The Crimson-Red Star

Of the sunless realm; through glittering, aureate eyes...

Through the chills of winter gray, across the icy nadir loom over by misty fog, a portal seldom forms agape, only to extend, into the depths of darkness where one persists. An aura of anticipation surrounds as the light perishes, to only be illuminated by black flames that trail on the well-trodden path, to be met with a black castle where above the mist remains.

Passing through the black gates and entering the castle to behold ashen vacancy in its truest form, the interior has only but one door and a single hallway to tread. Empty steps fill the hollow hall with echoing sounds that linger eerily for too long as one grows closer to the door to witness what contents it shrouds secret.

Beyond the door that creaks soundly in alerted ears, an ominous haze unique from the mist creeps out as one beholds that rampant pitch darkness staring at them. Forward one would go and quickly would one notice that sound from irrelevant footsteps, even the wind that once blew, are hushed, and only the distinct humming of a dim-lit orb in the distance is heard.

Treading ever closer, the murky blackness slowly dissipates as one gazes upon a powerful throne of glimmering obsidian; a deific creature sits comfortably with a fierce smile. Her ebony wings were stretched, her black horn glowed eerily, and her furry coat shimmered, as if excited to gaze upon the being that graces her presence.

"Our time is not now," the deity murmured to her servant as she lounged on her throne, gazing at an orb viewing Equestria. "Prepare yourself, young one. We have visitors."

It was dark, and the breeze was chilly and mild. The tall trees above groaned and swayed in the direction of the fickle wind. The moon was high in the sky and its light was bright, but in the canopy of these immense trees, only faint beams struggled through and graced the cold ground of the forest.

He had never been to this place, but he liked the atmosphere. He breathed in the coarse wind into his lungs, feeling the crispness swell and wreathe in his chest. He felt comfortable here, as a bat pony should, under the shroud of the moon's shadow.

"This place was once a small band of trees; a grove," said a bat pony, a female with a dark mane and white coat with black blotches, her slitted lavender eyes lit eerily in the darkness. "Now it's a massive forest, but it is still considered a grove by the locals around here."

"What is this place called again, Nebula?" he asked, peering into the trees, his orange eyes narrowing.

"The Stygian Grove," she answered, standing beside him. "There's an abandoned structure within this place, a cathedral of some sort, from Equestria's distant past, from before we had princesses, before ponies were even here. It is an ancient place from what I had read."

"Indeed, it was," said another voice, young but deep. It was another bat pony. He trotted up silently. "It was later revitalized during Princess Celestia's reign after our Moon Mistress, Luna, was...absent. But then it was abandoned; foul creatures used to run amok there. Even when the monsters had vanished many years later, the cathedral was forsaken."

Nebula dipped her head at her leader. "Bay Banks," she murmured. "What are we looking for here? And where is Princess Luna?"

"The princess is in the village with the others, gathering information from anypony who can tell them about the recent tremors," he explained. "We are tasked with searching this forest-grove for anything that could help us understand this oddity affecting our nation. Princess Luna believes that the Stygian Grove harbors some kind of answer."

"Why would she?" Nebula asked.

Bay Banks shook his head; it seemed he didn't know the answer. "There are many secrets not known to us," he began, "of things only Princess Luna and her sister might know. Perhaps there must be something here, maybe hidden, around this forest-grove."

"Agni," Nebula called, "you've been quiet. What's on your mind?"

Agni looked at his companion and his superior. "Princess Luna and Celestia are worried," he told them. "They are frightened by these tremors. If Princess Luna assumes that we may find something, then we will search."

"Sir, shall we split up to cover more ground?" Nebula suggested, looking at Bay Banks. "We can meet back here later."

"Good idea," he assented, drawing a few lines in the soil. "We'll meet back here within the hour. We shouldn't be separated for long; the monsters that once prowled this forest-grove are gone, but...one can never be too careful."

Bay Banks stalked off into the darkness while Nebula went in another direction into the trees and disappearing between the branches. Left alone in the small clearing, Agni trots off, his ears pricked, and eyes peeled for any peculiar sounds or strange things.

As he searched, his mind slowly drifts to another bat pony: Flare Brimstone, his unofficial marefriend. It's been a few days since he left her to be on the mission, and he wondered how she was holding up. With all of the tremors, Agni was worried for her. A part of him knew he shouldn't; that mare was more capable than any other pony he's ever seen, except the princesses, and he longed to see her again.

