He read it carefully as Twilight and Fluttershy found the gumption to join them in the room.

"What's it say?" Katie asked.

NoLegs scowled. "The harpy-children still live," he muttered telepathically. "Just that."

"Harpy-children… is that a slur around here?" Twilight asked, frowning at the collection of dummies.

Lance gravely nodded. "Yes, reserved for foals with a winged parent in communities lacking wings. And this looks a little more like an archaic magic ritual…" He scanned the scuff marks and smudge carefully. "Looks like we can add 'wanton sabotage' to the growing list of things that I am strongly considering burning this place for." He turned to the door, but not before scanning the walls for anything else that showed signs of foul play. The walls were barren, however, peeling away with age and the aid of that foul substance that started leaking from the ceiling.

Twilight nodded, frown deepening. "So… we hit the other door…" she muttered.

Lance nodded and started trotting that way, Katie and NoLegs falling into step behind him. "Sounds about right," he confirmed. Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged glances, but followed after them, stomachs turning and churning with a strong desire to be emptied.

Behind them, the scuffed-up runes glowed with a fading power. The house trembled again as they marched to the other door.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Major Rhinoc watched Greenwood from the deck of the mastership, eyes darting to the strange wysteria abode every twenty minutes. Latched onto his coat was a radio, and his wings buzzed as the cloudy sky continued to darken to a uniform shade of charcoal. An ominous fog that he could've sworn was made of darkness started to encroach slowly on Ashwood as night graced the land. He noticed something off right away—Greenwood's barrier hadn't yet reformed. Worse, Lance and his little search party had yet to get out.

His gut twisted uncomfortably, and his wings started to rattle with an urge to leave. He looked to the house trapped in its own little island, frowning as the lit torches glowed brightly for a moment, then snuffed out one by one until the wysteria-house they surrounded was shrouded in sable. The sky rumbled with thunder, but didn't crackle with lightning; it seemed the ectoplasms were spent. His horn alighted, and his magic started to fiddle with the radio a bit. "Lance, sir, can you hear me?" he asked.

Several seconds passed before he'd received an answer. "What is it?" Lance asked.

Rhinoc swallowed nervously. "Greenwood's barrier hasn't come up yet, and the torches outside your location have gone out," he reported.

Lance was oddly silent for another few seconds. A creaking groan came in through the radio, splintering and crackling and dripping. What the hell was going on through Lance's end to produce such noises? "The barrier protecting the villagers… is still down?" he asked slowly, as if struggling to comprehend what he'd just heard.

"Not one thaumic spark came from the village," Rhinoc replied glumly.

Lance went quiet again, and Rhinoc waited for him to speak, getting the sinking suspicion that he had started to take in the implications of what had been relayed to him. "Any movement from the cursed trees?" he asked after a full minute of silence passed, when the dripping and splintering ceased on his end. Rhinoc turned to Ashwood and fitfully scanned what little remained of the forest, yet thanks to the darkening surroundings, he caught not one shudder of movement.

After five minutes of fruitless scanning, he reported, "Nothing, sir. It's… too quiet."

"Wouldn't put it past the trees to regenerate at the speed this shit's going," Katie chimed in from Lance's end, voice distorting with irritation. "Because what's going on over in this hellhole of a house is—" Static erupted from the radio, followed by a deep and unearthly groan of some sort, garbling the rest of what she'd said.

"What? What's going on?!" Rhinoc barked as the static and groaning died down. He tensed for a moment, then wilted a little when he heard Katie coughing.

"It's a den of pure fuckery, that's what," Katie snarked, followed by the sound of metal hitting and scraping against wood. "I think this house… needs to be burnt."

"How it evaded the lightning and Ragnarok, we'll never know," Lance interjected; Rhinoc could almost hear him nodding. "When we're done here… we'll give it the send-off it deserves."

Rhinoc forced his wings to cease movement. His stomach churned again; something about Lance's statements and tone pressed something in his changeling instinct, and a chill seeped through his chitin at the implications. "Open fire on it?" he asked.

"Yes, but only when we get out and clear of the immediate area," Lance replied with a snort. "Send somepony down to Greenwood in the meantime. If the barrier's down…"

"Will do, sir," Rhinoc replied before Lance could finish. He turned to the hatch and flung it open with his magic, then beat his wings as he sprinted to it with haste. He needed to get somepony down there… the question was, who? Everypony on board was caught up with something, surely, and not everypony could fly or self-levitate. He jumped in and started to climb down the ladder, closing the hatch on his way down. His ears twitched to the clang of steel against holey hooves, and his wings rattled in tandem with the monotonous beat.

Once he got to the engine room, he turned and launched to the lift as fast as his wings could carry him. The crackling came in through the radio again, followed by several hard and solid thunks as an odd creaking noise faded in and out with a squeaky hum. He forced himself to ignore those noises, and pressed the button to go up as soon as he boarded the lift. The lift shuddered, and started to ascend as the radio fell quiet again. "No… no no… oh fuck me…" Katie muttered from Lance's end.

Rhinoc picked up on the distress in her tone. "What is it?" he asked.

"What's wrong?" Lance muttered.

"I… I sense it…" Katie muttered, followed by the sound of crackling magic. Everyone on Lance's end stomped in unison, then gasped and muttered, voices tumbling hopelessly over one another as the crackling noise continued to grow. It took but seconds for somepony to raise his voice to hush the cacophony.

"Whoa! Can you control that spazzing stump of yours?!" Lance barked, the barest tinge of worry present in his otherwise-no-nonsense tone.

"I-I can't… not when th-the Void draws near…" Katie replied, her voice giving way to a scraping of something against wood.

"The Void? What are you talking about?" Twilight asked. "Is this something as improbable as, I don't know, King Sombra coming back?"

The lift stopped at the lounge, and Rhinoc darted from it in a swift jog, scanning it fitfully for anyone who might've been present. "Worse," Katie replied, the scraping growing in a fitful frequency that had Rhinoc's membranes quivering. He wheeled down a hall and sprinted for the second lift that would lead him to the guest rooms, buzzing his wings even as he hopped in and pressed the button to go up.

His brain caught up to Katie's muttering about 'the Void drawing near,' and instantly he found himself doing a mental double-take. "Th-the Void? S-sir, did I hear that right?" Rhinoc uttered in a particularly strangled voice as the lift shook and closed the doors before taking him up. Lance sighed from his end, the noise laced with a quiet growl of discontent.

"That, you did," Lance grumbled. NoLegs meowed, loudly. "And now Katie's magic has gone on the fritz. Nothing but illumination so far, but I'm not taking chances. Alright ladies, let's pick up our pace and finish cleaning this shithole out!"

"S-sir, wh-when can we augment h-her horn?" Rhinoc asked as the lift shook, stopped, and opened up to let him trot into the hallway leading to the guest bedrooms.

"... we'll have to be at the base for that, and I don't think augments would help at all," Lance replied dismally, snorting. "If need be… initiate the Void Protocol."

Rhinoc blanched at that. "I'll… send Lieutenant-General Starcovert down," he muttered, and with that started galloping to the master bedrooms with his eyes growing to the size of saucers. He banged his hooves against the door the second he got within reach of it, but only five times—then he backed off as the knob glowed in a blue aura and twisted. The door swung open to reveal Natalie in the room, still sporting her outfit sans the baubles that held her mane up.

"Need something?" Natalie asked, eyes narrowed a little. "You're looking a little… rattled."

"W-we may have to initiate th-the Void P-Protocol, ma'am," Rhinoc squeezed out, throat drying out as he spoke. Natalie's expression darkened considerably, and for the barest of instants, her eyes gleamed with a crimson glow.

"Just great, the Void Protocol might be used when one of our own is at risk for turning into a tree," Natalie grumbled with no small amount of exasperation. Her eyes flickered again, and that time, her crystal sheen dimmed.

"N-no kidding," Rhinoc agreed with a shaky nod.

Natalie's horn glowed, and she trotted out of the master bedroom, shutting the door behind her with her magic. "Teleport me to the deck, now," she ordered, horn dimming. Rhinoc nodded and alighted his horn before vanishing with her in a flash of light, and reappearing upon the deck with her in tow. Natalie trotted to the railing and peered over it, eyelids twitching as she saw nothing but absolute darkness permeate where Ashwood and Greenwood should have been, littered with pulses of distinctly purplish-black power. She turned to Rhinoc, expression darkening further. "What, or whom, caused the damn Void to come here?"

Rhinoc shook, trying his best to keep his legs from buckling. "I-I don't know, m-ma'am. O-our nooblet… sh-she sensed it, a-and alerted me th-through radio," he answered. Natalie's expression softened, but her head tilted quizzically.

