Planar Equestrian

Chapters

1. The Odd Oddities
2. You Don't Want To Hark The Dark Of It
3. A Strange Fellow From A Strange Land
4. Chants From The Capitol
5. Blood In The Art
Rewriting

1. The Odd Oddities

Planar Equestrian
Chapter I: The Odd Oddities

“The planes are like a fine woman: mysterious, alluring and unpredictable.”

The definition of a normal day in Ponyville might be an alien concept to some, considering how unpredictable and eccentric the denizens of this town were. Adding that factor with the size of the town itself, we have a strange condensed concoction of both hilariously made accidents and bizarre occurrences barely explainable by the wisest mind of the planes.

Then again, defining normality is equally hard as defining the nature of beauty. To one, such as the (un)fortunate Sigilians, it is absolutely common to see an abishai wandering about the Hive. To another, the presence of a mere imp can cause a nationwide panic. Such is life, so full of wonders and splendor, danger and threats, with plenty of the goofiness in between.

As a wise man once said, and his words rang true no matter which plane you hailed from: “The most fantastical existence is life itself.”

So after all, was it true to say that Ponyville was a bizarre little town? By all means, yes. Yet, at the same time, it was the bizarreness that defined normality, not vice versa.

Back to the matter at hand: Ponyville. What was Ponyville, exactly?

There are many cities and kingdoms which earned their place in the memories of the planes. It isn’t hard to find one who has heard of Waterdeep and its many legends. Many others have heard of Sharn, the City of Towers, with sky piercing spires being formed in their mind. A daresay, could you find a planeswalker, a mad man, a respected scholar and those with an adventurous spirit who haven’t heard of Sigil, the center of the multiverse, with its many doors and portal leading to every corner of the planes?

And Ponyville might as well become a part of that category. Not only did this little town witness many wonders, each marked its name into their world’s history, it was also the birthplace of many legends whose deeds would echo to worlds beyond and time far away. To say that it was worthy to be remembered would be an understatement, and the same could be said of its kingdom, Equestria.

Then again, to understand its uniqueness, one must understand the world of Equestria and its many wonders. One must find its roots and study its nature to fully immerse themselves into this world, one considered bizarre even by those who came from the City of Doors.

To give you a peek into this world, here is a quote taken from the first chapter of Equestria: A Look Into The History by Tale Keeper, a local historian.

“A thousand years ago, there was a kingdom called Equestria, home to one of the most curious beings to have ever walked on the plane of Equus: Equus Caballus Sapien, or more commonly known as the ponies…”

Diz the Sigilite, Planescape: A Guide To The Multiverse Book III, Chapter V: The Equus Ring, Segment I: Of Ponyville and the Kingdom of Equestria.

Something wasn’t quite right, she knew it as clear as the sky… which might not help much in the metaphorical sense since it was a cloudy day. But aside from that questionable comparison, she knew that something was messing with the normality of her lovely little town.

Lyra had always been like this. She was a little paranoid, a little curious and skeptical. While those traits had little to do with her cutie mark, she was well known by them. Somepony even questioned if she could have mistaken her talent by chance, a fate most horrifying. In response, she assured them that it was just who she was, and it had nothing to do with her talents and life. After all, Applejack’s cutie mark was linked to her family business, not her honesty. So why shouldn't a musician also be a little skeptical.

Still, she felt that it was wrong, whatever lurked within the town. She couldn’t put her hoof on it, which only irritated her even more. So, she laid down on the bench outside of the town fountain, eyeing the people of Ponyville.

On the surface, it was just another peaceful day. The Apples were hauling their cart back to their orchard, little Apple Bloom giggling with her sister. On another corner, or more specifically, the Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie was skittering around, playing with some foals, while the shop was buzzing with customers. The town’s famous librarian, Twilight Sparkle came by, gave the unicorn a friendly wave. On the sky, the weather team darted left and right to rearrange the cloud, a gray streak crossed by, earning the attention and shouting from a particular rainbow maned mare. All things considered, it was just another day in Ponyville.

So what exactly was that feeling? What was she expecting?

The second coming of Nightmare Moon? Maaaaybe? If princess Luna was still the same mare she saw at the Nightmare Night, highly unlikely. Could it be something related to, if she remembered his name correctly, Discord? His actions left behind great consequences, some weren't quite fixed, that could be it. Then again, his name didn’t ring anything in her mind, nor did it spark any revelation about her paranoia.

“Something on your mind?” A voice pulled her out of her trance.

Standing before her was one of her neighbors and friend since foalhood, Star Quill. The stallion seemed concerned, as his lapis eyes stared intently at her.

“Oh, it’s nothing, Star. Just a little under the weather, that’s all.”

“If that is the case, you should properly take some rest.”

Noticing the paper and scrolls he carried by his side, Lyra asked.

“What are you doing here? Isn’t your shop supposed to be open at this hour?”

“I wish that was the case. But the mayor told me that I had some unfinished paperwork regarding my last shipment. So here I am.”

The stallion was clearly exhausted, even though he didn’t seem tired physically. Despite that, his voice cheered up as he pulled a catalogue out of his saddlebags.

“And talking about that shipment, I have just received a new batch of scented candles, would you like to try some?”

‘Ever the marketer, Star.’ Lyra rolled her eyes and smirked. It could be true. She might just be a little under the weather, and that’s all. Nothing was wrong about the town at all. And scented candles would be nice too.

“That sounds like a mighty fine idea, Star.”

Star Quill owned a store, a small one, so small that some even called it a stall. The Odd Oddities was a peculiar store, almost as peculiar as Star Quill. It wasn’t a pawn store as it was often mistaken to be, neither was it an occult shop despite its gloomy decor. Star sold a lot of things, some less related to the other. On a shelf were scented candles imported from Canterlot, another was stocked with miscellaneous items he gathered from the coastal cities. Bon Bon even found a fan made from griffon’s feathers there once, which was a little morbid before they learned that it was considered a traditional item, representing the unity of the many griffon communities in the past. To call the store odd would be quite the understatement.

Lyra followed Star into the store. She always found the air to be a bit mystical, something Star was famous for since he was a foal. The black stallion turned to one of the shelves and checked the boxes.

“So, tell me, what tickles your fancy?”

Lyra put a hoof on her chin and thought. “Something refreshing, a little exotic… Do you have those… What did you call it… Oh, Feywild Sunset!”

Taking another look at the shelf, Star pulled a small box out and brought it to Lyra. Within the box, six grape purple candles sat tightly together.

“You are in luck! This one sold out really fast last time. How much would you like?”

“Hmm… Two boxes please, one for me and-”

“One for Bon Bon, got that.” The stallion smirked as he turned to get another box out. Lyra blushed a little and gave him a small push while giggling.

Lyra waited for him at the cashier. Her eyes wandered around the store. it seemed that Star had redecorated it since the last time. More strange scriptures on the front, more shelfs and odd things on the walls. Was that book here last time? She wondered.

Sat on the cashier was a book, a large one too. It was rather new compared to the rest of the store, yet fitted exactly right to the overall theme.

“Planescape: Equus?” A geographical book of some kind? When did he start selling these things? Then again, it could be a book from the library, and The Odd Oddities wasn’t famous for focusing on one market at a time.

Curiously, she turned the pages and found something strange. The book wasn’t finished, far from that. She found many blank pages in the later half of the book. Beside that, it looked more like a journal, or a draft.

“Star, are you writing this book? Why haven’t you told us about your great works?” Lyra jokingly pointed at the book as she turned to her friend.

A sense of dread filled her, as Star Quill stood at the store’s entrance, blocking away the light. In his hoof was a bag, with two boxes of candles which he menacingly held while staring at her. His lapis eyes shone in the dark, while his black fur became one with the store’s lighting, giving him a freakish presence.

“You read it?” He said, almost a whisper.

“Uh… yeah? Kind of? I just skimmed over it a bit.”

A heavy weight was lifted from both of them. Star breathed out with a ‘phew’ and happily trotted to Lyra.

“And here I thought you have seen all of the embarrassing stuff already. While I am proud of my work, it is still quite amateurish.”

Lyra giggled her sudden fright away and got her composure back.

“Oh, I do, absolutely! Do you know how much I shook during my first show? So how much is this?”
Star passed her the bag and opened his register. As she was getting the bits to pay the unicorn, Lyra reluctantly looked at the bag, then to Star. She gulped and asked him.

“Say, have you seen anything, I don’t know, out of the ordinary lately?”

“If you took Pinkie out of the list, then I can say that there’s nothing odd, around my store at least. Something on your mind?”

“I… Never mind, just being under the weather and whatnot. Have a good day!”
Lyra trotted out of the store, waving at Star. Star gave her a wave back.

“I am supposed to be the one saying that!”

The unicorn mare mood was improved, even if just by a little. She hummed an old tune and observed the ponies on the streets. Star was right, there wasn’t anything odd out there. She should really get some rest, with those sweet, sweet scented candles.

Should Lyra turn back to the store, she would see a cloaked figure stepped into it. A familiar yet alien face to the denizens of Ponyville. She wasn’t a pony, that’s the first thing one would know immediately. She spoke in a cryptic and rhythmic way, that’s the second. And above all else, they used to be scared of her, and some would rather not make any contact with her, even then. They wouldn’t call her an isolationist, but her home being deep within the Everfree Forest made it hard to do so.

She went by the name Zecora, a Zebra from the far away land of Farasi. A potion practitioner, a witch doctor in some language and culture. She only came by the town once in a blue moon for some supplies she couldn’t gather from the forest, or for personal matters. But lately, she found herself quite fond of the little store located on the crowded commercial street, where she rarely came to before.

The bell at the door rang, noticing the owner of the Odd Oddities that one of his favorite patrons had arrived. Putting his quill and book down, the zebra came to the entrance, welcoming her in with a small bow.

“Zecora, good friend of mine. Which wonders have caught your eyes?”
Zecora responded to the bow with her own.

If Zecora was to be honest, it was lonely here, in this far away land. She had always been a traveler, with an adventurous spirit in her own ways. But it didn’t mean that she was jaded to the loneliness it brought to her. The further she was from Farasi, the more alienated she felt to the world around her. She still remembered the day she arrived in Ponyville, how much its denizens were scared of her. Even then, with new friends, she still yearned for the face of a fellow zebra. It’s always good to find a familiar face. Giving him a smile, she replied.

“Plain Walker, your gifts brought me great insight. Now I am here to respond to it in kind. Knowledgeable of forest, that I might, but I do hope that this could help your work tonight.”

From her pouches, she took out a small notebook, giving it to Plain Walker. The stallion thanked her and returned to the shelves, picking out some of his ware. Plain Walker and The Odd Oddities was still a mystery to Zecora, but a welcoming one. He was a fellow enthusiast in flora and fauna research, and a hermit in some form. Dried herbs and seeds were taken out, revealing a lever behind them. Pulling a lever, a glass case was pushed out from under the shelf. Within it, living samples of flora thrived. Bringing the case to Zecora, the stallion smiled when he saw the zebra mare admiring the strange plant. With it was another notebook.

“Eyebright, cure for ailment of sight, that they are. With it, the blinded can once more see the stars. Hard to grow, that is true. Even harder process must go through. Everfree is fertile and bright. Dedication and care should make it thrive. The brew has to be just right, you must follow these exact lines.”

Zecora focused all of her attention onto the plant and the notebook. Giving it a skim, she turned to Plain Walker and shook his hoof.

“It’s great to have a friend in the land this far. Maybe one day we could trade our arts under Farasi stars.”

“That’s a chance I would like to take. Now you should return before the timbers wake.” He replied, helping Zecora putting her things into her saddle pouches.

A short meeting, but as welcoming as any other. Zecora bid the owner goodbye and on her way back to her home. The sun would be setting soon, and as he said it, the timber wolves would wake up soon.

All things considered, the The Odd Oddities was just another establishment in Ponyville, even when the tag itself fit the store just right. What was in its ware was rather unique, compared to what one might find in similar themed stores out there. But it didn’t spark any chant from the local residents of the burg. After all, it had always been there, and its owner was their long time friend.

Everyone knew him, Star Quill the unicorn, who opened the store just a few years prior. Even though Land Tale might come off as a weird pony due to how curious he was about every nook and cranny of the town, they knew that earth pony meant well. Yes, it had been a long time since Sky Wonders joined any pegasus dedicated events, but it didn’t make him less than a pegasus he was.

Tapping his chin, the stallion smirked when he saw how casual other ponies acted around him. The effects of the Changeling Cloak wasn’t exactly what he should dice for, but it was the only option he could afford. And so far, it had served him well. As long as he wasn’t in an equally mixed group, he should be fine.

