“So this “great swamp”… just how dangerous is it?” Captain Hook Smith asked, studying the crude map on the table along with everyone else present. The map room on the Return was more spacious than Midnight expected it to be, the only things really in it being a chest full of maps, a desk, and a large central table. Helping this feeling was the bank of windows along the back wall that let in plenty of light and allowed one to study the ground below. What they could see past the propellers, anyway. What one could at first mistake as paintings on the walls were really maps of the more well-traveled routes of Equestria, mostly by land, which usually had a city in the center of them. On the table next to the first map were two more maps, both more professionally made, one showing the northern border of Equestria they were currently up against and the other mostly blank with just a little bit filled in on one side. The second one was being magically filled in by the cartographer as they went and was connected via magic to a copy back in Canterlot. Midnight was told this was so that, if anything went wrong, those back home had something to follow to come and get them.

Midnight had noticed one town name, Pumpkin Plains, near the normal map’s edge and remembered Forest telling her that’s where she was from and it had been where she’d met Spine. She’d wondered for a second if Spine and Ember would like to visit it but decided not to ask. For one it was out of the way for a day trip and second without Forest it would hold little meaning for her spouse and child. Maybe the next time they came north for a visit they could make it a stop along the way.

The crude map had been made by Snow, Brick, Marina, and Shade by request of the captain and the ship’s cartographer/navigator so they would have some idea of what was before them and how to proceed with the ship, which had passed all of the last of her trials in the day and a half it took to get up here. With no need to worry about the terrain, the ship was faster than a train, even going at its normal cruising speed. The spells dampening the noise from the propellers were also working perfectly as a, finally, fully rested Midnight could attest. The beyond comfortable beds they’d been given helped with that.

Besides the captain, cartographer/navigator, and the four from the north, there was Midnight, First Officer Mooring Dock, Twilight, Windrunner, and Honey in the map room. All of them were staring at a solid block drawn on the crude map that had the word “DANGER!!!” written above it. “Very dangerous,” Snow said seriously, her light blue eyes hard as she looked down at it. “Folks go in but never come out.”

“We’ve never heard of anyone coming back who’s gone inside it,” Marina clarified, trying to sound less like a scary story. “A lot of the land up north can be dangerous once you get further away from the Storm Clan but the swamp is considered a death trap.”

“Because of how far away it is no-one’s ever tried to explore it,” Brick added. “When we came south we purposely stopped just before it and waited until the next night so we could fly straight across without needing to stop. If we didn’t have this ship, I’d say that anyone that couldn’t fly wouldn’t have been able to come.”

“But there is some kind of town on the other side,” Shade said, pointing towards a dot he’d drawn on the map with a wing. “You could see the lights and everything.”

“And who would be crazy enough to build a town right on the edge like that?” Marina countered. “For all you know that could have just been some kind of illusion or even a trap.”

“Maybe or maybe not,” Honey said. “You said it was dangerous even before the swamp, so maybe others have indeed explored it and something happened on the way back.”

“The stories of no-one coming back, unless recent, could be a way to keep anyone from trying to come back to Equestria,” Twilight noted. “Sort of how sometimes someplace is dangerous and parents don’t want their foals going near the place, so they create a monster that will get the children if they go near it. I don’t think Firestorm would have sent you south if he didn’t think you could cross it.”

Snow shook her head. “There’s bad stuff in there; we ALL felt it when we flew over it. Maybe you’re right and overall it’s not as bad as we thought but it is bad. As for Patriarch Firestorm, he only crossed it once all those centuries ago and with the entire clan and those with them; of course nothing tried anything while they were around or the clan would have burned everything to the ground.”

“I had some of the crew inquire if anyone knew anything about the swamp or anyone coming from the north when they went to fetch supplies,” Mooring Dock interjected. Some of Fluttershy’s animals, most likely led by a certain white rabbit, had gotten into one of the food crates the night before and made pigs of themselves. It was one of the few times Midnight had seen the butter-yellow pegasus truly angry while she scolded them all and then apologizing profusely to the captain. She assured them it wouldn’t happen again and, judging by the look on even Angel Bunny’s and Harry the Bear’s faces, it wouldn’t. Midnight didn’t even think she’d need to have the owl harpies down in the hold for them to stay in line. “They didn’t hear anything about anyone claiming to come from north of the swamp, but the townsfolk have similar stories of those that went in but never came out.”