"Wait, wait, hold up… our wraith picked up on this?" Natalie asked, being careful to keep her tone neutral.

Rhinoc nodded. "Yeah. Th-that's probably b-because she's on g-ground level right n-now," he stammered. He turned to the radio and tapped it with a shaky hoof. "G-General, c-can you hear m-me?" he asked—only to pale as he got the sound of static coming in through what should have been Lance's end on the communications line.

Natalie frowned, her ears twitching as she, too, heard the static. "Wait for a few minutes. He might be experiencing interference," she muttered in a soft, consoling voice, trotting up to Rhinoc to lift a booted hoof onto his withers.

Just as she touched him, though, the radio's static suddenly cut out. A deep, gravelly voice came from it with enough volume to shake the thing against Rhinoc's uniform as it spoke, "A warning lantern, flame flickering to light the way; a raging pyre to reduce all to cinders, against all dreary and droll. A flash of gold and silver, despite what warning elders say; a flash of light and dark, to collect the sinners, for the bell to disaster tolls."

Natalie almost jumped upon hearing that voice. Her eyes widened as she heard the sound of splintering wood, followed by a pained, echoing screech come from the radio a second later. "What the…?!"

"The house is teeming with half-tree lunatics!" Lance barked from his end. "I have no clue what they're harping on about!"

Natalie's brow furrowed, and she lit her horn before conjuring a radio in a flash of light and affixing it to the collar of her uniform. After tweaking it a bit to make sure it was working, she sighed and lowered her raised hoof. "Major Rhinoc… keep everyone else on this vessel inside, until either I or Lance say otherwise. Understood?" she asked.

Rhinoc nodded and gave a shaky salute. "Yes m-ma'am," he answered. His horn glowed, and with that, he vanished in another flash of light. Natalie wordlessly turned to the railing and trotted back to it, horn crackling with magic once again. Though now, it was tinted blood-crimson, and her eyes shifted to match the color with little more than one blink.

"This is a really bad time for the friggin' Protocol to be initiated…" Natalie muttered, coat paling as her own magic washed over her body. Her mane began to writhe as though whipped up by wind, though unlike Matt's mane, it started to give off a crackling light. "But if the Void thinks that Ragnarok and a wildfire weren't enough for this place…" She shivered at those implications, and idly considered that the universe was having a seriously bad mood, before backpedalling one final time to then gallop forward and jump clear over the railing. Her magic gripped her as she started to plummet, yet didn't stop her fall or even slow it down.

The Void pulsed at her approach, before some of its corporeal darkness parted to reveal a clearing littered with burnt trees. Natalie zeroed in on it, noting that it seemed the Void was almost… inviting her right in. The air battered her ears, tossed her mane and dress to and fro, yet could not deter her from her destination. The darkness of the Void dared not swallow her up until she set hoof on the torched soil, only stopping herself from turning into a grotesque splatter with the aid of a well-timed exertion of self-levitation just seconds prior.

This darkness… held with it a disturbing air of familiarity. The trees, warped and twisted thanks to her adoptive brother and the ectoplasms, only heightened her sense of growing alarm. She shivered at this familiarity, before steeling her own nerves with a few deep breaths—familiarity be damned, she wasn't going to lose her wits now. Not when the Void itself decided to pay Greenwood a visit; too much was at stake, and time was of the essence.

Natalie then recanted to herself, under her own breath, what the supposed lunatic on Lance's end of the communications link had said, "A warning lantern, flame flickering to light the way; a raging pyre to reduce all to cinders, against all dreary and droll. A flash of gold and silver, despite what warning elders say; a flash of light and dark, to collect the sinners, for the bell to disaster tolls."

At once, her horn cast a blood-red light upon the area from its very tip, and a myriad of broken, wooden faces stared her down. Many couldn't move, due to being uprooted and damaged beyond all possible regenerative repair. The few that could dared not shift in the slightest, not even so much as an inch—making the very generous assumption, of course, that any trees could even move now after the pandemonic destruction of the last few days.

She heard thunder crackle, and saw lightning arcing overhead. Natalie simply conjured her crystal-tipped staff in response, sclera and magic aura turning pitch-black as she poured wisps of what seemed to be living shadow upon it, embers of purple magic pooling from the sides of her eyes with a crackling power. Her crystal sheen flickered, then faded entirely as a few black gems started to grow out of her exposed backside and along the length of her glowing horn. Each sprouting fragment tore through skin and muscle, leaving blood to well up and dribble down her face and sides, before her magic grasped the droplets to pull them off of herself.

Then, the droplets were cast aside to hit the ground without smearing themselves upon her dress, and a quick healing spell closed off the wounds just enough that the crystals acted as makeshift clots. Within seconds after these loose drops impacted the ashen soil, the blue gem turned as black as the Void itself, and started growing outward at an exponential rate. It arced in front of her barrel and stopped at a tapered point, a jagged half-crescent that grew spikes from its spine. Natalie reared up onto her hinds and clasped the staff with a fetlock once the gem ceased growing, and at once the half-crescent's inside thinned out to a wickedly sharp-looking razor's edge.

She scraped the curved tip against the soil, smiling as it drew a thin, inch-deep line with ease. Staff-turned-scythe in hoof, she began making a slow and calculated walk towards a vague approximation of Greenwood's direction, the crystals on her back continuing to expand around to form two holes at her sides, almost perfectly parallel with her own dress. Stranger still, a few crystals decided to reach out, first to her head and then to the trees behind her, all in crooked arcs that jutted from behind. "I am really glad Mom taught me this little trick," Natalie muttered in gratitude, her voice echoing with a wraith-like quality as she spoke. "Who says a crystal pony can't use a bit of shadow magic every once in a while?"

The Void pulsed once again as she stalked through the trees, yet it did nothing to stop her advance upon Greenwood. The trees stayed right where they were, not even daring to lift so much as a branch in her direction. They didn't even sway with her slow passing, nor as flecks of gold and blue magic broke apart along her entire back and faded away with each and every hoofstep. They didn't even move as, in her wake, she left behind a set of hoofprints that sent dust everywhere each time she took a step onward. For once, Ashwood felt truly dead—just like its namesake.

Just like the state of the decrepit trees within its premises. Though the same wasn't true for the glowing blue light that started to descend from the mastership, nor of the sound of flapping wings accompanying it. Natalie didn't pay heed to either the new sound or blazing azure light, for her focus was on much bigger things at the moment.

The Void couldn't wait, couldn't be reasoned with, couldn't be swayed with brute force alone. It was something far bigger… and whatever drew it here, she reasoned, would very likely end up in a decrepit state before long. But how much damage could whatever wound up being the source of the Void's interest do to the innocent villagers caught up in this mess in the meantime? She hoped, idly, that it wouldn't already be far too late for them, though she had a sinking suspicion that twisted her stomach that such was already the case.

Either way, she was going to find out. Some part of her was frantically, half-madly wishing she hadn't before she even got within ten paces of the village, but she forced herself to ignore that inner skeptic all the same. And all the while, she was leaving behind more than a set of hoofprints—but she cared not for her little breadcrumb trail in the slightest.

Chapter CII—Supercell Stipulations

Spitfire had her Wonderbolts gathered into a guest room, along with Rainbow Dash. She was receiving some very questioning gazes from her subordinates. "A supercell… ma'am, with all due respect, what the buck are you thinking?" Rainbow asked, exasperated at the mere notion.

Spitfire saw that question coming from a mile away, especially from a cadet such as Rainbow. "Let's look at the situation logically," she began, fanning her wings out to halt any further questions regarding her sanity before they could leave anypony else's mouths. "We're up against a bunch of geased ponies, lead by wannabe tin-pot tyrants who are too lazy to get off their plots and do the damn job themselves, effectively passing the buck onto the children who did not ask for this. We're on a planet without a weather patrol—which is going to blindside the military here in the future, unless we get a weather patrol going somehow."

Thunderlane's eyes grew in size as Spitfire continued, "As soon as we can start up a weather patrol here, and train the General's soldiers efficiently enough that they'll be alright to make a patrol of their own, they can learn to watch for hostile weather and act accordingly. While a supercell is questionable, I will admit… thanks to weather patrols on Equestria, they're extremely rare. Basically, we're not only blindsiding an enemy that cannot prepare for such an event, we're helping potential allies prepare for it in turn."

"However, we won't be abusing supercells while we are here—whatever forces on Fantasia that lurk in the dark will take notice, so this is our only chance to make it count," Spitfire finished, closing her wings. "Furthermore, we're taking whatever advantage Redpine had over the Aerie by doing this—as impractical as this is. In fact, that's the beauty of it: the tin-pot lazyplots won't be able to plan for it, in either the short-term or the long-term. Before, we were looking at a battle with a high amount of casualties for a potential ally—this little ploy is gonna flip all of that on its head."

