-Tambelon, outside the Stoneback warrens, Pom-

My god puppies properly fed, we walked up to the living boulder.

“Could you please move out of the way of the entrance Mr. Stoneback?” The large boulder shifted slightly and I motioned for the others to go in, Puff, Tuft, Woof and Ruff went on ahead… they had Dolly’s scent to add to the family after already adding Dormarch’s. “Thank you.”

Tianhuo looked at the massive creature that looked like a mound of stone and entered the lit tunnels going down. The Stonebacks had glowing stone for lighting here.

Jaded followed after me as Dolly came up to us and immediately started sniffing the butts of my god puppies and they were sniffing hers. Dormarch looked a little weirded out by it, but he wasn’t exactly a biologically normal canine.

“Are you alright Pom?” Tianhuo asked while looking to me.

“I’m okay Tian.” I watched as Dolly looked up from the scent gathered at Tianhuo and froze.

“Pom… she’s like twice your mass in muscle.” Yes Dolly, Tianhuo was bigger and physically stronger than me… and she could wrap her entire body around me in delightfully warm hugs.

“If people think I’m the cute one in our relationship just because I’m samller, then they don’t know what TIanhuo is like in the evening after a good day.” That had Tianhuo’s green scales turned straight red all around her head.

“Not only is my beloved quite adorable, she knows how to embarrass me without stating what she’s talking about.” You knew what it was Tianhuo and that’s all that needs to be said about the subject.

“Do you still have the device you used to talk to Tianhuo before you came here?” Jade asked as we walked through the tunnels towards the wagon where we saw Ocellus trying to converse with some Stonebacks, I think she was trying to decipher their grunts and growls as language. The Stonebacks obviously knew Equestrian well enough.

Smolder for her part was playing with the free ponies of Tambelon, what few there were that the Stonebacks were raising and taking care of.

“Yes, let me show you where I put it in the wagon.” I approached the wagon and Dodo perked up and looked at us.

Dodo looked at Jaded La Perm and she stared back at him after a moment he opened his beak slowly a twisted mass of doughnut started to come out of it.

“Is that a raspberry tiger tail?!” Jaded gleefully took the doughnut offering from Dodo’s beak, not even caring about where it came from. At this point I didn’t care about where the pastries were coming from, just that Dodo made them fresh somehow without having any internal trouble from all the sugar, dough and other stuff involved. “Thank you!”

Dodo then turned to Tianhuo, tilted his head and looked thoughtful for a second and then just coughed up a white puffy lamb shaped bread with a green tint with what looked to be spices on it.

“Thank you strange metal bird spirit.” Tianhuo said uncertain as she took a bite of the bread and hummed. “Sour apple and cinnamon bread, delicious and well proportioned.”

“Dodo has a preternatural ability for figuring out what we like when it comes to the pastries he generates.” Like somehow knowing that Jaded has a thing for ‘tiger tail’ doughnuts as long as chocolate wasn’t involved in their make. She often stopped by a specialty pastry shop in Huoshan when she visits to give the Huoshan guard headaches as a “Security Consultant” that she proclaims herself to be at times. “He’ll even take requests if asked nicely enough. He likes you Tianhuo, I can only guess that it’s because Jaded reminds him of Shanty.”

“Shanty? The goat?” Jaded stated through a mouthful of pastry she held in one hand and she had already found the device and was holding it in the other.

“My ears be burning, someone being interested in me?” Shanty came over with a bottle of rum.

“Say can I used that…” Jaded sniffed slightly. “Rum to clean a wound, the Troggle’s spears aren’t exactly the cleanest weapons around.”

“Sure thing… Shanty the eventual pirate and Capricornus.” Jaded kneeled down and shook her hoof with a claw.

