There’s an open field as far as the eye can see. In this field, green grass sways back and forth to an invisible wind blowing. In the sky are many white, fluffy looking clouds, slowly drifting away. A small distance away stands a knoll in the fields. Atop this knoll stand three figures. One is a human male with shoulder length white hair, slightly wrinkled skin, and a long, white goatee. Another is a female elf, with long, flowing, blonde hair. She stands shorter than the human with toned muscles showing on her arms and lower legs. The third figure appears to be a male human, but his height is barely over half the size of the bearded human’s. Indeed, he is a halfling. The short one has light brown hair cut to have a shaggy appearance. His arms, though skinny compared to a human, do hold some muscle to them. On his back is a long, stringed instrument. This instrument has numerous strings going up and down its neck; at least twenty strings. The instrument itself appears to be too big for the small creature, as it is almost as long as the creature is tall.

The two taller ones are both looking down at the smaller one. The tall human opens his mouth to speak, but no words are heard from him. The small halfling tilts his head to one side in confusion. The tall human tries again to no avail as only silence leaves his lips. Off in the distance, a bright light moves closer to the group. It moves with great speed, burning the grass it moves through. Once more, the tall human calls out to the small one, only to have no words come. The light is moving faster and faster towards the group, towards the halfling.

At last, the glowing sphere is upon them, striking the back of the halfling. His body contorts with pain as the sphere enters his body. The eyes of the halfling quickly melt into red goo as fire and blood spew from his eyes and mouth. His Torso bursts opening, exposing his quickly melting organs to the open air. All the while no sound is heard from any of the three figures.

With one final attempt, the human opens his mouth to shout.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

“Garret!” Dante yells, sitting up quickly with a start.

Dante is sitting on a group of white pillows filled with feathers, covered only by a brown blanket. Around him are the walls of the same magic mansion he built the day before. On one of these walls is the door leading to the antechamber and, thus, the other rooms he constructed with but a thought.

Dante himself is covered in sweat. His dark brown hair is messed up, showing a night of tossing and turning. On a few of the pillows are scorch marks where his hands were. Luckily, no fire seems to have come from them. Next to him lays Iatril and Flurry, still mostly covered by the same blanket, undisturbed by his outburst.

Dante pulls the blanket off him and moves quietly to the door, opening it and exiting the room.

In the foyer stand the few dozen conjured servants of the mansion in two rows.

“You two,” he points to a pair of servants, “fetch me my clothes. You, bring me some ale. You three, get me some food.”

Dante walks over to a wall and leans on it for a moment.

‘Soon. Soon I won’t have to dream these dreams anymore.’

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

To say the intelligence Dante and Iatril retrieved was useful would be a huge understatement. For starters, these ponies seemed to rely less on magic and its application to the world and more on technological advances. Through scrying, Dante was able to see a large, metal box on wheels move along metal rails under its own power. He theorized it was some form of fire-based power, based on the smoke cloud rising from a hole in the top of it, and the fact that some dwarves were trying to make something similar for mining. Dante was also able to see machines that are able to write letters and words on paper, grand food establishments, and various other advances unknown to any human. For what he assumed to be a capital of sorts, it was relatively undefended. While a city built on a mountain provides excellent defense against conventional siege and infantry, as well as a greatly fortified position for archers, it provides little in terms of aerial defense. The towers and spires are indeed impressive, but they don’t provide enough room for archers to shoot upwards. An acid breathing dragon could decimate the city defenses easily. What’s more, the city is highly susceptible to earthquakes. A single casting of such a spell would likely be enough to dislodge the city and send it off the mountain. Blocking scrying on the castle does provide an amount of discretion for what troops are readily available, which is exactly the case. Though, being able to block scrying over such an area is, in itself, more frightening.

