Ponyfinder: Potions and Swords

Chapters

2 - Distant Tracks
3 - Knowledge is Power
4 - Birds of a Feather
5 - A Party
6 - Across the Threshold
7 - Towards the Light
8 - Plot Rails
9 - A City Divided
11 - Gaining Depth
12 - Join Our Party!
13 - Back Stories
14 - Pampering
15 - City Issues
16 - The Laws of Dragons
17 - Decisions Made
18 - Recalibrating Aim
19 - Riddle Me This
20 - Lake Sailing
21 - You Must Be Dreaming
22 - Have You Seen Her?
23 - Access...
24 - Granted
26 - Advancement
27 - Singing Talent
1 - A New Chapter
10 - South Side, Represent
25 - Tactical Positioning

2 - Distant Tracks

"I cannot help but to see, for this climate you are ready to sightsee." Even without his cloak, lent to Zecora, his clothes looked warm and rugged, perfectly suited for snowy environments. For that matter, his cloak was proving mercifully warm against her back.

"I wasn't expecting it," John assured with an upraised hand. "But I'm also not complaining." Crunching through the snow, he raised an arm to cover his face against the wind. "Assuming we didn't get dumped on some forgotten world, there has to be some hint of society if we keep going straight."

"I could be wrong, this is another assumption." She pointed to a scraggly, if large, tree they were approaching. "You could climb that with far less consumption." Not that she couldn't climb, but hands tended to make the task far easier when available.

"You want me to climb that?" He closed with the tree, studying it critically. With the sound of metal, he drew his sword and prodded at a branch. With a firm shove, the branch snapped like a brittle twig, crashing to the ground. "Glad I wasn't on that." He circumnavigated the tree, encouraging the weaker branches to give up rather than risking they do so as he ascended. "Keep an eye out for more wolves."

Zecora turned around to do just that, putting her back towards the tree as she scanned the surrounding forest. "Move with all due haste. I feel we have few hours to waste." A glance at the sky above showed that night was coming in not too long.

Scaling the tree, one foot and hand at a time, John began to raise into the canopy, at least until the world began to move far more quickly than he had planned. He snagged a branch, falling, but it slipped from him and he crashed to the ground with a wheeze. "I'm alright," he assured as he climbed back to upright. "Let's... try that again."

More watchful for what was almost clear ice, John made his way up slowly, almost hugging the tree. But it was working, and the forest they were in became something he could see, rather than just being lost in it. There, in the distance. "Can you see that?"

But, of course, Zecora could not, though she was trying to look in the direction he had indicated.

In the darkening evening, it was hard to be entirely sure, but... "I think I see smoke, and it's moving." Smoke usually meant civilization, or a forest fire. Moving smoke... He wasn't sure what that could have been. Did that world have cars? He did a slow turn of his head, trying to see whatever else could be in view. "The forest. It... ends that way." He pointed in... he wasn't entirely sure what direction it was, but he could see the end of the forest that way. It was, of course, opposite of where the smoke had been moving.

He slid down, finding the downward motion to be far easier than the upwards one as he hit the ground with a soft thump of boots in snow. "We have smoke that way, and the exit that way." He directed a thumb in one direction before pointing in the other almost opposite direction. "We can hope the smoke is people, friendly people, or just focus on getting out of the forest."

Zecora pointed off in neither direction. "Looking around, there was something to spot, Predators that way, let's not be caught."

John considered where that direction lined up with the others. "Closer to the smoke." Barely, still... "I vote we get out of this forest."

Zecora began to move, plodding through the snow towards freedom. "One thing I should note, the forest may serve as a coat. A lack of trees will not banish the snow, Towards a worst place we may go."

"Yeah, maybe." Still, onwards he went, she with him. "Zecora--" His words cut off, seeing her eyes widen as she huffed.

"That is the second time." Her ears flicked softly. "How is it you know that name of mine?"

Crap. He had said his name, but she had not returned the favor. "It means zebra." Technically true! "And matched you."

Zecora raised a brow, flicking her earring. "I see. How interesting that meanings of the same came to be. Zecora is not a word in the same tongue, Even in the way you just flung. Was this your true intent, to bring me here, was it you that sent?"

John bemoaned his idea of out-linguisticing the rhyming zebra. She had seen right through him. "I didn't meant to drag you away from whatever you were doing, but I have... heard of you." Was hearing of the right term? "You're a story, where I'm from."

Her brows went up together. "I have done little deserving of such fame. Especially among humans, how I became so known you knew my name."

It was his turn to be startled. "You know what humans are?"

"I see one." She pointed at him. "Standing before me. What other creature could he possibly be?" She was smiling in a knowing way. "I do not mean to tease. It was a friend that told me of these. She visited a world of many of yours. She came with many tales of that trip of hers." She hopped up and walked along a frozen log. "You lack a mark."

"A cutie mark?" He had revealed more of his knowledge without thinking about it. "Nope, none of those. People don't have those where I come from."

"It will soon be dark." She sighed softly, veering off towards some bushes. "Where my friend went, the humans had marks, sewn onto dresses and pants. As if they were making up for what nature had deprived them, without a birthmark." She wriggled under the thorns and vanished from sight.

He spoke strange words with a snap of his fingers, bringing into being a mote of light that floated there, following the motions of his body. Able to see in the increasing gloom, he followed Zecora to find there was an abandoned (he hoped) den there under the brambles, safe from the wind and some of the chill. "Huh, this works for tonight."

Zecora's eyes were on that glowing ball. "Humans I knew were also not wizards. Have you a spell to keep away blizzards?"

"That would be handy, but no." He settled in, bidding the light come down out of easy view from the outside of their hiding place. "I only know a few tricks." And he wasn't even 100% on knowing those. He assumed... "Alright, so, let's be honest."

Zecora raised a brow, but said nothing, watching him.

"Right, you were already being honest." He smiled a little. "Nothing bad, just... probably really strange sounding."

"My ability to accept the strange I challenge you to test." Settled with her forelegs crossed on the ground in front of her, Zecora was still watching him patiently.

"Right." He hiked a thumb at himself. "This is not how I looked this morning."

"You seem quite calm." She raised a hoof to run along the rings at her neck. "To most, such an event would be like a bomb."

"Yeah..." A muted reply, that. "This, what I am." He gestured over himself broadly. "This is a character I made, for a game about adventure and discovery."

Zecora's ears perked, but she was quiet.

"I have the same abilities, even if I never had them before, like the spells." He wriggled gloved fingers. "The less I think about it, the easier it comes. Look, to be blunt, this is kinda awesome, even if painful at times."

Zecora inclined her head slowly. "What a dull life you led, if all you want now is to feel dread. Was there nothing waiting for you at home? I think it strange that you would prefer in such a place to roam."

"It's not that... I'm not scared." He frowned with thought. "I feel like... I'm confident I can get through this, if I don't do something dumb. It's a chance to be a real hero."

Zecora set her hooves flat, rising up to her haunches. "I hope you will pardon this thought, but like a foal do you trot. Unaware of yourself and bored with what's there, you prefer an exciting tale rather than facing boredom's despair." She inclined her head. "I was quite content, working my brew. I think I know what happened, and that thing was you." She pointed at him accusingly.

That instant and forever between worlds was difficult to know much of. "I wasn't trying to drag you away from where you were. I didn't even know you were involved until you already were. This wasn't what I planned, at all." He turned to peer out into the darkness. "Planned or not, right now, we should get some rest."

"In this you have a point. Hopefully tomorrow's voyage will not disappoint." She settled in place and turned her head to rest on a hoof in a makeshift pillow. "Goodnight, John."

A phrase without a possible rhyme? He could point it out... but she was probably tired of him doing that. Or... Or! He could help without making a big deal about it. That seemed like a better idea. "See you at dawn." He flopped onto his side and closed his eyes.

Hopefully their random encounter roll would come up well.

He woke to the feeling of something hard nudging his cheek. Opening his eyes, he saw Zecora was seated next to him, prodding his face with a hoof. As he sat up in a scramble, she moved the hoof to her lips in a bid for silence.

He rolled over to look outside of their shelter where several dumpy figures were scampering around. Biped, big noses, little horns, green colored. Like... off goblins? Friend or foe, hard to tell just looking at them. John nodded at Zecora, agreeing with how she had approached the situation. Getting him awake, quietly, had been the best course of action.

It was morning, easily told by the fact that light spilled over things. His light had long ago gone out, and that was perhaps for the best. No need to advertise their presence. "We can wait for them to go," he whispered. "Or risk saying hi."

Zecora inclined her head. "If we hide from all that is strange and new, Then never would I be talking to you."

"Point..." Still, she had woken him up. She was willing to try talking, but having the swordsperson up and moving was still a good idea. An abundance of caution. "Let's try being nice." He drew himself up over the lip of their borrowed den. "Good morning!"

Their motions stopped, glaring at him. They had weapons, clear to see as they drew them quite rapidly. The largest of them was yet unarmed. Confidence? "Who are you?" He pointed at John. His voice was a bit reedy, but as confident as his footing.

"Just a traveler." John shrugged softly as he dusted himself off of brambles and twigs. "You happened to set up near my camp. We just both got lucky."

The goblin barked out a laugh, which his fellows joined in on. "Luck. I coulda been a pony patrol. You got real lucky."

Pony patrol? "Don't get along with the ponies then?"

The goblin slapped a knee, prompting more laughter from the others, but he wasn't laughing. "You must be a merchant. Give us half what you have and we let you go."

"Sorry, just a traveler." He held up empty hands. "All I got is what I'm wearing, and this sword, and you're not getting that."

The goblin grumbled with a scowl. "The worst kind. Whatever, get out of here." He waved John away. "No point stealing what ain't there."

Almost... But he knew Zecora was watching, waiting for a chance to get away. "About ponies."

Author's Note

The adventure, she continues, and we get a tiny peek at this John character. There's a lot more to figure out about him. Zecora calls him out!

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3 - Knowledge is Power

"If I want to avoid them." John wasn't sure he wanted to avoid other ponies. The one he had met seemed nice enough, if agitated by being dragged from home, and who wouldn't be? "Where should I not go?"

"Information ain't cheap." The goblin leader thrust out a hand. "Find a coin in those clothes, maybe we talk."

Did he have coins? He hadn't actually dug out his pockets to see what was in there. A fine time to consider it as he dug fingers into nooks and crannies, locating the pockets half out of that instinct that seemed to come with the new body. John leaned to the side to see what he was pulling free, a shiny gold coin. Gold coins had value, more than silver, way more than copper. It was... like a crisp $100 bill! "If you have info that's worth it." And out came the coin into view.

That got their attention. The noise of the camp had died down at the sight of something shiny and valuable. John realized quickly that he had become a potential target, if they decided mugging him for the coin was easier. "Just need to know where to avoid, and it's all yours," he tempted instead, make it sound easier to give him what he wanted. Fighting, now that's work! Who wants that?

The leader didn't threaten, he chortled darkly. "Knew it! You are a merchant." He flexed his fingers, hand still outstretched. "Ready to buy things." John took the hint, depositing the coin into that hand. "Don't go West." He pointed the same hand, three fingers wrapped tight around that metal coin, two fingers out. "Thunder rail. Go near that, they'll see you."

That was good information! "Any other directions I should be worried about?"

"You're already in it. Welcome to the Pony Empire." He scoffed at the idea of it. "Get packed. We're not saying here!" That got the others back into action. "And you, get lost. Nice doin' business."

John wasn't being mugged, hirrah, he silently cheered. "Have a good day." He saw no reason to pick a fight with the goblins, and he left them. A new noise got his attention though with a pain echoing from his midsection.

Ah, right, food. He needed that, magical fantasy world or not. But that could wait. How to make sure Zecora was safe... He didn't dare walk directly... Actually... He went back to where he started, trying to walk as if that was entirely normal, which it was! He hoped. Sliding under the brambles, he found the den emptied. "She left," he sighed with relief. "But..." Where did she go?!

Looking around in a panic, he spotted something odd. Drawn into the dirt was a spiral with triangles around it. Zecora's cutie mark! A sign. He went off in that direction, climbing free and setting off at a brisk jog. It was, unsurprisingly to him, not in the direction of the goblins. She had set off around them. "Clever girl." At least she wouldn't have been caught if they stormed their little camp.

Still! He had survived his first encounter with goblins. He marked an imaginary check in the air. "Mark that one off." And wolves! He was hitting a lot of fantasy world requirements. Was a dragon next? Would it be an angry sort, or maybe a Spike sort, or a large and benevolent variety? All of those options were kind of exciting, but he was fairly sure he wasn't quite ready to deal with a big angry dragon just yet...

"You look full of hope, what is it you managed to rope?" Zecora stepped out from around an especially wide tree, a saddlebag worn, filled with various herbs and roots. Where had she gotten that?

"Information." He pointed out. "There's a rail line, the 'thunder rail' that the local ponies use. I feel sure that's what the smoke I saw was, but that was headed away from us. But it's a rail line, which means--"

"It will return," Zecora finished with a soft nod. "Things take a positive turn. Supplies this forest has in abundance, but some food would not be redundant." She was looking to him hopefully.

That reminded him that he was still hungry! "I wanted to be sure I found you before I worried about that. We're safer together." That meant it was time to resume the searching of his pockets. He dug out something that felt like paper wrapper. Unfolding it from around the wafer it concealed, he found... something dry and... "Oh shit!" Zecora quirked her head at his curse. "Sorry, but I think this is a ration. Wow, never saw a real ration before."

She leaned in and up, sniffing the potential food. "This will chase away our pain. To fast is something I will abstain." She snapped, wrenching off a piece in her teeth in an uneven tear as she sat up on her haunches and raised her hooves for a platform as she got to chewing.

"Breakfast time," John agreed, tearing off another sizable piece and folding the rest away in its wrapper. What did a ration taste like? Spicy. That hard tack was spicy, which he had not expected. Someone had worked in some kind of spice all through the hard bread to give it a flavor that tingled and burned a little, but it varied as he worked through it, so it wasn't as boring as a solid wedge of tack might have otherwise been.

"Huh." Not the best food he'd ever had, but also not the worst, and he could say he'd eaten a ration. "Not terrible." He'd still be looking forward to some real food, but it would keep him alive. "Doing alright?" He looked to Zecora.

"You have more of that, it will keep us going. I hope our trip is not so long, our ribs start showing." She rose to her hooves. "Thank you for this meal, To approach the rail, a good idea I feel." She pointed in a new direction, a combination of towards the line and the edge of the forest. "They will see us better if we are not behind trees. We will advance to the open and fear not the breeze."

"One thing." He began the hike with Zecora. "The way those goblins were talking, they may not be friendly. I handled the gobs, so if you could take the first step with the ponies?"

"A zebra is not a pony, With my presence they may not agree." She inclined an ear off at a new angle. "But I will try, the least I can do. We are partners, I can at least tell invite them to who." She gestured between herself and John.

"Zebras are way closer to ponies than a human is." He did not have hooves, or a tail, or a fur pelt. "Ponies are nice as a habit though, right?" Zebras were also pretty great, so far he knew.

"Quick to startle and take flight. Our first enemy is that of fright." Zecora pointed ahead. "Your eyes were true, they did not lie. The forest abates, I can see the sky."

The forest was thinning ahead of them, allowing more and more of the sun to shine down on them. Being a cold place, the sun's rays wasn't that hot to the touch, but a welcome bit of warmth against the chill. It was, in the end, still cold, quite cold. John rubbed his gloved hands together as they went. "It should be easier to spot the rail when the trees aren't in the way."

She nodded without words, trotting a bit faster as the things in the way dwindled. Her eyes roamed the frozen tundra they were crossing instead. More habitable, it was not... But they could see so much further... Which also meant they could be seen just as easily. Better or not, she was uncertain. Zecora pointed to where a thin line cut a line across the landscape.

"The rail," agreed John without being told what he was agreeing with. "Let's get to it." She darted ahead of him, blocking his path with her side. "What?"

Zecora pointed to a crevice in the snow, easily missed at first glance.

"Oh... Well, let's get closer." They advanced together, the hole becoming much larger, and more obvious, as they came up on it. It was a gouge in the ground, going some indeterminate depth into the ground. It seemed to go as far as their eyes could easily verify to the north and south, even cutting into the forest. "Going around it might take forever." Across, it wasn't that far! Maybe twenty... thirty feet? That was too far to jump... "We just need to figure out how... to get across."

Zecora craned her neck to the right to look at where it hit the tree line. "The crevice must end, or the rail would not go. As much as it may bother, perhaps back into the forest of snow?" She pointed back at that tree line.

All that walking... "We should keep the rail in sight as best we can, at the very least." When Zecora nodded, he turned and they both began to follow that hole, hoping to run into where it allowed one to get across. "Maybe it narrows further up, and we can just hop over."

"Think twice before you make that hop. It looks deep enough for it to be a painful stop," cautioned Zecora as they went. "To be honest, this isn't so bad. A fearsome beast or greedy bandit would make me more sad."

As if summoned by her call for good cheer, rough calls came from the depths. Strange quadruped creatures, their features equine but also made of frost, roared with anger and spread out to come at the group from several angles.

John drew his sword even as he staggered back away from the edge. "The hell?" Maybe that was literal. They had demonic hints about them, with little horns, jagged lines, and little wagging tails. They were... pony ice demons? He hadn't played enough of the game to hope to identify them, aside from going that far. "Do you know what these are?"

Zecora shook her head swiftly as she began to collect some of her reagents. "They are threats entirely new. Ponies cast from ice shaded blue. If there is anything to be known, is that they see us as foe."

John swiped as they came in, but his sword went right above one and below another, their hooves thudding against his side, patches of frost forming on his clothing. "Oh ow!" So that was what direct cold damage felt like, good to know...

"Against creatures of rime, take out weapons with a dash of thyme." She threw out a fan of materials just in front of one of the little things charging at her. It shrieked in obvious pain, falling just before her, smoldering as if burning. She kicked it with a sudden flick of her hoof, sending it falling into the chasm it came from.

John was not alone, he drew comfort in that. Focusing on one of the little ice demons at a time, he brought his sword up in a cruel jab, lancing the thing in its ribs. It gargled and thrashed in agony, and the cold only grew worse. Two of the others exhaled gusts of freezing chill over him as if in revenge. "You... freakin' started this." With a flick of his sword, he sent the body of the impaled one thudding aside. "I'll end it."

"Buzz off!" John looked around. That hadn't been him, or Zecora. The creatures were scattering, apparently just as startled. Landing just in front of them, somewhat between the two came a pegasus, wings folding tight. "Hey there. You looked like you were in trouble."

Zecora blinked at their sudden pony companion. "Hail and well met. May we know who ended that threat?"

Author's Note

The traditions are upheld! Welcome to Everglow, you two! Zecora shows she's not a helpless maiden in a fight, even if she would prefer to use flight. Also prepare, because this one is getting 2 updates a week this month!

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4 - Birds of a Feather

"Aeorean." The pegasus bowed, one wing extending out to the side as part of the motion with his dip of his front half. "Druid." He pointed down into the crevice the beasts had come from. "I came here to fix that."

John and Zecora shared a look of surprise. Zecora was the first to speak, "You mean to heal this jagged line? What will you sew it with? I hope not twine."

Aeorean laughed at the idea. "Oh, Sun Queen forbid." He shook his head as he lifted into the air several inches. "There's a rift down there, belching out monsters, like the ones you just fought. The rail line hired me to get rid of it." He pointed at the two of them. "To be honest, I thought maybe you were competing with me."

John put up his hands at chest level. "Not us. We had no idea."

"That was also a possibility." Aeorean bobbed his head. "Figured I'd play it safe and lend a hoof. Glad I did. The hole isn't the problem, just what's coming out of it. It's makin' the rail folk kinda nervous."

"That is easy to imagine." Zecora nodded, considering the source of pony ice demons. "More than enough to spur some action."

"Say!" Their new friend flapped over them, flying in a circle. "You two seem adventuring ready. Wanna help? I like having someone watching my back. I'll split the reward!"

Far from being shunned or attacked, the ponies were... already inviting him to adventure. John decided quickly that he liked these ponies. It seemed ponies were generally alright creatures. "One thing." He dug out his remaining ration supply. At the rate they had tore into it, he had... a day or two if they were careful about it. "Running short on food. We were hoping to get to a town."

"Oh wow." He flew in closer to look at the ration. "That's all you have left? Why'd you come out here with just that?!" He threw his hooves wide with wonder. "You wait here, right here." He pointed down at the ground. "Be right back!" And off he flew like a loosed arrow towards the forest.

Zecora sat on her haunches, peering at John. "What?" he asked, unsure what had bothered her.

"You just volunteered us for trouble. You barely understand your own place, but you promised double." She pointed at herself. "By what right did you offer my hoof? Am I safe to assume that was a goof?"

He shrank back half a step. "I wasn't trying to..." And yet, he had. "Sorry. I just got caught up in finding a friendly face."

"And an adventure to chase," chastised Zecora, finishing his rhyme for a change. "At the least, the ponies do not fear you. One problem averted, after all we've been through."

Things fell to a silence for a few moments as he tapped a foot into the snow. "He's our best bet of getting somewhere safe."

Zecora let out a little sigh. "In this you are correct. I just wish my consent you checked." She sank to her belly on the chilly ground, her borrowed cape flopping around her, creating a little cocoon of heat. "If we are to work together, Trust is required altogether."

"At least we're having an improvement in weather." Zecora raised a brow at him. "What, you're infectious."

Zecora smiled gently at him. "I choose to accept that as a kind word. Now where did our new friend go, flying as a bird?"

"They're..." John had a hand held up, squinting. "Circling some bushes? No, they landed... Coming back."

Zecora inclined her head. Pony sight was not quite as sharp as a human's, and she could not see the pegasus working. Her companion had many interesting tricks. When the pegasus came close enough to easily pick out, Zecora waved a hoof at them.

"Hey!" He came in for a landing, one wing folding almost immediately to flip open his saddlebags on his right side. "Got a treat for you."

John snapped his fingers even as his hands crashed together in a clap. "You're going to cast goodberry, aren't you?"

Aeorean inclined his head. "Way to take the fun out of it, but yeah." He angled to present the open bag. "Go ahead, take about 'em out. I knew you looked like an adventurer! You've worked with a druid before?"

John reached in there, feeling a lot of things, but he focused on fetching six big bright red berries. "I... I heard of the spell." Someone had cast the spell back in his group, when he was playing the character, instead of being the character. "Shouldn't we wait on this until--"

"You chewed on a ration, right?" Aeorean pointed at John's ration-laden pocket. "You'll get hungry again. Now, these... A little primal magic, pow. You'll be set for a whole day. Hold that steady." He reared up and raised his hooves, speaking odd words as he seemed to almost dance in place, his wings joining the motions with power glimmering in the air with vibrant green of life, seeping into the berries that seemed to become somehow more perfectly berry. "Eat up!"

Zecora reached up, swatting a berry out of John's hand for her other hoof to catch and bring to her face with a light sniffing. "I had my suspicions, I had my doubts. I feel it certain that is Everglow hereabouts." She popped the berry into her mouth, chomping down on the berry that proved to be the very definition of berry goodness. "Mmm...."

John popped one of the remainders into his own face. "Thanks." He folded his fingers over the remainder. "How long do these stay good for? Oh! I'm John, no h. This is Zecora." He gestured to her. "By the way, if you know how to get somewhere safe, she'd really appreciate it. I can only volunteer myself."

"Jon!" Aeorean clopped his hooves once firmly. "What does that mean? Silly humans, you always make such funny names. What's it mean?"

"Uh..." Like most humans, the real meaning of his name was not a thing he thought about too often. "Just a name."

"Phah." Aeorean waved it away. "Its meaning still has an affect on you. You just don't know what it is. Silly human." Despite making fun of him, the pegasus still had a bright smile and seemed to be happy to be there. "I can't throw stones, I guess. For a pony, my name's super wierd!" His eyes darted to Zecora. "What language is your name from?! Does it mean something? It's gotta!"

Zecora's guarded expression softened a little. "Its meaning is quite plain. Just a zebra and no further to explain." She gestured at herself. "You seem excited and kind, but my question, if you mind?"

"Oh!" Aeorean's ears pricked. "Sorry. Yeah, this is Everglow." He tapped the ground beneath him. "Wait..." He squinted at both of them before erupting in renewed laughter. "You wouldn't ask that unless you're not from Everglow." He pointed at Jon. "Are you from the human lands, with her?" The hoof swiveled to Zecora. "Wow you came a long way! No wonder you're running out of food!"

Jon raised a lone finger. "Is Everglow the name of the country, or the continent, or the entire world?"

"Kinda yes to all of the above." Aeorean bobbed his head. "We got the name 'cause of those rifts." He pointed down into the grand hole. "They happen everywhere, but most common here, in Everglow, which also has us ponies and a ton of other fae, who are colorful, so, you know, it fits!" He seemed pleased with things. "Wow, still, welcome! You're both nice, right? You seem nice."

Zecora let out a slow sigh. "I don't suppose you remember another pony who looked like me." She pointed to herself. "Not striped, but otherwise similar to see?"

Aeorean leaned in towards Zecora, looking her over. "You're all... round. It's neat!" He nodded as he stood up, circling around her cartoonish lines. He was, well, a pony, a horse. Sure, a horse that had wings, but a horse. Zecora was more of a child's impression of what a zebra might be. "That's so... Oh. Oh! Wow." He crashed to his haunches. "You're not from this plane at all, are you?"

Zecora grew a bit of a smile. "I am more impressed that you looked for where we are the same. To appear as different as I, all the reason to blame. I expected you to show more fear, but instead you have demonstrated nothing but great cheer." She offered a hoof towards him. "A pleasure to meet you."

"I love the rhyming thing." He clopped a hoof against hers. "Does everyone from your plane do that? I gotta visit!" His vision shifted towards Jon, the eye closer to him focusing, the other not bothering to turn. "You're not built like her. You're just a human, but you're friends... That's nice! But it still kinda confuses me."

"He caught me in the middle of a brew," Zecora noted, completing her rhyme.

"It was an accident," assured Jon quickly. "We both didn't mean to end up here, but here we are anyway. So... can we get her somewhere safe?"

"I saw her fight." Aeorean clopped his hooves. "You're an alchemist, that's exciting. I never saw an alchemist work before. Would you like to come along? It'll help keep the rail safe."

Zecora considered the flighty pegasus. "Are you not worried that I am more of the same. Not from this world, is that not to blame?"

"Pfft!" Aeorean rolled his eyes. "If there was a rift with a bunch of ponies like you coming out of it, I'd just leave it open. You're not trying to freeze people or punch them for no reason, now are you? We're having a nice conversation."

Jon smiled at the exchange. "He's not wrong there." Though he could imagine some other humans would move to violent reaction should such a portal come to be in someone's backyard. "Do you want to come along?"

"Since you ask, and I am given a choice, I feel better, granted a proper voice." She nodded at Aeorean. "If this is a thing that must be done, Let us do what we can for victory to be won."

"She just keeps doing it," marveled Aeorean, turning his entire body towards Jon. "That's kinda cool. To, uh... turn her away would make me a fool!" He looked so very proud of his rhyme.

Jon laughed, swatting him on the shoulder, which the pegasus didn't seem to mind. "I told you, Zecora. You're infectious. Soon we'll all be rhyming with each other."

"One thing." He pointed down over the edge. "I can fly down. Pegasus privileges. You two don't have wings." He turned the same hoof to the north. "In the forest it gets to be a gentle enough slope to get you two down there. Either that or we set up camp and we air walk down tomorrow."

Zecora's eyes widen. "What new magic do you speak of? To allow a pony to descend from so far above?"

"Ooo, that was a tricky one." Aeorean nodded, impressed at the zebra's ability to spin rhymes. "I'm a druid. We have spells. Great spells! One of them lets you walk on air." He walked in place as if to demonstrated. "Then you can just walk down the hole." He pointed anew at the target. "Nice and direct, but I don't have it prepared today. I didn't think I'd need it. It's not really a pegasus spell." He flapped his wings for emphasis.

Zecora took a few steps away from the edge. "To be perfectly honest, a rest sounds nice. Let us make a bed in the snow and ice."

"I got that covered!" Aeorean dug into his saddlebag nose first, pulling out a stick of elm with a bright sapphire tip. "Watch!" He waved it excitedly, magic swirling around him, not of the same natural sort he had used not long before. A hut appeared from nowhere, rising from the snow. "Ta da!"

Jon opened the door and peeked inside, where it seemed a sizeable abode was hidden. "Wow. Now this is cool." Well, not cool. He could see a fireplace waiting to be used. "Everyone in."

Author's Note

Nothing like a tiny hut to hide in, lemme tell ya!

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5 - A Party

Aeorean clapped smartly with a few strange sounds, a fire erupting in the fireplace, a little spark that grew quickly to a cheerful crackle. The chill of the outside became easily forgotten as their hut warmed to comfort. "Seriously, wow. I didn't think I'd run into extraplanar creatures, um, besides what the rift made. Plenty of those!"

"So, what level are you?" Jon asked with a lack of tact. Aeorean looked baffled. "Um... Is that not a thing?"

Aeorean inclined his head. "Level of what? Even for a human, you're kinda funny." Not that this seemed to bother him at all.

Zecora curled on a small mattress that had come with the hut. "I do not know of what he speaks. A thousand mysteries he hides in his cheeks."

Aeorean burst into giggles. "What is he, a gerbil? No. He's a human. He hides things right in his hands!" He leaned up and Jon didn't stop him from touching a quivering equine nose to a gloved human hand.

Jon reached to pet the friendly pony, but Aeorean danced away easily, avoiding it. Another pony he wasn't allowed to pet, aw. "We should try to get some sleep. It sounds like we have a busy day tomorrow."

Aeorean nodded quickly. "Yeah, good idea. If something beats on the door, that'll wake us up." For some, an alarming idea. For the pegasus, apparently a comforting one. He went to an unclaimed mat and flopped upon it, curling up to rest. "Night!"

Zecora raised a brow at that exchange, but did not rise from where she was. Jon took that as a hint that things were winding down, and he claimed what seemed more like a couch, flopping across it with his legs dangling up and over one of the arm rests. Not exactly ideal, but a step up from the frozen ground by a good measure.

Sleep found them all. Aeorean's feathers were their wakeup call as he stood between his two new allies and tickled the faces of both with a wing each. "Wakey wakey!"

Zecora sat up with a snort, batting the wing away. "You have roused me with a snap. Did that have to be the end of my nap?" Despite her complaints, she went to her dropped saddlebag and began fetching things from it.

Jon sat up and threw his legs to the ground, sitting up. "That's one way to start the day." The hut was still there around them. The fire had gone out, but it was warm enough to be comfortable. "You need anything to actually prepare your spell?"

"I..." Aeorean came up short, a little frown shown. "That's a good point. I better work on that." He marched to the door, threw it open with a thrust hoof, and went outside. "Be right back!"

Jon went to pull the door shut. Zecora was... putting things together, and brewing something? "What are you doing?"

"Into danger we will roam." A small puff of red smoke escaped whatever she was working on. "A little dash of some brome." She released some grass into the cauldron, causing it to change colors rapidly into a striped purple and black thing that she resumed stirring. "Potions to protect and potions to attack. All things I want in my backpack." Not that she had a backpack, but she had saddlebags, and that was about the same thing?

It seemed they all had things to do to prepare for the day... except Jon. He got to watch Zecora work, filling many bottles with different mixtures. Not every bottle got something new. Some of her brews, she got into many bottles, creating quite the collection that she filled her saddlebags with. "You need a bandoleer," he noted, breaking the silence.

"Hm?" She continued working.

"A strap over you that holds the potions." He drew a line with a finger across himself in a slash from the shoulder to the opposing hips. "It's going to be hard to be reaching into your saddlebag full of stuff for the one potion you want."

"That does sound convenient. But I can only work with what I have, so kindly be lenient." She nudged the cauldron away and started to clean up, apparently finished with her preparations.

