Beside Herself

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1: Just another day
Chapter 2: It’s never just one job
Chapter 3: Remembering The Dead
Chapter 4: Just Another Night
Chapter 5: The morning after
Chapter 6: One Terrible Boss
Chapter 7: The Boat
Chapter 8: Welcome to Everfree
Chapter 9: Beside Herself
Chapter 10: Going Underground
Chapter 11: Feeling the Heat
Chapter 12: Guiding Lights
Chapter 13: Sunrise
Chapter 14: Sunset
Chapter 15: Bowling for Narcists
Epilogue

Prologue

Prologue: The day of Scars

The officer’s wagon eased past a crowd of confused onlookers. Mares held the hands of their foals as they gawked at the shuddering machine. The lurching car let out a shrill blare from its horn and nudged bodies aside as forcefully as one could be without injury. The crowd continued to stare yet part like a school of lethargic fish with just enough instinct not to swim directly down a shark's throat.

The city guardsman behind the wheel cursed under his breath as he navigated a sea of Equis, most of them being Nobles of the Astral race or the rich family of one. He imagined some had already contacted their lawyers or powerful kin with their complaints. How dare he attempt to reach the Palace on an emergency call? Surely he could walk the entire 80 kilometers from the station to the capitol building. After all, why would Royal Square need police when they have military officers to keep the order?

“What use are these gold plated dimwits anyway?”

It was their snobbery that brought him out here in the first place. None of the pages had arrived, no phone calls answered. Their silence was so complete the Chief ordered an officer to drive down to the palace and personally find out what, or who, was out of order. More likely than not it was just the Guard putting cooperation with the police at an insultingly low priority. Nothing new.

Officer RavenCroft pressed his hoof onto the break and felt his wagon come to a reluctant stop. He could feel the pedal resist as he reached to touch an open hatch in the middle of his dashboard. His palm cupped the tip of a blunt cyan stone that extended well into the engine block. It quivered with a resonant hum that slowly died down under his touch. The stone went quiet and with it all resistance under his break petal.

He exited his vehicle and ignored the barks of some overweight unicorn attending a souvenir stand. The car overshadowed the older stallion’s place of business yet he couldn’t be bothered. Without meeting the older male’s eye, RavenCroft unholstered a dense billy club from a belt around his thigh. With a tap to his hip the gunmetal cylinder came alive with a rumble. Jagged segments spread to expose whirring gears and lavender sparks of lightning dancing in between the lethal baton.

The unicorn and the mob behind him backed away. The ones that stood in front of Ravencroft parted to make a path to the sidewalk and a tall rod-iron fence.

The fence may as well be the border between past and present. Behind him, modern three-story buildings of brick and copper roof lined block after block while the land past the fence was wild grass and old-growth forest. Nestled within the trees was a massive longboat turned upside down and crafted into the main hall of Her majesty's palace. Around it were multiple towers with conical roofs and billowing flags at their apex. Industrial society across the street versus medieval grandeur behind kilometers of forest the every day citizen had no right visit.

RavenCroft turned onto a wide driveway that ended in a tall gate. Near it stood a brass tube that emerged from the ground and ended in a bugle shape roughly at muzzle height. Modem technology could carry a voice over kinetic wires, but the palace was a place that resisted change.

He leaned into the speaking tube and shouted his words.

“This is Officer RavenCroft of the CPD. Is everything okay there? We’ve been trying to contact the palace all day.”

He waited for a few minutes before repeating himself. No response. He leaned away from the antiquated device and considered his next move. He seriously considered falsifying his report and ending his day. Sunset was a few hours away and it was Hard Cider night at Hiccup's Bar and Pool. He didn’t get very far before hearing a giggle.

“Who the hell is this?”

Ravencroft shouted louder as his fist gripped the club tight. The giggle repeated itself perfectly, far too perfectly. It came off as a recording. It repeated with a subtle change. It almost sounded mournful, hollow.

A warm breeze flowed out of the tube that slowly rose in heat. A barely perceptible distortion formed within the hot air flowing out. He only stepped back when the air caught flame and the brass tube began to warp and shrivel like a dying sunflower.

He turned and ran back to his car where the heavyset unicorn stood with a scowl. The older male didn’t have time to utter anything before The officer pushed him aside. His eyes were wide with panic and his hands shook. Ravencroft reached across his dashboard and opened his glove box to grab a phone receiver with a thick cord as long as his arm.

A faded pink mare in corset and dress attempted to walk in front of Ravencroft. In her eyes was all the indignant fury of a highborn Astral prepared to give the young male a piece of her mind. She managed a breathless bark as he shouldered her to the dusty cobblestones.

No one else attempted to confront his mad dash to a street light a few meters away. His left hand groped along the poll for a hexagonal port. Once he found it he stabbed the other end of the cable inside. A hexagonal Jack locked into place within the pole. Small, nearly imperceptible gears meshed with others inside the recess. The chord quivered and hardened as small mechanisms made a solid chain of action and reaction from receiver to an underground network of kinetic cable.

“CPD, who’s speaking?”

A flat and disinterred voice came from the earpiece, the tone being a tinny and imperfect recreation of the mare on the other side.

“I need every officer east of the Palace District. Alert the Princess and her knights immediately.

“Hold on, Raven? Is this some sort of practical joke because if it-“

RavenCroft was suddenly distracted. Everyone was suddenly distracted. If the operator said anything else then he didn’t hear it. The sky was flickering. Blue sky quickly replaced by black smoke. Just seconds at a time, a separate reality presented itself beyond the Queen’s gate. For a moment the crowd could see guards with armor ripped off their bodies. One walked in a daze with a deep slash across his forehead. One crawled on the ground with claw marks down his back. In the very next moment all anyone saw was the gentle sway of treetops, all they could hear was birdsong.

The illusion finally broke. Panic spread and citizens scattered in every direction. Ravencroft was the only one to stand still. A hefty stallion ran headlong into him and bounced off as if the officer was rooted into the ground. He could feel his hooves gripping the street and his body rigid.

The smell of ash and the sickly yellow of the sky suddenly appeared and yet his senses were not shocked. On a primal level he realized that smell was floating in the air all along. The clear day, the peace of a banal morning was a lie made by something powerful. A magic only his Queen possessed.

The palace turrets were glowing with flame and spouting smoke as centuries-old pictures and furniture were reduced to ashes. Only the main hall remained, yet the right half of its large form collapsed and all the windows were broken.

High above the destruction was a figure that showed bright against the black smoke. Its wings spread out like a white bat effortlessly hovering on updrafts generated by fire. It wore a crown of nine horns. One spired from its forehead, two pointed backwards, four were short jagged spikes, and two curved like an ox.

The figure grew clearer as it sailed over the blood and misery below it. It was undeniably female. In its arms was something almost as big as herself. The shape was swaddled by a blanket that billowed unnaturally. It had no gravity, most likely a spell cast by the female figure.

It came paces away from him and landed with a dancer’s grace. One taloned foot extended and met the cobblestones. The other foot followed in a smooth transition from flight to accentuated step.

Between her horns were feathers that displayed a rainbow of pastel colors. Her eyes were ocean blue. Her feathers are pure white. Her short doe-like cervine muzzle was femine and handsome. In another world she could be the dragon incarnation of his own Queen.

The tall dragon leaned down and placed the covered shape at Ravencroft’s hooves. A cold chill took him over when he finally noticed crimson slowly spreading in multiple points through the fabric.

“Hello, my little pony.”

For such an imposing presence her voice had the wise and motherly tenor of Queen Celestia herself. Ravencroft could smell the Iron of blood and the weak moans of this creature’s victim and still that tone sought to assure him all was well. His stomach went sour, his legs grew weak. Not since he was a foal did he know fear like this.

A heavy metallic thud made his eyes twitch to the side. Some bipedal thing had landed on the rod iron fence and crouched like a gargoyle where its feet warped the metal. Blackened Draconic bones wreathed in pink flames looked him in the eye like a vulture to a dying lamb. The feminine shape and color resembled a famous Equis, one of the first Mundanes to be granted knighthood. Lady Pie, or some mockery of her, quivered with nervous energy as it let out that famillair hollow laughter.

A gentle touch to his cheek made RavenCroft focus back on the tall white dragon. It almost felt comforting before the wet sting of a razor thin cut began to bleed down his neck.

“Never mind her. None of my servants will bring you harm. You will be the messenger of my sincerity and my mercy.”

The white figure stepped back two paces as her leathery wings rose high. With one swift motion her wings came down with such a force the nearby crowd was blown off their feet. Ravencroft’s Mundane instincts kicked in instantly. His hooves pulled at the cobbles below him and braced against the rush.

The entire surreal situation left him feeling numb, distant. Even as the screams began his focus was on the form at his feet. The gust of wind blew the sheet away from a face he knew all too well, one on every coin in his pocket. The sun marking along her forehead was crossed out with a deep red slash. Her prismatic pastel hair was matted against her face with blood.

Ravencroft lifted his queen and carried her along the street. Blood soaked his uniform from two wounds in her back. Blood dripped from a limp arm where small sunburst symbols were crossed out. He didn’t pay attention to a skeletal dragon wreathed in white flames as it slashed a fat unicorn’s face with a single swipe. He didn’t turn his head as a Pegasus was forced onto his stomach by a lavender monster. How the Pegasus’s shirt was ripped clean off his body before claws ran over the twin musical notes depicted on his shoulder blades.

He wouldn’t be harmed, that’s what she promised.

Chapter 1: Just another day

Chapter one: Just another day

The low drone of a steamboat’s horn echoed in the distance, the sound of it just louder than rumbling autos and the chatter of passers-by. From tall windows came cornflower blue light nearly as cool as the misty air swirling outside. Hello soon to another morning, another hangover, and another day’s honest work. Eventually.

Eight paces from the foot of her bed sat a squat wooden table littered with cables, tools, and a particular sort of glass box. To the left and right of this box were thick metallic plates studded with switches and dials, grills and radio parts. From it came a faint ticking, then came a chime.

Lights began to flicker along the sides and cables twitched like startled serpents. A quiet hum sounded. Within the glass box a pile of gray sand began to swirl and rise up. Gray hues parted like paint unblending itself into its base colors as shapes began to manifest. The ambiguous mass took the form of a stallion's body from the chest up complete with tie and military buzz cut.

His lips began to move as a slightly distorted voice began to speak.

“Breaking news. A level green incursion in the village of Everfield was defeated as of 0500. Local juncture 5 was accessed by outside forces with fifteen drones entering before staff could properly shut the juncture down. Unfortunately for the drones, they decided to invade relatively close to the farm of none other than Lady AppleJack herself. We now go live to Apple Valley Acres with our roving reporter Silent Stride.”

The sand swirled like a nest of angry bees before forming into two smaller figures standing in front of a large rustic farmhouse. A lanky mare in a raincoat stood as water ran down the yellow slick surface, a bulky microphone extended towards a taller dark-orange mare with long blond hair.

“Listen, it’s the ass-crack of dawn and I got things to do. The bone-dragons are over yonder, pieces of them anyway. Get yer' pictures and get."

The smaller mare began to belt out questions as Applejack turned away. The highly toned Knight was dressed only in a thin tank top and white panties. Each clinging to her rain soaked form. Her only official comment was the back of her raised hand and a single finger. The point of view then hastily focused on the reporter who stammered out her words while shivering in the cold rain.

“Queen Regent Twilight is still offering a bounty of 5 million Bits for an active skeletal drone and knighthood for the defeat of the infamous-“

The thump of a rubber ball hit the attic floor and ricocheted off the window seal, ceiling, finally smashing into a toggle switch along the box’s left side. The silence assured her the box was either off or broken. To a hungover mind both were equally fine.

Arcane’s hand slowly lowered back down as her blue eyes stared up to the angled roof of her attic bedroom. Her body didn’t want to move, her head swam with ache and remains of vertigo. She stirred and slowly rose up as a tangle of wavy pink hair obscured her white face.

A blurry black blotch caught her hazy eyes. She squinted and focused on the far edge of her headboard where a pair of panties hung.

She reached out and snatched the underwear up. They were not hers. For one, they were black and lacy. More importantly, they lacked a certain amount of room in the front for mares like herself. She looked them over and a small folded note fell from the crotch.

“Bless, I’m so sorry! I was with your sister last night and I think we had too much wine. Why didn't you introduce us earlier? Either way, pass on my gift for me, if that’s not too weird? Is it? - Vanilla Sky.”

She crumpled the note into a tight little ball clenched in her hand. Her eyes stared at nothing as she reserved herself to a life she didn’t accept, but found little point in wasting her frustration against. This wasn’t her first drunken hookup. It wasn’t even her first this month. Stallions, mares, it honestly didn’t matter when she was in that particular state of mind.

Her hand opened to let the now tightly compressed bead of paper roll into the wastebasket. No need to regret her temporary lapse of sound judgement nor feel ashamed of what she would repeat eventually.

Let the mistakes wait for a while.

Her dark grey hooves met the wood floor and legs hoisted her aching frame upright. One long stretch let out a series of pops that felt far better than they sounded. Her twenty five year old body was tested and thankfully survived another day outside of ‘nag status’.

She silently thanked Celeste. Her compromised state had the mind to wash up after last night's events. The smell of sex was only faint this time. Nevertheless, she felt the need for another bath. A hot bath.

Between the path from bed to bath was a bronze Pneumatic pipe that traveled from the floor and bent up to the ceiling. At chest height was a junction box with a glass window and basket. The window popped open as a hidden mechanism forcefully kicked out one of several glass tubes with an amusing ‘pop’ before the window slapped shut.

She grasped the tube and twisted its rubber stopper off with yet another ‘pop’. Inside was small leaflets of yellow carbon paper. One read ‘leaky faucet in lab 2’. Another said ‘Brownies in the kitchen’, this one giving her a smirk. Finally, one that made her ears fold against her skull.

“Wonderful…”

She tore off the lower left corner of each paper and rolled them back into the tube before sending it back into the system. Whoever was on the other side would know each message was received. In the meantime, the porcelain claw bathtub, which she hauled upstairs herself, awaited.

Of course, she never could afford her own porcelain claw bathtub. This was a relic belonging to ‘Lord StarPelt the third’, last in the long line of shipping magnates belonging to a bygone era. In fact, everything here once belonged to a now mostly extinct lineage of nepotistic Astrals that drained their fortune and practically ruined the town they established. Arcane’s boss won it in an ERS auction a year after StarPelt VII washed up along the shore, most of him at least.

On a small dressing table lay a partial gauntlet Arcane cobbled together in her early teens. Copper armor plating covered a fingerless leather glove, useless for digits yet covered the knuckles just fine. However, punching wasn't the main function of this particular sort of glove. Along the backside of the palm was a plate with three recesses, and inside said recesses were fuses.

These weren't the sort of fuses you would find in a breaker box, in fact, the likes of Edison or Tesla didn't exist in her world. These were fuses made to prevent a far more detrimental sort of power surge. A small metallic board with microscopic gears crafted from crystal within a copper capped glass tube, all made more fragile than the components within the glove so they may break before the user does.

Of course, the younger Arcane didn't make the fuses. Those were store-bought. As for the glove? That was a labor of love, a ‘borrowed’ Tap Glove she disassembled and reverse-engineered, and the ‘permanently borrowed’ parts from a rich Stallion’s car radio.

She slid the glove onto her left hand before tapping it with her right knuckle. The fuses began silently whirring as diamond-like gears began to shimmer with every color. A deep breath steadied her as she remembered her studies. She imagined water in all its minute detail. Hydrogen and oxygen bonds, heat and its physical mechanics. For convenience, a long dead Astral one put the science lesson into a poem, what many would call a ‘spell’. The fuses in her glove began to glow and an invisible pulling could be felt down her arm.

Her hand spread and she could see it. A faint glow with odd words floating in the air just above the bathtub. From air formed a marble of water that grew in size. It wafted steam as water poured into the bath from that otherwise impossible source. She relaxed her fingers, the fuses dimmed. She thanked Celeste that nothing exploded.

She slid the glove off with trembling fingers. Her hand would be numb and weak for a few minutes, but it beat having to boil water.

She put the glove back and used her hand to test the result. It was perfect for tea yet far too steamy to bathe in just yet. Come to think of it, It literally was tea onceh. Her mind wandered to breakfast and next she knew her bath was full of earl gray.

She passed the time by giving into anxiety and did a superficial self diagnostic of sorts. Another of Lord Starpelt’s forfeited treasures leaned on a support beam near her bath. The tall gilded mirror had discolored patches on its silver surface yet otherwise cast a perfect reflection back. In the frame, a white mare gazed back with wavy ringlets of pink mane framing pale blue eyes.

Mundane blood gifted her with tone and matronly curves despite underutilizing her natural and supernatural qualities. She wasn’t Lady Applejack nor did she aspire to be. No hulking muscles or legs that could crack a tree in half. Nothing that justified the belief Mundanes were all brawn and no brains.

She turned to her side and looked over her wide hips. Hanging between them was a pink length. In terms of size it was average for her breed. Unlike her ancient four-legged cousins it didn’t sport a giant flare nor rest in a sheath. Behind it was her softly coated vulva, her particular chemistry sparing her from the need for external testicles. How stallions dealt with two giant weak points between their thighs she’ll never know.

To her relief she was free of disease or new potential scars. Her Mundane qualities would rid herself of both in time, but it was still a gamble. Having an accelerated healing factor also meant her body was taxed higher. Every power had a price, and some didn’t come cheap.

She felt the water again and concluded it was safe enough to slide in. She paused to look at that symbol on her hip and three gray gear symbols on the back of her calf. Every Mundane was born with marks on their limbs, but the symbol on the hip came with puberty. The former marked your race, the latter marked your fate in an annoyingly vague way. Her hip-mark was an eight pointed star with a swirling dark cloud covering the star’s lower point, this framed within an eight-toothed hollow gear. Light and Dark in constant conflict. How damn poetic.

After a bath that admittedly took too long she covered her body, and most importantly her fate-mark, in a tan jumpsuit completed with a tool laden belt. It wasn’t fancy nor did it need to be. She wasn’t a doctor or anything important here, just a handymare.

She descended stairs onto the second floor of a once-lavish mansion. What was once an obscene amount of living space was now a series of laboratories and examination rooms. Each room branched from a long corridor of green fabric Flüer de lis wallpaper and ancient bronze sconces. Each sconce being retrofitted with amber stones that filled the space with warm light.

Mares in starched nurse uniforms escorted various patients into ten of the fifteen available rooms, most in their forties. One patient that stood out was a child that couldn’t be any older than seventeen. Most of his weight was leaned onto a middle aged mare in a dress as they climbed a final step at the opposite end. He nearly tripped on his own hoof before male nurse swept in and carried the boy like a foal.

She couldn’t see the kid clearly from where she stood and shamefully thanked Celeste for it. She didn’t need those details. The poor male had deep scars down his arms and legs. These scars resulted in a form of wasting sickness unique to Mundanes like herself. This, and two other ailments, were common throughout this clinic.

She heard the creak of a door behind her followed by the ‘click, click, tap’ of two hooves and a cane heavily leaned on. The scent of musky cologne invaded her nostrils.

“He was only three when it happened.”

A gravelly voice spoke behind Arcane before the stallion it belonged to walked beside her. The black male was only forty nine yet looked four decades older. His spine remained straight and emaciated face was defiant, but time and the wasting had taken their toll.

Arcane turned to look at RavenCroft’s face. It's true she hated meeting another Equis’ gaze, but looking at his face was preferred over seeing that bony waste of a body that was barely hidden under his a black suit.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Her voice was faint and her throat was dry. Only after a few moments did she fully look away from him. She couldn’t meet his eyes. There wasn’t a hint of sympathy in Ravencroft’s gaze. Every waking moment was the cure for him, and any sort of happiness or contentment was a waste of time.

“I hope you are. The poor boy had to wait since yesterday to be seen. A few hours after your shift we had a nasty power surge.”

“I got the message. An intern tripped and struck the generator?”

He gave a simple nod and let silence fill in the rest.

“I’m sure she said it was an accident.”

He gave a bitter little laugh, “Of course she did. Thank Celeste only one patient was being seen. Miss Summer Breeze. Poor dear couldn't handle crowds so I permitted her in after hours. She’s in our overnight room if you have a moment.”

She looked him over with a scowl.

“I can tell when I’m being manipulated.” She said almost in a whisper.

“No, Bless. I’m absolutely transparent. Fifty thousand bits. You can tell me if you’re interested later tonight. If not, be a dear and tell your friends about the offer. Otherwise, I’ll just do it myself. Just use your gift to tell me how she's doing, then come to me and we’ll make it all nice and official. Sounds fair?

She didn’t respond. She didn’t want to give the lead-hearted bastard the benefit of a straight yes or no. All she wanted to do was get lost into work and disappear while the sky was still bright.

Chapter 2: It’s never just one job

Chapter Two: It’s never just one job

Imagine if someone said ‘Don’t think of a white elephant’. Of course that image would pop into your mind instantly. Probably did right now. That’s how Arcane’s little ‘gift’ behaved sometimes.

Every Equis had a gift. Normally it manifested during puberty. Some Celestials could fly at mach speeds or be completely silent. Some Astrals had outstanding affinity in a particular form of magic. Often this was a component of fate, something so significant that it was tied to the equis’s very name. For example, the Legendary Silver Crescent was a Celestial who could turn her wings into a sharp blade and cleave stone in half. Others like Regent Queen Twilight were a bit more cryptic. “Twilight Sparkle” refers to a primordial element of Beginnings. Of course, the five-year-old Twilight wouldn’t know what sort of Beginning she would spark until fate brought her together with a group of unlikely friends that would eventually rebuild the Royal Guard.

The gift of Arcane Gears was far more utilitarian than stone-cutting wings or outstanding leadership skills. With some effort she could block it out and see the world as everyone else could, but if her focus slipped, her senses were assaulted with information. Soft lights ran through the walls where cables were hidden. Lines ran up and down other Equis that mapped out their nervous systems. Even if their powers were dormant she could see wings on the back of Celestials and the tall horns of Astrals. It all appeared as ghosts superimposed on reality, all of it passing through solid objects to no effect.

The “Scared” were painful to look at. She focused on the ground as she walked down the hallway. The child now being helped onto a wheelchair by her mother was fifteen doors away from her, but she still couldn't stomach looking. The hidden lines of his nervous system were frayed along prominent gaps and the light in his Mundane limbs, which should be brighter than any adult, flickered like a neon bulb on the verge of burning out. If it were just visual then perhaps she could get used to it. Seeing damage like that made her own body feel weak. Often it was to the point she had to clench and relax her hands over and over just to assure her own strength remained.

“Bless. Hey, Bless?!”

She paused mid-step as a nasally male voice spoke up from Exam Room 7. She let out a soft sigh and promised herself not to show revulsion on her face as she turned and gave her best fake smile.

“Yes, StarBright?”

A yellow stallion five years her junior gave a laugh that sounded like a torchered squeak toy. Across his scrawny shoulders was a white lab coat that didn't fit him for two reasons. Along his forehead was the mark of a four-point starburst, in other words, Astral. Of course, it wasn't his race she hated. The privilege it often came with curdled her blood. The little shit had his degree practically handed to him. The Goddess knew why he was tolerated. Best guess? His Daddy paid Mr. Ravencroft’s rent.

“Bright Star. My name is BrightStar.”

She didn't acknowledge the correction and continued to smile ‘kindly’.

“So, what can I help you with?”

She followed the stallion into his office as he began to talk about a glitch in his display. She looked around idly as BrightStar used technical terms he knew nothing about. She stopped when she saw BrightStar had a patient. She kept the older astral mare in the corner of her eye and unsuccessfully ignored their presence. The cornflower blue mare was perhaps thirty at the oldest yet looked lost in her own mind. Arcane’s gift forced her to feel the middle-aged mare’s fragmented and Alzheimer’s-addled mind. She finally gave in and looked the patient in her unfocused eyes. Two broad bands of bald skin ran from one temple to the other with a notch taken from the bridge of her nose. Frayed nerves that webbed up her forehead flickered painfully through the lense of Arcane’s ‘gift’.

“Look over here. I can barely tell what that is.”

BrightStar pointed at a random place within a glass box mounted to the green wall. Like the one in her room, this display had thick metal plates along the side which hummed with power. From the left panel snaked out a thick cable leading down to a podium with a full keyboard and directional arrow keys. From there was a cable that led to a large steamer trunk, and attached to that was the chair the patient sat.

