Twilight Sparkle was very acutely aware of her breath, or the lack of it as it were, as she smiled softly and waved goodbye to Elfilis. It wasn't until he had left her study that she allowed herself a sigh of relief. Elfilis was a good guy, and giving almost to a fault, but he was also unpredictable. The last time she had seen him, Elfilis had gone from mildly exasperated to a wide-eyed stony general who accepted no compromise. Then he teleported to the moon. And melted apparently. And then he was back and making rounds to check to make sure everyone was okay, starting with Twilight.

Which left her in the awkward position of having to tell him that Swaddle-Dee had been in possession of the Elements of Harmony since the Discord incident and was partially responsible for the damage to Ponyville. Not that she and the rest of the girls weren't responsible as well, and no one could have known that Spike could- Point being, Twilight wasn't all that jazzed about being the delivery mare of that information. Thankfully, and Twilight felt a little silly for thinking otherwise, Elfilis didn't take it as an accusation, or poorly at all for that matter. In fact, he insisted on taking some of the responsibility. It was clear that he had no idea that the Elements had been under his roof, but she couldn't deny how much it helped to hear him apologize anyway. But, with Efilis's sudden intrusion now over...

"You can drop the illusion now Star." Soon enough, the mirage of her friends dogpiled on her bed and sleeping in uncomfortable positions faded, leaving only Star Vision in their place. Twilight idly made a note to herself to recommend some basic magic practices as she watched him rub his horn... Damn it. Carina was not a good influence. It seemed that the chronologically displaced kirin was out of practice with unicorn magic and was now suffering some mana burn. Though, Twilight wondered as she ran her eyes over his scale framed face, if kirins simply had more difficulty with magic as a result of their hybrid physiology. She turned away before the subject of her thoughts opened his eyes to see her scanning him and put kirin research on her list of self-study subjects. "So why are we hiding you and tricking Elfilis into thinking the girls aren't on the next train to Ponyville again?"

"I'm just trying to stay out of the radar of whatever seems to be following him around." Right, Star Vision's mystery stalker. Or at least his persistent feeling of being watched. He had complained about it a few times, but he had never expressed having felt it while in her or any of the other girls company so there was little they could do to help him besides ask hopefully helpful questions. In the end, he got the idea himself to use his Dream abilities to make an item that, as Twilight understood it, was enchanted to hide him from everything except the five senses. Twilight only knew it worked because she couldn't detect him with any of her spells. She only glanced at the eye-shaped diadem that rested on Star's forehead for a moment before returning to her own work. Mostly.

"So, if you're right, and something is tracking or otherwise keeping tabs on Elfilis and those around him occasionally through some unknowns means, shouldn't your headpiece prevent it from seeing you regardless of whether or not Elfilis sees you himself?" That was the part that confused her about the whole thing, even more than the idea that something had been around and watching them all for so long without any of them even noticing until now. Star Vision just shook his head a bit before explaining.

"I don't know if this thing works. I felt I only had the chance to create it out of 'sight' of the watching feeling when Elfilis went as far away as the Moon, and even though I haven't felt the watching feeling since then, this was the first time I would have had the chance to test it in a room where I knew I would get that feeling any other time. But it's still a test, or experiment or whatever, so I want to make sure things like sight wouldn't break the effect. Next time I see Elfilis I'll just go and greet him, and hopefully I'll be able to confirm that I'm safe even if he knows I'm there." Now, Twilight kind-of knew what Star was trying to do here, but at the same time...

"You... You know that's not the best way to test this right?" And Star, virgin science boy that he was, just tilted his head in confusion. "You're dropping too many variables at once between tests, and you're probably tainting results by getting the girls mixed up in all this. Not to mention some of the assumptions you're making..."

"Well, I was hoping to create something that could tell me when someone would get the feeling if they were, well, me. And then I could give them-" Oh this was terrible.

"That's not a bad idea, but doing two experiments at once with shared variables like this will, one hundred percent, skew whatever results you get. Come here, watch how I test my own theories." Twilight stepped to the side to make space, though Star didn't seem particularly enthused to take that space. It only took one more flick of the lavender unicorns head to get him moving though. The kirin shivered as his fur brushed against Twilight's but he had little choice but to pay attention as she began speaking. "So the first thing you want to do is write everything down. If you think you have everything organized in your head, you're wrong. Once you've done that, you want to break everything down into different variables-"

The day passed by quickly for Star, to the sound of Twilight teaching him the Scientific Method.

Queen Culicidae was sorely tempted to drink herself into a stupor as Delta (or Beta, or whichever member of the orb-like knight trio was speaking to her at the moment) parroted the news his master fed him back to her. She had known there was some amount of chaos happening, but she was eagerly awaiting the day she was able to hear the latest drama from other changelings who lived on the surface instead of having it drip-fed to her due to her own seclusion. As it was, she was annoyingly sober as the warden to her now self-imposed imprisonment finished speaking and waited for her acknowledgement.