Of the spells he had, few they were, none could just... summon a strap for her. "Sorry."

"There is no need for regret." She soon had it all put away for the next time. "Such a device would be an asset." She walked under her saddlebags and rose up into them, letting them sink into her fur... and further, gone. As if everything she had been working on had just... vanished.

And yet, Jon remembered the saddlebags coming into being in much the same way. "Wait, maybe I'm being the stupid one here." She looked to him silently. "You can draw whatever potion you want from... yourself, can't you?" Ponies did not need bags of holding, for they were one. At least Equestrian ones.

Zecora smiled that knowing little smile of yours. "You are a clever one. What I hold can be drawn on the run." She trotted for the door.

Outside, Jon and Zecora found Aeorean feeding something to a passing deer, though the animal bolted as the two newcomers arrived. Aeorean waved at the spooked animal and turned towards his new friends. "I've communed with nature and I'm all full of magic." He waggled his hooves for emphasis. "I hope you're both ready to walk on some air."

Jon looked after the deer, already quite distant. "Did we just interrupt?"

"Nah." Aeorean shook his head quickly. "Deer are meant to run, and to avoid scary things. I'm the crazy one that gets curious instead. So, ready?" He lifted with flaps of his wings. "'Cause I am!"

Zecora nodded. Jon hiked a thumb at the great big hole they were going into. "So just... walk down?"

"Like it's a kinda steep hill," Aeorean advised. "And here we go." He spoke strange words and his hooves and wings flapped, which almost threw him off balance, but he remained aloft, weaving the spell that settled over his friends. "And done. Walk, but on air."

Zecora trotted to the hole and shoved a hoof out, bringing it down beyond the lip and setting her weight on it testingly, but the air held firm, as if the ground the rest of her was on just extended outwards. "Huh." She dared to join it with another hoof, then all four, standing there floating in the air.

Not to be shown up, Jon hustled to join her, bravely marching out over the yawning nothing beneath them. "Alright, the walking part works."

"Of course it works. Why would I make you do that just for it not to work? That'd be kinda mean." Aeorean rolled his eyes then pointed downwards. "Meet you at the bottom!" He could fly, a fact he was not shy to show off with a swooping dive into the darkness.

Then it came time to walk, but how to do that? They both circled and tried to descend, but it was not like a hill at all. "Wait." Jon raised a foot and stepped up onto an invisible step. "It's stairs!"

Zecora raised a brow, then leaned forward and down, reaching a hoof down to where the next step would be, hoof clopping with the impact. "You are correct."

"Let's get down there before he's wrecked." Jon looked perhaps too smug at completing her line, descending the stair he started from and matching her, the two racing down the invisible steps in a spiral that took them lower and lower. It wasn't flying, but it was getting them there, into the darkness that become deeper and more oppressive, the light of day just a narrow band above them.

"Do I hear you?" came Aeorean's call from below, unseen. "I'm pretty sure. Unless the rift made someone with boots and someone with bare hooves. That'd be kinda funny."

Jon snapped his fingers with a sharp word of magic, causing a glow to emerge from that finger, allowing them to see Aeorean down below, waving at them. It was a cavern bottom, that was plain. "Wow!" but Aeorean had seen something, turning to gape at something that was in the shadows, at least in Jon's vision. A building? He could pick out little more than maybe that, or just a rock formation?

"Oh, right. I can do that too." Aeorean started to glow, casting his own spell of light to combat the darkness. "I bet the rift's in there!" He pointed to the shape in the darkness.

Zecora jumped free of the eternal stairs, looking grateful to have her hooves on solid, and visible, ground. "To glow is not a trick I have. It is good you have split our sources to halve." Her eyes darted from one light source to the other.

Aeorean inclined his head at his new zebra friend. "Put yourself in a corner there. It's alright, happens to the best of us." He pointed into the gloom as he walked towards it, the shape of some forgotten structure of stone coming into view. "This has to be it! Or we'd already be looking at it. Can't really be much else."

Jon completed his journey down. "Are rifts usually really visible?"

"Except when they're not," offered Aeorean unhelpfully. "But usually. If you see another hole in here, could be that. Do you see any?"

"A question." Jon caught up with Aeorean. "What were you doing in the middle of the dark?"

"Waiting for you?" Aeorean shrugged softly. "What else could I do?"

Zecora chuckled softly at the antics of their new companion, advancing to the fore. "This looks strong and old. But who will enter first and be bold?" She pointed to an empty doorframe that led into the interior of the mysterious building.

"I got it." Jon advanced to the fore. "I'm pretty sure I'm a fighter, so taking point is literally my job."

Aeorean followed behind, one ear skewed off at an angle. "You say that kinda funny. We're all fighters, we fight!" He thrust a hoof into the air. "If we weren't fighters, we'd be pretty lousy adventurers and have to go home and take up knitting or something."

Zecora smirked softly at that. "In this, you are correct. Careful, we do not know what to expect."

Jon stepped up to the barrier between the inside and the outside. Instead of stepping inside, he drew his sword and reached up, poking the ceiling, and never reaching it. His blade sunk into something soft and squishy, and it fell in front of him. "Oh shit!" He hadn't actually expected that to work, but he found his first slime.

It fell across the hand that was holding the sword and he staggered back with a howl, quickly scrubbing it off with the opposing glove as both disintegrated, leaving his red and bloody hands behind and the human heaving for breath. "At least... we didn't walk into that."

Zecora advanced with a potion in her maw. "I thank you for finding that before me. What is it you knocked free?"

Jon accepted the offered potion and popped the cork. Chugging it down made the red less angry and the bleeding came to a halt, but he still looked sore in his right hand, as if burned internally. "That... still stings, whatever it was."

"Green slime," noted Aeorean as he squinted at the fallen patch of goopy slime. "Fire can clear it." With a sudden flap of his wings and a sharp litany of primal anger, he unleashed a gout of flames that rapidly consumed the messy danger. "And now we're safe, um, from that at least."

A pity that it only promised to become more dangerous, as opposed to less. Despite this, Jon moved to resume his position at the front, not daunted by his brush with mortal danger, though looking about a bit more cautiously.

Author's Note

Excitement! Danger! Adventure! Welcome to it, my little friends.

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6 - Across the Threshold

They entered, crossing that line between the outside and the inside. Jon at the front, sword out and ready. "Will there be hints if we're getting close to the portal?"

"Rift," corrected Aeorean. "And, usually, yes. Tends to be related to what they are. This one has a lot of cold things, so expect ice and snow and things." He looked around quickly as the went down a hallway. "So far all clear."

Zecora raised a hoof up, a touch of snow at the end. "They have come through here. I suggest quiet, and to use your ear."

"I'll use both of 'em!" Aeorean flapped up, tagging off of Jon as if he were a convenient platform and propeling himself forward while knocking Jon back with the great shove of hooves.

Jon frowned at the rough treatment, and the druidic pegasus speeding ahead of him. "I'm supposed to be on point," he grunted with growing annoyance. They had a plan. A plan! Despite that, they advanced.

"Now we're talking," came his enthusiastic call. "All the snow we left behind."

Hurrying up, they could see Aeorean had found a turnoff that went from a dark hallway to a brightly lit snowy field with no roof in sight. "That is a rift. No doubt about it." He waved a hoof wildly at the impossible geometry before them. "To close one of these, easy. You go in, find the biggest, nastiest thing? You punch it." He swung a hoof in a firm swing, spinning in the air. "Do it right and, poof, gone. You closed it."

Zecora inclined her head at the strange sight. "It seems into winter's embrace we march one more. 'Tis strange to see stone give way to snow and icy décor." She advanced across the new barrier, a shiver running through her as the temperature plunged in that instant. The cape she still wore ruffled and flowed with wind that hadn't pierced the hallway they used to be in.

Aeorean zipped in over Zecora's head. "Oh wow."

Jon pressed in behind them, looking where the pegasus was staring. "Aw damn it..." In the distance, a dragon with folded wings in a fanning forward in front of itself was being attended by a large mob of chilly beings. "At least tell me that is the biggest thing in here?" What rated over a dragon? Was that an adult, or an ancient? In person, he had no idea, just a memory that there was a difference. "Gonna guess it's a cold dragon." But it was the wrong color for a cold dragon. Cold dragons were white, right? That one was a vibrant purple shade.

Aeorean shook his head quickly. "If there's something bigger than that, we may be outclassed." He rubbed behind his head. "Now, uh... seeing as it's... kinda big... maybe we should try something besides punching it."

Zecora raised a brow softly. "Were you hoping for something small? Alas, instead of a moderate beast, we face a dragon tall." She sat up, crossing her arms in almost a pout. "To punch a dragon rarely ends well. Perhaps it is with words this situation we quell."

"One thing." Aeorean wobbled his hoof at the great gathering before the dragon. "They probably don't want us bothering their, uh, lord and master. Or maybe their lady? I'm not so good at knowing with dragons."

Jon hadn't put much thought into it. A dragon was a dragon. It could be a boy dragon or a girl dragon, in theory... The distant shape certainly told him nothing. "If... What if we just come like we're awe struck? If we're just another worshiper of the mighty dragon, why would they be mad?"

"Good idea!" Aeorean landed in the snow with a crunch. "I mean, look at them. They are a great and awesome dragon, right?"

"With teeth long and a breath that would scorch, We shall approach it, like a moth to a torch." Zecora started ahead, the others coming in along her. "Act natural, there is nothing odd to see. Why wouldn't we approach? That's the natural place to be."

And so they did approach, directly, in the open. That they were there was no secret to any. A screech came from above, one of the little demon-like ice creatures pointing a hoof down at them, growling and muttering. Others spoke back to it in strange airy words, and more gathered to peer at them.

The ground beneath them heaved as a much smaller dragon came into view, erupting from the snow just ahead of them. "Stop right there," demanded the human-sized orange beast, their wings flared out. "You're going out of your way to die in an interesting place."

Aeorean gasped dramatically. "Are you the kid of the big dragon? Aw that's so cute! Hi!"

The smaller dragon seemed a bit taken aback at the gushingly warm speak. "I am not cute!" they huffed defensively. A boy? They sounded male. "What have you come for, besides to perish at our claws?"

Jon pointed up at the still screeching and talking snow demon. "What are they saying?"

The dragon huffed. "Pay the mephit no mind. They say you had a fight with them, but who hasn't around here? Little pissers, they get on everyone's nerve at some point. They didn't kill you, obviously. That would have been... sad. Pathetic, really."

Zecorea instead directed a hoof at the large dragon behind the smaller one still some distance away. "We came with admiration and wonder. Your... superior is as hard to miss as a clap of thunder."

"She is kinda big, and awesome," boated the dragon, proud in her sake. "And she's watching us. Watching me specifically."

"Why haven't you eaten them already?" asked the larger one, a booming voice that sounded more bored than anything else. "They could hurt you."

Jon put up his hands. "We wouldn't hurt someone's kid in front of them. Now that's just rude."

The dragon snorted at that, nostrils flaring with licks of electricity crackling before him. "I'm not an infant." He looked over his shoulder, bellowing, "I got it under control!" Looking back to the interlopers, he huffed. "I swear, she thinks she's my mother, which she is not."

Aeorean clopped his forehooves together. "Oh. Are you friends? Lovers? Just neighbors?"

"She's an intruder," he groaned sufferingly. "She parked her big butt and now everyone's paying attention to her. I hate it, and her, but don't tell her I said that."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Jon looked between the two dragons, trying to put it together. "Wait, you were here, in this snowy place, to start then?"

"Yes. I am the true and proper master!" He reared up on his hind legs, striking a magnificent pose.

At least until Jon drew his sword. Even as the dragon began to fall forward onto all fours, Jon had surged ahead, plunging it under that falling chest, thrusting the sharp of the blade up into the dragon's chest as it rattled and hissed with surprised pain. The other two stared with dumbfounded shock as Jon wrenched his sword free just to bring it down in a cruel slice, chopping into the dragon's stunned neck.

Not that it severed. Not that one had to sever a neck to do telling damage, blood spraying out across the once white snow as the dragon thrashed and roared in dying fury.

Aeorean blinked softly. "Why did... Oh no." The rest of the crowd overhead descended upon them, angry, no, furious at what had just happened. Mephits, true elementals, and other ice-borne creatures descended on the group, turning it into a brawl to survive. "This wasn't the plan!"

"Give it... a second." He parried a heavy ice fist with his sword, which sent the sword flying and Jon staggering back. "If this works like you said it would, it'll be fine."

Zecora dived to the side as the area she had been standing in became a blizzard of driving flecks of ice and sub-zero winds. "Your methods leave some room for improvement, For now we should focus on our movement." She was working her way back towards the entrance, hurling with a flick of her neck a flash that exploded in brilliant fire, dispersing a small bit of the crowd, but there was plenty more rushing to take their place.

"You fools!" The crowd suddenly parted, scattering to all sides as the great dragon in the back stormed towards them, stomping the snow beneath its claws as she raged. "Damn you all! I will rip--" Suddenly they were in a dark place, their light sources visible. They were inside a building, the one they had started in.

Jon went to grab his sword from across the room where it had landed. "Portal closed."

"Rift," reminded Aeorean with a pouty huff. "And that was kinda mean. Effective! But also mean."

Zecora sank to her haunches, heaving for breath. "How did you know that would work? It seemed to me you had gone suddenly berserk."

"Nah." He slid his sword into its home. "The dragon, the one we were talking to. It was there first, and it was the largest thing if you discount what showed up afterwards."

Aeorean inclined his head slowly. "You're a genius. But you coulda tried talking to that dragon."

"Or," boomed a loud female voice. "You can try dying." The roof of the building quaked and crumbled as great draconic claws tore it off and free, revealing the scowling face of the larger dragon, clearly not as dismissed as the rest of the rift had been. "Impertinent little fool. Do you even know what you've done?!"

"I'm sorry?"

The dragon inclined her head faintly. "You're sorry? Seriously. Last I checked, your kind treats murder with a bit more gravity than 'oops, my bad.' Or am I completely misunderstanding how these work?"

Aeorean lifted into the air, hooves raised towards the angry dragon. "Sorry, um, ma'am. We were asked to close that rift is all."

"That rift is why I was there." She huffed a strangely sparkling bit of... something. What element it was, a mystery. "What is a rift dragon without a rift? Nothing. Well, more than all of you put together still, but..." She clacked two heavy claws together. "I didn't like that little twerp, too big for his britches, but he held the rift in place... Which you just took from me."

"You did warn him," noted Jon. "If he'd listened to his betters, he could have avoided that whole thing."

"Right?!" she boomed in almost a roar, wings fluttering before folding against her back. "Fool... Whatever... I'm without a rift, and annoyed, and now a little bored, so you will tell me why a pony, a human and a... What even are you?" She was peering at Zecora. "You are not a thing I have seen before. Like a pony... sort of..."

Zecora stopped trying to get out of sight. Beneath that shelf had seemed like such a fine idea... "I am Zecora, a brewer of fine potions. I assure you I did not mean to cause such emotions."

"You made those explosions? Nice... I never met an alchemist before." The dragon vanished from sight.

The three looked at one another, confused a moment before moving quietly for the exit, as if they could sneak away quietly enough they could avoid future problems.

"Took you long enough." There was a purple-furred pony with a brand of destiny of a swirling portal. "I'm joining you. No is not an option you want to entertain. Keep me amused and I won't exact a bloody revenge all over you. A fair trade? Not asking, let's go."

Aeorean slipped out past the menacing mare. "Wow, it's been a long time since I had a real party, but I have one now! A human warrior, a zebra alchemist, and a dragon?! That's actually pretty cool." He sounded pretty chipper about things. "Let's go!"

"And a pegasus druid," reminded Jon. "You count too."

The new party left the narrow valley with 100% less rifts, but with 1 more rift dragon among them.

Author's Note

Say hello to our newest party mate! This can't possibly go wrong.

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7 - Towards the Light

"Why are you going that way?" Their new purple companion was peering at the rest as they had started down the valley.

Aeorean twirled in mid air. "Well, I only prepared two sky walking spells, and, wellllllllll--"

"--Stop that." She rolled her eyes. "And stay still a moment." She craned her neck back to look into the sky, speaking strange words with the syllibant hiss of a dragon. Elemental power flared along her form as she took hold of arcane energy for her own whims. "Good, nobody around. I will not wait for you to slow climb out of here. That is what you were doing, right?"

Jon lifted his shoulders. "You have a better idea?"

"I always do, get used to that." She stuck out her tongue mildly before she reared up, shedding her disguise as she did so. She doubled and doubled again in size, landing gently, as far as her size allowed, on all fours. "Everyone up," she demanded, her voice changed, as it must with sheer size.

He would get to ride a dragon? Jon rated his time in Everglow positively overall. With a barely stifled giggle, he moved to accept the ride being offered. Aeorean inclined his head. "That is super nice, but I do have wings, so I'll follow you."

The dragon shook her head with a huff. "Few are fast enough to keep up with a dragon, but waiting for you to fly after us is still an improvement over your original idea." Her eyes fixed on the Zebra. "What are you waiting for? Up."

Zecora did not seem as confident in the idea of scaling a dragon. "I do not--"

"--Don't finish that line," cut off the dragon, bringing their tail over in front of Zecora. "Walk up. No fingers or teeth required."

Zecora eyed the thin and spikey limb she was being invited to step on. Her doubt was not hidden, but the dragon had told her to do it. Couldn't blame her! She hoped, at least. She started up along the tail, getting past the spines near the start and accelerating to a lively trot along the dragon's spine. "One thing, something usually given to start. A name is a grand thing for telling creatures apart."

Unlike some forms of dragons, that rift dragon had large expressive ears, turned back towards Zecora. "I didn't mention it? Huh, used to everyone already knowing it." She buffed her chest with a few claws. "Gonna guess none of you speak properly?"

Aeorean, flapping up beside the dragon's head, shook his own quickly. "Sorry, never learned draconic. We both speak common well enough." He flashed a goofy bit of a grin. "Your name come in common?"

"As if." She rolled her eyes at the very idea. "So we'll just make something up." One of her great eyes peeked over her shoulder to see Zecora sinking to her haunches on her neck. "You're on? Great." Her wings spread wide to either side. "Let's go traditional, Longma. Literally dragon horse. Too on the nose? Don't care." She threw herself into the air with a great push of her powerful legs, wings coming down to control and force her angle higher, carrying them at a wind-whistling rate at a sharp angle out of the crevice.

Jon grabbed Zecora, one hand grabbing firmly to a ridge of scales as the other arm snaked around her, snatching her from flying free by grabbing her about the barrel. Just for it all, all that momentum, to just... stop.

But momentum did not work that way. He was thrown forward, where his grip did not help. He slapped into the ground, Zecora landing on him with a cry. He groaned in pain, but he was groaning. He was alive! He took some tiny solace in that, though it'd be really nice if... Oh, she was moving.

Zecora scrambled free of what had cushioned her fall. She twisted around to look at him, looking him over quickly before a potion emerged at the end of a hoof, extended towards him.

He took it gladly, chugging it down. The hurts began to fade quickly. "Oh, having a healer around is kind of great." Sure, just not being hurt in the first place would have been better, but one takes what one gets. "Thanks."

Zecora nodded even as she continued turning, looking for Long-- Oh. She was right there, back in pony form.

"Looking for me?" The pony gave a smile, no hint of her draconic origin remaining. "Did I break him? I swear I am just awful with my toys." She trotted up to Jon and reached to prod him.

"I'm a toy?" He swatted at her hoof as he started scaling to his feet. "I'm a warrior."

Longma rolled her eyes at the declaration. "A warrior that kills dragons. By that logic, I'm playing with my toy just right." She flashed a smile, equine teeth displayed. "Now, where is... There he is." Aeorean was just emerging from the valley, flapping towards them with his usual smile. "Wow, he's kinda always cheerful, isn't he?"

Jon patted himself down, making sure nothing came loose on the rough ride, but everything seemed present. "It's not a bad trait."

Zecora inclined her head. "Better to have one with cheer, than one who views life through a sneer."

Longma hiked a brow at that. "Was that supposed to be subtle? It wasn't. Hey, birdbrain, over here!" She waved once.

Aeorean landed in front of the group. "Wow, I forget how fast dragons fly." He inclined his head at his two ground-bound friends. "You two alright?"

Jon waved at Zecora with one hand. "Thanks to her, all together. Dragon riding is trickier than I thought it'd be."

Longma gained an abrupt grin. "You've thought about riding dragons a lot then? And you can't even speak their language? That, my little pet, is just rude."

Aeorean inclined his head at Jon. "Gotta say, she's not wrong."

Zecora set a hoof on her forehead. "Whatever infractions my eager friend has made, we need a destination, despite our group upgrade."

Longma looked to Aeorean. "These two stink of other worlds." A smile slowly spread. "I happen to like that smell, one of the reasons I didn't tear you all apart to a fine soupy texture. Still, gonna bet they have no idea where anything is. So, you. Local boy."

Aeorean pointed at himself.

"Yes you. Where are we going? Did you want to go to one of those fancy pony cities?" Longma fluttered her long lashes. "You have primal magic, maybe you'd rather avoid them? Like to rough it? I can respect that..."

Aeorean tapped at his cheek with a hoof. "Well! The original plan was to close the rift and go get the reward. I promised to share it with them." He waved the same hoof at his two not-dragon friends. "After that, I was gonna scope out the job board and ask around for a new quest!"

Longma clapped her hooves together in one firm stroke. "Fantastic! That sounds like a perfectly reasonable plan. One addendum." She separated her hooves just a little. "One day to savor our money and relax a little. Ponies know how to be decadent, and I'm not skipping the chance to be pampered in luxury."

Aeorean looked to the others quietly. Jon shrugged in reply. "Sounds as good a plan as any."

"Right, but..." Aeorean danced on his hooves lightly. "But, that money." He glanced between Longma and the others. "It has to come from somewhere."

Longma shrugged lightly. "You owe me. You destroyed my cushy pad. You killed that little pissant. You made me bored. Covering me on this is not even that big of an ask, I think."

Jon opened his mouth, ready to volunteer the split funds, but he put the brakes on himself. "Zecora. I'm willing to give up my portion enough to cover our dragon guest. Would you like to join in?"

Zecora dipped her head, ears splaying out left and right. "You can learn, friend Jon. I admit, I do not know what to spend on. Take half from him--" She pointed to Jon. "And half from me." She pointed at herself. "When burdens are shared, it's almost free."

Aeorean hopped up in place, thrusting a hoof up in that instant before he hit the ground. "Wow, great! You guys! We're such a great team." With a giddy little cantor, he turned in place before pointing to the rail in the distance. "Let's get a ride. As fun as hiking is, a train ride can be even more fun and I bet you'll have such a good time."

Longma advanced a little past the pegasus, peering in the direction of the rails. "They were that close? What I get for coming in during the dark. There I was, thinking a nice cozy rift in some forgotten building under everything wouldn't be noticed for centuries." She sighed wistfully. "But, on the other horn, we get to enjoy a train ride, so there's that."

The entire group got to moving, hiking across the snowy plains. Aeorean began humming to himself along the way, but it turned back to words after not long. "I doubt most of the monsters in this area would dare to mess with us."

Jon could but shrug at that idea. "What if they can't tell one of us is also a dragon?"

Longma's tail thumped against the ground with all the force of a dragon's limb. "Then I get to have a different kind of fun, but still fun... And you get to witness it. Aren't you all lucky? Perhaps you should hope for it."

Zecora shook her head. "Of your physical skills, there is little doubt. But surely there is more to your clout?"

"You doubt me?!" Longma turned up her nose in disgust. "The nerve. You're new here, so I'll write that up as just plain ignorance. I'm sure you're very talented wherever you come from, but here you're just a zebra that rhymes." She quirked an ear at Zecora. "Is that a new oracular curse?"

Aeorean bounced mid-step. "Pretty sure that's just a thing she likes to do," he sang with clear joy at the situation. "I like it. Please keep doing that, Miss Zecora."

Longma rolled her eyes. "Be that as it may... Yes. Haven't you witnessed it? I'm not one of those brutish drakes that pounces on things and tears them apart with tooth and claw." She seemed to consider. "Not that I mind doing that if the situation calls for it, but, no... I prefer weaving in the arcane. You know, wizards write their magic in a perverted form of our language. They understand we are the true and proper source of arcane power."

Aeorean flapped a wing, brushing Longma's back in the motion. "Arcane's only one kind of magic. I do primal." He flashed verdant greens in his eyes with promise of his druidic power. "Just as good, but different."

"Yes, yes, little druid." She did not sound impressed. "Your kind is so obsessed with upholding the systems in place. The arcane allows you to rewrite the rules and create new things entirely. Clearly a superior power."

"Nuh-uh!" he burst in a fit of ultimate debate. "Besides, once you have something you like, if nothing holds it together, it flies apart, and then you don't have it anymore." He nodded with complete confidence. "And that's no good is it?"

"It would seem they are two complimenting parts," joined Zecora. "Neither is better if both are required arts."

"Ugh." She paused long enough to cross her arms a moment. "Fine. Primal's much better at putting things back together again. Happy?"

"Very." Aeorean was suddenly aloft, darting forward on his agile wings. "I'll look for a station!"

That made sense, to Jon at least. "I guess the train wouldn't just stop anywhere on the tracks for new riders."

Longma smirked with a new idea. "If I laid across it, they would have to stop."

Author's Note

Train delayed due to dragon on the track, sigh... Again...

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8 - Plot Rails

They were at a station. To call it a station was, perhaps, a bit generous. It was more of a platform beside the tracks. There was no counter to buy tickets from. There was a single metal bench there, and a sign with lettering noting the prices to board the train. "Standard and deluxe," noted Jon as he read over it.

"Deluxe comes with free meals and drinks. Standard, you're on your own." He considered that. "If it's long enough to need it, gonna guess they still sell it to standard ticketers who are ready to pay during the trip."

Aeorean bobbed his head. "Yup! I usually get a standard, but sometimes I want a drink, so I buy the drink. If we're going a long way, I'll get something small to eat." He held up his hooves close.

Longma scowled at the writing. "These prices are not easy to discern." They were based on how long one planned to be on the train, which meant knowing how far away one was going. "How far away is the one that will pay you?"

Aeorean pointed to the right, northwards. "Gallopingdam is where we need to be." He turned the same hoof to a different sign with a list of cities and their distance. "Here we are. Looks like it'll be 4 silver each for standard."

Longma squinted at it. "It's also four days. You're not going to eat for four days?"

Aeorean shrugged softly. "Cheaper to buy some light snacks than to go for the deluxe ticket."

"Two platinum." She bobbed her head. "And we can eat and drink all we want."

"Each," added Aeorean with a nod. "That's 80 gold total. 16 if we don't do that."

Zecora curled a leg, hoof to chin. "I would normally live off the land. Though to attempt such on a train is likely banned."

Longma inclined her head towards Jon and Zecora. "They're both new to this world. Be a good friend and get us some good tickets." She prodded Aeorean firmly in the side. "Do it for them."

Aeorean squeaked, wings flapping as he bounced away a little. "For you, you mean! You don't fool me, miss!" He huffed and crossed his arms. "This is coming out of the reward."

"Fine by me." Not that Longma had any claim to the reward.

"That's fair," reasoned Jon out loud. "Zecora?"

Zecora inclined her head. "I do not see a need for luxury, but good food and drink will aid in our recovery. My share reduced, before I see it. It still is not there for me to believe it."

Aeorean hopped in place, looking southwards. "Here it comes!" Far down the line, fits of sparks crackled beneath it and to the sides as a great machine moved with an eery quiet, slowing as it came closer. It floated, propelled by... magnetics? Lightning? Electricity was involved, this Jon was certain of. Either way, it came up to a smooth stop, one of its many doors right in front of the platform.

It slid open, revealing a squat man with a big beard.

"Dwarf!" spat out Jon without thinking.

The dwarf descended the steps. "First time seeing one? Ya won't be makin' friends if you go shouting out people's races as a way of greetin'. Now, ya wantin' to get aboard?"

"Excuse him." Longma put out a hoof just to spin it backwards, shoving Jon back along the way. "Hail, good dwarf. We'd like three deluxe tickets and one standard to Gallopingdam."

Aeorean's feathers fluffed suddenly. "Wait, who gets the standard?"

Longma inclined her head. "You, of course. You didn't want to get a deluxe, remember?"

Aeorean threw a hoof high. "Not fair! If you're gonna be living the life, I don't wanna be left out. Four! Make it four deluxe tickets!"

He drew an abacus free, sliding a few beads. "Eight platinum or eighty gold. We don't take silver or copper for tickets that high."

Jon imagined that would be like paying for an airplane ticket entirely in dimes or pennies... "That'd be pretty rude."

"You're telling me?" laughed the dwarf. "It was a blessed day when they made that rule official. Not like it's hard to get yer small coins into something larger if yer plannin' a big purchase." He shook his head with memories of past customer service adventures. "But ya got the look of some people I won't be havin' that trouble with."

"Nope!" Aeorean's wing came down, slapping a bag into the dwarf's ready hands. "Here you go."

He reached in, tinkling through the coins. "Five... seven, eight. There we go." He presented the rest of the bag to be reclaimed. "All paid up. Here you are." He held up a strange machine that produced four shining gold tickets. "The sign there doesn't mention it, but deluxe tickets in a group of three or more gets you a private car for sleeping."

Longma sat up proudly. "Already worth the price."

Jon raised a finger. "Is the private car just for sleeping?"

"If you want a private coach all day long, that's extra. You want that?" He looked ready to tabulate the price.

Aeorean nudged in front of Jon. "He's just curious. We've hit our budget for now, but thanks!"

"Suit yerself. Welcome aboard." He stepped to the side and gestured grandly. "Welcome aboard the Lightning Rail."

Longma pounced up the stairs, bounding over the steps to land on the platform beyond them in a single spring. She was lost to sight immediately, off to explore without hesitation.

Zecora stepped up after her, advancing without fear, but not as quickly. Jon came last. "So did Dwarves build this?"

"Oh, new in Everglow?" asked the dwarf. "Nah, we cannae take all the credit fer it. 'twere a team effort, 'tween the dwarves and our pony allies what made this happen." He gestured at the train in general. "Now get yerself on it. Other people got places to be."

"Right." He ascended after his friends. "Where'd they go..." Ah ha. He spotted the back end of Aeorean trotting down the hallway, Zecora past him. He moved to catch up with them, just to wobble suddenly. The train had resumed motion, throwing off his balance with the given momentum. Still, easier than riding a dragon at least!

Zecora's nose was held high, part of the reason she was so visible even with a pegasus in the way. She was following her nose, finding the dining car up ahead with a smile. "These allow us to be here?" She held up a ticket, stuck to the end of her hoof through unknown forces.

Aeorean bobbed his head. "Anyone can be here, but other people gotta pay for what they ask for. This ticket lets us eat our fill." He inclined his head. "Oh, no to go boxes or anything. You eat it, drink it, or leave it."

"That is fair." Zecora hopped up onto a cushion that was in front of a low table, her tail curling down along the edge of that cushion. "Quite comfortable to compare."

Had he missed a rhyme? He smirked at the thought. A gross injustice, and one he was already over. "Hey you two."

Aeorean waved a wing at Jon eagerly. "Hey! We're gonna get a bite."

"Sounds great." He sank down on an available cushion. It was clearly more made for ponies to perch on, but he could fold his legs just so and it worked fine enough. "Are there waiters?" He didn't see one, just a bartender.

Longma's voice rose from a few tables over, "Just shout what you want, and wave your ticket."

"You don't have to shout," noted the pony bartended with a smirk. "I have good hearing, promise. What'll it be?"

Aeorean clopped his hooves. "Rainbow Greens on a bed of rice and almond sprinkles if you have them!" A big smile was on his face. "One of my favorites."