Honestly, he didn’t expect the varied conception differences between the ponies. At first, he thought they were only separated into different subraces, like the elves. But it seemed that it was the case of a high elf, a drow and an astral elf. He would look elven to them, or in this case 'pony-ish', that was certain. He just simply didn’t know how they would perceive him exactly. As he had concluded, the ponies' reaction to the Changeling Cloak varied between the three tribes in most cases. Those of the earth ponies saw him as one of them, as was the other. They called him with different tags, which could be their attempts to translate his name from the divine alphabet to their language and culture. Even more fascinating was how that little dragon (which he convinced was actually either a kobold or dragonborn subrace) reacted to him. It seemed that due to him being raised by the unicorn Twilight Sparkle, his sense of safety shifted to that of a unicorn. The same could also be applied to those who were raised by a different pony tribe. Which could also be a good topic for his next debate with the Sensates regarding the definition of safety in the mind of a creature.

Another special case was with the zebra, Zecora. It seemed that her culture differed widely from that of the ponies. Which was expected of course. Her insight in the local flora, especially the natural environment of Everfree Forest helped him a lot. At the same time, with her help, he tried to integrate some of the flora from the planes to this world to determine its environmental effects.

All and all, everything was going pretty well, and dare he say, better than he expected.

The cryptid pony put his cloak down, the illusion covering his body faded away, revealing the true form underneath. The planeshift changed him, which he speculated that it had something to do with the plane itself. The plane of Equus seemed to have been separated from the rest of the material planes, much like Eberron itself in that fashion. He had only found two portals from Sigil which connected to it. And when passing through it, his form changed greatly. He became a quadrupled creature, with equine-like features. He was a certified cryptid! Having the antlers and everything. The cutters at the Smoldering Corpse would laughed at his face should they saw his form. To which he was relief because it was just a temporary change due to the plane's laws. He stuck out like a deader on Clerk’s Ward streets, or in this case, a cryptid amid a herd of chromatic ponies. Of course, it wasn’t the first time he had to blend in with the locals. A small enchantment dazzle and the Changeling Cloak managed to help him pass as a denizen of this ‘quaint’ little burg, even though it would mess him up big time if ponies from different tribes tried to wig wag with him at the same time.

Which was why the fey tried his best to stay away from the foal trios, the Cutie Mark Crusaders as they named themselves. As much as he liked their enthusiasm, the fact that each of them came from a different tribe spelled doom to him. He would like to keep his guise as long as possible, thank you very much. This plane was isolated for far too long, how could he know if they would accept a fey anymore? Was there any fey on this plane last time he visited it? It had been so long since the last time he came to the plane, too long for him to able to grasp all of the the cultural changes happened over the course of its history.

Returning to his work, the stallion smiled. His plans were in motion, and soon, the pathway to this planes and many other would be opened. The Lady would be pleased to know that her eyes could finally be set upon this uncharted land.

A small ring in the air noticed him of a foreign presence in his store. A burglar perhaps? A curious mare by chance? He just hoped that it wasn't the Cutie Mark trio, it would be really messy and he honestly weren't the most tolerable toward children. He knew his guise would be exposed soon, much sooner than it was. Better to have a few ally before any public revelation then. Casting an invisible spell upon himself, the stallion moved out of the room without a sound, waited for his guests to come in...

Author's Note

Planescape: Torment is quite addicting. It can drive you to the last stage of addiction: writing a fanfic, quite easily.

2. You Don't Want To Hark The Dark Of It

Planar Equestrian
Chapter II: You Don't Want To Hark The Dark Of It

"Secrets are hidden because they don't want to be known, either for their own sake, or for others."

To walk across the plane is to risk not just your life but also your reputations and your soul. There are clear resemblance between the spheres within the Prime Material Planes, that is true. But even then, the political differences and the cultures of said sphere might not be the same from where you came from. Some find your politics a form of heresy, other seek to learn more from you, the later could be both good and bad.
The clearest difference is racial acceptance, as it is the first and foremost information one would recognized and imprint it into their mind. Some races are considered to be planar accepted like the humans and most members of the elven family. Other, not likely. One such example is the death of Jegga the Wise, one of the most famous pacifist monk of the goblinoid across the plane, was killed hackled beyond recognition by a human ranger, using sling and short swords. This was due to a mistake made by Jegga for not knowing the local goblins are in fact, very vile, dangerous, and unreasonable to the point said human dedicated their life to slay as much goblins as possible. While we lament for his lost, it should be the prime example for all planewalkers, especially those of the exotic kinds.
Racial problems aren't the only problem you will have to face when you become a planewalker. There are several other issues which are related to your faith, your political believes and your cultures. It is crucial that you must always keep a clear mind, ready for any form of culture shocks you may have to face. Your faith will be tested, considered a heresy and anything in between due to conflicts with the local denizen's cultures. What you consider to be the 'one true way' might be a hoax and crime in the eyes of the others. Unless you can cope and adapt with the changes, it is only a matter of time before you become the prime target of the local bounty hunters.
Precaution should be made. It is advised to make yourself a disguise to blend in with the crowd should you be able to. Before contact with the local denizens, one should learn and grasp the basics of their language and social norms. It is ill advised to make first contact without being able to be passed as a clueless denizen (which is also a recommended status). Observation is the key to your success, the more you observe, the more you understand and the easier it is for you to be part of the crowd. Magical items such as the Changeling Cloak and Comprehension Ring however, are not recommended on uncharted worlds or planes, as they could possibly lead to unforeseeable situations, especially when they have backlash effects when the enchantment's broke (in the case of Changeling Cloak) or when you accidentally lose the item.

Candrian Illborne, in 'Planewalker: The First Step', Chapter 1: To Be A Planewalker

Lyra returned to her home with the bag of scented candles. Putting it onto her table, she took a candle out and sniffed it. There it was, the euphoric smell of Feywild Sunset. A strange name, rather tame compared to his other ware, such as the Throngler. No one knew why it was named that way, or what it could do. She could certainly say that the blade would be gathering dust for the foreseeable future.

Was it weird to say that the candle reminded her of a dreamy sunset she once saw in her foalhood? She wasn’t even aware of it until her mind began to wander back to the past, stirring up old memories lost in the corridors of her mind. It was narcotic and pleasant, a soothing wave of nostalgia just washed all of her tiredness and anxiety away. Sometimes she wondered where did Star even find them? They must be magical, or made from really, really expensive ingredients, yet the price was rather cheap.

Deciding that she deserved a good bath, Lyra set some candles next to her bathtub and prepared the water. As she was ready to light the first candle up, a knock on the door gained her attention. She opened the door and saw Bon Bon standing there, with a forced smile on her face.

“H-hey, Lyra, whatcha doing?”

“I am going to take a bath, do you want to join in?”

Lyra jokes, but it seemed that the joke slipped away from Bon Bon. The earth pony stared at the candle behind her then gulped.

“Say, have you been to The Odd Oddities lately?”

Confused, Lyra replied.

“Yeah? I just bought some scented candles there. OH! It’s the one I bought last time, do you want to try it?”

Bon Bon pulled Lyra out of the bathroom, eyeing the candle set on the bathtub then turned to her housemate.

“You haven’t lit any of them, have you?”

“I was about to do so before you came in and banging the door. What’s the problem, Bon? You seem… concerned.”
Concern wasn’t quite the right word. Distressed? More likely. Everything, from the slightest twitch of her ear, to how frequent she tapped her hooves on the floor, spoke more than her words. And her words itself, while it didn’t mean much in the literal sense, its tone implied that she was both trying to hide both something and from something.

“Did you meet the owner?”

“Yes? I met Star near the fountain. He showed me some new candles, which I bought and was about to enjoy them. Tell me, Bon, what’s going on?”

Bon Bon checked the windows and door, made sure that no one was around them. She pulled Lyra into her bedroom and held her face closer.

“Tell me, Lyra: what’s the name of the owner?”

Baffled, Lyra stared at Bon Bon and answered.

“Star Quill, don’t you remember him? He has been my friend since my foalhood and he even showed up on your birthday.”

“Are you positive that he is Star Quill?”

“Of course, we went to the same school. What are you on about?”

The earth pony paced around the room, before she came closer to a canvas on the war and pulled it down, revealing it to be an evidence board. On the board were numerous pictures and notes regarding The Odd Oddities.

“What is this? Are you… stalking him?”

Bon Bon replied to Lyra with a question.

“Lyra, how many owners does The Odd Oddities have?”

“One? Are you saying that there are other ponies working there? But why are you-”

“Not ponies, Lyra. Not just ponies at least.”

Bon Bon then showed her friend a collection of photos, each of them was from a pony who looked eerily similar to Star Quill. But instead of a unicorn, it was an earth pony.

“Star has a twin brother?”

“No, Lyra, look closer!”

In the other set of photos was another pony, a pegasus, to be exact. Like the earth pony, he bore some resemblance to her unicorn friend.

“A triplet then?”

“No, no , no… They are one, Lyra!”

“That doesn't make any senses, Bon. Can’t you just tell me exactly what you are trying to say?”

Bon Bon sighed. She pulled out a pointing stick and pointed at a picture. Bon Bon began.

“Everything started on the day I came to visit the store alone…”

It was a sunny day. Bon Bon was casually trotting around the town. Everyone was so cheerful that day, and so was she. A package just came from Canterlot, within it was a present from her family and her payment. Strolling across the commercial streets, her attention turned to a small crowd forming in front of a small store.

Her gaze shifted to the store’s sign. The Odd Oddities, the shop where her foalhood friend, Land Tale, opened just a few years ago! The first time Bon Bon and her friends came to the store, they met Land’s brother, Star Quill. The twin was so much alike that she almost mistook them for one and the other.

Taking a few steps toward the store, it seemed that they were selling some new items. Dried flowers, used in decorating and art. The dried flowers of the store were rather diverse, from the familiar roses to some strange ones like the Selûne's Tear.
Standing tall amid the crowd was a stallion, one of the shop’s owners. Who was he again? Bon Bon felt like she knew who he was, then it clicked. It was Sky Wonder, Land Tale and Star Quill’s triplet brother. How could she be so forgetful?

The mare decided to wait until the crowd dispersed to properly greet her long time friend. The pegasus was rather rowdy, some even tried to get into his backroom. She giggled when the stallion ran around the small store to make sure that no one accidentally broke something.

Finally, the crowd moved on. Sky Wonder lied down to catch a breath, before moving the flower stall back into the store. Happily, Bon Bon trotted to the store and prepared to greet Sky Wonder, who was standing right in front of her…

“Hey… Land Tale?”

When the stallion turned to her, it was Land Tale whom she spoke to. Some gears turned in Bon Bon’s head. She must have mistaken Land for Sky again… Again? When did she meet him before? Right, he was her foalhood friend, they had been friends since she was still a foal. Was he? Yes, his brother was also Lyra’s foalhood friend too. But they were twins, no triplets, right? So that meant that Lyra and Bon Bon had known each other since they were foals…

“Hey, Bon Bon, you looking for something?”

Then it hit her. No, she couldn’t let it slip yet.

“Yeah, no, uhm… How are you today?”

“Aside from being bombarded by a flock of pegasus? I think I am fine. How about you? Do you want to check the wares? I got some new stuff from Waterdeep, great place, let me tell you…”

Bon Bon had no idea what or where Waterdeep was, but she knew that she must go. Giving the stallion a hasty goodbye, the mare returned to her home, breathless.

“Since then, I began to investigate. And the deeper I dig, the more uncanny he is.”

“You are saying that all of them, Star Quill, Land Tale and Sky Wonder are one?”

The weird feeling suppressed within Lyra stirred up again. She began to remember, trying to grasp every memory she had of Star Quill. He was her foalhood friend, they went to the same school, he went to her last birthday party, the first day she met him at the store… And that was all of it. No matter how hard she tried, she could only see very vague memories of Star Quill. Worse than that, she ‘knew’ he was her classmate, but there weren’t any memories about her school days which had him in it. If she was a book, he was like a note, placed into her by someone else.

Lyra began to panic, her breath became ragged and unsteady. Bon Bon immediately went to her side and tried to comfort her.

“Slowly, slowly. Breath in, breath out…”

“He-he was in my head! My memories! Oh my Celestia, could he be poking around my head all that time?!”

“Shhh… Don’t panic.”

Lyra raised up and raced to the door. Bon Bon bit Lyra’s tail and tried to hold her back.

“Wah ah u doin?!”

“We have to tell Twilight, what if he is Discord? Or something else? What if he is a changeling?”

