"Whoa," Rainbow Dash marveled at the tales of the four standing in front of her and the other Elements of Harmony. "That's some hardcore stuff."

"Ah'll say," Applejack agreed.

"So, all you guys do is hunt monsters? And you've been in the Canterlot cave system for years?"

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle," the princess of the night answered, standing gracefully next to the teams. "Headcase informed my sister and me of this situation, and, after some time, we organized a program specifically designed for this very unique dilemma. The Canterlot caves were reopened and re-purposed into a... prison, if you will, for the captured anomalies."

They all stood around in a large room, the main entrance of the large facility that stretched miles below the surface.

"Why do you have to lock them up? Can't you just ask 'em to stop being so meany-smashy-breaky?" Pinkie Pie asked with a childish optimism. That optimism was disregarded by Headcase, who stepped in with his angsty demeanor.

"Contrary to popular belief, one does not simply 'giggle at the ghosties.'"

Pinkie was disturbed by his pessimistic attitude, but still thought one could fix all issues with a pinch of laughter.

"So... why did you bring us here, again?" Fluttershy asked.

"Since you all have a relatively high standing, as well as recent incidences including Applejack and Twilight, Celestia and I decided to let you know about the organization. Perhaps, you might be able to help in our endeavors, should you so choose."

"But of course, if you're going to be in on our little secret, we have to give you..." Grey made a broad gesture with his arms, "THE GRAND TOUR!!"

The facility was enormous, and teeming with energy. Ponies wandered all about the place in their gray and blue uniforms, guarding entryways, transporting items, or just taking up space. The floors were smooth and lit up where they met the walls, giving a peculiar lighting effect. Some parts of the structure were still under construction, with some halls being excavated out of the stone and built as the group walked past.

They soon entered a massive hub full of maps and papers and boxes with ponies handling everything left and right.

"This is the anomaly-recording room. Reports of sightings and encounters are recorded here, where these guys look over them for, like, patterns, and stuff..." Grey said unprofessionally. He had never had to give a tour before, but he demanded to be the guide, nonetheless. Silver Lining offered, but he shot her down with a bloodthirsty glare.

A massive table rested in the center of the room, and on it was a raised map of the entire country with all the landmarks in full color, as if created by a master craftsman. A handful of ponies were standing around it, touching the map with their hooves and sending small ripples of light across the false landscape.

"Ooh... What is this room?" asked Rarity.

"That, my marshmallow-colored friend, is our continental anomaly-monitor. Whenever a creature pops up," He gestured across the map, igniting a series of red flashing dots within the image of the mountain sustaining Canterlot. They stretched down the whole length of the miniaturized mountain.

"Wait, are all those dots..."

"Beasts? Yes. Yes they are. Approximately one hundred and thirty-seven. All under our feet. One-thirty-seven."

A visible shiver went through the six young women as Grey chuckled.

"Oh, don't freak out; they're all locked up tight. And besides, only four-fifths of them are dangerous."

As soon as the elevator door opened, the sounds of roaring and snarling and hissing most foul entered their ears. Some of them receded in surprise and fear. Grey waltzed into the open expanse of the hallway lined with the barred cells of different sizes, containing untold horrors beyond their imagination.

The six mares walked cautiously into the corridor, and Twilight carefully peered into the cell nearest to her. All she saw was blackness, due to a dead light-bulb, but a pair of green eyes opened in the corner, disturbing her. But what was more offsetting was that two more pairs of eyes opened above and below the first, making her back up uneasily.

"Is it really... safe to have all these things down here, in one place?" she asked.

"Trust us," Headcase said. "Each cell is imbued with a spell specifically designed to contain its respective captive. There's no way any of these are getting out unless I let them, personally."

"What if another unicorn learned how to deactivate the spells? One more powerful than you?"

Silver Lining chimed in, "I doubt that there's another unicorn better with magic than this guy." She then looked to the princess standing a few feet away with a strange look on her face. "I mean, except for you, Princess Luna. And Celestia... and Cadence... and, you too, Twilight..." she drifted off quietly in embarrassment.

"And besides, even if they did get out, the soldiers here are trained by the top combat forces available," said Grey. "That includes the toughest guy in the world, right here!" He wrapped an arm around Zen. "All that kung-fu tai-chi biz, and former member of the royal guard to boot!"

"So wait;" Rainbow Dash interrupted, "How many floors of these cages are there, exactly?"

Grey looked up and rubbed his chin, muttering numbers to himself and making vague gestures with his claws. "I guess I'd have to say... somewhere around thirteen. But don't worry; like we said, there's no way anything's getting out on our watch. We've got guards on duty 24-7-365. And even if something were to get past them, they've got us to deal with. And we have all sworn an oath to Equestria itself to protect and serve!" He clutched a fist close to his chest and raised his chin to the sky.