Arcane looked at the display skeptically. Inside floated a three dimensional bust of his patient, only minus her skin. The exposed muscles and skull displayed a complex pattern of nerve tissues that snaked from the base of her skull until meeting to a point between her eyes.

The damage could be seen plainly. The severed ends of nerves made out the path of her scars in the form of void. What the under-trained doctor had before him was a puzzle to be solved due to the limits of current science.

The patient laid back in a padded chair with six thick metallic plates. Four were folded back and dormant, two framed her head and hummed with energy. On a nearby table was a single spent syringe made of glass and metal, the contents now swimming inside the mare’s bloodstream. Within a saline solution were nano-scale orbs made to interlock and form an artificial nervous system of sorts. All they needed were instructions provided by the resonant plates framing her skull.

There was just one problem. The artificial nerves could bridge connections between neurons and encourage healing, but were crude imitations at best. To do what evolution mastered millions of years ago they needed to patch it with something that transferred power in potentially fatal amounts. A seizure with nerve damage was the best case scenario for a treatment gone wrong. The worst case scenario was significantly more cataclysmic.

Three years ago everyone with a working tongue said the words “There is a hole in Golden Hills”. This phrase was uttered with the same cadence and tone no matter the race, language, or age. However, nobody could say what it was or why it was said, not until several oddities became apparent. A particular point on maps became painful to look at. Specific routes along the southern countryside became unnavigable. Entire families and members of extended families either didn’t exist or their names were missing from all records both personal and official.

All we know of the village comes from unsent mail found in post offices adjacent to the anomaly. Letters bound to unnamed Equis speak of entire lives that no longer exist, their Destinations left blank except for the Country and County Golden Hills was believed to reside. Among the thousand or so is a frantic letter begging an unnamed colleague to reconsider an experimental treatment. Though conjecture it is believed the unnamed colleague planned to instruct a young Astral to cast as many spells as possible while under aggressive treatment. He or She believed exhausting the patient’s magic would counteract overload. It, apparently, had the opposite effect.

“I need you to look at her.”

Bright Star mumbled his words quietly, cleared his throat, and repeated himself when Arcane didn't respond.

“I don't have a medical license.” Arcane whispered flatly.

“So? I know you can see her nerves better than this machine. Just give me a clue, anything.”

“N-no. I help, she dies, and I'm locked in a dungeon.”

“Die? You know that's not the worst-”

“It's fine. Twenty milligrams of serum isn't enough for a Golden Hills scenario. Just use the torso plates to guide the serum into her liver. It will break down in a few weeks.”

Bright Star fell silent.

“How much did you use?”

“I got the syringes mixed up.”

“Mixed?”

“It's… I used a dose drawn for a Mundane.”

“You used eighty milligrams… On an Astral?!”

Arcane hissed out in a whisper she desperately wanted to scream.

She turned to the chair and flipped the four remaining plates into active mode before rushing to the console. BrightStar stood there stunned with a question that wouldn’t come out of his lips as Arcane rushed over to the console and began tapping out a short series of commands. On hitting ‘enter’ the display showed small arrows coursing down the Astral patient. Under this was a glittering of red lights indicating where the serum was in her bloodstream. Slowly but surely these little dots were converging down to the patient’s left leg.

“You said you don't have a medical licence!”

Arcane turned to him and cupped his shoulders as her blue eyes burned into his. She did all she could to control her strength, yet the grimace on his face suggested her grip was rather painful. Not that she felt any guilt for it.

“I don't need a licence for an oil change. Go to cold storage and get me five bags of her blood type and a large pan with the same volume.”

As he rushed off she prepared the ‘oil change’. From a tall wooden cabinet she took tubing and an I.V. stand. From a drawer in the cabinet she took two sterilized needles. To her relief the patient remained lost in her own mind even as Arcane pressed a needle into her right arm. She began a tap with a small bag of solution that could be easily replaced With a blood bag,

She was inserting another into the patient’s right leg when Brightstar came back panting and arms full of red sloshing bags.

“Hook her up. Did you get the pan?”

Bright star nodded as his left hoof dragged behind him. A shallow pool of dirty mop water soaked and sloshed about his foot as he scooted it into place.

“That’s my mop- no, nevermind. Put the other tube in the bucket.

Arcane’s finger hovered over the console’s button as she watched the scrawny stallion perform his first oil change on a living Equis body. With a blood bag hooked up and the ‘drain’ in place she pushed the button. The six plates framing the older Astral began to hum. She let out a distressing moan as blood began to rush into the dirty mop bucket on the floor. On the display a body in green had bright red dots flowing down its leg before flickering out. Once the last red dot was gone Arcane hit a red button on the console. The panels went dormant as the older mare fainted.

“Cut it off and bandage the wounds.”

StarBright leaned against the far wall, dazed with a blank expression on his face.

“Is she… are we…safe?”

Only now did Arcane notice the audience. Nurses and two white coated doctors looked through the open door. A cold chill ran up Arcane’s spine. They were looking at her. So many eyes and so much judgement in them. There was disdain, concern, and so much more being thrown at her. Magic and thoughts were cousins of sorts. She couldn’t read minds but she could feel thoughts well enough. What many simply call ‘empathy’ is, in fact, a common sensitivity to magic. Her own was made more potent by her ‘gift’.

She had to lower her head and let the wavy locks of hair obscure her eyes.

She shouldered past the three mare nurses and two male doctors, accidentally knocking one of the stallions on his ass. Another nurse raised her hand and tried to speak to her without success. Her ears folded back and focused attention solely on her hooves and where she was headed.

StarBright smiled nervously as he met his colleagues' eyes.

“One of our serums was mislabeled and Bless was just assisting me in an emergency… oil change.”

The stallion that rose up from being knocked down let out an indignant huff and walked away. All but one nurse wandered off indifferently after a few seconds.

“Doctor BrightStar, there’s a basin under your sink. You can use that next time you have to perform an emergency exsanguination.”

He blushed and gave an absent minded nod. He turned away speaking under his breath.

“No, I'm still going to call it an oil change.”

Chapter 3: Remembering The Dead

Chapter Three: Remembering the Dead

Three years of living in the former mansion gave Arcane a mental map of every door and step. Without looking away from her grey hooves she walked down a curving staircase into the main foyer. She pivoted around two sectional couches used for guests under a cathedral roof and massive chandelier. She turned left and passed a large curved desk framed between twin staircases.

She avoided all the ‘good morning’s and ‘how are you’s that acquaintances always begin with. Often she couldn't give an honest answer before her greeter interrupted with whatever request they truly meant to ask.

The sanctuary of a single low-lit hallway closed around her and the sound of a busy lobby began to fade. The first floor hall was far less busy. To the left were administration offices, labs, and the overnight room. To the right were the experimental rooms and operating room.

Arcane took a deep breath and looked up to the ceiling. She counted the faint cracks in ceilings moulding and pondered what shapes she saw in the various water stains she found there. It was all a distraction to slow her heart and calm her mind. Her gift came and went along with the onslaught of information it forced into her. She was almost rid of it when a small green firefly hovered into her line of sight.

She let out a long and weary sigh as she turned to the little light's origin. A horde of the little omens glowed beyond the door to Overnight Room 1.

“To hell with you, gluepot.”

She cursed out her boss and his request to look at last night's victim. Still, She turned the brass handle and walked in silently out of habit. The older mare wasn’t waking up.

Miss SummerBreeze was a Celestial with the same anxiety Arcane suffered, only Summer’s had a magical origin. The shrinks call it ‘Social Anxiety Disorder’. Essentially, it's panic caused by being the center of attention, or potentially the center of attention. It can be caused by trauma, abuse, and sometimes simply chemical in nature.

SummetBreeze suffered because of her scar. Six deep claw marks ran down her back, three per shoulder blade. Those nerves deep in her skin acted like an antennae or a door to, well, wherever the fuck magic comes from. That magic was a part of her body from birth, and that magic regulated her emotions. How it all worked was anyone’s guess. Long story short, magic isn't just a power, it's a crutch.

Arcane sat beside Summer and placed one hand over the unmoving lukewarm hand. She didn't fight her gift and watched fireflies raise from a light deep in the other mare’s chest. That was part of her, something a few would call a ‘soul’ slowly leaving her body. Little to no light could be seen inside Summer’s mind. She was mostly gone. It was only a matter of time her body would follow.

Airborne ash changed the sunset into a blood red sky made far too wide. Homes and businesses were rubble. The streets were now bare soil, once tightly packed cobblestone lain for centuries against hurricanes.

She sat on her knees in a tight circle of unscathed stone as she lowered her gaze and looked down at her small arms. Black snow was falling and it was covering her. It stained her fur from head to toe, and when it spread in a greasy smear between her fingers she realized it wasn’t snow at all.

She looked up and saw fireflies fill the sky like multi-colored stars. Thanks to her gift, she knew them all by name. She knew her neighbors, her friends, her teachers. As her mind began to shatter she thanked Celeste she couldn’t find her parents among the dead.

Arcane touched her cheek and looked at her tear soaked fingers in confusion. It was terrible what happened to SummerBreeze yet she didn’t know what made her cry, nor did she remember so much as a sob. She let out a sigh and put that question aside for another time.

She gently squeezed the hand of the departed Celestial and wished her a safe trip to wherever souls go. She doubted such a place existed, but hope was cheap and easily gifted.

“Goodbye, Summer. I hope you're better over there.”

A narrow door near the operating room led down into the stone foundation. Narrow windows shone pale light into the basement as motes of dust swirled around like tiny living things. Long tables and tall metal cabinets made up most of the furniture along with an assortment of specialized work stations.

Five leather steamer trunks rest beside a slanted table like patients waiting to be seen. In a fluid motion she opened the first one and slid out one of thirty thick bronze plates tightly packed within. She laid the plate on the slanted desk with care before going to a metal cabinet to get an odd pair of gloves.

The pair resembled tap gloves with a thick meter-long cable attached to the back of the hand ending in a hexagonal Jack. When Arcane pushed the Jack into a port hidden under her slanted table a slender articulated arm rose up from the table’s side, its millimeter-sized hand poised in the same gesture of her own. Her actual hand swept widely outward and the mechanical hand roamed over the large copper plate until Arcane found a point to begin her work. Her hand made a grabbing motion and the tiny mimic gently plucked a tiny crystalline gear from its peg.

The large bronze plate was the home to thousands of small crystalline cogs with every sort of configuration. Each represented mathematical equations and logical circuits with conjunctions mechanisms made to reorder constellations into new forms. This combination of magic and science served as the equivalent of computers. With them, a multitude of spells could be cast with precision that could one day surpass Celestia herself.

Stress and anxiety drained from her mind as she guided the small mechanized hands down to the array of cogs. Every small disk was scrutinized for cracks or discoloration. When a component damaged from yesterday's power surge was found she plucked it off its minuscule rod and reached into an open drawer for its replacement. After three years of working on the same boards she could practically read the interlinked parts like a second language.

She didn't mind wasting the day just like this. One board at a time, one gear after another. It was all so simple, so mathematical and graceful. Here, the fear of judgment and mistakes were limited to her and her alone. Nobody would yell at her if she slotted a G-476 gear where a G-480 should go. She'd just nudge one gear and see how the rest mesh. One awkward rotation? No problem. She would just backtrack to her mistake and repair it. One similarly shaped gear made from the wrong type of crystal, easy. Her gift would recognize the wrong match before she even slotted it.

The hours went by and the light outside shifted from blue, red, and finally a bruised magenta. Sundown came and she barely noticed, barely cared. Her ears actively ignored the clip-tap-clip of two hooves and the butt of a cane slowly moving downstairs. She ignored the blotch of black that began on her left cheek and spread like an oil stain across her face.

It was always terrifying. It never mattered how many times the change happened, it always felt like she was being both robbed and freed at the same time. The darkness creeped down her neck and up her face as the last beams of sunlight gave way to a canopy of stars and violet hued nebulae. Her eyes shifted from deep blue to gold as she focused on the next cog she needed to replace. Her anxiety drained away and with it a thick portion of her conscience.

The waves in her hair went slack as pink shifted to lavender, as pink skin became a plum hue on the edge of black.

She ignored the old stallion as he made his way into the workshop. The final brass plate was done and all five ‘brain boxes’ were repaired. She could now tinker with her own toys. She said nothing nor made eye contact as she walked over to a metal cabinet with a keypad welded into its latch. She covered the pad and entered a a few numbers before pulling it open.

She took out two small stacks of bronze plates, each about ten millimeters thick tap-glove gear boards roughly eight centimeters wide. A similar task of going over minute gears began, though now it was far more experimental in nature. She moved around gears and varied them with various numbers of teeth, stacking and exchanging combinations as if there was a riddle there only she could see.

“Evening, Hex”

The old stallion spoke up. She gave a snort-laugh.

“You’re the only one in this town who knows my real name and yet you still use pseudonyms in private?”

Ravenscroft gave a slight shrug as he looked over at Arcane’s pet project.

“Still working on those homemade gloves of yours?”

“Well, it’s a lot better than buying them in a store and having to register.” she looked up at him with an easy smile on her dark lips, “Wouldn’t want to break the law, now would we?”

She walked back to her many metal cabinets and took out two fingerless gloves with empty metal shells along the backside and six glass fuses. She slid each plate into the shells, the last plates recessed with three oblong depressions. She assembled her gloves and slotted the fuses before slipping them on.

She tapped the metallic plates together and felt a tight pull up her arms. She noted it took three less seconds for the devices to draw from her body. Her fingers spread wide and willed her Mundane magic back inside her to break connection and send the gloves into a dormant state.

“Besides, I want these strong enough to slay dragons. The mass produced ones waste space making them mod-proof.”

Ravencroft abruptly switched subjects to why he truly came down into the basement during Arcane’s nightly transformation.

“About the saboteur…”

“Shut up, gotta note something.”

She walked over to the same container her gloves were in and scratched a few things into a small notebook before slapping the container closed.

Arcane undid her tool belt and let it land heavily on the floor as her attention turned to the center of the basement. The heart of this building was a green crystal roughly the size of Arcane herself. It floated in a cloud of distorted light under what looked like a funnel constructed of massive gears and an odd metallic rectangle. The metallic rectangle had clockwork and a piston inside it. Every 53 seconds the piston would fire forward and strike the crystal to stirr that distorted cloud, resulting in the overhead gears spinning faster.

“What do you know about kinetic magi-tech?”

RavenCroft scoffed and raised a single thick eyebrow.

“Nothing, that's why I pay you.”

“Good answer. See, that crystal resonant generator has to be struck every 53.34 seconds to reach 80% potential. Of course, better clockwork pistons strike at 53.347 seconds, raising the potential to 85 percent and reducing the amount of times one has to recalibrate the damn thing. You can get more precise and it theoretically can go well above 100 percent, but that number hasn't been calculated yet. In other words, the chances of Queen Celestia spontaneously returning back to full health are far more likely than a precision strike that could send a surge of energy capable of breaking three hundred thousand bits worth of equipment, and labodimizong a Celestial currently under treatment.

In other words, the bitch dug her own grave. File the bounty and I'll be more than happy to fulfill it, but I'm not getting in trouble with the law over your need for vengeance.”

His wrinkles truly showed as a scowl crossed his face.

“And if I do that she’ll go to prison and probably be redeemed by one of the Knight’s squires. In time she’ll be a free mare with however much she was paid to ruin us.”

Arcane placed an assuring hand on Ravencroft’s shoulder before walking upstairs.

“She’s a Murderer, RavenCroft. She’s going to Tartarus, which means she’s as good as dead. I’ll happily track down the lab or ex-lover that wants you ruined and steal everything of value from them. Secrets, money, embarrassing photos, whatever. What I’m not going to do is kill in cold blood. Self defense? Dead or Alive? Sure. However, no amount of money will ever…. Ever get me on the wrong side of the Knights. Go to the Authorities, get the bounty, then we can talk.”

She left him with a pat on the shoulder and the best imitation of a kind smile she could manage before leaving without another word. In mid-step she unzipped her jumpsuit to expose a short Jean-jacket over a tank top. Below her waist was black trousers that showed off the upper curve of her hip and black straps of her underwear. Her shy day-self didn’t like wearing these sorts of things. Then again, Her shy self could never get up the nerve to shop for clothes.

Chapter 4: Just Another Night

Chapter Four: Just Another Night

Hex usually began her night in the exact same way. She strolled out of her clinic/house and onto the boardwalk to enjoy cool humid air. She closed her predatory gold eyes and focused purely on the click of wood under her hooves and the distant chime of river buoys. Even the chatter of complete strangers was relaxing.

The historical buildings that cropped up over hundreds of years crowded closer and closer until only narrow alleys separated them; and hidden in their shadows were surely lovers up to illicit fun or a cut-purse up to no good. This eventually gave into brightly lit restaurants and open tables littering the peer. Hex bowed her head to a lavender mare in a puffy dress she had known within one of those allies, then kindly nodded her head to her husband.

The tourist-friendly venues passed her by as she strolled thirty minutes down wooden planks. Moonlight shimmered across the river to her left and cobblestone avenues on her right. Soon came the rustic brick facades with large loading docs and smoke stacks. Next came the shoddy pubs that real LastHarbor citizens went to.

Old squat cottages with white walls and timber frames sat with windows lit, some by modern amber crystals and other via good old-fashioned kerosene lamps. Not far ahead was the end of the pier, the most eastward anyone was stupid enough to build. A few kilometers down the river was a place no Equis would go.

She finally turned to her destination. The ‘Last Pub’ was a two level cottage with a stone foundation and small round windows. She walked up a few creaky oak steps and slipped into a smokey and ruckus room with a tall ceiling and the oldest kerosene lamps a building could still legally use.

Ten Round tables hosted groups up to six, some just crusty sailors, some far shadier and leather-bound. The former mind their own business while the latter sized up the black mare in flirtatious clothing. A practiced smile in Hex’s muzzle that both enticed and flashed a few pointed canines their way.

“Not wearing your leathers tonight?.”

A husky voice spoke from behind her before large maroon arms curled around Arcane’s waist. The heavy tits that framed her neck assured Arcane who it was. The mare behind her was a fellow mundane who truly lived up to the stature of Arcane’s race, the nearly two-meter tall mare known simply as ‘Brick’.

“Yeah, not hunting tonight, but I did come in for a bounty.”

“Oh? Any plans after that?”

She leaned into the hold and let herself feel safe and submissive against the gentle giant. As forward as her ‘night’ side was, Hex wasn't against others being forward to her.

“Get back to the door. I don't pay ya’ to sex up the customers”, a salty voice barked out from a crotchety green stallion behind the bar.

The tall mare made an angry snort as she moved back to the entrance, but not before giving a firm spank to Arcane’s left ass cheek. With her butt still stinging She finally made it to one of the many barstools and slowly lowered her backside.

“Watch yer’ right side”, the old stallion said, prompting Arcane to look. She only saw it when she peered up. A mumbling and very intoxicated Celestial hugged the ceiling in absolute defiance of gravity.

“Poor twit is going to fall like a bag of shit when he’s finally sober. So, what can I get ya?”

She leaned onto the bar with a soft sigh, “Bourbon on the rocks and your finest two-star bounties, good sir.”

He grunted as his hands moved with a practiced ease. One hand grabbed a glass tumbler and the other poured bourbon from a dark brown bottle. She didn't even see where he got the ice from when it plinked into her drink.

“Okay, hear me out. I got something that is perfect for you and worth your while.”

The old stallion hobbled over to the back wall behind the bar. Where bottles would normally be kept was a wide gallery of papers tacked on cork board. Each of them had a prominent number as the first line with an expertly drawn image or photograph in the dead center. His own special touch to each document was a stamp in the lower right corner of one to five stars. His personal rating system of how hard it would be to catch and/or kill said target.

Arcane didn't have a death wish like some of the grizzled ex-military behind her. Two-star contracts were fine by her. Runaways. Locating lost artifacts (her speciality due to her particular gift). Last but not least, non-superpowered criminals.

Her eyes glazed over with a skeptical stare as the one-eyed bartender, a stallion so covered in scars that he looked like the wooden practice dummy for an axe thrower, began his spiel.

“Take a look at this beauty.”, he started after fetching a bounty from the higher portion of his board. She entertained the fool, but the presence of five stars was an instant no. Then it became so much worse. Two Million bits for a live capture, wanted for interrogation. Name unknown.

The sketch depicted a dragon, not a draconic skeleton animated with unholy magic fire, but a flesh and blood emerald dragon with s-shaped jade horns pointed backward. Her clothes were tattered and dirty. Her trousers were more a collection of patches and loose v-neck top perhaps once a men’s nightshirt in a better life.

Despite the desolate clothing she was, indeed, a beaut. Her head had a slick backed crown of short black feathers that seemed far too soft and flowing to be of any use besides decoration. She was short, perhaps 1.5 meters, but her strength made up for stature. Toned arms, slender waist, wide muscular hips ending in wide bluntly clawed feet. Last but far from least was those damn eyes. The sketch artist spent way too much love on them, probably because they were as dazed by their beauty. Mocha, like coffee with cream surrounded by black sclera. Darker feather-like fur substituted for eyebrows and with them was a fierce stare that showed an intelligent and unmistakably dangerous warning. Not quite a threat. Not quite like a mugger with his knife drawn. More like someone who knows what killing feels like and doesn’t want to, but knows where hesitation gets you.

“Yeah, she’s very pretty”, was her single response before taking a long swig. The old stallion furrowed his one fully intact brow and looked at her with his mouth unhinged.

“I meant the damn bounty.”

She smirked and looked down at her drink as she swirled it about, watching the ice dance. Just beside her the celestial finally fell like a sack of shit, his fall broken by a collapsing barstool.

“Well, dead Equis can’t cash bounties. I don’t do dead dragons and I sure as hell won’t mess with a live one.”

The old stallion let out a curse strewn grumble as he put the poster back on his wall. A moment later he returned and slapped a stack of bounties down marked with only two stars.

“All you gotta do is find where she is camping and relay it to the guard. A confirmed catch and you won’t need this place anymore. Trust me, Hex, you act like a badass but you’ll be me before you know it. My fucking face looks like meatloaf and I piss blood most days. Get that bounty before your smug ass gets mangled.

Also, don’t think your little strategy is going to keep you safe. I’ve lost friends to two-star bounties. Even morons get lucky.”

She wasn’t listening. All her attention went into reading the description of law-breakers and runaway recruits. One seemed easy but far too low, 1200 bits for two tax evading brothers and their traveling wagon of scams. They didn’t seem like the kind that could fight or use magic all that well, but locating them would be an ordeal. Another talked about some runaway creation of the Infamous Discord. Mostly non-violent yet didn’t operate according to Euclidean logic. Her gift would make that one a breeze if she didn’t mind the head-cracking migraine that chaos magic gave her. Hard pass on that one.

Two true beauties finally emerged from the stack of disappointments. The first was practically made for her. A ridiculous ninety five thousand bits to recover an ancient relic in the old Canterbury ruins. The sketch depicted a grey stone sphere with a very familiar design etched into it, eight wavy rays of a sun seemingly divided like a yin-yang. The element of ‘Mercy’. As for the second, it was more of a bonus. An awol recruit of the royal guard, just some young mare who got in over her head and ran from her duties.

“Sweet Celeste, I’m guessing this one has a death wish.”

Arcane slid the bounty of a young astral deserter towards the crusty bartender.

He made a curious grunt and nodded. “That’s going to be a fun one. An Astral entering the ruins. Not sure if she’s stupid or just desperate.”

“Hmm, well, the plants will probably keep away so long as she never uses her horn. Think I should bring a bucket in case she does?”

The old stallion cocked his head. Arcane smirked, happy he didn’t get the joke.

“You know, to bring back whatever the forest leaves behind.”

“It’s quitting’ time”

The husky voice spoke only three words as an arm wrapped around Arcane’s waist and hoisted her onto a steady shoulder. From her high perch she had the perfect view of a toned bubble but in thick blue denim and a dark maroon tail. Her point of view pivoted back to facing the bartender now crossing his arms with a smirk so wide it looked like one of his cheek scars threatened to reopen.

Whistles and catcalls from the rough crowd rose to a clamor as mugs banged tables in rhythm. This quickly evolved into a choir as one, then many belted out a song.