“How long would it take us to cross it?” Midnight asked the captain.

“At normal half speed, most of the night,” he said.

“What about at full?” the kirin pressed.

“We could,” he conceded, “but it’s supposed to be for relatively short bursts, about an hour or two at most. Past that the engines will need a break and that will leave us practically dead in the air once we get to the other side unless Shoal will be willing to push us for a few hours. I’d rather not risk something happening to the engines while we’re in uncharted lands unless absolutely necessary.”

That made sense. Midnight could also offer to try and pull the ship but that would take getting enough rope together and tying it off securely… it wouldn’t be worth the effort. As the captain said it would be best to just not push the engines unless they had to.

“Captain,” the navigator said, “since this stretch is being considered so dangerous, maybe we should head to the coast first and then try to cross? If something were to happen the ship can at least land in open water. Going down in a swamp would make her completely unrecoverable and would make evacuation and rescue much more difficult.”

“I wouldn’t worry about the ship,” Shade said, “it's too big for anything down there to actually hurt it. Only a roc could really do damage and I don’t think we even caught a whiff of a roc while we flew over. Just as long as no-one goes down into the swamp we should be fine and if there are any rocs, that’s what Midnight and Shoal are for.” The other three agreed.

“Perhaps we could cut diagonally across it, getting closer to the sea while still crossing?” the navigator suggested.

“Too much time over it,” Midnight said. “I’d suggest we aim for cutting straight across to this settlement Shade saw then start aiming for the coast. That should get us out of it the fastest and check on Shades mystery town.”

“You’d be aiming for the coast eventually anyway,” Brick said, pointing to their crude map, “since the Storm Clan is on a mountain by it.”

“Then that’s that,” Smith said. “Would Shoal feel she can protect us better during a night crossing or a day crossing?”

“She has fine vision either time of day,” Midnight told him.

“Rocs aren’t active at night, either,” Marina added.

“Then we’ll do a night crossing so we can keep all eyes looking down at the swamp. If she can I’d like Shoal to stay beneath the ship as long as she can while we cross; she might scare any possible threats away. Also, everyone patrols tonight in pairs and no-one gets up for a late night snack.”

Twilight hesitantly raise a hoof. “What about examining the area for flora and fauna? That’s part of the mission, too.”

“Not with the kind of risk this swamp is apparently raising,” Midnight said. “Plus, this is something that can be organized and launched directly from Equestria on hoof, so there’s no point in endangering creatures on this mission for it when we’ll see plenty more after it.”

The alicorn lowered the hoof, accepted the decision.

“Alright then, I’ll make an announcement at dinner so that everyone knows what’s going on,” Smith said, straightening up from the table.

“And I’ll let Shoal know. She might sense or know something we don’t,” Midnight added.

As everyone left the map room, Snow felt a shiver run up her spine. The swamp had always given her the creeps and she’d debated about going around it herself when she and the others first reached it going south. She wanted to stay on the path she’d been given, though, so she’d made herself and the others fly over it. Being on the ship should be a different story and with Shoal around as well nothing should happen. Should.

Aft Bulkhead looked over the starboard railing and shivered a bit. Like any sailor, he had a superstitious streak that got worse at night and the inky black of the swamp below and what it might be hiding was making his mind work overtime. The large dragon’s presence below could only do so much to assuage such feelings. The captain had made an announcement at dinner in the main dining room that once they set off over the swamp no-one but the guards and crew were to leave their cabins and everyone had to walk around in pairs. Even with lights, on a ship this big a patrolling crew member or guard wouldn’t always be in view or earshot of another if they went alone, even out on deck, thus the want for pairs.

“Are you okay?” asked the guard he was paired with and Aft remembered why he had volunteered to stay on night duty. By luck he’d been paired with Wave Darkfeather, so keeping watch while flying over a creepy swamp at night wasn’t too bad for his nerves with her around, even if her green eyes did slightly glow in the dark. Normally she’d be paired with one of the other guards as she wasn’t actually a properly trained guard yet but with the circumstances surrounding the crossing the both of them just needed to know how to shout and the rest of the guards would come running.

“Just a little nervous,” he admitted. “Suddenly needing to pair up to patrol while sailing over a swamp that supposedly has makers-know-what in it gets rumors going and none of them are pleasant.”

