Simplified

It's been a little under two weeks since the last time Twilight and I had that conversation. And it's been even longer since we've spoken to each other. Every breakfast since then she's avoided speaking to me. She even made sure that my days were busier than ever before by sending me off to various towns and villages across the kingdom. What's especially strange is the fact that I've resolved many more issues away from here than I have within the walls of this castle. It's depressing to admit, but I guess that factor would be easy to do the math on when the only divisible number in that ratio is 1.

It's within reason to say that the more time I spend here, the less I find any pleasure in staying. And I'm sure she's probably open to that truth, just out of the principle of her sending me off to do so much. So I politely pen a carefully-worded response to her silence, hoping to explain to her that our close proximity has become a troubling issue. I also explained to her in writing what my future intentions would be, and that would be to move back south to Ponyville. If I'm going to be too much of a distraction, then I might as well do it in the place that has a lot less attention paid to it.

Funny thing about that is it spurns the first direct response I've ever gotten from her since that day...

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

...It also happens to be in the middle of a citizen rambling about some dispute pertaining to opening a military base out west. And given the context, her sudden outburst greatly confuses both the citizen and me. "Wait, you mean the protest of the citizens of the town?" I ask her.

"No! I mean you leaving!" She hollers. "What would it look like if you just decided to up and leave!?"

I also forgot to mention that I had wrote that letter like sometime a week ago. So this is all the more baffling to me. "Hey, can we talk about that some other time?"

"No, we need to discuss this right now!" She argues quite loudly.

"...In front of a concerned citizen discussing their protest to the military installation plan out in Silver Shoals?" I reiterate what we should be discussing for the time being.

"Fine, I'll hold the plans to install a Forward Operations Base adjacent to the town. I'll let you deal with the generals on that matter since we wanna get back to topic so bad!" She also gives out a direct decree to Inkwell. "And also, Raven, two-hour recess, all inquiries will be held until then. Dismissed."

Inkwell bows to the princess and walks off to carry about her duties while also escorting the guest to leave the chamber. Meanwhile, Twilight and I continue our argument. "Really, you call a two-hour recess to start an argument out of thin air?"

"I'm not starting one, you started it by sending that stupid letter to me saying you're going to move away!"

"I... you... we were... ARGH!" I facepalm myself wondering how her mind somehow formulated how this was the perfect time to strike up the band to sing her usual song of why I should always work in the royal capital as opposed to anywhere else. "You know what, I completely understand why you're single! You're impulsive, irritating, irrational, and unstable! How do you not take the time to talk this up with me during, oh I don't know, say BREAKFAST!?"

"I needed time!" She shouts.

"Oh and that was the perfect minute to pop off about it?"

"I was holding it in!"

"And that was the best moment to let that one blow up?"

"Spike, I'm not letting you go to Ponyville just to blow off all of your responsibilities because of you wanting to indulge in some deep-seeded nostalgia!"

"Oh here we go with that one." I roll my eyes at her. "What if I want to move there because that's what I feel would make me happier with my job!?"

"I know you think I'm being unfair, and that's fine! Your duties are predicated here!" She argues. "I don't care what you say, your job is here. Your home is here. Your life is here."

"With you?"

She gives me a baffled response. "Okay? We've always been together, and you can't just live on your own!"

"I was in the Dragon Lands for a month." I expressly illustrate to her.

"And look what it's turned you into!"

"The dragon lands have not changed me! If anything has changed me, it's you! I used to not mind being here helping you out, I used to openly accept that this was a mutually beneficial partnership. Back before you were princess of the realm, you had your time, I had mine, and I had a lot of freedom to branch out and do different things! That doesn't happen anymore! I can't stand being here, it's too stagnant, too busy, way too suffocating, and I can't even enjoy most of my week because I have no life outside of Saturday. I live where I work. I work where I eat. I can't even cultivate personal relationships because I don't get enough time in the day to take off to do that, nor do I have the privacy with a bunch of guards and maids being nosy while on patrol! By the time I'm done traveling, I'm dogshit tired and don't wanna do shit anymore. I can't stand it! I want to be able to be myself and live a little more, with the absurd amount of disposable income that I find myself literally eating on and shitting out on a daily basis! How is that living!?"