Releasing her friend’s tail, Bon Bon fell flat on the floor, seemingly confused.

“What’s a changeling?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Lyra shouted then paced around the house. The more she thought of the store, the more dreadful it became. At the corner of her eyes, she saw the bag of candles. With a quick motion, she kicked it down to the trash bin.

“We have to do something!”

“I know that. But Lyra, what can we even do?”

“You stalked him, right? Then there must be something we can use to get… that thing away from Ponyville. Twilight and her friends would know what to do.”

Bon Bon sighed. She looked into her friend’s eyes.

“The thing is: they are also in his trance. All of us were, and are, being tricked by that thing. And it hasn’t caused any real harm yet, so I haven’t told Twilight of anything. Also, the right word is investigate, not stalk. Two different things, one a professional’s work, the other a fetish.”

“But we can’t wait until he does something wrong either.” With a determined stance, Lyra declared. “We have to stalk him harder!”

“It’s called INVESTIGATE”

Snooping around somepony’s home, especially at night, was not something her mother taught her, but the situation called for a more extreme measure. Lyra tried her best to stay in the shadow, but her bright mint coat didn’t help much, neither did Bon Bon’s pink mane streak. If anything, the only reason why they didn’t stick out more in the night was because of the lamp ‘the owner’ hung before the Odd Oddities.

“The door is locked.”

Lyra whispered to her friend’s ear, giving Bon Bon a slight tingle. She was right, the door was locked hard, no matter how hard she tried to pull it, it wouldn’t come out. The sturdiness of it mocked her that even with the hardest buck in the world, it wouldn’t open.

“Let me see…” Bon Bon pulled out a poppy pin from her mane and began to work on the lock. Surprisingly, it was rather simple, too simple, even. She felt a sudden fright, what if this was a trap?

"When did you learn t-" Bon Bon put a hoof on Lyra's lips, telling her to keep it quiet.

The door opened, slowly, and creaked all the way. Each time a sound echoed in the store, their fur raised a little. Creeping deeper into the store, the ware which was already bizarre on their own, donned an even more ominous, haunting aura.

“Where is he?” Lyra checked the front, the stallion was nowhere in sight.

“He must be in the backroom.” Bon Bon quickly pointed at the faint light escaping from the slit of the door. No doubt that somepony or something was there, but the light was akin to a big, red stop sign to them.

“Bon Bon, you are the professional here, should we go in?”

“I don’t think that is a good idea, Lyra.”

“Neither do I.”

Both of the mares were startled by the strange voice. It was raspy and echoing, dark even. The worst thing was that they couldn’t see where it came from.

“Wh-who are you! Why are you here?”

Lyra tried to remain calm, turned to a general direction and yelled. The voice chuckled, but it sounded like it was wheezing.

“Shouldn’t that be my question? Why are you in my realm… Lyra Heartstring?”

The creature stepped out from the shadow of the shelves. Its body was slender and tall, thin enough to let it hide behind the trees should he need to. Its eyes were two orbs of bluish white light. The more prominent feature on its form was the antlers and the glow pulsating from his body, shone through his ribcage. It seemed almost like an undead from a folk tale, or very malnourished deer-pony hybrid. Covering its body was a cloak, while a wide brimmed wizard hat rested on its head, both were blue with numerous yellow patterns they couldn’t make out what they were.

With each step, the uncanny creature came closer to them. It smirked, or Bon Bon guessed it did. It backed them up until they hit the backroom door. Lowering its head to their eye level, the creature snickered.

“And you are Bon Bon…” Its gaze fixed upon her. Her spine tingled, her head became cloudy, as if it was poking around inside of it.

“Oh, what is this? Pardon my mistake then,… Oh wait so you don’t want anyo-, anypony know your dark? Interesting”

“Leave her alone!” Lyra shouted at the cryptid, turning his attention to her. The creature nonchalantly strode toward her.

“And may I know why you two are here? This late at night? Trying to shed my dark? Cross-trade my jink? Or catching a new chant?”

Lyra didn’t understand half of what it was trying to, still she came with her own questions prepared.

“Where’s Star Quill?”

The creature went silent for a moment. Its eyes half opened, as if it was searching for something. Then came a loud crackle.
“You are rattling about my tags, aren’t you?” It moved in a strange, freakish pattern. “How are they called in your tongue? Let's see,... Star Quill, Land Tale, Sky Wonder and many more.”

“Your tag? You are Star Quill?”

The crytid’s head snapped toward Bon Bon, the smile still on its face.

“Yes… All of them are my doughty up.”

“What are you planning to do with Ponyville, you monster!” Lyra almost screamed at the eldritch horror being. To which, it laughed insidiously. A wicked smile crept onto its face.

“I am going to nick you two up real good, put all of this burg denizens into the dead-book and eat. All. Of. The. Foals!”
Its eyes were mere inches away from Lyra’s own. The cold, evil orbs of light seared her soul. It was her breaking point. Lyra screamed and tried to run away. Following her closely was Bon Bon.

“Oh, don’t leave so soon, cutters. There are plenty rum stype for us to rattle about.”

The creature disappeared into the shadows. Their eyes darted from side to side, trying to catch the form of the creature. The small store became an arena for a strange game of cat and mouse. The creature appeared left and right, stop them from breaching the maze made of shelves and stalls. They could see the moonlight outside, but each time they tried to get closer to it, the creature caught up with them and forced them to go back in.

Changing their course, Bon Bon rushed to the backroom door and tried to buck it open. To no avail, the door wouldn’t budge. Lyra aided her friend. Both of them knocked, kicked yet the door wouldn’t open no matter what. The earth mare saw a glimpse of light at the corner of her eyes. The entrance was wide open for them, the creature was gone. Desperatly, Bon Bon turned to Lyra.

“You have to go, NOW!.” And before Lyra could comprehend what Bon Bon meant, her friend kicked her up to the air and out of the store. Turning back to the store, Lyra saw a frightening scene. Darkness and shadow slowly flooded it, clinging themselves upon Bon Bon. She tried to kick them, push them away. They retaliated with each hit and slowly drowned her.

“Don’t worry about me! You have to warn everypony about it!”

The store entrance was closed. Lyra tried to pry it open. Calling out her friend’s name. Nothing responded. Nothing but silence.

She had to go to Twilight, she would know how to deal with this. She had to warn her before… Oh no… It wanted to eat all of the foals!

As she turned toward the Golden Oak Library, her head hit something. When she raised herself up, she realized that something was the creature. With a glee on its face, it spoke.

“Can’t let myself be the howl of the burg, right?”

A blinding light surrounded her. Lyra let out one last cry for help before disappearing from the face of the earth.

It was a rather peaceful night to the ponies of Ponyville, but not so much for the Sweet Apple Acres. It had been four hours since Apple Bloom caught a fever, and it seemed that her temperature hadn't come down yet. The little filly laid on her bed, coughing and sneezing. Her bigger sister, Applejack took the thermometer out of her mouth, checking it.

"What have Ah told you, don't play around the forest. You just never listen."

The filly shyly smiled, forcing a cough back to her throat, but failed miserably. Acting tough only made her sister even more worried. Apple Bloom felt tired, her throat was sore, all she wanted to do was sleep but she couldn't close her eyes. Applejack did her best to comfort her sister. It was her duty to do so, and a duty she vowed to hold since the day her parents... The mare didn't have time to lament, she had a sister and an orchard to take care of. Turning off the light, Applejack said goodnight to her sister, yet something urged her to stay with the filly.

Turning and twisting on her bed, Apple Bloom finally drifted to the land of dream. It was no pleasant night, as she dreamed of an old, cold and dark warren, deep underground. An army of giant rats loomed around her, drowning her in their chittering.

Author's Note

In the Sigil Cant, hark means 'listen to' while dark means 'a secret'

3. A Strange Fellow From A Strange Land

Planar Equestrian
Chapter 3: Strange Fellow From A Strange Land

“Knowing a man and knowing a land are one and the same. Knowing what is on the surface is never enough, you have to dig deeper down.”

The Equus Ring is a collection of ten planes orbiting the Prime Material Plane and Equus Prime, protected by the Celestial Boundary. In the center of the Equus Ring are the twin-planes: The Prime Material Plane called Equus Terran and the Plane of Harmony, Equus Prime. Between them was the The Vast Hollow, or the Plane of Shadow, while they are also connected by the Astral Plane.

The ten planes of Equus includes:

Sol, the Blazing Citadel, also known as the Sun by the inhabitants of Equus. The Plane of War, where true evil and true goodness constantly fighting against one and another.
Lua, the Fields of Night, also known as the Moon by the inhabitants of Equus. Also known to be the Prison of Luna, one of the rulers of Equestria. The plane of goodness and solitude.
Atom, the Wasteland of Hope. It was once part of Equus Prime, but was separated and became a broken land where the ‘wastes’ from the other planes went to.
Everfree, the Fey Garden, the closest plane to both Equus Prime and Equus Terran. One of the most severe cases of plane bleeding.
Silver Coast, the Sea of Souls. Where the souls of those born on the Ring go to when they died and come from when they are born. The Sea of Souls is connected directly to the Astral Plane.
Syllable, the City of Stars. A large and vast construct dedicated to record the history of the planes. The origin of the unicorn and many other magical races of Equus Prime.
Dis, the Reversed Mountain. The Plain of Chaos, a counterbalance to Techna and to some degree, Equus Prime.
Soar, the Floating Isles. A collection of floating islands, each representing a ‘season’. Home to the pegasi, dygasi and other winged creatures.
Memoria, the Towers of Dream. The hardest plane to navigate due to its constantly changing structure.
Techna, the Plains of Iron. The Plain of Law and Order. The most technically advanced of the planes in a mortal sense. Home to the earth ponies and the spellforged.

As mentioned above, the Ring was protected by the Celestial Boundary, a planar construct of unknown origin. The Boundary served two purposes: a barrier stopping intruders from entering the planes within, and to keep the planes stable and coherent. The barrier was strong enough to stop any intrusion from both the fiends and celestial from other planes, the same could be said for the mortals.

Even then, once again found the nature of Sigil one of the most outstanding and fascinating topics of the multiverse. As was the case with Eberron, the portals of Sigils found secret pathways, cracks and weak points on the Boundary and pierced through it, creating a secured if not quite random route to Equus. It was also because of this route that Equus was discovered by the scholars of Sigil, and led to its documentations in this book…

Diz the Sigilite, Planescape: Equus, Chapter I: From the Gates of Sigils.

The air was smelt of old books and dreams. The ground beneath her was solid, hard yet not cold. It was damp and rough, but also warm. She felt something was put on her body, covering her from the neck down. Pushing the heavy blanket aside, her mind slowly regained its consciousness. That was no pleasant progress, as her body twisted and turned as her mind piecing fragmented memories together to form a picture.

It was a normal day, was it? She was watching ponies walking around the town. Then she met an old friend, bought some candles from him… She and Bon Bon got into some trouble? They came, no, sneaked into a store, then… then…

Immediately, her mind returned and her body moved so quick that it pained her by doing so. Her head raised, her voice tried to come out, calling for her friend, but her throat was too dry to speak.
“Woah, woah, slow down, cutter. Ya brain-box may still be banging all over the place. Take a sip.”
A heavily accented voice spoke to her and offered Lyra a cup of clear water. She took it and downed the cup in one go. Breathed out slowly, she thanked the pony.
“Thank you… where… where am I?” Her eyes were blurry, she could barely make out the shape of the pony before her. But he was tall, Princess Celestia kind of tall. And slim too.
“My kip, more specifically its back room. After I dragged ya in, both of you fell asleep, so I took the liberty of organizing a small kip for you both.”
“Oh, I hope we didn’t make any mess to y-” Did they just say that ‘both’ of them? Lyra remembered the reason why she even woke up in the first place.

“BON BON! WE HAVE TO GO HELP HER!”

To which the mysterious pony just replied nonchalantly.
“Ya friend is right next to you, cutter. Catch a skeg if you need to.”

Lyra felt a small tug from her side. Turning to her right, she saw Bon Bon sleeping quietly, her hooves hugged the blanket and Lyra’s flank. Lyra blushed slightly, then pulled the blanket over Bon Bon, making sure that her friend was comfortable.

“So what’s ya brew?”

“A cup of coffee would be nice.”

“Got it, cutter.” With that, the pony left the room.