“We will see anything coming to the ship,” she assured him, opening her eyes a little wider to show the glow more, “and Shoal can stop anything we can’t. We will be safe.”

“That makes me feel better,” Aft said, truly glad that she didn’t seem nervous as it was helping his mind not wander to the kinds of stories he’d heard when he was younger, about what lurked in untamed forests waiting for unwary ponies to cross their paths. Whether her positive attitude was because she’d grown up with real monsters stalking her home, a positive outlook on life, just being a creature of the night herself, or all three, it helped him immensely and he really hoped the other owl harpies were doing the same for the rest of the sailors and guards.

After they had passed the bow and were halfway back to the aftcastle along the port side of the deck, Aft’s ear flicked. There was some noise coming from aft but there was something else as well. It was faint, very faint, but he could swear he was hearing something over the side. “You hear that?” he asked, tilting his head as he tried to figure out what it was.

Wave cocked her head at him quizzically, then her own ears began to flick and point about. Just like Midnight, Aft stared at owl harpy ears as they moved, and the sight of Wave’s flicking about momentarily distracted him from the noise. “Yes, I hear it,” she finally said, her ears pointing out away from the ship. “It almost sounds like… singing?”

For a second Aft wanted to tell her to stop listening as it could be a siren but then he paused. Sirens didn’t live in swamps, they lived out in the ocean, at least as far as he knew, and if it was a siren it would have already been too late the moment they heard it. Tentatively he listened again and now he could hear the singing as well, or something that passed for singing. Now he was convinced it wasn’t a siren as they were supposed to have voices that were beautiful beyond compare. This voice didn’t sound quite right, as if the melody was off or they were out of tune but not in a bad way. Aft craned his neck to look over the side…

“Wake up!” someone yelled and he was violently yanked from the rail and thrown to the deck, Wave landing right beside him. Over them stood Captain Midnight Storm, looking down at them with cold, angry eyes. Next to her appeared the changeling queen Honeycomb, her horn flaring with sickly green magic, then there was a slight buzzing in Aft’s ears.

“Captain, what is-!?” Wave squawked but a pointed look shut her up.

“You two were about to go over the side,” she explained calmly. “There’s something out there playing siren. Queen Honeycomb has put a spell on your ears to block it out until we get to the bottom of this.”

“Midnight, let Shoal take care of it,” Honeycomb tried but the kirin gave her a look.

“They went after Squeaks,” she growled, fangs clearly extended. “I get a part of them before Shoal finishes it.”

Getting up, Aft could now see guards and crew spilling out onto the deck from all the doorways and gangways leading below. All looked ready for action and he could even see the dragon Shoal flying level with the deck to see and hear what was going on.

“At least take some guards with you!” Honeycomb continued to protest.

“Yes, I will go with you!” Wave announced, spreading her wings.

“You will both stay on this ship with everyone else!” Midnight snapped. “If something goes wrong I will go wyvern and that will be that! End of discussion!” Before anyone could protest further she turned and jumped off the ship, leather wings snapping as she glided close to Shoal, hung there for a second to presumably tell her what was going on, then dove down towards the swamp after whatever was singing, Shoal slowly descending after her.

“Sapphire won’t be happy,” Honeycomb lamented.

Midnight had gone to bed thinking that she’d wake up the next morning to no reports and a feeling that the swamp had been all bark and no bite. A breakfast hunt would be a nice way to explore the new land they’d find themselves in. What she woke up to instead was the darkness of the suite at night, the only light coming from the moon outside the windows. It had been by that light that she’d groggily noticed Squeaks out on the balcony with her wings open. “Squeaks?” she called out tiredly, trying not to wake anyone up. There was some kind of singing she could hear and wondered if it was the young thestral or one of the crew out on deck.

All sleepiness went away when she saw the filly climb up on the rail and make as if she was about to jump. “SQUEAKS!” she’d shouted then, bolting out of bed as everyone else woke with a start. She launched herself out onto the balcony as the filly jumped, catching her in midair just before she started to descend. “WHAT IN THE MAKER’S NAME ARE YOU DOING!?” She shouted almost in her daughter’s face as everyone else came out on the balcony, asking what had happened. The light of the living area came on and a changeling opened the bedroom door.

“Mom? What… where are we?” Squeaks asked, shaking her head as if just waking up.