Iatril’s information was a bit more tactical, at least in Dante’s eyes. She also found the technological advances of these ponies interesting, but far more interesting were the rulers of this country. The two ruling sisters were called Celestia and Luna and they each controlled the position of the sun and moon in the sky, respectfully. Apparently, they are both called ‘alicorns,’ meaning they have traits of all three tribes of ponies: flight, magic, and a connection with nature. Both are also at least 1000 years old, as the years began being tracked sometime after their rule began. Luna had apparently been banished to the moon for 1000 years for attempting bring everlasting night upon the land. Personally, Dante could have thought of a worse punishment for the crime, but he wasn’t immortal, so he couldn’t say for sure. What’s more, when Luna came back, still under her name of Nightmare Moon, Fluttershy and her friends defeated her with magic artifacts called the ‘Elements of Harmony.’ These elements have been used by them twice: once on Nightmare Moon, and once on the chaotic spirit called ‘Discord.’

This spirit intrigued Dante. From what he was told, Discord sounds more like a god or demigod than some loose spirit, especially since nothing less than the Elements of Harmony could stop him. Even then, they could only turn him to stone. According to Fluttershy, he was still being kept somewhere in the palace. Apparently, he was just sitting around in the garden like a decorative piece before he broke out.

After the divulgence of information and a good night’s sleep (for Iatril, at least), the two began meditating for their divine spells for the day. Only…one problem.

“Iatril, I can’t feel the connection to my deity!” Dante cried to his companion, who was sitting crossed legged next to him.

“I can’t feel the connection to nature either! We’ve prepared our spells in this mansion before, right?” She called back.

“Yeah, I know we have. I don’t know what could be stopping it.”

“Maybe…we just need to leave the mansion. This isn’t our own plane we’re connected to, is it?”

Dante ponders this thought for a moment. ‘Yeah, another plane. Wherever we are, this certainly isn’t the material plane. At least not one I’m familiar with. Maybe being in the mansion is just too much.’

“Alright, let’s step out then and try.”

They move to the portal entrance and step out, with Flurry and Raven close behind. Dante promptly closes the portal behind them and ends the spell. It’s not long after sunrise, maybe half an hour. They sit on the ground and try again. After a few minutes of concentration, Dante still cannot find the connection.

“Grrr, it’s still not working. How about you?” He asks. Iatril remains silent, still focused. “Well, goody for you. Guess I’ll just prepare my arcane spells then.” He says, opening the portal with his needle and pulling out a spellbook, opening its pages and looking it over.

An hour later, both spellcasters had prepared their spells. Upon completion of his study, Dante began casting his daily spells and invocations on himself: a few for eyesight, two for flight, some defenses, and one mind shielding spell. His eyes took on a more devious look, like that of a predatory animal, glowing an ominous yellow. Upon his back sprouted two shadowy, black wings, which he promptly folded around himself to give the appearance of a cape over his cloak.

“Dante, does this mean you can’t use your divine magic?” Iatril asks.

“No, I can still feel the energy within me, but I can’t reclaim it once I use it. This much I’m sure of.” Dante responds, a little despondent. “Okay, let’s test this out.”

He casts a spell and before them stood a circular portal, glowing with a white light. He walks up to the portal and touches it with his hand. Instantly, the portal shivers and collapses, as if torn apart by an unseen force.

“What was that?” Iatril asks.

“It was supposed to be a portal to the material plane. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure that means we’re stuck here, wherever ‘here’ is. On a positive note, that means there’s no way Aselith can escape this plane. I won’t even bother trying to contact another plane with a spell. It’s not worth the possible backlash, and if a Gate spell can be shattered like this, there’s no way a divination can make it through.”

“So, we’re on our own again?”

“Just like old times. Now then, your transformation. You want to look exactly like you did before, correct?”

“Of course.”

“Okay.” Dante says, shifting his body to face Iatril. “Be ready to work your own animal shifting into this. I don’t want your mind to get altered by this spell.”

“Don’t worry, Dante. I know what to do.”

Dante casts his spell, shifting Iatril into the form she had the day before. Every detail was exactly the same, except her amulet wasn’t clasped tightly to her neck from the shape shifting.

“I am an artist. How do you feel?”

“Like a beautiful, majestic creature.” She responds cockily.

“Of course. Now,” he turns to the wolf, “it’s your turn.”

“WHAT?” The wolf cried in a deep voice.

“There’s that lovely voice of yours!” Dante said snidely. “Come now, her ‘friend’ was waiting in the forest, remember? He can’t just leave; he has to come into town to meet all his new friends.”

“You just want to turn me into a pony, don’t you?” Flurry looks at Dante with an ‘I know what you’re thinking’ face only a wolf could have, which is to say not a good one.