"Are you done?" She tilts her head as though she has every answer to what I've just said. "Spike, I keep you here because I keep you from embarrassing yourself! I know what you want to do, you want to do all the things that most others get to do at your age. But you have to realize that your life has more weight to it than most others. They don't work in a position you work, they don't carry the prestige you have─"

"I can give you six names right now." I interrupt, looking to give her an elemental example of why she's wrong. "And all six have this luxurious thing called a weekend. They also a little something I know you wrote the book on, they call this certain collection of individuals 'friends'. And I know you can only meet up with yours every once a month, but you can also choose to do the same thing that they're doing right now, and that's called 'living'. You should give it a try, you should let me give it a try."

"So you're upset because you feel like you don't make enough friends?" She asks in a simplistic tone.

"No. I'm upset that I don't get to spend time with the ones I do have now. I know you deal with that too, but why do I have to suffer along with you, like I'm tethered to whatever torture you put yourself through? Then when you're upset, you feel it's right to ignore me and shove me off to the side until you're ready to talk."

The shuffling of armor draws both of our attention. We look down from our thrones to see Solemn Oath standing quietly by. Twilight instantly puts me on hold as she addresses her captain. "Solemn, what's the update?"

"We're ready to commence operations out in the Everfree Forest. All units are in position to flank and detain." She says with a salute.

"Do what you need to, Solemn."

"At once, your highness." She says with another salute before turning around and leaving.

Twilight carries on from where we left off. "Spike, it's hard for me to adjust to you growing so quickly. At times, I wonder if I've done something wrong just by letting you go out and about. I get scared of what you might become."

"Usually, it the sheltered kids that becomes the worst off." I point out to her. "Just like you trust me to do the dealings of this country, I want you to trust me in being an adult. I also want you to tell me what I do wrong and why it's wrong as opposed to telling me it's wrong and leaving things at that. I feel like all the things we went through together, we at least owe each other that respect."

I rise from my throne, hovering by my wings. "Where are you going?"

"Pulling a 'you', leaving the conversation until I'm ready to come back to it. So yeah... later."

I won't even lie about how fast my heart was beating after I told Twilight that I was 'pulling a her' as I left. I was halfway expecting her to mass up a security detail to keep me holed up in the castle for a while. I don't put it past her, she can be petty at times. But it was nice to be able to exercise that freedom when I know she's all for doing the same. It's high time I start drawing my boundaries with her anyhow, she needs to see that I'm not for the hypocritical bullshit.

Instead of taking a train, I simply fly to Ponyville myself to work off some steam. My main target is the castle on the northern part of town, adjacent to the School of Friendship where the others work. As I arrive, it seems that many of the students are running about. Apparently classes have concluded for the day, and the teachers are all just looking over who's doing what, going through the grounds to make sure they weren't getting into some trouble. Hell, being that all the teachers aren't too far off in the age bracket, they're already knowing of where all to go to get it in.

I see an unfortunate couple being brought from the back of the buckball stadium, escorted by none other than Ocellus herself. She's smirking but chewing out the pair, encouraging them to find someplace off campus to get physical. Smolder flies overhead and chatters with the changeling for a while as the shamed pair slink away from the school grounds. As I'm flying closer, Smolder takes notice of my descent. "Hey Spike!"

"Let me guess, youthful romance?" I question the pair.

"Ah yes, one of the many walks of their becoming of age." Ocellus answers with a sigh. "They should try to find someplace we haven't used."

I chuckle over the thought of the students trying to dodge who was considered one of the most devious beings on school grounds. It's funny to think about them trying to experience adolescence, all while some inconspicuous rock or cardboard box is waiting to intervene before they try to get frisky. "Damn, I needed the laugh. I'm so glad to be down here again."

"Here?" Smolder quirks a brow at my admission. "Away from all the fun and life up there in the city?"

I scoff at the dragoness. "Canterlot, fun? I'd rather find out what the old Corrotto District was about just out of curiosity."

Both Silverstream and Gallus walks in on our conversation, the former speaking up first. "Uh oh, old Corrotto?"

"Careful now, don't want you getting questioned for conspiracy." Gallus jokes.

I shrug in response. "Look, I already have access to most of the records. I know what went down there for the most part. It wasn't fun or pretty."

"Yeah. I heard it was pretty wild." Smolder comments.

"More like pretty scary if that thing on display was something to go by." Ocellus adds. "All that metal clanging, I can't imagine going through that exhibit again."

"Yeah, so does a lot of the parents apparently." The dragoness sarcastically comments.

"Don't remind me." I say, thinking back to the past two Sundays I've filled in for Twilight. "So, what you guys about to get into? I'm pretty tired of being in the city, the rush, constant buggering, being sent to and from, it's a busy life. I wanna take things slow for a change. Hell, if not that then maybe get into a small little adventure. Maybe we can hang out at a bar around here tonight."