“You just tried to jump off the ship!” Midnight said, her voice lowering as her foal was no longer in danger, though she could still feel her heart racing. Other voices could be heard now, guards and crew sticking their heads out of portholes, windows, and around the side of the aftcastle to see what was going on. She even just then noticed Ember’s head sticking out of a porthole, shaking as if she’d just woken up as well before being yanked back inside and Spine’s raised voice coming out of it. “What were you thinking!?”

Squeaks looked at the balcony she just launched herself from, then to the door to the suite, then back to her mother. “But… I was just getting up to get some water, then there was this kind of singing,” the filly explained, then her ears flicked and pointed out from the ship. “Can’t you hear it?”

Curiously, all the adults listened as well. When they did hear the odd, low singing as well, Honey’s eyes grew wide and her horn flared. The singing was immediately replaced by a dull buzzing noise. “That’s a charm of some kind!” Honey said, then turned to the changeling in the doorway. “Get every changeling up and have them perform the same spell on everyone on the ship!”

“A charm? Who’s casting it?” Midnight asked, sitting with Squeaks now tucked firmly between her legs and her wings mantling around them both. The filly made no move to free herself, even as Sapphire and Summer came over to check on her.

“I don’t know, but there aren’t many creatures that can cast a charm with song,” Honey said. “Mother once turned into a siren so I would know what they sound like but this doesn’t sound like one. If it is then it must be very weak since we all aren’t charmed by now.”

‘So much for an easy night’ Midnight thought bitterly, then stood up and gently pushed Squeaks to Sapphire. “You and me are going around the ship and checking on everyone,” she told the changeling, “starting with Captain Hook Smith and his officers. We’ll figure out what to do once everyone is accounted for and safe from the singing.”

“I’ll head up to the bridge,” Windrunner said, jumping off the balcony herself but going up.

“I want YOU all,” she pointed at Squeaks, Sapphire, and Summer, “to stay here and inside. No going out onto the balcony or even the suite until we say it’s safe.”

“You stay safe as well,” Summer said and Sapphire and Squeaks nodded in agreement.

“I will,” Midnight told them. “Arina, you stay with them in case something else happens.” The spider, who was hanging by a thread from the balcony doorway, chirped and saluted.

She and Honey had left after that. Buzz, who’d been on watch outside the suite, going with them while Trill stayed behind. Starting with the bearers, they moved through the ship and explained what was going on to everyone they came across while Honey placed the anti-charm spell on their ears. “We didn’t know something like a siren was in the swamp!” Marina said once they were told what had happened, Snow in particular looking very upset. “We would have said something!”

“I believe you,” Midnight told her, though she still brushed by the lot of them once the spell had been placed.

The apparent last to know had been Aft and Wave who had been the furthest out on deck and Midnight and Honey had caught them just as they were pulling themselves onto the railing. At least Wave would have safely flown down.

As they had moved through the ship, the kirin’s initial fear of what nearly happened ebbed and a white hot, motherly rage began to build. Someone or something had gone after her baby which was unacceptable, not to mention charming Ember as well. By the time they saved Wave and Aft, she was ready to spit fire. Yes, a cooler head would have agreed with Honey and let Shoal just burn the swamp beneath them or even tell the captain to push the ship at full speed for as long as possible, damn the consequences later. Tartarus, she could have burned the swamp herself and then she and Shoal could have both pulled the ship away.

But she didn’t currently have a cooler head, nor would she be swayed into one. Squeaks had almost gotten hurt of worse and what or whoever it was that was responsible was going to PAY. Not even Shoal tried to stop her when Midnight told her what she was going to do, only followed her down a bit as the kirin aimed for the swamp below.

Between the uncovered moon and her own limited night vision, Midnight was just able to make out things like trees and standing water as she neared the ground. Honey’s spell must have been just strong enough to keep them all from hearing the singing at range because as she descended the kirin could just hear the off singing again. Banking towards it, she could see a figure standing in a small clearing a little ways off. Readying herself, she glided down into it, landing a small ways away from the figure. The singing stopped as she landed.

“Damn it, I was hoping it would be one without wings,” a feminine voice said, “would have been so much easier. Well, at least this one’s big.” The figure stepped forward and closer now it definitely looked like a mare, one that was sporting large, leathery wings, a wet mane, and a smile with needle teeth. “I’ll be eating well for a while.”