“Jaded La Perm, Mercenary, Menacing Mirage and Magnificent Malcontent.” Taking the Tiger Tail doughnut into her mouth and dropping the device into my hoof, she unwrapping the bandage she had on her right arm. She immediately grimaced at the ugly and sickly looking wound. “Good thing I have some form of alcohol on hand for this, this is going to sting… anyone got anything I can bite down on for this? It looks like it’s becoming infected and I don’t know about you, but this pocket Tartarus of a world doesn’t scream ‘decent medical services’ at all and I might be the only one around for miles with anything approaching medical equipment.”

Shanty after her cane scythe, made from an alien robot leg and Jaded carefully clamped her teeth around the shafted, then splashed a bit of the rum on her arm. A loud hissing noise came from Jaded and surprisingly her wound as well. After the pain had passed, Jaded pulled out the roll of bandages she had used earlier for a quick patch and wound it around her arm twice. She was about to use Shanty’s scythe when Shanty held up a hoof and then cut the bandage with a precise motion.

“Thanks.” I was about to offer the device when I noticed it was missing from my hoof and back in Jaded’s claws.

“I should be taking notes about that one!” Shanty said gleefully, making me quite confused about what she meant.

“Jaded’s tail needs to be watched more closely from now on.” Tianhuo commented when I looked confused as the Abyssinian’s tail flicked about behind her idly.

“Okay Jaded, what’s happening over there?” Wow, no pause as soon as the call connected and we heard a stallion’s voice.

“Well hello to you too Sergeant Shady, Ocellus is looking healthy by the way.” After shaking her head Jaded finally got to the point of the call. “I hope you’re recording this, I’ve only been here a few hours and it’s worse than anything the royal guard can do to me… Tartarus would be a vacation compared to this place.”

“The guards there are that competent huh?” It was a changeling on the other end in royal guard armor.

“Yes, but that’s not the problem, there’s a population of donkeys and ponies here… a lot of them slaves, a number of them Earth Ponies and a lot of Unicorn Ponies… that forced to work like Earth Ponies, without the resilience and strength therein, while missing an important the most important part of them that makes them a unicorn in the first place.” There was a hiss from the changeling and he sounded angry, Jaded was no less angry and I would imagine it was because she was married to Storm Queen Fizzlepop who only had a busted horn. Tianhuo and I looked to Jaded in horror at what she just implied happened to Unicorn Ponies that were born here. “I also researched the culture of Troggles and the less said about what they eat the better, I’m only dropping the hint of ‘extreme omnivores’ and leaving it at that. Weak leg joints, upper halves with musculature that can definitely beat Earth Ponies in strength with constitutions to match. A raging fully trained longma who is a master in martial arts at full jet assisted strength couldn’t knock them out for more than a few minutes.”

“I can see Tianhuo right behind you Jade and I know how strong she is yes, so what happened?” Shady asked while bluntly pointing out Jade was looking fairly furious as she gave her report. Grogar probably shouldn’t have earned her ire, Jaded wanted to destroy Saddle Arabia… imagine if she was actively trying to put her mind to liberating Tambelon.

“Well Slim, Pom came to lead us to what is possibly one of the safest places in Tambelon, Stonebacks are not extinct and we’re currently bunking at their place. The Troggles attacked Pom and managed to stop her from hopping around the rooftops, she got surrounded. Tianhuo took umbrage to anyone trying to hurt Pom while she was around and really let them have it to the best of her abilities… at best they were lightly bruised by her efforts, so tough just doesn’t even begin to describe them… you know my friend Arizona Arid? Yeah, their bodies are like hers, the exception is around the ankles, knees and a strong enough blow to the head will incapacitate… but I doubt you could kill them with a blow to the head considering their skulls break paved stoned when you knock them over. Heck one of the Troggles that tried to chase us out was put through a stone wall of a building a foot by Tianhuo or so thick and got up to continue after us.” Okay, so Jaded was paying as much attention as I was to the dangers the Troggles represented. “Pom and I could barely scrape them, knock them over and out, but actually hurting them? Nope. The Canis Minor and Tianhuo were the most effective on our escape from the City of Bells. The Canis Minor because they are magical star dogs with ludicrous levels of strength and Tianhuo is among highly competent longma guard of Huoshan… as are seventy percent of the longma living there, the others are decent at best. At least Canterlot’s Royal Guard has come a long way, but the EUP are still better overall and I’m surprised Celestia didn’t rotate EUP members in and out of the Royal Guard more often. I think she relies too much on friendship and intentional screw up squads.”