"Here? Spike, all the clubs here close at one." Ocellus brings up.

"Hell, it's better than what it was when I was coming up. Nothing stayed open past ten. You were either home, or you were working security somewhere at town hall. There was no in-between."

"Ain't much to do here either way." Says the griffon. "Ponyville's one of those places where you make the best of things with friends, and that's if you have them."

"Well it's a good thing I didn't piss any of you off." I answer with a smirk. "Now that I think about it, I don't mind surveying the old castle ruins again. There's some pretty interesting books we could get into."

"The Everfree Ruins? Ain't that where those weird guys in the cloaks were sighted?" Silverstream inquires quietly.

"That's literally where the treehouse is." Ocellus reminds her.

"Oh yeah." The hippogriff hums quietly.

"Well, it might be way more fun than sitting around here." Gallus answers with preference.

Ocellus mulls the thought before coming to a conclusion of what to do next. "I wouldn't mind a little mini-adventure to be made of it. We haven't done much together but party and spend money. Maybe it'll be fun to go down memory lane for a bit."

"Yeah I'm down." Smolder confirms.

While it's exciting to see that we're all going to be setting out to the old ruins together, I can't help but to draw attention to the ones of this social group that are being omitted. "Too bad Yona's gonna be busy, and Sandbar doesn't like to leave her behind."

"We don't need to use the elements today, do we?" Asks the griffon.

"Nope!" Silverstream replies cheerfully. "Next stop: The Treehouse!"

We didn't leave immediately after announcing our plans, having to wait until all the kids were moved from the school grounds before setting out for the evening. But when we did, I began to feel the bit of nostalgia with the whole process of keeping our eyes peeled for dangerous creatures like cockatrices, timberwolves, and cragodiles. And going along our path, we reach the crystalline bridge leading to the treehouse, quietly situated where the old royal hall of the castle once stood.

As we walk into the foyer, I find myself growing all the more nostalgic. I guess a lot of my personal development happened all because of what happened here all those years ago, eleven of them at that. Almost a fateful dozen have passed since the day Twilight was essentially booted out of Canterlot to go make some friends, instead of being coddled by a small group of classmates who didn't mind her staying quiet for the entire time. And yet all five of them stretched the purple unicorn I knew and held in a sibling's regard to her social limits. At first, they annoyed her, then their personalities grew on her, and her to them. They even came to the grounds where we all stand now, being the first in thousands of years to use the elements to save the world from an unending night.

Here and now, I stand in the company of four of the six newer bearers of that harmonious spirit. Their fates are more closely bound than that of the previous groups I've known. The group of ponies who have gone about their own lives, expanding their own paths and branching out to their own destinations. The group of humans who briefly bore the enchantment for the sake of saving their world and ours, they too parted from one another to carve their own paths. But even if that future is destined for this group, there's still time to enjoy them for who and what they are before that comes to be.

"Here we are, old magic treehouse that sprouted from a disaster of different construction defects." Silverstream calls out laughingly.

"Oh boy, the things we did while we were here." Gallus says with a chuckle as he nudged his girlfriend.

Smolder walks by the pair, reminiscing on the past. "Remember that one time we came up with that plan to unite all of Equestria's forces to save Twilight and the others?"

"Not exactly what I'd call good times, but it's a memory worth remembering." Ocellus responds. "Remember when we first caught Yona and Sandbar kissing on the balcony?"

Gallus giggled at the thought. "Poor Yona almost fell over when she realized we were watching."

"I remember how heavy she was, that's what I really remember." Silverstream blurts out, laughing out loud.

The griffon sighs in recovery of his moment of hysterics. "Took all three of us while poor Sandbar was about to burst into tears over that."

"Those two really made a life for one another. I can't wait until May." Says the hippogriff, hugging her significant other from behind.

"So they're making it official then? Guess I gotta start opening my schedule for some wedding plans." I say as I pull out my phone to clear my calendar for the month.

"Oh yeah, those two are definitely gonna have fun." Smolder states. "Though we might need to send a guard on a welfare check after three days. She might be an early widow if they're not careful."

Even as they go about talking on and on about their past, I'm reminded of the things I tried to have in my adolescent period, rather the remnants of one I tried to have. It reminds me of how little of a life I lived for the past five years, being sent off to work and trying to do my best to uphold the mantle I was given. I had so many unmet needs and wants, so many adventures I missed out on, so many days I spent everywhere doing everything but acting my age. It almost angers me to a point, but I really don't have anyone to blame but myself.