"Colorful mess with gravel on snow," repeated the pony as if that were exactly what was requested. "On it." Cooking noises began to rise. "What do your friends want?"

Zecora looked to Jon with a little wave of her hooves. It was on him. "Do you have just vegetarian options?"

The pony laughed at the idea. "This is a dwarf and pony show. Dwarves like meat, and some ponies do too. I'd be a bad cook for this job if I only did veggies. You feeling carnivorous today? Promise not to nip me and I'll make up something to sate that predatorial hunger of yours." New sizzling joined the mix, clearly something decided on without Jon's further input.

"That sounds... kinda great," Jon admitted with a shrug. "Can't wait to find out what it is."

Zecora inclined her head. "I admit, I am a little unsure. What do you suggest, a step up from the pasture?"

"Living simple? I'll make up a nice salad like your friend's getting." Soon enough, three plates slid out onto the counter. "Order up!"

But there was not a single person to get said order and bring it to them. "I got it." He had hands. Using them seemed polite. Jon hustled up to the bar, grabbing all three plates with a bit of balancing effort. The scent of his own meal reached his nose. That wasn't beef, or chicken... What was it? It was good, whatever it was. He wanted to eat it! He slid down each salad before their owner, one topped with almonds, the other not, making it easy to tell them apart. "Here you go."

Zecora's attention was more on Jon's plate than her own as it came in for a landing. Jon grabbed a fork and a knife and got to slicing off a portion of that meat. It cut so easily! It was tender and juicy on the inside. A perfectly prepared steak with sear marks on the outside.

Aeorean nudged against Zecora lightly. "Never saw someone eat meat before?"

Zecora raised a brow slightly. "It is not a thing I normally see. An herbivore is what you can call me."

Aeorean was not shy about eating. He leaned in and began to chomp like, well, he was a horse with a treat in front and he ate with all the zeal one would expect.

Jon's noise of approval startled Zecora. Clearly the meat was quite favorable to him the way he chewed slowly, eyes half closed in the simple joy of consumption. "Wow, that guy's really good at what he does."

"Thanks. Just lemme know if you want something to wash it down." The pony saluted before returning to other duties with a musical whistle.

Zecora inclined her head. "My curiosity will be my end. What animal graces us, that he would send?"

Aeorean's nose twitched softly. "Is..." He leaned over the top of the table closer to the meat, eyeing and sniffing at it. "Is... that?"

"It is." The pony smirked at Aeorean from across the way. "Good nose."

Jon was becoming curious too. "Whatever it is, it's delicious, but I have to know, what is it?"

Aeorean sat up straight. "Well, imagine... Well, do you know what a cockatrice is?"

"No?" He was new to D&D. The name of that beast did not--"Wait, the chicken?!"

"That one." Aeorean bobbed his head. "Turns people to stone?"

Zecora cringed. "Well, the loss of one of those... Nicer creatures to avoid, easy to propose."

Jon sliced off another bit. Cursed stone chicken or not, it was still damned tasty. "Must be hard to farm."

"Incredibly," agreed the pony. "I only get a batch like once a year, so enjoy that!"

Longma tapped the table in front of her. "And you didn't tell me about it?!"

"You didn't ask." The bartender/chef shrugged at Longma. "Is that a request for a slice?"

Turned out, she wasn't the only to raise interest in having some of what Jon was so clearly enjoying. Some of them had to pay upfront, not having a deluxe ticket. It was far from cheap.

But he was soon out of it for the year.

Author's Note

Who knew cursed chicken was so nummy?!

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9 - A City Divided

Peering out the side of the train, Jon could see a city was coming up. "Is that ours?" It had taken several days, though the train was hardly a rough trip. Having pre-paid for drinks and food helped a good deal, and the seating was comfortable too. "I see another city coming up."

They had seen another city, in a forest. It had been quite tall, with lights in all directions. For a moment, the train had been swarmed by smiling faces. They were like ponies, but had insect wings and antennae to go with their eager smiles. Some of them tapped on the windows, but most just buzzed around the train as if it were just fascinating.

A few even came on board, but most were happy to just peer in the windows at the riders. And then the train resumed, and they vanished, darting away from the electrified carriage all at once, as if there had never been flutterponies to start with, a name Aeorean had shared with the others.

Well, except the few that had gotten a ticket. They sat down like every other passenger, though those who sat near them got to talk to them, and they seemed to enjoy chatting.

One of them was near Jon, detecting he was someone who could be approached. "That's Gallopingdam," gushed the excitable female flutterpony with great moth wings. She was curiously monotone compared to most of her people. "I'm moving there."

"Yeah?" Jon hiked a thumb forward at it. "That's where we get paid, not sure what comes after that. Why are you moving?"

"Prism's nice and all." She inclined her head sharply, her deely bobbers bobbing in the motion. "But they have a real color fascination, and I don't have colors." She gestured over herself. "I can't help that I'm a moth. So I'm moving here. Ponies aren't as worried about it, and they'll like the colors I do have."

Jon smiled a little. The moth had shown quite a bit of color of personality. She was cheerful and bright. "You're colorful enough."

"You're a human." She rolled her eyes. "Humans are all brown in different shades and that's the only color they have." She leaned in suddenly, her quivering nose almost touching his. "I guess that makes us similar. Hi!"

Jon chuckled softly at that. "I'm a lighter shade of brown." He wasn't really brown at all? Though arguing shades with the flutter felt silly. "You have a color, and it's a nice one."

"Aw!" She clapped her hooves to either side of her face. "You're flattering! Gosh, wait, is this a... Are you trying to court me?" Rather than looked scandalized, she looked amazed. "I've never been courted before. This is kinda nice. No wonder people like it."

Jon wasn't sure how to react to that. Zecora suddenly sat down between them, taking up the space that wasn't really there. "This human is mine, I am afraid. You have to find somecreature else to admire your shade."

"Aw..." She inclined her head the other way, her wings lifting her from her seat. "That didn't last long. I'll always remember you!" And off she darted, having lived out her first romance in the space of minutes.

Zecora slid into the seat made available. "We get off at the next station. And so ends our mobile vacation."

"Thanks for the rescue." Not that Jon was specifically scared of the flutter. She had seemed perfectly nice. "I wasn't sure how to turn her down without hurting her."

"Sometimes it's easier with a friend." Zecora was smiling gently. "Soon our trip comes to an end." She hopped down and he followed, not going that far to run into the rest of their party around a table. Aeorean was waving a wing at them with a great big smile.

"Hey! Everyone ready to hop off?" He looked from one to the next with eager eyes. "Time to get paid. Uh, and I get to get my money back." He had to pay a lot out of pocket for them so far.

Longma did not look at all put out by that. "The sooner you get paid, the sooner the day of proper pampering can begin. Then..." She raised her right hoof. "We go off and do something interesting, hm? What sort of trouble do you have in mind?"

Aeorean rubbed behind his head softly. "Well, that depends on what's posted. I plan to stop by the Seekers and see what they're offering. The Seekers usually have interesting jobs." He nodded once firmly. "How I got the one we just did." He pointed back where they had come from. "It was just a little baby portal, really. Oh! Now you have me doing it. Rift!"

Longma smirked at the display. "A portal brings you somewhere. A rift is a connection between two places. A rift can also be a portal. A portal, also a rift, but they can also not be. That rift was also a portal, it brought you to a place. So, technically..."

Aeorean sagged in his seat with a weary smile. "Fine fine, so it was a portal too. But most people call those rifts." He reared up, hooves coming down on the table between them. "Next one, no rifts."

Longma inclined her head faintly. "A rift sounds lovely. You could just drop me off..."

Aeorean threw a hoof high. "We don't get paid for rifts we just visit."

Jon lifted his hands in an emphatic shrug. "Longma, you don't seem to hate us. Are you that eager to retire from the adventuring business? We haven't even started."

Longma squinted a little before a smile replaced it. "You're not wrong, Jon. Since I've bothered coming this far, I may as well enjoy myself a little before looking for somewhere cozy to curl up. Maybe get a few trinkets to decorate with... A dragon my age without a proper hoarde, shameful..." She tapped at her chin softly. "Before you comment on it, we rift dragons, often as not, take pride in the rifts we occupy. The last one was quite lovely before it was smashed."

She fixed Jon with a deadly glare. "Wonder what happened to it...?"

Zecora cleared her throat for attention, sitting up tall. "We knew each other not when that happened. I feel sure had he known better, he wouldn't have flattened." She inclined her head faintly. "But now we approach, the train slows down. It is time to be luxuriated in this town."

Longma's eyes shined, rising as the train slowed. "Rhyming zebra, you have a point. I could be pouty, or I could get my scales polished." She paused then. "Hrm, most of them are probably shy about dragons. I'm perfectly nice!" She flashed a grin at the others, her teeth just a little too sharp. "You'll vouch for me, won't you?"

Jon rose to join her, others also becoming parts of the motion. The train had come to a smooth stop and it was time to get off, for those going to Gallopingdam. "One thing." Aeorean looked over his shoulder. "We're not actually in Gallopingdam. The train gets us close. We'll have to hoof it a little to get in the city proper."

"Or you can get a boat," noted a random pony that had not been asked. "What I plan to do."

Aeorean frowned a little. "We've wasted enough money, thanks. We need to work off all the food we ate anyway." He sprang free of the train the moment he could, stretching out his wings and each of his legs one by one. "We got hooves, uh, most of us, let's use 'em!"

Longma peered at the city in the short distance away it was. So close, and yet not there just yet. "Let's be on with it. This is just a delay to luxury."

"I'm new here." Jon was moving towards the city. They weren't alone, a few others from the train joining in the hike, many of the others going for the great big river that had boats in it, some going the right way. "But what is the local opinion on dragons overall?"

Zecora gave a thoughtful hm. "That is a good question, Friend Jon. Information that would be good to act on."

Longma rolled her eyes. "Abject terror? It's not all bad. Some dragons get along with ponies pretty well."

Aeorean hopped ahead, wings deployed to carry him in a sharp little spiral that had him hovering before Longma, flying backwards. "Good dragons get along with ponies just fine. Mean ones don't. Kinda like most creatures really." He reached out to boop her on the nose. "Are you a nice dragon?"

Longma snorted softly, wrinkling her booped snout. "If you do that again, you'll learn exactly how nice I am." Her eyes drifted to the city. "Nice or not, ponies usually get spooked if they see one just flying into town, especially... large ones." Say as large as Longma was in her natural form. "Not that I blame them. Basic survival instincts, that."

Still... "Better than I was worried about." Jon turned a hand about, palm side up. "Sounds like, if we ask around, we may get your scales polished without causing a panic."

"I take it back." Longma slid over in her steps to be beside Jon. "This one has his head on right, focusing on what's really important. Do they have many humans in Gallopingdam? Little fingers are just right for getting in there and really working the scales to a shine." She smiled with visions of the indulgence. "I'll settle for ponies if that's all we got."

Aeorean landed in front of the group, trotting along. "Mostly ponies, but some humans, and gnomes! Gnomes are funny. They're humans, but way shorter." He lifted up just to be able to get his hooves close together to emphasize the smaller bit. "Brightly colored, like us. They love ponies, and we love them. Works out!"

Jon could but smiled at the excited pegasus. How could anyone dislike ponies? He hadn't seen any evidence so far that it was even possible. "Ponies are easy to like."

"You'd think so." Aeorean landed lightly, bouncing because he felt like it. "But some things out there get really irritable, really easily." He glanced back at Longma, but said nothing to her.

"You are not as subtle as you imagine yourself." Longma strode past him in a sudden acceleration. "Why is that town so... divided." She raised a hoof to point at the left side of things, the north side. "Did they divide the city by the river? It's like two towns."

"Sharp eye." Aeorean bobbed his head as he went. "Gallopingdam really is two towns. They came together when they built the dam." He pointed to the largest bridge that unified the two. "It's where most things cross the river if it isn't on a boat. And it's how two towns became one city!"

Looking with fresh eyes, Jon could pick out that even the architecture was different between the north and south sides. The north side was also... cleaner? More upscale? It wasn't a day and night thing, but, looking for it, he could see it. They were two different worlds, just a river apart. Bonded by that dam. "Huh... Which side has the Seekers you brought up before?"

"I will hazard a guess." Zecora pointed to the south side. "Perhaps on the side that is west?"

"Nope!" sang Aeorean with a grin. "I mean, half right? And even that's only half. Quarter right?" He shook his head free of that thought. "The Seekers are on both sides, but we're gonna go to the south one, so you got that! But it's closer to the east than the west. Why'd you think the west side? Kinda curious now."

Zecora inclined her ears. "We approach from the west, to greet new comers, that would be best."

"Maybe they wanted to...." Aeorean shrugged and lifted into the air. "But they got what they got. Let's go check in!"

Author's Note

Welcome to Gallopingdam! Time to get our scales buffed.

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11 - Gaining Depth

Zecora sat before the fortune teller, setting a silver piece on the little table between them with a hoof.

This got a brow raise. "Are you a wizard? No, an alchemist. A useful spell, that." She burst into laughter. "Not that you like to call them spells."

Zecora inclined her head. "What have I done that could be a spell? I have approached and paid, all I can tell."

The fortune teller pointed at Zecora's flat hoof. "Nothing to grab things with, but you did it anyway."

"She does that," sang Aeorean with a big smile. "Been doing it since we met her."

"Not a spell then," corrected the fortune teller. "An oddity, like the rest of you. You have paid, a small amount, let's see what the whispers have to share." She began to weave her hooves in strange patterns over the table. "Already they are eager to share."

Longma rolled her eyes. "I'm no expert in the going rates of fortunes, but a silver is a fine amount, last I knew, hag."

"Unkind words do not get discounts." Not that she looked away from Zecora. "You come from a realm at peace, but always in conflict." She set her hooves closer together. "Never too much. Brightness and warmth... But you are not part of it, not directly. You... stood aside."

Zecora tensed at the description of her life. "I hope you have more than whispers of my past, What I really want is my forecast."

"The past makes the future," assured the fortune teller. "We can't skip one for the other." She clapped her hooves, glittering powder puffing out. "An accident, a friend, taken without your leave? I see questing fingers." Her eyes went to Jon, the only one there with fingers. "They can be troublesome things."

Jon tucked his hands away self-consciously, remembering that he needed new gloves. Aeorean sat down, apparently satisfied enough with the performance to not continue trying to urge them away.

Zecora was still and quiet, waiting.

"Flat meets round. Not the first...Not the last..." She trailed lines in the glittering top of the table. "It seems these worlds were destined to meet, to crash, to bring joy and pain."

"Already have I seen this," interrupted Zecora. "Please, do continue, miss."

"You hardly needed to ask." She sat up, crossing her arms. "But I think I've proven myself. Pay for what you wish to know."

Zecora looked to Aeorean, holder of the party funds. He inclined his head, then looked to the fortune teller. "How much are we talking about?"

The fortune teller fixed Aeorean in her gaze, the money source clearly identified. "I have my needs, as do the spirits that share with me. The more you give them, the more freely they speak to me, and I can talk to you."

Aeorean clopped down a hoof. "That's kinda vague! Which is probably the point." He huffed with annoyance, burying his nose into a saddlebag and coming out with a lone gold coin that he passed to Zecora, who took it on the end of a hoof. "Huh, it really does come natural to you." Aeorean had to grab it in his teeth, no magic being used to let his hooves perform such tricks.

Zecora nodded to Aeorean "My thanks to you." She set the coin down on the glittering table. "Let's see what answers we can accrue."

Longma leaned towards Aeorean. "This is coming from her share, right?"

"The gods watch with mixed concern. To some, a friend, to others, worry." She looked up, meeting Zecora's eyes once more. "You know them. Their name was whispered in your ear."

There was one god Twilight had mentioned fondly. "The god of friendship and books? It is no mystery why that friend keeps giving looks." Two of a kind, those two. "Will she help me?"

"A goddess of friends, of bonds forged in trial. Ask her kindly, but be prepared." The fortune teller leaned forward. "Her faithful are not known for short sermons."

Jon knew what Zecora was and who she was, but not anything else brought up so far. How did she know about an Everglow god? "Zecora, you've been here before?"

"My friend Twilight shared her adventures for free," explained Zecora.

The fortune telling mare raised a brow. "Twilight? I had thought that a twist of the tongue... A flowery saying. Hm." She brushed aside the glitter with a skill few shared with her. "You have a choice." Zecora perked, but said nothing. "You can flee home now, or you can risk, and learn." She reached and dabbed some of that glitter on Zecora's nose. "Neither is entirely easy. Do well, and either gets you home."

Zecora frowned softly as she rose, still glittering on her snout. "Thank you, your words are worth the price." She turned away. "I have much musing to do on this advice."

The fortune teller waved, but did not stop them from departing, leaving her behind as they resumed their journey through the city. Jon reached, about to touch Zecora when he caught himself. "How are you feeling? Whichever way you decide, I will help."

Zecora cracked a smile at his words, glancing up at him. "Your intentions are kind and selfless, but what of you, do you truly desire adventures endless? Surely you've a home that you have come from. Was the past so bad you only worry for what you have become?"

Longma snorted a little sparkling cloud despite being a pony, at least at the moment. "You all live such short lives, I'm surprised any of you have time to think about the past. It does explain half the dumb things you do."

"About that." Jon turned his attention to their dragonpony friend. "What do rift dragons do? I mean, you get a rift, great, then what? You don't collect things, and rifts only have so much in them... Don't you get bored?"

Longma huffed, but that turned into a laughter, quiet, but raising in intensity. "What small inner lives you must lead. Surrounded by creatures that are awed by me, I have little physical wants that aren't sated." She reached over, prodding at Jon with a hoof. "So I think. I think and think and keep right on thinking. I think about large things and small things and me things and, well, now that I know you, you things. If you think you ever see me not thinking, you are incorrect."

Aeorean inclined his head faintly as they marched. "So if it was so comfortable, why are we rushing to relax?"

"Charming beasts, but cold and simple by and large." Longma shrugged softly. "City-dwellers are much more cultured. They will show me to relaxation I couldn't have found before. If I'm not going to be in a rift, I'm taking the second best option." She looked to Zecora. "I will still be thinking, and I imagine you will be too. You don't strike me as an idle sort."

Zecora pointed ahead of them. A grand temple rose, seated at the top of stone stairs, heavy and impressive.

Aeorean bobbed his head. "Yep, that's it!" He spread his wings and flew up the stairs rather than climbing them. "Let's see if they have someone that can lend us a hoof. That mare mentioned Princess Luminace, didn't she?"

The rest were a bit slower ascending the stairs, but it wasn't too hard for any of them, climbing up one step after the other. Zecora nodded to Aeorean. "That seems a fine start, but let's look for your friends as the first part."

"Oh right!" Aeorean clopped the side of his head with a hoof as he turned in place to start cantering into the building. "Under! Steel? Any of you in here?" He pushed open the heavy doors that lead inside, his friends right behind him.

A human approached Aeorean first, dressed in the robes befitting a priest. He had no specific god's symbol on him. "Hello and welcome. Please try to keep the noise in the main area down. It is a place for meditation and quiet conversation."

Aeorean inclined his head. "Oh, sorry. I was looking for my friends." He was pointing up at his own face as if that would just explain it. "Dawn Event? Steel Prism? Oh, Fast Shadow or Under Score?"

The priest shook his head, hands spreading. "I know at least one of those, but they are all names of great import."

"Yeah yeah." Aeorean sighed softly, wings drooping a moment. "We all heard it. Our parents picked our names, not us."

Jon nudged around Zecora. "Are these important names?"

"New to Everglow?" greeted the other man with a knowing smile. "It's a local myth, a pony one. The names of champions. They remain popular because of it."

Jon shrugged at that. "Well, Aeorean is pretty awesome."

"As Aeorean, me, not some ancient champion." Aeorean hopped in place lightly. "So, you heard of one, gonna guess it's Dawn. He in?"

"As the gods demand." A pony approached, his dreadlocks bouncing against the heavy metal he wore. "They spoke truthfully this day, as they usually do."

The human priest bowed to the side to allow the others to speak, making himself more useful elsewhere in the temple. Dawn paid it no mind. "Aeorean, what god's whims carries you today?"

Aeorean clopped his hooves together in a glad expression, smile on his face. "I knew it! Dawn! Oh." He turned to the others. "This is Dawn Event, priest, cleric, and awesome person. Dawn, this is my party."

Dawn inclined his head faintly. "Is he treating you well?"

Longma waffled a hoof in the air. "Good enough, priest."

Jon did not hesitate, "So you're a hero?"

Dawn chuckled at that. "I am a humble servant of the gods. That my father decided I had some resemblance to the original Dawn Event is of little matter." His eyes wandered over Jon a moment. "It is not often to see a champion in the company of a human, in name or not."

Aeorean was quick to move between them. "Don't give Jon nasty looks. He's nice, and can fight good, and maybe a bit violent?"

Dawn inclined his head faintly. "Blaze be praised. The Night Mare would lecture me if I turned away a valuable friend just for sake of their heritage. Enough of that, you did not come seeking me just to display your new party." He paused but a moment. "Or did you? Aeorean..."

"I didn't!" Aeorean squeaked defensively. "But since we were here..." He gestured eagerly with his wings, inviting Dawn to behold his new friends.

Dawn began ignoring him in favor of looking at Zecora. "You seem the one with the most pressing questions, though your appearance brings many to me. Out of etiquette, I will allow you to ask first."

Zecora nodded. "I thank you for waiting in line. That you are here, the stars must align." She glanced up as if to spot one of those mischievous stars. "I am from a world quite distant, To return to it, I require an assistant."

Jon joined, one hand moving partway in front of Zecora, "She's from another plane, where ponies look like that." Like a cartoon more than a horse, really. Unlike Dawn, who was a horse, in armor, and with dreadlocks. Those were things horses could do, though it escaped Jon how a horse did their hair like that. "We were told clerics and priests would be--"

"--most suited, yes." He nodded, his eyes stuck on Zecora. "Tell me, does the name Twilight Sparkle mean anything?"

Zecora blinked at that. "Not the first time her name has been raised. I confess, this makes me somewhat amazed. Did she leave such a strong mark, I confess I thought she had joked of mingling with the local monarch."

"So you're a friend," continued Dawn. "That figures. You didn't come with a dragon." His eyes went to Jon. "Instead, you have a human friend."

Longma snorted into a giggling. The habit of Equestrians making, or bringing, dragon friends was not easily defeated.

Author's Note

The tale continues. Hi Dawn! If you've read other stories in this 'verse, you've met him before. He's shown up in no few of them, as the gods demand it. Was that fortune teller helpful?

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12 - Join Our Party!

"It'll be fun!" Aeorean circled Dawn with a big grin and hopeful eyes. "We haven't partied in ages."

"The gods did not urge this." Dawn looked to Zecora. "But I am not deaf to your needs. Though troublesome, your friend did leave a good impression on several." His left ear flicked back. "Still they whisper of her and hers." He turned, directing a hoof deeper into the temple. "Speak with the priest of Luminace."

Aeorean frowned at that. "You're one of those. You're a priest of everything!"

"That may be true." Dawn cracked a little smile. "But only of pony gods. Still, yes, I do bow my head towards Luminace, kind and knowing one."

Aeorean sprang forward at Dawn in a pounce, not that he made contact. "So why are you sending us to a different one?"

Dawn was quiet a moment, meeting his friend's eyes. "I know this is difficult to grasp, but the gods have needs of me, and they do not include this venture." He raised a hoof just as Aeorean was about to speak. "I am needed elsewhere. I will see you to the priest, if you like?"

Aeorean sagged a bit. "We can find the way," he sighed out, pointing onwards. "Let's go."

Longma tossed her head. "Enough wasting time. He clearly has no interest."

"In this, you are incorrect." Dawn was already moving away despite talking. "The gods are cruel." Despite his words, he was soon gone.

Jon nudged Zecora in the side lightly. "He really seemed to want to know more about you, I think."

Zecora was following Aeorean into a side hallway. "Let us speak to this priest of books. Perhaps they will have gladder looks."

Aeorean shook his head with a little snort. "Dawn is like that sometimes. He's not a bad guy, but whatever the gods want, he's giving."

Longma leaned in, almost brushing Aeorean aside. "Is that a bad trait for a priest to have? I would imagine that their purpose."

Aeorean flapped his wings, regaining his balance. "Most priests pick one god, but not Under." He inclined his head. "He took 'em all! I don't know how he even starts to make sense of it all."

Jon imagined someone in such a situation, not that priests of anything but 'God' were common where he was from. Still, he knew the concept. "He doesn't try to have a meeting with them all." His friends were keeping half an eye on him, but they didn't stop his musing. "He's following the religion, you know, as a whole?" He brought his hands together, fingers touching to form a circle with the bottom of his hands. "With the gods being part of it?"

Aeorean seemed to consider that a moment. "Not sure. He sure seems to have little thoughts about each of them. Remember what he said?" He pointed back where Dawn had been. "Blaze be praised, Night Mare this, and so on?"

Zecora accelerated as they approached an open doorway, books beyond it in obvious view. "Ah ha, this must be the place. A fitting place for knowledge to give chase."

"Hello there." A new zebra, though far more equine in shape than Zecora, was adjusting his glasses with a hoof. "What an interesting linguistic tic you have. It's delightful. Is it intentional? religious? A sort of personal challenge?!" He flashed a bright smile. "I can appreciate any of those."

Zecora inclined her head at the other zebra. Striped, surely, but shaped... differently. "I do not presume you to be of my kind. Despite that, perhaps our minds may be aligned. I am lost, abandoned in the stars. I have gained new friends--" She gestured at the others. "-- but know not the path of ours."

The new zebra clopped his hooves with a little giggle. "You may be the best thing that happened today." Suddenly he began speaking an entirely different tongue, and then another, and a fourth without pause or even delay, his eyes on Zecora intently.

Zecora returned with a strange tongue of her own, and the zebra sat up. "Oh. It's not often I hear a beast folk language, how delightful. Yes, yes. We are friends now." He offered a hoof towards Zecora. "We have so many words to share."

Aeorean began applauding. "Good job, I think?" He inclined his head. "What did either of you just say?"

Longma snorted softly. "I recognized one of those languages. My sword yet thirsts? Are you threatening us? You don't seem the sort."

The new zebra shook his head quickly. "Oh my no. It's just a traditional greeting of those people. It is a bit ghastly sounding, isn't it? Now." He stepped down to his hooves. "I feel certain you did not come to share words with me, as fun as that was." He gestured about at the shelves. "Did you come to read and find wisdom? There's plenty of room, so sit a while and learn. Luminace be praised."

Jon gestured at Zecora. "She wasn't just 'sharing words'. She said what she was looking for, a way home."

The new zebra applied a hoof to his forehead, almost knocking his glasses free. "Oh! I do feel daft now. I thought that was... never mind what I thought, it was wrong. Please, forgive me." He refocused on Zecora. "Where is it you come from? I don't recognize your tribe, even if it has some superficial resemblance to my own."

Aeorean gestured with a grand wave of a wing. "This is Zecora, and she's awesome, but also from another plane? Which kinda makes her even more awesome if you ask me." He paused to muse on that a moment. "She's trying to get back though. I'll miss her, but friends help friends."

The zebra smiled at Aeorean's words. "You act in good friendship, and Luminace smiles on us all. Are you all friends of the lost one, trying to guide her home? It warms the heart to see it."

Longma snorted softly. "I don't feel like lying, so not really? I'm waiting for this to be over to get a little vacation in, and I am at least a little curious about these two." She tossed her nose towards Jon and Zecora. "They're right up my alley."

Jon agreed more easily, "Yeah. She's already helped me out, and she wouldn't be here if I hadn't messed up." Not that he knew exactly what he could have done differently... "She deserves to go home if that's where she wants to be."

"The power of friendship is without measure," sighed the studious zebra as he started towards a shelf, eyes running down the many spines of the books. "Now, we need to know what plane she comes from exactly. I could cast a banishing spell, but she may then end up somewhere besides her home, just not here, and I hardly imagine she wants to risk that."

Zecora sat on her haunches. "With this I can be of little help. When it comes to things like this, I am but a whelp."

Longma suddenly smirked. "Do you know a Twilight Sparkle?"

"No, no, afraid I--" A book thumped onto his head, falling free as he grasped at the shelves. "Ow, what?" He had to fetch his glasses, sent drifting away from the impact. A soon as he got them back into place, he returned to the book. "A chance, or a message?" He leaned up and over to read. "Oh. Oh! Yes..." He tapped at the book softly but repeatedly. "Twilight Sparkle. One of the last audiences with the queen! How exciting! Um, but what about her?" He turned back to Zecora, one ear raised.

"That was me," reminded Longma. "She's from the same world, does that help?"

"Oooo, actually..." And back around he went, flipping through the book. "Actually... Yes." He thumped a hoof down. "This will not be easy, but a possibility. Muy Bueno!"

Zecora advanced behind her distant cousin. "What is it you have found? Something small or profound?"

"A creature from your world." He moved out of the way, hoof still on the page. "She called herself a siren. Not any local variety of siren, but she was--"

Zecora had joined him, reading with sweeps of her eyes over the book.

"Glad common came with... this," noted Jon, also reading, from higher and a bit further back. "Adagio!" His outburst got a look from the room, and a few loud hisses for quiet from others studying nearby. "Sorry, um. The, her." He pointed a bit more emphatically. "Lead singer of the Dazzlings."

Zecora pushed the book away a few inches before turning to peer at Jon. "I feel the time has long since passed. I feel it is time you shared your origin at long last."

The other zebra looked happier than alarmed. "Your entire group is full of mysteries. I'll admit it, I'm jealous. So much to learn, so many friendships to juggle." He sighed longingly. "What an amazing journey you must be on, together."

Aeorean burst into giggles. "He's not wrong, but neither is she. Jon, time to tell us." He nodded firmly at their human friend. "I have a feeling it isn't all that bad, so what are you waiting for? We're already your friends."

"I'll go first," volunteered the zebra without anyone asking him. "My name is Süss Śōdha, but you can call me Sues, most do." He chuckled softly, placing his hooves aside his face to lean against them. "I'm an investigator of the mysteries, here at Luminace's temple. Before you ask, I can't join your party but I would love to, I can't emphasize that enough. But my duties are here, and just walking off on them wouldn't be terribly nice of me." He inclined his head. "That also means I'm not a cleric or divine sorcerer, so I won't be the one casting any fancy spells today."

Jon nodded stiffly at the introduction given. "Yes, hi Seuss--"

"Sues," corrected Sues, adjusting his glasses.

"Sues." Jon rubbed his un-gloved hands together. "I am from a world possibly farther away than Zecora's. We have exactly one sapient species, and you're looking at it."

Longma tilted her head. "Do you mean besides dragons?"

"There are no dragons." Jon turned his hands upwards in a shrug. "Not even a single one. I know, a sad situation."

"Ugh..." Longa turned up her nose in clear disgust at the very idea of it. "How do you survive?"

"With varying amounts of efficiency." He wobbled a hand. "It was alright, but this place has dragons, and ponies, and lots of other interesting things. I'm enjoying my time here."

"Well hello," bubbled Sues in warm greeting. "A party of exotic travelers, it seems. What about you?" He looked to Aeorean with clear expectation of another revelation of absurdity. "Are you secretly a god?"

Aeorean blinked at the notion. "If I was, wouldn't your god be upset about me being here?"

"She is a friendly god," assured Sues with a slow nod. "Assuming you came in friendship, I doubt she'd be that upset."

Zecora leveled a hoof at Jon accusingly. "While that is the start of a tale, How do you know of them from where you hail?" She tapped at the book behind her with her other hoof as if to bridge the two concepts.

Jon let out a sigh. "Hard to... explain, but from... where I'm from. You--" He pointed at Zecora with a lone finger. "Are a story, part of one, I should say."