"Focus up," Agni told himself, shaking his head. He heard a sound and stopped in his tracks, scanning the darkness. "What was that?"

A faint shadowy outline of a creature darted within the darkness, causing Agni to lose sight of it. On his guard, he began to mutter an incantation, a type of old magic from a book dating back way before the creation of Canterlot created by an earth pony named Ulthor. To use an incantation, one must speak backwards and, in the tongue of Old Ponish, the words or phrase of the spell.

"Thoēl!" he proclaimed, and a small sphere of light manifested beside him, illuminating the darkness. "Forward!"

The resplendent orb moved forward slowly, lighting up the darkened path, and Agni cautiously followed it until he saw the faint of outline of a creature staying just out of the light. When Agni tried to pierce through the darkness for a better look, he found that he couldn't.

Whatever this creature is, if it didn't want anypony getting a good glimpse of it, then it could. It wasn't hostile, but it was wary. Seeing as he wasn't in any immediate danger, Agni dispelled the ball of light, plunging the area around into darkness once again.

"What are you?" he asked the creature. By what he could make out of it, it was a four-legged creature similar in body structure as him. "Are you a pony?"

"There's something odd here," the creature murmured in a dulcet, reserved tone. It sounded like a mare. "First that alicorn shows up and now black sludge appears..."

Agni didn't understand, but his ears were pricked. "You saw an alicorn?" he questioned. Princess Celestia and Luna hadn't come in here recently, and Alex lived in the Everfree Forest, but then he realized who the alicorn might be. "This alicorn... What can you tell me?"

"She had a mane of gold and a coat as white as snow, and she wore odd little red things on her ears and around her neck," the creature explained, shuddering. "There's something wrong with her. Something...heinous and so terribly wrong..."

It had to be Thaney, Alex's sister. He was told that she was unpredictable and dangerous, and if he saw her, it was best to flee. Agni gave a brief shudder, as if thinking about Thaney made him uncomfortable. He had no reason to other than the warning Nerissa had spoken of, but now he wanted to be as far away from this place as possible; it was best to leave Thaney alone.

The good news is that he knows where she is, and he can relay this information to the princesses.

"And what is this black sludge?" Agni asked.

"Look," she told him, pointing to a patch of grass being lit by the moon's light. Agni saw a trail of bubbling black sludge leading somewhere. "That sludge is frightening; it scares the animals that live here away."

"Do you know where it leads?"

"Yes," the creature answered, but she sounded reluctant. "You want to follow it, don't you?"

Agni nodded. "I was tasked with finding anything that could relate to the tremors happening in Equestria," he explained. "By what you've told me, this sludge is uncommon and unnatural; it could be a clue."

"The ground shakes here sometimes..."

"All the more reason to investigate." He dipped his head. "Thank you," he told her, turning to follow the sludge.

"Where it leads isn't far, just to a small clearing," the creature said, following Agni in the darkness. "I peered down the depression, but it kept going...and going."

"I need to figure out what's going on," he said urgently. "A lot of odd things has happened lately." He gazed at the creature, but she was so well-hidden in the shadows. "What are you? A pony?"

"I think I am," she responded, sounding unsure. "I don't know exactly what I am, but I like to think that I am a pony."

"What type?"

The creature was silent for a moment before speaking. "None of the three."

"You're a bat pony?" Agni asked. "We're pretty rare these days..."

"Nope, I don't have those ears or those wings you have," she told him. "But I have eyes like yours. They're purple by the way, but you can't see them while I'm hiding."

"Why are you hiding?"

"I feel safe in the shadows," she replied. "It's always dark here, even when the sun shines, its beams hardly break through the canopy. And also," she went on, "I am not sure how my appearance will be taken."

"What do you mean? Aren't you a pony?"

"I think I am," she murmured, unsure. "I've seen mares before, and I have the same body type as them, but none else."

"And that is?" Agni pressed.

"Well... I have horns," she said, "and black stripes on my body. I have fangs, and I'm purple. Purple isn't a common color with ponies."

Agni was curious to see this pony, but that would have to wait. He and the pony trailed on for a few more minutes until Agni spotted a hole from where the sludge had led him. He trotted up to it and peered down, but even with his eyes he could not see through the darkness, let alone the bottom.

He looked around and saw the silhouette of the pony standing motionless. "This is it," he told her, craning his neck close to the hole. "I can't see the bottom, so I don't know how far deep this depression is."