"You okay?" Ocellus taps me out of my thought for a brief moment.

I look at the many pictures of their social circle on the walls, pondering about my own walk in life. "Thinking."

"About?" The changeling prods on.

I shake my head, thinking about an old relationship I had with someone, how it all went bad because I chose not to have time for myself. "Eh, old stuff. Something I didn't have time for."

While I didn't tell anyone much of anything about myself, I did open up to this group of creatures quite frequently. They knew what was the source of my melancholy. "Ah... that."

"Yeah." Before I can go back into stewing, I feel the slight sting of an impact against my spine. "Ow!"

Smolder points a claw to my face and gives me a snarky smile. "What you moping for!? You got friends now, you dolt! You're right here talking with them now!"

"Yeah, I just wish I could make more time for you all like how you did with each other." I reply while nursing my back a bit, that shit stings and she's not exactly gentle-clawed. "I really miss being in a group that can go back and forth on stupid shit and laugh about it."

Silverstream nods along with an understanding. "Yeah, I can see why. It's pretty hard living in a world separated from everyone just because."

"Duty-bound for the sake of the greater picture." Ocellus adds. "Even if doing your duty feels like you're going nowhere fast."

"Always trying to live up to certain societal expectations." Smolder says as she hovers beside me. "It's hard keeping a face when you know you're different from what they want you to be."

"Not having anyone to be around that's like you." Gallus cosigns. "Not having anyone to talk to when you feel you need to express yourself in a certain way. Trust me, we've all been there."

While I feel upset for the moments that I wasn't there for, it's moments like these that warms me inside. They could've said from the jump that I was too busy to keep up with them, but they stuck around and guided me every step of the way when I had time. I reach out my arms and wrap around whoever's closest to me. "You guys are the best."

Smolder, especially being the one who guided me throughout my varying stages of adolescence, reciprocates the hug. "We're down two, but we're all here for you when you need it, big guy."

Gallus taps me on my chest. "And you know where we are."

As we all embrace each other, a voice from outside throws a bit of a wet blanket on all of us in the moment. "NO, YOU DUMBASS! THE CRUCIBLE GOES TO THE COURTYARD! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

The young voices are what draws our attention the most. Ocellus, already a keen listener, points out the direction of where they're coming from. We gather around a window to check out what's going on. "What are they doing here?" She asks.

"If we're quiet, we'll find out." Smolder suggests as we all stake out the trio of young-looking colts running around the grounds with some odd wooden tray folded in on itself.

"You seriously think this is going to work?" An orange colt with a yellow mane questions the leading figure.

A green colt with a dark green mane answers the question. "It's just like it says in stupid pamphlet. We put the thing where it's supposed to go, then we do the chant, and then we get to hear the new 'revelation' or whatever it is from the spirit medium, we become A-tier magic casters. Can't possibly mess this up if we DO WHAT IT SAYS DO!"

A third colt with a maroon coat and a gray mane speaks out. "So what do you think this so-called 'revelation' is gonna be?" He's carrying a saddlebag filled with candles.

"Don't know. Could be talking with the dead for all we know." The second answers as they carefully carry their wooden tablet.

"Ew, who wants to talk to a dead body?" The third asks.

The first colt grumbles with annoyance, carrying nothing but the aforementioned pamphlet and a box of matches. He's obviously the ringleader of the group. "Can we just get this MOVING ALREADY!? This place gives me the heebes."

"Oooh, he's scared of ghosts!" The second mocks with a cartoonish tremolo. "Will we run into some famed killer, or an old legend, maybe we might run into a murder victim! Ooh, or worse, we could run into that one guy who's name they won't say!"

We can all see the shudder running up the leader's spine from a distance. He violently snaps back at the pair of subordinates. "Shut it! You talking like that already got the others pussing out from doing it with us, now we gotta work twice as hard! Let's just hurry up and get this over with already!"

While they disappear into the ruins even further, the five of us begin to discuss what we just saw and heard. "Talking with the dead?" Silverstream murmurs. "That doesn't sound legal by any means."

"It's not." Both Gallus and I answer in unison.

Smolder rolls her eyes. "Guess we should stop them before they unleash some ancient horror on the world the likes Equestria hasn't seen in over a thousand years, like we always do."

"You sure we don't need Yona and Sandbar?" Ocellus questions.

Gallus denies the thought of getting the absent pair involved. "Not if we bust them before they get things rolling."