“Bang the bed, bang the floor, the ship is swaying, man the ores! Full pace ahead, the cannon blows, full pace ahead, the Captain crows!”

Arcane only smiled wide and flipped off everyone as the bigger mare walked to the far left of the bar where an archway led upstairs.

Just before the main bar area was out of view she could hear the old bartender calling out.

“I’ll arrange transportation, regular fee! Plus a night for the room! You’re welcome!”

She was dropped like a sack of potatoes on a, thankfully, soft down-feather bed sturdy enough for a mare Like Brick. The small room was cozy but not at all roomy. Just two and a half meters by four at the largest. Still, Brick made good use of her space. Near a small fireplace were iron weights she, no doubt, used every day. Near this was a bookshelf absolutely littered with books about self improvement and self confidence, showing the solid mare wasn’t hard all the way through.

The two-meter mare herself was beautiful in a spartan sense. Her face was feminine yet handsome with yellow eyes almost always hidden by a mass of shaggy maroon hair, much akin to a Clydesdale. Also like a Clydesdale, she was thick. Wide shoulders, tapering but solid midsection, heavy chest, and legs with shaggy fur below the knee.

Arcane undid her trousers and wiggled out of them before peeling off jacket and top. After tossing her panties to the side she was fully natural. The gear symbols on her limbs and the larger fate-mark along her hip contrasted her dark fur in off white hues. Her silky lavender hair fanned out against the sheets as she bent her knees and parted her dark thighs.

Fourteen inches of dark plum flesh throbbed across Arcane’s belly, yet she knew Brick too well. The large girl wanted what was just below it. She looked down on Brick's form as the tall mare made short work of a simple black shirt and denim trousers. Heavy breasts, a lovely six pack, a cute tuft of shaggy fur along her pubic region, and a dark maroon love-bat fit for someone her stature.

Arcane felt goosebumps as she anticipated being spread around Brick once again. What happened came as a surprise. Brick slid beside her and flooped onto her back. The tall mare smiled as her thighs spread, mimicking Arcane perfectly.

She rolled to lay across the bigger mare’s stomach and rest hands on Brick’s larger chest. Only then did she realize her tap gloves were still on. Perhaps for the best, one never knew when magic would come in handy.

Brick gave a brilliant smile and pointed down. Not a hard thing to interpret for Arcane. She left a trail of kisses as she slowly inched backwards. Over the washboard stomach, over the cute belly button hiding in the red fur, over the firm pubis. Her trail needed to veer around the tall obstruction, choosing to kiss along the left side of her hilt as it twitched in the rhythm of a strong heartbeat.

She took a few moments to truly appreciate the anatomy Brick and her shared. Below the length wasn’t the furry yams science calls the ‘testicles’. Those were safely inside their body and far less wasteful with sperm production or unnecessary heat. The twin hills of a vulva hugged under the length and framed the lips of their pussy. Between folds and the cock’s base was a small hood that provided extra elasticity and aesthetically looked like a proper clit-hood.

“You’re lucky I trust you, big girl.”

Arcane wouldn’t go down on just anyone. There was sex, and then their was love making. Sex was a condom, the lack of names, and a promise never to see anyone again. Lovemaking was detail, care. It didn’t mean love, necessarily. Neither ‘Hex’ nor Brick were the type that could stand permanence of that sort. Permanence was death, and as for any sane being, to be avoided.

Arcane’s nose pressed between length and mound before pressing in. Her dark plum colored tongue eased into the pink and blindly searched about. Her tongue firmly grazed the convex roof of Brick’s pussy. The pressure against that roof shifted blood around and made Brick’s tip bulge, it also grazed over a small bump only a few centimeters wide and perhaps eight cm long. In that little bump was as many nerve endings as her entire prick bunched up. That little button served one major function. Pressing it caused reflexes in pelvic muscles to contract and tightly grip whatever slipped inside.

She wrapped a hand under the ridge of Brick’s flat prick as repeated lapping forced the large mare’s pussy to ‘swallow’ and force blood into her prick. There was no resistance as the heavy mare wiggled and moaned. Arcane felt her body nudged side to side between Brick’s thighs as moans grew louder. As a mercy, Arcane broke up the action with suckles to Brick’s ‘hood’

She felt a heavy hand grip her shoulder and give a tug Arcane couldn’t fight, even if she had a mind to. ‘Hex’ prepared to raise a thigh and slide into the bigger mare’s lap. Brick pushed the leg away and gave a wide grin.

“Are… are you absolutely sure about this?”, Arcane asked with a hint of disbelief, “Unless you planned all this in advance and bought a rubber in my size…”

“Nope, decided this when you walked through the door.”

“I’m flattered but-“

“It’s okay. The apartment already has a tenant, so to speak. Remember Tall Pines?”

She felt her length brushing up against Bricks. It refused to soften despite what Brick was getting at. If Hex could feel fear right now then perhaps she would be afraid. Without that handy warning system it just came out as confusion.

“The lumberjack stallion?”

Brick gave a small nod and a little smile, one of those ‘adult’ smiles. A smile belonging to a person who didn’t want what was coming, but worked to find some happiness in a difficult situation.

“Well, we were fucking around and the rubber broke. It was confirmed last week.”

Her lips parted. Arcane wanted to say something comforting yet it was all numbness and blank thoughts. She knew this was the moment to be kind, to think of something to show she cared. She knew she cared, knew, yet couldn’t feel a fucking thing. Brick continued.

“I wanted it to be one of us. Mom and dad, just like my mom and dad.”

Arcane leaned forward and lay on Brick. Under that shaggy hair the tears were welling up. Arcane thought about what ‘Bless’ would do in this moment, besides running away in a panic. She reached up and cupped Brick’s face and wiped the tears with her thumbs.

“Both my parents are like us too. In fact, I’m a seventh generation ‘stalmare’”

Brick chuckled through the sobs, “That’s the dumbest name for our sex.”

“How about we pretend tonight? You and I, lovers, -ready to start a family.”

Brick paused, giving it thought.

“Lovers don’t fuck and run, Hex.”

“Arcane.”

“What?”

“Arcane Gears. -That’s my real name.”

Brick paused as she searched her mind. A moment of recognition.

“Wait! You’re the filly that-“

“The very one.“

“But why tell me all that?”

Arcane leaned in and pressed her muzzle to Bricks. The ridges of her lips were surprisingly soft and the larger mare eagerly pressed back. Their soft tongues danced in each other’s mouth and those strong arms closed around Arcane with a hug that nearly stole her breath.

A large hand gripped her hip and directed thighs. Arcane answered the insistence by pushing herself inside. She first felt the heat of Brick’s insides before the tight clench. With every motion she could feel the other length jump between their stomachs.

The kiss was broken so both could gasp in a badly needed breath.

“Because when I’m like this I’m stupid and wreckless.” She said through a smile.

She leaned back and looked down at the powerful sight under her. Her hands smoothed down along Brick’s waist. Her left hand smoothed over the flat stomach that would curve out and grow heavy in a matter of months.

Arcane swayed her hips and steadily moved inside her friend, feeling every powerful grip and every twitch. Her gift creeped up on her. Arcane saw lights dancing under Brick’s skin. It was so faint, so subtle, but there was a magic swirling and dancing deep inside Brick. There were no words that could describe what she saw. It was simply light and the way it shimmered that spoke to her, that communicated in vague concepts, sensations, and intuitions. It felt so familiar, but it took a moment for her mind to understand.

“Brick, She’s going to be a Stalmare.”, the words were colored by a moan as Arcane’s slender waist showed its strength. Her back arched as her head tilted up. Heat rushed into Brick. Arcane felt the quiver over her own length, a warning her friend was on the edge. Her head lowered and lips curled around the dark maroon length. Brick’s heat rushed into her mouth. Arcane’s gold eyes burned in the low light as she looked back, swallowing it down before licking Brick clean.

She fell forward into strong arms and slid to her side. Sweat and heat pressed between their bodies yet Brick held close.

Arcane wanted to feel the tenderness that her friend radiated. She wanted to feel comfort, love. She would, eventually, but not now. She only knew what Brick needed. Perhaps she would regret all of this in the morning, but that was the morning’s problem.

“So, you know how Stallmares can’t have twins unless they’re identical? Funny thing about that…”, Hex began to say as Brick’s eyes grew heavy. A story for another day, perhaps.

Chapter 5: The morning after

Chapter Five: The Morning After

The ball dropped from her hands and rolled down a steep hill overlooking the beach. Across the ocean a sunset cast its orange light and tinted the sky in its sleepy warm hues. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and barely a breeze. There was no reason for the air raid sirens, no reason to hear that mournful wailing that sounded both distant and everywhere all at once.

From the East a plume of black smoke rose. She could barely see over the orange grove planted by her friend's father, but she knew beyond it was her village and her home. Without thinking she leaned into her hoof ready to run before a hand gripped her wrist tight.

She twisted around and looked up into the face of SunKiss. The older mare did her best to seem calm but failed. Her eyes were dilated and glazed over, her mind going in a million directions as she struggled to keep a quiver out of her voice.

"Sweetie, we need to get into the cellar. You- you know what that siren means, right?"

The twelve year old Arcane tried to pull away, "But-"

SunKiss tightened her grip a little more. The older mare's eyes were shaking back and forth like she couldn't focus. Arcane wasn't old enough to know what trauma looked like on a mature face. She couldn't guess what the mother of her friend had seen on the news moments before.

It was like watching a report from hell itself. Someone held the camera as they desperately tried to remain quiet within a clothing shop's coat rack. The camera operator let out quivering breaths as the point of view remained low to the ground. Along the ornate carpet of the Carousel Boutique in Canterbury forty customers lay moaning in pain, their tattered finery soaked in crimson. An Astral, that may have been orange or yellow before the open gash on her forehead dyed her red, looked forward.

A male voice whispered 'no' over and over as the astral began crawling at him. Perhaps she thought he could make a difference. Perhaps in her dazed state she thought the camera-stallion was there to rescue them. All it managed to do was draw attention. The coats parted and the camera peered up. A desolate face bathed In pink fire grinned a lipless smile down at him. Eyes that were only maddened blue pin pricks stared at him in psychotic glee.

The camera was knocked away and rolled on the ground. Everyone watching saw an arm pinned down by the wrist as a clawed hand slowly sank in deep enough to caress bone as it traveled down to his elbow.

SunKiss gripped tighter. The older mare was using her Mundane strength and Arcane could feel the bones in her forearm cracking.

"Stop! You're hurting me!"

SunKiss turned and began dragging her along the mix of sand and grass bordering the shore. Small stones ran along her hip and tore at her dress. A broken bottle lost in the sand slashed at her leg. She screamed and SunKiss didn't answer.

Arcane flew into a panic and gripped the mare back before twisting her wrist. She didn't bother measuring her power or holding back, she simply twisted SunKiss' arm until radius and ulna snapped. She ran the moment she could without looking back.

She cursed her lack of flight or spells. If she were like mom then Arcane could teleport home. If she were like dad then she could fly. Like it or not, all she had was brute strength. She poured her own magic into her legs. Her dress flapped faster as the orange grove became green and brown blurs. She had to ignore the burn in her muscles, the sharp pain of individual muscle fibers tearing, the cold draw in the core of her body as her natural resources depleted.

She felt a cobblestone crack under her hoof. The closer to town the less decrepit and overgrown the street was. Wide fields were dotted with hollow stone foundations that once marked an outer edge of WestWind. Like many small towns, WestWind shrank as the young left for big cities. Parts of town were left behind to become rubble and only the heart remained.

She slowed to a stop as the streets grew clean and tightly packed together in neat lines of stone. Quaint two-level cottages crowded both sides of the Main Street with wooden signs depicting their profession. Two pubs, blacksmith, bakery, and dozens more housed essential resources for farmers all around along with the generations of shopkeepers that kept them running.

Pain shot up her leg as the calf muscle clenched so hard it threatened to fracture bone and rip tendons. Her body fell hard onto the street. Darkness hung at the edge of her vision as her body grew cold and rigid. Even at her age she knew Mundane magic could push physical limits but not their repercussions.

She gripped at cobblestones and dragged herself to one side of the street. Her sense of smell was heightened and her mouth watered for what she recognized as ripe fruit. She drew closer to HonneyDew's Produce and ignored the shards of glass brushing against her thigh. Her vision was a pin prick of light and growing more narrow. She may as well be a root slowly groping for nutrients in the dark.

Her hands found a Cantaloupe and brought it to her lips. She breathed in the sweet nectar and sank her teeth in. Her sharp fangs dug into the rine and began chewing. She didn't care about the bitter peel or the strange iron taste coating it. Soon she was rewarded with the water and pulp. A feeling of euphoria rushed over her as the magic fate had given her race quickly knitted her bones and mended tissues.

She was left starving yet functional. Her stomach screamed for more and her healing wasn't complete, but she could climb to her feet. Her vision cleared up as she slowly rose before rushing onto her hooves. Fruit had spilled from a shattered display window. Near the produce was the Mundane that owned the shop and grew everything there.

HoneyDew lay on her back as she stared at nothing as she took in shallow breaths. Crimson stains were already a shade of coagulated brown along her torn trousers, apron, and blouse. Between the tares she could see fresh wounds from knee to foot, from elbow to wrist.

Arcane felt a spark of hope and bobbled closer to where most of the glass and produce landed. She grabbed two oranges and lowered onto her knees near the older Mundane. Her fingers sank into the orange rind and ripped it open with shaking hands before touching a slice to HoneyDew's lips. The older mare took it beteeen her teeth, ground it down, and swallowed.

"More", HonneyDew said in a parched voice.

Arcane pulled apart more slices and fed them one by one. Her eyes moved to the wounds expecting them to close at at any moment. There was no change.

The older mare gently gripped Arcane's wrist and gave one of those tired adult smiles. It was the smile of someone who didn't have hope yet wanted it for another. HoneyDew slowly sat up and dragged herself up against her shop. At the very least she was in the shade.

"Arcane, find somewhere to hide. It- Go, go now."

Fear filled the mare's eyes as something Arcane's size wandered from an alley several stores down the street. Its skin was translucent white that flowed and rippled like flame from a wick. Below that skin, of what served as skin, was ashen bone. Its skull was deer-like with exposed sinus and high cheekbones. Its skeletal grin was made more sinister by tiny white pinpricks of light hovering within vacant sockets.

Ram's horns curled back from its temples and sharply clawed talons clicked along the cobble stones. Its manic eyes turned and seemingly overlooked Arcane as it looked back from where it came. It waited as a pale purple light emerged.

Arcane was torn from the sight of this monster by HoneyDew's child-like whimper.

"Run, girl. Run before she sees you."

She couldn't budge. Arcane could feel its power and it was greater than anything she had known in her short fifteen years. More of the small white 'children' walked out, some slow and others in a frantic search for more victims. Finally came the "mother".

Lilac fire poured upwards and formed the shape of a slender feminine figure. Past its delicate skeletal face the fire changed colors to deep violet and cyan. One of the smaller things lunged forward yet stopped after only a step. It turned and looked at the colorful form, making Arcane do the same. The mother held up a hand. The smaller beings seemed to follow an unspoken command and dashed down an avenue in the direction Arcane had come from.

It walked with grace and confidence an abomination didn't deserve. Its eyes looked deep into Hers, the stare freezing her in place. It had a menacing intelligence yet something in its eyes was wrong. Deep into those violet points was a plea. It didn't come in words yet the intention was undeniable. That suffocated light begged her to run away.

The tall dragon turned and lowered onto one knee before HoneyDew. She hovered over the mare with a profane mockery of care and concern.

"Poor child.", it said in a motherly tone, "You're not meant to die." It placed a hand on her forearm. The mare screamed out as the lilac fire sizzled her flesh, Cauterizing the wound.

The creature smiled as if the moans of pain were a sort of 'thank you' before moving onto the next limb. Once finished, it stood and walked to Arcane. It grew close enough for her to see a band around its neck and a chain hovering from it like the string of a kite. The chain faded into thin air only an arm's length, yet something made Arcane suspect it was connected to some being hidden an impossible distance away.

"My dear, your eyes…" its mature and almost motherly voice spoke as it reached out for her face. Three images overlapped within Arcane's mind. She could see the monster before her. She could see a flesh and blood dragon of the same colors screaming in futile rage. She could see the hollow stare of a white figure that was as beautiful as she was terrifying.

Arcane woke with the thrum of her heartbeat striking her eardrums. Her gift was at full power and the world was streaked with colors and symbols. She saw roots deep in the ground and every roach between the walls. She could see cables in their hidden networks and the information that ran through them. Closing her eyes tightly didn't give her any relief. She looked down from where she lay and saw orange-red light coursing through veins and nerves within Brick's arms as the larger mare held close.

"It's okay. I'm here Hex- Arcane. Breathe. Just breathe in slowly."

She felt the power in Brick's hold and the soft touch of her breasts against her back. The other Mare's cheek pressed beside her neck, the words gently spoken under Arcane's ear.

The onslaught of information began to dim slowly within Brick's embrace. Fear finally gave into sadness as Bless curled into herself and let it all go. The large mare held her with the love and care of the mother she would soon become. She waited for the quivers and sobs to slow before a word parted her lips again.

"Want to talk about it?"

Arcane shook her head. The nightmare faded from her memory by the time her mind was clear enough to truly wake. All that ever remained was the terror it gave her, what gave that terror stayed where all forgotten things remain. In time she knew it would come again, and that would be enough.

Chapter 6: One Terrible Boss

Chapter Six: One Terrible Boss

Brick was kind enough to lend her a hooded jacket to walk home in. The oversized thing draped around her like a trench coat and hid her face from anyone who would recognize 'Bless' coming out from one of the seediest bars in Last Harbor. The last thing she wanted was her night-life to follow her home. This in spite of all the stupid decisions she made when fear was absent.

She made her way through the back garden. She didn't want to see another Equis, let alone have a conversation.

"Hello guys."

She gave a quiet and creaky greeting to four ravens balanced on points along the back garden gate. One gave a polite nod of her beak and gave a gurgle-croak. This made her smile weakly. Equis were complicated, but these creatures were pure and simple. A fresh rat and a shiny bauble was all they needed in life.

She gave her own polite bow and made her way inside and down the basement stairs. She draped the hooded coat across a wooden chair and wiggled her hands free of those tight fingerless gloves that lived on her for over twelve hours now.

She took a moment to enjoy the cool air on her palms before getting to work. A fear in the back of her mind was pushing her to double check her equipment. Any flaw, any miscalibrated component could be catastrophic when you're messing with forces beyond reality. Magic, despite some individual misconceptions, was the definition of 'beyond reality'. Magic was the violation of natural law, hince, it came from some other place.

She took a tool and unscrewed four long bronze screws from the corners of the glove's metallic plate in order to unmount the units. She then laid the plates on her angled work table a distance apart. Each plate was pulled apart into thinner plates, each of the ten subsections a few millimeters thick. Each had an array of crystalline gears in complex formations, some with tiny glass vacuum chambers with slivers of colored stones floating within.

With tweezers and the world's smallest hammer she plucked a blue 'crystal bulb' from one of the many plates and tapped a copper coated end. The little crystal inside quivered as if it were made of liquid. Arcane stared at it and let her gift confirm this little thing was mimicking Astral energy. It wouldn't do if this thing was off-frequency, or Goddess help her, turned it into Celestial magic.

The all-too familiar tone of an elderly stallion clearing his throat came from her left. She didn't respond or even look away from her task until a thin yet wide bronze plate was placed on her table.

She scrunched her nose as the sickly mint smell of arthritis cream wafted off the device. She eyed it suspiciously. Like her tap gloves, this thing had long slots where fuses were mounted. Four out of six fuses on this device were melted through, along with the slots they were mounted into. It seemed these didn't just blow, they overheated violently.

"When you have the time."

His words were few, something that was pretty rare for RavenCroft. She raised her head and looked over at the old stallion as he slowly climbed the stairs. He seemed more spent than normal, practically close to death.

She sighed and returned to her own task. There were no flaws, no energy translator nodes needing recalibration. They were in top shape and ready for use. Of course they were. She already knew that, but she didn't trust she knew that. Anxiety can be that way.

Once her tap gloves were reassembled and put to the side she turned to the thing that obviously needed some love.

The back-mounted tap unit wasn't her invention. In fact, this particular unit hadn't seen her work table before. Thankfully, it seemed perfectly standard as these things go. Four screws held together five thin plates with a fairly familiar array of gears and crystalline bulbs. The notable difference was an array of gears designed for a somewhat clever trick. A Celestial crystal was put in a delayed circuit with a Mundane crystal operating at a slightly higher frequency than your standard Mundane signature. Mundanes draw their magic through their limbs. With this device a Mundane could draw their powers through their back. It probably couldn't make wings or give them flight, but it was a functional work-around.

There was just one glaring problem. Any tap had their drawbacks. Mundane to Astral taps required a Mundane price and an Astral effect. The Mundane price was nutrients and vitality, the Astral effect was the loss of mental focus. Arcane obsessed over her mother's spell books since she could read, and spells were designed specifically to reduce mental strain. As for a Mundane to Celestial tap? The price was Virality, and the effect was Emotional stability. Celestials were trained from birth to control their emotions so their abilities didn't go out of control. How in the hell could a Mundane Stallion with PTSD hope to control his power under those conditions?

Simple answer? He couldn't.

"What the heck did you do?"

She quietly spoke out loud as she looked over the extensive damage. Some of the gears closer to the fuse slots were black, some warped by heat. In many instances she had to guess what gear it was by the one next to it. After an hour of frustrating guesswork she was forced to walk over to a shelf of books and flip through a thick catalog of schematics to find the intended patterns. If she were honest to herself, this felt humiliating.

Four hours flew by before she would close up the device and call it fixed. It was only then, after the technical issues were solved, did she think of the more philosophical ones. Why was RavenCroft's tap overloaded? What did he do with it to push it so far? More importantly, what was the long term effect of abusing something like that?

She already knew the answer, or at the very least felt the answer deep in her gut. 'Hex' did things just as terrible, just only on the job. It usually came down to self defense. Even when Arcane felt little to no emotion it never seemed right to kill unless absolutely necessary. Morality was arbitrary, bendable depending on situations. Logically speaking, the moment one starts killing without a damn good reason, life itself is no longer of value. Truth be told, Arcane wanted to kill more when she had emotions, she was just afraid of losing control.

She didn't have evidence RavenCroft used his tap to kill someone, she just knew the old stallion and what her years of experience was telling her. She trusted that more than anything or anyone.

She took RavenCroft's tap and walked over to the large crystal that served as their generator. She held out the bronze plate and felt a quiver run up her arm. The resonance of that large, seemingly liquid, mass began to make the tap unit quiver as well. The six fuse slots in the tap began to glow and quickly grow brighter. Soon came a metallic and mineral smell of burning. Little pops could be heard inside as crystalline gears shattered and ground against their partners. By the time she pulled her hand back, the tap was worse than when she received it.

She needed some fresh air. Without looking at the plate a second time she simply dropped it into a waste basket and quietly practiced her next lie.

"Sorry, it was beyond fixing."

She wasn't in any mood to see him. She walked up to the first floor and approached the large curved desk in the main foyer instead. There sat a white celestial mare with red in the corner of her glazed eyes.

The receptionist smiled despite the painfully obvious sign of recently crying, which was the way of good customer service. She greeted Arcane with the customary 'Good Morning'. Arcane would have just preferred a 'Hi'.

"Good morning.. Um.. DownFeather. I was wondering if you could pass a message to the boss. I'm taking a week off for a trip home. My dad needs help back on the farm. I may need some more days, depending on her health."

Her quiet and bashful voice was handy for covering up lies. She always sounded guilty, felt guilty. Lie or truth, no one could ever tell if she had a credible reason.

DownFeather gave a noisy snort as she pulled a collected bit of snot back in before it could drip free. Her smile dimmed despite her best effort. All Arcane received was a weak and raspy few words.

"Sure, Bless. I'll pass it down."

She was compelled to ask despite knowing how much of a mistake it would be. She knew, deep down, but she knew nothing for sure.

"Are you alright?"

Three words broke the professional damn that began with deep cracks. DownFeather lurched forward with eyes closed tight as if it would hold back the tears. Her sobs echoed around the foyer and turned the heads of the three patients waiting in seats behind Arcane.