"You're going to go down there?" she asked him, sounding surprised. "It doesn't look safe at all..."

"Well, this is odd, and I am here to find odd things, and here it is. I have to," he said, taking a deep breath. "That sludge looks unnatural, and a hole out in the middle of this forest-grove is too peculiar to not explore."

"Well, you can head down there, but this is as far as I will go," she said, her shadowed figure stepping back. "Whatever it is you are looking for, come back safe. I don't know you, but I would hate to see you, or any pony hurt."

Agni nodded firmly. "I'll try my best to come back safely," he assured her, turning back to the hole and readying himself to jump. "Thanks for helping me out."

Agni leaped into the hole, and instantly he felt a chill passing through him as he fell. It was sudden, and it rocked his senses so hard he almost felt winded. The warmth from the surface had faded as he dived in further, and eventually, Agni felt his eyes grow heavy.

"What's... What's going on?" he murmured, struggling to keep his eyes from closing.

He wasn't tired, but something was forcing him to close his eyes. He saw something flicker in his mind: a pony shrouded in black with glittering golden eyes, gazing at him silently. Agni felt himself recoil, feeling an icy shudder ripple throughout his coat and gracing his skin. He could hear indistinct mutterings in his mind and felt himself drift off regardless of how much he tried to struggle.

"No... Fight back!" he protested, but his limbs became heavy, and he found that he couldn't move. "Fight...back."

Agni closed his eyes, the cold he felt was gone. He didn't dream of anything; his world was dark and empty. Then he saw something manifest a few feet away from him: the pony from his mind, their body draped head to hoof in black.

The pony muttered something, and Agni felt a sudden jolt, forcing him awake. He could see the shadowy darkness swamping his eyes fade away, and he felt wet. He looked down to see he was laying in dark, murky water. At first, he was disgusted. Stagnant water smelled and could invite sickness and other type of revolting things, but as he stared closely at the water, it was moving.

Sighing, Agni looked around and found himself in some sort of narrow cave, lit by the dark blue hue of the water, making things look foggy. He looked back and saw nothing, but looking forward, the path seemed to stretch on and on without any sign of an end.

"Where am I?" he wondered, warily cantering forward, his hooves making splashing noises that echoed throughout the dark cave.

As he moved onward, Agni stumbled upon something in the water a few hoofsteps away. He looked down when he got to it and saw that it was a sunken, waterlogged piece of paper. "Well, that's of no use," he muttered, annoyed. "Whatever's written on it would be too ruined by the water to read."

Despite this, Agni scooped the paper up with his wing and peered closely at it, his eyes widening suddenly. The words on the paper were perfectly fine and legible to read.

The paper detailed a pony or creature's final hours while trapped inside this cave, speaking of an entity of madness and fear. The writer was cold, weak, lonely, and had very little sanity. They heard wailing sounds pass through the cave as they trudged through. They go on to speak of indistinct mutterings; the entity being cast away by a much higher power, cast deep into the dark, because the creature did something it should not have done, as penance for the way it behaved.

There was a reason this unknown entity dwelled in the deep dark earth, but what was odd was how the writer seemed to praise this creature despite all the ill words they'd written. They spoke of the entity as a mother, something who could make them safe.

Agni was puzzled, but he chalked it up to the writer losing what little sanity they had left and began scribbling favorable kindness of this creature. What was written here didn't make a lot of sense, but he would keep the paper to take back on the surface, to present it to Princess Luna and Princess Celestia. He hoped they would know, for Agni had a feeling that this note had some connection to the tremors, maybe not a direct connection, but some kind of it.

"Why else would a hole in the ground leading to this channel of water suddenly appear?" he asked himself. He thought back to the mysterious pony in the Stygian Grove. "She was fearful of the black sludge. It wasn't natural to the forest-grove." He shook his head. Whatever's going on, he needed to head back.

Cantering back to where he laid a few minutes ago, Agni looked above to hope to see the hole he had fallen from. He scowled. The hole was gone, as if it had never been. He was trapped.

"Great," he muttered, his ears drooping. He gazed forward at the endless path and sighed. "Too long and too unknown. What am I to do?" He thought about using an incantation to teleport himself out, but he was doubtful that the distance he could make would be enough. "I haven't gotten the permeation incantation committed to memory yet, so I can't use that either."

As he lamented his position, a sudden unnatural gust of wind threatened to sweep him off his hooves and back into the water. He stood his ground and placed a hoof in front of his face. When the gust of wind subsided, Agni lowered his hoof and gazed at an odd figure cloaked in black.