Sues suddenly began to giggle, covering his snout with his hooves as best he could. "Author be praised. You really are a story? Their convictions, proven by the word of a plane walking alien? Today just keeps getting better by the moment. Luminace take note!" Since Luminace was not there to do it, Sues grabbed a quill in his mouth and got to scribbling down some notes to please his curious divinity. Someone had to keep track of those things.

Author's Note

Sues is a pure soul and I love him already.

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13 - Back Stories

Zecora inclined her head, but there was little surprise in her eyes. "What is the focus of your stories? Happy, sad, teaching, or into one of many other categories?"

"That's a good question." Sues was writing faithfully as they spoke.

"Overall, happy and teaching." Jon rocked on his feet a little, considering. "They were... made? for younger people, so easily digested educational snippets and morality lessons."

Zecora allowed a little smile. "Then it likely did not tell the whole story. The truth of Equestria has moments both grand and gory." She turned a hoof on herself. "What do you know of me then? Have I measured up to my doppelganger written with a quill pen?" Her eyes darted to Sues.

Jon wobbled a hand. "To be honest, I don't actually know that much about you. You showed up in town, scared a few ponies, they got over it, and you became a friend, but lived out in the forest, dispensing bits of timely advice at times."

Zecora nodded as if satisfied.

Longma pointed a hoof at the book Sues had found. "When do you get to that part? Zecora isn't the mystery. Well maybe she is a bit, but I want to know about that. You know I want to know about that. Are you teasing me intentionally?" She huffed, sparkles drifting from her snout. "Bold decision."

Sues paused in his writing. "Adagio you said? One g or two?"

"One?" Jon chuckled, a relieving of pressure. "Guys, this is hard to explain. But I know Adagio, the siren."

Sues set his quill aside to pull the book over. "Unaging, undying, so far." He tapped at the book. "Servant of her majesty. Even when she fled the capital, Adagio remained in her service." He tapped again, a bit faster. "The original author doesn't provide much more, except to note she's quite good at mind magics. Sounds dangerous, if you don't mind my saying. And if you do, sorry, but already said it." He set the book back on the counter and grabbed his quill to resume taking notes.

"That first bit checks out." Jon looked thoughtful. "Always did wonder how they got banished ages ago and were still in high school." Not that anyone there knew what a high school was. "Tail end of primary school?"

Longma suddenly smiled. "How decadent. Your people were rich enough to have a formal educational system? Was it compulsory? Did you hate it? Oh, silly short lived races." She settled down, looking smugger than usual.

Jon was quiet a moment. "Maybe a little? Nobody likes school."

"Beg to differ." Suess looked up at Jon around his quill. "My parents saved up a lot of money to get me into the school I wanted to go to and I am very thankful to them. I learned so much!" He was still scribbling. "But I am learning a lot today too, for free. How's that for lucky? Luminace says chances for insight surround us, and she is not wrong, glè mhath."

Jon let out a breath. "Alright, so, let's assume we find Adagio. How does that help exactly?"

Zecora nodded in silent agreement, looking between the others.

Aeorean spread his wings as he reared up, clopping his hooves. "Maybe, if she was so valuable to her majesty, she was given a way home. Oooo." He fell back to all four, wings folding tight. "Maybe that's why she's trusted. She could go home, but hasn't yet. Wait, problem, big problem." He threw a hoof wide. "Is she even from Zecora's world?"

"Yes." Jon nodded along with the word. "The sirens were from Equestria, before being banished to a human world. How they ended up here, I don't know, but they're from Equestria."

Zecora rose to her hooves. "Thank you, new friend." She dipped her head towards Sues. "We have a clue where our quest might end."

"Don't go! Not yet." Sues quickly set his own notes aside and grabbed for the book. "Wait a moment." And off he hurried, book in mouth.

Longma circled Jon, looking at him. "You are a curious thing, for a human. You speak from a position of authority, on both our worlds." She turned a hoof on herself. "Well, go on. Tell me what grand tales are spread of me. Are they fearsome? Ones of awe, perhaps? Quiet whispered warnings? Tell me."

But Jon had not read of Ponyfinder, just played some D&D. "Uh... I've heard of dragons that can shapeshift. Usually into humans."

Longma rolled her eyes. "Ugh, so close minded. Not everything is about yourself, human. There are things besides humans out there. Besides, becoming a human in the middle of the pony empire is not really fitting in, now is it?"

Jon gestured at the walking form of another human passing by. "There seem to be some in the city, not as many as ponies, but not none either."

Longma frowned. "I'm glad you're happy about that. You're still the minority, get used to it." She smiled suddenly, her teeth just a little too sharp. "If it makes you feel better, we dragons are always in the minority. There are fewer of us... and yet, our weight on the scales more than makes up for it."

Jon imagined a great set of scales, a dragon perched smugly on one side, an entire arena of people piled high on the other, looking nervously over at the dragon that could probably ruin all their days without too much effort. "Good thing you're a nice and generous dragon."

"Don't you forget it." The smug satisfaction on her face only grew. "Now as soon as Sues gets back, we leave, and it's my turn!"

Speaking of him, the stallion was returning. Sues was carrying a book of equal size, but it was closed, and new? He set it down near them. "Here you are. Gangi þér vel." He dipped his head towards them all. "Best of luck," he repeated in a tongue they'd actually know. "I imagine you're in for a challenge, but you have friendship on your side. Luminace be praised, and smile over you. Keep a book close at hoof. Oh, wait, that's being literal." He nudged the book closer.

Aeorean lifted and darted forward, grabbing the book in his mouth only to twist and send it twirling towards Jon. Jon yelped in surprise, but grabbed the tome before it could make it past him. "A bit of warning!" Still, since he had the book... He flipped it open to see there was a bookmark. Flipping towards it, he found the article on Adagio was there. "Thank you, Sues. That was very nice of you. Did you have a second copy?"

"A little magic." Sues clopped with a smile. "I asked a cleric for a bit of assistance. Oh... I didn't ask you ahead of time... But if you could cover the ten gold? If copying books were free, we'd do it a lot more often! The gods have demands, and a book certainly is worth it."

Jon folded the book shut. "Damn material components."

Sues perked at that. "Oh, you know about that? I didn't want to confuse you all with technical terms, but, yes, those. The spell's already cast... so if you don't have it, that's my mistake, but if you could...?"

Jon looked towards Aeorean. "How much is my share at this point?"

Aeorean sat to bring up his hooves dangerously close. "Getting smaller by the moment." He pulled out an abacus and began sliding the beads left and right with a thoughtful hum of thought. "I'm exaggerating a little... Your share is still a hundred gold pieces." He tucked the abacus away. "With a little rounding."

Sues perked. "Oh! Already successful adventurers? This isn't even that big of a deal then." He clopped his hooves before extending one out towards Jon.

Jon reached a hand instead towards Aeorean, waiting to be fed the money. "By the way, is it impolite to note that you are cute."

Sues colored suddenly. "Oh dear. I'm flattered, but I must confess I prefer the company of mares, um, when... I'm even looking. I get a bit lost in books at times. Rușinea mamei, this is my calling." He spread his hooves over the library. "Still, um, thank you."

Zecora smirked at the exchange. "I have a feeling love is not the goal. On his world, things with fur have a specific role. To pet and stroke, like a fond pet. He means well and is not a threat."

Longma burst into laughter. "You can pet me. Go on."

Jon accepted the one coin Aeorean passed his way. It was a bit larger and silver? Oh, platinum! Right. He gave it over to Sues. "Zecora isn't wrong, but I am sorry if that offended."

Sues accepted the coin with a smile. "Thank you, and she seems up for it." He inclined his head towards Longma. "But she is also a dragon, so if you start that, you better do it right, or she may remove your hand."

Longma hiked a brow. "You knew?"

"This is a library." His hooves spread once more to encompass it all. "We're quiet, and you aren't. Not that there's anything wrong with a friendly dragon. Ponies and dragons have long been friends at times. I wish you all the very best. Berjalan dalam cahaya."

Aeorean dipped his head at Sues. "Walk in the light." He turned to the others. "We got a clue. Let's go!"

Longma rubbed against Jon's side. "Yes, let's go. Put those hands of yours to work."

Well, if he was allowed... Even if that pony was also a dragon. He set a hand on her back as they walked, his fingers digging through her fur to scratch lightly at the skin beneath, causing it to quiver and twitch lightly. "Lower," she growled. "Yes, lovely."

Aeorean blushed faintly. "You don't seem to know, so I'll, uh, tell you. Scratching someone like that is a thing only very close people do. You don't let random people scratch your back, do you? Oh, is that a human thing?"

Jon snorted the very idea of it. "If some random person wandered up and touched my back, I'd be upset at that."

Longma lifted an ear. "And yet you want to do it? Hypocritical much? Whatever, keep... going, you're right on the, mmm." Her right hind leg began to kick as she walked on the other three. "Mmmm, yes, I think I'll keep you, little human. You're just the kind of curious I happen to like."

Zecora said nothing, walking along with a bit of a smirk, watching the two out of a corner of an eye.

Aeorean was not so quiet, a spritely canter to his steps. "Alright, we got what we came here for. So... next step." He looked over his shoulder at Longma. "You. You waited for us, and thanks for that, but it's your turn! Well, all of our turn." He turned suddenly, bringing the group to a half. "It's time to pay you two." He drew out his bag and started counting quickly, creating three piles of coins, one of which he pushed towards Zecora, the next to Jon.

"None for me?" Longma huffed a sparkling cloud of annoyance. "I thought we were becoming friends."

Aeorean gestured at the other two. "They said they'd share with you, that's up to them." He scooped up what remained his, tucking it away with a toss of his head. "Have fun, all of you. Let's meet up..." He resumed his walk towards the outside.

Jon grabbed his coins and filled his pockets with them, the weighty jingles bringing a smile to his face. "We didn't forget, Longma."

"Start by not forgetting to keep up the scratches." She wriggled her rump. "Go on."

Zecora slid a few of her coins aside before claiming the rest for herself. She opened her mouth to speak, only to find Longma pressed against her.

"Did you forget." Longma pulled Zecora closer, an arm across the zebra. "We're spending this day off together. We have such decadence to enjoy. You." She was looking at Jon. "You're bringing those fingers of yours."

Author's Note

It's time to relax! Oh what troubles or delights will they get into? Adagio got into Everglow during A Dangerous Sparkle, if you forgot/had no idea. Feel free to dig into that if you like, or not. The story won't break for not knowing.

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14 - Pampering

"You." Longma was approaching a random pony quite intently. "Where is the best relaxation place you have around here? A spa, massage parlor, whatever else have you."

The pony tossed their head towards the north. "You're on the wrong side of the town if you're looking for rich fancy stuff. The snooty bastards over there keep that kind of thing to themselves. Not like a proper pony needs that kinda thing anyway."

"Right." She was already moving off towards the bridge that connected the two halves.

"Thanks," offered Jon. "She's just, uh, like that."

"Whatever." The pony shrugged and continued on their own way, apparently willing to forget Longma was a thing.

Zecora was a Jon's side as they started behind Longma. "I know not if it was your intention, but her plans do not include abstention." She trotted along with purpose. "Watch her and yourself."

"Keep up," called Longma from not too far up ahead, looking over her shoulder. "This bridge had better not be tolled..."

Jon could see boats, sailing under it. It was a great and powerful dam that only allowed water through it on its own schedule. "Nice."

Zecora lifted an ear. "You appreciate architectural designs? This is a time to watch for oneself."

Jon was quiet a moment, replaying the last few moments before he stitched together the rhyming bits. That was when he thumped into Longma's back.

Longma was glaring, a not unusual expression. "I don't like the look of those people."

She was focusing her ire on a group that was watching them, arrayed as if to stop them from crossing the dam. Ponies for the most part. None had weapons, drawn at least. They were dangling at their side, clearly in view.

Jon just advanced towards them. "Hey." He raised a hand to wave at them. "Something going on?"

"It's what we'd rather not go on," declared a mare, watching Jon. "Southsiders are not welcome in the north."

Jon lifted his hands to vaguely gesture at the entire south side of the city. "This? Just where we walked in from. Besides, the temple's on this side. You don't hold a little faith against a person, do you?"

The mare cocked a brow. "Where are you from?"

"Far away from here." Truth that. "Not even in the empire." Jon turned a hand at Longma. "And I made some new friends, who I want to treat. Do you happen to know where a mare can be treated like a queen?"

Longma's grin was suddenly back. "Yes, exactly that. Tell him."

One of the stallions suddenly burst away from the line. "Don't listen to his lies! Humans have a dozen of them, and a southsider human?" He was drawing a club free from a dangling loop, clearly ready to engage in a fight.

Jon was drawing his blade when a bright ball of flame erupted across the front of the charging pony. Zecora had tossed one of her bombs faster than he could react. The stallion shrieked, set ablaze by the bright inferno. "H-help!"

His friends were on him in an instant, stomping him out. The mare ignored it entirely. "Sorry about that. Some people just don't know how to follow directions." She inclined her head at Jon's sword. "Put that away."

Jon was still a moment before the blade was returned to its home. "Is this a normal occurrence?"

"That we run into a trained alchemist? No, that's a special day." She shook her head softly. "Whatever, this isn't worth that kind of trouble." She turned and pointed to one building among many beyond the dam. "When I want my hooves touched up, I visit them right there. Ask for Sandra, she's a darling."

The stallion was back up on his haunches, smoldering a little but intact. "That wasn't fair."

Zecora trotted past him, and none of the others seemed ready to challenge her right of way. "Do not start a fight, if you do not wish to be set alight."

Jon had to smirk a little. That was stone cold vicious, which was just adorably awkward coming from the cute little zebra. He hurried to catch up with her, Longma joining as they left the group behind that had lost its spirit in stopping them. "Have you fought before, Zecora?"

"Hm?" She glanced over her shoulder at Jon. "Not a habit I have made. But a brew is far more my style than a blade. To heal and delight I would prefer. But sometimes, for violence to deter."

Longma nodded with a smug smile. "All I hear is that I picked the right two to hang out with today. Birdbrain can have fun doing whatever birds do." They had left their other friend with a promise to meet up later. "Now places that do hooves usually offer other, related, luxuries, so we can start there." She fixed Jon with a smirk. "Use your nails, then we can get yours looked at. Nails are like hooves, aren't they? I feel certain I read that somewhere..."

Ah, right. Jon returned to stroking and scratching at her back and flank, at least until she suddenly thumped against him. "Not there, that tickles." Not that she had laughed. "Focus on the spine, towards the rump, yes, that..."

She was not a cat, but she was rumbling in her own satisfied way. All animals had a happy sound, Jon was fairly sure. Even humans had a few to select from! It was a good thing she was actually nice to pet. Her fur was soft and warm, and he rather liked her reactions to being pet. If she wasn't also an ancient dragon that could kill him the moment she decided she wanted to, she'd otherwise make a fine pet.

The shop they were approaching had a sign of a curled pony leg, hoof gleaming a bright purple-red. Bright bold letters declared it to be 'Fine Touches: nail and hoof care'. Jon spread out his not-busy hand. His nails were... average? Not cared for, just nails... At least he wasn't a nail biter, so it coulda been worse, in his view. "Looks like they do handle nails."

Longma looked to Zecora. "Then we all get to be treated. Let's look our best, and see what other little decadence they have, hm?" She knocked the door open with a shove of a hoof. "We have arrived."

"Welcome," came a friendly male voice from within. Entering, they saw a human behind the counter, watching them in kind. "All three of you?"

Longma smiled with a new... flavor? "Oh yes, all three of us. Do you have a 'deluxe' package? We want to be worshipped."

"I do love a mare that knows what she wants," complimented the man as he grabbed a sheaf of paper and turned it towards her, tapping at one of the many lines on it. "This is our top ticket. We'll get your nail shined and extended to your desired length. Coloring is included. Trimming, shaping, filing, and buffing your nails, addressing your cuticles, which includes trimming and a cuticle oil treatment, and a hand massage. The application of nail polish at the end is optional." He let out a breath, getting through that exhaustive list. "A massage is included."

"Delightful," almost purred Longma. "Tell me you have spaces available right now and my day is starting properly."

As it turned out, they did, and were whisked away to enjoy their hand and hoof luxuries. Jon had never had a manicure before, but it was time to experience it. Despite the human in the front, it was a mare that was tending to him, a nail file in her mouth that she swept over his nails one by one with a kind smile, and seemingly able to speak despite it without an issue. "Poor thing, it's been too long since your last one of these, I can tell." She leaned in, studying her work before resuming. "But don't you worry. I'll have you looking like a king."

"First time," admitted Jon, watching her work diligently. "You've been doing this a long time?"

"Most of my life." She giggled a little. "My specialty." She turned her back end a little, allowing her symbol to be seen. A pair of hooves displayed out towards the viewer. "Human hooves still count," she assured as she started buffing at the nails. "They're so cute, human hooves, like you have ten little hooves right here, each in need of care."

It occurred to him suddenly. "But a pony hoof is also their foot."

"And ten of your other nails." She directed towards his shoe-clad feet. "Are also attached to your foot. It's true, I don't have to worry about a human hoof not holding them up properly, but a lot of the rest is the same." She clucked her tongue. "I do have to be more mindful. Your little hooves are more sensitive." She kissed Jon's hand suddenly. "That's part of the charm."

Jon decided the nail-mare was alright. "Hey, speaking of that, do you sell any gloves?"

"Oh, we do," she purred out. "But first we get your nails just right. Ask Reggie at the front and he'll show you all the gloves we have." She inclined her head faintly. "Before you ask, yes we ponies have gloves too." She waggled her bare hoof at Jon. "I'm not wearing one right now because it doesn't help me work on yours."

And so it was that Jon was treated to total nail care. He abstained from any bright colors or pungent polishes, but other than that, he was good to go. "A pity. You humans are cute enough, but some color would only help."

Wait. "Humans are cute?"

The mare laughed with a faint blush. "Sorry, don't be mad." But he was watching her. "But... yes. Humans are adorable."

Jon turned a hand slowly, examining his done nails. His feet he already had shoved back into his boots. "Then it's fair to say I think most ponies are cute then?"

The mare burst into a bright red. "You're the first to admit it! I knew it!" She clasped her colored hooves together under her chin. "Why do ponies and humans ever fight if they look cute to the other? I don't understand people... Well, you're not like that. You come back next time, let me tend those cute little hooves of yours."

Zecora was already there in the lobby, her hooves striped with yellow and purple tones. She seemed satisfied enough with it, watching Jon more than staring at her hooves. "Did everything go according to plan?"

Jon displayed his hands. "Didn't go for the color, but all good besides that."

"Not everyone is a fan," agreed Zecora, showing off one of her brightly colored hooves.

"Looking good." Jon offered a thumbs up. "Longma still being treated, I assume?" He glanced towards where they had all been led to, then looked towards 'Reggie'. "Hey, I was told you have gloves?"

"Honey." The man pulled up a sizable display from behind the counter, rows of gloves. "We got all the gloves you could want. What sort do you have in mind?"

Jon soon had a new set of gloves that looks suspiciously just like the ones he had lost to the slime. "Perfect." He flexed his glove-concealed fingers, the work of the mare entirely concealed from view. "You want one, Zecora?"

Zecora shook her head, eyes on the hallway Longma was emerging from.

Longma looked satisfied, her hooves uncolored, but shining in the light with obvious polish. "An excellent start to our day. You." She was looking at Reggie. "Tell us the next step in our decadent journey."

"Not to be a damper, but you have to pay for what you got already." He tapped at his cash register. "Then I'll give some tips."

It promised to be a busy, and somewhat expensive, day of luxuries.

Author's Note

I promise they'll leave the city next chapter. This chapter, nailcare! Important for humans and ponies! And Jon learns that humans look cute to ponies. Cross-species understanding?

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15 - City Issues

They were seated side by side, a member of their species next to them well, mostly. Longma did not have a dragon. She looked like a pony, and had a pony working at her. All of them were getting a haircut, or a mane cut as the ponies would call it.

Longma smirked faintly. "Hoof care translates to claw care, but having my mane touched up? Does nothing. This is literally a waste of time." Not that she was rushing to get away from it. "Do continue."

The human man working at Jon's hair was clearly made curious. "You usually have claws?"

"Big ones," promised the sometimes-dragon. "And, thanks to today, they will shine. What I don't always have is a mane, or anything like it."

Zecora prodded, a tapping really, at Longma with her brightly colored hoof. "You just enjoy watching them work."

"And that their focus is on me." She looked sidelong at the mare working diligently. "This town is criminally lacking in actual dragon care."

The mare laughed nervously. "Sorry... You'd want to go closer to the dragon lands for that." She inclined her head westwards.

Longma's ears pricked. "You're serious?" But she saw the others were looking at her skeptically. "Rift dragon," she reminded with a roll of her eyes. "I don't keep track of not-rift geography or happenings. I know I give the impression, but even I don't know everything, I'll admit that."

The mare working at Longma leaned in a little. "Are you the sort of dragon that gives wishes?"

Longma arched a brow at the idea. "You have us confused for djinn, or some varieties of fiend. The only wish a dragon can reliably grant is a swift end." The mare tensed. "That wasn't a threat. You're doing great, go on..."

Jon glanced aside at his attendant. "If it helps, not a dragon."

The man chuckled at that. "Two at once would be a bit much."

"Maybe a mated pair," noted the mare working at Zecora's mane. "That would be lovely to imagine, a pair of dragon loves getting their hair done here."

"Dragons don't have hair," reminded Longma with a huff. "And this dragon has no love to bring with her, so you're out of luck. You get one, and be happy about that!"

Zecora's eyes were on the window, the large one that showed the outside world and the people in it. "I think our fun is at an end," she noted calmly. "We have more pressing things to attend."

Jon matched where she was looking. There were a lot of people, rushing past. Panic, muffled cries of concern, mostly muted by the walls of the barber shop they were in. "Uh, yeah, that doesn't look good." They were running in an uneven mob away from... something. He shoved up to his feet, away from his surprised barber. "Gonna advise you all head somewhere safe." He wagged a finger at their attendants. "Zecora?"

She nodded in reply, giving her permission to plunge into danger.

Longma was less enthusiastic. "Let the locals deal with local problems."

"It became our problem." Jon waved at the hairstylists that were already moving to flee. "No relaxing until the city isn't in immediate danger."

"Ugh... Fine." She hopped to her hooves with an annoyed flick of her tail. "Let's rip whatever it is in half so we can finish my day!"

They emerged out onto the street, the noise of the panic much louder once the door was opened. "Run!" called out one. "Dragon!" added another. "And not a friendly one!" added a third as if to make that clear.

Longma flopped to her haunches. "You're joking." A great roar washed over them from further north. "You're not joking." She applied a hoof to her face. "A fellow dragon, ruining my day off? Figures. Typical! I will rip their tail off and feed it to them!"

Jon raised his hands, palms towards Longma. "If you're both dragons, maybe you could talk it out?"

Longma hiked a brow. "Little bit of advice. Outside of specific situations, a dragon meeting a dragon is a fine reason to rip and tear until there's only one dragon around. If you're feeling especially nice, asking them to get lost is optional. If they take that, great, saves you both some time and pain." She licked over her teeth that seemed a bit too long. "This isn't really one of those specific situations."

A fresh roar that had Longma quirking an ear. "You're joking."

Jon reached for his sword, but didn't draw it just yet. "You know what they're saying? Are those words?"

"As much word as you can fit in a scream, but, yet." Longma raised a brow. "That isn't a hungry dragon, at least not hungry in the traditional sense. They smell something far more appetizing than a meal, or some treasure."

Zecora turned towards the sounds. "It is my habit to riddle, Please speak plainly before we face a dragon in the middle."

Longma spread wings she didn't have a moment before, her form growing rapidly as she retook her massive natural form. "This is my problem," she hissed at her smaller friends. "I'll handle it."

Jon took a hurried step forward. "We're a team. We can help."

And Longma just laughed at the little human. "This is not something you can help with. Thanks for the offer." She reached a great hand down, patting Jon like the tiny little thing he was. "But I prefer my toys intact. You stay. Stay!" she ordered like someone directing a naughty dog. "Right here." She leveled a claw with the ground. "Good... Be right back."

With a great push of wind, she took flight on her powerful wings, speaking in strange sibilant hisses. "Over here," she added in the more common tongue, taking flight towards the roaring, though the roaring had stopped.

Another shape rose from the banks of buildings, a reptilian form, dark with streaks of blue, similar to Longma. "There you are," he greeted warmly, not nearly as ready for battle as Longma had made it seem. "Why are you hiding in this place?"

"I'm not 'hiding' anywhere," returned Longma, the next words in the tongue of dragons, undecipherable by Jon or Zecora. "A party of adventurers trashed my last place."

"They are the worst." The other dragon shook his head, flapping in slow circles around Longma. "Did you tear them apart?"

"Better." Longma turned in place and launched herself forward, guiding the conversation out of town, and out of hearing range.

Jon scratched behind his head a moment. "Um... They don't seem to be ripping each other apart. Are they friends?"

"I think friends is the wrong term." Zecora watched them fly away together. "I think that dragon wants to make another wyrm."

"Guys!" Aeorean landed beside them, wings folding up tight. "I heard a dragon was storming the town and I came to make sure you were alright. I saw two of them! But one looked kinda familiar..."

"That was Longma," offered Jon. "And maybe... a boyfriend?"

Aeorean colored in his cheeks a little. "Oh, um... does that count as a day of relaxation? I mean... good for her." He kicked a hind hoof up, scratching at the bottom of his chin. "Dragons sure are loud when they come calling for that kind of thing, aren't they?"

Zecora waved the others along, heading westwards through town in the general direction of the dragons. "Just because he is asking, there is no guarantee. How she reacts would be."

Aeorean nodded, keeping up easily. "Why is Jon lagging behind?"

"She told him to remain still. This, and perhaps dragons making friendly is not his thrill."

Aeorean's blush only grew worse. "I'm not trying to spy on dragon courting, um... I hope they... have a great time... If they aren't wrecking the town, good! Good..."

Once the buildings were not in the way, they could see, in the distance, the two dragons clearly having a discussion. It was not a romantic one, so far they could see. No snouts were being met. No embracing. No, um, topping already in action. They were speaking, and Longma appeared to be on guard, not being seduced. Still, they were too far away to pick out the words.

Aeorean inclined his head slowly. "Yep, two rift dragons. Wow, never saw two of them at the same time before. And both great wyrms! This is... possibly terrible..." He rubbed at a cheek with a hoof. "The town isn't helpless, it is a city, they have heroes, but two great wyrms is a lot to ask!"

"Is one great wyrm easily managed?"

"No!" burst the pegasus, his wings flaring out. "Not even slightly. But two? That's how cities just get reduced to ash. And maybe all the other towns unfortunate enough to be nearby. Now, uh... to be fair, Longma doesn't look like she's big friends with the other one, so they probably... probably aren't going to go on a fun rampage across the empire."

Zecora watched the distant, large, figures. From so far away, they didn't seem like such behemoths, at least until one noticed how small the trees around them were in comparison. It was a meeting of titans. "She will say yes, or she will say no. How dragons react to being declined, only they know."

Aeorean shook his head quickly. "Nope! Nope! I can tell you pretty easily how most dragons react to being declined, and it isn't with a handshake."

Zecora lifted her shoulders. "If he wishes to claim her heart, perhaps he can consider today a start. A no today may become a yes later. That is less true if he leaves a crater."

Aeorean chuckled nervously, eyes on the distant two. "You're not wrong, perfectly reasonable, yep yep yep... But he's a dragon. Reasonable is not a thing he has to be..."

Back in the city, Jon was left behind. He had stayed in the square Longma had told him to stay in. The ponies and humans of the city had begun to calm down. The dragons had left. They weren't being roasted with elemental fury, nor being torn into uneven chunks. A grand day!

"Excuse me." An officious pony in chain armor was coming closer. "I'm told you were in the company of one of the two dragons?"

Jon nodded to the newcomer. "Hey there. She isn't here to cause trouble."

"Reports say she led the other one away, so we don't have any... immediate issue with her," agreed the guard? "We were just hoping to get some information, for the safety of the city."

A distant roar echoed over the plaza. The pony cleared his throat. "This is a somewhat pressing matter. If you could spare a moment?"

"Longma, that's her name, or at least the name she goes by with us." Jon crossed his arms, looking off in the directions the dragons had gone. "She's a bit stuck up, and a bit spoiled, but she's also a dragon, so maybe she has a right to be both of those?"

The pony nodded. "That checks out. Is she violent? What does she see us as? Food? Entertainment? Curiosities? I've heard a great many things dragons can decide we are."

Jon could easily imagine a few of those. "Zecora, the zebra with me, and myself count as curiosities for her. The rest, I think, a source of pleasure. She was just getting her hair done." He hiked a manicured thumb at the hair salon they had fled. "As for violent, she seems the sort ready to be that, but it isn't what she gets up in the morning to do."

"That's a relief," admitted the guard with a sigh. "You don't know anything about her friend, do you? Any advice would be appreciated."

But Jon knew nothing. "Sorry, never saw them before. Longma's the first dragon I ever saw, and I only saw two, and the second's dead."

"Ah..."

"I killed them."

"Ah?" The guard hiked a brow at Jon. "And still you remain friends with Longma? A curious story, obviously."

Author's Note

We tick the action counter up a bit. Is this a love at first sight situation for our dragon friend?

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16 - The Laws of Dragons

"You are healthy."

"I am." Longma did not deny that, smiling with pride. "See how my scales glisten." She raised a hand into view, curling her fingers to show off her manicured claws, as deadly as they were shiny, thanks to a little care.

"You are successful," continued the other great beast, speaking with Longma in the hissing tongue of dragons.

"That's hurtful." Longma frowned at the other one. "I told you my rift got trashed. I'll get a new one, no doubt, but a rift dragon without a rift? Successful?"

"You should see mine." He slid in closer, trying to get his snout close to hers, but she edged away just far enough. "Don't be cold. There's room enough for two..."

Longma rolled her eyes. "Only if one dragon is atop the other, which I imagine is exactly what you're hoping for."

"You're in season," hissed the male. "Does that not... encourage you?"

Longma hiked a scaled ridge. "I will assume you are addled by my enchanting presence. You should know by looking at me that I am not a young little hatchling."

"A great and powerful wyrm," crooned the male in a complimenting way. "Majestic and worthy of my time. Let us do as our natures demand."

"Nuh-uh." She shoved the male back, knocking a few trees over with his skidding form. "I'm old enough to not be a slave to that. You are too. Seriously, to come making such a fuss just because you got a whiff of me?"

He flared his wings wide, glaring at her. "Don't be unreasonable... Besides, I have not had eggs in too long. And last wasn't even a rift dragon, I am shamed to say."

"Bet you weren't 'shamed' at the time," scoffed Longma. "Typical male, embarrassed only after the fact. Like it even counts then."

In the distance, the friends of Longma watched on, not understanding the language, but watching the movement and trying their best to pick up on the emotions being displayed.

"I've gone over how lovely you are, why not give me a turn?" The other rift dragon buffed his claws, not touched up expertly, but at least healthy and serviceable. "I have a rift with a nice tiny entrance, but the inside can fit half a city," he hissed with pride and joy. "You should see it, marvelous. The denizens are helpful too. Intelligent, eager to please their betters. Probably useless in a scrap, but that's what they have me for."

"Element?"

A curious question for some, but the male dragon seemed to understand the question without an issue. "That's another curious part. While there I am charged with the power of the mind. My breath is a burning cone, not of fire, but of psychic noise. Quite nice. Come, visit... I do not like guests, but for you, an exception..."

"Rare is the dragon that likes unasked for guests." Longma rolled her eyes at the thought. "But common is one that wouldn't mind a potential partner stopping by. But I'm busy!" She jumped at him. To his credit, he hopped back, only to lunge at her, their claws meeting in a moment of struggle before both backed away, sharing their glare.

"What could be occupying you?" He circled her cautiously, expecting another attack perhaps. "It will only be a moment, and you'll enjoy it."

