Sombra's Return

by Brawny Steed

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Other, Original Character, Spike, King Sombra, Horror, Adventure
Length: 49891

Sombra has returned and he is bent on taking revenge for what happened at the Crystal Empire.

King Sombra has returned from his broken state he was left in, and he has taken control of several ponies in order to rise up against the Princess. Driving the whole world to the brink of open conflict, he is bent on revenge for the events at up north at the Empire.

The Mane 6 strive to stop him in order to ensure the success of a peace conference, the last resort to avoid war at their expense. It's particularly bothersome when Sombra has stolen the one thing needed for the conference to be a success.

Published 2013-01-14 14:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2014-07-23 15:48:04 UTC

It begins...

A month ago...

A small horn, red and bent backward, lay in the midst of the blistering blizzard, broken off from its full body. Ever since he lost to those free ponies from the south and most of his body crystallised and destroyed, he had been lying there. His own power had enough energy to keep him alive and that was good enough for him. But to be ridiculed and reduced to just his horn, to lie in the snow while blizzards would rage on and on around him, as they lived out their peaceful lives in blissful ignorance, harmony, peace and freedom?

He would not stand for that. He could live with the cold but not with the ponies being free. Not while he was still alive.

But if he ventured south in force, they'd be prepared for him. They had the princesses, curse them both, ready to send him away from Equestria forever. They would not even let him find rest in the neighbouring realms. Saddle Arabia would not have him. The Griffin Kingdom preferred to eat ponies and whilst it's doubtful he'd make a fine meal for them, doing so would make the world a better place. Tarandroland, the land of the reindeer, would have his head on a pike within the month or tossed out to the Skolls.

No, he had to stay in Equestria. Ironically, it was safest for him there.

Hour became day. Day became week. He gathered energy to himself, hoping to gain enough to be movable again. His fuel which kept him going was his hatred for the free ponies, and that little baby dragon. Oooh, how that little vermin had sabotaged everything for him. He would pay back a thousandfold for this turn of events.

The others weren't so important to him, save one. The one known as Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn who deciphered his plans, who tore past his defences of the Crystal Heart, who gave that dragon a chance to save those who were actually slaves to Him! The two would have a very unpleasant time ahead of themselves for their actions.

The pink princess who now guided His slaves? Oh, she'd be under the protection of her aunts. She'd be best left alone... for now.

But first, he needed to figure out how to deal with them all. He needed power to match the princesses. He needed power to hold his own against anypony else. He needed... a new body. And then the thought occurred to him. He found a course to use. One he was not afraid to use.

As soon as he was able, for the first time in his life after being released from the ice, he gave a cruel and viciously loud laugh. It was lost in the howling of the blizzard that came and swept over him.

He would not have it any other way.

Present day

Trixie was travelling north. Having used what money she had left, she had bought herself a new wagon (with wheels, this time) and items to help her in her stage performance. Having been made fun of in the south of Equestria, she sought to help improve her chances and build a new reputation up in the Crystal Empire. She was going to charge cheaply this time and make performances to impress the spelless crystal ponies. But she did want to learn how to gain their wonderful glittering coat.That would make her very popular down south.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason she went north. She wanted to make a reputation as a whole new kind of magician, not as the Greatest in all of Equestria, but more as the Kind and Impressive unicorn. The Empire was perfect. They were not aware of her story and the incidents with the Ursa Minor and Ponyville. She'd be able to make a new life there. And if possible, maybe she'd become more than that in time. As soon as she could.

She did have a companion this time. An earth pony smith by the name of Steel Beard went up there with her, by request of Lord Shining Armor, he added, to help make more weapons and armor for the crystal ponies. The reason being, that there was news of changeling activity and diamond dogs about further south and griffin bandits making raids were getting increasingly relevant across Equestria. And everypony who was able and willing had a responsibility to help protect their nation. Steel Beard had said that it was a request and not an order and he obliged mainly due to the big pay check that soon followed.

They arrived at the station about an hour later, mostly due to the rails getting frozen and making it too slippery for the train to keep going fast. Her wagon was unloaded quickly and they were on their way to the Empire. And then the blizzard kicked up again. It howled greatly this time, worse than when Trixie was on the train. Blizzards were common up in the Crystal Mountains, and statistics did speak of them being more of a nuisance than a threat, but this was getting a little much.

“It'll pass over in a few minutes, no worries,” Steel Beard assured her whilst they were taking shelter inside the wagon to be out of the snow.

“Trixie is just glad that we got inside fast enough,” she replied. She knew for a fact that they were two completely professional ponies and they didn't have any urges toward one another.

“No worries,” he repeated. “The worst that could happen would be getting frosty throats. And even then, it's not something that some hot cocoa can't fix.”

He could not have made a bigger hint than that.

Then something slammed right into the wagon. The two were knocked about and due to some force that was really in a good mood for some personal amusement, the two of them ended up in at least three intimate poses that could be interpreted as something out of a certain book.

“Arg!” both cried and got away from each other as quickly as they could, but then the window got torn out.

“Oh for- they said it was wind-resistant!” Trixie cried in annoyance.

“I'll get it,” Steel Beard said and went out there, being quick in opening and closing the door. Trixie was left alone in the wagon, using her telekinesis to block out the wind and snow from the inside of the wagon.

Didn't take long for a girly scream to happen outside. Huh. Never took him for one of those.

Then something slammed into the wagon again and upset her concentration. She worked hard on keeping out the snow with her magic, but the slams kept coming.. As if something was out there. Where was Steel Beard?! He wouldn't have made a dash for the Empire on his own, would he?

Her own confidence grew short as she saw something huge and black out there. She dared not go out for her window if Steel Beard really had abandoned her to save his own coat. But she steeled herself – no pun intended at all! - and prepared to scare away whatever it was. “Come then! You know not whom you deal with. I am the Great and Powerful Trixie! And Trixie is not afraid of you!”

In answer to that, the whole wagon went dark with all the lights blocked out. And through the window, appeared a pair of green glowing eyes with red irises. They narrowed down on her.

"You should be."

Two weeks later, the newspapers were going berserk with the news of changeling attacks and dog raids on larger pony settlements. The Griffin Kingdom claimed innocence and it was to a point, true. The raids committed by their kin were made by bandits with no proper funding to support their weapons and armour.

Ponyville was unaffected, so far, but with a clan of diamond dogs so close by, most ponies that read the news were concerned about when they were next.

Of course, most ponies didn't realize that the dogs were staying away from Ponyville simply because they were scared of Rarity and her whining and crying.

Twilight Sparkle had had her trials as well. Since the news broke out of potential attacks by outsiders, Princess Celestia had sent her a book from a restricted section of the Canterlot Royal Library - a book about combat spells. It didn’t take long for Twilight to determine what it was Celestia was assigning her for.

Twilight was dubious and hesitant at first about learning advanced combat magic, primarily due to her being taught by Celestia that she should avoid using her magic to hurt others but after the run-in with Chrysalis at the wedding in Canterlot, she saw the need.

Celestia and Luna also saw about refitting a new military outlook for the ponies. Due to the need for soldiers required throughout the nation, they had sent trainers across Equestria for the sake of training militia in the towns.

War was awful business and for over a thousand years, Celestia had striven to prevent conflict for the sake of her subjects and for harmony. But as things were turning out, despite her excellent methods and machinations, something equal was opposing her to ensure the outbreak of conflict.

At the very least, the Windigoes had seemed content to not return with their eternal winter.

To make matters worse, Prince Romance, the ambassador to the Griffin Kingdom, and Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard had gone missing. The former had gone to Baltimare to charter a ship across the sea in order to get to the griffins and request volunteer soldiers for further protection of Equestria. He never arrived at the port. Shining Armor had gone up north to review the Crystal Empire's portion of troops. They had heard almost nothing from Steel Beard and the need was too great to ignore him going missing.

That was not half of it. Several others had gone missing, too. Rainbow Dash was shocked to read in the news that a retired member of the Wonderbolts, Tempest, was one of them. Others included a doctor and a thieving pegasus.

Their disappearances wasn’t getting as much coverage by most newspapers due to the events that suggested griffin activity and some of them were putting the blame on the Kingdom. King Aeris was not happy with being blamed about mounting up for war against Equestria and expressed this to Celestia. The newspapers dropped that issue shortly afterwards.

Down in Ponyville, specifically on a small clear field at Sweet Apple Acres, a small squad of the Royal Guard was leading quick drills for anypony who went to them. Most didn't want to, so they were pretty much on their own. Twilight was there at least, practicing her new spells. She was only content with learning one so far, but it was good.

“I don't get it, though,” Spike pondered aloud for them to hear, “if we are going to be at war, why don't Princess Celestia and Princess Luna drive them back like they did with Discord?”

“Because,” Twilight answered, “from what military reports that come through to us tells us, these attacks are crawling up nearly everywhere. And the princesses cannot be everywhere at the same time.”

“But they can be at two different places, so they can handle two situations at the same time and then move on to the next two,” he countered.

The staff sergeant countered that one. “The princesses has stayed together since Princess Luna returned and Princess Celestia is not willing to lose her sister again. Anything can happen out there.”

“So, that is why we need to be out here practising,” Twilight stated as if to put an end to the discussion. “Now, I'm gonna do it.” She flared up her horn and the guard readied themselves. An identical number of purple, glowing figures, similar to ponies in heavy barding, flashed up. Almost immediately, they flew straight at the Guard.

“Hi, Twilight!” Pinkie interrupted the latter's concentration and the figures disappeared in a heap of smoke. The guards were not pleased, save one who looked relieved when nopony was looking in his direction.

“Hi, Pinkie,” Twilight scowled.

“That was fun! Real fun, like how you used your magic to juggle Fluttershy's animals when the delegates from Saddle Arabia were here, or when we were chased by that hydra from Froggy Bottom Bog and you finally admitted my Pinkie Sense made sense despite it not being scientifically possible as you put it. Or-”

“What,” said one or two of the guards. It came off as stereo.

“Oh, hi guys,” said Pinkie once she saw them.

“So, Pinkie,” Twilight said. “Did the Cakes give you the afternoon off?”

“Yep! And with that letter from Princess Celestia asking us to have these exercises out here in case of something, I came here. Not sure how I need them, though. I mean I get enough exercise out of having parties and fun and I'm okay with that and everypony else who goes to my parties has lots of fun while stretching their legs.”

A small snort escaped the staff sergeant and he hid it quickly with pretending to cough. “I'm sorry to object, but I fail to see how parties can compare to our strict training exercise.”

A few blinks and then Pinkie simply beamed at them. “Okay, I'll just show you colts. Follow my lead!” The soldiers snickered amongst themselves and agreed, if only for the sake of being polite.

Some time later, Pinkie bounced away, humming while the soldiers lay on their backs, exhausted confused as to what happened just then. The staff sergeant had lost his lower jaw in the process of watching.

Twilight merely shrugged and Spike laughed. “Say, Pinkie, have you heard anything from Rainbow Dash? After we got our notices?”

“Sure. I’ve been getting letters all the time now from Rainbow and she's having a good time at the Wonderbolt Academy. Been almost thinking of attending myself, till I remember I don't have wings. Then I remember that you can cast a spell to give a pony wings like you did with Rarity, but those weren't very sturdy so I was thinking maybe you can make mechanical wings and- oh, never mind, Applebloom doesn’t have a cutie mark in engineering.”

Spike blinked. “I have no idea what you were talking about just then.”

As a matter of fact, all six of them (plus Spike) had gotten notices and naturally they had talked about it. Rarity wasn't much of a willing combatant and had voiced this to certain ponies, but she made up for it with a certain branch of logistics. The result was that large bolts of cloth and needed antiseptics were shipped to her boutique so she could convert them into gauze.

While Rarity did pick up self-defense classes again, should anything cause the breakout of war in Equestria, Celestia wanted her powerbase to be in an endless supply of resources to keep the soldiers alive for as long as possible.

Fluttershy had asked to keep out of it all, but the others (mainly Rainbow Dash before she went full-time to the Academy) managed to guilt-trip her enough to attend self-defense lessons together with Rarity. She was kept up in thinking that she would have to go into battle herself and it was still downhill from there.

Rainbow Dash had gone full time to the Academy and was said to be under personal training by Spitfire and Soarin'. Talk had already preceded the crisis in that Rainbow was the next coming star of the 'Bolts and this turn of events would just be enough to let her join full-time.

Applejack was well known enough as an athlete that she only needed to know basics of combat moves. First day the squad arrived, she showed them the area where they could practice. When told about combat practice, she volunteered and promptly got her flanks handed to her in the first practice bout. About an hour later, the tables had turned and they decided AJ was good to go.

Pinkie, while not thrilled to learn how to fight when she could learn new party tricks instead, accepted the new directive (not her choice of words), though she didn’t attend self-defense lessons. Spike wasn’t outfitted with anything yet, but Twilight was informed of spells in her new book that could enhance an individual’s physical abilities. As soon as he found out, Spike wanted to be the subject of those tests.

“Well, that was great to hear, Pinkie,” Twilight told her. “But I need to practice the spells Princess Celestia gave me to work on and-”

“Oh! You can use me as a test subject, Twilight.” Pinkie just beamed at her. “You need to practice, I got time off and...” she took a look at the soldiers and the staff sergeant. “They're taking a break. So I’m good to go.”

“What about me?” Spike asked. Almost immediately, he remembered how well the first spell had gone and regretted opening his mouth.

“Sorry, Spike, but I’m keeping you from the aggressive ones in this book and you did ask to be a subject more on the ones that increases your physical capacities.” Twilight turned to Pinkie. “Are you sure about being a test subject, Pinkie?”

“I’ll be fine,” Pinkie replied with a waving hoof. “We always turn out fine, there’s no reason for our good train to start crashing now.” Then she gasped all of a sudden. “Uh oh. I just said that. Now there’s a train somewhere that’s bound to crash somewhere in Equestria and it’s my FAULT!”

Twilight blinked. “Pinkie, trains don’t crash just because some random pony says a funny metaphor that used trains.”

“Give it time,” Pinkie warned. Twilight groaned.

“Are you certain you want to be a test subject for these spells?”

“Yes,” Pinkie replied.

“Good!” Before Twilight could continue, Spike gurgled and belched out a scroll bearing the royal seal. The lavender pony ignored her pink friend for the moment and read the scroll. “The princess wants to see us all,” she stated. “Go fetch the others.”

“Okie dokie.” Pinkie commenced bouncing back to town.

“Quicker than that, Pinkie!”

…

“Thank you for coming,” Celestia spoke softly when they arrived in the throne room. Rainbow Dash was already there waiting for them.

“Hey, guys,” she crammed in to greet them. They answered with a nod to let the princess continue.

“I do hope that I was not intruding much when I summoned you to Canterlot,” she finished.

“No, Princess,” Twilight answered for the group. “You did say that it was urgent.”

“So what's goin' on, this time?” Applejack wondered. “Discord escapin’ again?”

“No, thankfully, that has yet to happen with all the commotion,” Celestia replied. “But I called you here for another reason altogether.

“You already know that there are outbreaks of skirmishes and raids by diamond dogs across Equestria and the changelings are streaming out of the southern badlands.”

“Pft,” Spike snorted. “Easy. We could drive them back before, we can do so again.”

“Not this time, Spike,” Celestia sternly told him. “Something is driving these things. Diamond dogs and changelings do not work together at any given time, so for them to attack my subjects at the same time is unprecedented. While it is beneficial for them both, I doubt they met in secret and forged some alliance.”

“So, why are we here?”

Celestia had a glance over the windows of the hall, each recording a significant event of Equestria, most of which were very recent thanks to her student and her friends. “To prevent war, a peace conference has been called and all the leaders of the different nations have been asked to come here.”

“You mean we get to see Vigg again?” Spike asked excitedly.

Celestia chuckled. “Young Prince Vigg has replied and he is eager to come here. But the reason you are here is because they all want proof that peace can be maintained: They want to see the Elements of Harmony and our esteemed heroes.”

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy said. “You mean they asked for us? Specifically?”

“Yes, Fluttershy. The griffins, the reindeer, the perytons, even the Changeling Queen wished to see you and the Elements.”

“WHAT!?” They all cried together.

“But the changelings are among those who attack Equestria!”

“Them crazy varmints drain love from everyone!”

“The black snooties steal the forms of other ponies! Why can’t we do the same to them!”

“Why are they being invited at all to this conference!”

“Surely they cannot be trusted with hoping to maintaining peace.”

Celestia listened to their complaints while she retrieved a letter kept in old folded leather. As much as she detested the practice of tanning cowhides, she did admit it had practical uses such as keeping missives safe from water. “You’d be surprised to learn that it was the Queen who first asked for a peace conference. I recall that both Luna and I were when we received this.”

Twilight took the letter and read it aloud.

Celestia and Luna, Those who tend to the Moon and Sun

This may seem a most unusual request from someone like me, but I have seen what is happening. It is not pleasing to my eyes. My subjects are desperate and hungry, hence their raids on Equestrian settlements and villages. What reserves we have are slowly running out and I cannot allow my people to starve and die. These continuing raids keeps us sustained, but I know that it is only a matter of time until you come for us.

Therefore, I wish to call a conference for peace. War is not beneficial to anyone and love is scarce in its wake. Equestria has more love than any other place in the world and if open conflict were to breakout, my subjects will starve for certain. I cannot allow that to happen. We merely wish to live on in the world and if this conference is to succeed, it would be for the benefit of all.

I know my deeds against Canterlot. I know what I have done to ponies. I drain love out of others for the sake of having sustenance. But understand this: I do what I must to look out for my subjects. I hope that you, as fellow rulers, would understand this reasoning.

You, of all beings, can hold the peace together for all of us. But you need to show it to others. I feel nauseated by this, but I on my part, wish to see the Elements of Harmony as proof that peace can be upheld for the sake of everyone.

All I ask for is a chance for my subjects to live on. Is it really too much to ask for at this point?

Queen of the Changeling Hives,
Chrysalis

At first Twilight and her friends couldn’t buy it. Changelings calling for peace first of all? “I know what you are thinking. I was first convinced myself that they could not be trusted,” Celestia told them.

“So why did you agree to this, at all?” Rainbow asked her. “Er, your Highness.”

“It’s alright, Rainbow Dash.” Celestia glanced over to the window displaying Shining Armor and Cadence. “I received the letter... last week or so I believe. I thought over its words for quite some time. The queen isn’t the friendliest of beings, but she made some valuable points. In her own way, she cares for her kind as much as I care for my little ponies. And war would bring only pain to both our kingdoms.

“Besides, it shouldn’t be too surprising that beings who feed on love would want to avoid open conflict, hmm?”

Spike scraped his foot on the floor. The others looked to one another, trying to find a flaw in Chrysalis’ thinking. They could point out that it was a lie, a ruse to try and assault Canterlot again. Then again, Chrysalis would at this point be too weak to tackle both princesses at the same time and they had gained more experience since then, with the things that happened up in the Crystal Empire.

But... if even Princess Celestia was willing to give the changelings a chance for this peace... what did they have to argue? Twilight sighed heavily. “So they are coming here for certain?”

“Yes,” Celestia answered.

“Are they going to continue with the raids until then?”

“I’m afraid so,” the princess said. “But they do that out of desperation, not malice. I imagine they will ask for something else that’ll benefit them, so long as we benefit from the same terms.”

“So, what now?” Applejack asked. “We keep the Elements to ourselves until the conference takes place?”

Celestia inhaled deeply first before making a move towards the vault of the Elements. “For the time being until the conference is over, you will hold them. You are proving yourselves outstanding for the protection of Equestria and you are strongest when together. I know this is a bold move to make so suddenly, but events are forcing my hooves and I want to stay ahead of anything.

“Ponyville is unharmed so far and we are fortunate and grateful for that. Once again, the fate of Equestria is in your hooves.”

She opened the vault and brought out the chest. A quick look to the statue garden made sure that nothing had happened to Discord’s statue while they were talking. Celestia had seen fit to make alarms around the statue in case he broke loose and on the Elements in case someone had stolen them again.

So far, so good. “Here,” she said and offered them the chest that contained the Elements. “Keep them safe. They are enhanced so that you and I can tell who is touching them beside yourselves. That should discourage some aggressors.”

“Thank you, Princess.” Twilight opened the chest and, to much relief, the Elements were there this time. She handed them over to her companions and put on her own. “We’ll be ready for whatever comes our way.”

Nods were given, good luck was wished and then they were on their way back to train station.

They were however, still inside the castle when Rainbow Dash went on to ask Twilight something. “So... Who’s Vigg?”

“Huh?”

“The princess mentioned a “Prince Vigg” earlier when Spike asked and it’s someone we don’t know about. You seem to know him, though,” The Wonderbolt-in-training explained.

“Quite so,” added Rarity. “I was not even aware of this “Prince Romance” stallion that had gone missing as well. Sounds like a charming fellow, that one. Unlike a certain royal pain,” she grumbled.

Mainly due to her spotting said royal pain donning armor and doing push-ups along with a squad of soldiers in the courtyard.

“Anyway, back to Vigg. Who?” Rainbow Dash narrowed in on Twilight.

“..Vigg is crown prince of the reindeer lands,” Twilight began. “He came to Canterlot with his mother the winter before Nightmare Moon returned. Apparently there was a coup in the country and his grandfather the king sent them here.

“Celestia took them in and entered negotiations to stop the coup. Meanwhile, since he was here, Spike and I took to learning things from him.”

“Vigg’s a sportsdeer, and he loves being outdoors for exercise,” Spike added on his part. “We had great fun together during the winter here. Twilight would always scold me for getting snow all over the place back then.”

“Vigg did have his studies to attend to.” Twilight smiled at the memory. “All his teachers were in the capital at the time so it unofficially fell to me to teach him. Had to pull him away at times from outdoor activities whenever his mom came calling that he do his studies. He eventually got around to do studies willingly, even when he was supposed to be on break.”

“Hoo, colts...” Rainbow couldn’t help her smirking. The images were just too strong at the time.

“What?”

“Couldn’t help but notice that this prince Vigg had a crush on ya, Twilight,” Applejack said. She probably figured the same thing too.

“Oh, that.” Twilight merely rolled her eyes. “Vigg told Spike that I was, and I quote, really hot. Spike then told Shining Armor who in turn told me.”

“Why of course he would find you attractive, darling,” Rarity commented. “Your coat could do wonders and turn heads if you focused into making yourself presentable to somepony.” The stare she got told her everything. “You turned him down, didn’t you?”

“He was thirteen at the time,” Twilight defended. “Of course I turned him down. Plus, he’s a reindeer and I’m a pony. I don’t even know if that would be compatible. His mother wasn’t too pleased about it, herself.”

“Aww, that wasn’t very nice,” Pinkie pouted. “You two could have been great together.”

Twilight blinked and glared at Pinkie. “Me, a pony whose sole focus at the time was learning magic, and a reindeer prince who loved the outdoors and is younger than me? Yes, I could really see that happening. I’d invite you guys to the wedding.”

“Really?”

“No.” Twilight inhaled. “Still, it’d be great to see him again. See how his studies have been after the coup and know what he’s been up to in his personal life.”

“There we go,” Rainbow smirked. “The inevitable thing they will have in common.”

“Rainbow Dash!”

….

“We’ll be ready for whatever comes our way.”

He cut the scrying there. The old spells were quite something. Farsight the unicorn would have made a tremendous spy of the court, had he not run afoul of him.

It was very difficult to avoid detection from the princess at this given time. He had to resort to scrying instead on one of the two pegasi rather than the unicorn. He didn’t bother with either one was who, he just used one of them.

Those enchantments the princess had made were going to be a challenge. He did not like a challenge and this one was not an easy one, to start with.

He had hidden in the library along with the other ponies he had taken, forced to hold the form of another. Sweet justice, he felt, in that his possessed form was one of those who had helped stop him at the Empire. The white stallion.

What was his name again? Something to do with armor. He couldn’t recall.

Another, this one a grey pegasus, the thief he had taken, emerged. “Taken care of the owl. Tied up and locked up in the chest upstairs.”

“Nopony’s come this way, either,” said the smith, looking out the window while obscured.

“Are you certain about this?” His other unicorn stallion asked. “Princess Celestia is not going to take this lightly nor is she to be.”

“Celestia will not be a concern,” he replied to the unicorn. “I’ve taken measures against that and now we will go through with the first step. The Element bearers are on their back so get ready.”

He reached with his magic to take hold of something.

Somepony forgot their copy of advanced combat magic behind...

Author's Note

Okay, my first story ever here on this site. Hope it'll last long enough for me to actually finish it.
Not much to say for now, except... "Hi". Please take care of me. I'm new to writing pony fiction and I pray that everyone here will help me as much as they can.

Here we go

Spike could not have been more nervous.

Why? Because a peace conference was about to happen within an unspecified time, the guests would even include the Changeling Queen, he and his friends were handed the Elements of Harmony for safekeeping, there was probably something out there that was driving the world to the brink of war and there they were, on a train bound for Ponyville and talking as if there was nothing to worry about.

Given their past experiences, Spike had learned that when it came to their circle of friends, ANYTHING could happen.

Well, perhaps not anything, Spike thought. Discord was still locked away. Still, he would have appreciated having some other weapons or magical items than just the Elements.

As extra precaution, he had written down a note to himself which said “Need help, now!” to send to the princess in case of an emergency.

Sure, as a team they could face anything, but even then, Spike felt almost certain that something would happen and cause havoc. Again.

Any moment.

...

Any moment now...

…

...Why hasn’t anything happened yet?

“..And then, BAM!” The words caused Spike to jump. “Soarin’ just slammed into the barrels and broke at least three of them on impact!” Rainbow Dash was telling some stories of how her training went over at the Academy. Nopony paid attention to Spike fall out of his seat with the fun they had.

Why were they so calm?

Maybe it’s best that I calm down, he thought.