While the treehouse signifying the friendship of the current element bearers stands to uproot the crumbling atrium of the old castle hall, much of the ruins are left reasonably whole. The library, the old chamber that seated the parliament, the courtyard, and even the tallest tower once dedicated to imprisoning the condemned is still left standing. And though the stony bricks have mossed over, their features are still as well defined as some parts of the current castle in Canterlot.

The five of us quietly roam the abandoned halls of the Castle of the Two Sisters, they who no longer hold power. Our approach is quiet and stealthy on the account that all of us can fly. We're brought to a courtyard where there is a prominent stone sat in the middle. It's surface facing towards our exit is hewn and chiseled flat with a slight curve deviating away from the stone's base. But while it is grassy in appearance, it's centered place offers a grim suggestion to it's former purpose.

That stone is where they place their wooden tablet, unfolding the sides to reveal a circle with a set of old Ponish runes, those that no untrained magic user can decipher. If one were to start a spell with those runes without knowing it's purpose, all things could come to a quick end for them. And since the boys appear no older than being middle schoolers, this could gravely endanger their lives.

"ARRGH! NO, THAT'S NOT HOW IT GOES!" The leading colt appears knowledgeable, but even he may be just as blind to the consequences.

Meanwhile the third sets up candles to encircle the wooden block, the second helping while responding in frustration. "Well what do you know!?"

"I know what I'm doing! You obviously don't! Shut up!" The first calls out.

As the five of us watch the trio, Smolder makes a sarcastic comment of their interactions. "I can tell they're the best of friends."

"I can tell they have no idea what they're doing." I point out.

"Could be worse." Silverstream shrugs.

Ocellus proceeds to draft up the worst possible outcome. "This is possibly the worst-case scenario. What if they accidentally conjure up some thousand-year plague on Ponyville and the surrounding areas?"

Since her significant other has a better resume on municipal matters, Silverstream turns to him and inquire about their approach. "Think we should jump in now?"

Gallus visibly shows his displeasure. "I would like to, but our guidelines are that in these instances, we wait until they fully commit the crime before apprehending them for whatever they do, that is unless it's an actual act of violence or property damage. It's mainly to see if what's going on is really harmful or worth apprehending, for legal purposes─"

"Soooo we're just gonna squat here until they do something stupid?" Smolder quickly wraps up his explanation.

"Paws tied till otherwise." The griffon confirms.

An excited shout rings from the courtyard, sourced from the young leading figure. "HA! GOT IT!"

Gallus kisses his own beak and sighs. "Let the stupidity commence, I guess."

The pair of underlings go about lighting the twelve mismatching candles, apparently they got whatever they had sitting around their homes. The leader sat before the wooden block, rubbing his hooves together. "Finally! Limitless magic, untold powers, now we'll be the talk of Ponyville! No more of our families telling us that our magic is worthless! Now we're gonna show them that we can do all the stuff they teach over at that School of Friendship! Then we'll be the popular ones!" Well... Interesting and compelling motive, truly striking and not shallow in any way. "Quartz, READ THE INCANTATION!"

"Uh... Bronze..." The third raises a hoof as he voices his complaint. "I can't read it. I need my glasses."

The second pony facehoofs as he points back to the third. "Quartz, they're on your forehead."

The colt looks up at his own self, seeing the spectacles seated just above his eye level. "Oh, yeah. Thanks Ruby." The young colt places on his glasses, clears his throat, raises an unfolded leaflet, and proceeds to read from it in a forced voice. "Mystic realm of the great beyond, we come here now to open thy passage! Grant us the corporeal audience we seek, let us open the way to a brand new revelation from the great beyond! Oh mystic Aether, grant us the visage of one who dwells within your eternal void! Give us wisdom from beyond our lifetimes, and let us speak amongst your refuge! Let us─"

"Booooring!" Bronze groans with impatience. "Get to the good part of it already!"

"I'm not done, let me follow the stupid brochure." Quartz replies, adjusting his glasses in a stating manner. "Now where was I─Okay, right here. Let us be filled with your boundless knowledge! Oh great land of everything and nothing, heed my call! Give us the soul of that which no longer dwells! And let them dwell amongst us once more! Et singt vahm damælut!"

The pair joins in the chant after looking to one another with confusion. "Et singt vahm damælut. Et singt vahm damælut. Et singt vahm damælut."

While the trio continue to chant, the five of us stand by with quirked brows and visible bewilderment. Ocellus questions the authenticity of their ceremony. "They're reading this off of a brochure?"

