Not an hour had passed before Twilights Castle was swarmed with ponies trying to get answers on what caused the Dragon to go on a rampage after having lived near it peacefully for years. The Princesses could not tell them much because they did not know and could not talk to Twilight on the matter because she was busy finding rooms for the ponies that lost their homes. Once the castle was filled to capacity the owner of the local hotel put up as many as he could but that still left a lot of ponies out on the street.

Celestia and Luna were trying their best to calm the ponies and assure them that they would be fine as they would be taken to Canterlot till their homes could be fixed. Twilight just emerged from her castle after getting the ponies settled, only to get startled by Venrus' portal opening. He began to walk to the ponies while dragging two by their tails. The Chimera soon followed carrying a big bag on his back and pulling a wagon full of gold and jewels.

Mayor Mare, the Princesses and what was left of the now homeless ponies began to approach him. Celestia, none to pleased by the way he was treating her ponies, spoke out in an angry tone "What are you doing back here Venrus and why do you have those two?"

Venrus threw the two at their feet and as soon as they look at them they found it was Snips and Snails. "I went to da dragons cave to clam my reword for killing da beast and found dese two looting da cave. I over heard deir conversion and thought ya would like to deal wit' dem yerself."

Venrus then took a Beats Cube from his pocket and turned it on "Hey Snips, I don't think this is right man. We pissed that thing off and then led it home, it could kill someone" came Snails voice.

"So what Snails, if we don't get the money we owe that stallion soon he will kill us and the only way to do that was by stealing from that dragon. Ya its bad that we led it to Ponyville like the Ursa Minor but now we got enough loot to do what we want."

Venrus turned the cube off and put it back "As you heard for yerself dey are da cause of your towns misfortune. As agreed Mayor Mare, I took my share of da dragons hoard and da rest is yers to do with as you see fit. Latrell, leave da bag and follow da Mayor to where she needs da loot taken."

After laying the big bag next to Venrus Latrell waved for the Mayor to follow "See you back home Boss Dog."

The Princesses were very pissed off at the two but right now they had to deal with Venrus. Laughing drew their attention and they looked to see their ponies giggling at Venrus moving around in the comically sized bag and had to hold in their own giggles. Soon a bunch of white rolls and glowing red crystals fell from the bag and Venrus soon followed.

"Ok, dose of ya without a place to stay listen up. Da rolls are self making tents, just pull da cord and throw it and ya'll have a place to stay till yer home is done. Da crystals are flame stones just tap dem twice and dey will give off heat to keep ya worm. Da tents are yers to do what ya see fit, Da crystals I want back got it?" Venrus stated holding up the items in question.

The ponies quickly got the items and began to set up camp as it was well into the night now. The Princesses just stood there with their mouths open at the sight. What was said about him was true. Though Venrus held powerful dark magic he had a heart of gold. They quickly recovered as he began to do something else. He took four sky blue crystals and threw them into the air and they quickly began to race around the broken part of town. Quickly closing the distance they were going to stop him only to stare dumb founded as a map like the one in Twilight's castle began to form in front of him as he took four giant crystals from the bag.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked inquisitively.

"Mapping Da damage to da town obviously." He replied with out looking at them as he fitted golden rings to the giant crystals causing them to float in the air.

"Why do you need a map of the damaged area?" Luna asked.

"So I know where I need to set up my stuff." He looked up to see the crystals he threw come back and placed them away and then poked four spots on the map. All of a sudden the giant crystals began to move on their own.

Celestia grew tired of this game quickly "I demand to know what it is you are planning or I will make you leave!"

"I don't got to do a damn thing ya say Sunbutt and if ya would shut yer gob for more den a few seconds ya would be able to see for yerself." Venrus turned away from them and began to walk into the broken part of town. As he did they watched him pull out a white crystal arch with gold inlays with floating crystals around it and set it up in the very middle. He walked back over to the map and watched it for a time. Once all the giant crystals were in place he tapped the icon for the arch. After that they watched as magic runes began to form from crystal to crystal. The glowing gray magic was a sight to behold but it did not tell them what he was doing. Moving a little closer to look at the map they saw the runes were forming a very complex network of magic circles.

The Princesses looked on in wonder as the circle continued to form trying to see what it was going to do but none of them could make heads or tails of it. As soon as the last rune was in place the magic glowed brighter and began to lift into the air looking like tiny twinkling stars. Then their eyes bugged out as the damaged area began to slowly put itself back together.

Venrus began to laugh, doubling over and holding his gut. "Oh yes dat was what I was waiting for! Ya should see yer faces!"

The Princesses turn with shocked looks but Twilight was the first to speak. "What is that, I've never seen magic like this?"

"Dat dere is Da Arch of Time, a world class item dat allows da user to turn back da flow of time so long as da mana needed to do so is freely given. I never really had a need for da thing before, till now." Venrus stated as he began to fold up the bag.