“Wait, ISUS’s are real?!” Said a still quite horrified unicorn that looked quite sick. “Even when I went stupidly crazy, I didn’t go entirely tearing off physical bits of what made any pony unique!”

It seemed the pony realized something and was soon barfing into a trash can that wasn’t there a second ago. A pony with wild bushy hair started to rub her back in small circles.

“It’s okay Starlight Glimmer, Jady will take care of the mean old goat. Jade, do me a favor, Grogar is a big meanie… I don’t normally ask for things like this, but please do the absolute worst thing you can think to do to him if you ever get a chance. Do not hold back you’re Petty Kitty wrath!” The pink pony said while rubbing circles on her back. “There are you done barfing about the fact that the goat being evil?”

“That’s not what I was barfing about, I realized what Jaded meant by ‘extreme omnivores’.” Well yeah, even I got the gist of that Starlight Glimmer. Not much food around hear aside from what plants the ponies and donkeys could farm up on limited resources. I’m trying not to think about what happens to the ponies that die of old age, they aren’t getting buried around here I can tell you that much and it was enough to turn my...

I felt my left hoof being gripped by Tianhuo’s right hoof, it was gentle and incredibly firm. It calmed me down as she looked into my eyes with a pinkish orange glow of concern in hers.

“Jade please tell me that ISUS aren’t real, those are just overblown rumors… right?” Princess Twilight showed up.

“Can’t, Celestia made one using your brother Shining Armor to prove himself capable of marrying Princess Cadence. I even know the locations of those documents if you’re interested.” That Jaded said it so casually kind of scared me. “Besides Cadence will confirm if you say that I said it was okay to bring it up.”

“Oh right, you’re a walking security breach to most of Equestria’s biggest secrets considering you were actually there for like half of them as a wandering lonely spirit… how could I ever forget.” Twilight stated dully. “Anything we should know about Tambelon? I’m sure Sergeant Shady will inform me on what we missed so far.”

“Aside from the most prominent being that Grogar has been cultivating magic by likely consuming unicorn horns in a ritualistic fashion or is just outright eating them… well we do want to know a safe way if we can tell where a portal back to Equus will open. We really don’t want to be here for longer than necessary.”

“Sunburst here, I believe I can help with that.” After Sunburst adjusted his glasses with a hoof, he created a presentation screen out of magic. “You can halfway activate the beacon that will lead you close to the next portal we create from this side will open, it’ll point to an area and then you can go there before we fully open it up. The beacon will stabilize the portal on both ends and not send you all over the place like what likely happened to you on the way in.”

“Good to know that we can randomize a portal location until we get a good one to get out with… so is Canterlot ready to take on a lot of Stonebacks and ponies who’ve never received a proper education all of the sudden?” Didn’t take much for Jaded to have me on the same page as her. “As for one other thing Pom, you seemed to know a lot about the guy, so tell them about scary bat pony with the dark magic and shadows motif.”

“Right… ‘him’, Arizona can confirm he exists if Tianhuo doesn’t back up what I’m about to tell all of you. Hollow Heart is in Tambelon.” There was a moment and then Jaded’s eyes snapped to me and she looked horrified.

“Wait… this Hollow Heart is he the same one I know from Night Fright Grotto, what the Tartarus happened to him?!” Jaded look quite horrified once she actually heard me say his name outloud.