How could something bad happen, anyway, since Ponyville was safe?

~~~

The train arrived unscathed at Ponyville station and the ponies got off. Spike was bringing up a few bags containing various gems. Rarity just had to make a small purchase stop at the gemstore for a resupply of gems she couldn’t find out in the field.

Not that he’d mind doing, though. She managed to get hold of some amethysts for him if he did the job.

As soon as he stepped off the train, there was a bright flash everywhere.

“Whoa! What was that?”

“Did somepony decide to take a picture of us or something?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Because I was not ready there. Give us a heads up next time, Featherweight.”

Nopony answered her call.

“Featherweight, it is okay to talk, you know.” Rainbow called again.

“What makes you think it’s Featherweight?” Twilight asked.

“Because he‘s the one who took our photos during the whole Gabby Gums thing.” That made the purple unicorn stay silent and take note of Ponyville.

“Um... where is everypony, to begin with? Even with work, there should be somepony running around.”

“Sure should be,” Applejack added. “It’s market hour. Carrot Top should at least be out and about with her crops for sale.” There was not so much of a hint of a noise coming from the market.

“Okay, this is starting to get creepy again,” Rainbow commented.

“You can say that again,” Rarity said and took a look inside one of the houses. “I don’t even anypony-” She was cut off by a couch slamming right onto her muzzle from the window.

“Rarity!” Spike left the bags of gems and rushed to her as fast as he could, as did the others.

“Are you okay?”

“Bla-gar-derug-Luna... Ah could do wit’ sum cocopuffs,” was the following garble out of Rarity as she tried to get her bearings straight again.

The couch shook a little before flying into the air, accompanied by more couches coming from nearly every house and together they formed a massive, bipedal thing that towered above them. Rarity’s couch was included in that thing. Luckily that wasn’t noticed by her. At the moment.

The others did, though. “It’s a giant couch...” Applejack started.

“Golem?” Twilight offered.

“Couch golem,” Spike summarised it.

“Hey, do you think it shoots couch pillows out of its arms?” Pinkie asked.

“Pinkie, if you don’t mind, that is... it’s not helping with that idea,” Fluttershy said.

“I know, but why a golem made of couches? Whoever thought of this was not very-”

“QUICK!” Rainbow pushed Rarity out of the way while the others ran away to avoid the golem’s foot that had moved in an attempt to crush them underfoot.

“I was gonna say creative!” Pinkie protested.

Spike rushed to get his note he left by the bags as fast as he could while Rainbow flew up to keep the golem distracted from the others. Applejack went straight for a rope to form a lasso and attempt to topple the golem. Rarity managed to pull herself together and have a look at the golem attacking them. “IS THAT MY COUCH ON TOP!?”

Pinkie pulled out her cannon and fired it at the golem. Twilight provided shields against its blows. Spike found his note in the pile and blew it out as hard as it could. “Hah!”

The smoke swirled still in the air before Spike’s eyes and then the note popped back and fell down on the ground.

“Not good,” Spike commented. He didn’t hear the shuffling of stones underneath fabric. “Twilight! I couldn’t send a notice to Celestia. We’re cut off!”

“Shoot,” Twilight muttered. “Okay, we’re taking this thing down, regardless of how many couches we’ll have to go through.”

“Seriously, why couches?” Pinkie asked while her cannon fired at it nonstop without either her to use it or reloading.

“Would you prefer something else?” Rainbow asked.

The slicing of fabric caught their attention and the next thing they knew, they were looking at another similar golem that, whilst smaller in comparison to the one made of couches... was made out of gems.

Specifically, the gems that Rarity had bought. “And now they steal my gems! Ooh, it is on now!”

“Ah!” Spike narrowly avoided the gem golem’s attack which was clearly meant for him and tried to avoid its second strike. Keyword: tried.

The golem swatted him away and sent him flying into one of the empty houses. “SPIKE!” Twilight let anger and concern for Spike get to her head and instinctively blasted the gem golem back to being a mere pile of gems with one shot.

“I’m okay!” Spike opened the door of the house to show himself. “I’m good. Never looking at gems again the same way...” Then he saw the gems scattered on the ground. “Ha! Take that, you delicious stones!”

“Ugh, dreadful usage,” Rarity commented. “Though much more creative than the couch golem- MAKE SURE MINE MAKES IT! - and a lot more dangerous if you think about it. Good thing it wasn’t bright.

“Now, let’s recollect my gems while Rainbow Dash and Applejack handles the couches and-” She stopped at the sound of gems colliding together rapidly. Looking back to where the pile was, they saw something else.

The gem golem had reassembled itself.

“Oh, snap.”

Celestia and Luna landed in Ponyville shortly after take off, surprising everypony nearby. Most had to give a quick bow to them before continuing their work. The two princesses had only visited the town together once before, when Luna had been released from Nightmare Moon.

“What are we doing here, sister?” Luna asked Celestia. “Ponyville is safe. No one has come to attack it.”

“And yet there is something, Luna.” The elder alicorn wasn’t even looking at her. Her tone was stern and focused, as if she was expecting Tirek himself to come by. “Twilight Sparkle and the others should have arrived earlier today here in Ponyville, yet... I somehow lost my connection to the spell I cast on the Elements. The connection was lost here and yet nothing seems wrong.”

“Beyond the fact that we should have seen Twilight Sparkle at least rushing up to meet us,” Luna concluded. Galloping hooves brought their attention and there was the mayor, Ivory Scroll.

“Your majesties!” Ivory Scroll took a quick bow before continuing. “I wasn’t aware that-”

“We are not here on formality, mayor,” Celestia interrupted, her voice now kind to avoid misunderstandings. “Something has happened in Ponyville and we are here to find out what.”

“Here? But Ponyville isn’t under any threat.”

“We know,” Luna informed the mayor. “But recently Twilight Sparkle and her friends were in Canterlot and they were supposed to be here again by this time.”

“I’ll see if anypony has seen them coming off the train from Canterlot,” Ivory Scroll said and cantered off.

“Good mare,” Luna commented. “She knows what to do.”

“And now we can concentrate,” Celestia said and activated her horn. She sat down to conserve energy and focus on the spell. It allowed her for a few moments, gain perfect understanding of her surroundings within a certain perimeter.

Said perimeter also included all of Ponyville and some parts of the forest with ease even if she didn’t concentrate on it.

Is that the princesses? What are they doing here?

What’s going on?

My cousin’s over in Baltimare, it’s been raided recently. I wonder if she’s okay.

I like muffins.

Now where is Pinkie, we need her to watch the twins.

I’m not apologising.

Ah, good times that were.

Changelings are coming again, I am not gonna lie back and let them drain me of love a second time!

I like eggs.

Celestia could ignore all this, but such action would make her probably ignore what she was searching for. She pressed on.

Where’s Rarity, I thought she’d be back by now? Sweetie Belle.

Gotta find out where we can get our cutie marks as demolitionists. Scootaloo. Heh, that girl doesn’t give up on anything.

Hmm... AJ gotta be back by now. Ah best check up on the fillies just in case she can’t come. Big McIntosh.

I really don’t want to get caught here. Wait, who?

I don’t want to do this. I’m sorry. Hold on, that sounded just like-

Twilie... I can’t stop myself here. Celestia opened her eyes immediately.

“Shining Armor is here,” she told Luna as she rose up and looked about for a place that he might be hiding out.

Luna didn’t answer at first, but she fired up her own magic to see active magic taking place. There were a few around, but the largest of them all was easy to spot. “Golden Oaks Library.”

The two princesses walked with determined speed over there and shortly after, they were joined by Ivory Scroll. “Rumble said he saw them get off the train station, but then there was a bright flash and they weren’t there. He first thought it was a teleportation spell being used.”

“Twas not,” Luna replied as soon as they stood outside the library door. Celestia knocked twice and asked after her student. No answer.

“Assume that somepony is in there and that they don’t wish to talk.” To bolster her words, Celestia cast a spell to conceal their presence before opening the door.

The sight that greeted them was a large, swirling, purple and green dome in the center of the library giving off a surge of magic energy. All three mares were reluctant to step in, the smaller of them having good reason to in that she was scared out of her head again. Luna was almost stunned speechless but recognized the magic.

Celestia focused on trying to see through the dome. Her eyes flared up and she saw three unicorns inside. A mare and two stallions - the latter of which was Shining Armor for certain - lying on the ground connected by their horns. Combined magic energy. So that’s how he did it.

“What is that?” Ivory Scroll asked quietly.

“It’s dark magic,” Celestia told the earth pony with a stern tone. “And there is only one unicorn who has used it so actively before.”

“King Sombra,” Luna hissed and stepped in. The moment she did, a large number of separate shields went up around the dome, its color awfully reminding of Shining Armor’s own magic aura. Luna hesitated for a bit before continuing into the library, followed by Celestia.

“Uh, I’m just going to stay out here, if that is alright with you, your majesties,” Ivory told them with a clear hint of fear in her tone. Celestia nodded in her direction before focusing on the dome.

“Sister, I must ask,” Luna said quietly. “Have you ever broken through any of Shining Armor’s shields before?”

“Once,” Celestia answered. “When he was first starting out as captain, I tested how strong his shield was. I also used the time to teach Twilight that one combat spell she needed in case of an emergency.”

Luna had to chuckle. “Oh. Good that you can multifocus, sister.” She returned her attention to the shields and gave a test shot of her own magic against one of them.

It bounced off towards another, which sent the bolt hurling against at least seven other shields before sending it straight back at Luna. The moon princess dodged the bolt and it flew out the door, past Ivory Scroll who had taken cover the moment Luna started shooting. “What was that?” The mayor asked them. She was ignored.

“Stronger?” Luna asked, turning to her sister. Celestia shook her head.

“Smarter,” she corrected.

And then a pair of green eyes with red irises and purple smoke flared up and narrowed down on the two princesses.

Four times.

Four times already had Twilight blasted the gem golem and four times it had reassembled itself. The couch golem was large enough to be bested by just one pony (as Rainbow claimed) but the much smaller one made of gems was worse.

Its composition was, for lack of a better word, brilliant in its design. The amount of gems allowed it a wider range of agility, coupled with its bipedal form, though Twilight couldn’t figure out why it had taken that form. Its assemblance of several smaller gems said that it was brittle, though that was compensated with that it could reassemble itself. The fact that it was made from gems meant that it was hard and strong at the same time. While not strong in physical strength, it would no doubt pack a serious punch if it hit any of them. Not to mention cutting their coats.

Twilight did see that it had two weaknesses. One she could exploit right there.

It was a golem. When she told Rarity about it, she merely said, “Yes, Twilight. That much is obvious.” But there was more to it than that. A golem was a magical construct that lacked independent thought which meant that it had to rely on a local source of magic to keep it sustained.

That was why she and Fluttershy had left the big fight in the square, looking for the chain that kept the golem going. Spike was riding on Twilight’s back, because the gems had given him quite a fright. Despite him being the golem’s second weakness.

“Okay, the town is empty, that would imply that we are trapped in some form of place that only looks like Ponyville, but it isn’t. I think if we disrupt whoever is doing this, we’ll be able to get back to Ponyville.”

“So... why did you bring me along for this, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked. “I don’t think I’d be able to help a lot with this.”

“Fluttershy, I’m not willing to send you into either of those golems. Applejack and Rainbow Dash are gonna have to hold out until we find this unicorn and stop them,” Twilight defended. “Besides, I’m not sure if I can do it alone.”

“That’s why we’re here with you, Twilight,” Spike told her. Twilight turned to him.

“Shouldn’t you be with Rarity against that thing? You can easily eat those gems.”

“But those are Rarity’s gems,” he defended. “I can’t just chew on something she had to pay for in Canterlot.” Twilight just rolled her eyes. “Look, if you ever had a crush on somepony, would you do something that would upset them just like that?”

“Spike, I’d tell them the circumstances and make an apology,” she retorted at him. “And right now, I think she would appreciate the help.”

“VERY MUCH SO!” They had no idea how Rarity managed to hear their conversation.

“I... um...” Spike hesitated at first, but seeing Twilight’s blank face looking at him and Rarity sounding to have trouble, he relented. “Okay, I’ll go. Be safe, Twilight.”

“You too, Spike,” she replied and they split up.

“No point in hiding now,” Celestia said and unmade the spell concealing herself and Luna.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of drawing the Royal Pony Sisters to me, once again?” Sombra spoke to the two alicorns.

“To find out what has happened to Twilight Sparkle and her friends,” Celestia replied first. “You, while not an immediate priority, are however charged with kidnapping ponies across Equestria and enslaving the Crystal Empire-”

“What I do with MY subjects ought to be none of your concern,” Sombra snapped at her. “I do as I please with them, as do you with YOUR subjects, Celestia. You should not have bothered back then.”

“We did bother, because what you were doing was affecting all of Equestria, monster,” Luna retorted. “Ponies are meant to be free and live in harmony, not be domesticated by some upstart overlord who sees himself master of all.”

“Believing yourself to be righteous is one thing, Luna. It is another when you simply have more power than the other monarchs and rulers and use it merely to tell them that you are not to be opposed.

“But that is not why you are here,”he reminded them. “Twilight Sparkle is around, that much is certain. But I will say no more on that subject.”

“Then we will force you to,” Celestia replied and charged up her horn.

“Not this time.”

The shields evaporated and a new, much bigger shield rolled on against the sisters, pushing them harshly out of the library past the mayor and into the open square. This attracted a number of onlooking ponies to the disturbance.

Celestia and Luna were unharmed, much thanks to their own shields, but the larger one was meant to push them back, not to harm. Out of the tree house stepped a pony, who made the mayor step away in shock and the princesses to cringe at the coming struggle.

“I must say, your good nephew-in-law, was it,” Shining Armor said as his horn fired up. “-is quite the expert at combat magic himself. And I took the time I had with him to practice it all.”

Celestia narrowed her own eyes and chose not to hold back against Shining. “Mayor, get clear.”

Ivory Scroll just barely escaped getting hit by the sunbeam directed at the captain. Ponies were getting surprised by the sudden aggression and some did not want to get caught in the crossfire. Others...

“Agh! Princess Celestia has gone mad!”

“She’s trying to kill her niece’s husband!”

“Run for it, lest we get killed!”

...You could probably guess who said those things.

“Calm down, everypony!” The mayor rushed to make sure there would be no mass hysteria happening in HER town. “The princess has not gone insane! We have a situation, that is all!”

“What kind of situation?” Lyra Heartstrings asked.

The smoke that occurred when the good captain was hit faded away and Shining Armor was shown unharmed, much thanks to a small forcefield hugging his body like a second coat, seen only due to its glow and his horn. He looked angry. “I was hoping that you’d try to see reason on this and wait things out, Celestia, but now... I am going to show you just how dangerous I am with this host’s body.” His horn flared yet again and the summoned beings in heavy barding flashed up between him and Celestia.

“That kind,” the mayor told the unicorn.

“Oh.”

Shortly afterward, ponies still evacuated, but because they didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire between the captain of the guard and Princess Celestia. Luna, whilst she actually could do something to help, had other concerns. While Sombra was focused on Tia, she could try to find the bearers of the Elements.

He said that Twilight Sparkle is around, yet nopony has seen her or her friends... Luna took one small moment before flaring up her eyes.

What she saw was the ethereal, a mix of what was there and what was really there yet not there at all. That at least was how most professors at the School for Gifted Unicorn proclaimed it, as there were very few scholars in it. The ethereal is a space between spaces that if accessed correctly, could allow a unicron to travel between planes of reality. What Luna saw within, was not pleasing.

“Rainbow, we need ta end this now!” Applejack shouted above the creaking noises the giant golem made of... were those couches that thing was made of?

“I got it! Help Rarity and Spike with that thing made of gems,” Rainbow told the farmer. “Pinkie, keep the couch golem distracted as best you can!”

“Come on, shoot pillows already! I’m shooting pies at you with my party cannon! You gotta shoot back!” Pinkie Pie was really going at it with her contraption, firing pies without having to reload.

Luna ignored the pink pony to focus on the others.

Rarity and Spike were facing a much smaller one, reaching up to Tia’s height, but on two legs and swinging wildly at the little dragon. Spike was being incredibly brave for once, since he was doing his best to hold it off from Rarity and trying to bite its legs. Rarity was using her telekinesis to fling whatever free rock or gemstone she could get her hooves on.

The roar of a pegasus divebombing brought Luna’s attention back to Rainbow Dash who was diving down hard against the couch golem, planning to use her famous Sonic Rainboom and blow it up.

“HUSH NOW, QUIET NOW, IT’S TIME TO GO TO B-” She was cut off by something slamming into her, disrupting her streak and made her crash against the ground. Hard.

“Dashie!?” Pinkie yelled and stopped firing her cannon.

“Ugh...” Rainbow cracked her neck and got up, rubbing her forehead. “Okay, what hit me?”

Then a pegasus stallion landed in front of her with eyes fixed on hostility. “Sorry about that, but I’m frankly not allowed to let you get away with that trick.”

Luna quit the sight there and looked for Ivory Scroll. “Tia, I shall bring back Twilight Sparkle and her friends.”

“Please do,” Celestia replied. “I shan’t take long on this end.”

The dark alicorn scanned the field and found the mayor talking to the local squad of Royal Guard ponies regarding the situation. Luna rushed over there, ignoring the guards’ bows as she approached. “Madam Mayor! I require your assistance with breaking a spell.”

“Break a spell?” Ivory Scroll repeated.

“Yes. Twilight Sparkle and her friends are locked in another zone, so to speak. I know the spell needed to bring them back, but to do so, we will need to replicate the situation that is going on over on their side to prevent any horrific accidents.”

Ivory Scroll looked blankly for a second before nodding. “I’ll provide what I can. Just say what is required, your Majesty.”

“We’ll be aiding as well, your Majesty,” the squad leader of the Royal Guard added with a salute.

Luna looked deep in the mayor’s eyes. “I need you to- And follow me on this! - gather the town’s couches in front of the library.”

Ivory Scroll’s reaction was at first... blank. She merely stared at Luna. Meanwhile, Sombra fired off a large beam of magic that nearly singed Luna’s cheek. She did not even flinch. Eventually the mayor regained speech. “You.. want.. couches in... okay.” Then she ran off, shouting requests to everypony in Ponyville.

The guards didn’t flinch at first, until Luna gave a glare that said “Don’t you ponies have work to do that has to do with the safety of everypony in Ponyville?” Then they saluted and flew off to help the mayor and anypony who might have trouble with their couch.

Now to see if I can reach Twilight Sparkle with communication...

Author's Note

Okay... second chapter is up. I was thinking about continuing it further, but cliffhangers work too.

Anyhoo, enjoy. Now I need to brainstorm a little more to figure out the start of the next one.

Ouch

Twilight and Fluttershy kept searching every house in Ponyville looking for the unicron that maintained the spell keeping them there.

No such luck.

The whole of Ponyville was empty save for the square, and that was where the others were holding off those golems. The only place they hadn’t checked was Sweet Apple Acres, and that was because they couldn’t reach it at all. And Twilight did not want to risk a teleportation that far blindly.

“Ugh,” she groaned. “How are we supposed to find this unicorn?”

“Maybe we could go back and ask nicely,” Fluttershy asked. A small stare of confusion from Twilight and she cowed. “Oh, never mind, it was just a suggestion. There’s no need to be so angry.”

“Fluttershy, I’m not angry with you, okay?” Twilight reassured her. “I just don’t think asking nicely is going to help us here. Whoever this pony is, they don’t want to be friends at all. So we need to be tough and force them to cancel the spell if it comes to it.”

“But Twilight, can’t you cancel the spell yourself?”

“Normally, but to break a spell of this magnitude without its originator is really difficult if you don’t know its full extent and abilities. Plus, I’m not sure if I can do it on my own.”

“Twilight Sparkle...”

The voice made her ear flick. At first it was like a mere soft gust of wind, going easy on her while she was thinking. And yet it sounded familiar.

“Twilight Sparkle.”

“Did you hear that?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy shook her head, then they heard ‘Nopony messes with my boom, pal!’ from Rainbow Dash. “Okay, somepony else is here. We know that much, now.”

“So what now?”

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE AND FLUTTERSHY!” The next thing the two mares knew, they were hugging each other in fear of the tone in some corner alley. “Forgive me, but I was uncertain if you could hear me or not with the chaos happening over there.”

The two of them blinked in unison and then said, “Princess Luna?”

“Indeed. You cannot see me, but know that I can see you. If we were not having a crisis, one would think you two were up to something.”

Twilight and Fluttershy separated rather quickly. “Nothing happened, your Highness. You merely scared us with your tone.”

“I know,” Luna replied. “But right now, we need to get you and the others back to Ponyville. I have the mayor gather the things we need, but I need you to perform the spell necessary for us to break it.”

Twilight didn’t even need to consider it. “Where do we need to be?”

-

Why? Celestia thought as her shield forced her to slide backwards on the ground.

“And here I always thought that the tyrant of Equestria would put up a better opposition,” Sombra mocked her whilst pushing her back away from the library. “I guess I overestimated you, Celestia.”

Why can’t I do it? Celestia tried to refocus and assessed the spells that would allow her to achieve the best outcome. Things didn’t look good. Why can’t I hurt Shining Armor, even if he’d agreed to my reasoning?

Several of her spells could lay waste to Ponyville. Those that she did knew that wouldn’t, most were harmful. Shining Armor could take the brunt of them, but not for long. That left a mere handful. And Sombra wasn’t going to let that happen. If Luna wasn’t preoccupied with bringing Twilight and the others back, this would be easy.

But Sombra had never made it easy.

I will need to incapacitate his horn. Small target, and he will have thought of that. Barriers and protection spells, like those inside the library. And he would have thought to prevent me from dispelling them.

For some bizarre reason that was beyond her at the time, and even though it seemed insane to do it... Celestia couldn’t help but smirk for just a brief moment.

Sombra caught her smirking and for an instance faltered in his movements.

Just what she needed.

The next thing he knew, Sombra felt hard pressed by sheer weight of magic force bearing down on his barriers, fixating him in just one place.

“Overconfidence is always the greatest enemy, Sombra,” Celestia said as she dared approach him. Driving something out of a pony’s body required touching them with the horn and she kept pressure on him from moving out of the spot. “That is how you were defeated last time, since you believed yourself to be on par with myself and my sister.”

She leaned down to fire up her horn with more power to drive Sombra out of Shining Armor. “Tis’ a shame that you chose tyranny and enslavement to rule, rather than- AHH!”

Sombra had snapped instantly, biting as hard as he could at the time on Celestia’s neck beneath her chin and using his own bodyweight to press her backward. He flared up his horn and with some adjustment for a proper angle, fired a beam right into her eye.

Celestia screamed in pain and wrenched herself free from his bite, covering her eye with a hoof. She chided herself for getting too close to him too soon - and for not heeding what she said just mere seconds ago.

“Funny that a dictator like you should talk of tyranny like it’s a bad thing,” Sombra snarled with his horn ready with magic. “Wasn’t that what you and your sister achieved after removing Discord so long ago? So what right do you have of accusing me of doing the same thing?”

“We did it because ponies were suffering under Discord’s reign,” She snapped back. “We took Equestria from him to ensure that the ponies would live free in harmony. You just seized the Empire merely to satiate your own ends.”

“Oh, don’t come with the whole “With power comes responsibility” speech, Tyrant Celestia,” he spat at her and activated a spell.

It wasn’t the kind she expected. She had erected a coat-thin shield around herself like he had done previously.

He added a layer of his own on top of that, ensuring she couldn’t move.

“I grew tired of it the first few times,” Sombra quipped. Celestia merely glared with her other eye and flared up her horn again, only to find that it couldn’t break through. “What’s this? The great tyrant of Equestria can’t break through a simple barrier?”

This is not a “simple” barrier. Sombra has reinforced it heavily. Wait, this must be of Shining Armor’s design. A heavily reinforced barrier yet coat-thin around the body to ensure protection from whatever comes your way. But what’s the trade-off? There’s always somet-

Is it getting harder to breathe in here?

Uh oh.

Celestia really wished she had started brushing up on her combat magic at this point, otherwise she’d have to resort to brute force and that would mean ponies could get hurt in the process.

-

Buck the golem. This jerk needs to be handled.

Rainbow Dash banked hard in pursuit after the new adversary.

This pegasus was surprisingly fast, not as fast as she was, but a lot more agile and familiar with sharper turns. Wonderbolts trained hard at making turns to flip a bit and Rainbow had nearly burnt her wings out mastering such turns. This guy could do the same stunts without a sweat. That wasn’t fair at all.

He dove down to the streets and she followed right on his rear hooves. Diving at that speed was dangerous if you didn’t know what you were doing. He’s good, but not as good as me!

Then he turned upright at the last moment to skim across the ground. Rainbow had to brake mid-air to avoid crashing straight down. “Darn it!” Then she burst right after him. At least she could catch up with him in a straight line. “Okay, pal, time to-” She didn’t finish because he just took a straight turn right into an alleyway. She had go past the alley and turn around in a G-bend before going in after him.

An L-turn? He can do an L-turn? To make matters worse, she could barely see the tip of his tail going left. She had to slow down to follow him and then speed up until she almost hit another wall. Bird-fighting wasn’t something new to Rainbow, but this guy wasn’t playing by normal rules and he was dragging it out.

The rogue pegasus flew into a house and Rainbow followed. She almost immediately regretted it as it turned out to be Bon Bon’s Chocolat Shoppe. He had gone straight over the cash register desk - she crashed right into it by flying too fast. Then she crashed straight into the open oven. Thank the sun that it wasn’t heated up.

“That’s it!” Rainbow yelled once she was out. “No more nice mare!” And then she was off in pursuit of him again.

They reached a tight intersection in the street, the perpetrator quickly turned to the right without even slowing down. In the other side, there was another intersection. The pegasus took a left turn this time. Anypony would've had lost sight of the pegasus, but not for Rainbow Dash. She managed to keep up with the perpetrator without any sign of slowing down. In fact, she was already closing in.

Then he banked up again, but this time she was prepared and she flew straight at his back and pushed him into a passing cloud above the town square. “Okay, pal. Time to explain why you...” She wandered, having a look at his cobalt blue coat and silver mane and his cutie mark that was a twister with lightning bolts shooting out of it. And her jaw just dropped as much as it could.

“Oh, my, gosh! You’re Tempest!” Rainbow Dash cried. “The retired Wonderbolt!”

“Uh... yeah?” he said in confusion.

“I saw you pull off the Thundering Twister in Vanhoover! I can’t believe it’s actually you! I’m Rainbow Dash, ‘Bolt trainee. Sonic Rainboom?”

“Oh! You! Now I recall. You saved Soarin’ and Spitfire real good from what I saw,” he congratulated her with a friendly smile. She pretty much gushed about this.

“If we weren’t in a serious fight right now, I’d ask for your autograph!”

“And I for yours. Not every day you get to meet a national hero,” Tempest replied. Then his smile shrunk away. “But as you said, we’re in a serious fight.”

“Yeah, so let’s get to dirty business. Enough bird-fighting,” Rainbow stated as if it was a rule.

He pushed her off the cloud and once she recovered from that, the two of them got into using their forehooves to try and hit the other. She was fast, but he had skill and well honed reflexes. Their hooves connected with each other more than their barrels.

Then he just kicked her down below with a rear hoof and took off from her whilst she clutched the place he had hit. “Why has it got to be down there?”

Next thing she knew, Rainbow Dash was slammed from behind and was on a ramming speed against the ground. She tried to wriggle out of it but velocity made the wind too harsh for her to get loose. Which meant that she could only wait until she hit the ground.

WHAM!

Okay, that hurt a lot. I have hit the ground before, but when you’re guided to do so... Ouch.

Tempest landed in front of her with a hostile look. “‘Bolt trainee, was it? Allow me to be your crash course drill sergeant.”

Buck the pain. Idol or not, this jerk was going down.

-

Of all the peculiar ideas that she had heard, having Princess Luna request that as many couches as possible be brought to the town square in front of the library was by far the most ridiculous so far.

Ivory Scroll had had her own doubts about if this would work, but seeing that Captain Shining Armor was not only holding ground against Princess Celestia, but also constraining her and if he was possessed by something (Loose Screw was bad enough!) then gush darn, she’d be sent to the moon before she let her town go under some crazy spell again.

Curious about how the couches were going to placed, the ponies placed them next to each other and asking the mayor what was going to happen next.

“We are missing one couch,” Princess Luna informed Ivory as she counted them. She had to send a few away much to the ponies’ chagrin.

“Oh what now? First we turn down couches being used for this reenactment and now we are missing just the one?” Ivory asked of the princess before remembering who it was she was talking to. “Er, your majesty.”

“I understand your tone, Madam Mayor, and I sympathize. But we cannot allow this spell to go wrong. That is how magic works. We need to replicate the effects to near exactement. If things were out of place...” She said as if hinting for the mayor to finish the rest.

“..we’d have an even greater disaster on our hooves.” Ivory Scroll sighed and consented to the princess’ demand. “So which couch is it we are missing?”

Luna looked over the lot assembled. “It should be-” Then she noted that one couch was slowly going to them, almost apparently on its own. “Oh, that’s the one.”

It crawled on three sets of hooves, one yellow, one orange and one white. When it came close enough, the two mares heard, “Cutie Mark... Crusaders... Couch... Deliverers. Yay.”

Luna blinked, gave a minor shrug and lifted the couch up with her telekinesis, giving the three fillies some breathing space at last. “Thank you, girls.”

“Alright, flank check!” The yellow one bellowed and the three checked out... three blank flanks. “Oh for- Ah thought this time for sure.”

“Now we need to worry that Rarity doesn’t get mad we took her couch,” the white one said.

“No need to, young ponies,” Luna interrupted. “This couch was the last one I needed.”

“For what?” Ivory asked the night princess.

“For this.” Luna’s eyes turned bright white, her horn flared up with her magic and all the couches together began to shake and lift into the air. Eight couches formed two pillars, then four joined together with each other, working their way into making a massive bipedal form in front of the library.

Sadly, somepony couldn’t keep quiet in light of how amazing it was. “That is so AWESOME!”

Luna snapped back to reality and almost lost concentration of her magic. She turned to see that Shining Armor had just turned his attention to her and oh crap, he was angry. If Luna had to focus on him, then she wouldn’t be able to contact Twilight Sparkle in order to-