The fur on the back of her neck stood on end as she looked around to see eyes looking on. Arcane rushed behind the desk and pulled the mare onto her hooves.

"Come, dear, it's alright."

She spoke softly as she led the receptionist down the hall and to the first door to the left. The room was quaint but well furnished. An antique counter top with sink, a modern refrigerator, large table, and antique two-seater couches along the walls.

Arcane closed the door to the employee break room and sat FeatherDown onto one of the couches. She pulled the mare close and Pat her back much like Arcane's mother did for her so long ago. Tears threatened to surface at the corners of her own eyes out of pure empathy.

"They found her all… she was in pieces. Her eyes. She was near the Everfree. They think it was birds of some kind but I've never seen a bird that would do that."

"Birds?"

She let Feather cry it all out, the mare's voice devolving into sobs and muttering. She didn't need to know anymore than that.

Fate has a way of deciding our names, and there was a very specific reason his name was RavenCroft.

DownFeather continued to sob out her words, some lost in mumbles. Bless held her tight as tears ran down her own face in empathy for this mare's pain. Only then did her blood run cold, fear and rage fighting for a place in the center of her mind.

"Vanilla."

DownFeather tried to scream out the name 'Vanilla Sky', but it came out as little more than a sorrowful croak. Images of the Mare's pastel gold face flashed in her eyes. Arcane could remember kissing her, holding her under covers. She could now imagine her face now, empty sockets and the ravages of a thousand small mouths.

Chapter 7: The Boat

Chapter Seven: The Boat

She didn't waste time. As soon as the receptionist dried her face and returned to her post she was packing for her trip. She chose a nondescript duffel bag, brown trousers, white shirt, and brown leather jacket for her dress of choice. Nothing was meant to stand out. She still had a handful of hours as 'Bless' and she didn't want anyone to notice 'Hex' dressed the same. The more forgettable the better.

Every beady eye looking down from lamp poles and shingled roof felt as if it were staring at only her. Perhaps they were. It wouldn't surprise her to find RavenCroft was using every bird in Last Harbor this entire time as his little spies. The why of such a thing was vague at best, but at this point she doubted the bastard had any limits. Killing was one thing, but that wasn't some clean assasination. It wasn't a merciful concussive spell at point blank or a clean decapitation. It was slow, excruciating, revenge. Perhaps she wouldn't return. Perhaps after this job it was time to find another bed and another workshop.

She didn't realize she was at her destination until the wood of the boardwalk gave way to marsh-covered earth. She had nearly passed the Winking Timberwolf and the small steam boat harbored nearby.

An amused black stallion stood on the gangplank of a small house boat outfitted with a large waterwheel and decently sized steam engine. The engine was magic put in the most unimaginative way possible. A dog-sized hunk of ice sapphire was placed near a fire Ruby within a steel chamber. Bolted on either side of the chamber were two synchronized clockwork pistons to strike the stones every 53.34 seconds to activate them. Of course, there were issues. The steam wasn't real steam. The magical effect would be short lived, meaning no accumulation of pressure. To keep the wheel turning the engine would have to run at full power. In less than a year the crystals would be too fragile and shatter into useless dormant quartz. Oh, and Goddess help you if those pistons go out of sync.

The boat itself was rustic yet well kept. By eye, she assumed it was three by nine meters of blue wood with a yellow stripe and steel plates along the sides for a bit of protection. Two meters near the engine was exposed with a mechanical crane for dragging nets or loading cargo. The starboard half of the ship was taken up by a small home on deck. It was just a single floor shack with a peaked roof, but it seemed cozy enough for a single person. Just the very last of the starboard side had an old tattered seat with a traditional ship's wheel.

The ship's owner was unexpected. The slender black stallion had a very feminine face with hazel eyes. His Maine was cut in a foehawk long enough to touch the left edge of his jaw. As for dress, his slender form was complimented by a dark blue Naval jacket, black sweater, and dark blue trousers held by a brown belt.

Arcane's heart skipped a beat. This was her contact and here she was standing in her 'day' form. She turned her head and walked off to the left side of the bar's exterior. The narrow alleyway was nothing but a slab of concrete made for drainage and a wall of dense foliage. It was dark and rarely tread, which was fine by her.

"Hey there"

Arcane didn't see Brick until she looked up from her own boots. The tall red mare leaned against the cool plaster wall of the Winking Timberwolf with cigarette in hand. Her long bangs hid her eyes well but Arcane could feel a tired look on Brick's face,

"You.. shouldn't smoke. You're pregnant.", Arcane didn't quite stutter, but her words didn't come out with Hex's confidence. She was being hasty and crossing lines. Her night-self knew Brick. Right now she may as well be a stallion in the ladies room at this point, utterly out of place.

Brick laughed.

"You are so different when you're like this. It's cute."

Arcane fell silent, her mind went blank.

"It's okay, I'm like that too sometimes. I'm not always the big buff bouncer, you know."

"It's… nothing like that. I can't help it. I…"

Brick surprised her with arms wrapped around her. The tall mare squeezed her tight."

"It never is. All we can do is use what we got as we have it."

They spent nearly two hours simply talking about their home lives and family, all the while with Bless in Brick's arms. Stalmare's were not rare, but few were open about their sex. They were practically a third of the population, but sexism and bigotry could make it a challenge to be public.

"Both of them were stall-mare, Huh?", Brick asked with a hint of derision for the word meant to describe her sex.

"Are. They're still alive in spite of themselves. But, yes. Both are out and proud Stallmares, but mostly because my dad was a country bumpkin that didn't know enough to feel 'shame' for what she was. Not to mention she is a third generation Military mare with little to no fear in her blood.

I remember the fight. Some upper brass with a troublingly conservative mindset tried to get her demoted for being 'unstable'. She loudly pronounced 'My ancestors eight generations back are Stalmare, My Wife is a Stalmare, and So is My Daughter. Sir, we've been winning wars longer than your last name existed and we will be winning wars for years to come. Only now have we been so brazen to let you know about it."

"How did he handle that?"

Arcane gave a gentle smile as she buried her face against Brick's chest.

"He tried to deck her, She threw him into a nearby wall. He was arrested and given a dishonorable discharge. What about your dad?"

Brick let out a soft sigh that made Arcane regret asking. It wasn't the nostalgic sort of sigh.

"I saw her from time to time. She was a lumberjack and my mom was a train conductor. They had one night and I was conceived. I wasn't allowed to call her 'dad', but I did live with her during the spring. She put me to work, then came winter I was Mom's little co-conductor. I honestly can't remember them being in the same room for more than a few minutes at a time. Mom was afraid of what her company would think, so she made dad promise to keep it all a secret. I think that's why we were never really a family,"

Hearing what Brick went through made Arcane miss her family. She would do anything to see them again. Not a phone call or a letter. She wanted to go straight to Everfield and her Grandmother's farmhouse where they now lived and hug them tight. She just couldn't do it looking like this, like she was now.

The sky grew darker as stars began to glimmer in the East. Arcane's hair smoothed out and shifted to a shade of lavender. Her fur grew dark until black. Tears still on her cheeks glistened as her gold eyes looked up into brick's camomile colored irises.

"So, are you keeping her?", she said as she gently touched Brick's stomach.

Brick covered Arcane's hand with her own.

"My sis back home will raise her. I'll visit time and again. I'm no mom, probably one hell of an aunt.", she said with a bitter sweet laugh.

"Shame, and here I was hoping to knock you up myself."

The words took Brick by surprise and pulled a genuine chuckle from the large mare. She gave Arcane's shoulder a tap that stung.

"Ha! In your dreams. I'm already having to quit these little fuckers for the kid", she said as she flicked her last cigarette for nine long months down into the drain canal.

Arcane gave a little snicker. "Well, we'll give each other plenty of practice when I get back."

"Well, you best go before I drag you upstairs." Brick 'threatened'.

'Hex' gave a smirk as she turned back towards the small ship and the task at hand. Thoughts of moving and the complicated things could wait. Money needed to be made.

Bless commonly suppressed her gift, but Hex used it casually. She walked up the gangplank to greet what Arcane now saw as a Celestial. The slender stallion's hidden wings were truly something else. A pale blue aura made out the shape of wings with lush feathers, both fluffy with down and long powerful primaries. Celestials had all sorts of wings; Sparrow, hawk, even non-avian ones like bats. These were more majestic than all of them, more like an-"

"Angel, pleased to meet you."

The black stallion's voice was smoky and feminine, in fact, it threw doubt of this Equis' sex entirely. She looked into a pair of bright blue eyes as Arcane took an offered hand. It wasn't just a handshake, the one called Angel pulled Arcane onto their ship with one hand and dipped down to retrieve the gangplank with the other.

The slender one gave a polite smile before turning to enter their home. After a few moments the water wheel came to life. The small vessel turned toward the center of the 'Grand Hope' River. She was left alone to watch the buildings and smokestacks of Last Harbor recede until all land sank below the horizon. She may as well be adrift in the ocean for all she could see.

"It's going to get cold soon. I can't imagine a bounty hunter can do her job while Sick, yes?"

Angel spoke from the open door of their small cabin. They were now minus the coat, just trousers and that thick sweater. Arcane obliged the suggestion and entered a small but welcoming space. To the left was a full sized bed, it's wooden frame secured to the floor with bolts. Over it were hanging baskets with various kinds of fruits and vegetables. On The far side was a locking glass shelf with a few preserved meats. To the right was a humble kitchen of sorts. A table with two chairs, a locked cupboard, and an old fashioned stove powered by a smaller fire Ruby.

Arcane chose one of the chairs and lay her duffel bag across the table. It only took a few moments to search through it as Angel looked on with a casual sort of curiosity. The Androgynous Equis didn't seem suspicious or nosy. They seemed to be more a fan of observing, talking life as it came.

"So, what is your quarry, If I may ask?"

Arcane pulled out the two wanted posters in her duffel bag. The first showed the picture of a proud Astral soldier turned deserter, the other was a round grey stone that barely looked valuable to the naked eye.

"Just a young mare that ran away from duty and an old rock the buyer thinks is powerful. The second has to be utter bullshit, but it's not really my place to question these things."

Angel gave a smirk, their eyes looking Arcane up and down.

"Sounds like a needle in a haystack. There are a lot of old magic rocks. Also a lot of creatures not wanting to be found."

"I have an advantage.", Hex said and kept it at that.

Angel gave the smile of one caught bluffing in a game of poker. They fell back in their bed and crossed their thighs, back against the headboard.

"So, why is it bullshit?"

Its cervine face glared with mania in her beady little hollows. Lilac fire flowed up and shifted hues of violet and cyan as she spoke, but Arcane drowned out the words, refusing to hear them. In its hands was a collar, a shackle large enough for her young neck. From it was a chain that went elsewhere and vanished from sight. That fleshless smile, that toxic sweetness in a voice that didn't belong to her.

Even before the collar was closed she could feel the fire. It wasnt true flames, but a magic that burned. Her flesh was like plasma. Her bones became visble under skin and muscle that began to ripple and flow like flame from a wick. Her vision grew so clear, so perfect. So terrifyingly sharp. Thirteen rivers flowed behind the madness. Called her home. The need grew greater than life, order, or sanity. It was a tender lust, right and evil. Beautiful and awe inspiring. Holy profanity.

Arcane was losing her mind, and what terrified her most was the fact she didn't fear it.

"Miss Hex? Miss Hex?"

She was being shaken by Angel. For just a moment she was back in her worst memory. Where a normal being would be screaming in horror, Hex only let out an exasperated sigh. She hated Bless's mental breakdowns.

"Yes?"

The cool exterior of the slender androgynous celestial was slightly disheveled. Long fur fur stood on end like a scared cat along the collar of their sweater. Angel was close now. Their blue eyes were half a pace away, nuzzle so close Arcane was only a small gesture away from kissing.

"For a solid minute you just sat in place muttering, and your eyes were dilated into pinholes. I thought you were having a stroke."

Arcane reached out and cupped Angel's delicate shoulder to find more power in those compact limbs.

"No, nothing like that. It's just PTSD, who doesn't have at least a little these days?"

Angel fell back to the edge of their bed and let out a long sigh of relief. She gave a nod and a soft chuckle before holding their hands up in a sort of surrender.

"Well, you have me there. Not all scars are visible, as they say. You still didn't answer my question."

"Ah. Yes. Why a Seventh element of harmony is utter bullshit. Well, first off, Celestia didn't make them. Equestria made them.

Nature made the elements of Harmony to preserve Harmony. Each one is made like parts of a machine to prevent chaos from taking over. Why would Nature make extra parts, and for what reason? There is no 'element of redemption'. What would be the point? The six we know are made to stop or redeem, it's just redundant."

"But those six energies are not alone.", Angel said with an oddly knowing smile.

"There are other energies. It's theorized that magic comes from an afterlife of sorts. Thought Is pure there and can 'pierce the veil' to make exceptions to natural law. Thoughts are emotion, sensory perception, and concepts. The strongest ones show up the best, and not all strong thoughts are safe to use. Anger and Fear are similar energies, but that's a path you don't want to go down.

Our world is the wisest and oldest being we know. If It made a seventh Element then we'd have it. We'd know by now."

Angel gave her words a moment of thought before cocking their head.

"Anger can drive us to push ourselves beyond perceived limits. Fear can save our lives. Dark, yes, but dangerous? Perhaps these other energies are wrong because we insist they are."

Arcane grinned. It made sense in an odd way she couldn't deny. Here she was mostly devoid of emotion and yet logic kept her from arbitrarily harming anyone. Some would call her a monster, but she was far from the unhinged types that tried to take over the world or cast it in a never ending night.

"I still doubt it, but I promise not to smash the stone if I find it… not immediately at least."

"Good, because I was worried my evil plan to form the Elements of Chaos was going to fail."

Angel gave a stupid smirk and waggled their eyebrows.

"I bet," Angel continued as they raised one eyebrow, "You're wondering what I am. You've been so very kind not to ask, but the curiosity in your eyes is very distracting."

Arcane smirked in return. Oh if she only knew.

"You're a Celestial. Lovely wings, by the way. I see why you're called 'Angel'."

Angel froze with a mixture of confusion and surprise in their gaze. Their jaws opened to say something yet there was some hesitation.

"How did you know-"

"I can see your wings, and the energy within those wings. You're an empath. I'd suspect you're a psychic or a fateseer, but that's more in the realm of Mundane powers. You're sensitive to the emotions of others. I'll admit, I've never met anyone like you before."

They made a dismissive wave at the mare that boasted of her powers and her unusual insights.

"Well, that's very interesting and yet not at all what I was getting at."

Arcane furrowed her brows, her turn to show confusion. A moment of silence stretched between them. For that moment the night had a chance to share its own sounds, once drowned out by conversation. The distant call of lonely cranes, the faint eerie howl of a wolf that wasn't truly a wolf.

"Oh!" Arcane's gold eyes flicked down to Angel's thighs and back up to their face, "I- you sensed I wouldn't be bothered by the answer, didn't you?"

Angel gave a proud grin, "You have your cheats and I have mine."

"Heh, well, you assume you know what's in my pants."

"And you assume I would care?"Angel leaned closer. Arcane leaned in until their noses touched.

"I could read your mind, but the last time I tried that I got a nosebleed and a migraine that lasted for an entire day. Never mind my assumptions, or what I can pry out of you."

"So you are psychic?"Angel dared to press in.

"No, literally read your mind, as in the energy running through your grey matter. Trust me, you may as well try to use vegetable soup to write a novel. "Arcane touched lips.

"I have no idea what that means, but fine. My pronouns are They/Them, and between my legs is of no concern."

She rose from her chair and pushed Angel onto their bed with a kiss. Tongues swirled as she sank her fingers into the waist of their trousers. The sleek curve of Angel's hips made it easy to slide them down. Their legs were slender yet toned. Between their thighs was a lovely ebony length.

Arcane slid her waist between Angel's thighs as she sat up. Eyes traveled down as her hand gripped their shaft to satisfy a curiosity. Below the black cock were ebony lips framed by a softly furred mound. What were the odds?

"Not too strange for you?" angel said, looking up with pale blue eyes from their pillow.

Arcane gave a warm smile, "Well, I know one thing for sure. You aren't psychic."

She pulled off her jacket and peeled away her shirt before undoing her belt. With a yelp she fell off to the left and knocked into the wall after a rather fumbled attempt at sliding free off her trousers.

"Soo graceful!" Angel mocked as they sat up and pulled their sweater off in one move, exposing a smooth and undefined chest.

She rolled her eyes as she threw her trousers to the side. Angel was finally lost for words when they looked down at Arcane's hips. The near-black plum length was already coming to full length between her hips. The slender Equis tilted their head to confirm they were actually of the same sex.

"Where in the hell have you been this whole time?", they said with a light chuckle.

Arcane walked on her knees across the bed sheets to draw closer. Their tips grazed one another with a casual teasing. She smoothed her hands up Angel's delicate form and up to their toned back. They felt both light and solid at the very same time, like a creature built for speed and agility at the cost of power.

"You need to hang around Last Harbor a bit more often."

Angel caressed Arcane's toned mundane curves, no jealousy in her eyes so far as Arcane could see. The non-binary beauty in front of her held a confidence in their eyes. It made her want to know what was happening behind that lovely face. Perhaps if she were 'Bless' it would be possible without the aid of abusing her gift. 'Confidence at the cost of empathy' was the definition of Hex.

If only she knew how soon that insight would come. In all the discussion and excitement the passage of time was forgotten.

Angel placed a hand on Arcane's chest and looked into her eyes. "Have you spent your 'bullet' recently?"

The reference wasn't hard for Arcane to understand, not between Stallmares. The space-saving lack of external genitalia was made possible by a particular adaptation. Whether it were natural evolution or some magical intervention was up to debate, but their reproductive cycle was unique. Unlike the wasteful gallons of sperm a Stallion produces monthly, the Stallmare produced roughly a fluid ounce of sperm weekly, the rest consisting of clear seminal fluid. To make such a small amount worthwhile this 'single bullet' consisted of just one fertile 'Ovisperm'. The rest are infertile guardians that guide and sacrifice themselves so that little genetic package can unite with another to create a new life. That's one fertile cell per gonad, one to inseminate, and one to travel into the womb to be inseminated. Naturally, if a Stallmare was to get pregnant, that cycle comes to a halt.

"You can tell if I'm lying, right? Yes, the cannon is out of cannonballs."

Angel fell back and hooked their thighs around Her waist. The power there came as a surprise, the grip on the thin edge of pain.

"It's not easy."

She lowered down to run her muzzle tip along the gentle slope of their chest, to the delicate neck and natural color of fluf about their shoulders.

"What's not easy?"

They rested a hand along the back of her head. It was tender, so loving for a stranger to give.

"Reading you. Normally, equi are loud even when their mouths are closed. It's why I live on the water. I can't deal with the feelings of others. Ofte I fail to see where my feelings end and where others began. It made me feel… faceless. But you? There is a wall between what you feel and what seems to affect you. Fear, rage, so many emotions screaming behind a thick door and you seem to be standing on the other side with your ears plugged.

She raised her head and hovered her face over Angel's. She looked into those pale blue eyes as her hips curled forward. Her tip kissed the ebony folds and slowly entered this curious angel.

"I… can't.", Arcane gasped inward as her hips began to sway.

Angel raised their hand to touch Arcane's dark face. Their thumb traced under a golden eye. In her own blue orbs was a sadness even Arcane's numb empathy could recognize. It wasn't sadness for her own sake, it was compassion. Words were left unsaid, an argument that would be placed aside for her sake.

It was enough to plant a seed of doubt.

Those slender legs twisted and threw Arcane over until she was on her back and the deceptively strong Angel sat on top. Her breasts were pawed at as slender hips rose and fell with a quickening pace. She was stunned for a moment by the display of dominance, but recovered after a moment of pure submission. Her hips moved to meet Angel half way. Angel closed their eyes and parted their lips to breathe out what could have been a moan.

By the quiver inside and all over Angel it was obvious the androgynous loaner hadnt been with another in quite some time. They threw their head back as light shot out from their back and weaved itself into a hologram of bones, flesh, and feathers. The wings didn't have the room to fully spread yet they did cast the entire space in a dim sort of moonlight.

"Control yourself." Arcane teased through thinly slit eyes. She felt her peak the moment her smart mouth began to open. Her voice squeaked out as heat rushed inside them.

"You know us Celestials, always with our hearts on our sleeves and heads in the clouds."

She pulled her hips back to free herself from their folds. One thigh slid over Angel's lap, followed by the other.

"Well, your head can go wherever it likes, so long as other parts of you know where they belong."

The invitation was received. She felt herself spread by Angel, the pressure behind her own dark length growing as the slender equis began to move inside. She could see a single eye, the other obscured by dark hair covering the left side of their face.

Angel lowered their head to the side of her neck. The sharp little canines threatened to pierce her skin yet she felt the restraint in their bite. It felt more like the grip of a mother cat holding one of her kittens than any sort of violence.

A spark of energy ran up her spine. She could feel her heart beating faster than it ever had at night. The only thing that could compare would be one of 'Bless's' panic attacks. It was strange and even a little terrifying, but any kind of emotion in this state of her's was like a single colorful object in a monochrome world.

Her hips twisted as Angel's had, throwing the slender Celestial down onto their back. Their wings unmanifested by instinct, blue light bursting into pieces and crackling with static across the bed sheets. Her strength showed as the muscles in her back and slender stomach flexed. Her spine curled before thrusting down. The bed creaked and complained.

Her head tilted up as she felt this surge of excitement. It wasn't just the raw pleasure of sex, it was the adventure and concern of taking such a magnificent risk with a beautiful stranger. Her skin quivered as the agile hands of her lover ran along her hips. Unseen by her, the light of Dawn creeped under the door.

Angel saw the change from the haze of near-climax. Arcane's fur grew pale before it was white. Her rigid length, lips, and lightly furred caps of her breasts shifted to a soft pink. Her long flowing hair grew wavy and pink.

She looked down at Angel with her own gentle blue eyes. Tears formed in them, but her lips curled in a tender smile. She was afraid, excited, full of doubt. Still, she embraced this moment for what it was. Even terrible memories failed to take this from her.

Angel reached out and Caressed her cheek as their own tears welled up before falling down the sides of their face. This was her confirmation, the smile on her lover said it all. When Angel moaned in climax Bless leaned back and took her time. She felt the hard twitch inside before the heat came.

Chapter 8: Welcome to Everfree

Chapter Eight: Welcome to the Everfree

The early morning made the reclaimed wilderness known as Everfree seem more peaceful than it truly was. Towering weeping willows dominated, only the occasional peek of an overcast sky granted by branches that swayed with a nearly mournful groan. The marble towers and ship yards of ancient Canterbury were dwarfed or outright buried in green, and below their piers lay the true story of this forest.

Below the water and silt of the Great Hope river was a vast graveyard of nameless dead from a single event seven hundred years ago. If one were to look down into the clear water they would see their ancestors looking back through hollow eyes, some still reaching out from a silt of white pulverized marble, some tangled in vines that would never let them go.

"I've come here so many times. Not once have I ever been foolish enough to leave my ship. Your Inn-owning friend couldn't pay me enough. Not even the full value of that old rat's nest he calls a pub would convince me."

She cracked a grin and gave a little nod. She felt nervous and could barely meet Angel's eyes, but for once she just let herself live in the overwhelming sensation of someone leaning into her. The non-binary equis she shared herself with didn't seem to notice or mind heI avoidance of eye contact. Perhaps it was because Angel understood the burdens of being different, or perhaps it was because she found herself as far from the civilized and populated world as possible. Both, probably.

"I can't say I blame you. The forest still has a grudge, and I can't blame it either."

"It isn't like us, you know.", Angel said as she gazed over at what used to be a grand mansion. Half of it was waterlogged rubble, the other gave a cut-away view of its many rooms. Some of the furniture was even still sitting on rotted planks that used to be ornate wood floors.

"It doesn't think about death or life in the same way. Everything is transitioning, dividing. It considers everything a part of itself, and to die is just to change."

"You got all that just from your empathic gift?", Arcane said as she allowed Angel's cheek to nestle against her neck.

"It's my interpretation of something very abstract, but yes. It's beyond good or evil. It just 'is', I suppose."

Arcane slid fingers between Angels and squeezed. She knew more than anyone how hard it was to get words out.