“Gonna be hard to eat with no teeth,” Midnight growled. “Or dead.”

“What? Wait-!” the mare yelled as the kirin pounced, fangs glistening in the blue firelight.

“There!” A crewman called from one of the upper stories of the aftcastle, pointing. Everyone on deck who heard looked over the rail and saw a small plume of blue fire blossom in the swamp below. Shoal saw it, too, and circled the spot, watching Midnight fight whatever was down there. Honey fidgeted, wanting to be down there to help, but stayed on board like everyone else.

Captain Smith had ordered that no lifeboats be readied nor any flyers be allowed to leave the ship. Running down there pell-mell ran the risk of someone getting lost in the shuffle and possibly being left behind and he was already unhappy about Midnight leaving herself and forcing him to slow the ship to a crawl as he figured out what to do next.

After a few minutes Shoal banked one more time and landed heavily, head bent down over one particular spot. They all watched her reaction as more gouts of blue fire erupted from the ground. A few of the owl harpies tried to explain what they could see but from this distance all they could say was that it looked like two Midnight’s fighting each other. They could better describe Shoal’s face and the running commentary on it told them that no-one currently had the upper hoof. At one point, the dragon drew herself up, a claw raised as if about to intervene, when there was another blast of blue fire and she paused for a few seconds, then sat back down, looking relieved.

Honey felt relief herself as the dragon reached down, claw open as to receive someone. That had to mean that Midnight was fine or at least won the fight and was good enough to climb up onto the claw under her own power. Shoal launched herself off the ground, claw still held open, and carefully approached the airship. When she was close enough, she stretched out the arm with the open claw and two figures landed on the deck. One, Midnight, landed on the deck on her hooves, though she looked worse for wear, while the other one, who looked like a normal pony but with wings similar to Midnight’s, flopped onto the deck, either unconscious or dead.

Everyone rushed the kirin, questions flying. “Give me a second!” Midnight yelled, huffing. “She put up a Tartarus of a fight and don’t touch her!” she yelled at several guards and crew that had begun to try and pick the mysterious mare up. “She’s the one who was singing. She wanted to kill and eat one of us.”

The crew and guards immediately backed away from her.

“Here,” Honey said, her horn glowing as she cast a healing spell on Midnight, which cleaned up some of her smaller wounds and began mending some of the worse ones which mainly consisted of nasty bites.

“Thanks,” Midnight said, inspecting herself.

“Is she…?” the changeling asked, motioning to the mare.

“No idea, but she went down harder than any normal pony would. Took my fire like a champ and kept coming. Had to pick her up by the throat and body slam her into a nearby boulder a few times to finally keep her down.” The space around the downed mare grew bigger, leaving more than enough space for Iron Ore and her aids to come out of the crowd and begin inspecting her. “Lieutenant,” Midnight warned.

Ore simply put her hoof up for silence as she continued her examination. Privates Autumn Pillar and Ghostly Fire came forward with their weapons ready in case the mare wasn’t really down. “She’s dead,” Ore finally announced. “Can’t tell what the final blow was, though. The body’s weird, almost like it’s been dead for a while but just never decayed. Several wounds here would have been fatal.”

“Captain Storm!” Captain Smith called out, pushing his way through the crowd.

“I’m back captain,” Midnight assured him.

“Good, because I expect you to never do anything as reckless as that again while on my ship!” He eyed the dead mare on his deck. “Was this our culprit?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And why did you bring it aboard? What is it, anyway?”

Midnight shook her head. “No idea. I figured that, since Twilight and her two professors never got to go down to look at things, this would be a way to mollify them. That and I’d like to know what in the world I just fought, because if we run into any more I’m hoping there’s an easier way to take them down. Is there a brig on the ship we can keep it in?”

“Just off the cargo bay forward,” he said, motioning at the cargo entrance from the deck. “Mooring Dock will meet them down there to open a cell.”

Midnight nodded and two owl harpies came forward to grab the mare with their talons, ready to fly down into the cargo bay when the brig was opened. Honey cast another healing spell on her and now it looked like she’d just took a tumble down a hill rather than had been in a life or death fight. “Sapphire, Summer, and Squeaky will be worried. We were all worried,” she said pointedly.