"So..." The Queen started, "To make a long story short, the world almost ended because of aliens and the political powers are unsteady." The knight nodded, which was still odd to her as it looked like a whole-body bow as well, but he had more to say as well.

"Elfilis also expressed..." Culicidae didn't like that pause. The knights very rarely watched their words with her, something she lamented just as much as she found it oddly nostalgic. "He asked about the older princess's recovery."

Ah. That. The Queen suddenly found that it was hard to breath under the weight of her own body, her muscles locked up and filled with tension. Yes, it made much sense that the knight would be careful with his words.

"What-" Her throat was too damn dry. "What did you tell him then?" She had no doubts what he had said, but she found the questions leaving her lips regardless. Elfilis was the creator of the knights, their master in all but name. They obviously just spilled everything to him.

"We... Told him that Chrysalis was still adjusting to everything."

"... And?" That couldn't be all they said. Surely they did not wish to spare her daughter's feelings?

"That was all we reported to Elfilis on the matter of your daughter." Culicidae knew that reading this knight's expression was an exercise in futility but she found her eyes scan him for tells of a lie anyway. Slowly, reluctantly, her body eased and her breathing became less tight. And then she scanned the knight again, bewildered by the idea that it could go even the slightest bit against it's master's wishes. Her horn burned as the memory of Elfilis's hand crushing it against the back of her throne passed behind her eyes unbidden, and threatened to stay had she not shook herself of them just as quickly.

"Then... I..." Culicidae growled and closed her eyes, jumping from her throne. She didn't need to see to navigate to the exit of the throne room, but she still found herself frozen on the precipice. "... Thank you Knight." She did not stay to hear a response.

Her pace was glacial, as if to give her time to reconsider her current path, but she knew she would not be changing course until she hit her destination. The Queen turned the corner before she would have reached her own room, very dutifully keeping her eyes away from the hidden alcove she knew must have held another of the knights. More times than not it was the one that had lost its eye to her own spawn. All too soon she was standing outside of the target room, staring at the door that stood virtually unguarded. The air was warm, and while she could not smell anything yet her sinuses lightly burned anyway. Culicidae did not know how long she stood there for.

"... Just, come in already..." Too long was the answer. The Queen swallowed her nerves and broke the seal on the door, wincing as the stench of sweat and sex finally hit her, and no amount of experience or preparedness could change just how heavy it was. Regardless, she pushed on until she was closing the door behind her. And then she forced herself to open her own eyes, to look upon the consequences of her own actions. Chrysalis looked back, eyes sunken into her face and drooped with tiredness that would not leave no matter how much she was fed. Her green carapace that one might have once described as forest-green was darkened, almost returned to the solid black that she was born with, and was splotched with stains from dirty sheets. Even now, Culicidae knew, should Chrysalis stand from her bed and stop hiding under the blanket she draped upon herself, fluid would be seen clearly dripping out from under her tail. Her daughter's throat bobbed as she swallowed her own nerves. "Hey... mom."

The Mother looked into Chrysalis's eyes for a moment before she looked down at the ground. The floor was littered with various glistening objects, most soaked and destroyed in one of her daughter's fits to sate her addiction, but Culicidae still walked through it. Just as she had everyday for a month now. And then, she looked at the stiff sheets sitting upon a twice-ruined mattress (that was likely some unfortunate pony's stolen property), before carefully perching herself on the edge of it next to her daughter. Just as she used to years ago. And then, just as she had been doing for more than two weeks now, Culicidae forced a strained smile onto her face and asked:

"How 'bout I give you a bath?" Culicidae heart leapt into her throat when Chrysalis turned to look at her. After only a moment, eyes threatening to tear up, the daughter said what her mother had been waiting to hear for a fortnight.

"Alright... Thank you..." Her smile came naturally afterwards.

King Minos sat upon his throne, a wooden piece reinforced with metal bands that he had fitted himself, before throwing his arms out into the air and groaning as loud as possible.

"Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!" And then he slumped over like his strings had been cut and began running his fingers soothingly over the horns that extruded from above his ears. "What a fuckin' day, eh boys?" He heard some of his guards murmur soft agreements as they left, their shift effectively over the moment he addressed them. "Hey, I need one of you to hold off on kicking your hooves up to post the new orders up in the barracks."

"I got it, I got it." Minos was pretty sure that was one of the newer minotaurs of his army, but so long as it got done he didn't particularly care who got it done. The number of aliens (freakin' aliens man) in the country had apparently doubled in his absence before they stopped falling from the sky entirely. Standing orders were to keep an eye on any large groups of them and to carefully keep any stragglers out of the villages. Having heard from the younger pony princesses's boytoy however, Minos figured it would be best to help the little fellows (Waddle-Dees or Doos or something?) set up camp somewhere. It was gonna be a big ass camp, but at least they were going to be safe and unlikely to cause trouble, given he was going to be feeding them as well.

"... GuuuuuuuuuuuraaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-!" Minos's shrieking was cut short by the throne room door being slammed off its hinges.