"You're not selling yourself well there. Only a moment." She scoffed softly, lifting into the air on grand wings. "I want to watch these little insects of mine. Their frantic scrambles are more interesting to me right now than everything you've offered. Oh, did that sting? Good. Now go the hell away."

He roared with breath, but he was not in an elemental place. Like Longma, his breath came as a futile puff of sparkling potential, a threat to no one but his own dignity in its sparkling vapor. "Damn you to the deepest depths," he fumed and raged. "Is this how you--"

She landed on him, claw holding his face down. "Gonna cut you off right there. Offering the chance to roost some eggs is not a favor. You aren't hot enough for me to pay for. You asked, I answered. Act your age." She hopped free, slashing his face on the way. As she struck the ground, it trembled with the impact. "You're playing a mewling young adult with nothing better to do than sow his oats in any field that'll hold still a moment."

The time for flowery words was at an end, the offended great wyrm lunging for Longma, not to pounce or promise, but with gnashing teeth and claw. Patience expended, he became a tornado of fury, and the fight was on in earnest between them.

"It seems talk has reached its end, we should go and help our friend." Zecora pointed at the two great behemoths that crashed against one another.

Aeorean took off like a bolt. He was much smaller than most of the others on the field of battle, but he was doing his best to make up for it by being small, and fast. That he controlled the forces of nature was also a perk. With a primal cry of power, lightning struck him from above, only to bounce free towards the male dragon. "Leave her alone!"

For all the creature's pathetic size, its magic stung all the same, the dragon roaring with renewed fury at the sudden electrical arc that ran over and through his form. "The ants scurry to defend you. Is this how far you fell?" he taunted in the dragon's tongue, smirking as he brought in a wing to crash into Longma's side with the force of a falling house. "Face me at least."

"I." Longma grabbed the wing before it could get away. "Owe." Her claws dug into the relatively fragile flesh that made up the wing's membrane. "You nothing!" She pulled her claws apart, blood spraying the area as they fell away from each other, the male's wing savaged with a new wound.

Dragons were many things. Stupid was not one of them. For all he insulted the little things, he knew what power they had, and that several were approaching made his odds look... poor, when placed alongside the angered she-wyrm. He could mount a grand battle, surely, but win it? That seemed... unlikely.

"Another time." But he didn't fly away. Well, he did, but not from all of them. He was on Aeorean in a flash, his injured wing barely slowing him down. "Was this your favorite?" He couldn't know, and he couldn't wait to be sure. He dug his claws into the squealing pegasus, teeth coming in sharply. In an instant, the champion was rended into without mercy, his broken body thrown aside. "Get better pets."

Longma spoke the strange words of a spell, several images of her springing into being in a confusing display, all moving with her, making it hard to tell where she was standing exactly. "I will tear you apart so badly, you'll be able to lay eggs yourself!"

But he wasn't fighting. He was leaving. His point, as small as it was, had been made.

Zecora raced to find Aeorean where he had been tossed. The pegasus was flopped across the ground, not hidden, but also not really moving. Zecora was on him, drawing out herbs and supplies to treat him as quickly as she could.

Longma's approaching steps were hard to miss, the ground shuddering softly with each hurried step. "Did he break the birdbrain?" she asked, leaning in over the tree line to get a better view of things. "Damn it all. He was trying to help me."

"To enter into a lover's fued. A reprise that was quite rude." Zecora reached for the pegasus's head, carefully getting it at a less unnatural angle, a wince on her face. "Jon followed your commands to the letter. Informing him gently would be better."

"Yeah..." Longma leaned in as if she was about to fall over, but the bulk that struck the ground was that of just a pony, at Zecora's side, strangely patterned with multiple copies moving about at odd angles. The spell had not stopped just because the battle did. "He'll be upset, won't he?"

Zecora did not answer, occupied as she was with trying to keep Aeorean with them. She was bandaging the worst of the bleeding, applying pressure and herbs to slow the oozing loss of life's water.

"Damn him... Damn it all." Longma turned away from Zecora and her work. "He wasn't wrong, in a way. When a beekeeper gets too close to their bees, the insects suffer." She glanced over her shoulder at Zecora. "Tell Jon I said he did well. Tell him I'm not angry with him."

"Why do you not--" But Zecora didn't get to finish her words, a strong gust of wind almost knocking her over. Longma was leaving in another direction then the male dragon had. She was left alone with the broken Aeorean and a story to bring back to Jon. She didn't even bother finishing her rhyme, instead letting out a slow sigh. That day had... not gone well.

The guard quirked an ear as another guard spoke something into it. "It seems the dragons are leaving. This crisis is over." He sat with a relieved smile. "Thank you for cooperating, even if it didn't come down to much this time. We appreciate when people work with us. We're here for your safety, you know."

A good cop? Jon wasn't angry at that. "You did your best, thanks. Anybody get hurt in all that?"

"Thank the gods nothing severe." He shook his head lightly. "Mostly property damage, and that too was, relatively mild considering what we were dealing with. A great wyrm shows up and 'mild property damage' is a call for celebration more than anything else. No offense to yours. All the reports agreed with what you said, she was just visiting, and being a good citizen while she was. If all dragons could be that way."

"That'd be nice." Though Jon struggled to imagine all the dragons of a world just peacefully chilling in its various cities. Would they still be dragons? "Still, glad this worked out then. My friends should be back soon, if it's all calmed down. Wait, you said 'the dragons'? Both of them left?" Wait... "Together?"

"Different directions," corrected the guard with a nod. "Both away from the city, thank the sun." He let out a relived grunt. "Now, been right nice chattin', but I really should get back to work." He inclined his head down a road. "City won't patrol itself."

"Sure, of course." Jon waved as the guard pony trotted off to find something in need of his presence. If all cops were ponies, there'd be less trouble, he decided, though that was terribly unlikely, at least in the world he had come from. But Longma had taken off? What had he missed? And why weren't the others already back?

It was time to find out. He began in the direction Aeorean and Zecora had left a short time before. "Won't leave the city." Or even the road he started on. The odds would only go up that they'd miss each other and then they'd all be lost.

He reached into a pocket to feel the comforting weight of coins in there. Worst came to worst, he'd be able to manage a little while if they really got lost.

Author's Note

The party's fortunes take a sharp turn. Say goodbye to having a dragon around.

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17 - Decisions Made

Jon spotted Zecora! Sure, he had been waiting at the gate of the city, watching other people come and go. He had frantically searched for any sign of either zebra or pegasus, and it felt like it had been forever, but there she was. She walked slowly, with a deep scowl and... fatigue.

"Zecora!" he called, waving at her in the distance. At last, he stepped beyond the gate, jogging towards her. "There you are. Where's Aeorean? What happened?"

Zecora sat as he reached her. "This world is full of wonders, but today we saw only blunders. He fought with bravery, and met an end most unsavory."

"What?!" Jon grabbed her at the shoulders. "You're kidding. He had to be.... like in the teens at least." Not that anyone knew what levels were. "He can't just..."

Zecora inclined her head faintly. "I did my best to treat his wounds. This is what happens when one leaps into feuds."

"I'm... sure you did." He glanced past Zecora. He felt stiff. The same stiffness he had seen in Zecora? "Where is he?"

"He was a protector of nature. To be close to it is his last wish, I wager." Her head sunk, eyes closing. "I am tired of this place. I do not wish for you to share in these fates. We must go home, this is simple fact. This is not a place to adapt."

Jon threw a hand wide, not that he actually know which direction was right. "What happened to Longma?"

"She left." No rhyme, no poetry, just a blunt and terrible fact. "Her presence caused this, and she took flight, bereft." Oh, there was the rhyme.

Their party had gone from four to two... instantly. Right back to the originals. "Let's go back inside." He hiked a thumb back at the city he had emerged from. "Right now, you look severely tweaked, for a good reason. Let's... regather ourselves."

"Perhaps the best we can do." Zecora nodded and began to plod along in no particular hurry, fatigue heavy on her limbs. "We will need to decide what we plan to."

"Do?" But she did not reply. They walked in silence side by side. "I should have gone with you." He kicked a rock down the road, its bouncing retreat doing little to help. "Could have made all the difference."

Zecora gave a noncommittal noise, a little 'hm' and not much more.

They returned to their rooms. It was a humble inn with clean rooms. Entering, the pony, earth, that ran the bar and checked people in and out nodded at them. "Welcome back. Staying another day?"

"Yeah." Jon nudged Zecora towards the stairs. "Go get some rest." Zecora did not argue the idea, plodding along past him. "Rough day."

"Did you hear about the dragon?" The pony was rubbing down the counter with a rag on the end of his hoof to clean and polish. "Two of 'em! Never saw such a thing."

"Yeah..." Jon took a seat, not quite ready to retire for the day. "Yeah..." Wait... "Say, are spells that bring people from the dead a thing or not?"

The innkeeper inclined his hear, one ear pricking up. "Heard of that, sure. Costs enough to buy a city block. Why?"

Right... The gold he had wasn't enough to... do that. "Nothing."

"That doesn't look like nothing, Sir." He pushed a mug of beer forward across the bar. "Someone get hurt, when the dragons were making a mess?"

A drink sounded... good at that point. Jon pushed off the table to his feet and moved to crash at the bar, accepting the mug. "Hurt as bad as you can get. They aren't hurting now." Damn it...

The innkeeper hissed softly. "I'm really sorry..." It seemed to hit him. "Was it the mare?"

"The stallion."

"Aw, damn it. He was a chipper fella." The innkeeper thumped the top of the bar. "Why do the smiling ones go first?"

"I really don't know." A sound made him flinch. It was a drop. He was leaking, just a little. "He was so excited... to have found a proper party, to adventure."

"That explains that." The innkeeper gestured with a sweep of his snout at the dangling sword at Jon's hip. "Feel free to tell me to get scorched by the sun, but are you gonna find a replacement?"

Scorched by the sun? That was a new one. "We didn't look for either of them. They tripped over us..."

"Well, Author be smiling on you, maybe another will trip over you, if you're open for it." He resumed cleaning the bartop. "She has mysterious ways."

Various gods? He could but assume so. "Can she bring back the ones we had?"

"Maybe." He shrugged lightly. "I wouldn't count on that though. The story moves on, her priests say. You're still in it, being alive and all."

"Yeah..." He brought up the beer for a swig. As beers went, a good beer, a good taste. A little strong... but good. "Thanks, for listening... for talking."

"Hey, sometimes that's all I can do." He leaned in, propped against the hoof on the bar. "But it can help. Just, uh, don't pour it out for the departed. I have to clean that up. No offense..."

The image of a thousand forlorn souls spilling their booze all over the floor, sobbing to themselves as the innkeeper sighed and got a fresh washing rag. In that moment of misery, a smile came despite it, a little chuckle. "Alright, I needed that." He took a fresh sip. "Instead, how about a toast?"

"Now that I can get behind." The innkeep dropped to all fours, popping back up with his arm wrapped around the large handle of a mug clearly designed for a pony to enjoy easily. The mug was frothing with a drink. Not the same one that Jon had, he could tell from that same crown. "Let's pour one out, down our throats."

"I'll drink to that." Jon raised his mug.

"That's the idea. Go ahead." The innkeep shook his mug lightly. "Do it."

"A toast, to friends in unexpected places. To friends lost. To friends found... Here's to hoping you're still flying high, Aeorean." Their mugs met with a wooden thunk, then both of them took a powerful swig.

"I can only hope they raise one for me when my time's up." The innkeep slammed down the mug, the booze within sloshing, but not spilling. "Not that I'll be there to enjoy it. Drink for the living, they say. Now, enough... of that." He nodded at Jon. "What're you plans? Should I keep the room for you for now?"

"For now." Jon set his drained mug on the bar. "I should make sure Zecora is alright."

"She looked just as bad." The innkeeper slid his own mug away. "Only one free drink though. I have my own finances to keep in line."

"You've already been nice enough." Jon stood with a stretching of his shoulders. "We have some--"

The door leading outside slapped open, allowing a zebra with a huge cannon at her right side and a smaller but still sizable gun mounted on the left to enter. "I have my sights on right?" She went for the innkeep without delay. "Barkeep! Looking for a pegasus, brown? You see any like that?"

The innkeeper winced, inclining his head towards Jon. "You'll want to ask that guy there."

And so she did, turning on the spot, directing both guns at him. "Hey, human, no moving if you know what's good for you."

Was he being mugged by the zebra? Crap, he actually did have coins to steal that time. "Not looking for trouble."

"Good, neither am I. Tell me where Aeorean is and I'll find a better target to line up." She leaned in place, enough to cause her guns to rattle ominously, metal on metal.

Jon hissed softly. "Don't shoot me just for telling you this, but Aeorean's..." What was the nice way to put it... "Dead." Not nice, but he couldn't think of a better word.

"Sun scorch it to the ground." The zebra slammed a hoof down. "What happened?! Blast it. He was a champion. They're supposed to be there when they're needed." She turned a hoof on herself. "I'd know, being one myself."

Another champion? Jon glanced at the innkeep who was suddenly quite focused on cleaning. "He was helping us, me and my other zebra friend."

"Oh. Oh!" She advanced on Jon quickly. "You were the one with him? They said it was a human, but not much more than that..."

"That's me." He offered a little uncertain smile at the zebra far too close with those dangerous guns. "I didn't know they had guns around here."

"Well, just upped your caliber on that line right there. You know what a firearm is." She jostled in place, her wary expression becoming a bright smile. "Dwarves started 'em, I made them look good. The name's Sonja, and I planned to join up with Aeorean. They said he was looking for champions down at the temple." She pointed the way.

The timing was both amazingly bad, and amazingly good, depending on which angle one tilted their head. "Sorry about that... I should have been with them."

"Hm?" She circled around him. "Where were you? Not like Aeorean to not be with his call shotters." She sank to her haunches. "And where's the zebra? You go wandering off target like he did?"

"No! No... She's upstairs." He hiked a thumb upwards. "Getting some rest. Today's been a rough day, losing Aeorean... We're--"

"--in luck." Sonja nodded firmly. "Seems to me you'll need a replacement champion."

"That..." He rubbed two fingers together, breath shallow. "That's a little cold, isn't it?"

"Is it? Well, let me work out the aim and you can tell me if my sight's off." She raised her hooves, tapping them with each point. "He was on a task he believed in. It's not done. He would want it done. I can help get it done. If I fell over in the middle of unfinished business, I'd be grateful if a friend just came along and finished it for me. Now, to add on that, he was just looking for a friend. If I showed up before he died, I woulda joined. I show up afterwards, you want me to just forget the whole thing, leave it unfinished? Now that, the way I see it, is letting your gun blow back to spite someone else. Won't do it."

"It was just today," weakly countered Jon.

"Oh." She turned her right hoof to tap at her chin. "My aim was off then, but only by the barest margin. A miss is still a miss." She frowned with renewed energy. "Too late. Missed the shot, gotta line up the next. Come on, show me your zebra friend. We should get to know each other if we're going to get things done." She took a step just to stop. "What's your handle?"

Handle? Oh! "Jon." He offered a hand towards the marks...pony. "Seriously, it's bothering me, no offense, but that thing you're holding there." He pointed the finger of the same hand being offered at her canon. "That thing is huge."

Sonja only looked happy at his amazement. "And a right pretty girl, ain't she?" She met the hand with a hoof, waiting until he grasped it before shaking firmly. She didn't squeeze, hooves didn't do that, but she did move the arm vigorously. "Gonna be nice working with someone who can appreciate true art."

"And it doesn't knock you over when you use it?"

Oh, the cocky grin that she wore. "You'd think that, can't argue your aim, but I can handle this." She turned in place, pausing as if aiming at various things. "Get a respectable tempo going even. Not as fast as some others, using smaller pieces, but I shoot, things notice, real quick. Now, let's meet your friend."

Author's Note

Hello Sonja! She's a good pony that will hopefully get us moving towards our target. Let's see a few Fs in the comments for the departed, however.

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18 - Recalibrating Aim

"A fellow striper." Sonja advanced across the room, smiling brightly at Zecora. "If you're big on languages, not really my thing. I prefer to collect and admire firearms more than various lingos." She jostled herself, making her canons shake with the motion. "Sorry if that seems 'crude'."

Zecora was looking over the other zebra. "It is a rare treat. You are fine and complete. I too am not a master of many." She raised a hoof to tap at a dangling potion there. "I make potions and brews by the plenty."

"Alchemist," agreed Sonja with a knowing nod. "Nice. Good additions to any group, keep our aim right. Now, sorry about how things went, but I won't let that happen again. You're in Sonja's care." She thumped her chest and primped herself up. "It won't be quiet, but I'll get you there in one piece."

Zecora looked past Sonja to where Jon stood. "What do you think?"

Jon didn't hide his surprise. "Hm? She seemed genuine. I like those guns of hers." That got a smug grin out of Sonja. "We do still have a lead."

"Tell me." Sonja turned quickly. "Did you have a plan before the wind shifted and threw off your aim?"

Zecora smiled gently. "Perhaps we are in sync. My words do rhyme, while yours..." She gestured her nose at Sonja's larger gun. "Our way of speaking keeps scores."

Sonja's ears twitched atop her head before her smile grew. "I like you." She threw an arm over Zecora. "You're all round and squishy, but I like the line of your barrel." She squeezed the round Equestrian pony with a merry laugh. "We'll get along just fine."

Jon circled around the mares to their front. "As I mentioned, we do have a lead. A siren that used to work for the queen? We know where she last was. She may be able to get us back to Equestria."

"Where's that?" Sonja released Zecora from against her armed side. "Whatever, we have a target, good! I hate not having one, if we're being honest. Wandering aimlessly, looking for a target? Not my angle. Give me something to center on." She fixed her aim on a mirror on the night stand. "Bang."

Zecora was looking at Jon. "What did you find, besides our new friend." She inclined her head towards Sonja. "Is your troubled heart closer to an end?"

"That's my line." Jon undid his sword and hung it up on its loop on the corner of my bed. "Had a nice chat with the innkeep. Good guy. I get the feeling I wasn't the first patron he ever had with this kinda worry."

Sonja snorted at that, sinking to the floor on her belly. "Any tavernkeep gets to make that shot so often he's probably a crack at it. People drink to remember and to forget, and he's doing his best to help them do that. Good job from the sound of it, has his sights set just so."

A thought came to Jon suddenly. "Should I have tipped?" Both of the ponies looked at him quizzically. "Is that not a thing?"

Sonja shook her head slowly. "If you drank enough you feel like tipping over, well, you're in bed. Take the shot."

Jon could but smile at the miscommunication. "I should probably go ahead and do that."

A new party had formed, and with a new equilibrium set, they settled to slumber.

Sonja led the way towards the river, clopping her hooves with each step, her armaments jingling against her. None moved to challenge them even as they approached the dividing line that was the dam. "We'll catch a ride here, straight shot down the river." She pointed down the river that was in view. "Enjoy a sail for a few days... Where are we going again?"

Zecora looked to Jon. "To find Adaggio?"

Sonja turned in place. "And where is that?"

"That's a great question." Not that Jon knew exactly. "She worked for the queen, remember?"

"I didn't lose sight of the target, just not seeing the angle that gets us a shot." She frowned faintly with consideration. "We'll want a boat either way... But are we going up or down river? Shooting in the wrong direction will not help us."

"Marafiki!" came a loud and jovial call. A third zebra emerging from the crowd. Sues trotted towards them. "Good, you are still here." His eyes darted towards Sonja. "You I do not know, but that is easily fixed, dreapta?" It should be noted that Sues' accent shifted sometimes out of sync with his words. He would speak strange languages and the common one with the accent of others, without a hint of shame.

Sonja's nostrils flared. "I smell books. Are you a book friend?"

Sues inclined his head at Sonja, but burst into laughter. "I was not expecting to be mhothaich mi by scent alone."

Sonja threw a hoof towards Sues. "And here is a more 'classic' example of a zebra. All the languages, all of them." She frowned at her fellow stripe-wielder. "Cut it out. Not a person here can understand you."

Jon gestured at their returned friend. "Good to see you again, Sues. What brings you by?"

"You do." Sues waggled a hoof among the party. "I was researching your problem, and the head librarian noticed. She took me aside and asked what I was doing, and when I did, oh caro, she chewed me out."

"Because you were studying on the clock?" suggested Jon.

"Nein!" Sues grinned at Jon. "Because I let friends in need walk off without helping. I told her, madre, that I had given an oath to the temple, but she practically threw me out. 'If you are loyal to Luminace, than be loyal to friends first!' she cried. 'Take good notes, and be safe.' And the door to the library was shut in my face, just like that."

Sonja's hoof suddenly landed right on Sues' head. "Get to the trigger. You were researching them." She angled her head at the other two. "Did you find anything?"

"Ah, yes Si." He curled on himself, pulling out a book with smaller papers stuffed in it at various angles. "Your siren friend, she did not go unnoticed. A temptress and an asset, they say she was blessed of Kara, who took her in eagerly."

Sonja huffed at that. "Kara's a tricky target to get a bead on. Goes for her followers."

Zecora looked between the other two zebras. "Then you know where she is hiding?" She kept turning towards the dam. "Is it up or down river we'll be riding?"

"Up!" He pointed the way and began trotting. "I've never been on an adventure before. This is seru." He cantered right in the middle of his trot in a little gay skip. "To Silverdream!"

Sonja suddenly hurried up to his side. "Silverdream?! Do you have your aim right?" She circled in front of him, thumping her head against his. "Border town with an attitude a mile wide, unicorns only, which none of us are, I'll remind."

"I didn't choose for her to go there," defended Sues, taking a step back. "That is where she was last seen, and she isn't subtle. The siren shows up, people talk about it. Iki o nomu yōna, that much seemed certain."

Zecora advanced ahead of Sues, interposing herself between the two. "He only found the truth. To be mad at it is just uncouth. Can we sail to this town?" She turned her head towards Sues, then Jon. "What sort of trouble will a human bring down?"

Sues considered Jon with a thoughtful noise. Sonja was far less contemplative. "He's with us." She thumped herself on the chest. "If they have a problem with that, they can have a nice chat down the barrel." She thrust her right side forward, larger gun jutting forward. "A short but meaningful chat."

Jon advanced past them all, resuming the journey. "We'll figure it out. So we need a boat headed, uh, that's north, right?"

The group resumed their trek, allowing Jon to take point for the moment. "How much does it cost to get a ride that far? How far are we talking?"

Sues inclined his head faintly. "Only a sailor could say for sure. The tides are a little ingatag. Let's find a boat and they'll give us their prices."

"Not a standard faire? Travel back home was a simpler affair." The trains of Equestria had posted prices that didn't vary very often. "Be that as it may be, we must get there to talk with this lady."

As they went, Jon looked over his new party. He was the only thing on two legs. He was the only thing that didn't have stripes. He was the only swordsperson. Speaking of that... "Sues?" The zebra looked up. "What do you do, as an adventurer?"

"Well, gee. This is my first proper adventure, but I did say before." He nodded with confidence. "I am an investigator." He tapped the side of their head as they walked. "I look for clues, put the pieces together, and I'm not a bad play at the sword."

Jon perked. "You like swords too?"

"Oh, sure." He glanced aside at Jon's belted blade. "I prefer a little lighter than that."

"But you have none." There was nowhere for a sword to be hiding on Sues. He was unarmed.

"True... Did I mention this is my first time adventuring? I didn't have a weapon to bring with me. You get me, and my pack." He shook himself, causing his saddlebags to jostle. "I'll pick up a weapon along the way, whatever's laying around if I have to."

"What did you fight with before? You practiced, I assume?"

"Sure sure." Sues nodded with easy confidence. "But I was borrowing them, from my school, from the temple, wherever I happened to be. All I have on me is this." He lowered his head and pulled a dagger free of its sheath, sharp, but small. "Not many things like being poked with this, ngiyakuqinisekisa."

"No idea what that means," admitted Jon flatly. "Still, good to see you have some weapon."

"Better off with a gun," groused Sonja with a dramatic roll of her eyes. "Serves as a warning before you take the first shot, and leaves an impression after that. An ideal weapon all around, the way I see it."

"One thing." Jon began down a flight of stairs towards some docks on the right side of the dam. "How do you fire that and not go... deaf. You have big ears." Big cute fuzzy ears! He left that part out. "And they are really close to that cannon. Doesn't that hurt?"

"Practice," she retorted as if that was obvious. "As if your human ears don't ring after something this large goes off. You get used to it, with enough determination. Just try not to have detailed chats in the middle of a firefight, because I will not be listening!"

Zecora edged away, putting some distance between herself and the armed other zebra.

Sues was also separating, but more to advance more quickly, headed for a sailor tying a rope in their feline hands. "Good day!" he called, waving at the she-cat. "Your ship have room for some travelers?"

The purrsian huffed, whiskers lifting. "Depends. Are these paying travelers?"

Jon hiked a thumb northwards along the river. "We need to get to Silverdream, all four of us. What's the going price on that?"

"Silverdream, hm." She went quiet a moment, throwing her coiled rope down on the deck of her ship. "That's a good sail. If you don't mind my fishing on the way, 5 silver a head. If you're in that much of a rush, double it."

Sues frowned. "That's quite the price."

"Silverdream's a dead end." The purrsian rolled her eyes. "And I'm a good captain. You want to get there fast and safe, you pay up. Otherwise, shove off, I have fishing to do."

Author's Note

Jon did not expect to be in a party with three zebras... but is that all bad? Luminace be praised, as she sends friends when they are needed.

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19 - Riddle Me This

"What has a boat and a dream of silver?"

The group looked towards the new voice, a... pony? perched on a boat. He had the body of a cat despite his equine face in a strange blend. "What, no guesses? Come now..."

Zecora took an unsure step forward. "Are you the one with a silver dream? You have a boat to take us upstream."

The cat clapped their paws together. They did not seem agile at a glance, actual cat paws, not hands like the first feline they had seen. "Very good! Come aboard and we can set sail."

"I saw them first!" shouted the first feline. "Stealing my customers right in front of me, the nerve."

"I won't charge extra for going full speed," assured the pony/cat mix. "Five silver each and your trip will be the only thing on my mind."

Sonja aimed her gun at the creature. Well, she aimed her gun at most anything she was focusing on. "I prefer to know what I'm traveling with. What are you?"

"No offense," sang out Sues in a new accent. "Osewaninarimasu." He dipped his head lightly. "I am curious though, if you don't mind?"

"Just a sphinx, a small one." The sphinx stood up. "One thing, nothing is free. I will require your hands as we go."

Jon raised a finger at that. "How do you sail normally?"

"I wait until someone needs to go somewhere. It seems I found them." The sphinx nodded softly, satisfied with itself. "The name's Dark Thought. I came from a very dim place, but I prefer this sunny world, and its wet roads. Come aboard and we'll pass the time with a few brain teasers."

"If you want to ride with someone who can't even sail himself," scoffed the first feline.

Zecora shook her head. "This one feels safe. His quirks will not chafe." And up she went, trotting up the gangplank to hop onto the deck of the small boat.

Sues went right up behind her. "Odlično! To adventure!"

The power of momentum carried the rest of them aboard, the party's decision made. Dark began to give instructions of what needed to be done to get them off, though he gave the final push to get the boat away from the shore. "And we're off. Now, this boat has an engine, but it is not a... standard one." He hopped back up high, sinking, watching the others.

"You." Dark was looking at Jon. "Don't answer this one." He cleared his throat. "What walks in four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?"

Jon bit the answer that came to him. He'd heard that riddle before!

But the others had not, scowling. This was not nearly so obvious for a bunch of zebras that weren't even used to humans all that much. They began to whisper to one another, trying to figure out an answer.

As they worked on that, the boat jolted forward and began to sail up the stream, powering along with no sound of a motor, just defying the flow of the water with a will of its own. "You can do it," assured Dark Thought. "You look like a clever bunch."

That left Jon to ponder a different riddle. "Huh..." He leaned over the edge, trying to get a glance at what was moving them, but nothing was obvious to sight. "Is this... boat powered by... what, people trying to solve riddles?"

"By thoughts, yes. The more focused they are, say when trying to decipher a riddle, the more power they have. There is an answer to that, I will note. Using a riddle without an answer is just cheating. Can't stand that..." His eyes were on Jon. "Where I come from, thoughts can be dangerous things, but powerful things. The idea of using one for locomotion... not as alien as it would otherwise seem."

Jon was considering their pony... feline... friend. "Well, where do you come from? Somewhere dark, you mentioned?"

"Just like the name," agreed Dark with a feline smile. "Down far below us, where the sun is nothing but a myth. Where the glow of crystals is the best one can hope, and that is rare. Where the dreams of what should not be keep one company, whether one wants it or not. I don't miss it. The surface is far kinder."

Zecora stepped forward suddenly. "A minotaur is born on all fours. They walk, sometimes with drawers, but then with a cane is the answer to that riddle of yours."

The boat was slowing beneath them. "Huh, well, yes." Dark inclined his head at Jon. "Human woulda worked too, but I suppose any biped race fits that bill nicely." Even as Zecora and Sues met with hooves of victory, Dark was going on. "But we can't rest idly just yet, not until we reach the lake at least."

Jon pointed ahead. "We just have to think."

Dark raised a brow. "And what better way than a good riddle or two?" Still, the boat was starting to fight the current, resuming its journey.

Sues turned to his riddle partner. "Want to learn a language?"

Zecora did not share that enthusiasm. "You are a curious pony. Perhaps I can tell you of the time I saw an Equestrian banshee."

"Ooo, please." And off they went to share stories.

Sonja shrugged softly. "Thinking isn't my specialty. I'm not dumb, but this thinker--" She tapped at her head. "Is a focused machine. I'll keep an eye out for trouble, keep my guns ready. I won't be idle." She advanced towards the front of the ship to do just that.

Dark huffed softly. "You've ruined my fun. Spoil sport." He hopped down from his perch to the deck with the grace of a cat. "You don't like riddles?"

"Not my specialty." Even he had heard that last one. "But I have plenty to think about. We're both travelers far away from home."

"Are we?" Dark circled Jon, watching him curiously. "Humans are common enough. Not the majority, but not unknown."

Compared to the pony sphinx, Jon figured he was almost normal. "Sure, but you come from there." He pointed down through the ship. "You can't even point in a direction that would get you to where I am."

"Oh. Oh! Clever... You gave me a riddle! I see how this works." Dark looked smugly pleased, not offended. "Don't give any hints. Hmm... A human from a place you can't point to..." He raised a paw to direct to the sky. "Are you from another world so far away we can't even imagine how to point at it?"

Jon considered that answer. Well, sort of, but... "I'm not from space." He was fairly sure. "So even if this ship could set off towards the stars, I don't think my home is out there."

"Not there, not there, hmmm, mmm...." Dark let out an almost purr of a whicker, a blend of noises. "A challenge, but I'm not giving up yet... Are you from a dream? A wakened fragment of thought, perhaps? It would be hard to point at that, hm?"

A great bang distracted their riddle session. Water exploded upwards from not far ahead of them, Sonja working to get her canon ready for another salvo. "We got a big fish that thinks we're a small fish," she shouted, perhaps louder than required, but she likely wasn't hearing all that much with the great shot she had just made. "It's still in--"

The boat rocked sharply, thumped against by the great body of their aquatic foe. "Not today." Sonja hopped up onto the rail, directing the smaller of her guns. A smaller, but still significant explosion announcing her shot as a smaller plume of water fired up. "Getting a bead on underwater things is tricky!" Not that it seemed to be slowing her desire to try.

Dark Thought sprinted to the front on rapid feline paws. "Where is it?!"

"There." She pointed into the depths, where a murky form was circling for another attack.

Dark began staring at it balefully, grumbling and droning. His eyes shone with a darkness, purple and darker hues overtaking them in a nimbus that spread over his head.

"What are you--" Sonja's question trailed off, seeing a similar burst of energy in the depths, the creature recoiling. "Nice. Ain't a canon you can hold, but any shot on the enemy's a good one." She pulled a cord tight. "Ready for the second salvo."