"And you're weirdly confident that the soldiers will complete the weather training regiment before we make our move, ma'am," Soarin noted, regarding Spitfire like one would regard a stopped clock that had inexplicably begun ticking again. "Are you sure Discord's modifications to Redpine's central piece of magitek will hold for long enough for our assault to even be possible, in this specific fashion?"

"Not only do I believe that Discord's modifications will hold, but I believe that thanks to him, the machine will break sooner than normal," Spitfire smoothly answered. "I noticed something about their magitek that probably slipped past everypony else's attention, due to the horrors it once contained before Discord put a stop to that. A fatal flaw… or a whole series of them, in a volcano, if I ever saw such a trainwreck."

"That being…?" Thunderlane prompted, lifting a hoof and spinning it.

"It already looked frail, weak, melting in places," Spitfire elaborated. "Not enough to be an immediate concern for Redpine, but sooner or later… the floors of their little base will collapse onto themselves. In fact, Discord might have accelerated it—thereby, depriving them of their sole defense, outside of their weaponry and numbers. Not only that, but they've been deprived of valuable breeding stock—and with their attention focused on hopeless repairs, they can't replenish their numbers. Once the dominos begin falling over there, it's practically game over for them."

"Which will probably cause the volcano they're hiding in to erupt, and with prejudice. While we might get a massive fire devil, if we aim our supercell at that specific point, and we get an eruption in doing so, we'll probably wind up suffering for that folly ourselves. Which makes it critical that we don't really aim at the volcano itself, but rather… the area at its foot." Spitfire wore a rare, yet vicious smile with a hardened edge to it. "And if the volcano erupts before we can attack, and we time it once the magma has finished boiling over, then we can simply mop up the flock before they can regroup and seek shelter elsewhere. With the soldiers making up the bulk of the supercell, and being gryphons, they can just pick the geased ponies of Redpine off as they're swept up off their wings."

"Assuming they can actually fix their magitek, which… is going to be next to impossible, because I saw that nopony there has their cutie marks except for the bozos leading the place—and they had sharp pointy weapons adorning their flanks—they will then focus all of their attention onto the military here, and probably lob another suicide charge in this direction. And any repairs they can make are going to be substandard at best—band-aid solutions for bleeding stumps. And if it does hold off the eruption of the volcano, then the military here can just hyperfocus their ION Cannon, whatever that is, onto Redpine's little base of operations to force the eruption anyway."

"On top of that little issue, I noticed another glaring problem: they're growing their food in a Faust-damned volcano. How the sulfur and carbon dioxide haven't strangled their crops yet, I can only guess—but whatever is doing so might be part of Redpine's central magitek. Take that away, and the gasses and heat are gonna strangle their one source of food, making them starve even if their little house of cards doesn't collapse the rest of the way. And if they resort to grazing, well… the volcano's gonna starve them either way in the end." Spitfire shook her head. "Seriously… a volcano. Whose bright idea was it to grow plants in there?"

Spitfire sighed and continued, "And not to mention, all the medical problems that are going to hit them, as soon as their magitek ceases working, and assuming they keep hunkering down in their hidey-hole afterwards. First will come the brain damage—and then, the potential collapsing of their lungs. And if they manage to survive that, osteoporosis—making an already-unskilled force so fragile that one touch from a child, a mere child, could break whole limbs with enough pressure."

"And assuming they've kept a genetic bottleneck, that's another thing we should address—the enemy force itself. I've noticed that many of them… share eerily similar characteristics, which seems superficial to the untrained eye." Spitfire lifted a hoof to wave it about at some point past the furthest wall. "But I'm speaking about facial features, eye shapes, things like that—things that make ponies identifiable. In fact, I would very charitably call the entire force inbred, on a mere hunch, because a lot of those features they seem to share with their male leader… perhaps they share too many features."

"And assuming they've not replenished their former breeding stock with new blood, or did so infrequently enough to not matter in the grand scheme of things, that's going to make problems apparent—all we gotta do to solve that mystery is take a few feathers and tissue samples from our sole survivor, run them through the magitek here, and let it spit out definitive results before taking whatever's left of the rest of the attacking force to do likewise." Spitfire shook her head, and lowered her hoof to regard her Wonderbolts sullenly. "Which, again, is not going to work in their favor."

"Lastly, they only bothered to stock up on weapons… metal weapons which, while potentially enchanted, are going to get red-hot once the central hunk of equipment kicks the bucket. That, by itself, is going to crack the hooves of whoever picks them up. In addition, they didn't have anything for a prolonged conflict otherwise—thereby making their base of operations their very own catacombs in the end." Spitfire closed her eyes briefly, and sighed sadly. "They seem intimidating on the surface… but really, they're nothing but automatons forced into whatever pre-assigned roles their great and glorious leaders made for them. In the end… they have nothing, will be left with nothing, and won't even have a legacy to commemorate. I can already see it now: their fall will go down in Fantasian history, and if not by the Aerie's hoof, then through the hoof of their own folly."

The eyes of the gathered Wonderbolts collectively widened, and they traded glances as the full brunt of their leader's words gobsmacked them upside their heads. "... so what you're saying is, they're bucked no matter what they do?" Thunderlane asked, comprehension dawning.

Their leader nodded resolutely. "Which, in turn, makes it vital that we pay attention to Redpine every day, with that fancy-schmancy map the military here has gotten a hold of," Spitfire finished, her smile widening. "Therefore, we will take three hours of each day, at morning, noon, and night, while rotating on map duty—while the rest of us train the soldiers, to get them up to speed. That way, in case Redpine collapses before we can even get there, we'll be able to improvise."

"However, the cutie marked leaders of Redpine, we shouldn't underestimate; they're capable of geases and fighting, and once the chips are down, they're going to throw absolutely everything they can at the military, and by extension, us. I don't know how long they spent in that volcano, and how stupid inhaling its gasses made them, let alone how rusty or sharpened their fighting talents are or if they've already got medical maladies…" Spitfire inhaled through her nose and regarded her band of troops evenly. "But they're cutie marked alicorns, probably older than the rest of us and the majority of the Aerie combined. And regardless of whether or not they've been slacking, they're still immensely powerful, and every precaution should be taken in addressing that, when that confrontation comes."

"Assuming the volcano's gasses didn't strangle their brain cells…" Thunderlane said, shaking his head. Soarin nodded in agreement with the statement. "In fact, that's probably what lead to their questionable decisions to begin with—with how long they might have spent in that volcano, they only have one brain cell between them all, and it's competing for third place."

Another Wonderbolt, this one a very light gray with a dark blue-striped mane, shook her head. "If this is what the Fantasian alicorns have come to, then it's no wonder nopony wants anything to do with them," she said, sighing heavily. "And hearing about that tree-alicorn was bad enough…"

A fifth Wonderbolt, arctic blue with a snow white mane, sighed. "I agree, High Winds. I get the feeling… this weird feeling… that the alicorns of Fantasia let themselves get this bad. I don't imagine how they did so, but… it's not a pretty picture, come to think of it," she said. "The more I hear about them, the more I'm starting to ask if they're just letting their own heads rattle to hear the sound."

High Winds nodded. "I'm getting that same feeling too, Fleetfoot."

The last Wonderbolt, a pale yellowish mare with a light arctic and striped mane, shook her head and ruffled her wings. "I swear, every detail we hear about this place keeps getting worse and worse," she said tartly, frowning at it all. "As if that school report that Celestia sent us—a bucking school report, of all things!—didn't paint that picture clearly enough." She tossed her forehooves and her wings into the air at that one. "How those foals got a report done on this specific place still boggles my mind."

Spitfire sighed. "Trust me, Misty Fly, reading that report was a trip and a half…" she muttered. "Especially all the notes that were taken." She ruffled her wings. "And even if the Fantasian alicorns had let themselves fall from grace as it were, the ones we're about to tackle are still dangerous. In fact, they're probably more dangerous, because of their bungling stupidity."

"... so, they're likely to take the shortcuts to victory?" Soarin guessed.

"And given that the leaders are geasing ponies, they're the most likely to do so—in turn, overplaying their hooves," Spitfire concluded with a nod. "Now then… all we have to do is run our plan by the General, and we should be good to go. Given that we had to borrow one of his Lieutenants for the task last night, she's probably running it by him now as we speak. If we get the okay, we'll start as soon as possible," she finished, smiling faintly.

