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// Draconiquus Magic 
// Story: That Which was Lost 
// by LadyRFC 
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   “I’m sorry, Spike. It’s going to take a bit of work,” Twilight managed to reply as the train’s doors were unlocked and the few passengers within were allowed to disembark. 
Although the sad look on Spike’s face was one Twilight hated to see, what caught her eye as she glanced at the window demanded more of her current attention. Hurrying off the train, the small dragon clutching the book and scurrying after her, Twilight looked around for the figure she had seen. Sure enough, as the fog from the train settled, Discord stood before them.
“Why, if it isn’t Twilight herself! Oh, sorry. It’s Princess Twilight now, isn’t it?”
The strange creature, who was a blend of just about every other creature imaginable, smiled. Under any other circumstances, the grin would have caused Twilight concern, but things with Discord had changed greatly and now she was just happy to see the draconiquus standing, almost as if nothing was wrong. Almost. Something about the way his shoulders were drooped lower than usual concerned her.
“Yes, she is a princess and you should show some respect!” Rainbow flew over the creature’s head and instantly the shoulders were back in a defiant stance. The smile curving his mouth into a "u" shape seemed more lively as well. 
“Is that a fact?” he teased, clearly egging the pegasus on. 	
Rainbow took the bait. “Yes, it is! And you’re about to regret forgetting, mister!” The filly took off towards a grayish cloud high in the sky.
Twilight shook her head with a smile as Fluttershy flew low towards the creature and immediately began her cooing comments about how relieved she was that he seemed alright.
“Oh, yes,” he assured her, his tone more gentle with the shy filly, “I’m just fine Fluttershy. I am a draconiquus, you know.”
“Oh, I know,” Fluttershy murmured, “I was just so worried after hearing about what happened to the other research parties and-“
“Eat rain, Discord!” Rainbow’s cry broke through Fluttershy’s small voice like a sledge hammer through tissue paper.
But just as the pegasus began to jump on the grey cloud she had pulled down over them and get it to rain, Discord made an umbrella appear in his hand, protecting him and his first friend from the sudden downpour. 
That’s when Twilight knew for sure something was off.
“Rainbow, stop,” she commanded. The filly immediate stood still on the cloud and the rain ceased. Turning to Discord she asked, “Are you sure you’re alright? The princess said-“
“Yes, yes,” Discord interrupted, getting a glare from Rainbow, “But I’m just fine. Really.”
Before Twilight could ask further however, he shot a quick glance at Fluttershy and Twilight understood. Nodding she said, “Alright then. Perhaps we should head towards the desert’s edge now?” She looked back towards the luggage that was being unloaded and mentally thanked Rarity for being rather predictable in this area. “Uh, girls? Rarity might need help with her luggage…”
As the other fillies grumbled and began assisting the unicorn in organizing and distributing her large amount of luggage between them, Spike being the only one to remain smiling during the activity, Twilight walked beside Discord.
“Your magic has been affected,” she commented, her voice low so as not to be overheard.
Discord looked surprised for an instant and then shrugged. “I should have known you’d pick up on that.” Sighing, he made the completely normal and functioning umbrella disappear. 
“Wasn’t too hard,” Twilight breathed out, feeling a bit drained herself after the long train ride. “Normally you’d call out some umbrella that’s inside out or just wire or something else that makes no practical sense.”
“That’s what I tried to do.”
“So the desert is messing up your magic? I thought it drained magic.”
Discord gave another shrug. “I’m not a pony, Twilight. I’m a draconiquus. Though there is one symptom I do share with previous cases." His eye lids dropped halfway and immediately Twilight knew that the slump of his shoulders had not been a mistake on her part. “I’m exhausted. Using magic that’s… logical,” he shuddered at the word, “is very tiring. Really, you have no idea.” 
Twilight gave a small smile at the creature’s attempt at lightening the mood. But before she could comment on it, the other girls trotted up to them, each carrying at least one purple and white bag.
“We’re all ready to go now, Twilight,” Applejack announced.
“Would have been done faster if somepony hadn’t packed so much,” Rainbow muttered just loud enough for Rarity to hear.
