The Pegasus who Kicked the Changelings' Hive

by A M Shark

Rating: teen
Tags: Discord, Crossover, Alternate Universe, Main 6, Thriller, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mystery, Other, Romance, Fluttershy
Length: 115515

After being injured during the events of "The Ponies who Played with Fire" a now-captive Discord is facing trial for murder, while Fluttershy and her small band of allies are in a desperate struggle both to clear his name and avoid their own capture.

Warning: Some comments may contain spoilers

After being injured during the events of The Ponies who Played with Fire, a now-captive Discord is awaiting trial for murder, while Fluttershy and her small band of allies are facing possible enemies on every side in their desperate struggle both to clear Discord's name and avoid their own capture.

AU Fluttercord set eleven years after the first three seasons minus the Discord episodes. Inspired by Discord and Fluttershy's relationship both in the show and several fanfics (*cough* Bride of Discord *cough*) Based loosely on the plot from "The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" by Stieg Larsson. Rated T for some plot-related Murder Mystery Elements.

Edited by Nightwalker

Constructive Criticism is welcome.

Cover art belongs to me so please do not take without permission. Thank you.

Published 2019-03-11 19:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-09-08 03:30:47 UTC

Chapter 1. Isaiah 65:24

Author's Note

For those of you not familiar with this series, you'll definitely want to read my earlier stories: The Draconequus with the Dragon Tattoo (aka Book 1) and The Ponies who Played with Fire (aka Book 2) before starting this one or you won't understand what's going on.

As always, a huge thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing.

Chapter 1. Isaiah 65:24

Chapter 1

"Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear."—Isaiah 65:24

The guards bearing the injured draconequus had only moved the bound-together stretchers about a dozen yards down the mountain path when their passenger's tail suddenly snapped up in the air. It lashed first one way, then the other, catching the ponies near it off-guard and knocking them off their hooves. Several of the unicorns and earth ponies tumbled dangerously close to the cliff's edge and might have fallen to the ground far below if their pegasi squadmates hadn't swooped down to catch them. With no ponies now supporting the last stretcher—the one Discord's legs and tail were strapped to—it crashed to the ground only to rise back up and slam down a second time as the draconequus continued to thrash about. The straps on his wrists, neck, and chest held fast, but he arched his lower body upward, and in the process his legs suddenly slipped free of the restraints holding them! A split-second later his tail drew backward out of its strap as well! The ponies around him all cried out in alarm, and began ducking and dodging to avoid being struck as the draconequus flailed his whole lower body about in every direction.

In the confusion, Fluttershy tried to run forward to Discord's side. She wasn't really sure what she hoped to accomplish by reaching him, but the sight of him struggling like that sparked an instinctive desire to try and soothe him. But as she tried to lunge forward Skywishes held her fast.

"Fluttershy!" the coral-colored pegasus whisper-shouted in her ear. "You can't go down there! We don't know if any of those ponies are disguised changelings or—Ow!"

Mache Max had just jabbed Skywishes right between the eyes with one of his paper wings, startling her into losing her grip on the other pegasus. Fluttershy lunged forward again, but this time Twilight and Spike both caught a hold of her and held her as firmly as Skywishes had.

"She's right, Fluttershy!" said Twilight, using the same whisper-shout Skywishes had. "Back at Canterlot, Spike and I were already attacked by two changelings disguised as guards!"

Though Fluttershy's ears heard Twilight's words, her body continued to struggle against the hooves and claws holding her. She let out a soft plaintive wail as she strained toward her former partner all while he snapped his long body about like a bullwhip, and he lunged against the bonds on his wrists, neck, and chest. Through the blood-stained scarf still bound around his head, Fluttershy saw that his eyes were open, but she couldn't tell if he was aware of his surroundings.

Discord heard indistinct voices all around him, and his eyes registered blurred shadows and shapes, but his aching head couldn't seem to comprehend anything his still scattered senses were telling him.

The only thing he could remember clearly after pleading in his mind for Fluttershy to forgive him, was hearing her sob that he was hurting her. He had reached out then, hoping against hope that his attempt to wake her and free her from that "protective" force field he had trapped her in had somehow worked. All he could remember after that was feeling her coat under his fingers, sliding them up into her mane, thinking he saw the hazy form of her face above him, and trying to draw her closer to him.

I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Fluttershy, I'm sorry! he had sobbed inside his head. He wasn't sure if he was just imagining her there, but even if she was just a piece of his imagination, he didn't want his apology to go unspoken. He had tried to get the words out, but his mouth seemed to have difficulty forming them.

Then somewhere along the way, everything had swiftly faded to black.

That is ... until now.

Now as he struggled both with the physical bonds securing his body, and the strange wall that seemed to have come between him and his magic, all he could think about was his desperation to find Fluttershy. To make sure she was all right. That he hadn't just imagined her in front of him earlier. Let her be all right! Let me see her again! Just let me see her!

As the draconequus continued to thrash about, the Royal Sisters circled above the confusion.

"Get him secured and sedated!" Celestia called down to the ponies. "Then take him to the hospital and await my orders there!"

Hospital?! As several ponies responded to the command with 'yes, your majesty'-s, Fluttershy's gaze jerked off Discord to stare up at the circling sun princess, a tiny flicker of hope sparking in her heart. Does this mean you actually listened when I said Discord was innocent? Does this mean that when you brushed me off earlier it was just because you were in a hurry to get Discord the medical attention he needs?!

But at that moment a bright light flared from Celestia's horn and she and Luna both vanished!

Fluttershy felt Twilight and Spike's grips on her both loosen—maybe they were as stunned by the Royal Sisters' sudden disappearance as she was—but she could only stay rooted to the spot, staring disbelievingly up at the portion of sky where the alicorns had just been circling.

That is until Skywishes's strained voice cut through her stupor.

"Fluttershy this might be our only chance to—will you cut it out?!"

Fluttershy's head snapped around in the direction of Skywishes's voice in time to see the coral-colored pegasus tug a blue cloak free from one of the saddlebags strapped under her armor. She threw said cloak over Mache Max, and gathered up the hem so it formed a makeshift bag. The origami parrot promptly began trying to batter his way out of his new prison, but with none of the expected screaming. Apparently he seemed to realize now was not the time or place to start screeching.

Keeping the bag shut tight, Skywishes looked back up at her fellow pegasus. "Fluttershy, this might be our only chance to sneak back to your cottage unnoticed. While everyone over there," she gestured toward the pony guards with her eyes. "is still focused on Discord."

At the mention of her former partner's name, Fluttershy automatically looked back down the path toward him. He was still struggling, but several ponies had gotten a hold of his legs and tail, and were stretching them out as far as possible while several more ponies used ropes to bind the extended limbs to the stretcher a second time. Somehow in the struggle, Discord's body had gotten twisted around so that while his top half was lying on its back, his lower half was now lying on its stomach. Fluttershy wondered if being twisted about like that was hurting him—

"Fluttershy!" Skywishes's voice jolted her like a slap. "The cottage! Remember Dinky!"

"Dinky?" Spike repeated, squinting at Skywishes. "Does she mean Derpy's kid?"

"Yes," breathed Fluttershy, her voice a trifle unsteady. Her concern for Discord had driven her worry about Dinky clear out of her head, but now her mind pulled up the image of the teenage unicorn—battered and bruised with her singed forelock—huddled under the blanket on the cot, trying to get some rest and regain what little strength she could—

"What happened to her?" Twilight asked, jerking Fluttershy out of the memory. "Do you know where she is?"

"Yes, she's at my cottage," said Fluttershy, trying to get her thoughts organized. Her throat had gone dry and she needed to swallow. "But we have to ... get back there quickly to make sure she's still safe..." She trailed off, feeling suddenly torn between her desire to stay near Discord, and her sense of responsibility regarding Dinky. Celestia had said Discord was to be taken to a hospital, but she hadn't said which hospital, so how was Fluttershy to know which one, if she didn't follow the guards? But how could she trail the guards without her wings if the pegasus ones should choose to fly with Discord? If she had still had her wings, this would not be an issue, but now...

"Good." Skywishes's take-charge tone startled Fluttershy out of her conflicted thoughts before the armored pegasus thrust the makeshift bag containing Mache Max at her. "If we fly, I can carry you, but you'll have to make sure Max doesn't get out of there and start pestering the rest of us." As the struggling bundle was placed in her hooves, a new idea suddenly popped into Fluttershy's head. Maybe she could go back to Dinky without having to completely abandon Discord after all!

Ignoring Skywishes's startled protest, Fluttershy opened the bag, and lifted out the paper parrot, who immediately stopped his flapping and nuzzled his two heads against her face. Fluttershy appreciated the affectionate gesture, but they were currently short of time, so she just gave him a few quick pats before pulling him away from her face so she could look at him.

"Max, I need you to follow Discord. I need you to find out where they take him, then come back and tell me. Can you do that for me, please?"

The parrot briefly cocked his two heads at her, then leaned forward and gently nibbled at her nose with both beaks before shooting up into the air. He seemed to rearrange his five-winged body into the shape of a paper airplane, and loop-de-looped toward where the guards were still wrestling Discord down. Once he got there, he continued to glide in circles high above the ponies, who fortunately seemed too focused on restraining the draconequus in front of them to think about scanning the sky above them.

"Well, I guess that's one way to keep him from pestering us," Skywishes muttered before turning back to Fluttershy. "Here. I'll still be carrying you."

Discord could feel his legs and tail being stretched out to the point where he felt the former would be pulled from their sockets, and the latter would be dragged out by the roots. Normally he would have responded by causing the limbs to magically stretch and stretch and stretch as if they were made of rubber, but that didn't seem to be working this time. All he could do was try to squirm away from whatever had ahold of his limbs.

Then he felt a sharp sting in the side of his neck before his body went numb and all his senses faded to black.

While the guards were still occupied with Discord, Twilight and Skywishes both took to the air, Twilight with Spike on her back, and Skywishes with Fluttershy on hers. Feeling that speed was currently more critical than stealth, they shot off in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage. As they flew, Fluttershy quickly filled Twilight and Spike in on how Skywishes, Dinky, and the two wrestlers Highflyer and Screwjob had all ended up at her place; how they had learned the truth about the murders of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, as well as the attack on Derpy and her daughters; and how they split up in an attempt to gather Fluttershy's closest friends before those friends could possibly be replaced with changeling-doubles.

They managed to reach the cottage without incident, and landed behind a nearby tree, where they observed said cottage. The cottage was quiet and there seemed to be no signs of a struggle or forced entry ... but that could just as easily be a trap as it could be a sign that things were all right.

"Looks like one of us will have to go up there, knock, give our code word, and see if Dinky responds with her agreed upon code word," said Skywishes after they had scrutinized the house for several seconds. Turning to Twilight and Spike, she added, "Dinky doesn't have a code word to identify either of you by, so it looks like it's got to be either me or Fluttershy."

Fluttershy felt her heartbeat speed up, and fought to keep her breath steady. "I'll do it."

Her three companions stared at her, Twilight and Spike clearly shocked at their normally timid friend volunteering to take such a risk, and even Skywishes looked taken aback.

"You sure you want to do this?" she asked.

Fluttershy was absolutely sure she did not want to do it. Walking up there into a potential trap screamed out against all her self-preservation instincts. But she had to do it. She had to do it for Dinky's sake if there was the slightest chance that the young unicorn was still alive. She met Skywishes's dark green eyes with her turquoise ones. "It's like you said. We're the only two with code words Dinky knows about. And..." Her voice faltered, but she forced herself to continue. "...and if any changelings are lurking in there, they'd probably be more likely to recognize me in this camouflage than you in that armor."

Skywishes gave her a single acknowledging nod, and Twilight put a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. "We'll be right here, ready to jump in and help at the first sign of trouble."

"Thank you, Twilight," Fluttershy whispered, before stepping cautiously out from behind the tree. She flinched as her hoof crunched a patch of gravel on the path. In her current tense state, the noise seemed as loud as a cannon shot. She instinctively tried to flutter her wings, to lift herself off the ground so she could avoid any more patches of gravel ... only to get a reminder that her wings were now gone from her back as if they had never existed. She looked back up at her cottage, the path to it now seeming a hundred treacherous miles long. A soft whimper escaped her lips and a shiver ran down her spine. Her now-stumpy tail tried to tuck itself between her legs. As afraid as she might feel, she had to go up there. For Dinky's sake. Taking in a deep breath to steady herself, she began setting each hoof down carefully, testing the ground with each step before putting her weight on it. With every step she also found herself darting glances all around her, feeling exposed in a way she had never experienced before.

After what felt like a painful, hours-long journey but was probably only minutes, she finally reached the front door. Lifting a trembling hoof, she knocked, and softly called out, "Hello? It's Wasp."

"Whistler," she heard Dinky's voice croak. But to her astonishment, it didn't seem to be coming from behind the door! It sounded as if it had come from behind her! Fluttershy looked in that direction just as she heard the door in front of her open.

"Fluttershy, watch out!" Twilight shouted, just before a body slammed into Fluttershy, knocking her onto her back. Looking up, she found herself face to semitransparent face with a snarling changeling! She felt herself freeze in stunned terror, but the next moment a blast of magenta light struck the changeling, knocking it away from her. She crab-walked in an attempt to put more distance between herself and the downed changeling, but a turquoise aura suddenly encased her back legs and began dragging her toward the open cottage door. She shrieked and grabbed at the edge of the open door. When it slammed shut, she was sandwiched between it and the door frame, the former pressing into her chest and the latter digging into her spine. She cried out in pain as the changeling or changelings behind the door jerked her viciously back and forth, trying to loosen her hold on the door.

Then Twilight's magenta magic surrounded her and began trying to pull her back outside. A moment later Skywishes was there as well, grabbing Fluttershy's hooves in her own and hauling on them. Fluttershy saw the changeling who had first attacked her pushing itself to its feet behind Skywishes. But before it could go after the armored pegasus, Spike barreled forward, ramming the changeling in the chest. Fluttershy had a brief glimpse of him clamping his mouth over the changeling's shoulder, with green and orange sparks flashing from the corners of his mouth. Then the fighting dragon and changeling tumbled out of her line of sight and she was too busy trying to kick free of the magic imprisoning her back legs.

For several terrible moments they struggled and Fluttershy felt as if her body was going to be ripped in half, but then she, Twilight and Skywishes won the tug of war! Skywishes stumbled backward and landed on her back as Fluttershy shot forward. They lost hold of each other's hooves and Fluttershy sailed over her fence to tumble into the mud below. Briefly stunned, she lay there while the sounds of fighting raged above her. Then there was movement to her left and she flinched.

"Whistler," a mound of earth croaked, before one end of it lifted, revealing itself to be Dinky, bundled in the torn camouflage Skywishes had left at the cottage. She looked awful. When Fluttershy had last seen her, most of her forelock had been burned away but now all her blonde mane seemed to have been hacked off save for a few jagged tufts here and there. Its absence made the combination of sickly pallor and nasty bruises showing through her lilac coat all the more prominent.

Fluttershy wondered how on earth Dinky had ended up outside in this state, but there was no time to question her now. Especially not when she had just given the code word confirming her identity.

"Wasp," Fluttershy whispered to the teenager before looking back up to where Twilight, Spike, and Skywishes were still struggling with the changelings.

"Down here!" she called up to them. "Everyone, Dinky's down here! She's outside with us!"

"We're coming! Hang on!" Twilight shouted. This was followed by a lightning-like flash, and a blast of magenta magic that radiated out from the overhang above Fluttershy. Looking up, she thought she saw the faintly shimmering outlines of semitransparent changelings tumbling through the air. While the changelings were still trying to right themselves, Fluttershy saw Skywishes leap down from the overhang. The armored pegasus used her wings to slow her fall and landed just a few feet from Fluttershy. Spike was straddling Skywishes's withers and his arms were wrapped around her helmeted head. A moment later Twilight landed next to them as well. Above them, Fluttershy saw the faintly gleaming outlines of semitransparent changelings. But as these changelings swooped down on them, Spike leaned forward and spat a blast of flames that umbrellaed out over him and the four ponies, forcing the changelings to fly back out of his range in the process.

"Everyone, grab onto me!" Twilight ordered, and as Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut against the fire's blinding light, she grabbed Dinky's foreleg in one hoof, and one of Twilight's wing joints in the other.

Behind the shield of fire, Twilight's horn flashed with brilliant light as she teleported herself, Spike, and her three fellow ponies away from the scene.

As Discord slowly came to, he tried to open his eyes but his eyelids felt as if they weighed a ton. He didn't seem able to move anything else either for that matter. In theory this should be frightening, but somehow his brain couldn't seem to muster up the energy to worry. Am I ... drugged? He thought he heard voices around him and a faint beeping sound but was unable to do more than dully listen to them.

"What's his condition?" said a male voice he didn't recognize.

"He seems to be stabilizing," said a second, apprehensive, male voice that he felt he might have heard somewhere before but couldn't quite place. "But I've never had the opportunity to examine a draconequus before, let alone operate on one, so I have to rely on a lot of guesswork. I mean, just look at this wound on his head. It not only split his skull nearly in half but it was backed by magic. If he'd been one of us, an injury like this would have been instantly fatal."

"Then how's he still alive if that head is about as close to pony-like as he seems to get biologically?"

"As near as I can tell, when that wound was inflicted, his chaotic magic tried to keep him alive by going into overdrive, and spilling over onto everything around him. But again, I've never had to treat a draconequus before, so I don't know what's usual for them. I'm just used to patching up ponies." There was a pause, then he added, "Maybe we'd be better off calling in a vet. At least they'd know more about working with all these different animal parts."

Discord was scandalized. Granted he knew his mismatched appearance often unsettled ponies, and it always gave him a thrill of pleasure when it did, but that did not regulate him to the position of merely some oddball creature to be gaped at! He was the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony for crying out loud! A little more respect was in order!

He was just about to try and put on a display to remind these ponies just who they were dealing with when the second one, the one who seemed to be in charge, spoke up again.

"But on second thought, none of the vets I know have ever worked with animals packed with the kind of magic he has. If it weren't for those gold cuffs inhibiting his power, he'd probably be doing to this place what he did to Foal Mountain."

"Why, what happened to Foal Mountain?"

"Didn't you hear? That's where they caught him. Apparently he was doing that routine he's been doing all over Equestria for the past year, turning that mountain chaotic from the inside out, before the Royal Sisters flew in and brought him back out burned, cuffed, unconscious, and with his head busted open." There was another pause before he continued. "And I shudder to think what sort of fight he was putting up if they had to resort to this sort of attack to stop him."

It wasn't them who did this, you idiot! Discord shouted inside his head, but all that came out of his mouth was a slurred "Washn't dem did dis iddit..."

"Shoot, the sedative is wearing off," cried the second pony. "Get me more horse tranquilizer! See what I mean about guess work? His system keeps burning through everything at different rates than we calculated for his size and weight."

Discord thought he might have felt something pierce the side of his neck, but he couldn't be sure, as his brain suddenly seemed to go all sluggish.

"Frankly, I don't see why you're even going to all the trouble to keep this lousy murderer alive," he thought he heard the first pony mutter as he drifted into unconsciousness.

"I'm doing it on Princess Celestia's orders. Maybe she's hoping that if we keep him alive we can force him to tell us how to successfully turn Derpy right-side out again. Or at least tell us what he did with her missing younger daughter."

Fluttershy suddenly found herself surrounded by leaves, and wondered where Twilight had taken them.

But before she could ask, she heard the alicorn whisper-shout, "Everypony stay as still as you can while I cast an invisibility spell!" There was a bright flash of light, and when Fluttershy looked down at her body, she saw only leaves. She raised a hoof in front of her face, and the air in front of her shimmered and wavered oddly.

"Stay still!" Twilight's voice hissed next to her. "The more you move, the faster the spell weakens and wears off!"

Fluttershy obediently froze, but then an angry shout behind her forced her to whirl around.

"Blast! We almost had them!"

Looking in the direction of the voice, she found herself looking down from the leafy top of her cottage, while the faint outlines of semitransparent changelings darted about below. As a couple of the changelings looked up in her direction, she couldn't keep from instinctively huddling down in the leaves, in spite of Twilight's warning to stay still. While she didn't make a sound outwardly, inwardly she was screaming her head off, wondering what on earth had prompted Twilight to teleport them here instead of far, far away.

"Well, it's not a total loss," said another changeling. "At least we now know old Skew-eyes's daughter is with Twilight and Fluttershy, and Twilight's pet dragon."

Fluttershy thought she heard Spike make a soft disgruntled rumble next to her.

"Fat lot of good that does us," snapped the first changeling. "They're probably on the other side of Equestria by now!"

"Even if they are, they can't stay there forever," the second one pointed out. "More likely they went to a place they know and feel safe at. And considering how we've been observing them for the past decade..." The second changeling trailed off, but the first one seemed to brighten at these words.

"Ah, right. We can put all the other changelings on alert. Have them watching every place we know Twilight and her buddies go. Their homes, their friends' houses, their families' houses, the library—"

"So many libraries!"

"—the apple farm, the boutique—"

"And who says we changelings even have to do all the watching ourselves? We can leak word to some of the real ponies that the princess and her friends have vanished and to be on the alert for any sign of their whereabouts. We can even imply that Discord is behind the disappearances, which will make them even more desperate to find those poor, missing ponies, and give us even higher emotions to feed on."

"Heh heh, as if we need any more," the first changeling chuckled. Fluttershy could practically hear it licking its lips. "It's like an all-you-can-eat-buffet already." Then its good mood seemed to fade. "Which is probably why we didn't sense the little unicorn when we first got here. All the emotions pouring out of Ponyville blocked hers."

The second one shrugged. "Small price to pay for all the power we've been absorbing. Come on, let's get back to the Queen, tell her what's going on, and then get a lockdown on all Twilight's potential hiding places."

The second changeling started to fly forward, but the first one stayed where it was. "Hey, don't you think one of us should stay here, just in case those ponies come back?"

"I don't think they'll be coming back, knowing we're here. But we can always put someone here later. We'll flush those ponies out into the open soon enough."

And with that, the changelings flew off. For several moments there was silence, as the four ponies and the dragon watched and waited to make sure the changelings really were gone. Then there was a brief flash of magenta light, and Twilight lifted the invisibility spell so they could all look at each other.

"This is bad." said Spike.

"This is very bad," Twilight concurred. "This is really really bad." Her voice was slowly but surely getting higher and more agitated. "They might have left but they'll be back soon! What do we do?! You heard them! They know every place we've been in the past ten years! We have no place to go! No place to hide! No place they don't know about!"

"Oh, yes, you do." Skywishes's flat voice was such a contrast with Twilight's panicked one, that it drew everyone's attention to her. She wasn't looking at any of them, but was instead looking out into the distance, as if she were completely unaffected by the current situation. "There's one place you haven't been to in the past ten years."

She turned back to face them. "My TreeHAB."

Chapter 2. Jeremiah 9:4

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

Chapter 3. Psalm 88:18

Chapter 3

"You have removed lover, and friend far from me; My acquaintances are in darkness."—Psalms 88:18

Skywishes pushed herself up onto her hooves. "Bleh, I'm going to bed."

"That's it?!" Applejack demanded, leaping to her own hooves to glare at the pegasus. "How can you even think about sleep at a time like this?!"

"Because I haven't slept since Tuesday," Skywishes replied, cricking her neck, "and I need it." She turned away from the group, only for Twilight to call out to her this time.

"Wait a minute! I just remembered another way we can contact Celestia!" She raised a front hoof, exposing the heart-shaped charm on its underside. "Who else still has a charm like this?"

A quick inventory revealed that apart from her only Dinky and Highflyer still had their hoof charms.

"Both of you!" Twilight ordered. "Slam those charms against the floor and will them to break, quick!"

Skywishes's eyes widened. "Wait, Twilight—!"

But the three ponies had already brought their hooves down. Fluttershy braced herself for the shriek of the blaring alarm, but instead there was only a faint crackling sound. And as everypony watched in shock, the charms crumbled into dust.

Everypony that is, except Skywishes.

"What the hey were you trying to do?! Advertise our whereabouts to all of Equestria?!" she berated Twilight through clenched teeth. "You think I took the trouble of getting all of you here, just to bring a bunch of changelings down on us?!"

"And while we're safe in here, that same bunch of changelings is probably going after our families!" Applejack shot back before Twilight could respond.

Skywishes shut her eyes, and wearily massaged the bridge of her muzzle with a hoof. "We can't do your families any good if we get caught as well, and I'm too tired to care about them anymore."

Applejack snorted contemptuously. "Of course you wouldn't care about them. It's not like you've got anything to lose when the only family you've got has been rotting in the ground for the past eleven years!"

Several ponies sucked in their breath at this. Skywishes didn't open her eyes, or take her hoof away from the bridge of her muzzle, but her whole posture seemed to tense up, her wings lifting an inch off her back.

"Applejack!" Rarity exclaimed, shocked at her friend.

"Low blow, Apps," Highflyer muttered disgustedly.

Maybe it was just his use of that loathed nickname, but Applejack turned her glare on the masked stallion. "Sure, take her side. It's not like you have any family to worry about either!"

"Applejack!" Rarity repeated as Screwjob started to say, "Well, there is—"

"Jobs! Shut your mouth!" Highflyer snarled.

For a brief moment Screwjob's expression went defiant, and he opened his mouth to reply, only for Highflyer to cut him off with a sharp, "No!"

Screwjob gave his fellow wrestler a second more considering look before Highflyer growled, "Not a word." Which seemed to convince Screwjob to hold his tongue. Fluttershy wondered what he had been about to say, but given Highflyer's vehemence at keeping him silent, she felt now might not be the best time to pursue the subject.

Applejack on the other hoof, was too busy turning her temper on Rarity to care about the wrestlers' exchange. "And as for you! You cared enough to save a stupid trunk of clothes but you couldn't be bothered to protect my sister!"

Rarity looked too shocked at this accusation to respond, but Spike bristled to her defense with a sharp, "Hey!"

"Applejack, that's enough!" Twilight added.

Applejack stared incredulously at them. "Don't any of you care that our families are in danger out there?!"

"Shut up!" Skywishes bellowed. "Just shut up!" She marched over to the section of floor they'd entered through and kicked the panel open. "If you don't stay quiet, I'll throw you down there for the forest to deal with. Got it?!"

When she was met with silence, she exhaled gustily. "Good." She pulled the panel shut again. "Now for the second time: I'm. Going. To. Bed." She stalked past the other ponies when Fluttershy's small tentative voice reached her.

"Um, Skywishes?" Fluttershy fought the urge to cower and squirm when Skywishes seemed to skewer her with those hard cold eyes. "Um, where should the rest of us sleep?" she asked, trying to keep her tone placating.

The hard look in Skywishes's eyes seemed to soften a tad before she turned away from Fluttershy. "Anywhere. I don't care. Scrounge around. Just give me some peace." And with that she walked away from the group, disappearing around a curved wall, and presumably heading to wherever her bed was located. Fluttershy noted absently that she'd never actually seen where Skywishes slept on her first visit to the TreeHAB.

She turned back to the rest of the group. Skywishes's outburst seemed to have cowed the lot of them, so Fluttershy decided to try smoothing things over.

"It's probably best we all get to sleep as well," she said gently. While she suspected (or at least wanted to believe) that Skywishes's threat to throw them out was all bark and no bite, she wasn't completely sure. Plus, even without taking that into consideration, it was probably best that they keep their voices down as there was no telling just what might hear them outside. She turned to Dinky, Highflyer, and Screwjob. "You three should especially get some rest, since you're still recovering."

Dinky, who had spent the whole argument stretched out exhausted on the floor, lifted her head enough to give Fluttershy a wry weary smile. "No arguments here."

"About those sleeping arrangements..." said Screwjob, darting a calculating glance at Applejack and grinning. "We could probably all sleep in a big pile like—"

"No!" was Applejack's immediate response before glaring at the wrestler. "And you better not try to go stealing kisses or anything like that while I'm sleeping."

He gave her a mock-indignant look. "Why, Apps, I wouldn't think of it."

She arched a skeptical eyebrow, and he rolled his head around in defeat.

"Okay, so I think about it a bunch, but I'm not actually going to do it."

"Yeah, like I believe that," she muttered.

"Would the Screwjob Stipulation convince you?"

"The what?"

"Cross my heart, hope to die, may High hit me right in the eye if I lie."

Applejack grimaced. "I think I'll stick with the Pinkie Promise."

"Yeah, but with that one there's no chance of me getting punched, so where's the fun in that?" Then his expression sobered. "Plus ... I know this probably sounds tacky but isn't the Pinkie Promise a bit obsolete now that...?"

There was a thump of Highflyer's hoof hitting his masked forehead as he groaned, "Come on, Jobs..."

Even so, Screwjob's question caused Fluttershy to look around, realizing it was the first time since she had met Skywishes that all her closest friends were assembled. All of them. Judging by their expressions, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, and Rarity were also coming to the same realization.

"Twilight darling," said Rarity in a voice that clearly feared the answer, but still had to ask. "Isn't there any chance that ... that they're not dead?"

Twilight's head bowed. "I wish there was, Rarity. How I wish there was, but I ran every possible test I could on their remains, and they matched Rainbow and Pinkie in a way that couldn't have been faked."

"So they really are ..." Rarity's voice broke. "Gone." Her wall of control collapsed and she buried her face in her hooves, sobbing. The fact that she wasn't doing her usual theatrical wailing in an over-the-top display of grief made the sight only harder to bear.

Fluttershy didn't remember rushing to Rarity's side, but suddenly she and the rest of her friends were there, all clinging to each other. They wept for their murdered friends, for all the ponies now out there unaware of the threat currently sneaking up on them in the guise of friends and loved ones, and at their own inability to fix the situation.

And Fluttershy also wept for the former partner whose whereabouts and welfare she still didn't know.

Sometime later that night, Fluttershy lay in the dark, squirming about on a bundle of camouflage she had formed into a make-shift mattress. Nearby she could make out the dim forms of the other six ponies and the one dragon all sleeping on similar bundles. The day's events plus that last crying session had left Fluttershy exhausted enough to fall asleep, but ... for some reason she just couldn't seem to do it.

Don't kid yourself Fluttershy, said a small voice in the back of her head. You know why you can't fall asleep. It's because of Discord.

Fluttershy felt herself blushing. It was true. She was afraid that if she fell asleep she would see him in her dreams as she had so many, many times over the past year. Dreams she had shared with nopony, and the thought of why made her blush all the deeper. If the dreams had been nightmares, she would certainly have confided in her friends about them, but they had been far from nightmares. They had been ... wonderful. They often had strange puzzling surroundings that ordinarily would have frightened her, but all her usual anxiety seemed to be swept away as soon as Discord showed up. For those cherished moments of sleep, it was as if Discord had never left her, as if...

Fluttershy's head jerked up as she felt herself nodding off. Ever since her realization earlier that day that she loved Discord, part of her had been longing for a chance to escape into one of those dreams where she could confess her newly-discovered feelings to him and just know from the way he treated her that he felt the same way. But at the same time another part of her dreaded having such a wonderful dream only to wake later and be forced to remember how far it was from reality.

She looked toward a blind-covered window and wondered where her love was now. Was he even still alive?

A low groan from nearby jerked her out of these thoughts and she looked in its direction to see Highflyer with his head, chest, and one front leg resting on Dinky's side. Whether by accident or intention, the young unicorn had ended up sleeping between the two wrestlers, and now lay back-to-back with Screwjob, while facing Highflyer. Or rather she would have been facing Highflyer if the tiny pegasus hadn't partially migrated on top of her in his sleep. He let out another groan as he shifted slightly, and Fluttershy wondered if his joints were paining him again. If so, should she try massaging them?

She got up and padded softly over to him. The room's current darkness, combined with the fact that most of his facial features were, as usual, hidden in his mask made it difficult to read his expression but it seemed to be relaxed. He seemed to be dry-eyed as well. Neither he nor Screwjob had joined her and the rest of her friends in their earlier crying session. Anypony who hadn't known the wrestlers long might have thought they didn't care about the murders, but—

Hadn't known them long?! the small voice in the back of her head piped up. Fluttershy, you've barely known them five days! Not even a week!

While she had already known this on a subconscious level, it still stunned her to think that in less than a week she and her friends had gone from following their ordinary everyday routines ... to this.

Highflyer let out another groan, pulling her from her musing again. It would probably be best to loosen up his muscles. She put her hooves on his shoulder, only to have the still-sleeping wrestler bare his teeth and roll over enough to lash out at her with the leg connected to that shoulder. Fluttershy let out a small yip as she stumbled backward and landed on her rump, just barely avoiding first his swiping foreleg, and the follow up double kick that lifted his whole lower body off the floor.

His back hooves thudded sharply against the floor and he mumbled something unintelligible as he lifted his head. Judging by the way it was weaving about, he was probably only half-awake.

Not wanting him to wake anypony else up, she quickly tried to soothe him, whispering, "Shhh. It's okay, Highflyer. It's all right."

The wrestler yawned widely, and let his head drop back down onto Dinky's neck. On second thought, maybe it was better to just let him sleep for now. Especially since neither his groaning nor his thumping about seemed to have woken up anypony else. Dinky and Screwjob hadn't stirred even though Highflyer was practically on top of them. A likely testament to just how exhausted they really were.

Fluttershy looked to her other friends who were also fast asleep. She noticed Spike's head poking out from under Twilight's wing, and felt her thoughts drifting back to that shocking moment when they learned just what that new spell Princess Celestia had placed on Spike actually did. What had the Sun Princess been thinking to simply cut off their only means of contacting her like that?!

How do you know it was really Celestia who did that?

Fluttershy wasn't sure which was worse. The idea that a changeling had taken Celestia's place to put such things in motion, or the actual princess herself doing it.

Fluttershy padded to the nearest window and peeked out through a chink in the blinds. The sky must have still been overcast because there wasn't even a single star visible in the black night sky. It was as if the TreeHAB were floating all alone in a vast empty space. She thought of Mache Max, and wondered if he would be able to find them. For that matter would any of the changelings out there be able to find them? How could she know the TreeHAB wasn't surrounded by changelings right now, considering those semitransparent bodies were as good as invisible in the current darkness?

As she sunk deeper and deeper into these troubling thoughts, a small shaft of moonlight suddenly came through a tiny break in the cloud cover. At the sight of it, Fluttershy's mind flashed to the memory of Celestia (Maybe-Celestia, she mentally amended.) describing how she and Luna were bound both to each other and to the sun and the moon.

She thought of how Maybe-Celestia had mentioned banishing her sister not to be cruel, but to save both their lives, and by extension the sun and the moon as well. And of how Maybe-Celestia had never really explained why she had kept that summoning spell from Fluttershy, robbing her of the chance to contact Discord ...

The wingless pegasus leaned her head against the wall, gazing up at that small shaft of moonlight, hoping its existence meant both the Princesses were still alive wherever they were. Could this, like Luna's banishment, be another situation where Celestia understood what was going on, but didn't have time to stop and explain it? Was that why she and Luna had vanished so suddenly after ordering Discord be taken to the hospital?

Oh, please let that be the case, Fluttershy prayed, her longing to believe this warring with her feelings of abandonment.

She didn't remember falling asleep, but the next thing she knew she was blinking dazedly out the window at a very pale gray cloudy sky as something soft and warm surrounded her body. Looking down, she saw a pair of coral-colored wings tucking a camouflage-patterned blanket around her.

"Skywishes...?" The name came out sleep-slurred, and when the pegasus in question stepped back, Fluttershy saw that she was dressed in a bulky camouflage coat with a black watch cap hiding most of her mane and pulled down almost to her eyebrows.

"What are—?" Fluttershy started to ask.

"It's a lot colder than it was yesterday, so we've got to get bundled up," said Skywishes, lifting a pile of identical blankets and moving toward the other sleeping ponies. Then she paused and looked back at Fluttershy. "Also I'm going to make hot cocoa. Would you like some?"

Fluttershy felt a little nonplussed at Skywishes's sudden shift from threatening-to-throw-them-out to apparently playing hostess. However, she then noticed just how cold her face (and by extension the air around it) was, and quickly nodded.

Author's Note

Wow, lookie there. A short chapter. *Chuckles* I'd forgotten what those looked like. Yeah, this one ended up being a bit of breather chapter (at least for me) before we jump back into action with Chapter 4.

This is also where I realized that while The Draconequus with the Dragon Tattoo takes place over the course of at least a month, (and likely more) everything in The Ponies who Played with Fire happens in less than a week. (*Chuckles* So guess which one took longer to write.)

Regarding Fluttershy's dreams: *Shakes head ruefully* Oh, Fluttershy, if you only knew...

And as always, thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing.

Chapter 4. Psalm 22:24

Chapter 4
"For He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help."—Psalm 22:24

Skywishes let out a soft "Hmm" of acknowledgment, which was promptly drowned out by a loud groan from Highflyer as he rolled away from Dinky and stretched his forelegs out. Either this groan was far louder than the ones he'd made the previous night or the remaining guests were no longer in as deep a sleep because they began stirring as well.

Fluttershy started to move away from the wall, and winced as pain shot through her body. Clearly she was now paying the price for falling asleep in that awkward leaning-against-the-wall position. While she tried to get the kinks out of her back, she heard Skywishes murmuring her offer of cocoa to the other ponies as she distributed the rest of the blankets among them. By the time Fluttershy had managed to get on her hooves, Skywishes had already disappeared into what was presumably her kitchen area, and the other six ponies and one dragon were up as well.

Despite the warm blankets they were all now wrapped in, an air of apprehension hung over the group as they waited for their host to return. Sure Skywishes had offered them warmth and the promise of a beverage, but after last night was this some sort of last luxury before sending them away? Then there was this very noticeable drop in temperature. Was it only due to winter's arrival, or were the changelings once again strong enough to affect the weather? To possibly cause another blizzard? And had their lashing out at each other the night before been enough to help fuel that?

After what felt like hours but was more likely only minutes, the scent of chocolate drifted toward them and Skywishes flew into view, holding a tray with about a dozen ceramic mugs on it. She set the tray down in the center of the room and motioned for her guests to join her there.

"Pick out the mug you like while I bring in the cocoa."

"Um, Skywishes?" Twilight said after they had all taken a mug. "Why do all these mugs say 'World's Greatest Grandpa'?"

"Three-for-one sale," said Skywishes before flying back into the kitchen and returning with a large soup pot. Taking out the ladle, she began serving the soup pot's contents—a concoction of hot water, powdered milk, cocoa powder, and sugar—into the aforementioned mugs. "No marshmallows I'm afraid. You'll have to make-do with cinnamon or cayenne pepper," she added, sprinkling some of the latter into her own drink.

She took a careful sip of her cocoa and held it in her mouth for several seconds before swallowing and looking around at the group. "Okay. I've had some rest and things don't look as bad as they did last night."

"Really?!" The tension in the room visibly lessened, and Skywishes quickly raised a hoof for silence.

"Don't get me wrong, things still aren't great, but we do have a few options that might give us a better chance of surviving this situation. For starters, Twilight you remember that invisibility spell you used to hide us from the changelings?"

"Yessss," said Twilight, reluctance showing in the way she drew the word out. "But if you're thinking I should put it on all of us so we can sneak around Equestria, that won't work. The more you move around the faster the spell wears off, remember?"

"Yes, I remember. But it occurred to me: Couldn't you do that same spell on an inanimate object?" She paused a beat before adding, "Like the TreeHAB?"

"Oh!" Twilight's eyes lit up in comprehension, then narrowed thoughtfully as she muttered, "Let's see, I'd probably have to test it. Make sure it doesn't just turn the TreeHAB's outside invisible while leaving everyone and everything inside it still visible ... but in theory it should work."

"Well, if it does," said Skywishes. "That will make the HAB, and by extension us, a lot harder to find. Now, our next issue is supplies like food and water. We could be staying here for some time, and callous as it may sound we can't help anypony out there if we don't take care of ourselves first.

"The good news is we don't have to worry about trying to find a water source since my water-reclaimer," she gestured to the network of pipes and tubes covering the ceiling, "daily collects water and stores it for me to use. Now that doesn't mean we should all just go about splurging and using a bunch of water for every little thing. We'll have to be frugal, maybe ration out how much water we use per day, but if we do that we shouldn't have to worry about running out of water."

Screwjob looked up from his cocoa. "So does that mean things like shared showe—?"

"Don't even finish that thought," Applejack growled into her own cocoa, cutting him off.

Skywishes just rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Now as far as food goes, before Fluttershy found me at the post office, I'd just finished stocking this place with enough supplies to last me a month aka thirty days. However, with nine of us now here instead of one, those same thirty-days-worth of supplies will only last us a little over three days. If we all went on half-rations we could probably stretch it out to a week, but considering several of us are injured and need to recover, we'll probably need all the strength we can get."

She looked around the group. "So in other words, we've got three days to figure out how we can increase our food supply and put that plan into action. At this point I'm open to any suggestions." She paused then added, "And you might want to drink your cocoa before it gets cold."

The whole group began drinking their cocoa—some taking it plain and some adding the cinnamon and/or cayenne pepper Skywishes had suggested—partly to get some warmth in their bellies, and partly to give themselves something to do while they mused on the dilemma Skywishes had laid out before them. After several moments, Rarity spoke.

"Suppose I use my talent for finding gems?" When this drew puzzled looks from the rest of the group she quickly added, "I mean, I know we ponies can't really eat them, but it would at least give Spike another food source—"

"Hey, you might have something there," said Applejack.

"How so?" asked Skywishes.

"Well, I'd have to see what sort of supplies you have, but if you have the right ingredients, we could use some gems to make that potion I used to disguise myself as a Crystal pony—"

"—and use it to disguise ourselves as Crystal ponies," Skywishes guessed, narrowing her eyes speculatively. "Do you still know the recipe?"

Applejack snorted ruefully. "Sure 'nuff. I spent far too many years brewin' that stuff up."

Skywishes cast a quick look over the group. "That would make it easier to sneak into the surrounding towns and spy on things..." Her pinions flexed idly. "Of course, some of us might have to hide wings or horns, but staying all bundled up may be enough to take care of that. Especially since wearing a bunch of layers won't look too suspicious if the weather stays as cold as it is now."

"You really should let me tailor these outfits when we get back," said Rarity, plucking at the shapeless camo she and Spike were now wearing. Skywishes had quite a collection of camouflage coats, cloaks, jackets, jerkins, shirts, and pants, so all her guests had found something to wear, but it was clear Skywishes's wardrobe was built on the one-size-fits-all principle. One Rarity heartily disagreed with.

"Yeah, yeah. Sure. Whatever you want," Skywishes muttered, her attention clearly focused on dragging one of her pulley-system suspended baskets to the edge of the floor panel she had opened. Scarcely had she settled it on the edge of the hole, then Twilight flew back into the TreeHAB through the same hole.

"The spell worked," she reported. "Now you can't see any sign of the TreeHAB from the outside, even if you put your face right up against it." Then she turned to Spike. "Now, tell me again: What's the plan?"

"I've got it, Twilight," Spike said, sounding exasperated. "Rarity and I go into the forest. She tracks down a bunch of jewels, and while she's looking, I plot our coordinates and send them back to you so we can find our way back here, I know! We've been over it five times!" The group had discussed tactics for some time but had finally decided it would be best to send out a small gem-hunting party (namely Rarity and Spike) while Dinky, Highflyer, and Screwjob got more rest, and the remaining ponies searched for more solutions to increase their food supply.

"And your code words?" Twilight prompted.

"She's Regal and I'm Seconds, I got it!" Spike snapped.

Twilight looked hurt. "Well, I'm just worried about the two of you going out there alone!"

"I know," Spike sighed, his irritation seeming to lessen. He reached up and wrapped an arm around her withers. "I know there's danger out there, Twilight, and I'll be careful. We both will be."

"I know you will," Twilight murmured, wrapping a wing around his back.

Applejack watched them, then turned to Rarity and blurted out, "Rarity, I'm sorry about what I said last night! I was worried about Apple Bloom and I—"

"Oh, it's all right, darling," Rarity said quickly. "I'm worried about her as well."

Applejack lowered her eyes. "I know," she said softly. "You were there for her all those years when I wasn't."

The unicorn seemed touched by this, and moved to put a hoof on the earth pony's shoulder. Then she and Spike climbed into the basket and Skywishes lowered them through the open panel. After a few minutes there were several tugs on the rope and Skywishes pulled the basket up, now empty.

Twilight sighed at the sight of it. "I know Spike's not a baby anymore, but he's still so little and—"

"So is Highflyer and he's legitimately one of the toughest guys in Equestria," said Screwjob from his makeshift mattress. "But don't tell the runt I said that."

"They don't have to, I heard," Highflyer muttered from his own makeshift mattress.

"Plus, Spike's got the added advantage of thick scales and the ability to breathe fire. Not a bad arsenal," Screwjob went on just as if Highflyer hadn't spoken.

Applejack lifted her head at the sound of the wrestlers' voices. "Uh, Highflyer ... about last night. ... I know I accused you of not having any family to worry about, and I..." She seemed to fumble for words then asked, "You ... don't have any family out there, do you?"

The masked stallion hesitated. "Uh ... no! No, I don't." But there was something about the hesitation that made Fluttershy suspect he wasn't being completely honest. Especially when she noticed Screwjob giving him an odd look.

Highflyer, however, ignored this, sat up and gave himself a shake. "Don't worry about it, Apps. If having no family is your idea of an insult..." He let out a short laugh. "Trust me, I've heard a lot worse than that."

"Boy howdy," Screwjob declared before putting his head down and shutting his visible eye. Fluttershy wondered about the look he'd given Highflyer, and what if anything the tiny stallion might be hiding, but decided now probably wasn't the best time to pry. And considering Applejack hadn't even objected to his use of the nickname, she was probably currently feeling too relieved at his quick forgiveness to be nosey.

"Come on, Applejack," said Skywishes. "Let's see if I have the rest of the ingredients you need to make that Crystal pony potion."

"Hey, Skywishes," said Twilight. "That just reminded me. When you mentioned thirty-days-worth of food supplies, were you including those bags of seeds I saw in the greenhouse area?"

"No, why?"

"I thought you might not have, since plants tend to take a while to grow, but I got to wondering: What if we planted those seeds and I used magic to speed up their growth?"

Skywishes considered. "Hmm, that might help solve our food problem ... but it might also be like that whole situation where trying to heal a non-magical injury with magic makes it worse than just letting it heal naturally..." She looked to Applejack. "You're the farmer. Do you know if there are any downsides to using magic to speed up plant growth?"

"Well, it can make plants grow faster, but it also strips out some of their nutrients and exhausts the soil a lot faster than letting them grow normally."

Skywishes nodded thoughtfully. "In other words, not a very sustainable system in the long run. Still, less nutritious food for a short run is probably better than no food at all in the long run. Tell you what—we'll keep that in reserve for now and hopefully won't have to use it."

Meanwhile deep in the Everfree, the little equine awoke shivering. She couldn't remember the last time she had ever felt so terribly cold, and there was nothing pleasant about this new sensation. She huddled into a ball but her skeletal frame was no good at holding in heat.

Suddenly she was distracted from this discomfort when she heard a rustling sound. She looked about wildly for its source, when she heard a shrill screech above her and looked up to see an unknown dirty white shape shooting straight down at her. The little equine let out a frightened trill of her own and rolled away. Coming up on her hooves, she hissed at the shape and spat a ball of fire out at it. The fireball missed and struck the ground in front of her instead. The dirty white shape shrieked and flapped away, disappearing into the trees above. The little equine watched the foliage above warily, braced for the shape's return. As she watched, she felt heat wafting from the patch of ground her flames had struck, and shivered as it caressed her chilled body. Looking down, she noticed that the fire was going out and the heat was leaving with it. Now the cold felt even worse. She wanted the fire back, both for its heat and because its presence seemed to have frightened off whatever that thing was. She hissed and spat a second ball of fire onto another patch of ground.

With Twilight, Applejack, and Skywishes checking the contents of the greenhouse, and with Dinky, Highflyer, and Screwjob all resting, Fluttershy was left feeling a bit superfluous. Not sure what else to do, she began taking inventory of her own injuries. Her right front hoof was tender and blistered from that unknown liquid she had accidentally put it in, her middle was bruised where it had slammed in her cottage door, and there were the puncture wounds Discord's claws had made in her left shoulder. The shoulder still felt sore, but the bandaged wounds already seemed to be scabbing over.

Then she looked down at the stump that was her tail. While none of the other ponies had commented on it, she had been feeling ridiculous with such a long mane and such a short tail. Hmm, maybe that was something she could fix...

"Skywishes?" she asked when she noticed the other ponies were returning from the greenhouse. "Do you have a knife or some scissors I could possibly borrow?"

"How about this?" Skywishes pulled a folded knife from her pocket and flipped it open with three rapid clacks.

Highflyer's ears pricked up at the sound and he lifted his head. "Ah, butterfly knife. It's been a while since I've seen one of those."

Fluttershy took the offered knife, and as Skywishes moved with Twilight and Applejack to check the supplies in the kitchen, Fluttershy began sawing at her mane and forelock. The results were rather rough and choppy, but it left her with enough cut-off hair to make a new set of tail extensions. When she was finished, her new "tail" had the same rough choppy look as her mane and was a good deal shorter than her original extensions but still a decent length. She swished the new tail experimentally, enjoying having the familiar weight back. It might be miniscule in the grand scheme of things, but she felt a good deal less self-conscious now.

She carefully folded up the knife and was about to go return it to Skywishes when Highflyer called out to her. "Hey, can I see that knife?"

Seeing no harm in the request, Fluttershy held the closed-up knife out to him.

Highflyer took it with a murmured, "Let's see if I can remember how to do this..." and flipped the blade out just as quickly as Skywishes had but with a lot more flourishes, causing Fluttershy to flinch back reflexively. Highflyer flipped the knife closed, then flipped it back open again, this time throwing in some showier moves. The blade and its two handles were a trio of clacking, flashing blurs as he switched them from one hoof to the other, and even tossed the knife into the air, deftly catching it as it came down. Fluttershy watched apprehensively, fearful that he would accidentally slice his hooves open, but he handled the blade like one accustomed to using it. Come to think of it, he had shown the same competency when giving Dinky knife-handling pointers back at the cottage...

Fluttershy glanced toward the young unicorn who was currently fast asleep under a bundle of camouflage. After examining Dinky, Twilight had said she would eventually recover her magic and physical strength, but not without a lot of rest. Speaking of rest...

She turned back to Highflyer, who was still entertaining himself with the butterfly knife. "Shouldn't you be trying to sleep? To build up your strength?"

"Not tired," he replied, still flipping the blade about. Then his tone darkened. "And I want to make sure I stay in fighting shape." He punctuated the sentence by flinging the knife down in front of him, burying its blade deep in the wood floor.

Fluttershy gulped as the knife quivered there with one handle sticking up and the other hanging down. She couldn't help imagining how nasty it would be to see that same knife imbedded in flesh rather than wood, so when Highflyer moved to retrieve it, she blurted out, "If you want to stay in fighting shape, how about letting me check how your wings are doing?"

Highflyer paused in wrapping a hoof around the upright knife handle. "Good idea," he said, jerking the knife free and flipping it closed with a quick motion. He didn't seem to be in a hurry to resume his knife play so Fluttershy quickly moved to his side. She was just helping him ease his splinted wings out of his bulky vest when he suddenly reached under the camo jerkin she was wearing and ran a hoof up her spine. Fluttershy froze at the unexpected surprisingly intimate touch, wondering what had prompted it.

"Did it hurt?" he asked. "Losing your wings I mean."

Oh. Fluttershy felt her face flush and looked away while she considered the question. "I guess it didn't really hurt ... but it was scary at the time because I didn't know what Discord's magic was going to do to me."

Highflyer withdrew his hoof. "Have you thought about having Twilight try to magic them back?"

"She tried it," said Fluttershy as she began unwinding his bandages, "but she couldn't undo Discord's magic." That was the short answer, but there was actually more to it than that. When Twilight had failed to restore Fluttershy's wings, she had mentioned there was a chance Discord's death would automatically undo his magic. Of course, it was only a theory, but since then Fluttershy had been secretly dreading the idea of her wings spontaneously reappearing. If it was a choice between them and Discord's life, she'd rather remain flightless forev—

"Shy? You okay?"

She jerked in surprise, unintentionally tugging on the bandages and drawing a pained grunt from Highflyer. He peered over one shoulder at her. "Zoning out back there?"

"N-no, I..." As certain as she was about her feelings for Discord, she still had no idea how, or even if she should reveal those feelings to the other ponies, so she swiftly cast about for another subject. Her gaze lit on the skeletal tattoo that spanned Highflyer's now-unbandaged back from shoulder-to-shoulder and neck-to-tail. The tattoo combined with the scrapes he'd gotten fighting changelings made it look unnervingly like his actual spine was visible through some horrific wound. "This is some impressive tattooing you've got on your back. Really detailed. Did getting it take a long time?"

His mouth twitched in a faint smile. "Yeah, it did actually. Especially since it was designed so that all the ribs and vertebrae in the tattoo match up exactly with the bones in my actual skeleton."

Fluttershy's eyebrows went up at this. "Why go to all that trouble?"

"It makes the chiropractor's job easier."

"No, it makes it easier for me to hit him where it hurts the most," said Screwjob without bothering to lift his head or open his visible eye. Fluttershy chuckled at his comment, but her amusement quickly faded as she went back to tending Highflyer's injuries. Not because of the severity of his wounds—actually the tiny wrestler was in remarkably good condition considering the throttling he'd taken over the past few days—but because looking at his tattoos kept making her think of another set of much more lively tattoos. What would happen to Discord's tattoos if he died? Would they freeze up and become as stationary as Highflyer's? Or would they shrivel up? Or fade away? Or—

"Is that smoke?" Highflyer asked, jerking her out of her musing as he pushed himself up onto all fours.

"Where?" she heard Skywishes ask, and hastily tucked the last of Highflyer's new bandages in place before looking up to see that the coral-colored pegasus had come back from the kitchen along with Applejack and Twilight.

"Out there," said Highflyer, pointing to the window.

Skywishes moved to check. "Hmm. That's odd. The wood shouldn't be dry enough to burn easily this time of the year..."

"What?!" All the ponies—with the exception of Dinky who could still barely even get her hooves under her—rushed to join Skywishes at the window. Sure enough, dark smoke was rising up from a forest of burning trees!

Fluttershy felt fear seize her heart. What would they do?! How could they hope to escape?! How—?!

"It's no big deal," said Skywishes, her dismissive tone snapping Fluttershy's mind out of panic mode. "This tree has survived much worse forest fires than this, and we're high enough up that the flames can't reach us, so if we just keep everything tight shut so the smoke can't get in, we should be fine."

"But what about Spike and Rarity?" Fear filled Fluttershy once again, this time for her friends. "Spike might be fireproof, but Rarity isn't!" And even if Spike was fireproof that didn't make him immune to things like getting squashed by falling branches!

"Oh. Yeah ... them..." Skywishes didn't raise her voice, but her calm demeanor seemed to waver as she frowned down at the smoke and flames.

"We have to get them out of there!" Twilight lunged for the TreeHAB's entrance panel, only for Skywishes to seize her tail and yank her back.

"Don't open that panel!" Skywishes gritted through clenched teeth. "We might be out of reach of the flames, but we're right in the path to get plenty of smoke inhalation up here if we're not care—"

Twilight jerked her tail free, shot Skywishes an angry glare, and vanished in a flash of light.

"—ful." Skywishes groaned. "Oh, great." Then she quickly positioned herself between the floor panel and the remaining ponies. "Don't any of you even think of trying to go after her!"

"But Spike and Rarity—" Applejack started to argue.

"We don't know what direction they went, so we'd just be putting ourselves in danger if we try to go down there looking for them. Especially with all that smoke between us and the grou—"

Suddenly a singed and smoke-blackened Twilight reappeared, coughing violently. Floating next to her was a scroll with charred edges. "Hit's from Spike," she rasped, and her friends clustered around to read it.

"Twilight, we're okay. We found a cave to hide in where the fire and smoke can't reach us. Don't try to come looking for us, at least not until the fire dies down. Trying to put it out with magic doesn't seem to work."

"Yeah, I found that last part out the hard way," Twilight got out between coughs.

What followed were several agonizing hours of watching the Everfree burn and wondering how on earth the fire had started in the first place. Spike had made no mention of causing the fire either by accident or intention, so that ruled him out. Then there was also the fact that Twilight hadn't been able to extinguish it by magic, indicating that it might not be completely natural. Could the changelings have guessed they had taken refuge in the Everfree and set it on fire in an attempt to drive them out?

Finally as it began to get dark outside, the fire died down and the smoke thinned out.

A second scroll flashed into existence in front of Twilight. "It's from Spike again," she reported, holding the unfurled message in her magic. "He says they're still okay; that the fire has gone out in their area, but they don't know where their cave is in relation to the TreeHAB. They were heading east at the time they had to make a run for it, though."

"Well, that settles it," said Skywishes, moving toward the TreeHAB's entrance panel. "I'll go find them."

"I'm coming with you!" said Applejack.

"No," said Skywishes as she lifted a coil of rope off a hook in the wall. She didn't shout but there was a lot of steel in her words. "No, you're not."

"Hey, if you think I'm going to sit back while they're out there, you—"

"You're staying here," Skywishes shot back as she lifted an ax from the wall as well and rested it over one shoulder. "You and Twilight."

Twilight frowned at this. "Wait a minute—"

Skywishes turned to face her. "We'll need both of you to work the greenhouse if we're going to use that speed-up-the-plant-growth plan. Plus, you're the only other flyer we have. We can't afford to lose you if something happens to me."

"Well, if you think something will happen then you definitely need some backup," said Twilight.

"Fine." Skywishes sounded resigned. "I'll take Fluttershy."

"That's not what—" Twilight started to say while at the same time Applejack said, "Look, if this is about last night, I'm—"

"It's not that!" Skywishes snapped. "It's that I need the both of you here more than I do out there. So if I'm taking any other pony along, it's Fluttershy or no one."

"But—"

"It's all right, girls. I'll go with her."

Twilight and Applejack both gave Fluttershy startled looks.

"It'll be okay," she tried to reassure them, then whispered, "Let me talk with her alone."

Understanding dawned on both her friends' faces. While Skywishes hadn't mentioned Applejack's harsh words from the night before, that didn't automatically mean she'd forgiven the earth pony. In fact, despite her claim to the contrary, she was likely still seething over them. We'll have enough problems to worry about without being at each other's throats, Fluttershy thought. But maybe if I talk with Skywishes privately, I can convince her to forgive Applejack. After all, Skywishes had unbent a bit at Fluttershy's gentler approach the night before.

The other ponies backed off, and Twilight jotted down a quick note to Spike, telling him and Rarity to stay where they were, if it was reasonably safe, so that Fluttershy and Skywishes could find them and guide them back to the TreeHAB.

Now Skywishes was flying stealthily through the charred forest with the rope and ax strapped around her middle under her camouflage, and Fluttershy perched on her back. Fluttershy had added a hooded camouflage cloak over the jerkin she was wearing, but the hood kept blowing back, forcing her to hold it in place with one hoof. Maybe she should have chosen a watch cap like the one Skywishes wore instead. Well, it was too late to go back and change that now. She squinted through the haze of smoke that hung over everything. Any time she or Skywishes spotted a cave, they would swoop down in front of it and call their code words into its mouth, but they had yet to hear either Spike or Rarity reply back with their own words.

They had checked at least a dozen caves before Fluttershy felt now might be the time to speak of something besides their code words.

"Skywishes ... please don't be mad at Applejack. She's just really worried about her family. She didn't mean what she said last night. We all know that losing Sunny Daze was hard on you and—"

"Fluttershy, I'm mad with Applejack but not for the reason you think."

"What do you mean?"

Skywishes landed on a tree branch and allowed Fluttershy to dismount so that they were perched side-by-side. Fluttershy glanced down at the forest floor far below and felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. She'd never been a very strong flyer, but it was only now with her wings gone that she realized just how much of a safety net they had actually been for her. Squeezing her eyes shut, she clutched the branch and felt Skywishes wrap a wing around her to steady her.

"Thanks," she whispered, turning her head partly to look away from the ground, and partly to try reading Skywishes's expression. However, when she opened her eyes, it was to see that the coral-colored pegasus was looking away from her. "Skywishes, what's wrong?"

Skywishes remained silent for several seconds before finally answering. "Fluttershy ... the truth is ... Sunny Daze and I ... We weren't close. That picture of us on the HAB wall ... That was the exception rather than the rule. Maybe it would have been different if we were identical twins instead of fraternal ones, but as it was we were just too different in some ways and too much alike in others to get along much as fillies. And as we grew up we drifted even further apart..." Skywishes trailed off as she looked down at her front hooves which were scraping a shallow groove in the tree bark. "Fluttershy, I saw just how worried Applejack was ... is ... about her family and I..." She finally turned enough to meet Fluttershy's eyes, her expression pained. "Fluttershy, I didn't even know Sunny had died until four months after they'd put her in the ground."

Fluttershy couldn't think of anything to say as she tried to digest this new information.

Skywishes looked away again. "And on top of that, I never really made the effort to see her much before that. I always found other things to do..."

"Are you now wishing you had spent more time with her?"

"I don't know. Maybe. ... But at the same time looking back at those instances where we could have gotten together, I just remember feeling like making the effort to try and get along with her was just asking for a headache."

Fluttershy's own feelings had been whipped up into a confused swirl at this. Are you saying ... your sister wasn't that important to you? But if she meant so little to you, why did you put so much time and effort into building the TreeHAB? ... Into making her dream a reality. Aloud she finally said, "Skywishes ... you might not have been very close to your sister, but I'm sure you still cared about her. I'm sure it still hurt to lose her. To lose that chance to ever build a deeper friendship."

Skywishes inhaled audibly, but took care to avoid the smoky haze around them. "You can't lose what you can't attain, Flutt—"

She suddenly went silent as there was a rustling sound below them. Then she looked down and grimaced, which prompted Fluttershy to chance a quick look down as well. Several timber wolves were creeping through the forest below them, all sniffing at the ground and the charred trees.

"I was afraid of this," Skywishes whispered, her wing tightening around Fluttershy. "I've noticed that after a forest fire, a lot of the animals that escape it come back to eat the carcasses of the ones that didn't. And they're not too choosy about what else they find along the way." She pushed herself into a standing position on the branch. "Come on, we've wasted enough time on my moping. As much as I hated to hear it, Applejack was right. My sister has been rotting in the ground for over a decade, and we can't change that."

As they continued searching the burned forest, Fluttershy's mind kept wandering back to Skywishes's revelation regarding her sister. If Skywishes had been intending to clarify things, she had failed because now Fluttershy was second guessing everything she had observed earlier about her fellow pony's behavior.

Just like a certain non-pony you know and love? Or thought you knew?

At the thought of Discord, Skywishes's interrupted statement flashed through Fluttershy's mind: You can't lose what you can't attain.

Well, she had definitely lost her friendship with Discord. Why else would he have gone from saving her life to avoiding her with no explanation for over a year? But what about his love? Had there ever been any chance of him viewing her not just as a friend, but loving her in the way she now knew she loved him? Or had that never been a possibility? Never been ... attainable?

Then she caught sight of a dark shape dragging itself along the ground below them.

"Skywishes, look."

The little equine dragged herself painfully along the ground, wondering just what had gone wrong. She had only wanted some warmth. That was why she had started hawking out flames. How could she have guessed that they would spread to surround her, and that their heat would go from pleasant to painful?

What had followed was a terrifying blur of trying to escape the fire. She could vaguely remember tumbling into a short tunnel that had provided her with some protection from the smoke and flames, but had also gotten hot enough to coat her hairless body in foamy sweat.

Now as she crawled from her hiding place, the foam on her body had dried into a dirt-caked shell. Cold smoky air sent a chill through her far worse than she'd felt before the fire, but she didn't dare try to warm herself the same way again.

Skywishes spiraled down cautiously so she and her passenger could get a better look at the shape Fluttershy had pointed out. The thing was shaped like a pony, probably about the size of a young filly or colt ... but so badly blackened and shriveled.

As they neared the ground and the burnt-looking pony crawling along it, pity welled up in Fluttershy. The poor little thing must have been caught right in the middle of the fire to have ended up so thoroughly burnt from head to hooves like that. What terrible pain it must be in. The fact that it was even still alive was a miracle in itself.

Then just as Skywishes landed, the burnt pony collapsed and lay motionless. Fluttershy jumped off Skywishes's back and was just rushing forward when Skywishes wrapped a wing around her and dropped flat to the ground, taking Fluttershy with her.

"Skywishes—?"

"Don't. Move."

At the urgency in Skywishes's voice, Fluttershy immediately froze. Then she heard a rustling sound all around them and a horrible odor reached her nostrils. She fought the urge to cover her nose, then fought the even more overwhelming urge to jump up and run away screaming as the huge wooden paws of a timber wolf appeared in her peripheral vision. The wolf lowered its head and sniffed at the ground. Had it caught their scent?! The wolf lifted its head out of her line of vision and she heard it sniffing at the air right above her. She could also hear what sounded like more timber wolves moving about behind her, and wondered if they were the same ones she and Skywishes had seen earlier. Not that it mattered. Her heart was pounding so hard she wondered if any of the wolves could possibly hear it—

At that moment there was a loud snort above her, and foul timber wolf breath washed over her, forcing her to try breathing only through her mouth. Then the paws in her peripheral vision moved forward as if their owner was walking past her, and Fluttershy felt a tiny flicker of hope. Maybe she and Skywishes would survive this encounter after all. Maybe the timber wolves had caught their scent, but if both ponies stayed absolutely still and let their camo do its job, they might be able to fool the wolves into thinking the scent was from some long-gone ponies who had passed through the area earlier.

Then Fluttershy's flicker of hope was replaced with a jolt of horror when she noticed the burnt pony was stirring and trying to push itself up onto all fours.

No! she screamed inside her head at it. Stay down! Don't move! Don't let them see you!

But it was already too late.

The timber wolf's huge splintery jaws came down and closed on the pony before lifting it high and tipping back as if intending to swallow the pony whole! Fluttershy let out a noise that was half-gasp, half-hiccup, but at that very moment the burnt pony unleashed a far louder sound that was half-hiss, half-shriek ... and spat fire straight down the timber wolf's throat!

The timber wolf jerked back with a startled yelp, and as it did, Fluttershy saw the tiny pony go flying from its mouth. The pony whirled helplessly through the air and came down to slam painfully into the trunk of a tree. Fluttershy didn't get a chance to see what happened to the pony after that because at that moment Skywishes pulled her close and launched the two of them into the air. Below them now was utter pandemonium! The wolf that had tried to eat the burnt pony was now tearing about wildly with portions of its head on fire, and in the process it kept knocking into the other wolves. Those other wolves either caught on fire as well, or dissolved into piles of logs, branches, and twigs. All the while the air was filled with yelps, howls, and snarls until finally there wasn't a single wolf left standing.

The two ponies landed in a bit of a daze, stunned at how swiftly their situation had changed. As Skywishes released her, Fluttershy caught sight of the burnt pony—which she wasn't so sure was actually a pony anymore given what she'd just seen—lying at the base of the tree it had struck. Fluttershy ran toward the pony-thing as it struggled to its feet, intending to give it aid, but skidded to a halt when the creature turned its orange eyes on her and let out a vicious snarl. Its jaws opened and Fluttershy realized with shock that it had no tongue! Then it hawked a fireball at her. She dodged and the fireball struck the already-scorched earth before quickly dying out. Then the creature stumbled and Fluttershy noticed it was favoring its right front leg. The creature made a thrumming sound in the back of its throat that seemed to express irritation, and Fluttershy wondered how it managed to do that without a tongue.