"Watarya hollering 'bout now!" It was just one of his maids, a rather busty cow named Belle if his memory served him right, but a two-thousand pound bovine glaring at him was a sight most minotaurs knew by heart to fear. It was a very early lesson given to them by their mothers.

"Sorry! Sorry. Just stretching, I'll keep it down." Belle just flicked one of her ears and huffed at him before making her way across the carpet to him. It was at this time that Minos finally saw the tray she carried on her back. "Ooh! Is that my coffee?"

"Nah, s'fore the janitor. Who doya tink its for ya dolt?" The Minotaur King didn't pay her harsh words any mind as she walked up beside the throne and let him grab the large glass tankard from her back, filled to the brim with a dark black liquid. Belle had barely taken a step before Minos frantically stopped her and choked down what little he had begun to drink.

"Ah! Sorry, it's just... I usually take my coffee with milk..." Minos very bravely did not sweat as Belle's glower threatened to fell the monsters of Tartarus, and he very obviously did not let out a sigh of relief as she relented with a roll of her eyes.

"Big fackin baby our king is..." Belle turned to her side and presented her teats to the king, who carefully held his drink under a nipple and fumbled around with his other hand to try to get a good grip. "Yua kitten or sumthin? Quit battin at em an milk one already!"

"Sorry! You just have very... healthy, and moisturized nipples."

"Flattery'll get ya nowhere if that's 'ow ya dish out yer compliments... Leave sum for tha foals fer facksake!" Minos cringed away from the ornery maid as he finished making his coffee, which was now a rich brown.

"Alright, I'm done. Thank you for bringing me my coffee Belle. Ow!" The large minotaur hissed under his breath and rubbed the spot on his shin where the cow had kicked him in return for his heartfelt thanks. The last he saw of her was her wide hindquarters walking out the door while she hollered over her shoulder.

"Tha name's Bess, ya Facker!" The king sighed, cupping his glass in both hands as he brought it up to his lips. He didn't drink quickly, but he did not bring the glass away from his lips until he had emptied it. He breathed out deeply and contently as he finished, staring nearly through his glass in what looked like deep thought.

It was exactly as he had practiced it.

It changed every time, with different maids having different approaches, but two things always stayed the same. He always got his coffee in a clear cup and he always milked the maid for an inappropriate period of time. Anyone not in the know just thought he was a horny bull playing a rather absurd con with all the cows in his employ, always asking for coffee without milk just so he could fondle the teats of busty bovine women, but that was exactly what it was supposed to look like. It was impossible to see the invisible message inked onto his tankard without the chemical that all the maids oiled their teats with before fetching his drink. Once he knew he had wiped enough of it off onto his hand, Minos would cup his hand onto the glass and expose the message written backwards on it to the chemical now thoroughly coating his fingers and drink all of his coffee until the message was visible from the inside of the glass.

It was paranoid and extreme to a level that he knew was bordering on insane, but Minos always suspected that it was a griffon snooping in on his father's meetings that led to him passing on the crown early. It was hard to be king when you were dead after all. So now all of King Minos's important messages were delivered to him via coffee and nipples, with no magic to be detected. The message he had now was especially important this time around.

Sun and Moon are alive, confirmed
Ass is putting the Dee's to chain and collar
Birdbrain ignoring agreement
Lizards started gathering, weapons spotted
Waters are still
Lovebug search ongoing
Butterfly migration

Minos understood all of that except for the last message. That part didn't really belong with the rest, but he was still going to be keeping his eyes on butterflies of all things from now on.

"Alright," He said, standing to his full height and crushing the glass in his hand. "Back to work. Sleep is for the uncaffeinated." Minos brought his arms up above his head and actually began to stretch this time. "GrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!" He didn't see Bess coming until she drop-kicked him in the balls.

Old Hoof was an old pony, a fact that he begrudgingly accepted as much as he welcomed it with open hooves. On one side, he was old, and his boyish looks had long since stopped luring mares to... Actually that was a good thing too, given he never got married until he started going gray. Strike that one from his list of grievances. On one side, he was old and his joints have started creaking before it rained. On the other, Old Hoof's name was finally appropriate. He wasn't like the ponies who felt it was time to change their name when reach an arbitrary age one could consider 'old,' like the late Ol' Apple couple that used to run Sweet Apple Acres. No, he was born and raised as Old Hoof.

He used to be a smart little foal though, and even back then he noticed a relatively consistent pattern in their world. The Cutie Mark one gained and the special talent they would come to express nearly universally relates to the name of the pony. He spent a very long time chasing his name, doing everything from hoof cleaning to amateur paleontology, but he never got his Cutie Mark until he was well into adulthood. By then he had given up on finding it. He wasn't bad at anything he tried to resonate with, he could actually be proud to say that the fossil he found led to a minor breakthrough in the scientific community, but nothing he learned had turned out to be his special talent. He had made peace with it though, he had years to do so. So young Old Hoof would drift from job to job, learning various things and trying to find what he would at least be content to do for the rest of his life.