He gasped. "It's the cloaked pony!" He saw this figure before he was forced to fall asleep. "Who are you?!"

The cloaked pony took a step forward, the water rippling silently under their hooves. Agni braced himself; he did not know who or what this pony is, but he was prepared to fight if he needed to.

The cloaked pony stopped just in front of him and rose their head. Agni saw those mystifying golden eyes shining like a star in the darkest of nights.

"Who are you?" Agni asked.

"An ally," the pony murmured. It was a mare. She was soft-spoken, but her voice carried meaning and held a seriousness Agni felt he had to heed and respect. "Strange bedfellows."

"An ally?" he echoed, confused. "What do you mean?"

"You've procured a page," she said simply, tilting her cloaked head at the page. "A page most ancient."

Agni gazed down at the paper he held and then back at the pony. "You know of this?"

"A traveler wrote it before he perished," she answered. "Unfortunate circumstance of curiosity. Unlike you."

Agni didn't understand. "What do you mean? Was I meant to come down here?"

"Yes," she murmured. "I left the black sludge trail for you to follow."

"But why?" he asked.

"To inform you of our existence. To inform we are allies."

"Allies in what?" he asked her.

"Something is coming," she told him, leaning forward as if to whisper. "It won't be here for many moons, but it is coming."

A prickle of fear shot through Agni's heart. "What is?"

"When the time comes, we will meet again," she promised. "Inform your starry princess of what occurred here; take that page and show her."

"Wait!" he pleaded. "What is your name?"

"Eldoris," she said to him. "You must leave this place and continue with your search. Puppeteering my master: We must be prepared."

Before Agni could say anything else, he saw Eldoris' eyes flash, and a purplish-dark light overcame his vision, forcing him to shut them. When the light subsided, he opened his eyes to find himself back on the surface.

Agni looked down where the hole should be, but he found that it was gone, the black sludge too. The wetness around his hooves from the water was gone also. It was as if he never went down there.

He gazed down at the paper. "I still have it," Agni told himself. "Whatever happened was real. And Eldoris..."

"Agni!" called a voice. It sounded like Nebula.

Agni whipped around and saw her and Bay Banks cantering towards him. He raised a hoof in the air. "I found something," he told them as they approached. He showed the page to them. "It might be something Princess Luna may know about."

Bay Banks gazed at the page with Nebula reading alongside him. "This is...interesting," Bay murmured. He looked at Agni. "Where'd you find it?"

Agni explained about a trail of black sludge that led him to a hole in the ground and that he leaped down it and found himself in some sort of cave-like channel, where he eventually found the page that had sunken under the water.

He omitted the mysterious pony that he met. She may have been secretive about herself, but she seemed to be a pony-creature that wished to be left alone. If he told Bay Banks, his leader might want to find the pony, believing she could be related to the tremors happening around Equestria.

Then there was Eldoris, a pony steeped in even more mystery. That was something he felt he needed to share, with Princess Luna listening. And about Thaney, most importantly.

"Did you two find anything?" Agni asked.

Nebula shook her head. "Nothing," she said.

Bay Banks nodded in agreement. "Other than what you found, there was nothing else," he said to him, giving the page back to Agni. "We should head into the village and group back up with the princess."

"Right," Agni said, falling in beside Nebula.

When the trio reached the village gates, they began to notice a mist enshrouding the village. When Agni breathed, a frosty cloud left him, and he felt a chill in the air. It was unpleasant, the cruel chill wreathing around his pelt and making him shudder. There was something wrong here; the season was warm, where had all this chill come from?

"Bay Banks," he murmured, forcing to suppress a shudder. "Something is wrong here..."

"First tremors, now winter is coming?" He sighed, looking confused. "What is going on in Equestria these days?"

"Regardless of what is happening," Nebula said, "Princess Luna and the other two guards are in there. Something must have happened. Where else could this mist come from?"

"The mist only seems to be around the village and nowhere else," Agni pointed out, seeing the mist swirling around the village. "And Nebula is right, we should hurry up and see what's going on."

Bay Banks nodded. "Let's go," he said.

Trotting into the village, Agni and his companions halted in their steps, disbelief etched across their faces. Bodies. Bodies as far as their eyes could see, laying scattered amongst the ground: mares, stallions, even colts and fillies, all lay on their sides.