"As for Redpine's kids… what're we gonna do?" Thunderlane asked, still frowning. "The fillies are flightless and hornless, and the colts are just as scared out of their minds… surely, they can't stay like that forever…"

Spitfire grinned. "I actually addressed that with Princess Luna last night, in the dreamscape," she answered enigmatically. "She might be working on that for us…" Someone knocked on the door, and the Wonderbolts turned to it. Spitfire said, "It's open!" The door popped open, and Anna and Lance trotted in, with Maria walking between them. "So, didja go over the plan?"

Anna nodded. "And visited the newest patients. The doctors are still getting the full list of nasties they can diagnose," she answered with a sigh. She indicated Maria with a claw. "Also introduced Maria here to her new auntie."

"... new auntie? Doesn't Sarah have that role?" Rainbow asked, raising a brow.

"Well, yeah, but…" Anna bristled a little bit. She glowered an eentsy bit at Rainbow Dash. "Lance's dad couldn't keep it to himself. There's a whole lot of bastards in his family tree, and I'm not talking about the kind you punch in the face."

"... the illegitimate kind?" Soarin asked. Anna nodded.

"Two thousand nieces, nephews, cousins, and half-siblings, to be exact," Lance said, shaking his head. "And then a full-blooded sister, who is an alicorn… that hasn't had her horn and wings severed." Rainbow's jaw dropped, and she stared at Lance with wide eyes. In fact, the rest of the Wonderbolts mimicked the expression, except for Spitfire, who spread a wing and hit her face with it in lieu of a hoof.

Thunderlane was the first to reel in his bottom teeth. "Sounds like Luna's gonna be a very busy princess come nighttime," he muttered, garnering nods of agreement from the rest of the Wonderbolts. Then he remembered something Rapier had said the previous night, and he turned to Lance to ask, "Wait… that filly said that her big brother had his horn…"

Lance sighed and nodded. "Yes, and if you're wondering, I was acting under a geas—in other words, like a complete fucking putz," he answered bluntly.

Maria turned to Lance. "What's a geas?"

"Illegal magic," Lance answered, turning to his adoptive daughter and patting her on the head with a hoof. He turned to Spitfire. "I'll admit, your plan… might have made me raise my brow when I read it." He sighed. "But then, I considered my birthplace, and how shitty it is… arguably, it's better than anything I could have come up with."

"Lemme guess: the sulfur damaged your brain," Spitfire said, holding out the wing she had hit her own face with.

Lance shook his head. "Amazingly enough, it didn't. Once we got the magitek here up and running, and I got my shit checked, the doctors found no conclusive evidence of brain damage. However, that might have been due to the Illicit Instrumentation and its likely gas-venting," he said, smiling. "Can't say the same for my so-called parents, sadly."

Spitfire grinned. "And… when did they come upon the Illicit Instrumentation, exactly?" she asked.

Lance sighed. "The closest I got to an answer was that they found it a thousand years ago; the base had already been pre-built then, and they just repurposed it," he answered with a shrug.

Spitfire curled her wing to her chin. "A thousand years ago… and were cutie marks present during that time?" she asked.

Lance rolled his eyes. "Pfha, I don't think they were allowed back then, either," he answered. "However, my so-called parents were probably lying off their asses about all sorts of details." He shook his head. "In fact, I'm having one soldier fetch the wraithling now… because she's hiding something."

"And how old is she?" Spitfire asked.

"A thousand and nine years old, based on our magitek estimates," Lance answered. Spitfire whistled. "I take it you heard about the tree-alicorn?" Upon receiving nods from the Wonderbolts, he elaborated, "Well, when I went to confront his happy little ass over matters regarding the state of Greenwood, I brought the wraithling with me. They spoke… like they knew each other." Lance's face hardened. "And she wasted no time giving him the death blow once the opportunity arose, using her broken horn to drain him dry. Something's up, and I want answers."

"Now that I think about it… why would her supposed informant direct her up north, to the frozen wastes?" Anna wondered, frowning as she mulled it over. "It… almost sounds like a cover story."

"Wouldn't be surprised if she had ulterior motives at this rate; I'm amazed she hasn't made any attempts on our lives yet," Lance agreed with a nod. He turned to the open door, as if waiting for something to happen. Not even a second later, a purple flash of light shone before him, revealing Rhinoc and Katie.

Rhinoc looked sheepish, and perhaps a little green in his gills. Katie was groaning, and clutching her stomach with a hoof. "Sorry I took so long, sir… her body threatened a revolt on the latrine…" he muttered apologetically. "I had to take her to the sink and clean everything up…"

Lance nodded. "With her, it's understandable if you're late sometimes," he said. "Just don't send me any radio feed in advance, in case it's this sort of situation." He then turned to Katie. "Did you neglect to use the bathroom for the past week or something?" At her weak nod, he sighed. "Next time, don't let it compact, please… we don't need to be adding more problems onto your autopsy report." The Wonderbolts winced collectively, and might have also gagged a little at the unfortunate mental image they received.

Lance turned back to Rhinoc. "Did you give her some ice afterwards?" At his nod, Lance allowed himself to relax a little. "Okay… that's good. At least she won't be sitting funny tomorrow." He turned to Anna. "Take us all to the office, please. Except for Rhinoc; he might need to hit the sack early." She nodded, lit her horn, grasped everyone but Rhinoc in her magic, and performed another teleport that whisked them away to the office.

Lance waited until everyone was settled as soon as they reappeared in the office, before moving to sit behind the desk, whereupon he began rummaging around the drawers to see where the map of Fantasia had gone to this time. Once he located the thing, he plopped it on the desk and unfurled it, activating the crystals that would show off Redpine. He noticed its lack of captives, and Discord's modifications, but opted to not comment on that. He motioned for Katie to get onto the desk with a hoof, if only to squint at the projection.

She didn't spread her wings right away, but did so eventually and flew onto the desk in a somewhat wobbly fashion. "Ow, ow, ow, ow…" she groaned during the brief trip, and would have plopped her butt down if Lance didn't stretch out a wing beneath her gut to steady her.

"And that, children, is why you don't eat entire wasps in multiple sittings," Lance said sagely.

"... have you started moderating her portions?" Spitfire asked.

Lance nodded. "We rotate on that front, but yes. Seeing as we have food thrice daily, we make sure she eats enough, but not too much. We had to start doing this six days ago," he answered. He turned to Katie, then used a hoof to gesture to Redpine's supposedly grand and glorious leaders, having themselves another spat as they gesticulated wildly to the cement-packed cells. "Do you, or do you not, know these particular assholes?" he asked.

Katie got up to the projection to squint at it, Lance's wing keeping her steady the whole way. Then she turned to him, the gears turning in her head and her orbs sparkling with comprehension. "... so, you've finally figured me out… I was wondering when you'd start questioning me," she said, turning her gaze back onto Redpine's leaders to narrow her eyes at them. "Alright, I'll come clean: the ancient alicorns of Fantasia… they fucking stabbed me in the back. There's two of them right there, and Pestilence was also among them, even if I could barely recognize him through the sound of his voice."

"... how did they stab you in the back?" Anna asked, raising her brow.

"Oh, that's a ride and a half: I found them, as well as an Umbrum, having themselves a nice, lovely chat regarding a rampat god of death running around, tearing shit up at the time. I overheard them talking about needing a distraction, in which they did not get very far with planning out. So they see me, and I see them, and my naive ass decided to tell them I wanted to help out."

"So we exchange some banter, base introductions, all that shit, and we get to the part of 'what happened' and 'what now?'" Katie's orb rolling was almost audible from her skull, and her orbs threatened to leave orbit when she did it. "So, without understanding the full ramifications back then, these two wisecrackers here decided to tell me they wanted me to get something from this death god—a fabled spell known as Cocytus." The Wonderbolts gasped upon hearing the name.

"Welp, they give me directions to the death god's lair, and after an eternity of actually trying to find it… I found that it was surprisingly standard at the time. No hidden passageways, no elaborate castles, nothing… but I still snoop around a bit, but the death god catches me. I stab him and drain him of his love, hatred, despair, yadda yadda in a complete panic, and peel away from the scene to discover my ice abilities." Katie's scowl at this could have melted the frozen wastes of Fantasia's north.

"I made it to a wasteland, where the ancient alicorns told me to meet them up at, and I went high and low across it to find not a single damn trace of them around. And then, I get my skeletal ass sealed in the death god, who got chained up in spiked, rune-engraved shackles, and I lose my damn mind for an uncertain period of time until I found myself able to move again. And when I was able to move again, I found myself in a fucking volcanic cave lined with torches on either side." Katie turned to Lance once she had finished her tale, and noticed he had paled. "... what the hell got your goat all of a sudden?" she asked.