She began to examine the room they were in. It was old, but tidy and rather organized. There were several shelves for books and whatnot, two tables, one for reading and the other for working. It didn’t have any bed, so the pony might actually prefer a mattress, like the one they lent her and Bon Bon. What caught her attention was two things. First, it was the smell of the room. It felt mixed, like a room both near the sea shore while also on top of a mountain. The other thing was the many strange things placed on the shelf labeled ‘Equus’. She took a step closer. On it were many plant samples, crystal spheres and trinkets. Some of which she found quite familiar, such as the Ponyville map and the Canterlot’s Guard medals. But most of them were both strange and familiar. One of them in particular, a quill made of crystal feather, attracted her the most. Unintentionally, her hoof reached out for it…

“That’s a Scryer’s Quill, made from the feather of a glass hawk. Quite an interesting exhibit if I might say. The scryers of High Tower used it to transfer letters to each other using their glass hawk-”

The pony’s words were cut short by a yelp from Lyra. The pony moved so quietly that to Lyra, it seemed as if the pony appeared out of thin air. Their towering form didn’t help much either. Lyra backed away from the shelf, took a good look at the pony.

She could feel every single drop of blood being drained from her body as her eyes realized what that ‘pony’ was. The creature from last night stood just a few steps aways from her. Under the sunlight, it seemed less intimidating, but by no means ‘normal’. The cryptid stood silently, observing her as they traded glares. A wall of silence was built between them, slowly suffocating Lyra. Fear in her eyes, her body curled when the creature decided to close in.

“Please, don’t eat me!”

Silent again. She waited for it to reply. What came was a chuckle. She opened her eyes, which she didn’t know were closed. The creature laid down on the floor and chuckled heartily, it seemed content. Tapping its hoof on the floor, the creature turned to her.

“Cutter, ya truly thought I was a lily?”

Lyra was beyond the state of confusion, all she had was tiredness.

“Wah-what? But you said that…”

“Putting the whole town in the dead-book and eating your young? Cutter, I may be a knight of the post, but I am not a barmy fiend. I just want to jangle you up a bit for banging around my kip, that’s all.”

Lyra understood about one or two things the cryptid said. She could hear blood being pumped from her heart and feel them running in her veins. Her eyes bulged out to keep her sight on the cryptid pony. The cryptid sat down with a tray levitating by their side. Putting the tray down, he pushed it toward her.

“Coffee, like you asked. I made a salad with whatever I had left in my kip. Not quite sure if you are going to twig it or not, but they are safe to eat.”

It was no luxurious meal, but at the same time, not some weird or disgusting thing they showed in horror shows either. Lyra’s stomach yearned for food while her brain needed some caffeine to actually think. Hesitantly, she took a few steps toward the tray. The coffee was steaming hot, a body-warming smell came out of it. The salad was fresh at least, and she hoped the dressing wasn’t made of witch brews.

A few bites in, and she began to get used to the cryptid in front of her. He let her have her space, turned his head away if she stared at him for too long. Lyra took a sip of coffee and kept on staring at the cryptid.

“Cutter, are ya thinking that I am going to fatten you up and feast on you later or something?”

“Well, I didn’t know that was a thing until you told me so!” Lyra angrily spat

“Do I look like a gannet to ya?”

‘What’s a gannet?’ She pointed at him, inquisitively.

“You said that you want to eat our young.”

“It was just a jangle. Don’t you do that sometimes? Like uhhh… a hag impression? I believed that I saw an earth pony say that to her child once.”

Lyra grumbled and returned to the salad. The creature shifted its gaze from her to Bon Bon. She was still sleeping soundly. Should he try to do anything to her, she would immediately buck him on the flank, no matter what kind of cryptid he was. What she didn’t expect was his next words.

“So, why did you two bang around my kip last night?”

Lyra almost spat all of the food in her mouth out. She managed to force them down her throat while her face was blushing red. Breathed in and out, she nearly shouted.

“We didn’t ‘bang’ around your store! We were investigating it.”

“Investigate? Lathly, I knew that my doughty up wasn’t good enough. So how long have you two banged around my kip?” He asked, seemingly oblivious to whatever was bugging Lyra.

“By Celestia- We weren’t uhm… ehm… ‘making out’ around your store! We were investigating you!”

Then it clicked. The cryptid threw another laughing fit as if he had just heard the funniest thing in his life. Lyra could make out some of the words he mused to himself, ‘never get old’ and ‘just the same’.

When he finally gained his composure back, he turned to Lyra with a gleeful face.

“Sorry, cutter. It's just…Pfff… when I say ‘banging around’, it means ‘hanging around’. Sigil’s Cant, an old habit that my bone-box couldn’t stop rattling about.”

Lyra blushed even harder. She groaned, justifiably and buried her face into the salad. The cryptid could hear she mumbled something beneath the vegetables.

Waking up wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience to Bon Bon, but at least, it was more peaceful than Lyra’s. Her body ached all over due to lying down for too long. Her mane was a mess, one she quickly recognized as soon as she saw its strains dropped onto her face. Her eyes blinked twice, taking in the area around her. Quickly, she realized that she wasn’t in her room, nor was she in her house. It was a strange place she had never been to before. Standing up wasn’t easy either, she struggled for a few steps before she could get her bearings back together. She felt sore and parched. Her mind was hazy, why was she here? Did she have any cinder yesterday?

“Hello?” She said, coughing as she did so. “Anypony here?”
The sound of rustling suddenly came from the next room. Somepony was there, this must be their house, but how she ended up here was a mystery. Pulling the door open, which was rather easy compared to what she subconsciously thought would be a challenge, she bore witness to what was transpiring in the room.

There was her friend, Lyra, holding the jaws of a bizarre creature, inches away from eating her whole. Instinctively, Bon Bon jumped at the creature to save her friend.

“LYRA NO!!!!!”

Lyra sitting on the table, snickered while Bon Bon furiously munching her salad. The creature stood across the room, brewing some tea. The earth pony’s eyes were still on the cryptid despite Lyra’s attempts to intercede. The cryptid, despite being jumped by Bon Bon, hit the table and got boiling hot water rained upon him, humming cheerfully while he waited for the tea to steep.

“Come on, Bon, I was just trying to see where the light in his body came from.”

Bon Bon raised her head up from the bowl and scowled at the unicorn mare.

“Lyra, you scared me breathless and I was just waking up! Don’t do that again.”

The cryptid brought a tea set out of the cupboard and placed them on the table. Bon Bon chewed her food slowly, eyeing his every move. With the teapot set down, the cryptid sat on the opposite side of the table with the pair.

Clapping his hooves together, he asked Bon Bon.

“Still mad about my jangle?”

“You threatened to eat our foals.”

“I didn’t threaten you, cutter. It was a jangle. I just want to confuse you a little and have a good laugh.”

“I didn’t laugh with that.” Bon Bon’s hoof slammed on the table. “And cut with the ‘cutter’ thing, my name is Bon Bon!”

“That’s Sigil Cant, cutter means a resourceful pony, or a decent pony.” Lyra said and excitedly turned to the cryptid. He gave her a nod of approval which made her squeal happily.

“Since when did you become friends with that… thing?”

“While you were sleeping. We chatted a bit, just some random things. He is actually a pretty nice pony.” The cryptid gave her another nod.

“I still don’t trust him, Lyra. What if he is trying to fatten us up and eat us later?”

“I don’t think so, he doesn’t look like a gannet.” Lyra and the cryptid looked at each other and snickered at Bon Bon’s confused face.

When Bon Bon finished her breakfast, the three sat around the table and enjoyed some tea. The cryptid said that the tea was made from flowers gathered by hand from ‘The Green Fields’. Even though they didn’t know where or what that place was, it sounded important. Tension lingered in the air even after Bon Bon half heartedly accepted the cryptid’s apology. The tea was rather nice, it was soothing and warm, leaving behind an aftertaste reminded them of their home.

“So… may I ask when did you two decide to… investigate me?” The cryptid took a small bottle filled with amber liquid and passed it to the mares. "Honey?" Lyra graciously took the bottle and added a teaspoon into her cup.

“When I realized that you wear the coat of other ponies and go around the town brainwashing people into thinking that you are their friends.” Bon Bon spat, nearly jumped onto the table and pointed straight at the cryptid. Lyra jumped, her cup flew out of the table, merely an inch away from the floor. Luckily, she caught it in time with her magic. When she set the cup back on the table, she saw the cryptid stared straight at her, or her horn to be exact.

"Sorry..." Bon Bon muttered to Lyra. Lyra looked at her friend empathetically, then turned to the cryptid, which was still staring at her. Her cough snapped him out of... whatever was going on his head.

“If I tell you who I am and why I am here, will you both leave me and never tell anyone about who I am?” The cryptid said while sipping his tea.

“Depends on what you are. We don’t want a monster to go rampant around our town, eating people!”

Lyra saw the creature’s ears drooped down. Clearly, it began to regret its poor ‘jangle’. Lyra patted Bon Bon’s shoulder, calming her down while talking to the cryptid.

“So, what are you, exactly? And your name, come to think of it, you haven’t told us your name yet.”

The creature went silent for a hard minute, considering its word. Bon Bon grew impatient, her eyes focused on the cryptid. With an inhale, the creature finally spoke.

“I am what you can call a fae, or a fey, not a fairy. They are part of the fey but I am not one of them. I am more closely related to a hag, actually, but not quite. I came from a place called Sigil, a city located within the Outlands, which is also the self-proclaimed center of the multiverse, where all of the planes meet, which is also true by the way, the latter part not the center part. I came to your plane purely for scientific and philosophical reasons, not to eat your young or putting you all into the dead-book. I set up this shop so that I could have a place to call kip, get some jink and learn about the local bodies, which are all wonderful. Honestly, I haven’t met anybody, or in this case, pony this good outside of the sixes. I am not a spy, though I do serve a power but it is largely irrelevant to why I am here. And my name is Star Quill/Land Tale.”

He spoke fast, really fast. It was like a fountain unexpectedly dumped on their heads. Lyra tried to grasp as much of the information as possible. But they did catch something out of his ramble.

“So your name is actually Star Quill?”

“Land Tale, he said Land Tale.” Bon Bon affirmed

“No? He said it himself, it’s Star Quill.”

“It’s Land Tale. I don't think that we could possibly hear two things that different.”

“Eh, it’s kind of both of them.” The fey said, taking another sip of tea. “My name is neither Star Quill or Land Tale, it’s something else. But your mind can’t really comprehend it, so it instinctually translates my name into a tag you can understand.”

That didn’t help much, at least from his perspective. He took out a piece of paper and wrote something down. The mares took a look at it, it was a word, three letters long. Yet at the same time, it conveyed many meanings all at once. Shaking her head out of the sea of thoughts, Lyra blinked and read the word out loud, alphabetically.

“Diz?”

“Aye, that’s my name, even though it doesn’t spell like that, you can call me Diz.”

“Are all of you… fey, named that way?” Bon Bon waved her hoof in the air, which Diz guessed was their form of 'air quote'.

“Not really” He tapped his chin. “Only some are, not like anyone can actually pronounce it anyway. It took me a ‘few years’ to learn how to read it, and I was under special training.”

"Why did you disguise as a pony?" Lyra gulped, unpleasant memories resurfaced. "And why did you plant those memories into our head? I believed that you are my friend."

"Self defense, mostly." The fey poured another cup of tea for himself. "I didn't know if the bodies of this plane would tolerance a fey or not, and I also didn't want to be brought to the deadman's tree either. You clueless have no idea how wild it can be in the planes."

"Well, unlike somepony, we don't threaten anypony on sight." Bon Bon huffed.

“I still don’t understand. You said that you come from Sigil? It’s a city and also a plane? What’s a plane? And why are you speaking in Sigil's Cant? Didn't you use Equestrian before?” Lyra crept closer toward the fey with each question.

Diz looked at the two of them gleefully. They found his eyes to be similar to that of a monster from the Everfree forest. Taking his glasses out and a white board, with a complete set of teacher’s essential tools. Bon Bon confusingly turned to the fey, then back to her friend, who sat excitedly with a notebook and a pen in her hooves. Diz inhaled deeply, and began the mare’s deep dive into the madness of the multiverse.

Under the sewage of the City of Doors, deeper down, pass the buried village, laid a catacomb. The Dust Man labeled it the Weeping Stone, and the deader called it home. However, it wasn’t a place filled with deader and shambler only, if anything, it was teeming with life, just not the kind you would like to meet.

Rats, countless rats swarmed the tunnels and pipes of the old catacomb. Even more found their home within the vast chambers and tombs. Not just any kind of rats, but cranium rats. Nasty little vermin with the might of mind when the number was in their favor, and most of the time, it was. The denizens of Sigil were too familiar with those pests, especially those who make a living out of them. A fascinating subject to study they were, a pain to deal with they also were.