Sweetie Belle was a unicorn with a loud voice, if she remembered correctly.

Luna turned to face Shining Armor and flared up her horn, to which Sweetie Belle glowed softly blue for a moment. That was all she needed just in case. Her combat magic was almost antique compared to Celestia (to be fair, she had been locked in the moon for the past millenium) but she had been at the practice range, so to speak, more frequently.

What happened next made her wish she had been there a lot more often.

Shining started with a honed forward curved shield that shimmered fast against her, which Luna was able to counter with just one forehoof covered in magic. The old magic beam came next, a trick even Luna knew. She had been present at its creation during the conflict against Discord.

She diverted it narrowly merely to show off to the wicked king. Shining had already fired off a number of the new magic missiles that had been made in Luna’s absence. Twenty of them, in fact. Luna’s shield held back only five of them. The rest she had to dodge on her own or brush off with her wings.

“Surely that’s not the best you can do, Sombra,” she told the unicorn. “The good Captain is much more developed than...” she stopped to think for a brief moment. Why would Sombra show this little experience with combat magic? He may not have brushed up as much as they first thought when they disbanded his dominion, but this was even less. “This.”

The ground erupted right beneath her hooves and she found herself caught in a forcefield bubble hovering above the ground

Thing was, this bubble was shrinking rapidly. “SWEETIE BELLE! NOW!”

Shining cocked his head to the side. Sweetie Belle merely took a deep breath, the other crusaders covered their ears and....

“TWILIGHT! CAST THE SPELL NOW!”

The noise deafened the combatants for a few moments at first. Then when the whole of Ponyville glowed purple, did Shining’s eyes narrow for a brief moment.

“..No,” he said when he noticed the cracks in the field. “No!”

Celestia looked at him in the corner of her eye with a smirk on her face. “Yes.”

Everything went sheer white for the magical explosion. Utter silence reigned even as it happened. Then when all color came back, the couch golem was still there, though covered in pie cream, dough and plates along with seven other ponies, a baby dragon and a smaller golem made of gems.

“Hey, we’re back!” Applejack cried first and then the townponies cheered at seeing their local heroes back.

“Oh, jolly good,” said a certain brown pony with an hourglass for a cutie mark. “Now we can get rid of the crazy unicron casting a spell on town.”

“You mean unicorn, right?”

“Unicorn, right! Sorry!”

Twilight gave off a sigh of minor exhaustion and shrugged the fatigue off. The situation as she saw it was not a pleasant one. Rainbow Dash was locked up in forehooves with a pegasus stallion she didn’t recognize, Rarity and Spike had only just fended off the gem golem and were staring it down. Applejack and Pinkie Pie had been keeping the couch golem busy and the party cannon looked exhausted.

Princess Luna was trapped in a shrinking bubble and Princess Celestia was in a forcefield holding her in place, apparently holding her breath. And right next to her with his horn shown to have been used was...

“Shining!” Twilight rushed over and just tackled him down to the ground, sliding them a small distance away from the princesses. “What are you doing!? Attacking the princesses? What has gotten into you...”

Shining couldn’t answer, much thanks to that he was seeing stars and pretty pegasi mares with well-curved flanks in front of his eyes. No, wait, those are images of his wife, Cadance. Never mind. Hold on, Twilight Sparkle is directly above me and putting herself at risk to wake the armor pony up.. Chance for one small spot of revenge, then. Need to rouse the rest. I need to get away from here as soon as is practically possible.

“..Cadance think when she hears of this,” Sparkle continued talking with a barely awake Shining Armor. “She’d be furious to hear that you assaul- Are you even listening?”

Oh, right. Need to focus on her. I can multitask. “I’m sorry, Twilight Sparkle, I was a little out of my head at the moment you were talking,” he said to the mare. She raised an eyebrow first.

“What happened to calling me Twilie?”

“..What?”

“You always call me Twilie, even when we’re in public. It’s never Twilight Sparkle, just Twilie,” she told him.

Shining shifted his eyes about, looking around the area. The rainbow pegasus was occupied with Tempest, the farmer and the baker was focusing on the couch golem and the dragon - cursed vermin - was with the gem golem.

“You don’t seem yourself,” Twilight told him, snapping his attention back to her.

“And you always stick your neck out for others... Twilie,” He replied to her.

“..Why did you drag it-” That was all she could say right before the stallion lashed out and bit her in the neck, just below her head. The screams of pain were enough to halt most ponies’ train of thought.

“TWILIGHT!” Most of town (well, those who witnessed the event) shouted that name upon seeing her being bit in the neck by her brother.

“Did Shining turn into a vampony and get thirsty for her blood!?” Somepony shouted.

“WHAT THE HECK IS A VAMPONY?!” Another shouted back.

“Get him off! Get him off! Get him off!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, shaking wildly to get the stallion off her, but he stuck to her. She tried teleporting away, but he just went with her. At the rate he was going, Shining could be drawing...

She didn’t pursue that train of thought.

“Ah’ma coming, Twi!” Applejack cried and ran straight towards the two.

Something fast swooped her off her hooves and sent her head with a gu-goosh to the ground.

“AJ!” Twilight managed to squeak out.

“Courtesy of the fire department, Prime minister, would you care for some bonbons? Ah made them mahself, the excavation team can attest to that.” This was said by Applejack who was lying upside down, hooves in the air and seeing dancing twinkling stars around her head.

Rainbow Dash was trying to get to her and Shining, but the pegasus stallion was too brutal on her wings to let her get airborne, trampling and biting them along with clobbering Rainbow with his forehooves. Spike was stuck between rushing to help her, or keep the gem golem occupied from attacking the rest of them. Rarity kept shifting her head between her and the golem, meaning she had a similar problem.

“You let go of her right now,” came the angry voice of Fluttershy, trotting up to the white stallion with her infamous Stare in full swing. “What makes you think you can just simply come here and do all these terrible things to us?” Shining looked frozen, yet refused to let go of Twilight’s neck. At least he had stopped pressing down. “Now, I want you to let go of Twilight, Shining Armor and any other pony you have-”

Shining poked her in the eye with his horn.

-

What in the pits of Tartarus is this!?

Sombra felt cold and barely movable underneath the yellow pegasus’ glare on him and he struggled hard to maintain control of the stallion.

“Now, I want you to let go of Twilight-” she said to him and he almost readily agreed-

In the same instant that Fluttershy had said the word ‘pony’, Sombra closed his eyes, bent down with his head and thrusted with his horn as hard as he could. He felt squishy around the horn. He must have hit her in the eye.

-

Getting twisted down gave Twilight an open window to see Celestia attempting to break out of her barrier shell. Celestia had a scowl on her face and was - tinktinktinktinktinktink - tapping her horn on the shield back and forth in a very rapid succession. Hearing Fluttershy’s squeal of pain and grasping her eye while stepping back was more than enough.

Before Shining could react, Twilight shot a magic missile at the shield and it made a crack.

BOOM! Celestia burst out, smashing the shield to pieces and flying straight at Twilight and Shining full aflame.

-

Adjust adjust adjust adjust adj- Yaaargh! That burns, that burns!

-

Twilight rolled underneath the large alicorn, rolling a few before coming to a stop and seeing everything spinning like a merry-go-round put on the side.

..Wow, I’m starting to think like Pinkie Pie.

She shrugged it off quickly and spotted Celestia standing on top of Shining Armor, full aflame and looking... so angry it scared her more than the door up in the Crystal Empire.

“You made an error, attacking Twilight like that,” Celestia said in a baritone, tranquil tone of the Royal Canterlot Voice against the stallion. “And you made an error, thinking you could outwit me, fiend.”

At first Shining didn’t speak, he merely looked up at the angry alicorn. Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then looked back at her with fixated eyes. “Outwit? No. Exploit? That was the intended goal. And now yourself have made an error, Tyrant.”

“Shining, what the heck!?” Twilight yelled at him calling the princess that word.

“And what error have I made, as you claim?” Celestia asked, ignoring completely what she had just been called.

“Putting yourself at play yet again, now that I have more pieces.”

Almost immediately, Celestia lost her rageful composure and shifted her attention away from Shining. She was about to call for Twilight, when the gem golem smashed into her out of nowhere.

“Princess!” Twilight yelled and ran to her, but Celestia cut her off.

“Get-” The princess suffered a blow to her muzzle and then her neck as the golem kept pounding her with blow after blow on her blow, leaving cut marks on her every time. “Luna!”

Twilight didn’t at first, seeing her mentor being pummeled like that, but seeing how Luna was faring -

“Owowowowowowowowowowowowowowow,” the princess of the night repeated as the bubble kept shrinking with her inside.

it seemed the better idea to let Luna out and help her sister. Then she’d have to tend to Applejack and help Rainbow Dash with her opponent. Oh wait, Rarity and Spike have gotten there. Good.

“Princess Luna, I’m coming!” Twilight sprung into action and ran over to where Luna was.

“Owowowowowowowowowowowowow,” Luna kept saying even as she acknowledged Twilight’s presence.

“This shouldn’t take long.” Twilight charged up her horn and connected. Bubble cracked, shattered and Luna fell unceremoniously to the ground.

“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “Now I intend to repay him in full.” And upon seeing her sister being assaulted by the gem golem, it only fueled her determination.

To the point that she failed to hear something whistling toward her location. “Princess, look out!” Twilight ran for cover.

“Hm?” Luna looked up to see a firework rocket a mere second from impact. “Oh-”

Boom!

“Princess Luna?” Twilight looked at the impact site with a big deal of concern. Seeing a wobbling pony shape through the smoke gave her some relief.

“I’m fine,” Luna said, albeit a tad dazed by the explosion. “I’m alright. Any other pony and they’d be in deeper trouble.”

Then the second rocket hit right next to the princess, sending her flying briefly through the air. She didn’t move once she landed. Twilight and a few others (including the guards that had been just standing on the sidelines so far!) ran over to the dark alicorn. “Princess! Are you alright?”

Luna didn’t answer at first, but at least she was still conscious, though seeing stars in broad daylight. Her voice was croaked when she get air back. “Ah... could do wit’ sum cocopuffs.”

“Cocopuffs. Got it.” One of the guards saluted her and flew off in search of the requested item. The squad leader facehoofed and groaned loudly.

Twilight, having been relieved that Luna was only slightly damaged, looked around the battlefield and spotted another familiar pony, though it wasn’t going to be a friendly reunion. “..Trixie?”

“NOW!” Shining yelled.

“Stop them! Both of them!” The squad leader shouted and his troops sprung to action. “Miss Twilight, can I trust you with handling your brother?”

Twilight barely got to respond before he set off toward Trixie.

“Oh look, what’s a poor mare like me to do now?” Trixie semi-sobbed, before flaring up her horn. Pyrotechs emerged all around the guard, sending them reeling and singed by the fireworks and magic. The squad leader didn’t get singed, he just flew over the fireworks and landed in front of her.

“You got some nerve attacking Princess Luna like that, showpony.”

“And you got nerve to engage me alone, Sergeant,” Trixie replied with a grin. The sergeant didn’t realize what she was talking about until it was too late.

Hidden forces had, in the past, been a very useful tactic for the races that fought one another. Hide them away using the terrain and have them emerge when the enemy least expected it. When ponies did fight, they had the same tactics, with varieties depending on the ponies themselves. Pegasi always favoured mountain peaks and passing clouds to hide. Earth ponies were the masters of terrain and used forests and hillsides like the others. Unicorns...

Well, they took a step further in using spells that allowed them to sneak up on enemies without being spotted at all in the night. The sergeant chastised himself in not seeing that sooner. Sooner, as in, before being heaved up into the ground and then slammed back down by a pony that wasn’t there earlier. And then he was stepped on the head by a broad fetlock, rendering him unconscious.

Twilight was almost on the verge of panicking. First Shining Armor, then Trixie and now Romance? Something was up and she wasn’t in control of anything. And with most of the guards licking their burnt coats and the sergeant just knocked unconscious, it left her almost alone, until her friends could assemble themselves.

She took a deep breath and started thinking.

With the gem golem assaulting Princess Celestia, that left Spike and Rarity free to do something. Applejack had been attacked by something fast (most likely a pegasus) and it was still something not hidden from the rest. Most civilians were running from the scene, leaving mainly combatant ponies there. Fluttershy was severely injured in her eye. Luna was incapacitated for the moment and Twilight had virtually no idea how fast she could recover. Maybe soon enough, maybe too late.

Rainbow Dash was occupied with the pegasus stallion bearing down on her wings and Pinkie Pie was in the middle of reloading her cannon. What were Rarity and Spike doing?

Twilight took a look over her shoulder to see that Rarity was running to tend to Applejack, with Spike heading for Pinkie. Then that fast swooping form came down again, aiming straight for Rarity.

Before Twilight could yell for her friend to watch out, she got hit herself by a magic missile, forcing her off her hooves and hitting the ground.

Her sight was almost blurred for a second, but she froze in fear when she saw Shining Armor standing over her with that glare. Twilight shrunk together at seeing her brother being so hostile. “No, no no no no no...” she covered her face with her hooves, not willing to see what would happen.

He merely lifted the tiara off her head and left her there. What? He was... he wanted the Elements!

Twilight rose up to see that Shining and his group had managed to steal all six of the Elements from her and her friends, after leaving most of them incapacitated so they couldn’t resist or take up pursuit properly.

Of their group she saw Shining, Trixie, Prince Romance, the ex-Wonderbolt Tempest and another pegasus with a sandy yellow coat and a brown short mane with matching tail banded together, with the unicorns striking their horns together to form a dome of magic energy.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Twilight could still stand. She could still use magic. She could still fight. And she was the most powerful unicorn in Equestria. She’d be bucked to Tartarus if she were to fail now. Right now, she was the one thing standing between Shining and victory. “This ends now,” She stated as she began charging up her horn.

“I could not agree more.” That voice changed the whole stage. Twilight’s eyes narrowed on hearing that one.

“What?” was all that she could say before a bolt of black energy shot her right on the chest.

-

Celestia didn’t feel anymore on her person, merely a cascade of gems falling over her for a final time. Waiting a brief second for any more coming on to her, she rose her head up to see Twilight get hit by that bolt and her heart almost stopped out of concern and grief. Right before it got refueled by rage.

The alicorn rose up first before charging over against the dome, her mane now crackling with blue fire and eyes crimson red.

But even she could break the shield when she slammed into it. At least not immediately. She did make a crack at it and it was enough for her determination. “You will not succeed here, Sombra,” she snarled while stomping on the shield. “Not while I am in control of this land.”

“You say that as if it’s an invitation to take you down, Celestia,” Sombra said to her. “But I have something else in mind right now than conquest and rulership. That will come later.”

Celestia paused in her stomping. “What are you talking about?”

“And with delegates coming so soon, you should perhaps keep up your... appearance for the sake of your peace? We don’t want them to get the wrong idea, do we?”

With that, the shield dispersed, along with the dome. Nopony was there.

Celestia wanted to scream, loudly and for a long time. Sombra had targeted the Elements all along, and he must have had used the changelings and/or the diamond dogs to drive Celestia into action. That ruthless, thoughtless, arrogant-

Munch!

What? She looked down on her leg.

“Spike?” The little dragon let go of her leg and looked at her directly.

“Look, Celestia, I know that this isn’t the best time, and I know I could have done more myself, but right now we need to tend to the others, stat.” Celestia took a look over the whole battlefield.

Her soldiers were singed and had trouble seeing. Applejack was dazed in her head, Fluttershy covered her eye as best she could, Rainbow Dash’s wings had seen much better days and Rarity was lamenting the damage done to her couch after the couch golem had collapsed under its own weight.

Pinkie Pie pulled the ramrod out of the barrel of her cannon and got to the sights... only to see that the fight was over. “Oh, come on! Knew I shouldn’t have prepared the sarsaparilla bombs,” she grumbled.

Twilight was barely conscious herself and clutching herself in pain. Luna was still seeing stars with a guard standing by her side.

Celestia wanted to break down in sobs over it all, but instead she took a deep breath, sighed and picked Twilight up gently onto her back.

-

Some time by the hospital, the doctors and nurses were working like crazy.

Applejack had gotten a concussion and were given the appropriate pills to down at least twice a day with water for the headache that could come with it.

Rainbow Dash was grounded for a few days. She asked at least if she couldn’t stay at the hospital this time. They bound up her wings nonetheless and put a buzzer on in case she were to mess with her wings before they gave her the clear.

Pinkie had gotten a few scrapes but nothing serious so she was the one who didn’t need an overlook by the nurse.

She did wish Fluttershy had been that lucky. Her eye wasn’t infected but she couldn’t use it for a few weeks and was forced to wear an eyepatch during that time. Pinkie helped bring the bandages needed.

Rarity had had a concussion of her own, but it was not as bad as Applejack, though she was given the pills just in case. She headed off for the spa to book appointments for all of them when it suited them.

The soldiers were given salves which they kneaded onto each other with care. Their squad leader was even worse. A serious concussion and he was bedridden for a few days.

Luna was also bedridden, but only for the night. She could return to her duties the day after. Alicorns seemed to be of sterner stuff than regular ponies. Her doctor said that any other pony that close to the explosions could have lost a leg. And she was having her first meal of the night, a bowl of cocopuffs with milk.

Celestia was just covered in cut marks and scrapes. The doctors and nurses took great care at the start not to upset her with the appliance of alcohol to prevent infection on them, but Celestia told that she wasn’t a delicate vase and they didn’t need to be careful. She could take the pain of it and her wounds were proof enough of that.

She and Twilight shared the same room, the latter pony being examined by the doctors per Celestia’s request. None of them had treated combat magic injuries before as there was no need and they had to send a nurse to fetch the old books on how to do it.

Twilight would be fine, her neck had been treated with salve and bandaged, but because of the magic bolt, she couldn’t do anything strenuous for days on end, such as carrying books or even trot. She had to walk if she wanted to breathe normally. Twilight looked very glum about today and she deserved to be. Once the doctors left the two of them alone with just one nurse each to treat their wounds, did Celestia speak up.

“It never is a good feeling, is it?”

Twilight sighed a little. “It stinks,” she said. “It stinks and I just downright hate it.” She couldn’t deny the tears coming. “Everything was supposed to be fine. Shining.. was gonna be fine, he would just be delayed by blizzards on his way to the Empire and Cadence... I mean.. he can’t be the one being behind all of this...”

It was right then that she looked at Celestia looking at her with a shaggy mane and bandages all over her. “..can he?”

The princess wasn’t too thrilled about that prospect. Fortunately, it wasn’t a real one. “No. He isn’t, Twilight. Shining Armor is not responsible for his actions right now.” And from there, Celestia told Twilight that Sombra was back.

At first, Twilight insisted that Sombra was dead, that there was no way he could have returned. Celestia countered with that she thought the same until today’s events. Twilight thought that it could have been somepony else, some other unicorn that had studied the effects and usage of dark magic, but the alicorn said that dark magic was forbidden ever since Sombra was first banished.

She had to cut Twilight off and say that it was an emergency that Twilight had used what little she knew in order to save the Crystal Empire, and Twilight couldn’t have known that beforehoof.

After their discussion, Twilight was quiet at first. Celestia almost squirmed at it, to the point that her nurse had to calm her down in order to apply the bandages correctly. She had almost forgotten their presence in the room.

“So... what do we do now?” Twilight asked finally.

“Our recommendation would be that you first rest up for the next few days,” her nurse said. “If you intend to go after this Sombra unicorn, you can’t do so in your current state.”

“Of course,” Celestia agreed. “You may have all your friends with you, but not even your body can completely heal. The doctors will take care of you fast enough for you to get back into shape.”

“And then?” Twilight asked, even though she knew the answer. Her expression told the princess everything.

Celestia smirked. “Let me worry about setting up your means of pursuit.”

Author's Note

Okay, first off... to all Fluttershy fans - I'M SORRY! Secondly, if you guys track down and kill me, this story will not be finished and she'll end up with that eyepatch for the rest of her frozen life.

Any questions regarding the fight, I will do my best to answer. I generally suck at making fight scenes.

Spectrum

“How’s the eyepatch, Fluttershy?”

The yellow mare winced at being reminded of her injury after the run-in with Sombra. Her new eyepatch, made of bandages, was distinctly seen by everypony in town and she didn’t like the attention. At least they were all nice and said gentle words whenever they did talk to her. Most others respected her privacy and gave a kind nod to her.

“Oh, it’s fine. The doctors said I shouldn’t touch it for about three weeks, but I can’t remove it for two months,” Fluttershy answered.

“That’s... not very comforting to know, really,” said Rainbow Dash. “Two months? That’ll take longer than this expedition if we’re quick.”

“On the plus side, they said I’ll make a full recovery,” said Fluttershy. “I was very lucky.”

Rainbow let out a big sigh of relief she didn’t know she held in.

“Ah hope we all get back into shape after that throwdown,” said Applejack. “It stinks more than a rotten bushel of apples tossed into a compost after gone through a pig’s stomach and back out.”

“Oink!”

“Umm... no offense,” Applejack apologized to the passing pig following its pony master. The pig walked away with a smile for that one.

“I would not have used such words myself, but I agree with Applejack,” Rarity commented, looking pristine as always.

“Why do you have so much makeup around your eyes?” Rainbow asked her.

“I did receive a couch flying right into my face, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity told her. Fluttershy winced at remembering the event “I cannot afford to look so horrid even after all that. But if I may continue on the current subject, this was a very bitter blow to us back then and we should definitely use some, as Rainbow Dash tends to say, payback.”

“Speaking of back then, ah’m curious, Pinkie. How did that pegasus manage to steal the Element of Laughter from you?”

Pinkie stood still as she simply looked forward into the air. It was very unnerving to see.

“Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked.

-

“In you go!” Pinkie shoved in a few rockets alongside a box of hairnet requisitions and an inflatable shark into her party cannon and used a ramrod to jab them in there.

Somepony handed her a concrete block with his hoof. “Oh, thank you,” she said.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“I’m loading up my cannon so I can join the fight. And I’m packing everything in there.”

“Everything?”

“Yes,” said Pinkie, ramming in another shark.

“Even that necklace of yours?” He asked and she stopped. A firework went off nearby. “Okay, I think you’re not gonna do that,” he said.

“No, it’s super-important that I hold onto it. Princess Celestia told me so, so I made a Pinkie Promise that I would take care of it.”

“In that case, maybe I should hold it while you load your cannon,” he said and Pinkie looked at him with narrowed eyes. “..I promise to take care of it.”

“Pinkie Promise?” She asked, doing the routine in front of him.

“Pinkie Promise,” He replied, repeating the motion.

She beamed up and took it off. “Okay, here you go, weird cute pegasus stallion I haven’t met before! Don’t go anywhere while I reload, okay?”

“I won’t,” he replied and took off into the air. “Er.. this doesn’t count as “go”, right?”

“Nope!”

-

They all stared at her.

“Were the sock-puppets really necessary?” Rainbow asked her.

Pinkie deflated (Not with the mane!) and took the socks off.

“Not my proudest moment,” she told them quietly.

Rarity sighed and looked around. “Say, where is Twilight and Spike? I can’t imagine what it would be like to be facing your own brother in all of this brewing chaos.”

“They went with the princesses back to Canterlot in order to acquire sum’ means of transport,” said Applejack. “With the peace summit coming soon, Princess Celestia reckoned we needed speed in order to catch up with Sombra.”

“No need, I’ll be flying solo,” Rainbow stated. “I’m gonna track him down myself.”

“And do what, might I ask?” Rarity inquired.

“Trash him so bad he’ll regret coming back.”

Applejack took a long blink. “Dash, as much as we know ya can deliver that, he did trash us not too long ago, and even with us fully healed, who’s to say he can’t do it again.”

Pinkie Pie walked up to stand beside Rainbow. “Because we’ll be prepared this time that he’ll be prepared this time. So we need to get prepared for him being prepared that we are prepared. Unless he’ll have prepared for us-” Rainbow shoved a forehoof into Pinkie’s mouth. Pinkie kept mumbling about how they needed to be prepared for him being prepared for them and so on.

“I also got a wing to pluck with that Tempest fellow. Wonderbolt or not, he’s working with Sombra now, and that’s all the motivation I need to take him down,” said Rainbow as Pinkie kept mumbling through the hoof.

“We all have personal scores to settle,” Rarity pointed out. “That slimy pegasus thief... certainly knows his way to charm a lady, I’ll give him that, but to use such skills for personal gain when he could have been an actor or a business pony? I’ll destroy him next time I see him.”

“Ya gonna have to get in line, Rare,” said Applejack. “Cuz if Ah’m hearing things right from Pinkie, that stallion broke a Pinkie Promise.”

This caused the pink pony to stop mumbling with wide eyes. Fluttershy thought for sure that if Pinkie was recalibrating the events herself, then-

Pinkie narrowed her eyes very tightly with steam blowing out of her ears. The eyes turned flaming yellow. Rainbow Dash took the hoof away and stepped back from her. “Nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise.”

Fluttershy noticed that she was suddenly under a shade and looked up. She gasped to see a large airship form above them all and it was getting bigger as it closed in.

It was colored white and blue as the Royal Guard were, with a dash of gold here and there. It spanned the length of half Ponyville and built for speed as well as endurance, meaning it was sleek yet large to house supplies. Almost anypony with an eye for engineering specs and/or a hobby for airships could see it.

A white form leaped from its observation deck and dove down towards them. Fluttershy almost wanted to get away until she saw that it was Princess Celestia, free of her bandages now. She landed gracefully in front of them, carrying Twilight and Spike on her back.

“Princess!” Rarity reacted first and bowed, the others following in tow. Celestia dismissed them and referred instead to the airship.

“The ERAF Spectrum. Built for long distance travel in rapid time with full crew, it’s one of our military prides.” Twilight and Spike jumped off her as she spoke. “And as Commander-in-chief of the military, I deemed it a necessary action to hand it over to my finest band of heroes.”

“Ya mean...” Applejack pointed to the whole group of them. “Us, Princess?”

“Yes, Applejack,” said Celestia. “King Sombra poses the biggest threat to us all and he has stolen the Elements. Without them, Equestria is left without one of its greatest defenses and the peace summit would go very ill for us. Need I say more?”

“Not at all, your Highness,” said Rainbow Dash with a wide grin. “We’re itching for payback and you just gave us something reserved for birthdays.”

“I just wish I could redecor,” Rarity commented, still looking at the airship. “but I’ll gladly take the chance to go traveling on that marvelous piece of machinery.”

“So when do we leave?” Applejack asked.

“Tomorrow,” said Twilight. “The princess and I are going to be busy working on a device that will help us track down the Elements. The rest of you should take the time to finish up with whatever work you have and get ready.”

“Just like that?” Rarity asked. “Twilight, I understand that you want to bring your brother back home, but we need to be certain that nothing happens here while we’re away.”

“Which is why we’re leaving tomorrow,” said Twilight. “I’d have us leave immediately, but Princess Celestia said I was being too rash with that.”

“You could say that again,” Spike commented. “Twi was all over the place, telling everyone to please hurry at the refitting, telling her parents, packing maps and books we might need...” A glare from Twilight sent Spike to a quiet place.

“I sympathize with Twilight,” said Celestia, muzzling her pupil briefly. “but we cannot be overcome with stress constantly during this mission. Please, explain to the your families and friends what is happening and why you need to-”

“Whoa there, Princess,” Applejack interrupted. “Nearly everypony in town saw our showdown with Sombra. Ah don’t think they need to know why we’re leaving as much as we need to ask for extra help to look after our work here.”

Celestia stayed silent for a few seconds, before smiling. “Yes. Exactly.”

Rainbow took off swiftly back to her house, Rarity trotted back to Carousel Boutique, the others went back to their respective homes. Fluttershy went slow, walking rather than trotting back to her hovel and she couldn’t help but think.

She had been stabbed in the eye, meaning she couldn’t use the Stare. And she was going to help her friends against a unicorn who was known to inspire and invoke fear in other ponies.

How much help could she really be against somepony like that?

Author's Note

Okay, a short chapter this time. Just to show I'm still active.

Now, I'm open for suggestions here. I need chapter ideas on what could happen during their quest. I have an idea for what can happen in some of the chapters, particularly the challenges Sombra will have in store (mostly), but it can't be just that. Anyone who thinks they might have something, please comment and I will contact you if I find it good enough. Don't worry, I have a very low boredom threshold.

The airship is basically a palette swapped this.

ERAF is short for Equestrian Royal Air Force, if you had trouble with acronyms.

Take off

Rarity consults her sister - Scootaloo wants something - Fluttershy gets presents - Applebloom is advised - Twilight and Celestia have a talk - Everypony is prepared - The Spectrum takes off - The Enemy sets his board

“I can do without this,” Rarity said as she dismissed a few bolts of cloths, taking only her best selection. “Scarfs? It could be chilly, better pack for us all. Do I need to bring my seamster equipment? I do need to vent at times and I cannot go bursting at my friends...”

“Rarity...” Sweetie Belle whined.

“Oh no, I can’t simply go with emeralds, I’ll have to survive on baby blue sapphires. We can gather more gemstones if the need arises.”

“Rarity...”

“What if Sombra has placed the Elements in courts? We’d need to look our best. Better pack the Gala outfits for such occasions..”

Sweetie Belle decided she had had enough of her sister’s whizzing about in the shop, ignoring her. Time to get her attention, she thought as she inhaled deeply and-

“Don’t,” Rarity cut her off. Sweetie stopped her yell and had to cough for a few moments. A cup of water levitated to her and she took it.

“You knew I was here all along?” Sweetie asked after finishing her cup.

“Of course I did,” Rarity answered walking over to her. “I’m actually surprised all you did was say my name in belief that you would get my attention that way when you already did.”

“But all you did was pack things you thought you’d need and remove things you thought you didn’t need,” Sweetie argued.

“Sweetie Belle, I am much more focused on other things than the exercise I do at the moment when I want to. Now, there was something you wanted to talk to me about?”

Sweetie sighed and tried to think back. She had practiced in her head but going through with it was so... hard right now. “How long are... you going to be gone?”