“Well he tried to destroy the world with an army of shadow monster, but Tianhuo, Arizona, Velvet, Paprika, Oleander and I gathered some magical keys of destiny and sealed him off from destroying this world. Paprika was even responsible for him being sealed in the realms of darkness. First and only time I think we’ve ever heard her speak normally and it was to tell Hollow Heart to his face that she didn’t like him.” Paprika not being able to hug or love someone seemed almost impossible, but now I get where she was coming from by telling him upfront that he was unlikeable. “Ran into him and he had a lot of clones of my friends and got badly mangled by him and his attempts to kill me. Where I’m fairly certain Grogar wants us alive for a possible fate worse than death, Hollow Heart most assuredly doesn’t want us alive and had been specifically targeting me with those shadow bombs he launched. I don’t think he appreciates me helping the spirit of an entire world that literally press ganged me into fighting him and several shadow copies of my friends and Tianhuo.”

“Yeah, Pom been physically messed up several times throughout this entire year, It’s a wonder we’re not using duct tape, chewing gum, paperclips and string to hold her together at this point. Though her wool would technically qualify for the string…” Smolder interrupted as she played with her ribbon a bit. “Well actually, with how many bandages and sutures she’s had applied to her… it isn’t that far from the truth of how she survived dying numerous times. I guess the only thing we haven’t used yet is a chewing gum equivalent and we’re well past being able to buy any, at least we’re all still kicking around here right?”

“Pom is as strong as she is sweet.” Tianhuo stated proudly, but I was scarred mess of a lambkin and…

I felt my hoof get a light squeeze and Tianhuo nuzzled me gently, calming me down immediately. She had not let go of my hoof at all during all of this talk. TIanhuo whispered into my ear.

“No matter you’re scars, I am will be here at your side ‘little one’.” Tianhuo was using one of the Huoshan guard’s nickname for me, which was a nickname I actually didn’t mind. “We will discuss the issue of your wools golden coloring and being a Chrysomallus after this meeting…”

I tensed slightly no matter how reassuring Tianhuo was to have right next to me and she sent me a concerned frown.

“Right, back on the subject of Hollow Heart… he was nigh invincible when I last fought him and he was only getting stronger.” How strong was he now, in fact how strong was Grogar that he even feasibly summoned him?

“Didn’t I kick his butt?” Dolly asked.

“Dolly, we don’t know if you can even do what you did on command to even put him away again. Also even if you did manage to replicate that again, what’s to stop Grogar from summoning him and sending him after exactly, if he’s as powerful as we think he is?” Night immortal bat pony turned deadly shadow beast and has a reason to want me absolutely dead specifically if Grogar didn’t have full control over him… joy. “So Grogar is not only a major threat, imagine what would happen if he got his bell on Equus back.

Nobody voiced what would happen, because if Grogar got back on Equus that was bad enough without going into a completely apocalyptic scale battle should he recover his full power.

“I can’t imagine it, since we haven’t met this Grogar guy yet.” Dolly responded, making me wish that we never had to encounter the crazy goat personally.

“Good, then we’ll make sure that never happens.” Quite a lot of murmurs of agreement could be heard. “First we need to find an exit point.”

“I’ll take care of that and will get back to you where the beacon says it will be.” Jade said as looked to me. “We can evacuate the Stonebacks and ponies from here when we make our way for the exit. You guys can stay here.”

“You’re not going out there alone Jaded, at least take my son Dormarch with you.” I didn’t hear anything from Tianhuo about calling him that. I did need to talk with Tianhuo about the golden wool and my nature getting worse with time until I hit the threshold point, I cross that threshold and there will be no turning back for me.

“Hey there.” Dormarch said while waving his big goofy claws at Jaded as he moved up to her.

“Okay, I’ll protect him with my life Pom, definitely didn’t feel like I wanted to go out there alone on my own anyway.” Agreed, not while we were in enemy territory Jaded. “I only have so many chaos candles anyway.”

“Quick, did my wife use distilled poison joke to make chaos candles?” Hearing Fizzlepop, Jaded whined.