She took a cautious step forward, and the creature snarled at her again. At this point most ponies would likely have left the creature to its own devices but not Fluttershy. The creature was clearly injured and she knew from personal experience that physical injuries would often turn even the most docile of animals vicious when they didn't know if the pony approaching them was a threat or not.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," she murmured, but got only another snarl in response. This wasn't completely unexpected. Sometimes her voice was all that was needed to calm an animal, but there had also been plenty of cases where the animal had needed more than that to convince it of her good intentions. Unfortunately this was probably going to be a case where the animal wouldn't believe she meant no harm until after she had set and bandaged its broken leg. Which was going to be tricky considering the creature clearly wasn't going to let her anywhere near its vulnerable limb. Of course, she could always use her stare to force the creature to obey her, but she preferred to use that only as a very last resort. Maybe she could use Skywishes's help with the creature...

"Wait here, I'll be right back." Considering the way the creature had been dragging itself along earlier she doubted it would be able to get very far on its three good legs, but one never knew. She turned back to the other pegasus. "Skywishes, could you—? What are you doing?"

What Skywishes appeared to be doing was chopping up several of the largest timber wolf logs into smaller pieces with her ax. "It's not my first choice, but food is food."

It took a few seconds for that to click in Fluttershy's brain and when it did, she was shocked. "Are you saying you ... eat timber wolves?!"

"Like I said they're not my first choice for multiple reasons, but yes. I have eaten them on occasion when food is short. And given our current food situation, I'd rather we have them and not need them, than need them and not have them."

"Well, as a menu item that certainly sounds less than 'Regal,'" said a familiar fancy-accented female voice.

"I 'Seconds' that," said an equally familiar male voice before Spike and Rarity both poked their heads out from behind a tree. "And you are?"

"Oh, Wasp," said Fluttershy unable to come up with a quick way to conceal the code word in a sentence.

"And Cardinal," Skywishes added, pausing in chopping up timber wolf remains. "Were the two of you behind that tree this whole time?"

"No," said Rarity. "We were several yards away, but then we heard the noise and came to investigate."

"Well, at least we found you, or vice versa," said Skywishes. "By the way, I'm going to need those gem bags from you."

"We didn't find any gems yet," Rarity warned.

"Doesn't matter," said Skywishes, taking the bags and loading them with the chopped-up timber wolf remains. "With a bunch of hungry animals prowling about, it's too dangerous to keep hunting for gems right now. We'll have to try some other time. For now, let's get back to the HAB before—" There was a rumbling sound behind them. Skywishes looked in that direction and muttered a resigned, "Oh, darn."

The rest of the group turned as well, and saw several cragadiles lumbering their way.

"I hate those things," Skywishes muttered as her eyes darted around the forest, searching for a tree that was still reasonably intact and with branches both strong enough to support them and high enough to be out of the cragadiles' reach. "This way!" Still holding the bag of chopped-up timber wolf, she took to the air and darted toward a tree that seemed to meet her criteria. As the other two ponies and the dragon raced along the ground after her, the cragadiles broke into a sprint, barreling after them. When they reached the tree, Spike leapt up onto its trunk and began scaling it easily thanks to his claws. However the same could not be said for Fluttershy and Rarity as their hooves scraped uselessly at the bark. All the while the cragadiles were thundering steadily closer.

"Here, I'll give you a boost," said Fluttershy, shoving her head under the slightly smaller unicorn's hindquarters before Rarity could argue.

"Come on! Give me your hooves!" Spike shouted from above them. Fluttershy felt Rarity standing up on her head, and she tried to stretch her own body farther to give the unicorn more height. Then something struck the back of her hind legs, and she cried out, expecting to feel a cragadile's sharp teeth sink into them.

"Gotcha!" she heard Skywishes grunt underneath her, and looked down to see the pegasus boosting her up just as she had been doing with Rarity. Except that Skywishes was also using her wings to try and propel them upward. Then Rarity's weight suddenly vanished as Spike caught hold of her hooves and pulled her up onto the branch next to him. With the extra weight gone, Fluttershy and Skywishes shot up the side of the tree and not a moment too soon, as a cragadile lunged upward and would have caught Skywishes's tail and hind legs if she hadn't tucked them both up at the last possible second. Several more cragadiles lunged upward to snap at their treed prey, but the branches the group was perched on were at least a good foot or so beyond cragadile jumping height.

Skywishes breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, now we—"

"Skywishes!" Fluttershy cried. "That pony-thing from earlier! They're going after it!"

"What?!" Skywishes looked in the direction Fluttershy was pointing to see that several cragadiles at the back of the group had turned away from their tree and were moving toward the burnt pony-thing that was now huddled against the base of a tree, snarling and spitting flames at them. But the flames weren't hot enough or long-lasting enough to hurt the cragadiles.

"It's hurt, Skywishes! I think it broke its leg when it hit that tree! We can't just leave it there!"

"Not going to," said Skywishes, jumping off her branch, and shooting toward the cornered pony-thing. She dropped down to land on one cragadile's back then shot back into the air when it and several others snapped at her. She darted this way and that in the air, luring the cragadiles away from their prey on the ground before zipping back to where the burnt pony-creature huddled. She snatched up the creature only for it to snarl and struggle in her grasp.

"Stop it! I'm trying to save you!" But the creature just wrenched itself free, and fell back to the ground where it howled in pain as it landed on its broken leg. The cragadiles Skywishes had managed to lure away had already turned back and were now only a few feet from where the injured pony-thing lay. Deciding now wasn't the time to try explaining her intentions to her little rescuee, Skywishes zipped back down toward it, and brought the blunt back of her ax head down on its skull with a sharp bonk! As the creature collapsed, she scooped it up and draped it over one shoulder before flapping her wings wildly to get out of the cragadiles' reach.

"What is that thing?" Rarity asked as Skywishes landed on the branch next to them and handed the unconscious creature off to Fluttershy.

"That I don't know," Skywishes panted, fanning her wings out as she leaned over to catch her breath. "At first we thought it was a pony who got all charred up from the forest fire, but I've never seen a pony spitting fire like a dragon before."

Rarity's gaze flicked to the creature. "You don't suppose ... that was what started this forest fire?"

Skywishes shrugged her fanned-out wings. "I suppose that's possible."

Meanwhile, Fluttershy was examining the little creature in her forelegs. It seemed to be roughly about the same size as Highflyer but felt much lighter because every place that Highflyer sported thick muscle, this creature seemed to sport no more than thin skin stretched over bones. Even its face was so bare of flesh it looked more like a skull than a face, with that dark cavity where its nostrils should be and its sharp teeth permanently exposed in its lipless mouth. Then she noticed something she had missed before. What she had originally thought was burnt flesh was actually a layer of dirt and dried leaves plastered to the creature's body with dried foam. She gently pulled away some of the covering, revealing not flesh or hair, but a smooth hard black surface, almost like a scale or a shell. "Everypony, come look at this," she whispered, wiping away more of the dirt and leaves, to reveal the shell-like substance beneath.

Suddenly something slammed into the tree's trunk, causing it to shudder and forcing the ponies and dragon to cling to the branches. Looking down, they saw the cragadiles slamming themselves against the tree, trying to knock it down.

"We better get out of here," said Skywishes. "I don't know how much more this tree can take. I'll probably have to fly us one or two at a time to another tree and from there to the HAB."

"Hey, why doesn't Fluttershy use her Stare to just send these cragadiles packing?" Spike asked.

"Good idea," said Fluttershy, passing the pony-creature to him to hold, and leaning over to look at the cragadiles below them.

However, as she looked down and suddenly saw just how high up they really were, she was suddenly seized with vertigo. A quick glance down was one thing, but this prolonged staring, coupled with the tree swaying under the cragadiles' blows...

She felt sweat break out on her forehead, and her chest tighten up as she continued looking down. I'm slipping! I'm going to fall! her body screamed as she clutched the branch under her and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Fluttershy, what's wrong?" she heard Rarity ask, and tears of humiliation leaked from her closed eyes.

"I'm sorry! I can't do it! I—I just feel so dizzy, and—"

"It's her fear of heights," she heard Rarity whisper.

There were several painful seconds of silence before Skywishes said, "Well, it'd probably be faster if I just started flying us back to the HAB anyway." But that did little to ease Fluttershy's sense of guilt. She had had the perfect opportunity to help out, to ease some of the burden off Skywishes, and she'd flunked it.

The little equine surged into wakefulness as pain shot through her right front leg. She thrashed out with her remaining limbs in a desperate attempt to fend off those monsters that had been closing in around her. At the same time her eyes snapped open and she found herself not surrounded by smoky darkness, but bright light. For a brief terrible moment she thought her captors had found her and forced her back into that unmoving state she had been forced to exist in for so long. But then she realized she was still able to move.

Rolling onto all fours, she yelped as she accidentally jostled her injured leg. Tucking it protectively against her body, she looked up to see herself surrounded by several different-colored ponies, all staring at her. She scrambled backward away from them, trilling a warning as her head whipped this way and that, trying to keep them all in sight.

"It's okay. You're safe here," said a soft voice she recognized from earlier, as its owner stepped forward. "We're not going to hurt you."

The little equine trusted this pony's words as much now as she had before.

Not. One. Bit.

How many times had her captors appeared to show her compassion by offering her hope of freedom, only to cruelly snatch it away before she could so much as taste it?

Far, far too many times.

No, she wasn't about to be lured in with false kindness just to be imprisoned again.

Fluttershy mentally sighed in defeat. When they had finally made it back to the TreeHAB she had intended to splint the strange creature's leg before it woke up, but that plan had gone out the window when the creature hadn't so much slowly stirred to consciousness as instantly snapped awake in full fighting mode.

Her words still had no effect on the creature and judging by the way it was currently eyeing everyone, enlisting her friends' help in subduing it while she treated it would likely only panic it more.

Which left Fluttershy with only one other option. She may have failed to use her Stare earlier but she wasn't going to fail this time.

As she turned the full power of her Stare on the creature it flinched and cowered as expected, ready to submit to her as so many other animals had. But then its cadaverous face twisted in a look of fury and it lunged at her, teeth bared. Startled, Fluttershy recoiled, instinctively throwing up her forelegs in self-defense. The next moment she felt two rows of sharp jagged teeth fastened on her left one! As pain seared through the limb, Fluttershy let out a scream of mingled shock and agony. She tried to pull free, but the creature only bit down harder as if not intending to stop until it hit blood, bone, or possibly both. Through the haze of pain, Fluttershy was vaguely aware of the others swarming around her, trying to help. She saw flashes of blue and magenta magic circle both her leg and the creature's jaws, trying to separate them, and she saw Spike trying to pry those same jaws open with his claws. But all this seemed to do was drive the creature to bite down even harder until Fluttershy felt sure it would take her leg clean off.

But then Highflyer darted in and went not for the creature's jaws, but its hind legs. He caught ahold of the left one, and gave it a good hard wrench. There was an audible pop! from that leg's hip joint, and the creature let out a muffled cry of pain, causing its grip on Fluttershy to loosen slightly. Highflyer gave the now-dislocated leg another yank, and this time the creature was torn free of Fluttershy. She fell back, clutching at a foreleg now soaked with blood. Through the pain she felt her friends crowding around her, all trying to offer aid or encouragement, when suddenly she heard Skywishes's voice cut through the hubbub.

"Stay back! All of you!"

From her position on the floor, Fluttershy looked through the other ponies' legs to see that somehow during the confusion, Skywishes had gotten ahold of the creature. She had managed to get behind it with her front legs on either side of its head, grasping a piece of pipe that was thrust horizontally between the creature's jaws like a gag. The creature's teeth were gnashing against the pipe, clearly trying to get free, but it didn't seem able to flame with its jaws forced open like that. Skywishes also had her wings wrapped tight around the creature's two uninjured limbs, making it for all intents and purposes helpless, yet still it tried to get free.

"Stay back!" Skywishes repeated, her words coming out in a grunt this time as she hauled the struggling creature toward the floor's entrance panel. "Until I ... get this ... thing ... out of here!"

Suddenly Fluttershy shoved her way through the ponies surrounding her, disregarding the pain it sent through her injured foreleg. Skywishes had just kicked the panel open and gotten the creature positioned over it, when Fluttershy screamed at the top of her lungs, "NO! SKYWISHES, DON'T!"

The room went silent except for the mystery-creature's continued strained groans against the pipe between its teeth. All eyes turned to stare at Fluttershy. She stumbled and clutched at her bleeding leg, but kept her eyes trained on Skywishes and the struggling captive. "Please, Skywishes. Don't throw her out there in the cold."

When Skywishes turned to meet Fluttershy's eyes, her expression was somehow equal parts incredulity, contempt, and admiration, but when she spoke her tone was pragmatic. "What else do you expect me to do? We can't have this thing attacking us and spitting fire all over the HAB. We've got enough dangers to worry about out there; we don't need one in here as well."

"She attacked out of fear, Skywishes. I know she did. I've seen animals do it again and again. I know the difference between one that's normally always aggressive and one that's just doing it because it's injured and afraid. Please, Skywishes."

The coral-colored pony's expression had gone from uncompromising to torn. "Fluttershy, we can't—"

"Wait, Skywishes," Twilight cut in. "I might have a way for us to let that thing stay here without it being able to attack us."

Skywishes cocked an eyebrow at her. "How exactly would you keep it from burning the HAB down if you can't put its flames out with magic?"

"By blocking its flames from reaching any fuel. That way they'll just die off naturally. I know it doesn't sound that different from trying to put a fire out, but trust me there's a subtle difference."

"Please Skywishes..." Fluttershy pleaded.

Skywishes closed her eyes and exhaled before looking back to Twilight. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just let the creature go, put it where it's not near the rest of us, and I'll take it from there."

Skywishes nodded once, then spun around, lifted the pipe out of the creature's mouth, and used her wings to shove said creature forward, causing it to stumble away from both herself and the open floor panel. The creature tried to twist around and spit fire back at her, but at that precise moment Twilight fired off her own spell. A glowing bubble surrounded the creature, and the fire struck the inside of the bubble's wall, dissipating when it found no fuel to feed it.

"There," Twilight breathed. "Now it won't be able to attack—"

Inside the bubble, the little creature went ballistic, throwing itself against the shining barrier, tearing at it, clearly trying to get free, but as it moved the bubble just rolled along with it.

Skywishes glanced at Fluttershy. "Well, now what?"

"Uh, let's ... um, let's give it some space," Fluttershy advised. As much as she hated to just leave an animal alone and in pain, interacting with this particular one only seemed to agitate it. And after how it had reacted to her Stare, it looked like the only chance they might get to mend the creature's injuries were when it was too weakened and exhausted to fight them any longer.

Fluttershy winced as the antiseptic she'd swabbed her leg with began to do its work. When she lifted the cloth to examine the bite, Highflyer took a peek at it as well and let out a low whistle.

"My thoughts exactly," said Screwjob, also taking a look before settling back in a sitting position. "My goodness," he muttered, scraping at the side of his teeth with one front hoof. "Ponies have told me I've got a set of chompers on me, but that is impressive—Hey!" He had just felt someone jerk several long black hairs out of his tail. However, his indignation vanished when he saw the perpetrator was Applejack. "Getting a little familiar back there ain'tcha, Apps?"

She snorted. "In your dreams. I just took your hair because it's the darkest we've got and Fluttershy needs it to stitch up her leg."

His grin took on a challenging air. "You sure it wasn't just because I gave you permission to yank away on my luxurious tail?"

"Without a doubt," she deadpanned.

He chuckled. "Keep telling yourself that, Apps. You know I'm a handsome hunk of horsemeat."

"Good thing I'm a vegetarian then," she muttered under her breath.

His grin only widened. "As am I. And I'm particularly fond of apples if you catch my drift."

"Oh, I'll catch it and hogtie you with it."

"Well, you do owe me a sparring match, so bring it on."

"I don't owe you—!"

While this was going on Fluttershy knotted the pilfered hair and began stitching up her leg wound. As she listened to the verbal sparring, she suddenly felt an unexpected twinge of envy toward her farm pony friend. While Applejack had done nothing but reject Screwjob's advances, at least she knew where she stood with the stallion. Fluttershy thought of what she would have given to be certain of where she stood with Discord. But then again, he probably wouldn't be him if he was that clear-cut.

By the time she had finished stitching and bandaging her wound, she noticed how quiet the HAB had become. The mysterious pony-creature was no longer hissing, snarling, or tearing around the place. Spotting the glowing bubble at the other end of the room she saw that the creature inside was lying on its stomach with its good legs tucked under it and its injured ones stretched out awkwardly. In spite of her own injury, Fluttershy felt a wave of pity for the creature and the pain its broken and dislocated limbs were doubtless giving it. Moving to the bubble, she murmured softly, "It's okay. I never wanted to hurt or scare you. I just wanted to help. I still do."

The creature's only response was to snarl at her, its great orange eyes full of hate.

"Give it a rest Fluttershy," Skywishes sighed, coming over to her. "That thing doesn't want to be friends with you."

"But I've seen so many animals who've behaved like this, who I was finally able to get through to."

"Yeah, and there's plenty of animals that don't care as well. You don't even know what that thing is, Fluttershy. None of us do."

"That doesn't mean I don't have to try." She went back to studying the little creature as best she could through the captive bubble. It looked so painfully thin, but now she suddenly wondered if that thinness might actually be natural like a greyhound's as opposed to being a result of being underfed. In the HAB's light she could also see that where most ponies had manes this creature had only a few scant strands of hair and an equally sparse crop of hair at the end of its thin bony tail. But apart from that, its entire body was covered with a sort of black exoskeleton like an insect ... or now that she thought about it ... like a changeling. But she'd never seen or even heard of a changeling with such ridged bony-looking armor and a skull-like face. The whole effect was ... well ... almost as if the creature were a pony with its skeleton on the outside.

Fluttershy suddenly had a wild thought. Could this strange creature be something Discord had whipped up? That would certainly explain why she had never seen anything like it before. And if Discord had created it ... could its design have been what inspired the changelings to murder Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie in the gruesome way they had?

Before she could voice these thoughts to the other ponies, she was startled by a loud thunk! against a window. In split seconds something flat and dirty white squirmed in under that window, rolled itself into a tube, and sailed through the air to smack Skywishes in the back of the head, causing her to flinch forward with an indignant "Hey!" The tube then bounced across the floor and as it bounced it reconstructed itself into the familiar shape of a two-headed, five-winged parrot. But with a lot more paper than Fluttershy remembered now added onto his body, wings, and crests.

Author's Note

Ah, and here marks the return of our little old Deus ex Max-ina. Unfortunately we'll have to wait until the next chapter to get his report on Discord's situation.

Also we might not have learned too much more yet about our mystery equine, but at least the other characters now know she exists and will doubtless be trying to figure out what exactly she is.

Thanks everyone for your patience, and as always a huge thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions, editing, and especially for helping me improve several elements in this chapter.

Chapter 5. Psalm 30:2

Chapter 5

"O Lord my God, I called to You for help and You healed me."—Psalm 30:2

Scarcely had Fluttershy registered Mache Max's altered appearance, then the origami parrot began shaking himself wildly like a dog. Paper airplanes shot out from his body in every direction, forcing the TreeHAB's occupants to run for cover. Fluttershy dove behind a particularly large bundle of camouflage as the paper missiles whizzed over her head to bounce off the TreeHAB wall.

After several seconds, the artillery stopped. Fluttershy was just debating whether it was safe to peek out from her hiding place when the air was filled with squawks, shrieks, hisses, and a rapid-fire clicking. Peeking out from around her shelter, she gasped.

Mache Max—now looking once more as she remembered—was bouncing about, squawking as he gleefully head-butted the membrane imprisoning the skeletal mystery creature. The creature struggled to stay upright as it snapped and snarled at him in helpless fury, unable to bite through its prison. Fluttershy mentally shuddered each time it accidentally jostled its injured legs and let out enraged cries of pain.

"Stop!" Fluttershy shouted, leaping out from behind her hiding place and racing forward. "Stop it!" She snatched up Mache Max, brought him to her face, and shook her free hoof sternly at him. "Bad Max! You don't do that! You do not!"

For a millisecond, she thought he looked a tad ashamed of himself, but the next thing she knew he was cheerfully rubbing one beak up and down the length of her bandaged foreleg, and nibbling at the edge of the bandage with his other beak.

"I'm so sorry about—" she started to say as she turned toward the skeletal creature, but was cut off when it let out a hacking rattling sound. It seemed to be trying to spit up a fresh wave of fire, but produced only a few feeble sparks.

Then Fluttershy heard Spike say behind her, "Hey, I think that thing is running on empty. If its flame works anything like a dragon's anyway."

The little equine was doing her best to stay upright, but it was difficult with only two working legs. Even the slightest movement sent bolts of pain through the other ones. But she couldn't afford to collapse, couldn't afford to let her captors see just how weak and hurt she really was. She had almost started to hope they might leave her alone when that strange off-white thing suddenly showed up to start tormenting her. Oh, yes. She had been through this enough times to know how it worked. She wasn't about to fall for that yellow pony's nice routine. Not with the way her little tormentor was now cozying up to the pony. No, they were hatching a fresh plan to torture her.

Suddenly the yellow pony was joined by the others who all huddled around her and began whispering among themselves. The little equine lifted her ears, trying to catch what they were saying.

"We don't know how long it will take for that flame to recharge, so this might be our only chance."

"If we can keep it still, I can pop that leg I dislocated back in place. But that's going to be painful enough even if it cooperates, which it's clearly not going to do."

"Twilight, if you dissolve that bubble, I can pin our guest down while High and Fluttershy work on its legs."

"But Screwjob, if you do that, it might see you as nothing but an enemy from now on."

This was greeted with a short chuckle. "Fluttershy, I'm a heel. It's in my job description to be the lightning rod of hate. Plus, it's not like our mystery guest has exactly warmed up to any attempts to be nice so I doubt it could hate my guts any more than it probably already does."

"Alright, here's what we'll do."

Their voices dropped even lower, and try as she might, the little equine couldn't make out what they were saying.

Then the group suddenly split up and began drifting away toward different parts of the room. The little equine didn't trust this. They were up to something. Wobbling on her two good legs, she snapped her head back and forth, trying to keep everyone in sight...

When the bubble surrounding her suddenly flashed bright. Momentarily blinded, she recoiled and fell backward, landing painfully. She tried to scramble up, but there were suddenly hooves on her, flattening her out on her stomach. She tried to strike out with her good limbs only to find them both caught in an unbreakable hold. She tried to lift her head from the floor but that was pinned down as well. She even tried to strike out with her injured limbs only to find them also caught.

She knew this would happen. She knew her hope of freedom was too good to be true!

"The patient is locked down and ready to go!" Screwjob reported as he got the mystery creature pinned in a submission hold.

Highflyer went in next.

"Stay here please, Max," said Fluttershy as she carried him as far from the mystery creature as she could. But just as she set him down, he shot past her back toward the struggling creature. At least he tried to shoot past her, but didn't get far before Rarity's magic surrounded him and held him fast. Fluttershy sent the unicorn a grateful look before turning back to the scene in the middle of the room. The mystery creature hissed and snarled as it struggled to get free, but Screwjob held it fast as Highflyer examined its dislocated hind leg. The rest of the group had spread out around them, ready to lend support if anything went wrong, but at the same time not wanting to hinder the wrestlers by getting in their way.

"Here we go!" said Highflyer, and anything else he might have said was immediately drowned out by the creature's pain-filled screams.

"It's all right, little one, it's all right!" Fluttershy called as she hurried forward. "We're just going to help you. It will stop hurting soon, I promise!"

But she wasn't sure the creature could even hear her over its own screams.

The little equine could do nothing but howl in agony as the bones of her back leg ground together. It hurt so bad! Would it never stop?! Would—?!

Suddenly something seemed to pop into place and instantly the pain diminished, dwindling down to almost nothing. Her scream died off in a startled gasp because the relief was so immediate it was almost a shock. Had her captors just ... fixed her leg?

"There, see?" she heard that soft-voiced yellow pony say. "Your back leg doesn't hurt anymore does it?"

Well, no. Not much anymore.

"Now I'm just going to take a look at your front leg. This will hurt but it will be over real soon, and you'll feel a lot better once it's done. I promise."

Could that ... possibly be true? No, no, she mustn't be taken in. No one ever offered her compassion except to make the inevitable betrayal all the more painful.

Fluttershy had hoped that letting Highflyer fix the creature's hip before she attempted to set its front leg would help it finally see that they were only trying to give it aid, but it soon became clear that wasn't the case.

It had been difficult enough for Fluttershy to set Highflyer's wings even with him cooperating, but that was nothing compared to this new patient who seemed determined to fight every step of the way. Nothing she seemed to do or say ever seemed to get through to the creature. What drove it to be so resistant?

She lost track of time but finally at long last—with a good bit of help from the surrounding ponies—she had the creature's leg set and bound up with tape and a splint. By then her own injured leg was aching as well.

"It's done!" she gasped, releasing the creature's leg. Immediately Twilight's horn flashed and a magenta membrane similar to the bubble she had produced before now encased the creature's bandaged leg. Given how resistant the little one had been toward every action, they had decided they couldn't risk it trying to tear off its bandages once it was free. Fluttershy backed up several feet before the two wrestlers both released the creature and rolled away from it. Twilight flashed a new bubble around the creature.

Fluttershy had sat down and was bent over, trying to get her breath back when Skywishes suddenly stepped toward the magenta bubble with a rolled-up blanket tucked under one wing. Fluttershy frowned at this. What was the coral-colored pegasus doing?

"Now listen," said Skywishes. "Before we leave you alone, I'm going to put this blanket in there with you. Now, you can either throw a snit fit and set the blanket on fire, or you can be smart and wrap it around yourself to stay warm. It's your choice, but if you go with the first one, I'm not going to give you a second blanket. You can just freeze for all I care."

"Sky—" Fluttershy started to protest.

"Fluttershy, hush!" Skywishes snapped, not taking her eyes off the creature in the bubble. It tried to spit flames, producing a little more than the feeble sparks it had earlier but not much. Skywishes leaned in closer until her muzzle was almost touching the bubble. "I'm not going to throw you out of the HAB, but I'm also not going to bend over backward to help you. Especially not if it means sacrificing them." She flicked her free wing back toward the rest of the group. "You got that?"

The creature glared at her and let out a low sound that was a sort of half-growl, half-purr.

"I'll take that as a yes," Skywishes murmured before pushing the blanket through the bubble. The creature tensed at this intrusion, but didn't attack. It sniffed warily at the blanket which had unrolled slightly when Skywishes pushed it through.

"How'd you do that?" Fluttershy asked as Skywishes stepped back. Twilight hadn't mentioned anything about them being able to put things into the bubble from their side.

A faint smile flashed on Skywishes's mouth. "I put in a request to Twilight while you were working on that thing's leg."

Ah, yes. Fluttershy had been so focused on trying to set those badly fractured bones that the other ponies around her probably could have had several conversations without her noticing.

"Speaking of which..." Skywishes lifted her head. "Twilight! I think we're going to have to use your food-growing idea now that our number of mouths to feed just went from nine to ten." She glanced back at the mystery creature, who was now attempting to watch everyone around it, and examine the blanket on the floor in front of it at the same time. "Though come to think of it ... How exactly are we supposed to feed something with no tongue or lips but plenty of teeth? Maybe it just swallows everything whole...?"

Or it doesn't need to eat at all... Fluttershy mused. After all Mache Max didn't seem to need to eat. But then again ... what if Discord hadn't made the creature? The hostility it had shown toward Mache Max had made her second guess her idea that Discord had made the creature. But then again, there was no rule saying one's creations had to be all buddy-buddy with each other. Especially if they were created by someone who was supposed to specialize in disharmony—

"Hey, look at this," Screwjob called, waving a now-unfolded paper plane. "We're on the front page." He held up another. "And so is Discord."

Before she even knew what she was doing, Fluttershy had raced to his side and snatched the second paper from him so quickly it almost tore.

"What's it say?" several of the other ponies asked.

Fluttershy's eyes darted over the paper, which she now saw was part of a newspaper. "He's in the hospital..." she murmured, trying to relay the important points as she took them in. "Sedated and fitted with cuffs that are supposed to inhibit his power—" She came to an abrupt halt, staring at the page.

"What is it? What'd you read?" Twilight asked, and when Fluttershy didn't respond, she used her magic to tug at the paper, trying to view it for herself. When she succeeded in freeing it from Fluttershy's unresponsive hooves, Twilight took over reading. "'One would expect such a dangerous prisoner to be placed under maximum security at one of the major hospitals in Canterlot, but instead he is currently being treated at a hospital in Ponyville. At, in fact, the very same hospital currently housing his two almost-victims.'"

"Does that mean he's in the same hospital as my mom and Amethyst?!" Dinky cried, surging to her feet. Her legs gave out almost immediately and she would have collapsed if Twilight's magic didn't suddenly prop her up.

"That's what it says," the alicorn confirmed, her eyes continuing to dart back and forth over the paper. "And not just are they at the same hospital, but Princess Celestia even ordered that they all be kept on the same floor."

"Why would she do that?" Fluttershy asked, having snapped out of her earlier stupor.

"It doesn't say," said Twilight, frowning at the paper. "All it says is that neither Celestia nor Luna were available for comment..." Her frown deepened as she continued reading.

"What's wrong?"

"It says that Celestia left a list of instructions regarding Discord's treatment, but that she and Luna haven't been seen since he was captured."

"They aren't the only ones AWOL," Screwjob added. "There's also a list of missing ponies in this article. See? Apple Bloom, Apps, Dinky, Shy, High, Rarity, Loo, Me, Wishie, Spike—and you," he added as Twilight jerked the paper from his hooves. "All currently being urgently sought, contact authorities if you have any information, and etc."

Twilight only responded to this quick recitation with an absent nod as she read the article for herself.

However, all is not lost, the article concluded. There is hope we may soon locate Twilight Sparkle as our most powerful unicorns are currently working on a spell they will put on every town in Equestria to alert them to any alicorn magic being performed there.

Twilight let out a despairing groan. "Oh, I bet the changelings are behind that last part. Making it sound like a helpful idea when it's really them just trying to trap me and the rest of the princesses."

Applejack slammed a hoof against the floor in frustration. "How can they keep getting away with this?! Anypony who reads this is going to worry about us, and we can't even let our friends and families know we're all right because they might be disguised changelings, while they've got free reign to capture anypony they—"

"What makes you so sure they haven't already captured Celestia and Luna, and are now just trying to catch you?" Skywishes suddenly asked Twilight.

"Because I—" Twilight started to respond, then stopped as she considered the question. Fluttershy considered it too. Why was the spell mentioned as detecting alicorn magic in general rather than just Twilight's? Why—?

"Wait a minute!" Spike exclaimed, his eyes suddenly narrowing in concentration. "Wait a minute..."

"What is it, Spike?" asked Twilight.

"Skywishes's question just made me realize ... we know the changelings are trying to catch us by calling attention to the fact that we're missing. ... So why would they also be doing that with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom unless...?"

Rarity gasped in realization. "They haven't caught them yet."

Is it possible? Fluttershy had feared like the others that the young mares' failure to show up at her cottage meant they had been captured, but now ... Scootaloo did have Tank with her, and Apple Bloom was familiar with the changelings' deceptive tactics given her experiences the year before. Dare she hope they had managed to elude the enemy?

Then Applejack's expression suddenly darkened. "Apple Bloom may be on that list, but Big Mac isn't."

An uncomfortable silence fell over the group as they realized this likely meant that the changelings had captured the stallion. And who knew just how many more unlisted friends and family members had also been taken?

Then just as quickly Applejack's face took on a look of bitter satisfaction. "At least Granny's where they can't hurt her this time."

Screwjob cocked his visible eyebrow. "This time? What happened to her?"

Applejack looked away and tugged her hat down before muttering, "She's dead. Died just five days before all this started."

"Oh..." Screwjob seemed at a loss for words. "I ... didn't realize that. She ... meant a lot to you?"

"Practically raised me when my parents died," she spat out, bracing herself for him to make some tacky remark.

But all he did was murmur a soft, "Ahh ... I'm sorry. That's hard."

She frowned at this, surprised he hadn't tried to turn the situation into an attempt to flirt with her. Then she remembered his words from the day before, and turned enough to partially face him. "You ... swore on some aunt yester—"

"He what?!" Highflyer sounded shocked. "Don't tell me he swore on his Aunt Moonshine!"

Applejack turned to the smaller stallion. "How'd you know—?"

"So he did?!" Highflyer demanded before she could even complete the question.

"Well, yes—But what's the big deal?!"

Highflyer sucked in a breath. "Oh, boy. Applejack, the Screwjob Stipulation is a joke. It doesn't mean squat to that old heel—"

"I'm not that old!" Screwjob protested.

"—but swearing on Moonshine..." Highflyer shook his head in wonder. "He's so devoted to her, that's pretty much the Ultimate Oath to End all Oaths for him."

Applejack's gaze snapped back onto Screwjob, not liking the idea of him having an aunt that he revered as much as Highflyer seemed to imply. It was so at odds with her view of him as a smug, shallow, self-centered jerk that she found herself almost hoping he would grin or make some comment that would disprove Highflyer's claim.

But for once Screwjob wasn't even looking at her. He was looking toward one of the TreeHAB windows with his visible right eyebrow furrowed more than usual.

Highflyer padded over to him. "Moonshine on the mind, Jobs?"

"Yeah," said Screwjob, his voice unusually soft. "I just realized that if those changelings are so determined to kill us they might try to lure me out by going after Moonshine."

"She's got Big Tim with her."

"That's why I'm worried. She's magicked him up so much I don't know if there's enough animal left in him to sense windigo-essence."

"Even if he can't sense that, I don't think it will be a problem, considering Big Tim's never liked anyone apart from your aunt."

"Who's Big Tim?" Applejack asked.

Screwjob shuddered. "The biggest, ugliest, foulest rattlesnake you never want to meet in your whole life."

This was greeted with a skeptical snort.

"I AM Serious! He was bad enough when she first brought him home as a regular snake, but now thanks to her magic he's big enough to scarf down most ponies without unhinging his jaw, has super-strong scales that are impervious to a lot of attacks, and can slither about on walls like a bug can climb them. Oh, and he's got this sort of sixth sense that pretty much means nothing goes in or out of my aunt's house without him knowing it."

"That actually sounds like a pretty good security system." Spike commented dryly.

"Yeah, but what's to stop one of those changelings from posing as me? Moonshine would welcome them right in and order Tim to leave them alone." Screwjob ran a hoof over his face. "Annnnnd while that snake hates me as much as I hate him, he's never disobeyed my aunt."

While this was going on, Fluttershy had moved to examine the rest of the paper planes scattered about the HAB, hoping they might have more information about Discord, but they all seemed to just be different newspapers rehashing the first two articles. At Applejack's mention of Granny Smith, Fluttershy suddenly remembered how Angel had died the same night as the old pony. And with that came the wild thought: Had his passing that night been unplanned, or could Angel have somehow known what was coming and chosen to move on so his well-being was one less thing she would have to worry about?

There was no way to find out now.

And yet ironically they currently seemed to be just as powerless to contact their living loved ones as they were their deceased—

Fluttershy flinched as she felt something tickle the back of her neck. It was Mache Max plucking at her now-shortened mane.

Lifting him from her withers, she brought him around to face her. "Max, you did a wonderful job in letting us know what's happening with Discord, and I'm so proud of you." She stroked his stained and tattered paper crests, and he responded by nuzzling them against her foreleg. "But now I'm wondering ... if it's not too much trouble ... can you actually take me to see him?"

The parrot squealed and grabbed the collar of her camouflage in both beaks, tugging her toward the TreeHAB's entrance panel.

"Did you seriously just ask him to take you to Discord?" Skywishes's flat voice betrayed no emotion, but Fluttershy still felt her face flush as she fumbled for an answer.

"Yes, I—I saw what the articles said, but..." But that wasn't enough. I need to see him for myself, she thought, but wasn't sure how to best explain that in a way the rest of them could understand and sympathize with. Then her gaze happened to land on the skeletal creature in its shimmering bubble. It was now burrowed under the blanket and might have looked as if it were ready to go to sleep, but its eyes were wide-open, watching them warily.

"But I think we need to find out if Discord made that little one in there," she heard herself say. Granted she had been having doubts about that theory but the others didn't need to know that yet.

Skywishes moved to meet her eyes. "You really think that thing might have come from him?"

Fluttershy shrugged her withers. "It would sure explain why we've never seen anything like it before." Then she sighed. "Oh, I really don't like to keep referring to it as an 'it.' That just feels..." It felt demeaning, but what else could they call the creature when they had no clue what sex it might be?

Skywishes's mouth suddenly twitched in a faint smile. "Well, you did refer to it as 'she' a couple of times when you were begging me to let it stay."

Fluttershy blinked. "Did I?" She had been so focused on trying to stop Skywishes that she hadn't even noticed what pronouns she was using to refer to the creature. "I wonder why I did that...?" Why had she instinctively referred to the creature as a 'she?'

Skywishes seemed to sense this question. "For the record, Max is still technically an 'it'—"

Mache Max responded with an indignant shriek and slung a sheet of paper at her.

"Cut it out!" Skywishes snapped at him, catching the paper before it could strike her. Fluttershy quickly pulled the parrot to her chest before he could go for more ammunition. Setting the paper down, Skywishes turned back to her. "He might not really be male or female," she went on in a softer voice. "But it just felt natural for me to think of him as a 'he.' Maybe it just felt natural for you to think of that thing as a 'she.'"

"Well..." said Twilight, moving to join them. "Now that you mention it, that shell or whatever it's covered in does look a bit more like a female pony's bone structure than a male's. So maybe we should consider it a female until we learn anything that proves otherwise."

Skywishes looked to the creature. "You hear that? We're going to call you a 'she' from now on, so if you've got a problem with that, speak up."

The creature eyed them, but made no sound. Not so much as a low growl.

"Well," said Skywishes, turning back to the others. "I guess 'she' doesn't mind being called a 'she.'"

"We should probably also give it—uh, her—" Fluttershy turned apologetically to the creature. "Um, you, a name too."

The creature lifted its head and sneezed a small fireball that dissipated when it struck the bubble's wall.

"Hmm. You seem to do that a lot," Skywishes muttered. "How about we call you ... Fireball?"

The creature responded with a series of clicks that sounded displeased.

At this the group called out a host of other fire-related names.

"Flame!"

"Wildfire!"

"Coal!"

"Charcoal!"

"Ember!"

"Conflagration!"

"Conflagration? Seriously, Jobs?"

"What? We could shorten it to Connie."

More ideas were called out but all were met with disdain.

"Smoky!"

"Glow!"

"Flare!"

"Blaze!"

"Sparky!"

"Bonfire."

The creature's ears pricked and she let out a short inquisitive thrum.

Skywishes, who had suggested the last name, raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you like that one? Bonfire?"

The creature trilled softly, sounding almost pleased.

Skywishes looked to the others. "Any objections to naming her 'Bonfire?'"

There were none.

"Alright. Bonfire it is."

Fluttershy moved forward. "Bonfire," she said, testing the new name. "Do you know if Discord made you?" she asked, remembering uneasily how Mache Max hadn't even hesitated to answer a similar question in the affirmative. But to her relief, the creature just gave her a wary uncomprehending stare. Fluttershy turned back to the others. "Okay, so she doesn't know if he made her, but that doesn't mean he didn't."

Skywishes inhaled, and walked over to the entrance panel. "Alright, see if you can get Max to lead us to the hospital without bugging me too much and I'll fly you to Discord."

Fluttershy was startled by this offer. "Um, Skywishes, maybe you should take a break. You've been flying all—"

"Don't be ridiculous." said Skywishes, picking up a flashlight and snapping it on and off to test the beam before securing it to a loop in her camouflage. "It's too dangerous for you to go waltzing through the forest on foot with all the predators currently prowling around." She added a butterfly knife, her ax, and a coil of rope to her supplies. "And it's also too risky for Twilight to fly to town—"

"Wait a minute," Twilight cut in. "I could fly Fluttershy to town as long as I don't use my magic. Plus it will take them time to set up that spell on each town so they might not have it ready yet."

Skywishes picked up a second flashlight and began testing it as well. "Can you be absolutely sure of...?" She paused in her flashlight examination. "Oh, shoot!" She shut her eyes, and let her forehead thump into an upraised wing.

Twilight frowned at her. "What is it?"

"I just realized ... If they put that spell on all the towns, what's to stop them from putting it on the Everfree as well? If they do that we might be invisible here in the HAB but if you use your magic we might as well be screaming: Here we are! Come and get us!"

But Twilight shook her head. "Don't you realize the Everfree is very resistant to pony magic? In fact if there's one place they wouldn't be able to work that spell, this is it." Then another thought occurred to her, making her frown again. "Of course, they might realize I'm here through the process of elimination ... But not if I put a second spell to mask my magic around the TreeHAB first." She seemed to warm to the idea. "Yes, it could act like an air pocket, and help us stay hidden, and—"

"And that's another reason why I'm the more expendable flier of us two," said Skywishes as she extended a wing to point at Twilight. "You are the expert on magic." The wing folded over to point at its owner. "I am not." Turning back to Fluttershy, she deposited the flashlight, and an extra knife and coil of rope in front of the wingless pegasus. "Looks like it's just you and me again."

"Actually do you have room for one more?" Spike asked, moving to join them. "Twilight might be stuck here, but if I go with you, I can let her and the rest of the group know what's happening with us."

Skywishes didn't seem completely onboard with the idea. "Isn't that spell on you alicorn-magic? So wouldn't you sending messages trip the same spell as Twilight using magic?"

Spike shook his head. "No, mine's different. Twilight using her magic is like lighting up a new candle each time while me sending a message is like using a candle that was lit a long time ago and is still burning."

"Hmm. Interesting. I never realized there were so many ins and outs to how spells worked. Well, if you're sure that's the case..." She retrieved a third flashlight and tested it before setting it right in front of the dragon. "It might actually be a good idea to bring you along."

While this was going on, Mache Max had been tugging on Fluttershy's mane. Gently at first, then more and more insistently.

"Don't worry, Max," said Fluttershy. "We're going now."

"Fluttershy," Dinky suddenly croaked from where she was lying. "When you go to see Discord, can you check on my mom and Amethyst too?"

"I'll do my best, Dinky." said Fluttershy, feeling a bit guilty that she had been so focused on Discord that she'd forgotten about the two ponies.

As they got ready to leave, Applejack suddenly moved in front of Skywishes. "Skywishes, about last night, I—"

"Applejack, just..."

Fluttershy watched the two ponies uneasily. She hadn't had the chance to tell anyone about Skywishes's revelation, partly because she wasn't sure if it was really her place to share it.

Skywishes seemed to be struggling to find the words to say. "Just ... help me keep as many of us alive as possible. Okay?" Her front hooves came up to grasp Applejack's shoulder, her dark green eyes locking with the farm pony's lighter green ones. "With everything we've got stacked against us, some of us likely won't survive, and I'm trying to minimize that number. That's all I'm trying to do. Okay?"

Applejack nodded and reached up to clasp one of Skywishes's hooves. Fluttershy felt some of her unease drain away, realizing that even though Skywishes hadn't spelled it out, she had forgiven Applejack and was even providing a peace offering in the form of an explanation for her own seemingly callous attitude.

The little equine watched all this while trying to assess her new situation. She couldn't reach anything beyond the bubble she was in, but she was still free to move about inside it. Not that she really had the energy to move at the moment. The material she had wrapped around her body was pleasantly soft and warm, unlike anything she had ever experienced before. She clung to it tightly and watched those around her, ready to fight if they attempted to take this one source of comfort from her.

While she watched the group and they continued not to bother her (yet), she found herself thinking on what else they had done. Given her a ... name.

Bonfire. All her life she had been fed the idea that she wasn't worth wasting a name on so this new situation ... this ... having her own name ... was almost a shock.

Bonfire. She would never be able to actually say the word aloud, but now she repeated it over and over in her mind, testing its sound and feel. Bonfire. Bon-fire. Bonfire.

To his credit, Mache Max guided Skywishes and her two passengers safely first through the forest and on to the hospital with a minimum of fuss. The moon was completely obscured by thick clouds when the little camo-clad group landed on the hospital roof, and the accompanying darkness was both welcome and dreaded; welcome because it gave them extra cover, and dreaded because it would make their semitransparent enemies virtually invisible.

"Alright," Skywishes whispered as her passengers dismounted. "Now if we could just—"

At that moment Mache Max bounced toward an air duct and began banging on its grating with both heads, producing a loud clanging that would have been more at home coming from a huge bell. Fluttershy snatched him up, shushing frantically as she joined Spike and Skywishes where they crouched in the shadows. They waited for several long tense seconds to see if their guide's noise had given them away. But after nothing showed up they finally relaxed.

All this time Mache Max had been straining wildly, but mercifully silently, toward the air duct.

"I think he wants us to go in there," Fluttershy whispered.

Skywishes eyed the air duct doubtfully. "I'm not sure we'd fit."

"One way to find out," Spike whispered, scuttling toward the air duct on his stomach. The two ponies hurried after him, Fluttershy keeping Max tucked in one foreleg. Spike loosened the grating's screws with his claws, and Fluttershy released Max so that she and Skywishes could lift the grating free of the air duct. As they laid the grating gently to the side, Fluttershy saw Max dive into the now-open air duct, confirming her suspicions as to his intentions.

"I'll go next," said Spike. "I'm the smallest, so if I can't fit in there, none of us can."

As he tied down one of the ropes they had brought and began playing it into the air duct, Skywishes nudged at Fluttershy to get her attention.

"I think one of us should stay out here and stand guard just in case some changelings come by."

Fluttershy suddenly wondered if Skywishes might be claustrophobic and just wanted an excuse not to go into the air duct. However, as she watched Spike disappear down the air duct, she found she couldn't really blame Skywishes for possibly having this fear. Spike had managed to get in easily enough, but it was definitely going to be a tight squeeze for the average pony. And considering how many fears Fluttershy herself struggled with regularly, wasn't Skywishes entitled to have at least a few as well? Especially after all she's risked to help me and the others in the past few days?

Plus, Fluttershy had to admit having a lookout was just common sense. Aloud she said, "I think that sounds like a good idea, Skywishes. Um, would you mind being that guard?"

"Not at all."

Fluttershy wondered if there might have been a hint of relief in those words.

"Here, take this," said Skywishes, passing her another one of the ropes they'd brought. "I want you and Spike to tug on it three times when you're ready to come back. If you feel three tugs back in response that means it's safe to come up."

As Spike and Fluttershy followed Mache Max through the hospital duct work, she couldn't help thinking back to how just yesterday—Or was it the day before that, considering that by now late night might have changed to early morning?—she had been in an almost identical situation. Except that now instead of fearing she would be spotted because she was in a wide-open space, she was fearing she might get stuck in this small tight dark space with only the light from Spike's flashlight allowing her to see their little paper guide at all. Though she also had a flashlight of her own, they had decided to use only one at the moment to conserve their batteries.

She wasn't sure how long they crawled through the darkness but finally Mache Max came to a stop and began marching around and around in a small circle. Spike played his flashlight beam over this spot, and they saw that the parrot was parading around within the boundaries of a ceiling tile.

"Do you want us to move that?" Fluttershy asked, pointing to it.

Max stopped circling and bobbed up and down, making little "auh!" sounds. Then he flew up out of the way as they lifted the tile, which turned out to be made of plasterboard.

Below them, Fluttershy saw Amethyst lying unmoving in a hospital bed. Her forelock and most of the front of her mane had been cut off, and her head was bandaged. The rest of her was covered from the neck down with a hospital blanket. She didn't seem to need a ventilator, but she was likely hooked up to some monitoring equipment judging from several tubes trailing out from under the blanket.

Then Fluttershy noticed a burly security guard standing beside the bed with his head down and pillowed on the blanket. Dark sunglasses hid his eyes but Fluttershy was pretty sure he was asleep. At least she was until his head suddenly snapped up and he whipped the glasses off. His eyes seemed to lock directly onto Spike and Fluttershy, who both flinched back, dropping the tile back into place in the process. Surrounded by darkness, they heard hoof beats below them and tried to back away from the tile. Spike fumbled with his flashlight and just managed to switch it on when Mache Max swooped into view, startling them. The flashlight beam whipped about wildly. Fluttershy heard Spike stumbling and might have fallen over herself if Max hadn't pulled her forward by the mane. Then the flashlight beam landed on her face, momentarily blinding her. All this time Max was tugging on her mane as if to say, "Don't go that way, go this way."

The pony and the dragon did their best to comply while simultaneously giving the tile they'd lifted a wide berth. As they moved forward both kept looking back, fearing the tile would lift, and the security guard would be peering out from under it. Fluttershy thought she might have heard more hoof beats below them, but so far no security guard had popped up.

Maybe he didn't get a good look at us, she tried to reassure herself. Maybe he thought we were just leftovers from his dream. But neither of these ideas did much to quell her furiously pounding heart. There was just something so unnerving about the way that guard had sprung alert. She and Spike had been so quiet, and yet somehow he had still sensed them.

And what if Derpy and Discord were being watched by equally alert guards?

She didn't have long to speculate on this because at that moment Mache Max released her mane, flitted forward and began repeating his little circular dance on another tile. Spike and Fluttershy had no choice but to see what was under it, so once again they lifted it, albeit much more cautiously this time. This room was much more dimly lit then the other, but their eyes had adjusted enough that they could still make out details. Fluttershy felt a modicum of relief when she saw no guard below them, but that was immediately eclipsed by a wave of nausea at what was there.

To an uninformed observer, it might not have seemed so horrible. Just a shimmering opaque bubble with a myriad of tubes stuck in it, all connected to machines and bags of fluid. But Fluttershy knew that inside that magical shield was Derpy's horribly contorted, wrong-side-out-but-still-alive body. She shuddered at the thought of being trapped like that. Even if the doctors found a way to reverse the spell, would Derpy's mind ever recover from the experience? What must it be like for her now? Was she deaf and blind to the world around her, or still somehow aware of it? And which would be the worse of the two?

Then on the trail of that thought she suddenly found herself wondering if death might actually be preferable to being trapped in that state; if Pinkie and Rainbow's brief experience of it followed almost immediately by a quick death might—

She forced herself to stifle this train of thought. That was precisely why the changelings had killed her two friends in the first place! To make her and so many others give up and despair! She looked back down at the opaque bubble, this time almost feeling as if she could see the horror within it. We'll get you out of there, Derpy! I don't know how, but we'll find some way to fix your body and get you back to your daughters!

"Fluttershy?"

She started and turned enough to see Spike looking up at her.

"You okay? You had an odd look on your face." His eyes flicked down toward the sight below them. "That's not making you queasy is it? I ... I know it is a bit for me."

"N-no, but we should probably move on." The words seemed so feeble when compared to the promise she had just made to Derpy in her thoughts, but at the same time she couldn't deny that she currently had no resources to make that promise a reality.

Fluttershy wasn't sure what to expect when they lifted the third and final tile. She looked down into a room lit with the same pale eerie light as the last one. As her eyes made out the shapes below, her heart seemed to stop.

Discord's long body was stretched over four hospital beds laid end-to-end with multiple straps circling his neck, torso, arms, legs, and tail to keep them lashed in place. There were bandages covering his right shoulder and the sides of his neck. His skull was also swathed in bandages from the eyes up, and the lower half of his face was hidden by an oxygen mask strapped over it. Despite the beeping of a heart monitor, he looked as lifeless as a corpse.

"There doesn't seem to be any security guard down there," Spike whispered. "At least none that I can see."

Forcing herself to turn her gaze away from Discord, Fluttershy also noticed the lack of guards. "Why would they have a guard watching Amethyst but not Derpy or Discord?" she whispered back.

"I don't know. Maybe that guard was there just in case Amethyst woke up."

But would he have helped her or harmed her? Fluttershy suddenly wondered. Had that guard just been a pony doing his job, or a disguised changeling making sure Amethyst never awoke from her coma. For that matter, was Discord really alone or was the room full of unseen semitransparent changelings waiting to spring a—?

At that moment, Mache Max shot past them with a wild flurry of wings, dropping down into the room. Fluttershy and Spike could only watch fearfully as he flew aerial loops around the room, still beating his wings noisily and steadily descending with each loop until he skidded across the floor. Coming to a stop, he cocked both heads up at his two watchers, seeming to radiate smugness. Discord had reacted to none of the noise, hadn't so much as twitched his ears. No one entered the room to investigate and nothing sprang out from the corners of the room. Not even when Mache Max flapped back up through the hole to join them back in the ceiling.

"Well," Spike finally whispered. "If there were any traps down there, that little performance probably would have set them off. Do you want to go first or shall I?"

"I-I'll go."

Spike seemed surprised at this, but didn't argue as he helped Fluttershy tie off one of their ropes to lower herself into the room. Even so, it took Fluttershy several seconds to psych herself up enough to actually climb down on the rope. The whole time she was braced for some sort of alarm to go off, for some sort of attack to come from the shadows. Sure, Max had flown all over the room unscathed, but Fluttershy couldn't shake the feeling that there was something off about the lack of guards in the room. As she descended, she noticed there were no windows in the room, just a single door. If anyone came through that door, she would be trapped unless she could somehow scale this rope and get back into the ceiling without being noticed. When she finally reached the floor, she lowered a hind hoof to it as gingerly as if she were about to step on the decaying planks of an old rope bridge. Oh, if only she still had her wings and could just hover in the middle of the room like Max did. When nothing happened, she cautiously placed the rest of her hooves on the floor as well. She stood there, heart pounding, shivering in spite of her warm camo, feeling exposed in spite of the room's shadows, straining to hear any sound of danger over the soft but insistent beep and hum of nearby machines.

Only the sight of her former partner lying there so lifeless, so unresponsive, gave her the courage to take a cautious step forward. When nothing happened, she dared take another step. And another. And another.

Finally she reached the beds and their motionless occupant. As she looked up at Discord's face, or at least what she could see of it between the bandages and the oxygen mask, she noticed the edges of his ears looked all ragged. The hospital staff must have taken out his earrings while operating on him. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. She realized that stripping him of his jewelry had probably been a necessary part of the surgery, but she still found the idea oddly degrading. As she gently took his limp paw in her hooves, she noticed that his wrists were still encircled with the gold bracelets the Princesses had put there.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, stroking his paw. Turning him in had been the only possible way to save him back on Foal Mountain, but it still pained her to now see him looking so vulnerable. And yet she still couldn't take her eyes away from him, trying to relearn the features her dreams had been desperately conjuring for the past year. At Foal Mountain she had been too panicked to take in any details, but now as she watched the slow rise and fall of his chest, she noticed he had feathers mixed in with the soft wooly undercoat and long coarse guard hairs that formed his fur. They were like the feathers she'd seen once on a bird known as a kiwi. How had she never noticed them before?

His torso suddenly turned as much as the restraining straps would allow, and the blanket covering him slipped down enough for her to see one of the familiar black, red, and green coils of his dragon tattoo. It had never been a mystery why Highflyer's tattoos were so visible through that short close hair all ponies had, but Discord only had that type of hair from the neck up. Why had she never realized just how odd it was that his tattoos managed to show through all his feathers and fur? Could it be that rather than love making her blind, it had only made her all the more aware of just how strange and different he truly was?

Her gaze moved to his neck, noticing a few of his wasp tattoos were peeking out from under the bandages. But as she got a closer look at them, she felt a jolt of shock. His tattoos didn't look like wasps anymore. They looked like ... moths. Just like in her dreams. When had they changed? Why had they changed? Had she heard about the change somewhere in the news and somehow unconsciously incorporated it into her dreams?

Or what if this was all a dream now?! She struck her bandaged foreleg and stifled a gasp at the burst of pain. No, she was definitely awake. She was definitely in a hospital room with Discord. And his neck tattoos definitely still looked like moths.

She reached toward the nearest one, intending to trace its shape just to assure herself that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. But her hoof had barely touched it when the moth suddenly fanned its wings wildly. An instant later all the other moths had swarmed down to surround her hoof. Or at least they would have if she hadn't yanked it back in surprise. The cloud of moths continued to circle the spot where her hoof had been, seeming to grow more agitated by the second, when the dragon tattoo's coils suddenly shifted. At first Fluttershy thought it was just Discord's body moving, but then the dragon tattoo's head appeared over his left shoulder and stretched down across his chest, its eyes fastened on her. Then the dragon turned its head inward so that it was facing Discord's chest, and huffed as if it were flaming. Discord's body spasmed up against the restraining straps and his eyes snapped open as the nearby heart monitor went from producing a low steady beep to a wild crescendo.

Fluttershy felt frozen in place, her head screaming at her to get to the rope, to get out of there; while her heart begged her not to abandon Discord. Suddenly she heard a loud creak over all the other sounds, and the room's lighting snapped from dim to bright. She cowered to the floor instinctively, and as she squinted against the light she saw that she was now level with the hospital bed's skirt. Without giving it a second thought, she dove under the skirt. Through the veil of fabric she could faintly make out the shapes of pony legs moving around the bed, and curled up as tight as she could, trying to make sure no bits of her were sticking out from under the bed. Above her the bed shook, and her ears were filled with frantic shouting from voices she didn't recognize.

That is until Discord's voice suddenly rang out. "Undo these straps this instant!"

"I'm afraid we can't do that," said an unknown male voice that sounded as if it were trying to be commanding, but couldn't completely hide its unease.

This was followed by a beat of tense silence before Discord made a sound that expressed equal parts amusement and disgust. "Oh, why did I even waste time demanding that? Silly me."

This was followed by a familiar snap.

Silence.

Then another snap. And another. And another. Then a rapid series of them accompanied by a baffled, "Is this thing on?" from Discord.

There were several audible sighs of relief, followed by a couple of nervous titters.

"No," said the male voice between uneasy giggles, a nervous haughtiness creeping into it. "No, it's not, and it's going to stay off as long as those cuffs stay on." This was followed by more laughs, but they all sounded more like giddy relief rather than amusement or malice.

But if he can't use his power ... then how were his tattoos still able to move? Fluttershy didn't have much time to dwell on this before Discord suddenly raised his voice again.

"Oh, yes. Very droll," he jeered sarcastically. If realizing he was suddenly unable to work his magic had frightened him, he was doing a remarkable job of hiding it. "Once you've finished yucking it up, do you plan on telling me exactly why I'm here?"

"Why do you think?" said a second unknown male voice that sounded like it was coming from the hallway. "You're here to get patched up so you can get a fair trial, and then be executed for what you've done."

Fluttershy felt her hooves curl like clenched fists. Suddenly she didn't care if any of these speakers were deceived ponies or deceiving changelings. All she could think was: You're not taking him! You're not taking him, he's mine! You've already taken two of my best friends, but you're not taking him as well! Do you hear?! You're not taking him!

Suddenly Skywishes's words about how you couldn't lose what you couldn't attain no longer seemed to matter. Not in the face of this.

Then the male voice from earlier cut through her thoughts. "That'll do, Mike. Just get back to your job, and let us get on with ours."

"I'm going," said the voice from the hallway. "Though I still say this is a waste of time considering it's practically an open-and-shut case."

"That's why I'm the doctor, and you're the security guard. Now go."

"Uh-huh."

She heard hooves moving down the hallway, before a female voice spoke up above her.

"You know he's right."

"Maybe," said the male voice that she now knew must belong to a doctor. "But we still have our professional integrity to uphold. Even if it's just fixing him up for the royal court to properly deal with later."

"Since when did professional integrity include talking behind a patient's back in front of them?!" Discord demanded.

"Since that patient was you," said the doctor, now sounding completely unruffled. "Now take these pills."

"I refuse!" Fluttershy could almost imagine him crossing his arms to emphasize the point if they weren't strapped down.

"Refuse all you want, but you're probably about to regret it."

The draconequus made a pained noise.

"I thought so," said the doctor. "Look, I'm not trying to poison you, if that's what you're thinking. I've been ordered by Princess Celestia herself to make sure you're physically fit to stand trial, and that outweighs my own feelings toward you. Those pills are painkillers so I suggest you take them if you want that headache to stop any time soon."

Discord muttered something that sounded like grudging consent, which was followed by several gulps.

"Hmm," the doctor murmured clinically. "You seem to be breathing fine on your own now, so we'll leave the oxygen mask off."

"And what about these?" Discord asked, loudly jiggling his restraints.

"Those stay right where they are. Princesses' orders." Fluttershy could practically hear the smirk in his voice. "We can't risk you slithering out of here, after all." Then almost as an afterthought he added, "Though we might remove some of them later on if you behave yourself."

The female, who Fluttershy guessed was probably a nurse, seemed to find this amusing for some unknown reason. "Sleep tight."

Fluttershy heard the hooves moving away from the bed. Then the lights dimmed and the door closed. She stayed under the bed a while longer, allowing her eyes to adjust and wanting to make absolutely sure the staff had left before she dared to venture out. Turning back to the bed, she saw that they had indeed taken the oxygen mask off Discord's face. Ever since that one time she had seen him without his tattoos and piercings, she had secretly longed to see him without them again. But not like this. Then she noticed how he seemed to be fighting not to nod off, and suddenly wondered if there had been some type of sedative in the painkillers.

He struggled at the sight of her, the beeping of his heart monitor increasing both in speed and volume. Fearing it would bring the staff running back to investigate, she hastened to calm him.

"It's okay, Discord. It's me, Fluttershy. Remember when we were trying to find out who killed Applejack? I asked if you had a photographic memory and you told me you had a cinematic one. Then you took me inside it to show me."

His struggles seemed to lessen slightly at this, but he still strained against the straps on his wrists, fingers outstretched toward her. Fluttershy quickly lowered her face to his paw, and he ran his fingers under her chin and up her cheeks, tracing their shape.

"Fluttershy..." His voice was now much softer and more uncertain than earlier. "What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story," she murmured, nuzzling at his paw, luxuriating in his touch despite the desperate circumstances.

You're wasting time! a small voice in the back of her head shouted. You're supposed to be here to ask him questions!

Fluttershy looked up, intending to do just that, but the sight of her former partner looking so disoriented as he fought to stay awake brought tears to her eyes. She quickly turned to wipe them away.

"Don't leave me..." Discord's voice was heavy and slurred, but still held a clear desperation.

"I'm not. Don't worry. I don't want to," she whispered, quickly putting her face back within his grasp. But her wants didn't change the fact that she might have to leave him soon. She had just barely escaped detection earlier. She might not be so fortunate a second time.

His caresses became more languid then stopped all together. She looked up to see his head lolling to the side with eyes closed.

"Fluttershy!" She jumped with fright at the soft hiss from above. She looked up to see Spike waving down at her from the opening in the ceiling, and briefly wondered if he'd gotten the tile back in place before the hospital employees had shown up, or if it just hadn't occurred to them to look ceilingward. She turned back to Discord. She longed to wake him, if only to spend a bit more time with him, but that might only alert the hospital staff again. Even just staying there, waiting for him to wake up on his own was too risky.

Still she couldn't leave him without at least some form of goodbye.

She leaned down and took his paw in both hooves and nuzzled it one more time. "They're not taking you, Discord," she whispered against his paw, her lips pressing against his fingers almost like a series of kisses. "I swear, they're not taking you this time."

When she finally released his paw and hurried to climb the dangling rope, she glanced down to see his moth tattoos were all crowded together at the top of his neck just short of his skull bandages, and were hovering there, watching her. Further below them the dragon tattoo had also moved higher than usual on its owner's neck and seemed to be watching her with a longing expression as well. She tried to give them what she hoped was an encouraging wave before disappearing up into the ceiling.

"You didn't get the chance to ask him about Bonfire, did you?" Spike asked.

"No." Fluttershy lowered her eyes guiltily. "I—"

"Don't worry about it. I saw what happened. It wasn't really the best time. But I started thinking: Maybe you and Skywishes should go back to the TreeHAB while I stay here."

"What—?!"

"Think about it, Fluttershy. If I stay here, I can keep hiding in the duct work. I can probably scrounge food from the hospital cafeteria when nopony is looking, so that's one less mouth to feed at the HAB. I can keep an eye on Discord, Derpy, and Amethyst, and send reports back to the HAB through Twilight." Then his gaze seemed to take on an almost calculating edge. "And if you write a letter to Discord with all those questions you didn't get the chance to ask, Twilight can send it to me, and I can wait for the right opportunity to pass it on to him."

"Well ... if you're sure..."

Skywishes had been surprised when Fluttershy and Mache Max emerged from the air duct without Spike, but when things were explained to her, she had to admire the little dragon's reasoning. However when they tried to fly away, Mache Max protested so vehemently that Fluttershy was forced to stuff him inside her jerkin, where he suddenly went into cuddle mode. Fortunately, though Skywishes had needed him to find the hospital, she had taken note of what directions they had flown and now knew how to get back to the HAB.

Now as they flew, Fluttershy could feel Skywishes breathing hard beneath her and she suddenly wished she could offer to get off and walk, but knew that would only slow them down more. She felt guilty for forcing Skywishes to make this trip just so she could see Discord.

"I really can't thank you enough for this, Skywishes. For letting us stay at your home, for rescuing Bonfire, for flying me around. You've just done so much, and I—"

Her words were cut off with an "oof!" as Skywishes suddenly landed on a tree branch.

"Fluttershy," Skywishes sounded tired. "If you think this is a case where I've just been giving and you've just been taking, I want you to remember you and your friends spent a full year trying to find me just to let me know what happened to Sunny Daze. Nopony's ever done anything like that for me before. I already told you about how I didn't learn about her death until four months after the funeral, and that was before I even started living in the Everfree and making the effort to be harder to find. I wouldn't have blamed any of you if you just gave up in your search for me, and the fact that you didn't ... It's awoken something in me that I can't ever remember feeling before. ... It's like..." Skywishes suddenly shook her head. "Never mind. Let's just focus on doing what we need to get through this." And with that she pushed off the branch—which Fluttershy now noticed belonged to an especially large and increasingly familiar tree—hooked her hooves into an invisible entrance panel and slid it open.

Author's Note

Phew! I'm not dead, folks and neither is this story! Writing this chapter took a lot longer than I thought it would, but it's finally here. As always, a huge thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing which really improved my early attempts at several scenes in this chapter.

I know we didn't get to see a lot of Discord in this chapter and believe me, I hated keeping him absent for so long, but you can only do so much with a character (even one like Discord) when they're doped into unconsciousness.

To my fellow Fluttercord fans: Since this chapter was light on Fluttercord moments, let me direct you to another source of them. For those of you not aware, my buddy misskoifishpony is working on adapting her Fluttercord story The Mare who Became Queen into an audio drama, and their looking for artists. If you enjoy drawing or know someone who does, please pass this info onto them. Thank you.

In the meantime coming up in the next chapter: Among other things, Pen Pal time for the Odd Couple!

Chapter 6. Hosea 6:1

Chapter 6

"Come, let us return to the LORD; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up."—Hosea 6:1

Skywishes stuck her head through the now-open panel. "It's Wasp and Card—What are you doing?"