"This sounds just as stupid as it looks." Gallus initially responds just seconds before the flames of the twelve candles transform from their usual orange to a green burn that started to draw lines into the mossy cobblestone of the courtyard, each zigzagging to the wooden block. The runes of the block begin to glow, emitting a bright light shining to the high heavens. A small but bright opening into what appears to be a star-infested void with ever-changing colors begins to manifest itself. The trails leading back to the candles change the flames from green to red. The entire courtyard darkens to reflect that same cataclysmic red glow.

I glance back to Gallus with a retort to his prior statement. "Uh... not looking so stupid now."

"Yeah, kinda looking pretty official to me." He murmurs.

"Now do we go in?" Smolder questions.

"Oh yeah, we're stopping this." He says as he flies out from cover.

"Et singt vahm damælut. Et singt vahm damælut." The three continue their chants, appearing a lot more panicked than before. They seem to be scared of what's happening around them. For Quartz, regret sets in on his face, while Ruby's eyes begin to glow, his head raises as he unconsciously walks towards the beam of light. Bronze looks over to see the unresponsive colt slowly marching onward where he felt he should be going and tries to hold him back.

But before things can escalate further than it already has, Gallus swoops in to interrupt the ceremony. "HOLD IT!" He shouts loudly to the trio. "There won't be another Et sing von dumbslut, whatever. You're done here!"

Two of the young unicorns panic while the third continues to blindly march into the light. "Quick, let's get out of here!" Bronze shouts.

"What about Ruby!?" Quartz asks loudly, watching as the young colt reaches his hoof into the beam.

"Oh no you don't!" Smolder calls out as she snags the zombie-like colt. Ocellus aids the dragon by grabbing his hind legs in the attempt to pry him away from the beam.

Gallus turns back to see both the dragon and changeling struggling with the boy still half their size. He glares down at the one leading the group. "What the hell did you boys just do?"

"I dunno! We just did what the guys with the brochure told us to do! They told us we could do something special if we gotten something called a 'revelation' from this!"

I jump in, asking the terrified pair their ages. "How old are you? What grade are you in?"

"Eighth. I'm fourteen!" Bronze announces quickly.

"S-s-seventh. I'm thirteen!" Quartz stammers nervously. "R-Ruby's in eighth, h-he's thirteen!"

The colt is lifted off the ground, but not by the means of the two holding him. Instead, his body is turned to the beam and levitates slowly into the red glowing light. Ocellus and Smolder lets go out of fear of being dragged in. "Um... guys... problem!" Smolder warns as the colt opens his mouth, sitting before the wooden slab. His horn glows a similar red color as a tall shadow figure appears behind him, lunging out at the nothing around it.

A voice calls from the darkened shadow, starting to take shape as a tall figure with a slowly defining shape. "Let me at him! LET ME GET AT HIM! C'MON! Let me pay him back for knocking me off!"

The very next swipe it makes with it's limbs starts to give it's shape more definition. The shadow develops fingers, hands, legs, feet, a torso, and a head. The voice is that of a male, and it's face begins to reveal itself from the darkness. "It's... a human." Ocellus points out.

As we see the man appear before us, his face showing uncontrollable anger, we see that his legs are still blacked out in shadow, very much still attached to the young colt that remains unresponsive. "Hey, you! Where are we!?" He points to me, demanding answers.

I'm hesitant, but I do give him an answer. "Everfree Castle Ruins."

"Where the fuck is that?" The man questions as he folds his arms. "Wait, is this that one place ol' dude told me we were at? Some Camelot place?"

Ocellus looks oddly back at the figure. "Camelot?"

"No, we're not in Canterlot, if that's what you're asking." I correct him.

"Look, name's Jasper, don't care about any of that shit! Thank you. I've been stuck in hell for the better part of some ages! It feels like a thousand years since I felt like I could breathe. What year is it!?"

The name Jasper is familiar at the moment, I can't quite put my claws to where I last heard it from. But he has a question and I'm here to answer it apparently. "Year 5 T.V.S, the reigning years of High Princess Twilight."

"The fuck does all of that shit mean? Can you give me a 2015 A.D., C.E., some shit I can understand?" He demands.

"I forgot human time measurements are parallel to ours, just the formatting is different." Ocellus states as she pulls out her phone. "Let's see, go to Google, what's today's date... Ah, okay. March 25th, 2022 of the Common Era."

"Aw fuck, I've been out cold for seven fucking years!? IT'S ONLY BEEN SEVEN YEARS!? THE FUCK!" He screams before making yet another lunge. "Hell naw, that Camelot place, let me get back there! I wanna get that motherfucker who stuck that damn knife in me!"