"Dude, that's the police. That's not our oath," Silver said.

"Oh. Then... What's our oath?"

"We don't have an oath, dude."

"We don't? Crap. We should. Headcase, how's about we come up with-"

"No."

The tour moved down to the very bottom level of the "lair," as Grey liked to call it. Headcase wasn't comfortable letting the Elements of Harmony this deep into the facility. This floor was the most highly guarded, and Headcase was the only one who went down there anyway, save for a small cleaning crew every two weeks. He felt like it was his floor; it was special to him, and he was uneasy with so many others with him down there.

"Your highness, with all due respect, I don't think this part of the 'tour' is mandatory, and I'm not very comfortable letting them all down here." Headcase said to Luna, pulling off to the side.

"I understand, Headcase, but I feel they should know where it is in case of a unique situation. And Celestia thought they would be more apt to join us if they knew more of the facility; they would be more comfortable feeling that there are few secrets kept from them."

Headcase sighed and lowered his head, understanding her and her sister's reasoning. He stayed behind while the group continued on down a flight of stairs towards a heavy steel door that was three feet thick, sixty feet high, and magically as well as digitally encoded (Grey developed a type of high-tech console with a number pad that he hoped to patent and market across Equestria as a new type of security system).

"That's the biggest door I've ever seen!" Pinkie shouted, letting an echo bounce around the room.

"What could be behind there?" Twilight muttered. Grey got really close to her and whispered in her ear.

"What's beyond that door... is the most dangerous creature we have captured in all our years. It's a massive behemoth with claws like machetes, and teeth like axe blades... It destroyed a dozen towns before we could capture it, and we lost a great number of our men. It was a tragic day in Equestria..."

The faces of the six went completely pale and a few began to tremble noticeably, though the members of the N.E.C.C.B. team smirked and chuckled.

Grey turned around and punched in a few numbers on the console, and a loud sliding and banging of metal was heard from behind the door.

"You know, I should really be home to check on Sweetie Belle," said Rarity, hoping that would be a valid excuse to leave.

Grey nodded to Headcase, to which he lit up the wall with a blue aura, and another loud clatter was heard as the door creaked open a sliver. At this point, Fluttershy was making her way back to the elevator when Grey slowly heaved the door open all the way, showing a large, circular chamber with ominous lighting coming from a ring of dots in the floor, and a narrow spire falling down upon a single marble pedestal in the center with vague, separated objects resting on top of it. The walls had ambiguous outlines of bipedal forms on the walls with hulking, top-heavy bodies.

"Just kidding," Grey said.

"What's in here?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"The most heavily guarded room in Equestria," Headcase answered.

"It looks just like any old room to me; what makes it so special?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Headcase shot her a strange look. "Try to reach that pedestal."

She hesitated a moment, then her hubris got the best of her and she took a step into the room. Nothing happened. Another step. Nothing. She soon went into a slow but strong trot towards the beam of light, when sets of blue eyes opened all across the walls and cast their gaze down on her. The bipedal outlines were looking at her now, and there was a rumbling as, one by one, each broke free of the wall, and slowly but menacingly shuffled towards her. Their bodies were made of large hunks of rock, not all connected, but held together with a magical blue flame that coursed through their bodies like blood. She was surrounded by several of these stone giants with massive hands and top-heavy bodies prepared to smash her to bits before she could touch the pedestal.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!" she screamed.

Headcase shot little beams of light from his horn into the foreheads of each one, and they began to recede back into their holding places within the wall. He entered the room and looked at Dash's terrified face and said, with a tone that just dripped with sarcasm, "Told you so."

"What were those things?!" she asked.

"They're called Golems. Usually they're found in the wild, but I found a way to create some of my own with my magic, and I figured they would fit best as the world's biggest bouncers for our base."

"What is it exactly that they do here?" asked Twilight, no longer worried for her friend's safety.

Headcase looked at her, then at the pedestal. He didn't answer, but instead walked over to it and looked at its contents longingly. The others sort of gently walked in, sensing his seriousness and hinting at the importance of the things before him. They all looked in silence at what they now knew were the fragments of an old book sitting in front of them. They rested in softly carved-out ruts within the marble to hold each item well; there was the front cover, spine, and back cover, but there were two more beds in the marble to hold something that was not there.

"What are those ruts for?" asked Rarity.

Headcase paused and exhaled a sigh. "These are the fragments of the book that started all of this."

A pregnant silence was upon them now.

"When they were scattered, we knew we had to bring them back together. It was the only way to return all of these... beasts to where they wouldn't cause harm. If all the pieces are united, they will absorb them all back inside, and this will all be over, but we're still missing one piece. In total, there is the spine, the covers," he took off the silver key around his neck and placed it in its respective bed, "the key... and the lock."