Then he joined the Royal Guard. His talent didn't have anything to do with being a guard, it was just where he discovered it. Plumbing broke down one day, and it seemed like a small leak in one the barracks at first. Then water started pouring into the Throne Room, and it looked like the Princess was going to have to use royal privilege to clear a plumbers schedule for the week. Old Hoof though, he just wondered why everypony was treating this like some major catastrophe, and he said as much to his commanding officer. This was a really easy fix as far as he was concerned.

"Well then why don't you go and fix it yourself wise guy?"

"Okay." He said.

And then he did. He only took out three walls and stopped all the leaks, and Old Hoof even made some improvements where he could. Mostly streamlining the piping with more modern solutions that hadn't been realized back when the castle had been given the first sinks. His captain was reluctantly impressed, but it was the praise of the Princess that let him realize his special talent.

"My my, if I didn't know any better I would say that you were an old hoof at this kind of work. Could I get your name?"

Celestia had an odd combination of mirth and apology in her voice for the rest of the day, but that was hardly what he payed attention to at the time. The Princess, hell, the rest of the world may as well have disappeared as he pondered the meaning of her words. An old hoof, a pony with a lot of experience with something. Synonymous with words like skilled, or well-practiced. Old Hoof, age twenty-seven at the time, felt the lightbulb click on above his head. Had it been a real lightbulb at the time, he would have thrown against the floor and screamed at it. Foalhood was very cruel to him, as all his peers discovered their talents one after another until he was the only one left with without a symbol adorning his flank. Old Hoof could appreciate the irony years later, of being told he was talentless and good for nothing for a significant stretch of his life only to find out his talent was literally about being talented, but at the time he felt like an idiot.

Old Hoof had the special talent of being skilled at anything he could feasibly accomplish, as if he had been doing everything he ever put his mind to for years, and he had used this newly discovered talent to great effect in the guard. He used it to go up in the ranks until he was in charge of the whole army, he used it to teach all the guards basic swordsmanship, he used it to organize the kitchens, and the cleaners, and he never stopped doing all he could to push everyone around him to be the best they could possibly be at whatever they needed to do to contribute to the castle's welfare. And he was happy, the way he had seen every other pony be happy when they knew they were indulging in their talents, and he got to do that all the time.

Until he couldn't. Because Old Hoof got old.

It was a bitter day when he realized there were some things he just couldn't do anymore. He could never use magic as an earth pony, but he had always been able to run through basics alongside the new recruits. Now he would have to stand on the sidelines and shout at them instead. And then he couldn't duel. And then he couldn't keep a steady hoof while signing paperwork. Part of the problem was how demanding the job was on his body, so he marched up to the Princess one day, ignoring the stabbing jealousy of her permanence, and asked to be relieved of duty (She laughed and told him she'd been trying to get him to retire for years). His next job was simple physical labor, but it was still much less tiring than his job in the castle. Until he dropped a crate one day, knee throbbing in pain.

So he moved out of the city and became a gardener out in the country until his back ached. Then he found work somewhere else as a tour guide to a city he never saw before until his ankles protested. On and on until the only thing he could do was walk from his new house in Ponyville to the griffon-owned bar down the street and drink liquor. There was a mare named Berry Punch who visited on occasion, who was second to none when it came to drinking spirits and keeping her wits about her, but Old Hoof was right behind her. Truthfully, Old Hoof still had more than a few decades left in him at this point, with most of his issues stemming from an inability to sit still and take a break. But he was still old, and told Berry Punch as much when the young mare asked him out a week into his stay. Turned out she wasn't so young, being in her late forties to Old Hoof's late sixties. Twelve years later and Berry Punch still looked like a mare in her prime, but most in town knew the truth and didn't look at them strange when they went out in public.

She has since stopped drinking, more focused on her own brewery she inherited from her late mother, but Old Hoof would still come down to the bar and have a drink on occasion without his wife. He made sure to never drink too much, and he made himself content with the company of other old ponies and the young adults excited to gag down a shot of whiskey for the first time. That part was actually his favorite, and that was how he spent his days, splitting his time between Berry Punch and the short-term friends he would make at the ornery griffon's bar. And then things got strange.

Things were strange for a while before he noticed, but it started for Old Hoof with a little purple puffball excitedly running through the doors of the bar, looking far too young to be anywhere near everyone and everything in the building. Hoof tried to shoo the likely young fellow away, but the bar owner insisted that he join all the grown-ups at the table playing poker.

Playing poker for keeps, with bets on the table.

Old Hoof grumbled as the kid unwittingly joined them, and prepared to beat the tar out of the griffon if they tried to make the kid's parents pay off some kind of imaginary debt. And then he cackled in delight as the lucky puff cleaned out the pot, beat the shit out of the griffon and his groupies, and bought the damn bar for himself.