Fluttershy peeked around her to see that Applejack, Screwjob, Twilight, and Rarity seemed to be in the middle of sorting through Highflyer's trunk of colorful wrestling costumes. But before she could locate the tiny wrestler, Dinky, or even Bonfire, Rarity looked up, beaming.

"Ah, just the pony we wanted to—" Her pleased expression fell as Skywishes boosted Fluttershy up into the TreeHAB before climbing in after her. "Where's Spike?"

Skywishes turned to slide the panel shut, leaving Fluttershy to answer the question. "He, uh ... he decided to stay behind."

"What?!" Twilight's head snapped up, her expression alarmed.

"Don't worry! He's all right." At least I hope he is, Fluttershy silently added in her thoughts before quickly filling the others in on what had happened during the hospital trip. While she described things, she saw Highflyer step out from behind his open trunk, and noticed Dinky almost completely hidden in a pile of camouflage, getting some much-needed sleep. Only Bonfire remained unaccounted for.

By the time Fluttershy had finished explaining Spike's reasoning for staying at the hospital, Twilight's expression looked a trifle less alarmed though still uneasy.

"I'm going to check on him." She whipped out a quill and a sheet of paper, jotted a quick note on the paper, rolled it up, and sent it to Spike via her magic. The scroll flashed back into existence so fast Fluttershy briefly wondered if the spell had malfunctioned. But when Twilight caught it and unrolled it to read the contents, her expression relaxed. "He's all right," she said with a rueful expression, turning the scroll so they could see Spike's reply written under her original message. "He says he was expecting this." Then her expression turned thoughtful. "Actually having him there might work with what we were planning to try here."

Skywishes glanced about at the colorful wrestling outfits now covering the floor. "What exactly were you planning to try?"

Rarity smiled. "Well, for starters I am about to give your wardrobe a much needed makeover."

Skywishes's eyes widened in alarm as she whirled to face Rarity, but before she could voice a protest, the unicorn went on. "After all, you did agree to let me tailor our outfits when I got back here."

Skywishes opened her mouth. Then promptly shut it. Fluttershy could almost hear her remembering the way she'd answered Rarity with an offhoof: Yeah, yeah. Sure. Whatever you want.

"I mean, all this drab shapeless stuff," Rarity continued, using her magic to lift the camouflage cloak she'd been wearing earlier, and tsk-tsking in disapproval. "Honestly, darling, it's not fit to be seen in."

Skywishes suddenly seemed to recover and narrowed her eyes. "Why do you think I wear it? Not to be seen in! That's the whole idea."

"We know that, Skywishes, but hear us out," Twilight quickly cut in. "While you were gone, we got to brainstorming and decided that since we have everything here we need to make the crystal pony potion except the powdered gemstones, we could try making a modified version of it by using the dye from Highflyer's clothes instead. In theory this modified potion won't make us look like crystal ponies, but it will change our coat colors."

"And that's where the wardrobe makeover comes into play as well," said Rarity. Still keeping the camouflage cloak aloft, she also used her magic to lift a much smaller sleeveless purple shirt trimmed with gold up next to it. "If the modified potion works, we'll use a similar spell to transfer the colors from Highflyer's clothes onto the insides of several camouflage outfits—" She tucked the shirt inside the cloak. "—and with a few of my tasteful alterations, we'll all be equipped with practical-yet-pleasing two-in-one winter garments. Camouflage for traveling through the forest," She wrapped the cloak around herself to demonstrate. "And bright colors for venturing into society." She turned the cloak inside out so that the much smaller shirt was now on the outside. "Of course, the final product will look much more fabulous than this," she added as she separated the cloak and shirt.

"We'd have made the potion and started testing it by now, but we weren't sure how much of our daily water supply we could spare on it, and wanted to check with you first." Twilight added. "So what do you think?"

Skywishes was silent, her expression unreadable. While she hadn't promptly squashed their idea, her lack of response wasn't particularly encouraging.

"Sugarcube," Applejack said, moving forward to gently put a hoof on Skywishes's shoulder. "We know you're trying to keep us alive, but we can't have you running yourself ragged while the rest of us just sit around here."

At the touch, Skywishes started and shook herself. "I know that, I just ... I'm just not used to this. To ... working with other ponies ... To ... having these options..." She shook her head but Fluttershy got the impression it was more to clear her mind rather than to express disagreement. "Still," said Skywishes, turning to more fully face Twilight and Rarity. "If the potion works like you seem to be saying, those are some good ideas you've got. And they're probably our best bet for survival. Even without Spike, our current supplies won't last much longer; we can't sustain ourselves solely on magically grown stuff long-term." A grimace flashed across her face. "And believe me, we don't want to have to eat pulped Timberwolf if we can avoid it."

Fluttershy shuddered at the thought. "Does it taste really awful?"

To her surprise, Skywishes actually smiled in amusement. "No, it actually doesn't have much of a taste at all. It's more the ... side effects of eating it that are the problem."

"Side effects?"

Skywishes's smile turned back into a partial grimace. "You know that infamous bad breath Timberwolves have? Well, I found out that once you eat some pulped Timberwolf and get it into your bloodstream you smell just as bad as their breath."

This was met with expressions and exclamations of disgust all around as the group tried to imagine it.

Skywishes nodded. "It may have kept a lot of predators away, but pretty soon even I was having a hard time coping with me. The only other plus to it is that you apparently taste as bad as you smell. I found that out when a hydra got me in one of its mouths at the time—I guess the smell alone wasn't enough to deter it—only to promptly spit me back out." Then she seemed to notice an absence in their group. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask, where's Bonfire?"

"Oh, she tried hobbling around a bit on her peg-leg until she'd hobbled herself over there," said Screwjob, pointing toward the photo of Sunny Daze and Skywishes as fillies. There were several books and bundles of camouflage stacked between the group and the picture, but now Fluttershy caught sight of the edge of a magenta membrane behind the stacks of material. No wonder she'd missed it earlier. "She's just been hiding back there since then."

Skywishes frowned at this before going over to the photo. After a moment's hesitation, Fluttershy followed. Rounding the stacks of material, they saw Bonfire lying on her stomach inside the bubble, wrapped in her camo blanket with only her grotesque head visible. Her eyes were trained on the photo, but as Skywishes and Fluttershy drew near, she sprang up and whirled toward them with a fierce snarl.

"Relax." Skywishes ordered in a flat emotionless voice, and surprisingly the little mystery creature actually seemed to quiet, her snarl softening to a low thrum. Bonfire's gaze flicked from Skywishes and Fluttershy to the photo and back again several times before she adjusted her position to more fully face the photo. Still keeping a wary sidelong gaze on the two ponies, she leaned toward the photo. With her fleshless muzzle barely an inch from the image of filly Skywishes, she trilled softly.

Skywishes squinted one eye at this little demonstration before deciding to interpret it as a question. "Yeah, that's me as a filly."

At this, Bonfire turned her head enough to point to the other filly and trilled a second time.

"And that's my twin sister, Sunny Daze."

A third inquisitive trill.

Skywishes considered what question the little creature could possibly be asking before saying, "She's dead. Died a long time ago."

Bonfire's head drooped and she let out a very soft trill that was almost a sigh. Her eyes closed and she seemed to tremble.

"Bonfire?" Fluttershy asked softly, moving closer to her. "Is something wrong?"

Bonfire's whole body shook as she tried to block out the image that refused to leave her mind. The image of those six ponies struggling helplessly as their lives were strangled away. Her memory of the white pegasus with the yellow-and-magenta streaked orange mane had always been the clearest. The white pegasus had been the only one of the six fleeing ponies to turn back and snatch her up. The only one who had attempted to take her along. Now behind her closed eyelids she saw the white pegasus once again staring at her, trying desperately to communicate something with her eyes before light and life left them permanently.

Sunny Daze... Now at long long last she finally had a name to put with the white face and dark green eyes. Those eyes so—

Her own eyes suddenly snapped open and her head swung around. She vaguely registered the yellow pony. Registered ... Fluttershy ... but she had eyes only for ... Skywishes. She stared into a pair of dark green eyes so identical to Sunny Daze's in color, and yet at the same time so different...

"Bonfire?" Fluttershy called softly, trying to get her attention, but the orange eyes were riveted on Skywishes.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Skywishes barked, squirming under Bonfire's scrutiny. "Knock it off." She shot Fluttershy a 'help!'-look before turning back to meet Bonfire's unblinking gaze. "Wh-what are you hungry? Thirsty? Fluttershy help me here," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

"Bonfire!" Fluttershy repeated, not shouting but still louder than her usual soft tone. This time the little one jerked with a start and snarled in her direction.

"It's okay, sweetie," Fluttershy soothed in her usual gentle way. Once again Bonfire's snarl softened to a low thrum, and Fluttershy found herself hoping that maybe, just maybe, someday the little one would stop treating every interaction as a possible attack. Not for the first time, she wondered what had given Bonfire this mindset, but aloud she only said, "We just need to know if you're hungry or thirsty. Please just nod for 'yes' or shake your head for 'no.' I mean nod if you're either hungry or thirsty, and shake your head if you're not either of those things," she added, realizing her directions probably hadn't been very clear.

However, Bonfire did neither of these things. She only responded with a soft trill that could have meant anything.

"Well, so much for that," Skywishes muttered, sounding half-amused, half-annoyed at the cryptic response. She eyed Bonfire ruefully. "Though even if you did answer with a 'yes,' there's still that little issue of how we're supposed to get anything into you." Under her breath she added, "You lipless, tongueless wonder," before turning to Fluttershy. "Any ideas?"

Fluttershy didn't answer immediately as she studied Bonfire, mentally calling up all her knowledge of caring for many different animals. There was still the possibility that Bonfire was one of Discord's creations...

But she seems to be flesh and bones like a normal animal, rather than just paper like Mache Max, Fluttershy mused. That might mean she needs food like a regular animal would...

But how much to give her? Was her skeletal appearance just normal for whatever her species was, or was it due to a lack of nourishment? Fluttershy mentally weighed the two possibilities.

It would probably be best if we treat this like a case of starvation. If that really were the case, we'd have to start her off with only a little food at first to see if she could keep it down anyway.

Of course that brought things back to the issue of how they were even going to feed Bonfire. If Fluttershy had been caring for any normal animal that looked as underfed as Bonfire currently did, she would have started it off on a liquid diet, but would that even be possible for Bonfire? Her lack of a tongue and proper lips meant she wouldn't be able to lap up anything and sipping would likely be difficult at the very least. Still, there must be some way to feed her.

"Maybe..." Fluttershy said, drawing out the word as her brain continued working through possible ideas. "Maybe we should start by giving her some water. If we ... soaked a sponge, she could bite down on it, tilt her head back, and swallow the liquid that way. ... And if that works, we could probably give her some broth the same way before trying to give her anything solid."

Skywishes looked surprised for a brief second before her expression shifted to thoughtful. "It's worth a try. I should have some sponges around here somewhere, and the others needed water to test their potion idea anyway."

Soon after Skywishes had divvied up an allotment of water between Twilight and Fluttershy. Most of the other ponies went to help Twilight assemble the potion ingredients, while Fluttershy focused on tending to Bonfire.

It took her a good bit of coaxing to get Bonfire to come out from behind the stacks of books and camouflage, and even then the little one seemed wary of getting close to the other ponies. Fluttershy decided it was probably best not to try forcing Bonfire too far out of her comfort zone just yet, and thus didn't insist they join the others.

It took even more coaxing, even going so far as biting into the soaked sponge herself to prove it was harmless before she could put it and the water bowl into the bubble without its occupant attempting to retreat.

Now Bonfire approached the offerings cautiously. She sniffed at them, and prodded at them with her splinted, membrane-encased front leg. Finally, she decided to chance slowly sinking her teeth into the sponge. As the water oozed from it, her eyes widened and she was suddenly gnawing on the sponge and sucking the water from it as if the liquid were an especially tasty dessert.

"Aww." Fluttershy wasn't sure if it was more endearing or sad that the little one showed such enthusiasm over taking a simple drink of water.

"High, will you stop wincing every time we make the tiniest tear in your clothes?!" Screwjob suddenly snapped behind them. Fluttershy spun around to see him leaning into the open travel trunk. Highflyer was a short distance away, covering his eyes with one forehoof.

"Honestly," Screwjob went on. "You'd think we were ripping your flesh the way you're flinching. No, I take that back. You'd actually be flinching a lot less if we were ripping your flesh. Suck it up, will you? They're just clothes."

"Really Screwjob must you be so crass?" Rarity objected. "Granted his taste in fashion is a little..." She trailed off, probably realizing that wasn't the best direction to take. Clearing her throat, she turned to Highflyer. "Eh-hem. Regardless, the fact that you've allowed us to use your clothes in this little endeavor, knowing they might get destroyed in the process is a noble sacrifice."

Highflyer didn't respond to this, but Screwjob greeted it with a snort. "Come on, it's not like these are the only clothes he owns in the world." He leaned even further into the trunk. "They barely make a dent in his laundry pile. They're not even a tenth of what he has."

"Not even a te—?" Applejack sounded shocked as she turned to Highflyer. "How many outfits do you have?"

Fluttershy saw Highflyer's ears go red and felt sure his face under the mask was currently the same color. He mumbled something that sounded like: "Mmbowfifunded."

Applejack frowned. "What was that?"

"Mm, about five hundred."

"And every one of them custom-made no less," Screwjob added.

Applejack was stunned and even Rarity looked impressed. Applejack asked, "What do you need that many duds for?"

"They're a business investment!" Highflyer snapped, lifting his hoof away from his eyes.

Screwjob tittered from inside the trunk. "That's us. The Studs with the Duds. Well, let's be honest, only I really make the Stud category." His next words came out as if he had something clamped in his teeth. "Ain't I hight, Happs?"

"Yes, you ain't," she replied with an eye roll.

Screwjob's head came up and Fluttershy was sure he was about to deliver some comeback, but at that moment Highflyer suddenly launched himself at the taller wrestler. He slammed into Screwjob's side, causing him to stumble away from the trunk. As he fell over, Fluttershy saw that he had pieces of a blue costume in his mouth. Crashing onto his back, he spat the costume out next to him and looked up at the tiny attacker now straddling his chest.

"High—"

The masked wrestler shoved his muzzle right into his coworker's bearded face, gritting out: "You're not. Using. That one."

Screwjob blinked at him, looking genuinely confused. "That one what?"

Taking care to plant his hooves in Screwjob's chest as many times as possible while he turned, Highflyer jumped off and snatched up the discarded costume. "This one what," he snapped, smoothing the costume pieces out only to start folding them up before anyone could get a good look at their design. "You can use—" he thrust one of the folded bundles into a pouch on the left side of his camo vest, "—any of the clothes in my trunk—" he thrust the second bundle into a right side pouch, "—except—" Grabbing the portion of his mask that covered his muzzle, he pulled it outward, and shoved the final bundle underneath, snugging it up against his forehead. "—this set." he finished, punctuating the statement by allowing his mask to snap back in place.

Screwjob sat up, wincing and rubbing at his neck while he rolled his head from side to side. "High, I know you're Captain Picky-pants when it comes to your clothes, but there's no need to get your mask in a twist. You've got other blue get—"

Highflyer whirled around to face the bigger stallion, his body low to the floor, his stance tense. "I only got this one because of Ray!"

"Oh."

Screwjob's annoyance seemed to promptly vanish, but Highflyer's tension didn't. He stayed in that crouched position, glaring at his coworker. For several uncomfortable seconds there was no sound but Bonfire's awkward sponge-slurping. Fluttershy watched the two wrestlers, wondering if she or anypony else should try stepping in, when Screwjob suddenly lowered his gaze.

"You're right, High. Sometimes I just get wrapped up in the whole heel thing, and ... well, I wasn't thinking and I'm sorry about that."

Highflyer continued to glare at the other stallion for several seconds more, before his stance abruptly relaxed. He sighed and shook his head. "It's just as well our boss can't hear you being all sappy. He'd probably decide to have you turn face."

Screwjob looked revolted at the idea. "Oh, wonderful. I offer you an apology and in return you try to traumatize me." Then his expression went thoughtful. "Though I might agree to being a face if it meant I got to double cross you somewhere down the line. Like that storyline where we teamed up to take on Phenom and Brimstone." He chuckled reminiscently. "There we were, the conquering heroes, the fans were loving it ... and then I turned on you. Clobbered you with the title belt, tore your mask off, put you headfirst into the steps, the whole nine yards." His eyes lit up at the memory. "Boy, did they hate me after that and when you returned weeks later to officially kick my tail they just ate it up."

Highflyer laughed fondly as well. "That was one of our best storylines wasn't it?"

Even after the past several days that Fluttershy had watched the wrestlers interact, it still fascinated her that they could offer reconciliation in the form of a perceived gibe, rather than a group hug she and the other girls might have employed.

Then Highflyer seemed to sober. "Of course, after all that happened in that storyline, I don't know if we could come up with a plausible reason for me to ever trust you, let alone team up with you again."

Screwjob looked up at the ceiling and scratched his beard. "I'm sure we could come up with something..."

Highflyer lowered his gaze and sighed ruefully. "Even if we did, we probably won't be around long enough to pitch it."

Screwjob eyed the other stallion's slumping posture, and a calculating grin flashed across his face. "Tell you what. If we get through this, I'll buy you another five hundred wrestling costumes and then some until you have an even thousand."

Highflyer's head immediately snapped up. "You will not." he said in a 'don't-you-dare' tone.

Screwjob's expression went devilishly gleeful. "Okay. Then I'll just commission Rarity to make you several fancy suits."

Highflyer bared his teeth, growling through them: "Jobs. I. Don't. Do. Suits."

Screwjob shrugged his withers. "There's always a first—"

"The potion's ready!" Twilight announced. "Who wants to be the first to test it?"

"I will!" Screwjob staggered to his feet, winced, and rubbed at his head. "Hooves off the test subject!" he warned as he stumbled past Highflyer. "Don't want to contaminate the results."

"That's not how it—" Twilight started to explain, then realized the wrestler was just joking. "Oh, never mind." She floated a mug with a small sample of potion in it to him. "Here. Drink up."

He took the mug but suddenly looked hesitant. "Uh, Twilight, just a little word of warning: If this stuff kills me, my boss will be out for your blood and he makes the changelings look like Fluttershy."

Twilight gave him a weak smile. "Duly noted."

"Well, bottoms up." Screwjob raised the mug in a mock salute before tossing its contents back in one gulp. He grimaced and a shiver ran through his body as he set the mug down. Suddenly his mane turned pale gold at the roots and the color shot out toward the end of each hair. He gave his tail a reflexive swish and Fluttershy saw that it had changed color as well. In split seconds his black mane and tail were as yellow as Applejack's. Even his beard and eyebrows, or at least the one that wasn't hidden under bandages. He blinked and looked around at the other ponies. "Did it work?" He raised one of his still-golden brown forelegs. "It doesn't look like—Aye!"

Twilight had just used her magic to yank his head down to her level and began combing through his mane, peering at the roots. "Hmm. This definitely looks natural. Not like a dye job at all."

Screwjob squirmed about in his pulled-over position. "What does? I can't see it."

"Your hair just went from black to bleached blond," said Highflyer. "Now ponies might actually think you and your aunt are related."

Applejack suddenly looked hopeful. "You mean they're not?"

"No, they are, they just don't look it."

"Lemme see!" Screwjob demanded, and for a moment it looked like Rarity was obliging him by floating over a bowl of water. Only for Twilight to dunk his head in the water.

Applejack produced some soap and hurried to join the other mares as they began washing the stallion's mane. Screwjob made noises of protest, but to his credit made no serious effort to escape. However, when they finally released him, he took his revenge by shaking himself as vigorously as a dog, drawing various indignant exclamations from the three of them.

"Well," said Twilight, wiping her face. "The color looks natural, and we don't have to worry about it washing off. Now we just have to see how long it takes for the potion to wear off on its own."

"Yeah, let's hope it does wear off," said Screwjob, scratching at his beard as he studied his reflection in the water bowl. "I mean don't get me wrong, I adore blondes," he gave Applejack a sidelong smirk that was answered with a glare. "But I've always had that tall, dark, and handsome thing going on, and now I'm just two out of three."

"More like one out of three," Applejack muttered.

"Miss Honest Apps, are you trying to make a liar out of your eyesi—?"

"Who wants to test the next potion that's supposed to change our coat colors?!" Twilight called out with so much enthusiasm Fluttershy wondered if she was trying to cut the two earth ponies off before they could really get in stride. Then the alicorn quickly added, "Apart from Screwjob."

The stallion in question shot her an indignant look. "What's wrong with me?"

"I need to see if the potion will work on our bodies without changing our mane and tail colors. Then we can test it on you to see how they both work together."

"I'll try it," said Highflyer.

"That's no good," said Screwjob. "You haven't got a mane and that sawed-off stump barely qualifies as a tail."

"The sawed-off stump will do," Twilight said dryly before passing the masked stallion a mug of potion. He downed it and shivered just as Screwjob had before his whole body turned bright cerulean. That is except for his tattoos which were still as black as ever.

Rarity raised one of his forelegs to examine it. "Hmm, the potion seems to have worked, but we'll have to find some other way to hide these tattoos." Her voice took on a slightly despairing tone. "Really, darling, why do you have so many?"

"They seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Twilight," Fluttershy suddenly spoke up, startling the group. "When I was at the hospital, Discord had these cuffs on his wrists that prevented him from using his power, and they seemed to work ... but his tattoos were still able to move around. I think his dragon one even woke him up. How could they do that if the cuffs were supposed to block his power?"

Twilight frowned. "Hmm, that's a bit tricky to answer considering how different the very nature of his magic is from pony magic. Let me see ... How could it...?"

"Do you know how he got the tattoos?" Highflyer suddenly asked, freeing himself from Rarity's hold.

"What do you mean: How he got them?" Fluttershy asked, trying to read what little she could see of his face.

"Do you know if he just snapped his fingers to instantly make his tattoos appear on his body, or if he went through the whole usual process like I did with ink and needles?"

"He..." Fluttershy suddenly remembered that time at the cabin when she was bleeding from a head wound, searching for a way to stitch it up...

"Discord, are you very familiar with sewing or needles?"

"I did these, myself."

Then she'd seen two Discord duplicates using needles and a tattoo machine to give him several of his tattoos and piercings.

At the time she had been so focused on patching up her head wound that she hadn't really given much thought to Discord's words or demonstration. Until now.

"Well ... I think he might have created duplicates that did his piercings and tattoos the conventional way ... but why's that important?"

"Well, I was just thinking that if he got his tattoos the same way I did—you know, got a bunch of ink scratched into his skin—maybe that would make them sort of..." Highflyer twirled a hoof in the air, looking for the right word, "...foreign? ... Separate from him in a way that they wouldn't be if he just magically made them appear on his body?"

"Ooh," said Twilight, seeming to warm to the idea. "And maybe all the time they've been in contact with his skin caused them to leech some of his magic. And now even if his magic is blocked, they can still move thanks to the magic they soaked up over the years from him."

Fluttershy's eyes widened at this new idea and what it could possibly mean for their situation.

Now Fluttershy sat a little ways away from the rest of the group, gnawing lightly on a pencil as she stared at a sheet of paper, trying to decide what to write.

How much should she tell Discord? What if some changelings managed to intercept the message? They already know that Spike, Twilight, Skywishes, Dinky, and I are together, and they probably figure the others are with us as well...

Should she ask him about Bonfire? She looked over at the little one who had finished her sponge drink and was now hunkered down in her blanket. Her lashless eyelids kept drooping as if she were nodding off only to jerk awake again. Fluttershy had tried to assure her it would be safe to sleep, that none of them would disturb her, but it was clear Bonfire didn't believe this. Fluttershy had tried to sing her to sleep, but this technique that soothed so many animals and ponies alike only seemed to agitate this one—

"Fluttershy?" Twilight's voice startled her out of her musing. "You ready to send that letter?"

Fluttershy blushed. "Uh, actually I'm still trying to decide what to write."

"Try to keep it as short as you can," Twilight suggested. "He might need to hide it if a doctor walks in on him before he can get it back to Spike."

Fluttershy nodded before looking back down at the paper. Let's see, I'll tell him we're in hiding, but that I can't say where. I should probably wait on mentioning Bonfire since it might take a lot of time to explain how we found her ... But I probably should warn him about his tattoos moving so he can make sure they don't do it when anypony is watching. Who knew what might happen if the hospital staff discovered that? Fluttershy had a horrifying mental image of them trying to cut the tattoos out of Discord's skin. Granted that doctor had said he intended to make sure Discord was fit to stand trial but how could they be sure some changelings wouldn't figure out a way to work something nefarious in the meantime? I'll tell him that I'll try to keep messaging him through Spike ... And I should probably wrap this pencil up in the note so he can write something back if possible.

"Okay," she said a few minutes later as she signed the note, and began rolling it around the pencil. "I'm ready." She slid the new scroll across the floor to Twilight, who lifted it with her magic. The alicorn squeezed her eyes shut in concentration, preparing to send the message, when Mache Max suddenly shot out from the front of Fluttershy's jerkin. Fluttershy let out a small startled cry. He had been so quiet and unmoving for the past hours that she'd forgotten he was still nestled in her clothes. Twilight's eyes popped open at the cry just in time to see Mache Max wrap several of his wings around the scroll before it and he both vanished.

After Fluttershy and Mache Max had left, Spike had rested a bit before exploring the duct work, peeking down into various rooms, and taking note of important locations like restrooms and the cafeteria. He also checked back in on Derpy and Amethyst. The former was still hidden within her opaque bubble, while the latter was deep in her coma. Once again he felt a mixture of relief that they were at least still alive, and frustration that he could do nothing but leave them lying there helpless.

He was just making his way back to check on Discord when he got a familiar feeling in his stomach. Before he could stifle it, he belched out a spurt of flames and a scroll appeared in front of him. With an unexpected hitchhiker.

Discord yanked his left arm back, causing the gold bracelet on his wrist to press up against the restraining strap higher up on his forearm. He stretched the arm back out as far as the straps would permit, then yanked it back in again. Stretch out, pull in, stretch out, pull in, he repeated the gestures with all the rapidity of a frenzied drummer. He'd been at this with first one arm and then the other ever since he'd awakened from that painkiller-induced sleep, trying to force those bracelets off over his hands. Neither of the bracelets were tight; they really looked more like bangles than shackles. They should have slipped off easily but no matter how much he twisted and struggled they remained stubbornly in place.

His head, neck, right shoulder, and left hip all ached, but he wasn't about to start yelling for somepony to bring him more painkillers. Not after what had happened the last time.

Before he could stop them, his thoughts drifted back to that moment: To the memory of seeing Fluttershy there in the room next to him. Of cupping her face in his paw, and hearing her soft voice. It had all seemed so real at the time, but now...

Now he couldn't shake the fear that her presence there had just been an illusion his doped-up mind had produced. True, she had mentioned details about their Applejack investigation that only the two of them knew, but that might just have been his own subconscious inserting words in her mouth the way it had previously in his other dream—

Whap!

Something smacked lightly but loudly against his bandaged skull, causing him to yip though more from surprise than actual pain. Turning his head as much as the strap around his neck would permit, he saw a two-headed, five-winged, rather ragged-looking paper parrot fluttering above him with a scroll clutched in one of its beaks. Discord felt a rush of déjà vu as the tattered piece of origami swooped down in front of him and used its second beak to pull the scroll open. A pencil tumbled out of the unfurling scroll to plunk on the bedspread, but when Discord looked down at it, the parrot waggled its two heads back and forth, causing the scroll to rustle as if to say: "Don't worry about the pencil, pay attention to this."

The draconequus squinted at the paper's penciled message.

Discord,

It's Fluttershy.

His heart leapt, causing the beeping of his heart monitor to spike. He tried to force his heartbeat to steady and slow down, but it wasn't easy with the words now in front of him. Was it possible that...?

He continued reading, feeling his excitement build as she mentioned visiting him the night before. He hadn't imagined her! At the mention of Spike staying behind to act as their messenger, he looked up at the ceiling to see the tiny dragon dressed in camouflage, and peeking out from under the raised tile. As their eyes met, Spike gave him a tentative wave, and Discord jerked his head upward in acknowledgment. The gesture turned out to be a mistake because it sent waves of pain through his skull.

When the pounding in his head finally subsided, he turned back to the letter. Then he came to the part where she mentioned how his tattoos had moved about, as well as Highflyer and Twilight's joint theory on why that might be possible.

He looked down from the letter to see his dragon tattoo's head and neck currently stretched across his chest, its eyes trained on the letter. As if sensing his gaze on it, the dragon tattoo turned its head enough to meet his eyes, its expression hopeful. Several of his moth tattoos swarmed down onto his chest to gaze hopefully up at him as well.

For the first time in what felt like an era, the draconequus chuckled.

Then he contorted his body about in the restraining straps enough to bring his bird wing within reach of his eagle claw. He plucked out one of his wing feathers and winced briefly but didn't stop chuckling. Biting off the end of the feather's shaft, he switched it from his claw to his paw. He was ambidextrous so this switch wasn't necessary for writing but it was if he was going to reach the barbed tattoo circling his left bicep with his newly created quill pen. As he stroked the nib against the tattoo, he couldn't keep the grin off his face.

Fluttershy paced about the TreeHAB, trying to find something to occupy herself with as she waited to see if there would be a response to her letter.

Screwjob had downed another shot of potion that hadn't altered his now-blond hair in the slightest, but had turned his coat as blue as Highflyer's currently was. Now Twilight had a stopwatch going to see how long it would take for the potions to wear off. Nothing to do there but wait.

Fluttershy paced over to where Bonfire had finally succumbed to sheer physical exhaustion and fallen into a fitful sleep. Considering their success with the sponge earlier, Fluttershy had decided to try feeding the little one some broth the same way when she woke up. Maybe she could get started on preparing the broth now. After all, it would need some time to cool considering Bonfire wouldn't be able to blow on it if it was too hot ... But then again if she started making it too soon it might get too cold and—

"Fluttershy, would you be a dear and let me trim your mane?" Rarity suddenly asked from behind her. She turned to see the unicorn with a pair of scissors encased in her magic.

Fluttershy blinked at the sight of them. "Where'd you get those?"

"From Skywishes. She said she'd have given them to you earlier instead of a knife if she'd known you were planning to cut your mane. Now please please please will you let me style it? I promise I won't cut it much shorter, just trim it a little here and there."

Fluttershy had to smile at her friend's pleading look. "Sure, you can style it."

Rarity looked relieved. "Oh, thank you, dear. I know I didn't say anything earlier, but seeing your lovely mane all hacked up like that was driving me wild."

Fluttershy sat down and Rarity began snipping away.

"Though," said the unicorn after a few minutes. "I must say that was a clever idea: Using your mane to lengthen your tail. If only we could do something like that for poor Dinky."

Without moving her head, Fluttershy's eyes flicked toward the still-sleeping teenager with only a few short jagged tufts where her mane had once been.

"I mean, I realize looks aren't everything," Rarity went on as she used a hoof first to floof out Fluttershy's now-more-stylish mane, then brush any loose bits of hair from her neck. "But being able to look one's best can make so much difference in a situation. There, doesn't that look so much better?" she asked, holding up a hoof mirror Fluttershy hadn't noticed earlier.

Fluttershy actually hadn't had a chance to see what her earlier self-done manecut had looked like, so she couldn't really compare the two. But she had to admit that even though it was odd to see herself with a much shorter mane, it still framed her face well and was almost rather ... cute. So she smiled and nodded, which seemed to please Rarity.

The unicorn leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, "You know, when I first saw what you had done with your mane and tail, I thought that maybe we could do something similar for Dinky. Cut her tail shorter and weave the cutoff section into her mane." Then her smile seemed to fade. "But unfortunately she doesn't have enough mane left to weave anything into."

"You could always do as High do, and just shave it all off," Screwjob suddenly chipped in from where he and Highflyer had been semi-resting, waiting for their dye jobs to wear off. "Of course that baldness is a little hard to notice under the mask," he added, noogieing the top of Highflyer's masked skull for emphasis.

"Big-ears," Highflyer muttered as one of his front hooves shot up and caught a hold of Screwjob's offending one. The two stallions proceeded to do a sort of side-by-side foreleg wrestling match.

While this was going on, Rarity had been giving them a speculative look. "Excuse me," she said to Fluttershy before moving toward the two wrestlers.

Fluttershy wondered what she intended to do, but at that moment Mache Max materialized in front of Twilight, clutching a scroll that looked remarkably like the one she had written earlier. He shot past the alicorn and made a beeline straight for the wingless pegasus. Landing before her, he tucked one head coyly to the side while the other one held the message out to her as if offering her a bouquet.

Heart pounding with emotions she couldn't quite identify, Fluttershy reached out to take the scroll. Giving Mache Max an automatic caress of thanks on both heads, she unrolled the scroll. Out of it fell not only the pencil she'd put in earlier but a blue quill pen. And under her original message was a new one written not in pencil, but in shiny black ink.

Just supply me with the paper, my dear. I've got enough ink to draft a novel.

Unconsciously her hoof moved to trace the new sentences, but as she touched them, they swirled together, reforming into the image of a moth identical to one of Discord's neck tattoos.

Author's Note

*Looks over at Discord's tattoos* I love you guys.

(Yes, I know that little loophole may be a complete copout, but hey, it gives me an extra excuse for Discord to have them.)

*Grins Sheepishly* Okay, so there wasn't quite as much penpal time between the Odd Couple as I originally thought there would be in this chapter. Turns out there were several other things we had to get out of the way first. However, I can say the Odd Couple will finally be talking (or rather writing) to each other and will know for sure they're interacting with the real deal in the next chapter.

And of course as always a big thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing. (This time especially for a certain scene regarding my wrestling boys.)

Chapter 7. Proverbs 20:6

Author's Note

Phew! I'm back, folks. Sorry to keep you waiting so long. My excuse this time around? Well, (for those of you who haven't seen my blog post) it turns out I bought a house in early 2020, and got moved in during the later months. I'm thrilled to have the place, but unfortunately for you poor readers it also meant I was busy those several months with paperwork, getting things packed up to move, then getting them unpacked and set up in the new location. Not to mention taking care of water, electricity, internet, etc. And all the Covid restrictions on pretty much everything didn't exactly speed things up. But enough of that. We're not here for my autobiography. We're here to follow the plight of these colorful cartoon ponies.

As always, a big thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing.

Chapter 7. Proverbs 20:6

Chapter 7

"Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, But who can find a trustworthy man?"—Proverbs 20:6

Underneath his bandages, Discord felt one of the moths on his neck vibrate. Keeping his eyes on his room's closed door, he cautiously eased a folded paper out from where he'd hidden it under the bedsheets.

Flipping the paper open, he read the words written inside.

Fluttershy: "Discord, could you please tell me if you ever made anything that looked like a pony with its skeleton on the outside?"

The draconequus blinked and reread the words. No, he hadn't misread them. That really had been Fluttershy's question, but what had prompted it?

A faint smile tugged at his mouth. What are you trying to do with this odd question, my dear? Steal my job? He mentally scrolled through his cinematic memory. Though the shackles on his wrists prevented him from using his power in the real world, they couldn't stop him from privately delving into his own mind.

He'd made plenty of strange creations over the course of his long life, but he couldn't recall making anything specifically like what Fluttershy had just described. Granted, he didn't always put much planning into what he made so he might have unknowingly made such a creature, but still...

He looked back down at the note, intending to give his answer, when the words suddenly twitched. A blob of ink oozed out of the question mark, ran a short distance down the paper, and scribbled itself into a new message.

Skywishes: "Asking him about Bonfire, I see?"

Bonfire? Discord squinted at the words. What's Bonfire?

The fact that the word was capitalized made him suspect it probably referred to something other than the common noun—

At that moment the words twitched again and spat another line out below them.

Skywishes: "Max, leave her alone!"

Leave who alone? What's going on? He peered at the paper, willing more words to appear, to clarify what was happening on Fluttershy's end, but none did. The seconds passed with still no word while he drummed his claws impatiently on the bedsheet. Then his impatience began turning to worry. What if Fluttershy was the 'her' Skywishes was referring to? What if she was hurt and that's why she wasn't saying anything?!

He had to know. Straining against the strap holding his neck in place, he nipped at a small section of the spiraled tattoo on his right shoulder that was still visible under its layer of bandages. He had originally planned on conserving the magic stored in his tattoos as much as possible since there was no telling how long it would last but this was an emergency. Teasing the tattoo up between his fang and forked tongue, he pinched it between his tongue's twin tips and flicked it up into the air. Fortunately the strand of tattoo seemed to understand what he wanted and stretched itself out long enough to thread itself into his ear. He brushed a talon over the exclamation point at the end of Max, leave her alone! in a scrolling gesture and heard faint sounds in his ear. He continued scrolling, causing the volume to increase as his brain began wildly formulating ways to help Fluttershy given his current restrictions.

"Asking him about Bonfire, I see?"

Fluttershy started at the sound of Skywishes's voice behind her. She had been so focused on the paper in front of her, awaiting Discord's reply, she had completely tuned out the rest of her surroundings.

She was just turning to face her fellow pegasus when Skywishes shouted, "Max, leave her alone!"

The next moment, Fluttershy was almost knocked over as Skywishes shot past her into the air.

Mache Max was diving straight toward the bubble that held Bonfire. Just before he struck it, Skywishes intercepted him, wrapping him in one wing and cutting a wide arch through the air as she swung away from the pipe-covered ceiling. Inside the bubble, Bonfire had been sleeping, but at Skywishes's shout, she promptly sprang awake, stumbling on her splinted leg and snarling as she looked about wildly for an attack.

"It's all right, Bonfire!" Fluttershy cried, dropping the letter as she hurried forward. "It's all right! Nopony's going to hurt you."

Bonfire's snarls softened slightly, but her stance remained tense as she continued eyeing her surroundings.

Skywishes landed next to Fluttershy. She was dressed in her usual camo but her black watch cap had fallen off, revealing a shock of cobalt blue hair in place of her usual pink-and-purple streaks. Bonfire looked toward the coral-colored pegasus and her snarling surged back up.

Skywishes sighed. "Sorry about that. Didn't mean to wake you—!" The brusque apology was abruptly cut off when her wing still holding Mache Max was suddenly yanked up and out to the side as the parrot struggled to get out. Just as he squirted free, Fluttershy reached up and caught him in her hooves.

"Mache Max," she said sternly, "you know we've told you not to bother Bonfire."

"He knows, he just doesn't care," Skywishes muttered as Mache Max's only response to the chastisement was to nuzzle against Fluttershy's hooves. Skywishes started to turn away from them when a magenta aura surrounded her. "It's Cardinal, Trinity," she stated, not even bothering to look at the alicorn generating the aura.

"Just making sure," said Twilight as she released the pegasus.

"It's appreciated," said Skywishes, moving toward the TreeHAB's entrance panel, which Fluttershy now noticed was open. Twilight followed her and stationed herself right beside the entrance, horn at the ready. Skywishes maneuvered one of the large baskets on the pulley system down through the opening, then followed it with a rope ladder. Fluttershy looked from them to Bonfire. The little one's eyes were trained on Mache Max, a low continuous warning growl rumbling from her throat.

"I'm not going to let him bother you, sweetie," Fluttershy soothed, tucking Mache Max against her chest, and backing away from Bonfire. The more space she put between them, the calmer Bonfire seemed to become, though Fluttershy noticed that the little one's tension never completely vanished. She wondered yet again what had caused Bonfire to be so distrustful.

For several agonizing seconds, Discord heard nothing but a low steady growl and the sounds of someone moving or something being dragged along a surface. Oh, Fluttershy, what's going on over there?! he mentally whisper-shouted. Just give me some clue that you're all right! Give me—!

"I'm not going to let him bother you, sweetie."

Instant relief rushed through Discord at the sound of that familiar soft voice, at the fact that she sounded neither hurt nor afraid ... Then just as suddenly this relief vanished. What 'him' was Fluttershy referring to? He felt his claws clench on the bedsheets. And just who exactly was that 'sweetie' she had been talking to? The beep of his heart monitor sped up, but at that moment he heard Twilight's voice in his ear.

"State your name."

There were several seconds of rustling before a posh female voice announced, "Regal."

"Plague," said a second female voice with a country accent.

"Wait Plague," said a male voice with a similar accent. "I was enjoying the scenery."

"Are you really that desperate for a kick in the head?!" the voice identified as Plague shot back.

This was greeted with a snort. "Please, O sable-haired beauty of my dreams, you hit like a girl."

This was followed by sounds of both female indignation and male amusement before a second much raspier male voice cut in.

"She might, but I don't. And unlike you I'm not enjoying the scenery, so unless you've changed your mind about wanting kids..."

This was answered with a yip and a flurry of rustling.

"State your name!" Twilight repeated.

"Highsenberg," the first male voice responded, then muttered in an undertone, "Seriously, there is just no pleasing some ponies."

This was followed by a thud and a raspy "Falcon."

If she hadn't heard them speak their code words (and hadn't seen them donning their disguises earlier) Fluttershy doubted she would have recognized the four camo-clad ponies that emerged up the rope ladder. While Skywishes had simply blued-out her mane and tail, the rest of the scouting/supply-gathering party had gone for more complete makeovers.

Rarity's coat was pale turquoise while her mane and tail were a deeper shade of turquoise. Applejack's coat was bubblegum pink, and her mane and tail were as black as Screwjob's normally were. Both mares had also rearranged their mane-styles. Screwjob had not altered his mane-style, but had removed the bandages that had been covering his left eye and busted left eyebrow for the past several days. The stitches seemed almost invisible against the bleached blond hair he'd opted for once again. With that blond hair now coupled with a lavender coat, he could have passed for Dinky's long-lost older brother. Last came Highflyer with his coat dyed a green that matched his current mask so perfectly it almost looked as if he wasn't wearing one, and a black watch cap pulled well-down to disguise his lack of a mane.

"Is this everything?" Fluttershy heard Dinky ask, and turned to see the young teenager leaning into the pulley system basket, carefully picking over its contents with her front hooves. Her magic was still shot, but at least she had finally recovered enough physical strength to walk around without exhausting herself. Her ragged mane hadn't been sheared off to the point of nonexistence as Highflyer's was, but it had been cut down to a very short even layer of fuzz. However, this layer of fuzz was almost entirely hidden by a stylish beret Rarity had fashioned for her from one of Highflyer's masks, a black one with red trim. Coupled with the camo everyone had taken to wearing constantly even inside the TreeHAB to ward off cold, the effect was very militaristic.

"Just about," said Skywishes, grimacing as she massaged a wing with her hooves.

"Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, moving closer to her. "Max didn't—?"

"No, it wasn't him, for once. This time it was the weather." While Skywishes continued massaging that wing, the other one sprang out on reflex, inadvertently brushing against Fluttershy's cheek in the process. The pinions were as cold as if they were made of icicles rather than feathers.

"You've been flying around in the freezing cold weather out there!" Fluttershy gasped.

"Don't have much choice when it's the only way to get up here without a basket or rope ladder." Skywishes muttered.

Fluttershy had known that, but it was one thing to academically know the few choices they had for survival, and to actually see the evidence of Skywishes risking frostbite in her efforts to guide the other ponies from the TreeHAB through the forest into the surrounding towns and back again.

Looking down at the origami parrot she still held tucked against her chest, Fluttershy said in her sternest voice, "Mache Max, I am ordering you to leave Bonfire and Skywishes alone from here on out." Sure, he might eventually forget her order and resume his usual taunting and teasing, but Fluttershy had also noticed he would always obey her at least for a while.

There's that word again, thought Discord. Must be somepony's name, but whose? Could it be some sort of code or nickname among the group?

Mache Max responded to the order by nuzzling both his heads against Fluttershy's cheeks while uttering a soft drawn-out "Hhhhhhaaaaaa," before jumping out of her hooves and hopping away towards the greenhouse.

Fluttershy turned back to Skywishes. "Please let me see your wings."

Skywishes studied her several seconds with those dead eyes, but then extended her wings. Sitting down in front of Skywishes, Fluttershy pulled the icy wings inside her own jerkin and tucked them against her sides to warm them. Then Skywishes sat down as well, facing Fluttershy but looking everywhere except directly at her. Fluttershy had to admit their position must look rather odd to an outside observer: Skywishes with her wings under Fluttershy's clothes as if trying to give her an awkwardly intimate hug. But she didn't feel right just leaving Skywishes to cope with potentially frozen wings when she herself was unable to assist with the actual flying.

"Thank you," Skywishes suddenly murmured, looking at the narrow section of floor between them.

"Oh, it's the least I can do after all you've—"

"Don't." The word was neither snapped nor shouted, but there was a definite warning edge to it. Fluttershy fell silent and just focused on rubbing warmth into Skywishes's wings while listening to snippets of the remaining group's verbal reports to Twilight.

"We didn't see many ponies out and about. Even with the news that Discord was captured, I think the worsening weather is keeping them inside."

"The papers still have us, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo all listed as missing."

"There's been no word from Celestia or Luna either. It's as if they just vanished."

"We also stopped at Zecora's place, but she wasn't there. We didn't see any sign of a struggle but the place also didn't look like it had been lived in for a while."

Fluttershy mentally sighed. More of the same. Hoping the young mares' continued absence meant they had managed to avoid capture, but fearing the opposite might be true. Hoping and fearing the same in the Royal Sisters' case. Hoping and fearing the same in everypony's case...

"Fluttershy, she's doing it again," Skywishes suddenly muttered, jerking her out of these thoughts. She looked up to see Bonfire a short distance from them with her eyes trained on Skywishes. Ever since spotting that picture of Skywishes and Sunny Daze as fillies, the little mystery creature seemed to have developed an odd fixation on the coral-colored pegasus that all the ponies had noticed but never been able to explain.

Bonfire studied Skywishes as Fluttershy chafed her wings.

"What is it, little one?" Fluttershy prodded gently. "Are you trying to tell us something?"

Bonfire broke eye contact but didn't let the two ponies completely out of her sight. The constant patience Fluttershy displayed toward her unnerved her. It had to be some sort of trap. It just had to be. It couldn't possibly be anything else. Why wouldn't the pony just let the trap spring and get it over with?

Now the other pony ... Skywishes may have given her an apology after waking her up earlier, but the coral-colored pegasus had also made it quite clear she would abandon Bonfire in favor of saving the other ponies. This knowledge hurt, but at least it was something familiar. Something she could trust and understand.

Fluttershy felt herself mentally slump as Bonfire's only response to her gentle question was to break eye-contact and let out a mixture of purrs and clicks that could have meant anything.

Her experiment of sponge-feeding broth to the little one had been a success and over the next several days they had moved on to giving Bonfire various foods cut into pieces small enough for her to eat without chewing. Fluttershy glanced down at her bandaged left foreleg. There was something cruelly ironic in the fact that Bonfire had teeth capable of inflicting such a vicious bite, yet had so much difficulty eating with those same teeth thanks to her lack of a tongue and proper cheeks.

"You know, I don't think she's actually completely tongueless," said Skywishes, her own eyes on Bonfire as she slipped one thawed wing out of Fluttershy's jerkin and flexed it experimentally.

"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked, startled that Skywishes's words were so in sync with her own current thoughts.

Skywishes withdrew her other wing as well. "I mean sure, she doesn't have a conventional tongue, but she does seem to have a scrap of meat back there that helps her make all the sounds that she does."

That was true, Fluttershy thought. Over the past weeks Bonfire had growled, clicked, chirped, chittered, hummed and trilled but never once had she spoken an understandable word. And though Fluttershy had employed everything she knew about the non-verbal way many animals communicated with each other, none of it ever seemed to work when she applied it to Bonfire. Maybe that was the source of her current discouragement. Despite her success in giving the little one physical nourishment she seemed no closer to cracking the enigma known as Bonfire.

Why does that seem so famil—? "Excuse me, Skywishes," she breathed before dashing back to the letter that she'd dropped earlier. Picking it up, she saw that Discord had not yet responded to her question, but Skywishes had apparently been close enough to her earlier that her comments had been unintentionally recorded.

The writing on Discord's note twitched then reformed into new words.

Fluttershy: "Sorry, Discord. I got distracted there for a bit."

Though he saw the words appear on the paper, he didn't need to read them as he also heard Fluttershy's voice speak them in his ear.

Scarcely had Fluttershy finished speaking the words, then Discord's response scrawled itself below them.

Discord: "I noticed."

"The other ponies just got back with more supplies."

Discord: "I know, I heard."

Fluttershy blinked. "You ... heard?"

The surprise in Fluttershy's voice pulled Discord up short, and he felt an unexpected jab of guilt. As if he'd just misled her or something...

There was several seconds of uneasy silence while Fluttershy just watched the paper before Discord's words appeared slowly, hesitantly.

Discord: "Yesss ... I heard. When you didn't say anything after Skywishes's shouting, I got worried and ... Well, I eavesdropped through the tattoo ink to make sure you were okay."

Fluttershy felt her face flush. Partly because—while she hadn't done or said anything to be ashamed of—the idea of someone listening in without her knowledge made her uncomfortable. And yet at the same time, she also felt very touched at the fact that he had been worried about her. However she wasn't sure how to mention this aloud. All she said was:

"I didn't realize you could do that."

"I wasn't planning to, since it uses up more magic than dictating our comments, but I felt this was one time worth risking it." Of course Discord neglected to mention that he still had the volume turned up, not because he needed it, but because he wanted to keep listening to her voice.

Fluttershy: "So I guess you understand what's going on now at the TreeHAB?"

"Parts of it, but not all. For example, what's that Bonfire you kept mentioning?"

Fluttershy: "She's the pony-like creature I was asking you about."

"The one with its skeleton on the outside?"

Fluttershy: "Yes. Did you ever make anything like that?"

"Not that I'm aware of. Why?"

Fluttershy: "It's a bit of a long story..."

He chuckled ruefully. "I'm not exactly going anywhere at the moment, darling."

"No..." Fluttershy murmured, though more to herself than to him. "I guess you're not..."

She continued to stare down at the words, suddenly wishing she could have heard him say them instead. It was that 'darling' he'd tacked on the end. She just couldn't tell from the writing if it was meant to be affectionate or sarcastic.

The words suddenly twitched, scrawling themselves into a new message.

Discord: "Well, could I hear this allegedly long story?"

"Oh! Of course." And she quickly proceeded to explain how they had first found Bonfire in the Everfree, brought her back to the TreeHAB, named her, were caring for her as best they could, and had been trying to figure her out ever since then. Discord seemed quite intrigued by the little creature because he kept interrupting with questions about Bonfire, everything from her appearance to her behavior. Fluttershy found this encouraging. Maybe their talk was jogging his memory regarding one of his own creations! Maybe—!

Then fresh words appeared.

Discord: "While she certainly sounds fascinating enough that I'd love to take credit ... I'm about ninety-nine point seven percent sure I would definitely have remembered making such a creature."

Fluttershy felt her rising spirit promptly deflate like a leaky balloon. "So ... you didn't make her?"

Discord: "As far as I know ... No."

Another dead end. Only then did Fluttershy realize how much she had staked on the idea of Bonfire being Discord's creation and that by extension he could provide her with the answers she so desperately needed regarding the little one. And she'd just lost her stake. She couldn't help letting out a sigh and the paper she was holding promptly recorded it.

Discord: "What's wrong, darling?"

"Oh, it's nothing, I just ... I guess I was just really hoping that you made Bonfire and could explain her because I don't seem to be getting anywhere with her." Then as an afterthought she found herself adding, "Plus, she seems to be just as immune to my Stare as you are and I thought—"

Wait a minute! Fluttershy's brows creased in a frown. Discord and Bonfire had both been immune to her Stare ... She'd been thinking—hoping—that might point to some sort of link between them, but now she suddenly noticed an element of their immunity she'd always missed before.

She had told Skywishes that Bonfire had reacted to her Stare by attacking out of fear and she'd honestly believed that.

But Discord had never reacted that way toward her Stare. He had been utterly impervious to it. He'd had all the power in that situation, he'd known it, and he'd made sure she knew it as well. Bonfire's reaction on the other hoof had been that of one who had found the smallest scrap of leverage and was clinging desperately to it. A position of terror and powerlessness Fluttershy had become well-acquainted with those first terrible days when Discord had shown up at the cabin...

He's not like that anymore! He might have been that way at first, but he changed! And he saved my life later on!

Sure, said a small cynical voice in the back of her head. And after saving your life, he later abandoned you for over a year without so much as a goodbye. What makes you think he won't just do the same if we somehow manage to survive this situation?!

She felt her body hunch forward under the mental accusation. I don't know that he won't leave me again! And that was the truth of it. Yes, her former partner said he had been worried about her enough to eavesdrop. Yes, he seemed to care for her ... but he had also seemed to be that way a year ago right before he vanished from her life. There was just no way to know if he—

That doesn't matter now! Fluttershy's hooves dug into the wood floor as she reclaimed her resolve. I don't know that he won't leave me again if he gets the chance, but I do know he's being accused of a crime he didn't commit, and I swear I'm not going to let him be convicted for it!

Meanwhile Discord was facing his own inner battle. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't block out the words he'd just heard Fluttershy murmur.

"She seems to be just as immune to my Stare as you are..."

Oh, why did you have to mention that, Fluttershy?! he mentally groaned, even as his cinematic memory dredged up that moment in all its explicit detail. Sights, sounds, smells, emotions. It sickened him to now recall not only her fear and helplessness with such perfect clarity ... but to have the whole memory tainted with the pleasure he'd felt back then tormenting her.

In that moment he loathed having a cinematic memory. Loathed the fact that it would never let him forget what he'd—

At that moment he heard the room's doorknob turning.

Fluttershy looked back down at the paper, noticing Discord hadn't said anything after her comment regarding her Stare. She suddenly wondered if he was remembering that particularly uncomfortable piece of their history as vividly as she was. If not even more so.

"Discord...?"

The ink spat out a fresh sentence just below hers.

Discord: "Gotta go!"

Just as the door creaked open, Discord thrust the paper under the blanket, and jerked the strand of tattoo from his ear, mentally urging it to get back into place while he closed his eyes and tried to look fast asleep.

"Alright, open up those big shifty sunken-in eyes of yours," said a brisk voice he recognized as the main doctor who had been working on him.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," he retorted before opening one eye.

"The other eye too," the doctor ordered. Discord complied and the doctor gave him an annoyed look. "Both at once."

Discord humphed and obeyed. As much as he'd have liked to antagonize the pony, he knew he also had to be careful. If he acted up too much, they might decide they needed to keep a much closer eye on him. It was bad enough they had decided to put in a visit right when he and Fluttershy had finally gotten a chance to talk!

The doctor shone a light in first one of his eyes, then the other.

"Hmm, your pupils won't stay the same size, but I can't exactly say if that would be down to sustained injury or just you being you. At least they both contract when the light hits them."

Not only that, but they can shoot out beams of their own that would put that flashlight to shame if I wasn't shackled. Discord mentally muttered as the doctor and several assistants all began checking the rest of his vitals.

"Discord?!" Fluttershy gasped even as part of her brain thought: He's left you again! See! Even now he doesn't want anything to do with—!

At that moment the words on the paper twitched and a new line appeared below them.

Spike: "The doctors are working on him."

Oh. Relief washed over Fluttershy, followed quickly by embarrassment at her initial panic. Of course he wouldn't want the doctors to catch him whispering words onto a paper. Of course that's why he had to leave like that ... Then her embarrassment doubled as she remembered that Spike also carried a letter identical to hers and had probably been following the whole conversation. It might have made communication a lot quicker and more efficient than having to send messages between him and Twilight, but it also made it awkward to bring up more personal things knowing there was an audience...

"You've been having quite the conversation down there."

Fluttershy looked up to see Skywishes perched on one of the ceiling's larger pipes, a belt of plumbing tools strapped diagonally across her body, an adjustable wrench held loosely in one front hoof. Pink streaks were emerging in her blue mane, indicating the potion she'd drunk was wearing off.

"I noticed that too," said Twilight, moving to join them. Or rather to join Fluttershy on the floor. "Did you find out anything?"

"Well..." Fluttershy filled them in on what she'd discussed with Discord, and how he denied knowing anything about Bonfire. However, she didn't mention the disconnection she'd noticed between how the draconequus and the skeletal mystery creature had reacted to her Stare because though she felt it was important, she couldn't really explain why yet. During her recitation, they were joined by Dinky, Applejack, Highflyer, Rarity, and Screwjob. The latter four ponies were all slowly reverting back to their usual colors just as Skywishes's hair was.

When Fluttershy finished, all the group looked toward Bonfire, who had moved to a spot where she could keep them all in her sights without having to turn around. Noticing them watching her, she hunkered down under her camouflage blanket and let out a series of low throaty clicks. Fluttershy couldn't tell if it sounded more like a cat's purr or a rattlesnake's rattle but Screwjob seemed to think the latter because he shivered.

"So back to the old sketchpad with our mystery guest then?" he asked, scratching at the back of his mane which was steadily darkening as if he were aging in reverse.

"Yes," Fluttershy breathed, turning to address the wrestler. "I'm afraid so..." Her words trailed off as she got her first clear look at his face. "What happened to my stitches?!" It was the first time she'd seen them since putting them there. "How'd they get all—?"

"Those aren't your stitches," Screwjob cut in. "I busted yours at Apps's farm, remember? You're looking at her hoofiwork."

Applejack looked insulted and muttered, "They're not that bad."

"Well ... no..." Fluttershy had to admit that while Applejack's stitching was a far cry from her own careful efforts to minimize scarring, it was at least serviceable. "It's..." What was she supposed to say?

Screwjob squinted at her. "What's got you freaked out?"

Fluttershy shot Applejack an apologetic look before turning back to the wrestler. "Well, the wound is closed, but ... well ... it's all scarred up now."

"Really?" Screwjob suddenly looked interested. "Let's see it."

Rarity produced a mirror and a pair of scissors. When the stitches were snipped and pulled out, Screwjob looked down at the mirror to examine the pale vertical scar that now sliced through his left eyebrow. He didn't seem bothered by it. In fact, he grinned.

"You did a beautiful job, Apps. This has already become my new favorite scar."

Applejack just rolled her eyes ceilingward, her expression clearly saying: "What have I done to deserve this?"

Highflyer came over and reared up to get a better look at the much-taller stallion's forehead. "Not bad. I wouldn't mind having one of those."

Screwjob arched his intact right eyebrow. "Why? It wouldn't show with your mask on anyway."

Highflyer shrugged. "Maybe, but it's the principle of the thing."

Screwjob jutted out his lips and tilted his head back in a playfully pondering look. "True. Plus it's not like you don't have scars on your back and splatter burns on your chest under all that ink anyway. So hiding extra scars under your mask wouldn't exactly be out of character for you." He traced the now-very-noticeable split in his left eyebrow. "Of course, I suppose I'll have to hide this somehow next time we sneak into town."

"Um, about that..." said Fluttershy. "I think Skywishes might need a break from guiding us to the surrounding towns because this time she came back with her wings all frozen."

The other ponies all looked up at Skywishes, their expressions varying degrees of shock. "Why didn't you say anything about your wings?" Twilight demanded of her.

Skywishes's mouth twitched in an almost smile. "I was planning to but Fluttershy just beat me to it. Though ... now that we're on the subject..." She shifted her position on the pipe to more fully face the ponies below her. "Since we've finally managed to stock up enough supplies to last a good several months, I think it's time we quit leaving the HAB."

"But we can't just hang out here while changelings are probably snatching ponies willy-nilly!" Applejack protested. "Why not just let the rest of us go out while you rest? We've gotten better at finding this tree. We could go down in the basket or on the rope ladder—"

"And how'll you get back up here afterward? We can't just leave the basket or ladder hanging there for anyone to find."

"Maybe we could come up with some way to signal when we get back. Or we could use one of those letters Discord gave us."

Skywishes shook her head. "That might work if it was just a matter of me freezing my pinions off, but there's also the fact that it's started snowing a lot harder than before. If it keeps up, all but our two fliers won't be able to go to or from the HAB without leaving tracks. And as invisible as we might be now, it probably won't take the changelings long to figure out what's going on if they find a bunch of trails leading to and away from this tree."

"We could maybe disguise our tracks..." Rarity suggested.

"When the snow's up to your chest?" Skywishes challenged, and Fluttershy felt herself pale at the memory of going out in such deep snow.

She turned quickly to the other ponies. "We don't want to try that. Believe me, I know." She turned back to Skywishes. "Has it really gotten that bad already?"

"Not yet, but it looks like it's headed that way." Skywishes waggled her wrench toward a nearby pipe. "That's why I'm working on the water-reclaimer. Have to close off the major pipes so I can put salt in the main collection tank and hook up the desalination container."

This seemed to pique Twilight's interest. "Is the salt to keep the water in the main collection tank from freezing?"

"Mm-hmm." Skywishes nodded as she resumed working on the pipe.

"And that other thing you mentioned? The—?"

"Desalination container. That's to get the salt back out of the water so it's actually drinkable."

Twilight flew up to join her. "How's it do that?"

"Heats the salty water until it evaporates, leaving the salt behind. Then it collects the steam separately so it can condense back into useable freshwater."

"I suppose all those extra steps are why you don't use it all the time."

"You suppose correct. It only comes into play when I'm worried about the water freezing and causing a pipe to burst or something. Like now." Skywishes pushed off and flew to another pipe, silently signaling the conversation was over.

Normally Discord would have appreciated a visit from the doctors as it usually included a chance to get out of bed and stretch his limbs. Granted his legs were always hobbled, his hands were always chained behind him, and he was always surrounded by at least half a dozen security guards ready to pounce at the first hint of trouble, but those heavily monitored trips to and from physical therapy were better than nothing.

This time however all he wanted to do was get back to talking with Fluttershy. He went through the therapy session as quickly as possible, almost ran back to his room despite being hobbled, and even held his limbs out accommodatingly when it was time to exchange the chains for the restraining straps.

"Hmm, apart from when I was first checking your eyes, you've been surprisingly cooperative this time around." the lead doctor observed, eyeing him suspiciously.

Discord quickly hitched a smirk on his face. "Why else do you think I did it? I have to behave once in a while to keep you ponies guessing." Meanwhile inside his head he was screaming at the top of his lungs: Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out!

Finally at long last they left him alone and after what felt like an equally long time of waiting to make sure they wouldn't suddenly pop back in, he retrieved his paper.

Twilight was just dropping back down to rejoin the other ponies when Fluttershy felt the paper in her hooves squirm. She held it up so the other ponies could also see it as new words formed on it.

Discord: "I'm sorry, darling. The good doctor decided to put in a visit. What'd I miss?"

Fluttershy glanced around her before filling him in on Skywishes's reasons for feeling they should stay at the TreeHAB from now on.

"And the frustrating thing is that I'd be glad to just wait out the storm here, but I'm afraid the changelings are using their windigo essence to cause this weather like they did last time."

"Don't think I'm unaware of that, Fluttershy," Skywishes called from her spot above them. "I realize this is likely more than just an ordinary storm, but as things stand trying to spy on the surrounding towns is netting us too much risk and not enough reward."

Twilight sighed. "Unfortunately she's right. If it were just a matter of facing a blizzard to rescue our friends and families, I'd be all for striking out to find them. But now any friend or loved one we find might just as easily be a disguised changeling intending to trap us."

Discord stared at Twilight's words: If it were just a matter of facing a blizzard to rescue our friends and families, I'd be all for striking out to find them.

A small voice in the back of his head murmured: And yet Fluttershy braved one for you when you were neither...

With that thought and his memories of tormenting her still so clear in his mind at the moment, he suddenly wanted her there with him. Words on a paper weren't enough. He wanted to hold her close, wanted to beg her face-to-face to take him back, wanted to just make things right between them. If he could he would have reached through the ink on both letters and yanked her through them right into his room. But of course he couldn't. Not with those blasted shackles—

Do I do something to be loved, or in order to love? Derpy's words suddenly sprang up in his mind, jolting him like a slap. Do you want Fluttershy here for her sake? Or for your own? her voice continued.

He squeezed his eyes shut and would have rubbed at the skin between them if he weren't being restrained. As much as he wanted it, having Fluttershy here with him would not fix anything.

Then what will fix things? the voice continued and he mentally frowned. Why did that voice sound so much like Derpy? As he thought of the skew-eyed pegasus, his mind suddenly drifted back to the guilt he'd felt toward her and her daughters while lying on that cave floor with his head busted open. Of how he'd wished he'd made more effort to—

His eyes snapped open and he looked down at the paper in time to see new words suddenly appear below Twilight's.

Highflyer: "If they're wearing anything, we could try stripping it off them to see if they're a real pony or not. That's worked before."

Fluttershy: "The problem with that is you have to get right up close to them to do it. If only we had some way of knowing for sure what they were without tipping them off..."

Discord inhaled resolutely then exhaled. Maybe he couldn't make things right between himself and Fluttershy, but so help him he would make things right between himself and another pegasus. "You all seem to have forgotten the fact that there are no fewer than two ponies in need that you can be sure aren't disguised changelings. The two I allegedly attacked, and who are currently residing at this very hospital."

The group stared at his words, realizing that in the midst of all their worrying about the ponies they weren't in a position to help, they'd also lost sight of the two they might actually be in a position to help.

Spike: "That's some straight thinking you got there, Discord."

Discord: "Don't get too used to it, I try not to let it happen often."

Screwjob snorted in amusement at that. "I know just how you feel, buddy."

"Yes..." Fluttershy murmured thoughtfully mostly to herself. "Focus on them and let the others worry about themselves for now." Then her eyes widened as she suddenly realized how that must have sounded and quickly added, "Not that I mean we don't care about anypony else out there, I just—"

"We know what you meant, Shy," said Screwjob, his tone still amused. Then his amusement faded. "If any changelings try posing as me to go after my aunt, we'll just have to hope that for once Big Tim's hatred of me is stronger than his devotion to her." He shook his head. "Can't believe I'm actually wishing for that."

Applejack snorted. "For once we agr—" She suddenly caught herself and shifted uncomfortably. "Uh, for what it's worth ... They probably won't pose as you as long as they don't know where the real you is."

Screwjob's expression seemed to turn cautiously hopeful. "You sure about that?"

"No, but they never appeared to any of my family members disguised as me during the ten years I was in hiding. I think that might have been because they knew I was out there somewhere and didn't want to risk me showing up and blowing their cover—" Catching sight of his expression, she quickly rearranged hers into a glare. "Look, don't think this has anything to do with you! I just said that for your aunt's benefit!" And with that, she marched stiffly away from him.

Screwjob watched her go, now fighting to hold back a grin. "She likes me."

"Do not!"

He chuckled. "I'll let you win this round, Apps." Then he turned back to the other ponies, his expression serious again. "So how exactly are we supposed to help Derpy and Amethyst if they're at the hospital and we're here?"

Spike: "That'll be tricky considering I can't keep an eye on both of them twenty-four-seven. Especially if that one security guard we first saw watching Amethyst is on duty. I thought him snapping awake that first time we peeked in the room was a fluke, but he's done it several times since then, no matter how quiet I am, and I'm worried he's going to catch me at some point."

Discord: "Hmm. I wonder how he'd fare against some fly-on-the-wall surveillance. Or rather moth-on-the-wall surveillance."

"You know it's odd, given the fact that they want me, Jobs and the kid dead that none of the changelings seem to have gone after Derpy or Amethyst," Highflyer mused several days later while the group was discussing the hospitalized ponies' situation. Discord had sent a couple of his moth tattoos to hang out in Derpy and Amethyst's rooms and report back to him should anything happen, but so far nothing had apart from the routine patient care. "I mean, those two aren't exactly in a position to defend themselves."