Lance swallowed nervously before deciding to ask, "That… death god you described… did he have horns curving upwards at a sharp angle? Bat-like wings on a mangled body with a tumor-laden large mouth in his stomach? An emaciated upper frame with a barely equine head, as bad off as yours?" At Katie's firm nod, his ears pinned back against his head. "Well… Matt, Natalie and I kinda woke him up, and then went back to actually kill him… we heard something about him feasting on souls or some shit, but…"

Katie's orbs widened at what she heard. "Wait—you three are the reason I got out?" she asked quietly. At Lance's nod, she allowed herself to relax a little. "Holy shit… maybe I really was right to head to the frozen wastes after all…"

"And speaking of, why were you going there to begin with?" Anna asked, frowning as the question left her mouth.

"Well… this is gonna sound weird…" Katie looked at the desk for a moment, and sighed. Anna summoned a cushion from the ether and plonked it behind her, allowing her to sit without sullying the map. Lance retracted his wing once her bony bottom hit the improvised seat, and watched her for a moment. "Basically… I had this weird dream a few weeks before I actually made it up that far north, and in that dream, I stood in the Void."

"In the Void, there was a cloaked figure, with glowing eyes. And it said, 'You are not the only one seeking to deliver retribution upon the ancient alicorns, the ones with whom fate dances with the ill-born. You seek to repay those who let Fantasia's deplorable state have its start; head north, and find those with similar dark desires brewing in your heart.' And then, my late King showed up as a shadow to argue with the figure. A big fight broke out between them, and then I woke up."

"... weirdly specific," Lance remarked.

Katie nodded in agreement. "And trust me, I thought it would be a one-time thing. And no, I didn't have any weird mushrooms to eat, so I ruled that out," she said with a shrug. "But then, next night, as soon as I zonked out—the same damn dream occurred. Only when I was going where the figure wanted me to go did I not have any dreams afterwards, and up until I ran into you whackos, they persisted otherwise. And after enough nights of seeing my late King lose his absolute shit, I heeded the dreams to get them to stop."

"... the night we found you, were you dreaming?" Lance asked, his ears twitching briefly.

Katie nodded. "Yeah, but the cloaked figure didn't say its usual spiel. Instead, it said, 'Your fate, you have met. On those who wronged you, bring forth the sunset. But be wary; ancient shadows dance, and they seek to bring forth ill happenstance,'" she answered.

"... seems like Lady Fate herself is getting antsy, if she's having to resort to bugging the fire out of you to get going," Spitfire remarked, shaking her head. The Fantasians promptly turned to her, wordlessly asking with their gazes, 'Who is this Lady Fate?' "Well… legend has it that Lady Fate was the first alicorn Faust ever created on the sister worlds, who in turn would create cutie marks for the earliest ponies on both worlds. It is unclear what happened to Lady Fate, but… what few details there are suggests that she didn't meet a happy end," she elaborated.

Soarin rubbed the back of his head with a hoof. "One legend I heard told of her being shattered, her essence splitting apart to become a piece of every creature able to get a cutie mark, and persisting in every creature able to obtain a cutie mark thereafter. Legend also has it that when Lady Fate's shards are denied, for an extended period of time, they will conspire to bring forth that recognition to which Lady Fate desires even in her fragmented state," he said with a frown. "And if you deny cutie marks, you deny Lady Fate, and… she gets antsy."

"And legend has it that, if you deny Lady Fate for too long, well…" Thunderlane shuddered. "Let's just say her fragments get… creative in the cutie mark department. Like… cutie marks relating to catastrophe or something." That made Lance even paler than before. "What?" Thunderlane asked, noticing his gallows expression.

"Y-you mean to say… that this alicorn, even shattered, can still control destiny itself?" Lance asked, his voice unusually tight and quiet. At Thunderlane's nod, Lance shuddered. "That means… Lady Fate might have broken the barrier between the worlds."

Thunderlane waved Lance off with a wing. "But she's shattered, and incapable of directing things other than cutie marks in that state, if the legends are true," he said, shaking his head. "There's no way she could've done it." That got nods of agreement from the rest of the Wonderbolts. "And besides, even Lady Fate can't fully direct potential cutie marks—some marks are said to completely throw her out of the loop, and enough to temporarily incapacitate her fragments. She just makes them possible in the first place otherwise." He regarded the General evenly. "And speaking of cutie marks, do you have one?"

Lance nodded, and allowed himself to calm down a bit. "Yeah, why?" he asked.

"And who else in all of the Aerie has their cutie marks?" Thunderlane continued.

Lance spread a wing out and began folding primaries as he rattled off names, "Let's see… there's Matt, Natalie, and Anna, then there's Anna's twin sister Sarah, and then Lazarus, who I recruited last week, then there's Matt's maternal family…" Lance trailed off, frowned, and then shook his head. "I'd have to double-check with Matt's dad, seeing as he's here now, but… other than that, I got nothing."

Thunderlane regarded Lance as if he were hanging in the free and easy. "And… does anypony else, of any other Fantasian province you visited, have cutie marks… besides Redpine?" he asked.

Lance shook his head. "Nope, aside from a few mercenaries I ran into whenever I had any adventures on hoof," he answered. "And those mercenaries didn't really have towns to call their own."

"... sounds like Lady Fate grew apoplectic with Fantasia," Spitfire mused, garnering a nod from Lance. "But we're getting side-tracked; do you approve of us training your soldiers for weather-based combat?"

Lance nodded again. "You guys are the weather experts; how could I say no to that?" he reported, starting to smile. "Besides, I know you're just looking out for us—better to have some help than none at all." He ruffled his feathers a bit. "And while you're at it… train me, Natalie, Sarah, and Anna, too. We'd like to know the ins and outs of weather manipulation."

Spitfire grinned, glad that she had been issued something of a challenge. "Excellent. We can begin tomorrow," she answered, garnering nods from her Wonderbolts.

"Why tomorrow?" Lance asked.

Spitfire grinned, and turned to Maria. "Well… I was thinking… your adoptive daughter here could also use that training," she answered, ruffling her wings a bit. "And maybe some flight lessons on top of that. I bet she'd love it."

Maria turned to Spitfire, eyes wide at the prospect. "You can teach me?!" she questioned, wings snapping open as the words left her mouth.

Spitfire nodded. "Yep; and besides, you're around cutie mark age anyway, so… win-win all around," she said, her grin turning cheeky. "And once the lessons conclude, you can help kick the bad ponies' faces in."

Maria began hopping up and down in place. Anna smiled and shook her head. "Welp, now you've gotten her wound up… it's gonna be impossible to make her go to bed now," she said dryly.

"Oh come on, don't kill her mood," Lance said somewhat admonishingly, albeit smiling himself. "We both know we'd be too busy to give her lessons ourselves. But training alongside her? That's a family bonding experience right there."

"Wiseass," Anna replied bluntly.

"Moody teenager," Lance shot back.

"Horny bastard of both variants," Anna retorted, grinning.

"Walking, talking sexual ailment," Lance replied, grinning in turn.

"Perpetual cockblock!" Anna stated, her smile widening.

"Shrieking siren!" Lance replied.

"Cockmongling shitsucker!" Anna fired back.

"Special secret box thief!" Lance retorted. He then turned to Maria and said, "And don't repeat any of that to anyone!"

"Why not?" Maria asked, tilting her head and slanting her brow.

"Because we're a bad influence on you when we get up to things like this," Lance replied. "And if you want us to stop, you can tell us to shut up," he added.

"But how can I tell you to shut up? You won't let me use adult words!" Maria complained, stomping a claw.

"In cases like this, you have my full permission to use those words if we get too rowdy," Lance replied.

"Like you'd give her the chance, General Brassballs," Katie stated, causing everybody in the room to laugh at the remark. Still, it was a laugh that they sorely needed, and one they appreciated all the same, for tomorrow would bring forth a round of training for a grim purpose. At the very least, it helped them mentally prepare for the days ahead of them.

Chapter CXV—Lingering Worries, Lingering Regrets

A month went by, and no further changes to Redpine had occurred—as soon as the Void clamped itself around the island, the army of lava wraiths were stuck, and that was that. Everyone that would enact the insane plan of the tsunami-supercell combo platter watched in the office on the eve of their impending strike, as well as the two Umbrum who had some knowledge of their own kind's antics and the Bearers of Harmony. The moon shone through the office, just a tiny sliver from being completely full, and Spitfire frowned as she glanced between the map and the moon.

Tequila took a hit from his cigar. "So, homunculi are runnin' roughshot o'er there…" He shook his head. "Reminds me o' the time me an' me crew found the first three, stirrin' shit up."

Spitfire turned to him, still frowning. "Did… the trio of homunculi attack you?"