Jon had joined the line of defenders, but how to apply a sword to the river beast felt less obvious. Jumping in after it seemed... a bad idea. Didn't mean being ready was a poor thought, and he drew his blade out, ready to swat at it if it dared to come close enough to do so. "Keep thinking at it!" He had guessed that was what was happening.

"I don't plan to stop." Dark Thought kept his titular dark thoughts swirling, lancing at the creature in fits and starts.

The surface under them lurched as the creature surfaced with great speed, crashing into the ship. Jon's plan to slash it, dashed as his sword went sliding along the deck away from him. It was a mild grace that he was able to dive after it, stopping it from sliding into the water entirely. Prone, with his sword, the screeching river fish with more teeth than Jon would have liked roared at him, lunging for a bite of him and perhaps a chunk of the ship in the process.

Jon rolled upright, bringing the sword up as part of the motion to leave a thin line of purple fluid running down the fish's face. "Back off!"

The thing recoiled in... pain? Back into the water it went, darting away, lost to sight almost instantly save for the trail of blood it left behind.

Dark Thought whistled softly. "Good job. A real injury took the fight out of it. Now... come, sit. We're safe now." He wasn't moving to sit though, instead moving around the ship, peering at things.

"What are you looking for?" Jon sheathed his blade after wiping it clean.

"Taking stock of the damage. Hm." Dark Thought hopped onto the rail and leaned dangerously far overboard to get a new view. "Hm. Damn things, sure do love banging up my ship. We'll get to where we're going though. Not nearly enough damage to stop that."

"Our shot's still on target," agreed Sonja, her voice coming down in volume. Her hearing returning? "We're friends now."

"Are we?" laughed out Dark Thought, hopping back to the deck. "What made that happen?"

"Anyone I fight next to has to be one of those. Those are the rules. I didn't make the sight, but it's a true one." She nodded firmly. "Brother in arms." She threw an arm around Dark Thought and embraced the zebra. "Here's to the next time we're taking shots, shoulder to shoulder."

Dark Thought began to laugh, directing a paw at Jon. "Don't forget him. He fought just as bravely."

"'Course not, but we were already friends." Sonja raised a brow at Jon. "I'm protecting his sorry rump until we get him and Zecora home."

"So we don't get to be battle brothers? Sure, I'm not shooting much."

"Well that is one of the problems," admitted Sonja with a shrug. "We stop by a shop that has it, we'll get you a gun of your own."

"That's a deal I'll take." But were Everglow guns like American guns... A glance at Sonja's canons and their curious gears and levers to allow for a pony operator implied... this was likely not the case.

"Don't look nervous. I'll show you how to use one." Sonja released Dark Thought. "A mind that is also a firearm. Is that what they mean by 'dangerous thinking?'"

"The most dangerous thoughts." Dark Thought resumed his perch at the highest point. "Can cause entire kingdoms to collapse."

Author's Note

No hands, but he has a grip on things.

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20 - Lake Sailing

The ship became a new home. They ate, talked, and slept on it.

"Don't worry," assured Dark Thoughts. "Your minds are surprisingly effective when you sleep. One wonders how we get any actual rest, considering how busy they are." And the boat did not slide backwards overnight, though he only allowed it the chance one evening.

Just to show off a little? The other times, he brought the boat to the shore and tied it up properly, with the help of those who had fingers or surprisingly clever pony mouths. Either way, the boat never ended up where it wasn't supposed to be. "We're getting close," he called from the highest point of the boat, obviously the favorite place for a feline to be.

The boat accelerated. Its engine was working at the same power, but the flow of water was changing. That acceleration faded away as they hit the glassy surface of the lake they had been sailing towards. "Welcome to it." Dark Thoughts pounced down to the deck in a dexterous motion. "Good fishing up here, what that other cat was looking forward to. But fishing with people wanting to be somewhere?"

"You are full of emangalisayo stories!" came the excitedly happy tones of Sues, emerging from below deck at the side of Zecora. "I could listen for days. Weeks? Do you have an end to them?"

"We are not even halfway through. I will tell them all to you." She inclined her head towards the others as they emerged onto the deck, eyes sweeping over the placid waters of the lake. She went quiet, moving instead to the side of the ship for a better look.

Jon waved out across it. "Nice, isn't it? We just got here. What's that island there?" He was pointing at an island they could see. No small landmass that. "Is that the other side of the lake?" He didn't sound very sure. It would make the lake far too small, perhaps? He just wasn't sure.

"That's the island that has Mae Mae's reach," provided Dark Thought as he wandered. "But that's not where your business is. We're going to sail right past it, on the south." He pointed in the right direction. "Then take a right."

Sues reared up, forelegs on a guard-rail. "Fantástico. We are well on our way." He twisted his head to Dark. "You were a fine choice."

Zecora reared up, joining Sues at his side. "What an idyllic view. We move without choo-choo."

"Choo... Choo?" Sonja shook her head from the front, still on guard for beasts. "What word is that? Why am I the only zebra with the aim to just talk normally?"

Which left Jon to smile knowingly. None of his striped friends were entirely normal in their speech. "That's a word to describe the noise trains make. Their horns." To drive the point home, he began to make chugging noises and pulled down on an imagined rope. "Choo choo!"

Sues inclined his head left and right. "How curious. Have you ridden trains many times? I only did it the once, fadó fadó. How I got to that city." He sank to his haunches. "And yet, you both have the same word for the same thing. Каковы шансы? I never heard it before, and words are a specialty of mine."

"Plumes of smoke." Zecora directed to where smoke would be rising if there were any. "Makes the chugs. Why we both understand it, I can but shrug. That distinct horn, I cannot forget. I will not complain that my words he gets."

They were well on their way, powering over the calm waters of the lake. "I should note." Dark gestured a paw at a fishing rod propped against the side. "Just because I'm not fishing doesn't mean you can't if you want." He held up those paws, swiping the air idly. "These are not made for that sort of fishing anyway."

Jon considered the cat with the head of a pony. "Why is it you don't have hands? The other cat--"

"Purrsian," interrupted Dark Thoughts. "She was a purrsian. I am a sphinx. We are very different species." He clapped his paws with barely a sound. It wasn't a gesture cats were good at. "Bound by the same civility, one hopes, but I am constructed as a sphinx should be, and she, as a purrsian should be. Neither is incorrect."

"True words." Sues sat to the side of them. "I rather enjoy being a pony, but I am, as they say, prevenuto verso. I would hope that all creatures enjoy themselves."

Sonja reached to the side to pull a small trigger, though what effect it had was not immediately obvious. "They said, the dwarves, that ponies were not made for this line of work." She jiggled her harness, both cannons rattling softly. "They laughed, said they thought ponies that wanted to be a good shot had bad aim to start, but they made the firearms anyway."

Jon put up his hands. "This is on me. Sorry for assuming."

Sonja glared at him. "You are not a dwarf. Get your sight cleared. I proved them wrong, not by arguing, but by taking up my gun and getting to work. You can argue all day long, but results? They take the shot on their own." She thrust a hoof at Dark. "He's running a nice little business here. You don't get to argue that he's not 'made' for it when he's already taken that shot."

Dark waved Sonja off. "You're flattering me, but I do appreciate it." His tail swished across the deck behind him. "Oh the looks, the questions..." He nodded at Jon. "I'm not angry, if you're worried. You seemed more genuinely ignorant than malicious."

"And that's better?" Being called ignorant was hardly a compliment in his book.

"Oh, very much so." Dark nodded softly. "Ignorance is solved very easily. Now, you know. My paws are my paws, and I don't begrudge them. You are sailing on my boat. Answering a few questions? The least I can do. You asked politely enough." He performed a language feline stretch, claws digging into the wood of the deck as he bent at an angle that would send most humans wailing in agony. "Mmm... Besides, I have my own tricks, and my own toys. I'm not defenseless."

"I can vouch for that aim." Sonja nodded sagaciously. "Bullets of the mind. I've seen wizards, chanting and waving. Yours came all from up here." She tapped at her head with the flat of a hoof. "You have other tricks on standby up there? You don't have to tell me what they are. Not everyone is comfortable showing off their arsenal." She angled herself, causing her cannons to jingle softly. "Mine are in plain view. No secrets there."

Dark chuckled amiably at Sonja. "What you lack in discretion, you make up for with raw power. I do not feel I would want to cross swords with you, metaphorically."

"Samo malo..." Sues turned towards Dark. "It strikes me. You are at least... partially pony, are you not?" He gestured at his own head, waving a hoof up and down it. "It would seem? Do correct me."

Dark's long equine ears danced. "Yes."

"We ponies." He pointed into his mouth, past his teeth. "We are very clever with our mouths. Did you get that?"

Dark chuckled softly. "Three zebras. I had a feeling one of you would figure it out. Yes, I do have a pony's clever mouth."

That made... wait... Jon frowned. "You could have been helping out the entire time then."

"My price includes your part of the work," stated Dark with complete confidence. "I have gotten you this far, and I will get you the rest of the way. What I ask for isn't that difficult, hm?"

Far from angry, Sues began to howl with laughter. "Menakjubkan! You caught us entirely. I admit my error." He clapped his forehooves together with a grin. "You are full of surprises. That does explain how you get anywhere other than waiting patiently for someone who can lend a hand or a mouth to the process."

"I am quite patient." Dark sprang up onto the top of the boat. "I can and have waited a while. We sphinxes are patient as a habit. You could call it lazy? I call it intelligent. This way I get to travel and be paid to do so." He sat up, proud cat he was. "Seems to be working for me."

Sonja pointed at the fishing rod. "You know how to use that?" She was looking at Jon. "Fishing is not a firing range I have experience in."

Jon considered that rod. "Do ponies... use these?" He took hold of it, twirling it left and right like the sword it was not. "I used to fish, with my friends, back home." He spotted a small pail and peeked inside to see wriggling insects. Bait! "Ah ha." He snatched up a worm. "I'm not used to baiting with... what are those, beetles?" The worm was familiar enough. He was soon casting his line out into the water, trailing behind them with the motion of the boat causing it to drift behind them. "Wonder if I'll get anything..."

Zecora huffed softly with a little smile. "I have seen fishing done by pony folk. I am told all that fish are as kinfolk." She watched Jon teasing his rod in an attempt to lure a fish closer. "Not a habit that I ever tried. That you enjoy it, I will abide."

Sues pointed down into the waters. "Don't catch that one." A tremendous shape passed beneath them. Thankfully, unlike the first large form they saw, this one showed no interest in attacking the boat, simply swimming along with a great thrash of its long serpentine tail. "Vāha! A lake dragon perhaps?"

Sonja followed the progress of the great figure with her guns. "Fighting a dragon from a boat sounds like shooting in a high wind. Let's avoid that if we can, hm?"

As it turned out, Jon was able to catch a few reasonable catches, to the applause of the others. Dark nodded softly. "There is a cooking pit." He hopped down and leaned in, grabbing a loop of metal in his teeth and pulling it up and away to reveal a compartment, dark and smudged. "Fire in there won't get out. Burning my ship isn't the idea, especially when I'm sitting on it." He sat for emphasis. "Go on, get it going."

Zecora looked to Jon. Jon looked to Sonja. "I caught them."

"I can't argue that aim." Sonja walked up to the firepit and sat on her haunches. Soon she had a flint out and struck it with swings of her head, getting a little bonfire crackling in that secure pit. "I'm not used to wanting a fire on a boat. Are we sighting the right target?"

"If you want cooked fish, yes." Dark was already busy with the fish, cutting into them with his sharp claws. They were not terribly manually dexterous, but he had sharp enough claws to dig into them and gut them, preparing them crudely. "Now, I refuse to do the last step." He leaned over the side, cleaning his paws in the waters of the lake like a raccoon might. "Cooking with my mouth? No thanks."

Jon cringed at the mental images summoned at the idea. "Yeah, I got this." Fingers were good for dealing with heated things. "You got a pan?" A pan was thrust against him. "There we are." And soon he was sizzling up dinner. Dinner he had caught himself. That was a new pride.

Not a bad one though. "Do you three eat fish?" He looked between the zebras.

Zecora shook her head, but both Sues and Sonja nodded.

"I have food for you," assured Dark. "I don't let my riders starve on my boat. Tonight, we all eat!"

Soon, hopefully, they'd arrive.

Author's Note

A lot of interaction in this chapter, but not bad ones, I feel?

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21 - You Must Be Dreaming

Movement on the lake was smooth and unimpeded, allowing them to scoot along quickly, the shores in sight the entire time. With that, the river crept up on them, the offramp towards their goal. Dark nodded with confidence. "There we are. The last part will go by very quickly. We'll be going down stream for a change."

"Though our journey presses close to an end." Zecora sat beside Dark. "At least we made a new friend."

Sues nuzzled free a small hip flask. "I'll drink to that." He waved it with a wave of his head. "Join me?"

Jon considered the clutched flask. "No offense, but you being a pony, that flask has been on your lips, probably more than a few times."

"Mondai? I am not ill, nor dirty." He was serving up the others who were less picky about the topic. "You are a stranger in this land, so I samehe." He made a giving gesture of a hoof. "Among ponies, we are quite used to this. Perhaps by need? Still, it is our way, and you are in our lands."

When in Rome, Jon figured he was being told in a roundabout way. "I won't be the stick in the mud." Everyone else was doing it, so Jon surrendered to the peer pressure of his adventuring party. With everyone holding a bit, he raised his little drinking tin. "To new friends."

"To new friends," echoed the others, cups raised before they were set down on the boat surface. Unlike Jon, who tipped his cup into his mouth to taste the interesting new flavor of the pony brew, the others were lapping or sipping from cups laid out in front of them rather than any of them trying to tip it.

Dark allowed a purr that did not fit his pony head. "Mmm, a fine mixture. Where did you get it from?"

Sues tucked his flask away and soon had his drinking cup going with it. "My favori. There is a trader that comes by every half a year or so, and I make it a habit to get a jug or three when she does. I don't know where she gets it from originally." He shrugged at that part. "Merchants get testy when you pry into their secreta."

Sonja licked her lips clean of the drink. "I'm rarely in the same place for too long." She grabbed her cup in her teeth and stashed it in a saddlebag. "Don't have much chance to take aim for favorite traders. On the positive, I get to take pot shots at random, try new things, see new places."

Zecora left her cup where it started. Not that it had been her cup to begin with. "There is a thought that none are thinking. What will our friend do, long past our drinking?" She pointed to Sues and Sonja. "Even if all goes well, and two of us go home, I doubt the place we go is the end of the others' roam."

Dark inclined his head. "If I gather what you're asking, I will take harbor and wait." He sat up, proud as any cat. "I'm very good at that. I will think and muse and other such things, and eventually someone will come along needing a ride, and there I'll be, ready to provide it. They'll be overjoyed, and I'll be happy enough."

Sues threw an arm around Dark. "I think our human friend is suggesting you not wait."

Dark tilted his head the other way. "Sail back right away? I could, but why? The ship sails smoother with a passenger or three, and no passengers means I'm not being paid. What's the positive?"

"No no." Jon adjusting his footing. They were moving down the river, the boat moving beneath them in new ways as it picked up speed. "I meant come with us."

Dark's brows came together. "You stink of adventure, not to offend." He raised a paw to point at Jon. "But I know that stench. I barely got it out of my own pelt a few years back."

"That's a stain that sticks to your viewfinder." Sonja nodded softly. "You jumped to action too quickly to be a proper civilian."

Zecora pointed to the other two zebras. "I had only meant that they will require a ride if nothing else. I was not trying to suggest anything more complex."

Sues squeezed the captive sphinx. "Pish posh! You're a friend. You're welcome to join us. And if we do need a ride back, well, there you are. We'll pay of course. Friends don't take advantage of friends, non."

Dark chuckled darkly as the boat soared around a rock without anyone by a steering wheel. Not that the boat had one? "Well, now you've done and put me in a tight place. If I say no, I'll be stuck wondering about it forever, or at least a few years."

Jon fired an emphatic double thumbs up. "So come with us and you won't have to worry ab--" He was cut off with a sphinx to the chest. Dark pounced away from Sues and thudded against Jon, knocking the human back as he clung with those sharp claws. "Damn human. This is exactly your sort of thing."

Sues laughed, setting his hoof down with no sphinx to hold anymore. "Don't let him have all the credit. I'd just as much like to keep the friends I've made. It's a religious thing!"

Dark looked over his shoulder, still clinging to Jon, but peering at Sues. "Religious thing? What religion does this even potentially involve? It better not be a creepy cult. Creepy cults do not ride on my boat."

Sues waved that worry away. "Princess Luminace is a common pony goddess, and a very nice one at that. She bids us to learn, explore, and make friends, and I love all three of those, even if I wasn't doing a lot of the second one." He pointed at Jon, still hidden behind his new Dark chestplate. "He fixed the second one."

"Damn humans." Dark jumped free of Jon, landing on the deck with grace fitting a cat. "Now, we may be both ponies." He tapped at his head with swipes of his paw. "But I'm not from here. Nice kingdom, really enjoying it, but I'm not from here, so I don't know full well the local religions. Sounds nice enough."

That was a call to the zebra who was a priest. "Mama Mia, this we have to fix." He approached Dark swiftly.

Only for Dark to scamper away. "No thank you! I've lived this long without worrying about the machinations of angels and demons."

Jon set a hand on Sues as he almost walked by. "Don't preach where it isn't wanted."

This seemed to surprise Dark, raising a brow at Jon. "The way I heard it, humans usually loved preaching where it wasn't wanted."

"Not all humans are the same." Jon shrugged softly. "Just like we have three zebras with very different interests. Gonna guess if we had another sphinx, they wouldn't just be another you."

"I hope not," huffed Dark with a frown. "Alright, I will admit that was rude of me." He sank to his belly, eyeing his passengers. "Exploring and making new friends? Your god must be very proud of you, going to distant places with such a diverse band."

"Ecstatic," assures Sues without a bit of doubt. "It was the headpriest that sent me packing. Now--" He offered a hoof but did not try to close in again. "You are very welcome. Bona amiko. You are a thinking sort. Imagine what new things you could see."

Dark's claws scratched on the wood. "Some adventurers. What is the goal? When last I went, it was to escape. For most, a chance of glory or wealth. What drives you forward?"

Jon hiked a brow. "Escape what?"

"My little unknowing friend." Dark shook his head lightly. "The Depths have much to want to escape from. Thank whatever god you prefer that you don't have to worry about that." His eyes slipped to Zecora. "You carry the same unknowing distance, of a different variety. You want to go home, do you not?" Zecora nodded. "Then we are not that different." He sprang to his feet, just to seem to bounce off his landing, changing his momentum as if inertia were a light suggestion more than anything else. "I ran to find my home. You know where it is, but we both went into danger to reach it."

He landed on the highest part of the boat, a place he favored. "I would feel guilty, abandoning another to a quest I so sorely wanted aid in. None came to my cries. A more bitter soul would take that as a reason to return the favor, or lack." He flashed his equine smile, ears twitching. "I will blame the pony in me. I would rather be the change I'd like to see."

"Then you are better than many." Zecora nodded with gained respect. "I will take one ally who thinks that, as opposed to the rest of the many. Thank you for your sacrifice. To help a stranger? Normally that has a price." Perhaps not always true of Equestria, but Zecora had picked up how Everglow worked. Like the griffons, really.

"Oh ho! There you go, assuming there's no price." He snorted as he leaned forward from his lofty perch. "Of course there's a price. I call dibs on the first bit of loot you can't immediately use. And don't give me the 'We're not even looking for loot' spiel. It's an adventure. Loot happens. As if some strange overgod decreed this was to be the case, it is always true. There is no avoiding it. There is no point struggling against it. So I choose to plan for it instead. First bit of treasure you have no immediate use for; mine."

Jon was ready to argue that, but the soft tinkling of earned coins cut him off. He had already found some treasure, even if it wasn't a grand magical artifact. "Huh..."

"That's the face of someone realizing I was right." Oh, Dark looked so satisfied. "We have a deal?"

They looked among each other, somehow ending up all focusing on Sonja. "How did this become my shot to take!" She stomped with irritation. "Well, on your head then. Give me a target, and I'm going to put a hole in it." She pointed up at Black. "You. You're recruited. No arguing it."

"Oh dear," cried the pony-cat without any actual regret. "Whatever will I do. Fine, just be sure to treat me kindly. I bruise easily. Now, we are coming close." Up ahead and to their right, a town was coming around the bend. It was a small town in comparison to the large city they had left.

It had a tall and stout looking wall that ran all along its edges, unlike the open boundaries of the city. Looming tall over it was some kind of great fortification of unknown purpose. It was an armored settlement in the middle of what was otherwise tall trees and wilderness. Dark nodded at it. "There we are. I'll pull us close as we can get, but we're going to have to hike a little. This isn't a town known for its vibrant trade, but it does have some. Wonder if they repaired their pier..."

Sues cocked his head. "They have a pier?" Turned out they did, a single jutting point of wood out into the water of the river. It had no boats on it, and a lone unicorn was fishing into the river's waters.

As they drew closer, the unicorn raised a hoof to wave. "Welcome to Silverdream," they called. "Actually stopping by, or just hoping for supplies?"

The boat drew silently up against the pier, allowing its passengers to hop free, Dark included. The sphinx turned back to his boat. "You're no use there." He made a scrunching gesture with his paws and the boat began folding smoothly along hinges previously unseen until a heavy cube landed in front of Dark. "That's better. Someone pick that up please."

Jon went to snatch it up, finding it was lighter than he feared. "We're here to visit. Thanks."

Author's Note

Welcome to Silverdream! They have magic here. And unicorns. Unicorns are known for their grand typos. They do it with style.

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22 - Have You Seen Her?

The unicorn pulled back on his fishing rod, not held in hoof or hand but with the force of his dimly glowing horn. Unlike Equestrian unicorns, the glow was subtle and more of a general light than a bright specific color. "Curious place to come visit, but there isn't a rule 'gainst it."

"We have sailed from far away." Zecora pointed up the river they had just come from. "Just to arrive this day."

Jon advanced, the boat/box tucked away. "We're looking for a siren."

The unicorn's ears pricked upright. "The siren?!" He glanced left and right. "What siren?"

Sonja's brows fell at the reaction. "Check your sight!" She tossed her head at the walled town beyond the unicorn. "We heard she was here and we want to chat."

"I can see just fine." The rod whipped back, sliding in against the pony to be held by a loop without further need for lifting magic. "I see a bunch of troublemakers, making trouble. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Jon raised his hands placatingly. "Not here to cause trouble, just talk." He bowed with a sweep of a hand towards Zecora. "She's from the siren's home."

"Huh." But the unicorn was leaving as he promised, slow and easy.

Sonja raised a hoof for the others to not pursue as she turned around to face the rest of the group. "We'll have better shots in the town, which we won't get into if they lock the doors on us for chasing them around outside of it."

Sues inclined his head. "Perhaps a touch of friendship, si? We should approach with smiles and warm cheer."

"Not the first time I entered with doubt." Zecora nodded as she started towards that walled town. "Let's go and see if a siren is about."

"Already off to a great start." Dark prowled along with a soft chuckle. "Oh, adventure. I thought I'd forgotten you, but you never really forget, do you?"

"Not a shot you forget," agreed Sonja as she walked. "Now, I hear they have weapons, and armor, of note. Not firearms, but maybe almost as good?"

Jon laughed at the idea. "Almost as good as a gun? If you're saying that, I'm going to take it seriously."

"Good," huffed Sonja. "Anything I say should be considered on target."

The walls of the town seemed to grow larger with their approach. Solid surfaces of stone, with no brickwork to be seen. Jon went up and rapped on the thing, though there wasn't much echo to reply. "That is kinda thick." He leaned back as he looked right and left. Ah there. He began towards a gate that didn't seem to be trying very hard to advertise itself.

Zecora trailed afterwards. "It matters not how thick the wall, once an open gate you install."

Sonja was examining that gate as they came closer to it. "Wouldn't be so fast. That looks like they can close the choke pretty well."

The guards at the gate were not unicorns, at least not just unicorns. They were clad in armor, but it was not a padded armor, easy to move in and light, nor shining plate armor, to deflect blows and look stately. They were wearing strange harnesses that glowed with curious unnatural colors along their limbs, their eyes, visible, watched the group with an intensity.

"Suddenly Tron," noted Jon, to the confusion of all else present.

Sues advanced to the fore, raising a hoof as he went. "Gudde mëtteg," he called in warm greeting. "Luminace sends her greetings and her curious."

The guard on the right advanced, her tail giving a light twitch. "Luminace is welcome here, as are her adherents." Her eyes went suspiciously to the others. "Which I do not imagine they all are."

Sues nodded back at his party. "I am on a journey of friendship, and these are new friends I have made along the way. Are they not the treasure Luminace sends me to find?"

Black burst into laughter, a bit of a cat's meow mixed in there. "I am treasure now? Far better than some of the other labels I have had. Good day." He waved a paw at the guards. "We're not troublesome sorts, oh no. Just a riddling sphinx, a lost human, an equally lost zebra, and two zebras that seem to know the way."

The guard on the left, also female, stepped forward to match the other. "That is actually a helpful description." Her eyes went from figure to figure, placing them among those mentioned. "Is he one of the ones that knows the way." She had fixed on Sues penetratingly. "Luminace is known for guiding the lost."

"Guilty as charged, sinjorino." Sues dipped his head. "We wanted to talk with the siren, Adagio? Is she still here?"

Both guards tensed at that, the one on the right speaking first, "If that question came from any other, this conversation would be over. Even you bring questions. What need has Luminace or her priest with the queen's siren? Your curiosity is unwelcome when it begins to involve secrets of the empire."

"No going off half-cocked," scoffed Sonja with an agitated pawing at the ground. "We're here to talk, that's it."

The one on the left frowned. "Then you should at least know what you are doing. This is a military community. Any person you see can and will react. Queen Iliana--" The name got a salute from the other guard. "has the final say, with only the local leader having a higher position, and only because she happens to be closer. If you insist on this." That most of the group was already nodding was answer enough. "I will bring your request, but I need your agreement to leave if they decide that is what shall be. Any questions?"

"Just one." Jon was pointing at the guard. "What's up with the armor? Is it magic?"

"Yes." The guard scowled at Jon with a new round of ire. "And that is exactly as much information as I will share. Want to know more? Make it through basic training and swear your fealty." She turned sharply. "Watch the gate." Not that the other guard really needed to be told that. She marched away from it, towards the great citadel that rest in the center of the town.

The other guard moved towards the center, with no other guard to balance with. "Stay where you are and make no suspicious moves. We will wait for her return, or you can go home."

Dark sank to his haunches. "I'd be a bit surprised if they made me come all this way just to give up at the first hint of resistance."

Sues sat right next to Dark. "That'd be a terrible story. Author interdire. Luminace expects better of her subjects than giving up on a friend's need so easily."

Jon remained standing, one hand going for his side, only to stop when the guard starting eyeing him. He realized his hand was straying towards his sword and drew it away, to the guard's visible approval. "It worked out well that you came with us, Sues."

"Princess Luminace, she sends friends where they are needed." Sues nodded in deference to his divine patron. "I did not know this was... specifically... an imperial fortress." He leaned in closer to the others. "I heard it was epeyce the bandit fort for quite some time."

"They have proper weapons." Sonja was eying parts of the wall around the gate. "Got us right in their sights. Probably ready to put holes in us if we give 'em half a reason to."

"Magic weapons?"

Sonja peered at her human party mate. "You are easily fascinated by talk of magic. Still, probably. That matches the length of the barrel." A sudden grin spread. "Wonder if they have any magic firearms. I bet you'd like that."

"Very much," nakedly admitted Jon without hesitation. "Going to guess now is not the time to ask."

The guard snorted softly, but didn't otherwise react to their words.

"Probably not." Sonja shrugged softly. "If we get inside, then we can try to shop. You still have money?"

Jon jingled his pockets. "Sure do. Though a thought just hit me."

"Painful things." Black shook his head sadly. "A thought can leave a man dead, or wishing he was. What thought dealt you a mortal blow today?"

"Nothing that dire," Jon assured quickly. "Just... our friend, the one that died. He had... a lot of interesting stuff. What happened to that?"

Zecora turned her head to gape at Jon. "You would take a fallen one's things? Great misfortune is all that brings. Show some respect to the past. That is the least that can be asked."

Sonja shrugged softly. "If I have enough to drag me back, do that. If I don't, whatever. I'm not there, take my gun if you think you can use it." She smirked softly. "About the only time I'd allow it, over my dead body."

Jon snapped his fingers. "There's another thought. Even if we didn't want to keep any of it, selling it off to pay for bringing him back wouldn't be that disrespectful, would it?"

"Merde." Sues shook his head slowly. "Not an invalid thought, if they had enough in valuables to afford it. The city we left would have priests powerful enough for the incantation, but we are not there." He pointed at the gate they were gathered in front of. "Right now, we should focus on this. Tell you what, if you know where your friend lies, I can check that out afterwards, if me and Sonja return without you two."

"As if I wouldn't take the shot." Sonja frowned at her fellow zebra. "If we're both there, I'm helping. Aerorean and I are friends! And I'll get to tease him for years if I drag him out of whatever restful nook of the afterlife he's cozied up in. He'd do the same for me."

Sues laughed at the idea. "I look forward to helping either leg of that journey. It's settled then."

Sonja turned to look at Zecora. "You were there, right?"

Zecora flipped an ear back. "I admit, this is a strange new thing. To consider death as only a mild sting. Where I'm from, that is a final step. No return once one passes the final doorstep." Spotting Jon about to say something, she rose a hoof at him and quieted it.

Sues giggled at that silent exchange. "Don't poke at her rhymes when she's clearly upset. Unhöflich, that."

"While we're asking questions." Jon was quick recovering, already on a new topic. "What languages do you think you are talking? They sound like a lot of... different ones from back where I'm from, but all human ones."

Sues aimed both ears at Jon. "Let me turn that around. What language are you speaking right now?"

"English?" Jon shrugged softly. "Why?"

Sues looked to Sonja. "What language is he speaking?"

Sonja frowned at the both of them. "You're both shooting without loading. That is obviously sylvan. Never heard of 'English' before. I told you I'm not a linguist like some zebra." Her glare shifted to Sues specifically, glancing at Zecora as a secondary.

Jon staggered a step back. "Sylvan?!"

"That is the language," noted the guard, clearly able to hear them. "The official tongue of the empire, 'common' around these parts. Not so common outside of it."

Sues began to clop his hooves together. "What a delightful mystery. You hear my verbiage in different tongues you knew? You must be a linguist to recognize so many."

"Uh, not quite." He rubbed behind his head. "It's not uncommon for people, where I'm from, to recognize a lot of languages, but only speak one, two or three on the outside, but usually one."

"Only more mysterious." Sues began to prowl the human in a circle. "What riddles you carry without thought. Luminace was kind to send you to me, if you don't mind my wondering."

Author's Note

Not many want to talk about The Siren. Is this good or bad? Meanwhile, some adventurer chat! I can now blame Jon's translation power for all the typos.

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23 - Access...

The guard was returning, a pony at her side, if one could be sure it was a pony. They were wearing so much armor that they looked more like an animated statue lumbering spritely along with the guard. The guard pointed at the group beyond the gate. "There they are, ma'am!" She moved to retake her position with the first guard.

The great armored one approached with soft thuds of the ground against their heavy hooves. "Are any of you members of the army?" They were a he, if the voice was to be gone with. He didn't sound terribly confident there would be any yes given.

Sonja took a step forward. "I've worked with the army before. Iliana calls the shots, and I put a hole where it's needed. I've analyzed the mechanisms of the great damn as well."

The armored stallion gave a soft snort. "That is more than I was expecting by far. Have you done more than contract work?"

"I haven't enlisted." Sonja shook her head, guns rattling on her sides. "Iliana runs a good shop, but I go where the wind carries my shot."