“That too. So, how do you want to look? I’m thinking white, since you’re so fond of that color. Maybe I’ll make you a little bigger than a normal pony, just to make you feel better. Also, you’ll have to be a unicorn, since your friend over there let it slip about the magic.”

“Hey, it worked out!”

Flurry looked almost pleadingly at Iatril, who only gave him a sad face in return. “Alright, just make me big. I don’t want to be in a small body in case things go bad.”

“Don’t worry, I was going to do that anyways. Otherwise, I couldn’t make this permanent.”

“Wait, what?!” Before Flurry could offer any argument, his body started to change from Dante’s spell. Quickly, his fur shrank to a little longer than stubble, with the exception of the fur on his head, which grew out slightly. His tail became, for lack of a better word, swishier. Out of his head grew a horn, a little longer than the average unicorn’s. His paws changed to hooves and his snout grew a bit wider. His entire body shrank from its original size, but still notably larger than Iatril. Soon, where Flurry the winter wolf stood was now Flurry the unicorn.

“Lo and behold, the powerful unicorn Flurry!” Dante proclaimed.

Flurry looks himself over before baring his substantially flatter teeth at Dante. “I hate you.”

“Ah, I can feel the love.”

“Um, Dante.” Iatril chimed in. “I just thought of something. I told them you were a powerful mage and, while Flurry is strong, he doesn’t know much magic.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of that. Flurry, take a look at your… ‘cutie mark’.” He couldn’t help but laugh at the name of it.

Rolling his eyes and turning his head, Flurry found that on his flank were three spheres, red, blue, and green, with small tails coming out of them, all looking as if to circle each other.

“What does that mean?” He asks the still laughing warlock.

“I combined some of my eldritch magic with your supernatural breath and forged it into your horn. You can now fire off eldritch energy like I can, though it must be fire, frost, or acid. I could not make it fire raw energy like I can.”

Flurry gives a look of confusion at him. “How do I use it?”

“It should be similar to how you use your frozen breath, but you may need to pour some emotion into it as well, like anger or hate. We warlocks channel a vast amount of emotion into our attacks.”

Flurry looks around for a target and spots the rock the mansion portal was next to. He lowers his horn and focuses, giving a small whiny and firing off a blast of fiery energy at the rock. He gives off a laugh and tries again, this time firing a blast of frost. This continues for a whole minute before Dante cuts him off.

“Okay, I get it, you’re excited. Just know that I had to warp that spell on the spot in a way I’m not used to or comfortable doing. Be grateful. Now, to end the spell, you merely say ‘magic’ in a separate language. For Flurry, the language is ‘Giant.’ For Iatril, ‘Druidic.’ This spell should be permanent otherwise, but it may only last a week instead, given I’m still not completely sure what type of creatures these ponies are.”

“You mean besides being magical, talking ponies?” Iatril asks smugly.

“You know what I mean, smartass. And with that,” Dante walks to a tree, stepping in its shadow, “I shall be off to see what I can find out near that city. I’ll keep in contact with you every day; expect it to be around nightfall. I’ll leave Raven here, just in case. I know he and I will be out of range for communication, but if something comes up, you’ll have a way to contact me eventually.”

“Be careful, Dante. And don’t go killing any of these ponies for any reason!”

“Oh, you think you know me so well.”

With that, Dante dives into the shadow of the tree, disappearing from sight.

“Well, Flurry, Raven, let’s go meet our friends!”

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

The plane of shadow connected to this plane is interesting to say the least. On his material plane, the plane of shadows is difficult to see through and one always moves with great speed relative to the material plane. In this land’s shadows, sight is very clear. All around is every tree, every house, every hill, all quite clear; relatively speaking, anyways. Color was all but absent here. What Dante saw was shadowy figures with clear, white outlines. The speed Dante could travel at was almost twice as fast as normal, and he could move as slow as a walk. Of course, his destination several miles away, he went full speed to the mountains.

Within twenty minutes, Dante was outside the large mountain-city. He moved behind a tree near the gates and exited the shadowy plane. Upon exiting, he took measure of the gate and walls of the city. From what he could tell, there seemed to be more guards stationed there.