The unicorn blinked slowly while snapping back, “This coming from a pony who didn’t even think to bring a hat to protect herself from the sun.”
“Oh,” Fluttershy spoke up timidly, “I forgot my hat too…”
“That’s alright, darling,” Rarity cooed, popping open the large luggage case that Spike was struggling to carry. Hats flooded the wooden flooring of the station. “I brought a few extra. Just in case.”
“OH NO!”
At Pinkie’s gasp everpony turned towards their energetic friend who wore an expression of horror. 
“I forgot to pack balloons!” She dropped the purple handbag and dug into the pink saddlebag on her right side before diving into the left with no success. “Of all the things that could happen, this-“
At Rarity’s sour look, Pinkie stopped and grinned.
“Alright, girls. Let’s get going,” Twilight looked back up at Discord, “and we can exchange what we know along the way.”
Discord shrugged rather helplessly. “Not much to tell.” He gave the new princess a knowing look. “Besides what you know, nothing has happened.”
As the group began to walk down the station steps and across town, Discord informed them that his own patrols had turned up no changlings, or even any sign that they had been there recently at all.
“Where did those reported sightings come from then?” Rarity asked casually, holding aloft only one small bag with her magic. 
“Yeah. How do we know it wasn’t just somepony seein’ things?” Applejack put in.
Discord gave another shrug. “The teams before me had spoken to the three ponies who had supposedly seen the creatures. Most of the changlings seemed to have been in the air. No sightings on the ground.”
“That would explain the lack of tracks,” Twilight muttered.
“The reports say they went back towards the desert again, however. And there have been no reports of ponies injured,” Discord continued, glancing over at Twilight.
The princess caught on quickly. “Which doesn’t follow. Why get close enough to be seen and then leave without,” she flinched before finishing her sentence, “feeding?”
“And,” Rarity cut in, “if they can change to look like anypony, why risk flying around in their own forms?”
“You think it’s a trap?” Rainbow jumped in, flying closer to her alicorn friend.
Twilight frowned. “It’s too soon to decide on that, but it certainly feels like a trap.”
“In any case,” Discord summed up, “our current issue is this desert area and what it does to anypony that gets too close to it.”
“How far is the effect radius?” Twilight asked in an official tone.
Although a few of her friends shot her odd looks, Discord answered quickly. “From what I can tell it doesn’t have much of one. Maybe a few feet away… You pretty much need to be standing on the desert dirt for it to do anything. Pretty boring, if you ask me.”
“And for long periods of time, right?” Fluttershy added hopefully. 
Discord nodded. “There’s no outward sign anything is happening though. Nothing obvious, anyway.”
“That’d explain why so many teams didn’t even know what was happening until it was too late,” Twilight concluded. “How long has this gone on?”
Discord shrugged helplessly again, and the alicorn noticed how his shoulders were sagging once more and his eyes blinked slower than before.
“No pony has much reason to go out there, I recon,” Applejack put in as the small city began to dissipate and before them the grass grew thinner.
“So we have no idea how long this desert’s been deadly?” Rarity asked.
“Deadly?!” Fluttershy stopped her hovering flight, cold with fear.
Twilight sighed. “It’s not deadly, Rarity.”
“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed, bouncing around Fluttershy with her fake mustache back in place. “Ponies just get really, really, really, really sleepy. Like at a slumber party when you stay up too late talking about the best way to eat a cupcake!”
While the other ponies rolled their eyes, Fluttershy asked innocently, “What is the best way?”
Pinkie Pie smiled broadly and produced a large cupcake from her saddlebag, setting it on the ground in front of her.
“Like this!” She then slammed her face into it, splattering frosting all over the stony ground.
Twilight smiled as the tense feeling began to leave the group. But Discord's voice broke her happier thoughts.
“It starts there.”
Twilight ripped her eyes away from her friends and turned around to face the place Discord was pointing at. Before her all vegetation died out and a great expanse of sand stretched out as far as her eyes could see. It there was an end to the desert, it wasn't one anypony could see easily. 
"Great..."