“A few weeks, at most,” said Rarity. “I do hope I can find somepony who can look after the boutique while I’m gone.” She nuzzled her little sister. “I do know you want to try, Sweetie Belle, but we both know what has happened the last few times you wanted to watch the store.”

Sweetie felt guilty and looked to her hooves. “At least I managed to put out the fire,” she said quietly.

“And told me what happened,” said Rarity. “Which I do appreciate. But your talents lie elsewhere, in more abstract regions, darling. I do wish I could be there on the day you finally get your cutie mark.”

“Can’t I come with you?”

“What!?”

“That way we could be there when-”

“No,” Rarity snapped. “You can’t come with us. And no arguing, it’s for your own good. I will not have my sister placed in danger.” Rarity went back to her packing. Sweetie felt bad on seeing her like that being more distraught over what to bring and what to leave. She could tell by the fact that she had seen this behavior before over the years.

Rarity was always calm, whenever she was working, even when in a hurry. That’s how she managed her job. When she packed, she did so neatly and in an orderly fashion. Now she was bumbling over who-knows-what and tiny little things like if she should bring an umbrella or a raincloak. Sweetie knew it was always over something that mattered deeply to Rarity.

“Could you at least tell me why?”

That got Rarity to stop. She put down all the things she held with her telekinesis, walked over to Sweetie and gave her a fierce hug. “I don’t want to see you hurt,” she said quietly.

“When we were up in the Crystal Empire, Sombra was not afraid to hurt any of us,” she continued, looking straight in Sweetie’s eyes. “He was horrid, cruel and downright sadistic. Not to mention a terrible taste in regalia.” She rolled her eyes at the last one.

“But when he spotted the Crystal Heart, and Spike falling toward him as he was nearing victory, I could spot him licking his lips. He was going to do more to Spike than anypony would dare to imagine. And all I could do, was watch.” Rarity shuddered as she seemed to recall the moment.

“Rarity?”

“And you saw what he did to Twilight when he was here. He doesn’t hesitate to use violence against us and he will go across the moral horizon. That is why you and the other girls cannot come. We don’t want anything to happen to any of you at the hooves of that... that...”

“Horrible, evil, tacky-dressed ruffian?” Sweetie Belle offered.

Rarity blinked twice. “Yes, that.” She nuzzled Sweetie again. “Maybe I could ask Lyra to watch the shop in my place.”

“I could... make sure she doesn’t touch the things you would want out of harm’s way?” Sweetie offered. “Or... um, see if I could get a cutie mark with her help?”

Rarity giggled. “That’s sweet of you to ask, but no need. I’ve already locked them away and the key is in a safe place.”

“Where?”

“A safe place,” Rarity repeated. “You won’t get it out of me that easily, Sweetie Belle. Anything else?”

“One thing and I’ve always wondered about it.”

“What?”

“Why does anypony keep expecting me to sing?” Sweetie asked. “I can’t sing in front of others.”

Rarity giggled to some knowledge only she knew. Sweetie could coax it out of her someday.

Rainbow was packing very little. Just bare essentials, her toothbrush, hairbrush, wing preening gear, saddlebags for packing prank stuff that Pinkie would no doubt bring along.Heck, knowing her, anything Pinkie would bring would play a keyrole on this journey.

But Rainbow Dash also unpacked something from an old trunk in her closet, an old hoof-claw she never thought she’d need to use. It was an old hoof-mounted device that deployed a pair of metal claws when triggered in just the right way. She got it from her grandmother, who in turn got it from her mother, Firefly. Her dad wasn’t too fond of the thing, but Rainbow found it cool so she got it instead of him.

She learned how to use it in secret, of course. Didn’t want Scootaloo to find out and have an accident with the darn thing. She put it on her hoof and flexed, deploying the metal claws. Confirming that it still worked, she retracted them.

Hmm, this thing looks worn out. Better get some cleaning gear to maintain it. Maybe there’s something in the trunk Grandmother sent. Maybe I can get some by making a... what were they called again? Those papers for requesting things officially for free in the military.

The noise of a scooter coming closer down below brought a smile to Rainbow. Scootaloo was probably wondering if she could come with. Buck no was the obvious answer and she was going to tell her that along with an explanation as to why.

Scootaloo would argue about it and try to come with them nonetheless, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t gonna have any of that. She had enough trouble with handling Ditzy with the thunderclouds and looking for her whenever Dinky sent a message to the Academy asking to retrieve her from her lost trips. The Wonderbolts made it a daily routine to keep an eye out for Ditzy and send her home to Ponyville.

Scootaloo was getting lessons on the side of Rainbow’s time in the Academy and she was getting better, albeit marginally. Little rascal was set on becoming a Wonderbolt herself, just like Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow needed to remember asking for someone to teach her while she was away.

“Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo called.

“On my way,” she called back and went immediately for the door of her sky-house. She landed in front of the little filly with a smirk. “So what’s up?”

Scootaloo laughed at the little pun there and beamed at Rainbow. “Well, I was gonna ask you something.”

“If you’re wondering about coming with, no. I don’t wanna see you hurt and I’d hate having to explain to your family what happened to you just because I was irresponsible,” said Rainbow. “Scoots, I’ll be honest, you’d be the first wingpony I’d have with me on something like this and there would be a good chance that you could get your cutie mark on the job, but this is too risky to bring you along and we are already taking chances with Spike coming along since we need to keep updating the princesses about this.

“So... I’m sorry, but I can’t take you with me.”

Scootaloo stared at Rainbow with a blank look. “Actually I was gonna ask if I could look after Tank for you while you’re away.”

Rainbow couldn’t find any words at first for about five seconds. “Uh... well, I mean... yes. Yes, you can look after Tank.”

“Thanks,” said Scootaloo. She looked away for a moment. “Um... about that other stuff...”

“Yes?”

“I really appreciate you saying all that, but I know better now than just go off wherever you want. Gotta follow sister’s orders and all. Don’t want a repeat of what happened on the camping trip.”

Rainbow smiled. “Good. Just what I wanted to hear.”

“One condition, though,” Scootaloo mentioned.

“What’s that?”

“Kick Sombra’s flank for biting Twilight in the neck.”

“Ooh, I’ll get to him, don’t you worry,” said Rainbow with a smirk. “I’m gonna bash him so hard he’ll have trouble with going to the bushes for eternity.”

“Ew,” Scootaloo mumbled, then saw something out of the corner of her eye. “Hey, what’s that?”

Rainbow noted that she was looking at the hoof claws on her wrist. “Oh, this old thing? Just something from my grandma. Was thinking of bringing it along.” It deployed when Rainbow held it up.

“Oh, that is so cool!” Scootaloo’s inner fanfilly came out and her eyes were practically sparkling.

“I’m not teaching you how to use it,” Rainbow stated. “Maybe in a few years, but you need to practice with your wings first. Then we might talk other stuff.”

“Sure thing,” said Scootaloo with pride. “I’ll practice everyday as much as I can.”

Rainbow Dash had made a good choice. Scootaloo was a great little sister.

Harry grunted and stroked her mane.

“It’s really not all that bad,” Fluttershy told them. Several of them chirped and squeaked in protest. “Yes, I know, it felt horrible when it happened, but I am going to get better if I just leave it alone.”

Harry grunted.

“Yes, for a few weeks,” Fluttershy replied. “Don’t worry, I’m a tough cookie, like Pinkie would say. But...”

A squirrel hopped onto her shoulder and nuzzled her. “I don’t know if I can use the Stare like this. And I don’t know if I can be of any help this time.”

Angel stomped with his foot and gave a stare that said ‘You’re a lot better than that.’

Harry’s grunts came off as ‘Yeah, you can’t quit on your friends. You’ve gone up against a dragon.’

“Yes, but this is different. This is a unicorn that specializes in finding out your worst fears and showing them in front of you. And... there’s a lot of things I am afraid of.”

‘Does he know what you’re afraid of?’

“I don’t know if he does,” said Fluttershy.

‘Then let’s assume he doesn’t. Would you go up against him, then?’

Fluttershy averted her eyes from her animal friends. “Well, yes. But Twilight once ran into a door that showed you your worst fear... He likes to make traps... and I wouldn’t want to run into those.”

‘Then have faith in your friends. They will always help you.’

Fluttershy smiled. “Thank you, my friends. You know how to cheer up a pony.”

There was a knock on the door. Wondering who that could be, Fluttershy walked to her door.

“Fluttershy?” Ditzy was flying over a small pile of assorted goods and gift baskets adorned with cards. “These were sent by...”

Fluttershy zoned out there, looking at the pile. She spotted a box of Bon Bon’s “Get Well” chocolate, the white box and the red ribbons, alongside two bouquets of flowers, a bottle of grape juice, a butterfly shaped hairpin, four gift baskets with fresh fruit mostly not local to Equestria and a box from Sugarcube Corner with her favorite flavored cupcakes.

“All this for me?” Fluttershy asked.

“Uh... no, I got something for you too,” said Ditzy and gave her a muffin. “Everyone likes muffins. But that mean unicorn was just cruel to poke you like that. He won’t get one.”

“Oh, that’s okay, Ditzy,” said Fluttershy. “He was just a good pony forced to make a bad decision. I’m sure he’ll apologize next time he comes to town.”

Somepony approaching drew both mares’ attention. They saw Big McIntosh walking up to Fluttershy’s cottage with a gift basket in his mouth, this one filled with Red Delicious apples. If he seemed surprised by the amount of presents already at Fluttershy’s doorstep, he didn’t show it.

“Oh, hello. Big McIntosh,” said Fluttershy as he stepped up and placed the basket gently beside the pile. “Is that intended for me?”

“Eeyup,” he replied.

“I need to go,” said Ditzy and gave Fluttershy a peck on the cheek before flying off.

“That was... nice,” Fluttershy commented.

“Eeyup,” said Big Mac. Fluttershy took a look at him and his gift basket. She had read somewhere in one of Rarity’s romance novels about gifts. Ponies who merely used a messenger tended to be shallow. Ponies who deliver them personally...

Wait, why did she think that? Everyone fantasized about Big McIntosh and she had - on the odd occasion - been over there while he was working on the fields. Applejack had had to snap her out of gazing.

Wait, hold on, this was a golden opportunity. Here he was, he was delivering a gift basket personally to her and ohmygoodnesshe’sleaving!

“Wait, Big McIntosh!” she said that a bit louder than intended but it drew his attention and she - accidentally - slammed into him because he had stopped abruptly. “Um.. you know, if it’s not too much trouble...” she stammered while looking up his broad chest and shoulders. “After all this is over, if you don’t mind, would you like to go for a cup of...” She slowed down to a grinding halt, blushing as red as his coat.

Big McIntosh grimaced a few times and closed his eyes before he gave his answer.

“Eeyup.”

“Now, ah expect ya to do what Big McIntosh says is good for ya to do on the fields, okay?”

“Okay,” said Applebloom.

Applejack rummaged through a closet. “And make sure that he gets a break every now and then. Big Mac likes to get worked up so he doesn’t know when dinner’ll be, okay?”

“Okay,” said Applebloom.

Applejack noticed and walked over to her little sister. “Yer upset that Ah’m going, aren’t ya?”

“Yeah...” Applebloom tried using her pouty face at Applejack. “Do ya’ll really have ta go?”

“Applebloom, we’ve gone over this,” said Applejack. “Ah have ta go. The princess is counting on us ta find our Elements of Harmony, stop Sombra and bring’ em back ta Canterlot so we can have peace.” A beat. “And no, you and yer friends cannot come. It’s too dangerous.”

“Ah know,” said Applebloom. “Ya said it a few times already. Ah know Ah should stay in Ponyville, go to school and try to get mah cutie mark.”

“Good,” said Applejack. She softened visibly and nuzzled. “Ah know ya wanna come but somepony got to keep an eye on Big McIntosh and Granny Smith.”

“That’s right!” Pinkie Pie emerged out of AJ’s closet and made both them jump straight up and hit their heads on the ceiling. “Who knows what could happen to them if you two were to leave? It wouldn’t be as bad as when Applejack left for Dodge Junction to work as the cherry farm and I had to go on about kumquats and chimicherrychangas to make her spill the beans and I was still hungry after that, but still bad to leave Granny and Big Mac alone. They need somepony to look after and in turn, be looked after-”

“Pinkie,” said Applejack, having caught her breath and focused her eyesight on the pink mare. “Is there ANY particular reason ya had ta be in mah closet at this particular time?”

Pinkie blinked once before answering. “I was looking for that old toy cart you once showed me when I was invited over to your house after I had moved here to Ponyville.”

“Ya want mah-?” Applejack asked first, before going over to an old trunk of hers beside her bed to pull out an old ragged little blue thing with white wheels and lid. “Here ya go.”

Pinkie squealed and took the toy cart carefully and put in her saddlebags that wasn’t there before. “I’ll be sure to return it safely.”

“Thank ye kindly for that, Pinkie. But... Ah wanna know what you gonna do-”

“SHHHH!” Pinkie was immediately on to Applejack, covering her mouth and darting her eyes about. “I can’t tell. He’s watching.”

“He?”

“You-Know-Who,” Pinkie answered in quick whispers. “He’s watching our every move, evaluating us. That’s what I would do if I was you-know-what.”

“Pinkie, now it’s a little far-fetched,” said Applejack in a normal tone. “Sombra may be good at dark magic and all, but Ah don’t think he can watch ponies from afar.”

“You don’t know that, I don’t know that,” Pinkie counted in whispers. “But I don’t want to take risks. I can’t risk him seeing what I try to do.”

Applejack stared at Pinkie. “Alright. Well, here ya go with mah old toy cart. Hope the Twins will like it as a substitute while we’re away.”

“Oh, I am certain that they will,” Pinkie played along. And then her head buzzed.

“What’s that one?” Applebloom asked.

“Oh that one means that somepony wants to see somepony over something.”

There was a knock on the door of the farm house. “Applebloom?” Twilight’s voice was heard. “Would you mind help me and the Princess out with something real quick?”

Applebloom lit up and beamed at her sister. “Go get’em, AB.”

Applebloom was out the door as fast as her hooves could carry her.

-

“Note to self: Discover how “Pinkie Pie” can find out being scried upon, whilst being just an Earth Pony.”

“So y’all want me to get in there and see what the problem is with the... with the...?” Applebloom asked, looking at the insides of a large bowl like device in a chamber aboard the Spectrum.

“With the holographic magic tracking module,” Twilight finished for her. “With this we’ll be able to track down the Elements with the spell princess Celestia put on them.”

Princess Celestia smiled gently at the filly. “Twilight said something about you possibly having the chance for a cutie mark in engineering or at the very least, tool usage. I support her decision and one should always strive to help our foals earn their marks.”

“Plus, judging from this hole, Ah reckon tha’ the other engineers made a mistake when it came to making sure ya’ll could reach in incase a’ sumthing.” To which, the chief engineer stuttered.

“This is absurd,” he protested. “Why should we let a little filly, a child, have a go at this delicate device when we couldn’t?”

“I have the utmost faith in Twilight’s judgment,” said Celestia with a true smile. “And who knows, you might actually get an apprentice if this goes well.”

Applebloom took another look inside the thing and then back at Twilight. “Alright, Ah’ll do it. Pass me tools when I ask for ‘em.” She took off her bow and slid inside. “Holy! What kind ‘a couplings were you using now again!?”

“That’s it,” said the chief engineer. “I’ll be taking my break if you don’t mind.” He went outside, though both adults doubted he’d be back for the humiliation.

With just the three of them in the room and Applebloom occupied, Twilight could only look at Celestia with concern. Her neck still ached from the bite and the teeth-marks were still fading. She was okay so long as she didn’t do too much with her neck for a few more days.

Celestia looked as if nothing had happened to her at all, but Twilight noticed that something was bugging her. She could leave it alone for now, but Twilight was really wanting to know something else. “Er... princess?”

“Yes, Twilight?”

“Um...” Twilight shifted her eyes. “There was, uh... something that I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Go ahead, Twilight,” said Celestia.

“Back when Sombra was here and fought us... he, uh... he... called you a tyrant,” said Twilight with growing concern.

“So he did,” said Celestia, nonchalantly. Twilight felt even more out of her comfort zone with Celestia being like this.

“But... you can’t be one!” She exclaimed at last. A bump from inside told her Applebloom was startled. “Sorry!” She said and then turned to her teacher. “There’s no way you could be like him. He’s just a cruel, selfish and sadistic maniac!”

“So he is,” said Celestia.

“There’s no way you could be a tyrant like him,” Twilight told her mentor.

“Twilight... in a way, he is right in calling me that,” said Celestia.

At this point, Twilight gave off such a loud ‘WHAT’ it could be heard over in Canterlot. It disrupted some important paperwork.

“Twilight!” Applebloom yelled after the echo had subsided. “Give a darn tootin’ heads up before y’all give off screams like that!”

“It’s alright, Applebloom,” Celestia assured the filly. “I expected that.”

“Ah also need a tool of sorts. Ah dunno, something that gives off vibrations or the like, it feels something odd that ah need it in here.”

“That would be the new sonic screwdriver we have,” said Celestia and levitated one into the device.

“Got it, now how do y’all operate this thing?”

“Princess... just...” Twilight stared at Celestia in disbelief. “How? How can you be a tyrant? You’re nothing like Sombra.”

“Ne’ervind, Ah go’ rit!”

Celestia sighed. “Twilight, being a tyrant has nothing to do with how I rule or how I behave. It’s just a title.” She knelt down to lay a wing over her faithful student. “Twilight, he is right in calling me a tyrant, because there was nothing wrong with it at the time.”

“Huh?”

“Y’all wanna explain tha’ again?” Applebloom called from within the module.

“Twilight, Applebloom, a tyrant was originally somepony who had seized power of a nation through military might or other unconventional means. They had no legal right originally as well as today, but they were generally more liked than other means of government, such as the aristocracy.

“Sombra is still thinking with the archaic meaning of the title and so, in his mind, he is justified in calling me a tyrant. And there is such a thing as benevolent tyranny.”

“Really?” Twilight asked. At Celestia’s nod, she continued. “Well, I guess you would be one, princess. But to think that you wouldn’t have legal right-”

“Twilight, for me to have had any legal right to rule Equestria would have been for me to be Discord’s legitimate daughter,” Celestia informed her. Twilight felt like gagging. “If it makes you feel any better, I would say that Luna and I had a much better reason than Sombra to take the land by force.”

“...Yeah. Discord and his reign of chaos.” Ponyville’s brief episode as the ‘Chaos Capital of the World’ was enough to convince Twilight of how bad Discord’s first reign had been. “So when exactly did the whole tyrant thing get so pejorative?”

“What’s that?” Applebloom asked.

“Negative,” Celestia answered. “I reckon it would be about when ponies came to realize that tyranny could also mean that they wouldn’t as much personal freedom as they would under regular rule, and the aristocracy began to get more firm with how they ruled, making rules for themselves. Since then, most have seen to it that only the bad sides of tyranny have been displayed through history. Ironically, everypony here in Equestria sought to make legitimized claims for me and Luna to make sure that we weren’t tyrants, if they ever found out.”

Twilight remembered reading old history books talking of how Celestia and Luna had been born into the first great royal family, using their bloodlines to ensure ponies that they had right to rule and would always be there for ponies as long as they wished to be free and live in harmony.

For the first time in her life, Twilight started to consider that those books may have contained utter rubbish on the subject. “So... you and princess Luna are tyrants in a very old concept?”

“Yes.”

“And ponies have been trying to cover that up for how long?”

“It’s more like that our subjects have forgotten how Luna and I came to power. I do have old journals in my personal library to describe how that time was.”

“Could y’all pass me a hammer?” Applebloom asked. “Ah feel like Ah need to give something a whack in here.”

Celestia passed the filly a small hammer. “Would you like to read them sometime, Twilight? I could send them along with you.”

“No thank you,” said Twilight. “Not at the moment. I think I’ll stick to Daring Do and Rarity’s thrashy romance novels. Need to get my mind off things less important than this journey.”

It took a few minutes of klanking and banging before Appebloom emerged from the little hole in the module. “Alright, Ah think that’s it. Have y’all tried it?”

Twilight pushed a button and the module flared up with its bright orange hologram of the world, displaying Equestria and the other nations. “Yes, it worked!”

“Yee-haw!” Applebloom cheered. “Ah’m up for a-” Then she noticed that she still was a blank-flank. “Oh, dagnabbit.”

Celestia gave a simple laugh. “It’s alright, Applebloom. Cutie marks don’t come that fast for everypony. They do come for ponies who work hard and well at what they are good at and who don’t give up after just one try.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be informing the engineers about the success here. And maybe see about getting young Applebloom here an apprenticeship for her work.”

Celestia left and as soon as the door clicked, Applebloom went berserk with joy. “AAAAAAAAAHHH! Ah can get a cutie mark in tool use!” She repeated over and over as she dashed across the whole room with a speed probably only Rainbow Dash or another joy-filled filly could match. “Ah can get a cutie mark in tool use!”

Twilight laughed. “Okay, Applebloom, simmer down. We don’t want the module to break. We need it intact.”

A shiver down her spine came suddenly and Twilight felt as if somepony was watching her. But except for Applebloom who was still jumping up and down with glee...

There was nopony there.

The next day at dawn, Twilight was waiting for the others to come by the town hall, with Spike by her side and the Mayor standing by on the porch. Her saddlebags were packed with her own selection of books and Spike was packing his comics and scrolls to send to Celestia.

“Isn’t it time?” The mayor asked them.

“Yes,” said Twilight. “and they will come. They’re just clearing a few last things up, I’m certain.”

Almost immediately, Rainbow Dash came flying down and landed in front of the trio. “Sorry. I was leaving Tank over at Scootaloo’s place and had to say goodbye and to assure him. Took forever.”

Rainbow was having her own saddlebags as well and something on her forehoof above the fetlock. Spike noticed that directly. “What’s that?”

“This?” Rainbow said and released the claws. “Old family thing. Came from my great-great-grandmother.” She retracted them again. “Just in case of trouble.”

Twilight nodded as Applejack and Fluttershy came, AJ with her saddlebags and Fluttershy having... nothing with her. “Left the animals with somepony, Fluttershy?”

“Oh yes,” said Fluttershy. “Mister Hayseed was so kind to look after them while we’re gone. I just hope that we’re not gone for too long.”

“Relax, Fluttershy,” said Applejack. “That there airship is one of the fastest there is. Ah reckon we’ll make records with this trip in lickety split.”

“Yeah, so long as I’m the one ahead of it,” Rainbow snapped. “Can’t have my own record beat by a big balloon with weights.”

“Here I am!” Pinkie announced, bouncing her way out of town hall and jumping over the mayor. She was having her saddlebags with her along with her wagon that bounced along with her. “Can’t say where I’ve been, cuz you wouldn’t like it.”

“Why wouldn’t we?” Twilight asked. Then she regretted it. “Eurgh, don’t answer that.”

Rarity came last with a wagon of supplies, including her equipment and a few bolts of cloth. “I’m so sorry to come so late, but I had to instruct Lyra about how to run the shop while we’re away. Simply cannot let it fall to waste with purchases.”

“You look like you’re expecting to make dresses during this journey,” Applejack pointed out.

“Why, of course,” Rarity replied. “There could be a chance for us to be invited to a high class party during this trip since we could officially be delegates for peace while we’re away-”

“Ugh, boring,” Rainbow Dash muttered.

“-and I simply thought we need to look our best for such occasions. Even with speed as the essence, we don’t want to be rude, do we?” To empathize her point, Rarity even fluttered her eyelashes innocently, if that was even possible.

“Well...” Twilight started off and looked to the others for support. None to be had. “Okay, but we cannot stay long on those occasions. This isn’t a time to gather business for the boutique, Rarity, deal?”

“Deal,” Rarity said rather smugly.

“Okay, is everypony ready?”

“Yes.”

“Yup.”

“Yuppie Puppie.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

“Everypony don’t need to go to the bushes?”

“Yes.”

“Yup.”

“Yuppie Puppie.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

“Spike, Pinkie. I just wanna be sure-”

“I said yeah!”

“Yuppie Puppie!”

Twilight sighed in relief. “We’re ready, Mayor.”

“Excellent,” said Ivory Scroll. “The Princess has delegated things to me to speed things up.” She had her assistant levitate a scroll in front of her. The royal seal spoke plainly of its sender. “Good Twilight Sparkle and friends, you are about to embark on one of the most important missions for the sake of Equestria. As Princess and ruler of Equestria, it is my privilege to bestow upon you the right to do what is necessary to succeed. So long as you write down your own version of any incident you may partake in, we can offer you protection from public.

“It’s a long list of things here,” the mayor intervened reading the scroll. “Remember to stay together and trust in each other and you will prevail over this foe. Good luck.

“Signed, Princess Celestia.” The scroll was rolled up and passed over to Twilight so she could read the list later. “And I would like to add... Well, good luck, I suppose.”

“Thanks,” said Twilight.

“Alright, let’s get this show in the air,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Anchors weighed,” said a crewpony.

“Ballasts are all set,” said another.

“This is engine room,” said an intercom in the bridge. “We’re all set and ready down here.”

The captain turned to the six mares and the dragon on the bridge. “Whenever you’re ready, ladies.”

Twilight turned to her friends who all nodded in agreement. “You know what to do, captain.”

The captain redirected his attention to the crew. “All hooves to your stations! Secure harnesses. Lock down all objects. Redirect power to engines!”

They felt the ship stir and creak mildly by the strain of turning. It was slow, but it was worth the view. Down below, they all could see ponies them goodbye and good luck. There was even a sign saying “Kick Evil’s Flank!!!” down there.

The mares couldn’t help themselves, so they rushed out to the observation deck and waved back at them. Pegasi gave small salutes and flew by them.

Rarity could see the CMC down below, Scootaloo with Rainbow Dash’s pet tortoise and they were all with Big McIntosh on the side. Sweetie Belle was waving straight at her and she waved back.

Pinkie saw the Cakes at Sugarcube Corner and waved at them. Then Mrs. Cake seemed to freak, but that was due to Gummy being on her back.

Thunderlane flew up to the obs-deck and held up a hoof. Rainbow Dash flew up and bumped it before flying back. The whole weather team gave her salutes.

Twilight felt almost a bit let out as she didn’t have anypony close to her in Ponyville except her friends and they were all going with her. “Hey, Twilight,” Spike called to her and pointed in a direction. “Look.”

A small distance away, she could see Celestia and Luna along with a couple of guards flying in their direction. The four of them stopped when they were close enough to see facial features, though Celestia flew in closer than the rest. She stopped by Twilight to nuzzle her. “Good luck, my faithful student.”

Celestia took off to hover next to her sister. Luna didn’t fly close to them, but she gave them a strong smile and a soft nod. Then they took off back to Canterlot, save for the two pegasi guards. Twilight recognized the one on the left, Sir Destrier, who had volunteered to look after her quite often when Celestia couldn’t back in Canterlot. He gave a good salute to her.

The other was a young fellow with an orange coat and blue hair like her brother. His armor was also different from Destrier’s, but she couldn’t make out the details. He made a motion that surprised her before he and Destrier took off. Twilight was looking out blankly seeing the two fly off, Destrier doing something to the young guy’s head. But Twilight was more concerned with what the rookie had done.

Did he just wink at me?

“Twilight.” Applejack nudged her shoulder. “We’re about ta fire up tha module you and the princess had Applebloom work on yesterday. You gonna come in?”

Twilight took one last look at the fleeing silhouettes before answering. “I’ll be there.”

The tiara looked almost ridiculous, he thought as he wore it on the forehead of “The Great and Powerful Trixie.” Almost was the keyword.

He had to admit that it was admirable in its elegant yet humble appearance, and he had no special taste for colors. Otherwise, he’d have colored Shining Armor black and red.

Tastes aside, his plan was proceeding fine. The spell he had taken from Farsight showed him just where the Bearers were. Aboard their new airship they had set off in pursuit of him and the Elements.

Sombra grinned with Trixie’s face.

“Uh... My liege?” The word ‘liege’ was almost strained by the pony smith. The smith gulped before continuing. “Forgive my impertinence-” Ooh, he actually knew such a word. “but is it really wise to allow them to pursue us- I mean you - pursue you across the world, and us going through with all this? What is the purpose?”

Sombra turned on the smith. “Steel Beard - that is your name, yes? - I have taken the steps to ensure this outcome. There is a risk, yes, but it is such with all plans. And I do suggest you do your part - it’d be a shame to see that your hard work so far... unfinished.”

Steel Beard grimaced but his eyes had relented. “Yes - Sir.” He had said the second word with a hint of disgust.

“I’ll uphold my end of the bargain, Steel. And who knows,” he said and walked past Steel Beard and whipped Trixie’s tail into his muzzle. “You may yet have a chance for this.”

Sombra recalled a look some mares had given him in his previous life when he wasn’t a king. It was that seductive, I-want-you-as-a-stud look that mares would use to toy with stallions. Sombra couldn’t tell if he had replicated that look while possessing Trixie. Steel Beard didn’t look enthralled at all.

Sombra didn’t care. He had five other stallions to use and Steel Beard was busy with his work. As long as the others didn’t try something stupid, he could proceed without hesitation.

A whistling sound of birds diving came to his ears and at least five griffins in mixed armor and weapons landed around him. He could hear the others being surrounded too. Bandits, obviously.

“Now, now, little mare,” said one of them in a heavy accent - probably Germane - and held up a claw. “Ve do not vant to harm you, I recommend you give us that lovely tiara you have on your head.”

The griffins had used the dead of the moonless night to sneak up on the ponies, Sombra deduced, and were looking for easy pickings for money. And they had come straight to him.

Trixie had a small chuckle while closing her eyes. When she opened them again, the griffins saw the green glow and the purple smoke coming out of her blood red eyes. “I think not.”

If there was one thing that nopony knew how to fight, it was darkness. The griffins may as well have been unarmed against the growing smoke of darkness that overran the camp.

By dawn, there was no sign of any proof they were there to begin with.

Author's Note

Okay, this is where the big adventure begins. I really hope that there are some of you out there who pay attention to this, otherwise I might as well quit. That means the Elements of Harmony will be forever lost, Fluttershy will have that eyepatch for the rest of her life, they'll just be flying around forever and Sombra ultimately wins by walkover.

But oh no, don't mind me. Even if I keep getting ignored my whole life I'll still write. I'll just wait and see if my voice acting skils are sought out in the meantime while I wait for comments that will never arrive...

*clears throat* Anyhoo, This time I actually want some feedback. Whose Element should be found first, where should it be found and whose do you think should be next?

To the next one

Captain’s report,

First Element recovered. Element confirmed to be Honesty.

Within a day’s travel of Mustangia, changelings were discovered returning ponies to local settlements. They justified it as part of a new policy, where they abduct ponies, drain them mostly of love until there is just enough for it to grow back and then leave them within walking distance of pony settlements where they can settle down or find their way back home. Raid leader confirmed as Honeydew Wisp, princess of the changeling swarm.

Element found in cave located in Rearing Stones Canyon. Entrance enchanted to only let one pony in, Applejack being the pony in question.

Applejack described various traps in the dungeon, including a room filled with intrinsic magic circles. She explicitly refused to test them all on the grounds that a number of them might have been lethal or too dangerous to just test and leave them. Her eventual choice led her to being teleported to a dragon’s hoard, residing in the Rearing Stones.