"Adventurer," almost growled out the large stallion. "And the rest." He directed an armored hoof at the others. "You are far from your lands, human."

"You don't even know the half of it," chuckled out Jon. "Nice to meet you, sir." He tipped the hat he wasn't wearing. "Name's--"

The stallion was already looking towards the two zebras, one strangely shaped as zebras went.

Sues gestured at Zecora. "Don't be alarmed by her manaia looks. She is harmless and clever, as our kind tends to be. I am a loyal of Luminace, on a mission of friendship and knowledge."

"Proof?"

Sues recoiled. That was the first of the many they'd run into that wanted proof of his words. "Oh, yes, of course." He coiled, burying his snout in a saddlebag. "Right here..." He produced a silver pendant of a book held up by the flat of a pony hoof.

"Why aren't you wearing that?" questioned the guard.

Sues dropped it around his head. "Merci. There are those who become nervous, knowing one of The Curious is about. I come as I am, not wielding my faith as a shield."

A hoof raised at Zecora. "And what is that?"

"I am Zecora, a zebra; sage and herbalist. I may look odd, but like most zebra, I am a verbalist. This is my natural speech. Your understanding I beseech."

"Huh." He returned his attention to Sonja. "What's your code?"

"A-293-Niter," she replied crisply from memory. "Don't have the badge on me, wasn't expecting military work. Poor aim on my part."

The stallion raised a hoof, which was enough to send one of the guards scrambling. "Assuming that checks out, I may have a task for you. Are you available?"

Sonja lifted a large ear. "You spotting me properly? I'm already on a task." She waved at the others. "Do you want someone who'll abandon the shot before pulling the trigger?"

"I am aware." The stallion directed a hoof into the town. "I can provide no further details until your background is verified. However, if you accept this task, it gains your party entry. That is what you want, is it not?"

Sonja sank to her haunches. "Your aim's not off on that. If lending a hoof gets them close to where they need to be, you have my attention. Just give me a target."

But no target was given, silence instead. Broken only by the spirited trot of the returning guard. "Sir!"

"Positive?"

She bobbed her head. "3rd engineering squad." She got close enough to whisper the rest, saluting and backing away to her post at the gate.

"Huh." He looked to Sonja. Though his eyes were concealed by his heavy helmet, one could almost see his gaze shifting. "The army could use a quality soldier. Still not interested?"

Sonja smirked at that. "You don't want my wise rump causing trouble, sir. Now, what is it you need me looking at? Let me get that squared away and you give them a fair hearing. We aiming at the same target?"

Zecora leaned towards Jon at her side. "I did not know she worked with a military force. Her connections provides an opening for our course."

"I can only promise a fair hearing. A positive reply, that's up to the commander. You know how that works."

"Unfortunately." Sonja rose to her hooves. "Now what am I looking at?"

"There's..." He trailed off, looking at the others. "They don't have clearance to hear this." He gestured inside. "Come with me. We'll go over the details."

"That's a bad sight." Sonja directed at her friends. "They need to have a comfy place to wait for me, not camping at your doorstep. They won't cause trouble." When he hesitated, she pressed on, "Besides, it'll be easier to keep a sight on them if you know exactly where they are."

"Mmm. Fair." He turned to the gate guards. "See them to civilian bedding and keep them there until told otherwise." Both mares saluted sharply even as he continued back to Sonja. "Shall we?" The two marched off, one clinking, the other thumping. Neither subtle.

One of the guards stepped forward. "If you'll follow me? You've been given permission to enter and a specific area you are permitted within. If you are seen outside this area or breaking the law, you will be ejected and/or punished. Let's avoid that, hm?"

Sues clapped his hooves once before standing up. "Iontach! Let's be off, friends. We're getting closer."

Jon gestured for Zecora to advance ahead of him, taking up the rear guard. "You don't get a lot of visitors?"

"Actually we do." The guard was not looking back, pressing through the thinly populated street. "But merchants and travelers are not the same as ones seeking secrets of the crown, I hope you understand. We have specific protocols for both of the former. The latter... a more rare situation."

Zecora chanced a smile. "I hope you can appreciate, that for spies we have given it straight. Not many would simply ask. A curious way for a shadowy task."

"That could just mean you are very good. Or very bad." She turned an ear back at them. "It isn't my job to figure out which it is." She directed her head at a two story long building. "This is the outsider's inn. We allow merchants, travelers, and others from outside to rest here. I will inform the owner that you are here at our order. You should not be asked for payment for basic accommodations. Inform us if this not the case." Her teeth clenched faintly. "That would be wrong, considering we put you here." She advanced inside without further delay.

Black advanced with a twitching tail. "I smell delightful things coming from inside, and if I heard right, mmm, without fee so long as we don't make gluttons of ourselves."

Jon hurried to Black's side. "He didn't ask about you."

"Either because he knows all about me, or not at all." Black wobbled a paw in the air. "We sphinxes are not common sorts. Whatever answer I gave wouldn't give him much but more questions, I imagine. I'd say he was smart just assuming I was odd."

"You're not odd." Jon reached for a fuzzy pony ear on the otherwise feline form, but was denied. Black was a dexterous thing, easily ducking and darting back with a laugh. "Sorry," grumbled Jon, remembering he wasn't supposed to do that. "Bad habit."

"What a strange place you come from." Black kneaded at the ground with his sharp claws. "Where people pet one another casually. I'm really unsure if that makes me want to visit, or stay well away."

Zecora laughed as she walked towards the inn. "That depends on if you enjoy a friendly pet. To some that may seem a threat. I prefer such contact between only close friends. That sort of contact I expect between girl and boyfriends."

Sues inclined his head. "Is that a mating habit? о мой, you can pet if you like, but I need to know a person better before--"

Jon lit up brightly. Sues had... "You're..."

"I'm?" Sues pointed at himself as they reached the door. "I am what? A zebra? A priest? A friend? Yes to all of those!"

Zecora leaned in on her fellow zebra. "I can only guess his surprise. I think he did not expect where your interest lies. Do you prefer another stallion? He thought a mare would do, you rapscallion."

"Ó! Is that what it is?" Sues looped back to trot up to Chris. "I do prefer a male touch, no offense to the ladies present. Fine creatures! Just not for me." He clapped his hooves firmly. "I do hope I can be friends with any creature, male, female, or something else entirely. One does not have to do... that with friends, do they? I would hope not!"

"Um..." Jon rubbed behind his head, put quite off balance. "We are friends, for sure. You've been nothing but awesome."

"I inspire awe?! How delightful." It was a zebra's place to pounce on the use of a word. "You are quite the interesting creature yourself, even if you lack a tail. Pity that. Somehow I imagine yours would be quite nice."

Rather than answer questions on the theoretical tail he didn't have, Jon pushed open the swinging doors into the inn. The air was warm, almost muggy. There were numerous scents thick. Alcohol and drinks both, with about six people around enjoying them. Four were gathered around a table, playing cards and laughing loudly in a rowdy game. The other two were off on their own tables, minding their own business.

The guard was right there, heading back for the door. "She's been informed. Have a pleasant stay."

Who 'she' was became clear an instant later, a brilliantly shining gem of a pony waving from behind the bar. "Hail and well met. I hear I'll be caring for the lot of you for a while. Come in, come in. Stop letting the heat out."

Black slipped in easily past Jon, darting towards the front counter. "Well met indeed! I can smell treasures. Is there a menu?" It was but a moment before he had one to look at.

Zecora waved a hoof to each of their party. "We would like to stay together. Consider us birds of a feather."

The innkeeper nodded her head. "That isn't a problem. I planned on putting you up in one of our larger rooms anyway." She laughed with a jovial smile. "I should introduce myself. I'm Jade Sparkle. Now, I don't work for the army, not directly anyway. 'Civilian contractor' they'd call me." She shrugged at that. "I make a nice safe place for ponies, and others." She looked between Black, the pony-cat, and Jon, the not-even-slightly-pony. "The food's good, the drink's passable, and the rooms and nice and clean." She clopped her crystal hooves together. "What more could you want? And you're not even paying, so no complaining!" Despite her words, she seemed quite cheerful about it. "Don't worry about it. Means I get to bill the military, and they're usually pretty prompt about that. They hate unfinished jobs."

Jon thrust a hand out. "Nice to meet you, Jade. You're the friendliest face we've run into so far."

Jade put her hoof out and began to shake it the moment Jon had a grip on it. "I'll take that as a compliment, but it's not hard to be 'more cheerful' then the average army person. They're pretty serious people, I swear." She drew her hoof back. "Now, you two look like carnivores." She looked between the two not ponies. "How about I get a nice big steak going?"

Black's eyes shone. "You have that? Please, yes..."

"Won't argue that," laughed out Jon. "You get a lot of meat eaters?"

"I'd say 25% meat eaters." She was vanishing into the kitchen. "You all wait and salivate while I get dinner ready. You're in Jade's house, expect to be pampered!"

Author's Note

After all the military ponies, Jade is a nice burst of sunlight, yes? Or is this a typo...

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24 - Granted

"You have a problem." Sonja was peering at a great mushroom that had once been a building, or so she'd been told. "Never saw a rift that looked like that."

"And it's spreading, slowly." The great pony that had led her there was seated, facing it. "Your job is to stop that."

"And you haven't sent soldiers in there for... some reason, I assume?" Sonja snorted softly. "Don't know the army for just accepting this kind of invasion without taking a shot."

"Any soldier that steps inside becomes part of it. I can't risk them."

Sonja raised a brow high. That was admission that she was so much more disposable. "Yeah... What about setting it on fire?"

"We tried that the first day. Get in there, clear it out, and I'll get your friends that chance. That's the deal." His words were strict and even. There wasn't room for negotiating.

"Huh..." She considered asking to bring her friends along to help, but that'd be risking them. Though it was also their quest... Well, couldn't hurt to take a shot when offered. "Say. The others." She didn't know where to point, so she didn't bother with that. "They're adventurers. Why not let them be my spotters? More people, more odds of success."

"Your presence is tolerated only because you have some military clearance, however small." She couldn't see it, but she could imagine a frown under that metal. "This is a restricted area. Civilians and outside agents are not permitted, and they're both in most cases. Are you up for this job or not?"

Sonja drew her breath in a hiss that ended in a cluck of tongue against teeth. "Just lining up my shot. Alright, I'm not the sort that gives up on the aim. Time table?"

"You have three days." He raised a single hoof.

"One question." Sonja looked over the large guard. "Why did the first guard say 'ma'am'?"

The large figure leaned in. "It's not against the military laws to be genderfluid, merc. As far as she's concerned, I am a ma'am. That's between us, and has nothing to do with this mission. So let's put that away where it belongs." For being a she to at least one pony, his booming voice was heavy with masculinity. "Any other questions?"

"No. This is between me and my target now." Sonja advanced without further delay. "Just gotta find what's holding it down."

The rest of the party ate well. They were enjoying themselves. For however dour the rest of the town was at times, that inn proved to be a haven of civility and welcome. A platter floated over and settled on the table between them. The top yanked off with a faint metal against metal noise, revealing an assortment of light sweet snacks. "You all having fun over here?" The gem pony was smiling brilliantly, a glow coming from under her mane.

Jon gave a thoughtful huh. "You're a unicorn?"

"Hm? Oh, most of us are." She waved around the room in one circle. "This is a unicorn town. I just happen to be a little extra." She laughed as she sank to her haunches. "And the horn's not all that big." Her cheeks warmed, fur coloring with it as she looked away.

"There is no reason to feel timid. The proper length of a unicorn is not so rigid." Zecora's eyes were on her. "It is clearly long enough. No reason to fear it being in the buff."

"It's fine," joined in Jon. "Cute, really, and it does the job."

"You're both very nice, but pardon me if I draw a line here." She drew an imagined line in front of herself. "We've only just met. I want to be a good host, so let's stop talking about the size of my parts." She laughed nervously. "Enjoy your dessert, you sweet things."

Sues thumped Jon suddenly, hoof against his shoulder. "Ah ha, no wonder you were concerned. Your eyes are out for jolie mares." His brows waggled together. "Already an odd thing to be hunting, being a human. But then a stallion? No wonder you are overwhelmed, poor thing."

Jon coughed, cheeks going as bright as the gem pony's. "Uh, is that even a thing?"

"Is what?" Sues leaned in a few inches. "A man and a pony? I say yes. To be honest, we are two of the randiest races I am aware of. If our eyes fall on something that pleases us, what ancestry they call matters little, in the end." He shrugged softly. "Love wins in the end! Alofa!" He snapped up a treat from the platter. "Mmm, chewy."

There were a hundred questions in Jon's head. A pity about none of them reached his lips. At least the treats were tasty. "Hope Sonja's alright." That wasn't even a question.

"I am a lone cat," noted Black without being asked. "So count me out of those discussions."

Sues laughed at the idea. "Oh, yes. The feline species are far pickier, and flighty. Their romances, I have heard stories. But I am not one." He considered Black a moment. "I had wondered if you were like a pony or a cat."

"Cat." That answer came simply enough. "At least on that side. So keep your lust on your side of the table." That didn't stop him from pawing over a gumdrop like thing, which clearly pleased him with the way he chewed on it.

Zecora chuckled softly. "In this, I agree with our feline friend. Such desires I have yet to extend." She lifted her shoulders, looking at the others. "Single I am, and I am in no hurry. I am not sad, so no need to worry."

Sues nudged against Jon, leaning against him a brief moment. "Wahai sahabat, we are the only ones with any warm blood in us, even if yours is confused."

Jon pushed the zebra away, but only laughter came from it, as if the touch were just part of the game being played.

The interior of the mushroom was... disconcerting. Sonja advanced, jingling, but in a new way. Like the tinkling of a pixie's wing instead of the solid jangling of heavy metal parts. Her body felt flat and round all at once. It was a world of cartoons, and she had become one entering it. "Hate it."

Her eyes went from one fleeting thing to the next. There was no shortage of possible targets, but only one of them would actually end things. Shooting the others would likely draw a lot of attention, the violent kind. She lifted a tail that was too thick, with a tassel that was too small. "I want to talk to the boss. Where are they hiding?"

An equally animated looking pony grinned at Sonja. "Oh, he's taking a nap right now. Why don't you relax? We're about to play a game, you can join in!" He began to clap, but instead of the clops one might expect of a horse, it sounded like human hands as those hooves came together. "C'mon!"

"That isn't the shot I'm lining." Sonja turned away, walking in a new direction. "Have fun." The receeding 'aw' behind her didn't stop her from fleeing the strange not-pony. "How does Zecora handle it?" She was like that, like a cartoon, though a step up from what Sonja had become. "The sooner I can finish this..."

"You can't finish what you haven't started!" A mare landed on Sonja's back, hugging her from above. "You're looking so sour. It's because you're not playing."

Sonja shook herself vigorously, but the pony was still clinging to her in all its alien lines. "Get off me!"

"Not until you play!" The pony was clinging to her quite firmly. "It's fun!"

"Get your sight cleared." Sonja threw herself down, rolling on top of the clinging mare on the way to the other side. "Ah ain't in the mood!"

"Ow." The mare was dizzy from the squishing and the spinning. "You don't need to be that way... He isn't gonna talk to a sourpuss like you anyway!"

That got Sonja to wheel about on the mare. "You know where he is?"

"I'm not gonna say," sang the almost two dimensional pony. "You're just a mean grump. He doesn't want to talk to people like that anyway, so there."

He would very much likely not enjoy the words Sonja had for him, but she managed to hold that part in.

"Why wouldn't he?" Or maybe she didn't? "Are you planning something naughty?"

"This place is getting to me." She put a hoof over her face, the contact producing a loud slap noise she was sure she shouldn't make. "Please just show me the way to your boss." An idea! "He'll show me how to have fun, then we can play games."

The mare's eyes sparkled. "Oh! That's a good idea. I shoulda thought of that." She bounced up to all fours. "Follow me." And she pronked right past Sonja.

"Finally," Sonja grumbled, following after the bouncing mare. That bouncing motion... She was pretty sure any pony larger than a filly would find it quite uncomfortable. It was, perhaps, for the best that she had never met Pinkie.

The cheerful mare led the way to a grand bed. On the bed was a pillar of pillows. On top of the many pillows was a sleepy looking stallion. The stallion was not a cartoon, like most of everything else. He yawned as they approached. "Cindy? And a new one." His eyes locked on Sonja, as well as they could in half-slumber. "Hello..."

Sonja's teeth set. Was the stallion the anchor holding it down, or was he a victim? Would shooting him solve the issue, or just be casual murder? Why couldn't it just be a big bad monster? So many less questions... "Hello. Nice bed you have there."

"It's comfy." He sank, hugging the pillow under him. A great yawn paused his conversation, jaw cracking from how wide it was. "I'm still tired."

"Sorry!" The mare shrank back. "But she needs help." She waved a hoof at Sonja wildly. "She doesn't know how to have fun, and said you could help. You're the best, so I brought her here."

"Oh." He sat up slowly. "Good... job. Let me talk to her."

The mare nodded and bounced away, each bounce coming with a spring-like noise that receded with distance, laving them alone. "Are you from outside?"

Sonja's ears perked upright. "If I am?"

"Rescue me," he begged. "I've been--" He paused, having to yawn all the wider. "--trapped in here for... I don't know how long." He flopped against the pillow he was on. "Everything else is... It's like I'm in a dream, and I can't wake up." Two tears began to bead up, one on either eye. "I want to..."

"Alright..." The plan to shoot the stallion was aborted. "Do you know what's keeping this place here? I'll put a hole in it if you can point out a target."

"I wish I knew." He let out a piteous snort. "Or I'd try to... No that's a lie... If I get off this..." He tapped at the big pillow pile he was on. "I fall asleep, and they put me back on top."

Sonja quirked a misshaped ear. "Think it's the pillows?" She prodded at the pile suspiciously. "Could be the problem."

"Well don't set them on fire." He smiled sleepily. "I'm on top of them."

"That'd be a misfire..." She rubbed at her cheek. "What if we got you off, you went to sleep, and then fire?"

A moment of hope, but it faded quickly. "They're mad. What if they put me back on top while it's still burning..." He yawned despite the dire nature of the situation. "That would be... bad... to put it mildly."

Sonja winced at the mental image of that. "Right. Wait. Wait!" She was grinning, a thing that came easily to her cartoon body. "I have an idea. Let's take the shot."

Author's Note

What idea does Sonja have to be rid of this animated typo?

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26 - Advancement

"Look what the cat dragged in." Perhaps an ironic statement, coming from the mostly cat, Dark Thought. He was watching Sonja come into the tavern. "This a sign of success?"

"Took the shot." She sank to her haunches at the table the party shared. "Closed a rift that was causing problems."

Jon raised a hand. "Question, is there such a thing as a good rift?"

Zecora popped a snack into her mouth, eyes on Jon. "How would such a thing be good? To act beneficially is more than they could."

Sues clapped his hooves. "Don't be so нагао! I have heard tales, rumors if you will, that there are such things out there. Now, I can't prove them, no no, but I hear whispers of them. Places where your dreams are met with ease. It depends what your dreams are, of course. Ya, if you are a glutton, there are rifts. I know this, where your belly can be always full!"

Jon chuckled at the idea as his fingers worked over the strange fruit he was holding. "Going to guess there's at least a 20% chance you might end up on that menu."

"Perhaps!" Sues grinned a bit too happily for that news. "But at least you would go out the way you wanted. They aren't all bad, but usually. Fortunately, the bad ones are usually very obvious."

Zecora tapped the returning one on the shoulder. "If all the tasks are complete, is it time for the leader to meet?"

Sonja raised an ear. "Ah? Right! We get to wait. It's their turn to take that shot. I did my part, nailed the target. They either do as they promised, or not."

Jon slid his cup towards Sonja. "Well, you did the work, so the least you're due is a chance to relax."

Sonja did not hesitate to drain the mug, slurping down what she could before her hooves had to get involved to tip it towards herself and gulp down the rest. "Mmm, not bad. You all got to stay here and enjoy things while I was working?"

Sues nudged a serving plate of fried vittles towards Sonja. "Afraid that is the case, mon ami. We were hoping for your safe return, but could not do much else."

Sonja pulled the plate the rest of the way with a sweep of her hoof. "I knew the range on the shot before taking it. If it gets us onwards, all good." She chomped on a secured bit. "Mmm, just the right amount of salt..."

"Not to be rude." Jon shrugged softly. "Did they hint when they're going to — "

"No." Sonja sat back with a more relaxed feeling than when she had first entered. "Coudn't tell you. It's a military. They take the shot when they feel like it, and good luck getting them to make a move before that time."

Like many of the others, Zecora had abandoned her food in favor of watching their returned friend. "I can't say I've dealt with armed forces. They are quite unlike Equestrian's stoic horses."

"Could say that." Sonja tapped at the serving carafe, prompting Jon to refill her mug for her to drain. "Bunch of... It was crazy! Whole place was detached from any reasonable sight. Like a gun that shoots the wrong way, it made little sense. I hated it."

Jon tilted his cup towards Sonja. "Want to tell us about it, or want to avoid it?"

Sonja met Jon's eyes. "Huh. I wouldn't have thought you'd be sharp enough to give a pony that choice." She fell forward into cupped hooves propped against the table. "Still, if you're asking, I'm telling. I felt like I was a drawing, but it was all too real. Needed seconds delayed my motions for reasons that made no sense."

Jon crossed his arms. "You were a cartoon?" He could see from the confused look on her face that she didn't get it. "Sounds like it. A cartoon is a lot of drawings shown together to make it look like it was moving. Wish I could have seen it."

"You missed nothing." Sonja rolled her eyes at the thought. "Just as fine, not taking that shot." She squinted at Jon with a new thought. "On the other hoof, if you're so willing, I'll tell them to send you in next time. Maybe you'll nail the target faster than I could."

"I'd try." Jon could but shrug weakly before Sues' hooves came in for a grab, firm but easy.

"Let her recover!" Sues shook Jon lightly with the hoof he had around Jon. "We are all together, and that is worth being happy about. Ura, tonight we eat well and celebrate our victories. Big or small, I will smile at that."

So that was what they did. The group did their best to help Sonja relax. They sang songs, ate well, and chatted about a lot of unimportant things, just as such a celebration called for.

"You have an appointment." The well-armored mare floated a card towards them in her magic. "Be there." The card was going for Sonja specifically. "She said to mention that a repeat audience is unlikely."

Sonja snapped up the card in her mouth and let it drop into a waiting hoof, where she pivoted it towards herself. "Huh, alright." Her eyes swept rapidly left and right. "Looks like we get what we want. We just have to be there tonight."

Sues pricked up. "Tonight? It is already afternoon. Not much time to prepare."

Dark stretched languidly, as if felines had another mode to do it in. "So? We have little to prepare. I'm glad 'she' did it quickly. We've waited long enough!" He inclined his head a little at Sonja. "Any idea who they are?"

"Negative." Sonja looked up towards the one that delivered the notice, but they were gone. "Just that we take the shot or find a new vantage point. I say we make our case."

"What's the other option?" Jon patted himself down as if to make sure everything was still there. "I don't have any fancy clothes, and I'm not sure this commander or whoever they are even cares." He turned his hands palm side up. "So why should we care? Let's just march in there."

They did their best to clean up properly. They wore their best and cleaned that up. For some of them, Jon and Zecora, this leaned towards getting what they usually wore cleaned and presentable. The others actually got suits to look their best. Sonja still had her gun at her side, attached to her despite any amount of dressing up. "This is part of my formal attire. If I'm not ready to shoot, may as well be naked."

"You're lucky." Jon held the door open for others vacating the room. "When you're naked, you're mostly showing off what you want to be seen."

Seus raised a brow at his human companion. "Humans do not have any second mouths I am aware of. Nothing you have is that terrifying."

Dark laughed on the way out of the room. "I am fine, only wearing clothes for special occasions." He pawed at himself, not having fingers. "A lack of digits makes getting dressed a pain. Thank you, Jon, for lending a set of those hands."

"Any time." They were all out and headed through the town to the central looming building that dominated the skyline. "And this is it?"

"This is it," repeated Sonja in the lead. "We're here to see the boss." She coiled to grab the invite letter and presented it to the guard at the front. "We're due shortly."

The guard's horn lit up as he examined it intently. "Looks proper." He tucked the card away rather than giving it back. "This way." He abandoned his fellow guard with a nod to lead the others inside. "She rarely makes time for guests. You should consider yourself lucky."

Sues reared up just long enough to clap his hooves once. "I am already prepared! This is quite the exciting day. Madre Mia, is she that important?" He darted in next to the guard. "If you wish to tell us anything, we would be in your debt."

But he just nudged the inquisitive zebra away. "Wait here." He pointed with his snout at a room that was fairly sized but absent of anything but a few couches that didn't even look very comfortable. "She will be here when she is ready." With a sharp turn, he left without further words.

Sonja sank onto an available sofa. "He's deep in it. You don't line up that sort of thing without being trained. So I'm perfectly fine now, not being in the army. How can I get any time to tinker if I'm busy following orders? Yes, ma'am, no, sir. No, thank you. How's that work?"

"Music to my ears." A back door swung open to allow a hovering platform to enter with a thin layer of water in it. Perched in that bowl as a pony that was also a horse, grinning at the lot of them. "Didn't think I'd see more Equestrian ponies around here." But she didn't look Equestrian. Her features had the extra details one would expect of an Everglow creature. She was a pony from the front forward with a smirk wielded at them like a deadly weapon.

From the midsection back, she was a fish with a powerful tail that slapped gently against the waves with some emotion. Agitation? Curiosity? "None that I recognize, but you have a human." Her eyes had settled on Jon. "I really didn't expect Equestrians to fall in with a human, of all things. Do you have an Equestrian name? Go on, tell me."

Jon rested a hand on his hilt, though his sword was tightly bound into place with a length of rope. A peace bond, preventing a rapid draw. One did not need exposed metal in such a circumstance in theory, and it was against all the rules. "Jon." He gestured to the others. "Zecora, Seus, Dark." He pointed to each with their name. "Sonja. And you are not what I expected their leader to look like, even a little."

"I love it!" She thrust out her hooves as she rolled over in her floating bowl. "Humans have no manners, but I happen to like a bad boy. Me? I'm Adagio. Adagio Dazzle if we're being personal about it." She flicked at the fins on her cheek as she spoke. "The queen's secret weapon. Behold and be terrified."

Zecora leaned in towards Jon. "I do not trust her, even a little. We should be careful not to belittle."

Dark casually splashed at her water, sitting on the floating platform to do so. "You must be very important for any queen to go this far out of her way to keep you around."

Adagio swatted at the paw that was playing with her water. "Watch it, or I'll splash you, cat." That scared him off. "Had a feeling. Now, seriously, what brings you all here? You didn't come just to say hi. Is this about Twilight?" She snorted at the idea. "The queen outranks her and forgave me, so just tell her she can suck a lemon if she's still upset about it."

Zecora stepped forward with a nod. "I only heard of you by rumor."

"All good, I do hope." She crossed her hooves under her chin and flashed a toothsome smile at Zecora.

"They were sadly lacking in humor." Zecora inclined her head. "Sound defeated in a battle of bands. There was not even a single creature willing to lend a hand."

Adagio scowled at Zecora's statement. "I've evolved since then, stripey. I'm a secret weapon, in an army, and well paid!" She scoffed with clear good humor as she turned a hoof on herself. "If you came all this way just to mock me, you wasted your time." Her eyes went to Jon instead. "But I'm fairly sure you didn't come here for that."

Author's Note

Hi Adagio!

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27 - Singing Talent

Jon took a firm step forward with an outstretched hand. "We're trying to get home, especially her to her home." He hiked a thumb towards Zecora, hand still even with Adagio. "I dragged her away from there on accident. Still my fault, so trying to fix that."

"I thought you were a bad boy." She was watching him intently. "But here you are, trying to be a good one. Hm. You're dressed like you're a local, but you don't sound like one..." She looked away from him, to the zebra he had showed. "For you. Zecora was your name, right?" She waited for the nod to come. "Tell me, since you're from Equestria, are the girls back there?"

Zecora frowned softly. "I have not heard of their presence. If they are there, they conceal their essence. Are you as talented as Twilight implied? Powerful mind wizards with green eyes."

Adagio raised a lone brow high. "My eyes are not green." She had brilliant brown eyes. "Oh! Wait... You're being symbolic." She made big quotes with her hooves, sinking into the water. "I'm not that either! Being in the army's taught a few things. I hated it at first, but I learned." She raised a hoof under her chin. "The queen gave me a favor I didn't ask for. Now why do you think I can help you get to Equestria?"

Sonja threw her head towards Adagio. "Word is you're from there."

"Valid." Adagio sat up on her powerful tail, water running free of her in streams. "But the queen doesn't want her prized tool wandering away, so they have not given me the ticket to splitting. Whatever, I've learned to like it here." Her eyes went to Jon with a renewed smirk. "I could tell you. You'd have to be a really naughty boy to get your hands on it." Her eyes went to his hands, mark of a humanoid. "You up for being a bad boy?"

The others looked guarded, but Jon didn't flinch away. "I'm ready to at least hear it. What way are you talking about?"

"You'd have to betray someone you owe no allegiance to, to start." Adagio clucked her tongue against her sharp teeth. "Break into a secret place... The queen keeps a collection of what you want, each to a different world. If there was anywhere you'd find one going to Equestria, it's there, right next to her."

Jon shrugged widely. "Like, what, keys?"

"Not keys." Adagio rolled her eyes. "Bad boys can be really dumb... Forks, tuning forks. Each vibrates with the song of a world. Find Equestria's and poof, home you go. You're not from there." She narrowed her eyes. "I'd remember if there were humans, and there are not. What world are you from, bad boy?"

Dark Thought looked between the zebra and human. "You two have been together as long as any of us have known you. Where did you meet, hmm?" He trailed off into a bit of a purr, watching them.

Adagio raised a hoof from the water. "I asked first, and I'm the one holding the cards, so shut up, cat." She pushed forward to the edge of the water. "Go on, tell me. Where are you from? You're not from Equestria High, are you? Oh, that'd be
funny..."

"No." That much he was fairly sure of. His High School had an entirely different name! And it wasn't horse flavored... "Earth."

Adagio put her brow back up. "Earth? Dirt? Doesn't tell me much. We got Equestria, land of ponies. We got Everglow, glowing with worlds brushing against each other and hey stay for our fey creatures. Plenty of glow." She clasped her hooves together. "But forget that, visit 'dirt pile'. You got a lot of dirt over there, boy?"

Jon tried to resist a sour face, but it was difficult to keep the frown off his face. "All kinds, but what we have is one race building cities big enough to put yours to shame and buildings taller than anything I've seen so far. We can talk to people on the other side of the planet without being super wizards or whatever. We got a lot going on, so we don't pay much attention to the world under us, so it got a boring name."

"Did I press a button?" She was leaning halfway from the water. "Good. A bad boy that can't be riled up isn't all that bad. Now, I'll tell you where to go, but I need a favor. Information isn't free! Besides, pretty sure she'd hate it if I said this." She didn't look all that worried about leaking that classified information. "The rest of you, shoo. I only need the bad boy here right now."

Sonja hopped to her hooves. "We're one firing squad. Take your shot with us here."

"Pass." Adagio waved Sonja away. "I can have you all removed. Just go. I won't hurt your bad boy too badly. I told you, I like those. Why hurt them?"

Dark Thought set a paw on Jon's leg. "We'll only go as far as we have to. You alright?"

"I'm fine." He was able to give the cat-pony a pat on the head without being rebuffed. "Thanks. I'll handle her."

Adagio burst into merry laughter. "You heard him. Shoo. He needs space to handle me. We'll see if he's up for the task." She waggled her brows at him suggestively. "Let's find out." Under her dark chortles, the others departed the room. "Good. I didn't want to sic the soldiers on them, but I would have. Being in charge has benefits." She pushed off the wall and slid to the far side of the floating pool. "Come here."