All of them looked at the indentation where the lock would go.

"But, let's worry about that some other time. Tonight we should be... having fun," he said hesitantly, forcing a smile.

Grey's eyes widened and he slapped his forehead. "OH CRAP! I totally forgot tonight was Nightmare Night!!"

They all walked down the dirt path to the train station as Canterlot got smaller behind them. Headcase, Silver, Grey and Zen were in their go-to costumes for celebrating Nightmare Night. Headcase posed as a zombie pirate, Silver a seductive vampiress, Zen as a boxer, and Grey as his favorite character from My Little Alchemist, Edward.

The six Elements of Harmony took a personal chariot back to Ponyville with Princess Luna, but the four decided to take the train. They were all the type to take the scenic route. They didn't celebrate Nightmare Night for the sake of eating candy or socializing with others; they just liked to get away from the stress of their day job and take time to be friends instead of co-workers.

Along the way they saw a peddler in a cloak and mask walking the opposite way towards them. Grey, being a bit of a shopaholic, inquired about the sellers wares, but was turned down when told that his saddlebags were empty. He was hoping to get some supplies for a new device he was working on.

They heard the train off in the distance, and hurried him back with the group and to stop bothering the poor salespony.

The train ride was quiet; few ponies would be using it at this hour, and arrived in Ponyville quickly. They ran back into the six there outside of Sugarcube Corner, and were met with pleasant greetings.

They all made merry and gallivanted around, admiring the festivities and costumes of others, but Headcase couldn't shake this feeling he had in the back of his skull, like a pressure on his brain.

"You feelin' all right?" asked Grey, sipping from his mug of cider.

"Huh? Yeah, I just... feel strange..."

"Well, you know what'll make you feel better?" Grey asked with a broad smirk.

Headcase dreaded the answer. "What?"

"Smashing mailboxes!"

"Grey, I don't think that's legal here. Or... anywhere, for that matter."

"Well, there's always Plan B: bobbing for apples!" He yanked a barrel full of water and apples out of nowhere and thrust Headcase's face into it without giving him a chance to react. He gurgled a bit, then pulled his head up violently out of the water, letting it spew out of his nostrils and coughing. He wiped his eyes, and spotted a pony across the street in a ghost costume made of a white sheet and some light chains.

The pressure in his skull grew to a vicious vibration as he looked at the child in the ghost sheet, and he was compelled to go toward her. He had no idea why, but he just knew that the closer he got, the greater the feeling was. Now he was looming over the little girl, and she was uneasy at this weirdo in the pirate costume giving her a vacant stare.

He looked at the chains, and noticed that there were a few padlocks sprinkled here and there for a better "ghost" feel. The instant his eyes fell upon one in particular sitting on her back. It was attached to a rectangular frame that it was meant to hold together, and the vibration became a rumbling burn. He lifted it up and looked the now frightened little girl in the eyes.

"Where did you find this? Please, tell me where you found this lock..."

She cried for her mother, and Headcase severed the chain holding it and retreated, knowing that no good could come of a protective mother.

"Dude, why'd you freak out that little girl?" Silver asked, joined by Zen now.

Headcase looked at the padlocked frame with unbridled happiness and shock at the same time. He looked at his comrades with a smile and shook the metal thing in front of them. Wordlessly, they all understood what this was:

The last piece of the book.

They all sprinted up the dirt path to the secret entrance to the caves, and passed that peddler, again going in the opposite direction. Headcase could have teleported them all, and Silver could have flown up on her own, but he wanted them all to enjoy and savor the moment together.

The doorway they entered wasn't deep enough in the base to bypass all the other floors and go straight to the book, so they had to walk a few floors to reach the elevator, but they didn't make it but a few steps past the entrance to be halted by the sight before them.

Soldiers lay on the ground, scattered and with their uniforms ripped. The walls and equipment were destroyed, indicated by a range of marks from gashes to bite marks to brute-force annihilation. Claw marks were peppered on the walls and floors, and various fires were being weakly put out by the broken automatic sprinkler system. All the maps and weapons were in pieces, and sirens blared at intervals corresponding to the flashing red and yellow lights.

"Oh my god..." was all that could escape Grey's scaly lips, and Silver rushed to the aid of a trooper being pinned beneath a large ventilation shaft that had been ripped from the wall. Zen followed her lead and went to help other troops who had been injured; Grey fell to his knees and stared at the carnage. He had designed and built most of this equipment himself; he made the blueprints for this entire room and practically everything in it. He was crushed to see it all lying in pieces in front of him.