‘Odd, it wasn’t so defended yesterday. Is something special happening here today?’

He loosened his shadowy wings and cast an invocation of invisibility upon himself. After that, he took flight, moving straight up and over to the wall. Truth be told, the wings aren’t even necessary right now with the other, slightly faster flight spell he has on himself. It’s good to have as a backup should his spell be removed. The wings themselves need not beat upon the air to move him either. They simply manipulate the magic around him, much like his spell, though instinct will tell him to move them anyway.

Once over the gate, Dante looks around for a place to perch. He finds a nice looking rooftop that looks to be part of a food establishment. It isn’t exactly close to the center of the city, but that didn’t matter much right now. Dante moves over to the roof to be greeted by the scent of freshly baked goods. These goods smelled similar to bread, but had a sweet scent to them. Gliding down to the window, he can see a pony behind a counter with a blonde coat and light brown mane. Atop his head is a white hat of sorts and around his front is a similarly colored shirt. Behind the pony is an array of circular pastries, some of which having colored dots, others with a crème covering, and some with both.

‘I don’t know what those pastries are, but I know I want one.’

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

The market area is much slower than it was yesterday. Most of the stalls have already been set up and are being run, but a few are still bare. One of these set up stalls belonged to a certain orange pony with a tan colored hat, who was currently organizing her wares. Iatril looks at Flurry and Raven and nods toward the cart. The trio then walked over to meet her.

“Hello, Applejack. How are you this morning?” Iatril ask in an almost peppy voice.

Applejack looked up from her apple foods and focused on Iatril. “Oh, good mornin’ Iatril. I’m mighty fine, thanks fer askin’. Who’s that tall pony next to you?”

“This is my friend, Flurry. Flurry, this is Applejack. She’s one of Fluttershy’s friends.”

Applejack sticks out her hoof to Flurry, who only gives a nod for a greeting. She slowly lowers her hoof with a quizzical expression on her face.

Iatril turns to her companion. “Flurry, be nice. So, Applejack,” she turns back to the farm pony, “have you seen Fluttershy today?”

“No, Ah haven’t, and Ah need to have word with you about her.” Applejack looks Iatril dead in the eye when she speaks next. “Ah don’t know what it is you’re trying to hide, but it had better not hurt Fluttershy.”

Iatril is taken aback by this. “Hurt Fluttershy? What are you talking about?”

“Yer hiding something. Something big. Ah can tell by how you talk.”

“Applejack, I would never hurt Fluttershy. She’s the first friend I made since coming here; my first actual friend I’ve made in years! You have my word I will bring no harm to her.”

Applejack looks Iatril over with scrutiny for a bit before speaking again. “Alright. But if anything happens to her—”

“It won’t.”

“Alright.” There’s silence for a minute before Applejack speaks up again. “Look, she’s one of mah best friends. Ah have to make sure she’ll be fine.”

Iatril looks at her with a smile. “I understand.” She raises her hoof towards Applejack. “No hard feelings?”

Applejack bumps Iatril’s hoof with her own. “No hard feelings. If you want, try checking by Fluttershy’s cottage. She should still be there this early in the day.”

“Thanks Applejack! I’ll see you around then.”

The trio turns to leave and heads off towards the edge of town, leaving Applejack to sell her wares. Applejack watches as the group rounds a building, disappearing from sight.

“Somethin’ is still off about those two.” She says aloud to herself. “But they seem harmless enough.”

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

The scene behind Fluttershy’s house was spectacular. There were so many different animals, from chickens and squirrels to eagles and bears. A group of song birds are singing above a chicken coop. Two raccoons are chasing each other around a small elm tree. A falcon is sitting on a wooden fence preening its feathers. In the center of these woodland creatures is the small, yellow pegasus, feeding some field mice.

“Hi Fluttershy!” Iatril yells as she and Flurry approach the fence, with Raven still perched on Flurry’s back.

Fluttershy jumps a little, letting out a small squeak. She turns to see the source of the voice.

“Oh, hello Iatril.” She says, giving a small smile.

‘That smile.’ Iatril thinks. ‘Such a beautiful smile. It’s been too long since I’ve seen anyone happy to see me, besides Dante. Well, I suppose it’s because I’m with Dante when they see me. He isn’t the first choice people have for seeing people.’