"Maybe the changelings think it will turn suspicion away from Discord if Derpy and Amethyst suddenly died while he was under lock and key," said Twilight.

"True, but they could probably make it look like an accident," said Highflyer, pulling out one of the butterfly knives he seemed to have commandeered from Skywishes and idly flipping it about. "Just pull out some of Derpy's life-support systems or block Amethyst's windpipe."

"Oh, that's ghastly," Rarity shivered.

"But odd that it hasn't been tried," Highflyer pressed.

Spike: "Given how closely they're both currently being monitored, trying to kill them like that might set off some alarm. And trying to disconnect that alarm might just trigger another."

Screwjob scratched at his beard thoughtfully. "Judging by the fact that they don't seem to want to attract any attention, maybe they don't think Derpy's much of a threat at the moment considering she can't really do anything as long as she's stuck all inside-out. And the only threat Amethyst would pose is if she suddenly woke up and started yapping her head off about what she saw."

Spike: "That might be it. Incoming mail."

Seconds later a newspaper and a paper-wrapped medical textbook flashed into existence in front of Twilight who snatched the latter with her magic. After her disappearance, it seemed that the doctors had scrambled to get every medical book they could delivered from the Canterlot Library to the hospital in hopes of finding a cure for Derpy. Spike and Twilight had agreed that while there was the chance of a genuine doctor finding a cure and using it to save the pegasus, there was an equal if not greater chance of a disguised changeling finding and destroying the text. Since then Spike had been kept quite busy sending book after book to Twilight, then—when she'd made sure they didn't contain the spell she was seeking—smuggling them back into the doctors' collection so they wouldn't be missed. It was a chancy setup but the best they could do under the circumstances.

While Twilight began pouring over this latest book, Rarity retrieved the newspaper Spike had also sent and unfurled it to read.

Applejack glanced over the unicorn's shoulder at the headlines and grimaced. "How can you stand to keep reading that trash?"

"Know thy enemy, darling."

Applejack snorted dismissively. "All we've learned from those papers is our enemy is either feeding all the reporters lies, or taken over all the papers and printing their own lies."

"I'm with her," said Highflyer, still twirling his knife. "All those recent articles about Loo's disappearance never had a single word about Ray's parents—or rather the fakers I left tied up there—but they sure had plenty to say about finding my blood all over the place. And the way they phrased it, you'd think my carcass was used to repaint the walls rather than me just spitting out a few mouthfuls."

Screwjob wrinkled up his muzzle before stating matter-of-factly, "High. You're gross."

Highflyer's response was equally matter-of-fact. "How about I sock you in the mouth and see how you handle it?"

"Wait your turn, son. Apps hasn't gotten in her two shots yet."

Applejack spluttered at this. "Don't tell me you're keeping score!"

Screwjob smirked. "Okay, I won't tell you that I am."

At that moment there was a sharp gasp behind them. The group looked up to see Mache Max shooting toward Dinky, who was standing on her hind legs with a tray of hot cocoa in her front hooves, unable to dodge out of the way without spilling its contents. Then Highflyer was suddenly in front of her, one foreleg blurring as it whipped toward Mache Max. The knife blade flashed, there was the harsh sound of paper ripping, and the parrot fell to the floor with one of his remaining five wings now severed.

"You okay, kid?" Highflyer asked Dinky over his shoulder as he flipped the knife closed in a quick rollover movement.

"Watch out!" she cried, looking past him. He snapped his head back around just in time to feel an unknown object bounce off his masked forehead. He looked up to see Mache Max's severed wing whirling through the air before boomeranging back to the parrot who bounced up to catch it on one of his heads like a hat and promptly strutted away as though proud of himself.

"Weirdo," Highflyer muttered disgustedly after him.

"Ha!" Mache Max retorted.

"Shut up," Skywishes tossed after the parrot while Fluttershy watched him uncertainly. When Highflyer had accidentally or intentionally (she couldn't really be sure which) chopped one of his wings off, her first instinct had been to rush forward and comfort the parrot, never mind that he had been in the wrong going after Dinky like that. But now since he didn't seem the least bit upset about losing the wing, she began to feel her concern might have been misplaced and turned it on the young unicorn. "You okay, Dinky?"

"Yeah, I..." Dinky shook her head as if to clear it. "Well, actually this doesn't have anything to do with what just happened but ... I've had something on my mind."

"Do you want to tell us about it?"

Dinky nodded, and carefully put the tray down in the middle of the group before looking around at them, her gaze stopping on Screwjob. "You mentioned something about Amethyst waking up and ... that just got me thinking. If ... if she ever did wake up ... she'd probably be really confused after all this time." She turned to Highflyer. "You remember what happened when I first woke up and saw you after we escaped the changelings?"

"Yeah, you got pretty spooked."

She nodded. "I recognized your mask because I'd seen pictures of it before, but I didn't have any memory of actually meeting you. At least not right away." She looked around at the rest of the group. "And I wasn't even in a coma at the time, so Amethyst's memory loss would probably be a lot worse..." She dropped her gaze. "I keep worrying what if she doesn't remember Mom, or me, or even who she is?!" She raised her head, the frustration in her voice growing stronger. "But then I start wondering if maybe she'd be a lot safer not remembering anything!"

"We know, Dinky," Twilight sounded tired as she wrapped a wing around the teenager's withers. "We've all been thinking about both those scenarios and trying to—"

At that moment Mache Max came capering over with his detached wing now wrapped around him like a cape, and began rolling himself up in the discarded paper that had covered the medical book.

Twilight cast him an annoyed look. "No, I'm not sending you over to Spike."

"But what if you ... sent one of us?" Fluttershy murmured, running a hoof across her mouth, her eyes fixed on the parrot.

"What?!" Twilight—along with the rest of the ponies—whipped around to stare at her.

Fluttershy started at the eyes all now fixed on her. "Oh, sorry! I just started thinking about how Spike's been sending all those big medical books to you by wrapping them in the paper he usually uses for scrolls and watching Max roll around in that paper just made me think of when he traveled with that first note I sent Discord and I just suddenly wondered..." She felt herself blushing. "What if we could wrap ourselves up and travel the same way?" Hearing herself say the idea aloud made it seem even more ridiculous. Oh, it was so embarrassing. She wished she still had wings to wrap around herself or her long mane to hide behind. "It was just a random thought that popped into my..."

But her words trailed off as she caught sight of the speculative looks on the other ponies' faces.

Discord had been snoozing when his dragon tattoo suddenly stretched its head down onto his chest and vibrated, jolting him awake. Blinking blearily, he pulled his folded paper from its hiding place to see Fluttershy's message.

Fluttershy: "Discord, I just wanted you to know we have a new idea. We're going to see if Spike and Twilight can use their messaging system to teleport a pony the way they've been doing with letters, scrolls, and books."

Instantly Discord was wide awake, his mind jumping through the myriad of possibilities this new experiment could open up if successful.

Twilight looked down at the little figure curled up in front of her, wrapped in a scroll like a mummy. "You ready?"

There was a soft rustle of paper as the figure nodded and let out a muffled, "Mm-hmm."

"You sure?" This time Twilight wasn't able to hide her apprehension. "Maybe we should think about this a bit more. Make sure it—"

The paper rustled again only this time the figure was shaking its head. "Hen me!" said the muffled voice, which Fluttershy was pretty sure translated to send me.

"I don't think the test subject is currently open to discussion." Screwjob's tone was dry but Fluttershy felt sure that behind it he was every bit as uneasy about this experiment as the rest of them were.

Twilight shot the wrestler an aggravated look. "Well, I've never done this before! There's so many ways this could go wrong! What if he ends up injured?!"

"Then it's a good thing you're sending him to a hospital."

But Twilight didn't seem to have heard him, continuing on, "Or what if he dies?! I can't stand the thought of it, that I might be responsible for—!"

At that moment Screwjob caught her by the withers and jerked her toward him so they were face-to-face, halting her mid-rant. "Twilight, he knows the risks. Sure, this is something he's never done before, but his chosen profession involves facing possible injuries—and sometimes even the possibility of death—on a surprisingly routine basis. So he's not exactly as new to this sort of situation as you might think."

"Hi-hight! Hurry hup!" the wrapped figure demanded.

Screwjob looked deep into Twilight's eyes. "He knows the risks, Twilight. He knows and he's willing to take the chance. For all of us."

The surety in his voice seemed to calm something in her. Giving him a firm nod, she turned from him, and fired up her magic.

From his usual hiding place in the hospital ceiling, Spike braced himself as a large burst of flames belched from his mouth. He was momentarily blinded by the brilliant light, but as his eyes readjusted he saw what looked like the world's most sloppily rolled scroll drop down from the flames. As the shape tumbled a short distance over the uneven surface, a pair of small tattooed forelimbs shot out from between the layers of paper, scrabbling for purchase. Then the rest of the masked stallion's familiar tiny form emerged from the wrapping like a snake shedding its skin.

Discord stared at the paper, waiting with bated breath, when new words appeared.

Spike: "It worked! Highflyer came through just fine! He's not even singed!"

Wonderful! Excellent! Discord mentally cheered. Now, maybe they could—

But at that moment one of the moths on his neck buzzed loudly. And this time it wasn't to signal an incoming message.

Meanwhile the ponies at the TreeHAB were all breathing sighs of relief when another message suddenly scrawled itself right under Spike's in much bigger letters.

Discord: "Hate to halt the celebrating, but Amethyst is waking up!"

Chapter 8. Proverbs 15:22

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

Chapter 9. Job 1:21

CHAPTER 9

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."—Job 1:21

Amethyst fought to conceal the tension in her body as she was wheeled down the hallway, but was unable to prevent her breath from huffing in and out, or her hooves from kneading at the wheelchair's armrests.

"Try to relax, Amethyst."

She turned her head—wincing slightly at the stiffness in her neck—to focus on the burly security guard behind her. It had startled her earlier when he'd volunteered for the duty of pushing her wheelchair after the doctors had gotten her situated in it. Wouldn't that normally have been a nurse's job? She suspected it might be, but she couldn't be one-hundred percent sure, and when none of the hospital staff had objected to him doing it, she hadn't dared question it.

Now he was looking down at her from over the wheelchair's backrest. At least she thought he was looking down at her based on the position and angle of his head, but he had donned a pair of sunglasses that made it impossible for her to see his eyes.

"I know you're worried about your mom, but the doctors are doing all they can."

She swallowed. "I'm trying, but it's not easy. Just suddenly waking up in the hospital with no memory of how you got there. Then being told your sister is missing and your mother's all..." She trailed off as she tried to read his expression but it was difficult when most of that expression's upper portion was obscured by those sunglasses. Why had he suddenly put them on? Were they just a fashion statement or did he have a more sinister reason for hiding his eyes from her?

Whatever his reasons might be, the fact that he could see her eyes and read whatever might be revealed in them while she couldn't do the same with him made her feel horribly exposed and vulnerable. Frightened that he might pick up on this, she quickly lowered her own eyes and added, "What if I saw what happened? What if I know where Dinky is, but we never find her? And all because I can't remember it." Please think that's all I'm worried about. Please don't suspect that I'm also worried that you or anypony else here might be a disguised changeling ready to kill me if I show any sign of remembering what really happened. Please, please, please, please, please—

"Yeah," said Mike, unknowingly cutting into her mental mantra. "I suppose if any of my siblings were in a similar situation, I wouldn't be able to relax either, even though I've got plenty to spare."

Before she could stop them, her eyes flicked back up to his sunglasses. "Oh, you, uh, have a lot of siblings?" Maybe if she could get him to talk about himself—

"Uh-huh."

"You the, um, oldest? Youngest?"

He let out a short laugh. "At the moment I'm the middle child, though at the rate my family churns out kids that may change soon."

Middle child. Amethyst mentally moaned. Is that middle like out of five or out of five-hundred and—?

"We're here."

Amethyst quickly faced forward to see one of the doctors standing in front of a door and eyeing her expectantly. She took several deep breaths, partly for show and partly to truly brace herself for what she was about to see. I am just a frightened girl who doesn't remember anything, but knows her mother is in bad shape. Really bad shape.

"Amethyst?" said the doctor. "Are you sure you're ready for this? If you're not, we can—"

"No." She gave her head a quick little shake. "No, it's all right, Doctor. I-I'm ready."

The doctor's expression was dubious, but he opened the door, and Mike pushed the wheelchair forward.

In some ways, it wasn't quite as horrible as she expected. She had been preparing herself for the sight of that grotesque pulsing mound that had swallowed up her mother, not a shimmering opaque dome bristling with tubes and wires. But she had a part to play so she made a show of looking all around the room as if confused. "Where is she? Where's Mom?"

"Here." The doctor tapped his horn against the dome.

Amethyst squinted at it. "That's her?" she said, hoping they would buy the disbelief in her voice.

In response the doctor gave the dome another tap and this time it turned transparent, revealing its contents. Amethyst gasped and her hooves flew to her mouth.

"Hey, was that really called for?!" Mike demanded.

"Possibly," said the doctor, tapping the dome and causing it to go back to being opaque. Turning to face Amethyst, he asked, "Did that sight trigger any memories for you?"

Amethyst gave her head an unsteady shake. "N-no. I'm afraid not. If you say that's Mom, then I believe you, but..." Could she pull this next part off? "I just can't imagine how that happened. Who could possibly have done that to her?" Would they take the bait?

Mike let out a snort laden with distaste. "No mystery there. They've already caught the guy who did it."

"Mike!" The doctor shot him an angry glare. "You weren't supposed to mention that yet. We're still trying to let her remember as much as she can on her own when possible."

The security guard rolled his shoulders dismissively. "She'd probably hear about Discord being here sooner or later anyway."

This could be the perfect opportunity. "Discord..." she murmured, frowning. "There's ... something familiar about that ... But I can't remember..." She looked back up to meet the doctor's eyes and the security guard's sunglasses. "If he's here, could I see him?"

Two sets of eyebrows went up and she quickly added, "Not to talk to or anything. I just ... just thought that maybe ... seeing him might jog my memory. Wouldn't that at least be worth a try?"

Discord was still studying the words on the underside of his forearm when he heard the door open. He quickly turned his forearm to hide the writing and looked up to see his visitor.

Make that visitors. One of the unicorn doctors, followed by a second unicorn perched in a wheelchair and wearing a flimsy hospital gown.

"Amethyst?" Her name popped automatically out of his mouth, but before he could say anything else, a security guard he also recognized stepped around from behind the wheelchair and placed himself between Discord and Amethyst.

"Don't you start harassing her," the guard growled.

Discord considered snapping back that he had no intention of harassing Amethyst—and possibly throwing in something snide into the bargain—but quickly settled for merely sticking his tongue out at the guard as it would give him an opportunity to surreptitiously study Amethyst. Her horn was no longer blackened, but he could see where they had cut off the melted section of her mane. The scars of healed burns were scattered across her exposed forehead, and below those scars, her expression was fearful and lost.

"Amethyst," the doctor murmured. "Do you remember anything?"

The security guard looked toward her as well, and Discord promptly retracted his tongue, also awaiting her reply.

Amethyst's eyes met Discord's, then promptly looked away as she shook her head.

The doctor frowned at her. "You don't remember him at all?"

She shook her head again.

"Your mom mentioned that he stayed at your house," said the security guard.

Amethyst squirmed helplessly. "If she said he did, then he must have, but I don't remember it."

"You don't remember me?" Discord's show of indignation was mostly to hide his unease. What was going on? Was this part of the plan Fluttershy had mentioned or would it be a possible obstacle? He tried to meet Amethyst's eyes a second time, hoping it might provide him with a clue, but she avoided his gaze.

"Can I go back now?" she asked, turning appealingly to the doctor and security guard. "Please?"

The doctor nodded. "Of course. It's probably best you get some rest now anyway."

And before Discord could argue or protest, they had wheeled Amethyst out of the room and closed the door behind them.

He turned his forearm enough to expose the writing on it once again. Maybe he wouldn't need the paper to communicate. Maybe the ink alone would be enough, but how would he get close enough to whisper to it when he was strapped down so tight and couldn't perform his usual contortions?

Then he noticed his dragon tattoo crawling down that arm. It framed the words with its front claws, and he felt the faint tickle of it working its back legs up his neck until they came to rest against his throat just under his jaw. The dragon looked back up at him and jerked its head toward the words as if to say: Start talking.

It was worth a try. He whispered: "Fluttershy, I think we might have a problem. Amethyst doesn't remember me."

He saw Fluttershy's message transform into the one he'd just whispered. After several seconds, it shifted into a new reply.

Fluttershy: "No, Discord, she's faking it. She remembers what happened. She knows you didn't hurt her family, but she can't let anyone at the hospital know if our plan is going to work. I'll explain more later; once we hear back from her."

"Don't worry about Discord," Amethyst heard the security guard murmur behind her. "He'll pay for what he's done to your family."

Amethyst let her eyes close for a brief second. Oh, Mike, are you a pony who truly believes what you're saying or are you a changeling just trying to fill the "blank" parts of my memory with lies?

Opening her eyes, she saw they were nearing her mother's room and gestured wildly for Mike to stop. "Wait!"

He halted, bringing the chair to a stop, and the doctor looked back at them. "What is it?"

Time for the most critical part of her mission. "Um, before you take me back to my room, could I please see my mother one more time?"

The doctor seemed to consider this, then nodded.

When they got back to Derpy's room, Amethyst leaned toward the bed. "Hey, Mom. It's Amethyst. I know you probably can't hear me, but if somehow you can, I want you to know we're at the hospital. You're hooked up to a life-support system. It..." She purposefully trailed off, biting her lip as if uncertain, before turning to the doctor. "Uh, is there some way I can find out how this setup works?" She gestured toward the machinery surrounding the bed. "Sorry. It's just ... Well, I'm a bean-counter professionally. It's my job to make sure all the numbers add up and are all in the right place. And knowing how these different parts work is kind of like that. I just feel that understanding what's involved will, uh, give me more peace of mind, knowing what's going into keeping my mother alive. I know it might sound really strange, but—"

"It doesn't sound that strange," said Mike while the doctor nodded thoughtfully.

"I think some of the tech-ponies could explain things to you."

"Could they? I'd really appreciate it. Oh, and could I have some paper and something to write with for notes? This all looks pretty complicated and I don't want to forget anything."

"I think we could arrange that."

Mike whistled. "Man, when you take notes, you really take notes."

"No kidding," said a tech-pony, shaking his head in wonder as he studied Amethyst's pages. "I don't even think the original assembly instructions were this detailed."

Amethyst pressed the notes to her chest, hoping she looked as if she were trying to hide embarrassment. "Well, it's like I said: It's my job to help track down a bunch of numbers, and all these details are essentially a bunch of numbers, and knowing how they all add up is ... reassuring to me. Makes me feel I have more of a grasp on what's going on, since right now there's so much I don't remember..." Were they buying her explanation? "I know it might sound odd, but—" She purposefully cut off her own babbling by letting out a long yawn. "Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know where that—"

"We should get you back to bed now," said the doctor. "With everything you've been asking and writing down, it's no wonder you're exhausted."

"Yeah, I suppose I am." She leaned back in the chair and let her eyelids drop to half-mast. She turned toward her mother's bed and murmured, "I have to go now, Mom. Love you." As she was wheeled out of the room, she let her head jiggle about as if nodding off, but surreptitiously watched the ponies around her from under her half-closed lids.

As the doctor opened the door to her room, she heard Mike say, "I can take it from here."

She heard the doctor murmur some response she couldn't make out, and the next moment the security guard had lifted her out of the wheelchair, muttering, "Come on, come on. Up. Up. Up."

Fear shot through her as she felt his forelegs around her. He was so much stronger than she was! What was he doing?! Was he—?!

Then she was set down on the bed.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, lowering his sunglasses enough to look at her over the tops of them. "I didn't startle you, did I?"

The concern in his voice and in his now-visible eyes seemed so genuine that Amethyst briefly felt relief replace her fear. But a little voice in the back of her head reminded her that this could all be a trap, and if he was a changeling she couldn't let him know she suspected it.

"I, uh, I must have nodded off on the way back here, and you picking me up like that woke me up. I didn't mean to fall asleep like that. I just—"

"Don't worry about it," he said, pushing his sunglasses back into place. "You've had a full day."

"Yes, I—" She let out a long yawn, hoping it would convince him that she was exhausted.

"Well, I should probably let you get some sleep now." He plucked the pages of notes from her hooves.

No! Amethyst shrieked inside her head, but before she could grab them back, he set them down on the bedside table. It took everything in her not to lunge for them. If she gave him any indication just how important they were...

He turned back to face her, and she tried to look relaxed as he pulled the blanket over her. "There now," he said, tucking it in. "Comfortable?"

Lying there with him leaning over her, she was anything but comfortable. But looking up at her reflection in his sunglasses, she forced herself to nod and, taking care to sound sleepy, said, "Yes, thank you. Thank you for everything."

He beamed at this. "You're welcome." He moved to the door, and looked back at her over the top of his sunglasses one more time. "Good night."

It wasn't until he switched off the light and closed the door behind him that she finally did allow herself to truly relax. At least somewhat. She listened for several minutes to make sure no one was approaching her room before daring to turn on her bedside lamp and retrieve her notes. Now if she could just get them to Spike. She looked up at the ceiling, wondering if he was currently up there, hiding behind the tiles.

"Spike!" she called softly. "Are you up—?"

At that moment a dark blur shot past her and splatted against the top corner of her first sheet of notes, startling a tiny cry from her. This new splatter of ink slithered toward a clear section of the paper and reformed itself into the words:

Amethyst: "Eek!"

Meanwhile in the TreeHAB, everyone had gathered around the desalination container. Skywishes had switched it on to boil the collected salt water, and the resulting heat was quite welcome. Twilight was using her magic to shred a large pile of paper into extremely fine strands and Rarity was using hers to twist those strands together into a sort of yarn. The rest of the girls were winding this "yarn" into balls, while the boys were a short distance away, using each other and several miscellaneous objects for a make-shift weightlifting session. Even Bonfire had ventured close to the container to enjoy its heat, though she still kept a wary distance away from the rest of the group.

Suddenly Fluttershy felt the folded paper she'd tucked into her jerkin quiver. Dropping the yarn she was winding, she pulled out the paper and unfolded it. The rest of the group also stopped what they were doing and crowded around her to see what was written on the paper.

Amethyst: "Eek!"

Spike: "Amethyst, what's wrong?"

Amethyst: "Oh. Nothing. It was just that moth tattoo you mentioned was watching my room. I forgot about it, so it startled me when it slammed into the first sheet of my notes. But I'm okay now."

Spike: "Well, I guess having your own sheet of paper with a moth tattoo on it will make it a lot easier for you to keep in touch with the rest of us."

Amethyst: "Speaking of which, I'll probably need these notes, or at least a copy of them, back after we send them to the TreeHAB. They ended up making a pretty decent-sized stack of papers and any hospital staff who saw me writing them might get suspicious if the whole stack just suddenly disappeared."

Spike: "In that case ... You there, Twilight?"

"I am, and I read your whole conversation. I think Amethyst is right about needing to keep a copy of the notes there. We should probably also make a set of them for you."

Spike: "Then, here comes the notes."

Twilight backed away from the rest of the group and a stack of papers flashed into existence in front of her, falling to the floor with a soft thump. "Alright," she said, stepping toward the stack of papers. "Now we just have to—"

At that moment Mache Max swooped down on the papers and, before anypony could stop him, crammed the whole stack into one of his beaks and swallowed it down.

There was a horrified chorus of "Max!" but while the group was still processing the fact that he'd devoured the notes, the parrot suddenly hawked a roll of papers out of each beak. As soon as the rolls hit the floor, he snatched one back up, swallowed it down again, and hawked up two copies once more. He repeated this several times until there were ten rolls in total, and he hopped away triumphantly. The group moved in to examine the rolls and found that each one contained an identical collection of notes.

Except for one roll that also had:

Applejack, Dinky, Fluttershy, Highflyer, Rarity, Screwjob, Skywishes, and Twilight: "Max!"

Spike: "What's going on over there?"

written on it.

Right on cue, the words Spike: "Uh, guys?" appeared just underneath these words at the same time they appeared on the letter Fluttershy was carrying.

"Uh, looks like Mache Max just helped us speed up the note-copying," said Twilight.

Mache Max uttered a smug "Uhhhh!" to which Skywishes responded with a deadpan "Thank you, Maximus."

"Anyway," Twilight went on, ignoring this little exchange, "I'm going to send you and Amethyst each a copy of the notes now." A few minutes after she sent the two stacks of notes through, Spike's and Amethyst's confirmations that they'd received them appeared on Fluttershy's letter.

While this was going on, Skywishes had been studying her own copy of the notes and now spoke up. "Spike, you'd better check how well-stocked that hospital's supplies are because it looks like we're going to have to steal quite a few things on this list."

Applejack grimaced. "Couldn't we just call it borrowing?"

Skywishes shrugged. "Call it what you want, but we're going to have to do it as the HAB isn't exactly equipped to sustain a wrong-side out pony."

"They can just send me a bill when this is all over," Twilight said absently as she shifted through her own notes. "Wow, Amethyst. There's so much detail here, I'm surprised you didn't include the price of each piece of equipment."

Amethyst: "I did, but it's toward the back."

"Wha—" Twilight flipped to the back of the notes to check this. "I was just joking. I didn't think you'd actually include it."

Amethyst: "I had to. It came up when I was asking how to run the equipment if, for some reason, I had to take care of Mom at home and run the system myself. It would have looked suspicious if I didn't write it down. ... Though I should let you know there were a few important things I didn't get the chance to include."

"Oh, and what were those?"

Amethyst: "Well, first off, I don't know if Spike already told you this, but Mom's room is exactly midway between mine and Discord's. Second, once Mom gets disconnected from the life-support system, she'll only be able to survive about four minutes before she has to be completely hooked up again."

"Hmm, four minutes..." Twilight murmured, writing it down. "Anything else?"

Amethyst: "Well ... there's one more thing..."

And she quickly related Mike's behavior toward her, to which Spike chipped in with the fact that he'd noticed the security guard seemed to station himself by Amethyst's bed every chance he got during her coma.

"Hmm," said Highflyer, crossing his forelegs over his chest. "Seems like he's either extremely concerned about her welfare, or up to something."

Screwjob snorted. "I think he's a phony. I mean, come on. 'Mike?' That's a fake name. What kind of pony goes by 'Mike'?"

"What kind of pony goes by Screwjob?" Applejack muttered under her breath.

"I do, and proud of it given it's a family name."

Applejack rolled her eyes heavenward. "Oh, just when you think one is too many, it turns out there's a whole family of the Screw-heads."

"Odds actually."

"Come again?"

"Odds. My family name. You're an Apple, and I'm an Odd."

"Wait a minute," Twilight cut in. "Your name doesn't have 'Odd' in it."

"It does too. If I were a girl, I'd have been named after my mother Oddball and my aunt Moonshine, but as I'm clearly not a girl, I got named after my father Oddjob and my uncle Screwtape instead. Simple enough."

Applejack snorted, and shook her head. "Only to you and nopony else."

"Point is I have a proper name, unlike a certain unnamed sec..." the wrestler suddenly trailed off as his thick black brows dipped down in a considering frown. "Though ... now that I think about it, that name is just unusual enough to possibly be genuine. Truth being stronger than friction and all that, doncha know. I suppose it could be a nickname ... Say, Amethyst, did you happen to notice what kind of mark he had?"

Amethyst: "It was a blue rectangle with a white X on it."

"Huh. Not sure what that could mean. Maybe his family has a special naming system or—"

"Look!" Applejack snapped. "It doesn't matter if it's his real name or not! What matters is if he's a real pony or not!" Turning back to the paper, she went on in a kinder tone. "Sugarcube, wasn't there some way you could have found that out? Like ripping a piece out of his clothing or something?"

Amethyst: "Well ... he's a big guy, so his uniform is pretty tight. I could probably try ripping a piece off it ... but I'm not sure how I'd do it without him noticing. I could probably explain things if he turned out to be a pony, but if he turned out to be a changeling..."

"That might tip him off to the fact that you know a lot more than you're letting on."

Amethyst: "Right. He also had some sunglasses I could try knocking off, but I saw him take them off several times himself so..."

"Ah," Applejack nodded. "That could mean he's a real pony, but it could also just mean he's a changeling using them as an optional accessory rather than a must-have one like my hat or High's mask. Well, keep your eyes open for any clues about him, and whatever happens, stay on your guard. If he is a disguised changeling, he might be trying to lure you into a false sense of security by acting all concerned about you."

Amethyst: "That did occur to me."

At this point, Twilight stepped in. "You've done wonderfully, Amethyst. Now just try to keep everypony thinking you don't remember anything while we see about getting things ready for your mother."

Amethyst wasn't sure exactly when or how she fell asleep, but the next thing she knew, she was staring at the inside of her eyelids. Groaning, she forced those eyelids apart and blinked blearily at her surroundings.

"Good morning."

Startled at the sound of Mike's voice right beside her, she lunged up into a sitting position.

"Woah, hey. Easy now."

She felt a large hoof press lightly against her back, and flinched away from it, whirling to face its owner.

"Hey," said the security guard, one hoof still raised. Amethyst's eyes instinctively fastened on that hoof. Would she be able to avoid it if he tried to strike her?

He was still wearing those sunglasses so she couldn't see his eyes, but she did notice that his head twitched a fraction in the direction of his upraised hoof before he promptly lowered it. "Hey, it's just me. Mike, remember?"

"Oh," she breathed, putting a hoof against her chest as a visible sign of trying to calm her wildly pounding heart. "Mike. For a minute there, I didn't recognize where I was, and I'm not used to having somepony right there when I wake up, so—"

"Ah, sorry about that. Didn't mean to scare you."

His regret sounded genuine, but that could just be a testament to his acting skills. And there was the fact that he was still keeping his eyes hidden behind those dark wraparounds.

"Say, what's up with the sunglasses?" she asked, partly to deflect attention away from herself, and partly because she really wanted to know. "It's not that bright in here. At least I don't think it—"

"Oh, these?" His mouth quirked in a faint grin as he lightly tapped the frame of one lens. "They're just to let everypony know I'm currently off-duty."

Are they really, or are you worried about your eyes giving something away?

Mike's brows furrowed above his sunglasses. "You okay there?"

Amethyst quickly gave her head a shake. Maybe he actually had the right idea hiding his eyes. "It's—" She let out a yawn. "Say, you don't suppose they'd let me have a cup of coffee, would they? I can't seem to function in the morning without my coffee." Under most circumstances this was the absolute truth, and while her fear was currently proving to be an equally effective stimulant, she wasn't about to admit it.

"Really?" Mike's voice took on an amused tone. "What a coincidence, I happen to be the same way. Except I've also worked out a system to get around it. I chew chocolate-covered coffee beans. Great if you need a good dose of caffeine. Hey, I might have some here now," he added, reaching into a pocket.

Amethyst did her best to appear unconcerned but inside she was anything but that. Was this possible offering of chocolate-covered coffee beans an attempt to slip her some poison? If so, could she avoid taking them without arousing his suspicion? Could—

"Nope. I guess I finished them up earlier," said Mike, slapping the outside of the pocket. "I'll have to restock."

"That's okay. No hurry." Amethyst said, doing her best not to visibly slump in relief at being spared facing the possible trap. For now anyway. But would she be so fortunate a second time in the days to come? Could she continue keeping up her façade?

For Mom, she reminded herself. You're doing this for Mom.

"Phew," Fluttershy breathed. "It's done." She had been working all through the night to knit a blanket out of the paper yarn Twilight and Rarity had spelled and spun respectively. Her hooves were sore, but it would be a small price to pay if the product worked the way Twilight was hoping it would.

Magenta light surrounded the blanket and Twilight brought it close to her eyes, examining its weave. "Hmm, looks good and tight," she murmured, before turning to Highflyer, who was watching her expectantly. She let the blanket drop on him and he adjusted it so that it covered him completely.

"Ready," came his voice from under the blanket, and Twilight fired off a blast that caused the whole blanket to glow a bright flamingo pink. Highflyer tossed the blanket off and—looking no different than he had before going under the blanket—stepped forward for inspection.

"Bummer, I was hoping to mock you when you came out all pretty pink," said Screwjob when the aforementioned inspection was complete. "Though on the plus side, I guess we won't get burned to a cinder in that blanket."

"I don't want to be positive on that until we finish the rest of these tests," said Twilight. "Speaking of which, you and Applejack are up."

There was a gleeful "Yippee!" from Screwjob, and a noticeably-less-enthusiastic "Yeah, yippee," from Applejack.

As the two earth ponies moved over to where the paper blanket lay crumpled, Applejack shot Screwjob a warning glare. "Don't get any ideas about trying to yank me toward you by twisting this blanket around yourself because it won't work."

He raised his impressive eyebrows at her. "Now where did you get the idea I'd try something like that?"

She actually smirked and responded with a sarcastic "Lucky guess."

Then the two of them seized the blanket in their teeth and began a furious tug-of-war, each digging in their heels and hauling on the blanket with all their considerable earth pony strength. This went on for a good thirty seconds until Screwjob suddenly stopped digging in his heels. With that resistant force suddenly gone, Applejack went stumbling backward, and—rather than releasing his grip on the blanket—Screwjob let himself be dragged along as well, so that when Applejack landed on her haunches, he collided with her. They tumbled backward and ended up with Applejack on her back, and Screwjob straddling her.

Releasing his hold on the blanket, he grinned down at her. "Well, I always did want to find a woman who could sweep me off my feet."

Scarcely had he finished saying this, then she threw a punch at his head. Only for him to jerk up a fold of the blanket and loop it around her foreleg, trapping it.

He shook his head reprovingly. "Cheap shot, Apps."

"It's only what you're worth!" She tried to throw a second punch only for him to trap that one as well. She glared up at him while he grinned down at her.

"Apps, I'm the Aristrotle of cheap shots. I can spot them coming a—"

Applejack snapped her head forward, intending to head-butt him but Screwjob dodged and promptly pinned her upraised neck between his head and shoulder. "See what I mean?"

"Someday I'm gonna get you for this." Applejack fumed as she continued trying to twist free.

He chortled at this. "My flaxen-haired femme fatale, consider me as good as 'got.'"

At that moment Highflyer stepped in and grabbed a large hoofful each of Screwjob's forelock and the mane at the scruff of his neck. "Flirt on your own time, lover boy." he advised before hauling on the bigger stallion's hair, forcing him to back off the downed mare. Applejack quickly sat up, managing to look simultaneously grateful and annoyed at Highflyer's stepping in.

"I can't. We're on borrowed time as it is," Screwjob protested. "Oh, by the way, Apps. How'd that sheet hold up during our, heh heh, escapade?"

Applejack had been detangling herself from the blanket, and glanced up at Screwjob's question. "Well, looks like now I can honestly say you couldn't punch your way out of a paper sack." Her expression blanched, as if to say "Where'd that come from?" and she quickly tossed the blanket to Twilight. The alicorn gave it another look over and was pleased to see it didn't appear to be torn or stretched out despite the tussle it had just been in.

"Looks good but let's check it one more time just to be sure."

She floated the blanket back to Highflyer and they repeated the test they'd done earlier with identical results.

Satisfied, Twilight retrieved the letter with the moth tattoo ink on it. "Spike, you there? The blanket survived all the tests we did on it here, so now we have to see how it holds up against your fire."

Spike: "Just in time too. I found some nutrient bags we'll need in storage."

Highflyer wrapped himself in the blanket once more, and this time Twilight sent him through to Spike. The group waited nervously for a long tense moment, before a shape wrapped in the paper blanket flashed into existence in front of Twilight. The blanket was flung back to reveal Highflyer, unscathed and triumphantly clutching the nutrient bags Spike had mentioned.

Fluttershy mentally let out a little sigh of relief at the sight. One item down, and... She glanced down at her copy of Amethyst's notes. A lot more to go.

"The problem with wrapping ourselves in scrolls to teleport is that it takes time, and there's always the risk of the paper tearing or us missing some gap and catching on fire the way Dinky did," said Fluttershy as her knitting needles clicked away. While she worked, she was taking the time to fill Discord in on the plan to spring him, Derpy, and Amethyst from the hospital. "So Twilight came up with this idea of turning the usual scrolls into a huge blanket that can quickly be pulled over all of us at once, and she put a spell on the paper yarn to make it extra strong." She felt her cheeks blush. "But her attempts to knit with magic weren't that great, and Rarity is more of a seamstress than a knitter, so it's up to me to make the blankets.

"We've been using the smaller one I first made to transport the supplies we need for Derpy here."

Discord: "So once you've got all those, you can get us out of here right?"

"Well, there's something else we also need to—"

"Drill time!" Twilight called from the middle of the room.

"I'll be right back," said Fluttershy, dropping her knitting and racing over to stand in front of Twilight. She was joined by Applejack, Highflyer, Screwjob, and Skywishes. They unrolled a large camo blanket on the floor, and lay down on it, all packed closely together. They pulled the free edges of the blanket up over themselves, tucking in the ends so that they resembled a giant burrito.

Twilight lifted them with her magic and moved them to a ten-foot by twelve-foot section of the room that had been marked off and contained both a pack about the same size as Spike, and a mock-up of Derpy's hospital bed and life-support system constructed of spare material from around the TreeHAB. Outside the marked section was Dinky with a stopwatch and Rarity with a dummy they'd constructed from camo to be roughly the same shape and size as Discord.

Twilight set the blanket burrito down inside the marked-off section, and the burrito's passengers promptly poured out.

"Go!" Dinky called, clicking the starter on her stopwatch.

Highflyer ran to the corner next to the Spike-sized pack, while the remaining four ponies ran to the mock-up and began disconnecting all the wires and tubes from the machine.

When everything was disconnected, the four shouted, "We're ready!"

At this point, Rarity raced forward, using her magic to haul the dummy along with her. She grabbed a hold of the mock-up bed and wrapped the dummy around it with her magic. Fluttershy, Applejack, Screwjob, and Skywishes all grabbed the camo blanket they'd been carried in, and pulled it over the mock-up bed and themselves, taking care to make sure everything was covered.

"Set!"

Highflyer grabbed the pack he'd stationed himself next to, slung it onto his back and launched himself up onto one of the pipes on the ceiling above, while Twilight first lifted, then lowered the mock-up bed and its passengers.

"Go!" Dinky called out a second time. The ponies holding the blanket flung it aside and Rarity got herself and the dummy out of the way, while the remaining four ponies began reconnecting everything to the mock-up machines.

"Time!" they called when they were done.

"How'd they do?" Twilight asked.

Dinky just stared at the stopwatch.

Twilight frowned at her. "Dinky?"

The young teenager looked up. "Four minutes for the disconnecting, and four minutes for the reconnecting."

Fluttershy mentally winced, and she suspected the other ponies were doing the same. If this had been the actual rescue attempt, Derpy would have been dead before she ever reached the TreeHAB.

"Well..." said Twilight eventually. "This was only the first attempt. Let's try again and see if we can shave some minutes off each of those times."

Several days later, Fluttershy was once again filling Discord in on where they stood in the rescue attempt.

"We've managed to collect all the equipment we need. It's ready to go, and I've made our special paper blanket big enough to cover all of us at once, but I'm afraid we're not quite ready yet. We've managed to get our disconnect and reconnect time on the practice model down to about one-and-a-half to two minutes apiece, but we have to get it to the point where we can do each in exactly one minute. With the time it will take to make sure everyone's completely covered, and to travel back to the TreeHAB, those few seconds could mean the difference in whether Derpy lives or dies."

Amethyst: "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Fluttershy was momentarily startled by this new addition to the conversation, but quickly recovered. "No, sweetie. We've each got an assigned section to work on so we don't accidentally get in each other's way. Just focus on getting to your mother's room, and stay close to her bed when we tell you to. We'll handle the rest." She paused, then added, "I know the waiting is hard on both of you, but we've only got one shot at this. Once we unhook Derpy, there's no going back."

Amethyst: "I'll stick this out as long as it takes for Mom."

There was something in those words that made Fluttershy curious. "Are you doing all right, Amethyst?"

Amethyst: "Well, to be honest, everyone here has been so kind and caring toward me that I feel awful lying to them. I realize it could all just be an act, but it never feels that way when they mention their worries about how my memory hasn't come back. Now they're even theorizing that since my mind is supposed to be blank from the point that Discord showed up in Ponyville until now means my brain is blocking out all memories related to him as a defense mechanism against the trauma he inflicted on my family."

Discord: "Wonderful."

Amethyst: "I'm sorry it's making you look bad."

Discord: "Oh, it's not your fault. It's not like they believe my proclamations of innocence anyway."

"Let's just focus on getting the three of you over here for now," said Skywishes over Fluttershy's shoulder in passing. "We can figure out how to clear your name later."

Discord: "Speaking of which, is there a plan regarding how I'm going to reach Derpy's room? Amethyst may not be strapped down, but I am, and most of my usual modes of travel are currently unavailable."

Spike: "Still working on that. I've been trying to find some way we could cause a distraction far enough from your rooms to keep the staff away while we free you, but it's not easy with our favorite security guard prowling around."

Amethyst: "In a lot of ways, he's been the hardest part of my situation. He's always so sweet to me that I really want to believe he's a well-meaning pony ... but somehow there's just enough off about him that I can't be sure."

Discord: "You mean like the fact that he always seems eager to jump on the Blame-Discord train?"

"That ... doesn't ... necessarily ... mean he's ... a ... changeling," said Highflyer. His words were punctuated by strained grunts because he'd just recently gotten the splints and bandages removed from his wings, and now lay on his back trying to raise said wings on either side of him, while Screwjob (at Highflyer's insistence) acted as resistance weight by forcing them back down. "When I ... first thought ... you'd ... murdered ... Ray ... I was ... so furious ... if I'd ... had the ... means ... I ... could have ... killed you myself ... and ... not ... lost ... a minute ... of sleep over it."

Discord: "Thanks for that vote of confidence."

"Just ... telling it ... like it is. ... Or was."

Amethyst: "How are things where you are, Discord?"

Discord: "Oh, physically I seem to have healed completely, though it looks like I'll have scars where they busted my head open. I've got some bald patches here and there where my feathers and fur haven't grown back yet, which could be a good look for me. And now the doctors are saying they want to keep me here for observation. Observation! (Fluttershy could just imagine him letting out a disgusted snort at this.) I'm strapped to a bed unable to use my magic or go anywhere! What do they want to observe me doing?!"

Screwjob snorted with amusement. "I can think of a few things, but do you really want to hear them?"

Discord: "No, I don't! So stop interrupting my fuming!"

Screwjob shook his head at Fluttershy, his voice laced with cheerful irony. "He must have been a joy to have around."

"He was," she murmured absently, not even noticing the letter had captured her words as she thought longingly of the time when they would finally get Derpy, Amethyst, and Discord all safely moved to the TreeHAB. Maybe then she could finally get some time to talk with him in private. Maybe as their group faced the dilemma of proving his innocence and exposing their disguised enemies, the two of them could put their heads together and reclaim the bond they'd formed while working on Applejack's disappearance. Maybe—

Suddenly she felt eyes on her and noticed Highflyer had stopped grunting. She looked up to see Screwjob studying her with a cocked eyebrow. Below him, Highflyer had also lifted his head to look at her, though the expression on his masked face was harder to discern.

Why are you—? Fluttershy started to wonder, when Twilight suddenly called out, "Drill time!" She would often spring these practice sessions on them at random moments since there was no knowing when the perfect rescue opportunity would arise.

As the other ponies sprang into action, Fluttershy quickly whispered, "Gotta go." to her paper before joining them.

Discord gazed at Screwjob's words, and Fluttershy's response to them on his forearm, resolving that as soon as they reached the TreeHAB and had Derpy settled, he'd take Fluttershy aside somewhere they could talk in private and ... say what, exactly?

Actually maybe he would first have Twilight look at the blasted cuffs on his wrists. Have her see if there was some way to remove them and allow him to actually use the power he could feel churning inside of him.

Then maybe he'd check out Bonfire. Fluttershy's description of the little creature intrigued him and he was eager to see her with his own eyes.

Then he'd talk with Fluttershy in private. That should give him time to figure out what he'd say.

Hopefully.

Several days later, Amethyst was wheeling herself back to her room. She had just finished another meeting with the doctors and was so weary from it that she didn't notice Mike until he stepped right in front of her.

"What's wrong?" His tone was soft but the question still caught her off-guard.

"Wrong?" Her voice came out in a squeak. "What makes you think anything's wrong? Well, I mean I'm worried about my mom and sister and everything, but wouldn't any—?"

"No, no, it's not that. It's just..." He suddenly lifted his sunglasses to meet her eyes. "You keep looking at me like you're afraid of me."

Because I am! I can't figure you out! she mentally wailed, all the while trying to conceal her rising panic at the fact that he'd picked up on her unease. Hoping she sounded only mildly surprised, she said, "I do?"

"Yeah." He let the sunglasses drop back into place and their impenetrable lenses seemed to mock her. But she forced herself to come up with what she hoped sounded like a plausible explanation.

"Well, I feel scared for Mom and Dinky a lot, I can't help it. And maybe you just happened to be in my line of vision each time I thought of them. I mean you have been sticking pretty close to me."

He seemed to perk up at that. "You noticed?"

She laughed nervously as she tried to find an escape route. "Hard not to." Her eyes lit on the signs for the restrooms a short distance away. "Could you excuse me? I have to..." She jerked her head in that direction.

He looked where she'd indicated and his brows furrowed. "You're not supposed to be getting around without the wheelchair, just in case you fall. Should I go get some mare to help you in there?"

"No, I'll only be up a few seconds, I can manage that long," she said quickly, half-relieved he hadn't volunteered to help her himself, and half-annoyed that he and the rest of the staff seemed to regard her as so fragile she couldn't even make a simple restroom trip unassisted. Granted it was likely her performance as a harmless helpless partial-amnesiac that had given them that impression, so she really had only herself to blame, but still...

"You sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, I really have to go," she said, quickly wheeling herself to the door for mares, standing up, and practically bolting through the door. She leaned on a nearby counter behind the door so she could watch it but would be out of sight if he decided to peek in to see how she was doing. However, the door didn't open, and after several seconds, she moved to study her reflection in the mirror. She looked exhausted, but did it appear to be the mere weariness of a long unproductive interview, or the true anxiety of trying to discern a possible enemy among all the friendly faces?

"Finally managed to ditch your shadow, huh?" said a female voice behind her.

Amethyst whirled around to see a unicorn watching her. It was the same doctor who had soothed her in those first terrifying moments of wakefulness after she had been warned to act like she couldn't remember anything.

"I'm sorry?" said Amethyst.

"Mike," the doctor laughed lightly. "I'm surprised he didn't try to follow you right in here, considering how closely he's been sticking to you."

"Um, about that. Has he done that before with other patients?"

"Nope. You're the first to have that honor," said the doctor, now using her pale blue magic to fold several nearby towels Amethyst hadn't noticed until just then. "Sweet, isn't it?"

Amethyst's gaze flicked to the door, her mind on the guard behind it.

"Say you shouldn't be walking around like that." said the doctor. "You could fall and get hurt."

Amethyst turned back to her. "I haven't been up lo—"

At that moment pale blue light obscured her vision, and her head was suddenly wrenched around and slammed face-first down onto the counter. Pain exploded in her skull and she felt her legs give out as she slipped to the floor.

Wha...? she thought numbly as her dazed brain struggled to process what had just happened. Why did—?

Then she felt her body being dragged along the floor as more blue light surrounded her. What are you doing...? She tried to struggle but her limbs refused to respond. She felt herself being lifted into a sitting position right in front of a janitor's large mopping bucket. She had a fraction of a second to register bewilderment at the sight before her head was suddenly shoved into it.

Hot soapy water stung her eyes and rushed into her throat and nostrils, making her choke and gag. The immobility in her limbs suddenly vanished and she thrashed about, trying to lift her head from the water, trying to knock the bucket away, anything! She even tried to fire up her own magic, but was still unable to get free. Mixed with the panicked terror coursing through her, was a baffled indignation. Was this truly the end? Being drowned in a bucket of mopping water?!

But suddenly the force holding her down was gone. Amethyst flung her head back and sucked in a precious breath of air before falling into a fierce fit of coughing. Through tear-blurred eyes, she looked up to see the doctor who had just tried to kill her, now pawing at eyes surrounded by black smears. A black moth darted about, zipping in repeatedly to jet a small but clearly effective stream of black ink into the doctor's—the changeling's—face.

Amethyst wasn't sure how the moth had known to come to her rescue, but she was grateful and didn't intend to pass up this opportunity to escape. Scrambling up, she raced to the door, yanked it open, and shot through it.

Only to crash right into Mike's barrel chest.

The burly stallion didn't even wince at the impact but it completely knocked out what little air Amethyst had managed to regain. Winded, she staggered and fell to the hall floor. The guard reached down toward her, but she flinched away as if his hoof were on fire, scrambling to her hooves to put more distance between them. He moved to follow her, and Amethyst felt what little remained of her composure shatter.

"Don't touch me!" The force of her scream shocked her, but it evidently shocked Mike just as much if not more so because he not only stopped moving toward her, but actually retreated several steps. But even then, he was still far too close for comfort, and there was still her attacker in the restroom to worry about.

Amethyst bolted. Behind her, she heard the female doctor shout: "Stop her! She slipped and cracked her head on the counter. Hit it so hard she actually broke her horn—"

My horn?! Not slowing her stride, she raised one hoof to dab at her forehead and to her horror felt only a splintered stump where the familiar horn had been just moments ago.

"—I'm afraid it made her amnesia even worse. She doesn't recognize anything or understand what's going on. We've got to stop her before she hurts herself worse!"

Amethyst's horror at her physical injury was immediately eclipsed by the terrifying realization of what her attacker's fresh lie would mean for her. If she was captured, any changelings posing as hospital staff could do anything they wished to her, and anything she said, any word of protest, would be written off as the babbling of a crazy pony.

Then there was the very fact that the same doctor who had once comforted her had just tried to murder—

No! She forced herself to halt that thought. You don't know that! Maybe she was the real pony back then and just recently got replaced.

But there was no comfort in that line of thought either. Amethyst had known all this time that she might be facing disguised changelings, and had been constantly bracing herself for a possible attack. Yet she had still been caught off-guard and nearly died for it!

Then she suddenly wondered: Had Mike been in on it? Was that his plan all along? To keep her so focused on trying to decode his actions that she'd been blindsided when an attack finally came from a completely different direction? If so, it had nearly succeeded.

Several ponies suddenly appeared from around a corner in front of her. She couldn't slow down, and saw surprise flash across their faces as she barreled toward them.

"Sorry! Excuse me!" she shouted automatically as she alternately bounced off or skidded around the various ponies in the group. Behind her, she heard pounding hooves and shouts of "Stop her!" but her element of surprise must have been strong enough to keep the ponies around her from obeying because she was suddenly through them and darting around another corner. But she was all too aware that she might not be so fortunate next time. Word would spread around the hospital and sooner or later somepony would catch her and how could she possibly know if they were the real thing?! She couldn't know! She couldn't trust anypony here!

Any ... pony?

No. Not any pony but what about any...

Discord!

Of course! He wouldn't be a disguised changeling.

And if her act earlier had managed to convince everypony that she was terrified of him, they wouldn't expect her to take refuge in his room.

Would they?

Discord had been napping, mostly out of boredom, when several of his neck tattoos began buzzing wildly. He jolted awake just in time to see the door fly open and a hospital gown-clad pink pony dart inside. She shut the door quickly but made a noticeable effort not to slam it and began fumbling for the lock.

"They took the lock off." Discord informed the pony dryly. She turned to face him and he realized with a shock that it was Amethyst. But what had happened to her? She was soaking wet, her eyes were wild, and there was nothing but a stump where her horn should have been.

"What's going on?" he asked in concern, trying to sit up the inch or two his restraints would allow.

Her breath came in ragged puffs. "One of the ... doctors tried to kill me. ... Drown me. I think ... she was a ... disguised changeling and others ... might be too."

Discord's expression suddenly turned calculating. "What kind of muffins did I improve at your house?"

Amethyst blinked at him. "Sorry?"

"What kind of muffins did I improve at your house? The real Amethyst would know."

"Oh. The orange chocolate chip ones. Dinky originally made them orange mint chip by mistake until you fixed them. But we have to hurry now. Where's your paper to communicate with the TreeHAB? I lost mine."

At that moment a black moth shot into the room from underneath the door and splatted itself against Discord's lion limb.

"Here," he said, lifting that arm as high as the restraints would allow. "The words will appear on my forearm."

Amethyst looked uneasily at the lockless door, then hurried around the bed to be closer to his offered arm.

"Spike?" she whispered to it. "Twilight? Anyone there? We've got an emergency."

There were several responses in the affirmative, and Amethyst rattled off the terrifying moments from earlier, concluding with: "I know you're worried about the time thing, but I really think we need to get Mom out of here now. If they went after me, what's to stop them from going after her? They probably meant my death to look like an accident and that'd be pretty easy to do to Mom in her current condition."

Twilight: "All right. We'll do it. But what about you and Discord?"

"Just have Spike send the rescue party to Derpy's room and we'll join them there," said Discord.

Amethyst looked up at him. "You have a plan?"

"It's been known to happen."

Spike: "Alright. I'm headed to Derpy's room now."

"Get me loose." Discord ordered Amethyst, flexing his strapped-down arm for emphasis.

Not questioning him, she bent over his right arm and began working furiously with her hooves and teeth to loosen the many straps securing it. As soon as that arm was free, Discord whipped it up to begin undoing the straps on his neck, chest, and remaining arm while Amethyst moved to the straps on his legs and tail. Within minutes, the draconequus was completely free. Jumping from the bed, he allowed himself a brief glorious stretch before straightening up as much as he could without smacking his head against the ceiling.

"We'll go this way," he informed Amethyst as he lifted one of the tiles away, revealing the dark space above.

"But how'll we see?" Amethyst asked as he lifted her up into the space. "We haven't got a flashlight and I don't think I can make anything with this stump." She strained to test this but couldn't produce even the feeblest of sparks.

"Not a problem," said Discord, putting his head and arms into the hole. He flicked two moth tattoos that were high up on his neck, just a bit behind each ear, and they lit up to illuminate the space. "Let's go."

Amethyst moved forward cautiously, not wanting to get too far ahead of the light as Discord wiggled after her. They might be out of sight but this mode of travel was definitely going to be a tight fit. Discord had just finished squeezing the first two-thirds of his long body through the hole in the ceiling when there were yells of "He's escaping!" and one "There's somepony else up there with him!" from below.

Then there was a sudden tug on his legs and tail, yanking him backward. The draconequus yipped, and snagged a strut with his claws, halting his unwilling retreat. Amethyst whipped around to face him, her expression alarmed.

"They've got me." Discord mentally cursed as he tried to thrash free, furious at his current inability to escape what wouldn't even have presented a challenge if he'd been able to use just a fraction of his usual power.

"What if you used me as a hostage?" Amethyst whispered. "Then maybe we could walk right over to Mom's room."

Startled, he stared at her. "You're willing to risk that?"

"I can't find my way in this darkness without you. I'll do it."

Letting go of the strut with one hand, he pulled her close. "Just act scared and let me do the talking."

At that moment, he was yanked backward so fiercely that sections of the ceiling broke and they came down in a shower of dust and broken drywall.

Discord surged to his feet, finding himself facing a wall of ponies who looked ready to rush him. Until they saw what was in his arms.

"Hold it! He's got Amethyst!"

"Yes, I've got her, and if any of you touch me in any way, I'll split her in two!" He let his talons drag lightly up her throat to her chin. "And I don't need magic to do it."

"You harm her and you won't live long enough to regret it!" And there was Mike the security guard on the frontline. His sunglasses were gone and the look in his exposed eyes was furious.

Discord quirked an eyebrow and as he took a step back toward the door he made a show of jabbing Amethyst lightly in the throat with his talons, drawing sharp gasps from several ponies.

"Mike, don't goad him! He'll kill me!" Amethyst choked out.

The fury in the guard's eyes shifted to shock. "You know me?"

But at that moment one of the doctors shouted, "Take him!" and a unicorn guard fired a bolt of magic right at Discord's chest. Right where Amethyst's body was shielding it. On instinct, the draconequus dodged and the bolt slammed into the wall, blasting a great chunk out of it.

"Are you crazy?!" Mike shouted at the unicorn who'd fired the shot. "You're going to get her killed!"

"He's right! Don't try that again!" Discord warned, still backing toward the door.

"We can't let him get away!" said the unicorn guard. "If he figured out how to get out of those straps, he might figure out a way to get free of those cuffs too!"

"Well, then shoot to stun or something!" Mike argued. "Don't use kill shots!"

"No good. Regular stun shots aren't strong enough to hold him. Wounding him with kill shots is our only option."

As much as I hate to admit it, that claim about stun shots not affecting me is an absolute lie. Discord thought, but had no intention of saying aloud.

"But you might hit Amethyst!" Mike shouted even as the unicorn fired off another shot.

My boy, I'm afraid that's exactly what he's trying to do! Discord thought as he barely managed to get himself and his hostage out of this second beam's path.

His suspicions were confirmed when he heard the unicorn say "Better to sacrifice her if it means saving the rest of Equestria."

The unicorn's horn flared a third time, but before he could fire, Mike suddenly whirled and gave him a kick to the jaw that snapped his head back. Discord took advantage of this to duck out the door with Amethyst and was immediately followed by a barrage of shots from the other unicorns.

He raced down the hall, getting closer and closer to what he knew was Derpy's room, when he suddenly felt something strike his legs and he pitched forward.

Amethyst spilled out of his arms and scrambled to her feet. "Discord, did they get you?"

The draconequus grimaced. "Stun shot to the legs. No lasting damage but I can't move them until the spell wears off."

"I thought he said stun spells—"

"He lied. He probably made it up so he'd have an excuse to 'accidentally' kill you."

Amethyst didn't seem to know how to respond to that. "Here," she said, pushing her head under his arm in a sort of firepony carry. "I'll pull you. We're not that far from—" But as she tried to drag the much-larger draconequus with her, another beam shot over them, searing both his arm and her back. Amethyst cried out, and Discord could tell from his own pain that this beam had been designed to do far worse than stun.

"Amethyst," he said, hardly believing his own words. "Stop trying to drag me and get to your mother."

"What?" Amethyst stared up at him in disbelief.

"They want me alive for trial but they want you dead!" he snapped. "So get to your mother and get out of here. Don't worry about me."

"But—"

"Go!" And with that he pulled his arm away from her shoulders until his hand was resting against her chest, and shoved hard.

Amethyst stumbled backward, her expression shocked. But then she steadied, cast him one last conflicted look, and raced toward her mother's door.

"Amethyst got away! Don't let him get her again!"

Even though the draconequus couldn't move his legs, he could still move plenty of other things. Now he coiled his long body up like a rattlesnake's, and suddenly shot out toward the oncoming ponies. They scattered with cries of alarm, probably fearing he was trying to get a fresh hostage, and Discord exploited this mercilessly, lunging toward first one and then another of the ponies.

"Mother!" he heard Amethyst shout. "Mother! Mother!"

He snapped his head around in time to see Derpy's door open and Amethyst shot inside. Then he was suddenly knocked to the floor and it seemed every pony who was there was pinning him down. All that is, except Mike the security guard, who had run past him and was now in front of Derpy's door. The burly stallion whirled around and kicked the door, causing it to spring open. Discord saw him turn as if intending to enter the room ... only to have the door promptly swing shut in his face. The stallion brought his front hooves up to keep the door from completely closing and tried to push it farther open, but something on the other side of that door stopped him. The guard and his unseen opponent struggled. Mike put his shoulder against the door and pushed, managing to get his muzzle between the door and its frame ... only to suddenly jerk back away from the door, stumbling and rubbing at his head. Glaring at the door, he lunged toward it a second time...

When there was a loud reverberating boom, and a burst of flames shot into the hallway as the door was blown off its hinges. Discord saw the burly stallion get knocked down with the door on top of him just before the sprinkler system came on, drenching everyone.

When several ponies finally reached Derpy's room, they looked in to find it a charred blackened ruin with no trace of either the patient or her daughter. It seemed that the two had been vaporized as if they had never existed.

The next several days were painful ones for Discord, both physically and emotionally. He was never left alone. His every move was watched day and night because the hospital staff all seemed convinced that he had found a way to escape his bonds and had engineered the explosion that had destroyed Derpy and Amethyst. Exactly how he had managed to do this, none of them could fully explain but they didn't intend to give him a chance to repeat it.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

All that time there was never any word from Fluttershy or anypony else. Half of him hoped this was just because his tattoos didn't want to reveal the fact that they were unaffected by the cuffs that bound him. But the other half feared something had gone wrong, and the fire really had vaporized not just Derpy and Amethyst, but all the ponies that had come to get them.

These thoughts tormented Discord up until the day he was declared physically fit to stand trial and was shipped off to the prison cell awaiting him in Canterlot. All throughout the trip he was guarded just as closely as he'd been at the hospital, and even after he was finally shoved into his cell he was never out from under a guard's eye.

As he took in his new surroundings, he wondered yet again if he had made the right choice in forcing Amethyst to go on without him. Thereby giving up what would probably be his last opportunity to see Fluttershy face-to-face.

"Discord," one guard's crisp voice startled him out of his thoughts several days later. "Your lawyer is here to see you."

The draconequus squinched one eye. "Lawyer? I don't have a lawyer."

"You do now. Though what prompted her to volunteer for the job, I can't imagine."

For once we agree. Discord thought and aloud said, "Who is it?"

The guard checked a scrap of paper. "Must be a new one. I've never seen or heard of her before. A Miss Regal Love..." he squinted at the writing. "...and her assistant Wisteria."

Author's Note

Hmmmm, with the arrival of this mysterious lawyer and her equally mysterious assistant, it looks like we've got two brand-new characters to add to the mix. ... *Grins slyly* Or do we? Heh heh heh.

Ultimately, this chapter ended up being a lot less Heist and a lot more Hiding Place than I originally thought it would be. But I suppose that's probably more appropriate considering a good chunk of The Hiding Place involved the Ten Boom family sneaking living people to safety. It also ended up focusing on Amethyst far more than I'd originally planned. (Though in hindsight it seems ridiculously obvious that she should have been the character to focus on here.)

As always, a big thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing.

Until then, may you all have a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year!

Chapter 11. Micah 6:11

Chapter 11. “Can I justify wicked scales and a bag of deceptive weights?”—Micah 6:11

It was the bed’s bouncing that woke Fluttershy. She snapped up into a sitting position, braced for a possible attack.

“Regal, darling. It’s just Highflyer,” said a voice nearby. Fluttershy whipped her head about in that direction to see the rainbow-maned unicorn who was both familiar and a stranger. Rarity—no, Regal Love—tipped her head toward the far end of the bed, and Fluttershy looked over there in time to see a small camo-clad blur disappearing over the side of the bed. The blur, which she recognized as Highflyer, came to a stop under the desk and reached up to hook his front hooves on its underside. His vest was open so the current pose provided an unobstructed view of his chest and stomach. Though his face was masked as usual, Fluttershy could sense the tension radiating off him.

“High?” she prodded gently. “What’s—”

“He’s in a mood,” said Spike’s voice from above them, and Fluttershy looked up to see him lowering himself into the room on a rope. “After Discord wasn’t able to get that tattoo off him, I sent him back to the TreeHAB so Twilight could try. She couldn’t get it off either.”

Highflyer looked away with a disgusted grunt. Suddenly a large drop of ink welled up on his falcon pendant tattoo. The drop trickled down his chest to his stomach where it reformed itself into the words:

Highflyer: *Exasperated grunt*

The masked stallion looked down and bared his teeth at the words. Then he noticed how the two mares and the dragon were all watching him apprehensively. He let out a resigned sigh—which the ink on his stomach dutifully recorded much to his annoyance—and muttered, “Get on with it.”

They all moved to join him under the desk.

“Is anypony there?” Regal Love asked, addressing Highflyer’s chest. He twitched, squirmed, and grimaced as the words on his stomach morphed first into her question, then into several responses in the affirmative from the ponies at the TreeHAB.

“Skywishes, how’s Bonfire doing?” Fluttershy asked. “Are you making sure she gets fed, and is staying warm, and—?”

Skywishes: “I promised you I would, didn’t I?”

Fluttershy felt her face flush. As much as she had wanted to see Discord, she had also been reluctant to leave Bonfire in the other pony’s care. After all, Skywishes would have thrown the little one out of the TreeHAB if Fluttershy hadn’t begged her not to. And Skywishes had also made it clear she’d be ready to sacrifice Bonfire if it would mean helping her fellow ponies.

Skywishes: “She’s the same as usual. Troubled, fitful sleep whenever she gets exhausted enough; and seems to regard everyone and everything as a potential threat when awake. And I’m starting to think she might have a permanent limp in her front leg if we can ever get that splint off it. But other than that, nothing has changed with her since you left.”

Fluttershy felt simultaneously relieved that Bonfire’s situation hadn’t gotten worse, and disappointed that it hadn’t improved.

Twilight: “It’s true, Fluttershy. But what’s going on over there? You mentioned a while back that you were filling Discord in on things, but we didn’t find out much beyond that.”

Regal Love let out a faint nervous laugh. “There’s actually quite a bit to share.” And she proceeded to fill them in on what had happened since she and Wisteria had first left the TreeHAB on this endeavor. Fluttershy let her friend do the talking, wondering if Regal Love would share her confession about Discord with the other ponies, and not sure if she would prefer that or to tell them herself.

“And you’re not going to believe this,” Regal Love whisper-shouted. “But the prosecutor is none other than Tequila Mockingbird herself!”

Applejack: “What makes you so sure it’s Tequila Mockingbird herself and not some changeling posing as her?”

“Oh.” Regal Love seemed to deflate slightly at this idea. “Oh, that’s true. I suppose I was just so stunned at the idea of facing her, that it didn’t even occur to me she might be a fake.” She paused to consider this. “I’m not really sure if that would be better or worse than facing the actual lawyer...”

Skywishes: “Well, regardless of whether she’s a pony or a changeling, it seems her current goal is to prove Discord guilty, while your current one is to prove him innocent.”

Twilight: “True, and the law does say ‘Innocent until proven guilty’...”

“But judging by what we’ve seen in the papers, everypony seems to believe he’s already been proven guilty.” Regal Love concluded with a sigh.

Screwjob: “Yeah, somehow you’ve got to get them away from that mindset of he’s a cold-blooded murderer, and back into the old mindset that his MO is making it rain marshmallows, playing mix-and-match with the flora and fauna, and causing everypony’s toast to land buttered-side up.”

Highflyer snorted. “I don’t think even he can manage that last one.”

Twilight: “It might help if we could get him in on this conversation.”

Discord’s elation had worn off to be replaced by anxiety as the minutes ticked by with no sign of his lawyer or her assistant. Had something gone wrong? Had they been discovered? Dare he risk trying to contact anyone through his tattoos with the guards watching his every move?

While he was still deep in these troubling thoughts, the door suddenly opened, revealing Regal Love and Wisteria, the latter with a thick folder clutched in one front leg.

“We’re back again, officers,” Regal Love said brightly. “I’ve had time to review the case and need to discuss it with my client.”

Once again it took some coaxing but finally the guards left. The two mares hurried to the front of the cell and Regal Love quickly cast the spell that would allow them to talk without being overheard.