"Where is the mana coming from, it's clear you aren't giving it." Twilight asked studying the circle for some time.

"Ya I am just not directly. Da four giant crystals are crystalized mana dat I have stored up over da years to do with as I saw fit."

"Then why use it to help us? You have to hate us or at the least not have a reason to do this." Luna stated.

Venrus looked to her and she could feel his rage "I am not doing dis for ya, I am doing dis because Barb asked me to. I am doing dis for dem." He waved his hand to the tents set up in the field by the castle. "Shure deir homes can be rebuilt and da things dey lost can be bought again. But da memories and da heart dey all put into deir lives dere can not."

The Princesses began to bow "Than....."

Venrus lifted a hand to them "Enough I need no danks for dis. If I did I would get it from dose I have helped by doing so. Now this will take four to five days to finish. At dat time da golden rings and da arch with teleport back to me." Venrus then pulled out a nice size stack of papers "Will ya set dese up around town for Barb. I must be going I have much to do before I can leave for my friends home to kill dose dragons."

Twilight took the papers "Sure we can do that. Can you tell her we are sorry and we miss her?"

"Ya I can." Venrus began to turn and leave only to stop and look back to the Princesses "Ya know she hates doing dis. She cries every night over dis mess, but we love each other and she just cant bring herself to forgive ya after what ya pulled on us." In a blur of motion he was gone.

A short time passed with the princesses standing there and contemplating over what Venrus told them. Then Twilight began to cry again "I'm going to apologize to Barb and Venrus and go with them to help the draconians. I don't care what he does to me as punishment, I cant take this anymore."

Celestia and Luna looked at Twilight and knew they too could not stand much more of this bad blood. Not seeing Barb and her smiling face was tearing them up, more so Celestia.

Luna walked up to Twilight and kissed her "As will I."

Both of them looked to Celestia "So be it and may he have mercy on us. Now what did he give you exactly?"

Twilight looked down to see they were fliers "Tomorrow night the Pulsing Ember will be hosting a party for the town. Free food and drink for all and there will be an open mic night so come ready to rock out."

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

Pulsing Embers was jam packed with the denizens of Ponyville. All were going wild to the hard beat of the music, even the guards brought here by the Princesses were going nuts. Over in the back corner however, the Princesses and the Elements of Harmony were sitting by themselves, sipping at their drinks waiting for Barb and Venrus to show up as they were not here yet.

"All right everypony, i am DJPon3 and the pulse in Pulsing Embers, while we wait for our Ember Princess to show up I'll keep you moving." Vinyl yelled out before starting a new track.

After a few more songs had played the doors bust open as Barb threw them wide. A new song began to play as she walked in cutting off the one that was on.

Barb and Venrus' daughters began to dance their way through the club, singing out. Barb even got some of the other ponies in on the song. The song got them jumping as they danced their way to the stage.

Barb and the two girls were not just causing a scene with the song but also their choice of clothing, as it was not normally what you would see somepony wear. Barb was just wearing a black band around her sizable bust with a fishnet shirt, and a baggy pare of pants that hung low on her hips. Venrus' daughters had the same black band but both wore black jackets and matching skirts. Plus it wasn't just them, some of the ponies couldn't take their eyes off the rest of the group as they entered because of how they dressed. At the sight of the males a lot of mares grew deep blushes and tried but failed to look away. While the stallions were giving out cat calls and wolf whistles.

It would still be a while before the open mic night portion of the night so most of the group did their own thing. After a while Vinyl joined Venrus' table and talked as she had her deck on auto play. Soon a song came on and Venrus really seamed to like it.

"Brights, what do ya say we jack this place a bit?" Venrus said looking to his brother.

"Oh you know i'm down for that, Lets go!" Brights said as he jumped up from his seat.

Vinyl was about to say something till Barb put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head. The two boys made their way to the dance floor and slowly began to dance. Some of the ponies looked at them weirdly because it looked like they couldn't dance. Then all of a sudden they took off on a particulary hard beat. Punch to left, punch to right, jump and kick. Right palm strike to the left while left hand goes up then sweep right hand out in front. Turn to the right lean back with arms behind you and kick out. Left punch down to right knee while right hand goes over their head. Then Lean back to the left and kick out. Jump up and back flip land and sweep their left leg. Then repeat and all to the bass of the song. After the second repeat Barb, Vinyl, Night Blade, Tezumi, Zinyaltes and a few other ponies joined in.

After the song had ended everyone split to do their own thing for a bit and having a blast. Open mic night went over very well with many getting up on stage to belt one out. After a few more hours of fun it was late into the night and everyone got ready to head back to their homes. The Princesses stopped Barb and Venrus, they would show tomorrow to take their punishment and to go with them to help the Draconians.

Tomorrow, it would all begin.

Author's Note

The Magic Circle