“Um, Iatril?” Fluttershy tilts her head to the side.

‘That is so adorable! Wait, did she just say something? Crap, she did!’

“Oh, uh, sorry about that. Oh! This is my friend, Flurry. Flurry, this is Fluttershy.”

The large, white coated unicorn bows his head. “Hello Miss Fluttershy.”

“H-Hello Flurry. It’s nice to meet you.”

“So, Fluttershy,” Iatril starts, “what would like to do today?”

“Oh, anything is fine with me.”

“Nonsense. You spent over two hours showing me around Ponyville. We should do something you want to do today.”

“Well, I could introduce you to Twilight and Rarity. That is, if you want to.” Fluttershy says, hiding a part of her face behind her long, pink mane.

‘That is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.’

“That sounds great, Fluttershy.”

“Good. Let me just finish feeding the animals and I’ll be ready to—”

Out of nowhere, a small, orange carrot smacks Iatril in the face. Immediately, Fluttershy, Iatril, and Flurry look over towards the cottage to see a small, white rabbit glaring daggers at them with its front paws crossed.

“Angel! That wasn’t very nice.” Fluttershy says in a motherly way. The white bunny just starts tapping one of its rear feet on the ground expectantly.

“He seems rather upset.” Iatril says, giving her assailant a glance.

“I’m so sorry about that. Angel’s just a little grumpy this morning.” This only earns Fluttershy a more intense glare from said bunny. “I’ll go see what he needs.” She says, trotting up to the cottage, leaving Flurry and Iatril alone with the animals.

All the animals just stare at the pair of ponies before them.

“What’s their problem?” Asks Flurry, a little worried about the horde of animals around them.

“Maybe they just don’t like white ponies.” Said Raven, earning a look from Flurry.

“They’re just shy. Let me talk to them.” Iatril replies. She steps forward and casts her spell. With a swirl of a hoof and a few nonsensical words, her spell is complete. She clears her throat then opens her mouth.

“Hello there. How are you all?” Iatril asks. Her words are nothing more than chirps and growls, but make perfect sense to the animals before her, which is evident from their reaction. The first to speak is one of the raccoons.

“How can you be talking to us?” It asks in a chipper voice.

“Magic!” Iatril exclaims with a chirp.

“I thought only ponies with horns could do magic.” Says the bear, slowly.

“I’m special. I can do magic too.”

“That’s because you aren’t really a pony.”

All eyes (except those of an oblivious Flurry) turned to the falcon perched on the fence.

“W-what do you mean? Of course I’m a pony” Iatril stammers out. The falcon just stares at her.

“No you aren’t. I saw you change your form in the forest before you went into town. You were some kind of weird, tailless monkey! And the white one was a large wolf!”

This elicits a round of gasps from the other animals.

“Flurry wouldn’t hurt any of you. Trust me! We feed him food we make ourselves with magic.”

“I saw you fighting with a pack of timberwolves yesterday.”

“They attacked us first! We had to defend ourselves.”

“True. Where did the unsettling one disappear to, hmmm? I saw him vanish into shadows before you left.”

“He just went off to look around the city on the mountains and…unsettling?”

“Yes. There is something…wrong…with him. He is like the weird dragon that changed everything once. It feels like he wants to attack everything around him.”

“I see. Well, there’s no reason to fear him either. At least for you. He takes no pleasure in attacking animals.”

“But what about the yellow one?”

This grabs the attention of every animal present. They all start talking at once, not giving Iatril the chance to understand even one of them. Iatril quickly grabs hold of the situation.

“Listen! Fluttershy is in no danger either. No one from this village is. Neither are the ponies in the mountains. We’ve only come to find one person and that’s it.”

“Who are you looking for?” Asks the bear.

“Someone from…where we’re from.”

“Why are you looking for them, huh, huh, huh?” Asks a very jittery squirrel.

“He…hurt us a long time ago, and we need to stop him from hurting other people too.”

“Awe, that doesn’t sound very nice. He doesn’t sound very nice. I bet he’s not nice at all! I hope you find him and make him stop being not nice!”

“Uh, thanks?”