"Arcane, nothing is as simple as good or evil and that's how 'she' sees it. We live our entire lives from the lenses of our own experiences, but nature? She's seen it through everyone's eyes. Light and Dark, they all have their place."

Angel slid their hand away and raised to her hooves before slipping into the cabin. After a short moment the boat began to pivot. The water wheel died as a jet of steam fired out from the port-side of that large metal engine. Arcane sat up when the branches of weeping willows brushed over the cabin's rooftop. The water wheel reversed for just a few moments to take all forward momentum out of the vessel before dying again. Finally, the boat brushed against one of the few remaining docs of Old Canterbury with a heavy thud.

The marble dock was several times wider than the ship itself. The surface was paved with wooden hexagons framed in gold. By now most of the wood was soft and sodden with rot or simply missing altogether. Studded all along the edges were large spheres of solid marble, most likely as a way to tie down ships at port.

A few meters down the green, brown, and white path was a tunnel of plant life that had been hacked and burnt over many years and by many adventurers. By all accounts this would be the safest way into the Everfree, though this was entirely relative to every other path smothered in plant life or blocked by fallen buildings. Further down into the tunnel the passage was already small enough for only one person to squeeze through. Perhaps this was recently reopened, but there was no telling how fast the forest could heal.

Arcane stretched her hands within her fingerless gloves and inspected each of the six fuses like the life-saving things they may be. Her tap gloves were in better shape than they had any reason to be, but she couldn't help toss doubt at everything she did. It kept her alive this long.

"Do you have a death wish?"Angel spoke up and stood in Arcane's way, their back to the mossy rotten port.

She smiled softly. "What if I did?"

Angel didn't return the smile and simply grasped her wrists, pulling them up. "Everfree hates magic. Practically every novice could tell you that."

She surprised Angel with a tender heartfelt smile. It was the smile of someone who deeply appreciated the worry spent on her. All of Hex's smiles were practiced, and perhaps only now did that become obvious.

"It's only in absolute emergencies, and pretty much for just one spell. Maybe for bait, depending on the situation."

Angel gave up with a sigh and a smirk, opening her mouth to say one last thing before Arcane interrupted.

"Do me a favor. Back in Last Harbor, after you get your payment, could you just share a drink and talk with a friend of mine there? Her name is Brick."

They gave a soft nod, "Does she change color too?"

She gave a smirk, "Ha, Ha. After this is all said and done we can share a drink, the three of us. Just talk to her. I think she needs someone more… in touch with their feelings."

She reached down and grabbed her duffle bag before stepping up onto the ancient doc. There were no more words exchanged, only the silent understanding before Angel slipped back into their cabin. The boat came to life once again and turned around. She wanted to stay there and watch it sail east, back to Last Harbor, but time wasn't on her side. Nobody wants to be caught unprepared when dark falls in the Everfree.

The issue of which bounty to first pursue wasn't a hard one. The first one was an inanimate object, possibly problematic if it were anything like her unknown clieas claimed it was. Nevertheless, it was just a rock roughly the size and shape of a grapefruit. It wasn't some silly mare who ran away from her military training and decided to hide in the world's most dangerous forest.

Past the narrow tunnel of branches and brambles was a wider space, though still just as claustrophobic. The eccentricity of Old CanterBury could be seen quite easily in the pale gloom of a vast street of large yet purely aesthetic gems used as cobblestones. A rainbow of colors flickered between creeping vines and small trees breaking up an otherwise flawless road. On either side were buildings of black, white, brown, green, and red marble. All had massive columns and ornate walls decorated in beautiful figures. Each was no less than three stories tall of once-magnificent windows, most busted out by branches and vines snaking in and out of the violated facades. High above all the roofs was a canopy of leaves which granted only the faintest green-blue light down into this artificial canyon boulevard.

It was truly a grand sight so long as you could ignore one dark truth. Every cobblestone and ornate nude figure, every flawless inch of this place was built with the blood and tears of the Mundane. It was called 'indentured servitude' by some and the 'feudal system' by historians. The Astrals owned the land and the Celestials bowed their knees. The Mundanes worked the land, as their gifts so often made them talented at doing. Debt was a way of life for her ancestors due to Astral manipulation, so it was only a matter of time before an Astral owned a Mundane in body and soul. They owned their future children. They owned their bloodline.

To be fair, Queen Celestia wanted to abolish the debt-labor system. Sadly, she was only a Princess in those days. She only became the queen after the disappearance of their father, roughly during the fall of this very capital. Suspicious, yes, but she wasn't about to argue the result.

Arcane approached a crossroads that told a rather bloody story, thankfully one that took place centuries ago. To her right a massive root barricaded the street. Piled up behind that root was a small mountain of carriages with their skeletal occupants inside, or spilled down the wooden mammoth. They were all aged and jumbled around, but the tatters of silk and cotton among their corpses suggested each was from the upper class. Perhaps a thousand or so Astral nobels of a bygone era met their deaths here, just one street away from a possible escape.

She decided to 'look' here. She took a deep breath and succumbed to an anxiety she struggled to push down daily. She let her heart beat faster and her senses sharpen until swiveling lines of magic began emerging from everything with and once-with wild magic flowing through it.

Emerald light flowed through every tree and every leaf that hung high over her. Multi Colored sprites with little buzzing wings flew by her ear that were invisible seconds before. Deep below her hooves she felt a rumble, a sort of purr that dominated everything. This forest was alive, not just alive but one massive life. It was calling to her, seeing her as a sister of millions of sisters. She felt an overwhelming desire to dig into the earth and become a part of it, that not even death meant the same anymore.

She breathed in and out slowly. She had to fight it. She had to drown out everything but the one glimmer she sought. Something had to be different, unique enough to stand out no matter how far it was. A voice spoke to her, but it wasn't words. Raw intention ran through her spine and spoke so loud she confused it for her own will for just a moment. She found herself shouting but the words didn't belong to her.

"What do you seek!"

She gasped in breath and answered.

"The seventh?"

She clenched her teeth and fought for control. She lost.

"Thirteen rivers, six dark, six light, the last betwixt under Twilight!"

"No. Not now, please!"

The roots were no longer there, nor the dead or the tall trees. She was standing in the middle of a flawless road with a blood-orange sky. Overhead were the first stars of the approaching night, and shooting like a blazing beam into the air was the final dying embers of the day. To Bless' relief there were no rivers of power here. It was nothing like the day she was force fed power. All around was shallow water and this strange sunset.

She ran towards the light before colliding into a solid wall of moss-smothered wood. Knocked onto her ass she now looked around in the gloom. Reality returned and with it the welcomed absence of other voices.

"Damn vision quests…" she grumbled to herself. A world of magic like her's had their fair share of weird magical omens and spirits beyond time putting people on long paths. In fact, they were so common that most avoided them like religious types on street corners.

"Well, guess there's only one way forward. Up."

It took thirty minutes of climbing and slipping to get over the barricade of roots. One too many times her hands found a slippery crevice between split bark and fell onto roots stacked over one another. She was glad not to fall thirty meters down onto the ground, but the wood was hard and unforgiving. At the summit, she was rewarded with more horror. The streets were stuffed with carriages and the bones of large flightless avian beasts of burden that were now extinct. Among vehicles and harnessed birds were the dead. They ranged in age, yet the majority seemed like grown stallions. By all appearances these were the wealthy that died of stubbornness and ego.

The streets were so packed she was forced to walk along the rooftops of carriages. She did her best not to trip over luggage and the occasional deceased driver. The rarity of skeletons wearing a driver's uniform made her smile, however. She imagined all those servants running off, leaving their snooty masters to die.

She jumped off a carriage roof once the vehicles were spread apart enough to expose a clear sidewalk. It was here the buildings no longer stood side by side. Large overgrown lawns behind tall fences boasted majestic official buildings, or in some cases simply the decapitated bronze roof of buildings destroyed from inside out by massive oaks and birch trees.

It was only after an hour of wandering down this overgrown graveyard she found something truly odd. The white marble structure had a massive cracked dome made of glass on its roof and vines weaving their way in and out of every broken window. Along the rusty iron fence were trinkets like dolls and old weapons that ranged in age. A bastard sword from five centuries ago, an executioner's blade from three centuries ago, even a burnt-out tap glove that couldn't be five years old.

They all seemed like sacrifices, or someone's way of leaving an old memory behind. There was no guessing how many came here before, but something must have drawn them here.

She threw her duffle bag over the gate before climbing over and landing in grass that came up to her chest. Before her was a museum of sorts. Tall statues of a male and female Alicorn framed the stairs up, no doubt the former Queen and King themselves. She didn't bother to examine the faces of those deserving to be forgotten and pushed open one of two iron doors that stood four times her height.

The creaking hinges sent an eerie echo across what was once a main foyer. In a grand circle below the glass dome were empty marble pedestals and the shattered remains of glass cases. The cavernous room was bare and anything that once held value was long since plundered. From here three hallways branched out ahead, to the left, and the right. She felt a subtle pull on her left hand. Left it was.

Arcane could feel something wrong the moment she entered the hallway, but it was the graffiti that gave it a name. Along the walls were empty picture frames with tatters of canvas left over from vandals that cut the expensive art out. Within one of these hollow frames were bold black letters written in something black.

"Beware the mirror. Can't break, can't move."

A violent pressure built behind her eyes the moment she looked down the long hallway and into a wide showroom. Within that dimly lit room a flawless reflection cast from a tall ovular standing mirror. The silver surface was clean while its lacquered mahogany frame was caked in dust and grime.

The pain was all thanks to her gift and the overwhelming effect of Ascended magic. Of all the gifted beings in her world only a handful had the merged bloods of Mundane, Celestial, and Astral. Queen Celestia, Queen Luna, Queen Cadence, and Regent Queen Twilight. Merged as one, their power far surpassed all else. It was a long-since-deceased Ascended that made this 'mirror' and the fifty or so mirrors that were meant for easy travel all about Equestria. Unfortunately, their inventor didn't realize just how far the mirrors could go. Other worlds occasionally found the mirror network. Sometimes parallel versions of prominent Equis could find themselves in this world. Sometimes they cross over and do horrible things, for instance, scar every Equis they can in an attempt to rob them of their power and enslave an entire planet.

Arcane pressed her hand against the closest wall and closed her eyes. She dragged in air slowly and let it out slower. She focused on losing focus. Heat ran from her left nostril and fell with a dense tap onto the marble floor. Even through hazy eyes she could see the red of her own blood. It wasn't working, her gift refused to silence itself.

She tightened her fists and slowly stumbled towards the tall mirror.

"Shut. Up."

Her mind wandered to that day. A hollow eyed horror with a pale white collar in her hands. She wanted to pull away but she couldn't fight it. The collar snapped closed tightly around her neck. In an instant she couldn't feel a seam. It was solid, like it was always there.

She felt the flames start from her neck and spread below and above. Between her eyes she could see her nose change into exposed sinuses made from bleached bone. The painted filly was now bathed in black and white fire. Her left eye was now a golden speck, her right a blue speck quivering in empty sockets.

She felt a link to something ageless, something demented. From another world a fifteen year old Arcane was force-fed power she desperately wanted to reject. Her gift grew sharper and the universe was torn open before her. The sky was a vein work of light and she knew every one by name. Her hands quivered as they brushed fate itself, time itself. The smallest motion felt as if it could send reality crumbling down.

She couldn't stop herself from crying out. Her voice disturbed the air and set it alight. She screamed and everything around her flew apart like spent matches. The abomination that enslaved her burst into dust and that damned collar with it.

"Shut!"

Her gloved fist slammed into the glass. It quivered but refused to crack.

"Up!"

Her second fist made contact. Not a single scratch.

"Shut!"

Her left hand collided again. The three fuses of her tap glove began to glow as bolts of blue light crackled from the prismatic tubes.

"Up!"

Her right tap came to life. The bolts of blue energy lept from one fist to the other. Blood dripped from her nose freely as small crimson pearls welled from the corners of her eyes.

"Shut Up!"

Her left fist crashed into the flawless surface. Instead of brittle glass, a flash of blue made the silver ripple like a dense fluid.

"Shut… UP!"

Her right hand vanished onto the rippling silver. Against reason, everything from her wrist to her fingers now felt impossibly far away. Something was forced into her hand. She pulled free and stumbled back.

The world grew silent for a few precious moments. The God-tier magic of the mirror vanished as the ripples flattened into what seemed like common glass once again. It was all but forgotten as she looked down at the stone sphere she now held.

It didn't seem like anything special by just looking at it. Her mind felt strained, and even trying to summon her gift of other-sight threatened to knock her unconscious with a vicious migraine. It was simply a grapefruit sized sphere made of rough grey stone with the symbol of 'resolution' etched into it.

Anyone who knew of Lady Sunset knew what that symbol looked like, even if they never studied ancient Pictograms. A sun giving off flares and divided like a yin-yang. Many considered it the counterpart of the Dawn-spark, the symbol of our currently acting Queen.

She hissed in air as the metallic plate of her tap glove and the sphere were suddenly attracted to one another. Her other hand flew onto the rock and doubled the pain, forcing her to scream out.

A chorus joined her. The sound of wind howling through leaves rose in an ear-splitting maelstrom outside and echoed through the stone hallways. The noise lowered to baritones and discordant sopranos as what sounded natural became anything but. Thousands of clicks, growls, and snarls grew closer. She tried to raise her hands and ready a spell, but the damn sphere had her bound.

The main doors burst open slightly before the abominable pack began to flow in. The creatures called Timberwolves resemble wolves constructed of grey-green driftwood. As they pushed and bit at one another, their cobbled-together pieces flashed an eerie green light. Teeth made of chipped stone and sharpened glass snapped eagerly. Tongues of dark brown clay drooled out a viscous tar-like saliva.

Arcane's hazy eyes focused on something not very wolf-like at all at the front of the pack. Its feet were odd. Instead of hooves, it had large toes with talons that retracted every time its foot landed. Strong hips allowed this thing to practically leap well beyond the drooling beasts with each step. Its midsection narrowed in a feminine curve that remained solid to the core. The only disadvantage she could see was the being's height. It was barely over a meter high.

The creature grew near as it shouted something out. It sounded like nonsense with rolling r's and sharp vowels, but the last word was perfectly clear. It said 'home' as an arm hooked Arcane's bound hands. She was being dragged by the creature as it continued to run from the snarling pack. Gravity quit and the world became a narrow tunnel of light. Inertia pulled at her as if she were falling.

A flash of red followed as she flew tumbling across dry leaves and soil. She finally came to a stop, laying on her back as she looked up at a red sky through skeletal branches.

"Of all the stupid… Why do I even try?! Sometimes I think, 'Alloy, maybe you should just find a nice corner of the multiverse and settle down. What's the point of saving a species this stupid!' Bringing magic gloves to a forest that hates magic? Yeah, that's smart. Why not?"

The being calling itself Alloy kept ranting as Arcane tried to pry her hands off the round stone. It gave off a sort of quiver as she fought to be free. It was preparing for something, but the magic it was as constructed from was beyond even Ascended types like Queen Celestia. It was older than her, older than the world, perhaps the universe itself. It not only hurt her to see it, it truly pushed her to the edge of sanity to even understand it.

"… are you even- Hey, are you alright?"

The being looked down at Arcane, giving her the first clear look at her angry savior. Her nose was petite and nuzzle slender like a deer, though slightly shorter and more articulate than the four-legged variety she would see in forests. Long cervine ears were permanently held down by large dark green horns that swiveled in an s-curve as they pointed backwards. Her face was coated in very small feather-like strands of fur that dabbled her body in shades of green like a watercolor painting, but her pale brown eyes were rich and solid. There was hair of sorts on her head that seemed like soft feathers, long down the left side of her head and short on the right.

Her clothes looked recycled and patched several times over. She wore a brown tank top and tattered baggy pants under a long shawl, all of it dusty. Under this, Arcane could make out a belt with several chords and gems dangling from it. Each seemed potent with magic, nothing like the thing she was still bound to, but still an impressive collection.

Alloy stumbled back as her eyes grew wide.

"W-w-A-…"

She tried to ask what was making Alloy panic, but her voice came out twice and resonated like a tuning fork. Her vision doubled and blurred. She was vibrating, jostling back and forth. Before she could make sense of it, Arcane found herself being flung away from the stone. She was dazed and disoriented yet finally free.

"What the fuck!"

Alloy shouted out. She looked over at the green dragon and over to the white.. the black.. Equis that showed up from nowhere. Words failed as she faced another her, clothes ripped in half.

Chapter 9: Beside Herself

Chapter Nine: Beside Herself

They sat on a carpet of dry leaves back to back. Looking into each other's eyes felt like looking into an infinite tunnel, like two mirrors reflecting back and forth or two cameras filming one another. Hex raised her right arm and looked at the back of her hand. Her tap glove was gone, along with fifty percent of her clothing, yet she could still feel it. Without warning, her arm was pulled down by something more felt than seen.

Bless huffed out her frustration as she forced her right hand down. She could feel Hex inside her and against her back. In an odd way she was free of that cocky part of her and yet still tied to her. She could feel that disturbingly cool headed logic as the dark mare tried to make sense of their situation.

Alloy slowly walked around the odd twins and observed them closely. They looked like living puppets being controlled by one puppet master. Bless turned her head clockwise to look at the green dragon and Hex turned her head clockwise, then back to look at her as well.

The short dragon stepped closer, her brown eyes flicking between the two.

"What are you?"

Both voices spoke in unison.

"My name is Arcane. No, I'm Arcane."

They paused and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Hex spoke and introduced herself with Bless following behind. Hex elected herself to speak for both, her shy counterpart didn't argue.

"I… we are still just a single Mundane Equis. I can still hear her thoughts, feel her as if I'm sitting in her place."

Alloy gave a soft nod as she looked over to Bless and back to Hex. She crouched down and pinched Hex's arm. Bless yelped.

"You can't feel that?"

Hex gave a shrug, "Yeah, it hurt. There wasn't any point in making a noise."

The green dragon narrowed her eyes and raised her right eyebrow.

"And you do realize I'm a dragon, right?"

Hex gave a little nod, "My counterpart is terrified, but you haven't given us reason to worry. You could have left us to be Timberwolf food, yet here we are."

"Why did you.. I admit that?"

Bless grumbled out quietly.

"Because it's the truth and we need her help if we are to survive wherever the hell this place is.", Hex shot back.

Alloy stood up again and looked about. Bless could tell this was the last place this dragon wanted to be. The sun was blood red yet not brilliant enough to fully light the sky. Edges of black bordered the horizon and traces of starlight could be seen opposite it. In the ruddy orange-brown of early dusk the moon hovered in an utterly ravaged state. Slate grey dust trailed behind three large hunks of lunar dirt with hints of a once-complete sphere.

"Where are we?"

The dragon looked over at Bless to answer the quietly voice question. She hesitated. Bless often spoke so softly that people mistook a direct question for her simply thinking out loud.

"This is my 'Equestria'. We call it 'Dagon'."

Alloy spread her arms and directed the twins to look at the skeletal forest about her. Massive dead trees stood on the banks of dry river beads. Littered around were the pulverized and barely visible foundations of buildings long since leveled.

"We are currently in the 'EverFierce', a cursed land made when my Celestia destroyed our elements in a mad attempt to free her banished sister. As you can see, it didn't work out."

"What happened to her sister?"

Alloy pointed up to what was once a moon.

"Hard to say, probably floating away into the void. Trust me, the only one that would mourn her is the queen herself." Alloy then turned her eyes to Hex. "Correction, you are terrified."

Hex tilted her head.

"What?"

"That weird rock split you in two, but you're still just one being. If she's afraid, then so are you. You just can't feel it, or you're holding it back."

Hex went silent as she leaned forward and raised to her hooves. She looked deep in thought as she bent down and picked up the sphere. Bless followed behind and looked over her darker half curiously, her blue eyes weary.

"That's an interesting way of putting it, "Hex spoke while still looking over the stone. "I guess it's always been like that. I suppose the element of Contrition just wanted to make that… more literal."

"Element of Contrition? Seriously?"

Bless said unimpressed.

"I'm not the part of us that's good with names, give me a break.", Hex said with a smirk as she tossed the stone over her shoulder, Bless catching it as if the two planned the exchange.

"You two stay here for a bit. I'll be right back."

The short dragon turned away and walked in the direction Arcane tumbled from. A large tree with small green buds on its otherwise bear branches grew around the wooden frame of a standing mirror, or was once the frame of the standing mirror. Alloy spoke more of that odd growling hiss language. The silver surface shimmered and Alloy stepped in. Several minutes later she came back with two pairs of old dusty trousers and plain undershirts. She threw the clothes at Hex and Bless.

"Get dressed, your cocks are out and I'm not taking you to Queen Luna like that."

Hex's eyes went wide, "Luna?"

Bless squeaked, "My what is what!"

The museum foyer was a mess of driftwood and small green insects by the time it was all over. Seven black birds of prey larger than some beasts of burden walked about like modern day dinosaurs as they picked off smaller members of the pack.

One of the creatures rushed over to a glass display case laying on its side, the cracked glass opaque with centuries of grime. Its large black beak tossed the case in the air effortlessly as something squirmed away. The creature lunged with its large taloned foot and pinned the small Timberwolf in place. Pleading yelps echoed the stone walls as driftwood and the eerie insects that animated it flew in every direction.

Birds of much smaller sizes closed in on the slaughter and cleaned the ground of any insects they could catch until the floors were practically clean.

The creatures turned as one towards the front doors slowly swung open. Clip-clip-taping echoed as Ravencroft made his way in. He leaned on his cane a little less than when observed by others. His pace was just a little more sure than he ever wanted them to know.

His mirthless eyes looked up at his pets and gave a weak smile as his free hand raised up. The closest beast lowered their beak and nuzzled his quivering hand.

"Such a good little BugBeak. Are you getting along with Cyclops?"

The bird made a mournful little churl.

"Oh, dear. Better to have love and lost than to never love at all. I'm sure you'll find a mate one day.", his attention shifted to the large room itself, "Piccolo, darling?"

His shout was answered by a tiny section of marble along a high wall. The stone texture grew feathery and shifted into a vibrant purple. Little wings fluttered as fast as a hummingbird but without the slightest sound. It darted faster than the naked eye could track and came to a hovering stop before Ravencroft.

"My little hidden eyes, you did so well.", the old mundane slid a hand into his long black coat and produced a small pile of little transparent seeds which were pregnant with shugary nectar. The little bird hovered down to peck the treat, its color-shifting feathers mimicking the black of RavenCroft's fur.

He waited patiently for his pet to finish their meal before continuing down the leftmost corridor. Through the tiny spy's eyes he saw everything, perhaps more than he ever wanted to. Things he certainly agreed was none of his business. Most importantly, however, he saw the mirror.

He pulled out a monocle next. The eyepiece had a thick frame with a glass fuse the size of a grain of rice. He tapped it against the mirror's frame before hovering it in front of her left eye. Through the lense was Arcane's world, the hidden layers of magic. Ravencroft couldn't read the lines the same way, but at least he could do it without a debilitating migraine. He looked over intersecting lines and odd symbols closely. He frowned.

"Why Dagon of all places?" His eyes searched elsewhere along the mirror for the other location recently accessed. A conjunction of lines had glyphs hovering near them, ancient Equis by the look of it. He read the words out loud. Thankfully his accent was clear enough for the mirror to hear.

The mirror flashed before his reflection was replaced by a dark chamber. Stepping into the chamber felt horrible. The small domed room had no doors and thin stale air. It wasn't meant to be entered for long, or perhaps meant to be entered once and never entered again. The air pressure was high as if a great deal of earth was over the chamber, its location perhaps a kilometer below the surface.

He could make out seven peditals in the dim room, one empty. He neared the first of six spheres and picked it up. It made no sound but he swore it was growling. Despite being inanimate, he felt the deepest and most sincere amount of hate from this rock.

"Sorrow, rage, rebellion, guile, fear, and spite. Six shadows for six lights. Should they burn too bright that our souls ignite; From deathly mania, our cold respite."

He drank in the stone's anger as he spoke and remembered that benevolent Draconic face, that deep conviction and compassionate blue eyes. So holy, and yet in that light his citizens were marked and made lame. Was she, in her own mind, a protagonist? Was her intentions pure yet so blinded to the point of madness? To Mania?