"Aye. Managed to get out o' that mess, without losin' any o' me crew somehow. An' that was with the gluttonous bastard o' the lot throwin' Ragnarok at us," Tequila said, his own frown deepening as he took another hit of his cigar. "I may be powerful, lass, but that's only with Big Magnum. Without me ship, I be just another citizen power-wise, in the grand scheme o' things."

Spitfire nodded, willing to roll with that. She'd have been in much the same position, if at any point in her life she had lost her wings, especially against demonic clones of ponies with catastrophic power. "Have you caught wind of anything regarding a changeling homunculus?" she asked.

Tequila shook his head. "Not so much as a peep," he affirmed bitterly. "But I reckon she'll show her ugly mug soon, an' when she does, she might o'erplay her hoof."

Shining nodded. "Seeing as you admitted that the other homunculi more or less did the same, this would make sense," he agreed. "But I have a feeling… the changeling homunculus won't do the same, even if she does go for broke." He put a hoof to his chin. "But what would the endgame of the confirmed loose homunculi be…? That's what's bothering me."

Natalie frowned. "Trust me, our doubles are scratching their heads over it, too. They have little to no clue what those loose doubles even look like," she said with a shrug. "That is, every time they're not engaging in their… our particular vices." She turned to Anna. "And have you put a belt on your double yet?"

Anna nodded. "Yeah, got that squared away. She had a conniption," she affirmed. "But anyway… say the changeling double isn't on our side—like, oh I don't know, some shitweasel managed to grab her and mold her impressionable little mind into something more like…" She lifted a claw and waved it in circles as she fished for words. "A subservient second-in-command to whatever endgame they've got going on?"

"Unfortunately, 'tis possible," Tequila agreed with a slow nod. "Would the same be true o' the Umbrum double?"

Anna put her raised claw to her chin and gnawed on her bottom lip a little. "Given that ours have the vices more or less their entire shiding, I'd unfortunately say yes. And if Annabelle and the others are nucking futs even by our standards, I'd hate to see what the other Umbrum think aren't lines worth crossing," she answered.

Matt shook his head. "Trust me, I've heard they have no standards at all for their evil. At least King Sombra tried to maintain some sort of decency—more than can be said for even half of Fantasia, sadly," he said bitterly. "Which means that the Umbrum homunculus is potentially willing to do anything and everything. Wouldn't be surprised if he, somehow, took on the changeling homunculus as a lover or something."

Tequila shuddered at that mental imagery, as did many of the others in the office. "Which makes finding the door to the Umbrum's realm more imperative, once Redpine is addressed," Shining said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, but that's going to be the hard part," Lance pointed out, sighing. "We can't exactly pin down a location when the damn thing decides it wants to play hopscotch."

Natalie put a pastern under her chin and pondered. "Maybe we need certain items to make it stay still, and then try to lockpick it?" she proposed. "What would we need, though…"

"Maybe pieces… or remnants of the ancient alicorns?" Anna piped up. "Like… things tangentially linked to them." She waved a claw for emphasis.

Natalie nodded, and considered that. "I'm listening…"

"But what else could be linked to them…" Shining pondered, eyes flicking across those assembled in the office.

"Mayhaps 'bloodlines' would do just as well—after all, the ancient alicorns probably constructed some, before they were slaughtered," Blueblood suggested. "Remnants of legacies long since destroyed, after all, are still linked to them—we needn't stick with only physical remnants of their misdeeds."

Natalie's ears twitched. "But that's assuming the door'll just pop open for anypony boasting those bloodlines in their veins," she retorted. "And for all we know, it might not even do that, putting us back at square one."

"Yes, but it simply might not manifest otherwise," Blueblood argued. "Furthermore, this Akron fellow was very likely imprisoned by the ancients, yes? Yet three of you managed to break his seal and then go on to slay him after the fact? The seal might have responded to the blood you carry in your veins, and shattered accordingly. The door might work the same way."

Gears turned in Natalie's head as she considered the insane proposal. And yet… the more she thought about it, the more it made perfect sense—she'd charitably go as far as to say it made too much sense. As far as she knew, nobody else on the whole of Fantasia had managed to undo Akron's seal before her group pulled the feat off, and if they had, Fantasia might have looked very different than the miserable husk it was now. All things considered, she was glad she had been able to stop a far worse tragedy in the end. And if all it took for her, Matt, and Lance to unwittingly break that seal was being related to the ponies who had installed it in the first place…

Still, something about the whole thing bothered her. "But what if the seal had weakened over time, allowing just three of us to break it?" she pointed out. "Because for all we know, it was on a timer of some sort."

"A sound possibility," Blueblood agreed with a nod. "But regardless, we needn't get caught up in 'what-ifs' or the like."

Tequila nodded. "Aye. An' if it takes fightin' fire with fire, then who am I to argue? 'sides, we be squarin' off against ancient alicorns—who better to land the killin' blow on the bastards, than the very ponies they wound up birthin' with their pogroms an' tyranny?" He smiled as he took another puff of the cigar. "If anythin', the ancients did this to themselves—shot their own hooves off, an' now be wonderin' why whatever plans they be makin' are crumblin' to shreds." He turned to Anna. "An' there was such an ancient in Greenwood, ye?" At her nod, his smile fell. "An' tell us… what was his idiotic ploy?"

Anna slumped at being put in the spotlight once again, but obliged Tequila and the others just the same, "The extinction of any new alicorns, to keep them from challenging his power, either by his own barky claw or by the hooves of the newest breed of lackeys. The banning of cutie marks, by altering them through the Greenwood Blight, and warping them faster than if they hadn't gotten their marks naturally. That, and the erasure of any past Greenwood might have had before that, so…" She shrugged. "Whole lotta good that did him in the end."

Tequila's frown started to deepen. "... that be troublin', Bushels. But not unexpected," he said. "Anythin' else, or did ye not hear another peep once ye bailed?"

"Not another peep as soon as I bailed," Anna confirmed. "I'd ask the villagers who survived, but… they're in the dark as much as I am. That, and they probably even know less than I do, because they're not alicorns." She rolled her eyes. "But they'll probably fill me in on all the bitching the three leaders did while I was gone, so…"

"And it's probably to the tune that nopony wants to hear," Shining surmised, garnering another nod.

Tequila turned to Lance, seeing that he hadn't gotten much of anything out of Anna. "'sides the whole 'build an empire' business, what all do ye know of the ancients' plans, Brassy?"

Lance frowned. "Well, they wanted to ban cutie marks outright, and any that I've seen obtain them got fed to the Illicit Instrumentation. Mares… well, besides 'mom,' we'll just skip over that, because we already know their opinion about that issue… and amassing an army of super soldiers mostly consisting of alicorns that won't question every little thing they do," he said. "Hell, technically, I fit that bill, as before I broke off to do my own thing and kickstart the Trials of Attrition, I was supposed to be the second-in-command."

Tequila's frown deepened by a considerable margin. "An' again, it backfired on the whole lot o' them, due to unforeseen circumstances," he concluded, garnering another nod and a ruffling of wings for his trouble. "Is it just me gut pippin' up all o' a sudden, or am I gettin' the feelin' that the ancients… aren't plannin' things out in the long run?"

"I don't think it's a lack of planning… I think it's a lack of things that would blindside them in this manner, given how thoroughly they've been culling the generations," Blueblood said, shaking his head. "Quite simply… they've seem to have become so sure of themselves, as to become complacent and, thus, open to more direct assault." He gestured to himself and his fellow Mythonians. "And we, outsiders who are as clueless as you are, are the ones battering their doors down and demanding answers for that complacency."

Shining frowned, and put a pastern to his chin. "When you say it like that, it makes it sound like we're invading…" he said. "But seeing as we've used the Elements of Harmony in Greenwood…"

"And if it got that bad…" Spitfire murmured, turning to Shining with a frown etching itself on her own muzzle.

"Yes. However, it would not have been possible to use the Elements, without the Aerie's military might providing cover and a rather convenient distraction, when things went bad," Shining said. "Partly because, the ancient alicorn in that territory let loose with the full brunt of his magic, requiring ponies with that same power to tackle him—an unstoppable force, in other words, had to meet an immovable object." He looked at Lance evenly. "Compared to you guys, we do have it made—save the occasional being that gets turned to stone, or is thrown into Tartarus, or blown up with Crystal Hearts, we really don't have to worry about a thing."

"However, while we might be growing complacent, and too reliant on the Princesses and Elements of Harmony, you guys don't have even that—because outside of the Aerie, and the few sane provinces, Fantasia has already stagnated. By that same token… you're proving it does not need to be this way, that both worlds could be doing better. What I'm saying is… we both have our strengths and weaknesses, and if we don't officially ally ourselves together, we might both be headed right to Tartarus," Shining finished.