Therefore, when the collectors of the buried village returned to their kip with no rat tails to be found, or when the Office of Vermin and Disease Control was emptier than usual some began to rattle their bone-boxes. The chants were diverse, and at the same time rather few. Little body cared about those vermin anyways, but those did debate about it furiously. Where could those vermin go? Or what killed it.

A blood, in the art of vermin killing and tomb scrapping, decided to descend into the damned village and down to the catacomb below. And what did he find? No one knew, sadly, because as the chant was, he was caught by the King of The Deader and joined their rank… about a few years later. But the chant also said that he did find something on his first trip. A deader, either a prime or a plane-touched. The brain was eaten clean, so was the corpse. In its hand however, were the real rum part of the chant. A set of enchanted armor, master-crafted and all, with a dog tag and a golden ring. On the dog tag was the name of the poor sod, and the sod’s anthill.

Lt. Sparkling Crystal - Canterlot, Equestria.

Author's Note

Plane: The constitution of the Multiverse. Each plane is a universe with its own rules with regard to gravity, geography, magic and morality. There have been various official cosmologies over the course of history, yet, non was confirmed to the the true model of the planes. Some even theorized that there is no such thing as the one true planar cosmology model at all, as the planes are ever changing and ever shifting.

4. Chants From The Capitol

Planar Equestrian
Chapter 4: Chants From The Capitol

“Every story told was based on the life around us, no matter how ludicrous they might be. Some simply came from a less pleasant source than others.“

Clueless: Someone from a prime world, at least until they’ve spent some time in the planes. The folks who just don't get it.

Due to Sigil’s nature, it isn’t rare to find a portal connected to a random world, both man-made and plane-made. Like everything else, this effect has two sides. For the adventurous and the studious, it was like a gift, an all powerful tool for them to reach far away lands with just one step. To the unfortunate, it was either eternal damnation or finding a new home in the City of Doors. Not all portals in Sigil work the same as the others, and not all of them are either permanent or stable. Some are one way routes, once you step in, you never step out. Such is the fate of the clueless, the people who accidentally step into the city and get lost or people who came to Sigil for the first time of their life.. On average, it’s easy to find four to seven clueless roaming the streets of the Hive per month, and only one of them remembers which portal leads to their homeland, should that portal still exist.

While it seems that the clueless problems are mostly their own, it isn’t. In fact, clueless are the prime targets of the lower planes, either as food or potential victims to their contracts.

One such example is Hru’ku’ra the Silver Tongue, an infamous fiend whose warlocks, consisting of his followers and clueless who got dragged into his scheme, almost brought an entire world into Carceri during the Spell War. Another notable example is Ku’tu’kai, an abishai scout who used clueless coming from the Plane of Fire and the Prime Material Plane to find his way into the plane and stole an artifact to empower his side in the Blood War.

The planewalkers of Sigil, who had the time and the goodness, are recommended to help the clueless find their way home should they encounter one.

Candrian Illborne, in 'Planewalker: The First Step', Chapter 4: Dealing with strangers

Not many pony knew Shining Armor good enough to casually call him by his name. Fewer than that dared to call him a friend, or a ‘bro’ as the young guards often called their close comrades. Being the captain of the Canterlot Royal Guards had its perks, and its disadvantages. On one hoof, he was respected, his family was proud of their only sons, and the kids looked up to him. On the other hoof, it was hard to make friends. Respect came with a certain amount of fear, fear that they would disrespect him, fear that they would let him down, anger him. They didn’t dare to make a joke while he was around, and forced themselves to maintain a serious air in his presence.

It was no secret that Shining Armor treasured his friends, especially those in the guards. So when one of them went AWOL, one could reasonably say that our esteemed captain didn't take it well. Ill rumors, of the death of his friend, or the possibility of him deserting from the guards, only made his mood worse. It wasn’t a pleasant morning for the stallion, not at all. If anything, he felt worse after each report came through. No matter how hard he searched, his friend was nowhere to be found.

“You seem troubled.” Raising his head from the pile of paperwork, the white unicorn searched around the room to find the source of the voice. Standing at the door was a familiar face, an elegant, pink alicorn with starry eyes.

He chuckled bitterly. “I had a rough morning, that’s all.” And gave her a kiss, to which she replied in kind. Gently brushing his mane, Cadance whispered to her lover.

“Our wedding is coming soon, you know. I don’t want my future husband to look like a husk.” Their eyes locked. “It’s about Sparkling Crystal, isn’t it?”

She could see it in his weary eyes. “Yeah, still no news about him. A new team was dispatched to search for him… I don’t know if…” His eyes tried to turn away, shamefully. He wasn’t the same confident and brave stallion she knew, but a broken pony who tried his best to hold himself together.

He had little sleep the night before, and was barely hanging on by his will alone. Their horns touched, a calming pinkish light came out of her horn and transferred to his. Shining Armor let out a yawn.

“Have faith. Crystal is one of the best scouts we have, don’t you remember? He was your brother in arms for the last eight years after all.”

Dizziness slowly crept its way into him. He felt relaxed, but tired.

“I… I just… I don’t want to think of the worst, but it always came to me… in my dreams…”

The alicorn hugged her fiance as he fell down. Gently, she put him on the sofa and covered him with his military coat as a makeshift blanket. She could hear him muttering in his sleep.

“Spark… I am sorry… I shouldn’t let you go alone… I am sorry…”

Sadness crossed her face, quickly replaced by worriedness. She kissed his cheek, leaving the room after she locked it up. Standing outside of the room, waiting for her were her aunt and her sister, the monarchs of Equestria.
Princess Celestia was the first to convey her thoughts.

“How is he?”

Cadance turned to them and gave the Princesses a formal bow, before she answered Celestia’s question.

“It was rather concerning…” She said, “He is deep in grief. Spark was one of his closest friends, one of his first true friends in the guards.”

“As I have seen…” Celestia looked at the door, lamented. “It hurt me to see him like this, even more when I thought of Lieutenant Sparkling Crystal’s fate.”

“Has there been any news?”

“One, and we don’t think it is a pleasant one.” Princess Luna said, her eyes focused on the mare.

“We are unsure whether or not we should deliver it to him.” Celestia added.

Cadance knew what the Princesses were implying. She herself couldn’t bear the news, then how could he? Her eyes unconsciously looked down, filled with sorrow.

“There is hope, however.” Princess Luna said with a flat tone.

“There’s always hope.” Celestia said with a gentle smile. “Lieutenant Spark is a capable pony, the Everfree couldn’t swallow him then, it couldn’t do it now.”

While one would find small comfort in the Princess’s affirmation, Cadance knew that comfort was fleeting. Three search teams were dispatched, the situation only got grimmer by the day. The last report found the tracks presumed to be made by the Lieutenant. It ended in a cave deep within the forest and ended there. That and the broken helmet were more than enough for a pony to guess what happened.

The three moved across the castle, to the throne room, where Celestia held her Day Court. Luna was on her way back to her chamber and rested for the day, but the nocturnal alicorn had some other ideas. Before they parted ways, she called Cadance over.

The young princess, still uncertain of her ‘newly united relative’, hesitated at first, but decided to follow her. After all, she was a Princess, and the co-ruler of Equestria appointed by Princess Celestia, Cadance had almost no reason to reject Luna’s invitation.

Approaching the chamber, Cadance got a closer look at the bat ponies, Luna’s personal guards. Unlike the Royal Guards, the bat ponies belonged to a sub tribe of the pegasus, or at least some of the scholars theorized so. They are rare, barely mentioned in the history and teachings of Equestria. The Night Guards were even more of an enigma. No one knew where they came from. They simply ‘came back’ when Princess Luna returned to her throne.

Passing the guards, they entered Luna’s chamber, where she used her telescope to observe the stars, the ponies of Equestria at night and rest during the day. A servant, another bat pony, entered with a pillow, bowed at Cadance and offered her a seat.

Luna rested on her bed, turning her gaze to Cadance.

“Thou seem distressed.”

“I… am. Spark is a long time friend, both to Shining Armor and me.”

“While we could care less about a single soldier, and in this case, an incompetent one.” Cadance fought the urge to raise her voice at the description. “Believe it or not thou may, but we don’t want to see a wedding painted with the air of a funeral.” Luna continued. “And we aren’t truly innocent either. Part of the reason why he was sent to the forest is to make sure the next Nightmare Night, which I am planning to participate in, will be a peaceful one. Should he face any danger on this trip, it would be our fault too.”

“I understand… Princess, may I ask you something?”

“We art both princesses, Cadance. Thou hath no need to be too formal. Of what thou want to ask, it’s the news, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Princess Celestia hasn’t told me what it is yet. She seemed reluctant about it. I am concerned that bad things have happened to the lieutenant.”

“Thou concerns art justified.” Luna turned to the balcony, where her telescope was. “The news came from us. We had a glimpse at the lieutenant’s fate. Yet, it was uncertain.”

“Uncertain how, princess?” Cadance begged Luna. With a sigh, the Princess of the night continued.

“In a dream, we hath seen his face, and maybe, his demise too.”

Luna strode to the telescope, tuned it as she spoke.

“He fought a creature of the forest, protecting a group of fillies. Then, he entered a cave with shimmering light. A gate opened, he stepped in. Afterward, he was nowhere to be seen.”

Cadance knew that Luna’s domain was vast, one as great as Celestia. But she didn’t know that the Princess could see into the dreams of others. She asked.

“Whose dream was it, and could it be true?”

“Dreams are finicky things.” The Princess frowned. “But there were truths in it. The lieutenant’s track was found in the same cave as the dream. Yet, it was empty.”

Luna turned the telescope downward, to the Canterlot. The city was busy that day, with many carriages and ponies moving around. Even up there, she could ‘hear’ the sounds of medical carriages bell and alarm, mixed with the galloping of numerous ponies on the streets.

“So you are saying that there’s a chance that he might still be out there?”

“We are. However, he might not be in the forest, we’re afraid.”

Cadance took a step closer to Luna, who was still focusing on her telescope.

“It is a rather active day, isn’t it?”

“Yes, and a little chaotic, it seemed.” Cadance lamented. “Discord’s rampant left behind many damages. Last I heard, the hospital was packed. Many ponies became sick even after Discord was turned to stone again. But what do you mean? If Spark isn’t in the forest, then where could he be?”

Luna let go of her telescope, eyes turned to the city below. The Princess was deep in thought, the frown on her face became more visible, as if she was either scheming or very concerned. All of that was gone right after a ‘regal yawn’ came out of her. Couldn’t stand the sun for any longer, Luna retreated to her bed.

“There’s a reason why our sister refused to tell thou the news. She didn’t want to give thou false hope, or misdirection.”

Cadance’s eyes followed the Princess, confused.

“It was an old tale, a myth, even to us. Thou may have never heard of it, it is that old.” Luna said, slowly laying herself down on the soft pillow.

“We thought it was a myth too, but after our… ‘banishment’, we believed that it was more than a folk tale. Tell us, Cadance, have you ever heard the Tale of the Planewalker?”

“So, tell me again, why is this my matter?”

Diz sat in his store, with the Changeling Cloak on him. The hood was pulled down so it wouldn’t disturb the beige mare in front of him. Said pony inquisitively stared at him. She was gauging the fey, judging if he was good enough for what she hoped that he would do with a fair price. He was magical and dangerous, no doubt. But could he hunt one of them down?

“That night, I heard what you said when you poked around my head-”

“Sorry about that by the way.” Diz quickly added.

“... I will see about that. But when you did that, you saw something right, something personal about me.”

“Your dark? I guess that I did catch a skeg of it.” The fey tapped his front hooves together while sitting upright on his flank. His posture reminded Bon Bon that the creature in front of her was more of a cryptid than a pony.

“I don’t understand everything you said, but I want you to promise that you will never tell it to anybody.”

When Diz heard the word promise, Bon Bon swore that she saw the fey tensed up, even if it was just a little. His entire attention now turned to her, which gave Bon Bon a strange feeling of being observed by a predator.

“A promise, cutter? Is that what you wanted?”

“Yes.” Honestly, she knew that a promise wouldn’t cut it, but at least if he decided to tell the town about her secret, then she would do the same to him. The differences in impacts and effects between the two of them was anypony’s guess at this point.

Diz cleared his throat, then put a hoof on his chest.

“I, Diz the Sigilite, vowed to keep your dark until the day my name is written in the dead-book. May the Lady styx me where I stand should I turn stag and break my words.”

The fey ended with a bow and a kiss on her hoof. Bon Bon was lucky that the store was empty, and Diz didn’t seem to care much about her expression. Should a pony see Bon Bon’s face, they would describe it as an odd mixture of horrendously ridiculous and laughably mortified. The earth pony didn’t expect him to go that far.