"That's the best show I've seen in years kid! Lucky little guy arncha? That's what I'm gonna call you I think, Lucky. Fits ya right?"

"Poyo!"

So now he helps a debatable child run a bar called 'Poyo' at the edge of Ponyville, and he gets to watch all the chaos unfold in person. He got to talk to a pink pony/deer/bug hybrid, learned that Lucky's name was actually Toby, went to the Grand Galloping Gala for the first time in years, watched the Grand Galloping Gala get attacked for the first time ever, witnessed the city of Canterlot get possessed by an ancient spirit of chaos, met said spirit of chaos at the bar, saw a fucking dragon attack ponyville while an alien spaceship reportedly attacked the fucking moon, and now he gets to experience this bullshit.

"You sure you should be drinking that?" The black bug pony just kept chugging though, and the pretty light brown mare that came in with her just waved his concerns away.

"Trust me, Vinyl could be doing much worse things right now besides drinking."

"If you say so miss, I'm just remembering my paps complaining about flies gettin into his liquor and offin themselves. Said that if they were gonna steal his drink they could at least do him the courtesy of staying alive long enough to get out afterwards." Vinyl slammed her empty mug onto the counter, making Old Hoof jump.

"Ah'm nnhot ay fleeeeeeeeeeeeey, Ime ah Deejay, and a changlang, an a hot peice of ass!" And then she slammed her face into the bar top and recoiled backwards off of her stool and onto the floor. Where she proceeded to start crying. Old Hoof just raised an eyebrow at the sober one of the two. She barely glanced at him before speaking.

"Much, much worse things." And then she took a small sip of her martini, unfazed by the wails of the damned just behind her and to the left.

"You gonna help her or...?"

"If I let her hug me we're not going to leave the bar floor till morning. She isn't bleeding and nothing has cracked so she'll be fine until she regains some of her wits." Old Hoof just shook his head and went back to his own drink, but not before he got the last word.

"Looks like you aren't leavin then. Toby's already got er wrapped around his pillow-like body." He took a big gulp of his drink as the sober mare looked behind her too see what he already saw, Toby trapped in the embrace of a 'changlang' with no plans to escape the crying mare.

Old Hoof choked on it though, due to the loud crack that went off right next to him, as well as the impact of wet chunks of something pelting him and nearly throwing him into the bar top.

"What in Tartarus-" He couldn't stop his coughing, but he didn't let it stop him from turning on his stool to see the black bug pony replaced by a much larger white bug pony with blue eyes and a pair of horns jutting up from her brow like a tuning fork. Toby drowned under her bulk, but Old Hoof was more concerned about the body parts strewn all over the room leaking green fluids onto every surface. "Wut was that?! What did she just-?"

"She just got herself into a lot of trouble, as she tends to do." The other pony at the bar with him had fared much worse than he did, being covered head to hoof in dripping green compared to Old Hoof who only got the worst of it on his back. "She'll be back tomorrow to help clean up, but if you'll excuse me..."

Old Hoof could only watch in morbid curiosity and awe as the soaked mare casually stood up and slowly dragged the drunk and crying explosive out the door by her tail, leaving a long streak of neon across the floor, heedless of the fact she was taking Toby with her.

"...Punch'll never believe any of this shit when she gets back."

It was a good life.

Daring Do was used to dealing with weird adversaries and unlikely scenarios. There's only so many times one can be chased by a pack of big cats and a panther thing with a hand on the end of his tail while trying to keep hold of an ancient artifact of some power before it becomes depressingly routine. This was new though, and made Daring Do excited in a way that she only felt a little guilty about. She peered through her binoculars, safely hidden within her cloud, and watched her targets with great interest. She had watched them thoroughly search... Well, everywhere over the past week. Museums, pawn shops, abandoned mansions, soup kitchens, and ancient temples. Which is when they ended up on her radar. It seemed like a weird downgrade, to see them go from turning a ziggurat upside down to politely asking an elderly pony if they could see his family heirloom. At least, it did, until Daring Do realized how all these places were connected.

Every single one of them housed magical items of some power. Even the soup kitchen. So clearly these ransackers were making a mad dash for power or riches, right? The answer seemed to be no, which only added to her growing curiosity. They only ever took artifacts from places that were abandoned, even if they were significantly less valuable than the ones owned by living ponies.

As an example, the abandoned mansion was home to an old war horn of some kind. Daring Do would love to discover its history some time, but where it concerned her maybe-adversaries was the fact that all it did was make eerie noises all on it's own. Probably why the mansion was abandoned for so long, as it inspired stories of ghosts haunting the old premises. But when they talked to that old pony to see his heirlooms? Those were actually a more attractive steal. A helmet that gave its wearer the combined experience and skills of all it's former owners? Daring Do was tempted herself to try to take it off the old-timers hoofs, but her target contented themselves by nicking some homemade donuts and some fancy silverware when they thought their host wasn't watching them and left the invaluable treasure alone. That wasn't the typical behavior of a treasure hunter, but that was undeniably what they were.