Records have proven the name of the dragon to be Taloth, a dragon reputed to run racketeering profits to build his hoard. Applejack was unaware of the dragon’s identity but never encountered the dragon.

Instead she encountered Sombra possessing Steel Beard and an unknown number of griffins wreathed in shadows and carrying weapons. The griffins are now suspected to be working for Sombra. They are also suspected to be bandits. Applejack evaded the enemy, retrieved the Element of Honesty and escaped Taloth’s lair with Sombra pursuing her.

Twilight Sparkle and co. confirmed to have been assaulted by griffins of the same type, but evaded injury and teleported aboard the Spectrum with Applejack and the Element of Honesty.

Sombra was spotted from a distance possessing Steel Beard before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Applejack is currently in infirmary, due to several bruises, two fractured ribs, a crossbow bolt previously embedded in the leg, lacerations of unknown origin and exhaustion.

The morning after, smoke was spotted rising from Mustangia. Investigation discovered Mustangia had been attacked and emptied of ponies. The only one found was an Earth Pony filly named Sweet Cheek. She described an attack where the assailants came from the dark and grabbed everyone in town with their claws without a warning.

We are in pursuit of the next Element of Harmony. Destination unknown.

Star Sight, ERAF Captain, Spectrum

Twilight and the others sat quietly in the infirmary. Spike sat on the little bed where Sweet Cheek slept after having been forced to be awake all night. Applejack was still in her bed next to Sweet Cheek and Rarity wasn’t there at the moment, she had gone to check with the rest of the crew.

“All of them, gone,” Fluttershy muttered.

“Just…” Rainbow choked up. Twilight agreed with her on how hard it was. “just one little filly. No adults, nopony else in that mess. Just her.”

“Bon Bon had a cousin there.” Twilight snapped up at what Pinkie said. The others looked to her. “Bon Bon’s cousin lived in Mustangia.”

Twilight paled at the mention of it. Bon Bon had a cousin? Oh no, this was worse than ever.

“Didn’t Noteworthy have a brother out there, too?” Applejack asked.

“No, no, it wasn’t Noteworthy,” Rainbow told them. “It was Colgate. Colgate had a sister there.” Then she paled herself. “Oh man, Colgate had a sister there…”

Twilight shuddered herself. Just how many ponies in Ponyville had family in Mustangia? The whole city was missing and-

Twilight just then noticed that Pinkie went very pale. “Pinkie, Are you okay?”

“Not really,” Pinkie practically whispered. Twilight nudged in closer. “I had a cousin in Mustangia.”

“What?!” Everyone closed in, except Applejack. Nonetheless, she listened intently, no doubt. “You had a cousin out there?”

Pinkie took quick breaths as she looked to the floor. “Banana Pie. My cousin twice removed, we met each other in a baking contest and we were thrilled to meet each other.” Fluttershy immediately gave Pinkie a hug. “I… I…”

“You knew Banny Pie?” A little voice asked. Sweet Cheek seemed to have woken up in the commotion. “She always made these little banana splits sundaes for us, and she got to smile after her trip up to Canterlot and...”

Fluttershy let go of Pinkie so the latter could walk up to Sweet Cheek and give her a hug.

Twilight felt sadness coming at her. It was nearly as bad as the rehearsal incident, but she didn’t want to think of that time again any time soon. And she felt rage stirring within her. Sombra had to be stopped, no matter the cost.

If stealing the Elements of Harmony wasn’t personal enough, this assault on Mustangia most definitely was.

The door opened and in stepped Rarity. “How are the others?” Twilight asked.

“Mixed, really,” Rarity said. “Four of them had family out here themselves, two of them were locals, and one was set to be married to a mare in the town after this tour.”

“Okay, this just got real.” Rainbow’s tone was one of barely controlled anger. “This is no longer about the Elements, Sombra just wiped out a whole town in one night and we have barely just begun.”

Twilight kept quiet but she agreed. She had to report this to Celestia and moreover, had to carry on for their sake. But given how she, her friends and the rest of the crew thought of this, this… atrocity, they couldn’t just get mad and track him down. “I’m gonna go talk to the crew. We’re in charge of this expedition and we need to get them to keep their heads.”

“Yeah, you do that, Twilight,” Rainbow said and walked to the door. “I’m gonna blow some steam in the meantime.”

“What about Sweet Cheek?” Fluttershy asked, catching everyone’s attention. The little filly had been let loose of Pinkie’s hugs and most definitely couldn’t fall asleep again. “What do we do about Sweet Cheek?”

“Well, she can’t come with us,” Spike pointed out. “And we don’t know anypony who could be kin to her.”

“But leaving Sweet Cheek just somewhere seems too cruel,” Fluttershy argued.

“Which is why we are not doing that,” Rarity commented. “Sweet Cheek, what was your mother’s name?”

Sweet Cheek looked at her for a couple of seconds first, then answered. “Er, Sweet Treat.”

Pinkie gasped. “Your mom is Bon Bon’s cousin. Now we can leave you with kin!”

“Hang on,” Applejack spoke up. “We just left Ponyville. Now we gotta go back just ta leave off one filly? It would look weird ta do so suddenly.”

Twilight looked at Rainbow first before making her decision. “I’ll figure out first where the Spectrum will go. Then you can meet us there after leaving Sweet Cheek with Bon Bon, Rainbow.”

To say the crew was mad when they heard about moving on was putting it mildly. Those who were locals were the most heard ones and that didn’t count in the ones who had relatives in Mustangia. The captain wasn’t allowed a moment to talk back to them about what they should do.

Twilight kept quiet until everypony had ranted enough or just got too tired to keep ranting. By the time the last one had stopped going on with how she was a moron for suggesting the notion, she took a deep breath. “Okay. As far as I’m concerned right now, we have a choice.

“1, we stop. We give up on our mission to track down Sombra and the Elements of Harmony, we go down blazing in an effort to stop him and we lose all chance we have at ensuring peace between the nations that is already a bit fragile.” The option left many of the crew speechless, she could tell that much.

“2, we move on. We report this to Canterlot so they can take care of things, we keep looking for the Elements of Harmony which we know can hurt Sombra because he took them from us so we wouldn’t be able to use them immediately AND screw up the peace conference.

“I’ll leave it to you if you want to stay or keep moving, but I’m not gonna wallow in misery because so many ponies went missing. I’ll wait until after this mission is over,” Twilight told them. It kind of hurt her to say those things, but the crew needed a firm hoof to ensure them that they had a job to do.

They all looked at each other before one of them nodded to her. “Alright, you win.” The rest of them mumbled their agreement and approval.

Twilight let out a breath she’d been holding. “Good. Now, we have only one pony from Mustangia, that’s better than nothing. Now we’re gonna keep moving on to the next set of coordinates, but we’re making also sure that our civilian gets back safely to family. She leaves in two hours. If you have family or friends that had family out there, contact them. Write letters and be discreet. We can’t have ponies finding out our actual job.” Several of them nodded.

“Alright, debate’s over,” the captain told them all. “You got your new orders, now I don’t want to see a breakdown like this again, you got it? Now get back to your stations, we’re gonna track down the next Element and I want it found yesterday.”

Twilight turned away and clutched her neck. It still hurt, and now it was flaring up again. Ow, the bite must have left a much harsher impact than first expected. “You okay?” The captain asked her.

“Yeah. It’s just…” she sighed. “Sombra bit my neck before we set off. The doctors said I shouldn’t go faster than walking and avoid taking much breath.”

“And you still went on with talking to them,” he concluded. “You shouldn’t do that, ma’am. You can’t ignore doctor’s orders for something like that.”

“Ma’am? Do I look married to you?”

“You look important,” he told her. “Now, you are the Princess’ student of choice, you’ve saved Equestria four times over, you’re the wielder of the Element of Magic, you’re my superior officer’s little sister, your friends look up to you and I know that there are at least twenty married ponies out there with foals coming intending to name them after you because of the things you’ve done. At this stage, I don’t think you have a right to argue at this point about the importance of your health. You are therefore going to adhere to the doctor’s orders and keep using your throat to a minimum. Am I understood, Ma’am?”

Twilight shirked back at his tone and nodded. Only then did he show relief. “Good. Now, I do hope that you can find the next Element soon. The more we stay here, the more I feel we could get another breakdown.”

Twilight started walking over to the hologram projector but stopped herself just before she hit the door. “Er, captain? There are ponies out there who want to name their foals after me?”

He nodded. “Yes.” There was a small pause before he spoke again. “I’m one of them.”

“So I’ll drop off Sweet Cheek over at Bon Bon’s place, and we’ll meet up again in Bretonia?” Rainbow Dash asked as a crew pony adjusted the saddle on her for the little filly.

“Yes, that is the plan.” Rarity was with her instead of Twilight since she had been ‘grounded’ by the ship captain and forced to take care of herself. “Twilight found it in our neighboring pony country. We’ll rendezvous together at the port city of Maresillon. Would you like a map?”

“Nah, I’m good. It’s due north to Vanhoover and then west across the ocean, followed by going south again ‘til you hit a natural port formation once you spot the Tower Cliff,” Rainbow told her as Rarity put Sweet Cheek in place. Rarity seemed a bit taken aback. “You need to know geography to be a weatherpony, Rarity. I have to read up on that stuff all time in case I get sent to other places. It’ll take me a few days to get there, though.”

“I did not expect you to be know how to get to a foreign country, that’s all,” Rarity told her. “Local geography would be more up your alley.”

“Oh, that. Yeah, that’s right up my cloudbank, but management has to have us be ready for emergencies in other countries. Drives me around the cloudbank.” Rainbow took a few turns and tried moving her barrel about with the saddle on before confirming it was comfortable enough for her. “Yeah, I’m good to go.”

“Hold up,” the crew pony said before hoisting a big bag over her neck, and Sweet Cheek put her forehooves over it. “Those are all our letters we want delivered. If you don’t mind…”

“Yeah, yeah, not at all. At least ponies will know what happened.” Rainbow adjusted herself to the new weight. “Okay, I’m taking off now. See you in Maresillon.” She cantered off to the edge of the docking bay and took flight, on a clear heading for Ponyville, straight through the San Palomino desert.

Back on the deck, Rarity saw the two fly off north ahead of them, and then the ship adjusted its course to fly across the sea. “I do hope that Rainbow Dash doesn’t try to fly nonstop across the ocean.”

“Nopony’s that crazy, ma’am,” a passing crew pony told her.

“Rainbow Dash is not crazy. She is more determined, but not crazy. Besides, the sooner we get together, the sooner we can complete our mission. Now, I’m off to do my best on saving Applejack’s stetson.”

Today was a slow day.

School days were that. Plus, Pinkie was out of town. Pinkie being out of town for any extended period of time resulted in ponies getting bored quickly. Which was why whenever she came back home, they had a party.

Now, though, they had trouble figuring out what kind of party they should have when they got back. Sure, it would be labeled “Congratulations for keeping Equestria safe once again” but they had to figure out the theme along with getting all the supplies. Pokey would have to visit Canterlot or even Manehattan for enough supplies for this one.

Right now though, Bon Bon wanted a few more customers to last the day. Her Chocolat Shoppe had some following the little attack on Ponyville and with Pinkie not in Ponyville, her goods came under wants and desires and the kids weren’t gonna quit school anytime soon. In a few hours, maybe.

Lyra was upstairs, practicing her harp again. The awful toning probably was what was scaring her customers away. Bon Bon was desperate right now for somepony to come by.

Or maybe she could work on something new. Yeah, a new recipe was always popular when she had something done. They did love those little chocolate balls rolled in shredded coconut she made. Or maybe those lemon drops dipped in dark chocolate. Those always ran out. That would increase business.

No, wait, she didn’t have any lemon drops ready. She had to go buy more stuff to make them. This was turning out to not be a good day to have the shop open. And Lyra was too busy practicing to attract any customers.

Fudge it, I’m going out, she thought and went to the stairs. “Lyra!”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going out to buy ingredients!”

“Okay! See ya later!”

Okay, that went well. Now she just had to go grab her bits, hop on a train to her regular supplier and then get back to Ponyville. Should only take-

Somepony knocked on her door. That’s weird. She’s in her shop, nopony just knocks on the shop door. Bon Bon was gonna close up anyway. “I’m sorry, we’re closed right now,” she said, walking over to open the door. “I’m heading out to buy– Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash was wearing a saddle and a big woolen bag over her shoulders and she had an expression that Bon Bon had only seen once in the time she has known the pegasus.

She was sad. “Hey, Bon Bon.”

Bon Bon had a reflex. “Hey.”

Rainbow gulped as if she was in trouble. Bon Bon had seen that expression on Lyra several times over. “Can… we come in?”

We? Bon Bon checked again. Rainbow was actually wearing a saddle, the kind you have for attaching foals riding on your back. She must be carrying somepony. “Yeah, come in.” Bon Bon took the big bag from Rainbow’s shoulders and let her in. Then she saw who she was carrying. “Sweet Cheek?”

The little filly waved at her and Rainbow took a deep breath. “You’re not gonna like this.”

For the next twenty minutes, along with answering a few of Bon Bon’s questions, Rainbow Dash told her about their time in Mustangia. Rainbow clearly left a few details out, but Bon Bon didn’t pry. Rainbow talked about how they found the whole city empty, with only Sweet Cheek as the official ‘survivor’ of what has been described as an attack by figures wreathed in shadows. Bon Bon asked about Sweet Treat, but Sweet Cheek had a painful expression and Bon Bon dropped the issue, letting it hammer in about what happened.

“...so that was it.” Rainbow was beginning to choke up. “I took Sweet Cheek here hoping that–”

“It’s alright,” Bon Bon interrupted her. “It’s getting boring here anyway without Pinkie here to liven things up. I… wasn’t prepared at first, but I think Lyra and I can accommodate Sweet Cheek here.”

Sweet Cheek practically glomped her then. Bon Bon didn’t say no to that and gave her a small squeeze in return. “So… what now?”

“Right now?” Rainbow asked. “I’m gonna go post all these letters at the post office, hope that Derpy doesn’t get lost again and then I’m gonna catch a train to Vanhoover. I… can’t say more than that.”

“Sweet, why don’t you go say hi to Lyra upstairs? We’ll get you sorted in within the day.” Sweet Cheek nodded and headed up the stairs. Bon Bon seized the free opportunity to pin Rainbow Dash against the wall with a scowl-ish expression. “Before you go, I need you to promise me this: Track him down. Capture the son of a bitch and get him before my hooves so I can beat him to an inch of his life before he’s turned over to the princesses.”

Bon Bon sounded angry. She was angry. She must have looked frightening too, since Rainbow Dash seemed scared beyond her wits. “I thought you frowned on violence.”

“For what he did, I’m making an exception.” Then Bon Bon let Rainbow go. The pegasus picked up the bag and left the shop.

Bon Bon took a deep breath and walked up the stairs. She needed a hug from Lyra and comforting words that everything was gonna be okay, stat.

Maresillon. The biggest port city in the pony country of Bretonia. They said that next to the capital, Maresillon was a jewel among Bretonia’s walled cities. The big castle on the cliff overlooking the rest of the port dominated the city, with strong sturdy towers and flags snapping in the wind. Down in town, the tallest building was the great church, dedicated to Hon Itron. The translation had been lost in time and Hon Itron just came to be the name.

The airship port was built into the castle and Twilight saw that Rarity was ecstatic about visiting the city, to pick up the latest Bretonian fashion. They weren’t here for sight-seeing, though they could go visit after the mission was over.

Twilight came to Bretonia once. Celestia had brought her along when the new queen was being crowned. She was upset over the whole caste system, even as a child, but she didn’t complain about it until they were on their way back home. Plus, it was fun trying to study the language along with the queen’s two kids.

Several pegasi marched up to their docking bay and presented arms. Well, they weren’t expecting visitors probably, she imagined. Took a moment before they saw the unicorn lord of the city.

“Welcome, travelers from Equestria,” he spoke in a gentle yet firm tone with an accent. “I’m Mailoc, the lord of Maresillon, and I was not informed of a visit from Equestria.”

Twilight stepped forwards. “I apologize, milord, but the reason we are here is secret by orders from Princess Celestia in relations to the peace conference soon to be held.”

She could hear Applejack whisper behind her, but ignored it. Mailoc continued. “I do hope that it is not a severe threat to our nation. But I would like to know about it as soon as possible.”

Twilight weighed her options. “Alright, but in private. There are… things that have ears everywhere. We need someplace private that you know nopony would hear us.”

“Oh, and another thing, my lord,” Rarity spoke up. “We have another of our group coming in across the sea. Pegasus with chromatic hair. Name of Rainbow Dash.”

“I’ll have my stallions keep a lookout.”

It took an hour, about half of that time to find a good secluded spot, for the girls to explain the situation to Mailoc. He kept quiet, only asked for clarification on subjects or words he didn’t understand properly and made constant checks to see if anypony not privy to the conversation was listening in.

Applejack was given a moment to explain how her time in the Rearing Stones went, though it became obvious quickly that Mailoc had trouble understanding her accent. To that end, she took it slowly, so he eventually did understand.

He was quiet for a few moments first. Then he made one final sweep of the secluded room, looking for somepony who shouldn’t have heard any of this before turning back to them. “I will need to report to my queen about this. If this Sombra intends to stop the conference, then it is vital that you stop him. I can assemble some of my knights to aid you-”

“Appreciated, my lord, but not needed,” Twilight interrupted. “We have everyone we need for this mission.”

Mailoc nodded. “I trust you know where to go.”

“We do. It’s not in Maresillon, for a start.”

“And that is a challenge for you,” Mailoc told them. “As much as Equestria and Bretonia are allies, military access to our countries is not easily given, even with a cause as good as yours.”

“Oh, brother.” Applejack’s groan has been one shared by many in the past. “Politics.”

“I dare you to raise your foals with it,” Mailoc retorted. Twilight sighed.

“Fine, we’ll wait. At least we’ll give Rainbow Dash time to catch up to us. But if it would help, could you tell queen Maëlla that Twilight Sparkle would appreciate the assistance she can give us?”

Mailoc blinked at her but nodded and then walked away. “You can traverse the city, but I recommend not leaving. Not until we get word back.”

When the girls were alone, only then did Pinkie ask, “And how long is that gonna take?”

“A couple of days,” Twilight answered. “Hopefully we’ll get the permission we need.”

Rarity approached her. “It seems you have a history with her Majesty the Queen as well, Twilight. Why is that?”

“You know, growing up as Princess Celestia’s student wasn’t all magic. I mean, she took me with on some important meetings when I was curious about how the government worked, whenever an important person from their respective country, I was allowed time off to play with their kids if they brought them along.”

“And her Majesty?”

“Princess Celestia was invited to her coronation and took me along,” Twilight explained. “I attended, I was at the after-party, then I found the library and spent some time with her own two foals. Queen Maëlla apparently liked me since I wasn’t afraid to speak my mind when asked.

“All I wanted to do then was study magic and be with my books, but no, Princess Celestia had to have me along for her political stuff. I mean, why? Why would she want me to learn the names of important ponies when I just wanted was to be as good a student in magic as she was a great teacher?” Twilight sighed.

“Whoa, that’s number 14…” Spike said.

“You keep count?” Rarity asked.

“Kinda have to. Twilight doesn’t want to disappoint Princess Celestia at all, so she keeps it in her. It does come to a boil at times so I keep track for her.”

Twilight walked over to them. “I’m fine. I’m fine. Let’s… let’s just get into town, we can do some window shopping while we wait for Rainbow.”

Rainbow sighed. I guess the distance to Bretonia was longer than I first expected.

She could always just make a burst flight, but if she messed up and hit something, she’d crash headfirst into the water. Although somewhat softer, at the speed she was going at right now, the water would still hurt like she slammed into a mountain again. No thanks. I’m conserving energy and speed here.

Good thing though she had to study on how to get there. Next time she saw administration, she’d invite them to show some of her moves when off-duty- Oh, hey, a seal with its baby. Eeeee!

What was she thinking about again? Oh yeah, administration was gonna get a real treat with what she’s got in store for the Wonderbolts. She had been working on some new moves and she needed a beta-checker to see if it would work. Applejack was good, but a professional flier would be needed for these things.

It took a couple of hours, but she finally could see the big cliff that marked that she had reached Bretonian soil. Sweet! Now she just had to head south until she reached Mare-

Thwump! “OW! What was that?!”

“Hasta Nabana!” She heard Tempest cry out and saw him fly towards the big cliff. “What’s the matter, slowpoke? Can’t keep up with an actual Wonderbolt?”

“Why you- I’LL SHOW YOU SLOWPOKE, SLOWPOKE!” Rainbow Dash bursted like crazy after him. It was stupid, yes, but nopony insulted her and got away with it.

He proved himself a fast pegasus, as expected of an ex-Wonderbolt, but Rainbow had gotten some tips from Spitfire. He was not all that fast in a straight line so he liked to make swift turns and banks at high speed to throw pursuers off, a trick he had perfected to avoid crazy fangirls. Thing was, this came at the cost of reduced speed for him when he turned, but it was enough for him to get away in a tight spot.

Of course, this was the open air above the sea, meaning Rainbow had plenty of space to catch up and adjust. And she could tell when he was gonna turn, another little hot tip from Spitfire. The base of the muscles always moved first, and Tempest’s wings always flicked in the direction he wanted to get where he wanted. At high speeds, it took a pro to see the shift.

Rainbow could have seen that a mile away.

She banked upwards when he did and thus she didn’t lose sight of him. He must have noticed so he made a hard turn to the left. Rainbow had to change her course to avoid collision. While a good move to take him down, both would have crashed into the sea and neither would like that.

“Good move, but you need to adapt fast if you’re ever gonna have a chance of joining the reserves, rookie!” He yelled at her when she dove back down and flew straight for the cliff.

“Hey, get back here!” She yelled back and pursued him. “I’m not done with you yet!”

“Neither am I! But let’s go somewhere more private first!” He headed for a cave mouth on the cliffside.

“Yeah, I can get behind-” She stopped herself outside the entrance. “Wait… this is a trap.”

“What’s the matter?” He yelled from inside. “Don’t tell me you’re claustrophobic?”

“No!” Actually she was, but she’d rather rip out her own tongue before admitting that. “But I’m on to you. I bet the Element of Loyalty is in there and there are a truckload of monsters and traps just waiting to pounce on me while I’m in there in the dark. Your plan was sneaky, I’ll admit: Get me riled up enough to follow you wherever you went and get me in there without back-up from my friends. Well, it didn’t work, pal! I’m heading down south again to get my friends so we can all come here.”

“You do know it won’t matter that they’re here because you’d be sealed in, right?”

“Point is, I’m not falling for your tactics. You’re just gonna have to wait until I get here with the airship. Later!”

WIth that she took off. Now which way was south again?

“Mat Deiz,” Twilight said to the shopkeeper.

“Deuet Mat,” he said in return.

“I would like to know what the price would be for a decent suit of leather armor,” She asked. “The cost is being handled by lord Mailoc.”

“Would you like it to be adjustable, or custom?”

“Adjustable. We travel by unusual routes and each of us has to share their burden. Custom takes too long.”

“Hmm, it’ll take me a few hours to get that for you. Are you in a hurry?” He asked.

“No, we’re in town for another day. That being said, we would like it done as soon as possible.”

The shopkeeper nodded and motioned for the ponies and Spike to have their measurements done inside so he could arrange for everything.

“Gee, Twilight, you weren’t kiddin’ when you said you could speak the language,” Applejack commented when Twilight stood up on the podium being measured.

“See, what did I tell you?” Twilight asked with a smirk. “But did you really need me to talk to another pony just to prove it? I could have just said a few simple words to you instead.”

Applejack scratched the back of her head. “Ah, uh…”

Before she could say another word, Mailoc entered the shop, followed by two of his knights, both of them flanking a familiar face. “Hi, Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie bounced in her spot waiting for her turn to be measured.

“Oh, now I see why you had to bring me under escort, here,” Rainbow said.

“Ya,” Mailoc said without turning back and then motioned for the shopkeeper. “Ivez he.”

“Good to see you, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said as she stepped off the podium and changed her tone. “How… did Bon Bon take it?”

Rainbow rapped the floor. “Not so good. She held up a strong face in front of Sweet Cheek, but after I left, she went to get a hug from Lyra. But that’s not all I got to say. I found the next Element.”

“What?” Everyone said. Even Mailoc turned to Rainbow Dash. Twilight asked. “You found the next Element?”

“Yeah. And Sombra had a sneaky plan, too,” Rainbow told them. “See, Tempest ambushed me on my way here and we had a birdfight. Then he flew into a cave in the Tower Cliff to get me in there too so I’d be sealed in there without help.”

“Tower Cliff?” Twilight asked.

“Yes,” Rainbow clarified. “Isn’t that where we’re supposed to go?”

“Well, no. The next Element is further inland.”

“Two Elements?” Mailoc asked. “One was bad enough.”

“Hey now!”

Mailoc raised a hoof in his defense. “I did not mean it like that. What I was trying to say, is that this… Sombra, can spread his influence through the shadows and in the night, yes? So, one Element surrounded by his creatures could cause damage to our country, is what I believe.”

“Ah,” said Rainbow Dash. “now I get it. But still, Tempest ambushing me is way too obvious to point out it’s where it is.”

Twilight sighed. “I’ll have another look at the map for us to check. But we still can’t go anywhere without Queen Maella’s permission.”

Rarity stepped off the podium and Pinkie took the opportunity. “Should it really take so long?”

“Well, unless-” Spike began but he began churning in his mouth.

“Is he sick?” Mailoc asked.

“Not in my shop!” The shopkeeper cried.

“No,” Twilight interrupted. “He’s receiving a message through his dragonfire.” As on schedule, Spike burped up two separate messages. One was a ribboned scroll, the other was a sealed envelope. “I wasn’t expecting Princess Celestia to send us- wait…” She took a closer look at the envelope. “Oh, this is from the Queen.”

Spike cleared his throat. “Since when could Maella send letters via dragonfire?”

Twilight glared at him for his rudeness toward the queen, but opened the scroll first. Quickly glancing through it, and spotting the royal seal along with her signature, it was easy to decipher. “It’s our license for military access. The Spectrum can travel across Bretonia now.”

“Oh, thank you, Twilight,” Rarity said, moving closer. “You were the one who might have convinced her just by dropping your name.”

Twilight wasn’t willing to believe that just yet, though she would take the credit if it was true. Now she turned her attention to the envelope. She broke the seal and opened it.

It was a letter meant for her, written in Bretonian. The grammar was neat, the flow was beautiful and the handwriting was much like Princess Celestia. Twilight didn’t read it out loud, but her expression said a lot to her friends, no doubt.

Rarity was right next to her, so Twilight turned to her. “She says hi.” That was the abridged version of the letter. Twilight decided against elaborating the full extent of it. Nonetheless, it was nice to know they could count on the queen.

The whole group, Twilight, AJ, Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Spike, along with the captain of the Spectrum and lord Mailoc gathered in the Spectrum’s ‘war room’ where the hologram projector was installed. Twilight fired it up and took a closer over the map of Bretonia. “Tower Cliff, was it?”

“Yeah, like I told you,” Rainbow clarified.

Twilight shifted the projection to present the mentioned natural monument and scanned the area for the tracking spell placed on the Elements. She was positive that there was only one signature in the country, further inland. Why would there pop up another one now, if it ever did?

Much to her surprise, a positive signal cropped up in Tower Cliff. “Huh?”

“See? Believe me now?”

“I never outright doubted you, it’s just that only one signal cropped up in Bretonia when I first scanned. “Why would a secondary signal come up now?”

“Perhaps Sombra meant it to distract us,” the captain pointed. “Or maybe he’s just using the same first signal to show up at another location than this one to make it confusing.”

Twilight scoffed. “Oh, even he can’t fiddle with Princess Celestia’s magic. I’m gonna expand the map so we can confirm there’s only one signal.”

Two signals.

“Are you kidding me?!” Twilight was exasperated. “First there was only one signal and now there’s two?! What the hay? I mean… what?”

“Okay, Twilight, take deep, slow breaths,” Spike advised her, Twilight adhering to the commands. “Deep slow breaths. That’s it, that’s it.”

“I’m gonna need a minute.” Twilight walked out of the war room with Spike in tow, leaving the others to think.

“Okay,” Applejack started, “let’s think. If there’s an Element at Tower Cliff, and there’s also one where we first saw it, how come we didn’t see the one at the Cliff before?”

“Our expert just left,” said the captain, “and I didn’t attend the Academy for Unicorns.”

Rarity scratched her chin. “Hmmm… I might be grasping at straws here… but my guess so far would be that while Sombra cannot tamper with the tracking spell on them, he may be able to conceal the signal itself. Or, at least for some time…”

“Better than nothing,” Mailoc shrugged, “Are there any hazards to them being there?”

“Last time we got jumped by shadowy griffins,” Rainbow Dash told him, “all working for Sombra, no doubt. I bet that could happen again at those locations.”

“So how do we go about it, this time?” Applejack asked. “Ah got mine at the last location, now we gotta deal with two. Ah don’ see how we can tackle it.”

“Easy, just move the ship to one location and we move on to the next one,” said the captain. “It’ll be easy.”

“No,” Mailoc interrupted, “both places need to be hit at the same time.” Everypony present looked at him. “To move against just one target would cost us time. Time which he can use to fortify his position around the other, making it even more difficult for us to reach that Element.”

“But we only have one airship,” Rainbow Dash argued, “we can’t be at both places at the same time.”

Mailoc stared at her. “Some of us have wings. One party can go with the airship to one place, the other can travel by wing to the other. Or are you simply being lazy?”

“Okay, just to prove you wrong, I’m gonna fly to my Element, because I know that’s the one at Tower Cliff,” Rainbow Dash boasted. “But what of the other one? Where is that located?”

Mailoc walked up to the projector for a closer look and nodded. “Dragon Scale Woods. One of the oldest forests in Bretonia. Famous for the amount of scales one could come collect after a simple trot through its path.”

“D-di-did you say…” Fluttershy shivered in place, “d-d-dragon?”

“It doesn’t actually house dragons, if that’s what you’re worried.”

“Could ha’ fooled me,” Applejack said.” Everypony knows dragon scales don’t come off easy. Ta make them come off, dragons gotta scrape ‘em on rocks.”

“And…” Fluttershy continued to shiver. “That means that there could be… d-d-dragons there.”

Mailoc groaned. “It’s one of the few places dragons land on to rest their wings during their Migration. It’s an arrangement between us and them.”

“Right,” said the captain.

“So should we do it like before?” Pinkie asked. “Bounce off the barrier and wish the chosen pony luck?”

“No, we are not going to do that, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity said. “I suggest we wait for Twilight to come back in before we find out whose Element it is in the forest.”

“Please let it not be mine,” Fluttershy mumbled.