“Alright, that’s enough.” Bon Bon pulled her hoof back, wondering if the fey was venomous or not.

“Now tell me, cutter. How is your dark related to you want me to help you hunt a bugbe-”

A knock on the door alarmed the fey. He quickly put the hood on. In Bon Bon’s eyes, he turned into the earth pony, Land Tale, her foalhood frien- The mare quickly shook the thought away, she nearly barfed as the false memories surfaced. Hesitantly, she took a step back so that the stallion could come to the front door.

Opening the door, he was greeted by two familiar faces. One was Lyra, who brought their lunch over as an apology for breaking into his store that night. The other was the witch doctor, Zecora.

“Zecora, my friend, I’m afraid that our lunch break hasn’t ended. Can you return later?” He turned to Lyra, who shyly stood by the door with a lunch bag in her mouth. She gave Zecora a welcoming smile. “We have to conclude our matter.”

“I understand that this is an unfortunate time indeed, but I have some problem that is immediately in need.” She said, her eyes begged for his attention. Reluctantly, Diz stepped aside for the mares to enter.

“So… How are we supposed to call you now?” Lyra whispered to the unic- the fey’s ear. She could feel her spine shiver when the thought of Star Quill came to her mind. Backlash from the cloak, as Diz told them.

“Plain Walker, that’s how she called me. A coincidence, that might just be. Nevertheless, that’s how the zebra’s eyes see.”

“Wait, are you rhyming?” Lyra dropped the food on the counter. “I thought you said that the cloak is supposed to help you mimic how a pony talks? Accent and all?”

“Apparently, rhyming isn’t an accent, neither is it a native tongue or slang. My cloak only translates and ‘localizes’ my words. Rhyming is a cultural thing, as it seems. Do you have any idea how hard it is to rhyme in Sigil’s Cant?”

Lyra chuckled at the comment and Diz’s hidden grumpy voice. She opened the lunch boxes, and realized that there was more attendant than she expected.

“Zecora, would you like to take a bite with us?” The mare asked. Zecora politely declined. The three quietly had their lunch while Zecora waited for them. It was awkward, maybe not so much to the fey as he occasionally dropped a compliment or two to Lyra’s cooking. Conversations were short and random, Bon Bon didn’t talk much. They chatted about the weather, Bon Bon’s job at the candy store or Lyra’s recent rehearsal, and the Odd Oddities scented candle shortage.

Suddenly, Zecora spoke.

“Miss Lyra, I am quite impressed. You are more well versed in Farasian than your look suggests.”

Lyra blinked, then quickly replied with an awkward smile. “Thank you, but I am sorry. I don’t actually know the… zebra’s language.”

“That can’t be, my dear. Isn’t it Farasian that I hear? Plain Walker, tell me, did you teach Lyra our symphony?”

It took him a moment or two to realize what Zecora meant. Quickly, he tapped Lyra’s shoulder.

“That, I have done. Lyra is quite bright, like the sun. Now, the matter that you wanted to discuss… May I ask something of you first?”

“Of course, of course.” Zecora hungrily said.

“While I know that rhyming is your personal love.” The fey-in-disguise strode to her side. “Can we talk in simple words?”

With that, Zecora switched to her Farasian tongue, one she rarely used since her travels brought her to Equestria.

“My apologies, Plain Walker. Rhyming is a good way to learn new languages, but rhyming in our tongue… it is rather cumbersome, isn’t it?” The zebra flustered.

“While I have no problem with indulging you, the matter you wanted to discuss, it isn’t easy doing so with rhyme, isn’t it?”

The zebra nodded. Something in her was very familiar with him. The sense of dread and desperation.

“The truth is, I am looking for some help. I tried all I could, but the situation is rather grimm. Your profession suggests that you might know something, can you lend me your insight in the matter?”

“It depends on what you are looking for.” The fey said, checking the aisles before he reopened the store after lunch break. “I can’t promise much, after all, I am just a humble little store owner, not a master in the art of potions like you.”

The compliment went unnoticed. He could see the eyes of the zebra glimmered as tears began to build up behind it.

“Yesterday, I came to visit one of my friends…”

It wasn’t a good day at the Sweet Apple Acres.

The doctor shook his head as he stepped away from the bed. Apple Bloom’s fever suddenly spiked that morning, and her condition had gotten worse since. Her breath became heavier and labored. Her eyes lost their shine. Black veins appeared on her neck, her legs and her chest. The once golden coat became mated and ragged.

“I… I haven’t seen anything like this.” The doctor sighed. He tried to keep himself calm and collected, but the scene was too much. “Such a young filly…”

“What do you mean, doc?” Applejack rushed to his side, a little bit too close for the doctor. “How’s Apple Bloom?”

The doctor tried to get some space between him and the mare. Despite his effort, Applejack kept on closing in. Defeated, he fixed his glasses and replied.

“Miss Apple, I am sorry to say that this disease is like nothing I have ever seen before. I am afraid that it is way too out of my hoof to help her. It is recommended to quarantine her an-”

“What are you spewin’ about?” Applejack pulled the doctor by his collar. “Quarantine mah sister? What kind of doctor are you? Treat my sister, gahdamnit!” The mare growled, prepared to get physical with the doctor should she need to.

“I CAN’T!” The doctor yelped. “I don’t even know what the disease is!”

“THAT’S IT!” Applejack swung her hoof at the doctor. Fortunately, she was stopped by her big brother. Big Mac used all of his strength to hold her back. Her grandmother came in with a rolling pin and gave her a loud whack on the head.

“Ya stoopid younin’! Never talk to a doc like dat, dun you remember what Ah taught ya?” Granny Smith grumbled, then helped the doctor get his footing back. “So, doc. Ya can’t cure mah little youngin’?”

“I am very sorry.” The doctor tried to get his white coat straight. “But I can’t do anything with my skill. All I can say is that you should continue your current treatment. Avoid direct contact as much as possible. I know a professor in Canterlot, if you want to, I can try to contact him. But it is going to take a while, even with fast delivery, for my letter to reach him.”

“Thank you, doc. Is there really nothin’ ya can do?”

The doctor shook his head once more. He could see a tear being held in the old mare’s eyes. Her body wasn’t young anymore, it felt like she would collapse at any moment. Still, she walked him out of the orchard and bid him farewell.

Back in their house, Applejack cuddled up, sobbing quietly. Big Mac did his best to comfort her. His little sister jumped into his embrace, cried out loud.

“Big Mac, Ah.. Ah am scared…”

His hoof gently brushed her main.

“It’s… It’s ma and pa all over again… Ah… Ah don’t know what to do…”

Granny Smith came closer to Apple Bloom. The little filly tried to smile, it pained her to do so, but she managed to make one, albeit way too forced.

“So… Do ya want anythin’?” She asked, caressing her grandchild’s face. Apple Bloom coughed. She was barely breathing, each time she breath a wheez came out instead.

“Ah… Ah think… Maybe Twilight would know something! She must… Ah have to go ask her. Granny, Big Mac, can you look over Apple Bloom?”

Big Mac replied with a simple “Eeyup” while Granny Smith only grumbled something. With that, Applejack ran as fast as she could toward the Golden Oak Library.

Granny Smith returned to her grandchild's side as the little filly began to murmur something.

“What is it, youngin’?” She put her ear closer to her.

“Zecora… Can I meet her?”

Celestia retreated to her chamber. The chaos Discord brought to Canterlot and nearby regions was concerning, to say the least. While the magical damages were mostly patched when the Elements of Harmony sealed the draconequus in stone, the physical ones weren’t. Destroyed homes, broken infrastructures, all of which took more than just magic to fix. The nobles didn’t help much either. Worse, some found the situation preferable, as they tried to gather as much power and resources as possible from the aftermath.

To say that Day Court was tiring would be quite the understatement. Then there was also the upcoming wedding which she would be the host of. It was supposed to be an event to lift up morale of the ponies of Canterlot, yet a missing soldier threatened to ruin it. She stood within a strange conundrum, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find a way out.

She could just jump on her bed and laid down there until the time to set the down down came. Or, she could even ask Luna to do both for her. But what kind of Princess would do that? So she decided to take a quick rest then return to her duty later. After all, her shift would end as soon as the moon was raised.

Yet, life had its own cruel ideas.

Before she could set hoof into her chamber, a commotion appeared outside of the throne room’s entrance. Quickly, she returned to the room to see what happened.

“LET ME IN! This is an urgent matter that I have to inform the Princess, RIGHT NOW!”

The voice of a pony could be heard. She struggled against the guards, who easily held her back and stopped her from entering the room.

“Listen here, the Court ended five minutes ago. And if the Princess wanted to see you, then she would already be here. Please leave before we have to make you.”

“May you release her, please?” The guard shuddered. He turned his head back and saw the Princess of The Sun right behind him. He quickly recovered his composure and saluted her.

“Princess Celestia, our apologies for the commotion. This mare here wanted to meet you, your Highness. We told her that we would inform you of her arrival and consider whether she should enter or not, but she demanded that we let her in.”

Celestia turned to the mare. She was a doctor, judging from her attire, of Canterlot’s Central Hospital. The mare bowed in her presence, breathing rapidly after a long run.

“What is the matter that ails you, my little pony?” The Princess lifted her face up. The unicorn was covered in sweat and tears, her voice came out stuttered as she tried to speak as fast as possible.

“I-I-I brought the r-r-report from Canterlot Cen-Central Hospital. We have to-to quarantine Canterlot im-imediately, Princess. Plague, plague swept across the city. The hospital is going to be overrun! We fear that it might have spread to nearby cities too. We have-have to set up a camp outside-side of the hospital for the aff-aff-afflicted.”

Celestia’s eyes opened wide at the news.

“Bring me to your camp, immediately.” Then she turned to the guards “Lt. Glow, I want you to inform Captain Shining Armor and Mayor McHay for an emergency meeting.”

Her rest would have to wait.

Author's Note

Changeling Cloak:
A magic item created by an Eberron's Green Hag coven as a tool for their spies during the Last War. When the Spell War began, the The Ring of Siberys weakened, letting many of its secrets and artifacts be stolen from Eberron, the cloak is one of them. Those who wore the cloak would be able to hid themselves within the residents of a city under the guise of a friend, being able to speak their tongue with both precision and flaunt. Diz took the cloak with him as a war trophy and tried to fix it, resulted in a flawed version of the cloak.

Diz's Changeling Cloak:
The final product of Diz's attempts to fix the tattered Changeling Cloak. Instead of using the telepathic sense of a city then create a disguise, the cloak constantly changes its illusion depends on those who looked at it. Unlike the original cloak, which created a fixed illusion, the illusion of this version of the cloak are personal, meaning that each person who looked at the cloak will see a different thing. Its translating magic is also damaged, instead of letting him speak in a foreign language, it telepathically translate his words and send it toward the listeners.
While the cloak is flawed, Diz still uses it because of reasons unknown.

5. Blood In The Art

Planar Equestrian
Chapter 5: Blood In The Art

“Men evolved to be benevolent. It is within their design, their nature to care for those of their kind and of others whom they deemed friends.”

Sigil is a cesspool of diseases and ailments. It is ugly, filled with the worst of filth and the vilest kinds of wastes. You can taste the harrowing rot in the air, feel the dreaded polluted water in your mouth and the disgust in every step you take on this contaminated ground.

The ‘people’, if you can call them that, is the worst of the planes, nothing more than the carrier of plagues and ill omens. They walk with the glee of a fiend, speak in words of evil and act nothing like that of a civilized one. Only the gods above know how much evil and vile is hidden under their skin, threatening to unleash it upon us and the devoted.

The center of the Multiverse, they said. No, Sigil is nothing more than a sinkhole, a gathering tavern for the plagues of the planes. A single rat of this city bears all of the worst diseases both known and unknown to man. A single beggar, and the foul ‘collectors’, hid the vilest ailments under their skins, using it as a weapon against the people of the planes!

Warrior of Faerûn! It is our duty to cleanse this land, and bring it back to the hand of its true master, the gods of Faerûn! Let us burn away the plagues that haunt this city, and pull the damned ‘Lady of Pain’ out of her wicked throne!

Brothers, it is time to claim Sigil in the name of Faerûn!

Vahan Van Veldun, Priest of Selûne, in his speech to his brethren of the Sigil Crusade, moments before he was mazed by the Lady.

Twilight was hesitant, not because she was scared by the sight, nor was she mortified by the little filly’s condition. She hesitated because she didn’t know what to do.