Agni was horrified. What had happened here? Who or what had done this? He stiffened. Where was Princess Luna and the other members of the shadow troop? Were they safe, or were they somewhere, lying motionless like every pony else?

Though stunned at the sea of bodies in front of him, Agni's attention was taken by Nebula, who had rushed to the nearest pony, a mare, and studied her closely.

"She's alive!" she proclaimed, sounding relieved. Agni and Bay Banks rushed over to her. "She's dreadfully cold, but only unconscious..."

"Thank Celestia," Bay Banks whispered. "Agni, go and check others."

Nodding, Agni raced off, approaching a stallion. He examined the pony and realized the stallion was alive, unconscious. He trotted to another, a colt, and found that he was alive. He kept going and going until he had checked on half of the ponies in the village.

He raced to Bay Banks and Nebula, who were checking on other ponies he hadn't gotten to. "They're all alive," he reported. "I assume the ones you two checked are the same?"

Bay Banks nodded, the horror on his face lessening. "Every single pony so far is alive..."

"But where is Princess Luna?" Nebula wondered, trying to calm herself down. "Our princess could be in trouble!"

Before either Agni or Bay Banks could respond, they heard an echoing, spine-chilling chortle filling the mist-filled air. Agni shuddered at the sound and gazed around fearfully.

"What is that?" he whispered to his teammates.

"I don't know, but it sounds like a mare," Nebula said hoarsely. "It's coming from over there." She pointed with a hoof at a thick layer of mist, making it impossible to see through.

"Be careful," Bay Banks warned. "It sounds like a pony having a bit too much fun."

"And it's getting closer," Nebula added.

Narrowing his eyes, Agni saw a tall silhouette making its way through the cold dense fog. The air was filled with laughter, echoing around the village. He and his companions stood their ground, but he knew they all were trembling, not just from the increasing cold, but also from fear of the unknown. There was something wrong here, something terribly wrong. The shadowy figure in the near distance halted, and as the foggy mist revealed who stood before them, his eyes widened in disbelief.

An alicorn with huge wings and a lengthy horn taller than Princess Luna stared at them with an eerie-looking smile that showed their pearly white teeth. Their coat was white, and their mane was golden with black stripes that did not flow with magic but was absolutely stunning. They wore a red fang-shaped necklace and round red earrings, and their eyes were a dull pale white as if the light and life within them had vanished long ago and replaced by something dark.

Agni stood rigid, the cold seeping through his ash-grey coat as fear slowly tightened its grip over him. He did not know of this alicorn, but he did know her name. It was Thaney, Alex's sister: Dangerous, unpredictable, and possibly deadly; this was not an ally. He quickly deduced her aura: It was strong; it seemed to produce a chilling mist.

He recalled back to Nerissa, who was telling everypony about Thaney. He remembered how disconcerted and even afraid she sounded. Agni didn't know much of about the bat pony, but she seemed like the type who didn't tremble in the face of danger, but just talking about Thaney's personality made her uncomfortable.

"Remember what Nerissa said," Agni said to Bay Banks. "If we see Thaney, we are to not engage."

"But we can't leave," he replied, holding his ground. "We don't know where Princess Luna is..."

"Or the other shadow troop members, Birch and Raven," Nebula added, not taking her eyes off of Thaney as she whispered. "They have to be around here; they were gathering information with Luna."

"Do you think Thaney did something?"

"Possibly," Bay said, "but what can we do against an alicorn we don't know about? Her abilities and magic are a mystery to us."

"Should we fight?" Nebula suggested, her eyes narrowing to slits. "It may be our only option."

"No!" Agni objected quietly. He needed to avoid battle with this alicorn; there would be no telling what she might do if he or his allies chose to fight. "Thaney is here to help stabilize our universe and we were told she's been restricted from doing anything dangerous; she's here to aid us!"

Bay Banks gave an uneasy murmur, looking at the bodies littered around the village. "I don't think she rightfully cares about that. Any ideas?"

"None," Nebula rasped. She gazed at Agni. "You?"

"We mustn't fight," he affirmed. The last thing any pony needed was a battle against an alicorn that incapacitated all of the villagers by just her aura alone. It could mean having a death wish. "We take a page out of Flare's book; just talk and hope everything goes smoothly." Nebula looked like she was going to protest, but Agni held up a hoof to stop her. "I don't like it either, but this is Alex's kin, and although she isn't just like him, she has to be reasonable. She is here to help regardless of what we think."