“She tried to kill Squeaks,” Midnight said again simply.

Honey was about to remind her that there were other ways to deal with the situation but stopped when Captain Smith stepped closer. “According to the navigator, we should be close enough to the other side of the swamp that an hour or two at full should see us out from over the swamp. We’ll go about a mile past its end before we anchor and take stock of things and let the batteries recharge.”

“Understood, captain,” Midnight said. “Hopefully this wasn’t a sign of how the trip is going to go from now on.”

“Agreed,” Captain Smith said, turning back towards the aftcastle.

“What now?” Honey asked as they, too, moved to go back inside.

“Get back to the suite, comfort Squeaks, let everyone know what’s going on, then hopefully catch some more sleep before dealing with whatever that thing is in the morning,” Midnight said. “You know how headache-inducing stuff like this can end up being.”

Honey nodded in agreement.

“It’s a what?” Midnight asked, looking between Twilight and the very much alive-looking thing in the cage behind her. Despite the obvious danger, Twilight, Puzzle Mixer, and the second naturalist professor brought on the trip, Brave Hunter, had gotten up at dawn and bee-lined it to the brig to study the creature she’d fought with and apparently killed last night, only to find it very much alive again and very, very pissed off, yelling profanities at them that made even the watching sailor cringe and slamming bodily into the cage walls. She’d only calmed down when Midnight and two guards had come down after breakfast and the kirin yelled at it to shut up and sit down, which it promptly did while giving her a glare with her red eyes that could kill.

“She is a ghoul,” Twilight repeated, “and it’s actually something the book you stole was right about.”

Midnight looked down at the open book in question and kicked it shut, looking right back at Twilight. With a glare of her own directed at the kirin she picked the book up with her magic and opened it back to the appropriate page. “Ghoul: a creature that is created using powerful dark magic on a corpse. While exceedingly rare today if not outright extinct, these abominations were a very real threat when those who practiced dark magic were far more common and open with their practice. They were created to be powerful servants, body guards, and assassins for their masters. Due to their nature, even if alive today, studying one is nearly impossible due to their strength and ability to take great punishment before being overwhelmed in a fight, as well as their connection to their master. Unless directly told to do so by the one they serve, a ghoul will not cooperate with anyone in anyway. A ghoul without a master is considered even more dangerous as they will travel wherever they please and kill whomever they wish. While hard to identify from a distance, they apparently have a look of “having an aura of death about them”, as well as unnatural, needle-like teeth. Some have even been seen with draconic-like wings. Besides unnatural strength, they also have an ability like a siren to lull their prey closer with a kind of song, but the ability is nothing close to a siren’s. If one is observed it is highly recommended to report the sighting to the highest authorities that can be found and the area avoided at all costs until it is dealt with.”

“Damn thing even as a longer entry than mine. So, we’re dealing with the literal undead here?”

“Like something straight out of a bad comic,” Spike said, the young dragon unwilling to leave and falter in his role as Twilight’s number one assistant. It helped ease his mind that two of the beefier guards had come with Midnight to stand watch in place of the lone sailor.

It really did have an unsettling aura about it that got worse the more you looked, like you could tell something was wrong with it the more you stared. The orange mane looked perpetually wet, like it was living in water or, well, a swamp, it had a black coat like Midnight, and its draconic-like wings were a dark green. Again, the more she looked, the more she could somehow see the corpse the dark magic seemed to be masking. It was unsettling, which is probably what those dark magic users were going for.

“So is there any way to actually kill it?” Midnight asked. She wasn’t keen on keeping the unsettling and dangerous thing around for longer than needed.

“Yes and no,” Hunter said, picking up another book from the floor, which was strewn with them. “Normally, a ghoul is killed when their master is killed, but only if the master is killed by being stabbed through the heart, otherwise the ghoul is invulnerable. A wild ghoul can only be killed if it is stabbed through the heart. Beating the un-life out of it only knocks it out for a little while apparently.”

“Okay, someone get me a spear and I’ll finish it,” Midnight said, turning towards the door.

“There’s one more thing,” Puzzle said quickly, picking up yet another book. “Apparently, a wild one can be tamed, either by pouring a lot of one’s own dark magic into it, basically overwriting its previous master, or by, well, beating the un-life out of it in a one-on-one fight, a duel, more or less. Seems that, because they’re abnormally strong, they submit to anything physically stronger than they are.”