“Yes.” I answered immediately and Jaded looked so betrayed.

“Come on Fizzy, I’m only using them here in Tambelon!” Mostly because she had to, I’m pretty sure Jaded would be using them in Saddle Arabia otherwise as ‘exotic candles’.

-Several hours later, Jaded-

“I’m still suspect that Grogar isn’t looking in on us or actively looking for us.” It was curious to me, what did Grogar know that we currently didn’t?

“I’m sure we’ll find out eventually.” Dormarch was a cool little dude and he was capable of a good conversation unlike Pom’s usual menagerie of canines. “Mom, we’re back!”

Pom was talking quietly with Tianhuo and no matter how much Pom looked relieved to be near her, something was quite wrong with that lambkin. Like the golden wool slowly taking up most of her body wasn’t hinting at that already, she’s most certainly aware of what’s happening to her and likely knew more than what we could find on research.

In the next second she was coddling Dormarch and nuzzling him with affection that got his three fish tails wagging.

“Did you find it?” Tianhuo asked trying to stay on point and not be distracted by Pom’s cuddly nature.

“Yes, we did, the next portal will open up at the end of the valley we found…” There was something wrong in the way Pom froze up slightly at the mention of the word ‘valley’, I saw Tianhuo’s questioning eyes on me a second later and I didn’t understand why Pom had acted like that either.

“Well it’s where we came in at, it’s as good as any to make our way out from.” Grumbled Pom as I went to get the device and call up some friends.

As soon as Sunburst appeared on the screen there were a lot of garbage bins around.

“What…” I tried to ask and Sunburst shook his head no frantically, okay don’t question it then. “Anyway we found the portal location, are you ready to receive a lot of Wild Ponies and Stonebacks?”

“Not yet, but we will be.” Sunburst answered as he ran a hoof over his scraggly beard. “We want to get you all out of there before something goes horribly wrong.”

I nodded and then Ocellus started talking to the Stonebacks about relocating to a please that wasn’t run by Grogar and bringing their pony families with them. They were highly receptive and eager to get out of Tambelon, I wouldn’t want to live here for too long either.

Yet there was a nagging at the back of my head that I couldn’t help quite shake. My intuition was screaming at me that it was something to do with Pom and her Chrysomallus nature, I was going to have to prepare for something to go wrong.

-Several hours later and relocating all the Stonebacks towards the valley with ponies, Pom-

After avoiding many patrols and hiding behind the big stone like masses of the Stonebacks circling up to create the illusion of moving hills that fooled most of the Troggles heavily patrolling all regions of Tambelon we had made it to the valley with everyone in tow from within the Stoneback Warrens.

Jaded got the portal open to Equus and the Stonebacks immediately started pouring through carrying all the ponies they had managed to save from grogars whims, they were thankfully as resilient to magic as dragons usually were. Otherwise the unicorn ponies the gentle giants liberated would be more of a hassle even if they weren’t exactly trained in the use of their magic, they had some control over it after Ocellus spend some time with them.

We got about half of them through the portal to safety when we felt it, Grogar’s wandering eye was suddenly upon all of us and in the distance at the other end of the valley a massive army of Troggles were coming.

Grogar wasn’t looking directly at us though, he was looking more at the portal which we were escaping through. That wasn’t good.

“Go faster Dodo, we’re right behind you!” I shouted and watched as Dodo started to take off with the supply wagon. “Come on get moving everyone, go!”

The wild ponies understood the urgency and what had been a slow trickle through the portal became a mad dash to get through it for everyone including the ones I had been the guardian of throughout all of this.

Once they were through, then my job would be done… I could go home again with Tianhuo, my god puppies and my new companions that Tianhuo welcomed with open hooves.

I was at the back of it all making sure the Troggles didn’t suddenly attack us from on high as we were at the bottom of the valley, the stonebacks would survive their thrown spears. The wild ponies not so much.