Nebula let out a low grunt and shook her head, bits of frost falling to the chilling earth. "We'd better hurry," she said. "We'll end up like everypony else if we linger too long dithering."

Taking in a deep breath and exhaling, Agni took a few wary steps forward. He could feel the gazes of Nebula and Bay Banks at the back of his head. He was taking a massive risk doing this, especially when Thaney had already made herself quite clear she had no qualms with ailing others if the bodies of the villagers laying on the ground was anything to go off of, but Agni felt that the alicorn wouldn't hurt him. If he was wrong, then he could be on the edge of death's door.

Halting just a few feet away from the alicorn, Agni forced himself to stare into her dead eyes. "You are-"

"Wait," she murmured lowly, her voice eerily sweet and calm, and making Agni shudder lightly. "That scent..." She raised her muzzle in the crisp air and sniffed. "You have it too. I'd know that aroma anywhere..."

What was she talking about? Agni had a scent on him she recognized. He was suddenly struck with realization; he must have smelled of Alex, but he never touched the massive alicorn. Perhaps being so close to Alex when he had told him, and the others ponies, about his mission was enough for Thaney to sniff out.

Her sense of smell was uncanny and a bit freakish. And the way she talked about him having Alex's scent as well meant she picked up on the scent before and the only few ponies close enough would be Princess Luna. That would mean Thaney had already met her, and if that was the case, what had happened? Did the smell of Alex cause Thaney to trigger this wide-spread frost-like mist? Perhaps that's what Nerissa meant by "Thaney loves Alex very much". And if so, Agni found it disgusting.

"Yes... Yes, that scent is of my brother Alex," Thaney said, sounding wistful with a dopey look on her face before she refocused herself. She craned her head down to him so quickly that Agni had to take a step back. "I am Thaney. Who are you?"

Agni gulped and said, "My name is Agni, and I serve Princess Luna and Celestia as a guard, and so do my companions." He pointed with his tail at Nebula and Bay Banks, but Thaney didn't seem to care about them. "I know Alex." The cold air increased and Agni felt his hooves turning numb.

"Do you like what I've done to the place?" she asked him suddenly, looking expectant and creepily cheerful. Agni gazed at the crowd of unmoving bodies and didn't say anything, so Thaney went on. "So, there I were, hunting, when I picked up on my brother's scent and followed it to this quaint little village. I suppose my...fervor for wanting to see my brother had gone a little overboard, but I like how everything looks now. Don't you agree?"

Thaney acted like what she did, supposedly on accident, that had harmed the peacefulness of this village and turned it into a white nightmare, without a shred of remorse. She sounded so excited and uncaring at the same time that it appalled Agni, but he had the sense to not tell her that.

"I... Well, I liked when it was a bit livelier," he told her. He almost expected Thaney to frown and disagree, but the alicorn just held that creepy smile. "Perhaps you could put it back the way it was?"

"That's a shame," she told him, not sounding disappointed at all, still speaking sweet and kind. "I suppose I can't leave these creatures...ponies here like this; my brother wouldn't approve."

Agni felt the auric chill lessoning and he sighed. At this rate, the warmth would return and awake everypony from sleep. "Thank you," he said, bowing at the alicorn. Everything seemed to be going well. "Thaney, if you would be reasonable, to tell me where Princess Luna is?"

Thaney stared at him blankly for a moment, but then she nodded. "I learned about her. She's back there," she said nonchalantly, seemingly ignoring the shock across Agni's eyes. She gestured with a tail, now that the fog was lessoning along with the chill, to a dark figure laying crouched on the ground, shivering. "Your allies can go to her, but you stay with me."

"Bay Banks, Nebula," Agni called, not daring to take his eyes off of Thaney. "Go to Princess Luna!" He felt his allies rush past him to their princess.

Thaney stepped close to Agni. "How is my dear brother?" she asked him, concern in her voice.

"He's well the last I saw him," Agni answered truthfully. Thaney was merely worried about her brother. "He seemed to get along with everypony."

"I would go to him now, but I am taking care of a friend. She won't be able to walk for a few more days."

"What's wrong with her?" His gaze trailed past the white alicorn to Princess Luna being supported by Nebula and Bay Banks. The other guards, Birch and Raven, were unconscious, and were hoisted on princess's back for transport.

"She had a run-in with creatures she called timberwolves," Thaney said, unaware of Agni's divided attention between her and his allies. "They had damaged her legs when they attempted to consume her. I stopped them."