“Well,” said Discord. “How about we pick up right where we left off when we were so rudely interrupted last—”

Wisteria raised a hoof to halt him, rocking back on her haunches in the process due to the folder currently clutched in her other hoof. “Before we do that, we need to borrow another one of your tattoos.”

The draconequus raised his eyebrows at this. “Why?”

“So we can stay in touch with the rest of the group. Right now all we’ve got is that moth on a piece of paper at the TreeHAB and the one that’s, uh, buried itself in Highflyer’s chest. We can’t keep Highflyer around with us, and even if he went back to the TreeHAB and Twilight sent the paper here to us, it would leave Spike without a way to communicate with us.”

“Ah, say no more.” The draconequus straightened up and peeled a moth tattoo off his neck. As the moth’s wings vibrated excitedly between his fingers, he studied the glowing bars surrounding his cell. “There’s a chance this thing might not be able to squeeze through these bars without setting off the alarm.”

“I’ve thought of that,” said Wisteria, removing a piece of paper from the folder. “So I’m going to try slipping this underneath the bars.” She slid the piece of paper across the floor, but the instant its edge passed under the bars, a piercing alarm shrilled. The moth tattoo shot from between Discord’s fingers and splatted itself into a smear at the very edge of the paper just before the guards burst into the room, ready for battle. Apparently Regal Love’s earlier sound-blocking spell didn’t extend to the alarm.

She quickly flashed said spell away and covered this action by once again acting startled. “Oh, you’ve got to stop bursting in on us like that!” she scolded the guards but they ignored her.

“Get away from there!” a unicorn guard barked at Wisteria, then used his magic to haul her away from the cell before she could even attempt to obey. She just barely managed to snatch up the paper as she was yanked backward.

“What were you doing?!” the guard demanded. “We told you to stay back from the cell!”

Wisteria cowered under the guards’ collective glares, folding the paper in her hooves over and over as if in nervous reflex, but in reality hoping to hide its new inky contents. “I-I know you did. I didn’t mean to disobey, but I accidentally dropped this paper and it went fluttering up against the cell bars, setting the alarm off. I didn’t mean for that to happen, I swear I didn’t. I’m really, really sorry.”

“Yes, we both are terribly sorry about the false alarm.” Regal Love joined in. “It won’t happen again, but I really do need to discuss the case with my client.”

The guards looked suspiciously at the prisoner who glared back at them, at the cowed assistant who avoided their gazes, and at the lawyer who faced them with the tiniest of hopeful encouraging smiles. Finally the guard who seemed to be unofficially in charge nodded and signaled to the others to leave the room again.

“I don’t think we want to risk setting that alarm off again,” said Regal Love once she’d put the secrecy spell back in place. She turned to Wisteria. “Does the letter work?”

“Let me see.” Wisteria unfolded the paper and whispered to it, “Is anypony there?”

A moment later Spike and Twilight’s responses in the affirmative appeared on the paper, and a moth darted down Discord’s neck to form the same words along his forearm.

“Well, darlings,” said Regal Love, addressing both the paper, and the pony and draconequus currently in the room. “We might not have very long to discuss this case, so we better—”

“Wait a minute,” the draconequus interrupted. “First things first. You left me hanging on several questions last time. For starters, did you get the pieces of Amethyst’s horn back?”

Wisteria was nonplussed by this sudden tangent but before she could respond, new words were appearing on the paper.

Spike: “No, by the time we were able to check the restroom any pieces of her horn that might have been left there were gone. And we’re also not sure what happened with that note she wanted us to leave for the security guard. We dropped it where he’d likely find it, but we had to hop on the train to follow you before we could find out if he actually found it and did anything with it.”

At this, Discord abruptly turned to Wisteria. “By the way, why are you disguised as an earth-pony?”

She looked uncomfortable. “I ... uh ... I didn’t really have a choice. I had to because ... well...”

When he cocked a shaggy eyebrow expectantly, she looked at the floor and said in a rushed whisper, “You kind of zapped my wings off back at Foal Mountain.”

Discord’s expression immediately fell. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, reaching a hand out toward her. It halted just short of the bars, but trembled as if it were taking every ounce of willpower not to go any further. A gesture that escaped Wisteria’s downcast gaze, but not Regal Love’s, who immediately made a mental note of it.

However, his soft apology did seem to strengthen something in Wisteria because she drew a resolving breath. “We’ll deal with that after the trial. What matters now is proving your innocence.”

Discord drew his hand back to fidget with his claws. “You really think they’ll be able to kill me?”

The fact that the question lacked his usual mockery sent a chill down Wisteria’s spine. “I don’t know.” She looked up until her eyes landed on the cuffs circling his wrists. “But since they’ve found a way to block your power with those cuffs, I can’t shake the feeling that they’ve also found a way to kill you.” She paused then added, “Princess Celestia seemed to be implying it when I talked to her.”

That seemed like such a long time ago now, and she wondered not for the first time where the Sun and Moon princesses were now.

Regal Love cleared her throat for both the former partners’ attention. “About this trial ... I don’t want to give you false hope, but I’m afraid it doesn’t look very good. I found out last night that Tequila Mockingbird is handling the prosecution.”

“I thought she was retired,” said Discord.

“Yes, she was,” said Regal Love. “But from what I read, it seems she came back especially for this case.”

“What an honor,” Discord deadpanned.

“Well, it certainly would be if she truly is—” Regal Love caught herself mid-sentence as his sarcasm registered. Then she blushed. “That is ... it was pointed out to me that whoever shows up at the trial might actually be a changeling posing as Tequila Mockingbird. But whether she’s the real Tequila Mockingbird or not, she’s there to convince the jury you’re guilty, and unfortunately her reputation alone is going to swing a lot of weight in her favor.

“Then there’s also the matter of the jury, and the fact that we don’t know how many of them could be disguised changelings...” One eyelid twitched and she swayed on the spot. “Or the judge ... or the bailiff ... or any other official for that matter.”

“Regal?” Wisteria reached out to steady her. “Do you need to lie down?”

“No,” Regal Love said faintly, putting her head down between her front legs and taking several deep breaths. Finally she recovered enough to raise her head.

“Sorry,” she breathed, “but just thinking about truly going into that courtroom not knowing who is or isn’t a disguised enemy...” She shook her head. “I’m amazed Amethyst was able to brave it as long as she did at the hospital.” Her eyes suddenly went shiny with tears. “And to think Applejack went through this all alone all those years ago, unable even to trust any of us.” Her voice broke on the last syllable, and Wisteria pulled her into a hug, giving the disguised pegasus a rare opportunity to be a shoulder-to-cry-on rather than require one.

Regal Love didn’t dissolve into an all-out crying mess, but she did shudder against her friend. “I’m not giving up on the case, but I’m just not sure where to start. None of those legal thrillers prepared me for anything quite like this.”

All this time Discord had been listening, taking in every word, and now spoke up. “Suppose...” he said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. “For the sake of argument, we were dealing with the real Tequila Mockingbird, and the jury, etc. was made up of only real ponies. How would we proceed?”

Regal Love’s head snapped up, her earlier despair suddenly pushed aside as her brain tackled this question. “Well, there would be Discovery. She would produce her witnesses, I would produce mine, and we would each cross-examine—”

“What witnesses?”

“Pardon?”

“What witnesses would you each produce?”

Regal Love hesitated a moment. “In an ideal scenario, she would produce the Cakes and Haystings, the witnesses who claimed they saw the murders of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie...” Her professional façade seemed to crack a fraction here, but she soldiered on. “While I would produce Dinky, Amethyst, Highflyer, and possibly Screwjob to tell their side of things. Maybe even produce Derpy’s body as evidence if it were possible to safely move her...” She trailed off but Wisteria could guess what she was thinking. That was an ideal scenario, but in a far more likely one, bringing those ponies in to testify would be the equivalent of marching them into a potential death trap.

At that moment, Wisteria saw a sudden look of unease flash across Discord’s face. “Discord, what’s wrong?”

“We might not know the identity of most of the ponies in that courtroom, but I’d bet half my power that Ms. Mockingbird’s star witnesses are the same changelings I ... um ... interviewed to clear up my own suspicions.”

“Are you thinking they might bring that up to make you look bad?” Wisteria asked.

He nodded, and she suddenly remembered how convincing those three changelings had been when playing the part of traumatized eyewitnesses. Now if they also decided to pass themselves off as traumatized victims...

“Couldn’t you just tell everypony what you told me? About how they were never in any actual danger. That you were just trying to scare them.”

“I could, but do you honestly think any pony on that jury—if there actually are any ponies on that jury—would believe me over them?” She was silent and he let out a short bitter laugh. “Wonderful isn’t it? I’ve just given them even more ammunition to use against me, and we can’t so much as pull the old ‘Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire’ routine on—”

“Wait a minute.” Regal Love cut in, halting him mid-rant. “Who says we can’t?”

“What do you mean?” Wisteria asked.

“What if we challenged the witnesses to take a lie-detector test? If they refuse, that might cast some doubt on their testimony. It might not be enough on its own to prove Discord’s innocence, but it might give us some extra time to build a case of reasonable doubt. Or to find a way to expose the changelings.” Regal Love seemed to be growing excited at the idea. But then that excitement promptly dampened. “Wait. There’s that whole disclosure part of the trial. We’d have to tell Tequila Mockingbird ahead of time about wanting to do the test. And if any changelings find out about it from her, they might disguise themselves as maintenance staff and tamper with any available lie-detector before we can use it.”

Suddenly a new pony joined the conversation.

Twilight: “Not if we can keep it away from them until the actual trial.”

A short while later Twilight hurried over to the section of the TreeHAB’s main room where Derpy’s bed and life-support system were located. Apart from Derpy, the only two ponies currently there were Dinky and Amethyst.

“Girls?”

They both looked up from where they were sitting next to their mother’s bed. “Yeah, Twilight?”

“Can the two of you come with me? I need to talk to you about something.”

“Sure.” said Amethyst before turning back to the bed. “We’ve got to go for a bit, Mom. But we’ll be back as soon as we can.”

“Love you.” Dinky added.

Twilight felt a small sad smile tug at her mouth. While she was the only one who could supply the magic to power several sections of the life-support system, Dinky and Amethyst had taken it on themselves to handle the rest of their mother’s care and maintenance. The two sisters had also gotten into the habit of regularly talking to their mother and encouraging the other ponies to do the same.

“I know she likely can’t hear us,” Amethyst had admitted, “but if there’s even the slightest chance she can, I want her to know we haven’t abandoned her. That we’re still doing everything we can to save her.”

That was secretly one of the reasons Twilight had wanted to talk with the sisters away from their mother’s bedside.

“Is something wrong?” Amethyst asked after they’d reached the far end of the room.

Twilight turned to face them. “You know I’ve spent every day since we got your mom here trying to find a way to safely reverse her condition?”

“Yes.”

“Well, something’s come up.” And Twilight proceeded to explain to them what she’d discussed with Regal Love, both about the lie-detector and finding a way to expose any possible changelings. “If I can find the right materials around here, building the lie-detector shouldn’t be that hard, but our catching the witnesses in a lie isn’t going to do much good if more or all of the jury is in on the lie as well. And the problem with most of our previous methods for spotting changelings—like seeing how animals react to them—is that they all involve getting up close and personal with the possible changeling.” Under her breath she added, “Not to mention we’re currently pretty short on animals.”

“What about Mache Max?” asked Amethyst. “According to Skywishes, he seemed to know the difference between the real Fluttershy and a fake one.”

Dinky let out a short humorless laugh. “According to her, he also seems to be an equal opportunity annoyer regarding everypony except Fluttershy.”

Twilight nodded. “He’s been useful at times but he’s also pretty unpredictable. What we really need is something that will allow us to just look at somepony clear across a room and immediately know if they’re a disguised changeling or not, without letting them know we know. Last year I tried making a potion that would do just that but I never got a chance to test it. I can try making it again here, but doing that and testing it will take time. And if the potion doesn’t work, altering it and retesting it will take even more time.”

“So what you’re saying is...”

Twilight sighed. “If I focus on exposing the changelings, I might have to put finding a cure for your mother on hold.” She might have to be forced to stay in that inside-out state even longer than she already has.

Twilight didn’t say that last part aloud but she knew from the sisters’ horrified expressions that they had made the connection.

“Give us a minute,” said Amethyst. Then she and Dinky promptly scurried back to their mother’s bedside and began conversing in low tones.

Twilight stole slowly back to them, partly to give them the requested minute, and partly because she was reluctant to see a repeat of the shock and disappointment she’d just seen on their faces.

By the time she reached them, Amethyst straightened and turned to face her. “Focus on exposing the changelings.”

Twilight blinked. “You sure? I—”

“Mom would—will understand,” said Amethyst, putting a hoof on the edge of the bed. “She and I would likely have died in the hospital if Discord hadn’t made me go on without him. That’s the reason he’s where he is now.”

As it turned out, building the lie-detector didn’t take long at all, and soon the group at the TreeHAB was clustered around Twilight, examining the device. It was about the size of a medium-sized book—easy enough for a pony to carry concealed among other documents a lawyer might require—with a gauge and a series of buttons on it, and a collar attached to it via a long leash.

“It’s a pretty simple design.” Twilight explained. “All you need to do is attach the collar to the subject’s neck and let them talk away. Though I want to test it to make absolutely sure it—”

At that moment Screwjob picked up the collar, snapped it around his neck with a flick of a foreleg, and announced, “Apps! I’m leaving you for another girl!”

This was followed almost instantly by a loud buzzer as the gauge’s needle swung toward ‘lie,’ and a button underneath it also marked ‘lie’ flashed wildly.

Applejack sighed. “You just had to get my hopes up, didn’t you?”

But creating an uncompromised lie-detector was only a fraction of the battle. A much bigger fraction would lead Regal Love and Wisteria to seek out an interview with the three witnesses in the case.

“I really don’t understand why you’re defending him,” said Mrs. Cake—or rather the changeling disguised as Mrs. Cake, Wisteria reminded herself.

“Somepony has to,” said Regal Love. “The law requires it, and the law is all we can fall back on since the Princesses have all disappeared.” She leaned forward toward the witnesses sitting across the table from her and her assistant. “What do you suppose happened to them?”

“Why don’t you ask your client that?” Mr. Cake challenged.

“He’s not the one I’m currently interviewing,” said Regal Love, not rising to the possible bait, and impressing Wisteria once again with her conduct. All through this interview the unicorn had managed to play the part of a new-but-nonetheless-impartial-lawyer-who-might-have-an-unpleasant-client-but-still-intended-to-represent-him-to-the-best-of-her-ability.

But the interview itself didn’t really matter at the moment. It was only cover for the actions Wisteria was about to take. All this time she had been scratching a quill across some paper as if taking notes, but now she frowned at the quill, gave the paper several experimental scribbles, then shoved her head and front legs into her saddlebag on the pretense of getting a fresh quill. Hidden in the saddlebag was a small vial of potion. While digging around in the bag, she carefully uncorked the vial and swallowed its contents before popping back up to resume her note-taking. As the interview continued, she counted the seconds and surreptitiously watched the interviewees. If the potion worked, Twilight wanted her to find out how quickly its power would kick in and how long it would last, but all throughout the interview Wisteria never saw so much as a flicker in the three witnesses’ disguises.

“Well, I think that’s enough for now,” Regal Love said finally. “Thank you so much for the interview.”

As she and Wisteria parted ways with the witnesses, Regal Love silently mouthed to her assistant: “Did it work?”

“No.” Wisteria mouthed back just as silently.

Regal Love allowed disappointment to slip through her neutral expression, and Wisteria was sure her own face wore a similar expression. There’s still time for Twilight to alter the potion and for us to test it again before the trial, she tried to reassure herself. But she couldn’t stop worrying that those alterations might be no more successful than this attempt had been.

As Twilight produced altered versions of her original potion, and as Wisteria and Regal Love devised ways to test them, the days seemed to simultaneously crawl and fly by until suddenly it was the night before the trial.

Wisteria expected to have trouble sleeping, but the constant tension of the past days had worn her down so thoroughly she was asleep almost before hitting the bed.

She woke the next morning to the sensation of scaly claws shaking her. “Seconds,” she heard Spike whisper, confirming his identity.

“Wasp,” she responded, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Looking around, she saw Highflyer hunkered in a corner, avoiding eye contact. However there seemed to be no sign of... “Where’s Regal Love?”

“She said she was going to go help Discord get ready,” said Spike as he fished a vial out of his jacket pocket. “Here’s the latest potion. Twilight just finished it.”

“What about the lie-detector?”

“High’s got it.”

At the sound of his nickname, Highflyer straightened up enough to thrust the lie-detector out in front of him while still not looking their way. Ever since that moth tattoo had taken up residence in his chest and started reporting every single word and sound he uttered, the tiny wrestler had been growing surlier and surlier to the point where he now refused to speak to anyone; refused to give the tattoo any excuse to write across his stomach. Wisteria slid off the bed and hurried over to take the offered lie-detector.

She whispered a thank you, which he ignored. Wisteria tried to remind herself that it was nothing against her personally but it suddenly felt wrong to just leave him stewing like this. She put a tentative hoof on his shoulder. “High...” The words froze on her tongue when he snapped his head up to shoot her an icy glare. She had hoped to offer comfort but now she feared her planned words would only infuriate him.

Still she couldn’t leave without at least saying something.

Looking down past his eyes—which was easier said than done considering how much shorter than her he was—she removed her hoof from his shoulder and let it hover a few inches from the falcon pendant tattoo on his chest, not sure if he would allow her to actually touch it. She heard him huff out the softest of exhalations before he leaned forward until his chest made contact with her hoof. The instant her hoof touched the tattoo, it seemed to shimmy and a moth tattoo emerged from behind it and began scuttling back and forth excitedly just above her hoof, its wings coming up and down against her hoof as if making little pat-pat gestures. Wisteria wanted to smile at this, but Highflyer’s uncomfortable flinching at the movements warned her to keep it short. Looking down at the tattoo and privately willing it not to spell out her words for Highflyer’s sake, she murmured, “If this works, you’ll be back with Discord and the rest of your friends soon.”

“Let’s hope so,” Highflyer grumbled, breaking his silence for the first time in what had felt like an eternity. “I don’t want to be stuck with that squatter squirming around in my chest for the rest of my life.”

As if just to spite him, the moth suddenly darted down and scrawled these words right across Highflyer’s stomach before soaking them back into its own body. Then it darted up to Highflyer’s throat, where it brought its wings together above its antennaed head, and comically dove into the falcon pendant below it. The falcon’s wings morphed into moth ones that wrapped tight around it and began gleefully swaying from side to side. Highflyer cast his eyes ceiling-ward as if to say: See what I have to put up with?

But Wisteria was remembering how she had previously wondered what would happen to Discord’s tattoos if he died. Would this one in Highflyer’s chest just stop moving immediately, or would it linger on until its stored-up power eventually ran out? How she hoped they would never have to learn the answer to that question.

“Well,” she finally said awkwardly. “I, uh, I’d better go.” She was just drawing her hoof back from his chest, when there was a flash of movement and her hoof was suddenly imprisoned in his much-smaller one.

“Shy.” His shortened version of her true name startled her almost more than his swift movement had. He leaned his masked face up toward hers, and when he spoke, his voice matched the intensity burning in his eyes. “Don’t let Ray’s killers escape. I don’t care how you do it, but don’t let them escape.”

She caught a glimpse of the moth tattoo darting back down to record his words, but for once Highflyer ignored it, keeping his eyes trained on hers.

“They won’t.” she promised, hoping to project a confidence she didn’t really feel. She must have succeeded because he gave her a slow nod as if satisfied and released her. Stepping back from him, she moved to the mirror to make sure her skirt suit and the disguise beneath it were both presentable and took a quick swig of potion to touch up her dye job for the day to come.

“Good luck,” she heard Spike whisper as she made sure she had everything she needed for the upcoming trial.

“Thanks.” Despite all their preparations, she feared they were going to need it.

Before she knew it, Wisteria was seated at the front of the courtroom, waiting for the true stars of the trial to show up. She tried to look collected, but was unable to keep her eyes from darting about. When she wasn’t glancing down at the saddlebag beside her—which contained the lie-detector, some emergency bottles of disguise potion for both herself and Regal Love, and the vial of potion Spike had given her—she was peeking over her shoulder to see who was entering the room. So far all she’d seen were guards and several civilians who she guessed must be the jury. She longed to down the vial of potion in hopes of finding out who among them might secretly be changelings, but unfortunately that would have to wait until she could test it against the three ponies she knew to be changelings. Three ponies who had yet to make an appear—

“You defense?”

Wisteria almost jumped right out of her chair at the sound of the gruff male voice to her left. She turned in that direction to see a rather striking earth-pony stallion step around the prosecution’s desk to give her a sizing-up look. He was a skewbald pinto wearing a red power tie that stood out vividly against the rich brown and bright white blotches that formed his coat, making Wisteria wonder how she had missed him up until that point.

“You lawyer?” he asked in the same gruff voice she had heard earlier.

“Oh, no, no,” she babbled, flustered at the question. “I’m just her assistant.”

“Uh.” he replied in a tone that conveyed both acknowledgment and dismissal as his eyes, which were an oddly predatory shade of yellow she couldn’t recall ever seeing before in a pony, gave her another quick sweep-over. “Scout got better bargain.” Then he raised his head, looking past her, and his expression brightened. “Boss!”

Wisteria turned to see an older earth-pony mare trotting toward them. Not elderly per se but at least a good ten or twenty years older than Wisteria herself. The mare’s mane was in a blunt-cut bob pulled back from her face and she was wearing a pair of extremely thick glasses. She was dressed in a power suit, but despite its tailoring she still looked rather ... well, Wisteria didn’t want to be unkind but the only word that came to mind was ... frumpy.

The mare came to a stop and squinted first at the pinto, then at Wisteria, who guessed she must be close to blind if the glasses did that little to improve her vision.

“That only assistant.” said the pinto in a tone that clearly meant: “That is nothing worthy of our time or attention.”

Behind her thick glasses, the mare’s eyes seemed to roll ceiling-ward. “You drive me to despair, Scout.”

“Scout not give hoot about two-by-two!” the pinto declared as he strutted back to the prosecution’s desk.

“You know full well that’s not what I said.”

“Scout not give hoot about nothing!”

“What have I told you about using double negatives?”

“Scout say what Scout mean! And Scout want to watch Boss win case!”

“Wait, are you—?!” Wisteria’s voice came out much squeakier than she intended. As the older mare turned back to her, Wisteria cleared her throat and tried again. “Are you ... Tequila Mockingbird?”

“She are! Oh boy!” the pinto confirmed before the mare could answer.

“Scouuut...” the lawyer said in a warning tone.

“But you is!” he proclaimed, meeting the lawyer’s squinty glare with wide-eyed adoration.

Wisteria did not have long to muse either on the arrival of Tequila Mockingbird or on the lawyer’s interaction with her ... assistant? ... sidekick? ... fan? Because at that moment she heard the distinct clink of chains behind her. She turned back to see its source, saw Regal Love trotting toward her, then looked beyond the unicorn ... and did an instinctive double take at the sight of her former partner being led into the courtroom.

When Regal Love had mentioned plans for getting him ready, Wisteria had naturally figured her friend would get him tidied up and fitted with a nice suit to look as professional as possible. But instead Discord was clad in a rivet-covered jacket and a shredded mesh shirt that didn’t so much conceal as it did draw attention to the scarred stubbly patches on his neck, side, and hip where new feathers and fur were still growing back. Not to mention the tattoos that also twisted over the majority of his strange body. His wrists were cuffed behind him and he was hobbled by chains that prevented him from taking anything more than small steps. A thick collar circled his neck and trailing down from the collar were four chains, each being pulled taut by a guard to further keep him in place. However, in addition to that collar, his neck was also layered with multiple chains, necklaces, and spiked collars that seemed purely decorative; and he had jewelry back in all his piercings.

After seeing him stripped of all that metal both during her brief visit to the hospital and the longer ones to his prison cell, the sight of him wearing it again filled Wisteria with conflicting emotions. On one hoof, she found an odd comfort in the fact that he now seemed much less exposed, less vulnerable than he had during those visits. Even if the layer of protection was only superficial. But on the other hoof, she also suddenly felt cut off from him. As if she were among all the other ponies he wished to keep out. And why wouldn’t you be? a small voice in the back of her head pointed out. After all, he did leave—

Shut up! she mentally ordered the voice. Now was not the time to worry about that. Not when Discord’s very life might be at stake.

As the guards and their prisoner neared the defense’s table, one guard motioned for Wisteria to move away and she obeyed without argument. As she moved back, she noticed that the end of Discord’s tail had been pulled up and fastened to the back of his heavy collar to keep him from lashing out with it. The draconequus was forced into a chair, and a unicorn guard aimed his horn at the collar. There was a flash of magic, followed by a click, and Discord’s tail—now surrounded by unicorn magic—came free of the collar. The unicorn guided Discord’s tail through an opening in the back of the chair before fastening it to the collar once again. There was a second flash of magic, followed by another click, and the cuffs keeping Discord’s hands behind him separated. More unicorn magic surrounded his wrists and forced him to put his hands, palms-down on the table in front of him. There the cuffs still on his wrists were fastened to short thick chains attached to the table’s surface. The chains fastened around his legs were secured around the legs of both his chair and the table. Finally the chains connected to his collar were threaded through holes in the tabletop before being fastened to more rings in the floor.

So many precautions to prevent a criminal from getting free and all of them directed at the wrong target. Wisteria found herself thinking.

Regal Love moved to stand beside her, whispering softly into her ear, “You love him.”

Wisteria subconsciously relaxed a fraction. Only the real Rarity would know that as neither of them had yet to mention it to the rest of their friends.

“Yes, I do.” Wisteria whispered back just as softly, confirming her own identity, before adding, “But why’s he dressed like that? I thought you’d have had a suit made for him or something.”

“Well, I had originally planned to, but when we tried it, it ... just seemed ... fake. As if we were trying to play to an audience by attempting to pass him off as something he wasn’t and doing a very poor job of it. So I’m ... Well, I’m trying a different approach that will ... shall we say rely on him to carry.”

Wisteria looked back at Discord and suddenly saw what Regal Love was hinting at. Despite being chained up, he still held his head high, his posture and the way he boldly met the eyes of the ponies around him saying as clearly as words: “Go ahead. Stare, gape, gawk at me all you want. I welcome it. I have nothing to hide.” And not with the sullen resentment one might expect given his tattoos, piercings, and rough clothing, but with a bizarre sort of dignity so at odds with his appearance that it actually worked in a uniquely Discord-ish way.

“The defendant has been secured and you may now approach him.” a guard announced. “But be careful.”

Discord glanced down to see his lawyer and her assistant moving to sit beside him. Wisteria (Fluttershy, he thought defiantly) took the middle, allowing her to be closer to him. Looking up, she offered him a very quick tiny smile before looking back down at the table. It was the first time since arriving in Canterlot that there were no cell bars separating them, and yet he still couldn’t take her in his arms. Still couldn’t speak to her about ... well, anything. Everything. Not with so many potential enemies watching them.

Well, maybe I can’t. Discord thought, clearing his throat, and surreptitiously elbowing his own ribs as he turned his chest as far as he could in Wisteria’s direction under the pretense of just adjusting his position.

Wisteria heard throat clearing above her, and glanced back up at Discord. He twitched his head as if gesturing at something with his beard. She looked back down and found herself staring at all the jewelry circling his neck. Something seemed to shift or change amongst it. At first she thought it was merely a trick of the light, but then she made out the face of his dragon tattoo peering out at her from between the necklaces and chains. Safely hidden from the rest of the courtroom, it raised a claw to wave at her. She raised a hoof to the side of her head as if giving a salute, and disguising the gesture as a head scratch, returned the wave. Continuing to wave at the tattoo, she turned her head away to make any observer think she was merely scratching that side of her head as well, and noticed Regal Love had her eyes trained on the two ponies seated at the prosecution’s desk.

She felt a wave of pity for her friend. Under other circumstances, the idea of being this close to Tequila Mockingbird would likely have had Rarity bouncing and squealing with an enthusiasm to rival Pinkie Pie’s. But now she must hide all that away and instead play the role of opposing lawyer against this veteran of the courtroom.

Looking once again toward said veteran, Wisteria suddenly noticed how drab and plain Tequila looked next to Scout. Quite the opposite of herself and Regal Love actually. While Wisteria wouldn’t go so far as to call her soft blues and purples drab, they were definitely much less eye-catching than Regal Love’s mix of bright pink and multi-colors. That had been an intentional choice on their part, and now she suddenly wondered if Tequila, or the changeling posing as her, had some strategic reason for picking a much showier second-in-command. Or could Scout possibly be a changeling with motives of his own for fawning (or pretending to fawn) over Tequila?

“Hear ye! Hear ye!” an elderly blue-gray unicorn mare at the front of the room bellowed in a surprisingly stentorian voice. “All rise for the honorable Judge Snow Day!”

“Can’t! I’m a bit tied up at the moment!” Discord retorted. Wisteria almost laughed aloud at this, amazed that he could sound so unconcerned, but at the same time fearing that his flippancy might put him on the judge’s bad side. If he wasn’t there already.

However, the elderly unicorn didn’t seem to miss a beat. “All except the defendant rise for the honorable Judge Snow Day! Defendant, you will sit for the honorable Judge Snow Day!”

“That I can do.” he said brightly, then muttered under his breath as the ponies throughout the room scrambled to their hooves, “Not like I really have a choice.”

Out of the judge’s quarters stepped an even more ancient-looking unicorn. She gazed around the room with dim eyes before moving to the bench. “Ah, thank you, bailiff,” she told the blue-gray unicorn in a reedy voice, before turning to the rest of the court. “Sit down, everypony, sit down. Hmm, lemme see. Lemme see. Ah, we’ll open with, uh, with the opening statements.”

Author's Note

Let the games (or rather the trial) begin!

Regarding Scout: *Snickers* I am so going to get a tomahawk in the tush for writing such a character, but, hey, if the big old sass-bag himself doesn't give a hoot, I don't see why I should either.

Fortunately I already have big chunks of Chapter 12 written, for hopefully there won't be as absurdly long a wait as there was for this one. Thank you as always for your patience, and thank you Nightwalker for your suggestions and editing.

Chapter 12. Jeremiah 7:8

Chapter 12. "But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless."—Jeremiah 7:8

"The prosecution wishes to call Carrot Cake to the stand," said Tequila Mockingbird.

"Carrot Cake to the stand!" the bailiff boomed. The baker got up and shuffled nervously toward the stand where the bailiff swore him in with a loud: "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?!"

"I do."

I'll bet you do. Discord thought caustically. We'll see to it that you have no other choice.

"Mr. Cake," said Tequila. "I am going to ask you to recite for the jury what you witnessed. However, despite the oath you just took, the defense has requested that you be subjected to a lie-detector test. Do you have any objections?"

The baker's eyes flicked toward the defense. His expression was uneasy and for a moment Discord was sure he would refuse to take the test. But then he turned back to Tequila and stammered, "N-no, Ms. Mockingbird."

She nodded. "Your honor, permission to fetch a lie-detector?"

The judge, who seemed to have been nodding off, started with a reedy "Granted."

"Granted!" the bailiff shouted lest anypony not catch the judge's words.

"No need, your honor." Regal Love cut in, then scrambled to sound professional as Tequila shot her a look from behind those thick glasses. "That is, my assistant has already procured a lie-detector for us." She nodded toward said assistant. "Wisteria."

That was the signal. Wisteria leaned down to get the lie-detector out of her saddlebag. While she was down there, she carefully uncorked the hidden vial and swallowed its contents as she had done so many times before. Straightening up, she placed the lie-detector on the table and looked toward the witness at the stand.

Only to feel a rush of disappointment to see there was no change in the baker's appearance. Maybe it just needs a few seconds to take effect. she tried to reassure herself. Maybe—

"How can we be sure that device is accurate?" Tequila asked, stepping toward their table to peer suspiciously at the lie-detector.

Regal Love had expected this and turned once again to her assistant. "Wisteria, will you do the honors?"

Wisteria nodded and picked up the device's collar, fastening it around her neck. Looking around the courtroom, she swallowed nervously and said, "I'm completely comfortable speaking in front of all of you."

There was a loud buzz from the device and a soft chorus of laughter from the jury as the device's gauge swung toward the lie button.

"Actually I'm really nervous speaking in front of a crowd."

There was a second soft chorus of laughter, but no buzz this time as the gauge swung toward the truth button.

"Very amusing." Tequila said dryly. "However, I propose a member of the prosecution be allowed to test that device as well."

"Granted." wheezed the judge.

"Granted!" boomed the bailiff.

"Get over here, Scout." Tequila barked.

As Scout sprang up and hurried to his boss's side, Regal Love used her magic to remove the collar from Wisteria's neck and floated it in his direction.

When the collar closed around his neck, the pinto looked down at it as if speaking into a microphone and said, "Scout wearing blue tie?" He sounded as if he were asking a question, but the gauge registered the statement as a lie.

"Scout wearing red tie?" Once again he made the statement a question but this time the gauge registered it as truth.

Interesting that he would think to test its capabilities by asking questions rather than making declarative statements. Regal Love mused.

However, Scout's test seemed to satisfy Tequila, and the bailiff moved to attach the lie-detector's collar to Mr. Cake's neck. Regal Love couldn't help noticing that the bailiff carried the device not with her magic as one would expect from a unicorn, but with her mouth. Strange. Had her magic diminished with age? Or did she just want to make it clear she hadn't tried to magically tamper with the device after it had been tested?

"Mr. Cake," said Tequila Mockingbird. "Please recite for the jury what you witnessed."

Mr. Cake fidgeted and avoided looking toward the defense, but then started his narrative. "We had just gotten back from our family vacation. Pinkie Pie was at the front of the store, while we were doing inventory in the back when we suddenly heard her shout Discord's name. We peeked over the swinging doors, and saw him standing in front of her with his back to us. I don't think he realized we were there. He said what sounded like 'This will show them.' Then he snapped his fingers and ... turned Pinkie inside out before disappearing. ... A few seconds later she exploded all over the front room." He looked nauseated, but continued, going on to describe how Rarity and Fluttershy had arrived at the bakery, followed soon by Rainbow Dash and Highflyer.

It was a story Regal Love had now heard several times over during her interviews with the witnesses, and deep down it had always galled her, knowing she was being fed lies. However, she had always managed to console herself with the fact that those lies would soon be exposed at the trial.

But now all throughout Mr. Cake's story the lie-detector's gauge stayed steady on truth, never once wavering toward lie. Her ear twitched as an edge of panic crept in.

"Your witness," said Tequila Mockingbird and Regal Love quickly rose, approaching the stand to cross-examine the witness. It's not over yet. Maybe he's just told the story so many times, that at this point it's just like reciting a poem or lines from a play, so he doesn't feel the usual stress one does when lying. But he can't rehearse and prepare for every question I throw at him. She met Mr. Cake's eyes and ... was that a hint of smugness she saw behind his fearful expression? She wasn't sure, but couldn't afford to waste time trying to analyze it. She began questioning him, trying to trip him up, trying to poke holes in his story, but even when he gave answers she knew full-well were lies, the lie-detector remained stubbornly silent.

By the end, she was having trouble keeping a frown off her face and her frustration in check. Finally she was forced to conclude with a reluctant "No further questions." And the whole process was repeated again first with Mrs. Cake, then with Haystings. All that time the lie-detector never buzzed, and once again she was forced to utter, "No further questions."

"There you have it, ponies of the jury." said Tequila. "Three separate witnesses to the murders of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash all underwent the same test and all passed it flawlessly." Turning to the judge, she said, "Your honor, the prosecution has no more witnesses at this time."

"Very well, Ms. Mockingbird," said the judge. The lawyer did a sharp about-face, and marched back to her seat, where Scout looked up from his note-taking long enough to grin broadly first at her then at the clearly frazzled Regal Love.

"Defense, you may call your witnesses." the judge directed.

"Thank you," said Regal Love with a diminutive cough. She ran her hooves down the sides of her skirt-suit in an effort to settle both it and her composure. "Your honor, the defense wishes to call the defendant Discord to the stan—"

"Eh-hem!"

Regal Love turned to see her client arch one brow and give the chains holding down his right arm an emphatic clank.

"Um, figuratively anyway," she added.

"Granted."

"Granted!" Snatching the lie-detector from where it was now lying discarded on the witness stand, the bailiff strode over to the defense table. Placing the lie-detector on the table, she boomed at Discord: "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?!"

"Of course. Nothing but."

"Wisteria, put the collar on him!"

"Me?" Wisteria squeaked, but hurried to obey at the bailiff's affirming nod.

Discord felt her hooves trembling against his neck as she fastened the collar around it, and barely heard her whispering, "It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay." He couldn't tell if she was talking to herself or to him, but pressed his chin against the top of her head, using it to steer her head a fraction closer to himself in a sort of hug.

"Hey!" At the sharp cry from one or more of the guards, Wisteria jerked away from him and quickly resumed her seat.

Then Regal Love was there. "Defendant Discord, Mr. and Mrs. Cake both said you appeared in Sugar Cube Corner on the evening of Wednesday—" And she named the date. "—Were you there on the aforementioned date?"

"No. The only time I was ever there in the past year was three days after that date when I went to ask them why they lied about me."

"Why do you say they lied about you?"

As their exchange continued, Regal Love began to feel cautiously hopeful. While Discord told his side of things, the lie-detector's gauge remained steady on truth. Glancing surreptitiously at the jury, she noticed troubled looks on several of their faces, as if they might be questioning testimonies they'd originally thought were airtight. She also cast a quick covert look toward the prosecution's desk. Scout looked worried, but Tequila's expression gave nothing away.

Regal Love continued questioning Discord up until his capture at Foal Mountain and all that time the gauge's needle stayed on truth. However, if she tried questioning him about his hospital stay, he would either be forced to lie, or to reveal he knew where several missing ponies were currently hiding. So she ended with a "No further questions."

There was a pause of several seconds, then Tequila rose to face the judge. "Your honor, it seems we have a bit of a conundrum. We just heard two contradicting testimonies. One from the witnesses, and one from the defendant. Somepony here is clearly lying, but our conventional methods of catching them don't seem to be working.

"So, your honor, I would like to propose a more ... unconventional method of finding the truth."

"And what exactly are you proposing, Ms. Mockingbird?"

"First I would need to bring in one of my own expert witnesses. He's a tech-pony with the Canterlot Constabulary and an expert in witness testimony verification."

"I see. If the defense has no objections, we can adjourn until your witness is ready."

Regal Love was about to voice her approval of adjournment—anything to buy them more time to work on the matter of revealing the changelings—only to be cut off by Tequila.

"An adjournment won't be necessary, your honor. Given the unusual nature of the defendant, I felt this particular pony's expertise may be warranted today and asked him to attend. He's in the courtroom already."

This brought startled murmurings from both the jury and the audience. Meanwhile the judge gave Tequila a warning glare, as if to say she didn't appreciate such theatrics in her courtroom, before turning to Regal Love. "Does the defense have any objections?"

Regal Love thought a moment about objecting, even partially opened her mouth to say so, but then decided otherwise. "No, your honor. If my esteemed colleague Ms. Mockingbird's witness is already here, then I see no need to waste his or the court's time by delaying matters."

The judge nodded approvingly. "Ms. Mockingbird, you may call your witness."

"I wish to call tech-pony Total Recall to the stand."

"Tech-pony Total Recall to the stand!" the bailiff roared.

From the job title Tequila gave him, Regal Love was expecting some nebbish academic or maybe an older, cynical stallion, but certainly not the pony she saw rise and approach the front of the court. Total Recall was a chestnut unicorn stallion of middle age with a flaxen mane, but with a build that rivaled that of Bulk Biceps. He had to practically turn sideways to fit through the gate on the witness stand, and between his muscled girth and stuffed saddlebags, she feared that the chair might not manage to contain him. Still, he had an undeniable air of professionalism as he settled himself, making sure his lanyard with its tech-pony badge was clearly visible to the jury. The bailiff swore him in with her usual bellow.

"Mr. Recall, please explain your occupation to the jury," Tequila directed.

"Well, as you can all see, I am a tech-pony with the Canterlot Constabulary," he answered in an accent that Regal marked as distinctly Halfinger, raising his badge. "I have worked there for the last ten years. My specialty is in assisting witnesses with testimony and recollection of events. I majored in basic forensics at Canterlot University, but I also minored in hypnosis. The hypnosis was originally just a hobby of mine, but then a few years ago, I started exploring the possibilities of combining it with forensics. We have since begun using it to enhance witness recall and have found it to be a fantastic aid to our reconstruction of crimes. It has allowed us to solve cases that would have been difficult or nigh-impossible otherwise, and has become my primary field of focus for work and further study."

Tequila nodded along, obviously familiar with the background. "And there's a new technique that you've had under development which you feel could be useful in this particular case?"

"Correct, madam," Total answered, his ears dipping slightly. "My section of the Constabulary has been working on a spell that would allow us to project a pony's memories onto a screen, and let us see first-hoof if they match what that pony describes in a written or verbal statement."

That got a rustle of interest out of almost all ponies present in the audience, jury, and defense.

"Since the spell's initial development, my team has been working extensively with a wide number of ponies to test it." Total's muzzle twitched in a slight grimace, again echoed by his ears. "Unfortunately, the current iteration of the spell has limitations that we're still trying to overcome. While the information that we have been able to retrieve is absolutely accurate, the only times we have managed to successfully retrieve and view said memories have been when our test subjects had eidetic or photographic memories. And even then it is only still images at this point." He raised his hoof towards Tequila as though in an apologetic gesture. "We are hopeful we can change that but ... well, we've got a ways to go."

Tequila gave him a smooth smile, this whole line still clearly part of a routine the two had worked up beforehoof. "Mr. Recall, are you aware that the defendant has what has been described as a 'cinematic memory'?"

Total Recall nodded, and Regal Love could see the barest glint of glee in his eyes. "Yes. The reports from the incident last year, hearing how it was used to locate Ms. Applejack, is part of what sparked my own attempts at duplicating that function with pony magic."

"Interesting. And how do you think your spell would fare against a cinematic memory as opposed to an ordinary, eidetic, or photographic one?"

"Hypothetically cinematic memory would yield superior results to all the others," Total Recall replied, his eagerness edging into what had been a very professional testimony before. "At least if we were dealing with a pony. But considering the only cinematic memory we know of happens to belong to the Spirit of Chaos ... There is a chance it will not work, but I am confident that it will."

"I see. So you would be willing to attempt your spell on him if called upon to do so?"

Total Recall looked toward Discord. His expression may have been apprehensive but his eagerness was clearly winning out. Whatever else he might think of Discord, the scientist in him longed to examine the draconequus's mind and prove his hypothesis right. "I would, Ms. Mockingbird."

"Thank you, Mr. Recall.

"Your honor, I hereby request that the court permit Total Recall to probe the defendant's memory. I admit I did not mention this option to the defense during earlier disclosure, but my reasoning for this was because the procedure is still in the developing phase, and I wasn't even sure it would be necessary. However, since it now looks as if it might be, I wish to raise the matter now so that the facts of the case can be firmly established once and for all." She looked over at Regal Love and gave her what appeared to be a friendly, disarming look. "Now, I do recognize that this is both short notice and quite unorthodox, and I want to make it plain that I'm willing to grant the defense as much time as they feel they need to decide whether this line of questioning will be permitted." She turned back to the judge. "I also request that they be given all the information on the topic I was given. Speaking of which..." She held out a hoof, underside-upward, toward the stand. "Mr. Recall, may I have the materials I asked you to bring?"

The unicorn's magic flared and a thick folder and sizable spell scroll floated out of his saddlebags and over to her. "The prosecution enters these materials into evidence," Tequila formally declared before setting them down with a heavy thunk on the defense's table.

Regal Love could only stare at the folder, stunned by this unexpected turn of events. She only managed to snap out of it when the judge wheezed: "Permission granted. Given the time of day, I think this will also be a good excuse to recess for lunch. Ms. Love, will an hour on top of that be sufficient for your team to consider the matter?"

"Um, yes, I believe so, your honor. But permission to request longer if necessary?"

"Permission granted."

"Oh, and your honor," Regal Love added, as a new idea suddenly occurred to her. "If I agree to allowing this test to be performed on my client, I ask that it also be performed on the three accusing witnesses."

"You can test us, but it might not help much as my husband and I don't have photographic or eidetic memories." called Mrs. Cake.

"I don't either," added Haystings.

Of course you all very conveniently don't. Regal thought, battling to suppress a grimace. Though she had to admit the subject of such memories had never come up in any of her conversations with the Cakes so for all she knew they truly didn't have them. Still it was worth a shot. "Permission to test the witnesses regardless, your honor?"

"Permission granted."

Rather than unchain Discord, the entire courtroom had been cleared except for a few guards. Sandwiches and drinks were brought from the court cafeteria. With the judge's permission, Regal Love had cast a privacy spell around the defense table so that it appeared to be covered by a dome of heavily frosted glass. The guards could just see the defense's silhouettes, but not hear their discussion or read their lips. Or see that they were bringing a few extra friends into the discussion.

Wisteria pulled a familiar letter from her saddlebag and smoothed it out on the table. "Twilight, are you there?"

Twilight: "I am. Did the potion work?"

"No, I'm afraid not," she replied, wilting a little. "But there's some other things we need to tell you as well." She slid the paper closer to Regal Love, and the unicorn proceeded to fill Twilight in on how the trial had gone so far. When she was done, there was a brief pause before Twilight responded.

Twilight: "I've heard of Total Recall. I've actually read some of his published works on hypnosis and memory retrieval in both medical and magical journals. Hypnosis was never a field that strongly interested me, but his theories were intriguing and his methods seemed compelling. It makes sense Tequila would call him in as an expert witness for something like this. Could you read the folder's information to me? So I can see if it's authentic."

"I, uh, would love to, darling, but this is an extremely dense spell and far above my own magical—" Before Regal Love could go further, Twilight's message swirled into the shape of a moth which yanked off one of its inky wings, wadded it into a ball, and tossed it at Total Recall's spell scroll, which was lying open nearby. The ink ball landed on it and began rolling steadily back and forth down the paper. As it moved over the words and diagrams—making an almost mechanical buzzing noise as it went—the remaining part of the moth tattoo recreated them on the original letter. Realizing it must be passing the information to the alicorn at the TreeHAB, Regal Love quickly laid out the pages from the folder side-by-side while Wisteria moved the scroll steadily up to make the ink ball's job easier. Reaching the bottom of the scroll, the ink ball sprang off the scroll like a flea to land on the first of the lined-up pages. As it began making its way through the pages, the two ponies used the opportunity to chow down on their cafeteria-provided sandwiches. Wisteria hadn't realized just how hungry she had gotten until after taking her first bite. It was only when she was reaching for a second sandwich that she realized Discord had yet to eat even a bite.

"Aren't you hungry?" she asked him softly.

He opened his mouth as if to give a sarcastic remark, thought better of it, and softened into an apologetic smirk. "Sorry, my dear. The, uh, proceedings of the day so far have put me off my appetite."

"Oh," Wisteria responded. She blinked and looked over their luncheon. "How about this?" she suggested, prying apart two sandwiches—one peanut-butter and jelly, the other cheese and pickles—and reassembling them in a quadruple-decker format.

"Tempting combination," he admitted.

And when she broke off a piece of the new sandwich and held it up toward his muzzle rather than forcing him to eat off the table since he couldn't use his chained-down hands, that clinched it. His forked tongue shot out and wrapped around the piece of sandwich. She shuddered as his tongue brushed against her hoof but he noticed there was no revulsion on her face. She eagerly gave him another piece. The taste might be derivative of his own combinations but he appreciated her efforts to spice the meal up.

By the time she had finished feeding him, the ink ball had finished transcribing all information on the pages. It rolled back onto the original letter where it was soaked up by the moth tattoo and blossomed back into a wing once again. However the moth didn't stay a moth for long because Twilight's response soon came through.

Twilight: "This is quite the spell ... There's a lot to it, but when you start to break it down, it's not so daunting. I recognized components for image parsing, indexing, image projection, and projection controls. All of that's very standard if, uh, not as optimal as it could be. The really interesting parts are for memory location, extraction, and validation."

There was a pause here, and Wisteria could picture Twilight chewing her lip as she focused on reading and re-reading parts of the spell.

Twilight: "As I said ... I've heard of Total Recall, and read several articles on his experiments and theories ... What's here definitely matches what I've read. I'm not seeing anything that could be used for manipulating or altering the memory stream or the projection itself. The spell just projects whatever memories it successfully retrieves. The ponies in that courtroom might be lying about a lot of things, but as far as I can tell, this information at least is genuine."

Regal Love had been nervously tapping her hooves on the edge of the table. "Will the spell actually work on Discord?"

There was another long silence. Wisteria could again picture their alicorn friend fidgeting on the other end, her wings twitching as she poured back and forth over the spell.

Twilight: "The spell itself ... appears to be creature-neutral. Which is expected for a forensic spell, since the Constabulary never knows if it has to be applied to a pony, or griffon, or diamond dog. Now I can't say with absolute certainty that it would work on Discord, given how ... unique his mind seems to be. But based on how he's reacted to most pony magic so far, I'd say the spell should either work as expected, or completely fizzle and do nothing. I don't ... I don't see it being capable of doing anything else."

"Thank you, darling," Regal replied, going back to chewing her lip and tapping on the table again. It eventually prompted Wisteria to ask what she was thinking.

"I'm seriously thinking we should take Tequila's offer," Regal Love admitted with a heavy sigh. She raised her head and looked between her two companions. "It's like she says, this allows us to show the jury your memory of events. We can show them what you were doing at the times the murders took place. We could show your actual interrogation of the witnesses when they admitted to being changelings and framing you. Though..." She frowned in consideration. "Given what you described about that interrogation, it doesn't exactly put you in the most ... sympathetic light."

"If we can replay any events," Wisteria suggested, "then we can go back further, show how he helped me investigate Applejack's—"

"No!" Discord snapped with a ferocity that startled both ponies. "Those memories are between me and you, Fluttershy! Nopony else!"

"But you showed them to Applejack," Regal Love pointed out, confused.

"Not all of them! Just an extremely short montage!"

"That's not what I heard."

But Discord was now shaking his head so furiously the multiple earrings in his ears were clattering against each other. Sure he had shown those memories to Applejack but things had been different back then. He had been helping Fluttershy convince an old friend of her good intentions. And he hadn't realized he was in love with Fluttershy at the time. With that knowledge—and the fact that he'd come to know several ponies since then as either friends or acquaintances—had come a new desire to keep some things secret between himself and Fluttershy alone. But how could he explain that to his clearly frustrated lawyer?

"Discord, you're being—"

"Regal," Wisteria murmured, putting a hoof on the unicorn's shoulder. "Let me talk to him."

At the sound of her voice, Discord didn't look at her, but at least stopped shaking his head.

"Discord, I understand you're uncomfortable showing those memories of our time together to a lot of strangers." She felt a blush burning her own face. "I'm uncomfortable with the idea too. But this might be our only chance to let the jury see you the way I do. To give them a reason to question your guilt the way I did when I first heard of you being accused." Hoping the guards wouldn't notice, she slid her hoof to the side until it came into contact with his eagle claw. "And I'm willing to face the embarrassment that may come with it if it helps clear your name."

At this, he finally looked down at her and sighed as he allowed the tips of his talons to brush lightly over her hoof. "Alright." he said, turning to Regal. "But only as a last resort."

"Good ... That's good." Regal smoothed back her mane and took a deep breath. "That's settled. The only way this could come back and bite us now is if you're not telling the truth. Which isn't the case. Right, Discord?" she said, giving him a look.

He snorted and looked down his long pierced snout at her. "If I was making up this story, I would have given myself a far better part, with grander works of chaos and there would be far more rubber chickens."

"Rubber chickens?"

"Rubber chickens are always funny."

Regal just snorted and looked away, though there was a smile playing on her lips.

"There's one thing that's bothering me," Wisteria spoke up. "Why did Tequila bring up this spell now and not at the beginning of the trial or before? Her questioning of Total Recall just seemed too ... rehearsed. Too planned ahead."

"I've been wondering that, too." Regal Love admitted with a frown. "As you said, this wasn't something spur of the moment but something she clearly planned. But why? Why would she, or the changeling posing as her, be willing to jeopardize the trial by throwing us a boon this way?"

"Maybe it was just a little reverse psychology?" suggested Discord. "She baits us with a way to unequivocally clear my name on the assumption that you wouldn't dare take it because she's sure I'm lying, and by refusing to take it I just look more guilty to the jury."

Twilight: "It is a creature-neutral spell from a respected member of the Canterlot Constabulary. You'd have to argue pretty hard against using it."

"I don't know." Regal mused. "The hope that we wouldn't take it seems like an awfully big gamble on her part. I mean, what if we went the other direction and let Discord's memories be viewed? Everypony would clearly see they match what he ... wait. What if..." She looked up at Discord again. "What if your testimony got through to Tequila and she's trying to confirm the truth?" Her eyes lit up. "Just like Rackets would in one of her books."

"Um, Rarity," Wisteria whispered urgently. "We're not in one of her books."

"Oh, I know that, darling. I'm not foolish enough to think Tequila Mockingbird is absolutely identical to her own fictional creation. After all Rackets is a stallion with a wife and children, while Tequila is a single mare."

"With a sycophantic hanger-on." Discord muttered.

"But that also doesn't mean they're polar opposites in every way." Regal Love went on, ignoring his comment. "And the one thing that's always stood out to me about Rackets—that I've always loved about him as a character—is that even though he knows how to manipulate others and often tends to be a bit ... earthy ... he does have a moral compass and never strays from it. Even when it ends up costing him a case."

"I did wonder why you seemed to like him so much." Wisteria murmured. The fictional lawyer had always seemed to her like such a jarring contrast with the more romantic, stylish, and sophisticated fictional leads Rarity generally seemed to prefer, that it had always puzzled Fluttershy that his books were so high up on her friend's favorites list.

"Like I was saying, I realize Tequila and Rackets aren't the same pony, but if the real Tequila Mockingbird is the one offering us this information, maybe it's because the moral compass is a piece of herself she put in the character. And she wants to give us the same chance he would."

Twilight: "That's not impossible, but it's still relying on a lot of guesswork about Tequila's character when we still don't know if it's really her."

They continued discussing the situation, trying to figure out their opponents' motives, and how they might best work things to their own advantage.

"Could Tequila possibly be trying to set up some kind of mistrial?" Regal mused.

"You mean deliberately trying to throw the case?" said Wisteria, looking back and forth between Discord and Regal Love. "What good would that do?"

"Well, a mistrial isn't an acquittal," said Regal Love. "Discord wouldn't be released, just sent back to prison until a fresh trial could be started."

"Oh," said Wisteria. "Do you suppose the changelings might want a mistrial so they can use that extra time to replace more ponies? All those ponies on the jury might be changelings, but they might just as easily be all ponies, or a mix of the two. Maybe they're hoping to change that in the time it takes to get a new jury."

"Possibly," said Regal Love.

"If we went the mistrial route, would that give you time to make more batches of potion?" Wisteria asked Twilight.

There was a long pause before the alicorn responded.

Twilight: "I'm afraid the one you took today was the last alteration I had for that formula. If it didn't work, that means there's some crucial ingredient missing from the original recipe. If we use a mistrial to buy ourselves more time, I'm going to have to scrap the original formula and start from scratch. Which means a lot of trial and error while I try to pin down that missing component..."

"Okay then," Regal replied with a grimace. "So we'll agree to use the memory spell, and use that to show the jury the truth. We'll continue to aim for an acquittal, but be on the lookout for the possibility of a mistrial if things don't seem to be going our way to buy more time. Agreed?"

Discord and Wisteria both nodded and agreed. It wasn't much of a plan, Discord reflected, but he and Fluttershy had done more with less, and he was feeling confident that with her back by his side he could weather this storm as well.

"You're not going to project any of my dreams onto that screen, are you?" Discord asked as Total Recall moved to stand behind him. He especially didn't want the tech-pony broadcasting any of his dreams involving Fluttershy.

"Oh my, no. The spell only targets memories the subject formed while awake." Total Recall's response sounded almost programmed, as if he'd been asked that question many times before.

"Hmm. Just as well. When I'm involved it can often be hard to tell the two apart and we don't want there to be any confusion, do we?" Discord said conversationally, hoping his light-hearted bravado would hide the fact that he was currently a bundle of nerves. Then he felt a blast of magic splash against the back of his skull and squeezed his eyes shut, digging his claws into the table's surface.

In front of him, in the middle of the courtroom, a wide rectangular magical screen flared to life. The image was grainy, sometimes broken by lines and bands of black and gray snow, but it showed clearly enough Discord's perspective as he sat upside-down on a pool lounge chair that was floating on the ocean facing a Haywaiian beach. A second tech-pony quickly turned down the room's lights so the courtroom could more clearly see the image. Tropical fish were swimming through the air and the sand was slapping about like waves. The ocean was bubbling like a pot of soup and every once in a while the bubbling water would spit sub-sandwiches up onto the heaving sand. Below the whole thing was a date and slowly advancing timestamp alongside controls that would have seemed at home on a DJ booth.

"Agh, I knew it would work!" Total Recall exclaimed in his heavy accent.

"Well, don't that just beat all," Tequila mused with a small smile. "Alright, take us to the evening of Pinkie Pie's murder. Approximately five minutes before the estimated time of her death."

Discord gritted his teeth to prevent out-right grinning. Enjoy viewing the inside of my eyelids because I spent that whole time and then some banging my head against a tree trunk!

Sure enough, for the next several minutes the courtroom was treated to the sound of Discord's head-banging and a screen that was empty save for a steadily climbing time code.

When they were a good several minutes past the time of Pinkie's death, Tequila shouted "Halt!"

Total Recall moved his horn away from the back of Discord's head. The draconequus's eyes snapped open, and this time he made no effort to hide the smirk he aimed at Tequila Mockingbird. "Aw, just look at all that overwhelming evidence! Oh wait, there wasn't any."

"Shh-shh!" Regal Love and Wisteria both tried to signal him not to provoke the opposing lawyer.

Tequila paused just long enough to give them a look that was neither pleased nor disappointed, even the set of her ears remained neutral, before she called out, "Mr. Recall, bring up the day of Rainbow Dash's murder. Once again approximately five minutes before the estimated time of death."

Discord continued to grin even as Total Recall's spell splashed against the back of his skull. This time they wouldn't even have the dulcet tones of his head-banging to listen to.

"Ha! See!" he crowed several minutes later when Tequila ordered Total to stop projecting the memory. "I was fast asleep the whole time. You have nothing!"

"Discord!" Regal Love and Wisteria both hissed frantically at him, but he couldn't resist getting in one more jab.

"Why, it's almost as if I'm innocent of the murders you're trying to pin on me!"

"So it would seem." said Tequila in a tone that clearly meant: You're not fooling me in the slightest. She tapped her hoof against the courtroom floor. "Mr. Recall, bring up the memories for the time the defendant claimed he visited the witnesses."

Discord squeezed his eyes shut as the spell splashed against the back of his head once again...

And this time an image appeared on the screen along with the time code. They saw the Cakes moving around their bakery, both their expressions tense and uneasy as they moved to peek out a window. The two ponies were just turning away from it when a lion paw and eagle claw both shot into view and clamped over the ponies' faces.

"Guess who!" Discord's voice jeered from the screen before it suddenly went dark. But only for a brief moment. Almost instantly the courtroom was treated to Discord's memory of snatching up the third witness, followed by the interrogation scene he'd described just earlier that day.

Wisteria had to admit that even though she was viewing the scene through Discord's eyes, and had been assured the victims were never in any actual danger, she still found it frightening. Glancing away from the screen, she thought she caught a glimpse of the witnesses all shivering and looking away as well. Had they truly been traumatized by the experience or were they merely playing a part? Or did they fear that their lies were finally being exposed?

The scene ended with Discord bidding his captives a cheerful "Toodles" before the screen once again went black.

"Halt!" Tequila shouted.

"Oh, but there's more!" Discord argued. "Don't you want to hear the other taped confession I got? The one by the real villain in charge of this whole scheme."

"And what time, pray tell, did this alleged confession take place?" Tequila demanded. When he replied, she said, "Mr. Recall, play that alleged taped confession."

The tech-pony obeyed.

Wisteria watched the screen, but it remained dark. For a brief second she wondered if something had gone wrong, when she heard a voice from the screen that she recognized as Chrysalis's.

"He's here."

"How observant of you." Discord's voice shot back also from the screen.

Total Recall frowned, then reared up enough to actually poke Discord in the back of the head with his horn.

Discord's eyes sprang open and he snapped his head around to glare down at the unicorn. "What?"

"We can't see a thing."

"What are you talking about? I could see everything just fine at the time."

"Wait," Regal Love cut in. "Was this when you were in the cave?"

"It was."

"Didn't you need a light source to see?"

"No, I just adjusted my eye settings and took it from there."

"Well, it seems we can't adjust those settings back to the point where we can see anything." Total Recall sounded half-annoyed, half-intrigued.

"Well, excuse me for having the superior product when it comes to eyes as well as memory." Discord said caustically. "I guess you'll just have to settle for that old-fashioned method of listening."

"Discord!" Regal Love hissed. "Don't be rude." His unashamed-I-have-nothing-to-hide act was veering dangerously into the arrogantly superior territory.

"Mr. Recall, is there nothing that can be done to, uh, enhance the image for us?" asked Tequila.

"No, I am afraid not," he responded with a shake of his head. "This spell only projects memories, it cannot alter them in any manner."

"Then let us continue," said Tequila and they resumed the memory projection.

Wisteria squinted at the screen, straining to make out any possible images as the two disembodied voices continued their conversation, until...

"You! Outdo my chaos?! Ho, ho, let's see you say that to my face!"

There was a brief flash of light that seemed to poke Wisteria hard in both eyes. She flinched just as she heard Chrysalis's voice shout "Now!" from the screen and this time there were several blinding flashes of light. Wisteria clapped her hooves over her eyes with a pained cry and judging from the screams and groans around her, the rest of the audience was having a similar reaction.

"Miss me?"

At the sound of Discord's voice from the direction of the screen, Wisteria dared to move a hoof from her eyes ... only to see imagery her brain struggled to comprehend.

"We have to get out of here!" she thought she heard Chrysalis shout from the screen and might have caught a glimpse of semi-transparent changelings, but it was hard to be sure among all the chaos she was witnessing through a trailing web of red haze.

This must have been right before I flew in there after him! she realized just as the image raced down toward the ground. The scene went blank and for a moment she thought that was the end of it. But suddenly the image of the ground returned and shifted, as if Discord were turning his head. It flickered as if he were trying to blink the blood out of his eyes, and between those flickers Wisteria saw something even the past moments' madness hadn't prepared her for. It seemed to be a shimmering column of light and suspended in that column in all her grotesque detail was...

"Bonfire?" Wisteria breathed. She whipped her head up, hoping to meet Discord's eyes, but they were currently squeezed tight shut. So she swung toward Regal Love instead, whispering, "Did you see that? I didn't imagine that, did I?"

"No, no, I saw it too." Regal Love whispered back, sounding just as shocked. "That ... was Bonfire. Or at least some creature that looked exactly like her."

But how is that possible? Discord had said he had no memory of creating such a creature when Fluttershy had described Bonfire. Yet there she was.

Wisteria looked back at the screen just in time to see it go black.

After several minutes of uninterrupted blackness, Tequila barked, "Halt!"

Total Recall stopped his spell and the room's lights slowly came back on.

Discord smirked at Tequila. "Well, satisfied?" He probably would have folded his arms across his chest if they weren't chained down.

However, he felt a tinge of disappointment mixed with unease when she only met his smirk with an impassive expression. Was she just that good at hiding her frustration? Or was she a changeling that knew full-well he was innocent? But if the latter was the case, what did she hope to accomplish by having the jury view his memories?

She peered at him through her thick glasses for several extremely long seconds before announcing, "The prosecution has no more questions for the witness at this time. The defense may question him." With that she turned and marched back to her desk.

Well, Tequila might not have looked frazzled at the results of her questioning, but at least Scout certainly did.

Since Tequila had already covered Discord's interrogation of the suspected changelings, as well as the times for the murders of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, Regal Love was left trying to build a character defense. She decided to start with his time at Derpy's house with her daughters.

The audience watched through his eyes as the little family struggled first with the puffy frizz he had caused their coats to erupt into, then the wild spikes that resulted from trying to wet down that frizz before he finally took pity on them and gave them each a currycomb rubdown to return their hair to normal.

Not exactly the actions of a selfless hero, but not particularly malicious either.

Soon after they were thrust into Discord's memory of waking to a pair of pillows suspended by unicorn magic whacking him as Dinky and Amethyst shouted at him to let their mother go. The shouts were abruptly muffled as the two pillows shot out of sight. The view swung up and around to see the two unicorns now being pinned against the wall by the pillows; then dipped down to see Derpy squirming against his chest, clearly lashed there by ... his dragon tattoo?

At the sight, Wisteria felt a sudden rush of ... not necessarily déjà vu but something very close to it. While Discord wrestled with his tattoo to free Derpy, Wisteria found herself remembering a dream she'd had that night after burying Angel and introducing her friends to Skywishes. After she'd learned Discord was back in Ponyville but had seen no sign of him.

In the dream it had been so dark she could barely see. She had been crying into that scarf she had given Discord and that she had discovered in the trash after he left her. But during the dream, she felt the scarf move as if it were alive, felt it wrap around her, felt its ends caress her face ... felt it suddenly morph into a pair of achingly familiar mismatched arms. She remembered twisting about to face him, and finding herself up against his chest. Though it was still dark, her eyes seemed to have adjusted enough for her to make out the dragon tattoo peeking at her over his shoulder. But when she looked up, hoping to see his face, she saw nothing but blackness. Not even the faintest gleam of eyes or jewelry.

"Care to explain what prompted that pillow assault?" she heard Discord ask from the screen.

"We heard Mom yelling and came to see what was going on." said Amethyst.

"I don't know what happened," said Derpy. "I heard you tossing and turning and muttering in your sleep so I came in to check on you. Then your tattoo just jumped out and wrapped around me."

A small gasp sprang from Wisteria's lips but fortunately everyone around her seemed too focused on the scenes before them to notice. Discord's dragon tattoo had done the very same thing in her own dream! How was it possible? What were the odds that she could dream about Discord's tattoo binding them together the very same night it would actually do that with another pony? What could it mean?

"You look confused."

For a split-second Wisteria almost thought Derpy's voice from the screen was somehow magically addressing her.

"I do not. Look who's talking." The sound of Discord's annoyed voice from the same screen brought her back to the present. On the screen she saw Derpy—dressed in her mailpony uniform and carrying her mailbag—sitting on the roof of a house, looking up at the camera. At least one eye looked at the camera while the other seemed to be doing its best to veer as far off in the opposite direction as possible.

"You're not sure what to do, are you?" she said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." There was a flash of light and the scene changed. Derpy was gone, but what the shot showed of the rooftop did look similar to what the pegasus had been perched on.

Though now out of sight, it soon became clear Derpy hadn't left the scene. "Discord, do you know what I sometimes try to ask myself when I'm not sure what to do?"

"Doesn't matter to me one way or the other."

"Do I do something to be loved, or in order to love?"