Twilight and Spike came back in again. “Oh hey, Twilight, can you help us trying to figure out which Element it is at the first location?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight took a deep breath. “Oh, that it?”

“Ooh, how you gonna do it, Twilight?” Pinkie asked. “Are you gonna take a look at what’s there? Use your deduction of systematic removal to determine it? Take a-” She stopped when Twilight flared up her horn. “Oh yeah.”

Twilight fired four rays simultaneously, each hitting Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. Everypony else took a step back but as soon as her horn had flared up, Twilight ceased the spell and hit the lightswitch.

Then two lights, red and pink respectively, filled the room. “Is it my turn?”

“No, Pinkie,” Twilight told her. “I used a spell that tells the proximity of a certain Element to its bearer.” The light came from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. “Rainbow Dash was right with her Element-”

“Told ya so,” Rainbow smirked.

“- and I had an inkling myself about Fluttershy. Why else pick Dragon Scale Woods when he could have used another cave instead?”

“Well, that still leaves us wondering which way to steer the airship,” Rarity pondered.

“No, it doesn’t,” Pinkie interrupted. “We take the ship to the woods, because while Fluttershy can talk to the animals, it’s not like in Equestria and with the enchantment that only one of us can get in there, we can at least shed light for her to keep moving without getting attacked by those meanie griffins to her Element. While we’re doing that, Rainbow Dash can fly to the Tower Cliff and get her Element back and overcome her claustrophobia and we all win big time over Sombra.”

“Hey, wait a minute, I never told you about my claustrophobia,” Rainbow protested. “How did you-” She was cut off by the sound of Applejack whistling. “Apple~jack~...”

“Ah lost a bet, alright?”

“Now is not the time,” the captain intervened. “We’ll go with this plan. The Spectrum will head inland to the woods while Rainbow Dash heads for the Cliff with a party of her own.”

Everypony agreed to that. “Hey, Twi,” Applejack asked, “was that a spell the Princess taught you?”

“No, I just made it on the spot.”

Rainbow Dash elected not to get that leather suit. Not that she didn’t need it, of course, she just felt better if Fluttershy got the better protection. Plus, it was kinda spooky to wear refined animal skin. She didn’t know the Bretonians lived with that factor. No, she preferred instead to have a pair of saddlebags filled with an assortment of things they thought they would need for further ‘dungeons.’

Her present company excluded, nopony from the Spectrum followed with her. Mailoc saw it wiser to get her a group of knights to accompany her instead. She had to admit, knights were awesome. Not as cool as the Wonderbolts nor the Elite Guard in Canterlot, but they looked pretty cool with their heavy armor, flying as if it didn’t bother them.

The downside? Not one of them knew how to speak Equestrian, at least fluently. The only one who could, Gwencalon, was right beside her and she didn’t seem the very talkative type. Much like a pegasus foreigner version of Twilight, except Twi could speak Bretonian with a perfect accent. Rainbow didn’t believe it at first until Twilight told her that she needed to brush up on her own languages in Bretonian.

“Tower, just head first,” said Gwencalon in her broken accent. Rainbow looked ahead.

“Yeah, I can see it ahead,” Rainbow responded and began to speed up. The others sped up and followed her flight path. When they arrived, Rainbow began a search pattern to look for the cave entrance. “Could have sworn it was-”

“Amañ!” One of the knights cried out above her. Rainbow Dash and the whole group flew toward the location. Yep, it was the cave entrance.

Rainbow suppressed a gulp. She was scared of tight spots, and this cave seemed like it wasn’t a very shallow one. Or maybe it was Sombra’s dark magic making that illusion. Rainbow did remember having a small notebook with her where Twilight had recounted her interaction with the stuff.

One of the knights flew in for a closer look, but he got bounced off from the barrier surrounding the entrance. Great, so only Rainbow could go through it. “I hear you brought some friends, Rainbow Crash,” Tempest cried out from in there. “Too bad your little scaredy friends can’t come in here. I’d love to creep the hay out of them!” He laughed.

The knights might not understand Equestrian, but they seemed to know tones, since several of them, Gwencalon included, flared up in anger. Rainbow stopped in front of them with her forelegs out to tell them not to try anything. She also motioned for them to look up, because there was a ledge above where they could land and rest. Gwencalon nodded and told her fellow pegasi to follow.

Rainbow yelled inwards that these Bretonians never learned Equestrian, or that Gwencalon could have studied more. This was going to take a while. The sun was starting to set as Rainbow tried her best to explain the situation. Gwencalon did her best to translate.

“Okay, here is how it is going to go,” Rainbow started, deliberately going to slow talk so that the knights could understand Gwencalon’s translation. “Only I can go in, and the entrance will be sealed off once I have gone in. Once the sun has set, you can expect unwelcome company. I will go as fast as I am able to retrieve the Element but when I come out, things could dangerous for you all.

“Remember, the enemy,” she paused to look at them to see if they were with her so far. Apparently, Gwencalon’s translation went smoother than she first thought. So she continued, “will only be hurt when covered with light.” To demonstrate, she took out her headlamp and lit up her hoof as if it was covered in the shadows and flopped it about as if it was set on fire. Somepony seemed to get it at least. “There is a good chance that you will be attacked by these enemies tonight while I go in there.”

“So, we fight them,” Gwencalon said slowly. “You go for main object, we protect your behind.”

...okay, that would have gone somewhere real dirty if it weren’t for the fact that the girl can barely speak Equestrian. Rainbow just had to suppress a snigger. “Yes, you protect my behind, I go for main object.”

Gwencalon smiled, totally unaware of what she had just said. “Okay, here I go.” Rainbow took off and dove down to the entrance. “Good luck, guys!”

The moment she was inside, the stone slab inside the entrance slammed down, sealing her off inside. Oh boy, she thought. Let the horror show begin.

Rainbow in the Dark

Wings won’t work – Watch your step – Taunting voices – An uncool friend – Old discussions brought up – Hey, free cider!

The first thing Rainbow Dash did was put her saddlebags on the ground and make an inventory check. “Okay, first off. Headlamp, do you work?” It clicked with light both first and second time she tested it. “Good, no getting ambushed by things in the dark. Okay, next. Rope.”

The rope was there. Rainbow wasn’t sure if she actually needed it but she presumed Applejack wouldn’t feel comfortable with Rainbow in here without it. Okay, what else was there?

A little notebook. Twilight had been cooped up in her cabin on the voyage to Bretonia, apparently, to write down everything she remembered from their time up in the Crystal Empire when Sombra was threatening it. It was supposed to be a little guideline on how to work against Sombra’s magic. The ‘work together’ part was actively nullified by him so she had to watch out for traps.

A brochure on intrinsic magic circles. Okay, look through that one later…

Hoof-claw? Check. Rainbow flexed and retracted its claws to make sure it still worked.

Small crowbar? Check. Flashbang? Check. Trail rations? Check. Magnifying glass? Check. Yep, Rainbow Dash was good to go. “Okay, now I’m coming for you, Tempest!”

Though the first thing that Rainbow Dash noticed was the large mist that permeated throughout the cave, making it hard for her to see. Didn’t know condensation could cause that.

Rainbow flexed her wings. Who needed rope when you had wings? She lifted off the ground and flew, surprisingly carefully into the cave. Given the darkness and the density of the condensation, along with Applejack telling her story of her own cave, Rainbow wasn’t in a hurry. There could be corners in here and she wasn’t keen to-

Thud!

“What?” When did Rainbow hit the ground? When did she descend at all? Or was the cave tunnel just going up?

No, it was flat. Rainbow got up on her hooves and flapped her wings again. Only… she didn’t get off the ground. She kept flapping, harder and harder, and still she wouldn’t lift off the ground. “Come on!” She tried again. “Come on, let me fly!” After her third, long attempt, she collapsed to the ground.

“...Oh. I get it. This isn’t condensation. This is some weird mist that weakens my wingpower so that I can’t fly, is that it?!” The last words echoed through the tunnel, with nothing answering her.

Well, guess she’s walking now. Bucking enchantment.

“You’re just weak~...” Tempest’s voice taunted her in a ‘ghost-ish’ tone.

Screw it, she’s gonna run.

Rainbow bolted through the tunnel at a speed she withheld only for running competitions with Applejack, so it was easy peasy to get through the empty, long ha-

Okay, skip long. Skip long! Rainbow screeched herself to a halt as she came into a massive cavern. Whoa, that was a long drop. She couldn’t even see the bottom of the cavern. Was the Tower Cliff really that big on the inside?

“So… watch your step, huh,” Rainbow said to herself and began looking for ledges. She hoped that Fluttershy was gonna be okay. On the plus side, Rainbow wouldn’t have to worry about her claustrophobia. Much.

Oh, there was a ledge below her. Okay, careful so I don’t slip, she thought and clung to the edge as much she could in order to get her rear hooves as accurate as possible. Then she let go and landed safely. Rainbow let out a breath of relief she didn’t know she held.

“Wow. I need to learn how Applejack pulls it off. She makes it look so easy. And on top of that I can’t fly in here, I just had to get involved in a situation where I need to fly. This is just plain cheating.”

Not that she wouldn’t expect less from a guy who thinks fighting fairly means ramming a horn into somepony’s eye. When she first noticed Fluttershy’s eye injury, Rainbow Dash almost went berserk. There are some things you just don’t do. She had to learn the hard way that you don’t prank Fluttershy, and unless you’re really keen to have a nice friendly chat with Harry the Bear’s claws, you don’t physically harm her either.

Okay, better find another ledge. There’s got to be something around here. Unless she was supposed to climb upwards, going down seems the better option. Wait, climb? Rainbow looked up with her headlamp to check if there were any ledges up there.

No. Going down it is. Rainbow sighed. This was going to take a long while.

“Oh my, there’s a pegasus down there who’s not flying. Is she stunted or something?”

Tempest was out there, actively taunting her. Rainbow Dash knew she wanted to prove him wrong, but with this fog in the cavern, it probably wasn’t a good idea to react. Her luck was bound sooner or later to change, Stars be willing.

“Oh, dear,” Tempest said in the dark. “It seems our little stunty here doesn’t know where she’s going. Shouldn’t pegasi be going up all the time?”

Just ignore him, just ignore him, Rainbow kept repeating to herself. He was gonna be hog-tied and delivered to Spitfire by the end of all this and - whoops, there went her mind off again. What is wrong with me? I gotta stay focused on what is happening now, not something that might happen in the future.

Rainbow found herself on a ledge that didn’t have a path that led to another safe ledge where she could continue. “Okay, I think I need to jump from here…” She looked about and saw a little ledge a fair bit away. She really needed to go see Applejack about these things. “I gotta concentrate so I make the jump.”

“Hey, what’s up!”

“Waah!” Rainbow jumped blindly at how close that shout was and almost slipped off the edge of the ledge she was aiming for. “No no, no no!” She clammered on as much as she could until she got all four legs up. Panting hard, she turned to the edge. “Don’t do that! Don’t interrupt me when I’m trying to concentrate!”

“Or you’ll do what?”

“I’m gonna tie you up like a cow at a rodeo and present you to Spitfire with a nobbly thing up your butt!” She shouted back. Where did that come from?

There were a few seconds before Tempest replied back. “Kinky.”

“I know!” Rainbow turned away from the edge. “Now shut up and let me concentrate so I can get through here!”

“Really, so you don’t want a little tip from me?”

“No!”

“Fine, I won’t tell you to look up.”

“Yeah, don’t tell me to- what?” Rainbow looked up. Above her was a line of clouds, too thick to be of the mist, yet very narrow, so narrow ponies could only walk across in a single line. It couldn’t have been more than ten ponies up. But with her wingpower disabled by Sombra, that may as well have been from the ground to Cloudsdale. “Ooooh. I get it. I just found that by a stroke of luck.”

“...Yes. Stroke of luck.”

Now that last comment got Rainbow thinking. Tempest was working for Sombra, and no villain would actively try to help the hero in the deep dungeon. Daring Do was a prime example to draw on. Unless Sombra was using those clouds as some kind of bait to lure her into a trap. She had no way of knowing that, but there wasn’t like any other choice she had but to go forward. But what Tempest said gave her a small headache. Was it Sombra deliberately using him to guide Rainbow into a trap, or was it the actual Tempest trying to help her defeat Sombra?

…

Wow, that one was gonna stick with her for a long time.

Her first priority was to find a way up to the clouds. There was no path up for her to go. Guess that meant more climbing. Rainbow Dash hoped there was minor ledges she could use.

In the dark, underground, it’s easy to lose track of time. Rainbow Dash had lost it when she finally got up to the ledge where the cloud path started. It can’t have been more than two hours, judging from her breath, but she honestly didn’t know. It was bad enough with her not able to fly but this was just plain cheating.

It hadn’t even been an easy climb. There had been no ledges, no paths for her to use. So she had to go the hard way, straight up the cliff. A combination of using her hoof-claws, the rope and the crowbar enabled her to create grooves in the rock to pull herself upward and thus scale the large wall.

Meanwhile, Sombra must have taken over Tempest again and was taunting her efforts again since he laughed at the notion that a pegasus had to climb. Rainbow Dash hated that. And Sombra must have had a smug face when he said those words. She’d like nothing more than to smash it in.

Rainbow panted hard, tuning out Sombra so she could focus more on getting her energy back. The breath came back, slowing down. The sweat didn’t stop, though. Either she was more exhausted than she thought or it was really, really hot in there. Twilight would probably go egghead mode and say something like it was because she was underground and therefore closer to the world’s central core that was in a constant flux of molten earth surrounding a massive metal ball that made it so hot in there. Pish-posh, everypony knew that heat came from the sun and the earth was absorbing its rays and stored it within.

Then something occurred to her. Rainbow Dash noted that for all her time spent in here, there wasn’t a single monster waiting in ambush for her. At least, not yet. The cliffs would have made a perfect ambush spot. They could have dumped rocks, or made up a strong gust of wind. A dash of that (doh, that was a pun. Better not let Pinkie find out) and Rainbow would definitely have fallen off.

Yet nothing had happened. Was Sombra expecting her to just fall down on her own? That was a dumb plan.

Either he’s gotten dumber since the Crystal Empire, or he’s up to something again. I honestly can’t decide with this guy. Part of me wants to believe he’s running scared of us getting them together, but he doesn’t reveal anything. What is wrong with this guy?

Rainbow put aside those thoughts for the moment and began to turn to the clouds, but something in the corner of the eye caught her attention.

A single word floating in midair barely illuminated by her headlamp as she turned to it. It was covered in darkness and was in that boring Courier style you found in those typewriters.

BUDDY

Buddy? Why would that word be here? Was that even a word in his vocabulary? Maybe it was something out of the other ponies’ mind and he just snatched it to make it seem applicable to her.

Or did he snatch it out of her head? Nah, she’d have kicked his ethereal flank back to where it belonged if he tried that. Rainbow tilted her head, though. Why would it be here?

And why, out of every word he could have picked to create a trap if he so wanted, did he choose just that word? Well, it wasn’t working anyway. It was in plain light thanks to her headlamp and nothing was working to it.

Unless…

Rainbow moved her headlamp so the main beam hit the word and almost immediately, BUDDY seared with sparks. She took the beam for a moment and the sparks stopped. She resumed it again.

About two seconds later, the word disappeared in a very small explosion that caused noise and a lot of light. Rainbow was merely inconvenienced by the light, all she had to do was blink it out but it cost her precious time and she would barely be able to protect herself from anyone coming up from behind.

Then a voice cut through the lights. It was the last voice she expected to hear in this of all places.

“Whoa, Rainbow. You might need to lie down.”

“Gilda?”

“Last I checked, that was my name,” Gilda retorted in a bored tone. Rainbow’s sight came back and she saw that Gilda was there and yet… not there. “Oh, you got it back now? You pegasi dweebs bounce back fast.”

“You… you’re not really here,” was all Rainbow Dash could say.

“Well, gee, wonder what gave that away? The see-through thing? It’s lame but I’m stuck like this. Least I’m slim, unlike you.”

“What are you even doing here?” Rainbow asked. “Is this another trap set by Sombra?”

“Set by who?” Gilda replied. “But hey, it’s a brilliant trap, letting the one you want cornered and dead reunited with an old friend from Junior Flight Camp. Way to go, Sombra. Whoever you are, now again.”

Rainbow frowned. “Yeah, we are old friends. As in, we’re no longer friends. You only looked out to be cool and number one, no matter who got hurt in the process.”

“Wow, you got a way with words there, Dash. I’m sure the coach would love to see you talk to a wingmate like that.”

“I’m just setting the record straight in case you forgot. If you really are Gilda. At this point, I just… don’t know,” Rainbow said totally frustrated. Why would Sombra do this?

“I don’t think I am the actual Gilda,” Gilda said. “I just look like her and talk like her.”

“So you admit that you are a fake.”

“As if the see-through wasn’t enough of a hint, already.” Gilda began walking up next to Rainbow. “Anyhoo, seems you and I are stuck together.”

“I’m filled with joy,” Rainbow said monotonous. It was bad enough she couldn’t fly but now she had to deal with Gilda? Who loves to fly above everything else besides being cool at the expense of others?

“So, mind telling me what we’re up against?”

“What I’m up against. You are transparent which means you don’t have a physical body, therefore you can’t be harmed, nor can you inflict harm.”

“Whoa, big words coming from you? That’s new. So what are you up against, if you’re gonna be like that?”

Rainbow told her.

“...Wow. You don’t do anything demi-like, do you, Dash?”

“No, I don’t. Anyway, I don’t know how much I am in here–”

“Where are we, anyway?”

“Underneath Tower Cliff in Bretonia,” Rainbow filled in, “but so far I don’t know how much further there is.”

“And you’re stuck on the ground like a lame earth pony.”

“Hey!”

“Okay, a demi-griffin,” Gilda corrected herself. “Better?”

“A little,” Rainbow replied and then sighed. “Let’s just get moving. I wanna move as soon as possible.” She didn’t jump on the cloud immediately, thinking it could be yet another trap of Sombra. She tapped it lightly with a forehoof first. It had a connection. Satisfied, Rainbow jumped on. “Good. At least some of the stuff in here won’t try to kill me.”

“Gee, could you be more vague than that?” Gilda asked, flying next to her. “But how would you know what would like to kill you and what wouldn’t?”

“I don’t,” Rainbow replied. “With this guy, I honestly don’t know and I can’t tell. And– Hey, what happened to Tempest?”

“Who?”

“Tempest. A pegasus working with Sombra. He was out there taunting me in this stupid mist, calling me names, saying I’m weak, blah, blah, blah.”

“So, your coltfriend, basically,” Gilda dropped deadpan.

Rainbow spat out something she didn’t think she had. “What?!”

“Come on. Your last one was like that.”

“Hey, don’t bring in my dating life into this! Where did that even come from?”

“Dash, for all you know, I could just be a figment of your imagination or something. Plus, didn’t you actually date someone like that once?”

“I am not discussing what happened between me and “Speedy” Bolt. Period,” Rainbow told Gilda sternly. “And you were off gliding off with that green pegasus, weren’t you?”

“No, that was the other Gilda. The Real Gilda. I’m Fake Gilda. So how can I have coltfriends if I don’t really exist?”

“Then why did you bring up dating in the first place?”

“Maybe you thought of something that might have considered that Tempest guy as a coltfriend, or maybe I just said that and now you can’t get it out of your head. Watch your step.”

“Watch my–” Rainbow stopped herself as she saw that she had almost walked off the cloud line by accident while talking to Gilda. “Whoa… Okay, I think I got it.”

“What?”

“You were placed here by Sombra deliberately just so you could annoy me or distract me so that I’d fall down there.”

“If I wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have told you to watch your step.”

“Then it’s annoying me,” Rainbow corrected herself and got moving on the cloud path again. “But the thing that bugs me is that you are here. If I wanted a buddy, I could have gone with Soarin, Fleetfoot, Misty Fly, you know, someone I know and think is real cool.”

“And I’m not cool?” Gilda asked swooshing by.

“Hm... let me think back on what you did back in Ponyville after we saw each other for the first time in years.”

“Look, point is, you can’t really choose your buddies, since we’re using that word now.”

“You’re being a whole lot more talkative than Real Gilda is. She doesn’t like talking at all, more like doing things.”

“Like you?”

“Well, I can’t do much, except keep walking. Plus, I can’t fly so my favorite activity is out. Might as well talk.”

“Fair enough,” Fake Gilda agreed. “What I’m trying to say is that sometimes you can’t decide who gets to be your buddy and who is ousted from your group of buddies.”

“So how come, even though I haven’t seen Gilda for two years now and she called me a lame-o for siding with my other friends she found lame and I said she wasn’t cool for saying that, she’s still my buddy?”

Gilda flapped her wings in silence for a few seconds. “I don’t think she had gotten used to the reality of how life works. Ponies and griffins grow up and need to change to go with the flow. It’s been two years. Maybe Gilda has changed and this is me–”

“Wait, does that mean that the way you’re talking right now is me thinking that’s how Gilda talks nowadays, or is it Sombra who made you talk like that at first and now I can’t shake it off?”

“Maybe you should ask this Sombra dweeb when we get the lame nerd,” Gilda answered.

“Aaaand now I’m confused again.” Rainbow took a look back at how far she had come. All she could see was darkness. The cliff had disappeared in the dark, leaving her just on the cloud path. “I feel like I could use a drink. Water, cider, something. I’m feeling parched.”

Gilda was quiet. “Gilda?” Rainbow called out. “Oh, great. Now she’s being quiet. She didn’t go away, did she?” Rainbow didn’t receive an answer from her ‘buddy’. Perfect. Now all she had to do was keep an eye on the path.

About five minutes later, she spotted something floating in mid-air. Rainbow could barely see the outline of it, but it was definitely bobbing up and down. Rainbow decided to hurry up. She couldn’t run, but she sped up as fast she could without the clouds bursting up.

It was a barrel with a tap, suspended freely without any magic aura. Rainbow walked up to it. Next to it, was a wooden mug. The same kind of mug they used in Ponyville during Cider Season.

Rainbow was stumped. Why would a barrel be here? Sombra put it here, obviously. But why would he do that? Was it filled with poison? Was it drugged? Was it contaminated in any way? How can this be a good sign at all? All she knew was that she was thirsty and she was getting somewhat desperate. Next dungeon? Pack water bottles and food packs.

Rainbow took the mug gently and placed it under the tap. She opened it. Cider poured out, its appearance like a godsend to her. She closed the tap quickly, though and removed the mug. Couldn’t be too careful. Especially with Sombra, from what Twilight had told them before.

The cider’s smell checked out okay. Yet Rainbow was reluctant to taste it. As much as she loved the stuff, it was cider provided by Sombra. And if that wasn’t enough cause to be worried, the fact that it showed up now was.

Rainbow tasted it anyway, just to quench her thirst. It tasted like liquid gold.

She had another two mugs of the stuff. Though after the first, it couldn’t have been to stop being thirsty. “Ahh,” she relieved, “that felt good. That felt really good.”

Rainbow thought she would regret it some time later, but it was getting late and time was vital. For all she knew, Fluttershy could be having trouble as well in the Woods.

Rainbow took the mug off her, it floating off into the darkness, and kept walking. There was still danger up ahead and the monsters could be preparing themselves via Sombra’s instructions.

All of a sudden, though, the path stopped. There was no fork, no turn in another direction, just a clear stop. What? Why would– Was this a dead end all along?! Rainbow wanted to scream in frustration. She had tried every other passage. There hasn’t even been a locked door, just a straight up dead end so far!

Wait, was there something on the other side? Rainbow redirected her headlamp to look in the direction where the path ended. Fortunately, there was something, a new cloud path. It was a long jump over there, but Rainbow had confidence she could jump that gap. She was gonna need a running start, though.

She took a number of pony lengths on the path and then asserted her standing. Much thanks to her races with Applejack, she learned that one of the key things to a good sprint was in the start, how you made sure to burst forward as fast you can to get a good lead over other ponies. “Okay, gotta time it right so I don’t tumble backward when I get there.”

Her eyes became focused on the spot she wanted to land on. “One.”

Her hind legs tensed up with muscles. “Two.”

Her fore legs rose up, ready to catch the body at the first kick. “THREE!”

She bursted forth across the path…

She jumped...

...She missed.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shi–"

Crunch!

Ooooh, I bet that hurts..."

Author's Note

Uh.... That wasn't supposed to happen...

An Honest Dungeon

Information on the ponies -- Tempest -- Specter -- Prince Romance -- Steel Beard -- Soothing Aura -- The first coordinates -- they won’t receive help -- Applejack is on her own -- Applejack vs Sombra -- Desolation

Everypony who was relevant to the mission gathered around the hologram projector. Twilight took a look around. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Spike and the captain of the Spectrum, along with his executive.

“So,” the captain started. “What are we up against, and who?”

Twilight knew her friends already knew about Sombra but there was little information about the others that had been shared. The captain had also only met Shining Armor, if Twilight went by the assumption that they had both worked together at some point.

But she had the files from Celestia which was enough. She flared up her horn and displayed the image of Sombra first. “Our main target is Sombra, a unicorn who uses dark magic. He has a history of combating Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. He is powerful, dangerous and smart. So far, we know that he does not have a corporeal form of his own, thanks to a curse that Celestia cast on him turning him to shadow. This means that he cannot be contained through normal means.”

“Some unicorns, a binding spell and we got him,” the captain pointed out.

“Ah’m not so convinced,” Applejack retorted.

Twilight told them there’s more. “Sombra is also fond of mind control, and he has taken hold of a number of ponies. Including,” she showed them the image of Shining Armor. “my brother, Shining Armor, Prince of the Crystal Empire.”

“Oh, dear,” the executive officer said.

“High-level unicorn. Defensive magic, strong in hoof-to-hoof combat, tactical expert, impressive resumé as a captain, natural team leader,” Twilight said. “If there was anypony I know that would be dangerous to face as one of Sombra’s zombies, it’s him.”

“Zombies?!” Spike yelled in panic.

“Not that kind!” It almost annoyed Twilight that Spike only knew just the one kind of zombie. “Okay, new memo: When talking of zombies, it is to refer to ponies under Sombra’s mind control.”

“Got it,” the captain said. “But by Celestia’s mane, we’re in for trouble if Shining’s working with Sombra. Any other military ponies we know of to be a zombie?”

“There’s Tempest,” Rainbow Dash piped in. Twilight responded with showing up an image of the mentioned stallion. “A retired Wonderbolt,” Rainbow continued. “He’s a six-year veteran of storm flying along with 23 skirmish air-fights. He likes quick hit-and-fly tactics, using speed as a battering ram when he’s not using storm clouds or tornadoes.”

“I take it you’re a fan?” The captain asked.

“Hey, I’m a trainee at Wonderbolt Academy, and lead pony of the recruits. Spitfire’s impressed with my record, if you have to ask. I told her about all this and she gave me what info we needed on Tempest.”

Twilight blinked. “You asked Spitfire for his info?”

“Tempest was one of the better fliers among the ‘Bolts,” Rainbow replied. “They flew together for 2 years. And she wasn’t happy with what I said.”

“And she gave you the info, anyway?”

“On the condition that I, quote, drag his sorry and battered flanks back to the academy and plomp them in front of her, unquote.”

Twilight blinked again. “Right… Anyhow, there are others to see, too.” She changed to another pegasus, this one having a grey coat along with a black mane, cut short to the point it was a buzz cut and blue eyes. “This one’s… Specter. Oh, guess he was caught.”

“Oh, that’s him.” Everyone turned their eyes to Rarity. “That’s the stallion who nabbed my Element like it was…” She stopped there, but mumbled what Twilight could only assume were very unladylike words.

“Well, if it helps you feel better, Specter here is a master thief that prowled through Canterlot for years. I’m surprised that he hadn’t been caught so quickly, but he has managed to avoid the Royal Guard for so long. Now, I guess somepony did catch him,” Twilight told her.

“Um…” The captain seemed to hold something to himself.

“Something you want to share?”

“He’s not really a thief,” the captain told her. “Well, yes, he does steal, and he is hunted by the Royal Guard, but he is, in secret that is, a training exercise.” Everyone stared at him. “Well, how else would you explain that they always found the stash of stolen items but never the pony himself? He was even commissioned by your brother, in fact, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight merely said ‘Huh’ before noticing that Pinkie was eyeing Specter’s form. “Pinkie?”

“He’s the one who took my element as well,” Pinkie muttered. “He broke a Pinkie Promise.”

There was a moment of silence before the executive spoke. “I don’t follow.”

“Not now, darlings,” Rarity informed. “We do need to consider the other ponies that have become, ugh… zombies.”

Twilight took that as a sign to continue and displayed another pony. This one was a unicorn as well, having a red coat and a blonde mane, much like Big McIntosh but a smaller build and seemed much older. His cutie mark was two hearts tied together with a red ribbon. “This one’s another pony I know. Prince Romance, a lesser member of the royal family.”

“Romance?” Rainbow snorted. “Wow, his parents must have been very cruel to name him that.”

Twilight gave her friend a glare. “Romance isn’t like that.”

“Oh really? Next we’ll find out that he’s a matchmaker or something.” Rainbow Dash had hit the nail in the board right on the head. Twilight gave her a glare until Rainbow Dash seemed to have gotten the picture. “Oh boy, you’re serious.”

“Yes, but that’s not his actual job,” Twilight told her. “He’s a diplomat and the main ambassador for relations between Equestria and the Griffin Empire. He’s pretty much responsible so far for our good relations.”

“And the matchmakin’ part?” Applejack inquired. “Since it’s his special talent and all.”

Twilight groaned. She recalled one meeting that he had set up for her once a few years back. “Back in Canterlot, he and I talked a few times. He’s calculative, and he can see if ponies can work together or not. Where Cadance can make love blossom where there is a problem, Romance is more one who can see if two ponies suit each other perfectly. This did lead to a problem once when he tried to find me somepony.”

Her friends’ eyes widened. “He tried to pair Twilight together with this young noblepony named Frazzleberry. Unicorn, taught old school, special talent was making “plebeian” ponies’ lives miserable,” Spike filled in. Twilight glared at him. “What? You didn’t see how he treated his maids when you weren’t around.”

“That was not his special talent,” Twilight argued. “He was more a fencer. Anyway, I found out and I told Romance about it and said that I might find somepony one day but I was too busy with my studies. He still got my file somewhere for ‘future potential.’”

Rarity looked curious. Twilight decided to take a wild guess. “It would be possible that if we get him back, he might take your case on, Rarity.”

“Oh no, I wasn’t thinking about that,” Rarity protested. “I was just thinking that if he’s part of the royal family, how come nearly nopony’s heard of him before?”

Spike cut in before Twilight could answer. “He never really bothered with any of that. I mean, sure, he’s this good diplomat and he’s a great matchmaking pony but he’s never stopped for a moment to pause. He’s always working, always on the move to someplace, always thinking out how this arranged marriage or that one will work out for the good of everypony. Only time I know he ever stopped was time for himself when he found his special somepony.”

“He does have the odd mention in some magazine, I think,” Twilight continued, “but he’s old. He’s in his sixties and last I checked magazines tend to focus on young celebrities. He’s not bothered at all about being in tabloids.”