"What happened to the timberwolves?" he asked. "Did you drive them away?"

"I killed them," Thaney said simply, but it sounded obvious as if she wondered why Agni had asked such a silly question.

Although Agni shouldn't be surprised Thaney was capable of taking lives, he was appalled. It was extremely rare for a pony to kill something, and to say so without a shred of emotion made him sick to his stomach. He guessed it made sense; Thaney wasn't a pony, she's an alien from a different universe. He shuddered. What if Thaney wasn't told to keep herself in check? Agni didn't want to entertain the idea any longer.

"Is the pony you're looking after well?" he asked, trying to dismiss the hesitancy and fear in his voice in an effort to sound calm and casual.

Thaney nodded. "She is," she said, but then she gave a light frown that made Agni's spine crawl. "But it seems my method of healing her wounds are stifled by this world's petty restrictions, so her immediate recuperation is temporarily stymied."

Agni forced himself to cease his light trembles. "I hope this friend of yours gets well soon." He dipped his head in farewell and attempted to move past her.

"Wait... Just a moment," she murmured cooly.

Agni felt something cold grip him suddenly, and he stiffened, unable to move a muscle. Something was swarming under his coat, a multiple of something; like a legion of ants, and then he felt a fear overwhelm him without mercy, but he wasn't able to move or shout out his fright. He could only shake and tremble as the cold continued to tighten its grip on him.

He dared to steal a look at Thaney and was horrified. She was doing something to him. He looked at her horn: it wasn't glowing. She was using a power foreign to his world, and it felt utterly awful.

What is she doing to me?! Agni thought, trying to keep himself calm. Whatever Thaney was doing to him, he had to endure. She's trying to scare me, and she's doing a good job...

"Before I let you go to be with your little friends, it never befell me to ask what you and your comrades are doing here," Thaney said grimly, even though her voice sounded sickly sweet. "Would you mind?"

Agni narrowed his eyes, suspicion and distrust in them. "Why... Why should I tell you?" he retorted, his voice shaking despite his bravado. "None of us have business...pertaining to you."

"True, but one does not bring such an important figure in a backwater place like this, if not for a particular reason." Thaney stood over Agni, dwarfing him and staring unblinkingly into his eyes. "What are you doing here?" she said calmly, although there was a menace to her voice this time.

"We are just..." Be truthful. "Strange happenings have been going on in Equestria, and I and my allies are here to find anything that could help us explain," he told her, unable to look away. "Princess Luna thought we could find something in the Stygian Grove."

Thaney tilted her head, slightly intrigued. "Did you?"

Agni nodded. "I was told that there were more like this one," he said, showing Thaney the page. She glanced at it and then back at him. "It tells of something unknown, and if I and my allies keep searching the places the tremors hit, then we will uncover more of these."

Thaney looked suddenly disinterested and even a little disappointed. "Ah, merely paltry trifles on your world," she snarked, her tail flicking dismissively. "And here I thought it'd be something grand, but it seems dull and too contained to graft my interest." Then she grimaced, and Agni shrank under such intensity. "My brother, however, would find it very intriguing and well worth his time. Does he know?"

Agni shook his head quickly. Thaney was beginning to sound protective, and if he was to take Nerissa's words with any kind of value the alicorn held for her brother, he needed to choose his words carefully.

"He doesn't know," he said quickly, feeling his heart pound. "Alex knows nothing, I promise you."

Thaney glared at him, and Agni felt that she could see inside him, see everything. Then her gaze suddenly softened. "Quit tensing your muscles, you'll strain them," she chided, sounding like a caring and worried mother, but something about how she said it was disturbing. "I won't hurt you; Alex wouldn't like that, and I am here to aid in your universe's preservation."

Agni felt whatever had held him down fade, and the cold gnawing he felt under coat had stopped, inviting back a brief warmth that made his body shudder with relief.

"I care not for your world's problems, but my brother would. He would like nothing more than to help," she told him. "I'd prefer if he didn't, because such problems could endanger his life, and we are not in Dawn anymore. We are bound to rules and restrictions, our powers shackled and rearranged, and inside inferior bodies." She giggled. "How different."

Thaney swept her golden tail across the earth and stepped aside, allowing Agni to pass. She moved past him, disappearing into the fog. The frosty chill in the atmosphere suddenly went away, and when the fog did too, Thaney was gone, as if she never been.