"Wait... oh god..." a viciously dreadful thought tore through Headcase's mind, driving him to teleport to the elevator shaft on the other side of the room, only to find the large metal box damaged and stuck diagonally in the shaft.

"Dammit!" He set the machine on fire, making the scratched and bent metal soft and malleable. He incinerated the thing in seconds, sending chunks of melted steel down the dark shaft to splatter at the bottom. When it was cleared, he dove through and fell like a comet, his skin being licked by tongues of blue flames. He landed in the open doorway of one of the prison floors a few hundred feet down, and saw steel bars and metal and stone lying in twisted and mangled heaps on the cracked and cratered linoleum floor. Each and every one of the captured beasts that filled those open cages was out there somewhere in Equestria, wreaking havoc and needing to be captured all over again. Almost pushed over the edge, he took back to the shaft; the walls sizzled behind him until he landed at the bottom in a blaze of fury and hysteria. He made it to the steel vault door protecting that which was so precious to him. It had been ripped off of its hinges and implanted in the stone walls as a feat of some beast's impossible strength. The massive round chamber was riddled with chunks of stone in sizes ranging from pebbles to massive boulders. the head of one of his stone golems stared at him from the floor as he walked inside, mortified at what he saw.

"...No..."

The marble podium lay on its side, broken at the base.

"...No..."

He walked closer to it, and examined the head of the podium from a distance.

"...No..."

The fragments were gone.

"NOOO!!"

His mind raced with all the horrid thoughts about what could have happened, who or what could have done this, and why they felt the need to steal from him the only thing that gave him purpose in life, and he remembered the peddler on the street.

When he and his comrades had returned, the vendor's bags were full, though they had been empty when Grey had confronted him. What's more, he considered the dirt road they had been on to get to the train station and back: it didn't lead to anything but the train station... and the secret entrance...

The hooded, masked stranger walked down the dirt path quietly and slowly, toting the saddlebags containing his precious cargo. the blood red mask hid the almost imperceptible smirk at a job well done. His tall, dark companion walked alongside in the shadows, unseen and unheard by anyone else.

Suddenly, he heard the clopping of hooves, flutter of wings, and patter of scaled feet erupting from behind him.

"Look, they've found us..." he said in a sing-song tone.

"Stop!!" cried Silver.

A blue fireball whizzed past his head--a warning shot--and struck a defenseless tree nearby, prompting him to turn around and face his pursuers, who skidded to a halt before him.

"We know what you have, and we want it back," hissed (quite literally) Grey as he extended his electric baton.

"Why, I don't know what you--"

"Shut up! Give back what you stole!" interrupted Headcase, brandishing his sword angrily as it burned.

The Stranger didn't hesitate to hold the book fragments and dangle them in front of the four, and then immediately put them back in the bag.

"You don't have any idea what you're doing with those..." Silver warned.

"I think you'd be surprised at what I know about this book, Silver, the dropout..." His voice had a metallic, cold vibration in it, as if the red mask had a voice-altering mouthpiece. "And, Zen, gotten over your temper, I see. Grey! Still going by your last name because you hate being called 'Madison?'"

This complete stranger was revealing very personal secrets about them, making them uneasy and mad at the same time.

"How do you know about us?" Zen asked, implicating his meditation techniques to remain under control.

The stranger silenced him with a quick 'Shh!' and looked Headcase in the eyes.

"... And I could never forget about you, Headcase; this book means a lot to you, I know, and I truly am sorry. You know as well as anyone that sometimes one has to do things they don't want to for a greater cause; you sacrificed your happiness to live this life of hunting and danger, and I must..." his tone shifted from mocking to almost genuinely sympathetic, and in a whisper, he said, almost with the volume with which a mosquito flaps its wings, "... you have no idea what I have to do..."

He picked up his mood to its previous state, and smirked again.

"Who are you?" asked Headcase.

The smirk was sustained, but still hidden. "Frankly, I don't care what you call me; Stranger, Peddler, The Bad Guy, Ricky, but... I suppose, Headcase, you could certainly call me a monster..."

"Why's that?" he asked, taking the obvious bait.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it? I am the reason you lost Screwball after all..."

The masked enemy turned to leave as if the encounter was over, even though to Headcase it had just begun. All the surprise and angst coupled with his personal vendetta rose to the top of his mind, and he visibly shook with impetuous rage. He charged 'Ricky' with his blade bathed in flames, when he saw a previously-hidden figure step out into the open. This new character was tall, pale, and unhealthily thin.

He wore a black suit, and had no face.

Author's Note

I wrote this before the Twilicorn scenario, (before season 3 in general) and am just now putting this stuff up, and all of this takes place after season 2, so that's why she doesn't have wings and shtuff. Just clarifying.