Lance nodded. "A sound proposition, and sound reasoning." He smiled. "Now you're speaking my language."

Tequila took another puff, and turned to Matt. "An' what about ye, Powderkeg? Anythin' regardin' the plans o' the Umbrum?" he asked.

Matt shook his head. "Besides what we already know, no dice on that front. Mom wasn't privy to a whole lot when the disagreements started," he answered. "And the disagreements began when she and Uncle Andrew were little, so…"

Tequila sighed. "Unfortunate," he said, shaking his head. "But that tells us the Umbrum don't tolerate natural curiosity."

"And going by that tidbit alone, we can then infer that they would like everyone to… ahem, 'stay in their place,' as it were," Blueblood said, wilting a little at that prospect. "The slaves and serfs at the bottom, then the nobles, if any are present, and then the ancients, and probably the Umbrum at the very top of the social ladder. There can be no room for interpretation on the pecking order, when it was probably rigged from the start."

Twilight decided to pipe up, "You know, when the Crystal Empire resurfaced, and me and Spike were trying to find the Crystal Heart… I encountered a somewhat similar door to what you guys were describing earlier this month." Everyone turned to her, and Tequila waved the claw that held the cigar in an urging gesture. "It took… a bit of magic that Princess Celestia had taught me to open, but…" Twilight wilted. "It's… classified as dark magic."

Matt frowned. "So… the door we're looking for… might require dark magic to pop open?" he asked, his voice unusually quiet. This caused a tumult of small murmurs to erupt in the room.

Twilight nodded. "However, that will be our absolute last resort, in case all other avenues of opening the door to the Umbrum realm fail," she said firmly. "Partly because the door that I opened back on Equestria… it showed me my worst fears once I stepped inside. And the door we're going to be looking for soon… it might have the same properties as the one I remember. So we'd do well to brace for that possibility, when the time comes."

"That be worryin', but given the Umbrum an' their seemin' penchant for parlour tricks… not unexpected," Tequila muttered, looking at his cigar to see how much of it he had left. "But is that the only bit o' dark magic ye know?"

Twilight nodded. "Yes," she affirmed. "Largely because Princess Celestia made sure to warn me not to use it too much."

Matt relaxed a little. "Well, at least you got some warning… but do you have to strain to use that bit of dark magic?" he asked.

Twilight nodded again. "It… takes a bit more effort for me to cast than regular magic, and that's really the only time I have used it, so if the door were to attack somehow, or the forces beyond that door caught on… well, I might need a bit of cover while I cast," she said. "Hence, it being the absolute last resort."

Matt nodded in understanding. "Though, if the forces beyond the door catch on, then it might just pop open by itself anyway, to let them out," he pointed out.

Eve shook her head. "Not necessarily… they could slip through the cracks between the door, without ever opening it, or teleport from within the realm to outside of it without a hitch. Have you seen how crafty we can get with our shadows? We can pull off some pretty neat tricks that wouldn't be possible otherwise," she replied. "And that's also assuming, they've installed a guardian for that door in recent years; Andrew and I haven't seen it since we were banished, so I couldn't tell you for certain."

Twilight frowned, even as she remembered that shadows technically were everywhere in the sister worlds—a fact as unavoidable as light, time, and eternity. Regardless, that fact alone meant that even a half-Umbrum like Matt could pull off heists that would make most criminal gangs in Equestria jealous of the feats. And speaking of which, he probably did have some insane heists under his belt; all he had to do was hide in a darkened corner, meld into the shadows thereof, and pick and choose his moments to strike.

She nodded to herself. "So, let's say there is a guardian for that door, then… or maybe several, if the Umbrum are particularly paranoid. Would we have any candidates for what they would be?" Twilight asked.

Eve frowned, but managed a reluctant nod. "Crystal golems, floating eyeball homunculi—" She lit her horn to conjure an image of two types of the aforementioned eyeball monsters, one with a shell of rocks and the other entirely spherical with a slit pupil, orbited by four smaller and spiked spheres only loosely attached to it by faint magical threads, "—and… what we call Cosmic Monoliths." The image she conjured changed, to a perfectly rectangular slab as tall as Princess Celestia, hewn of obsidian and flowing with red veins reminiscent of magma.

Matt paled and shuddered upon seeing the image. "Those fucking things? Oh, if the Umbrum installed that as their door guardian, we're in deep shit…" he grumbled.

"What's so bad about a Cosmic Monolith?" Twilight asked.

Eve shuddered. She flashed her horn again, and the image of the Monolith began to move, floating in the air, teleporting rapidly, distorting spacetime around itself to dodge attacks despite being planted in the ground, and other impossible feats that one would not easily attribute to a seemingly stone slab. "They're crafted entirely of dark magic, and capable of creating craters in the ground at least miles wide, on the scale of Ragnarok," she said severely. "Anytime one is seen… generally, it's bad news. They're weak to holy spells and lightning, but…" She wilted. "We don't have many of such spells on Fantasia, I'm afraid."

"The last one we ran into, we also found out they have a weakness for bombs," Lance said, crossing his forelegs. "Unfortunately, the only bombs I'd be willing to use on that thing can only either be fired from my tank, or from Blue Crow and his squad, or from whatever soldier brings forth the magitek blasters and tries firing bombs out of those. And the bastard Monoliths are immune to antimatter bombs, so that is almost entirely out of the question otherwise."

Twilight frowned. "You have antimatter rounds?" she asked.

Lance nodded. "Yeah, but you see… it's kind of a misnomer." He folded his hooves across the desk and sighed. "We studied the Cosmic Monoliths extensively, and used pieces of those slain to make the antimatter rounds. We also found something curious: the Dark Runes used… they duplicate if left alone. And if they keep duplicating, they could, theoretically, make a whole new Monolith if they decide to fuse together. So any Dark Runes we have, we have to keep a very close eye on."

"And we can also use the Dark Runes to… well, create another Ground Zero crater, though such attacks tend to damage us as well," Natalie added. "Unless we wear special gear that absorbs the dark magic to nullify the damage." She gestured to Lance. "His uniform has those enchantments, because Matt and I did some homework in regards to that. Matt's partially immune because half-Umbrum, and I can just use my crystals to redirect that dark magic to a medium that won't blow up in my face if I throw it far enough away."

Twilight tilted her head. "Dark magic can be absorbed…" Her brow furrowed when the significance of this hit her. "And I presume some guesswork also went into it…"

Natalie nodded. "Funnily enough, we didn't cast the dark magic absorption ourselves until we got ahold of some Dark Runes," she said. "There was… a lot of trial and error involved, and we had to make the enchantment circle in a remote, abandoned location. There was a lot of stuff blowing up. NoLegs taught us the basics of the spell, and let us run roughshot."

"And that resulted in a lot of singed feathers on my end. It took weeks to preen them all out afterwards," Lance said dryly. "And then two weeks afterward, my wings got hogtied in that blasted metal. I swear, who came up with the design for that shit? All it took was a little runework to unlock the damn things…" He put a hoof to his chin and pondered. "Actually… Twilight, do you still have my old wing binders?"

When Twilight lit her horn and conjured them from the ether, Lance nodded. "Before we head out tomorrow, drop that off in our research division—it's a few halls down from the medical wing, and two elevators above it, you can't miss it. If we have any luck, we might be able to pinpoint the magic signatures and see if we get a conclusive match from the bindings we found in Greenwood."

NoLegs meowed, and grabbed the bindings in his magic with a flash of his tail, before conjuring the other set of bindings that were found in Pestilence's abode. He teleported away with the bindings, and Lance sighed. "... or the cat could do it for us," he mumbled.

"So… you didn't see who or what struck you?" Twilight asked.

Lance shook his head. "No, I didn't. I strayed from my recon group to take a leak in Lankyroot, and after I got finished, I got flung into a tree a few meters away and was knocked out on impact. The most I did see was a flash of magic and the horn attached to it, and it was pretty much point-blank," he affirmed. He sighed. "I know, I should have had someone watching me in case that happened, but I didn't think to do that, because nature was getting antsy."

"What… color was the magic that struck you?" Twilight pressed.

"Pitch black, but pulsing with red sparkles," Lance replied. "The horn itself was curved, and red."

Eve's brow furrowed. "That sounds suspiciously like an Umbrum attack to me… did your soldiers see anything?" she asked.

Lance shook his head again. "No, they didn't," he replied.

Eve's face hardened. "Strange… why would some Umbrum single you out to bind your wings?" she muttered. At that one, Lance merely shrugged both his shoulders and his wings.