Sighing with relief, Agni galloped over to his allies and Princess Luna. They were all on the west end of the village. "Princess, are you well?!" he asked her desperately, looking her up and down. Frost had developed over parts of her wings and legs, but thankfully with Thaney gone, the frost accumulating had begun to melt. "Are you hurt?!"

Princess Luna gazed at Agni for a moment before nodding. "Thaney did not harm me," she assured him. "Her aura was... It was strong, stronger than I could have imagined. Not even Alex's aura did this..."

He recalled Alex's aura being warm and comforting and how the alicorn explained that it could help dispel violence and aggression. Thaney's on the other hoof was dramatically different. Her aura was neither warm or comforting, just the biting chill and the slow agony of ice and frost.

Agni looked at Birch and Raven laying on Princess Luna's back. They were unconscious, but alive by the faint rising of their chests. He was glad that he, Bay Banks, and Nebula had swiftly returned to the village. If they hadn't, Agni wasn't sure if Thaney would be in the right mind to cease her aura before ponies could be killed by it.

"I'm glad all of you are safe," Bay Banks said. He looked around the village and saw the villagers gradually awake from their slumber. "Ponies are waking, and the cold has gone."

"Yeah, but it seems none of them remember what happened," Nebula put in, watching the villagers mill about in confusion. "Perhaps it is best we don't stirrup a panic and remind them of what had happened. We should depart."

Agni thought so as well. "Thaney only came here because she smelled Alex's scent on Princess Luna," he said, seeing his princess looking guilty. "There's no way you would have known. Thaney is strange and disturbing. Don't fault yourself for this. When we leave, Thaney will have no reason to disturb the village."

"You are right," Luna murmured. "Did any of you find anything in the Stygian Grove?"

"Nebula and I hadn't, but Agni has," Bay Banks said, gesturing to Agni to show the princess what he found.

"I found this," he said, showing Princess Luna the page. She grabbed it in her magic and began reading it. Agni saw her face darken with worry. "What's the matter?"

"Where did you find this?" she asked him, her tone distant as she stared at him.

Agni explained that he was led to a hole in the ground by a black sludge trail. He omitted the strange pony he met as he believed she had nothing to do with anything. He went on to tell her about how he jumped down the hole, falling a long way until he was suddenly lulled to sleep by somepony. When he awoke, he had found himself lying in a channel of water in what he thought was a cave.

"Gathering myself, I trotted until I came across the page, but then..."

"What transpired?" Luna pressed.

"I met the pony I saw in my mind, the one who put me to sleep," he answered. "It was a mare draped from head to hoof in a black-hooded robe. All I could see was her golden eyes."

Princess Luna looked disconcerted and confused. "A pony who put you to sleep, who had golden eyes?" She shook her head, casting something away from her mind. "What else happened?"

"She told me that she was an ally," he said, trying to make sense of it. "She had wanted to meet me so I could tell you that. She also said that something was coming but won't be here for a long time." He pointed to the page. "She informed me that there are more pages like that one, but she didn't say where to find them."

"The others could be in the affected cities and towns hit by the tremors," Bay Banks suggested, rubbing his chin with a hoof. "I wonder... Do you think this pony will show up? Setting up a trail for us to follow and hear her out?"

"Despite being a mysterious entity, this pony seems to want to aid us, in her cryptic way," Nebula said, sounding faintly annoyed. "Things are getting weirder and weirder, as if we didn't have enough on our minds of the destruction of the universe. Now we have this too."

"Princess Luna?" Agni said, gazing solemnly at his princess.

"I do not know what events are being transpired, but I have an inkling that things will continue to get worse," she said somberly. She sighed and stood taller. "Good job finding this. When Birch and Raven stir, we will continue our search. Agni, did this pony have a name?"

"Eldoris," he answered her. "It's a name I never heard of before. It sounds unnatural."

"Akin to Alexander and Nerissa's names, but this isn't an alien we seem to be dealing with." Her eyes darkened. "This pony is native to our planet, but it seems our planet still holds secrets unknown."

"What shall we do?" Nebula asked her.

"We continue our search: for the pages and for any other information about why these microseisms are occurring." Princess Luna gave a light shudder. "A part of me believes that this is only the pretense leading to something bigger. We leave now," she ordered. "I will carry Birch and Raven until they awake, but we cannot linger here; we have work to do. Come!"

As everypony made way to the skies, Agni looked back at the entrance of the village where Thaney exited. He thought about the pony the alicorn said she was taking care of, and he wished her the best. Then he took off into the night sky with everypony else.