So now here Daring Do was, sitting in a cloud, watching an airship from afar as its mousy passengers scurried across the deck at the behest of their robed leader. Best she had been able to find out, the well-dressed mouse was called 'Daroach' (which was totally an evil villain name, even if they might not have been an actual villain), and he was in charge of the whole operation. Or, at least she thought so, until just now, as an absurdly tall biped with wings attached to his head just appeared on deck without warning and called for the unhostile and unsurprised attention of all the big wigs.

"What the hell...?" It was risky, but Daring Do was named so for a reason, and that was all the excuse she needed to try to subtly push her cloud closer. She had to hear whatever they were talking about. It was a long process, not wanting to call attention to the cloud that ignored the weather and painstakingly pushed against the wind, but evidently whatever they were talking about required a lot of discussion. She eventually got close enough to hear Daroach's side of what was apparently a small argument.

"-and we spent so long getting out here too!" The big dude, who had some freaky looking eyes by the way, just sighed in response and began rubbing his forehead. Evidently he was tired, though it was anyone's guess whether he was like that already or it was the oversized rodents that were draining his patience.

"The Squeak Squad is still getting paid, you know that right?" That resulted in some cheering from all the little purple mice that acted like the grunts of the operation, but the one big mouse wearing an eye patch only chuffed out what sounded like a laugh as Daroach only got more incensed.

"Are you sure? Because the way you described it makes it sound like Big C was taken out of the picture during the whole moon versus aliens nonsense." Uh, what? Daring Do wasn't sure how to parse that. So apparently Dumbo the tired teleporter wasn't the boss either, and they worked for someone called 'Big C.' Or they did, because Big C was either dead or otherwise unavailable. Beyond that, she was just going to have to go find out if the moon was actually attacked by aliens or if that was some crazy over exaggeration or weird hyperbole.

"Then I'll pay you, you know that I can. You want cash or magic?" That got a snort out of the big cheese of the crew, but Daring was more wondering if that was also hyperbole or if the teal giant could actually pay with magic or magical artifacts of some kind. "Seriously, what's bothering you Daroach? I don't think you're one to scorn the journey for the destination, or something like that." Yeah, this guy wasn't the boss. Way too casual.

"Well you would know wouldn't ya? Ugh..." That implied either a shared history or an extended information campaign... "I just wish we found them before it became a problem you know? It was our job and we couldn't do it. Professional pride, you dig?"

"I guess, but you really shouldn't let this get to you okay? We were the ones to send you out here, and I was the idiot who didn't realize they were right under my nose." Okay, Daring Do had to admit at this point that she was a little uncomfortable spying on them. The 'Squeak Squad' were still in possession of historical magical artifacts that she should probably secure, but this felt more like watching a family dinner through their window than it did reconnaissance. "... Seriously though, you want anything? I don't know if I can actually make anything magical, but if it doesn't work then I could just pull some funds from my bank account. It's not like I use any of it." Awkwardness gone. She wanted to see a magical item.

"Hmm..." Daring Do was quietly begging for Daroach to say yes, her tail twitching as the mouse's look of contemplation deepened. "Well I've already got my copy of the Triple Star rod, and Doc doesn't trust anything he can't take apart and put back together... Storo? Spini? Either of you want to put Elfilis's creation skills to the test?" A smaller, but not small, rodent wearing silly shades on its nose appeared in a flash on top of the big blue mouse's head and chittered incomprehensibly as 'Elfilis' whispered something like 'Stupid, I made the Triple Star' but Daring Do was too busy holding her breath to give that too much. "Alright, doesn't hurt to ask I suppose... Spini requests, and I quote, 'A drill that will pierce the heavens,' end quote."

"What." Daring Do realized belatedly, as one hundred ears swivelled in her direction, Elfilsi was not the only one who had spoken.

"... Alright." Elfilis just looked done with everything. "I'll get back to you about that demonic drill or whatever later. I still have some stuff to do and it looks like you guys have company anyway."

Rainbow Dash yawned as the train rumbled underneath her barrel. She was laying down across the bench, but they weren't terribly well made in her opinion and were rather uncomfortable when one had wings... Or as she would put it, the stupid benches were cramping her style.

"These stupid benches are going to cramp up my wings." Close enough.

"Ya could've just, you know..." Applejack made several flapping motions with one of her forelegs, "Flown?" Rainbow just rotated onto her side and stuck her wings out into the standing space between them and ~~whined~~ make cool sounds of disinterest.

"I did too much flying and took too many hard turns chasing the Swaddle-Dude. And distracting Spike. These babies need rest." Said babies twitched in the open air, hanging stiffly from her back. "It's just like running, stopping and doubling back or changing direction is faster than trying to turn while keeping your momentum, but it's both more energy intensive and physically demanding in repetition. Not to mention that stupid hard bank I did, you aren't supposed to do those unless its an emergency. Even if you and your wings are super fit and healthy the force put on them can pull them out of the socket." There was blessed silence for awhile after Rainbow finished speaking.