Earlier that day, she was minding her own business, cleaning the library and making sure the readers knew where the books were and where to put them back. It was a peaceful day, until Applejack came knocking at her door, and in a flurry of emotion, kicked the door open, breaking it into two in the process.

It wasn’t the first time her friend came to her for advice, requests or something in between. They are friends, and friends are supposed to help one another, whether it was personal matters, or family business. To say that she wasn’t prideful of her book collection and well of knowledge would be quite far from the truth. Even those like Rainbow Dash, who was all about actions, knew that. Yet, there was always something she didn’t know, or books she hadn’t read.

One such thing was the conundrum she found herself in, between her friend and her sister, who was in what she could only describe as ‘critical condition’. The filly was a husk of who she was. The cheerful Apple Bloom could only use her eyes and faint voice to communicate with them. When Applejack came to her, she expected the worst, but not this kind of worst.

She wanted to say sorry, but she couldn’t, not when her friend was on the verge of crying out. Twilight fumbled, trying to find words, something to say to her friend. Her decision wasn’t one she would be proud of.

“What did the doctor say?”

Her answer was a silent stare from her friend's teary eyes. Twilight didn’t know what face she made to Applejack, but judging from Big Mac’s look, it wasn’t a bright one.

“Twilight, there has to be something! A book, yeah! You have a lot of books, don’t you? There must be something in there.”

“Well…” Twilight bit her lips. Yes, she had many books, some rare ones too, which might cover something related to Apple Bloom’s ailment. Yeah, she had a book about diseases and ailments written by Mage Meadowbrook! That must be it, there must be something there. With a semi-confident voice, she wiped away Applejack’s tears.

“Yeah, but it might take a while. You should stay with Apple Bloom, I will return sh-when I find out what it is.”

Applejack tried her best to regain her composure. She knew that Twilight wasn’t sure, but there was hope, and hope could help them go a long way.

“Thank you… And about the doctor,... he said that he knew a professor or something in Canterlot. Said that he is going to send a letter there.”

“That’s right!” Another idea blossomed in Twilight’s head. She cursed herself to not remember it sooner. “Canterlot has many doctors, some are my family friends! Spike can send letters to them much faster than the postal service. Can you tell me the name of the doctor who checked on Apple Bloom and the one he talked about?...”

Granny Smith sat outside of the room, listening to the mares. She let out a small smile. Apple Bloom might be in a bad shape, but she would be better soon, she knew it. She knew that her little filly would be better. What she didn’t really approve of Applejack is the mare’s lack of thoughtfulness. The doctor asked them to quarantine Apple Bloom, not bringing her friend in and meeting her, checking her without proper medical knowledge. But then again, what would she know? She was just an old mare, on her last leg and trying to help her grandchildren…

Time like this brought back old memories, when their parents were still around. That stubborn couple… She could do better for them… She shook the thought away.

Twilight ran out of the room, nearly escaping Granny Smith’s grip. The old mare caught her, her shaking voice rang.

“Good day, youngin’... Say, can ya help me with a lil’ something? It’s ‘bout Apple Bloom.”

“I am on it, you don’t have to worry.” Twilight tried to give her a reassuring smile, a little emphasis on the tried part.

“She has a friend, that uhh… Zecora, the striped one. Can you tell her that Apple Bloom wants to see her?”

Twilight looked at the clock, considering her time. It took her a good half a minute to nod.

“I will tell her if I see her.”

With that, the unicorn left the orchard. Granny Smith’s eyes followed the purple mare until she was out of sight. She sighed, Big Mac, who had just returned from his work, looked at her.

“Applejack has good friends, doesn’t she?” He asked.

“So does lil’ Bloom.” The old mare chuckled. “Sadly, I couldn’t let ‘em in.”

“Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, right?” The stallion pondered. “Did they come?”

“They did. But the doc said we can’t let ‘em meet her. He thought it might spread.”
His ears perked up a little. “I just hope that Twilight didn’t catch it.” He entered the house. “Ah going to check on Bloom, you and Applejack should get some rest.”

“Hey, when did ya look down on this old bone?”

Big Mac had a sad smile on his face. All they could do was follow the instructions left by the doctor and hope for the best… while also preparing for the worst.

“So, your friend got a strange ailment in her?” Diz reaffirmed what he heard.

“Her grandmother didn’t let me in at first.” Zecora said, trying to find something, anything in the book Diz lent her that was related to Apple Bloom’s condition. “I lied that I am a doctor, and was allowed to check on her.”

“But you are, right?” Diz took note of what Zecora described to him. Black veins on the body, troubled breathing, high fever, pale skin and bad fur… The only thing left was a swollen tongue. “A witch doctor, I mean.”

“What are they talking about?” Lyra asked Bon Bon, the two mares observed the strange conversation. The fey seemed to speak in perfectly normal Equestrian, while Zecora talked to him in her native tongue.

“Something about someone who is ill?” Bon Bon said, her eyes lazily looked around the store. “Why can’t he just drop his… disguise and all of this mysterious thing? It's just stupid!”

“He did say that he was reluctant due to past experience. Something had to do with him being burned by a bunch of lunatics.”

“Well, we aren’t lunatics!”

“Don’t you remember when we saw Zecora for the first time?” Lyra rebutted. “Now, imagine that, but Zecora is a tall, lanky cryptid straight out of a folktale.”

“Point taken.” The earth pony grumbled.

“While I am proud of my potions, I am not a qualified medicine practitioner in this land. Neither have I seen any diseases like that.” Zecora continued, she looked at him, trying to find something in the fake zebra. “Twilight is consulting ancient texts, I am going to help her. I just hope that we have enough time to do so.”

“Why me?” He asked nonchalantly. “I am not a doctor, Zecora. I am just a traveler, a merchant. You expected me to risk meeting a girl who is riddled with diseases and try to help her, a pony I barely know, even if I don’t have any prior experience with the subject at hoof?” His words were laced with doubts after doubts, as if he was judging her.

“I don’t know what to do anymore. I let my instinct guide me.” Zecora said with a shaken voice. “I can’t look at her like that, such a young filly. I can’t shake the image out of my mind.” She begged. “There must be something you can do for her. Please, Plain Walker…”

His answer was silence, unbearable silence. Diz shook his head.

“I… I am sorry, I should have thought it through. Plain Walker, I am sorry for taking your time.”

The zebra’s ears drooped down, so was her eyes. She thanked Diz one last time, said goodbye to Lyra and Bon Bon then left.

“What was that about?” Lyra asked the fey, who had retreated into his chamber and pulled the hood down. Bon Bon let out a relieved sigh when the illusion broke.

“A filly, Apple Bloom, caught some strange disease. She wanted to ask me if I knew something about it.” He said while checking his cabinet.

“Why did she find you out of all the ponies?” Bon Bon spat.

“Your guess is as good as mine, cutter.” The fey replied, opening some boxes and sniffed the dried herbs inside. “Maybe it has something to do with my realm. Maybe it was the cloak. May have something to do with the fact that I traded herbs with her and tried to make her help me in my research. Now where is it…”

“So she wanted you to check on Apple Bloom? Like a doctor?” Lyra examined the items Diz placed on the table. She saw boxes of herbs, some medical tools and scrolls. “You declined, right?”

“Of course I did.” He took all of it and put them into his saddle bags. “A gad of attention, her alone. Me, cutter, do you remember how you both found out my dark? My doughty up wouldn’t suffice.”

“Can’t you just walk out there and confess to them like you did to us?” Bon Bon huffed. “Without the ‘Oh, I am so scary and I am going to eat your foal part?”

“Not to offend you, cutter, but I am not an addle-coved clueless.” This earned a glare from the mare. “The cloak works based on crowd mentality. While in person, each body will see a different thing based on their own mental image. But when I am near a crowd, the illusion will shift and change depending on that crowd's mental image. The thing is, the illusion is in fact a hallucination, messing with your brain-box, putting a charm on you.” He pointed at Bon Bon without looking at her “And you, cutter, should know it best.”

“But we didn’t react that bad, right? And if you don’t want anypony know your ‘secret identity’, shouldn’t you wipe our brains or something like that?” Lyra said sheepishly.

“Two reasons, cutter. One, I need a tout. I am not a local body, and the plane has changed significantly since the last time I was here. I need guidance, eyes and ears in this plane.”

He tapped twice on the ground, and suddenly, a doctor’s outfit appeared out of thin air, shimmering with a magical hue. Lyra and Bon Bon were agape of what happened, barely paying any attention to what Diz was talking about.

“And if I show them what I am, no doubt that the whole town would howl about it. You two, however, are a bit different. I marked you and some of the others, and took a risk. The fact that you decided to have a barrikin with me was enough in my book.”

“Wait, you marked us?” Bon Bon’s eyebrows furrowed. “But last time you said that you didn’t kn-”

“I didn’t know that you two were going to bang around my kip, yes. But I did prepare to reveal myself, especially after Lyra here read my book and you seemed to be extremely peery around me.”

Diz opened a book and read the arcane text out loud. Light covered his body, until he appeared, in the form of a black unicorn with amber eyes and gray mane. He put the outfit on, and turned to them.

“Are you even a doctor?” Bon Bon followed him to the door. Diz gave them a wave and ran.

“No, but I am a blood in improv.” The fey closed the door and made his way to the Sweet Apple Acres.

“It means he is really good at improvising.” Lyra ‘translated’ the Sigil Cant, which earned a weirded out look from Bon Bon.

“Since when did you learn his bizarre slang?” To which, the unicorn shrugged and took a feather duster up to clean the shelves.

“Since I was hired as a part timer here.”

“WHAT?”

Big Mac heard a knock on the door, he took one last look at Apple Bloom then trotted down the stairs to open it. Standing before the door was a doctor of some sort, a unicorn, with the outfit used by Ponyville’s hospital.

“Good day, sir.” The unicorn politely said. “I am the new doctor appointed to tend to Miss Apple Bloom. I take it that you have received the paper from the hospital?”

“Nn… nope?” The stallion hesitantly said. Who was this unicorn? He hadn’t seen anypony like him before. “We haven’t received any paper, doc.”

“Then they should deliver them to you early tomorrow. May I meet the patient?”

Big Mac raised his eyebrows, but still made way for the stallion to go in. In the living room was Applejack, sleeping on the couch. She refused to rest, and fell asleep while she tried to make some milk for her sister. Big Mac put her there, temporarily, as per request of the doctor and Granny Smith to quarantine Apple Bloom. He turned to the unicorn and gave him a sheepish smile. The unicorn nodded understandably.

While Apple Bloom’s room was rather clean, the smell coming from her was harsh. The filly wasn’t conscious, but still breathing. Big Mac stood by the door, observing the doctor. The doctor came closer to his patient, checking her veins and eyes.

“How long has it been since her ailment began to manifest?”

“About two or three days, doc.” The stallion replied. “Two nights ago, she had a fever. We didn’t think it was serious then, but the next morning her condition-”

“Took a turn for the worse.” The unicorn said, putting his equipment away and mumbled. “Just as I thought.”

A small light glimmer appeared in Big Mac’s eyes. “You know what this is?”

“It isn’t a local disease, I can tell you that.” He put a hoof on her chest, come to think of it, where was the doctor’s regular medical equipment? “The day she had the fever, do you know what she did then?”

“She was playing near the forest.” Big Mac took a moment to gather his memories. “Trying to get her cutie mark. She told me that they were playing with some flowers and rocks.”

“Did she see or meet some kind of rodent of unusual size?”

“Well…” Internally, he wanted to kick himself for not listening clearly to what his sister told him. “I don’t know, doc… you can ask Applejack, she might know something more.”

The doctor nodded. He set his saddlebag down, then turned to Big Mac.

“You said ‘they’? There was other?”

“Yes, there are two other fillies who often play with her.”

“Do they show any symptoms like Miss Apple Bloom?”

“As far as I know, no.”

“Then that’s all…” The doctor took his boxes out and placed them on the table at the other end of the room. “Can you get me something? I need them for the treatment.”

Big Mac’s ears peaked up. His eyes shone with new resolve. “What do you need, doc?”

Diz had all he needed with him, then locked the red stallion out of the room, just in time as his disguise spell faded away. He closed the curtain, using only an oil lamp as the light source.

Just as he suspected from Zecora’s descriptions. It was Hive Fever.