His hand quivered as fingers tightened about the round grey stone. Cracks formed in the rough stone sphere as a prismatic light grew bright under his coat just about the shoulder blade. The light became smoke as he squeezed with Mundane strength. The pop of a glass fuse made the spot twitch, then burn black as a sickly green and violet ejecta bubbled and slowly evaporated from the frayed fabric. The sphere cracked and poured out in dusty fragments. All that remained was a hexagonal gem, an amethyst so plum-colored it bordered on black.

Chapter 10: Going Underground

Chapter Ten: Going Underground

The two shared a name, colors, even overall disposition. The only thing they didn't share was species. MoonDrop stood to attention within the narrow hallway of rough blue stone, the space lit with an ambient cyan from natural crystals jutting from walls and ceiling.

She remained poised and professional with her silver spear pointed up, her silver chain mail vest, her silver bracers and shin guards all well polished. Alongside her, the dragon also called MoonDrop stood with her silver chain mail, silver bracers and shin guards all well polished. The Celestial MoonDrop was a dark blue that faded into pale white along her belly, her ghostly bat wings glowing with indigo light. The Dragon MoonDrop had fine feathers of the same colors, her physical mammalian wings hugging across her chest like a living cloak.

The two often exchanged glances despite being on duty. Each stood at the edge of a wooden support that kept the cave wall from collapsing as they faced a mirror embedded into the rough stone. Whoever decided to pair them together must have done it for their own amusement. She wanted to ask so many questions of her dragon counterpart.

Othet soldiers walked the long corridors doing their own rounds, some more than happy to report their behavior to a superior. It was only when hooves or footpads grew distant did they whisper just loud enough to be heard.

"MoonDrop?"

"What?"

"I was wondering. When I was fifteen my mom caught me kissing one of my friends in my room. She fainted on the spot. I told them I liked girls, so the whole 'no stallion' rule was flipped. Did- you?"

Her dragon counterpart continued to look forward with a lack of emotion. Most soldiers could hide what they felt behind a mask of professionalism, at least the ones that were still soldiers after their first year.

"My folks were killed in a raid when I was thirteen."

"Oh."

The Equis responded with one awkward word and a heavy load of guilt. Equestria had it better than Dagon ever did, even when one factored in the Day of Scars. The Dragon Queen had done the same to her own world. Anyone who didn't accept a 'gift of immortality' was mutilated. Horns were sawn down so they'd never grow. Wings were amputated, and Terran Drakes forced to drink potions that rendered them lame. This resulted in many infectious diseases that killed before the Queen's 'healers' could get to them. The collateral damage of a maniac's revolution. Frankly, many agreed it would have been better if she killed them outright.

"Can I meet them sometime?"

The Dragon let a hint of emotion escape her steely resolve. Just for a second she sounded more like a wounded child than a hardened soldier.

"When this is over. I promise."

The mirror flashed a bright green before ripples formed in the silver surface. The two leaned in and spread their wings as both slammed the butt of their spears onto the hard floor. A resonant hum came from the sharp spearheads as hidden rune markings began to shine a fierce and frigid blue light.

They prepared to lunge as three figures emerged, the lead being a head shorter than her companions.

"Speak!", they barked out in unison.

The short green dragon with curved horns spoke three words in a fluid language of growls and churls before giving three nonsense words in Equestrian. The two relaxed their guard and turned to face one another before making a step back.

"Proceed"

They spoke in unison as the MoonDrops waited for the new arrivals to pass them by. As they did, one of the companions, a white Mundane with pink hair and while fur, looked between the MoonDrops and the shorter dragon. Her eyes focused on their cheeks then looked at the short dragon again. When MoonDrop felt the heat under her own cheeks she knew what the demure white mare was noticing. The two MoonDrops were blushing in the presence of Alloy.

These three had 'history'.

"Where are we?"

Hex asked Alloy as she and Bless followed the short dragon down dimly lit corridors with random curves and several changes of elevation. It all seemed like the home of giant ants, the passageways not following any strict design. Large caverns branched off here and there, some covered by heavy cloth tarps instead of proper doors. Some that were open had soldiers sitting at long tables as they ate or classroom-like settings where others went over intelligence reports and plans for future skirmishes.

"Ever wondered why only a few invasions actually make it to Equestria?", Alloy asked without looking back at the twins.

"Never really paid attention to the news to be honest."

"She- we really couldn't handle watching the news.", Bless added to Hex's answer.

"Thank you for your honesty", Alloy said looking back with her milk-chocolate eyes. "We've been doing our best to take back Dagon. The Seven do what they can on your side while we sabotage my Celestia and lock her out of Mirror portals as we discover them. And before you ask, there's more at stake than our two worlds. If she figures out to access a third reality then Celeste knows what would happen."

"Actually, I was going to ask how you can edit Mirror Portals. That's a skill Lady Twilight herself would find difficult."

Hex's question would be answered with the next turn. They followed Alloy through one of the many tarps and entered a cavern lit with a massive cluster of pale blue crystal. In the center was a table carved neatly from the same stone along with stone chairs padded with purple seats and backrests. Three out of nine chairs were occupied. One dragon and one Equis sat opposite of a dark blue Ascended.

There wasn't a single Equis that didn't know that face, but as far as Equestria knew, she had died on the Day of Scars.

She sat with perfect posture despite the evident fatigue in her eyes. Down to her chain-mail covered shoulders her hair flowed as if it had a life of its own. Despite the bob-cut she sported currently her hair was stunning. Each strand seemed like the window to a night sky pregnant with nebulae and young stars. Her slate blue eyes carried a millennia of knowledge behind them, but also a willingness to take a life if it came to it.

Queen Luna gave a sidelong glance as the other sitting Equis went on about rations and dietary needs. A single hand went up to hush the older officer.

"Scout Alloy?"

Two words held such weight coming from the Queen. It expressed annoyance and an ultimatum her time wasn't to be wasted.

Alloy stepped aside and looked at Bless. The white mare looked wide-eyed at Luna, the sphere clenched against her chest.

"Your m-m-m-m-m-a. Qu-"

Hex to the rescue once again. She was polite yet didn't feel the aura of intimidation others could.

"Your majesty, we have the seventh element, technically the thirteenth."

"Get out"

Everyone froze as Queen Luna barked out the order.

"I said get out!", she looked over at the two seated. They seemed taken aback yet were not about to disobey.

Queen Luna rose and walked over to Bless. The white mare seemed on the verge of passing out, but when Luna's expression softened a wave of relief washed over her.

"Sweet Celeste, you're only half a soul", She turned her head to Hex, "And you're her shadow, I take it?"

"So you can see it too?" Hex answered simply.

Luna gave Hex the look of a person who wasn't willing to answer an inane question.

"I see we are not in touch with our inner demons, are we?"

The Queen spoke as if trying to provoke something in Hex. Whatever the intention it didn't seem to have the effect Luna desired. She formed a thoughtful look and focused on the stone sphere itself.

"This has to be fate. Tell me, did the Element of Redemption do this?"

Hex and Bless gave a nod, Bless far more subtle and demure in her silent answer. The Queen frowned and began to think deeply.

"Were there six others along with this?"

"I'm not sure, your highness. The sphere just flew into my hand shortly before a pack of timberwolves attacked."

"Well, no matter." She said with a hint of disappointment in her tone. "This tilts the balance in our favor."

"Actually…"

Bless spoke up yet froze when it gained the attention of the Queen. Silence spread between the two until Hex finally spoke.

"… we would like to borrow the sphere for just a bit longer. We-I have a hypothesis."

"BrightStar, come with me."

Ravencroft paused in the hallway only long enough for the astral to meet eyes with him. His patient lay on her stomach, the pastel celestial's naked back marked with a large x-shaped scar.

"Um- excuse. I'll be right back."

He awkwardly abandoned his work station and followed his boss and benefactor down the hallway. BrightStar parted his lips to ask a question several times yet his voice only came out in squeaks. He couldn't understand why, but something weighed down the very air that surrounded the old stallion.

"How can I h-Help you, mister…"

He was already in another examination room. Ravencroft kicked open the steamer trunk that contained the mechanical brain of his machines and poured six sturdy glass jars with brass caps onto the mechanism. BrightStar could only watch as he pulled out cables and clicked the jars into place.

Those "jars" were resonant chambers with ports for kinetic cable, and inside them were six dark gems that radiated six of the most unpleasant elements of a soul.

"Son, I'm putting my life in your hands. I hope you don't mind."

BrightStar could hear a storm outside. The wind picked up and a clamor rose. From the corner of his eye he could see out a window as a swirling mass of black feathers blackened the sky.

Chapter 11: Feeling the Heat

Chapter Eleven : Feeling the Heat

Alloy put on an impish grin when Hex asked if they had a lab. The short dragon led the way with a cocky sway to her hips that wasn't there a moment before. As they did, the metallic clack of armor followed them close. Luna was kind enough for them to keep the element, just not trusting enough to do it without armed escort.

As they made their way down a long curved corridor, Bless noticed two guards in gold armor standing in front of a door unlike the simple cloth tarps. It was reinforced steel. She allowed her gift to let her see what was hiding behind that barrier. It was weak but complex, and it was looking back at her.

The corridor ended in a decently sized chamber. Every wall was lined with metallic drawers with labels that drew Hex and Bless to them. Their eyes lit up like fillies on Heart's Warming day.

The dark half of Arcane rushed off to the left of this chamber with square drawers all neatly labeled with masking tape and sharpie.

"Z-257 gears? Each one is worth 10,000 bits." Hex said in an almost excited tone.

Bless walked over to one of several small chambers with a heavily reinforced window. She reached out and touched the silver cylindrical chamber just to make sure it wasn't a dream.

"Is this a high-speed maturation chamber? I've heard about these… just never thought I'd see one."

"Yes, all wonderful, but this is my favorite."

Alloy walked into the center of the chamber towards a chair that looked so much like the ones Arcane repaired, only far newer. The chair was in three articulate segments that could lay flat or let the patient sit up right. To the sides were six metallic resonant plates, all automated to swing into place should they be needed.

"Chair, maintenance mode."

On Alloy's command a series of plates slid out on extending rails from an opening hatch in the chair's cylindrical base. What were normally thick bronze plates came out as paper thin gray plates of a metal which Hex nor Bless could recognize. Thirteen panels of interlaced crystalline gears made up this machine's 'brain', all so compact and neat.

"It took me a year to simplify the design, but here it is. Twenty five percent less moving parts. Easier to repair and easier to mod for experiments. All redundancies removed."

The twins moved to either side of Alloy and fell silent. The dragon formed a wider grin as the gold and blue eyes darted around the various gear boards. Silently, and in the language of a gear-head nerd, Arcane was falling in love.

Hex felt her face growing hot. This wasn't the side of her that could get flustered, and yet in a purely psychological way, there it was.

"So, this hypothesis of yours?"

Hex and Bless had to pull themselves out of a silent study of Alloy's design. The dark side of Arcane looked a little lost, her train of thought taking a moment to catch up.

"Oh! Yes. It came to me when Luna called me 'Her shadow.'

When we attempt to bridge nerves we have to do it with the least amount of serum and energy we can. This forces us to find efficient pathways to complete those neurological circuits. It can be enough to combat the secondary effects like muscular atrophy or senility, but going too hard can be fatal, or worse.

Our magic is based on the Elements of Harmony, positive flow. Maybe we should add something to weaken it, make it not so forceful and proactive. Make it more… confused, unsure of itself. Open to learn and adapt."

Alloy gave Hex the stare of one who just saw a chicken give birth through its beak.

"That has to be one the craziest things I've ever heard."

Hex was about to open her mouth and defend the idea before Alloy interrupted her.

"Which is why we never thought of it, but how?"

The twins looked at Alloy's horns. Their gift could read the magic flowing through it. The dragon formed a worried look on her face and already regretted entertaining this insanity.

"We need to make a new serum that utilizes both light and dark magic. Alloy, your gift is the ability to direct the development of chemical and atomic interactions. You're essentially a living transmutation spell. We also have the element of Redemption, which, I believe, is a sort of 'gray' magic. Put all of this together and we can finally make an adaptive serum that doesn't need any outside manipulation."

Alloy looked a little hesitant, the guards standing at the doorway were clenching their jaws tight.

"Perhaps…"

The metallic tap against stone sounded terribly familiar. Hex, Bless, and Alloy turned to see the two guards that escorted them as glowing spear tips pointed their way. The guard to the left turned and ran down the corridor. The one on the right bore his teeth in anger.

"Damn dragon! We should have never trusted your kind."

"What the fuck did you just say?"

Alloy squared her strong shoulders and tilted her muzzle up in defiance. An emerald shimmer danced between the brown filaments of her iris as her horns began to glow the same hue. Her eyes were soon burning bright with embers of green as emerald webs of smoldering light radiated from the black ivory of her horns.

Another metallic clang answered the first. Hex and Bless punched their tap cloves together. The three fuses in each device began to glow as each twin took their place along the left and right of Alloy.

The guard took a step back as his confidence faltered. His eyes flicked rapidly between Hex and Bless while his spear quivered towards Alloy.

"Corruption! Blasphemy!"

The guard shouted as his knees grew weak and eyes flicked side to side . It was almost enough to set the three aback. Bless was the first to notice. The colors in her tap glove were brighter pastels and white sparks. Hex's tap began to dance with neon smoke, viscous magentas, sherbet oranges, electric green, deep blue, blinding yellows, and violet edging on black in vicious patterns.

A voice echoed from the walls as if it came from all sides. It boomed between ears, under ribs, rumbled under hooves and feet. It was only one word and yet it made all five stand down.

"Enough."

Queen Luna walked into the chamber and put a hand on the guard's shoulder. He shrank back like a child about to be scolded. Luna never met his eyes yet the expression on her face gave the order. He quickly turned away and vanished down the hallway without another word.

The Queen let the quiet distress shared between the twins and Alloy simmer. Moments felt like minutes stretched in what felt like a standoff between three mice and a panther.

She cracked a smirk.

"Clean yourselves up and get some rest. We'll talk in the morning."

Queen Luna turned away without another word, leaving them in silence.

The mine's low walls and blue light stole any hint of what the outside world was doing. Perhaps the sun was just coming up for a new day, perhaps it was the dead of night. Without the weirdness of Arcane's switching forms it was any guess what time of day it was. The only thing for certain was a need for the day to be over.

But Luna had a point, no use hitting the sack dirty.

A few of those doorways passed-by were branches to yet more corridors which weaved deeper into the stone. One such passage began to grow humid and warm as Alloy led the way. The walls began to glisten and water dripped from the glowing crystals as they came to an intersection of three paths. The leftmost path was draped in a blue cloth tarp, the rightmost covered in a pink cloth.

"And this one is ours." Alloy said as she pulled back the center cloth. Behind the purple covering was a cavernous chamber with tall Stalagmites in shallow water, some spewing out steaming jets.

Hex and Bless walked in without any further encouragement. The chamber was humid yet not terribly hot, and for an enclosed chamber the air was fresh. A quick look around answered why. Among the stalagmites were a forest of azure trees that arose from the shallow lake, a sort of weeping willow with large pods that seemed to breathe in and out slowly.

"It's beautiful." Bless said as she looked up onto a ceiling that was obscured with mist, almost like a cloudy sky hidden below Equestria.

"What do you mean by 'Ours'?", Hex asked yet realized the answer before the last word.

The short dragon was already peeling off her shawl and letting it fall onto a flat dry rock. Her shirt followed. It wasn't long before she stood naked before the twins. Her feathers were thicker at her chest to form a fluf between the heavy orbs, all green with a gentle fade to white. The rest of her coat was sleek and traced out toned arms and a flat chest with just a hint of curve.

Hex let her eyes travel to the gap between Alloy's wide hips only to be left in confusion. The white coated mound looked perfectly female.

"This seems a little ridiculous.", Bless said just loud enough to be heard. Even her shy self couldn't accept the idea of running onto three beings like herself in a single week. "We already ran into two Stallmares just recently. The odds of this are just so small."

Alloy stepped to the shore of that shallow spring, her curvy backside decorated with a short doe-like tail of emerald feathers.

"You mean like finding the seventh element of harmony and being split in half by said element?", Alloy playfully shot back.

Hex gave a shrug. "Six friends saved the world from a corrupted queen that was sealed in the moon's shadow for a thousand years only roughly after they met. I suppose we shouldn't be that surprised."

The dark half of Arcane pulled off the borrowed clothes and made a pile near Alloy's before walking into the water. The crystal clear spring only came up to her knees. As she lowered herself in she felt a soft tingle under her fur. The spring gave off a gentle heat that made strained muscles quiver and give up their stress.

Bless hesitated at the shore, her arms crossed over her stomach and clenched the lower edge of her shirt. Her cheeks began to grow pink under her fur.

Alloy rose up and walked back on shore to assure Bless.

"Bless, are you okay?", Alloy said softly. The white mundane turned her head to break eye contact. Behind them tears welled up in Hex's eyes and fell down her cheeks. The dark mare touched her own face, confused why she was crying too.

"Just… everything has been so fast lately. As Hex it's so easy just to jump from one place to another without worry. Face a pack of Timberwolves? Yeah, no problem. Tell your boss to go fuck themselves? Yep. Sleep with a friend? Why not? Have a drunken toss in the sheets with a coworker? Life's short, why the hell not.

As me… all these thoughts flood my head. I have doubts, some that make sense and some that don't. They all feel about as important as the other, so much so that I can't tell the difference. Who am I, really? Am I her or me?"

Alloy reached up and gently gripped Bless's shoulders. The dragon rose up on the tips of her toes and nuzzled Bless's cheek until their eyes met. Foreheads touched and eyes stared into each other. Somehow this felt better, so much of the world blocked out by Alloy's soft chocolate eyes.

Bless found herself bending her knees slightly and coming level.

"You are both. You have doubts and you are brave. You worry about others and you care about yourself. Bless, I don't know how this is for you, but it's like this for others in their own way. Tell me, as Hex, you never cared like you do now?"

She thought back to Brick.

"Maybe."

"And you? Have you ever done something bold?"

She thought back to beating the hell out of a mirror.

"…"

"As for us. We're just taking a bath. There's no need to assume-"

Alloy didn't get her last word. Bless leaned in with a slight tilt to her head and sealed a kiss. Her lips parted and was surprised when a slender forked tongue coiled around her softer muscle. A wave of release ran down Bless's spine that made her quiver. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest as Alloy slid one hand and cupped her neck. She could feel the prick of sharp claws, but the dragon was careful not to add more pressure than her skin could take.

Alloy laced fingers between Bless's and gave a gentle pull. The kiss broke as the white mare was led to the water.

"See? I do belong in the third bath." Alloy said with a little grin as her steps made an ebony cock sway between her thighs. The dense thing had an angled prick and bumps neatly lined along its fat belly, the organ now parting a slit that hugged around the base and tucked into a healthy mound underneath. "And before you ask, no, Dragons don't have cloacas. At least not the ones from my world. Do… your dragons…?"

Bless cracked a smile, "Um, unless it has mechanical parts I have no clue how it's put together… but if you want to ask about dragon crotches I'll be happy to help you look it up."

"Ahem, am I invited to this heartwarming scene?" Hex spoke up from her lounging spot near the shallow pool's shore.

Alloy flashed a toothy grin and slid her arm around Hex's waist before giving a pull. She was short but solid. Even if the dark mare wanted to resist there wasn't much chance she could. The twins closed in on Alloy with nuzzles under her chin. The two kissed and nibbled between the fine thin feathers covering dark skin. Unlike standard feathers, the shaft of each was silky and flexible, more like tasseled fur that added a density to her coat.

Arcane did her best not to mirror the motions of her two forms. Her collective consciousness was getting more and more used to this split status, more comfortable to the distinct feel of one form versus the other.

Hands closed around both of her lengths and began to slowly stroke. Hex let out a sultry groan, Bless releasing an airy squeak. Their hips swayed and tried to keep from synchronization, though sometimes that couldn't be helped. It didn't seem Alloy minded.

Hex slid her nuzzle up to seal a kiss with Alloy. Her softer dark tongue teased the dragon until hers was coiled about. Bless ventured lower and decided to take a bit from her Dark half's methods. Her teeth gently closed around the dark chocolate nib of Alloy's nipple and pulled just a bit. The dragon arched her back and moaned into Hex's maw.

Alloy broke the kiss and playfully pushed Hex away before pulling Bless closer. The dragon showed her strength again as Bless was pulled into her lap. Water sloshed up the the stone shore and Alloy's hips as she lounged back. Her hips rolled back as Bless' curled hips forward. The soft bumps along the dark dragon length grazed under Bless' cock base on its way down.

Bless squeezed Alloy's thighs for support and found, not surprisingly, the wide hips kept her well spread. She leaned back and felt Alloy squeeze into her. Bless's pale pink length rapidly twitched as her internal buttons were smashed.

Alloy began to roll her hips and move within the white mare as Hex appeared over Bless's shoulder. She gave a gentle smile down to the dragon as she wrapped the thick hips around her waist. The dark stalmare tip kissed the mound and lips before wedging inside. She could feel the silky skin part as she eased into a tight passage. Only two inches deep and Alloy's body grew hotter than the spring water they bathed in.

"So cold…", Alloy let out an inward gasp.

"Want me to pull out?", Hex offered.

"No! I mean, no. Never used ice in foreplay?"

Bless laughed softly between her moans, the normally shy mare raising and dropping her toned curvy ass eagerly, "Hex's cock is getting really hot. Literally."

"Have you ever used hot wax In foreplay?", Hex answered as she squeezed the top of Alloy's thighs, assuring the dragon she wanted more.

Arcane felt her minds in synch. Her motions didn't feel confused or conflicted. Hex leaned in and quickened her pace and Bless thrusted her hips down harder. Alloy barely had to move, the two mares thrusted In and onto her in a dance that grew in tempo. Their three voices echoed off the high ceiling with no care of who could hear them. They moved in spite of fatigue and strain. In many ways the challenge to endure another hour of sweat and pleasure was the entire point.

Bless was the first. Her spine arched and head pointed up. Alloy's hands reached out and laced with the white mare's fingers as her pink length shot out messily over the dragon's breasts.

"Damn, a bit pent up?", Alloy snickered, glad she was eventually going to use this bath as a bath.

The dragon's snicker followed a gasp. To an Equis, Hex's cum would feel warm, but in comparison to Alloy's internal temperature, it felt like a shock of ice. Her walls bore down hard on the dark mare's length as the dragon's heat spilled into Bless.

Hex pulled free and moved onto hands and knees beside Alloy with a sweet but lewd smile.

"Why don't you use those cock-bumps properly?"

Bless rose off Alloy with her small hint of a smile, the little grin that would make her lose at poker if she were ever foolish enough to play. The dragon formed a look of realization before sitting up and moving behind the dark mare. Alloy gripped Hex by the waist and pulled her back. Her dark tip parted the near-black folds, earning a low moan. Hex could feel the texture of Alloy's cock-belly stroke the sensitive roof of her walls.

Bless slipped behind the dragon and quivered as Alloy's doe-like tail brushed her stomach. White hands ran over Alloy's as the pink length sank inside and felt that heat bare down. She remained still, just her breasts leaning into Alloy's back and her muzzle on Alloy's shoulder.

It was the dragon's dance this time. Alloy moved her hips into Hex and onto Bless as the two mares remained steady, at least as much as possible. Alloy's wide hips were as strong as they were matronly. The two had to flex their thighs and brace for the back and forth collisions of a dragon satisfying her needs.

Bless let out a tiny squeak as she felt herself twitch hard within the quickly shifting heat. Hex began to pant as that texture mercilessly stimulated an inch of highly sensitive flesh about a finger-tip deep into her pussy. Once again, Bless was the first to break. The white mare grabbed for anything and found Alloy's chest. She gripped as her length pulsed inside the dragon's pussy.

Alloy pressed her back against Bless's chest as the incredible heat spilled into Hex. The water was clouded by the dark mare's release as the twins tightly pinned Alloy in place with their bodies to preserve this high. After a long moment the three collapsed into the water and lay side by side, staring up in the afterglow.

Chapter 12: Guiding Lights

Chapter Twelve: Guiding Lights

Alloy helped the twins get familiar with the odd properties of the spring and the plant life that grew within it. A particular blue tree was heavy with a bloated lemon-shaped violet fruit. When picked and squeezed it foamed like body wash. When it came in contact with the minerals of the water the violet foam began to glow with a pink light. The natural magic purified all it touched, even mended superficial wounds and relaxed strained muscles.