Midnight’s head slowly turned to face Puzzle, eyes wide and staring intently at the professor. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” she asked in a low whisper.

“By defeating her, she recognizes you as her new master. You telling her to be quiet and sit still after you arrived and her doing so proves that connection,” Puzzle said.

Midnight looked from him to the ghoul, to Twilight who was giving her an apologetic look, back to the ghoul then to Spike, who was giving her a sympathetic look, once again back to the ghoul and then to Hunter, who was giving her a similar look to Twilight. “No.” She said flatly.

“Oh yeah, like I like it any better,” the ghoul said, startling everyone but Midnight. “The sooner you run yourself through with a sword, preferably not through the heart, the sooner I can be on my merry way.”

“You aren’t not going anywhere,” Midnight told her, then turned back to Twilight. “There’s really no other way to get rid of her!? Letting Shoal blast her or possibly even eat her!?”

“Celestia might know something,” the alicorn hedged, remembering the demonstration she gave when she was telling them about the Crystal Empire for the first time. While she’d been willing to use a bit of dark magic to get through Sombra’s defenses and find the Heart, she was not willing to trying pouring a lot of it into a ghoul to try and break its bond. Who knew what tapping into that much dark magic would do to her? “As for letting Shoal take care of her, it’s possible but she’s already bounced back from what should have been fatal injuries. She might just sit in Shoal’s stomach or she might even vomit her back up since she’ll have something not digesting sitting in it.”

Midnight growled but conceded. “Well, send a letter ASAP. In the mean time, can this cage hold her long enough for the princess to respond?” she asked, examining the metal.

“There shouldn’t be any need to cage her,” Puzzle said, "you told her to sit down so she shouldn't move.” He bent over and stuck his horn through the bars.

“NO!” Everyone screamed, jumping forward to stop him. The ghoul was faster and, like a striking snake, shot her head forward, her mouth full of needle teeth aiming to slam shut on his horn.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Midnight roared.

The fang-filled mouth closed on Mixer's horn... except it didn’t. She was certainly trying to bite down, the look of frustration was clear on her face, but it looked like the horn was almost being touched by her teeth, not actually biting it.

"Why did she... oh, right! Midnight gave her an order!" Twilight said while Mixer carefully removed his horn from the ghoul's teeth.

"And here's another one," Midnight growled as she pushed Mixer back away from the cage, putting herself between them and ghoul. "You aren't going to hurt ANYONE that is on this ship, got it?"

The ghoul growled but nodded.

Then the kirin turned on Mixer. “Do something stupid like that again and I’ll have you confined to quarters for the rest of the trip,” she growled at him while poking him hard in the chest with a hoof. “And that monster is not leaving that cage until we can deal with her properly.”

“Um, understood, ma’am,” Puzzle squeaked, finally realizing the kirin in front of him was not happy with the situation. It was probably a bad idea to ask to talk with her about his kirin research, too.

“If I may, captain,” Hunter asked gently, turning the kirin’s attention onto him. “Could you ask her what her name is? For records purposes it would be best to not keep calling her “the ghoul”.”

Midnight stared at him for a second, then looked at the ghoul. “Name,” she commanded simply.

The ghoul seemed to try and keep her mouth closed. “Hollow Eve,” she finally spat out, her red eyes once again shooting daggers which is all it seemed she could do.

Midnight snorted back at her. "Well, Miss Eve, you're going to cooperate and do anything these three tell you to do without complaint, got it?"

"Crystal," Eve growled.

Shooting Eve one last glare of her own, Midnight turned and walked out the brig door. “That thing goes for any of them or tries to break out I want it pinned to the deck until I get here,” she told Privates Granite and Shale, who each had a spear. “I’m sending Arina down here to keep an eye out, so don’t worry about me knowing.”

“Yes, ma’am!” they said, saluting.

“And get that letter to Celestia!” she called back to Twilight and the others before flying up to the deck.

Outside in the fresh air she took a moment to take a deep breath and let it out slow. Last night had been a close one and she hoped that all the luck Snow and her group had in coming south hadn’t decided to turn bad when returning north. She’d already confronted them about them saying the trip back would be safe with the ship, to which they’d told her they didn’t know about ghouls or what they could do, which she could admit was fair now that some the anger had drained away. She’d go over the books with Twilight, Puzzle, and Hunter later and see if there were any more creatures that had siren-like abilities they’d want to keep an eye and ear out for.