It looked like they would all make through, even I would make it through, the only problem is Hollow Heart could be seen coming at us through the air in the distance. He was drawing every shadow and patch of darkness to himself, I could feel the terror rising in my heart as I followed behind the wagon with Tianhuo at my side.

I could finally, rest.

I could finally stop fighting.

I could finally know peace.

I could get a vacation away from all trouble for a while.

I could spend time with my pack of knucklehead canines, feed mister Birch some fertilizer, get some affection from Big Mama and… and…

…

Why did I suddenly stop?!

No…

Oh no…

No-no-no!

Why… why can’t I get closer to the portal, what could possibly be stopping me from…

My hooves, lift them up one in front of the other.

Why? Why am I stopping!

What’s wrong with me!

What’s wrong with my body?

The portal was right there!

I could see the girls I protected and Dodo going through it easily enough.

So why wasn’t I followed them?

WHY?!

“Tianhuo… why did you stop?” I asked quietly.

“Why did you? I stopped because you did.” But, Tianhuo… freedom, safety, right there, less than a simple two hundred feet away!

Dolly, Dormarch, Tuft, Ruff, Woof and Puff, all sat down and were there staring at me flatly. They weren’t leaving without me, they would NEVER try to.

WHY COULDN’T I MOVE FORWARD!

I had nothing left to…

No… I did have something left to do.

“Tianhuo, if you want me to live you will not tell me when, but I want you to hit me in the head as hard as you can and then carry me through the portal.” It didn’t take me long to realize why I couldn’t leave, I had simply seen too much, the atrocities going on here and the horrors being done to the people I was trying to abandon in favor of the ones I actually cared about.

This isn’t fair!

Why do I have to sacrifice myself like this?!

“Pom what are you…” Tianhuo stated and then tried to slug me with left hoof a flash of gold let me know the truth of my situation as it rebounded off my head without leaving a scratch on me.

I couldn’t leave.

Heh…

I can’t leave.

We’re in danger.

And-and-and Tianhuo wouldn’t leave without me…

We’re doomed.

I’m dooming Tianhuo by not moving forward, but I can’t.

I physically can’t leave and will die if I try to without living up to my very nature of ‘helping people’, I could try to come back to help them later… but I was already here, why would I ever LEAVE?!

I…

I just want…

I just wanted it all to be over…

“Baa-baa?” Woof moved up to me worriedly. “What’s wrong baa-baa?”

I started crying.

We were so close, so very damn close!

We could have left, we could have moved on with our lives… I can’t leave, my body wouldn’t let me.

Not while there were sacrifices to be made and I was going to make them quite willingly.

“I… I don’t think I can leave, it’s more to say… I can’t without dying or achieving what’s keeping me here in the first place.” The horrified look in Tianhuo’s eyes said it all, they sharpened on my wool as after the blow the golden wool crawled up to my neck and I shivered.

The feel of the wool around my neck changing to a golden color felt like a noose around my neck.

“Then I will not leave either either.” Tianhuo, you’re going to get yourself killed for me…

“Tianhuo, I’m a sacrificial lambkin… I can’t actually leave without saving everyone in Tambelon that needs help. I saw too much coming into the City of Bells. I saw too much!” I was shuddering and starting to break down. I could already see Jaded watching us from the portal as a massive army of Troggles was on approach for us. I sniffled as tears spilled from my eyes. “It’s going to get me killed.”

“You mean it’s going to get us killed, but we will at least make a valiant effort of it.” I felt a faint bond of Big Mama through the portal, she gave me her blessing to take my god puppies with me into death.

That… what?! Big Mama, you shouldn’t be giving my god puppies gods and goddesses damned permission to die by my side like that!

I felt the various other bonds all stretching back all the way to Huoshan, my pack was praying for me. The Tenko among them was ardently praying for my protection and I felt it’s spirit latch onto mine with sadness.

I blinked and the world changed somewhat.