"... I don't know how," Rainbow twisted her head to see Rarity giving her a look of... either consideration or superiority, but she was a friend so Rainbow was going to assume it was consideration. "But as much as I know you're an athlete, you walk into my shop sweaty and frothy too much to let me forget, I sometimes forget just how much effort you put into it. Oftentimes it seems like you and Applejack are just throwing yourselves at obstacles, convinced that the obstacle will break first." That got a snort out of Dash.

"That's only when I'm with Applejack. She doesn't like it when I tell her not to skip breaks bucking apple trees because she's at risk of splitting her hooves."

"I am not-"

"So I typically just meet her in the middle. I do get... over eager though on my own. Sometimes. Rarely. Once in a blue moon." Applejack just put her hat over her eyes and huffed at her, but Pinkie Pie giggled at her seat. How she never ran out of energy will remain a mystery. No amount of sugar could keep someone so peppy for so long.

"Hahaha, yeah. Dashy knows about all the things she's not supposed to do, doesn't mean she won't do them though! I remember this one time-"

"Pinkieeeee."

"Hahaha, sorry Dashie. It was a good thing it washed out though, right?" Oh, that's what she was going to talk about.

"Ugh, I'm just glad that company got shut down." Rarity opened her mouth, shut it, looked at Rainbow, tilted her head, hummed, opened and closed her mouth again-. "Ugh, you can just ask Rarity. This wasn't really embarrassing as much as it was disappointing."

"Alright then... So, what happened exactly?" Rainbow blew air through her lips, making that weird motor sound ponies made when they were thinking sometimes.

"I tried some anti-froth cream that was supposed to-"

"What-!"
"Rainbow, you know-!"

"Whoa, girls, I wasn't done yet! Besides you all already know... How I feel about it anyways." Pinkie danced- or rather, timidly shifted from hoof to hoof a little awkwardly.

"Sorry Dashie, I didn't mean to make this a thing." Wasn't her fault, Rainbow knew. That was just where the conversation went. It was true though, all her friends, except maybe Twilight, knew how much she disliked the frothy sweat she got when she really got going. It was natural, actually better than the normal more common sweating most ponies did nowadays. Only reason she got it was because of some genes her grandparents had on both sides of the family, and if that were the story ended then Rainbow wouldn't care. But, do any kind of standing out as a filly and one will inevitably attract bullies. But now she was an adult, and didn't really care what they thought most of the time. Now, now she hated her frothy soapy sweat because of the Wonderbolts.

There wasn't any confirmation, really just rumors, that many prospective members of the elite flight team were actually turned down for having the recessive 'froth' gene. Being 'too messy' for the team's image or some such. The team wore full body uniforms, but they were supposed to let sweat through, and... Well, none of the Wonderbolts to date have ever been seen with white staining their chests. No one had said anything during the young fliers competition, but Rainbow had hardly done an endurance flight then and didn't know how to ask the Wonderbolts if it was true.

"Yeah, so... Basically the cream used false advertising and claimed it was safe for active ponies to exercise with. Claimed it was Wonderbolts approved too. Waking up in Pinkie's shower was a good sign that it wasn't true. It wasn't all bad though, I didn't crash or anything when I overheated, and I was one of the ponies that got some money from the lawsuit. So... Yeah." It was a distinctly less blessed silence that followed this time, but it Applejack spoke up much faster this time.

"Ah'm not sure how that's suppose to be a funny story?" Rainbow Dash couldn't help but smile in response. This was the part Pinkie was going to joke about, but Rainbow knew the best way to tell it from her perspective.

"Well, the funny part was waking up in the shower with Pinkie holding me up and asking her if we had finally slept together last night before I remembered what happened. You should have seen her, she turned so red!"

"Dashieeeee!" Despite her protests, Pinkie was still laughing alongside Applejack and Rarity at the absurdity. "Haha, yeah I didn't know how to react! I actually almost said 'yes' because I couldn't think of anything else!"