The underground complex was virtually silent by the time they were done with their bath. A few patrols here and there, a few dedicated sentinels including the gold clad soldiers that never left their reinforced door.

Alloy guided the twins into a long chamber lined with rustic looking bunk beds. Faint indigo crystals in wall sconces lined the room. Bless's gift identified them with a mute spell, the stones nullifying all noise from traveling through the walls. Soldiers and dragons snored, purred, and whinnied in their sleep without a peep of sound. Not even the beating of their own hearts could be heard.

Alloy's bed was marked with a steamer chest directly in front of it, her name etched by claw in the top. She dressed down to a breast wrap and panties before slipping under purple covers, perhaps donated by the royal palace itself.

The twins paused before Alloy motioned them to join. It would be a snug fit, but a welcome one. Arcane, both sides of her, felt something curious. It worried Bless and intrigued Hex. There was a hard to quality feeling when next to Alloy. Perhaps it was just chemical, or some other trick of their minds. It was something one never noticed until it happened. She was, they were, unconditionally comfortable with the dragon between her forms. Maybe it was love, maybe it wasn't. Whatever it was, she didn't want it to end.

"Hexxed Gears"

The incense stung her nose and made her eyes water, but at least she got what she wanted without needing to explain why.

Arcane entered the tiny hut of an old Mundane mare by the name of ClearWater. Normally it was new parents and children that visited the elderly Fateseer, but tonight it was a teenage mare with five hundred bits and a 'bet'.

"Congratulations", Arcane said as she dropped a bag of coins into the lap of the older mare sitting cross legged on her straw floor.

The old one let out a laugh that devolved into a hacking cough. "You admit a FateSeer can see one's fate, yet you honestly think we can be fooled? This was no bet for me to guess your name, filly, you were searching for one that fits you as you are now. You're right, 'Arcane Gears' does not fit you in this form. You are only half of what the Arcane holds. You lack Blessings."

"How did you know.", She took a step forward as the old mare fell silent, her face motionless. "FateSeer? Mrs Clearwater?"

"Hex…"

A whisper outside. It was so faint, yet somehow it pierced the ramshackle walls of this hut.

The door was smaller than she remembered, then again, she was a fifteen year old runaway in this memory. She pushed it open and didn't see the swampy borderland between Everfree and Everfield where Clearwater lived. What she saw confirmed this was a dream. Beyond the cabin was dark water and an endless sky of deep indigo and shades of bruised violets.

She walked out with a scripted certainty the water was solid, and so it was. Her hooves didn't penetrate what looked like an endless abyss, the placid surface as steady as solid ground.

In the distance a dark figure stood with their back to Hex. She took a single step and within dream logic was now right beside the other.

Queen Luna looked into stars connected by thin lines, constellations which drew out images of fallen heroes and legends long since forgotten by most. She looked up with nostalgia and longing, with a heavy burden in her eyes.

"I wasn't the popular princess, you know. My parents saw me as a backup and little more, and even as I grew into a filly they and my people paid me little mind. I don't blame them, though. At least not anymore.

I was the pragmatic one, the untrusting one. I didn't do parties or grand adventures like my sister. I was quiet, observing, and more than happy serving my people through their dreams. I was there for the unpleasant work, the less glamorous tasks that require a… reserved hand."

Hex gave a weak smile. She could sympathize with so much of that, at least in her own manner.

"Call me what you want, just not 'pragmatic'. I sleep around, I work as a bounty hunter. I even ran away from home."

"You only took the jobs you could handle. The promiscuity was a large risk, but hardly random. As for running away, you didn't exactly do that for your own sake."

The stars began to move in the night sky from west to east. Time was regressing. The deep reds and oranges of a sunset rose over the horizon. From the abyss rose cobblestones and famillair cottage style buildings. She was back here now, back into the home she destroyed.

"No."

Luna didn't look in her direction or answer. Her blue eyes were focused on a much smaller version of Arcane. Her fragile form was made of exposed bone and white flames splotched with black. Her skeletal mouth was open in a silent scream as her hands struggled with the chain of a collar. Before her was the skeletal dragon that collared her.

"I don't understand. Why are you showing me this", Hex's voice quivered only once as she spoke, but something inside her was coming loose. Hex couldn't feel the emotion of dread, or perhaps she didn't understand it. All she knew is she wanted to look away and yet couldn't find the Will to listen to her own body.

"I said I was practical. I never said anything about being kind.", Luna said soft yet stern.

Hex felt emotion stir inside. That faint hint of emotion burst from ember to pyre. Her head couldn't move from the sight, but she still had control of her mouth.

"Bless is going to see this. You have no idea what it's like for her. How could you? You were born Ascended. This shit is your fucking birthright. Do you know what it was to us? It was a nightmare we want to forget!"

"It was a nightmare you want to forget. You are Bless, Bless is you."

Luna corrected calmly.

"Fine! Fucking fine! She twisted my gift and made it more powerful than it was ever meant to be. It ripped apart reality for me and showed me everything, forcing me to feel EVERYTHING. Hate, love, loyalty, rebellion, all memories, all sensations, every concept birthed within a living mind all at once.

It broke me in half."

She began to hyperventilate. She was growing numb from the neck down. Her legs failed and knees struck the cobblestones. The pain wasn't even a distraction.

Her younger self screamed in two voices as she rythed in place. An explosion of raw power spread in white and black flame. It consumed everything, even the bones of that damned dragon. It ate away at houses, blasted cobblestones into the nearby sea. It burnt away the collar and her connection to an unseen master. When it was over she was left with the dying sunset and the embers only her gift could see. The parting souls of everyone she just killed took to the sky like fireflies.

Hex cupped her own face and gripped tight. For all the effort she could muster there was no holding it back. Tears leaked from between her fingers and dripped down her arms.

Luna slid down and wrapped arms around her. The armor Hex first saw her in was now gone and replaced by a blue silken dress. Her short hair was again long and flowing. Hex screamed into Luna's chest until she was left drained of the unwelcomed sadness and rage that possessed her. She wasn't numb again, this was something new. Release, perhaps.

The light dimmed as the terrible memory faded. All that remained was that endless sea of stars, Hex, and the queen.

"Why?", Hex asked with a weakened voice, not bothering to look up.

"When a bone sets badly the only thing one can do is break it again so it can be set right. You've resisted the dark for so long, Hex, but you did so by locking it inside you. How do you expect to be your whole self?

Remember when I said the dark isn't evil? Well, it isn't. Not so long as you're in control, and it not in control of you."

Hex looked up. A slow realization came over her as eyes grew practically into circles. Queen Luna never said that, but…

"Angel?"

Luna gave a grin and kissed Hex on the nose.

"Wait! You… we… I fucked…"

A vague sense of anguish forced Bless's eyes open, and like so many dreams, the details faded from her waking mind faster than they could be recalled. This was fine. The emotions of the dream were enough, whatever it was, the subconscious could have it.

She remained in bed and closed her eyes to no avail. Not even the soft warm body of Alloy was enough to lull her back into sleep. There was something more, something that felt like the emotional equivalent of a child tugging at your clothing for attention.

She slid out of bed clumsily and silently thanked the magic in this room which nullified sound. She didn't have to make an effort to leave without rousing anyone, she simply dressed in her borrowed clothing and walked into the corridor.

The echoing click of her hooves returned the moment she left the barracks. Even without the enchantment things were oddly quiet. Only the distant clicks of a few hooves and talons, guards on their nightly patrols.

Curiosity and that insistent pull made her walk in a particular and famillair direction. There was no way she memorized these winding tunnels so quickly and yet everything felt so sure, so easily navigated. Ahead of her came the lab, but that silent urge wanted her to turn left.

Golden spears crossed before a reinforced door. The ones that held the staves were also dressed in gold, their eyes stern and faces white.

"Halt, go no further", they spoke sternly and in unison.

Bless opened her mouth to speak but found her words seized in her throat. She didn't know why she was doing this or where this door led. How in Hades could she explain herself to two soldiers that looked not at all hesitant to run her through? Each had that odd thousand-yard stare, one only veterans in war had. One that suggested the war never left them.

The door took on a gold glimmer as clanks and whirring gears turned. The many locking mechanisms of the door undid themselves and hinges creaked as it slowly swayed open. From the room beyond a matronly voice spoke.

"Let her pass, FastWind, BlueSky. She is a friend."

The soldiers stood at attention and uncrossed their spears to let Bless cross. They didn't so much as look back as she walked into a room that couldn't be more different. The walls were made smooth and the corners rounded to look like columns. The upper edges were made to look like Victorian molding with vine-like patterns swirling from wall to wall. The floor was wooden with a thick red carpet covering every inch.

Along one wall was a study made of fine mahogany with an ornate chair to match. Near this was a bay of large machines with tubes and wires snaking from them. Many led into a four-post bed shrouded in silks, and in this bed lay Queen Celestia.

Bless timidly walked to the bedside and looked apon the Queen of Day. Across her face, arms, and peeking from her back were exposed patches of scar tissue, all meticulously inflicted. Her body was emaciated, her cheeks concave and ribs visible under the gossamer sheets that covered her nude form.

"Please, sit." Celestia's finger motioning her closer. At the very same time the chair bent its wooden legs and quite literally galloped closer before becoming nothing more than an unassuming piece of furniture.

Bless did as she was ordered.

"Your Highness, you can still use magic?"

She gave a barely perceptible nod, "Limited magic. My doctor, Miss Alloy, has been a wonderful help. She never ceases to amaze."

She blushed a deep shade of rose at the comment. She could agree, for several reasons.

"Y… yes. She's quite amazing."

Celestia never sat up or even raised her head, in fact, it was only now that Bless realized the Queen wasn't looking directly at her. Those blue eyes were cloudy, perhaps fully blind.

"My sister tells me you're half a soul, that the element you recovered for us divided your body. Though something tells me you were in two places well before this."

Bless bit her bottom lip. She wanted to stand up and walk away yet she was frozen to the spot. This was Queen Celsestia, not some nosy therapist or well meaning stranger.

"Yes." Was her one word answer.

"Nine hundred and eighty four years."

The seemingly random statement made her brow furrow in pure confusion. She wanted to say 'What?' But worried her tone would seem disrespectful. Ultimately, all Bless could do is let out a tiny croak from a dry throat.

"That's how long it took me to find six knights worthy of the Elements. I lost control of them the day I lost my sister, as history books would tell you. From then on, my light was tarnished and they no longer would answer me. Once I-"

Bless found herself leaning in and touching the Queen's thin hand. She grasped back, as much as she could.

"I know, there's no need to revisit it.", Bless said gently. Celestia smiled as a tear welled in the Queen's left eye and ran down her cheek. It wasn't just sorrow, but gratitude she could skip speaking about her greatest sin.

"More time was lost while rebuilding the kingdom, but I hoped that would somehow bring the six forward. Unfortunately, It would be another seven hundred years of fruitless searching.

One day, I decided to take a walk in disguise. Not as queen, but a common Equis far removed from the pressures of my station. I was passing a quarry town when I came across a pink filly with the deepest sorrow. Her's was not the frown of a child, not the frown of one upset by petty things. This was a grown mare's frown, one that reflected my own sorrow back to me. Existential dread etched on the face of one too young.

She smiled the moment she realized I was there. This wasn't a smile for her sake, but for mine. She smiled so I would not feel the depression she knew all too well.

That's when I realized something. I was looking for those whom embody the elements, all the while I should have sought those with long shadows that still manage to shine."

Bless continued to hold the Queen's hand and listened intently. Some of it was never covered by history books, true, but it seemed like such a random subject. Perhaps it was her confession? Her need to tell someone her full story before the inevitable.

"But why do I tell you this, you say?", Celestia said with a smirk. "Bless, you can shine too, but only if you embrace the shadow you too cast. Only then will you be whole."

She felt a chill run up her spine as she heard those words. For moments at a time Bless felt as if she were back there. A child with a collar around her neck, her flesh replaced with fire that churned over her exposed bones. She saw the thirteen veins, the rivers that looked impossibly distant and only centimeters away all at once. They wanted to connect with her, flow through her, whisper and scream inside her all things.

"Your highness… I've known…Hex protects me..f-from... is why. It's why I made her.

Your Highness?"

Celestia's eyes slowly closed and went still. A wave of relief came over Bless. The Queen was now asleep. Perhaps she would avoid the call if it came again. Queen or not, there were some things too painful to speak of.

Her eyes focused on Celestia's chest. The fur on the back of Bless' neck stood up. Celestia's chest wasn't moving.

"Your highness" her hand nudged the Queen's side, "Queen Celestia? Queen Celestia!"

Chapter 13: Sunrise

Chapter Thirteen: Sunrise

Bless rushed to the door and grasped one of the guards by his gold chainmail. Her fear for the Queen overwhelmed any notion of self preservation.

"Go get the dark one that looks like me and Alloy, now!"

The other guard tapped and readied his spear with bared teeth. Bless didn't acknowledge the threat.

"You, Carry the queen into the lab."

She began to run past the angry guard and paused.

"Did I fucking stutter?! Get her now!"

She took off leaving two confused guards that looked to one another for answers. The only ones they had were to listen and act.

Bless began by noting all she had to work with. This lab was remarkably different from the low budget equipment back at Last Harbor, so much of it nearly eight years older than her training. The chair itself was custom and nearly featureless, just three segments of articulate padded panels and the six metallic plates attached to motorized swivels along the sides. No ports or other connections to be found.

"Right! Voice activated. Chair, prep for an Ascended."

The chair shifted into a reclined position before all six resonant plates swung in place and began to hum. At the same time, a cylinder of stone arose from the floor near the chair's armrest. Once the full two meters of stone stopped extending from the ground Bless noticed an open hollow in that cylinder. Within the hollow was a bag of saline solution attached to two thin tubes. One extended into the stone and the other ended with a sealed hypodermic needle. An IV stand with some sort of Serum injection apparatus.

"Damnit, Alloy, I didn't expect to love you more but here we go.", she muttered to herself before turning to her next task.

"I'm here!"

A gold plated soldier shouted. In his arms was the limp body of Queen Celestia shrouded up to the neck in her silk sheet.

"Put her in the chair. Do you know how to put in an IV?"

She shouted out orders with her back turned. To her relief Alloy answered back.

"I'm on it."

Alloy and Hex outraced the guard sent to fetch them. Without time or care for shame the two dressed hastily. Hex only wore her dusty trousers and Alloy wore Hex's shirt.

"Hex, did you bring the tap gloves?"

Bless caught the glove in mid-air just as she turned to look at her dark half. Hex already had hers on. The two gave each other a knowing look. In their minds they could hear each other's thoughts.

"You're looking more confident, Bless."

"And you actually noticed, Hex."

Hex turned to the guard as he was catching his breath.

"Hey guy, we need-"

"This?", Queen Luna appeared from nowhere. How she even entered was a mystery that would need to wait. The Queen had the element of Redemption.

"Thank you, your highness", Bless took the stone sphere between both hands and squeezed. Dust and chunks of ancient concrete rained down to the floor. Gray sand ran though Bless's left hand to expose a brilliant red-orange gem no bigger than her palm.

Alloy perked as Bless's intention came clear.

"Chamber one, prep to mature"

The dragon's order made a light in one of the several large cylindrical chambers turn on. From a hidden mechanism an opalescent fluid began to fill the inside of its reinforced window. A hatch in the top swung open with a loud hiss.

"Aaand in goes the catalyst", Bless said as she plopped in the element. One more order from Alloy shut the chamber before it began to repressurize.

"Okay, quick rundown. Hex and I pump this mixture with light and dark magic, the element makes sure we don't mess up the balance. Alloy, your transmutation magic is going to turn this high-speed maturation tank into an instant maturation tank."

Alloy bit her lower lip. "I've never done this before."

Hex touched her shoulder. "You have made several serums the normal way. There's no doubt in our mind, otherwise, we wouldn't go through with this. Not with her life on the line."

The brutal honestly seemed to settle Alloy's worry. With a small nod from the dragon they began.

Hex and Bless punched gloves to bring their taps to life. Both could feel their own vital energy flow from the nerves in their body and run though the glove's mechanism. Their palms touched the maturation chamber as energy leaked and slithered over its curved surface. From bless came a bright mist dancing with sparks. From Hex came a dense smoke that swirled to the windows edge. Both energies swirled about one another as if repelled, yet both clung to the metal surface of the chamber and seeped between the very atoms of the metallic surface.

Alloy drew in a long breath as she stood between the twins. The segments of her horns began to crackle with emerald embers. Her head leaned in as a thin churning green flame hit the chamber's window.

The gem inside began to slowly turn within the mineral solution. As moments went by it's turning grew in speed. A few moments more Alloy's eyes grew unfocused. Her nostrils flared as air was drawn into her lungs as fire rolled from her parted lips. Like all her species, Alloy could draw breath in and out simultaneously. Despite this talent, her head grew light and stars formed in her vision. The fire of this spell was greedy, leaving little air for her lungs.

Sweat began to bead from Hex and Bless's skin. Cold shivers ran through their bodies as calories and nutrients stored in their fat and blood were consumed to keep their Mundane magic flowing. Bless's knees buckled and she nearly collapsed before Alloy caught her around the waist. Alloy gripped Hex before the dark mare could do the same..

The heavy pull took them by surprise. Alloy's eyes rolled onto the back of her head as the need for oxygen won. Her body crumbled into the ready arms of Luna. Alloy began to lean forward and summon her power again before the queen spoke.

"The Element has it from here. Save your strength."

Hex and Bless were tugged forward as their palms were drawn and held fast against the chamber's wall by the magic flowing out of them. The element demanded more as Alloy's spell continued on its own. Small green sparks danced within the swirling fluid. A solution of basic minerals assembled itself into a serum of saline and small interlocking gears smaller than a fine hair.

Alloy tried to pull away from Luna's hold, yet for all her strength, the Queen was deceptively strong.

"Let me go, Dammit! It's going to drain them dry!"

"It's okay." Bless began. "The element gave us enough energy to form separate bodies."

Hex finished.

"Now they need it back."

The holy must and profane smoke flowing out of their gloves spread up their arms, consuming them whole before merging, Like a wildfire, the magic churned and twisted together as it reduced to the size of one mare. Mist and smoke pulled away from a single nude figure, not even the tap gloves remaining.

Arcane recognized the mare that looked back at her from the chamber's reflection. A painted pattern of black blotches were on the right side of her face and all of her right arm. Her left side had a small blotch along her neck and most of her left leg. The left half sported a gold eye and straight lavender hair. Her right was wavy and pink, like her grandmother on her dad's side. Like a calico cat, Arcane was born as a chimera.

It was a rare but not unheard of condition. The fertilized egg that would of been Hex hadn't attached to her mother's uterine wall, yet managed to survive one week before Bless was conceived. The two merged. Nine months later a calico filly came into this world.

"Chair, transfer chamber one."

The fluid level within the chamber begsn to lower on Alloy's command. Luna loosened her hold. Unknown to the three, an audience of dragon and Equis soldiers in silver armor had gathered in the now crowded room. Without hesitation the crowd parted for Queen Luna, Acane and Alloy in company.

"Chair, Display."

Two broad rectangles slowly dropped from the ceiling, one above the foot and the other over the headrest. Small holes opened up as the shapes began to hum like a resonant plate. Grey dust flew out of the holes and began to swarm in the shape of a transparent Celestia.

"Zoom in on the left temple along scar number three."

A floating window formed to provide a magnified image of Celestia's head, microscopic nerve damage enlarged for all to see.

"Chair, full pattern. No exceptions." Arcane added.

Among the guards were concerned faces. 'Full pattern' meant the resonant plates would send the serum to every frayed nerve in Celestia's body. In normal circumstances this would be a death sentence for everyone around, instant magic overload, total Golden Hills Senario.

"If this doesn't work I want you to shut it down."

Alloy looked over at the unreadable face of Queen Luna, before she could protest or agree Luna continued.

"She'd rather die, that's my sister. That's what she would want."

They looked on as the serum made its way through the Queen's blood. Her body lifted off the chair and began to hover, the scars on her body began to glow emerald. The display finally showed movement. Nanites formed what looked like vines in splitting patterns from one edge of frayed nerves to the other. Some shattered as others took their place in an ever evolving pattern of creation and destruction.

"It's self-selecting…" Alloy muttered. "I love you.."

Arcane smiled. "You beat me to it."

"Of course I did", Alloy said with a cocky smirk.

The display began to glitch, swarms of gray sand thrown into a flurry like angry gnats. Two golden lights emerged from Celestia's forehead and danced in a narrowing spiral, soon forming a long brilliant horn. Her emaciated body began to fill out, toned muscle and a layer of fat giving the 1.8 meter Equis her true matronly form. When the emerald light faded it left behind off-white fur, not quite matching the coat. Reminders of what she survived.

The silk sheet that had barely protected Queen Celestia's dignity fell away. The only jaw that didn't drop was Luna's. She simply smirked. The Queen was more endowed than most stallions there.

"Like anyone here is surprised." Luna muttered to herself.

Chapter 14: Sunset

Chapter Fourteen: Sunset

The throne room was silent. She didn't like silence. Silence meant stillness and a chance to remember every terrible thing Twilight and the others forgave. Even to this day she couldn't erase the shame of using dark magic and letting it consume her. Once her blade was an inch from Queen Celestia's throat. Worse yet, at the time she wanted that blade between her perfect eyes more than life itself.

She was now Lady Sunset, Queen in waiting and knight of Harmony. Her fire-red hair was cut short so nothing could grasp it while fighting, yet it still waved in streaks of red and blond. Her eyes were a pale green, her fur a golden blond. These bold sun-related features often birthed rumors of her being Celestia's unclaimed daughter. Perhaps she was. The Queen of day had her secrets, but Sunset was finally beyond this. Nobody was perfect, nor did they need to be. Such was the wisdom gained in her Ascension.

Her eyes rose as one of the throne chamber's doors began to swing open. The two meter tall oak door made a groaning sound no matter how many times her royal servants oiled their hinges. The damn things were just too dense for their own good.

Her eyes opened with shock as she saw who was making their way inside. She wore a thin tiara of gold with a single Opal mounted in the center, the sort of crown one would wear before the Night of Scars. Sunset's crown hung on the armrest of her throne, the bronze colored tiara wider and armored to protect her forehead in combat. She wore a sleeveless dress of blue silk that exposed the off-white stripes of her healed scars. She wore No armor, nothing to protect her.

Sunset stood in disbelief. The skeptic in her reached for the hilt of her sword and gently gripped. What she saw before her couldn't be real. She couldn't be standing here.

"Hello, My pupil."

Celestia walked across the red carpet leading up to the three steps before two thrones. A majestic smile graced her lips, but the tears in the corner of her eyes betrayed her emotions. Behind her walked four guards in gold, two Equis, two Dragons. Among the foursome were MoonDrop and MoonDrop.

Something shimmering with dusky hues was held in Celestia's left hand. She extended her arm and spread her fingers to let Sunset see. Sunset looked at it with a hint of confusion, but it still spoke to her. It felt like a mirror, or a part of her soul she was born without.

"Celestia!"

Thoughts of the stone fell away from her mind as Sunset dashed down the stairs and embraced the white mare. She tried so hard not to cry. She managed not to sniffle or whimper, but Sunset couldn't stop the tears from escaping. The guards that looked on offered no judgement. They too wanted to cry happy tears when their Queen was restored.

"There, there, Sunset. No need for tears."

Her naked hand stroked the knight's red and blonde hair like a mother would to her foal. She leaned into that embrace and gently pressed her cheek to Sunset's. If Celestia were not her daughter, one would be forgiven for thinking so.

Sunset leaned back yet didn't break her embrace. She looked into Celestia's eyes and smiled.

"What happened? Did we find a cure?"

Celestia gave her subtle nod and motherly laugh.

"Yes, and the ones responsible are busily at work healing our fallen soldiers. However, that isn't the only good news."

Her voice had a hint of weight to it, a mixture of relief and sadness.

"Sunset, When I first put you under my wing I wanted to forge you into the Knight of Bonds. I was so sure that you were the one. You were so like me, born with a long shadow that held others at an emotional distance. I was so sure that my arrogance pushed you away.

You turned out to be so much more than I had eyes to see. You walked the darkness and the light unlike any other. I see you now."