I could faintly see the howling spirits of ponies, the souls tortured by Grogar escaping through the portal… that or I was wildly hallucinating from the horror of the situation.

I was seeing the souls that had been trapped in Tambelon all of them scrambling for an exit, never allowed to rest under the yoke of Grogar.

“JADED IF YOU CAN DO ME ONE FAVOR BEFORE I DIE, THEN DO IT NOW, CLOSE THAT PORTAL!” I screamed my voice raw.

Shanty, Smolder, Ocellus, Dodo and everyone else on the other side waiting for the last of us to pass through looked on in horror, not quite understanding what was happening here.

Shanty… Shanty looked the most hurt, she even tried to run back through the portal only to be tackled, by several ponies and she tried to fight them and was cutting them up to come back for me.

This is why being a Chrysomallus sucked in a major way… I just got finished saving several worlds and one while on vacation from saving three all at once. Now I had to fight an absolute demon and an invincible shadow beast to save myself.

There were two ways a Chrysomallus tended to die, I hoped to die from helping people by being killed by it of old age… as the other way had some nigh irreversible consequences for me. Well irreversible from my side of things at the very least.

At least I don’t think Ocellus or any unicorn will feel what it means to become a Chrysomallus fully and the end results therein. Peace of mind in that secret never seeing the light of day, still haven’t told anyone.

Jaded firmed her eyes on me, we stared at one another and she looked beyond us and saw a blue goat with red eyes and the incoming grinning Hollow Heart, she looked back at me with an ‘are you serious’ expression.

I nodded to her grimly, that yes, THIS WAS ACTUALLY HAPPENING.

I don’t think I was ever meant to survive my journey for as long as I had.

“BAA-RAM-EWE!” I screamed, I challenged everything all at once. I’d fight for the life of my puppies, Dolly, Dormarch and Tianhuo, they would not die before I did!

Over my literal dead body would they die here in Tambelon, I’ll find a way! I WOULD!

I even already knew a way… but… I was going to be selfish and try to live without doing that, they all wanted me to live and I had to want it too. There was no other reason Dormarch, Dolly, Puff, Tuft, Ruff, Woof and Tianhuo would have stopped when I did, they were only ever going to leave if I did.

Things had looked so bright a second ago…

“Pom!” Several voices and a mechanical warble sounded out in terror, but not for themselves.

Even Dodo was trying to come back, a Stoneback Land Dragon thankfully grabbed him.

Smolder was pinned by her brother Garble, he gave me a sad knowing look as if he knew why I was staying behind.

Ocellus, bless her heart, tried to come back through and was surprisingly the closest to managing to do so.

She used magic, she transformed into a variety of things, she actually beat several guards in her efforts. She didn’t care if she ran herself dry of strength or energy, she didn’t want to abandon me… Sergeant Shady was the one that blindsided her in the end. Knowing more about changeling biology to put her down safely.

I feel upset to hear the words ‘thank goodness for that’ coming from my brain.

Jaded threw several things through the portal, the two beacons, both crafted artifacts of powerful magic. One of which would summon supplies in case things in Tambelon went to Tartarus, which it had.

Now those supplies might find some use with us. The other was a beacon for doing what I wanted to do.

My new mission: Save Tambelon itself or die trying.

I hated myself with every fiber of my being now.

Twilight Sparkle tried to use magic, the power that moved the sun itself, to forcefully pull me through. I glowed brightly with a golden color, I did not move a millimeter from my spot. Even an Alicorn couldn’t save me, one that wanted to extend a hoof in Friendship and absolutely had to be powered by her very domain in these moments, she could not do anything to save me.

Quite a lot of chaos was going on the other side of the portal as many people react to try and stop anyone from coming through. Jaded finally crashed the magical portal by grabbing the stabilizers with her claws and a glow came from them, don’t know how, but she did it.

The portal immediately shut, I was already running forward to pick up the beacons and the other thing Jaded threw through for us… I was a little grossed out that it was partially covered in Abyssinian fur. I rubbed the sticky mucus covered fur off the object and blinked at it. I only wondered what it was for a few seconds, there was something very off with it and I immediately stashed it in my wool.