Her thoughts had just turned to spoiling Squeaks with some fancy cookies from the main kitchen, after the homework for the day was done, of course, when she heard Captain Smith calling her over to the starboard rail. When they finally cleared the swamp, the ship had angled to the east, putting the south and the swamp off their starboard beam. Thankfully the engines had held out and they didn’t need Shoal to push them but they’d need to recharge for a bit and Midnight had debated about her and Shoal burning some of the swamp before night fall before she'd gone down to see Eve. “Good morning captain,” Midnight said when she reached him.

“A good morning to you, captain. How is our new guest down in the brig?”

Midnight shook her head. “It’s a lot,” she said, not sure how to explain what they were now keeping prisoner. If Celestia got back to them with a way to handle it, she might not need to explain the connection with Eve she’d found herself in. If there wasn’t…

Smith shook his head. “Well, I’ll want to hear it eventually. In the mean time, it seems that Mr. Shade was right about that town he thought he saw.” He offered her a spyglass and pointed with a wing.

“Oh?” Midnight said, taking the glass and looked where he was pointing. Through it she could see a small town, a village, really, about half way between them and the edge of the swamp. There was also what appeared to be ponies walking around it.

“We must have just missed seeing it in the darkness before dawn,” Smith explained. “A lookout spotted it just a few minutes ago. We can already see some activity and I wanted to know what you wanted to do since we’re essentially stuck here for the time being. Frankly I’m surprised there isn’t a panic already between this ship and a dragon suddenly being on their door step first thing in the morning.” Shoal was currently resting below them, whether she was napping or up and awake Midnight hadn’t checked yet.

The kirin continued to observed the small town through the glass, noting that it was probably bigger than it looked as some homes seemed to be built into trees not unlike the Ponyville Library. She was also able to make out that, while indeed there were ponies in the streets, and increasingly looking and pointing in their direction, there were also things that only partially looked like ponies walking around, notably with oddly-shaped horns and whip-like tails. Several flyers caught her attention as they rose up over the trees and she focused in on them. When she got a good look her eyes went wide then focused again. “It would be in our best interest to head over there, captain,” she said.

“And that would be because…?” he asked, curious at her tone.

“Because that town has kirins in it.”

Author's Note

So... something else I've realized with these chapters.
When I was getting ready to start them and looking over my notes, I thought that there really wasn't much I actually had going on for the trip and that I'd end up writing chapters that were about as long as when I was writing season 1, about 3-4K words per chapter. A little short but *shrugs* it meant I could get them out faster and get to the real story up with the Storm Clan.

Reality has since laughed before slapping me across the face with a cold halibut.

I only got four chapters done during the August NaWrMo I set for myself and the chapter after this one is going to be 2-3 chapters long depending on how I chop it up. And we've just barely got this journey started! I've got about three more encounters set up after they get done with the village and now I'm wondering just how long THOSE chapters are going to be! I mean, in the long run that means more stuff for you guys but I was NOT expecting how this was going to go. Now I'm wondering how season 4 is going to go down! *bangs head on desk*

Anyway, backstory on Eve.

My original concept of her was going to be a nameless kelpie, the idea of which I got from here:

Funny enough this is also where I got the idea of the harpies from. I ask the artist if I could use those two in my story and she said no so I had to look into ways to include them but make them different enough. For the harpies there wasn't much I felt I could change except for the tails until recently when I discovered the ears I ended up using.
For the kelpie... it took a lot longer.

I eventually came across this pony OC and animatic:
Carnival Cat Song
Carnival Cat Animatic
So I started looking at other supernatural creatures she could be. Was kind of leaning towards something out of eastern European mythology, mostly an actual vampire and not just a blood-hungry thestral, for a while until one Spooky Month I ran across an old History Channel special on zombies and it talked about different zombies form different cultures and the quick overview of the ghoul was something I really liked.
(Time stamp 1:44:00 )
Slap all of this together and give her colors that maker her Halloween-y, since her name is kinda based of the holiday, and we have our ghoul. I have a plan for her far in the future, all the way at the end of season 4, but we'll see how the story evolves as I write and she might get another plan.

Well, this has been a long A/N. See you guys next Saturday.