All of us are pretty baffled by the whole ceremony that's taking place, the fact that this kid hasn't moved in over five minutes, much less the fact that this human figure announces the cause of his demise. I tilt my head in the confusion. "Hold on, wait, what's going on?"

"You know, sonovabitch looks like me, bit taller, I think he had a ponytail last I remember. Pretty hard to forget his ugly ass face when it's the last fucking thing you see before your vision gets all blurry and dark and shit."

Ocellus slowly looks to me like I'm supposed to answer her question. "What did we miss?"

"C'mon! You know who he is, they called him some weird shit! Captain fuckface or whatever!"

Ocellus tries to put it together while I've already fitted the picture in my mind. "Looks like you, captain fuckfa─OOOOOOOH!" She screams out in shock, placing both of her hooves over her mouth. "I know who killed you!"

He nods his head rapidly. "Yeah, so you wanna help me get the get-back or what? C'mon, let me get one in!"

Gallus notices that the young colt is starting to show signs of responding to his surroundings. A soft set of grunts and groans indicate that he's getting his consciousness back. Even his eyes begin to flash back to what they were originally. "Whatever this is, it's getting significantly weaker."

The human figure starts to take notice that his influence is flickering out, his hands disappearing and his features becoming less and less defined with every passing second. The process becomes rapid, so he begins his enraged plea. "C'MON! LET ME OUT OF HERE! I GOTTA GET HIS SORRY ASS BACK, MAN! C'MON! LET ME KILL HIM! LET ME─" The figure dissipates into a black mass before settling off into a visual black ash blowing back into the shrinking beam of light.

The courtyard stops glowing red, the place appearing just as it did moments before. Gallus looks around to take what appears to be an indication of how much time there was with the spirit medium being opened and closed. "Huh... those candles completely burned out. Some of these were full stalks just a few minutes ago."

Smolder checks in on the colt, who falls asleep. "Who... was that?" The young Bronze questions.

"I dunno." Apparently his name was Jasper, it rings a bell but not in a way that's familiar.

"HALT!"

Just out of instinct, all of us raise our claws and forelegs. Swooping in with a small detail of guards is a pegasus donning the typical gold armor, but with a moon's crest on his chest. "And now comes the reinforcements." The griffon says as he casually lowers his talons.

The pegasus, Sergeant Humbreeze Highwind, approaches the griffon. "Gallus, report!"

"Bunch of kids opened a wormhole into another dimension, apparently one that lets you talk to dead spirits." He simplifies.

"Necromancy?" The sergeant questions before looking over to the two still conscious colts. "And by chance what are you doing this for?"

"We were told it would help us fast-track our magic! We didn't know it let us do all of that crazy stuff!" Quartz pleads emphatically.

"It was literally in the incantation you just said." Silverstream bluntly points out.

Bronze continues the trio's defense. "We didn't mean for it to be real. We just thought it was one of those urban legends or something!"

The sergeant approaches the pair and sternly gives them a firm lesson. "Let me break this down for you boys. What you just did is a SERIOUS offense."

"We're sorry, okay!?" Quartz replies.

The apology falls on unwavering ears. "Sorry's not gonna cut it. None of you are going home because you did this. You're going straight to lock-up. You're going to be questioned. That means you can't see your friends for a long while, you can't talk to anyone you like, you can't even sleep in a room without us checking in on you." He walks over to the sleeping colt and points to him. "You see this, the actions you all made has put his life in jeopardy, much less others. You could've ran across something hideous and far more aggressive. Your friend here would never be the same. You're lucky this ended the way it did, because if it was someone... or something else..."

"Please! My mom will kill me if she finds out I went to jail!" Bronze pleads once more to the unwavering sergeant.

"That's a rough sell, kid. You all did what you did."

Quartz pleads even louder this time. "PLEASE, DUDE! WE AIN'T MEAN TO HURT NOBODY! LIKE WE DIDN'T KNOW THAT WOULD HAPPEN FOR REAL!"

As the other guards gather around the pair, one other places the unconscious colt on their back and ties them down. The sergeant points them back to the entrance. "Take 'em away. And notify their parents." As the pair are escorted away, we could hear the boys starting to cry apologetically. Sergeant Humbreeze takes a deep breath and informs us what the three will likely be facing. "Few days of lock-up, maybe a week to scare them straight. But this still might see a courtroom, possibly more time. It's sad what these kids are getting into these days."