There was the sound of flapping wings. Then just as the flapping faded...

"Wait a minute! Who said anything about love?! I didn't—!" The camera whipped around, took in the now-empty roof, and swung upward to see Derpy flying away. "Hey!" Discord shouted but Derpy either didn't hear or pretended not to.

Though she had just watched things play out through Discord's eyes, Wisteria suddenly found herself wishing she could instead have seen them through Derpy's skewed ones. What might the gray pegasus have observed that had prompted her to offer that piece of advice?

They continued viewing bits and pieces of that day Discord spent at Derpy's house, from magically correcting Dinky's botched batch of muffins, to helping her with the baking, but eventually ran out of applicable memories. After a quick consultation, it was decided they'd go back deeper and use those memories from his time helping Fluttershy with Applejack.

It was strange for Wisteria to see her familiar memories being played out through the eyes of another. She wondered how the rest of the audience was reacting to these scenes, but when she glanced about it was too dark to make out their expressions.

"But surely you've had at least one friend." she heard Fluttershy's voice say from the screen.

"No." she heard Discord's voice reply also from the screen as she turned back to it.

"You have one now." said Fluttershy's voice, and the camera swung down to see her with her forelegs wrapped around a section of Discord's long body.

There was a chorus of sentimental Awwws from the darkness around her, and she hoped that was a good sign.

Finally they came to the day after she and Discord had reunited Applejack with her family and friends. Wisteria felt her stomach cramp at the sight of Fluttershy standing in front of Carousel Boutique, asking, "Aren't you coming with me?"

"No, you go ahead and have fun with your friends. I'll be fine."

"Well, if you're sure..."

Suddenly Discord's mismatched hands darted into view, scooped Fluttershy up and brought her right up so her face filled the whole screen. "I'll just be waiting for you back at the cottage. With a surprise."

"Discord, what are you—?"

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough, my dear. Now run along. Mwah!"

Wisteria felt tears spring to her eyes, remembering that comically exaggerated smooch on the nose had been the last contact she would have with him for a full year. She looked up at Discord, but his eyes were still squeezed shut. She turned back to the screen, silently hoping his memories would finally reveal his reason for leaving her.

He couldn't do it. This was exactly what he feared might happen if they used these memories. He couldn't let her learn his reason for leaving her. Not in this setting with all these strangers looking on. As Total Recall's spell drew closer to the memory, Discord promptly clamped down on it, refusing to let it play any further. Out!

The tech-pony suddenly staggered backward as if he'd just been punched in the face. "Mr. Recall?" Tequila asked as the screen abruptly went blank and the lights came on.

The tech-pony shook his head, looking rattled as he rubbed a hoof over his forehead beside his horn. "That was different. I have never had somepony just mentally sock me out like that." He looked back toward Discord with a new wariness.

Tequila walked over to him and gave his shoulder a quick pat. "Thank you, Mr. Recall. I believe your job here is done." She paused then added, "Unless the defense has anything else to add."

"They don't!" Discord answered before either his lawyer or her assistant could respond.

At this the judge stirred on her perch. "Hmm. Well, in that case, does the defense have any more witnesses they intend to call?"

"Your honor, I move that all testimony given under the spell of Total Recall be stricken from the record and the jury instructed to disregard it."

Tequila Mockingbird's motion was greeted with shocked and surprised whats around the courtroom.

"Your honor, the spell is being manipulated and used in ways it was not originally intended to be used in. Any evidence it may produce is at best unreliable or at worst simply false. Therefore I move that the entire line be disregarded."

Regal Love was about to object herself, only to be cut off by a roaring "How dare you!" from the burly tech-pony behind her. "My spell functioned perfectly!"

Scout was suddenly on his hooves. "Techie not insult Boss!"

He looked as if he fully intended to launch himself at the much-bigger, far-broader stallion when Tequila snapped out a sharp, "Scout! Be Still!"

The pinto froze as if he'd just been hit by a stunning spell.

Tequila snapped out an equally sharp, "Sit down!" and he dropped back into his seat like a bucket of bricks.

"Order." wheezed the judge.

"Order!" bellowed the bailiff, drowning out the bang of the judge's gavel in the process.

"Eh-hem. Thank you, bailiff," said the judge before turning her attention to the tech-pony. "Mr. Recall, you will control yourself."

Total Recall snorted and gave his mane a shake, turning his glare from Tequila to the judge, though hastily softening it in the process. "My apologies, your honor. If there is one thing that will set me off, it is ponies questioning my work or my professionalism, when I give them answers they do not like," he explained, directing the conclusion clearly back at Tequila. He glared at her again. "As I said, my spell functioned perfectly. If you doubt that, Ms. Mockingbird, then call another witness to try and discredit my spell. I know my work and would defend it before the Royal Sisters themselves!"

Tequila faced this tirade without flinching. Did nothing rattle her? "Mr. Recall, mere moments ago in this very courtroom you said, and I quote: 'I have never had somepony just mentally sock me out like that.' Are we to assume from that statement that you've always succeeded in prying memories from resistant test subjects, or that you've never yet had to work with a resistant test subject?"

It was like watching somepony ram a skewer into a balloon, the way the tech-pony's rage seemed to deflate at the question.

Tequila lowered her head challengingly. "Mr. Recall, have you ever pulled memories from a resistant test subject?"

He glared at her, clearly wanting to hold onto his outrage. But then his eyes and ears both lowered. "No," he admitted grudgingly. "That was one of the limitations I mentioned earlier. The test subjects were always willing volunteers who knew what they signed up for, and were eager to help. They never fought to hide things from us. The times that we did encounter unwillingness, the spell would just fizzle. My ... expulsion from the spell by the defendant was something we had not encountered before."

Wisteria felt her stomach suddenly drop as she remembered Discord's first attempts to view her memories, and how it had taken her focusing on those particular memories to ensure he picked out the ones they wanted.

"But we do plan to rectify those limitations in the future!" Total Recall added somewhat defensively. "And everything we just saw was actual untampered memories!"

"I never said they weren't." Tequila's tone made it clear she could afford to be gracious in this confrontation. She had won.

"That will be enough, you two." said the judge. "Ms. Mockingbird, if what the spell is showing us is accurate, then explain what you mean by it being manipulated and used in unintended ways."

"Glad to, your honor. Ponies of the jury, my reason for earlier requesting the testimony we got through Total Recall be stricken from the record was not because I thought the defense was producing fabrications, but because I know for a fact they were carefully selecting only certain scenes to give you a false narrative. We were shown memories of the defendant interacting with Derpy and her daughters, and they appeared to be getting along just fine. But if that were truly the case, why aren't they here now to vouch for his character? I'll tell you why.

"Because two days after the memory we saw, Derpy was in the hospital with her body turned wrong side-out via a spell Princess Twilight stated only the defendant is powerful enough to do. The very same spell that was used on both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. And what of Derpy's daughters? Dinky's condition and whereabouts were and still remain unknown, while Amethyst appeared in that hospital at the same time as her mother. She was deep in a coma that the doctors deduced was caused by magical backlash while attempting to teleport both herself and her mother to the hospital. Now she did eventually awake from that coma, remembering her identity but not the events that led to her coma. So I ask again: Why isn't she at least here to act as a character witness?

"Because the defendant was treated at that very same hospital and one day he managed to get loose and took Miss Amethyst Star hostage."

"That's true!" shouted a new but strangely familiar male voice from the gallery. "I was there! I saw it! Swear me in, I'll testify!"

This was met with a flurry of startled activity throughout the courtroom which Judge Snow Day, and by extension her bailiff, quieted with cries of "Order!" As soon as things quieted, the judge gestured toward the gallery with her gavel. "You, sir. The stallion who first called out. Stand up. Approach the bench and explain yourself."

As the stallion stepped out of the gallery and into the main courtroom, Discord let out a soft groan that only the two ponies next to him noticed.

Regal Love leaned over to get a look at the now-approaching stallion. She'd never seen Amethyst's security guard shadow, but the wraparound sunglasses and burly build did match the description she'd gotten from the others. "Is that—?"

Discord nodded resignedly before she could complete the question. Regal Love cast a quick glance toward Tequila, expecting to see only impassivity, but to her surprise the older pony actually looked a bit blindsided. So much so that she had actually snatched off her glasses as if it would somehow magically improve her vision.

The judge aimed a disapproving scowl down at the stallion. "Who are you, sir?"

The burly stallion quickly plucked off his wraparounds, tucked them in a shirt pocket, and gave his shoulders a quick dust-off to look more presentable. "Magic Mike, your honor, ma'am. I know you probably don't really know me, but you might have heard of my parents. The, uh, decorated former royal guards Amazing Alpha and Brave Bravo."

Judge Snow Day's expression actually brightened. "Oh, yes, yes, indeed. I remember everypony being sure they were bitter rivals in the ranks until they both made captain and he proposed to her. I also remember they retired from the royal guard to start their own security business. And you're their son. How are good old Alpha and Bravo? Are you their first born?"

The stallion suddenly looked embarrassed. "Uh, no. Actually I'm their ... eleventh born."

"My goodness! Eleven foals!"

Mike laughed nervously. "Actually at this point they're up to twenty-one. ... With their twenty-second on the way."

This was greeted with impressed whistles all around the courtroom and Mike shrugged his withers helplessly. "Everypony needs a hobby."

"Little bro speaks the truth," said a male guard at one end of the room.

"That he does," a female guard concurred at the other end.

"Thanks, Kilo. Thanks, Lima," said Mike, nodding toward each of them in turn, before adding in a quick aside whisper to the judge. "Two of my siblings. Killer Kilo and Lethal Lima, foals nine and ten respectively."

The judge glanced up toward the two guards. "Ah, I thought there was something oddly familiar about several of the guards. Well, Mr. ... Mike, as enjoyable as it would be to talk about Alpha and Bravo, I'm afraid we have a trial to continue. Now explain to me why you said earlier that you could testify."

"Well, your honor, it seems you know who my parents were, and now you also know several of my siblings are also in the security business as well. I'm not in the royal guard, but I am a security guard for the hospital where..." he paused as if searching for the right words. "Where the defendant was treated so he'd be fit for this trial. I was there when Amethyst and her mother appeared; I was there when the defendant was brought in; and I was right there when he threatened Amethyst mere minutes before she and her mother ... well ... disappeared."

"Objection!" cried Regal Love. "There was no mention of this stallion anywhere in disclosure."

"Sustained." The judge scowled toward the prosecutor. "Ms. Mockingbird, is this your doing?"

Tequila had been tapping one ear-hook of her glasses thoughtfully between her teeth, but paused in this activity as she looked up at the judge. "Not at all, your honor. He's as much of a surprise to me as he seems to be for the defense."

"Hmm." The judge mumbled absently to herself as she looked from the prosecution, to the defense, to the off-duty security guard. "Ms. Love does have a point..."

Mike suddenly lunged toward the defense's table. Regal Love and Wisteria both flinched back with startled cries, while Discord hissed and strained against his chains, trying to get himself at least partially between the assistant and the security guard. However, it turned out Mike hadn't been going for any of them, but for the lie-detector still lying on the tabletop. Snapping the collar around his neck, he shouted, "I'm an only child!"

This was greeted with a loud buzz from the lie-detector before Mike plunged on.

"The day Amethyst Star and her mom disappeared from the hospital, Amethyst was coming back from an interview with the doctors when she stopped in the restroom. A doctor told me that when she was in there she fell and hit her head on the counter hard enough to break her horn off and make her amnesia worse."

"Mr. Mike, you are out of order," the judge warned.

"Out of order!" echoed the bailiff. But the stallion now had the proverbial bit between his teeth and refused to halt his narrative despite the judge's and bailiff's repeated shouts.

"When Amethyst ran out of the restroom, I and the rest of the staff tried to catch her so she wouldn't accidentally hurt herself, but she got away from us. We started combing the halls, checking every room to see if she was hiding in one of them. When we checked Discord's room, we saw him free of his restraints and with about half his body squeezed through an opening in the ceiling. We yanked him back out, and when he came down he had Amethyst in his arms. He put his claws to her throat and threatened to split her in two if we tried to stop him.

"When I warned him that if he hurt her, he wouldn't live long enough to regret it, Amethyst shouted, 'Mike, don't goad him. He'll kill me.' Then several unicorns tried to stun Discord with kill shots. I tried to stop them so they wouldn't accidentally hit Amethyst, and Discord ran out of the room with her. In the hall, somepony must have been able to hit him, because when I got out there, he was down on the floor and Amethyst was struggling to get away from him. She managed to get free and ran toward Derpy's room, yelling for her mother. She ran into the room, and I tried to follow her to make sure she was all right, but something was keeping the door shut. I was struggling with the door when it landed on top of me after an explosion in Derpy's room blew it off its hinges.

"That's the last any of us saw of Amethyst Star." Mike concluded, drawing in a deep breath after rushing out the whole recitation.

The judge banged her gavel several times for attention. "Mr. Mike, I warned you repeatedly that you were out of order, and you ignored me every time. You are hereby excluded from the courtroom and will be held in contempt of court."

Mike tugged the collar off his neck, turned to face the judge, and bowed his head. "I can live with that, your honor, ma'am."

"Guards, escort him out!" the bailiff roared. "But none of you who are related to him!" she added hastily as the two guards identified as Kilo and Lima both stepped forward. As they stepped back into their original positions, Regal Love saw Mike raise his eyes in Kilo's direction, and thought she saw the older stallion give him a tiny nod. Oh, Mike might have been booted from the courtroom, but she was suddenly certain his siblings would spill everything to him afterward.

As Mike was escorted from the room, Tequila turned to Regal Love, one ear-hook still poised as if she were about to give it a thoughtful gnaw. "Well, Ms. Love. It seems your lie-detector ruled everything he said apart from that first test lie as truth. Does the defense care to refute any of his claims?"

"Ms. Mockingbird, you are overstepping your position in this trial!" the judge warned, clearly having little patience left for Tequila's behavior. She paused, as if taking a moment to compose herself before going on in a calmer tone. "However, you make a valid point, and I agree the defense deserves the chance to refute, disprove or clarify these new accusations. Ms. Love?"

Regal couldn't help licking her lips nervously. "Um, your honor, a moment to discuss this unexpected event with my client, please?"

"Granted."

Regal Love quickly cast the same privacy spell she'd used earlier over the defense's table before turning to her team members. "This isn't good."

Discord cocked an eyebrow. "Is it? I didn't notice."

"Discord!" Wisteria whisper-hissed.

"Sorry. Need to let off a bit of stress."

"I don't really blame you." Regal Love sighed, massaging her temples. "Oh, I never thought about just how appropriate it was that Tequila Mockingbird's cutie mark is a bird with a writhing worm clamped in its beak because that's exactly what I feel like right now.

"I could try arguing that Mike's story be disregarded since he wasn't officially sworn in or listed among the official witnesses..."

"Why wasn't he on that list?" said Wisteria. "What if he was the real pony back at the hospital and the one we just saw was a changeling posing as him? ... But then again he did set off the lie-detector—"

"Which probably just means the changelings know how to trip it or not trip it at will." Discord muttered bitterly.

"Changeling or pony, he's put us in a real bind." said Regal Love. "Obviously we can't denounce his story about you taking Amethyst hostage as an out-and-out lie, but if we let it stand as is, it'll damage the image we've been trying to build of you. We could have Total Recall play your memory of how things really happened but—"

"But unfortunately there's also some things in that memory we'd rather the general public not know at the moment." Discord concluded. Three sets of eyes moved to the layer of necklaces, chains, chokers, and collars circling his neck and trailing down over his chest ... and the dragon tattoo peeking out through them.

The only reason they were even allowed this much privacy was because their opponents thought Discord was completely unable to use his power. If the news got out that his tattoos were still able to operate under their own reserve of his borrowed power ... if the news got out that he had secretly been communicating with others outside his cell ... he would never again know a second of surveillance-free-time, and his friends would lose the one piece of leverage they had over their enemies. Total Recall's spell would give them the chance to show what really happened between Discord and Amethyst, but it would also reveal the fact that Discord's tattoos weren't bound by the same spell currently inhibiting his own power.

"Do you think we should go for the mistrial?" Wisteria asked.

Regal Love's expression suddenly hardened. "Well, Tequila has already accused us of picking-and-choosing what we show anyway." She looked up to meet her client's eyes. "Discord, if Total Recall accesses your memory, can you give him just enough to prove Amethyst was with you of her own free will without giving away what your tattoos can do?"

His eyes unfocused, as if he were quickly reviewing the scene in his mind. Then he aimed a superior glance at the blobby shape beyond their shield that was Total Recall. "Easily."

"Alright." Regal Love drew a deep breath to steady herself and smoothed out her skirt suit. "First we're going to try and ... alleviate what damage Mike has done. Then I'm going to call for a mistrial."

Only a few minutes after Regal Love had put the privacy shield in place, she flashed it away and declared her client was ready to clarify Mike's statements, first in his own words and then with his own memories.

Discord straightened up as much as his chains would permit, which he was privately pleased to note put his head higher than any of the ponies around him. "Amethyst Star ran to my room because she was attacked in the restroom by a changeling disguised as one of the doctors. She knew that since the changelings can't disguise themselves as me, I was the only one in that hospital she could trust. The only reason I was able to get free from my restraints is because she undid them for me. And as for my taking her hostage ... That was based entirely on a mutual agreement between two consenting adults. It was actually her idea in the first place. Might have worked too if certain unnamed guards weren't aiming to kill her as opposed to simply incapacitate me."

Then at Regal Love's request, Total Recall—who still seemed rankled by Tequila's verbal smackdown—fired up his spell, the lights dimmed, and the memory appeared on screen.

Discord let the memory start with his ordered "Get me loose." and let it proceed to the point where he said "We'll go this way." while lifting Amethyst into the ceiling, before jumping past the part where he switched on a couple of his tattoos like flashlights, to the point where he straightened up from the pile of dust and debris with Amethyst clutched in front of him. From there the scene appeared to play out much the way Mike had described, until they came to the part in the hallway. Now the audience could clearly see and hear Amethyst not struggling to get away from Discord, but actually trying to drag him with her, only giving up the attempt when he both ordered her to go and forcefully shoved her away. For a moment they lost sight of her as Discord turned back to the oncoming ponies, but soon enough the camera swung about to see her disappear into her mother's room and slam the door shut before Mike reached it, and the remaining scene played out as described.

When the lights came back on, Tequila, who had resumed her glasses at some point during the viewing, commented, "I noticed there seemed to be a decent chunk of time missing between you ordering her to get you loose and you threatening her."

The defense had anticipated this, so Discord responded with, "My cinematic memory doesn't just record everything I see nonstop. It blinks off from time to time."

"Convenient." Tequila managed to load that one word with an impressive amount of disbelieving scorn.

Regal Love cleared her throat. "Ms. Mockingbird, you will recall that my client did mention that fact to Miss Fluttershy well over a year ago. Speaking of which, your honor, if I may ask, have you made a decision on whether the information extracted by Total Recall will remain on the record?"

The judge looked momentarily nonplussed. "Hm? Oh, yes, yes, about that.

"Mr. Recall, given your credentials and history with the Canterlot Constabulary, this court will trust in your expertise to overcome even a force of chaos like the defendant. As for you, Ms. Mockingbird. You opened the door to this avenue of testimony. Now you have to live with it. Motion to strike testimony denied." She punctuated the statement with a bang of her gavel.

Regal Love decided now was the time to strike. "Your honor, defense moves for a mistrial."

"Objection!" cried Tequila.

"Sustained. Explain yourself, Ms. Love."

"First, your honor, the prosecution has poisoned the jury. She called upon an unexpected witness to perform a spell that she reassured the court, repeatedly, would be able to only reveal true and accurate memories, no fabrications. Defense allowed this in good faith, feeling that a lawyer of Ms. Mockingbird's caliber would not try and deceive the court as to the validity of what she was proposing. Yet only now, after pursuing her own line of questions against my client and allowing me to do the same does she claim that Mr. Recall's spell was not as effective as she originally advised the court. That she would throw her own expert witness under the train as part of this will only further serve to raise confusion within the jury. Given the extent of the testimony presented and the assurances that were given at the beginning as to its validity from the prosecutor herself, only for her to later recant that claim of validity after said testimony, will have resulted in irreparable harm to my client and this case.

"Second, there was the stallion you called up here. There was no mention of him in the list of witnesses we were given, and we had no time to prepare a proper defense against his claims. It was only through Mr. Recall's spell that we were able to prove how inaccurate this proclaimed eye-witness's view of the situation was, thus raising even more confusion in the jury. The only proper action at this point would be to declare a mistrial, postponing until a fresh jury is selected and proceedings can begin anew."

Judge Snow Day narrowed her eyes and grumbled as she shifted about in her seat. "You do make several good points, Ms. Love. Nevertheless, I do feel that the good ponies of the jury will still be capable of using their own judgment when it comes to ascertaining the truth of the testimony given by your client against that of the other witnesses and evidence submitted." She banged her gavel again. "Motion for mistrial denied."

Regal Love stood stunned for several seconds, her mouth hanging open. She had felt so sure that they'd have been able to end things in mistrial. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw Tequila discretely shaking her head, a small pitying smile on her face. Suddenly she remembered several instances in Tequila's novels where Rackets would ask for more than he really wanted so that when he backed down, it appeared that he was making a compromise when he was actually getting exactly what he wanted. Had his creator just pulled a similar stunt? Asked that all of Total Recall's extracted evidence be disregarded when she was really just aiming to plant doubt in the jury's minds as to how trustworthy any of the evidence the defendant gave them truly was?

Quickly closing her mouth, she forced herself to give the judge a solemn nod, rather than shoot Tequila the savage glare she would have preferred.

Two can play at that game! she thought at the opposing lawyer, firming her jaw for the battle ahead. And unlike you, I don't have to prove my client is innocent, just build enough doubt in the jury's minds to force an acquittal!

The trial continued with cross-examination of the police ponies involved in the deaths of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, and in Discord's subsequent capture and interrogation. The fact that many of them might be changelings who had helped plant evidence to frame Discord in the very scenes they claimed to have investigated forced Regal Love to stay on her hooves and strained her resolve to the limit.

After what seemed like an all too short time, she dismissed her final witness.

"Since the defense's case was so brief," the judge commented, "I, uh, believe we should just have time for the closing arguments today."

"Closing arguments!" the bailiff promptly boomed.

Tequila paused to straighten her suit and moved forward to address the jury. After giving them a quick walk-through of the evidence that had just been presented, she told them to consider the defendant. She reminded them that upon escaping from his stone prison, his first action was tricking three of the Element Bearers into being the opposite of their Elements; he had appeared to act as Fluttershy's willing partner while solving Applejack's disappearance, only to abandon her and revert to his old ways as soon as that goodwill had been established. She reminded them how everything they'd seen on the screen was only what the master manipulator had wanted them to see.

"We saw nothing in those five minutes when Pinkie Pie's death was supposed to occur, but the defendant only needed to remove five seconds of footage to cover up his crime. He would have needed at least three minutes to hide Rainbow Dash's murder, which explains why we got a completely silent blank screen for that time."

She pointed out the evidence both the police ponies and tech-ponies had discovered at the crime scenes—evidence that Princess Twilight herself had confirmed—as well as the fact that all three eye-witnesses had passed a lie-detection test the defense had requested.

Then she addressed the subject of the defendant's character witnesses, reminding the jury once again that all those witnesses were pulled from the defendant's memories rather than being there to testify in the flesh.

"Where is the pony who arguably worked the closest with him in the past year? Why isn't Fluttershy here to vouch for his character?"

She is here! Wisteria seethed, curling her hooves against the tabletop in helpless fury as Tequila pointed out: "Ponies in the position to either confirm or deny the defendant's claims have a troublesome habit of disappearing."

The lawyer continued her argument, concluding with the fact that mere imprisonment would not be enough for Discord. If he could escape once, he could do it again. Nothing short of the death penalty would pay for his crime.

Now it was Regal Love's turn. "Ponies of the jury, I would like to remind you that the point of this trial is to determine whether or not my client is guilty of the murders of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Now with that in mind, I will explain to you how the evidence submitted has been circumstantial at best and immaterial at worst." She proceeded to argue how all that evidence could have been planted to make Discord look guilty; also reminding the jury that while Discord's memories might not show them everything that happened, they could at least be sure that what they did see did genuinely play out that way. "This whole accusation rests on the testimonies of three witnesses and we just saw those very same witnesses admit to my client that they lied and planted evidence to frame him. We also heard Queen Chrysalis admit to framing him.

"Ponies of the jury, my client faces a serious charge. His life is on the line. Think of the true victims here. Think of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Neither of them would want an innocent unjustly punished for their deaths. A conviction in this case would be a travesty!" Softening her voice, she urged them: "Do the right thing. Find Discord innocent."

"Well, we gave it our best shot," Regal Love groaned, massaging her temples with her hooves. After the jury had adjourned to deliberate, she and Wisteria had accompanied Discord back to his cell. She'd managed to shoo away the guards to ensure they had some privacy for final words before departing for the day.

"And you were fantastic!" Wisteria countered fiercely. Regal Love had been doing her best to maintain a brave face, but it was clear to her friend that all the setbacks and difficulties they'd experienced in court had really crushed the unicorn's typically optimistic spirit. "We could never have done this without you."

"Oh, indeed." said Discord. "The fact that you managed to put up with me as a client already proves you're leagues better than old Mockingbird could ever hope to be."

Regal Love made a noise that sounded like a half-whimper, half-snicker, and Wisteria patted her shoulder.

"You said yourself we didn't need to prove him totally innocent," she whispered. "Just build a case of reasonable doubt. And I think you succeeded." At least I hope you did. she mentally added. Regal Love had certainly done an admirable job of holding up a strong front in court but Wisteria could see how close she was to cracking now that they were all alone. Not for the first time, she wished she had her wings back so she could wrap one around her friend.

She looked up at Discord, questions burning in her mind. Why did you cut off that memory of leaving me? What are you so determined to hide? What was Bonfire—or at least someone who looked exactly like her—doing in your memory?

He cocked a pierced eyebrow. "Something on your mind?"

Realizing she had been staring, she promptly looked away. Oh, yes. There was so much on her mind, but where to start?

She peeked back up at him in time to see him coaxingly arch his eyebrow a few more notches, causing light to glint off the ring in it. "Is that the same jewelry you had before?" She wasn't sure where the question had come from, but went with it, waving to indicate all the metal in his ears and on his face.

He chuckled lightly. "Yes, it seems after removing it at the hospital, the staff hung onto it for me. Nice to see somepony has their priorities straight."

Wisteria laughed weakly at the joke. But as her eyes traced the scar that now traveled along the top of his skull between his horn and antler, she suddenly wondered what the hospital staff had done with the scarf she'd used to put pressure on his wound. Thrown it away most likely.

Tell him about seeing Bonfire in his memory. That would probably be the least touchy subject to start on, then maybe they could move onto the more ... uncomfortable ones.

But before she could even move her mouth to form the words, there was a banging on the door. They opened it to reveal the same retinue of stocky guards that had escorted them from the courtroom. "Good, you're still here," the leader told them. "We're to escort you and the defendant back to the courtroom."

Regal Love blinked and looked between them. "So soon?"

"The jury's made their decision, so yes."

"Is that ... a good thing?" Wisteria asked with trepidation.

"I ... I don't know," was Regal Love's only reply.

Before they knew it, the defense was back in their familiar seats in the courtroom. On one side of them was the prosecution (with Scout looking worried and Tequila Mockingbird looking impassive) and on the other side was the jury filing back into their box. Once everypony was seated, the ancient Judge Snow Day settled herself, and looked down at them from her perch. "Well, jury. Have you reached a verdict?"

One stallion rose to act as spokespony. "We have, your honor. After much discussion and examination of the evidence, we hereby find the defendant Discord..."

He paused briefly as his eyes flicked toward the defense. His next words were not shouted, yet they still seemed to ring through the room just as powerfully as any of the bailiff's bellows.

"Guilty. On all charges."

Author's Note

Man, this chapter was rough. Probably the hardest one to write so far, and really drove it home to me that I’m engineer not a lawyer. (As misleading as my name might be.)

Fun Fact/Confession: One of the reasons Chapter 11 took so long to write is because I had originally planned to include the trial in it. But the chapter was just getting so stinking long and unwieldy I finally just went: “You know, this trial needs a chapter all to itself.” So I split Chapter 11 into two chapters; itself and this one. Meaning this story is going to be 19 chapters long as opposed to my originally planned 18.

And of course a HUGE thank you to my editor Nightwalker on this one. Especially for his idea of tech-pony Total Recall, and for his suggestion of Mike the Security Guard’s reappearance. Please give the man a round of applause. He went so far above and beyond his usual editing, he was practically my co-author for this chapter.

Anyway, brace yourselves, folks, because things are going to get a little crazy in the next chapter. How will they get crazy? Let’s just say that one of those ponies who played with fire is going to give a repeat performance.

Chapter 13. James 4:3

Chapter 13
"When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."—James 4:3

At the verdict, Tequila closed her eyes, lowered her head, and expelled a long breath. Scout let out a whoop, raised his boss's hoof and gleefully smacked it with his free one. Tequila looked up to give him a weary smile.

While this was going on, the judge just sat on her perch, looking rather stunned at the verdict herself. But she quickly recovered and went back into professional mode. "Defendant Discord, having been found guilty of the act of murder, I sentence you to be executed for the deaths of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash in exactly thirty days from now." She brought down her gavel with a decisive bang.

"No!" The word sprang from Wisteria's lips and she clapped her hooves over them as the eyes of Tequila, Scout, the judge, and several jury members all turned toward her. Had she just blown her disguise? Had—?

"Are you out of your heads?!" Discord roared at the judge and jury. "Didn't you hear those witnesses admit to framing me?! Did you even watch those memories?!"

The jury's spokespony flinched at this but remained standing. "We saw three clearly terrified ponies being coerced into saying anything they thought you wanted to hear."

"And the changeling queen's confession?"

"Could easily have been faked by you since we never actually saw her."

Discord snorted in disgust. "Charming as it is to be viewed as having that much foresight, it pains me to admit you're giving me far too much credit."

"Enough!" roared the bailiff. "Guards, escort the defendant back to his cell!"

Discord braced his hands against the table, digging his claws into its surface, and looking ready to protest, when Regal Love leaned across Wisteria toward him.

"Go quietly with them, Discord," she whispered. "We'll join you soon."

"Do what she says." Wisteria added also in a whisper as he looked down at them. He barely had time to nod in acknowledgment before the guards were there, restraining him as they unfastened his chains from the table and chair.

Thirty days. Thirty. Days. The words played over and over again in Wisteria's mind as she and Regal Love hurried back to their room. She tried to focus on something more productive, on some sort of strategy, but all her brain seemed able to lock on was the fact that those thirty days might be all the time Discord had left to live. The judge had sounded so confident when declaring that death sentence that Wisteria had little doubt they'd discovered a way to successfully kill the draconequus.

"Seconds." Spike's soft whisper startled her out of these thoughts as she and Regal Love entered their room. "Falcon's here too."

"Regal and Wasp." Wisteria replied automatically, and Spike squirmed out from under the bed where he'd been hiding.

"What happened?" he asked, glancing between the two mares. "High got a lot of writing scribbled all over his stomach at one point, but he didn't let me read any of it."

Highflyer must have been in an especially sour mood, considering he hadn't bothered to emerge from his own hiding place.

Regal Love bowed her head wearily, prompting Wisteria to place a hoof on her friend's wither and murmur, "I'll explain." Considering how exhausted the trial had left Wisteria herself when she was mostly just an observer, she could only imagine how much it had taken out of Regal Love. The unicorn gave her a small grateful smile before moving to lie down on the bed. Shucking off her saddlebag and removing the familiar paper from it, Wisteria checked that the ponies at the TreeHAB were listening before she began explaining to both them and Spike what had happened during the trial.

She tried to keep the tears out of her voice, and succeeded at first. But as she got closer and closer to the final verdict, the tears began to break through until she finally choked out, "The judge said he's going to be executed in thirty days."

"It's not over just yet, darling," said Regal Love, crawling across the bed to put her head close to Wisteria's. "I-I'm sure we could appeal." However, there was no disguising the doubt in both her expression and voice.

"But what good would that do?" Wisteria whimpered, unable to keep the despair out of her own voice. "Discord's own memories were probably our strongest argument in his favor, and Tequila managed to use even those against him! Meanwhile the changelings can just keep spewing out lie after lie without ever getting caught—"

"That's It!" The two mares and the dragon all looked up to see Highflyer shoot out from under the bed, hook his front hooves around one of its posts, and whip his small body around to land in a crouch on the floor between Spike and Wisteria. "That's it." the wrestler seethed. "That's. Absolutely. It!"

"High—" The name froze on Wisteria's tongue as he aimed his glare at her, his sky-blue eyes glacial against the drab camouflage of his mask.

"You promised me you wouldn't let Ray's killers get away, Shy!" His voice was low but fierce. "You promised that!"

The accusation stung on far more levels than the wrestler likely realized because it forcefully reminded her of the promise she had whispered to an unconscious Discord at the hospital. They're not taking you, Discord. I swear, they're not taking you this time. Yet in thirty days they would take him away both from her and from life. And she was powerless to stop it! "I did what I could, High!" she sobbed, trying to convince herself as much as him. "We all did! We tried—"

"Fine!" Highflyer spat contemptuously. "If you're not going to do anything to take down Ray's killers, I will!"

He whirled away from her and bunched his small body up in a crouch. Then he was flying through the air, his front hooves reaching toward the ceiling vent...

Only for Regal Love's magic to surround him and yank him down to the floor.

"Get off!" he snarled, thrashing about, but she kept him anchored in place.

"Highflyer, wait just a—" she started to say as she pushed herself into a standing position on the bed. But at that moment the tiny stallion seized the nearby desk chair and hurled it at her. Eyes widening, she dodged away from the chair with a startled yelp, tumbling backward off the bed in the process, her movements sending Highflyer whirling up into the air. The chair smashed against the wall with enough force to shatter into pieces. The magic around Highflyer vanished, but he continued on his current trajectory, slamming into the upper section of a wall. However, he had maneuvered his body so that he struck that wall hooves first. Launching himself off it, he caught the edge of the ceiling vent, yanked it open and flipped himself up inside it.

Spike ran around the bed to check on Regal Love, and Wisteria was about to join them when fresh writing appeared on her paper.

Screwjob: "High, what are you doing?"

Highflyer: "Shove it, Jobber!"

Screwjob: "Then tell me what you're doing!"

When Highflyer's response appeared, it was so obscene the ink that had formed it promptly scribbled it out.

Screwjob: "Spike! Rarity! Fluttershy! Anypony over there! What's happening?!"

Wisteria snatched up the paper. "Highflyer just disappeared up into the ceiling vent after throwing a chair at Regal Love when she tried to stop him."

Screwjob: "Oh, he did, did he? High! You get your sawed-off tail back in that room this instant!"

Highflyer's response to this order was even more obscene than his last one and was scribbled out just as quickly.

Screwjob: "Twilight, you gotta send me over there."

If Twilight responded to this, the paper didn't record it. But as Wisteria scooped up the paper and hurried around the bed to join her friends, Spike suddenly turned away with a claw clamped over his mouth. Only when he was sure he wouldn't hit either of the mares did he let out a burst of green flames. A familiar paper blanket-wrapped bundle dropped out of it, landing with an uncharacteristic clatter. An instant later Screwjob rolled free of it. He hadn't bothered to change out of the camo top and pantaloons he had taken to wearing over his sleeveless black shirt and wrestling tights, but he had put Skywishes's commandeered armor on over them, which explained the clattering.

"No time to chat," he said, rolling to his hooves. "Just point me to wherever those three phony eye-witnesses are staying." Seeing the nonplussed expressions on Spike, Regal Love, and Wisteria's faces, he raised one front hoof and flapped it in a come-here gesture. "C'mon, c'mon, where are they staying?"

"Why do you—?" Regal Love started to ask.

"Because that's where High is headed, and I have to get to him before he does something he'll regret. So where are they staying?"

"We don't know," Regal Love admitted. "We only met them in designated interview rooms." She turned to the dragon. "What about you, Spike? You and Highflyer have been wandering around in the vents."

Spike looked uncomfortable. "We didn't stay together all the time. Sometimes we split up for a short while to check different vents. If High found out where they were staying, he never mentioned it. But then he hasn't said much of anything since we got here." he added under his breath.

Screwjob's eyes narrowed. "Hmm. So none of us know what room he's headed—Yipe!"

The unplanned Yipe! was the result of an off-white blur first colliding with his tail at hock-level, then shooting between both his back and front legs, accidentally or intentionally dragging his long black tail with it. The blur zipped out from under his chest, and shot straight toward Wisteria who flung her front hooves up reflexively.

"Max!" she gasped as the ragged, stained, but nonetheless energetic paper wings wrapped around her hooves.

"He must have hitched a ride when Twilight sent me." Screwjob muttered, shaking out his disturbed tail.

On a sudden hunch based off previous experiences, Wisteria gave Mache Max a quick nuzzle before drawing him back to get a clear look at him. "Max, could you track that moth tattoo in Highflyer's chest?"

The parrot paused in his soft nibbling of her hooves to look up, let out a thoughtful "Haaaaa," then bobbed both heads wildly up and down.

"Good, because we need you to guide us to Highflyer without getting caught. Can you do that, please?"

Mache Max let out an enthusiastic "Ah!" He seized Wisteria's suit sleeve in both beaks and began tugging wildly.

"'We'?" Screwjob cocked a thick eyebrow at her from under the commandeered helmet.

"We're going with you," said Wisteria, then turned to the other two. "I mean, I think we should, since Spike's the only one who can send anypony back to the TreeHAB, and Regal Love and I could provide a distraction or excuse if we get spotted. Though ... Spike, you'd better try to stay out of sight."

"Naturally," said the dragon, moving so that he was now effectively hidden behind Regal Love. The implication was clear: If he could hide behind her, the smallest of the current three ponies, he could hide behind any of them.

"I'm convinced," said Screwjob, rolling up the paper blanket, and slinging it over his back. "Let's go."

"Wait," said Regal Love. "One of us should go to Discord. So he can know what's going on."

Wisteria turned to her, feeling suddenly torn. Of course she wanted to go to Discord, but Mache Max never listened to any of the other ponies as well as he did to her. However, before she could give these two choices much consideration, Regal Love added, "I'll go. It won't look suspicious if just his lawyer goes to talk with him, but it will be if just her assistant does."

Due to his being hobbled, and the guards keeping the chains attached to his collar pulled tight every step of the way, Discord's journey back to his cell was taking much longer than Regal Love and Wisteria's trip to their room, and it gave him plenty of time to think back on the trial.

Deep down he'd known the guilty conviction was always a possibility given how many of the ponies in that courtroom might have secretly been changelings. But the speed with which that "possibility" had been declared "fact" had been so swift it left him feeling rather whiplashed.

Much to his own surprise though, he felt no anger toward his lawyer for failing to acquit him. Rather he felt that he had failed her.

His outburst in the courtroom had been more to draw attention away from Wisteria's slip-up than anything else. But now he found himself thinking on the spokespony's answers to his questions.

Why hadn't he made sure those changelings had completely dropped their pony disguises when he interrogated them? Why hadn't it occurred to him to light that cave up like a stage when tricking Chrysalis into a confession?

And why, oh, why had he ejected Total Recall so forcefully from his memory?!

You know why. You didn't want Fluttershy to learn in that setting why you left her. Didn't want to disappoint her with how quickly and easily you threw her friendship away.

And in doing so had provided Tequila Mockingbird with the perfect opportunity to plant doubts about his character, which of course the lawyer, or the changeling posing as her, had promptly pounced on—

"Officers!" His ears came up and he turned his head enough to see Regal Love galloping toward him and his group of guards. "Officers, I really must speak to my client!"

"Stay back, Ms. Love!" a guard ordered as she neared them.

"But I must speak with him!" Regal Love insisted, sounding notably agitated.

"I said stay back!"

"Oh, very well, very well." She closed her eyes and made a visible effort to compose herself. Opening her eyes, she faced the guards once again, this time taking care to act more dignified. "But it is urgent that I speak with my client. I insist upon accompanying you to his cell, and being allowed to converse with him privately once there." Then as a form of concession, she reminded them, "Once he's in his cell, the alarm will go off if either of us so much as brushes up against the cell walls."

This seemed to mollify the guards and they permitted her to accompany them albeit at a safe distance.

Before Regal Love had split off from the rest of the group, they had briefly debated who should have possession of their communication letter before deciding on Spike. Their reasoning had been that once Regal Love reached Discord, she would be able to communicate with them and the TreeHAB via the rest of Discord's tattoos; whereas based on his recent behavior, Highflyer would likely be much less cooperative. Plus, with Spike carrying the letter, it would be much easier for him to alert Twilight if he had to send something or somepony through to her, so she wouldn't be examining Derpy or in some similar awkward position when the delivery appeared in front of her.

With Screwjob toting the rolled-up blanket, this left Wisteria leading the way just behind Mache Max.

This was a mistake! Wisteria mentally fretted as her small group ducked behind a column, narrowly avoiding a set of patrolling guards. We should have tried to follow Highflyer through the vent systems!

But even as one part of her brain argued in favor of this, the other supplied a counter argument. Highflyer might have been small enough to maneuver through the vents with relative ease, but if they had tried to follow his route, they might run into an area where Screwjob would get stuck, forcing the group to backtrack and lose valuable time. As stallions went, Screwjob might not have a particularly bulky build, but he was still much taller than she was, and far bigger in the shoulders even without the added armor. If navigating through the ceiling had been a tight squeeze for her, it would be even worse for him. Of course, just sending him back to the TreeHAB was out of the question, given how adamant he had been about being the one who needed to reach Highflyer.

Peeking around the column, she first looked up to see Mache Max perched upside down on the ceiling further down the hallway, bobbing both heads about as he waited for them to join him. Then she looked back down to where the guards were marching by, and silently tried to will them into moving just a little quicker.

Just as the guards moved out of her line of sight, she felt a jolt of fear as something pressed against her haunches. Biting back a scream, she whipped her head around to see—

"They gone?" Screwjob whispered, leaning to the side as he tried to peer around her, and causing one of his big shoulders to inadvertently press even further into her hindquarters. Wisteria couldn't decide if she felt more annoyed at his frightening her, or relieved that it hadn't been an enemy. But then it dawned on her that he didn't even seem to have noticed he'd scared her. He was completely focused on their surroundings, and she could almost smell the tension radiating off him like never before. He didn't even seem this worried when we left my cottage to collect my friends—

"Guys," Spike whispered, catching both ponies' attention as he held up the letter to reveal fresh writing that had just appeared on it.

Highflyer: "Open up!"

The rest of the words appeared as a series of nonsensical symbols, apparently too off-color to be transcribed.

Screwjob sighed. "We gotta hurry before he gets himself killed. Or worse."

"Worse?" Wisteria repeated, but Screwjob's response as he looked past her again was equally cryptic.

"I might be a heel, but I have nothing on Highflyer when it comes to inflicting pain."

"Open! Up!" Highflyer shouted, not caring what attention he might attract in the process. As soon as he'd made sure the coast was clear, he'd dropped down from the ceiling to land right in front of the room he knew was housing the three witnesses. Now he beat both front hooves against the door, bellowing at the occupants inside. "You wanted me! Come out and get me!"

He heard the faint rustle of movement from inside the room, and dropped low to the floor. Sidestepping away from the door, he pressed himself against the adjacent wall as bolts of magic shot through the door. But as soon as those bolts of magic stopped, he reached through one of the holes they'd left in the door, and tripped the lock. Knowing he probably had only seconds before the changelings recharged their magic, he simultaneously shoved the door open and swung into the room.

Slamming right into Mr. Cake in the process.

Wrapping his back legs around the bigger stallion's neck, he released the door and brought his small body forward as if performing a sit-up. Mr. Cake's head snapped back as Highflyer struck him with an uppercut to the jaw. However, before the wrestler could follow it up with a blow to the now-exposed throat, he felt a sharp tug on the back of his bulky vest. Releasing his back legs from around Mr. Cake's neck, he managed to deliver a sweeping kick that glanced off said neck as he was jerked away.

A pair of blue forelegs wrapped around him from behind, clearly intending to pin his own forelegs to his sides. However, unbeknownst to his attacker, this brought his hooves down near the belt under his vest. The belt where he'd stashed the butterfly knives he'd borrowed from Skywishes and had yet to return. Grabbing one of the knives, he flipped it open in a blur of motion and thrust the blade behind him. He felt it strike flesh and twisted it viciously. He heard a female shriek of pain and the forelimbs pinning him loosened enough for him to twist free, yanking the knife out with him.

The next moment he was seized by the wings and hoisted by them up into the air. Clamping the butterfly knife in his teeth to free up his front hooves, he rolled one wing around in its socket, forcing the wing itself to rotate until it twisted out of its captor's grip. Swinging around, he brought his front hooves up to grasp the one still holding his remaining wing, and repeated the same painful rotation until that wing came free as well. Above him, Haystings tried to throw him against the wall, but the wrestler used the momentum to swing himself up and around to land on the bigger stallion's back. He spat the knife back into one hoof and brought it around next to Haystings's throat.

Haystings's exclamation as the tip of the knife poked into a fold of soft flesh under his jaw brought Mr. Cake up short and the fight to a sudden halt. All were panting from the brief but intense fight, though Mrs. Cake's were tinged with sobs as she pressed her hooves over the bloody wound on her side. Highflyer's panting was through gritted teeth as he surveyed his opponents. Taking the lull in combat for what it was, he leaned his head down to Haystings's ear while keeping his eyes on Mr. Cake.

"I'm gonna make this real simple." he rasped. "Start spilling the truth about whoever else around here is a changeling, and maybe I won't send you fakers to join the three ponies you're posing as."

"They're not dead!"

This startled Highflyer, and Haystings used it to strike the knife away. He almost succeeded in knocking it out of Highflyer's grip, but the masked stallion swiftly recovered, managing to hold on to both the knife and his opponent, and poking his neck again in the process. "Nice try."

By the time they reached his cell, Discord was practically dancing with impatience. Despite being hobbled, he almost leaped into his cell the instant the chains on his collar were unfastened, not even giving the guards a chance to uncuff him. Then there was the added aggravation of having to wait while his lawyer shooed the guards from the room and cast the familiar spell to keep them from being overheard.

"Where's Wisteria?" he demanded the instant they were alone.

"One minute. I need to contact the others through your tattoos."

Since his hands were still cuffed behind him, he quickly turned around with a frustrated growl and brought his forearms close to the bars.

"I'm with Discord, now," Regal Love said to his forearms and he felt the barbed tattoo there twist itself into the words. The next moment he felt his dragon tattoo slithering about on his upper back before wildly tracing its claws over the lower back. While he couldn't currently stretch, contract, or detach parts of his anatomy, his long serpentine neck and body still allowed him to contort himself in ways ponies could not. Now he bent his long neck back until he was looking at the arms cuffed behind him from an upside down position.

Regal Love raised an eyebrow at this. "Can you read upside down?"

"Upside down, downside up, forward, backward, up-and-down, left-to-right, right-to-left, and diagonally. I can even start in the middle—" his eyes closed on the last word, "—and blast both ways." His eyes popped open and his pupils snapped away from each other like opposing magnets before directing themselves once again toward his upside-down eyebrows. Then he used his cuffed hands to hike his rivet-covered jacket up as high as it would go so they could both see what the dragon tattoo had drawn on his back. It appeared to be a rather detailed map of Canterlot. While they watched, two moth tattoos swooped in and began moving over the map. The design on the wings of one moth morphed into the images of butterflies while the design on the other turned into falcons. The falcon-patterned moth fluttered in place over one room, while the butterfly-patterned one began making its way slowly but steadily over the map toward its partner.

Wisteria, Spike, and Screwjob hurried through the empty hall to join Mache Max in front of a door with several holes blown in it. Peeking cautiously through one of the holes, Wisteria's eyes widened in shock.

It seemed that any object in the room that could have been smashed had been, and most of the wreckage was blood-smeared. She spotted the Cakes lying battered and bruised amidst the wreckage, apparently unconscious, while Highflyer held Haystings down a short distance away.

"You got one more chance, punk." the masked wrestler snarled. "What's it gonna be?"

Suddenly blue-green flames surrounded the downed pegasus and when they cleared, a battered bloodied Rainbow Dash lay in his place.

"You never change, do you, High?!" the changeling spat in Rainbow Dash's voice. "You might act like you're some kind of hero in the ring, but under that mask you're just the same spiteful, vindictive little bully you've always been!"

"All right! That's enough!" Tossing the paper blanket on the floor, Screwjob flung the door open. Striding forward, he reared back on his hind legs, yanked off his helmet and slammed his forehead down into the Rainbow Dash-changeling's face. As the disguised changeling's eyes rolled back and it collapsed, Screwjob spun around and slammed one back hoof into Highflyer's chest, knocking him to the floor. Turning the spin into a full circle and staying up on his hind legs, Screwjob came around and brought his head down a second time to grab the top of Highflyer's mask in his teeth.

"Hey!" Highflyer protested as Screwjob's front hooves came forward to fumble at the mask's straps. He raised his own hooves to knock the bigger ones away, but Screwjob had already managed to loosen the straps and jerked the mask forward with a snap of his head. Highflyer's ears briefly disappeared inside the mask's earholes before springing back up as the bottom edge of the mask cleared them.

"High. Senburg." Screwjob gritted through his teeth before releasing his grip on the mask, and shoving the smaller wrestler down onto his back once again.

"Jobs?" said Highflyer, maneuvering his mask back into position and straightening the eyeholes to focus on the stallion before him.

"Correct-o." The tall wrestler settled the helmet back on his head and cut his eyes around the room. "That your blood, theirs, or both?"

"Theirs." said Highflyer, sounding rather dazed as he recinched his mask's straps. "Turns out changelings bleed red. Who knew."

Screwjob humphed softly before looking around until his eyes landed on the small dragon who, along with Wisteria, had come up next to him. "Spike, I think we're going to have to take these three—" He waved a hoof toward the downed and bloodied Cakes and Rainbow Dash. "—back with us. We can't leave them here to possibly blab about seeing High, or maybe spin up some sort of lie to make Discord look even worse than he already does." He looked back down at Highflyer. "Munchkin, you're lucky nopony apart from us showed up to—"

He was interrupted by a sharp gasp from Wisteria, and whirled around to see what she was looking at.

Peering in at them through the half-opened door was a brown-and-white face, with its oddly predatory yellow eyes almost bugging out of its head.

"Scout..." Wisteria breathed and the face promptly ducked out of sight.

"Wait, Scout!" Wisteria shouted, sprinting toward the door. "I can explain—!" Admittedly she had absolutely no idea exactly how she would explain, but she had to stop him before he—

"BOSS!" If she hadn't just heard it, Wisteria would not have guessed that gruff voice could hit such carrying decibels. But while her brain and ears were still adjusting to this information, she was suddenly knocked aside as Screwjob barreled past her and slammed into the broken door, smashing a large chunk out of it in the process. Wisteria stumbled, steadied, and raced out after him. Ahead of her, she saw Scout tearing down the hall, shouting all the time for his boss. But Screwjob was right behind him, and thanks to the taller stallion's longer legs he was rapidly closing the distance.

"Boss! Boss! Oof!"

Screwjob had just lunged forward and taken Scout down in a flying tackle. He rolled the smaller stallion up in a submission hold, with one hoof clamped over the pinto's mouth.

But it was already too late.

With Scout silenced, Wisteria now heard shouts and the pounding of hooves heading their way.

Spike was just retrieving the paper blanket from the hallway when Wisteria came galloping up and skidded to a stop in front of him.

"Wasp." she puffed to confirm her identity before plunging on. "Spike, we need you to send us all back to the TreeHAB, then find a place to hide. Twilight can send us back later, and we can figure out what to do with those changelings then too."

They retreated into the wrecked room and looked about for a possible hiding place. There didn't seem to be any ceiling vents into the room, which was probably why Highflyer had dropped down outside of it rather than inside.

"How about there?" Spike ran to a vent down near the floor, and loosened its grate with his claws. It would be a scramble to get in there and get the grate back in position before the group headed their way arrived to examine the room, but it was the only option they currently had.

"Highsenburg! Room for one more!" Screwjob announced as he reappeared in the doorway, hauling a struggling Scout with him.

As they watched the tattoos move about on his back map, Regal Love quickly filled Discord in on what had happened. Just as the butterfly-patterned moth reached the falcon-patterned one, another moth tattoo zipped in above the map and morphed into the words: Highflyer: "You got one more chance, punk. What's it gonna be?"

This was followed soon after by "Hey!", "Jobs?", and "Theirs. Turns out changelings bleed red. Who knew." all spoken by Highflyer. However, the lack of anyone else's dialogue made it difficult to guess what had prompted these quotes.

Then the words were suddenly replaced with fresh ones.

Spike: "Twilight, I'm sending you three ponies and four hostages."

Twilight: "Hostages?"

Spike: "No time to explain now. Just be ready for them, because here they come."

Suddenly both the falcon-patterned and butterfly-patterned moths disappeared from the map in a burst of inky flames.

"Spike must have sent them back to the TreeHAB—" Regal Love started to say, when fresh words suddenly appeared."

Twilight: "Spike?! What are you doing here?!"

"Twilight?" Regal Love asked. "What's going on?"

No reply.

"Twilight, what's happening?" she repeated, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

For several agonizingly long seconds there was silence. Then a response.

Twilight: "Uh, Rarity, Spike sent Fluttershy, Highflyer, Screwjob, Mache Max, and four ... hostages here to the TreeHAB. ... But he came through too. He's right here beside me in the TreeHAB now!"

"What?! How?!"

Spike: "I didn't have much room to stand back when I flamed onto that blanket and fire splashed back over me. I knew it'd likely ruin my camo, but I thought I could risk it since I'm fireproof. I didn't realize it would actually send me to Twilight along with everypony else!"

Regal Love raised her eyes to meet Discord's. He had been given thirty days to live, and with Spike now stuck at the TreeHAB, the group there would be unable to send any form of help.

Then just as she was thinking it couldn't get any worse, it did.

"Darling," she murmured faintly toward Discord's forearm. "I only have two weeks-worth of disguise potion here."

Two weeks?! Wisteria felt as if she were strangling. Just moments ago, thirty days had seemed like such a short time and now they didn't even have half that! How could Twilight possibly concoct a successful potion in that time? And what good would it even do if they were all snowed in here at the TreeHAB with their only mode of transportation gone?

In a despairing haze, her eyes roamed around the TreeHAB, taking in Spike and Twilight huddled together over the communication letter; Amethyst and Dinky near their mother's bed; Bonfire on the outskirts of everything, observing all from her bubble; Skywishes automatically batting Mache Max away from her mane with a wing, as—armed with a hammer—she stood guard over the unconscious disguised changelings; and Scout writhing a short distance from them, having been gagged and blindfolded with his own power tie courtesy of Screwjob, and hogtied courtesy of Applejack. Finally her gaze settled on Highflyer, who had been strangely out of it ever since they had tracked him down at that trashed room.

None of this would have happened if he hadn't gone tearing off like that!

Before she even realized what she was doing, Wisteria drew back one forehoof and struck Highflyer right across his masked face. Whether the blow left any visible imprint behind was impossible to tell through the mask, but Wisteria didn't care. She was about to follow it up with another blow, only to find her hoof halted. She whipped her head around to see Screwjob with her hoof trapped in his own, his expression clearly saying: Don't try it. She tried to jerk free, only for him to give her hoof a short but sharp twist that made her wince.

"Well, High?" he asked, his voice mocking as his eyes darted between her and his fellow wrestler. "You gonna let me get away with that? Protecting you from somepony you could easily toss around like a ragdoll!"

With a surprisingly deep growl for such a small pony, Highflyer shot toward Screwjob, who promptly slung Wisteria away from them.

"Ladies, stay back! I got this!" he shouted as Highflyer collided with him. He swung the smaller stallion around, maneuvering the both of them away from the rest of the group, and the two wrestlers began grappling with a ferocity Wisteria had never seen before. Screwjob had tossed the armor's helmet aside shortly after they had emerged from under the blanket, but still had on the rest of the commandeered armor. Though whether that would prove a help or hindrance in the current situation Wisteria couldn't be sure. Still it was probably wise to heed his words.

"Well, this certainly complicates things." Skywishes said resignedly. She gave the unconscious disguised changelings a cautious prod with her hammer. "I suppose we'll have to patch these three up and give them the Bonfire treatment." She raised her head toward where Bonfire watched them from within her bubble. "At least until we can figure out what else to do with them."

That was how the group had ended up tending to their new set of captives. First they moved the unconscious Cakes, the unconscious Rainbow Dash, and the very-conscious-but-gagged-bound-and-blindfolded Scout to a more secluded area of the TreeHAB in hopes it would delay the captives from identifying their new location.

Twilight secured Scout in a bubble but didn't remove any of his additional bonds. While Scout had not used any magic nor given any other indicator that he might be a changeling, there was something suspiciously convenient about him showing up when he did back at Canterlot, and the group couldn't shake the idea that he might currently be playing the role of a fellow pony in hopes of tricking them into releasing him. Amethyst kept an eye on him—Dinky having opted to go prepare supper—while Spike and Twilight stood guard as the remaining three mares bandaged the injured changelings' wounds.

Applejack and Wisteria tended to the Cakes; while Skywishes looked after Rainbow Dash since the idea of patching up one who looked so much like their deceased friend but was far from it proved too painful for Applejack and Wisteria.

As Wisteria put pressure on one of Mrs. Cake's cuts, her thoughts went to the masked wrestler who had inflicted them. He had been so devastated back at the gym when he had ended up bruising Scootaloo's ribs ... but now in short succession, he had thrown a chair at Regal Love hard enough for it to shatter into pieces, cursed out his best friend, and recklessly gone after three changelings. It also hadn't escaped her notice that he seemed to have known precisely where to beat, cut, and bite the three changelings so that the injuries would be painful but not necessarily lethal. It disturbed her to think how he might have learned that. Just as it had when he had given Dinky those knife-handling pointers with the air of an experienced veteran—

"Don't rinse those rags out just yet." said Twilight, just as Wisteria moved some bloodied rags to do so. "I might be able to use the blood on them."

As the group gave her questioning looks, she continued, "A year ago when I was first trying to make a potion to see through changeling disguises, I found a unique forensic spell used on blood samples that separates magical contaminants and allows the caster to identify the original, underlying DNA. It's a much more complex spell then normal DNA identification spells, so the constabulary rarely have need for it, but it's something I always felt could be useful in identifying changelings." She gestured toward the three unconscious captives. "If we ran the usual DNA tests on these three right now, I'm certain it would identify them as the Cakes and Rainbow Dash. That's also why my changeling reveal spells have been fizzling. The changelings' innate shapeshifting magic obscures their true nature more heavily than I've been able to account for. Now that we have these three, I can run the extraction spell properly, prove what they are, and I think I can use what the spell would consider 'contaminant' to fix my original reveal spell to where it can see changelings for what they really are."

Applejack stared at her incredulously. "You've had a way to identify changelings all this time?!" she whisper-shouted. "Why didn't you say anything?!"

Wisteria was privately thinking the same thing.

"I never had any viable changelings that I could run the experiments on," said Twilight. "Also, the spell takes about an hour or two to work and you need a good bit of blood for it." She lifted one of the bloodied rags with her magic. "Something like this. Just pricking somepony to get a drop or two wouldn't be enough."

Skywishes flicked a speculative glance toward the still-unconscious captives then toward the squirming Scout. "I suppose hacking away at random ponies to collect enough of their blood to examine would be more risk than reward for everypony involved," she observed dryly.

Twilight nodded. "Since the changeling corpses I examined before were both burnt to a crisp and not in disguise, there was nothing for the spell to work with. But now..." She looked toward the bloody rags again. "Now it looks like we might have some unexpected resources we didn't before." She looked up to meet Wisteria's eyes. "Ones that might give me a better chance of finding our missing ingredient."

Wisteria was terrified to hope. Even if Twilight did find the ingredient, there was still the problem of them being stuck at the TreeHAB.

Break it into workable chunks. she could almost hear Skywishes advising in her head. Give Twilight a chance to come up with a successful potion. Then figure out a way to leave the TreeHAB.

She forced herself to nod and give her friend an encouraging smile. "You're right, Twilight. Of course you should—"

She was suddenly distracted by a groan nearby and a series of clicks further away. The groan came from the Mrs. Cake-changeling, who was stirring; while the clicking had come from Bonfire. The little mystery creature had limped her bubble over to the one that now encased Scout, and seemed to be examining it as best she could, letting out more of those clicks Wisteria had come to think of as her inquisitive signal.

It was a sound the ponies at the TreeHAB had gotten used to hearing on-and-off and generally only prompted them to look around to see what had captured Bonfire's attention.

But that was not the reaction it drew from the Mrs. Cake-changeling. Her head suddenly snapped up at the sound, her expression shocked. Then as her eyes landed on the source of the clicking, her expression promptly twisted into revulsion. "You?!"

Bonfire flinched at the sharp accusatory tone. Spinning around in its direction, she hissed and spat a burst of flames from her mouth. But the next moment light flashed from the Mrs. Cake-changeling's forehead. It surrounded Bonfire inside her imprisoning bubble, and swung her up into the air only to slam her head savagely against the floor. Bonfire squealed with pain before she was lifted and slammed down headfirst once again. And again. And again.

For a terrible second, Wisteria could only stare in shock. Then she was up and racing toward Bonfire, hoping to somehow cushion the little one from further harm.

Suddenly there was a loud crack! and the light surrounding Bonfire vanished as she fell brokenly to the floor.

Casting a quick glance back at the Mrs. Cake-changeling, Wisteria saw Amethyst standing over the now-again-unconscious captive, with the combat helmet she'd taken to wearing clutched in her front hooves.

"Yeah, hurts, doesn't it?" Amethyst muttered, stepping back and settling the helmet back into place on her head. Twilight quickly conjured magical bonds to bind the three unconscious changelings and encased them in bubbles before any more damage could be done.

Wisteria turned back to Bonfire to see that Skywishes was now there as well. The coral-colored pegasus was using her wings to gently caress the unresponsive little one through the bubble and Wisteria enviously wished for her own wings back so that she might do the same.

"Looks like she's still alive but she's bleeding from the back of her skull." Skywishes reported. "We're going to have to put pressure on that."

"I'll do it." said Wisteria, snatching up some clean folded cloth. Together the two pegasi worked over the small crumpled figure while the rest of the group divided their attention between them and the hostages.

"Seemed like a bit of an overreaction from that changeling." Skywishes commented as they swapped the now-bloody cloth for a fresh one.

"I know." Wisteria mused half to herself. Why'd the changeling do that? She seemed startled by Bonfire, but this... She suppressed a shudder, remembering the sight of Bonfire's head striking the wood. Those blows were intended to kill. But why—?

Suddenly her memory of Bonfire being attacked was replaced with another memory of the little one. Or at least of somepony who looked absolutely identical to her.

"Twilight," she called to the alicorn. "There's something I need to tell you about Bonfire. Something I found out at the tri—"

"Buzz off." Skywishes interrupted, fanning her wings out to shield Bonfire's body as Mache Max swooped in, apparently aiming for it. He whirled away, now emitting a particularly obnoxious buzzing as he came to a stop in front of Wisteria. A roll of paper unfurled from one of his beaks, revealing itself to be the communication letter.

"And something I need to tell Discord, too." Wisteria added softly.

Since Regal Love and Discord had not gotten any comments from the TreeHAB for several minutes except Highflyer's occasional grunts and growls, Discord began the slow process of wriggling more and more of his long body up above his cuffed-together wrists. Once he got his legs and tail above the cuffs, it would allow him to hold his cuffed hands in front of him. While the contorted pose he'd held earlier was not as uncomfortable for him as it would be for the average pony, he'd been getting bored of it and wanted more options.

However that was forgotten the instant he brought his cuffed wrists up in front of him, and fresh words appeared on his forearm.

Fluttershy: "Discord? Rarity? You both there?"

"We are indeed." he confirmed. "What's happening?"

Fluttershy: "Well, first, Rarity, Skywishes said to let us know the minute you're with Discord and the minute you have to leave him so we know if it's safe to message the two of you. Also she said to see if you can take the disguise potion only when you have to meet with other ponies, so you can possibly stretch it out past the usual two weeks."

"Understood, darling. But was that all?"

Fluttershy: "No, I also need to talk with Discord about seeing Bonfire in his memory."

Discord blinked. "Seeing who in where now?"

Fluttershy proceeded to describe what she'd seen in his memories of Foal Mountain during the trial, how she and Regal Love had both noticed a creature that looked identical to Bonfire suspended in a column of light.

For several long seconds, the draconequus stared at the words. Then he squeezed his eyes tight shut, and Regal Love wondered if he was privately replaying the memory to check it. When his eyes finally opened, he looked flabbergasted.

"How have I managed to miss that all this time?" he murmured as if to himself, then noticed Regal Love studying him. Giving himself a quick little shake, he looked back down at his forearms, his tone suddenly brisk. "Well, dear—if that is indeed Bonfire—I must say, while you certainly made her sound fascinating in your descriptions ... they don't even begin to do her justice.

"Though after giving it a microsecond of consideration, I can now explain how I didn't notice her."

Fluttershy: "You can? How?"

The draconequus smirked. "Just the fact that I was busy worrying about your well-being at the time I was recording the memory." He chuckled lowly. "What can I say? You sort of ... distract me, darling."

Wisteria blushed at his words, glanced away from them toward where Skywishes was still putting pressure on Bonfire's head wound, then back at the words, wondering if her former partner meant them to be joking or sincere.

At that moment she was startled away from these thoughts as Highflyer and Screwjob crashed to the floor just a few yards from the group. Highflyer seemed to be digging his hooves into the bigger wrestler's throat, but Screwjob suddenly brought one of his long hind legs up around and thumped its hoof wildly against Highflyer's foreleg in an unmistakable tap-out signal. Highflyer immediately released Screwjob and backed away as the tall stallion sat up.

"Well," Screwjob panted, fumbling to remove the armor he still wore. "It's been a while since either of us have managed to work up this much of a sweat."

He wasn't kidding. Both wrestlers had foamy lather streaming down their shoulders, and as Screwjob dropped the armor to the side, Wisteria noticed with alarm that the foam plastered to his neck was distinctly pink.

"You're bleeding!"

"Hmm?" Screwjob felt around on his neck and face until he discovered the culprit: a fresh cut hidden by his forelock. "That's not bad." he said dismissively.

Applejack snorted. "Not bad, it's pouring down your neck!"

"Hey, head wounds bleed a lot. And in my case, it's just one side effect of having an incredibly thick skull."

Applejack's expression looked resigned. "Should I ask?"

"Honey, my head wounds never merely bleed. They gush. Just ask High. He's seen them up close enough times to—"

At that moment there was a loud rip of Velcro separating. The group looked up in time to see Highflyer, back to them, wrench off his mask and fling it across the room.

"High, what are you doing?" Screwjob sounded mildly exasperated, and pointed in the direction of the mask. "Put that back on! You're—"

"I can't wear that mask anymore!" Highflyer snapped, head down and back still turned.

"Oh, fair enough." Screwjob acknowledged, prying his own lather-soaked shirt away from his body. "Considering all the foam we've both worked up, I don't even want to think about what you probably had sloshing around in—"

"I mean I can't wear any of them anymore! Can't keep lying to you. To myself. To everypony!"