Jon took a few measured steps forward to set a hand on the edge of the floating pool. "This close enough?"

"I'm not feeling handled just yet. Come up here. What are you, afraid of water? You aren't a cat, so you won't melt."

He tightened his grip and pulled himself up to stand at the edge of the pool instead of below it. "Uh." From up there, he could see Adagio leaning back, arms crossed. She was showing nothing off, but the way she was showing nothing off seemed specific. "We don't know each other nearly well enough."

"What kind of male are you?" She raised a brow at him with a low chuckle. "As much as I'm enjoying this..." She trailed a hoof along a bright jewel in her chest. "I miss humanity a little."

"You used to be human?!" He got control of himself after the outburst. "What happened?" he asked far more calmly.

"You have the wrong idea." She rolled to her belly and easily swam closer, near to him at the pool's edge. "This is what I was born as, but more Equestrian. But I did a little planar travel, like you... At the end of it, I was human, and got used to it. Then I came here and got to go back to my roots." She splashed her powerful tail behind her. "And I like most of it, don't get me wrong..."

If one forgot the rest of her equine/aquatic makeup, her face was surprisingly comely, gazing at him with a smoldering passion that was inviting him to forget those little differences. "Right... so how can I help with that?" He went tense. "You aren't going to suck the humanity out of me?!"

Adagio laughed at his worry, chest heaving with the deep noise. "No! No... Wow... That would be kind of nice, come to think... Still, no... You get to keep right on humaning it up, promise. I just want to get in on the action." She waggled her brows. "You're acting like past me. Not everything is a zero sum game, bad boy. I can get something without you losing something. That's the kind of trade I'm looking for."

Stan let out his held breath. "Alright... Cool.. But you haven't told me what you do want. You want to go back to human, cool. It's a great place to be." He sat at the edge of the pool, watching her with a thumbs up. "How do you plan to do it? If you want me to cast a spell, I don't know that one."

"Oh, you know magic? Useful... What spells do you know?" She reached out a hoof to brush against him. "Oh powerful wizard."

"Not so much a wizard," he admitted awkwardly. "A few tricks that are great in a scrap. Not so useful here."

"Bah." She crossed her arms. "Fine. But you can cast spells, and read them?"

That was a thing he hadn't tried to do. Could he? "Got a scroll to look at?"

Her grin became all the more malicious. "Right answer." She pushed off the bottom, swimming quickly away and grabbing something in her teeth that became clearly a scroll tube as she returned with it. She dropped it next to him. "A simple spell, can you tell which is it? We'll start there." She waved a wet hoof at the dropped tube. "Take your time, bad boy."

He took the tube and popped off one of the metal caps. Its fastener wasn't metal. Ivory? He didn't think about that too long as he opened it and reached inside with a few fingers to draw the scroll free. He unfurled it properly and swept his vision over the dense matt of strange runes. They were alien and strange, not the language spoken, so far he could tell. He could read those!

He continued to study it anyway, doing his best to not let on that he'd failed at it to start. "Interesting." Yes, very interesting. Interestingly obscure! The letters changed depending on where he looked at them, as if... He moved the scroll to the left without following it with his eyes, there, the change. He drifted it towards the center as his eyes wandered off. Yes... So long as he wasn't trying to read it like English, he felt like he was getting closer. "It's been a while..." Quite a while, in fact!

"If you can't do it, just tell me." Adagio rolled her eyes. "Damn bad boys hate admitting when they mess up..."

Jon relaxed his gaze, almost looking past the page and it seemed to come a little closer to focus. "Just give me a moment."

"Yeah, a moment." That Adagio doubted him was not well hidden. "You get a minute. If you're still trying then, you get punished." She smiled wickedly. "We may both enjoy it, so go ahead and take your time."

He put aside her taunts as he did his best to relax. The meaning was coming closer... "Magical... sight? No... No! Sense. Sensing magic." Click. "Detect magic?"

Adagio burst into clops of her damp hooves. "Oh! I thought for sure you were just leading me along with promises. That is exactly what that is. Put that away." She waved at the scroll tube. "Nice and tight. It has to survive being underwater sometimes. I keep it around just for this kind of case, making sure people are being legit when they claim they're super cool spellcasters. They lie more often than you'd think."

The moment Jon got it bottled up, she grabbed the tube in her teeth. "Be right back." She was gone under the water, popping up on the far side of the pool and switching which tube she was holding. "This one." She popped up with a fresh tube. "This is the valuable one. The spell on it is way more complicated. Take a look, all the time you want this time. If it's past you, admit it. I don't want you burning it up messing up. I can wait until I find someone that can cast it properly."

John relaxed instead of focusing. Relaxing was an important part of getting it. There, words. "Many forms?"

Author's Note

Adagio is up to something, but what? And why Jon?

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1 - A New Chapter

Zecora slowly stirred the mixture in her cauldron, casting a strange purple glow across the room. "One turn and then two, to create the perfect brew. Not to advance to three." She set the stirrer aside and trotted to fetch another ingredient. "Until there is a sprinkle of these."

With a dash of something new, a great cloud erupted of bright blues and greens, forming a mushroom-like shape as she reached for the stirrer with her mouth to resume her work. "Keep it agitated, keep on stirring--" Not that anyone was around to hear the conclusion of her rhyme. She was as much reminding herself of the steps as anything else, keeping herself company as she slowly assembled the potion.

It was quite the pity that she never got to see the result of that one.

A consciousness flew between worlds. Propelled by dissatisfaction, and coming free in the first place, the non-place it found itself in had no air, despite the sensation of wind howling past. There was no space, but it felt like a near infinite amount of it rushing with no end in sight, not that it could see anything.

What it did not know was another spirit was poking free of its home, displaced by barely an inch, but space was not really a construct in that place. A little could be a lot, if things worked out well, or poorly, which depended on the perspective of those involved.

It collided with the protrusion, prevented from going where it had been originally intended to go. A flash of pain in a body that wasn't quite there, just a thought construct, but still capable of knowing what discomfort, pain, was. The thing it had thumped against was flying with it, the two then moving in a new direction.

They were approaching some new world, rushing up to meet them.

Zecora sat up, head spinning. That brew had been known to have some mild hallucinatory effects during its creation, but nothing that a trained worker like herself couldn't handle, surely? She rose up to her hooves, looking around. She was not in her hut, nor was any hut in sight. She was in the wilderness. "What sort of place is this?" Was she dreaming it, brought on by the vapors?

"Nnng." A male voice? The bushes rustled as a strange creature sat up, a hand to its head. "That hurt." At least it could talk? It opened his? eyes to look at Zecora. "What?"

"That you are something new, impossible to dismiss." Zecora inclined her head at the creature. Bipedal, suspiciously lacking in hair or fur, though it did have a mane. Male voice, clothed.

Armed.

Her eyes dropped to take measure of that weapon, a large sword dangling from his hips as he stood up. "I mean you no harm, I too share in your alarm." She placed a hoof at her chest with a faint smile. "I know not where we have arrived. I fail to see how what I was doing led to this being contrived."

"Do you always rhyme?" He didn't sound aggravated, smiling a little as he dusted himself off, cloak fluttering in the breeze. "It's kind of cute."

Zecora darkened faintly in a mixture of emotions. "To rhyme comes naturally to me. That we are somewhere new, easy to agree?"

"Yeah..." He turned in place, looking about. "We're somewhere snowy, and I'm talking to a magic horse." His hand went to his blade, not to draw but simply to feel its hilt. "And I have a sword." Clearly that had not always been the case.

"Did you not come with one prepared? If not, I wonder what force it was that shared." Zecora shivered softly, a stiff breeze washing over them. Another step and the crunch of snow beneath her. Wherever they were, it was chilly. "I envy you, my strange new friend, some clothes to ward the cold would not..." She paused to grit her teeth. "--offend."

The human pulled free his black cloak and threw it over Zecora, attaching it around her neck just as quickly. "I have the rest, this'll keep the wind off of you at least. I'm John." That wasn't his original name, but the one he decided to have in the moment.

Zecora raised a hoof, drawing the cloak closer in against herself. "You have my thanks, friend John. Good to see you have more than brawn." Her ears pricked up. "That was rude and I do apologize."

"You're going to rhyme that large word?" He gazed at her with uncertainty, though he seemed to want to see her do it.

Zecora smirked at that, puffing a little with pride. "To insult so quickly, surely is not wise." She nodded with satisfaction, the rhyme complete.

"And there you go." He went stiff just as suddenly. "You hear something?"

Her ears danced, homing in on what he had heard. She nodded without a word and hurried into some scraggly wintery bushes. Her newly given cloak was dark in color, only helping her to blend into it.

With a quick new wave of rustles, John joined her, peering out at what was coming. They didn't have to wait long as some wolves, snowy in pelt, burst into view, sniffing at the air and ground. They separated from one another, circling outwards, though one was moving for them, perhaps having found their scent?

John slid his sword free with what he hoped was a quiet sound. Zecora had no weapons near her hooves, and did not seem ready to join in any battles, watching John instead.

The wolf howled, the others turning quickly at the noise at the same instant it was lunging for the bushes. It did not expect the bushes to have such sharp thorns. Few bushes in its time had thorns of quite that sharpness or length. John had thrust his sword into the chest of the beast as it pounced, much to its displeasure, letting out a cry of pain as he shoved it aside and emerged from the bushes.

"I got this," he said as if he was half convincing himself of the fact rather than comforting anyone else, perhaps the zebra that was watching. "Just let it happen..." He drew a glowing sigil in the air, new and alien sounds emerging from him in a language that neither understood.

Not that the wolves were happy to just give him all the time in the world. They came in at him, one from the left, the other to the right, flanking without words, not that wolves had need for such things. One came in high, great teeth going for the throat as the other went in low, eager to sink its jaws into an available leg.

John thrust his hand at the wolf leaping at him, filling the space between them, rapidly shrinking as it was, with fire in a gust of flames to interrupt the dangerous attack. Not that being bit on his leg was all that much better as the wolf pulled back with a low growl, wrenching him off his feet into the snow. "Damn it," he cursed, his blood spattering the snow.

Not giving up so easily, he brought the sword up into the dog's face, not point first, it too close and the movement too desperate to manage that, but bashing its snout with the heavy iron of the sword, getting a satisfying yelp of pain from the impact that sent it staggering back.

Smoke erupted from the bush they had been hiding in. The wolves, already starting to doubt the wisdom of their hunt, took it as a good sign to depart in search of easier prey, scattering in all directions with mournful cries of defeat. Zecora emerged with a smile, as hard as it was to see in all the smoke. "Wild animals spook easily, I was told. That it actually works, I now behold."

John shook his sword, a brisk swipe of the air sending some of the mess on it away before he dug in his pockets and found a rag to properly clean it and put it away in its sheath. "Got... anything for bites?"

Zecora emerged from the smoke to get a better look at John's bit leg. "A serious wound, needing of care. Lay down slowly, and I will repair." She guided him down, helping to keep the pressure off the injury until he was laying down properly. With her patient ready, she carefully worked up the pants leg to reveal the injury, making some soft noise. Concern? Disgust?

She drew out some herbs, though she had no pockets, and began mashing them between her hooves. "Would that I had my proper supplies. But to wait on this injury would not be wise." So she pressed on despite her less than ideal circumstances. "This may hurt, for a moment or two, but it will be better for you." He could feel her hooves touching, patting, working some goopy stuff into the injury and around it. As she had promised, it stung! His abused flesh howled with agony at being touched, but he kept still with just a little grunt.

Cleaned and tended, she leaned back on her haunches, examining her work. "It likely still hurts, if I were to guess. Still, at least your wounds have been given a dress."

Bandaged and poulticed, John sat up and reached for the wound, feeling delicately over the spot. "That's better, thank you. So, from the way you've been talking, this isn't your home either?"

"Treacherous forests are quite familiar." She did a slow turn. "But the lay of this land, unfamiliar."

"That was practically a cheat." He smirked and stood up slowly, testing the ability of his bandaged leg. "We're in the middle of nowhere. This whole world can't be a frozen forest, can it?" It was in all directions around them at a glance.

"Any direction is as good as another." Zecora began to step forward, ring-laden ear twitching. "For now you are my camping brother."

"Camping brother." He matched her pace as they crunched through the snow beneath them. "Well, sister. Nice to meet you, Zecora." He set a hand on her head, causing her ears to twitch, but she didn't wrench away, which allowed him to proceed into a little petting. "Happier to have a friend than to be out here alone."

"Friendship is a powerful magic. To be alone, now that is tragic." She ducked her head down away from his hand. "But to assume petting is perhaps too bold. Just this once, I will not scold." She didn't move away, the line drawn, in the snow as it were.

"Solitude is not without its perks." Zecora had broken the quiet of their hike. "It is in quiet that I do most of my works."

"Yeah, so..." He crossed his arms, going quiet a moment. "Where I'm from, the most dangerous thing happening at that moment was a disease."

Zecora turned an ear. "Diseases have caused many a pain. Where society rises, there is no greater bane." She hopped forward onto a log before sliding down the other end. "Did your people not have cures?"

Had she abandoned the attempt to rhyme? "They have plenty of medicine, but it was a new sickness." He patted his sword. "This was a relic of the past, or fantasy."

"And now it is yours," she completed the rhyme despite the words between them. "You appear to be skilled in its use. Where it came from, later to deduce." She circled around ahead of him, only to come around on his other side. "Perhaps you wish to share of your past? Tell me if you have raised or lowered in caste."

"In cast? It was just a bandage." He peeked at his leg, covered by his pants once more. "It was... kinda high tech." But how to explain that to what appeared to be a resident of a fantasy world? "No point worrying about that now. Let's keep our wits about us and get out of this forest."

They had arrived in Everglow. Surely their trip would grow easier after that violent start.

Author's Note

Welcome! It's time for Ponyfinder! With guests, an earth human and Zecora! Zecora is taking this in stride, but the same could be said for John(whatever his real name is!).

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10 - South Side, Represent

They had arrived in the first thing that could be called a true settlement, a city. Sure, Prism counted, but they had just rode through it, so it didn't count for much. There were ponies mostly, but also the occasional human and other biped. It was a metropolitan place, and how many legs one had was not a barrier to entry. "Wonder what they were complaining about?"

"Who?" Longma looked to Jon at his question. "Who is complaining?"

"Before." He gestured back at the past. "A bunch of goblins were worried about pony patrols, but they've all seemed pretty welcoming so far."

Longma's smirk grew three sizes that day. "You are just precious. One, you were talking with goblins, why?" She rolled her eyes at the thought. "Second, going to bet they almost mugged you, if they didn't actually do it."

They had made noises to that effect... "What, are all goblins just bad by default?"

Longma raised a hoof to her chin. "Now you're getting philosophic. Good, expand your mind. Me? I'm just going to avoid talking to goblins, except angry shouts if they touch my things. You." She looked to Aeorean. "Where do we need to be?"

Zecora closed with Jon as Aeorean discussed directions. "Jon, your concern touches close to my heart. Different behaviors and appearance make it easy to set apart." She inclined her head. "It would be a better world, if we were all given a chance. But too often, we are judged at first glance."

Jon nodded a bit. "I... haven't really been on the receiving end of that much?" Well. "Actually, I guess a tiny bit since I got here? Pretty tame. People are interested in the human." He shrugged a little bit. "Guess I'm the minority now, but people aren't even stressed about that. Hardly counts."

"That you have been spared the touch of that whip, I'm perfectly happy for that to skip." She nodded in satisfaction. "Still it may not always be so. I will be there, an equine to show." She perked an ear. "There is something that bothers. When do we return to the land of our mothers and fathers?"

That was when Jon realized, he hadn't been looking for a way back. Everglow had been... kinda fun really. What was so bad about it? Still... "Let's ask Aeorean." If Zecora needed some rescue, he'd be a terrible adventure to not try to help her. Sure, he had experienced more pain than was standard, but he'd also withstood it, and kicked some butt. "Aeorean, if someone needed to do a little, uh, planar travel, what would you suggest?"

Aeorean looked back over his shoulder, twisting into backwards flight. "You picked the wrong spellcaster for that." Longma's smug smile had returned. "Don't give me that look! Wizards are only slightly better. Clerics are the pros when it comes to that kinda thing, which I'm not." He brought his hooves together silently. "Divine magic is all about connecting the here and the not-here, if the not-here is so not here it's another world entirely."

Jon nodded a little. Clerics, healers, he knew that basic idea. Though how that tied into world jumping, he wasn't as sure. "So... like praying to their gods gives them an edge to reaching that way?"

Aeorean blinked softly. "Huh, yeah, like that. I'm a druid. We're rooted right here." He landed, turned back around. "Our powers are all around us. Nature's kinda right in your face, so our magic isn't as good at reaching to other worlds, why would it be?"

"Also." He thrust a hoof out, ambling on the other three without pause. "There's the place!" It didn't look that much grander than the building surrounding it, though it dared to reach two stories high, tall for that portion of town. "Welcome to the Seekers!"

Longma inclined her head at the building. "Looks like it could us a fresh coat of paint. Whatever, if they have our rightful money."

"You didn't earn it." Aeorean trotted ahead. "It was my job, but I did promise to share it."

Zecora advanced to keep up as they entered into a room that took up both of the floors the building had. That entry hallway was surprisingly tall, with a few desks right there in the center. A... secretary? was writing with a quill in her right hand. A gnome, brightly colored hair draping over a shoulder as she worked.

A pony was also there, heavyset, male, and reading a paper with a musing expression. Both glanced up as the group came in. "Aeorean!" called out the male with a big smile. "One of my favorites, and you have company." His eyes darted, taking measure of the others. "Don't recognize them, don't keep me in suspense."

Aeorean flew up with a spin to point at each. "Jon, Longma, and the best, Zecora." He raised a hoof to stage whisper, "She rhymes! It's her thing and it's adorable."

Zecora advanced with a light clearing of her throat. "I hope I have other qualities. To simply rhyme may reek of frivolities. I am told you the one to speak, Aeorean's pay is what we seek."

Aeorean's wings spread wide despite being back on the ground. "Oh yeah, the rift's all closed. Pop, all gone. It was guarded by a dragon." He thrust a hoof back at Longma. "She's also a dragon, but she's with us."

The stallion started at the news. "O-oh... Welcome." He nudged a bowl forward with a hoof. "Candy?"

Longma prowled up to the desk and reared up to have a look at the brightly wrapped treats. She opted for a chocolate one. "Mmm." In her mouth it went, wrapper and all. "Hm, oh, there it is." She chomped through the paper and began to taste the properly sweet part. "Not bad." She inclined her head at Aeorean. "So, his pay?"

"Yes, of course." He pulled up a bag, held between his hooves pinching it before it was tied off. "Aeorean does good work, and good work deserves to be paid, hmm? All closed?"

Longma rolled her eyes. "Completely."

"100%" agreed Aeorean with a quick bob of his head. "Oh, they were wondering if you knew anyone that could go between planes?"

"That's a sudden topic shift," chuckled out the pony as he sorted through coins, counting out the pay into a new pile and tied the bag back tight. "Dawn would be good at that. But he drifts where the, how did he put it...?" He drew quotes in the air with his hooves. "'Where the gods demand him', that's right. Oh! Why don't you check by the temple? If you don't see him, you may run into another divine sort that could help."

"Great idea!" Aeorean swept the coins off the counter with a wing, catching it with a bag he held in his mouth. With an agile flip, he had the bag put away. "Let's go to the temple! I hope Dawn's there, nice guy."

Zecora nodded to the stallion they were already leaving and turned her eyes instead to the pegasus they were following. "A friend of yours, I do gather? Better to ask a friend, than with a stranger blather."

Jon fired an emphatic thumbs up. "Sounds like we have a--"

Longma circled in front of them. "Did you already forget? For such a short lived set of species, you forget quickly. Wait, that's a short lived thing, isn't it? Whatever. You said we get a day of pampering. Give me my luxury funds so I can get on that." She held out a hoof expectantly.

Aeorean looked between Longma and his other two companions. "Oh, uh... can we check for a cleric first? I promise, day of relaxing before we go anywhere, but it won't take long to see if Dawn's there and if not that, maybe someone else can help."

Longma fixed Zecora in her sight squarely. "Put off for a rhyming alien zebra? I see how it is..." She talked to walk alongside Zecora. "You're lucky I have a soft spot for aliens."

Zecora edged a step away from the dragon that was also a pony, closer to Jon. "I do not mean to ruin your day. There will be time to relax and play." She lifted an ear. "You remind me of a refined pony I know. Perhaps you would care to show?"

Longma threw her head back with a thick cackle. "Oh, look at you. Tempting me to show off? I'll bite that bait." She chomped the air for show. "Once we finish with the priests, I'll take you out for fun and relaxation. You'll be so pampered you won't be able to walk."

Jon hiked a brow at that logic. "Not sure I want to be that relaxed."

"Too bad, this is a lady's trip." Longma thumped right against Zecora, unaware or just uncaring of her discomfort. "You'll have to take Aeorean."

Aeorean peeked back over his top. "We don't know each other that well, sheesh."

Jon took note that the pony hadn't angrily denied. Were the ponies just easy going in more ways than caring if you had hands or hooves? Still, he was a straight arrow so far he knew. "If you want to hang out, as friends, nothing wrong with that. We're a party, should be friendly."

"Gosh, yes." He clapped his hooves with a grin. "Now you're talking. Party fun! I didn't realize how much I missed having a party... Last time I was with Steel. We got into so much trouble!" He laughed, a much kinder laugh than Longma's cackle. "We barely got out of it sometimes, but we did. Oh, good times."

Jon's shoulders lifted lightly. "Steel? A friend of yours?"

"Steel Prism," completed Aeorean with a grin. "We're both adventurers, like Dawn Event. Oh wow that would be too fun! Get us all together!" He bounced in place, excitement building. "What are the odds, if both of them were there?"

"The fun starts after the temple," reminded Longma with a little huff. "So let's get that part over with as quickly as possible. Zecora and I have places to be lazy at."

"Have your fortune told," beckoned a wizened pony mare, an earth-bound. She had a turban on her head, and wore flowing clothes. Like a gypsy, if one expected a gypsy on an alien world. "Part the veil of the unknown," she beckoned, looking back and forth at those who passed her. None were taking her offer.

Jon tapped at Aeorean lightly. "New to this world and all. Fortune tellers, full of it, or legit source of intel?"

"Sometimes both." Aeorean looked over at the fortune teller. "She looks nice enough. Want me to test?"

Zecora advanced curiously. "There is a test for such things? To easily tell if from her words the truth rings?"

"Ah, a zebra." The fortuneteller had spotted Zecora. "But not of the usual stripes. Is it magic, or divine acts that brings this about?"

Zecora turned a hoof on herself. "I come from a far away land. But I am just a zebra, nothing grand."

"Now that's a lie." The old fortuneteller wagged a hoof chastisingly. "Your fortune is bright and interesting... Would you care to hear it?"

Aeorean slipped between them. "We actually have to get to the temple, you know how that goes. Maybe after?" He nudged Zecora away. "We really should be off."

"So hasty to speak for your friend." The fortuneteller's eyes were locked on Zecora. "But it is her choice, not yours. I think she wants to hear what the winds whisper to me, but...?" She rolled a hoof slowly.

Zecora could set her hooves down, planted despite Aeorean's attempts to move her. "Easily said, a trick to entertain. What proof do you have that wisdom is here to attain?"

"A little trust." The strange mare spread her hooves. "They are only whispers. I can only promise I speak as they do."

Author's Note

To listen or be about your way? Pick one quickly, or Longma will get bored.

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25 - Tactical Positioning

"I have not forgotten."

Jon woke abruptly, reaching for his sword to find a hoof on its hilt, blocking his intended action. "Stay under the cotton," urged the voice. Female, Zecora? He was under a blanket, and she was partially on top of him, a hoof on his sword's hilt, her face by his ear. "This is a mild censure, but it remains your fault, this adventure." She nudged him, hoof pressing against hilt, which pressed against his side. "You seem very relaxed. What are your true intentions, I asked?"

Jon set a hand on her leg. She was warm, fuzzy, but smooth despite that. "We're here to get you back home," he spoke softly in the darkness. "I'm sorry if you're having a bad time, that isn't the goal."

"It never was." She came in closer, the hairs on her snout tickling his ear. "You have a singular cause."

Singular cause? "I'm doing my level best to get you home."

"And what of you?" She jostled the sword she was already touching. "Of all we went through. Does not your home appeal? Or does this world match your ideal?"

"In some ways, yes," he admitted with a roll of his shoulders. "I'm living a big adventure, like... a story."

"Ah ha." Zecora sat up against him, her tension ebbing. "Are you like a child? No wonder you smiled. When the grim consequences arrived, seeing it, you were deprived."

Jon pushed upright, facing Zecora, though he could barely see much of even an outline of her in the darkness. "Is this about... Yeah, that was sad. It was, but even his sad end is better than a life that just wasn't lived."

"I see." Zecora's hoofsteps could be heard, retreating. "Good night, Jon."

The part that bothered him the most, perhaps, was that Zecora hadn't rhymed that.

"You're going to have to trust me." Sonja jostled, even if the sound was off. "If we're right, as soon as this is ash, this mission will be complete." She leveled a hoof up at the sleepy stallion. "We just need to keep you from joining it."

"That'd be--" He couldn't hold bag the enormous yawn escaping from his depths. "--good."

Sonja turned to her side against the pile of bedding. "Get on, then this shot's getting taken."

The stallion hesitated, hooves pressing against the stack of pillows he was on. "You sure?"

"No." Sonja turned an ear to him. "But it's the best shot we have."

The stallion snorted in an equine way, clearly unhappy at that outlook. Despite that, he slid off towards her, landing on her heavily, along with several pillows that tumbled with his already unconscious form. Sonja grunted under the sudden additional weight, but she was already grabbing the fallen pillows in her teeth, hurling them back up to where they came from. "And they say there's no point in powder when you have bullets." She popped the top off a horn and began scattering gunpowder around the bed in a wide circle.

"Did he fall--" There was the bouncy mare from before. "Oh, no! He did. Let's get him back--What are you doing?!"

Sonja was completely ignoring her. With a strike of a flint she held in her mouth, she set the powder on rapid fire, circling the bed and combusting it in a cheery blaze. "Put him back," demanded the mare, approaching with a prowling step instead of that cheerful bounce. "He has to be up there."

"Time to go." Sonja had meant to gallop, but what came was more of a manic cycling of her hooves with a strange sound effect. She wasn't going anywhere, until she suddenly was, as if that moment of cycling was storing power that was unleashed through mechanisms unknown to her, accompanied by a swooshing sound. "I hate this place." Sonja was not a fan of animation, least of all living inside one.

But she was moving, jinking and bobbing as other ponies reached for her, hands or hooves or hooves that somehow were also hands grasping for her in untold numbers and from every direction as she scrambled for safety, the fire she lit burning ever brighter and larger, as if that pile of pillows had become a huge pillar in the center of that little world, lighting it with its fire.

"Rude!" The bouncing mare was in front of her, as if she'd always been there, waiting for Sonja to catch up with her instead of the other way around. "Sleepy boy has to go back to his resting place." She nodded to the pillar of fire. "Let me have him, or we'll get upset."

"Get upset all ya want." Sonja wrenched to the right, charging in a new direction. "Not letting you misfire." Her ears were pinned to her head, imagining the lamentable fate of that sleeping stallion if they tossed casually him on top of the burning pile. "You're all mad."

"Of course we're mad." That mare was bouncing alongside Sonja, keeping up too easily. "You're kidnapping our friend. Wouldn't you be mad if someone took your friend while he was trying to get a nap? Rude!"

Sonja threw herself to the side, crashing against the mare and sending her tumbling as Sonja took off in a new direction. "You're ready to cook your 'friend'. That's an aim I can't accept." She had to duck under a living bridge of reaching ponies, skidding on the ground that seemed far too slippery for its own good. A sudden leap propelled her over a carpet of wailing ponies that were reaching up for her, but she touched down past them, running forward, even if she did not know what she was running towards, just clear what she was running from. Sometimes, that was good enough.

Sonja's torso was moving forward, but her hooves were not. She looked back to see her legs were stretching out behind her. The hooves were caught on a wire, embedded in the wall at one point, the other held in the hoof of the bouncing mare, sneering at her.

It was as if her realization of the situation were the problem. Sonja smashed into the ground, her hooves catching up only as she gave up to the influence of gravity. Her passenger slip up and over her with the momentum, turning as he hit the too-slippery ground.

"You can't just take him away." She was on top of the stallion, despite having been far behind Sonja just moments prior. "You're a mean pony. Time for a punishment." She drew a wickedly sharp dagger that did not fit in the whimsical nonsense of that mini world at all. "Make it easy on yourself, stay still, and say you're sorry."

"Shove off," grunted Sonja as she sat up dizzily, her head spinning from that rough landing. "Looks... like you're not being very nice."

"W-what?!"

But the other ponies noticed this. Another simply drawn stallion pointed. "Why are you being mean with that? That could hurt someone."

"Make them cry," agreed another mare. "Put that down."

"No! She's the one ruining everything!" The bouncing mare waved her dagger at Sonja. "Get her!"

"He just wanted to get some fresh air." Sonja nodded at the slumbering form. "He really wanted to try sleep running."

"That makes sense," agreed the stallion. "Why are you being so mean?" The crowd was turning against the dagger wielding mare, closing on her with cries for her to stop being so very mean.

A great bang robbed them of hearing for a moment. The mare collapsed, wheezing. Sonja had never been disarmed, and the true culprit seemed clear. She had taken the shot, as was one of her habits. The untold number of ponies looked at her in shock, only to collapse as one to the floor. The world around them bent and shifted, coming undone. They were suddenly in a house far too small for how many people were in it. "Damn it." And she could smell fire coming from upstairs. "Damn it!"

It was all Sonja could do to start grabbing the nearest pony by the scruff of their neck in her teeth and as hurriedly as she could, drag them outside. "Damn it!"

Their arrival had not gone unnoticed. The soldier that had sent her inside was busy commanding other ponies, several weaving magic with glowing horns that sprayed the building with water or conjured elementals of living water to help combat the blaze. "You're alive," he noted. "How many are still inside?"

"Too many." Sonja dropped the pony she had hauled out. "Can you get the fire out?"

"We're on the task." He waved away. "And you're done here. Join your friends."

"Belay that order," grunted Sonja, turning back to the house. "I don't leave the range until the shot's landed." She stormed back inside to grab the next pony she could find.

Fortunately for all involved, the military response was swift and efficient. The fire was brought under control and the injuries kept to a minimum. Sonja was one of the most injured, coughing and wheezing from the smoke she had inhaled in her efforts.

The armored leader thumped her, forcing another cough free. "Damn mercenaries!" He took a slow hissing breath. "I appreciate the sentiment, I do. You were trying to rescue my people. I can't fault that, but the way you did it wasn't helping them, in the end. Just hurting you." He threw a hoof at Sonja. "Get her to triage." Several ponies saluted, moving in to grab her with glowing horns and haul her away.

"Sun Queen watch gently over brave fools," he muttered in prayer, watching her get hauled away. "I want a body and casualty count. When she's recovered, I want her back in front of me to answer some questions." He thumped the ground with a great dull thud of metal on stone.

"Sir." A soldier approached rapidly. "Confirmed. The rift is closed. One dead located."

He leaned in on the soldier. "One of ours?"

"Negative, sir! We're trying to identify them, sir. Cause of death: firearm."

"Hm." There really only was one thing that could be... "How large was the bullet?"

"Sir? I'll check, sir!" And off he ran to get that information.

"We failed, somewhere..." Someone that wasn't a part of the town had managed to get in, and be involved in a rift? Still.... "She performed her part." He set off in a new direction, marching down the street with a purpose. He had a commander to petition.

Author's Note

A little short, this chapter, but it also feels like it's right, so here we are.

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