“We gotta get him back fast,” the captain muttered. “He’d help get relations back with the griffins should it deteriorate.”

They looked over the file of Trixie as well, most of them fully aware of Trixie’s skills and exploits. Then came the sixth pony. A brown coated earth pony stallion nearly the size of Big McIntosh with a grey mane, his cutie mark was a hammer banging on an anvil. “This is a non-combat pony. Steel Beard, Canterlot Castle’s current blacksmith. He’s a very good smith and has worked on the suits of armor for the Royal Guard.”

“Any personal history on this one?” The captain asked.

“Just met him once when he was making Shining’s Captain’s armor. He’s not the most sophisticated of ponies, but he’s polite and knows his stuff. Talked me about the art of smithing and its history while he worked.” Everypony stared at Twilight and she felt queasy. “What? I was interested at the time.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and Rarity hid a smirk. Fluttershy remained impassive. Pinkie giggled as usual and Applejack was trying not to smile herself. Spike was deadpanned and the captain and his executive were in the dark. Twilight could see it on them. Twilight groaned. “So I have an interest in studies. You guys know all this since day two.”

“Yeah, yeah, we know.” Rainbow Dash looked uninterested. “So was that all of them?”

“Just one more,” Twilight told them and showed them another earth pony stallion. This one was more to the size of other stallions and had a soft green coat and yellow mane. His cutie mark was… some form of glowing energy around a heart. “Soothing Aura.”

“The relaxation and therapy doctor?” The captain said out loud.

Twilight had to open the folder holding the info on him. “Apparently. He specializes in helping ponies who suffered from trauma or cardiac arrests. He operated out in this resort at Neighara Falls where ponies went for walks in the nature and swimming. It came under Diamond Dog raids and he went missing. Guess we now know.”

“Why would Sombra have someone like him?” Rarity asked. “He doesn’t seem to match some pattern.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t make much sense at all,” Applejack added. “Think practic-like, for a spell. We have Shining Armor and Tempest, a pair of military oriented ponies, Trixie, a magic focused unicorn, Specter, an undercover member of the Royal Guard as an instructor, Prince Romance, a diplomat and Steel Beard, a smith.”

“Where does Aura fit into all this?” The captain asked.

There was a moment of silence before Twilight spoke again. “Nowhere, that’s what. Maybe Sombra nabbed him for the extra ponypower he needed.”

“But he could have just grabbed anypony for that.”

“Then we’ll simply have to ask him when we get him.” Twilight shut down the illusions of the ponies and flared up a rotating map. “We’ll start, however, with recovering the Elements of Harmony. For some odd but maybe logical reason, Sombra’s split them up.”

“Why would he do that?” Rarity asked. “He took the Elements for a reason, I can’t see why he would split them up.”

Twilight didn’t say anything, but she had to agree. Sombra must have some sort of plan for them and she couldn’t see it. Every variable she went through said that letting the Elements go was part of his plan, but she could not see his logic. Why would he do that?

“...Let’s find out when we get the first one,” she said. “For now, we’ll get prepared for anything.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. “It’s only day one. How long until we get there?”

Twilight was silent for about a minute. “I don’t know.”

The captain took charge then. “Full speed ahead. I want us there last week.”

Even with the Spectrum going at full speed, it would be days before they got anywhere. The first Element was located to the southwest, somewhere deep among the Rearing Stones canyons in the San Palomino desert. They had to let Rainbow Dash out to fly on her own at least once a day so she wouldn’t go stir-crazy. Still, the weather was nice. But one can only play “Spot the Cloud” for so long.

Along the way, they got to see first-hand devastation of small settlements raided by the changelings. Sure that it was out of necessity that the bugs did what they did, but it wasn’t necessary to turn well-built and hard-earned homes to rubble or ashes. Ponies put up bulletins of missing friends and relatives on boards in nearly every town south of Las Pegasus.

Word started around also that some of the ponies were found again, though somewhat… loopy. Some were parents, others siblings and most were dating somepony who hadn’t gone missing. At Fluttershy and Rarity’s insistence, they stopped by one small town. It was not pretty no matter how you looked at it. One in particular looked much drained. He was unharmed as far as anypony could tell when looking at him, but he was… damaged, was the best word that they could describe. He looked straight ahead, he reacted to very little beyond the basic needs, and he barely recognized any of his friends and family. They seemed more like… strangers with odd faces to him.

Rainbow Dash was fit to be mad. So was Applejack. The two of them may be concerned that peace was paramount, but to commit this while vying for it? Downright hypocritical, they said.

They were about a day away from the town closest to the Rearing Stones, Mustangia, when they got word that there was suspicious activity not far from the last town they visited. Naturally, Rainbow Dash volunteered with the argument that she could there and back in virtually no time.

Still, she had to cope with two crewponies the captain assigned her. She wanted to lose them so she could get over there faster, but no, they had to come with her.

And it was only now that she noticed that it was very hot in the desert. The heat from the sun reflected from the sand and rocks making the air an oven for anything that moved. Rainbow could only recall sweating so much during Academy practice.

The intel they had received wasn’t wrong. Rainbow Dash could see movement on a small ridge where one could see the town. But her temper grew when she saw who they were.

Changelings!

A group of about nine changeling drones following a leader were dropping off four ponies… gently? Something didn’t add up, but Rainbow Dash was just too angry to let them continue. “Alright, bugs!” She yelled, getting their attention. “You guys gonna pay for all you’ve done!”

The changeling leader blinked at her before answering. “We were just leaving, anyway.”

Rainbow Dash balked and landed with the other two. “Leaving?”

“Yes, we were leaving these ponies here so they can go back to town and recover,” the changeling continued. “A new policy we have made for these necessary raids.”

Rainbow stared at her but realized she had to find out. “Explain this policy.”

The changeling didn’t seem annoyed, just… at ease with the chance to explain things. “Until these excursions with the other nations began, we merely started by just abducting ponies, never returning. Some realized it was a mistake as it only produced short-term effects. As leader for the raids, I enforced the policy that we were not to drain ponies or whomever we take completely of their love, ensuring that enough remains so they can regrow it. We also return them to where they came from originally or wherever we deem suitable so they won’t feel out of place.”

Rainbow Dash was still angry, but she kept quiet. Mulling it over, she found it still hostile but she would hold onto it so Twilight could interpret it. For all she cared, these changelings should be dealt with. But she had a job to do first and nopony ought to know about it beyond those who already did. “...Do they remember anything from when they’re being drained?” She heard herself asking.

“No,” the changeling replied curtly.

“You guys need to stop,” Rainbow continued. “I’m not fond of you taking ponies and destroying their homes that they worked hard to get out here.”

There was a moment of silence. “We are currently in the motion of reforms. Our raids will not stop, but if say a new solution were to be found, hostile actions will be ground to a halt. For some time, at least.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. She could have taken them all on but there were innocents nearby within their reach and her two companions may not have fighting experience themselves. Plus, the changelings were alert now and that would make things harder. “Is that all?” she heard the changeling leader ask.

“...Yeah,” Rainbow finally answered. “You guys can leave now.”

Most of the drones took off immediately and headed east toward the Badlands. Two of them didn’t, staying with the leader, mocking the ponies with their formation. The leader stared at Rainbow Dash. “You are Rainbow Dash, yes?”

Rainbow stared back in disbelief. “What? You couldn’t tell by my mane?”

The leader stepped in closer. Rainbow stood still, knowing that she wouldn’t try anything. When they were close enough for whisper, the leader spoke again. “The Queen Mother knows all of you. She is most… displeased with choosing this course of action but she holds her temper at bay for the sake of the Hive.”

Queen Mother? “What are you, the Hive Princess?” Rainbow whispered back.

“Yes. I am Honeydew Wisp and I am to be the next Hive Queen. But since we’re on the road to potential peace, I would advise that you try your best to keep your temper at bay as well. I’d find it a bit awkward if two factions vying for peace would continue to spew insults and threats at one another.”

Rainbow’s temper flared again but she kept quiet. “At least we don’t keep to shadows and turn our enemies against each other.”

Honeydew gave no expression. “What happened in Canterlot should stay in the past. I look for peace and so should you. I do hope that next time we meet, we could be, as you say in Equestria, friends. Well, friends as well as two separate races can be.”

Honeydew pulled back and took off, her two drones following short. Rainbow let out a breath she didn’t realize she held. Twilight would certainly have a field day with just that one. She turned to her two companions. “Guys, be honest with me here. Did we do the right thing in letting them just go?”

The two crewponies took a look at each other before looking back to the four ponies unconscious on the ground. “Me, I don’t think there was a right thing here,” the left one answered. “Just a choice where things didn’t get ugly.” The other one just nodded in agreement.

Rainbow sighed again. “Come on, let’s get back to the Spectrum. We need to report this.”

The captain was in an uproar at the treatment of ponies. Twilight and co weren’t so enthusiastic about the whole thing, either. Rainbow Dash didn’t say anything to help support the changelings.

Applejack thought it over. Practically, it made sense in some twisted fashion. It was much like farming. But it was one thing to harvest fruit at the right time and another to harvest ponies. Changelings may not work on the same morals as ponies did, but some things are just wrong.

The Changeling Queen was probably doing this just to spite them.

It was still a hot and cloudless day when they reached the town of Mustangia. The local militia captain was grateful for some needed supplies they needed but wasn’t happy when they heard that the Spectrum wasn’t there for defense. Their mission was strict need-to-know and most who they would meet would probably never know of it.

Applejack had her stomach churning from that alone. She didn’t like keeping quiet.

Then again, it was for the sake of peace. No one had to find out the Elements had been stolen. She accepted that.

They were all waiting for Twilight to come out of the mayor’s office. Rainbow Dash was walking back and forth on the street. Rarity was looking at this clothes shop from a distance. Pinkie and Fluttershy busied themselves with having a small game of naughts and crosses. Applejack just lay down by the stairs and listened.

“What are those girls doing here?”

“They were on that airship that just came here. Special forces?”

“Hey, check out the white one. What a babe!”

“Doesn’t that yellow one look familiar?”

“I bet they’re just looking for trouble.”
“No, you’re being dumb. No way good looking girls like that are troublemakers.”
“Oh shut up, Tail Chaser.”

“We don’t want any trouble so why are they here?”

Applejack made it a mental note to listen in on ponies rumoring. It wasn’t until she felt prodding on her shoulder that she noticed Twilight was out. “Sorry. Ah wasn’t paying attention.”

“It’s okay,” Twilight said. “We’re out of luck, though. The mayor isn’t going to help us on the grounds that we can’t tell him. I tried with the changeling approach but Mustangia hasn’t suffered any.”

“Yet,” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“Still, he’s not helping,” Rarity commented. “Did you at least get a map of the canyon?”

“No, due to lack of willing fliers,” Twilight grumbled. “They say there’s a dragon resting out there, too.”

“D-d-dragon?” Fluttershy shivered and became stiff. Applejack didn’t roll her eyes.

“So we are on our own out there?” Applejack asked. Twilight nodded. “Shoot. Can’t we fly the airship out there?”

“Fraid not,” Rainbow Dash said. “The captain asked me for a quick overlook of the canyon. Way too small for the ship to be in there for any length of time.”

The gut feeling returned to Applejack. “Guess we’re walking there, then.”

Back on the Spectrum, the captain insisted that the girls would prepare themselves with proper military equipment, such as armor, weapons and other requirements. Rarity refused, Fluttershy disagreed with her and Pinkie agreed so long as she could add her personal touch to it.

Rainbow Dash said no because she wanted to remain speedy, so the only thing she took was her hoof-claw which she fitted on her right foreleg. Twilight wasn’t fond of wearing heavy barding and went instead with a light caparison cloth that Rarity insisted to modify at some point. The captain just thought she was daft in not even getting a helmet.

His crew cornered Applejack and Spike, on the other hand. They didn’t have anything that would fit Spike but he was given a nifty little curved dagger that was given by a griffin years ago. Applejack, however, was forced to don barding and Rainbow couldn’t stop laughing at the sight of AJ being in armor.

Applejack wasn’t too pleased about wearing hammerhooves and a peytral and flanchards. She took her hat along instead of a helmet and the captain called her daft as well for it. She did admit that the hammerhooves had a nice feel to them, how they went up to her knees and she couldn’t even feel kicking a stone when she tried them. Fluttershy had requested the most flame-proof equipment they had and was wearing mail armor along with the regular plate stuff and a helmet with closing visor. In addition, she got a big shield.

First chance she was getting, the barding would be taken off.

“Everyone ready?” Twilight asked the group.

“Yes,” was the collective answer she received.

“Good, now let’s go.” All seven of them walked off to the bridge for disembarking off the Spectrum. Applejack was ready for this mission. She knew that whatever came their way, they’d be ready for it…

...except for that crowd of townsponies waiting for them at the docks. “You girls aren’t seriously going to the Rearing Stones, are you?”

“Well, yes,” Twilight answered for them. “We kinda have to. Important mission and all, with the threat of war imminent and so on.”

“But there’s a dragon out there! What if you wake him up?” Another cried out. And Applejack saw Fluttershy keel over stiff.

“Aww, ponyfeathers,” Applejack said. “And we just managed to get Fluttershy willing to get along with this.”

“Let’s just tie her to your back so we can carry her there without her knowing,” Rainbow Dash said and started picking Fluttershy up.

Twilight spoke to the crowd. “Listen, I know you are all scared that we might wake this dragon but chances are that we won’t go near him. We just need to be in the same area as him, that’s all.”

“Yeah, and we’ve dealt with dragons before, this’ll be a pushover,” Rainbow Dash added. “Plus, if there’s a hostile group of changelings about as suspected, we could just push them straight to him.”

“Rainbow!” Rarity scolded. “We are here on a reconnaissance mission, not to take out changelings!”

“Guys!” Twilight yelled at them. Then she turned back to the townsponies. “We appreciate your concern, but we can take care of ourselves and we’re not budging on going to the Rearing Stones. Just have a little faith and we’ll be fine. Now we really ought to get going.”

Without another word, they left Mustangia behind for the Rearing Stones.

xxx

A small distance away from the docks, a pegasus sat by an outdoor bar, sipping on a cider. The townsponies had drawn some attention to themselves at the docks, so it wasn’t hard to be one of many to watch the scene. He saw the six mares leave. He paid the bartender the regular fee and left for a small alley.

“They’re on their way,” he said to the air.

“I’ll handle it from here,” it replied.

The scenery wasn’t too bad. When you live in grasslands where near every patch of land you can see is covered in green, seeing bare land and rock beneath a scorching sun could be something you’ll always remember.

Rarity didn’t regret her choice in not choosing any form of barding. There wasn’t even any dust from the ground coming up from their hooves as they walked on. Cloudsdale was gorgeous for being a grand city in the sky, and the Rearing Stones looked much like a grand city of the desert with sky scraping rock formations and maze of sandstone buttes. The similarity was uncanny.

If there was a dragon out here, he certainly couldn’t just have picked the place because it was isolated.

“...not going to the dragon’s lair, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity snapped out of her viewing the scenery to hear Twilight talk with Rainbow Dash. The pegasus was talking something about going into the dragon’s home for a dare to take something.

Rarity rolled her eyes and sighed quietly. Hadn’t Rainbow Dash learned what happened the last time she had gone into a dragon’s lair?

“I could make a quick in-and-out before he sees me,” Rainbow argued.

“No. We are not here for that,” Twilight shot her down. Rarity felt good to hear that Twilight was in charge, as per usual. And she had a good reason to focus on all this. If she had a brother, Rarity would go through anything to make sure he’d be safe.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rarity noted that Applejack wasn’t feeling so well. She hid it well, but there was a subtle change in her pace of walking. Applejack’s breathing was a tad faster than usual and there was some flicker in her eyes. She wasn’t having trouble with the barding she’d been forced to wear, Rarity could tell that much. Nor was it Fluttershy they had tied onto AJ’s back, who was still unconscious “...Applejack?”

“Huh?”

“Are you alright?” Rarity asked, just quietly enough for them to talk privately. “You don’t look too well and it’s not from heat or weight, I can see that much.”

Applejack didn’t answer at first, but Rarity wasn’t pushing it. She hoped. Applejack turned her eyes away and then talked. “Ah dunno, really. It’s like… Rarity, have you ever been in a fight before? Not one where you argue and yell at each other, but one where you actually got dirty and used your hooves?”

Rarity was silent for a few moments. There were a few times where she had gotten into trouble with some unpleasant customers, which was why she had taken self-defense classes to begin with. But nothing like what Applejack had described matched that. “No, I haven’t.”

“It feels like tha, only… Ah got pummeled, but there’re no bruises, no bite marks or scorches from being shot by a unicorn horn. Ah feel weary the whole time and ah get this nagging in the back a’ mah head.”

It was then that Rarity noticed the whole group looking at them. “Um… does it come in certain moments or…?”

“It’s constant,” Applejack told them. “Not sure why.” She shook her head. “Twilight, any idea where we can find the Element here?”

They all looked to Twilight and she seemed a bit unnerved. “I’m gonna cast the spell.” She lit up her horn and a small silver-ish light hovered above her head. It flew off before turning around the next corner to the right.

“That way,” Rainbow Dash cried and took off first, the others in hot pursuit. Rarity found herself not fond of running in the desert, that tends to bring out the dust easily and it stains the coat not to mention-

Badang!

They all found Rainbow Dash slammed on the ground just a few feet away from the entrance of a deep cave. “Ow,” said Rainbow. “What was that?”

“Are you alright, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked Rainbow as she got up on her hooves again.

“Yeah, I was flying fine, the next I hit something that wasn’t there at all.”

Twilight took a look at the cave entrance. She lifted a hoof and went for a rapping. Rarity thought it almost ridiculous. Almost was the keyword as Twilight’s hoof connected with something that made a sound. “It’s a forcefield. Shining’s design.”

“Let me guess, it’s unpenetrable,” Rainbow Dash scoffed.

“Impenetrable,” Rarity corrected and tried her hoof at the forcefield herself. She connected with it herself. “But there must be a reason why it is here right in front of the entrance to this… dark, and probably damp cave.”

“There is,” Twilight told them. “It’s a minor forcefield of Shining’s design. It just keeps ponies out except for a few of his own choosing whenever he needed to keep certain ponies in the loop of something important. But I do know this,” she said and flared up her horn. “it’s not immune to a nice burst of magic.” She fired off a bolt.

It went straight through without a fuss. Rarity noted that Twilight blinked twice, thereby giving the suggestion that wasn’t the reaction she had expected. Rarity lifted her hoof again and rapped. It still connected with the forcefield. “I daresay that Sombra has made a few modifications, darling.”

“Eheh… seems that way,” Twilight reluctantly admitted.

“So let me get this straight,” Applejack said while getting Fluttershy off her back. “Only one a’ us can go through that forcefield?”

“Let me try something else, first.” Twilight teleported to the mouth of the cave, but got spat back out immediately. “Okay, four of us left to try. Who’s first?”

“Me!” Pinkie bounced up to the air and bounced right off the barrier. “Phoo-wee.”

Rarity looked to Spike and he seemed squeamish. Spike noticed her staring. “I think I’m sitting this one out. I don’t think Sombra’s forgotten about me this time.”

Then the two unicorns looked to Applejack. “Applejack? Do you think…” Rarity started.

“It’s got to do with mah headache?” Applejack finished. Rarity motioned with her eyes that Applejack could try this time. Applejack seemed less keen on it, but she walked up to the forcefield anyway.

When she rapped her hoof, it didn’t connect. “Huh, look at that,” Applejack said with joy and walked straight through the forcefield. “Shame y’all couldn’t come through with me. Ah could do with the help.”

“Sorry,” Twilight told her. “Even if it is one of Shining Armor’s designs, it has Sombra’s modifications and I don’t know how to work through those. And even if I did, it would still take time. Hopefully, I can get through this in an hour at most.”

“Ah’d better get going then,” Applejack said. “Wish me luck.” With that, she trotted into the cave.

“We’ll be right behind you, darling,” Rarity called after her. Then a giant stone slab came down and covered up the entrance. “Or not,” Rarity said with a forced smile.

Applejack kicked the stone slab as hard as she could. One time became two times and that in turn became three. “Come on!” She cried and bucked it in order to get out. Taking on the cave on her own was one thing, not having an exit was a totally different thing.

She gave up after the fourth attempt because she needed the strength to carry on. Sombra could easily swarm over her if she was exhausted. Applejack stared at the slab before looking further into the cave.

To say it was dark was obvious. No light, no sign that it was going to end. Just endless darkness. Perfect for ambushes and traps that she couldn’t spot. “So y’all wanna get me separated from the others just ta get ta me, huh?” She asked the darkness. All she got was silence. “Fine, be that way.”

Applejack began her trek into the dark tunnel and kept walking. She got to think over what could happen.

On the train ride back from the Crystal Empire when they had managed to save it, Twilight had told them about the defenses Sombra had set up around the Crystal Heart. First there was the crystal that only responded to dark magic. Then there was the winding staircase down, followed by the door that showed you your worst fears. Applejack shook and hoped there wouldn’t be one here.

Although she would draw a conclusion at this point: Sombra signed his work with the traps he had used at the Empire for a simple reason. They worked.

Applejack couldn’t feel any stairs as she walked on, hoping she had brought a flashlight with her or at least something that brought light so she could see properly. Sombra or something left behind by him could be here, even right next to her.

The thought kept her alert and made her take each step carefully. Applejack wasn’t a scaredypony, but even the bravest wouldn’t be so eager as to jump into a trap and she wasn’t keen on having… something happen to her.

Now that she thought about it, what other traps were there that Sombra had used before? Twilight had mentioned more stairs after the door, even more than what would have been possible given the castle’s size.

And if that wasn’t enough, the Crystal Heart had an alarm around itself, alerting him. Good thing Spike was there with Twilight.

Thinking back on all those traps got Applejack thinking what kind of dangers Sombra would have in mind for her. He knew she was an earth pony, he knew that she wasn’t a big danger like Rainbow Dash or Twilight. Compared to them she was… not fully a threat. All she had were her hooves, a rope and her hat.

And all of a sudden, a headlamp. “Huh?” Applejack had barely noticed the thing until her hoof connected with it by what could have been sheer accident. Or maybe not. And if not, why would Sombra provide her with a headlamp in the first place? He doesn’t help ponies, nor does he give them any hints.

Applejack got the mental idea that there could be another pony down here with her in the dark. Or something else. Still, a headlamp was a headlamp and it gave light in the dark. She donned it quickly under her hat. “Not gonna say no ta some light,” she told herself and walked on.

Compared to the outside, the tunnel was rather cool and she didn’t sweat as much as she thought she would with her armor on. Felt a bit drafty too, even with the entrance closed. Applejack’s spirits lifted up, from having been underground before and she knew that a draft meant that wind was coming in, which in turn meant there was another exit somewhere.

“Okay, now I know I can get out someplace else.” With that in mind, she began trotting ahead with the flashlight on full power.

She got about thirty paces before she noticed that the ground just… stopped.

“Huh?” Applejack went up for a closer look, stepping up to the edge. There was no slope, no wall, no ledges, just a sheer drop into the black. “Is this it? How deep is that?” A small pebble on the edge that seemed loose was perfect. Applejack gave a nudge and listened for a noise as it fell down.

It took about ten seconds before she heard the pebble hit the bottom. “Oooh, that’s a long drop. How am Ah supposed ta get over this?”

Applejack did have a rope on her, but as far as she could see, there wasn’t anything she could tie or lasso it to. Wait, is there something on the other side? Is there another side of this?

She had to squint her eyes, but Applejack could see a ledge on the other side. “Ah dunno if Ah could jump that distance.” She took a measuring stare at the ledge she was standing on and other. “Maybe. Maybe Ah could jump this, but Ah could easily slip and fall down there. It feels like it’s just over what Ah can do.”

A few moments later, Applejack decided it most likely wasn’t worth it and she would go back for another route. “Maybe Ah missed something earlier without the headlamp. Yeah, Ah should go back and-”

The moment Applejack turned around, she couldn’t help but notice that huge wall of living and moving shadow in front of her obstructing the path. That big boulder wasn’t there before, either.

Applejack had been expecting an ambush all along, only that she had been expecting goons, minions she could fight off. A large boulder enwrapped in shadow was not among those, and it didn’t look like Sombra’s idea.

The boulder moved. The shadows shook it “awake” as far as she could and lifted it in the air. Applejack cringed as she recognized what it was going to do. She hurled herself to the side as soon as the boulder launched.

It missed her narrowly and fell down the big chasm. It took a brief moment for Applejack to realize that. “Ha!” She yelled at the shadows. “How’s that? You can’t take out one mare, can you? Ah’ve seen mah big brother drunk with better aim than you. Why don’t you try with the regular ganging up tactic? That always-”

Applejack felt rock slamming into her from behind, being thrust forward into the shadows. Somewhere her headlamp stopped working. The rock rolled off her and she could feel her legs burning with pain as she tried to stand up again.

“Or I can simply attack you from behind while you were talking,” Sombra’s deep booming voice echoed around her. “This is easy, just as I expected.”

Applejack heaved herself on her hooves and tried starting up her headlamp again. “Really? You lookin’ down on me, Sombra?”

“You’re a joke compared to them, farmer. Your strong unicorn would be a threat, and your pegasus is too mobile to keep down but you have nothing that can equal them. What makes you think you are anything useful? It’s not like your own products are anything good, either. Cheap swill and moldy manure is what you are selling to Ponyville.”

“Oh no, you did not just badmouth Sweet Apple Acres!” Applejack knew this was just to rile her up to make her do something stupid, but Sombra knew what he would say word for word. She had to give him that.

“I did. And with you out of the way, the rest of your friends will fall easily. Even if the Element of Honesty would find a new bearer, it would take years before that will happen. So… do me a favor and fall down that abyss I prepared for you.”

Applejack heard the boulder being lifted again and she stepped back. Her headlamp was still malfunctioning and she couldn’t see anything in the dark. She stopped moving when her hindhood ceased connection with the ground and she knew she was at the ledge.

She could try to jump, but she couldn’t see the ledge on the other side. The boulder was gonna launch at her again and she wouldn’t be able to dodge it in time. It would send her over-

Hang on.

Applejack took a deep breath and braced herself. The boulder came forward, Applejack didn’t move for it. She raised herself on her hindhooves and felt the rock slam into her, sending her flying down.

All or nothing, now, she thought. She climbed up to the top of the rock and then… she jumped.

Applejack had no idea how long she was airborne. A second, maybe two. It felt like minutes. But she felt reality kick in again when she landed on hard ground again, the armor nearly buckling from impact and her air went out the lungs again. She had to collect herself again with air before getting up. She tried one final time with her headlamp and miraculously, it lit up.

Applejack swelled with joy on seeing she was finally on the other side. She could see Sombra’s eyes fill with rage and she couldn’t help but smirk. “Athletic skills and strong legs, THAT’s what Ah’m bringing ta our band of friends!”

“You will die here,” Sombra told her. “You know how I work, but do you know what I have in here? You won’t get anywhere near your pathetic Element, because I’m going to kill you.”

“And how are y’all gonna do that over there while Ah’m over here?” Applejack said that. She felt sapped in her legs, her armor was getting heavy but she was clear of him and she could move on.

That’s when she heard the snarling behind her.

Applejack had never been so grateful for two things in her life before.

One, Sombra had vanished into the darkness and she wasn’t hearing his ranting anymore.

Second, the captain had made a good point about wearing armor.

The moment she had turned around, something huge had attacked her. It went straight for her headlamp, leaving her in the dark, and then it turned on her. Applejack couldn’t see what it was, but it had massive claws and raked them over her body as much as it could. She could hear its claws scratch across the tough metal of her armor and her hat may have taken a hit or two on her before she kicked it off her and ran faster than she could remember she had done before.

It was now dark and her headlamp was slightly damaged. Fortunately, it was functional, but unless she was fast it would go out quicker than expected.

She saw her hat damaged. It was torn and battered because of that attack and Applejack cringed at the claw mark.

And all she could do was move forward. Sombra was still lying in wait for her somewhere and she couldn’t jump that gap again. Applejack could also feel bruises burning on her and with those, jumping would be impossible. She should have brought some medical supplies with her.

How long have Ah been here, she thought as she walked on. It felt like hours, days even, but it can’t have been more than just one hour. Time flies when you’re having fun, they say, but Applejack can’t really say she has had any fun so far except for finding the headlamp.

When she was feeling better, she stumbled over the next challenge. A path that seemed to lead up to a doorway. “Oh, this bit,” she said loud. “Ah bet this is one a’ them doors that move on their own, can only be opened by unicorns and leads to your worst fears if you use the wrong one.”

Applejack felt like she should just break down the darn door, and walked onto the path anyway. Some adventurers would probably give up and go find some other dungeon to loot, not her. Applejack wasn’t going to give up on this one. Not like she could give up, anyway.

There was the door. Applejack could already see that it was going to be difficult as she walked up to it. It was big enough for her to go through and she could it was an oak door. Those were some of the toughest and it was a good choice. Applejack gave the unicorn credit yet again for what he had cooked up.

And then she noticed that the door had been blasted apart. “Huh?” Applejack rubbed her eyes and looked again. The door had been destroyed and split into nearly two parts with clear scorch marks of a bolt.

Applejack could spot the results of a magic bolt easy and she decided she was gonna get Twilight something real nice once this whole thing is over. “Okay, time ta see what you have in here, Sombra.”