"Lying?" Applejack repeated, baffled. "When have you ever told us any lies?"

Highflyer lifted his head, but still kept his face turned firmly away. Wisteria couldn't help noticing his scalp was now covered with a layer of dark stubble, indicating that his sheared-off mane had started growing back in. "It's not what I have told you," he said in a hollow voice. "It's what I haven't."

"And what's that, son?" Screwjob asked with a hint of challenge. "That you used a fake ID to get those sleeves you love showing off? That you know how to gut a griffon with its own claws?"

Skywishes suddenly looked interested. "Has he done that?"

"Yeah," Screwjob said offhoofedly before plunging right on. "Or that you nearly put my poor aunt—light of my life, the woman who raised me—in hot water by tricking her into hiring you as a bouncer at the Water Hole when you were still too young to even legally be allowed in there?"

"Well, they sure know all that now, thanks to you flapping your big mouth." Highflyer snapped.

"So what?" Screwjob shot back. "What? You're worried that they'll think less of you now that they know all that?" Screwjob snorted derisively. "The only reason I was even able to blab about it is because I already knew all those facts. I've known about them for years! You've known that I've known about them for years! And knowing them certainly didn't stop me from tearing off after your sawed-off tail, did it?" Stepping around to face Highflyer, he dipped his head down to put it more on level with that of the smaller stallion. "So what's really bothering you, son?"

Highflyer sighed. "Hearing Ray call me a spiteful vindictive bully."

Wisteria frowned. "Highflyer, that was a changeling, not—"

"I know it wasn't really her, but still ... hearing those words come out of her mouth..."

"But you know they're not true. We all know you were the one who got picked on as a colt; you weren't a bully."

Highflyer's head sank again. "Yes, I was. What do you think I was doing when I dropped out of Flight Camp? I learned how to fight, and I practiced and practiced and practiced with one goal in mind: Never to let anypony ever push me around again. So I went back and beat up each and everypony that ever bullied me. Beat them bloody and sent them away limping. And you know what the craziest part of it is?" He sounded bitter. "I got away with it. None of them wanted to admit that they'd gotten beaten by a flightless pegasus only a fraction of their size.

"Ray mentioned that Derpy admired me and wanted to meet me because I found a way to use my size and flightlessness to my advantage." He snorted. "She didn't know the half of it. I loved the power that came with the fact that I'd both beaten up all those bullies and gotten away with it. I started tracking down other bigger ponies. Provoking them into taking a swipe at me, and then whipping them mercilessly. Being able to exert that kind of power over them ... I loved it. I just couldn't get enough of it.

"Shy, I told you that for a long time no wrestling company would hire me. Well, they weren't just turning me away because of my size, or because I didn't have any formal training. It was also because I had a reputation for picking fights and treating my opponents viciously.

"That changeling was dead right about me. When push comes to shove, that whole hero image I've built up in the ring is as fake as Screwjob's self-centeredness."

"Hey! There's nothing fake about that!" Screwjob shot back, but it sounded almost programmed.

"Oh, can it, Jobs! Your heel routine isn't fooling anyone and you know it!"

Screwjob opened his mouth to retort, but hesitated when he noticed the other ponies watching them.

Highflyer seemed to deflate again. "Jobs, I've really botched this whole situation and I can't even claim I had some noble selfless reason for attacking those changelings. I just wanted a target that I could make feel the sort of pain I was feeling, and I didn't care if I jeopardized all of you in the process. I did it for me."

Discord looked down at Highflyer's words scrawled on his body.

I did it for me.

The words felt like a combination confession and accusation. They made him think back on how he had told himself he was thinking of Fluttershy's well-being when he went after the changelings ... but in reality, he had been thinking only about how he could sweep his leaving her under the rug. Then Derpy's words came back to him again: Do I do this to be loved, or in order to love?

Oh, you claimed you were doing it for your relationship with Fluttershy, but you never truly thought about her, did you, Discord?! No! All that time—All that time! ... You were thinking of yourself and how you could get what you wanted!

"High..." This time Screwjob's voice was surprisingly gentle. When there was no response, he continued. "Son ... Do you regret what you did tonight? Going after the changelings."

"What do you think? Of course I do! That's the whole reason I took the mask off. I'd just be lying to myself if I kept it on."

"And did you regret it at the time you were clobbering those bullies?"

"Well ... Not at the time ... but I do now!"

"And that's precisely why I went tearing after you, son. Because I knew you'd regret it, and I wanted you to have the chance to make amends." He rested a hoof on Highflyer's tattooed shoulder. "You've got that chance now."

Highflyer's head twitched in the direction of that hoof. "Jobs, I don't deserve the grace you keep giving me."

Screwjob's tone suddenly turned hard. "It's mine to offer, whether you feel like you deserve it or not." He decisively clapped Highflyer's shoulder, producing a wet smack. "Now, considering we're both covered in foam ... Wishie, you got some place we can scrub ourselves off before we catch a chill?"

A short time later, Wisteria was watching over Bonfire. They'd removed the splint from her front leg, (It had indeed healed crooked as Skywishes had suspected, meaning the little one would now have a permanent limp, but everypony had agreed trying to reset the leg might be far more traumatic than it was worth.) patched the wound in the back of her head, and wrapped her in a blanket. Though Bonfire was breathing steadily, she hadn't stirred since that changeling had beaten her into unconsciousness, and this worried Wisteria. But there was nothing she could currently do but watch and pray.

Out of the corner of her eyes she suddenly noticed Dinky carrying a bundle of slate-blue-and-rust-red wrestling clothes, and walking toward the area Skywishes had directed the two wrestlers to go to scrub themselves down. The teenager disappeared out of sight, and a moment later Wisteria heard her voice.

"High?"

"Kid?" Highflyer sounded weary, as if all the confessions earlier had drained him. It was the most he'd spoken in weeks, and considering the moth tattoo in his chest had likely been copying everything...

"I heard what you said earlier." said Dinky. "And I'm not saying what you did back then was right, but ... we need you, High. You gave me all those pointers back at Fluttershy's cottage and I intended to use them, but the fact is I'm not a natural fighter. You are."

Wisteria had to admit Dinky had a point. As reckless as Highflyer's actions had been, there was no denying the fact that he had just managed to take on and incapacitate three changelings all by himself. Wisteria on the other hoof, wasn't sure she could even hold her own against one.

"You might have used your aggression for the wrong reasons with those changelings," Dinky went on. "But you used it for the right reasons when trying to save me, Amethyst, and my mom in Ghastly Gorge. Please don't forget that."

After a moment's silence, there was a gentle raspy chuckle. "You've grown kid, and I don't just mean physically. Though ... it looks like you've gotten taller than me since we got here."

Dinky's soft laugh echoed his, and a moment later Wisteria saw her padding by in the direction of her mother's bed, now minus the wrestling clothes.

"High?" Wisteria heard Screwjob ask after several more minutes.

"Hm?" was Highflyer's answering grunt.

"Uh, I need to know ... does it bother you that I'm pursuing Apps?"

"Why do you ask?"

Wisteria's ears pricked up. Maybe she shouldn't be eavesdropping, but ... well, she was curious.

"Because I know how you felt about Rainbow Dash. And I also know you don't like to advertise when something's bothering you. I know the image we're supposed to present to the world: that I'll gleefully do anything to cut you down to your already miniscule size—"

"Har har."

"—but we both know that's pure gimmick. If my pursing Apps so soon after your losing Ray is genuinely bothering you, just tell me and..." He faltered and when he went on his voice was pained but no less sincere. "And I'll stop."

There was a long pause before Highflyer responded. "You want the truth?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I wanted you to lie. I can lie to myself plenty."

Another long pause. Then: "Sometimes I just want to smack her for how she treats you."

"Now, High," said Screwjob, his tone half-joking. "Don't go hitting on my woman."

This was greeted with a sardonic snort. "Don't worry, Jobs. In spite of how I acted earlier, I'm not that stupid. I know you'd break my back if I ever so much as laid a hoof on her. But at the same time I just don't get what you see in her. She hates you."

"But that's exactly what makes her so perfect. Not to toot my own fiddle—"

"Horn."

"That too. And who am I kidding? I totally am tooting both. I'm not a bad-looking guy, and I got the fanfillies to prove it. But I don't want—No, I can't have just any old fanfilly who will swoon the second I give her the eye. I need a mare who can stand up to me, who will put me in my place, and not let me walk all over her." His voice took on a wistful tone. "Just like Applejack has done ever since I met her."

"I'd say you have a humiliation fetish, but I already know you like losing to me."

"Hey, I make you earn those victories!"

Highflyer chuckled, but it quickly turned to a drawn-out sigh. "I still think you're putting your hopes on a lost cause where she's concerned." Then he laughed ruefully. "But then again, that's what everypony said when you pushed for the company to give me a chance."

"Hey, it's the same thing they said about me as a colt when Slugs approached my aunt with the offer to train me as a wrestler. Back when pretty much everypony in Panhandle was calling me 'Screwjob the Screw-up.'"

"Is that why you keep giving me chances?"

"That's part of it. Face it, High. Apart from that pesky little issue of blood, you really are your old man's son. But don't let the company know I said that. They might try to write us some storyline involving you being my kid."

"What's wrong with that? You sure look old enough to pass for my dad."

This was greeted with a smack. "I do not! And even if I did, I still look better than you ever will in or out of your mask."

I've missed this! Wisteria realized with a sudden pang of regret. She'd missed the way the two wrestlers would banter with each other. Highflyer must have felt unable to use even that outlet when the moth tattoo started recording his every word...

At that moment Applejack brushed past Wisteria on her way to relieve Skywishes of changeling guard duty. The earth-pony had a troubled look on her face. Wisteria suddenly wondered if Applejack had noticed her eavesdropping, but didn't have the courage to ask on the off-chance that the expression was caused by something else.

She looked back down at Bonfire. She still hadn't woken up, but was now twitching about, uttering short harsh whimpers as her bony lashless lids moved restlessly. It always broke Wisteria's heart to see the little one trapped in some torment that Wisteria longed to free her from but seemed utterly unable to.

"Fluttershy?" Highflyer's soft raspy voice sounded much closer than it had earlier. "Can we talk?"

She hesitated in turning toward him. "Are you ... decent?"

This was greeted with a short reflexive snort of laughter. "I'm masked if that's what you mean."

She turned to face him. He was wearing the costume Dinky had been carrying earlier. Its combination of slate blue and rusty red-orange with black trim reminded her of a kestrel falcon.

"I didn't mean you have to be." she said quickly. "I just—"

He waved a hoof dismissively. "At this point, I've had a mask on my face so long I don't feel like myself without one." He aimed a look of resigned irritation down at his shirt-covered stomach, making Fluttershy suspect the moth tattoo was still copying down every sound he made. The V-neck of the shirt was low enough to frame both the similar V of the tattooed chain circling his neck and the tattooed falcon pendant suspended from it. Feathery antennae flicked up from the pendant and vibrated excitedly, causing Highflyer to grimace.

With new resolve, Fluttershy moved to fully face him, putting a hoof to the falcon pendant, which immediately morphed into an eagerly fluttering moth.

"No," Fluttershy said sharply. "None of that now."

The moth froze, and she leaned in closer to it, speaking in her sternest voice. "Listen to me. Pay attention. You have been needlessly exasperating Highflyer by recording every sound he makes, and I'm very disappointed in you for it. While you are his guest, you will abide by his rules. I want you to record his words only when he speaks directly to you. Otherwise, you are to give him his privacy. Understand?"

The moth nodded, its wings and antennae both drooping dejectedly.

"Do you want to know how you can make amends?"

Its antennae raised hopefully.

"Prove to us that you can be trusted by being the gracious guest I know you can be." The moth nodded wildly before morphing back into the stationary falcon. Fluttershy withdrew her hoof and looked up to meet Highflyer's eyes. "Um, why don't you try talking and see what happens?"

"Uh." Highflyer pulled up his shirt, exposing his stomach, and looked off to the side. "Testing, testing."

No words appeared.

"Testing, testing," he repeated, this time directing it at his chest, and this time the words appeared for several seconds before fading away.

Fluttershy looked away, feeling suddenly ashamed. "Highflyer ... I'm ... sorry I didn't say anything sooner. I knew that tattoo was bothering you..."

"I'd probably have bitten your head off if you'd tried earlier." Highflyer admitted, shaking his head ruefully as he lowered his shirt. "In a lot of ways, I'm still that undersized colt who hates looking weak and letting anypony else fight his battles."

That had indeed been what had caused Fluttershy to hesitate in stepping in, but all she said aloud was, "I have the opposite problem. I might have gotten better at asserting myself in some situations but my first instinct is still to roll over and play 'doormat' when faced with conflict."

He laughed softly. "In other words, you're a therapy rabbit, and I'm an attack dog."

Fluttershy let out a low laugh as well, but it swiftly faded. "Still I shouldn't have hit you like I did earlier. I told Spike to send us back when he did, so it's just as much my fault that we're stuck here." She lowered her head and offered her face. "You can hit me back." It was only fair she felt.

He raised an eyebrow, creating visible creases in his mask, before drawing back one hoof. Fluttershy braced herself for the blow. But when his hoof shot toward her face, it stopped short and dealt her cheek a light smack that was scarcely more than a gentle pat.

"There. I'd say that's about equal to the damage your blow did me."

This left Fluttershy feeling both relieved and a tad insulted that Highflyer seemed to regard her attack on him as so inconsequential.

"Besides," said Highflyer, absently tracing the tattooed V of chains on his chest. "Giving me back my favorite tattoo is way better than giving me the okay to slug you."

"Your favorite?" This surprised Fluttershy given how relatively small and easy-to-overlook the pendant seemed next to Highflyer's large elaborate backpiece and full sleeves. "Why is that your favorite? If you don't mind my asking."

"I got it after my first big match with Screwjob, after we'd built up a whole storyline with me as his up-and-coming underdog of a rival. The fans loved it, and I wanted something to celebrate our success. Something I could look at and always be reminded of how Jobs gave me a chance, and how the two of us managed to prove everypony else wrong."

"Yeah, he went shopping around for a memento and saw this falcon pendant on a chain that he really liked." Screwjob—stripped down to his wrestling tights and foreleg bandages—added, swaggering over to elbow his coworker. "But of course, he didn't want anything around his neck that could be used for potential strangulation. So rather than just knuckle under and buy the jewelry, his 'brilliant' idea was to go have it permanently tattooed around his neck."

Highflyer smirked up at him. "Thanks, Elephant-ears. But you forgot to mention the second option also came with the added bonus of watching you flinch and look away like the wuss you are every time that needle went into my skin."

Fluttershy remembered Highflyer mentioning that his wearing a mask had originally been Screwjob's idea. And while the mask might have initially started as a mere gimmick, it had also come to serve as a reminder that he wasn't the same pony he used to be. Now it seemed that tattoo circling his neck had been a similar reminder. No wonder he had been so furious with the moth tattoo for just moving in there uninvited...

Sudden tears sprang to her eyes. Highflyer cocked his head to look up more fully into her face. "Shy?"

"Sorry," she said, wiping at her eyes. "But it just hit me that ... I know more about your tattoos than I do about any of Discord's." I don't even know why he got them or why he picked out the particular ones he has. Now she might never have the chance to learn. It may have seemed like a small detail in the grand scheme of things, but it was yet another painful reminder that Discord was now living on borrowed time unless they could somehow reverse the verdict, somehow rescue him, somehow expose the changelings—

At that moment, Highflyer reared up, stripped off his shirt, and tossed it to the side. Wrapping his hooves around Fluttershy's head, he drew it down to him until her muzzle was almost touching his chest. "Talk to him now." Her eyes turned up to meet his, and he gave her a quick nod. "Go on. It's okay."

"Fluttershy!" At the sound of Twilight's voice, Highflyer released Fluttershy, and she straightened up to see the alicorn hurrying their way.

"What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked, noticing how shaken Twilight looked.

"I just got the results back separating the disguises from those blood samples."

"Did it work?"

"Oh? Yes." Twilight gave herself a quick shake. "Yes, I was able to get them stripped down to the original DNA. It confirms they're what we suspected all along—changeling with a touch of windigo essence. But that's not what I need to talk to you about. After what you told us about seeing Bonfire in Discord's memory, I decided to run a similar test on some of her blood. Just to do a little comparison and contrast with the changelings' DNA."

"W-what did you find out? Are they ... similar?"

"No." Twilight still seemed to be trying to collect herself. "No, Fluttershy, they're ... they're not similar ... They're identical."

Author's Note

Phew! Happy Christmas everyone! I know it's been a while, but here we are once again. As always, a big thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing.

Highflyer was probably the main reason this chapter ended up taking as long as it did. As OCs go, he's been getting good reception so I was pretty nervous about showcasing his less savory side in this chapter.

Side note/semi-spoiler: Since this chapter ended up being largely Highflyer-centric, (With a hefty dose of Screwjob because let's face it, those two are closer than a pair of crossed eyes and you just can't have one without the other.) I may as well let you know the next chapter will likely be largely Bonfire-centric. She may have been in the background for most of the recent chapters, but we and the characters will finally be getting answers regarding her.

Chapter 14. Psalm 116:8-9

Chapter 14

"For you, LORD, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living."—Psalm 116:8-9

"Hold it right there, halt, stop! Back up!" Screwjob squinted one eye at Twilight. "Are you saying our mystery guest has been one of the changelings all this time?"

"I know it sounds wild, but according to the tests I just ran on both sets of DNA ... yes."

Highflyer looked toward Bonfire, his wings fanning out and his body dropping into a familiar pre-attack stance...

Only for Fluttershy to suddenly place herself in his path.

He blinked at her. "Shy?" he asked, the syllable a clear stand-in for What-are-you-doing?

What am I doing? Fluttershy wondered to herself. Why am I trying to protect her when I just heard Twilight—?

"What's going on?" The group looked up to see Skywishes approaching them.

Twilight moved to meet her and quickly filled Skywishes in on what she'd learned about Bonfire. While this was going on, Fluttershy cast a quick glance in Highflyer's direction. His stance hadn't relaxed but he also didn't seem to be in any particular hurry to get past her.

Suddenly Screwjob reached over and planted a hoof softly on top of Highflyer's masked skull. "Ease up, you pint-sized pistol shrimp." he murmured, sliding the hoof back and forth in a gentler variant on a noogie. Highflyer kept a wary eye on Bonfire, but his stance loosened, and his wings lowered to hang at his sides.

This gave Fluttershy the courage to turn her attention from the tiny wrestler to Twilight and Skywishes. But even as she did this, she found herself still questioning her own recent actions.

Why are you shielding her?! You heard Twilight! She's one of them! All this time she's been one of them!

And you were the one who begged Skywishes to let her stay.

By then Twilight had finished explaining things and Skywishes turned from her to Fluttershy. The timid pegasus braced herself, expecting to see harsh accusation in Skywishes's eyes. But if there was any, those flat dark green eyes concealed it as effectively as Highflyer's mask if not more so. Skywishes studied her without comment for several seconds that felt like hours to Fluttershy before turning her gaze on Bonfire's small twitching form.

"Twilight, can you make it so that she—" Skywishes bobbed her head in Bonfire's direction. "—and the rest of our hostages for that matter, can't hear us?"

"Uh, sure." Twilight's horn flashed, briefly filling the room with magenta light. "There," she said when the lighting returned to normal.

"Good." said Skywishes. "Though we'd better be careful just in case any of them know how to read lips." she added, turning her face away from Bonfire to demonstrate.

Fluttershy felt her stomach drop at this. "Does ... does that mean you think she's been their spy all this—?"

"I'm not sure. And until I am sure, I don't want us taking any chances." She grimaced and shook her head, one ear twitching in annoyance. "On the first hoof, why did one of our hostages attack her if she were working for them?"

"When did that happen?" Highflyer cut in, perking up and sounding surprised.

"While the two of you were tussling." said Skywishes. "We were tending to the changelings when one of them woke up, caught sight of Bonfire, magically snatched her up and bashed her head against the floor several times before we were able to stop it. Opened a wound in the back of Bonfire's head, which is why it's patched up now."

"Ahh."

"Doesn't sound like something you'd do to a teammate, does it?" said Skywishes. "But on the other hoof, if that teammate were undercover—"

"Attacking that teammate would be a good way to throw your enemies off the trail?" Highflyer guessed.

Skywishes nodded, though from her expression, she didn't seem wholly satisfied by this conclusion. "There is that to consider. But then again that injury Bonfire took to the back of the head seemed pretty high risk just to stay undercover..."

Highflyer shrugged his wings. "It could have turned out that bad by accident."

"If it was a feint, they sure played for real. That changeling seemed pretty intent on bashing Bonfire's brains in." Skywishes's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Twilight, can you do that invisibility spell on Bonfire's bandages? So we don't have to unwrap them to see the wound."

"Um, sure." It only took Twilight a moment to perform the spell. Once it was done, Skywishes twined a wing into one of Highflyer's, and shouldered Fluttershy aside with the other as she led the masked stallion around so he could see the back of Bonfire's head.

"Look at that," she said, releasing him and gesturing toward the now-exposed wound. "You too, Screwjob. You're both wrestlers. You've seen injuries before. Does that one look accidental to you?"

Screwjob zipped around to join his fellow stallion. The two of them looked at the wound, then at each other, then back at the wound, then up at the other ponies before Screwjob finally gave the verdict.

"Well ... yeah, actually it does. Look accidental, I mean. You see, when we're working a wrestling match, the goal is to make it look like we're clobbering each other when we're really not. But sometimes accidents happen and wrestlers get busted open or otherwise injured for real.

"So if we were looking at the results of a wrestling match, I'd say that wound was definitely an accident. But we're not exactly dealing with a wrestling match. We're dealing with several slippery enemies."

Fluttershy mentally groaned at this non-answer of an answer.

"But as to the question of whether our little mystery guest is a spy for the changelings," he continued. "I'm inclined to think no."

Fluttershy felt a cautious flicker of hope. "You do?" she asked.

"Why?" Skywishes asked at almost the same time.

"Well ... look at her." With an elaborate flourish, he waved a hoof in Bonfire's direction. "If she were a changeling spy with her pick of disguises, don't you think she'd choose something a lot more pleasing to look at? I mean, I know it sounds tacky, but let's face it she's ugly with a capital UGH! She doesn't even make the so-ugly-she's-cute category."

"Screwjob!" Fluttershy chided, but deep down she had to admit he had a point. Why try and lure somepony in with something ugly when it would be much easier with something attractive?

"Unless she was going the so-pathetic-that-you-just-feel-even-more-protective-toward-her route." Highflyer pointed out.

Considering the way she had instinctively sprung to Bonfire's rescue on several occasions—one of them mere moments ago—Fluttershy couldn't argue with this logic either. Had her soft heart caused her to play right into Bonfire's—and by possible extension the changelings' hooves?

"Actually she might not have had much choice in her appearance." said Skywishes. "She looked like this when Fluttershy and I first found her. If she suddenly dropped this disguise for a prettier one, it would definitely have given away the fact that she was a changeling."

Twilight suddenly cleared her throat. "Well, about that..." She paused as the other four ponies all focused on her. "When I was running those DNA tests, I actually got the results on Bonfire's blood a lot faster than I did with the other changelings because there was no disguise to work through."

The four ponies looked at Twilight, then Bonfire, then back again. "You mean..."

Twilight nodded in Bonfire's direction. "That's no disguise. That's what she really looks like."

"Wait," said Skywishes. "Does that mean all the changelings actually look like that?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, and that's what puzzles me about her. First there's the fact that she has no horn or wings. Normally changelings can hide those features if they disguise themselves as things like earth-ponies, but they can't hide their wings and horns while in their base form.

"Then there's the fact that she has no lips and next-to-no-tongue. That along with the lack of horn and wings could possibly be put down to simple physical disabilities—like a pony being born missing a limb—but it doesn't explain why her exoskeleton looks so much more like a corpse than it does like an insect. Or how she's able to spit fire."

"You sure she doesn't have a dash of dragon DNA floating around in there?" Screwjob asked. "That might explain the flaming."

"I'm positive she doesn't." said Twilight. "Her DNA is absolutely identical to that of our hostages." She drew a deep breath. "Which brings us right back to the question of how that's even possible when she's so physically different from them."

"And the question of whether or not she's working with them." Skywishes added. "If she's been somehow leaking information to them, it seems that they'd have invaded the HAB long before now. But then again, maybe she's been trying to get information to them but can't thanks to being trapped in that bubble in a TreeHAB that's currently so invisible you likely wouldn't find it unless you knew it was there even if you crashed into it."

"Well," said Screwjob. "Even if that is the case, and she couldn't be too choosey about her appearance, I'd think a spy would at least put a bit more effort into ingratiating herself with us. I mean, I don't know about the rest of you, but all her snarling and snapping hasn't exactly endeared her to me."

"It hasn't exactly gotten her kicked out yet either," Highflyer pointed out.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Fluttershy massaged her forehead with a hoof. Why did it seem that every argument against Bonfire possibly being a spy was promptly checked by a counter-argument?!

"Argh!" she heard Skywishes groan, followed by a frustrated flap of wings. "I hate changelings. They're so conniving and duplicitous that whenever you try and figure out anything about them, you just end up tying yourself in knots. No wonder Applejack just ran away and hid all those years." Highflyer and Screwjob both made rumbles of concurrence.

Was I right to beg Skywishes to let Bonfire stay? Fluttershy silently fretted. Or did I just sabotage all our plans in doing that? Should I keep obeying that instinctive urge to help her? Or were the changelings counting on that to manipulate me?

Opening her eyes, she felt them settle on Bonfire, who was twitching about in one of the restless dreams that constantly plagued her. Fluttershy had often wondered about those dreams' subject matter, but now a never-before-considered possibility occurred to her. "Is that why you've been having so much trouble sleeping?" she wondered, feeling equal parts pity and suspicion. "Have you been worrying about us somehow finding out you're one of the changelings—?"

At this Twilight let out a sharp gasp. "That's it!"

"What's it?" asked Screwjob, but Twilight ignored him, continuing to mutter to herself.

"That might be it. It might work."

"What might work?"

"It's worth a try."

"What's worth a try?" Screwjob demanded, clearly getting annoyed.

Twilight blinked and looked over at him, as though seeing him for the first time. "Total Recall's spell."

The tall wrestler blinked back at her. "Your enlightening is pretty low on the lightening. What's that spell have to do with anything?!" he demanded yet again, this time whisper-shouting the last part.

"I'm thinking about trying Total Recall's spell on Bonfire while she's asleep to find out if she's dreaming about actual events."

"Twilight, are you sure about this?" Fluttershy asked. They'd tacked a large roll of Skywishes's drafting paper onto a nearby wall to form a make-shift screen, and between them and that screen lay the still-sleeping Bonfire.

"As sure as I can be. Recall's spell was good—very good—so I didn't need to alter it much. I just needed to change the area of the brain that it reads to active dreams instead of stored memories. I've worked with Princess Luna enough over the years to better understand the dream realm and how she's able to travel and control it that I should be able to apply those principles to Recall's spell, using it to give us a live window into what's going on in Bonfire's mind. With her asleep, any conscious defenses she has would be down as well. After how much of a failure the lie-detector was, I don't want to give any changeling a chance to put up defenses if it can be avoided."

"But what if her dreams muddle things up? Or what if she doesn't have the right type of memory?"

Twilight waved that away. "Dream abstraction shouldn't be an issue. Total Recall designed the rest of the spell to specifically filter out abstraction and obfuscation, pulling only memories formed while awake and their content. Dreams are often made from memories, so the spell should strip away everything that isn't actual memory and show us the underlying truth of what she's remembering in her dreams." She gave a snort and shook her mane out. "At least if everything functions the way it should. The biggest unknown right now is if photographic memory is truly a requirement. Total Recall didn't specify what happens when he tries to use his spell on subjects without it. My hope is that with Bonfire dreaming, and her conscious mind not working to distort or override memories, the spell will be able to function as intended and show us those underlying memories. Ultimately though, we won't know until we try."

"Whelp," said Screwjob, "here's to long shots and fancy science. Have at it, Twilight."

With Fluttershy and Skywishes leaning in on her left, and Highflyer and Screwjob leaning in on her right, Twilight lowered her head, letting her horn press down into the bubble's membrane until it came into contact with Bonfire's head.

Fluttershy looked up at the make-shift screen, waiting to see what, if anything, would appear there. Suddenly the screen darkened. But just as it did, Fluttershy was overcome with an unexpected sensation. Her whole body was seized with paralysis and she was instantly rooted in place, unable to even twitch or look away from the screen.

What's happening?! she silently panicked inside her head. But with this understandable fear also came some unexpected extra emotions: a mixture of impotent rage and resigned despair. As if she had endured this paralysis not merely for a few seconds, but hours ... days ... possibly months or even years.

Then she noticed movement in the darkness on the screen. It was choppy like poorly done stop-motion, but Fluttershy could still follow what was going on.

She saw changelings. Not the semi-transparent ones she'd been forced to become acquainted with over the past year, but the black more-insectile ones she and her friends had encountered over a dozen years ago. Still, in the current darkness these changelings were nearly as invisible as their transparent counterparts. It was only the figures they were dragging along with them that stood out against the darkness: six ponies whose photos she had seen tacked on a map covering a cabin wall only a year ago. Their colors (as well as the rest of their surroundings) all seemed to be covered with an odd yellow overlay, but she recognized the ponies all the same.

Cotton Candy. Glitter Glide. Sparkleworks. Strawberry Swirl. Triple Treat. Sunny Daze.

As the names automatically rolled through her mind, she also felt an alien confusion not her own. A sense that she had no idea who these ponies were or why they were there, despite just listing them by name.

Am I experiencing what Bonfire felt during these memories? she wondered. Was this why Bonfire had been so fixated on that photo of Sunny Daze and Skywishes? Because she had recognized Sunny Daze from before?

The ponies were dragged out of sight and Fluttershy was forced to stare at the dark empty screen. She wasn't sure how long this lasted, but suddenly the yellow overlay covering everything seemed to jitter, then vanish.

The instant it vanished, Fluttershy felt a sharp stab of fear drive into her, and flinched reflexively. What?! She could move again! Her earlier paralysis had disappeared. She looked to her right and saw Skywishes, Highflyer, and Screwjob all shaking themselves, their expressions a mixture of relief and bafflement she was sure mirrored her own.

"Twi—?" Fluttershy paused mid-question as she noticed the alicorn was still leaning over Bonfire with her eyes closed, apparently too deep in the spell to notice what had happened to her fellow ponies. "Twilight?" Fluttershy put a hoof on her friend's wither, intending to shake it, when she was hit once again with that bolt of fear she'd felt earlier. She looked up at the screen just in time to see six ponies shoot across it in that choppy stop-motion way. Scarcely had they disappeared from the frame when Sunny Daze popped back into view, looped right up close to the camera and seemed to lift it. The camera spun away from her, and with a rush of dizziness not her own, Fluttershy caught glimpses of the other ponies racing below her toward a bright light up ahead.

Suddenly everything on screen was covered with a green overlay and once again Fluttershy felt herself seized by paralysis. She tried to shout a warning to Skywishes, Highflyer, and Screwjob, but she couldn't utter so much as a groan. She couldn't turn to see what they might be doing. She could only watch with helpless horror through Bonfire's eyes as the six ponies were stretched out—this time by changelings who seemed to be of the transparent part-windigo variety—and had the life strangled out of them. She shared in Bonfire's helplessness as Sunny Daze seemed to try communicating something with her eyes before the light disappeared from them forever.

The camera moved away from the dead ponies and the green overlay was replaced with the yellow one she'd seen before.

Then the scene abruptly changed. The green overlay was back, and there was a terrible searing pain in her mouth. She was surrounded by black insectile changelings and they were laughing at her. Fluttershy instantly felt as if she had been thrown back to those painful days when she was that awkward long-legged filly being taunted for her poor flying skills.

But with that memory also came the realization that no matter how bad the bullying had gotten, she'd always had Rainbow Dash ready to defend her. She'd still had a friend. She'd still been loved.

There was none of that in the alien emotions that now rolled over her. Only the feeling that she was utterly worthless and undeserving of love as both cruel mockery toward the pain in her mouth—Did ... did Bonfire somehow accidentally burn off her own tongue?! Fluttershy wondered but of course could not actually ask—and relentless loathing at her many deficiencies poured from the changelings surrounding her and bombarded her to the point of almost being physical. Please stop! Fluttershy begged inside her head, wishing she could curl up, hide behind her mane, anything to shield herself from this experience. But she was still just as paralyzed as Bonfire must have been in the memory. All she could do was endure it.

The scene changed again. This time the overlay was yellow and the changelings semi-transparent. Fluttershy felt contempt flowing from the changelings, and seething hatred rushing from Bonfire. Anger at her captors for dangling the promise of freedom before her, and anger at herself for daring to hope they might follow through. Had she learned nothing from all the other times they had used this tactic on her? Suddenly she was overwhelmed with exhaustion as the anger, hatred and crushed hope was drained out of her to fuel her captors' power.

This was just one of many similar scenes in which Bonfire was subjected to torment via the other changelings, their queen, or both.

Though Fluttershy had often speculated on what had caused Bonfire's constant nightmares, nothing had prepared her for trauma of this magnitude. No wonder the little one had been so resistant to Fluttershy's attempts to comfort her. Given what was happening in these memories, was it any surprise she could now only see acts of kindness as potential traps? It was understandable, but it still made Fluttershy's heart ache. And for the first time since meeting Bonfire she began to wonder if this was a case that kindness could not heal. Had all the pain, neglect, and rejection the little one had been forced to endure left her truly broken beyond repair?

Fluttershy was shocked out of these musings when who should flash into existence on the screen but Discord. Terror not her own flooded Fluttershy at the sight of him—with blood covering his face; fragments of stone stuck in his fur, feathers, and scales; and smoke rising from his charred right shoulder and left hip—as he slammed his hands into the nearest wall, sending his magic tearing through the room. Suddenly the yellow overlay vanished once again and Fluttershy felt the paralysis on her body loosen. Her relief at this was promptly overshadowed by a disbelieving amazement from Bonfire, followed by fresh terror at the chaos erupting all around her. The terror was so strong, Fluttershy recoiled, and fell backward. This time Twilight came with her and Fluttershy felt herself fall against other ponies, causing her to wonder if they too had been under the same paralysis as Fluttershy had, and like her only now been released.

As the five ponies collapsed in a heap, Bonfire's whole body spasmed, then arched as she let out a throat-rending screech that brought Spike, Applejack, Dinky, and Amethyst all running to investigate.

"What's going on?"

"Are you okay?"

"The changelings!" Skywishes broke from the group and sprinted to the alcove where they'd stashed their prisoners. After several seconds she returned, looking visibly relieved. "They're still out." she reported. "I think Twilight's sound-blocking spell kept them from hearing Bonfire's scream."

"Well, that makes one spell working fully as intended," groaned the purple alicorn as she rubbed her forehead with one hoof.

At this all attention turned to Bonfire. Her skeletal sides were heaving and her orange eyes bulged in their bony sockets, but she didn't seem aware of her surroundings. Fluttershy remembered when she and Discord had examined some of her own more traumatic memories and how shaken she had come out of them. Had Twilight's alicorn status somehow magnified her power and caused Bonfire to experience past situations in a similar way?

"Well," Skywishes breathed, clearly trying to collect herself. "Unless it's some desperate attempt on her part to earn their favor, I highly doubt Bonfire's working for the other changelings."

This of course sparked fresh questions from the one dragon and three ponies who had just joined the scene. Which in turn led to the remaining five ponies filling them in on what they'd recently discovered.

Bonfire was indeed the creature they'd seen in Discord's memory. Somehow his magic must have freed her and flung her into the Everfree where Fluttershy and Skywishes had later found her. She had witnessed the six murders Applejack had later stumbled upon, meaning that age-wise she must be at least eleven years old. But there was still that mystery regarding why she was so different from the other part-windigo changelings. And why did the other changelings seem to regard her with such hatred?

All this time Bonfire still seemed stuck in her dazed state.

"Twilight, can you take that sound-blocking spell off her?" Fluttershy asked. When Twilight obliged, Fluttershy moved closer to Bonfire, murmuring soothingly in hopes of gently drawing her out of her shocked state. But Bonfire only responded by flinching away and snarling at her. Though her efforts had been met with this reaction many times before, it had never filled Fluttershy with the sort of despair it did now. After all she'd just seen and felt through Bonfire's memories, she was now more desperate than ever to offer the little one the love she so clearly, so desperately needed. But what hope was there of that when Bonfire spurned her every effort?

"I think we should try questioning the other changelings about her." Twilight said suddenly.

The other ponies sent her incredulous looks, and Screwjob vocalized what they were all likely thinking. "The other changelings? The very ones that just lied their way through testimonies and cross-examination without your lie-detector even catching them once? Are you nuts?"

"No!" Twilight snapped. Either she was still as off-balance as Fluttershy herself still felt or Screwjob had really touched a nerve. "Of course I know that! Of course I know they'll lie at every opportunity!" She took some deep breaths and made an effort to speak more calmly. "But I'm not saying we should just blindly trust anything that comes out of their mouths, okay? If we question them, we'll take everything they say with a whole shaker of salt."

At this, Skywishes cleared her throat. "In that case, I say we all act like we just stumbled across Bonfire recently. Maybe as recently as just a few hours before our hostages showed up. Don't mention her name or gender. Make them think we know absolutely nothing about her. Give them a completely blank canvas to work with, then compare the picture they paint against what we know about her for sure."

As magenta light surrounded her bubble and Bonfire felt it and by extension herself being pulled forward against her will, she fought the urge to shiver not from physical cold, but from fear. Though she had repeatedly and unwillingly revisited those memories many times in her dreams, they had never before felt so vivid, so real to the point where she actually found herself questioning if all her time at the TreeHAB had been the true dream. A desperate effort to somehow escape the true nightmare that was her existence. But now as she found herself brought in front of the pony that had suddenly attacked her without warning, the sharp pain in her skull assured her she was indeed awake.

And suddenly she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. For all the guard she had maintained around the ponies, she had still become complacent in her ability to trundle about as she pleased while locked in her captive bubble.

She looked around at the ponies, wishing she could somehow beg them to ignore her, to treat her like she didn't exist. Re-experiencing her old captors' malice now left her desperately longing for benign indifference.

Even though her attempts at comfort would likely be rejected, Fluttershy hated ignoring Bonfire's obvious distress, and treating her like an inanimate object. But she also understood they couldn't let the changelings know they had any emotional attachment to Bonfire. Getting accurate information out of them would be hard enough without giving them any extra ammunition.

It took a good deal of shaking and prodding at the captive bubbles to wake their three confirmed changeling prisoners. But once they were awake Skywishes went in for the first round.

"Why'd you go nuts and just attack this thing for no reason?" she asked the Mrs. Cake-changeling while jerking a wing in Bonfire's direction. At the sight of Bonfire, all three disguised changelings flared their magic only for it to bounce uselessly off the insides of their bubbles.

"Don't waste your time with that." Skywishes sounded bored. "Just answer the question. Why did you attack that thing, and why are you still trying?"

"Because she's dangerous to all of us!" said the Mrs. Cake-changeling, turning to face her interrogator. "I wasn't about to give her a chance to incinerate us or burn the place down around us."

"Really?" Skywishes turned to regard Bonfire, her muzzle twisted with bemused incredulity. She turned back. "How do you even know that's what it can do?"

"Oh, we've encountered her before." said the Rainbow Dash-changeling.

"Yes, we have reason to fear her." said the Mr. Cake-changeling as pale blue flames erupted around him before clearing to reveal Pinkie Pie in his place.

"And so should you, Skywishes—" said the Mrs. Cake-changeling as similar flames surrounded her and cleared to reveal a white pegasus with an orange mane and tail, and eyes the same dark green as Skywishes's. "—considering she's the reason you no longer have a twin sister."

Skywishes's expression seemed to tighten but beyond that she didn't react to the sight of her deceased sister. "How about you ... elaborate? Give us some idea of what we're dealing with?"

In some ways, this questioning session ended up being even worse than the one at the trial because the changelings spent the whole time transforming from the murdered ponies to family members to other friends seemingly for the sole purpose of unsettling their interrogators. Trying to keep track of possible truth and lies was hard enough without being forced to worry about the fate of the pony whose face you were seeing and whose voice you were hearing.

When the questioning finally ended, Applejack offered to continue her shift guarding them, and with a collective smirk the three changelings promptly turned into her grandmother and siblings.

At the sight of this, Screwjob promptly declared he'd watch with her. Applejack shot him a glare but before she could refuse his offer, he added, "I can knock them out if they get too mouthy and you'd rather not sock your family members."

Applejack suddenly looked torn between rejecting the offer simply because it had come from him, and acknowledging it would make at least one aspect of the current task much more bearable. Then Screwjob actually invited Highflyer to join them, which seemed to surprise the tiny wrestler as much as it did the farm pony. At least until Screwjob elucidated with "I'm counting on you to knock out the first one who desecrates my aunt's image by posing as her. I can gleefully knock out any other friends, coworkers, or business associates they throw at me. Phenom, sure. Brimstone, sure. Our Boss, of course. You, no problem. Uncle Screwtape, yes. Sparkleworks, yes. Playboy, Glamor Girl, and Centerfold, yes, yes, and yes. Hey, even old Slugs is fair game. But Moonshine ... No."

"Why'd you have Sparkleworks in there?" asked Applejack.

"Oh, forgot to mention. I dated her at one time, but she was a bit too obsessed with explosives for my taste."

While this was going on, the rest of the group had withdrawn to discuss the results of the interrogation.

"I have to give them credit," said Skywishes. "They sure know how to blend their lies with the truth. Considering what I've seen Bonfire do with that flame, and that bite she left on Fluttershy's foreleg, I'd almost believe their claims about how dangerous she is."

At this Fluttershy instinctively felt the foreleg in question—which was still wrapped in bandages under her suit sleeve—and looked toward where Bonfire stood in her captive bubble, eyes darting uneasily between their group and the trio currently guarding the hostages.

"But they went a little too far when they tried to pin the deaths of your sister and those other ponies on her," said Twilight. "Granted they didn't know we'd just seen who actually did the killing, but still..."

"What do you suppose was their reason for that?" asked Amethyst. "Why are they so determined to paint her in a negative light? Are they trying to turn us against her?"

"And have us finish the job they started when they first saw her here?" said Spike. "Maybe. But then again they probably know that we know that they can lie without any of the usual tells, so they might be counting on that to confuse us on how to feel about her."

"Knots and more knots." Skywishes muttered darkly.

"No." Soft as it was, Fluttershy's voice still caught their attention. She shivered as she remembered dipping into Bonfire's mind. "No, I don't think it's anything that complex. At least ... not when it comes to their feelings toward Bonfire. They deeply and genuinely hate her." After this declaration, her ears and even her whole posture seemed to droop. "But why?"

Based on the emotions in her memories, not even Bonfire seemed to fully understand why she was so hated, only that she was.

The group all exchanged helpless looks, feeling that they had gone through all the stress of that interrogation with nothing to show for it.

"Well," Spike finally said, clearly trying to lighten the mood. "At least we now know that she's definitely female."

Twilight snorted, then muttered, "I ran her DNA tests, I could have told you that."

Maybe so, Fluttershy thought, but there was still the fact that Skywishes had called Bonfire an 'it', only for the changelings to start referring to her as a 'she' without any form of prompting. Fluttershy had gotten so used to thinking of Bonfire as a girl that she'd almost forgotten that until now they had only been guessing based on her appearance.

Her appearance...

Fluttershy remembered how Screwjob had described Bonfire as ugly, and how though she didn't want to be cruel, she couldn't argue with him.

Did the other changelings hate Bonfire so much because of her appearance? Was it as simple as that? Suddenly she wondered: Would Discord find her ugly as well?

"Spike, can I have that letter to talk to Discord?" While Highflyer had given her permission to use the squatter still lounging in his chest, she was reluctant to pull him off guard duty just for that.

"Uh." Spike looked uncomfortable. "I'm afraid it got burnt up when we came through."

Fluttershy mentally berated herself for forgetting this. Spike may have come through his own fire unscathed, but the camo he'd been wearing and the contents of his jacket pockets hadn't. However, the next moment Twilight floated the main letter they'd been using at the TreeHAB over to her.

Fluttershy snatched it with a quick thanks, but her expression fell as she saw the words already written on it.

Rarity: "I have to go now."

It was at that moment Fluttershy noticed that the hooves emerging from her purple sleeves had turned from soft lavender to pale yellow. She wasn't sure exactly how long ago that had happened, but if her potion had worn off than clearly Rarity had been forced to return to their room before her potion did as well.

But that meant Discord was currently under far too much scrutiny for her to communicate with him.

I didn't even get to tell him goodbye. She wondered how he was doing, all alone in his cell, and wished she could somehow magically transport all they'd just learned about Bonfire directly into his brain. The caring side of her hoped it would have given him something else to focus on if only to take his mind off his current predicament; but her more selfish side also hoped that if he turned his chaotic brain on the information he could find some clue in it that had somehow eluded the rest of them. The more she thought about this, the more she tried to picture how he might see things. Given how much effort he seemed to have taken in making his own appearance as unsettling as possible to the average pony, he clearly had a different idea than the rest of them on what constituted attractive. She looked toward Bonfire, trying to view her skull-like face, skeletal body, and the sparse hairs where her mane and tail should be as Discord might.

Earlier Skywishes had guessed Bonfire hadn't changed her appearance because it would have given her away, but now Fluttershy suddenly wondered if Bonfire hadn't changed her appearance because it was literally impossible.

Was that one of her 'deficiencies'? A changeling unable to transform her appearance? A changeling missing what was arguably one of their greatest weapons? What a concept. But they'd mentioned deficiencies plural. What other ones might there be?

Fluttershy thought on the various abilities they'd seen the other part-windigo changelings exhibit. How they no longer fed only on love but also on emotions at the opposite end of the spectrum through their windigo-essence.

Opposite ends...

Positive and negative...

"Twilight, aren't positives and negatives supposed to cancel each other out?" she blurted out, the words practically leaping out of her mouth before she realized it.

"Uh, yes? Why do you ask?"

"Well, I just suddenly realized ... what if we've been looking at things the wrong way when it comes to these part-windigo changelings?"

"What do you mean?"

"Changelings feed on more positive emotions, while windigos feed on more negative ones. Which it seems should cancel each other out, right? And-and what if they actually do? All this time we've been viewing the other changelings as the natural result of combining changeling and windigo essence, and Bonfire as the one exception to the rule. But what if Bonfire actually is the rule and all the others are the exception?!"

For several beats Twilight just stared at her, long enough to make Fluttershy start second guessing her suddenly-absurd-sounding idea. Then Twilight suddenly whirled and raced off toward a section of the TreeHAB they'd unofficially dubbed the HAB lab since she'd taken to doing her research and experiments over there. The other ponies and the dragon quickly exchanged glances before hurrying after her. They got there just in time to see her toss a twisted up rag aside and begin dropping various ingredients into a mixing beaker. The final result was a scant mouthful of potion. Twilight eyed it apprehensively, then threw it back in one swift gulp. She shuddered, grimaced, then raced off to where the hostages were being kept.

As the rest of the group followed her once again, they saw her skid to a halt in front of the prisoners—nearly colliding with the startled guards in the process—and stare down at them, her eyes almost popping out of her head.

"Twilight," Applejack started to ask. "What's—?"

"It works!" Twilight crowed and the next moment she yanked Scout's bubble out from among the others, and tapped it twice with her horn, causing it to instantly dissolve.

"What are you—?!"

"It's alright, he's one of us," said Twilight adding in an aside to the pinto, "Sorry about earlier, but we couldn't take the chance of you being a changeling trying to trick us."

By this point, Scout had managed to spit out his power tie-gag (which he seemed to have nearly chewed through) and was now shaking his head wildly to dislodge the section of tie currently blindfolding him from around his eyes. When Twilight took pity on him and lifted the remains of the tie away, he blinked rapidly as his eyes readjusted before settling on a point beyond her and widening. "What that?!"

Twilight looked in that direction and realized he was gaping at Bonfire. "Something very important." she responded, sounding quite giddy. "You were right, Fluttershy!" she added, swooping up Bonfire's bubble with her magic.

"I was?" Fluttershy asked, not following Twilight's line of reasoning.

"It was her all this time!" Twilight cheered, racing back to the lab with Bonfire's bubble in tow. "Her blood, her DNA, she's our missing ingredient!"

Bonfire scrabbled to find purchase as her bubble was lifted into the air and flown toward the area she'd seen Twilight working in many times before.

"I used the last of her blood for the potion I just tried myself. I need some more for the rest of you. Now where are those syringes?"

Bonfire felt her breaths starting to become short and rapid.

"It's going to be alright, Bonfire." Fluttershy said quickly, apparently noticing her agitation. "It'll sting a bit but it will be over quickly."

Bonfire did not believe the kind words. She looked past Fluttershy, trying to locate Skywishes. She met the flat dead eyes in that living face, and instinctively realized that this was it. The moment she'd known would come, and had been dreading all this time. The moment when her new captors dropped all pretense and used her just as her old captors had.

Twilight bustled forward, a syringe floating nearby. "Hold still now." she said even as her magic surrounded Bonfire, giving the little equine no real choice in the matter.

The syringe drew nearer. "This will be over real quick. I just need to..." Bonfire felt herself being turned as Twilight looked for the best place to insert the needle.

Bonfire closed her eyes, braced for the sting Fluttershy had mentioned. She could have tried to struggle, scream, or spray fire, but at this point it wouldn't even delay things.

"Ah, that should work, now let me just—"

"No!"

The sharp cry was followed by an equally sharp clatter, and the magic hold on her suddenly vanished.

"Skywishes—?"

"Don't touch her, Twilight."

What?! Bonfire's head snapped up, eyes wide to see Skywishes now positioned between herself and the other ponies, wings spread.

The group could only stare. They had all still just been adjusting to the fact that Twilight had suddenly found that elusive crucial ingredient; to the idea that it had been trundling about the TreeHAB all this time. And now they were being forced to wrap their heads around the fact that Skywishes of all ponies had suddenly lunged forward, struck the syringe out of Twilight's grasp, and positioned herself between the alicorn and the hybrid.

"Do you even remember what we just experienced?" said Skywishes. "She's been used all her life by the changelings, and now you're planning to do the same."

"It-it's only a little blood, Wishie." Fluttershy tried to reason, trying to convince herself as much as Skywishes. It's just one needle prick. It's not like Twilight was going to carve her open in some barbaric ritual. Really it's not.

"Sure, and what the changelings have been doing to her is only some light teasing," Skywishes retorted, her gaze never leaving Twilight's. "Them using her as a sort of emergency battery; us using her to create a potion. It amounts to the same thing!"

"It does not!" Applejack shot back indignantly. "We need that potion to help all our friends and families out there still at the changelings' mercy. Are you suggesting we just abandon all of them?"

"No, of course not!" Frustration was clear in Skywishes's voice. "I'm all for helping them, but not if it involves exploiting Bonfire."

Applejack snorted. "Sure, it's easy to claim you feel that way when you don't actually have anypony out there to lose." The instant the words were out of her mouth, Applejack seemed to realize she'd gone too far.

Skywishes's eyes narrowed, her hardened gaze leaving Twilight and turning cold ferocity upon the orange earth pony. "Nopony to lose?" she breathed, that ferocity echoed in her voice. "Is that what you think?" she went on, her voice rising with every word. "That I have nopony to lose? Do you think all of you are any less important than all the ponies out there?! I have plenty to lose!"

Bonfire could only stare at Skywishes as if she had never seen the pegasus before. What had happened? Why was the one pony who should have been fully onboard with using her, who should have jumped at the chance ... standing there and saying ... No.

Skywishes looked over her wither at Bonfire, and when she spoke this time her voice was low and firm. "Twilight, let her out of there."

"What?! Skywishes—"

"I said let her out!"

Twilight shook her head. "No! You said it yourself, we don't need her spitting fire all over the TreeHAB. Fire, might I add, that I can't put out magically. Mm-mm, letting her out is just too big of a risk."

Skywishes bowed her head as if conceding. Of course. Bonfire thought. It had all been a cruel trick just to raise her hope—

But at that moment Skywishes suddenly whirled and lunged straight for Bonfire's bubble, wrapping her wings around it. She thrust her front hooves forward, driving them into the bubble's side as if she were intending to pass a blanket or food into the bubble as she had done many times before. But this time her hooves were empty and she thrust her head forward right behind them. Both head and hooves burst through the membrane until Skywishes was shoulders-deep inside the bubble.

Too shocked to spit fire or even snarl, Bonfire recoiled, crashing back-first into the other side of the bubble. Unwrapping her wings from around the bubble and tucking them tight to her sides, Skywishes now shoved her front hooves against the inside of the bubble's membrane, forcing her body further and further in until she suddenly felt the membrane snap seamlessly shut behind her tail and back hooves and she fell in a tumble to the floor of the bubble. Unfurling her wings, she drove them down, sending herself and Bonfire shooting up into the air, and propelling them forward to wedge them on a large cross-section of pipe near the ceiling.

Down below, the rest of the group could only stare up at the glimmer of bubble visible over the fork of the cross-section, convinced that Skywishes—who up until that moment had always seemed the most pragmatic of the bunch—had completely lost her mind. First preventing Twilight from drawing Bonfire's blood, then demanding Bonfire be released from her captive bubble, and when that request was denied, trapping herself in there with Bonfire. That last action had been so unexpected and happened so fast none of them had even had time to possibly stop her.

Well, most of them could only stare. "Skywishes!" cried Twilight. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Stopping you from using her!"

Purple light flared along Twilight's horn as she spread her wings, intending to fly up there after Skywishes. But before she could take off a pair of forelegs wrapped around one of her wings.

"Wait, Twilight!"

She turned to see Fluttershy restraining her.

"Don't go after her, Twi. Let her work." Fluttershy's admonishment was soft, but she did her best to put all her resolve behind it.

Skywishes is a survivor. Fluttershy had thought the instant she'd managed to shake off the shock at Skywishes's actions. She wouldn't just trap herself in that bubble with no way to defend herself.

And on the tail of that thought had come a sudden wave of shame at her own inaction. When faced with the prospect of finally having a working potion, and with it possibly having a chance to expose the changelings, and rescue Rarity and Discord, she had been willing to stand back and let Bonfire be used for their own ends. Had even tried to justify it to herself by writing the action off as no worse than giving somepony a medical shot for their own good…

She should have been the one that stopped Twilight, that stared her down and told her no. But she hadn't, and all she could do now was try to help Skywishes. "Let her work." she repeated.

Twilight looked back at her old friend for several seconds, seeming to recognize what was going through Fluttershy's head. Eventually she nodded, though her lips were set in a hard line with obvious apprehension. Still, she was willing to go along with it.

Fluttershy released her friend's wing, and they, along with the rest of their companions, turned their gaze to the bubble on the cross-section above them, watching the drama inside unfold from below.

Meanwhile up on the cross-section, Bonfire stared at her new bubblemate. Skywishes seemed braced for something. She must be waiting for Bonfire to attack. Yes, she must have something hidden in that camouflage to defend herself. At this realization, a low, warning growl rumbled its way up Bonfire's throat.

As if sensing this thought process, Skywishes slowly reached into her pockets one at a time, turning each of them inside out and leaving them that way to prove they were empty. Then she just as slowly opened her coat, revealing she had no weapons hidden beneath it, before slipping it off and gently setting it to the side. Fortunately the bubble seemed to have expanded enough to accommodate two occupants rather than its original one, thus making this possible.

Looking Bonfire square in the face, Skywishes slowly reached up, and just as slowly pulled the black watch cap from her head, revealing more than a few strands of pink-and-purple hair that were sweat-jelled despite the cold.

Standing there, weaponless, unable to flee her new confines, clearly defenseless against Bonfire's teeth or flame should she choose to use them, Skywishes raised her right hoof, still clutching the watch cap, and placed it over her heart. When she spoke, there was a solemnness Bonfire had never before heard in that flat voice. "Bonfire, I promise ... from this moment onward ... to do everything in my power to make sure ... you're never again exploited for personal gain ... and only loved at personal cost."

Bonfire's growl rose in pitch. No, no, no! This isn't possible! You can't be saying this! I trusted you! This was a trick. It had to be a trick. But what trick could possibly have led Skywishes to trap herself weaponless in this bubble? For the first time in longer than she could remember, Bonfire unbent the mental armor she'd put up to help shield herself from the constant loathing the changelings had always aimed at her. She would doubtless be opening herself up to great pain, but for once she felt she must risk it if she were to learn what was driving Skywishes.

She focused tentatively on Skywishes's emotions. After years of forced suppression, using the ability felt like trying to work a cramped, atrophied muscle. She braced herself to feel the familiar hatred she knew her existence inspired, but to her surprise it was not there. She dug deeper, searching for the deceit that must be leading Skywishes to act this way but found none of that either.

What she did find were fear, regret, and ... and...

The growl died in her throat and Bonfire felt her whole body tremble as she began to read the nuances in Skywishes's feelings.

Fear at the physical pain she would likely soon feel having just placed herself at Bonfire's mercy. Fear that she had just made everything more complicated for both herself and her fellow ponies. Regret that they didn't understand. Regret that her actions had likely turned them against her forever.

But overpowering both those feelings and all others was the unwavering resolve to follow this course of action and accept whatever consequences might occur. Whatever other fears and doubts might plague Skywishes, her heart and head were now united in the conviction currently directed straight at Bonfire: You are not worth sacrificing.

But you are worth sacrificing for!

You are worth saving!

In that instant Bonfire's whole world shattered.

Author's Note

Yeah, bit of a cliff-hanger there. I actually ended up splitting this chapter into two, meaning this story's chapter count will be an even twenty. Making it the longest story in the trilogy both in word-count and chapter-count.

As always, a huge thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing.

Chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 1:28

Chapter 15

"God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,"—1 Corinthians 1:28

Upon realizing Skywishes had nothing to protect herself with, Fluttershy's hoof instinctively flew to her bandaged foreleg. She knew all-too-well what Bonfire was capable of inflicting and suddenly feared she'd made the wrong call. Her eyes flicked toward Twilight, wanting to shout for her to get Skywishes out of there, but also afraid any sudden movements or noise would provoke Bonfire into attacking Skywishes. Judging from her expression, Twilight was also thinking along these lines. Fluttershy looked back up at the stand-off currently taking place above them.

Skywishes now had her right hoof (and the black watch cap clutched in it) pressed to her heart. Her mouth was forming words, but Fluttershy couldn't hear them over Bonfire's growling. Whatever Skywishes said only seemed to incense Bonfire because the growling suddenly spiked in volume. Skywishes swallowed visibly but did not shrink back from the little hybrid. Everything in her posture said as clearly as words: I chose to take this path and come what may, I'm not turning back.

Is she going to just stand there and take it if Bonfire attacks her?! Fluttershy silently panicked inside her head. Is she really?!

But then to everyone's shock Bonfire suddenly went silent, her eyes bulging as her skeletal frame shook like a leaf in a high wind. Was she having some sort of seizure?

Keeping her own eyes on Bonfire, Skywishes lowered her hoof from her heart, and let her wings slowly extend down and out to the sides. But beyond that she suddenly looked unsure of how to proceed.

Having her view of the world so destroyed also took down the last of Bonfire's defenses, allowing the force emanating from Skywishes to slam unrestrained into her with all the strength of a battering ram. She staggered back from the pegasus but there was no escaping the relentless force. It both surged over her and rushed into her, surrounding and filling her as if intent on drowning her.

Being overpowered both inside and out by such a crushing force should have been agonizing, but to Bonfire's shock it was as if every blow—rather than raising bruises—was applying a soothing balm to already-existing wounds. And what should have brought a sense of drowning panic as it poured into her was instead quenching a thirst that had so long been a part of her she never imagined that it could be satisfied.

And though her heart had never tasted it before, she suddenly understood on a visceral level what she was experiencing.

This ... was...

Love.

And not merely love directed at an image she would be incapable of producing anyway, but love that saw her for what she truly was, in all her worthlessness and with all her inadequacies ... And still refused to cast her aside.

Too overwhelmed to process things any further, the little equine felt her limbs give out beneath her.

As Bonfire collapsed, Skywishes's wings swept forward and came up under her, half-cradling, half-supporting her. The pegasus braced herself to have this gesture repaid with a snarling struggle to escape at best, and a vicious bite or burst of flame at worst. But Bonfire just hung there, emitting a weird keening sound Skywishes had never heard her make before.

"Uh, Bonfire?" Skywishes cautiously moved the little one closer, intending only to examine her, but the action seemed to spark Bonfire's instinct to struggle. However, for the first time she didn't try to move away from her captor but rather closer. Skywishes flinched in surprise, and her wings jerked away from around Bonfire, but the little equine didn't seem to notice in her rush forward. Skywishes tensed but managed not to recoil as she felt Bonfire's skeletal muzzle brush between her forelegs and the bony forehead push into her chest.

As Bonfire pressed against her, trembling all the while, Skywishes noticed that whimpers were now mixed in with that weird keening, almost as if...

Are you crying? Skywishes slowly brought her wings back around in front of her until they were hovering over Bonfire's back, then cautiously lowered them until some of her feathers just barely brushed the heavily ridged spine. When Bonfire didn't react, Skywishes brushed the back of one wing over the spine, and though Bonfire's trembling didn't lessen she didn't attempt to get away. Slowly but surely Skywishes let her feathers caress Bonfire's spine and sides, testing the water in terms of how much contact Bonfire would allow, until she finally summoned up the courage to slip a wing under Bonfire's jaw and nudge her face away from where it was pressed to her chest. As she pushed back, Bonfire's trembling increased and her keening whimpers grew more desperate. That is, until Skywishes brought her other wing around to shade Bonfire's head and back. This action didn't completely quiet Bonfire, but it did seem to calm her slightly with the realization that she wasn't being forced away from Skywishes entirely.

As she looked up at the pegasus, her orange eyes were indeed shiny with tears. You are crying. Skywishes mused. But then ... why is my chest still dry even after your face was pressed against it? Skywishes suddenly wondered if it was physically impossible for Bonfire to shed tears no matter how hard she cried, and the idea raised fresh pity in the pegasus.

Skywishes had always been the type to generally keep her emotions to herself, but that was by choice, and the various tools of communication were still available to her should she choose to use them. Now to think that Bonfire might not be merely mute but also unable even to express herself through tears—

During this musing, the wing under Bonfire's jaw had absently slid up her cheek and over her head. The next thing Skywishes knew, Bonfire's face was buried against her chest once again.

And as Skywishes's wings gently wrapped around the still-trembling hybrid, she thought: It doesn't matter what you can or can't express; your cry has been heard!

Meanwhile down below Fluttershy felt a sudden mixture of rejection and resentment. Why is she accepting Skywishes's comfort now when she's never accepted mine—

"You ... Fluttershy?"

She turned at the gruff voice almost in her ear to see Scout circling her, clearly examining her from every angle.

"I..." she automatically opened her mouth to deny it, then suddenly remembered both that her disguise had worn off, and Twilight had declared Scout a pony.

"And you Wisteria?" he added.

She nodded. Given she was still wearing her purple skirt suit and her tail extensions were still dyed sky blue since the disguise potion didn't affect them as it did her coat and mane, he was evidently putting two and two together.

"Real quick on the uptake, ain'tcha?"

Scout looked away from her at Screwjob's sarcastic comment.

"And you missing wrestlers."

"What gave it—Oof!"

Highflyer had just silenced the taller stallion with a sharp blow to the ribs. "Maybe it's our business attire."

Sure enough, both stallions were still stripped down to their signature wrestling gear. Screwjob rubbed his side and glared back. "I was going to say, our stunning good looks, but with you being here, that hardly qualifies." He turned his attention back to the pinto. "I don't suppose you'd care to bless us with some clever banter by explaining what you were doing snooping around after us back in Canterlot?"

"Boss's orders. Defense seem upset about verdict." He looked pointedly at Fluttershy. "Very upset. Too upset. Strangely too upset." He turned back to Screwjob. "Boss not like that. Get suspicious. Tell Scout look into things. Hold on!" He turned back to Fluttershy, this time his expression indignant. "You at trial! Why you not speak up?"

Fluttershy suddenly felt exhausted. Where do I ... Where do we begin?

Scout's interruption had caused the group to lose focus on what was going on with Skywishes and Bonfire up in their bubble on the ceiling. Thankfully, a quick check proved that all was still well with the duo. With Bonfire continuing to huddle up to her, Skywishes was actually looking back down at the group and their goings on. She gave Twilight a wary smile and nod, letting her know things were well and they could carry on with their business.

With several ponies excusing themselves to watch the hostages, (whose bubbles Twilight had taken care to soundproof yet again so they couldn't eavesdrop) the group began filling Scout in on their side of things. Granted quite a bit of it was a rehash of things he'd already heard at the trial, but now there were added details that essentially turned the whole narrative on its head.

Though the new information doubtless surprised the pinto, he did not express it, only listened intently to all they told him.

"And over here is what was originally your three witnesses," said Applejack, glaring at the images of her family who glared right back at her through their bubbles before turning scornful looks in Scout's direction.

"Certainly fooled you, didn't we?" said the Granny Smith-changeling. "Played you and your beloved boss like a piano."

"Pipe down!" Applejack ordered as Scout's eyes narrowed and his ears flattened.

"Want me to do the honors, Apps?" Screwjob asked, raising his front hooves balled into fists.

"You pipe down too! Twilight, I thought you soundproofed these things."

"I did, but it only goes one way. We can hear them but they can't hear us. I didn't want to give them a chance to possibly communicate without our knowledge. They must have read somepony's lips or just guessed what we were talking about."

This observation turned out to be a blessing in disguise because from that point everypony took care to keep their mouth movements concealed from the hostages as they explained to Scout what had happened while he was gagged and blindfolded. When they got to the part about Twilight using Total Recall's spell to peek into Bonfire's memories and getting an unexpected dose of her emotions as well, Fluttershy exchanged uncomfortable looks with both the alicorn and the two wrestlers. Talking about it was forcibly reminding her, and quite likely the rest of them, just how hopeless and beaten-down it had felt in Bonfire's mind...

Having finally been free a moment to let every pony below know she was alright and not to worry about her, Skywishes was able to once more focus on her own situation. Bonfire's trembling had finally subsided, and she now just leaned against Skywishes's chest in a sort of stupor, probably still trying to process the fact that this pony could actually ... love her.

As for Skywishes herself, she had initially felt relief that Bonfire had chosen not to attack her. But now, with the little hybrid loosely wrapped in her sheltering wings, she began to feel a fresh new unease.

What are you even doing, Skywishes? she wondered as Bonfire shuddered against her chest. You're all wrong for this. You're not a nurturer. You're no Fluttershy.

She felt a sudden rush of gratitude toward Fluttershy as she remembered that moment she had been preparing to fling Bonfire out of the TreeHAB to the forest floor far below, only for Fluttershy to scream for her not to, even while clutching the foreleg Bonfire's teeth had just torn open.

How many other ponies would have reacted like that in such a situation? Skywishes wondered as she felt tears well up in her eyes, half in horror at what she had almost done, and half in relief that she'd been stopped just in time.