Just then, Fluttershy steps out of her cottage and begins walking over.

“Oh!” Iatril whispers quietly to the animals. “Uh, please don’t let Fluttershy know I’m not a pony! I’ll make it up to all of you later, okay?”

All the animals quickly agree. Even the falcon does so, begrudgingly. They all then quickly scamper and fly away.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.” Fluttershy says meekly.

“Oh, no worries.” Iatril responds. “Ready then?”

“Yep!”

The three ponies and Raven head off towards the town.

“So,” Flurry whispers to Iatril, “what was with the animals?”

“I’ll explain later.” Iatril sighs.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

‘Donuts are the BEST thing ever created!’ Dante gushes over his pilfered pastries. For the past half hour, he’s done nothing but float around on the ceiling in the pastry shop and eat donuts when no one was looking. Of course, the universe decided to have pony after pony enter the shop and order something, making it difficult to lift a donut without one of them noticing. A round bit of cooked dough floating in the air isn’t that subtle.

After his twelfth donut, Dante had contented himself to listening in on the conversations the ponies had with each other. Most of said conversations were small talk with the baker about the weather or various tedious events happening in the city. Dante was about to follow the last pony out as he was leaving, but then a pair of guards clad in shining, golden armor enter the shop.

“Morning, gentlecolts!” The one called ‘Pony Joe’ says to the guards. “What can I get for you two this morning?”

“We’ll have the usual, Joe.” Replies one of the guards.

“Coming right up.” Joe grabs a bag with his mouth and selects a few donuts to put in it. He looks around for a moment, and then says “So, I can’t help but notice the extra guards around the city. Something happen?”

This time, the other guard speaks up. “We can’t say much about it. Or, rather, we don’t know much about it. I heard through the grape vine that Princess Celestia herself had Captain Shining Armor order extra shifts for the guards. I don’t know why, though.”

The other guard perks up after hearing this. “I heard there was some strange creature roaming around near Canterlot. The other guards I’ve talked to think it wants to free Discord!”

“Hey now, don’t go spreading rumors like that around! We’re also supposed to keep ponies calm about this. You won’t say anything, will you Joe?” They both look at Joe expectantly.

“Of course not. I don’t spread rumors; I just listen in on them.”

“Thanks Joe.” One of the guards hands…hoofs over a few bits and collects the bag of goods. “We’ll see you around.”

As the guards exit the shop, Dante swiftly glides above them through the door and up into the air.

‘Hmmm. Captain Shining Armor. Well, I’d say some parents just don’t know how to name their children, but, then again, elves have pretty interesting names too. I mean, “Iatril” literally translated means “Day-Dancer,” so I guess I can’t complain too much. Personal identification aside, this is interesting. I didn’t think someone could detect powerful life forms at such a distance. Now, the real question is, was Aselith the one detected, or was it me? Or both? Well, I suppose the easiest way to find out is straight from the horse’s mouth, and I feel just spectacular being able to say that literally.’

He heads off towards the palace, a plan slowly forming in his mind. All of a sudden, he stops midflight.

‘Wait, wait, wait! If I’m going to break into a royal palace and reveal myself, I’m not going to be half-assed about it. I’m going to do it right. I’m talking about shifting my form into a grotesque monstrosity with tentacles and a bunch of eyes and mouths and…and I think I know what I’m going to look like.'

He quickly flies out of the city to a nearby lake. After quickly looking around for wary eyes, Dante undoes his invisibility and walks over to the lake. In it, he can see his reflection as clear as in a mirror.

“Let’s have a little fun.”

END CHAPTER

Author's Note

Well, here's the next chapter. I'll be honest, I held onto this for the week just to make sure I wouldn't have a huge gap in between published chapters, though that is probably going to happen eventually anyways.

One thought I was playing around with was making a game out of knowing what spells were cast in each chapter and posting the winner in the Author's Notes section, and the winner would get...I don't know. An imaginary cookie or something. Maybe use a story twist or something they want to see, or include some kind of joke or real world reference they like. I don't know, so I'll throw the idea around in my head some more and come up with something later.

Since the holidays are upon us, the next chapter may be out a little later than a week, but probably not by much. For now, have a happy nondenominational-gift-giving-holiday everypony!