It was a round room. When Applejack stepped in, lights turned on, revealing six circles of identical (or, at least they looked identical) various colors. Applejack turned off her headlamp, letting it rest a while. “Okay, now that Ah didn’t expect. Lessee…”

Sadly, Applejack may have gone to school, but the only one she knew who could interpret magic circles was Twilight. Twilight had at a few times shown them some circles she know and they were for doing wards or teleportations between linked circles. All of these were… new? Old? Whatever they were, Applejack couldn’t tell which one was which and which could do what. “And no manual,” she complained. “Not like Ah was expectin’ one ta begin with. Ah could go with just going one at random at a time, but Ah dunno if that’s a good option. Sombra most likely wants me dead so Ah can’t just pick one and hope for the best. But Ah don’t see any other options.”

This sucked.

“Ah’m just gonna have ta wing it from here, aren’t Ah?” Applejack took a look at the colors: blue, red, green, teal, yellow and purple. Darn, this is hard. “Alright, next time, we’re gonna need a manual on the circles, along with some custom wings for those who can’t fly.”

She first went for the red one. Red as her apples and apples were good. Applejack paused herself for thinking that, but she had made her choice anyway. “Okay, first circle. Here we go.” She stepped and waited. “If this sends me into a hypno nightmare, Ah think I’ve made a bad choice.”

Applejack heard growling behind her and saw three manticores in the room. “No, it brought monsters. Ah made a bad choice, but it was not so bad at all,” she said. “Wait.”

One manticore roared and attacked, swinging its big paw against her. Applejack dodged and thrusted her forehoof towards it. The forehoof was still clad in a hammerhoof and the manticore’s face almost broke on impact. The manticore moaned in agony and backed away from her. Applejack and the other two stood still in stunned surprise.

Applejack looked at her hammerhoof and spoke two sentences that many a newbie at using hammerhooves for the first time have uttered at seeing the result.

“Celestia’s shiny hiney! These things leave a mark!”

Back in Canterlot, Celestia sneezed in private, having no idea why she was blushing at the same time.

Applejack saw the other two manticores back away and figured that they were as stuck as her. They probably didn’t want to be here and ending up in a strange situation from where they used to be must have surely made them reactionary. Now one of them had gotten beat up by a pony and- darn, now she felt guilty.

“Alright, Ah can’t understand you, but Ah think you understand me. Ah don’ wanna be here mahself, but Ah have ta be. You don’t. Ah dunno if there’s a way out of here but there’s wind blowing in somewhere. If you follow that, maybe you could get out.”

The manticores looked at each other and then comforted their hurt comrade. Applejack stepped aside to show them the exit and much to her surprise, all three of them left. “Huh. Why do Ah feel like that wasn’t what Sombra had intended?”

Applejack stepped off the red circle and examined the rest of them. “So the red one summons monsters. Ah think that one was a fluke and hastily made or Ah’m just lucky. Okay, Ah need to think for a moment on colors.”

Yellow was an okay color, but Applejack wasn’t too sure about stepping into that one. Anything could happen with that. Well, technically, anything could happen with any of these, but since there was no other doorway, one of these would let her continue.

If she picked purple, chances would be that she could end up like Twilight did up in the Crystal Empire. It was starting to give off that vibe. But if that was an illusion, then she could step into that one and a door could appear. Then again, it could be the real thing and a bluff on Sombra’s part to make her step in.

What about green? Green was a good color. Some of her apples were green, but she wasn’t going to base her logic off that again. But what would that do?

This is so frustratin’, she thought. Why can’t some just be dumb enough to provide a manual? Or at least some clue?!

But no, not Sombra. It was one thing hearing Twilight talk about his defenses, it was a whole different experience to go through with them yourself.

Then she noticed the blue circle. “Huh. Ya know, outt’a them colors that are here, Ah wouldn’t put much money on blue.” If she remembered correctly, Twilight had mentioned that the color blue in those circles was beneficial. But then again, it was a Sombra. Cons: This could end up horrible for her and she could wind up dead, entrapped or cause a cave-in, etc. Pros: This could be her only way forward.

…

“Consarn it,” she said and stepped in. “Ah’m taking another chance. Pretty much the only thing Ah can do.”

The magic circle flared up with small lightning arcs. “Uh oh.” Then Applejack’s world went white and the next thing she could see was a rock wall. “What? Hah ha! Ah made a good choice. Ah can’t wait until telling-”

CRACK!

“What?” Applejack took a second look where she was standing. A very narrow and thin rock ledge in a very narrow fissure and the ledge was cracking under her weight. “Oh come ON!”

And the ledge gave way, sending Applejack down to what could be a potential doom. Applejack screamed, clamoring with her hooves to get hold on a much stronger ledge or something that would slow down her fall. A rock there, some old root there, it all broke thanks to her speed.

Applejack spotted another rock ledge just short of a large cave area that glowed and she aimed for that with her falling as much as she could. Fortunately, the ledge was big enough to catch all of her, but she wasn’t sure if it would hold her weight. Beggars can’t be choosers, and she slammed down hard on the ledge. “Augh… goat cheese takeout, that hurts… Can this day get any worse?”

She heard more cracks and closed her eyes. “Obviously.”

CRACK! “AAAH!”

At least the ledge had survived a purpose: She was still alive when she landed again. Or, at least she was in lots of pain. Big Mac once said when she was having her bucking lessons under him that pain was a friend, that it was there to tell you that you had bitten off more than you could chew and you should stop and rest awhile.

Applejack couldn’t be happier that she was alive, but she wasn’t fond of the pain at the moment. “Ah’m gonna lay still for a while. Ah need a breather after everything that’s happened. At least this patch of metal is more comfy than rock…”

Applejack took a few deep breaths and yawned, resting her head on the-

Metal.

Applejack’s eyes snapped wide open and she took a closer look at her bed. Gold. Specifically, gold coins. Stretched across were a number of big gemstones. She could feel her irises shrink down to little pinpoints. A piece of armor there, some shed scales here…

She knew exactly where she was and it terrified her. “Oh, no~.”

The sun was setting.

All day, the rest of the ponies and Spike had been at the barrier, trying to break it open. Twilight had nearly run herself exhausted working on it. And they had been met with, obviously seen, mostly failure.

Not to mention the big stone slab. They’d have to break through that as well to get to Applejack.
Twilight was fit to be mad. It was the equivalent of having a test you had done before returned to you with new questions, only the questions had nothing to do with the subject the test was about. Just how did Sombra do it? How is he able to take somepony’s magic and apply it with his own modifications? That’s Twilight’s thing.

“Rrgh, I give up, I can’t break through this.” Twilight walked over to a small campfire they had lit and plopped her haunches down on a rock. “I really dislike saying this but Sombra has me beat.”

“How bad?” Dash asked her.

“Like everytime I take one step forward, he takes two. Makes me wonder if he too has a special talent in magic. Wouldn’t surprise me at this point.” Twilight took a cup of water offered by Spike and drank slowly.

“So Applejack is trapped in there?” Fluttershy asked, who had finally come to.

“I can’t say that we won’t be able to help her, but we have to try another way. We can’t go through the obvious defenses and it would take too long to make a regular tunnel.”

“And I don’t have anything with me that can help with that, not even sugar canes.” Everyone looked at Pinkie Pie. “What? I left most of my stuff back at the ship.”

It was now completely dark save for the moonlight as they settled. Rainbow Dash took a moment to yawn. “I think we need to get some rest before we try again. Applejack can handle herself, we all know that.”

“You didn’t see what happened when we were in that maze made by Discord?” Twilight asked.

“No,” Rainbow replied. “I was separated from Applejack the whole time while he had put his hypnosis over all of us.”

“Oh.” Twilight blushed at the memory. “But you may have a point- what happened to the light?”

“Why has the moon gone out?” Spike was heard asking. “I don’t like the moon going out, I’d like to have it go back on.”

“Okay, that’s weird. The moon just can’t go out like that,” Twilight pointed out.

“Um... why is there a mist coming across the canyon?” Fluttershy asked as fog clouds could be barely seen sweeping over them. “A mist shouldn’t come like this.”

“Hooves where we can see ‘em!” The voice came all distorted and unnatural, but it was loud enough for them to hear it. Out of the mist came a multitude of griffins with spears and shortswords, wreathed in shadows to the point their eyes were all black with a very small red glow in the sockets. Their beaks were in a constant frown as if they were baring their teeth if they had any.

Twilight gulped. This was going to get really ugly, really soon. “So much for that small nap...”

Applejack on the other hoof was pretty certain she was just talking to thin air but there might be a chance that He was listening. “Ah feel like Ah need to use mah Manehattan accent for this and yes, Ah have a Manehattan accent. Ah just don’t use it very often.” She cleared her throat. “Sombra, if you are listening, I am going to use this whole cave adventure as an excuse to beat the living crap out of you.”

Out of all things, Sombra had to install that teleport circle straight into the lair of the dragon of the Rearing Stones. Okay, there could have been worse situations - an underwater cave with no air, a open pit with spikes at the bottom, a pack of starving timberwolves. The possibilities could go on for hours.

Even so, Applejack felt terrified being stuck in a dragon’s lair. And everypony knew that dragons didn’t take kindly to ponies or anyone else intruding in their lair at all. This is gonna be horrible.

Please don’t notice me, please don’t notice me, please don’t notice me! Where’s the darntootin’ exit?!

Applejack had good reason to worry about her hoofsteps clinking against the gold but as long as she could reach the regular floor she’d be safe there. “Good, now ah’m on the floor,” she whispered to herself. “Ah better find the exit and make a beeline out of here.”

Walking always took time so a busy mare like Applejack with work to do was always trotting wherever she went unless she had a heavy load of apples to sort in the barn. Trotting did make a lot of noise and with the horseshoes she had, Applejack figured she could wake the dragon if she trotted.

Speaking of the dragon, where was it? Was it already awake and outside? Was the dragon awake and inside in hiding? Was it still asleep? How the heck do ah know?

And the dark, grim atmosphere of the whole room didn’t help either. Shouldn’t dragons have it well-lit so they could always count their treasure? Why were the lights out?

“Your money or your life!” A yell from nowhere pierced the silence and Applejack turned around. Six shadow-wreathed griffins armed with swords and crossbows surrounded her. They didn’t say anything else, they just closed the gap between them slowly.

Applejack took a deep breath and steeled herself. Most of Sombra’s traps were things she could not fight. This time? She could fight.

“I wouldn’t try that,” a new voice said and everyone froze to look at the source. Applejack knew him on sight: Steel Beard. “No worries, they won’t hurt you much, they’ll just break your legs. Maybe slice your neck. It’ll be quick at least, no dragging it out.”

“And you said Ah wouldn’t try fightin’ these griffins?” Applejack scoffed and slammed her forehooves into the first one that was sent flying by the blow. “Who’s next?”

Another griffin went straight to attack her, and Applejack remembered her basic training. Most guards in Ponyville had been pegasi but they did teach her moves for Earth ponies. Applejack rose up on her hind legs and swung her forehooves in a controlled fashion to keep him at bay. Another circled around but Applejack had seen him already.

When the griffin was in position, Applejack fell back on all four and jumped straight up with her rear legs pulled in for one of her famous bucking kicks. The griffin was sent flying into one of the gold piles and the money fell in an avalanche over him.

Applejack held the other griffins at bay with her kicks and punches in a very controlled motion of her body and in less than a minute after the fight had started, Applejack stood alone in a small clearing of the floor surrounded by downed griffins still wreathed in shadow. “Alright, Steel Beard, y’all are next on mah things ta do, and ah think ah know somethin’ else.”

“What’s that?” Steel Beard asked.

“That mah Element of Honesty is in this very hall. Otherwise, y’all wouldn’t be here ta begin with. Why else would Sombra put you and these birds here?”

Steel Beard closed his eyes, Applejack could barely see that and hummed. Though when he opened them again, his eyes were those of Sombra’s. When he spoke, his attitude and tone had changed completely. “You show yourself better than you look, farmer. But not by much.”

Applejack frowned at staring straight at Sombra. “Ya know, Ah’m surprised that from what Twilight told me, y’all haven’t tried any of those ‘yer worst fears come true’ spells on me. Care to explain that?”

Sombra sneered at her. “No. I’m not obligated to sate your curiosity.”

Applejack just… stopped. He wasn’t going to tell her? “Really? That’s yer big answer? ‘I’m not obligated?’”

“Why bother with telling you anything?” Sombra countered. “I have no need to tell you nor do I want to. Why would I willingly give you secrets that I strive to keep hidden from all but myself? There is no purpose in doing that.”

“Is there a purpose to being annoyed by somepony?” Applejack asked him.

“No, but then there is another question: What purpose would there be to having troops when you’re not using them?”

“Uh oh,” Applejack ducked and felt her hat getting pierced by a swift arrow. Rrgh, why do they always go for the hat? Applejack spun around and saw one of the griffins go back up. The griffin in particular had been given a headblow from one of her hammerhooves and should have stayed down for at least an hour. He had gotten back up without so much of a scratch or even a concussion.

“How?” Applejack whispered as the rest of them crawled out and stood up. Not one of them showed any kind of injury.

“Well, my birds will keep you occupied if not dead, farmer,” she heard Sombra scoff. “Though since you made it this far, I’ll be moving the Element from here to someplace else while you’ll be left as food for the dragon once he comes around.”

Applejack didn’t have time to listen to him walking away since the griffins put her on the defensive. Her first priority at the moment was getting clear of them so she could pursue him before he could reach the Element.

It was at that point she decided she needed more light in order to see. Jumping clear of the griffins from their attacks, she heard them coming up behind her and thought maybe she could blind them in the process. She reached up, flicked her headlamp on…

And the griffins seemed to burn in the light. “What in the hayseed?” Applejack whispered to herself as she watched them trying to get away from the light by hiding behind the treasure piles. She looked at her headlamp and drew the dots together in her head. So light can hurt them, she thought. Now Ah got a clear path after Sombra.

Applejack sprinted off for the sounds in the distance, knowing that could only be the fallen king. Being battered as she was, stopping for a rest was not possible at this time. She just had to keep going.

Applejack saw Steel Beard just ahead, and seeing as she was sprinting, it was little wonder that he did the same without looking back.

Steel Beard was well rested and unbruised and not wearing any armor, she could see that from her distance between the two and still she was catching up to him. But her own energy reserves were running out fast and she had to get there before him. But Applejack still had something with her which she thought she needed in there.

She still had her rope with her.

After confirming that the griffins weren’t following, AJ took it out and formed it quickly into a lasso on the move. If she stopped to make it, then Sombra would be too far ahead to catch up to again. With her lasso in mouth and twirling, she aimed and threw her lasso.

It went around his neck and went taut when she stopped. She spat out the rope and kept going.

“Meep, meep!” She cried cheerfully as she passed him with a darn smile on her face.

“Gaarrgh!” She could hear him snarl behind her but she didn’t stop to smirk or be smug about it.

Okay, now ah need ta find mah Element and git outta here as fast as ah can, she thought as she cantered along the gold piles. Now where would it be? Assuming Sombra hadn’t just plopped it in here, it would be most likely be placed in an elevated spot because there are some things that won’t change with some villains.

That and the Element shone brightly like crazy when she got close to it.

“There. Finally,” Applejack said as she approached it. The Element was secure in its necklace and it looked undisturbed on its pedestal. Thank the heavens it was undamaged. And yet Applejack was hesitant to pick it up.

“Okay, wait, Ah have read enough Daring Do books to know that this is a trap,” she told herself. With limited time, Applejack debated to herself if it was boobytrapped and if it was, what kind of trap would it be. Okay, it looks harmless enough but that’just to lull ponies into a false sense of safety. Ah can’t have much time on me before they come again. Could Ah lure one into knocking it off for me, or do Ah just grab it and run like heck?

“I’d rather not hurt you for your money!” She heard the griffins behind her yell with an angry Steel Beard in the front. He looked like Big Mac when he was riled up and that didn’t seem good to Applejack.

“Mah decision’s made! Yoink!” Applejack just grabbed the Element and bolted from the pedestal as fast as she could in her state. “Don’t come near me! Ah have a headlamp and you can’t stand being in the light!”

“Pray to your tyrant that you can outrun me!” Sombra’s voice boomed throughout the whole cavern and AJ saw a whirlwind of dust, smoke and were those swords from the griffins in there too?

Applejack weighed her options and decided running in her battered and heavy state was a better option to being eviscerated by Sombra. So she bolted.

Sombra’s whirlwind roared and flung crossbow bolts and large rocks in Applejack’s general direction as she ran from him. Applejack was fortunate that she could dodge most of them and that she was wearing armor as at least one bolt got deflected by it.

Okay, Ah gotta get outta here NOW, she thought as she ran through the large halls of the dragon lair. This was an interesting architecture, she noticed and wondered if the dragon did some spare time carving rock. Wait, no, stop, focus on getting out of here, not admire the scenery.

Applejack ran as well as she could with everything on and hoped that the hallway led to the outside.

“I’m itching to try out my new sword!” She heard a griffin yell and fly straight at her from a shadowed corner with said weapon drawn in his talons. AJ blinded him with the headlamp and hit him with her hammerhoof when she had the chance and then bolted.

The roaring noise of Sombra came closer to her, and still she ran. Had to get outside, had to get to her friends, had to get to the ship, had to-

The crossbow bolt embedded itself in her left rear leg and the pain tripled. “Ah! Argh! Darnit!” She cursed some more under her breath and skipped on with the bolt still in and ohgoshhe’sstillontome!

Then she saw a small door fit for ponies built in a much larger door, no doubt for the dragon. Why was there a door for ponies in a door for dragons? Why did she question it? Use it, you stupid girl! Applejack ran to the door, charged right through, closed the door and slammed down the bar blocking it. Just in the nick of time as well, as some force behind slammed the door once before quieting down.

For the first time since entering the cave, Applejack could breathe slowly and calm down. She sagged down to the ground and looked at her leg. The crossbow bolt had nearly gone through with the arrowhead sticking out the other end. She cringed at seeing the damage and the blood. She wanted to pick it out, but she felt that would only cause more blood to flow. She was battered, bruised, exhausted, may have gotten something fractured, might have internal injury and now the crossbow bolt to add to the list of injuries.

And then she noticed just how bright it was. She looked up and saw stars and the moon.

“Thanks the stars, Ah’m outside at last!” She cried with joy. Forgetting the pain, Applejack wanted to cry tears of joy but remembered it wasn’t over yet. She had to get back to her friends and then back to the Spectrum. It hurt to get up with the armor and the bolt, but the captain would probably scold her for leaving it behind. However, she couldn’t walk far, as it turned out to a huge ledge. Fit for at least thirty ponies, or one big dragon, but she couldn’t see a way down. “What? No way down? Then why is there a door for ponies up here? Ah cheated! Ah came out from that door from the inside. Nopony was supposed ta do that, were they?”

She concluded she must have been running upwards the whole time on a slope. Sneaky, sneaky, Sombra. He must have lured her into running up to the ledge which was a dead end so by the time he broke through that door, she would have nowhere to go and he could finish her off with no trouble at all.

Ah need ta get down from here and fast, she thought and started looking for something she could use to get down. Shame she had left her rope behind on Steel Beard, otherwise she could have climbed down to some ledge down there.

Small flashes of light occurred in the corner of AJ’s eye. When turning to it, she saw streak of magic beams with a familiar color to the farmer. Applejack reminded herself there was a reason Twilight was Princess Celestia’s top student. But she was also reminded that they were in danger. “Now Ah hope Twilight has some… long range teleport spell in her head, cuz we need ta git outta here-”

Bang!

Applejack turned to the great dragon door, which was almost dented from that just blow. And it kept on banging. “That’s not a good sound. Ah gotta get down from here.” She turned back to the edge and looked over for something she could use.

All she could find with her headlamp was a thing ledge that looked like it could barely support weight. “That’ll have ta do.”

Was there no end to these griffins?

Twilight felt her horn ache through overuse, but the griffins kept coming. Rainbow swatted them away but they ganged up on her. Rarity kept to the back and protected Spike with blinding flashes on any griffin that came too close. Fluttershy kept close to Twilight and used what little self-defense skills she knew to keep griffins at bay from her unicorn friend. Pinkie was with Rarity and used her party cannon frequently. Nopony had bothered to point out where Pinkie had been keeping it.

Twilight though felt like she was on fire. Between the moonlight going out, the fog sweeping in over them and the shadow wreathed griffins attacking them in total darkness and keeping a balance of distance and close range in their tactics, she hasn’t felt using her horn this much in self defense at all. The Canterlot Incident was close but this just exceeded it.

Twilight really started to wish she had learnt more of tactics from Shining Armor than simply organization. Sure she had made decent so far, but this time it didn’t seem to be enough.

“Any sign of Applejack?” She asked loudly.

“None!” Rainbow Dash replied while dodging the griffins’ attacks with swift flying.

“Twilight! Any chance to teleport us out of here?” Rarity asked. “Not without Applejack, of course, but we need to be away as soon as possible.”

“Too short a distance for us to get away completely from them,” Twilight responded and blasted away another griffin, “but we can’t leave without Applejack and I don’t know if she’ll get here at all.”

“Get back, you ruffians!” Rarity yelled and flashed her horn against a couple of more griffins. “This is certainly not going our way.”

Twilight couldn’t help but agree. She was near exhaustion herself and had to reserve enough energy for them to teleport out of there. Hope Applejack would get there soon.

“I’m out of party stuff here!” Pinkie shouted over the noise of her cannon fire. “I’m down to streamers and confetti!”

“Applejack!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “Where are you!”

“Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~” They could hear someone yell.

“You guys hear that?” Spike asked.

“HaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!” The next thing they knew, a large flat boulder flew in over their heads and slammed into the main body of the griffins. “Now that’s how we do it!”

“APPLEJACK!” The others cried with joy at the sight of their friend.

Applejack wasted no time in getting off and skimping over to them. It was only then that they saw Applejack’s condition. “Guys, we need light. They can be hurt in the light. Don’t worry about me, worry later once we get the heck outta here.”

Twilight gave a nod to Rarity and Rarity flared up her horn immensely, spreading bright light all over the scene. The griffins reacted immediately, falling back into the darkness and far from the ponies. “Say, Twilight, any chance for us to get back to the ship like this?”

“Depends on how long you can keep that light up, Rarity,” Twilight replied. “If not for long, then we will have trouble.”

“Ah’ll say,”said Applejack. “Sombra’s here and he’s on his way here for sure. Ah dunno if the light will work on him but Ah don’t wanna stay here ta find out.”

Twilight pondered this for a moment. “We’re doomed.”

“Hey, what’s that?”

Twilight took a quick look at Spike who pointed in a direction and then looked at the direction. A searchlight in the sky that advanced toward them. It took Twilight a second and a half to conclude what it was.

“Fastest airship in the Air Force!” A megaphone boomed from the Spectrum.

“YES!” Twilight gleed with joy and prepared her teleport spell to zap all of them onboard. “Alright, hold on. I’m doing a double.”

“What’s-”
Tamph!
“-a-”
Tamph!
“-double?” Pinkie asked then looked around to see them all onboard the Spectrum. “Oh, neat.”

“Captain,” Twilight addressed the officer.

“Hard to starboard! Ease up the rotors, brace the foreyard! We’re getting out of here!” The crew leapt into action and followed the captain’s brief instructions with surprising accuracy of what to do. “Get Applejack to the infirmary straight away so we can take out that arrow.”

“Much abliged,” Applejack said as Rainbow Dash and Rarity moved to support her. “And Twi, you better come with so we can discuss what ta bring on the next location.”

“Hey, look,” Spike called to them and pointed on a large ledge. When the others moved to the observation rails, they could see a single pony out there lit up by the searchlight.

“Is that…?”

“Sombra possessing Steel Beard,” Applejack hissed in pain.

Twilight had to squint her eyes but she could see rage and hate in Steel’s eyes, almost flaring with dark magic as he looked up to them. Then a flash of black smoke swept over and he was gone. Twilight swallowed hard and turned inwards. “Let’s go to the infirmary.”

“What do y’all mean, y’all have to push it all the way through?”

The ship medic and his assistant had seen the arrow sticking out of Applejack’s leg and Applejack was obviously not keen on their solution and demanded an explanation.

Applejack laid on one of two beds that were in the infirmary, a small thin duvet with pillow and a log of wood above the pillow. Rarity had taken her hat for mending and her armor had been removed. The Element was in a safebox in the captain’s quarters with a combo lock only Twilight knew.

“Arrow wounds are among some of the worst injuries anypony can suffer,” the medic told her. “You know those stories and fictions where a pony getting an arrow in his or her shoulder could just yank it out?”

Applejack had read one such story and she liked it. “Yeah?”

“Whoever came up with that idea first was an idiot.” The sentence was dropped like a lump of lead on the receiver. Applejack wasn’t keen on their solution of pushing it through anyway. “So we have to push it through and I will say that you were lucky that that’s the only thing we will do aside from sterilizing the wound and bandaging it.”

“And just how am Ah lucky?”

“Because if it had been embedded in your flanks or the arrowhead hadn’t gone through, we would have to use a scapel to carve up the wound even more so we could pull it out.”

Whether it was the words that sunk in or that simple tone he used as if to describe riding a cart for the thousandth time, Applejack leaned back down on the bed and reached up to bite the log. “Just do what y’all need ta.”

She saw Twilight walk up next to the bed and took her offered hoof while biting down on the log. She felt the medic take her leg and she cringed when they touched the arrow. “Okay, we’re pushing in three…”

Applejack’s hold on Twilight tightened.

“Two..”

She bit down harder on the log. “One.”

They pushed it through, it got out and all of a sudden they now had two wood logs above the pillow. Twilight was rubbing her hoof that was now free. Applejack felt relieved and breathed a lot easier than before with the arrow out.

Then they applied the alcohol.

“Oh, quit whimpering, Miss Applejack. You must have had worse back home where you live,” the medic told her and Applejack felt a desire to beat the living crap out of him alongside Sombra. “And there we go. Brave girl. Sadly we have no lollipops.”

“Ah think Ah’ll… stick with apple cider,” Applejack stammered with Twilight rubbing her shoulder. AJ took a look at the new bandage around her leg. And then she saw the arrow. She felt rather pleased that that thing was out of her leg. “Oh, and do tell the captain Ah appreciate him forcing that armor on me. Saved mah hide a number of times.”

“I think he knows.” The medic began to leave. “You should stay here for tonight, get some rest. Luna knows you need it.” And then he and his assistant left.

Applejack calmed down and leaned down on the bed, chewing a bit more on the wood. “So…” Twilight began. “What would you say we need for the next location?”

Applejack took a deep breath first. “Well…”

Dawn broke and the tranquility of the San Palomino desert was shattered by a spotter’s sighting.

“Smoke rising from Mustangia!”

Most of the crew awake and Twilight and Rainbow Dash rushed to the observation railings to take a look. They saw smoke coming from the west as they had traveled east through the night. The captain stepped up to the railings. He looked to Twilight. “Ma’am, your mission takes priority. But I don’t want to simply ignore this until we come within signal distance of Appleloosa-”

“And we won’t,” Twilight interrupted him. “You want to see the damage and help, go ahead. I don’t want to see this being a disaster we could have helped with.”

The captain thanked her briefly. “Alright, Pegasi, I want volunteers. Two groups of four each. I want eyes on the ground ASAP.”

Rainbow Dash was among the first to volunteer for the job and nopony objected when they made her one of the team leaders. Within half an hour, she and the other team leader Wind Singer lead six pegasi to Mustangia.

“What do you reckon we’ll find?” Rainbow asked Singer.

“Best wishes, just a local fire,” Singer told her. “If not that, then… I don’t want to think too much on it.”

When they arrived, they found the worst scenario.

Mustangia was utter ruins. Not one building was intact, a number of houses were on fire, some had even collapsed. It was a complete battlefield. But there was one thing that was missing to make it a battlefield.

“Where is everypony?” Somepony asked.

“Spread out,” Singer told them. “See if we can’t find somepony out there.”

“You take the east end,” Rainbow told Singer. “I’ll take the west end. Ponies, let’s see what we can find.”

Rainbow Dash led her team to the west end of town, spreading out in flight to look for something that said ‘look here for survivors’ or some intact building. Rainbow went northwest and flew lower than the others in her team for a closer look.

Rainbow Dash felt anger rise in her as she looked on over the damaged buildings and she drew the conclusion who it was. Then a plank slamming on a floor caught her attention. Rainbow didn’t signal any of the others and went in first.

“Hello?” She asked softly. “Is anypony there?” She got no response for a few seconds and then walked in further in the damaged house. “Look, I just got here with some other ponies, we’re here to help.” As silence greeted her more, she became more filled with sadness that there might not be anypony left. “Please be somepony here.”

Rainbow was about to leave when she heard a sniffle behind some planks. She moved closer and saw a little earth pony filly hiding until she emerged, eyes packing with tears. “Hey, hey,” said Rainbow and gave the little filly a soft hug. The filly grabbed on and shivered and let the tears flow. “It’s okay, let it out. Take your time.”

The filly calmed down after a while and Rainbow took the moment to signal the others. “They…” she started, catching Rainbow’s attention. “They came out of the dark. Mommy told me to hide… no warning at all, they just grabbed everypony in sight with their claws and talons…”

Sombra.

“I just… I just hid and stayed quiet.” The filly had stopped shivering with fear and Rainbow Dash stroked the poor girl’s back. “I didn’t want to be-”

“Hey,” Rainbow interrupted her. “You did nothing wrong. I’m sorry we couldn’t come sooner and I’m sorry we can’t find your mom, but at the very least, we could find you.” She gave the little girl a hug. “And I promise you this, I’m gonna find the guy who did this.

“And I’m gonna make him pay for all of this.”

Author's Note

Sheesh. That took a while.

This is the longest chapter I have written in over five years. It isn't the biggest by far, but it is a very long one. Longest was up to 23 thousand words so I feel good about getting over the fifth digit again.

Anyone care to guess which pony is gonna go for it next time? I haven't decided at this point, myself.