But there was still the issue of how in the world she was even supposed to care for Bonfire. Yes, things seemed to have worked out this far, but they couldn't remain in this position forever. Sooner or later, she would have to face the other ponies and the fact that she had chosen Bonfire over them and their friends and loved ones.

You've seen all the pain and stress this situation with the changelings has been putting on Twilight, Fluttershy and all the rest of them. You promised in your heart to fight for them, to do whatever it took to help as many of them survive as possible, and not to give up until they go home with victory over the changelings. Are you really going to just turn your back on all that? All just for this one little hybrid whose own kind even view her as less than nothing? What is that truly worth next to the lives of countless ponies?

At that moment Bonfire raised her head, and Skywishes saw fear in her orange eyes as the little equine pulled back as if she had been struck. Skywishes suddenly wondered if Bonfire was sensing the conflict in her, the second-guessing. The memories certainly seemed to indicate she had this ability, even if she had been constantly suppressing it in an effort to shield herself from expected pain. Was that why Bonfire had seemed so shaken up earlier? Had she dropped hers shields to try and understand Skywishes's motives, and tasted the love that had fueled Skywishes's recent actions?

"I promise from this moment onward to do everything in my power to make sure you're never again exploited for personal gain and only loved at personal cost." Her own words echoed through Skywishes's mind and with them returned the conviction that had led her to speak them in the first place.

Stop trying to make excuses, Skywishes! You knew what you were signing up for when you stopped Twilight. Don't you even dare contemplate leaving Bonfire just because it will likely be difficult. You didn't give up on building the TreeHAB even though you've had plenty of difficulties with it over the years. And Bonfire is far more important than that! You know the Everfree better than anypony else. You can find other places in it to shelter in if that's what it takes to protect her.

Her wings pulled Bonfire in close once again, and though the little one initially tensed at the action, she didn't fight it.

Please take all my doubts away, and give me the strength to do this. To give Bonfire the love she needs. To give her the chance at life she's never had. To give—

As this desperate prayer poured from Skywishes's heart, Bonfire shuddered, then let out a wondering sigh. Though no words were exchanged, Bonfire's reaction brought a new clarity to Skywishes in turn. A reminder that this situation wasn't defined by her fickle emotions, but by the fact that the wounded filly locked in this cadaverous shell was every bit as precious as any other foal in Equestria.

"Skywishes." The pegasus looked up to see Twilight hovering a short distance away before landing on one of the pipes jutting from the cross-section. She guessed that either the situation below had concluded or at least Twilight had been able to step away from it.

"It's okay." Twilight said as Skywishes's posture tensed and she subtly shifted to block Bonfire from the alicorn's view. "I'm not going to try taking her blood. I'm just going to let the two of you out of that bubble."

Skywishes didn't relax, her gaze darted from the alicorn on her level to the ponies below them and back again before demanding, "How do I know that's not just a ploy to get her back and take her blood?"

Before Twilight could respond, Highflyer shouted from below, "I can answer that! Jobs, give me a boost!"

In response, Screwjob rolled backward in a reverse somersault that brought his hind legs up into the air. Highflyer leaped toward him and Screwjob kicked up and outward when the smaller stallion bounced off his hooves. Highflyer shot toward the pipe Skywishes, Bonfire, and Twilight were perched on, caught a hold of it and swung himself up onto it right between Twilight and Skywishes.

"Just get rid of that bubble, Twilight, and I'll take it from there." he said, dropping into his pre-attack stance atop the pipe. Magenta light flashed from Twilight's horn and the shimmering barrier imprisoning Skywishes and Bonfire was suddenly gone. Lifting Bonfire behind her with one wing, Skywishes retreated several steps backward on the pipe. Her other wing whipped out, probably intending to block or swat Highflyer away if he tried to advance. But the masked stallion just dodged the wing, caught a hold of it as it passed, and wrenched it hard enough to throw the bigger pegasus off-balance. This caused Skywishes's other wing to release Bonfire and whip out as she tried to recover. Only for Highflyer to catch and trap that wing as well, forcing Skywishes around into a submission hold.

Skywishes let out a pained cry, but her own discomfort was promptly forgotten when she heard Bonfire's angry snarl. "No, Bonfire!" she shouted, fighting against the submission hold to keep herself upright to act as a barrier between the hybrid and her fellow ponies. Behind her, Highflyer didn't release her wings, but neither did he try to force her flat down on the pipe, keeping just enough pressure on her wings to make it clear who was in control. Meanwhile in front of her, Bonfire's snarl had dropped to a soft but steady growl, evidently having realized she couldn't spit fire or otherwise attack Highflyer, or for that matter Twilight, without first going through Skywishes, which she clearly didn't want to do. As the stalemate stretched between them, Skywishes looked back at her fellow ponies as best she could from the corner of her eye. Twilight's expression suggested she was trying to maintain that balance between being ready to react should Bonfire snap, but also not wanting to inadvertently trigger that snap, while Highflyer's ever-present mask made it impossible to read his expression.

"Well..." Skywishes finally said resignedly. "What are you planning to do from here?"

"Nothing if my little demonstration just proved our point." said Highflyer.

"Which is…?"

"If we were that desperate to get Bonfire, Twilight would currently have her, and you'd be lying on the floor with multiple fractures."

At any other time this might have sounded like the most egotistical of boasts, but considering she'd just witnessed the aftermath of the damage he'd inflicted on three changelings, Skywishes had little doubt Highflyer could back up this claim even without Twilight's help. Then though she still couldn't read his expression, his eyes did seem to soften slightly behind his mask, and when he spoke again his raspy voice was gentle. "Don't forget you're not the only pony who saw and felt what Bonfire's been through."

"He's right, Skywishes." said Twilight, sounding contrite as she rubbed one front hoof on the opposing foreleg. "I admit I kind of lost my head a bit back there when I realized Bonfire's blood was what we needed for a working potion. I thought I was going to have to scrap the original potion, start from scratch, somehow figure out what compound we needed in less than two weeks all without leaving the TreeHAB to find any ingredients we might not currently have, and then to find out it was here all the time..." She trailed off, realizing she was babbling. "Well, you can probably see why I just sort of lunged for what I thought was the solution. ... But that doesn't give me the right to treat Bonfire—" She looked past Skywishes to the still-softly-growling hybrid. "—to treat you like an inanimate object. And I'm sorry for treating you that way."

Bonfire just continued to growl and glare. The apology had clearly done little to mollify her, but given how the changelings had repeatedly used such tactics to toy with her in her memory, that was understandable. Not so much a case of once bitten, twice shy as it was a case of repeatedly being chewed up and spat out.

"Let me try something." Skywishes whispered to the ponies behind her before raising her voice. "Bonfire."

The growling stopped and small ears pricked attentively.

"Bonfire ... can you trust me?"

This was greeted with an inquisitive trill.

"If you can trust me... Then trust in the fact that I trust these ponies. They're worth fighting for. Just like you are."

Bonfire studied her for several long seconds before lowering her head in silent acquiescence.

Skywishes looked back toward the ponies behind her. "Just let me get my camo back on, and we'll join you down there." She gestured with her eyes to the group below.

Twilight nodded first to her, then to Highflyer, who took this as a signal to release her. As he jumped down, and Twilight flew down, Skywishes sat up and rolled her wings in their sockets. Then she scooped up her camo from where it had landed, draped on a pipe and began resuming it. As she pulled her black watch cap back down over her skull, she turned back to face Bonfire. When the bubble had dissolved, Bonfire's blanket must have fallen to the floor. With both it and her usual shimmering barrier gone, the little hybrid now looked exposed and vulnerable in a way Skywishes had never seen, or at least never noticed before.

"Hey," said Skywishes, keeping her voice as soft as she could. When Bonfire looked up, Skywishes extended a wing to her. "Come here." When Bonfire obeyed, Skywishes opened her camo coat, and wrapped it around the both of them, tucking Bonfire against her chest as she took off.

As Skywishes landed with Bonfire bundled in her camo, Fluttershy felt her earlier resentment come rushing back to replace her empathy. Even as she moved forward to greet them, she found herself silently seething at Skywishes: I've been trying to help her from the start and now you just swoop in and take all the cred—

These thoughts were interrupted by a vicious snarl from Bonfire as the little hybrid suddenly lunged out of Skywishes's camo.

"Hey!" shouted the coral-colored pegasus. Fluttershy recoiled in shock as Skywishes tried to restrain Bonfire, but the hybrid was already out and moving. However she hadn't taken more than a few steps before a ragged, stained off-white blur slammed into her ridged chest, knocking her back. Then Skywishes was there, wrapping one wing around Bonfire, and using the other to swat aside Mache Max. Or at least attempt to swat aside Mache Max, since the paper parrot seemed to have attached himself to her feathers as stubbornly as a piece of tape.

"Fluttershy, will you get him off!" Skywishes gritted through clenched teeth.

When Fluttershy moved cautiously forward, Bonfire snarled at her, and Skywishes turned her glare on the hybrid. "Don't act like that! She loves you just as much as I do, if not more so!"

Bonfire flinched, seeming to shrink at the harsh tone, and Fluttershy suddenly felt ashamed at her earlier thoughts toward Skywishes. Just a little while ago, you were wondering if it was even possible to ever get through to Bonfire. Now you're angry that Skywishes managed to do it instead of you? Are you really that petty?

It seemed that in fact, she was, but oh, how she didn't want to be.

This was it, Bonfire thought. When Fluttershy had come forward, Bonfire had sensed a hostility coming from the pony not directed toward Bonfire herself but toward Skywishes. With her memories of being the target of such feelings so fresh in her mind, the idea of this pony who loved her being forced to endure the same infuriated Bonfire as nothing had before, and she had responded accordingly, hoping to drive off the source of those hostile feelings.

But now it seemed her response had been wrong. It had turned Skywishes against her. Had cost her Skywishes's love. Had—

At that moment Skywishes let out a weary sigh. "Bonfire, I love you. You hear me? I love you and nothing is going to change that. I don't want you snapping and snarling at Fluttershy when she's done nothing to deserve it, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to abandon you because of it. Do you understand that?"

Did she understand it? She both did and didn't. She understood the words Skywishes was saying, but the idea that Skywishes's love hadn't been shaken by her recent action ... That she still had trouble comprehending.

Please don't let this be some sort of lie, she prayed as she once again reached out to read Skywishes's heart. She let out a choked gasp as Skywishes's love surged into her, unchanged, every bit as strong as it had been the last time. Then Fluttershy stepped closer, and their proximity caused Bonfire's groping ability to inadvertently read her heart as well.

She felt Fluttershy's regret at her earlier feelings toward Skywishes. Fluttershy reminding herself that it wasn't a competition; that what mattered was Bonfire's healing regardless of who delivered it.

And the love Skywishes had mentioned? It was there, as strong as Skywishes had said it was, and so longing to be offered to ... her ... to ... Bonfire.

While Skywishes and Bonfire were focused on each other, Fluttershy had moved in, intending to remove Mache Max from Skywishes's wing while Bonfire was distracted. But before she could even touch Mache Max, he released the wing on his own and shot away from the group. At that exact moment, Bonfire let out a choked gasp, commanding Fluttershy's attention.

The little hybrid was staring at both her and Skywishes, swaying with a shell-shocked expression on her skull-like face. Then she fell against Skywishes with a ragged whimper shaking her body. Keeping one wing wrapped around Bonfire, Skywishes now lifted the other toward Fluttershy, beckoning her in. As Fluttershy stepped into the embrace, she wished she could have added her own wings to it, but settled instead for brushing a hoof gently over Bonfire's side. The little one tensed, but allowed the hoof to stay there, and eventually relaxed. It seemed that Skywishes's request to be trusted had given her the courage to receive other ponies' attentions if not yet to return them.

Taking this as a cue, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Highflyer, Screwjob, Dinky, and Amethyst all slowly moved in and one by one, each laid a hoof, or in Spike's case, a claw, on Bonfire. Silently affirming that in their own way, they had become a herd and Bonfire was now part of that herd.

Soon after, everyone at the TreeHAB was asleep with the exception of a few who had opted to handle guard duty for that shift. While it seemed that their captives were sleeping as well, the ponies preferred not to take any chances leaving them unsupervised. In the sleeping group, Skywishes and Fluttershy had ended up side-by-side with Bonfire between them. Skywishes had a wing draped over Bonfire, and Fluttershy would have done the same if she'd had her wings. This was probably the most acutely she had felt their loss.

Fluttershy thought back on all that had happened earlier that day. The tension of the trial; the guilty verdict and the news that Discord would be executed in a month; Highflyer dashing off in a fit of rage to extract vengeance on the closest target, which had resulted in a hasty attempt to avoid discovery, which had in turn resulted in them now having several hostages, but unintentionally abandoning Rarity and Discord.

Still, who could have imagined what had then resulted from that situation? That they would finally learn the details of the trauma that had shaped Bonfire into the mistrustful creature she was, and in such an unexpectedly intimate way. That her blood would turn out to be the key to seeing through changeling disguises, only for pragmatic Skywishes to vehemently strike down that idea.

As Fluttershy felt herself drifting off to sleep, she focused on Bonfire's motionless skull-like face, and listened to her calm steady breathing, watching for any sign that Bonfire was experiencing her usual nightmares. So far there had been none.

In spite of everything else that had happened, in spite of her worries for Discord, Rarity, and everypony else out there, Fluttershy now found a degree of comfort in watching Bonfire experience untroubled sleep for what might have been the first time in her life.

"Why didn't you wake me up to take a guard shift?"

"Because the three of you just looked so peaceful all snuggled up together."

"Ha. Ha."

Skywishes and Twilight's voices drew Fluttershy from her slumber, and she lifted her head at Skywishes's sarcastic laugh.

"How long were we asleep?" Fluttershy asked, stretching her front legs out before her to get the stiffness out of them.

"A good couple hours, I think," said Twilight. "I don't remember exactly how late it was when we got to sleep, but it's morning now."

"Where's everypony else?"

"Spike and Dinky are making breakfast; Amethyst and Applejack are inventorying supplies; Highflyer and Screwjob are guarding the changelings; I just finished checking Derpy's vitals; and Scout ... he's not really doing anything at the moment."

Fluttershy remembered how the night before Scout had abstained from their welcoming of Bonfire, and even though they had explained things to him, he still seemed like an outsider. Maybe it was the fact that everything was new to him, and he had not lived through it as the rest of them had. She mentally grimaced at the memory of his unbridled glee at Discord's guilty conviction only the day before. While she understood he hadn't known the truth back then—And to be fair, none of her other friends had questioned Discord's possible guilt until Derpy, Amethyst, Dinky, Highflyer and Screwjob had that unexpected tangle with the changelings—the memory still left a bad taste in her mouth.

"How's Bonfire?" Twilight asked, pulling her back to the present.

Skywishes lifted the wing she'd draped over Bonfire. "Still aslee—"

At that instant Bonfire's eyes snapped open, and her limbs thrashed out. Flailing herself onto all fours, her head whipped this way and that, eyes wild and a savage snarl tearing from her throat, causing Fluttershy and Skywishes both to flinch back from her reflexively.

Twilight's horn lit with magenta light. But before she could fire off a spell, Skywishes lunged forward, wrapping both forelegs around Bonfire from behind, and lifting the struggling hybrid from the floor.

"Don't touch her, Twilight!" Skywishes shouted over Bonfire's snarls and shrieks. "Bubble the pair of us!"

Light flashed from Twilight's horn and the familiar shimmering bubble enclosed Skywishes and her struggling captive just as Bonfire spat out a blast of fire. The fire splashed against the inside of the bubble's membrane, and for an instant Fluttershy thought it would dissipate harmlessly as it had many times before. But then Skywishes let out a sharp cry, and still holding Bonfire, flung herself onto her back where she began rolling from side-to-side as best she could without squashing Bonfire, trying to smother the flames consuming the feathers on her right wing.

All this time Bonfire continued to struggle and scream. Skywishes had her in a hold that prevented the hybrid from bringing her snapping teeth into play but she could still spit flames.

"Bonfire, remember the pledge I made to you!" Skywishes shouted. "I promised you'd never again be exploited for personal gain, but only loved at personal cost! Remember that?!"

Upon hearing these words, Bonfire suddenly seemed to snap out of it. She stopped struggling. Her shrunken skeletal chest rose and fell as breath rushed in and out of her nasal cavity. She took in the familiar shimmering barrier surrounding her, then seemed to register the fact that Skywishes was holding her from inside that barrier. At the sight of Skywishes's now-burned right wing, she seemed to tense up in the pegasus's grasp.

Twilight, Fluttershy, and Skywishes all waited anxiously to see what the hybrid would do, but Bonfire seemed to be waiting for something just as anxiously.

Finally it was Dinky's voice behind them that broke the silence. "So, um, now's not a good time for breakfast, I take it?"

"Why do you suppose she acted like that?" Twilight asked a short while later over their thankfully still-warm breakfast. "Or why she's been acting like a statue since then?"

When Bonfire seemed to have calmed down, Twilight had cautiously released her and Skywishes from the bubble. Skywishes kept her forelegs wrapped around Bonfire, ready to snatch her up should she have another fit. But Bonfire just stayed stiff and unmoving, only turning her head to watch when Fluttershy came forward to tend Skywishes's burnt wing, having made a quick run to the medical supply stash to fetch the burn supplies kept there.

Skywishes let out an involuntary hiss of pain as Fluttershy extended the wing to examine the charred feathers and the inflamed skin below. Fluttershy braced herself for a snarl from Bonfire for daring to hurt Skywishes, but surprisingly the hybrid only cringed in Skywishes's grasp. As if she somehow understood she was responsible for Skywishes's current pain.

"Maybe she was afraid everything that happened last night was just a dream, and she was waking up to face a reality where nopony could possibly care about her." Fluttershy said in response to Twilight's first question. When this was greeted with curious stares all around, she felt a blush surge into her cheeks. "I ... When Discord was gone the past year, I used to have these really vivid dreams where he returned. I'd always feel so convinced they were real, and so glad he was back. But then I'd wake up every time to the disappointment that he was still gone. It just reminded me of that." Though now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember having any dreams like that since arriving at the TreeHAB. Was it because she now knew where Discord was? Was it because the stress of worrying about his welfare left her too exhausted to spare energy on dreaming about him?

Skywishes's grim exhalation pulled her back to their current situation. "I suppose it's not that surprising Bonfire would react that way. We might have gotten through to her last night, but when you're essentially dealing with wounds and trauma that have been untended and left to fester for years, you can't expect them to just heal overnight." She looked down at Bonfire. "Is that why you've just been hanging there, not letting yourself react to anything? You're afraid we'll snatch our love away if you make the tiniest misstep?"

Bonfire turned her head and let out her inquisitive trill as if to say: Of course. How else could you possibly react? Despite what she'd experienced the night before, the idea that she could be loved unconditionally was still just too alien to her.

"Bonfire, I'm too stubborn to let this—" she gestured to the wing Fluttershy was still tending. "—stop me from loving you. I didn't appreciate your fire burning my wing. It hurt!"

Bonfire flinched.

"But I love you anyway!"

Her head snapped back up to stare at the pegasus in shock.

"Yes! And do you think Fluttershy enjoyed it when you bit her? Of course she didn't, yet she still begged me to let you stay. And why? Because she loved you then and still does now!" She wrapped her good wing around Bonfire's shuddering frame, her voice softening. "That's what real genuine love is."

Bonfire shivered, wanting so hard to believe Skywishes's words, yet so afraid they were a trap like the changelings had set up for her so many times.

But then how had Skywishes known about making that promise if Bonfire had only imagined it? And this self-enforced immobilization was in its own way as much of a torture as the immobilization the changelings had subjected her to. In desperation, she mentally reached into Skywishes as she thought she might have the night before and was instantly overwhelmed with the same fiercely unrelenting love she had felt before. It was too much, far too much, yet she couldn't seem to get enough of it.

As Bonfire slumped against her once again, Skywishes looked up wearily. "Where's the cocoa? I need cocoa. Heavy on the cayenne pepper."

Twilight quickly floated a mug of the requested beverage and a shaker of the requested spice to her.

"Skywishes?" Twilight asked as the pegasus alternately sipped and doctored the cocoa to her liking. "If you don't mind my asking ... Why'd you stop me last night from taking Bonfire's blood?" She glanced down at the hybrid who currently seemed to be in too much of a stupor to notice the conversation. "I'm not saying you were wrong to do it, I'm just wondering what your thought process was. I mean, um, how should I say this...?"

Twilight fidgeted while Skywishes just watched her silently over the edge of the cocoa mug.

"You don't seem very ... sentimental about things. And I don't mean that in a bad way; it can be a good thing. You've helped the rest of us stay focused on what we can do practically when we've been feeling overwhelmed, and that's been really great.

"But based on how you've handled those situations, I would have expected you to be in favor of using Bonfire's blood just from a purely pragmatic standpoint. So ... why didn't you see it that way?"

Skywishes lowered the mug, swallowed the cocoa still in her mouth, swiped a hoof across her lips, and actually cracked a faint smile. "That's just it. I did see it that way."

Twilight blinked. "You did?"

The smile faded and Skywishes bowed her head. "When you were preparing to draw her blood, it made perfect sense to me. There may have been some physical discomfort, but it wouldn't have killed her, and it would have made things so much easier for the rest of us. Plus I had told Bonfire I wouldn't bend over backwards to help her if it meant sacrificing any of you; essentially told her that if things got bad, she'd be the first one I'd abandon. That may sound harsh, but that's how I'd been viewing things with her. So you're right I should have been on board with it."

Skywishes let out a heavy sigh. "But then you used that spell that allowed us to experience what she's been through. Up until then, I'd always looked at her only as a potential threat. But afterwards, though I kept reminding myself about her bite and flaming, I just kept seeing a damaged filly desperate to be rescued."

She paused a moment, possibly collecting her thoughts, then went on. "You know, in a way Applejack was right, about me not having anypony out there to worry about. And I have to admit that if I had as many friends and loved ones out there as the rest of you, I might have felt justified in taking Bonfire's blood to save them. I even told myself that while you were looking for the best place to put that syringe.

"But after experiencing things through Bonfire's eyes while the changelings were using her for their own gain, I just couldn't unsee the similarities between what they had done and what you were planning to do. With the possible exception of Mache Max, none of us have messed with Bonfire in the time she's been here. We hadn't crossed that line into using her for our own benefit, but once you purposefully took her blood, we would have crossed that line, and Bonfire would have every right to view us in the same light she views the changelings.

"So while I understood and sympathized with your choice, I couldn't let you go through with it."

"You mentioned a pledge earlier. About making sure Bonfire wouldn't be used for personal gain and only loved at personal cost." said Fluttershy, looking up from slathering ointment on Skywishes's wing. "Is that what you told her while the two of you were up on the pipes? I couldn't hear what you were saying at the time."

Skywishes nodded. "It was where I promised her that."

Twilight cleared her throat. "Skywishes, in hindsight, I am glad you stopped me. If it were a matter of using my own blood, you can bet I wouldn't hesitate to give as much of it as I could to save my friends. But I don't have the right to force Bonfire to make that sacrifice."

She turned her gaze on Bonfire directly. "Bonfire, I am sorry again for what I did to you. I'm the Princess of Friendship. I should know better than to judge others by their appearance and to view them as other than beings in their own right. But ... I am also a Princess of Equestria. Given Luna and Celestia ... maybe the last one." Fluttershy couldn't miss the hitch in Twilight's voice and the emotions playing on her face as she worked to hold back tears. While Twilight had been stoic throughout this affair, a pillar of strength, for the first time, Fluttershy wondered just how deeply it was all affecting her. "Your blood is a solution to a problem we desperately need to solve, and when I realized that..." Twilight trailed off, her mouth twisting with regret as she briefly averted her eyes. "When I tried to take it, I was acting as a ruler, doing what I thought was best for Equestria as a whole, even if it was at the expense of one individual. I was not acting in a way that a friend would do, and I shouldn't have acted that way towards you. In trying to help others, I lost who I was myself." She fidgeted, her wings rustling as she reseated them. "All that, though, is just an excuse. I am sorry, Bonfire. Truly. I shouldn't have treated you the way I did, and for that, I hope one day you can forgive me."

Throughout this speech, Bonfire remained pressed against Skywishes, her ears hearing Twilight's words, but her heart struggling with them. Skywishes had asked her to trust the rest of the ponies—or at least trust in the fact that Skywishes trusted them. And Twilight's words certainly echoed the conviction she'd first read in Skywishes's heart: That she, Bonfire, was worth saving not for whatever use they might get out of her, but merely because she existed. But could she truly lower her defenses against Twilight as completely as she had first with Skywishes then with Fluttershy? The words were enticing, but so had been the ones her previous captors had used to lure her in only to break her time and time again. What were the odds that—?

"I agree with Twilight." said Fluttershy as she finished bandaging Skywishes's wing. "I mean about being glad in hindsight you stopped her. I'm still worried about Rarity and Discord, but last night I began thinking: If I were in their position, would I have wanted Bonfire to be used against her will to save me?" She shook her head. "No. I wouldn't."

Skywishes gave them a grateful smile. "I'm glad you can see it that way, because I was really sure last night that my decision would have turned all of you against me." She then turned her head to look at the rest of the group. "Well, it looks like we've got less than two weeks to get Rarity and possibly Discord out of their current predicament. So I'm currently open to any suggestions that don't involve Bonfire."

Spike raised a claw. "We did discover my message-sending flame works on me the way it does on other things, but I don't have to wrap up like the rest of you. If we could somehow get me and a paper travel blanket in the same room as Rarity and Discord, I could bundle them up, send them here, then send myself along right after them."

"Hmm, not a bad idea," said Skywishes. "Though there is the issue of getting you to Canterlot to pull it off."

"I'll get him there." It took the group a moment to realize the determined voice had come from Fluttershy of all ponies.

"How?"

"I'll walk."

"Walk?! Have you seen the weather? It's freezing out there! Not to mention storming!"

Fluttershy seemed to wilt at this, then rallied her resolve. "That doesn't matter. It won't be the first time I've braved a snow storm for Discord."

"Scout go too!" the pinto piped up. "Scout speak to boss!"

"Ooh, not a good idea." said Twilight. "While we now know you're a real pony, we still don't know if your 'Boss' is the real Tequila Mockingbird or a changeling posing as her."

"They said they played boss along with Scout!" he argued.

"Yes, but we don't know if they've replaced her with a changeling in the time you've been away from her."

"Plus, don't you think it will raise a lot of questions if Wisteria and Scout show up looking like they just trekked through a blizzard?" said Skywishes. "I think it'd be better if I flew Spike to Canterlot and once he's there, Twilight can send any of you through to him like she did last time."

"Fly through a blizzard?" Fluttershy squeaked. "With that burned wing?"

Skywishes's response was to fan both wings out, lift herself into the air, and ignoring Bonfire's protesting chirps at being left behind, circled above the group to land on one of the larger pipes. However, there were tears streaming from her eyes when she landed, and she didn't so much light on the pipe as she slammed into and scrambled atop it; unintentionally making it clear to the observers that though she could still fly, it was quite painful and her ability to maneuver was severely compromised.

As she dropped back down to land heavily on the floor, and Bonfire raced to her side in a limping run, a fierce debate erupted amongst the group. They didn't want Skywishes flying through a blizzard in her current condition. Not only was the weather a concern, but for all they knew the skies could be filled with changelings practically invisible in their semi-transparent forms. This led some of the group to conclude it would be safer to send several of them on foot toward Canterlot and to rely on a combination of stealth and safety in numbers. Skywishes agreed that ordinarily she was all in favor of stealth but as time wasn't on their side—and a major reason they couldn't just wait until her wing healed completely—she must bow to speed this time around. It was brought up that if the changelings caught them, Spike might be able to escape by sending himself straight to Twilight with a blast of fire but any ponies with him would not be so fortunate unless they were wrapped in one of the paper blankets. Could they travel with the blankets just wrapped around themselves the whole time? Maybe, but the blankets were cumbersome to move in and would slow them down even when knotted around their necks like capes. And Skywishes trying to fly with one flapping around her was definitely out of the question.

Finally Twilight silenced the increasingly heated debate. "Look, before we get any plan set in stone, let's wait to hear back from Rarity. We need to know if anyone has found out the three witnesses as well as both lawyers' assistants are missing, and if they're doing anything about it so we're not just waltzing in there blind."

They all agreed this was probably for the best.

"But one more thing." said Skywishes. "If we do end up using my idea to fly Spike to Canterlot and something happens to me..." She looked down at where Bonfire was pressed against her chest before looking back up at the rest of the group. "If I get caught and Spike manages to send himself back here. Look after Bonfire—" The hybrid's head snapped up at her name. "—Okay? I'm going to trust all of you to honor the promise I made to her."

"Don't worry, Wishie. We'll make sure she's provided for—" Fluttershy's reassurance was interrupted by a harsh chittering protest from the hybrid in question.

Skywishes looked down at her. "You'll be all right, Bonfire." she said, using her good wing to push Bonfire toward Fluttershy. "They'll protect you and love you."

Bonfire tried to back up against Skywishes's wing. I don't want their love! I want yours!

Never before had she wished so desperately to put her feelings into words. When Skywishes had mentioned the possibility of getting caught, all Bonfire could think of was seeing the life get strangled out of Sunny Daze. But now she was imagining Skywishes in the same position. And the image wouldn't go away no matter how hard she tried to suppress it. She felt hooves meant to comfort being laid on her, and heard voices meant to soothe, but they could do nothing against this new fear that she might soon lose someone she suddenly couldn't bear to lose.

Since she'd been brought to the TreeHAB, Bonfire had fixated on Skywishes more than all the other ponies because she had come to realize that somehow Skywishes's word was law here and her life could instantly end at the coral-colored pony's say-so. But last night, when Skywishes had metaphorically leapt down from her lofty perch and literally put herself at Bonfire's mercy, the whole nature of their relationship had changed. Somehow the anchor that had kept Bonfire secured in place even as it pinned her under the water had now become the rock lifting her above that water. And with that change had come a strange new need to ... preserve Skywishes.

Without warning Bonfire jerked away from the group of ponies and bolted to the HAB lab. They gave chase, but she was back almost immediately with a syringe clamped in her teeth. She limped as fast as she could to Twilight and made a jabbing motion toward her own shoulder with the syringe.

Skywishes's eyes widened. "Bonfire, no! I promised I wouldn't let anypony use you for their own gain and I meant it."

Bonfire chittered around the syringe in her teeth and repeated the stabbing gesture more forcibly.

"Bonfire, that's not going to—"

"Wait, Skywishes." Fluttershy silenced her by laying a hoof on her wither, then turned to the hybrid, hardly daring to hope what she was witnessing might be true. "Bonfire, are you saying you want to give us your blood?"

The hybrid nodded furiously. Skywishes shot Fluttershy a steely glare, but for once Fluttershy didn't cower at it, only faced it head-on. "Skywishes, I know you promised Bonfire she wouldn't be exploited for our gain, and I understand and agree with that. But are you also going to forbid her from choosing to offer us her blood if she wants to?"

Skywishes continued to glare silently at her for several long seconds. But then the coral-colored pegasus looked away first and let out a long breath before turning her attention to Bonfire as well. "Bonfire, I want you to understand you don't have to do this. If you decide not to offer your blood, it won't make me love you any less. ... But if that's what you want to do, I won't stop you."

Bonfire chittered back once more in response then looked up at Twilight.

Bending her knees, the alicorn princess lowered herself until she was almost level with Bonfire, her gaze meeting the little equine's. She projected her overwhelming thanks and gratitude at something finally going right for them, even letting a tear run down her cheek in relief. "Thank you, Bonfire. Thank you so, so much."

Fluttershy and Skywishes both offered Bonfire hooves to hold onto while Twilight once again searched for an opening in the hybrid's exoskeleton where she could best insert the needle. Finally she found it in a jointed segment high on Bonfire's bony back. With the combination warning reassurance that Bonfire would feel a sharp pinch but it would be over real soon, Twilight plunged the needle home. Bonfire let out a short hiss, clamped her bony lashless eyelids shut, and dug her skeletal hooves into the larger ones enveloping them, but to her credit she stayed stoically in position until the needle was withdrawn.

"It's done, Bonfire." said Twilight as she deposited the blood in a vial and corked it. "You can relax now."

Bonfire didn't relax so much as she slumped, her body trembling as if she had just completed a grueling race while she hung suspended by the hooves she still clutched.

While Twilight blended the new potion, Skywishes and Fluttershy moved their cadaverous charge to a makeshift bed of camouflage material. Once they had her settled in, they stayed close to monitor her.

It was impossible for Bonfire to pale, covered as she was with that black exoskeleton, but she seemed drained, and given how small and thin she was, Fluttershy guessed she probably didn't have much blood in her body to spare. Once again Fluttershy felt a rush of relief that Skywishes had jumped in to stop Twilight from initially taking Bonfire's blood as it seems it would have hurt the little one far worse than they'd originally thought.

"Are you okay, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked a short time later as the alicorn arranged thirteen mugs on a tray in the kitchen. Four of them contained hot cocoa, while the remaining nine each contained a swallow of potion. "You seem ... nervous." Fluttershy observed, noticing how the mugs were rattling against each other.

"I suppose I am." Twilight admitted. "It's just ... I've been trying for so long to create a successful potion and now to suddenly have it here ... I guess it just feels unreal in a lot of ways."

"I know what you mean." Applejack said somberly. "Spending all those years hiding out disguised while trying to find a way to see through their disguises ... I can't count the number of times it felt hopeless."

"That's another thing that's worrying me," said Twilight. "I know I got all excited about this potion earlier, but even though we have it, there's still the issue of getting it and ourselves where it can actually be of use to the rest of Equestria—"

Skywishes cleared her throat sharply.

"I know, I know," said Twilight. "Let's find out how soon this potion kicks in and how long it lasts before deciding where to go from there."

Skywishes gave her a brief wry smile before moving to join the remaining seven ponies and one dragon in a strategically loose line. One by one they each took a mug containing potion. They then proceeded to meander about, each making a show of sipping from their mostly empty mugs, while Twilight moved with the tray of the remaining four mugs toward the hostages. As she moved, she occasionally heard somepony behind her call out a soft "Ready" until she had heard nine readies in total, signaling everyone was in position. Plunking straws into three of the cocoa mugs so the bound hostages could drink more easily, she raised her own mug to shield her mouth from the hostages as she gave the order "Go!" Then she took a long sip of her own cocoa, and focused all her attention on floating the remaining mugs of cocoa through the bubbles' membranes to the captives inside.

At Twilight's Go, everyone tipped their mugs all the way back and downed their allotted potion. Fluttershy winced as the acidic taste burned her tongue, but didn't let it distract her from surreptitiously watching the changelings from the corner of her eye. For a brief second nothing seemed to happen. Then it was as if some veil had suddenly been ripped away from her eyes. Twilight still looked exactly the same, but in the bubbles near her, the three ponies had suddenly gone so translucent that in places they almost looked transparent. And shining clear as beacons through the translucent images were the pulsing blue-green shapes of their true changeling selves.

As Fluttershy moved back to check on Bonfire, it was all she could do not to cheer. Granted her cheers seldom rose over a whisper, but she didn't even want to risk the accompanying joyful expression giving anything away.

Giving her blood had left Bonfire feeling exhausted, and yet at the same time strangely exhilarated. As if somehow the act of choosing to offer her blood had given back to her far more than it had taken away.

She felt feathers that she hoped were Skywishes's brushing the length of her back. She thought she distantly heard Fluttershy murmur "Thank you, Skywishes." Then she felt a hoof gently caressing her skull with its patched-up wound in the back, and its scant wisps of hair on top. The touch was accompanied by a rush of love, gratitude, and a soft but heartfelt, "And thank you, Bonfire."

Fluttershy smiled with tears in her eyes as Bonfire snuggled herself against the pony's touch. Some ponies might not have seen much difference between just taking some of Bonfire's blood, and the little one freely choosing to offer it, but Fluttershy knew better.

It made all the difference.

Author's Note

And cue Legacy by Kutless aka Bonfire's theme!

Man, I've been longing to get to this point ever since I first posted the prologue to The Ponies who Played with Fire, and now we're finally here!

As always a big thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing.

Bonfire Fun fact: In my headcanon I defy the convention of using women to voice young boy characters by instead using a man to voice a young girl character. Translation: In my headcanon, Bonfire is voiced by Frank Welker. And if any of you Disney/Animation/Voice-acting fans out there don't know who Frank Welker is, shame on you, because you've probably heard him in more things than most other voice-over actors put together.

Hmm ... and what's been happening on Rarity and Discord's side of things throughout this? We'll find out in the next chapter. Man, only five more to go. Hang in there folks, we're going to make it.

Chapter 10. Lamentations 3:32-33

CHAPTER 10

"Though God brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love. For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men."—Lamentations 3:32-33

The lawyer's name didn't ring any bells, but at the sound of the assistant's name, Discord felt his whole body go on high alert. Could it be...? Was it possible that...?

No, the name must just be a coincidence. After all, how could—?

"Thank you, officer. We'll take it from here."

Discord snapped his head up in the direction of this new female voice (which had an oddly familiar posh accent) in time to see a pink unicorn mare striding across the room. Her mane and tail were each a riot of rainbow streaks that had been tamed into a sophisticated arrangement which made him inwardly wince. Such a waste on all that potentially wild-looking hair. As if to further compound this, she was clad in a deep violet skirt suit that seemed to proclaim "professional." Was this supposed to be his lawyer?

Then he caught sight of a second mare, an earth pony, hurrying along right behind the unicorn. She was dressed in a violet skirt suit similar to the unicorn's, yet there was something in her demeanor and posture that made it come across much more understated. Even her soft lavender coat and sky blue mane and tail seemed to fade into the background next to the unicorn's much-more vibrant col—

But at that moment the earth pony raised her head to look directly at him and Discord felt his breath catch. The face framing them might look different than he remembered, but he would know those turquoise eyes anywhere. How could he not when he had spent so many dreams the past year trying to escape them, and just as many seeking them out?

Fluttershy fought to keep her expression neutral as she saw recognition flash in Discord's yellow eyes. How she hoped it was only her decision to reuse the name they'd agreed upon when searching the Crystal Empire for Applejack that had prompted that recognition. Deep down she had felt a tiny thrill that he had seen through her disguise, but it was also coupled with an anxiety that if he could, others would as well.

At the sound of a female throat clearing, she cut her eyes toward her similarly disguised unicorn friend, who was currently confronting the guards surrounding Discord's cell.

"Would the four of you kindly step outside while I speak with my client?"

All the guards shifted about uncomfortably but made no move to leave their current positions.

"Ma'am," one finally said, the reluctance in his voice equal to that in his stance. "I'm not sure that'd be wise considering what he's—"

"Yes, I'm well-aware of what he's been accused of, officer," Regal Love—in reality Rarity—cut in, ladling on some of her signature charm. "And while your concern is deeply appreciated, I'm afraid we must respect the rules of attorney-client privilege. Even in such a case as this."

The guard's resolve seemed to waver slightly. "Well ... I suppose as long as you take the proper precautions... You'll be careful to stay several feet back from the bars, right? They're spelled to set off an alarm if anyone so much as brushes up against them, but—"

"My assistant and I were informed of the security precautions and will make sure to observe them. Thank you, officer."

"Alright." The guard cast the draconequus prisoner a scathing look before turning back to the unicorn lawyer. "You've got ten minutes, then we're coming back in regardless of attorney-client privilege."

"Understood," said the lawyer amiably. "And thank you again for your concern."

The four guards marched out of the room. No sooner had the door closed behind them, then a pale blue light flashed from the lawyer's horn. "There." she whispered. "That spell should keep us from being overheard, but we'd better keep our voices down anyway. Just in case."

The two ponies hurried to the front of the cage, not stopping several feet away from the bars as the lawyer had assured the guards, but a mere several inches. Meanwhile the draconequus did the same from his side of the bars, leaning down to put his head roughly level with those of the ponies.

"Flutter—" he started to whisper, but she quickly put a hoof to her lips and shook her head to shush him.

Her eyes flicked to the door, still paranoid the guards would burst in, before she turned back to Discord and whispered, "Please, while we're here, call me Wisteria and her Regal Love." Since there was no way of knowing how long they might have to maintain these disguises, Fluttershy and Rarity had decided it would be best if they got into the habit of using and answering to their fake names even in private.

"Oh, yes, yes, of course, of course," he whispered back impatiently. "But what's been happening? How did you get here? Did the rescue work?" He frowned at her. "And why are you disguised as an earth pony?"

Her eyes flicked uneasily toward the door again, when Regal Love suddenly stepped closer to her side and whispered, "I'll watch the door while you fill him in, darling."

With the flashlight beam bouncing ahead of him, Spike scuttled through the maze of air ducts toward Derpy's room. Cautiously prying up a ceiling tile, he checked the room below. Fortunately, the room seemed empty except for its assigned occupant and the equipment required to sustain her.

Pulling the letter from his pocket, he whispered to it: "Twilight, I'm at Derpy's room now."

Twilight: "Alright. Here they come."

Spike felt the familiar fire burning in his gut and stuck his head down through the hole, aiming his face away from Derpy's bed. He let out a burst of flames and a large bundle dropped out of it onto the floor. As five ponies emerged from the bundle and took their places around the room, Spike lowered himself on a rope to join them. All the while, he could hear shouts and scuffling from outside the room, but there was no way to know if those cries were being made by an enemy, an ally or both.

That is, until there were wild shouts of "Mother! Mother!" right on the other side of the closed door. Spike could remember how they had decided that just in case a changeling tried to pose as Amethyst, she would identify herself by calling not to "Mom" as she normally would, but to "Mother."

Highflyer, who was currently closest to the door, jumped for the handle, and had barely gotten the door open, when a bedraggled unicorn with a broken stump of a horn darted inside. She looked wildly around the room, and the group hastily barked out their own code words to assure her that she could trust them.

Whipping around, she slammed the door shut with Highflyer still dangling from the handle. "We've got to get Mom out of here now!"

"But what about Discord?" Fluttershy asked.

"He said to go without him! Hurry!"

As much as Fluttershy wanted to press for more details, the terror and urgency in Amethyst's voice made it clear now was not the time. The group immediately went into action: taking their positions and going through the actions they'd practiced so many times before. Except that this time they were treated to a cacophony of beeping and wailing alarms as tubes and wires came loose. Not to mention that this time a friend's life depended on their speed.

Fluttershy was about halfway through disconnecting everything in her section when she heard a savage blow against the room's door, and looked up in time to see it fly open. Amethyst, Spike, and Highflyer (who must have dropped down from the door handle when Fluttershy wasn't looking) all lunged for the door. For a moment, it looked like they would succeed in slamming it shut, but the door suddenly halted and someone or something on the other side began forcing it back open. As hard as the three tried they couldn't halt its progress.

"Cover for me, girls!" Screwjob shouted to the three mares around the bed before springing away from it to join the group at the door. His added strength was not enough to force the door completely shut, but it did prevent it from opening any further.

"Sky, you get the blanket, we'll get his section!" Applejack directed.

"Right." said Skywishes.

"Hurry, Fluttershy!" Applejack added.

"I'm hurrying! I'm hurrying!" Fluttershy squeaked as her hooves continued to fly over her section. But all the while she couldn't shake the worry that they—that Derpy—would run out of time. How much had already passed? One-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three—She couldn't tell if her mental counter was going too fast or too slow!

And what if Applejack and I get in each other's way?! That's what we were trying to avoid! One-thousand-ten, one-thousand-eleven, one-thousand-twelve—Done!

Fluttershy moved to Screwjob's former section, reaching it at almost the same time as Applejack. Much to her surprise (and likely Applejack's as well), Screwjob hadn't worked his section left-to-right or right-to-left as most ponies would have, but had started in the middle and spread out in both directions.

"You take that part, I'll take this part," Applejack directed, indicating the unfinished section closest to her. Fluttershy nodded and took the other section. As odd and seemingly inefficient as she considered the wrestler's work pattern, she couldn't deny it eliminated the issue of her and Applejack possibly getting in each other's way.

As she rushed through disconnecting the remaining wires, she darted a covert glance toward the group bracing themselves against the door. Her fear spiked when she saw that despite all their combined efforts, the door was forced open several more inches and this time a burly stallion managed to thrust his head through the opening.

"No, ya don't!" she heard Highflyer growl before he sprang away from the door, and vaulted up onto Screwjob's shoulders. Perched there, he swung his tiny body about to slam both back hooves against the intruder's head. With a cry of either pain, surprise, or both, Fluttershy couldn't really be sure which, the burly stallion jerked his head back out of sight behind the door and this time the group managed to shut the door completely. And not a second too soon.

"That's everything, let's go!" Applejack shouted as she wedged herself against the bottom left side of the bed, and Fluttershy wedged herself against its top right side.

"Roger!" As Highflyer leaped off Screwjob's shoulders, the tall wrestler wrapped his forelegs around Amethyst, pulling her against him as if in a tight embrace. Only to promptly throw himself—and by extension the unicorn he was clutching—forward in a half-somersault, half-log roll that put him right up against the bed's right side. With Amethyst sandwiched between his body and the side of the bed, he grabbed the top and bottom of one leg in his front hooves, and the top and bottom of another in his back hooves, so that he formed a sort of sloppy spread-eagle against the bed's side.

Then Skywishes flew over them all, trailing the outspread paper blanket behind her to drape it over them. As she felt the blanket snag, followed by a round of three quick confirming tugs each from Applejack, Fluttershy, and Screwjob, she dropped down to the one remaining corner at the top of the bed, and took cover under the blanket as well.

While this was going on, Spike had swung up onto Highflyer's back, and the tiny stallion sprinted toward the far corner of the room. When he heard a muffled chorus of "Ready!" from underneath the paper blanket, Highflyer launched himself toward the opening Spike had left in the ceiling. He caught one edge of the hole with his front hooves, tucked his back legs up in front of him and hooked them over the other edge of the hole so that he was suspended from it like a sloth. He thought he heard the room's door swing back open, but at that moment Spike leaned backward from their upside-down position, and blasted a great torrent of flames down onto the blanket-covered mound below them. As the heat surged behind him, Highflyer felt two tugs on the back of his mask; Spike's signal for them to clear out. He hauled both himself and his passenger up into the ceiling, managing to turn the upward movement into a sideways tumble once they were inside the ceiling. As he felt Spike leave his back, Highflyer rolled onto his feet, and darted back to join the dragon in pulling the tile back over their exit both to prevent any fire from following them and to hide their getaway.

Meanwhile, at the TreeHAB, two unicorns and an alicorn waited on tenterhooks for the rescue party to reappear. Twilight dared not even get up and pace lest it accidentally caused the group to appear too far away from the awaiting life-support system.

Suddenly a mound covered in the familiar paper blanket burst into existence right in front of her. Scarcely had it materialized then a brown-black-pink-purple-and-camo blur rolled out from under the blanket. At first she thought it might be Skywishes, but as it came to a stop in front of Dinky and Rarity, she saw that it was Screwjob with his forelegs wrapped around Amethyst. The wrestler deposited her at the feet of her fellow unicorns and went rolling back across the floor toward the blanket-covered mound. Or rather the formerly blanket-covered mound because by that point Twilight had flown up and used her magic to jerk said blanket aside, revealing a hospital bed with a shimmering opaque dome in its center, and three ponies perched on most of its corners. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Skywishes all sprang from their perches on the bed, and began wildly connecting its occupant to the new life-support system. A split second later, Screwjob was there as well, also connecting systems.

Twilight circled above them, watching for any mishaps. The dome flickered, offering glimpses of its gruesome contents, and Twilight sent fresh bursts of magic into it, turning it opaque again. Suddenly the four ponies below her leaped away from the bed, Skywishes alighting on one of the pipes near the ceiling, and the remaining three hitting the deck below.

"That's it, Twilight! Throw the switch!"

The alicorn sent a blast of magic into the life-support system to jumpstart it.

For several agonizingly long seconds nothing happened.

Then there was a sharp hiss of a pump starting up, followed by a beeping sound that stuttered, then steadied. Twilight fluttered down to examine one of the system's main info gauges, and looked up at the other ponies with a weary smile. "Everything is operational, and the patient's reading is normal." she reported.

Dinky and Rarity had helped prop Amethyst up in a sitting position, but upon hearing this news, she promptly slumped forward, her cheek resting against the floor. "We made it, Mom," she said, her voice trembling with relief. "We made it."

Despite the bleakness of his own situation, Discord felt as if a burden had suddenly slid from him. "So, you managed to get them out of there in time. Oh, that's good."

The amount of relief in his voice seemed to startle the two ponies and he immediately tried to cover it by changing the subject. "By the way, did you find out how close you got to the time limit? I'll bet it was close. Like down to the last possible second or fraction of a second, wasn't it?"

To his surprise, Wisteria actually let out a small laugh. "Well ... Twilight, Dinky, and Amethyst did check and compare times later ... and we actually made it with ten seconds to spare."

"You're kidding!"

She just had to laugh again at his incredulous tone. "I'm not!"

He chuckled softly. "Well, who'd have thought throwing in all those kinks would speed things up? That wrestler of yours must have been moving like frozen molasses during your practice sessions."

Wisteria's amused smile suddenly fell.

Discord frowned at this. "What's wrong?"

She lowered her gaze. "Actually we think your decision to stay behind might have been what bought us those extra seconds we needed." She swallowed and looked back up at him with shining eyes. "Amethyst told us about what happened..."

Once Derpy was safely hooked up, the group at the TreeHAB was able to focus more attention on Amethyst. They helped her flush what remained of the soapy water out of her eyes, wash and comb her mane, and swap her torn drenched hospital gown for some much warmer, far more durable camo. Now she and her younger sister were twined together in a long-overdue snuggle while Amethyst related what had happened with Discord, and allowed Twilight to examine the broken stump of her horn.

"...I thought if he used me as a shield, it would give us a chance to escape—Ow!"

"Sorry," said Twilight. "You've got some bad bruising up on your forehead."

Screwjob peeked over her shoulder to examine the area. "You know, if they'd slammed your face down on that counter at a couple of slightly different angles, it could have broken your nose or knocked your teeth out."

Amethyst let out a weak half-laugh, half-groan. "How considerate of her. Too bad she couldn't have just slammed the side of my head against the counter and missed my horn all together while she was at it."

Fluttershy felt this statement was meant ironically, but Screwjob seemed to take it as genuine. "No way! A blow there would have done way worse damage! Really, sweetheart apart from your horn breaking, your forehead really is probably the best place to take a headshot." He rapped a hoof against his own forehead for emphasis. "Plenty of nice thick bone right up here."

"And there," Applejack nodded toward the back of his skull in passing. "And on top, not to mention plenty to spare on either side."

Screwjob actually seemed to preen at this observation. "True, I probably have the record for the overall thickest skull in existence."

"Certainly explains a lot."

"I wonder if I could repair this if I had the other pieces," Twilight mused, ignoring the earth ponies' repartee as she continued examining Amethyst's broken horn. "Maybe Spike and Highflyer could go get the pieces if they're still in the rest—"

At that moment the pink unicorn suddenly pulled away, provoking a startled "Amethyst?" from her sister, as the smaller unicorn tumbled to the side.

"I need some paper and something to write with," said Amethyst, looking about for the aforementioned items. Twilight quickly floated a paper and pencil to the unicorn who snatched them with a hasty "Thanks," and began writing something down.

"What are you doing?" Dinky asked, moving to both peer over her sister's shoulder and resume their cuddling.

However, Amethyst had already put aside the pencil and was holding the paper out toward Twilight. "If Spike and Highflyer do go looking for the pieces of my horn, could they also put this in a place where Mike would see it?"

The others came closer to see what she'd written.

Mike,

I can't tell you where I am now, but I just wanted you to know that I'm with my mom and sister, and that we're all alive and safe.

Amethyst Star

"Does that mean you don't think he was a changeling?" Applejack asked as she looked up from the note.

Amethyst blushed. "I'm not one-hundred percent sure ... but he did try to stop one of the other guards from shooting at me. I know we thought he might have been trying to trick me by acting all concerned, but I keep going over that scene in my mind. And I can't find a reason for him to take his caring act that far. If he were a disguised changeling, I think he would have just stood by and let me be shot at..."

A guilty look stole over her features. "Oh, why didn't it occur to me that they'd use that hostage situation to try to kill me? Especially right after one of them tried to drown me!"

"Considering what was going on, you probably didn't have much time to consider all the variables," Rarity pointed out.

"I know, but—"

"But nothing," said Skywishes. "We can't go back and redo what's been done. Our goal was to get you, your mom, and Discord here. We succeeded with you and your mom. Now we'll see if we can figure out a way to get Discord here."

Amethyst sent them each a grateful smile before holding the note out to Twilight once again. "Can they leave this for Mike? If it turns out he really is a changeling, there's nothing in this note he wouldn't already know. But if he's not ... I just want him to know I'm okay. I don't want him to worry."

Twilight took the note. "We'll see what we can do."

"Thanks," said Amethyst, settling back down, and wrapping one foreleg around Dinky to tuck the younger unicorn against her side once again. Then she reached over to retrieve something else from the floor. "Well, at least there's one good thing about having a broken horn. It won't get in the way when I wear this." And she clapped a camo-patterned combat helmet she'd found in Skywishes's gear on her head.

"You're probably not going to need that in here," Skywishes said dryly.

"I know, but I feel better with it—"

At that moment Discord felt a familiar tickling sensation on the side of his long neck and looked down to see inky words forming there.

Highflyer: "Have you reached him yet?!"

"We just finished telling him about the rescue," said Wisteria.

Highflyer: "Great. Now will you tell him to get this thing off my chest?!"

Discord cut his eyes from the words on his neck to the two disguised ponies, one shaggy brow cocked questioningly. "I trust an explanation is in order."

"Well, while we were taking care of Derpy and Amethyst, Spike and Highflyer stayed behind at the hospital, watching for a chance to contact you, but you were too heavily guarded. Then when you were put on the train, they hitched a ride on its undercarriage. But on the way there, there was a little ... um ... incident."

It had taken all Highflyer's athletic ability to get himself and Spike on the train without being seen, but they managed to get situated on its underside just as it started pulling away from the station.

"I'd better let Twilight know we made it," said Spike, fumbling in his jacket pocket for the letter. However, just as he was pulling it out, a great gust of wind whooshed under the train and jerked the letter from his claws.

"No!" Spike grabbed for the letter but missed. For a brief horrible moment the dragon and flightless pegasus could only stare helplessly as the letter was carried away from them.

But suddenly the paper jerked about and a black smear pulled free from it. The black snarl of ink morphed into a moth and barreled right back toward them, passed Spike, and struck Highflyer squarely in the chest. The tiny stallion rocked from the force of the impact but didn't lose his grip on the train above him.

However, the next moment he was gyrating about, pawing wildly at his chest with one free hoof. "Get out of there!"

The ink moth had landed right smackdab where Highflyer's falcon pendant was tattooed and now seemed to be, for lack of a better term ... burrowing into it.

"Stop it! Get off! Get out! Stop writing down everything I say!"

As the stallion thrashed about, Spike caught glimpses of words appearing across his stomach as they had earlier on the sheet of paper.

"High! Quiet down! They might hear you!" He could only hope the wind that had caused this situation in the first place would now be loud enough to cover it up.

Upon hearing this, Discord felt a laugh building in him. "You mean—?"

Highflyer: "Yes, your stupid tattoo has turned me into a walking memo pad, and I hate it!"

"Oh, be appreciative." Discord chortled. "I've never had my tattoos move in with somepony else's before." His muzzle curled up in a mischievous grin. "Tell me, do they make a cute couple? Are you worried about mine moving in? Why, just think of the cute like inky offspring they could make!" he teased. "It's really a one-of-a-kind privilege you've been given."

Highflyer: "Some privilege, I can't even cough or sneeze without it getting written out across my stomach. And it tickles! How do you stand these things?!"

"Well, normally mine admittedly aren't that thorough when it comes to their transcripts..."

Highflyer: "Look, can you just order your tattoo to get out of my chest and back onto a sheet of paper or something? It's really hard to communicate this way."

Discord chuckled, but—tempting as it was to continue toying with the pony—he decided to be lenient and grant the request. "Do you have any paper there now?"

Spike: "We do. Got it right here."

Discord nodded though he knew they couldn't see it. "Highflyer, put the paper against your chest. The tattoo should come off with it when I tell it to."

Spike: "The paper's in position."

"Good." Discord drummed his claws against several of the moth tattoos on his neck, signaling them to pass his message on. "All right. You've had your fun, now move onto the paper."

There were several seconds of silence, then fresh words appeared on his neck.

Highflyer: "It's not working."

Discord frowned and gave his neck tattoos a more vigorous tapping. "Come on, I said hop onto that paper."

"No, thank you. I like it better here."

Highflyer: "Are you kidding me?!"

"No, your chest is very compact and cozy."

Highflyer: "Oh, for crying out loud..."

"And your birdie is cute."

Highflyer: "It is not!"

"Hmm. Sounds like my tattoo is in the mood to be contrary." Discord muttered to the two ponies in front of him. "Can't imagine where it picked that up." Then addressing the words on his neck, he said, "Looks like we'll have to find some way to meet face-to-face so I can extract that tattoo manually."

Highflyer: "Swell. That's really nice."

Discord turned back to the two ponies in front of him. "I suppose this means the two of you got here via the Twilight-Spike Express."

Wisteria nodded. "We did. We were hoping to message you here, but when it turned out you were being watched just as closely as at the hospital, we had to find some other way to contact you. We thought about having one of us pose as a guard since we still have that armor Skywishes borrowed from here. But then there would still be three other guards we'd have to worry about. The only other option we could come up with that would give us a chance to see you privately would be as your lawyer."

"Wisteria originally planned to try passing herself off as your lawyer," Regal Love added. "But after some discussion we agreed I'd make a better candidate."

"Not to be rude, Rare," said Screwjob, his body contorted about in a pose that allowed him to scratch the back of his neck with one rear hoof, "but what makes you any more qualified to pass for a lawyer than Fluttershy?"

"The fact that I've read every single one of Tequila Mockingbird's legal thrillers at least three times."

Screwjob raised both eyebrows at this, then gave her a measuring look. "Huh. I wouldn't have figured you for a Rackets fan."

"Neither would I," said Discord, then quickly added, "Not that I object to having you as my lawyer. I mean madness knows—"

At that moment the door swung open. "Time's up!"

Pale blue light flashed from Regal Love's horn and she jumped, feigning surprise. "Oh, you startled me!" she chided the guards. "I was so focused on my client, I didn't notice you." She cleared her throat as if feeling sheepish. "Well, now that I've spoken with him, I believe it's best we go look at the case files, the prosecution's evidence, etc. Wisteria?"

Wisteria gave her a quick nod, then shot an equally quick look toward Discord, keeping her back to the guards as she mouthed: We'll be back soon. Don't lose hope.

Putting a hand up to the side of his face as if to scratch an itch, he shot Wisteria—Oh, who was he kidding? Fluttershy—a smirk that the guards couldn't see. Lose hope? As she and Regal Love were escorted from the room, it was all he could do not to wave cheerfully after them. Despite being caged up, unable to use his magic, and having his every move watched, all the draconequus could seem to feel at the moment was elation. Derpy and Amethyst were out of harm's way, and he had not been abandoned!

They had not abandoned him.

She had not abandoned him.

The next few minutes were an uneasy blur for Wisteria as she and Regal Love were escorted to the room reserved for them. Once they were alone, they each retrieved a flask of potion from their respective suit pockets and took a quick swig to touch up their dye jobs for the next several hours.

"Well, I'd better get a look at these case files," said Regal Love, gesturing toward a stack on a nearby desk. Humming softly, she lifted the first folder and opened it to examine its contents.

Suddenly her face went so pale, Wisteria wondered for a second if the potion had malfunctioned and was wearing off. "Regal...?"

"Oh no, no, no, no, no," the unicorn was babbling, her voice growing more hysterical with every syllable. "I can't do this! I can't argue this case!"

What?! Wisteria gaped at her friend, trying to wrap her head around the fact that up until now Regal Love had faced this endeavor with an air of unshakable confidence only to suddenly flip-flop. "But you've read all those legal thrillers by Tequila Mockingbird. What changed your mind?"

"The prosecutor."

"What? Why? Who is it?"

"Tequila Mockingbird." The name came out in a croak.

Wisteria felt her own mind reel. "I thought you said she retired from being a lawyer to write."

"She did! But she's come back especially for this case!" Regal Love ran her hooves over her face. "Oh, she'll rip us apart! I might know every trick in the book, but she's the one who wrote the book! I can't do this! I can't do this! We can't—"

At that moment Wisteria's mind suddenly flashed back to their earlier visit with Discord, remembering how his whole spirit seemed to lift and stay that way even as they left. Remembering the renewed hope she'd seen kindle in his eyes. And now Regal Love was suggesting they just throw all that away?!

She reached out and grabbed Regal Love's head in her hooves. "You can quit if you want," she said, her eyes locked with Regal's. She pulled the unicorn forward, their noses pressed against each other and her gaze even more intent. "But know that I'm staying here."

This fierce declaration from her normally meek friend snapped the unicorn out of her hysterics as effectively as a physical slap, and she pulled away, gaping at the quivering pony.

Wisteria looked away, and went on in a soft but nonetheless firm voice, "I won't let her or anypony else take Discord away from me!" Then the ferocity seemed to leave her and she murmured almost as if to herself, "I can't."

There was something about her expression and tone as she spoke those two words...

Regal Love suddenly remembered how over a year ago she had suggested Big Mac take Fluttershy out on a date. Her shy friend had been through so much, what with facing all that danger while trying to solve Applejack's disappearance, and having to work with a rather less than ideal partner ... if any mare deserved a shot at going out with a desirable stallion, Fluttershy did. And Big Mac had seemed like such a natural fit for her friend that it had surprised, almost shocked Rarity to later learn the two had merely parted amiably, agreeing that while they were friends, they were not interested in each other romantically.

At least that's what Fluttershy had said. However, it hadn't escaped Rarity's attention that while Big Mac had moved on to see other ponies, Fluttershy hadn't. A casual observer might have just chalked this up to Fluttershy being satisfied with singlehood, but throughout the past year Rarity had noticed that, no matter how hard Fluttershy tried to hide it, the pegasus was being plagued with a melancholy that just didn't jive with the contentment of a happy single. This had led Rarity to wonder if Fluttershy (despite her earlier claim to the contrary) might secretly be pining for Big Mac, but now...

"Fluttershy." Though the word was whispered, the disguised pegasus started at the sound of her real name, and looked questioningly at her friend.

"Why exactly is this case so important to you? What exactly does he mean to you?"

Fluttershy didn't need to ask which he Rarity was referring to. He's... She tried to organize her thoughts into the proper words. He's my friend. Well, maybe he isn't, but I'm his and ... and... She suddenly wished she still had her long mane to hide behind or maybe her wings to fidget with, because the longer Rarity studied her, the more she felt as if all the warring emotions she'd been dealing with the past year were completely exposed, and try as she might she couldn't get them in a cohesive order. Discord would be having a field-day with this. a small voice in the back of her head pointed out snidely.

"Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy shook herself, realizing she still hadn't responded. What exactly did Discord mean to her...?

"I wish I knew, Rarity." Fluttershy murmured, looking at her hooves. "Oh, how I wish I knew." She looked up to see puzzlement—and was that suspicion?—on Rarity's features. Suddenly the burden she'd grappled with alone all this time was just too much to bear any longer.

"I love him, Rarity."

The unicorn's eyes widened, and Fluttershy felt compelled to add, "Not just as another friend, I..." she tried to go on but tears suddenly choked her throat. She sniffed, swallowed, and fought past them. "I love him, but I don't know where I stand with him. I thought things were going so well after we found Applejack ... but then he just left me."

"Darling, I had no idea—"

Fluttershy choked out a short bitter laugh. "I didn't even realize it myself until that date with Big Mac."

"You did? Oh, dear. Darling, you don't mean to say that the date was so horrible you—"

"No, that was just it. The date had all the right elements to be wonderful. Big Mac is a lovely sweet guy, I should have been thrilled to be with him, and it bothered me that I wasn't. Until I realized it was because I wanted Discord to have that place in my life."

Rarity's expression softened at this, the romantic in her clearly touched, but a beat later it promptly hardened again. "But then Discord left you that same night without even a word of explanation."

The pain in her heart as Fluttershy remembered that terrible night was once again a raw open wound. "If he could have just told me why he suddenly went from not being able to keep his hands off—" She halted and blushed. "I didn't mean that quite the way it sounded. I just meant he'd pick me up, or stroke my mane, or just snuggle close to me.

"Why would he go from that to suddenly wanting nothing to do with me? If it were anypony else, it'd be obvious that something wasn't adding up, but how can I apply that to Discord when he prides himself on doing things that don't add up?

"I thought I could confront him about it when we got everyone settled at the TreeHAB. Then I thought I could confront him about it here, but now with that possible death sentence hanging over his head ... I just can't add another burden to that. Just because I'm in love with him, doesn't mean he's obligated to feel the same way toward me."

Rarity let out a small laugh. "That doesn't seem to have dissuaded a certain wrestler where a certain farmpony is concerned."

Fluttershy had to laugh as well, remembering how just recently Screwjob had answered Applejack's exasperated "How many times do you have to hear the word 'No'?" with a "How many times will it take you to whittle it down to a 'Not yet'?"

"That's different," she murmured, her smile fading.

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Is it?"

"You've seen the way things go between them. He constantly flirts with her, and she constantly rejects him ... and as crazy as it sounds ... he loves it."

Rarity had to agree. Where Applejack was concerned, Screwjob always seemed to revel in the very struggle that was meant to discourage.

"But that's not how I am." Fluttershy went on. "I can't just keep pursuing somepony who doesn't want me..." The tears fell and she scrubbed frantically at them, forcing them back again as she tried to stay firm. "But even if I was that sort of pony, it doesn't matter now. What matters is proving Discord's innocence. If we can do that, I don't care if he leaves me all over again and never returns."

Rarity's expression looked skeptical, and Fluttershy sighed.

"No," she admitted. "I would care if he did that. But if it were a choice between him leaving me, and him being executed, I'd rather he leave me."

Rarity looked stunned, and Fluttershy couldn't blame her. It had been a lot to drop on a friend all at once and the confession left Fluttershy feeling suddenly drained.

Rarity seemed to pick up on this because she promptly said, "Well, it seems we have a big day tomorrow. How about you get some sleep while I take the first watch?"

Fluttershy gave her a weary smile. "Thanks, Rarity." Then she pulled the unicorn into a tight hug. "And thanks ... for listening."

Rarity returned the hug, then motioned for Fluttershy to lay down, while she kept watch ... and mused on her friend's revelation.

Author's Note

*Cracks knuckles* Well, it looks like we've got a new antagonist on the horizon in addition to all the other obstacles the Odd Couple and their buddies are facing. The next couple chapters are going to be tricky so updates might be a bit slow, but I promise they will come.

Phew! Got this posted just in time for Easter, so Happy Easter everyone!

And as always, a big thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing of this chapter.

Slight tangent:
Thanks to misskoifishpony, I found out that my story The Draconequus with the Dragon Tattoo got a shoutout for Fluttercord Week 2022 Fanfic Appreciation in the form of this comic:
https://www.deviantart.com/pinkikiwi/art/Fluttercord-Week-2022-Fanfic-Appreciation-905709623
Once again, thanks Missy for telling me about it and thanks Pinkikiwi for drawing it.