Celestia looked into Sunset's eyes. Her face showed a level of hesitation and doubt that was unlike the Queen. She took a deep breath and spoke two more words.

"My Daughter."

Sunset furrowed her brow and fell back. Part of her was furious. After so long she confirms it, only now. Only now after so long. Only now after nearly dying. Yet, she was happy. She wasn't a saint and neither was the mare that brought her into the world. What did all that matter? She loved her Queen, she loved her Mother.

"Is… it okay if I call you 'Mom'? In public, I mean."

The stone rose from Celestia's hand and drifted towards the armored mare. Sunset closed her eyes and accepted that lost part of her. It fused into her armor with a brilliant light that shifted from orange to pale emerald, the color of Sunset's eyes. The emerald light spread over every piece of her armor before it changed shape. When the light faded, Sunset wore a simple pair of dark brown trousers and an untucked blue dress shirt. The stone in its new form now hung around her neck from a bronze chord.

"Of course you can."

Celestia said as she reached out and caressed Sunset's cheek.

"I name thee Sunset Shimmer, Knight of Redemption."

They embraced again, this time without the bulky armor in their way. Sunset had so many questions, but for now she could set them aside. Sunset showed Celestia her engagement ring and spoke of the night Twilight had proposed, or to be more exact, the night Twilight froze in place on one knee. The poor introvert was so overwhelmed by the moment she couldn't get a word out, so Sunset took the ring, knelt, and proposed to Twilight.

The sound of rattling armor turned every eye to the two dragon guards. MoonDrop and a male black dragon looked ill. They shook as they stared at the chamber doors. Their pupils grew to pinpricks as the white of their eyes grew a pale shade of magenta.

"MoonDrop? MoonDrop, What's gotten into you?"

The mare form of MoonDrop whispere, worried she just offended her Queens. That annoyance quickly evolved into worry as the shaking and clattering grew more violent. The Dragon MoonDrop slowly turned her head to face the Queen and her Royal knight. Her lips parted and a grin not her own formed. A far-too masculine voice spoke.

"Your magesty, I will ask you to remain safely in your chambers. I already failed you once. I do not intend to do so a second time. Just wait patiently, I promise this will be worth your time."

A magenta flame that swirled with black smoke poured from under the door and ran along every seam. It spread along the baseboards and spread up the walls to cover every inch. It gave off no heat, but it lifted everything from floors and walls as if repelling everyting solid.

Sunset gave a berserker's howl and ran at the doors. Her hand was poised as a green flame consumed her. When it extinguished she was in full armor again with her bastard sword raised above her head. She thrust down with all her strength only to have the wide blade bounce and throw her violently back.

The ceiling was made to flood the throne room with light while keeping royalty safe. A thick beam of wood that was once a ship's backbone ran across the roof and supported two massive crystal mosaics in a stained glass pattern. Even without the strange magenta energy it was impenetrable by most forces, more so since the Night of Scars. From beyond the canopy an army of black birds took to the sky and flew in a dark cyclone all around New Canterbury. Some were as high as the clouds and yet still visible, each possibly the size of small houses.

"I'm truly glad to see you alive and well. I can't tell you how long I labored to make you well, or the terrible things I have done to right this wrong. I'm jealous, but still glad to do my part. No matter. There are greater things needing attention."

"Who the hell are you and what's happening to my people?"

Sunset grit her teeth in rage at the blue dragon that spoke with an old male's voice.

"Your people? These Dragons are your people?"

The voice sounded insulted, perhaps shocked.

"These creatures sank their claws into our flesh and robbed us of our powers, all in the name of a manic Goddess. All they have ever done is spread misery and pain. Your sense of mercy blinds you, young knight."

The two dragons tapped the butt of their spears on the ground to wake them. They turned on each other and thrust before a golden light enveloped them. Celestia's tall horn stood from her forehead as sunlight radiated from her eyes.

"Begone!"

Celestia's royal voice shook the foundations under them. It did nothing to the barrier, but the two dragons fell onto their knees and dropped their spears, each crawling backwards and away from their weapons. It was standard guard training. If one is recently possessed they should distance themselves from any weapon, just in case they are taken again and try to harm their partners.

Ravencroft stood at the palace with a scowl marking his youthful face. The power that clouded his eyes in pale magenta had healed his wounds and returned his youth, all he had to trade for it was his conscience. It barely felt different from any other moment of his life since that day, but now it seemed far easier. There was no more remorse, no more hesitation. All of that emotional burden was gone apart from the pure pleasure of harming those that deserved it. He was free, finally free.

"Come."

His mind reached into the palace and down a hall. It raced through corridors and burst open locked and guarded doors. It appeared as a shadow that passed through everything and left beings falling onto the floor like puppets with their strings cut. It moved like a flash until his shadow found the chamber.

A dark transparency reached out its hand to the tall standing mirror and commanded the glass to ripple. When the connection was made his will reached past his reality into the wastes she called home.

RavenCroft clenched his teeth as he fed his soul to the six shadows bonded to him. He would gladly extinguish himself and any hope for an afterlife if it meant turning that bitch into his puppet. His shadow walked into the mirror and crossed into Dagon. He found himself in a second palace of white marble and white gold in ornate patterns along walls and ceilings.

The shadow walked past servants of bone and flame. All of them shook and rattled in place. Brushes and mops lay on the ground as they rythed. He made his way into her throne room unchallenged.

The Six rattled and shook in place. Six tall figures of black bone wreathed in flames having familiar colors. The six were her version of the knights. Lady Twilight, Lady Rarity, Lady Jack, Lady Fluttershy, Lady Dash, and Lady Pie. These dragons, these pathetic copies of Celestia's Knights, submitted to his will as easily as a sparrow. Of course they did. Dragons were not pure avian, but with the shadows help, they were avian enough.

The Dragon that looked so much like his Queen wasn't so fully dominated, however, her defiant look surprised him. Her brows were furrowed and blue eyes focused into what would be his shadow's eyes, if shadows had eyes. He anticipated hatred and malice, but she radiated a motherly determination. She was like a lioness remaining strong for her cubs, not the monster he expected at all.

It then dawned on him. She was truly insane.

"Leave and you can keep your wretched life, shadow!"

She said within the deep growl from her throat.

His laugh passed through his world and into her's. It came out of his shadow and echoed across the decedent marble walls and the stained glass canopy which looked out onto a sky with its shattered moon.

"You honestly think of yourself as the protagonist?"

He walked about the room and approached each of the skeletal dragons. The one with pink flames that gave a mirthless giggle as it rythed uncontrollably. The blue one with a prismatic flame that stared him down with determined resistance even as its body spasmed.

"Ecclestia, is it? Forgive me, I've been studying how to kill you for years. I never meant to learn your name, but your whelps can be talkative after a little interrogation.

Your motives still confuse me, why you gave us those scars? You wanted to save us from ourselves, from our freedom to choose. That's why you bound the ones you loved. No free will, no mistakes like the one made those years past. Free from starvation. Free from a spiteful nature spirit that wants to kill each and every one of you for what you did. All of this from one moment of weakness.

You killed your sister, shattered your moon, destroyed your elements, and made an enemy of Nature herself. All of this in one act. Shameful."

She let out a growl as yellow fire made her flawless fangs glow like an overheated furnace.

"I loved my sister with a heart more pure than you knew from birth. Do not sully her memory."

He laughed again, hollow and vicious. He didn't fear her fire, not as the shadow. He walked up to her and brushed fingers along her neck. Ecclestia didn't have the strength to pull away.

"Your sister was madd before she was consumed by darkness. She was cruel. I restored a few of them before putting them out of their misery. One was a servant of hers. The things your sister did, how do you will yourself to remember things so… selectively?"

Ecclestia didn't scream or strike down the shadow that mocked her dear sister. The truth did nothing to increase her rage. In fact, it only made her determination stronger. Her face relaxed and she stood straight. She took in a deep breath and exhaled gently.

"You clever little pony."

A wisp of smoke blew past her lips as the fire extinguished within her.

She moved freely and cupped the shadow's face in a gentle touch. Ravencroft felt a cold shiver of panic. He should have known. Ecclestia was insane and taken into mania, but that didn't make her a fool. His trick was crass and simplistic in comparison to her experience. She realized his game. Appeal to her inner shadows, her rage, once her mental focus was at its lowest he could possess her.

Then he remembered what a wise old General once said to him, one of his earliest patients. 'If you come across a strong opponent, don't waste your time attacking them. Attack what makes them strong.'

Ravencroft allowed his shadow self to stare helplessly into the dragon's eyes. Frozen terror was easy to fake for a time. While that form of himself satisfied the mad Queen's desire to monologue, another tendril of his shadow slithered up to the black bones wreathed in purple fire.

This Twilight's mind was flooded by feelings of love and happier memories of a past she never lived. Her soul couldn't make sense of her prison, but what a nice prison it was. Ecclestia's forced bond kept the poor creature fed with illusions of love, and in return this Twilight served as an Element. This was true for the other five, and thus it kept the eternal queen alive in an otherwise dying world.

"Remember."

RavenCroft's shadow said only one word in Twilight's ear, but he knew it would be the first domino of a much larger reaction. Twilight did remember. She remembered the night her parents were murdered trying to protect her. She remembered that dank little cave they hoped would hide them. She remembered looking up at that wild eyed Queen who saw Twilight's love for her slain parents.

She remembered waking up and thinking it was all just a terrible dream. They were at her side. Her father took her up in his arms and hugged her so tight. They were never far after that. Then more came. A blue dragon with rainbows in her head feathers. Another who would never lie. Another who always had a good joke to tell. Another who was kind and loving. So many friends.

It never felt quite right. It never felt like the cave. More like a dream. It never felt quite right.

A whimper escaped the dragon in purple flame. She shook harder, not out of resistance but out of something more primal than a need to be free. Black smoke came from her fire as the whimper became a cry, and a cry became a scream. The smoke coiled into the shape of a chain that joined the shadow's neck. Another chain of white showed itself before shattering, severing Ecclestia's connection.

The shadow before Ecclestia faded. She screamed and rushed towards the shadow that stood near Twilight, but he didn't need to dodge her. The dragon wreathed in purple smoke grasped her neck and threw her onto her back. Two talons pricked her neck and drew blood as Twilight began to choke the life out of her.

"Calm yourself, daughter. Don't give her the mercy of a quick death."

The shadow spoke and Twilight's grip loosened, but not fully.

RavenCroft's shadow kneeled down and looked upon Ecclestia with an odd admiration.

"I promise you will not be harmed."

He lied with a satisfied grin.

Chapter 15: Bowling for Narcists

Chapter Fifteen: Bowling Over Narcissists

"Any luck, Fluttershy?"

Twilight hovered five paces from the steepled roof Fluttershy stood on. The camomile-yellow colored Celestial didn't answer. Her blue eyes were closed in meditation and brown cloak's hood mostly obscuring her face. Unlike her six partners, Fluttershy chose a simple dark brown cloak instead of heavy metallic armor. She preferred her place as the healer and didn't see a need for anything that slowed herself down.

"Fluttershy?!"

Twilight chose a middle-ground between speed and protection. Metal bracers and shin guards, her silver crown, the rest was hardened leather she could mend with a basic spell. She didn't delude herself. She was good at fencing and so chose a thin rapier as her weapon, but she was more acedemia than military.

"No. They're still not listening to me."

Fluttershy gave a frustrated squeaky answer as her hood fell away and bubblegum pink hair spilled over her shoulders. She loooked up into the storm-filled sky and watched birds both small and massive fly in wide circles around New Canterbury.

Every time a soldier, officer, or knight dared get close to the palace a horde of the birds would swoop down and attack until wounded too much to move or running the opposite direction. Three officers lay bleeding in the street where the birds wouldn't allow passage.

A colorful blur dove again and again towards the fallen guards. Every time it tried to save them a giant falcon or silver-feathered shreek would dive to intercept.

The prismatic blur landed near Fluttershy and slumped onto the slanted shingle roof. The celestial in light cobalt armor panted and wiped sweat from under her short rainbow mane as she looked up with her magenta eyes.

"Twi, are these birds normally this fast?"

Twilight sighed and responded to Rainbow dash.

"Yes, but never this aggressive. They're only territorial in mating season. Nothing about this is natural. They're obviously being controlled."

"And it's very strong. Stronger than Sombra." Fluttershy meekly added.

The sound of pounding hooves and a war cry made the three look down to the street. Lady Jack was in a full sprint despite her heavy black armor and tower shield. The three injured officers were eighty paces away yet she only increased in speed. Cobblestones cracked and brick walls splintered as she barreled in blindly.

At thirty paces the birds began to dive. A three meter long Raven crashed into her shield and bounced to the side before crashing into a nearby storefront. Others didn't have the same chance. A freak wind blew around the officers and threw two more giant birds off to the side. Smaller, faster attackers were met with fist-sized kegs of gunpowder with lit fuses.

Lady Jack shrugged off the explosions and rushing wind. Nothing stopped her from reaching the offers and wrapping them up in her free arm. Her eyes were glazed over and feet unsure by the time all three were thrown over her shoulder.

She clenched her teeth and ran away from the bird's chosen territory before dropping them behind a house. She fell onto her knees and held herself up by clinging to the strap of her shield.

Fluttershy jumped from the roof and drifted down on gold wings that appeared for only as long as she needed them. They faded into golden sprites as she ran to AppleJack.

"Help them first, Shugar."

Applejack gasped out her words. Fluttershy gave a timid nod and manifested her wings once again. Her gold feathers spread over the three officers. Sprites of gold felt like snow from her wings. Where the small points of light touched flesh mended. She quietly thanked Celeste that none of the injuries were too deep. Her magic could mend, not restore.

Fluttery knelt over every wound and bruise she could make out carefully before raising up and taking out a thick bar wrapped in paper from her cloak. Applejack took it eagerly and bit into the paper, tearing a chunk of the dense nutrient bar, swallowing paper and all.

"You could at least unwrap it."

Applejack snickered.

"More fiber the better, Flutter-Butter."

Applejack rose up to her hooves and stuffed the rest of her bar under her chest plate for later.

The wind swept across and nearly knocked Fluttershy off her hooves. From above, a purple haired Astral landed alongside a fully pink jester in leather. Rarity and a bomber's bandolier wearing Pinkie Pie joined the two with their own sort of smug grins.

"Rare, want-a make a bigger whirlwind and light it on fire?"

"Absolutely not!"

Fluttershy clenched her fists and stared PinkiePie down.

"Just Kidding!"

Rainbow dropped from the roof and wrapped an arm around Fluttershy. The blue Celestial leaned in and nuzzled her cheek before pulling her chest to chest. Rainbow was a tomboy by heart, but she never failed to comfort the sensitive yellow mare when needed.

"What we need is a distraction."

Twilight began speaking as she drifted down to her friends, her horn and wings fading once her hooves met the ground.

"Rarity, I want you to cause a whirlwind in the opposite direction of the bird's flight. That should throw them off long enough for us to rush in by hoof. AppleJack, go ahead and eat the rest of that nutrient bar.

Ravencroft smiled as the palace gates opened for Ecclestia and her former servants. The six were covered in rolling opaque smoke that wafted behind them. Only their eyes glowed from the haze that formed femine shapes of different heights and builds. The slender and tall Twilight took the lead, her solid purple eyes smoldering. The far more built AppleJack walked behind Ecclestia with both of the queen's wings gripped in her talons, prepared to rip them off her back if she tried to fly away.

The dragon Twilight walked to RavenCroft's side. Ecclesia looked on with a hollow defiance. Only the delusion of some undefined hope kept her from mentally falling apart.

"I want to give you a choice."

RavenCroft began.

"Accept me. Resign your will and accept a collar, or…"

Applejack gripped her wings tighter. The other five gripped one of her many horns and prepared to all pull in a separate direction.

"They rip off the sources of your power. I'll have them start with pulling your wings out by their sockets. Then your horns. Finally, they'll pull out every talon. I'll even mend all your wounds so you don't die. Why bother that when I could just sell you to a depraved collector?

So…"

The wind switched from clockwise to a violent counterclockwise. Above his head his airborne army began to helplessly tumble about in swirling air masses as a shrill youthful voice cackled from the distance.

"Toot toot, Motherfucker!"

Pinkie Pie sat on top of Applejack's shoulders as the Mundane mare plowed forward blindly behind her tower shield. Tugs on top of the shield helped Pinkie steer her friend into the path of most destruction, which was exactly where Ravencroft stood.

The other four clung on like the world's most ridiculous conga line, or the world's heaviest Kite. The two Celestials kept their wings open enough to catch the wind and keep the team's 'caboose' in the air as a fiercely blushing Rarity kept her horn brightly manifested and casting a powerful wind spell.

RavenCroft had a God's power and the mind of an old mortal. He didn't manage to dodge the door-sized plate of granite and reinforced steel AppleJack called a tower shield. His bones and the Tap device attached to his back shattered as he was thrown forward like a sack of broken glass. The dark power that granted him artificial youth drained from him as old wrinkles returned deeper than before. His deep blue eyes faded into cataracts as they sank into the hallows of his withered face. The darkness itself did not fade. It found a new home in the seven dragons. Their wispy bodies took on a more life-like shape, almost flesh and feather.

Ecclestia attempted to take advantage of the distraction by spreading her wings and spring into the air. In that moment of excitement she forgot her Applejack had talons firmly gripped. The Earth Dragon in sulfur-colored smoke didn't tighten her grip, but didn't let go either. The sudden launch of the Queen was enough to pop her wings out of socket and send her flailing back onto the ground. She rolled on her side and reached out for her Twilight. Her talons sank into the purple iodine smoke to feel black bone and a chill so deep her nerves failed to notice before the damage was done. She pulled back her hand with a palm blackened with frostbite.

“Please, My pupil…”

She croaked out her words from a throat growing dry and rough. She could feel scales sluffing off as stolen years drained from her. The light she siphoned off her ‘daughters’ was gone and this demonic smoke wouldn’t allow her to drink it in. She sought any sort of empathy or compassion yet found nothing. They didn’t look down on her as each stepped over her crumpled body. It was as if she were not there. Only the spiteful dry laugh of an equally withered black stallion flowed her way, and that essence was a bitter unwanted meal.

She lowered herself to lesser beings. She first tried to raise onto her feet but fell lame onto the ground the two times she tried. Her claws grasped onto cobblestones in the street as she dragged her boney mass to the Equis.

“Girls, let’s show these dragons the li…”

Twilight cut herself off as she saw Ecclestia dragging herself and her useless wings closer. She reached out feebly with cheeks stained with tears. Her hollow eyes pivoted to the most tempting morsel.

Fluttershy cupped her muzzle with eyes as wide as they could be. Her fear and her compassion fought as the Queen of dragons begged for her help. She stepped forward and let her wings glow warm as morning light. She lowered to one knee and extended her hand. The withered white talon inched closer as Ecclestia dragged herself with the other.

A bastard sword came down between them and cracked a stone in the street. Fluttershy jumped back with a loud squeal as Sunset pulled her sword free and glared down at the Dragon Queen. Her green eyes cast emerald glimmer across Sunset’s armored crown as they burned.

“She only takes.”

She pulled her sword free and walked over to Twilight without speaking a word to Ecclestia. Not even a string of hissed out curses swayed her. Her hand reached out and cupped Twilight’s cheek. Green eyes that still burned emerald flicked over every feature she could see on the purple mare.

“Stop, I’m fine!”

Twilight let out a laugh as she returned the gentle touch and kissed Sunset on the lips.

“I’m a grown up Queen Regent, Sunset.”

“About that…”

Sunset’s smile said everything. Twilight looked towards the castle and knew Celestia was finally back.

“Thank Celeste.” Twilight sighed, “I’m not ready for the Queen life, besides, now we-”

“Have things to take care of first?”

Sunset cut her off with a smirk as she looked over at the Six dark versions of themselves. The dragons merely stood as if waiting for orders. They didn’t seem at all threatening until one looked down. The smoke that swirled over their forms browned the grass and eroded stone.

“We show them the light, as usual.”, Twilight said confidently.

“No, not this time.” Sunset replied. “Light would just make them angry. Their whole life has been light. Besides, it would feed that thing down there. Let’s show them how to handle the balance. Just like you showed me, after you kicked my ass.”

“Then let me go first.” Twilight said with a somber tone. She looked into Sunset’s burning eyes to see a new element coursing through her. That same light began to glimmer on her own. It reminded her of the early years before she knew her friends. Those many early years reading books and hungrily learning. None of it was ever for power or fame. She didn’t want to be loved or even bothered, she only wanted the wonderfully uncomplicated life of a scholarly hermit. She was alone and that suited her just fine.

Others tried to help her, or ask her for help. It just irritated her. The irritation became rage and the rage became a cold indifference. Then, one year before the Night of Scars, her Mistresses sent her off to begin a library in some lowly hick town south of the capital. Little did she know, her true mission was to face Celestia’s banished sister and revive the Elements.

Her inner introvert remains to this day. She loves her friends and now opens herself to others, but her skepticism and detached rationalism still has a place in her life. Light and Dark live in us all. It’s all in how we use them.

Twilight turned to approach the dragon of purple smoke and offered a hand.

“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle.”

A silent moment spread into an awkward stare. Finally, the dragon took her hand.

“Hello, my name is DawnBreaker.”

The smoke drifted away on the wind and left behind a cervine creature with tall pale lavender antlers and soft feathers that draped over her bright doe eyes like the canopy of a weeping willow. Soon came the other five, all with that green glimmer in their eyes. Fluttershy hugged TwistingLeaf, Applejack grasped the forearm of Jackfruit, Rainbow Dash gave BismuthFlare a high-five, Rarity kissed the top of Raidence’s talon, and PinkiePie gave PinkFlesh a ‘wet-willie’.

Ecclestia looked on with bitter frown as she was utterly ignored. Almost ignored. RavenCroft managed to squirm his way to her as she looked on at the thirteen talking and laughing as if nothing terrible had ever happened. The winds and the birds were now gone, the dark clouds only wisps in a setting sun.

“We deserve each other, you know.” Ravencroft snickered out.

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck you too, dear.”

Epilogue

Epilogue

The year had been a hectic one. The RavenCroft clinic was bought at a royal auction for half its value and renamed "The Arcane & Alloy Regeneration Center". The next three months were spent dealing with contractors and renovation, all the while operating out of tents in the back garden.

They only worked on the most critical cases In the early days. Doing this outside was hard, especially during the rainy season. Some were lost, but most had new lives to look forward to. The hard reality of being a healer is knowing not everyone can be saved.

Some walls were still naked and half the lights were yet to be installed, but at least they had a roof over their heads. The critical cases kept coming in. Arcane and Alloy fought to keep up with the volume before giving up and becoming teachers instead of healers. They spent four months on the road going from city to city training new healers and help where help was needed.

They came back to a fully renovated clinic with five highly skilled healers. The clinic was reopened, but the two finally decided to spend more effort on each other. They mostly filled a supervisory role, but thankfully, their new hires required little to none. Long postponed dates and a Honeymoon to Luna Bay could finally be enjoyed.

Brick never gave up her daughter. She quit her job as a bouncer and became the clinic's security. Young Hammer takes after her mom. All three of her mothers do their best to raise her right.

Arcane and Alloy had the same cheesy gift in mind on Heart's Warming day. They opened their gifts at the same time. In each was a positive pregnancy test.

Nine months later the two would attend the wedding of Princess Twilight and Sunset. Shortly after the bride kissed the bride, Alloy went into labor. Arcane would go into labor half an hour later. Their faces would be on the front page of 'The Canterbury Gazette' under the headline 'Pregnant Crashers spice up Royal Wedding.'

Ecclestia and RavenCroft are still in the Tartarus Maximum security prison. There are no plans to release them. Rumor has it they are now dating. A match made in hell, so to speak.

As for Dagon, The Dragons that served as Ecclestia's Elements were not prepared to be knights immediately. As it turns out, the evil Queen enslaved them from very early ages. They now are in therapy, but their progress has been impressive. PinkFlesh, the equivalent of PinkiePie, manifested her Element during Nightmare Night.

The EverFierce receded from Dagon's northern shore. The plant life there is starting to grow lush and docile, allowing a limited area of safety for the native population. The rest remain in Equestria where Dragon-Equis relations remain tense in some communities, but that's a story for another day.