While I appreciate the leniency he shows to the boys, I can't help but to think about the absent party. "Hey, wasn't Solemn in charge of this op?"

"She's currently... it's hard to explain." He confirms. "She hung back for personal reasons. She's should be on her way here now."

I look back to the hallway, seeing the mare in her purple armor. "There she is." She walks up to us quickly, but quietly. I finally greet the mare. "Hey Solemn─"

"That was one of the victims..." She quietly answers without prompt.

While the others look to her wondering what she's talking about, Ocellus calls her out over it. "Victims of what? You heard him, the former captain, your predecessor, was the one who killed him! I think this warrants some kind of an investigation, don't you think?"

While her face is drained of much color, she slowly looks to the changeling with a distant stare. "You saw the exhibit in the Corrotto Museum, didn't you?" She looks away, staring off into the distant memories she harbors within her psyche. "It wasn't just about who all died... There's a noisy part of that tour you're forgetting."

She walks away, almost in a perfectly straight line. It appears that she's still in a daze, that or she's mortified into reliving some uncanny memories. Sergeant Humbreeze makes a note of her demeanor. "She has her moments when she truly shines. But not everyone sees this part of her. Some things from seven years ago still stresses her out. She's not keen on sleeping either. What we ran into today might be playing a part in her trauma."

"Does she need anything?" Ocellus questions the sergeant.

"Time." He pauses to look inward and rubs at his chest before giving me and Gallus a nod. "Well done, you two. Though a bit of friendly advice, try not to dig on this one too deep. You're gonna run into trouble."

As he walks off, Ocellus' ears flicker as a thought comes to her mind. "So..."

"Don't you dare." Gallus interjects before she could even get out her suggestion to the group.

"What!? He clearly says we shouldn't dig too deep on this case, so we won't." The griffon sighs, but a bit too early as the changeling goes on with her roundabout way of getting into trouble. "But he didn't say anything about the figure we just saw. I mean come on, a human killing a human on Equestrian soil, that's like the big one right there!"

Thinking to myself aloud, I fail to recall reading any documents relating to an incident like that. "I'll admit, I never heard of anything like it. And as long as it doesn't have direct relation to the big case of seven years ago, I don't think there are any records that would be redacted on the issue."

Gallus continues to be the voice against our growing curiosity. "Guys, it happened seven years ago. You know what else happened seven years ago?"

"Yeah, the Necro-Terrorist Incident. But we're not looking into that, we're looking into the mystery of why a human was murdered by the former captain of the guard." Ocellus is firm on the matter, and she's very much excited to dig into something new pertaining to human affairs. It's always been a thing of hers after all.

"That can be a pretty juicy story to read up on." And Smolder is almost her unofficial cheer section with the way she encourages her. "Maybe we can dig around, juuuust a bit." She says while pinching her claws together.

"No!" Gallus groans as even his significant other starts to give him puppy-dog eyes.

"Aw, c'mon, Gallus! We could do it quietly! It'll be fun!" She snickers and gives him a seductive look. "I'll promise to do your favorite thing after."

The way his nostrils expands tells me everything I need to know about her offer. I can even see his feathers shade into pink as the scenario plays out in his head in vivid detail. He then turns to me with a nervous smirk. "Buddy, pal... You still got level 4 access to the Canterlot Archives?"

Now it's my turn to take Gallus' place as the arbiter of denial. "Oh no. No. I'm not going back there today."

This time, it was Ocellus and Smolder getting on either side of me trying to replicate the same method Silverstream pulled on him. "Uh oh, looks like a certain dragon needs some convincing." Says the conniving dragoness.

"Tell you what, big guy." The changeling proposes with a tug of my arm. "We go back there for a quick run around, then we can head off and do whatever you like." She climbs into my ear and whispers quietly. "Maybe I'll even turn into a certain unicorn you used to crush on real bad."

"Her Rarity impression is pretty spot on." Smolder hugs on me from my left while leaning into my ear. "She even knows how to replicate every. Single. Physical. Attribute."

The changeling mewls in my ear, in the prime fashionista's voice. "Perfect in every way, darling." She blows into the nape of my neck. "Anything that changeling did to you in that club, dear... I can assure you my method is all the more.... sophisticated."

She gets an A+ for delivery, I'll admit. I turn to Gallus and admit my weakness. "We're total suckers, aren't we?"

"Vampire fruit bats are known for sucking less than we do." He deadpans.

"Worth it?" I smirk back at him.

"Totally."