He loved Sigil just as much as the next patriotic cutter, but he had to admit that it was far from the cleanest city in the planes. And from the dreaded sewer system, the forgotten Under Sigil, with its numerous catacombs and buried settlements, birthed the worst forms of diseases known to the planes. Some were ‘imported’ from other planes, while others were concoctions created from uncountable sources. The latter had names, and one of the most common was labeled Hive Fever, after its very origins. For reasons still unknown to him, the people of the Hive, and even the rest of Sigil, had built up an immunity system strong enough to shrug it off. But to the Prime and those of blood and flesh, it was a fatal disease, and could easily take a man's life after a week.

The filly was in luck, sort of. Her condition was life threatening, true. But if untreated, he expected her to hold off the disease for at least one or two more days, which was three days longer than most cases.

The other reason she was in luck was Diz himself. The fey wasn’t a doctor of anyform, nor was his domain in the Feywild had any relation to life or curing ailment. But he was a blood in all-things-Sigil, especially how to deal with them. From how to talk a berk down, to mapping out the city ever changing streets and portals. One such thing was how to cure Hive Fever.

And the treatment would be quite gnarly, he hoped that the filly wouldn’t wake up during the process. Sleep spells and anesthetic would hinder it significantly.

The first step was to prepare the medical herbs needed to sanitize the patient and to treat them. To the Sigilians, getting herbs wasn’t hard, even to those from the Hive. One of the most vital ingredients was razor vine seed and fiber, a rather common weed anyone could gather with sufficient finesse and a good, tough glove. Sigilite moss was the next one, harder to get, but could be bought from any collectors who knew where they grew. The last one was a little more finicky, as they would have to find a merchant from the Prime to get some coriander.

Diz put all of the dried herbs into two boiling pots of water, waiting for them to steep. One of them was used to clean the patient, and acted as a disinfectant. The other was the brew that the patient had to consume.

Using the medical brew, Diz cleaned Apple Bloom’s upper half, where the black veins gathered. He hesitated for a moment, checking the ratio and dosage of the brew, making recalculation and estimations. If he was honest, he wasn’t completely sure that this was Hive Fever, or at least the one he knew. While it is possible for horses to catch Hive Fever, the treatment was roughly the same, he couldn’t say for sure that this was the cure needed for the little filly.

But as a blood in the art, he knew that one of the most vital elements of a successful experiment was risk.

Carefully using his hoof to find a good area to start, he began to chant his spell. An ethereal hand appeared, a mage hand, picking up a scalpel and moving slowly to the little filly’s hoof. With precision, the scalpel cut down, he heard a small groan of pain from her, and black blood flowed out of the cut. Dipping her hoof into the first brew, he waited for the second to be ready. A considerable amount of blood was taken out of the filly, the veins became less visible. Diz took a small amount of blood, and put them into the second brew.

The soaked herbs were taken out and placed on the cut. Razorvine fiber secured them in place, making a boutique, speeding up the coagulation process. The second brew was ready. Then came the harder part, how should he put the brew into her?

One of his hoof lifted her up, while the mage hand slowly poured the brew into her mouth. It was tricky, as he even had to try to pry her mouth open once or twice. Fortunately, the filly drank the brew with little resistance. Next, came the most meticulous part of the treatment: observation and waiting.

Diz prepared for the worst, and it seemed that the chances of him failing was rather high. It had been a good five minutes since she took the brew, and no reaction had occurred. The healing process would take a while, of course, but should the brew work, there must be some reaction at this stage.

Apple Bloom was dreaming, she knew it. It wasn’t a lucid dream, she just simply knew that she was dreaming. Dreams take the pain away, take the world away. The dream was sweet, the dream was safe.

She was playing with her friends, visiting the ponies of Ponyville, trying out their newest plans to achieve their cutie mark. From partying with Pinkie Pie, to visiting the library and getting scorned by Twilight for using the books carelessly. She remembered the time she spent at Zecora, listening to her many folktales and watching potions being brewed. The nights she sat on the roof, watching the stars and the moon being raised with her family. She tasted the juicy apple in her mouth, and freshwater in her throat.

She remembered playing in the Everfree Forest, meeting a Royal Guard and helping him find his way back to the town. She remembered the strange critters she saw, and their chittering.

Then, a creature of darkness came, trying to pull her away from the dream. Its claws were sharp, its eyes cold as winter. And its wicked antlers looked like a nightmare walking right out of a horror story. Its claw dug into her hoof, bleeding it. She tried to cry for help, reaching out for her friends. They tried to keep her down on the ground, pulling her down with all of their strength. Tears ran on her cheeks.

Suddenly, she heard laughter from far away. An evil laughter, made by equally evil monsters. She looked down to where her friends were. In their places were an amalgam of rat and pony, screeching and biting in her hoof, trying to tear her apart. Being pulled from both sides, she had to scream, but she couldn’t. They overwhelmed her, drowned her.

The creature of darkness quickly pulled her to its side, and with a roar, pushed the rat-like monsters away. Its claw dug into her, but its grasp was gentle. It pulled her away from the dream, and into darkness.

Deep into darkness she went. She floated in a sea of nothingness, until she felt something in her mouth. It was bitter, but refreshing. Her throat was dry, did she know that? Light, small dots of lights appeared from the distance, slowly crept toward her. The creature form became more defined, clearer. It was a pony, with antler and black coats. Its calming eyes shone in the dark, like a beacon for her.

She felt her body slowly raised up. Something made its way from her stomach, all the way up to her mouth. It was putrid, horrendous even. She quickly puked the substance out of her body.

‘Welcome back to the waking world’ Parts of her mind said so, not literally, but deep in her senses, she understood it.

“There, there, let them out.”

She felt a hoof on her back, while her body arched forward, continuously pushing the vile waste out. The gentle push helped her stabilize her posture, efficiently purging the bad blood out of her system. With one last gag, her body relaxed. She felt tired, but the kind of tiredness coming from a long workout, not the painful torment made by her weakened body.

“You just can’t get used to this thing.” She heard some mumbling coming from the figure standing next to her bed. “Ugh, this is almost as vile as an abishai. How are you, cutter?”

“Ah… Ah am tired…”

“Still feeling feverish?” She tried to see who it was, taking a good look at the mysterious pony. But everything was blurry. She could make out a lanky form, and a long, weird horn? The accent was quite unique though.

“Ah guess so…?”

“Well, cutter, you can’t really cure a disease just by giving them a… cure! Trust the process…” She could hear a low grunt. “And you should be fine.”

Strange light came from the figure as he cleaned the room. She could finally see who it was, a unicorn, but where was his long, weird horn?

“We will meet again tomorrow…” The voice tone shifted to a more proper and ‘Ponyville’ like. “I wish you a speedy recovery, Miss Apple Bloom.”

The doctor gently closed the door, leaving the filly pondering about her dream. Being tied to your bed wasn’t fun at all. At least she could actually breathe.

Big Mac waited outside until the doctor came out, with his equipment packed up and a bag in his hoof. The doctor turned to the stallion.

“I am going to dispose of this thing.” He put the bag down, and took a package out of his saddlebag. “Boil these herbs up, don’t overcook them, then use the water to clean the patient. If possible, I recommend your family to do the same, it should get rid of the lice.”

“Is she okay, doc? And what was that about lice?” Big Mac carefully took the package, as if it was a delicate and fragile piece of art.

“While I can't cure her immediately, I can assure you that her condition is going to improve, should we stay with the current treatment. And about those lice, the disease spreads through them.” The doctor explained. “Mostly from rats and the like. When lice suck up their blood, it also carries the disease from them over to their next victim. Say, have you seen any vermin around your homestead?”

“A few, but we make sure to not let them stay for too long.”

“Good, good. I am going to return on a later date, to continue her treatment. Now if you excuse me, I have another patient to tend to.”

Big Mac walked with him until they reached the entrance of the orchard.

“Thank you, doc. We were in quite a fright.” There were more, but he kept the latter part in his head.

“Just doing my duty as a doctor, sir.” He tipped his hat and left. Big Mac returned to his home and checked on Apple Bloom. While the black veins were still there, she looked better, even if just a little.

“Big Mac?” The filly mumbled. Her brother came closer to listen to her. “I am hungry…”

No doubt, from what he heard from outside, it seemed that she puked everything inside of her out.

“Can I have some soup?” She asked, to which he nodded.

“Eeyup!”

Diz returned to his store and found Bon Bon stood behind the counter with a scowl on her face. Lyra cleaned the store pretty well, he had to compliment her for that. Making his way to the backroom, the fey turned to Bon Bon.

“Still in my kip, cutter? I thought you hate it here?” He said with a hint of a chuckle.

“After finding out you are trying to brainwash us and worm your way into our head? Yeah.” Her face showed little interest in him. “But I can’t just let Lyra be alone with somepony like you.”

“That I see… Any reason why you are standing there?”

“Lyra said she is going to work here as a part timer, is that right?” Diz turned his gaze toward the unicorn, who was trying to imitate the face on a mask. He tapped his chin and replied.

“I guess that means you want to work here? Helping me out?”

“I am not here for you, I am here for her.” They stared at each other for a moment. “But yeah, I want to work here.”

“Welcome aboard, cutter.” Diz shrugged and walked into his room. “And can you two stock the shelves for me? The boxes are in the left corner of the room.”

“Just that? Hey, don’t ignore me, you- you weirdo!” Bon Bon shouted at her new employer, while Lyra giggled at her friend.

“Anyways, how’s Apple Bloom? Did you cure her?” Lyra asked as she stocked the shelves. Diz answered from his room.

“I didn’t cure her, I treated her. And no, that’s two different things!”

They could hear the sound of books and pens being used, rather loudly.

“You said that you aren’t a doctor.” Bon Bon helped Lyra move a box out. “Are you sure you know how to treat her? And where are we supposed to put these…” She picked up a small bag labeled ‘charm’, inside of it was a fly?

“Oh, they are supposed to be under the scented candle section, forgot to label those.” They heard the sound of metal creaking and thunder coming from the room. “And I am not a doctor, true. But I know how to treat a case of Hive Fever. Don’t ask me how, you don’t want to lose your lunch over that.”

“Let me guess, it’s something from your home, right?” Lyra looked at a charm. It looked like a stuffed rat. Even when she picked it up with her horn, she felt a little mortified by the thing. “Where did you even find these? Don’t tell me this is also from your home too?”

“Yes and yes.” Diz walked out of the room, donning a robe and the cloak adorned with arcane patterns on him. He wore charms around his neck, and his saddlebags were stuffed. He stood before the mirror and fixed his hat. “Hive Fever is a common disease in Sigil, it spreads through lice and cranium rats. Quite a gad of them in the Hive and deeper down.”

“Wait, does that mean she caught it from you?” Bon Bon pointed at the fey.

“I made a vow to not let such a thing happen. But I do fear that something worse might come. It’s never easy dealing with plane related matters.” His voice became oddly cold, only to return to its normal eccentric tone just a second later. “And no, I cleaned myself and my realms daily with proper spells and tools. You two should too!”

Bon Bon wasn’t quite convinced, especially when he sold dead flies as charms.

“Are you going somewhere?” Lyra carefully put the last charm on the shelf. “You seem rather, how do I put it, fancier than normal?”

“Oh, you have no idea, cutter. I am going back to Sigil, for a day or two.” He gave them the key to the store. “You two are going to run the store until I return. You may enter my room if you want to, but I advise you to not do so.”

“Alright…?”

The mares nodded. Diz trotted into his room and went silent. Curiously, Lyra opened the door and was puzzled by what she saw. At the end of the room was what she could only describe as a portal, like those in fairy tales about the Everfree. A single sign was placed in front of it.

[GATE TO SIGIL, PLEASE DON’T ENTER UNLESS YOU ARE A PLANEWALKER]

“Let’s just agree that we should leave the room as it is.” Bon Bon said, slowly pulled her friend away from the door.

Author's Note

There are some Sigil Cants (or Planar Cants) which are quite funny and misleading

A blood an expert, sage, or professional in any field. Calling someone a blood is a sign or deep respect. Bloodbath is a gathering of powerful high-ups and bloods, usually indicating that something dangerous or important is happening. But at the same time, blood-town means a village, town or city which is the property of a race of fiends and is populated mainly by them.

Cakewalk is another one of them, it means something that is very easy to accomplish, but has disastrous effects -- to cross a bridge that leads to a trapped door or an ambush is a cakewalk. In the same essence, a piece of cake means a piece of chant that's very misleading, rather than something that is very easy to accomplish.

Rewriting

The story is being rewritten. The current storyline wasn't quite what I wanted to tell and write, so I shifted it to a later arc.

The rewritten begins in Sigil, where Lyra and Bon Bon found themselves lost in the city after an accident brought them there. The mares will travel across the City of Doors, making new friends, facing challenges and find their way home.

Author's Note

The new story is here: Tales of Planes and Ponies