"It's weird isn't it?" Whiplash. A familiar feeling for all of them. It was the feeling of whiplash one gets when they remember Fluttershy was in the room. She was looking over her shoulder and through the window, with a neutral expression that was impossible to parse. "A few years ago I think I never would have noticed, but everything has gotten... Strange? I don't know. Weather ponies lost any real control over the weather, except for maybe a cloud or two before everything in the area decides not to listen anymore. Cloudsdale shut down for a bit, and there were all kinds of rumors that the city had done something and were trying to hide it, only for it come out that they had been evacuating everypony before they knew for sure that the city of clouds wasn't going to just drift apart from under them. Not a month goes past that Ponyville gets an announcement that we'll be hosting the Summer Sun Celebration this year. Then the event comes by and Princess Celestia is kidnapped by an alicorn who turns out to be her long lost sister possessed by an evil spirit returning from her thousand year banishment, and Elfilis walked out of the forest that same day without any memories and wielding magic that is difficult for us to understand. And we saved Celestia and Luna using a set of magical necklaces that only we could use because we just so happened to be the right combination of personalities who all shared a friendship with each other, followed almost immediately by Elfilis uncovering a plot by a long-lost race of bug-like ponies to overrun Canterlot while becoming the boyfriend of one of said race's princesses. While he is trying to figure that out, Ponyville is visited by a magician whose arrogance results in the attack of an Ursa Minor, a dragon who wishes to nest close enough to choke the town in smoke, a kind totally-not-a-witch doctor from across the globe, a self-replicating swarm of ravenous bugs, and a pack of underground Diamond Dogs who kidnapped Rarity for her special talent of finding gems. Meanwhile, the changeling princess who was going to invade Canterlot begins to travel from town to town... raping anypony she can because it literally gives her strength instead of a dangerous and destructive sense of strength, wherein Elfilis uses his ability to create life to make a team of treasure hunter mice and a warrior that could conquer the galaxy to find and stop her. We got a little bit of break, where we could just be happy and prepare for our visit to the Grand Galloping Gala, which while a significant event was still supposed to at least be peaceful. Until it wasn't anyway, and the arrested princess changeling attacks and causes a panic, which results in Twilight burning a hole the size of an elephant through the castle grounds, and Elfilis taking the changeling through various worlds in a fight that ends with his realization that she was pregnant. Then we talk to a scientist of a species we've never seen before from one of the other worlds Elfilis can visit and this results in a new branch of science for our world that we never knew about in our entire history until now. Then Discord attacks, having been another villain from a thousand years ago, and he captures all of us while sowing chaos through the entire city. Twilight avoids capture and finds us and helps the Princesses, Elfilis, and Toby defeat the spirit of chaos only for Luna and Elfilis to reveal that the villain was also possessed in some way to be evil just like Luna was, as well as destroying our understanding of our universe for the second time. We had a real return to form after that for a long time, except for the fact that Star Vision feels like he's being watched, but that ended with an alien invasion on the moon and Spike turning into a giant dragon because he got angry while trying to help us. And now, here we are, riding a train back home and everypony's acting like this wasn't literally yesterday. It's weird."

"... Well... when you put it like that..." Rainbow could only look to her other friends for help, but they were more shocked then she was about Fluttershy's rant. It made sense, in a way, in that they hadn't grown up with her to see her in this kind of mood like Rainbow has. Like the world around them wasn't real. Like things would be better if it weren't. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen Fluttershy like this. "Yeah. Yeah, it is really weird. We've made it through though, right? And we'll just... keep doing that, when things get weird again. Like we always do."

"Hm." Fluttershy only stared off into the distance. "Maybe. I guess we'll see."

Carina made sure to still her movements when she felt Elfilis portal back into their room. She knew he'd be tired, and upset further if he realized he had woken her up when he went to do whatever he felt he needed to this time. So instead of talking to him again tonight, she chose to feign sleep while Elfilis curled back into bed with her. She couldn't help cuddling up to him though, ponies totally do that in their sleep. Everything could be addressed later, when things were not so tense and no responsibilities were resting on his shoulders. He was high maintenance, but he was heaven compared to what her life was before be bumbled his way in. Most would not think of the day their coworker was scared into leaving a trail as the best day of their lives, but Carina though, she just might.

She could feel herself slip into her memories as Elfilis whispered.

"We still have to talk later. I can't believe you told Swaddle-Dee to hide the Elements of Harmony from us, that was such a stupid dick move." What. The. Fuck.

"That little shit! Is that what Swaddle-Dee told you!? I'll wring his theoretical neck-!"

Definitely not the time, but Carina couldn't help but think Elfilis's look of mortification was cute. She couldn't wait to tease him about this in the years to come.

Because there were going to be many years to come.

She refused to believe otherwise.

Author's Note

This chapter a was a plastered brick wall. Not really because the writing was difficult, though it was, but it was also because of real life nonsense taking up so much time on top of my own nonsense. I solved that mess, then I went and got a kitten that is basically a full-time job in-and-of-itself. And I kept thinking about the next story I want to write, which does not help me finish the one I'm actually writing.

But, despite everything, I did it. A 'final' chapter. Obviously this is set up like it will have a sequel, and I hope it will, but that's probably a ways off. My next story won't even be on this website, as it will be non mlp related, but after that's done... Who knows? Maybe by then I'll have had a long enough break from these characters to be comfortable writing them again. Maybe I'll go on to become a world famous author before I come back to this.

Well. Probably not, but the point stands.

Thank you to everyone who has read this story, whether or not they've stuck around long enough to see this, or even if they didn't like it. Thank you for all the comments, whether they were praise or criticism or requests or suggestions. Seeing the numbers go up was a big motivator to continue, being the numerical proof that people enjoy my writing. Maybe not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but I'm not playing in the Major League anyway. It was more than enough for me.

Till next time? Feels cringe to write but clearly I don't know how to end things properly. Peace!