Andrew frowned. "Maybe some more got banished, and decided they wanted to pick on what they thought was an easy target," he suggested. "Though… given that we've been away from the Umbrum realm for years now, we probably don't know who else would actually get banished."

"Or maybe, it was that Umbrum homunculus we keep hearin' about," Tequila suggested, looking at the remnants of the cigar in his claw. "We still don't know that scallywag's plans, but it very likely don't mean anythin' good." He looked squarely at Lance as he procured a half-scorched handkerchief and used it to put out the worn cigar. "Probably thought ye were a threat to whatever plans he was makin', broken horn be damned."

"It's more likely to be the homunculus who sprung the surprise attack; I don't think the Umbrum would be so keen to leave their realm so freely, if they have all sorts of security measures for the door of that realm," Twilight pointed out. "Furthermore, they might have just killed any other dissidents, instead of banishing them, meaning that any other Umbrum pulling the attack off is extremely unlikely."

Eve nodded. "You're probably right… I've seen them kill off lesser Umbrum for mere disagreements, and we had to be pretty crafty to avoid that fate ourselves…" She shuddered. "And I think they're only going to get worse from here, if we do not deal with them soon."

Twilight nodded. "King Sombra times the Windigos worse?" she guessed, looking at Shining Armor as she said that.

Shining nodded. "Or perhaps even worse, somehow," he agreed. He turned to Eve and Andrew. "Where was the door at, once you two got the boot?" he asked.

Eve frowned. "... it was in the hallway of the entrance of a colosseum, where…" Her face paled when her own words hit her. She turned to Andrew. "Wasn't that the same colosseum…?"

Andrew paled as well, and his ears fell flat against his head. He turned to Matt. "Yeah, it was… though the door probably isn't there anymore. Did you see any weird doors in that colosseum?" he asked.

Matt frowned and shook his head. "Nothing out of the ordinary, but then again, I was stuffed in a cage for most of that shitshow, and before then there was a bag on my head," he affirmed. "Not much room to do any exploring." He shifted to sit down. "And we didn't see anything after the Catastrophe, either, except for melted stone and scorched wastes."

Eve wilted a little. "That crosses that place off the list of potential areas, then…" she muttered, somewhat in dismay.

"And that's just one place in eleventy billion on Fantasia," Andrew added, shaking his head. "So, what the fuck are we going to do?"

Rarity, who had been silent until now, decided to speak up, "If I may interject, I have a penchant for finding gemstones and using them." She gestured to her mark and added, "And when the Void struck Greenwood, my innate magic triggered on its own, and urged me to find crystals… that hadn't grown in the location at all, without directing me to the Crystal Caverns." She turned to Natalie. "More specifically… I believe it was you, Lieutenant-General Starcovert, that my spell was tracking."

Andrew turned to Rarity, frowning. "So… if you can detect her crystals…"

Rarity proceeded to finish his sentence for him, "Yes, I do believe I can also help track down this mobile door, wherever it may be. It will take time and effort, but I think it best to look for crystals… in areas that do not naturally have them, as that is our best chance to find the door."

Applejack snorted. "She can track a gemstone the size of a pin six hooves under, she can track an entire door made of the stuff," she affirmed with a nod. "Y'all want any help with rare, shiny rocks, she's practically the go-to mare for that shiding."

Andrew and Eve traded glances, then turned back to Rarity. "After Redpine is dealt with, where should we start?" they asked in tandem.

Rarity smirked. "I have a few locations in mind, though do give me some time to sort them out and compile a list before we do any door-hunting," she answered.

"So now that we have that sorted out, for the time being…" Lance turned his gaze to Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rainbow. "Are the animal friends going to be spending the next night here, or out there fighting?"

Fluttershy's face hardened. "I told them everything. Even though they're scared out of their minds at fighting wraiths… they want to help," she affirmed. "However, given that Angel and Owlowiscious are small and delicate compared to lava wraiths, they asked me to ask if you have any potions or the like for them to use."

"Potions…?" Lance put a hoof to his chin and pondered, then shook his head. "Those were decommissioned after the Trials of Attrition, when inexperienced wizards without cutie marks made them… and weird side-effects manifested. And before you ask, the side-effects wore off in time, so…"

Matt perked up. "Oh yeah, that reminds me… I have a shadow familiar that I haven't got to use in a while." His shadows split off of him, and formed into a rotund little black demon with white eyes, small horns and wings, and a red spiral on its stomach. A wisp of red magic was loosely attached to its head by a faint magical thread, taking the shape of a simple pom-pom that bounced above the horns. "I call him Balrog, and he's a crafty little bastard." He smirked. "If the animal friends need to, they can hide in his shadows to avoid any grisly damage. I used to have him bring potions to me all the time, before the side-effects came along."

Pinkie smirked. "Oh, that reminds me, Zecora's brewing a lot of potions for the big fight! Should we have Balrog stick with her, too?" she asked.

Matt mulled it over, and then nodded. "Sounds good to me," he said, lifting a hoof to pet Balrog on his little head. Balrog purred affectionately, leaning into the touch. "Just some warning, though: Balrog will also fling weapons at enemies if given the chance, and he's deceptively strong for his size."

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin. "Would he throw my party cannon if he can get a clean shot?" she asked. At Matt's nod, her eyes lit up. "Okie dokie lokie, I'll be sure to pack an extra, extra, extra big stash of water balloons then! Should douse the lava wraiths nicely!"

"Would they even be able to leave the party cannon, though?" Applejack asked, turning to Pinkie with a frown. "Cause I reckon they'd just explode once the cannon got its string pulled."

"Pshaw!" Pinkie waved her hoof dismissively and rolled her eyes. "I asked a bunch of soldiers for a lot of chitil, and did test shots in the firing range! The chitil balloons hold up until they hit something," she replied. "Besides, I just oiled the party cannon anyway; she'll be good to go!"

"Chitil and water… interesting choice of ammunition," Lance noted. He turned to Fluttershy. "And what do you plan on doing during the battle?"

Fluttershy sighed. "I'm… not good at fighting. I'm barely passable at flying, and I can't do it fast unless I catch a draft. I… might try to commune with the elemental sprites, if any are left on the island, and see if they'll help out," she answered. "Otherwise, I guess I could throw healing potions to those who need them."

"... a risky ploy, but it's worth a shot," Lance admitted. He turned to Rainbow. "And you?"

"Help out with the supercell until it achieves liftoff, and intercept attacks otherwise," Rainbow answered. "My speed won't matter if the wraiths catch me and burn my wings, and I can't get in too close to them, so I'll have to help any slowpokes I find to dodge attacks. If I have to, I'll make thunderclouds to take the attacks head-on."

Lance nodded. "So, we'll have to cover for both you and Fluttershy, then, and possibly give you some armor to better take any glancing and straight-and-true blows," he concluded. "Alright… is that everything for the night?" Once nods answered him, he straightened his posture. "Alright. We attack as soon as we get to Redpine. Let's hope the Tormentor is more occupied with the wraiths than it is with us. In the meantime… we rest, because tomorrow will be busy."

With that, everyone except for Twilight and Lance filed out of the office, heading to the guest rooms to catch up on some sleep before they became too deprived of it. "... are you sure it will go off without a hitch?" Twilight asked, voice tinged with concern that flashed in her eyes.

Lance frowned, and sagged in his seat a little. "... not terribly convinced it will go without a few bumps along the way," he admitted. "But… it's our best shot at dealing with the bastards." He turned the chair around to gaze out the window. "The battle could go either way… and that's the fact that I hate most about battling at all."

Twilight trotted up to the desk, then around it to stare out the window herself. "Is it bad… that I find this battle plan insane, even by Equestria's standards?" she asked aloud.

Lance shook his head in her peripheral vision. "No, no… to be honest, I find it batshit, too," he replied. "Not too often we have to summon an inland tsunami of all things, and the bastards can fucking fly. So if we don't ground them, they're going to go around it altogether, and that's gonna make that part of the plan completely worthless."

Twilight nodded. "And that's assuming the supercell will knock the wind out of their wings," she concluded. "If it even makes it that far inland to begin with."

Silence held in the office, until a burst of light shone from behind the chair, followed by a meow that sounded irritated. Lance swiveled in his chair once more, and turned to NoLegs. "What is it?" he asked.

NoLegs waved his tail and conjured a sheet of paper that he handed to Lance. Lance took it and waved Twilight over with a hoof. She lit her horn and came over, shining some light on the parchment. Skipping past the technobabble, Lance went straight to the bottom of the parchment, where four little words greeted him in a language he could understand.

MAGICAL SIGNATURE MATCH: CONFIRMED.