We had to move now!

“Dolly, Dormarch, up the valley’s wall now! Woof, Ruff, Puff and Tuft on my back we’re going!” We had to climb out of here and run. We’re not getting away Tambelon, but we’re going to make them work for it! My orders were followed by my pack without question or talkback.

My high functioning nature was kicking into high gear now… hated it, hated myself, hated even causing this situation! Hated absolutely everything right now, especially Hollow Heart as he was about to skewer me only to be decked in the face by a powerful flaming right hoof by Tianhuo.

Didn’t hurt Hollow Heart all that much aside from the light she gave off weakening him lightly.

-Three months several days after the ‘Tambelon Incident’, a different therapy session, Anubis-

“So that’s it for your portion in this story?” I asked of the mortals I was helping talk things out. I was guiding the dead and the living, letting their feelings out was helping them. The ones here had plenty of time left if natural causes are their only worries.

“Oh that is not being the ending of it, not by a long shot! If you be wanting to know what Pom be doing afterwards… then we will be needing a few sessions. We do not be knowing the whole story, but we all know the ending well enough.” Shanty stated with a hollow sounding voice, her eyes had changed somewhat and she seemed to sink into herself obviously depressed. her body had suddenly became more fish like as she wrapped herself in a tightly compact bubble of seawater and cut off all sound from reaching her as she wept silently inside of it. Eventually she spoke not with her own voice, but with the vibrations of the water itself. “We did be getting back in eventually. That is being only the beginning.”

Capricornus were powerful creatures indeed and I could feel the touch of Tiamat and the waters of chaos on her. One would think I was worried about that… I wasn’t, it was quite benign as far as gods and goddesses could be. She was also touched by an artifact of a water goddess of knowledge from another world, which also was benign as the information seemed to have faded from Shanty’s conscious mind.

Dodo sat next to the bubble of water and stared at the rest of us, he warbled sadly. His mechanical voice upset that he couldn’t help his bonded partner feel better.

“Yeah, even I think we should call it here, that moment did not end on a high note…” Jaded obviously got a ton of backlash for forcefully closing the portal, but it might have been for the best depending on how the rest of their tale goes.

Then maybe I could find out the mysterious origin of what has changed all of Equus is and what it exactly did. None of the gods or goddesses could figure it out, but something was very wrong and we needed to figure out what before it became a… existential problem.

“One last question, then I will call this session to close. Aside from those beacons, what exactly did you give to Pom?” My question was met with a weak grin from Jaded La Perm.

“The End of Immortality. You know, that thing that Bennu desperately wanted to work… and it actually does... but not exactly how she wanted it to.” There was a faint evil calculating toothy grin on Jaded ‘Freaking’ La Perm’s face as she stared into my eyes, a look that many would be wary of. “It was a very good call on my part at least, as we would eventually find out. Even if Pom had absolutely no idea what it does or even how to use it, I know absolutely everything there is to know about it. Wish I didn’t have to cough it up in the form of a hairball every time I wanted to take it out of my body though. My throat was messed up for the rest of the day from doing it so hastily, but I was being yelled at so much that that was a moot point as I didn’t have much to say to defend myself anyway. Don’t expect me to swallow swords though, I’m not truly a full circus act even if my life, friends and family are putting on a show for someone at least once a week. Also we couldn't communicate with Pom or those that stayed behind as both devices were in Equus at that point, the other one having been on the wagon.”

Ah yes the ‘living in interesting times’ thing, wish gods and goddesses would really stop doing that to mortals. Honestly now, they were already chaotic enough as it is without the little pushes to do things! Also Jaded was the guardian of that particular artifact that only worked against unnatural forms of immortality. But why would… ah… interesting, a use for it where there had not been much need for it before.

Author's Note

Make of this what you will...